Sweet Poppy Stencils are back on the TV .........

Happy Wednesday ......

I just wanted to pop by and say, if you're a Sweet Poppy Stencils fan you'll be pleased to know that Lucy is back on Hochanda tomorrow ...... whoo hoo!!!

There are two shows ......... the first one is at 11am, and then again at 3pm.  

There'll be lots of gorgeous stencils, some festive designs, some not.  Lots of fab mediums etc., to use with your stencils, and a whole load of inspiration from Design Team samples and of course live demonstrations from the lovely Lucy herself.

I've been busy playing (oops!) working with some of the stencils, making samples for the shows. 

So, if you have some time to spare and fancy a quick look ..... here we go!  You might want to grab a cuppa, it's a bit of a long post!

 

One of my favourite Sweet Poppy stencils is making it's TV debut this time ....... the gorgeous Teardrop Background

I do love this design ..... it is a great background but, it's so pretty as the focal point too.  

For this card I used washi tape to mask off a strip across my piece of card, placed the stencil over the top and inked through using Autumnal shades of Distress Inks ..... love it!

Oooh .... did I mention that Sweet Poppy now have their own stencil brushes ....... the really popular make up style ones, and they are soooo nice to work with.  Watch out for them on the shows .... you need these!

I stamped a sentiment onto the white strip and added some dry embossed lines top and bottom to highlight the area

I finished off by adding a few gems here and there in matching colours 

Why not change the colours and give the same stencil a more festive look .......

Distress inks again, with a little bit of pen work this time ...... white highlights onto the 'berries'

and a touch of gold around some of the teardrop shapes.

A simple sentiment stamped over the top .....

and to give it a real Christmassy look, some chunky white embossing enamel .... I love this stuff on Christmas cards!

Another of the stencils coming up on the shows is the Absolutely Abstract Back Plate ........ 

I must admit, it took me a while to decide what to do with this one, I haven't done much abstract (I have been watching Eileen Godwin's YouTube videos though, so you might just see a bit more in the near future!)

I used a whole bunch of Distress Inks again through the stencil, blended to create a Galaxy Sky ......

With the stencil still in place, I added a few splatters of water, not much, I didn't want it to leak underneath the stencil.  

I mopped up the excess with a paper towel and you can see that the water reacts with the ink and removes some of the colour too, leaving this lovely speckled look behind. I never get tired of this technique!

I added a spritz of  Perfect Pearls over the top to add some shimmer, and a few splatters of white paint, then I carefully removed the stencil.

Once everything was dry, I stamped my sentiment across the shapes .......... 

And finished with a splattering of gold ink all over the design.

Same stencil, only this time I didn't use the whole design ......

A bit of masking whilst I was inking, to keep the edges of the colours crisp .......

and I drew around each of the shapes using a gold gel pen just to give a different look ...... you can see I've splattered with water again to, gives it a bit more interest I think.

I used the lines of the stencil design as a guide for my sentiments

Last, but not least I have a few more festive makes ....... the beautiful Cross stencil is back.

A cross is perfect for all sorts of occasions, but I gave it a festive feel and used it along with the Christmas Words stencil, which will also be on the show.

I used the words to create the background, and Versamark ink through the stencil and heat embossed the cross in gold.  I then fussy the cross and attached it over the words using foam pads to add a bit of dimension 

A few gold ink splatters and a sentiment .......

and some Christmas holly, cut using the Sweet Poppy Holly die and a little bit of glitter card

Here's the cross again, used a little differently this time .......

Again using Versamark ink and gold embossing powder, and a little bit of masking, I made a decorative frame around one of my large Christmas sentiments.

There's that holly again!

And finally, here are the Christmas Words again ..... used to make a very quick and easy card 

Festive colours of Distress Inks, a pretty ribbon bow and just a touch of Christmas sparkle!

Phew!  That was a long one!

Enjoy the shows tomorrow.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.

We're out this evening ...... it's a Wine Down Wednesday Wine Tasting and it's Rioja week!  We're doing the tasting and learning all about Rioja, and then we have a meal ..... 4 courses of delicious food all paired with the perfect wines ..... looking forward to that!  

Cheerio until next time ......

Products used:

Stencils: Teardrop, Absolutely Abstract, Christmas Words, Cross (all from Sweet Poppy Stencils)

Stamps: A7 stamps set - Have a Great Day;  A6 stamp sets Family, Cheers, Joy & Peace (all Sweet Poppy); large sentiment from my stash

Inks: Distress Inks - various colours; Versamark ink; Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Delicata Golden Glitz metallic ink

Others: Gold embossing Powder (WOW!); Crystalina Glitter (Sweet Poppy), Gold and white Gel Pens, white paint, gems

Love You to the Moon and Back ......

Good morning .......

The weekend is just around the corner ........ have you got that Friday feeling yet? 

It's time for a quick reminder of this month's Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge
All you have to do is TAKE a stamp and MAKE something fabulous!
The theme is Anything Goes, so that means you can create whatever you like ..... a card, a journal page or a tag.   ATC's or coins, jewellry or a piece of home decor .... it's up to you.
All you have to remember is, there must be some actual rubber stamping on your project  ..... easy!

I've got a cute little card for you today, that could actually go in a frame and hang on a bedroom wall perhaps,

I don't really do super cute these days but, I just couldn't resist this little guy from a recent Penny Black release ......

He's been stamped onto a piece of white cardstock, coloured using ZIG markers and then fussy cut.  I also gave the moon a little shimmer with a clear Wink of Stella Pen

Something else that recently arrived in the craft room and I've been waiting to play with, are the brand new Distress Oxide Sprays.  Have you tried them yet?  They are so much fun .... and they look great on black cardstock.  Which is what I've used for my galaxy background

I spritzed the Oxides onto the black card, giving each colour a quick blast with a heat tool.  I used a blue, purple, pink and a little bit of grey (I've listed the exact colours below)

I added a few splatters of gold and white over the top, and used some glittery die cut stars in the background.
I framed my galaxy sky, and attached the little bear using foam pads for extra dimension

I do love this sentiment .......

As always there's two prizes up for grabs ..... the Design Winner chosen by the Design Team.  They will be featured in the Craft Stamper magazine along with their winning entry, be invited to be a Guest Designer on a future TIMI  challenge, and have a Winners profile on Craft Stamper Blog.
The second Winner is chosen at random from all the eligible challenge entries and they receive the Blog Challenge prize, which this month is ...... a fabulous Tim Holtz stamp set

Check out the Craft Stamper Blog for all the challenge  guidelines and Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by, enjoy the rest of your day.
We're off out again this evening ..... yes the birthday celebrations are still going on!  This is the last though .... I think. There's nothing planned for the weekend .... yet!

What do you think of the new look? Nice isn't it!
I felt it was time for a change ....... something more clean and fresh.  I LOVE it!!
A huge Thank You goes to the lovely Loll Thompson from Stamping with Loll who did all the hard work on the header design and the graphics, and also did the change over ..... you're a Star!

Have a lovely weekend.
Cheerio until next time ......

Products used .....
Stamps ..... Space Reserved (Penny Black)
Inks ......  Versafine Clair (Nocturne), Distress Oxide Sprays (Mermaid Lagoon,Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry and a little Iced Spruce), Delicata Metallic ink (Golden Glitz), 
Others ....... ZIG Clean Colour Brush Markers, White acrylic paint, Stitched frame die