Creative Expressions butterfly girl stamp set card idea

Hi everyone, Design Elf Katrina here to show you what I have been up to in my craft room. I can't believe it has been so long since my last post, I have been beavering away in my little craft room, promise!!   Here is one of the things I have been doing.

   Now I love my stamps but more often than not these days I tend to use them in a supporting role rather then the main feature but when I spied this set of stamps from U - mount by Creative Expressions I could see so many possibilities, I just had to have it. The set is called Butterfly Girl, there is also Artful ladies which I don't have yet but might just fall in to my basket next time I am shopping!


   OK, I have made several project just using this stamp set and also have some more ideas I want to try, so I will be showing you them over the next few blog posts.


   This first one is a card with a book paper background and washi tape edges that fits well with look of these stamps. I used the spotty stamps to add some interest in the background and the stitch style stamp as grass at the bottom.

For all the stamped images I stamped them in black onto some canvas paper and coloured them in using the Tim Holtz distress pens. For the wings I just traced over the stamped lines with a blue pen. I then cut them all out, stamped the hearts straight onto the card and stuck the cut out hearts over the top. Once I was happy with the placing of the other images I stuck them onto the card.

This stamp set is great for colouring in and adding your own doodles too. Stay tuned for more ideas with this lovely stamp set, until then

                                      Happy Crafting!!

                                                                            Love Katrina

Washi tape pencls

Hi there, design elf Katrina here to show you a great idea for Washi tape.

    Now if you are anything like me, you love Washi tape and have lots of these wonderful rolls of colour but are not quite sure how to use it except just sticking onto paper. Well I came across this great idea the other day on Pinterest  and just couldn't wait to try it......Washi tape covered pencils!!   yes they do sharpen too :)

They are very easy to do, you need new unsharpened pencils ( little tip, don't do what I did and buy cheap Asda pencils, they were all split inside so you can't sharpen them as the whole pencil tries to split apart, that's why they are sharpened with a knife)

Rub down you pencils and paint then with white paint or gesso and dry.

Attach your Washi tape lengthways along the pencil. I used Berries and flowers

                                                                              Plum check 

                                                                                                               Blue polka-dot ( not shown)                                                                                         and pink roses

You will need to do 2 lengths, then burnish down with something solid.

You do need to seal them with something, I used a watered down PVA but any sealer will do.

Then the hard part, let them dry thoroughly and then you can sharpen them and use them!! 

I also made a note book to go with my pencils. I made mine but you could just cover one you have. I put the tape onto a scrap of white card so the colours of the tape would pop. You could do the same and then just stick it too the front of your notepad.

Here they are together, wouldn't this make a great summer holiday project for the children to do to get their pencils ready for the new school year. A roll of tape goes a very long way and it would keep them quiet for hours. Also I thought it would make great little party gifts or to sell at all those school fates and craft fairs.

What ever you do with your Washi tape have fun and lets get rid of all those boring pencils!!

                               Happy crafting

                                                                  Love Katrina