Rubber Dance Tutorial - Sneak Peek!

Hi everyone

You now have proof I am not 'dull' over on the Rubber Dance blog where I am featuring today with a brand new tutorial and a brand new set of stamps from the lovely Bibi.

Check out my post and the tutorial over on the Rubber Dance blog by following this link.  Be prepared to get inky!  To see how my crafting journey took on a life of it's own watch the tutorial.

See you over there and thank you for popping by X

Antique Botanicals Gatefold Card Tutorial

 Hi Everyone

Hope you are enjoying the sunshine wherever you are in the Crafting World today!  I am just posting this before I pop out into the garden to finish off jet washing the patio.  I end up looking like the mud monster when I have finished!

Today's tutorial is for a pretty gatefold card using the Rubber Dance Antique Botanicals stamp set.  I love how they look against the book page background papers I decided to use.  As usual the inside matches the outside which is particularly important in a gatefold card as you can see the inside of the card when it is displayed.

The Happy Birthday die cut is from Tattered Lace.  It is a recent purchase and I thought I had lost it!  I spent an age rifling through the debris on my desk and in my bins only to realise the die was safely stored on the magnetic sheets on the back of my craft room door where it is supposed to be!!  ;-)  I know you know the feeling right???

The card dimensions for this card:

Burgundy Card Base - 11 1/2" x 5 3/4" scored and folded on the left and right sides at 2 7/8" to form a gatefold card.
Cream Card Inner - 5 1/2" square
Book page strips Inner - 5 1/2" x 3/4" (Cut 2)
Book page panels Front - 5 1/2" x 2 5/8" (Cut 2)

Here is the finished card.  I have used water colour pencils to lightly add colour to my flowers using a slightly heavier hand for the decoupaged flower in the centre.

So without further ado here is the tutorial so you can see all the fun I had creating this card.  I hope you like it enough to try it for yourself.  There are lots of colour combinations you could use and if you want to check out those gorgeous stamps over at Rubber Dance then here is the link!

Until next time - an art journal page - thank you for popping by X

Rubber Dance June Colour Challenge

Hi everyone

Today I am sharing how I made my project for the June Rubber Dance Colour Challenge.  The colours definitely pointed me in the beach direction which is perfect the optional theme for this challenge is sand and sea and as you can see and I had great fun turning a frame into a frame with a difference.  I hope you like it.

The colours for this months challenge are Ocean Blue, Lush Green and Sunny Yellow.  I used stamps from the Retro Beach collection to turn my frame into a unique way to display some beach photographs of my son Callum trying out surfing last year in Cornwall!

You can see in this close up that as well as using the pegs to display photographs on my frame I have also layered those beautiful shell images so I can tuck little photos in behind them too!  This was my second attempt at bringing this idea to life and I am really happy with how it turned out.

Please check out my tutorial to see how you can create a frame like this on to add to your home.  It is a great way to display your beach holiday photographs.

I really hope I have inspired you to pop along to the Rubber Dance blog to see all the other projects for this month's challenge and to join in with the fun by linking up a project of your own.  Click on this link to get there and don't forget each month there are fabulous stamps to be won!!!!

Phew three videos in a row from me this weekend…..I may need to go and lie down for a while now!!! ;-)

Thank you for popping by X

12 Tags of 2015 - May

Hi everyone

Today I am sharing my May tag and as you can see I had fun with a red, white and blue theme!  Well I suppose strictly speaking it is red, cream and blue ;-)

Tim used a heritage photo on his tag with burlap and tiny tattered flowers.  I chose to use denim and a photo of my two lovely boys and made teeny tiny pom pom flowers which looked fab and added great texture to my tag.

I also made my usual sampler square ready for framing at the end of the year.  Can you believe next month we are half way through already!!!

Please check out the video where you can see all the fun I had getting from Tim's inspiration to my interpretation.  I hope you are inspired to join in with this fun challenge or at least follow this link to check out the huge variety of tags this challenge inspires!

I wonder what June's tag will bring - I hope it has sunny warm weather attached ;-)  Hope you are having a fun weekend.  I am off to crop with my friends today so much chatting and coffee with cake for me!!!!  Maybe the odd scrapbook page too ha ha!

Thank you for popping by X

Alcohol Ink Ombre Effect

Hi Everyone

It is my day to feature on the Rubber Dance Blog today and I have posted a tutorial to show you how to create a lovely ombre effect using your alcohol inks.  Here is the sneak peek:

So without further ado …….please click on this link to hop over to Rubber Dance to see the cards and the tutorial.  I hope you give this technique a try as this card design is perfect if you need a card in a hurry!

Whilst you are over there don't forget we are having and anniversary blog hop to celebrate one year in Blogland and there are stamps to be won!!!!  Click on this link to find out more - grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the hop.

If you are popping by from my YouTube Tutorial then this link will take you where you want to go!!!!

Have a fabulous weekend and thank you for popping by X

Rubber Dance Colour Challenge Reminder Art Journal Page

Hi everyone

Just popping in to remind you of this months Rubber Dance Colour Challenge.  For the month of May the colours are Yellow, Pink and Purple and I am sure that you can come up with lots of wonderful projects using these sunny colours.  If you are living here in the UK you know we need all the sunshine we can get right now….We actually had hail here yesterday!!!!

There is an optional prompt of flowers this month if you need somewhere to start your creative process.

I decided to have a play in what I am calling my experimental journal and you will see from the video how I got on trying out two ways of revealing all the texture I created with my Round in Circles Rubber Dance stamps.

So the first reveal was created using a butterfly stencil from Tando and the second reveal was created by cutting around my butterfly wings to help them fly off the page!

If you watch the video you can see how much fun a colour challenge is as the first page in my experimental journal was created using the colours from the April Challenge.

So please follow this link and check out the challenge inspiration provided by my team mates this month and of course while you are there you can have a peak at the awesome Round In Circles and Think Again stamp sets that I used on my Art Journal page.

Whilst I am in the link up mood!!!! here is another link to the Rubber Dance one year blog anniversary Blog Hop!  So there are stamps to be won in the challenge and lots more to be won in the hop so get clicking!!!!

Hope you have as much fun as I did playing along with the May Colour Challenge from Rubber Dance.

Thank you for popping by X

Rubber Dance First Year Anniversary and Blog Hop

Hi Everyone

This blog hop is to celebrate the 1st year anniversary of the Rubber Dance Stamp's blog (http://rubberdance.blogspot.com).

Each member of the Design Team have chosen 3 of our own favorite DT makes for this blog hop, and we will also let you know which 3 are our favorite single stamps. 3 seems to be the lucky number here, so there'll be 3 winners, too!

TWO lucky winners drawn at random will win the Design Team members' favourite stamps!

ONE additional winner who shares this gift giveaway on Facebook gets a €20 voucher (approximately $25) to spend in the Rubber Dance webshop any time she wants! Just tell Bibi that you have shared it on Facebook when you leave a comment on the main blog (http://rubberdance.blogspot.com/…/1st-year-anniversary-give…), and you're in!

To participate in this blog hop giveaway, all you have to do is to visit the blog posts below and leave a comment on all of them. It'll just take a few minutes of your time. You do not have to be a follower on any of the blogs in our hop, but you're of course very welcome to become one - if you aren't already.

Hop along and see the Design Team's fave DT makes and fave three Rubber Dance stamps!

Susanne: http://clayscrapkreativ.blogspot.no/…/rubber-dance-1st-anni…

Majo: http://majos-art.blogspot.no/…/rubber-dance-stamps-1st-anni…

Katy: http://postcardsfromtheattic.blogspot.no/…/rubber-dance-1st…

Irit: http://iritshalom.blogspot.no/…/rubber-dance-1-st-anniversa…

Helen: http://acraftproject.blogspot.no/…/rubber-dance-first-year-… (You are Here!)

Gabriele: https://artatag.wordpress.com/…/1st-year-anniversary-givea…/

Rubber Dance blog: http://rubberdance.blogspot.com/…/1st-year-anniversary-give…

As you have read above Bibi has asked the Design Team to share our 3 of our favourite creations and pick 3 of our favourite Rubber Dance stamps that will be part of the stamp prize bundles!!!!  I am sharing creations that feature my favourite stamps so that you will have lots of ideas if you are one of the lucky winners!!!

This was my first ever Design Team creation and I just love, love, love this shell stamp!  It showcases the beautiful detail you will find in each and everyone of your Rubber Dance stamps.

Another favourite stamp of mine requires me to show you two projects so you can see the versatility of this stamp……….so starting out with the feminine and romantic …….

and moving on to the vibrant and funky!

Love these butterfly wing stamps - hopefully this counts as one stamp!!!!  You can never go wrong with a butterfly embellishment ….or hair do…….I say!

Then for my third favourite stamp and I have to say I found choosing only three very difficult indeed…….but I have chosen this cute daisy stamp!  I used a masking technique to set my daisy against a text background for this card.

So to round them up and give you the details, my three favourite stamps are; the Shell from the Beach Sentiments stamp set, the Butterfly Wings from the Collage Elements 1 set and the Daisy from the Da Vinci set!

This was a fun post to write and I hope you have enjoyed looking at just some of the projects I have created over the year using my fabulous Rubber Dance Stamps.  You will see just how versatile and inspiring these stamps are when you visit everyone on the Blog Hop - have fun and don't forget to leave a comment a quick comment along the way x

Happy Anniversary Bibi - It has been a pleasure to be part of your exciting online journey and your fabulous Design Team - I will raise a glass of something sparkling to toast to even more success and creativity in your second year!!!!  You deserve it.  Sending big hugs and kisses and hopefully lots of blog hoppers your way!!!

Thank you for hopping by!!!

Helen X

PS Hope you have enjoyed your visit to my blog - there is a video tutorial for all my Rubber Dance creations so if you want to see how to achieve any of these looks using Bibi's wonderful stamps then please click on this link to check out my Rubber Dance Playlist.