I’m quite organised… and I have a pile of stamps that I have mentally labelled ‘I will not put these away until I have used them at least once’. Each show I go to, or order I place online, sees the pile grow by at least one stamp per time – and it doesn’t seem to reduce in size. Today, I decided to do something about it, and created these two tone-on-tone cards featuring Stampendous Cling Stamps ‘Cherish Heart’ and ‘Wild Roses’, with the tag from the Lily of the Valley ‘Set 51 Tags Monsieur’.
In the last of the summer seaside theme posts for this month, I’ve made use of the new Pronty MDF crown available via Creative Expressions as the inspiration for my ‘King of the Castle’ project, also featuring their new Singles stamps ‘Treasure Seeker’ and ‘Sandcastle in the Sun’. I’ve used their acrylic inks to colour the images and added bling with polished silk glitters and pearlescent PVAs. It would be ideal to add to a layout or use as a standalone piece.
For a shopping list and full (printable) step-by-step tutorial: click here [PDF].
More bling next week!
I was wondering how to use the fabulous beach/summer themed stamps from Creative Expressions for this week’s DT card as the sky clouded over and the temperature dropped. Though it’s allegedly summer (according to the meteorologists), this card captures memories of beach-side sun far better than the grey clouds outside! Framed by a Polaroid instant photo size frame, the individual images are layered to give depth and allow easier stamping and colouring. A perfect snapshot of summer.
Welcome to the Creative Expressions June 2014 Blog Hop! Hopefully you got here from Donna’s blog, but if you didn’t, here’s the start at the Creative Expressions News Blog!
The four new large Frame stamps from Creative Expressions have been designed with co-ordinating mini frames inside, which can be used separately or as a whole and also swapped with other frame designs in the range. There are also an additional four mini frame designs, plus sentiment sets which have been designed to fit inside the various frames.
One randomly selected person commenting on this blog post before the closing date will win a fabulous prize of some of the new stamp designs.
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Here are my blog hop makes (as seen on TV, well, two of them!):
For the boxes, I created a cut file to cut the box from an A3 sheet of 300gsm card using my Silhouette Cameo so that the sides were sized to fit the large frame stamps. It has a crash lock base, so will fold flat for posting. For the coloured decoration, I embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Bright Gold Metallic before colouring with the CS Pastel Iridescent paints. Cut out the centre of the frame, and replace with heat proof acetate stamped with the centre square and embossed with the same powder. The purple box is embossed with CS Tropic Violet Lustre for the large frame and CS True White Detail for the centre and sentiment onto Foundations A4 Card – Amethyst. For the wedding box, I created the niches by cutting a square out of the centre of each side leaving a 5mm border that I could fold inwards to stick the centre square onto (also with a 5mm border folded upwards). It’s all embossed with CS Arctic Pearl Lustre. The classic blue on white is CS Denim Lilac Aurora, which matches the CS Purple Violet Pearlescent PVA wonderfully for the raised dots. Reprint and emboss the centre and rotate to create the raised diamond sentiments, mounting with foam pads. Finally, I made the card by mounting the frame (CS Arctic Pearl Aurora again) onto a card with the centre cut out, using foam pads. I embossed the sentiment with CS True Black Detail and mounted that in the centre with foam pads again, leaving a gap. The lilies were left from a previous card.
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Thank you for visiting my blog, please leave a comment below in order to be in with a chance of winning a prize! Here’s the allocated prize for my stop-off on the blog hop:
If you’d like to receive notification of new posts on my blog, don’t forget to sign up using the box at the top of the side bar to the right of your screen.
Once you have done that, you will need to click here to visit Tracy’s blog.
To help you along the way, here is a list for the Blog Hop:-
1. Julia Watts
5. Neil Burley – you are here
6. Tracy Heaton
8. Pam Smith
Start page, prize details and how to take part: Creative Expressions News Blog. The blog hop started on Thursday 12th June at 10am and ends Tuesday 17th June at 5pm.
Thank you for taking part in our Blog Hop – good luck!
This next card on the seaside/nautical theme is again designed by Sam Poole and part of the Creative Expressions Singles range. ‘Lighthouse’ includes both the image and sentiment. I wanted to highlight the light element of the sentiment and image, so used a dark background to highlight the iridescent pigments and white opaque pens. This created a colouring challenge, as you need to take account of the dark background and the layering of dye based colour in the distress markers. I’m actually quite pleased how well it matched my internal image!
I had some ‘me’ time today in between looking after pups, getting ready for tonight’s class and breathing a sigh of relief at meeting another Craftwork Cards sample deadline! I’ve been keen to try out the tarmac technique since coming across it on Karen Clare’s fabulous blog and seeing the stunning results of various Facebook friends who have been to her workshops. It’s amazing how an Ikea mirror, pet food cartons, a bit of acrylic paint and a solid block of tar can be transformed! Unfortunately the photo doesn’t pick up the gleam of the gold metallic paint and Inca Gold which set off the bitumen layer a treat. Definitely a project to be repeated and developed. Loved it!
It’s a seaside and nautical theme this month for the Creative Expressions Design Team with various stamp designs making their debut. This week, I’ve used two designed by Sam Poole, the Creative Expressions Singles ‘Nautical Words’ and ‘Netting’. A quick and simple card, perfect for a last minute Father’s Day card. Or for any special nautical person for that matter!
Creative Expressions have produced a myriad of nautical themed stamps ready for the male card recipients in your life – and this is just one, the Creative Expressions Singles Ship in a Bottle stamp set, complete with the Father’s Day sentiment.
For a printable worksheet, including templates for the bottle stand, click here.
This is the last of the floral themed creations – we’re going to the seaside next month 🙂
The lilies are out again, this time in a gilded earthenware vase. I’ve used the same reinker watercolour technique as last week for the colouring, but added in the wonderful Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Flakes to add a bit of bling and opulence. I’ve left off a sentiment again as this could be suitable for so many eventualities.
Here’s another floral number using this month’s featured Singles stamps from Creative Expressions. I’ve coloured these with the distress reinker watercolour technique onto watercolour paper, and embellished with a bit of decoupage to add depth and a Watts-dots circular border 🙂