Father`s Day

I know Father`s Day has gone but I think every day should be Father`s Day. They are special people.
I am enclosing some of the designs I made this year.

The kingfisher is by Clare Tarling and the dies came from a die set called freshwater Friends by Practical Publishing International Ltd

My father in law had travelled so I used the x-cut travel mini dies on this card. 

I used Joanna Sheen`s sports dies on this card.

I used pictures from My Craft Studio to make this card  and the one below.

I decoupaged the picture to make the card more dimensional

Crafting Live

Crafting Live at Doncaster Racecourse looks to be an excellent day out for Craft enthusiasts with over 30 exhibitors and free make and take sessions. I know when I have attended previous similar events I learned new ideas and went back home enthused and full of ideas and techniques I wanted to try. I also stock up on crafting stash and you can get good deals at the shows. I am looking forward to going there.

Rare Earth Christmas Stamps

The new water-colour Rare Earth Christmas stamps come in  several parts to make it easier to add the different colours when you stamp them. They give a water-colour effect and work well with water colour markers.

I made the background paper by scrunching some paper and then flattening it and rubbing distress inks over the top. I think the holly is very effective when stamped.

I used some of the wreath stamps on the tag with one of the sentiments that comes with the set. I made the poinsettia flowers using Tattered Lace dies.

This diamond shutter card was made using the Rare Earth wreath stamps. you can mix the colours on the stamps before stamping them. 

I layered the poinsettia to give it more depth.

The wreath comes in pats so you can build it your self to your own design.

when you stamp. They give a water-colour effect and work well with water colour marker pens.

This is the Christmas Hellebore stamp. You can see how easy it is to stamp the flower and the foliage with different colours to get the water colour effect.  The stamps can make some really unique Christmas  cards.

Rare Earth watercolour flower stamps

The new Rare Earth watercolour flower stamps give the effect of watercolour painting without all the hard work. They come in two parts with the flower and foliage separate so it is easier to use different colours. The stamps have a dotted image which simulate a watercolour effect.

You can blend the colours on the stamps before stamping them or stamp with one colour and then stamp again over the top with another colour. I added a second colour around the edges of the flower to achieve this blended effect.

I stamped with gelatos to achieve this effect.

I used Tattered lace watercolour paper to make the background. I coloured the background with gelatos. The gelatos were lightly sprayed with water and blended together with my fingers. I then put the paper through an embossing folder and lightly rubbed over the top with a distress ink pad.

I used the stamps on watercolour paper and distressed it with my inks.

I used the Tattered Lace oval create a card dies to make this card.

The background was created with watercolour paper, gelatos and was embossed. The embossed area was then coloured with gelatos,

I tried stamping on a variety of cards and for this one  I used stamping card, which was very effective.

I was able to stamp over a background I created on the paper with distress inks.

I thought it would be fun to use the stamps to decorate a party bag.

You can used the same inks to create the background, stamp with and to create the embellishments so everything matches on the cards. I am keen to experiment  more with these stamps to see what effects I can achieve.

Absolutely Gorjuss!

I love the Gorjuss characters by Santoro and have been making a few cards. The first card was made using decoupage sheets from the A4 ultimate and die paper pack. This pack has a variety of the characters, tags, alphabets, borders, pockets and tags. The kit is beautifully presented and even the lovely packaging can be used.

This second card was made from the kit adding some hearts, buttons and some flowers and leaves. I shaped the decoupage to make the Gorjuss girl more dimensional.

I used the Tattered Lace charisma frames dies to make this easel card. 

The characters are die cut and pop-out quite easily.

I used flowers as stoppers for the easel cards.

Using my own stash helps the kit to go further, although there are a lot of elements in the pack.

The next few cards are made using a Gorjuss stamp.

I made the rocker card using the Tattered Lace half circles.

I coloured the Gorjuss girl using promarkers.

I used the Tattered Lace cut and tuck flowers to decorate the card.

The sentiment is a Tattered Lace stamp.

Rare Earth Elegant Frames

I used the new Rare Earth blending inks by Tattered Lace to make the background papers for these cards. I put dots of the colour on my gelli-plate. I got this idea from Birgit Koopsen, which she calls faux marbling. I love the effect.

I rolled the brayer over the ink on the gelli-plate.

I then cut some pieces of garden string and shredded it by separating the individual strands.

I laid the pieces of string on the gelli-plate put my paper on top of the gelli-plate. I ran my brayer over the paper and pulled my print.

t

I used the papers I made for the background papers and flowers on the cards and bag.

I used the heart elegant frame stamp and cut out the centre and backed it with acetate to make a window so you could see the contents of the bag. The sentiment was made using the Rare Earth stationary stamps.

I made this easel shaker card using the circle elegant frame stamp. The white areas on the background paper are from where the segments of string were placed.

One of the useful things about making your own papers is that you can make flowers which match exactly.

I used the foliage stamps to create the background and used the backgrounds created with the gelli-plate to make the flowers for this diarama card

The letters were stamped randomly over the background to decorate the tag. I made the fabric flower by gluing fabric in a coil over a circle of card. Some swirls and flowers were added to decorate.

The wooden plaque was painted and then stamped on using Rare Earth inks.

Strike a pose

These new Rare Earth stamps are fabulous for a variety of cards and can be personalised to match the person you are sending them to. I practised my skin tone colours on these ladies and used the blending ink to help mix the colours.

To create this card, I used the Tattered Lace Diamond Shutter card dies. I decorated the background paper myself using stencils and used hand decorated paper to make the flowers.

The Tattered Lace charisma frames were used to make this easel card. Pixie powders were used for the background paper. A few sequins were used to bring it to life.

This card was created using the Tattered Lace oval shutter card dies. The flowers were all handmade and pixie powders were used for the background papers.

This is another kind of Tattered Lace shutter card. The background paper was embossed.

I combined a rectangle and oval accordion die cuts to create this card.

I stamped on patterned paper to create the skirt for this lady and added some shadow with a grey alcohol pen.

I used the tattered Lace book dies to create this card. I used a couple of sheets of patterned vellum for the outer pages. I used silicone glue to give the lady shape and dimension.