Crafty Individuals August launch

Hi Everyone!!!

Did you manage to catch the latest launch of Crafty Individuals stamps, stencils and papers on Create and Craft TV earlier this month? There's a fab collection of funky floral designs drawn by Sharon Bates, a new wood grain stamp which I just love and is perfect if you love creating your own background's, and a dreamcatcher which I was lucky enough to have drawn and turned into a rubber stamp. 

Here are some of the samples I made along with a list of all the new stamps. As you can see I seem to have had a bit of an obsession with circles and used them in several of my samples this time round.

CI-635 Wood grain stamp

CI-636 Dreamcatcher

CI-634 Floral leaves

CI-633 Floral buds

CI-632 Floral blooms

Thank you for visiting!!

X - Dena - X

 

Crafty Individuals bird card

Hi Everyone!!

I made this card yesterday and couldn't resist using the new woodgrain background stamp from Crafty Individuals. This has to be one of my favourite background stamps - It's so versatile and just goes so well with so many stamps.

Start by cutting a piece of white card to fit on a 7x7 card blank.

Using a blending brush, colour the background with tea dye distress ink.

Stamp the Woodgrain background along one side. You'll need to stamp it again on the bottom half as the stamp won't be big enough to cover the whole piece of card. I used a piece of thin copier paper to cover the stamped image then stamped it a second time. If you feel there is a definite line along the join use a rubber tip tool to pick up some brown ink and blend the lines into each other until your happy with the overall look. 

Randomly stamp some more of the woodgrain stamp on the right hand side the card. Then stamp part of the Inky Script background in the empty spaces. 

Darken the edges with your blending brush and brushed corduroy distress ink. Add some faded blue distress ink in places. 

Using a scoring board score along the main wooden planks to add some texture.

Flip the card over and score along all the edges of the card to create a beveled edge.

Mount the background onto black card then onto your pre-folded 7x7 card blank.

Stamp the A is for apple bird image in black and emboss with clear embossing powder. 

Cut the image down to size.

Stamp and emboss the branches from the Be wild elements stamp set and some foliage around the bottom.

Hold a piece of scrap paper where you'd like your horizon line and lightly add some faded jeans distress ink to the top section. I didn't bother masking the image on this occasion as I coloured with colouring pencils. Cover the skyline with scrap paper and lightly add some peeled paint distress ink to the grassy area.

Colour the image with your desired medium - I used the Castle Arts Gold pencil set. Using a green pencil add some shading under the log and apple.

Use a ruler add a thin border around the edge of card using a black sharpie. 

Cut a piece of brown card just slightly larger than your topper. Add some Rose gold gilding polish from creative expressions around the edges. 

Finally mount onto a piece of black card then onto your main card. 

Thank you for joining me.

X - Dena - X

 

Visible Image ladybird card

Good afternoon!!

We're currently away for a few weeks house hunting in Norfolk, but of course I couldn't come away without the crafting essentials and as the weather hasn't been the best I've been able to squeeze in some crafty time.

I made this card using a selection of Visible image stamps. 

 

Cut a piece of card to fit a 6 x 6 pre-folded card blank. 

Stamp the ladybirds in black ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.

Apply a thin layer of pebeo masking fluid to the ladybirds with a synthetic brush.

Spray the card with a fine mister spray then sprinkle a combination of lime green and lemon brushos. Don't forget less is more!!

You can add more water and brushos until your happy with the overall look. If your card is too wet use some kitchen roll to dab some of the ink up.

Dry with a heat gun.

Stamp the sentiments in black ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.

Randomly stamp the circles from the chain reaction in rustic wilderness Distress oxide. 

Use some kitchen roll to dab off any ink on the masking fluid. 

Use you finger or a glue eraser to remove the masking fluid. 

Colour the ladybirds in your preferred medium, I used Ecoline water colour pens - 334 & 442. Use a water brush to blend the colours.

Add some highlights with a white sakura pen.

Finally mount your topper onto black card and onto your pre-folded 6x6 card blank.

Thank you for joining me, hopefully I'll be back in a few days with another post.

X - Dena - X

 

Ballet card - Visible image stamps

Evening All!!

I'm so behind with editing my blog posts at the moment so trying to play catch up, just hope I can remember how I made them all.

This card was made using the fab Born to perform stamp set from Visible Image.

Cut a piece of white card to fit a pre-folded 6x6 card blank leaving room to mount onto black. 

Stamp the ballet dancer in black ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.

To create the background I actually used some 'homemade sprays'. I spinked a small amount of Brushos into a mini mister spray bottle and filled with water and voila! You could actually use spray stains but I don't have any at the moment so making use of what I have in my stash and they actually work really well.

Spritz yellow ochre over the stamped image, then alizarin crimson around the edges. Dry with a heat gun. 

Spritz some bronze distress mica spray to add some shimmer.

Place the Supernova stencil over the stamped image and apply some picked raspberry distress ink with a blending brush.

Stamp and emboss the wording and randomly stamp the stars around the edge.

Mount the topper onto some black card then onto your main pre-folded card blank. 

Add some white highlights with a sakura pen.

Finally add some glossy accents to a couple of the smaller stars to add some interest. Make sure you keep the card on a flat surface while it dries.

 Thank you for joining me.

X - Dena - X

 

Bee Crafty Ladybird card

Hi Everyone!!

Made this really quick card last night using Doodled Ladybird and Art backrounds 1 from Bee Crafty.

Cut a piece of card to fit a pre-folded 6x6 card blank.

Stamp the ladybird twice in black ink and emboss with clear embossing powder. 

Using a synthetic brush apply a thin layer of Pebeo masking fluid to the ladybirds.

Spritz the card with a fine mister spray bottle of water then sprinkle a small amount of lime green and yellow Brushos over the card. Don't forget less is more!!! Spritz with more water if needed and apply more Brushos until your happy with the overall look. If you do find you have too much just dab with some kitchen roll to remove a little ink. The background will need to be completely dry to continue stamping but you can speed this process up by drying with a heat gun.

Stamp the random circles from the art backgrounds stamp set in Twisted Citroen oxide ink.

Stamp the borders and some of the other elements in versafine black ink.

Remove the masking fluid with a glue eraser. 

Colour the ladybird and border using your preferred medium, for this I used my new Ecoline water colour pens.

I then ran a black ink pad around the edges of the card. I would normally mount the card onto black but I have to admit I was being very lazy and couldn't be bothered to pull all my black card out as I did make this really late at night. 

Finally mount the card topper onto a pre-folded card blank.

Thank you so much for joining me!

X - Dena - X

 

 

Studio light butterfly card

Hi Everyone!!

Right I think this will be my last post for tonight and I hope to finish editing my last few posts tomorrow.

This is another really lovely stamp that again doesn't need much work.

Cut a piece of card down to fit on a 6x6 card blank.

Stamp the gorgeous butterfly stamp from Studio Light in black ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.

Sprinkle some pretty gets gritty explosion powder (I think I used Dragon - it was a while ago that I made this card) into a paint palette, sprits with water and apply to the background with a paint brush.

Colour the butterfly and flowers, for this I used Castle arts gold pencil set. I've never really enjoyed using colouring pencils but I have to say I absolutely love this set. 

Use a dark green pencil to add some shading around the butterflies and flowers - this really makes the image pop. 

Mount your stamped image onto a 6x6 card blank.

Thanks for joining me.

X_Dena_X

 

Crafty Individuals bird card

Hi Everyone!!!

Sharing this card I made for my Grandad's birthday.

I've just noticed this photo is a little blurry - not sure how that happened.

Stamp the lovely Bird stamp in black ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.

Using a blending brush, carefully add some clouds to the background with faded jeans distress inks. To do this lightly ink to lower section, then place the clouds stencil to cover the lower section of the image and flick the ink away from the stencil (being careful not to apply ink to the bird). Move the stencil up to create the second layer of clouds. Keep going until the whole sky is covered, keep swapping and changing the cloud stencils to create different shape clouds.

Colour the rest of the image, for this I used Ecoline water colour brush pens.

Cut to size and mount on a piece of black card. 

Take another piece of card and stamp inky script in brown ink. Use a blending brush to apply a mix of tea dye and faded jeans distress inks. Tear the edges.

Cut the woodgrain paper into a square and mount onto a piece of black card. Then mount onto a 7x7 card blank.

Stick the script into place.

Using  silicone glue stick some sisal fibers in place, then stick the bird image over the fibers. 

Stamp and emboss the sentiments, cut them down to size and mount onto black card.

I'm not sure what make the Grandad sentiment is, I've had it several years and don't seem to have its original packaging. 

Thank you for joining me.

X-Dena-X

 

Bee Crafty - Bee card

Hello!!!

Finally managed to sit down and edit a few blog posts this evening so I'm starting with my most recent makes using one of my new stamps from Bee Crafty stamps. This stamp is perfect for creating a really quick and simple card.

Stamp the scripted bee stamp in black ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.

Spray the background with pretty gets gritty sprays. I actually made my own using the powders in a fine mist spray bottle with a little water, but you can buy the actual sprays. These leave a lovely shimmer on your project.

Colour in the Bee and the honeycomb, for this I used my new Ecoline water colour brush pens - which I absolutely love and of course I'm going to have to buy some more colours at some point.

Mount onto a piece of black card and then onto a pre-folded A5 card blank.

Finally add some glossy accents to the wings and some of the honeycomb to add some interest.

Thanks for joining me.

X_Dena_X

 

Happy Fathers Day - dog card

Hello!!!

I have this very quick card to share with you today. As you can see this is the card I made for my son to give my partner/his step Dad for Father's Day. 

You could still do something very similar and just change the sentiment.

I started off by arranging some words on the computer, I used Word Art (Microsoft Word) to insert this hollow, black outlined sentiment and printed it off. You could obviously use any sentiment.

Cut the card down to fit on a pre-folded 5x7 card blank. For this card instead of using a standard card blank where the fold would normally be along the longest part of the card (in this case along the top) I decided to make my own blank to have the fold along the side. To do this you will need an A2 size piece of card.

Stamp the lovely quirky dogs in black ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.

Colour the dogs and the sentiment in coordinating colours. I used castle arts gold pencils. 

Using a small brick stencil lightly apply some brown distress ink in background with a blending brush.

Use a piece of scrap paper to mask off the top part of the card and apply some grey ink to make it look like the road.

Dab some distress inks (that coordinates with the colours used on the sentiment) onto a tile/messy mat and using a watery fan brush add a few inky splatters around the text to make it look as if its been spray painted on. 

Add some glossy accents to the dogs eyes, nose and dog tag.

Using a black fine liner pen add a few dashes to make it look like the dogs are speeding past.

Finally stick the topper onto your card blank. 

Thank you so much for joining me, I'll be back soon with some more makes. I currently have several projects sitting in the drafts ready to be edited. 

X - Dena - X

 

Bee Crafty Bee card

Morning All!!

I made this Bee card over the weekend and thought I'd share it with you all. I've had my eye on this stamp set for some time now and finally gave in and bought it and now I can't seem to put it down.

Cut a piece of card to fit on a 7x7 card blank.

For the next step I actually used Brushos. I normally get really frustrated with them as I can never achieve the outcome I imaged. I started by spritzing the card with water and sprinkled a small amount of yellow ocre Brushos in one corner. I then added another mist of water, a little bit more yellow and dabbed some of ink off with a piece of kitchen roll. I kept doing this until I was happy with the overall look. The key to using these is LESS is most defiantly more!!

Spray a fine coating of Tim Holtz Bronze Mica spray over the card. 

Use spiced marmalade oxide ink to stamp the lovely border from the Bee Mine set along 2 edges. Then randomly stamp the hollow and solid honeycomb in the background leaving the top right corner blank. 

Stamp a few of the hollow honeycomb in black ink.

Using a fine liner black pen (I used a Micron pen) draw a little doodled border around the edges of the two stamped sides. 

This main card topper can now be stuck onto your pre-folded 7x7 card blank.

Die cut a few different sized hexagons and using a blending brush colour with distress oxides. 

Stamp the solid honeycomb on two of the hexagons.

Stamp a small section of the border stamp on another two of the hexagons, then draw the same doodled border around the edges.

Colour one of the smaller hexagons with Rose gold gilding polish. 

Stamp the largest bee on the final hexagon shape. You only need to make sure the bees antennas are completely stamped.

Stick the hexagons in place. I used pinflair glue to raise a few of them to add a little dimension. 

Stamp the words 'BeeYouTeeFul' in the top right corner, then stamp the two smaller bees. Don't worry about colouring them. These bees will be layered with another piece of card. Stamping them first means you wont need to cut the antennas out in the next step.

On a separate piece of card stamp and emboss all three bees. Colour with your desired medium, I used spectrum noir tri-blend pens. Then cut them out. Don't worry about the antenna - they can be cut off. Snip into the wings slightly and use a pencil or paintbrush to curl the wings.

Finally stick the Bees in place, again using pinflair glue to raise the wings.

If you'd like to purchase this lovely Bee set pop over to the Bee Crafty website.

Thanks for joining me.

X - Dena - X

 

Crafty Individuals June launch

Hello Everyone!!

Yet again I've been neglecting my blog. We've got rather allot going on at the moment as we're hoping to move very soon so have been busy sorting the house out as well as creating design team pieces and trying to keep my little shop going. I will try to post every now and again but have several posts ready to be edited that I hope to publish very soon.

Anyway enough about that, did you manage to catch the latest launch of Crafty Individuals stamps on create and craft at the beginning of June? They released a fabulous collection of 'favourite stamps' that has been shrunk down into a 'mini' collection. So, if your into making ATCs or like to create smaller pieces then this collection is definitely for you. You'll also find a few new Christmas designs drawn by the very talented Sharen Bates. 

Below is a list of stamps that was in this launch so do pop along to the Crafty Individuals website and check them out!!!

CI-627 - Cat and Dog

CI-629 - Zebra and Giraffe

CI-628 - Hare, seagull, butterfly and swirls

CI-436 - Inky Script

CI-284 - Life's a beach

CI-573 - Counting down background stamp

CI-547 - Pablo penguin

CI-567 - Luigi the llama

CI-456 - Robin

CI-630 - Christmas Arthur car

CI-631 - Christmas tree 

Here are a few sample I made for the show.

Thank you for visiting 

X - Dena - X

 

Crafty Individuals Dolphin card

Evening All!!

Sharing another sea themed card, this time using the lovely Crafty Individuals Dolphin stamp.

Stamp the dolphin image onto white card using black versafine ink and emboss with ultra fine clear embossing powder.

Cut the piece of card down to size. 

Colour using your preferred medium - on this image I actually used my new colouring pencils. I recently purchased the Castle Gold set of pencils and they're just so lovely to use. These are oil based and blend beautifully. The sea was also coloured in using the pencils. I then used a blending brush over the water area to achieve a smoother look. 

Add some Lisa Horton mermaid tails turquoise glitter specs.

Place your image on a pre-folded 6x6 card blank without sticking it in place and draw around it with a pencil. 

Stamp and emboss the Crafty Individuals shells border around the pencil line. 

Then stamp and emboss a few extra single shells and starfish in any of the blank areas.

Colour the border with your pencils.

Mount your dolphin topper onto a piece of black card then onto your card base.

Thanks for joining me!

X_Dena_X

 

Crafty Individuals Seahorse card

Evening Everyone!

Hope you all had a lovely long weekend.

I have a couple of sea themed cards to share with you all, starting with this gorgeous seahorse.

Start by stamping the Crafty Individuals seahorse stamp on white card with versamark black ink and emboss with clear ultra fine embossing powder.

Cut the image down to size.

Colour the seahorse, shells and star fish using your preferred medium - I used spectrum noir tri-blend pens.

Sprinkle a small amount of Pretty gets gritty atlas powder onto a paint palette and add a drop of water. Paint the mixture onto the background with a paintbrush.

Use a heat gun to dry the background.

 Take a pre-folded 5x7 card blank and place your seahorse in the centre (without sticking it in place). Carefully draw around it. This will be your guide for stamping the border.

Stamp and emboss the lovely Crafty Individuals Shells border along the pencil lines. When stamping the border along the length of the card - stamp it central so you're left with an even gap at either end. 

Use one of the separate starfish from the same stamp set to fill in the gaps in the border.

Colour the shells and starfish.

Mount the seahorse topper onto some black card and mount onto the main card base. 

Thank you for joining me.

X_Dena_X

 

Visible image- sparkle in the rain

Evening All!!

This was a recent make using the Visible image Sparkle in the rain stamp and the resist technique.

Cut a piece of card slightly smaller than a pre-folded DL card blank.

Stamp the lady and sentiment in black ink and emboss with clear ultrafine wow embossing powder. Add some highlights to the text with a white sakura pen.

Use a versamark ink pad to stamp the water ripples and rain drops, then emboss with clear embossing powder. 

Apply a selection of distress inks with a blending brush to the background. The clear embossed areas should act as a resist and appear white after the ink has been applied. Spritz with some water and dab with kitchen roll to remove some of the ink. This gives the effect of rain drops.

Mount onto a piece of black card and then onto to your pre folded DL card blank.

Thank you for joining me!!

X_Dena_X

 

Crafty individuals butterfly card

Hello Everyone!!

Thought I'd do a quick blog post on this card that I actually made during a Facebook live for Crafty Individuals. Depending on when you read this post you might still be able to catch it on the main Crafty Individuals Facebook page, but if not its super easy to make and you could just follow the step by step instructions below. 

Now you can either use a black pre folded  5x7 card blank or just use white. I made this one using a white card blank. I cut a piece of black card large enough to completely cover the white base.

Cut a slightly smaller piece of black card to use as your main topper. For this I used the Lynda Chapman super smooth black card.

Using a blending brush randomly apply a selection of oxide inks to the smaller piece of smooth black card. I used the following selection - Picked raspberry, scattered straw, Twisted citron, spiced marmalade, and wilted violet.

Stamp the gorgeous Crafty Individuals butterfly stamp using versamark ink and emboss with black embossing powder. 

For the next steps  I tend to work in opposite corners and sides to keep the card balanced and also recommend using a versamark inkpad as it will stay tacky for longer. This will hopefully give you chance to stamp all the different elements around the edge so you can emboss them all at the same time.

Start by stamping the negative stamp from the inky boarders set in opposite corners. Then stamp the bird and flower border stamps. Fill in any blank areas with the inky script background stamp.

Once all the elements have been stamped around the edges apply some black embossing powder and emboss with a heat gun. 

Stick the topper onto your black mount.

Stamp and emboss the butterfly on a separate piece of black card. 

Cut the butterfly out, but don't worry about cutting out the antennas.

Use perfect pearls to paint the butterfly. To do this I'd recommend placing a small of amount of perfect pearls on a paint palette or tile and use a watery brush to apply. 

Slightly curl the wings and stick in place with a silicone glue so the wings are slightly raised.

Thank you for visiting.

X_Dena_X

 

 

Crafty individuals seahorse card

 Hello from a very wet and windy Norfolk!

I'll be spending the next few weeks here in Norfolk, I do of course have my crafting essentials with me so will be able to continue making. 

I have several blog posts to edit but hopefully I'll have them all live very soon.

I had so much fun creating this card by stamping a collection of Crafty Individuals Stamps. 

Cut a piece of card to fit on a 5x7 card blank.

Sprinkle some Atlas Pretty gets gritty explosion powders onto your messy mat and spritz with water. Use the smooch technique to apply the ink to your card and dry with a heat gun.

Stamp the gorgeous crafty individuals seahorse  stamp in black and emboss with clear embossing powder.

Colour it in using a turquoise spectrum noir tri blend pen.

Use a white pen to lighten the eye.

Stamp the seahorse on a separate piece of card and cut it out to create a mask.

Place over your coloured seahorse, using a blending brush apply some violet ink around the edge of the seahorse to create a shadow effect.

(make sure you keep hold of the mask you created - you can use this on other projects)

Stamp and emboss the fish from the Dolphin stamp set.

Colour with spectrum noir tri blend pens. 

Stamp the lovely words from the seaside treasures elements stamps in black ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.

Use peacock feathers oxide ink to stamp the shells along the right hand side of the card.

Then randomly stamp some of the other shells and elements in peacock feathers. 

Stamp a few starfish in shaded lilac oxide ink.

Stamp the numbers '286' from the call of the sea elements set in shaded lilac.

Finally mount your card topper onto a pre-folded 5x7 card blank.

Most of the items used to create this card can be purchased from the Crafty Individuals website.

Thank you for visiting!!

X_Dena_X

Visible Image fun cats card

Hi Everyone!!

I've made so many cards recently but keep forgetting to take step by step photos, well I finally remembered on this one.

This card was made with the new stamps from Visible Image. I was so lucky and won the entire collection of new stamps and stencils

Stamp the cats and sentiment with black ink and emboss with clear embossing powder.

Apply some masking fluid to the cats with a synthetic brush and start creating your background by applying distress ink with a soft blending brush.

Apply some twisted citron and candied apple ink through the breakout stencil. Using the halftone stencil fill in the blank areas.

Using a glue remover - carefully rub the masking fluid off the cats.

Colour the cats - for this card I used spectrum noir blending pencils.

Apply a darker brown tone around the cats to create a shadow and help them stand out slightly from the background.

Stamp some paw prints around the edge.

Then stamp the textured stamp from the set 'music on world off' around the edge.

Mount onto a pre-folded 5 x 7 card blank.

Thank you for joining me!

X - Dena - X

Shopping list

Cats stamp set

Music on world off stamp set

Halftone stencil

Breakout stencil

Versafine black ink

Wow ultrafine clear embossing powder

Heat gun

Distress Inks

Blending brushes

Spectrum noir pencils

5x7 card blank

Glue