Sheena Douglass Time Traveller launch

Hello lovely peeps!

I hope you are all well.  WOWZERS!!! What an amazing few days it has been for Sheena and all the team. This launch was much anticipated and it seems that we may have broken the internet at one point or even melted the phone lines..lol... It was right, we stuck another cog on it!

I can't tell you how excited the whole team was about this collection but being a Steampunk myself, I needed peeling off the ceiling! Happy dance time! lol.. and breathe!!!

And it's official, as they said it on the telly! I AM the Time Traveller lol! It's true you know! ;) As Sheena explained I have been a tad excited haven't I?  Calm thoughts, chanting and camomile tea... to be honest, all the tea in China wouldn't haven't stopped me being giddy! lol

Steampunk is very craft orientated as many members make their own costumes and gadgets etc....it is also about story telling and creating a character, so with that in mind, I wanted to capture the essence of this in some of my creations, therefore, some of them tell a splendid steampunk adventure!

chapter 1:  Firstly I would like to introduce you too Sir Edward Harrison, inventor, as he steps off his time machine and surveys his surroundings.

I thought that the Steampunk Man and the Thingamabob went so well together. You probably can't tell in the photo but he is decoupaged, I can't resist a bit of decoupage and it is so easy with these stamps. 

Chapter 2... in which we meet Lizzie, belle of the airways, brave adventurer and travel companion of Sir Edward...What will happen next??

For this card I wanted a background with plenty of depth as if the cogs were coming though the steam. Again, our Lizzie is decoupaged. 

Chapter 3... Professor Theodore Ernest is in his lab working on his latest invention...yet, dark beings lurk in the shadows! He is taken, kidnapped by evil genius Herman Luther, who is set on world domination! What lies is store now??

I really loved working on this canvas and combining all the elements from across the collection. It was also fun to create this story, working with all the different textures.

Chapter 4...Finding the lab in disarray and the professor gone, Lizzie and Sir Edward take to the skies in her airship for another adventure...yet it looks like stormy times may be ahead...

I had such fun designing this diorama card and part of the reason for this was so I could suspend a floating balloon inside it. Then other parts of the collection help to also tell this part of the story.

Chapter 5.. On the trail of their friend Lizzie and Edward head north to find the professor...

For this card I really wanted to make something magical and a bit mysterious to create suspense... (And I love northern lights, have you realized yet? lol) I was so touched that Leonie (one of the presenters on Hochanda, for those of you who may not know) said she thought it was "dreamy,...so cool." and that she "loved it." It made me smile inside and out. Thank you Leonie! :D 

Chapter 6.... The friends fly on into the storm in search of the professor..

Honestly, how much do I love this balloon? I've always had a love of hot air balloons, there is something quite romantic about them and I hoped to portray that in this card.  I think I might have achieved it as Leonie said  this was "beautiful and magical." Ooh, I'm soooo overwhelmed by all the lovely responses I have had, I can't tell you, I am truly touched and feel very honoured. I think all of us in the team make things and hope that others will like them but we don't expect the reaction we do receive, it has blown us away. So thank you, thank you, thank you. I may be smiling for months to come. 

Chapter 6...  Are the Sands of Time running out to save the Professor?? 

This was the last chapter in my story.. I left it on a cliffhanger as it is now up to you crafty peeps who bought the collection to finish the story.... This clock die and stamp is amazing.  I also used the texture paste for the sand pouring through the face. 

How brilliant are these pipe stamps and dies?  I've loved working with these too!  This was designed so it would seem like we were looking into a machine, perhaps the time machine! This is a journal as they are perfect for those too.

Sigh... these cogs... for this I wanted it to look like they were coming towards you out of the steam...

and again, another journal

For this one I was playing with Aquatints too...also love a bit of aged paper..

And here are the 6" cards I created with other parts of the Time Traveller collection..

Well, that was a lost post wasn't it? haha... wait till you see the techniques post!  Prepare yourselves..lol.. that will be coming up in the not too distant future.. I can wait to see what other crafty peeps have made with these...

T.T.F.N folks

Adele

x

Sheena Autumn Inky Ink-ette challenge

Hello lovely peeps!

Well, we have been very busy here at Sheena HQ!  Another amazing launch is coming, the fabulous Sheena will be on Hochanda from Monday with her new Time Traveller collection... It's truly stunning, I can tell you, more about that later...

Now,  the teamies recently put their heads together to see how we could encourage Sheena's Ink-ettes to share more of their makes with us. I suggested a monthly challenge and then together we formulated a plan we thought would work well. So, alongside some of my fellow inkoids, I have been causing crafting mayhem! It's the best kind lol... and our cunning plan worked out very well! :) Every three weeks a inkoid will host a challenge and we invite the Ink-ettes to enter, it's lots of fun.

Seen as how I was partially responsible, I volunteered first (it was only fair lol.) So we kicked the challenge off with an autumn theme. This is one of my favourite times of year for the colours, not so much the cold and the rain but you can't have everything can you?

So this is the card I created to inspire the Ink-ettes. I do love Squirrels too. The team chose a favourite from all the entries and then Sheena shared it on her facebook page and as it was the launch and my chosen challenge, I also personally said I would share the chosen card on my blog too. :)

Coming up is the tutorial for how I made this card and the wonderful creation we chose as our favourite by Anita Dufton. 

To begin I used Aquatints to create a background. I wanted it to have that dappled light effect you get in forests. I sponged them on and then sprinkled table salt over the top. It has to be quite wet when you do this (but not too much) as the salt does need to react with the water. You have to let this dry naturally. This is a very unpredictable technique but that is part of the fun, each time will result in different patterns and I was pleased with how this turned out.

Next I took Sheena's Tumbling leaves embossing folder and ran it through the machine twice because I wanted two leaf corners. They were painted using Aquatints and then gold gilding wax was rubbed over them to bring out the detail more. 

The other leaves from the folder were then cut out.

As well as colouring these embossed leaves I also stamped and cut out some leaves and acorns from Sheena's squirrel stamp set, Little Acorn. The leaves were stamped on to paper. Acorns were stamped on to card and paper as I wanted some to sit more flat on the design and have some slightly thicker for the foreground. 

The background was layered on to kraft card which had gold gilding wax around the edge and this was mounted on a 8" card.

Foam tape was attached to the back of the corners and the squirrel. I created a branch for the squirrel to sit on by scoring some texture into a piece of Sheena card and painting it with Aquatints. I was still deciding on some of the loose leaf layouts.

Began to add my elements...also used Sheen's Autumn branch die...

I hid some of the acorns throughout the card as you will see in the finished photo, as we know squirrels love to stash them! 

This is the wonderful creation by Anita Dufton that the team chose as their favourite. Isn't it beautiful? We loved the choice of colours and the layout, we felt it really captured the spirit of Autumn. Well done Anita! :) 

So lots of fab things coming up from Sheena next week! Prepare yourselves folks! You won't want to miss it....here is a sneaky peek for you...

Being a Steampunk myself I can't tell you how excited I am about this collection!!!! eeek... and breathe...steampunk is very craft orientated and members make their own costumes and things..It is also about story telling and character creating, therefore, with this in mind, some of my makes for this collection will tell a story..firstly, I would like to introduce you to Sir Edward Harrison, inventor, here we greet him as he steps off his time machine and surveys his surroundings.. The Time Traveller shows start Monday the 24th on Hochanda (times yet to be announced) .... ooh I can't wait. bet you can't either... maybe I shall have to have a word with Sir Edward and ask to borrow his time machine!!

Adele

x

Majestic Stag diorama card with Sheena Douglass

Hello lovely crafters! 

I hope you are all well. It's my turn do to a Sheena inspirational post again. :) I've had this in mind since I saw this die and have been waiting to create this to show you. It seems quite apt now too, after the weekend, as Sheena was on Hochanda with the wonderful Scenic Winter collection. And the good thing about it is, it's not just perfect for Christmas scenes as you will see....

The majestic stag surveys his surroundings, in the beautiful landscape of..... I watch a lot of Attenborough...can you tell? :) 

So, I started by taking some Sheena card and cutting it down, long ways to 15cm on my trimmer. I then scored a panel of 15cm in the centre and either side of that scored seven 1cm panels and then just cut away the little extra that was left. 

I will list the stamps used at the end. :)  Another panel of 15cm by just slightly smaller than 15cm was cut, to accommodate the crease that helps to create the diorama. I stamped on to this the hill scene, used Distress Ink for the sky, Aquablend pencils for the mountains and Aquatints for the grass. I thought some pretty heather on the hills would be nice. I do like to see the heather.  This Ruins stamp is fabulous! One of my favourites, used this quite a bit. Attached the hill scene to the centre as you can see. 

As it was easier and less messy used red tape to stick the castle in the middle of the diorama. 

Cut out and stamped the die and colored trees with DI's and the stag with Aquablend pencils. I cut out an extra frame for strength with the large square die from the Gemini machine. You don't have to do this but I like some extra strength to it. 

Glued it to the back.

Then it was time to attach the stag to the rest of the card, again I used red tape as it's strong (for those of you who have not used it, it's the equivalent of superglue in tape form! A must have!) 

And another angle of the finished card. 

I hope you liked this project and it has inspired you. I enjoyed making this. I think next time though I would also use DI's on the outer sides before I creased it. There are lots more amazing things coming up from Sheena and the team....so watch this space! :)

I have used:

Enjoy the silence stamp set

Castle Ruins stamp

Scenic Winter Christmas Deer die

Scenic Winter Wishes of the Season stamp set

Aquablend pencils

Distress Inks

Aquatints Landscapes.

Adele

x

Ps. Ok, so the gremlin that wouldn't let me add the photos to this blog post initially has now decided to change the font halfway through again, I promise you I didn't touch it...and I can't change it...so apologizes that it looks odd again.. I hope I can find the little tinker and then I can lock it up and throw away the key!

Sheena Christmas Embossing folders launch.

Hello lovely peeps!

How exciting Sheena is back with us tomorrow on Hochanda and throughout the weekend! Shows start at 10am tomorrow. This time she is bringing us some gorgeous new Christmas embossing folders. They work perfectly with some of the older festive collections and also combine with the recently launched Scenic winter dies and stamps too!  What's not to love?

This one below is actually Cadbury purple... ( I must not think about chocolate I will zone out again..lol)  but the photography changed the colour..

As you can see this folder works well with the Scenic Winter Stag stamp and die.

And now for something a little bit different... I decided I wanted to create an album which looked like someone had been collecting vintage festive greetings over the years and had sentimentally put them in a book to treasure... You can do so many techniques with these fab folders... I was going for a vintage/retro/graphic style with these, and I hoped they would tell a little Christmas story...

Just thought I would mention, you can also keep up with my Sheena makes and blog posts on my crafti treasures facebook page. :) 

So tomorrow is the big day! You won't want to miss it and Sheena will be sharing all her wonderful techniques as always. And, as usual, I will share some of my techniques, used to create these makes after the shows. 

T.T. F. N. peeps

Adele.

x