Crafty Purple Frog Sneak Peek Day 4

This is the last day of the sneak peeks and the last day that you can join the Instagram hop to try and win the "All Ears" stamp set. Today we are showing off the "Party Mouse" stamp set. 

This adorable little mouse is all set to party with a cakes, candles and party hat. 

For my first make today I stamped a whole load of cakes out and coloured them up with Spectrum noir tri-blend pens before fussy cutting them out. Next I used Heffy Doodle memo tape to mask off the bottom of a piece of card so I could ink it up in Antique linen distress ink. Then I moved the same piece of memo tape so it was now covering where I had just inked and inked the top part with Tumbled glass distress ink. To finish the back ground I stamped the Happy Birthday from the new Happy Birthday Everyone stamp set across the middle and layered it on some black before sticking it all on my card blank.

I put the cakes all over it coloured my little mouse and gave him the party hat which of course I made sparkly with nuvo drops. I stuck my mouse in the middle of the card on some foam pads so he stands out a bit and then added a load of Nuvo drops to make the background really sparkle :)

 

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

The paper shelter - A birthday card

Penny's paper crafting challenge - Anything goes with paper

Crafty sentiments - Anything goes

Lemon shortbread - Anything goes

If you have been checking out my blog for the rest of the week you may have noticed that I am a little addicted to making these stamps into little charms so of course I had to make some mouse earrings :D

Again I used Kraftin' Kimmie Hybrid ink to stamp the image on the textured side of the frosted shrink plastic before colouring it with my Spectrum noir tri-blend pens. I then made a hole above the mouse and cut the whole image out going around the hole so when I used my Wow! heat gun to shrink it they have a way to attach them to the chain. 

I added a few little heart charms from my stash and I think that is enough for these. I wanted the mouse to be the main focus :)

I am entering these earrings for the following challenges:

The house that stamps built - Anything goes

Crafty creations - Anything goes

Through the craft room door - Anything goes

Unicorn challenge - Include an animal

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Crafty Purple Frog Sneak Peek Day 3

 

For day 2 I have the "Foxy" stamp set to show you :) The DT and GDT have also done some amazing things with this stamp set so if you want to see more please check out their links which you can find on the main Crafty Purple Frog Shop Blog.

Don't forget there is also the Instagram hop going on which you can join for the chance to win the "All Ears" stamp set so why not join it and get a whole load of inspiration.

For my card today I wanted to keep it clean and simple. I stamped out the fox and then coloured him up with my spectrum noir tri-blend pens. I cut him out and then cut a strip of white card to stamp the grass from the stamp set on using twisted citron and mowed lawn distress ink. 

I stamped the sentiment from the "Foxy" stamp set before layering it on some black card and sticking it to the middle of the card blank. I put foam pads on the fox so he stands out from the card and gives a bit of depth.

 

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Get creative - Anything goes

International art and soul - A card or gift for a man

Lil' patch of crafty friends - Anything goes

Corrosive challenge - Anything goes

Dragonfly Dreams - Feature a creature

Always Fun - CAS

Crafting Happiness - Anything goes with optional bright colours

Pammies Inky Pinkies - Anything goes

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Let it shine

This is my last creation for the Altenew Educator Certification Program level 1 before my final challenge (as long as this card is good enough to pass for this class). This time I have taken inspiration from the Let it shine class . I really thought this would be the first class that I made something for as I love adding shine and sparkle to my projects, but I was so inspired by all the classes that I got caught up in them and making loads and playing with new techniques that I am amazed to say this has ended up being the 10th class of the 10 for level 1 for me.

There are so many fun ways to add shine and sparkle to your cards and for this card I have used the lessons on using foil embossing and glitter as my inspiration. After all why stop at one type of sparkle??

I started by using a ruler and drawing around my card blank with a fine liner. I knew I wanted the card itself to be quite clean and simple so the sparkle and shine stands out. I thought this would be a nice way to frame my piece without adding texture or bulk. Next I took some stix2 double sided tape and put three lines of it across the bottom of the card going about 1/3 of the way up the card and making sure I spaced the lines equally. Next one at a time I added some of the beautiful green Stix2 foil from the Celebration set to each piece of tape. By the way be ready to see a lot more foil on my projects as this is a beautiful look! 

The stamp set that I went for is an older set but it is new to me and is called Beautiful Day. I fell in love with the flower and those leaves. I knew right away that I wanted to use just the block leaf stencil and emboss them with Wow! gold embossing powder. I love the way this gives both shine and texture to the leaves. For the flower I stamped the outline in Altenew crisp black ink and then stamped two of the layers in Puffy Heart and then Magenta Altenew crisp dye inks. I cut everything out with the coordinating dies and attached the leaves flat onto the card base but popped the flower up on some foam pads. The sentiment is also from this stamp set and I think it is just perfect to cheer someone up.

Two types of sparkle was not quite enough for me and of course I had to use some Nuvo drops this time as well as scattering a few across the card I also used the same ones in the centre of the flower to add a bit of sparkle to that too. 

I hope you are all having a great week and staying safe.

 I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments - Anything goes

Through the craft room door - Anything goes

Always fun - CAS

Crafting Happiness - Anything goes with option of bright colours

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Crafty Purple Frog Sneak Peek day 2

For day 2 I have the "Blooming Marvellous" stamp set to show you :) The DT and GDT have also done some amazing things with this stamp set so if you want to see more please check out their links which you can find on the main Crafty Purple Frog Shop Blog.

Don't forget there is also the Instagram hop going on which you can join for the chance to win the "All Ears" stamp set so why not join it and get a whole load of inspiration.

For my first project I have done some more shrink plastic charms. I thought I would add some of the leaves as well as the bee and use a few of the flower shaped beads that I had in my stash. For this bracelet I threaded the 8mm glass beads along with the flower beads and my shrink plastic charms on some tiger tail wire and added the toggle clasp to the ends of it.

For my second make I decided to try out a bookmark. I used some of the same 8mm black glass beads but added a larger glass bead and some small silver spacer beads before putting it on some silver chain. 

I am entering these for the following challenges:

Get creative - Anything goes

613 Avenue create - In the garden

Dragonfly dreams - Feature a creature

Corrosive challenge - Anything goes

We love to create - Anything creative goes

Sunday stamps - Colour inspiration

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

 

Crafty Purple Frog New release day 1

I am really excited to be able to show you the brand new "All ears" stamp set. I had so much fun creating with this hare. And make sure you check out the Crafty purple frog Instagram for a little Instagram hop that is running until Thursday. You could win this stamp set by joining in and you get to see loads of inspiration as well :)

If you love all things Crafty Purple Frog and want to grab the whole release at a bargain price there are a limited number of buy it all bundles available now to pre-order right HERE. Be quick though as they will sell fast!

 Now onto my makes for today. I thought I would have a go at some jewellery making. I used to make lots of jewellery but haven't had a go for a while. I have to say I really enjoyed the process. I used some shrink plastic to turn my stamped images into little charms. 

To do this I stamped them onto some frosted shrink plastic using Kraftin' Kimmies hybrid ink. The hybrid ink meant that I could then colour using my alcohol markers. When you shrink the image with your heat gun the colour intensifies so I stuck to the lighter shades of my tri-blends when I coloured up these hares. I used scissors to cut around the images once I had given them a little bit of time to dry. Make sure you leave some extra plastic where you want to have a hole for a jewellery fixing to go. For these I left extra space at the top of one of it's ears and made a hole with scissors but you could also use a hole punch to make your hole. the hole will shrink along with the rest of the image when heated so make it a decent size.

Once I had my little charms I then went through my bead collection laying the beads out on a bead mat until I was happy with the look. I ended up with the necklace and earing set :D

I hope you can join our hop and that we can inspire you :)

 I am entering this jewellery for the following challenges:

Moving along with the times - Animals/birds

Gem of a challenge - Anything goes

I have also made a card Using the awesome Hare and used the little stamps that come with the set to make my own patterned paper.

I just love the way these glasses look and they will also fit the other animals in this release as well as the Badger from "The sett" stamp set. There are also a couple of tiny stamps in this set to be able to give the Hare some great eye lashes like I have here. To finish off I covered the lenses in glossy accents.

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Corrosive challenge - Anything goes

Dragonfly dreams - Feature a creature

Avenue 613 - In the garden

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

The DT and GDT have also done some amazing things with this stamp set so if you want to see more please check out their links which you can find on the main Crafty Purple Frog Shop Blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Scene building

This is my next creation for the Altenew Educator Certification Program. This time I have taken inspiration from the Seasonal Scene Building class. This is card I was inspired by the lesson on shaker cards and how they can enhance a scene. I started by masking around the edges of a card blank and then doing some ink blending with 3 shades of blue Altenew crisp dye ink (Dew drops, Aqualicious and Teal cave). 

I don't know about you but shaker cards always make me smile so I wanted a happy sentiment I used a sentiment from the Build - a - flower: Poppy stamp set. I used the fact it is a clear stamp and so flexible to curve the sentiment so it echo's the shape of the flower. I then stamped it straight onto the ink blending I had done.

Next I made a frame using some stitched rectangle dies and stuck it to a piece of acetate. I trimmed the acetate to fit the frame before using two layers of foam tape  to pop the frame up away from the card and give space for the glass seed beads and Wow! Embossing earth sparkles glitter that I wanted to use.

To finish it off and make my scene I wanted to have a flower coming up at the front as if it was growing onto the card. I did something a bit different with this one and mixed up my sets so that the flower had a long stem and I felt a nice shape in the corner. So the stem and leaves are from the Build-a-Flower: Poppy set while the flower itself is from the Build-a-Flower: Hawaiian Coral set. The stem and leaves I left just stamped in the Altenew crisp black ink while for the flower I used just two more colours so that it pops from the blue and they are Pinkalicious and Fresh Lemon.

I hope you are all having a great week and staying safe.

 I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Crafty Creations - Anything goes

Mod squad - Flowers

Paper funday - Spring has sprung

Shopping our stash - Plant life

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Having fun with stencils :D

 This is my next creation for the Altenew Educator Certification Program. This time I have taken inspiration from the Celebration: Stencil techniques class I was so inspired by the many ways that the stencils were used. I thought I would challenge myself to use an Altenew stencil that I have in a way I had not thought of before. I used the graffiti scribble stencil and decided I wanted to try and make it seem a bit more like foliage for a background on a card. 

I started by ink blending a background on some water colour card stock. I used the following Altenew crisp dye inks for my card:

Blue: Dew drops, Aqualicious

Green: Firefly, Parrot

Pink: Blush, Puffy Heart, Magenta

Yellow: Fresh Lemon, Honey drizzle

To add even more depth and this is also part of one of the other lessons in this amazing class, I inked over a portion of the stencil as well on top of the kind of ink smooshed background this gives the revers affect of using the stencil to print with as I really like how it ended up looking. I only did this inking over the stencil in the bottom left where I knew I wanted to put my flower so it gave a bit more green colouring there.

I decided to go for the biggest flower that I have for this card and it is a set that I was a bit worried about using as the flower is so big but I think it really was just what this background needed. I can't wait to use this Build-a-Flower: Peony stamp set again as it is just such a statement flower.

The sentiment comes with the stamp set and just to finish this card off I sprinkled some Nuvo drops over it.

I hope you are all having a great week and staying safe.

 I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Crafty Creations - Anything goes

Mod squad - Flowers

Paper funday - Spring has sprung

Shopping our stash - Plant life

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Fun with ink :D

 

This is my next card I have made for the Altenew Educator Certification Program. I am so please with the way these lessons push me outside of my comfort zone. This card I made inspired by the Easy Ink Blending Techniques course. These colours are definitely not my go to colours but one of the first classes is about doing a nice blend with Altenew crisp dye inks and the example card totally inspired me to give this a go. I was also inspired by a later lesson in the class to add some more texture and depth to the ink blend. 

This card is the result and I am so happy with the way it looks :D 

I started by blending straight onto my card blank. I used 3 colours of crisp dye ink (Bamboo, olive and Moss) to have a bit of an Ombre effect but then also picked up ink on my brush and dabbed the darker colours randomly across the section I had inked to give a dappled feel rather than a completely smooth blend. 

The flowers and leaves are all from the Vintage Roses stamp set and I stamped the flowers in the oranges that are in the Warm & cozy ink set. Then went wild for me and did the leaves yellow using Fresh Lemon and Honey Drizzle crisp dye inks.

I laid them all out across the left side of my card to work out where I wanted them and then used a piece of press and seal to hold them all in place for me to be able to stick them down. I popped a few of the roses at the front up on foam pads to add a bit of depth. Lastly I used the sentiment that comes with the set and stamped it in some grey versa fine ink before adding some sparkle and texture with some nuvo drops.

I hope you are all having a great week and staying safe.

 I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Creative moments - Anything goes

Shopping our stash - Plant life

613 Avenue create - In the garden

Corrosive challenge - Anything goes

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

For the Guys

I don't know about you but I always struggle a bit to work out cards for the men in my life. This is my next creation for the Altenew Educator Certification Program and it's based on the For the guys class. This class has some great tips for making cards and creations that work well for men. For this I took inspiration from the pop art lesson. Using bright bold colours taking inspiration from the pop art movement. I used a couple of the sentiments from Painted Poppy stamp set. This is a floral stamp set so I just used the big "Happy" stamp and the smaller sentiment "you make me" 

I cut a 4" x 4" square of black card and four 1 and 3/4" x 1 and 3/4" white squares. I lined the happy stamp up in my stamping platform and then stamped it in the following Altenew Crisp dye inks:

Yellow: Maple Yellow

Green: Grass Field

Blue: Aqualicious

Red: Crimson

I stamped a different colour on each white square. By using the stamp platform I was able to make sure they were all in the same place on the squares. I used another new tip from the Clean and Simple Boutique cards class and hand drew some lines around each of the "Happy" words to act as a bit of a shadow and make them stand out a bit more.

I moved the order of the coloured hello squares until I was happy that the colours balanced. I spaced them all out equally within the black square so that they have an even border around them. 

Then to finish it off I added a mix of 3 different Nuvo drops in matching colours to the inks which give a bit of texture and interest to the card.

I hope you are all having a great week and staying safe.

 I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Pennys papercrafty challenge - Anything goes

Watercooler wednesday - All things masculine

Crafty creations - Anything goes

Pammy's inky pinkies - Anything goes

Get creative challenges - Anything goes

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Daring to die cut :D

  

This is my next creation for the Altenew Educator Certification Program. I really can not recommend this program enough. I am learning so much with each and every class that I can transfer to all my card making and I am only half way through level 1 of a possible 3 so far!

 This time I have taken inspiration from the Easy die cutting techniques class. I combined the learning from a couple of the lessons for this one. I decided rather than using the dies to cut around the images in the traditional way I would do a bit of an inlay technique. I think this gives some great dimension to the card.  

For this card I started with a 5'x5' card base then cut a white panel of card 4 3/4' x 4 3/4' I took the outline dies from the Altenew Build-A-Flower: Dahlia set and arranged them across the white square of card where I thought they would look nice. I actually used a piece of scrap paper first and drew around the dies when I put them on the paper as you need to use the dies more than once and I wanted to be sure I spaced them kind of equally around the card. 

When the layout was sorted I cut all the shapes out. This gave me a sort of template for where I wanted to do my stamping. I put the card with the shapes centred on my card base and then used a pencil to draw around where the shapes would be on the card.

Next I had to pick my ink colours. I went for a green and pink colour combination using the following Altenew crisp dye inks:

Pinks: Pink Diamond, Rubellite

Greens: Firefly, Grass Field

The pencil lines showed me exactly where I needed to stamp the coordinating flowers and leaves so I could stamp all my layers easily. I added foam to the back of the white square of card that has the shapes cut out of it and lined it up over the now stamped flowers and leaves so they could be seen. 

To finish I used the direct to paper technique with the Pink Diamond ink to make a strip of perfectly matching paper to layer the white strip with this brilliant sentiment that is also in the same stamp set. I wanted to tie a bit of the green back into the sentiment so I stamped it in the Firefly crisp dye ink and also used that ink just on the edges of the white strip. 

For a final touch I added a load of sparkly nuvo drops to give texture and shine.

I hope you are all having a great week and staying safe.

 I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Crafty Creations - Anything goes

Crafty Gals corner - Spring/easter

Creative moments - Anything goes

Paper funday - Spring

Ike's world - Spring

Shopping our stash - Plant life

Through the craft room door - Anything goes

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

A monochrome moment

 

 This is my next creation for the Altenew Educator Certification Program. This time I have taken inspiration from the All about layering 2 class. As you will see if you click the link this class is free to do so you can see what the Academy classes are like and how much fun they are for yourself :)

In this class it talks about extending the use of the little stamps in a set. I love the range of leaves that are in the Vintage roses stamp set and felt very inspired to make them as a background. I am so pleased with the way this turned out. I would normally want to add more to this but I resisted the urge to add flowers and decided to let these little stamps have all the lime light for a change.

I used two colours of Altenew's green crisp dye inks (Frayed leaf and Forest green) to create this card. For the sentiment I felt black would be too harsh so I used Smokey Grey versa fine ink. I hand drew borders around the card base and the sentiment strip with a grey fine liner pen.

I thought it needed just a little something more so I also added in some nuvo drops for sparkle and shine and popped the sentiment up with some foam tape. 

I hope you are all ready for your week and staying safe.

 I am entering this card for the following challenges:

613 avenue create - Anything goes with an in the garden optional twist

Lil' patch of crafty friends - Anything Goes

We love chocolate baroque - Spring (what is more spring than new green leaves?? :) )

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Irresistible Inking

This is my next card that I am submitting for the Altenew Educator Certification Program. I really enjoyed this one putting together a few of the classes homework tasks in the Irrisitible Inking class to make this card. I used my Altenew Crisp dye inks in ways that are new to me.

The Altenew crisp dye inks that I used for this card were:

Blue: Dew Drops 

Pinks: Pinkalicious and Rubellite

Green: Fire fly

There were quite a few steps in this card.  I took the ink pad straight to the paper for the backing. Next I stamped and embossed with white Wow! embossing powder some of the little flowers in the Peony bouquet stamp set using just the outline stamp. I use pink Crisp dye inks to watercolour the flowers. I also used the watercolour brush to flick more of pink ink over the back ground to give it interest. Then inked around the edge of the stamped panel with the darker shade of pink to make it stand out more from the blue.  

I did the same ink to paper technique to make some pink card that would perfectly match my water colouring before trying another tip from the class which was brayering. I haven't done any brayering before with inks like this and I love the effect it gives. The piece that has the sentiment on it has been brayered with the same blue crisp dye ink as the first panel but the brayer gives it texture where the first piece that I took the ink pad straight to the paper for has a much flatter colour. 

The beautiful central flower has been made by stamping just a couple of the layers from the peony bouquet stamp set fussy cutting them and decoupaging the center of the flower up to give it some more depth. 

As a final touch I added some sparkle by scattering some nuvo drops around where I thought they looked nice.

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend and staying safe.

 I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Challenge Up Your Life - be inspired by the mood board

Gem of a challenge - Anything goes

Catch the bug - Anything goes

Crafters Castle - Anything goes

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Swanning around

 In case you haven't seen I have started making my own stamps for Crafty Purple Frog. I am so excited to be able to bring my drawings "to life" :D So far there are two main animal stamp sets. One is this swan from the Spread your wings set and the other is a badger from The Sett stamp set. For this card I have combined some of the little extras in the badger set with the swan. I think the swan looks ready to go to the theatre in his smart out fit. For the back ground I used some distress oxide inks along with one of the stencils that is in the Top hat layering stencil set. Rather than layer them all up I just used the dot stencil and moved it around to make a pattern I was happy with. 

The sentiment is from the sentiment sett. I embossed it with white Wow! Embossing powder so it stands out well against the black card as well as adding a touch of texture. 

I don't know about you but I am so looking forward to being able to get out to events like the theatre again one day. I hope you are having a good week so far and staying safe.

 I am entering this card for the following challenges:

A bit more time to craft - Anything goes

Crafters cafe - Anything goes

A perfect time to craft - Anything goes

Colour it, create it, show it off - Anything goes

Crafts Galore encore - Anything goes

2 crafty critter crazies - Anything with a critter goes

Classic design challenge - Anything goes

Clever Dexter - Anything goes

Country View - Birds and bees

Crafty Animals - Anything with an animal goes

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

White space

This is my second card that I am entering for the Altenew Educator Certification Program. This card I created thanks to one of the classes in the Clean and simple boutique cards class. This is a brilliant class. It has made me look at designs differently. This class was about white space and how important it is to give the images and stamping space. The white makes the colours of the flowers stand out more even when using soft pastel colours like these.

I used the beautiful Peony Bouquet stamp set for this card and then embellished it with some hand drawn lines rather than using the outline stamps that are in the set. This makes it more personal and unique. I also hand drew a frame around the edge of the card. I wanted to add a tiny touch of sparkle and I did that with some nuvo drops. They are the only thing that actually stands out on this card. Everything else is just on the one layer and stamped or drawn straight onto the card blank.

I used the following Altenew Crisp Dye inks:

Firefly for the leaves

Dew Drop and Aqualicious for the blue flower

Pink Diamond and Pinkalicious for the pink flower

Soft lilac and Lavender Fields for the berries

I really enjoyed making this card and how quickly and easily it came together. I am feel like after this class I am now looking at a lot of my stamps differently and trying to think if I can do a similar thing with them :)

 I am entering this card for the following challenges:

A bit more time to craft - Anything goes

Crafters cafe - Anything goes

A perfect time to craft - Anything goes

Colour it, create it, show it off - Anything goes

Crafts Galore encore - Anything goes

Daisy chain - Flowers

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx