I started out by painting my box with pale blue, and green Fresco paint, then going over in places with my chapstick (other makes of lipbalm are available lol). Then I’ve gone over the top with a darker blue paint, dried it, then rubbed over with a damp cloth – I’m sure you’ve all been doing this for years so please forgive my long winded explanations. I much prefer lip balm to Vaseline – I always used to put too much on but this way is much more controllable.

Next I went over the top with crackle medium, then inked the cracks with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.

Now it was time to decorate

I stamped the leaf from Wise Friend onto Kraft card with Jet Black Archival and clear embossed.

Find Your Sense Of Wonder is on the Enchanted Tree’s Plate. It’s been stamped and embossed then backed onto copper sheet, the twiddly bits are trimmings from the copper. The branch is from Wise Friend, I love the way these two stamp sets work so well together. 

Be Strong And Grow is from Enchanted Trees and the small leaf is from Wise Friend.

Now for my favourite bit…

I’ve stamped my HUGE tree onto a piece of muslin and frayed the edges. There’s so much detail on this stamp and it all comes through, even on cloth.

This was a real fun piece to make, and I know that these stamps are going to come out time after time after time….

Thanks very much for looking x

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Here is my 2nd offering for the DT post. I bought a very cheap door hanger at a show a couple of years ago and it’s been sitting in a cupboard waiting for the right project to come along. Inspiration suddenly struck and here is the finished piece.

To start I covered the hanger with some Tim Holtz paper then made cuts all the way around where the hole for the hanger was.  The tabs were glued and stuck down.

The next step was to put some Flake and Glitter Glue onto a piece of Cut ‘n Dry foam (make sure that it’s worked in to the foam) and I smeared it around the edge of the hanger and applied Warm Sunrise Gilding Flakes.  When you apply gilding flakes use your hand to take off the bulk of the excess before using a brush to get rid of the rest.  It’s easier to get it back into the container that way!

I used some Eco-Green Black Acrylic paint to edge the hanger, again applying it with a piece of Cut ‘n Dry.

The stamp set I’ve used for this project is from “Wise Owl” and it has some gorgeous leaf stamps which I’ve stamped onto the door hanger randomly with Black Archival Ink.

The Owl was stamped onto a piece of Copper Metal (it was quite a thick piece) with black archival ink and given a quick blast with a heat gun to make sure that it was dry.  It’s not difficult to stamp onto the metallic surface but just be aware that it is a bit slippery and also gets hot when you get a heat gun on it!  I followed the outlines of the stamp with an embossing tool (use a firm foam mat underneath for this) and when that was done, went over the raised areas with some black acrylic paint and cut the owl out.  Be careful when cutting the metal…it can fight back! 

Next, I cut a piece of Grungeboard measuring 8.2 x 5 cm which I covered with the same paper, gilded and edged as before then punched 2 holes in the top of it.  I stamped a message in black archival and heat embossed it with clear powder.  I found it easier to punch the holes first so that I could get a better idea of where the message needed to go.

I’ve also stamped and heat embossed the branch from the stamp set, I’ve done 2 of these, then cut them out.  Where I didn’t get in very close with the cutting, I’ve gone over the braches with Black Soot Distress Ink.  The branches were glued into place with Cosmic Shimmer Dries Clear.  Next, line up the message plaque with the main part of the hanger and mark where you need to punch 2 corresponding holes to attach the plaque.  Punch the holes and tie the plaque on with some raffia (or string).  I thought something natural looking would be better than ribbon.

As you can see in the photo, the next step is to glue the owl into place!

Onto another piece of copper metal sheet, stamp some of the leaves and go over the outlines with an embossing tool as you did with the owl.

I’ve rubbed over the top of them with the black acrylic paint then cut them out and sanded back a bit of the paint.  I’ve used 2 of the leaves as wings for the owl which I’ve put on with 3d foam pads.  The rest of the leaves have been shaped and again attached with foam pads.

I took the final picture in a different light and it makes the hanger look completely different!

I do hope you like it and can’t wait to come up with something different to show you next week.  In the meantime, keep watching this space as my very talented “teamies” will be bringing you loads of inspiration over the next few days (and wasn’t that shrink plastic necklace fab!)

Until next time, happy crafting!

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Today i’m following in the footsteps of Linda as I too have been playing with the old shrink plastic, but not on cards

I decided to make a necklace as these are easy to make and look great to wear.

Just stamp your feather {from the Wise Friend set}  I used ‘ultramarine’ & ‘cactus green’ stazon

Colour them before shrinking, I used a selection of pitt pens, TIP: Always remember when you shrink the plastic the colour intensifies.. Something I totally forgot when colouring mine.. although I do like the deep rich tones.  If you haven’t already seen, do check out Linda’s post as she used coloursoft pencils on her pieces and you can really see the difference .

Cut them all out.. Again with the fussy cutting!!! You could just cut a border around the feathers but I think the extra time spent cutting out properly adds to the finished look.

These photo’s really aren’t doing the piece justice, they look alot clearer in real life.

Then all thats left to do is shrink and attach to a chain with jump rings.. I actually punch my holes and attach my rings before shrinking.

And there you have it.. A custom bit of jewellery that doesn’t cost the earth and is light as a feather.

Till next time, Stay Inky

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First up we have four new YUMMY Gilding Wax colours from Cosmic Shimmer!

New Cosmic Shimmer UTEE colours in the larger 100ml Pots! Again these are YUMMY colours lol

NEW Metallic Distress Paints…and yes you’ve guessed it..YUMMY! LOL

And lastly for those of you who have bought my new ‘Wise Friend‘ stamp set this is the perfect embossing folder ‘Bark‘ which I will be using on my TV shows on the 8th June with these stamps.

All for now, S@m x

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It’s a quick post from me today.  This week has been a bit on the busy side what with DT stuff to do, and my Grandson to keep occupied.  The  weekend is going to be pretty much the same too.   Alex has gone back to the UK but I still have lots to do in the old craft room.   I’m trying to get things organised before I go away on holiday.  This time next week I shall be on my way to Italy.  Well I’ll have got  as far as Luton airport, ready for the early morning flight to Milan on Saturday.

Hasn’t it been a fab week on the blog.  My new teamies have certainly been busy and have created some stunning projects for you.  Can’t wait to see what they have in store for next week.  Well done girls,  great start!

I had some ATC’s to make this week for a monthly swap that I’m involved with (you can find the details on my blog).  These are fairly new to me but I have to admit I’m getting hooked.

Sam’s latest stamp sets are still out on my desk so I thought I’d have a play around with those.  Here’s what I came up with …….

I used the Enchanted Trees and Wise Friend stamps to create my latest set of three ATC’s.

I started by colouring some Kraft card using Tea Dye and Gathered Twigs Distress inks.  Then I did one of my favourite techniques of dripping water onto the ink then mopping it up with a piece of kitchen towel, taking some of the ink away again.

I stamped the large tree from the Enchanted Trees set, off the edge of the card, using Brown Archival ink, then quickly sprinkled clear embossing powder over the top and heated with a heat tool.

The sentiment’s been stamped onto a piece of kraft card using black Versafine, then I’ve added some highlights around the letters using a white gel pen.  I love black and white on Kraft at the moment, it looks so striking.

For the second one I used the fabulous owl from the Wise Friend set and stamped him onto some frosted shrink plastic (I’d forgotten how much fun this stuff was!), then coloured him using Coloursoft pencils.  Remember that when using colour on shrink plastic, keep it quite light, you don’t need to add loads of colour because as the piece shrinks the colour that’s on there intensfies

How cute is this little guy when he’s been shrunk!?  I used the branch stamp for him to sit on and added a couple of cut out leaves.  The white gel pen came out again and I doodled round parts of the sentiment.

For the third one in the set I used the trees again.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment on the bottom of the ATC.  Stamped it again onto another piece of Kraft card, cut out the middle part and layered over the top using foam pads.    I inked up the trees using  brown archival ink down the centres for the tree trunks then used a green Versafine for the leaves.  Using first and second generation stamping to create a bit of depth, I stamped the trees onto the ATC.  I stamped an extra one onto Kraft, fussy cut around it and layered it over the sentiment

A touch of white gel pen again, and a tiny leaf finishes everything off.

Well that’s me done for this week.  Thanks for popping by.  Enjoy the rest of your Friday, and have a lovely weekend.  I’m having a day off tomorrow, shopping for holiday clothes  – oh joy!!  (not looking forward to that – I’d rather be in a craft shop!)

Cheerio for now

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I started by painting my stamping my door hanger with chalk acrylics, then stamped the A6 Tree Bark background plate with brown Archival. I then carefully painted (slapped on) some clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint and patiently (NOT) set aside to dry.  Now the best bit, time to ink up Hooty the owl!  My Wise Friend has been stamped and coloured with Prisma Colour Pencils, and his eyes were stamped onto Ranger metalic foil.  They were then stamped again on card with Black Archival, then  Glossy Accented – oh the number of times I have put thumb prints in this stuff, but not today The wing are leaves from the same plate and have been stamped on to a copper sheet, cut out and embossed and sanded.

I painted up a couple of twigs from the garden  - last year they were plants in pots, now they’re twigs! These were tied with string and they became Hooty’s branch.

The sentiment at the top is also from Wise Friend and has been stamped onto white shrink plastic, and the leaves have been punched from the copper sheet.

This was great fun to make, and it’s now been snaffled and is hanging on my daughters door handle lol.

Thanks very much for looking  and see you again next week x

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I thought that today I would buck the trend and use some older stamp sets from Sam’s fab designs.  They’re both stamp sets that I go back to time and time again.

So without further ado, let’s get on with it!

Step 1: First step was to cover the inner (push out) section of a Tando Straight Edge Large Arch with patterned paper and trim to size.  Then I stamped over it 3 times with the script stamp from the “Timeless Journey” stamp set.  The patterned paper used was Tim Holtz Paper Stash Vintage Shabby.

Step 2:  I punched one hole at the top of the arch and 3 at the bottom using my trust Crop-a-dile.  The arch was then painted around the edges using Eco-Green Black Acrylic Paint which was applied using a piece of Cut ‘n Dry foam.

Step 3:  I stamped the Dressform from the “Steampunk Dreams” stamp set onto a co-ordinating piece of paper from the same paper stash with Black Archival Ink then cut it out.  The Butterflies from the same stamp set were stamped twice onto single ply tissue and torn around the edges.  It’s better to tear the edges as when you stick them down with beeswax you don’t see the joins.

Step 4:  I placed the butterflies onto the arch, heated up some Beeswax in my Melt Pot and, using a real hair brush, painted the wax over them.  Another tip….always use a real hair brush as synthetic ones melt in the heat!

Step 5:  Re-stamp the upper section of the dressform (the wing section) onto heavyweight vellum with Archival Ink.  I gave it a quick blast with my heat gun to make sure it was dry before cutting it out.  As you can see, I’ve cut the wings in half and left 2 tabs to feed through the main image which has had 2 slits cut into it.  Glue the wings into place and shape.  I’ve added a little Pearl Moon Gilding Wax over the butterflies and dressform wings.

Step 6:  I found some metal embellishments amongst my stash but they were the wrong colour.  Simple solution!!  I got out my Onyx Patina Paint and re-coloured them!  After they were dry I rubbed a little of the gilding wax over the top to pick up the highlights.  They were then attached to the bottom of the arch with a chain to hang it up at the top.

Step 7:  Stick the main image onto the arch.  Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue work really well for this.  I added a cog to the dressform that had also been painted with the onyx patina.

Step 8:  Make the flower.  To do this, cut out a circle of paper (freehand is OK…my circles are more like ovals!) and either draw or freehand cut a spiral leaving a circle in the centre.  Fold back the top section all the way around the spiral then roll it together starting from the outside.  When its coiled, let it go a little looser then glue into place on the centre circle that you left when cutting out.  I dunked mine into the Beeswax then when it had cooled, applied more of the gilding wax to give it some highlights.  Glue into place and voila!  A finished wall hanging!

I do hope you like it and am really looking forward to sharing more ideas with you.  I’ll be on here every Wednesday but in the meantime I have lots more ideas using Creative Studio stamps on my blog including the new “Wise Owl” set.  My blog address is http://smiffyscards.blogspot.com    

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 Nicky, 1 of Sam’s brand new Teamies, here with my very 1st post!!!

I am mega excited to be here I can tell ya, having admired Sam’s stamps from the minute I saw them a few years ago, too now being on her team, I am proper chuffed. Can I also say a big congrats to my fellow teamies for making the team too.

I really hope I can inspire you all to get out your stamps and have a play.

*****

As soon as I received the new Wise Owl stamp set a ton of ideas came flooding in…

I had an old canvas frame that I was planning on re-covering but the bare wood spoke to me  and I created this:

I always try and think a little differently when I work so as you may notice  the owl is looking kinda different.

Yep, just a little snip here and there and you have a completely new looking owl!

I stamped Hooter {that’s what i’ve named him} several times onto white card,  in jet black archival ink, deciding which elements I wanted to layer up and move, as you can see from the extra wings he has.

He was coloured using distress markers.

For the frame I stamped {in various green distress inks} and fussy cut what seemed like a bazillion leaves {all from the same wise owl set} Did I mention I hate fussy cutting , but for some reason all my good idea’s involve it!!!

I wrapped some vintage wooden scrabble tiles with wire and made small holes in the inner top of the frame to jam each wire into. I then covered with some of the leaves.

I also stamped and cut out some of the branches, giving the whole thing a tree kinda feel. Everything was stuck with cosmic shimmer clear pva glue. {Hooter was suspended by gluing him to the tiles and his feet to the frame}

I hope you have enjoyed my very first project, I’ll be back same time next week with another.

Look out for another NEW Teamie tomorrow

Till next time.. Stay Inky

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