Handmade in Windsor Lab

Hi, So I was inspired, once again, by Jennifer McGuire to try out a fast watercolour technique using Ranger Distress and Distress Oxide Inks on watercolour card. The Altenew Beautiful Heart stamp set (July 2018 release) had the perfect flower outline and leaves to try it on, but the technique will work with any outline stamp. One of my completed cards. The technique gives a really fast watercolour look to your images, and I did a quick video showing how to do it. You have to use a watercolour card for this technique, as you will soak the paper with water. Other cards will tend to end up all buckled if you try it with them. Distress Oxide and Distress Ink comparison You could do any colour of heat embossed outline to act as the resist, but I used Heat It Up! Silver Pearl embossing powder that I have had for years. The Distress Oxide inks give a more matt, chalk look than the Distress Inks, but I like both! It does look like a mess when you are waiting for them...

Hi! I decided to make a second card with the Altenew Needlework Motif stamp, keeping it in the same place on the card, just using a different colouring technique. This time I went for water colours and used my Gansai Tambi water colours. These are really thick creamy water colours so you can get really strong colours with them as well as the more traditional wash type looks you get with many watercolours. Lovely splatters to hide where I got a finger print! Here's a video quick video of how this one was done. You might want to speed it up to double speed which you can find under the cog on a computer, or under the 3 dots in the top right corner on a mobile device, unless you like to relax and watch people colouring in! The embossing acts as a resist for the paint, so it doesn't go outside of the lines, so it's a fun thing to paint without having to concentrate too hard! Don't forget to use an anti-static bag before stamping with embossing ink. Lesle...

Hi! I mentioned in my last blog that if I was going to recreate the card Tasnim did at the Altenew Workshop using the Needlework Motif stamp, I would heat emboss it rather than hand outline it, so I did! Ignore the excess powder, I forgot my anti-static powder! Here's a video of exactly what I did, I used the other stamp from the set just to change it up a bit. The technique is the same as the one we used at the workshop, up to the embossing part, at the workshop we hand traced around the card with a Sakura Metallic Jelly Roll pen, which I found pretty time consuming. Even double embossing the stamp and heat embossing the sentiment, I think this was faster and gave a similar effect, it its still a single layer card without any real dimension so would post nicely. You don't need to be too careful with your colouring as you cover up the edges with the embossing at the end, the same applies if you are going over the stamp with a pen. Don't forget to use an...

Hi! Yesterday I was lucky enough to go to the Altenew day long workshop in Daventry that was held ahead of the One Big Show event they were attending. If anyone knows the company, they are famous for their floral layering stamps that I have demonstrated at a couple of craft fairs while out and about with Handmade In Windsor stalls. We got to make 6 cards and a scrap book layout, with Lydia, Lillith and Tasnim (who owns Altenew and was over from America.) I thought I'd share the things I made today and give a sneak peak of the stamp sets we got as part of the workshop that aren't out until next month (July 2018). First up was Lydia's 3 cards... This is the photo I took during the workshop....  And here's some better shots of the cards I took when I got home... First up was a single layer card using the Life is Awesome stamp set We only had blue and pink inks from the Floral Ink Set and the Sweet Dreams set, so the purple flower was created by simply ov...

Hi! I am in the unlucky situation that my husband's birthday falls the same week as Father's Day most years (it's his birthday as I am writing this!), so I spend most of June on 'man' cards. My two daughters also spend the month wondering what 'daddy likes' to make a card on the theme of, and we invariably come up with cricket, music and cycling! There's no bought cards in our house unless he buys them for me! (I will pop a bonus picture at the end to show what my daughters made for Father's Day last week.) He's become partial to a 'dad' joke now my eldest is nearly a teenager, if for no other reason than to embarrass her I am sure!! So I thought that I would make him a card based around his likes and 'dad joke' style puns! I trawled through my stash of Creative Stamping magazine for stamps to fit the bill and came up with plenty to choose from, so here's the finished card to start with: Music, cricket and cycling...

Hi! Today I am sharing a video I made of how to use dies to make a partial die cut edge on a card. This is a lovely technique for keeping your card to a single layer, or to add dimension while keeping the base layer more interesting with images popping off the edge of your card. This is the first card I made with the technique using Altenew's Lotus Flower stamps and matching dies. This card had some extra dimension, but could have been made as a single layer card. You do need dies to do this technique, unless you wish to hand cut stamped images with a craft knife! Here's the video which best shows how to do this: I showed the finished single layer card I created at the end of the video, here's a few photos of it in progress. I did a quick follow-up video of how I applied the blue wash in distress ink on this card, and finished it off with a die-cut greeting that I stuck flat to the card on vellum that I fussy cut as a layer. Here's the...

Hi, Well I have been holding off on this post until after Father's Day so that my dad and father-in-law didn't see their cards ahead of time! My Father's Day cards this year! I used the free stamps and dies from issue 159 of 'papercraft essentials' magazine, and did a video of the whole process showing my mistakes (how to fix when you stamp upside down on your card blank!) and a couple of different colouring techniques using both watercolour pens and distress ink. Here's the video, remember you can run it at double speed (this one is already at double speed, but you can make it 4x using the settings on YouTube!): You can find all my supplies listed at the end as usual, and just for your information, I am not paid by anyone for anything on this blog, I have purchased any supplies I use myself, and am simply sharing my own creative process! Supplies used for these cards! Hopefully you found this interesting today, Lesley x Supplies Sta...

Hi! A few of you may have seen that I posted a really short video of an Inside Shadow Box Card on a couple of social media groups a few days ago. I said I might get brave and make a video with instructions on how I did this, and that's exactly what I did today! This was my first time talking on a video (and of course the doorbell rang when I was one minute in), so any comments would be appreciated. Here's the video! Click here if the picture doesn't link you to YouTube! And here's the card... Inside Shadow Box Card As you can see it makes a nice canvas for little scenes with stamps or die cuts, and you could decorate in lots of different ways for any occasion. I just did a quick bit of stamping on this example to show the effect you can get. The measurements you need to know for the card are: 1. Make your A4 piece of card exactly 8 inches wide 2. Cut your card into 2 in the other direction. I did this by first cutting it to 29cm long and then in h...

Hi! I have been busy playing about with videoing and editing again, but I couldn't share the card I had made until after the recipient had it for their birthday. In this case it was a card I made for my grandma's 88th birthday that was at the start of the month. I have been demonstrating layered stamping while out and about at craft fairs, and it seems to go down well, so this video shows how I make my layered flower cards. Today I was using the Altenew Floral Fantasy stamp set with the coordinating dies. I also used the Tonic Studios 'Will's Hand' Birthday die, which is lovely as it has a background layer with it. I also used a Dymo label maker to add 'happy' to the card. Here's the finished card! Please let me know what you think of my video, I think I got a hang of the editing a little better this time! I recommend running it a 2x speed if you just want a quick look as it's 15 minutes long otherwise! You can change the speed using t...