Handmade by Michelle

Friday, 21 March 2014

Newton's Nook Design March Release: Baskets of Wishes

All this week, I've been playing with the new stamp sets from Newton's Nook Design March release. I have to say, this last set is my favourite - so versatile!! You can mix and match the basket to the comtents, and there are so many choices! I really liked this knitting themed stamp - I have quite a few friends and family who are knitters or crocheters, so this will come in handy :)

I hand drew and coloured the border pieces to match the basket - it took a little bit of time, but I like the result.

My next card is more Spring-y :)

Would you like to win Baskets of Wishes?
This set will be given away to Two lucky winners!

Here's how to win:

Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)! Two winners will be chosen at random from the collective blogs release posts. Make sure to check out each of their blogs and comment for your chance to win. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning! You have until Thursday, March 20th at 9 pm Central Standard Time to comment -- winners will be announced on the blog post on Friday, March 21st.

Check out all these awesome Design Team & Guest Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs
Taheerah Atchia
Christine Drogt
Samantha Mann
Larissa Heskett
Crafty Math-Chick
Danielle Pandeline
Valerie Ward
Tessa Wise
Katie Brooks - Guest Designer
Michelle Lupton - Guest Designer

Thanks so much for visiting - have a great day :)

Thursday, 20 March 2014

Day 9 of Online Card Class

This is my 2nd post for today - to see my Newton's Nook post, click HERE.

I love Debby Hughes' cards. They're always just perfect. And when I try to make a card to look like one of Debby's, I tend to fail miserably. :(

What do I like about my card? I like the butterfly (which I coloured with Distress inks and water, and covered with Wink of Stella.) I like the bold black sentiment (a very old Artee stamp - from 1998!) I like my attempt at gold dots.

What would I do differently next time? I would have fewer ink splatters. I would have the ink splatters in a different colour to the butterfly. I would ditch the flight path dots. I would use a different texture paste (not really liking the Martha Stewart texture paste - too grainy). I need to get a butterfly stamp with cleaner lines (even though I do love this butterfly, the lines are a bit fuzzy in places). And I would pick a bit of the falling snow die with fewer dots. But that's why I love the online card classes - I try things that are outside my comfort zone and so I learn new stuff! And that's definitely a good thing :)

Thanks for visiting :)

Newton's Nook Design March Release: Easter Scramble

Today I'm playing with one of Newton's Nook Designs March release stamp sets - I'm so excited to have been asked to join in!

I went with very soft, pastel colours for this card - difficult to photograph, unfortunately. That little chicky is so cute peeking out of the Easter egg - I can almost hear him cheeping!

Much brighter colours for my next card - I masked and inked with 3 different Distress Inks (Worn Lipstick, Dried Margold and Squeezed Lemonade), then flicked some water on to get some splotchiness (is that a real word?). I then stamped 5 of the little flower in the Easter Scramble set (and the sentiment), masked some of the flowers to stamp the stems and then the leaves. I chose some Copic Markers that matched the Distress Ink's I had used and did some simple colouring of the flowers. I thought it needed just something more, so I added some hemp cord from Darice.

Would you like to win Easter Scramble?
This set will be given away to Two lucky winners!

Here's how to win:

Check out all these awesome Design Team & Guest Blogs below to enter:

Make sure you come back again tomorrow! Thanks for visiting :)

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Newton's Nook Design March Release: Spring Showers

I'm so excited - Jennifer at Newton's Nook has asked me to join in and play with their new release stamps for March! And they're so stinking cute, you're going to love them!
This set is called Spring Showers, and is perfect for a get well card.

Can you see the Wink fo Stella glimmer I added to the clouds? I also added some GLossy Accents to the umbrella, the puddle, and the buttons on the little duck's boots.

Here's another, very different card I made with the same set:

This one is a one-layer card. I masked the front and inked with Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Salty Ocean, and then stamped and white embossed the clouds, raindrops and sentiment. I drew a shadow around the white embossing with a C3 Copic marker, to make the white stand out a bit more. I finished with some faux stitching and some Wink of Stella on the clouds and raindrops.