sunday postcard art : jasmin again!!

The theme at sunday postcard art is insects so I had to play with one of Jo's new Bee stamps, so of course I had to play with Jasmin again, I don't seem to be able to resist colouring her in, she's so gorgeous, and she works so well with flowrs soft that I had to use some of that again...

I have added some stickles to the bee's wings, but it's hard to see on the pictures.

the edge is done with a martha stewart border punch.

Jo's stamps are made by stampotique and available from Happy Daze in the UK.

This is my second post today, check out the post below as there is a link to the forever friends challenge where there are amazing goodies to be won!

kinetic card

At the forever friends challenge this week we are challenging you to make a kinetic card with your forever friends images. If you visit the blog you'll see lots of ideas of the kind of thing you could make. I chose to make my first ever "swing" card, I even made the template myself. I really enjoyed making and playing with this card.

if you want the instructions for making this style of swing card, you can find my tutorial here
I also loved using the flowers which were provided by this week's sponsor I am Roses.
If you like the look of these flowers, make sure you take part in our challenge as we have a bumper pack of gorgeous flowers for one lucky, randomly selected winner!

4x4 friday : wings

The theme at 4x4 friday is wings, so I decided to use this cool steampunk image from Scrolls work stamps, along with the quote and firework stamp also from Scrolls Work.
Although this card is actually 5x5 I masked off a 4x4 section and stamped within that, then roughly freehand drew around it.
I wanted to create a multicoloured stamp effect so I used an adirondack rainbow pad in wildflower which is supposed to be yellow, red, green and blue, but I have had it so long that the colours have all merged to create more of a brown effect. However I like it and think it works well with this image.

jasmine

Isn't she beautiful? Here's another card with some of Jo's new stamps.
The background paper is from prima and I picked it up at a bargain price of 20p from a fab shop in Harrogate yesterday.
I have used Jo's flower stamp and if you look closely I also used the long splatter with clear sparkle embossing powder down the side. Then finished the whole thing of with flower soft!
Jo's stamps are available from Stampotique, and you can get them from Happy Daze in the UK.

as she is so beautiful I have decided to enter her for Theme Thursday's Beauty theme

looks like I'm on a roll again, this is my second post today and I have made something else. I think I'll schedule that for tomorrow though.

Reasons to stamp in June

looking for a reason to stamp in June? check out the monthly post on the gingersnap creations blog.
I chose to make a card to celebrate the flower of the month which is the Rose, using the rose flower fairy from Crafters' companion.
This was a reeeeeeaaaaaaallly simple card. I just coloured the fairy with pencils cut her out and stuck her on an offcut of backing paper.... job done!!!!

even more purple......

I'm not very well today, I've completely lost my voice, so I have stayed home and I am crafting my heart out! Hence the reason I have managed 4 blog posts already today and it's not even lunch time!!

I love the purple theme on stampotique and remembered that I had some purple (heather) flower soft, so I decided to use it with Jo's new Grass stamp from Stampotique, available from Happy Daze in the UK.

romantic man's card

It's quite tough to make a card that is both romantic and masculine. I needed to make a card for my husband for our anniversary, I usually go with funny, but I decide to try styilish this year.

This is an obscenely simple card. the background image is stamped with versamark then brushed with perfect pearls. the quote is then stamped with black stazon and highlighted with inkessentials white pen.
The stamps are by scrolls work.
While i was playing with this technique I also made another card, again with Scrolls work stamps, although much more feminine this time.


I am entering the male card (and matching tag) for Tuesday taggers' "it's a man's world" theme.

Wednesday stamper: square

I decided to use this decorative "square" shape (I used a page of an acrylic tag book as a template) for this week's wednesday stamper, using an image fron PaperArtsy. It's still a little early for me to be making christmas cards, but this image just fits a square so well. I wanted to edge the image with starlite silver but my inkpad has dried up so it was sort of grey. needless to say, I've just ordered a re-inker.

purple, purple ,more purple and basic grey!!

I have made this card to fit two stampotique based challenges, first of all the stampotique designers challenge (SDC8) where the theme is Purple, and the going grey challenge (GGSC12) where the theme is to use a sketch with basic grey papers (and the challenge is being sponsored by stampotique). These papers are from the new "green at heart" selection from Basic Grey, which I got from The frantic stamper. The stamp is Girl with heart purse from stampotique available from Happy Daze in the UK.

The sentiment is a rub-on.

I love purple, but usually use it much more sparingly than this, so it was fun to throw all things purple at a card just for once.

crazy amigos beach and sea

The theme at Crazy Amigos is beach and sea so I thought I would play with these shell stamps I recently got from Scrolls work stamps, the quote and wave are also from Scrolls work. The shells are individual stamps and I have grouped them using masking techniques. I have coloured the shells with pencils and the background with distress inks

big yellow flower!!

I found the instructions for making this paper crysanthemum in a paper sculpting book and had to give it a try. It's actually really easy and perfect for using up all of those dodgy scrapbook papers you bought ages ago as it uses a 6"x12" piece of paper. I thought this would look good on a present so attached it to a simple tag, and added a bee. The bee and splatter stamps are from Jo C apper-Sandon's new range from stampotique, available from Happy Daze in the UK.
I have added some torn papers to the tag so am entering it for Sunday Stampers' "torn" theme.

The flower is made from a 6x12 piece of paper, fold in half lengthways, score 1cm from fold line. cut strips down to score line.
roll the whole piece up (I stuck a piece of souble sided tape along the whole length of the scored bit). then use the edge of your scisors to curl all the strips.

Gingersnap challenge : Quotes

This week the challenge at Gingersnap's is "quotes", another opportunity to use this fabulous quote from Scrolls Work Stamps. The tag is part of our forum's collaborative challenge, this tag is for Carol.

All other stamps are by Scrolls Work. and the Image is one of the old collage images from Inka

forever friends: Pink and Green

Make sure you pop over to the Forever friends Challenge as we have a sponsor this week:
Crafts U love are offering a prize to one lucky random participant.
The theme is Pink and Green

Bee Different!!

I was just having a play with Jo's new stamps, from stampotique available at Happy Daze, when I had the urge to put a bee in a party hat.. I really don't know why, but there you go.

so that's where this "bee different" idea came from. I did lot of masking on this card. I used the medium bee (and small bee inside the card), grass and long splatter.

The letters are by Prima and available from the frantic stamper.

random things I have made this week...

A tudor soft cap for my youngest son's school trip



A cushion for my eldest son, from his favourite t-shirt thet he grew out of.



A book bag for myself from a granny square made by Marie Greene



a crochet baby blanket for a pregnant friend.

I've also done lots of stamping, but can't quite show you any of that at the moment.

Quick and Easy Pencil Colouring

Today I have a tutorial on the Gingersnap blog about colouring Forever friends bears with pencil. Please visit here if you want to see it

Stampotique template challenge

The new challenge at Stampotique is to use a template, any template. As luck would have it I actually needed to make a little gift bag for a silly little present I have made for my niece, so I found a really easy gift bag template online that prints onto A4 paper. I cut my A4 paper from a 12x12 sheet and printed the template onto the back of that.
You can find the template here

I have used the Smile stamp from Stampotique, but as this is the first challenge of the month you actually don't actually have to use stampotique stamps.

GC54 - spicy supply : Pencils

The new challenge for today on the gingersnap blog is Pencils. You can interpret this however you want, use images of pencils, or just use pencils as a supply.

I decided to colour this sugar nellie image (which was a subscription gift for Craft stamper magazine) using a very quick pencil colouring method (of course it's quick, it's me, I only do quick!) using derwent colour soft pencils

I have mounted it onto a "scrapling", if you don't know what they are, they are the bit you have left over when you trim an A6 card down to a square, and they make great little gift tags.

If you are interested in this colouring "technique" I have done a tutorial on it which will be on the gingersnap blog tomorrow

p.s. if you visit the craft stamper blog today I have just been officially announced as a member of the Craft Stamper DT

Princess seeks frog..

I just received this oh so cute frog and quote from Scrolls Work Stamps and couldn't wait to play with them, so I made this card using Emma and a crown stamp which are also both from Scrolls Work.
The background is inspired (again) by Jo's fantastic article in the 10th birthday issue of Craft Stamper Magazine. I used a white crayon to scribble over white card and then coloured the card with Worn lipstick distress ink using cut'n'dry foam. I started inking from the inside to the edge to give a faded out effect. I am entering this for Rainbow Lady's make your own background challenge.

stampotique, think out of the box..

I took this challenge quite literally and decorated the ouside of a box! I found these cute little plasma boxes in the works and had to have them. I used moon girl from stampotique, because she's so adorable!
much of the inspiration for this piece came from Jo's article in the new craft stamper, you can see a peek of it at her blog

Penny's tag.

"at last!" I hear Penny sigh. I have kept her waiting for this one for a long time. I hope it was worth the wait. This is part of our Forum's collaborative tag project, Penny chose the theme "the sea" so it was either this or mermaids.

All the stamps are by PaperArtsy.

Happy Birthday Craft Stamper

Craft Stamper Magazine is 10 years old, and they are celebrating with a bumper issue of the magazine, released on the 7th may. I got my subscription copy today and it really is a great issue, lots of inspiration. Definitely an issue I will keep going back too. High points include a fantastic colouring technique by kim costello and and some beautiful inspiration from Jo Capper-Sandon. While on the subject of Jo, have you seen her new range of stamps produced by Stampotique? wow! they are gorgeous
It's an extra celebration as I have officially become a contributor to the mag, as I have a couple of articles coming up. (look I'm in the list of contributors on the blog)
The Craft stamper website has also had a facelift.

I made this tag with this month's free stamps, although the flourish is from the new PaperArtsy hotpicks plates. The texture on the cat is black ultrafine flower soft.

I am entering this tag for Theme thursday's black and white challenge.