September Newsletter

Hi everyone, Lisa here, how are you? 

I hope you've had a great  August, I've certainly enjoyed the gorgeous weather we've had the last few weeks. As usual it was a busy month for me, with two visits to the Hochanda studios for Imagination Crafts. I returned on Monday, following our One Day Special shows. Thank you very much for all the lovely comments and messages on the MDF baubles. I really enjoyed designing them and I was thrilled with how they turned out, so it's wonderful to get such a positive response. All of my samples can be seen in my board on Imagination's Pinterest page.

This Friday is class day in Fant Lane Community Hall, Maidstone; it seems to come round quicker every month. We are heading into autumn, so I've decided that we need to make a start on our Christmas cards and with that in mind, we're going to be using some of the beautiful new Christmas stamp sets from Hobby Art, as well as the Cardio Combinations Fern Branch & Pine Branch sets.

Here's a sneak peek of the class projects............

                 

If you already own any of these stamp sets, please feel free to bring them along for your own personal use.

It would be helpful if you could also bring the following.........

Spectrum Aqua pens

Onyx Black Versafine ink pad

Fine detail paintbrushes

2 x 1 pennies

Baby wipes

(I know not all of you have the Spectrum Aqua pens & the Versafine ink pad. I do have a set of pens & a few ink pads, but not enough that you won't have to wait to use them).

***Please make sure your items are labelled with your name.***

Class times are 2.30 to 5.30 and 6.30 to 9.30. There are a few places available in both, so if you would like to join us, please contact me on 01622 675078, before lunchtime on Thursday, September 1. This gives me time to prepare your class project kit.

The cost of the class is £16. This includes your projects, a tool kit to use during the class and complimentary tea/coffee with a slice of cake. A deposit of £6, or full payment in advance will secure your place. Please make any cancellations three days in advance, this gives me time to try to fill your place. After that, deposits are non-refundable.

The mobile shop will be in Fant Hall from 2.30 to 9.30 on Friday night - remember to bring your loyalty cards! The shop is open to all, so even if you're not attending a class, feel free to drop in. 

In other news for September, I have hired a stand at the Arts and Crafts Fair, which is taking place alongside the Southern Model Show at Headcorn Aerodrome, TN27 9HX, on September 10 and 11. It's the first time I've done a craft fair for Lisa B Designs and I'm quite excited to see how it goes. So, if you're free during that weekend, come and say hello. I'll post more information on the Lisa B Designs Facebook page next week.

If any of you will be near Exeter between September 22 and 25, why not visit the Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycrafts show at the Westpoint Centre? I'll be demoing alongside Sue on the Imagination Crafts stand; A11, we'd love to see you.

After Exeter, we'll be off to Port Sunlight on the Wirral for the Happy Stampers show. It's only one day, so it's always madly busy, but it's great fun. So yes, it's another hectic month for me. :-)

I think that's all the news I have for now.

 I'll see lots of you on Friday in Fant Lane Community Hall and I hope to be back with the October newsletter at the end of September. Have a great month.

Hugs,

Lisa B xx

Sparkle Rose

Good morning crafters, Julie here, I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Today's card is nice and bright and cheerful before we head into Christmas cards.....

As usual I cut some super smooth card to 16cm square and blended Picked Raspberry and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink together. Then I used an Imagination Crafts Large Rose stencil and applied

 Delicate Americana Chalky Finish paint with some Cut & Dry foam.

I stamped my greeting using a Clarity Line Sentiments 1 stamp in Picked Raspberry and heat embossed with WOW! Clear Gloss embossing powder to set this. I then randomly stamped the Crealies CLBP 51 stamp onto the background with Picked Raspberry DI and Delicate Chalky Finish paint, (painting this onto my tile so I could stamp with it).

I decided I wanted to emphasise the rose a little more, so I went over it with Diamond Sparkle Medium so that it would catch the light nicely but wouldn't alter the colour. This was matted onto some pink card stock from my stash and attached to a 7x7 card blank, using 2 gems to highlight the greeting.

                   

I hope you like my make for today. Have a good day and bye for now.

Love Julie x

Fields of Flowers

Hi everyone, Kirsten here with a scheduled post as it's a bank holiday here. Hope you've all had a great weekend, but is anyone else finding it hard to believe that it's the end of AUGUST??!!

I have three quick & easy cards to show you today, made with Stampendous stamps; Field of Daisies & Field of Poppies & a Craft Emotions stencil; Poppy Fields. I used Distress inks for all three backgrounds.

This background is Salty Ocean, Squeezed Lemonade & Twisted Citron Distress inks. I stamped the Field of Poppies stamp with WOW! Embossing Ink & heat set WOW! Opaque Bright White embossing powder on top. Then I painted the flowers & seed heads with Red & Green Starlights. The sentiment is from the Stampendous Life Is Art... stamp, I just masked off the parts I didn't want before stamping...........

The second background is Scattered Straw & Victorian Velvet Distress inks & splatters of 

Yellow Brusho Shimmer Spray. I used Topaz, Apple Green & Zinober Gold Starlights on the daisies...........

The final card has a background of  Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade & a little bit of Picked Raspberry Distress inks. I also used Ripe Persimmon DI through the That's Crafty
Dinky Reverse Honeycomb stencil & a Crealies stamp with embossing ink & white EP on the background.

I applied Amethyst, Lilac & Green Starlights through the Craft Emotions Poppy Fields stencil & finished with the Stampendous Celebrate Birthday stamp..............

             

                    

That's it from me for today. Lisa will be making her way home from Hochanda today. If you managed to see some of the Imagination Crafts' ODS shows, we hope you enjoyed them & if not, they're available on catch up for the rest of the week.

This coming Friday is Class Day for us in Maidstone, there will hopefully be a newsletter with information about that on its way to you in the next few days. 

Have a great Monday & thank you for visiting the blog.

Kirsten

Class tutorial technique with Distress Inks, Ghosting and Stencils........

Good morning all,

I do hope that you are all well and enjoying your week. I am somewhat feeling a bit sorry for myself at the moment as I had an accident last week and caught my finger on a car door in Peterborough and ripped my whole fingernail back, some of you may have noticed a blue plaster on my finger on Hochanda on last Tuesday's programs!!!

Well I ended up at A & E last Thursday as I kept knocking it and had it taken off, the nail that is .....not my finger, lol! 

The injection they gave me was the worst pain I have ever felt, so much pressure in my finger and I know pain as a lot of you know I have fibromyalgia and deal with it daily!

But hey ho, it could be a lot worse and that is what I tell myself each day and hopefully the nail will grow back in time and the pain will subside!!

Anyway enough of myself moping!!

I promised that I would bring you a little tutorial of the technique from my class last month with stencil layering and ghosting, so here it finally is........

I started off by creating a background with two distress inks using blending tools on to a piece of 300gsm smooth white card.......

I used Picked Raspberry and Fossilized Amber and created a shaft of light effect.......

I then wanted to create some ghost layers, so I used my Imagination Crafts Large Flower Stencil and a blending tool with white gesso and sponged through the stencil in three areas on the background.......

The next layer I wanted to bring in was some random stencil background layers and using the Picked raspberry and a blending tool I added these randomly as shown.......

After that it was some stamped layers. So I chose a Crealie Bits and Pieces Stamp No.11 and again using the colours of Distress ink to keep it monochromatic with in its tones, I randomly stamped them over the background. I then thoroughly dried the background with my heat tool.....

The next stage was to add a touch of drama on to the background, so I chose an Imagination Crafts Alpine Poppy Stencil and added some Black Soot Distress ink through it with a blending tool applicator. 

Whilst it was wet, I added some Wow Clear Sparkle Embossing Powder and heat set it.....

To finish off I wanted to add a sentiment, so I chose an Imagination Crafts sentiment from the Thank You Sentiments Stamp Set. I then added a little more stamping with the crealie stamp in black and embossed it all with the Wow powder. I then edged it with the ink on my tool......

A close up of the wording......

To finish off I matted it on to black card and then on to a 7 x 7" card......

Well I do hope that this has inspired you to have a go.......

I am really busy getting ready for more Imagination Crafts Hochanda Shows and also getting ready for my next workshop on 2nd September. We will creating two lovely projects using new Christmas Hobby Art Stamps and I will hopefully have the samples finished soon. There are a couple of places left on both day and evening class if you would like to attend you can email me at: lisabaker1@btinternet.com or ring me on: 01622 675978

Our next Hochanda Show is a One Day Special and not to be missed, I am really excited as I have helped design the concept of it and have loved making the samples and I think you will too.

The One Day Special launches at 8pm on 27th August and then we have four shows on 28th September at 9am, 12. 4 and 7pm.....

Well that is all from me for now,

Have a great week......

Hugs

Lisa B xxx

       

       

Layered Cogs

Hello crafters, Julie here, I hope I find you well today and you are enjoying the sunshine.

Today's card is another using the building up layers technique, as this was the theme from the August class. I decided it was about time I did more of a male card for this week.

I must apologise now as I was crafting with my mum at the weekend, (which I should do more often!) and I completely forgot to take photos of the stages.....whoops!

I started with a 16cm square of super smooth card and blended together Salty Ocean and 

Twisted Citron Distress Inks. Then I used the That's Crafty Cogs (tc050) Dinky Stencil, masking it for the areas I wanted and applied white gesso through it with Cut & Dry foam. I heat set this to make sure my layers were dry.

Next I stamped my greeting, the Stampendous Celebrate Birthday stamp, with Versamark ink and heat set with WOW! Opaque Bright White embossing powder.

Then I stamped Crealies Bits & Pieces stamp CLBP03 in Twisted Citron Distress Ink and Salty Ocean to complete the main event of this card. I matted it onto some coordinating card from my stash and attached that to a 7x7 white card blank.

                   

I hope you like this quicker make. Thank you for visiting the blog today, have a good week.

Love Julie x