Craft Stamper 3d Challenge: Altoid Tin

I finally got my hands on a copy of Craft Stamper yesterday and the day before, my project had been returned to me in the post so I thought I'd share some more detailed photos of the project.

We were sent an altoid tin (complete with mints!) to alter and I had it a while before I could decide what to do with it.  Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy, wanting to do something a bit different and not what you'd expect. 

The Happy Stampers show at Port Sunlight was coming up so I decided to look out for inspiration there; stamps or embellishments etc.  I adore old typewriters so when I came across the 'chunky vintage typewriter tag' by Crafty Individuals, which was surrounded by telephone and postcard theme stamps on the stand, I decided on my theme.

I didn't have the tin with me but was pretty sure the image would fit.  When it didn't, it gave me the opportunity to layer postage stamps, bits of envelope and other ephemera underneath a 'fussy cut' image of the typewriter (and the telephone inside the tin).

Inside the tin I added more collage, this time from the 'Chunky Vintage Telephone Tag'.  I stamped the pretty edge of the stamp with distress ink and tore it off to use in the collage - I just love bits and pieces like that.

The tin was hammered, painted with layers of paint, and sanded with a sanding tool to get the distressed look.  I loved the idea of a battered old tin storing typewriter ribbons (although I think they're round!).  I love tiny collage so much I even added some to the back of the tin.

The tin stores a tiny collection of tags and cards of encouragement that can be slipped in some happy mail or tucked in a friend's bag for encouragement.  Most of these use 'Paisley Script Background' and distress inks.  Crafty Individuals have a great range of postcard stamps too and they look amazing just stamped with black ink on white card!

gelli print toadstool resists

I've been wanting to play with this gorgeous stamp for a while now - and it turns out this small fairy chain is the perfect size for a tag.

My original idea was to create a painted background for the fairies using my gelli plate but I just wasn't feeling it!  Sometimes you just have to leave something that's not working - and it can end up working differently when you return to it another time.

So I started again and this time used a single colour of paint and decided to see what happens when paint is lifted off the gelli plate with a Lavinia stamp.  I was really pleased with the effect but the magic occurred when I added the distress ink, which is resisted by the acrylic paint :)

This was a fab project to work on and I'll certainly be playing with this idea further.  If you want to know/see more, my step by step guide to creating this tag is over on the Lavinia Stamps website .

Thanks for visiting today :)

Stitching flowers in the sunshine

It was a stunningly beautiful afternoon so after inking up my tag with distress inks and stamping some toadstools and flowers, I had a lovely time in the sunshine adding stitching.

My Lavinia Stamps order arrived this morning and I was itching to play with the new images.  'Single Fairy Thistle' has a wonderful spray of 'growth' on the top, which I used as fairy grass, and the flowers are a combination of 'Fairy Orbs' and 'Glow Flowers'.  I love how versatile these stamps are - using small sections in different ways expands the stamp collection in a way.

Off to play with the 'Fairy Dandelions' now for my monthly step by step article on LaviniaStamps.com , and pop into 'Try it on Tuesday' (where my good stamping buddy Chris is on the design team)  whose latest challenge is 'sending you flowers'

a tag for the paper artsy weekly challenge

 

It's been a loooooong while since I entered a challenge but I needed a bit of cheering up [in my head I was going to be well enough to go back to work tomorrow but my body has decided it's not fit enough yet so I'm not :(  ]  I saw Helen's lovely cards on her blog and decided that this week's paper artsy challenge would be just the thing to make me feel better.

It was also the ooomph I needed to finally open the packet and use my Lynne Perella stamps!!  I have looked, and looked, and looked at these so often as I really love the imagery; finally bought a set at Happy Stampers earlier this year; and now I've managed to use them!  So thankyou paper artsy team for the inspiration I needed :)  I also cracked open my poor neglected distress inks, and very rarely used distress stains.

Whilst happily clapping handfuls of water over my inked papers (just LoVe that technique!!) I thought it might be fun to have splashes of ink on there too so I put some vintage photo distress stain in my hand (I'm sure re-inker would work too but I don't have any) with some water, again merrily clapped over the papers and yes, I like the result!

Being such a huge stencil fan I happily didn't have a problem finding any to co-ordinate with the stamps :)

I used a crafters workshop brocade combined with memory box flourish and clearsnap quarter foil.

 The lace stamp is one I've had for years from paperbag studios.

I felt the image needed grounding a bit more so used the top of the tag stamp as another border along the side.  I then felt it needed something 'extra' so I stamped it on white paper and layered it again over the top.

I have used bleach in the past, wasn't going too here then decided why not?  Just give it a go!!  My stazon inkpads were very dry so I tried it with my versafine black inkpad and it worked - YaY :)  I then worked back into the face, as Liesbeth suggests, with pencil crayons. I added highlights with both a white gel pen and a white pencil but felt like I overdid it on the eyes so went over them again with an inky sponge and then a coloured pencil.  I'm happier with them now although the difference doesn't seem to show up here.

 I stamped the cotton ribbon with the text section of stamp, although it's not very clear on the pics, sorry!

I will definitely be playing with these stamps again very soon.  Thanks again Liesbeth for the inspiration I needed :)  Her leporella accordion book is delightful and certainly worth a look if you've not seen it.

a waddle of penguins

Well, you learn a new thing everyday!  I googled the collective term for a group of penguins and discovered that there is no generally accepted term, but that
"At the 4^th International Penguin Conference in Chile in September 2000, it was agreed by penguin researchers that they would try to refer to a group of penguins on the land as a "waddle" of penguins and a group in the water as a "raft" of penguins. We hope that these collective nouns will become widely accepted in the near future."

http://www.adelie.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/FAQs/collective_name.htm

Don't you just love that there was even a penguin conference?!!!  I love penguins.  I would love to see them in their natural habitat one day, and have decided New Zealand is the place to go - they have little blue ones!! (also sometimes known as fairy penguins).  Until that time I make do with visits to the zoo and things like my favourite mugs

Crafty Individuals had made some of 'Alice Palace's' drawings into stamps and after seeing her puffin I wrote and asked if she'd done any penguins.  She had, and promptly contacted CI to suggest penguins stamps...

... and now I have a set  :)  I was going to give them coloured tummies, as in the design on my Anna Wright mug above, but the journal page I made was too busy so I'll save that idea for another day.

Instead I added them to a page in my little paperback journal, including stars (by Stampotique) and some home made bunting, all in true Alice Palace style!

"these beloved candles of the night.." - William Shakespeare

There's just something about the night sky...especially when you are out in the countryside and you can just lie back and gaze into the depths without the distraction of street lighting!  One of our favourite evenings when camping in the summer is spotting shooting stars.  

I'm not sure I'd really like to live in this little shed [Stampers Anonymous J4-1164 Moving Up] high up amongst the stars, it looks a little rickety to me, but I love the idea of it.

I splodged some 'Weathered Wood' distress reinker on my pages then added some more blues by putting the ink on some cellophane then spraying it with a silver spray before stamping this onto my page.  I stamped Jo Capper-Sandon's Text Stars [Stampotique] with distress ink directly onto the page then cut a mask and, using a stipple brush, added ink around the edge of each star.  I love how this highlights them! 

 I added more stars stamped in Wild Honey distress ink onto white paper and cut out.  The words are taken from Amy Wilson's Tall Word Collage [Stampotique] and again stamped in Wild Honey.  

I'm entering this journal page into the Stampotique Designers' Challenge, which  requires the use of 'masking' on your project :)

the stampman challenges you to...

make something Christmassy

with just

three colours

I'm in my colour comfort zone at the minute of blues and greens, and added a versamark 'vanilla' to my colour choice.  That last colour (neutral technically but hey!!) was a bit serendipitous, it was the easiest pad to get to and I just love how effective it is on the white card :)

I just LoVe that 'Fabulous Flourish' by Hero Arts, it's so, so versatile, and an exquisite image! 

I cut out my star using my friend's Sizzix die, but a punch or similar die would work just as well.  I distress inked it, and layered it over my moonglow paper made HERE.  Making batches of paper with Starburst Stains keeps the messy task separate from the card making and makes for a very clean card making process :)  There is a smidgeon of sequin waste (punchenella) sewn behind the star, along with a snippet of organza ribbon.

We're on Challenge #11 this week over at The StampMan.  Head over to the challenge site for some gorgeous inspiration from the design team, which includes

Michelle

Debbie

Jill

Frankie

Janet

Brenda

Lisa

Sue

Kay

Vix

then link up your own project so we can come and take a look at your work!!!  Have fun :)

journal workshop

I've had a wonderful day today.  I taught my steampunk journal at Paddy's and thoroughly enjoyed myself :)  

And got to meet a blogfriend IRL!  Sarah A and I met over at The Play Date Cafe and it turns out that she doesn't live that far away, and was able to make it to the workshop today :)

As usual I was pretty rubbish at remembering to take photos.  We had a fabulous time with walnut ink, various autumn colour inks by Sticky Fingers, and Distress Inks.  Everyone had to restrain themselves from cuttlebugging too many of their pages!   The ruler and the cogs were particular favourites.

We had a very special treat at lunchtime.  Sue and Cynthia, like the good students they are, have been off journalling.  They've taken Dina Wakley's online graffiti class, and combined it with some ideas from my journalling classes and come up with some regular prompts to use on their pages.  

I love Cynthia's money tree!  And should have got a photo of Sue's word collage on a hand shape.  I'm off on my hols on Monday - two weeks camping on the Isle of Wight.  I'm scheduling some posts but please forgive me for not visiting your blogs for a while.

tattered floral PDCC #27

Oh what a happy time I had making this week's piece.  Trouble is, there's no way I'm going to get to keep it.  Wendy's had her beady eye on it right from when it was just a tag!!

I have had a wonderful, wonderful evening with Wendy and her friends.  We all had a happy, happy time playing with fabric and Tim's tattered florals die.  3 little cuttlebugs were very busy!  I wonder what a collection of cuttlebugs is called!!

I'm uploading these photos from my mobile phone, of piccies taken in artificial light, on someone else's laptop, so apologies for quality and lack of cropping.  I'll fix them when I get home from my little jaunt down near Oxford!!  I have absolutely no idea why blogger has turned this piccie around, but it has!! 
EDIT:  photos retaken (still on my mobile, that's what I always use!!) but in better light lol, and cropped at home with familiar software :)

 

The lovely Wendy 2, who works at the Stamp Attic on a Thursday, brought these yummy fabrics, and the gorgeous Kate brought the beads :)

The postcard tag is by American Tag, a very recent purchase from The Stamp Attic lol!  Ooops, just realised I haven't actually paid for it yet!!!

let's party at the play date cafe, but don't forget challenge #20!!

It's been busy, busy, busy behind the scenes at the cafe this week and we can now proudly announce our new design team.  They are:

Suzanne Czosek

Stephanie Kraft

Ruby2Shoes

Savannah O'Gwynn

Lisa Somerville

As a senior design team, Julie, Mona and I are saying goodbye to our much loved senior designer Julie Campbell.  Julie has some great opportunities opening up for her but she's promised to keep playing along with the challenge when she can.  We're holding you to that Julie :)

So, to celebrate Julie C's new opportunities, and the new design team, we have a BLOG HOP, with a prize at the end :)  And you get to increase your chances of winning by 3!!

The blog hop starts over at the cafe, and you'll get back to me via Savannah's stunning blog.

Here are the THREE ways to give you the best chance to win:

1. Make sure you stop at each designer's blog and leave a comment.
There are ONLY 9 total so it won't take too long, just limit your browsing time lol!

2. Become a follower of The Play Date Cafe...easy-peasy!

3. Play along with this week's colour challenge

The winner will be chosen by random.org

Julie C has shared with us this lovely bathroom photo for colour inspiration this week.  The colours are

lavender          green          white

There are a few greens in the photo so you can really find your own shade and go with it :)  

I've had a hankering to work small this week so chose to make an ATC using a sketch of some lavender that I did many years ago.  I reduced it on the scanner and darkened the pencil lines before adding dusty concord and crushed olive (yep, that's a new one!!) distress inks.  The butterfly is cut from a sheet of scrapbook paper.  I wanted to give the card a vintage feel as that is Julie's true love!

Now, if you're blog hopping, hop on over to Stephanie's blog to say hi :)  She does such truly stunning cards!

Good luck!!

fairy cakes

Before the invasion of the cupcake we had fairy cakes and I love baking them and setting them out on my cake stand for Sunday tea. 

So my final piece for Wendy using the Crafty Secrets Fairyland stamps just had to be a cake!

I used my Hot of the Press cupcake template again after decorating some watercolour paper with my distress inks and stamped images.

I added stamped images to the paper case, including this ladybird who I just think is sooooooo cute, wandering off to fairyland wearing his walking stick and top hat!

The fairy is attached to the flower on the top of the cake which can be lifted off in order to open the box and see what goodies are inside!  And the little cake tag is part of the template too!

This little fairy will be winging her way to Wendy at The Stamp Attic tomorrow, along with this:

 

which you're only getting a sneak peek of cos it's for Wendy, and I want her to see it in the 'flesh' first :)