Be Creative Launch at Once Upon a Stamp

What are you doing on Friday and Saturday? Do you fancy trying out some lovely new craft products? If so come along to the Be Creative Launch event at Once upon a Stamp. Here is what Gordon and Justin say:

Come along to the launch of our new brand with lots of new products and we guarantee a huge surprise when you see the prices and a completely new way of doing business .
Two days of Make and Takes with two leading craft experts using our new products from the Be Creative range.
You will be seeing lots of new products for the very first time .
It all begins at 10am on the Friday with the unveiling of our new logo and business name .
Make and takes will shortly be made available in time slots for advance booking .
There will also be FREE raffles with prizes to be won throughout the day .
Snacks and light refreshments will be available.

Address :
Once Upon a Stamp
Unit 3
Church lane
Pleasley
Mansfield
Notts
Ng19 7td

Make and takes will take place on both days subject to places .
Friday's make and take is with Kym from Crafty Roo Designs
Saturday's Make and take is with Sally Holmes (We will make the card at the top of this post) .
Two great FREE make and takes running around 40 minutes each session .
The above are bookable by time slot and you should send us a message via the contact us button on the once upon a stamp web site :
www.onceuponastamp.co.uk
Times of workshops :
10.30 , 11.30 , 1.00 , 2.00 , 3.00
Please give the day and choice of two time slots .
We are located a couple of miles off of J29 M1 towards Mansfield
I would love to see you there on Saturday! Lynne from Creative Lynks will be there too.
I am busy with a magazine commission and some Be Creative Samples at the moment, but will be round to visit your blogs soon. Thanks for looking!

Inkylicious Willow Trees

If you went to Ally Pally and stopped by the Inkylicious stall you may well have seen this gorgeous tree stamp. I love it! It is so delicate and beautiful. I have been playing with it for a few days, and I can see it will be used lots! For my first card I ink dusted the base card in dandelion, lilac posies and tuxedo black Memento ink. I then did the same with a silk art card panel, masking off a moon/sun. I stamped the tree and added spots of quickie glue to all the buds on the branches before sprinkling with irridescent glitter. Here is a close up.

I then stamped delicate vine in black onto the base card to form a sort of frame adding some punched flowers with liquid pearl centres. I think it needs a sentiment top left, but can't decide which one to use yet! All suggestions welcome!

My second card is a one layer card. I masked off a panel that I dusted with Adirondack inks in mountain rose, slate, black and denim, masking a moon. I removed the masks before stamping the tree and added spots of star dust stickles. With this sky I was trying to recreate a sky we had during that smoggy week we had at the beginning of April. I may well try that sky again with a pinker sun next time.
If you need this tree, keep an eye on the Inkylicious Website or look out for Inkylicious at Stamp Magic, Doncaster Dome on 8th June 2014 or Summer Crafting, Doncaster Race course on 12th and 13th July.
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments!

Another Snowy Cottage for Craft a Scene

 Here is my second offering for Craft a Scene this month where the theme is snowy cottages. For this one I used a snowy cottage stamp from Sheena Douglass, and added an extra tree and a few bits of foliage from Inkylicious. I stamped it in Memento London Fog and coloured with promarkers, but the sheep were blending into the background. I wasn't sure what to do about it, but eventually got my fine liner and went over them in black. I think it turned out okay. I added a couple of die cut flourishes at the corners (a Christmas present) and some turquoise flat backed pearls. Thanks for looking and I hope you will have a go at our Craft a Scene challenge this month.

And there's more...

Here is another card I made with the Inkylicious Christmas tree flourish, this time in black and cream with red highlights.

I also used the Inkylicious damask background on the base card. The red glitter is applied over red tulip paint, so is 3d. The poinsettia on the corner is a Marianne Die and is just the right size to disguise an inky fingerprint! I am entering this into this week's Allsorts challenge where the theme is 'Oh Christmas tree' and this months Joanna Sheen challenge where the theme is With love at Christmas.
I also made a card for a dear friend who is leaving her job very soon.

  For this card I took my inspiration from the very talented Cath Wilson who made this card a few weeks back. I fell in love with it and had to have a go. The stamps are from Inkylicious set called Moonlight foliage, and the Music Background behind the plants is also an Inkylicious stamp, stamped in versamark before creating the background with adirondack inks and ink dusters. I managed to mount it on two Fleur de Lys squares which I cropped to make fit together as a rectangle. the embossed panel is made with a cuttlebug folder. Thanks so much for looking and for the lovely comments you leave. Only two more days before we break up - woohoo!

Purple mood

Well, as well as tidying my workspace a little today, I've been ink dusting with egg plant (not something you say every day!). I decided to only use one colour after seeing Deby from Inkylicious demoing yesterday. Meg and I had a fabulous time at Doncaster with Lynn from Crafty Linby. There was lots of  inspiration, some of which I will hopefully get around to soon, but here are today's purple creations.
Firstly a tag showing the Inkylicious Santa's sleigh that is available in my Blog candy. The trees are also from an Inkylicious plate called a winter's tale.The night before Christmas text is also from Inkylicious.

Next I made another tag using the Silhouette Town stamp - another one I'm giving away as part of my blog candy. A tiny bit of purple twilight Adirondack crept in on this one to give the impression of approaching dawn.

I added a bit of fine glitter to both. After that I went on to try the same technique with a stamp I treated myself to from Stampalot when I was last there - Penny Black 'berry red, snow white'.

I added a few trees to the hills in the background and glitter to the berries. Well, I'd better be off to bed. Thanks for looking!

A couple of challenges

Hi There! I have been busy tidying my workspace and getting things sorted out, and I came across this tri -shutter card with the backing papers all matted and layered, but nothing on it. I made it some time ago and then went off it, because it was pink probably (I'm not a big fan of pink!) Anyway, I had the lovely penny black Hedgehog image that I coloured in with my promarkers whilst on holiday, and saw the colour of the flower matched perfectly! The large flower is a magnolia stamp, again coloured with promarkers and the sentiments are Elusive images. I finished it off with lots of punched flowers with a gem at the centre of each one, and stickles.

The Hedgehog fits perfectly with the 'By the cute and Girly' theme for this month which is Animal Antics. 

Now for a close up or two on the glitter and glitz, which is this months theme for Penny Black at Allsorts.

Hope it's glitzy enough! It would also fit perfectly into the Sir Stampalot Challenge this month where the theme is Bring on the Bling!

Edit: Instructions for making this tri-shutter are here.