Girly Ghouls

Good evening!

I hope you have had a wonderful day.  Tonight's card is one I did for the TV featuring the rather cute little Quirks stamps and Diamont Life stencil by Olga for AALL and Create.

I started by brayering some DIna Wakley acrylic paint onto the circle gel press petite, place the stencil on the card and press the paint through the stencil onto the card.
Once you've done that and removed the stencil, print what you have left on the gel press onto another piece of card.  You get two prints for one!
Decide which one you like best for this (I liked the second one!)
For the Quirks, I stamped and cut out the bodies and heads.
I also painted another piece of card, then stamped the quirks again over the top and cut out the dresses.
Layer the dresses on the white stamped base, then add to the card

Thank you very much for visiting
Janet xxx

Owl You Need is Love!

Good evening all,

A quick reminder that lovely Abs is back on Hochanda TV on Thursday 25th at 8.00 and 12.00 for more fun and inspiration with AALL and Create stamps and stencils

In the mean time here is a card I made featuring the Owl You Need is Love set by Olga

I brushed green and brown ink though the Wood Pile stencil by Abs for the background, then added some brighter green through the leaves of the Let Go stencil by Fiona for a bit of contrast.
I stamped some script from the For the Record stamp by Aida in black, but didn't mount the stamp so I only got a part image.  I added some splatters.
I stamped, coloured and cut out the owls and words,on a separate piece of card, then glued them all in place.
I doodled a frame round the edge
Finally I used some of the hearts from the new dies to add the finishing touch.

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to tune in tomorrow!
Janet xxx

Two African Men

Good morning! 
Another lovely day today. I am planning more gardening and some prep for my workshop on Saturday.
Today on fb I got a friend anniversary memory from 5 years ago and thought it would be the ideal day to show this card.
People who speak to me will know that it doesn't take long before I start talking about my Kenyan friend!  He sent me a friend request 5 years ago today - I normally reject requests from men I don't know unless they are obviously interested in card making, but for some reason, I thought it would be interesting to have a friend in Africa, so I accepted it.  He messaged me and told me a bit about himself, he was a student and wanted to improve his English by chatting to me online.  I agreed, and so began our journey

He was painting amazing little pictures to go on cards which he was selling to help pay for his education, I asked him to send me some and was amazed at how lovely they were.  One thing led to another and I agreed to support him through his schooling.
Not only did we share a love of cards, but also a love of nature, his dream was to become a tour guide for a safari company, which must have seemed like an impossible dream for him, considering his situation.






That dream is coming true!  He is now at college to gain the necessary qualification to become a tour guide.  I am so proud to have helped turn his life around and improve his prospects.  He has some big dreams and I have every faith that they will come to pass, he is an amazing young man!








Those ladies who come to any workshops I do will also know that it doesn't take long before I start talking about the other African man in my life.  I had got into a bit of a rut with making cards until I saw him on TV...  I caught one of the first shows he did and was totally blown away with his techniques, the stamp designs but mostly the stencils - they are fantastic for creating backgrounds. I signed up for some online workshops which showed me a whole new approach to designing and something inside just 'pinged' and a whole new world opened up for me!  I went to some of his workshops and loved his energy and attitude and of course his art.  He and his team have inspired me so much and I am beyond excited to have been invited to join his new Hochanda Design Team.

Stamp set #125 and Planisphere die

This is my card using one stamp set and a new die.  The whole die cuts the world in amazing detail, but I chose to just use Africa on this occasion.

Thank you for making it to the end of this long post.
I hope you have a fabulous day
Janet xxx

The Kenyan adventure....

Good morning all!

I hope it is a lovely where you are as it is here this morning. It is warm and gentle, there is the promise of sun later, the birds are singing and I managed to get some gardening done yesterday.
Spring and summer are most definitely my favourite time of year, I love the long days, and seeing nature come back to life.

Today's project is a new one for me - A4 size!  AALL and Create do many fabulous A4 stamps and I love them, but I have never used the whole stamp in a project before, I tend to use parts of the stamp.
However, when I saw this stamp I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  I am sure most of you know we went to Kenya in January and had the most amazing time.  Simon took lots of fabulous photos, so I wanted to use one to incorporate into my page - it was really tough deciding which photo to use, but in the end it had to be elephants at Amboseli National Park with the wonderful Acacia trees.

Stamps #112 and #125 by Aida

I printed the photo first, trimmed and edged with black ink, the coloured the stamped image to match.
I tore round the edges of the image and roughed the edges a bit, then blended a darker colour all round the edge.
I added the photo and a few woerd from another stamp set
The wording on the tag is Kiswahili - which I am learning!  It means Elephants of Amboseli and I love Kenya!
I also used the pointing hand to show where Amboseli is in the world!
Enjoy the weekend!
Thanks very much for visiting
Janet xxx

It's all black and white!

Good evening folks! 
I hope you all have a good bank holiday weekend planned, we are promised good weather, I might even wash my car, I seem to remember it is a creamy white colour.....
I have got a new lot of AALL and Create samples to show you, they were on the TV today with Jo Channon standing in for Abs.  I think she did a fab job and did some lovely demos.

It was late in the evening and I really had wanted to get more samples made especially using this stencil.  I came up with an idea and had to do it there and then, so I stayed up into the small hours to get it done in time for posting the next morning.
It didn't quite go to the original plan, which is why there are two similar cards...
This is really easy!  I put the stencil on black card and sponged white paint through it, then die cut circles and matted onto more white circles and put on the card - told you it was easy!!

My original plan was to have a mix of black on white and white on black on the same card, but I didn't like the way it looked, so I separated the colours and made two cards...

I just used stencil #62 Microscope slides by Autour de Mwa (Abs)
Hope you like them!
Thanks very much for visiting!
Have a great Easter weekend!
Janet xxx

Mainly stencils

Good evening everyone,

I enjoy using stencils, they can make fantastic backgrounds, especially the ones by AALL and Create, I think that is what attracted me to the company in the first place; the fab stencils.  However, I also love using stencils as the main feature on a card too....

Stencil 77 by Olga Heldwein and stamp 188 by Fiona Paltridge

Stencil 65 by Autour de Mwa and stamp 182 by Fiona Paltridge

The sunflower is part of a big A4 size stencil, I decided to scale it down and just use the sunflower part as a feature.
I attached the stencil to the card and blended some yellow ink through it.
Remove the stencil and outline the petals with a fine black pen.
Add extra colour and shading with watercolour pencils
Stamp the words and outline with the pen..
Nice and simple and relaxing to do.









I love this stencil by Abs, it is longer than the card I used, so again I only used part of the stencil.
This time I attached the stencil to the card and masked off the edges, then added a very light amount of ink all over.  I kept the stencil in place and drew all round with a fine pen,
then removed the stencil and coloured the flowers with pencils and the outline edges with grey promarker
I added the sentiment with black versa fine ink

Thanks very much for visiting
Janet xxx

Reviving peel-offs

Good evening bloggers,
I hope you are all well.  I am getting excited this evening because I am going to the craft show at Alexandra Palace tomorrow.  I haven't been to a big craft show for a few years and I am looking forward to catching up with some crafty friends.
Today was the Diva Red workshop which I do with Moira.  Previously we had all been discussing the amount of craty stuff we had which we don't use any more and one thing that was mentioned was peel-offs - remember them??  I have a whole drawer full of peel-offs, so I thought I would dust them off and make a couple of cards with them. 

 The cat here is a peel-off by Francoise Read and the background is done with a stencil from AALL and Create.
I used inktense pencils to do the colouring

 the dog is a peel-off by Magenta

The Hare is a stamp by Hobby Art.  This card is my version of Moira's card from the workshop.

Thanks very much for visiting, I hope you have a great weekend,
Janet xxx