Wednesday 23 May 2018

Not long to wait now .......

Happy Wednesday folks ......

It's the middle of the week already ..... how's your's going?

We've got another gorgeous day here .... I can't quite believe the weather at the moment, it's a long time since we've had a May like this ...... it's so warm!!  Please, please, please let it continue for the net two weeks or so ...... TT is no fun in the rain!

I mentioned at the start of the week that Lucy is back on our TV screens soon, with more fabulous goodies from Sweet Poppy Stencils.  Well you've not long to wait now ..... Friday May 25th at 10am and 3pm.

There's new stencils, the new matching Buddy dies, stencil mediums, shimmer paints and I'm not sure but, there might be some new stamps too!  I do know that there will be lots of tips and techniques on how to get the most from your Sweet Poppy stencils ..... you won't want to miss it.

Here's a few of my ideas .... if you were at Port Sunlight you may have had a sneaky peek at these already.  I know Lucy opened up the box when I gave it to her!

The Bi plane and Banner is going to be on the show ..... along with the matching dies
This is such a funny stencil ...... great for guys projects, and for kids designs


See how the stencil and the matching dies work beautifully together.  I've used the stencil for the plane along with the Glossy Black stencil medium ......


And both of the matching dies .........


The banner was cut straight from my coloured background card and also from a piece of white cardstock.
The white one I inlaid into the background card, and then on the coloured one I stamped my sentiment ..... using stamps from one of the brand new Sweet Poppy Stamps sets


I slightly off set it on top of the white one giving this white edge to the bottom which makes the banner stand out I think

I also highlighted a little of the detail on the Bi plane, using one of the Liquid Chrome Markers


Here's another idea using the same stencil .....


Pale Blue Pearl stencil medium this time ..... I love these little pots of coloured pastes


Nothing fancy, just the paste through the stencil and then die cut ..... easy!

The background was simple too ....... various colours of Distress Oxides mixed with water and then splattered onto a square of white card ..... so much fun to do.  just make sure you have a clear desk first!


I die cut the word happy from the background card, and a couple more from plain white. 
I inlaid a white one back into the coloured background ...... not forgetting to put back the inner bits from the coloured one (the pieces from the middles of the a and the p's)  I put the other white one on top of that and finished with the coloured one on top ...... love this look!


I stamped the rest of my greeting, fussy cut it and attached underneath.

The plane was attached using a piece of folded acetate to make it stand off the card .... it moves around a little too


Now, I know the sun is shining, and it is only May but ....... dare I say, Christmas is coming!!!
Have you started thinking of your festive designs yet?  Maybe not ..... but Sweet Poppy are already on it .......


The beautiful Mehndi Snowflake ..... so pretty and delicate.  A nice size too, great for making quick Christmas cards.

I've used one of the Shimmer Paints for the background onto a piece of watercolour card


Once it was dry, I stenciled the snowflake over the top, just slightly off one edge using the Glossy White stencil medium 


Whilst the paste was still wet I sprinkled the design with Crystal Glitter .... so sparkly!


And I used one of the new Sweet Poppy stamps on the bottom


Remember I said make sure you have a clear desk before splattering inks to create backgrounds well, don't know if you spotted the little stray pink dot on my snowflake.  I obviously didn't clear my desk  completely ........ oops! 

Last one ..... the gorgeous Poinsettia stencil ......


An old favourite stencil design ...... three different sized poinsettia flowers that now have matching Buddy Dies.  Now you can create gorgeous layered festive flowers.........


The dies cut beautifully ..... even the little one, although I will say you do need to put it through your machine a few times to cut all the small detail between the petals.  I tend to run it through my Big Shot and then run it through again backwards,  and I do this twice and for me that's enough.
You can see I used the paste and glitter and the dies still cut perfectly


A leftover piece of background card found in my stash and a sprinkling of chunky white embossing powder to finish off


And here's one of the stamps again .... well part of it anyway .....


Don't forget ........ tune in to HOCHANDA (Sky channel 673/Freeview 85/Freesat 817) on Friday May 25th at 10am and 3pm. 
Enjoy the shows ...... I'll be watching.  Well, that's if I haven't set them to record, because I'm sat outside enjoying the weather in our new little treat to ourselves ......


This arrived yesterday ........ it's only taken us about 20 years to take the plunge (excuse the pun!)
Yes we've finally bought a hot tub! 
Every year we have the same conversation ...... shall we get a hot tub? Then we've talked ourselves out of it and bought something else.  And for the last three and bit years we haven't had a garden as such so ...... we were sat on the patio one evening and hubby said 'wouldn't it be nice to have a hot tub here'  Here we go again I thought ....... next day we were out looking for a fire pit for the garden, didn't find one we liked but hubby did show me the hot tubs!  Another week went by where we thought about it, changed our minds, then thought about it again.  Anyhow ....... here it is!
It arrived yesterday and it's finally all ready to go. 
I checked the temperature this morning .... it's a nice warm 38 degrees.  I just need to check the ph levels etc., now and then we can dive in ...... well maybe not dive but you know what I mean.  Perfect after a hard day in the craft room!!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.
Time to try my new swimsuit on!

Cheerio until next time ......

Monday 21 May 2018

And so the countdown begins .......

Happy Monday ......

I hope you all had a good weekend.  Ours was fab ..... lots of family time.
Did you see the royal wedding?  Wasn't it beautiful ..... very emotional.
Then the football went in our favour too ..... my boys in blue lifted the FA Cup. Well done lads!! All in all ..... a great weekend.

We're looking forward to the next couple of weeks too.
It's that time of year again when our little island in the Irish Sea is preparing for 'the world's ultimate road race'.  Yes, this coming weekend sees the start of the 2018 IOM TT fortnight.  Fingers crossed this great weather holds ....... if it does it'll be an amazing two weeks!!  Hopefully we'll get to see some of the racing, and of course spend some time down at the Grandstand.

But, before all that gets underway there's something else to look forward to.
It's the countdown to the next Sweet Poppy Stencil TV shows ...... whoo hoo!
Yes, the lovely Lucy is back on our screens this week, with more gorgeous new stencil designs.
When? .........  Friday May 25th 
What time? .......  10am and 3pm (book your place on the sofa now!) 
Where? ...... HOCHANDA of course ..... Sky channel 673/Freeview 85/Freesat 817.

As always there'll be new stencil designs, the brand new Sweet Poppy Dies, all the stencil mediums along with the pretty shimmer paints.  There'll also be great demos from Lucy too .... showing you how to get the best results from you Sweet Poppy stash.

I've been playing with the stencils, here's a quick look at some of the samples I give to Lucy at the Happy Stampers show the other weekend ...... something for everyone. 
Dare I say it .... there's even a bit of the 'C' word in there too! 


One of my favourite designs from this show is the stunning Flamingo ..... I just love her, or it could be a him I suppose!


What a great size stencil it is ..... here she is on an A5 card.

I coloured a piece of watercolour card using Distress Oxide inks ........ smooshed directly from the ink pad onto the card and then blended with a damp baby wipe where the colours joined together


I then stenciled the bird onto the card using the Glossy Black stencil paste, and sprinkled Black Glitter over the top whilst the paste was wet ...... love the swirly detail!


When this was dry I used another Sweet Poppy stencil .... the pretty Cherry Blossom to add a little more detail


Glossy White stencil paste this time and crystal glitter ..... so sparkly.
I like how the paste has picked up a little of the Distress Ink colour too .....


To finish off ..... a simple sentiment stamped and heat embossed in gold


Same stencil, same technique for the background, different colours of glitter .....


Black paste again  ....... and I think it was a peach glitter I used on top, with a little bit of gold on the beak

Different foliage on the bottom too ....... the pretty Dancing Bells and before you all shout yes I know it's upside down but doesn't it work!!


I stenciled it first using a green Distress Oxide ink, and then used the Glossy Black stencil paste over the top to give it depth .......


Last one of my flamingos ........ I did say it was my favourite!


I love how this turned out.  It's a large 8 inch x 8 inch card (I don't do that many large cards these days!) and it could be an engagement card, a wedding card, a baby card for twins maybe!!

I simply stenciled the flamingo one way, turned the stencil over and did the same again .... easy!


I used the pretty Peach Pearl stencil paste and sprinkled with pink and glitter on one of them


Then for the other one I used the Pale Blue Pearl paste and crystal glitter for the top part of the flamingo  ....


And the peach paste for his legs!

The background was simply various inks splattered onto the card using an old paint brush.


A cute little heart stamped between them, and a simple sentiment heat embossed in gold ....


This is actually from one of the new Sweet Poppy Stamp sets. You'll be seeing a few more of these popping up here and there.
Oh Yes,  there's some fab new sentiment sets to go with all your Sweet Poppy stencil designs.  A really good collection of words for all occasions, along with some verses and sayings.  I'm not sure whether they will be on the TV show but they are available now on the Sweet Poppy website 

Just a couple more designs before I head off back to the craft room .......  so CAS, using the Dancing Bells again

I know, I know ....... it's upside down ....... I like it this way!


Stunning detail as always from Sweet Poppy.
And here's another one of those brand new Sweet Poppy stamps .....


And another one ...... I love this one


Really simple, using Distress Inks this time through the Cherry Blossom stencil ........


a few dots of White Enamel Accents to the centers .......


and finished off with the sentiment, a little ink brushed around the edges and a few splatters here and there.


So, don't forget ...... Lucy's back on HOCHANDA!  Friday May 25th ...... 10am and 3pm.  See you there!

Thanks for popping by  ..... enjoy the rest of your day.
I'll be back later in the week with a few more of my show samples.

Cheerio until next time ......

Friday 18 May 2018

Uniko Challenge #47

Good morning!

It's almost the weekend .......... have you got that Friday feeling yet?

And what a weekend it's going to be ....... there's a royal wedding to attend,  well join in the celebrations with a glass or two of something bubbly, from the comfort of the sofa.
And when all that's over, there's a football match to watch ......... it's the FA Cup Final!  Let's see if my boys in blue can follow the Chelsea women and lift the trophy! Good luck boys!

Let's get things started today though with the latest Uniko Challenge

It's Challenge #47 and we have a little Photo Inspiration to get you started.  There's also an optional twist, which this month is ....... Birthday


The challenge runs until midnight (GMT) on Friday June 22nd so there's lots of time to play along, and the winners will be announced on Friday July 6th on the Uniko Blog.

I took the colours from the photo as my inspiration and this is what I came up with ....... pretty pink roses


I've used the Nature's Treasures II stencil from the brand new release and teamed it up with the pretty stamp set Pure Florals - Rose

I stamped the beautiful blooms using Versamark ink and then heat embossed the images with white detail embossing powder.  I coloured them using Picked Raspberry Distress ink and a water brush to give them this delicate watercoloured look ..... so pretty!


I then created masks for the roses, just from simple Post-It notes, covered them over and added in some rosebuds (which I also created masks for)


With the masks still in place I added in the leaves to the background, using the stencil and two shades of green Distress Oxides (Twisted Citron & Mowed Lawn - I think)


A few splatters of ink around the roses and the odd dot of glitter glue adds a bit more interest


And to finish off I stamped one of the sentiments from the Simply Said Blocks, fussy cut it and attached it to the front of my card, along with a few sequins


I like to decorate the inside of my cards ...... keeping with the design on the front


Stamped and embossed as before, and coloured using the same ink


Stenciled the leaves and spattered a little more ink


I'm looking forward to seeing how the photograph inspires you.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day, and have a fabulous weekend.
Good luck and best wishes to the bride and groom for tomorrow too!

Cheerio until next time ......