Friday, September 24, 2010

The Stamp Man Blog Hop!

Hellooo! Welcome to the Stamp Man blog hop.

You should have arrived here via Vix's blog if you're following The Stamp Man blog hop, and have arrived looking for my blog- I'm Lisa! I'm so excited, this is my first blog hop as one of the hosts, I hope you're enjoying your journey so far.

If you've not started the blog hop, and you'd like to join in, or if you think you've missed a blog out, just click here to go to The Stamp Man challenge blog! There are loads of fabulous prizes up for grabs, and some beautiful blogs to visit, so you're more than welcome to join in! I'll tell you the next stop on your blog hop tour at the end of this post.

To qualify for a prize you need to do the following (full details on the Challenge blog).

- Display The Stamp Man Challenge blinkie on your blog (if you have a blog), you can get it from the challenge blog here

- Create a post about our blog hop with a link back to our challenge blog

- Leave a message on each blog you visit.  If you don't have a blog you must put your full name in your comment.


There is a letter on each of the blogs, you will need to make a note of each one to solve the anagram- once you've worked it out, follow the instructions on the last blog you visit to submit your answer.

You will need to leave a message on every blog, including on this post to be eligible for the prizes. The wonderful prize on my blog is this gorgeous Hero Arts stamp set called Celebrate simple joy.


Don't forget, there's also the fortnightly challenge to enter as well- this time the challenge is Altered- of course!!! There's a fabulous prize of a £30 Stamp Man voucher to be won.

Each of The Stamp Man design team was given a letter to alter as they saw fit. Mine was the letter A (make a note of it for your anagram!!!).





I decided to use some of my favourite things and colours to make it something I'd like to put on my wall, in the hopes that Jill would like it too!! I gessoed the A and then painted it with red acrylic paint, so that it's really nice and bright. Red is my default setting- I always go back to it!



I know how difficult it can be to stamp directly onto odd shapes, particularly if they're not perfectly flat, so I stamped up a sheet of white tissue paper with swirls from the Aspects of Design 40 Dragonfly Dreams stamp sheet from The Stamp Man in red and black ink. 

I was intending to attach the tissue paper with modge podge, which is water based, so I stamped in Stazon so that it wouldn't run. The modge podge acts as a sealant and an adhesive for the tissue paper, and as an added bonus, the one I used has glitter in it. I looooove a bit of sparkle! Part magpie, me!!! I could have used any clear sealant though.


The tissue paper gives a lovely soft effect, making the whole thing much more mottled, and giving pink areas where the red shows through the tissue paper. To finish off I stuck lots of buttons on and swiped over the edges with a black Stazon ink pad for added definition.

OK, that's my letter, now hop on over to the fabulous Janet to continue your blog tour! Have fun, and don't forget to leave us all messages, and don't forget to join in this fortnight's altered challenge. Take your time and have a look around my teamies' wonderful blogs, they're such a talented bunch.


Thursday, September 23, 2010

Monkey magic.

I had a mad moment the other day and came up with this little collaged ATC. I made myself use all the bits I'd got in a little pot on my desk. Amazing what you keep isn't it?


I had a print out of  amonkey, a gem that had fallen off something, some twisted green paper, a spring from a broken peg and some odd punchings. I added some doodling and words. I must collage more, it's very satisfying. I'm entering this into the Papertake weekly challenge, which is animals.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Nice shoes!

I spent a lovely morning at my mate Michelle's yesterday with Kay, stamping and inking and chattering. I'd noticed Inkurable Stampers hadn't had many entried for their shoes challenge and Michelle had a fabby teeny Clarity shoe stamp, so I made this ATC.



The background is swiped with Stampin' Up inkpads in pink, yellow and orange and then over stamped with a Paperartsy diamond stamp in pink. I masked my first shoe off and stamped the second to make a pair, and then coloured them with Copics. I used some fabulous Stampin' Up letter stamps for the words, they're such a lovely size to use.

I'm off to email my entry in!

Ingredients

Stamps- Stampin' Up Just perfect alphabet, Clarity shoe
Inks- Stampin' Up Regal rose, Summer sun, Pumpkin pie; Archival Black
Stash- red gem, Copics

WOYWW and a little plea!

I'm a bad WOYWWer...... so sorry everyone! To make amends for not sharing my desk for a few weeks, I've made this week's extra untidy!!! Oh, OK, you got me, it was untidy anyway......


The usual debris of a week of who knows what! There's a little purple cage type thing on there that I'm altering, and some Yink inkpads from my recent foray into creating mini journals for The Stamp Man's Create and Craft show last week. Plus, on the right, there's my little folder of ATCs to swap!

If you want to see more desks, go to Julia's Stamping Ground and you'll find loads to nosy around.

My plea...... my brother is doing a 100+ mile bike ride from Walsall in the West Midlands to Rhyl in Wales on Sunday, along with 7 of his work colleagues. They're doing it in aid of Hemihelp, a wonderful charity which helps children with Hemiplegia, children like my 4 year old little girl, Hattie. If anyone reading this would like to donate to an excellent cause, then go to their fundraising page here. Many, many thanks xx

Monday, September 20, 2010

Dragon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The challenge over at Tuesday Taggers is diamonds. Well, not having any spare bling lying about ( well not the real stuff anyway), I thought this card might fit the bill, or at least the background will!


I went for quite a simple design and execution, the background paper has a printed texture on it, so I added a bit of diamond stamping and then layered up the image and sentiment onto matching brown cardstock.

This is my entry for the Tuesday Taggers and also for the following....

Totally Gorjuss- Wild thing
Stampotique Designers - Birthday
Crafty Cardmakers - Around the World (Wales)

Monday, September 13, 2010

Alice....what's the matter?

OOh, I loved that song- (Alice, what's the matter by Terrorvision for anyone wondering what I'm going on about) now I'm singing it in my little head.......

I'd coloured a gorgeous Sweet Pea image in with Promarkers ages ago, so I set to making it into a card yesterday and this is the finished article.


I know the cat is a bit freaky, but the Cheshire cat is meant to be a bit unsettling!! I know exactly who this one is going to- quite often I don't make cards "for" people, but just because the inspiration strikes. What about you- are yours all made with someone in mind?

I'm entering this one into the following....
Stamp Something- Spots and Stripes
Sweet Pea Stampers- Sketch
Tuesday Taggers- Books (Alice in Wonderland)

Ingredients


Stamps- Sweet Pea, Whispers sentiment
Inks- Memento black
Card/Paper- Glitter Paper, 7 Gypsies (text) rest from stash
Stash- Gems, paper flowers, button, Stickles

Autumn leaves

Hello! I'm hoping to be a better blogger now my little lovelies are back at school. Miss Little Legs is now full time (sniff), and loving it, although I'm not so sure. She looks so little going into school with her school bag!!!! I finally got a chance to catch up on a few half finished ATCs and cards at the weekend, so I'm feeling like quite a virtuous crafter at the moment.

Here's my first to share with you. Made using the gorgeous Aspects of Design- Nature stamp sheet from The Stamp Man. Love the skeleton leaves stamps.



Apologies for the slightly weird nature of the fibre trimming- I scanned the card, so it's all squished up.

I'm entering this into the Allsorts Colours of Autumn challenge.


Ingredients


Stamps- Aspects of Design- Nature
Inks- Versafine Vintage Sepia; Distress Inks- Spiced Marmalade, Brushed Corduroy; Impress inks- Chocolate, Camel
Stash- Mini leaf punch, card in cream and brown, copper mirricard, fibres

Friday, September 10, 2010

Stamp man challenge- Distress it!

It's Stamp Man challenge time! Woohoo!!! This fortnight's challenge is a doozy- it's "distress". You entry must have a distress theme to it, so that might be a distress technique, the stamp design or using distress inks or embossing powders.

I'm a big fan of distressing, I think it's wonderful getting inky and messy and arty. Here's my take on it!


I used Sizzix's Tim Holtz birdacge die, and his flourish too, just too gorgeous for words!!! The background panel is inked with Distress Inks in reds, oranges and yellows. I then stamped over it with the pretty edge of a Stampendous dress stamp to give a flourish and then my favourite Hero Arts old writing stamp in white ink.

The die cuts and the edges of the card are also inked with Distress inks. The just for you sentiment is from the Dragonfly Dreams Aspects of Design stamp set.

Thos little beads are from a really cheap necklace I wore once then put into the "things I can't throw away cos they might just come in useful one day" stash box. Admit it, you all have one!!! I've got several!

Please take a look at the wonderful creations my teamies have come up with over at The Stamp Man Challenge Blog, and don't forget to have a go!!!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Stamp Man ATC Swap- "The Look"

Yay, it's time for another Stamp Man ATC swap theme. This month the theme is The Look, inspired by the gorgeous free stamp in the last issue of Craft Stamper designed by The Stamp Man. Don't worry if you haven't got the free stamp, you don't have to use it, you can interpret the theme however you wish!


Here's mine!


 The base of mine is a piece of textures black cardstock., I'd swooshed a bit of purple metallic paint over it to highlight the texture. I stamped the free Craft Stamper stamp using a clear embossing ink pad and black Vesrafine, then clear heat embossed it to give some gloss. To make her stand out a bit more I rubbed some metallic rub on  in copper.

The words weren't very clear, so I restamped them onto tissue paper and glued them on. Finished with stickles, gems and some eyelets. I've woven some black raffia through the eyelets and attached some charms for a bit of 3D detail.

I loo-ooove this stamp. Her eyes are so mysterious, she could be thinking anything. Right- over to you. Fancy joining in? Head over to The Stamp Man ATC swap blog for more details.


This is also my entry for the following-
Crafty Cardmakers Glitter and Sparkle challenge
One Stitich at a Time Girlie challenge