Blog Hop Time!

Welcome to the Creative Expressions June 2014 Blog Hop! Hopefully you got here from Neil's blog, but if you didn't, here's the start at the Creative Expressions News Blog!

The four new large Frame stamps from Creative Expressions have been designed with co-ordinating mini frames inside, which can be used separately or as a whole and also swapped with other frame designs in the range. There are also an additional four mini frame designs, plus sentiment sets which have been designed to fit inside the various frames.

One randomly selected person commenting on this blog post before the closing date will win a fabulous prize of some of the new stamp designs.

For my project, I couldn't resist using my favourite Gilding Flakes and mask, as well as my new toy, Micro Beads. 

Thank you for visiting my blog, please leave a comment below in order to be in with a chance of winning a prize!
The winner chosen at random  for commenting on my blog will get this fab bundle of goodies

Once you have done that, you will need to click here to visit Kerry's blog.

To help you along the way, here is a list for the Blog Hop:-

1. Julia Watts

2. Kim Robertson

3. Tracey Laughton

4. Donna Ratcliff

5. Neil Burley

6. Tracy Heaton (you are here)

7. Kerry Hickton

8. Pam Smith

Start page, prize details and how to take part: are on the Creative Expressions News Blog. The blog hop started on Thursday 12th June at 10am and ends Tuesday 17th June at 5pm.

Thank you for taking part in our Blog Hop – good luck!

To the Lighthouse

I'm loving the new stamps the DT are playing with this month for Creative Expressions. For June, we have the beach scenes stamps  perfect for getting into a holiday mood.

For my first project I chose the lighthouse - I think this is probably my favorite and I love lighthouses.

I stamped with Sepia Archival, then used a brush to gently blend distress ink to indicate the glow of the light.

I made a mask and then applied blue ink for the sky, again using the brush.

I used promarkers to colour the rest of the image.

My 'frame' was made using the Swirly Frame mask - I inked up the mask, laid it ink down onto my cardstock and then ran it through the die cutter with my tan mat underneath to emboss the design and transfer the ink at the same time. I then added more of the same blue ink for intensity.

For a nautical touch, I added twine to the card and tied knots in each corner.

Next week, we're launching more new stamps, and to celebrate, we're having a Blog Hop - so be sure to pop back next week to see what else is new from CE.

Summer Breeze

My final Creative Expressions card for May today, and I'm really pleased with the results - hope you agree! 

I wanted a fresh spring/summer feel to the card, so I kept the palette to two colours plus white with the glitter and pearls adding luxury and sparkle.

I started with some sparkle texture paste onto white card. Once dried. I added my grass and sky with distress ink.

I inked up the stamp with the same distress ink and clear embossed.

Matted my panel onto blue and white card.

Mounted my stamped image onto foam.

I stamped my greeting, then used a spellbinders die to cut it out and added a little ink.

 I mounted the greeting onto foam and added adhesive pearls to the corners

The pearls in the corners really draw the eye in.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Daisy, Daisy

This week I've again been working with the new Daisy stamp from Creative Expressions, but this time I've gone for a very different look. I used distress to saturate my card with colour, one of the many great things about Distress ink is that they have enough open time that you can blend and create new colours - even though I've only used three colours, a rainbow effect comes out of the blending.

I stamped the image onto the coloured card, embossed it, and then took the colour out of the stamped image with a wet brush for a faux bleached effect. I thought about running the background through an embossing folder, but then decided that the texture would detract from the colours, which I wanted to be the focus - as well as the stamp of course. I did though add some texture by stamping the daisy around my black base card, and embossing it with Arctic Pearl Lustre.

Thanks for stopping by.

Weather With You

What glorious weather we're having at the moment! I was so inspired by the lush greenness and spring colour yesterday, that I made this little beauty AND I managed to remember to take photos as I went along - I know, shocking!

I started with Coconut cardstock slightly larger than the mask (ornate frame), and ran it through my embossing machine with the embossing mat underneath to push the cardstock through the mask.

Next,  keeping the mask in place, I used Squeezed Lemonade and Scattered Straw DI to highlight the raised areas.

Added clear embossing powder and heat embossed.

I stamped the Daisy Spray (UMS116) stamp onto coconut with sepia Archival, coloured the image with Distress pens, cut them out and clear embossed them.

I lightly inked the centre of the card panel, then using a deckle edged oval Spellbinders die, I cut an aperture, added more ink and some random stamping with the daisy stamp to give texture. I mounted the images onto foam and added a twine bow.

Finally I photographed the finished card in an exotic location - our garden!

Also this week, I've been colouring leather with Alcohol inks and overstamping it with Stazon. I make the finished leather into travellers notebook covers.

Sparkles

This week I'm sharing a candle project with you AND I've done a tutorial , so if you want to have a go, you can see how I did it

Here's the link to the tutorial (you'll need to download the link rather than just view for better picture quality)

Have a great day!

Sue Wilson Goodies

This week I'm sharing a couple of projects using the new dies and stamps by Sue Wilson - what Sue doesn't know about Spellbinders aint worth knowing, so having her design dies is a no brainer! And of course I threw in some gilding!