The Stampman 3rd Annual Awards

Evening folks. I hope you've all had a great Christmas and are enjoying some rest and relaxation now that all the hectic time is over. I've been totally confused over what day it is being out of normal routines which is a lovely feeling and have been busy doing Christmassy things like playing games and doing jigsaws with no crafting in sight!!


Jill is holding her Annual End Of Year Awards over on The Stampman Challenge blog and has asked the team to share their favourite project of 2011.


I chose my Nightime project which was one of those that just evolved. I had no real plan in my head but it just grew into something that seemed to work and that for once I was reasonably happy with.

We'd love you to share your favourite project from the last 12 months with us. It doesn't have to be something that was created for a Stampman challenge, it can be anything that you've made that has become your favourite for any reason. Just up load it onto the challenge site HERE and you could be in line for one of Jill's amazing prizes. She is going to select the winner from random who will then receive a £30 voucher to spend in the online shop. There will also be several runner up prizes. All the details can be found on the challenge site.

All that remains is for me to wish everyone a Very Happy New Year and I'd just like to thank all my lovely followers for your continued support and encouragement over the last 12 months. I feel truly blessed to have made so many friends, some real and many only in cyberland and I look forward to many more chats and laughs over the coming year. You are an amazing bunch and you never fail to brighten my day.

WOYWW 133 Christmas Has Arrived

Afternoon lovely Crafty Friends and WOYWWers. It's time for a last nosey at all your desks before the big day arrives and on the Winter Solstice too. If you have just come out of hibernation and have missed all this WOYWW fun then get yourself over to our DeskMistress Julia, HERE and join in all the fun. It's addictive.

I love this week full of preparation and expectation, it's my favourite time. Lots of cooking and wrapping with Christmas songs on the radio and of course food shopping, not looking forward to that bit.


Here's my desk today with those last minute pressies still being made. I can't tell you who the box is for but I can tell you it started life as a persil tablet box!! I've got some lovely goodies to put inside.


I was lucky enough to be the very happy recipient of some of Lunch Lady Jan's Christmas bunting and here it is gracing my Craft Room. I can't get in there to craft at the minute, it seems to have been taken over by Santa!! but I love seeing the bunting hanging there.


And this last photo is for Jozarty. She asked what our favourite traditions are and one of ours is putting all the baubles we have collected and made over the years on the tree. A lot of them are handmade by both Grandma and DD and they all find a space. We also buy a new decoration each every year so as you can see it's very full but I absolutely love seeing it twinkling in the corner and especially love how the lights shine on the wall behind. Magic!!

I would just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a very Peaceful and Healthy New Year and special wishes to Julia, the lady who brings us altogether on a Wednesday and who we have to thank for many new friendships.

A New Technique For The Stampman Challenge

Afternoon lovely bloggers. Well, just a week to go now until the big day. It's been soooo cold here this week but at least we missed the winds. We were just reminiscing back to last year, can you believe we were under mountains of snow. Doesn't look like it'll be a white Christmas this year, I've checked the forecast and it looks like it'll be mild and damp!!

Over at The Stampman Challenge our lovely teamie, Sue, is asking you to think about a new technique you haven't tried before so if you want a break from all the preparations why not have a go. Jill is offering a £10 voucher to spend at The Stampman for the winner.

I struggled to think of something, as you know I love playing with all sorts of things, but then I remembered seeing a demo somewhere recently where they were stamping with alcohol inks. It appears you can stamp with anything if you try hard enough. Anyway, I'd never tried this.


I made a background by putting the inks on my craft mat with some blending solution and then slooshing some glossy card round in it. The I stamped with the gold mixative and sure enough it works brilliantly. Just for a laugh I then tried with the steam alcohol ink and that worked too although it spread out when it hit the blending solution on the paper but I quite liked that.


The dragonflies were stamped and I then tried colouring them with promarkers which did work OK. Vellum wings were added to the big dragonfly and some stickles.

I inked up some pages from an old book with the alcohol inks and pleated them across the bottom on the page, something else I've never done before.

The rest of the design team have created some beautiful projects with techniques I need to try now so don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog for a peek.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend, whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 132 & Something To Make You Think

Morning lovely Bloggers. I hope I find you well this Wednesday morning and if not I send you wishes for a speedy recovery. Here we are with one more week of workdesks before the big day, can you believe it? I have to admit that now the decorations are up I'm feeling more festive but it still seems like 5 minutes since the Summer holidays!!

I can't wait to see what the rest of you are up to in WOYWW land this week, what's the betting that most desks are full of Christmas preparation? Mine certainly is.


I'm still in Christmas card mode although there are some finished ones now and one has actually been delivered, yes, I know...amazing. My goal is to finish them today, write these and the bought ones and post them tomorrow, well, that's the plan anyway.

If you want to see what the rest of the WOYWWer's are up to pop over to see our Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

I recently came across this little gem and have been meaning to share it with you so as we are approaching a time of year when we tend to end up running around and getting stressed I thought today was the perfect moment. I know time is precious and you don't want to read reams of typing but please do, it's well worth it.

When things in your life seem too much to handle, when 24 hours in the day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.....

A professor stood before his philosophy class with some items in front of him.

He wordlessly picked up a very large, empty mayonnaise jar and filled it with golf balls before asking his class if it was full. They agreed it was.

He then picked up some pebbles and poured them into the jar, shaking it so that they rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar which of course filled up all the remaining spaces. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students all agreed it was now definitely full.

The professor then produced two cups of coffee and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now", said the Professor "I want you to recognise that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things, your health, your family, your children, your friends and your favourite passions, things that if everything else is lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else, the small stuff.

If you put the sand in the jar first there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children, take time for health checkups, take your partner out to dinner, play 18 holes. There will always be time to clean the house and mend the shed roof.

Set your priorities. Take care of the golf balls first, the rest is just sand."

"But what about the coffee?" One of the students asked.

The Professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked that. It just goes to show that how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee."

And with that I'll say thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week. Don't forget the golf balls and the coffee!!!

A Few H20 Samples

Evening all. I hope you all wrapped up safe and warm and out of this wet and windy night. I can hear the rain lashing the windows as I type but it's all snuggly here with Christmas songs on the Ipod and the tree lights twinkling. Yes, I think Christmas has arrived at The Craft Garden, although Christmas cards are STILL being made!!!! I seem to be making a real job out of it this year and keep finding other things to do, naughty!!!

Anyway, as I haven't done anything else crafty over the weekend I thought I'd share some of the cards I made for Sheena Douglass' shows on Create and Craft last Friday. Not many were actually shown on the programmes and as I made quite a few it seems a shame not to share them with you , my blogging friends, instead.


The first one is gold embossed with gold sparkly WOW powder and painted on black card. I love this effect, it's a bit like stained glass.

This was strips of air dry clay with Sheena's fern stamps pressed in and dried. I then painted them with the H20's and rubbed mica powder over to highlight them. The backing paper was made by stamping with paint using the same stamps.


The last one is the violets from the "Wouldn't It Be Lovely" set of stamps painted with the H20's. I made the backing paper by just splodging colour onto watercolour paper.



Right, I'd better go and get those Christmas cards finished so that I can post them tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely evening.

Golden Christmas Pud Recipe

I took this recipe from the Good Food Magazine some years ago and it says it serves 10-12 people so if you want a smaller one I would halve the quantities.

3 tbsp golden syrup
227g can pineapple rings-drained and chopped
grated zest 1 orange
2oz toasted flaked almonds
2oz dried cranberrries
2oz dried apricots
2oz raisins
4oz freshly grated carrot
6oz butter softened
6oz dark muscovado sugar
3 eggs
6oz self raising flour
1tsp cinnamon
2oz fresh white breadcrumbs

1) Butter 3 pint pudding basin and spoon in golden syrup. Put quarter chopped pineapple and cranberries, a few flaked almonds and a little orange zest into the syrup in the bottom of the basin.

2) In a separate bowl mix the rest of the pineapple, orange zest, almonds, cranberries, raisins, apricots and carrot.

3) Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well, then fold in flour, cinnamon and breadcrumbs.

4) Stir fruit mixture into egg mixture and mix well. Pour into pudding bowl and level the top.

5) If microwaving, cover loosely with cling film and microwave on medium for 20 minutes. (Our microwave wasn't a very high powered on so I found it took about 40 minutes checking every 10 mins or so)

6) Or if steaming in a pan of boiling water, butter a piece of greaseproof paper and fold a pleat in the middle. Put over pudding and secure tightly with string . Cover with pleated piece of foil.
Steam for 3 hours checking water level every 30 mins and topping up if necessary.

7) Run a knife around bowl and invert onto a serving plate.

8) Store in a cool dark place for 2 days or freeze for up to 1 month.

WOYWW 131

Morning everyone. Another Wednesday closer to Christmas. I think I need to hide in a dark corner for a while and calm down. The weeks are just flying by in a blur and I don't feel at all ready for the big day. How are all your preparations going? I bet you are all organised.

Another WOYWW and today there is no crafting happening yet....... Christmas cards HAVE to be made later, or at least the important ones. I think I may have to resort to bought ones for those distant relations that have no idea I craft!!


Instead, there is cake make happening, or rather there was at 9.15am when I took this photo. The cake is now out of the oven and smelling delicious. It's just a plain sponge but I make one every year for the Husband of a good friend who sells my cards in her shop as a thank you. It's his birthday on Saturday so that gives me tomorrow to decorate it.

Don't forget to share your desk with the rest of us by visiting the Head Deskmistress, Julia, HERE.


I must also share with you this exciting parcel that arrived this morning from the lovely ladies at the Just Traceys challenge. I was thrilled to win their recent sketch challenge with the LO of my dear Hubby enjoying the sunshine.

Just to prove that I have been busy creating and not just sitting with my feet up thinking about Christmas cards instead of making them, here's one of the cards I made for yet another up coming show on Create and Craft with Sheena this Friday. This time she asked us to play with the new Twinkling H20's and I've had a great time with them. I've had some of the old ones for years and used them to colour the odd butterfly and that was about all but to think about using them in different ways has been exciting. The new colours are beautiful. I think they will quickly become a firm favourite.


Apologies for the slightly out of focus photo!!!


I just clear embossed the tree, the beautiful colours didn't really need anything else.

For those lovely WOYWWer's who asked for the Christmas Pud recipe from last week, I'm going to do a separate post after this one so that I don't bore the rest of you to death with miles of typing to read.

Now, time for a cup of coffee and then those Christmas cards!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Wednesday.

The Stampman Challenge-An Ornament

Hello everyone. How's your week been? I hope you all staying clear of these nasty bugs that are flying about at the minute and if not that you feel better really soon.

It's time for another challenge over at The Stampman and this time Mrs Stampman herself, Jill, has asked us to make an ornament. This can be anything from an altered piece to an ornament shaped card, so plenty of options to play with.


Here's my DT piece this time and as you can see I opted for a Christmas Wreath using the tattered Florals Die. It was a great way of reducing my pile of scraps and very easy to make.


My DD helped with the cutting of all the florals and then scrunching them up before adding a brad and spraying with mica powder to crinkle them further. I added some stickles glitter when they were dry and then stuck them on a doughnut of navy card, cut out by drawing round two plates.


I added some silver elegant Flourishes cut from another die for a bit more interest and a piece of oddment ribbon to hang it up with. It's now hanging on a cabinet in our lounge and looking very seasonal.

Jill is offering a £10 voucher to the winner to spend on her shiny new website so why not have a go. The rest of the DT have some gorgeous projects to give you more inspiration so don't forget to pop over to the Challenge blog and have a look.

Thanks for stopping by and have a really lovely weekend whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 130 and the biggest Christmas Pud in the World.

Morning lovely Bloggers. Here we are at Wednesday again when it's time to share all those delicious workdesks that can be found all over the world on What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. If you don't know what I'm talking about where have you been? Pop over to see our Head Deskmistress, Julia, HERE to find out more.

Here is my mess of a desk today. It's early, hence the lights but as you can see the all important mug of tea has pride of place, next to that cup of peasoup looking liquid which is actually my paint water. Yes, I have nearly mixed them up before you ask!!!


I'm busy getting things done for the School Fayre on Saturday, why do I always decide it's a good idea to try and get another hundred things made three days before the Fayre? I really don't know why I give myself the extra pressure, but my paint fusion wall hangers have been selling like hot cakes lately so I wanted to get some more made before Saturday.


I thought I'd also share the finished Christmas Pud we made last Sunday. My Hubby says it's the biggest pudding he's ever seen. It is a much lighter pud than the traditional one, having no suet but lots of fruit like Apricots and pineapple instead. I also cooked it in the microwave. It only took 20 minutes compared with 6 hours in a steamer. No contest really. We've now cut it into three and put it in the freezer. I think it might well be christened before we get to the big day so I'll let you know how it tastes. It certainly smells good.

Lastly, just to answer so many of your questions last week, this little beauty is a Lantana. This was one of my cossetted plants in full flower in the greenhouse in the Summer.


It was really interesting to learn from my Australian friends that this plant is treated as an invasive weed there. The things we learn on a Wednesday!!

Well, that's me for today so thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Wednesday whatever you are up too.

Some Sparkly Love

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. I hope you are all having a lovely weekend and haven't suffered any damage from the winds during the night if you live in the North of the UK. It banged around a lot here and blew the bins over but I think it always sounds worse than it actually is at night, especially as our bedroom faces due West so we get the full force of it on our windows. I put my head under the covers and I think that was the best place to be.

It's lovely and sunny today but the wind is freezing so I am going to make my Christmas puddings in a minute.

Before that I thought I'd just share another of my Sheena Douglas samples using the Luminarte Radiant Rain sprays and rub on foils. If you are interested in more ways to use these, there are some brilliant tutorials on Sheena's blog which are well worth checking out. You can find them here.


I sprayed some core-dinations paper with the pearl gold spray through the rose stencil and although it doesn't show very well in the photos, it just gives a subtle background on this lovely turquoise colour, one of my favourites.


I cut out the card and stuck it to these Heart chipboard shapes and inked the edges before adding the foils and some silver embossed swirls. The paper flowers were made from white cartridge paper edged with broken china distress ink and then sprayed with the pearl gold spray.

You may be able to spot it in real life on Sheena's shows on Create and Craft tomorrow. She is doing 4 shows, the first at 9am so don't forget to set your Sky Box if you are at work.

Right, I'd better get on with those puddings so thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 129

Afternoon folks. Here we are at Wednesday again which can only mean one thing, it's time to get those desk out again and bare all!!!!!

Well, not much happening on mine today I'm afraid. I have some lovely new stamps to play with which haven't made it out of the packets yet but that's about all.


I've been busy today doing Housework.... yes I know... a naughty word, but we were beginning to disappear under the dust and although I have a very understanding Hubby who never complains and would get the hoover out himself, I always feel guilty if he does.


I've also brought in my Lantanas to try and get them through the winter. I put them in the Conservatory last year and lost the lot so this year they have pride of place in my craft room so that I can nurture them.

I've shown you mine so lets see yours. Pop over to see our honourable leader, Julia HERE and get desk hopping. I will try and get round more desks than I did last week. Apologies if you stopped by here and I didn't manage to return the visit. DT work has just taken over lately.

Talking of which here's another of the projects I made for Sheena with the Luminarte sprays.
I've become totally addicted to doing canvases, everyone will be getting them for Christmas at this rate, and the sprays are great for adding some shimmer.


I stencilled the pale yellow painted background with white acrylic paint through a leaf stencil and then used a bigger leaf stencil to dab clear ink through so that I could clear emboss the stencilled shape. The sprays then picked out the leaf veins.


I added a Paint Fusion pine branch and cone and painted in the word and then stamped with bubble wrap and various swirls using the daubers as ink to add darker detail. They tend to just evolve and it's knowing when to stop, never easy!!!!! I hope I got it right.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday.

More sparkly playing

Hello lovely Bloggers. Did you see The Choir last night? I've only just stopped blubbing!!!! What brilliant TV and what courageous women. I hope Chris Evans succeeds in his quest to get their song released for Christmas.

I've also just been having a catch up with all the lovely things I've missed over the weekend while I've had my head buried in my craft stash and I apologise if I haven't managed to get round to everyone yet. I'll get there eventually.

Here's another of my Sheena Douglass DT samples. I had so many bits of paper and card sprayed, it was difficult to know where to start so I thought I'd stick to what I feel happiest with and do a scrapbook layout.


The blue card was sprayed with a Luminarte gold pearl radiant rain though a rose stencil. It shows up nicely but is very hard to photograph.


The circle was one of my first plays with the colours. I just sprayed them onto cartridge paper to see what colours I had and they made an interesting background that worked with the photo of one of my roses. I also sprayed the cuttlebugged title letters and the flowers.


If this was a layout I was keeping I would've added some journalling which I always feel is the most important part of doing a layout but as it wasn't I didn't!!!! Does that make sense?

Well, that's me for today so thank you for stopping by and I hope your Tuesday is going well so far.

Sheena Douglass Sneaky Peaks

Evening folks. How has your Monday been? I hope you've all managed to shake off that horrible fog if you live in the UK. We are not used to inclement weather this Autumn are we?

I have been closeted all weekend making DT samples after a box of lovely goodies arrived last week from Sheena Douglass headquarters. It was like an early Christmas with lots of lovely Luminarte mica sprays and daubers, core'dinations card, various stencils and lovely foil rub ons and instructions to get messy.

I never need much persuasion to get messy and that is exactly what I got, getting very strange looks when I popped to the shops and handed over my money with sparkly green fingers!!!

Anyway, here is the first card I came up with.


I sprayed some thin watercolour card with lots of colour and then covered it with cling film and wrinkled it up before letting it dry. The mica sparkle settles into the wrinkles and makes a lovely background for stamping onto. I didn't want to cover up too much of it so kept the stamping simple colouring the image with a brown whisper pen and the moon with an orange one.


The flowers are embossed with Bark Wow powders, my favourite colour at the moment and then I sprayed some cuttlebug embossed card with matching colours and coloured my matting layers and ribbon with a promarker to match.


Sheena will be launching these sparkly lovelies on Create and Craft on 28th November and I shall be back tomorrow with some more sneaky peaks.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm off to enjoy the wondeful Garath Malone teaching those wonderful ladies to sing.

A New Challenge At The Stampman-Tim's Tags Inspiration

Afternoon lovely Bloggers from a very dismal Yorkshire. We had amazing sunshine yesterday but today it's just grey and drizzly. No one day is ever the same at the minute is it?

It's time for a new challenge over at The Stampman and this week the lovely Brenda has asked us to be inspired by one of Tim's Christmas tags to produce anything we fancy, it can be a tag, card, altered project or anything else your creative juices can come up with. There are plenty of them so you should find something to inspire you.

I was inspired by this tag



but didn't want to make it Christmassy so went for Autumn colours instead.


I covered my tag with old music paper and then inked it with distress inks, using one of Tim's decorative edge dies as a mask. The Funky Flower was painted with Starburst Stains and Cosmic Shimmer mists. I cut it out and covered it with glossy accents.


Unfortunately I don't own a single one of Tim's metal embellishments so had to make my own by triple embossing with silver embossing powder. They are a bit rough round the edges and I would have preferred to use the proper thing, but hey ho, that's life.

Don't forget to have a look at what the rest of the Design Team have created, they are stunning.

As always we have a £10 voucher on offer for the winner to spend at The Stampman's brand new website and there are plenty of lovely goodies on there to tempt you.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend whatever you are up too.

WOYWW 128-Sugar & Spice and All Things Nice

Morning Folks. I hope I find you well this Wednesday. I know we all say it but WOYWW comes around every other day, or so it feels.

So, what's on my desk today? It changes on a daily basis at the minute. I'm in full Christmas flow and today am making some sugarpaste characters to sell at the school Christmas Fayre along with lots of cards and some fabric hearts for which I have to thank my WOYWW friend Lunch Lady Jan for the inspiration.


I've discovered that the kids like things they can buy with their pocket money and it's the parents that buy the cards. The lovely children are my best customers so I have to think what appeals to them. It's a steep learning curve doing Fayres, but I'm getting there.

My DD loved these characters after we saw Ann Pickard making them on Create and Craft and the instructions are so clear in her book that they are a pleasure to make.

Here are my first penguins...


And don't you just love Mr Snowman



I've got choir boys and Eskimos to have a go at now so excuse the quick post. I need to get finished so that I can have a good nosey round everyone else's desks.

If you want to join in with all this desk madness then pop over to see Head Deskmistress, Julia, HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and for all your lovely comments. I feel blessed every day for belonging to such a lovely community.

A Rare Sight!

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. I hope, like us, you've been enjoying some gorgeous sunshine this Saturday, after what has been a very dreary, damp week. I've had washing out and the windows open and it certainly lifts the spirits.

Thank you for all your kind wishes for everyone. I'm pleased to say everyone is doing fine and my cold is a lot better apart from bunged up sinuses. Aren't the tail ends of colds worse than the things themselves?

Anyway, as I've been confined indoors for most of the week I indulged in some scrapbooking, a rare thing these days, and decided to take part in the sketch challenge over at Just Traceys.


Sometimes a sketch is just what you need to get started and I really enjoyed this one.


I took this photo a few weeks ago during an outing to Harewood House. The flowers were stunning and so was the weather and I caught DH sunning himself unawares while we were taking some photos of the beautiful borders.


I made some twisted flowers from old book pages and inked them with spiced marmalade distress ink for my embellishments


and the big letter was core-dinations card embossed and sanded. I coloured in the "doing" with permanent markers to match. The papers are all Basic Grey which, along with Bo Bunny, are my favourites.

I really must do more pages. I've so many photos waiting to be done. Maybe that should be my New Years Resolution!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Lets hope this sunshine is here to stay for awhile.

WOYWW 127

Morning all from a dark and gloomy Yorkshire this Wednesday. I'm not sure I like this November weather. I feel cocooned with the lights on although I have a stinking cold and haven't been out of the house since Saturday so it's been quite cosy.

I'm so glad to be back amongst all you lovely WOYWWer's this week. Sorry I was missing in action last week. We have had my MIL in hospital for a week with a mystery illness so one of us was shooting off to Leeds each teatime to visit while the other got tea and looked after DD. Thankfully she is home now and recovering but still a mystery!!!!. My Mum had a cataract op last Friday so I was looking after her on Saturday, not that she really needed looking after. It's incredible what they can do nowadays. She was fair bouncing and couldn't get over how much she can see. I got home from her house and promptly went down with the lurgy. I think we're all in need of another holiday!!!!!


Thankfully, I have now got back to some crafting therapy and so here's my desk this morning. I had to use the flash on my camera as it's so dark but as you can see I'm back to the pink canvas for my dear MIL.

I added the sweet peas yesterday. I absolutely love painting sweetpeas using Sheena's paint fusion. They are so easy and you get a lovely result. They have been liberally sprayed with glimmer mist so have a lovely shimmer. I'm now on with the green swirly edges but am not happy with it yet so will play a bit more today.


I have lots of desks to catch up with so am off to have a good nosey around now. If you want to join me pop over HERE to see Julia, head WOYWWer.

Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy your Wednesday what ever you are up too.

A New Challenge At The Stampman

Well here we are on yet another Friday. I'm sorry I've been a bit absent this week. There's lots been happening in The Craft Garden which has meant blogging has had to take a back seat for a while.

I've managed to scrap in just in time with my DT project for the new Stampman Challenge. Our lovely Team mate Angela has set the theme of Collage and has done a brilliant Tutorial on the Challenge site to give you lots of ideas.


Initially I struggled when I put my mind to this theme but I was inspired by an article by Tracy Evans in Craft Stamper. She used a collage background and these paper moulds. I already had a stack of these ready made after seeing Sheena Douglass demonstrate them years ago but had never used them. I coloured the dragonfly with Starburst Stains and then painted the wings in with Crushed Olive distress ink.


They are very easy to make. You just layer about 6 sheets of very cheap tissues over your stamp. Spray them well with water and then stipple the paper into the stamp with a stiff brush. They need to be left to dry for 24 hours and then carefully removed from the stamp. The impression of the stamp stays in the paper.

I made the background with Broken China and Crushed Olive Distress ink, layering up all sorts of images, bubble wrap stamping and sequin waste and sticking on some inked ripped text. The edges are embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Lapis Sapphire UTEE Embossing powder and the background of the main card is blended Broken China with little flowers stamped all over.


If you haven't found it yet, The Stampman have a great new Website. They are still in the process of getting things loaded up but there's lots of goodies to be found including all the things I've used on this project. The winner of the challenge will win a voucher to spend on it too so why not check out Angela's tutorial and have fun with your collage.

Thanks for stopping by and have a happy and safe Bonfire Night.