Happy Monday!

Morning everyone,

Hope you all had a nice weekend, and are raring to go on another crafty week.  As usual, I've loads to be getting on with, and I really want to make a start on some Christmas cards this week.
I was in town at the weekend and the shops are already starting to look that little bit festive - it's a bit early for me to be honest, we haven't had Halloween yet!
I must confess however,  I did look at a some Christmas card designs, just for inspiration.  They've given me a few ideas so hopefully I'll get some time later in the week to make a start.  I'll keep you posted.

I didn't spend as much time in the old craft room as I'd planned for this weekend, but I did manage some.  I had a play with my new Dylusions Inks that Lauren brought over for me.  It got a bit messy in there I can tell you.  But, I've got some lovely backgrounds ready to use.

Speaking of which, I used one on my In the Pink entry for their latest Blog Challenge. I thought I'd try the pink one first, it's such a fab colour.  In fact all 12 are simply stunning.  That had always been my problem, which ones do I go for first, so in the end I just got the lot! It had to be done!
I'd better get a move on as I'm just in the nick of time for this challenge, thank goodness.  Well, I couldn't miss doing this one could I,  seeing as I was one of the Perfect Pinkies in the last challenge.

Our recipe this time is ........ PINK PLUS ONE.
We have to use loads of Pink in our designs, plus one other colour.
I went for the PINK and BLACK combination - always very girlie I think.

Pink plus one - Black

The chandelier stamp is from Stamp Addicts and is a gorgeous large solid image.  I stamped it using Onyx Black Versafine and then quickly sprinkled it with a sparkly black embossing powder to make a real statement.  You can just about see the sparkle in the picture.
The white card was then cut to size and inked with Spun Sugar Distress Ink quite close to the stamped image.  The edges were then inked again using Picked Raspberry DI to give a little shading.
The pink background was created with Dylusions Bubblegum Pink spray ink sprayed onto a piece of white card that had already been spritzed with water.  Perfect Pearls was then spritzed over the top and a piece of
cling film scrunched over the whole thing, and left overnight to dry.
When you remove the cling film, all the mica from the Perfect Pearls has settled in the creases giving a lovely pearl effect to the card - really pretty.

All the stamping was done in Black Versafine, the flourish is from Baroque Motifs, a Stampin Up! set, and the word 'Dream' is from a Kaisercraft Clear stamp set.
Just to give it an even more feminine look I added some gorgeous paper roses and a piece of gathered black tulle.
There may be a few different shades of pink, but I think I've kept to the Pink Plus One rule, what do you think?

I suppose I'd better get back to the old craft room.  I'm determined to get loads done this week.

Thanks for popping by today.  And Thank You all for your lovely comments last week, you really make me smile. xx

See you soon

Linda

x

Say it with flowers

Hi everyone,
I wanted to do a Blog post this evening seeing as I haven't been around much for the last few days, and it's taken me ages.  First of all I'm so tired I can't even think straight, so typing this has proved to be a longer process than I thought.  In case any of it doesn't make sense I'll apologise now.
We've also managed to squeeze in another trip to the new house.  I've been packing and unpacking boxes all week and I've had enough now, I just want it all to be over, I'm not sure where home is at the moment.  Stephen, are you listening -  I'm not moving again!!
I do have some cards I can share with you today.  You may have already seen the sneak peeks of these in a previous post,  but as they were on air this afternoon you can now see the full images.
For those who watch Create and Craft some of my cards were on the telly today in the Stamp Addicts show.  I had the beautiful new large floral stamp to work with, and this is what I created.  The first two cards show how you don't always have to colour in a stamped image, you can just leave it black and white, or just colour a section and make that a focal point.

For this one, I stamped the flowers in a black ink, used a pink Distress Ink lightly around the edge and then cut it into pieces.  These were then mat onto black card leaving a small gap in between each one to give a tile effect.  You could even  use UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) over the top to make them look like real tiles if you wanted.

Again the main image was left black and white.  I stamped the flowers again and coloured just a section of them, then used my Nestabilities to cut it out and layered it with black card.  This was then attached over the top using foam pads to add dimension.  I used Distress Ink around the edges, doodled some faux stitching and added a pretty gingham bow.

For a different look altogether I stamped the same image onto cream cardstock and used a brown ink this time.

I used a waterbrush to drag some of the colour from the edge of the image to paint the flowers, it gives a sort of vintage look I think.  Just for something a bit different I went for one of my oversized gift tags.  Added a bit of lace, some vintage seam binding and a pretty button.  The sentiment is from the Star Flowers stamp set and is attached using on of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Clips.

And, for the final one the whole image was coloured, and I even did a little bit of decoupage. I used my Distress Inks again for the background, and also to watercolour the main image. I picked out the purple colour as one of the layers and added a rather large co-ordinating bow, but I think it works.  The saying is from the Star Flowers Stamp set again.

I really enjoyed doing these, the stamp was lovely to work with and a really pretty design that can be used so many different ways.
Why not check out The Purple Zone Blog for some more ideas and designs from the girls at Stamp Addicts and the rest of the Design Team.

Well, I think that's it from me tonight.  Going to get an early night, busy day tomorrow.  More packing to do in the morning.  Visit to the new house at lunch time, and then we're on a plane in the evening across to the UK (yipee!).  I'm off to the Happy Stampers Show HSNW  at Port Sunlight on Saturday with my lovely crafty friends over there and I can't wait.  I'll let you know how I get on.  Then on Sunday we're spending the day with our handsome little grandson Alex, and his mummy Lauren.  I hope the weather's nice, finger's crossed.

Hope you have a great weekend, and I'll be back next week posting from my new craft room - hopefully.

Thanks for popping by.  Night, night  ......

Linda

x

Design Team Samples

Good afternoon eveyone.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend.  I'm having a lazy day today, in fact I'm still in my PJ's (oops!)

I mentioned I was a member of the Stamp Addicts Design Team so I thought I'd share some of the cards I'd made for them recently.

Samples have to be done when they launch new stamp ranges on the TV channel Create and Craft. They are shown on air when the girls are on as inspiration as to what you can create using their fab products.

Ballet Shoes stamp set 

Ellie, from the Ellie and Rhino set

one from the Ants set

The most recent ones I sent in where these made using the brand new Wildflowers and Star Flowers unmounted stamp sets.









 You can see all the stamp sets and more on their website 
www.stampaddictsshop.co.uk  and take a look at their blog  http://stampaddicts-thepurplezone.blogspot.com to see more from the rest of the design team

nice and simple

Something a little bit different, a pretty wallhanging

 

I love using one colour of ink

 


























I used to make a lot of samples for the TV when I worked at Inspirations, for Hunkydory.  It can get a bit frantic at times because of the deadlines but it's all fun, and you get to play with the products before they go on air which is nice.

Well, you've seen a little of what I do.  I'll be back with more soon.
Have a lovely weekend, what's left of it, and thanks for looking.

Bye for now

Linda

x