Sweet November Stamps Mermay 2022 release

I am so mega excited to be able to share this new Mermay release from Sweet November Stamps. There is also a great hop going on this weekend where you have the chance to win the entire new release! So be sure to hop on over to @sweetnovemberstamps and follow along the hop as you have to be in it to win it. There are more chances to win as well because if you are one of the first 5 people to make an order from the Crafty Purple Frog Shop over £30 that includes a Sweet November Stamps item then I will add in a random one of the new release stamps for free!! 

This little cutie is called Calico and she is flying her flag high and proud. I coloured her with Copic markers and then have made this little scene for her.

For the scene I started by using the oval Masquerade stencil from Heffy doodle then stamped out the island scene from the new dock of the Bay stamp set before then inking roughly a sky area with Tumbled glass distress oxide and Blue print sketch for the sea. To give it a bit more texture I also used the Stormy Seas stencil from Heffy Doodle before I removed the oval stencil. After colouring in the island with copics to finish the whole card I hand drew some borders and scattered a few nuvo drops around.

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

Fab n' Funky - Fantasy

Through the craft room door - Anything Goes

Try it on Tuesday - Use a stencil

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

 

With a Twist

I can not believe this is my last class for level 2 of the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) It feels like I have learned so much up to this point and I loved this class called With a twist possibly the most out of all of them so far. It is all about doing things differently or in an unexpected way. I am looking at almost my entire craft stash differently now.

For this card I used the idea of using unexpected colours and colour combinations, did not use all of the layers of the beautiful Vintage Roses layering stamp set and I used embossing powder for one of the layers I did use. 

On top of all of that I used the die cuts in a way to look like they are faux embossing across the whole card.

For the inks I used the following Altenew Crisp Dye inks:

Roses - Dew drops, Aqualicious

Leaves - Fresh Lemon, Honey Drizzle

I have also used the half tone everything stamp set (at the time of typing this that stamp set is on sale so grab yourself a bargain!) for the sentiment on this card. Again I stamped it in the same coloured ink as the roses and then did the second outline stamp in gold wow! embossing powder.

To finish it I inked up a piece of white card with fresh lemon ink to layer the sentiment on and then hand drew some borders around the edges with a fine liner. 

I am so pleased with the way this card turned out. I was completely outside of my comfort zone for quite a bit of it and am so happy I went with it. I love the end result.

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

Creative Fingers - Anything goes

Paper Babe Stamps  - Anything Goes

Make My Monday - Springtime

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

A monochromatic moment

I can't believe this is class 9/10 for my Altenew AECP level 2! I have been enjoying these classes so much and the Polychromatic class is no different.

This class is all about how you use colour and I really LOVE colour! For my card today I have been inspired by the monochromatic lesson. I like to mix up colours so sticking to just one colour and making it really pop was a great challenge for me. I found some pink card and then tested my Altenew inks and my copic markers to find ones that would give a good tone on tone effect. I settled with Pink Diamond crisp dye ink and an RV13 copic marker.

I decided to go with the Amazing You stamp set for this card as I liked the fact it was just outlines of the flowers leaving me space to do the shading with my copic marker. I stamped the roses all over a pieces of pink card in Pink Diamond crisp dye ink. Then I used the RV13 copic marker to shade the petals and make them look more 3D. I also outlined the roses so they showed out from the card a little bit more. Just colouring was a bit stark so I used the blender pen to just soften all of the edges of my colouring.

Next I die cut my coloured panel to add some interest with the stitch effect edges. I used the Heffy Doodle whimsically wonky dies to give me this wavy line. I wanted a sentiment next and went for this hello sentiment die from Heffy Doodle which I placed along the top of my panel and cut it from the panel. I made sure I kept hold of all the pieces so I could paper piece them back in place around the sentiment and keep that straight line across my card. I cut the hello 3 times out of the same pink card that I used for the panel so it matches perfectly and then used gold Wow! embossing powder on one of them before stacking them up to give the sentiment some real dimension.

If you have seen a few of my makes then you will have realised that I can not resist some bling so to finish this card off I scattered around some Nuvo drops.

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

Little Red Wagon - Make it bloom

The sisterhood of craft - Think Pink

Get creative - Use Flowers

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Masking with layering stamps

I am working my way through the classes for the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) level 2. This card has been inspired by the lessons in the brilliant Masking Unleashed class. I had no idea there were so many ways to do masking. I really enjoyed mixing these stamp sets as using the masking paper to be able to stamp right around those pretty hydrangea blooms. There are so many little tips in this class for the ways to get the best results from masking it is well worth doing.

The stamp sets I combined for this card are Halftone circles and Garden Hydrangea. Fussy cutting around the Hydrangeas was time consuming but I have saved my masks storing them with my stamps so I can use them again and not have to cut them out again. 

I used the following inks for this card:

The leaves - Firefly, Grass Field

The flowers - Pink Diamond, Pinkalicious, Razzleberry

The background - Dew Drops, Caribbean Sky

For the sentiment I used a Heffy Doodle stamp and die set called Rascal alphabetters. I didn't want the letters to get lost in the details of the flowers so unlike the masks for the hydrangeas I cut the masks for the letters using the coordinating dies. This has given them a white kind of halo effect around each letter in contrast the the other masking which as I cut just inside of the outer line of the stamped images has gone right up against the next image.

There was the odd place where due to the layers on layers of masks the stamps did not quite go all the way to the edges but there were brilliant tips for combating this in the class that I was able to use so thing this is some of the most flawless masking I have ever managed and I am so pleased with the result. If you want the tips you will just have to watch the class as I don't want to steal the glory for them :)

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

Make my Monday - Spring time

Dare 2 be Artzy - Flowers

Lil patch of crafty friends - Anything Goes

We love stamping - For a lady or girl

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

 

Magical Marker Techniques

This is my next class in my AECP level 2 journey. If you have not seen Altenew have a whole range of online classes that you can sign up for. This includes their AECP (Altenew Educator Certification Program) course. For my card I have used inspiration from several of the classes in the Magical Markers techniques class. This is such a fun class. I have been colouring with markers for many years but realised that I rarely use them for anything else. This shows you lots of ways to stretch your supplies which I really love.

So as well as colouring the beautiful big flowers from the Quaint Blooms stamp set I have used a marker to colour the gems that I have added to the flower centres and scattered across the card. 

For the back ground I have used the broken chevrons stencil and used markers to draw through the stencil giving a great pattern to my lines and keeping them all a uniform size. The sentiment is also from the Quaint blooms stamp set and to finish the card off I used the same markers to colour the edges of the stencilled panel and the whole card. This is so far from my normal style but I had a lot of fun putting it together and trying all of the techniques :)

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

Through the craft room door - Anything Goes

Crafting Happiness - Anything Goes

Get creative - Use Flowers

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

 

National Teen Self Esteem Hop 2022

 

Have you seen the #nationalteenselfesteemhop22  

A great group of crafters have come together to spread love, joy and encouragement to our younger generation.  Do you have a teenager in your household or maybe a younger child who struggle with Self Esteem, please share with them the lovely projects in this hop and maybe they can take some encouragement away from it! 

Don’t worry you have 7 days to hop along so feel free to keep popping back! 

To enter please go to the Crafty Purple Frog Instagram ( @craftypurplefrog ) and hop along to see everything :)

If you get lost along the way please visit @jasmincraftymakes to find the full line up! 

You have until 14th May to hop along; winners will be announced by 18th May on @jasmincraftymakes IG

Sponsor Prizes:

Heffy Doodle - £40 voucher

Whimsy Stamps - $25 voucher

Janes Doodles - $30 voucher

My Perfect Stamps - £25 voucher

Scrappy Boy Stamps - Stamp set of your choice (US only)

Scrappy Tails - $25 voucher

Time for Tea Designs - £20 voucher

JasminCraftyMakes - Mystery craft box of new or lightly used supplies worth £100+

Crafty Purple Frog - Free Digi images (visit the CPF blog to grab yours!)

Artful Angel - $10 voucher

This is my make for the hop. I have used the digi set that is free this week from Crafty Purple Frog to celebrate the hop. 

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Through the craft room door - Anything goes

Crafting Happiness - Anything goes

Pammies inky pinkies- Anything goes

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Mermay revisited

 This weekend as you may have seen we are celebrating as there is a new release for Mermay coming our way. Sweet November Stamps have a gorgeous new release that you can see some sneak peeks of in this video.

But there have also been 2 previous mermay releases from Sweet November Stamps and this weekend we at Crafty Purple Frog and the Sweet November Stamps team are revisiting them so be ready for lots more inspiration and mermaid goodness. For my card I have used the Goldie stamp set and combined that with the horizon lines under the sea stamp set. The sentiment is from a Greeting farm set called Bring me smiles.

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Through the craft room door - Anything goes

Crafting Happiness - Anything goes

Pammies inky pinkies- Anything goes

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx