Happy Christmas........

Good morning!

It's a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges today with the theme "Anything Goes" - (well, I had to do Christmas then didn't I?!!!!). Come and join us, with such an "open" theme it's easy to have lots of fun and show us what you can create!

http://www.fashionablestampingchallenges.com/2016/12/11/challenge-118-anything-goes/

OK, lets take our journey shall we.....

Isn't this a stunner of a stamp? It's the Impression Obsession J7042 Santa Horses stamp.

I started with my usual plain white Sheena stamping card and stamped the horses in Archival watering can.  I coloured their hats in with Spectrum Noir colouring pencils (you will see this on the next photo).  I then pressed some perfect medium through a stars stencil and embossed with clear embossing powder.

I then blended the background with distress ink (weathered wood) to show the white stars more clearly.

I cut two black mats and a silver one and passed the black mats through my Platinum machine with an embossing folder that looked like snow falling by Leonie Pujol. (I had to pass them through twice as my card was wider than the 5 x 7 embossing folder so I hotched the folder over a bit and ran it through again!).

I then stroked the embossed card with a tiny bit of Pebeo silver gilding wax to highlight the snow falling - it looks so metallic!

The sentiment was stamped "Happy Christmas" (Bee Crafty) and edged with the weathered wood distress ink and matted on to black card stock.

Here I was playing with the idea of a nice red ribbon? - Yes, I think that works well!!!

There, who said that you can't do monochrome for Christmas?!!!!

Matted and layered up and red felt ribbon and bow to finish with some die cut ivy leaves (Sue Wilson - Creative Expressions) which I also finished with a touch of silver gilding wax.

I thought this was really classy! I shall choose someone special to receive this one I think!

Do come along and join us at Fashionable Stamping Challenges with our new theme of 

"Anything Goes".

http://www.fashionablestampingchallenges.com/2016/12/11/challenge-118-anything-goes/

May I wish all at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, the Design Team and all you out there who enter and make the challenges such fun for us all a very Merry Christmas!

I would like to enter this in to The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog challenge "Christmas":-

http://theartisticstampercreativeteam.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/decembers-creative-challenge-christmas.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

Our Friendship is Special...........

Good morning!

An extra post this week (lots of crafty pieces about here at the moment due to Christmas!).  I only have this one photo of the finished ornament so I'll talk you through it as best I can and show you the original stamp that I have used to get there.

This lovely ornament started life as an mdf heart - it's quite large measuring about 5 inches in length. I coated both sides in gesso and when dry I started work on the front.  I have stamped my main image (Impression Obsession) of the dear little robin - well, I guess he/she could be any bird really, it's just that I have turned him in to a robin!!!

I popped a small amount of modelling paste over the chest area and the tail to give it a bit of texture and relief.

Then I coloured the image in using Spectrum Illustrator markers and with their alcohol base, they blend beautifully if you use the blender pen to help you.

Then added some more of the modelling paste to form some snow at his feet and to balance the whole picture.  I sponged some archival ink around the edges and darkened one side with a charcoal pencil (a bit of a trademark of mine!) and highlighted the legs and feet with a white pen.  The sentiment was stamped in Staz on and again highlighted with white pen.  The Staz on bled a little bit (I was suspicious that this would happen but it looked great and gave it a lovely shadow so it stayed!).

Finally I coated the whole thing with spray and shine and left to completely dry then added a lovely ribbon and some twine to hang it.

I have actually made three of these for three very special ladies this Christmas and on the back I transferred the Fashionable Stamping Challenges logo for them as we are all Fashion Stampettes from the Fashionable Stamping Challenges design team. - I thought they came out really well - something to keep and remind them of me!

It really is super shiny but I just couldn't get this to pick up on the camera (sorry)!!!

Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by,

I would like to enter this in to the Sweet Stampin challenge of "Let it Snow":-

http://sweetstampinchallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/let-it-snow.html

My Time To Craft "Christmas Animals":-

http://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/challenge-335-christmas-animals.html

Leanne xxx

Wishing you a magical Christmas.....

Good morning!

Only took a couple of photo's of this one in it's making so I'll talk you through how I got there.

Started with my usual Sheena stamping card and coloured my background using Spectrum Aqua Markers.

I stamped my pine spray and the five baubles (all Stamps by Chloe).  The pine was embossed with white embossing powder.  Two baubles were silver embossed and three were in black archival ink.  I then decided that I wanted more dimension so that the baubles looked more round (they looked too flat to me) so I added glossy accents to each one of them and allowed it to totally dry.  Still wasn't happy so I added some sparkle embossing powder over the top on the black baubles and stamped over again with silver embossing powder on the two silver baubles - yes, I am now stamping on top of dry glossy accents! - When I heat embossed all five baubles again not only did the embossing powders melt but the glossy accents bubbled and made the most realistic effect leaving them "lumpy bumpy"!!

I stamped my sentiment "Wishing you a Magical Christmas" (Stamps by Chloe) and embossed in the silver sparkle embossing powder (Cosmic Shimmer).

Darkened the edges with distress ink and added ribbon bows to three baubles and some dots of Cosmic Shimmer pearl pva.

Mat and layered.

Here you can see the lovely roundness that the baubles have to them.

Happy with that, very pretty.

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Seasons Greetings.....

Good morning!

An extra blog this week!  I completed a milestone a few days ago - I completed my 2016 new years resolution!!!!! (5 Christmas cards a month.....and I did it having got ahead and did Decembers five too!!!!! yay!!!!!). I will feel really good knowing that they are all done.

OK, this is one of the cards made for Christmas - I wanted a tree just like the one I have here at home at Christmastime - nice and big, fat, fluffy and bushy!!!! I took some photo's of how I got there so lets go on our usual journey shall we?

Started with my usual piece of Sheena stamping card and started to stamp the arms of my tree with a couple of different colour distress inks using a pine branch stamp by Stamps by Chloe. So as you will see, this tree started and continued to form from just one, the same one straight pine branch stamp.

Here we go! By now I have added the same stamp with white embossing powder for some of the branches.

Now I have added some stencilling to the background and some die cut ivy hanging down (ivy makes me think of Christmas as it's always evergreen and always there at Christmastime).

ooooh, looking good!!! You will notice now that I have "knocked back" the background to bring the tree forwards to the foreground (so that the tree doesn't get lost in all the colours).  I have stamped an angel (Crafty Individuals) on to some shrink plastic and heated her to shrink her right down for the top of the tree and the baubles are also on shrink plastic from much larger ones by Stamps by Chloe and some glitter has been added to the baubles and the angel.

With some small hole punch circles of mirror card and some Nuvo pearl drops, a stand and some ribbon we were done! Oh, have you spotted the secret ingredient? - yes, matching feather pieces - perfect!

Mat and layered.

I got the exact effect that I wanted, a nice, fat, bushy and fluffy tree!

Hope you like it too,

I would like to enter this in to the Try It On Tuesday challenge "Trees are green... or any other colour":-

http://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/trees-are-green-or-any-other-colour-at.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Just For You.......Happy Birthday.............

Good morning!

This card was made very recently for a friend of my daughter who is at uni (Yes, I have to send my creations to University!!!).

I only took a couple of photo's as I didn't think about blogging the card at all until Hayley said "Mum, you've got to put it on your blog!" so I'll talk you through it and we'll take our usual journey.....

This creation is highly sparkly but that was almost impossible to pick up on the camera so unfortunately it has come out a lot darker than it actually glistened - you get more of a feel for the shine on the second photo!

OK, I started with a piece of yupo paper this time (the central piece that you see here) and dropped three colours of alcohol ink on to it, let them bleed and then added a tiny amount of blending solution to make the ink move around a bit then left it to dry (which doesn't take very long at all).

I then cut my white mat and then a larger mat from sheena stamping card.  The second mat I wanted to leave white and the third one I have blended distress inks around it and stamped with the same distress ink some little butterflies so that they sort of blended in with the background.

With me so far?

As you can tell, this card had lots of separate components so it was a matter of making each part as I went and assembling everything together at the end!

I then stamped the number 21 all along a lovely piece of teal ribbon.

Now for the main butterfly, this is a stamp from Daliart and it's so intricate - it's really beautiful.  First of all I wanted it to have some texture so I ironed some Angelina Fibres to roughly the same shape as my butterfly.  The stamp isn't deep enough to get a crisp image on the fibres but I did use it to flatten the fibres to the desired shape. I used three different colours of fibre, two blues and a silver.

I then stamped my image on to acetate with stazon ink and glittered the individual parts of the butterfly from behind. (This does take longer to dry as the glue cannot be absorbed by the acetate and prolongs the drying time - I actually gave it an extra day to ensure it was dry).  I then used some glitter glue (cosmic shimmer twinkles) and popped a few drops in a couple of different colours on the top of the butterfly too.

When I was happy the butterfly was dry I glued that to the fibres and cut and teased around the butterfly shape.

I added some pearl glue down the centre of the butterfly and added glitter to the top of that and some glitter glue up the antennae of the butterfly.

A few small butterflies were stamped out - again Daliart and cut around and glittered.

Phew - there was a lot of work in this one by the time I was approaching the final hurdle!!

It was now a case of assembling everything together and attaching the silver peel offs showing the number 21 and stamping the sentiment of "Just For You" at the top and "Happy Birthday" (Phil Martin Sentimentally Yours) at the bottom.

There, I think you can pick up a bit of how shiny this was from this side shot.

So there you go, this card was posted quite a long way, received unscathed and (I'm told) very much liked!

Quite a few techniques thrown in to one card here but when you are asked for pretty - what choice have you got!!!!

"Happy Birthday Sarah" - I hope you had a wonderful day!

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what I'm up to,

Leanne xx

Happy Birthday Daughter.........

Good morning!

This card is what it says - Happy Birthday Daughter.  I made this card for my daughter Hayley, she was 18 on 28th September, the week she left for Durham University! I hadn't had a "slot" yet for it on the blog and saw the current Chocolate Baroque challenge and colour swatch and it matched perfectly!

I took some photo's along the way so come with me, we'll take a journey......

I started with my usual blank piece of white card stock, stamped my image (Chocolate Baroque) and then covered that with masking fluid. I went for the shaving foam technique for the background which again, tied in beautifully with the current Chocolate baroque challenge inspirational photo (the ocean) and goes so well with the colour swatch.  When the background was dry I rubbed away the masking fluid.

My next task was to colour in the image and then work on my background papers.

As you can see, I inked my own background card with Adirondack stream colour, two layers of stream and a white in between.

I added glitter to the tail and wings, die cut some number 18's and covered those in glitter too (Hayley likes "shiny"!), inked through a couple of stencils (I particularly liked the idea of enhancing that beautiful tail with the extra stencilling around it).  I stamped "Congratulations" and "Happy Birthday Daughter" and finished with a bow of two tones of ribbon and assembled on the mats and layers.

I'll let you into a secret, Hayley actually set me the challenge of this, her birthday card.  She actually asked for these colours, glitter and a ribbon! She did seem pleased when she received it!

This card fits in perfectly with the current Chocolate Baroque challenge 27, the inspirational photo and colour swatch so I would like to enter this card in to it.

http://chocolatebaroquechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/challenge-twenty-seven.html

and into Cards 4 Galz - use at least one die cut.

http://cardz4galz.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/challenge-33-use-at-least-one-die.html

Hope you like what you see, I was pleased with it, nice and fresh colours,

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Happy Birthday Hochanda!

Good Morning!! Well just a quick extra blog this week so that I could share the card that I made and sent to the television channel Hochanda last week.  I incorporated their logo on to my card and imagine my surprise when..............

I saw my little card sitting on the counter on the television!!!!! 

That did make me smile and thank you Hochanda for awarding all of us who sent in birthday cards with a £10 voucher to spend - unexpected and it made it all the more worth while!

Normal blog will be back on tomorrow morning - just had to share this with you!

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x

Dream......

Good morning!

Well, for those of you that know my usual style THIS IS WAY OFF PISTE FOR ME!!!!!!!

I was inspired to make this card for the Moving Along With The Times challenge "Clean and Simple".  

Well, a rather simple card for me but I had a clear image in my mind of what I wanted to achieve - my idea of clean and simple!

I like mats and layers and to keep in with the theme I decided to keep to all white so I measured out three mats and layered them on top of each other.  I don't know why, but I was drawn to this stamp by Inkylicious and to the simple sentiment "Dream"which is a part sentiment to the Inkylicious stamp "Dream Until Your Dreams Come True" - I just inked up the word Dream - I felt that was all that was needed and it went so ideally with the image. These were inked in black Versafine ink for crisp permanent images. I stamped the whole sentiment on the inside of the card "Dream Until Your Dreams Come True".

Finished with a lovely deep red velvet ribbon and tied the bow.

There, clean and simple! A lovely card to give to someone perhaps going off to university or setting sail to adventures new.......

I would like to enter this card in to the Moving Along With The Times "Clean and Simple" challenge.

http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/27-clean-simple.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx