Hello Crafty friends,
I am doing it! I’m applying for a Design Team! Squeeeeee!!
I really miss not being on a Design Team ever since The Scrapbook Magazine finished its print publication, and to be honest, my creative passion is more centred around card making and stamping these days! So, when I discovered that Honey Bee Stamps were having a Design Team call, I thought I would put myself out there! Seize the day, and what-not!
So, a little pre-warning, this is a photo-heavy post, but hey, you might like that kinda thing! 🙂
For you regulars, you will have seen some of these projects before, but you never know when inspiration strikes, so sit back with a cuppa tea and enjoy a stroll through my recent creative portfolio! For most of the photos, you can click the picture to reach the blog post featuring that project, and most will have video tutorials. But I am also sharing some new projects that won’t have any links as yet. As a little treat, at the end I am sharing one of my doodles that I have digitised! Its all so very exciting! 🙂
To begin with, some cards with lots of stamping! First up is this popular little critter, that brightens up the darkest day!
This light up card has a built in light, which means when you press the heart, the background lights up with a blue LED. It was one of my first projects using the paper circuits from Chibitronics, and I even have another one to share this weekend (so watch this space!).
Next up, another shaker card! I wonted to create a card with some soft, pastel colours. I used distress ink to create the background, and the sweet unicorn, clouds and cake stamps were coloured with a little watercolour painting.
Our friends Mark and Heli love diving, so this is one of their favourite Hungry Heffy Crafts projects. This time the critters were coloured using some Spectrum Noir colouring pencils, and I used some blending solution to make the colours blend together nicely.
When my friend Alexia got a new job AND a new house, I wanted to create a two-for-one card. I thought an exploding box card would do the trick. From one side, the banner says ‘New Home’ and when you turn the card around, the other side of the banner says ‘New House’! For this project I incorporated some reverse stamping so the images were double-sided! It took a little while, but it was worth it!
My Granny turned 90 earlier this month (Happy Birthday Granny Minnie!) and for this special occasion I wanted a special, sophisticated card. I used lots of the small space-filler stamps (you know the small ones that are in most stamp sets, usually flowers or hearts) to create a wreath shape. To make the card more interesting I incorporated some partial die cutting with acetate, and for an extra special personal touch, I hand lettered her name at the bottom of the card.
My fingers were completely black after this one! Lots and lots of distress ink went into creating this space-tacular background! I love how it turned out. I also used an embossing folder in a letter-press style to add texture to the little planet! I had to do quite a bit of partial stamping to create the greeting I wanted by using the stamps in my stash- but that’s all part of the fun for me!
I made this next card because I was challenging myself to ‘just-make-it-work!’. I took a stamp that had the American spelling of the word ‘color’, but with some creative masking I was able to change the greeting to the British English spelling: colour!
Do you ever see something random, and then have an instant idea for a card? My daughter was watching Carebears and I had a sudden realisation that I could pretty much mix-and-match my stamps to make a carebear. I used a teeny heart stamp for his nose and some eyes from another critter to make him more smiley! Plus I added a pun-tastic greeting! <3
What do you do when you have an idea, but the stamp in your stash is too big? Answer- Shrink it with shrink plastic! Thats what I did for this fun spinner card, once again featuring a distress ink background.
This next card was inspired by a small rainbow scrap that I had left over from another card. It was too pretty to throw away, so I came up with the idea of having a tiny rainbow peeking out of a cloud, with a pot of gold as the main feature element. The pot of gold was made entirely from dies in my stash, including a butterfly die (for the little feet on the pot)! Don’t the sequins look awesome as little gold coins?!
For these next two cards, I used stamps to create my own faux-background. Using different coloured inks can give a beautiful result that really looks like printed paper, but for my second card, I stuck to one darker shade of ink for a more masculine feel. To tone it down (so my critters didn’t get overwhelmed) I decided to add a layer of vellum into the design. I love that this technique gives the card lots of depth and interest!
Recently I have been doodling and playing with watercolour paints, and so I was inspired to mix both hobbies together. I love the shimmer from the pearlescent paint, and the smiley face stamped on to a basic cloud die cut is an easy way to create your own fun embellishments!
This card was for the surgeon that brought his A-Game when operating on my back! As well as using the inlaid die cutting technique for the title, I also did some masking when stamping the little dude. Believe it or not, he started off as a cute boy, but a few pen strokes later, I altered the stamp to create an image of a doctor. I think it’s really fun to look at a stamp and find new and unusual ways to use it to create something truly unique!
Yep…here’s the rest of that rainbow! 🙂 I love the contrast between white space, subtle die cut lines and the vibrant impact of a distress inked rainbow!
That’s it for cards, but I do have a couple of scrapbook pages to share. I enjoy using stamps to create my own embellishments, and to give journaling an extra pizazz!
Stamps are also great for building page titles like I have done on this layout below. I stamped the word ‘little’ next to my electronically cut title. I also added a little stamping to the faux-polaroid frames to give them some sweet sentiments!
So that is it! Are you still with me? Yeah, I know its a lot, but asking me to choose my favourite projects is like asking me to choose a favourite stamp set! It simply cannot be done!
To the gang at Honey Bee Stamps, thank you for considering me as a DT applicant! I hope your day will bee as sweet as honey!..
..As for the rest of you, I promised to share one of my doodles that I have recently sketched & water coloured. I finally managed to get it photographed and digitised!
Well, you know what, after all that, I think I DO need a cup of tea!
Byeeeeee
x Lesley
