Brand New from Sheena Douglass….

New! Just Released Perfect Partner Festive Fancies from Sheena Douglass.

Another range of great Dies and Stamp Sets from Sheena, perfect for all your Christmas Craft Projects. Comprising of Baubles, Christmas Lights, Santa's Little Elf Helper, Fairies, Holly and much much more.

The sets also contain images and sentiments that can be used all year round in conjunction with her other Perfect Partners, which is why they are the ‘Perfect Partner’ for your crafting.

We have ordered them and they will be in the shop next week!

We will be stocking the full range.

Special offer: If you buy a matching Die and Stamp Set from the new Perfect Partner Festive Fancies range you will receive a 10% discount.

If you would like to pre-order, we can reserve them in the shop for you. Just give us a call on 0208 530 1244.

Special offer is only available from our shop in Wanstead and while stocks last.

It's a White Wedding….

Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

Happy Saturday! I hope there is lots of crafting going on this weekend.

We were recently asked to make a wedding card for somebody for a wedding they are attending this month. We really enjoy doing projects like this, because we think it is a compliment when somebody asks us to make something crafty for them. 

We thought it would make a great post on the blog, so you can see what we have been up to. It is another joint project from us and on this occasion we did not have a design in our minds before we started. All we knew was that we wanted it to be in either cream or white pearlised card and wanted to incorporate an embossing folder to add texture.

As you can see from the photograph above we went with a very simple colour theme. I think it is always very interesting when you limit the colour combination on a craft project and in this instance the  main colour is white with a hint of silver.

The card itself is made from Crafter's Companion Centura Pearl 300gsm card and the colour is 'Snow White Hint of Gold'. Using the same card and Creative Expressions Heart Lattice embossing folder we created the top layer. Once the card was embossed we then die cut out Sweet Dixie's Floral Heart Frame which created a heart shape in the card, again in the same Centura Pearl card. Behind the heart cut out we put a piece of silver swirl texture paper to create contrast. We then stuck down the embossed card layer with Scotch Double Sided tape and using STIX2 double sided foam pads stuck the heart die cut out over the top of the shape in the card to create a 3D effect.

Using the Wild Rose Studio Dies, 'Little Butterfly' and 'Peacock Butterfly', we die cut one of each in the Centura Pearl card and one of each in the silver swirl texture paper. Using glue dots along the bodies we stuck the silver paper butterflies over the Centura Pearl butterflies. The self adhesive pearls on the floral heart are white 8mm and the ones on the body of the butterflies (which hopefully you can see) are 3mm, both from Creative Expressions.

The sentiment proved the most difficult as we really could not decide what to do. We went quite subtle in the end and I think it works really well. We cut out a small circle die, stamped a Wild Rose Studio sentiment using a VersaMark Watermark stamp pad and heat embossed it using WOW!'s Metallic Silver embossing powder. We used the STIX2 Foam pads to stick it to the card, again creating a 3D effect.

Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

Finally to add some finishing touches to make the card a little more special, we used a butterfly stamp from the 'Lovely Garden' stamp set by STAMPENDOUS! to stamp a butterfly on the inside of the card and the envelope in metallic silver. 

I hope you have enjoyed today's post.

Dan

x 

What a Lovely Garden….

Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

We are really big fans of Jumbo Cling Stamp sets and the matching dies from STAMPENDOUS! They are versatile to use in lots of different craft projects.

So using the 'Lovely Garden' stamp and die set we did a joint project and something a bit different for tonight. A craft project in a frame! You can see the finished piece in the photograph above.

The first thing we did was to stamp the large and medium rose, along with some leaves and the butterfly using a Rangers Archival Wendy Vecchi Ink Pad in 'Watering Can' on smooth white stamping card. The grey colour can be a good alternative to a black ink as it is a little softer. 

Next we die cut out the stamped images and coloured them using Tim Holtz Distress Inks in a variety of pinks such as 'Victorian Velvet' and 'Spun Sugar' and greens such as 'Mowed Lawn'. 'Mustard' was used to highlight the leaves and flowers and 'Seedless Preserves' (deep purple) which adds depth again to both the flowers and leaves.  

For the butterfly we used a combination of blues including 'Salty Ocean', adding the orange of 'Spiced Marmalade'. We used a Tim Holtz Mini Ink Blending Tool, which is great because it is small and round and easy to work with.

WOW! Ultra High Clear Gloss Embossing Powder was used in conjunction with a Watermark VersaMark stamp pad to give the die cut images a ceramic look, which creates a beautiful shine.To make the centre of each of the flowers I used Rangers 'Daffodil' Liquid Pearls. 

Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

To stick the large flowers and leaves to the white mount board we used Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue. The smaller roses and butterfly were stuck using STIX2 Double Sided Foam Pads to create a 3D look. This was also used on some of the larger roses around the edges to make them look more realistic. Mount board was used for the background because we were going to put it in a frame. In fact mount board is really good for using as a background on craft projects as it is sturdy but not too thick.

The picture frame we used is made out of a plain white wood moulding and was made in our Photography Gallery in Wanstead, 'Eighyfour'.

Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson

We had fun making this project, especially using the new products from STAMPENDOUS!

We hope you enjoyed tonight's post. Look out for another post on Friday night.

Lyn and Dan

x x x

New in Stock!….PLAID Fabric Art….Fabric Creations Inks

Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson

Just arrived at the shop in Wanstead! Fabric Creations Inks.

These super soft fabric inks are the perfect formulation for stamping, stencilling and brushing on fabric.

The inks are machine washable and are available in a large range of colours.

If you have never done any sort of craft on fabric before, don't forget September is Crafting Month at the shop in Wanstead and there will be the opportunity to have a go. We will be posting details soon.

With crafting on fabric you can create some beautiful projects, not only for yourself but ideal as gifts!

Happy Crafting,

Dan

x

I'll Bee Back….

 Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

Well I did say I would be back with the Triple Decker, Double Stamping technique and here I am. I absolutely love the bees at the moment, they are so 'Summery'!

The card in the photograph above is made out of black card stock and as you can see there are three layers of a white card on top which is smooth white 300gsm. The black card has also been used to create the borders for each of the white layers and I think it frames them really well. All the layers were stuck down using a Crafters Companion Extra Strong Permanent Glue Tape, which is an easy to use double sided adhesive.

I used a PaperArtsy Stamp Set, JOFY Collection 30 from Jo Firth-Young. I used the honeycomb effect stamp first as the background which I used with a Rangers Archival Ink Pad in 'Potting Soil'. I stamped first on paper then on the white card. This made the background lighter to really bring out the bee stamp image, I used a Rangers Archival Ink Pad in 'Jet Black' to stamp the bees. The 'bee happy' sentiment is also stamped in the black and I did this last so not to smudge anything else.

To get the stamped effect on this card, you temporarily stick all the white layers of card together and then do the stamping. Once done you then put the black layers of card inbetween. You need to make sure that you line the card up so that the image looks continuous.

I coloured the bees with two PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints, 'Yellow Submarine' and 'Tango' using a water brush which allows you to blend the paints beautifully together. I think the bright colours against the stamped background and bees works really well, as it creates a real contrast.

I hope you have enjoyed tonight's project. We have had some nice feedback from people who have seen it in the shop.

Happy Crafting!

Dan

x

P.S, Look out over the weekend for posts on new products we have in the shop and yes some of them are Christmas related! 

I also wanted to let you know that September is going to be Crafting Month at the shop in Wanstead. Look out for details on free demos, make and takes, workshops and lots more where you will have the opportunity to learn new techniques and see new products. We will also be showing you some techniques that customers have asked to see and have a go at again. 

You're the bees knees!

Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

Take one PaperArtsy Stamp Set, JOFY Collection 30 from Jo Firth-Young and a WOW! Embossing Powder in Metallic Gold Rich and look what you get. A card which I think is simple in design but really quite beautiful. I used two rubber stamps from the collection, the large bee and one of the sentiments. It really is a great stamp set as it reminds me of Summer!

The base of the card is made from a beige/brown card, I think you can see the colour of the card better in the second picture. I stuck a piece of  'Milk' coloured Foundation card from Creative Expressions to the inside of the card using scotch double sided tape, so that the writing would show up and used a matching cream envelope.

 Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson 

All Rights Reserved

I used a Woodware Magic Anti-Static pad and rubbed it all over the card which is used to help eliminate smudges and fingerprints on the card. I have to be honest and say we use this every time we heat emboss. Next I used a VersaMark Watermark Stamp Pad to stamp the bees and the sentiment and I started with the bees from the top doing one or two at a time. So I stamped, sprinkled the embossing powder, removed the excess and then used the heat tool, then repeated the process until all the bees were done. I did the 'You're the bees knees!' last as I didn't want to smudge anything!

                                           

Happy Crafting!

Dan

x

Meet These Guys….

 Photograph World© Geoff Wilkinson - Design World © Lyn Wilkinson All Rights Reserved

First of all we have to apologise for not putting a post on the blog, on Friday night. Rather than be in the shop on Sunday we had a stall at the monthly Farmer's Market in Wanstead as a bit of an exercise to let people know about the craft workshops we run and the shop itself. So Friday night and Saturday we were busy doing lots of projects to show people. Tonight you get to 'Meet These Guys'…. and I promise we will post something extra this week to make up for missing a post last week.

Tonight's project is all about keeping it simple. It is amazing what you can make using only a few craft products and by not complicating everything. We decided to make a 'set of cards' that could be used for any occasion but were all along the same sort of theme.

As you can see the cards in the photograph are made using A4 Creative Kraft Coloured Card from Creative Expressions, which is a great  alternative to smooth white card or  using a coloured card as a base. The A4 card was cut down so that each of the cards measured 7 inches by 5 inches. The top layer of  cream coloured card is Foundation 'Milk' Card, 220gsm from Creative Expressions. We also stuck a piece of 'Milk' Card on the inside of each of the cards to use when writing a message, that way you can use any pen and don't have to worry about the message you write not showing up on the Kraft Coloured Card. We used a combination of Scotch Double Sided tape and Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue to stick the inside and outside 'Milk' Card.

The technique used on the front of each card is actually heat embossing. Each of the stamps were stamped using a Versafine Ink Pad in 'Vintage Sepia', then we used a clear WOW! Embossing Powder which created that beautiful 3D embossing texture. The clear powder allows the colour of the Versafine Ink Pad to come through.

The pre cut stamps themselves are by Sam Poole from Creative Expressions. We have had them in the shop since they were launched last year and they are a favourite of not just us but lots of customers as they are so versatile. There is 'Squeak', 'Hoppity Bunny', 'Mr Bear', 'Hoot' and 'Mr Fox'. All of them come with a sentiment as you can see, they are £4.99 each and we sell them in the shop and on our website. We added a flower stamp from Woodware to go with the mouse which I think works really well.

As a finishing touch we added a cream coloured envelope to contrast against the Kraft Card and to match the 'Milk' Card.

I hope you like these guys as much as we do.

I would like to say a big thank you to our friend Maude, who is also a regular on our craft workshops. Maude was kind enough to help us get the cards ready for the market on Sunday. x

Happy Crafting everybody,

Dan

x x x x