less is more - another sketch challenge

I must be in the mood for following sketches today. Sometimes I like to, it takes the thinking away, lol. especially this one, as I've followed the less is more challenge exactly. The flower is made with Carol's Large Flower, stamped twice onto patterned paper and shaped with an embossing tool. I love the splash of red against the pastels, I find it very "Cath Kidston"

One Layer Wednesday: sketch

I'm always a bit doubtful about using sketches with one layer cards, but then once I've done them I realise it's no big deal. luckily the one layer wednesday challenge is a really, really easy sketch.

To make my card I used a square post it note over the centre of a square card and used a mask to ink the dots with victorian velvet ink. I then drew a black dot at each corner of the mask before removing it. I stamped flowers from Jo's Flower cube from Stampotique in black and victorian velvet. Before stamping the top one I masked off the frame, so that the flowers appear to tumble out of the frame.

to draw the lines, I joined up the dots with lines. I then alternately drew a dot inside and outside of the corners and joined these up with much more wiggly lines (avoiding drawing over the flowers). while I had the pen in my hand I took the plunge and hand-wrote the sentiment!! I NEVER do that!! lol

finally I just finished with a heart gem.

Jo's flower cube is available directly from Stampotique or from Happy Daze in the uk

If you like One Layer Cards. please check out my new series in Craft Stamper Magazine, Where I am doing a six part series of just One -Layer Cards!!

(and tomorrow there's the release of the FREE ezine from craft stamper, which I'm thrilled to say includes a one layer project of mine from 2010)

SDC27 triptych card

The current challenge at stampotique designers is to make a triptych card. This is a stampotique stamps only challenge.
I used Jo's new great moon stamp with moon girl, and also jo's star fish stamp.


The stamps are available from Stampotique and Happy Daze in the UK

gild your doodles: a tutorial for gingersnap

on the gingersnap creations blog today I have a tutorial for using gilding flakes on your doodling using a quickie glue pen.
I hope you enjoy it.
stamps are by scrolls work, also available at Happy Daze.

One Layer Wednesday Stamper

yes, that's a combination of one layer Wednesday and Wednesday Stamper, as I have combined the two challenges to make this simple card.

One layer Wednesday's Challenge is Eggs and Wednesday Stamper is "fabulously colourful" I used nearly every colour in my pencil pot to make this!
For once the ribbon is not covering any kind of mistake, I think I've now got so used to putting them on to cover smudges that it looked wrong without it, lol.

The stamps are from a forever friends set.

two challenges and more new stampotique

The theme at paperplay challenges is distressing so I thought that I would enter this card I made using some more of the new stamps from Stampotique. This uses Jo's new large butterfly and flower cube as well as the french text on the wings.

This also fits the orange theme at theme thursday

Stamps are also available from Happy Daze in the UK

gingersnap annual copper challenge.

Okay I admit it I absolutely left this card until the last minute. So it's a bit of a rush job and I should probably do it again, but here you go!!


for the annual copper challenge at gingersnap creations I decided to experiment with brilliance cosmic copper on kraft card. I first masked off a random shape and then inked through one of the new masks (trees) that I got from Harrogate.
I finished with a simple quote from stampin up. however I've overinked my stazon pad, so the stamping is "well dodgy"

more new stampotique..

This time I've combined Fabulous, pretty party dress and Jo's flower cube to make this simple one layer party dress card.
stamps are available from stampotique and will also be available from Happy Daze.

forever friends guest appearance.

Although I have given up my place on the forever friends DT (I was just a little over-committed!) I have still taken part in the current challenge as I was sent some lovely images from DRS designs to play with. The challenge is a colour bingo challenge. Choose 3 colours from the bingo card, in either a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line (or you can use all of the colours)

I chose the bottom left to top right diagonal and used the make a wish candles and words to make a cake box.

I thought this would be a nice thing to give someone on their birthday, the candle on the front of the box can be removed and used on the cake.

less is more- masculine

I picked up some absolutely adorable stamps from the lili of the valley stand yesterday at harrogate. They are so cute! I've been having a quick play and used a boy stamp to make this simple one layer card for the masculine theme at Less is more. Yes, believe it or not men like cute too!!!

This was simply stamped onto Kraft card and coloured with coloursoft pencils. The sentiment is from PaperArtsy.

Harrogate stash...

I just got back from a very busy Harrogate show, do you wanna see what I got??

Today's featured new stampotique stamp is...

...floral flutter!

This is another of Jo Capper-Sandon's new designs from Stampotique. This stamp will be so useful as a "filler" but is so pretty that I wanted to feature it on its own. I created the background with masking and distress inks. I coloured the image with pencils.
The flower soft was due to an "embellishment opportunity" in other words... I smudged.

The stamps are available now from Stampotique and will be available from Happy Daze

more new stampotique..

As soon as I saw this lavender sprig stamp from the new releases from stampotique, by Jo Capper-Sandon, I knew I had to make this. It's a lavender bag. Very simple to make out of a scrap of fabric. The image is stamped in black stazon.

These stamps will also be available aat Happy Daze

check out the other stampotique designers in my side bar for more inspiration..

going grey challenge and stampotique new stamp releases

The challenge at Going Grey this week is sponsored by stampotique with a theme "anything goes". What could be easier?
When I made this card, it was an experiment in shadows. I found that by adding shadows under all of the letters of the large word, it fixed them in place making it look like they are all at different distances. I love that effect and it's so so easy!

talking of stampotique, the brand new stamps are released today and there really is something for everyone, from several different designers.

Watch my blog over the next few days to see some of the new stamps....

One of my favourites has to be the moon stamp designed by Jo Capper-Sandon. this comes large and small, this is what it looks like in large. I simply stamped onto light blue card, coloured the moon and star with white pencil and then lightly inked with stormy sky distress in. The quote is computer generated and the silver bits are metallic flower soft.

less is more - off the edge

Well what's a girl to do? a new set of stamps to play with, no white card blanks left, and a really good challenge that she wants to take part in...


well this, actually.


This is probably one of the simplest cards I've ever made. I dug out some cream card blanks, and had a play around with using black and brown inks together (something I rarely do for some reason)

I liked it so much though I decided to play with the rest of the stamps in the set in the same way.
The stamps are from Happy daze and very reasonably priced at £4.80 for the set. (there are other sets in the collection too). They are clear stamps are considering I was stamping onto textured card, actually stamp really, really well.

SDC26 : animals insects and birds

For this challenge the stampotique designers challenge you to use an animal, bird or insect in your artwork. This challenge is not restricted to stampotique stamps and you could win $30 worth of stamps from stampotique, so what are you waiting for?

I chose to use this lovely stamp from stampotique. I think this image is so adorable that I kept the card really simple. Can you spot the animal?

one layer wednesday - shimmer

I can't believe that I let it get to Tuesday without doing the one layer Wednesday challenge. For some reason the "shimmer" challenge had me a little bit stumped, so I sat myself down and had a stern talk with myself and sent myself off to my craft room.... 5 minutes later and wondering what I'd been fussing about, I left with this!
I used a die cut aperture to apply worn lipstick ink and edged with vintage photo, with the mask still in place I stamped the splatters from PaperArtsy hotpicks with versamark and brushed with gold perfect pearls. I then removed the mask and stamped the hotpicks flowers. I finished with a small ribbon (another "embellishment opportunity")

can't see the shimmer?
this should help..

frantic stamper card

On the frantic stamper blog today, I have this card featured, using one of the frantic stampers own stamps. I love the way the girl 's hair blends into the sky and sea. I have coloured it with pencils.
The ribbons are attached using the immovable knot techniqe.

April Craft Stamper is out today

I have an article this month called Floating Fronts. it's just a little idea I had to make 3D cards which go flat in an envelope (I like it when things go flat in envelopes, it's just one of those things..)

All of the instructions are in the magazine, and they must make some sense as Netty has already made one!

The stamps I used are by Scrolls Work and Stampotique and they are all available from Happy Daze in the UK.

GC93: chestnut theme challenge: get to work

The challenge at Gingersnaps this week is "get to work",
I chose to use this stamp set that I picked up at the harrogate craft show a couple of years ago (I'll find the make when I get chance), the quote tickled me so much, and I thought it would be perfect for a new job. I continued the work theme by making a file folder style card by cutting down a kraft card blank. I stamped onto a page from a notepad, and of course finished with a paperclip.
a very quick card!