New Lovely Crafty Things!

Today has been a super busy day getting things ready but I'm so pleased to say there are lots of new things up in my shop today including my first ever paper collection (wooooo!) journaling cards, and the much awaited and longed for stencils / masks which I was playing with last night...

as you can see, they work very well with Tim Holtz distress paints and Dylusions sprays...You can get yours here!

I hope you love them as much as me!

Sarah x

Sneaky Peek... New Products Coming Soon!

Just a very quick post from me today, and a little sneak peek at some fun new products coming very VERY soon, I had to test them out of course! ;o) ...

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Create & Craft Show Dates

 Just a quick post to let you know my next Create & Craft show dates and times!

Sunday 14th April

11am - Letraset

4pm - Letraset

Tuesday 16th April

5pm - Letraset

I'll have some more new things to show you, I'll also have the wonderful Flexmarkers (yay!) and lots of tips, tricks and demos (as many as I can fit in anyway!) I hope you can tune in...

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Promarker Skintone Colour Practice

Lots and lots of you ended up requesting that I share some of my favourite colour combos for Promarker skintones, I didn't realise the suggestion would be so popular! so today I'm happy to share my practice sheet that you saw me start on TV last week, I've added a few more since then so the range of skintones goes from very pale through to darker and even includes an undead zombie one!

You just need to click on the picture and save it to your computer, I've typed the colours underneath too in case you can't read my messy pink glittery scrawl! lol

I'd love to hear some of your favourite combos, so please feel free to share them in the comments here. If you would like to download this practice sheet blank to fill out yourself, just scroll back a few posts and it's there for you!

I have some more Create & Craft shows coming up soon, I'll put the dates and times on my blog tomorrow, so keep a look out :o) 

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Sepia Colouring with Promarkers

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who watched the Create & Craft shows last week and emailed in, tweeted / facebooked etc... it's lovely to get all of your feedback, makes all the hard work worthwhile! One of the things we got the most emails about (I do read them all after the show even if they are not read out on air!) was the Sepia colouring I showed. I will show this again on a future show, but in the meantime, here is the card I made as a reference for you...

The image is Queenie and Princess from the Little Darlings range, I stamped it with an Adirondack inkpad in Espresso (the softer brown colour is much better with Sepia colouring) the Promarker colours I used are - Burnt Sienna, Cinnamon, Tan, Putty and Almond. Here is a little close up...

The papers used are from Craftwork Cards & the Grace Taylor range (from Trimcraft stockists) and I have distressed the edges and run a tan Promarker along the edges to define the layers (great if you don't want to use distress inks as it gives just a soft bleed)

If you have a favourite image that you would like to me show in sepia, please let me know here in the comments, I will try to do two or three of them over the next few weeks to give you more Sepia inspiration!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Promarker Practice Sheet - Skintones

If you are watching Create & Craft live right now, this may well have come up already (or I might be about to talk about it!) but I have put together a practice sheet for you with a quick face I doodled, so you can practice skintones and keep this as a reference with the colours you used for when you're colouring in your images - kind of like your colour charts!

Click here to download yours now! 

If you would like me to share my chart that I complete over the course of the next few days during my show, then please let me know and I will upload it as soon as I can for you to have a look at some of my favourite skintone combos.

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

p.s. there are just a few days left for our DT call! see all the details here

Create & Craft Shows

Just a quick reminder that I will be back on Create & Craft tonight, tomorrow and Saturday! Today's show has been rescheduled from 8pm to 10pm, so if you had it set to record, don't forget to change it!

I hope you can join me, there are some fab Promarker sets and stamps, here is a little peek at one of my demos, some unusual choices for skintones... ;o)

If you pop back later I have a little download scheduled for you too to fit with the new sets :o)

Thanks for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Free SVG Cutting File

Another little freebie from me today - I must be in a generous mood! (it's the promise of all that chocolate at Easter, haha) today, an SVG cutting file, perfect for your last minute Easter projects...

Click here to download your file!

I'd love to see your makes with it if you want to share them here in the comments or over on my Facebook page

Just a quick reminder of a few things too! I have more Create & Craft show dates added, and I'll be back on your screens Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week (see times on the right) with some lovely Promarker sets and as many demos as I can possibly cram in - get ready to email me your questions into the studio!

There is also just over a week left on my DT call - see all the details here! and last but not least, the March 'A Few of My Favourite Things...' kits are in single figures and will be sent out tomorrow - if you want one, grab it quick!!! available here in my shop.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

p.s. if you missed the free digi stamp yesterday, scroll back one post for your cute bunny download! :o) 

Papercraft Inspirations Easter Blog Party - Free Digi Stamp!

Today I'm taking part in the Papercraft Inspirations Easter Blog Party! I have a free digi stamp to giveaway and a little project that I made with it to show you!

First up, a little springy card using the free bunny digi stamp, I printed him onto bleedproof paper and coloured him with Promarkers, using the blender pen to create texture to make him look fluffy!

 

The gingham paper is from a Rico designs pad, with the green strip left over from another project, I hand cut along one side to create a grassy effect. 

The die cut panel was made using the Cricut Mini and I stamped a sentiment into the centre finishing off with a fabric bow and a resin rose.

To make your own springy creation using my cute bunny, you can click below to download your free digi stamp

 Click here to download your free digi stamp

The kit includes one black and white file and one of my hand coloured images for you to use in your projects or as a colouring guide.

I'd love to see your makes with it if you would like to share here in the comments or over on my Facebook page.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

p.s. please check out the updated Create & Craft show times on the right!

Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral Challenge!

Today I'm sharing my entry for the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Challenge! I've actually only ever entered one other challenge before (by my lovely crafty friend Fab) can you believe that?! but as soon as I saw this one, an idea came to me and I just had to do it! So here is my altered vintage wooden spool...

I don't often craft with flowers, I'm not really a 'flowery' type of girl, lol, but I'd had in my head, a picture of metal flowers, I tried cutting them from aluminum but I couldn't mould them as much as I wanted to so I had the idea of covering grunge paper with one of the Ranger foil sheets before die cutting with the Tim Holtz / Sizzix Tattered Floral Die, and that worked a treat! Once cut, they looked exactly as I'd pictured all along (and how often does that happen?? lol) Here are a few more close ups...

I wanted the metal finish to be more aged and not too bright and shiny so once I'd made the flowers up, I dabbed a tiny bit of the new Distress paint in black soot onto my craft sheet, misted it with water and then used my finger to dab it onto the petals before drying with a heat gun. I then finished them off with a dab of crackle accents to make them even more vintagey (yes, it's a word! lol) and the tiniest hint of Rock Candy stickles. Here's a close up...

The vintage fabric label is from Rico, I scrunched it and aged it with Distress stains in antique linen and tea dye, then done the same to a ticket. I added a layer of crackle accents to the ticket and then cracked even more after by re-scrunching (also a word... ;o) )

I joined the label and the ticket together with a little paperclip and added one of the tiny game spinners and a vintage glass button, tied through with some cream button twine

I didn't do an awful lot to the vintage spool (available in my shop) just added a touch of tea dye distress stain to the edges and the coated in rock candy stickles before drying off with a heat gun. I added a length of twill ribbon around the centre, plugged the centre with a scrap of the grunge paper that was left over to create a little step for the doll (also from Tim Holtz) - I love broken and disembodied dolls (weird, right?) so had to include this one! I filled the gap with Beacon Adhesives 3 in 1 glue and held him in there for a few minutes until it dried around him, then added blobs of Beacon 3in1 around the cotton reel and to the bottoms of the flowers to secure them in place around him on top of the cotton reel.

I finished it with a hint of rock candy stickles on the dolls hair...

Thanks for bearing with me through that epic post! I hope you liked my creation.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

p.s. scroll back for the DT call details and new Create & Craft TV show dates! :o) x 

Scrapbooking with American Crafts & new Create & Craft TV Show dates!

First up, I want to share a LO I made the other night, since my studio has been moved around and I have more space, I've re-found my mojo and I'm loving it! I've been colouring, card making, scrapping and art journaling my little socks off every night for at least an hour before I head off to bed! This is the page I made the other night...

The paper is from the new Dear Lizzy line for American crafts, I just fell in love with it and didn't want to cover it all up, so I used one instagram pic of B and Fuzzybutt, and layered with some more Dear Lizzy and Amy Tangerine papers, I also added some stitching, foil thickers (love!!) and I made a bow from glitter tape - I'm having a bit of a gold moment recently, it goes with both my neutrals and neons which is what I seem to be working with mostly at the moment. Here are a few close ups...

I love using American Crafts products, everything is such great quality and nearly everything they produce is totally my style! Everything used in this layout was from Sarah's Cards (thats not me by the way, another Sarah!)

I also have two new show dates for you today! I will be back on your screens, next Friday (bank holiday - yay!) 29th at 10am and 2pm with some new Promarker sets and demos, I hope you can tune in!

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

p.s. the 'A Few of My Favourite Things...' kit reveals went out yesterday, so check your inboxes!!

Be Amazing!

Last week when my new art journal stamps came in, I couldn't wait to have a go with them myself! Unfortunately my art journal was wet as I'd just done lots of inky pages, but I grabbed a card blank and had a go on that instead!

I showed you a little sneaky peek of this in my last post, but here is the whole thing! I used Pentel watercolour tubes to make a painty background - I'm usually not a fan of watercolours but these come out almost like acrylics they're so rich so I can still get the bold colours and the bit of texture that I like in my work.

I used the bubble wrap stamp from my backgrounds set with a Hero Arts neon inkpad and randomly stamped over the top once dry (I used a heat gun, too impatient!) then using a Staz on ink pad I stamped my girl and accessories onto a separate piece of card and coloured them with Pentel watercolour pens and a waterbrush

Finally I layered everything together and stamped the border and 'Be Amazing' words along with lots of the bookprint stars (my fave!) and doodled with a white gel pen to highlight a few of them

You can get hold of my art journal stamps here and check out your local Pentel stockist here.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x