Pan Pastels as a colouring medium

At Prickly Pear the Design Team take it in turns to do a tutorial for the store blog and this week it's my turn so not too surprisingly I kept well inside my comfort zone and have concentrated on Pan Pastels as an alternative to other more recognised colouring mediums and pens. And the above card is the basis of my tutorial which I would also like to enter my:

Addicted to stamps and more - CAS
Craft room challenge - stencils or masks (not totally sure if this form of masking counts ?)
Paper minutes - masking

Before I go on to my tutorial, don't forget that tomorrow we have a super prize competition starting here.

This is how I set about creating my piece of artwork and below my basic products:

Mask a piece of 10.5 x 14.5 watercolour cardstock to create a panel – I have highlighted the placement of the masking tape in pink to make it clearer to see. I also lay post it notes over the remainder of the piece to keep it clean.

 Stamp your chosen image with archival ink into the masked aperture. I have tried various inks but always revert to archival for a smudge fee image. I also recently tried out using Pans with a computer printed digi image and to my surprise the ink stay put fine.

Next place masks over the stamped images – I usually cut several at a time from post it notes which you can do by stamping the image onto your top sheet and cutting three or four together.

Using your chosen background colour of Pan Pastels and Sofft sponges, sponge the un-masked areas building up more colour at the edges. I find using a paler shade first and then adding a darker shade of the same colour gives more depth.

Now remove the masks and colour the images using small ended Sofft sponge sticks, again using a paler and darker shade of the same colour. A little contrast can also be added to the centres of flowers for definition.

Notes you may find useful using Pan Pastels:

• If you make a mistake or add more colour than intended it can be simply erased with a standard soft rubber. 

• Many believe Pan Pastels are the same as chalk but nothing could be further from the truth. They are a highly pigmented, very soft and blend seamlessly. 

• If you struggle shading with distress inks or creating backgrounds with a brayer I think you will find Pan Pastels a perfect alternative. 

• There are mixed views on setting Pan Pastels, I don't often set my artwork and have no problems with the colour shifting but if a piece is going to be handled a lot or perhaps for display then a quick spray of cheap hair spray will set it fast. 

• The investment of the specialist Pan Pastel Sofft sponges is invaluable, they last for ages, I am only just replacing some of mine after abut eighteen months of regular and often harsh use over rough edges. 

• Cardstock is important and I find the best results come with watercolour cardstock, my make of choice is Fabriano but any watercolour card offers the ideal slightly rough surface to grab the Pans or the reverse side of Centura Pearl is another favourite of mine.

As always, any question please do ask and thanks for taking a peek.

Four Seasons

Hello all you lovely Peeps and welcome to my new followers, lovely to have you aboard.

I had the call from the hospital and am booked for 2nd December, that's apparently classed as urgent so goodness only knows what a normal timescale is, but at least it's only just over a month to wait and I am praying the treatment relief is as instant as people are telling me. 

I have been lucky to have some of Ignacio's Nicecrame Designes new images to play with and have a couple of little shares of what I have been up to. The Four Seasons (links below) images really appealed to me and I knew instantly that I wanted to make a concertina card and embellish the section to compliment the seasons.

It also gave me the chance to use the lovely new Impression Obsession wheat die which arrived last week, I had to pre order this one but worth the wait.

Ignacio also asked me to work on his new Vintage Ladies images, there is something about his images that as soon as I see them I can usually visualise the project I am going to make with them and this was was the same.

I gave the image the slightest hint of pink here and there and there had to be a feather to carry those in he hat but I didn't have a suitable colours so soaked a white one in a watery distress ink solution, dries it on the radiator and it fluffed up as new. 

Now the next bit really is a new departure for me, a video, but I take no credit for it, Ignacio created it so you can have a peek at the other images in this set and I love the music - Viennese Waltz.........I think, do let me know your thoughts !!

VintageLadiesend - diapositivas

Thanks for popping by, I am doing my best to get to you one by one using the trusty copy and past system until the hand digits get their accuracy back.

Homer the Raven

Monday morning and time to share this weeks Prickly Pear DT piece and give you a heads up to check here on Friday as there are going to be some awesome goodies up for grabs.

I have used this cute little image called Homer the Raven, stamped him and coloured with Pan Pastels which I also used to create a background, then stamped the spiders web ATC stamp and cut an oval aperture. Some Bo Bunny DP for the base, a flower made with Tonic punch and stamp Rose set and the leaves are Cheery Lynne. I would like to enter:

Crafting when we can - make your own flowers
One stitch at a time - Boo

Hope you all have a good Monday.

A Christmas collection

Good morning Peeps, I thought I would do an early post to share a few of the Christmas cards I have made with Ignacio's Nicecrane Designs. Whilst I have not been up to holding stamps properly his images along with some dies have been a blessing as they have allowed me to keep creating.

And with Christmas getting closer by the day I have managed to get a few into the seasonal basket in readiness and I would recommend them to all of you who have a mountain of Crimbo cards to make as they offer the ability to create a varied selection of cards.

And a final one.

Thanks for popping in and there are thumbnail links to the image sheets I have used below.

Treemendous and Saturday candy

Good Morning Peeps, over at Allsorts this week it's my turn to host the theme so I have decided on Treemendous.......basically your spin on using some sort of tree on your work be it a Christmas Tree, a landscape or anything else that takes your fancy. Our sponsors this week are DigiDarla and PPR Papercrafts.

Two from me today, as I wanted to do something with the new Anna Griffin Winter Wonderland cartridge from Cricut which from this week is available to buy in the UK and to coincide with it's release over here there is a really special deal on the Cricut Mini.................you can buy one from Hobbycraft for just £99, how good is that. Both the Reindeer and trees are from the new cartridge and the sentiment is Penny Black. I would like to enter:


Graphit - Alternative Christmas colours
Scrappinf4fun - Holiday/Christmas
Aud Sentiments - Christmas sentiments

My second card below is yet another I had created well in advance using a favourite tree from an Andy Skinner set stamped with sepia archival ink and there had to be a fence or two so I used both the left and right fence images from Sutter Stamps, masked a sun and used Pan Pastels to create the sky and hills and added some birds.  The two little bunnies are Lavinia and the corner leaves are the Three Fall leaf trio from DigiDarla which I printed, cut out and sprayed with Dylusions. I would like to enter this into:

Bloggers - Autumn
Sweet Stampin - Wood trees and leaves

Now for the winner of last weeks candy who is Dot (miles away in Aussie where Summer is on it's way !), please mail me with your full name and postal addy so I post off your goodies.

And this week  I have a set of cute cat stamps, some gems and pack of doilies.

Same rules as usual....................

• Add the Saturday Candy logo from my sidebar to your sidebar (not this picture)
• Be a follower of my blog
• A random winner will be selected from all comments left on my blog between now and Friday, so two comments during the week two chances of winning and so on.
• The winner will be announced next Saturday

I hope you all have a good weekend whatever you have planned.

Retro Roses

Hello all, there's a new Stamp Addicts show on Create and Craft today at 2pm, I have not been able to make much in the way of new samples because stamping is still very difficult, but I do have a couple I made a while ago which I can share with you. 

Just to update as lots of you have very kindly asked me how I got on with my results yesterday, well in some ways nothing new, three herniated disks in my lower back causing the constant pain and sciatica and lots of worn joints in my back and shoulder, the latter causing the cervical spondylosis. But on the positive side after some more blood tests and further MRI they are going to try some epidural treatment, I don't much like the sound of it but if it helps ease the pain has to be worth the discomfort of having it.

Onto the show and my cards, I know Sarah said the stamps for the show had been reduced by C&C, but I think the Retro Heart and Roses at the top is one of those that is still in the lineup. An old book, Dylusions. Frantage, paperpiecing and recycled corrugated form the basis of the card along with the stamp of course and two Lilies made with Tonic's Peruvian Lily set.

I would like to enter the top card for:

Inspired by Stamping - Embossed edges
Fab n Funky - Distressed
House that Stamps Built - Paper piecing

And the second card:

Moving Along with the Times - Anything but square

The blue one uses three of their images stamped and inked through masks.

Hope you all have a good Thursday.

Concertina card/book tutorial

Hello all you lovely Peeps, I have a little project to share which after finishing thought it might be useful to do a tutorial as there are always new crafters in blogland, so I have made a start on another and took a few photos along the way.

I know the shape is not a new concept and it's years since I used it in a class, but it sort of came back into my mind the other night when trying to think what I could do to keep my crafty mind occupied until I can stamp again properly. And Ignacio's lovely Nicecrane Christmas images are perfect, I used images from the Old Merry Christmas and Adorable Christmas sheets. 

Cardstock: Three 8"x8" pieces 220/250gsm for the main card and two 4"x4" pieces of a heavy weight for the front and back panels.

Coordinating DP's: Two pieces 5"x5" for front and back panels, ten 3.5" squares, four left whole and six cut diagonally.

Scoreboard and scoring tool, glue and choice and images, ribbons etc., to decorate.

Score each 8"x8" square as indicated above I have made the photo's large in the hope you can read the directions and my current appalling writing - things can only get better

Glue the three pieces together as indicated above

Now fold each scored line both ways to make the whole piece more flexible and then into the finished shape

This is how I deal with my box lids and the same process works for this project and below the  finished panel ready to be adhered to the main piece. And finally add all the internal square and triangle DP's sections and decorate. 

I am not totally convinced my explanations are clear so please do mail me if you want to check on anything.

Midnight cats

Monday means time for this weeks Prickly Pear DT piece which this week is Halloween, one that always comes a bit hard to me.

I started with creating my background with Dylusions and a TH clock as a mask, then liberal helpings of Frantage. The Midnight Cats were stamped with versamark and embossed with detail white onto black cardstock and yet more Frantage and purple gilding wax, the I stamped Shawn of the Dead with black archival ink and rubbbed more of the gilding wax to add a bit of shimmer.

Happy Monday to you all.

Ribbons, bows and Saturday candy

Saturday and a new challenge at Allsorts where Helen would like to see Ribbons and Bows, I am thinking this will be a popular one as whatever our style we all like our ribbons. Our lovely sponsors this week are The Ribbon Girl and A Passion for Stamps.

A card made some weeks ago using a Rubbernecker stamp from their watercolour range which has quite a few poppies. It's a bit of a different concept as you stamp the solid part of the image and then over stamp with an outline one. I spent ages playing and decided the outline does not exactly match the inner stamp as which ever way I tried it was offset, but I kinda like the look. The sentiment is from the same set.

And a second card using Ruth's Passion for Stamps Horsechstnut, Beechnut and Maple leaves which I sprayed with Dylusions after printing and cutting out and intermingled with some flowers made with her Tonic Rose punch and stamp set. An embossed background and an Artistic Outpost sentiment.

Now for the winners of last weeks candy who is Kathleen, well done please mail me with your full name and postal addy. And this week an Imagination Crafts Christmas stamp and ribbons, same rules as usual....................

• Add the Saturday Candyd logo from my sidebar to your sidebar (not this picture)
• Be a follower of my blog
• A random winner will be selected from all comments left on my blog between now and Friday, so two comments during the week two chances of winning and so on.
• The winner will be announced next Saturday

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Cricut Birthday card

Elephant from Animal Kingdom cartridge, bunting from Everyday Pop Up Cards

 and font Blackletter

Morning to you all and a really big thank you for your warm and generous comments and mails following my post a couple of days ago, each and every one of them is greatly appreciated. I saw the GP yesterday morning and was at hospital by midday having MRI's, speedy or what for the NHS, now I have to wait until next week for results.

As must be the case a quick post and limited typing with a share of a card made for a little granddaughter who adores elephants using the Cricut Mini which is proving to be a huge asset to me at the moment whilst I am unable to stamp and for any of you with similar dexterity problems well worth considering.

New candy and winners

Morning Peeps, a little late but some new candy and winners of last months who are.....................

Anne F

and 

Patry Ro

Well done to you both, please mail me with your full names and postal addys.

And for the new goodies which I have tried to make a little but Timmy, here's what you need to do:

1) Post the photo at the top of this post to your own blog sidebar with a link back here.
2) Add your name to InLinkz below
3) Be one of my regular followers, or a new one who is here to stay, not just for the candy as I will eliminate any candy only followers from the draw.

Good luck to you all, the candy will run until 15th November.

Some decisions are really tough ones.......

Good afternoon all you crafty Peeps, as the title of this posts suggests I have had to come to a really tough decision, I've been mulling it all over for a week or two and in the end bounced all the options off hubby, my number one craft critic and sounding block. 

As lots of you know I have been struggling with my fingers and hands for a few weeks now and typing has become an increasing nightmare, not only in the pain it inflicts but coupled with my lack of dexterity means I spend as much time making corrections as I do the initial typing and still I miss some and I know one or two have raised smiles here and there...................the very worse must have been the mistyped mention of the Big Sh(o)t!! And although I have a voice recognition programme, that has a mind of it's own as my speech can be iffy some days so again I need to do lots of correcting.

Some of you know I did try copy and paste commenting a couple of weeks ago but feel so guilty doing that when I am not able to return comments as I would wish so my next thought was to switch off the comment options totally on my blog, but this seems drastic when I know people often like to ask me questions.  

So for the time being I will try the compromise position using a copy/pasty solution to leave comments ......................but I hope this will at least let you know I do remain genuinely interested in what you are up to and that I have popped in. And I will leave the comments switched on for those of you who would still like to visit...............but as always whilst your generous and warm comments are always much appreciated I do not expect you to do so. 

At the end of the day we all draw inspiration from one another, those of us who say otherwise need a reality check................ and I make no secret that I do so enjoy visiting peoples blogs, seeing all your different creations and reading what you are all up to. Likewise the purpose of my blog remains as it did on day one, a place for me to share my ideas and projects along with the wonderful products I am often privileged to work with and hopefully offer some inspiration along the way.

Sorry to ramble on but it's been worrying me and needed saying and hope you understand it's a bit of a needs must scenario at the moment. I shall be doing regular posts with what I am able to create.......it's slow going and one project can take me a day..........often accompanied by a few linguistic expletives along the way, but I shall still be about one way or another.