Woodware Design Team Challenge - Cute Christmas

Out of all the snowmen I have drawn this is probably my all time favourite. The colour scheme I have chosen is probably the cute part of the challenge.... very pastel!

FRS222 Patch Snowman

I have coloured him in using Sakura Soufflé pens. There is no shading so nice and easy... just fill in. This is quite a large stamp but quick to complete as actually there is not a lot of colouring in to do!

I have glittered him in patches using the clear Sakura glaze pen as a glue and ultra fine Stampendous clear glitter.

The tag is made from shrink plastic. I used another one of my new Christmas Stamps... a large wording

FRS124 Most Wonderful Christmas

Of course I have added some fab 'Glitter Domes'... a must have for this years cards!!

For more cut ideas pop along to the Woodware Blog

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Sketch

For this week's challenge I have gone back to using one of my early Christmas designs. That snowman bauble is so cute...

XXM011 Snowman Bauble

I wasn't sure about the sketch layout when I first saw it but it's actually really useful for using up scraps of paper and card.

On the craft card piece I have used one of my new Christmas background stamps which has a lovely script on it.

FRS233 We Wish You

I have glittered the snowman bauble using a clear glaze Sakura pen and ultra fine clear glitter. It's a very easy way to be precise with your glitter and it's dry in an instant!

The ribbon has been heated to make it extra curly. You use a heat gun to heat it very carefully - no house fires please! It only works with ribbon that have a high nylon content.

Couldn't resist the Mark Richard Glitter Domes.... again and perfect dotted around the bauble.

Pop along to the Woodware Blog to see other ideas by the team using the sketch.

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Frantage Christmas

This card is influenced by the cards made by a good friend - Jill [The Stamp Man] for the Woodware Christmas catalogue.

I've combined the 'Frantage' embossing powders with bauble 'Chippies'.

The flower centres are from the snowflake 'Chippies' and I have added some Mark Richard glitter domes [they are fab!]

I used the shabby white range of 'Frantage' powders and sprinkled in some shaved ice and crushed glitters from the same range.

For the background to the baubles I have used one of my Christmas background stamps which is great stamped over patterned paper.

FRS233 We Wish You

and another stamp for the stitching over the strip

FRS227 Curly Stitched Background

Finally I have embossed the edges of the background paper with shabby white embossing powder. You simply run a clear pad along the edges and dip the paper in the powder/heat.

Pop along to the Woodware Blog for more Christmas Frantage ideas

Papers kindly given to me by Christina at A Maze Of Memories

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Up-cycling

A rather humble offering from me this week as I am so busy completing the Spring designs...

I have chosen to up cycle a large paperclip into a book mark using a stamped image and punches from the Woodware range.... really cute buttons.

The owl is from this set
FRCL141 Owl Greetings

I have used pencils for the colouring and added glitter and glossy accents for a finishing touch.

The large black heart  has been glued to the paperclip using glossy accents. It makes a very good strong glue.

You could attach the paperclip to a card to make a gift.

For other 'up-cycling' projects from the design team visit the Woodware blog.

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Shades of red

One of my favourite stamps from this year's Christmas release. 

FRS218 Huge Jingle Bells

I have used different red patterned papers to paper piece the letters.

I used a Woodware green bell punch for the little bells. I have edged them with black ink to make them pop and added sone little bows.

I have glittered the big white spots with ultra fine clear glitter. Very easy to do using a clear Sakura glaze pen as a gluing medium. 

I'm last to post this week so why not see what the other team members have come up with on the Woodware Blog for this challenge.

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Vintage Christmas

I'm leading the challenge this week... So I chose to use a Christmas bell for my vintage design. I have also done this bell in modern Christmas colours and it works equally well.

FRS101 Holly Bell

I stamped the bell using an ochre die based inkpad and before adding the other colours I bled out the ink with a water brush. This is what gives it a vintage look.

The greeting comes from this set:

FRCL171 All Through the Year

I used the same water colour technique over the stamped greeting.

I have gone over the outline with some diamond 'Stickles' and add some 3 mm and 5 mm red 'Nailheads' for berries.

Do check in over the coming week to see other ideas for 'Wintage Christmas' over on the Woodware Blog.

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Sketch

One of my stamp sets happens to have a window so I thought it would fit in really well with this week's sketch challenge.

FRCL183 House Proud

This set also includes the curtains, cat and flowerpots.

I used the flowers from this set to decorate the curtains

FRCL169 Birdsong

The curtain pole is made out of a strip of brown card and two small punched circles to which I have added some Mark Richards 'nailheads'.

The two small pictures are made from some tiny pieces of Magenta paper.

Why not pop along to the Woodware blog to see other ideas using this sketch.

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Resist Techniques

For this week's challenge I have used one of my new background stamps.

FRS227 Curly Stitched Background 

I  stamped and embossed it on pale mint card using a Watermark  ink pad and clear powder. I then sponged some blue inks over the whole piece and ironed away the embossing.

The tag is made from shrink plastic. I used one of my favourite new Christmas word stamp on the tag.

FRS124 Most Wonderful Christmas

and the snowflakes from this set

FRCL222 Snow Buddies

This cute little snowman comes from the same set as the snowflakes. His nose and scarf are coloured in using Sakura Soufflé pens. The colours are soft and pastel. I have added some glitter highlights too.

Finally let's not forget the ribbon which I have heated and the Mark Richard 'Glitter Domes' which are a brilliant addition to any Christmas card!

Pop along to the Woodware Blog for other ideas for resist techniques from the team.

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Orange and brown

Orange and brown.... well orange and brown and a touch of green.... I think that is allowed don't you!

This set is fun to use and as you can see from this card you can cut the animals out and use them on their own.

FRCL127 Jungle Pals

I have stamped using the Brilliance Coffee Bean inkpad on pale orange card. The coloring has been done using washes of orange and green taken from Tombow pens.

The leaf punch is from Woodware and is great for jungle or tropical themed cards. I have punched three different seizes. I have added some detail on the leaves using a white Sakura gel pen and some sponging.

For some more ideas using the orange and brown colour scheme pop along to the Woodware Blog

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Anything but a stamp

Not a stamp in sight! Just paper, card, buttons and a Peel Off's... that was hard as I am such a die hard stamper.... lol

The beautiful heart buttons come from a mix pack of buttons which of course Woodware stock. I've added some ribbon as I do not like empty holes... 

The craft squares are 4 cm by 4 cm and I rounded off the corners with a corner punch.

I've use a white Sakura pen for the faux stitching. I have added some paper on the inside of the card from the 'Dresden collection'.

Simple but nice...

Pop along to the Woodware blog for other non stamping ideas

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Sketch

I quite enjoyed the sketch layout challenge but I did flip it to have it portrait as opposed to landscape. I have used my favourite technique .... yes it's paper piecing!
I've used one of my new design from the latest release:

FRS228 Field of Poppies

Jill Tuck from 'The Stamp Man' did some great samples for the catalogue using this stamp and I have drawn my inspiration from them.

Of course you could have blue or yellow poppies if you wishes

I have added a little bit of colouring to the paper piecing but the papers have done the rest.

I have yet to water colour this image. I know it will look great embossed in white and water coloured but it's another project for another day....

Pop along to the Woodware blog for inspiration from the rest of the team.

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Sending you a smile

One of my favourite colour combinations is orange and blue... bright colours do make you smile. 

The stamps used on the card come from these sets;
FRCL080 Mixed Greetings
FRCL149 Lots of Love

The little butterflies have been paper pieced along with the background which is a panel made up of different width strips. This is a good way of using up left overs...

I've also added some faux stitching which adds to the paper piecing effect. 

Finally some white highlights using my trusted white Sakura gel pen and some fab Woodware ribbon!

Pop along to the Woodware blog for other inspirational ideas.

All of this week, the Dream Team and the Woodware UK teams are celebrating the release of the new holiday designs from Dreamweaver Stencils. Of course, no celebration is complete without prizes...and there are some fabulous ones for those commenting on both sides of the "pond". 
 
Each team will be providing the opportunity to win four prize packages of stencil designs, perfect for the holidays. Just leave your comments each day on each players' post as well as the Dream It Up! and Woodware UK blogs, and the Dreamweaver andWoodware Facebook pages. Two random commentors  will be chosen from the batch of weekday posts, one each from the DW and WW Facebook pages, and from the big hop on Saturday...from each side of the pond!* That's a total of eight prize packages up for grabs! Here's what you could win:

You are probably wondering what a guitar has to do with the festive season!! lol... My mistake I liked the design so much I chose it and made the card before I realised I had made a mistake... Still I'm very pleased with the result. This is the stencil I used:

LL 3028 Electric guitar

I have tangled the image. I drew the outline of the stencil using a fine Sakura Micron black pen and added some patterns and strings.

For the wording I have used one of my new stamps:

FRS234 Alphabet Spots

As it's a whole alphabet in one large stamp I stamped it twice. I coloured in the letter dots using a Red Sakura glaze pen and then punched them out using the 3/4" Woodware circle punch [orange]. It's a perfect fit!

Finally some bling using Mark Richards 'Metals' in silver.... and a bit of glitter.....

Don't forget to leave me some holiday cheer as you move on to the other players for today:

Woodware UK 
Dream It Up! Lee KelloggCherylynn Moser
Dorothy Adam
Louise Healy 
Debs Frost 
Laura Drahozal  
Terrece SiddowayCyndi Bundy
Wendy Jordan 
Francoise ReadLiz Martin
Georgia Sommers
Siobhan Fyffe 
Pam Hornschu 

Remember to follow along with the challenges on the Dream It Up! and Woodware UKblogs for more prize opportunities, and more crafty inspiration, as well as "liking" DWand WW on Facebook.
 

*Winners selected must be from USA/Canada/UK only. 

                                                                                  

Woodware Dreamweaver Blog Hop

All of this week, the Dream Team and the Woodware UK teams are celebrating the release of the new holiday designs from Dreamweaver Stencils. Of course, no celebration is complete without prizes...and there are some fabulous ones for those commenting on both sides of the "pond". 

Each team will be providing the opportunity to win four prize packages of stencil designs, perfect for the holidays. Just leave your comments each day on each players' post as well as the Dream It Up! and Woodware UK blogs, and the Dreamweaver and Woodware Facebook pages. Two random commentors  will be chosen from the batch of weekday posts, one each from the DW andWW Facebook pages, and from the big hop on Saturday...from each side of the pond!* That's a total of eight prize packages up for grabs! Here's what you could win:

For the bloghop week challenge I have chosen to combine one of my new Christmas designs with a beautiful new background stencil from Dreamweaver.

LX 7004 Prince of Peace

The words and design go perfectly with my 'Patchwork Angel'

FRS223 Patch Angel

I ran the stencil through my cuttlebug to emboss some gold Mirri card. Very easy to do but very effective and it makes a nice simple background. I have paper pieced the angel using  the 'Helsinki collection' of papers from Woodware and embellished with 'Nail heads'. 

Don't forget to leave me some holiday cheer as you move on to the other players for today:

Woodware UK
Dream It Up! Louise Healy 
Lee Kellogg
Francoise Read
Pam Hornschu
Liz Martin
Terrece Siddoway 
Cherylynn Moser 

Remember to follow along with the challenges on the Dream It Up! andWoodware UK blogs for more prize opportunities, and more crafty inspiration, as well as "liking" DW and WW on Facebook.

*Winners selected must be from USA/Canada/UK only. 

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Paper Piecing

I love paper piecing!!! [as most of you already know] lol...

For this challenge I decided to use one of my new Christmas stamps

FRS219 Huge Noel

and papers from the 'Helsinki' collection that Woodware distribute.

The small greeting bellow the Noel is included with the stamp. In total there are four small greetings with the stamp to use.

If you like my big words I have added to the collection:
Jingle Bells, I love You and Good Luck.

If you don't know how to paper piece there is a post from last year with pics showing how to do it with some tips.

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Black and white with a pop of blue

This card was made using one of my favourite stamp sets

FRCL143 Winter Wondreland

I like this set as you don't have to do extensive colouring. As a design it needs to be kept simple. The set is all about reindeers and trees.... but you also do get the little bunnies!

For the colouring I have used a the blue from the Sakura Stardust range of pens which I have water coloured. Using a touch of blue at the base of the trees and reindeer anchors them and makes the scene all frosty.

I stamped the moon and some of the trees using a Starlite Black Brilliance inkpad. For the moon you need to apply a thin uneven coating of ink or stamp it off on scrap paper before doing it for real on the card.

For other ideas along the same theme pop along to Woodware Blog

Woodware Design Challenge - Shrink Plastic

Shrink plastic is such fun! but also quite testing at times.... I love words and greetings that have been shrunk. So the tiny tag on this card has been made using white shrink plastic, blue Woodware tag punch and this greeting set
FRCL214 Tag Builder

Very simple but so effective!

The little bird comes from this set
FRCL210 Sitting Pretty


I coloured the bird using Sakura Jelly Roll Glaze pens so he is all shiny. 


The little envelope is made using a Woodware punch. You can also get a tiny square envelope punch.


A few shrink plastic tips:
Colours intensify so use pale colours or colour in softly.
Holes get very small. I used an office single punch hole on my tag and it shrunk to about 1/8". If you want to work out the shrinkage make yourself a shrink plastic ruler. Measure and mark a line on a piece of shrink plastic and shrink it. You can then work out how small your piece will look! [A tip from my ceramic days!!]


For other ideas on how to use shrink plastic pop along to the Woodware Blog

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Zentangle

The challenge this week is to do some 'tangles'.
As you will have seen from previous postings I really like doing it. 
I have quite a few books on the subject which are great for learning patterns or simply for inspiration. It is very relaxing to do and you don't need much in the way of products. Sakura Micron Pens are ideal for this. It's a good idea to have a selection of different size nibs. You can tangle from scratch by drawing some basic shapes to fill with a pencil or you can fill a stamped image or like I have done a Peel Off's design. I do not really follow the patterns in the books... I ad lib! I have put together a selection of images that I have 'tangled'. Give it a go it's good fun! Pop along to the Woodware Blog for other 'tangled' ideas.

Woodware Design Challenge - Anything but a square

This card is not square... as the challenge requires! I'm not sure what the shape is....


The cute little mouse comes from this set;


FRCL192 Micey Mice


It fits perfectly in the woodware 3" purple punch. I have used the Sakura Moonlight pens to colour the cake. The greeting is also in the set. The heart border has been punched using the Crafty Edger. Of course you could also keep the hearts for other projects.


Do pop along to the Woodware blog for other ideas.

Woodware Design Team Challenge - Sketch

This week the challenge is a sketch. I have gone for a Christmas card idea using the gingerbread man from this set:


FRCL179 Gingerbread Collection


In the set are elements that you can use to compliment the main images such as the candy cane.

I have use Diamond Stickles to highlight the gingerbread man and Glossy accents on the icing.


The lovely background paper is from the 'Oslo' collection distributed by Woodware. I love the brown gingham ribbon as well as all the other ones in the Woodware collection.


Pop along to the Woodware Blog for other great ideas using this sketch.