Where did you get that hat? (Part 3)

Sorry I've been a bad blogger this week - very busy making stuff for the magazine, which I can't show you yet. I've been playing with our Feb cover mount which has been designed by Dyan of Art from the Heart/Blonde Moments. Speaking of which, I am off to a retreat at Art from the Heart at the weekend. Am sooooooooo excited - if you've never been taught by Dyan you are missing a treat - the woman is a whirlwind of energy and sooooo funny! More news on my return.
Anyway, I did have time to make a really simple card using a photograph as a centrepiece. I’ve made this for my other half for Christmas, so I’ve used a little black for a more masculine colour-scheme.

Ingredients:
High Hopes Santa hat stamp
Fancy Pants alphabet stamps
Making Memories magnetic alphabet stamps
Hero Arts holly background stamp
White, red and silver card
Black glitter card
Silver Brilliance ink

1 Stamp a panel of white card with the holly stamp using silver ink. Heat set.
2 Cut out your photo and mat onto silver card, then black glitter card. Stamp, colour and cut out the Santa hat and add it to the photo. Add to stamped panel. Stick to a red card blank.
3 Using the masking technique, stamp the word ‘Paws’ so that the letters overlap. Stamp the word santa onto a scrap of red card. Die cut a star from black glitter card and stick the word santa on the top. Cut out the word ‘paws’ and stick below the matted photo.

That’s it! Very quick and simple.

See you soon,
Katy x

Advent Calendar / Jan sneak peek

I've made this advent calendar with our next cover mount stamp, which will be yours if you purchase the January issue of Craft Stamper! It's a poinsettia stamp designed for us by those wonderful folks at PaperArtsy.

I don't always get time to make something for myself, but I rather liked this advent calendar idea, which I found at the Bubbly Funk website - take a look at their tutorial for the instructions.

The whole thing is made of 24 matchboxes, a couple of squares of chipboard and the free stamp which has been stamped onto patterned paper and layered (I've used it stamped in gold on the white squares as a subtle background too).

My drawers are covered with strips of paper which has been tone-on-tone stamped and then punched with my beloved Threading Water punch (believe me - you NEED this punch!!!). I've also added wee loops of metallic red thread to each drawer to enable them to be opened easily.

Not only is it pretty, it can be reused year after year and I can put any treats I like into the drawers.

I lurve this poinsettia stamp - hope you do too!

Katy x

ETA - just filled this with sweeties - mini Cadbury's chocs are a perfect fit ;).

Lovely new stash!

Been having fun today playing with my NEC stash! Bit limited in what I could do because our boiler has broken down and am managing with basics - i.e. card, ink and stamps and not much else - as it's tooooooooo cold to work in my craft room (brrrrrrr).


One of my favourite purchases was a pack of Inkadinkado clear stamps called Ornate Christmas (I got these from the very friendly people from Crafts U Love). I've made two cards today with the stamps, with quite different looks.


On the snowman card, his scarf is coloured with my new Xmas colours Gelly Roll pens (which I also got yesterday from Stamposaurus) and his body is coloured with Broken China Distress Ink. All the stamps are from the Inkadinkado set.




On the Seasons Greeting's card I've coloured the stamped image by blending Distress Inks (Antique Linen and Fired Brick). The swirl is a Penny Black stamp. It's a lot nicer in real life - sorry for the awful photo, it got dark fast!

The paper is from the new Basic Grey Wassail collection (have I mentioned I am addicted to Basic Grey papers???).

I hope you like them :).


See you soon,
Katy x

Where did you get that hat? (Part 2)

Another Santa Hat card today.

I made this using one of my favourite stamps by Bam Pop, called ‘M is for Monster’.

Been soooo busy, so I hope you'll forgive me that it’s a very simple card.


Ingredients:

• Bam Pop M is for Monster stamp (from Angel Crafts)
• Papermania clear stamp set - A Wonderful Christmas Time - Seasons Greetings
• High Hopes Santa hat stamp
• Papermania Christmas papers - A Wonderful Christmas Time
• Silver card, fuchsia card and lime card
• Scrap of fuchsia ribbon
• White gel pen (I used Ranger Inkssentials)
• Snow Writer

1 Stamp Monster onto lime card and colour his teeth and eyes with an Inkssentials white gel pen. Cut him out.

2 Stamp the hat and word monster onto the snowflake paper in areas which are unpatterned. Cut them out. Cover parts of the hat with Snow Writer to give it a fluffy dimensional effect.

3 Stamp the greeting in brown ink onto white card. Mat onto pink card. Stick the word monster over the top of the word merry with 1mm foam pads.

4 Cover a card blank with snowflake paper. Stick the monster and greeting onto a piece of silver card. Round all the corners and mat onto a slightly larger piece of white card which also has rounded corners.

5 Add the panel to the card with 3D foam and finish by adding a bow to make the greeting resemble a present.

It might be a little bit bonkers as Christmas cards go but I like it!

Probably won't be around at the weekend but I'll be back next week. Have a fab weekend.

Katy x

PS ATC SWAP: I've chosen a comment at random and am delighted to swap with KIM. Please email me at cs@traplet.com Kim. :).

CANDY: Tomorrow is the last day for the launch blog candy (see first post).

Where did you get that hat? (Part 1)

I got a cute little Santa Hat stamp by High Hopes and decided to have a go at using it with stamps I already had in my collection to create some Christmas cards. Have a look in your stash - with a little imagination it’s pretty easy to utilise your existing stamp collection for Christmas makes.

OWL CARD
Ingredients:

• Hero Arts Big Owl stamp
• Perfectly Clear Snowflake Symphony stamps (from Handy Hippo)
• Studio G mini xmas stamps
• High Hopes Santa Hat stamp (from Silly Monkey Crafts)
• Blue Brilliance Ink
• Versamark Ink and Versamark Pen
• Snowflake White embossing powder

Instructions:
1 Stamp the owl onto white card, colour with brush markers and cut out. Stamp the hat, colour the main part of the hat red with a marker. Colour the trim with a Versamark pen and emboss with the snowflake powder. Cut out.

2 Stamp and emboss multiple snowflakes onto white card using snowflake white embossing powder. Using a sponge, ink over the embossed images with Brilliance Ink – the embossed images will resist the ink. Swipe with a baby wipe to remove excess ink from the embossed images. This will be your background.

3 Cut a branch shape from brown card (I traced around a Grungeboard shape – I was too stingy to use my precious Grunge on a Christmas card!). Emboss the branch with a Cuttlebug folder if desired, and ink the raised areas in brown.

4 Stick the branch to the bottom of the snowflake panel. Stick the owl in position ‘standing’ on the branch and stick the hat onto his head. Finish with an embossed, matted greeting. (TIP: If you don't have an Xmas greeting, stamp the word 'Joy' using any alphabet stamps you have in your stash).

I've made a couple more cards with this hat stamp which I'll post soon.

Thanks for visiting, see you soon.

Katy x

Meet Joel

I've actually started my Christmas cards early this year (usually I start preparing around about Xmas Eve, so I'm allowed to be a little bit pleased with myself). I've been playing with this new stamp from the Toodles and Binks range, exclusive to Stamp Galaxy . His name's Joel and I’ve made a couple of cards with him to share with you. He’s painted with Twinkling H20’s with a little bit of glitter added for Christmassy sparkle. I coloured over his eyes with an Inkessential white pen and black Glaze pen to really bring them out.


On the red and green card: I’ve stamped the background paper with a swirl stamp (Basic Grey Winterland) in both red and gold to add a bit of depth. I layered my paper with a die cut scalloped circle which I embossed using Cuttlebug Divine Swirls folder, a strip of stripy paper and a length of lace. Before adding Joel to the card, I stamped the edge of the panel with the swirl stamp again as a finishing touch. The papers and greeting stamp are both from Papermania.





On the blue card: I masked Joel and stamped a circle background stamp (PaperArtsy Mini) over the top to look like snow. I left a void at the bottom where I added Snow Writer and glitter glue, inked over with Brilliance Ink to look a bit like a mound of snow. The ‘Let it Snow’ greeting stamp is by Autumn Leaves and the paper is Basic Grey Blitzen range. The snowflake is a Heidi Swapp ghost shape which is covered with blue glitter glue on the reverse. The little pebbles are called Zoomz ,also from Stamp Galaxy. These are a great value buy and make a lovely alternative to gemstones.


I hope you like them :0)

Thank you all for the warm welcome to blogland. Don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post for a chance to win some candy!

See you soon,
Katy x