Birthday Guinea Pigs - with exciting news!

It was my sister's birthday recently and I couldn't resist reminding her of one of our little pets from when we were growing up. We had two guinea pigs, one called Gnipper (after Dennis the Menace's dog), who lived for 6 years and then Pip who sadly only lived for 2. We loved those little piggies. Both Abyssinians, but Gnipper was the ginger, white and brown one with the tufty hair and the one I based my card on.

I took a piece of Copic friendly card stock and stamped a couple of images onto it and happily coloured away to try to get brown, 'white' and ginger. I then fussy cut one out.

On an A2 (US) white card blank I masked a rectangle in the centre of and got my mini cloud stencil from MFT and inked up rainbow clouds. I then die cut some grass for little Gnipper to stand behind and attached it to the bottom of the inked panel before deciding I needed a frame, so I die cut one from my MFT rectangle frames and attached it around the inked centre with some foam tape. All that was left to do was attach my furry friend in the middle with some foam pads.

So now you've got this far, I have some exciting news for you. I was asked some time ago to Guest Design for Sugar Pea Designs for 3 months from July - September. I know! Can you believe it? Little old me getting to play with some of my favourite stamps - what's not to like? Look out for my first post coming up soon. You can read more about it on the Sugar Pea Designs blog where you'll see this crazy picture....

Happy Crafting :)

Swim By Anytime

Hello! I'm getting in a very quick post as a last minute attempt to get a card in for the current Copic UK Facebook Group challenge. As usual it's anything goes, but with additional challenge of paper piecing with some Copic colouring on top. Now you know I love paper piecing, and finally I got round to it - only 4 hours to go!

I finally used this adorable diver set from Clearly Besotted called Under the Sea which I hadn't used before - yay for NBUS! - and stamped it onto different pieces of scrap cardstock. I think it's all Lawn Fawn. I stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black as I knew I was using my Copics on it later. I stamped his head and hands onto Copic card stock and coloured his head and hands with Copics.

I fussy cut, and I fussy cut, and I fussy cut some more! I then happened across a blue card blank I'd cut ages ago but decided wasn't right for the card. Well, it was perfect for this one. I stamped the diver onto it and with some acrylic glue, stuck all the pieces on top. I added the jelly fish, seaweed and fish around him. I then added a bit of added colour with my Copics, but you really can't see the different in the pictures I'm afraid. I was quite cautious, except with the choice of orange for the fish and jelly fish!!

I then took a wave stencil (mine is from Create a Smile) and with a piece of cut n dry foam, dabbed on some white pigment ink to give some added texture.

The sentiment is also from the set and just stamped using VersaFine Onyx Black onto some white card stock.

I'm linking this up to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge #51 which is Anything Goes and also Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #329 which I haven't played in for a while and is perfect for this card.

Thank you all for visiting today and Happy Crafting :) 

Uniko Guest Design - Surprise Stencil Release - Bright Butterflies

I'm back with my third and final card to celebrate the launch of new stencils from Uniko. As you'll have noticed from previous posts, I've been really enjoying stencils lately and all that you can do with them. For my final card using the Bright Butterflies stencil I've kept it simple and one layer but managed to get a little bit of texture into it by embossing it.

You have to play around with the layers and the embossing mat, and you may need a shim - I just use an extra piece of scrap paper - to add a bit of extra pressure, but the embossed layer just lifts it that little bit.

I started with an A2 (US) card blank and I embossed on one side of it. Once embossed I kept the stencil on top and using my ink dusters, blended some distress inks over the butterflies and flowers. I used lighter pastel shades like Spun Sugar, Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass and Wilted Violet.

Using my stamp platform, I used the sentiment from a Uniko Thank You set I got as a free gift in a previous order. I stamped each element individually using VersaFine Onyx Black, so I could get them as close as I could to each other.

Thank you so much to Uniko for having me and for their wonderful supplies. They are all available to purchase now in the shop.

I hope you've enjoyed the inspiration. Do pop by again soon! Happy Crafting!

Uniko Guest Design - Surprise Stencil Release - Scattered Polka Hexagons

I'm back today to share my next card for the mini stencil release from Uniko. This one is the Scattered Polka Hexagons and I thought it would go perfectly with my last purchase from them, the Bee Happy set. I've been itching to ink this up and they go very well together.

It's been an age since I made a spinner and the sizes of the stamps just worked out perfectly. I started by inking a piece of yellow card stock using the stencil with some Wild Honey distress ink to get a tone on tone look.

I kept the middle of the card free from ink and using some Versa Mark ink stamped the heart from the stamp set. I then heat embossed with WOW! Gold glitter. I cut out my spinner element from the panel and before I realised it, I crumpled up and threw the cut out piece in the bin! Normally I keep it to place in the space so it looks more uniform and you don't get the white, but it worked out fine without it.

I then stamped the bee on some white card, fussy cut it and started assembling the pieces. I use my giant roll of 3M tape for the backing as I can cut it to size easily. I also use the MFT spin and slide discs which are light and small enough for tiny stamps like this. I glue one onto a circle of white cardstock with multi medium matte as it's strong and dries quickly. I then place it into the aperture and glue the stamp on top. It flows really well around. I have a video on spinner cards over on my You Tube channel.

I stamped the sentiment onto some black cardstock with Versa Mark ink and again embossed with the WOW! gold glitter powder. I added some vellum to the back so it wouldn't look so stark against the yellow.

The stencils are available now in the Uniko shop. Have any caught your eye? Thanks for popping by and Happy Crafting!

The Flower Challenge #21 - Use a Previous Challenge

No I haven't gone back to my old days of being on the DT, although I have to say I miss the camaraderie we had, no, I decided after seeing all the great posts from the team and the object of using any previous challenge I couldn't refuse to join in.

This one is for Challenge 17 - CAS. I love CAS and it's a great opportunity to focus on the flower itself. With this one, it's all about the colouring and I even braved some no line as well.

I stamped the Make a Wish image from Clearly Besotted onto some Strathmore Coloured Pencil paper with some yellow memento dye ink. I then got to colouring slowly and with very light layers using my Faber Castell Polychromos, trying my very best to give it some light source. I really struggle with this technique.

I went back in to give it some added depth with some black pencils in all the nooks and crannies as Kathy would say.

I haven't done much in the way of colouring for this current 30 Day Colouring Challenge, so it was nice to sit down and spend some time with me and my colouring medium.

I'm linking this up to the challenge at The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge and also the Flower Challenge #21 Use a Previous Challenge.

Thanks so much for popping by and happy crafting! :) 

Uniko Guest Design - Surprise Stencil Release - Mehndi Mandala - Blog Hop + VIDEO

Hi Everyone, I'm absolutely thrilled to have been asked to Guest Design for Uniko, a lovely UK based company who makes fabulous stamps and stencils. I have quite a few of their stencils already, so to be asked to use more of them, of course it was an instant yes!

This is part of the blog hop to celebrate the release. You can start over at the Uniko blog, and I'll let you know who to hop onto next at the end of my post. This is the first of three cards made using three stencils. I have a video to go with this one showing you how I made 4 cards in 45 minutes using just one stencil.



You can watch the video here or over on my YT channel :)

I took a piece of A4 white card stock and cut it down to 11 inches as I always make my cards 5.5x4.25 (US A2 sized). I then marked out the middle point so I would know where to place the middle of my stencil.

I placed my stencil in the middle and started blending with very gentle ink blending in Spun Sugar. It's quite light, so I built up the layers gradually. I then put the stencil on top and added Picked Raspberry for some contrast. 

I removed the stencil and then cut the panels to size to fit my card blanks. I picked two different pink colours to fit with the pink on the stencil and background. I then attached them with foam tape on top. I'd like to give credit to my friend Lisa Tilson of My Card Trip whose card I saw using the slightly off set mounting of the panel. It gave me the main idea for this set. I thought a few sequins in pink and clear would be a nice addition.

This is such a gorgeous stencil, and I hope this inspires you to try some stencilling. The new release is available now over on the Uniko website and you can carry on in the hop by visiting Beverly Brown, Uniko's esteemed creator.

I'll be back tomorrow with more. Happy Crafting!

How To - Stencils with Funky Fossils Designs Mermaids - VIDEO

Hello! So if you saw my April and May haul video, you'll have seen the gorgeous mermaid stencil that Sarah Gray from Funky Fossil Designs gave me to have a play around with. I decided when I had a couple of hours to spare (no kids in the house!!) I'd have a good old play with hers and some other stencils I had that hadn't seen much love in a while.

I ended up only using the mermaids in the end - once I started I couldn't stop! - and I filmed the process. You can watch this below or over on my YouTube channel. My camera decided to have a bit of a wobbly at points and I lost some of the footage, but I hope you can still get the gist of them. 

I decided to try something different and not do a voice over for this video. My space in the basement is lovely, but I find the boiler and pipe work can be noisy at the worst times and finding a time to be able to do them is hard. I thought I'd edit it without this time. I'd love some feedback on how you find this. 

Here are the projects I finished. I used lots of different techniques from ink blending to texture paste and glitter - yes I used glitter even though I usually hate the stuff. I even used some of my new distress oxides. They really do blend nicely and I suspect I may be saving up for some more :)

1. Coloured texture paste and glitter. 

2. Distress ink and water bleaching

3. Distress ink and texture paste with glitter stencil on top

4. Distress Oxide and splatter

The detail is amazing on the stencil - the swimming mermaid's hair is spectacular - and you can buy this and others in Sarah's Folksy Shop.

I hope you enjoyed today's projects. I really am in the mood for stencils right now, so expect to see some more of them! Thank you so much for stopping by and Happy Crafting :)