Letter's Craft

I bought 12 decopatch paper mache letters to spell out 'The Hobby Room' and I'm going to decorate them and  document the progress on my blog. Don't quite know why I started with the 'H' but I just started somewhere. I thought I could follow a theme with each letter which is listed below.

I'd be really interested in hearing your suggestions for decorating any of my letters, so please leave me a comment if you have a random epiphany and I'll add it to my list.

T = Tim Holtz, tags, tissue tape........
H = Hearts, heat gun
E = Embossing powder, Embellishments, eyelets

H = Hands, holographic, handmade paper
O = Ornate
B = Bling, Beadazles
B = Buttons, brayering
Y = mmmmmmmmmmmm haven't thought of one for this yet. Something yellow maybe.

R = Ribbons, resist, rubber stamp, rub-on
O = DOOOOO crafts, oriental
O = Olympics (I'm thinking Papermania Protobello Road stuff)
M = Mixed Media, all about Me (thanks for that suggestion EE), mulberry flowers, masking

Create and Craft Cruise

I'm toying with the idea of going on the Create and Craft cruise. I really like the idea of having a little holiday with lots of like minded people who, lets face it, must be mad about crafting too if they're going to pay for a cruise and craft all day. I actually wouldn't mind a couple of spa massages thrown in too. But 4 days is simply just not enough time! I want at least a week!  ....wait I take that back, I reckon Leonie will be in overdrive and may actually explode with trying to draw in oxygen after 4 days. And Nigel will have everyone laughing themselves to death on board. I think 4 days is definitely enough.   I wonder who else will be there? The website for the cruise is not very informative, very basic and you have to wait for them to ring you. Well I have put my name down, let's see what they say when they ring me.

Mousey Cherry Cupcakes

I made this for a work colleagues birthday this week. She's kinda mad for cakes, not just cupcakes.
I really like the way the Glossy Accents make the cherries look shiny and 3D. The stamp is a Lili of The Valley 'Cherry on the Top' stamp (why do I want all LOTV stamps?). The cardstock is Kanban, flowers are Petaloo, sentiment is my own designed in Photoshop, and I've used some liquid pearls dots around the edge.

The Fairy World!

I have been lost again in the world of imagination with Lavinia Stamps. They are so versatile, you can make any scene look amazing. I never have a preconceived idea of what I want it to look like, I just tear some paper and make some hills or grassy mounds using distress inks, then I stamp on the main images I want, then I decide on perspective near or far distance. I could have just put a bush where the trees are and it would have changed the perspective to closer to the subject. Instead I went for distance with trees.

I used the small Dew Drop Brilliance pads for the different colours in the leaves on the tree. It is only one small stamp, but you use it many times around the tree, with various shades of ink. The Brilliance ink gives the tree a nice shimmery effect. I used a reverse image technique using the brayer in the water too.

I couldn't leave the inside blank too.

I used blue and yellow cosmic shimmer spray on the blank side of the card. 

And stamped some embossed Kanban card for the message side.

I used Promarkers to colour the fairy door. The ivy stamp is actually a Flower Soft stamp,  inked with Olive StazOn Ink. 

The sentiment is Papermania's Midnight Fairytail, stamped with Versamark and beautiful Persian Sea Aurora  Cosmic Shimmer Embossing Powder. It really looks gorgeous and metallic blue.

The card is finished off with Glitter Magic holographic silver glitter, and blue Ice Stickles. Oh and a small piece of K & Co ribbon. 

Lavinia stamps world

Using Lavinia Stamps takes me to a place where my imagination is let loose. They're so easy to use with all the stamps available its not hard to put a combination together and create a magical scene.  I was so pleased to find out that Lavinia Stamps was going to be at Rainton Meadows, Ross Papercraft Show, I could hear my purse squealing at the prospect of being emptied! It was well and truly emptied. I noticed that this Papercraft show is getting bigger, I hope so. I want it to be as big as Stamp Magic, so I don't have to drive to Doncaster.

The glitter just finishes off the images beautifully.

Cake Dreams

I made this card for my best friends birthday who is crazy about cooking, she makes some fab profiteroles..mmmmm  Can I have some more???

What I really love about the Molly Blooms stamps is that they all have such smiley faces. Just makes you wanna colour them in. I decided to throw everything I had Tim Holtzy at this card and some sequin waste.

You can see the lovely cosmic shimmer embossing powder on this pic realy well, it's such a beautiful colour. Its the Blue Maroon Aurora shade really nice bluey purple metallic shimmer on it. I need more shades!

I used the Stamp Man barley grass stamp as well as Tim Holtz visual Artistry -Regal Flourish stamps. I also used Tim Holtz flourish & borderline masks on the background before I used the Green Forest moss & Chipped Sapphire distress inks.

I coloured the Molly Blooms stamp with Promarkers, they are so easy to colour with great areas for shading. The ticket is also a Tim Holtz product, they are great though, oh and I used his Tissue Tape under the ribbon. I coloured the tissue tape with Adirondack alcohol inks colours: Eggplant & Lettuce.

I used the freebe (from a magazine) Christmas Frosting glitter on the cupcake for a sugar strand effect.

My friend loved my card, but I'm still waiting for the profiteroles!

Rainton Meadows here I come!

With shopping list in hand. I'm excited by the up and coming weekend, its my birthday on Monday, and I've put a holiday in at work. It's the Ross Papercraft Show at Rainton Meadows in Sunderland on Sunday (I love the new year, for this is when the new season of craft shows commences),  I am planning on playing with my new crafty purchases and maybe a couple of crafty Birthday presents on Monday. I will photograph my haul for the blog.  Roll on Stamp Magic my favourite of all the shows in Doncaster, but I have to wait another 5 months for that. Boo!  I would really like to go to the craft show at the NEC but that's an overnighter job, I need to make some friends in Birmingham. ;-)

Not a red Valentines card!

Valentines cards don't have to be red. They can be peachy and bluey green!
They don't have to have cupid and his arrow on either, they can have an Alice in Wonderland Octopode Factory stamp on them. The Valentines idea stemmed from the Queen of Hearts really, but resulted in Alice in Wonderland.

I had seen an article in Craft Stamper last year which used wax and mica powders on a tag, I revisited this magazine last night when I couldn't sleep (I think us crafter's quite often can't sleep with so many ideas banging around in our heads!), but it inspired me to use wax and mica powders on this Valentines card.

I wanted bling, but not gems or glitter, and the mica powders just gives it a nice little sheen on the wax. Not to mention the lovely Beadazzle balls, which are marvellous.

I have entered this card in a Valentines challenge on Creatalicious Challenges http://creataliciouschallenges.blogspot.com/

Where do I start with what I've used on this card? Maybe the top and work my way down. 

Martha Stewart deep edge heart punch along the top and used Dried Marigold Tim Holtz Distress Ink around the edges.

I managed to pick up a 12 x 12 DCWV Madly in Love cardstock stack from Hobbycraft for just £6.99 in the Boxing Day sale and the black and greeny blue heart backing card is out of that. I used Black Soot distress ink around the edges. 

The peachy card is some Kanban cardstock from my stash, and Broken China distress ink around the edge. 

I pinched some of my Yankie Candle wax out of a burner to brush on the corner of my card, and stamped a flourish stamp into it before it cooled. Actually it could be a scented card too, it smells lovely!

I rubbed some mica powder over the top of the cooled wax with my finger. It really is that simple, and it looks really great too.

Spellbinder's dies

I used Spellbinder's Ironworks dies for the doily type circles, which are edged with Dried Marigold distress ink. 

Heart Stamp

I used the free heart stamp from Craft Stamper this month and stamped onto some Tim Holtz Crowded Attic paper with the Broken China distress ink. I then used a Versamark pad and stamped again over the stamped heart and put clear embossing powder over the top of the stamp. I then used the Dried Marigold distress ink over the top of the heart stamp to give it that peachy centre. 

Alice in Wonderland Stamp

The Alice in Wonderland is a Octopode Factory stamp which is great, and is coloured with Promarkers. The Cherish tag is a Tim Holtz Idea-ology tag.  

Twigs

The twigs are the Tim Holtz Alterations On the Edge Twigs die by Sizzix. I used some Craftwork Cards chipboard with the die. Then I painted it with PVA glue, then white acrylic paint and dried it with the heat gun for the crackle effect. I then used mica powders on the twigs to colour them a bit. I used the wax technique along the bottom of the twigs.

Sentiment

The sentiment I made in Photoshop, and coloured in the number 14 with Promarkers and put this year's date on 14/2/12. Oh and the sentiment is held on with a Tim Holtz memo pin.

The red felt Love heart button embellishment I bought from Hobbycraft, it comes in a pack of lots of little red felt hearts in the Dress It Up range.

I have made the inside of the card look pretty too using Kanban card and some tissue tape.

Hope you like it as much as I liked making it. Wish my job was not working with numbers all day every day,  I'd give anything to be crafting all day and still be able to pay the mortgage!

Michelle xx