Nickie's Birdie

.

Hi there! I'm here to introduce myself to you:  I'm Jen Leeflang and I have the honor of being a Guest Designer here at Inky Impressions for May and June.
I was born and raised in Durban on the sunny east coast of South Africa, where I live with my husband Pete, and our three sons Nicholas, Blayne and Kellan.  Besides my papercrafting passion,  I love to design, make and bead belly dance costumes.  I have a stash of beads, sequins, gems and trims that I use for the costumes and they often find their way onto my cards too.  You could call me the confused crafter, but it works for me, and I am most comfortable in my happy place (my craftroom).  I work from home, homeschooling teenagers in the mornings and crafting in the afternoons, and in between I get the household chores done too.  You visit me on my blog to see some more of my creations.

Below is a card that I made with the Inky Impressions rubber stamp called 'Nickie's Birdie' available in the Inky Impressions Store that I coloured using alcohol markers and a white gel pen for highlights. The sentiment was printed onto white cardstock and cut using a die.  The shading on the diecut was achieved by 'chalking' with eye shadow powders before the cardstock was removed from the die (have you ever tried that?)  The DP is from a 6x6 pad "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" that came as a free gift with a papercrafting magazine.  I added a spray of flowers, sewn onto the DP using the same invisible thread as I used to bead the belly dancer's costumes (I told you I was a confused crafter!)

Living in Durban, I don't have many craft stores that I can wander through and choose my stamps, and so being able to 'amble' through the Inky Impressions store was an absolute delight ... there are so many stamps that I think I NEED to have.  A visit here is recommended!!!

The Inky Impressions Challenge Blog is also a great place to visit;  the challenges are fun, the prizes fabulous, and the Design Team samples are great inspiration for any papercrafter!  The current challenge calls for you to add lace or trim ... how easy is that!

 

I have a date for you to add to your diary before you go .. 25 MAY 2012 ... come and join the hop with us!