My Addiction!!

Now those of you who know me will be aware that I am addicted to stamping.
Yes I admit it..... I cannot pass a good stamp and I was looking for a particular stamp and found I had some stamps that I had still to explore so these are what I made following that discovery!

 

I used distress inks to do this and then Wow embossing powder for the plants at the front!

The backing was some spellbinders and M-bossibilities which I then rubbed with the ink blender to make it stand out a bit more.



 

I used distress ink again on this one and a bit of spritzing to get the background. Then the image and sentiment were stamped and embossed in black. The flowers and leaves were cut using memory box dies! And the backing is an M-Bossibility folder again once embossed it was rubbed over with ink to make the pattern 'pop'.

 

This last one saw me using my pan pastels to do the background. I used the pale tint blues and greens to create the background then stamped in brown adirondack to soften the image. I thought black would have been too harsh. I put the piece of peacock blue codinations card through an M-bossibilities folder and them sanded it to show up the pattern.

The borders are a spellbinders die and the flower I created by cutting and crumpling paper then putting it together with a brad. The borders are cut from brown card to tie everything together.

 

Well thats it for today!

 

Happy crafting

 

love and hugs

 

Jane xx





Time Flies....

...when we are having fun!!!
I cannot quite believe where the time has gone...it only seems a couple of days since I starting my summer break and now I have one more day of holiday left. Back to work on Monday! WOW! Where has that summer gone or have I been teleported into the future somehow!
Any way I thought you would like to see some of the stuff I have been doing over that time.

I started my holiday by having my anniversary card to make. Obviously I had to try and do it without Colin seeing it which is not easy as he has the knack of turning up when least expected but I managed it eventually! And with some days to spare! It was our Pearl anniversary this year so I wanted to make it special. Anyway here it is...Its an 8x8inch card and I used my slice, cricut and cuttlebug with spellbinders to make it!

I know he liked it...good job really!!!

I also was asked to make a wedding card. I had one for an engagement on Facebook which someone had seen and wanted me to do the same thing but for wedding! I never like doing exactly the same card but thats what she wanted so I had to oblige. She was happy with it anyway! Here it is.

 

Anyway thats all from me for the moment...Need to sort of some photos and then I'll be back.

 

Happy crafting

Jane xx

 

Lovely day

Wednesday, the first day of my jollies went really well.

To start it off Sheena Douglass was on the telly at 8 o'clock am so I woke up just in time to turn the telly on and watch it in bed....how indulgent of me!
Loved the backgrounds she was creating and the cards made were fab! Hope mine look half as good when I get my stamps.

I then got ready to go out to Poynton Garden Centre where I was going to the workshop run by Jo Rice. Todays class was Fabulous Florals! There were no clues to what we would be doing til we got there.

Jo handed out an assortment of backing papers and showed us the magazine that we could get them from.

We were going to have a go at making flowers then using them to make a card or 2!

We all had a go at making a rose...mine was OK but I decided to make the other type of rose where you cut a spiral and then roll it up quilling style and then glue it so it stays together..I made 2 of these and used them in my first card.

The second card we could do whatever we wanted using our papers. Jo gave us a button to use and we had access to distress inks and stamps if we wanted. Here is the card I made

I had a thoroughly nice morning and stayed for a bit whilst Jo got set up for the afternoon and had a drink and a natter with her and Alex!

I of course went to have a look in the shop where they had some new Indigo Blu stamps in. I had to buy a set....the poppy! I will be making good use of this stamp set, I am certain!

It was a really great start to my holidays! Thank you Jo!

Hope you are having a crafty day

Love

Jane xx

Summer Hols Are here!

Well the summer hols have arrived so I am going to try and spend some time updating my blog.

I will start with a card I have done for a challenge on The Vintage Artisans fb page.

It has to be vintage and a bit of Steampunk
I felt totally out of my depth but enjoyed doing it.

The image was off Vince Price's blog where he has some lovely free digis on offer. Thank you Vince. They are really brill and so easy to colour.

The flowers and backing papers are off the free CD I got with Crafts Beautiful Magazine. Its Shabby Chic by Debbie Moore Designs.

The other embellishments are the cogs and sprockets spellbinders.

Hope you like it.

Have a lovely crafty day!
Jane xx

My First ever demo

I was asked if I would do a demo of One Stroke painting/Paint Fusion techniques at H. G Crafts which is in the grounds of Poynton Garden Centre. I said I would and agreed to do the demo on Bank holiday Monday (June 4th) as part of the Jubilee Celebrations.

I spent some time gathering together some samples either by painting new things or by 'borrowing' back things I had painted and given to my friends and family as gifts. They were all quite happy to lend them to me as long as I looked after them and also gave them back after!!!

So the day arrived and I was nervous but in for a penny as they say!!

Sunday had been awful weather but when I opened the curtains it looked like it culd either be a lovely day or end up raining. As the demo was to be outside the shop I hoped it would stay dry at least.

I had packed all my things up on Sunday evening and so I could get set up I went off to get there for just before 10. That way I could drive the car to in front of the shop and unload before I had to park the car in the car park.

Pauline (who owns and runs the shop) helped me get set up with tables and a chair. So I set up my samples table and then my working table. Pauline also got a table arranged so that people could watch me then have a go themselves.
Here is a picture of my samples table.

Once all was set up it was nearly 11 so I sat down and got my paints out and straight away I had someone watching me! It was a little strange at first but me being me and able to talk to anyone I really enjoyed it!

It was lovely that some of my friends came along to support me. It made it much easier to do the demo I think.

I was a little taken aback when Maria Simms arrived to watch me. She is to me such an inspiration and to me she is a bit of a celeb in the crafting world and there she was to see me do my demo!!! OMG! But she is so nice and genuinely enjoyed it I think!

I had taken my sandwiches for my lunch but got so engrossed in what I was doing and had people there watching me all the time that I suddenly realised that I hadn't had time to eat them.

I hope it was OK for everyone who came and watched. I know a few people had a go for themselves and I hope that they continue to practice and enjoy it as I do!

notice the nails and hair!!





 I would love to do more now even though it was tiring it ws a nice kind of tired!

If you read this and did come to the demo please let me know truthfully how I did!

Have a crafty day!

Jane xx

Day out at the Clarity NW Workshop

On Sunday I went off with Jo and Rae to the Clarity NW workshop run by the lovely Maria Simms. She does the most amazing cards and I had been looking forward to it for ages.
It was pouring down as we set off and rained the whole way there ...and back for that matter!
I picked up Jo and we headed off to Rae's house then she took over in her car and drove us to Birkenhead where the workshop was. We went under the Mersey through the Birkenhead tunnel and I do hope that no one was filming us in Rae's car as she tried to use the device aimed at getting you through the toll more quickly.....in the end she managed to get it to work (with a bit of colourful language) but it would have been quicker the throw the coins in the basket!!!


We arrived in good time and it was lovely to see Maria again.


There were 9 ladies doing the workshop on Sunday some had obviously been before others like me were new to the group!


First job was to get the coffee made then when everyone was there and ready to start we were off on the day!
We had all been given a clarity stamp (which you will see in the photos) and our next job was to take the blue off it...this proved more difficult than it sounds! We got to take the stamp home at the end!

Then we were ready to do our first card.


Maria had given us all the card stock we would need and showed us the sample card. We had to use the brayer and resist technique using versamark pad and then cranberry over it. This piece of card was then cut into 3 pieces and matted onto a piece of black card.

We then stamped the image onto a piece of card and pulled some of the ink out using a damp paintbrush. This was then cut into a circle so that it could be mounted with the largest die cut over it.
I just love the die cuts we used...Spellbinders cogs and sprockets...I have added them to my wish list!


Here is the first card we made.

The clock was stamped and cut out and then when I got home I added the glaze to it.


The second card used the same stamp but using a more messy ink technique. I loved the lemonade adirondack that was used. We had used a coloured Archival Ink pad to stamp the image first I think it was Pale Ochre that we used!!


We then had to cut some cevrons from some brown card and used a versamark pad to stamp it. We then went round the edge with a fineliner to make faux stitching. I used a brown fineliner so it was not so harsh as black. I loved how the card then looked like leather.
Twine was added finish the card and here it is.

The next card saw us stamping out the same image 4 times and pulling out the ink again! We then had to cut out parts of the image as we were going to create a decoupage of the image.
We also created an apperture by embossing the card front. We then spritzed it with mica spray and cut out the central square for our apperture!
The decoupaged image was stuck onto some black card and this then attached to the back of the card so it could be seen through the apperture. Again I highlighted the watch face with glaze when I got home!

The final card was a real quick one.

We maked off the top and bottom of the blank card leaving a 2inch(approx) gap in the middle then used our stamp to stamp along the space we had created. We then used either a make up sponge, ink blender or brushes to blend ink to the edges. I used my new brushes and was well impressed with the result!

I finished it off at home with 2 wiggly lines top and bottom and 3 gems. It just needs a sentiment now but that can wait til I know who it's going to and for what!

All in all it was a great day out. Well worth the money and when you weigh it up it was excellent value!

Maria is such an inspiration and the cards we did could be done with so many different stamps and using different colours!
I certainly want to go again!

Hope you are all having a lovely crafty day

Jane xx

Three Cats and a Bird

I thought I would just pop on and put my April Clarity Challenge card on my blog.


It had to be using clarity stamps and have 3 cats and a bird. It also had to be black and white.


Here it is

Hope you are all having a lovely bank holiday weekend and doing lots of crafting!

See you all soon

Jane xx