New issue out tomorrow and new challenge!

The June issue is out on sale in the shops tomorrow (1st May). As Father's Day is approaching, this issue has lots of makes for men including a stamped tie, ideas for cufflinks, a minibook and also card ideas. Our free stamp is by Crafty Individuals and is a lovely little ticket and a key in their usual vintage style.

As usual, we have the Sketch Challenge, so I hope you'll want to play along? Here is this month's sketch:

And here is the candy on offer if you take part this month, which has been generously donated by The Craft Barn. Footballer Dan is part of their exclusive Kadoodle range of stamps - pop over and check them out.
Have fun!

Katy

More Swirly Bird

Here's another quick card I made with the May cover stamp - swirly bird by Artistic Stamper.

The little branch is a stamp by Hero Arts. I used the same papers as in the mag and also a Doodlebug border. I've used the tail of the bird to make a little motif in the top left hand corner and the separate little swirl to create a border along the bottom edge.

Don't forget there are only a few days left to enter this month's SKETCH CHALLENGE!

Katy x

A little bird...

I know lots of you are loving Swirly Bird who was on the cover of this issue of Craft Stamper (designed for us by Hels Sheridan for the Artistic Stamper). So I thought you'd like to see this lovely ATC made by Anesha using the stamp.

Thanks for sharing Anesha.

See you soon,
Katy x

Readers' Gallery is changing

We are making some changes to the reader gallery section of the magazine. Details will be in the June issue of the magazine, but I'm posting here too to let you know what's in the pipeline.

There will still be reader cards, but this section will now be dedicated to all kinds of reader contributions. As well as your regular reader gallery submissions we'd also love to see what you've been making with our cover mount stamps and your projects inspired by Craft Stamper articles.

We may also feature letters, so if you have a crafty question please write to us and let us know.

Finally, there will be a reader blog of the month - get in touch with a link; it could be you!

Most importantly, you can now send any of the above submissions by email, including photos of work rather than sending your actual work (email good quality images but not larger than 2mb please). The address to email is: cs@traplet.com.

You can also still send by snail mail too.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Katy

Candy winner!

Hi all,
Random.org generated the number SIX - so the winner of the Woodware candy is CLAIREWILL.

Clairewill said...
Fab stamps, would love a chance to win! Love the blog too, by the way :)
10 April 2009 16:31


Email me your address to cs@traplet.com and I'll get your candy out to you!

With best wishes,
Katy

Operation craftroom continues!

Over the bank holiday weekend there was lots of going back and forth to various home improvement stores as we worked on transforming our wilderness of a garden.

I spotted this in the kitchen section of Homebase (not sure what it is, maybe a fruitbowl???) and thought it was perfect for my teeny inkpad collection (which as you can see, is fairly extensive!). My Versamagic's (love them) on the bottom tier, Colorbox chalks on the second and Brilliance on the top. I love it because it's tall and it takes up a lot less room than the collection of glass bowls I used to have on my desk.

My random number generator (AKA my other half) has picked the number four, so I'll be swapping ATCs with Anesha :). Looking forward to it - drop me an email at cs@traplet.com Anesha.

Katy x

ATC to swap

Here's an ATC I made to match my Stamping Contrasts project in the May issue. The stamps are Crafty Individuals wildflowers.

Would anyone like to swap with me?

Thanks!

Katy

Easter candy!

Oooohhhh - I'm delighted to see I have 100 followers now! Thank you all for taking an interest and visiting me. I do appreciate it!

And to show my appreciation, I think I'll put a bit of candy up for grabs. As our ATC swap is so popular, I hope you'll like this set of stamps for the back of your ATCs, from Woodware which is today's giveaway.

Leave a comment by midnight on Tues 14th April and it could be yours.

Happy Easter!

Katy

Cute birdcage

Here's my version of Gail Milburn's fabulous birdcage which was on the front cover of the May issue. Something about these whimsical little creations really caught my imagination and I felt I really needed one as an addition to my own craft space!

I've used the same Hero Arts bird stamp as Gail (from Sir Stampalot). The border around the bottom edge is from a Prima border stamp set and the spots on the cage 'floor' are one of the yummy new Prima single background stamps (I got mine from Craft Emporium).

I really had fun making this and think it's so cute! I hope some of you will make one - if you do, don't forget to share!

Happy stamping :)

Katy

No, thank you!

Just wanted to show you this card I received from Tilly McLeod, a reader in New Zealand. I thought I would share it with you as I love how she has used the free stamp (the large flower is our Oriental Blossom stamp from the October 2008 issue).

Thank you very much for the card Tilly.

Best wishes,

Katy

New issue, new challenge

Hello all,

The May issue is out today, so it's time for a new challenge! Here is this month's sketch:

And in honour of the Artistic Stamper free cover stamp this month, the candy up for grabs is these sweet Stitchels stamps which will be perfect to go with Swirly Bird.

Just use the sketch as inspiration and leave a comment here to play along. Last date for entries: 1st May 09.

Have fun!

Katy

PS - Observant readers will notice a sneak peek of the Crafty Individuals free stamp coming in the June issue. Lots of you asked for CI, so I hope you are going to love it!!!

Artsy Crafts

Am back from a fabulous weekend at the Artsy Crafts event run by PaperArtsy and LB Crafts. I had a super fabulous time and met lots of nice people, including meeting Jo Firth-Young and Kate Bentley from the CS team for the first time.

The weekend started with a fun name badge project using Ten Second Studio metal. It was brilliant to get straight into techniques! Fabulous project but my attempt was not my best ever effort! I made a horrible mess and was reminded of the reason I got rid of my alcohol inks!!!

The second project was a candle project which I can show you. Lots of fabby new product here. This is a sneaky peek of the brand new Squiggly Ink stamps which are all themed around castles. We also got to play with the brand new Croco crackle paints and Ferro paints - the former is a one-step crackle (works really well) and the second has iron filings in it: The texture is fab but the pots weigh a ton! The base is made from an inked CD and the border from Ten Second Studio metal which has been stamped and embossed.

The main project we made was a beautiful little cabinet full of treasures - mine is still 'in progress' but I am determined to complete it so more of that on another day.

We also made a lovely platter. I went for the blue and green table (each table was colour themed and we were encouraged to move around to get a range of projects). I chose an unusual colour scheme but I was going for nautical so I could pop the bowl into my bathroom. The panels are metal that has been drowned in Glimmer Mist (I used Turquoise with Irridescent Gold to get the greenish blue shade).

I had a wonderful weekend - thanks for Lin and Leandra for the wonderful inspiration and 'hello' to all the ladies who I met over the weekend.

See you all soon,

Katy

PS - New mag is out on Friday this week - just two more days.