Rubber Stamping - North Wales

Hello ladies Today I have a card to show you that I made only yesterday for a friend who has moved house. I first stamped it in a sepia coloured Adirondack ink with the intention to produce a sepia picture. But, I didn't like it - so instead I stamped in Versamark & heat embossed in gold EP. I then used Distress Inks as paint by putting the colour on an acrylic block & picking the colour up with my water brush. I layered it onto dark green card , then blue card then onto the white scalloped edge card.  I stamped & embossed the "New Home" in gold & layered that as well onto the green & blue card. That's me for now - may be back later. 'Bye.

Today is the 30 September & this blog is now 6 years old The old blog ran for about 3 or 4 years so we have been going about 9 years in total

Good morning ladies - here I am again & this time I have the photos from the Mold II meeting on Tuesday, & they are of their project for the evening. Carolyn showed the ladies how to make the Z-fold card, & these are the cards that they made; This is Elma's card - a really nice Christmas card. Another Christmas card version - this time from Betty. Betty had also made a couple of these at home - so she brought them in to show us. It is interesting to see the difference appearance the narrower strip gives. This lovely shiny holographic finish was made by Sylvia.  The topper is just perfect for it. Annette's card is really crisp & clean & the blue background makes it definitely feel very wintry. Helen decided on a birthday version. I love the black & gold - very elegant. Aother beautiful sparkly card, this time from Elizabeth.  Very rich & sumptuous card. This is a second card made by Elma ...

Good afternoon everyone. Today I have a few photos from the Mold II club's Show & Tell cards from last night's meeting.  The theme, or challenge, was a fusion card.  A fusion card is the marriage of a sketch & a photo. This is the sketch & this is the photo There are just 3 cards to show you as last month several ladies were not present, plus we were 3 ladies absent last night Here are their cards; I love this little bouquet on the front of Elma's card.  It captures the colours perfectly. Elma told us her son thought it was lovely & we all agreed with him. Annette's background papers pick up all the colours & the little vase of flowers in the centre highlight's them really well. Betty found she could use her brusho's to get her background pieces & once again you can see all the colours from the picture there. Well done ladies.  I did pick rather a bright multi-coloured image for your first...

Good afternoon ladies - I hope you all had a good weekend. Today I have a photograph of a recent birthday card I have made; I made this from an "all-in-one" background stamp that I purchased from CaroLine quite a few years ago - I love it - it is so versatile. This time I have stamped it in black ink on white card & heat embossed with clear EP.  I then coloured it with my pearlescent water colours & mounted it onto black card. I had a long think about where the greeting would go as I was reluctant to cover any of the flowers. So, as you can see, in the end I added it vertically off to the side, after stamping it in black, heat embossing with clear EP & layering it onto black card to match the main focal image,  A little group of pale pink pearls completed the card. Tomorrow evening is the September meeting of the Mold II club  - so there will be photos for you over next couple of days. Carolyn is taking the demonstration part of the evening , sho...

Good afternoon ladies. Well, it did turn out a nice weekend - a bit blowy - but very pleasant. I finally made a new home card for our daughter out in the States - I just couldn't make up my  mind what to do - but then one of the magazines came with a free door embossing folder & some stamps that were Christmas themed. As soon as I saw the door I knew that was what I would use. Then had the idea of using it on a stepper card. Seem to be in to stepper cards at the moment. Here is the finished card - I embossed the door in white, then decided I was going to use kraft card for the stepper. Well, that was actually my second choice I had first made the stepper from a bright blue card then didn't like it. I gave the door a distressed look with some Distress inks which looked better on the kraft card. The stamps that came with the embossing folder included a set of numbers, a door knocker, an outside lantern light, a wreath, a bow, a plant urn & a plant head ...

Good afternoon ladies - goodness! it's Friday again & another weekend is with us. I finally got around to photographing my brothers card this morning & here it is; Gosh! it looks a bit rumpled there - but it isn't. It's a centre stepper card, for which I have a die - so no measuring involved - it is perfect. I cut the juke box from gold mirri card & then attempted to only emboss it in red mirri card.   Despite the sandwich instruction with my Gemini - the machine wanted to die-cut it - so it did go through in places - but held together.  So I achieved the result I wanted which was the red coming through - not just behind - the design.  I had to be very careful adding adhesive so that it didn't slide & mark the red. The die cut "happy birthday" is a strange font - the a's & the p's do not join together - I haven't broken them. This is the message on the back which I have layered onto gold mirri then de...

Good evening ladies - & a rather late one it is too. This morning I had to take my car in for a service - it's first one - so had time to kill whilst it was being done.  I popped in on the park & ride to Chester.  I haven't been for a while & I thought it was generally looking very sorry for itself. Having picked up a few bits & pieces I was after & deciding I wasn't enjoying walking around I went back to the bus & at the same time got a message to say that my car would be ready in about 45 minutes - it was currently being valeted. Then this afternoon I have been putting my brothers birthday card together.  I had a couple of attempts at the effect I wanted & eventually got it right.  Will show you tomorrow. In the meantime here is another card that I made recently; I ran the butterfly embossing folder through my Gemini, Then coloured it with distress inks in green & blue, & finally smoothing it all out with some yell...

Good afternoon ladies I have had a play day today - well, a few hours this afternoon actually - but it almost amounts to the same thing. When I popped into the craft shop in the garden centre yesterday I am afraid some new dies caught my eye & what do you know I bought them - couldn't resist them.  So this afternoon I had a practice die-cutting session with them to see just how they would come out & what I thought I would be able to do with them. Here they are; The first one is just an ordinary little hexagon die - but I can think of lots of ideas for it. It actually embossed the edge quite well with just the one pass through the machine to cut it. Just look at that die!  I cut it out of some grey card I have to see it "in the flesh" so to speak. The 3 little circles are actually a separate die.  Lots of ideas for this one. Then there is the floral cascade.  Again I just cut it from grey card to see what it looked like. You d...

Good afternoon ladies I have photos today of the final sample card that I made for my workshop down in the garden centre - they are cards that fold differently.  After finishing the last one & taking it down to the craft shop I realised I hadn't taken a photo of it.  This morning I had to pop in there so took the opportunity to take one whilst I was there. I chose the black & white theme for this one - this is the front. Although it will not be a stamping workshop I had to stamp at least one of the samples & its this one . The background paper is ready printed. & this is the inside.    It is the same style as one of the cards I have placed a photo of on the new "future projects" tab on the blog. I think you will like making this one - it will be very early in the New Year. That's me for today - more tomorrow. 'Bye for now.

birthday greetings today is 20 September & a Mold club member has a birthday Happy birthday Lynn enjoy your day.

Good afternoon ladies I hope you had a good weekend. After tidying up some of my work space I decided to have a look around the internet for ideas for next year.  Yes! I know it is still 3 months away - but I have to have the ideas ahead of time. If there is anything in particular you would like to cover - or even cover again - or if you have any ideas, please email me or leave a comment on this blog. Also if you have some ideas or techniques that you think the ladies would be interested  - & you would be willing to show them please get in touch with me. I have a couple of ideas lined up & at the moment I am thinking of creating another page on the blog where I will put photos of projects I would like to include during the year. Tonight I have my meeting at HSNW club. I hope you have got your tickets for the Stamp Festival there is only just under 2 weeks to go. Tomorrow I hope to have photos of cards I have made recently. 'Bye for now.

Good morning ladies. Another weekend is here - I do hope you have some good things planned. This morning I have the photos from the project at Mold club's meeting on Thursday - which was Carolyn's (of Mold II club) - z-fold card. The colours of Joan's flowers are gorgeous & I like the toning roses on her topper. Very pretty. Rachel went for drama on her card - it is really striking, & the grey band with the greeting works so well. Joanna decided on a real focal point topper & with the black matting layer it is really striking. Mair decided not to put a topper on her card during the evening as she really wanted a nice rose for the front & didn't have one with her.  The background paper is really delicate. Look at that amazing colour in Sheelagh's card.  Her background papers are papers that she has inked at some earlier stage & then stamped on top at the meeting.  That clematis stamp is a favourite of mine to...

Just popping in to let you know I have updated the club pages with Octobers information & the project photos page as well. 'Bye.

Good afternoon ladies. This afternoon I have the Show & Tell photos from last night's Mold club meeting, where the theme was a fusion card. The challenge was to "fuse" a sketch & a picture into a complete design; This is the sketch & this is the photo & these are their cards Janet's card has the colours very subtly in the background & then more dominant in the hand-cut flowers. Sheelagh was not at the meeting when I said not to use the photo I had given you on the card. So she has included it - but all the colours have been really well picked up around the design. Joan has used the softer version of the colours which is really effective. Again, Lynn has also gone for softer colours & I love the bling which picks up the sparkle on the photo. Joanna has used the really vibrant colours in her card & matting & layering of the colours as well. This is the first time I put that challe...

Good afternoon ladies - gosh I didn't realise I had not written anything since Monday. Of course Bob & I & the family were out all day Tuesday for a family funeral, then yesterday I had to finish preparing the materials for the card workshop I will be doing at the garden centre later on.  I needed to sort the items that they would have to bring & what I would supply. Then I took the cards down so they could be displayed & forgot to photograph the third one I had made.  I need to pop down there tomorrow - so will take a photo on my mobile. Last night it was the moved meeting of the CSNW club - I had to change their day due to talking to the WI last week.  Sadly only 4 ladies turned up & we lost a little bit of time waiting for others that the ladies didn't get to decorate their fold over boxes.  So they are going to finish them at home & bring them in next month for me to see. & photograph. This morning was my monthly lunch ...

Good evening ladies - I hope you all had a good weekend. There isn't a lot to chat about but I thought I would just pop in for a little while.  I spent some time today thinking about the set of Christmas cards that I make each year for Bob to give out & had a good browse in Pinterest for ideas. Then I had to make the third sample card for the workshop I will doing in October at the garden centre.  The best design I found actually used 12x12 card & paper which isn't the best idea for a workshop - although I do have stacks of 12x12 that could be used.  So thinking a little longer I managed to get it down to an A4 sheet which would make 2 cards.  I was rather pleased with the fact that I had been able to work it out - then when I returned to Pinterest for more ideas - found that someone else had created an A4 (2 card) version & it would appear we agreed on measurements.  I also found a version using A4 card complete to make a larger version. I did...

Good afternoon ladies. I thought I would show you some recent cards I have made - they are in fact the ones that I made for the WI talk I gave.  You were able to see them in the display photos I posted on Friday. The photos are in the order of my demonstration, & I demonstrated how I had created the card before holding it up & passing it around for them to see closer; This was the first card & I used it to show how I made background papers, in this instance using Card-io stamps. It also gave me the chance to talk about embossing folders & of course the different colouring mediums, & how different a card looks when it is layered like this. This card was to show Clarity Stamps designs & pattern making & of course variegated inks. I also used this card to talk about stamping flower shapes & creating multi-layered flowers. This card was to show the use of the stamp positioner. Those eagle-eyed amongst you will spot that I sti...

Good afternoon ladies I am sorry there was no blog written yesterday - but Bob & had a day out meeting up with a childhood friend of his, which we do every couple of months. On Wednesday evening I did my talk to the WI group.  They had been on a summer break & that evening was their first one back - so there was quite a lot of business to cover before my talk.  They only had little tables to work on so the planned great layout I had decided on did not take place & I practically worked out of my bags.  Fortunately my demos that I had prepped were all in order in a box so it was easy to work. They were a lovely group of ladies & most receptive of my work - & of yours as well, as I had taken my birthday cards that I had received this year with me to show different styles of stamping.  When doing a talk like this I always choose shrink plastic to close & I have a particular stamp I use.  The Ladies absolutely loved this part of the demo...