Where can you buy 'melt dust' and paper?

At the moment it is only available through C & C, however I am sure that in the near future you will be able to buy directly from My Craft Studio / Crafting UK. The paper is specifically designed so as to keep the ink wet but does not bleed therefor giving a very neat finish. I don't think that any other paper would work.

The best of it all is that once you have these products you will be able to use any of your CD's with them.

I think there are more exciting things to come in 2010

MCS 'Melt Dust'

I've been waiting to update my blog with information about the new MCS 'Melt Dust' which was launched last night on I.W. I have been very fortunate in being able to trial this new product and have to say that I was very impressed.

I have sampled the 'original' gold pearl and silver pearl all of which gave excellent results. I was given the vellum type paper to try and this has a slight shimmer on the printing side. The ink does stay wet for quite a few minutes giving plenty of time to apply the 'melt dust'. The 'melt dust' is a lot finer that normal embossing powder and requires a gentle heat. I found it best to heat from underneath. I used the 'hairdryer type' of heatgun.

The above projects were taken from MCS Wings & Things and Flourishes CD's and have been shown on I.W. today. (Some of you may have seen them on the MCS stand at the NEC recently)

One for the men

I've had these stamps 'create a scene' from Creative Expressions for a while but have never used them. The pub has been water coloured. The barrel was stamped using water colour pens. The sign has been triple embossed with UTE and then cracked to give an aged feel.

By the sea - Graphicus Guild ATC swap

This is one of a pair of ATC's for the Graphicus Guild swap. Although I have to admit that the stamp is not from Graphicus this time, it is a very old one, one of the first stamps in my collection but I felt that it suited the theme for this month.

I stamped the lighthouse first, then made a mask to cover the lighthouse. I used cut & dry foam to sponge blue dye ink to make the sky. The rest was then watercoloured. A small amount of glitter was added to the sea for a bit of sunlight sparkle.

Busy Busy Busy!

I've been so busy for the last few weeks, I have been up and down the country both for business and pleasure so crafting has had to take a back seat for a while. After next week I am hoping to settle down and get back into my craftroom and try out a few new items I've purchased on my travels. So hopefully I will get back to posting on a regular basis again!!

You can see from the last post though that I have been making cards for MCS Cd's, I have made some for the last couple of CD launches but have been on such a tight deadline that unfortunately I did not get chance to photo them. Working with the CD's has been a good experience as the graphics program is so easy to use and I find that I can spend ages just going through the images altering and changing them. For anyone who has problems with graphics programs for photo's etc. I would recommend buying one of these Cd's just for the actual program, it's well worth it.

As seen on TV MCS 'Secret Hidaways'

some of the samples I have made for the launch of the new MCS 'Secret Hidaway' CD's.

Charity Cards

A small selection from some of the cards I have made to sell for our local animal rescue centre.

The top card is from Joanna Sheen's 'Eastern Treasures' CD. The other two are stamped images coloured with Copic / Pro-markers ( I mix the two) which are currently my fav. colouring medium. I just love the 'Fairy Doodle' stamps.

Tag Card

I should have posted this card a couple of weeks ago but I mislaid my camara! The tag was inspired by Lynn's demo at Graphicus a few weeks ago.

The technique using distress inks, then overspraying with gold glimmermist. I then stamped the swirl design using one of the distress inks and then again using gold embossing powder.

Copyright

Since reading Glenda's blog (artylicious) I entirely support her use of copyright and having been subject to this abuse in our own business I know how upsetting this can be. I recently noticed a card which was published in a craft magazine which was very similar to a sample that I made last year. Therefore I regretably have added a note to my blog with regards to copying my work.

I now photograph my work with a date on it, which in itself is a type of copyright.

Black & White

This is a very simple monochrome 8 x 8 card. The flower idea I got from seeing a magazine article on making flower designs from a simple shape. I cut out the petals and them stamped on them using the tale design from one of the E.I. peacock stamps sets. The corner stamps were from E. I. collage butterfly set. I have added some glitter to the swirls and some black pearl gems.

Vellum Butterflies

I keep being drawn back to using the 'butterfly collage' stamps from I.E. I stamped one of the collages onto a background I had made using distress inks directly onto my craft mat, then a light spritz of water to blend the colours. A piece of card was then laid on top of the ink and lightly pressed down. The result is a lovely watercolour background. This was then the basis of my colour scheme.
The butterflies were stamped out onto velum and embossed with gold. They were then coloured on the back using brush pens.
The yellow background was stamped with versa mark and then a gold pigment powder brushed over for a subtle effect.

The new garden

From this

To this

Some of you may recall the top photo that I posted last year. We managed to secure an extra piece of land at the back of our house to extend the garden. Well after quite a bit of work we now have a very pretty garden which I love to potter about in. I think I get my green fingers from my late grandad who I always remember as having a very colourful garden with wonderful scents. When I planted this I wanted to get as much colour in as possible just to see how it worked out and I am quite pleased with the result. On the trellis to the right I have sweet peas some of which I have cut today and brought indoors, they smell devine!

Crafting again

Well after a long spell of not being able to use my craft room I am at last crafting again.

On Friday I went to the Graphicus open day to catch up with all the new products and see the girls demonstrating. I was really inspired by Judith's bead making with the melting pot and UTEE. I have had one of these pots for years and have done very little with it but think it will be getting brought back out of the cupboard and dusting off!.

Glenda was using some of her older stamps as well as new ones, and that has inspired me to make this card using some of last years stamp sets. I think we're all a little guilty of buying new stuff and playing with that, the older stuff gets forgotten but I think I will start going through all my older stamps and try out some new ideas.

So when I've finished this post I'm back to the craft room.

Flight of Fancy

These are three of the cards that were made for Glenda's Flight of Fancy show which went out on Create and Craft on Wed. I have been waiting patiently to upload these as I made them around easter. The stamps were lovely to work with and I especially liked the patchwork ones.

Take a look at E.I. blog for more ideas using these stamps.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter. I hope everyone is enjoying the break, we have been very lucky with the weather in this part of the country and so we have been out catching up on some gardening.

I've been so busy this last few weeks, I have been away from home quite a lot, both on business and pleasure. It was my birthday last week and I was very lucky to get quite a lot of crafting goodies!. So this weekend I have had chance to have a play with some very different stamps from those that I would normally use.

These stamps are from 'Murray & Ethel and I think they are very amusing, I can think of a few people who would appreciate the sense of humour.

These cute stamps are from 'Stampasaurus'

All the images were coloured in using my new Promarker pens, they just lend themselves to these type of images.

Rainbow Lady's Challenge 52

A birthday card for Rainbow Lady's Challenge.

Having bought some new 'promarker' pens last week at the NEC I thought I would try them out on these lovely lady stamps which came from C & C. I just love the pens they are so easy to work with.

The background was made by wetting a piece of hammered card and then painting with three shades of 'glimmer mists' which blended together.

3 ATC's

I like to make ATC's when I am playing and trying out new techniques. The first one used lots of layering. I brushed a green inkpad lightly over the card, then used a chipboard swirl for a mask and oversprayed with a couple of colours of glimmer mist. I then roughly filled in the swirl pattern with gold leaf. Overstamped using black ink with another swirl pattern. Then dabbed a little gold leaf from a gold leaf pen onto some plastic and used up another piece of scrunched up plastic to pick it up quickly and dab around the edge.

The exotic lady background was sponged with pale pastel inks and lightly oversprayed with a pale glimmer mist. The background was then stamped and embossed in silver. The picture was watercoloured and a small amount of glitter glue added to the jewels.

The forna card was made in the same way and overstamped with a cube stamp to give an interesting tile pattern. I used very fine glitter in different pastel colours to emphazise the tiles. One of the designs was then stamped onto shrink plastic and coloured with pencils.

Arty Girlz Challenge - Yellow & Blue

Arty Girlz challenge - blue & yellow. Having been reminded (by C & C today) that I had a flower fairy stamp from Joanna Sheen, I decided to use the blue theme for a blue poppy flower fairy.

Just a thank you

Just saying thanks for all the recent kind comments on my postings.

China Blue

My packs of the new 'flower soft' arrived this morning and I have waited so long for them to bring out blue (would you guess this is my fav. colour?). I used two different oriental style stamps and cobalt blue stazon ink for the backgrounds. The background to the vase was a piece of pale blue foil card put through a cuttlebug embossing folder. The vase was from a new sheet again from 'flower soft'.

Rainbow Lady's challenge - people

Rainbow Lady's challenge for 'people' had me looking through my stamps for something suitable. I found this stamp from a set of four unmounted ones I bought a long time ago. I took inspiration for the colour scheme from a piece of scrapbook paper (part of my huge stash which I look at but never use!). The tulips were cut from the same sheet. The music seemed appropriate as the lady looks to be dancing.

Arty Girlz Challenge - Butterfly's

With Arty Girlz challenge this week being on butterfly's I just couldn't resist.

I have used E.I. Butterfly Daisy themeplate, stamping with 'versa mark' then using chalks for a delicate coloured background. I then stamped another butterfly onto vellum embossing with a white powder. The butterfly was coloured on the back with water colour pencils.

Create a scene - Ready to plant the garden

I've made this card for this weeks Rainbow Lady's challenge. Wishing for spring to arrive after what looked like a promising weekend it inspired me to bring some spring colour into this card. Using several stamps, a masking technique and water colour with a touch of flower soft for texture.

All Swirls

Having lost a bit of inspiration I started to go through some of my stamps and came across this swirly stamp. Having bought a tin of chipboard swirls (which had never been opened) I decided on something simple but with a good contrast of colour. I randomly brayered the background in turquoise, then inked the stamp with an Adirondak cranberry inkpad. The band of cranberry coloured card was put through a cuttlebug embossing folder and then lightly sanded to show the white core. The swirl was painted with 'pool' Adirondak dauber. The flower was water coloured using ink from the cranberry ink.

Glenda's colour challange - Teal and brick.

Although I'm not officially able to enter this challenge I thought that the colour combination was very interesting and not one that I would normally use, so I decided to have a go for myself.

The stamps used were from the new E. I. theme plates butterfly daisy / poppy sets.
The background was done on a white glossy card and lightly brayered with 'tea dye' & 'marmalade' distress inks. I then stamped the large background stamp with a teal stazon ink.

The flowers were stamped onto glossy white card with the teal ink.

Romance - January swaps

My two ATC's for the Graphicus Guild January swap. Both have used stamps from the H.Rose themeplate.
The images were stamped first with a clear ink and embossed with black emb. powder. The backrounds were coloured with distress inks. The large rose was coloured with the same inks using a damp brush to pick up the colour. The second rose was coloured with pens and a touch of gold leaf pen added to hi-lite.

2 ATC's

A couple of ATC's I made yesterday. I find when I havn't been in my craft room for a while and inspiration has deserted me, it helps to make ATC's.



The bird was stamped onto stampbord. I first stippled colour on with chalk inks in dark yellows and greens. Stamped the bird with a permanent dye ink, then just added a touch of colour with pencils. The background was embossed first and then colour added using by sponging, using distress inks.





Oriental flower and text was stamped onto white shrink plastic and coloured in using pencils. Background was from a piece of paper from my stash.

Chinese New Year

To celebrate Chinese New Year I have made an oriental themed card. The background was made using a mustard coloured card and painted over with copper & gold glimmer mists. Then a light sponge of old paper distress ink.

The main pic, was coloured with water colour pens and when dry I went over with a clear gel pen. The background was coloured in with a water colour wash after the gel had dried.

The stamps are unknown origin, they are from a clear acrylic set I think bought off C & C.

Dec ATC swap

This is one of my ATC's for the Graphicus Guild swaps (December). The background was made by painting glimmer mists in thee colours and then over spraying with gold to blend together.

The square piece was made by using three layers of UTEE in black and then stamping in to it whilst still hot using a clear inkpad to ink the stamp. I then brushed pigment powders over the inked areas. I then added a touch of platinum glitter glue to the stems, this is one of my favourite colours of glitter glue as it is so versitile.

Part of a swirl stamp was used in the corner with black ink and then hi- lighted with a white gel pen.

May I add thanks to those of you who wished me well. Having had a lovely holiday I have returned at least 50% recharged, could have done with a bit longer!!!.

Happy New Year

Hi, just like to wish anyone visiting a Happy New Year.

Unfortunately it has been some time since I have been able to access my blog, I spoke too soon when I said I was on the mend and had serious set back which left me completely bed bound for nearly three weeks but hopefully I am at last on the road to recovery, although was hit by this awful cold bug just before Christmas.

I am looking forward to this new year as last year was a very difficult one for me. Will be off to sunnier climes shortly for recuperation! Then hopefully will be back into my crafting very soon.

Took these photos this morning of Tommy skating on ice!!!! He actually was trying to get at the fish underneath the frozen pond. Fortunately there were no disasters.