Thursday, February 28

In The Running...

Thanks to everyone who has participated in the Birthday Bash challenges this month, it's been such fun visiting everyone's blogs and looking at all the beautiful, creative cards.  So many of you have wonderful ideas and I always come away feeling inspired to try something new.
 
With only a few hours left for the last challenge I thought I'd put up a list of the participants who have entered all four challenges so far this month and are therefore eligible to go into the draw to win 10 images of their choice from my online store.  Good luck everyone!
 
In no particular order:
Marianne
Gail Scott
Annie
Olga
Malin
Suze
Karin
Janice Melton
Bunny
Poppet
Phi
Carla Aerts

Day 27 - Random Comment Winner

Cathy (sistermouse)
Congratulations on your second win Cathy!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Challenge Four Ending Soon

There's less than a day left to get your
entry in to the last Birthday Bash Challenge!

Still Stamping...

The other day I posted a little tutorial about creating depth with stamps and since then I have been going through my collection of images to see what will work and what won't.  As you can see, I found a wonderful variety of butterflies, which I stamped in pinks and greens, as well as a single fish image that I stamped multiple times in a couple of colours to give the impression of a large shoal swimming by.
 


Wednesday, February 27

Day 26 - Random Comment Winner

Gail
Congratulations on your second win Gail!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Last Chance!

Only one day left for our Birthday Bash Sale!
Add the promotion code:
birthday-bash
at the checkout to save 20% off everything in your cart.
Valid till midnight on February 28th 2013 AEST

Tuesday, February 26

Day 25 - Random Comment Winner

Loz
Congratulations on your win Loz!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Le Soleil - Freebie

A swirly, curly version of the sun.
Enjoy!

Monday, February 25

Dress Form

I have a friend who has a couple of vintage dress forms in her house that she uses to display her pearls, silk scarves, beads and lace.  They looks so feminine and lovely and are the perfect way to highlight all her beautiful treasures.
 
 When you purchase this design you will receive:
· two black and white line drawings
·one full colour image
 
I used one of my favourite colour combinations to create my card, then gave it a more feminine touch with some ribbon, pearls and a lace paper doily.

Eret's gorgeous card is also very feminine and uses lots of pretty pastels, some pearls and a scattering of butterflies.  I love how she extended the legs of the dress form beyond the die cut oval for a gorgeous effect.

Annie created this wonderful "shop window" shadow box card.  She used all three of the images that come in the set - one coloured, one black and white and one without the flowers.

Day 24 - Random Comment Winner

Gail
Congratulations on your win Gail!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Challenge Card

 
Our challenge at Card Camp last week was to create a card using three die cuts and an embossing folder.  I chose a Spellbinders circle die and two dies from the Spellbinders Iron Motifs set as well as a Sizzix embossing folder.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up and the image is by Flourishes, which I stamped, heat embossed and coloured with my distress markers.

Sunday, February 24

Day 23 - Random Comment Winner

Mamichelle
Congratulations on your win Michelle!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Technique Class - Stamping to Create Depth

Do you ever have those days where you just want to sit and play with your stamps without a lot of extra fuss with colouring or masking or any of those other techniques that involve a lot of effort and preparation?  Of course, you still want a great result at the end, but the thought of setting up the equipment, pulling out the inks or the clean up at the end is all too much?
Well, this technique might be exactly what you're looking for.  It's easy and fun to do, only involves a couple of ink pads and some stamps and, I think, the result is lovely.
 
 
1.  Select the stamps you'd like to use.  The idea is to create depth so you want images that would naturally occur en masse, such as flowers or trees, birds or butterflies.  I used several of the lovely wildflower stamps from a set by Darkroom Door and arranged them on my acrylic block (you can use a single image if you don't have multiples).  Then choose two ink pads that you think would work well with your images... I decided on a pretty green and a lovely blue.
 
 
2.  Ink your stamp with one of the colours, then stamp once on a piece of scrap paper to remove most of the ink.
 
 
3.  Immediately stamp on your cardstock.  Because you already stamped off most of the ink on the scrap paper you will end up with a soft, light impression.
 
 
4.  Repeat the process until you have images across the entire piece of card.

 
5.  Now use your second colour to ink up the stamp.  Again, stamp once on a piece of scrap paper and then immediately on to your card.  Stagger the height and position of the stamp so your images don't overlap.

 
6.  At this point I took my stamps off the acrylic block and rearranged them so I would end up with a more natural, random pattern.  Obviously if you're working with a single stamp you won't be able to do this.

 
7.  Using the same ink pads, reink you stamps and immediately stamp on to your card.  The colours will now be much more vibrant and it will give the impression of depth - the lighter flowers tend to receded to the background while the bolder flowers are in the foreground.

 
8.  Using the same two colours and a sponge dauber, rub some colour around the edges of your card.  I think this helps to frame the image.  Now you can add sentiments, embellishments, papers, ribbon... whatever you wish.  I stamped and heat embossed a Stampin' Up sentiment to the bottom right corner of my card, distressed the edges and glued on a few stray little butterflies.  I then adhered the whole thing to a card base for a lovely, simple card.


Saturday, February 23

Day 22 - Random Comment Winner

Ursula Uphof
Congratulations on your win Ursula!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

A Couple of Cards

I used the images I coloured a couple of days ago to make two rather simple cards.  I was thinking about doing something more elaborate but didn't want to cover up too much of the image or distract from the colouring.
 


Friday, February 22

Bunnies and Bows

Sparkle N Sprinkle have produced another set of stamps this week featuring some of my bunnies.  Although not specifically for Easter, they can be used for Easter cards and projects or they can be combined with the Sparkle and Sprinkle sentiments for lovely friendship cards.
 
 
Available only at

Day 21 - Random Comment Winner

Renee
Congratulations on your win Renee!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Birthday Bash Challenge #4

"Use A Birthday Bash Freebie"
This month's challenges are a little different than usual, so please be sure to carefully read the information below on how to enter.
 

CHALLENGE #4 CONDITIONS:
1. Create a card featuring one of the Beccy's Place freebies given away during February.
2. This challenge will run for one week from today until midnight on the 28th of February 2013 (AEST). At the end of the challenge, one random winner will receive three digital images of their choice from my online store.
3. Only one entry per person per challenge.
4. At the end of February one random winner will be chosen from amongst those people who have participated in all four of the February Birthday Bash Challenges. That person will receive 10 images of choice from my online store!
5. You can submit your card or project in any other challenge you wish.

Thursday, February 21

Day 20 - Random Comment Winner

Michelle
Congratulations on your win Michelle!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Thinking of You - Freebie


Original artwork by Beccy Muir, all rights reserved. Images are for personal use and must not be copied, swapped, shared, resold or mass produced without the express written permission of the artist.

Wednesday, February 20

Mosaic Cards

Mosaic cards are very easy to make and are a great way to get even more out of your collection of stamps.  Basically, you stamp and colour your image, cut it up into even sized squares and then reassemble them.  You can leave small borders between the squares, as I have done, or you can butt them right up together so that the overall effect is much more subtle.  I also like to ink the edges of each square for even more definition.
 

Day 19 - Random Comment Winner

Margreet
Congratulations on your win Margreet!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.
 
Every day we will select a random comment from the previous 24 hour period, the author of the comment will win an image of their choice from my online store. You can comment as many times as you like, on any post on the blog... the more comments you make, the more chances you have of winning!

Tuesday, February 19

Day 18 - Random Comment Winner

Belle
Congratulations on your win Belle!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Distress Markers

Last year I purchased the whole set of Tim Holtz's distress markers with the intention of stamping up a whole rainbow of pretty images.  But for some reason I just couldn't get them to stamp as vibrantly as I wanted... probably something to do with the paper I was using.   Anyway, they kind of languished on the shelf for the next few months with the occasional trip to the craft table with very little success.
Over the weekend we got to talking about them in the Yahoo card group I'm a part of with people sharing their stories of varied success.  I decided to pull them back out and give them another go, this time with the intention of using them to colour a heat embossed image rather than using them to ink up a stamp...
 




... I don't know why but all of a sudden the markers and I just clicked and I am thrilled with the results!  I had so much fun that I decided to do the birdhouse as well, and tomorrow I'll be making them up into cards. 

Monday, February 18

Day 17 - Random Comment Winner

Glenda Atkins
Congratulations on your win Glenda!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Full Bloom

All images purchased from my store come with a black and white line drawing as well as a full colour image that can be printed for quick cards or used as a colour guide.
 
My card
 
Eret's Card
 
Viv's Card

Annie's Shadowbox project

Sunday, February 17

Day 16 - Random Comment Winner

Pam (Scrap-N-Sew Granny)
Congratulations on your win Pam!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Strawberries

Do you ever find that you have cycles of liking particular mediums and using them on everything that crosses your path, and then suddenly you put them aside in favour of other things?  That's how it's been with my copics lately, but I'm pleased to say they have been dragged out and rediscovered! 
 
Sentiment by Flourishes
Strawberries by Beccy Muir

Saturday, February 16

Day 15 - Random Comment Winner

cri_kee
Congratulations on your win!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Technique Class - Dry Embossing

The vast majority of card makers and paper artists have dry embossed before, or at least know the process and are able to name a couple of different machines that get the job done.   For those new to card making, dry embossing is simply the technique whereby a pattern is pressed into a piece of paper or cardstock to give a textured impression.
 
Embossing folders are the most common way to dry emboss paper and cardstock.  There are numerous companies that produce these folders and between them just about every major holiday and theme is covered.

You can also add texture to your cardstock by embossing with score lines.  I like to emboss on the diagonal, then flip the cardstock over and emboss the other way.  It gives an interesting diamond shaped pattern with embossed and debossed lines.

 

Friday, February 15

Card Camp Challenge

I'm a member of a lovely Yahoo card making group that has weekly challenges to keep us all inspired and to help us build up a stash of lovely cards.  This week we were challenged to colour and then create a card using an African Violet digital image, and the card below is what I ended up with.
 

Day 14 - Random Comment Winner

Ульяна и Полина
Congratulations on your win Ульяна и Полина!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Birthday Bash Challenge #3

"Anything But a Rectangle"
This month's challenges are a little different than usual, so please be sure to carefully read the information below on how to enter.
 
 
CHALLENGE #3 CONDITIONS:
 
1. Create a card that is any shape other than a rectangle.
2. This challenge will run for one week from today until midnight on the 21st of February 2013 (AEST). At the end of the challenge, one random winner will receive three digital images of their choice from my online store.
3. Only one entry per person per challenge.
4. At the end of February one random winner will be chosen from amongst those people who have participated in all four of the February Birthday Bash Challenges. That person will receive 10 images of choice from my online store!
5. You can submit your card or project in any other challenge you wish.

Thursday, February 14

Last Chance...

There are only a couple of hours left to get your card in for Birthday Bash Challenge #2!  Entries close at midnight on the 14th of February (AEST).

Day 13 - Random Comment Winner

Ardilla
Congratulations on your win Ardilla!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Grab a Bargain

20% off everything!
 
Don't forget our month long Birthday Bash sale
over at Beccy's Place Digital Store.
Add the promotion code:
birthday-bash
at the checkout and the saving will be
added to everything in your cart.
Valid till midnight on February 28th 2013 AEST

Wednesday, February 13

Day 12 - Random Comment Winner

Sue (aka Bearhouse)
Congratulations on your win Sue!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Every day we will select a random comment from the previous 24 hour period, the author of the comment will win an image of their choice from my online store. You can comment as many times as you like, on any post on the blog... the more comments you make, the more chances you have of winning!

Altered Desk Caddy

I took a trip to Ikea the other day and found these gorgeous little white tins with a lacey metal border around the top.  The first thing that sprang to mind was all the pretty paper, ribbon and flowers I had waiting at home for just this type of project!
Instead of trying to cut the paper to fit the curve of the tin, I decided to keep it simple by cutting the paper into 1/2" strips and layering them around the tin.  A couple of coats of varnish, some pretty trim, ribbon and a lovely Prima flower and my desk caddy was done.
 

Tuesday, February 12

Sweet Strawberries

A brand new set of rubber stamps has just hit the shelves over at Sparkle N Sprinkle and this time it's all about sweet, sweet strawberries!  You can purchase these stamps as a sheet of rubber only, or for an extra $4.50 you can have them mounted on a cushion to use with your acrylic blocks.
 

Day 11 - Random Comment Winner

Caryn S
Congratulations Caryn, it's you again!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Pine Forest Freebie

I'm looking forward to seeing what you create with this image.  It would be perfect for Christmas cards or winter greetings with frosty glitter and transparent snowflake embellishments.  Try printing it out on some gorgeous patterned paper or alter the colour of the image for a completely different look!
 

Monday, February 11

Day 10 - Random Comment Winner

Merry
Congratulations Merry!
Please select an image from my store and email me with your choice.

Green Frog

We have a lot of green tree frogs around our house that sing and croak all night long when it's raining.  Our kids love to find them sitting on the verandah posts or hiding in the garden, and even with a bunch of people gawking at them they're relaxed and calm.  They are so charming with their wide friendly smiles and gorgeous sparkling eyes.
 
OR

I used some glossy accents to give his eyes the right amount of sparkle.
 
Viv created this gorgeous card of the Frog Prince!

Annie used the image three times, altering the colours slightly.

Eret flipped the image to create her card.



Sunday, February 10

Card Making Classes - Day 10

One stamp, three ways.
This has been my favourite challenge during the two weeks of class, I'm always surprised by how the ideas start to flow when you need to come up with three ways to use one stamp.
 
As a background.

Embossed in clear and white on a strip of red card stock.

Embossed three times in gold, cut out and layered together.