Sausage Dog ...

Hi Everybody,

This cute stamp is from Woodware

It is one I have had in my collection for quite some time.

I bought it on a whim at a craft show I visited and it has sat in my drawer ever since.

I thought it was time to put him to good use as I have a family birthday coming up soon and this will do very nicely

I coloured it in with Spectrum Noir pens going in no particular direction or colour scheme but the result is quite pleasant and it is a fun card.

I hope my recipient likes it 

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Summer Cards ...

Hi Everybody,

This months Creative Stamping has a fabulous A4 stamp set with lots of designs for you to create some summer themed cards.

Joanna Sheen is the featured designer on this months collection and this has to be one of the best value stamps sets on the market.

Each month there is a new A4 group of stamps that will help you create some really pretty cards and to buy them individually would be expensive

But these good quality stamps are FREE and excellent images ... so what are you waiting for

The video will show you some of my ideas and in it I will make a male card as I know many of us struggle when it comes to ideas for men.

Creative Stamping 46 - Garden Retreat   is not a long vidoe so you wont get bored but the card it produces can be adapted however you would like.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Tuesday Tutorial - Spellbinders Venice Lace

Hi Everybody,

The card I made for todays tutorial features one of the new dies from Becca Feeken who is a designer for Spellbinders. This is her beautiful Venice Lace Collection and it is so intricate and elegant.

I didn't have card in the shade of pink that I wanted so I used Picked Raspberry to blend white card for my backgrounds and flowers

Spellbinders Supplies:

• S5-131 A2 Matting BasicsA
• S5-311 Emmaline  Venice Lace
• S4-792 Cinch and Go Venice Lace flowers
• PL-001 Platinum Die Cutting Machine

Other Supplies:

• Distress Ink from Craft Stash
• Pearls from Want2Scrap

Instructions:

With the largest die from Matting basics A cut two pieces in white card 

Score down one of them by about half an inch 

Add glue along this small scored panel and add the two cards together to create the base

Cut another panel in white slightly smaller

With a blending tool ink over the panel with Pocked Raspberry to create an Ombre effect and leave to dry

With both parts to the Venice Lace Emmaline die cut one in white

Add mini foam pads to the back of each of the tiny flowers

Add to the Ombre panel

Cut as many flowers and leaves as you like and with Picked Raspberry ink through the die to the flowers before you remove the card

Shape the petal with a ball tool to give dimension

Assemble the flower with a Brad and off set the petals as you go

Stamp a sentiment of your choice and sketch a black line around it

Cut out into a banner shape and add larger foam pads to the back

Assemble the pieces by adding the Ombre Vnice Lace panel to the base card

Add the sentiment where you would like it and arrange your flower and leaves to the left side of it

Add a pearl to each of the flower centres in the Venice Lace

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Fuzzy Lemon ...

Hi Everybody,

Today I have two new videos for you using the Fuzzy Lemon dies from Craft Stash

The first one is with the Peacock and I have done some ink blending to create my card.

 I have also used an inlay technique with the die cuts and added googly eyes for a little bit of fun.

The video is Fuzzy Lemon Peacock  so I hope you will enjoy it.

The second video is Fuzzy Lemon Hot Air Balloon and in this video I show you how to alter the balloon into a Christmas Bauble 

Looking at your dies in different ways will give you more "bang for your bucks"   and we all know how addictive it is to collect them.

So if you can make use of them in other ways then that has to be a bonus.

Use them as stencils ... create stamps from them ... cut them up ... turn them upside down. 

Try anything that gives you a pleasing result 

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Ink Smooshing Technique

Hi Everybody,

This is a fun technique that has been around for a long time and I have done videos on this in the past.

But here is a new video on how I created three cards that all look different with this idea

Ink Smooshing & Die Cutting Essentials

These colours, Picked Raspberry and Shaded Lilac,

work so well together and produce a really vibrant card for any occasion.

I have used the kit that came with

Die Cutting Essentials Special Edition 5

called English Country Garden and it was featured in another video a while ago

So there you have two videos on using this kit and if you bought the magazine you will see even more cards from me on the pages in the book

I hope you will try this technique as it is fun to do and not too messy and you will be delighted with the different looks you can achieve.

Try other colour combinations and see which you like. 

Make a note of them in a note book so that you will remember the ones you liked.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx