New Blog layout!

I'm going mad here - after another 4 hours fiddling around, have decided to keep the Dynamic view even though it annoys me 'cos you can't see all the text (lists, places to visit etc).
It's very good for the pics though - if you go onto the Sidebar on the left you can try out all the different formats but it will always default to this setting.
If you hover over the black box on the right it will bring up the various lists etc.

I'll keep it this way for as ling as I can bear it!

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Dancing Tag and a new look blog!

(Click on post to see it all!)

Don't laugh! I was playing around with the new blogger stuff and of course pressed the wrong button and lost my other template altogether! To be fair I was getting a bit fed up with it and actually quite like the look of this new dynamic stuff, but I'll have to see if it does what I want it to.
You seem to be able to view the same post in all sorts of formats - I like the Magazine view and am going to try to set it to come up as that, but don't hold your breath, it'll probably decide to do something completely different!
I don't know about you, but it takes me hours to sort out anything like this and I'm starting to go boggle eyed so it'll just have to do for now!

Anyway am going to post a pic of a tag I made using the Dance Card stamp from Crafty Individuals CI-346:

I had the sewing machine out, so have added stitching, MME papers, ribbon and lace.

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Would you care to dance?

Here's a card I made with one of the new Crafty Individuals stamps CI-346, which is absolutely gorgeous (the stamp, not the card!):

I've stamped it onto some Kaleidacoloured card (I think Bouquet, but not entirely sure) and used Prima Almanac paper in the background with some gold painted tissue paper. Oh, and some pearl headed pins top right.

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Time for Summer

The last item I made for the Crafty Individuals Challenge is this card with clocks and daisies:

Thanks for looking! Helen

A cuckoo for summer...

Here's my second piece of DT work for the Crafty Individuals Challenge:

A Stampbord cuckoo clock! Does a cuckoo herald the start of summer? Not sure, but it was great fun to make!

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Crafty Individuals Challenge

I've just realised that I've forgotten to post any of my entries for the Challenge this month - don't know what happened there as I had them all ready!

Anyway the theme is Time for Summer' and my first project is a card:

This uses some of my favourite CI stamps - the Seashell set CI-272 and the Beach Hut set CI-278 (The only one I couldn't use is the postmark as I dropped it on the floor of my art room and it's never been seen again! If you've seen my art room, you'll understand!)
The girls in the middle are from CI-283

You've still got time to enter, so have a go!

Thanks for looking!

Helen

Fantastic Fabric

Fabric and stamping is definitely in!
I was inspired by Lin Brown's use of fabric and then a friend, Suzanne, had some fabric odds and ends up for grabs so I thought it must be fate - I'd have to have a go!
I've used Flower Market, one of the new Artistic Outpost plates available from Happy Daze, for the images, plus various quotes from other plates, and I was amazed at how clearly the fabric stamped. I've painted the images with watered down acrylic paints (not too wet or they soak outwards into the material). Then I've stitched and embellished to my heart's content!
Here's the central image, which I've stamped in black StazOn and then done the background in Victorian Velvet:

Look how sharp the tiny text is:

Sorry, realised after this has got a thread over it!

Even stamping on the brown linen, which is quite an open weave, has worked:

And finally, the whole project:

Now I've got to frame it!

Thanks for looking!

Helen

All done and bleached!

I had a lovely time at the Craft Barn on Saturday, demoing my little socks off! Many thanks to all who came and visited.

Now that I've finished the project for my class on Saturday 19 May, I'll show you some pics of what we're going to make. It's 5 masculine cards using Oxford Impressions stamps, spray inks, bleach and an embossing folder technique that allows you to just emboss round the edge of the stamped image. Here are a couple of them:

Plus an envelope to put them in:

I've used bright colours 'cos, you know me, that's what I like, but you can use whatever colours you like!
If you want to book, just go onto the Craft Barn website here.

Thanks for looking!

Helen