Stampendous at Viva Craft Vegas and Create and Craft TV

Just popping in to give you all heads up about tonight's live Stampendous show from the very Las Vegas city brought to the TV near you by Create and Craft TV.

The show is scheduled at 9.00 pm UK's time and you can also watch it online here. There are no repeats so you don't want to miss it!

The one and only Fran Seiford from Stampendous will be demoing the new (and how exciting) line of stamps by House-Mouse Designs. A wide range of these cute little mice is being introduced during the Summer CHA as we speak (you can see all the sneak peeks on the Stampendous blog this week) however the designs shown at the Create and Craft TV will be exclusively available via C&C channel only.

And did you know that there are also fabby digi download sentiments available to compliment your House-Mouse creations? You can get them from here.

Have a great crafty week!




♥ Follow Me On Bloglovin'

Read More

N for Nature - Altered Alphas and your help needed!

Happy Sunday to all! And Happy Mother's Day to all Polish Mums, too! And happy Bank Holiday weekend to all in the UK. Lots of happy wishes here, today :).

Wesolej niedzieli oraz najlepsze zyczenia dla wszystkich polskich Mam i dla tych, ktorzy wlasnie swietuja Bank Holiday weekend w Wielkiej Brytanii! Cala garsc tych wesolych zyczen mi sie tu zmiescila :).

Today I would like to share an inspiration project for the current challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges. This fortnight we are playing with altered art. To join the challenge all you need to do is find an item to alter, Alter It, add some fabulous traditional stamping (no digi stamping please!) and share with us and Mr Linky!

Dzisiaj chcialabym Wam pokazac prace - inspiracje do wyzwania Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Altered Art. Aby wziac udzial w wyzwaniu nalezy przygotowac recznie stemplowany projekt (bez digi stempli).

I made this project a while back for Create & Craft TV but I haven't got round to publishing it on my blog yet.

Prace te przygotowalam juz jakis czas temu na potrzeby prezentacji w Create & Craft TV.

I've altered a papier mache letter 'N'. I first covered it with floral napkins, then added Stampendous Jumbo Butterfly Trio decorated with Champagne Glass Glitter, Pearlised Mica and Rose Colour Fragments, Teal Colour Fragments and Teal Mica Fragments.

Moja 'odmieniona' litera N zostala obklejona kwietna serwetka. Potem dodalam Mega Motyle od Stampendousa udekorowane szklanym brokatem w kolorze szampana, perlowymi i niebieskimi platkami Mica, rozanymi i niebieskimi fragmentami.

The grunge paper letters (Tim Holtz Alphabet Soup) have been sprayed with inks then sparingly heat embossed with Shabby Pink enamel. The edges of the letter were heat embossed with Aged Rose enamel.

Litery z grunge papieru Tima Holtza zostaly popsikane tuszami i poembossowane na goraco 

emalia Aged Rose.

Since my Letter N's TV debiut I also added some bling and Perfect Pearls :).

Od czasu programu do mojej literki przykleily sie tez blyskotki i perelki :).

I hope you can join us for this challenge!

Zapraszamy do wziecia udzialu w wyzwaniu!

*********************************

Your help needed!

I've been thinking a lot lately about making a new tutorial for my YouTube channel. It's quite difficult to decide on the subject so I thought - I'll ask my crafty friends! Over to you then, what would you like to see on a new tutorial? Another take on Fran-tage? Colouring with Inktense pencils? Some napkin art? Please do let me know in a comment below.

I know there are also readers who don't have a blog of their own or who have only just ventured into the world of blogging  - would you like to see some blogging tips?

*********************************

Stay tuned as I will be back on Tuesday to share something completely new to me - I will be playing with Stampendous products, Nunn Design bezels and some fabulous Jewelry Resin from EnviroTex!

Thank you so much for popping in today and for your lovely comments. And a big and warm welcome to my newest followers - I hope you will enjoy following my creative endeavours!

Big hugs



I would also like to enter the challenge/Prace zglaszam na wyzwanie:
PanPastel UK #21 - Bling It
Scrapujace Polki AA/MM#79 - Monogram
Stempell & Kartoon #13 - Nie kartka

Read More

See-through Flower Power

Guess what? The Spring is finally here! I can't believe  it's almost the end of April and the trees are only starting to grow leaves.

But I am really excited - we've just had a new patio done in our garden and I can't wait to start planting colourful flowers and shrubs. And then enjoy lovely warm evenings in the garden... I might be getting slightly carried away, you can never rely on the English weather. And if last year is anything to go by, we won't get to spend much time outside in the summer...

I am sharing a scrapbook page again :). Some of you might remember this project from Create and Craft TV - I made this page for Stampendous demos back in February.

And today I'd also like to share a couple of tips with you. First, how to use Stampendous Fran-tage 'blinkies' to embellish your layouts and second, printing your photos on a transparency for a cool 3D effect.

For my layout I stamped several images from the cling Jumbo Spring Bouquet, Violets and Single Butterfly sets. Some were heat embossed with the Gold Detail Embossing Powder and Aged Rose Embossing Enamel. After colouring the images with Inktense pencils I fussy cut them along the flowers from my K&Co patterned papers.

 

I wanted my photo to have a 3D look, as if 'blending' me and my sweet niece amongst all the flowers. To achieve that I printed the photo onto a printable acetate. Printing on transparencies has endless possibilities - just remember to print on the correct, rough side though lol :). I then matted my photo with a patterned paper before adhering it to the page on raised foam pads.

   

On my layout you can see a few different ways of using Fran-tage products for scrapbooking. Fran-tage beauties do not have to be limited to the encrusted jewel technique. On my page I incorporated them in the following ways:
1. Using Leaf Green Colour Fragments and double sided sticky tape I created a border around one of the paper panels.
2. Next I swiped Boss Gloss sparingly over the green colour fragments and heat embossed it with Aged Rose Embossing Enamel.
3. I sprinkled layers of Champagne Crushed Glass Glitter and Rose Colour Fragments over Beacon's 3in1 Adhesive  to create a frame for the photo and decorative corners.

Thank you for visiting today and I look forward to seeing what you have been up to lately!

Big hugs



Challenges for this project:
Live & Love Crafts April - Bingo (pink, two designer papers, pearls)
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Colour
Country View Crafts Challenge #2 - Butterflies

Read More

My 'Four Seasons' of Stampendous

Hello my talented Friends! I am back to share another sample I created for the Create & Craft shows featuring Stampendous products.

But before I tell you all about it, I'd like to say a big and warm welcome to my new followers and a big thank you to all my blogging friends who joined to share my creative journey with me. Having so many crafty friends 'near me' really fills my heart with joy and I feel very privileged to have captured your hearts :).

A 'Thank You' Giveaway!

That's right, as a way of 'thank you' I am giving away this gorgeous Violets stamp from Stampendous for one lucky commenter who's left some love on my blog. Whether it's a comment on this post or on any other post in the past - you all are in a chance of winning! You don't have to be a follower of my blog, although I would love it if you were. So all I can say, please keep those lovely comments coming as the more love you leave for My Creative Spell, the higher your chance of winning! :) The winner will be announced next week.

OK, onto my project then. Last week I finally felt that Spring was on its way to the UK. Blankets of snowdrops and first shy daffodils were trying very hard to send Winter home :). And whilst talking about seasons, I thought I would share this little beauty with you today. Just like the famous composer Antonio Vivaldi, I wanted to compose a concerto of the four seasons - in my own way :).

 I didn't want this post to be too picture heavy, so I am going to break it down into two parts. Today I will share the individual pages of my Four Seasons accordion book and next week I will show you the 'technical' steps. Well then, let's start with...

Winter! 

  I started off by waving my baton, errr... the heat gun that is, got the orchestra of Fran-tage powders tune their instruments, I mean particles, and before I knew it, the music was filling in my craft room... For my frosty season I used the cling Old World Map and the Suitcase World sentiment stamp. The map was first heat embossed with Silver Detail embossing powder and coloured with Inktense pencils. The sentiment was heat embossed with Black Detail embossing powder. The snowflakes were adorned with Teal Mica fragments and Sky Blue embossing powder. Then I 'framed' the sentiment panel with Detail Capri embossing powder and the background panel was Fran-taged with the Aged Teal Embossing Enamel. All these beauties can be found in one magical place - Fran-tage Encrusted Jewel Kit in Teal. Now... let's cheer for...

Spring! 

  And with Spring I bring you a handful of Fresh and Ruffled Blooms, heat embossed with Black (for the foreground) and White Detail (for the background) embossing powders. The flower centres are all bathed in Champagne Glass glitter and Pearlised Mica Fragments. The background panel has been embellished with the same Mica Fragments and a generous sprinkle of Aged Rose Embossing Enamel. These gorgeous jewels can be found in the Pink Encrusted Jewel Kit. Now, let's get ready for...

Summer! 

  Oh, I so love Summer evenings in a garden full of wonderful flowers. Sadly my garden is not very inspiring (yet!), so perhaps this gorgeous Seed Catalogue stamp will inspire me to fill my garden with beautiful blooms. Just so I can see the world that will be Beautiful :). With the Summer season in mind, I 'seasoned' my page with Aged Hunter and Aged Rose embossing enamels and added Champagne glass glitter and Rose Colour Fragments. And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...

Autumn! Or Fall, depending on your point of view :D.

My Autumnal page is swept with a gentle brush of the Ruffled Butterfly's wings and the leaves falling off the trees, dancing in the wind. Can you see all those golds, coppers and bronzes sparkling in the Autumnal sun That's the sparkle of the Vintage Mahogany embossing tinsel, Bronze Glass Glitter, Golden Sand embossing powder and Aged Copper embossing enamel - from the Bronze Encrusted Kit. 

And in case you've missed it, this is what my Teamies Rhea and Tobi were up to this week:

Colouring with Copics - great tutorial by Tobi:

Beautiful '30 minute wonder' by Rhea:

I hope you enjoyed my Stampendoulicious seasonal symphony :). Stay tuned for the 2nd part with the step by step assembling  instructions for the accordion book. 

Until then... 

Big hugs 

Challenges for this project:
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Chic to be Shabby
Country View Crafts #1 - Pick and Mix
Inspiration Journal - Make it POP
Stamping Sensations March - The Great Outdoors
Heck of a Challenge - Spring/Butterflies and Pearls
Really Reasonable Ribbon challenge #68 - Flowers and Ribbon
Happy Campers #12 - Flutterby Butterfly
Moving Along with The Times - Spring is in the Air

Read More

My Dream Day

I am so glad you popped in today! It is quite a special day because not only I'm sharing a scrapbook page but it's a layout of my Dream Day - my Wedding Day that is! Yay! No special occasion, no anniversary - just the joy of sharing :).

I had so much fun making this scrapbook page - I should really play with layouts more often. But they can feel a bit 'intimidating' sometimes, can't they? So to all scrapbook pros out there - what are your best tips to get you started working on a page? Do you build your page around a photo you want to scrap? Or do you look for a suitable photograph once you have the design in mind? Or perhaps you start with a template/sketch first and just build your page to suit the layout? I found these quick tips for making a balanced page quite helpful.

The inspiration for this LO was the beautiful stamp as well as one of my favourite photos from my wedding day. Here's the photo itself - taken by one of my dear friends Przemyslaw Pietruszewski who was our photographer for the day :).

This page was another sample I made for the Create & Craft shows. The first time I set my eyes on this beautiful Cling Ruffled Corset stamp (UK peeps click here), I immediately knew I had to make a project with it to compliment this photo. And I am so glad I finally had the opportunity to do it :).

Here a few key details about this project but be sure to check out the full instructions on the Stampendous blog.

Here's the list of supplies I used.
Stampendous: Cling Ruffled Corset stamp (UK peeps click here), Shabby White Embossing Enamel (UK crafters click here), Champagne and Fresh Green glitters from the Glass Glitter kit.

Other:
White Opal Liquid Pearls, Viva Decor Transparent Croco, Inktense pencils (or alcohol markers), decorative card from leftover packaging (Prima flowers),  Beacon's 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue, Lettuce Colour Wash, Gold Cosmic Shimmer Mist, selection of lace, ribbons and fabric flowers, burlap.

Oh I just love the lace up detail on this stamp - and it's such a gorgeous feminine design!

The flower cluster in the photo below is made from the fabric blooms and moulded enamel flowers (you can watch my moulded flowers tutorial here).



Would you like some more fabulous inspiration? Check out what my lovely Stampendous BlogStar teammies have been up to recently:

Rhea's Botanical Blooms - with a stunning grid-like card and a tutorial for a dry colour washing using Distress Inks.

Tobi's Life is Art canvas - an absolutely stunning and beautifully textured mixed media piece.

Rhea's Violets - gorgeous card with a great water colouring technique using Copics.

Tobi's Warmest wishes - featuring a very Happy Couple and fab airbrush technique.

I hope you enjoyed sharing my Dream Day with me! What would be/has been your dream day? Let me know in the comment below :).

Thanks for popping in! Have a fabulous week!

Big hugs 

Challenges for this project:
Countryview Crafts Challenges #1 - Pick & Mix (Anything goes)
Simon Says Challenge - A bit O'Green
Simon Says Stamp and Show - By the numbers (trios of elements)
Sugar Creek Hollow #51 - Lovely Lace
Vintage Stamping Challenges #6 - Spring is in the air
Pan Pastel UK challenge #9 - Alter it (altered letters)
Flying Unicorn March - Lace it up

Read More

How to fit a whole world into a suitcase

Re-edited: My project received an 'honourable mention' at the JUGS! Yay!

Hello friends! First of all I have a small announcement to make. We've recently had some changes within the Stampendous Design Team and I have been invited to take up the post of the permanent Foreign Correspondent BlogStar alongside my talented Teammies Rhea and Tobi. Each  of us will be providing you with weekly delicious & Stampendoulicious inspiration on our blogs and on the main Stampendous blog as well. Yay!

Today I am taking you for for a trip around the world. And all you need is one suitcase :). In this post I will mention all the key goodies I've used, but if you'd like to see the full step by step instructions, be sure to visit  the Stampendous blog.


Some of you may remember this project from this week's show on Create and Craft TV, with the lovely Jill Tuck from the Stamp Man as the guest artist demoing some fabulous techniques.

As you know I haven't been blogging much recently as I was very busy crafting instead :). And all my efforts were focused on making the samples for all last week's shows on Create and Craft TV featuring Stampendous products.

There is something really thrilling and super exciting about seeing your work featured in media, albeit in a paper publication or an online magazine. So I'm sure you can imagine this loud squeal when I saw my projects on the box! For the next few weeks I will be sharing the projects I made - and hopefully by the time  I shared the last one my tired Muse will be ready for new action again lol :).

I made my suitcase from a 4 mm thick foam board and decorated it with tissue paper (for texture), acrylic paints and the Encrusted Jewel Kit - in Turquoise.  To make the suitcase follow the tutorial that you can find here.

The stamps used are my brand new Old World Map, Suitcase World, Beautiful Life, Ruffled Bloom and Fresh Bloom stamped onto pearlescent cardstock/paper with embossing ink. The images were heat embossed with the powders from the Detail Basic Embossing Kit. I coloured the images with Inktense pencils.

To adorn the centres of the flowers and the suitcase compartments I used a selection of pretty brads, Teal Mica Flakes, Teal Colour Fragments and Champagne Crushed Glass Glitter. I added generous layers and blobs of Beacon's 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue and sprinkled all the sparkly jewels over the glue.

The hinges, keys and the lock plate were cut from Tim Holtz Hardware Findings die and PaperArtsy Harware #1 and heat embossed with Shabby White and Aged Teal Embossing Enamels. I also added a paper fold inside over the compartments to hold them securely together.

The trims were embossed with Sizzix Texture Fades Cracked set and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder to create a faux leather effect.

 

The links above will direct you to my favourite UK's retailer for Stampendous products - The Stamp Man. But don't forget that you can also browse and shop for all the lovely goodies directly on the Stampendous website. 

I have to say I really love this selection of the stamps and the Suitcase World sentiment is simply fabulous. If you could pack your suitcase tomorrow and start your travels around the world, what would be your first place you'd like to visit? What crafty item you would not leave without?

My first stop would be hmm... Rome, I think. And I would definitely have to take a Frantage kit with me :). I could carve stamps out of potatoes, use mud to stamp with and pine resin as glue. I would light a fire with wooden sticks to heat my embossing powders but I would never be able to find a substitute for my beloved Frantage beauties :)).

Thank you so much for visiting and for your lovely comments and emails regarding the Create & Craft shows. And I would also like to welcome my new followers and email subscribers - I hope you will enjoy sharing this creative journey with me :)).

Big hugs 

Challenges for this project:
Eclectic Paperie - Folded paper
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Stamp you love (but haven't used yet)
Vintage Stamping Challenges #5 - Blues, Browns and Beige
Frilly and Funkie - Layer it on and Share a Word
Just Us Girls Challenge #177 - Photo Inspiration (below)

Read More

Look out for Stampendous on Create and Craft TV!

Hello my Crafty Friends!

I can finally reveal what I have been up to recently. I have been very busy making samples for the upcoming shows on Create and Craft TV featuring new fantastic products from Stampendous! :)).

But wait - there's more! Not only you will get a chance to buy some fabulous products, you will also get a real treat of watching fabulous demos presented by the lovely Jill Tuck from the Stamp Man! I really can't wait to see the shows and I sure will set my recorder to work overtime. Make sure you set yours too and here are the show times for you:

Wednesday 20 February 10:00am - 11:00am

Thursday 21 February 06:00pm - 07:00pm

Friday 22 February 02:00pm - 03:00pm

You can also watch the shows live online - just follow the links here.

The picture above is a quick sneak peak of one of my designs - my Four Seasons :). I wonder if you will recognise my other ones while watching the shows - I would love to know if you do! :) And you never know, I might have a small surprise hidden up my sleeve to celebrate this! :)

I have also been really lucky to attend the infamous Stitches show at NEC Birmingham on Sunday. I will tell you all about it later this week!

Have fun watching the shows!

Big hugs

Read More