Craft Stamper Magazine - TIMI Challenge January Reminder

Morning all,

A little post from me this morning with a reminder piece for the Craft Stamper Challenge DT.  I made a very simple card using the triple stamping technique, and using the free daisy stamp from a previous cover of Craft Stamper Magazine.  I stamped in green versafine over three layers of card, then separated the card and mounted with foam mounts.

My centre consists of a piece of sequin waste, cut randomly, and covered with a domino, which I've painted with DecoArt paints, and used Andy Skinner's 'Toxic' stamp set on, for the texture on the domino and the heart.

I added a sentiment from a PaperArtsy stamp set, and edged the card in peeled paint distress ink.

Hope you like it, don't forget to join us on the main Challenge page, where you can find all the details on how to enter, and see the rest of the team's fantastic inspiration.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Craft Stamper August TIMI Challenge - Stencils & Masks

Morning everyone,

It's time for the new Craft Stamper Magazine's 'Take it, Make it' Challenge. Our August challenge is to 'Take a technique', and we'd love to see your Stencilling and Masking this month.

We have two prizes on offer, as always. The first is the Sponsor Prize, and the winner of this will be randomly chosen from all the eligible entries of the challenge. To make sure your project is eligible to win, make sure you have followed our challenge guidelines.

PLEASE REMEMBER: We only want to see ONE project in each individual blog post entry (a set counts as more than one), and you MUST link back to Craft Stamper Magazine in your post.

Our wonderful sponsor of the random prize is the gorgeous Gio, with her own range of stencils:

As always, we will also have a Design Winner this month.

This winner is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite design from all of the entries. This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, (with a 2 page spread of their very own!), they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post!

Here is my inspiration for you this month:

First I stamped the flower from Indigoblu's Floral Fantasy onto the card and embossed, and onto a piece of paper. I cut the paper out and masked the flowers, then took Peppermint Tea and Lime Marmalade Cottage paints, and stencilled the new Indigoblu rose stencil all over the top with the two colours.

I removed the mask, and coloured in the flowers with Grandma's Teacup, and the leaves in Emerald City.

I stamped and embossed the butterfly, and words, and cut out. The sentiment was coloured with the same paints, and edged in green stazon. The main card was also edged.

I stamped the butterfly on top of the stencilling, to keep the antenna's, and put the cut butterfly over the top and bent the wings up slightly.

So hop on over to the Challenge and see the rest of the team's fab work, then join in!  I hope you have fun getting inky and painty with those stencils and masks!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Craft Stamper TIMI challenge Reminder - June - Take a Technique - Get Inky!

Hi everyone,

It's Craft Stamper challenge reminder time, and I love this month's technique - Get Inky!  Use more than one TYPE of ink on your creation, ink pads, spray inks, alcohol inks, reinkers, drawing inks, ink crystal powders, or acrylic inks etc, OR, use more than one COLOUR of ink.  Then join in and enter over on the Challenge blog.

The prizes up for grabs this month are:

Firstly the Sponsor Prize, and the winner of this will be randomly chosen from all the eligible entries of the challenge. To make sure your project is eligible to win, make sure you have followed our challenge guidelines. These can be found HERE.

We are proud to announce our sponsor this month is....

PaperArtsy 

PaperArtsy are a UK based brand, selling a HUGE range of stamps by some wonderful designers, as well as their own signature line of chalk finish paints! The online store is just full of amazing product, well worth a visit! The latest (and very very popular) range to be launched is the Infusions range....
Infusions are water soluble particles with 2 components: dye colour pigment suitable for paper/ fabric, mixed with Walnut Stain.
The colour powder particles dissolve faster than the walnut crystals, so you can control the colour-to-brown stain ratio!
These amazing little bottles of fabulousness have been flying off the shelves, but we have a selection as the prize this month! This is the whole colour range:

The prize is a set of FIVE Infusions as seen here:

Lemoncello, Black Currant, A Bit Jaded, Are You Cerice and Emerald Isle.

And second, As always, we will also have a Design Winner this month.

This winner is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite design from all of the entries. This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, (with a 2 page spread of their very own!), they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post! 

Here is my inspiration piece for the Challenge:

I used both colours of inks, and types of inks on this tag.  The background was created with Dylusions spray inks in Fresh Lime, Squeezed Orange, and Lemon Zest.  I sprayed a piece of A4 card and made a masterboard, so I can use other pieces where I want too.

I then stamped the text from Indigoblu's Tasty Texture's background stamp, in Stazon Pumpkin Orange and Cactus Green.  The Honeycomb background is IB too and stamped in the same colours.

The dots stamp is PaperArtsy HotPics, stamped in Versafine Onyx black,  as are the white Stazon Opaque Cotton white circles.

I used Distress inks in Spiced Marmalade and Shabby shutters on the wording, flowers and edges, and added a little washi tape to the background for interest.  

I did use embossing ink, and embossed the flowers, but didn't like the gloss look so went back over with DecoArt's Ultra Matte Varnish, which took the finish right back again.  The flowers still look raised but aren't so shiny against the matt tag. 

I think this is the most stamps and inks I've ever got on one small tag :) 

I hope you can join us at Craft Stamper Magazine this month! 

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge May Reminder- Take A stamp

Morning everyone,

It's time for a quick reminder about the Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge, our May theme is just 'Take a Stamp', so it's nice and easy.

The rules are simple, one entry per person, with a link in your post back to the Craft Stamper Blog, and your blog post must only contain the one piece you are entering.  No cased entries please - your own work.

For full details see the Craft Stamper Blog HERE.

In return, we have two amazing prizes on offer as always, firstly our Design Winner , who is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite designs from all of the entries.  This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, (with a 2 page spread of their very own!), they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post!

And then we have this totally amazing prize on offer, to our completely random winner.
Our sponsor this month is: Designs By Georgina 
Prize: As pictured. 3 stamp sets and 3 new release stencils.

Over on the Craft Stamper blog our team have some fab inspiration for you, here is my offering:

I made a tryptiche with Tando Creatives mini Arches, and painted them with DecoArt Media Acrylics, in Andy Skinner's Rust style, and using Andy's stamps, the steampunk set.

I painted a piece of card in the same colours, and stamped the butterfly and clock in black versafine, and clear embossed them, then cut them out.  The clock was shaped to arch and cut around, to make it fit.

The skull is a Tando mini, I LOVE these!  I'd put them on everything if you let me.. It's painted again, then embossed with Frantage embossing powder, in aged copper.  It has some amazing texture to it.

The three little arches are held together with some mini hinges and glossy accents, but you could use ribbon or washi tape as hinges too.

I stamped on top with the steampunk words in black, to add a little more interest.  And the whole thing was coated in a layer of ultra matte varnish, to make the rust more realistic and take down the shine from the embossing.

So I hope you can join in the challenge at Craft Stamper this month, and you enjoy our team's inspiration.

See you soon,

Nikki

xx 

Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge April 2016 - Spring Flowers

Good morning everyone,

Today is the start of the new challenge over at Craft Stamper Magazine.

Our sponsor this month is Traplet themselves, where you can get your very own copies of Craft Stamper Magazine.

We have a HUGE prize for you this month, this is truly awesome and well worth entering for!  The winner will receive ALL SIX Kate Crane Art Journalling DVD's!!

I so wish I could enter!!

I do have some inspiration for you though, as do my teamie's over at the Challenge, so come and join in the fun.

Our brief this month was 'Spring Flowers', and I love the yellow and green of this time of year, so decided to make a tag using these colours.

My background was created on a lovely Tando tag, with Decoart Media fluid acrylics, in hansa yellow light, primary yellow and blue green light.  I added some texture paste through Indigoblu's Laurel Leave's stencil, and coated with hansa yellow light, which gave them the yellow tone but they still blended in to the background.

I then stamped in primary yellow with Andy Skinner's Toxic stamp set, using the peeled paint/crackle stamp.  On top of that I stamped in blue green light with Paper Artsy's Eclectica 18 by Emma Godfrey stamp, using the small circles.  I then used Indigoblu's script stamp from Tasty Textures, and first and second gen stamped all over in Stazon Cactus Green.  To finish I used Andy's other stamp from the toxic set, scratches, and stamped in Stazon Emerald City all around the edges and a few across the tag.

The flower's from Paper Artsy were stamped several times in different sizes onto a masterboard which was sprayed with Decoart primary yellow decoart mister, turquoise shimmer mister, yellow shimmer mister, and ...... Over the top I stamped with the tasty textures script in Emerald City stazon.  I cut the flowers out and layered them up.

I painted the stems in black, and doodled round them in white acrylic Sharpie.  I added some white dots to the flower centres, and doodled round the sentiment (also Paper Artsy).

Here is the tag all finished.

Hope you like it, we'd love it if you joined us over on the Craft Stamper challenge to see the DT's amazing work, and join in of course!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Craft Stamper September TIMI challenge - Take a stamp

Hi all,

It's Craft Stamper TIMI challenge time, over on the blog we have some fab inspiration for you, and this month's theme is an easy one - take a stamp!  

We would love to see your stamped creations, you can check out the rules here, there aren't too many, I promise!

Our sponsor this month is:

STAMPlorations!

The Prize: Two stencils: Bold Florals, Leaf Print
Stamp Set: Boxed Blooms and Bold Sentiments

STAMPlorations have also been incredibly generous and have supplied a coupon code for Craft Stamper challenge players to take advantage of free shipping from the store! The code is: CSTAKEITMAKEIT and is good for free shipping on orders over $20 (£12.90). The coupon will work all through September, and can be combined with any other STAMPlorations coupon.

My inspiration for this month's challenge is a Journal page, showing one of my favourite thoughts..

If moth's like light so much, why don't they come out in the day?  

I used Dylusion spray inks, Indigoblu Gee Sso Good, (black and white), a credit card to make lines and lids to make circles, and Indigoblu's Grand Tour II stamps. 

We'd love to see your designs, you can enter HERE.  

Don't forget to check out the Design team's individual blog's to check out how they made their projects too :)

Bye for now, have fun creating,

Best Wishes,

Nikki. 

xxx

Indigoblu Challenge 31 - Frame it!

Hi all,

Today the new challenge is up over on the Indigoblu Challenge blog.  We have some awesome inspiration for you, and the theme this month is Frame It.

Our prizes are stamp plates of your choice from Indigoblu, and a guest spot on our blog!  We'd love to see your entries, and you can visit all our team's pages and see how they made their fab pieces.

All we ask is you use your Indigoblu stamps to enter.  You can find the rules here too.

My inspiration piece is a necklace I made from the fantastic new paper's from Indigoblu - Floral Vignette's.  These are strong, quality paper's that have a unique property in that the last item printed on them resist's paint, and creates an awesome effect for canvases etc.  I have used them in a different way, and cut out parts to layer up in this necklace, using resin.  The image is first coated in slap it on, to seal it, all around the edges and each side.  It's then glued into the bezel (my frame), and Amazing Clear resin added over three days to build layers and make it look like the butterflies are above the flowers flying.

Hope you like it.

Don't forget to check out what it's all about :)

Have a fab weekend, 

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.

xx

Craft Stamper May Challenge - Take a Stamp Reminder

Hi all,

Today is reminder day for Craft Stamper's May challenge - Take a stamp.  Over on the blog you can see the design team's reminder pieces, to inspire you and spur you on to enter yourself.

This can be any stamped piece you have made, card, artwork, mixed media etc, but it must be your original idea, and you can use any stamps.

The sponsor this month is Wow Embossing Powders, and we have a fab prize of some vintage colours in a case, and a beautiful lacy stamp.

My reminder piece is a clock I made for myself, from an Indigoblu clock kit, I made it a while ago but hadn't shared it properly, so here it is, using the Mad Hatter stamp set also from Indigoblu.  I love the white rabbit holding the clock up, and using that for the hands to go through.

I initially painted the clock in hot cocoa paint, and covered in pantry white, then scratched back roughly on the surface to create a really weathered look.  I stamped in sepia to maintain the worn effect.

This hangs in my conservatory now, it's one of few pieces I actually have for myself!

So why not join us in the challenge, you can enter HERE, we'd love to see your interpretation of this month's theme.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge - May - Take a stamp.

Hi all,

It's the Craft Stamper Take it Make it May challenge, and this month is to take a stamp... any stamp!

Our sponsor this month and the fab prize is from Wow! - This really is a lovely one too, this fabulous lace stamp, and a case of 6 vintage embossing powders.  Oh why can't I enter....

I'd love to get my hands on those embossing powders and that pretty stamp!  They would all work with my favourite medium... resin!

That leads me to my creation for this month's challenge, it's one of my spoon necklaces, using resin and stamped flowers.  The flower's are from Indigoblu's new Giant Peony stamp, I love the little extra delicate flower's, and they were perfect for this.  Each flower is stamped, coloured in (I used pro markers), and then cut out.  They are individually sealed so the resin doesn't seep through the images, it's not the effect I wanted here, and then they are set into layer's of resin, it took around five days to make, layer by layer.

I added a few watch cogs in the layer's, and near the top a sprinkle of glamour dust glitter, to give some iridescence.

I love using old spoons for necklaces, they take some bending but I think the effort is worth it!

So we'd love to see your entries, any project you've stamped - doesn't have to be a card.  It has to be new, and not entered before, but I'm sure you talented peeps will amaze us as usual!

You can enter the challenge here: 

Hope you can join us, make sure you hop on over and see the rest of the Design Team's amazing creations, and leave us some comments if you like too.

Best Wishes,

Nikki.
xx

Craft Stamper - March Challenge - Take A Stamp!

Hi everyone,

It's challenge time again at Craft Stamper magazine, and this month is a nice easy one again for you - it's take a stamp - any stamp!  You can enter anything from cards to canvases and everything mixed media in between as long as it's been stamped.

Our sponsor this month is the fabulous Paper Artsy.

And the prize is this fab new release by Darcy!

I can tell you the whole team are after this stamp set - so get your entries in quick to steal it away from us!

My inspiration for today is using one of the fab new Limor Webber stamps from Indigoblu, it's called Lotus.

I first sprayed the background card in wimberry pie, and townhouse teal cottage paints from Indigoblu.  They are watered down slightly in a spray bottle, and still give a brilliant full colour when sprayed.

I then used flitterglu and chariot of fire megaflake, to edge the panel.  The Lotus flower is stamped in stazon vibrant violet, and some gems added.  It's then matted onto another contrasting card and onto the card blank.

Hop across to the Challenge blog, and join us this month, you could win that fab prize, and get a guest DT spot, and your piece in the Craft Stamper Magazine!

Have fun creating!

Best Wishes,

Nikki K
xxx

Craft Stamper - February reminder - Take a technique

Hi everyone,

It's reminder time over on the Craft Stamper Challenge blog, and our theme this month is 'Take a technique', and the technique is stencilling.

All we want to see is some stencilling and stamping on your card, we'd love you to take part, and we have some great stamps up for grabs with our sponsor this month, Paperbabe Stamps.

This is my reminder piece, I made this on a demonstration day with some lovely ladies at Birds in the Barn last weekend in Essex, and thought I'd use it to show you.

I used Indigoblu's Rose blush stamp, and used the 'flinkie' technique, where you ink up part of the stamp, then put flitterglu on the parts you would like to add flake to.  Stamp it, wait for the ink to dry slightly (the flitterglu will remain tacky), and then add your flakes as you normally would, to the edges.

I then masked the flower's off, and added Indigoblu's diamond stencil over the top.  I used shaded lilac distress ink to brush through the stencil, and leave the trellis effect.  It's then just matted and layered, and the sentiment added.

If you'd like to enter just hop across HERE.

Thank you for visiting. xx

Nikki

Indigoblu Challenge 24: A touch of Red

Hi all,

Welcome to the first of the year's challenges over on the Indigoblu blog.  The theme is, A touch of red.  Any IndigoBlu stamp is fine, although it seems the design team were on the same wavelength this month, you can see how many different ways with one stamp!

This is my take on the theme, using the fab new Heart Splatter stamp, designed by Limor Webber in conjunction with IndigoBlu.

I sprayed the card with Postbox red cottage paint, watered down in a spray bottle, and then stamped the heart in Chariot of Fire megaflakes.  The centre of the heart has a speckled paint effect, and I enhanced this by adding glossy accents over the top.  The letters are stamped on leftover pieces of the sprayed card, in flake also, edged in red stazon, and sat on foam pads.  It's layered onto glittery red card before the card blank.

The fabulous Winner’s prize this month is your choice of IndigoBlu stamps.  As always, you have 3 options to choose from:

1:   2 Large stamp plates

or
2:   4 Small stamp plates

or

3:   1 Large and 2 small plates

There’s also the Winner’s Badge, and one for the Top 3, to display proudly on your Blog,  and the WINNER of the challenge will also be invited to do a GUEST SPOT on a future Challenge Launch post.  That’s right you’re work will be on the blog along with the Design Team.

Also the top three each month (chosen by the DT) will all be invited to do an inspiration piece to be included on the new reminder post, that now goes live mid challenge.

So .....  if you’d like a chance to be featured on the IndigoBlu Challenge Blog get those stamps out and get creating!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it challenge - January 2015

Hi all,

The Craft Stamper Take it Make it challenge is changing, we hope you will find it easier and more fun to participate, and we are starting off with a 'Take a stamp', any stamped creation!  You can enter anything you like to this month's challenge, as long as you have used stamps on it.

So each month will alternate, so February's will be take a technique, then March back to 'take a stamp'.  There will now be two winners every challenge, one will be randomly selected, and win the physical prize offered, and one will be voted for, and win publication, a guest design team spot, and winners profile.

The unbelievably amazing 'random' prize this month is..... this lot!!!!  All gathered from Craft Stamper HQ, and could be winging it's way to you... just for entering!

And for our first challenge of the year, not only will there be the two prizes, but on our reminder post on the 16th, we will be having a blog hop, around all the design team's work, and you can win a piece of that artwork, simply by commenting on the posts.  There will be 12 awesome pieces of artwork up for grabs, but more on that on the 16th!

My first piece of the year for the January 'take a stamp' challenge, has a slightly valentine's theme, in an alternative kinda way!

The background is Indigoblu Postbox red acrylic paint, watered down in a spray bottle and spritzed across the card, and the stamp is Visible Image's INKognito eye stamp, white embossed.  The sentiment is just my little alphabet stamp set, I made it up.  A bit of bling on the corners and my work is done.

Hop across to the Challenge blog for more inspiration from the fabulous design team.

Don't forget to check back on the 16th for the blog hop, it's going to be fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Indigoblu Challenge 23 - Glitz & Glamour

Morning everyone,

It's challenge time again at Indigoblu, and this is my inspiration for this month's theme, Glitz and Glamour.

I made a masterboard from an A4 piece of card, and sprayed it with Indigoblu cottage paint in Aladdin, and Cinderella.  Once dried, I stamped dinkie snowflake bauble in flitterglu, and flaked in Sheffield Steel flakes, as a border down the edge.  The panel was also edged in Sheffield Steel.

I stamped Connor's crown jewels in stazon gothic purple onto a smaller panel, and also edged in flake.  This was layered onto black card for contrast.  The whole card was matted onto black, then a white 8 x 8 card blank.

I added some pearls and pretty lace for contrast.

Hope you like it.  We would love to see your entries, the blingier the better, over at Indigoblu this month.  All we ask is you use Indigoblu stamps or products you have, and show us what you can do.

The winner gets a guest blog spot, and some stamps of their choice from IB.  It's a great prize, fancy winning yourself a Christmas present!

So hop over to the Challenge blog, and get some ideas from the Design team, and then show us your sparkly entries!

This is the last challenge of the year, have fun with it, and have a very Happy Christmas.

Lots of love, and thank you for your support throughout the year,

Best Wishes,

Nikki K. xxx

Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge - December Reminder - White Stamping

Morning everyone,

It's reminder time over at the Craft Stamper Take it Make it challenge, and this month is a simple theme, white stamping.  We would like to see anything you have stamped, in white!

The sponsor this month is Rubber Dance Art Stamps, and the winner gets a £20 voucher to spend with them.  Not only that, but a guest spot on the challenge blog, and published in Craft Stamper Magazine!

Here is my reminder card,

I stamped circle dot background stamp from Indigoblu, onto some teal green card, and rounded two corners of the panel.  I used 'Crumb Cake' ribbon from Stampin Up!, it's my ultimate favourite ribbon for everything, as I can colour it as well.  The sentiment is from BFF, also Indigoblu.  I made a little tag flag and set it on sticky pads to lift it.  It's all matted onto kraft cardstock.

Hop across to the blog for some more fab inspiration, and don't forget to get your entry in, we'd love to see them.  

Have fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki.

xxx