Welcome to the last elephant in this series :)

Here is Saturday's elephant, and I hope he's a fitting end!:

And a close-up of all the colours:

So, does everybody remember the story of Elmer the elephant? I thought that this little guy could be special like Elmer, too :)

He's stamped on white cardstock, and then stamped over using the Grid stamp by Hero Arts. Then I coloured him in using a variety of Copic markers, stuck him down with dimentional adhesive, and added some buttons to complement the colours.
The sentiment is from the 'Sentiment Sampler' set by Paper Smooches.
And you can just about see, above the buttons, that I added some score-lines on the white card base.

I'm hurrying again, I'm sorry! Will try and add supplies later on.

Hope you enjoyed this fun week, and thanks again to Jess for the great suggestion!!!

I'm officially on holiday now, so will be back in about a week with more from my craft desk :)

See you then!!!

Friday's elephant is... embellished?

Hello again,

Let's have a look at Friday's elephant, shall we?:

And a close-up of the added embellishements:

So this card was inspired by that pretty stripey patterned paper by K&Co. I just love it, but find stripey paper a little difficult to use. But this is what came out of it!

I stamped the elephant and those peanuts on kraft cardstock, inked with Vintage photo, and then fussy-cut. I tied a bow in some embroidery floss, and glued it down with some Glossy Accents glue. I then stamped the sentiment using the Sophie's Sentiments set by Lawn Fawn, in Brown Sugar Jenni Bowlin ink, and wrapped it in embroidery floss before adhering it with 3D foam adhesive.
Then I inked the whole panel in more Vintage photo, and adhered it down to a white card base, also inked in VP.

So that's it for Friday. Hope you're looking forward to the final instalment tomorrow :)

Until then, take care and keep smiling!

 

 

SUPPLIES:

Stamps: Circus Animals, My Cute Stamps; Sophie's Sentiments, Lawn Fawn

Ink: Vintage Photo, Tim Holtz/Ranger; Tuxedo Black Memento black ink; Brown Sugar, Jenni Bowlin

Cardstock: Patterned paper by K&Co from their mega-stack; kraft and white cardstock from my stash

Etc: Pale turquoise embroidery floss, from my stash

Thursday's elephant is... textured!

Hey guys,

I'd like to introduce you to Thursday's elephant from My Cute Stamps' 'Circus Animals' set:

And a close-up of that 'texture':

Okay, so here I've stamped the elephant 3 times on Kraft cardstock, stamped two of them with Hero Arts background stamps in brown ink for the texture, and inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink. This helps give them some depth and makes them stand out more.

I fussy-cut the elephants and their tails, went round the edges with a Memento marker, and stuck them down on some cardstock that I had stamped using the 'Teeny Tiny Backdrops' stamp from Lawn Fawn, in Spice Tin Jenni Bowlin ink.

Phew! I finally added the sentiment from the 'Sentiment Sampler' set by Paper Smooches, and 'Smitty's ABCs' by Lawn Fawn, also in Spice Tin, inked all the edges in more Vintage photo, and adhered.

It didn't take long to make, and it's nice, simple and effective! It makes a great all-round card, and fits into the 'masculine' category as well, I thnk - it made my husband hoot with laughter when he saw that punny sentiment :)
That's my kind of card.

And one more thing - I know I sort of cheated with using more than one stamp, but I only used one IMAGE stamp, so I think that counts :)
I also wanted to show you that it's OK to mix stamps! These are 4 of my all-time favourite stamp companies, and they complement each other really well, which is great. It adds so much more versatility to your stamp collection.

That's it for today! Join me tomorrow for another elephant :)

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Teeny Tiny Backdrops and Smitty's ABCs, Lawn Fawn; Circus Animals, My Cute Stamps; Sentiment Sampler, Paper Smooches; Dots and envelope pattern, Hero Arts
Ink: Spice Tin, Jenni Bowlin; Vintage Photo, Tim Holtz; Tuxedo Black memento ink pad and marker
Cardstock: Kraft, White, from my stash

The fun begins...

Hi everyone!

Phew, it feels like ages since I've posted anything! I wanted to get online yesterday but I just didn't get a chance, but the good news is that I've been crafting up a storm here :)

Jess Larsen of Jess Larsen Design has set us a fun challenge over at her site: try using the same stamp for one week.

I've decided to play along because I think it's a great idea to use stamps in a different way.
It can be difficult, sometimes, to think of different layouts that feature the same image, but I've proved to myself this week that it's possible!

I've focused on the cute elephant from the 'Circus Animals' set by My Cute Stamps. Here's what I came up with:

And a close-up of the central panel:

I used patterned paper to hightlight the simple image, and some twine to set the panel off.
The main card was inked heavily with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, and the elephant was inked with the same, but mainly Weathered Wood.

I have to rush off to work now, but will try and post the supplies soon.

Tomorrow, I'll have another card using the same stamp but in a different layout.

Take care until then!!!

Young Crafters Unite!

Hello everyone, and welcome to this very special Friday!
"Why is it special?", I hear you cry!
It's because today is the Young Crafters Unite blog hop, of course!

You should have arrived here from the wonderfully talented Kathy Racoosin's blog: welcome :)

So the question of the moment is this: What makes me a young crafter?
Well, I'd have to say lots of things, but I'll just share two (and I'll just warn you - this is going to be a long post!).

1. For a start, I've always been told that I'm an old head on young shoulders, mature for my age, old before my time... but I'm only 25!

2. I also love playing - my 'stash' is my toybox, my craft desk my playroom - and crafting is playtime! You know how kids can get so incredibly absorbed in a make-believe world, so that nothing and no-one can break them away from it? Well, that's me when I'm making a card (at times, much to Mr. Blackburn's consternation)!

So that's little ol' me :)

Right, now on to the card. I actually decided to be extra generous, and give you two cards, since you've all been so nice and have stopped by today!

The 'favourite thing' I'm using is the 'distressing' technique, more specifically, my collection of Tim Holtz Distress Inks.
I'm going to show you two cards because this technique is so incredibly versatile, and creates so many different and gorgeous effects.

Here is the first card:

 With this card, I inked up the entire card base with 'Victorian Velvet' Distress Ink. The centre strip is inked with a light coat of 'Antique Linen', and then the edges are blended with more 'Victorian Velvet'.

I inked the poppies heavily with more Antique Linen on a separate sheet of card, trimmed them and adhered to the centre strip, and then added some pink hints with a Prismacolor pencil. The stems were coloured with an earthy Copic marker, and adhesive pearls finished off the centre of the open flowers.

I added a sentiment, and some butterflies, and there it is!

So that is the first effect - a lovely, soft all-over colour, which gives an elegant and charming, vintage effect.

Okay, here's the second card:

And instead of boring you by typing up all the details on how it was put together... I've made you a video!:

So with this card, you can see that the distressing technique has been used again, but it has a totally different effect; it ages the edges of the paper, and gives the card a sort of rustic, organic feel which compliments the jute twine and the veggies without changing the overall 'feel' of the card. It's still clean and simple, just with a twist :)

(Visit Marie/Legojenta's blog, which focuses on that Tuxedo Black Memento marker in her video.)

And here is a picture of some purple carrots that I found, as promised in my video!!! How cool are these?!:

Right. Finally, I want to share a past post with you, of one of my favourite cards that I've made (to continue the 'favourite' theme).

It was really hard to choose between two previous posts, but this one won out:

http://www.natashablackburn.com/2011/04/antique-butterflies.html

(If you're interested in the second one, view it here: http://www.natashablackburn.com/2011/05/hang-me-out-to-dry.html)

The video of the second card I made uses the carrot image from the 'Vegtastic' stamp set by Paper Smooches, which I just loooooove!!! And, while we're on the topic of Paper Smooches, this lovely company are generously giving randomly selected commenters a chance to win one of their stamp sets! (Thank you, Kim!)

We also have a $20 gift certificate from Simon Says Stamp (thank you, Heidi!), and a stamp set from Lawn Fawn (and thank you, Kelly Marie :)

So, once again, to win one of these fantastic prizes, be sure to leave comments on each blog as you stop by. The more comments you leave, the greater your chances of winning!!!

Okay, well, that's it from me. Thanks again for visiting, and don't forget to leave a comment (as if you could :) !!!

Your next stop is CiCi's blog.

See you soon!

SUPPLIES:

Card #1:

Cardstock: White card blank, from my stash; 200gsm white coated cardstock, Ryman's (UK)

Ink: Antique Linen and Victorian Velvet Distress Inks, Tim Holtz by Ranger; Tuxedo Black, Memento; Copic marker

Stamps: Mega Mixed Messages, Papertrey Ink; Delicate Blossoms, Hero Arts

Etc: 3D squares, from my stash; Martha Stewart 3-butterfly punch; adhesive pearls; Prismacolor pencil; ATG gun

Card #2:

Cardstock: White linen cardstock, Papermill Direct (UK); Kraft, from my stash

Ink: Tuxedo Black, Memento; Memento Marker; Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Tim Holtz by Ranger

Stamps: Vegtastic, Paper Smooches

Etc: Jute twine; Soft green pearls - both from my stash; Prismacolor pencils; 3D squares; ATG gun