With Love...

Morning everyone! Hope you've all had a lovely week and now looking forward to another weekend, which I hate to say but, hasn't it come round fast again. As a good friend of mine said to me earlier in the week, an eight day week would be perfect to get everything done and I totally agree but saying that, I'm sure I would fill those eight days and then be asking for nine!!!

Anyway, I just wanted to rop by to let you all know about this fortnight's challenge over on the Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog and this time it's all about...BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS. We would love it if you would join us in this challenge and look forward to seeing all your creations. Should you need any inspiration, then this is the tag that I made and if you click here, you can see all the gorgeous makes from the DT!!

To make this tag, I used papers and elements from Sarah's gorgeous new Steampunk CD and added some Tim Holtz Alterations dies and vintage seam binding that I dyed with Distress Stain.

Okey dokey, it's time for me to face the weekly shop and head to Tesco~wish me luck!!!

Thank you, so much for taking the time to stop by and take a look...I hope you all have a great day and a wonderful weekend!

See you soon and bye for now!

Love Emma xxx

Number 13 ~ lucky for some!!

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all doing ok and having a lovely week. Me? I had a great productive start to the week but now, everything has ground to a halt as I've succumbed to the flu and been feeling under the weather for the last couple of days!! So today, I've spent it sitting on the sofa, plying myself with soup and let me just say, this soup from New Covent Garden is delish...if you love pumpkin, then you will want to taste this. It's nearly as good as my Mum's homemade and perfect for Halloween.

Which leads my very nicely to my post for today ~ I hope you like it!!

Once again, all the gorgeous 13th Hour, Kaisercraft products and stamps, that I used on this card are available from Merly Impressions, I just added some Spellbinders and Tim Holtz die cuts, (it wouldn't be a card without a die cut or two from me...hehe), some vintage ribbon and last but not least, another handmade flower, die cut using a PaperArtsy Grunge Flower die and dipped into UTEE, to give that enameled look.

I also thought that Tim's "31" Alteration die was perfect for this paper collection, I just used it as "13" instead!!!

I stamped all the images onto the card, before running it through a die cutting machine using, yes ~ that man again, one of Tim's Texture Fades, embossing folders to give the raised spiders web in the corner.

Quite a lot of distressing is all that was needed to complete it and a generous smothering of Rock Candy Distress Stickles to give a shimmer to the rose.

Time for me to head back to the land of Channel 4, afternoon TV and I'll try to get around to visiting all your blogs, to see your lovely creations!!

See you soon!!

Love Emma

xxx

Exciting News From The Artistic Stamper...

Can you believe it's October already? Well, by the glorious weather that we're having at the moment, it's hard to believe I know but I think we all know that Autumn will be well and truly here sooner than later and to be honest, it's one of my favourite times of year, so I can't wait!!!

So because today is the 1st October that means I can finally unveil my next bit of exciting news and that is... I've been asked to join the Creative Team at The Artistic Stamper and I am so excited to be part of this fab team of wonderful designers who I've admired for so long. Believe me with all the wonderful stamps and products that they have to tempt you with ~ I am in my inky element!!

Today, is the start of a new challenge over on The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog and the theme is AUTUMN COLOURS and we would love you to join us!!!

Here's my little creation for the challenge and I hope you like it...

I stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell, Rainy Day image, together with one of the fab new word stamps ~ Happy!! I then used my new and shiny Tim Holtz Autumn Gatherings Decorative strip die to die cut the leaves and foliage and coloured them with Distress Inks. I added a couple of the mini rosettes, once again using one of Tim's dies, added some vintage ribbon, then arranged and mounted it all on some paper from my crafty stash.

Thanks for taking the time to look and there's lots more lovely inspiration from the other members of the team, here!! Please, come and join in the fun and if you visit the The Artistic Stamper store, there's a huge 25% of all the new journalling and background stamps!!

And if you haven't got enough inspiration from all that, here's a couple of photos that I took in my garden on a beautiful Autumnal day..

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the sunshine, thank you for all the lovely comments about my YouTube debut with Barbara that I shared on my last post! xx

See you next week with more shares from Clarity!!

Love Emma

xxx

Birds Flying High...

So finally here we are, my final samples from the POTW, Clarity shows and after all the hard work that went into them, I think I can honestly say ~ it was worth it, because I felt so honoured when these cards were shown and I heard what Barbara had to say about my work...thank you Barb, so much for everything you said and thank you, Leonie for what you said...you know that without your help and encouragement, this blog and these cards would not be here now.

So, the final two cards and I hope you like them...

Both of these cards feature the now "famous" water spotting technique on the backgrounds which were once again, both made with various blends of Distress Inks. The "Noel" card was just crying out for the music score from "The First Noel" and I spent hours on Google trying to find the perfect one for the background but I did and the whole card went to plan!!

The next card features The Partridge and the Pear Tree stamps that were the first stamps that I ever had to work with when I first joined the DT and it was that card that Barbara was inspired by to make her own to feature in the demo. This was the card that I made then and the one that started the journey...

...and this is the card that I made this time around, one year on!!

Hope you enjoyed every card that I made and didn't get too bored with them all!! hehe...

See you in the week and I can finally share my latest bit of news, so watch this space!

Bye for now!

Love Emma

xxx

Bright and Beautiful

Hi everyone!!

Hope you've all had a wonderful day and whatever you have planned for tonight, you're looking forward to it.

Me? If I can keep my eyes open, (yup, it's been another one of those ker-razy days), I have a space on the sofa already booked and a date with my TV...I'm officially worn_out.com!!! lol

Anyway, I hope you're all still enjoying Barbara's shows on Create and Craft and that you've found some inspiration from all the samples and demonstrations that are being shown. Maybe been inspired enough to have a go and create your own little masterpieces! If you do, I'd love to see them...

And here's another two of my card samples ~ I hope you like them...

This card was stamped using the watercolour technique and then triple embossed with UTEE. I then cut it into three sections for this gorgeous triptych tile effect.

Well, it's time for me to collapse on the sofa but I'll be back tomorrow with some more cards.

See you then and enjoy your night!

Love and hugs, Emma

xxx

"Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world." — Marilyn Monroe

To do list: ✓✓✓

Still to do list: ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

lol ~ Evening everyone and yup, the life of Emma is still a busy one and at the moment, I think I'm crafting for England and there's only two things in life that can help me through the workload...coffee and chocolate and in large amounts!! By the time I've finished, I think I'll resemble the size of a house.

But I've making lots of lovely things and working with lots of gorgeous goodies and I can't wait to show them all to you!

But here's one I made earlier and I hope you like it... 

The stamp is from the Personal Impressions range of Travilla's fashion designs for Marilyn Monroe and I really wanted to try to capture the feel of the house of Travilla, using images from Tim Holtz's Haberdashery set, vintage ribbon, pins and the lovely papers from K & Company.

I stamped the Marilyn image in Stazon and watercoloured it with Kuretake's Art and Graphic Twin pens.

Well, it's time for me to go and collapse on the sofa and start chanting again...keep calm and carry on, keep calm and carry on...you won't believe how many times I say this to myself in a day!! :)

See you soon...

Love Emma

xxx

Waiting...

Another weekend has flown by and I don't know about you but even though it's been a lovely day, today...there's definitely a feel of Autumn in the air. Yesterday, as I was driving along, there were leaves being blown from the trees and a very watery sunshine...if I didn't know, I would think we were in mid-September rather than August. 

Anyway, I'm not sure where August has actually gone and except for one post, I know I was M.I.A. last week but I promise, I have been making lots and lots of cards! The living room and dining room have now been taken over and resemble John Lewis' greetings card department!! I can't wait to show you what I've been up to but until I can, I'm having to sit on my little hands and tease you with the fact that...there's some lovely things coming this way soon!! So, watch this space... hehe!

But for now, here's a card I can show you and another one using those lovely Gorjuss stamps...I hope you like it!

The one thing I always tend to do with these images, is not make them cute and I love the fact that these stunning little girls can lend themselves to a bit of distressing and shabby chic!

Once again, I made one of my "famous trademark" HUGE flowers and used that stripey paper, which I think is fab!! I also added some rosettes, vintage ribbon and a Spellbinders die cut to complete the card.

The image was painted with Art and Graphic Twin pens from Kuretake.

I'll be around later to comment on all your lovely creations, after I've tidied up the crafty bombsite that used to be a family home! lol

Thanks for stopping by to take a look at what I made. See you soon and hope you all had a lovely weekend!!

Love Emma

xxx

Creative Expressions Calling Card Challenge

Hi everyone...hope you all had a lovely weekend and you're now refreshed and ready to start another week, that I'm sure will fly by!

I just wanted to pop on because I wondered if everyone had seen that Creative Expressions are holding a Design Team call? I'm sure that all of you know that Creative Expressions is based in Kettering, UK and are a leading manufacturer and distributors of all the latest crafting products. They also do a fabulous range of rubber stamps, including the wonderful new Tatty Button range and designs by Sam Poole.

If you would like to take part in this challenge you can get all the details, if you click, here...but you'd better be quick as the closing date for submissions, is tomorrow at 5:00pm. For all those who are taking part...the challenge is called "Calling Card" and all you need to do is, include an ATC somewhere within your project. The rest is up to your interpretation...if you do decide to enter ~ good luck!

And this is what I've made for the challenge...I hope you like it!

To make this card, you will need:

Rubber Stamps: Joyful Florals, Flutter Florals by Sam Poole for Creative Expressions

8" x 8" Pre-scored white card blank

Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Fired Brick, Broken China, Wild Honey, Brushed Corduroy

Black Archival Ink Pad

Tim Holtz Grungepaper

Papermania 12"x12" Kraft paper stack

Vintage Ribbon

Decorative Tear Drop Pins

Card Candi ~ Craftwork Cards

Inkssentials ATC Manila Cardstock by Ranger

Red Bazzill Cardstock

Kuretake Millenium Writer Pen

Craft Box Tools

1.  Cover the front of your card blank with a piece of red Bazzill card, cut to 18.5cm square, leaving a narrow border of the white card, all around.

2.  Cut a piece of the Kraft cardstock, 18cm square and distress the edges, with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, to give an aged look to the card. Adhere to the front of your card, leaving a 0.5cm border of the red Bazzill card.

3.  Using a fine nibbed marker pen, draw a line onto the blank cardstock, creating a border around your matts and layers.

4.  Using a combination of the flowers, leaves, flourish and butterfly stamps from the set, stamp the images onto Grungepaper, using the black Archival Ink pad. At this point, it's entirely up to you, as to which stamps you choose to use, as there are so many beautiful combinations within these sets...you are the creator of your card, so you decide. Once the images are stamped, carefully cut them out and then with your Distress Inks and a blending tool, apply ink to each cut out piece building up the intensity of colour, as you blend. Shape each of the pieces, to give a realistic look to the petals and leaves.

5.  Stamp your quote from the stamp sheet onto the Manila ATC card, using the Archival Ink. Using a paper piercing tool, pierce a border of small holes around the ATC. Add Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks to the edges.

6.  Arrange and attach your your stamped images to the front of the card, using strong adhesive glue. Using 3D foam pads for height, attach your ATC sized, stamped quote, tucking it under some of the petals and leaves. This is your "Calling Card".

TIP: Always arrange your elements and make sure that you are entirely happy with the look of your card, before sticking anything down.

7.  Add a piece of ribbon across the bottom section of your card and tie into a bow. Attach two of the decorative border pins to the bow, tucking the points into the knot, out of harms way.

 8.  Finally, add a piece of Candi to each of the flower centres.

So, I hope you liked my little creation and I hope you have fun joining in with this challenge.

Have a wonderful day and see you all soon!

Love Emma

xxx