stampotique sketch challenge

Sketches really aren't my forte, but I like to have a go at everything, so here's my simple interpretation of the sketch challenge at stampotique. Both off the stamps that I have used are from stampotique.

Stampotique blog hop : new images from a new designer

Announcing new images and new artists are always exciting here at Stampotique Originals and so we are thrilled to announce our newest artist, Kira Nichols. Kira has designed some very unique monsters and kitties for her first line of stamps and our design team has had the opportunity to play with the stamps before they are released to the public.

Want a chance to win some of Kira's new images? Hop along with our designers as well as our special guest, leaving comments along the way, for your chance to win some of Kira's new images. We will randomly draw a winner from one of the blogs and announce the winner with our next challenge.

Make sure to leave comments along the way and a randomly chosen commenter will win some of these new stamps.

you have reached the end of the hop, so you may want to return to the Stampotique blog

Below is a complete list in case you go off the beaten path and need some redirection.

Kira Nichols

Kaz Boughton

Jane Wetzel

Gez Butterworth

Valerie Wilson

Maria Sabina Raita

Lisa Somerville

Jo Capper-Sandon

Kim Howard

Nellie van Leeuwen

Vicki Garrett

Willy Anderson

Kate Crane

Monique Verbeek

Joanne Wardle<----you are here

Happy daze Challenge, an explosion of colour.

For this month's challenge theme I have made this one layer card, using stamps from Jo Capper-Sandon's range at Stampotique. These Splatter stamps are perfect for the theme. I have used distress inks for the colour.

Kraft tags with Rogue redhead

I decided to make three quick and easy tags with the quirky new Candy Kisses plate from Rogue Redhead (they have a new website, check it out) The bold simple designs are prefect for simple colouring styles, such as colouring with pencils on kraft card.


I also used the background from the relish reading plate with tea dye ink to produce a soft background image. I did this by covering the image with a torn scrap of post-it note, inking up the stamp and gently pressing the card onto the stamp, to get a faint uneven background. I love this effect as it takes away the starkness of a plain background, yet does not detract from the main image.

Craft Stamper December 2011

The December 2011 issue of craft stamper is out today, and I have a small article in it. If you know the magazine well, it's the "Stamping with..." article. I chose to stamp with.. Houses.

I used a fantastic row of houses from Crafty Individuals for all three of my cards, and tried to show three very different ways to use them. My favourite is the kite card, where I just used the top of the houses to give the illusion of sky to the rest of the card. I originally got this idea from a fabulous tag that Jo Capper-Sandon made (and gave to me) quite some time ago, you can admire it here.

Rogue Redhead new release

Another Preview of the new stamps from Rogue Redhead, This is from the Candy Kisses Plate. A super simple card coloured with one colour of marker and a blender pen. I've also added some white flower soft for a snowy effect.

This colouring method is the same method as I used in the new Craft Stamper magazine, due out next friday.

Happy Hallowe'en

I'm ridiculously proud of the pumpkins that I carved today!

GC#124 Black and Grey

This week, the new challenge at Gingersnap creations is Black and Grey. I used this fabulously spooky image from Crafty Individuals, which was just perfect for the theme.

I stamped the image in grey and then again in black. from the black one I just cut out the bed. One the grey one I created a mask for the moon and building and then made the whole background more moody with black and grey distress inks. I mounted the bird on 3D foam.

I finished with an immovable knot.

What's your poison?

The new challenge at Stampotique is "an altered poison bottle". This challenge really had me stumped, I just don't really do altering and I pondered and pondered and pondered until I ran out of time. I looked at bottles, but just drew a complete blank. In the end I decided to make a tag for a beer bottle, as that's my husband's favourite "poison". I also decided to go masculine, and also attempted "witty".

I used the quote "escape the ordinary...daydream" but changed it to "escape the ordinary...drink".

I thought that this little guy had an air of inebriation about him.

So all in all, I feel that I cheated on this challenge, but I think I might just get away with it.

And for those who remember and loved him, the little bowtie is an homage to Keith Floyd.

All stamps are from Stampotique

Christmas with non-Christmas stamps

You don't always have to buy special Christmas stamps to make your Christmas cards. Sometimes you just have to look at the stamps you have in a different way. This general tree from Stampotique, can easily be made to look wintry with simple colouring, and the addition of white flower soft or glitter. The tiny bird from Jo Capper-Sandon's range can easily be made to look like a robin redbreast with the appropriate colouring



all stamps are from , I made this for the Happy Daze challenge (where you can purchase your stampotique stamps)

cocktails and stripes

I've combined the stripe challenge at one layer wednesday with the cocktail challenge at less is more to make this really simple card.

To make the stripes, I randomly snipped a piece of copy paper with scissors, then cut them at irregular heights and angles. I sprayed the back with stick and spray, and then brayer the ink over the top.

I had previously stamped and mask the glass stamp from The Frantic Stamper's own range of stamps.

I stamped the word celebrate, lightly coloured the glass with pink pencil and applied glossy accents.

SDC 40: Tag time

At The Stampotique Challenge Nellie has challenged us to make a tag. You can use any stamps for this challenge, but as usual Stampotique stamps are up for grabs as a prize.

I used an old favourite from Stampotique, Smile, but gave him a crown from Jo Capper-Sandon's range, which I stamped using a masking technique. The words are a stamp from Jo's latest collection and work perfectly with the crown.

I highlighted the crown and the edge of the tag, using a quickie glue pen and gilding flakes. I love this simple technique.

love your style

This card is made with an image and words from the new soon to be released Rogue Redhead plate "milliner misses" This is an easy peasy quick collage card. The main image is coloured with pencils, the edges distressed and inked with tea dye distress ink. and that's about as complicated as it gets.

gingersnap creations: alcohol inks

The new challenge at gingersnaps is to use alcohol inks. to be honest I don't use mine very often, but I don't know why.

To make this card I stamped Carol's flower from Stampotique onto acetate with stazon, then on the reverse I applied various colours of ranger alcohol inks with a blending tool. I then glued this to the card, to which I had already added a ribbon (by threading through the card), glued on a button.

A "Stella" Hallowe'en

In previous posts I have used Stella Sitting on various props, and have used masking to achieve this. I know that a lot of people find masking a bit too "faffy", so for this card I used the simpler "cutting out" method!!

I just stamped Stella, the broom and hat, onto white card coloured with pencils and cut them out.

I made the moon background by cutting out a circle mask (by drawing around the inside of a roll of sellotape), then applied black soot and pumice stone distress inks with a cotton wool ball. I
removed the maks, applied a litle more pumice stone ink, for clouds. I stamped happy (from Happy unbirthday) and old english Hallowe'en. I glued Stella and her accessories in place.

All of the Stamps are from Jo Capper-Sandon's range from Stampotique Originals.

knitted hat with crochet mistletoe

or a christmas "kiss me quick" hat.

I found a pattern for crochet mistletoe in a book and made a few (although I changed the pattern slightly from the book) I decided that it would be cool to put it on a hat, so I knitted a simple hat in white sparkly yarn and sewed on the mistletoe. I added a couple of faux pearls from a cheap bracelet for the berries.

mistletoe bird house

The new monthly challenge at Happy Daze is Christmas or Hallowe'en.

The design team were given these tiny little wooden bird houses to play with. Unsurprisingly I kept mine simple. The only stamp I used is Jo's Mistletoe stamp from Stampotique.

Check out the instructions and what the rest of the design team did on the Happy Daze blog.

Envelope Fold T-shirt Cushion - the tutorial

I promised the tutorial for this cushion a little while ago.

I used to make my t-shirt cushions using this tutorial, where the cushion is fully sealed and the t-shirt is left intact. this is fine for me as to wash I unpick the final seam, wash, then sew it back up.
But I wanted to make a cushion for a friend that doesn't really sew, and she was happy for me to cut the t-shirt, so i decided to make an envelope fold cushion.
Work with the T-shirt inside out.
The first thing is to decide on the size, the maximum square you can make is the width between the arm holes, measure this, and then measure the same distance down from the neck hole and mark this square on the reverse of the front of the t-shirt.
turn the th-shirt over so you are working from the back (still inside out)cut up the sides nearly to the arm hole. You will actually cut it all the way up, but just cutting this far, helps to hold the positions of the front and back.
Fold the front of the t-shirt inside the t-shirt to make the square you decided on previously.( this will make the envelope flap, so the longer it is, the better.)
fold up the back, to shorten it ( I made it shorter than the front, but have since decided that it is better to actually make it the same length)

sew across this hem.

pin front and back together, trim off surplus on sides and top and sew along the sides and top of the square. Make sure that you are also sewing in the flap that you folded earlier

turn right side out.

insert cushion pad (tip: use a cushion pad larger than the measured size of your cover for a plump cushion)