stampotique SDC29 : a sketch

The current challenge at Stampotique is a sketch.

Make sure you check out all of the 4 group posts for lots of inspiration on the different ways you can use it. I (rather unsurprisingly( went for a clean and simplecard, and highlighted one stamp (from Jo Capper-Sandon's range).

As this is the second challenge of the month, it's a Stampotique only challenge, and you could win $30 worth of stamps!

A royal cup of tea

I have the cucumber for the sandwiches, and the scones and strawberries, and of course a perfect tea cosy for the many, many cups of tea I shall drink while watching the wedding tomorrow.

Unfortunately, my teapot doesn't really do it justice as it has a funny flat spout.

I got the pattern as a free ravelry download by Anna Elliot. However the intarsia garter stitch just wasn't for me, so I changed the pattern (quite a lot actually)

first I changed it to stocking stitch, added two extra rows to the centre stripe, did away with the bobble and the lining, I only patterned the front, I crocheted around the edges, and I did it in vintage colours.... other than that it's exactly the same!!

For the royal couple

Wishing you a beautiful day and a happy future together.
Background is created with distress inks and post-it notes. The Stamps are available from Happy Daze

I have entered this for Daring Cardmakers' "by royal appointment" theme

gingersnap red and gold

I know I said when I did the Gingersnap mists challenge that I don't really do oriental. But this week the gingersnap challenge is red and gold, so I thought I would go for it, as I do have some oriental gems of stamps hidden in my collection. One of my favoutite of which is the floral poet(#6532) stamp on this card. I love the way it looks like oriental writing but is actually just drawings of flowers
The oriental lady is Sorana (#4059)


The base is crumpled card inked with distress ink and then wet with glitz spritz spray. I ironed this to dry it and flatten it a bit. I then ran a versamark pad lightly over the surface and used gold embossing powder.
I finished with a long knot which is glued in place. because of this I am entering it for created by hand's ribbon theme


both stamps are available from Scrolls Work stamps

Theme thursday : girls

This is a variation on a card that I made a couple of weeks ago, which I thought I'd enter for Theme Thursday I made this one at the same time but it was for Jo's birthday.
This time I decided to raise up the parcel on a papermania springy thing.


The stamp is by lili of the valley, and the stencil is by crafter's workshop. The glitter border and embossing folder are papermania. The little girl is coloured with pencil and I've used a glitz spritz spray for the background.

how to crochet a Lei..

I recently went to a Hawaiian night and thought it would be fun to crochet my own Lei. I thought "I bet there's loads of patterns on the internet"".....wrong I couldn't find any.

So I decided to make mine up. Unfortunately, I've lost the bit of paper I wrote it down on so I'm doing it from memory....

Create a chain the length you want your completed lei to be. in the third chain from the hook Treble crochet 2 stitches (british stitches) then 3 tr into each chain all the way across, this will cause the lei to twist a little but will still be quite stretchy.

at end turn, and perform 1dc 1tr 1dtr 1tr 1dc into EACH tr of previous row. This will naturally curl into a spiral and be very firm.
at the last stitch run the thread down to the chain row. you should now have a loose thread at each end, just tie these together and work in the ends.

This uses a lot of yarn. I bought 100g of cheap yarn and had just enough left to make a flower hairclip to match, which ended up as a gift decoration!
I also made a quick bag from a tea towel from a pack from poundland. The pattern said Hawaiian to me, so I had to make it..


This is not one of the reversible ones, so I made a special effort to sew the straps on neatly.

less is more- off centre

An easy-peasy challenge this week at less is more, all you have to do is make something "off centre". However, that's almost too easy..... where to start?? Well it's such a gorgeous spring day today that I felt that I just had to start with this lovely quote. Then I decided to add some leaves... but then a strange thing happened, I had an urge to revisit a technique that I haven't done for ages...chalking... mostly because I just didn't have the right shade of green ink to stamp the leaves, lol. I stamped the leaves in versamark ink and used three shades of green chalk applied with a cotton wool ball. I finished with some spring flower soft.


All of the stamps are available from Scrolls work stamps
The quote (springtime #1607)
the leaves (vine #45305)

stampotique designers challenge.... group 4

(this is my second post today)

Today at the Stampotique challenge, the 4th group of samples are revealed. The challenge is to use old book pages or newspaper.
This challenge is open to any stamps and you could win $30 of stampotique stamps!

I decided to use Jo's small moon from stampotique with a paper moon theme.

one layer wednesday: an oldie

This week at One Layer Wednesday we are challenged to make a thank you card using an old stamp. My card has turned out remarkably like the sample that Susan made on the OLW challenge. I used a flower stamp from an inkadinkadoo stamp set that I've had for ages, but the sentiment is new. of course I had to finish with a little knot (I promise it's not covering a smudge)

LIM acetate: blowing bubbles

This week's challenge at the fabulous Less Is More is to use Acetate. I love acetate cards. I like how you can make things appear to float, so I thought it would be perfect for this elephant with bubbles from lili of the valley. I have embssed the corner with a fiskars embossing plate, glittered the bubbles with stickes and added a strip of paper along the bottom.

On the reverse of this there is a strip of white card (inside the card) so that you can write a (very small) message.

edit: I forgot to say the elepant and bubbles are coloured with coloursoft pencils onto white card, then cut out and glued to the card (a couple of people have asked)

OLW green, pink and never been inked

The challenge at One Layer Wednesday is to use green and pink and a stamp you heven't used yet.
I actually have a scary amount of stamps that I haven't used yet. Including lots of the new Children Stamps from Scrolls Work.
Both the sentiment and the image are from Scrolls Work and may also be available from Happy Daze in the UK.

it's hard to see on the photos, but there is a some glitter spray across the bottom of the card (to represent water)

And I'm also delighted to announce that I have been invited to join the permanent DT of Scrolls Work. I've been a massive fan of Scrolls Work (and previously Inka) for so long so this is such an honour.

gingersnap supply challenge - mists

The new challenge at gingersnap this week is to use mists in your artwork. I've used a glitz spritz spray along with a number mask from crafters workshop and this oh so funny little girl from lili of the valley.


the overall theme at GS this month is oriental, but I don't really do oriental, so I decided to just go with the mists, and as a result, my piece sticks out a bit like a sore thumb, lol

st luke's charity challenge

I absolutely love this idea for a blog challenge. You make your card according to the theme and then, if you want to you, send your card for the charity to sell to raise money. (you can of course send extra too)
The first theme is so simple, anyone can do this one, "Say it with flowers".
I've made a one-layer card (hmmm how surprising).
I've been playing around with making inking look like fabric. Brayering onto non-glossy card gives a more irregular finish than glossy, and the drawn blanket stitch edge hopefully adds to the effect.

As I am sending this card to the charity, I have tried to go for a generic card that will sell (fingers crossed!!)
The flower (from Jo's flower Cube) and altered happy stamp are all from Stampotique and may also be available from Happy Daze in the UK.

yooohoooo I'm back!!

a whole week without blogging, that doesn't happen often... well, I have been away on holiday to lovely Somerset.
So first thing I need to do is check in with some of my favourite challenges and see what I can combine.

aha, wednesday stampers "cake" and Less is more "one layer card with sentiment as the focus"
I chose the smallest cupcake I could find, so that the sentiment stayed the focus on the card, but it did need the cupcake.
The sentiment is off the Children Plate from Scrolls work (expect to see a lot more of that plate...) and the cupcake is a free papermania one that came with the docrafts mag a while back. The embossing is a papermania embossing folder. I've coloured the cake with pencils and highlighted with stickles

I actually thought this would be a good card for a little girl's first birthday

less is more : a touch of red

This week's challenge at Less is More is "a touch of red" I made this card for my son's birthday as he has a really cute grey rat as a pet. I fell in love with this Lili of the Valley stamp as soon as I saw it.
it's a really really quick make, simply stamped, coloured with pencils, a glued on knot (no, this one isn't covering a mistake either, it's just sort of become a signature) and finally I highlighted the cherries with glossy accents.


I know this card also has blue on it, but I think it's the red that really makes it "pop"

Craft stamper free e-zine download it now!

and pass the link on to all your stamping friends!