Merry Christmas!

Just to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Mix and Match....

Just wanted to show you two cards I made with Crafty Individuals stamps where I've mixed the Alice Palace stamps with others from their range.

On this one I've combined two of the AP stamps with the Crafty Elements Trees (CI-209) and Meadow Grasses (CI-207) sets:

 And then this one uses one of the AP rabbits with the new CI Meadow background stamp (CI-367) and a couple of extra branches. Oh, and the Harlequin background (CI-171) which I use all the time! Then I stamped tiny stars on the brads just because I could!

I think they all mix and match really well.

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Alice Palace in miniature

I found some shrink plastic in  amongst all my stash and decided to have a go at making some brooches with some of the new Alice Palace stamps from Crafty Individuals.

Now shrink and I do not usually get along very well as when I heat it with the heat gun it always curls up in disgust and then sticks to itself before it can flatten out!

However this time I decided on a different approach - the oven. Why I haven't shrunk it this way before I don't know - it's so much easier. One, you get an even heat and two, you don't have that awful breath holding agony of watching it curl and wondering what will happen next! I just shoved them in on a baking tray covered in baking parchment, left them for about 30 seconds and there it was - shrunk and FLAT! And here they are:

                 

 

 I've stamped the collages in StazOn black onto the shrink plastic, shrunk them and then covered them with a layer of gloss glaze. When that was dry, I coloured them in with alcohol ink pens (the glaze stops the StazOn running) and added another layer of gloss glaze. Then I layered them onto felt using a glue gun to stick them down. The tags just show how I thought they could be presented.

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit.....

And dog and puffin too!

These all use the lovely new Alice Palace stamps from Crafty Individuals.

I'm taking a class with these at the Craft Barn in February where we'll be making our own background paper with lots of gesso and Stains and stencils, but more about that later!

Thanks for looking!

Helen

New, new, new....

And mega blog candy over on the Crafty Individuals blog, all to celebrate the launch of their new stamps by a new designer, Alice Palace. Here's the blog candy you can win:

so get on over there quickly to do your stuff and see the new stamp designs which I loooooove!

Here's a card I made with just one of them:

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Gothic galore!

I've been meaning to post these pics all week, but just haven't had a chance.
I took the Gothic Christmas class on Saturday up at the Craft Barn and we had a great day.
Everyone got stuck in (literally, in the case of the carpet tape - sorry Neil for the sticky scissors!) ... inking, painting, crackling, embossing and lots of glorious Lynne Perrella.
People chose their own colours and we tried both Frantage Gold and Taupe embossing powders as well as the copper.
Here goes with the pics - some of them didn't come out too well (flash and glossy card don't mix too well!) but I've put them in anyway::

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Craft Barn Gifts under £10.

The Craft Barn blog has been giving ideas for gifts you can make for under £10 and I had two in there on Friday (Yes, I know I'm a bit late!)
The first uses one of those bisque plaques, which are fantastic for stamping on:

And the second is a Stampbord bag charm:

These both use PaperArtsy Hot Picks stamps and Distress Reinkers.

Thanks for looking!

Helen

In the bleak mid winter....

Well, hopefully not so bleak as I've added a little 'Festive Sparkle' to my robin card:

These are for the Crafty Individuals blog challenge - pop on over and have a look!

Thanks for looking!

Helen

A little bit of Sparkle...

Here's my first offering for the Crafty Individuals Challenge 'Festive Sparkle':

In fact this is my first Christmas card this year!
Go on over to the Crafty Individuals blog and enter the challenge - you never know, you might win, and even if you don't your entry will qualify you for a 25% discount voucher!

Thanks for looking!

Helen

PS They;'ve also got some new stamps out here.

Demo day at the Craft Barn

Or should I call it 'Demolition' Day at the Craft Barn  as I managed to spill the water in my non spill pot over everything - I was actually aiming for Jo Firth Young who was sitting next to me, but sadly I missed!
We had a great day demoing though, it was a laugh a minute! I don't think they'll put the two of us next to each other again - in fact we'll probably be sat on our own at opposite ends of the shop!
Many thanks to all who came to visit - it was lovely to see you.
My next event is my Gothic Christmas class and I'm going to give you a sneak peek of one of the things we'll be making using the new Lynne Perrella Christmas stamps:

Don't you just love that gothic arch shape - it's a new one that Di from Tando made especially for the class.
If you are coming to the class, I would bring an apron and an old credit/plastic card for plastering on the crackle paint.

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Sewing Room Sign

Here's a bisque door sign that I've made with some of the PaperArtsy Haberdashery stamps:

Come along to the Craft Barn on Saturday and see this plus all the other demos going on!

Thanks for looking!

Helen

One for the Boys....

Here I've made a door plaque out of a bisque tile, Distress Reinkers and Markers and PaperArtsy Hot Pick stamps. The colours lighten after you apply them as the bisque just soaks it all up, but it gives a kind of vintage, faded look!

You can see this in the flesh, so to speak, this Saturday at the Craft Barn, where I'll be demoing my little socks off, along with several others!

Thanks for looking!

Helen