Dyan Reaveley tutorial

Hope you liked our ultra thick masterclass this month? If so, hop on over to Dyan Reaveley's blog for a fantastic tutorial on creating shimmery backgrounds. Some lovely examples and easy to follow steps too.

Enjoy!
Katy

Brand new subscription offer

Have you seen the new subs offer for December in Craft Stamper?

If you subscribe this month there is a gift of stamps from PaperArtsy worth £26! Also available with direct debit subscriptions, so there’s no need to pay the whole sub fee up front. It’s quite a limited offer so better get in there quick to get these yummy stamps for yourself! It’s an ideal time to take out a Christmas gift subscription for a crafty friend or family member too.

Our customer services order line number is 01684 588599 and the peeps on the other end are a nice friendly lot ;). Or see details in our online shop.

(PS- The lovely artwork in the picture is by Leandra Franich.)

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

Free stamp makes - Strawberries

I’ve been trawling the internet to see what you have been making with our new polymer cover mount stamps.

Here are links to a few fab creations with the Strawberry stamp from the August 2008 issue.

A lovely little notebook by Ann
A gorgeous card by Sanisi
Another lovely card by Nicola
A brilliant notecard design by Liz
Edna's delightful layered card
Last but not least, a stylish card by Kim

I hope you like their artwork (but please respect their copyright and don't copy their designs directly).

I’d love to see what you have created with our recent polymer cover mount stamps. If you have artwork on your blog please leave a comment and a link to your artwork here to inspire others (or if you don't have a blog email me a pic to cs@traplet.com). Thank you for sharing.

CS December on sale tomorrow

The Christmas issue of CS goes on sale tomorrow, so I thought I'd tempt you with a peek at the cover.

There is an interactive mag preview on the Craft Stamper website here as well.

We also have a new PaperArtsy subs offer for December - ideal if you want to give a gift subscription. More details to follow soon!

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

Welcome to the new Craft Stamper blog

Hello and welcome to the all new Craft Stamper (CS) blog! On this blog you’ll find various bits of information which complement the contents of CS magazine including some extra little projects, sneak peeks of forthcoming features, news and other bits and pieces. I’ve included links to our contributors blogs and also links to other blogs which you might enjoy.

The December issue of Craft Stamper is due out Friday 7th November and is packed with inspirational projects for Christmas. Whether you like cute or classic, vintage or modern, we have a great selection of card ideas to suit many tastes. Trish Latimer’s classy star book and Gail Milburn’s stunning altered book are two of my personal favourite projects this month. Fans of Sue Roddis will be delighted to know that she returns to CS this month with some quirky and fun card makes using peel offs – yes, peel offs!!! No, she hasn’t gone mad – her technique still involves getting inky!

We aim to update this blog weekly, so please come back and see us soon for news, mini projects and more. If you’d like to link your blog to ours we’d be delighted - please feel free.

***LAUNCH GIVEAWAY!*** To celebrate the launch of our blog we have some blog candy for you. We are giving away these delightful Penny Black Twelve Days of Christmas stamps, as featured in the December issue. To enter the draw, leave a comment on this post and put a link back to here on your own blog. A winner will be drawn at random on 15th November.

Good luck!