Graduation Legs

Did you see there's a new Stamp Company in store?

It's the Colorado Stamp Company and I've been busy creating using one of 

the new sets called Graduation ....

The concept of focusing the artwork on the legs instead of the whole person is just so different and I think makes colouring easier, they are also perfect if you require a design that isn't too cutsey! For this first card I stamped the male Grad onto watercolour cardstock and enjoyed painting with my Windsor & Newton paints.

I added a background which was inspired by the beautiful formal gardens in

 Bath which were the backdrop for our daughters Graduation photos.

The stamp set has quite a few sentiments to choose from in a choice of font styles too.

For this second card I stamped the female Grad legs and went with a sepia style design 

using a Polychrome pencil on cream card. I adhered one of the Fine Frames from

 Altenew then trimmed the card panel down before adding it to another card piece.

The monochromatic design gives quite a different look to the first card, 

for a finishing touch I added three score lines to the card base for some subtle detail.

  

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

A Leather Lei

Hope the sun is shining where ever you are this weekend as its glorious here making for a pleasant bank holiday for a change!

I've got something a bit different to share today as I've gone back to one of my first ever crafts - making leather jewellery.

However unlike when I did it in the 90s (yes I'm old!) we have tools to help now so there is no sore fingers from cutting leather with scissors.  The BIGZ dies from Sizzix are Steel Rule Dies so unlike thin metal dies which will only manage felt, steel rule dies will cut woven fabrics and yes, you guessed it luscious thick leather!   Here I've used the Tropical Lei die to make myself a leather brooch.

I bought myself a pack of leather scraps - just google leather scraps and you'll find tonnes of it really cheap as upholsters have lots of bits too small for them to use but PERFECT for craft use - I got a kilo of scraps which gave me enough leather to make around 200 of these brooches for £8 so it's not as expensive as you think.   I got scraps in black, brown, tan, cream and the lovely green I've used here, but the even better news is that you can DYE the leather with Alcohol inks!    Hence my pewter centre and leaf - I die cut them from cream leather and then dyed them with gunmetal alcohol ink, just adding a few drops on and brushing it around with an old paintbrush and allowing it to dry.   See the before and after leaves below.

I die cut the 3 petal flower 4 times from the green leather and have used two with the leather side facing forward and two with the suede as that way you look like you have more colours and textures.

To turn it into a brooch is very simple - you need one central bead, a length of wire and a brooch pin.  Thread the wire through the bead, give it a couple of twists and then thread your leather elements on starting with the flower centre and working backwards to the leaf.

You then just split the wires and thread them through the holes in the brooch pin and wrap them around to secure it.   Simple, cost effective but eye catching homemade jewellery to wear with pride.   If you wanted to make it a necklace, simply make a figure of 8 with the wire ends in the centre of the flower, and glue a circle of leather in place behind to hold it securely and then punch a hole in one of the petals to thread your cord through.   You could even go the full hog and make a full on leather lei - go for bright inks and funk it up!

Hope I've inspired you to try something different!

NEWS FROM THE STORE

We should have the following in store next week, or if they are held up by customs closures over the weekend which is likely, early the following week:

• Neat and Tangled's new release
• Foil Quill and Foils
• Water Media mats from Waffleflower
• The new release from Altenew

Laters

Tara

Monster Gift Box

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Today I have a gift card box for you featuring Neat & Tangled's Gift Card Box die set and Concord & 9th's Monster Love stamp set.

I needed another gift box for one of my nephews. Not so long ago I purchased the gift box by Neat & Tangled and I have to say I really like this one. I have a few gift box dies and what I love about this one is that you need no glue to put it together.

For the decoration I used the super cute Monster set. I love love love this set because you can create so many different monsters - just the way you need it for your project. I coloured the monster with alcohol markers and added some strokes with coloured pnecils and a white gel pen to make the fur look more realistic. There are coordinating dies available to cut out the monsters.

To personalize the box I added the name of my nephew using Mama Elephant's Lots of Letters. I heat embossed it in white.

For the sentiment I chose one of Mama Elephant's Birthday Messages. I also heat embossed it in white on a stripe of black cardstock.

I was very happy when I realised that one of Lil'Inker Designs' Stitched Mats: Rectangles fit nearlly perfectly on top of the box. I die cut it once from patterned paper and once from vellum to tone down the background.

Then I assembled the box.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a crafty weekend!
Happy Easter to you and your family.
Anni

      

Lovely Legs!

I'm a little late blogging today (well it is a bank holiday after all!) but I have desperately been trying to catch up on adding new stock to the store so I could share these cards I've made with our BRAND NEW BRAND!    I am proud to say we are the first UK store to spot the potential of the Colorado Craft Company so are currently the only place in the UK you can buy them!

One of the main ranges that Colorado Craft Company design is a range called Lovely Legs and the focus is stamps that tell a story just by focusing on the "legs" in an image.   I think they are brilliant and couldn't wait to ink up a couple to show you.

Firstly I went straight for one of the most humorous designs - humour features a lot in their range as do wonderfully drawn sentiments - both of which feature here in the Mr & Mrs stamp set.

I think this set is so cool - wedding cards are often so samey and for some of my friends, far too sentimental.  The humour is this appeals so much and I know it would stand out amongst the bunch of wedding cards the bride and groom will get.

I stamped the main image onto 300gsm card stock and lightly water coloured using my zig clean colour markers with minimal water but keeping it very light so I could fade it out at the edges.  I added a few bits of sparkle to the shoes and ribbons.

For the card itself I die cut a circle to fit the image from mist card stock (to match the brides shoes), stamped the sentiment along side, popped the image behind the die cut and then added more dots of sparkle around the die cut rim.

For the second card I've actually used the Happy New Year set, but for me it just screams party, so I've teamed it with a party sentiment so it could be birthday, wedding, anniversary, world cup final - anything you want to put the party bunting up for really!

I went for a similar die cut frame theme but this time I coloured my image just with coloured pencils.

I die cut the frame from black card and embossed a sentiment in white above the image.   The sentiment is actually taken from Avery Elle's Time To Party set and I've been doing stamp surgery again as the sentiment is actually the middle of a balloon.  But with very small, very sharp scissors and a steady hand it is possible to remove it and cut it in half to make a nice long bold sentiment instead.

There are 36 stamps in the range to choose from currently and they release 3 new designs each month so keep an eye out for new designs coming your way soon!

Hope you like them!

Tara

 

Subtle Colour Challenge

We're sponsoring Less Is More Challenge blog again this month so I thought I would use their fun challenge as my inspiration for today's post - the challenge is to use subtle colours on a CAS card.

I decided to have a play with watercolour for my "subtle" colour and allow it to run down the london skyscape die by SugarPea Designs to give the appearance of subtle reflections on the Thames.   I just die cut the scape using water colour paper, made it all very wet with a water spray and then dropped the rainbow colours on using watercolour paints.

I blended the background of the base card with weathered wood oxide ink and then lightly sprayed that too and dabbed it dry to remove the colour and give a feel of rain to match the brighter day sentiment which comes from Avery Elle's Shine Bright stamp along with the birds I added to the sky.   I emphasised the rain with little diagonal slashes with a white pencil.

It's a really fun technique to make a CAS card and its really quick too!   Hope  you will be inspired to give it a try and do have a go at interpreting the subtle colour theme over at Less is More too!

Tara

Just a Bunny's Hop

Hello, Tallie here.

Easter is just a bunny's hop away (hehe) so my card today is full of bunnies! These Mama Elephant sets feature quite a bit in my card designs as they are perfect for practicing your colouring, and this Bunny's Hop set is perfect for this time of year.

I started out by stamping this mischievous bunch of bunnies in some MFT Extreme Black Ink onto some blending card stock. I chose some bright, springtime coloured markers to go with the cool greys, and coloured the scene in with my alcohol markers. I cut this out with the coordinating dies.

I adhered this to a background panel that I blended some Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide Ink in a gradient.

I don't really send Easter cards so I chose a more generic sentiment from the Avery Elle Peek-a-Boo Pals stamp set and added an ellipsis to continue the sentiment inside.

A few clear sequins in the sky brightens up the card!

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone who celebrates Easter has a fantastic one!

Tallie

Ewe Go, Girl!

Today I have a fun encouragement card to share, featuring the MFT Ewe & Me Forever stamp set. This was super quick to put together.

I began by cutting a panel of rainbow striped paper to go across the width of my card. I matted this on a piece of green glitter paper, then adhered to the top half of my card.

Underneath the panel, I stamped a fun greeting from the MFT Ewe & Me Forever stamp set.

I had several previously stamped, coloured and die cut images stored with this stamp set, so I picked two of the sheep and adhered them over the panel with foam tape to finish.

Have a lovely day,

Gemma