The Stamp Attic

Final Day.... more artwork and a trip out..........

2012-02-03T01:31:00.001Z

On the final day we hit the Prima stand, met up with the amazing Sherry Mendoza and I took her make and take class. There were amazing stands at the show, amazing artwork too and if I had to give out a prize (thank goodness I don't) I would divide it between Grapic 45 and Prima....just look at these layouts............

this was inside the stand, every single wall space on the outstide was covered in layouts like the ones above............sooooo much talent out there.

Not a great photo but how do you like this?

I loved the vintage look of them and to my delight found out they are............

new Sizzix dies, out soon.............

Show over we hit the local attractions. I have to say I am indebited to Kristin Langlais who was just amazing, we had the most amazing time. This is the big, and I mean big, Ferris Wheel at the California Adventure, one of the Disney parks, we decided not to go on the roller coaster you can see behind it, but to go on the nice sedate looking wheel...........OMG!!!!!

This is it from underneath................not so sedate now is it?............well you see the cars towards the middle, they start on the outside edge then without warning, as the wheel turns, they glide along the bars towards the middle and swing back and too........three of us up there, one was fine, one was giddy and one threw up!!! No names being mentioned here...........(but it wasn't me lol)

This was too funny, a huge plastic box made out like toy packageing, you get in for a photo shoot lol, well it amused me...........

Maybe our next stop is more up your street, this is a warehouse we visited and this is the ribbon aisle, one side of the ribbon aisle I might add.............I need to stay another week just to walk this baby...........like a kid in a sweet shop I was........

they had all sorts of decor stuff, I loved this metal pumpkin coach..........too big for my case though, but I have my eye on it...........I am sure it would fit in the shipping box!!

Lunchtime............this was a most delicious sandwich..............turkey, avocado and bacon salad with pasta (not too sure about a side of pasta with a sarnie but hey, I ate it and it was lovely).

We went to Old Town Orange, full of antique shops and little cafe's, and this made me smile.
Well, home tomorrow, we get there on Saturday, we leave tomorrow, its been a blast, lots of new friends (one in particular), lots of new ideas, lots seen and lots ordered........see you when I get back.

Day Three..............

2012-02-01T07:23:00.000Z

I wanted to try to show you just how big this show is............its hard to do. This is one aisle, at one end of one of the three halls................no wonder my feet hurt!
Today was another one full of fab art and new stuff!

I like this...............saw it on Judikins stand and need me some.

new things at Inkadinkado, gears set is appealing and those flowers might just have to come to our place too.................

I have never seen so much art in all my life........boy there are some very talented folks out there.........

not sure how good this photo is for you to see this, but its a tree that has been hung with lots of bling, chandelier type strings with glass globes at the ends, filled with coloured flowers, more bling to match the theme of the trees...........

this one was on the same stand..........birdcages filled with flowers and colour.............just amazing.

part of the show is the networking and finally putting faces to names. This is Shelly, she is my 'Magic Miracle' at the end of an email, the person who somehow manages to sort out issues, find stuff for me and get it all shipped safe and sound. It was amazing to meet her and this is a public 'Thank You' to her from me for all she does..............thanks Shelly x

a tag dressform.............this was on the Ranger stand, all the tags are the Distress colours.

a few more of the Ranger challenge dressforms..................

Okay folks thats all for now..............its very late here, we got back in from dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and I can hardly move.........amazing food and lots of it, I even had half of it in a take home bag............last day at the show tomorrow and then we are off out with a friend who lives here. Disneyland and Californian Adventure, shopping and the coast for dinner............its a hard life!

Day Two..............

2012-01-31T07:03:00.000Z

Remember I said yesterday about the Ranger Challenge, well each show Ranger challange number of talanted designers to come up with brilliant ideas all using the same base. This show was to decorate a dressform. There were a fair few submissions and here are just a few of the ones that really caught my eye. First up is Mr Holtz......

then Paula Cheney

our very own Dyan Reaveley............this was awesome, and altough you cannot see from this camera shot, the chest on this was amazing LOL, bordering on a Madonna lookalike......

Lisa Pace..............

Lots of new things from Ranger coming in very soon including Tim Holtz new Distress Pens, all 37 colours and you can buy these individually or as a complete set if you are too impatient.

Next door to Ranger was Advantus, home of Idea-ology.............

this stand is always so inspiring, I never know where they manage to get hold of all the cool 'stuff' they use to decorate the stand.

This piece of artwork is incredible, idea-ology based and the colours....well, I loved this.

and guess who was there...................

Wendy Vecchi (Studio 490) was showing us some cool techniques with Clearly For Art, when along came Wendy Kadzidlo (Stamps and Memories), so amazed was WV that there were three of there all called Wendy, she wanted a photo shoot!

I paid a long visit to the Studio 490 stand and you will be pleased to know, stamps, artparts and books are on the way already.

Thought this was cute.............

and if I could have fitted this in a suitcase be assured it would be coming home with me!

Okay, its almost 11pm here so time to sign off, been a long day.

Catch you tomorrow.....

Day one..........

2012-01-30T06:42:00.000Z

Well here we are........and to prove it...................
First day is always a mix of desperation, inspiration and perspiration...........and this year was no exception.

First stand inside the door and OMG..........that took a good half hour to peruse..............

Graphic 45 is always the most amazing stand, they must spend hours and hours on the artwork for it. One of the new ranges this year is Olde Curiostiy Shop and it is def one of my favourites too.

How amazing is this.................simple but just lovely

This little chap was on the Canvas Corp stand, they sell mostly canvas (duh!) and burlap in all sorts of manifestations.

they have used the two products to cut flowers and decorate this cushion, I really wanted to take this home with me.

Heard of Christy Tomlinson? she is a new designer for Pink Paislee, and this is her canvas. It does not show the dimension in this photo but she uses a range of modelling paste, paint, papers and cut outs to achieve this look. Really dimensional, and such a nice lady too.

Banners are huge right now and this stand was outstanding, very eyecatching. I would love to know where they get all the fabrics from. The tables you can see here are old doors with legs on and a very eclectic mix of seating too!

Oh looky who I found, Dyan was on the Ranger stand, looking fabulous and demoing her new signature line which we will be stocking..........the other lady is Kristen, we met up at the show and and oohhed and ahhhed our way around pretty much the whole day........seems we both suffer from ADOS syndrome......"attention deficit..........ohhhhh shiney" LOL we tried to go in straight lines, honest we did!

I have lots of pictures of the Ranger challange for this year but they have to be turned yet and its late here so I am off to bed and will get them done for you for tomorrow.

Trivia.........

2012-01-29T01:21:00.000Z

Some more pictures for you............

The outside of our room..........

The inside............before we messed it up LOL

The veranda bit, which stays in the shade all day, which I have to say is a blessing, its hot here today.

The view from the veranda, and yes, that is Disney, well the back of it anyhow. Amazingly though, its very quiet and at night we can see the fireworks without leaving the room!

So, we went to register this morning and picked up our bounty bags, inside were some bits and bobs including a little promo for a wobbly thingy supplier.

Colin decided to do some 'crafting'. First

First you get your bits out of the little pouch.................

Where does the sticky go? ah X marks the spot!

Not sure you can see this very well, but the sticky has stuck the springy bit to the back of the........

Pink Snail!!!

and Voila!! Oh well, it kept him quiet for about a minute..................
I hope tomorrow to have much better stuff to show you.................

CHA 2012

2012-01-28T15:35:00.000Z

Hello folks..........arrived in Anaheim for the CHA show 2012. Sun is up, bit windy but nice and warm.

I look a bit dazed as this was on the bus from the airport to the hotel and we had already been up for a quite few hours LOL. Our hotel is fabulous, really like it, its not so much Hotel as apartment really with our own little veranda, will get some pics for you later today. We are 8 hours behind you guys so the blogging is going to appear a little erratic at your end if you are in the UK.
First stop after arriving was food!!

One of my favourite places to eat here is called California Pizza Kitchen, they do fantasitc salads aswell as pasta and pizza.

Colin made short work of a Chicken Jerk!!

and, Sue, it just had to be done. Fresh field greens with caramelised walnuts, pears and gorgonzola!! OMG!! They have a new one on the menu to, Caramelised Peach, well there is always tonight LOL
Okay, breakfast is calling so off to get that sorted and then register for the show, pick up the directory and floor map and do some planning for tomorrow..........where shall I go first??
Have a good day, x

Seeing Dots...

2012-01-25T11:25:00.004Z

...7 Dots that is! Have you seen those lush new papers from Polish company 7 Dots Studio? Wowzers, as soon as I copped sight of them I knew I had to have them! They have been lovingly stroked and last night it was time to cut into them. I have coupled them with some Stampotique images and put together a little folder concertina tag book.

The Ingredients:
7 Dots Studio Dreamer Collection Papers
Stampotique Stamps:
Kitty
Puss Puss
Minky Girl
Toby
Eric
GooseneckTwo Sticks
Distress Ink - Frayed Burlap
Distress Stains - Rusty Hinge, Dried Marigold, Fired Brick, Tattered Rose, Shabby Shutters
Paper Punch
Glossy Accents

I cut one of the sheets of paper so it would fold over at the base and still have enough left to cover the folded part so it matched in with the background. The tags were cut from more of the paper, made to measure perfectly to fit into the flappy bit of the folder.

All of the edges were blended with Frayed Burlap DI - I love this colour because it is a nice shade of brown and still subtle so as not to distract from the beauty of the papers. Each of the Stampotique characters were stamped onto cream cardstock using Jet Black Archival Ink. I used a waterbrush to pick up Distress Stains to colour the characters in - I cannot wait to get those new Distress Pens!!! Each person was cut out and edged with more Frayed Burlap - this just gets rid of the white cut edges.

I cut into the papers to get some circles so I could add these to the tags and folder. I used some of the snipped bits to tear strips so I could add these for the characters to stand on. Next I stamped Kitty, Puss Puss and Two Sticks. I masked Two Sticks to just the largest stick was stamped, drew a flowery head dress and then cut them out and coloured with more Distress Stains. Then I stamped a couple of the Two Sticks together and added more petals to them... and the felines were coloured with Dried Marigold and Rusty Hinge. They are a bit of a fiddle to cut out but worth it because they look so cute!

The front of the folder had another piece of paper popped onto it... I cut around the doily design within the paper to make it pop and then added a tag from the Sticker Sheet. I used Glossy Accents to highlight the hearts on the tag and then popped a word sticker and some more of the Two Sticks characters onto the front to finish.

Thanks for looking... hope you get chance to have some 7 Dots papers for yourself... they are gorgeous!! Really... stunning!! TTFN

Hels x

We do..................

2012-01-21T23:25:00.000Z

IndigoBlu

just in case you didn't know :)

Steampunk Art

2012-01-17T09:07:00.000Z

Great to be back and a Happy New Year to all, cannot believe we are in the middle of January already. I have decided on a little steampunk creation this morning for The Stamp Attic using Tim's Steampunk set and the Weathered Clock die.

The background is a thick piece of card covered with torn paper from an old book adhered with Studio Matte Multi-Medium. When you are adhering the pieces to the card add a few random brush strokes of the medium to the top of the text as when you apply the ink it will resist the medium and leave white areas which adds to the interest in the background.

The background stamp from the Steampunk set was stamped with VersaMark ink onto the torn paper and Detail Clear Embossing Powder sprinkled over the top. Distress Ink brushed corduroy was then added over the top of the embossed areas and as you can see these areas resist the ink and give a fabulous background. I cut the Weathered Clock from thick card and coloured with Distress Ink brushed corduroy, adding black soot to the edges. Clear Rock Candy was then added randomly to the top of the Clock, making sure that some of the areas were not covered. Once dry I added more brushed corduroy Distress Ink and the areas with no Rock Candy applied appears darker, adding to the grungy feel of my piece.

The dashing gentlemen were added to Fragments along with areas from the background stamp and these were then added to my card. To complete I added Steampunk Art from Wendy Vecchi's Steampunk Art set.

Thanks for stopping by, TRACY x x

SALE!!

2012-01-14T19:26:00.000Z

I am having an INSTORE ONLY sale starting Monday.....................lots of things at great prices. Need to clear the space for the new stuff from CHA..............
did I mention I am going to CHA?? LOL

Big Eyes...........

2012-01-12T20:28:00.000Z

Look what arrived today..............how cool is he??

There is also a bird and some flowers in newsprint...............my favourite new Hero Wood Stamps for 2012...............so far!!

Just what we need..............

2012-01-05T09:53:00.000Z

The new issue of Cloth Paper Scissors features 52 art prompts for 2012.........I am sure we are all a little 'dry' from Christmas so this is perfect!

Merry Christmas One and All

2011-12-24T20:10:00.000Z

Just popping in between mincepies and stuffing to wish you all a very Happy Christmas. Thank you for tuning it to my blog over the last 12 months and for all the lovely comments you leave about the work my brilliant Design Team do. We will be bringing you much more in 2012 but in the meantime
Eat Drink and Be Merry!

Wishing You A Merry Christmas!

2011-12-20T17:01:00.005Z

Goodly afternoon ... tis my turn to show you a little something I have been making using some fabby products which are all available in store at The Stamp Attic. My tag is all about Christmas and all things grungey... and here's how I made it: The tag base was coloured with Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough Seasonal Distress Ink and then edged with Gathered Twigs and Black Soot DI's. The stamping comes from one of my fave Tim Holtz Christmas sheets which has a great big music score image... this was stamped using Iced Spruce so it is nicely in the background of the design. The Christmas Carols image was stamped using Jet Black Archival Ink. I also used a little dotty stamp to add some "snow" stamping with Snow Cap Dabber.

The embellishments are made using Alterations Dies... the Lamp Post is cut from Grungeboard, painted with Black Dabber and then I made some lamplight for it using Distress Stains and coating it with Glossy Accents so it looks like glass. I cut three large flowers using the Tattered Florals die from Seasonal Kraft Resist... coloured with Fired Brick Distress Stain and then assembled it into a rose shape. The twig and leaves are cut from Grungepaper and coloured with the same Distress Inks as the background... and I coloured three little baubles with Red Pepper Alcohol Ink so they became the holly berries. I finished the tag with a few bits of Idea-ology and a very light spritz with Perfect Pearls Mists to add a smidge more sparkle.

While I am in the festive mood... have you seen Tim's blog? Wow, he has made some cute little trees using the Paper Rosettes Dies... well, I was smitten as soon as I saw them so got cracking right away and made this little one... I have used one of those fabby new vintage spools that have recently arrived in The Stamp Attic... and dabbed some GLue & Seal onto the tree and then sprinkled glitter over it. not like me to use glitter but I do love a bit of seasonal bling!

Right, that's all from me for today.... before I go though... here's a list of all the stashly goodies I used on my pieces.

Tim Holtz Collection Stamps - Festive Sounds
Alterations - Holly Branch, Holiday Lamp Post, Movers & Shapers Label/Ticket, Tattered Florals
Distress InkDistress Stain
Archival Ink
Manila Tag
Idea-ology
Kraft Resist Paper
Grungepaper
Grungeboard
Perfect Pearls Mists
Dabbers - Snow Cap & Pitch Black

Vintage Wooden Spool
Seasonal Paper Stash
Rosette Dies - Both Sizes
Glue & Seal
Glitter

All that is left for me to say is.... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Have a good one and see you in the New Year! Thanks for looking.... TTFN

Hels x

Christmas reading............

2011-12-18T21:19:00.000Z

We just received our January issues from Stampington, a whole two weeks early..........including this fantastic copy of Art Journaling

so if you fancy some Christmas reading order now and we can ship by Tuesday first class..............

Merry Christmas

2011-12-16T08:50:00.000Z

I am feeling very festive now there is only a matter of days until the big day so I thought I would create a couple more festive cards using the Here Comes Santa set from IndigoBlu from The Stamp Attic.

I created the background using a piece of torn scrap paper and Distress Ink broken china. I created the background first and then stamped the snowflake border at the top of my card.

The trees were then added, with a little shading at the bottom of each tree, Merry Christmas completes my card.

Whilst I was in the festive spirit I decided to create a second card this time using the tree from the set, masked and stamped at the bottom of the card with black Archival Ink. I used the fabulous Zipper once again to create my zipper flower adding a button to the centre along with some black ribbon.

I added a couple of layers of UTEE and placed my card in the fridge and then cracked the enamel to give an aged glass tile look.

I've tried to get a close up shot so that you can see the cracks, must admit they look great in real life.

This is probably my last post until after Christmas so I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for The New Year and a big THANK YOU for your continued support. Tracy (http://craftaddicts-tracyevans.blogspot.com/) x x

More Christmas Fun with Hero Arts

2011-12-14T11:26:00.000Z

Hi there, it's me, Ruby, back to share a few cards with you.

Have you been enjoying the 12 days of tags? I have bought a few bits and pieces to create some, but haven't made anything yet.

I have a few more projects to share with you today. First up is this little Hero Arts Holiday Reindeer that I've coloured with Copics. I’ve used Authentique Wonder papers. The card itself is just lined paper matted onto the card base. A rectangle striped panel has twine wrapped around it with buttons and has been attached to the card base using pop dots. The oval is a Nestabilities die and the sentiment (also from this Holiday Reindeer set) was stamped and hand cut, then finished off with some smooching of Peeled Paint distress ink around the edges.

This little card uses Hero Arts baubles from Decorate Your Holidays set. I matted the card base with blue bazzill using a corner rounder. I then cut a smaller white panel, again with the corners rounded. I stamped and coloured the little bauble using Copics and attached it to the panel using pop dots. To finish I stamped the word 'joy' and added some ribbon and twine to the top of the bauble and a gem to the centre.

My final card is another simple one, again using the Hero Arts Holiday Reindeer set..

I stamped the background with snowflakes in the same way as the bauble card, using Ranger Limited Edition Distress Ink in Evergreen Boughs adding little crystals to the centre. I then hand cut a little hill using white cardstock and stamped on the sentiment 'Peace Love and Joy' from the Very Merry Christmas sentiment set. I added some Rangers Stickles to the hill for some added sparkle. Using Biscotti Perfect Pearls mixed with water as a spritzer and Evergreen Boughs I painted an area of card big enough to stamp my card onto. Once the painted card was dry I stamped on the tree image, then fussy cut it before attaching to my card with pop dots.

Finally some Christmassy pegs to share with you. You may remember I blogged about these a while ago, so I thought I would try a Christmassy version this time. You could use these in so many ways, for your shopping lists, for gifting money, for using with Baker’s Twine to hang as a banner for your Christmas cards, etc. etc.

This used tags from the shop, some Authentique papers, a snowflake punch, some buttons and ribbon, some pearls and a little stamp from the Snowflakes set by Hero Arts. The pine cone and foliage in the corner is the new Tim Holtz Tattered Pine Cone die. There’s a great tutorial on there by Tim too. I LOVE this die, you can use it for roses too, they would look so pretty in different colours. I will use it for cards but my main reason for buying it is for my parcels because I think presents will look so pretty wrapped up with a couple of pine cones and foliage added to the ribbons.

Well that’s it from me today. I hope you’re keeping warm and toasty in this colder weather!

Happy Christmas shopping & crafting!

and finally..........Day Twelve

2011-12-12T08:46:00.000Z

Wow that went fast..so here we are, last tag of 2011...........I hope you enjoyed them as much as we did.

This one uses one of my favourite dies, Vintage Lace and I can only imagine how amazing it looks in real life with the little fractured doll on the bottom of it. For step by step hop over to Tim's blog and for all your stash needs click HERE
Enjoy!

Day Eleven...............

2011-12-11T10:18:00.000Z

The penultimate tag......gosh its gone fast.........

today's tag sees a good old basic technique, the fabulous UTEE and Melt Pot, perfect for a lazy Sunday in the craft room. For all the instructions visit Tim's blog ........

We have them in stock online now..............
And yesterday we had some new Memory Box stamps in

I just love this Distressed Jingle Bells.....I know most will have finished cards but I also know some will be rushing about at the last minute and this large background is just perfect for some quick cards.
Have a great weekend!

Day Ten.......

2011-12-10T08:29:00.000Z

Facets.............I like Facets...........they make amazing embellishments!

Only two days left to go, make sure you get your orders in to qualify for the offers or you may just miss out.

Day Nine....

2011-12-09T11:47:00.000Z

Sorry its a bit late today folks, I was having to wait in for my new sofa to arrive (which is here now and looks fab) so could not concentrate!

but worth the wait.........all the info is here on Tim's Blog with stash supplies HERE

These tags have been using a lot of the new Kraft Core Core'dinations Cardstock which has been a little hard to get hold of, but ours arrived from the US today, nab it while you can.

If you have never used Core'dinations before prepare to be amazed, its wonderful stuff.

A few Christmas Projects to Share

2011-12-08T12:00:00.001Z

Hello, it’s me back again with a few Christmas projects. I hope you’re well underway with your Christmas card and/or gift making. I’m only just really starting mine, eek!!

If you're here for the Tim Holtz tag, scroll down to the next post or click here.

First up is a Christmas tag using more cute Hero Arts reindeer stamps..

I used a manilla tag base and covered it with Bazzill cardstock in red that I ran through the Sizzix Snowflakes embossing folder. I tied some polka dot ribbon around the tag in a bow and then die cut a rosette in green and added the stamped Hero Arts ‘Holiday Reindeer’ that I paper pieced again with Bazzill. Using a Sizzix Brackets border die I cut some borders in white Bazzill and then used the offcuts of the rosette die for the border underneath in green Bazzill Bling. To finish I added some Xmas Red Stickles to his nose and a few dots for his jumper, and then added some Baker’s Twine to the top of the tag.

Next a more traditional Christmas card that we made at one of the workshops.

For this card we used Authentique ‘Wonder’ patterned papers, these come in a mini 6 x 6 pad and also in 12 x 12 papers. The stamps on the card are by Hero Arts, ‘Decorate your Holidays’ for the baubles and ‘Christmas Cheer’ for the sentiment. Lots of yummy Copics were used for the colouring and the little pearls were also coloured using Copics, they were originally white.

Finally a quick card made using some snowflakes to create a fun background…

This one uses various Hero Arts stamps, ‘Swirl Christmas’, and ‘Decorate your Holidays’ for the snowflake background and Ranger Distress Inks in Barn Door and Peeled Paint. The label is a Nestabilities die, labels 16 with a sentiment from Hero Arts ‘Get Merry’. The red panel behind the label was embossed in the same way as the reindeer tag and then before assembling everything a polka dot dressy bow was added with a button and twine to finish.

For more cute Hero Arts reindeer inspiration pop by and see my blog post.

Have a great day!

Day Eight......

2011-12-08T08:46:00.000Z

Goodness Tag counting sure makes the days go fast, well in my world it does anyhow. Day 8 already, and what a tag this one is...........loaded with technique and ideas.

For all the information on the HOW TO hop on over to Tim's Blog...........for any little bits and bobs that you just cannot live without, look HERE for the full list of shopping and also for a couple of fabulous offers. Have a great day.

Just a quickie!

2011-12-07T15:53:00.000Z

Over the weekend Wendy was visiting at my house and we had a paper folding play day! One of the things we made were these trees..........

Today I had a further play with mine and mounted the smaller one onto two

VINTAGE WOODEN SPOOLS glued together.

I tied a red ribbon around the join.

I hope you agree they look pretty good on my kitchen table!

Hop over to my blog......JABBERWOCKY.... for more info on the trees (and other folded fun) and a link to a tutorial to make one of your own!

Tag Seven.......

2011-12-07T08:31:00.000Z

Day Seven already, blimey its going fast......................

a much more traditional tag today and some great ideas for using glassine..............see all Tims instructions HERE and you can get the stash HERE...........enjoy.
Oh and check out the post below this one, Tracy has some awesome ideas with Indigo Blu Christmas Stamps...........

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

2011-12-06T09:36:00.001Z

I am feeling rather festive especially whilst creating my pieces for The Stamp Attic this week using the Here Comes Santa set from Indigo Blu.

I love the snowflake border stamp on this set it's so detailed. On this occasion I have stamped with Vermillion Archival and StazOn Stone Grey ink, adding a little of each colour to the stamp, masking the tree before stamping the second.

I also added some gorgeous trim to the top of my card and then made a floral to match adding a red button to the centre (the trim is available in the shop but not yet on line).

Whilst I was on a roll I created a second card using those wonderful Authentique papers. I also created a zipper flower, which I coloured with Distress Ink Fired Brick. For a little dimension I added a second layer to two of my trees and added text to jump rings.

I also thought it would be fun to create a place setting for Christmas from the fabulous SPOOLS that Wendy has in stock. I added decorative paper to the centre of my spool from the Authentique range and stamped the trees onto the Authentique paper and added two layers to each tree and adhered to the spool. I added the same trim to the top of my spool to match my card above. I cut a banner from the same paper using the Tattered Banners die for the finishing touch.

Talking of Christmas don't forget Tim's fabulous 12 Tags of Christmas and this is today's offering, all of the details of which you can find HERE and of course all the products are available from The Stamp Attic.

Thanks for stopping by, Tracy x x

Day Five..............

2011-12-05T09:10:00.002Z

Day five brings the magic of reverse stamps................

Am loving the recycling of packaging going on again in this tag, great time and money saver.

Time out...............

2011-12-04T19:58:00.000Z

As a busy retailer my November/December always wears me out, so when Hels's workshops for the year were over and my very good friend Sue Roddis invited me for a long weekend, I did not need long to say

YES!!!!

We went shopping in Chester on Friday, what a lovely place Chester is. Lots of lovely little shops selling those hard to find treasures and as it got dark the lights came on. How lovely does this look?
On Saturday we went shopping to a local garden centre, with equally pretty lights

but more importantly, a very nice Cafe..............

OMG this was just delicious............
Today, with the weather not at its best, we decided to leave the shops alone and have a play day..........now I almost never get time to play so how excited was I?
First we got ourselves some paper to work with.........at great expense

We had seen a great idea over on GezzyB's blog, so we decided to make one of these first...............

a folded paper Christmas Tree, great fun to make. I did not quite finish mine as we had lots of other things we wanted to try out..............so more to come on that.
Next up paper Snowflakes, Sue had seen this on a blog HERE ...............

We used double sided 12 x 12 for these but you could use anything really. So from this..............to this

I love them...........really love them, will be making more of these babies.
Not finished yet......next came these...............

paper balls...............clever folding from HERE to make these. Sorry my photo is not that great but basically we started with this

folded this way and that way and back again, added a bit of glue and voila!

So, a whole day but what a day..............thanks Sue (she just gave me my dinner too, I like it here.......ALOT), heading home tomorrow but will be back (if she will have me).

Tag Four...............

2011-12-04T10:01:00.000Z

A little late this morning folks but it is Sunday after all..................

Today's Tag is very innovative, I love the use of the packaging for the border. What am I on about.......well hope over to Tim's blog for all the instructions and HERE for all you might need to add to your stash. Check out the new Die Pick - cool tool of the day I think.

Tag Three................

2011-12-03T09:14:00.000Z

Day Three.................get all the information and links you need HERE

This tag is very effective and quite quick to make which is handy as it means you can do bulk for all your Christmas packages.

Tag two.............

2011-12-02T08:05:00.000Z

Not sure what we are on about?? Take a visit to Tim's Blog for more information and then come back here for some very special offers.

Tag one............

2011-12-01T10:00:00.000Z

Here is tag one, and how amazing is this? We have all the info online for you right now and you must take a look at the Tattered Pinecone Tutorial.

Enjoy!

Tag Time Again...........

2011-12-01T00:30:00.000Z

Its that time of year again and Sir Tim will be starting his tags later on today. We have some helping hands for you with product selection each day and we also have some great offers for you too.
We are giving you free shipping on all your Tag Stash orders and if you have coveted one of the these

or one of these

then now is your chance to save some money and treat yourself for Christmas. Find out how here

And one more offer............when the 12 Tags are over, we will put all the orders into a draw and the winner will get their order for free!!!

So keep watching, it all kicks off around 8am UK time today.

Merry Christmas...................

2011-11-29T08:58:00.002Z

....................Using the fabulous Here Comes Santa set by Indigo Blu from The Stamp Attic.

I used some gorgeous papers Authentique for my card this week. My card blank is from this range and so are the background papers.

I stamped the trees with Stazon Stone Grey onto the Authentique paper, cut out and added to my card blank. I then stamped them a second time, cut out and added a second layer for a 3D appearance to my trees. I stamped Merry Christmas onto white card with vermillion Archival Ink and added to the top of my card.

I also added a large flower, cut using the Tattered Florals die adding 9 layers of flower and shaping to give a very dimensional flower.

Thanks for stopping by. Tracy x x (http://craftaddicts-tracyevans.blogspot.com/).

Project Christmas....30 days and counting.....

2011-11-25T00:15:00.001Z

Hello Stamp Attic Peeps! Hope you are all well! Kerry back at the crafty helm of the Stamp Attic Blog! I'm back today with another 'Project Christmas' challenge from Wendy!

This simple project is a quick and easy gift card holder. All of the decoration has been kept really simple to make sure I can reproduce it quickly! This is made from one sheet of Bazzill French Vanilla 12" x 12" card, so it is so simple to make! The inside card fits snugly inside, with a small pouch to keep the gift card safely tucked in.

The stamps are again the Hero Arts / Sizzix collaboration of stamps and dies. I stamped the images onto the French Vanilla cardstock, then used the dies to cut out the image. I used the fabulous Winter Limited Edition Colours to stamp the images. The trees are 'Iced Spruce' and the snowflakes are 'Festive Berries'. Both of these coordinated perfectly with the colours of the Prima 'North Country' papers. These pads have been popular! The border on the pouch has been edged with a Fiskars border punch, just to give it a bit of decoration.

Here is a close up of the detail. It wasn't until I saw this photo that I realised that the snowflake pattern on the papers closely matched the shape of the snowflake stamp. I love it when a plan comes together!! Lol! The lovely limited edition inks matched the colours of the papers really well too! The mount for the beautiful Cats Life Press sentiment circle has been mounted on a nestie. Wendy has not got these on the site, but there are in the shop!

Thanks for looking - will be back soon with another project! Kxx

Black and White Christmas...........

2011-11-23T16:25:00.000Z

.................using the fabulous new Christmas Set from Indigo Blu, Here Comes Santa for my DT piece for The Stamp Attic.

Wendy sent me a little wooden arch (ICON) to decorate which I thought would be perfect for my non traditional Christmas card. I painted the wood with a coat of Gesso and then two coats of Black acrylic paint (the black Paint Dabber is perfect for this). I said last time that I would be using this sentiment many times and here it is once again on the front of my arch, stamped in StazOn Stone Gray. How do you like my zipper floral? Wendy has zipper in the shop, perfect for these flowers (they would be great for a steampunk creation, something on my to-do list!); and the white zipper is perfect for colouring with your Distress Stains. The edges of my arch have been coloured with white embossing powder. The edges needed something and the embossing powder worked perfectly to add a little interest to the black background.

In the centre I have stamped the fabulous tree from the Here Comes Santa set, in stone gray ink onto white card, cut out each one and added to the panels. I have added JOY and NOEL to Jump Rings and added the Merry Christmas sentiment.

This set also comes with a fabulous snowflake stamp which I have stamped onto circles and added to the back cover. Once again I have added Merry Christmas and SNOW to jump rings to complete my piece.

Thanks for stopping by, Tracy x x (http://craftaddicts-tracyevans.blogspot.com/)

Pan Pastels and embossing folders

2011-11-21T20:59:00.000Z

Today I thought I'd share a fun idea with

embossing folders and Pan Pastels............

and an eraser......just a straight forward, bog standard eraser!

First emboss your card............

colour with Pan Pastels...............

I used a mix of 3 colours....

now....take an eraser (a big-ish one with a flat surface is good for this as you can rub it flat over the surface) and rub it across the embossed surface......the Pan Pastel will come off the high areas of the embossed image........if you take away too much just add it back.

At this point you might want to seal the pastels......no need for anything fancy or majorly expensive.....I use the CHEAPEST hairspray I can find in the supermarket......spray it over the card.

it's quite subtle and easier to see in real life but I hope you can see the effect

Stamp your image on a seperate piece of card.....this is

OH JOY! from STAMPOTIQUE

Cut him out......don't worry about all the twiddly fiddly bits....chop them off!

Stamp the image onto the embossed card.....don't panic cos it will look awful!

Now glue your cut out image on top and all the twiddly bits will re-appear!

This second card uses the same technique......first colour the embossed image with the palest colour in Pan Pastel............next colour the trees with a darker green, the pastel will go over the edges.....use an eraser (a pencil eraser is good for this as you can get into the smaller areas easily) to remove that excess colour, add the pale colour back in......continue colouring and removing the excess until you are happy

punch a hole in a piece of card.......use this to add the red sun to the card........add touches of red to the side of the trees nearest the sun......again use the eraser to remove any stray colour.........can you see the pale ring around the sun?.......that is the pastel removed with the eraser......once you are happy spray to seal.

as before, stamp image and cut out,....this one is

SANTA BABY from STAMPOTIQUE

stamp over the embossed card and glue cut out in place

And here are the finished cards.

Sue Roddis

Christmas reading...........and then some

2011-11-20T20:02:00.000Z

Well, boxes and boxes of new magazines arrived and if you love a good sit and read then get yourself one of these fabulous publications............

We also have an autoship programme so you never miss an issue of your favourite.....email me for more info.

And if you fancy getting your hands on some inks and making a few festive goodies then check out the workshops next weekend...........a few places still left so be quick

This is a must...........you will kick yourself if you miss it.

When The Moon Shines

2011-11-18T12:35:00.000Z

I have been using the fabulous new Christmas Set from Indigo Blu, Here Comes Santa for my DT piece this time around. I wanted to challenge myself to create a card without any embellishments, I wanted the stamps to do all the talking, so to speak! Quite a challenge for me as I love love my embellishments.

I punched a circle from scrap paper to mask off my moon and I created the background using Distress Ink Broken China which I then spritzed with water to give a snowy feel and then removed my mask.

All my images have been stamped in black Archival Ink. I love the sentiment on this set, one which I am sure I will use many times.

I actually chose to cut my sentiment up this time around to fit in with my scene. All the edges have been coloured with Distress Ink Broken China, again to add to that icy feel.

Thanks for stopping by. Tracy x x (http://www.craftaddicts-tracyevans.blogspot.com/)

Less Than Six weeks??!!

2011-11-16T19:30:00.004Z

Well hello again, Ruby here. Can you believe it’s less than six weeks to Christmas?!

Today’s card is a simple Christmas card, one that is flat enough to post and production line quick to make! It’s one of the cards we made at my recent Christmas card workshop. All of the ladies had fun and it was great to get some Christmas cards made early.

This card would work in so many other ways as a go-to design. By switching out different papers, sentiments and stamps you could create all sorts of themed cards, baby cards, birthday, valentines etc, the only limit is your imagination.

I have a Christmas Tag Workshop running next Monday, 21st November, here’s a sneaky peek of one of the things that we will be making ..

It would be great to have you joining along in the fun with us. For more information just contact Wendy at The Stamp Attic.

Here are the links to the things I used for the project.

InLinkz.com

41 days and counting.....

2011-11-14T19:30:00.001Z

Hello Everyone! Kerry here again with my second festive project using the new Hero Arts & Sizzix dies and stamps set! Sorry for the reminder, but seeing it is only 41 days to go to the day, it is time to get organised, so hope this project helps!!

For today's project I have made an easily reproducible tag, that can be made in bulk. All my friends will faint when they see this post - there is no designer paper! I wanted to keep the colours centred around the colours of the reindeer, with a bright blue background.

The tag has been cut from Bazzill Kraft cardstock, using the Tim Holtz 'Movers and Shapers' tag die. The red strip has been cut from Bazzill Dotted Swiss card stock. All the edges have been given a bit of fuss using a Fiskars Threading Water edger punch. I had to add a liberal bit of Stickles in Star Dust, to give it a bit of festive sparkle!

The snowflake has been cut using the die from the Hero / Sizzix set, and so has the reindeer. He has been coloured using Copic Markers. The background panel has been coloured with a blending pair of blue Copics. The snowflakes on the panel are a stamp from the set, coloured with Copic colourless blender, and pressed into the blue panel. The blender 'pushes' the coloured ink, leaving a lovely snowflake pattern! There is a bit of sparkle on the panel - I coated it with Rock Candy Crackle Paint. The sentiment again is from the same set - talk about versatile!

Thanks so much for looking! See you soon! K :-)

Pre Christmas Offers

2011-11-12T22:51:00.000Z

Fancy all these for just £14.99??

or these for £12.99??

well get yourself over the website fast, limited time offer.

Fantastic Christmas gifts or just a nice little treat for yourself.

Ssshhhh... Sneak Peeks...

2011-11-08T08:20:00.004Z

Goodly Morning Stamp-fans (I said that in my best Roland Rat voice) Today I am here with some little sneak peek photo's of my upcoming classes. There are four classes in total... and here are the deets:

Saturday 19th November - So Distained - Distress Stain Masterclass

Ok, so this photo really doesn't give anything away... for those of you who have been to my Distress Ink and Alcohol Ink workshops, you will see that this book fits right into the set. Inside the book are 15 tags all chock full of techniques using those fabby Distress Stains... including Picket Fence, which is one of those "must have" stashly goodies! All you need to bring is: your lunch, a pair of scissors and a pokey tool.

Sunday 20th November - Christmas Squared

Plenty of inkiness and paintiness will be going on in this class. We will be making a special piece of wall art and there will be the latest Christmas stamps from Tim Holtz to play with too! There will be two colour alternatives to chose from so if you prefer the icy blue hues of Winter to the more traditional red and green of Christmas the choice is yours! You will need to bring: Your lunch and a pair of scissors.

Saturday 26th November - A Book of Advent

I first taught this class last year and it is back by popular demand. This little book starts the countdown to the big day in style. You will make a Bind It All book from scratch, cutting all your pages to size, decorating them, adding stamping and embellies and generally getting inky. There will be three different colour scheme to chose from too... the pic above is the book I made in one of last years classes and I made it very vintagey but you will have the choice to keep it bright and pretty... the papers are double sided! You will need to bring: Your lunch, scissors and a pokey tool and your own paper trimmer if you prefer to use one you are used to.

Sunday 27th November - Christmas With A Bang

In this class we will be making an Exploding Box using double sided papers, lots of stamps and inks... and, in the middle of the box there is.... aha! A surprise! Again, there will be a couple of colour choices. My class sample is all vintage and grungy but you can keep it bright and cheerful if you prefer. You will need to bring: Your lunch, scissors and a pokey tool and your own paper trimmer if you prefer to use one you are used to.

As with all my classes, you will be using inks and paints so if you prefer to keep your paws clean, bring some gloves with you. We will be using paints and inks on all of the projects so wear old-ish clothes or bring a pinny to wear :O))

So, there you have it... at the time of writing there are a few spaces left on each class... looking forward to seeing you! TTFN

Hels x

Sticky Notes and Snowflakes

2011-11-06T13:52:00.001Z

Hello! Hope you are all ok!

For my DT projects this season, Wendy has tasked me with creating projects other than cards - so here is my first project for The Stamp Attic using the gorgeous and so clever Sizzix & Hero Arts Christmas Stamps and Dies, and the delicious My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Christmas papers.

I have made a wrap around for a pack of sticky notes, just to make a small gift that I could give to a friend in the run up to Christmas. The front of the wrap has trees stamped and gilded using gilding flakes, and a sentiment from the really versatile CL343 Holiday Sayings. Who does not need help in the memory / list department in the run up to the festive season! I kept the inside simple, just keeping a space where I could pop a message.

The trees have been stamped with the trees and snowflakes from the Hero Arts / Sizzix set, and cut with the Framelits dies that are included. The snowflake is also a die from that set too! They were then gilded with gilding flakes to complement the colours of the delicious MME papers.

Thanks for looking! Will be back soon with more projects! K :-)

Big News...............Winter Distress Inks

2011-11-01T23:06:00.001Z

We know the colours and our first order shipped from the US today

Available for Pre Order online now

We will have plenty but they will not all come at once so be in for the first batch - ORDER NOW

Back to Black

2011-10-29T18:40:00.000+01:00

Happy Saturday!

I hope you’re having a great start to the weekend. I’m here today to share an embossed card with you. I love using black embossing powder, it brings me back to my very early days of stamping when it seemed that everything was about embossing!

Using my GORGEOUS Hero Arts flower with some Authentique patterned paper I managed to pull this card together quite quickly. It’s always nice to have some ‘just because’ cards to hand. I love pulling out my mini pads of patterned paper, it makes the job so much easier.

It can be easy to become overwhelmed in trying to pick different complementary papers but mini pads take all the hard work out of it for you. I usually just pull out a few different sheets and see how they work together, playing around until they start to complement each other rather than stand out like a sore thumb! I like to use the paler papers as a softer background to stamp on, they add a level of interest without being overpowering. This paper pad seems to work really well with red, it adds that perfect pop of colour for me. (Well, my name is Ruby so I just had to get some red in there somewhere!)

Isn’t the gloss on that flower to die for?!

I’m not sure if you know but I’m running some Christmas card workshops at The Stamp Attic on Monday 7th November, so if you fancy having a giggle over a cuppa while getting organised by making a couple of Christmas cards get yourself booked in.

I’m also running some Christmas Tag workshops here on Monday 21st November. I love adding tags as a finishing touch to presents, it’s so nice having tags to match your cards/wrapping. It’s not that many weeks to go now, can you believe it?!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Hope you get some time to get inky!

All supplies are from The Stamp Attic...

InLinkz.com

Studio 490 - On The Case....

2011-10-27T10:13:00.002+01:00

Goodly Morning stamp-fans! Today I am here to show you a little piece I have made using Studio 490 Art Parts and stamps. Now, I don't know about you but I am loving Art Parts, to the point that I had run out of drawer space for them all to live in, so I resurrected an old wooden suitcase that had been lurking under my desk for yonks. All of my Art Parts now have a nice sturdy home to live in. The case is just too nice to "alter" - I couldn't bring myself to decorate directly onto it, so I hit on the idea of using Art Parts to make a "label" for it.

The base of the piece is a Square Art Part Frame, which was coloured with Rusty Hinge Distress Stains. The base part was coloured with Wild Honey Distress Stain and then both were overstamped using Vermillion Archival and fab 490 background stamps. The Scallop Trim was coloured with more Wild Honey and then overstamped with my new fave background - the Squolka Dots - not sure if this is the real name but it kind of fits nicely :O)) I used Vermillion Archival Ink again for the stamping.

The little Queen is a stamp that has its very own Art Part, perfectly sized for stamping onto. Now, the best way to stamp onto Art Parts that have co-ordinating stamps is to ink up the stamp (for this I use Jet Black Archival) and then press the Art Part onto the inky stamp - you can make sure that the lines are within the edges this way... much easier. I gave the piece a quick zap of the Heat Tool to dry off the Archival Ink and then used Brushed Corduroy to very lightly blend over the face, then using Cut & Dry Nibs to add colour to the eye and a bit of blush to the cheek. The little moustache was coloured with Brushed Corduroy Stain... and the little crown was coloured with Wild Honey Stain and overstamped again with Vermillion and the Squolka Dot background. Behind the Queen is one of the new Flourishes from the Pot Pourri of Art Parts Set... coloured with Forest Moss Distress Stain.

The sentiment is stamped onto plain cream cardstock, dried and then coloured with Old Paper and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink - and distressed with an Edge Distresser... I also stamped the "perfect" word in Vermillion, cut this out and popped it over the original black word, this makes the word pop out of the design. I added a key to make a hanging, this is pounced with Gold Dabber and then dried, so it has some texture, it is then glued to the back of the base, making a cool little hanging tab.

The flowers and leaves are all Art Parts - from the Florals set and the Leaves set... I just snipped into then to make them fit, colouring with Distress Stains, overstamping with 490 backgrounds and adding a little Maya Road flower for the centre and a couple of Trinket Pins for decoration.
Finally, I added some waxed linen cord to attach the "label" to the old suitcase.

The Ingredients I used:

Studio 490 Art Parts:
Rectangle & Square Frames
Pot Pourri of Art PartsLeaves
Florals
Scallop Trims
Queens & Crowns
Keys

Studio 490 StampsArchival Inks - Vermillion, Jet Black and Olive
Cut & Dry Nibs
Distress Stains - Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey, Forest Moss
Distress Inks - Old Paper, Brushed Corduroy
Maya Road Trinkets
Gold Dabber

That's all from me for today... Thanks for looking! TTFN

Hels x

Steampunk Art

2011-10-25T14:03:00.002+01:00

I have been dabbling with the new Steampunk set once again from Inkadinkado to create a steampunk card for my next DT piece for The Stamp Attic.

I sponged a piece of white card with Distress Ink brushed corduroy and then cut gadget gears from scrap paper using the Gadget Gears die and used as a stencil, sponging Distress Ink aged mahogany over the stencils. I added hand stitching to one side and stamped small cogs on the other corner along with an ornate key, again from the Steampunk set.

I coloured a separate sheet of white card with aged mahogany and stamped the balloons twice, cut out and added to my card. The Steampunk Art sentiment is from Wendy Vecchi's Steampunk Art set.

I stamped the gentlemen from Tim's Steampunk set onto Bazzill card and added to a square Fragment. A Sprocket has been added to one corner along with the pointing finger, again from Tim's Steampunk set.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your week. Tracy x x

UK Girls.............

2011-10-22T22:15:00.000+01:00

The UK's very own Kate Crane is featured in the new issue of Somerset Studio

available online now..............also, check out the funky Christmas trees in this issue!!

He's here...............

2011-10-20T22:33:00.000+01:00

a few days late but my Grandson, Samuel Nicholas, weighed in tonight at a grand 7lb 6oz. All are well and Nanny Wendy is thrilled to bits - again. Rowan is almost 4 months old now, unbelievable.

Not just for backgrounds

2011-10-19T17:45:00.000+01:00

PAN PASTELS that is......are not just for backgrounds...................though of course they make FABULOUS backgrounds. I used a mix of pink, light and dark grey for my background on this piece.

They can also be used to colour in an image....... I used a mix of several colours to colour in my hand drawn pumpkin......of course I used orange but also a brown, a light green and some of the dark grey......the mix of colours gives a richer finish.

I also used a touch of the orange to highlight around some of the images...............very versatile these PAN PASTELS!!
Sue Roddis

Altered Pegs

2011-10-16T18:14:00.000+01:00

Hi there

Today I have a quick little project to share with you for altered pegs. I’ve seen this featured on a few people’s blogs over a period of time and had to get it off my ‘to do’ list into action!

Using Authentique paper I covered the wooden pegs. I firstly took out the little metal piece from the pegs, and then adhered the two wooden pieces with Glossy Accents to different patterned papers to cover them, cutting as close to the edge as possible. Once dry I sanded the edges using the Tim Holtz sanding tool. I love this little block, it’s so much easier than using a nail file lol. Once I’d sanded the edges I inked the pieces up with some Ranger distress tea dye ink. Next I just popped the metal piece back in and then embellished it to finish, each peg using a different embellishment.

Finally I covered a tag with some more patterned papers to display the four pegs on. I think I might make a few of these up for myself. If you want to see how I made the little flower pop on over to my blog. These pegs would make sweet little gifts and it’s so much more fun using pegs for this than for washing!

Have fun!

All supplies available from The Stamp Attic.

InLinkz.com

Steampunk Chunky ATC..................

2011-10-14T14:45:00.002+01:00

.............for my next DT piece for The Stamp Attic using the new Steampunk stamps from Inkadinkado.

My chunky ATC is cut from a piece of wood and coloured with Distress Stain Black Soot. I have then cut an ATC from thick grey board using the ATC & Corners die and added 7 Gypsies Paddington paper to each and again to the side sections. I have added silver brads down one side, adding black ink with my fingers to dull down the silver a little. The balloon has been stamped onto white card with black Archival Ink, stamping the top section of the balloon twice to give dimension. The propeller has also been stamped onto white card, cut out and added to the top of the balloon. Before adding the ATC's to the chunky piece of wood I added cogs to both sides cut from black card using the Mini Gears movers and shapers die.

The second side is decorated with further images from the Steampunk set from Inkadinkado, one image being added to a Fragment Charm, again to give dimension to my piece. I have added small watch parts to the fragment along with a Game Spinner and Sprockets dangled from the fragment charm. To complete I have added a mini Light Bulb to the bottom edge.

To one side I have added a key cut from grey board using the Hardware Findings die. The key has been coloured with a silver Paint Dabber with a little black ink added to the top.

The opposite side has the lock added, again cut using the Hardware Findings die and coloured in the same way.

I have added recycled watch parts to the top, coloured with a silver Paint Dabber and added a Tattered Banner along with STEAMPUNK printed on my computer.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your weekend. Tracy x x

Pumpkin frame

2011-10-12T16:54:00.001+01:00

A while ago Wendy sent me this Acrylic Shadowbox Frame Pumpkin to have a play with, I have been working on it the last few days and now it's time to show it!
However, I have to say because the surface is shiny acrylic it is the HARDEST thing to get a good picture of.........you might notice in most of the pics there is a circle.....that's my camera lens! At least you get an idea of how shiny it actually is!

So the frame comes in pieces that you cover with paper, paint, stamp etc etc...............I used MIDNIGHT DREARY papers to cover the back and front of my frame.......

.....then I stamped, coloured and cut out three little STAMPOTIQUE figures..... Skullboy, Corie and Cooperand added these inside the frame along with a hanging bird cage taken from the PINK PAISLEE PHANTOM stamp set

I also used a bird stamp and the word BOO from the Phantom set of stamps to stamp around the edge of the frame itself.
When you are done decorating the inside the acrylic cover for the shadowbox is added.....there are little clips to hold it in place........and you can then add extra decoration on top if you like. THe frame comes with 3 leaves to decorate so I covered one with paper and added it to the front along with some twisted wire and a few plastic spiders (from the supermarket just now amongst the Hallowe'en stuff)
Sue Roddis

Paper Piecing Fun

2011-10-11T09:00:00.000+01:00

Hi there

Today I have a card to share with you that has been paper pieced. Paper piecing is so much fun and a great way to recycle all of those little scraps!

This little card is almost totally paper pieced, the images are lovely and open so they make the perfect choice for colouring or paper piecing.

Firstly I cut a pink rectangle and attached it to the card base. I then stamped my design directly onto the pink card and stamped out each little element in patterned paper either once or twice, and then cut each shape out leaving the black border. I do this so that when the image is stuck down it looks much crisper. With the layered shapes I like to double up the patterned pieces so that the images look nicer when you view it from the side. The first cloud and sun are stuck directly onto the pink card so I only cut them out once. With the second cloud at the front I raised this on pop dots to give it some added dimension. As you can see in the photo I added some pearls to the ends and top of the umbrella.

The umbrella has been stamped using blue ink. Using a Copic marker I coloured in the umbrella handle and the branch/leaves, and to finish off I added some yellow ribbon and cut some twine up for the nest to give extra texture.

If you haven’t tried paper piecing I would really encourage you to give it a go. It’s a fun way to get more use out of your stamps and it gives you a great excuse to go back to your childhood and cut out little shapes and stick them down with glue!

Have fun!

InLinkz.com

Seasonally Studio 490

2011-10-08T13:00:00.000+01:00

Wishing you all a very happy Autumn! It seems after our little bit of Indian Summer that all things have turned Autumnal, including those new fabbylicious Seasonal Distress Inks from the God of the Ink, Ranger. I admit I was a teensy bit sceptical about an ink pad that doesn't have a re-inker option. However, curiosity got the better of me... ok, I needed them lol And... I am so chuffed that I took the plunge. Not only are the colours perfect for the season, the pads are really juicy - juicier than a normal Distress Ink Pad, so the worry about my pads drying out has kind of taken a back seat now. And... there's more... after playing extensively for the last couple of weeks with these new colours, I have combined them with different variants from the Distress color range... and they all go together beautifully. I know that Wendy has managed to secure a few more, so if you haven't got yours yet, CLICK HERE for the pre-order page and email Wendy to secure a set just for you :O))

So... I love a bit of Studio 490 as you know... and the other night I got playing with the inks, some Grungepaper, some Art Parts and some of those rather delightful Studio 490. My play session resulted in a tag... so here's how I made it: Using a blending tool, I picked up Wild Honey Distress Ink and blended onto patches of the tag. Next I picked up some Rusty Hinge DI and did the same. Then I picked up some of the Seasonal's Seedless Preserves and blended this around the edges and a little into the centre of the tag. I spritzed with water, dried and then the bits of ink that were left from the blending process were lightly spritzed and the tag was dipped and dried... giving a lovely mottled effect - like a paler version of a Wrinkle Free Distress Technique.

I used Plum Archival Ink to stamp the open bubbles and then Monarch Orange Archival Ink to stamp the script. Then I set about making my embellishments, starting with the card for the sentiment which was coloured using the same DI's but doing a less inktense look. I stamped the sentiment in Jet Black Archival so this really pops off the tag. I used a variety of Studio 490 flowers, stamping in Plum Archival onto Grungepaper, cutting out, colouring both sides with DI's, overstamping the flowers with background stamps on both sides and then assembling - adding a little Prima Resin Bloom to the centre. The butterfly was made in the same way, this time I added an Idea-ology Locket to the centre. Behind the flower is a leafy Art Part - coloured with Forest Moss Distress Stains and overstamped with Olive Archival.

The Ingredients I used were:

Seasonal Distress Inks - Seedless Preserves & Gathered Twigs (edging the tag)
Distress Inks - Wild Honey & Rusty Hinge
Studio 490 Art PartsStudio 490 Stamps
Idea-ology
Archival Ink - Olive, Plum, Monarch Orange, Jet Black
Distress Stains - Forest Moss

Thanks for looking! Happy Autumn! TTFN Hels x

Pan Pastels mini tutorial

2011-10-04T05:00:00.002+01:00

Pan Pastels are new in the shop and so I thought I'd show you one way to use them to make a background in this step by step project.
The pastels come in little circular pots and are very concentrated pigment that is very low dust unlike some of the other pastels out there. The pots may look a little small but you need so little they will last for ages!

OK, I worked in a journal but the same idea applies to a card......ATC......tag.....whatever! With a small sponge take a couple of swipes across one of the pastels......don't be tempted to rub vigorously at the pastel, there is no need and it only makes dust and wastes the pastel. Rub the colour across the page refilling the sponge when needed.......rub the sponge on a piece of kitchen paper to clean and then pick up the next colour. Repeat until your page is covered and coloured how you like.

Next take a cogs stamp.....this one is from The Artistic Stamper.....stamp it around the page using a Versamark ink pad........now take your sponge and rub pastel across the stamped area.....the image will be revealed!

Repeat with the Steampunk Spider image.......... rub the Versamark pad through a piece of sequin waste and add more pastel.

Stamp the Steampunk Skull image across the page with black ink.....don't worry that it's not perfect......have a couple going over the edges of the pages......

Use the edge of an old credit card dipped in black paint to add sticks from the skeleton skulls to the bottom of the page......so they don't look like they are floating in mid-air!........

.... stamp the same number of skulls onto white paper and cut out.........just the skull and jaw sections..........

Glue the cut out pieces over the images stamped on the pages..........now you can see why the imperfect stamping didn't matter too much! You might notice I added some more cogs at the bottom of the page.....I thought it looked a little bare!
Stamp moustaches onto the skull faces!

The finishing touches are cogs added to some of the skull eyes......I also used a cog for one of the spider bodies.......stamp the spider seperately, cut the body to fit the cog, glue in place and add to the page.......finally I added some wire mesh that came from B&Q!

ENJOY!

Back home again...............

2011-10-03T20:25:00.000+01:00

What do you mean, you never knew I had left!!

Been on holiday to Suffolk and just adored it. The countryside is so picturesque and I particularly loved the day we spent at Flatford Mill. I can see why John Constable was so inspired.

So, back in the hot seat and just letting you know there is something pretty special coming tomorrow. Sue Roddis working her magic with some PanPastels. After many of you asking for us to stock them, we finally got them in and decided to let Sue loose with a set or too...............trust me, you need to make sure you don't miss it.

Steampunk Balloons

2011-09-28T07:55:00.000+01:00

Time for this weeks DT creation for The Stamp Attic using the fabulous STEAMPUNK set from Inkadinkado.

I have created a 6" x 6" card this week, creating a sponged background with Distress Ink Weathered Wood and stamping the balloons in black Archival Ink.

I have added two rows of black machine stitching to the edge of my card and then matted onto co-ordinated Bazzill card. I have added two small piece of chicken wire in the corners to add to the masculine feel. Watch parts have been added to the balloons, adding to the STEAMPUNK theme.

The dashing gentlemen from Tim's Steampunk set have been added to a memory frame with Glossy Accents added over the top and the hand from the same set has been added to the bottom of my card. To complete my creation I have added a small lightbulb from Tim's Idea-Ology range.

Thanks for stopping by, Tracy x x

Missing Mojo!

2011-09-26T15:16:00.000+01:00

Hi there

I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend. The weather is looking a little nicer here, the sun has decided to pop his head out finally.

I found today’s card that I’m sharing with you really challenging to make, well actually not the card itself but my mojo.

I had lots of ideas but for some reason I just couldn’t pull any of them off over the weekend, my mojo just upped and left and wasn’t coming back. That was until I decided to go back to my tried and tested motivator of a good old sketch. Once I saw the sketch I had a card in the making (for details of the sketch that I used please see my blog).

To create the card;

Mat base with patterned paper
Cut smaller panel in a contrasting patterned paper and stamp sentiment in black
Die cut border and attach to smaller panel
Tie ribbon around panel before adhering to card base using pop dots
Stamp four flowers in black and die cut each one
Die cut a scalloped circle, attaching stamped circles to finish, assemble as shown and attach to main panel
Add black pearls to the centre of each of the flowers and one either side of the sentiment to finish

See.. simples! So why, oh why, did it take so long to get to that point lol

This layout would work so well with many different themes, but I do really love this Hero Arts Lotus Leaves set where you get such lovely crisp lines and different sizes of images which gives more versatility. They’d also make a pretty background, but that’s definitely for another day!

Here’s hoping my mojo stays with me now. I hope you all have super fantastically mojo-filled days and that my card will have at least encouraged you that if it isn’t there now it will come back!

Have fun!

InLinkz.com

Some Like It Haunt....

2011-09-22T13:43:00.005+01:00

Have you seen those heavenly new papers that The Stamp Attic is now stocking? From the Midnight Dreary line by Moxxie, these new papers are... IMO... LUSH! They are all spooky themed and all have really funny names... Some Like It Haunt, Dead on Arrival, Apothe-scary, Tomb It May Concern & Feelin' Vine.

I have used all of the different papers - which, BTW, are all double sided - and you know sometimes the "other side" of the paper is a bit of a disappointment? Well, not these... they are all F A B! So, I made a little folded pouch for some tags to sit in, using the Tomb It May Concern for the base and then adding a strip from Dead on Arrival across the bottom. I cut bottle from Apothe-scary and popped these onto the base part and then set about making some tags to sit inside the pouchy bit.

They were made by gluing the papers onto some cardstock and then sanding the edges to make them look a bit shabby. I added dyed seam binding to the tops for ribbons and popped some little Brass charms onto jump rings and threaded these through. The decorations come from lots of different Stampotique images, stamped onto cardstock, coloured with Distress Stains - I used a water brush to colour them - and then once these were cut out, they were glued onto the tags and the pouch base. Check out the spider on the front of the book... he is a brand new stamp from Inkadinkado... soooo cute!

The Ingredients I used are...

Midnight Dreary Papers by Moxxie
Inkadinkado - Steampunk Spider
Stampotique: Puss Puss, Hallowe'en Cube 1 and Bat Boy are all available if you phone Wendy on 01235 760821
L'il Tetewea (new release)
Kitty
Marci
Bla, Bla, Bla
Two Sticks
Distress Stains - Vintage Photo and Rusty Hinge
Idea-ology - Jump Rings
Brass Charms

Thanks for looking... have a ... spooktacular day...

Hels x

A Little More Steampunk................

2011-09-18T05:00:00.002+01:00

........... for The Stamp Attic using the new Inkadinkado STEAMPUNK set. Thought I would move away from the altered side this week and actually make a card. I must admit I really enjoyed creating a little more in the way of a steampunk creation and it is slowly becoming a favourite theme of mine at the moment.

My background has been coloured with Distress Inks aged mahogany and vintage photo and spritzed with water. I have added a metal element using some chicken wire, which I feel fits perfectly for a steampunk theme. My background has been stamped with black Archival Ink using the image from Tim's STEAMPUNK set.

The balloon has been stamped in black Archival Ink from the new set from Inkadinkado and I have added the pointing finger to the top, again from Tim's set. STEAMPUNK is from Wendy Vecchi's STEAMPUNK ART.

To embellish I have added a Pen Nib from Tim's Idea-ology range along with Sprockets and steampunk embellishment (which is available in the shop but not yet on line), all coloured with StazOn timber brown ink to blend in with my background colours.

Thanks for stopping by, Tracy x x (http://craftaddicts-tracyevans.blogspot.com/)

Fashion Led Cardmaking!

2011-09-16T15:00:00.004+01:00

Today’s card makes use of what we are being told are the latest fashion colours.. tan and black! Do you ever bring in fashion trend ideas into your cardmaking? It can be quite fun!

This card was quite simple to make. I matted the base of the card with black and kraft coloured cardstock. Using one of the little Hero Arts flowers I stamped a strip of flowers across the middle of the kraft cardstock. I then die cut a circle and an oval on which I stamped the flower and sentiment. I coloured some cream vintage-y ribbon with my black copic pen, wrapping it around the card, tying in a dressy bow and adding a button and twine. The sentiment stamp was in one long strip so I cut in between the word ‘of’ and ‘you’ so that I could get it to fit nicely in the oval frame. (I used to be terrified of cutting stamps, but you can get so much more value out of them where they fit into other shapes, so don’t be afraid, you can do it!!!)

For more information on what else inspired me to make this card please visit my blog.

All supplies are available from The Stamp Attic, see list below..

Have a great day, I can’t believe it’s the weekend already, where has that past week gone?!

InLinkz.com

Simply Irresistable ... By Hels Sheridan

2011-09-13T10:30:00.004+01:00

Goodly Morning! Today I have a card to show you that has a fab resist technique on it... namely, the Multi Medium resist technique. I have used Distress Stains and Studio 490 stamps to create the card... and here's how I made it:

The card base is white... and the resist will show you whatever colour your base cardstock colour is. I spread some Multi Medium - Matte flavour - onto my craft sheet and dipped the large script stamp into it... making sure it had a pretty even coverage. This was then stamped onto the card stock... remember to wipe the Multi Medium off your stamp immediately... we don't want any yukked up stamps :O)) Dry the card - you can use a heat tool ot let it air dry naturally.

Smoosh Distress Stains onto your craft sheet and lightly spritz with water - so it goes into a beaded look. Dip the card into the Stains mix, dry, re-dip if you want to... and on mine, I dabbed some Fired Brick onto the craft sheet, lightly tapped the card onto it and the lightly spritzed with water... then heat dry. You will see the Stains go blotchy... this look is entirely random... it will look different each time you do it... but... a tip I have learnt... if you want to make more of the same coloured cardstock, for extra stamping onto/embellies/messages etc... when you put the Stains onto your craft sheet... copy the amount you put on and make another patch of inky Stains... so you will have a very similar look :O))

I added a border stamp along the bottom... using Archival Ink to stamp this... and a sentiment using Black Archival. The butterflies were stamped onto more Stained cardstock and then cut out and edged with Walnut Stain. I then got the little mini sewing machine out and did some rather...erm... scruffy... stitching around the edges to add to the shabby look of the card.

The Ingredients I used are:
Studio 490 Stamps: It's More Flower Art, Botanical Art, Live & Make Art, Sentimental Art
Distress Stains: Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Fired Brick
Distress Ink: Walnut Stain
Archival Ink: Vermillion, Olive, Coffee, Jet Black
Idea-ology: Game Spinners, Long Fasteners, Washers, Mini Brads

Thanks for looking... have a goodly day!

Hels x

Steampunk Dominoes

2011-09-11T08:00:00.000+01:00

I've been using the new set of Steampunk stamps once again from Inkdadinkado for my DT piece for The Stamp Attic. I decided to create a domino accordion this week to highlight some of these fabulous images.

I sanded the dominoes and then painted with a coat of Fresco Finish Paint Honey Dew, allowed to dry, added my Crackle Glaze but only a thin coat as I did not want my crackles too large and once dry I added a top coat of Toad Hall. The edges of the dominoes were sponged with Distress Ink black soot but before applying the ink I did scratch away some of the paint to give a distressed feel to my piece. Once my domino pieces were completely dry I stamped my image with black Archival Ink. I love the small cog stamp I used around the outside edge of the domino.

A top coat of Glossy Accents was added and whilst still wet I added my cog embellishments and clock hands (available in the shop, but not yet on line).

My accordion is cut from thick watercolour paper and I have used Tim's Timeworks mask and applied vintage photo ink over the top. All my stamping is with black Archival Ink. I love love the STEAMPUNK Lady Bug and the border on the bottom edge.

Both sides have been decorated in the same way and I have added cogs cut using Tim's Alterations Movers & Shapers Mini Gears set.

The mini gears have been coloured with vintage photo Distress Stain and all the edges sponged with Distress Ink black soot. The small key is also from the STEAMPUNK set.

To complete my piece I sponged the edges of the watercolour card with black soot Distress Ink.

Thanks for stopping by, Tracy x x (http://craftaddicts-tracyevans.blogspot.com/)

A CAS Card

2011-09-09T23:28:00.000+01:00

Happy Friday! It’s just about the weekend!

Today I have a CAS (clean and simple) card to share with you. This card is 5 x 5 but it would work just as well as a mini notelet card, 3 x 3.

I simply die cut a circle in black, another in yellow bazzill that I stamped with the envelope pattern stamp by Hero Arts. To add a bit of texture I stamped the dictionary stamp for the background and wrapped around some polka dot ribbon.

Finally I stamped the sentiment in black and added some lush green pearls.

All supplies are for sale at The Stamp Attic.

Isn’t it fab that some of the old images are coming back again? I just LOVE that phone. I embossed it in clear so it’s really glossy in real life!

Have a great weekend!

InLinkz.com

Memory Box

2011-09-08T15:21:00.000+01:00

I have just added some new stamps from

Memory Box...........Halloween and Christmas

This is the Haunted Mansion...............

All Stitched Up...

2011-09-06T01:00:00.000+01:00

Goodly Morning! I have been playing with Studio 490 stamps again... and my latest toy... a mini sewing machine! I love the look of stitching on my cards and paper craft projects and I know now I have this new toy I will be using stitches lots... This week my card has been made using Distress Stains, Inks and Grungepaper. I will pop a list of ingredients at the end of the post :O))

The background card was made by covering a piece of cardstock with Bundled Sage Distress Stain and then spritzing it with water. I then lightly dotted Stormy Sky Stain over the top and then dried with a heat tool. I used a large bubble background, stamping with Bundled Sage DI and then overstamping with the script background, stamping this with Forest Moss DI. I made a border using the vine stamp, which was stamped in Forest Moss DI... I then sewed the backing and border together onto black cardstock.

The sentiment was stamped on scrap card and stitched around the edges to match the background... and then I got to my favest bit, which is stamping flowers using Coffee Archival ink onto Grungepaper... I love how I can layer up the different flower images and get a different flower each time. The flowers were overstamped with various backgrounds and then coloured with Distress Ink. The leaves are stamped with Olive Archival and then coloured with Forest Moss DI. I wanted to make a few layers on this card to show you how you can mix and match your Studio 490 stamps... stamp a flower, colour it, overstamp with a background and you have one style... stamp again, use a different colour, a different background... and you have a totally different flower... cool huh!

The Ingredients I used are:

Studio 490 stamps:
Forever Art
Funky Flower Art
Make Mine Mini Art
It's Face Art
Be Inspired... Make Art
Love To Make Art
She Created Art
Live & Make Art
Sentimental Art

Stormy Sky & Bundled Sage Distress Stains
Stormy Sky, Bundled Sage, Forest Moss & Black Soot Distress Ink
Archival Ink: Coffee, Jet Black, Olive

Maya Road Trinket Pins
Sticky Gems

Thanks for looking... have a fab week! TTFN

Hels x

Fiskars Stamp Press and a Card

2011-09-02T13:22:00.000+01:00

Hi there

Today I have a card to share with you and a mini review of the Fiskars Stamp Press.
First up is the card..

Here I used Authentique papers with the Prickley Pear birdcage die and stamps. Firstly I used two different patterned papers from the pad and matted them to the card base. I die cut the shape using labels 16 nestabilities die and stamped the little floral accents in each of the four corners in black Archival ink. I then die cut a Nestabilities circle in a charcoal grey Bazzill cardstock and embossed it using one of the new Sizzix embossing folder, called plaid. It comes as a two part set with a snowflake embossing folder which I’m looking forward to playing with soon too. Using the Prickley Pear birdcage die I cut out a cage in yellow and then stamped on the birdcage using my stamp press (see more info on that below). I punched out a few mini flowers using my flower hole punch and coloured these with a copic to match the papers and ribbon, adding a small black pearl to finish. I die cut the bird and stamped it, colouring it in the same colour as the flowers with my copics. I love that even the smallest of things can be enhanced by using copics. I then tied a dressy bow to which I added a button tied with a twine bow. To finish the card I stamped a ‘happy anniversary’ sentiment from the Hero Arts clear stamps ‘Everyday Sayings’ set and mounted it onto some yellow cardstock.

I thought it would be helpful to give a mini review of my new stamp press. I first heard about this on Jennifer McGuire’s blog when she was using it for different things and I thought, well if Jennifer has one then I must ‘need’ one too!

The stamp press is basically a really clever way of making sure you get a clear impression each time that you stamp using clear or cling stamps, you don’t get half stamped images as you do when you stamp directly onto card.

It’s really very simple to use. The press is comprised of a plastic rectangle grid with four foam pads, one in each corner, as seen below.

Step 1

Press the stamp press down directly over the stamp you wish to use so that it adheres to the block

Step 2

Either bring the stamp pad to the stamp to ink it up, or hold the press over the stamp pad to ink it up (whichever you prefer)

Step 3

When I first started making this card I used a grey ink which is what you can see here. Once you’ve inked up the image gently push the press down over the image and stamp in the same way you would with any other stamp block (i.e. acrylic or wooden etc)

What I love about the press is that as you are pushing it down in preparation to stamp you can maneouvre it around slightly by wiggling it into position (sorry wiggling isn’t exactly the most technical word, but it works really well for explaining here what I mean!) By doing this you can make sure you stamp in exactly the right place, so if you are using an intricate stamp like mine above you can see immediately if it’s not lining up properly and can make the slight adjustment before the press hits the paper. Once you have stamped the image just release your hands off the press and it will slowly release itself off the paper and leave you with a lovely crisp stamped image.

It’s really easy to clean, with water or a wet wipe and is a good size too. You can use it on small or large stamps. I used it to stamp everything in this card, including the little bird and the tiny flourishes in each of the corners on the nestie. The important thing with it is not to press directly onto the image when you are stamping but to place your fingers on the block either side of the image, this gives it enough pressure to stamp without rocking the image out of alignment. If you haven’t got one and like the idea of stamping perfectly every time then I would highly recommend it.

While I’m raving about things I may as well mention the Prickley Pear dies here too..

Prickley Pear have improved their dies by adding in little holes so that you can poke out any obstinate pieces with a pin to remove them. I have been die cutting for many years now and have tried some really detailed dies but can honestly say that none of them have cut as well as this little set has. The holes remove the frustration of trying to peel out an intricate image only to find you’ve broken it as you get the last piece out of the die! They also cut out really crisply too, as you can see in this picture below..

Most of the little pieces literally fall out when touched with a pin and any that may be left behind (which are very few) just pop out with a pin inserted through the little holes in the die. Fiskars have one happy customer in me! I have spent many a time running dies through my machines with extra shims and trying dozens of different tricks only to be left feeling very frustrated. This is obviously the colour tv version now!

Well if you made it to the end of my very long post then well done. I hope you learnt something today, even if it was just that I can sometimes waffle!

Steampunk Shadow Box

2011-08-31T09:13:00.000+01:00

I have been creating with a new set of Inkadinkado stamps "STEAMPUNK" from The Stamp Attic.

I wanted to create something a little different from a card this time around and whilst hunting around my craft room for some inspiration I found the lid from a configuration box and thought what a great idea for a steampunk shadow box and recycling at the same time, PERFECT.

I began by colouring the lid from the configuration box with Distress Stain vintage photo, applying a couple of layers of colour. I then inserted a piece of card to decorate the back, I covered a piece of thick card with paper from the Crowded Attic paper stash and adhered to the back. I cut a Weathered Clock from Grungepaper using Tim's die and again coloured with Distress Stain vintage photo, adding a little black soot ink to the edges for definition.

I stamped the propeller onto Grungepaper, coloured with Distress Stain vintage photo, added a washer, coloured with rust Alcohol Ink and added just above my weathered clock. My bird is cut from Grungepaper. I used Darcies Free Bird Arcylic shape (not on-line but in the shop) to draw around, covered the Grungepaper with paper from the Crowded Attic Paper Stash, embossed with Tim's Steampunk Texture Fade and coloured the raised areas with Distress Ink vintage photo. I added a metal cog to the wing (not on-line but in the shop) and added the bird to a small piece of wood so that it stood away a little from the inside of the box. I added one of Tim's Corked Vials adding some small watch parts to the inside and added a label cogs and gears from the new PaperArtsy Hot Picks Clockwork Birds set.

I added one of Tim's Light Bulbs along with some old washers coloured with rust Alcohol Ink. The balloon was stamped onto Grungepaper with black Archival Ink, cut out and added to a small piece of wood to enable it to stand and to give it some stability. I also stamped around the edges of my box with the small cog stamp, again with black Archival Ink.

The side of the box was also stamped with one of the fabulous steampunk pieces from the Inkadinkado set.

I have also added one of Tim's Regal Adornments to the inside of the box along with more stamping of the small steampunk image.

Gadget Gears were added to the top of my box, cut from Grungepaper and coloured with Distress Stain.

I also decorated the back with the same gears.

To complete I added the wings to the top centre of my box, again from the Inkadinkado steampunk set.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Tracy x x

Lace & Sentiments

2011-08-29T15:00:00.002+01:00

Afteroon all! I am here today to show you what I have been up to with my Studio 490 stamps... and wow, I have the new Sentimental Art set which is... gorgeous! The sentiments are so lovely but the best bit about this set is... the lace background stamp, which is beautiful.

I used some Distress Stains and the lace stamp to make some bespoke background paper to use on my card. I swooshed Frayed Burlap, Brushed Corduroy and Faded Jeans Distress Stains onto my craft sheet and then dipped the card into it, drying and re-dipping until I had the look I wanted. I used Frayed Burlap Distress Ink to stamp the lace background over the card.... so it gives a really subtle and shabby look.

I used various 490 flower stamps, stamping onto Grungepaper and then colouring with Distress Ink and then turning into a 3D flower embellishment. I used Memo Pins that had little stamped images popped into the centre and then filled with Glossy Accents... so you have an epoxy pin embellie to use. (thank you to Wendy Vecchi for this idea!)

The ingredients I used are:

Studio 490 stamps - Sentimental Art (July 11 CHA release)
Studio 490 stamps - Live & Make Art, Funky Flower Art, Make Mine Mini Art
Distress Stains - Brushed Corduroy, Frayed Burlap, Faded Jeans
Distress Ink - Frayed Burlap, Faded Jeans, Old Paper, Brushed Corduroy
Grungepaper
Idea-ology - Memo Pins
Glossy Accents

Thanks for looking! TTFN

Hels x

Dies to die for.............

2011-08-27T18:48:00.000+01:00

Just arrived in store and now online, these gorgeous new dies from Memory Box. Christmas designs, thin dies with such intricate cutting its amazing.............

and 6x6 paper packs too............new Christmas designs and one for Halloween too...........

Have a great Bank Holiday!!

2011-08-25T05:13:00.000+01:00

The new Tim Holtz and Studio 490 Stamps have

arrived in stock today

Watch out for Hels Sheridan's brilliant new artwork..................

Just Saying Hi..

2011-08-22T07:30:00.000+01:00

Hi there everyone

Today I have a simple card to share with you using some really pretty papers by Authentique and some Hero Arts stamps.

I LoVe the colours in this paper pad. They still have my favourite big bold florals but mixed in are some lighter, delicate papers and some polka dots/gingham/other patterns. They are so pretty that you really don’t need to add very much to make up a card.

I’m not sure it needs much explaining other than to say that the yellow ribbon is a gorgeous grosgrain for sale in the shop. Can you see my little button on the bow? That was originally a plain cream button that I coloured using two different brown Copics to create a two tone button. If you let the ink dry just slightly it helps you get a marbled effect where it slightly removes the colour when you add the second colour. A little Memento Rich Cocoa stamped Hero Arts’ penny farthing (from ‘Joy Ride’) raised with pop dots and a simple sentiment (from ‘Just Say Hi’) to finish = another card ready for sending as and when the moment requires.

Have a lovely day!

Beeswax Workshop

2011-08-20T23:09:00.000+01:00

Today saw Hels Sheridan teaching a Beeswax workshop. It was amazing fun and the lovely ladies, Jan, Caz, Thelma, Barb, Alison and Sylivia made some amazing art.

It all started out with blank frames and tissue paper with some Beeswax.......here is what Hels created to inspire the girls................

Jan is here carefully applying stamped flowers...............

pouring beeswax into moulds...............................

ooops, slowly does it..........................

Barb is concentrating hard...................

Caz glueing and sticking..............

Alison's finished art...................

Barbara's...................

Caz...............

Jan finally got the wax under control.............amazing work......

Sylvia...............

and finally Thelma..............thanks ladies for a wonderful day.

Blatant advertising................

2011-08-18T14:25:00.000+01:00

but hey, if I don't tell you how will you know?

First up we have all the new PaperArtsy Hotpicks in stock and online now. Six to choose from.

I know its only August but we have to be ready for when you want Halloween so we now have in stock paper pads from Echo Park and Authentique. Both companies have lots of other new 6x6 pads too.

and Christmas..........oh no...............but its coming, like it or not! Be ready with some of our ever growing stock............

My Minds Eye Lost and Found, lots of new pads plus 2 Christmas ones.
I am adding new stock by the ton in the next few days so bookmark the site and get stocked up........

Dina Wakley stamps

2011-08-11T14:06:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I blogged here and even longer since I made some cards so I thought it's about time I got my act together!!

I bought these DINA WAKLEY stamps recently, they are fab for journals but equally useful on cards!

I used the piece of paper off the pad I use to work on for my basic backgrounds......it had some nice spay/splattter/splodge patterns it and I added a bit of stencilling through sequin waste, a punched heart here and there and a quick spray of ink.

This one is SILHOUETTE SCRIPT

and this one is GRUNGY SILHOUETTE.......on here the image has circles around the head and below the arm......I cut these off and replaced them with paint circles (glue stick lid dipped in paint), I also added the numbers inside the circles.
Sue Roddis

Thinking of You

2011-08-09T15:26:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone

If you have children I hope you’re enjoying the summer holidays and making the most of no school runs! I know I am!

Today I have this quick and simple card to share with you that I created with my Prickley Pear butterfly stamp and dies. I teamed the butterfly up with some gorgeous Basic Grey ‘Hello Luscious’ papers.

Firstly I matted the card base with some patterned paper and then added one large triangle and one smaller triangle to the top and bottom corners. I die cut and stamped the little butterflies and added pop dots to the top butterfly, finishing off with a Prima flower. Before attaching the butterflies I stamped and hand cut a banner that I inked up with some Mustard Seed Ranger Distress ink around the edges.

The top corner still looked a litle plain and while I wanted to use pearls it just didn’t quite work so I cut out two flowers from the patterned paper and added them using pop dots, adding a few pearls to the centre of the flowers. To keep continuity and to give a bit more dimension I then added some more pearls randomly across the patterned paper.

I hope you get time to play soon, with or without kids!

2011-08-05T10:30:00.002+01:00

Hi there

Just a quick post from me today to share some cards we made recently in one of my workshops.

For the first card we used Prickley Pear Butterfly & die, Bazzill cardstock, Fancy Pants Baby Mine range ‘Bundle of Joy’ – isn’t that paper lovely with all of the soft colours? I love the shape of the white flowers too. We used lots of punches; Fiskars Threading Water, Woodware butterfly, Medium and small circles, Ranger Distress Inks and Prima ePearls.

For the second card we created some background paper using a Prima text (mini stamp) with Ranger Distress Inks, Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint. The sentiment is from Hero Arts ‘Type’. From the same Fancy Pants Baby Mine range we used the blue patterned paper, ‘Adore’ with some Bazzill cardstock. The butterfly punch is from Tonic (I’m not sure if these are listed on the website yet) the ribbon and Prima ePearls are available in the shop.

For the final card we used Hero Arts ‘Find Joy’ & ‘Envelope Pattern’. We used another beautiful piece of paper from the Fancy Pants Baby Mine range ‘By the Inch’. The dies are Nestabilities Circles & Scallops, Tim Holtz Die ‘Fanciful Flight’ and as before the ribbon and pearls can be found in the shop.

Like what you see? Why don’t you join in one of my workshops? I’m running some Copic ones over the Summer too, soon to be detailed on line.

Ruby 2 Shoes signing off, happy crafting!

Sandie Vincent to visit................

2011-08-04T13:17:00.001+01:00

Great news..the brilliant Sandie Vincent is coming to teach some scrapping workshops at

The Stamp Attic

Here is just a sneak peek of what we will be doing and rest assured its full of ink and stamps!! You can book online now, it would be great to see you............oh and if you do book and want to stay on after the class to keep scrapping then you would be most welcome..............

Crinkly Ribbon Test

2011-08-01T10:00:00.006+01:00

Hi everyone

I was over at Wendy’s the other day and saw some cream vintage ribbon and wondered if it would be possible to die it and make it crinkly, so Wendy gave me some to play with…

I scrunched the ribbon up in my hand, then simply stamped my distress ink pad onto my craft sheet and smooshed the ribbon into it, trying to keep it as random as possible so I would get a tie dye effect. Finally, I scrunched it up into a ball and wrapped a couple of rubber bands around it so that it would stay crinkled and them dipped it one more time into the ink to get some darker areas. I just LOVE the vibrant orange that the Ranger Distress Inks ‘Spiced Marmalade’ made and will definitely have to experiment with lots more gorgeous colours.

The inspiration to use orange for the ribbon was taken from the papers. I like to start designing with a sketch, either one I’ve seen or one I have in mind, but sometimes that’s not enough for me. I like to look through my patterned papers to see if something jumps out at me. So for this one I used my papers as my starting point. These ones are My Mind’s Eye Stella & Rose ‘Mabel’ 6 x 6 pad. These pads are ideal for card-making, they are fabulous if you want to mix and match papers. How do you get inspired to make cards, what’s your starting point?

I matted the card base with some orange floral paper and stamped the Hero Arts ‘Everyday Sayings’ sentiment using Versamark with white embossing powder. I then created the focus panel using some teal Bazzill cardstock and a sheet of teal and orange patterned paper. After tying around some ribbon I pop dotted the panel onto the orange card base.

I then die cut and stamped two Prickley Pear butterflies that I coloured with Copics, BG15, BG13 and BG11. I used the BG15 a few times over itself so that I could intensify the colour and then added a smidge of C1 to darken it a bit more to complement my papers. This is a great tip if you want to mute the colours slightly but don’t have quite the right colour. I coloured some little pearls with a Copic Marker, YR07. I always get excited when I can colour my own embellishments, yes I’m sad..I know!! I added the blinged up butterflies to the panel and to finish added a Prima flower (I must get some more of these, they are great for embellishing centres of flowers and butterflies).

I combined the papers with a sketch, you can find more info about that on my blog if you’re into sketches.

Ciao!

A Form of Style...

2011-07-28T00:01:00.000+01:00

Goodly morning! I am back again this week with another inky creation... this time I have made a card but done it "tag size" so the fold is at the top of the card. I used a combo of stamps and elements to make up the design... here's how I made it:

I started off by stamping a large Tim Holtz background stamp (Sewing Pattern) and embossing in clear... once this had cooled I covered the whole piece with Antique Linen Distress Stains and then smooshed my Aged Mahogany Distress Ink onto my craft sheet and spritzed with water. I then dipped the cardstock into the inky mix and dried with a heat gun. I re-dipped the card until I was happy with the effect.

The dressform is cut from mountboard that I had covered with Kraft Resist paper, using the Sewing Room Alterations die. The little cotton winder is cut from the same piece. I used Aged Mahogany and Vintage Photo Inks to colour the dressform and added a piece of lace and some ribbon around the waste and then popped a vintage pearl button onto the waistband, fastening it with an Idea-ology Mini Pin.

The sentiment is a Studio 490 stamp - I stamped this onto coloured cardstock and cut each word out and mounted this onto 3d foam. The Ruler Ribbon pleated banner at the base of the card is simple to make... using a Tiny Attacher Stapler to secure the folds and Distress Ink to age the ribbon and then adhering it to the card with hot glue. I used another Studio 490 stamp for the dry-cleaning label and popped this onto 3d foam too. To finish, I lightly drew black scribbles around the edges for faux stitching and placed an Idea-ology Mini Hanger onto the card too.

The Ingredients I used are:

Distress Stains
Distress Ink
Tim Holtz Alterations - Sewing Room
Tim Holtz stamps
Studio 490 stamps
Kraft Resist Paper
Idea-ology
Ruler Ribbon
Tiny Attacher

Thanks for looking... have an inky day! TTFN

Hels x

Workshops update..............

2011-07-27T19:14:00.000+01:00

Photos as promised.............little sneak peeks of hours of fun.

Book your place now...................

WORKSHOPS

2011-07-26T22:01:00.000+01:00

We have some workshops for you...............with Hels.........now a Ranger Educator.
You can book them online NOW and we will have some photos for you very soon.

All Sewn Up

2011-07-23T10:28:00.000+01:00

Morning all, I have been playing with stamps again, namely A FORM OF ART by Wendy Vecchi and the HABERDASHERY set by Tim Holtz.

My background piece is coloured with DI faded jeans, simply apply the colour directly from the ink pad and then spritz with water. I stamped the bodice from Wendy's set onto scrap paper and cut out the centre to make a stencil. Place the stencil onto the decorated background piece and sponge through the stencil with Adirondack snow cap ink and dry with a heat tool. Keep the stencil in place and using the text background from Wendy's set stamp onto the bodice with black Archival ink and remove the stencil. The pattern on the left hand side is from Tim's Haberdashery set and has been stamped with black Archival ink and paper pieced with white card. White machine stitching was then added to the outside edge.

I printed the dictionary SEW definition on the computer and added to co-ordinated card and added to my card blank. Three snaps have been added to continue the sewing theme. To complete, I added letters to jump rings adding glossy accents and added to my bodice and card.

Whilst I was on a roll I created a second card using the same stamp sets. On this occasion the bodice was stamped onto white card with faded jeans ink and then stamped a second time without re-inking to give a shadow effect. Again I have added machine stitching to the outside edge, this time adding two rows of stitching.

I have added the word SEW using Grunge Blocks coloured with black paint dabber, sanding some of the areas and then adding DI vintage photo giving an aged feel to the letters. I added letters to memo pins and added to the bodice.

My second shadow bodice has a trinket pin added. To complete, I have added buttons from the Sewing Room die, added thread and sponged the edges.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your weekend. Tracy x x

Summer reading............

2011-07-21T19:53:00.000+01:00

We had boxes of new magazines in today, online now if you fancy a copy or two for your summer reading.

Art Doll Quarterly is always guarenteed to be full of quirky ideas..............

and Somerset Home, a great mixture of creative ideas for your home or studio.............there are lots more to choose from so check them out online today.

Pastels from Ruby? Unheard of!

2011-07-19T11:46:00.000+01:00

Hi there

Today I have a couple of cards to share with you. I hope you're sitting down to recover from the shock that I'm working with pastel colours today!

The first card was made using a Tonic butterfly punch. What's great about these punches is that you can add them to a border tool to punch your own borders or you can use them as an individual punch. I'm not sure if they are up on the website yet, but if you like them just give Wendy a call and she will point you in the right direction.

All I did with this card was punch out some little butterflies in white cardstock and colour them in with my Copics in the colours I wanted. I then attached them to the card base as shown. To finish I simply stamped the Prickley Pear sentiment and added some little stick on silver gems. Very simple but really effective because the layered butterflies cast shadows, giving it more dimension.

For my second card I stamped several butterflies from the same set in Versamark and then embossed them with white powder. I added some distress inks in Milled Lavender, Distress Concord and Tumbled Glass, then spritzed the card front with water. To finish off the background I used some white eco friendly acrylic paint and did some dry brushing around the edges to give some texture.

Using my Prickley Pear die I cut two butterflies, that I stamped and then coloured in with Copics. I stamped a sentiment from the set onto a white strip of card and adhered it in place, adding a purple punched border top and (Fiskars Threading Water). Finally I tied purple crinkly ribbon around my butterflies before attaching to the card with pop dots to finish.

I hope you're enjoying all of these little butterflies. I will be back soon with some more ideas for you.

All of the goodies can be found over at The Stamp Attic, the purple highlighted items are 'Ask Wendy' more items!

In the meantime have fun punching!

Copic

2011-07-14T11:19:00.000+01:00

Copic Ciao are in store now..............and so will Kerry,

certified Copic Tutor, be..........

Join us for a total beginners workshop which includes two free pens to get you started. Lots of tuition on blending, shading, palettes etc...............from she who knows exactly how. We have the full range including the 36 new colours...............book your place now, we only have a few spaces left!

Butterfly Fun

2011-07-11T10:30:00.081+01:00

Hi there, I hope you've had a lovely weekend and managed to get lots of crafting time to yourselves.

I have a couple of mini cards to share with you today, and then one larger card. I’ve been really fortunate to be let loose with some fantastic butterflies…

These butterfly die and matching stamps from Prickley Pear are just GORGEOUS! This is the set that I’ve used..

I don’t know about you but it’s not often that you get a set where you really love every single stamp, there’s usually that odd one or two that you’re not so keen on! These sets are different, I really do love them all.

I think it’s great to stamp the inside of cards and also the envelopes to match, it’s so lovely to co-ordinate all of the items and I think these sets are perfect for that. You can even use the butterfly die and stamp on a tag for when you’re giving little gifts.

I spend quite a lot of time creating each of my cards, but lately I’ve been trying to get a few clean and simple cards under my belt.

The cards are pretty self explanatory; with a simple square punch I cut out various squares of co-ordinating patterned paper by My Mind’s Eye. I then stamped the butterfly with Ranger distress inks (Fired Brick and Dusty Concord) attaching them to the centres of the cards using pop dots and finishing them off with Hero Arts 'Find Joy' sentiments and a little prima flower to the butterfly.

I made a set of these mini cards a while ago on my blog using monochromatic blocks of colour and thought it would be fun to see how the idea would look using a fun butterfly and some patterned papers to mix it up a bit.

I often feel with dies and stamps that it’s a bit like the chicken and egg scenario, which comes first? Cut out the die shape and then stamp or stamp and then use the die? I find the easiest way is to cut out the die and that way you can easily align the stamp.

I also created the following card with Copic markers, which are coming very soon to a local craft shop near you, namely The Stamp Attic! How exciting!

The butterflies are from the same Prickley Pair set. I love these little music butterflies, they are great for all sorts of occasions. I used some Cosmo Cricket Salt Air papers, a white ball pen to add some faux stitching around the edge, a small daisy hole punch to which I added little crystals, and then I just pop dotted the coloured butterflies onto circles using another hole punch.

For those of you that have yet to work with Copics you will find they open up a world of opportunity when it comes to creating cards. You can use them to colour of course, but you can also add colour to ribbon and embellishments etc so that you can get a totally co-ordinated look on all of your projects plus lots of other fun things, FABULOUS! You will love them! Wendy is going to be running Copic workshops too, the first one is this week, so there’s still time to sign up. These Copics will bring out the artist in you!

So pop on over to the website and check out more of the Prickley Pear loveliness. There is also another set below that matches the die, which is great too!

Supplies can be found over at The Stamp Attic website.

Enjoy your week!