Bright thoughts

I wanted a quick "thinking of you" card to send to a friend and thought bright colours and a cheerful image would be the way to go.

I masked with torn paper and sponged inks into the centre and then "finger walked" a paisley background stamp to give just a touch of hit-and-miss pattern to the block. I did my usual trick of stamping just the antennae on the card and then adding a cut out butterfly over the top - just the body is stuck down so the wings are bent up slightly from the card.

I was just going to add the sentiment and leave it very clean and simple but I managed to get a tiny smudge of espresso ink on there - typical when you're about done! Tiny gems came to the rescue and I think I've got away with it.

I'm afraid the pinks didn't photograph too well, the colouring is smoother in real life.

Stamps:
Antique Engravings (Hero Arts)
Sentiment from Poppy bottles (Stampendous)
Paisley Backgrounder (CHF, retired)

Paper: smooth white

Ink: Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Pool, Stream and Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers
Acrylic nail art gems
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Getting emotional

Sam chose "getting emotional" as the theme for this month's postcard swap on UKStampers rather than going for the ubiquitous Valentine theme. As ever, cards are to be posted without an envlope so flat is good!

I started thinking about the heart as the seat of emotion and the heart vs the head. I Googled to find an appropriate quote and used that as my starting point; it's just printed from the computer on the paper I used for the card.

I thought this vintage young lady fit the bill quite nicely - she might be learning something from that book but she's dreaming about something else as well, I reckon! Or perhaps it's a novel and she's feeling somebody else's emotion vicariously - Kathy's passion for Heathcliff or Anna Karenina's despair, maybe?

Stamps
Relish Reading (Rogue Redhead Designs)
Vintage Flourish (Indigo Blu)

Paper: ivory and dark chocolate

Ink: 
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink (Antique Linen)

Other:
Copic markers
 Tracing wheel

Tonmorrow's the last day for this month's postcards but the new theme will be up soon after that if you fancy joining us and getting some happy mail!

Thanks for stopping by!

Craft Stamper Hop Spot Prize Winner!

Just a quick post today - the randomly drawn winner for the Tando Creative spot prize in last week's Craft Stamper blog hop post is Helen at Stamping by H.

Congratulations Helen! Please use the "contact me" link on the left to send me an e-mail so that I can put you in touch with Tando Creative to claim your prize!

Craft Stamper Challenge

The Craft Stamper blog is now hosting challenges inspired by projects in the magazine and I'm delighted to say that the very first challenge is based on my "faux airbrush" technique from the March issue. The article is part of the Distress to Impress series that's currently highlighting different uses for these versatile inks.

Using Distress to mimic the look of airbrushing is perfect for clean and simple cards. Sadly I needed a sympathy card and decided to use the technique to make something with a soft and restful look as I thought that would be appropriate.

It may be a bit subtle for the camera but I hope you can see how soft and delicate the finish is on this. I used Tumbled Glass at the top of my masked strip and Bundled Sage towards the bottom. A simple stamped image and sentiment with a scored line for "grounding" finish it off. As you can see, it's possible to cover a big area and it gives a different look than regular sponging.

We'd love to have you play along with the challenge and there are a couple of very good reasons to have a go: the winner will not only receive this beautiful Clematis Flourish stamp from Indigo Blu but the card selected as the best entry will be published in a future issue of the magazine.

Check out the Craft Stamper blog for details of how to enter the challenge - we look forward to seeing your take on the technique!

Materials used for my card:
Plant image from Nature I by Indigo Blu
Sentiment from a retired CHF set
Smooth white card
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage)
Versafine ink (Onyx Black)
Scor-It
Corner Chomper

Craft Stamper Best of 2012

Hello and welcome if you're hopping along with Craft Stamper magazine today! If you didn't know about the hop, you might want to go to the Craft Stamper blog and start there as there are prizes to be won!

I'm Joanne and I've been with the Craft Stamper design team since summer 2011. I love to use my stamps in all kinds of ways, not just for cards so you're quite likely to find me playing with UTEE or polymer clay as well as colouring with Copics or pencils and finding interesting embellishments in unlikely places!

My "best of" for 2012 is a simple combination of chipboard, UTEE and Perfect Pearls. I made several pieces of jewellery this way during the year and enjoyed it every time. You may have seen my Iridescent Enamels pendant and earrings in the December issue of Craft Stamper using chipboard domino and inchie shapes and colours reminiscent of peacock feathers.

This project uses the same technique - add three layers of UTEE to a chipboard circle, brush with Perfect Pearls and then remelt the UTEE so it takes a textured impression when you press a stamp into it.

If you want to concentrate colour in particular areas of the design once it's embossed, you can use a Versamark pen and brush on a little extra Perfect Pearls. A finishing coat of gloss really brings out the colours and provides a professional enamelled finish. I like Decoart Triple Thick for this as I've found it more successful than Glossy Accents over the UTEE base (my attempts with Glossy Accents have ended with it splitting and leaving cloudy spots).

Spot Prize! 
Heavy weight chipboard is a great base for projects like this as it's inexpensive and offers a whole range of options in terms of shape. Tando Creative is offering a "spot prize" for today's hop with the winner choosing £20 worth of Tando Creative goodies! There's a fabulous range to choose from: shapes to do this sort of project, shapes to stamp on or to embellish with, masks or stencils - entirely up to you! To be in with a chance of winning simply leave a comment on this blog post by midnight on Friday 8th February 2013. The winner will be drawn at random week commencing Mon 11th February.

The letter you are collecting from me to help you spell the phrase for the main prize draw is: R 

Next stop along the way is one of my favourite stampers, Paula Whittaker at her blog Just For One Day. Don't forget to leave a comment here if you'd like to be in with a chance of the Tando prize!

If you get lost on the hop at any time, pop back to the Craft Stamper blog and follow the links from there.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Tando Creative Circles grab bag
Black UTEE by Ranger
Grape Fizz and Blue Raspberry Perfect Pearls by Ranger
Bubbles Border stamp by Lost Coast Designs
Triple Thick Gloss Glaze by Decoart