Sweet Poppy are back .......

Happy middle of the week .......

It's a little late in the day I know ... it may even be tomorrow now depending on when you are reading this!

It's been a funny old week so far ......... lots of stuff going on one way or another.  I won't bore you with the details ..... lets just say it's one of life's curve balls!  My mum used to say 'these things are sent to try us' .... well they're definitely doing that!   We'll sort it though ..... we always do!

Anyhow ... on to more interesting stuff.  The lovely Lucy Ellis and Sweet Poppy Stencils are back on our TV screens ........ tomorrow, or should I say today.  Whichever one it is now ..... you can see them on Thursday 14th September  at 10am and 4pm on HOCHANDA (Sky 663/Freeview 85/Freesat 817)
I hope you're in the mood for a little Christmas spirit because there's some fabulous new festive designs, you're going to love them.

Here's a little sneaky peek at what I've been busy with .......

Lots of glitter and sparkle ......

Not just for cards though .....

Oooh .... is that the new crackle paint on there ..... could be!!

I said there was lots of sparkle ........

and those gorgeous Sweet Poppy Lustre Paints too.

Use the designs to create beautiful backgrounds ........ I love doing this.

There's one fab design that is soooo useful ...... great for larger cards but can be used for so many different designs ....... how pretty is this!

Remember this design I shared last week ......

same stencil .......

and again ......

inside ....... as well as out.

Book the sofa and the remote control .... or set the shows to record.  Enjoy!

Thanks for popping by ..... I will share all of the above in full with you later.

Cheerio until next time .....

ATC's for Happy Little Stampers ....

Hello again ......

I do hope you've enjoyed the weekend.  Ours has been lovely but it's coming to a close.  Monday is just around the corner and I'm looking forward to another busy week because .......  two weeks today I shall be away on holiday .... whoo hoo!!! (the countdown begins)

There's still lots to do though ...... like Blog challenges for instance.  Tonight sees the start of the September Happy Little Stampers ATC Challenge

Have you played along yet?  If not make this the month that you give ATC's a go, they're so much fun to do.
As you can see the theme this month is .... Shapes
What's your favourite shape then .... do you find yourself using circles a lot in your designs, or are you more for the clean lines of squares or rectangles?

I've gone for a mixture here ....... there's circles, squares and hexagons .... I like to make sets of ATC's, usually in 3's

The hexagon background is actually a piece of cardstock from my bit box.  It's been done using the embossing folder stamping technique ....... inking up a simple embossing folder, spritzing it with water and then using it to stamp the design instead of putting it through a machine to create the texture ......

I then stamped over the top with the little bee stamp, adding colour to the image with ZIG markers and a touch of sparkle to the wings.

The sentiment was stamped onto a snippet of white card, cut in half, and then attached to the ATC.

Circles next .......

Another piece of card from the bit box ..... coloured with blue distress inks.  I then went for the Bokeh effect using a circle stencil and more distress inks in various shades of blues and pinks.
I then stamped the words and heat embossed in clear before adding another layer of circles over the top using the stencil again, only this time I used clear texture paste through it to give some shine to the circles.
A few sequins here and there add a touch of sparkle.

And finally ...... squares

This is a fab little Memory Box stencil over the top of a coloured piece of card.
I then used a pretty leaf stamp to add detail around the edges and stamped the words on top using a black archival ink.
I finished off by adding a touch of Glossy Accents here and there to highlight some of the squares.

As with all the HLS Blog challenges the winner of the ATC challenge will win a $20 Gift Certificate to spend in the Happy Little Stampers store

Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.
Time for a nice glass of red I think and some catch up TV.

Cheerio until next time ........

CAS Mix Up ......

Happy Sunday folks ........

I hope you're enjoying the weekend.

I'm playing along with this month's CAS Mix Up Challenge today ........

And ..... this is also a sneaky peek at one of the stencil designs from the Sweet Poppy Stencil show, coming up next week on Hochanda.  Lucy's back on our TV screens with some gorgeous new designs, and some back in stocks ....... I'll give you all the show times etc., later in the week.

This wasn't done with the challenge in mind but, I think it fits the bill perfectly.  There's rubber stamping on there ..... a little bit of a watercolour wash in the background ..... and my choice element is die cutting, or it could be stencils and texture paste, or even glitter.

I started off by adding a wash of colour onto a piece of white cardstock.  I used Aged Mahogany Distress ink, onto a craft mat then spritzed with some Perfect Pearls mica spray instead of just plain water. I then used a paintbrush to wash the colour over the card .....

I also added a few splatters of the ink on there too.
I'm not sure that the pretty pearlescent sheen from the mica spray comes across in the photos but trust me, it's there!

The greeting was then stamped and heat embossed in gold ..... this is one of my favourite Tim Holtz Christmas sentiments ..... I love the font

I then die cut the baubles .... two from snippets of plain white card and one from a piece of cardstock that I had stenciled using one of the Sweet Poppy designs ...... Holly Back Plate

This is a huge stencil ...... nearly 6 inches by a little over 7 and a half inches (145mm x 195mm) and it's perfect for creating backgrounds.  But .... just because it's a large stencil doesn't mean it's just for backgrounds, or for making large cards.  Why not use the stencil on a large piece of card and then use the card for lots of different projects.  Cut it into smaller pieces, use it with your punches or die cut it as I have here .....

I used the white glossy paste through the stencil then sprinkled over the top with green glitter.  Once the paste was dry I die cut the bauble and then added in the berries using some of the Nuvo Jewel Drops

The two smaller baubles were coloured using Distress ink and then I spritzed them with the Perfect Pearls.  I love the look this gave once the mica spray was dry.

The die cuts were then attached, the two smaller ones with glue, flat onto the card and the larger one with foam pads to add dimension.
I made the baubles look as if they were hanging by drawing in the 'chain' using a silver gel pen .....

A few tiny gemstones and a silver twine bow add the finishing touches to the baubles, and I fussy cut one of the stenciled sprigs of holly to add a bit more interest to the sentiment ......

I'll show you a few more ideas for using this large stencil next week, along with a look at some more of the new designs that will be on the show ........ there's definitely a festive feel.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your weekend.
I'll be back again later .... there's one more Blog Challenge to get underway for September.  Do you like ATC's???

Cheerio until then .....

Go on ..... Smile .... it's Friday!

Happy Friday to you .......

The weekend is nearly here ...... and the sun is shining (for now!) but I think all that's about to change, just in time for the weekend.
We've got a lazy couple of days coming up (yeah!!), nothing to do, nothing planned, so we're just going to play it by ear and see what happens.

First though I've got a little reminder for this month's Craft Stamper Challenge .......

As always the theme is Anything Goes ........ as long as there's some actually rubber stamping on there.
You can enter up to three different projects, but they must each have their own blog post ...... and don't forget to link to the Craft Stamper Challenge in your post.
Full challenge details, rules, sponsors and prize details can be found on the Craft Stamper Blog. Along with some fabulous inspiration from the DT ...... grab a cuppa, and when you're finished here pop over and take a look.

Here's my inspiration piece for you today ...... hopefully it'll make you smile!

I just had to have this cute little Ostrich stamp from Katzelkraft ..... he definitely made me smile.  I'm saying 'he' but it could be a she too!

I stamped him in black versafine ink and then added a touch of colour using ZIG Real Brush Markers.
Just look at that face ........ how can you resist!

The 'smile' is from a set of Visible Image stamps called Capture the Moment ....... stamped in versamark and heat embossed in gold.

I finished off  with a few splatters of ink onto the background

Are you smiling?

Our challenge sponsor this month is  ...... Uniko

and there's a fab prize for the challenge winner ..... 3 gorgeous stamp sets (see below)

Go on ..... why not join in the fun!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day, and have a lovely weekend.

I'm having a day off from the craft room today ..... I've earned it!!
I'm off out for coffee, a look around the shops and a spot of lunch somewhere ..... we're off up to Ramsey today.

Cheerio until next time ......

Time for a tag I think .......

Happy Wednesday folks ......

How are you? ...... Fancy another Blog Challenge?
Well ...... it just so happens that September's Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge gets underway today, and the theme is ......... Collage

I thought it was time for a tag ..... haven't made one in a while.

Collage can be a piece of art created by using lots of different bits and bobs to make up the finished piece ...... papers, fabrics, ribbons.  Newsprint, paints, texture paste ..... you name it, you can use it.

I've gone for the look of collage and layers using my stamps and stencils.

I started out by colouring a manila tag with some Distress Oxide inks ...... smooshing the colours (Worn Lipstick and Fossilised Amber) onto the tag and then letting them dry

I stamped the beautiful Jane from IndigoBlu, onto the tag using black Versafine ink and also created a mask to cover the image

With mask in place I added some fine script to the background to create the look of another layer

The mask was removed and a layer of texture paste was then added over the top of the stamping using one of the pretty floral stencils from Tim Holtz

I then stamped the sentiment cut each word individually and arranged them onto my tag

To finish off I used the same Distress Oxide inks to colour a piece of white seam binding .....

Simply swipe the inks onto a craft sheet, spritz with water and then drag the ribbon through the ink to pick up the colour.
No more searching through your stash for that piece of ribbon that's just the right colour ...... create your own perfect match!

The challenge is sponsored by Happy Little Stampers .......

and the winner will receive a $20 Gift Certificate to spend in the store.  Happy stamping!

I've had a lovely day in my craft room, busy with DT stuff.  I'll give you a sneaky peek when everything's finished ..... lots of glitter again so you can guess what the theme is, and not much went into the rubbish bin which was a bonus!!
It was a little quiet though ....... no little man today.  It was his first day back at school after the summer break ...... he's in Year 2 this year .... bless him.
No doubt I'll hear all about it tomorrow.  He keeps reminding us that it's his birthday this month ... 2 weeks tomorrow in fact!!  Better start thinking about making a card!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.
I'm going to put my feet up and catch up on some TV tonight ..... we've got our Sky TV back - yeah!! The engineer came today ...... new dish, new boxes, and we've now got SkyQ.  Apparently we can record up to 6 different channels at once, and still watch another one!  And ..... one of the remote controls is soooo cool ..... you just tell it what you want to watch and it finds it for you. Doesn't take much to impress me does it!!!
I think a re-run of the last two episodes of Game of Thrones Season 7 is on the cards .... seeing as we had to watch them on hubby's PC .... not quite the same as seeing it on the BIG screen.  And then its the brand new series of Doctor Foster for me ...... not forgetting that Strictly starts at the weekend too ..... Christmas must be coming!!

Cheerio until next time .......