Delight in the Little Things - SugarPea Guest Designer #9

It's been a while since I had my Inktense pencils out. I bought three to try them out when I first started crafting and I then had to have the full set. They may be the colouring medium that lasts the longest as you really don't need a lot to colour with and I haven't sharpened any yet.

On some Winsor & Newton watercolour card, I stamped the BoHo Feathers in VersaFine inks - Smokey Grey and Onyx Black. The ones in black were the ones I wanted to colour so they would pop more.

I took two blue-greens and two yellows and with hardly any water, I happily coloured in my feathers. I have a video showing Inktense colouring from a couple of years ago to show how I do it. It is very simple blending.

I love the brightness of the colours and that they are permanent so don't reactivate if you get them wet again with another layer of colour.

I then heat embossed the sentiment onto a piece of black cardstock and then adhered it to the front with my tape runner. I cut the panel down to size and then adhered it to an aquamarine card base.

Thank you so much for popping by. I love these feathers!

Happy Crafting :)

Sven and the Seven Hills Crafts Challenge

Hello All! Hope everyone has had a great week? I've been missing the 30 Day Colouring Challenge and all the fun of seeing everyone's work, but I know it will be back later in the year so I have something to look forward to. 

I started off the challenge by colouring Sven the incredibly handsome Viking, and I ended up colouring him in on the last day too. That last Inktense coloured image I decided to turn into a card for this month's Seven Hills Crafts Monthly Craft Challenge - I'm not sure I'll manage to top my runner's up spot from last month, but it's worth a try (see my challenge wins list!)

It's a sketch challenge this month, and I kept it simple so everyone can admire Sven's beard.  I coloured him in muted earthy tones and die cut him with a SSS stitched square. I then took a piece scrap Neenah and stamped a tiny heart from my Lawn Fawn Best Pun Ever set in Ranger Classic Cherry several times. I die cut it out  with a small stitched circle.

What a hunk! Anyway, back to the card. I took a piece of Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid, cut slightly smaller than A2 and added some twine around it. I then adhered it to an A2 card base.

I added Sven on top and the heart on foam pads in the corner. It was really very simple!

Below is a list of what I used to make this card and where I purchased them. Please note I DO NOT USE affiliate links :)

InLinkz.com

Thank you so much for reading. Have a great weekend, whatever you are up to :)

Sugar Pea Designs Sketch #39 Challenge - SPDSS39 + Some Exciting News

Hello everyone! Are you all enjoying the 30 Day Color Challenge? We're onto Day 8 - can you believe it! I've been loving seeing everyone's creations and experiments with different media. Makes me want to try everything at once.

I have a couple of cards I made after seeing the Sugar Pea Designs Sketch 39. I couldn't resist - after all you've got to be in it to win it!

I've used a set I hadn't had a play with for a while, and my current SPD love, the Every Day is Christmas set - the images are extremely versatile.

The first card uses the Teddybear's Picnic set

I started by stamping my little girl onto some Neenah 110lb card stock using Memento Tuxedo Black and colouring her in with Copics. I then took a pink A2 card blank and trimmed my Neenah panel to leave a strip of about 3/4" of the background to show through.

I placed the Neenah on top and drew a faint pencil line where the gap would be, removed it and then stamped the two tea cups from the set in Ranger Wild Orchid down the middle onto the card base.

I added the sentiment in the top corner and then rubbed out the pencil line and adhered the front panels with foam pads. 

My other card is made in much the same way, except this time I stamped my little bagpipe playing Nessie onto some watercolour card and cut him out with a SSS stitched circle before colouring him in with Inktense pencils.

I then decided to add a bit of interest by stamping Nessie in VersaFine Smokey Grey onto my Neenah panel before cutting out the strip.

I then made up the card front as above, this time stamping little musical notes from the recent CB Some Birdie Loves You stamp set - am so glad some of those tiny stamps are getting love! - using my new Altenew Forest Green dye ink. I also added a CB Hello in the same colour.

[Supplies: Sugar Pea Designs Teddybear Picnic and Everyday is Christmas; Clearly Besotted Some Birdie Loves You and Congrats To You; Simon Says Stamp Shapes with Stitches; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb; WH Smith Watercolour Paper; Memento Tuxedo Black; Versafine Smokey Grey; Altenew Forest Green; Ranger Wild Orchid; Copic Markers; Inktense Pencils; Sellotape Sticky Fixers Foam Pads]

Am hoping I can enter both?? Will give it a try!!

Well, you've made it this far and if you've not fallen asleep, you're maybe wondering what the news is. Well, at the end of last week, I received an email asking me if I'd be interested in joining a design team. It's for Craft Stash, a new craft supply company and they make their own dies called Apple Blossom. Naturally, I declined - I'm kidding, hahahah! - of course I said YES! It's an exciting opportunity and a chance to try something new - don't use a lot of dies at the moment and can't wait to have a play. I also happen to be on the design team with someone I'm a big fan of, Liz McGuire - doesn't get better than that!

I'll be sharing some of my makes with you over the next few weeks - excited to get started!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have an amazing week - keep colouring!

Home via Snail

Hello - Again! Friday seems to come round with increasing alacrity these days - or maybe I'm just getting old....

So I've been playing around with my beloved Inktense pencils again. As part of the 30 Day Colouring Challenge, I finally did a swatch of all 72 one evening (see Instagram!) and while doing so, I realised there were some colours I'd never used, so I decided to use them...

These cards started out as late birthday cards and morphed into New Home shaker cards - it was one of those evenings!!!

I started out by colouring in the snail from Newton's Nook In Slow Motion using a range of different Inktense pencils. This always takes a while and I love that I can colour in bits of it, go away, come back and do some more. It's a slow build up of layers, leaving each of them to try in between.

Once I'd fussy cut them out, that's when I totally went off tack and started die cutting bits of Bazzill card I had that matched the snail - lucky! I then remembered my Sugar Pea Designs 'Home' die and decided that would be great for some paper piecing, and so that's what I did on the background. If I'd thought about it first, I'd have used some Stick It!, but I found that a couple of bits of double sided tape on the back worked really well for popping in the die cut piece and even those tiny hearts and windows in the opposite colour.

So, once the background piece was stuck onto my card blank, I added a piece of acetate to the back of the frame and a whole pile of foam pads round the outside. It's fiddly because they are so small, but I like the height of them and that they can be placed into any shape - easier for round apertures I find. I then took a couple of my favourite shaker sequin selections (who am I kidding, I love them all!!), French Lavender and Phosphorescence and placed them on top of the word Home, then the frame around it - this works much better for me than placing the sequins into the frame and plonking the card on top - it always ends up squint. I then just added the snail to the corner with some Tombow liguid glue.

Isn't he cute?? Seriously, I never thought a snail could be so cute!

[Supplies: Newton's Nook In Slow Motion; SugarPea Designs Home; Derwent Inktense Pencils 72 set; Derwent Small tip waterbrush; Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black; Bazzill Basics 12x12 Papers; Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles; Little Things from Lucy's Cards - French Lavender and Phosphorescence; Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue; Foam pads; Hobbycraft A4 Premium White Cardstock 300gsm; EK Success Powder Tool]

I do love a shaker and the colours are so wacky!

Thanks for joining me again. Will be back with more Copic colouring next week. In the mean time, thanks for all your lovely comments and have a great weekend :)

4 cards - 1 stamp set - Simon Says Stamp One With Nature

Another week has gone by, crafty chums, and now we're into the end of September. As is always the way, the weather in the UK has been quite sunny - with showers in between. My tomatoes have started to ripen finally and the apples are rosy-ing up on the trees. Almost jam time!

I got a bit carried away with one of my new stamp sets from Simon Says Stamp - One With Nature. I started out by using my inks to make just one card, but then decided I'd try out different inks and watercolour media. In the process it reminded me why I like some of the things I have more than others.

This is quite a long post with lots of pictures, so sit back and put your feet up :)

1. The Original Card Concept - Ranger Dye Ink

I love these stamps - they feel a bit retro, so I went with what I think are '70s colours (I was born in the 70s and don't remember much until the early 80s, so please forgive me!) - and stamped the background before offsetting the outline image. I then simply stamped the sentiment in the middle with Black Tie ink. It's so simple it hurts!

I did a little blog post way back in April about my wondering which inks to buy and I plumped for Ranger Dye Inks. I still really love them as they give great coverage and can be purchased for a reasonable price in the UK. I have found though that the colours are quite limited, so I'm hoping they may release some more in the future.

2. The Original Card Concept with Memento Inks

Here it is again, but this time with my Memento Inks, which I had purchased very early on, but have never really got on with. I'm learning that not all inks are the same and these I find don't give as good coverage. I have worked out, however, that instead of dabbing the ink pad onto the solid stamp, if I smear it, it doesn't come out so splotchy on the card. 

3. The Watercolour Version - Inktense Pencils

Ahhh, my beloved Inktense Pencils. I've been watching lots of Julia Altermann's (of Just-One-More-Card) videos on YouTube. She is full of great advice on using coloured pencils, including Inktense, and I have found that her tip of light layers works well. It does take time to colour with these, but I think the results are worth it.

I've used Tim Holtz Water Colour Card stock and Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink for this one.

4. The Watercolour Version - Spectrum Aquas

Again using TH Watercolour Cardstock and Jet Black Archival Ink. This time I'm using my Spectrum Aquas. I love these too, and they take less time to colour with than my Inktense. They also do washes beautifully. I like to use them by scribbling them first onto an acrylic block then picking them up with a wet brush.

Here they all are together. I simply rounded the corners and adhered them to a Kraft card base, also with rounded corners, with some fun foam.

[Supplies: Simon Says Stamp - One with Nature; Neenah Classic Crest 110b cardstock; Hobbycraft Premium White Cardstock 300gsm; Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Cardstock; Ranger Dye Ink (Cheese Puff and Lily Pad); Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink; Memento Dye Inks (Cottage Ivy and Tangelo); Derwent Inktense Pencils (0240 Sienna Gold, 0250 Cadmium Orange, 0260 Burnt Orange, 0300 Tangerine, 1400 Apple Green, 1500 Field Green, 1510 Beech Green, 1520 Hooker's Green, 1530 Felt Green, 1550 Spring Green); Spectrum Aquas Floral, Primary, Essentials (Lime, Bud Green, Leaf Green, Meadow, Moss, Olive, Terracotta, Marigold, Orange); Fun Foam; Dovecraft Kraft card 5x7; double sided tape]  

You'll notice I haven't used my coloured pencils - didn't have time; or my Zig Clean Color Real brush markers - still not liking them; or my Copics - because I didn't have enough in the right colours! So last night I bought some more Copics and I am planning to start my Online Card Class for Copics during the upcoming 30 Day Colouring Challenge (more information on Kathy Racoosin's blog in due course). I'm not doing it alone - I will be doing it with Aileen from Colour and Sparkle - it's so nice to have a crafty friend to learn it with, and with the wonders of the internet, the fact we're on opposite sides of the globe doesn't matter! We'll be posting as we go :) 

I thought I'd also link my first card up to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - No Designer Paper - haven't entered a challenge for a while!

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you've enjoyed it and found it helpful. Thank you too for your kind comments. They do really make my day. Wishing you all a fabulous weekend :)

In Slow Motion...

Hello there Craft Lovers! Another week, another blog post and I can't believe I've managed to keep this going for 6 months now. It seems very odd to think my first card was made in October and my first blog post at the start of February. In that time I've met some great people in blogland and on Instagram (it's a happy crafting place!), and have made quite a lot of crafty purchases, which in turn have made card recipients also very happy indeed. 

Enough of me, on to the cards. I did make quite a few crafty purchases this month, one of which was this adorable set In Slow Motion from Newton's Nook. I haven't bought anything from them before, but I have my eye on some more of their things. I'm loving this set and have used it to decorate an envelope, and also made several cards - including this post from a couple of weeks ago - Sloth-some. 

I was on a bit of a roll mid week when making these, and ended up doing three in one day - unheard of especially with both children around, but somehow I managed it!

The first I made in record time while baby was playing in her cot and 4 year old was watching TV - 20 minutes is a record for me!

Supplies: Free Balloon die from Simply Cards and Papercraft issue 139; Papermania Capsule Collection; Newton's Nook In Slow Motion Stamp Set; Clearly Besotted Best Birthday Stamp Set; Faber Castell Pitt Artist's Pen; Copic Ciaos; Ranger Multi Matte Medium

I had pre-cut the balloons, and just stamped the image onto the card base, as well as onto Copic friendly paper. I placed the balloons where I wanted them and using a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen added in the strings to the worm. I coloured in the worm, cut him out and stuck him onto the image using Multi Matte Medium, adding the string round his middle. The sentiment was stamped on the bottom and I hand drew the border, having seen it done to great effect by Julia Alterman in a recent video (Daydreaming with Inktense Pencils). That's it! So quick!

Later in the evening when the children were asleep, I made another two, this time using my new Derwent Inktense pencils. I fell in love with these when I first started blogging, but for some reason I never purchased a set. I now have the tin of all 72 and I still love them. Previous posts include Birthday Express and Birds on a Wire. 

Both cards were made in a similar way, stamping the images onto the card blank, then onto some Tim Holtz Water Colour Paper, and colouring with various Inktense pencils. I love colouring with these. I then fussy cut both out, and adhered them with foam tape, and drew my border in by hand again, then stamped the sentiment as shown.

His coat has been coloured in with the white Inktense pencil, but it didn't really show up, instead it gave it some interesting texture!

Supplies: Newton's Nook In Slow Motion Stamp Set; Derwent Inktense Pencils; Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink; Tim Holtz Distress Water Color Cardstock; Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen;

I absolutely love these pencils and am so glad I finally got them. 

Thank you so much for reading as always, and have a brilliant weekend. We're finally off for a break next week, but I hope to still have time to share some a card with you while we're away.

Funky purple thanks

Hello! So who is still doing The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge? I'm still going, with the odd hiatus - sometimes you have to do housework! This card was inspired by Kathy Racoosin's Day 8 post, where she created an amazing card background just using a roll of tape and markers. It was pretty inspiring, so I came up with my own interpretation. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen the first few photos, but not the finished product!

Basically I started with a piece of watercolour paper and took a couple of my Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Circles and drew around them in a random pattern with some of my purple Spectrum Aquas, overlapping to create the different shapes. I then got to colouring in between the lines using all my different purple and blue markers and pencils - from my Spectrum Aquas, to my lonely blue Inktense and my Caran D'Ache water colours and my Artists pencils too. This was the result:

It looked a bit odd with the water colour pencil as is, so I blended those bits with water to soften it up. In hindsight, I shouldn't have used a water colour marker to draw the circles - they naturally bled a bit, and it looks a bit messy up close. You don't get anywhere by not experimenting though!

Pretty funky, but what to do with it? I've seen some great inlaid die cutting on cards, so after watching a Jennifer McGuire video and one from Lawn Fawn, I got busy with my CB Thanks die cutting it out from the corner of the funky panel and then several from white card stock:

I then glued the white Thanks together using my new bottle of Ranger Multi Medium Matte with its precision tip - that makes it much easier! - and then added the coloured panel on top. To stick it back into the panel, I put some double sided sticky tape on the back of the panel so the blank space for the thanks was now sticky. I stuck it on carefully, and put back in with my tweezers all the little extra die cut pieces from the 't' and 'h' and 'a' etc. Blimey, that is fiddly work!

I then simply attached it to my card blank. It's quite subtle because it blends in with the background, but some Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents help it pop out a bit more.

[Supplies: Water colour card; Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Circle Dies (out of stock where I purchased them); Spectrum Aqua - Floral; Derwent Artists' Pencils; Caran D'Ache Prismallo Aquarelles; Derwent Inktense Pencils; Clearly Besotted Thanks die; Wink of Stella; Glossy Accents; Ranger Multi Medium Matte; Precision tip; Double sided tape]

Thank you so much for reading and have a lovely weekend :)