The Stamp Man Curls 'n' Swirls Challenge

Hi everyone.  Today is the start of a brand new challenge over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog and this time around we would like to see entries incorporating Curls 'n' Swirls!  I've got to admit that this is right up my street as I love all the swirly elements and stamps that are around at the moment!

This is a book that I did earlier this year to store some of my Nesties in using both my Funky Flowers (Aspects of Design No.56) and my Fancy Flourishes (Aspects of Design No.58) un-mounted stamp sheets along with the Cuttlebug Stylized Flower embossing folder which is just full of swirly bits! (All available from The Stamp Man.) As you can see I punched out some extra swirls too in order to embellish it further.

For the main flower panel I built up an arrangement of flowers, leaves and swirly bits using some of the elements from the Funky Flowers stamp sheet and then watercoloured them using Sakura Stardust pens which gives them such a delicate look as well as adding some gorgeous shimmer!  Then using a light blue chalk inkpad I stamped one of the flourishes (from the Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet) around the flowers then used a silver inkpad and Stardust embossing powder around the edges of the panel.

For the inside of the book I cut up some magnetic sheets and stuck them either side of some square bits of mountboard. To separate the pages of the magnetic sheets I added some sheets of plasma and stuck pieces of DP on the bottom of the plasma to make pockets.  I then bound it altogether using the Bind It All machine.

Then as you can see I photocopied part of the front of the matching Nestabilities leaflet and popped it into the pocket.

Hope you like it and that you will play along with the Curls 'n' Swirls Challenge. Don't forget to hop on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge blog to see all the other gorgeous creations that the rest of the DT have made!

Have a great weekend everyone!

(NB The magnetic sheets and Sakura Stardust pens are not listed on The Stamp Man's website but they can be purchased from The Stamp Man's bricks and mortar shop/unit.) 

Anything Goes Tag

Hi everyone.  Can you believe that it is only a week until Christmas Eve!  Oohhhhhhhhhh!!  Can't wait!

Meanwhile though today is the start of a brand new challenge over at The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog and the theme this time around is Anything Goes Tag.  This is what I came up with for this challenge using another of my Christmas stamp sheets - A Winter's Bouquet.  I started by stamping the holly bouquet in black Memento and coloured it with Copic markers. I then embossed around the holly bouquet using the Papermania snowflake embossing folder.  The actual tag was cut using a Labels 10 Nestabilities die and embossed with the snowflake folder before lightly swiping a Moonlight White Brilliance inkpad over it.

Here's a closer look at the colouring for you!  As you can see the holly leaves were simply block coloured using two shades of blue/green markers but the bow was shaded using 3 shades of red then lots of glitter glue was applied over the top.

The Stamp Man - Challenge 11

Hi guys. I hope you are all managing to keep warm! First of all I must just say that I am SO pleased that I went Christmas shopping on Wednesday as yesterday we were snowed in and couldn't have gone!  Also it was an absolute dream going around the shops as there was hardly anyone about.  I think it was my best Christmas shopping experience ever!  The shops were deserted, Christmas music was playing and I think it is the first time I've Christmas shopped in the snow - VERY seasonal indeed!  The only drawback is that it was absolutely bitter so I can sort of understand why everyone else had stayed at home!!

Onto my card for The Stamp Man's latest Challenge over on their Challenge Blog which is Take Any 3 Colours on a Christmas theme.  Now by now you probably know that I just LOVE Christmas and have loads of Christmas stamps but I thought it would be nice to use one of my sets again. This time I used my 'A Winter's Night' stamp sheet and as you can see I kept an icy theme on my card by using white, aqua and purple - one of my favourite colour schemes especially for Christmas cards.

I started by sticking a purple panel to an aqua panel then tore a strip of white card to go across the join of the panels and to emulate snow. Next I stamped and embossed the wording (from the sheet) onto a panel of aqua vellum using a white pigment inkpad and White Detail embossing powder, which I attached to the main card using brads. For the main panel I simply stamped the trees in dark grey and watercoloured them using Tombow pens and a water brush and applied lots of glitter glue afterwards!  Quite a simple card really but I hope you like it.

Don't forget to hop on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog and find out how you can enter the Take Any 3 Colours Christmas theme and see the rest of the DT's stunning work!

Oh by the way The Craft Barn are currently running a really fun competition over on their blog called Find The Owl so you may want to head on over there to find out all about it!!  Click here for the Find The Owl details!

My New Toy!!

Hi everyone.  Thank you all so much for the lovely comments you have left me under my last couple of posts.  I have so enjoyed reading them!  I will be round to visit you all just as soon as I can so don't think I've forgotten you!

After teasing you in my last post I can reveal that some of you were right in your guess and I did infact succumb to the Grand Calibur!  As soon as I saw this machine I just knew that I wanted it and of course with the VAT increase coming in January I had to have it NOW!!  Haven't bought any of the Grand Nestabilities yet to go in it though - even I have to limit my spending sometimes!!  They are of course on my wish list.

My poor Calibur hasn't made it out of the box yet but I'm hoping that perhaps I'll get some time to play with it in a few weeks time! After my classes on the 4th December at The Glitter Pot I will be taking a break from teaching for a little while so this should afford me some 'play time'!!

If any of you haven't seen this machine and the Grand Nestabilites you can check them out here.

Then of course after being at The Craft Barn yesterday I just couldn't leave there empty handed!!  No toys for me this time though but a great stack of white card - infact 150 sheets worth!!  The Craft Barn do a really nice weight of plain white card (300gms). It's not only great to make your base cards from but it is also a really brilliant white plus it is REALLY smooth so is absolutely great for stamping onto and using your Copic markers and best of all it is only 20p per A4 sheet!  Talking of Copics I had to have a few of those too as I want to start experimenting with the 0000's!!  I think perhaps that it is a good thing that I am taking a break from teaching for a while as it costs me a fortune going to these places!!  (However again I had in mind the VAT increase so of course it made sense for me to buy them yesterday - didn't it??  At least that is what I'm telling myself - lol!!)

On Friday it was the start of a brand new challenge over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog.  The DT have made some wonderful samples to give you some inspiration using Tim Holtz's stamps as the challenge is to make something Christmassy using Tim's products.  To find out more click here.

Meanwhile I hope to be back again soon as I have lots of card samples to show you!

The Stamp Man's Christmas Challenge

Hi folks. Today is the start of the Christmas challenge over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog.  I'm sure by now that most of you have already made a start on making some Christmas cards so why not pop on over to the Challenge Blog and see how you can enter the Christmas challenge?

This is the card that I made for this challenge using my Flitter Flutter Snowflakes stamp sheet (which is currently on offer over at The Stamp Man). I love the fact that the snowflakes are so easy to add colour to!  I started by sticking purple and aqua card to a white square card then I stamped and embossed the snowflake background (from this sheet) all over a piece of vellum using a white inkpad and detail white embossing powder.  (I just love the look of vellum as it gives such a soft look to your cards which I think is ideal for snowflakes!)

Next I stamped the large snowflake and one of the smaller ones onto white card using black StazOn. I coloured them using Sakura Stardust pens, cut them out and mounted the little snowflake onto the larger snowflake before mounting onto the card.

I hope you like it!

The Stamp Man's Autumn Challenge

Hi guys.  Today is the start of a fresh new challenge over on The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog which is Autumn!  Here is my offering -

I created the backgrounds for the card using Tattered Rose and Shabby Shutters Distress inkpads then stamped Branch Songster along the bottom of the larger panel using Walnut Stain and my leafy flourish (from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet) around the edges of the top half using Dried Marigold and Frayed Burlap Distress inkpads. For the smaller panel I stamped Autumn Flower with Walnut Stain and coloured the leaves wtih a gold metallic pen and the acorn with Copic Spica markers.

If you hop on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog you can see what the other design team members came up with and find out details on how to enter the Autumn Challenge.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

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!!

The Stamp Man's Distress Challenge

Hi everyone.  For those of you who are going to The Craft Barn's Extravaganza Weekend (tomorrow and Sunday) I hope to see you there!!  But meanwhile it is time for The Stamp Man's next challenge which this time is 'Distress'.  Now I must admit that I don't really do distress so I chose just to use the Distress Inkpads for my card to qualify for the theme!

I began by using two of the Distress inkpads - Tattered Rose and Shabby Shutters to create my background papers and then stamped over them using the flourish stamp from my Funky Frames stamp sheet.

Next I stamped out one of the flower frames from this sheet and watercoloured them using the Distress inkpads. Then once the image was dry I added some Diamond glitter glue for some sparkle.

I'm sure that many of you can do 'distress' much better than me so why not hop on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge blog and find out how to enter and check out the other DT's creations whilst you are there!

Anything Goes Easel Card

Hi guys.  Well it's time for another Stamp Man Challenge and this time we want to see your easel cards.  The theme for this is Anything Goes so the subject matter is entirely up to you - the only criteria is that it needs to be an easel card.

This is the one that I made for this challenge and is actually my first easel card ever!!  I like the idea of easel cards - I just don't get the time to play around and do them as they are a little bit more work than a normal card.

The stamps are all from my Funky Frames stamp sheet and the paper is Arabella by Basic Grey.  Both of which came from The Stamp Man.  For this card I just had to use my Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly and Floral Lace edging punches too as they went so well with the stamps - both of these are from The Craft Barn.  Infact it seems I went a bit 'punch mad' as I also used my EK Success Flourish punch and Retro Flowers. (The Hobby House)

Here's a closer look at the main panel of the card.  As you can see I used the flourish (from the Funky Frames sheet) to stamp onto the background of the card to add some interest using both a Versamark inkpad and a Starlite Black Brilliance inkpad.

I didn't have any ribbon to match my card so I simply took one of my green Copic markers and used the chisel end to colour a length of white ribbon.  These markers are just SO handy!!  Not only do I colour ribbon with them but also things like pearls and gemstones when I don't have the right colour to match my card.  (Jill - take note you should definitely stock these!!  LOL!!)  This time around I had the perfect match with my gemstones though which came from The Hobby House.

So no prizes for guessing what I coloured my image with!!  What can I say.....................I just LOVE the crisp, clean, printed look that can be achieved with the Copic markers.  You just don't get this with any of the other colouring mediums.  I am most definitely hooked on them!! (I'm afraid I didn't make a note of the colours I used for this though so no numbers this time!)  I  managed to get my hands on some Craftwork Cards Digital Smooth White card (which I used on this card) and I must say that the Copic markers blended really easily on it.  It's really affordable too - retailing at £9.95 for a pack of 50 A4 sheets! 

So don't forget to head on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog to find out how to enter this challenge and to check out all the wonderful samples that the rest of the DT made.

The Stamp Man's Second Challenge

Hi everyone. Today is the start of The Stamp Man's 2nd Challenge which is Take Two Colours. As you can see from my card I opted for some nice bright colours of purple and green which I thought would make a nice fresh looking card. 

For the background I used the Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers embossing folder and some plain vellum. After I'd embossed it I coloured the reverse side of the vellum with some markers in order to pick out the detail of the embossing.

For the main panel I used one of my stamps from the Funky Flowers stamp sheet and coloured this using Coloursoft pencils and Sansador in order to give it a soft muted feel.  I then took one of the flourishes from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and stamped and embossed around the flowers using Versamark and Crystal embossing powder.

The birthday wording is from my Funky Frames stamp sheet.

I really hope you like the card and fancy having a go at submitting a card of your own into our challenge. Click here to go and visit the Challenge blog and find out what you need to do to enter.

Enjoy your weekend!

A New Challenge Blog

Hi guys.  Time keeps marching on here and I can't believe that it has been a few days since I last posted!!

If you scroll down a little bit you will notice that there are some new blinkies in my sidebar.  The Stamp Man people have been very busy recently and not only are they hosting a new ATC blog but now they are setting up a new Fortnightly Challenge Blog too!!  As you already know the ATC swaps are up and running and we have already had some marvellous entries.  Click here to go and visit and see the ATC's and learn how to win some blog candy. 

The new FortnightlyChallenge Blog will be going live very soon in a weeks time. Cick here to find out all about it.




Anyway all this talk of challenges has made me decide to try and enter some challenges now and again and after having a brief blog hop this morning I have stumbled on yet another new challenge blog called Penny Black At Allsorts so having made a few Penny Black cards recently for The Glitter Pot's demo weekend, I thought I would enter one into their very first challenge called A Burst of Summer Colour.

So here is my entry for this challenge using the Penny Black Sunny Days stamp.  I don't think anything can say 'summer' better than sunflowers!  I just love their cute stamps and this is just so sweet!

As you can see I did quite a bit of decoration for this card.  The delightful background paper is from the Kioshi Collection by Basic Grey and is called Motochi.  I used my tiny daisy punch and also a McGill pine punch to decorate around the wonderful Prima flowers.

You can see these extremely pretty flowers a bit better in this photo.  They are from the Athena range and I just added some Platinum glitter glue around the edges of the petals and some Diamond glitter glue to the centre.

The main Sunny Days image I stamped onto smooth white card using Tuxedo Black Memento and then coloured using Copic markers.  After I'd done my basic colouring I added some shimmer using the Copic Spica clear pen and some Diamond glitter glue.

All of the items mentioned can be bought from The Glitter Pot apart from the McGill punch which I purchased from The Hobby House.

I hope you like it!