April Showers Bring May Flowers...

Hi Everyone...I'm back in the cubbyhole and just in time for another week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog...thank you for joining us for last week's "Try To Resist" challenge...we hope you can join us this week too because

and the theme for this week is...

APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS

and in my neck of the woods we've certainly been having plenty of showers...playing havoc with my weekend plans for a garden tidy up...

I decided to make another page for my 2016 Art Journal using one of my favourite Tim Holtz stamps...the beautiful Lady Rose. I'm not sure if roses bloom in May or not but hey us crafters are allowed a little bit of artistic licence from time to time...

I started off by adding some texture to the pages using Ranger Transparent Matte Texture Paste with the Tim Holtz Bubble Layering Stencil and stamped some floral images from Stampers Anonymous Wildflowers with Versamark Ink...sprinkled with Ranger Clear Embossing Powder and heat set. I coloured the pages with Hickory Smoke and Fossilized Amber Distress Paints applied with a baby wipe. Once the paint was dry I used Cut 'n Dry Foam to create a stippled blended effect and used the baby wipe to remove the paint from the Bubble Texture and stamped images.

I stamped the Lady Rose and flower images on to Tim Holtz Idea-ology Plain Tissue Wrap with Archival Black Ink and coloured the roses on the back with Distress Markers.

I die cut the doily from white cardstock and inked the edge with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink. I roughly cut out the Lady Rose and rose images and fixed everything in place with Distress Collage Medium. I love how the Tissue Wrap becomes transparent when wet and the images blend perfectly into the background so no need to stress over fussy cutting.

I added Idea-ology Film Strip Ribbon...an Adage Ticket and Design Tape...

more Design Tape and alphabet stickers from my stash...

and Small Talk stickers...

and applied some watered down gesso with the splatter brush...

You can find all the products I used over at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp online store...just click on the links below...

Why don't you pop over to the Monday Challenge Blog and check out the amazing creations from my very talented Design Team mates and as always you all have the chance to win a $50 gift voucher to spend at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time...1pm UK time...2 pm CET to join in...

You can also follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram

Thanks for popping by...

I can't wait to see what you all create for the challenge...have fun and happy crafting

Hugs Kath xxx

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It's time for a give-away...

Hi folks...it's Friday already and I'll be  heading home from my fun get-away trip...itching to get back into the crafty swing again. Thank you all for your lovely comments on the Fiskars projects I shared this week...

and I have a nice Friday surprise...FISKARS very kindly gave me not one but THREE fabulous POWER PUNCHES to give-away to one lucky winner...

Medium Circle

Medium Flower

Small Heart

if you have never used the Fiskars Power Punches...you can see how easily they will punch through a variety of thick materials...

all you need to do to enter is leave a comment here or over on my Facebook page or both if you wish before 8pm on Friday 15th April and the lucky winner will be announced on Saturday 16th.
Let's hope the weather's going to be kind over the weekend and I can get out and spend some time in the garden...have a great weekend whatever you're doing and I'll see you all on Monday.

Hugs Kath xxx

Love...love...love this punch

Hi folks...I'm sharing a Wedding Canvas project I made for Fiskars using one of my all time favourite punches...the Love Intricate Shape Punch...it's not a Power Punch but it did punch through some thicker than normal materials...the secret is to give it a try but if you feel resistance...STOP or you'll have a jammed punch on your hands or worst case scenario...a broken one...

It punched through the Funky Foam and self adhesive Cork Sheet like a knife through butter so I thought I would push my luck a little bit and applied Stick It to a scrap of Funky Foam and sprinkled it with Diamond Dust Glitter and woohoo...it worked...life is full of surprises...

And an added bonus for us canny crafters who are always looking to get more bang for our buck when it comes to craft supplies...you get the "two for the price of one" heart with the negative word and the punched out letters too.

See you all tomorrow for the Fiskars Power Punch Give-Away

Hugs Kath xxx

Life Is A Journey...

Hi folks...I'm back to share a few more Power Punch projects...starting off with a simple Birthday Gift Card Holder using the large and medium Circle punches with Self Adhesive Cork and pretty patterned papers and the 3 sizes of Flower punch using Sticky Back Canvas and paper

and a Life Journey Album...

Using the circle punches to create a stencil to use with Texture Paste and create acetate covers for the punched patterned paper circles. Also using the Arrow punch with Funky Foam to create a custom stamp and also punch arrows from Black Funky Foam. Don't forget to pop back on Friday for the Fiskars Power Punch Give-Away.
And why don't you join the Crafty Beggars...my lovely buddies Wendy and Jules HERE for 45 minutes of fabulous hints and tips on all sorts of crafty makes or fast forward to 24 minutes for some gorgeous inspiration on how to use your Fiskars Power Punches to make fabulous jewellery.

I'll be back tomorrow to share the last of my projects

Hugs Kath xxx

Absent Without Leave...

Hi everyone...I had the most fabulous fun weekend catching up with lovely crafty friends but my Furry Companion was not best pleased at being left at home...he's got the sad eyes hang dog "make me feel guilty" look down to a tee and here we go again...he's got his grumpy face on and not happy I'm going to be absent without leave from the cubbyhole for the rest of the week.
I've scheduled a few posts to share some Fiskars projects with you that I've made with the Power Punches...the punches that do what it says on the tin and make light work of punching their way through thick materials...the kind of materials that other punches turn their noses up at...such as aluminium cans, milk cartons, thick plastic packaging, cardboard, chipboard, shrink plastic, thin balsa wood, self adhesive cork and canvas, a double layer of 300 gsm cardstock and are perfect for creating your own stencils from thick material or custom stamps from Funky Foam.

The punches come in 3 sizes...Large...Medium and Small perfect for creating layers and come in the most popular shapes...Circle, Tag, Arrow, Banner, Heart, Flower and Star...the ones that us crafters use on a regular basis.

And rather appropriately today's project is a Travel Journal. I applied Soft Gel Medium to the chipboard covers and covered with layers of wrinkled up tissue paper. Once dry I painted the covers with Black Gesso and applied Decoart Gold Rush Metal Lustre to soften the black for a rusted look and highlight the texture...

I created the background by layering up scraps of paper from Tim Holtz Correspondence Paper Stash Pad and used the Banner and Circle Power Punches with self adhesive cork and acetate to create tickets.  I fixed eyelets and threaded them on to Idea-ology Paper String Solids.  I used the largest pair of Fiskars scissors I could find to carefully open up an aluminium can, flattened it out and covered the back with duck tape...this eliminates the sharp edges when you punch out the shapes. I punched circles using the Large Circle Power Punch...embossed with a Script Embossing Folder and used a Texture Tool on the remaining aluminium before punching out the arrows.

 I used the Arrow Power Punch and Self Adhesive Cork to create the rest of the arrows.

The sentiment was created using Sizzix /Tim Holtz Wordplay Die and Core'dinations Distress Paper Stash and Self Adhesive Cork.

Fiskars very kindly gave me some Power Punches for a give-away so make sure you pop back on Friday to get your name in the hat. I'll be back tomorrow to share more projects...until then...

Toodle-oo for now

Hugs Kath xxx

Try To Resist...

Hi Everyone...welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog...thank you for joining us for last week's We Can See Clearly Challenge...we hope you can join us this week too...

and the theme for this week is...

TRY TO RESIST 

there are so many different products that can be used to create a resist and this week we are showcasing RANGER PRODUCTS ...you don't have to use them to join in but we would love to see them used if you have them.

I'm an avid collector of Tim Holtz Layering Stencils and store them in Tag type books held together with a book ring...it makes it so easy to flip the top and find the stencil you want. I was over the moon when Tim very kindly gave me the 12 sets (woohoo) of his Mini Stencils to play with and how could I resist making them a nice new stencil storage home.

I started off cutting tag shape covers from chipboard...gave them a coat of white gesso and for the first resist technique I applied Idea-ology Remnant Rubs-Numbers which resist any colouring medium applied over them.

For the second resist technique I used the Flourish Mini stencil from Set 10 with the Mini Black Soot Ink Pad and a blending tool to decorate the top and bottom corners...sprinkled the wet ink with Ranger Fine Detail Clear Embossing Powder and heat set.

and for the third resist technique...I applied Ranger Transparent Matte Texture Paste through the large dots stencil from Set 10 and left to dry.

Then it was time to have some fun colouring the cover with Distress Crayons Set 1 Brights. I scribbled the colours on to the cover and blended with my finger...then gently rubbed the crayon back from the resist areas with slightly damp kitchen towel.

I added black and white die cut flowers from the Wildflowers Thinlits set and Idea-ology Big Chat Stickers

 and a Idea-ology Philoshophy Tag...the wording was coloured with the Antique Linen Distress Crayon

there are 3 mini layering stencils in each set so I left them in the original packaging and stapled the edges to create pockets...

and the minis are now happily snuggled up with their larger brothers...

You can find all the products I used over at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp online store...just click on the links below...

Why don't you pop over to the Monday Challenge Blog and check out the amazing creations from my very talented Design Team mates and as always you all have the chance to win a $50 gift voucher to spend at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time...1pm UK time...2 pm CET to join in...

You can also follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram

Thanks for popping by and I look forward to seeing what you all create...happy crafting

Hugs Kath xxx

Edited to add: oops forgot to mention that all my Stencil Storage Tag Books have an acetate cover to protect them from those Distress messy fingers

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In The Doghouse Again...

Good Morning Everyone...Happy April Fools Day to all my lovely bloggy friends from your gorgeous bundle of golden deliciousness...

but it's not such a good morning at the moment in our house and I have to admit I'm not looking too gorgeous either...I'm in the doghouse again...seriously blotted the old copybook when I just couldn't resist a puddle around in a very tempting muddy hollow...

Oops...but that was not the word that my old Mum was using when I emerged from my mucky adventure. I'm definitely putting all thoughts of playing any April Fools Day tricks out of my mind whilst I'm facing the angry Momma with the garden hose...looks like I'm in line for a very cold shower.

Have a great weekend everyone

Big Hugs & Snuggles

BUDDY xxx