Go confidently

I recently purchased a couple of the new Kaisercraft words stamps and have enjoyed experimenting with ways of using them. I have already posted a couple of bookmarks  and the Smash book I made using them. This is a card using the rich warm colours I love so much. 

 

The background of the card uses a Clarity mask and I used a brush to add the ink through the stencil giving a soft, almost airbrushed effect. I overstamped with a Viva clear flourish stamp in plum archival ink and added some darker shading at the edges before mounting onto black card. I stamped and shaded the sentiment in the same inks and matted onto a couple of contrasting layers.

Even though some of the highest winds of this weeks storm were recorded locally, we are lucky to have escaped with just a few soft branches down, including one that landed on the roof of my craft shed with thankfully no damage!

Elaine x

Smash book

Now I am not really a scrapbooker, but I am a hoarder and find it so hard to throw out things like tickets and other little mementos, so I have been pondering about the whole Smash book idea as a way of being tidier which such things. While I was looking at of the shelf products I remembered an A5 book with greyboard covers and kraft pages inside I bought at The London Graphic Centre a couple of months back for the bargain price of about £3. 

 

To decorate the cover I used a Marianne A5 paper from the Country Home collection. This is like a small version of the Kaisercraft Basecoat collection but does have some words as part of the designs. I overstamped with a Kaisercraft butterfly vintagey collage stamp, I added a couple of strips of fabric tape, a stamped library card using a Memory Box stamp with a Prima sentiment and the pen nib is a Jenny Bowlin clear stamp. I added a sentiment with some self adhesive letters, some words from a pack of pre-printed sentiments and finished off with some black gem swirls.
 

For the inside cover I used an old ledger paper, I can't remember what make this is as I collect these kind of papers like a magpie whenever I see them. I added a simple sentiment that I love and seemed so appropriate for a book of lovely memories using a stamp from the recent Kaisercraft launch and a simple strip of washi tape.

You may notice I have taken the paper right up to the spine of the book. I hate to see a gap, so I carefully tore out a page from inside the book to use as a template, marked where each hole needed to be on the back of the paper and then used a small hole punch to make the holes, carefully snipped each one through, added some glue to the receiving surface and gently pushed each hole in place, closing the snipped gap with a pokey tool, ending up with a virtually invisible join.

Last weekend I found a date stamp for £1 on a visit to The Range so I am now all set to go with my Smash Book at a snip of the off the shelf price.

It seems like we are in for some stormy weather over the weekend and the lovely gentle autumn days we have had may be coming to an end. It's hard to believe only a couple of weekends ago we were picking fruit like this. Now safely stashed in the freezer or chutney jars.

As the colder weather has started, I have now made a little temporary craft area indoors as my winter craft shed evacuation is needed. My desk is made from a piece of recycled chipboard covered in green vinyl leatherette which cost me the princely sum of £3.50. I feel I have managed to be at least a little frugal recently (maybe making up for the new dies and a gorgeous set of Quietfire stamps that arrived in the post this week!). Next week we have a new woodburner being fitted so I will probably find this area a little too cosy given the current unreliability of my own thermostat!
 

I hope whatever you are doing this weekend, you keep cosy and safe in whatever the weather chucks at us!

Elaine x

Ally Pally

In September I made my regular pilgrimage to Alexandra Palace for the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking Show. I love this show, it is always a special time as I get the chance to catch up with special crafty friends from around the country, to do some fabulous shopping and enjoy the setting in a really special building. This year I had to dash off to the show the day after I got back from holiday and the strain showed when I got up late and had a massive dash! This pic shows the stash I managed to amass at the show, but also during holiday shopping at The Glitterpot and The Craft Barn. I was a very lucky girl!

 

I bought some bookmark tags from Inkylicious and here are my first two efforts. The main stamp image on the orange tag is an Inkylicious stamp called Tree of Life. The sentiment is from Stamp Camp, which I really love, what great rules to live by! I added shading with a Crafter's Workshop stencil. 

 

 

The blue bookmark uses one of the new Kaisercraft sentiment stamps with a pattern added from another Crafter's Workshop stencil. These words mean a lot to a friend of mine and me and I couldn't miss this stamp. I plan to make some more of these to add into Christmas pressies.

 

Elaine x

The end of an era

After a lot of soul searching I have decided the time has come to resign from the Chocolate Baroque Design Team. I have been producing samples to show case the lovely stamps produced by Glenda and Adrian Waterworth for three and a half years. I am allowing myself a little self indulgence with a little retrospective review here of some of my favourites among the samples I have produced during this time.

I recently decided that I want to allow myself more time to experiment with my crafting and learn some new techniques and this has led me to decide it is time to move on from the DT work. My last samples have now been posted for the team.
 

I want to thank Glenda for giving me the chance to be part of a fantastic team of crafters, artisitic spirits who have been a real pleasure to work with and who have taught me so much. Being part of the team has been such a positive reinforcement of my crafting abilities and I can feel the positive impact this has had on my output over this time.

Without wishing to make this sound like an Oscars speech, I want to thank Glenda and Adrian, Lesley, Sue Page - stamp designer extraordinaire and Val who works behind the scenes to make stamps for making this journey possible for me. To the other girls in the team Judith, Miranda, Debbie, Shirley, Claire and Clare - it has been such a pleasure to work with you all and to share life in all its infinite shades within our special little group. You are amazing, generous spirited women and it has been a privilege to share the experience with you all. Also not forgetting past members of the team Lesley, Eileen and Phree,  I really enjoyed working with you all too.

Thanks for all your comments here and on the DT blog on my samples , they have meant so much.

Elaine x