Funky Art Dolls.

I absolutely love the Art Doll Mermaid stamp set as it has so many possibilities. Some really cool looking art dolls can be made easily with all the parts being completely separate.

Here I've created two, one in card and one other in shrink plastic.

I stamped the doodle flower from the last monthly kit to add something pretty to her body and drew stripes on the legs so I could give her stripy leggings.

Here she is with washers through the holes and small jewelry rings to pull the parts together. I also punched some holes around the head to add some curly wool giving her the frizzy hair-do. Her head is fixed on with a narrow piece of card.

Here's her little friend, and I mean little. She's not for the faint hearted. The parts were extremely small making it a very fiddly job indeed. I'm not sure I'll repeat the process in a hurry but she is cute.

Here they are together so you can compare the size.

Have fun and if you create your own art doll I'd love to see.

Jaine x

Watercolor background

Hello! Happy Saturday! It's Ria here today.

Watercolors are very popular right now in card making and I have seen a lot of beautiful creations using this medium. I recently got a set of Prang watercolor set that I wanted to try although I already have watercolor pencils and distress inks that can also be used in watercolor techniques. I have used Prang (Prang is a watercolor brand) back in the days when I was still at the Arts school so it hold a special place in my heart :)

So finally today, I had the chance to try watercoloring in my card background. I initially used the Prang watercolors but I find it a little light. It may be because I put too little of the colors. I wanted to test each of the watercolor types on hand but for now, I  just wanted to have a free play.

Here's the Prang watercolors that I got more than a week ago at the local art store and the Sarah Hurley's Butterflies stamp set that I'm also using:

The started off with the Prang ovals to color my base paper. I used watercolor papers as this paper type can hold a lot of water without tearing them apart.

I later moved to use the distress inks I have, putting some inks down in a plastic sheet and sprayed them with water. I then dip my paper into the wet ink and just had that fun moving the paper around and continue to do so after the first, second coat dries.

I did try out some reds in a another sheet of paper just to see how it works. I then chose to go for the Peacock feather distress ink for my project today. 

I then stamped the butterfly with a pigment ink, then run a wet brushed to fade the corners. Pigment ink also reacts to water so this one also gives that watercolor look on the stamped butterfly. I did this to the other two butterflies in the bottom of the card.

   I fuzzy cut this butterfly together with the other ones on this card project.

I then stamped my sentiment, also from the same Butterflies Stamp set and adhere that directly to the watercolor background. I just added a small stamped butterfly to fill that open space.

And this is what I came up with.

A closer look to the butterflies.

I hope this inspires you to create. Remember, the current challenge for this month is Anything Goes. There's still time to play so go ahead and try something out.

Until next time. Happy weekend!  

Ukulele documented!

Hi! It's Sharon here with my Project Life-type layout using Sarah's Documented365 add on kits from A Few of my Favourite Things kits. I've got so many photos waiting to be sorted and this is the perfect way for me to make them look pretty and make use of them.

This week I decided to use my ukulele photos in a layout. I recommend everyone to get a ukulele as they are such a cheerer-upper after a hard day at work! All the stress of the day just drifts away and wasn't I lucky having a card with exactly those words on for the header! I added some music notes from a stamp set that came with the AFOMFT kit-perfect for adding a little touch of ukulele.

Couldn't resist adding a little paragraph praising my ukulele again!

The little white heart brad is also from one of Sarah's kits.

My finished layout. I love the simplicity and the way Sarah's kit works so well together.

I recommend these Documented365 kits to everyone with too many photos and not enough time to scrap them as really,the kit does all the work!

Teenage Birthday ...

Welcome back to to our blog, and thank you very much if you have entered our challenge this month.
The theme is 'Anything Goes', so if you havn't already why not have a go.

My name is Claire (Newcombe) one of 3 Cla(i)r(e)'s on our team. I still consider myself to be the newbie on the team, but in actual fact I have been on the team for 1 year now - wow how that time has flown.

For you today I have made a card for the son of my best friend.

To create the background, you can see here, I have used three spray mists through the Sarah's chevron mask. 

This is still a fairly new technique for me (and one I'm determined to master), and from this photo you can see I learned an invaluable lesson today - to wait for each layer to dry before applying the next!

The chevron mask was applied twice, the left (and first) impression shows the colours bleeding, and not doing the mask justice. The clarity is clear to see in the right hand side, and this is the impression I used for the card.

To layer and complete the card, to suit a 14 year old boy, can be fairly tricky.

 I reached for Sarah's kit she sent us from her 'A Few of My Favourite Things' club back in september.

I really didn't need to add too much because I didn't want to cover up too much of the background. What is hard to see in the photo, is the beautiful glimmer the inks on the background give. I am not a huge fan of glitter as such, but this is subtle and so apt for the astrological theme of this kit.

 I added a hint of silver to the card, in keeping with the theme, behind the sentiment and under the main layers (just to the right). I used product that is again fairly new to me also, and one that I am fast becoming to love, and that is Washi Tape, and if you are familiar with Sarah's blog then you will know that she is very partial too, and has a lovely selection to chose from HERE.

There are a couple of personalised touches (initials added with rub-ons, and date) to this card, because as I mentioned I made it with someone in mind, hopefully it will give you some fresh ideas how to add that special touch to a card. 

Its all about sharing ideas isn't it, and I would love to know your thoughts and possibly see your designs.

Thank you for joining me today.

Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust.

Hello, it's Carol here today and I thought I would share something very exciting that is coming to Sarah's Website very very soon!! I will probably get put on the naughty step again for this, but some things are worth the risk ;-)

Sarah has a great range of Special Edition stamps, and I have used a brand new set from the fab Clare Brown to make this card. It is from a set called "Woodland Fairy", and there is also a toadstool in it*squeee*.

I printed up some of Sarah's "Be Mine" digi kit, onto glossy photo paper and it looks amazing, it is so hard to capture it in a picture. Once I had printed that, I chose the colour of the fairy's dress to co-ordinate with it. I added some Stardust Stickles using a nylon paintbrush, so much easier to get that wee bit of sparkle exactly where you want it, in this case on her belt, wings and shoes. I finished off the card by popping some tiny punched flowers in the 4 colours of the card and added some flatback pearls. I layered it up using pearlised silver paper.

 

 

Ingredients

Woodland Fairy Stamp by Clare Brown for Sarah Hurley 

Sarah Hurley "Be Mine" digi kit 

Promarkers; Dress - Mint,Pastel, Tea Green

Wings - Tea Green

Skin - Satin & Ivory

Hair - Saddle Brown & Nutmeg (Flexmarkers)

Outline - Cool Grey 1

Stardust Stickles

Punch, pearls, glossy photo paper, card all from stash.

I am really pleased with the finished card, and I hope you can pop over and join in with this months challenge of "Anything Goes".

Inspiration Notebook

Hello there, Claireliz here.

I thought I'd show you the altered notebook I created for this months challenge - Anything Goes.

I have an obsession with stationery, there we go, I've said it.

I have hundreds of notebooks, which is handy as I'm also a compulsive list maker.

I wanted a little notebook that will fit in my handbag that I can write down ideas, flashes of inspiration and anything like that...

I started by covering the front and back of the notebook with the hot pink paper from the AFOMFT kit, I then used 3 strips of washi tape (from a previous kit) to cover the edge of the paper and the binding of  the book, I used one strip on the back, one on the front and the third on the top overlapping the other two.

I stamped a little border using Sarah's doodled border from the Home stamp set. I used the large Polaroid stamp from the Picture this stamp and cut out the centre of the Polaroid frame which I then filled with paper from a previous AFOMFT kit, I also stamped Inspiration on the frame using the Block Alpha stamps. I stamped a lightbulb using a stamp from another AFOMFT kit, I coloured it with a Pastel Yellow Promarker and coated it in Stickles then stuck it to the centre of the frame, I also added some sequins....

As a finishing touch I added a lightbulb paperclip to the elastic closure on the notebook.

You can find all the details for our latest challenge on this post here.

Have fun creating & good luck!

C xx

Wedding Gift Card Box

Hi All,

Nicole here today to show a little recycling project perfect for gifts. I had a lovely box from a necklace I got years ago and I was about to throw it out when I realised it was the perfect size for a gift card.

I used the wedding themed Sarah Hurley stamps for this. I stamped out the wedding cake a few times onto some scraps of the Sarah Hurley papers. 

I then fussy cut all these out and paper pieced my cake back together.

 I stamped out the sentiment in the set and over laid it with the heart stamps.

 I used the wedding cake inside the box to cover up the jewellery logo. I cut the word cherish from one of Sarah's digital kits.

 Here is a close up of it....

 And here is the box closed....

I love this as a way to present cash or a gift card for a wedding present, it looks much nicer than a simple envelope!