“And already the start of another week …

What is it with weekends that they always seem to be over as soon as they have begun … Now it is already Monday night and the working week has taken over yet again.
Today I would like to share another Rabbie Burns card with you. But this time his songs provided the inspiration, so I combined the rubber stamp SC125HF by Crafty Stamps with a music sheet embossing folder by Darice. For the ornamental die-cut shape I used a Marianne Design die.

The second card features the famous Greyfriars Bobby. This time I used the stamp SC118B by Crafty Stamps. I combined the image with an embossed background, thistles, ribbon roses and die-cut leaves created with a Crealies die CL CS 16.
I hope you like the cards and are looking forward to more Scottish and Celtic cards.”

Heike McIntosh
Freelance Card Designer, Edinburgh

If you want to see some of Heike’s other great creations, why not follow her blogs on her own site: “Heike’s Card and Craft Designs”

“Rabbie Burns

The main season for Burns Nights might lie behind us, but Rabbie Burns is always a good choice for Scottish cards. And Rabbie Burns images are also brilliant for the often so tricky male cards.

I created the card above with the Rabbie Burns stamp SC125HF by Crafty Stamps, a cling-mounted rubber stamp. The image is coloured in using Spectrum Noir pens.

The book is created using a QuicKutz die. Marianne Design dies took care of the tree and the fence. For the background I used a vintage word background stamp by Heartfelt Creations (sorry, it is not a poem by Rabbie Burns), which I used with a VersaFine ink pad in ‘Vintage Sepia’ on parchment paper by Crafter’s Companion. For the ageing look around the edges I used a ‘tea dye’ distress ink pad.”

Heike McIntosh
Freelance Card Designer, Edinburgh

“Here are now two more Celtic cards.

Celtic Impressions II

Do you remember the Celtic knot stamp that I used for yesterday’s card? For the card above I used again the Celtic knot CT133Q by Crafty Stamps, but this time I cut the image into pieces. I stamped the image and cut it then into quarters using a metal ruler and a craft knife. I avoided cutting through the entire cardstock surrounding the image, so that the pieces stayed together and to make it easier to cut equal sections. Then I cut the newly created corner pieces out and coloured the lines with ProMarkers in ‘Mustard’ and ‘Honeycomb’.

For the background I used a piece of Gemstones cardstock that I ran through a Darice embossing folder. The embossing folder is roughly A6 and therefore narrower than the square card blank, but by centering it I could work around that.

For the second card I used the Celtic knot stamp CT107D by Crafty Stamps and gave the card a floral touch. A Crealies Creative Flowers die CL CF 05, Heartfelt Creations Perfect Petals dies and Heartfelt Creations Elegant Single Leaves stamp set took care of the flowers and leaves. For the centre of the flowers I used a Paper Pen, but Liquid Pearls will do the same job.

This time I used ProMarkers in ‘Soft Peach’, ‘Peach’, Pastel Beige’, ‘Umber’ and ‘Ice Grey 1′ (for a bit of shading) to colour in the Celtic knot. For the border strip I used a Tonic Studios Celtic Border Simplicity Pattern Punch.

I hope you like these cards and will keep an eye out for the next Scottish and Celtic cards, which will follow very soon.”

Heike McIntosh
Freelance Card Designer, Edinburgh

“Celtic Impressions I

“From Scotland with love …

One of my resolutions for 2012 is that I want to dedicate more time to Scottish and Celtic cards. So you will see a lot more projects with these themes going forward.

A recent blog post by the lovely and talented Louise provided me with inspiration for some crafty playtime and experimenting with a more simplistic style. It is just always so tempting to try something different.

For my take on the technique, for which I did not follow the one-layer principle, I used:

• Thistle stamp SC113HF by Crafty Stamps
• Sentiment stamp
• Textured cardstock in white, light purple and dark purple
• Neenah card
• Dovecraft adhesive gemstones
• Heart cutting dies
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink in ‘milled lavender‘ and ‘dusty concord‘
• Black VersaFine ink pad
• Adhesive (incl. low tack masking tape)
• Stipple brushes
• Sticky notes and pencil
• Toolbox essentials

This is how I created the main section of the card:

Initially I used a sticky note, drew a pencil line along the inside of the heart cutting die and cut the heart shape out to create a mask. In the next step I stencilled the heart in ‘milled lavender’ onto the piece of Neenah card with the heart die held in place by small pieces of low tack masking tape. Then I masked this heart after a short drying time, re-positioned the heart cutting die and applied the ‘dusty concord’ distress ink. Eventually I stamped the thistles in black ink, so that they overlapped both hearts.”

Heike McIntosh
Freelance Card Designer, Edinburgh

Heike runs her own blog where she showcases her work (details provided after we have run this series), and what’s better she has teamed up with Stampers Grove, to produce some lovely cards using among other things our own range of Crafty Stamps Cling rubber stamps.

Heike has allowed us use them on our website together with instructions should you wish to reproduce these yourselves.

Over the next few days we will be posting one a day of her designs together with instructions. To whet your appetite we show you the cards made over this series. The intructions will follow for each over the next few days.

We have a few places left as things stand, but they are filling.

As its so visual, I think photos of some of Yvonne’s recent work is as good a way as any to show you what it is all about.

I’ve been labouring over the words to describe it, but I thought I should at least attempt to.

Art Journaling description by James Dennison:

“a fun, creative, visual way of expressing a moment, a thought, an idea, your personality on paper. Can be for sharing or more private. Whatever you want it to be. No limits.”

Ok I tried! Over to you Yvonne.

If you would like to learn more (and I’ve not put you off!), and join Yvonne, let us know as soon as possible.

The cost of the workshop is £12 and as usual spaces are limited – payment required to confirm booking.

If you come along just bring yourself and an open mind!

We have only 2 places left for this workshop, so if you are interested in joining us and Marita and learn how to create your own beautiful canvas please let us know as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

The cost is only £12.

Hope to see you there!

The magazine is aimed at stampers of all levels of experience from beginners to the experienced stamper.

In each issue you will find some great projects with step by step instructions, including photographs which are designed to be quick and easy to understand. In one of these projects you will be shown a great way to make use of the FREE stamp that accompanies every edition of the magazine.

We are contemplating also ordering the Scrap 365 magazine shortly. However in the interests of ensuring we are getting the right products for our customers we invite you to let us know whether or not this is a magazine you would buy from us before we make a final decision on this.

Thanks for reading! Happy Stamping!

Take a look and see what is happening at Stampers Grove, and be one of the first to see our list of forthcoming workshops/free demos.

As usual the workshops are on a first come first served basis, so if anything catches your eye, be sure to be in touch soon.

If you want to be added to our mailing list and receive the Newsletters as they come out directly by email, let us know, click on the Mailing List tab on our website, or for ease click here and fill in your details.