Day 28 - "Y"

I stamped this handsome fellow with a water-based, brown ink pad and then coloured him with warm grey alcohol markers. The string of lights and star are a nice, sunny yellow, to which I added a liberal coating of Wink of Stella for some sparkle and shine!

YOUR TURN: Create a card or project using the letter "Y" as your prompt.

Click the link below to add your creation to the challenge:

CLICK HERE

INSPIRATION WORDS:

Yule, yuletide, yule log, yellow, yo-yo spinner cards

Stamps:

Day 14 - "L"

Decked out in his shining star and fabulous string of Christmas lights, you just know this little guy is feeling the holiday spirit! I'm not sure you could get anymore festive than this...

YOUR TURN: Create a card or project using the letter "L" as your prompt.

Click on the link below to add your creation to the challenge:

CLICK HERE

INSPIRATION WORDS:

Lights, list, log, love, lettering, layering, letterpress, lever card, latch card, lavender, lemon, lilac, Lord, lamb

Stamps:

   

Day 6 - "E"

For today's post, I created an altered joy fold card featuring a decorated mob of emus ready for some Christmas frivolity. Scroll to the end to see a few pictures of how I created the fold.

YOUR TURN: Create a card or paper craft project using the letter "E" as your prompt.

Click the link below to add your creation to the challenge:

CLICK HERE

INSPIRATION WORDS:

elves, eggnog, evergreens, easel cards, exploding cards, embossing, ecru, ebony, embellishments, encaustic, envelopes

Stamps:

   

Stamp and colour the image on a piece of sturdy card stock, leaving extra space at the right edge.

Fussy cut around the image, leaving a wide tab on the right side. Score vertically, not too far from the image.

Cut a piece of patterned paper to fit the inside of your card blank. Mine measures 51/4" x 51/4" to fit inside a 51/2" square card. To hide the long tab, I've cut a slit in the patterned paper and pushed the tab through. The fold lines up with the right hand edge of the front of my card, which I trimmed slightly to allow the fold over.

Now the emus hold the card closed as well as decorating both the inside and outside of my card.

Day 5 - "E"

So emu isn't exactly the first "e" word that comes to mind when you're thinking about Christmas, but this guy has certainly gone out of his way to look festive! A little bit of glossy accents on the light bulbs and star add some fabulous shine to the card.

YOUR TURN: Create a card or paper craft project using the letter "E" as your prompt.

Click the link below to add your creation to the challenge:

CLICK HERE

INSPIRATION WORDS:

elves, eggnog, evergreens, easel cards, exploding cards, embossing, ecru, ebony, embellishments, encaustic, envelopes

Stamps:

Emu Parade clear stamps

Emu Parade digital stamps

Hot Tip Tuesday

When you view a painting or photograph you might have noticed that the first place you generally look is into the eyes of the subject. Most artists are aware of the importance of eyes when painting, drawing or taking photographs. That's the place to seat expression, feeling and character. The eyes can also convey information about age, well-being, ethnic heritage and the species of the subject - think snake eyes! With all this potential information, you can see why it's so important to get the eyes right when you're colouring an image.

Start by colouring the iris of the eye. Generally, the darkest part of the eye will be around the  highlight, and there will be a bit of a shadow from the top eyelid. When choosing colours for the eyes, keep your theme in mind as well as the other colours in your palette. 

Use a black fine line pen to fully colour the pupils. You want them solid and dark.

Now use a bright white pen to add the highlight. It's very important to place the highlight in the same place on both eyes... not a mirror image. If you place the highlight at the top left of the right eye, then you need to place it at the top left of the left eye too. Highlights in different locations will give your character a cross-eyed or cock-eyed look, which can be used to your advantage with some characters.

I've made the highlight much bigger and in a slightly different place from the original stamp. This gives the eyes a glassier look making the character seem more alert.

Play around with different highlight shapes and locations, you'll be amazed at how it can change an image, for example, drawing a broken line along the bottom eye lid will give you tear-filled eyes! Try a square instead of a dot, or a ring around the iris, add a few dots in different sizes... just remember to keep them the same in both eyes. Good luck!

Stamps:

Emu Parade

Warm Wishes

This is the very last card for our two-month long digital extravaganza! Thank you to everyone who purchased stamps during our sale period, I'm looking forward to seeing lots of new cards and papercraft projects over the coming months. We'll have some brand new designs in store from tomorrow... can you believe it's already March?!... and of course, a new monthly challenge will kick off.

Stamps:Emu Parade digital stamps

Emu Parade clear stamps

Still Getting Festive

Although it looks like I'm getting an early start on Christmas, I'm actually just showcasing the last of our digital files for this month. Emu Parade was a hugely popular clear stamp that is now available in digital format.

Stamps:

Emu Parade digital stamps

Emu Parade clear stamps

More Digital Releases

Don't forget our digital extravaganza throughout the months of January and February 2019.

All our previously released clear stamp sets are now available for purchase in digital format!

This month we've released the last of our clear stamps as digitals - Emu Parade, The Long Haul, Happy Wanderers, Lovely Lilies and Festive Baubles. If that's not enough to tempt you, we still have our buy 3 get one free* deal going on until the end of the month. 

* buy 4 digital stamp sets and get the least expensive set free

From The Whole Gang

This image makes me think of the traditional family photo that many people take at Christmastime to send to family and friends. Obviously an emu isn't going to knit a holiday sweater - since they don't have any thumbs and it's summer in Australia anyway - the next best thing is to do some holiday crafts with whatever is laying about. In this case, gumnuts and eucalyptus leaves!

Stamps: Emu Parade

Let's Get Festive

Although not traditional, green and gold seemed like the most appropriate colour scheme for an Australian themed Christmas card... and I think it works well with this less-than-traditional Christmas ambassador!

Stamps: Emu Parade

New Release: Emu Parade

Fun, festive and just a little bit quirky is the perfect way to describe the newest addition to our clear stamp range. Emu Parade features a collection of fabulous emus ready to celebrate the holidays in style. Mix and match the images with any of the five sentiments included with the set, and don't forget to "think outside the box" to create cards for other occasions, just like Carla did with her birthday themed project.

Available in Store Now

 Have a look at the wonderful cards and projects created by Carla and Anesha...

October Images

We're bringing a cheeky Aussie twist to the family festivities this year, with some rather quirky emus, some melodious magpies and a digital version of our much loved Aussie Christmas set. We haven't forgotten about all the Halloween fans out there either. Our collection of terrifying black cats is sure to send goosebumps down your spine... well, perhaps not all that terrifying, but trying hard to get into the spirit!

Available in Store Now

Scaredy Cats

digital stamp set

Available in Store Now

The Front Gate

digital stamp set

Available in Store Now

Aussie Christmas

digital stamp set

Available in Store Now