New digital Stamps: Hearts for Valentine's Day

I have another couple of new stamps to show you, both with a heart theme and just in time for making Valentine's cards!

First is this hearts in an envelope digistamp - a simple but effective image with a free sentiment sending you all my love

Then there's the hearts within a heart digital stamp

Again, it's a simple but effective image and it's really easy to make it into something stunning!  This is a card Mary made for a recent challenge:

Lynne also used the hearts within a heart for her five cards (five! Wow, go Lynne!) on this week's papercraft challenge.

These stamps and more are available on the Valentine's Day stamps pages on the Handmade Harbour website.  Feel free to pop over and have a little browse!

All stamps are digital stamps, available for immediate download - the perfect choice if you are impatient to get started!

Midweek Papercraft Party (22)

Welcome to another papercraft challenge!  This week's theme is

Hearts and/or Flowers 

You can see where we are going with this, can't you?  It's a perfect theme for those Valentine's cards, but maybe some other projects could make it in, too...

Without any further ado, last week's winners are:

Teresa and Tamie

Well done! Both winners get to choose three digital stamps from Handmade Harbour.  Please email me with your choices, ladies!  A very special mention to Teresa, whose card used not just one but two Handmade Harbour digis and is just super cute (click her name above to see it).  Teresa, you have probably won too many of these challenges now but I  just couldn't resist picking you again this week!!

Let's have a peek at what the design team has been making...

Lynne has made a batch of cards with the heart theme.  In fact they are all from this hearts within a heart digital stamp.  In fact, all the cards the design team has made this week use the same digital stamp!  I love it when that happens (it wasn't planned that way!) because I love seeing the variety of creativity that can come from one single image.

LYNNE'S favourite - because of the Crackle Medium she used on the hearts!

Zoe used the same image (below) and made a very different but equally beautiful card...  I love the subdued colours and of course the buttons.  I'm a sucker for buttons as a decorative touch.

Rachel's card (below) has hearts and flowers in abundance - you can't mistake the message here!  She also added the do what you love digi to create a very pretty, shimmery and blingy hearts-and-flowers card.

A quick reminder: if you'd like to be part of our design team, there is an opening right now!  There is more information about the design team call here!

Are you inspired by our hearts and flowers theme?  Have you been creating cards or other projects that might fit in nicely?  If so, we'd love to have you join in our challenge.  Two winners every week get three free digi stamps of their choice from the Handmade Harbour store. 

If you are joining in...

Handmade Monday 152

Hello! Welcome to another Handmade Monday!

I'm definitely becoming a little obsessed with teaching myself techniques for making patterned papers.  It's even keeping me up at night - it goes a little like this in my head: I'll just do this in another colour or I could do this in a slightly different format...or what this needs is a contrast...and before you know it, it's way past bedtime!

There weren't enough hours in the day before I went along this route.  I have no idea at all how I will manage now!  Still, this is feeling like a lot of fun at the moment!

I haven't listed any of these new papers for sale yet, but I do now have a few packs almost ready!  My favourite paper up to now is this beach huts design (well, it would be... it's possible you already know I have a small obsession with beach huts)...

pack of beach huts papers now available here

but what gets really exciting is when one design is put together with other papers.  I know I'm not alone in loving to mix patterns (whether they are fabric or paper) as well as colour and it's so exciting to be able to actually create those patterns as well as mix them!  These are a few of the papers that will be packaged in one bundle with the beach huts:

In other news, I have just announced a design team call for paper crafters and card designers.  You'll find all the details on the design team call post if you are interested.  I'm really pleased that some of the designers from the last term want to stay on, but it will be great to work with new designers too.  I've thoroughly enjoyed the first six months of working with a team of designers - it's completely amazing to see what they do with my designs.

It's over to you now.  What are you sharing for Handmade Monday this week?

Design Team Call!

I can't believe I'm announcing another design team call already!  It only seems a few weeks since the last one - but the wonderful group of designers that comprise the current team have been designing for Handmade Harbour for almost six months now!  I think they are mostly ready to move onto a new challenge.

card by Laura

Sooo... if you are interested, here are all the details:

Design team Call for Handmade Harbour

I'm looking for six to eight cardmakers or papercrafters who like using digital stamps.  The successful applicants will become part of a small but enthusiastic team.  I hope it will be a worldwide team - it really doesn't matter where you live!

card by Lynne

What am I looking for?

Someone who:

• has their own craft or personal blog and enjoys blogging about their makes
• enjoys using digital stamps
• can take good, clear photos of their work
• can create at least two projects per month (including two blog posts on their own blog)
• is willing to leave comments on some of the blogs which join in our challenges
• blogs in English (a dual language blog is OK)
• is happy to be part of the team for a six month term
• is OK with me using their images on my blog and website (you can watermark them if you like and I will give credit/links whenever possible)
• Most of all, enjoys having fun and sharing their creations with others!

The benefits for team members are:

• at least four free digital stamps per month, often more (with no expectation for you to use all of them)
• you get your mitts on new releases, sometimes before they hit the website
• mentions and links on the Handmade Harbour website and blog - I'll send people your way whenever I can!
• friendly and supportive approach

card by kel

This is how you apply (you have two options):

Please make at least two cards, both using digital stamps.  Then please attach images of them to an email and tell me the following in your email:

• Your name and where you live
• Your blog URL
• Any other URL's where I might see more about you or your work (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, SCS gallery, etc)
• Why do you want to join Handmade Harbour's design team? 
• Have you been (or are you currently) on any other design teams?  (not essential, but it would be good to know.  Newbies are very welcome!)

Send your email to wendy@handmadeharbour.co.uk

Alternatively...

If you prefer, you can apply by writing and publishing a post on your blog, answering the questions within your post, and then email me (same email address as above) to tell me where to find your blog post.

Please send your application in before 7th February!  I hope to announce the new team around the 14th - 16th February.

Yay!  I can't wait to hear from you!

Love is in the Air!

Love is definitely in the air with these new digital stamps - and quite literally with this first one!

On this first new digital stamp, these balloon letters spell out the word LOVE.  This would make a great Valentine's card, don't you think?  I think it could work for other occasions, too - maybe a wedding?  The sentiment comes along with the image: nothing soars higher than love

There are more balloons in this second one: this digital stamp has balloons saying I heart U.  Another great printable Valentine's image!

This second one comes with the sentiment Happy Valentine's day

These two printable images are part of the new releases over in the Handmade Harbour digital stamps shop.  Pop over there to find more!

P.S: If you are new to digistamps and want to try before you buy, there are some free digital stamps for you to download!

Midweek Papercraft Party (21)

Welcome to another papercraft challenge.  Last week was a disappointing turnout - let's see if we can do better this week!  We had only two entrants, so they both get a prize!  To be fair, they are both deserving of a prize as their work is just superb.

Carol and Teresa both made gorgeous cards for the challenge and both win three digistamps of their choice from Handmade Harbour.  Carol and Teresa, please email me for your choice of images - wendy@handmadeharbour.co.uk

Our theme this week is SMILE!  You can interpret this any way you choose.  It could be an image of someone smiling, something that makes you smile - or it could even be the sentiment.  The first two images from the design team use the vintage camera digital stamp which I guess is an obvious choice this week!

Kel's card makes a great birthday card... and definitely has that vintage vibe!  I love it!

and this card by Laura could be for any occasion.  It's a double embossed card - just gorgeous!  It's also looking very vintage!

Connie at TimesTo Cherish used the butterflies digital stamp for embellishing her gorgeous layout.  I love the way this works - so pretty!  And I think those are little beads or gems on the butterfly's body.  Just lovely.

And now it's your turn.  It would be great to have you join in.  I'm not sure what makes the difference to a challenge you want to join and one you don't, so if you have any insights please share them with me!

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to seeing what you made, so if you feel like a challenge this week...

Handmade Monday 151

Welcome to another Handmade Monday!  If you want to join in, it's easy - just click the link to find out more.

My week has had two significant highs - one was when one of my hand painted clocks was featured in a national newspaper.  I wrote about that over here, so I won't repeat myself now.  But it's probably worth mentioning again that Swanky Maison are responsible for the publicity - they are very good at that sort of thing!

So there has been a lot of clock painting this week!

The other significant high was teaching myself something from You Tube videos and online tutorials - it was so exciting when I finally "got" it!  A new skill is always exciting, don't you think?  Especially when it's all about pattern and colour...

You may well know I make digital stamps (images I have hand drawn then scanned so they can be downloaded and printed by customers for using with their own handmade cards).  What I wanted to do was create patterned papers to go with those images.  Up to now I've hand drawn (and hand-coloured) a few papers with varying degrees of success and always far too time consuming (often the way with handmade, I know).

But this week I had a breakthrough, and as a result I made some patterned papers using digital techniques -  which for me is pretty significant and feels like a real success!

My next stage is making sets of them for sale - the digital equivalent of packaging and displaying them nicely.

Then I need to learn some more techniques, but having conquered this one I am now more confident about exploring and experimenting!

What have you been making or doing this week?  Come and join in so we can pop by and see!

New Digital Stamps: Happy Dance!

I think I might have been feeling a little bit excited about welcoming in a new year when I designed these new digital stamps!  I can see a happy dance theme here!

I quite like my happy dance bunny digistamp - what do you think?

And the girl doing a happy dance digistamp looks like she's celebrating something doesn't she?

Anita used this image in a recent blog challenge.  Here it is again in case you missed it (I think it deserves repeating!).

And finally, we have a vintage-style stamp - a 1920's flapper girl dancing which might make a great central image on a handmade birthday card.

Is there anything that's been happening to make you do a happy dance?  I think the little things in life are always worth celebrating with a little happy dance, don't you?

You can buy all these digital stamps over at the Handmade Harbour shop.  They are all instant downloads - perfect if you want to get crafting straight away!

Midweek Papercraft Party (20)

Hello and a warm welcome to the latest papercraft challenge!  This week's challenge theme is:

Health and Happiness - it doesn't need to be both, it could be health or happiness.  But I think they are fitting things to be thinking about in what is still a brand new year, don't you?

The design team has come up with a few designs which I love - hope you do too!  If you'd like to join in this week, you can find more information on the papercraft challenge page, but it's pretty simple - the main thing is, just leave your blog link below - we'd love to visit you and see what you made!

Before we start, let's have a little drumroll for last week's winners:

Fiona S and Sarah

Well done to you both!  You both win three digistamps of your choice from the Handmade Harbour store.  Please pick your stamps and email wendy@handmadeharbour.co.uk with your choices.  I'll then get them to you as soon as possible.

Winners also get to display the winner's badge on their blog, which is to be found in the left hand sidebar, somewhere over that way <----

OK, are you ready?  I love this first one!  Lynne made a 5" x 7" canvas with the brand new girl in windy weather digistamp - this canvas would look fabulous hanging on the wall!  It took my breath away when I saw it - I adore all the colour and feeling of excitement in this one!

Zoe used another brand new image - the do what you love digital stamp - to make this superb card.  A great sentiment to be starting the new year off with, don't you think? Do what you love and love what you do...

Rachel plumped for the popular wine o' clock digital stamp to make her gorgeous card. Of course, red wine is supposed to be good for you (in moderation!) and the feel-good factor of a little tipple certainly fulfills the happiness part of this challenge!  I think you could add in the smile that this card will raise!  

What have you been making that might fit our health and happiness theme?  Or perhaps you want to make something especially for the theme? There are two winners every week, and remember that if you use a Handmade Harbour digital stamp in your project you significantly increase your chances of winning!

To join in, please leave your link below - and it would be lovely if you could visit a few of the other entrants and leave some comment love - this is a party, after all!!

Handmade Monday 150

Hello! Welcome to Handmade Monday!  Click the link to find out more.

This week, I was really surprised to find Your Handmade Home plopping through my letterbox.  I hadn't had a discussion about this with anyone, but I found one of my projects in its pages.  Part of writing for magazines usually includes signing a contract allowing them to re-use one of your projects (for a small fee) and this is what they'd done here.

These little fabric and paper hearts started life on my blog and were used in a Craftseller upcycling calendar before making their way onto the pages of Your Handmade Home.

Craftseller magazine also brought me a nice surprise this week.  The letters page features a reader who had made a card using one of my previous designs for the magazine - it's always such a lovely feeling to have inspired someone else!

More of my cards are in the middle pages of this month's Craftseller and feature their With Love papers collection (very pretty and great for Valentine's cards and much more!).

This week has been busy with little ones, family visits (late Christmas and new Year visits) and some chaotic catching up - it seems I'm a little behind with almost everything.  It's always sad to wave off my daughter and granddaughter when they go back to London, but it has its advantages too - I get my sewing room back from its temporary bedroom status and the house is most definitely quieter.

But sadly, no more art installations on the windows... I love that this is the first thing she thought of doing with her first tubs of Playdough!

What have you been doing this week?

Pink for a girl...

Here's some more pink to inspire your card making! It was really my fault that this image didn't make it into the last post, so I'm giving it a post of its very own.

The digistamp is a little girl with her toy rabbit which was inspired by my granddaughter Emily (who was three yesterday!).

The card was made by kel, and you can see more on kel's blog.

It would have made a perfect card for Emily's birthday!

Midweek Papercraft Party (19)

Hello!  Welcome to the first papercraft party of 2014!  The design team has been busy with the theme of

Pink or Blue

and they've come up with a great selection to start off the new year.  Some of the digis they've used are so new they haven't made it to the website yet - that's because it's just one of those times at the moment that everything seems to be happening all at once and I'm caught in a bit of a whirlwind.  But I'll get there soon, I'm sure!

The winners of the last challenge are:

Martha and Teresa

Well done!  Please email wendy@handmadeharbour.co.uk to claim your prize - you get to pick three images from the Handmade Harbour store.

 Laura made a fabulous get well card.  This little guy is not feeling well, but still has a smile on his face so he's not feeling blue - that's for sure! She gave him some nice blue paper from Bo Bunny and a blue ribbon for this Challenge!

Valerie used Special Friends and confesses she started out looking for blues & pinks in her paper collection, then fell in love with one from My Mind's Eye - Notable, but completely forgot about the color challenge! Oops!  

Never mind Valerie - I can see blue in there, so that makes it fit, doesn't it? Your little story made me realise it's not only me that gets carried away on a design whim!

Connie at Times To Cherish made a beautiful and natural-themed wintry page - gorgeous, isn't it?  That little girl in the wind is one of the soon-to-be-released images.

Mary  used another new image - and these hearts within a heart look great in pink.  A lovely Valentine's image if anyone is thinking about making Valentine's cards now.

Anita Mistry made a journal page and the wording she used is perfect for this image (another new addition, due to join the website very soon).

If you are feeling the winter blues, cheer yourself up with a blue or pink themed papercrafting!  I think it's the perfect antidote!  If you'd like to share your papercrafting with us, we'd love to visit and maybe leave a comment for you.  If you'd like to join in with this challenge....

Handmade Monday 149

Hello and welcome to the first Handmade Monday of 2014!  Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and weren't too affected by the awful weather that's been affecting the UK and elsewhere.  Even living inland we've had flood warnings in place in several areas nearby but I can't imagine the dreadfulness of the major flooding that some coast dwellers have faced (and it's much the same for some of those who live near rivers).

The winds apparently reached 60 mph here, and I woke up one morning to find a tree uprooted in my garden.  Shame it didn't happen pre-Christmas... the top of this tree could have been chopped off and festooned in lights!  It's actually pretty fortunate that it fell into our garden and not on nearby neighbour's houses.

I've made a start on my first sewing project of 2014.  This is going to be some wall pockets - with a purpose.  My elderly parents both have Alzheimer's and one of the many problems this brings is getting them to remember to take their medication (well, getting Mum to remember it, because unfortunately Dad can't even remember that he has medication - or even that he has problems with his memory).  I am hoping that hanging medication up on the wall in a prominent place in a pretty hanger and a reminder notice will go some way to helping with that.  We'll see what happens!  I'm using some lovely Gutermann fabric that was given to me via Craftseller magazine, and some transparent PVC for the pockets which originally came from Abakhan.

I've also made a start with learning a new way of doing things... although I could be some time on this one!  I was bought a graphics tablet for Christmas...

and I've been playing with creating images digitally.  I'm quite happy with my beginner's efforts, although I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be yet.  I think it will be fun learning, though, and  there is another bonus: learning new things at any age is supposed to help reduce the potential for Alzheimer's in later life.  I think considering there is a genetic link, and both my parents have it, I need to start taking my brain health seriously!

This is one of my first-ever digital craft papers that I actually created digitally and I'll be uploading a few of these to the Handmade Harbour store soon.  I'm experimenting with drawing digitally on the tablet, too, although I think I need a little more practice!  I made a start though... this was all drawn and coloured digitally...

The learning curve is pretty massive for me, but it's quite exciting to have a challenge that is outside my comfort zone but also links to creativity.   I must admit I would have been happier if the digital tutorial that was supposed to come with this model could actually be accessed.  I thought it was just me, but apparently this is a known issue.  I couldn't download the online version either, and despite their help desk sending me a friendly email with some basic information, that didn't help much either.  YouTube is their last-resort suggestion and finding the right tutorial is proving a little frustrating.  Still, I'm sure I'll get there!

Over to you!  What's been going on in your world?  Or what are you planning for 2014?