Sarah Hurley - Illustrator & Craft Designer - Crafts, Illustration, Inspiration & Vintage

New Products & Brochure

2013-05-23T17:21:00.003+01:00

I've been telling you how busy I am working on lots of new products and now I can show you just a couple of them (some of them are not quite ready yet!)

Firstly, two new softie sewing kits, a cute deer and a sausage dog...

all my kits are now in new packaging complete with my (well earned after a lot of hard work!) CE mark - yay!

and I've also added some cufflinks to my jewellery range, just in time for Father's Day!

I've also now completed my swishy online product brochure where you can see all of my current products, you can take a look here...

If you would like your local shop to stock my products, please direct them to this link or if you are a shop or website that would like to stock my products, please take a look and send me an email, I'd love to help! :o) (I ship worldwide)

I'd love to hear what you think of the new products and the brochure!

Thank you for dropping by today
Sarah x

Watercolour Scrapbooking with Inktense

2013-05-22T17:22:00.002+01:00

Today I wanted to share with you my Derwent blog project from last month, I used the fabulous Inktense blocks and an Instagram picture to create a scrapbook page about my Momiji Doll collection...

I used the blocks to add a strip of colour across the top, going from purple through to blue, I then sprayed along the top with water and held the paper at an angle so the colour dripped down.

I did actually get my first attempt wrong trying to be impatient and drying with my heat gun, but it just blew the colour all over the page *sigh* so my top tip, is to leave it to dry overnight! It didn't go to waste though, I cut that piece down and used it as the mat pieces behind my picture!

I also used the blocks to colour in the wooden embellishments and alphabet - the colours are so bright and they are permanent when dry.

I think my Inktense obsession is starting to show, not bad for someone who was scared of watercolouring just a year ago!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Another Sneak Peek...

2013-05-19T17:02:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post today, with another little sneak peek of the project I mentioned last week, this is a work in progress...

I've been working on this more today in between lots of other things including some more new products coming next week (yay!)

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend :o)

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

Papercraft Inspirations Cover!

2013-05-16T21:55:00.001+01:00

With all the excitement and goings on of the last few weeks, I completely forgot to mention, I made the cover of Papercraft Inspirations magazine this month! Here is the cover showing one of my Magnolia cards (with Promarkers, of course!)

There are a few more inside, I hope you can pick up a copy and let me know what you think of my little project.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Sneaky Peek!

2013-05-13T17:51:00.000+01:00

Today I breathed a little life into a massive project I have been working on for absolutely ages now, something that has lived just in my head for years and years and I don't mind admitting I'm a little (ok, a LOT! lol) nervous to start sharing it! but the time has come for me to let it go.

While I hold on to my private world for just a little bit longer, I also want to share with all of you and show you the tiniest sneak peek...

You will be hearing a lot more about this little one very soon...

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Darker Hair & Skin Tones with Promarkers

2013-05-09T18:20:00.000+01:00

Today I'm sharing another of my Create & Craft show makes, this time the little ladybug card where I showed how to do darker hair and skintones, for this I used the Skintones 2 and Neutrals Promarker and Flexmarker sets.

The stamp is another of the Little Darlings range I've been showing on Create & Craft. the backing paper was actually an old one I've had for about 8 years and was in my 'to recycle' pile I saved it just in the nick of time as it was perfect for this card! Here are a couple of close ups to show you the colouring in detail... (you can click to make them bigger)

I'm often asked how I stop my black hair colouring looking grey - the trick is to use a hint of brown in the shadowy areas, here I started with Walnut and then layered Black and Dark Grey 4 and 5 over the top.

I've been very busy here at Hurley HQ this week working on lots of new exciting products and some things I will be telling you about VERY soon! I have also been organising and photographing all my new kit packaging, now my sewing kits match my card making and memory journal kits, what do you think?

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Colouring Die Cuts

2013-05-07T09:10:00.000+01:00

Firstly, my apologies, this post should have happened yesterday, but unfortunately all my plans of catching up and maybe even getting ahead this weekend were completely shot to pieces and I fell ill *sigh* luckily I am fighting fit and back to work today (yay!)

So, today, I want to go over one of the things I spoke about on one of my recent Create & Craft shows - colouring die cuts with your Promarkers. Usually we would die cut out pieces from multiple colours of card and build them up etc... however, it can be difficult to plan ahead and it leaves you with lots of scraps of card - which, if you're anything like me, you have great intentions of using up on another project and then promptly stuff in a drawer and forget about (sound familiar? lol) so what I started doing was cutting all of my die cuts from white bleedproof card and colouring with my Promarkers, here is an example...

The castle, dragon and clouds are all cut from the same white bleedproof card using my Cricut Mini, the Cricut cartridge for the castle and dragon is called Fantasy - I can't remember which one the cloud was from but you can search within the software to find it and download it - easy peasy! Each die cut piece was coloured with Promarkers before being layered together with Pinflair (I blame Phill for my addiction to Pinflair now! lol) Here are a couple of close ups, you can see just how 3D those die cuts are! (you can click to make them bigger)

I glittered the clouds with Stickles and then pieced together my card - the papers are from two DCWV stacks - the blue is from everyday essentials, my new fave! before stamping the coach and horses at the bottom.

I hope my little tip saves you some time and precious pieces of card and paper!

Thank you for popping by today
Sarah x

New! Gatsby Digi Scrap Kit & Stamps

2013-05-02T17:41:00.001+01:00

Today I'm releasing a new kit called Gatsby - you may have already got a peek at this if you checked out our Lookbook latest issue yesterday. The kit is all very 20's / Art Deco themed and features four of my hand drawn character digi stamps (I had great fun drawing these ladies!) the stamp set, of course, matches perfectly and there will be matching paper available in around a weeks time (you can pre-order and it will be sent as soon as it arrives - I won't hold your stamps up, and you will only pay one postage charge - win!)

Here is a little look at the Digi Kit...

and here are the stamps (there is also a lovely large latice background stamp that coordinates perfectly!) and a preview of the paper pack... (you can click on them to see them bigger!)

and finally, a gorgeous card that Elaine made from the digi kit...

You can find the whole Gatsby range here in my shop!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

The Lookbook Magazine Volume 3!

2013-05-01T14:33:00.000+01:00

Well, my lovely Design Team have once again done me proud and put together some fantastic projects for the third volume of the Sarah Hurley Lookbook magazine. You can now read the issue online (just click below)

We would love to hear what you think of this issue, and as ever, all of the products shown are now available here in my shop (except for the sneak peek kit which will be available soon)

As ever, a massive thank you to my lovely design team who made such fabulous projects for this issue, without them, none of this would be possible! We look forward to your comments and feedback.

Submissions for volume 4 are now open! To have your Sarah Hurley project considered for inclusion, please send us a photo of your project here.

Thank you for dropping by today
Sarah x

Free SVG Cutting File! - Jounaling Card

2013-04-29T15:36:00.002+01:00

Today I have a free SVG cutting file for you, this time a 'Perfect Day' Journaling card, sized to 3" x 4" for Documented365 / Project Life / Simple Stories etc... but can be resized easily in Silhouette Studio.

You can download your file here

I'd love to see your makes with it if you want to share them here in the comments or over on my Facebook page

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

p.s the new art journaling stamps are currently out of stock but can still be ordered as more are on their way and will be here later in the week! :o)

A Few of My Favourite Things... April Kit reveal!

2013-04-27T16:01:00.001+01:00

I posted the April 'A Few of My Favourite Things...' kits in my shop last night, and have to tell you that already there are only two left (eeek!) there will be new subscription places open for next month though, don't worry! In the meantime, here is a little look at this months kit...

Also, just to let you know, this is the only month you will get both a stamp AND a Stitch & Doodle! stencil (both exclusive!) so a great month to join!

You can subscribe or buy a one off kit and add ons over on my website now, but do hurry if you're looking for this months kit - it won't be long before they are gone!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Create & Craft Show Recap - Flexmarker Denim Effect

2013-04-26T18:19:00.000+01:00

Firstly, a big 'Thank You' to everyone who watched my Create & Craft show today and those that took the time to email in or leave me messages on Twitter / Facebook etc... it really does mean so much to get that feedback from you all so thank you!

I wanted to post a quick recap of todays demo so you had to hand the card as a reference and a list of the colours used, so firstly, here is the card I made using the Little Darlings Lili Anna Stamp and Flexmarkers to colour her in...

The flexmarkers I used are as follows:

For the Jeans - Navy Blue, Cadet Blue, Cool Grey 1, Soft Green and Linen (the soft green and linen are for adding the texture to the denim.

For the Hair and Boots - Burnt Sienna, Saddle Brown, Nutmeg, Light Fawn

For the Skintone - Nutmeg, Tea Rose, Light Fawn & Satin

For the Top - Red Violet, Vermillion, Cool Grey 5

For the Hair Bow & Eyes - Moss, Cool Grey 4

Here are a couple of close ups for you... (you can click on each one to make it bigger)

If you have a go of this technique, I'd love to see and maybe share some pics on a future show so please leave me your links here or over on my Facebook page.

I hope you have a fun crafty weekend planed, I have a lot of work to do - I'm working on some very exciting projects right now and I can't wait to share some more. Thank you to everyone who has ordered Stamp & Stitch! and Stitch & Doodle! (see previous post if you missed them!) - they have proved to be massively popular and I will have more designs for you soon :o)

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Introducing... Stamp & Stitch! and Stitch & Doodle!

2013-04-25T00:50:00.002+01:00

Today I'm so excited to reveal two new products!! These are things I've been working on for some time, I have been choosing and refining the best designs from some of my most popular and testing them out to make sure they are perfect and now I'm ready to show them off!

First up, Stamp & Stitch!

the stamps (which actually look fab even without stitching!) are in clear cling sets, you stamp using any inkpad, use a pricking took to pierce every other dot (for best results if using embroidery thread) and then stitch - simple!

Secondly, Stitch & Doodle!

The one in the picture is actually exclusive to this months 'A Few of My Favourite Things...' kit (which you can get a subscription to if you're quick! here) but they work in exactly the same way - simply doodle around the doodle one or pierce every other hole in the stitching one and then stitch with your embroidery thread, cotton etc...

These are now available here in my shop and lots more are in production coming soon - I'd love to know what you think! There are also some new art journaling / doodle stamps in today too, including a boy one!

Thank you for popping by today!
Sarah x

Elaine's Birthday Butterfly

2013-04-23T22:47:00.000+01:00

Today is the lovely Elaine's birthday from my Design Team and she set some of her crafty friends a little challenge, as she loves butterflies, she sent us all a plain card butterfly cut using one of my SVG files on the Silhouette and we all had to decorate it for her however we wished! Here is my butterfly for Elaine...

I used layers of Tim Holtz Distress paint through my stencils to create a colourful textured background before doodling around the edge of the wings and then stamped randomly with crackle texture, some stars and the 'Someday I'll Fly Away' sentiment (from my stamp sets) This is now winging it's way (pardon the pun!) to Elaine, I hope she likes it :o) Happy Birthday Sweetie!!! x

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

New Oz Digi Kit & a Free Digi Stamp!

2013-04-19T17:54:00.002+01:00

Today, we return to Oz! Last year I discontinued a number of kits and craft CD's, one I discontinued was the Oz craft CD and not a week has gone past without me being asked about it and if I will bring it back. I love the Wizard of Oz so I had the perfect excuse to get drawing again and revamp it and recreate the kit, even better than before!

The kit is available for a limited time at the bargainous price of £4.50 here in my shop (it should be £6.50) and as well as papers and embellishments contains a record 13 digi stamps and 6 SVG cutting files! My team have been working with the kit for a week or so and you can see the first project by Ian here on his blog - there will be lots more inspiration with this kit in the upcoming Lookbook magazine (look for more news on that next week!)

To celebrate the release of this kit I've designed a 14th digi stamp which is completely free for you here on my blog today, just click here to get yours (both black and white and colour files are included!)

I'd love to see your creations so please feel free to share here in the comments or over on my Facebook page.

Have a lovely weekend...

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Introducing...

2013-04-19T03:48:00.000+01:00

Today I'm so pleased to tell you all about the new additions to my Design Team!

Thank you to everyone who applied we had SO many entries and we had a very very difficult decision to make, however we have chose 3 regular DT members and 2 Guest Designers and here is a little bit about each of them, I hope you'll give them a big warm welcome :o)

Claire has been crafting for years but started blogging her creations just two years ago, her family are all creative and she loves to make cards, stamp and scrapbook, you can visit Claire's blog here

Lydia lives in Wales with her fiance and two children, she loves card making, scrapbooking and colouring in, you can visit her blog here

Ria loves all kinds of crafts, especially card making and sewing, her interests include travel and photography, you can visit Ria's blog here.

and our two Guest Designers joining us for the next three months are...

Ian has recently started blogging his beautiful creations, you can visit his brand new blog here where he has been super quick in sharing a little sneak of a new kit coming your way later today!

Tania lives on the Isle of Man, works as a teaching assistant and loves cardmaking and scrapbooking, you can visit Tania's blog here.

They join my already fabulous and talented team, all of whom are staying with me I'm pleased to tell you (yay!) so a big warm welcome to you all, I'm so glad to be working with each and every one of you! You will be seeing some of their first creations in the next issue of the Sarah Hurley Lookbook magazine, which is coming very soon, talk about being thrown in the deep end, they joined us just as we are wrapping up (nothing like pressure right guys? ;o) )

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Create & Craft Show - Sepia with a Twist!

2013-04-16T10:48:00.001+01:00

I'm off back to Create & Craft today for one show at 5pm, here is a little peek at my demo, Sepia with a twist!...

The great news is, that as of today, you can now watch Create & Craft on Virgin too (yay!) it's channel 748.

Now I must be off, hair to dry and train to catch!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Shades of Blue with Flexmarkers

2013-04-15T18:04:00.002+01:00

Today I'm sharing the card I showed on one of my Create & Craft shows yesterday, this was one of the Little Darlings Stamps - Cherry Blossom, coloured with Flexmarkers...

As soon as I saw the stamp it made me think of those china plates with the blue and white pattern and I wanted to create something in that style - so I started by creating an easel card with a circular front and stamped the girl onto a circle of bleedproof card using an Adirondack inkpad in Eggplant. Then I used Flexmarkers in Navy Blue, Cadet Blue, Storm Blue, Powder Blue, Tea Rose & Linen to colour her in. I finished the front off with a swipe of navy Flexmarker all around the edge of the circle of card, it's a bit neater than distress inks and although I wanted a hint of colour and a very slight distress (caused by the bleed) I didn't want a full blended effect around the edge.

I thought the left side of the card looked a bit bare so I added some cherry blossom die cuts coming down from the tree, cut from bleedproof card and coloured in powder blue with a hint of Crystal stickles. The greeting used as a stopper was stamped in Eggplant ink too and matted onto some blue card and some more flowers added, again coloured in powder blue with a hint of linen and topped off with a few dots of silver stickles.

I will be back on Create & Craft tomorrow at 5pm to show you some more Flexmarker techniques, and by popular demand, I will be showing Sepia (and maybe a little bit of acetate too...) I hope you can tune in!

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

Create & Craft Shows Sneaky Peek!

2013-04-13T16:01:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post from me today as I'm caught up in prep for my Create & Craft shows tomorrow, but I just wanted to pop on and share a little peek of one of my demos with you...

Hope you can tune in tomorrow at 11am and 5pm, I've got some fab new Flexmarker sets to show you and there is a great offer too (lips sealed! lol)

Thanks for dropping by today!
Sarah x

New Lovely Crafty Things!

2013-04-10T19:03:00.000+01:00

Today has been a super busy day getting things ready but I'm so pleased to say there are lots of new things up in my shop today including my first ever paper collection (wooooo!) journaling cards, and the much awaited and longed for stencils / masks which I was playing with last night...

as you can see, they work very well with Tim Holtz distress paints and Dylusions sprays...You can get yours here!

I hope you love them as much as me!

Sarah x

Sneaky Peek... New Products Coming Soon!

2013-04-09T22:36:00.004+01:00

Just a very quick post from me today, and a little sneak peek at some fun new products coming very VERY soon, I had to test them out of course! ;o) ...

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Create & Craft Show Dates

2013-04-05T17:14:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post to let you know my next Create & Craft show dates and times!

Sunday 14th April

11am - Letraset

4pm - Letraset

Tuesday 16th April

5pm - Letraset

I'll have some more new things to show you, I'll also have the wonderful Flexmarkers (yay!) and lots of tips, tricks and demos (as many as I can fit in anyway!) I hope you can tune in...

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Promarker Skintone Colour Practice

2013-04-04T22:29:00.004+01:00

Lots and lots of you ended up requesting that I share some of my favourite colour combos for Promarker skintones, I didn't realise the suggestion would be so popular! so today I'm happy to share my practice sheet that you saw me start on TV last week, I've added a few more since then so the range of skintones goes from very pale through to darker and even includes an undead zombie one!

You just need to click on the picture and save it to your computer, I've typed the colours underneath too in case you can't read my messy pink glittery scrawl! lol

I'd love to hear some of your favourite combos, so please feel free to share them in the comments here. If you would like to download this practice sheet blank to fill out yourself, just scroll back a few posts and it's there for you!

I have some more Create & Craft shows coming up soon, I'll put the dates and times on my blog tomorrow, so keep a look out :o)

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Sepia Colouring with Promarkers

2013-04-01T11:11:00.000+01:00

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who watched the Create & Craft shows last week and emailed in, tweeted / facebooked etc... it's lovely to get all of your feedback, makes all the hard work worthwhile! One of the things we got the most emails about (I do read them all after the show even if they are not read out on air!) was the Sepia colouring I showed. I will show this again on a future show, but in the meantime, here is the card I made as a reference for you...

The image is Queenie and Princess from the Little Darlings range, I stamped it with an Adirondack inkpad in Espresso (the softer brown colour is much better with Sepia colouring) the Promarker colours I used are - Burnt Sienna, Cinnamon, Tan, Putty and Almond. Here is a little close up...

The papers used are from Craftwork Cards & the Grace Taylor range (from Trimcraft stockists) and I have distressed the edges and run a tan Promarker along the edges to define the layers (great if you don't want to use distress inks as it gives just a soft bleed)

If you have a favourite image that you would like to me show in sepia, please let me know here in the comments, I will try to do two or three of them over the next few weeks to give you more Sepia inspiration!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Promarker Practice Sheet - Skintones

2013-03-28T22:00:00.000Z

If you are watching Create & Craft live right now, this may well have come up already (or I might be about to talk about it!) but I have put together a practice sheet for you with a quick face I doodled, so you can practice skintones and keep this as a reference with the colours you used for when you're colouring in your images - kind of like your colour charts!

Click here to download yours now!

If you would like me to share my chart that I complete over the course of the next few days during my show, then please let me know and I will upload it as soon as I can for you to have a look at some of my favourite skintone combos.

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

p.s. there are just a few days left for our DT call! see all the details here

Sarah Hurley - Illustrator & Craft Designer - Crafts, Illustration, Inspiration & Vintage

New Products & Brochure

Watercolour Scrapbooking with Inktense

Another Sneak Peek...

Papercraft Inspirations Cover!

Sneaky Peek!

Darker Hair & Skin Tones with Promarkers

Colouring Die Cuts

*New!* Gatsby Digi Scrap Kit & Stamps

The Lookbook Magazine Volume 3!

Free SVG Cutting File! - Jounaling Card

A Few of My Favourite Things... April Kit reveal!

Create & Craft Show Recap - Flexmarker Denim Effect

Introducing... Stamp & Stitch! and Stitch & Doodle!

Elaine's Birthday Butterfly

*New* Oz Digi Kit & a Free Digi Stamp!

Introducing...

Create & Craft Show - Sepia with a Twist!

Shades of Blue with Flexmarkers

Create & Craft Shows Sneaky Peek!

New Lovely Crafty Things!

Sneaky Peek... New Products Coming Soon!

Create & Craft Show Dates

Promarker Skintone Colour Practice

Sepia Colouring with Promarkers

Promarker Practice Sheet - Skintones

New! Gatsby Digi Scrap Kit & Stamps

New Oz Digi Kit & a Free Digi Stamp!