Window Box stamp winner

Water colour stamp

You may recall in my watercolour post, I showed several cards using Art Impressions stamps and this window box stamp was a new addition to my collection. However, I must have pressed the button twice when ordering them and I bought 2 by mistake. From the people who said that they would be interested in going into a draw for the spare stamp, my husband picked Ellen.

So Ellen, I'm not quite sure where in the world you are, but if you will send me your contact details I'll get the stamp into the post for you...

Ellen said...

My goodness Chrissie, I am glad you got carried away! All of these cards are just so full of inspiration, I'll have to give watercolor a try. I always seem to shy away from it. I would love to be included in your drawing! Thanks for the inspiration and the chance to win!!

21 June 2014 16:31 

Thanks for all the wonderful comments I received on that post, I loved reading every one of them and appreciate the time it took to visit and to write them.

Petals - Please vote

Petals

Petals

Petals is a specialist counselling service for women and couples in Cambridgeshire who’ve been left heartbroken by the death of their baby or a miscarriage. Petals provides much-needed emotional support, helping people come to terms with their loss and move on with their lives.

Petals is a charity providing specialised counselling for parents who have lost their babies or experienced pregnancy-related trauma of all kinds. At present they are based in Cambridgeshire, and parts of Suffolk and North Essex but are looking to expand nationwide.
They have made it through to the final of the national lottery awards #NLAwards and they need your vote to win more funding and publicity. Winners receive their award at the final on BBC1.

We would be very grateful if you could vote by following the link below

http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/project/petals

My daughter in law was greatly supported by this organisation last year and in turn they need both publicity and funding to keep up their great work.

Anyone who has had personal experience or knows someone who has had of this kind of loss, will understand the need for this service. 

You can vote here 

http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/project/petals

Thank you! 

Recycle -It

At Less is More we have a challenge to use a recycled item on a card.

What possibilities!

I have discovered that the technique of FAUX BLEACH works well on card with a very smooth surface, so here is a piece that was in the packaging of a pillowcase. It worked really well for this technique.

I inked the surface of the card with Distress Inks using Sponge Daubers. The colours are Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold and Barn Door!

I then used my Uniko Gerbera stamps to create the design. I used the solid version spritzed with water and stamped, holding it in position for a few moments. I then dried it using my heat tool. The colours lift like magic!

I then went on to use the outline version of the stamp and over-stamped a couple of the flowers in Versamark and embossed it in gold.

The rest of the card consists of a piece of wrapping paper saved from a gift and die cut!

The butterfly is from Memory Box and the sentiment from Paper Smooches.

This one uses an Impression Obsession Die and ribbon cut from the shoulders of a jumper. The sentiment is from Magenta. More details are on the LIM blog!

For this I merely mounted the gift tag from one of our 40th Wedding Anniversary gifts onto black then silver card and straightened and retied the ribbon!

Easy Peasy... I stuck the tag down well so that the greeting on the back can't be seen!

From time to time we go to Speciality dinners at our club. The menus for the evening are often displayed inside covers made from this lovely matt silver card. I simply collect up those not taken at the end of the meal and add it to my stash. Well I couldn't leave it there could I?

DO join in with us it will be fun!

What can you find to use again?

"STAMPlorations Birthday Blog Hop"

"STAMPlorations Birthday Blog Hop"

 STAMPlorations is turning a year old and is celebrating with a blog hop and new release and I am delighted to have been asked to join the celebrations as a guest designer. 

There are 14 blogs participating in the hop: Nine STAMPlorations design team members and five guests. 

Visit all the stops on the hop and leave a comment for a chance to win stamps. We're giving away over $120 worth of stamps!

FOURTEEN (14) lucky hoppers randomly drawn from the designers' blogs will each win a stamp set and ONE (1) lucky hopper randomly drawn from the STAMPlorations blog will win all the stamps in the July release. You have until Wednesday, July 2, 11:55 p.m. PDT (GMT -700) to comment here and on my fellow designers' posts for a chance to win. Winners will be announced on the STAMPlorations blog on Sunday, July 6.

Here are a couple of cards I made with the Trendy Feathers stamp set. Who wouldn't like to win this set!

I stamped the feather using Distress Ink and then gently used a damp watercolour brush to release a little more of the colour. A little contrast ink was brushed on in places to add depth, before the brush was flicked to add the spatters. The panel was then lightly inked and the edges distressed.

The panel on this one looks a little squiffy, but I think it must be because it is on dimensional pads and the ones at the bottom are stuck more firmly than those at the top When I look at the card IRL it appears OK!

Here I used gilding flakes to colour this gorgeous feather. Stamped in Versamark, I used WOW bonding powder, which was melted before adding the flakes, pressing, then burnishing with a scootchie pad or whatever it is they call those things. It's nylon and looks a bit like a pan scrub!

The mount for the Dienamics pierced square, was cut with a Spellbinders Nestie from a piece of holographic wrapping paper, stuck to a piece of plain card to give some rigidity.

Clean and Simple!

 

Blog Hop Stops

STAMPlorations Blog

Design Team:

Cornelia | Debra | Kylie | Maria | Monika | Nonni | Shery | Shirley | Vicki

Guest Designers:

Ardyth | Chrissie | Deepti | Melissa | Mynn

The new stamps will be available to buy on the shop during the hop. All 6 sets is $30 (17% off) + free shipping in the US (flat rate to other countries). http://stamplorations.com/newrelease/

Many thanks to Shery for inviting me to join in this fabulous hop and I hope you enjoy visiting all the Designers.

Good luck with the draw and happy hopping!

Free Sentiments continued!

In my last post I added some sentiments which I made in MS Word. Not being the world's most techy person I encountered a few snags in converting them to a format to post on my blog. It seems that amongst other things the quality of the image deteriorated in transposition. I hope that I have now sorted it and that they will be in a usable form.

If you have already downloaded them, please could you go back and check the latest version, I think that it should be better.

Here is another set for you to try!

Free Sentiments

The other day I was browsing tinternet when I saw a sentiment stamp set that I really liked the look of. However, the sentiments themselves were not what I thought I would have much cause or need to use, so I thought I would try to make some in a similar vein but with themes to suit ME!
With thanks to Hannelie for helping me sort these out!

For our friends across the pond... we DO have 2 ells in marvellous!

I am hoping that these are in a format that you will be able to use should you wish to. I'm sure someone will inform me if they are not.

I rattled off a few cards to illustrate them and here they are!

 

                           

                               

                           

For these last two I inked and spritzed the inside of embossing folders with Distress Ink before running the card through the machine. I think it makes quite an interesting effect. Both folders are from Sizzix.

The sunny one is for the challenge at Addicted to CAS

The sentiments are cut with either Die-namics Pierced stax or Lil Inkers Stitched ovals.

Watercolour

I got a bit carried away this week, I have really loved messing about with watercolour stamps. 

The challenge at Less is More is to use watercolour and I have been playing around with lots of stamps from Art Impressions from their watercolour range.

I have wanted this little watering can stamp for ages and was delighted to have added it to my collection. After colouring the stamps with Distress Inks and Markers, they were merely dabbed onto the image and then gently teased with a damp brush to release a little colour in places. It's such fun that I did quite a few!

I sent this one as a New Home card to some friends whom we met on a trip to Canada many years ago. We have a window a bit like this on our landing!

This one was a snipping from a much longer panel where I used the gate stamp to make a fence. I decided that Less was decidedly More and thought that this tiny bit looked interesting!

It's really quite addictive!

I did say that I got a bit carried away!

This is a stamp from Uniko Studio, which I watercoloured using Distress Inks.

Here is a watercolour stamp from Inkylicious, coloured with Markers before stamping and then gently teased with a damp watercolour brush.

The sentiment (die and stamp) is from Avery Elle.

My bloggy friend Darnell says she loves this card... she entered a card into the Simply Create challenge where the sentiment is the main focus of the card so I'll enter this for that one!

This is the card I put onto the Less is More blog this week.

If you would be interested in being in a draw for a stamp of the Window Box (I ordered 2 by mistake), please mention it in your comment below! I'll make the draw at the end of the week!

It's just the window box... it's empty, for you to add your own flowers!

I used 6 stamps to make this image!

Well you needed a lot of stamina to get to the bottom of this lot, I hope you enjoyed looking at my efforts and will join in with our challenge this week!

WATER COLOUR STAMPS

Several people have asked about watercolour stamps this week.

The main difference is that they don't make outlines for you to colour in once stamped, but have a greater surface area, which is coloured on the stamp itself using markers or inkpads which can then be stamped onto the paper. If you have an image which dictates more than one colour then it's easier to use markers where adding the ink to the stamp can be more precise!

I hope this helps

Colours and Sketches

At Colours and Sketches this week, the chosen shades are...

It just so happens that I had all three in my stash...unusually!

I have some new Art Impressions watercolour stamps and was having a play and came up with this!

In order to achieve a slightly darker shade for some leaves, (with no other colour allowed) I inked the tiny stamp with the Cantaloupe before inking with the Coastal Cabana.

It's mounted on Die-namics pierced rectangles and accompanied by what I believe is Simon Says Stamp die-cuts.

Casual Friday's challenge this time is for a masculine card with the addition of ribbon!

Here are more Art Impressions stamps gently water-coloured. The sentiment is a tiny one from Stampin' Up.

Once more a Die-namics  die was used to cut the mount, this time a pierced oval.

NBUS

The wonderfully talented Darnell....(everyone knows Darnell) has begun a new challenge entitled

N B U S

Never Before Used Schtuff

The first challenge has the theme Anything  Goes... with a friendly kinda twist.

I couldn't resist having a go and so here is my contribution for her first challenge!

This little number uses my new dies from Lil Inkers purchased from the lovely Tara at Make the Day Special.

It's just so simple, a bunch of die-cutting and one little stamp. I used a Cuttlebug die for the tag, which was just the right size for the sentiment (also Lil Inkers)!

I think that the stitched shapes are pretty cool!

I was going to wish Darnell good luck with her new venture, but seeing the number of entries already... I don't think she needs any luck... she just has the talent and charisma to make it a success!

Well done Darnell!

Thermomorph

I was recently asked to review this product!

It's a product with a variety of uses, but for my purposes I wanted to see how it performed making embellishment for craft projects.

It melted easily and quickly in boiling water and was easy to mould. I did make the error however, of using a plastic mixing jug in which to melt the pellets. The product stuck to the jug, especially after a secondary melting. Using glass however, is perfect!

I used silicone moulds to make various embellishments. The product formed quickly with very sharp detail.

These flowers were coloured with Copic Markers. The one on the right in the front of the picture had some alcohol ink mixed in with the medium before moulding. Do remember to wear rubber gloves if you do this!

It can also be coloured with acrylic paint, after which it will accept shimmer sprays!
It's a robust finish and will not break if dropped. It is fun to use and will probably have as many uses as people there are who try it!  

It's available from Amazon.co.uk

Paper Piecing

This little Woodware stamp set is perfect for paper piecing. Here I stamped the little aeroplane on various pieces of paper from my scrap drawer. it's a great way to use them up. They have been sculling around in there for so long that I don't remember which site they came from, but all have been printed by me. I'm glad to say that I can still print, as my printer decided it didn't want to print anything my computer sent to it. In the end I had to un-install and re-install the software before I had any joy!

The sentiment was also computer generated.

CAS on Sunday has a challenge for Paper Piecing this week, so this is for that!

One Layer off the edge!

This is a simple card, masked with Post Its and stamped with a whole bunch of different Thank you stamps in Versamark. After clear embossing I inked the panel with a few Distress Inks in the red part of the spectrum. I then stamped in the darkest shade with a tiny stamp in a few random spots.

This one didn't exactly work out as I'd thought but I shall try to technique again some time. I half cut the butterfly dies and then stamped the gaps with Clearly Besotted stamps inked with 2 shades of ink!

I think the idea was OK but the execution leaves a little to be desired.

This Indigo Blu stamp was stamped with Versamark and embossed with three different twinkly embossing powders from WOW!
The sentiment is from Stampin' Up... now retired I believe!

This is just simple stamping with a couple of  of inks smooched together on the stamp.

The challenge at Less is More this week is for ONE LAYER and something Off the Edge!

Why not join us!

Anniversary

Here is a commission card made for a friend at my choir who said ...'No hearts please' ... so no hearts, but a couple of ginkgo leaves and a bow! 

I love this die from Impression Obsession! The sentiment is computer generated using Passions Conflict and Andalus fonts. I find that the combination of R170, G140, B29 in custom colours is a really good match for gold card.

The challenge from CASology is Anniversary... so here it is!

Look what I got for this card!
Thank you so much!

Transport

I cut this tandem on my Silhouette Portrait. The flowers are made from punchies and the clouds from Dienamics dies. The sentiment was computer generated.

The theme this week at Addicted to CAS is transport, so that is for this.

Take it Make it Challenge!

There's another challenge over on the Craft Stamper Blog. It's based on a technique illustrated by Hels in the mag and involves a faux bleach technique.

I found that the secret to a successful outcome is to use very smooth, almost shiny card. I covered it with a layer of Distress ink and then another layer of a darker shade.

I then covered it with a stencil and spritzed it with water. The water reacts with the ink and some colour is 'bleached' out from the card. 

When it was completely dry I stamped the flowers with Versamark and sprinkled it with white embossing powder and heat set.

Here is another using the same technique.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted die cuts.