Easter bunny with a mini tutorial

The weather has been absolutely glorious and it's hard to believe it's still only March.  Easter projects are well underway and one little project was this little Easter bunny to hold one of those chocolate eggs with the toy inside by a certain manufacturer of wonderful chocolate products, mentioning no names Mr Ferrero - oops, there I said it! 

Anyway, here's how I made him:

I used the Easter digi kit by Sarah Hurley which you can find here and in Photoshop I placed the rabbit digi stamp (enlarging it to fit half of an A4 paper) over the pink gingham paper, then copied and flipped him so I had two on one sheet of A4 which I printed out.  

If you don't have photoshop, print out the gingham on a sheet of A4, then put it back into the printer to print out the rabbits.  Most photograph manipulating programs will allow you to copy and flip.

I cut them both out.

Next I took a toilet roll tube and cut off about 4cm.

I covered this with patterned paper also from the digi kit. and created a border for the top. 

I glued the ears, head and tail of the two bunny halves together, then glued the tube in between his feet.

On the Sarah Hurley challenge blog today you can see lots of dt inspiration using the digi kit here.

 

Blog hop with My Stamp Box and Faber Castell.

Welcome to the Faber-Castell and myStamp BOX Partner Blog Hop!

If you just found our event, please begin your journey on the Faber-Castell blog . Many of our wonderful designers are joining us today to show off some inspirational creativity. See how well Faber-Castell and myStamp BOX products work together!

START AT: Faber-Castell
Marsha Valk
Linda Abadie
Jaine Drake You are HERE
Janet Zeppa
Els Brigé
Rita Barakat
Jennifer Mattot
Mou Saha
Jolene Johnston
Isolde Pyncket
Agata Pfister
Jill Hildebrand
END HERE: myStamp BOX Blog

We are giving away some amazing product from both participating companies. All you have to do is COMMENT on all designer blogs along your journey to WIN. Our three blog hop winners will be drawn from all participants, so be sure to leave comments by Sunday March 25th at 6pm EST. We will announce the winners on the myStamp BOX blog and Faber-Castell blog on Monday, March 26th. Good Luck!

Here is what I made using products from Faber-Castell and myStamp BOX:

When I knew we were going to be partnering Faber Castell this time I was very excited, especially as I knew we were being sent a Mixed Media kit to play with.  I just fell in love straight away with the Big Brush which was in the kit and had to order myself a set of them.  They're so chunky and juicy and brilliant for inking up stamps, which I've done here.  I found that even though they're pigment ink and dry pretty quickly, on a gesso surface they take a bit longer which is perfect for using a baby wipe or cotton bud (or finger if you don't mind getting messy) to blend the colours together or soften the edges.  It doesn't work on the watercolour paper though as the ink dries pretty fast. 
My background here was made first by laying down some colour with the watercolour pencil and using a big wet brush to blend the colour out, then I shaved some of the end from the pencil onto the wet paper to create the speckled effect. The big red heart is coloured with the Big Brush Pitt pen using the baby wipe blending out method (I gessoed the heart first).  The house from the Lovely Houses set was stamped onto text paper by inking with the Big Brush pen first and coloured with the same pens.
The only other thing I used on the page was a soft pencil but everything else is Faber Castell and My Stamp Box.
I was really really hoping to be able to create a page using the Gelato's as I fell totally for that too.  Sadly they're not available here in Europe yet so I had to order a set from the US which just didnt turn up in time for the hop but when they do arrive I'll be diving in there and trying them out, don't you worry.
Now it’s time to HOP along and find out what the next talented designer has created. Your next designer is Janet.  Don’t forget to leave a comment below for a chance to WIN one of our THREE product giveaways!

Something a bit different.

 I spent a chilled weekend just catching up after the marathon trip to Dortmund on friday and spent time in the basement playing with new stamps and stencils.

It's my turn to post on the My Stamp Box web site today and I've included a project which features a cotton reel or spool, whatever you want to call it, which I bought at a Craft Fair in Wiesbaden a few years ago.  At the time I was so excited to find it on a ribbon stall and knew I had to take it home.  As per usual it's taken this long for me to figure out just what to do with it but I think it was worth the wait.

I made a story book on a roll using My Stamp Box stamps to tell my story.  It's all stamped onto calico and sewn on the machine.  Parts of the stamping were coloured using Faber Castell Pitt pens (more from them later in the week) and other bits were stamped onto patterned fabrics and stuck on with Heat and Bond. I love that stuff.  Anyway, here it is:

Also on the My Stamp Box blog, the new DT list is up and I'm very pleased to say that I'm staying on for yet another term. 

Look out for our blog hop on thursday with Faber Castell, it'll be a goody.

Creativa Dortmund

Today is a very slow day so it's a good job it's a saturday.  Yesterday was a 4:30am start in order to get to Creativa in Dortmund for one of the biggest craft fairs in Europe.  Boy was I pooped but it was worth it and I've come home with some wonderful new products and ideas and I'm just itching to try them all out. 

It was an absolute pleasure to meet Nathalie Kalbach who was demonstrating on the Pan Pastel stand.  Lena was so overcome she almost fainted!!  (she'll hate me for saying that - it was the medication she was taking really and the early start hadn't done her any good). 

Anyway, while I was away, My Stamp Box were having a celebration of all things green in honour of St Patricks day. As they say in tv land - "and here's one I prepared earlier".



I've been busy - honest!!

Ok I know how this looks but honestly I've been working my little bottom off.  I know I've had nothing to show and tell for ages but truly, I just couldn't.  I've been busy beavering away on magazine articles and a couple of projects for Kuretake and Create and Craft tv. 

All that beavering has started to bear fruit so to speak and I've had not one but two articles printed in UK magazines this month, one for Craft Stamper and one for Sewing World. 

I haven't neglected my design team responsibilities either and I've been creating for them too. 

The first thing I can definately show and tell is my piece for the new challenge at Sarah Hurley which is Steampunk, chosen by Claireliz. I just adore Sarah's steampunk papers and digital stamps so this was a real treat to put together.

Again I've printed the figure onto acetate which is a really useful technique for layering digi stamps. There's lots of machine sewing and a flick of white ink too for good measure. 

To see the whole challenge just go here

Happy Birthdays

This is a busy time for birthdays in our family and for friends too.  Two of my girlies celebrated birthdays in February and tomorrow it'll be mine - woooo hooo :)  I have quite a few friends celebrating this month and last and on the Sarah Hurley design team there are several of us celebrating in March too, so what better way to celebrate than to use Birthdays as our inspiration for challenge 61.

Happy birthday to all the February/March babies;

I used Sarah's Steampunk papers, elements and digi stamp, teaming it with pink to make it a bit girlie.

Doodle mania

I'm getting over my cold and I'm just left with this annoying cough.  Sadly it's now going through the rest of the family, just as the weather turns into spring too.  Such is life I suppose. 

On the Kuretake blog we're hosting another challenge and this time we've got doodle mania. We're showing doodling techniques using different types of pens by Kuretake and this one below is mine:

As usual I made a journal page and had an absolute blast.  I'm not the worlds best calligrapher but to use the calligraphy pens for doodling the flowers was brilliant fun. If you keep the pen at the recommended 45° angle while you draw it gives you the thin and thicker lines which make it look like ribbon.  Above you can see the pens I used on this page.  On the blog you'll see lots more doodle inspiration.