Class sample

Good morning, peeps! I hope today is going to be a bright one for you in more ways than one!

Next Tuesday I'm teaching a workshop how to make a shaped easel card and use the technique of masking. I must admit that I rarely use masking on my Tilda cards, usually preferring to cut out the Tilda image and mount her on silicone glue over the background but I do quite like the flat picture effect that the technique produces so I now resolve to use it more often!

There is a long list of Copic and Promarker colours for this one which I'll put at the end of this post and I also used some Prisma pencils in the shadows. The pretty corners are a Cuttlebug die, the DPs are from the Crafty Individuals 'Springtime' pad and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts (more should be arriving today - yippee!).

The shape of the card was cut with a Go Kreate die and two sizes come together, 5" and 6". The great thing about these sizes is that they fit my Big Shot so I can create curvy cards without investing in an A4 die cutter - yet!! The tag that also forms the 'stop'for the easel is cut with a Magnolia Doo Hickey die and blinged with Stickles Cotton Candy. The whole card is distressed with Spun Sugar Distress Ink so, as you can see, Spring has a kind of pink haze over it for me!!
I'm a little overwhelmed with DT work at the mo so I'm sorry if I haven't visited your blog recently but I'll be around as soon as I can. In the meantime, have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow with the Digi Doodle Challenge.
Copics used:
Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R11, R20
Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55, E33
Shirt: RV10 and Promarkers Pink Carnation, Rose Pink
Dungarees: BV01, BV02, BV13
Tree trunk: E25, E27, E29
Pat: W0, W1, W2, W3
Lamb: E40, E41, E42, E43
Eggshell: E11, E13, E15, E00
Sky: BG10, BG000
Grass/leaves: YG03, YG11, G20, G82
Clouds/glass: C0, C1
Chicken: Y11, Y131, Y15

Something a little different and a toot!

Good evening, peeps and I hope your weekend has been a good one! There's still a little bit of it left to enjoy so why not kick back and relax!
I thought I'd show you some cards that show techniques that are not normally displayed here on my blog, or haven't been thus far. They are techniques that are most frequently demonstrated by my good friend Barbara Gray of Clarity Stamps and I recently taught a class using these techniques at my local craft shop, Samuel Taylor's in Brighouse - I say 'local' well, it's only 10 miles away! The cards you see pictured here are pretty much a direct copy of what Barbara has produced on Create and Craft TV but my experience of working with Barbara at craft shows is that people who buy her stamps want to produce artwork just like hers so that was the thought behind the class.

This one is a simple reflection but spot the not so deliberate mistake....guess who forgot to repeat the water effect in the reflected moon!!

On the subject of moons, this is the lovely Moonfairy image and I loved the celestial background effect when Barbara produced it on TV.

This little foggy scene uses no brayering at all, which is probably a relief to many but I think it shows the versatility of Clarity Stamps since the faded effect of the buildings across the river is produced using the same corner stamp that produced the steps. Add a little paper piecing and it's done!

The Silver Birch is one of my favourite trees so, naturally, I love this image and the effect of looking into a leafy glade.

I'm sorry that the photos are all rather crooked - I'm obviously having a bad photo day! I can also see the lamp light reflecting on the semi-gloss card in this last photo - thankfully Spring is on it's way and bringing better light conditions for taking card piccies!

.....and the toot? Well I'm feeling very honoured because Barbara has asked me to join her design team so some of the cards I produce with Clarity Stamps will be seen on TV.....yay! All I have to do now is think of card designs for the box of stamps beside me as I type and this month, it's a fair challenge!
I'll see you again soon with something that's a little more like what you're used to seeing here.
Bye for now.

Fussy and Fancy Challenge #31

Good morning, peeps and TGIF! I hope you all have something good planned for the weekend - for me it'll be dog sitting the gorgeous black lab, Dylan for my son and working on DT projects! I'm joining a new DT but more of that another time.
Firstly, here is my project for the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge, which this week is to use embossing or paper piecing on your project:


As you can see, I elected to use dry embossing, which is a technique I often feel I don't use enough - here I've used a Crafts Too embossing folder called 'Butterfies'. The sponsor for this challenge is Paper Pretties, who have some wonderful digi and conventional stamp images. I've used the digi image 'Sunny Bumbles' here, which makes a wonderful backdrop for Honey Tilda don't you think? Do go and visit my teamies as well to see what amazing work they've produced and join us in the challenge - there's a fabulous prize up for grabs!
The DP I used is MME 'Bloom and Grow' (very appropriate name!) and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. I've also used a Marianne D Doily die and distressed it with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and the leaves are punched with a McGill punch I bought from The Hobby House.
The images were coloured with Copics and on the Tilda image I deepened the shadows with Prisma pencils.
Copics used:
Flowers: R12, R14, R17, YR12, YR15, YR16, YR18, G00, G02, YG63, YG45, YG67
Sky: B000
Tilda's clothing: R12, R14, R17, YR12, YR15, YR16
Tilda's wings: C0, C1, C2
Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R11, R20
Hair: E25, E27, E29, E31
I do hope you like this one, peeps and thank you so much for visiting me today!

Digi Doodle Shop Challenge #48 - Spots and stripes

Good morning, peeps and I hope today is being kind to you!
How about this for an easy challenge? The team at Digi Doodle Shop's Best would like you to show spots and stripes on your project and here's my offering:


I think you can just about see the stripes on the horizontal stip of the design! This week I'm following the sketch on Papertake Weekly Challenge, which is a great one from Dawny P so this card will be entered in that challenge.
The image is a new one in the store at Digi Doodle Shop and it's called 'Fascination' and this cute little bear is totally fascinated by his new friend. There's still 25% off selected images in the store until the end of the month.
I used spotty and stripey paper from Fancy Pants and it's called 'Father and Son' then the plainer paper is from my stash like the buttons and ribbon. The sentiment is from Whimsy, as is the die to cut out the ticket shape.
Copics:
Sky: BG10, BG000 + blender and Muted Turquoise Prisma Pencil
Bear: E40, E41, E42, E43, E44, R11
Grass/leaves: G20, G24, G40, G82, YG67
Daisies: YR20, YR21, YR23, YR24
Butterfly: B32, B34, B37
and various other Prisma pencils were used.
When you read this, I'll be doing some proper work to earn some pennies to feed my habit but, whatever you're doing today, enjoy it!

Digi Doodle Shop Challenge #47 - Anything Goes

Good morning, peeps! I hope the day is going well with you! This week's challenge over at Digi Doodle Shop is 'Anything Goes' and it doesn't get any easier that that so I hope you'll all be joining in with us! My offering is created with the image 'Daisy Girl', which you can buy in the store here and during February there's 25% off. I must admit, I've been wanting to use this image for some time, she looks so dreamy lying amongst the flowers and the long grass and that's why I chose the LOTV sentiment. She's coloured with Copics and Promarkers and the shadow is added with a Prisma pencil blended with Sansodor. The DPs are Prima Jack and Jill, the ribbon is from my stash and the pearls are from The Hobby House. The butterfly is cut with an MS punch. Well that's about it - quite a simple card from me this week but I shall be entering it in The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge. All that remains is to tell you the Copic colours: Skin: E000, E00, E01, E21, R11, R20 Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55 'White' daisies: E40 and the centres Y00, Y06, Y08 Leaves/grass: YG01, YG03 and Promarker Pear Green Hat and pink flowers: R30, R21 and Promarker Dusky Rose I hope the day continues well for you and thanks for taking a peek at my offering today! T shirt and hat band: B000, B91 and Promarker Pastel Blue

Wonderful new digi stamps store

Good morning, peeps and I hope you all have some sunshine today like we have here in Yorkshire!
This post is to bring you a little sunshine in a different form - it's to let you know about a new digi stamp store called Wee Stamps and it's the outlet for the wonderful work of Sylvia Zet, who has created some amazingly cute images for you to buy and download. Do click on the link to visit her blog and store - I'm sure you won't be able to resist! There's also a link in my sidebar.

Bye for now

Step card with a difference

Good afternoon, peeps and happy St Valentine's day! I hope you're all enjoying the start to the week. This card is the product of my weekend and I give full credit for it's construction to Jacqui of Cat's Whiskers who gives instructions for this card here so thank you very much Jacqui for sharing this with us bloggers! Jacqui's instructions are for 12" x 12" card but I just altered the dimensions slightly so that I could cut it from A4 card.

For the centre part of the card, I've used Dawny P's wonderful sketch for the Lili of the Valley Challenge this week and I shall be entering this card into the challenge so I do hope it counts with the 'extra bits' around three sides! The image is, of course from LOTV and I love all of them, especially from the latest release and I coloured her with Copics and Prismas but I'm afraid that my desk was in such chaos that I put the pens away without noting down the colours - sorry! The lovely DPs are from The Memory Box 'Gossamer' collection, the pearls are from The Hobby House and ribbon is from my stash... ...including the ribbon underneath the card that you can see in this side shot. I do this because I find that whenever you make a top fold card and the recipient stands it on a polished surface, it just falls flat so a bit of pretty ribbon attached with bows just prevents that happening. I don't know whether this is an original - probably not but I hope you like the idea! The doily lace trim was cut with an MS punch, the leaves with a McGill punch and the flowers are, of course, from Wild Orchid Crafts. Guess who's just ordered some more!! The sentiment is from Pink Petticoat. I hope you like this style of card and maybe you'll try out Jacqui's instructions as well. Thanks so much for visiting today and please leave a comment before you go then I can come and visit you too!