Hobby Art Poinsettia & Imagination Crafts

Hello all, this is my last blog post with the Hobby Art Poinsettia stamp set. It's a very simple little card but effective because of the Sparkle Medium.

I stamped the large poinsettia from the Hobby Art Poinsettia Stamp Set and coloured it in using the Spectrum Aqua Markers Floral Set, (they are 25% off on the web site at the moment at £15). 

I cut out the image and using my finger, dotted Diamond Sparkle Medium all over. 

The next step was to create the background by using the Imagination Crafts Flourishes Stencil that I taped down on some white Super Smooth card stock and also using Sparkle Medium Diamond to spread through the stencil.

I left this to one side to dry for a while, in the mean time I stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set using Versafine Black Onyx and Wow Clear Embossing Powder.

Once the background was dry, I measured a slightly larger piece of black card for a small border.  Then I found some thin ribbon from my stash that luckily matched the sparkle medium and wrapped it the white background, I made two large loops to look like a bow stuck them down and placed the cut out image over the top, then cut two tails and stuck then under the image and positioned them before placing the sentiment down.  I then stuck the whole thing on to a 7" x 7" card.

Here's the card again

Nice and simple and quick.  Hope you have fun making it.

Love, Jan -x-

Merry Christmas from Daryl the Quirky Turkey!

It's October! Halloween is around the corner so get out your witches' hats (yes Lisa, you can also keep some for the Christmas party!) And once the ghosties and ghouls have visited, Santa is soon to follow..

With that in mind crafters, today is my last post featuring our friend Daryl the Quirky Turkey from Hobby Art. A simple card for this week, with the idea that we do not always want to go 'full throttle' at a time when we are likely to make the most cards in one go. I was also thinking of postage costs and trying to keep my card to a thin layer!

My first step was to stamp the largest Daryl head onto one side of my topper panel using Staz On Jet Black Ink. I could not stamp directly onto the card on this occasion, as I wanted to use Spectrum Aqua Pens and they would have bled through once blended. 

Next, I made a mask to fit over the top of the turkey with a sticky note. Once this mask was placed down, I used two large sticky notes to mask and frame an area in which to work.

Working from the sticky notes into the middle with a Blending Tool, I applied some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to fill the panel. Here is where I ended up experimenting a bit, as I did not like my initial idea when it was stamped out in front of me. I had thought to have lots of Christmas text in the panel behind the turkey, but I thought this was a bit busy and wanted the attention to be more on Daryl...

I thought maybe the text was too dark in the black ink, so tried to stamp the same text in Tumbled Glass Distress Ink...

Deciding I didn't think that text was right for Daryl, (not 'quirky' enough) I found a simpler sentiment and used this. This time the font felt more 'in-keeping' with my funny chap, and with the addition of the word 'GULP!' and some random snowflakes from the Hobby Art Winter's Snowflakes Set, I was happier! I coloured Daryl with some Spectrum Aquas, blending from the dark into the light to add some depth. I did not use much water as I was not using Watercolour Card on this occasion and I did not want to saturate the card too much.

Eventually I was happy with the final effect: I wanted Daryl to suddenly appear as if he has just realised Christmas was upon him and what this might mean...poor chap!

That's it from me using the Daryl stamps!

Have you created any projects with him? I would love to see some! Check out Lisa's online shop for the materials I have used this month, including many items in the MEGA SALE!

Love

Martina

xx

Mouse Choir

 Good morning crafters, it's Julie here again with another mouse Christmas card from the cute Hobby Art stamp set; Have a Very Mice Christmas

First I stamped in Onyx Black Versafine my choir mouse once in the centre of a scrap of card and heat embossed with WOW! Clear Gloss embossing powder, and stamped the image again on a sticky note to make a mask. I cut out this mask and placed on the mouse I had just stamped and then re-stamped the same image again either side of my mask and heat set with clear embossing powder again, so I had my choir in place.

Then I set about colouring my choir in with Spectrum Aqua pens, (on special offer on the website).

 I die cut the card with a circle die and ran through again using a pinhole circle die from my stash to make a topper.

I then moved onto creating my background and decided I wanted an edge round the card, so I stuck masking tape around the edge, ( this is where I went wrong as I didn't de-tack this enough on my clothing, so you can guess what happened!). I merrily stamped my Imaginations Christmas Script (coming soon!), in the background using a purple ink and covered it with clear embossing powder. I didn't heat set until I had removed the tape as this would have activated the glue on the tape, however in removing this some of my card as well. A little despondent, I carried on and heat set the embossing powder.

So I then cut strips of purple card and attached them to my card blank overlapping each end (to hide my mistake).

 I die cut a scalloped circle in purple and attached this to the topper. The topper then got attached to my card using double sided sticky pads and I finished the card with a clear gem in each corner, some Icicle Stickles on the choir's ruffles and a bow I tied with a piece of coordinating ribbon.

                

Well that's my card for today, I hope you like it, mistakes and all....

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at Friday's classes in Fant Hall, Maidstone, have a great week.

Love, Julie x

Daryl the Quirky Turkey - and Friend!

September is nearly over! The nights are drawing in and I have been hoarding for Christmas. I always forget what I have bought though, and often where I have put it all!

For this week's card featuring Daryl the Quirky Turkey from Hobby Art, I have chosen the Daryl that I think looks like he is fleeing the scene, along with a stunned friend looking on! 

As always when I start using a stamp I need to colour, I began by stamping the image using Staz On Jet Black Ink and playing with colours. This time I used Spectrum Aqua Pens as they have such vibrant colours, but these can also be toned down for shading (at the moment Lisa only has a few sets left at UNBELIVABLE prices (25% off), so grab them HERE!) Once I was happy with the colouring and shading, I used the fine tips to add more specific detail to the feathers etc. I then created a 'master' Daryl and saved this for future use together with the stamp set.

Now to start to make my scene. I cut a piece of Super Smooth card to the topper size I wanted, allowing for the matts and layers I was going to use. I stamped the turkeys and then created some masks for each one using a sticky note.

With the masks in place, I was able to use them to add a background scene. Using a torn piece of paper, I started to add some sky using some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, an Ink Blending Mat and Blending Tool.

Once the sky was in place, I used Mowed Lawn Distress Ink to stamp the tree stamps from the set into the background.  I then masked the sky and added the land part with some Tea Dye Distress Ink. With the turkey masks still in place, I used the fence stamp to add some depth and the small grasses in the foreground. It did not matter that my fence intruded into the land area, as I was going to colour it in anyway.

At this point, I decided that I did not like the scene I had created. Brown hills? Not very Christmas I thought, more like early Spring! Back to the drawing board and this time I left the hills white, using my torn paper to mask and allow me to add some trees behind. Much better!

Once the fence was added, I removed the masks to reveal my turkeys standing in a Christmas scene. The little grass detail stamp finished it off.

Using the colours I had practised with, I coloured my turkeys in.

For the next section, I followed the same technique I used in my post from last week, creating baubles and threading them through Daryl's feathers and securing behind. I also stamped and coloured the holly leaves and added a Christmas hat from another Hobby Art set (with the grumpy sheep on!). I wanted to add some speech for my characters, so I decided to make my own signpost and speech bubble. Using the sign in the set as a guide, I stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment (from a set I had in my stash) onto some paper and drew the signpost outline freehand. I cut this out and slotted into Daryl's feathers to make it look like he was carrying it. The speech bubble I created on my PC, again stamping a sentiment into it and sticking into place with Cosmic Shimmer.

Once the words were in place the card was almost complete, but I decided the sky needed some detail, so I added some stamped snowflakes. I also used a Zig Glue Pen to add Crystal Glitter frosting to the fences, sign and ground.

There you have it; Daryl in complete incomprehension at his friend's Christmas excitement! (not surprising really!)

I think this is my favourite card so far; I like the idea of the turkeys having zany personalities. I hope they do not put me off eating my Henrietta this year though (we always call our turkey that!)

That's it for today folks, see you next week for the last Daryl card from me.

Love, Martina

xx