Butterfly Beauties

Typical!!!  I was hoping that when I took some photos of this card that you would be able to see the effects, but alas no, they didn't show in the pictures and unless you saw the show you wouldn't know that I used the Periwinkle Yink pigment ink with 2 of the two-tone Moonglow embossing powders over the top.  I used the Golden Pumpkin Blush and the Weeping Willow Green Gold, the later matches the shade of the brads I used in her hair. 

Weeping Willow Green Gold is the same embossing powder I used on the heart I posted about before, it looks nothing special in the jar but here over the clover pigment ink you can really see the effects, you just have to imagine them over the Periwinkle ink! 

It was a quick card to make, after embossing I used the same ink to paint her hair.

Here's another example below showing all 3 Yinks colours on the show to ink the stamp that was then embossed the same way, then coloured with the same inks.

If you haven't got this stamp sheet yet and would like it, you'll find it HERE, and the individual jars of Moonglow Embossing Powders can be found HERE.

Do pop over to Vix's blog now to see her magnificent domino key ring that was shown during the show, it's awesome!!

I hope you are having a great Sunday!!

Jill

Last of the cards by Karen Jackson

Here is the last card that Karen made for us for the HSNW show at Port Sunlight recently.  The lady is from Tracey's Alluring Ladies unmounted stamp sheet and the flower background is from Tracey's Butterfly Beauties stamp sheet.

Well, after showing you the mess I made with a project I worked on this week it is now a bit frustrating as I cannot show it to you!!  It is for a magazine and I'll have to wait patiently for it to be published before you can see it.  I REALLY enjoyed making it, it is my sort of thing!!  I'll let you know when it is on sale.

Well so far the weather this weekend is rubbish, I hope it gets better and you all have a lovely weekend!

Jill

Wooden Poinsettia Chocolate Box and Blog Candy Winners

Congratulations to the lucky winners of the blog candy!  A nice extra Christmas pressie for you all is coming your way.  Ann, Kym and Pauline have all claimed their prizes now, they have each picked a different sheet, but I know they will be happy with them as they are all great stamp sheets!

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This is the finished box that I started painting on our last Create and Craft TV show.  I think I painted the lid on camera, then quickly painted the rest while Nigel nipped up the counter to Tracey.  It dried very quickly so I just left it perching on top of my bag when I left the studio.

I painted it with Moonshadow Ink Burnished Brass.  The ink seeps straight into the wood so it is easy peasy to paint wood with, no worrying about brush marks.  If you want it to be a darker shade you just give it another coat (a bit like staining the garden furniture).  You can see by the other box in the picture that it started as quite light coloured wood.  I only gave it the one coat.  I didn't varnish it but if you want to make it a bit more hard wearing then any waterbased varnish will do.

I used the Poinsettia and Labels 5 Nestabilites along with Cuttlebug folders to give patterns to the card pieces that were not made with the paper scrunch technique.  I used card with different techniques so they would have more texture when they were layered.   I shaped the leaves of the card poinsettias.  The 3 yellow brads keep them together.

The stamp is from Tracey's Butterfly Beauties stamp sheet, useful at Christmas too!

I'm going to get some nice chocolates and give the box to Ian for Christmas (shush).

If I have time I'd like to make some gift tags and gift embellishments with the poinsettias too.  In fact I can see me dotting them all over the place!  I can embellish some napkin rings with them, the fruit bowl, candles, table, tree....Oh dear, just thought of something else too, shame there are not many days left to do it all now!

I hope you are not getting too stressed with your preparations, I just ate those chocolates in the photo, and it really helped:)

Keep warm!

Jill

Jo's cards from our last show

Jo recently joined our design team and kindly made these cards for us for the last show.  Jo hadn't photographed them before she sent them to me so I'm showing them here as we are keeping hold of the cards for a while so people can see them in real life in the shop.

The first card features another way of using the butterfly of acetate.  Jo has also used 2 of the smaller stamps on the sheet to stamp the background.  I think this is a really pretty card.

The next card is from the same stamp sheet, it's the design I've been calling the bling maiden!  Jo has used gold leafing and a white gel pen to highlight parts of the design.

I love the Glitz Spritz background Jo has made for the fairy frame.  It's subtle but still lovely and shimmery! 

Now onto the Classical Instruments sheet, Jo has used mica pigment powders to add colour to the guitar.

This card has an acetate overlay.  Jo stamped the violin onto the acetate with Timber Brown Stazon ink and has added gold leafing to the body of the violin, unfortunately my picture doesn't show how lovely it looks.  The stamped swirls on the acetate are a great frame idea. 

Moonshadow ink has been used on the base white card.

Thank you for all of them Jo! 

Jo is a Springer Spaniel lover hence the name of her blog, The Life and Creations of a Springer-Lovin Paper Stroker...  A great name for a blog!  Do go and visit Jo's blog she has some great stuff over there!

Thanks for visiting

Jill

Butterfly Beauties and Moonshadow Ink

Good morning!

Well, the blog hop has ended now, I believe the Tuesday Tagger's will be announcing the winners of the prizes tomorrow, so pop over tomorrow to see if you have won!

Today's card is another from the show on 28th November, with the same Butterfly Beauties sheet, Moonshadow inks, and course salt.

We had acetate on the show along with Timber Brown Stazon which worked well with the butterfly image.

I added some nailhead embellishments on the acetate and wording strip to add a little bling.

I cut the wording panel and threaded through a Moonglow card strip as a change from using ribbon.

You can see the little flowers made with the salt and ink.

Just to answer a couple of the comments from yesterday's post...

Wilma, you mentioned that you missed the show, well I have been asked back for another show on Saturday 16th January, 11am, they have asked me to do a techniques show and they will also have the DVD I made.  It covers the 8 products in the Moonglow range but mainly features techniques with Moonshadow Inks.

McKinkle, I usually do my messy stuff in the kitchen, spread lots of paper out and it shouldn't be too messy, although I have to admit to hitting the toaster and kettle before now with the Moonshadow Mists when I've got carried away!  But it all cleans off.  If you have a non-stick craft sheet you'll find it a lot easier to keep the area clean.

Jill

Blog hopping and other stuff

Thank you to everyone who hopped by yesterday to take part in the Tuesday Tagger's Blog Hop.  If you didn't join in yesterday, you still can, as it runs through today too, and you still have a great chance of winning some nice prizes!  Scroll down or click on yesterday's post to get all the details about it, where to start etc.  It was a great fun yesterday, so well worth you joining in with it today.  Thank you to all the Tuesday Tagger admin team for organising it, count us in if you want to do it again:)

Today's card is another from last Saturday's Create and Craft TV show.  A whopper, 8" x 8" card. 

It's featuring my all time yummy favourite Moonshadow Inks!  The colours are great and the fact that the mica and walnut ink separate so well never fails to wow me.  I just love them so much.  I used Craft Creations linen white card for this, the Moonshadow Inks LOVE their textured cards!  Their card is great quality, a fab weight and thickness to it, which makes a better quality card.  When you think of the time you spend making a card, spending a little more on good quality card is SO sensible, it really makes a difference. 

Craft Creations also provide a service to cut card to size for you.  I've been using their service for this for well over 20 years now, even before Ian and I got together and started The Stamp Man.   

Sorry, digressing...  

When I received my first jars of Moonshadow Ink to try, I was very nervous about using them, I hadn't a clue what to do with them apart from the instructions about adding hot water to the fill line!  I spoke to Lindy who developed them and she suggested I give a piece of card a wash of the ink and then add some salt....  Ummm....

Well, I gave it a try and have been totally hooked ever since!

On last Saturday's show, Nigel waggled the card around so you could see the difference when you move the card, he really showed the brown look from the walnut ink and the stunning green shimmer from the mica.  Good lad!! 

When you add salt to the inks, well, special stuff happens, the salt draws up the ink, as in silk painting, leaving lovely flower like patterns as in this example of rock/course salt

Here's the same idea with Buccaner Bay Blue, oh, so, fab, wish you could really see this one!

And, aged pitted vintage style patterns with normal table salt.

OH, ....Love it, love it, love it!  Lots of yummy mica in these jars!!

I also painted the bling maiden's hair with the same Moonshadow Inks. 

You cannot see in this photo but her hair really shimmers too!

Oh, I had to share this piece too, Violaceous Violet Moonshadow Ink with the cling film technique same idea as yesterday's post, but with Moonshadow Inks!

All yummy, yum, yum, yumminess!!

I started making my Christmas cards yesterday, 'twas quite a frenzy!  Lots of elements made for them so far, but no actual finished cards just yet, although 4 almost sort of done:)  I had better get a move on with them...

Thanks for stopping by, and for leaving all your comments. 

Jill

Reminder: C & C live show today at 12pm (noon)

Yes, yet another reminder about the Create & Craft show today, (Sky 671 and Freeview 36). I do hope you can watch it, we have lovely products on the show as well as Kay's yummy stamps!

Here's a look at the stamp sheets we are using, you'll find them on our website here. Most of the other products used are in their own sections on the website.

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It's been a busy week so I haven't had a chance to find out which cards Karen and Rachel made, but here's the last one, made with Tracey's Classical Instrument stamps and Moonglow pigment powders.Now, three more cards from meI hope this scheduled post works OK! I will be back tomorrow!!

Jill

More cards from last Tuesday's show

Here's a couple more cards from Karen and Rachel Jackson, the first is from Tracey Coates's Butterfly Beauties stamp sheet, I love her rainbow hair!!


Note the writing around the panel, a lovely card!

The second card is from the Starburst Fairies stamp sheet. The background has been sprayed with Glitz Spritz.

Thanks again both of you!

I'm setting off later to stay at my mum's for the night in Hertfordshire before travelling tomorrow up to Peterborough for the next show. Hello mum if you're popping by, see you later!

It'll only be for a few hours as I will have to set off early in the morning but they will be a few precious hours.

My demo stuff is all packed, I hope I haven't forgotten anything! That's always a worry!! I hope you can join Kay and I at noon tomorrow.

I'll schedule a post for tomorrow with some more cards.

Jill

More from the show - Butterfly Beauties sheet

A couple more cards from the show on Tuesday coloured with pigment inks and clear embossing powder. I do love these stamps!!

I may be back later...

Jill x

Flower power meets the Bling Maiden!

I named her the Bling Maiden, I think it is an apt name as you can add so many accessories to her.

I used the rainbow pigment pad with clear embossing powder for the main image and multi stamped the side panel with the border stamp that can also be used as a dress neckline. The single flower is stamped over the top and the whole piece was also embossed with clear powder.

I watercoloured her hair using the inks from the pad so they co-ordinate with the outline.

I used brads with some flower embellishments for the finishing touches.

This was a possible demo card that I didn't have time to show, it's an unembellished version of the previous card. The blue and lime green inks from the pad were used for a different look.

Unfortunately we have been told that our show will not be repeated at the weekend as some of the products have sold out and there aren't enough of others left to allow them to let the show go out. So, sorry if you missed it and were hoping to catch it over the weekend.

Cards from the show and some waffle!

One of the aims for the show was to go back to basics a bit for beginners as we had an embossing starter kit on the show and the Moonglow Sampler kit. If the effects are on the card, simple matting and layering can be enough and keeping it simple is a good thing if you are a beginner. It doesn't mean you cannot have a play with techniques though and for this card I used one of the Moonglow Glitz Spritz sprays, which is a more subtle shimmer than the stains or Moonshadow ink as it is mica and water, no stain or walnut ink. So a shake and a spray is enough.

I love the copper detail embossing powder as it is a very soft copper shade, it has a pinky tint to it. I used the Moonshadow ink to detail paint, I used a tissue to lift the ink away for shading and painted over areas I wanted to be darker.

The next 2 photos are of the smaller images on the Butterfly Beauties set, I made Tracey's images smaller so they can be used as matching hand made stamps for the backs of cards and for inserts. Also, they are ideal of ATCs and gift tags. Now I visited a blog last night and Vix has used the smaller image for the front of a gatefold card and the larger image inside the card, a brilliant idea that you could use for both of these images.
This was my first demo, I could almost hear everyone saying, oh no, she's doing that scrunch technique AGAIN! Well, forgive me but as it was my first time live and on freeview for a long time I wanted to share it with new viewers. Ok, it is also that I just love doing it too:)

I haven't actually stuck it the down yet, and I did have some wording prepared to add to it but I must tell you that when Stephanie mentioned 2 clear powders in the starter kit I wrote white and clear on the back of it and pushed it in front of her to correct herself, poor woman had me doing that and likely someone in her ear telling her too!! So I don't know what happened to that little piece of card!


I'm not sure if this little gift tag was shown, but here it is now. I have been asked for a gift for you stamp quite a few times and thought it appropriate for the matching images.

Tracey and I met at the hotel on Tuesday evening and had a look through all the cards before going for dinner where we had a good old chatter. Tracey went to her room to craft afterwards and I pottered about a bit and filed my nails away (almost), it was nice to be quiet and calm for a while as it had been a long day.

I don't usually sleep very well the night before a show but I must have dropped off straight away. I woke at 1am as an email arrived on my mobile, (it was my daily viagra spam grrr), deleted it but couldn't turn the phone off as I needed the alarm for the morning, anyway I went back to sleep, and then my daily spam report came through at about 4am which woke me again, (double grrr). My back was still stiff from the show at the weekend, (it gets worse when I stop moving) so I got up, made myself a cup of tea and walked up and down the room! Luckily I went back to sleep and no more emails came through.

We went for breakfast and chatted.... and chatted, neither of us had our watches on but luckily I looked at my phone and saw we had to run to get to the studio on time. It was straight into the green room and time to put on some make up and get the hair straighteners out. Tracey was all ready I have to say!

We were taken into the studio to set up and had to be quiet (which is very hard for me!) as Hazel was filming her live show across the room, we had a quick chat with Nigel, (he is the presenter for our show next Wednesday) then went through everything in our show with Stephanie. She was very good and explained everything to us, she had just finished her own show which was just her on her own talking for an hour, she didn't get much of a break from chatting before starting our show. Amazing to find someone that can talk more than me! I don't know how she does it, especially with people talking in her ear too!!!

Well, enough waffle for today, more tomorrow...

Jill

Tracey's Demo cards from TV show

Tracey's demo card, with the inside panel

Well, I have power! I can blog!! What timing for a power cut, I got back from the filming and had 'phoned Create & Craft to find out repeat times to put on the website when the lights started flickering, it was obvious it was on it's way out but could I type fast enough and update the website before it all went off, of course not! Thank you Debbie for updating the blog for me.

It finally came back on in the middle of the night. It was strange how both neighbours were off then one side had power. We have a huge great hole at the bottom of the drive from all the drilling and digging they did last night, last time there was a major problem it was on and off for days and I could do without that at the moment.

So, I didn't get to see the show until this morning. Thank you for all the blog comments, emails etc and of course your orders. Debbie has been a very busy bee today!!

Tracey and I had a wonderful day yesterday, I think she did so well for her first show. I'm glad she enjoyed it and wants to do more!! I'll have to get on with the next 3 sheets of designs, well, perhaps I will get these shows done first! We did talk about ideas for future stamp sheets so more will be on the way.

Tracey had prepared 4 demo cards, but only got a chance to do one so we'll start with Tracey's cards tonight and I'll post the others as we go along.

The card from the fairy sheet has been stamped with the pigment inks.


Tracey has used a paint brush to pull out some of the ink from the outline to give it a softer finish.
I love this shaped butterfly, it has been embossed with the copper detail embossing powder. Moonshadow mist has been sprayed for the background.


The 4th card shows gold embossing on gold card. Tracey was also going to show mixing the pigment ink colours on the craft sheet to obtain brown, which isn't in the pigment ink pad that was featured on the show.

I'll show more cards tomorrow and I'll tell you more about our day.

Just a reminder that we are having demos at the shop on Saturday and we will be open longer, 10am - 5pm (it is usually 11am - 4pm on Saturdays). Jill Boulton will be demonstrating metal embossing with Walnut Hollow products and I will be playing with Tracey and Kay's stamps. I hope you can join us if you are local.

Then, Kay and I are filming the show with Kay's stamps next Wednesday, it'll be at 12 (noon) again.