The Stamp Man Challenge # 19 - Recipe

Hi Everyone - it's Friday, and time for the next Stamp Man challenge. This week Lisa S has a recipe for us to follow, but it's in the form of a bingo card and you can choose which line you would like to use.

I have included all the things on the bottom left to top right diagonal line and so I have a die-cut, ribbon and stitching. I drew additional inspiration from the Simon Says Stamp challenge of sparkle and shine, The Shabby Tea Room with monochromatic and Sketch Saturday.

This card is for my good friend Sue who has a mile-stone birthday next week and we are joining her tomorrow for her celebrations.
The stamped image is one of Jill's Framies which she has designed and sells exclusively at the Stamp Man shop. This one fits perfectly with the Nestabilities Labels 4 set.
I stamped the image twice then diecut the image with a slightly smaller die than the background one so it provided a different colour mount but with the stamped edging. I also used the faux nestie technique by drawing round the largest one and cutting it out to give me a further mount.

You can just see some butterflies along the bottom of the TH backing paper which were embossed with a glittery embossing powder.

I also used a glaze pen on the 50 embellishment to give it some shine.

My butterflies are made using 2 different sized MS punches and then I added distress stains and DI before covering them with distress stickles. Some pink hessian, ribbon, pearls and tiny tag handwritten with happy Birthday add the finishing touches.
Supplies -
TH paper stash - vintage shabby
Stamps - The Stamp Man Framies, TH Papillon and City Central
Distress stickles - rock candy
DIs - aged mahogany, victorian velvet, vintage photo, pumice stone
Nestabilities - labels 4
Sakura glaze pen - clear

Do go take a look at the fabulous designs made by the DT, you will see how this great challenge can be interpreted in so many ways and is completely versatile for anyone to enter.

Other challenges to have fun with -
Crafty Purple Frog - Mono moments
Paperplay - Sparkle galore
Creative Craft - Distress/vintage
Sweet Stamps - Birthday card
Crafty Cardmakers - Embossing
Paper Sundaes - Birthday

Have a great Friday and thank you for stopping by to take a look.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

LIIU challenge 12 - Easter

Good day everyone

Here is my project for LIIU where the theme is Easter.

I had fun making this little open box (which I found on Splitcoast Stampers) and I made a card to go with it. Notice the circular sentiment? I am now beginning to make my own in Photoshop Elements and will be happy to email this to you if you drop me a link via my email (see side bar).

Supplies used -
200 gm white card
Costco card
DIs scattered straw, frayed burlap, pumice stone, fired brick
Black Stazon
Stamps - B Line Designs - French Correspondence, TH - Artful Flight, Butterfly originally in a set from QVC.
Crafters Workshop template - Mini Birds
Nestabilities die cuts and frame
Beads, ribbon and thread
Glitter and clear embossing powder

The sponsor this fortnight is Scrappit at   http://www.scrappit.com.au/homepage/w1/i2/

Contact - Paula Williams – sales@scrappit.com.au

The fabulous prize is a $ 20 voucher to the store.

Scrappit provide all scrapbooking and card making supplies from all the top brands at the best prices. They have a friendly customer service and if you can't find a product you need they will do a special order and get it in for you.


 Do pop over to the rest of the DT to see their fabulous creations, so much to inspire you. Don't forget we now feature a stamper every fortnight and this could be you. This is a brand new addition to the challenge blog - see HERE if you missed the announcement.

Have a great week ahead.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

MAWTT challenge 63 Starting/back to school

Good Thursday morning to you, I hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Today, being Thursday, is the new challenge for MAWTT, we had some amazing entries for my stitching challenge and it was very difficult to choose a winner, but Tracy was the overall winner and her entry was fabulous.

My good friend Lisa is hosting the challenge this week and she has given us a great sketch to use and the theme of starting or back to school. This week we are sponsored by Sharon Duncan.

"Sharon Duncan has been designing Craft CDs since 2002. The Store was started in 2006 and has grown rapidly since then. She has over 80 CDs now available. Sharon is frequently seen on Create and Craft and Ideal World.  The store now has loads instore from inkpads, CDs to The Latest Gorjuss Girls Decoupage. There is also a great range of Prima Flowers, Toppers even Craft essentials like glue and double sided sticky tapes. Pop over to see what is available. Post and Packaging is free in the U.K."

Sharon is offering £20.00 to spend in her store to the lucky winner. So it's well worth a look to see what you can do to enter this great challenge.
Well I'm sure it won't have slipped your mind that Ella started school this week and I have already given her a card and a notebook, but today, although I have used the same image (because these all link together as a set of 3 things), I have made a memories book for Bev, my daughter-in-law and Ella's Mum. I turned Lisa's sketch on the side to make the front cover and used the same techniques with the DIs as I did on Ella's book. I made the frame using Nestabilities and added the glitter, I have also used stickles in places. I have a great tip for when you are adding glitter to something like this frame, run it through your Big Shot or Cuttlebug when the glitter is on and this helps it stick firmly to the glue so that it doesn't come off. It works a treat.

Inside there are some blank full and half pages for Bev to write on and stick things in and I have left her to embellish it as she loves to craft and make things, I have also added some sticky pages for her to add some photos. I went into Farnborough and found a photo album in the Pound Shop with the tacky boards that have film over them. So for only £1, I have put in 6 photo pages which gives space for 12 photographs. I was pleased with that idea and I still have some left for another project.

I hope you will come and join us in the challenge this week.

I am, posting the finished book I have made for Maddie tomorrow as it will be her 30th birthday. (I am really into using my Bind It All at the moment).

I am also doing a card making session for some people who live in the sheltered accommodation where my Mum lives, so that will be interesting. I must try and remember to take my camera with me and put it on my prep list.

Have a great end to the week. See you again tomorrow.

Luv B xxx

Challenges to have fun with -
The Creative Card Crew - Back to school
Tuesday Taggers - Books
The Pink Elephant - Back to school
Oh Alice - Shine and sparkle
Crazy 4 Challenges - Books
Fussy and Fancy - Back to school

25th Anniversary - MAWTT challenge 60

Hi everyone - wow do these Thursdays come around quickly.

But of course Thursday is a new challenge day over at MAWTT and this week the lovely Hazel has set the  theme - All That Glitters. No sketch to follow this week but with such a fab focus for creating glittery and shiny cards - who needs one?

The sponsor this week is my friend Stitchy from Stitchy Bear Stamps and I have used a digi that I won on a One Stitch at a Time challenge blog, before I became a DT member for them. It is called Miss Wings and I just love this cute bear with it's little wings, even my husband commented on what a great image it is (and he's never done that before!!!!), so it was great fun to colour her up and use it on this card. Do go take a peep at what she has in her store.

I made the card for some friends who have recently celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary and sadly we couldn't go to their celebration as we were on holiday, but we hope Donna and Jimmy had a wonderful party and wish them every happiness in their next 25 and more years together.

As you can see I have gone quite shiny and glittery with this card but I am so pleased with the effects. I started by choosing my DPs which set the colours for me and in many ways it is quite monotone. I have used a MS punch, Nestabilities labels 2, embellishments from my stash. The ticket is one from Lindsay's stamp stuff and I actually changed the words using Photoshop Elements so that it fitted for my card. I decorated the inside but kept it very simple to contrast with the outside. All the DPs and the ticket are edged with stickles and the wings, feet and ears on the image have been glittered. I also used stickles on the bubbles of the champagne.

Hope you like this one.

Luv B xxxx

New home card

Hi Everyone

Sunday after a great BBQ with family and friends last night. We sat outside and lit all the candles we could find, it was a lovely evening. So relaxing, just wonderful.

 I found a free pic on the internet, printed it off, cut it out, then stamped the cage over it which is from the TH Artful Flight set. The background was rubbed with distress inks very lightly then spritzed with water, dabbed off with paper and heat dried. This has given it a light but vintage effect. I used Spellbinders and TH dies to cut the shapes to mount the parrot and cage on and the backing papers again are downloads. I used Photoshop Elements to crop the little butterfly and darken it and printed it out separately. having covered it in glossy accents I added it to give more dimension. The sentiment is from Raindrop Echo Designs, Anne often offers freebies either on her challenge blog, Sentimental Sundays, or on her own blog, they are easy to use in Photoshop. The ribbon was pleated and sewn to cover the join in the two papers.

I have this cute little bird feeder so I took a photo of the card behind it.

Neat eh?

Other materials used

Distress inks - black soot, shabby shutters and aged mahogany

Stickles - cotton candy and star dust

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday evening and hopefully shower free, though the rain and clouds are starting to roll in here. I can just hear some thunder in the distance, but otherwise we have been lucky and had quite a nice day. I managed to get lots more gardening done.

Take care. Luv Brenda xxx

Challenge List

Creative Card Crew #51 - Pink and green

Gingersnap Creations #57 - Wings

Craftalicious - New
Crazy 4 challenges #40 - Pleats

Summer theme - shells

Is it really Friday of half term? Oh my goodness, another week gone. We had a great couple of days with Ben, Bev and the girls last weekend down at Seaton, the weather was lovely and we were able to get on the beach. Fantastic. So when I saw that summer and beach themes were coming through in the challenges I decided to focus on a lovely little vintage picture that I had downloaded from the internet and a sketch that had caught my attention at Sketchy Colours. I get alot of my free vintage pics from The Graphics Fairy.

This is the result. I used a DP with shells over it to give me the colour theme, the picture and the postcard were both printed from my file of free vintage downloads. I made the frame and first of all lightly covered it with blue and green glitter, but it didn't give me the effect I wanted so I painted it with old paper distress crackle paint and rubbed distress inks into it when it had dried. I have some clear square dome stickers, so I put one over the stamp on the postcard to give it some dimension and got out some shells from a box of them that I keep. (You just never know what you are going to need do you???) I love the starfish which I had bought in Swanage the year before last.

Other supplies used

Stickles - lime green and star dust.

TH distress inks - frayed burlap, peeled paint and blue china.

Sakura glitter and glaze pens.

I love the colours and the beachy feel to it.

I hope you are enjoying this lovely hot weather we are having at the moment, must remember to water the plants though.

Take care, enjoy whatever you are doing.

Love and hugs.  Brenda xxxx

Challenge List

Sketchy Colours #26 - Sketch

Cupcake Crafts #92 - Summer Delights

Everybody Art Challenge #93 - Summer

Tuesday Taggers - Touchy, feely, texture   and a great prize this week from Tanda Stamps, check them out to see what goodies they have.

Papertake Weekly - Fun, fun, fun

Stampavie and more #97 - Summer

Crafts and Me #5 - Distressed

Creative Inspirations #63 - Beach theme

The Treehouse #52 - Beach/vacation theme
Raise the Bar #21 - Celebrate Summer

Tag Book Tutorial

This Tag Book holds 8 wallets

Materials - all sizes are in inches 

2 pieces greyboard (like chipboard) 5 3/4 x 4 3/4 for the covers

1 piece greyboard 4 3/4 x 3/4 for the spine

2 papers 7 x 6 for front and back covers

2 papers 5 1/2 x 4 1/2 for inside front and back covers

1 paper 7 1/2 x 3 for spine cover

8 papers 9 3/4 x 6 for wallets (2 can be made from a 12 x 12 paper)

1 piece of thin card 4 1/2 x 11 for concertina spine to hold wallets in place

8 pieces of card 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 for the tags

I use bookbinding glue, dry-clear adhesive, extra strong double sided tape, fingerlift tape and wide clear duck tape.

1. Cover both boards with your paper. I cut the corner down to give a neater finish.

2. Place the boards and the spine together over the clear duck tape leaving about 1/8th of an inch gap between them. Fold the end of the duck tape up over the inside to secure them all together. This gives the spine it's strength.

3. Next score the card for the concertina spine as shown. Each of the valley folds is 1/2 an inch and the edges are 1 inch. Fold the card. I cut some of the greyboard and stuck inbetween each of the folds that will be on the bottom of the concertina spine.

4. It then looks like this.

5. Next stick the paper spine over the clear duck tape.


6. Using extra strong double sided tape, adhere the spine into place keeping the edge of the concertina lined up with the spaces between the greyboard spine and the covers. When you close the book they will all line up and fit neatly together.

7. At this point I added some seam binding to the back of the book using brads. This will keep it closed when finished, particularly when you have filled it with tags and embellishments.

8. Now make up the wallets. I scored each one using the dimensions in the photo and cut out the section along the bottom. I pre-folded them to make sure they fitted together properly and then put fingerlift tape on the patterned side of the two flaps. I folded the side edge over first and stuck that down, then I folded in the bottom flap to make it into a pouch/wallet.

9. Glue the front and back inside covers in.


10. Using fingerlift tape stick each wallet into the concertina only adhering the front edge (leave the back edge open and not stuck down as this gives you more flexibility for opening and closing the pages).

11. Your finished Tag Book should now look something like this.

12.                                                                   When you start to complete the inside of your book it will look more like this. Have fun with your own design and if you do not understand how any of this fits together, please email me and I will be happy to help out. My email address is on the main blog.