Another baby card!

So excited! Am off to the O2 arena to see  The Eagles! One of my fave bands - think I'm a rock- chick at heart lol! Have seen them play live lots of times and they're always great - cant wait :-)

Another baby card from me. Must have been something in the water 9 months ago cos there are SO many people having babies right now!

I just love these stamps from Crafters Companion, they are so cute, and lovely to colour 

I was really pleased with the colour scheme, as I wanted less traditional colours and this one worked out really well. Papers are all LOTV Nitwit Collection 'Promises'. I used a whole sheet to cover the card and then loads of snippets for die cuts and flourishes etc. 

The die cuts are Spellbinders, Labels 4 & Elegant Labels4, with the backing layer being Curved Rectangles - I use this one a lot as its a really good size!!

A Martha Stewart punch for the border, and a LOTV sentiment & some flourishes flowers & card candi to finish. 

Hopping over to Pixies Snippets Playground to check out what other crafty playmates have been up to. 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x 

Happy Tuesday!

Had a lovely weekend in London at the O2 arena. Andy's Xmas pressie was a
Pair of tickets to a country music weekend festival - had a great time but Monday was a washout cos I was exhausted!

Bit more with it today and hit up the orange snippets folder in a big way! Just seemed like the right sort of colours for spring :-)



Used snippets of orange spots & stripes papers - no clue where they were from originally. And snippets of white card for my topper & die cut flourish & punched butterflies - have so many of these cut off pieces of white card, and they're perfect for these little die cuts!

The stamp is a Penny Black one that I love, coloured with Pro Markers - so entering this in the following challenges:
Penny black Saturday challenge
Pixies Playground Snippets
Pro Marker Challenge 
Forever Friends Challenge - flowers

Off to sort the washing :-)

Debs x

Crafty weekend

I had a lovely crafty weekend, spent loads of time in the craft room! Some of it was spent sorting and organising - I am not a tidy crafter lol ! Some of it was spent playing and making :-) It was bitterly coldhere so didn't feel too guilty about staying in lol !

I also did a lot of blog-hopping and found several challenges that looked like fun. This card was made for the pro Marker challenge, which was in a theme of Princes or Princesses & had to feature a crown! So I dressed up my Little Prince with his own crown :-)



Entered in the following challenges:
Pro Marker Challenge
Pixies Crafty Workshop Snippets as I used paper snippets from my bit box, and more leftover flowers
Milk Coffee Challenge - Make it Cute, cos it is!


And I made progress on another scrapbook layout. I am new to scrapbooking, and I am loving it! I get to use all my card making stash, but I get to keep it when it's finished :-)


This was supposed to be a short post, as I need to do some housework (aaaargh!)

Happy crafting

Debs x

Pro Marker Cottage

Had a lovely morning with the ladies at Bella Crafts in Fair Oak. I was teaching a pro Marker class and we focused on landscapes and cottages - great fun!

This is just one of the projects we worked on. We practised blending & shading, combining drastically different colours, using the blender pen to create glass & sky effects, brickwork & stippling (think I called it blobbing today :-) - and that was just the first project!

Will post other pics when I have time

Deb x

Spotlighting rubber stamping

 Hi blog hoppers, this is the sample made for our last class in Chandlers Ford. We focused on the spotlighting technique,where you pick a part of your image and stamp it again, colour it so that it stands out. We also double embossed our spotlighted section so that it really jumped out at you, and used embossed Core-dinations card as a backing - the cards the ladies made in class were fab!  Lots of bright colours and great finished projects.

Next class is at Bella Crafts in Fair Oak this coming Saturday, this will be a Pro Markers class focused on florals and landscapes. It is a repeat of one we did earlier in the year, where we were over-subscribed, so we agreed to tun it again for those who were disappointed to not get in the first time.

Hope you all have a lovely Jubilee weekend, I'm off to do some more crafting ;-)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 148 -Easter Bunnies

hi blogland! Just a quick post from me tonight as I'm shattered, and there's nothing much happening on my craft desk so thought I would share some Easter cards I made for a feature in Making Cards magazine.

The stamp is from the Helz Cuppleditch bloom & grow range, and is so cute I couldn't resist! The panels are cut with a range of different Nestabilities, stamped and coloured with Pro Markers. I've picked colours out of the main pic and used those to colour the edges of a larger nestability die cut to create a perfect colour matched background.  I stamped the images a few times, and cut out parts of the image to layer up and to use as mini images on some of the panels. I think they look really spring-like!

Anyway, enough for now. If you came to this through WOYWW enjoy your trip around the crafty world via Julia's stamping ground!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 147 and Pro Markers

I've been absent from blogland for past couple of weeks - phenomenally busy and with new job taking up all my time, so not much crafting done in the Willis house :-(  Really missed my WOYWW fix last week, so will do my best to visit lots of crafty boltholes this week, spread over the next few days. If you want to see what other crafters are up to visit Julia's Stamping Ground and join in the blog hopping fun!

But I have the day off today and this is my desk today, batch stamping lots of images for a Pro Marker workshop this Saturday. Got to get it done today cos I'm working tomorrow and Friday, so today's my last chance!  Took a few mins to colour one of my favourite images, the little row of mice from Penny Black 'Micey Nice Day' - they are so cute I love these meeces!

Aren't they sweet? If we have enough time on Saturday this will be the 'challenge' image at the end of the class (which is focused on skin tones, hair and fur) to make each little mouse a different colour using only a few pens.

Well, that's me for today, hopefully I will get a bit more time soon, as I am missing my crafty play time

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 142 - an almost clear desk!

This is my desk today, almost clear! (For me lol!!)  A pile of paper ready to be sorted for my next class, at the back my little box of WOW! Stamps - an old washing tablet box covered in pretty paper and awaiting embellishments! 

(The WOW! Feb embossing challenge is still open til 29/2, with a nice prize for the winner or 12 embossing powders of your choice in a carry case - still time to enter!!)

 And this was my work table on Monday - lots of Pro Markers, finishing off my paper weaving projects, and with a special Helper!

My husband is keen on clocks and pocket watches, and is also a good photographer, so I asked him to take some pics of them last year, and set about turning them into toppers, backing papers and borders.  Not really done anything with them, but thought I would share them. My hubby isn't into the 'traditional' men's stuff of football/rugby etc (although if it has an engine and wheels he will watch it lol!) so I have to stretch the brain cells to come up with ideas for cards for him, and using his own photos was great.  I have also created sets of papers and toppers from pics of CD's, music tapes (!), fountain pens, DIY tools, beer, wine  etc - it's fun creating my own papers, so I really should get around to doing something more with them.

For those who are wondering why I am blathering on, take a look at Julia's blog where Weds is the day for world travel!  We get the chance to check out crafter's work across the world, and share pics of our work desks, tidy or messy, empty or full!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Here's to using up leftovers!

Many of you already know that I run regular craft classes, so I thought I would share the aftermath of my Weds night class.......

 This first pic is all the stamps and Distress Inks piled high on my table, ready for cleaning and sorting.  We always end up throwing everything in the crates at the end of the night, and I start my day with a cuppa and a sort out!  Well, this particular class used a lot of card pre-cut to size, and I had an awful lot of identical sized strips of card left afterwards.........................

Being a typical crafter, I didn't want to throw it away, lots of good quality card, what could I do with it...hmmmmm..............the craft brain went into overdrive and started thinking about weaving the strips together to make a decorative background, so out came a set of Penny Black stamps I've been wanting to play with, and my trusty Pro Markers, and I had so much fun!

I coloured some strips to match my main stamped image, and left some white, then wove them together in a basket weave pattern.  The main trick is to stick one end of each strip (just one direction to start with) in place with double sided, then to weave the strips thru from the other direction until you're happy with the layout, then attach double sided tape to the underside of the end of each strip and fix each one in place as you go.  I found using the lines on my craft mat invaluable to line up the strips evenly along both edges!

They looked a bit boring on a plain white background, so I stamped a quick background with one of the small flower stamps from the set (Micey Day) and quickly coloured the centre of the daisies to match and presto! Big improvement. See what you think.............

And as I had so many strips, I made quite a few cards, but can only give you a quick peek of one here, as they are now destined for Making Cards magazine, along with a set of tea bag folding cards I've been working on.  Again, I had a ball making these, not having tried tea bag folding before, so I made flowers, medallions and butterflies, and made a beaded body for my folded butterfly out of twisted wire, and it came out pretty good! But that's for another post......

For all those who asked, I will get around to a TP mini album soon, and show you how to make one from scratch, and the finished sample...it's on the crafty to do list!!!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fab crafty weekend

Debs x

Matchbox Easel cards and Pro Marker Storage!

Hi everyone, my recent obsession with boxes has carried over into my classes, and I thought I would share with you a pic of the Matchbox Easel Cards we made last night.

I love these little boxes as they are so versatile. They are a basic square easel card, mounted on a square 'matchbox' in a sleeve. I can personally vouch for the fact that they hold up to 9 Lindor choccies - but only 3 left now! ;-)  They can be for any occasion, we made some for valentine's day, and birthdays. I decided to go with a contemporary black and white stamped design, adding a bold colour accent in the punched images - I think they look fab!

I am entering the one on the right of the pic (with the heart!) in the Oldie but Goodie Challenge cos I've had the cute heart with a birdie stamp for ages and this is the first time I've used it! Also the Allsorts Challenge with one or More Hearts as the theme.

I  also thought I'd share with you a 'tidy tip', as I am rather prone to showing my messy workspace onn my postings, so I thought I would show that I do have some semblance of organisation!  Also, Di over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop is on a mammoth stamps re-org, and inspired me to show some organisation!

One of my biggies with organising my stash is that I need to be able to cart it around to the classes that I run, and so I have several chests of drawers, with lots of organiser boxes holding inks, different paper and card etc.  I use my Pro Markers all the time, both at home and at workshops, so I needed something portable, but that would let me organise my pens into colour families - I have about 75 pens, and want them all in one place.  I wasn't keen on the Letraset storage wallets, and lots of other wallets are really pricey, so here is my solution:

 

This is a toiletries bag, with a number of separate see thru zipped compartments, all of which are attached to the main case by velcro strips and so can be pulled out of the case as required, or I can just unzip the relevant compartment. The middle compartment even has a small zipped mesh outer pocket that holds my ultra fnine nibs - perfect! And the whole thing zips closed and fits nicely into my drawer when not in use.  And the best bit??? This cost me £3 on Ebay!

  

So, that's me for Thurs night. I'm demo'ing this Sunday at Hobbycraft, with a Valentine's theme - by the time Valentine's Day actually arrives I will be heartily sick of hearts! 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs xx

Mens cards - and recovered mojo!

 Thought I would share a couple of men's cards that were a recent DT project. The first one is a birthday cake made out of tools and bits of wood.  The birthday candles are screws with little flames added to the top, and the background paper with hammers is from a Joanna Sheen Messy Rabbit CD.

I stamped the image several times (you can see the full stamped image in the next photo) and coloured with Pro Markers, then I set about cutting it into pieces and assembling into a 'cake' - I was quite pleased with the end result - something fun and a bit different.

This second card uses the whole stamp (Personal Impressions - from Hobbycraft) as a background frame for my birthday message. Again, I stamped it out a couple of times and cut out individual pieces to decoupage on the main pic. Added a DIY guy from another Personal Impressions set - Cute Characters 1 - and used a cut out saw to create a stop for my easel card. Background paper from Messy Rabbit cd again (great papers on there!)

My DH is always pottering in the garage, and in our house it's known as 'the man's room!' so thought this was quite appropriate!

Been a strange week in our house, brother in law took a turn for the worse, then rallied, still in ICU, but slight improvement.  I had the lurgy - one of those strange ones where only one side of your nose is runny, and your head feels like it's full of soggy cotton wool, but to the outside world you appear 'normal' (well, as normal as I ever look lol!) - and I blame this (and my pathetic attempt at batch Christmas cards) for my loss of mojo.

However, after my last post, I decided to set myself a challenge - to take my multiple stamped images that look oh so samey, and to use each one to create a card that was different from the last. Going well so far! Will share some pics later in the week.

Off for my late morning cuppa and choccy biccie (Remember people, biccies are for life, not just for missing mojo!!)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW

So an early entry from me today for the international snoopathon that is over at Julia's where we get the weekly delight of being able to see what others are creating, and show our workdesks to the world! Mine is relatively tidy (for me!) cos you can still see the table top in places!

Centre stage is a wedding card I'm working on for an old student of mine, and to the left are a batch of stamped images and samples ready for this weekend's Pro Marker workshop, and my 2 fave daisy punches, which I use again and again. Above that a pack of core'dinations and some beautiful Cheery Lyn dies I bought at the NEC - if you haven't seen these take a look, they are gorgeous! I have used one on the top right of the wedding card.

Hiding at back left behind my caddy is a tea bag box waiting to be altered, flip top tea boxes are just right for recipe cards etc. and to the left of the table out of shot is a huge bag of loo roll inners ready for more loo roll mini albums and Christmas crackers!

Hope you're having a fab Wednesday, and enjoy blog hopping around the other desks out there

Deb x

Mr Droopy Drawers!

Hi everyone.  People seemed to like this stamped image when I posted my WOYWW pic earlier this week, so I thought I would show him made up into a card - which my brother in law will be receiving (sssshhhh!!!!!)

The card is made using Funky Hands backing papers from the Friday Night Out collection on the Funky Daze CD (my absolute fave for backing papers - something on there to suit every colour possible). The main image has been die cut using Spellbinders Scalloped Circles, and the sentiment using Spellbinders Labels 4, both edged with Barn Door Distress Ink.  The image and sentiment are from the Creative Expressions Murray and Ethel Stamp Set

I used this image in recent classes on Pro Markers, where I was showing how to get realistic skin tones. Here are a couple of close ups to show what we were working on

Aren't these images great?!? I love the quirkiness of the oldies - they make fun cards for grown ups, and there are some really fun sentiments on the stamp set too. I couldn't resist giving the Bikini Babe a little sunburn! When I get my act together I will post a Pro Marker tutorial..................

I am entering Mr Droopy Drawers in the following Challenges:

• Get Funky - Boys Boys
• Sweet Stampin -  One for the Boys
• Crafters Companion -  One for the Boys
• Sarah Hurley 'Colouring' Challenge 

Thanks for stopping by - off now to tidy the craft table (not a hope!!!)

Debs x

Chandlers Ford Class - 13/07/11

We had a fun evening on Weds in Chandlers Ford.  We were a little low on numbers due to summer holidays and rehearsals for plays!

The nice thing about small numbers is that you can go slow, chat and try things out, which is what we did, and we produced some beautiful stamped and embossed vellum wraps. 

These are stamped on the front of the vellum with Brilliance ink, then dry embossed on the reverse before colouring with Pro Marker, also on the reverse. 

We also stamped and coloured the embellishments. Then we threw a whole lot of glitter over everything :-) We all came away covered in glitter, and with some beautiful samples to take home.

Stamping Techniques Workshop - Bella Crafts 9/7/11

 I had a great time with the ladies at Bella Crafts yesterday - the workshop was so much fun and we got so inky!

We tried a range of stamping techniques, Pro Markers and different inks, but the Tim Holtz Distress Inks were the runaway favourites.

We also tried stamping with watercolour pens, applying them directly to the stamps, and this produced some beautiful designs.

Belinda kept us topped up with tea and coffee, and cakes! We had to stop for a cake break! The class produced some gorgeous designs, backing papers, stamped toppers and masked scenes - there were some amazing scenes taking shape behind garden fences, as well as scenes with butterflies and words - they were all beautiful.

We all had a great laugh, ate WAY too many cakes & biscuits, and produced some fabulous stamped images - what a nice way to spend a wet Saturday morning!

Welcome to my Blog!

My first post - welcome!  I love sharing crafting ideas and inspiration, and I thought I would post a few pics of recent creations as a starting point.

Garden Gate

 The Garden Gate is a welcome home card for a friend who has had a long stay in hospital and is thrilled to be coming home at last.  It was made by inking the stamps directly with Whispers watercolour pens, and uses a mix of Flower Soft stamps, Martha Stewart corner punch and core-dinations card

Blue Music was published in Making Cards a few months ago, and is stamped using Versafine and a Musical Collage Set from Butterfly Kisses

Get Well Ted is coloured with Pro Markers and uses Spellbinders Dies with the layers coloured with Pro Markers to match the main pic exactly

Wine Lovers Happy Birthday uses Distress inks and a Fiskars clear stamp set, with the background stamped with Distress inks, and then using them again to watercolour the stamped images

Enjoy!

Debs