SNG - Journal Pages .....

...  Good morning!  It's the last day of December and, once again, I can't quite believe just how fast this year has gone by.  It's my pleasure to host the last post of the year over at Sparkle and Glitter.  It is rather bittersweet too - it's my last post as a member of Rick St Dennis's Elite Design Team.  I had the great good fortune to be picked to join Rick's EDT last year and I've had such fun creating with Rick's fabulous images.  I've made cards and I've made journal pages.  Today, I'm signing off with a couple of journal pages featuring Rick's wonderful women.  Here's the first page:

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - Bearded Lady; Dylusions - Further Round the Edge, Graphic Backgrounds, Basic Backgrounds; Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz - Way With Words; Uniko - English Country Garden
Inks: Dylusions Sprays; Archival - Jet Black, Leaf Green, Forget Me Not, Rose Madder
Accessories: Dylusions Large Journal; Wink of Stella - various; Signo White Pen; Copic Markers; Glitter; Stencils - Various; Glossy Accents

I created the background page at one of our Kitchen Roll Sprayers club meeting.  I love the colours and the ghosted pattern which I thought would be a perfect background for the Bearded Lady.  I printed the image on white card, coloured her with Copic markers (this is the second one - see below), cut her out and added glitter, Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents.  I think this is a wonderful image - she's a beautiful women (wish I had her figure), she's elegant, she's brave and she has a beard!  I think the sentiment I used is perfect with the image.  She's no circus clown, she's gorgeous. Here's a close up of the finished image:

For my second page I picked one of Rick's fabulous Morning Goddess images:

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - Morning Goddess BathTime Burlesque; Dylusions - Inbetweenies; Your Next Stamp - Whatnot Sentiments One
Inks: Dylusions Sprays; Archival - Jet Black, Leaf Green, Forget Me Not, Rose Madder
Accessories: Dylusions Large Journal; Wink of Stella - various; Signo White Pen; Copic Markers; Glitter; Stencils - Various; Glossy Accents

The background was created at a club meeting.  I think the stencilled circles and hexagons look a bit like bunting, balloons, party confetti, which is just right for this image.  I love her.  She's a full-figured women (wish I had her figure too!) who just loves to party! And she's a bit of a cat-lady too.  Once again I printed the image on white card, coloured with Copic markers, cut her out, added Wink of Stella, glitter and Glossy Accents.  I got some new stamps yesterday and I think this sentiment is brilliant and goes so well with her.  She is quite unique.  Here's a close-up of the image - taken at a bit of an angle to try and show the sparkle in her jewellery - I added Wink of Stella before applying the Glossy Accents and in real-life the gems shimmer!

I'll be adding both these pages to my journal soon.  Now, the reason this post is a bit late (sorry guys, I did it again) is because I tore the first completed image of the Bearded Lady.  I run my images through a Xyron to make them self-adhesive, but I didn't realise that I was at the end of the roll and the image tore - the air was blue!!!!!!  I was so cross.  Fortunately I was up silly early this morning and had time to do another image.  Here's what's left of the first one!!

Both these gorgeous ladies are available at Rick's Zibbet shop along with many of their beautiful, fun, quirky and elegant friends!

I am very sad to be leaving Rick's EDT, but there's lots going on at Chez Frings this year - can't say much yet, but it involves moving.  So I'll have a lot less time to craft and play!  I'd like to thank Rick for asking me to join the team and thanks also to my team mates - it's been wonderful!  And you'll still see me about.  That's all for now.  I hope everyone has a fun filled New Year's Eve!!  See you soon.

USC - Things with Wings ....

.... Good morning!  It's time for our new challenge at Uniko Studio and for the next couple of weeks we'd like to see your project with our theme of:

THINGS WITH WINGS

Beverley has some wonderful stamp sets featuring things with wings and I've gone for a light, bright butterfly card:

Stamps: Uniko Studio - Bright Butterflies, English Country Garden Butterflies; Background Builders Round in Circles
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Bermuda Bay; Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Grey Flannel
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU DP - Bermuda Bay; Vellum; Clear Embossing Powder; Copic Markers; Staedtler Ergo Soft Pencils; Wink of Stella - Clear

I used a couple of challenges in the making of this card.  I CASEd Michele's beautiful card at MUSE - MUSE#113 and I used the colours from this week's Colour Q - cQc#287 - my pop of colour teal.  I was going to make this a one-layer card with the butterfly stamped directly on the card, but decided that it would be much better to have a dimensional butterfly.  I stamped the image in Versafine on vellum and heat embossed with clear powder.  I coloured the reverse of the image with Copic markers and pencils.  Once cut out, I added lots of sparkle to the top of the image - in real-life this really shimmers when the sun shines on it.  I used a selection of stamps from the Round in Circles to create the background and added a simple sentiment at the top. 

The image you see above is slightly different to the one on Uniko Studio's blog (see left).  After I loaded my image to Uniko Studio, I thought it wasn't quite finished.  I added a line of linked circles stamped in black, it seemed to balance the card better.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of design paper and stamped some decoration on the white panel, but left space for my message.

Looking at my photos - this card appears to be slightly wonky - it's actually straight!!  Must check out my photography skills :)

You can't see the sparkle on the butterfly's wings, so I've taken an out-of-focus photo as this seems to show the shimmer:

Do drop by the blog and check out the inspiration cards from the rest of the team and also from our Guest Designers - Michelle and Elaine.  You've got plenty of time to play along - deadline for submission is Friday 1st May, 8.00am BST (3.00am EDT).  Have fun!!!

Uniko Studio - Revisit ...

... Hello again!  Today the Uniko Studio Design Team are revisiting a number of Beverley's super stamp sets:

• Paradise - Hummingbird
• English Country Garden - Butterflies
• Bright Butterflies

 Now, I don't have the hummingbird set (yet), so my card features only butterflies:

Stamps: Uniko Studio - Bright Butterflies, English Country Garden Butterflies
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Stampin' Up! - Garden Green, Gumball Green, Wild Wasabi, Pistachio Pudding, Green Galore, Old Olive; Kaleidacolor - Fresh Greens
Dies: Memeory Box - Cross Stitched Frames #3
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Lucky Limeade; SU Marker - Basic Black

This card came about because I saw the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch - CTS#117 and the monochromatic colour scheme at CAS Colours & Sketches - CASC&S#118 - that butterfly graphic is so pretty.  This post is going live too late to play along with either challenge, but as they had such an influence on the design, must give them all the credit.  I'm also playing along with House of Cards - HOCApr, where the challenge is to add a butterfly and/or use their colours, obviously I've added butterflies!!

I die cut the green frame and adhered it directly to the card.  I stamped lots of the outline butterfly in black and added colour by over stamping with the solid butterfly - they are really easy to line up.  I spent a while cutting them all out and edged each one with a black marker.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre of the card and adhered the butterflies all around it.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of green card and added more butterflies and a sentiment to the white panel.

Now, why don't you hop along and visit the rest of the team to see what they have made for you.  Here's the order of the hop:

Bev/Uniko Studio

Amber

Deborah - that's me!!

Gillian

Nicki

Sandie

Sarah

Sarah G

That's all for now - thanks so much for stopping by, I really do appreciate it.  Have a great day.

USC - Love and Friendship II ...

...  Good morning all!  Having a day off on Monday (for Martin Luther King Jr Day) has really thrown my week, not only was I late yesterday, but today too!!  Hey ho!  It's time for a reminder about our challenge at Uniko Studio - USC#17 where we have the theme of

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

Last week I made an anniversary card, always needed in my stash, and this week I've a simple card for a friend:

Stamps: Uniko Studio - English Country Gardens: Butterflies, All Occasion Sentiments #3
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Chocolate Chip; Memento - Rich Cocoa
Dies: Memory Box - Cross Stitched Frame Borders #7
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Crumb Cake; Copic Markers; Vellum; Clear Embossing Powder; Wink of Stella - Clear

There are lots of challenges around blogland at the moment with the theme of friend - weird how that happens, but fun as it means I can link this card up with the following challenges:

• Colour Q - cQc#276 - colours
• Happy Little Stampers - HLSJanSk - layout
• CASology - CAS#130 - cue word FRIEND
• Less is More - LIM#207 - theme - FRIEND

I made the card base from a sheet of crumb cake card.  I used the Memory Box dies to cut a white panel for the front and inside of the card - I love the cross stitch detail.  I used my Fiskars Stamp Press to stamp the butterfly and sentiment on the white panel.  I stamped the butterfly again onto scrap white card and vellum, and used clear embossing powder on the vellum image.  I used Copic markers to colour both images, fussy cut them out and then added sparkle to the top of the image on the card and to the underneath of the vellum image, then I adhered the layered down the length of the body.  Once dry I curled the vellum wings to give some dimension and adhered the butterfly to the card base over the stamped image.  I finished the card by stamping a little butterfly on the panel inside the card.  I also took a photo to show the dimension and sparkle on the butterfly.

You still have plenty of time to join in with the Uniko Studio challenge - deadline is Friday 30th January, 8.00am GMT (3.00am EDT).  You don't have to use Uniko stamps to play along, but if you do and could win a £10 voucher to use in our store.  Do pop over to the Uniko Studio blog to see more inspiration from the team and our guest designers, Lucy, Lynn and Kitty.

By the way, I've a film recommendation for you.  I was out with friends last night and we went to see Wild, starring Reece Witherspoon (Oscar nominated).  It's about a woman who has lost her mum, got divorced and lost hope.  She starts to hike the Pacific Crest Trial - 1,100 miles.  It's a fantastic film based on the true story of Cheryl Strayed.  Well worth a visit.  And that's all for now.  Have fun crafting - see you soon.