Michelle's Crafty Paper

At last...

I was beginning to get worried! This flu thing that has been going around took a grip on our household and didn't want to let go! When I started to feel better I sat at my desk staring at my stamps, ink and paper and there it was...COMPLETE BRAIN FADE. Had this bug attacked my crafting brain cells? In despair I retreated, and vowed to try again the next day. ARGHHH, again nothing.

Then out of the darkness came help in the form of Roxie's sketch challenge over on Splitcoaststampers.I love these challenges and find them a great kick start! The main rule was that the vertical strip had to be 1.5" wide, approximately 3.75 cm. It was kinda odd because Roxie's sample card uses the hostess set 'Oh So Lovely', the very same set that I had been staring at for two days. Well that was a sign and off into my craft room I went.

Oh So Lovely called for me try out my new 'Many Marvellous Markers'. The colours are so rich and matches the inks and paper perfectly. I used a blender pen to blend the colours. For the poppy I used Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Chocolate Chip and Always Artichoke. The yellow flowers were made by colouring in the image on the stamp with the markers, summer sun and Old olive, then 'huffing' on the stamp to re-moisten the colours. Stamp as usual. I also used the masking technique to enable me to layer my images.

The background paper is ruby red. I first stamped it with versamark and the sanded background stamp. Over the top of this I stamped En Francais in Close to Cocoa (p58). I lightly sponged the edges with chocolate chip, close to cocoa and summer sun. All edges were distressed using the little gadget from SU, the cutter kit (p81).

The scrunched paper is barely banana with summer sun lightly sponged on top. It is attached with Hodgepodge Hardware brads, and the ribbon is also secured with hodgepodge hardware (p84) .

The little friend sentiment was stamped onto Sahara Sand card stock (same as base card) in chocolate chip ink. It is from the Daily Flexible Phrases set(p65).

I found the watercolouring really therapeutic and enjoyed making my own designer paper for the background. For a great tutorial on watercolouring with markers please visit Julie Buhler's fantastic blog.

Being a Capricorn my colours always tend to be earthy...now a challenge for myself, next card I have to use colours from the Bold Brights family. Watch this space....and it won't take so long this time!

Happy Stampin'

Michelle x

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. It is still snowing here, and my little guy is thinking about going out in it. He has been ill all week so it is a hard decision as he 'wants to stay better'! Such a difficult decision for a ten year old, me.....well I will be staying indoors. I am just on the mend as well and need to get back on with things so no snow for me!

Have a lovely Easter, speak to you soon,

Michelle x

In The Spotlight

I decided to try out a different blog, so for the moment I have two on the go at the same time! ;-) After a week away because of one thing and another I managed to get into my stampin' room today and played with a new stamp set, In the Spotlight. This is a hostess level two set, available FREE if you host a workshop with sales of £300 or more. Contact me to book a workshop. Find out more about my Spring Hostess Promotion.

RECIPE

Stamp Sets
In the Spotlight, Occasional Greetings.

Card stock
Ruby Red, Olive Green, Very Vanilla and Pumpkin Pie.

Ink Colours
Ruby Red, Olive Green.

Accessories
1/4" Whisper White grosgrain ribbon, Pumpkin Pie Marvellous Marker, Mellow Moss coloured button, Stampin' Dimensionals, Scallop Circle Punch.

Stampin Dimensionals were used to give a 3D feel to the flowers and circle embellishment. The scallop punch fit perfectly around the large stamp from the In the Spotlight set. The ribbon was dyed using the pumpkin pie marker.

I have been wanting to use pumpkin pie for the longest time and here it is in what I think is a lovely colour combo!

Thank you for stopping by, Happy stampin'

Michelle x

Finally I'm online!

Well, I have been a UK Stampin' Up! demonstrator since they first opened here in the UK back in November, but have only just gotten into this BLOG thing. I think I am gonna enjoy this!

It was love at first sight when I attended my first ever Stampin' Up! workshop 5 years ago in Florida. I then joined a Stamper Club and my addiction was born! When I moved back to the UK in 2005 I gave up cardmaking for a while, but I didn't stop emailing Stampin' Up! about coming over here. So I am sure that you can imagine how excited I was to eventually find out they were making that leap across the 'pond'. Now I get to have fun crafting while running my own business. What more could I ask for?

I will stop rambling on now as I have a craft fair to prepare for, but I wanted to share with you a couple of cards from the workshop hosted by Juliette last weekend. I am really enjoying getting to meet so many new people, and I get to stamp at the same time! BLISS!

This is an idea that I saw on SCS and had to give it a go with a few changes. The stamp set used was Pick a Petal (p.50). This is so very versatile and one of my personal favourites. I used Whisper White, Bordering Blue and Regal Rose cardstock, accented with Prints DSP in Rose Red (p.73). Ink pads used were Bordering blue (petals), Regal Rose (flower centre) and Rose Red (flower centre and sponging on regal rose cs). The card was finished off with a rhinestone brad and white grosgrain ribbon. The sentiment is from Occasional Greetings (p63).

The parentheses (or brackets as most of us know them by!) were made using the SU tag punch. I love finding new ways to use punches.

This card uses four punches. Again I used the Pick a Petal stamp set and Rose Red Prints DSP. (I really like this paper as it has so many uses and is of a really good quality, I must get some of the other designs). The wings were stamped in Rose Red using the polka dot petal then stamped with the smile petal in Basic Black. This is called Two Step Stampin'.

The ladybird is made up using various sizes of circle punches (3.5cm, 1.9cm and 6.35mm) and layered with the wings.

The scalloped edges were made using the corner rounder punch. The card was finished off with the black Stampin' Write Journaller. The sentiment is from Cheer and Wishes (p63).

Happy Stampin'

Michelle x