The Stamp Man's Distress Challenge

Hi everyone.  For those of you who are going to The Craft Barn's Extravaganza Weekend (tomorrow and Sunday) I hope to see you there!!  But meanwhile it is time for The Stamp Man's next challenge which this time is 'Distress'.  Now I must admit that I don't really do distress so I chose just to use the Distress Inkpads for my card to qualify for the theme!

I began by using two of the Distress inkpads - Tattered Rose and Shabby Shutters to create my background papers and then stamped over them using the flourish stamp from my Funky Frames stamp sheet.

Next I stamped out one of the flower frames from this sheet and watercoloured them using the Distress inkpads. Then once the image was dry I added some Diamond glitter glue for some sparkle.

I'm sure that many of you can do 'distress' much better than me so why not hop on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge blog and find out how to enter and check out the other DT's creations whilst you are there!

Anything Goes Easel Card

Hi guys.  Well it's time for another Stamp Man Challenge and this time we want to see your easel cards.  The theme for this is Anything Goes so the subject matter is entirely up to you - the only criteria is that it needs to be an easel card.

This is the one that I made for this challenge and is actually my first easel card ever!!  I like the idea of easel cards - I just don't get the time to play around and do them as they are a little bit more work than a normal card.

The stamps are all from my Funky Frames stamp sheet and the paper is Arabella by Basic Grey.  Both of which came from The Stamp Man.  For this card I just had to use my Martha Stewart Monarch Butterfly and Floral Lace edging punches too as they went so well with the stamps - both of these are from The Craft Barn.  Infact it seems I went a bit 'punch mad' as I also used my EK Success Flourish punch and Retro Flowers. (The Hobby House)

Here's a closer look at the main panel of the card.  As you can see I used the flourish (from the Funky Frames sheet) to stamp onto the background of the card to add some interest using both a Versamark inkpad and a Starlite Black Brilliance inkpad.

I didn't have any ribbon to match my card so I simply took one of my green Copic markers and used the chisel end to colour a length of white ribbon.  These markers are just SO handy!!  Not only do I colour ribbon with them but also things like pearls and gemstones when I don't have the right colour to match my card.  (Jill - take note you should definitely stock these!!  LOL!!)  This time around I had the perfect match with my gemstones though which came from The Hobby House.

So no prizes for guessing what I coloured my image with!!  What can I say.....................I just LOVE the crisp, clean, printed look that can be achieved with the Copic markers.  You just don't get this with any of the other colouring mediums.  I am most definitely hooked on them!! (I'm afraid I didn't make a note of the colours I used for this though so no numbers this time!)  I  managed to get my hands on some Craftwork Cards Digital Smooth White card (which I used on this card) and I must say that the Copic markers blended really easily on it.  It's really affordable too - retailing at £9.95 for a pack of 50 A4 sheets! 

So don't forget to head on over to The Stamp Man's Challenge Blog to find out how to enter this challenge and to check out all the wonderful samples that the rest of the DT made.

The Stamp Man's Second Challenge

Hi everyone. Today is the start of The Stamp Man's 2nd Challenge which is Take Two Colours. As you can see from my card I opted for some nice bright colours of purple and green which I thought would make a nice fresh looking card. 

For the background I used the Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers embossing folder and some plain vellum. After I'd embossed it I coloured the reverse side of the vellum with some markers in order to pick out the detail of the embossing.

For the main panel I used one of my stamps from the Funky Flowers stamp sheet and coloured this using Coloursoft pencils and Sansador in order to give it a soft muted feel.  I then took one of the flourishes from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and stamped and embossed around the flowers using Versamark and Crystal embossing powder.

The birthday wording is from my Funky Frames stamp sheet.

I really hope you like the card and fancy having a go at submitting a card of your own into our challenge. Click here to go and visit the Challenge blog and find out what you need to do to enter.

Enjoy your weekend!

Zesty Flowers

Well guys, I must say that I am truly touched by your faith in me regarding my last post!!  Unfortunately you were all right and I did indeed succumb to one or two (!) things whilst I was at Stamp Addicts.  I have taken a photo but haven't had chance to upload it as yet but I will endeavour to do so in the next few days.  I will truly end up skint at this rate!!  I am hoping that I can do better this weekend at The Glitter Pot!!

So today as I haven't got my 'shopping photos' ready for you yet I thought I'd share a card that we did some while ago now for one of my Glitter Pot classes using my Funky Frames stamp sheet.  This was a more advanced class using Distress Inks as all of the card was made using stamps and inks.  I love to do this but I must admit that more recently I have taken to using pretty background papers quite a lot purely because it is so much quicker!!  However there is always something deeply satisfying about making your own papers and of course by using some of the same colours of Distress Inks to colour with that you've used to make the background means that your imagery will automatically tone in with the rest of your card!

The swirls that you can see on the card itself were taken from my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet and the wording came from the Funky Frames sheet.  I hope you like it!  With all the lovely sunshine we have been having I thought that the fresh, zesty colours of this card would be most appropriate.  I do hope that wherever you are that you too are enjoying some lovely weather.

Pink Butterflies

So then guys what do you think to my 'new look' to my blog?  My great friend Isabelle has been busy beavering away to create this for me and personally I think she has done a fantastic job especially as 'lilac' really isn't her colour! Lol!!  She took her inspiration for the blog background from two cards that I sent to her featuring the Sarah Kay and Whiff Of Joy girl images that you can see and I am absolutely 'wowed' with what she has created!!  What do you think??  I am sure that after all her hard work Isabelle would love to hear your comments!!  There are still a few little tweaks to be made so bear in mind that this is work in progress!!

Anyway onto the card that I have to share with you today.  Not one of my better efforts I'm afraid as I was really pushed for time when I made this!!  Also the materials that I was allowed to work with were really limited as this was done for one of The Stamp Man's TV shows.  I don't know about you but I am never entirely happy with cards I produce when I have to work within a very restricted materials list and always feel that they are rather basic looking but maybe that is just me!!

A lot of you by now will no doubt recognise the imagery! The main image is from my Funky Frames stamp sheet and the wording and flourishes are from my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet both of which can of course be purchased from The Stamp Man.

Citrus Flowers

What a lovely sunshiney morning we have got today on the south east coast of the UK.  So as the sun is out I thought a nice, fresh card would be most appropriate!!  This is a card that we did at The Glitter Pot a little while ago using my Funky Frames stamp sheet for the main image and the Fancy Flourish stamp sheet for the background and wording along with distress inkpads. 

By using inkpads both to create your backgrounds and to colour your main imagery it means you won't have any problems with the getting a colour match!

Distress inkpads used:
Dried Marigold
Spiced Marmalade
Scattered Straw
Mustard Seed
Shabby Shutters
Peeled Paint