More cards with Photos for Just Stamps Magazine

Once more I'd like to share some photo cards with you.
The one on the left is featured in the current issue of Just Stamps Magazine.

The one on the right is a recent variation of that card and will be entered into the Artistic Outpost Referral Program.

I just love the filmstrip stamp as it is so versatile, you could create this card with your own photos and have an instant personalized card for any occassion.
These are all photos of my dad when he was younger.

Offcut notepads and new Art Journey Stamps

I have gone a little crazy making notebooks in the past 2 weeks. When I cut my pages I have these long pieces of paper left over and I thought why not bind them too, with a nice cover, they would make a good pad for writing lists. I am a bit of a fan of writing lists, whether it's shopping, to do or things to make, anything gets listed.

So for this one I used some sticky canvas that was sprayed with inks and stamped with the new Art Journey stamp from the Pen Nibs set.
I saw these in Craft Stamper and just had to have them, but it turned out they had not even been released. One email later my order was in and I absolutely love the writing stamp, it'll be a new favourite of mine. Perfect for backgrounds or notebook covers.

So this one is being entered into the Art Journey Challenge where the theme is Autumn Colours.

Another bunch of offcuts was made into this notepad. It is fabric covered and then I stamped some Artistic Outpost Images on the front. This I am entering into the Artistic Outpost Referral Program.

Watch this space for the actual notebooks I have been creating, after all these are just the offcut pads. I am loving my little notebook collection, I think I made about 15 or so. They will make fab little gifts so pop back to check them out!

Handmade Notebook with a tad of embossing

I made a few more notebooks for the craft fair and out of the 5 I finished off yesterday, this one if my favourite. It's A5 with white pages and the cover has been made using Tim Holtz papers, green and gold shimmer mists and the embossed image is by Artistic Outpost (The Outpost).

I am entering this into the Simon says Challenge - Emboss it and the Gingersnap Challenge - Mists. And not to forget the Artistic Outpost Referral Program.

Oh have I mentioned I made the Top 10 on the Gingersnap blog for the first time, yeah I'm so pleased I'm a Ginger Gem.

Dad's Day Collage

I know I keep saying I love these stamps and those are my favourites etc but Artistic Outpost are definitely in my top 5. The steampunk set I used here is perfect for male cards such as Father's Day. I combined it with others stamps here (the tree and birds by Andy Skinner). But the whole set is just fab. I got a whole long list of their stamps I want. Well, the list of stamps I want always gets longer, never shorter.

This is going into the Artistic Outpost Referral Program.

Accidental ATC's are the best

Whilst trying to make the ATC on the right I also by accident made the one on the left. I used a cream card base and stamped the Ephemeral Background from Artistic Outpost on it with distress ink. As we all know distress ink stays wet for quite a while and when I went to stamp the persepective image and sprinkle it with embossing powder, a lot of the powder stuck to the distress ink. So I just brushed it all off and decided to start again. But I liked the faintly stamped image of the perspective columns and used it to create this ATC. The design I actually wanted to achieve is the one on the right, I let the distress ink background dry for ages and that time the embossing powder didnt stick to it.

I really love both these atc's as i love that column stamp. But the accidental atc is my favourite. I may have to try use that design to make a card with it, I'm just in love with it!

Vintage Birdie and a few challenges....

I came across a video yesterday of Tim demonstrating the new distress stains and I had not thought of using them to ink up stamps. Makes perfect sense as they are just liquid ink pads but it was so obvious it didnt cross my mind. So I gave that a go today and created that vintage background using an Artistic Outpost stamp - "Ephemeral Backgrounds" (have I mentioned how much I love their stamps at the momen?!?!). The effect works so well with this old writing, just perfect! The idea with the birdcage I think also came from a similar card from the Artistc Outpost page, I have been browsing so many blogs and pages recently I cant even remember where I've seen half the things.
By the way, the grungeboard cage has also been coloured with distress stain, I think my new favourite thing is to colour grungeboard, the liquid distress makes it sooooo much easier than colouring it with a blending tool.
So this is being entered into the Simon says Stamp and Show Challenge as well as the Artistic Outpost Referral Program.

Not made any ATC's in ages.....

....until today.

Just thought the other day that I hadnt made any in so long so I gave it a shot today. I am still loving the Artistic Outpost Ephemeral Backgrounds, the telegram and postcard and fab for making vintage themed things.

I made a third one, but it's still drying so I'll share that later.

In the meantime I'll go an enter these into the Artistic Outpost Referral Program.

More Mothers Day Inspiration....

It's great being able to spend the whole day crafting again and with a rehearsal-free week ahead even more time to get crafty!!
I am just loving Artistic Outpost stamps at the moment, I created this card using the Happiness stamps of theirs.
It's just one of many Mothers Day cards I've been making today, some turned out great, others not so, but it's a question of taste I guess.

I am entering this into the Stampman Challenge - Mothers Day & Floral Theme as well as The Artistic Stamper - Spring has Sprung Challenge.

New Art Parts and catching up.....

I've just had a 2 day weekend, it's amazing, everyone should try it! Oh hang on, it's just me who normally only gets 1 day off a week. Bugger.
So I finally had a full day crafting today and I managed to catch up on a lot of things like my magazine contributions and Alter it monthly. And got a chance to play with some metal (more of that later in the week) and also had a little play with the new art parts pocket watch, when I first saw it I knew I had to have them! It's amazing. I used an Artistic Outpost image here and filled the whole thing with UTEE afterwards and sprinkled some beads on top. I really like these, but still not quite sure how to display them. Any great suggestions please leave a comment. Maybe stick a few on a canvas and display them on the wall?

I also managed to bring my Flickr Gallery up to date and got to put all new pictures on my Website next. Still keeping busy and plenty more overtime hours at work to come but at least I feel like I'm on top of things again. Yeah!!!

Also really wanting to do more workshops this year, maybe artsy crafts or something to do with art journalling. I'll have to do my research and get planning!!

Somewhere over the rainbow....

Yes, more Wizard of Oz inspired cards.....
I recently bought the retro style embossing folders set of Tim's and although I've never been a huge lover of embossing folders I am loving this rays one. I used it so much in the past couple of days. I went a bit mad with my spray inks on some watercolour paper here, loving bright colours at the moment.








As for this one, it is another stamp from the Oz Collage set from The Artistic Outpost. I have struggled coming up with an idea for the scarecrow so far but it was worth the wait, I really do like this one. The rays add such a nice feel to the background I find.

Check out The Artistic Outpost Blog and also their website for the latest stamps.

I'm off to see the wizard yet again.....

As mentioned before I'm busy working on my Wizard of Oz cards at the moment and here is another 3 creations I rustled up yesterday. The idea with the brick embossing folder did come from the Artistic Outpost Website though, I love looking through their gallery for ideas, you should try it out some time!

Also check out the Artistic Outpost Blog for more great ideas and their referral program where you can win vouchers to their shop. I'm off to link my cards now!!

I also came up with a card for Glinda, it's a tall card, a format I don't really use much, but it works well here.

It's a plain white card with a small fairy and sprakly background and some gems. Quick and easy.

We're off to see the wizard....

Having been working on Wizard since the beginning of January means that I have not been able to get DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD out of my head! It is really rather annoying when you find yourself singing it over and over in your head. But hey, there's worse things I'm sure.

So I wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day and wanna share with you one of my wizard cards, of course it has to be the tin man with his lovely heart as it's valentine's day.
I'm currently busy making cards for everyone at work ready for opening night. Think I should really make a list and see how many I need.

Don't forget to check out The Artistic Outpost site with their fab stamps and their blog too! The set I've used here is called Oz Collage.

Break a leg in Kansas....

What an odd title you may think?! Well let me explain how these cards came to life....

I am currently working in the London production on "The Wizard of Oz" and we have been rehearsing since January and been very busy behind the scenes and for any of you who know the story, it starts in Kansas...
There was me browsing for lovely new stamps on the internet when I stumbled across this image by The Artistic Outpost and it immediately reminded me of our set on stage. So I simply had to buy them and thought they would make nice cards for opening night. And as you probably know we dont wish each other good luck as that would be bad luck so it's break a leg instead. All make sense now?





I've been playing around with distress inks and splattered the card ith water and used a distress background stamp, all making it look nice and vintagy and distressed, like our set on stage.

Of course I also had to buy the Wizard of Oz stamp set and I'll be showing my creations here soon so watch this space.

I have always loved the images used in Artistic Outpost Stamps but didn't own a set until now. It definitely won't be my last purchase from their range. And I can finally join in on the Referral Program to be in with a chance of winning more of their great stamps. Yeah! Check out the blog here.