Anything Goes at Scrap and Stamp

At Scrap and Stamp this week, well, it's simply

Anything Goes , as long as some stamping is present. Let me introduce you to 'My Guy'.

The LO was all placed on a sheet of Kraft card, I randomly stamped a watch from a Paperartsy set. Added stips and blocks of colour. Stamped and distressed the masculine image in the bottom right corner. The centre section opens with the ribbon, to reveal photos of my guy at various stages in his life. I adore the stamped sentiment at the top of the first photograph, again from the Papertartsy set,

'Time can never take away our most precious memories.' Thanks girls for the opportuity to share this LO.

P.S. Delighted this project was chosen as the winner. Thanks again to the Scrap and Stamp blog.

Alter it- revamp a frame.

This week it's time to alter it at Try It On Tuesdays, now what can you do with a frame? Doesn't matter whether it's new or old, have a look to see some fabulous examples on our challenge this week. Welcome to two new design team members, Angela and Neil. As always our brilliant friends at the Craft Barn are sponsoring us with £15 voucher for the lucky winner. Well worth hunting out a tattered old frame ladies and gents. I kept mine very simple. It's a small paper mache frame, 7.5sq in. which I first painted with light blue acylic paint. Using a Brilliance Mediterranean Blue ink pad I stamped on a very large sheet of white tissue paper with a script stamp from Creative Expressions. Let it dry, scrunched it up, tore it into strips, added piece by piece with a glue stick to cover the frame. Inside the aperture is an Elusive Images butterfly I have decoupaged. It was embossed with silver EP , jewels and glitter added for lots of bling. I know the very spot this little frame will brighten up. Good luck to all who enter our challenge this week, I am again looking forward to visiting you.

Crafty Cardmaker's Spotlight - Decoupage

Above is the day time outfit For the decoupage challenge I thought I would make a really simple card, if you've never tried it before, a one layer addition couldn't be easier and yet remain so effective. This is from a Kanban kit, I added from my stash the main card, which is a D.L. size and the light blue card I matted the girl onto. Her head, arms, dress and feet have an additional layer, secured with silicone gel. I made the flower posy by gathering a length of blue organza ribbon, securing it, adding a white flower, with silver and the same organza blue ribbon trailing down the card.

Another guy's card

This week at Stampin B's Design team the challenge is a masculine card, I do like making men's cards, hope that doesn't make me sound weird, for I know many crafter's find them a super challenge. Coincidently at my card class tomorrow my little group of lovely ladies will be making a few masculine cards, this will be one them. I have prepared a selection for them to choose to make, hopefully, 3 cards. This is a really easy card to make. The main card is navy, with a kraft piece of card. Stamps are from Creative Expressions, a Sheena Douglass A5 plate. Colouring medium was mostly watercolour pencils and for the background TH Tumbled Glass. Finished by tying a piece of twine around the kraft card before attaching it. Thanks for looking and for your comments which are always appreciated.

LIIU Announcement - New Feature

Hi everyone, I am so excited to announce a new feature on Let's Ink It Up.
We want to give something back to our loyal followers so that being said every two weeks we will host a FEATURED STAMPER SPOT !! Exciting! Do you want be featured on LIIU, bet you do.
Okay so here's all you have to do is be a follower of LIIU, get the word out there about the Featured Stamper Spot via your blog, remember you must use rubber/clear stamps in your featured project. You don't need to create a new project. But remember we do not feature digi projects. That's it, pretty easy isn't it. If you want to be a Featured Stamper just email Suzanne at kleczar@hotmail.com of your interest and Suzanne will send you the interview questions, you return the questions with your answers, along with your pic and a link to the post you would like featured. Can 't wait sound really interesting to me. Maybe this is your 15 mins of blogland fame. LOL
Cheers.

Give us an inch x 3 please?

This week, at Try It On Tuesdays, it's time for our 'Wild Card' or even 'Wild Project', because it doesn't have to be a card, I jumped in to choose Inchies. We are trying to get both novices and experienced crafters to try or have another go at different techniques as the weeks pass by. Not everyone enjoys making inchies but for me they provide an interesting way to produce a different type of card, so please do have a go. Janet has said there will be a surprise prize for the winner, so good luck to everyone who joins in. To create my card, I first cut 9 x 1" squares of white mountboard. To reduce the brightness of the white I coloured 4 squares with Antique Linen and five squares with Old Paper. I then stuck them with temporary glue dispenser onto a piece of card, I stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black, heat set it. I then coloured the leaves with a green pencil. The flowers were coloured with Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Wild Honey, used as a watercolour. Later when dry I covered the petals with Glossy Accents to give the glazed effect. I used white glitter and a gold Sakura pen for the small additions on the pattern. The stamp used is from a Kay Carley Funky Flowers set available from the Stampman. When all was dry, I removed from the temporary position and seperated the tiles.
They were then placed on a black piece of card. Matted onto a piece of paper from my stash and a ribbon added. Hope you have fun with this month's technique, I look forward to visiting your blogs.

Special Birthdays

For Challenge 42 - Special Birthday - at Crafty Cardmaker's I made a concertina card. A friend and her husband are shortly going to Paris for a few days, during which time he will have a birthday, now that's what I call special. The card is all based on black folded card, measures 4"sq when folded up and 24" wide when open. I decided on giving it an old distressed look. The backgrounds are scrunched paper with ink over the creases. The image sheets are torn and creased, some with rolled edges. The stamps are all relevant to travelling and Paris, mainly from a Debbie Moore set of clear stamps. I have tried to keep it as masculine as possible but couldn't resist the bling for the Happy Birthday. I have left the back, plain black and told his wife, who has seen it, they could later add some small pics of their trip on the back.

Masculine Card

This week at Less Is More, we have been given the challenge of a Masculine card. there are lots more guys in my family than we girls, so I have to make quite a few guy's cards, but still never feel I've got the same satisfaction from when I make a female card. Here is my card, with a luxury speedboat, a dream for a lot of guys. Speed is their thing! Stamped the boat in, Mediterranean Blue Brilliance ink. I coloured the boat with a pencil and added silver highlights on the metal work with a Sakura Silver pen. To the waves I rubbed with my finger a blob of white/silver glitter glue. I choose a wavy sentiment to match the waves. Thanks girls for the contiuing interesting swaps you are giving us. Certainly makes me think before I stamp.

Let's Ink It Up - Die Cuts and Punchies

Hello to all new and old players with the now fortnightly challenges from Let's Ink It Up. I have been a follower for a few months only but I am now so thrilled, for I was accepted at the last DT call and am now part of Team B. Suzanne and Claire our wonderful leaders, decided to hold 2 weekly challenges with an A and B team. We got off to a great start last week, so hopefully there are many of you who are eager to show us what you can do with the challenge for the next two weeks - DIE CUTS AND PUNCHIES.
I made an A5 card which opens landscape wise. I created the background using a piece of cream paper, which I randomly added patches of TH Distress inks Tumbled Glass and Old Paper. I randomly stamped a small flower and leaves using Sepia ink. I then covered the paper randomly with more Old Paper ink, then stamped with a larger flower head and leaves, again with Sepia ink. I enjoy trying different ways to make my own backgrounds, they don't all turn out well, a fair number do end up in the bin. Using two different size Nestabilities, I used a brown card for the outside one, the lighter one was edged with Antique Linen. I stamped the girl (Stamp It - Australia - Emily/Yvette ) lightly shaded in some areas with a pink pencil. I then made the flower using a Papermania Build a Rose set, adding a button to the centre. The punched strip in the centre is on cream paper using a Fiskas long punch. Thanks for looking, I am greatly looking forward to visiting your blogs to see your Die Cut and Punchie creations. Please remember that LIIU is for stamping only, we don't accept digi stamps. Have fun.

Q for Quote

It is time for the letter Q at ABC Challenge, the challenge is for either a Quotation or Sentiment.
I have been playing making Masterboards, more details to follow on my tutorial blog soon. Basically I coloured an A4 sheet of white card with several yellow to orange tones of distress inks. Dried it all with a heat gun. I then chose stamps to represent travel, time and luxury. Some are from Tandastamps, others from Debbie Moore. I randomly stamped onto the prepared card. I choose this section to place on my card. The Quotation is from Mae West - "I'm no Angel - but I've spread my wings a bit". Thanks for taking the time to look, I enjoy reading all of your comments.

New Format - A Scrapling

Last week at Just for Fun they asked for a new technique, I made a card with Faux Linen, using my favourite new poppy stamp from La Blanche. I have again used the same stamp for this week's challenge which is to use a new format, something we haven't made before. I made a scrapling. What is a scrapling? Some may be asking. When making a card from an A4 piece of card or similar US size, there is a piece of card which is cut off from the full length of the sheet, when folded in half this becomes a scrapling, which is useful either as a card, a bookmark or even suitable for notelets with a C6 envelope. I lightly coloured the edges with Worn Lipstick.
All the colouring of the poppies has been done with watercolour pencils, but I didn't add water to it. I stamped a swirl at the edges to give dimension. Thanks for looking.

Many thanks to my followers, I am thrilled and honoured at how the numbers have increased over the last few weeks. I greatly appreciate any and all comments made in this wonderful blogging community. Thank you.
I realise there are also many who check in who maybe are not bloggers who can't make comments, thank you for looking and I hope you enjoy your visits. My visitor counter has shown there has been terrific interest over the past few months so again to every visitor, thank you.

Chocolate Request

For this week's free choice at Try It On Tuesdays, Michelle asked for some Chocolate, well she was secretly hoping to get some for her birthday. Belated happy birthday. We can make anything we like but to think of Chocolate. I hope it's not too long before Michelle receives her mug, with a sachet of hot chocolate, one chocolate chip and one caramel chocolate cupcake in the post. The template for the kraft card mug is from Mirkwood Designs The cupcake templates are from Vol. 1 Of AnnaMarie Designs DVD. I made the cases with corrugated card, fancy papers, the cherries are stamped from the Fruit set of stamps by Sheena Doulass on Creative Expressions plate. Flowers, glitter glue, ribbons and a few choclate heart brads. All totally calorie free, not recommended to be eaten but they can sit on her desk for as long or as short a time as she wishes. I greatly enjoyed looking at all of the wonderful Woman Tags this last week so come on ladies, let's be seeing how you deal with Chocolate.

Off the Edge - Less Is More

The Less Is More weekly challenges are going from strength to strength, there is such a nice friendly community amongst the participants. I am so grateful for every visit to my blog, for every comment made. I do try to visit many of the participants myself. This week Chrissie and Mandi want us to Go Off The Edge - of our card. I started with a plain white 5" x 5" card, I lightly brushed a section at the top of the card with Milled Lavender and Weathered Wood to give some colour behind the branches. There appears a pink hue at the bottom of the card, but it is a reflection from the pink material. I added a little glitter to the fairy wings, for all fairies have to sparkle. Stamps used ...................

Branches and Fairies from Lavinia Stamps

Leaf Stamp and brushes used from Inkylicious.

Sentiment sa,p from Mary Hughes.

P.S. Thrilled to add this card was chosen to be ShowCASed at Less Is More.

Thrilled and Excited

I certainly was, thrilled and excited when I was contacted to be told my application to join the DT at Crafty Carmaker's was successful.This week is the first time that the Crafty Cardmaker's Challenge Blog and the

Crafty Cardmaker's Spotlight Challenges Blog have become two blogs. Please pop over to either to find out a lot more interesting information.This is my first D.T.offering of Crafty Cardmaker's, which is for the Spotlight Challenge of -- Design your own paper. (DP) I made my background design paper to blend with my main stamped image. I created the DP using an A4 sheet of white card, using TH Distress inks and a piece of Cut & Dry foam I added random splodges of colour to cover the card, using Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw Bundled Sage, Antique Linen and Weathered Wood. I then randomly stamped all over the A4 sheet with Flora and

Fauna stamps. The first 3 of the above mentioned inks were used to colour the main image where I used a brush to apply the inks, before I stamped with the Sanctuary stamp from the Paperartsy set HP1006. I then added a piece of DP to a yellow card, stamped the dragonfly from a Debbie Moore set Butterflies and Dragonflies coloured with above colours, added small jewels to the card.

New Tricks/Techniques

New tricks or techniques was the challenge requested by Opus Gluei and Just for Fun this week. I decided to go for a technique I have just learned, called Faux Linen, made with tissue paper. I will be adding this technique in my Tips and Techniques Blog later this evening, sorry I'm rushing out to child mind for the evening but am close to the closing wire for Opus Gluei. Will tell more later.
Apologies if you have been waiting. I have now added the inforamtion on the Faux Linen onto my
Tips and Tutorials blog, Any questions, please pop into comments, I will contact you.
The poppy stamp I used above is my latest win on e-bay, it is a La Blanche stamp which I never managed to get from QVC, always selling out, maybe it's the person on E-bay buying them all. LOL

Under the Sea

I'm diving into the challenge at Crafts and Me which is Under The Sea, I always try to add a little stamping where possible, the shells are stamped with a freebie stamp from C.S. magazine. The fish is from an AnnaMarie Volume 1 templates, which I bought to help make interesting shaped cards for my younger grandchildren. I used glitter card, glitter glues and punched out holographic card for the bubbles. My youngest grandson will be getting this for his next birthday. I enjoy to sometimes step out of my comfort zone and make something really bright and appealing for the young ones. Thanks for looking at my colourful tropical fish.

Water - Cards for Men

The theme this week at Cards for Men (and boys) is Water. I have used all TH Distress inks with Inkylicious brushes, I haven't tried a brayer yet, still a bit nervous about it, but I love the brushes. The scene I have created so reminds me of beaches on th north east coast of England. Stamps used.......

Boat and sand dunes are from a Coast plate by Creative Expressions

The remainder are by Inkylicious from the Trees and the Grasses plates.

Other blog entries

Craft us Crazy - Nature P.S. Chosen in the Top 3

Creative Craft World Card for a Male

Ooh! La! La! - It's a Man Thing

International Woman's Day -March 8th

Wishing all ladies a happy International Woman's Day. At Try it on Tuesdays, it is our week to make a TAG, we are celebrating at Ilkado's suggestion, a special day for Women. All details are on the blog, please pop here, to see some fabulous examples from the design team.
I started with an Inklylicious silk card, using a brush. I added Old Paper to the lower section and Victorian Velvet to the upper section. I stamped the La Blanche ladie's head with Walnut Stain, masked the lady, then stamped again with Walnut Stain the words for the background. I stamped a few feminine objects, then stamped some swirls which I embossed with gold E.P. Added the lace and flower, ribbons and lace to tie the tag, I found a button with a shank which I pushed through the thread hole, secured with a little glue. I then matted it all onto a darker pink card to add some dimension. I am looking forward to seeing your tags, for this special day for Women.
Also entering this tag, with fibres, lace, and a fabric flower into the 'Fabric' challenge at Crafty Cardmakers.

Don't forget to check out the new challenge over at Let's Ink It Up ... no card from me though, don't forget we are having a new challenge every 2 weeks now and team B (with me) will be making their debut for the next challenge. The theme for the latest challenge is 'Show us your embossing' so pop over to Let's Ink It Up and have a look at the gorgeous work from our talented DT Team A- we have some fab new team mates making their debut this week and they have come up with some amazing creations!!