....and we have Lift Off! (Well nearly!)

So it is only minutes to go before the lovely Sheena takes to our screens once more with a NEW set of stamps in the Coastal range.

Here are some more of my show samples, it was a blast making them. Wor Sheena does give us some brilliant products to work with so I suppose it isn't that difficult to create great projects like these.

Here they are then, I will be sitting with my feet on the coffee table, hot drink in hand - hasn't it turned cold?

Create and Craft TV Sky channel 671 is your destination, 10am and 4pm (stock willing!)

Kim xxx

SNEAKY PEEK #3 - NEW SHEENA DOUGLASS STAMPS

Day 3, you know the score, Sheena Douglass NEW STAMPS being launched this Friday on Create and Craft TV at 10am and 4pm. 

While I was waiting for the products to arrive that I was to be working with I wasted no time in getting some background work done, literally!

I knew that Sheena was asking for samples made using the recently launched Luminarte Silks and so I set about making some backgrounds ready to use with the new stamps. As we had already been told the theme was to be 'Under the Sea' I got out the shells from the 'Little bit Scenic - Sea Shells' plate available HERE. One of my other hobbies is patchwork quilting and I have always admired the scallop design and this inspired me to create this background. It involved a lot of masking and careful placement but the pleasure came from the painting! When the new stamps arrived my first 'getting to know you' stampings used the very clever shadow stamps. These are a solid stamp in the same shape as one of the detailed stamps. These angels are not the only ones that come as pair so look out for the others! These shadow stamps are brilliant for lots of different techniques but I simply used them to stamp a row of green angels which I then over stamped with the detailed angel stamp. I added the bubbles, which are also in the new sets, and then mounted the row onto the background. Of course I didn't waste the bit that went under the strip of fish! I cut it so that there was just enough to go under the fish! Who knows it is not all the way under right?

My ingredients list is

• Silks set #1 - Bolivian Blue, Key Lime + Olive Vine
• Black Archival ink

Well, there it is, sample #3. Hope you like it?     Kim xx

Sneaky Peek #2 - Sheena Douglass - NEW STAMPS

As promised here is the second of my Sneaky Peaks showcasing the next Sheena Douglass stamp launch this coming Friday. The shows on Create & Craft TV are at 10:00am and 4:00pm so don't forget to tune in, you know how popular the 'Sheena Shows' are! 

This card features another one of the lovely new stamps, an angel fish. I have used a classic combination of black and orange. This has kept the fish pretty realistic in colour. I have also used one of the coral stamps in a repetitive way to provide a decorative strip across the card. The background for the fish is actually one of those happy accidents. I was painting another sample with the Luminarte Silks; Set 4 with the hot colours Spiced Tomato, Pomegranate and Ginger Peach, using an acrylic block as a pallet. Now that I use the brilliant Rock-a-Blocks to mount my rubber stamps on means I have a fair few acrylic blocks spare!! Anyway, there was a bit of paint left on the block so I sprayed it to prevent the paint from drying out as I knew I wouldn't be going near the sink for a while. I turned it over onto a piece of card to blot some of the paint off and left it there momentarily while I washed the brush. When I lifted the acrylic block off there was this lovely pattern. Waste not want not! Probably wont get another like it if I did it deliberately. I had another accident when trying to draw a straight line around the card, but recovered from it by using the 'meant it to be wobbly' technique! 

My ingredients for this card were 

• Black Archival for the coral
• Black embossing powder for the fish
• Orange, black and white card
• Orange corrugated strip
• Black gems
• My accidental background!!
• Black pen

Well, there we are, come back again for another peek tomorrow, and don't forget to check out the other Inkoid samples via the links HERE.

By the way I managed to make a fair few Christmas cards today. Will show you them tomorrow.

Take care! 

Kim x

Been Quiet but with Good Reason - Sheena Douglass - NEW STAMPS

It is that time of year when all us crafters wish we had stuck to our promise of making our Christmas cards and gifts early!  I am only just getting started with my Christmas shopping so I don't hold out much hope for every single person on my card list getting a hand made card this year. Much the same as last year then!

Anyway, the reason I have come here today is to tell you all about the latest stamp launch from the wonderful Sheena Douglass. There are 2 new plates which work alongside the recent coastal theme. This time Sheena has gone 'Underwater'.

I was given them to play with sorry WORK with a few days ago. Yeah, I know it is a terrible job but somebody has to do it! Sheena has once again come up trumps with these designs. You are going to LOVE them! They also have a very clever element to them but I will keep that to myself for the moment, don't want to give everything away on day one!

Right, here is my first sample, a fancy little number featuring the lovely seahorse stamp and the long awaited Kraft card. I love the combination of the navy + white with the brown of the Kraft card. What do you think?  

Sheena will be demonstrating these new stamps on Create & Craft TV this coming Friday, the 13th. Show times are still to be released but come back here to check as I will update you all as soon as I hear. I will also be letting you know more about the products on the show over the next few days.

The ingredients for my card are

• The NEW Sheena stamps
• Sentiment from Ancient Arches (available HERE) 
• Tim Holtz distress ink pads in Weathered Wood and Chipped Sapphire 
• White embossing powder
• Luminarte Silks ICE glaze
• Kraft card
• Navy card
• 3D gel glue

So there we have it, Sneaky Peek number one. Don't forget to see what the other Inkoids have been creating by going to their blogs, the links are all HERE.

I need to crack on with my Christmas cards now, so I will see you tomorrow with another Peek. Have a great day!

Kim xx

Sheena Douglass - Back in the Room

Hello Readers! Once again the amazing Sheena Douglass is on our TV screens demonstrating her little socks off. Tune in at 11:00 and 18:00 to see her on Create and Craft TV, Sky 671. There are some NEW products on these shows. Sadly not new stamps this time but some essential (hint hint) new H₂O paints and a popular type of crafting card (may have got my spelling a little wrong with that one!) 'The clues are there!' Of course you will be able to buy the featured stamps to add to your collection if you don't already have them!

With the launch in mind I was tasked with making a few samples for the show, which was harder than you might think for me this time. I had originally said that I was too busy to help what with it being Birthday week for several family members, but then I got itchy fingers and made some anyway!! It was a quick turn around, but that is what made it exciting. It was lucky for me that Sheena was doing a workshop locally so I was able to hand them over in person saving the postman the trouble of lugging the haul up to Douglass Towers!

Better show you a few of the cards I made then I suppose, it is very easy for me to get carried away with the back story and completely forget why I am here!!

This first one features stamps from the 'Happiness' plate, the extremely versatile crackle from the Ageing Beautifully plate, Wine + Roses H₂O, a little Tim Holtz distressing ink Antique Linen if I remember correctly, and a touch of Gilding Wax. I painted the dove (Hobbycraft, fabric covered wood) with the H₂O and gilded the edges. I 'pulled' some of the colour off the card in the area of the window to make it lighter simply by wetting and blotting the paint. This has the effect of bleaching without the smelliness! For the glass in the window I simply sanded a bit of thick acetate (probably cut from packaging - never waste a thing!) to give the look of aged glass.

This next one uses some of the new Silks paint, in my favourite colour Bolivian Blue teamed with the luscious Olive Vine. I painted a border using the Olive Vine on the black base card making sure it was just slightly bigger than the next layer which was the same type of black card stamped with the Bolivian Blue using the linen stamp from the Ageing Beautifully plate. I love the way the Silks work as a stamping medium. I then took the Destinations stamp and stamped onto some Neenah card using black StazOn and water coloured the elements with H₂Os in the same colours as the Silks. A bit of fussy cutting held on with silicone glue and there we have it. The shimmer of the Silks and thes is lovely. 

Then just because I had the idea in my head I simply had to do a mono-chromatic card. I wanted to do a black and white water colour thing, sticking to just the black, but something made me add the Sunflower H₂O coloured bits to the street lamp and windows! I used the linen stamp again to make the background and added some lovely yellow ribbon. The sentiment from the same plate was added using Silicone Gel glue.

All in all a varied selection of cards. I hope you enjoy watching the shows tomorrow. I know I will be sitting comfortably with my cuppa, feet up and 'phone off the hook!

If you have any questions for me or Sheena feel free to get in touch. 

Cheery bye for now! Kim xx

LAVINIA CHALLENGE - #9 - BRIGHT HOT COLOURS

Ok, just scraping in by the skin of my teeth! What does that mean anyway? I feel the need to do some 'Google-ing' now!!

This month (and for the next few days only!) on the Lavinia Challenge blog the theme is Bright Hot Colours. Bit of luck really as I have a fan-tab-u-lous new set of paints from LuminArte called SILKS. They have been available in the States for some time now but thanks to me being an Inkoid I was lucky enough to get my inky mits on some purely for research purposes prior to their official launch recently. Hah! Who am I kidding? I played like a child with these paints, they are wonderful!! Sploshing the wonderfully named Spicy Tomato all over the place and getting Ginger Peach under my fingernails!!

I also recently won a Lavinia challenge and the prize for this was a free shopping voucher to spend within the Lavinia Shop. As I didn't own any Faerie stamps I used this opportunity to get some and I felt it appropriate to use one of my new stamps in the challenge for this month. 

So here we have it, all bright and hot. Why not pop over to the Challenge blog and check out all the lovely DT examples and the entries?  If you have any Lavinia stamps then have a go yourself.

Need to dash, 'you-know-what' is nearly upon us and I need to make some appropriate cards for the occasion.

Take care! Kim x