Wonderful day!

*This post is part of the January promotion fortnight. Remember to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway.*

Have you popped over and checked out the MEGA SALE yet? 

There are loads of great items at amazing prices, check it out HERE......

Morning Crafters,

These Thursday posts do roll around so quickly!

I hope you're staying warm and safe in this wintery weather.

With this in mind I thought of Spring for the card I have to show you today.

Something to look forward to, nice Spring weather and cheerful bulbs coming through.

So I've used Hobby Art stamp set, Wonderful Day, part of the Sharon Bennett collection

as we are still in the Hobby Art promotion fortnight.

This is one of those cards with a simple look but

 it's actually quite interesting and challenging to achieve.

I do like a challenge!

So firstly I stamped the main image from the set with Versafine Onyx Black.

Then I water coloured the images, I used Brusho's but you can use a variety of mediums for this such as, Watercolour Pencils or painting with Distress Inks.

I chose a lime green colour, lilac and lemon to represent Spring.

I really just roughly water coloured this image.

I also used the little frame and sentiment from the set.

I stamped the sentiment first and then because the stamps are clear 

I could line up the frame over the sentiment.

Next, on the back of the water coloured image I drew five sections to divide up the piece.

Odd number work best so I could have used three but

 decided five would look better for this.

I then cut up the piece into the sections.

The hard part is lining up the image to create the gaps and

 keep the complete image straight.

I found that lining up against the matting white layer

 in one corner gave a good starting point.

I also used a ruler to make sure I kept the outside edges straight.

By leaving a gap between the main image and the sentiment

 I could add some Bakers Twine.

I used a piece of Purple Card to layer before sticking on my final folded card.

So although this was a challenge I was happy with the end result!

Perhaps you'll give it a try...

Crafty Hugs xKx

P.S Don't forget you can enter the blog challenge HERE and win £20 to spend on crafting stash....

                

   

     

    

 

 

Simple Sparkle

 *This post is part of the December promotion fortnight. Remember to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway.*

Morning crafters,

Today I have a simple card to share using a technique we did at Lisa's Christmas Party Class.

The main stamp is Woodware Huge Noel, being a large stamp it makes a perfect card centre piece and not much else is needed. So it can be as plain or fussy as you like.

As we are all busy this time of year I kept my design plain and simple.

So I stamped the image on to a white die cut piece of card with Onyx Black VersaFine.

I then stamped the "O" bauble section on to green card and cut it out.

The top of the bauble is then coloured silver and twisted wire added for hanging.

Masking off the top area I brayed Pastel Green Sparkle Medium over the green section to make it glitter.

I used a piece of acetate in the centre of the bauble and dabbed Sparkle Medium on to this with my finger.

I had stuck the acetate from behind with double sided tape.

I also brayered the Green Sparkle Medium over the stamped white die cut card.

This was then layered onto another die cut green piece of card and I outlined the edge with a white liner pen before layering again on to Anna Marie Dottie Olive Green Card.

White Craftwork cards Candi finishes off in the corners.

It was great to meet so many of you at the Christmas Party Class, I really enjoyed it.

Hope your week is going well and I'll be back again next week.

Crafty Hugs xKx

        

 

December Promotion & Giveaway

Good morning, Kirsten here. It's the start of a new week & the start of a new promotion fortnight on the Lisa B Designs Inspiration blog. This time we are focusing on various Christmas items that are available on the website & we have LOTS of samples to show you in the coming weeks.

 

 As always, there is a prize for one lucky commenter..............

 

 

The rules for the giveaway are as follows............

 

You must leave one comment on EVERY blog post - including this one -  in the next two weeks from today, December 8, to the final post on December 21.

 

You can make your comment at any time as long as it's before the midnight deadline on Sunday, December 21.

Important message: Please, PLEASE check that you've left a comment on EVERY post during the promotion fortnights. We want everyone to be in with a chance of winning.

 

**Entries are restricted to UK residents only.**

 

The winner will be chosen by a random number generator & announced here on Monday, December

22.

 

So, if you don't want to miss out, make a note on your calendar, sign up for email notifications, follow us on Facebook & Twitter & post those comments.

 

If you missed yesterday's Christmas party review, it is HERE. The new challenge is now live. The theme is Christmas & all the details can be found HERE.

 

I shall be back tomorrow with the first of my December samples.

 

Kirsten

October Promotion & Giveaway

 

Good morning, Kirsten here. It's the start of a new week & the start of a new promotion fortnight on the Lisa B Designs Inspiration blog. This time we are focusing mostly on the Christmas themed stamps from  

Woodware Clear Magic & these from Anna Marie Designs.

 

As always, there is a prize for one lucky commenter..............

 

 

 

I used this stamp on many of my projects & it's really nice. The paper pad was hugely popular at Friday's classes. It has a great variety of Christmas patterns & colours & it's also slightly textured. And you can stamp on it & get a very clear image - I found Versafine ink worked best.

 

So, the rules for the giveaway are as follows............

 

You must leave one comment on EVERY blog post - including this one -  in the next two weeks from today, October 6, to the final post on October 19.

 

You can make your comment at any time as long as it's before the midnight deadline on Sunday, October 19. 

 

**Entries are restricted to UK residents only.**

 

The winner will be chosen by a random number generator & announced here on Monday, October 20.

 

So, if you don't want to miss out, make a note on your calendar, sign up for email notifications, follow us on Facebook & Twitter & post those comments.

 

Kirsten

 

 

Crackle Medium Promotion & Giveaway

 

Good morning, Kirsten here. It's the start of a new week & the start of a new promotion fortnight on the Lisa B Designs Inspiration blog. This month we are focusing on crackle mediums, which are a great way of adding a distressed, textured look to your projects. 

 

We introduced many of the ladies at last Friday's classes to crackle mediums, in particular Imagination Crafts' Crackle Medium & that is what we have used on all of our samples, of which we have many & we'll be sharing them here every day.

 

As always, there is a prize for one lucky commenter..............

 

 

 

 

The rules are...........

 

You must leave one comment on EVERY blog post - including this one -  in the next two weeks from today, September 8, to the final post on September 21.

 

You can make your comment at any time as long as it's before the midnight deadline on Sunday, September 21. 

 

**Entries are restricted to UK residents only.**

 

The winner will be chosen by a random number generator & announced here on Monday, September 22.

 

So, if you don't want to miss out, make a note on your calendar, sign up for email notifications, follow us on Facebook & Twitter & post those comments.

 

Kirsten

Basic Card-io Stamping

Hello, it’s Kirsten with my regular Tuesday post – it’s also a Card-io promotion post, you’ll need to remember that.

 

Card-io stamps were completely new to me when Lisa pointed them out to me at the trade show in February & I have to admit, I struggled with them in the beginning. Not because there's anything wrong with them, it was simply that I didn't know where or how to start building an image. Poor Lisa was demoing at the NEC & she was getting frantic text messages from me, all along the lines of “I don’t know what on earth I’m doing!!” A few weeks down the line & I think I’ve improved somewhat. Today, I’m starting with the very first card I made, see if you can tell how panicked I was!

 

 

The first thing I did was check the colours of the Versacolor inks, using an image from the

 Greenery 1 collection. I really like these inks. The colours are gorgeous, the ink pads very juicy & because they’re pigment inks, they’re suitable for heat embossing.

 

 

A word of caution; because they’re so juicy & slow to dry, it is very easy to get ink where you don’t want it, namely on your project. I lost count of the number of pieces of card I ruined because I got ink on my fingers & transferred it to the card.

 

It’s also important to apply the ink to the stamp, with light tapping. The ink pad is raised quite high off the base & if you’re too forceful you’ll get ink on the acrylic block as well as the stamp.

 

 If you’re not using embossing powder, make sure you dry the image thoroughly with a heat tool, or leave it to one side to dry on its own.

                              I used a Spellbinders die as a template & drew an oval shape on my card.

I started stamping with various stamps from the Greenery I collection, using Versacolor Bamboo & Turquoise inks.

 

Note: these pictures are not the same as the finished card. I tried various stamps & colours, discarding most of them until I was happy & along the way I forgot to take photos.

 

I switched to the large branch stamp & the solid flower from the Majestix Sweet Birdhouse clear stamp set.

 

I added more stamping with Versacolor Atlantic ink & the tiny solid flower from Sweet Birdhouse.

                            Using a craft knife, I cut out the oval & added more stamping.

 

I filled in gaps & over stamped with both of the sketchy flower stamps from Sweet Birdhouse, using Versacolor Neptune ink & stamped the Penny Black sentiment through the oval onto another piece of card.

 

 

Matting & layering onto black card & adding some black organza ribbon & tiny amounts of Stickles glitter glue to finish. Not brilliant, but not too awful either for a first attempt.

 

                    

                                                   


           Thanks for looking. Remember the GIVEAWAY – leave a comment! See you next time.

 

Kirsten

Card-io Promotion & Giveaway

Good morning crafters, it's time for another promotion & giveaway & this time we're featuring

 Card-io Collection & Card-io Majestix stamps. For the next two weeks, Lisa & the DT will be showing you the projects we've made using these lovely stamps & we hope you're going to like what you see.

 

There is, of course, a giveaway. One lucky person will win the set of stamps, Versacolor ink pad & acrylic peg as shown in the picture below.............

 

 

To be entered in the giveaway, you must leave a comment on EVERY Card-io promotion blog post - including this one -  from today, April 7 to the final post on April 19.

 

**Entries are restricted to UK residents only.**

 

The winner will be chosen by a random number generator & announced here on Sunday, April 20.

 

So, if you don't want to miss out, make a note on your calendar, sign up for email notifications, follow us on Facebook & Twitter & post those comments.

 

I shall be back tomorrow with my regular Tuesday post. Have a great Monday.

 

Kirsten

From The Jaws of Disaster, part one

Good morning crafters, Kirsten here.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I’ve split this blog post into two parts, because it’s a long one & I don’t want to bore you all.

 

I used one of the 8x8 cardboard frames that some of the ladies used in Lisa’s classes two weeks ago as my substrate, adding some dry wall mesh (available in DIY stores, it’s great for adding texture) to a few corners & covering it with white gesso. If you’re using paint on paper, cardboard, mount board, even plastic, you need to cover the surface with gesso first. It will seal the substrate & provide a ‘tooth’ for the paint to grip onto.  It also means you’ll use less paint. I used cut & dry foam & applied a few thin coats of gesso, allowing each coat to dry, which it will do very quickly if you don’t use too much. You can also use a heat tool to speed up the drying process.

 

 

I had selected my colours from my colour palettes board on Pinterest – VERY useful idea for someone like me who can’t put colours together no matter how hard she tries – and used a wide brush & watered down acrylic paint. I think I painted about three layers, drying in between each one.

 

 

My vague idea at this point was a kind of shabby chic look, so the next step was to cover the colour with white paint, which I did with very small amounts of paint on a dry brush, dragging the brush to get streaks & the appearance of texture. Again, I built up layers, drying in between & wiping paint off with a baby wipe from time to time. There’s no right or wrong to this process, you just keep going until you’re happy. And I was happy with it at this point.

 

 

The next step was more texture & I decided to use a dark blue embossing powder from my stash through the Glitz Craft Sweetpea stencil. Embossing ink is very sticky & if you were to apply it directly through the stencil onto the frame it would lift the stencil off the surface & more than likely you’d get ink seeping underneath, resulting in a blurred image. The solution is to use a clean piece of cut & dry foam, tapping into the embossing ink & then gently through the stencil with one hand, while holding the stencil in place with the other hand.

 

 

 

I wanted more texture on the frame so I scrunched up a piece a of paper & used that to apply embossing ink to the rest of frame, covering it with the same EP. I really loved how this looked. It was patchy & random & I’ll definitely use this idea again.

 

 

I added the black card to the centre for the focal image & at this point, I decided the frame was finished & I still liked it. I put it to one side while I worked on the centre piece. Fifteen minutes later, I looked at the frame & HATED it. I thought it was one of the ugliest things I’d ever done & I had to fix it asap. There followed about an hour of faffing & I was so annoyed with myself that I forgot to take any photos, so I have to just tell you what I did.

 

 

I removed some of the mesh from the corners & painted over the patches with the pinky/purpley paint, followed by white, adding & wiping away as I’d done previously. That went on for ages & I loved the different textures, but hated the colours. So, rapidly losing patience, I painted the entire piece with a few coats of black paint. I scrubbed vigorously with baby wipes to remove some of the paint from the embossed areas & I sanded the edges, inside & out. Then I applied silver acrylic paint to various areas, using my fingers to dab it on in places & rub it in, in others.

 

 And then I left it alone. I ended up with something that is shabby-ish, but is most definitely NOT chic. Sigh.

 

Phew! Are you still with me??  I’ll be back tomorrow to show you how I finished this frame. Don’t forget to leave a comment on all the stencil promotion posts to be entered in the GIVEAWAY. While I think of it; don't worry if your comments don't appear immediately when you post them. I usually don't get time to publish them until the evening.

 

 

 

        

 

Happy crafting!

 

Kirsten