spring has sprung at Stampotique

The theme at stampotique is spring has sprung. I made this simple card using stampotique stamps and a little spring flowersoft

less is more: green

I find it really hard to not take part in the less is more challenges, they are just so tempting! For this green challenge, I simply stamped a christmas greeting (that came free with a magazine) with forest moss distress ink, and then added vintage christmas flower soft along the bottom of the letters (this is definitely one of my favourite flower soft colours, it just shouts "Christmas"!!

less is more : a bit of bling

The theme at Less is More this week is "a bit of bling", so I am entering this engagement card which I made for a friend. The single gem is meant to represent the engagement ring.

I've also used a stamp from paperarsty, some patterned papers and flowersoft.

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.

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)

Gingersnap Challenge - Crimpers

The Challenge at Gingersnap Creations is to use crimpers.

It's always good to have an excuse to dig out old bits of crafty equipment. I made a tag using stamps from Crafty individuals, cutting out an extra birdcage and 3Ding it, and ran the end through my crimper.

I then inked it to define the crimping, added some flower soft and added it to a card.

a rogue in my garden!

On the rogue redhead blog, Shar has challenged us to use pencils on kraft. ahem, hello!! how am I supposed to resist that one?


So I have made my card using Shar's stamps from Rogue redhead designs (relish reading plate) to make this card, which is also for The Kraft Jounal's "a walk in my garden theme"

The trick I use to achieve a sepia effect on kraft card, is to stamp the image in brown (versafine vintage sepia) and to make the images stand out, I always make sure I include white somewhere in the colouring.

To enhance this card I've added some touches of summer flower soft, it goes so well with this technique

Remember Rogue redhead stamps are now also available from StampDiva

did someone say brown?

you know if a challenge has brown in the theme, there's no way I'm going to be able to resist digging out my Kraft card. So as soon as I saw the challenge at Crafty Individuals, I had to take part, especially as my brand new Crafty Individuals stamps were just sitting there on my desk.

really easy card, stamped in sepia versafine, coloured with pencils, added some ultra fine flower soft, a ribbon and some sepia accents to the bird... done!

If you have this months Craft Stamper, I've done a similar technique in the gallery (animal theme, colours brown, blue and cream)

paperartsy castle (mini)

I got a lovely comment out of the blue about this card today, and it reminded me that I haven't played with these stamps in ages. so I dug them out. I have both the full size stamp and the mini, so on this occasion I decided to use the mini.

I did my familiar trick of colouring with pencils on kraft card and finished it with some summer flowersoft.

I'm entering this for Crazy Amigo's minimalism theme (I hope it minimal enough!)

LIM - bottom left

I can't seem to get this challenge out of my brain, usually when I do a challenge, that's it! gone! but this one won't go away. I keep thinking, one more and I'll have it out of my head, but I do one, and I'm on to thinking about the next.
This time I tackled the bottom left corner, using PaperArtsy stamps (talking of PaperArtsy, in the new Craft Stamper mag which is just landing with subscribers, I have part 3 of the one layer wonders article, using just PaperArtsy stamps. And I also have a stamping contrasts as well)
I made another mini card. it's about 2.5 inches. I finished it with Flower soft.

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)

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

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.

Christmas card with a non-Christmas stamp.

I wanted to make this card as I have just bought some Vintage Christmas flower soft. I thought it would make a perfect wreath, but then I spotted a card I have recently made with this heart stamp (a Paperartsy mini), so I wondered if it would work. I stamped the heart in forest moss distress ink and then just added the flower soft with little dots of good PVA glue, and finished with a ribbon.

So quick and easy!
I am entering this into Keep it Simple's Evergreen challenge.

it's a snowman stitch-up!

I made this for the winter themed 4x4 swap taking place on gingersnap creations, and tied it in with my DT piece for the stitching theme on gingersnap too. It also fits with this week's created by hand challenge: snowmen.


The stamp is Chilly by Jo CapperSandon from Stampotique, available from Happy Daze. I have embossed tracing paper (not vellum, cheap tracing paper) with a snowflake design, and stitched it to the main piece, before sewing up the final edge I popped in some loose white flower soft in to create a shaker effect.

unfortunately it really doesn't photograph well. these are much nicer in real life.

triangle gift box

Today on the Frantic Stamper blog . I have a quick tutorial for making this easy gift box.
and yes, there's flower soft!
all stamp credits and instructions are on the frantic stamper blog and materials are available from the frantic stamper shop

As I have a strip of torn paper across the bottom of the box, I am entering this for Theme Thursday's torn paper theme.

The frantic stamper is offering a prize to one of it's readers. Here's what you need to know

The Frantic Stamper Happenings Blog has something new for you!

Our design team works really hard to bring you all these wonderful projects, so lets show them some appreciation. Leave a message on the blog for the June project you liked best and you might be selected to win a prize from the FranticStamper store.

Fran will be making the selection of the lucky winner from those who leave messages for the designers. She will be making her random pick in about a week, so get those comments in!

In the meantime, we hope you will continue to enjoy the projects for July, and will let the designers know how much you like those, too!

August Craft Stamper Sneak Peeks

The August Craft Stamper arrived yesterday. It isn't due out until next week but I know it is also available in some shops.
I have my first ever "proper" article in this issue, with a step by step to using Flower soft.
I'd love to know what people think of the article, but please be kind, remember it's my first time!!
I'm very excited about it and keep going back and looking at it with immense pride. I love how the article has been laid out, it just looks so co-ordinated. oh, and in the step-by step pictures, that IS my hand! my hand is famous, lol
I used stamps from PaperArtsy. And I am able to show you a couple of sneaky peeks.

tiny fairy door

The theme this week at Gingersnap Creations is Fairies, for my DT piece, I decided to make a tiny fairy door.
The door and surrounding brickwork are one stamp from scrolls work stamps and the wish word is also from Scrolls work. I coloured it with various media until I got the effect I wanted, and then I finished it with some flower soft.
You can see it in position on my skirting board.

a couple of scrolls work cards

I received a fantastic package of stamps from Scrolls Works Stamps yesterday and couldn't wait to play
The first card uses Sky, Grass and Special day. (and a little bit of flower soft)

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The second card uses the travels of tim and tom, I create, altered numbers and Ticket.

sunday postcard art : jasmin again!!

The theme at sunday postcard art is insects so I had to play with one of Jo's new Bee stamps, so of course I had to play with Jasmin again, I don't seem to be able to resist colouring her in, she's so gorgeous, and she works so well with flowrs soft that I had to use some of that again...

I have added some stickles to the bee's wings, but it's hard to see on the pictures.

the edge is done with a martha stewart border punch.

Jo's stamps are made by stampotique and available from Happy Daze in the UK.

This is my second post today, check out the post below as there is a link to the forever friends challenge where there are amazing goodies to be won!