The Stamp Man Blog Hop and Altered Challenge

Hi guys.  Today is the start of The Stamp Man's Altered Challenge and also of their blog hop!  For those of you who are taking part in the blog hop (which is open to everybody) you should have come here from The Stamp Man's ATC Swap Blog - if so then you are on the right track!! And for those of you who don't know what I am on about can I suggest that you visit The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog in order to find out all about it and to begin the blog hop!

Basically the 'blog hop' will be happening over the next 2 weeks to co-incide with The Stamp Man's Altered Challenge.  You will need to collect letters along the way (that each of the hosts will give to you) which will make up an anagram and leave comments on each of the blogs, that are taking part in the blog hop then lastly leave a comment at the last blog hop solving the anagram!!  You'll find that each of the blogs are offering different prizes with there being 12 different prizes to be won!!

So in summary here's what you need to do -

- Display The Stamp Man Challenge blinkie on your blog (if you have a blog). 

- Create a post about our blog hop with a link back to our challenge blog

- Leave a message on each blog you visit, if you do not leave comments at each one, you will not be eligible for the prize.  If you don't have a blog you must put your full name in your comment.

There is a letter on each of the blogs, once you have worked out the anagram leave your answer on the post below the last letter you visit, instructions will be given there.

So don't forget to leave me a comment at the end of this post in order to be in with a chance of winning one of my stamp sheets which is one of my creations - AOD 46 Rob and Rosie Robin unmounted stamp sheet.

Now I've got to say that I've never altered anything before in my life as I just don't do 'altering'.  It isn't something that really appeals to me but I have had a go for this challenge.  But I'm sure that you will all do a much better job than me!

Anyway here is my effort and to be honest I think this will be my first and last go at this as I really didn't enjoy doing it! As you can see I had a letter 'T' to decorate so after it had been painted with gesso (which Mrs Stamp Man kindly did for me) I used two green colours of alcohol ink to colour the letter itself. Then I stamped strips of black card using a gold inkpad. (All stamps used on this letter came from either AOD 50 Japanese Thoughts or AOD 51 Japanese Minis unmounted stamp sheets - both of course available from The Stamp Man.) I stuck the strips of black card to the letter and then stamped, coloured and cut out elements from these 2 stamp sheets to decorate the letter with. Both the front and the back of the letter were decorated in the same way.

This photo shows you a closer look at the plum blossom branch so that you can see the colouring a bit better which was done with a mixture of Tombow pens and twinkling H20's.

In this one you can see the dragonflies a bit closer up. After colouring them I applied glitter glue to them so that they really sparkled!

On the sides of the letter I stamped some Japanese wording from one of the stamp sheets using black StazOn and cut out a couple of plum blossom flowers to pretty it up a little.

This is just a different view of the letter as a whole so that you can see the writing on the sides as well as the decoration on the front.

And this picture shows the very top of the letter which as you can see I decorated with flowers and tiny dragonflies.  I can't remember now how long this letter took me to do as I did it a few months back.  However I know that at the time it seemed to go on for days!!  Anyway back to the blog hop............

Now that you have seen my Altered Letter the actual letter you need from me is infact the letter  

 T

 
Now you need to hop on over to Frankie's blog to get your next letter!  Have fun and good luck and don't forget we want to see your altered items over on the Challenge Blog!!

Two New Challenges

Hi guys.  Today I have two new challenges to tell you about!  The first one is happening over at The Craft Barn's blog and this challenge is to make an unusual shaped card. Click here for more details.

This is the card that I  made for this challenge using my Marianne Creatables die that I bought a little while ago from The Craft Barn.  I had it in mind at the time that this would make a brilliant shaped card and was quite pleased with the result!  The background papers for the card were made using a large Hero Art stamp called Reversed Flowers and Leaves that I bought from The Glitter Pot.  This is such a lovely stamp and iit makes great background papers just by inking it up with your inkpads.  I used Distress inkpads in Antique Linen and Milled Lavender for these papers.  Not only does the Marianne frame cut out this wonderful shape but it embosses the design around the outside too which I coloured to match the rest of the card using Copic markers.

Here's a closer look at the middle panel for you.  You can see that background stamp in more detail now.  The main image is one of my favourite stamps at the moment called Beary Big Hugs from the Belles 'n' Whistles range.  She was just the right size for the panel too!  I coloured her with my Copic markers and then used the darker plum coloured Copic (that I used on her sweater) to colour my ribbon to match. I took this same marker and used the brush tip to go around all the cut out detail of the frame.  The wording 'special friends' came from my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet.

To add some sparkle I used touches of both Platinum and Diamond glitter glue.

Here's a different view of the card.  No doubt you will see some more of this type of shaped card as I really liked the effect it gave.  By the way the winner of this challenge will receive a surprise £30 goodie bag!!  So don't forget to head on over to The Craft Barn's blog to find out all the details to enter and also to see the other cards that some of the DT came up with!

Okay now onto Challenge Two and this one is happening over on the new Stamp Man's ATC Swaps blog.  The theme for this first challenge is - Wings.  What I like about ATC's is that you only have a small space to decorate so these don't tend to take so long  to do.  Although it does depend on how intricate you decide to make them! 

As you can see I actually kept my offering quite simple! (GASP!!)  See I can do simple - sometimes!!  Well sort of!  I made the background paper myself using a Bundled Sage Distress inkpad and then used the same inkpad to stamp the spriggy background. (The sprig came from my Japanese Thoughts stamp sheet.)  I then used a Gold Encore inkpad to randomly stamp a smaller sprig and the smaller dragonfly (both from my Japanese Minis sheet) onto a strip of black card. Next I stamped and embossed the rectangular dragonflies frame (also from my Japanese Minis) using a black pigment inkpad and clear detail embossing powder. I coloured the imagery using Tombow pens and a waterbrush and added some sparkle (which you can't really see!) using Diamond glitter glue. The Japanese Wording (from my Japanese Minis stamp sheet) was stamped using a black dye based inkpad. 

The rest of the DT have done some really fab ATC's too which you can see over on The Stamp Man's ATC blog.

By the way The Stamp Man are currently doing all of their stamp sheets at 20% off so now is a great time to get any that you might have been thinking about!  Plus they are also doing free P&P at the moment!! Click here to go and see!

Well that is finally all from me today.  I hope that you made it to the end!  If you did I hope you are all enjoying some lovely weather!