Jo Blogs

Gingersnap meets Stampotique!

2012-01-06T11:56:00.001Z

Aww two of my favourite places.

This month Stampotique are sponsoring Gingersnap Creations in the four challenges for January.

The first theme (the GC133 Chestnut Challenge) set by Gingersnap is using a set or range of stamps, so I thought I'd use Medium/small Bee, Swirl Stalks and Wish Word to make this card all taken from my range at Stampotique.

If you join in with the challenge at Gingersnap Creations you are in with a chance of winning 30 DOLLARS WORTH OF STAMPOTIQUE STAMPS OF YOUR CHOICE!!!

There are samples shown from the Stampotique DT to be seen for the challenge on the Stampotique blog and also over at the Gingersnap Creations site too.

Hope to see you over there :0)

What's Your Wish?

2011-12-28T11:36:00.003Z

Stampotique this week are asking what is your 'Wish for the New Year'? They say...

This time of the year we tend to look forward, what are our dreams, wishes, hopes and things we want to achieve for the new year. What do we wish and hope for our dear ones. I challenge you to show us your dreams, wishes and hopes in a stamped project.

I'm not asking for a lot, the pessimist that I am....just as long as everyone's ok.

The stamps I used are all Stampotique, which some of you may be a little suprised by as Stampotique are perhaps best known for their more gothic/quirky characters rather than photo images and quotes. Stampotique stock a huge range of stamps by artists that are all so very different from each other. Here I used a couple of images from Carol's Collection; I Feel Happy Inside and two of the three Keepsake Kids sitting on the Great Moon (from my collection).

I wish you all a happy 2012. If you get a moment before having to start back at work or the school run and housework, please get out your Stampotique stamps and play along with the Stampotique Challenge, we'd love to see what you come up with.

Don't forget, if you are short on sayings and words and don't own Stampotique words then just print or hand write your own sayings and sentences, cut up magazines or books, or leave wordless.

SDC44 Shimmer, Glitter, Glimmer and Glitz.

2011-12-21T09:04:00.002Z

It's been a while since I managed a post, sorry about that, life and Christmas etc, one thing and another. Still, I'm now pretty much set for the weekend and now must get cracking with putting my images on here over the next few days (I misplaced my camera too amongst all the wrapping up frenzy but have now found it again under all the ribbon and packing!)

Today is the beginning of the second week of the Stampotique challenge SDC44 Shimmer, Glimmer, Glitter and Glitz. The link option on here to place within my post seems to have disappeared (anyone else having that problem?) but you can find the link on my sidebar on the left.

As it was a blingy challenge, something I'm not really reknown for, I went flat out and went TOTAL BLING by swiping the tag with an embossing pad and covering the background with sparkle glitter embossing powder as well as additional sequins and glitter.

Here's a close up to show that using all things 'sparkle' doen't mean it has to be twee.

Kind of grunge-sparkle.

Please join in if you need a crafting stampy fix over the Christmas holiday. You could win yourself a $30 gift certificate that is drawn at random for one lucky participant!!

The stamps I used are all by Stampotique Originals. Daniel's Hearts, 3017 Crown, Enjoy Life and Jill Penney.

All Wrapped Up

2011-11-30T20:45:00.005Z

(You might light to grab a cuppa, this is quite a long post with lots of pics and a You Tube link :0) )

I was delighted to be contacted by Jean over at Crafty Individuals recently to ask whether I'd like to come up with an idea for the Crafty Individuals Challenge theme for December.

December, I always find, turns up, all is still pretty calm, loads of time for planning and organising with dreams of making cards and all sorts. Before you know it Santa's been , the lounge is strewn with wrapping paper and the turkey is in the oven!

So I thought that a good theme might be All Wrapped Up, so at least we'd have at least one Christmassy crafy item sorted.

This can be anything connected with giving over Christmas, either tags, your own stamped wrapping paper, decorated boxes, bags, little gifts wrapped with ribbon...anything along those lines.

On Tuesday I held one of my workshops and we all made little squash books with this as the example. We used the new 7 Dots papers which I'm loving and loaaaaaaaaads of Crafty Individuals stamps. (I'll link you to any that appear on blogs...Siobhan, that's your nudge)..(edit... link is at the end)

Above shows the front....

and here's the back...

Untied, the book springs open to reveal lots of stamped images.

Claire, one of my lovely workshop ladies, came up with the fab idea of hanging these tiny books from the Christmas tree and having them as little tree presents which would make brilliant keepsakes for family members if you included a few photos inside.
(yep...I have the tree decorated already!!...Even the ringtone on the phone is festive haha! Christmas came and went last year because of Mum's funeral last December, so this year I'm all set. Mum used to be in her element at this time of year and she'd have been disappointed if I'd decided to not bother.)

Looks right at home there on the branches don't you think? Great idea Claire!

If you would like to make something along these lines please take a look at this link to a very clear explanation by Lytlescrapper on You Tube on how to fold the paper. The size of my book is based on three 4" squares (10cm) but you can adjust accordingly to whatever size takes your fancy. Once you have the general idea you just tweak it to your needs.

All stamps used to make my squash book are by Crafty Individuals.
Please take a look at the challenge- you have all month to join in and doing so will be in with an opportunity of winning goodies from Crafty Individuals.

I am really looking forward to seeing what you come up with and choosing five favourites to be shown on the Crafty Individuals challenge blog.

edit....Siobhan's squash book from my workshop can be seen here. Please check it out, its gorgeous.

Didn't quite get it right...

2011-11-30T09:52:00.002Z

The latest theme over on the Stampotique Designer's Challenge is a Christmassy one, only non-traditional.

Now, I seemed to have got the wrong end of the stick with this challenge at first and read our DT info as being 'non traditional Christmas colours', where in fact it appears its a non traditional Christmas card but no red and green.

Soooooooo...lol..discovering this, the card I'd originally made had to be ditched and a last minute one pulled together.

This was my original...pink orange and green (scrapped because green isnt allowed) using a combination of Mwah!, Mistletoe and Merry Kissmas from my range at Stampotique along with this super cute Whisker Monster with a sign character from the latest releases by Kira Nichols also available at Stampotique..

and this is the last minute substitute, again stamps all by Stampotique ( this time both by Amy Wilson Wellenstein)...All Bundled Up and Christmas Mosaic

Hope you get an opportunity to take part and be in with a chance to win $30 of Stampoitique rubber by being drawn out at random.

For all the details for this challenge and what stamps can be used this week please check it out here.

If you are wanting to purchase stamps here in the UK as opposed to the USA for that rush on Christmas bits and bobs, a large selection of Stampotique images can be found at Happy Daze.

New Stampotique Artist!!

2011-11-15T05:01:00.001Z

Exciting news- there's a new artist joining the team at Stampotique Originals!

Today is the release date for the new stamp images by KIRA NICHOLS!!

I've had little time to create lately, but what time I managed to grab to use these new rubber stamps was time happily spent! They are a lot of fun. The card below shows two images - the cat in bed (SICK CAT #4006) and the pug dog that has suprisingly become my favourite of the new releases(FLOATING DOG #4002) , which initially I wasn't sure about, I'm not a dog person, but he's just sooooooo useful and so cute !!

And here is FLOATING DOG again, only this time with a spotty bow and sitting alongside Stampotiques Beauty Verse #3056. A perfect match I thought!

Here is what Stampotique have to say...

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.

From here you will want to visit fellow Stampotique Design Team member and organiser extraordinaire KIM HOWARD to follow the Stampotique Originals blog hop!

I hope you enjoy seeing all the fab work along the way.

Time for a quick sketch

2011-11-13T18:47:00.004Z

...Well it could nab you a $30 gift certificate if you take part and are the lucky drawn winner!!

Sketches are really not my first choice when it comes to making a card, but I have to admit, they don't stress me out anywhere near as much as they used to lol. Infact this was quite therapeutic after the mayhem of the last few weeks. If you are having a bit of a Mojoless moment I'd certainly recommend it even more so.

I used Big Bee and Quiet Place.
(both by Stampotique Originals) to create this simple unusual fold /tuck under card.

For all the details of this challenge please check out the Stampotique Designer's Challenge and scroll to SDC#42. It's an ANY stamps week so the world is your oyster!!

Mojo Monthly

2011-11-02T07:28:00.006Z

If your Mo is a bit Jo-less please take a look at Sarah Engel-Greer's blog, La-De-Dah, home of MOJO Monthly. Guess who is over there....go on... have a guess....

heehee

And there's also a prize to be won and lots of time to take part!!! Check it out!!

HERE'S THE LINK

Craft Stamper December Issue 2011

2011-10-28T16:50:00.001+01:00

How time flies!

It's time for the December issue of Craft Stamper already.

I am very pleased to say I have a super-cheap-make article in this issue using newsprint and the most recent additions to my range of stamps over at Stampotique. Of course, you could use any stamps at all that you own, but I thought it would be perfect to use the new ones as the gentle nature of them appealed to me with the colours I chose at the time (along with one or two old faves such as Bee that you've no doubt spotted).

I'm not allowed to reveal full images of the cards I made to place inside the wrap, but can show the whole item as its on the top left hand side of the cover!! :0))))

For the stamps and the magazine please pop over to Merly Impressions or Happy Daze.

I hope you enjoy the magazine if you manage to grab a copy. Lots of great ideas in there. To mention a few of my favourites from the quick glance I have managed to have so far...
Joanne Wardles Crafty Individuals houses (the kite card is inspirational!!)
Trish's snowflakes...very atmospheric. As always, Helen's stunning use of colour. Jeans vintage image pendants (looking even more fab with the soft pink rose setting) There are also some amazing reader's contributions this month...I spotted Sam Read's Moon Girl piece (awwwwwwww...and more so when I read the words alongside it), Jannet Blays cake (how long did that take??!!) and Anne Mullan's stunning Dream piece.

And thats just skimming the surface!! Best you order a copy, eh?

What's Your Poison?

2011-10-26T07:14:00.001+01:00

The theme set this week by DT Maria on Stampotique Designer's Challenge wasn't one that I found easy.

Poison Bottle.

Hmmm...by the time I'd finished this, I was wishing it was full so I could take a swig rofl...I really struggled.

I had grand ideas of melting wax, stamping on glass...all sorts of things. But when it came down to it none would work for me, it just wasn't my thing, so I ended up making a bottle collar for a beautiful bottle I bought a few years ago.
Bottle collars are quite a nice idea I think if you are giving a bottle as a present, whether it be wine, spirits or bath bubbles, (not poison obviously) lol.

I used Splatter Blob, P from Amy's 'Altered Alpha' alphabet and Crown, all from Stampotique.

The challenge instructions can be found on the Stampotique Designer's Challenge site along with some fab inspiration from the Stampotique team. It might be just your sort of challenge, have a go and be in with a chance of winning $30 gift certificate.

It's Tag Time

2011-10-21T18:57:00.003+01:00

You still have lots of time to join in with us over on the Stampotique Designer's Challenge with the theme of TAGS.

I made this one above using a piece of plasma plastic as the tag base giving it an opaque look, finishing it off with a piece of rusty wire. I discovered the bling circle in my stash box (sorry, have no idea who produces or sells that).

Heres a quick idea below using candle wax as a resist for the ink.

All stamps used are by Stampotique Originals.

For all the details of the challenge and yet another chance to win a $30 gift cert please visit the challenge site linked above.

Have a great weekend :0) x

Number 13...Unlucky for some...

2011-10-15T09:05:00.001+01:00

This year I began holding workshop mornings locally here in Sussex and on doing so have met such a wonderful group of stampers.
One of the ladies that attends, Charry Wijers-Buschkens, (very talented...and originally from The Netherlands where I'm sure they are all born holding a rubber stamp!) said to me a little while ago would I mind if one of the pieces she made at the workshop appeared in ART SPECIALLY magazine (well its more like a book really compared to your average magazine, feels beautiful to hold and read...well...I say read,lol, its in Dutch, but who needs words when there is such gorgeous artwork!!!!).

Would I mind??!! Of course not, I'd be elated! I only ran the workshop - Charry made the beautiful box.

And so yesterday (cut a long story short, can you tell I'm excited), this arrived...

Issue 13 of 'ART SPECIALLY ' magazine.

There it is!! On the cover!!! Charry's beautiful box she made at the Textures class using Art Journey and Stampotique stamps. Stamps used are Art Journey Girl and Tree and Seed Heads
. The Stampotique images are from my range there (Jo Capper-Sandon)and are Daisy Daisy, Small Butterfly (used on metal as 3D butterflies aswell as on the wooden surface), the lower part of the quote World All Her Own and French Text,
Charry doesn't have a blog (so I wanted to shout out for her on here), but I'm sure you'd agree with me in thinking I wish she would!!

Here she is busily working at one of the classes I took. Keep an eye out for her too at any shows you may be attending this month. Yesterday Charry was demoing in Belfast, and later this month is(I think) in Newcastle, Glasgow and Birmingham!!

There are lots of names I recognise from visiting blogs published in this issue. Great seeing all the work in there. The magazine is available from Art Journey as well as many other stores.

Paperbag Studios, Tim, a sandwich bag and a bit of tissue paper

2011-10-13T10:23:00.002+01:00

An unusual combination, but all of the above is what you will need if you fancy making something along the lines of what appears on the cover of the November issue of Craft Stamper.

To say I was really pleased was an understatement!! I was so suprised to see my card on the front of the mag, plus it means I can use the 'loop hole rule' of actually getting to show a published piece on my blog by showing the magazine cover!!

To see all four cards please grab an issue from Craft Stamper, Happy Daze, The Craft Barn or Crafty Individuals. For a copy in The Netherlands, Art Journey stocks the magazine.

Stamps used for the article are available from Paperbag Studios, Craft Barn and Happy Daze.

I hope you liked it if you have already got your copy.

Happy days are here again hahaha

2011-10-06T09:50:00.002+01:00

Morning :0)

Need to play a bit of catching up as my 'window of opportunity' to post had become so tiny it just didnt happen last week. Don't you find that happens sometimes? No problem making the stuff, just no time sorting those photos etc. Plus my head's been hurting for three days or so and its just starting easing up a little so I thought its now or never with this post.

Here are a couple of cards to fit the current 'Humourous Birthday' theme over at the Stampotique Designer's Challenge. I found it extremely tricky if I'm honest, and as you can probably tell by looking lol Perhaps a particular frame of mind is needed at the time and it wasn't the one I was in :0)

The first one shown in the images above and below is a tribute to all those cards and pieces of artwork I've seen over the years where the word chosen REALLY DOESN'T GO with the image roflrofl - they always make me smile even if thats not the intention heehee (surely you must have see one or two )... this is a kind of sarcastic birthday card to any grumpy so and so lol (pictured blowing a party blower which goes 'toot') :0)

and this one ... a kind of a 'Aww thanks...eh???!!' card lol

My head is getting a bit hurty again so the usual numerous links are going to go awol I'm afraid for this post. All stamps are by Stampotique and all details for the challenge can be found on the Stampotique Designers Challenge.

Cereal and spookiness!!

2011-09-23T09:50:00.003+01:00

Well the weekend is almost upon us- time flies.

My friend Galina suprised me this morning by telling me she had nominated my blog in the Dorset Little Blog Awards. I'm always entering their competitions on the side of cereal boxes but never win, but this time I have the support from Galina, the competition queen so who knows lol

If you have a moment and you like my blog, please click this link and click on the vote button for me.

Now.... the inky painty bit.

I made this spooky card using one of the new images from Janet Klein of Stampotique. An image so simple but pure genius I thought when I first saw it. Really made me smile. He is called Cooper. Useful Daisy Daisy also appears again as a dainty little ground filler along with Swirl Stalks in the background. I used a spray web for the black netty effect and number stickers (also available from Stampotique) for something a bit different for me.

If you saw my previous card (in the post below this one) you'll perhaps notice the common factor in that its the other half of the swooshy embossing powder effect I made :0) Two for the price of one as it were :0)

Hope you like it.
Have a good weekend.... x

Black and White with a Hint of Colour

2011-09-21T10:14:00.002+01:00

Stampotique Originals latest challenge theme over on the Stampotique Challenge Blog is Black and White with a Hint of Colour (or Color, depending on where you live :0) )

I used a couple of the recently released stamps, Dragonfly and Dragonfly Verse along with a really useful favourite of mine Daisy, Daisy.

To create my 'hint of colour' I swiped an ink pad over white card and swooshed over a couple of shades of embossing powder to give a soft shimmery textured effect.

Please check out the challenge if you haven't done so already. A really simple one this time with another opportunity to be in with a chance of being drawn as a winner of a $30 gift certificate kindly offered by Carol at Stampotique Originals. This is an 'any stamps week' where all stamps are welcome, but if you do own any Stampotique images it would be great to see what you can come up with using those too.

If you are in the UK there are are number of stores that sell Stampotiques, the largest selection found at Happy Daze.

Rain, Rain...

2011-09-17T21:53:00.002+01:00

Here we are again, darker nights, winter 'drawers' on as they say lol

Here's a card for the not so good days, so if anyone's having a bit of a rubbish time of it all lately, this one's for you ....
What is it they say? If there wasn't any rain there'd be no rainbows? Between you and I, just lately I seem to be permanently in wellies and a rain mac lol .

The background was my fave- ink, splash, blot technique. Meant to represent rain....or tears...which ever you see fit.

Stamps are all by Stampotique. I used
Moon Girl,
Daisy,Daisy,
Tree,
French Text,
Swirl Stalks
and Rain,Rain.
I drew the swing and the brolly.

I also set this card to appear on the Stampotique Designer's Blog sometime in the next few hours, which, if you don't check out often or you were unaware of it, it's certainly worth a visit. The girls on the Stampotique DT have some fantastic ideas.

You'll find a huge selection of Stampotique stamps available at Happy Daze here in the Uk .

Hoping you all have a good weekend. xx

Just Dreaming and Hanging About

2011-09-04T20:31:00.003+01:00

Crafty Individuals have their new challenge theme for September up and running!

This is what it says...

'...the theme for the month has been chosen by Lucy Edmondson, and is 'Hanging About'. To give you some idea of how to tackle this I will put the idea in Lucy's own words - ‘this would give people scope to do a wall hanging, canvas, frame, lantern, bird cage, bird house, jewellery, dangly things on cards, pennants – all sorts. Or they could interpret it as friends hanging about together.’

So I made this hanging using a selection of Crafty Individual stamps. The main image is one of the fabulous new designs, which, wait for it wait for it....currently, aswell as being able to buy it in the 'normal' way as usual from Crafty Individuals for £6.44, if you spend over £28(excluding postage) you get this new Crow collage stamp FREE!!!!

Yes!! FREE!!

And talking of bargains, the little skeleton hand charm dangling from the hanging is a snip at 20p from HAPPY DAZE

Hope you like this.... coloured with Distress and Jenni Bowlin ink pads...and pencil crayons. Splashes of water here and there. Black StazOn for the black stamping. Lots of matt and layering. I have run out of eyelets, so I would have liked those on here to finish the piece off nicely but nevermind ay.

A great challenge theme...I hope you can find a moment this month to join in. Worthwhile...theres a prize! Check out the Crafty Individuals blog challenge post for details.

Craft Stamper Cover Stamp

2011-09-02T07:07:00.001+01:00

Yeah! I know!!! (nodding wildly...me again!!!)

lol

It's a bit of a Stampotique week for me.

Today is Craft Stamper daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!! And I was so pleased to be asked to design a cover stamp for them on behalf of Stampotique for this month!!

Joanne Wardle and I created some sample ideas with it and these can be seen on page 6 and 7 of Ocober's Craft Stamper..

Above is a sneak of one of the pieces I put together.... I REALLY enjoyed making that.

Below is one one of the samples I submitted that there wasn't room for on the double spread. I designed the Star to work alongside other stamps in my collection at Stampotique such as Great Moon and Big Owl (with separate wings that you can place anywhere) and so thought it might be handy to show you. I try and get new images to work along side existing ones and this one does that plus also has the treat of being TRANSPARENT!!

As you can see I stamped the star onto text from a magazine advert to give it a very different look.

I love working with Joanne (albeit 300 miles apart- lol) because we've known each others work style for 6 or 7 years now and can almost predict how each of us will tackle a stamp, so rarely have to worry if the other has created the same when working on articles or Design Teams (apart from once or twice when we've almost identical designs lol).

Below is a sneak peek of one of the makes in the magazine. It appears the contents of this sneak peek 'item'(so as not to spoil any suprises) were shaken about quite wildly by the postman in making its way across the country, so its a bit tricky to see what's going on in the photo in the mag, so heres a close up of a section before it left on it's travels. If you get the magazine, you'll understand what I mean lol

I hope you find it a useful stamp to add to your collection. Great for Hallowe'en, Christmas, kids cards, used on its own or en masse- all sorts of things. In the magazine you can see lots of ideas to get the old mojo running!Its a smaller version of the star that has been realeased by Stampotique this week. If you are in the States I'm not sure you get the free stamps attached do you? If not, please check out the Stampotique site for the larger version.

Top Tip- the star has a top and a base... when my stamp arrived it was stuck on sideways and looked a bit 'different'. The way I designed it is more or less the way its printed on the cover. It's intended to be a tall star not a wide squat one. But you can please yourself of course...you might prefer a wide star. :0)

If you happen to be near a magazine shop that sells Craft Stamper, this is the one to look out for! Otherwise grab yourself a copy online directly from Craft Stamper or one of the many stamp stores that sell it such as Happy Daze and Crafty Individuals here in the UK and Art Journey in The Netherlands.

Amongst the flowers

2011-09-01T07:25:00.001+01:00

Me again!!

Nothing for a month then two posts in two days!

Thank you so much for the feedback on the stamps and work yesterday. Its great hearing all your thoughts. Much appreciated! If yoou haven't seen the new images yet, please check out the link in the post following this one.

Here is a quickmake using a few 'oldies' (World all her own, Jasmin and Crown) plus the brand new GIANT DAISY.

Gingersnap Creations have a Random Redhead theme of 'Tribute to Teens' which I thought this fitted well. Reality is probably more along the lines of 'LEAVE ME ALONE YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND' *door slam* instead of the quote I've used here lol, but we can all dream :0)

Giant Daisy #3058 (just the flower head)is huuuuge, as you can see if you already have Jasmin you can see the scale. The wood mount is 5" wide!)This stamp was based on a daisy from my garden. There was a tiny group of five hidden near the hedge.... and I couldn't ignore them so added this one to the collection :0)

This Giant Daisy actually looks more like a Gerber here don't you think? It all depends on what colours you choose. To create the long stem and leaves I used chalks for a quick sweeping effect. The Giant Daisy was stamped twice, cutting up one to place over the front of Jasmin to give more of a 3D effect and so she sits more comfortably :0). Then finishing with white embossed words and a crown (left white to show up nicely on the black paper).

All from my collection of stamps at Stampotique Originals with whom you can place orders directly.

Also a huuuuge range of the Stampotique images can be found at Happy Daze here in the UK. Moira is taking pre orders now for when the NEW RANGE of stamps arrive from the States.

There are also a few other outlets here in the UK, but I'm not sure yet who is stocking what.

See you tomorrow if you are about amongst the blogs with more ideas, this time one of which is using a new stamp design from Maryse Carrier combined with older images of Daniel T's, Jill P's and mine.

Stampotique Autumn Range 2011

2011-08-31T05:01:00.011+01:00

(stamps used above are all Stampotique. The NEW Dragonfly and NEW Dragonfly Quote, alongside Giant Shroom (if you have Giant Shroom you can see what a good size the Dragonfly is), Daisy,Daisy, Swirl Stalks, Splatter Long and Splatter Blob...all from the Jo Capper-Sandon range and Daniel's Hearts.)

Well hello!!

Long time no see!!!

Sorry for the absence, real life is dominating in a big way at the moment, so much so I've not had a chance, or the oooompf if I'm honest.

...And if you haven't missed my posts or its your first time here, ignore that first bit!!!
On now to the world of crafty stampiness we can all lose ourselves in when real life presents challenges, which I have really missed....

Back in June when life was quiet, I put together a few stamp designs for Carol and Jim at Stampotique Originals to compliment the other stamps in my range. These stamps are available to order from today along with a whole lot more from Daniel Torrente, Janet Klein and Maryse Carrier.

I have a few bits and pieces to show you that I've put together in the last few days....so if you have a moment, grab a cuppa, ....and a biscuit :0) there's lots to see if you haven't arrived via the blog hop which I'll tell you about in a sec... here we go...

First of all there is the journal page shown above. The page is 8" x 10" just so you can get a sense of scale.

In contrast to those photos, here are a couple of nice and simple quick cards both using stamps from the newly released images...

The first using the little bird. I've coloured him as being a rather scruffy sparrow, but he could also be a cute Robin at Christmas, just adjust your colours.

(Stamps above are NEW Fly and NEW Bird ( comes with tiny bird on the side, so its two stamps in one)

(Using the NEW Dragonfly saying and the NEW Dragonfly)

And finally, a little box made with new Stella, a stamp that is going to appear a lot on here over the next few months I imagine as I have so many plans for her.

(Stamps used for the two photos above are NEW Stella, NEW Everything Has Beauty (I just used the Beauty word ), French Text, Daisy,Daisy and Lavender Sprig.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm also the final port of call in the Stampotique Originals Blog Hop where if you follow the trail from here you can see a wide range of ideas from the fab crew that are the Stampotique DT using the new stamps.

If you arrived here from WILLY ANDERSON'S gorgeous blog then you are in the right finishing place.
If you just stumbled here by accident or clicked on my blog in shock that I'd actually posted something at last, then here is the link to the Stampotique Challege Blog, the starting point- so you can hop your way through and on your way visit Gez Butterworth, Jane Wetzel, Joanne Wardle, Karen (Kaz) Boughton, Kate Crane, Kim Howard, Maria Sabina Raita, Monique Verbeek, Nellie vanLeeuwen, Sue Roddis, Valerie Wilson,Vicki Garrett, Willy Anderson and finally me...Jo Capper-Sandon. PHEW!!!! Thats a lot of artwork!!!

Thanks very much for popping in! I hope you enjoy the new images. I have quite a few more samples to show with the new Stampotiques, but haven't had time to resize any more photos etc for this post. This is a teeny weenie introduction to the many ideas I have lined up with the new stamps, incorporating them with lots of other images from the Stampotique range. I'll set up a few blog posts to appear over the next few days if you fancy a nosey :0)

And if you would like to see ALL the new stamp images in this new release from all the designers then these can be found here.

Take care x Jo

Red and Orange and Ye-e-llowwwwwww

2011-07-27T07:59:00.002+01:00

I alway feel the urge to start singing 'I can see a rainbowwwwwww, see a rainbow too' when given a list of colours to work with for a challenge.

The title here are the colours you need to use for this weeks theme over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge. I made this card sometime ago now but don't think I ever blogged it. I used Karin from Daniels range at Stampotique, the wish word is a Tim ticket cut smaller and the wand is hand drawn. Diamond shapes are created using a mask.

Thanks for stopping by :0) x

Boing.....

2011-07-17T12:18:00.001+01:00

Sorry...have to write this at lightening speed.. tap, tap tap tap...

Challenge: LIM 'CIRCLES'

The stamps details: large painted circle by Stampland, the quote is by Invoke Arts. Sadly, the girls are no longer available as the company ceased trading. If anyone knows whether another company bought the images please let me know.

Seems the LIM challenge is the only one I'm able to fit in at the moment because they are quick makes. I do really enjoy making them though, it is a bit addictive isn't it once you start!

SCREEEEEEEEEECCCCCCHHHHHHHHHH!!!

2011-07-13T10:17:00.003+01:00

My entry for the Less Is More challenge this week has been playing on my mind as I felt there perhaps wasn't enough white space on the cowboy card as there might have been especially for a CAS one layer.

So yesterday, on receiving some stamps that I bought from the French company Katzelkraft a week or so ago in their sale I thought their cats would be purrrrfect (sorry, had to be said lol) for the legs theme on LIM. I did purchase three of their 'Katz' but am saving the third for another theme. Their sale is still on by the way with upto 30% off some stamps- to translate the site just click the currency converter at the top of their page- also no need to worry re customs charges as we have to with America as they are European).

I hope that this is more in keeping with the Less Is More criteria as I do like to abide by the 'rules and regs' of a challenge site.
As you can see both are very quick and simple. With the lounging around cat I stamped in black and then used a selection of pencils and inks to colour the night sky.
With the Screech card I stamped in black and then cut two lines from the top of the card to his claws and curled back the card exposing the inside. I would have liked to have placed a piece of coloured card or paper as an insert to show through to the front but wasn't sure if that would count as an extra layer (it would have been inside )

Hope you like them...a bit of fun anyway I thought.

edit to say the Katz can be found here.

Destination Unknown...LIM

2011-07-09T19:50:00.001+01:00

This weeks Less Is More is a one layer card with the theme of Legs. Now, dilema, I have LOOOOAADDS of stamps this could fit, so I went off for a think...

My first reaction was to sing the ZZ Top song in my head, then go out to a farm and buy 4 new chickens (they are gorgeous) and then watch a film called Holes on channel four or five this afternoon which was partly set in old time America, all dusty, horses and guns.

The latter explains why I picked these stamps from Third Coast Rubber to use.

As you can see, all I did here was swipe the Malted Milk Jenni Bowlin ink pad directly along the lower part of the card (wish I'd managed to leave a little more white as its LIM, I hope its still acceptable, if not I'm sure someone will let me know and I'll have a rethink and a redo), stamp the rider and horse, and then stamp the cowboy larger face image. I then discovered a really old sayings from one of my very first stamp bundles I ever bought (make unknown sorry) which says 'Destination unknown' and I felt this was a perfect final touch. I splashed a little water onto the background inks to create a little texture and then coloured the main images with Copic markers (the cheap Ciao ones not the expensive ones).

Because I didnt mask the horse image from the face image I shaded the two images perhaps a little more than usual using a fine black marker which I've shown in the first photo (fine scribble lines).

It's not often I make a male type card, but I enjoyed colouring this, it was very theraputic.

Final Wednesday Stamper

2011-07-05T16:10:00.004+01:00

Aww...sad to hear that Wednesday Stamper has finally called it a day and announced its final challenge. What a long time that ran for!!

It was the first ever challenge that I dared to enter and our little forum nudged Joanne Wardle to go first (she's brave like that), then we followed on in there afterwards lol. The reason being, the list of artists read like a whos who in the world of stamping from overseas...it was a bit daunting to say the least *gulp* and was a kind of 'OH NOOOOOOOO I POSTED MY ARTWORK, what have I done. OMG what have I done...I'VE CHANGED MY MIND!!!!! Will they throw me off? is it to a standard the accept?' etc etc

But a few years later, I've kind of got used to the stamping world and challenges and will miss the Queen of the stamping challenges, the Wednesday Stamper.
Thank you to the team who have provided us, the followers, with some incredible artwork and the opportunity to stretch our boundaries a little.

Here is my final piece for the challenge, the main image from Paperbag Studios. The dotty background is Altered Foliage from my range at Stampotique and then the swirly borderis an unknown, sorry, with a few extra dots doodled in and around for luck.

Thanks for looking :0) x Jo

Sea, Sand and a Friend

2011-07-02T07:25:00.001+01:00

Crafty Individuals have a new challenge theme today.

Here is my contribution towards it. I used a slidemailer case (no glass) and a whole collaboration of Crafty Individuals stamps.

If you haven't seen the challenges over there before, why not have a go this time? You have a month in which to come up with something and in doing so are in with a chance to be a lucky winner of goodies on offer from Jean and Malcolm.

All the details can be found here

Ctafty Individuals also have some new stamp images released this week. I LOVE the elephants !

Fanatical about....

2011-06-25T09:15:00.002+01:00

Today on 365 cards (where there is a new challenge every day), the theme is 'So 'Fan'-tastic.
This is what the girls over on 365 say....

You know how you have your favorite tools, techniques, and embellies? Well for this challenge you get to use them all on one card and show off those things you are fanatical about!

Here are the specifics:

Use one technique, one tool, and one embellishment that you are just crazy about on your card.

Of course you can use more than one of these things, but you must use at least one of each to count.

So I thought I would show a card I made for my Aunt whose birthday it is this weekend.

What do I always reach for when making a card?...

For those who know my 'style' I've used the same idea that I highlighted in Craft Stamper this month, one I've always enjoyed as its as much of a suprise to me as anyone else as to what the result is lol, which is using up the scrap protective sheet of paper that I had been resting on for the past few days and make a background base from it. I first spotted the beautiful sleeping pixie stamp over on Rica's blog a few weeks ago and was perfect for my Aunt's card.

My FAN-atical things here would be....

Creating my own background by blending inks
a stencil/mask and sequin waste
Copics for colouring skin tones
My Daisy Daisy stamp from Stampotique which I love to use upside down
and a final finishing extra touch...in this case its fine glitter.

Cuter than my average card as it was for a special family member's birthday (she really wouldn't have appreciated a card that is perhaps a little more 'experimental' I'm sure), I really enjoyed making it, especially when I realised the pixie would sit so well amongst the throwaway masked area as though it was a stenciled pillow. All I had to do was use a fine pen line to emphasise it. (another of my favourite crafty items, fine black pen).

Normal service will be resumed asap... I'm working like mad on my usual messy stuff I promise, but am not allowed to reveal yet. :0)

Grrrrrrrrrumpy!!

2011-06-11T11:17:00.007+01:00

I was making something else for the Frame theme over on LIM this week. Then Grumpy arrived from Arizona and I had to use him.

Isn't he cool lol

All stamps by Stampotique. I used Grumpy and Splatter Long. The frame was hand drawn (obviously lol)

Please take a look at the Less Is More Challenge. Lots of fabulous clean and simple one layer cards to be seen!

CAS Stampotique Challenge

2011-06-08T07:30:00.005+01:00

Before retiring from the Design Team at Stampotique (I'm still designing stamp images, just not posting on my blog each week as time isn't so readily available at the moment), ...anyway wher was I ...ah yes, before leaving I had completed a few of the challenges in advance, this being one of them, Joanne Wardle's CAS challenge at Stampotique.

Now- the 'it just shows how strange life can be' bit... it may look rather similar to Joanne Wardles if you've seen the challenge main post today, but it was one of those spooky moments where we uploaded to the file at Stampotique at the same time with almost an identical card!!! Even more spooky was that instead on the image stamp I finally decided on, I did actually ponder over using the the Joanne chose!!! ( twilight zone music...doo-de-doo-doo doo-de-doo-doo).
(Happened also again on Saturday only this time with a CAS for LIM with Nellie...its really freaky when it does....)

Here's mine for the Stampotique challenge...

Neither of us had seen each others work. And we also live 350 miles away from each other so neither of us sneaked round for a quick peek through the window lol. What I'm trying to say is SOMETIMES these things happen when designs are so simple. There are only so many postions stamps can sit on a CAS card and we just happened to choose the same combination. We were so taken aback when it happened, it was very funny.

(hey...come over here a min... *whispers*... between you and I my card was uploaded first by about 20 minutes rofl, so I leave you to make your own judgement

................HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!

Is that the sound of Joanne beating my door down ....*run away, run away*

HEEHEE hEEHEE... just joking joanne!!

(psssssssssst....might have even been 25 minutes but don't mention it if you visit her blog ...) hAHAHAHaaaaaaaaa!!

*chuckle*

No, seriously, it was a pure fluke....please take a look at Joannes card found here at the Stampotique blog until it's uploaded to Joannes blog once she gets her act together after her night shift at work. Its uncanny how similar they are. And don't forget, Stampotique offer up a $30 Gift Cetificate to one luck drawn participant - check it out and see what you have to do to take part!.

Long Summer Evenings...

2011-06-07T07:37:00.005+01:00

This week Crazy Amigo's theme is Summer.

Here is a card made for an online friends birthday (I won't link it to her as she may not have received it yet), which to me has a summer evening feel about it. You know, the hazy lazy , sitting around not wanting the day to end kind of summer evening. Just before you realise you are cold! :0)

I hope it's suitable for the challenge.

Stamps I used are by IndigoBlu and the saying is from my range at Stampotique. Inks are Jenni Bowlin by Ranger available from Happy Daze (links on the right).

Less is More- Mono

2011-06-04T10:02:00.003+01:00

Less Is More this week has the theme of Monochrome.

That can be black and white or shades of a colour.

So I did Blues...

And I did Greens...

I made these two cards using all Paper Artsy stamps.

Is this too busy for a Less is More? Its lots less than I'm used to doing anyway ...and only took a couple of minutes as you can tell (no great technical ability needed for these lol), so I hope its 'less' enough.

No rest ...

2011-06-03T07:32:00.003+01:00

Two posts in two days.... what is the world coming to :0)

Today sees the release of the latest Craft Stamper magazine (July issue) where I have an article on using up the scrap page that you work on top of whilst making a card. It's called Acidentally On Purpose and I hope you enjoy it. Here is a sneak image of it as Craft Stamper don't allow full images.

One of the cards is on the front cover though- left hand side second from the top. :0)

I used a selection of stamps from my range at Stampotique Originals (available, amongst others, in the UK from Merly Impressions) and Lost Coast ( available in the UK from Happy Daze who also stock Stampotiques). See the magazine for further details.

I have one or two things in the pipeline with Craft Stamper at the moment which I'm enjoying again. Having recently stepped down from the various stamping Design Teams I belonged to it has enabled me to concentrate on my own artwork and get to grips with that a little easier. There were times when I felt like I was swirling down a plug hole with the amount I thought I could manage. Well, I could have if the family hadn't required conversing with or requested to eat occassionally ;0)

There are also publishing opportunity details for everyone over on Craft Stamper's blog. Have you seen? Katy Fox, the editor, says...

Hello all,
Just putting out a call for our Sept themed gallery feature as I have two spots remaining!

If you'd like to see your work in Craft Stamper then here is your chance!

THEME: OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO (cityscapes - think Paris, London, NY, Venice etc).
COLOURS: Warm cream with black and white.

The call closes 13th June so get your skates on!

Please email submissions to cs@traplet.com (NB: actual artwork will be required if you are selected). You can send images of existing creations which have been blogged (we'll ask you to temporarily take them down for publication) but please not anything you have done for a DT position.

Look forward to seeing your creations!

Keep an eye open on the Craft Stamper blog for other themes in the future!

And finally, I have another workshop coming up soon too towards the end of the month. Really looking forward to that and meeting a few new faces aswell as my regular lay-deeeze :0) I need to post all about my last workshop too yet. That was great fun, I really enjoyed it.

In the words of Dory..."Just keep swimming, swimming , swimming"

Stampers' Sampler blast from the past

2011-06-02T14:42:00.001+01:00

What with Blogger playing me up and also being maaaaaaaad busy with 'secret stuff' for publishing and also new stamp designs etc, my blog has been a bit lonely.

awwwwwwwww

Anyway, today it's time for a post.

Talking of magazines, I had a big big suprise when I discovered that I had a couple of items using Third Coast stamps in the latest Stampers Sampler. These pieces were sent in 5 or 6 years ago!!! So never give up hope of seeing your items you send overseas published. The images I have of them are not good. It was back in the day when clarity of a photo didn't seem that important to me it seems!! haha! So thankyou to Stampington for getting the focus right on these two.

This card I remember being really pleased with myself for doing lol...I'd stamped on purple acetate for the first time and flipped it over to create a mirror image.

This is an altered tobacco tin. The edge was all thick gold utee I think (?) with a really small perfectly formed shell in the centre of the opening.

But even though time has passed on these two, I still like them and its not often I can say that about pieces of mine that are 5+ years old :0) (ideas and techniques move so quickly don't they).

Another post tomorrow. Playing catch up :0)

The ferry, Port Sunlight, the stamps, the friends and a card!

2011-05-18T19:41:00.002+01:00

Last Thursday we travelled up from the south coast to the Wirral, four and a half hours or so up north so I could demo Stampotique and Paperbag Studios stamps (links on the right)on the Happy Daze stand at the Happy Stampers show at Port Sunlight.

On the Friday morning (whilst all the merchandise was in transit from Yorkshire) my husband, little lad and I went on a FERRRRRRRR-RYYYYYYYY 'CROSS THE MERRRRR-SEEEEEEYYY.
Had to be done.
Can't travel for hours and not do the touristy stuff lol.

It was a tad nippy with a fair ol' fresh breeze (read "blinkin freezin" as I've become a softy southerner when it comes to weather having lived there for the last 25 years).

The afternoon was spent unpacking a huge amount of stock and then looking at the available space...and our stand looked like we'd been raided by the Tazmanian Devil at the end of the session and we left exhausted.

On the day of the show (the Saturday), Joanne Wardle, Karen Cass and Julie Dandy joined Moira, Claire and I for a 'frenzied finish presenting and reshuffling the stock' session at 8am and then we were ready!

Here's Joanne Wardle (standing) and lil ol' me before the mad rush began. Joanne and I have known each other online for about 8 years and this was the first time we had met in real life. This was a bit of a 'ohhhhhhhh nooooooooo' in a Zilly voice from Stop The Pigeon moment as it was taken minutes before the show started.

Here's Karen and Julie...

Joanne at the helm!

And off we go....

I managed to only take a few photos at the beginning as after then it was soooooooooooo busy!!!!!!! My husband took quite a few of these (thank yooou) when dropping in before the doors opened which was lucky. Wish I'd have managed to get photos of all the people that stopped by to say hello that I know online. Here I managed to capture Ann chatting to Happy Daze owner Moira(dressed in teal) in the distance, Claire at the till and that might be Mel on the left? Difficult to tell. Please let me know if you recognise yourself or anyone.
Hi to Chris, Sheila (She), Judith (PoppyCottage), Sid, Kath, Vix, Ann, Corina (travelled from The Netherlands!)Lorraine, and all those people I chatted with on the stands that I'd known for ages or just met and on my breaks. Thanks too for the wonderful artwork from Mary and Karen.

Here's Joanne in full swing. The crowd was so big I had weave my way back through and hold my camera forward in the air to take a photo.

It was an exhausting day. I've certainly never made that many cards and tags in one day in my stamping career. They were quickmakes, very quickmakes, but lots of fun. Everyone was so friendly it was great!

Thanks goes most of all from me to my husband Dave for driving for 10 hours in total so I could do the show and coping with the nightmare of the rear tyre blowing out on us on the central reservation on the motorway on the way home. eeeek!, and to my boys.

*If anyone ever fancies a card swap I have lots of more detailed work that I've made in the past and I'm happy to exchange. I would love to hear from you if you the idea. My work just sits in a box going no where mostly, and I would be great to receive a card or whatever you may fancy swapping in exchange.

Whilst I was at the show I managed to grab a bit of spending time and headed off to the Stamp Camp to track down a stamp I used to own (can't find it anywhere, you know how it goes) and it never reappeared after we moved house. Stamp Camp had travelled all the way from the States and I was hoping THE stamp had travelled with them. YEP!!! THERE SHE WAS!! The little girl in the hat watching the sunset aka #SD103 Beach Girl. So pleased I have her again. She reminds me of my childhood. A real chillout stamp image. Very relaxing to stamp with at the moment.I paired it up with #SD117 'One must Live'.

As it happens the The Cheerful Stamp Pad challenge this week is COLOUR MY WORLD and so this I feel fits in rather well I think :0) . I used a combination of Jenni Bowlin ink pads (the ones I demoed with on the stand )and coloured pencils to colour this one layer card.

Finally, you may have noticed the righthand side of my blog is looking a little less crowded. I've decided that now is perhaps a good time to concentrate on artwork for myself and for publishing (magazine and my book which is almost done) so needed to step away from the regular commitment of the design teams I belonged to (will miss chatting with the girls on the teams!), but it's not to say I won't be still working with all those fabulous images of course!!

Watch this space!!!

RECYCLED Stampotique

2011-05-11T06:40:00.001+01:00

The theme for the latest challenge at Stampotique is RECYCLED, brought to us by Valerie H Wilson. A good theme for me as I harbour so much 'junk' at home in the hope of transforming it all into something a bit different I was spoilt for choice over which bit of 'rubbish' to work with. I opted for this- a corned beef tin lid. One of those new pull ones.

I painted and heat embossed the majority of it, using a Prima mask and a bit of finger painting, then added my image and wording, attaching a bath plug chain to hang it up with.

This little guy from Stampotique, SMILE, was the perfect size.

...and with his MEDIUM BEE wings and the word angel from YOU ARE AN ANGEL , looks a real cutie. I drew his halo with white pen.

I hope you like it and are able to join in with ANY STAMPS (as its an any stamp week) but if you have Stampotiques in your collection it would be great to see those too obviously). Any entries to the challenge are in with a chance to be randomly drawn to win a $30 gift certificate. Only one entry per artist please as its such a large gift cert on offer.

Stampotique stamps are available from Stampotique directly (in the USA) or many outlets in the UK, one of which is HAPPY DAZE.

Talking of Happy Daze.....we are now on a different stand as previously mentioned at Port Sunlight and if you have a ticket to the show you will spot us immediately as you walk in to the large hall where I shall be demoing Stampotique Originals stamps. During my breaks, Joanne Wardle (another Stampotique DT member as it happens) will also be leaping into the demo seat.

YeeeeeeeeHaa...or words to that effect!

2011-05-10T06:37:00.001+01:00

Gingersnap are having WILD WEST MONTH, starting with the Chestnut Challenge of GC101 COWBOYS AND COWGIRLS.

I still have the same four colours of inks on my table that I love and I'm finding it difficult to use any others and so using those I created a simple tag showing my Misunderstood Cowboy, complete with bullet holes. I don't know why he's misunderstood, he looks a bit fed up I guess, (probably has something to do with all those bullet holes ), but the wording fitted better with the image than any of the others I had handy which were 'Dashing through the snow' and 'I find a flower'. lol
Don't you just love it when the image and the wording clash really badly lol

Show Us Your Style...

2011-05-09T07:05:00.003+01:00

The theme over on PaperPlay Challenges is SHOW US YOUR STYLE.

This is the 'look' that I do 'naturally ' I suppose. Give me ink pads and stamps and I lean towards this.... a bit messy (only because its incredibly tricky doing neat lol), inky layering, a main image, some form of background stamp, and a word or two.
I used Paperbag Studios stamps for all three of these tags.

These are also three more samples for my demo day at the Port Sunlight show on Saturday. OOOOOOOOOOOOOo not long now! Very excited!!

Hope you have a good week!

NEW Floriculture with Rogue Redhead Designs

2011-05-08T13:16:00.002+01:00

Rogue Redhead Designs have new stamp releases!!

To make the quick and easy set shown above I used a combination of both the Floriculture Plate...

and the Bits and Pieces plate (which is a selection of shapes and handy words).

This is what the wonderfully talented Sharon Briss of Rogue Redhead Designs has to say.

"April showers may bring May flowers and this Spring brings the new Floriculture plate from Rogue Redhead Designs. Bringing together focal images, sentiments and decorative elements, this set lets you create a variety of nature-themed projects. Perfect for coloring or just on their own, these vintage botanical images are made with high quality, deeply etched rubber so you can make great impressions.

The brand-new Rogue Redhead Designs Bits and Pieces plate is a versatile collection of common sentiments which you can mix and match. In addition to the easy-to-use greetings, Rogue Redhead has also included some simple shapes to create fun effects on your cards. A great set for lovers of the Clean and Simple style, this set may be used alone or in conjunction with any of our other Rogue Redhead plates.

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!

Wait...that's not all! 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."

To see all the plates mentioned above and more, please visit the Rogue Redhead ETSY site .

For more ideas using the RRD stamps please visit the ROGUE REDHEAD DESIGN BLOG.

PORT SUNLIGHT DEMO SNEAK PEEKS 2011 (and some new artwork)

2011-05-07T17:22:00.003+01:00

Well this time next week I would have just finished a day of stamping away like a woman possessed at the HAPPY STAMPERS stamp festival in Port Sunlight on the Wirral.

I shall be on STAND 32- HAPPY DAZE, demoing MY RANGE of stamps with STAMPOTIQUE along with other STAMPOTIQUE and PAPERBAG STUDIOS stamps.(All links are on the right of my blog)

When I take a break or two (and do a bit of shopping!), JOANNE WARDLE will be tag teaming me and demoing her gorgeous FLOATING CARDS as seen recently in CRAFT STAMPER.

I shall be making all sorts of things...

...various tags....(this one is using stamps by Stampotique)

lots of different cards (the stamps used here are by Paperbag Studios),

'simple makes' similar to the one I made the other week ...

wooden arches ...

perhaps some postcards...

infact whatever takes my fancy I think...I'll just go with the flow :0)

The show is totally sold out, but if you already have tickets, please make sure you stop by and introduce yourself as I'd love to meet you in real life! I shall be making and giving away samples all day and answering any questions anyone may have (stamping related questions are probably best lol).

Really looking forward to it!

Let me know if you are going!

Free as a Bird

2011-05-02T09:45:00.002+01:00

May's challenge over on Crafty Individuals is set by Is Norris, one of my old partners in crime way back when lol (ok it was only five or so years ago I guess when we managed to pull together an article for an overseas publication by email having never met but it was fun, albeit a little hectic!).
Is has come up with the theme Free as a Bird. I made this card for the challenge. Looks like a tag doesn't it , but with a bit of smoke and mirror trickery (and a spare bit of card!), but I put a back on it so it will stand upright. I used the main NEW image of CI-309 and one of my favourite Crafty Individuals Craft Elements plates CI-287 .

I initially started off with CI-309...

...then added odd birds and built on until I felt the balance was right. The main stamp has music notes and a song but I substituted these song words with one of the sayings from the CI-287 plate. Finished off with some fine liner pen stitchy lines.

Its a simple make, lifes hectic, whats new lol.

There are prizes to be had over on Jean's 'Crafty Individuals' blog for lucky participants. Please take a look over there for all the details and ideas from the 'team'.

There is light on the horizon.... its back to 'normal' day tomorrow!! All back to school...yeah! I won't be exactly as free as a bird, but I'll have a bit of time to get round Tescos lol

Have a great May Day holiday if you are in the UK.
Not long to go now until the Port Sunlight show, where Crafty Individuals will have a stand and I'll finally get to say 'Hi' to Jean and Malcolm after all these years (I have some Crafty Individuals stamps so old they are wooden backed) as I'm working there too for another company.

Be Spontaneous!

2011-05-01T07:46:00.001+01:00

......and Celebrate!

Over on the Art Journey Blog this month is the new challenge theme(#9) of Happy Birthday hosted for us by Willy Anderson..

This 'Celebrate...Be Spontaneous' card isn't, I agree, the most obvious of Birthday cards, but it reminded me of many-a-Christmas and Birthday celebration when you by a toddler a big pressie and they sit in the box it came in spending hours of fun just sitting in that and ignoring the gift lol!
This card shows one of the new release images which is from the Boys plate (but also in a larger size and facing the other way on an individual stamp) of a little denim clad lad having a fun time in not a box, but an old tin bath.

Here's a close up, but please ignore the tiny fleck of ink pad felt to the right of the little boys head that stuck and made a tiny dot on the inky background I made! (grrr...thats all I look at when I see this lol)

Other stamps used are Celebrate (from the Celebrate plate- although I wanted to use the Celebrate word from the Umbrella Girl Plate but couldn't find it in my stamp box!) and 'Be Spontaneous' (from the Umbrella Girl plate). The smaller butterflies are also from the Boys plate along with the main image as previously mentioned.

The stitching under the 'spontaneous' wording is just drawn with a fineliner pen as you can no doubt tell. The black 'bubble' border and postage/frank mark are rub ons .

All stamps by Art Journey.

If you take part in the challenge you will be in with a chance of winning a gift certificate from Art Journey when at the end of the month one lucky participant is drawn out of 'the hat'...well its a number generator but a hat sounds more exciting.

Stampotique Sketch

2011-04-30T16:18:00.003+01:00

The challenge this week at Stampotique Designer Challenge Blog is a sketch given to us by DT member Kim Howard. I think 'receipes', sketches and colour combinations are, for me, a tricky way of working as I have a real tendancy to drift way off course and add 'stuff' that isn't allowed as I rarely end up making what I set out to in the first instance lol

So here is my contribution...

For the main panel I freely painted and scratched the background, added stamps and glitter.

Stamps (Splatter Long, Smushasha and Quiet Place, are all by Stampotique Originals, available direct or here in the UK from Happy Daze.

Theres a $30 Gift Certificate to be won by a randomly drawn participant at the end of the challenge so its certainly worth taking part.

This week is STAMPOTIQUE STAMPS ONLY TO BE USED please.

oooopps...edit to say - Here's the sketch!

More Than Words

2011-04-27T15:10:00.000+01:00

Over on Wednesday Stamper this week is a challenge entitled 'More Than Words' which says...

Art can say more than words, and so can a facial expression, a colour, a setting are all things that can make an impression and speak louder than words… You can still use words in your piece, and you’re welcome to interpret the theme however you want. Just remember to use at least one rubberstamp.

I used some of the gorgeous new stamps released recently by Art Journey and a couple of the die cut images by K&Co available from Happy Daze (which, unfortunately, have just gone out of stock, but are THE most beautiful selection I've seen for a long time and will be back in stock very soon I hope.).

Life Happens...

2011-04-22T12:06:00.005+01:00

Its my turn over on the Art Journey blog today to say a little about myself...along with photos from the 80's (talk about big hair !) up until now lol

http://artjourneydesign-team.blogspot.com/2011/04/jo-c-s-intro-life-happens.html
I hope you enjoy it if you pop on over there for a look.

Here are a couple of Art Journey pieces using their new images. The first (above), a totally unintentional connection but quite in keeping with 'Life Happens', using the Lady Clock plate.

The card below has a main image from the Boys plate.

Thank you to everyone on Facebook (I don't visit FB often as I don't find it easy to work...see I AM getting REALLY old!) and in real life for the birthday wishes this week.

Wishing you all a very happy Easter weekend.

New Art Journey Releases (No.1 of a few!)

2011-04-18T15:06:00.001+01:00

Art Journey have recently added more wonderful images to their collection.

I have to say, this little thoughtful face from the BOYS plate is one I absolutely adore. Here I played with a foam roller that I spotted in Asda in the kiddy painting section and made a criss-cross pattern, painted some swirls and circles. The word is from the LiveLifeLove wording from the same plate.

Art Journey stamps are available directly from Art Journey in The Netherlands.

Acetate Rain

2011-04-16T11:30:00.004+01:00

The theme this week on Less is More is ACETATE.

I'm totally addicted to my LIM fix on a Saturday morning now...the kitchen still needs sorting and the washing needs going in, but I needed to get this card made lol

Girl and heart circles by Art Journey from the Umbrella Girl plate..
I would have liked the phrase to be slightly higher but I had to cover a tiny crease in the acetate...it was damaged in transit in the post and all my acetate has the same indentation ...grrrrrr, but hopefully this still looks ok.

Have a good weekend all. x

It's my turn again...

2011-04-13T09:29:00.001+01:00

Morning!

Today is my turn to come up with a theme for the new Stampotique challenge. Its an ANY STAMPS challenge (being the first challenge of the month) but if you have any Stampotiques it would be fab if you used those too. If you don't have any, why not?! lol....this is the perfect opportunity to win some as Carol and Jim at Stampotique are donating yet another $30 gift certificate for one lucky person drawn in a fortnights time.

Anyway....enough of the details...whats the theme? NEWSPRINT AND OLD BOOKS. I'd love to see what you can make using either. Whether its a page, an altered book, sentences cut out from the daily newspaper which have inspired you.

I made this as my contribution, but this has so much scope as a theme its endless. I used one of Stampotiques new mermaids, Smumanha (or 'the one with the pointy hair' as I like to call her), Swirl Stalks, Jo's Flower Cube and Splatter Long. I also used a punch to create little flower bursts of newspaper.

Another approach would of course to use stamps that have book/newspaper text on them such as French Text and Text Stars or any others you may have in your collection.

I hope you can find a bit of time to join in. I know you will wow me with your fab ideas!! The first 'batch' from the Stampotique Team are on the site now. Please check over there for the other contributions as the days go by.

All stamps available from Stampotique in the USA and Happy Daze in the UK, amongst others.

A Bee ON my Bonnet!

2011-04-09T15:35:00.005+01:00

Moira at Happy Daze has some wonderful mini top hats in stock (available in cream, black and white).

Mine's decorated a bit on the tame side (doh! I just used stamping with images from the shop to decorate mine- didnt read the brief properly about what we could use and am mad with myself for not adding my own stuff), but you should see the other hats on display over on the Happy Daze blog...they are lots of fun and really wild. I'll try another one in the near future and create a wacky one.

I used Big Bee and Medium and Tiny bee...and the Leaf and Hexagon, all by Stampotique. The sparkly bling is from a set of Parisian Anthology flowers. The paint used to colour the hat is by Claudine Hellmuth. I used Modern Red and Dab of Yellow...softened with some white thrown in for good measure. All available at Happy Daze here in the UK.

For the sticky-up wings I used that packing material which is like soft poly foam sheeting.

Anyway...hats off to the rest of the team who provided us with some true British eccentricity. Wonderful stuff. Please check them out here.

Oooops...almost forgot, made a matching necklace to go with it. Simple stamping, using A World All Her Own and Medium Bee. Again, available from Happy Daze.
(
*EDIT TO SAY* necklace is shown in the top photograph)

Thanks for looking x Have a great weekend .

Less is More

2011-04-09T08:59:00.003+01:00

Too simple to blog?

Less is More's latest theme is to have the text as the main focal point. Not sure I succeeded as I keep looking at the bee, but the text is the thing I read first, so the jury is out on that one.

Both stamps by Stampotique. (A World All Her Own and Medium Bee with a tiny bee on the side,...this is the tiny bee.

Also available from Happy Daze here in the UK.

CAS PAINT!

2011-04-03T14:03:00.003+01:00

Do they go together?

Clean and simple

....and PAINT?!

A bit of a contradiction maybe, but I've tried to keep it as clean as possible.

Well as I'm up to my eyes in deadlines and completing things at the mo, I'm really into these quickmake CAS cards. And paint!

Gingersnap Creations are running a GCSP#07 Once in a Blue Moon challenge where you can choose from any of the past themes listed...so I chose the paint theme from last August GC#66.

Here I used all Paperbag Studios stamps...Empty, Way We See and 995

Next I used the Large Butterfly from Stampotique along with Paperbag Studios Formula.

And finally more Stampotique Originals stamps (Simplicity and Little Friends Tiny

Stamps are available from the individual stamp companies themselves(see all links to stamps above- Stampotique and Paperbag Studios) or from Happy Daze here in the UK.

A Touch of Red...

2011-04-02T18:00:00.001+01:00

Something a bit different for me.

I'm working on secret (read secret and complicated )stuff so even though I've been making all week long I have little to show for it on my blog unfortunately.

So...when I spotted the Touch of Red theme on Less is More this afternoon I had just the stamps in front of me that I'd been working with earlier in the day. This clean and simple card was made using a selection of stamps from Paperbag Studios, available from them direct in the USA or from Happy Daze here in the UK..

Crafty Individuals NEW Challenge! (2nd post of the day)

2011-04-01T15:19:00.004+01:00

Simply Square (click for the link) is the theme for the first ever Crafty Individuals Challenge on their new blog.

My idea is shown above using CI-248(apologies for pinky hue, very poor light ).

There are prizes available!! FIVE OF THEM!!!Go and check it all out along with more ideas!! :0))

Art Journey 8

2011-04-01T08:45:00.003+01:00

Today brings the latest Art Journey Challenge, challenge number 8 which has the theme of Tags set by Liesbeth.

I used all Art Journey stamps to create this idea (for those aged mid 30's /40's I had the opening titles of The Tales of the Unexpected in mind with the wiggly dancer from the 70's...-ish)

For further details please check out the Art Journey Challenge post linked above.

You need to use mainly Art Journey stamps in your design.
Here I used stamps from Art Journey's Silhouette plate and the Tree plate.

There is a ten euro voucher to be won too.
Please take a look at the team's contribution and see what you can come up with if you have any Art Journey stamps in your collection.

hellooooooooooooo

2011-03-25T09:27:00.003Z

It's me again...

have you heard?

Stampotique's Design Team's latest challenge SDC#27 is "Triptych" (something that is made up three connected panels), hosted by Vicki Garrett.

Above you can see one of the many ways the wings can be positioned on OWL WITH WINGS which was released last week by Stampotique and due to arrive at Happy Daze , here in the UK, any time now. Below you can see the wings alongside the owl on the rubber stamp.

I thought it would be good to have a stamp that could appear in several guises...fly, one wing out one folded, waving, over one eye, over both- so I came up with this little character....its as good as your imagination will let you be with it.

There is also Wee Owl...

He sits on the Stampotique Tree...

....by the light of the (Great) Moon.

The plants and flowers in the shadows are Abstract Foliage and Floral Flutter (without inking up the butterfly of course as its a night scene)

I hope you are able to join in with the challenge. Its a STAMPOTIQUE STAMPS ONLY week this week, so take a rummage to see what you have.
One entry per artist please as there is a 30 DOLLAR GIFT CERTIFICATE (thats a LOT!!!) to spend at Stampotique Originals up for grabs for one lucky drawn participant.

A Colour Explosion

2011-03-24T19:06:00.003Z

This week the theme over on the Wednesday Stamper. is FABULOUSLY COLOURFUL

I made this colourful card for my friend Joanne using one of the new releases from Stampotique Originals- 'Jo's Flower Cube' and 'A Little Garden'.

I hope you like it....something a bit light and with a fresh feel about it on what has been another beautiful sunny day here in the UK.

Oh, and talking of colourful, I meant to post this the other week and it totally skipped my mind. Again all Stampotique.

If you think its a little 'not quite right' compositionally, it's because I stamped the XO's upside down and had to pull the whole thing apart and re position lol...*doh!*

This is how I'd originally planned it(you can just about see the letters are the wrong way around)... heehee, maybe I'd better pay more attention when I'm stamping next time.

Stamps available from Stampotique and Happy Daze. Links are available on the left sidebar.

Its been a hoot...but I've reached the end

2011-03-23T08:04:00.001Z

"Eh?" said the wee owl....

"Whooooooooooo said that? Whhhhat you talking about, the END?"

Well, today is my last challenge for Gingersnap Creations as a member of their Design Team and I've loved it on there. If you've not been involved at all with the Gingersnappers and the amazing challenges they set, then I highly recommend it.

Today is the start of the annual COPPER, GINGER or RUST challenge where you can play along by making anything using any or all of those colours.

I decided to make a card using my new 'Wee Owl' and 'Small Moon' which were released last week by Stampotique Originals.

I tried to create a really woody/musty/dry leafy feel to this by adding a bit of crackle paint and inking over it.

I used all Stampotique stamps- aswell as the owl and moon I added Mushroom Group , Swirl Stalks and Abstract Foliage. If the United States isnt easy for you to place an order directly from Stampotique Originals, then Happy Daze here in the UK stock all the stamps I've used. The new designs are on their way and Moira is taking pre-orders on them and you pay when they arrive.At least that way you are guaranteed to receive your choices. All you have to do is email Moira at Happy Daze with what images you'd like put to one side.

Please take a look at the rest of the team's ideas, there are some beautiful ones.

Thank you girls, its been a pleasure. I shall be still joining in with challenges when I can though, you haven't seen the last of me lol :0).

Summer workshop dates added..

2011-03-20T10:19:00.006Z

Please check out my workshop blog for my summer sessions (now available to book).

The classes are small informal groups held in a brand new building with lots of light.

The details can be found here.

Yesterdays Workshop

2011-03-18T17:11:00.002Z

Yesterday I met up with my lovely ladies again in East Sussex, UK, for my second workshop.

This class was all about 'Masking'. I demonstrated various ways of masking using inks and sprays and then we put the samples onto wooden houses and decorated them further with the new Stampotique Originals images that were released on Tuesday. The ladies took their houses home to do a few tweaks here and there and I can't wait to hear what finishing touches they made and see how they finally turned out.

At the top of the post you can see a sneak preview of the house I put together (but haven't quite managed to finish yet). All stamps by Stampotique. The houses were from Happy Daze.

It was a very busy class... lots of inking, dabbing and snipping...Lemon Drizzle cake eating...more stamping.

The group was a very varied one, as it was with the 'Textures' workshop back in February, in terms of stamping experience- ranging from beginners to very experienced and we had a really enjoyable three hour session. A smashing group to spend time with :0)

Below you can see one of the finished "TEXTURES WORKSHOP" pieces- a sliding wooden box by CHARRY WIJERS, using a combination of Art Journey and Stampotique stamps.
The workshop I did that day was to get everyone experimenting with as many textures, torn up papers and card, metal and plastic, embossing and die cutting ( and stamps of course!) as possible and bring them all together to decoratate the wooden boxes. This is a beautiful example by Charry.

I added a little slideshow to my Workshop Blog if ever you are wandering that way ...

and of course I'll keep adding dates and classes to the page.

I hope you enjoyed seeing what we've been up to. The group are a fab bunch. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few more pics as time goes by :0)

Next months class is all things PAINT! So thats backgrounds, resist, stamping, textures.... should be great fun.

Home Baked with DCM

2011-03-17T08:38:00.001Z

(sorry the image is slightly 'off'...difficult to photograph, will try again later once proper light gets here)

This weeks challenge over on Daring Cardmakers is Homebaked and its about creating a card featuring a homemade embellishment.

I made the bunch of lavender using wire and flowersoft.

The Lavender Sprig stamp is one of the Stampotique new releases this week from my collection. I'm really enjoying using this little Lavender- its a really handy little image.

The Dream word is using one of the new Tim Holtz punches.

I turned the tag into a card by creating an under layer so that the wording can be read more easily.

Wishing you all a good day ahead... I'm off to do a workshop!! Whahooooooo!! (will post about that later on :0) )

New stamp designs- I'm so excited

2011-03-15T14:44:00.004Z

YESSSSSSSS ...and they've arrived too!!!
Today, Stampotique Originals have revealed their new stamp designs. And mine were delivered just in time for me to ink up before I blogged.

I have a few new ones added to my range. Not many this time though, as the winter season was a bit of a strange one for me you may recall if you are a regular reader and so I thought I would put together a few images that will compliment lots of other stamps and ones that you can place with others and get a fair bit of milage out of.

This morning I quickly put a card together hopefully showing just that.
I sat Moon Girl onto the NEW GREAT MOON, above a garden of flowers in the moonlight from NEW JO'S FLOWER CUBE and Spiral Stalks. Finished off with half a saying from 'A Little Garden'...ALL STAMPOTIQUE STAMPS.

If you are living in Europe, the stamps are still making their way over to the craft stores from the States (I only received mine a couple of hours ago and am still VERY excited to see them), but they are available from Happy Daze (UK) on reserve (so Moira will put what ever you chose to one side for you when they arrive and contact you for payment once they are ready to send out to you.) They are of course available direct from America if you are overseas from me.

This time I have a Great Moon, a Small Moon, a LARGE Butterfly (and its large!!), flowers - Jo's Flower Cube, Lavender Sprig and Flower Flutter and two-ooooo owls, one with 'interactive' wings heehee and 'Wee Owl' who is perfect for sitting just about anywhere.
Also amongst the new releases are Daniels opened up a whole new underwater world and brings us his new Mermaid creatures (plus other new designs), new text words from Carol's Collection and Janets new Dress all of which you will no doubt see appearing on mine and the various members of the Stampotique Design Team's blogs in the coming weeks.

You can see the new designs here at STAMPOTIQUE ORIGINALS in the USA and also here at HAPPY DAZE who are based in the UK.

And for those living in Sussex, I have a workshop this Thursday using the new images :0)))) Can't wait!!

All of a flutter...

2011-03-12T07:04:00.000Z

Over on the Stampotique Designer's Challenge this week is a theme set by DT member, Kaz. Its a challenge theme where you have to show something featuring Animals Birds or Insects.

It just so happens I was right in the middle of a tag swap with my online friend She, so this is the card I made to accompany it. On it I used SMALL BUTTERFLY and PAPILLON SCRIPT.

The tag I made for She also happens to have an insect theme. It uses BIG BEE and DAISY DAISY.(I think it was Big Bee and not average sized Bee, but I dont have the tag anymore to do a quick check unfortunately. It looks like Big Bee)

The tag was originally a blank manilla cream tag but after lots of ink blending, masking and embossing it turned out like this.

The challenge has a $30 gift certificate sitting ready and waiting for one lucky drawn participant. Its the first challenge of the month so therefore ANY stamps are valid for the challenge , but if you own Stampotiques too it would be fab to see them alongside, aslong as an animal, bird or insect appears.
As its such a large value gift certificate, only one entry per artist for the draw please.

I hope you can join in :0)
All the above stamps can be obtained either directly from Stampotique Originals in the USA or Happy Daze here in the UK where Moira carries a wide selection of Stampotiques.

The Gingersnap Office Temp

2011-03-09T07:45:00.000Z

My penultimate post as a DT member of Gingersnap Creations. How time flies. The team are looking to recruit TWO new members this term and so if you are looking for more details check out the site.

This weeks challenge is all things Office Supplies.
I covered one of the handy notebooks from Art Journey with a background I made by spraying ontop of a few scattered paperclips. Once dry, I moved the paperclips out of the way and voilá! On top of that I added Stampotique Original's Karin and typewriter key letters and symbols from what was Inka, but has since been taken over by Scrolls Work. The images were coloured with pencils.

Please checkout the other DT ideas over on the Gingersnap Creations post. Its a fabulous challenge, why not have a go?

Breath of Springtime

2011-03-04T13:24:00.001Z

(please click on the image for a larger view)

It's a beautiful spring day here today on the southcoast of the UK. Sunny, fresh, cold in the shade.

Soooo, this morning I thought I would have a flick through my Crafty Individuals images and see what I could come up with.

I used stamps from the following:
CI-289 (chickens)
CI-237 (text)
CI-207 (grass)
CI-205 (eggs)

Wishing you all a good weekend ahead. Lifes a lot easier when the suns shining and the birds are tweeting don't you think?

You used what??!!

2011-03-01T01:00:00.003Z

This month I have the pleasure of hosting the seventh Art Journey Challenge (AJC#7). Its always tricky to come up with an original theme and as I was thinking about what direction the challenge should go I came up with the idea of "You used WHAT??!!"
As someone who is always looking at objects with a view to creating something with them some how, I thought we could do just that! Use, say for example a shoe, a straw, bubbles, something from the kitchen, something from nature- infact anything you like to create a mark/pattern or effect to use along side your stamping whether its a background or part of the main feature.

You can see some absolutely wonderful examples from members of the Art Journey Design Team over on the challenge blog. I hope you will be inspired by the idea and begin to look at everyday objects in a whole new light . You've got 4 weeks to show us your take on the theme. The deadline is on the 28th of March.

One participant will be randomly selected for a 10 euro’s gift certificate to shop at Art Journey! To win this gift certificate you are required to use MAINLY ART JOURNEY STAMPS.

Oh! And did you guess what I used to make my dotty background? Wasn't tricky was it...
A link of tiny beads :0)

Have fun!!!

I'm cracking up....

2011-02-27T19:03:00.001Z

The latest challenge on the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog (SDC#25) was set by Monique and incorporates a technique featured over on Technique Junkies.

It's one I've been familiar with for sometime as my friend Carrie ran an article in Stamper's Sampler a few years ago, but being familiar with something certainly didnt mean it was a walk in the park for me. Its one of those techniques that is a 'wait and see'(ie its totally out of your control and you just have to wait and see what you end up with) and have a bit of patience (ahem...thats where I get a bit restless and go wrong lol).
The Technique Junkies tutorial for the technique can be found here and is well worth checking out.

After creating the crackle panel I simply stamped the Stampotique 'Even Silence Speaks' and Crow Line in black StazOn. I was trying to create the feeling of a stormy sky- you know when all goes quiet, just before it all kicks off and throws it down.

And ...BONUS.....there are TWO prizes up for two lucky drawn winners...yep, TWO!!!!!!! And they are both biggies!! So what are you waiting for...hop on over to the Stampotique Challenge blog and see what's what

Flying by to show you....

2011-02-19T14:08:00.001Z

...another Art Journey piece using the new release stamps.

A canvas within a wooden frame.

The outer part of the frame has a transparent ribbon fixed to it (shown in the top photo) to give a flowery pattern. An alternative to stamping as I did previously here.

At the 'Creating Texture' workshop I gave on Thursday, I took this along for the ladies to see the piece close up, along with a collection of other work with different texture effects. We had a fabulous time playing with wooden boxes, inks, corrogated card/metal/dies/embossing etc and lots and lots of stamps, including these new releases. Thank you to those that attended- it was a lot of fun meeting you all.
The next class is on March 17th with a theme of Masking Techniques (not as tame as it sounds as we'll be spritzing and spraying dabbing and chopping...for more details see here).

Crowns...

2011-02-16T06:31:00.002Z

The latest challenge over on Gingersnap Creations is to make something using the theme of CROWNS.

The Crown stamp I used for this easel card is from my range at Stampotique Originals, available directly from them in the USA or a number of shops here in the UK including Happy Daze who stock a very wide range of Stampotique stamps.

If you take part please dont forget to link your individual challenge post (and not just your blog) to the Crown post over on Gingersnap. See you over therehopefully!

Dream State

2011-02-14T07:17:00.001Z

After the release of Art Journey's latest stamp images at this weeks Art Journey weekend in Sleen, Holland, the design team can now reveal ideas they've put together using them (if they are not online yet they will be any time now).

I've made a few items but will show them over a few posts, beginning today with the first piece I made- 'Dream State'. I tried to portray a dream like quality, all intertwined, ....a bit echoey. Do you get what I mean?

I hope you like it.
The edge of the frame is stamped with the tree branches.

For other items made by the team please check out their blogs which are listed on the Art Journey Designers blog.

Valentine Cutie

2011-02-13T12:33:00.001Z

To join in with the Valentine/Love themes that are around at the moment, I made this simple card using one of the Cutie characters that Happy Daze have on their site at the moment.

Stamps used are Suprised Cutie and Be My Valentine, both by Cats Life Press. The heart is from my range at Stampotique along with the Crown. Happy Daze stock all the stamps although I see the Cuties have been really popular and currently out of stock as I write there is just waving Cutie left...and the heart cube with the heart on it is also out of stock...lol...seems Moira's been doing well, but I understand that they will be all back on the shelves soon..Inks are Jenni Bowlin.

I'd like to enter this into the Wednesday Stamper Challenge which this week is 'Expressions of Love'.

Fancy being on a fabulous design team?

2011-02-12T16:15:00.001Z

The wonderful team at Gingersnap Creations are searching for a couple of new members.

For all the information you need please check out their post click here.

GOOD LUCK!! ITS A FANTASTIC GROUP TO BELONG TO.

Mwah!

2011-02-09T17:15:00.001Z

Today Stampotique Designers Challenge SCD#24 announce their latest challenge which, as its THAT time of year again, Valentines Day, so its 'Valentine or Love'.
I practised my wedding day vows on the 14th Feb almost 10 years ago now, as we married just over a week later. Purely coincidental the run-through was then, but kind of romantic I guess but very surreal at the time :0)

For the challenge I made this photo holder (but just popped in jpegged images etc as I'm sure you don't want to be looking at photos of mine).

All the stamps I've used here are from Stampotique Originals, although this week, as its the second challenge of the month, any stamps can be used to take part to be in with a chance to win the 30 dollar gift certificate kindly donated again this challenge by Stampotique Originals to spend on rubber at the online store.

Stamps used above are:

MWAH! and kiss(x)
ABSTRACT FOLIAGE
LOVE YOU HEART
LEAF#1

There are so many of us on the team at the moment that the reveals are being staggered over the next few days so keep an eye on the site for more from the girls (and boy) on there.

Stampotique stamps are available direct from the States, or for the largest UK Stampotique range choice try Happy Daze (where I also got the tiny brass birdcage from...unfortunately out of stock again as I type- these are SOOO popular!).

Art Journey new releases

2011-02-07T16:20:00.001Z

I really enjoyed working with the latest stamp designs by Sija for Art Journey. As you will see next week once the stamps are revealed, they work together extremely well. Here I've shown a few sneak preview images to give you a feel of whats on the horizon.
Please check out the other team members for more clues...you never know, we may have all covered different elements and so you'll see the full collection!

And don't forget, if you would like to be in with a chance of winning a 10 Euro gift certificate to spend at Art Journey, take a look at this months challenge. Details for that are also on the Art Journey Design Team blog.

Kings, Queens and...

2011-02-02T12:11:00.002Z

...a Princess.

The latest challenge over on Gingersnap Creations is Kings and Queens.

I used what was hopefully acceptable, the Lost Coast image of the Princess of Everything (well she might be Queen one day) and Stampotique stamps Happy and Swirl Stalk. Inks by Jenni Bowlin.

All inks/stamps available from Happy Daze here in the UK.

All Heart....

2011-02-01T09:17:00.003Z

Art Journey's challenge (AJ#6) this month is hosted by Tineke Koedam and as its soon Valentines Day this is what Tineke says ...

"Its February 2011 and time to start the sixth Art Journey Challenge with the theme 'heart shaped card'.
You've got 4 weeks to get in the mood and show us what your idea with this theme is. The deadline is on the 26th of February.
Then one participant will be randomly selected for a 10 euro’s gift certificate to shop at Art Journey! To win this gift certificate you are required to use MAINLY ART JOURNEY STAMPS. Put your new creation on your blog or Flickr (with a link to the challenge post on this blog) and leave a direct link to your blogpost in the 'Add your Link' section."

When making my card I decided to add the clear tear shaped gem, but then it wouldn't stand up of course lol, (doh!) so then I added a little 'foot', shown below, so it wouldn't topple.

I used all Art Journey stamps.

I hope you get an opportunity to join in.

Please check out the teams work on the Art Journey blog for more ideas ( Paula Whittaker and Deborah March are making their debut as team members but I'm sure you've seen their fabulous work before as they were regular challenge participants).

CPS Sketch with Stampotique

2011-01-30T14:20:00.001Z

Stampotique Originals are sponsoring a sketch (CPS#203) on the Card Positioning Systems challenge site, where one lucky winner will be drawn at random and will receive a grab bag of Stampotique stamps.

Heres the sketch ....

And heres my card...(I turned the sketch onto its side).

I used Small Butterfly 3018 and Papillon 3020, both by Stampotique and available direct or from Happy Daze here in the UK..

Its unlike for me to work to a prepared sketch, but this was a really unusual one and very enjoyable I thought. I hope you get a moment so you can take part and be in with a chance to win the stamps :0)

Inky Demo...and its up north!!

2011-01-29T12:30:00.001Z

Wednesday Stamper's challenge this week is inky backgrounds.

Here I used a selection from the Jenni Bowlin range on this wooden hinged arch. Stamps are all from the Jo Capper Sandon range at Stampotique Orignals.

And talking of Stampotique stamps and Jenni Bowlin inks, I've now managed to confirm that I'll be demoing Stampotique Originals stamps on the Happy Daze stand at the Happy Stampers stamping show held in Hulme Hall at Port Sunlight which is in Merseyside, North West UK, so hopefully will see one or two of you there on May 14th.
Entrance is by ticket purchased in advance only from Happy Stampers. Visit the HSNW website for details.

Really looking forward to it!

Orange and Turquoise

2011-01-26T08:01:00.001Z

The new challenge at Stampotique is hosted by Willy Anderson, who came up with the theme of Orange and Turquoise for SDC#23.

Not an easy one for me as they are not colours I automatically reach for, or even buy (love turquoise, but tend to be predictable by coupling it with lime, not orange), but thats what a challenge is , isn't it- makes you think.

Why not join us this time with the challenge? Its STAMPOTIQUE STAMPS ONLY this week as its the first one of the month. And only one entry allowed per person as Carol is offering another $30 Gift Certificate to spend on rubber to one lucky artist drawn at random in two weeks time.

Take a hop on over to the challenge site and to the designers blog for ideas and inspiration on the theme.

I used a selection of Stampotique stamps...
HAPPY,
LEAF #1,
5 PETALED FLOWER,
TWO STICKS

The holes were created with a lever punch which I'm getting on rather well with (everything has cheese holes in it now lol) and the dots are the left overs from the holes.

Looking forward to seeing you over there :0)

If you are in the UK and looking to buy a few Stampotiques, Moira at Happy Daze stocks an enorrrrrrrmous range. Art Journey also stock Stampotique images in The Netherlands.

Be Mine

2011-01-22T15:00:00.003Z

Bee Mine...(be mine...get it?)

An early Valentine card idea.

Big Bee and Kisses from the Jo Capper-Sandon range at Stampotique, also available from Happy Daze here in the UK and Art Journey in the Netherlands. Inks used are the new range from Jenni Bowlin, also from Moira at Happy Daze and are fast becoming a favourite of mine.

ps...edit to say...the Kisses stamp is shown as stitches.

What a fun-guy!

2011-01-12T11:05:00.003Z

Its 'PUT ON YOUR BEST MASK' time over at Stampotique Originals Challenge Blog.

Here I sat Schu on top of a forest of Giant Shrooms! The mushrooms have all been masked to create the overlapping effect. All coloured in with my sons coloured pencils :0)

As its the first challenge of the month, any stamps can be used, but if you have a few Stampotiques it would be especially good to see them. If you are lacking in Stampotiques, and would like the opportunity to win $30 worth, then now is the time to take part in the challenge as Carol is offering yet another huuuuuuuge gift certificate for one lucky stamper drawn in two weeks time.

There are so many shops now stocking Stampotique stamps worldwide, to name a few they can be purchased direct from Stampotique Originals in the USA, Happy Daze here in the UK (where the silver metal charm also came from) and Art Journey in The Netherlands.

There are some fabulous designs over on the challenge site put together by the DT. It doesnt just have to be 'classic stamp masking', but could be using commercially produced masks, using tape to mask, sequin waste, masking fluid etc etc.

Also, this month we have the wonderful Jenn Shurkus as guest artist. If you are unsure how to mask using stamped images PLEASE check out the fantastic tuturial Jenns created which can be found on the Stampotique Designers Blog.
Theres also another fabulously detailed tutorial by Monique Verbeek, one of our talented DT members who showed us back in September how she created her gorgeous pumpkin creation.

Hope to see you take part in the challenge. But please, only ONE ENTRY ALLOWED per person because of the fantastic prize up for grabs.

Oh, and talking of hoping to see you there, I've now been able to secure a one off SATURDAY Workshop date as well as the Thursday small groups. The Saturday group will be making a WOODEN TRIPTYCH covered in Stampotique Originals fabulousness!! Its not a large group so limited places remain - if you are interested check out further info on my workshop blog.

OK, I'm getting organised!

2011-01-11T17:30:00.002Z

Starting the year on a more organised note.

I now have a workshop diary set up on my Jo Blogs Workshop blog

Please take a look at the first few sessions I have listed if you were wondering what sort of areas I'll be covering. All the various themes, times, costs and biscuit info is on there!

Maybe I should have mentioned the biscuit thing first :0)

Thanks... the link is also on my sidebar for when this post disappears as time goes on.

Workshop or 1:1 class?

2011-01-09T19:51:00.003Z

Over the past few months I've had a few people writing to enquire whether or not I take classes at all, so I thought I'd test the water to see if I could gather either a little group together for a regular monthly relaxed session of stamping and mixed media, covering a wide range of themes, or if indeed you would prefer 1:1 stamping sessions (whether you are just starting out or would like to branch out into a different area that you feel I could be of any help with).

I'm not sure how many south coast stampers there are in the area, we are few and far between I think (I say 'we'- I'm a northerner living down south lol), but I thought it might be nice to see if anyone is out there who fancied the idea.

If you would be interested in attending initially either a group workshop or a 1:1 session from 10am - 1pm once a month on a Thursday, just outside Brighton on the south coast- nearest train station is Lewes, East Sussex (approx 5 minutes drive from where the classes will be held), please email me with your details at:

jcsworkshop@hotmail.co.uk

- thanks.

I haven't got anything more than that together just yet... all the fine tuning will come in the next few weeks etc.

Apologies to my stamping friends in the north- if I was any further away you'd need a passport...but hopefully if all goes well I have an opportunity later in the year which involves a spot of demoing in the north west.

Time for a cuppa

2011-01-06T10:00:00.001Z

Its HOT BEVERAGE time over at Gingersnap Creations for GC#85

I made this card using stamps from Scrolls Work Stamps, although as I write this, the Miss Tart (main image) is unfortunately out of stock at the uk stockist of Scrolls Work that I know of, Happy Daze, but available with the other two tea related stamps from Scrolls Work in the USA.The background paper from Pink Paislee is available from Happy Daze though and I've used its clear embossed surface as a resist effect and blended inks over it (it was originally a very pale cream, almost white). Its lace effect reminded me of old fashioned English tea rooms. You can also purchase the tea spoon from Happy Daze too. Its part of a 7 Gypsies set, or you could opt for the smaller more decorative filigree spoon that Moira stocks for 65p or the mini spoon at 20p.Charms can be found here.

And the tea bag? Yes, thats a real tea bag :0)

What ideas can you come up with that are hot beverage related? Have a cuppa and have a think :0) And we'll hopefully see you over at Gingersnap Creations.

And we're off...the first challenge of 2011!

2011-01-01T08:15:00.001Z

PINCH PUNCH 1st OF THE MONTH...

New challenge theme, for the start of a New Year!

The new challenge theme over on the Art Journey Challenge blog todayintil the 28th of January is to use EMBOSSING POWDER on your artwork.

Here, the pink area is all heat embossed- yes I realise its not the most subtle of colours but I tidied away all my most used items off the dining table (well, there was the small matter of needing somewhere to eat Christmas dinner lol, ) and this pink was the only ep I could find at the time of making. I stopped the heat gun just at the point the ep 'turned' in order to get a textured orange peel effect.

All stamps used are by Art Journey.
Button from the 'Willy Hélene' plate
Twiggy buds from 'Nature'
Dragonfly from 'Gorgeous Kids'
Hope from Pages'

Please take a look at the Art Journey blog where you will see more heat embossed ideas. I hope you will be able to join in the challenge. Dust off those Christmas cobwebs and New Years celebration hangovers and hunt out your embossing powders. With a bit of luck you'll find a better colour than I did lol :0)or you'll find Art Journey are giving 15% off all EP's during this challenge.

By entering your artwork using embossing powder and MAINLY Art Journey stamps, you could also win yourself a TEN EURO GIFT CERTIFICATE!!!

As easy as that!!

New Year, New Leaf, New Team members!

2010-12-30T11:39:00.002Z

(The above card was made using Stampotique stamps.
'Leaf' , one of my designs and Stampotique artist Janet Klein 'Turn over a new leaf'), available directly from Stampotique or here in the UK from Happy Daze.

Wishing you all a good year ahead.

Any aims? Turning over of new leaves? Ambitions?

For me, I'm picking up where last year went all weird on me and hopefully getting to grips with some of the things that escaped me.

What ever your goals, however big or small, I hope you reach them.

Talking of which, I don't know if you've spotted the link on my side bar, Stampotique are on the lookout for new team members.

Heres what Carol from Stampotique Originals has to say...

"As you all know, nothing lasts forever and through this year we've lost a few DT members due to life happenings. We are once again in search of new additions to our design team family. If you are interested, here are two bits to chomp on BEFORE sending us a yeah or nay and your blog link:

1. You must have a blog and be familiar and comfortable with frequent entries.

2. You must be dedicated as the entire team is only as good as it's weakest link. Everyone depends on each other and Stampotique DEPENDS ON THE DESIGN TEAM. We would ask that you provide maybe 4 items per month using Stampotique images (we provide the rubber; you choose the images). There might be a time when we would ask you to use a specific image.

When you send your email to Carol@Stampotique.com there are 4 items to note;

1. your blog address,
2. your name,
3.what state or country you live in and
4. which one of the Stampotique artists is your favorite.(ie Stampotique stamp designers)

PLEASE remember to list those 4 items. Thank you.

Depending on the number of applicants received, we may or may not respond to all.

The CALL OPENS NOW and will CLOSE ON JANUARY 10th, unless we find new members before that date. (we'll be sure to let you all know as a group). Spread the word, tell your friends; tell any men stampers that you know!

Thank you all who are interested and BONNE CHANCE!"

It's THAT simple!!

Stampotique look for a broad spectrum of styles...neat, tidy, messy, distressed, ...errr, Happy, Grumpy and Dopey (lol, Carol could be Snow White lol)

Anyway...Carol would love to hear from you, what have you got to lose?

Wishing you all the best, and good luck if you put yourself forward for the team- I look forward to working with those that make it through this time. It's a great team to belong to. Well rewarded for the amount of work expected and a very friendly welcoming group.

And what better way to kick start the New Year!!

Soon gone...

2010-12-29T07:49:00.002Z

Well thats Christmas been and gone.

Hoping you all had a good break.

Over the next couple of days, flying things, foliage and the word 'Hope' seem to have become common denominators in the items set to appear on my blog. But woahhhhh, they couldn't BE more different if I'd tried!! (Wait till you see Jan 1st's post)...and yet they were made on the same day!!

Sorry....will have to keep you in suspense re the next card on Saturday, but needless to say, its very different to this one.

This is for Gingersnap Creations SP#6. Every so often when theres an 'extra Wednesday' in the month, ie 'once in a blue moon' kind of, there's the Blue Moon Challenge where members of the DT make something of their choice and add the idea to the post. So instead of a single theme it could be 4 or 5 different themes,depending on how many contribute, so it's your pick on what theme you join in with!

I decided to keep it REALLY simple by setting the theme of A SINGLE LAYER CARD.(Always takes me a while to get myself going again after Christmas). This is a new image by Crafty Individuals (CI-288) which I stamped in black and roughly coloured using coloured pencils and touches of white pen. 'Hopes and Dreams' is also from CI.

I hope you are able to join in one of the Blue Moon themes over at Gingersnap Creations..there are some very tempting 'dares' up there.

Wishing...

2010-12-23T19:09:00.001Z

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas.

This was made using the painting with bleach technique that I posted a tutorial about on Gingersnap Creations.The main image is Crafty Individuals CI-154...one of my all time favourites of theirs, and the splashy stamp is my 'splatter long' produced by Stampotique, also available at Happy Daze in the UK..

The card is a single layer card...where it appears mounted, its just an illusion created with pens.

Apologies for the quiet non jolly cards of late...

Wishing you all the best xx

Snow, Pine and Mahogany

2010-12-22T07:19:00.001Z

GC84- Snow, Pine and Mahogany, is the latest colour challenge over on Gingersnap Creations.I was thinking 'Christmas based' originally but after the week wrapping presents, decorating the tree etc that I've had, I decided to just go vaguely seasonal and a little sombre instead.
The mask to create the flock of birds is by Prima, the compass sign is a new one by Crafty Individuals (CI-294), the tree...well I thought that was Crafty Individuals too but I'm having second thoughts and it may have sneaked into my CI stamp box by mistake- (anyone have any idea?), and the photographic image which is printed onto fabric is by Paper Whimsy.

Thanks for visiting :0) Hope you get a moment to join in with us over on Gingersnap Creations sometime over the next few weeks.

A Very Ha-Bee Christmas!

2010-12-15T12:57:00.001Z

A bit of a play on words...We Bee Kings. Couldn't decide whether to do Wee Bee Kings (as in little Scottish king bees) or stick with the more "commonly known" (in my head anyway) We Bee Kings as in We group of bee kings...you know what I'm trying to say hopefully lol.
After making this I thought I'd better check to make sure I hadn't subconsciously lifted the idea without giving credit, but I couldn't find anything anywhere like this done with my bee so hopefully I'm ok.

Anyway.. as a little tribute to my medium bee stamp here is an example showing that with a little artistic license, they too can be Christmassy.

But just remember....

...A BEE ISN'T JUST FOR CHRISTMAS :0)

The Medium bee with a small bee on the side is BACK IN STOCK again at Happy Daze having sold out so many times.He'd make a fab little gift for a stamping friend. You can find him here.
For those of you overseas from the UK, Medium Bee can be found over on the Stampotique Originals website as always.

I've entered this card into the Lots To Do challenge this week whose theme is GLITZ!

Wishing you all a happy Christmas/Holiday time.

Thank you so much for all your condolences re Mum. x Very kind x

And finally...for Mum

2010-12-10T07:14:00.000Z

I've recently been making some examples using bleach for a tutorial over at Gingersnap Creations.
These can be seen on their site with the exception of one.

This one I kept back.

This one is for my Mum.

For those that are regular visitors to my blog you may have gathered that the past 5 months or so have been up in the air for me. This was due to my Mum suddenly, totally out of the blue, being rushed into hospital in July and spending the most part of 18 weeks in intensive care.

I won't go into detail but sadly at the age of 68 the best Mum in the world, my Mum, passed away and her funeral was held a couple of days ago.

Christmas will be very different for us this year. It was her favourite time.

I'm not normally one for airing my private life online, but would like to take this opportunity to thank those that knew for the huge amount of support, not just from here in the UK but worldwide. It meant a lot, thank you so much.

I hope you like this card.

I know Mum would have said 'Beautiful!!'

Thanks Mum xxxxxxx

MWAH!

2010-12-08T07:20:00.001Z

The latest challenge (SDC #21) is up and running on Stampotique Designers Challenge blog, this time hosted by team member Valerie Wilson, who came up with the idea of using a punch and a die cut in amongst your design.

This easel card is mainly stamped as you can see with the addition of dabbing ink through sequin waste (my 'using a die cut' requirement) and punched flowers (the standing up along the 'pathway' flowers) which is a favourite lever punch I have by Martha Stewart, shown in the top photo with the card open, and below with the card flat.

The stamps used are:

(from my collection at Stampotique)
GIANT SHROOM (the big mushroom)
WEB (used as background)
SWIRL STALKS (hanging down from the 'shroom and from above)
DAISY DAISY (growing)
MWAH!
ABSTRACT FOLIAGE (all the black dotty edging creating a 'frame')
alongside the gorgeous GOB LIN by Jill Penney at Stampotique.

Carol and Jim are again offering an extremly generous $30 gift certificate to spend on rubber in their online store to one lucky person drawn out from those who take part. This theme will be running over the duration of the Christmas and new year period until the 11 January 2011 so you have PLENTY of time to get an idea together using your STAMPOTIQUE STAMPS if you have any, or if not others, and a punch and die.

All the above stamps are available directly from STAMPOTIQUE ORIGINALS in the USA and HAPPY DAZE here in the UK.

A few pieces...

2010-12-04T09:18:00.005Z

Here are a few sneak peeks that I managed to put together a few months ago(end of the summertime hence the colours I guess) for Crafty Individuals and Happy Daze to appear in the current Craft Stamper during a time when things had turned upside down a little at home (more on that this coming week when I find the right moment).

I'm not able to show the entire image due to regulations at Traplet but hopefully you get the feel of whats what.

These two pieces (above and below)appear in the Stamping Contrast article for Crafty Individuals in the UK.

This piece below appears in the Idea Gallery where the theme Recycled was given. I used an old tag and an old brown envelope (brown paper) to form the base for this piece using a selection of stamps from my collection at Stampotique and one from Lost Coast, all which are available from Happy Daze, also here in the UK.

This issue of Craft Stamper is available from Craft Stamper, Crafty Individuals and Happy Daze.

This months has a very wide range of styles and is full of inspiration...seriously worth getting!

Have a good weekend xx

All That Glitters...

2010-11-25T07:30:00.003Z

This week on Stampotique Designers Challenge we are running with the theme Bling Bling hosted by twinkly DT member Kim Prince.

I'm not a sparkly person normally (although my wedding shoes were pure silver sparkle trainers), so this was a bit of a challenge for me. But thats what its about ay.

I used my favourite splashy background technique along with my Big Bee stamp.

As always, Carol and Jim over at Stampotique Originals are offering the chance for one lucky participant to win a gift certificate for $30!!!!!!!!!! This challenge being the second challenge of the month its Stampotique stamps only please, but it goes to show by this card, you only need one stamp.

Talking of which, this months GCCC#2(Gingersnap Creations Creative Connection) is to use Only One. Take a look, its amazing what you can create with a solitary stamp image. If you take part in the Gingersnap challenge though, make sure you read all the details BEFORE posting , unlike me lol.(see main post topic clause in the GC post - doh!)

GS#79 Stitching...a new smartness!

2010-11-17T15:45:00.002Z

You know that feeling ....making something that you really enjoyed putting together...well this was one of those moments for me a little while ago when times were quieter.

The theme set by Gingersnap Creations GS#79 is Stitching. I wanted to use one of the threadbare characters (well not really threadbare but its Daniels style that sometimes gives them that appearance) from Stampotique alongside Stampotiques Kisses stamp which when coloured and shaded in a certain way appears like stitches!, and the little bird which I love, taken from one of the latest Stampotique Bird and Bug Cubes. :0)

I found an vintage clothing ad on a 12 x 12 paper that I had in my stash and used that as a starting point to create this old fashioned 'look'. Reminds me of the book illustrations from the stories I used to read as a child from the mid 60's, I think thats why I have a soft spot for this bookmark. My Mum also used to have a multicoloured suede waistcoat made from patchwork pieces in the 60's too, you know, the big floppy hat, fringed waistcoat type of look and the colours from that really influenced the colours of this quite heavily- so much so I can almost smell the suede :0)
And it was in this waistcoat I used to dress up...it fit me like a dress, tassles trailing almost to the floor, big Mum shoes, big hat.... hence the 'A NEW SMARTNESS TO OUR PLAYTIME FASHIONS' heading :0)

The tag is finished off with pompom ribbon and some wild hand stitching which I've knotted and cut open to look worn and distressed.

All stamps available from Stampotique Originals in the USA or here in the UK from Happy Daze. For the links please see my listings situated on the righthand side of my blog.

I hope you find time to join in with the challenge over at Gingersnap Creations. Real or Faux stiching allowed, (or 'forks' stiching as the Bibster always says lol)your choice.

Thank Yooooo-oooooooou!

2010-11-12T10:20:00.001Z

I made this card for the girls on a little tiny forum I've belonged to now for five years or so. Last week I received the most beautiful bouquet of flowers- rich autumn colours and foliage, burnt orange coloured roses, tawny and gold freesias. When it came to lifting the flowers out of the box style carrying case there were chocolates underneath! :0)))) Thank you Chris for organising such a wonderful cheery up suprise and to the girls at Chrysalis xx. Over the past few months I've received some gorgeous cheery-up pressies and cards from the girls - makes the day a happier one thats for sure.
Thanks too go to my online friend Lottie who recently sent me the most beautifully made 'Papillon' bag which is in constant use.

The main image ( CI-225 ) and Thank You is by Crafty Individuals and available here. The background text is by a new American company called Rogue Redhead Designs but unfortunately the RRD stamps are not yet avaiable here in the UK, just to those from the States.
The background branches behind the owl were created by lightly sponging ink though a stencil.

I'm entering this little guy into the Lots to Do challenge which this week has the theme of Autumnal Colours.

Girly girl sits sewing under the arches with freebies...eh?

2010-11-10T11:26:00.005Z

A busy blogging day for me... I have a double(make that triple) post to do today as I'm involved with two teams that have challenge themes that both go live at the same time.

Hence the merged title of my post lol

Stampotique Designers Challenge SDC#19

First off the starting blocks is Girly Girl, the challenge set for Stampotique Originals by team member Kim Prince.
I admit, I struggled with the theme....I'm not a natural Girly Girl by any stretch of the imagination so after much deliberation put together a very simple little notebook using 'Splatter Long', 'Mwah!and Kiss', and 'Marci'.All by Stampotique Originals.

Stampotique are continuing to be incredibly generous by offering one lucky participant a $30 Gift Certificate to spend on stamps in their online store. YES!! $30!!! The winner will be drawn at random and announced as usual in two weeks time. As its the first challenge of the month any stamps can be used for this theme but if you have any Stampotiques amongst your collection it would be fabulous to see them.

The guest artist for this month over at Stampotique is none other than the extremely talented artist and fellow Stampotique Stamp Designer Janet Klein. Please keep an eye out over there for Janets fabulous artwork. More details can be found here.

Stampotique Originals are also available here in the UK from Happy Daze.

Gingersnap Creations GS#78 Sewing Notions

Also today Gingersnap Creations announce their latest challenge theme of Sewing Notions. I didnt actually know what notions were, how embarrassing is that, I'd never heard that expression before, so once I'd been set on the right track and knew what it was all about I got to work putting together this card using pins, netting (from a vegetable bag), velvet and ribbon and stamps from Crafty Individuals.

The main stamp CI-285 recently released from Crafty individuals couldn't have been more perfect for the theme I felt, used alongside a tape measure stamp and that gorgeous printed image, also from the same company.Lots of distressing, crackle paint, scribbling and overlaying involved here. Weighs a fair bit as it kept evolving and moving into different directions lol. It would certainly need a 1st Class Large stamp for the mail.

GC#75 Gingersnap Creations Arches

And due to events beyond my control I missed out on blogging my GC#75 Random Redhead Challenge Arches contribution for Gingersnap Creations. You still have time to take part in this challenge theme as it doesnt finish until Sunday 14th November. Any arches...use the shape to create onto or incorporate stamps or images of arches within your artwork.

I decided to use the CI-264 arch, again from Crafty Individuals, remove the central image it comes with and replace that with one of the Crafty Individuals printed paper images from their People and Places books.

Fabulous news too in that Jean and Malcolm (Crafty Individuals) are giving away TWO FREE BACKGROUND PAPER BOOKS (Springtime and Travels in Italy) with every order over £25!! A fantastic offer. If you haven't tried their background papers now is the time to get on over there and try them for free - lets face it, £25 is easy to spend when faced with such a wonderful selection of images and alterables.

Well I think that ends the longest post ever lol...

I hope you will find time to play along with Stampotique and Gingersnap Creations.

Read All About It!!

2010-11-06T13:20:00.003Z

Theres a new company in town!

Rogue Redhead Designs are very excited to announce their new 'Relish Reading' plate.

You can order your plate from the Rogue Readhead Designs Etsy site from today! Its an excellent quality plate, a good size at 8 x 10", which usually sells for $22, but has a special offer up until December 15th of $17.60! Please note (an edit to my original post of a couple of minutes ago)that the stamps are currently only available in the USA.

For gorgeous samples created by the team please visit the RRD blog where from today you will be able to view lots of fabulous examples or check out the individual members of the Rogue Crew and Rogues at Large.

Art Journey #3 Romance

2010-11-03T13:24:00.002Z

Apologies....on a bit of a catch up.

Over the next few days I'll post some of what should have already been posted, but for all sorts of reasons over the past fortnight (past two weeks for those not used to that expression) my pc and life online has had to wait its turn as real life stood its ground.

This card is my contribution for the third Art Journey Challenge theme which this month is Romance. Simply put together by using a stencil and sponge to create the sultry background alongside some basic black stamping and a touch of coloured pencil. The 123 numbers are available from Crafty Individuals. I added a gem to the rose for a bit of glam!

Stamps used are:
Art Journey Roses
Art Journey Dance
both available from HERE

There's also a gift certificate to be won, all you have to do is to upload your Romance artwork (using mainly Art Journey stamps...see details on the blog )onto the Art Journey Challenge post and keep those fingers crossed!

Believe in yourself, make a plan, follow through with it

2010-10-15T08:47:00.004+01:00

Real life is a bit hectic right now so I thought I'd upload an 'inspirational' link which my husband showed me this morning from 'ZeZaNjeRs' on You Tube which might lighten up your day (heehee).

Listen out for the woman at the end lol

Normal service on Jo Blogs will resume asap (need to get some photos resized :0) )

Hope all are doing ok x

GC#73 Going Gothic with Gingersnap.

2010-10-06T07:40:00.000+01:00

Back on the Gingersnap Creations crew after taking a six month break and what is the first theme? Gothic Elements! Excellent! :0) So I decided to run with the lighter side of the doom and gloom element of the Goth subculture and make this Batty Goth card using a selection of Stampotique stamps.

Here I used Mink, Batty (well I cut of his wings and attached them to Mink-
OUCH!!!), Swirl Stalks (I love using this stamp as its and excellent space filler), French Text and 'Batty About You'.
The crackle effect is obtained by applying Silver Croco Crackle onto card with the side of my finger :0). Nothing too technical! lol.

Gingersnap Creations would love to see contributions from you using any Gothic infuences. There are some fabulous takes on the theme from members of the Gingersnap DT so please take a look. Lots of time to have a think before the challenge closes and perfect timing ahead of Hallowe'en.

All stamps can be purchased from Stampotique in the USA or Happy Daze here in the UK.