Andrea's Stampin' Moments

Intense Colour

It has been hard for me to find time to craft lately, and though I start out with good intention each day I can never seem to fit it in!  Like so many, I'm sure, it is my down time where I stop thinking about everything else and just enjoy some time out :)

I actually coloured this flower image from our Squared Posies set last weekend but then never worked it in to a project..

I stamped my image with Versafine ink on watercolour paper and gave it a minute to dry before I started to colour.  I used Derwent Inktense pencils for this one and wanted to try and give it almost a painted image look so went for lots of layers of colours!  The beauty with these pencils is that if you allow them to dry in between layers you can go back and work in more colours without disturbing the first colour...love this feature!

The coordinating cardstock was also made from these pencils by drawing simple lines and a broad brush.

Just wanted to show the colour with this shot :)

So does it look a little like a painting?  Not sure, but I do know that I had fun coming back each time and adding just a little more colour and shading :)

Have a great day everyone and I hope to see you tomorrow for our next AnnaBelle Sketch challenge!

Hugs for now,

Say It With...Twine

Happy Friday!  The new challenge is up and running at AnnaBelle Stamps Blog and you will not believe the projects the Belles have created, they will blow you away!  My card is no where as creative lol!

Lil Monster has been coloured with Coloursoft Pencils and blended with Zest-It.  To make the twine grass I took a strip of cardstock and laid down some double sided tape and worked my way across with the twine.  I wish now I'd used green cardstock though :)

What can you create with twine??  There are so many amazing colours now available in store so be sure to check them out!

You'll find all the Belles creations on the ABS blog with links to their projects so go and check them out!

Hugs for now,

And another Yellow & White

I simply wasn't happy with my card yesterday so I squeezed in some in the afternoon to play along with Jess' Topical Tuesday!!

I stamped our Lil Bee with Memento London Fog and coloured him with Prisma's using Zest-It to blend.  I tried to keep the colours soft and not use too much grey seeing our colour challenge this week is Yellow & White...although I have another card in mind for that this afternoon lol!


Thanks for stopping by this morning!  I'm off shopping for school shoes and other winter bits and pieces for the boys, and I may even squeeze in a coffee lol!

Have a great day :)

Watercolouring Michelle

I've given the watercolouring another go today this time using the 'Lil Michelle with Teddy' image by Helen Pickup.
I've stamped my image on to watercolour card using Versafine ink then coloured her using the Inktense Pencils range.

The bakcground images are from the BBD7 set and have been stamped with Distress Ink Antique Linen then sponged with the same colour.

Because the Inktense range is such intense colour (guess that's the reason for the name!) I wasn't sure how I'd go for the skin tone, but I just lightly added a couple of colours around the edge and drew them in...I think it works?!?
Thanks for stopping by :)

Hugs for now,

Sunday Stamping

Hi all, I hope your Sunday was a sunny one :)  Our day here was beautiful ending in a gorgeous evening!

I have a card to share and then some photos of how things look here after 142mm of rain!

I started with the image because I wasn't sure which way I was going to go, and stamped it with Versafine on watercolour card then coloured with Inktense pencils.

For my base card I took Distress Ink Shattered Straw and rubbed it all over the front of the card then stamped the larger gingham image from BBD7 with Versafine.

Some of you may know that some towns north of where I live are in flood and are waiting for the waters to subside after huge rain falls over a week ago.  We had something like 142mm here, less than half of what some experienced, and the up side for us is that our tanks are full and the flowers and grass look amazing, so even though some are experiencing devastating circumstances I thought it might be nice to look at a positive.

These beautiful flowers are known by a few different names, but one is rain lillies (zephyranthes), and after such rains as we had they just flourish!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I put these gorgeous bulbs in because I'd read they need very looking after, my sort of plant!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They stretch (almost) right across the front of the house, I just need to plant a few more!

This is our little orchard and overflow dam which was nearly empty before the rain!  It all looks amazing because Chris spent over 6 hours yesterday mowing(mainly because he wanted to go on his motorbike today!)!  He's a treasure lol!  Even the paddocks look green beneath the over growth, they just look amazing!

Hope you liked this little tour of our neighbourhood!  I should've included one of the neighbours cows...I talk to them when I'm out there alone...I'm sure there's nothing too much to be worried about lol!!

Have a great Labour Day tomorrow those in Victoria.  If you're in Melbourne I hope you get to enjoy the Moomba Parade!!

Hugs for now,

Brighten Your Day!

My card today should brighten your day if you're feeling just a little low :)  Usually in photos the colour doesn't show as vividly as it is IRL, but i think I captured it today lol!

Thanks to Patti for her wonderful Topical Tuesday tutorial at Stamp Embellish Create because I hadn't masked for ages and really it can make all the difference!  A simple mask like this is pretty quick as well!

I have to point out the background stamp as well, because I stamped this last night with just my lamp on and I managed to line them all up perfectly!  Easy as pie!!

My images from the set Mum's Flowers were stamped with Versafine on watercolour paper and coloured with Inktense pencils.  I have these pencils in the shop for pre-order only as they are an expensive item to hold stock of :)  I used a couple of new items to watercolour them as well instead of a brush.  The first is the Dove Blender pen which I now stock and I also tried the Tsukineko fantastix.  Both have a firmer feel than a brush and for me a little more control purely because I'm not an artist and am use to using markers etc.  I'll give them a bit more of a go and let you know about where and tear :)

So I hope I've brightened your day with this one :)

Hugs for now,

Faux Silk

Another rainy day and we're loving it!!  A couple of weeks ago Sue W shared a Faux Silk tutorial on Stamp Embellish Create and I've been trying to fit in some time to play along, and that time just happen to be yesterday!

I don't have a large Xyron machine so I used some vellum spray adhesive.  In my first attempt I forgot to do the scrunching before I did the spraying so it does always pay to re-read the instruction lol!

I've also used the current sketch on the AnnaBelle Blog but this time I remembered the bling!!  I hadn't used the spray adhesive before this (and my first attempt) but I think I needed just a little more.  I would probably also move out of my little office to spray!

Stop by Stamp Embellish Create and sign up so you too can play along and share your creativity!  We have weekly Topical Tuesdays just like this fun tutorial!

I also had some time to colour over the weekend (just not enough time to make them in to cards!) and what I've done here is use Prismacolors for the one on the left and Derwernt Coloursoft for the right image.  I've used a relatively cheap drawing cardstock, one uses mineral Spirits to blend (I think the Prisma one) and the other I used Zest-It a beautiful smelling citris oil based alternative!  Just thought I'd share the results :)

Have a great day everyone!

Hugs for now,

Say It In...Red, Black & White

Tag : ac063

This is always such a striking colour combo don't you think?  Crips, clean, love it!

I'm afraid I had to pull out my favourite little guy Lil Monster's Balloon, I just love colouring him!  He's been stamped with Versafine and coloured with Prismacolor and or Coloursoft...they're both mixed in together!

I haven't used my pencils for awhile so I brushed them off and gave myself some practice time!

It's always great to have you play along with us!  Be sure to follow the easy guidelines to make it fair to everyone!

About Our Challenges

- We post our challenges every Friday at 12:00pm AEST (AEDT during Daylight Savings).

- Each challenge runs for a week, and will close on the Friday 10.00am so that we can announce and showcase our weekly winners prior to the next challenge. 

- Each weeks winner will receive our special blinkie to display on their blog and a $10.00 Gift Voucher to spend in store at AnnaBelle Stamps (or something equivalent).   

How To Play Along : 

- Copy and save our challenge banner and include it and a link back to the ABS blog in your post if you have a blog.
- For those without a blog you can still play along!  Simply upload your card to our Stamp Embellish Create social site (you'll need to join) and add the current challenge 'tag' to your photo!

- Please link directly to your entry not just to your blog or page.

- Please don't link to postings made prior to the date of our current challenge.  All projects submitted must be new.

- A maximum of 7 challenges may be combined including this one.        

- You may enter any of our challenges several times as long as each submission is with a new creation.

- We would love you to use AnnaBelle Stamps and embellishments, but you can play along without using them, it’s all about sharing ideas :)

Check out the Belles blogs as well for incredible projects and inspiration!

Hugs for now,

Say It With...Anything Goes

Anything Goes is this weeks challenge, and it's perfect for the holidays!  Today I'm using one of our new release sets due out tomorrow, and this little guy is one of my favourite characters!

I showed a sneak peek the other with this card using just the sunflower and today Lil Monster Valentine is holding it :)  I've used Copics once again and the same Distress Inks to add the background colour.

The Belles have created some gorgeous samples using Lil Monster and Fanciful Flowers, so be sure to pop by their blogs for a visit :

Guest Belle

Cath

Belles

Therese

Jess

Kylie

Sue W

Sue K

Patti

Marion

So would you like to play along with us??  We have a $10.00 Gift Voucher up for grabs, and simple guidelines to work by :

About our challenges: 

- We post our challenges every Friday at 12:00pm AEST (AEDT during Daylight Savings).

- Each challenge runs for a week, and will close on the Friday 10.00am so that we can announce and showcase our weekly winners prior to the next challenge. 

- Each weeks winner will receive our special blinkie to display on their blog and a $10.00 Gift Voucher to spend in store at AnnaBelle Stamps (or something equivalent).  

How To Play Along : 

- Copy and save our challenge banner and include it and a link back to the ABS blog in your post.

- Please link directly to your entry not just to your blog.

- Please don't link to postings made prior to the date of our current challenge.  All projects submitted must be new.

- A maximum of 7 challenges may be combined including this one.        

- You may enter any of our challenges several times as long as each submission is with a new creation.

- We would love you to use AnnaBelle Stamps and embellishments, but you can play along without using them, it’s all about sharing ideas :)

Hugs,

Say It In...Pink Green & Kraft

Such great colours, perfect for any occasion!  I've gone Christmas again!  I really will be prepared this year lol!

I don't have a lot of pinks in my Copics so I've used pencils to colour the ornaments today.  Stmpaed on Smooth White card with Memento, coloured then cut out and raised with Helmar Liquid Scrp Dots.  I can never show the layer heights very well in photos!

I've used this weeks CASEstudy muse as my inspiration!  Check out the gorgeous card by Niki Estes HERE! 

I hope you can play along this week!  Check out the ABS blog for all the DT projects and don't forget our Blog Hop is still running!

Hugs for now :)

Joy to the World!

I was looking for a challenge yesterday to play along with and thought I hadn't visited the CASE-study challenge for a while!  There was a beautiful card by Nicki Estes there to greet me, so I took the fabulous sketch and created another Christmas card using our new set Ornamental Christmas once again :

Straight off I wanted to use purple and green, but I don't own any purpled Copics so I used my Inktense pencils for the ornament.

I started by creating my large background, distressing with Shabby Shutters and stamping with Peeled Paint.  This stamp is another of our upcoming backgrounds, and I know I shouldn't use them but if they're sitting on your desk what's a girl to do...

The next panel has been distressed with Antique Linen and stamped with our music notes.  I used both Dusty Concord and Milled Lavender to ink it so I had a variance in colour.

All new to the shop today is Helmar's Liquid Scrap Dots.  I read about these on a few of the 'big' bloggers sites and did a little research only to find that this product is made in Australia!  I just thought that was so fantastic I had to give it a go!!  The dimensional liquid dries clear so you don't get that white showing.

The ribbon is a piece of seam binding the lovely Sue W sent me and I coloured it by (very quickly) running Walnut Stain - Distress Stain over it.

Thanks for stopping by today, I always appreciate your comments :)

Hugs for now,

Pencilled Lines

I had some fun with my pencils today, and decided to try something a little different for me by stamping my image in a lighter colour than I normally would.  I've seen a lot of this around the blogs lately using Copics as the colouring medium, and I can't wait to give that a go as well :)  Now that it's finished I think I could've gone a little lighter, but it was a fun first try.

My base card has been stamped using BBD5 with Dried Marigold Distress Ink.  For my flower I used Stampin' Up! Mellow Moss, but now think a yellow would've been good like Scattered Straw Distress Ink.  The image is matted on to card that has been distressed with Spiced Marmalade and Walnut Stain, then on to a scrap piece of Bazzill.

I used my pencils to colour and shade - we are so lucky to have all these different items at our finger tips!

The sentiment has been raised with some dimensional foam in the centre and tape at either end.

I hope you had a great day as well!

Hugs,

Saturday Stamping

I'm running against the clock today because I decided to play along with the Card Patterns sketch last night not even thinking that it closed today, so I had to get a move on this afternoon :)

I have spent the last week doing a bit of an overhaul of my office because I was finding that my working area was getting smaller and smaller!  My office is only 3m x 3m which is taken up with the business side of things - computer, filing cabinets etc - as well as my crafting space and storing some stock, so I have to be tidy and it just wasn't working!  I'm happy to say it is looking much better :)  One more storage item to save and buy and then it will be perfect....for now any way!

Here's the sketch I worked to, but I flipped it around :

And here is my card :

I haven't done a lot of colouring lately so I really enjoyed playing with my Copics and pencils :)

My emboss resist background panels were stamped with Versamark and distressed with Distress Inks.

Thanks for stopping by :)  Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,

AnnaBelle Stamps Blog Hop

Phew!  Well I think I'm going to just make it today!  I did finish my card yesterday, and I know I should've been more organised because you never know what could happen, so I should've been prepared when our power went out at midnight last night!...but I wasn't lol!  But just to show you my commitment I'm doing this before I have a shower lol!!  Yes when our power goes out nothing works because we need power for the pumps to run the water.  The boys had to go to school as is (we did have a jug of water to clean teeth though) but I can sneak one in as soon as I do this :)

Our set this week is Stamped For Christmas :

This set is on sale until Friday of next week with 20% off and is our Blog Hop prize, so be sure to add you name to the link below :)

Today I used the sketch from last month or the month before (not sure which) from the ABS blog, and stamped my images on a linen card stock then coloured them with pencils.

A few simple tags using background stamps adn images from the Stamped For Christmas set.

And an even simpler tag...very quick!

I had so many more ideas for today but with Chris' birthday yesterday the chocolate cake came first :)

Our Hop

To keep our hop as fun and simple as possible, click through each of the DT blogs to see what they've created using this set.  You can comment if you like, and leave your name using the Inlinkz on any of the DT blogs, or here on the ABS blog.  You don't have to comment on all of our blogs, but we'd love to hear what you think, just remember to add your name for your chance to win this fabulous set!

Next you'll want to stop by Sue W's for a visit and say Hi!

Happy stamping :)

AnnaBelle Stamps Blog Hop

Here we are again for our second Hop for August!  Today we are using a new favourite - Squared Posies!  This set will be discounted by 20% for the net two weeks or while current stock lasts!

I really wanted to use all of these images today, but I got a little stuck on just one to begin with, then added another last night :)

I started with a one layer card and the daisy image for my first card!  To create the soft coloured look I've used pencils to colour and a smooth white cardstock.

This card uses a softer cardstock - watercolour 100% cotton - and gives a different finish to the penciled colouring.  This card was inspired by Sue W's card HERE.

I went very bright for my last card!  Using my Twinkling H2O's - which I haven't pulled out in ages! - my centre panel was created just using a large brush sweeping it across the watercolou paper.  The main card is ordinary Smooth white and before I painted on the Twinkling I sponged with Distress Ink - Broken China - so my base card was a shade darker.  The shimmer of the paint is so pretty and really stand out more on the smooth card.

My centre flower was coloured with Inktense Pencils this time and then cut out and attached to my background.  I finished with a sentiment from the set and 3mm Licorice Sprinkles.

Our Hop

To keep our hop as fun and simple as possible, click through each of the DT blogs to see what they've created using this set.  You can comment if you like, and leave your name using the Inlinkz on any of the DT blogs, or  on the ABS blog.  Remember to add your name for your chance to win this fabulous set!

Next on our hop today is Sue W, and I can't wait to see what Sue and the other ladies have created for us today!

Have fun on the Hop!

Hugs,