Happy Halloween (SCF Design Team project)

Here’s my submission for this month’s Scrapbooking & Crafting Friends design team using a stamp by MyGrafico called Little Witch 1. Now I know I’ve said before that I just don’t ‘do’ Halloween, but I couldn’t resist this stamp. It was simply too cute and a great way to wean myself in to Autumn here in the UK!

Now there’s no video today, because I just felt like sitting at my craft desk and making a card without the camcorder whirring away above me…and I had a blast ;-)


The font for the Happy Halloween is called ‘Impact Label’ which I embossed straight out of the printer to get it to look similar to that Dymo Tape I used to label everything with as a kid. My stationary was really anally organised back then. Much like my craft room is organised now…I wish =)

The digi stamp is coloured using a mixture of copic markers and pencil crayons, a technique which I demonstrate in this video post. I then highlighted all the cobwebs with glittery Stickles and made the spider’s and the cat’s nose ‘3d’ with some glossy accents. Great fun!

Don't forget to follow my blog (link in the right sidebar)----------------------------------------------->

Have a spooctacular day =)

It’s a GIRL!

This card is for a new baby girl, and can be easily converted to an “it’s a boy” by using blue themed papers and changing the sentiment. I’ve used a set of digi stamps called "On the Line" from MyGrafico.

I’ve used the paper piecing sentiment for the whole of this card, so there was a lot of cutting out required! But it was worth it in the end, and I just LOVE the little baby-gro effect, it’s super cute =)

The sentiment does not come with the digi stamps, but I created it in no time using MS Word. The font was Helvetidoodle by Ed T, which you can download for free at DaFont.com – an absolute treasure trove of super fonts to suit all different tastes and needs.

The video is below, as usual, don’t forget to head over to my YT Channel to rate & subscribe!

Watch here | Watch at You Tube

Wild Flower Card

This card uses a gorgeous set called Wild Flower Stamps from MyGrafico and if you can’t be bothered to colour them in yourself, they sell the same set pre-digitally coloured – yay!

I spent quite a lot of time cutting out all of the features of this card, but it was so worth it in the end. I just love this effect! I’ve got more plans for this technique…

I have done a video tutorial on this – and it was a labour of love I can tell you! My computer died, just as I finished editing the video and I lost it all, despite saving a zillion times, and I ended up reinstalling my pc and starting from scratch. So it’s three days later than originally planned. Grr!

I also have news – I’ve been accepted as a YouTube Partner!!! I’m so excited about this new development. Apart from anything, it means I get to choose the thumbnail on my videos, which is 100 times better than the thumbnails YT picks for you =)

So without further ado, here’s my latest video! Please rate & subscribe =)

Watch it here | Watch over at YouTube

Spring…has sprung!

It’s a few days later than I planned for this to go up – but I’ve been having some major issues rendering my videos on my laptop. It does NOT like HD, whereas I cannot get enough of it. So we are currently not speaking, me and my pc. Darn thing, grr.
However, it still great for using digi stamps with, so it’s not all bad =)
I’ve never made a ‘Spring’ card before, but the weather has been far nicer of late and has put me in a very Spring-like mood, so this year I thought I’d give one a go.

I’ve used the Springtime Birds Digital Stamps set by Cocoa Studios from MyGrafico and this is a very cute stamp set. I love the other stamps in this set too, especially the bird with the flower in its mouth – so darn sweet =) 

So many different cards to be made with this set. I’ve printed it out on Core-dinations Whitewash cardstock, because the ink doesn’t smudge one iota even when using alcohol inks to colour in the images. Alternatively, you could paper-piece and print on patterned paper, or prepare any cardstock using clear matte gel medium acrylic paint before printing. This gives you time to hit the design with clear e.p. before the printer ink dries, sealing your design ready for smudge-free colouring.

As usual the video is below. Please head over to my YT Channel to rate & subscribe. I do hope you enjoy watching! Do leave a comment if you wish – I always love hearing from you all!

BLOG CANDY {Giveaway} - One Year in Video Blogging

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR THE WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY!

This project marks my first anniversary in video blogging!

So to celebrate I am giving away the project I have created to one lucky winner, and also one set of the digital files & stamps I used to make it to another winner.

To enter the competition, please leave a comment in the following places:
{1} under the video entry at YouTube
{2} on the video post at MyGrafico.com
and
{3} comment on this blog entry.
To improve your chances of winning, you may enter three times by leaving one comment at each  site!




If you can’t wait until the draw date, you can purchase the sets by Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff from MyGrafico by clicking on these links:
Recipe Cards & Folio SVG files (for Cricut)
Recipe Cards Digital Stamp set

Good luck!

Rules: You can enter 3 times by commenting on each site (here at my blog, YouTube and MyGrafico) To make this fair, please submit only one comment per person per site – all comments will be checked =) International entries welcome

The closing date is midnight (GMT) on Saturday 27th February. 

The video is below as usual. Don’t forget to subscribe over at my YT Channel and to follow my blog to see my future projects and video tutorials =)

Best Friends

Hi there! Today’s card uses some super cute digi stamps from MyGrafico called “Best Friends Stickie” stamp set. I love all of these stamps in this set – so much so that I used one on the front of the card, and one on the inside just for good measure!! [EDITED TO NOTE: this set is no longer available from MG. Please contact the designer at http://justsomelinesblog.blogspot.com/ for more information.]


The stamp was printed using normal ink jet ink onto Coordination's Whitewash cardstock. I could then use my copic markers straight onto the ink without it smudging, which is great because this means there was no need to prep the paper with acrylic gel medium prior to printing. And the Whitewash cardstock has a lovely linen type texture, which always gives a professional finish to cards.

The patterned paper was from My Mind’s Eye and is their Laundry Line Collection. I just love MME papers. It seems every collection pack I buy is by them – and I’ve bought it even before I realise it’s MME again but I just can’t get enough of their papers. Scrumptious! ;0)

Anyway, hopefully you’ll notice in the video below, I’ve gone High Definition at long last! I’ve had some trouble rendering this, so I’ve still a few things to iron out, but hopefully, this will be a better viewing experience for you all to see the nitty gritty of what I’m doing!

Please hop over to my YT Channel to rate and subscribe, and as usual, thanks so much for watching and for your lovely comments ;0)

Angelic Christmas!

Well, it’s that time of year again! Every year I say I will make all of my Christmas cards in October, and even get some batches made up to sell, but every year, time gets ahead of me and I end up running around like a mad woman trying to fit everything in!! Work has gone crazy busy at the moment too, so it’s been really difficult to get to my craft desk at all, let alone get some video tutorials done! But I had great fun doing this card, so I really must try to fit some more in this week ;0)

My little angel was printed onto gesso prepared c.s. which enabled me to hit the ink with clear e.p. before it dried, but unfortunately, the gesso didn’t quite agree with my copic markers. That’s to say, they’re not damaged in any way, but they just didn’t blend as nicely on the gesso as they would’ve on the gel acrylic prepared c.s. So, note to self – only use matte gel medium for preparing c.s. in future, just use gesso for texture!

I just love all the glitter on this card. I’m not usually one for lots of glitter, but Christmas is a great time to really go for it on the glitter…

The video is below. Now, I’ve asked Santa for an HD Camcorder this year (Santa is otherwise known as my Hubby!!) so these videos will potentially be higher quality in the New Year, enabling me to zoom in more on the detail. But for now, I hope this is enough for you to see what I’m doing. Please hop over to my YT Channel to rate and subscribe!

Thanks for watching!

Quick Triangle Box tutorial

These boxes are so popular at the moment, and I can totally see why – they are so ridiculously simple and easy to make! You don’t even need a template to cut around, just a rectangle of your favourite patterned cardstock and a few score lines as shown below:
Dead easy! I've used papers from MyGrafico - (Tyka Patterns & Chocolate Mint Papers) they also have a great selection of Halloween and Christmas papers, making this project a great way to wrap a simple gift like sweeties or even something more personal, like jewellery. Digi papers are great because you can print them out on exactly the right weight cardstock/paper for the project you're doing. This was perfect for this box as the rigidity is necessary to protect the gift. Most patterned paper just wouldn’t cut the mustard for this ;0)

You could also be more adventurous and cut out a window and cover with acetate on the inside before assembling. This would give a great ‘peep-hole’ if you were filling with sweets. You could also print on both sides of the cardstock if you were doing this, so that the colour would show through the window.
The tutorial video is below. If you enjoyed this tutorial, I’d love if you could leave a comment or a link to a project that this has inspired you to make – it would be great to see what you’ve made! Please hop over to my YT channel to rate & subscribe. Thanks for watching! ;0)

Metallic Masculine Card

Today's card is a VERY masculine card. It's for my brother who celebrated his 32nd birthday this week. He's really into all things metal - he's always tinkering with cars in the garage and he likes everything to be 'just so' - hence the card I've created for him is very balanced/symmetrical, very metallic and no-frills. It's not necessarily my kind of card (if I'm truly honest, it's really not my thing!) but it just know he'll love it. I hope you will like it too, but I understand if you don't as this is not everyone's cup of tea ;0)

The card incorporates real metal, from a Pepsi can I (very carefully!) cut up, flattened, punched out several squares and cuttlebugged using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I've used thin chipboard squares to create a chess board effect alongside the metal squares. I stapled the chipboard squares in a cross just to add to the metal theme. I then had to run these through the Cuttlebug to flatten the staples to allow me to adhere them down to the project. I did this by stacking my A plate, an embossing folder (with nothing inside it - this is just to pad out the stack), then a B plate (embossing plate), a piece of card to cushion the staples and a final B plate (cutting plate).

Sounds complicated, but essentially all I've done is create a stack thick enough to compress the staples, without causing damage to my machine ;0) You may need to vary this stack as each machine may differ. DON'T FORCE your machine, just remove a layer of c.s. if it's too difficult to turn the handle.

The sentiment part of the card uses a Fun Doodle Tags stamp set from MyGrafico.com (no longer available from MG, the link to the designer's website, Pixels&IceCream, can be found here). I just *HEART* this stamp set! It has so many uses! I'm always flapping around trying to find something suitable to stamp my sentiment onto, so this a great stamp set that's a must-have for everyone's crafting stash. And don't forget, as it's digital, you can resize any of the 8 tags to fit any width of sentiment, and therefore to suit any project - so that makes it great for scrapbooking too.

So, the video is below. I hope you enjoy watching me make this card - if you do, please hop over to YT to rate and subscribe. Your comments are always appreciated and I hope it inspires you to be ever more creative with those pesky masculine cards!! ;0)

Butterfly Garden

I wanted to have a play around with something 3d for this card…so I used vellum to create this really vibrant colourful butterfly. I’ve used some digital stamps and clipart from MyGrafico. First off, I prepared the vellum with 4 or 5 layers of acrylic matte gel medium. This was to strengthen the vellum, so it would be able to stand up to being the 3d focal point of this card without going flat/creased or (worse still) tearing, due to the vellum being so delicate. I used gel medium because it dries matte and clear. If you’re on a budget, you can always use PVA glue on the reverse of the design as this will do the same thing, but of course it will dry shiny not matte.

I used clear embossing powder to ‘set’ the digital print out on the vellum, but then I re-heated the clear embossing powder and whacked some black e.p. over the top. Doing it this way instead of hitting it with the black e.p. first off, gives you a much messier, splotchy effect.

Depending on what you’re going for depends which way you approach this. I liked the effect – after all, butterflies don’t tend to be subtle, pastel coloured things – they’re usually vibrant and gorgeous in their brilliance. I like the fact that this butterfly STANDS OUT but doesn’t overpower the card. Shame I forget its antennae…was going to add some twisted wire, but I forgot. Oops!

The video below shows you the card from start to finish. I hope it’s informative and shows you how great the digi stamps and clip arts can be when combined in a project. I just love playing about with them – in fact the only thing that is holding me back now is my printer’s run out of ink! ;0)

Please hop over to YT to rate and subscribe…thanks for watching!

Creating a background using digital stamps

This card was inspired by a recent card I saw on Kristina's blog. I know it looks nothing like her card, but as soon as I saw hers, the design and colour scheme for this card came straight to mind, and this is almost exactly how I imagined it, apart from the pink heart. I don’t like the pink heart a whole lot, but I thought I’d show you guys the finished result anyway…

I think if I was making this again, I would probably print out another, larger heart onto the lavender cardstock, embossing in silver, then layer beneath the smaller dark purple heart. I may even change this card to reflect that as I’m really not feeling that pink heart. Or just stick with the single dark purple heart as the whole focal piece?

Anyway, the whole point of this was to use Mujka’s digital design for the background left hand side (above), as this is what sprang to mind when watching Kristina make her card I talked about earlier.

I simply love this ornate pattern, which was originally designed for wedding RSVPs and invites etc. So that’s why I think it works well on this love themed card. You can download this for free at MyGrafico once their new site is up and running again. I’m already looking forward to it as I’m sure it’s going to be great! :0)
Tonight I sat and planned about 8 cards in my sketchbook (!) so I have a load to get making, and a rare day to myself tomorrow, so I will have fun playing & get a few of them videoed to show over the next few weeks.

Head above the rest!

Silly me, I posted my video up on YouTube on Thursday, but I forgot to post it here on my blog - d'oh! I've had a busy weekend in the garden so nothing new since then either...but I thought I'd share this card with you in more detail.

I went fully digital for this card, and that includes the background - this is printed straight from Photoshop. I've always wondered how to do a repetitive background, without having to draw each and every bit of it, and I came across this video which showed me how to use the grid/tile function in CS4 - brilliant! So it was dead easy, and very quick too, once you know how!

Then I printed out the giraffe from MyGrafico.com using these digital stamps onto specially prepared paper. This is a great technique I learnt from Mel (one of many of her brilliant ideas) and it makes embossing digital images a whizz.

First, paint your card (patterned/coloured/plain) with a thin coat of acrylic gel medium (in matte) and leave to dry, or force-dry with a heat gun. Print onto this as normal, but be ready to hit it with your clear embossing powder AS SOON AS it comes out of the printer. Then just emboss like a normal rubber/acrylic stamp. This means that the ink is 'set' and will not smudge/smear as you colour the image in. The gel medium also dries completely clear, so you can totally go to town with this technique using patterned paper and embossing resist techniques.

I used my spangly new copic markers and I love the way they colour on this card coated in gel medium (it's different to colouring on normal cardstock, but it's very effective - I'd say it's even easier and quicker this way!).

So, hope you like the card, the video is below. As usual, don't forget to click on the HQ button in the right hand corner after pressing play. Please head over to YT to rate & subscribe - thanks for watching ;0)

A little birdie told me...

Hi! No video tutorial today I'm afraid...I wanted to get my first copic marker card up on this blog so I was in with a chance of winning copic markers - THE MOST FANTASTIC blog candy ever!! Whoever wins this will be soooo lucky, cos copic markers are just awesome....I've put off buying some for ages, cos they're so expensive and I thought "You know, what's all the fuss about" so I ordered a couple from Click on Crafts (£1.99 each plus £1.50 postage for 8 of the little beauties).

And I'm so glad I did....it was so much fun playing around with these things; why oh why didn't I get some before?? I am now an official worshipper of these beauties.....still wish they were cheaper, but hey, a gals gotta treat herself occasionally, right?

I'll be back later in the week to show a similar card to demonstrate this copic marker technique using digital stamps. For some absolutely gorgeous digital stamping techniques, hop over to Mel's blog - she really is the Queen of Digi stamping techniques ;0)

MyGrafico.com digital stamps tutorial

The lovely people at MyGrafico very kindly asked me to do a video tutorial for them to show their viewers how easy it is to download and use digital stamps. And, having never used digi stamps myself, I thought "Why not - it'd be a great opportunity to demonstrate from one beginner to another!". And it really is easy, great fun and they're very versatile.

I'm not saying I'm going to throw out all my acrylic and rubber stamps just yet (never!!!) - I still love using stamps cos there's something satisfying about physically stamping, but I really enjoyed using the digi stamps too, as it's a different approach to stamping. There are positive's and negative's for both of course, as with all things.

But for this project, I also tried some sewing. I've always been put off by how time consuming it appeared, but actually it wasn't too bad. This flower took me about 10 minutes, and it's a nice touch to a handmade card. I'm an embroidery lover anyway (when I find the time) so it was nice to encorporate my hobbies.

I have to give credit for the ribbon stapling technique - Kristina Werner came up with this brilliant idea, and I love it! Thanks Kristina!

Below is the video tutorial. Don't forget to click on the HQ button - after pressing play, it's in the bottom right hand corner. Take a look at MyGrafico.com - they've got some GREAT freebies (yes I said freebies!!) so there's no excuse not to give digital stamping a go....