Reasons to stamp in May..

If you are looking for reasons to get stamping in May look no further than Gingersnap Creations.
I made my card for National Wildflower Week, using the gorgeous new Hot Picks Stamps from PaperArtsy.

men's birthday presents..

sorry if you've come to my blog because you read the title of the post and you were hoping for ideas for buying presents for men. I'm no help there..

but I think I can help with wrapping them. I used the new hotpick stamps from Paperartsy to create flowers from brown wrapping paper, and I love how they turned out: masculine, yet sort of beautiful.

The basic inspiration for these flowers came from Kris Hankins here

Wednesday stamper: Tim Holtz

When I first considered this wednesday stamper theme I wondered how Tim had an influence on what I make, and I immediatly thought of distress inks, so of course I started with a distress ink background, using the houndstooth background from the artistic stamper, but then I realised how much more of an influence tim had had, as I distressed the edges of my black card with my scissor blade and added some random ephemera.
The flourish and family stamps are also from the artistic stamper. This is my last official Artistic stamper piece as my term on the DT comes to an end this week, but I'll still be using the stamps plenty, especially the gorgeous backgrounds and the cute mabel lucie atwell images!!

Steampunk??

This is the first time I've attemped anything remotely "steampunky". The birds challenge at Crazy Amigos made me want to play with this cool "tweet tock" stamp from Scrolls work stamps. All of the other stamps are from Scrolls work too.

Mable Lucie Attwell box card

These box cards are surprisingly easy to make, this was my first attempt. It measures 3.5"x5.5"x 1.25" so can be easily made from an A4 sheet of card.
The stamps are by the artistic stamper, and the background and front of the cards are done with spun sugar and tumbled glass distress inks.

The best thing about this style of card, is that although it's very dimensional it folds completely flat to go into an envelope

I am entering this for Crazy Amigos flower theme

Sharpie Shoe Art

( I use the term "art" loosely!)
I have been wanting to have a go at these for ages, but never got round to getting the pumps and pens to do it. Yesterday I was in American Apparel where they sell sharpies individually, and I decided to go for it. I chose three colours I liked (and a black of course) and then went to Primark and got two pairs of plain white pumps (£2 a pair) Then I played....

I learned a lot from my first mistakes, so I will share that in case anyone wants to try it.

Sharpies run into each other!! as you can see here..


to reduce this
1. don't use brand new sharpies, they are too wet. use them up a little first.
2. be patient, you have to allow bits to dry before you colour the bit next to them.
3. don't colour adjacent areas, either side of a black line, at the same time. even if they are the same colour.

so here's what I did, first I drew all the flowers on a shoe and left it to dry for about half an hour.
Then I decided which bits were going to be what colour by just adding a dot of colour to each area. (you do not need to leave this bit to dry.)
Colour all of the centres, trying not to go over the black lines just up to them.
leave to dry.
then colour as many petals as you can without doing any two adjacent areas at the same time.

repeat this step until finished.

as you can see, patience results in a much cleaner effect.


While I was in Primark, I was lucky enough to find a scarf almost the exact colour of the pens I chose, this is what I photographed the shoes on.

sooooooo.....
the big question...
will the colours run in the rain.
I experimented with a small area and a very wet sponge, and yes the was some running. not loads, but definitely some. so I decided to try heat setting it, with my heat gun and then I sprayed it with some shoe protector (kiwi power protector). Once I have given that chance to thoroughly dry I will test them again......

tiny flower card/ tag

I have made this little card/tag using stamps from the artistic stamper. including the large flower,
stitchels leaves, sequin background, and white rabbit

My new favourite quote!

I have made this for tag tuesday, where the theme is inspiring quotes. Now, I'm not sure this could be classed as inspiring, but I love it. It's one of Scrolls works new stamps. as are the large apple blossom and floral flourish.

theme thursday: hats or crowns

the theme at theme thursday is hats or crowns, I just received this newspaper hat stamp from scrolls work stamps, so of course I had to try it on Erica!!
The layout of this card started out much bigger, but I couldn't make it work so I went back to what I know: cramming it all into a 2 inch square!!
The bunting is the same stamp as the background, with freehand triangles. I have done the background with one of the new distress inks: victorian velvet.
All stamps are available from scrolls work

girly card

The stampotique challenge this week is to make a girly card, not too much of a challenge for me, I love girly! I did challenge myself, however, to experiment with the new ultra fine flower soft (this colour is raspberry fizz). This is produces more of a flocking effect than regular flower soft, but still textural rather than strokable, if you know what I mean. I attached it with double sided tape and quickie glue pen on this piece and both methods worked fine.

The stamp is of course by stampotique.

at last... the perfect profile picture!!!

Just kidding!! I'm just sharing the pictures of the balaclava I just finished knitting. I had been talking to a friend about balaclavas, and I wondered how hard it could be to make an attractive balaclava that didn't make you look like you were about to rob a bank.
I am quite pleased with how it turned out, and it was so, so easy to make.
And if you start to scare people you can wear it as a bobble hat!!

Eggs

A popular theme this week,Wednesday stamper, Crazy amigos and mixed media monday have it as their theme. I have made this using all stamps from Scrolls work. I love this little girl, Emma, she's so elegant.

Sunday Stampers: a tag for Paula

On our forum we are running a collaborative tag project. This tag was made for Paula who chose the theme Time and Place.
All the stamps are by PaperArtsy, and the papers are by K&Co,
I added some lace as a trim so I am going to enter it for Sunday stampers' Lace theme.

The Scrolls Work design team

It feels like coming home!
The very first design team I joined was Inka stamps, and now Inka stamps are available at Scrolls Work stamps it feels like I've come full circle in announcing that I am on the Scrolls Work DT.
You can meet the rest of the new design team HERE
I have made this quick card with one of the brand new stamps from Scrolls Work.

New PaperArtsy stamps

Second post today!
I have just received the new stamps from PaperArtsy, and thought that the "bird" theme at Sunday Stampers was the perfect opportunity to "break them in" so I made this card. I have used a colour of flowersoft that I bought this week, Summer. I have four pots of flower soft now, where will it stop? The grass is stamped with the two new shades of green ditress ink



I also bought these papermania bare boxes this week and decided to also use the PaperArtsy stamps to decorate one of these. I have made the flower using one of the stamps on brown wrapping paper four times. I have coloured the bare box by dragging a tattered rose ink pad accross it.

Time for Tea

The theme at sunday postcard art is "Time for Tea". I knew straight away that I wanted to use this new Mabel Lucie Atwell stamp of the mad hatters tea party from the artistic stamper. The gingham bunting is made with the gingham background stamp from the artistic stamper, but I hand drew the triangles (that's about the extent of my drawing capabilties- dodgy triangles!!).
I have edged the card with tumbled glass distress ink, and decoupaged the bunting and teapot.

The effect of the scratching is where I tried to remove some stray ink, but I liked it so I added some more, lol

Pink, green and flowers

that's the theme at the secret crafter challenge, So I thought I would enter this card which is actually for next weeks forever friends challenge, which is "spring"
At the forever friends blog we will be having a design team call, so if you are interested don't forget to visit on monday.

All the papers for this card are by basic grey and the card is finished with spring flower soft.

simple notelet on the frantic stamper blog

I made this notelet using a really simple masking technique and distress inks, for a card in a hurry.
The instructions are on the frantic stamper blog. I also made one in different colours to show how a completely different mood can be achieved.

All mine!!

I thought this week's stampotique challenge was indeed challenging, the theme is easter and it's stampotique stamps only. I have 4 stampotique stamps and none of them seemed particularly eastery, but I am not beaten easily.
When I saw the theme thursday theme of 2"x4" I was further intrigued....
could I combine these two challenges?

I love this little guy's smiel and thought that it would be the kind of smile you would have if you were surrounded by easter eggs.

The papers are all basic grey, the eggs are punched, the sentiment is done on the computer and the little guys background is done using two of the new distress inks, spun sugar and bundled sage.

Mixed Media Monday: vintage children

I love the theme at MMM this week I could use vintage images of children all day long... but I decided to go a little bit different. I have just received the new Mabel Lucie Atwell Alice in Wonderland images from The Artistic Stamper. I decided to make a book mark (seemed appropriate) and used bits of pages from an actual copy of the book. I have also used the new large lace background from the artistic stamper I have edged the main image and stamped the lace with one of the new distress colours, tumbled glass.
I love all alice images but I like these ones from the 1920's version of the book as they are just a little bit different.

(Just to clarify, I don't have this book, was just showing a picture of it in casw anyone was not familiar with mabel lucie atwell's Alice drawings)