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Hello my crafty friends! It’s Lesley here – I am back in the UK and my crafty fingers were ITCHING to get playing with these Octopi stamps!! Oh geez, they are so CUTE!!

One of the Honey Bee Stamps gals Taniesa was so sweet and kind, she surprised me with a Lawn Fawn gift when we met at the Creativation Conference – the new Octopi My Heart stamp set and matching dies! Now THAT is a life long friend! I LOVE THEM! Thank you Taniesa!

I decided to have some fun with this new Octopus stamp and create a glitter shaker card, with an underwater scene. I used two other Lawn Fawn stamp sets- So Jelly and Mermaid For You, which were perfect accompaniments to the Octopi My Heart set!

For the background, I decided to build a fun watery effect using the ink smooshing technique. You simply tap your ink pad onto a smooth surface, spray with water and then use the inky liquid to create your background. You can pick up the colour with a paintbrush, or push your paper directly into the ink, but I like to pick up the ink with a piece of acetate, and then use this to apply the ink to my cardstock.

To build texture, I also used the circle piercing dies from Cheery Lynn designs – these are new to me, and give a really cool effect, although the ink kind of covers it up. If you look really closely behind the Octopi, you will see circles of dots which look a bit darker than the rest of the background. I will have to use them again on another card so you can really get to see them in action.

I coloured the images using some Copic markers and cut them out using the coordinating dies. I also die cut some foam in the octopus die, so I could make them pop!

For the inside of the card, I used the AMAZING Ice Chips Glitter from Honey Bee Stamps – this stuff is SO FUN! It looks like shards of glass, but it sparkles like crazy, and the great thing is that it is fine, so I only needed one layer of foam behind my acetate today! You might also notice that I also some blue fine glitter as well as the Ice Chips. Here’s a closer look at the ice chips – doesn’t it almost give a watery effect!?

Thanks for stopping by, and I also wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who watched and commented on my Creativation videos. For so many years I dreamt of being at CHA but had to settle with binge watching YouTube videos – so it is only fitting that I share some videos with you guys so you can experience it too! Another big thank you to everyone at Creativation who LET me video them and their booths- it couldn’t have happened without you guys!

Until next time… happy crafting!

The below post is featured on the Gerda Steiner Designs Blog today

Hello everyone,

It’s Lesley Oman again, from Hungry Heffy Crafts, and I am delighted to be back with another guest designer post for Gerda Steiner Designs! This time I am working with the sweet Fall Mice stamp set – aren’t they adorable!

I figured that Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and so I was inspired to use soft, romantic colours, and I wanted my card to have a love theme! Lucky for me, the stamp set has a great greeting which says Sending You Love and Blessings, which was perfect for this card.

I wanted to create a soft, romantic background, so I grabbed a large text print stamp from my stash and clear heat embossed the image onto some watercolour cardstock. I used some post-it tape as a mask along the crease to make sure the back of my card stays clean. Next I used a few distress inks to blend some colour over the top of my embossed image- with soft Spun Sugar at the top blending into Picked Raspberry, and then a Shaded Lilac at the bottom. I had to work this pretty hard, but I got there in the end!

Next I stamped two sweet mice from the Fall Mice stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs onto watercolour cardstock, and painted these with my watercolour paint. I used the wet on wet technique to build up some soft, blended colours then I used my heat tool to dry the paint completely, before adding some shadows. Next I created my own watercolored heart – using a heart die as a guide. This is for my mouse to hold behind his back. Aren’t they adorable!?

To create a panel for my greeting, I used a scalloped rectangle die, but by running it through my cuttlebug machine a couple of times, I was able to create a uniquely sized rectangle that was just the right size! I stamped and heat embossed the greeting from the stamp set on the white panel, and then added a touch of spun sugar distress ink to give it a pop of subtle colour.

To create some contrast on the card, I wanted to add a frame using some dark grey cardstock but unfortunately I only had scraps left over. I didn’t let that stop me though – I simply cut the frame in two parts, and then stuck these to the card, hiding the join behind the scalloped rectangle panel.

I also mounted the watercolour heart on the same grey cardstock so it had a nice frame, and then stuck my card all together. To finish, I darkened the eyes with a little sakura glaze pen, and added a sweet wooden heart and some adhesive pearls!

Thank you so much for joining me again. I had such fun playing with these stamps, and I am sure you will too.
x

Lesley

Product List:
Gerda Steiner Designs FALL MICE Clear Stamp Set https://goo.gl/jc0Ksi
Hero Arts Clings Stamp – Friend Definition Background http://amzn.to/2kQvU1q
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad SPUN SUGAR https://goo.gl/QP4ES8
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad PICKED RASPBERRY https://goo.gl/cm9fp7
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad SHADED LILAC https://goo.gl/tDOiwj
Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS https://goo.gl/0YXc2c
Memento TUXEDO BLACK INK PAD https://goo.gl/wRtTLG
Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor Set http://amzn.to/2kUHuYy