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 July TIMI Challenge Reminder - Take a Stamp

Hi everyone,

It's Take It, Make It, challenge reminder time over at Craft Stamper, and the theme this month is 'Take a Stamp'.

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. 

This month's sponsor prize to our random winner is: Calico Craft Parts, and the fab prize is 3 aperture ATB kits, 4 beach/nautical mini shape sheets, seashell frame ATC blank, nautical shrine kit. They arrive flat packed, you have to assemble them yourself, it's very easy.

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!

My inspiration for you is a little bracelet I made from the lovely new Indigoblu stamp, Dinkie Rose, bought out for their 5th birthday.  I simply stamped onto shrink plastic, cut each rose out, and coloured with Marshmallow and Lemon Meringue paints, watered down. 

I punched holes in each with a cropodile before shrinking the plastic one at a time with my heat gun, and used an acrylic block to make sure they were flat on my heat mat.

A jump ring was attached to each, then attached to a bracelet chain.  Some freshwater pearls were added on headpins.

I made a simple pair of earrings to match, think this is a really summery set!  

So don't forget to join in over on the Craft Stamper blog, we'd love to see your entries!  It can be any kind of artwork/make, as long as you have used rubber stamping on it. 

Have fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Kevin's Gang & Diamond Resin for Indigoblu

Morning everyone,

Over on the Indigoblu blog today I'm sharing a make with their new Diamond Resin, and Kevin's gang stamp set.  I had immense fun making this, and didn't want to part with the necklace for my DT piece either.  Just going to have to make one for myself.

Diamond resin is a new two part epoxy resin which is crystal clear and sets hard, and is very easy to use.  I am a big fan!  You will need to visit the Indigoblu blog to see how I made these guys, there is a step by step over there for you, but here's a pic or two of the finished piece.

A bit closer - spot the dictionary pages I used? 

Right, I'm off to make more goodies for upcoming demo's, hope you like these.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Craft Stamper July Challenge - Take a Stamp

Morning all, seems ages since I last blogged, probably because it is!

It's challenge time over at Craft Stamper magazine again, and this month is a nice easy one - Take a stamp.  That's any stamp you like.  I've actually used several here, and some beautiful Indigoblu paper's. 

Let me explain..

Firstly I took some paper from the IndigoBlu range. This was given a light wash of watered down 'Townhouse Teal' paint, and then stamped with Giant Peony, in versafine, and in flitterglu and megaflakes.

The tag was stamped with Limor Webber's rugged edges, Lotus flower, and IndigoBlu's dinkie Dragonfly, and also given a wash of colour.  I then flaked around the edge of the tag to give a border.  More paper was torn and paintwashed.

I cut out the butterflies from the Vintage Memories paper pack, and the post mark, and started to layer up the card.

Some tiny puzzle pieces and wooden flowers were painted in townhouse teal and hot cocoa paints, and adhered.

I then stamped and cut out poppies from Giant Poppy, and Poppycock stamp sets, and layered them.  It's all mounted on a white card background.

I hope this gives you a little inspiration, come and join us at Craft Stamper this month, show us your work and you could win prizes! All you have to do is follow the guidelines HERE, it's simple!

Our sponsor this month is the fabulous Art Journey stamps, with a whopping prize of four plates!

See you soon,

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 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 December Challenge - White Stamping

Hi all,

It's challenge time again!  A lovely easy wintery challenge for you - stamping in white ink.  It can be anything you like, as long as it's stamped in white.  You can use white paint, gesso, ink, anything, and any stamps you have.

The sponsor this month is the fab Rubber Dance Stamps:

And the winner gets:

Not only that, you also get a guest spot on the challenge blog, and your card featured in Craft Stamper!

My card has a faded wood effect background, which is a technique I learnt from the fab Jenny Marples, and still don't believe how easy and effective it is, so I keep doing it... lot's of pieces of wood style card around my house!  (thankyou Jenny).  It's two colours (hot cocoa & frosty sky) of Indigoblu Cottage paints, watered down, and brayered over the card, and then add lines to imitate the wood.  Jenny has a fab tutorial here.

I then took Rockin Robin from Indigoblu, and stamped in white gee sso good, onto kraft card.  The kraft card was distressed round the edges, and offset onto the background.Some pearls were added to the snowflakes, and a ribbon to finish.  Contrasting pearls were added to the wood panel behind.

We would love to see your entries, hop across to the Craft Stamper Challenge Blog to see some fab inspiration from the rest of the team.

Have a great weekend, hope this inspires you to get those white inks out and join us.

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge September - Stamping on Tissue

Morning everyone,

Today is the first day of the brand new Craft Stamper Challenge, and what a great challenge it is.  We would like you to have a go at stamping on tissue paper.

It's easy to do, just stamp on a normal household 2ply or 3ply tissue, tear out your image (leaves less lines), and then separate the layers until you just have the stamped first layer.  Use Indigoblu's Slap it on to put a layer onto your object/card first, then lay the tissue over, and use more Slap it on to seal it.

I used 'Under the Sea' stamp set from Indigoblu as well, as it's one of my favourites, and I wanted to create a sea goddess.



I used the grass as her skirt and her wings, using two colours of versafine to stamp them.

She has some real shells added to her base, and some seaweed I picked up and dried out.

She is finished with a top made from the shell stamp, and some pearls, and a little starfish attached to the top.

We would love to see your makes this month, they have to include stamping on tissue, and you need to link back to your post, not just your blog, but that's all we ask - hop across and check out the Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge blog, and see all the amazing DT design's to inspire you.

Have a lovely weekend,

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

ICE Resin Blog Hop

Morning everyone,

I'm so excited about today's blog, as it's the first time I've participated in a blog hop, and this one couldn't be any better!  Indigoblu have got together with Ice Resin, to bring you some fab prizes, and all for just leaving a comment!

So my piece for the hop is a little different, we were all given a parcel of the same items to work with, which contained some bezels, Ice Resin, beautiful Organza ribbon from the Art Mechanique range, and some embellishments from Ice Resin, and our own megaflakes, flitterglu and new Christmas stamps and paints from Indigoblu.

I used flitterglu and flake to stamp onto a piece of gift wrap tissue (yes it works), using the Design Merry Christmas stamp, and copper kettle flakes.

I laid the tissue onto a clean bin liner, and coated it with Ice Resin, letting it dry, and then repeating on the other side.  This gave me a beautiful clear flexible ice like piece of paper, with ragged edges.  I was going to trim the edges but decided it looked more natural, so left them.

I took four twigs from an old cut down tree, and bound them together using jewellery wire, and ribbon.  I punched holes in the paper and attached it by lacing the organza ribbon through the holes and round the twigs.  I finished with some pink organza bows.  I also stamped part of the rockin robin stamp, in cherry pink stayzon, and set in the bezel with ice resin, to dangle from my hanging, and attached it with pink wire and added a crystal bead.

It's day two of the hop today, so you can see Day one's entries below, they are amazing, stop by and give them some love, and if you comment today on each blog post, you will be entered into the prize draw, more info below.

These are the fab participants:

DAY ONE: Thursday, August 21

For IndigoBlu:

Jenny Marples – http://pushingtherightbuttons.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

Lisa Baker – http://lisabdesignsinspiration.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

For ICE Resin:

Kathy Cano Murillo http://www.craftychica.com/category/blog/

Jennifer Cabic http://jennifercabic.blogspot.com/

DAY TWO: Friday, August 22

For IndigoBlu:

Nikki K – http://fairyelephantdesign.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

Linda Walmsley – http://lindylou-lifeinthecraftlane.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

For ICE Resin:

Carol La Valley http://wp.me/p1MCno-3st

John Creighton Petersen http://artnewwave.com/?page_id=468

DAY THREE: Saturday, August 23

For IndigoBlu:

Laura Williams – http://laurawilliamscards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

Kay Halliwell-Sutton – http://www.indigoblu.com/blog/?p=6341

For ICE Resin:

Clare Horner – http://gotpaintinmyhair.blogspot.com/2014/08/ice-resin-blog-hop.html

Baerbel Born – http://wp.me/p4nlri-ud

To enter for the IndigoBlu part of the prize draw, all you need to do is leave a comment on the individual designers blog post, linked above each day. Comment on them all for more than one chance to win! It is that easy.

To enter the ICE Resin part of the prize draw, follow THIS link  on the bottom right of the page you will see an enter to win section. Follow the instructions and cross your fingers!

So I hope you have enjoyed your browse around, Ice Resin really is amazing stuff, and this show's it works with all your fab Indigoblu goodies too.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K. xx

Indigoblu Challenge 17 - Reminder post is up!

Over at the Indigoublu challenge blog, the reminder post is up, with some more inspiration from the talented Design team.

My offering on the 'Tag You're It' challenge is a simple tag, which I sprayed with Townhouse Teal, banana custard, and vodka martini paints, and when dry, edged in salty ocean and mowed lawn distress inks.  The vodka martini shimmer's through the tag, it was hard to get a photo of though!

I flitterglu'd and megaflaked the stylised flowers stamp, and second gen stamped the birds in versafine sepia.  The sentiment is stamped in onyx black.

  I painted the altered ego's with wimberry pie, grandma's teacup, and Goldfinger, and layered the fence and bunny at the bottom for interest.  A simple organza green ribbon was added to the tag.

Don't forget to join us in this month's challenge, and check out the rest of the Design Team's work.

Rules are here if you need them :)

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.

xxx

Indigoblu Challenge Reminder post - Words are All you Need

Hi all,

Hope you are having a good week so far, and the weather is being kind to you.  It's certainly nice here this morning.

We have a reminder post up over on the Indigoblu Challenge Blog, with one week to go, we would love some more entries, it's great to see all your work.

Here is my little inspiration piece, I went with a muted colour scheme.  I stamped Circles and Dots, as a background, and then just die cut a frame, and used the fab Voices stamp, always makes me laugh.  I edged in Tea Dye distress ink around the panels.

The Altered ego's were painted in brown cottage paint, and then embossed with frantage and verdigris embossing powders.

I layered it all together, and added a couple of prima butterflies, I just love these.

So hop over to the challenge blog, and show us what you can do!

Best Wishes,

Nikki K

Indigoblubelle &
Challenge Design Team Member

Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge - May - Stamping with Potatoes!

Hi everyone,

It was back to childhood for me this week, and a great, fun piece to make for the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge.

The theme is stamping with Potatoes!

You can see all the Design Team's inspiration here, and we really would love you to join us this month and just have fun with this challenge!

For my piece, I started with Distress inks in Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, and Picked Raspberry, and covered a piece of white card randomly.  Once done, I spritzed the card with a secret ingredient. . .Dettol!  It's just the clear kitchen spray dettol, but I stumbled upon the idea one day when I couldn't find my water spritzer, and just happened to grab the nearest spray. . .

Blot the card after a few seconds, and it leaves a lovely distressed effect.  I edged the panel in spiced marmalade distress ink.

After this, I carved my potato stamp, and chose Indigoblu's Goldfinger paint to stamp in.  I painted a thin layer onto my stamping mat,

Then stamped randomly over the background.

I had repeated the distress ink pattern onto another piece of card, but adding dusty concord for a bit of contrast.  The edge of the card is stamped with English Florish, and on top of that I stamped Indigoblu's Big Butterfly, and clear embossed it.  I used the sentiment from BFF, and also clear embossed it and edged it in spiced marmalade.

This is the final card, hope you like it!

You have a whole month to join in the challenge and play with potatoes, how much fun is that?

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge April - Bottles!

Hi all,

If you already have your copy of May's Craft Stamper magazine, you will have seen the fab bottles and bottle related cards, and the ace free stamp this month.  The April monthly challenge has also been running a week now, and we would love you to have a go yourself, and join in the Craft Stamper April Challenge, and show us your makes.

All you need to do is use a bottle as a main feature, whether it's a real bottle, a stamped bottle, a bottle tag, or label for a bottle, it's fine.  We just need to see stamping on your make.  Hop across to the blog for some more inspiration, and the dreaded rules.  (There aren't many I promise, you just need to use bottles in some shape or form, and blog your make, with a link back to the actual post, not your general blog please).

Any paints, inks etc are allowed, run riot!

Here is my DT piece for the reminder, I took an old Port bottle (courtesy of the husband), and covered it in music paper, just like paper mache.  At that stage, I didn't know I would end up covering it all up, but it's a surprise if you look through the bottom of the bottle.  I then pasted different types of lace, doilies, and material all over the bottle, to give the textured look.  I was going to show you step by step, but forgot to take photo's as I got carried away on this one.

I gesso'd and then sprayed the bottle with Indigoblu Cottage paints in Townhouse Teal and Banana custard, mixed with a little water in a spritzer bottle.

The stamp set I have used is Under the Sea, by Indigoblu also, it's one of the newer sets that came out in February at the Trade show, and as I'm a seaside lass at heart, I can't resist it.  The shells were stamped in Versafine Sepia, and then sprayed with a little paint to co-ordinate the colour.  I cut them out and arranged them around the bottle.  I stamped the tag in Deep Lagoon, and clear embossed the sentiment.  It's matted onto a little lable, and a ribbon added and tied at the back.

Let me know what you think, and don't forget to join us in this month's challenge.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xx

New Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Monthly Challenge - March 2014

Morning everyone,

You might have seen that I shared some news on Facebook earlier in the week, that I had been asked to join a great new Design Team over at Craft Stamper magazine, for the Take it, Make it Challenge.

Today the challenge is open, and will be monthly from now on, with a fantastic team to inspire you each month.  I am in awe of the talent on the team, and can't believe I made it!

So this is my interpretation of the theme - Monoprinting.  We were asked to take an acrylic block, 'smoosh' it with paint, turn it on to a suitable substrate, and use the resulting prints we made in a card or artwork of our choice, and in any way.

I used some gold acrylic paint I had, and Indigoblu's Cottage paints in Winberry Pie and Grandma's Teacup.  I love these paints as they are so high in polymers they print brilliantly, and come out nice and smooth. The colours are pretty fab too!

As I had plenty of my printed background left, I decided to die cut lot's and lots of Tim Holtz Tattered Florals, and layer them with stamping.  I used 'Beautiful Mind', and the words from the 'Boadicea' stamp plates from Indigoblu.  The female phrenology head made a lovely base for her hair to be made of flowers.

I coloured some brad's with alcohol inks, to make the centre of the flowers.  The words were stamped on little pieces of leftover background, cut out and inked around the edges with stazon in Midnight blue, the same as the main piece.  I used M|idnight blue and Gothic purple to stamp the main image, words and chemistry signs on the flowers.

This is the finished piece, I love the subtle glow of the gold through the muted colours.

So come and join us in the Take it, Make it Craft Stamper Challenge, show us your Monoprints, remember it doesn't have to be a background, all we need is monoprinting somewhere on your artwork, and of course, rubber stamping.

Have fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki K
xx

From the Heart - Indigoblu Challenge Jan/Feb 2014

Good Morning everyone,

Today is the day of the new Challenge over at the Indigoblu Challenge Blog.  The winner of  'Your Favourite Indigoblu stamp' will also be announced over there, and you can see all the entries from the last month.

This is my DT piece for this month's challenge 'From the Heart'.  It's extremely simple, but I think the colours worked well.  It's a large chipboard tag, painted with 'Grandma's Teacup' Cottage paint, and I've stamped and embossed all over in seafoam white embossing powder.

I used Ikkle Poppy, the birds from Mr Darcy, the flower meadow from Poppy Meadow, and the dinkie Poppy Heart stamps.

I added a simple cream ribbon, and there you have it, effective but simple.

Pop across and see the Design Team's inspiration, and have a go!  Great stamps on offer each month as prizes, and we would love to see your work.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx