About Me

My photo
Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
I have been crafting since May 2008, when in desperation to find an unusual birthday card for my Mum, I gave up looking in the shops and decided to have a go at making my own. I soon realised that crafting is addictive and I haven't brought a card since. In 2011 I completed my certificate in papercrafting as a result of the work I did as part of the course I started entering challenges on line and in magazines. I applied for design teams and also started making samples for Ooh La La Creations for their shows on Create and Craft. I have now completed my Diploma in professional crafting and most recently been runner up in the Papercrafter of the Year 2013 a competition run by Papercraft essentials magazine, I don't have a particular style I like to use elements from lots of styles and techniques, although I do love all things vintage. In 2014 I started to move more towards scrapbooking to take care of the huge family archive of photographs that were stored in my attic. I have continued cardmaking and Scrapbooking through 2015 and 2016 but have also become interested in off the page projects. I hope to be able focus on these in the future.

Thursday 28 November 2013

Twenty Down Four to go

This weeks challenge at Through the Purple Haze the challenge is to use your stash. I have boxes and boxes of bits and pieces that I have collected through the years and in one such box there are loads of chipboard shapes I bought them because they were at a ridiculous price but have always struggled to use them on my cards as they are just a wee bit too big for a card embellishment. So I decided to make the effort to use some of them up for this project.


I have had these two super shots of my eldest grandson aged 4 languishing on a memory stick for five years. However I am now making a conscious effort to start scrapbooking and I knew these would work perfectly with the large garden themed chipboard shapes I had.  The previous year at his nursery school the class had grown sunflowers and he had loved it. However on finding himself in proper school the class were not growing them, so knowing I had some seeds in my garden shed I offered to grow some plants and promised to go down once they were big enough so that he could plant them in the garden for Mummy. On the way to London we popped into a garden centre and bought some pots and a gardening set for him as well as some smaller Bizzie Lizze plants for him to put in the post with the sunflowers as a centre piece. He was a little impatient at first and wanted to put the plants in the pots as soon as the first few trowels full of earth had been put in but with guidance he really got the hang of it including the need to sweep all the mess up after we had finished planting.

I used a 12x12 sheet of paper from American Crafts project life Midnight set as a backing and the zigzag paper and was a strip I had left from another page done using a backing paper from the Honey set. the orange circles were cut using a circle cutter from left overs from some Bazill papers I had and I managed to find some orange card stock that matched in my scraps box for matting and layering the photos. I had some Sunflower resin stickers in my stash as well as some flowers and leaves I had made up from Martha Stewart paper clay for a previous project and then not used. The lady birds were a freebie from a card making magazine and have sat in a box for a couple of years. The vibrant journalling card is again from the Honey set by American Life. The title strip is computer generated and then matted onto orange and black card stock.


The plant pot, watering can, trowel, and sun were all from the box of chipboard shapes and I painted them with gesso before colouring with promarkers. As a finishing touch I added Glossy accent water droplets coming from the watering can and on two of the Leaves.


I am entering this project in to
http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Use your stash.


Wednesday 27 November 2013

Cute Critters at Fab n Funky

Wow we really did get a huge amount of entries during our Birthday fortnight and the winners have been posted on the Fab n Funky Challenge Blog.

This week the theme is 'Cute Critters' and our sponsor is The stamp Fairy




Who are offering a fab prize of a $10 voucher to spend in 
The StampFairy shop

I used one of their images Lionel to create my card.


The background was really simple and I used a pale blue paper from Dovecraft to create the sky and a dark brown paper to create the ground and these were stuck onto a 6x6 card blank. The leave at the top of the card were cut out from a piece of dark green mottled paper I had printed off from one of my CD roms and I used an embossing folder and then cut the leaves out and gathered them in clumps across the top of the top of the card.

Lionel was coloured using promarkers in Buttercup, Mustard and sandstone with blush for his nose.
His crown was coloured using a Sakura twinkling Gold pen and the rubies were done using a Sakura glaze pen in Christmas red.

I added a few die cut leaves and a computer generated sentiment. The card is destined for a male friend and although Lionel comes with a large bone he has been chewing on the original stamp I cut this off as my friend is vegetarian and may not appreciate a card with raw meat depicted on it.

Monday 25 November 2013

Happy Birthday with Ooh La La Creations


Good Morning Everyone.
Thank you so much for all your wonderful stitched creations for the last challenge you can find the winners over at the Ooh La La Challenge Blog.

This week it is all about birthday's. I have again used the fabulous Shawn Jenkins CD. I have to say this appears to have very quickly become a firm favourite with the Ooh La La design team girls. You can get your copy on the Ooh La La website


I used the Nautical folder to make this card for my Brother-in-laws birthday, although he does not  live by the sea he does have several nautical decorative elements in his house, and his bathroom has a definite seaside theme.


I printed off the topper and then matted it onto bright orange pearlised paper. I did the same with two of the backing papers and the sentiment. I layered these up as shown on an A5 landscape card and then used string to make the 'rope coils'.

The finishing touches were the starfish made from Martha Stewart paper clay coloured orange and pushed into a silicone mould for different sized stars once released and before they fully dried I added texture with a pin and squeezed each leg slightly so that they looked more natural. I glued them on with Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue. The paper clay is fabulous for moulding embellishments for cards as it is so light weight it keeps the postage costs down, but it also has the advantage of air drying so no need to heat it up. 

Thursday 21 November 2013

Playing Tag

I recently visited the NEC for the Hobbycraft show and picked up some marvellous goodies for my crafting stash. I decided to have play with some of the new Tattered Lace dies and having cut various bits of card decided I needed to do something with the results. the colour challenge of use red or purple or pink at Through the Purple haze challenges this week inspired me and I decided to use all three together.


I used a large chipboard tag I had bought at the show and painted it in white gesso before coating with cosmic shimmer in purple mixed with white acrylic and then adding some pink glitter I got free with a magazine ages ago and it has been languishing in a drawer ever since.


The mask was cut from the most sumptuous 'Red velvet' card that I got from Pink Pig crafts whilst at the show. The ribbons and feathers were from my stash and the flowers are the daisy and Marguritte dies from tattered lace. I coloured the solid underneath layers using Sakura glaze markers and coloured the lacy bit with a Sakura twinkling marker these were also purchased at the show and I love the finish they give.


I'm not sure what I'll do with the tag yet but considering my step daughter is both into Purple and into masks (she has quite a collection including a couple of quite rare ones) then it may end up attached to her Birthday present next year as I pained the back white so a message can be added.

I am entering this into the following challenges

http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ use pink/red/purple
http://delightfulsketches.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything but a card
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Birthday Fortnight Week 2 at Fab n Funky

Hello everyone!
 I have some wonderful news for you! We are still celebrating our 4th birthday at Fab'n'Funky and we want you to help us celebrate it in style! 
We are having another week of celebrations and plenty of prizes.
Be sure to play along for a chance at winning one of the prizes from our fabulous sponsors!

The challenge this week is about as easy as it can get!


'Anything Goes'


For my DT card this week I have used Toy Truck Ants from Doodle Pantry, this is a dual purpose card as well as being for the DT for this challenge it is also for my grandson's birthday. Aaron loves creepy crawlies and even has his own ant farm but he also loves monster trucks so this seemed like the perfect combination.


I used the backing paper from the kit which I matted onto black card and then stuck this to an 8x8 card base. I coloured the trucks using promarkers Canary, Sunflower, Cyan, Green, Orange, Cool Grey 3 and sandstone for the sand. the ants I coloured using a black sakura gel pen and gave them a couple of coats so that they are raised and nice and shiny.

I fussy cut the images and mounted them onto black card and then placed three diagonally on the card to show the empty truck the ants acquiring the truck and then driving along with the sand inside. The sentiments are also from the digikit.


Inside I used more of the backing paper mounted onto black card I then drew and cut out the white shapes and stuck these on, before adding the final truck on the left hand side showing the ants playing in the sand. I added the speech bubble which I drew free hand and wrote inside with black marker and matted it onto a scrap of black card before adding to the design.

So there you go my DT card for the second week of our birthday challenge why don't you pop over and join us you could win one of the prizes donated by our fabulous sponsors as listed below.
Our wonderful sponsors
and
Prizes


Hello! My name is Joanna Munster, owner/designer/illustrator of Inspired by Stamping. I started crafting 12 1/2 years ago when I started capturing my daughter’s special moments with scrapbooking. I quickly fell in love with all things crafty including cross stitch, crocheting, knitting, drawing, jewelry making but my love has always been towards the paper crafty industry. It is a place where I can lose myself in creating for hours. 
Three years ago, my hubby, myself and our three children moved from the United States to Australia. While waiting for my working visa, I started drawing and paper crafting full time with my blog. One of my dear friends suggested that I make a stamp set with one of my drawings and this is where Inspired by Stamping started.
We love every moment of working in this industry from the beautiful women and men that we meet daily, to the amazing and creative designs that we see when a friend uses an Inspired by Stamping set. 
You as our customer will ALWAYS be our top priority! If you have any questions or if something is not right, please let us know. We will get back to you ASAP! Our email is customerservice@inspiredbystamping.com








Prize - 5 digis of the winners Choice
 - and a GDT spot at Fab'n'Funky Challenges


Prize is a class of the winner's choice

My Creative Classroom is an online arts and crafts learning center. Our interactive and in-depth courses are instructor led and filled with wonderful projects and techniques to help you get the most out of your supplies. Our Fall Semester  offers over 100 classes to choose from. We also offer Library classes which feature retired classes at 40-50% off their original price!  New this fall we are offering deals on bundled classes. 
Register for any class beginning in the month of November and you'll be automatically enrolled in the FREE class, Tag It!  It's our way of saying Thank You for your continued support.

We are excited to be sponsoring Fab'n'Funky Challenges. You can view our entire class list on our website at My Creative Classroom. You can also view classes on our Facebook Page too! One lucky winner will receive a free seat to a Workshop class of their choice.....Good Luck!

Prize is 3 digis of the winners choice

Prize is 3 images of the winners choice from the Lacy Sunshine Shop

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Nineteen Down Five to go

This week at Through the Purple Haze challenges the theme is to use red or pink or purple in our creations.

Here is what I have come up with.



The image is from Mo Manning and be purchased here. I decided to have a go at something new so actually used watercolour paints to colour her, I have never used them before but I picked up a tin of watercolours at a local supermarket ages ago and they have been sat in a drawer ever since so I decided to give it a go.

I had off cuts of the polka dot and striped papers from another project so used them to create a background I wrapped a strip of broad seam binding and lace around the centre to cover the join as they weren't quite big enough to cover the 8x8 card blank and then I matted the whole lot onto pink card stock. The corners were cut using a Tattered lace die as were the letters to form the word 'Yummy Mummy' I cut the image out using a spellbinders labels die and cut a larger mat from pink Centura Pearl card stock. The flowers were from one of the many freebies I have from various magazines and I cut them up and layered them up adding glitter and sparkly pink centres.

I am entering this card into the following challenges,
http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - use pink or red or purple

Saturday 16 November 2013

Birthday fortnight at Fab and Funky

We are now in the second part of week one, of our birthday celebrations at Fab n Funky Challenges and we are having a blast. Be sure to play along for a chance at winning one of the prizes from our fabulous sponsors!

The challenge this week is  as easy as it can get!


'Anything Goes'

So play along! It may be you that will Win one of the Prizes that we have on offer for you:

Here is my card

I used happy Birthday Princess form the Little bear range at Stampart by Kathryne who is one of our sponsors this week, scroll down to see the rest of the sponsors for the first week of our birthday fortnight.

I coloured the image using promarkers and used Sandstone and cinnamon for the fur, blossom, dusky pink and blush for the dress and vanilla for the cake. 

I used one of the spellbinders label dies I got at the NEC to cut out the image and to create teh kraft frame, I think pink and Kraft looks perfect together. I embossed a piece of pink card using a  patchwork embossing folder and mounted this onto kraft before sticking onto a 8x8 card blank I matted a piece of 6x6 patterned paper from the beach babe paper pad from fancy pants designs from craft and added this at an angle before adding my image. 

The flowers are made from Martha Stewart paper clay and the balloons are peel offs stuck onto Kraft card. The bunting is cut using a Joanna sheen signature die, and the final touches were the gems and ribbon.

So that's what I made remember this is an anything goes challenge so pop over to the Fab and Funky blog and have a look at what the other girls have done and give it a go you may win one of the prizes listed below.


Our wonderful sponsors
and
Prizes



Prize - 5 digis of the winers Choice - and a GDT spot at Fab'n'Funky Challenges



The first South African online digital image store was launched in 2010  Digistamps4Joy (or DS4J)http://www.digistamps4joy.co.za/eshop/ .  In February 2012, Margy Kieser took over ownership of DS4J, and there are now two South African artists who contribute to the more than 500 images available. Margy has taken the store to new heights and the store now stocks digis that are cute, whimsical, artistic, sometimes serious, and sometimes humorous. The store has PAYPAL and EFT (South African) facilities.  Digistamps4Joy offers a monthly freebie on the first Friday of every month, and holds regular bi-weekly card challenges on our blog (http://digistamps4joy-sa.blogspot.com )that draw entries from many international card makers. Feel free to join us in our challenges!
- the prize is 5 images of the winners choice from DS4J shop



Prize is 3 images of the winners choice from the Lacy Sunshine Shop

Inky Impressions 

prize is 3 digis of the winners choice

The fabulous Flonzcraft
Flonzcraft
prize - $20 voucher to spend in store - with free shipping! how great is that!

Monday 11 November 2013

Eighteen Down Six to go

This week at Through the Purple Haze the challenge is to include winter scene with an option of including animals or people.

Whilst at the NEC Hobby crafts show last week I picked up some new toys so wanted to give them a try and came up with this


I started by creating my snow lines on white card using a couple of bits of copier paper torn to make masks and then positioned them with a small gap between and used Versafine 'deep lagoon' to ink through the gap. I then used Versafine Majestic Blue to ink up the Stag Cliff Hanger stamp from Indigo Blu and then masked off the cliff to Leave just the stag and the tree which I stamped in position on my panel. I finished the panel off using a quickie glue pen to underline the snow lines and add rangers crystal distress glitter, and left the panel to dry.

I made the sentiment by masking off the stag and tree and just stamping the cliff part of the stamp and cutting out the greeting section which was mounted on to plain white card stock using foam pads.

I embossed a five and half inch square of white card using the embossing folder that comes free with the ebosser and then mounted this onto royal blue Centura Pearl paper and stuck it to the front of a 6x6 card blank.

The snowflakes were cut from scraps of white card using a Tattered Lace Snowflakes die and then I added more of the distress glitter using a glue pen and left them to dry.

I matted the stag panel onto royal blue Centura Pearl paper and trimmed it to leave a narrow border and stuck it to the card blank off set from the centre then added the greeting and the snowflakes. The finishing touch was a bow tied in organza ribbon and finished with a large gem stone centre. 

I am entering this card into the following challenges
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything goes so long as it's Christmas
http://throughthepurplehazechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Winter scenes optional animals or people in it 
http://abcchristmaschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/- V is for Vixen add a reindeer to your design

Stitching real or Faux at Ooh La La Creations



Good Morning everyone and thank you all so much for the fabulous food and drink entries for the last challenge You can find out the winners at Ooh La La Creations Challenge Blog.

This time we are looking for stitching in your designs whether it be real or faux. Once again I used an image set from the new Shawn Jenkins CD you can get your copy from the Ooh La La Creations Website,  

I used the Love stitch folder to produce the following card 


The design itself has lots of Faux stitching included and I added my own Faux stitching round the plain paper I used as a background mat. I have included false mats in this card as the I used My Craft Studio to put one of the toppers onto the basket weave paper and printed this off as a whole rather than as separate layers. 

I added some bunting again from the CD and the greeting from the sentiments folder having added faux stitching round the edge in white.

Finally as a twist on the Stitching theme I used crochet stitches to crochet the little flower out of bakers twine. 

The flower is really easy to make and can be adapted for use with crochet cotton, wool or even string depending on the size of hook. I used a 2.00 hook with the bakers twine. I actually adapted a shell pattern from a baby's matinee coat pattern to make the flower.

I made a chain 6 stitches long and joined this with a slip  to make a circle.
The foundation row is 4 chain 1 dc into the circle repeat until there are 5 loops work a slip stitch into the base of the first of the 4 chain at the beginning of the row.
Then work 1dc, 1htrbl,1 trbl, 1htrbl, 1dc into each of the loops until you have 5 petals finish by working one slip stitch into the base of the first dc worked and fasten off. 
Finish the flower with a button centre.

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Traditional Christmas Colours at Fab N Funky

Good morning all!

This week the challenge over at Fab n Funky is traditional Christmas Colours now that doesn't mean yiou have to make a Christmas project just something in traditional Christmas Colours such as 

Red, Green, Gold, Silver  maybe some black (for Santas boots!) 
- I'm sure you get the picture

Of course at the same time we'd love to see your Christmas cards
one more card for Christmas can only be a good thing!!

We have a fabulous sponsor this week


and the great prize on offer is
5 images of the winners choice

I worked with lovely Santa Clause 2 and We wish you a Merry Christmas stamps



I think Santa has a lovely retro feel to him and kept the colouring really simple I used Promarkers and for his face I used Ivory Satin and Blush and for the hat berry red and poppy. For the Greeting I used Holly for the letters and berry red for the border. 

I used a lovley rich mat gold card from Hunky Dory and embossed it using Christmas Patchwork 6x6 folder from Crafters Companion. I then added the sentiment panel and Santa who had a bit of flower soft and some iridescent sparkles added to his hair beard and hat. The finishing touch was a poinsettia cut using Tattered Lace Winter florals dies and coloured using Berry red, Holly and Canary yellow Promarkers.

I am entering the card into the following challenges 
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Bling it up - the glitter on Santa
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk - Anything Goes so long as it's Christmas 


Monday 4 November 2013

Seventeen Down Seven to Go

It's Monday so its a new challenge at Through the Purple Haze. This week the challenge is Anything Goes. I was lucky enough to win the Lacy Sunshine Challenge a couple of weeks back so decided to use one of the digi stamps I chose as part of my prize for this challenge she is called Waverley and is part of the Sea Kissed Mermaids Collection.


I started off by colouring her in with Spectrun Noir Markers and Promarkers
Hair TN4,5,6,7
Skin FS2,3,4 TN1, PP2
Eyes GT1
Tail BT3,4,5,7 PP4
Rock BGR1,2,3,5
Sea - GT1,2,3
Seaweed Promarker Moss and Pear 

I had some lovely summery papers from fancy pants designs called Beach Babe and matted the pale turquoise paper onto a dark turquoise piece or core'dinations card stock, I draped a piece of green net cut from a bag that came from a local supermarket and once held tomatoes around the panel and then stuck it to a 6x6 card blank. I matted a strip of pink paper onto the dark turquoise card stock and wrapped some pretty glitter crotched lace around it before sticking it across the centre of the card. 

I cut Waverley out using an out of the box technique I placed an oval x-cut die over the image and then marked two points either side of her tail that overlapped the die. I removed the die and fussy cut round her taik between the two pencil marks and then placed the die back over her making sure that the fussy cut portion of her tail was on the non cutting side of the die before putting her through the e-bosser. I mounted the die cut image onto more of the dark turquoise card stock and cut around the oval portion to leave a narrow border but left the tail free.I then added her over the centre of the pink panel.

I decided that flower embellishments would look out of place with a mermaid so used sea shells that I collect from a local beach with a couple of more tropical looking shells that were in a huge selection bag of really tiny shells I bought from Hobby craft. I think they were intended for flower arranging and putting in the bottom of vases to keep the flowers in place but they work really well on cards. I made my own pink coral by mixing white and red paper clay from Martha Stewart and rolling into little balls and then snipping across the top with my decoupage snips. The Seaweed was made using Tattered Lace leaf dies which had been cut from white paper and coloured using pear and moss pro-markers.
I also added some star-fish made by pressing paper clay into a Martha Stewart Silicone mould and then pricking the top of the stars with a pin.

I finished the design off by adding some pearl sprays, pearls inside some of the shells and adding pink pearls to her hair and tail. The final touch was three clear dew drops from Inky Impressions to look like water droplets in her hair.

I am entering this card into the following challenges