A Little Peek at... Art Journaling

Today I'm sharing a little peek at an upcoming blog project, this time, some Art Journaling...

I haven't felt inspired to journal for a while, but last week I had something going around and around in my head, the best way of getting it out was to grab some paints and inks and get it into my journal!

I used Ranger Ink Distress paints, Ink Sprays and Derwent Liner Pens along with my Doodle Doll stamps. I'll show the full project in a few days.

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

Creating Ink Sprays and Art Journaling for Derwent

Today I wanted to give you a closer look at the Art Journal page I created for Derwent recently...

My post was about creating your own Ink Sprays, which I done using Inktense blocks (love them!) and water - you can see the full tutorial over on the Derwent Blog here! I used my sprays to create the background for my page...

I then used a triangle mask and some texture paste paint to create the triangles and added a Doodle Doll stamped image, coloured with Inktense pencils, and some Dymo label text to spell out my words (which I doodled all around!)

Finally, I added a die cut chipboard heart (which I had torn in half) added some texture paste and the last piece of text, and again, doodled over the top...

I don't often share my art journaling so I do hope you like it!

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

Papercraft Inspirations Cover!

I was so thrilled to hear from my editor that my project had made the cover of Papercraft Inspirations for the January issue (what a fab way to start the new year!!) but I was even more thrilled to walk into Sainsburys yesterday and see it in real life, eeek! No matter how many times I'm published, it's just as exciting every single time!

I loved making this set of cards using Penny Black stamps with Derwent Inktense pencils and blocks, Sizzix dies and DCWV papers, and I'm so pleased it made the cover! I hope you can pick up a copy, there are so many fantastic projects this issue, it's one not to be missed :o)

It's been a crazy busy week here at Hurley HQ, we've despatched a record number of orders over the last couple of weeks as well as finalising lots of new products and working on other projects and plans for the new year - I'm very lucky to have B and Lisa (my lovely new creative assistant) to help me (and Fuzzybutt for reassuring hugs and woofs throughout the day of course) my Design Team have pulled together the most fantastic projects for something we have planned for you for next week too, I can't wait to show you more! I thought this year had been busy, but with everything we have planned for next year, I think we better hang on to our hats!! So excited...

I'll be back over the weekend to share some more of my December Daily album with you, I hope you can pop back to check it out.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Derwent Coloursoft on Kraft

Today I'm sharing a clean and simple card I made for my last Derwent blog post...

I used a Stampin up stamp from a set I bought recently, stamped in black at the bottom corner, with the greeting at the top. I coloured the image using Coloursoft pencils (if you're a regular follower, you'll know how much I love these pencils, seriously, I have 2 sets so I'm never too far away from them!) before doodling around the edge with a black pen to create a frame...

 Here is a little close up on the colouring, the pencils blend so well...

Now, I must get back to work, I'm working on so many new products right now, it's very very exciting here at Hurley HQ! Keep your eyes peeled for sneak peeks... 

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Watercolour Scrapbooking with Inktense

Today I wanted to share with you my Derwent blog project from last month, I used the fabulous Inktense blocks and an Instagram picture to create a scrapbook page about my Momiji Doll collection...

I used the blocks to add a strip of colour across the top, going from purple through to blue, I then sprayed along the top with water and held the paper at an angle so the colour dripped down.

I did actually get my first attempt wrong trying to be impatient and drying with my heat gun, but it just blew the colour all over the page *sigh* so my top tip, is to leave it to dry overnight! It didn't go to waste though, I cut that piece down and used it as the mat pieces behind my picture!

 

I also used the blocks to colour in the wooden embellishments and alphabet - the colours are so bright and they are permanent when dry.

I think my Inktense obsession is starting to show, not bad for someone who was scared of watercolouring just a year ago!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Another Sneak Peek...

Just a quick post today, with another little sneak peek of the project I mentioned last week, this is a work in progress...

I've been working on this more today in between lots of other things including some more new products coming next week (yay!)

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend :o)

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

Sneaky Peek!

Today I breathed a little life into a massive project I have been working on for absolutely ages now, something that has lived just in my head for years and years and I don't mind admitting I'm a little (ok, a LOT! lol) nervous to start sharing it! but the time has come for me to let it go.

While I hold on to my private world for just a little bit longer, I also want to share with all of you and show you the tiniest sneak peek...

You will be hearing a lot more about this little one very soon...

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

A Derwent Christmas

This week my November blog post went up on the Derwent blog, this month, I made a Christmas card using some fabric, Inktense blocks and Coloursoft Pencils, this is how it turned out...

You can see full details and a step-by-step over on the Derwent blog here.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Punky Scraps Blog Hop

Today I'm taking part in the Punky Scraps Blog Hop. This fab inky painty challenge blog is run by Nat from my DT and she very kindly asked me if I would be a guest for her today (how could I refuse!)You should have reached my blog from Celina's blog (or you can start at the beginning here) and at the end Nat has a sketch challenge for a spot on the Punky Scraps Design Team and some fab prizes up for grabs - not to be missed!

For the hop we were asked to share our favourite inky painty project which for me is this Art Journal page I made a few months ago (I don't share many pages from my art journal and this is a rare example!)

This is done in my little Derwent journal, I used lots of different colour Ink Sprays on the background along with lots of doodling, a print of one of my favourite quotes and some magazine scraps) 

Here are a couple of close ups...

 

From here, you can hop over to Amy to see her favourite project! and then on to try out for the coveted DT place and prizes at the end!

Thanks for taking part today!
Sarah x

Crafting with Derwent

This week and next I have a little mini series running over on the Derwent blog showing how to use your art supplies to make your own custom papers to use in your craft projects. I started yesterday with the woodgrain paper you can see on the left, here is a little peek at what I made...

I hope you will pop over and see the full post. The second part will be up on Thursday!

I also want to say a big thank you to everyone who has applied for my Design Team call - the last two applications scraped in just at the dot of midnight last night and now we have the fun but difficult task of looking at everyones projects and blogs and choosing our new teamies! I'll be back with an update in a few days...

Yesterday and today I have been finalising all the details for my new product launch / collaboration on Thursday, I'll be sharing details early in the day so keep an eye out!! (so excited!)  I'm also working on some fab new products (if you follow my Instagram / Facebook page you may have seen the picture of the giant pile of sketches and notes I'm currently working through!) some are almost ready to send over to my Design Team and I can't wait to get their (and your!) feedback on them all soon.

Now time for a little break to have dinner with B and Fuzzybutt before they head off to bed and I head back to my desk for round two!

Thank you so much for dropping by today!
Sarah x

An Inktense Canvas for Derwent Pencils

This week I am up again on the Derwent blog, this time I have made quite a personal piece, a canvas using Inktense blocks and pencils featuring one of my favourite quotes by Marilyn Monroe, it's now hanging in my studio :o)

Here is a little preview...

To see the full canvas please pop over to Derwent's blog here.

Thanks for dropping by today!
Sarah x

My Illustration Process with Derwent

In all the craziness and excitement of the last week or two I completely forgot to mention that I had a post up on the Derwent blog, this one is sharing my illustration process as I prepared some pieces for the Bologna Book Fair.

You can pop over and see the whole thing here.

Thanks for popping by!
Sarah x

Welcome to the Sarah Hurley DT Blog Hop!

This weekend (Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April) we are holding a Design Team Blog Hop to celebrate the release of my newest CD!

Each of the DT members has projects and sneak peeks on their blogs along with a letter of the alphabet, if you hop through the blogs in order (we'd love you to follow us all and leave us a comment on our projects and peeks!) and collect the letters they spell out the name of the new CD (the CD is available to buy now here!) - then all you need to do is pop back here and leave a comment on this post with the name.

You will need to start with Jaine's blog and hop through from there.

Along the way you’ll be able to capture a sneak peek at the new CD as well as gather some fabulous inspiration from the team.  There will be new posts on each day so pop back both days to make sure you don't miss anything!

Next week I will be picking three winners from the correct answers at random to win some fabulous prizes from our sponsors...

 

The Prizes are as follows:

1st Place - a download of the new CD, and your choice of either a set of 24 Derwent Watercolour pencils or a set of 12 Pastel Promarkers and a 15% discount voucher for my shop (www.sarahhurley.com) 

2nd Place - a download of the new CD, a set of 5 'Summer' Promarkers and a 10% discount voucher from my shop

3rd Place - a download of the new CD and a 10% discount voucher from my shop

(There is also a little competition among all of the DT so they would appreciate your comments to help them win a prize ;o) )

The competition will close at midnight GMT on Sunday 15th April and any entries after that will be discounted. Winners will be picked at random.

Here is what I made with the new CD, using my favourite Digi stamp (he's just so cute!) and papers from the 'I Love London' collection (the 'Hello Handsome' stamp is from Hero Arts)

I look forward to seeing all your comments and I wish you all the best of luck!

Sarah x

Watercolour Rose Card with Derwent Inktense

Todays card is not my normal style, but B wanted a Birthday card for his Aunt so I made one that I knew she would like, and I really enjoyed making something I maybe wouldn't have normally...

 

The stamp is an old one by PSX, I've had it for around 10 years but I still love it :o) I stamped it with Staz on Ink onto watercolour paper and coloured the image with Derwent Inktense pencils before distressing the edges and inking the background with Tim Holtz Distress inks in Tea Dye and Walnut stain. I then masked off the image with another one I had stamped on scrap paper and lightly flicked with water before blotting to create the aged effect. Here is a close up...

Today I have been working on some design revisions and some new illustration work in between phone calls and emails! This evening I have some more illustration to do and some writing. I'm really hoping to get back into my studio in the next day or so, its far too long since I crafted and I have the urge to scrapbook!

Thanks for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Scrapbooking on the Derwent Blog

Yesterday I was featured over on the Derwent Pencils blog showing how to use your colouring pencils in your Scrapbooking projects. Here is a tiny peek at the layout featured...

You can see the full post over on the Derwent blog here, it shows the complete step by step of putting the layout together.

I also meant to mention yesterday that Jaine has more pages in her fab Steampunk tag album over on her blog - you can see them here, I love what she's done with them! The CD has had such a fab response, you'll be seeing a lot more of it in craft magazines over the next few weeks - yay!


Thanks for popping by today!
Sarah x

I {Heart} Derwent Inktense!

Today I'm featured over on the Derwent blog (yay!) with a Valentine project using Inktense Pencils and Inktense Blocks, here is a little preview...

You can pop over and see the full project here - where I give some tips and tricks for colouring and stamping with inktense.

Thank you for dropping by today! :o)

Sarah x

Catching Up!

Wow, what a crazy week and Friday already! I've barely had time to breathe, let alone blog so here I am catching you all up on my crazy goings-on!

Wednesday I met Emma at Selfridges in London for coffee and catching up (and maybe a teensy bit of shopping!) before coming home to about 3 million emails (as I was also out Tuesday afternoon) I'd had no Blackberry for 2 days (not only was the service down but my actual phone broke as well - not a good week for technology in the Hurley household, let me tell you!) but luckily Wednesday I came home to my replacement, bless Vodafone and their 24 hour replacement! So now I have a new and functioning Blackberry I feel like a normal person again (and I can tweet all my random stuff from wherever I am, yay!)

Thursday I had to tidy and organise my studio which look like a tornado at the very least had been through it, I also found a bunch of samples I hadn't yet photographed (more of that further down!) as well as sorting through the last few days deliveries of things to test / review / use / that I had bought on a whim at 3am while sleep deprived *sigh* then I got my schedule and emails up to date and organised.

Today I photographed the samples I found, here is one quick and simple card to share, using my cloud stamp (available from my website) then embossed with my Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder...

I love clouds (as you may have noticed) I always remember someone telling me that if you feel a bit blue just to step outside and look up at the sky, the clouds, the rooftops, it literally lifts your mood! (seriously, try it!)

After taking all the pics (not great unfortunately as the light is completely blocked out by the scaffolding all round my house!) I then made myself a giant mug of coffee and sat down with my sketchbook for a day of product planning, design and development, I also made lots of plans for upcoming projects and today has actually turned out to be a super productive day and I've got tons done - love it when that happens! and I've done all this through constant hammering and banging from 7.30 am right through to 4.30 pm every day (mostly on just 3 hours sleep) as I've had my roof redone (hence the scaffolding) my head is banging, I have the biggest set of eye luggage know to humankind BUT I'm pleased with my progress - yay!

Over the next few weeks you may notice a few little changes here on my blog as I introduce some features that I get asked for time and time again (I try to bring you what you ask for!) so I hope you will like the new and improved blog and I look forward to your feedback as ever :o) Next week I have some great features lined up including some Halloween projects with my Cricut Expression, some Christmassy things and my own solution to the almost impossible to find in the UK, Smash Book.

Have a fabulous weekend, and if you haven't already then pop over to the Challenge Blog where you may be able to win yourself some Derwent Coloursoft Pencils in a fabbo wooden box!

Sarah x

Halloween Horrors

Today over on the Challenge Blog is the start of a fab new challenge, Halloween Horrors, I made my card using elements and papers from my Halloween Kits along with my Vampire Digi Stamp, all available from my shop.

 

We are lucky enough to be sponsored by one of my favourite ever companies, Derwent!! Pop over and take a look, you could win a wooden box of Derwent Coloursoft colouring pencils - my favourite colouring pencils! and there is a ton of inspiration from my lovely Design Team. Also, if you scroll back a few posts here on my blog you will even find one of my free digi stamps that you could use :o)

Sarah x

Halloween Cuties

This weekend I made this Halloween Easel Card (in the blistering heat I might add, so wrong! where has winter gone??? I'm feeling a bit shortchanged - it's October, I want to wear my coat and ugg boots!) anyway, moving on... ;o)

All the stamps are Penny Black Stamps from The Glitter Pot, the witch, cat and bat are coloured with Promarkers. The house is a silouhette stamp, I stamped it with a black inkpad onto purple bazzill card and then used my Derwent Coloursoft pencils to add the glow of the moon and some highlights to the fence and trees. I love that stamp, it's so versatile and will be a great background for lots of projects!

I have entered this into Fab's Halloween challenge - you can find the challenge here, come and join in! 

Today started with some exciting phone calls and a little chat about my product releases, schedules etc... and I have spent the rest of the day mapping out a plan for the big release at the trade show in Jan / Feb, I have soooo much to do in the next 6 weeks its frightening! Although while I was on one of my many long phone calls today I did take the opportunity to give myself a fun manicure with my two current fave colours of polish...

Now I have about 50 billion emails to reply to and I have a headache (boo to the sun! lol) I just can't operate in hot weather, I need to go and find myself a nice secluded igloo somewhere to live / work in :o) and I'm cooking dinner again, aren't I brave? I think I'm getting pretty good at this cooking malarkey, tonight I'm doing a 'Fake-away' lemon chicken and noodles - wish me luck! (and B of course, he has to eat it, lol)

Sarah x

Rubber Stamping with Derwent Coloursoft Pencils

Last week I found these gorgeous Woodland stamps from DoCrafts on eBay (bargain!) they reminded me of my own Woodland Whimsies designs so of course I had to have them! I thought they would be perfect to use with my Derwent Coloursoft pencils as the texture of the pencil would really help to make the scene soft and pretty and make the animals look almost fluffy!

So last night during another bout of insomnia *sigh* I burnt the midnight oil to make and colour this card...

For the background I used a shaving brush with my Distress Inks to create a soft look then used the blending tool round the edges to make it a bit darker

The owl is on a little spring so it looks like its flying!

The little animals I stamped separately and added using 3D foam in different thicknesses to give a dimensional look.

The grass I hand cut from a piece of scrap paper and then coloured with pencils, I did think about cutting it from green paper but I didn't want it to look odd!

I love using Coloursofts because the colours blend so well, you do need to keep a pencil sharpener handy though if you're quite a  heavy handed colourer-inner like me!

Last night I also cooked! what a feat that was for me, hahahaha. Clare from my DT is always encouraging me to have a go and sending me recipes so I actually tried to cook one of my favourite things last night, lemon chicken and noodles, and I have to say, the half that wasn't welded to the bottom of the pan was delicious! ;o)

Sarah x