Monday, May 09, 2011

Happy Stampers Sneak Peeks


As I've mentioned (several times) I am going to be demonstrating at the Happy Stampers Show this weekend at port sunlight.
I plan to demo my floating front cards (as seen in craft stamper magazine), using scrolls work stamps, for Happy Daze (stand 32). I shall be demoing when Jo Capper-Sandon takes a break.
here's a few examples of the kind of thing I'm thinking of doing.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

OLW circles


tell me, is it really narcissistic to CASE your own cards?
In this month's Craft Stamper Magazine I have part 2 of a 6 part series of one layer cards. I decided to make something similar to the card in the magazine for this week's One Layer Wednesday Challenge.

The theme this week is Circles.

can you see the circles on my card?

well I think the splodges are circles. I hope I can get away with that.

All of the stamps are from Jo Capper-Sandon's range at Stampotique and are available from Happy Daze in the UK.
medium bee with small bee mounted on the side #3000
splatter blob #3013
splatter long #3014
happy unbirthday #3036
abstract foliage #3031

talking of Happy Daze, I think I may have already mentioned that I am demoing this Saturday at the Happy Stampers show at Port Sunlight. I shall be on the Happy Daze (stand 32) demoing when Jo Capper-Sandon needs a break! please come and say hi, it will be brilliant to meet all my blogging friends in person.
Tomorrow I will be showing some sneak peaks of a couple of the cards that I plan to demo. I plan to give away what I make, so come back tomorrow to see what I'm doing!!

rogue redhead- new releases




Rogue Redhead had two new releases out this - a beautiful botanical plate called Floriculture and a sentiment plate called Bits & Pieces.

Seriously, could these stamps be any more my style?

I decided to get stamping as soon as they arrived and made a batch of quick notecards


They have some special pricing available. Here's the scoop:

We are offering these great half-size plates for the introductory price of $12.00 each, 20% off their regular retail price of $15.00 each, until June 10, 2011. Buy Floriculture and Bits and Pieces as a bundle and save even more! Get both these new releases together for the bundle price of $22.50 until June 10, 2011. That's 25% off their regular retail price!

We are also offering a Spring Sale Big Vintage Bundle - Relish Reading, Floriculture and Bits and Pieces - all for the low price of $42.00 plus shipping and handling. Get yours now! The sale only lasts until June 10, 2011.

Saturday, May 07, 2011

less is more : white on white




I Love the look of white on white. So I couldn't wait to play along with this week's challenge at Less is more
First thing to notice about this card.... no stamping!!


I'd forgotten that it was possible to make a card with no stamping. This is all done with my big shot, using dies and embossing folders, to create the front piece, which I then mounted using my floating front technique, which I did in Craft stamper magazine a couple of months back.
I shall be demoing the floating front technique (but not this card, I will be stamping), next weekend at the Happy Stampers Show at Port sunlight. If you are coming please come and say Hi!!

Friday, May 06, 2011

cover girl...... well sort of..


Here's the front cover of the latest issue of craft stamper magazine.
The very talented Kate Crane made the book in the main picture, but if you look at the bottom where it says "inspirational one layer cards"...... That's mine!!!!!!!!!!!

The set is made using mainly PaperArtsy Stamps, but the quote is hero arts
doing a little happy dance

sugar and spice


Well I've managed to get back into my tidy craft room, well it was tidy until I started making something. The base of this card is made from a handmade card pack that has been in my drawer for ages, so it was USE IT OR THROW IT!!
This card is made using Scrolls Work Stamps.

Don't forget that Scrolls Work Stamps will soon be starting their closing down sale, so if there's a stamp you particularly want you shouldn't wait....

The girl stamp is also available from Happy Daze

Thursday, May 05, 2011

The reason I haven't blogged much this week....


I am in the middle of a major tidy of my craft room, and I can't get any crafting done. The picture doesn't really show how bad it is: The rubbish spilling out of the door has actually spilled all the way into my bedroom and is covering my bed.
I'm just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it should all be ready for new goodies for next weekend when I'm off to the Happy Stampers show at Port Sunlight. I shall be doing my first ever demoing and am planning to make the floating front cards I did for Craft Stamper Magazine.... that's if I can ever get into my craft room again!! I'm demoing for Happy Daze when Jo Capper-Sandon Takes a break.
Hope to see you there.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

little cowboy



This week's new theme at Gingersnap creations is cowboys. I used this cute stamp from Scrolls Work Stamps. A really simple card.

Monday, May 02, 2011

owl post


The theme at Stamp something is Something with wings
so I thought Jo Capper-Sandon's Owl from Stampotique would be perfect as it actually comes with a set of wings to do with as you please. I have put him in flight here, in honour of the Harry Potter books and movies (I can't wait until the final movie).

I have also used Jo's text star stamp. both stamps are available from stampotique.

Sunday, May 01, 2011

*Sigh* Scrolls Work is Going out of Business


is going out of business

It is with a sad and heavy heart that Scrolls Work is announcing our going out of business sale.

We gave it a strong go with a lot of hard work, and our love of stamps. Unfortunately with the economy and the soon to be addition to the family we are having to close our doors.

The good new for you.... Our Going Out of Business Sale.

  • Once the sale starts it is first come first serve. So once we are out of stock on a stamp it will no longer be available. Make sure you buy them ASAP!!
Sale Dates:
  • It starts May 15th with a 40% discount.
  • June 1st it will go to a 50% discount
  • June 15th starts the 60% discount.
  • July 1st ends with a 70% discount.
  • July 15th we are closing the site.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

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!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

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

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

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

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

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.

Monday, April 25, 2011

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.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

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)

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

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)

Sunday, April 17, 2011

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)