Anything but paper

Stampers stamp on paper and make cards, right? Maybe the odd scrapbook LO? One of the background blitz challenges last week at Cornish Heritage Farms was to stamp on anything but paper and there was some fabulous creative thinking going on!

I still made a card but I stamped on a piece of white cotton fabric salvaged from an old shirt. I picked a fancy stitch on my sewing machine to create more of a border between the fabric panel and the border - I thought it looked kind of like a cot quilt.




Supplies: Polka dot backgrounder (CHF), wording stamps are my own design, Brilliance Pearlescent Sky ink, tiny safety pin, silver baby feet charm, narrow sheer ribbon, sewing machine and thread, cotton fabric

Thanks for stopping by today!

Fade away

The second challenge in Cornish Heritage Farms' Background Blitz was to use partial stamping of a BG on a project. I did a couple of things for this. The first one I combined with a competition on Crafts by Carolyn for a spring or summer themed card.



Polka dot backgrounder was partially inked and stamped at the top left. I used Michelle Zindorf's highlight/lowlight technique on the stamped swirls and the lovely flower came from Karen who slipped little packs of extras into the envelope when she coordinated a rubber stamped image swap on Bubbly Funk - thank you Karen!

Supplies: Polka dot BG,, Wishing You Sunny Days, Beautiful (all Cornish Heritage Farms), Clearsnap Fluid Chalk ink Tangerine, DCWV white core cardstock, sandpaper, white and metallic orange gel pens, embroidery thread, circle punch, fabric flower from Karen

The second one used a completely different approach - I inked the whole Woodgrain background and then used a baby wipe to remove a rough circle of ink where I wanted to stamp the bird. I used the faux burned edges technique to add depth to the edges.



Supplies: Woodgrain backgrounder and Time to Stamp(Cornish Heritage Farms), Bird Notes (Crafty Secrets), Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen, Tea dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain), Prismacolor pencils/OMS/stump

Thanks for stopping by, we'll be stamping on something other than paper tomorrow!

Backgrounder Blitz

Last week on the Cornish Heritage Farms forum, the DT girls organised a Backgrounder Blitz - a week's worth of challenges involving background stamps. I managed to do something each day but was busy enough with other stuff that I did quick uploads to the CHF gallery and nothing else so I thought I'd share some of them with you on the blog this week.

The first challenge was to use a BG stamp to make something based on a sketch by Lisa Strahl. Here's the sketch:



And here's my card based on it.



I didn't have any ribbon in the colour I wanted so I used Lisa Silver's tip of colouring a neutral ribbon with an alcohol marker. This technique can stiffen your ribbon but with a lightweight silk one like this, that can be an advantage as it results in a bit more 'body'. The sentiment is stamped directly onto the ribbon.

Supplies: Weathered Wood backgrounder and Silhouette Blooms I (both Cornish Heritage Farms), Tim Holtz Distress Ink Weathered Wood, Brilliance Graphite Black, 1" silk ribbon, Tria marker, silver gel pen

Thanks for looking, I'll add some more tomorrow!

Hot n Spicy!

The DCM team have issued a group dare this week - hot 'n spicy. We can interpret that any way we like so here's mine - you can click through for a closer view...



The chilli pepper was hand drawn and coloured with Prismacolor pencils blended with Sansodor. I messed up what I wanted to do a couple of times which resulted in it being cut out and used in a different way than I originally planned! Still, I quite like the extra little bit of dimension!

I used the faux burnt edges technique (tutorial here at Cornish Heritage Farms) and I thought a stamp to say the chilli had passed the censors in Bombay would be a fun finishing touch:o)

Supplies: Weathered Wood backgrounder (CHF), Passed Censor stamp (Alluring Impressions), Prismacolor pencils/OMS/stump, Tim Holtz distress inks (Fired Brick, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain), Tria marker, Copic blender pen

Hope your weekend has been a good one, may the spice be with you ;o)

Coffee Time Collage

A few things came together to bring you this card!

A while ago, I won a competition on CBC to use recycled stuff on a card. The prize was donated by Dewdrop Craftz and was a custom A7 stamp sheet. I finally got round to designing some stamps and they arrived this morning.

When I won $$ to spend at Cornish Heritage Farms during February in their Online Referral Program, I topped up the amount to get free US shipping and had the package shipped to a colleague of DH's in Boston. His daughter just visited her grandparents in London and my DH just visited the grandfather so the stamps finally found their way to me yesterday (did you follow that? lol!)

Finally, I'd been thinking about the stamped collage technique tutorial posted by Keri at CHF.



Supplies: espresso cup (my own design), Beautiful and Time to Stamp (both Rummage Bin at Cornish Heritage Farms), Versafine Vintage Sepia, Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Antique Linen), Dewdrops (Masculine), small circle punch.

The 'ticket corners' are created with a small circle punch. Just push the corner of the paper in (I've added two small pen marks on the punch itself to mark off the quarter circle) and punch out the little bite.

Thanks for stopping by, sorry the coffee was only virtual!

Spring sketch

The Crafty Secrets member forum challenge on Splitcoaststampers this week featured another card by Jenn Balcer. I've pretty much kept Jenn's layout for this one, just changed the proportions a bit.



I thought a bit of spring cheer might be in order so I picked a quote from Alexander Pope and used it on the large panel (computer generated) and then stamped the feather from Bird Notes to create a background - click through for a larger photo to read the couplet! I took the ink off the base of the bird with a cotton bud (Q-tip for my American visitors!) so that he could perch on a 'blooming spray'.

Supplies: Bird Notes (Crafty Secrets), Silhouette Blooms I (Cornish Heritage Farms), Tim Holtz Distress inks (Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Antique Linen), Clearsnap chalk ink (Warm Green), pink Sakura Souffle pen, gold organza ribbon, copper gel pen, sponge, blue chalk, sewing machine and thread

I hope you're enjoying some good weather, wherever you are today - thanks for stopping by!

A little sunshine?

Not a chance here today, it's grim and drizzly. It's DCM day though and Kathy's asked us to make a card with no more than 5cm square decorated. We're allowed a greeting/sentiment in addition. I had a little paperclay starfish out on my desk left over from another project so I decided to inject a little sunshine into my card for this dare to make up for the weather.



I made my square just a shade smaller than 5cm so things could break out of the edges if necessary! Sponged with three shades of blue ink, added some jute garden twine as 'rope' and then added the starfish. I hope Kathy will forgive the little bit of piercing to accent the sentiment!

ETA: I made push moulds a while ago with polymer clay and things from a bag of decorative shells etc I picked up for a pound in a charity shop. If you dust the mould with talcum powder and let the paperclay shapes dry thoroughly before trying to release them from the mould, it works perfectly! I just coloured the starfish with blending chalk.

Supplies: Adirondack inks - Cloudy Blue, Stonewashed, Denim; Delight paperclay; push mould made from a real starfish; jute twine; Sunny days stamp (Cornish Heritage Farms), Plaid chalks (autumn)

Thanks for taking a peep - I'd love to know what you thought if you have a moment to leave me a comment :o)