Kissing with confidence!

There's no need to pucker up girls, this is all about a stamping technique rather than some early hints and tips for Valentines day!

I made this card a few weeks ago using a little bird image (Stamp it - Critters CM002) from Hero Arts ...

This is a retirement card so one little bird on his own was just fine. However, I really wanted to make a card with two little birds facing each other, but just couldn't figure out how to do it!

Then I saw this gorgeous card over at Sally's blog and realised that she had seen this stamp and had a similar idea. In her post Sally mentioned that she had used the 'kissing' technique to stamp a mirror image of the little bird. I wasn't familiar with this technique so emailed Sally for some advice.

And so thanks to Sally here is the result: two little birds taking a stroll to meet and catch up on all the gossip! Perfect for the 'Love and Friendship' theme over at Hero Arts (what a shame I forgot to post it on Flickr and missed the deadline!!!!!)

I also used the kissing technique to make some of the cats for my previous post. A few of you asked for an explanation of the technique so here comes a mini tutorial...

Kiss, kiss, kiss

As I said the 'kissing' technique enables you to produce a mirror image of a stamp. I think it probably works best with smaller stamps, but I haven't tested this theory!

You will need a plain block with plenty of exposed, unpatterned rubber. You will be stamping your original image onto this block. I found that the 'Stamp Stitches' shadow/background block from Hero Arts was ideal. I think that smaller transfer blocks will give the best results. This is because a smaller block will enable you to press down more firmly when re-stamping the image.

Ink up your original stamp with a really juicy ink, so that it doesn't dry too quickly. I used Versacolour as it stays moist for quite a long time.

Then stamp onto your plain block.Quickly stamp that image onto your sheet of paper or card.

As you can see the image will transfer, but will be rather pale. You will need to go over the image with a fine liner. I used a Pental Ultra Fine pen which is just perfect as you can use it with Promarkers once it has dried. Finally, just colour your image as usual!

I found heaps of interesting info about different uses of the 'kissing' technique, so I'm going to be experimenting during the weekend. If you need any further explanation of anything I've covered please email me and I'll try my best to help.

Have a great weekend and happy crafting everyone!

How many cats?

It's a colour challenge over at the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #67!

However, looking again at the picture I realise that I was way off with the colours that I used for my card! Oh well....

The Gorjuss Girl stamp is called Purrfect friends, and the sentiment is a 99 cent bargain from Squigglefly. They go together so well!

I wanted some of the cats to face the other way so used the 'kissing technique' to do this.

I need to say a very big thank you to the lovely Sally for giving me the low down on how to do this!

I coloured with promarkers and had lots of fun giving each little cat his own 'purr-sonality'.

If you count the cats on the card you will only find 8, but look inside and there's the last cat waiting to be found!This card is for my Mom's friend Pat. Now that adorable little monster 'Fluff' has moved in she has four cats. Fluff can only see through one eye but she doesn't miss a thing and can still climb the curtains with ease!

Happy crafting everyone!

Randon acts of kindness!

Yet again I am thrilled to have been the lucky recipient of not one but two random acts of kindness or RAKs!

The adorable Jane Beljo emailed me her sweet digi-stamp of Mia and Bosko. How kind!

I especially wanted to post this little card today as Jane has just launched her new digital stamp set called Jane's Bakery over at Squigglefly! The set is a real bargain at $3.00 as there are lots of different images to play with!

The second RAK comes in the form of the cute gingham ribbon on this card. This pretty ribbon, and other goodies, arrived with an eBay purchase from someone who trades as 'Mindysmummy'. How kind is that!!!!

I printed Mia and Bosko onto some plain white card and coloured them with Promarkers. I added some Diamond Glaze to accentuate the little heart on Mia's jersey. This was my first attempt with Diamond Glaze and I was a bit shocked at how quickly it oooooozed from the bottle! The background is the Hero Arts digital friendship stamp, printed on some textured blue card. I layered the image and embossed half the base card with my Cuttlebug.

I wanted to leave the card very simple to showcase Mia and Bosko, so just added the ribbon and those little red punched hearts.

I am going to enter this card for Raise the Bar Challenge #2 as the theme is the 'Gift that keeps on giving' otherwise known as 'RAK'!

As a final little RAK I'd like to send this card to someone who is sweet enough to leave a comment on this post. Please make sure that I can back track to your blog to contact you. I will be using the very technical 'names in a hat' method to make the draw!

Happy crafting everyone!

And the rain, rain, rain...

It is raining so heavily, and is so dark as a result, that I just can't get a good photograph of the card I made this morning. Luckily I have something up my sleeve, so to speak!

This little chap is from the set 'Eeeeek! A Monster', by My Cute Stamps.

To say that this set 'called to me' is a huge understatement: it positively jumped up and down and waved a very big flag!

The image is coloured with Promarkers and the sentiment is from Hero Arts. I used my new D'Vine Swirl Cuttlebug folder for the background and distressed with some green and gold Versacolour inks. It looks really pretty in real life. I originally tied a big bow, but as this card is for my friend Rob I swapped it for a knot instead!

Happy crafting everyone!

She's just Gorjuss!

I don't know how I managed to leave this image in my stash for so long without using her! I am so glad that I have had a tidy up and re-found this sweet Gorjuss girl!

I made this little card for my lovely cousin Janis who was 60 on Saturday. I didn't have to walk too far to deliver it as she is my next door neighbour but one! Janis looks amazing and is one heck of a good advert for yoga and healthy eating. She is still as slim as she was as a teenager. Janis has inherited Nanny Kath's genes... not sure where the small, fat genes that I've inherited came from!

I coloured the image with my Pro-markers. I wanted an exact colour match for the scallop so coloured some Bazzils card with the chisel end of my marker and then ran it through my cuttlebug to cut the shape and then emboss it. The sentiment is a Hero Arts Clear design stamp that I attached to my block in a semi-circle. It moved very slightly on the one side but otherwise it worked ok!

Must dash, I have a cut and colour booked for 9.30am!

Happy Crafting everyone!

A little love potion number 9!

Just to prove that my Moonlight Whisper/Kraftin' Kimmie addiction is alive and well!

This 6x6 card is for the following challenges:

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #66 - Musical.

Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge #13 - Chocolate, red and pink plus some hearts.

Inspirational Card Sketches - Sketch #49

and Allsorts Week 35 Challenge - pink and brown.

The papers are all from the Basic Grey Bittersweet collection and the tiny seed beads and ribbons are from my stash. As you can see I flipped the sketch slightly as it seemed to suit the shape of the image. I left the stamp uncut as I liked the little picture that it created and coloured it with Pro-markers.

Happy Sunday everyone!

I'd rather be crafting!

A very quick post to share a little card that I made a week or so ago.
I know that it has now made it safely to Hawaii and the lovely Donna, so here it is!

I just love this little girl from The Greetings Farm. I know just how she feels!

Happy crafting everyone, and yar-boo sucks to the laundry!

One bright, cold morning...

One bright, cold morning Sian looked out of her bedroom window and saw that it had been snowing overnight. She clapped her hands together with delight and ran into her parent's bedroom to tell them the news, but they were both still fast asleep.

Sian tiptoed downstairs, put on her big green coat and quickly slipped her feet into her new red boots. She opened the kitchen door and stepped outside into the wintery whiteness.

Her breath came out in little clouds in the chilly air.

As she walked across the garden Sian saw that she left little footprints behind her in the snow: one-two, one-two, one-two.

Just then she noticed other footprints. These were very different to her own as they went: one-two-three- four, one-two-three-four...

Sian bent down to have a closer look, and as she did she spied something orangey brown lying on the bench under the big tree. It was a fox!

The fox looked at Sian.

Sian looked at the fox.

Sian blinked and the fox blinked back!

Suddenly the fox stood up and shook himself. He looked just like Alfie the dog and Sian laughed as the fox shook a cloud of soft snow from his beautiful fur...

Sorry, I just couldn't resist a little Enid Blyton moment!

I really love the sketch that Jane picked for the Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge this week.

As you can see I rotated and 'personalised' it a bit!

This is the sweet Gourjuss girl stamp that I bought in the sale over at Funky Kits. Like so many of us in blogland I am a big fan of the Gorjuss girls created by the very talented Suzanne Woolcott. I have a few other Gorjuss images and can't wait to get colouring them with my new Pro-markers. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

If you want to see some truly fabulous Gorguss girl creations check out this card and also this card made by Vicky over at Kip's Cards.

So, now I must put on my big blue coat and brown boots and trudge to Tescos in the snow, I'll keep a look out for friendly foxes en route!

Happy crafting everyone!

Brenda's blog candy alert!

This looks like one not to be missed girls!

Brenda from Floral Fantasies is offering some really special blog candy...

On the 1st February Brenda will be offering a ‘One Off Challenge’ with some rather special candy as the main prize. This candy will be, and I quote: 'a really serious piece of equipment that all of us would love to have in our craft rooms'. Sounds intriguing!!!

Until then Brenda will be teasing us with some sneak peeks of additional prizes that she will have on offer. As well as the main challenge prize, there will be runners up prizes and a Blog Hop with prizes to be won at each stopping point. Brenda will also be sharing details of the challenge sponsors and some exciting news about them as well.

She needs us to help spread the word and make this as much fun as possible for everyone. Believe it or not there is even a prize for doing this too!

Head on over to her wonderful blog for all the details!

Caardvarks challenge... ooooo la la!

I've been working on a few different cards over the last couple of days, but wanted to share this one first!
Believe it or not this is my take on the gorgeous Caardvarks sketch... look closely, very closely!I just couldn't resist having a bit of fun with this adorable The Greeting Farm Sprout called Savanah. BTW, they have their new releases out and all of them are gorgeous. I think Ruby Sprout is calling to me!

I made up the background by colouring white card stock with Versacolour inks and then stamping with that gorgeous 'raindrops' background from Hero Arts.

The little flags are coloured with Promarkers and are made from a strip of Bazzils Basics 'Just the Edge'. The wood for the stage was cut from the current Cowshed catalogue and then coloured with Distress Ink to make it look nice and glossy. I Printed the sentiment on my PC and popped it up on dimensionals.

I am also entering this card for 'L is for Layering' over at The ABC Challenge as there are four different layers on this card to achieve the 3-D effect that I was looking for. I used alot of dimensionals for this one!

This card is for my dear friend Gay. She is a wonderful friend and one of the most honest and straightforward people you could ever wish to meet.

Happy crafting everyone, and take extra care if you are out in the snow!

It's candy time!

It's candy time over at Den's Crafty Corner....

and look whats on offer!

Blog candy alert!

There is some fabulous candy on offer over at Kathy's blog!

If you aren't familiar with Kathy's blog, which is called 'The Daily Marker', take a look as it's chock full of colour and inspiration! I have it stored in my favourites and drop by on a regular basis.

Kathy has been featured this week as the inspiration on Jill's wonderful blog 'Inspired by...

These ladies have made some really gorgeous cards!

New, blue beginnings!

Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to win a free Hero Arts digital kit from Caardvarks. I have always really enjoyed making baby cards so decided to pick 'Special Delivery' as my prize.

The current challenge over at The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge is 'New beginnings' and Cupcake Challenge #72 is to make a baby card, so this was my chance to get downloading!

I haven't made a little boy baby card for a very long time as most of my friends have daughters. I thought it would make a nice change to create a card to welcome a little boy. The lovely Lucy has just posted Challenge #3 over at her blog. Her challenge theme is to make a 'Monochromatic' card, so I thought that I would work in the gorgeous shades of blue from the Bazzil basics range.

The digital kit has a selection of cute images that will be familiar to Hero Arts fans as most have already been available in rubber. I have the woodblock version of this little onesie, but was really excited to be able to enlarge it to fill the centre of a Nesties circle. The flowers are punched with a very old daisy punch. This little punch was one of the very first tools that I ever bought, and it was fun to use it once again! The sentiment was printed on my PC, and the little heart coloured with a mixture of Diamond Stickles and Distress ink. A little work with my white gel pen pulled everything together.

I promise not to make too many Nesties cards, but they really are so much fun!

Saying 'thank you' with a big green button!

I'm not sure if this button is a bit OTT, but paired with that oversized sentiment I think it's ok!

I really love this Diana Duda image, and was delighted to find a similar one in the sale over at Funky Kits.

They currently have ten Sugar Nellie stamps in their January sale at 50% off, plus savings on Christmas and Halloween stamps too!

The paper is from my stash. I was amazed to find two whole sheets of it. I must have bought it along with the green Bazzils card as it is such a good match. I ran the pink card through the Cuttlebug and then distressed it with some Versacolour ink.

Hope everyone is keeping warm today. We have had about an inch of snow since I switched the computer on and it doesn't look like stopping any time soon!

Happy crafting everyone!

Let's share a secret....

Just a quick post today to share the fabulous secret of Nesties card construction!

For the uninitiated, which included me until a few days and one Donna ago, please watch this brief video from the wonderful Lucy. She demonstrates making these little shaped cards so well!

Here is a shot of the back of the card that I shared yesterday. As you can see the score is about 1/4 inch from the top. The adhesive is sandwiched inside the card. You need to make sure that you use really good adhesive as the person opening the card may not realise that this isn't a traditional 'folded' card.

Here is the front again, with the addition of the Hero Arts sentiment.

Donna suggested adding the image after assembling your card. I think that's a really good idea. By doing this you can make sure everything is positioned correctly. With the 'squarer' shaped card that Lucy makes in the video I don't think this would matter as much.

This card was delivered today to thank my parents for a wonderful Christmas Day, fabulous food and their lovely gifts.

Happy crafting everyone, go get those Nesties!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I feel as if I have crossed over into a new card making dimension. The adorable Donna has unlocked one of life's great mysteries for me... I finally know how to make a Nesties circular card!

Hooray and a funny little happy dance!

Actually I was so over excited that I photographed this card before adding the sentiment. After I had calmed down and stopping jigging around my craft room like some mad woman, I added a tiny little 'thank you' in the gap below her feet!

Thank you Donna, you are sooooooo kind.

I was surprised and delighted to discover that Victoria had left this little award for me on her blog. Thank you so much!

It's such a treat to get an award, and then such a treat to be able to pass it on to others!

As with all awards there are a few rules
1. Copy this award to your blog.
2. Link to the person who gave you this award.
3. Identify 7 interesting facts about yourself.
4. Choose 7 other bloggers to pass this award on to.
5. Link to their blogs.
6. Leave them a comment to let them know about this award.

Here are my magnificent seven:
Linda
Donna
Jill
Vicky
Lynne
Sally and last, but by no means least... Beth.

My seven sort of 'interesting' facts are:

1. I became an auntie in May last year and am totally smitten with my adorable little niece.
2. I found my way into blogland after breaking my wrist at work. No cardmaking for six frantic weeks... thank goodness for all those wonderful blogs that kept me sane.
3. The most famous person that I've met is Prince Phillip. He was very friendly and put everyone at their ease, but I cannot remember a single word of our conversation.
4. I began my career as a children's librarian and once had to dress up as a bear!
5. In September I hosted a party for 130 children and their parents... and the Lady Mayoress of Birmingham, and the poet Chris White.
6. I spend far too much money on craft goodies... and am going to make it a resolution to spend less in 2010. How long will that one last?????
7. I have just realised that I've forgotten to feed Custard and it's after 7pm. (Back in a minute...)

Enjoy your awards ladies!

Finally, I just want to congratulate the Vanessa and Alice who have both won a day on the Hero Arts blog. I am thrilled for them, and I am sure they will create some gorgeous things along with the HA girls!

Happy crafting everyone!