MAKE A BOOKMARK, AND SEE WHAT HELEN DID NEXT.....

Thanks for your comments on the last post folks - much appreciated - and welcome to Deborah and other new followers - lovely to have you join in!  Hope we can continue to keep you craftily entertained.  We are busy getting ready for Port Sunlight Happy Stampers show which is this coming Saturday.  Lots to pack up, price up and generally prepare for departure.  Malcolm is improving all the time and although we weren't totally sure it looks like he is also ready for the show - please be gentle with him when you see him! Admission to the show is by ticket only, and all tickets have now been sold, so we hope you have yours, and we are certainly looking forward to seeing you there.

I'd like to give a little mention now about a few new products we have in stock on the site.  We have new little gold key charms, also fairies, leaves, flowers, pretty wooden buttons and pearly embellishments.  I will pop a few of the images below as you are certainly loving all the charms and new hardware..

We have also had a delivery of Stix2 white card bookmark packs and cool clear plastic sleeves to put the decorated bookmark in - really nice idea, very reasonable in price and they make a fantastic present, which should last a very long time!

As you can see I decorated this one in an Alice Palace bunny theme, but with the sentiment from the runner ducks stamp.  I used torn strips of handmade papers for the background, plus bits of old lace, and I mounted the bookmark onto another piece of black card before popping into the clear sleeve (plenty of room in this for a few embellies).

Now I have a few more team projects to show you before I finish off with 'what Helen did next.."  Daniele made these two beauties - how gorgeous does that telephone stamp look, and a lovely touch with the pink vellum and flowers?..

And I have projects by Sylvie and Helen below, featuring the same telephone - so clever and colourful and yet so different...

Effie has also been playing with the telephone, but I'll save her creations until next time!

Continuing on from my last post here is the rest of Helen's step by step..

...

..Next choose your colours..

Use cotton wool balls to start adding colour..

You can press colour into the embossed areas if you like..

Next stamp the images onto white card..

Cut them out and arrange onto your background.  I've taken bits and pieces from each collage..

And then watercolour them using the same inks plus one contrasting (I've gone for red, but Seedless Preserves or Rusty Hinge would also work well)..

I've then 'chevronned' another piece of card..

Coloured it with Iced Spruce and torn to fit my collage to make a roadway..

And finally I've embossed two of the arrows..

Cut them out, re-embossed them, coloured and outlined them..

All you have to do then is layer up onto coloured card to finish your project..

Ta da..

Back after the show, and a little rest, with a new Challenge for sunny April!

Jean x

A CANDY WINNER, MORE NEW STUFF, AND A STEP BY STEP....

Thanks everyone for leaving a comment on my last post.  My son's girlfriend - Sophie - has picked number 24, from the 36 comments left.  On counting down number 24 seems to be Cardgenie (another Jean!) - who I'm delighted to say, is our candy winner this time around!!  If you would pop your address onto an email please Cardgenie and send it to info@craftyindividuals.co.uk that would be brilliant.  Well done!  However if you haven't been picked as a winner yet - there will always be a chance of a win next time, so do keep checking back!

In the rest of this post I would like to show you some more projects made using the latest stamp release as promised.  Then I have a fabulous project by Helen Chilton which she has very kindly made as a step by step for us.  I think I will pop half of the step by step on here this evening and then finish it off next time (a bit naughty I know as you will have to wait till my next post to see the finished item - which is well worth the wait though!)

Inspired myself by the 'team' in general I have made 3 cards using black card blanks and the latest release of stamps...

In each card I have used the main stamped image, a stamped white tag, some CI background paper, one of the new picture and word stamps, a metal filigree corner and some other embellishments.

In the one above the main image is stamped using CI-403, plus CI-408 to the side.

This one uses CI-404 as the main.

And the final one uses CI-405 as the focal image.

Sylvie has used the last stamp too in her lovely card pictured below..

She has also incorporated a filigree corner as well as a die cut swirl, which looks lovely with the addition of the blue pearls.

Then the three projects below, by Joanna, Laury, and Coco, all superbly feature the chunky telephone tag CI-403....

Lots of different looks here from pretty, to useful, to masculine, and all with the same stamp!!

And now here is the first half of Helen's very clever step by step.  Go get out those embossing folders again, mix them up and have some fun with them!!  If you don't happen to own the ones suggested have a go with the ones that you do have and make something along the same lines perhaps!

Stamps Helen used:  CI-325 Vintage Vehicle, and CI-336 Around the World

Other Materials:
Embossing folders: Tim Holtz Travel signs, Sizzix Gears and Chevrons
Ranger Black Archival Ink Pad
Distress inkpads: Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn, Iced Spruce and Festive Berries
Card: white, green, blue and red.

Taking the three embossing folders..

And starting with the first folder - emboss the top half of the white card..

Next slant the Gears folder at the bottom and emboss so it looks like this..

To fill in the gap place the Chevons folder as shown below, and then align the bottom of the word 'Journey' with the top of the cutting mat - the folder will only emboss to that line..

It will look like this..

Add extra chevrons to the corners..

......And that is where I am going to finish for tonight I'm afraid (before Helen starts to add the colour). Don't forget to check back to see what happens next and the finished item itself.

Back soon, thanks for tuning in,

Jean x