Flash Sale on Leiden Houses!!!

Flash Sale on Leiden Houses!!!

Hi there.

Good of you to pop in!

Got back to Blighty early early this morning, and after unpacking all the bread and cheese, decided to celebrate our wee trip to Leiden in Holland with you.

What a wonderful, beautiful place!

Honestly! Our Wee houses and Shops Stampsets AND Baby Groovi must have been modelled off Leiden architecture ! Look for yourself !

Wee Shops

Wee Houses

Groovi Wee Houses & Shops

And the surrounding countryside was just like the Wee Village and Wee Farm Stamps too. Blimming spooky! Look! Windmills galore!!

Wee Village

Wee Farm Scene

Property was pretty pricey though. Dave and I checked out the real estate windows, and you wouldn’t get any change out of £1 million for one of these little listed  houses in the centre.

Ouch, I thought! Nice to visit though! And we can certainly change the price on the stamps and Groovi! Hahaha.

So today, in the lead up to the Gray Friday Sale (we don’t do Black Friday – sounds much too much like a disaster day from the past), how about a Flash Sale on our Wee Leiden Houses and Shops? And since we can, let’s throw in the farms and surrounding villages too! I can assure you that you won’t see better prices than this in the upcoming sale. 33% off and that doesn’t include your club discounts.

I have done a step by step for you . I hope you like it….

Let’s make a reflection in the canal – because there are loads of waterways in town! A guide told us that although many of the canals were filled in to make roads for traffic.  Unlike affluent Den Haag , which could afford to fill in ALL the waterways, Leiden was so poor that they couldn’t fill them all in! A rare example of poverty actually being a good thing!

Here’s how:

Stamp a selection of Wee houses and shops along the centre of a Gelpress, using our Radiance Blackout ink

Place the Clarity Stencil card on the Gel Press and pull the print of the houses, remembering that they are in the water, they are the reflection.

It will be easy to add the houses above the water now. Much easier than the other way round!!

Hey Presto! A whole row. £5 million squids, minimum. I like the yellow one…

Yellow one?

Yellow one! Matches the gloves!!!

Now for the masking… these little stampsets come with masks too.

It was going so well, until I realised that the masks only work if they are symmetrical. Shucks. Chimneys in wrong place, see? And also, I only had one of the lefthand one. But where there’s a will…

Stamp the house on a piece of copy paper. Cut and attach a piece of the masking material to the house. We sell this material blank by the sheet, you know. Just in case you wanted to cut your own masks out, this is how. Much better than trying to stamp on the slippery material. Blanks masking sheets

Bingo.

Moons next. We need 2 – one for the sky and one for the reflection. Load up a Clarity Stencil brush with a blue ink and sweep in the sky and water. Darker to the top.

Brayer some black into the sky area. You can’t beat a Speedball brayer

Look what beautiful water you can create, with a Speedball brayer and scrunched up paper! Remove the masks in the water. Load your brayer with blue ink. Roll the inky brayer hard over a sheet of scrunched up paper. Then roll over the water area, once from one side to the other.

Perfect.

Next step : a little colour.

One yellow Perga Liner B Pencil. That’s all you need. Told you I liked the yellow one!

Flick a little water at it. It does rain occasionally too!

And now for the final touch, the clincher, the icing on the Gateau. Or Kuchen. Or Cake…

Our very versatile and funky Word Chain ABC stamps

On scrap first… just to make sure it looks right…

Perfect. Just like Leiden.

Mount on yellow. Done.

                      

I hope you enjoyed that little arty trip?

You will find our Wee Leiden Houses and Shops in the Flash Sale until midnight Wednesday. And if you’re looking for a bargain, check out the Groovi Plates with the Wee houses & shops too.

Here are some lovely Groovi samples from our ever clever team.

Linda Page
Dee ParamourJosie Davidson

Jane Telford

Don’t forget the Farm and Village stamps too!

Carole Panksztelo

Shop the Flash Sale here

 

Love & Hugs

Barb

xxx

23 thoughts on “Flash Sale on Leiden Houses!!!

  1. Beautiful, I love these little houses. Great bit of art to remind you of your trip. Glad you are home safely. Enjoy your bread and cheese. XX

  2. Wow that looks fabulous. 5 million smackeroos!! Doesn’t bear thinking about does it. Thank you for this fabulous artwork and the flash sale, shame I have them all already!! Lol. Now please go and sit down, have a glass of wine and relax with the old man. Xxxxx

  3. Welcome home Barbara, so pleased the trip was a success all round. Generous as always, I must try to find my wee stamps so I don’t duplicate any.
    Leiden looks lovely. xx

  4. Love Dutch houses – they don’t seem to have issues with roof terraces either – had a fab one in our final residence that overlooked part of Den Haag skyline. Prettied it all up with ‘winow boxes’ along the fence at either side then moved to the USA before they were in bloom! Although the house was on four floors, I’m quite sure the stairs to the top floor would not meet approval as they were so steep and steps so narrow! Still plenty of canals in Den Haag – used to catch the tram to school beside one and Cafe Hathor has a barge moored along side it as an extension of its seating – a favourite haunt in the summer. Must look out my card ‘from Delft’ using the stamps. ;~}

  5. Will have a look but I will have to check what I have already, the step by step is a great reminder that I should use them though xx

  6. Bought these when they first came out and have been using them a lot lately. Love your take on them and also the DT samples.
    Glad you had such a satisfying break and that you are safely back.
    Continental food is something else isn’t it? Many moons ago when we were in Holland our friend took us for a pancake lunch in a windmill. We duly ordered and sat back to wait. The pancakes served were about 15 inches across, over 1/4 inch thick, and piled high with fruit and sauce. When the first one landed on the table we thought it was to share, but no, we got one each. In those days I could eat for a regiment but this beat me!!
    Aah, such memories! Getting nostalgic in my old age!!!

  7. Glad you are back safely. Your step by step is brilliant. So clever. I can’t keep up with your ideas. Last week I was collecting leaves and now you are on to another technique and I haven’t even started on the leaves. Help!! Xxx

  8. Another masterpiece today. I keep forgetting you can stamp onto a gelli plate. Thanks for the reminder and welcome home! x

  9. Wow, that is a blog post and a half and absolutely gorgeous! Thanks – it must have taken you ages.
    You sound happy and relaxed after your trip, so it definitely did you good. What a beautiful place and one to add to the wish list. Thanks for sharing. Annette X

  10. Love, your step by step today. Hope the break has done you both good. Think I had all the stamps and groovi when the houses first came out, will check to see though. You don’t half give us some great offers Barbara. Hope you’ve had a relaxing evening.xxx

  11. Hi bloggy friends, hope you are all well. Feeling shattered today, hopefully getting near the end of my Christmas cards now.xxx

  12. Love your demo and these brilliant stamps, a wonderful reminder of a beautiful place. Thank you for taking the time to share with us lovely Leiden. xx

  13. Hi Barbara
    Pleased you are both home safe and sound.
    I really found the photographs of the buildings really interesting.
    Thank you for the wonderful demo, and it was lovely once again to see some more artwork from your Dream Team.
    Love & Hugs
    Penny
    Xxxxx
    Pook

  14. Hi Barb, what a lovely little step by step, and I am with you on the yellow one. I would love to live in a house that colour, because I am sure it will make more people smile than it will annoy. Take care all. Bx

  15. Glad you had a good trip and got some time to yourselves. Love the inspiration from these stamps – must get them out of my stash and play with them again.
    Off to see the shoulder specialist this morning . Am gradually getting more movement back in my shoulder (can get my arm to shoulder height now 😊) so hoping he might let me back to work in a couple more weeks, although Im unlikely to be allowed to drive until Christmas. I’ve been using crafting as occupational therapy (well that’s my excuse!)

  16. I enjoyed seeing photos of your trip to Leiden Barbara, and the houses are beautiful both the real and designed, and glad you are home safely. xp

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