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
    

Stampin' Up! Reflection Technique Tip

It's Happy Birthday to our lovely neighbour Dawn today.  She loves her garden and so I've made a card using one of my favourite sets from the Stampin' Up! UK annual catalogue, From the Garden. 

It's such a cute set and perfect for anyone who enjoys their garden.  My friend Mikaela made a fab gift set for her friend's birthday recently and you can see it and find out more here on the Stampin' Up! website.  She bought the set especially to make a gift for her friend who's surname is Spice! 

You'll find that blackberry bliss and mint macaron work really well together from our Stampin'  Up! in colour ranges.  To give some depth to a card like this you can stamp twice in order that you can cut out the plant pots and add them over your original stamped image with stampin' dimensionals to give some depth.  I've also added some epoxy stickers to give more detail.  

I wanted to add the watering can from the stamp set, but wanted it the opposite way around so to do this I stamped the image onto my Stampin' Up Stamp-a-ma-jig imaging sheet and then carefully turned it over the add the ink that stays on the sheet to my card.  Hence you'll see it's a muted image but is just enough to be seen subtly on my card.

I've also stamped another sentiment inside the card which came from Butterfly Basics another current favourite of mine, along with the welly boots from the garden set.  

I've gift wrapped her present in the same colours so it makes a lovely combination.  

Happy Birthday Aunty Dawn as she's known in our house!

Remember you can visit my Stampin' Up! Online Shop to take a closer look at these beautiful stamp sets.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! 

Zx

Stampin' Up! Butterfly Basics makes a great card by Stamping Scene

As well as Christmas Card Club, I'm also in a card swap group.  Each month the lovely Jane sets us a challenge and tells us who to send our card to.  It's fab as you receive a beautiful card every month and you get to know some really nice people as we all share a little about ourselves in the cards we send.  This is one I sent when the challenge was neutrals.

I've used Stampin' Up! stamp set Butterfly Basics, Crazy About You and Gorgeous Grunge.  The hello is a thin lit die from a set called Hello You which team up with the Crazy About You stamp set. It's one of those lovely bundles in the new Stampin' Up! catalogue that gives you 15% off the price when you buy the bundle.  I'm always up for a bargain so I was sold on it!

The stripes in the background are from the Typeset Specialty Designer Series paper which thankfully carried over from last year's catalogue as I love it.  It goes with any colour as well as a neutral theme like this.

More soon. Zx


Go bundle shopping now in my Stampin' Up!  online shop now.

Butterfly Basics from Stampin' Up! for perfect thanks

Last week it was my birthday! I had a wonderful time and received lots of lovely gifts from family and friends and so I wanted to make them all some thank you cards.  

I turned again to my new In Colours from Stampin' Up! and having been inspired by a swap I received at the Stampin' Up! regional event last Saturday I made these using a mask that I cut from a piece of whisper white card stock to cover each card so that I could sponge on a light layer of mint macaron and then stamp images from Butterfly basics in the same green and also tip top taupe.  I added a punched butterfly using the Elegant Butterfly punch for a base layer in watermelon wonder and then stamped and punched out the mini butterfly from the same set with the Bitty Butterfly punch.  I shredded some gold ribbon to make thin strands that I looped under the butterfly and adhered with glue dots.  A finishing heart from the Stampin' Up! Owl Builder punch in gold foil just lifted the whole design.  

A simple thank you sentiment taken from An Open Heart stamp set and I was done.  I also made some brights cards too with watercolour paper which I'll share soon.  

Thank you again to everyone who made my birthday so memorable.  

Zx

Gorgeous Stampin' Up! UK Elegant Butterfly Deal!

So many of us love butterflies and I'm included in that bunch!  They are even more lovely when you team them up with Stampin' Up! stamp sets like Papillon Potpourri and Kinda Eclectic and when Stampin' Up! UK offers them with a deal, well it would be rude not to love them more!

Of course you don't have to be satisfied with just one butterfly, you can invest in more and choose the Butterfly Basics stamp set and coordinating frame lits to make cards like these.

It's a beautiful day at the moment in sunny Lincolnshire so I'm off to play tennis in the sunshine.

Have fun!
Zx

Stampin' Up! UK Butterfly Basics make pretty thank yous

I've made lots of these this week to thank my lovely customers who've hosted parties for me this month.  The Stampin' Up! set Butterfly Basics is a set that is fast becoming my new favourite as it's similar in style to Stampin' Up! set Kinda Eclectic in that it is a pretty, eclectic mix of images that you can use to build up a collage.  You can also get the associate Butterflies thinlits dies to use with it and I'll show you more of their beauty very soon.  On this card I used the smallest die which fits around the stamp in the set perfectly just as you would expect from Stampin' Up!.

Now with the framelits, thinlits and other metal dies like your Spellbinders and Marianne dies they are so much easier to use with a magnetic platform on your Big Shot.  Conveniently this just happens to be in the weekly deals and is most definitely one of those purchases that once you have you just can't live without and the investment is so worth it! 

Tell me what you think of Butterfly Basics is it a keeper for you too?

Back soon. Zx