Seize The Birthday - Script or Text

We've got a great challenge for you at Seize The Birthday - Script or Text.  I was inspired by a gift voucher design from that well known online retailer, so I've made up my own block text pattern using various sentiments from STAMPlorations.  A bit of watercolouring and some splatters, and it's done.

Our surprise party guest is the one and only Damsel of Distressed, Becca Cruger.  Pop on over to the Seize the Birthday blog to see some fabulous inspiration from Becca and the rest of the Design Team, and play along with us.

If you're not feeling inspired by the theme, you can still play anything goes, as long as it's a birthday project.

Jane and Tim

Helloooo!  Long time no blog... I haven't been blogging much this month, but I'll be stepping it up from next week because the STAMPlorations Inspiration challenges are back, so they'll get me back in the groove.  I've been making plenty, but not making time to blog.

I'm playing along with Darnell's NBUS #12.  Twelve, for goodness' sake.  How did that happen?  Anyway, my NBUS is some Jane Davenport face stamps and stencils.  I've been making traveller's notebooks (you can see a couple here), and those notebooks needed inserts.  So I made some inserts from cartridge paper and wanted to test out the paper.  I stamped a face on each page so that I could practice.  I ended up finishing all the pages in one go (so much for practising, I was having too much fun!), and you'll be seeing the rest of them over the next few posts.

Here's the full page for this girl.  Because it's mainly watercoloured (with Distress Inks) the page is curling, hence the photo-prop pebbles.

So the face is a stamp, the flowers are a stencil, the hair is black pen and white Posca paint pen, and her top is stencilled with my exclusive Tim Holtz stencil.

I'm also playing along at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Anything Goes.

Look who I was with on Sunday!

I was one of the lucky ones who managed to book onto Tim's Creative Chemistry Live UK Edition!!  It was a fantastic workshop, and Tim and Mario were an impressive team - the attention to detail was second to none.  Tim's delivery was faultless and fun.  The. Best. Workshop. Ever.  And that's why I've got some exclusive Tim Holtz stencils, made just for the CC Live UK workshops :)

Plenty of time for selfies after the workshop.  That's my friend Mel.  Not sure who's photobombing ;)

His suggestion, not mine!  But I had to oblige ;)

Happy Happy Birthday

A couple of cards for you today.  

With this first one I'm playing along with The Heart Desires Challenge #16.  As if there wasn't enough inspiration in those gorgeous photos, I went with just the colour scheme.

Ok, a little bit of Peacock Feathers snuck into my colour scheme, but we won't talk about that.

With the second card I'm playing along with CAS Watercolour Challenge, Silhouette.

The background is made from an inked and spritzed embossing plate, with the silhouette stamped a couple of times with the MISTI to get a good clean impression.

I'm over on the STAMPlorations blog tonight talking ice cream.  Here's a taster ;)

Happy Bird-day To You

Just a quickie, it's a flying visit, if you'll pardon the pun.  This card was inspired by Time Out Challenge #92, where the theme is Inspired By Words:

Paint The Flying Spirit Of The Bird Rather than its Feathers

This guy's certainly got the flying spirit, he's just not made it off the ground yet ;)

I'm also playing at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, where the theme is clean and simple.

Toodle pip!

Seize The Birthday - Balloons

We've got a new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday, and this time it's balloons - after all, what's a birthday without balloons?  Especially when you're 2 :)

Our guest designer is The Damsel of Distressed herself, the one and only Becca Cruger!  Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for inspiration from Becca and the rest of the design team, and play along.  If you don't want to include balloons, you can still play as long as it's a birthday project.

You can enter up to three times, and each entry may be combined with up to four other challenges.

Traveller's Notebooks

Warning: picture-heavy post, grab yourself a glass.

I've had the Eileen Hull Journal Die for a couple three months now, and a pile of die-cut covers has been sitting looking at me.  So this week I got started on them.  I couldn't decide whether to make a bright colourful one or a grungy one, so I made both at the same time, working on one while the other was drying.  Here's the bright colourful one.

I was the lucky recipient of a Tim Holtz goodie bag on Creative Chemistry 102, and the goodies came wrapped in this fabulous tissue paper.  Which was far too nice to use, or throw away, so I would just stroke it every so often.  But now, I have a roll of the stuff, so I've finally psyched myself up to use it.

(Ooh, did I tell you, I've got a place on the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry Live UK Edition?  Yep, Tim's coming over here to teach.  When the tickets first went on sale, the website broke with the demand, so all bets were off.  When they went back on sale, it was the most nerve-wracking time ever - my blood pressure must have been off the scale!  Anyway, I got a ticket, yay!).

Where was I?

I stuck down the tissue with Multi Medium Matte, then finger-painted with translucent PaperArtsy Fresco paints. I did some outlining with a black Caran d'Ache Neocolour II crayon and dragged a wet paintbrush round.  If you look closely at the butterfly's body you can see some white pen marks.  I also added some white paint splatters.

A bit more work with the white pen and Caran d'Ache.  I coloured the 'horlogerie' red first.

Here's a look at the full cover.  I used STAMPlorations Mixed Media Grunge stamps down the spine and around the edges of the front and back.

Here's the inside.  A bit in-yer-face ;)  The elastic cord is 1.5mm from Tailormouse.co.uk.

So here's the grungy version.  I really like it, but looking at the photo, it probably needs something else.  Maybe when a closure is added it'll look better.

Here's a close-up of the graphite texture paste.

And the PaperArtsy Pewter Fresco metallic paint stencilling, along with some splattering:

Stamping on the spines and a bit of leftover tissue paper:

Love me those grunge stamps!

Here's the insides:

Brayered Fresco paints, stencilling and stamping.  The elastic cord is 1mm from Tiger.

I've made another, but your glass must be finished by now.  And I haven't poured mine yet, so I'll save that for another post.  Cheers!

Craft Stamper Take It Make It Reminder

Are you playing along at Craft Stamper Take It, Make It?  All you need is polymer or rubber stamps, and you're in!

This month's challenge is sponsored by Uniko, who are offering these three stamp sets to one randomly drawn winner:

The winner chosen by the design team will get their profile published in the magazine and on the blog, their winning entry published in the magazine, and a guest design spot in a future challenge.

Pop on over to the blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the design team, and play along to win!

STAMPlorations Big and Little Release

We've got another mini-release for you at STAMPlorations, the Big and Little Series.  Shery's designed Big Robots and Little Robots, and I've designed these monster sets - Big Monsters and Little Monsters, and I love them to bits!  I've had so much fun colouring these guys.   I ended up with a pile of of them.

Here's a closer look at the two sets:

Big Monsters

Little Monsters

For my first card, I mopped up all of the Distress Ink left on my acrylic block after watercolouring all my stamped monsters, which gave me this background.  Then it was just a matter of choosing which monster looked best against the background, and stamping the sentiment.  All the stamps on this card come from Big Monsters.

Aren't these Little Monsters so cute??  I can't decide which one is my favourite :)  I love the coils and boings, really gives them movement.  All of the stamps on this second card are from Little Monsters.

For this next card, I die-cut a Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle, then cut another rectangle out using the Bloom Happy die set, and added my Big Monster leaning out of the frame.  All the stamps are from Big Monsters.

Of course, you can mix and match from the two sets.  The sentiment on this last card is from Big Monsters, and the images are from Little Monsters.  The base card is quite thick and wouldn't lie flat for photography - that's where the scissors come in.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for some more fabulous inspiration from some of our design team using my Monsters and Shery's Robots, and comment on all our posts for your chance to the set of your choice from this release.

The stamps are already in the store, with 5% off for the first week of their release.  And if you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY you'll get an additional 20% off.  Happy shopping!

Craft Stamper Take It, Make It

It's a new month and a new challenge at Craft Stamper, and as usual, it's Anything Goes (as long as you use real stamps on your project).

Is it to early for Christmas cards?  Even when I start them in July, I still haven't made enough by Christmas!  I've been sloshing Distress Inks onto my new stamps, Three Kings, then I grunged it up around the edges with a credit card and black ink.

Our sponsor this month is Uniko, who are giving away these stamp sets from their fabulous range to one lucky randomly chosen winner:

The winner chosen by the design team will get their profile published in the magazine and on the blog, their winning entry published in the magazine, and a guest design spot in a future challenge.  What's not to like?

We've had some cracking entries lately that weren't eligible for prizes, either because there was more than one project in their blog post, or they entered more than three times, or they didn't link their entry back to the Craft Stamper blog.  Don't spoil your chances - make sure you follow the rules, which can be found on the blog page.

You'll also find some more fabulous inspiration from the rest of the Design Team on the blog.  Pop on over, then play along!