Make The Day Special Design Team Blog Hop

Welcome to the Make The Day Special Blog Hop

Hope you have been enjoying all the yummy stamps and makes so far. Don't forget that three lucky commentators will be winning some fabulous prizes and the DT makes are all up for grabs too!

If you have come from Lucia's fabulous blog Poppit's Cupboard then you are hopping in the right direction! If not then pop along to the Make The Day Special blog to drool over the yummy prizes and start your hopping!

I've used stamps from QKR Stampede which is one of the companies available at Make The Day Special.

My first make uses one of the fun and quirky QKR Stampede word art stamps.

My second make uses the QKR Stampede Quilting Tag with the Love sentiment and I've made them into a miniature hanger.

Don't forget to comment on all the blogs for a chance to win some fabulous prizes.

Your next yummy blog to hop to belongs to the lovely Lesley.

Thanks for joining us and

enjoy the rest of your hopping.

Kimx

Elisabeth Bell for SCACD Stamps - Blog Hop

Wahoo, it is blog hop day for the yummy new Elizabeth Bell Collection from Susana's Custom Art & Card Design - what fun!

I hope you have been enjoying the hop so far, with SCACD's wonderful design team, us lucky Quixotic Paperie Design team and special guest - Susanna Boyd of CardoftheWeek and Papercraft Planet! Wow what gorgeous makes with these lovely stamps!

The new collection is now available over at Susana's Custom Art & Card Design in the Elisabeth Bell section! For those of you in the UK/Europe, the collection is also available at Quixotic Paperie, in stock and ready to go!

If you have arrived at my blog from Elaine's gorgeous blog Quixotic Cards then you are on the right track. If not then pop over to Suzanne's beautiful blog Scrapbitz to start your hopping! If you are completely lost and need a recap then SCACD Store Blog is the place to be!

So here is my make for you:


It uses the SCACD Elizabeth Bell Flower Power stamp matched with Basic Grey Kioshi papers and lots of lovely pearls.

Isn't she a cutey? Flower Power Rules!

Your next port of call is Jacquie's yummy blog After Hours Stamper.

Thanks for playing along and enjoy the rest of your hopping.

Kimx

Cute Card Thursday - Recycle

It is Cute Card Thursday and this week the challenge is all about:

Reuse, Renew, Recycle

For my DT card I've used the fun QKR Stampede stamp 'Swinging' which you can get from Make The Day Special and some fun SEI papers.


My bit of recycling is the little shabby chic roses - would you believe they were once a plastic bag?

This stamp is such fun! I've coloured her with my good old PrismaColors of course.

Have a good recycle day!

Kim

Materials:

Stamp - QKR Stampede stamp 'Swinging'

Ink - VersaFine Onyx Black

Colouring - PrismaColor pencils; Sansodor

Paper - SEI

Usual Suspects - double-sided tape; silicone glue; paper trimmer

Other - Martha Stewart punch; Plastic bag; Gem brads

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Today I have an Alice in Wonderland themed card to show you and this one is my contribution to the Gingernap Creations Mad Hatter Day Blog Hop celebration.

The blog hop started on the 10th June - I'm late, I'm late for a very important date! But wait a minute - is that 10/6? As in the Mad Hatter's hat ticket?

Well yes! Now you can see the reason for the Gingersnap Creations blog hop theme! If you hurry on over there you can join in the fun too and there are prizes - yummy Alice prizes!

My little Mad Hatter is from The Greeting Farm Digi-stamp and the Cosmo Cricket papers, Prima lace and chess charm are from Quixotic Paperie.

But I have more news - I'm blown away to have been Ginger Gemmed for my entry into the recent burgundy, ivory and black colour challenge. Thank you so much guys!

Talking of blog hops, Make The Day Special will be having a blog hop this Saturday (26th June) so another important date for your diaries :)

Don't be late!

Kim

Materials:

Stamp - The Greeting Farm

Colouring - PrismaColor Pencils; Sansodor

Papers - Cosmo Cricket Earth Love

Usual Suspects - Paper trimmer; Silicone Glue; Double-sided tape

Other - Prima Lace; Chess Charm; Button; Computer; Printer

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Another piccy of my workspace for you and the What's On Your Workspace Wednesday. I had such fun sharing my creative space with you last week that I thought I would do it again this week.

This week my desk is set up for photographing a make. My little work desk has to do everything!

But I thought I would also show you my bin set up - a couple of people asked me about the bags hanging from my desk that they could just about see in last week's WOYWW photo.

So here they are! I made a couple of bin bags from fabric to hang off of my desk and use whilst I am working because I am too lazy to get up and go to the bin. I think you can guess that one is for anything that can be recycled and the other is for things that can't be recycled. You often find me scrounging around in my bins for things to reuse!

Oh and if anything goes missing from my desk it is usually because it has fallen off into one of my bins.

Enjoy your WOYWW!

Kim

Simply Handmade Home Decor Wall Hanging

Some sewing for you today and a little stamped and stitched wall hanging. I just love this stamp from Hero Arts but then I am a sucker for all sewing themed stamps! Well, if I'm honest not just sewing themed stamps LOL!

I love the vintage look matched with the contemporary design and the slightly distressed fabrics!

I've put this little wall hanging up in to my Etsy and Folksy shops, but I'm not sure I want to part with it LOL!

Edit: I've added it to the challenge over at Practical Scrappers which this week is flowers. Thanks Tanya for the heads-up!

Have a Simply Handmade Day.

Kim

More For Father's Day

So it is Monday and the Summer Solstice, the weather outside is gorgeous, a stark difference from the very grey weekend we had here in London. I'm in a hopeful Monday mood, hopeful that I will be able to show you lots of makes this week and that I will be able to visit all your beautiful blogs to see what you have all been up to. I see it all on my Reader of course, but it is nice to hop and share some bloggy love!

To kick off the week I have a second Father's Day card to show you and you can see the theme I was working on with my Father's Day cards this year!

Enjoy your Monday.

Kim

Happy Father's Day - All At Sea

Hope all you Dads out there are having a Happy Father's Day :)

The New Unity Store Kit

Hey Guys, me again with a new product heads up - just had to show you these gorgeous stamps from Unity that are available at Make The Day Special. I just love that swallow so pretty!

Sorry to show you another thing to add to your wish list LOL! I don't know about you but my list is now taller than me :)

Have a lovely Father's Day

Kim

Susana's Custom Art And Card Design New Elizabeth Bell Stamps

Got some exciting news for you, there is a new Elizabeth Bell release on it's way from Susana's Custom Art & Card Design. You will only have to wait until the release day on June 25th to see them - that's less than a week away!

To help the time pass quicker Susana will be giving you FOUR chances to win the whole set! So check out the SCACD Store Blog on Sunday 20th June.

For the release day on Friday 25th June, the Quixotic Paperie DT will be joining in with Susana's DT and friends for some Blog Hopping fun, so don't forget to check that out! I can't wait to see all the love makes :)

If you're an Elisabeth Bell fan you definitely won't want to miss it, so make sure you pop June 25th on your calendar!

Summer Flowers

I have heard a rumour that Summer is around the corner so here is a Summer scene for you. Made using the super versatile My Cute Stamps Little Forest Friends from Make The Day Special.

I've paper pieced the stamps and made the leaf stamps into petals and the branch stamp into the flower stem.

Bit of sewing and Stickles to finish and there you have it, a little bit of Summer on a card :)

Have a Summery Friday.

Kim

Materials:

Stamps - My Cute Stamps Little Forest Friends

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Papers - scraps from K&Co, Basic Grey etc

Usual Suspects - Silicone Glue

Other - Sewing machine; Stickles glue; Book page

Cute Card Thursday - Claudia's Sketch

Cute Card Thursday and lots of news for you - Firstly the challenge this week is a lovely sketch from Claudia and the sponsor is the lovely Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps.

But the other bit of news is that Cute Card Thursday is having DT call so pop on other to the blog to have a look!

So here is my DT card for CCT and I was in such a rush yesterday that I missed an element of the sketch - D'oh! My Bad!

Less rush and more concentration is needed I think!

Ok so got to rush off to finish some more DT cards!

Hope you are having a good day, and not missing bits of sketches!

Kim

Materials:

Stamps - The Greeting Farm Digi Stamp

Colouring - PrismaColor; Sansodor

Papers - October Afternoon

Usual Suspect - Paper trimmer; Silicone glue; Double-sided tape

Other - Seam ripper; Buttons; Stickles glue; Computer; Printer

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

A Sewing Machine! Yep this is my work space, Yep it is a complete mess, and yep I'm trying hard to sort it out LOL! I am so not a tidy crafter!

I thought as Quixotic Paperie Challenge blog was taking a bit of a Summer break - with a blog candy giveaway by the way - that I would join in the fun at Stamping Ground and join the What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW) blog hop!

Happy Craft Desk Hopping

Kim

Where Are You?

Blogadee, blogadee, blog, I've been a little AWOL, my last post being all the way back on Saturday - not good for my trying to post something everyday! But I've been battling with a big creative block hence the lack of things to show you all.

So I thought I would show you some new products that have landed in Quixotic Paperie instead!

Beautiful Sweet November Mermaid stamps:


Stylish Jenni Bowlin Pins:

Super cute Kraftin' Kimmie Miles Mouse Stamps:

So what do you guys do to get over your creative blocks? My usual trick of doing something completely different just isn't working!

Hope you have a super creative day.

Kim

Multicolour Stamping

I posted this recent make yesterday and a couple of nice folk have asked me how I stamped the Banana Frog planet in the different colours. I thought the easiest way would be to show you!

You need:

Your stamp

Something to stamp on

Range of inks

Little spray bottle filled with water.

I've used three inks in the pink/purple range using the Opera Pink as my lightest colour and Grape as my darkest colour, with Amethyst in the middle.

This technique works with all sorts of different colour matches so play around with the inks you have to find your favourites.

Step One

Decide which side of the stamp will be the lightest and which the darkest. Then start to ink your stamp with your lightest colour on the 'light' side of the stamp. I use gentle tapping of the ink pad on the stamp, better to put on too little rather than too much ink, you can always reapply as needed.

I pretty much cover the 'light' side and the middle of my stamp with the Opera Pink, making sure I get good pink coverage on the 'light' side.

I then use my middle colour, Amethyst, on the middle of the stamp, being careful not to leave any straight lines caused by the ink pad edge. If you need to diffuse any lines or marks then you can always reapply a little of the lighter colour to blend it in.

Step Two

Apply your darkest colour, Grape, to the 'dark' side of the stamp, again if you need to diffuse or blend the colour you can always add a bit more of the middle colour. I then very lightly go all around the edge of this stamp with the Grape colour to get the edge differentiation, you don't have to, I just like it on this stamp.

Step Three

This is the crucial bit! Lightly spray your stamp, this requires a bit of trial and error to know what is the right amount of water for the effect you want, so don't worry if you have to repeat the whole process - it is all part of the fun!

For me I like to have the bottle at least 8 cm (~3 inch) away from the stamp and I hold the both the stamp and the spray bottle upright so the spray is nice and fine and you are less likely to get any spitting or drops on the stamp. For this lightly water coloured effect I only gave it one spray, but it all depends on your spray bottle!

Step Four

Stamp out your image!

This is a wonderful technique to play with on all sorts of different stamps. It works beautifully on your 'block' stamps like this one, where a lot of colour is needed but it also works well on your 'line' stamps where there is more details. Get one of your flower image stamps out and have a go!

Enjoy playing!

Kim

Pin It

Out Of This World

Reach for the stars - I'm thinking that might be a song? Erm - or have I made that up?

Well I had so much fun with making the star card I showed you yesterday that I just had to make another one!

This one uses the Retro Space stamps from Banana Frog. Ok so yesterday it was space monsters and today it is space ships - yes I am a closet Sci Fi fan! I admit it! - please don't tell anyone - it will be our secret LOL!

Right, off to continue my trip around the galaxy.

Catch you later.

Kim

Materials:

Stamp - Retro Space Banana Frog

Ink - VersaMark; Versafine Onyx black; VersaColor pink, grape and purple

Usual Suspects - Silicone glue; double-sided tape; Scissors

Other - Cuttlebug; Star Nestibilities; Embossing powders; Stickles glue;