Four seasons

This is one of the cards I designed for an all day class at Sir Stampalot recently. All the 'girls' came up with stunning finished projects which they created using JudiKins 2633G, Bazzil cardstock, gems, ribbons and elements cut on the Cricut using Stretch Your Imagination. The images for each season were all stamped and heat embossed using a mixture of coloured embossing powders. Judikins staps are avialable from Sir Stampalot and Stamp Addicts.

Just a taster

Here's one of the sample cards I came up with for Stamp Addicts http://www.stampaddicts.com/ for their live TV show scheduled to go out on Create and Craft/Ideal World at 11am on 6th April. The stamps are unmounted sheets from Judikins and feature cute little girls. For this one I have stamped the image on the card and again onto patterned paper to decoupaged her hat, coat and brolly. The clouds have been diamond glazed as have her wellies which I overstamped with tiny flowers from one of the other sets and embellished with flowers and a button. I'll post some more of the samples up later.

A Kaleidoscope of butterflies

At the risk of boring everyone silly with yet more butterflies, here's a few more. I didn't intend doing these cards, but soon after my earlier butterfly posts I received a call from one of the shops I supply with cards saying he was running low on "wings" - butterflies and fairies always sell well.

So I set about making a start on his order and thought I would share some of them with you. The products used are the same as my earlier post (Creative Expressions butterfly stamp and My Minds Eye paper), other than one of those in this picture which has been made up with Best Creation paper which I have used on several of today's batch.

More flutterbys in the making

Even more flutterbys

Here are some more of my flutterby creations. I invariably stamp the image onto vellum as it takes on it's own shape as it dries and no two are the same. Fantasy Film also works well, although it tends to stay flatter as it dries. I always use Art Institute dries clear glue with the exception of when I want a white finish when I use the dries white version and crystal glitter. I experimented for ages to get a white finish as there is not a 'white' glitter which in my view actually looks white when it's dry. Dries white and crystal glitter does look white when dry as you can see in a couple of the black and white samples here.

Glitter used on all is ultrafine. I tend to stick with four or five favourite stamps which give me an outline that I feel happy with. These are Penny Black 3819D (butterflies with spots) Creative Expression HH269F (large one) Penny Black 3864F (side angle butterfly), Creative Stamping HH1106B (tiny one with central spot). The dragonfly is an unmounted stamp and I'm afraid I don't know the source. All are stamped and glittered twice, joined together with silicone and the anteni made from wire and inserted between the two layers.

And dragonflies

Butterflies

Anyone who knows me will confirm that I am into butterflies big time. When I first started cardmaking it was rare for a card to leave my crafy room without featuring a butterfly or dragonfly somewhere within the design.

Thankfully my scope has widened, but I still have a love of butterfiles in my crafting and from time to time spend a day making just butterflies so that I have a stash to draw from as needed.

The card I am sharing with you today is a design I have used many times with just the odd amendment here and there. Paper is some of the gorgeous new Laundry Line designs from My Minds Eye available from http://www.sirstampalot.co.uk and is generously glittered, although I'm afraid that does not pick up well on my image (my photography skills leave much to be desired - who would beleive one of my son's is a professional photographer - perhaps he'll give me lessons ?).

The scrolls are cut on the Cricut using Home Decor and the circles on the C/B with nesties. The butterfly stamp -Creative Expression HH269F - is one of my favourites as the clear image lends itself to glittering. I have finished the card with three little dots which are a new find called Candy Dots which have a matt finish and a nice change from gems. They come in a variety of colours including brown, navy and a nice bright pink.

Here's a side view so you can get an idea of how I construst my butterflies to get some lift.

Just one more for today

I created this one using Daisy Bucket, Bazzil and K and Co papers. I like the simple design which can be altered to suit the recipient. The card itself is 144cm square which is ideal for the nine squares each cut to 4.5cm. I have run some squares through the cuttlebug using Swiss dots and overstamped others with Hero CL284 & CL300. The butterfly was created with a cuttlebug cut and emboss set. The greeting was cut on Cricut Wild card which I then embossed with clear powder to give a gloss finish.

Lilac and green

I just love this combination of colours. I started by masking the cardstock with narrow Eclipse masking tape. I then sprayed with Glimmer Mists - honey dew mist, key lime, rum raisin and finally pearl. I usually finish with pearl as it seems to lift the other colours.

Once dry and with the masking tape still in place I stamped and embossed (Brilliance victorian violet and clear emboss prowder) each section using a sheet of copy paper to cover the sections already done. Masking tape was removed at the end and I added gems and stickles to highlight. Stamps used: Hero CL300, CL275, Penny Black 3940F (all available from http://www.sirstampalot.co.uk/

Looks like I could make cards for England....

This blogging seems fun and although I said that was it for today, might as well share a few more from my stash whilst I've got time.

This one is using Penny Black 3976K stamped with versafine black and clear embossing powder and coloured in with Sakura Glaze and Marvy le Plume pens. The grass is stamped with Art Impressions AA1378 to give a bit more interest to the card and I have stamped the flowers again and decoupaged them. The mat is cut on the Cricut using Storybook. A button and ribbon added to finish the card.

Will they ever forgive me ?

Although my main focus is stamping and cardmaking, I do the odd bit of scrapbooking and here is part of a layout showing my five lovely grandchildren at the wedding of one of our son's recently. I've used K and Co Kology papers, some flowers and gems and cut the scallops from Cricut Plantin Schoolbook. They may never forgive me for 'publishing' them but as one of them regularly says "hey ho whatever".

So quick and easy

Again really quick and easy. This Carol Wilson paper (Colemans) is so pretty and as you can see I have cut out some of the butterflies, glittered with a quickie glue pen and crystal glitter then decoupaged them. I added a greeting using Hero CL279 from Sir Stampalot (http://www.sirstampalot.co.uk/) and the raised grass border was cut with bazzil on Cricut Wild Card.

Demo day

Just a few of the samples made using the K&Co and Carol Wilson products Colemans (local stationey chain) gave me to use at yesterdays demo. All are really quick and easy cards and as you can see in most I have managed to add a bit of stamping, in this one Penny Black 3948K stamped with brilliance olive and clear emboss powder. Also overstamped some of the paper with Hero F5042, again with the same inkpad. The circle is cut with nesties on my c/b stamped with woodward FRC129 and covered with diamond glaze.

And a final one for the day.

One for the Penny Black Challenge

I have used Glimmer Mists for the background onto glossy cardstock. I masked the central section using post it notes - they are oh so useful in crafting ! Sprayed lemon zezt first and dabbed off the excess with kitchen towel, then sprayed the same colour again, lily pad and topped with pearl and irri gold. I played around with the process for some time as I didn't want a sharp edge and found that if I lifted the post-its off before the GM's dried the colours bled a little round the edges which I liked.






I stamped the main image with Penny Black 3939K using Brilliance lightening black, med blue and crimson and embossed with detail clear. You don't have to emboss as brilliance gives a lovely finish, I'm just an 'emboss' person. The scroll is Penny Black 3878F and stamped with Stazon black. I have used the same scroll stamp on the ribbon and finished off with a slide and some black pearl gems (Hero). All products form Sir Stampalot.

Pink and monochrome

And another from the monochrome class - well we called it 'black and white with a hint of hot pink' and this one probably has more than it's share of pink. Bird stamp is Hero H5143 and the cute corner one is Magolia 1205C. Mounts cut from Cricut Plantin Schoolbook (square with scallop edge welded using DS). Circles cut with nesties. Daisy Bucket paper, Hero button and some of the lovely scrolly ribbon from Penny Black. All products from Sir Stampalot (http://www.sirstampalot.co.uk/). Birds and corner have been coloured with Sakura stardust pens and I have added diamond glaze to finish.

Black and White

As ever, monochrome remains popular so I thought I would share this one with you as it drew a lot of comments during my demo day at Colemans yesterday. I designed the card initially for a day of classes at Sir Stampalot earlier this month using the new Hero Arts stamps. All products are available from Sir Stampalot (http://www.sirstampalot.co.uk/).

It is a really quick card to make. The top half of the black card was stamped using Hero CL300 (butterfly block) using versamark and embossed with detail clear powder and again on the smallest circle using verafine black and clear embossing. The spotty paper was just a scrap I had in my stash and the scallop at the bottom was cut from Cricut Plantin Schoolbook. The circles are cut on my Cuttlebug with nesties. The large butterfly was stamped on vellum with Hero F5158, verafine black and clear emboss then a little glitter added. The greeting is Art Impression F3143 and all finshed off with pearl gems.

Here we go

Well, clearly I've got a lot to learn on the photo side of things, as after playing around with the camera for an hour this is the best I could achieve. But keen to get the first post up, hope you will all bear with me during the learning curve. Things can only improve !

Down to the card: The background is sprayed with Glimmer Mists daisy yellow which I sponged off, then laid over a stencil cut from Cricut Storybook on the wonderful new stencil material from Cricut (supplied by Sir Stampalot at Petebrough). I have then oversprayed with terracotta, gold and irridescent gold.

The main image is stamped with one of my all time favourites - Stampendous P107 and embossed with detail gold. The bird and scrolls are cut with Cricut Home Decor and stippled with Adirondack Acrylic Dabbers in sunset orange and gold. The card is finished off with gems.