Craft Stamper Designer

It seems like forever ago that I created my latest batch of projects for Craft Stamper magazine and submitted them, but at last the magazine is out and in the shops.

This is the first I'm sharing and it is a plaque I created using an MDF blank, some old tester pots of emulsion paint and a candle.

I painted the plaque with a darker shade of a tester pot let it dry.  I rubbed a wax candle onto the plaque in random spots,  then added a coat of a lighter shade. It helps to keep the brush strokes in the same direction.  Once dry you can use a light sanding pad to lift off some of the top coat of paint which comes off easily as it doesn't key to the wax underneath.   I used the Stampin' Up! sets Butterfly Basics (sadly retiring at the end of this month), Petal Palette, You're Inspiring and Beautiful Day to add a design on the plaque using Early Espresso, Soft Suede and Crumb Cake ink.  I also added some die cut shapes in Early Espresso.  From a short strand of mini gold sequin trip I took a few individual sequins and added them give a little touch of sparkle.

The Butterfly was stamped in black Staz On ink onto the plaque and I used my Stampin' Blends to colour it in. I also stamped it onto watercolour paper and again used the Stampin' Blends to colour in the butterfly. I fussy cut it out but didn't attempt to cut out the antennae so just snipped those off and used the ones stamped on the plaque.  To give a stained glass look to the butterfly I carefully added fine tip glue using the black outline as the guide to give some shine and depth.  In places where it dried flat I added a little more to raise the texture.  Again with Blends I coloured some rhinestones as the alchol ink sticks to the rhinestones and popped them on the body.

To hang the plaque I used some Library Clips (carrying into the new Stampin' Up! catalogue) and a longer length of sequin trim.  The clips aren't fixed so can be taken off at any time, but they are just enough to hold the trim in place as a hanger.

I'll share more of designs using the Stampin' Up! Beautiful Day set soon.  In the meantime you can buy the magazine in various ways.
at www.craftstamper.com for subscriptions, www.mags-uk.com for single copies or digital copies from www. pocket mags.co.uk

It's a fab monthly magazine with lots of tutorials and techniques.  It's a mixed media magazine with the focus on stamping.  I hope you enjoy reading it.

Thanks for popping by today.

Zoe x