Elzybells Blog

 

Woohoo!! It's release day and here's my peek for today!!

 

Doesn't she look relaxed after a hard day at work?!

The stamp and sentiment are from the new clear set 'Rubbadubdub' which comprises of a mixture of 14 images and sentiments. The bubbles in the corners is a separate clear stamp which is fantastic for creating borders and backgrounds.

 

 

All the new stamps will be available in the online shop from midday today :)

 

If you have placed an order between the 1st of June and today you will have received a raffle ticket with your stamps - I will be drawing one lucky person tomorrow to win the entire release so check back to see if that lucky person is YOU!! All orders received today will receive a ticket and be entered into the draw.

 

- Also, don't forget you can be in with a chance to win £30 towards an elzybells shopping spree. Here's the next stamp snippet for this week's competition (more details here)

 

 

Come on, this one's easy... ;)

 

Wishing you good things

 

Today's sneak peek is of a new clear sentiment set perfect for those little thank you's and wish you well's with a fun little font.

 

 

 

 

The other stamps used are Daisy bunch (12-021) and Curly sunflower (12-022) and I have coloured using copics and koh-i-noors.

 

Have you checked out the other great sneaks by the design team?? It's release day *tomorrow* so please stop by for another sneak!!

 

See you then!

 

A little bit girly

 

Today is the first day of sneak peeks for our newest release coming THIS Wednesday! I know many of you have been waiting for some new girl stamps and although this month's release is quite a small collection of stamps, I completely adore them!!

 

The new stamps are perfect for the girl who likes to indulge in a spot of retail therapy or a relaxing pampering session - now who doesn't like the sound of that, huh?!

 

If you like our 'Dinkies' range of rubber stamp sets, you'll LOVE these two new sets! The main image on this card is part of our new 'Pamper Yourself' dinkie. It's a very cute set which comprises of 5 stamps.

 

I coloured the main image with copics (I thought it was about time I got these out of their box!). They give such a strong and vibrant colour. The table and background however, have been coloured using my favourite medium; koh-i-noor pencils. 

The new 'you're fabulous' sentiment is a separate rubber stamp and the little daisy trio stamp is a current design (12-002) which is a great addition to anyone's stamp collection as it's so fantastic for creating a variety of backgrounds.

 

 

 

All the stamps used on this card are from our new 'Retail Therapy' dinkie set. This set comprises of 9 stamps including a smaller version of the shopaholic girl. I've loved playing with this set! Have you noticed the little credit card stamp?!

 

 

Again, I've used copics on the shopping bags and blended koh-i-noors for a softer background.

These notecards are so simple and I love the way the white card pops off the kraft. I've used 3d sticky pads so they're a little more interesting than just being layered completely flat.

 

I hope you like this first peek... I've got so many ideas for these sets and lots to show you over the coming week!

 

Be sure to visit the design team's blogs (links are on the right) and pop back tomorrow for more sneaks!!

 

A touch of shimmer

As you now know, not only do Koh-i-noor have lusciously smooth coloured pencils, they also make a beautiful gold and silver pencil too.

 

 

 

With the same superb quality and buttery texture as the set of 24 colours, the gold and silver pencils are perfect for adding a beautiful shimmer to your creations. You can blend with them in exactly the same way as I showed in my tutorials or you can draw with them for an even more spectacular effect.

 

I sent a few of the design team members a gold and silver pencil each to play with and they have created some wonderful examples to show their versatility. Here's what they came up with...

 

 

Tobi made this sweet card, I love how striking the gold background is!

 

  

 

 

Here are a couple of cards by Steph. The pencils look so good on coloured card!

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple of cards by Paula. The pencils are so good for accenting Christmas cards!

 

 

 

This sweet card is by Jeanne 

Jeanne also has another card with a gorgeous gold and silver background but I'm going to tease you with that until tomorrow as it's for the fortnightly challenge and Jeanne will be sharing a tutorial too!

 

Don't forget - today is the last day of the special introductory prices on all the koh-i-noor pencils. At midnight tonight (UK time) the price will go up to its normal retail price so if you were hoping to snag a bargain, do it today!!

 

See you tomorrow for the DT challenge!

 

Yep, it's release day today which means I have a final sneak peek to share and some blog candy...!! All the new stamps will be available to view and purchase from mid-day today.... sorry for the tease!

 

 

Our Everyday Greetings set which comprises of 72 stamps has proved very popular with its versatility so with this release I have created an 'Everyday Add On' set with another 51 stamps which can be used in conjunction with the Everyday Greetings for an even bigger variety of sentiments!

 

What I love about these sets is the font is simple but has personality! I think this is why it's so appealing and makes it suitable for many a style of card. I think you can easily get around a whopping 300 sentiments out of these stamp sets!!

... So wondering how you could get the very most out of these 'everyday' sets, I have also designed an alphabet & number set in the same font and size which make the Everyday Greetings and Everyday Add On's as versatile as you can get!

 

 

So here, for my first card I have a simple example using the Everyday Alpha set. It has both upper case and lower case letters as well as numbers plus a few other characters and like the other sets, being clear, perfect alignment is a doddle!!

 

 

 

Now, we also have another new clear set which I am especially proud of.

Again, it can be used in conjunction with all the 'Everyday' sets and is called 'Family Greetings'. I've included all the family members I could possibly think of, it even has the words 'foster', 'in law', 'step' etc so hopefully you won't find yourself stuck for any. The set has 51 stamps, ten of which are larger and in different style of fonts with words such as 'special', 'cool', 'greatest'... 

 

Here's an example

 

All the words are separate stamps so you can play around with the alignment and mix and match with the other stamps in the set or even with any of the other Everyday sets making these a great staple in your stamping inventory!

 

 

 

   

 

Now for some blog candy!!!

You can win your favourite stamp / stamp set of your choice from the new release by simply leaving a comment on this post, telling me what your favourite is. So come mid-day have a nosey in the online shop and report back to me here!!

I will randomly pick a winner on Monday (25th) and the lucky person will win their favourite stamp or set!!

 

Be sure to visit all the design team's blogs for their final sneaks today!

 

 

 

Teddy surprise 

 

It's the third day of sneaks today (- boy this week is going by quickly!) With the current challenge, I've got folding on the brain and our super cute 'Teddy Surprise' clear set is perfect for what I had in mind...

 

 

... a simple three panel birthday card jazzed up with bright patterned papers! I stayed away from the obvious girly colours on this card but I think you could give it to either a boy or girl.

 

Here's the back panel so you can write a birthday message:

 

 

Here's the front of the card when it is closed and a few close ups:

 

  

 

 

 

 

The elzybelles have been creating up a storm! They have some wonderful samples to share so be sure to check out their blogs - - there's just one more sleep 'til release day...... woohoo!!

 

 

Taking it easy

 

It's the second day of sneaks - how are you enjoying them so far?? The design team never disappoint and their samples have been just awesome.

 

For today's sneak peek I've decided to use the new snoozing teddy stamp. I LOVE this stamp and the sofa is just crying out to be paper pieced! However, I refrained and decided to go with some really simple colouring and layering.

 

 

I left a narrow white border as I cut around the sofa to make it pop a little off the background paper and the white gel pen really made all the difference to finish the card off.

 

   

This new sentiment goes so well with the image and the teddy is just perfect for father's day if your father, like mine isn't into the usual sports / hobby themed images associated with father's day.

 

Be sure to pop on over to all the elzybelles' blogs and see what they have to share!

 

 

Hot stuff!

 

Ok, I hope these new blog colours aren't too bright for you? Being Monday morning I don't suppose anyone has a hangover as I'm sure it won't help, lol.

 

It's the first day of sneak peeks today for our new release on Thursday! We have a few teddies designed for the man in your life particularly with father's day just around the corner!

Among others, we have a DIY teddy, a mechanic teddy and here's a welder with a blow torch which I think is really fun!

 

 

I have been so looking forward to a good colouring session with this image! I knew I wanted to work some warm colour onto kraft card and this image is fantastic for developing the light and shade (I have used koh-i-noors and blended with OMS).

The background layer / border is also kraft card and I worked the colours around the edges to complement the coloured image.

Overall, I've kept the card quite plain as I wanted the colour to stand out. If you're going to have a large blank area, textured card is so nice to use, as it makes it a little more interesting without taking anything away from your focal points.

I also wanted ribbon but this card being for a fella, I didn't bother with any bows, but hopefully I'll be allowed to get away with some bling :)

Here's a close up of the coloured image. I used my silver coloured koh-i-noor pencil on the face guard and worked a small amount of white on the right to highlight. I also added a little glow from the torch along the right of the teddy and on the face guard and glove. 

The blacked out part also has some silver to highlight and a tiny bit of white.

I love images that make me think more about the light source and therefore where to highlight and shade.

 

Although not a great photo, I wanted to show you the fantastic shimmer on the silver pencil. I blended with OMS, but for some extra shimmer I coloured the left of the face guard with the silver pencil and left it unblended.

 

 

 

Please be sure to visit the design team members' blogs as they will be sharing samples throughout the day. You can see a full list of links on the right sidebar.

 

Now I'm off to do some blog hopping and I'll see you tomorrow for more sneaks!!

 

 

May all your troubles...

...float away like bubbles.

 

I love this image, it's just so innocent. I'm not gonna say much more about this card as I think the image and sentiment speaks for itself :)

 

 

 

See you tomorrow for our fortnightly challenge!

 

Hugs,

 

 

 

Stamps used:

07-015 Blowing bubbles

Mini Messages set - a little hello

 

Daisies, daisies everywhere!

I've been playing some more with my kraft paper as I really love how my krafty teddies card turned out. I love how striking the punched daisies look against the kraft paper. I think this card has turned out nice and sunny!

 

 

I coloured with prismas. Again, to lighten the overall image I rubbed some white chalk around it.

 

 

The sentiment is from the Mini Messages set (critters). Here's a close up so you can see I added some yellow liquid pearls to the daisy centres!

 

 

 

It has been AGES since I got this daisy punch out so I thought I'd give it a thorough workout. I had a dinky little terracotta flower pot (bought from Hobbycraft) so made this...

 

 

... I think it's sweet :)
I pushed some wire through the centre of the flowers and covered the ends with liquid pearls.I firmly pushed some clay in the bottom of the pot, then pushed in the wire stems. I put a layer of super glue to keep them in place and then added some pompoms. I only had white ones so I coloured them with brown and gold acrylic paint.

 

 

 

Stamps used:
07-012 Daisy chain teddy

20-036 Mini messages - critters