Sheena's Floral Perfect Partners on Hochanda.

Hello lovely peeps!

I hope you are all well! I'm super excited to tell you that Sheena is back with us on Hochanda, Thursday 25th August, with her Floral Perfect Partners collection.  I adore these, they are blooming lovely! ;) The shows times are....10am, 3pm and 6pm.

And if that wasn't amazing enough she is with us all weekend too for the weekend WOW... WOW would be an understatement really...just wait until you see the new Christmas dies and stamps she has for you, they are stunning and beautiful. I will blog about them tomorrow...

So back to the flowers...these are the samples I have made for the show. The wonderful thing is now, because we have the foils we can also use them with the flowers to add highlights and shimmer.

I so love these stamps and dies, so pretty! I always enjoy creating with these. You will see the Lilies, Anemones and the Pansies and much more! 

Below is the canvas I made for the DT call out so you can see what the Pansies are like.

Wonderful things coming up this weekend from all the Teamies, so watch this space and Hochanda if you can!  Back soon folks...I will also be blogging about how I made these floral cards after the show. 

Adele

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Techniques used for Sheena.

Hello everyone,

This is a post I have been meaning to share since I created the cards for Sheena using the A Little Bit Festive stamp collection. I had a light bulb moment...*ping* after the show... it does happen sometimes, so let's make the most of it...lol.. I thought it would be a good idea to share with you the techniques I used on these cards (in the last post) and then you too can try them out if you like. They are really fun and it's great to play. Every time I make something, I like to push myself and try a new technique and experiment, and then I make new discoveries along the way.

As it happens I did not take step by step photos of the ones created for Sheena and Hochanda as the brain wave came after the event... so I have created a new project using all the same techniques, used across all my samples, in one card... are you ready?  lol.. here goes! 

First I started by taking a piece of Sheena stamping card and marked out a 7" square on it. This gave me a guide to tear a rough edge along. Always tear toward you and then you get the texture on the top of the card or paper.

Then I ended up with this, my base to work with. This is same method I used on the background of the Silver Bells card.

Next I took the Aquatints, the Landscape set, using colours blue (08), dark blue (03) and green (22)

and began to sponge them on to the card, leaving white patches for some of colour to take completely and then it would blend where it overlapped.  I did this in the order shown above and this is the technique that was used on the Noel card. 

So I ended up with this. I love the effects you can get with Aquatints, they can be really dramatic. 

Then I turned to the Mixiton Relief from Pebeo. Oooh, so love this too! 

It was applied along the rough edge I created and then I pressed it down with my index finger. A little tip... if you do this and then do the same on the second side of the card, you can go back to the first application a few seconds later and press your finger into it again. Because it has already started to set to can get a deeper impression of your finger and it gives you more texture. I also think it gives you a great effect being on the torn card in the first place as it makes it really distressed.

When it has gone clear you can add the foil to the edge.

Then Sheena's Grunge Band stamps came into play. I do love these, excellent for creating so many effects. I used these on the dove peace card, the Wishing you a Merry Christmas scroll card and the Noel card. I randomly stamped them with Memento Gold Galaxy ink. This gave me a guide to work from for the foil. 

After it had dried I applied the gold foil which turned the circles into rays of light. I also applied the liquid paste to the stars so I could foil those too. 

Then to mix it up a bit, I felt like adding a extra technique. I thought these Prisme paints were fantastic when I saw Sheena's and Donna's samples on the mixed media shows. As long as you make a deep enough reservoir with the relief paste and don't put too much of the Prisme inside it, it will be fine. It does take quite a while to properly dry though but worth it. 

Then I decided to create a sentiment banner using the lighter blue from the Landscape Aquatints and the sponging method again. On this I also added the gold Aquatint from the Essentials collection. A little tip for this is to add some water to your glass matt and then a drop of the metallic to it. This waters it down, so that you get a hint of sparkle rather than full on gold or silver. Also the extra effect of this, is that the water you have soaked up also pulls some of the colour out of the background, so you get a lovely pattern with lighter areas too. :) 

This is the finished card. The sentiment is from Sheena's new Victorian A Little bit Festive collection, Christmas Notes. I thought it fitted in well with the design of this card. Gold Stickles were added to the edge of the sentiment. 

I wanted you to see that you don't just have to use "Christmas" stamps and images to get a nice seasonal card, You can also create something contemporary using Sheena's other stamps. :) So don't be afraid to experiment and have a play! 

Before I finish this post I will add the photos I did take whilst making the Silver Bells card. I have photos of the background! Two at least.. lol. This was created with the blue Aquatints. I then dropped water on it with the pipette and added splashes of the Silver Aquatints, followed by the snowflake stamp from the set and heat embossed them with white puff powder. 

I hope you have enjoyed these techniques. I will be back next week with a new inspirational project from Sheena's range, following on from my fellow Teamies creations, so watch this space! :)

Adele

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Sheena is back on Hochanda.

Hello crafty peeps!

What an unbelievable few weeks it has been. I think I have finally got used to the amazing news that I am now a Sheena Teamie! I've made my first cards as an official inkoid! It's very exciting, I always find card making a magical process but when you are creating something for Sheena it takes on a special kind of wonder and thrill all of its own.

So, Sheena is back on our screens tomorrow (Friday 5th August) at 10am. 1pm and 6pm... only one more sleep! And if that isn't wonderful enough she is also doing Pebeo mixed media shows too at 11am. 2pm and 5pm. So she will be busy, busy, busy... We may as well rename it Sheena Day! lol

I've had SOooooo much fun playing with this fabulous collection of stamps, A Little Bit Festive. They are from last year but as with all things Sheena, they are timeless.  Now there is added encouragement for using this range as they also work incredibly well with the Pebeo foils.  These are my new love! How did I ever manage without them?  Once you try them, there is no going back and you won't want to anyway! They just beautifully enhance everything.  If you want to create a showstopping card your family and friends will still be talking about long after Christmas, foils are the way to go, and as I always say bling is not just for the festive season.

I wanted something atmospheric for this Noel stamp, so I used Aquatints..sigh.. how I love them too. What also worked really well for this was the Grunge Band stamps to add a halo around the star and to give the impression of a burning light. So don't be a afraid to mix up your sets, you may come up with a new and exciting idea.  That's is the true beauty of Sheena's collections, they work together perfectly.

This card mixes up a few of the stamps from the set, so you can see how well they combine, along with the added holly and poinsettia dies. Again, the Grunge Band stamps were an excellent addition to this design, creating a glow around the candles. You can't really tell from the photos but the candles are decoupaged, I do love a bit of that too. :) 

Ah, "Silver Bells....Silver Bells...it's Christmas time...in the city."  I had the Doris Day song in my head all the time I was designing this card and by the end of it I was feeling very Christmassy. As you can see I carefully stamped the Silver Bells sentiment separate too as I wanted it to remind people of the famous song. (Can you hear Doris?) I decoupaged the bells to create depth and interest and I decided to make a background that would be reminiscent of snow gently falling, whilst festive shopping. 

For this card I thought I would create a graduated background and purple just spoke to me, next to blue and green, it's my other favourite colour. A scroll was made for the Peace wording and it was coloured with Aquablend pencils (also graduated.)  The Grunge band stamps (I might be obsessed with these now lol) also worked well for the Heavenly dove too, especially with added silver foil. The Dove was stamped and cut out so it could be layered.

So.. I've had a wonderful time playing with these, and all the Teamies have made some stunning creations, wait till you see them on the telly!  I can promise you, that there will be many more amazing things coming up in the future! So watch this space, you won't be disappointed! 

Adele

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Vintage Wedding Card

Hello lovely peeps,

I've been busy creating a very special wedding card for a friend. She commissioned it asking for something vintage and that's just my thing. I recently purchased the Roll up Flower die by Sara Davies, from her English Country Garden collection. As soon as I saw it on Hochanda, I knew I had to have it, it would be perfect for so many projects as well as this wedding card.  I love it and after making this my mind has gone in to overdrive with ideas for more projects! There is no hope for me..lol

I've also used the Handwritten Script stamp from the same range by Sara. It was stamped using Memento Rich Cocoa as it was more suitable for the theme and the chosen colours. The foliage was created with Tonic Regal Fern, Sheena's Ivy die and the Briar rose die and I decided it would be nice to hang a key and heart lock from the vines. These were cut out with gold pearlized card and extra shimmer was added with gold gilding wax, this was also rubbed across the die cut lace edge. Butterflies were carefully cut out to make use of the design on the paper, so it seemed to be shaped to them. (It's all about the small details.) The paper is from my Trimcraft winnings, from the other week, I thought it was perfect for this project, as is the pearl brad in the middle of the bow. After building all the layers, as a finishing touch, I used Platinum Stickles on the edges of the wedding sentiments. 

I've really enjoyed making this card and I hope the happy couple love it and I wish them all the very best for a wonderful day and new life together. 

What I used:

From Crafter's Companion

Sara Davies Handwritten Script Stamp from English Country Garden Collection

Roll up flower

Heart dies (from the Gemini machine)

Ivy die by Sheena Douglass

Briar Rose Die by Sheena Douglass

Trimcraft First Edition Mulberry kisses paper pad.

Wedding sentiments from Dovecraft (Trimcraft)

Dovecraft butterfly die

Pearl brads.

Heart lock - X-cut dies

Key - Vintasia die

Lace edge - Joanna Sheen.

Gold Gilding Wax

Pearls and gems

Platinum Stickles.

Adele

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The Language of Flowers cards with Stampendous

Hello everyone,

I hope you are well and have been making the most of the sunshine. It's been a busy week making lots of lovely things, which I can show you in the future. :)

Today, I thought I would share with you some cards I previously taught as a class. I've always loved the Language of Flowers and it inspired me whilst designing these cards.

They were created using Stampendous stamps, Butterfly charms and Frantage flowers, a nice vintage selection. I love Violets, there are some growing in a pot outside. They symbolise love and affection so are a lovely flower to send to someone to let them know how much you care.  We used alcohol pens to colour the blooms and the butterflies were painted with Distress Inks used as watercolour. A aged background paper was also created with Tea Dye Distess Ink and alcohol pens. You can see how this is done on a previous post here. It's a great way to give an aged or burnt look to paper.

http://craftitreasures.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/beautiful-sunflowers-card-tutorial-with.html

The butterflies were randomly stamped on the background and the ribbon wrapped around the middle before adding the layers. I chose a pale lilac vintage script paper to compliment the design as it seemed to fit in well with the theme.

For the second card I wanted to create something reminiscent of Victorian wallpaper and their love of nature. Again, I created an aged background and randomly stamped the flowers and butterflies. They were painted with Distress Inks. The rosette was cut out and layered using Tonic dies, as well as the strip, which a ribbon was threaded through. 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing these projects. :)  These are what I used to create them. 

Stampendous Perfectly Clear Butterfly Charms and  Frantage Flowers.

Tonic Thinking of you die set 191e

Back with more projects soon.

T.T.F.N

Adele

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A Fairy Merry Christmas with Lavinia Stamps and exciting Sheena news!

Hello crafty peeps!

I hope you are all well. I am still feeling the Christmas vibe so I thought I would share this Fairy card I made last year. I taught this as a class alongside the vintage blue angel Christmas card I posted about previously.

I love Lavinia stamps and this is not really a Christmas stamp but it lent itself to that very well. It's called Fairy House.

The image was stamped on to a panel of white card and the edges were then roughed up with a distressing tool. The sky was created with Colour Cloud ink, not too heavy on colour as I wanted just a hint so it would look like a snow filled sky. The houses were coloured with alcohol pens, a gold pen and red Cosmic Shimmer iridescent paint. Green spots were added by Liquid Pearls. I extended the line underneath the mushrooms with a black liner pen and then applied silver Inca Gold to this section and around the edge of the whole panel. The same way you would use Gilding Wax. This added shine and also made it look like a blizzard was moving in, all very Chrismassy!

Twine was wrapped around the bottom part and attached behind. Tiny little bells, available from Marianne Designs, were added, I love these!  Just like little fairy bells!

It was then mounted on the red glitter card and on to the spotty background,  The snowflake die was from a Sue Wilson collection and the Lavinia sentiment went nicely in the bottom corner. For the finishing touches I then glittered the ground and applied spots of Stickles to suggest snow falling. We all had fun making this card. :)

In other news....

Exciting things are afoot in the world of Sheena! A brilliant idea has been hatched and is now starting to take form. In the following months the Sheena teamies will be blogging about fabulous Sheena projects! We will be offering you inspiration, showing you how you can combine the collections together. They can mix and match so easily (it's as if it was all planned isn't it? ;) )  So amazing things are coming up folks, watch this space!  Every Monday and Thursday a team member will be sharing a project, prepare yourself for many wonderful things! It's very exciting!

Donna has started us off with this gorgeous card. I absolutely love this and it is a perfect example of how all the stamps can work so well together.  The possibilities are endless!

You can see more about this project here...

http://donnaslittlecraftycorner.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/the-start-of-something-new.html

So many things to plan for now... so anything could happen! You have been warned ..lol.

Adele

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Honoured to be Joining Team Sheena

Hello peeps,

As you may know a few weeks ago Sheena Douglass put a call out for new members to join her amazing team. I've loved Sheena and everything she does for a long time now. It was such a great opportunity, so I felt I had to enter. There were so many wonderful entries and it was fantastic to see what all the talented ladies came up with. Sometimes you have a dream and never believe it may become a reality and in all honesty, it had been a secret wish for me to be able to make things for Sheena and now it has come true!

I am so incredibly honoured to be invited to join her fantastic team, especially when all the creations were so beautiful and clever. To be chosen in the shortlist was exciting and then to go on to be picked as part of her new team members is beyond anything I can put in to words easily.  I have been completely overwhelmed by all the lovely comments and words of support I have received. It really means so very much to me.

This is the canvas I entered for round two of the call out and I thought I would share it with you. I created it using The Briar rose dies and stamps, the pansy stamp and a butterfly stamp. The background was sponged with blue and silver paint to add texture. This was inspired by my hanging baskets and the strange weather we have been experiencing lately, sunshine and showers. I used Glossy Accents to make raindrops on some of the petals and leaves and they were coloured using AquaBlend pencils.

After having an amazing few weeks, which started by winning a competition and has ended with becoming a design team member, I have felt like I am in a bubble (at least for the first few days), I wanted to ask someone to pinch me, but no it is real, I think my brain has processed it now..lol.. although it took a while.. Family and friends have told me that I should buy a lottery ticket but I do feel like I have already won that to some degree (although maybe I should! I need more money for crafty supplies! lol... A crafter's shopping list never ends. ;) )

So a huge thank you to Sheena and Donna for inviting me to join the rest of the team. I am so looking forward to working with these fabulous creative ladies and producing work with all the wonderful future stamp and die collections. I can't wait to see what comes next but I know it will be marvellous, anything by Sheena always is. :)

Adele
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