Merry Christmas Everyone.......

Good morning my lovelies,

I do hope that you have a lovely day planned ahead with your families and friends and for those of you who do not have family or are going through a difficult time this Christmas, my heart goes out to you and I send warm wishes and hugs and hope that 2017 will be a better year for you all.

We have a lovely day planned with Paul's mum today and tomorrow I go off to see the rest of my lovely family and spend time with them. It is at this time of year especially, that I do feel very blessed to have them in my life.

So as it is Christmas Day and I don't want to keep you too long. I thought that I would do a quick post to wish you all a Happy Christmas and show you something that I got around to making a couple of weeks ago.......

You know how it is......you gather up more Christmas stash every year, I buy more bits and tell myself that I am going to make something special for myself as a decoration for Christmas and every year I have no time left!!!!

Well this year a few months ago I bought a lantern in one of my wholesalers and said to my sister Jo as I was with her, 'I am going to do a little scene inside this for Christmas'.....

Well do you know what.........this year I got around to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know...... miracles do happen, even at Christmas!!

So with a lot of work and effort,  I turned this:

And this:

Into this.........

But it was worth every minute I spent on it..... 

Here is a little closer look......

I absolutely loved making this, It is just great to take a normal item and alter it into something completely different. 

Yes I could have just put a candle inside it but no, I wanted to make it a bit more special than that and I feel it is.......

I love it lit up at night in my lounge next to me........

Let me know what you think.

Well all that is left to say is have a wonderful Christmas and I will be back soon.....

Festive love and hugs

Lisa B xxx

My November Class Cards

Good morning everyone, Kirsten here, I hope you had a nice weekend. A very quick blog post from me today to show you my take on the November class cards. I used the Hobby Art Nature Trail stamp set for the first card, colouring the fox with pencils & adding a little metal charm from my stash of Christmas items. The background is Shaded Lilac Distress ink...............

For the second card I used Amethyst & Lilac Mist Starlights. I stamped the Woodware poinsettia in clear embossing ink on the bauble & heat set with WOW! Gold Rich embossing powder. I stamped it again in Shaded Lilac Distress ink on the white card & used a Tim Holtz die from my stash also, I foiled the open space with Gold Shine Sparkle Medium............

This coming Friday are the Christmas party classes in Fant Hall Maidstone & we've all been working on our sample projects. Here's a sneak peek of one of mine.............

Look out for more sneak peeks on the Lisa B Designs Facebook page & the December newsletter over the next few days.

            

                    

Thanks for visiting the blog today, I'll be back next week.

Kirsten

Creating a Winter Walk Scene with Card-io Stamps

Good morning all! The autumn colours are now exploding in front of us and it's the perfect time of year to take long walks and enjoy the views of the countryside. With this ready-made inspiration in mind, for my tutorial post this month I am looking in detail at creating a scene with a set of Card-io Stamps called 'Winter Walks'. I was given this set to have a play with and I particularly like it because of the family silhouette. You also get this in 2 perspectives, so you have even more versatility for your creations!

 

 

I wanted to make a simple card with the focus being a scene in the middle of the card. I decided to create my own aperture using a standard 6x6 card blank and a basic shaped die (I chose a die that I also had a matching decorative partner for, so that I could create a frame). I cut the aperture from the middle of the card front, retaining the middle shape for use later. I also stamped a simple sentiment from the Card-io Christmas Sentiments set off to the side, using Black Onyx Versafine Ink and heat embossed this with clear detail powder.

 

I

 

Once the aperture was created, I also cut larger decorative shape (lacy circle above) out of Silver Mirri Card.  I then placed my original shape (plain circle) in the middle of my silver shape and die cut this. The resultant plain mirri circle was not needed for this project, but I kept it for another make! After repeating this process twice, I was left with 2 lacy mirror frames which will fit perfectly over my aperture: one for the front of the card and the other for a matt layer to be used on the inside.

 

Next, time to focus on creating the scene for the main feature. I mentioned briefly last week that I find it easier to create a scene in a defined shape, and this card exemplifies this. I always like to practise creating scenes and having a play with perspective, so to start with I die-cut several of the circle shapes I was using out of plan copy paper. This allowed me to have a play and work-out my layout and stamp positioning. Once you have 'got your eye in' it does not take long before you are making dozens of little 'stories' with your scene stamps!

 

 

In Lisa's class this month we were given a handy little 'hill' shape to play with made out of Mylar (plastic). This is a great tool to use to create your hills and valleys and you can easily make your own, otherwise you can use copy paper as I have done above. I tore a rough shape horizontally making a valley at one point and placed this 2/3rds of the way up my circle shape (the picture shows me holding the left-hand side of the copy paper back to show you the effect when removing!). Then, taking a yellow ink, (Distress Ink Squeezed Lemonade works well) I have gently worked a 'sunset' oval shape across the valley. Once happy with this, I have intensified the central colour and used Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink to create a setting sun. When you remove your paper, you are left with the effect of a valley.

 

 

My next stage was to create some trees showing from behind the hill. Placing my paper hill 'mask' back in place, I have used Black Onyx Versafine Ink to stamp some of the larger trees from the Card-io 'Winter Walks' set. I have used both the first and second generation ink impressions, placing the trees at different heights.

 

 

 

Once my trees and sunset were in placed, I found the piece of copy paper that I used at the start and located the 'top' section that had been torn away (stay with me here...!) I placed this section over my scene so far, shielding this so that I could add a feint hue along the line of the sunset. You can see in the picture above a slight 'grey' effect, which reinforces my valley shape, continues it to the edges and also gives a slight 'misty' effect (or at least I think so, but I admit it is totally personal taste here!).

 

 

To finish the scene I have gone back to my Card-io stamps and used some more of the trees. Using my paper mask again, I have stamped the smaller furs further forward (as though appearing behind another hill). I have also used the bare trees stamped at different angles and in both cases created the same grey hue as before underneath the images. Finally, I have added some birds in the sky and the large family right at the front. To draw the image in and give a crisp wintery feel, I have gently added some blue ink around the edge of the whole shape and some Crystal Glitter along my grey 'grounding' lines.

 

 

Above is the final card, all assembled. Very simple, but if you have to make lots of Christmas cards that may be the way to go!

 

If you like making altered art pieces, these stamps also work really well for these...

 

 

Here I have used some of the different images from the Card-io 'Winter Walks' set and created the scene on an MDF bauble, primed with White Linen Dylusions Paint. I chose this paint because it gives an even matt coverage without streaks - perfect for stamping onto. I have used the same inks, but heat embossed the whole lot to seal the work. If you don't want to emboss, use Jet Black Staz-on instead!

 

I hope you like the scenes, it really is a case of having a play with the stamps and seeing what you can create (no-one will know how many 'tries' you have had!).

 

Happy stamping, see you next week!

Love

Martina

xx

 

 

                     

Masterboard Tutorial with Dylusions.......

Good morning crafty peeps,

This is a scheduled post today as I am in sunny Spain for a week, having a well earned rest and trying to get some heat in my bones!!

Now as I promised you, this is going to be a full tutorial on how I make my master

boards, so go and grab a cuppa and settle yourself down, this is a long post with lots of piccies!!!!.........

So just before I start I must say that the inspirational person that got me into creating these backgrounds was Leandra from PaperArtsy, Kirsten and I watched her at a lovely day out at the Craft Barn many moons ago and I could have sat there all day watching her, it was so fascinating!

So I then went off and had a play myself and this is how I make them now........

I start off with a A4 sheet of Anna Marie Designs Super Smooth cardstock, I really find this is great card and takes lots of paint without buckling the card.

So for this background I chose Dylusion Paints: Fresh Lime, Vibrant Turquoise and Squeezed Orange along with my Hard Ball Brayer........

Now these paints really go a long way, so you only need a small amount on your craft sheet. You can see how little I used. I like to start with my lightest colour first......

Then take your brayer and roll it in to the paint back and forth flicking it as you go to spread the paint out thinly on your craft sheet.......

Then start to apply the paint lightly flicking your brayer as you lay it on to the A4 card. I like to do Leandra's corner, corner, side method to start with as it gives a great effect. Remember to keep vertical and horizontal as it begins to look rather messy otherwise....

Then on to the turquoise......

Applying in the same way with the brayer, opposite, corner, corner, side and then in between lightly to infill a little and use the paint up on the craft sheet......

Then I go back to the lime again and add some more in the same way.......

I am really liking it now it is starting to blend. Now to knock the colour back with a little with White Linen before I add some stenciling.....



Take a barely damp baby wipe (squeeze out excess moisture if necessary ) and wipe across the surface of the A4 card, this just knocks back the colour a little and then allows your stenciling to pop out of the page.......

Now for a little more colour. I took Squeezed Orange and my Imagination Crafts Bubble Background stencil (back in stock soon) and some Cut'n'Dry Foam and applied it to the foam, pounced it on my craft mat so it was not too wet and then applied it randomly through the stencil......



I did the same with the Turquoise Dylusions and Imagination Crafts Honeycomb Stencil.

Now I did get carried away at this point and forget to take a photo before started stamping but you get the idea!......



So now for some more texture; I used Hobby Art Decorative Backgrounds stamp set and added some stamped images in turquoise Dylusions........ 

 I fancied a bit more brighter detail, so I added some White Linen using bottle tops from my spray bottles.......

And some lines using an old credit card........

Looking good........

 Now for a final bit of sparkle to bring it to life. I chose my gorgeous Imagination Crafts
Platinum Starlight Paint, (back in stock soon), added a little on to my craft mat and then used my bottle tops again.....

These really are fabulous unique pots of paint with crushed gilding flakes and they really sparkle.....

See what I mean.......



 Well, I do hope that you are still with me and not nodded off, lol!

Just to show you that it doesn't all have to be about cards. I made a Tando House Key Hanger with the master board as a Background.......

A few close ups of the little houses painted in the co-ordinating colours.....

That is all from me today, my lovelies. I will be back in rainy England later tomorrow.

                       

I do hope that you have enjoyed the post , have a lovely week......

Hugs, Lisa B xx