Life is a Cabaret

Good afternoon crafty friends, and I hope that you're not being blown away by Storm Doris if you're in the UK. I've only had to go out into the garden to re-cover the patio furniture twice, and managed to do the bins before it got really windy - just hope they don't blow over and send all our recycling rubbish off down the street 😆!

I'm running a few days late with this post, as Monday saw the start of our new challenge over at Incy Wincy Designs and our theme for you this fortnight is Leather and/or Lace.

We have 2 amazing sponsors lined up for you:

Firstly Elena and Kenny Kiernan, the team behind KennyK Stamps are offering our first lucky winner a prize of 3 digital stamps. Here's a bit about them, and everyone's a winner with their discount code and offer of a free digi stamp every month:

Stamp designer Elena Kiernan and illustrator hubby Kenny Kiernan bring a perfect storm of creative energy to the bold and fun digi stamps and clear stamp sets at this rockin’ shop, where it’s always 30% OFF your first purchase with code MYFIRSTPURCHASE. Their hundreds of fun-to-color designs include everything from kids’ to teenage girls with attitude, skateboard boys, steampunk, men, sports, superheroes, music… and for those who enjoy a little spice in their crafting, KennyK Stamps is the #1 Shop in the World for Sexy Stamps!  Rock Your Crafts with KennyK Stamps! 

Get a FREE DIGI STAMP every month by subscribing to their newsletter. It’s a no-brainer, sign up here to join!

Click to follow KennyK Stamps on Facebook and also join their awesome new Facebook Fan Group, “Club KennyK!”

Our second sponsor is the team at WOW Embossing Powder who are offering our second lucky prize winner 6 embossing powders and a travel case to store them in, and these will be shipped directly to our winner from WOW HQ! If you haven't tried WOW Embossing Powders, you'll love them ... and here's a bit more about them:

WOW! Embossing Powder has been established as a brand since May 2006 and

has grown dramatically since then. We are rapidly becoming very well-known and

respected within the craft industry. We pride ourselves on our fast and

friendly customer service, and personal touch each and every one of our

customers receives. We are the largest manufacturers of embossing powder in the

world, therefore are very pleased and proud to offer crafters what we believe

is the best product available at a great price

The DT have been given their choice of KennyK Stamps to showcase this time, so here's a sneak peak or the "Watershed Version" of my card - I will warn you, this is waaaaayyyyyy out of my comfort zone and not my usual style at all, so if you're easily offended I would suggest that you read no further!

This will be my card to Papa Mia who will be celebrating a certain Birthday next month! OK - so if you're reading on, I will take it that you're happy with seeing a picture of a scantily clad woman and I will not be held responsible! 😄

So here she is, in all her glory with a faux leather background, so easy to do and incredibly effective too!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card Base - is piece of Ivory Centura Pearl which I have cut, scored and folded to make an 11.5 x 15.4 cm card
• Mat & Layer - is a piece of black cardstock sized to 11 x 14.9 cm
• Background - is an A6 piece of Kraft card and I followed this Faux Leather Tutorial by Sheena Douglass to make it look like this using glycerine, water, a spray bottle, a Sheena embossing folder called Distress Splatter, Distress Inks in Vintage Photo and Spiced Marmalade and a spray varnish, although I had to use my Spray and Sparkle Glitter Varnish so my faux leather background has a glittery finish to it!
  
• Image - is the lovely Cabaret by Kenny at KennyK Stamps. I drew a stool under her and then brought this bewitching one to life using my Spectrum Noir Markers before die cutting her using my second largest Sizzix Framelits Ovals die using an "Out of the Box" technique.
• Sentiment - is die cut from Ivory Centura Pearl which has been layered onto an additional die cut from black card to give a shadow. The Happy Birthday die was in my Crafter's Companion Advent Calendar 2016 and I used the "th" portion of this die to cut again from both the ivory and black card to go with the numbers. The "5" and "0" both come from the Diamond Press Whimsical Alphabet collection.

Please do head over to  Incy Wincy Designs and check out the other wonderful creations featuring Leather and/or Lace from my very talented teamies. Then come back and show us your creations. We'll be back with our next challenge on Monday 6th March 2017.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• February Challenge - Anything Goes with a KennyK Stamp at Club KennyK Facebook Page
• Challenge 39 - For a Man at Moving Along With The Times
• Challenge 282 - Boys are Back in Town at The Paper Shelter
• Let's Get Messy at Try It On Tuesday - I got very messy with the faux leather technique, rubbing a mix of glycerine and water into both sides of my Kraft card before scrunching it up and repeating. Once the card was nice and pliable, I embossed it and allowed it to dry. Then I rubbed my Distress Inks onto it, before smearing varnish over it to create the finished background!
• Challenge 142 - Use a Number (with a Stamp) at Addicted to Stamps
• Challenge #79 - Happy Birthday at Inky Chicks
• #119 - Male Colours at Through the Purple Haze
• Challenge #19 - Anything Goes at World Wide Open Design Team Challenge - Second Entry

Whatever you're doing for the rest of the day, have fun and stay safe!

Hugs, Helen x