Exciting News

Hello everyone and welcome! Lovely to have you drop by here.
Today I am very happy to announce that I have been invited to become a part of the Calico Crafts Design Team
After having done several guest design posts for them I was delighted to be asked to become part of their permanent team. If you don't know Calico Crafts, do check them out. They are like a paradise for the mixed media and altered artist, as well as paper crafters and other creative folks. They stock loads of products that are hard to come by elsewhere, including the very popular Decoart and Andy Skinner products.

Anyway, enough of that, and onto my project, here is a little sneak peek:

If you want to see more and a description, all you need to do is click HERE. If you have been there recently, you will need to refresh the page to see the latest project. Hope I have whetted your appetite.... :)

Thank you for visiting like always and have a creative day!

A Fond Farewell

Hello everyone and lovely to have you drop by here.

It was just six months ago that I was very excited to have been accepted onto the SinCity Stamps design team, - how time flies!! Well, I have now come to the end of my appointment and decided not to apply for another stint as I have many other commitments and it was time to move on. So today I am sharing my very last project for them. Here is a sneakpeek that includes some of the cool new products SinCity are now stocking and that I received in my DT packet:

Like usual, if you want to see more, please click HERE and if by any chance you want to leave me a comment (which is always much appreciated of course), you will have to click on the title of my post there.

Tomorrow I will be able to share more about my next adventure, so I hope to see you back then.
Meanwhile, look after yourself and happy creating!

Happy News

Hello everyone and thank you for dropping in. If you celebrate Halloween, I hope you had a great time yesterday!
I have some happy news to share: I have been invited by the wonderful Laura  to become a member of the Our Creative Corner challenge blog design team. When she approached me it took me about 5 seconds to decide lol. This challenge blog has been one of my all time favourites since I found out about it. I think many of you will already be familiar with it, but if you are not, do check it out!! There is a monthly challenge and twice a month half the team shares their artwork to inspire you. I feel most honoured to be part of such an exciting team. This month Claudia, also known as Von Pappe has prepared a challenge for us, and all of you who know her work, will not be too surprised at her chosen theme: Steampunk Tic Tac Toe.
My project is not due to appear until the 15th, so right now I will just share a tiny sneak peek with you:

Hope you will head over to Our Creative Corner to see what my amazing teamies have created, I am sure you will not be disappointed! And hopefully you will even be inspired to play along!
Have a wonderful creative weekend

Thinking of you on Halloween

Hello everyone and thanks for joining me here today.
If you are here for the Sin City Stamps Bloghop, just scroll down or click HERE
Today it is my turn to post on the Artistic Stamper DT Blog, so just sharing a little sneak peek here...

If you would like to see more, just click HERE.

I just want to let you know that I really, really appreciate all of you who take the time to do so!!
Have a creative day full of happiness.

Travel and See the Adventure

Hello everyone and welcome to my second post today. Beware, this is a long and photo rich one as it includes an extensive mini book tutorial. So if you have the time, you may want to grab a cuppa and I hope you will find it worth your while.

I created this mini as part of my design team application for Sin City Stamps

This is what you will need to create the cover of a mini like this:
Chipboard:
2 pieces 5.5" by 4"
1 diecut piece cut from a piece of 3" by 4"
2 pieces 1" by 4"
Cut your pieces and lay them out like this:

I used the Tim Holtz Plaque and Postage die for my shaped piece, but you could obviously use different dies in the same way.
Next you are going to cover your chipboard with
Scrapbook paper. I used the Tim Holtz French Industrial collection. You will need:
2 pieces 5" by 6.5"
1 piece 5" by 3" (for the spine)
1 piece  4"  by 4.5" die cut (for the shaped flap and the second spine)
This is to cover the outdside
For the inside you will need:
1 piece 7.25" by 3.75"
1 piece 10" by 3.75" die-cut at one end as before
For the hinges you will need:
4 pieces 2" by 3.75" of Kraft card or other strong left over card stock.

 Start by covering the front and back covers with your chosen paper. Score at 1/2" around all 4 sides, miter and glue on to the chipboard with your adhesive of choice.

2. Next do the spine, I gave my paper a decorative edge:

glue the chipboard down in the center and then fold the two decorative edges around the front and back cover, making sure to leave a gap as shown in the top photo, if you don't the paper will start to tear.

Here you can see what it should look like from the inside.
Next take your 4" by 4.5" shaped piece of paper and fold it round the second spine and shaped chipboard flap in the same way then glue them altogether, again, making sure you leave gaps between the chipboard pieces.

Here you can first see the inside. The shaped bit is lined up exactly, don't try and wrap it round. Below you can see the outside with the shaped flap folding around:

Next cover the inside with your chosen papers as shown in the picture below:

As you can see, I inked all the edges for a vintage look.
Alright, now for the hinges:
Score them all length-wise in the center and glue them together concertina style:

Score the two end pieces again at 1/2" and carefully glue them down along the center of your spine:

Well that is the cover done.
Now onto the fun part the inside pages, for this you will need:
 6 pieces of  5" by 3.75 card stock of your choice. I used manila card stock by Ranger.
Here are my pages, - I used different types of stamps similar in style to the wonderful stamps Sin City Stamps make.

Each page was made in a similar way.
First I added some texture paste through a stencil. When dry I added different colours of Distress Paint, straight onto the card and then spritzt with water to let them marble

Next I added matching Distress Inks with my ink blending tool

Some background stamping with Picket Fence Distress Paint

And finally, the main stamped image, sometimes first stamped onto tissue paper and then added to the page with Glue 'n Seal, sometimes stamped straight onto the page:

I always tear around the edges of the tissue paper to make them merge better into the page.
Finally I embellished with flowers, leaves, a Sculpey heart, stamped before baking and coloured with Distress Paints and some Tim Holtz chit chat stickers. Textured bits were high lighted with gilding wax in gold and pewter
Here you can see still what the pages look like inside the book:

And here is some detail still of the front cover of the book, decorated with various bits and pieces including another little stamped clay heart. Love making these...

Well, that's it, thank you for sticking with me on this very long post and do check out both the Sin City Stamps Shop and their blog where you can see all their amazing stamps.

Thank you for visiting and see you next time

I am entering this to the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, where the theme is Stripes.
I used stripy paper to line the cover of my album. The album itself was definitely inspired by SSSS DT member  Candy Colwell, who did a really cool mini book tutorial two weeks ago.

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