Seize The Birthday - Two Patterned Papers

We've got a new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday, and this time it's Two Patterned Papers.

My background patterned paper is actually a bit of Ordnance Survey map, but don't worry, I haven't defaced a map.  I bought a pad years ago (can't even remember where from) made from old/surplus OS maps.  My other patterned paper is a piece from PaperArtsy where I stamped the car onto he paper then fussy cut it.  Added a strip of washi tape and a sentiment, and it's done.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team.  And if you don't want to use patterned papers, you can still play along with any birthday-themed creation.

STAMPlorations Things With Wings Blog Hop - Take Two

We've got some more inspiration for you in our month-long Things With Wings blog hop and linky party.

Today I've used my Winged Things set.  I stamped a few of the images randomly over the card (so randomly that I managed to overlap two images, so after that I deliberately overlapped some more so that my mistake didn't look too obvious).

I went for bright colours (Distress Inks).  No matter how neatly I intend to paint, I really can't stop myself from sloshing it on and leaving white space within the lines.  Makes me happy.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog and feast your eyes on some more gorgeous inspiration, and join in the linky party for your chance at winning some fabulous goodies.

STAMPlorations Inspiration #128

It's Inspiration Tuesday at STAMPlorations, and this week we're showcasing Becca's stamps.  And I'm playing with her newest, soon-to-be-released set, Sweet & Sassy Mom.  Apart from Becca's brand of wacky sentiments, there are also these lovely big bold flowers and leaves.  I did a little masking and made a big and bold cluster.  Sloshed some Distress Inks over the images then added some Stickles to the flower centres.

For the next week there's 10% off all of Becca's stamps, except Funny Kind of Love, which is 20% off (no code needed).  And if you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY you'll get an extra 20% off this and any other stamps, stencils and dies in the store.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the store.

I'm playing along at Inkspirational, where the theme is Spring.

Winnie & Walter Leading Lady - Take Two

Hellooo!  Thank you so much for your lovely response to my first Leading Lady post for Winnie & Walter last week.  I hope you'll enjoy this week's instalment too.

The brief was simple: do whatever makes you giddy, said Shay.  Well, if you know me at all, you'll know that Distress Inks make me giddy - I'm surprised I didn't use them last week, to be honest ;).  One of my favourite ways of using Distress Inks is to ink the solid reverse of a stamp, give it a light spritz of water, then stamp and let the colours slurp together.  Magic!

I've used standard cardstock for all these cards.  The smoothness of the card allows the ink to play on the surface for a little longer than, say, watercolour card, so you get a bit of time to work the colours by lifting one side of the stamp slightly away from the card then replacing it, which squeezes the ink between the stamp and the stamped area.  This trick also helps with coverage if your spritzing was a little uneven and your first impression had patches of white card showing through.  Make sense?

For this first card, I used the back of the large heart stamp in the From The Bottom of My Heart set (this set was a free-with-qualifying-purchase set for the January/February release, but will be on general sale in 2017). I inked the reverse of the stamp with Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon and Spiced Marmalade, then spritzed, stamped and slurped.  The sentiment and small hearts are part of the set.

For this second card, I used the reverse of the heart cluster from Sending You With Evelin T Designs set with Tumbled Glass, Evergreen Bough and Broken China (I think!).  The other effect that I like about this technique is that the watery ink can leak outside the image as in this case, giving a ragged edge.

I like using Pine Needles and Forest Moss for Christmas/fir trees, and with this technique no two trees look the same.  Using the reverse of the large tree stamp from the Happy Owlidays With Evelin T Designs set, I stamped the first tree on the right, masked it, reloaded and stamped a second tree slightly behind, then the tree on the left.  Then I decided I wanted a hillside in the background, so I just laid some copy paper at an angle as a mask, and stamped.  Wouldn't you know it, the ink soaked through the mask, which explains those extra little marks.  Or we could just pretend that the snow is melting near that tree ;)

When I was inking the reverse of the tree stamp, I noticed that if I dragged the inkpad (Distress Ink Mini) down the stamp, it left a pattern as the ink pooled, so I thought I'd try stamping without spritzing to see what I got. Funky, eh?  Also, because the stamp isn't saturated with spritzed water, when you stamp over a masked image you don't get the soak-through.  I stamped that gorgeously cute robin, coloured him with Distress Inks (of course!) and fussy cut him.  Adding a bit of shadow with Hickory Smoke helps to ground the images.

So now I'm two Christmas cards nearer to my target.  (What target?  I just keep making Christmas cards until Christmas Eve, and hopefully I've made enough by then!)

I've got a $30 gift certificate to the Winnie & Walter store that Shay has generously provided for me to give away to one lucky commenter, so don't forget to leave a comment on my blog post.  And if you haven't left a comment on my first Leading Lady post yet, pop on over and leave me a comment there to increase your chances of winning.

I'll be back with more Winnie & Walter goodness next Saturday, see you then!

Craft Stamper Take It, Make It

It's time for a new challenge at Craft Stamper and, as always, it's Anything Goes as long as you use polymer/rubber stamps.

I've used my brand new, hot-off-the-press stamp set, Parfumerie, available soon here.

This month's challenge is sponsored by Visible Image, and one lucky random winner will get these three stamp sets.

The winner chosen by the Design Team will have a profile post on the blog, their winning entry published in the magazine, and a future guest design gig.

All you have to do is create a single project (no sets, please, we're British) which includes polymer or rubber stamping.  You can enter a maximum of three times.

Pop on over to the Craft Stamper blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and play along to win.

STAMPlorations Things With Wings Blog Hop

We've got a fun blog hop for you at STAMPlorations this month - we're celebrating winged things in Spring!  Every Wednesday in April we'll have some fabulous inspiration for you, and the hop will remain open until the 30th.  That gives you plenty of time to comment on the hop stops, and to create your own winged things to enter into the hop for a chance to win stamps, dies and gift certificates.

If you were thinking of treating yourself to some new stamps and dies, look no further than STAMPlorations for some gorgeous filigree butterfly dies, dragonfly dies, flower dies and stamps.  Check them out in the New Releases section here.  (And if you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY you'll get 20% off any stamps, dies and stencils in the store.)

Today I've used the Flutter Zen 1 two-part die set.

You get a solid butterfly die, and this beautiful filigree die which cuts so cleanly.  All the little pieces just popped out very easily.  I adhered the filigree layer at the antennae, head and tail and a little pinch on the body, then eased the wings up slightly for movement.  Here's a better view:

The black card is slightly pearlised.  You could always add Wink of Stella to pearlised matt card.

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

Then pop back to the STAMPlorations blog in a few hours where I'll be spotlighting the new STAMP Club stamps and dies sets.  Here's a sneak peek:

CUTplorations April Challenge

We've got a new CUTplorations challenge for you over at STAMPlorations.  Have a look at this fab inspiration graphic.

For some reason, coffee cups came to mind...

I used the Sketchy Coffee Cups stamp set, sloshed some Distress Inks around, and topped it all off with a Java Great Day die cut.

How will you be inspired?  Eggs, circles, colours, stripes?  Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and play along.  You must use a STAMPlorations product in your creation (digi available from our Never-ending Challenge if you don't have anything) and you must use a die-cut (any brand).  Don't forget to display the graphic and link back to the CUTplorations post.