Recovering Stampaholic

Woodware DT - Look what I did with Frantage

2012-02-27T00:00:00.000Z

This week we are using Stampendous products from the Frantage range. This includes a range of beautiful stamps and special effect embossing powders, glitters and mica fragments.
Go to the Stampendous website to check out this great range. Fran Seiford of Stampendous has some great YouTube clips showing us her "Encrusted Jewel" technique. I had a go for the background of my first card and I am looking forward to playing with this technique a lot more!!

I used the jumbo cling Holyhocks set for my first card. As well as the flower it has the gorgeous border that I have used on the right hand side of my card.

I embossed it with Aged Taupe embossing enamel for a lovely vintage effect.

For the "Encrusted Jewel" technique I sprinkled a selection of the powders onto some gold card stock then heated from underneath to melt and fuse everything together.

I used Aged Rose, Shabby White and Aged Gold embossing enamels. I also sprinkled on some bronze crushed glass glitter and some sage fragments. They give some great texture and colours .... I love them!!
My second card is a beautiful floral stamp CRW069 Botanical Magnolia. I wanted to keep this more simple as the drawing is so detailed and delicate ...it speaks for itself.

I used a page from an old dictionary I have for the background. The green border you might recognise from the first project.

Check out the Woodware blog every day to see what other Frantage products get used. The Stamp Man have alot of these products on their website if you want to see them.
Siobhan x

The Stamp Man - Colours of Spring/Easter/Mother's Day

2012-02-24T19:52:00.000Z

The latest challenge over at The Stamp Man is "Colours of Spring, Easter or Mother's Day".It's Lisa's turn to host this time. We also welcome a new member to our team ... Kim Reygate. I am sure most of you have come across her work in various magazines over the years and she also has a couple of books published. I am a huge fan of her work so was delighted when we were told the news!!
I decided to go with pinkie tones for this old fashioned Mother's Day card. I have just bought some new Stampendous stamps. This one is called Profile Portrait and I just loved the vintage image of the woman smelling a rose.

I blended Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet Distress inks onto a square of white card stock and used a music stamp to create my background. I tore a couple of strips of paper to use as diagonal masks so that the music score would be less solid. I also stamped some swirls with versamark and water to further enhance the background.

The flower was made using one of the flowers on Tin Holtz's Tattered Floral die. I cut out about 12 from text paper. I then sprayed with one of the Starburst stain sprays to give a lovely shimmer as well as tinting them pink. A bit of punched foliage and an antique brad finish the card. Think this will do nicely for my mother-in-law!!
I hope you take the time to visit the challenge and join us. Remember there is a £10 voucher to be won every fortnight.
Hope you have a good weekend.
Siobhan x

Woodware DT - 40 Shades of Green

2012-02-21T00:00:00.000Z

This week's theme at Woodware is "40 shades of green". I am flying the flag for Stampendous at the moment. I got sent the new spring catalogue and it was overflowing with some great designs. I have just been onto The Stamp Man and discovered they already have alot of the new designs in stock. Their prices for Stampendous are really good, so I had myself a little shopping spree.
The stamp I have used for this card is one I bought a wee while ago and hadn't had a chance to use it. It is the Stampendous CRP 144 "I Love Paris" . I have simply stamped it in black and layered up with lots of greens!!

I needed to lighten it a bit so I coloured in the flowers on the stamped image with a white coloured pencil. And the punched flowers are white but sponged with green at the edges of the petals before shaping on a moulding mat.

I think you will agree, a lovely stamp!!

The fern is from a Leon-M punch called "Ash Branch". It's a very useful foliage punch as it has 3 different sizes of leaf sprig.Be sure to stop by the Woodware blog to check out all the other green creations this week.

Hope you all have a good week.

Siobhan

Creative Expressions - Garden Chic # 4

2012-02-19T16:20:00.001Z

It was a lovely sunny morning today. As I hadn't ventured out for several days, we decided to take the boys (our dogs Rory and Alfie) for a walk along the river Tay. It was lovely and I feel better having breathed some fresh air. Not much growing yet but I did find a clump of snowdrops pushing their way through the dead leaves.

The boys enjoyed it. Rory is starting to see a bit more after all the problems he has had with his eyes and he was trotting along quite the thing. Alfie managed to get completely covered in mud and debris. His fur is like Velcro at times.

And he absolutely hates getting washed afterwards!!
So this afternoon I have even felt like crafting again and have made my final sample for Creative Expressions using the lovely Chic Garden. I have enjoyed these stamps as they are very detailed.

My colour combo this time is pink and brown. I stamped the pea shoot and bee repeatedly onto the brown paper and embossed with a detail gold powder.
The stamping was all done with Archival Coffee.

The button was a flat white button that I coloured with pink ink and stamped with the bee using the Archival ink.

I wanted to try a different flower for a change. I have my fellow DT friend Kim to thank for this one. I saw these on her blog and she has a great little tutorial on how to make them. So thanks Kim!! I will be making these again.
Time to put the kettle on, me thinks!! And catch up with some of my favourite blogs.
Hope you have all had a good weekend so far.
Siobhan

Creative Expressions - Garden Chic # 3

2012-02-16T17:37:00.000Z

This my latest project for the Creative Expressions DT using the fab Chic Garden set. I made it last week but with not being well I am a bit behind with DT commitments this week. However I am starting to feel a bit better. So I am catching up a bit this afternoon with my favourite blogs and thought I better update mine too!!
I decided to use several of the images from the set and create a grid of inchies. The stamps are so detailed that they work perfectly for this technique.

After stamping and punching out my chosen areas, I mounted each square onto a brown matt and then onto a gold square.

As an embellishment I made a shrink plastic butterfly. I stamped it with Brilliance Tiramisu ink pad.

To finish off I wrapped some garden raffia round the card and tied on the Tim Holtz philosophy tag.
Thanks for stopping by for a look.
Siobhan x

Woodware DT - Hearts for my Sweethearts

2012-02-14T22:04:00.003Z

This is a very quick post for this week's Woodware project. I am not a well bunny!! Having just recovered from a nasty sickness bug I now have a stinking cold. In fact if my husband had it, it would be flu! It has been a bit of a struggle to produce anything for the last 3 weeks. So apologies in advance for this mediocre sample.
The theme this week is "Hearts for my Sweethearts". I am not really a heart person (stamp wise that is...!!) But I do have a lovely Magenta set called "Retro Romance"

It is a really useful set that I use for weddings, engagements and St Valentine's Day cards.
For my card I embossed the square dangling hearts in gold onto black card. Then I coloured the hearts with red from one of the US Artquest Pearlex Palettes. This gives the hearts a really lovely shimmer effect.

I layered it up very simple and as a finishing touch I cut out a small square of mount board. This was covered with gold ink then gold embossing powder and melted with your heat gun. Do this 3 times then press your stamp into it. To allow the stamp to release I ink it up with VersaMark first. Then once your impression is made you can brush on some Pearlex or other mica powders to finish the piece.

I have used this set before for the Woodware DT, way back when we did wedding cards. It is just a lovely useful contemporary set!!

Well that's it folks, I am away to bed with a hot toddy (not very romantic for Valentine's night ...). My poor husband slept on the floor in my craft room last night. He said he was going to phone CalMac ferries and offer my services as a fog horn!!

The Stamp Man - Texture

2012-02-10T12:00:00.000Z

This fortnight's challenge at The Stamp Man is "Texture". It's Neil's turn to host and he has made a fabulous tag to start us off.
I have gone for simple this time. After being unwell last week I am playing catch-up again. My creative mojo has deserted me for the time being and I am afraid this is the best I have to offer at the moment.

My texture comes from embossing. I used two different Cuttlebug embossing folders for my background. I love anything oriental so these were perfect to show off the beautiful Cypress Tree. The tree is a Dreamweaver stencil. I dry embossed it the added colour through the stencil with pigment inks and a stencil brush.

I finished off with some rafia for additional texture and a Chinese coin. The Stamp Man sell a great value Oriental embellishment pack. That's where I found my coin.
Why not show us how you achieved texture on your project and join us on this challenge. There is a £10 gift voucher up for grabs to spend in the online shop. Join us to see other great makes from the Design Team and Challenge entries.
Have a good weekend!!
Siobhan x

Woodware DT - Sketch Challenge

2012-02-08T21:57:00.001Z

This week we have another sketch challenge. This is open for you to join in until the end of February. Remember there is a gift voucher as a prize for the winner.

I recently bought a lovely new Stampendous stamp called "Rose Corset" from The Stamp Man. Their prices for Stampendous are really good. I have been keen to try it out and it fitted this challenge perfectly.

The rose background was made using a Dreamweaver background stencil that was embossed through my cuttlebug then colour applied through the stencil with a soft stencil brush.
The flower was created by punching out about 8 flowers of two different sizes from text paper. I sponged some colour on them. Once layered together I spritzed some mica spray over it to give it a lovely shimmer. I added an organza ribbon bow, some punched leaf sprigs and a pearly hat pin.

A piece of ivory lace adds to the vintage feel. I love this corset stamp and just know it's one I will use lots...!!
Be sure to have a look at the other inspiring samples this week over on the Woodware blog.
Siobhan x