More support for the Hallowe'en apostrophe

And who is going to argue with J.K.Rowling?

man card

I'm sure I saw a challenge this week for "moustaches" but now I can't remember for the life of me where it was, so I have gone with Crazy Amigo's "Men" Challenge instead.

(EDIT: it turns out the Moustache challenge is Mixed Media Monday, Thanks Jo!)

All stamps are by PaperArtsy.
The background is done with distress inks and perfect pearls.

Gingersnap thankfulness challenge

This week's Challenge at Gingersnap is the final week of Cornish Heritage farms month. I received this horse and rider stamp which is a new release from Cornish.
I stamped it with walnut stain distress ink onto cream card, then used a wet paint brush to pull the colour from the image to create shading. This stamp worked brilliantly with this technique and I love the effect. I finished the card with raffia, a skeleton leaf and mulberry paper to tie in with "using items from nature" that has been the overall theme for this month at gingersnap.

A PaperArtsy Wonderland

This week the theme at winter wonderland is open, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to play with the new PaperArtsy christmas papers, along with the fabulous PaperArtsy snowman. Even the ribbons and letters are from PaperArtsy.
I love these new papers, they are double sides and both sides are gorgeous. in fact the two patterns you can see on this card are from the two sides of the same sheet and I think they work together so well

I finished the card with some of the wonderful new polar white flower soft, which I think is going to be finding its way onto most of my Christmas cards this year

The Artistic Stamper : Creative Team Announcement

YES!!! I'm pleased to say that I am on the new Creative Team for The Artistic Stamper

Along with the following talented artists
Chris
Jacqui
Jo
Julie
Lorraine
Rachel

You can see the announcement on The Artistic Stamper blog

I'm really looking forward to getting my first stamps to play with. The Artistic stamper does some fantastic backgrounds, but it's not just stamps....

Hallowe'en : note the apostrophe!

If you know me well, you will know that I am on a personal mission to "stop the drop" of the apostrophe in the English usage of Hallowe'en. I won't rant too much about it. I know language evolves, but I think it just looks so ancient and beautiful with the apostrophe, why lose it? It's not like it is used that much throughout the year.

So please, just for me,
use the apostrophe!

Anyway, back to business, I have made this card for Wednesday Stamper.
This is the first time I have tried this diamond fold style of card, and it was much easier than I expected, and I just made it from a strip of A4 card. The witch is from The Stampsmith, and is the witch from the Wizard of Oz plate. The detail on the left hand side is a scrap of lace.

I have included a couple of extra photos to show the detail of the fold, in case you are not familiar with the style of fold.

Forever Friends Christmas

This week at the Forever Friends Challenge, we challenge you to make Christmas goodies with your forever friends images. Don't be put off if you don't have any specifically Christmas images, use the images that you do have in a Christmassy way.

I used the heart bear stamp and added a christmas background stamp from PaperArtsy and a hat from Inka.

I also added quite a bit of glitter, but it just doesn't show that well on the photgraphs.

There's snow business like "Jo" business

Excuse the corny title, but I couldn't resist some pun on the two Joannes on the Gingersnap team working together!!

Jo Capper-Sandon and I, both received the swirling snowflakes stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms (due for release October 16, 2009). We thought it would be fun to have a play and come up with some ideas for using the stamp in different ways. We decided to each make three quick projects using it as a background, a main focus stamp and as an accent. We didn't see each others work until we were finished. It's always great fun to see how someone else interprets a brief, and uses the stamps.

Here are my cards:
For the item showing the stamp as a main focus, I stamped with versamark and used perfect pearls on pink card.


For the background item, I stamped with distress ink onto cream card to make a tag shaped card, using a collage image from Go Make Something.


For the accent piece, I used a bit of scrap leftover from the first card and also cut out an individual snowflake stamped in black, which is highlighted with crackle accents. The main image is from Hearts in Touch (watch out for more from them on Gingersnap), and has been embellished with white flower soft.



You can see the full post here

And you must go check out Jo's creations here.

brads and royalty

The challenge at gingersnap creations this week is to use brads. The challenge is sponsored by Cornish Heritage Farms, and I have used the swirling snowflakes stamp due for release this friday to make my card. I stamped this large stamp onto white card with clear sparkle embossing powder, then coloured with distress inks. I then cut this piece into 6 small pieces to make quick and simple cards for christmas.
Cornish Heritage Farms are generously offering a prize of the "Royal Birthday" stamp set to one lucky participant.
I'm lucky enough to be able to show you a sneak preview of this set on this card which I have made for the Crazy Amigos challenge, knots and buttons

3 challenges before breakfast!!

I have made this piece for 3 challenges
sunday stampers- Circles
inchy by inch - time
mixed media monday - pink

The watch stamp is by non-sequitur, the words are invoke arts and the circles are PaperArtsy

I'm adding another picture as I have now turned this tag into a card as I wanted to send it to a very special lady who has recently had some very good news!

For Carrie

Not my usual style, but I thought carrie would like this image (Inka), and the colours sort of followed and then the paperartsy stamped flowers just happened. hopefully she liked it anyway!
even more unusually for me I also decorated the inside of this card.
While I had the flower stamp out, I also made a very quick gift tag (not for Carrie).

gingersnap creations : harvest theme

This is something I made for the gingersnap Harvest theme. I didn't really have any harvesty stamps, so I went with a leaf theme and made a "harvest candle holder"

forever friends: Autumn colours

This week at the forever friends challenge we challenge you to use Autumn colours

TGiF: the colour white

The theme at TGif is the colour white. I was really pleased about this as I have recently purchased this broderie anglais effect white backing paper and the fab new polar white flower soft. I used them with the gorgeous soft image from the stampsmith, and I have also posted this card on the stampsmith blog.
I hope you can see the effect of the flower soft.




I have also used the flower soft on this card made using products from PaperArtsy. The stamp is from a winter wonderland plate, the paper is from the brand new rum and raisn pack, which is gorgeous (one of those packs which you don't want to cut into, but luckily you get four of each sheet, and they are double sided). Even the lovely ribbon is from PaperArtsy

paperbag studios hallowe'en

I have made this for the hallowe'en challenge at Paperbag studios. It's a bagelope (ie a bag made from an envelope. The stamp is of course by paperbag studios, the stencil is a wall art stencil from a DIY shop.