The Stamp Man Challenge # 17 - Embossing

Yay another Stamp Man challenge and for the next 2 weeks we are asking you to show us some embossing. This challenge is being hosted by the newest member of the Stamp Man team, Neil from Neelz Expressionz. If you haven't yet found Neil's blog do go over and take a look at his fabulous work and inspiration. You won't be sorry.

For my DT piece I have used heat emboss, dry embossing and had my very first play with UTEE. I have created a little wall hanging.

Recipe
Ingredients
Wooden oval back from an old photo frame
Claudine Hellmuth Gesso
Embossing ink and black embossing powder
One of my own photographs
TH stamps - artful flight and shabby french
Cuttlebug text embossing folder
Sandpaper
Stazon inks - black and timber brown
Handmade paper roses
Utte and melt pot

Instructions
Two coats of gesso on the oval and edge with black embossing powder.
Cut photo to desired shape, stamp images and sentiment and run through embossing folder, sand the top layer.
Make roses (TH style) and dip in hot UTEE.
Add wire to hang.

Please see the May edition of the Craft Stamper magazine for Jean Franks Beck article on Picture Perfect which gave me the inspiration to use a photograph in this piece.

Don't forget you can win a £10.00 voucher for the Stamp Man shop if you enter and are chosen as the winner so I look forward to seeing you in the challenge list.

I hope you have had a good week and have will have a great weekend to come. This is a scheduled post as I am in Cyprus still, so I will let you know how it's been when I get back.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

MAWTT Challenge 93 - Sketch

Well dear blogging friends, as you read this I will be in Cyprus, hopefully chilling and sunning myself before attending a wedding tomorrow. So this is a scheduled post.

Our very dear and talented Hazel is hostess at MAWTT this week and she is challenging us to use a pretty neat sketch. Do go over and see how the DT have interpreted this, there are some beautiful creations. I have made mine to fit this DT piece and also to enter into the Gingersnap Creations colour challenge to use copper, ginger or rust.

Materials used -
Papermania Birdsong paper pack (thank you Laurie I love these designs)
Paper Artsy birdcage stamp and die
Gold metallic paper and copper alcohol ink.
Diamond stickles
TH - Stampers Anonymous stamp - dotted plume (just bought it at the NEC)
Marianne Creatables leaf dies
Ribbons, paper flowers, distress embossing powder, DIs, gems.

Our sponsor this week is Crafty Emma's Store. Now you have seen the details go take a look at the amazing cards made by the rest of the Design Team at MAWTT.

I will be back next week, hopefully with some pics as well.

Hope you are having a great week wherever you are in the world.

Take care and be happy.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Freebie Easter sentiment

Hi bloggers

This is a simple freebie sentiment I am offering today which has been made in Photoshop Elements. There is a jpeg file and a png file so you should be able to open it in whatever photographic programme you use and re-size it. I made this one to fit a 50mm punch.

jpeg file

png file

I would welcome your comments as to how this worked for you and in what programme. This is completely new for me, but I will have another for you in a few days.

Enjoy.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Grungy Monday No:1

Hi All - my second post for today but again, Happy Mother's Day to all Mum's in the UK. I hope you are being treated to some fun, time off and love from your nearest and dearest.

Now onto business and how exciting, Grungy Monday has it's big PREMIER this week and oh boy I know this is gonna be one challenge blog I won't want to miss.  A huge thankyou to our fabulous hostess Linda Ledbetter at Studio L3 for continuing the amazing Tim trail of techniques and inspiration. What a wonderful way to have fun, experiment and learn new tricks and ideas. I have also taken inspiration from the Gingersnap Creations, Once in a Blue Moon challenge where you can re-visit any of their previous challenges, and I chose 'Wings'.

This week our trail takes us to the 12 Tags of Christmas, 2008, Tag No:10.

This is my take on it.

Recipe

Mask the background and spray with glimmer mist and ink all over with DI.

Stamp the dress form (on seperate card) with embossing ink and emboss with black powder.

Paint over the dress form - I used twinkling H20's.

Cut letter shapes from stamping, die-cuts etc - mine were PC generated.

Tear strip of text or music paper for the side and ink it - I used a downloaded dress pattern.

Die cut wings and add to dress form - I used gold metallic card and added alcohol inks.

Dye ribbon to match the background and tie round the middle of the dress form.

Die cut thread spool, add thread and buttons as an embellishment. Attach with a snap fastener.

Ingredients -

Glimmer Mist - peacock green.

Twinkling H20 - orange peel

DIs - broken china, antique linen, walnut stain, black soot.

AIs - stream, ginger

TH die - sewing room

TH stamp - haberdashery

Mask - 'a special touch of' but no name given for the design

thread, buttons, snap and ribbon

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend and thanks for stopping by,

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Grungy Monday - Tims tags Xmas 08 No 10
Gingersnap Creations - Once in a Blue Moon - Wings
Stampin' Royalty - Heat embossing

The Stamp Man Blog Candy

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

This is just to point fellow bloggers in the direction of the Stamp Man blog where there is a fabulous blog candy - ALL TIM's STUFF.

Point your mouse over the blog name here The Stamp Man and good luck.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

LIIU challenge 12 - Easter

Good day everyone

Here is my project for LIIU where the theme is Easter.

I had fun making this little open box (which I found on Splitcoast Stampers) and I made a card to go with it. Notice the circular sentiment? I am now beginning to make my own in Photoshop Elements and will be happy to email this to you if you drop me a link via my email (see side bar).

Supplies used -
200 gm white card
Costco card
DIs scattered straw, frayed burlap, pumice stone, fired brick
Black Stazon
Stamps - B Line Designs - French Correspondence, TH - Artful Flight, Butterfly originally in a set from QVC.
Crafters Workshop template - Mini Birds
Nestabilities die cuts and frame
Beads, ribbon and thread
Glitter and clear embossing powder

The sponsor this fortnight is Scrappit at   http://www.scrappit.com.au/homepage/w1/i2/

Contact - Paula Williams – sales@scrappit.com.au

The fabulous prize is a $ 20 voucher to the store.

Scrappit provide all scrapbooking and card making supplies from all the top brands at the best prices. They have a friendly customer service and if you can't find a product you need they will do a special order and get it in for you.


 Do pop over to the rest of the DT to see their fabulous creations, so much to inspire you. Don't forget we now feature a stamper every fortnight and this could be you. This is a brand new addition to the challenge blog - see HERE if you missed the announcement.

Have a great week ahead.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

The Stamp Man ATC April Swap - Birds

Good morning Friends.

Here is my ATC for the Stamp Man ATC swap with a theme of birds.

I seem to be very grungy at the moment and this is a very simple design. Inked background and stencilled bird house design. Stamped very lightly with music score and glimmer misted. Put through embossing folder and inked the branch up. Stamped the bird, cut out, inked over again and covered with distress stickles. Edged with normal stickles, made some flowers and added the title and done. I have used my light tent again to photograph this but I must read the instructions as I am not too happy with the quality of the photo.

Materials used -
Dream Weaver stencil
DIs - bundled sage, peeled paint, forest moss, dried marigold, antique linen, vintage photo and walnut stain.
Stazon - timber brown
Glimmer Mist - creme de cocoa
TH embossing folder - tree
TH bird stamp - shabby french collection
D Stickles - rock candy
Stickles - diamond

These posts are scheduled as I am at work but I hope to see you later.

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

MAWTT Challenge 92 - More than one fold (but not an easel card)

Hi all you bloggers out there and welcome to Thursday and a new challenge at MAWTT.

I know I haven't been around much lately and I am not really MIA, it's just that I have to finish visits to all my schools before the end of term and get their reports out, consequently I am at it full time at the moment with very little left for creating and blogging. After Easter I am out of work completely so I will be around more then.

But here is my gem for the fabulous challenge set by our talented Shell today. She has chosen to challenge us to make something with more than one fold and NOT an Easel card. So I have made a birthday 'card' book for a very good friend whose birthday will be coming up soon. This definitely has more than one fold!!! I used the Technique Junkie CD which was a prize a couple of months ago. This little book is made from 1 sheet of 12 x 12 paper, a piece of card to make the flap (my idea that bit) and owires to bind it together.

As our sponsor is Bugaboo Stamps, I have used several of their digi stamps to make funny cards inside the book for my friend to read. You can find these at -   http://www.bugaboostamps.com/home.html

I had fun doing the adult colouring in using my promarkers and then decorating the front cover. The flap is secured at the back with a small piece of velcro.

Ken bought me a photo light tent for my birthday, but I really couldn't get the light right today, so apologies. I am going to have to experiment with it more.

Hope your week is going well, have fun.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

The Stamp Man Challenge # 16 - Anything Tim

Hi Friday Bloggers

The next Stamp Man challenge begins today and yes, you can guess can't you? I have been in my element this week getting inky and playing with Tim's stamps and dies.

I decided to make a tag, mainly because I have been itching to get back to the 12 stamps of Christmas and apply the skills and techniques in different ways. This tag came about not quite as one of those happy mistakes, but similar. I was looking at Tag 3 you know the one of the Christmas bird on a branch with the tissue tape flower. Well ................................................ I happily covered some card with the tissue tape and die cut the bird and wing to do a spring themed tag. (See the Caged Bird at The Stamp man.) But as you can see that's not what came about. No, in fact I looked at the left over piece and though what can I get out of that so as not to throw it away and waste it. So I decided I would die cut a small section of the cage to put in my bag of bits to use on a collage another time.

Only I so love the 'broken' cage that emerged I decided I was going to use that for my tag instead. I grunged it with AI, glue and DI. Having decided I didn't want the die cut bird on this one, I got out the Nature's Moment set (see them at the Stamp Man shop) and stamped the bird, cut it out and covered it in distress stickles. I used the flowers from the same set of stamps to make the background. The words were computer generated and I made the tissue tape flower inked with AIs and added some distress stickles and glamour dust and some beads in the centre. I then added the little hanging piece to show it still fits in with the Spring theme that I originally started with.

Eh voila. 

Supplies used -
TH Caged Bird die
TH Nature's Moments stamps
TH Tissue Tape
DIs bundled sage, peeled paint, forest moss, tattered rose, dried marigold, antique linen, walnut stain and black soot.
AIs gold (on the cage), pink sherbert and watermelon
Trinket pin
Bee charm (also flying free)
Brads
Fabric for the tie

Hope your week has gone well.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox



Challenges to have fun with -
Simon Says Stamp and Show - A Word (well 6 actually but the focus word is FREEDOM)
Tuesday Throwdown - Anything but a card
Bling It On - Anything goes with a charm
There's magic in the air - Vintage card or tag
Polka Doodles - Spring Has Sprung

Wedding Book Page 2

Hi All

Just a quickie from me this morning as I have my Stamp Man post going up at midday.

This is another page for the wedding memories book I am making. The bride to be has chosen hot pink as her main colour. I have made a double tag pocket, two tags and a double photo mat for the parents of the bride and groom to record a short message for their children and their photos to be added later. I will let the pictures tell the story - cor do you remember that album? "Every Picture Tells A Story" - 70's Rod Stewart and I still love it.

Just have to say these tags took a while to make with 3 different layers of paper underneath, then painted with white gesso and left to dry. Next I tore pink tissue paper some plain and some stamped and stuck all over it with matt multi-medium before adding the butterflies and flower ribbon (thanks Lisa, I have found a use for it already).
Thinking of music I am off to see The Script tonight at Wembley with hubbie, daughter and daughter's friend. Will let you know tomorrow what it was like. This was our Christmas present from Maddie.

Have a wonderful day - see you later with my next post.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Crafts4Eternity - Something hidden (2 tags and a photo mat)
Alphabet challenge - Up in the air (The bird is definitely doing that as he is flying to freedom)
Paper Cutz - 3 patterned papers (3 on the layout itself)
Wednesday Stamper - Fabulously colourful
Truly Scrumptious - Tags
Simon Says - Mother's Day/Girlie (This book is for a special girl getting married in April)
Flutterby Wednesday - Open challenge
Crafts and Me - Anything Goes
The Shabby Tea Room - Bingo (I chose die-cut (behind the fairy and the photo mat), embossing The mat behind the fairy is embossed card), and ribbon (on the tags).