My Big Annoucement

I am very proud to announce that I am now a Design Team Member for Amazing Creations Rubber Stamps. This is a fantastic range of mix and match stamps made right here in Australia. They are now available in mounted & UNmounted .
The company is now owned by a lovely couple, Robyn and Craig Potts and as a welcome special to all my bloggers they will offer an Amazing 15% discount off the price of their stamps. (For all my USA friends a stamp worth eg $15 will come down to less than $10 as other discounts apply, a really good deal with the current exchange rate.) To get this discount all you have to do is mention my BLOG and my name.
The website is still undergoing some construction but most images are there for you to look at so come along to the Amazing Creations website for a look and take advantage of this great offer.
Now I would like to show you one my favourite images.

This card is made using the Primitive Butterfly N101, Primitive Square Border L301, Primitive strip II309, Best Wishes GG240.
(the stamps are much bigger than shown on the website, eg the primitive strip is approx 6 1/2" long the length of a card, the sq frame 3")
This was stamped in Black and embossed with a Black sparkly powder, I then coloured the image in using Twinkling H2Os. I cut out the frame and the butterfly made some wire antennae and mounted as shown.The base card has 'best wishes embossed and coloured, I then stamped the primitive strip in the corner with Versamark ink. Here is a close up, the shimmer on the wings is from the Twinkling H2Os. I hope you like these new images I will be featuring more over the next few months. The Daisy bear featured on the 12th September post is also from Amazing Creations.
Until Next Time

Inking of you all

Michelle

Adapt a stamp part 1

Each Monday I meet with a wonderful group of Ladies and we simply call ourselves Monday Stamp Group or MSG for short.
For a project, a few of us stamped up different floral images (enough for each person to take home at least one) we then had to create a card with each image.Today I will feature the Fushcia. (i'm not sure where the image comes from.)
These are cards made by some of us. It is amazing to see how different each card looks. Not one card is the same.

This one is my card. I chose Stampin Up Designer Paper and Cardstock in Rose Red. The image was stamped on to cream card stock. I coloured with my favourite medium Prismacolor Pencils. I punched the corners and added some co-ordinating brads and some cream ribbon as accents. Iwas really pleased with the result. All the ladies did a great job.

Until Next time

Inking of you all

Michelle

Wild Wet Weather

This card is just perfect for today's weather. Here in Canberra we have had beautiful spring days for the last week. Today started off no different, but by lunchtime the clouds rolled in and by dinner time it was cold, wet, very windy and down right miserable. We do desperately need the rain, but boy oh boy, I can't stand the strong gusty winds.
Well enough about the weather, what do you think of my card?
This image is made from several different stamps out of the Singing in the Rain set by Hanna Stamps.
For all of you who know me I sing the praises of Hanna Stamps quite loudly. I just love their fun and funky range of images. This set being just one of several of my faves.
So how did I colour this I hear you ask. First it was stamped in Black Brilliance ink and heat set. I coloured Hanna with Prismacolor Pencils and blended with odourless mineral spirits. The background is made to look like dark gloomy weather, it was done with grey and black chalks/ pastels.
To do the background properly I stamped another image of Hanna on to a scrap of paper and cut out right along the stamped outline. This is what is called a mask.
I placed the mask over top of my coloured Hanna. I then sponged the chalk all around the edges of my image. The mask prevents the chalk from getting on your image and making it dirty.


Here is another card using the same set. This time I created a snow scene rather than rain.

I paper pieced her coat in
coordinating DP, her
umbrella and dress were coloured
using Prismacolor pencils.
DP is from Imagine That.

If you look very closely you can see that there is snow (stickles) on the white background and also on her jacket.

Until next time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Chalkboard Technique

Who hasn't used their solid flower images in a while???? If this is you go pull out one right now and try this technique. It is so EASY. I love it. This is my first attempt and it's called Chalkboard. There are 2 ways to do this technique . (I did technique 1)
Technique 1:
First you need dark cardstock, I used black. A solid image like a flower (this is one of my new images from Flourishes). A white inkpad. A good set of artist's pencils, I used Prismacolor and last but not least Odourless mineral spirits (OMS) or gamsol.
Simply stamp your image on to the black cardstock. DIP your pencil into the OMS and color over top of the stamped image. How easy is that!!!!. You do not need to seal it when finished.

Technique 2:
Basically this is the same as chalk popping. Stamp your image with the white ink on to black card. Instead of using pencils grab out your chalks, stampin pastels, etc. Sponge (finger) daubers are also useful. Using your dauber, pick up the chalk colour
and apply to white stamped image. I wipe the card over with a cottonball when I'm finished. then I spray sealer on it so the chalk doesn't wipe off.
Splitcoast has a tutorial showing technique 2

Until Next time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Inspiration in Nature

It is Spring time here in Australia, and this is the most beautiful time of the year. Every year Canberra (my town) holds a flower fesival called Floriade. People from all over Australia even the world come to look at this gorgeous display of flowers .This festival only lasts for 4 weeks.
I spent the day with 2 lovely friends just wandering around in the sunshine basically enjoying the scenery. The weather is still a little chilly, but after all, we have just had winter.
I am not sure which flowers like the most. As Canberra is cold climate in winter the gardens are usually bulb flowers like Tulips, Hyacinths and Daffodils. There were also Poppies and they too were beautiful, I took the photo of them for a colour guide when colouring in my stamped images.
On display are also Floral Arrangements. This one above is done with a lot Native Australian Plants.They are most unusual to those of you who have never seen them before.This one has Waratahs and Banksias .
Last but not least, a beautiful Tulip, How stunning is this? Nature truly is magnificent. I can't wait for the next visit to Floriade, I have only 3 weeks left to enjoy.
Until Next time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Amazing Creation....

Isn't this bear just gorgeous, she was created by a lovely friend called Jenny McNulty. Jenny designed a wonderful range of mix and match images including bears, flowers, Australiana, some of the most gorgeous butterflies you have ever seen and adorable frogs. Her company was called Amazing Creations. Jenny has since 'retired' but the great news is the images and the company 'Amazing Creations' are back out there for you to enjoy. Don't be afraid to contact them, tell them Michelle sent you.
Here is Daisy bear, she is stamped in Black Brilliance and coloured using prismacolor pencils. I have highlighted the flowers with a white gel pen.The teal background paper is also from a range that Jenny created.
The friendship flower is also Australian, it's from Stamp World. I will feature more of Jenny's designs in the upcoming weeks.

Until Next time
Inking of you all
Michelle

Holy Hanna ...

Hanna Stamps that is. This is the first stamp set Hanna Stamps brought out. It's called 'But I need it...' When I ordered this set it was the only stamp set on the website. Well it's about one year on (give or take) and you should see the stamps now. My collection is not quite as extensive but it's getting there.
Here are 2 cards for you to look at today using this set.

Both cards are colored in using Prismacolor Pencils and blended with odourless mineral spirits. I have just used the the colours on my Designer Papers as a guide. I also love using my nestabilities, the top card uses the scalloped rectangle, The bottom one uses the circle set.

Until next time

Inking of you all

Michelle

Pamper Yourself

Pamper yourself.... Have a bath with a glass of wine. YES!!! one of 'My Favorite Things' to do. This stamp set .. I just love it. It's called Time for the Bubbly and it's from you guessed it ...My Favorite Things.

This was the first set I ever bought and it is still one I keep pulling out and using over and over again .The card above was made using Blue Bayou and Soft Sky cardstock. The designer papers are from Basic Grey's 2 scoops 6"x6" pad. The Bath is stamped onto Whisper white card and colored using Prismacolor pencils. Last but not least I have added stickles to enhance the bubbles and make them sparkle

This second card is also colored with Prismacolor pencils and I have used Bazzill criss cross cardstock .These Designer Papers are from Making Memories.
If you want to take a look at a third card of mine using this set have a look HERE

This one is all pinks and greens and is probably one of my all time favorite cards.

Let me know what you think.

Until Next Time

Inking of you all

Michelle

3 cards to show you

Today I will share with you 3 cards. These cards were made for a wonderful lady called Dina. Now Dina owns a stamp store called "Catchy Crafts, (about 4 hours away from me.) I met her and DH Doug when they came to town for the Craft Fair a couple of weeks back. To cut along story short Dina saw some of my cards and asked me if I could design a few cards for her shop using these adorable Penguins.
These stamps are so cute, how could I refuse. These 3 stamps are from Snag 'Em Stamps, they are unmounted and are so cheap to buy. The first card I combined our boy and girl penguins together with some bright cheery papers from Kaiser,
Next card is our Hula Girl, this designer paper is from Blue eye designs and is very tropical.

Then last but not least we have our Surfer Dude. I stamped the lime green card with the 'popsicle' stamp in versamark. The ice block stamp really matches nicely with the Doodlebug Paper don't you think. All Penguin images were stamped in Black Brilliance and coloured using Prismacolor pencils.

Until Next time

Inking of you all

Michelle

Twinkling H2Os & My New Stamps

My stamps from Flourishes have arrived and I have been a very busy girl. I just love this one called Siberian Iris. It is a lot of fun to work with.
I have decided to use the Iris with this weeks card sketch challenge over on SCS. This was another easy sketch and the possibilities are endless. It truly is a great sketch for a quick card.
First I stamped the orange background piece with one of the swirls from the set using Versamark. then popped it aside to dry.
Next I stamped the image ( on Watercolour paper) with Gold Pigment Ink and embossed with a sparkly powder called Egyptian Gold. It really is very pretty. I chose to colour this image with twinkling H2Os. (I can't wait to have a go with my Prismas , it will look so different but that's a whole other day)

Here is a close up of just how good the twinkling H2Os look. The shimmer you can see is natural (not caused by camera flash), This is just how they look, marvellous aren't they. Once it was dry I just layered all the pieces together using the sketch as a guide. Although it looks like it took ages to paint, in reality it probably took 30-40 minutes to put the whole card together, including drying time.

Until next time

Inking of you all

Michelle