Sketch challenge sponsored by Stampotique

The challenge at Card Positioning Systems is to follow this sketch

I turned it upside down and made a very clean and simple card using Jo's "mwah" stamp (with the kiss on the side)
Jo's stamp is from Stampotique and also available from Happy Daze in the UK.

make sure you pop over and take part, you could win some Stampotique stamps!!

Forever friends challenges

The current challenge at forever friends is dots and spots, the design team were sent some digital chic frames from Black leaf studios I am still getting used to using digital images and forgot that they smudge when you try to distress them, but that was okay I think it kind of worked. The "love you more" words are from a PaperArtsy hotpick and worked perfectly with this frame.

we also have a current monthly challenge sponsored by digi doodle I was sent these doodle flowers which I used to make the background for this card with the theme "more than one fold

Now that's what I call a challenge!

Two of my favourite challenges go live today, Stampotique and One layer Wednesday, and they both have quite tricky challenges this week. Stampotique is to use turquoise and orange: a colour combination I could never imagine picking out myself, and OLW has a sketch challenge - a sketch challenge without layers!! now that's a challenge. So just to make it even more of a challenge I decided to combine both of the challenge to make this card.
Here's the sketch, I think I stuck to it quite well!

I have used iridescent spray and sparkle (love that stuff) on the fairy's wings. I hope you can see it in this close up

stamps used are all by stampotique
Moon girl 6035
Giant Shroom 3009
silence speaks 3012
splatter long 3014
sun design 2095

I'm excited that this will be my last Stampotique challenge as a participant for now, as of the next challenge I will be on the DT side.

GC88- color challenge : coffee and cream

The theme this week at gingersnap is Coffee and cream. I decided to use this cute cupcake stamp that came free with the Docrafts magazine. I then coloured it with various brown pencils and some gold liquid pearls.

More simple Stampotique!

I just can't seem to leave this altered happy stamp from Stampotique alone! This time I teamed it with the happy definition (7075) and birthday hat(5608). No stamp positioning required for this one,just a little bit of masking and some pencil colouring on kraft cards. I finished with a gem, so it's an almost one layer card.

Stampotique Stamps have arrived!

My first design team stamps have arrived from stampotique, and I couldn't wait to play. I made a real quickie as I wanted to get it photographed before the light disappeared (I just made it by photographing it outside)

I stamped the " altered happy" (7174) in red, then drew around it with a fine line marker pen. I then used my "stamp positioner" (ie lego and piece of plastic packaging) to positon the "strut your stuff" stamp(2069), which I coloured with pencils. I finished with a small bow.

here's where I found out about the lego stamp positioner

One Layer Wednesday : SentimentS

This week the challenge at OLW is absolutely brilliant, no images at all, just words! and you have to use more than one sentiment. I've used loads of sentiments on my card. So many so that you can barely read them, but that's the idea, it's supposed to represent all the "encouraging" things people might say as you approach a birthday, and how they become meaningless, lol.

I made this card by first creating a mask from a nestability and then stamping all the images in two colours for depth, I removed the masked, stamped happy birthday, replaced the mask and sprayed with iridescent spray and sparkle. The colours look a lot more washed out on the photo than in real life, and the mask isn't quite straight, lol, but you get the idea.

The sentiments are all from a fiskars set.

frantic stamper: shopper card

On the Frantic Stamper blog today I have this card. The french newspaper background and shopping post are from The Frantic Stamper's own range of stamps. The swirl is a prima stamp. The paper is 7 gypsies. Everything, including the ribbon is available from the frantic stamper.
The ribbon is attached using the immovable knot technique again.

Stampotique Design team - I'm so excited!

I'm just thrilled to have been asked to join the Stampotique design team. I love working with Stampotique stamps so this is just brilliant news.
you can visit the Stamptique designers blog here



and the challenge here.
for a full list of designers visit here. I can't wait to start working with such a talented bunch.

Theme Thursday: Spring

Oh, I'm so looking forward to spring now. Once Christmas is over there's really nothing good about winter. At least it seems to have warmed up over the last few days which is a bit of a relief. So it's lovely to see a spring theme at Theme Thursday. By the way, I have no idea what these flowers are or if they are indeed spring flowers, so please don't tell me off if I'm not quite getting the spring theme right!
This flower stamp actually naturally leans the other way, but for this card I wanted it to lean in from the left. As it has a thin stalk, it was really easy to bend it to the position I wanted on my acrylic block. Quite a neat little trick I thought.
I made this really quick card using Stamps from PaperArtsy (hot picks) onto Kraft card, and coloured with coloursoft pencils. I am so into this technique at the moment and it's just perfect for quick cards.

sorry it's a scan again! the other thing that I get fed up with about winter, the dark evenings!!

barely there

This week's challenge at One Layer Wednesday is "barely there" and the challenge is to use a bare tree.
Unbelievably I actually have very few bare tree stamps. This one is a paperbag studio one that I've had for ages! The quote is from Scrolls Work. I stamped the tree in cosmic copper brilliance ink and the quote in versafine black. I then shaded the corners of the quote box, which seems to somehow lift it off the card, don't ask me to explain how!

Masked!

The theme at the stampotique challenge is to use masks.
I have masked twice on this image. I masked the crown and stamped smile over the top, then I masked smile to add the heart banner, This is a really simple card, but one I really enjoyed making, as it was the first time I had ever played with a stamp positioner (well some lego and clear plastic packaging, actually) I can't believe what a difference it made, and I will be using it lots more.
The image is coloured with pencils. Unfortunately the picture's not the best as it's scanned due to the lack of light. bring on spring!!

Stampotique stamps are available from Stampotique and happy daze in the UK

My copy of craft stamper arrived today, and I'm thrilled with how my article looks, the staging of the cards is just perfect. However there obviously wasn't enough room to publish my introduction (I do have a tendency to ramble) so I've included it in my post about the article

forever friends card for a man

The new theme at the forever friends challenge is a card for a man or boy. The challenge is sponsored by Whismy stamps,


and the design team were sent some digi images. I chose this "happy birthday from all of us" image. it includes the ants holding the gift and the words.

I printed it out really small (the detail is good enough to print out large) and teamed it up with the bear image (which came free with the docrafts mag ages ago). I decided to colour in my bear with grey for a change and I really like the effect. in fact I actually really like this card. it makes me smile!

sunday postcard art guest host

I was very excited to be invited to be guest host at Sunday Postcard art this week. After much thinking I decided on the theme "Hobbies and Pastimes" . I thought that this would be a nice challenge to start the year with as it's when we often think about taking up new hobbies, or maybe we had something for Christmas which sparked a new interest. Of course it doesn't have to be your hobby, it could be just a general hobby.

there's so many themes that could be included, such as crafts, sports, dance, cinema, reading, cooking, music, photograpy..... the list goes on and on. I hope you enjoy the theme and I look forward to seeing the entries.

Don't forget all entries must be postcard sized (6"x4"), but apart from that, anything goes.

I chose to honour my other favourite hobby: knitting, with this lovely image from Hampton art (I think) I plan to give this to another knitting friend as a card.

February Craft Stamper sneak peek

I haven't actually seen the new craft stamper yet, but it's out today and I have an article in it. Just a short one about "clean collage" i.e collage with lots of white space. Think of it as collage for beginners!!
I've used stamps from Crafty Individuals, scrolls work and Stampotique (the scrolls work and stampotique stamps are available from Happy Daze). The picture shows a small sample of each of these.

unfortunately in the magazine there obviously wasn't quite enough room to print the introduction I had written, so I will add it here for anyone who is interested

Collage is a very popular art form, but can be a bit intimidating to inexperienced crafters. The thought of covering a whole card and still making sure it all looks good together can be a bit daunting.

I like white space on my cards, so I decided to play with collage in a more controlled form. One of the joys of collage is being able to use anything on your work. If you can glue it, you can use it. As most crafters are also hoarders you will find all sorts of bits and bobs to use alongside your stamped images and papers.

Yellow

The theme at One Layer Wednesday is Yellow. I always think yellow is going to be a difficult colour to use but then as soon as I start I find that I love it. This card came together so quickly, that this is actually the scrap of card I was practising on, rather than the third or fourth attempt that it usually is with a one-layer card.
Yellow immediatley made me think of Jo Capper-Sandon's bees, I just received her big bee, so it was a perfect opportunity to play with it. I stamped and then masked with a post it note cut with a spellbinder die. I then inked over this using mustard seed distress. I used the same ink with some sequin waste, and the hexagon stamp, then round the edge with the abstract foliage. Finally I finished with a heart from the hearts cubed.

All of the stamps are by Jo and made by Stampotique, available from Happy Daze in the UK.

I am also entering this for the ginspiration challenge, at gingersnap creations. Jo chose the theme "one layer cards", so it seems totally appropriate that I use her stamps!

GC85: Chestnut Theme Challenge - Hot Beverages

I knew what I wanted to use straightaway for this theme. I love this little bear with the mug and I love the effect of colouring him on kraft (especially the white pencil on kraft). However this is not Kraft card, but a scrap of Kraft envelope.

My boys love these chocolate sticks. just stir them into hot milk for a lovely hot chocolate drink. I can never resist treating them when I see them for sale. I decided to dress this one up my making the tag. The lines on the tag are from a PaperArtsy hotpick background stamp.

sympathy card

It's always sad when you have to make a sympathy card, but it always means such a lot to the recipient, so it's always worth doing.
I used my new dies again to make this really quick card, but this time used one of the smaller ones as well. Moon girl just seemed to fit perfectly. I have glittered her wings with spray and sparkle.
Moon girl is by Stampotique and available from Happy Daze in the UK

(I apologise for the poor quality photograph. The light had gone so I had to use the flash, which makes the picture look really flat)

my year in posts

Happy New Year!!
In a fit of nostalgia I decided to have a look through my last year of blogging, to pick out some of the posts that sum up my year in crafting. Either when I found a new technique or tool that I loved, or just something i really love

The year started well with a six month stint on the Scrolls Work design Team. I had previously been on the Inka design team, so was delighted to be promoting their stamps again.
I made this unusual tag in a card design, which I later did as a tutorial on gingersnaps
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/02/theme-thursday-girls.html

I also had a brief stint playing with Zentangles
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/02/zentangle-heart.html

Then I was asked to be a 2010 member of the Frantic Stamper Design team, and I made this tag with my first batch of goodies
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/03/tag-tuesday-arch.html

March arrived and I started planning my christmas presents. I came up with this pattern for Crochet Slippers, which I made for my book group (9 pairs, and I DID finish them on time)
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/03/crochet-slippers.html

This next one was a fun one, when I decided to challenge myself to see if I could make an attractive balaclava!
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/04/at-last-perfect-profile-picture.html

Then my obsession with pencil colouring started with a tutorial on the gingersnap blog
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/05/quick-and-easy-pencil-colouring.html

Almost halfway through the year and my good friend Jo had her designs made into stamps by Stampotique. And I just loved working with them
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/05/jasmine.html

which was handy when I joined the Happy Daze Design team
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/06/happy-daze-design-team-announcement-tag.html

I also became a regular contributor to Craft Stamper Magazine, and have had quite a few article in the magazine this year, with more planned for next year. It's been such a joy to see my work in print amongst proper talented, and well known, designers. ( ever had that "I'm not worthy" feeling?)
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/06/august-craft-stamper-sneak-peaks.html

This next one, is when I discovered that I could design a template for a swing card. I am planning to put this together as a tutorial sometime
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/05/kinetic-card.html

I found a way to "upcycle" my son's favourite t-shirts to make cushions
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/06/t-shirt-cushion-tutorial.html

This is just a really simple sympathy card, that I liked.
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/06/sympathy-card.html

and a fun card for a boy
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/06/gc20-shades-of-blue.html

A cake for my son's birthday and my obsession with nail art begins
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/07/climbing-wall-cake-and-some-nail-art.html

a fun paint experiment that I enjoyed
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/08/gingersnap-creations-paint.html

I realised how much I loved One Layer Cards....
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/09/one-layer-wednesday-trees.html

.... pencil colouring on Kraft card...
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/09/brrrr-its-chilly.html

......masks (I just saw a very similar card to this on create and craft today)....
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/10/going-dotty.html

.... the immovable knot technique (not my invention, link included)
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/11/girly-girl-sweet-sixteen.html

....and blender pencils
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/09/brrrr-its-chilly.html

more knitting, loved this toy that I made for my son
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/10/daphne-and-delilah.html

Moira at happy daze challenged me to use a bee stamp to make a christmas card
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/10/bee-lieve.html

approaching the end of the year I was asked to join the Rogue Redhead design team, and used the stamps to make one of my favourite discoveries of the year, a box to hold a rolled up amazon voucher..... presents sorted forever!!!!! (tutorial included)
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/11/box-for-scroll-or-rolled-voucher.html

then to finish the year off, I was asked to be guest designer on the winter wonderland challenge
http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/2010/12/winter-wonderland-designer-in-spotlight.html

So all in all, it's been a brilliant year! I've really enjoyed looking back over the year, it's made me realise just how much I've done, and I can't wait for another year of crafting!