cards in the Cubby Hole

I taught a cardmaking class at The Cubby Hole, Crewe on Saturday.  We had a fabulous, fabulous time.  After making up some background pieces, we used some simple but effective layouts to create cards.

Many of my samples were from my Play Date Cafe cards, but the above two cards are samples I made on the day to demonstrate techniques.  We were a very full class requiring two tables, and I have to say that both tables were as 'busy' as each other but I only took a piccie of one lol

Look at that mess industrious table!

Everyone made wonderful cards, but I think little Sue gets the prize for being the most prolific!

Sue Roddis applied the techniques to her journal pages and did some fabulous stuff.  

I'm a very vertical/horizontal designer and just don't 'do' diagonals, but love it when I see other people use them so effectively.

Doesn't Nigel's Paper Artsy moth look fab

on this cluster of papers and flowers?

Ann fell in love with using the sewing machine on paper, and made some yummy frames just using stitching.

More cards tomorrow, but I wanted to remind you that this week's prize over at The Play Date Cafe is an amazing one this week.  You get these THREE sets of stamps from Unity. 

I have some Ippity stamps by Unity (Ippity are available through individuals, but Unity stamps are stocked in stores)  which Suzanne used on her pink card here.

Everyone was impressed with the packaging, how beautifully the mounted rubber is cut, and the unusual images.  As far as I know these aren't stocked in  UK shops so I'd encourage everyone to have a go at winning!  Head on over to The Play Date Cafe for details.  And good luck :)

 

Dublin style colours for PDCC#39

 And they're probably not your 'traditional' Irish colours, unless you think of Guinness (which is brewed near Dublin) and Irish coffee :)  Visit the playdate cafe for the story behind Julie's colour choice this week.  They are gorgeous colours to work with.  

I had loads of ideas but was in the mood for making small things, and since I owe loads of ATCs I played around with card measuring 2.5"x3.5" lol.

My inspiration for the flowers came about from this stencilled piece I did a week ago back, and the paper I had near my journal yesterday.  When I use a stamp, I never clean it off straight away, but stamp it onto plain white paper until it's pretty clean.  I will often then use this piece - to cut images from, or to cut beautifully layered image sections from.

The flower is stamped onto stencilled paper before being cut out.  The background was created by repeatedly stamping the image.

And by working with the 'reverse' colours I got two designs for the price of one :)

Thanks so much to everyone who joined in at the playdate cafe again this week.  We repeated out 100+ entries which we're very grateful for.  An Artistic Outpost stamp plate of your choice was up for grabs last week, and this week we are honoured to be sponsored by Unity stamps, who make fab, fab stamps too!  I have a set and they are superb quality, and pre-cut unmounted (yay, no sticky scissors!)

There's so much going on at the cafe - celebrity guest, a massive prize this week, and all the other designers great work.  So why not head over there to see what it's all about :)

PDCC29 i NeeD to art journal

It's been a very busy week for me, with lots of issues to sort through, so I really needed my art journal yesterday so I could relax and shut my mind from too many thoughts.  I decided to use my colour choice for this week's play date cafe colour challenge, despite having gone through a number of ideas of what to do for my piece this week, none of which was a journal page lol!!

I love, love, love this photo!  It's from a website where you can freely use the photos for art purposes :)  How cool does that peeled paint look :)

I love how the blue is just a hint above white!  

The saying is from a set of stamps that I won from Savannah [by accident lol, I didn't realise I'd entered for a giveaway!!] - I copied the writing so it would be large enough on my journal page [except for the word 'should' which I stamped and cut out!]  And if you look really closely you can see my new favourite background stamp in the world - the artistic stamper's sequin waste stamp :)