Review: Simon Hurley Dye Inks

Photo used with the kind permission of Simon Hurley

Remember that band New Kids on the Block? My friend Nicola was a huge fan, I wasn't, never really got boy bands once I grew up, in my day it was The Osmond's and then The Bay City Rollers (showing my age now lol!) So what has that opening sentence got to do with crafting? Well as far as I'm concerned there is a new kid on the crafting block and he released the first wave of his own brand of brilliant crafting goodness last year and more is still to come in 2020.

I'm referring of course to Simon Hurley, I say he's a new crafter on the block but this young dude has been crafting since the tender age of 10 when he first starting playing with alcohol and distress inks, he's now 16 coming on 17, has graduated college and is making a career out of inspiring crafters like me all over the world, with his own special brand of crafting enthusiasm and now inks, stamps, stencils and more. I've been watching this talented young man on YouTube since 2015, but he's been uploading videos there since 2014. I discovered him whilst watching Jennifer McGuire, another of my favourite American crafters, over on YouTube.

The video I was watching of Jennifer's finished playing and one of Simon's early videos Cardmaking Life Hacks You NEED to know! began autoplaying, initially my instant reaction as this young peppy voice burst out of my PC screen was "Who the freckle is this boy, and what the heck can he teach me about crafting or bring to my crafting experience?" that's the polite version 😉 But the young dude hooked me just 0.06 seconds in to his video with his "Wittle bit easier" line and I've been a fan ever since. By the end of watching that video Simon had infected me with his enthusiasm, but more importantly he'd taught this old crafter that crafting isn't something that is just for the older generation of the female persuasion, crafting is for any age and sex, and the younger generation can inspire and enthuse others just as well as the older generation.

I could wax lyrical about Simon's style and what he brings to the crafting table, but his creative genius and skill, coupled with the way he's taking the American crafting world by storm speaks for itself. I'm hoping that he takes the UK crafting world by storm as well because it would be lovely to attend a workshop here in the UK.

Simon's aim is to redress the balance in the industry from focusing on feminine crafting supplies to add products with a more masculine feel, to appeal to male crafters and potential male crafters and to give us female crafters more tools to make the dreaded male cards (I'm paraphrasing here), his stamps and style aren't just aimed at female crafters they appeal to all.

Lets skip forward to January 2019 and Simon launched his first batch of stamps, stencils and inks. The ink queen that I am knew after seeing his first demo that I had to have ALL the inks, and recognised that there is something fun and fresh about the stamps and stencils coupled with an element of humour that takes me back to a time when life was less stressful. They are perfect for creating cards for the men folk in my life as well and they are fun to use.

I started out with just Simon's first batch of inks, I bought 3 and tried them out and I had a major 'WOW!' moment. I have been a big fan of Tim's Distress Inks since I discovered them back in 2014 and I didn't think that they would ever be toppled off their crafty throne, but they have been, sorry Tim!

Now don't get me wrong, I still use my distress inks and always will, but Simon's dye inks are a DREAM to use, they blend wonderfully, work with water based techniques and unlike distress inks they stamp lovely and crisp, the ink formula also means you can stamp with the inks and then use alcohol markers like Copic's to colour the stamped images and the ink doesn't bleed! So they are a perfect all round ink and the colours are fabulous.

I printed off the Colour Swatch Chart from the Ranger Ink website and bought the inks a few at a time until I had the full set, the chart has to be expanded now so I can add the next 6 colours to it which I now own, and there are more to come in the not to distant future (I'm holding out hopes for a darker blue and brown and a black pretty please and maybe a lovely Pumpkin orange colour 😉), there has also been anew ink added to the line called 'Prom Queen' an absolutely gorgeous shade of bright fuchsia pink added recently, but so far I haven't been able to get hold of it here in the UK or the re-inkers for the 6 new colours 😭

Back in November I purchased one of his stamp sets called 'Caroling Squad' and made a batch of fun cards to send to friends and family. From there I progressed to buying some of Simon's background stamps and stencils, and in January I picked up 4 stamp sets, all 12 re-inkers and another background stamp in the Buddly Crafts January sale.

Only it turned out that they were clearing out Simon's range 😪, probably because not enough people in the UK have heard about his inks and stamps. That made me very sad because there are only a couple of stores in the UK that I know of that stock Simon's range, and buying the stuff from the States works out too expensive when you have to pay shipping for me sadly, it can sometimes triple the cost if you place a large order.

I'm hoping that Buddly will rethink stocking Simon's products, or some other UK store will stock them like Art from the Heart who already stock products for all the designers that work with Ranger except Simon! His line would be a perfect addition so let Ben at AFTA know you'd like to buy Simon Hurley products from them! The only other stockist I know of in the UK is Craft Stash but they tend to go out of stock rather quickly.

Last year I contacted Simon via Facebook to let him know about a typo on the Ranger Colour Chart for the swatch for 'Triple Berry', it reads Tripple Berry (I can't help it, its my inner proof reader) and as of the second download for the next batch of colours it still hasn't been corrected lol!

He replied and was really nice so I threw caution to the wind and sent him a Facebook friend request, which he graciously accepted and has since commented on a couple of my posts and did me the honour of sharing one as well, which was pretty damn awesome.

Simon Hurley inks tick all the boxes for me, and if your new to inks and have a limited budget so need a set of inks that have everything (well almost everything - we need a black ink Simon!!!) then I encourage you to give these inks a try because they are useful for so many techniques.

My favourite way to use them is straight forward blending, I use blending brushes and it is so easy to lay down the colour and blend them together, the colours are so vibrant, as I said before I love my distress inks but the way the colour lay down with Simon's inks is like they switch a light on, they are so vivid and alive, distress inks although colourful often have the 'light off' feel to them and aren't as vibrant.

In my wish upon a star card above I combined 'Triple Berry' with 'Clear Skies' and got a gorgeous looking night sky from just two colours! Those two colours melded so well together creating a new darker colour whilst still keeping some of their own colour identity by blending lightly, a light spray of water and lift with a paper towel after 30 seconds lifts away some colour and adds texture and dimension just like distress inks do, The grass was done with 'Later Gator' and 'Overzealous' which alongside 'Clear Skies' and 'Crown Me' are my favourite colours so far, but who am I kidding I love them all lol!

Another technique that the inks lend themselves to is bleaching, on this floral card I layered 'Clear Skies', 'Triple Berry', 'Rosie Cheeks' and 'Bee Sting' in rows over a white heat embossed image. I then used household bleach and a water brush on the details of the flower and you can see that the colours changed slightly either becoming lighter or they turned a different hue.

The inks are fab to use for water colouring images as well, when Simon demonstrates he smooshes the ink pads on his laminate surface, but I have added drops of his re-inkers to a Ranger Distress Ink Palette and pull out a little ink on to the white area of my Media Mat, make my blends on the glass and then paint my images that way.

The re-inkers are also fabulous for adding to shaving foam to create colourful and unique backgrounds and I've added them to texture paste to colour it before adding to a project with excellent results. I really can't wait for more colours to be added to the line, the more colours we have, the more wonderfully colourful projects we can create with them.

I predict as more colours are released I will be using some of the other brands of ink I own like Hero Arts and Lawn Fawn a lot less, price wise Simon's inks are better value as well. I'll be posting some more projects soon using Simon's stamps and stencils so watch this space, in the meantime go check out his website, watch his videos for some inspiration and tips for using these inks, the dude is full of ideas and is a marvellous and inspirational teacher 😍

A Box of Delights from Ranger Ink

Back in January I was watching a Facebook Live from Ranger Ink showcasing the new products they would be launching this month (Feb 2020) after showing them at Creativation 2020, when Ranger Ink's social media lady Kelly Kronowski made an announcement. If viewers shared the video and left a comment they would be entered into a draw, and 5 people would be picked to win a selection of the new goodies.

This was on the 6th January the day before my birthday, I shared and commented like many others and carried on enjoying the live and getting excited about the new products being added to all the lines that Ranger stocks. To my surprise 3 days later I was tagged in a post by Ranger to say I'd won! YAY! I gave Kelly my details and started to wait for my goodies to arrive.

This morning I had a delivery from UPS and I almost ripped the package out of the UPS delivery dudes hands as I yelped "YAY it's my prize", which made him laugh a little lol! I skipped into the house yelling to the cats its my prize, bounded up the stairs and opened my box of delights. I was blown away to find way more goodies than I thought I was going to receive, I thought we'd get an ink pad and maybe a stencil or something, but nope! My prize box contained one of the new Silicone Mat's, a pack of Grey Embossing Pens, 2 of the new Archival Ink Pads (Coastal Coral & Seafarer), a jar of Stickles Glitter Gel (Asteroid), 2 of the new Perfect Pearls colours (Poppy & Iris), the Hello Sunshine Stamp Set and a Treading Hearts Stencil 😁

As soon as I opened the package I started to play, and so far I've created 3 cards with my goodies. They are pretty basic because I wanted to focus on using just the items I got in my prize package, I almost did it, but I had to use a couple of other Ranger products on two of the cards.

The first card I created I blended both the Coastal Coral and Seafarer Archival Inks through the Treading Hearts stencil, where the inks met in the middle they created a purple grape kind of colour, which surprised me. Before today I'd only used my Archival inks for stamping, I'd never blended with them!

I stamped the 'Hello Sunshine' sentiment a few times in the centre of the card using the Seafarer ink and then stamped over the top with some Ranger Perfect Medium and brushed over some Iris Perfect Pearls to give the card a little shine. I've had Perfect Pearls for a while, I have about 12 colours in my collection but until recently when I saw Simon Hurley use them they had been sat in a drawer forgotten about. To be honest I'd forgotten all about them, but they are back on the play list now.

For my second card I decided I wanted to use the 'Sending Smiles' stamp, I was so happy when I opened my box because I really liked the Hello Sunshine stamp set and it was high on my wish list, I can't do calligraphy, but love the effect, so having stamps that can help me achieve the look is brilliant.

The card is a lovely CAS card I used a few of the stamps from the set, and turned the gorgeous 'Iris' colour Perfect Pearls in to a paint, to fill in the open areas of the sending smiles stamp. I used Jet Black Archival Ink from my stash and some Ranger Super Fine Detail Clear Embossing Powder over the archival ink and I added some 'Sunflower Sparkle' Perfect Pearls to colour in the sun.

For my third and final card, for today at least 😆 I made good use of the Coastal Coral Archival Ink, first I stencil it on to white card stock using the Treading Hearts stencil, then I added some of the super sparkly Stickles Glitter Gel over the top, boy is it ever super sparkly.

Whilst I left the panel to dry I die cut a heart and used my blending tool to colour it with the Coastal Coral ink, I used it to colour the edge of a white card base. I decided to do some tone on tone stamping with the ink using another stamp from the set. In hindsight I should have heat embossed the ink to make it stand out more, but as I said above I was trying to use just the supplies I received.

I'm a fan of Ranger products and have been since I first started crafting when I discovered the wonderful world of Distress Inks and then Oxides and now the new Simon Hurley ink line! I think we focus on the brands that we forget who is behind them, I have NEVER been disappointed with any products I've bought from Ranger, they are always of the highest quality and last for ages. I hadn't used any of the Letter It line before, my head filed them into craft supplies for Calligraphy people, but they are not, the line is perfect for people like me and has so many uses. I'll be adding more of the Letter It range to my stash over the next few months. I have also got a lot of the new Simon Hurley range on my wish list as well.

Receiving this package has made me look at the Ranger Products I have in a different light, its opened them up and made me realise that I can blend with archival inks and use Perfect Pearls to make gloriously shiny paint. THANK YOU so much Ranger Ink for your generosity and for sending some lovely, crafty sunshine and smiles across the pond. I can't believe that I got the chance to play with some of the new products before they hit the stores in the UK, I am truly blessed 💖💋

Frugal February Challenge

February Theme Challenge 'Love'

And as fast as that we streak in to a new month! Hello everyone, blogging has been slower than I anticipated this year, there have been some life changes making the need for creating a downstairs craft space necessary. Then my PC C: Drive died resulting in almost a week without a PC and worry that I'd lost all my craft related photos, but thankfully my hubby had mirrored the drives so everything was backed up YAY!

That meant I didn't lose anything data/file wise, but I did lose the programs that were installed and the C: Drive which has meant several more days of getting my PC back to how it was before.

As a result there hasn't been much time for crafting, or craft spending! Which is good because spending was starting to get a little out of hand again and I need to stop and take stock both literally and figuratively!There's a meme that does the rounds, and I think I've mentioned it before about crafty spending being a separate hobby from crafty making, and if that's true I was becoming more of an expert in spending than making, and that has to stop, before we lose the roof over our head lol!

So this month I've set myself a challenge to keep to a fixed budget of £100, this amount is to include my monthly colouring class and Stampin Up class, and a SU club I'm in where we spend £15 minimum a month. It also has to include any craft magazines I buy (I cancelled all my subscriptions) and any supplies or extras.

January Colour Challenge

Last year I started to help out the creator of a Facebook group called Craft Carnage and after a while Sarah the owner of the group made me an admin and now I set challenges and swaps for members to take part in, we have four weekly mini challenges every month and we also organise individual challenges like our  Frugal February Challenge.

We also organise swaps for events like World Cardmaking Day, Halloween and Christmas, and we have lots of swaps and challenges planned for the rest of 2020, feel free to pop over and join us if you are so inclined.

All the photos in this post are of cards I have made for some of the challenges so far, we have colour palette, theme, materials, and sketch challenges that rotate each month that also take in to account seasonal events like Mother's Day, Easter, Holidays etc.

January Sketch Challenge

The current challenge for February is another spring inspired colour palette challenge and I'm hoping to use dies and items I have in already to create my card. That way I can incorporate the mini challenges in with the Frugal February master challenge.

The first card pictured in this post was for the mini theme challenge, I knew I wanted to use my wreath templates to create a circle of hearts, but I didn't know if/or where I had any small solid heart stamps. So yesterday I sat for an hour trawling sites looking for a set of small heart stamps.

After that hour I came to my senses and started to go through my boxes of stamps and dies and although I didn't have a dedicated set of small solid heart stamps, I discovered I do have several stamp sets with small solid hearts in. The ones I used came from two Altenew sets Crafty Friends and Crafty Life that I've had for a while and not used, the sentiment also comes from one of those two sets.

I used 4 different colours of Memento dewdrop inks and some Nocturne Versa Clair ink for the sentiment which I then added some clear embossing powder to, to make it stand out more, the enamel hearts and dots I won in a raffle at my Stampin Up class last year and I hadn't got round to using them yet.

Towards the end of last month, I came across a video by Kristina Werner detailing a challenge she was setting herself for February that she called Capsule Papercrafting. Her aim is to pre-select a set of tools and mediums, stamps and stencils and use only them for the month. If you're interested check out the video below.

I decided that I would follow Kristina's example, so far I've selected a couple of things but not everything, as its now the 5th Feb I need to get my skates on lol! Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have everything together that I intend to use. The goal for me is to go box 'shopping' that means I hit all the boxes and tubs of supplies I have and find items I've bought and never used BEFORE I buy new items.

If I see a project I like, before I hit search to find the stamps and dies others have used, I ask myself what I already have that I can use instead. As far as stamps, stencils and dies go I have lots of choice, so it shouldn't be too hard. My problem is choosing which inks, pens or pencils to use, I can't plan ahead of time what projects I'll be doing for the whole month and would hate to have the creative urge to work with say my Brusho's or Pixie Powders for a project and not be able to. Thinking cap on, and I have to make sure that whatever I do includes only things I already have!

Parkrun & Health Update

Since the beginning of January I've managed to lose just over 7lb, still a long way to go, but I'm happy with that. I also walked my 2nd Parkrun on the 29th January, my foot played up royally after the New Years Day walk, and after a non-Parkrun walk I did on the 15th Jan, but at least I tried again, recovery time is getting better thanks to the stretch exercises I'm doing which is good, and hopefully with those and losing more weight I will continue to see an improvement.

One week 2 I came last (well one before last as the tail walker is always the last to finish). Technically though I was the last park runner to walk across the finish line 😥 I was slower this time and I believe it was because I decided to walk to pounding dance music, and I think I pushed myself too hard when very fast tracks played ::note to self you cannot go up Cardiac Hill in time to Darude's Sandstorm!::

Pushing myself at a stupid pace required me to recover for longer periods of time thus slowing me down, and the whole process took me 6m 25s longer than my first time. ::Further note to self don't wear a coat to Parkrun you get too flipping hot even on a cold day!:: Check out my new running trainers as well, after Parkrun number 1 Si took me to Decathlon to get some running clothes (trainers, tops, and a sports bra) it's ON!

I admit I was rather annoyed at myself at the end of week two because I was slower than my first week, but lots of people pointed out that I had actually finished a 5K again, which was an achievement in itself, which it is I guess 😁 I need to focus more on just doing it and less on trying to beat my best time, the more I do it, the fitter I'll become and hopefully the faster I'll get! I'll be doing my 3rd Parkrun this coming Saturday and plan to do it without music, walking at my own pace and not the musics pace! Because of my foot problem I've settled on the idea of doing Parkrun every other week until my foot is better, the weeks in-between I will be volunteering as a Marshall or as a token sorter.

Last weekend was my rest weekend but I still went to Parkrun but as a spectator to watch Simon complete his 50th Parkrun, I am so proud of him, its been wonderful to see him go from someone who couldn't run more than a few paces to someone who can run 5K in just over 23 minutes, fingers crossed that will be me one day! This week I will be walking to the pace of my own body and see what happens, I do like music when I walk, so I guess I have to find something that goes with the pace I can currently walk, until I do I guess silence will be golden lol!

Distress Bleaching Technique

Hey crafty friends, how's your week shaping up? We're all tickety boo here and I've been playing with some new stash, I was lucky enough to get the A4 Craftwork Cards Ultimate Florals with Sentiments stamp set in a recent Craft Stash sale for £4.38 instead of the usual £17.50 😁 They did a flash sale last week with up to 70% off most of the Craftwork Cards range, I picked up over £47 worth of Craftwork cards dies, stamps and an embossing folder for just £18, I love a crafty bargain. I couldn't believe my luck getting that huge stamp set with the flowers so cheaply, the stamps lend themselves to lots of techniques and I'll be playing with them a lot over the next few weeks.

As soon as I saw the stamps I knew I wanted to revisit some old techniques, I saw Jennifer McGuire do the bleaching technique with Distress Inks back in 2015 and I tried it at the time and was impressed, but I didn't do anything with the backgrounds I created. Now I know some of you will be concerned at the use of bleach, but the smell doesn't linger and you only use a small amount, I filled a water brush pen full and its still almost full after bleach painting 7 card fronts. You can use water, but the effect won't be the same, water will just lighten and whiten the area, there is some chemistry that happens when you add bleach to distress ink that alters their colours.

Before Bleaching

I've done a similar technique last year using Oxide Inks and water, the water lightens the image and then you can add another colour on top. I used distress inks on top of the oxide inks rather successfully. I did try bleach on oxide inks and the result wasn't brilliant, on oxide the bleach acted just like water does, not dramatic or even subtle changes of colour, just a white out, which is fine, but you may as well just use water on oxides right?

If you watch Jennifer's video on the technique linked to above you can see that she inks first, then stamps and embosses, but I wanted white images. First I cut my panels using some of my favourite wonky stitches dies and then I stamped the flowers from the set with Tonic Clear Hybrid Ink and added Clear WOW! Embossing Powder before heat setting the images. Once that was done I used a selection of Distress Inks to create some bright bands of colour, wiping off the ink that beaded up on the embossing with a microfibre cloth.

Now I've mentioned it, its a good time to say that I'm ditching baby wipes in favour of plain water and micro fibre cloths (or hand sanitiser for archival inks) and a Lawn Fawn Stamp Shammy, they do the same job, but instead of throwing the clothes away like I do with baby wipes, I can pop them in the wash and use them again. I do have a few packs of baby wipes left, but once they've gone I won't be buying any more.

After Bleaching

After I'd coloured all my images I went in with the bleach to lighten the inside of the petals and leaves and a few other details to lighten the change the colour on the images.

You can see here what the panels looked like before the bleach was added and afterwards. It really does make a difference, its subtle and not in your face which I like. 

When I'd finished with the images I put them aside whilst I worked on the card bases, I use the leafy vine stamp from another Craftwork Cards stamp set I got in the sale called 'Hedgerow'. I stamped using several different colour combinations of Hero Arts Ombre Inks, I love these inks because you can utilise them to make some pretty interesting backgrounds and images.

I went around the edge of the card blank wusing the stamp and my choice of ombre pad, leaving the centre blank, there was no point covering the whole area as the Stamped panel was going to get added over the top making work and using ink in areas that wouldn't be seen.

I knew I wanted to stamp the sentiment on vellum, I trued white initially, but it wasn't very distinct against the panels due to the white stems, so I switched to black embossing ink and used some of the sentiments from the Ultimate Floral's set.  Once all the backgrounds were completed it was time to assemble the cards, I didn't notice until after I'd put them together than the ink I'd used for the backgrounds had bled through to the inside of the card, I used some old Papermania Anita's A6 cards that are supposed to be 240gsm, the card is a little flimsy and rather porous, you pays your money and you takes your choice I guess. Once they are used up I won't be buying any more of them though as they really aren't that brilliant.

Once I'd attached the vellum and panels and "finished" the cards they bugged me, something was not right, I channelled my Grandad and went away and had a cup of tea (he taught me to do that when I had a problem and couldn't see the answer in life, and as crafting is an extension of my life, a cuppa was required!) When I came back I had the solution, I needed to pick up the black from the sentiment and echo it somehow! So I added some gloss black Nuvo Drops to the centres of the rectangle panels and some Peacock Feather Jewels from Lucy's Cards to the oval panel. Once the gems and drops were in place I was happy, although I went in with a Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen to add a little subtle sparkle.

If you don't already have Distress Ink pads getting a good selection of colours can be a costly endeavour, Aladine's iZink Dye Based ink pads are a good low cost alternative, currently on Craft Stash they are £1.50 each compared to the price of distress inks at £4 - £6 depending where you buy them its a pretty big saving. Granted there are only 20 colours to chose from, but they work pretty well for the price. If you haven't encountered this brand of inks before, you may find this video useful.

And that's it really, a quick and simple way of creating a batch of colourful cards, I have some for anniversaries now and birthdays for my box and I'll be creating some more for get well cards and some thank you cards. I also want to stamp and heat emboss in gold on dark cardstock and use metallic paints/inks to create dark versions. I've been collecting lots of craft items over the past few years to try a large variety of techniques, and I reckon I've tried about a 10th of the projects I've bought stuff for!

So I'm going to dig out the supplies and try my hand at all of them and revisit some old techniques like foiling, acrylic backgrounds with the gelli-plate, masking fluid backgrounds and so much more. I realised this week that I have to stop telling myself I can't do it, or it won't look as good as people like Jennifer McGuire. Of course my cards won't look that good, I'm not a professional crafter! I have to stop 'saving' things I've bought to do things because I may mess up and waste the supplies! It's a waste to my purse to buy them and not use them lol! So I'm going to try more and do more and if it works that's great, if it doesn't then the trials can be deposited in the bin or recycled somehow 😉

Creative Stamping Freebie - Vintage Collage

Greetings from Warts an' All towers, I'm not sure what happened to January but it sure flew by, I didn't get to do much crafting for a variety of reasons. Having our 18 month old Granddaughter to stay for the weekend was high on the list, followed by slipping down the stairs, misjudging the bannister and consequently causing my umbilical hernia to flare up making bending, sitting and just about any movement painful.

Plus dealing with a new freak menopause symptom that causes the skin on my thumbs (and only my thumbs) to split open as if its been cut. No sooner does one heal, another happens, rendering me unable to do so many tasks, until recently I really didn't realise just how many tasks you need you thumbs for! I've been liberally applying hand cream and just discovered that I can seal the cuts with a product called Germolene New Skin, this product alone has been the reason I've been able to craft again, the past few months I've ruined so many projects because my thumbs split and blood oozed out all over my projects ruining many of them.

This card is made with stamps from Issue 67 of Creative Stamping there are some fabulous stamps included in the set including 3 by Crafty Individuals, a relatively new company to me that make some fabulous stamps. I used a combination of Versafine Clair inks to do all the stamping and several Distress Ink Markers to colour the flowers and dragonfly. I know I promised a review of the VF Clair inks and as soon as I have all 24 ink pads I will, I'm 2 colours short of a full set so that I can make some swatches and test all the colours.

I started off with a 5" x 5" panel and used the script stamp from the set and 'Morning Mist' VF Clair ink to stamp the background. I couldn't resist distressing the edges a little so I used a little 'Vintage Photo' Distress Ink to take down the harshness of the white card I stamped on. Next I stamped the flowers and dragonfly from the set on to watercolour card using VF Clair 'Nocturne' and covered the stamped images in WOW clear embossing powder and then coloured the images with Distress Markers.

The two large purple flowers were coloured with Wilted Violet and Ripe Persimmon markers, the small photos were coloured with Picked Raspberry and Ripe Persimmon and the dragonfly was coloured with Peacock Feathers and Twisted Citron. I simply scribbled the markers towards the edges of the images and used a water brush to spread the colour all over the areas I wanted to colour.

I added the brown 'dots and squares' texture stamp from the set with VF Clair 'Acorn' ink and used 'Nocturne' again to add the ink blot and ink ring stamps. I used the shaping tool that came with free with issue 61 of Creative Stamping to give the flowers and the dragonfly a little extra dimension then I adhered the flowers to the card base. I added some small 3D foam squares to the dragonfly to raise him above the flowers and glued the finished panel to a homemade card base made from Kraft cardstock.

I added the sentiment 'Just a Note' which is also from the Vintage Collage set, stamping it on a scarp of white cardstock with 'Nocturne' ink before finally adding some shimmer to the centre of the flowers and the dragonflies wings with a Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle pen which sadly doesn't show up very well on the photos, but it adds a lovely shimmery effect in real life.

This set has so much potential and I'll be making lots more cards with it for my stash, the images can be used to make male and female cards and are brilliant for using on mixed media projects. You can see from my close up image just how well the VF Clair inks stamp and the detail they give, they are my new go to ink for this reason alone. I love how this project turned out, and it was rather quick to put together, the bright colours gave some sunshine to my soul on this cold winters day.

I've just got the new Tim Holtz Sizzix Wildflower Stems #1 & #2 sets and plan on using them to make some spring floral cards and some cards for Easter using those and the Cotton Tail die and I think that bright sunshine colours will be called for 😍 This week if my thumbs behave I'll also be stamping some spring cards with my wreath templates using some new stamps I got for my birthday last month. I've set myself the task this month to make a batch of 'Thank You', 'Just to Say' and some 'Sympathy' cards for my box. The plan is to also make 4-6 Christmas cards every month and set them aside for when I'll need them in December.

Coupled with the motivation board I'm making ready for the Live Well programme I start this week, and the cards to make for friends and family birthdays, there will be lots happening in the craft room, I have an MDF storage rack to make and decorate for my Stampin' Up ink pads and I still have to label all my oxide inks and sort out more stuff to give to my niece who is turning in to a fine papercrafter 😍Here's hoping my thumbs let me get on with the things I want to do! Stay safe and warm everyone and keep on crafting!

Retro Gaming Wreath Template Cards 🕹️

As today is my favourite day of the year, can I start this post by wishing those that share my love of it a Happy Halloween' 🎃and for those who don't celebrate then I wish you happy last day of October 😁 I know that the cards I'm sharing today aren't what I'd be expected to share on today of all days, but if you read on you'll discover that there is a halloween connection, honest!

Si and I went to see Bohemian Rhapsody last night, I really liked it, it transported me back in time and my brain was awash with memories, from the first time I bought the double A side single Bohemian Rhapsody and Killer Queen and played in constantly when I was just 11 years old, in front of the bedroom mirror with a hairbrush microphone and dreams of becoming a famous singer lol! Incidentally Bohemian Rhapsody was released today (31st October 1975, see I wasn't fibbing lol!) and 43 years later that song still gives me chills and sets my blood pumping.

My memory banks cycled around a series of events including me chilling as a teenager listening to 'The Game' whilst doing my homework and getting told off by my Dad for playing 'Another One Bites The Dust' too loudly, everytime I hear that song I hear my Dad shouting "Turn it down NOW!" lol! Then there was dancing to 'I Want to Break Free' at my first wedding, talk about an omen, I should have run away as soon as the song finished. The memories kept flowing and when the film showed the live aid segment, my brain brought back my memories of watching Freddie's performance on Live Aid. I still recall how the hairs on my arms stood up listening and how electric it felt to be a part of something so unique. It hadn't occured to me just how much Queen and Freddie had been a part of my life, and yes all that flowed through my head because of the film.

The memories of being a teen and a young 20 something led to my recalling playing my first video games like Pacman and Space Invaders on a Spectrum 48K computer, I remember a time when you had to code a game before you could play it WOW I'm old lol! I've been a gamer almost as long as I've been a Queen fan, although I'm not sure playing Pong via a TV plug in counts as a gamer, but it was my Grandad that started me playing that and it all went down hill to Skyrim after that lol!

Before I knew it I was in the craft room making some retro gaming cards, partly for a Challenge, partly because I need to make more cards for giving to the men and boys in my life and partly because of the nostalgia. I got a couple of stamp sets recently that were perfect for what I wanted to do and one of them had a sentiment in that said "You're so old, you're retro!" and that tickled my inner gaming geek, its true but I don't feel as old as I am.

I used the 6" template for this card and the stamps on the Retro Gaming cards are from two sets, one by Hunkydory called 'Alien Invasion' (space invaders and old style joy stick) and a set by Pretty Cute Stamps called 'Game On' (sentiments and stars). I'm on the lookout for a now discountinued set by My Favorite Things called 'Level Up' and the matching console die, so far no luck but I'll keep searching.

I stamped the white version using Ranger Dye Ink Pads in the following colours: - Grape Soda, Wild Orchid, Blue Yonder, Classic Cherry and Electric Lime, these inks are fabulous and even if they go on blotchy they smooth out nice and even as they absorb into the card stock. The only thing I don't like about them is the limited range of colours.

I used my new favourite technique of embossing over the wreath stamped this time with an old Crafters Companion Embossalicious folder called 'Happy Birthday', I love the texture doing this gives to a card, it transforms it somehow without distracting from the stamped images. I coloured the joystick with a couple of Nuvo alcohol markers, very simple colouring and stamped the sentiment on a die cut panel used my trusty 'Wonky Stitches' circle dies. I use them a lot because I think the edge it gives looks better than a plain circle. The card was made in now time, the longest part was the stamping and that went by very quickly.

The old gamer in me was a tad niggled by the bright colours on white background, sure the pixelated images that we destroyed were nice bright colours, but back then the backgrounds to games were black.

As you will know stamping bright coloured dye inks on to dark card stock is generally a non starter, so I reached for the Distress Oxides for the darker retro look. I did manage to fluff up and smudge 2 of the aliens though when the oxide ink was still wet, but it doesn't look too bad lol!

Not all Distress Oxides look good on black, I wanted to use Wilted Violet on this card but it didn't pop, so I used the following colours: - Candied Apple, Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry, Cracked Pistatio and Squeezed Lemonade. As the sentiment I wanted to use was small I used a smaller die cut circle which meant that more of the green aliens were visable.

For the sentiment on this card I hear embossed it with WOW Opaque White embossing powder. The aliens are from the Hunkydory set and the sentiment, stars and joystick are from the Pretty Cute Stamps set. I will of course be making some more of these cards were the aliens are in neat little rows like in the old days, but I think the stamps leant themselves to wreath stamping very well. That's all for me for today, I have a few projects to get finished and I'm experimenting with different ways of using the stamped panels, more on that soon. Until next time, have a lovely day and happy crafting :)

First Impressions - Alcohol Lift Ink

After seeing Tim's demo of Rangers new Alcohol Lift Ink back in late June (see the video below), I knew it was something that I wanted to add to my distress collection. I had to wait for a couple of weeks for my ink to arrive and it did this morning WHOOO HOOO! After I'd got over my excitement I set to having a go and this is what I discovered...

In my Maybe Someday box I had some alcohol ink projects that I'd done a while ago, probably 3 years ago. I'd used shades of red, green and some gold mixative on glossy coated paper. I followed what Tim said in his video and the tips that Paula Cheney gave in her blog on Alcohol Lift Ink and I had mixed feelings. Transfering the ink to another piece of paper was a resounding success - I used some Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock. But despite dabbing and buffing like a boss, the 'ghost' image on my original alcohol piece was not as vibrant as I thought it would be.

I'm not sure if it was down to the mixative, the fact that the piece I used had been inked years ago, or the fact that it was photo glossy paper that made it not work. I'll try again on the same paper but I won't add mixative and see what happens. I'll also try double stamping to see if it lightens things more. I was a little crest fallen, but I'd seen fab results on Yupo and luckily I have some in, not the Ranger kind, so again my results may differ, FYI the brand I used was 'Legion Yupo Medium'.

I used 4 colours of alcohol ink for the Yupo panel: - Valencia, Sunset Orange, Sunshine Yellow & Pitch Black. I allowed the inked yupo to dry, then set about stamping my image with the lift ink. I transferred the image and WOW, again I stamped on to Neenah, I then set about dabbing with a paper towel, the 'dab' technique I used is a firm press, move to another area and dab press, don't slide though or you'll smudge. Once you've dabbed all the lift ink, lift your project and check that there is no wet ink left on it. If there isn't, buff with a cloth, I used an old soft t-shirt, well it is old now 😂😂😂

If you look closely at the image by clicking on it to expand, you can see the difference, myself I suspect that the formula for the lift ink resonates more with Yupo paper more than glossy paper, but I still have to practice. I did notice that the stamped image is sharper than the ghost image, again that could be down to my technique, but its a cool effect nontheless! I still have to play with stencils and the refill and a combo of the two, but I wanted to share my first impressions, mainly because I think some people are going to try the lift ink, not use Yupo and be disappointed. More soon, time to play some more 😍😍😍

A Wreath of Paws

I made this card recently to send to a lady who is also a little bit of a crazy cat lady as part of a Happy Post mail swap that is run on the Creative Minds - Kind Hearts group and I'm thrilled to say she loved it. The wreath was stamped using the 5" Wreath Builder Template that Si made for me, if you are interested in owning a set of your own then you can find more details on my Facebook page 😁

I used Ranger Dye Ink Pads in Raspberry Sorbet, Grape Soda and Lavender Field colours to stamp the paws using stamps from Hobbycraft and My Favorite Things. The template makes it so easy to stamp any stamp you wish and quickly build it in to a wreath shape which can then form a background or be an actual focal point.

The image was stamped and die cut using the My Favorite Things 'Best Friends' set, I love the set more cards to come using the set very soon. The sentiment also comes from the set and uts very true 😻 I coloured the image using Prismacolor Pencils and blended them with gamsol, my shading is still a work in progress but I can see the improvement everytime I colour, lots more practice needed but I'll get there 😊

I used dies from the Wonky Stitches range available from Craft Stash to edge the paw panel and cut the sentiment panel, the only other addition was a few Clear Iridescent Jewels from Lucy's Cards to add a bit of interest. I'd seen a few of the American crafters use this gems like Jennifer McGuire, so I was thrilled to discover that the company is in the UK and postage is only £1! Lucy does lots of sequins, glitter, confetti, pearls and more in some gorgeous colours.

I added some shimmer with a Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle pen to the large paws and the little girls dress. To finish I mounted the white panel on to a piece of purple metallic card and then attached that to a homemade card blank I'd created using a piece of Lavender Centura Pearl cardstock, really pleased with the way this one turned out and tonight I'm off to my local cats protection to show the ladies at their Craft and ChAT group how to stamp and colour images like these 😺😻🙀

Rainbow Splotch Thank You Cards

I love how bright and colourful these thank you cards turned out, just perfect for sending to say thank to people who gave us fab xmas gifts this year, I made a set of 10 all in 1 day, I used my MISTI tool so that I could just line up once and stamp on each card, changing the stamp and going through all 10 cards again. I do like splotches and splatters on cards but I just don't seem to get them right if I do it myself with a brush. I was delighted when earlier this year I discovered a My Favorite Things stamp set called 'Distress Patterns'  which makes lovely splotches and splatters of colour that can be put together in lots of different combinations.

You can see my set in the above photo heavily stained from the inks used, this is a sign of a good quality stamp and despite becoming discoloured, if you've cleaned them properly then the colour won't run. For the set above I used a combination of Ranger Dye inks and Memento inks which gave lovely rich vibrant colours. I did have to stamp each image 2-3 times to ensure the image wasn't bitty with the dye inks.

In the image above I made a set of similar cards as a notelet gift set when I first got the stamp set, for these images I used a variety of Hero Arts Shadow Inks, these are dye inks, they stamped smoother and there was no blotches in the stamped image, but the ink really soaked in to the paper, which made the colours look muted and not as vibrant.

I've found that the Ranger Dye Inks stay bold, they give a really good stamp impression, even on solid stamps like the splotches, the darker colours like the 'Classic Cherry' and 'Grape Soda' do show through your cardstock but not to the degree that the Shadow Inks do. I'm waiting for some more of the Ranger Dye Inks to arrive and I think they will be getting a lot of use in the future. FYI the Memento Dye inks also stay vibrant on the card, they do have a tendency to stamp blotchy though so you need to over stamp several times if you want a nice crisp image.

I used two different sentiment dies in the gift set, one if a Sue Wilson 'Just A Note' die and the other is my Altenew 'Thanks' die which I've used several times since I got it for making thank you cards. The above set which I gave to my friend for Christmas I made the card blanks myself and a little box to hold the cards and envelopes together. I'm thrilled to say my friend loved them which made me happy, I really did get worried about giving people the papercraft gifts I'd made, turned out I needn't have worried, everyone I gave them to had nice things to say about them.

The image doesn't show the details as well as I'd like, but I used a Clear Spectrum Sparkle pen on all the 'Thanks' die cuts which I cut out of black card to give them a lovely shimmer. Then I added dots of 'White Blizzard' Nuvo Glitter Drops to the centre of each of the splotches. I stamped the images directly on to white A6 deckle edge cards which are 225gsm in weight.

I'll be making more cards like this and variations on the theme throughout the year, I may even make a couple of sets for presents again. I did stamp one of the cards with Ranger Dye ink 'Lily Pad' as you may be able to make out in the image above, that's a darker green than the Memento 'Pear Tart' I used on the other nine cards, which is more of a lime green and I wish I'd done them all in Lily Pad now. Point to note for next time!

I'm keeping pretty much on track with the tasks and challenges I've set myself, as well as keeping up with the 365 Challenge and making a few items for that. I've started work on a Wedding card for my stepson's wedding which needs to be done in time for the 7th January. I also have to make a New Year card for a special friend, who for reasons I'll explain when I post the card I couldn't send a christmas card to. Time to go and sort out something to eat now, then later some more playing with paper, its been very relaxing today, we went for a walk in the fog and watched a little TV, other than that its been crafting time. I hope your day has been just as relaxing!

Creative Stamping Woodland Christmas Cards

Yesterday I finally managed to pick up a copy of Issue 27 of Creative Stamping Magazine with the free Woodland Christmas stamp set and I couldn't wait to get stuck in and play. These are four of the cards I've created so far using the set, and amazingly bits and bobs from my 'Maybe Someday' box.

I used four colours of Ranger Archival Ink for all the cards, some embossing powders and a couple of distress inks. The first card is mounted on an 8" x 8" card blank, so it gives you some idea of the size of the stag head stamp, and the background of the card was embossed with a snowflake embossing folder. I used the same embossing folder on all but the last card, where I used the dotty folder that came with my new Big Shot Plus Machine.

For the stag card, I stamped him in Potting Soil Archival Ink and used my water brush to paint with Distress Inks in Rusty Hinge and Brushed Corduroy for the fur, the inside of the ears were painted with Spun Sugar and the nose with a little Black Soot, the antlers I used Ground Expresso and then gave the nose a dab of Glossy Accents when dry. Once I'd stamped and coloured the stag, I built up the greenery around the side using Archival Inks in Fern Green, Library Green, and Potting Soil for the pine cones. The edge of the image was blended with a little Pine Needles distress ink.  Gold card and dark green spotted ribbon from my stash completed this project.

For the next card, I made a panel stamping the top and bottom with the same colours as above, to this I added the holly leaves stamp using embossing ink and Lindy's Stamp Gang Embossing Powder in Fiddlehead Fern Green, its a beautiful shiny metallic bluey green. The berries are also part of the set and were stamped in Vermillion Archival Ink. The Christmas Kisses die cut was done last year using an Xcut Christmas Sayings Die Set and sat in my 'Maybe Someday' box unused, I thought it would be perfect on the topper, and along with some dark green and gold organza ribbon from my stash and a couple of clear gems another card was born.

Of all the cards I made so far with this stamp set this Winter Wonderland Fawn card is my favourite :) The panel is partly an accident but it worked out beautifully, the fawn is die cut using my Spellbinders Deer D-Lites Die, I'd die cut it a few weeks ago when I got the die intending to use it on this years Christmas cards and it went in the 'Maybe Someday' box. So the accident? The blue background... When I was stamping the foliage around the edge of the circle I managed to splatter red and dark green archival ink in the centre, not a huge amount, but enough to stand out. So I decided to use some holographic embossing powder and the snowflake stamp from the set to try and hide it.

As you can see from the detail image above, you can still see a few tiny spots of red (look at the snowflake just under the pine cone and the one under the deer's tail). I decided to give the whole thing a 'sky' background by blending Broken China distress ink over the whole circle, this is where I discovered the magic of archival inks! Once dry they are permanent and don't alter when you go over them with distress ink, I gave the background a light mist with my homemade pearl shine mist and left it to dry.

To finish the panel I stamped some snowflakes using neat Broken China ink, to create the darker blue snowflakes. I mounted the panel on to a circle of gold card and attached the deer to the front. I decided to go over the snowflakes on the embossed card in Broken China and give the card front a mist of white pearly shimmer mist to bring the blue of the centre panel in to the overall design.

My final card created so far used all the same colours of archival inks as above, but on the darker green branches I over stamped with embossing ink and added some Papermania Holographic embossing powder to add a little sparkle and shimmer. The sentiment is from the Woodland Christmas stamp set and I used embossing ink and Whispers Metallic Gold embossing powder to stamp it. I added some bling holly berries, I didn't have any red adhesive gems, so I used a Ruby Red ProMarker to colour some clear gems red. The panel was mounted on to a new Spellbinders 5" x 7" Holly Frame panel that I die cut using red holographic foil card. and was then mounted on to a 5" x 7" white card that I'd embossed the front of with an A4 dotty embossing folder.

I've also made some more panels using the stamp set which have yet to be turned in to cards, the heat gun (pun intended) is on now, because as well as making all the Xmas cards for friends and family and a batch for my local Cats Protection to sell, my future daughter-in-law has asked me to make 50 invitations for their engagement party. We're also making homemade gifts for all the adults, so lots to do and we're already over halfway through October, eeeek! I better get my skates on :)

Delights of Distress Inks

I know its been a while again ::sigh::, I may have been quiet on the blogging front, but I've most definitely still been crafting and collecting new card making stash as well as experimenting with new techniques and making my own products like texture embossing paste and shimmer mists, but the best fun I've had by far is my new found love of distress inks.

Over the past few months I've discovered new uses for distress inks and have found a joy inside for creating very colourful blocks of paper that can be turned in to cards either of backing papers or die cut into shapes. It all started with adding some ink to the edges of toppers and sentiments back in March, then I started to add the ink directly to embossed cards either by rubbing the pads along the raised embossed area, or by using the distress inking tool. The effect was pretty but I hadn't at that point discovered that the effect would be even better if water was added to the ink.

Keeping to neat distress ink for a time I'd seen some people using distressing tools and some even used the edges of scissors to created shredded edges to backing papers and card edges to create a distressed look. So I bought myself a distress tool and quickly discovered how much fun could be had distressing edges to give a totally different look to the cards I created.

It's incredible to think that something so simple could have such a different effect on the cards I make and with so many colours of distress ink available you can use them with any colour scheme. I currently have 24 large distress ink pads and 12 mini pads which allow me to create a lot of different effects.

I then progressed to using distress inks to create textures like the wood-grain effect below, I inked up a wood effect embossing folder with walnut stain distress ink and embossed to give the dark lines and then I applied vintage photo over the top and using the walnut stain to darken the edges of the pieces. The effect is pretty good if I do say so myself, using this technique has awoken a creative side that wants to experiment more with natural images and textures. Leaves and wood seem to be the latest area of exploration and flowers are also being created. I already have a ton of ideas with wood effect and leaf effect textures in a few different colour ways and can't wait to get started.

My next area of distress ink exploration changed my game plan as far as future card making is concerned. Creating coloured backgrounds using distress inks and water using water colour paper gives you some of the most vibrantly coloured images I've seen. I admit its messy, my fingers and nails have been every shade of the rainbow over the past few weeks but the results are amazing.

The type of paper you use gives different results, the best effects are with water colour card, and I've recently used water colour paper from a Crimson & Black 230gsm watercolour pad from 'The Works' that cost me £3 for 18 sheets that can be cut down to make 36. I've also used 250gsm white card and that gives a less textured look but takes a lot longer for the card to dry than water colour, but in my opinion water colour card/paper gives the best results the ink sinks and raises with the watercolour card texture, naturally creating the stippled effect texture you can see in the dark blue starry background.

Sunset Fairy

Moonlight Fairy

I've used the technique to colour pieces of card in several shades of one colour and then die cut out shapes, like the Christmas trees above and the ivy leaves in the main picture. It's also been used to create backgrounds for cards that have then been stamped with a silhouette stamp and had die cuts added to them like the two fairy cards shown here. Yesterday evening I created a series of backgrounds in Christmas colours for use in several new card projects, I've made some more purple and orange backgrounds for making into notelet and thank you cards as well. I love the fact that I can generate my own colour backgrounds, and yes I love the messy aspect, but in the end even though I try to control the process, the water, ink and paper work on an almost magical level, you can guide them, but ultimately they will control the finished result.

I'll do a step by step article to creating a distressed background soon, its really very simple and effective.