Another Gala Event Fashion Show

With any luck, well lots of luck, I am hoping that this is not my last post as a member of the Creative Expressions Design Team.  I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed!

This is my last card using the fabulous Gala Event stamp set from "Creative Expressions".

I have used one of my favourite colour combs.

The dresses were masked and stamped before being coloured with cosmic shimmer watercolour paints.

These were cut out using the grand Labels 4 dies and the edges were distressed with distress ink and stamped with the dotty stamp from Sam Poole's butterfly girl stamp set.  I stamped the front dress again and mounted it on thick double sided tape so that it really stood out.

The flowers were cut out from some scraps of wrapping paper using spellbinders dies. The large flower was spritzed with cosmic shimmer and held together with an olive crystal brad.   The leaves were cut out from olive card using the Spellbinders foliage die and distressed with distress ink. The ribbon is seam binding dyed with dusty concord distress stain.

I added some glossy accents and glitter to the dresses.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

"The Artistic Stamper - Splatters and speckles"
"Card and Scrap - Use a die"
"Ladybug Crafts - Anything goes"
"Recycle, repurpose, reinvent - AG" The reused part being the wrapping paper.
"Unique Crafters Challenge - Anything goes"
"Challenges for everybody - Anything goes"
"Fashionable stamping - anything floral/handmade flowers"
"Catch the Bug - Anything goes"
"ATC s and cards with attitude - anything goes"
"Inspire me Fridays - anything goes"
"QKR Stampede - Anything goes"
"Paper crafting journey - Anything goes"
"Paper Shelter Challenge - Layers on Layers"
"Penny's Paper Crafty - Sparkle and Shine"
"Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes"

You may have noticed that things have been a little quiet around here recently, well there is a very good reason for this. As you may know my eldest is off to University this month and this has meant that we have had a chance to have a really big sort out. Basically we have taken everything out of the study and redecorated it. Bought new furniture and we are now in the process of putting everything back and pruning at

the same time. I'm also half way thought making a new blind for the window. The next room to get a make over has been the kids' playroom. Sarah has a new desk in her room and so I now have two desks to work on and all my craft materials have been moved from the kitchen to the playroom which has now been christened the "Craft Hub". There is still a lot of sorting out to do in here, but things are coming on and certainly much better than trying to craft on the kitchen counter! The kitchen is now a lot tidier and we have a new TV that we can all see instead of the tiny one we had before. So this is my craft Hub!

Creative Expressions DT Call

So everyone should know by now that Creative Expressions are looking for DT members for 2012/2013. If you didn't, but fancy the chance to get a free set of stamps every month to play with, check it out "here". But you will have to be quick!

The brief includes making a paper project with texture so I am sharing my textured piece here.

I rolled a piece of black fimo out and stamped my seahorse into it. I did cut one out in a rectangle shape but then decided I like the more natural shape best, I thought it looked a bit like a fossil in a rock.

I dusted the fimo with cosmic shimmer mica powders in blues, greens and golds before baking it in the oven for the allotted time.

Once cool I painted the seahorse with a little black acrylic paint and then rubbed it off so as to accentuate the texture a bit more.  Then I built up my card. I used broken china distress ink and the dotty stamp from the butterfly girl stamps that we had the month before last around the edge. The tag was made from the cardboard wrapper from some books ordered from Amazon and a strip of vellum.

Once the card was assembled I added stickles, glossy accents,gold accent beads and copper curls. The copper curls are supposed to be like seaweed. This stage took two days to dry properly, but I think it was worth it.

As well as entering for the CE DT,

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
"Crafty Creations - a summer scene", hopefully the seaside theme comes under summery things....
"Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything goes"
"City Crafter Challenge - Bake Sale", not quite cakes but I have baked my fimo?....does this count?
"Crafty sentiments - Lets sparkle"
"Everybody art challenge - anything goes"
"Card Mania - on the beach or in the sea"
"Crafty Card makers - Oh I do like to be beside the seaside"
"Make it Monday - Anything goes"
"Paperplay time - polkadots plus a sentiment"

Going away pressie

Good news!!! Em sailed through her A's and has easily got her place at Falmouth University to study Graphic Design!  If only I could have my time again I would be going with her!!  So now it's a mad rush to get everything sorted for her to go away.....a couple of trips to Ikea have meant that we have most of the utensils she will need..still collecting though! 

Still trying to get the house sorted out...sewing machine went into the shop to get fixed yesterday...don't get it back for 3 weeks at the earliest and I need to get a blind made for the study before the 16th Sept....big family get together to send her off.  Also need to make the house Molly proof...another story! and just generally clear loads of rooms.

Anyway...Em's leaving..so "Mum can you make me a card for xyz...like by tomorrow?!" is going to be a bit difficult.   I thought that it might be a good idea to send her off with a few ready made cards....so this was my inspiration for a box of cards to take away.  I used the brilliant Gala Event stamps from "Creative Expressions" .  She loves them so that's good!

I decided to use up all of the scraps of dyed seam binding that were languishing in my ribbon draw...and as you might see if you have good eyesight...my sewing machine was dying!  Tension was all over the place!

Making 6 cards and a box in a short time was a prompt for following the CAS route.  Dresses are coloured using distress markers or cosmic shimmer water colours paints and then glossy accented.  I made the box to house them and used my favourite stamp from the set to decorate the box..  Having used ancient page ink to stamp the dresses, I outlined using a grey copic marker which drew some of the black ink out to give a dramatic base for the dresses and make them pop a bit more.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:


"Top tip Tuesday - One Layer"
"Eurekastamps - Anything goes"
"Lexis creations - back to school or college" not toddler stuff but big girl stuff here!
"Make it Monday - anything goes"
"Simon says stamp and show - No rules!"
"The crazy challenge - anything goes"
"totallystampalicious - CAS"
"Craft your days away - anything goes"
"Hiding in my craft room - limited to 2 layers" kept it down to a minimum here.

Gala Event

I'm back from our Olympic holiday! After two weeks away from crafting my fingers are seriously itching! So I have some catching up to do! This is my second card using the fabulous Gala Event stamps from "Creative Expressions"

I painted the background (white card) with cosmic shimmer water colour paint using a broad brush and then stamped the dress and sentiment with Ancient Page over the top of the paint.

I distressed the edges with dusty concord distress ink and stamped the dotty stamp from the butterfly girl stamp set in dusty concord around the edges.

I coated the dress in glossy accents and sprinkled fine glitter over the top to add a bit of glitz.  When this was dry I mounted the white card onto a 15 x 15 cm black card, and ran a line of faux stitching around the edge using a black fineliner.

If you fancy playing with a new set of stamps every month, Creative Expressions are looking for people to join their Design Team.  You can find details "here"

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

"Love to Create - Sparkle"

"Make it Monday- Anything goes"

"Paper Pretties - Anything goes"

"The Crazy Challenge - Black White and one other"

"One stitch at a time - Anything goes"

"Sentimental Sundays - CAS"

"Speedy and Friends - Use some dots"

"Craft room challenge - Fashion"

A little bit vintage

This month the Creative Expressions Design team have been given the rather fabulous "Gala Event UMount Stamp Set" to play with. The other DT members have already posted their first projects using these stamps, so if you haven't already, make sure you check out their blogs! You can find all their blogs on the Creative Expressions blog "here".

We have been doing a major decorating project at home decorating the study. I had the curtain fabric and borders since we moved into the house about 12 years ago. Needless to say fashion has changed and we don't want to use the borders any more. So I thought why waste them? So this card started off from a piece of Laura Ashley border.

I stamped the main image in versafine and then coloured using distress markers and then coated the main dress with glossy accents.  This was cut out with the labels 4 Spellbinders die and the edges distressed with Victorian velvet distress ink.  I also stamped the JustRite floral flourish stamp around the edge, as this went rather well with the pattern on the dress.  This was then edged with gold EP and layered up on Coredinations distress card.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

"Amusing Challenges - Anything goes"

"Fashionable Stamping - Anything goes"

"ATCs and cards with attitude"

"Phindys Place - Button it"
"Stampin for the weekend - photo inspiration"
"Craft room challenge - Buttons and Bows"

"Inspire me Friday - Anything goes"

Festival Girl

For this weeks DT project using Sam Poole's butterfly girl stamp set I have used the butterfly girl, dotty stamp and retro flower stamp from the set.  I stamped the girl twice in black archival and stamped the retro flower onto the dress of one of the stamped images.  I painted the images with cosmic shimmer paints and some normal watercolour paints using a grey to make a watery background.  I used the dotty stamp with weathered wood distress ink to stamp the background layers and distress around the edges.  I cut the flowery dress out layering it up over the base image. 

I coated the girls wings and flowers on her dress with glossy accents and then sprinkled them with glitter.  Then  I coated the girl's hair and boots with glossy accents. The tag was cut from mount board. The ribbon is chalk white seam binding coloured with cosmic shimmer watercolour paint.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
"Lets ink it up - all girly"
"Pile it on - Tag it you're it"
"Sentimental Sundays - Things with wings"
"Allsorts - distressing"
"ATCs and cards with attitude - Anything goes"
"Aud Sentimental Challenge - Put your sentiment on a tag"
"Inspire me Fridays - Anything goes"

More Faux Ribbon and Another Thank You Card

For my next Creative Expressions DT piece I have gone along the one layer route again. I wanted a quick thank you card for a couple who are seriously minimalist in their taste. So my card had be simple. I decided to use the faux ribbon technique again and then used stamps from the "Butterfly girl stamps by Sam Poole" .  I also used Sam's bubble wrap background stamp, vintage typewriter set and the large flourish from the JustRite Greetings from Paris set .

I used weathered wood distress stain and distress ink and archival black ink for my stamping and distressing.  I coated the large flourish with glossy accents as my final finishing touch.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
"Make it Monday - Anything goes"
"One stitch at a time - anything goes"
"That craft place - anything goes"
"the paper players - CAS with sentiment as main element"
"ATC's & Cards with attitude - anything goes"
"Inspire me Fridays - anything goes"

Pass The Pimms, Feeling Summery!

Sorry for lack of blogging....according to hubby...I've been doing far too much blogging...he obviously doesn't read my blog!!!  And things have been soooo totally hectic that I haven't had a chance to visit any blogs...so huge apologies to my design team mates!!!

Not been home much as "one" has been sampling the delights of Henley Royal Regatta.  If you read this blog you will have seen that my youngest has been getting quite good with her rowing.  So we thought it might be nice if she got to go to Henley with her rowing partner.  Seeing as it is their ambition to row at Henley...(Unfortunately there isn't an event for a ladies pair)...

Also huge decorating project going on...and suddenly 48 hours notice...got a french girl coming to stay for a week. Stuff everywhere..can't even see the bed in the spare room atm...and DH is away until Friday! DD1 is adamant she will not help....DD2 is currently hoovering, bless her!

So this is a thank you card to the friends that gave us tickets for Stewards so that the Emily and Sarah could see what the the best crews were like.  They had the huge privilege to get photographed with Sir Steve Redgrave and so this was the inspiration for the card....together with the "bubble wrap stamp by Sam Poole"....you create loads of bubbles when you row!! And if, by any chance you get to see this Sir Steven...you totally made the girls day! Thank you!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges....

"Crafty bloggers network - Anything goes"
"Incy Wincy Designs - Summertime" what could be more summertime than Henley and Pimms?
"Make it Monday - Anything goes"
"Stamps and Fun - Summer" Pimms again!
"That Craft Place - anything goes"
"Less is more - Gold"....a bit outside the box with this one....Sir Steve Redgrave is my golden ticket having won 5 gold medals in the Olympics!

You Warm My Heart and Faux Ribbon Technique

The Design Team have just received this month's stamp set from Creative Expressions.

It's the rather wonderful "Butterfly girl set by Sam Poole" and the "Bubble Wrap background stamp also by Sam Poole".

I couldn't wait to cut them up and get stamping!
For my card I decided to follow the CAS route. And in playing about with distress stains for another project I came across a very simple technique that gives the effect of a ribbon across the card without actually using a ribbon. I'm going to call it the Faux Ribbon Technique. From a distance it certainly looks quite effective! A great way of creating a ribbon without adding another layer and hence great for one layer cards.

 So what do you do....simply drag the bottle of distress stain across the paper or card, start a little before the edge of your card and finish a little after your card otherwise you get a dot at each end.

I used the bubble wrap stamp at the bottom of my card with spun sugar distress ink and then stamped the heart balloons and hanging sign in black archival. The sentiment was from Sam Poole's art sayings that we had last month. I coloured the hearts and hanging sign using cosmic shimmer paint from the summer set. Once the paint was dry I coated the hearts, strings and sign with glossy accents.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

"Love to create - anything goes"
"Make it Monday - Anything goes"
"Pile it on - Make your own embellishment", mine's faux ribbon...bit cheeky I know!
"Robyn's Fetish - No flowers anywhere"
"2 Sisters - Anything goes"
"ATCs and cards with attitude - Anything goes"
"Dilly Beans - Dots"
"CASual Fridays - Pretty in Pink" might get disqualified...wasn't sure if you weren't allowed to enter the challenge more than 4 times or enter more than 4 other challenges.

A Trip to Paris - I wish!

Hi, can you believe the weather, one minute it's winter and the next it's high summer.  The garden is really confused!  The veggies don't seem to want to grow and every time the flowers recover a bit, along comes another torrential downpour to strip them all off again! 

Just one thing to do then....stay inside and craft!

This week's make using "Sam Poole's Art Sayings stamp plate" is a tag.

The tag was cut from mount board and then painted in Eco green paints. I stamped and distressed this with distress ink and stamps from the Just Rite greetings from Paris and Bon Voyage sets.

The tickets were stamped onto die cuts using Spellbinders Small Labels. Tickets and the large tag were spritzed with gold cosmic shimmer and edged in gold.

I dyed some chalk white seam binding with tumbled glass distress ink (I didn't have a stain or reinker, so I did this directly from the ink pad). I attached this to my tag and then ripped up some cream and blue mulberry papers, these I stitched together and then added a stamped image of the Eiffel tower. I coated the Eiffel tower in glossy accents.

The flowers were made from brown parcel wrapping paper using the Spellbinders Rose Creations die.  Each layer of the flower has a hole in the centre when you punch them out, so I fix them together with a brad.  To get a more realistic flower centre I coat the brad with glossy accents and them smother it in micro beads.  The leaves were cut from coloured card using a Spellbinders foliage die. Before sticking these onto the tag I spritzed them with silver and gold cosmic shimmers.

Et Voila! a Paris themed tag.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

"Cup cake craft - something in the eyelet"

"Make it Monday - Anything goes"

"Simon Says Stamp and Show-Show a bit of brown"

"Gingerloft - Vintage"

"Great Impressions - Die Cuts or Punches"

"One Stitch at A Time - Stitch it"

"Quirky crafts - Hand made flowers and ribbons"

"Lets ink it up - use your fave embellishments", need you ask, hand made flowers, ribbons, tags and glossy accents!

More Art Sayings and something new....

Another week has flown by and so it's time to share another project using "Sam Poole's Umount Art Saying stamp set" , but before I share that with I want to just let you know that Creative Expressions have just started a new blog which you can find "here" it is a great way to see what's new at Creative Expressions and also it has links to the whole design team's blogs so you can see what we are all up to!

This month, the idea is that we combine the text with other stamps available from Creative Expressions.  This week I have combined my word stamp with the campion and bee stamps on the Eco Green Garden Chic set.  My tag was cut from a mountboard off cut that I was given by a picture framer.  I covered this with eco green paint and used PVA glue to get the crackle effect...I'm not sure I did it correctly as my crackle is barely visible, but it is there. Before stamping, I sprayed the tag with cosmic shimmer.

I coloured my stamps using distress markers and stamped the flowers across the bottom of the tag.  I used first and second impressions to get depth.  I used the green distress ink to distress the edges of the tag and the fine tip of the green distress maker was perfect to quickly draw in some grasses amongst the flowers.

I stamped the bee onto cream card and cut it out, this was mounted onto the main tag using some thick double sided tape to give it dimension.  I then cut out a small tag, just big enough to take the words.  The tag was sprayed in cosmic shimmers and the words stamped in the same ink as the bee.  I ran a line of gold Krylon pen around both tags.  I coated the be and three of the flower stems with glossy accents, again to add a bit more dimension.

While the glossy accents was drying I dyed some chalk white seam binding with Victorian Velvet Distress stain.  When everything was dry I finished the tag with seam binding top and bottom. I would like to enter my tag into the following challenges:
"The Cheerful stamp pad - in the garden"
"Craft your passion - anything goes"
"Love to create - Recycle something", I've recycled waste mountboard off cuts.
"Make it Monday - Always anything goes"
"Simon Says Stamp and Show - Anything goes"
"Emergency crafters - Anything with wings"
"Stamping for the weekend - bugs and butterflies"
"Totally Papercrafts - doodle on it"
"Inspire me Fridays - anything goes"

Make Your Mark!

Just playing catch up here....there has been so much to fit into the last week!  Working extra hours and the National Schools Regatta with my daughter.
I guess all the jubilee celebrations today got me into the red white and blue mode when I came to design a card for the next Creative Expressions project using Sam Poole's stamps.  I have to admit that I did get a lot of  inspiration for this from "Kim Dellow's" card. After using Distress stains to dye seam binding, my next favourite thing to do with them is to make great big juicy splats.  I thought the sentiment for this would be perfect for my daughter when she goes off to Falmouth University to start her Degree
(grades permitting) in Graphic Design.

The card is very simple....three ink splats (Chipped sapphire and Fired Brick), I used picket fence on the word stamps to stamp on the ink splats and chipped sapphire to stamp the make your mark on life sentiment onto a die cut label.  The seam binding was dyed using the chipped sapphire distress stain.  A button and bakers twine finish the card off.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

"Moving along with the times - Red White and Blue"
"Craft your days away - Red white and Blue"
"Less is More - Red White and Blue"
"Speedy and Friends - Use Buttons"
"Delightful challenges - Red White and Blue"

I just want to finish this post by saying congratulations to my daughter for Friday.  She and her friend Emily were entered into the National Schools Regatta held at Holme Pierpoint in Nottingham where the Olympic rowers train.  They had to take part in a time trial to see if they could get through to the semifinal heats.  They completed the 1000 m in 4 mins 5.7 seconds, unfortunately they missed out by .7 of a second.  But they did incredibly well considering Emily has only been rowing since September and this is only their second competition.  Their coaches are really pleased with how they performed as this is the toughest regatta for school aged kids where the opposition is all the elite private school rowers.  Emily and Sarah were rowing for little old Stourport Boat club.  I'm just sharing a picture of the girls in action,  Emily and Sarah are in the nearest boat, Emily in the front and Sarah in the rear.  If you are in the UK, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

In the Garden

Wow what a change in the weather! Just perfect for getting out in the garden! Unfortunately I've had to go to work so that hasn't really happened yet. Got lots of weeding to do this weekend me thinks, mind you I've got decorating to do too, never enough hours in the day! This week's DT project using "Sam Poole's bird stamps" is influenced by the green of the garden at the moment.

I used my distress markers to stamp the central bird, and used distress inks to stamp leaves and the small flourish all round the central circle and the background layer. I added a little black dot to the bird's eye and then coated him in glossy accents.

I found a piece of loosely woven green fabric in my stash and thought that it would add an interesting texture. I cut it roughly to size and then frayed the edges before stitching it onto my card. I also added a strand of natural raffia for even more texture.

I cut the tag from mount board and stamped the sentiment using distress ink. The leaves and flowers were all cut using Spellbinders dies, and spritzed with gold mica.

The flower centres were brads that I coated with glossy accents and then covered with gold accent beads. I selectively coated some of the leaves around the central circle and the background with glossy accents to add a bit more interest.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
"Craft Room Challenge - Add Fabric"
"Hooked on Craft - Flowers"
"Make it Monday - Always anything goes"
"Great Impressions - Anything goes"
"One Stitch at a Time - Anything goes"
"Opus-gluei - Sew What"
"Stamptacular Sunday - In the Garden"
"Just some Lines - Show us those birds"
"The Secret Crafter - In the garden"

Don't forget to visit the other DT members to see what they are making with these stamps!

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet!

I was going through my craft draws the other day and came across some tags in one of my draws. I thought that they presented quite a challenge as they are quite small and I generally struggle with small areas to decorate. So out came my new distress ink markers and the "Bird stamps by Sam Poole" These are the stamps that the Creative Expressions design team are working with this month and the smaller stamps in the set were just perfect for my little tag.  Technically this is supposed to be next week's project, but I have an extra shift at work tomorrow so I know I will be short of time, hence blogging today!

I used the branch small birds and the leaves to stamp the tag. I cut the wings from thick card and stamped tweet, tweet randomly over them before distressing them with distress inks and coating them with glossy accents. I also coated the stamped images on the tag with glossy accents. A distressed flower (made with brown parcel wrapping paper)  a green brad and green raffia finish the tag.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
"Catch the Bug - Things with wings"
"Craft your days away - All creatures great and small"
"Crafty Calendar - Things with wings"
"Drunken Stampers - It's not easy being green"
"Sugar Creek Hollow - Tags"
"Alphabet Challenge - In the Garden"
"Fairy Tale - Wings and Things"
"Glitter Geeks - Wings and Things"
"Sarah Hurley Challenges - Tags and tickets"

Just enjoying a lazy morning catching up on the Archers omnibus and various blogs.  Nice sunny morning here so I think I will be out in the garden in a bit....lots of weeding to be done...with all this rain everything is growing so fast!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!