Spring has sprung....

.... over on the PaperArtsy blog where my project this month is a lovely floral masterboard to welcome in Spring...

xx

A Dabble Day.....

... is right up my street - a little bit of this & that... and resulted in a fun, busy, inky, painty card making day at Birds in the Barn on Saturday..

I like making cards that have movement or texture so to start the day we made this, & I also created a hand-out (due to lots of measurements) as something for everyone to refer to...

It looks like this:

 ... and when you pull the ribbon... this is revealed:

Painted with Distress Inks it has a lovely fresh feel.

Card on right created using Dusty Teal & JOFY stamps to paint a bespoke background paper that co-ordinates with one of the JOFY mini 'mesh' stamps.. I love this card - lots of my favourite 'go-to' elements - tags, buttons, stamps, scallops, wood flowers and resin flowers.

This card combines new JOFY stencil with recent stamp releases...

...and every now and then its nice to have a bit of glamour on a card! and I think my little birdy deserves a golden cage:

.. the cage's golden effect is created with variagated gilding flakes (adhered with Stamp & Bond) - a very special cage :o)

A really fun day.  I'm back at Birds in the Barn on June 1st - looking forward to it...

x

Oh the 'treasures' that are rediscovered...

... when my studio gets a massive clean-up/clear-up....

Finding a place for everything and putting everything back in its place - very cathartic.. and while doing that (which took a quite a while!) I found rediscovered this little 'treasure':

Its a little book of music (10x14cm) - wonderfully aged around the edges - I think I bought it in Prague??  and the pages would be the perfect backgrounds for my stamps when making cards - which I have to do a lot in March - 2 x parents wedding anniversaries, 2 x sister-in-laws birthdays, Mum's birthday, 2 x Mothers' Day... & several friends' birthdays! thats a lot of cards to be made in 1 month (for me anyway lol)...

Sometimes I like to make cards in batches and here's a small batch that I made with the book pages and images from the latest JOFY stamp plates (& an old favourite): plates I've used are JOFY24, JM33 & JOFY12:

I LOVE how these turned out - stamping, using printed papers, JOFY Limited Edition Fresco Finish, & a bit of sewing... happy happy happy

xx

Happy Birthday...

.... to my Mum - here's the card I made for her... I cardcan't tell you how long it took (looooong time) or how many variations it went through (many, many - brown card base, white card base, with/without the chipboard ring, square & rectangular!) lol

aaaanyhoo - she liked it - & that's what matters.

:o)

Stamping, stamping and more stamping...

... was the plan at The Craft Barn today.. we stamped, painted, stamped, embossed, & stamped some more..
:o)

Thanks to the customers who came to the class - look forward to see you again soon!  Have fun with your purchases!

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xx

Just wondering how....

.. this DoCrafts Gorguss girl would look combined with my stamps... buying DoCrafts stamps is not something I normally do but I couldn't resist this one:

- I could see the possibilities of using her with my stamps - she's a nice size & stands alone ((nothing round her- some images in the group had animals)) and so could be placed in amongst my flowers..

.... I stamped the image on a piece of scrap Smoothie that was on my desk - I just wanted to see how she stamped out.. but then I kept going 'how would it look with flower stems', and 'what about leaves'  - by the time I'd finished I created the panel!
I was just playing - the Gorjuss image is quite cute (a bit of cute now & then can't do any harm can it) but I kept the colour relatively neutral & tried to dampen down the cute with the corrugated card but don't think it distracted much :o)  

But I don't mind  - she makes me smile.

I can see several more of these being created!  too cute..!  The co-ordinating papers (sorry, couldn't resist those either) are quite dark - greys, purples & reds- maybe I'll make a 'gothic' one.

x

Time well spent at The Craft Barn.....

.... on Saturday..  Thanks to everyone who came and watched the demo's yesterday - lovely to see everyone and to get painty with new products...

I'll post photos of the samples when I have better light... (tricky in the uk at the moment - we either have blazing sunshine or pouring rain!)

I'll be back at The Craft Barn next Sunday for a class of Beginners Stamping - looking forward to it - there are still a few places remaining - contact the shop to book a place.

xx