Crafty Individuals have a blog!

Any regular visitors to my blog know that I have a bit of a passion for Crafty Individuals stamps. Whereas most of my stamps get filed by subject in plastic boxes, there is something about CI stamps that means I have to keep them separately in their own little baskets! I adore them because I love minature projects and they work perfectly. Plus I am really inspired by Jean Hardy's work. It was one of Jean's projects that I chose as the first for the Craft Stamping Quartet blog I share with Jo, Judith and Lesley.

So I am delighted to see Crafty Individuals now have their own blog and needless to say I have become a follower.

So today I decided to post a project I made late last year with the gorgeous abbey stamps (CI - 286) and a little ornate corner from a bird stamp (CI - 266) that I also love. I have to say, the corner was a little freebie stamp I got when I ordered direct from CI. The little extras in their parcels like the beautiful postcards, badges and stamps,together with the little messages from Malcolm make every order feel like a present.

Using silver detail embossing powder I repeat stamped the text panel and corner stamp onto black. I carefully cut them all out and pieced them together to cover an MDF frame that I had painted black. I used one of the Essentials tile frames that CI sell, that fitted perfectly inside the frame. I stamped the different abbey images in black archival ink onto white. I mounted different sections of these into the frame, alternating with black and white photos of the wonderful abbey on Mont St Michel where I visited in October. I finished with the "Everywhere Peace, Everywhere Tranquility" text from the stamp embossed again in silver and added some tiny silver gems in the corners.

I love Mont St Michel and I could visit over and over and never get fed up - I can even forgive it's commercialism which is a rare thing for me! My love of cloisters inspired another of my projects on our CSQ blog which also uses CI stamps to a large extent.

Make sure you become a regular visitor to the CI blog as it's going to be a great source of inspiration.

Elaine

Chocolate Baroque!

I am delighted to tell you that I am part of the Design Team for the brand new company of Glenda and Adrian Waterworth - Chocolate Baroque.

The first new stamp sets will be released very soon. These are gorgeous miniature designs that will be so useful. I have had the pleasure of working with these new stamps with the rest of the Design Team and you can see our efforts over on the new DT blog.

In the meantime you have the chance to win these stamps on the new blog. Scroll right down and add your comments.

You can also get a gorgeous free download of a digital design paper on the download page.

So get over to the new blog asap!

Good luck with the blog candy!

Elaine x

Feel the love!

I made this little Valentine's card for my OH. I bought this little silhouette stamp from an E Bay seller recently I really love it, because we feed the wild rabbits in our garden and one of them in particular takes food from our hands, especially  if a sesame ryvita is on offer!

The sentiment is from the Elusive Images Artful Affirmations plate. These words seem so appropriate as we discovered recently when so many people supported us with love through some difficult times. The backing paper is one I made using my leafy background technique, using leaves from our garden.

Most of the colouring is done with the Paris Trunk dye inks. I only have a few of these "green" inks, but I am really getting to like these beautiful colours.

Enjoy your Valentine's Day.

Elaine xx

A shaded landscape card

Life has been chucking a lot in the direction of me and my OH recently and two dear friends have helped us get through this time in so many ways - their love and support has been just wonderful. I wanted to make them a card to say thank you, but I had to wait until things settled down a bit to give me time to do some a decent job with my inking!



I love making cards in this way. I find building up the ink shading can be really soothing. This is an 8 x 8 card, one of my favourite sizes. I started by cutting a sun mask out of Eclipse tape with a small nestie die. Once in place, I added lilac ink from  Paris Trunk ink pad - this newish range has some gorgeous colours. All the ink shading is done with Cut 'n' Dry foam. Then I added a landscape inking over a torn piece of paper, first in Tumbled Glass and then in Stormy Sky Distress Ink. I added a little more Stormy Sky around the sun, before removing the mask.I added all the stamped images in black archival ink. The stamps are a mixture from different companies - one of my favourites the Lavinia vine edging the design, grasses, trees and small birds from Inkylicious, large bird stamp from Tim Holtz and the wording was a loose stamp I bought from the Rubbernecker stand at Ally Pally. I added a little more shading on the paler layer of landscape using my paper mask with just tiny areas of shading. Finally I added darker edging shading with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink on the bottom half and Eggplant Adirondack dye ink on the top half. I finally matted the inked panel on black to give sharper contrast and definition.

We delivered the card yesterday and I am pleased to report they both really loved it and asked me how I had built up the image. I promised I would show them how it's done some time.

We are hoping life is beginning to settle down a little now and I might have a bit more time for crafting again really soon.

Thanks for popping by

Elaine xx

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Things have been rather unsettled for me over the last couple of weeks, as my lovely husband has been really poorly in hospital. Things seem to be settling down a litle now and I am trying to catch up with things I should have been doing.

Today it's my lovely niece Hannah's birthday. I only managed to make her card this afternoon, so I am blogging it so she can at least see it on her birthday, even if she doesn't have it in her hands!  You can click on the picture to get a closer look!

I can't believe Hannah is already a young woman, it seems no time at all since I saw her in the hospital just after she had been born. Where did all those years go?

The colours haven't come out too well in this picture as I had to use flash, the colours are more purples and plums. The border and dancing lady are Lost Coast Designs stamps, the birds are Tim Holtz and Inkylicious, the lady's face is a Cherry Pie stamp and the Secret Garden words are a Jo Capper Sandon Stampotique design.

Elaine x

Blog temporarily suspended

Just a quick note to say I have had to suspend my blog due to family illness.

Elaine x

New Year!

Well I am rather late with my first post of the new year. Life has been a bit hectic around here over the last couple of weeks.

This is a birthday card I made for my dear friend Sally. This uses a stamp set I bought recently called Vintage Cooking from Creative Expressions. I had to have this set because as people who know me well will be aware, I adore baking and cooking generally. Sally is also a great cook.

I do feel I made the main image a bit murky looking, but that's the way it goes sometimes. If I remember rightly I stamped in Cocoa Bean Memento Ink and shaded with Vintage Photo DI. The backing paper is from a 6 x 6 Websters Pages pad, I added some lovely brown and cream gingham ribbon I bought on my one and only visit to LB Crafts and a little wooden heart button tied with paper string. The whole thing is matted onto a 6 x 6 kraft card blank.

To celebrate my love of cooking and collecting pretty china, I have started a new blog The Chintz Tea Cup. It is not crafty, but it would be lovely if you would like to pop over and take a peek.

Wishing you the best of everything on 2011.

Elaine