The Stamp Man challenge- Curls and Swirls

OK, so this fortnight's Stamp Man challenge is right up my street. We want you to use Curls and Swirls.

 Now, as my crafting buddies will tell you, I'm a swirl-a-holic. I can't resist buying swirly stamps and use them on far too many projects...... 

This time around I've made a little ATC box. Regular readers will know that I love making and swapping ATCs- can anyone guess what I made this little box out of? I've made it to take to a crafting meet I'm attending soon, where we always do lots of ATC swapping.

The background was made with lots of ink splodging and swooshing, sponging through flower and swirl stencils (actually left over negatives from punching out swirls and flowers), and through sequin waste. Then I stamped over in a lovely dark green in with the swirl from the Aspects of Design 40 Dragonfly Dreams stamp plate. I stamped and cut out the butterflies from the same set. They're really cute, especially as the outline is separate from the solid butterfly, a little bit of versatile 2 step stamping.

I added orange flowers; ribbons and brads to hold the lid together and lots of Stickles of course!!!

Now there's a fantabulous prize to be had from The Stamp Man- as ever- so why don't you get swirling and curling and have a go!

Ingredients
Stamps- Aspects of Design 40 Dragonfly Dreams
Inks- Distress ink in Spiced Marmalade and Peeled Paint, Impress ink Emerald green
Stash- Ribbon, Brads, Stickles in Orange Peel, Flowers, White card

Wow, time flies.......... another Stamp Man ATC swap month already!!!

I can't believe it's a month since we started The Stamp Man's ATC swaps!! Where had the time gone? Well whilst we're all waiting for our Wings swaps to arrive (I can't wait, there were some STUNNING entries), it's time to get working on this month's theme, which is.............Time!

My first swap is made with The Stamp Man's Aspects of Design Butterfly Beauties stamp plate.

The background is made using my beloved smacking acetate technique, with lots of different colours of Distress Inks. I'm a big believer in waste not, want not, so if I have some smudges of ink left on my craft mat after ink blending I spritz it with water and dip some ATC backgrounds in. This one was probably dipped in 3 or 4 times over a few weeks.

The butterfly is stamped with Versafine Onyx Black and the words are computer generated. I doodled lines around the words and the edges of the ATC then matted onto black card. It needed a lift, so out came the Stickles!

Hope you all feel like joining in, for all the details, take a look here or click on the blinkie in my sidebar.

It has been a bit of a manic week and weekend for me, so hopefully I'll be back into the creating and blogging routine. I need to make lots of swaps for the Docrafts meet next weekend at Luffy (woohoo, looking forward to it!!!!), so must get on.

Stamp Man Challenge blog- Challenge 2- Take 2 colours (DT card)

This fortnight's theme at The Stamp Man challenge blog is Take 2 Colours. Here's my take on it!

Pink and purple are not usually colours I work with, but I really enjoyed going extra bright. The butterflies and flowers are stamped with Distress inks in Dusty Concord and Worn Lipstick, on a background created using the same colours watered down. It's hard to pick up from the picture, but the purple card I matted the main image onto has been stamped with the butterfly wings. Hang on, I'll try an extreme close up.... 

OK, you can see it a bit better. The main butterfly was inked up with the 2 colours, then spritzed with a little water to blend them slightly.

Finishing touches were lots of gems and lots of eyelets and ribbon.

Ingredients


Stamps- Aspects of Design 61 Butterfly beauties (available from The Stamp Man)
Inks- Distress Inks Dusty Concord and Worn Lipstick, Versafine Onyx Black
Stash- Purple eyelets, pink and purple ribbons, purple card, purple glitter paper

Tuesday's crafting session

I'm really, really lucky, because I have a couple of friends who live close by who like to craft (and stamp in particular). Most Tuesdays see Kay, Michelle and myself geting together for a craft session of some sort. We all 3 have little girls of about the same age so they play while we get inky!!

Yesterday's session was at Kay's- it's always lovely to visit someone else's stamp stash- and a lovely time was had by all, despite Michelle not being able to make it. I made 3 ATCs, pictured below.

ATC Reflection

I made the Reflection ATC first, stamping off the piece of card at the edges. I then cut up the scrap card I was working on to make the backgrounds for the other 2! Waste not, want not, as they say!!

ATC Bzzz bloom

ATC Flutter blossom

I think Flutter blossom is my favourite- the dragonfly wings are stamped onto pink vellum, and only attached at the body, so they do flutter a little bit.

Wonder what I'll make next time?

Heir to the crown

I promised photos of the mdf crowns I'm working on, and here they are.

MDF crown before

I've made some progress today with my first one. It's painted in a raspberry pink and I've begun to stamp. After a bit of testing on some scrap card I decided to stamp in red Stazon. It's drying a dark pink colour, although I want to look at it again in the light of day- I can always paint over it!!!!

The crown so far....

I'll be in search of letters now to spell out the name, so watch this space.