The Stampman's Swirls and Curls

Morning lovely Bloggers. It's nearly the weekend again. Where do these weeks go too?

It's time for a new challenge over at The Stampman and this time our lovely team mate Sue has set the theme of Swirls and Curls. Bet that got you all excited didn't it. Who can resist swirls, I know I can't. I have to have them on everything.


Here's what I came up with and I made all the paper on it myself and had a lovely, messy time.

Making your own backgrounds is so much fun and also so much cheaper because you already have all the stuff and I generally use cheap printer paper unless it's for the main body of the card when I use either stiffer card or in this case some watercolour paper.

Here's the original sheets for all the things I used on my card.


The first is the watercolour paper sprayed with moonshadow mist Treasure Island Aqua (don't you just love that name). It had a few swirls stamped all over it from Kay Carley's Funky Flowers stamps and I then used a Tim Holtz mask and sponged over it with Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks.


There is a lovely shimmer from the Moonshadow mist.


The die cut swirls where cut from a sheet of printer paper that had been liberally splattered with French Country Starburst stains and then scrunched up, carefully opened and left to dry. The colours all blend and go soft and the creases have a beautiful shimmer.


For the flower I used another sheet of printer paper. Put some distress ink on my craft mat sprayed with water and then swiped the paper over it. When it was dry, the Tim Holtz swirls were stamped all over with perfect medium and heat embossed with Cosmic Shimmer gold powder.


I cut up the whole sheet and die cut some Tattered Flowers, the extras will come in handy in the future.

The piece of matting was card with bundled sage DI rubbed round the edge and I used the same colour to stamp the swirls on the main card.


Lastly, I didn't have any gold brads so I used some purple ones, dipped them in gold EP and this is the result.

A few liquid pearls were added for a bit more swirl effect, well you can never have enough can you?

All the things I used can be bought from The Stampman so come on show us your Swirls and Curls, the Stampman have a £10 voucher on offer as the first prize.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend whatever you are doing.

WOYWW and some Exciting News

Happy Wednesday everyone. How's your week going so far? The weather hasn't cheered up much although it's a bit milder here today.


Here's my desk this WOYWW with a scrapbook page in full flow. Yeah, crafting for myself for once, a rare thing these days!! It's at the planning stage with nothing stuck down and lots of ideas floating about so you'll have to wait a few days to see the finished result.

If you're wondering what WOYWW is, where have you been? Pop over to see our esteemed leader Julia and check out some of the wonderful workspaces that are laid bare each week.

Now, on to the exciting news. I was very honoured a few weeks ago to get an e-mail from the very talented Sheena Douglass asking me to join her Design Team. Well to say I was gobsmacked was an understatement and once I'd picked myself up off the floor I jumped at the chance.

My first huge box of goodies arrived last week and I've had a lovely play this week. Can't say too much at the moment but if you love what Sheena does and enjoy getting messy take a peek at Create and Craft on Friday at Noon where she has a great Pick of the Week.

I have also received this award from two of my lovely blogging buddies, Lynda and Eiglas. Thank you so much ladies, I appreciate it enormously. As you know I can never choose who to pass awards onto, there are so many talented people out, there so I'd like to give it to anyone who visits, please feel free to help yourself.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the wonderfully generous comments you always leave. DD was absolutely delighted to receive so many for her box.

An Altered Shoebox

Morning lovely Bloggers. What has happened to the weather. It's been shocking here over the weekend. We even had fresh snow on Saturday although it was very wet and soggy, not nice at all. Today has been so dark and dismal with more sleet and we've had to have lights on all day. Where have the hints of Spring gone? I hope they come back soon!

Do you remember when DD won the tag challenge over at Try It On Tuesday some weeks back? Well her prize was to be a team guest designer for a week and this is the week. The theme is to alter a shoebox and we had a great day playing with paints, sprays and ink and this is the result. DD decided on the colours and what she wanted to do and I just supervised and suggested a few ideas. All the work is hers using lot of the techniques she learnt from Michelle and Janet on their Art Journalling workshop last Summer . Not bad for a nine year old don't you think?


The box is painted with various acrylic paints and then she used bubble wrap with another paint colour to add more texture. It was then stamped on and sprayed with glimmer mists using a big swirl mask.


We had a slight argument!!!! over the colours. DD chose a lime green mist which gave sparkle but didn't show up very well. When I suggested a turquoise colour she was not happy saying it would ruin it. Dad just shook his head and left the room muttering something about living in a house full of women!!! Anyway, she let me demonstrate on some scrap paper and then decided to give it a go. Thankfully she was happy with the result otherwise I would never have heard the end of it.


She stamped the butterflies from the EI Patchwork butterflies plate, painted them with Twinkling H20's and cut them out. The swirly trails were from the same plate and she used the same swirls to edge the lid.

The box contains all her paper dolls with the press out clothes that you attach through slots on the doll. Do you remember having them when you were young? I do. DD still loves playing with them and has a huge collection. They now have a very smart home to live in.

I love the fact that my daughter loves crafting as much as I do and shows a real talent for it already. There are many occasions when we do something together and I think her composition or the colours she's chosen are better than mine. We have spent the whole day painting today. There can't be many Mums who have such contented children on a wet half term Monday and yes, I do know how lucky I am and immensely proud.

Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW

Happy Wednesday all you WOYWWer's and all my other lovely blogging buddies. Hasn't it been an absolutely glorious day. The crocuses have been showing their faces to the sun and Spring was definitely in the air. Wonderful. I have also just read that I have been breathing the same Yorkshire air as one Tim Holtz who is doing some workshops in Harrogate tomorrow and who has been shopping in Leeds today. He must almost have driven past my house!!!!! Enjoy it Sylvia, I want every last detail my friend!!!!!

Now back to WOYWW and here's my desk today after I dragged myself in out of the garden.


I had lots of new promarkers for my birthday and so have been trying to improve my colouring. I have loved the cute Country Companions characters for years and so was thrilled when these sets of stamps were released by do-crafts. I merrily stamped away and then realised that colouring them was a bit of a challenge. How do you colour a Hedgehog?

I bit the bullet and this was the result. I don't think they are too bad. All the tutorials I have been watching lately are beginning to pay off although I still find colouring quite stressful, not relaxing like painting with distress inks.


These cheeky chappies have yet to be made into a card but here's one I managed to finish this afternoon before making tea.


If you haven't yet shared your desk with the rest of us, what are you waiting for, get yourself over to our esteemed leader, Julia who lives in the Stamping Ground and and be prepared to be amazed by some pretty stunning desks and creations that happen on them.

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for your help on my change of blog address problem, they are all up and running now. What a great bunch you are.

Happy Valentine's Day

Morning Lovely Bloggers and Happy Valentine's Day. I hope you all have a little bit of love in the air today.


For those of you who haven't received anything special I'd like to send you this beautiful little snowdrop that I snapped in the garden last week looking beautiful and full of the promise of Spring.

Frankie's Tag It on Challenge this week is Time and here is the tag I had great fun playing with.


The background is Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink spritzed with water and then the Tim Holtz clock stamped in the same ink, along with the sentiment.

The little watch (and sentiment) was the Craft Stamper freebie this month stamped with a Stampin Up ink around the edge and then another embossed and cut out with a bit more DI painted on the face before glossy accents were applied.

Before I go I wonder if anyone knows how to update a blog address. I have a couple of blogs I'm following that have moved to new addresses recently and I can't seem to update them on my blog so new posts are not showing on the dashboard. I'm probably missing something obvious but would be really grateful for some help.

Thanks for stopping by and for the wonderful comments you always leave. I appreciate them so much.

The Stampman's Hearts Challenge

Morning lovely Bloggers. Here we are at the end of another week which means it's the start of a new challenge at The Stampman.

This week we are asking you to think about Hearts and for my design project I wanted to get away from the usual red, black and pink associated with Valentine's and this is what I came up with.


It started life when I saw an article in this months Craft Stamper about making a background by stamping onto cream and white paper with different background type stamps, ripping them into strips and sticking them together in a collage effect on an A4 piece of card before giving them a coat of gesso. I used various stamps from the Aspects of Design Nautical and Daisy Daydreams stamps and some old music paper I had in my stash (thanks Janet). This was the end result.


I then gave mine a very thin coat of lime green acrylic paint wiping it on with a baby wipe. When it was all dry a very pale starburst stain was daubed all over to give it a shimmer. I then stamped some swirls from Kay Carley's Funky flowers around the edge in Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

The Heart was triple embossed with Cosmic Shimmer UTEE and then stamped into with a Funky Flower stamp and highlighted with moonglow mica powder. I then wrapped some gold thread around it.


I coloured some scraps from the background strips with Broken China Distress Ink and clear embossed them for the little bits on the edge and then made some more hearts by hand cutting them from thin card and adding more UTEE until the colour was deep enough. One was added to the Swirly clip with some seed beads.


The sentiment was done on the computer and coloured with more Broken China.


It started life as a card but I always begin with just a basic idea and things tend to develop as I go along so I ended up with a wall hanging!!

The Stampman has all the products I used (apart from the music paper and the ribbon which was some I found on holiday in Austria last year) in stock at their shop or on the website and we can't wait to see what ideas you come up with this time.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

WOYWW-Not Much Really

Afternoon lovely Bloggers and Happy WOYWW. How's your week going so far? Can you believe it's Wednesday again already. I really don't know where the weeks go to.


I'm sorry to say there isn't much on my workdesk this week. I've been having a big tidy up and trying to organise myself better so the only thing on my desk is a binder full of Scrabooking magazines that I've been looking through in the hope of finding some new ideas.


I've had a sticky time mounting all my rubber stamps onto U- Mount. Is there a worse job? They have then all been mounted onto laminated sheets and filed away hopefully in some sort of order.


I've also organised all my card and paper into colour schemes and done the same with my scrap in the hope that it'll be used more.


I was very lucky to receive some beautiful cards from some wonderful Blogging buddies recently when yet another birthday slipped by and it always seems a shame to put them away after a week, so I display them in my craft room along with all the other things I've received over the years and bits and pieces that have been collected.

If you're wondering why on earth I'm showing you all this, it's the madness that has become WOYWW. If you want to discover more then you need to pop over to see the lady in charge, Julia, who will make you very welcome and explain what it's all about.

Just to prove that a little bit of crafting has happened in The Craft Garden, here is another card I made using those beautiful Marion Emberson stamps stamped on a Nestie that works beautifully with these shaped cards from Craftwork Cards.

I was thrilled to receive an award from a Australian Blogger I met through WOYWW, Shaz In Oz, who is a very talented Calligraphy artist, among other things. As you know, I can never choose who to pass awards onto, everyone deserves them, so please help yourself if you'd like it.


Thanks for stopping by and for all of you out there who love doing challenges I have just heard of another one that is starting up. You can find them here. They are also looking for new DT members. These days when there are so many craft shops disappearing it's lovely to hear about a new one. Just Traceys Crafts are based in the West Country and I know they'd love your support.

A Touch Of Love

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. Are you surviving this awful weather? We've had terrible winds over the last couple of days but I know my Blogging buddies in Scotland have just about been blown away. I hope it's better for you today. We just have rain here.

I've been nursing a horrible cold this week that waited until I'd been out for a belated Birthday lunch with a friend on Wednesday before it decided to really hit home so I can't complain really. Thankfully, it's a lot better today so I've been making marmalade and these are the results.


It looks yummy doesn't it. I don't like sweet marmalade so find making my own I can get it just right. This little lot should last until next January, I've just finished last year's batch. If you'd like the receipe you can find it here.


I also managed to finish the Valentines card that was on my desk the other week so here it is. It's very simple and straight forward. I stamped one half and used embossed red card for the other with some heart ribbon in the middle. I used a Martha Stewart punch on black card and the sentiment is computer generated.

As we are nearly at Valentine's Day I'd better show you another one I made.


For this one I used the big SU Medallion stamp just clear embossed on black card. The heart was hand cut and mounted on some paper I made myself on the computer. I'm going to enter this one into the Try It On Tuesday challenge this week which is Love and they are being sponsored by One Stop Card Crafts so it's well worth checking out.


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

Making A Statement

Morning everyone. I thought they said it was supposed to feel a bit milder today, it doesn't feel it to me, although I am struggling with a bit of a cold so maybe that's it. The sunshine has just made an appearance though which is nice to see.

Frankie over at Tag It On has set the challenge of a tag Making a Statement this week. I knew straight away that I wanted to use my favourite poem "He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven" by WB Yeats but wasn't sure how to include it. In the end I decided to just use the last two lines which is my favourite bit and used the computer to print it on. A tricky operation. You have to print it on a piece of A4 paper first and then tape the tag over the text in the right place with some masking tape and then run it through the printer again. It took two attempts to get it right, but I think it looks OK.


I used a paper mask for the moon and then blended some pigment ink over it shading from light to dark. I love using pigment ink because you can blend it to get a lovely soft effect. It stays wet longer so you can keep playing with it and the colours blend into themselves easier than dye inks.


I used the same ink to stamp this beautiful butterfly stamp from Imagination Crafts.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Tuesday.