Vintage Photo Frame Workshop with Jill Tuck of The Stamp Man

I had a chat with a friend at the Ross Papercraft show in Sunderland last month, about me coming up to the area again to hold a workshop.  Carole (Cazro as many of you know her) is now in the process of organising this.

It will be held at Snod’s Village Hall, near Shotley Bridge, Consett, Co. Durham on Saturday, 19 May 2012 from 09:30 until 16:30.

The main project is to decorate a 6" x 4" photo frame using Moonshadow Inks, Embossing Powders and embellishing in a vintage style.

We will also be playing with various techniques using Moonshadow Inks, Moonglow Embossing Powders and Starburst Stains.

I'm sure you will find it a fun day out learning new techniques.

Please email Carole for more information: cazro2512@btinternet.com

I will have the photo frame with me at the Ross Papercraft show in Middlesborough on 15th April if you'd like to see what you'll be making in real life.

I hope some of you in the area will be able to join us.

In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying this gorgeous weather, what a great start to spring/summer time!!

Jill

The winner of our March Giveaway Shabby Chic Bag is...

...the lucky shopper who has been picked in our prize draw, who is...

Marilyn Edwards of London.

Congratulations Marilyn, we'll pop your prize in the post.

Enjoy playing with all those lovely goodies!!

Jill x

Harrogate Show - Stand B4

I had all good intentions of finishing my mini tutorial on the frame I made for our current challenge and also showing some sneak peeks of things we will have at the show over the weekend but things haven't gone to plan!  I'll catch up on the frame next week.

 

The most important thing to tell you is that we have a different stand this time, B4 which is on the central walkway as you come in from the entrance.

What I can tell you briefly is that we will have some of the new gorgeous Stampendous stamps and some of the Fran-tage products.  These have been really popular so we don't have a lot of them all so be quick if there is something you plan on getting.

We also have a selection of the Magenta puzzle stamps and others, the puzzle stamps are sets of cling stamps and are basically squares and rectangles of coordinating designs that you can mix and match/fit together.

Then there are quite a number of the Artemio clear stamp sets that are proving to be very popular at the moment, especially the London themed sets shown at the top of this post!

We'll also have our own stamps, some Hero Arts and Tim Holtz amongst others.

We also have a LOT of bargains for you, including on Starburst Stains and Moonshadow Inks, they have a massive saving!  Not forgetting the Moonglow embossing powders that we have a great offer on.  Oh and some big discounts on selected Tim's distress products and some of his accessories.

We also have a great offer on coloured vellum, this vellum includes a blue and red which will be fantastic for Jubilee/Olympic projects!

We're about to set off to get set up, so must rush.....Exciting!!!!!

Jill x

The Stamp Man wished he was 'ere again, but he wasn't!!!

I have to share this little bit of funny nonsense with you, (sorry Ian for using THE photo), but I have to show it :)

The last time we went 'further' up north to the 2nd of our shows this year, back in January, with Ross Papercraft, we had a bit of a bad day getting there.

We don't leave anything on the van overnight so the intention was to load up as usual before we set off.  Well, the final packing and loading up didn't go as smoothly and hassle free as normal and it was a REALLY, REALLY windy day.

It was all my fault of course since the time I broke our best trolley when I moved it 2ft along at the back of the van and left the van door open then went to move the car out of the way so Ian could get the van off the drive and Ian forgot he left the trolley there originally anyway and ran over it!!!!!!!!!!  Oops!!!!!!!!!!  Nasty dent :(  BIG delay :(

Anyway, the journey for this trip up the A1 was pretty hairy due to the wind which seemed to get even worse the further we went.

We got there, unloaded and set up ready for the show the next day etc but, when we came out to set off to the hotel, the wind wrenched the driver's door back, then a huge gate blew into the other door, slamming it shut. The gate just missed Ian's back otherwise it could have been even worse!

We decided to try and find somewhere to eat on the way to the hotel but couldn't find anywhere for something like fish and chips, (and Ian's doesn't eat spicy takeaways), we found nothing.  So we were cold, tired, hungry and just a little bit fed up.

Now this just goes to show how things can turn around in a matter of minutes just when you think the day cannot get any worse!  The day only had a couple of hours left so there wasn't that much hope of it getting any better.  But it totally flipped round (just like the van door!)

The kitchen of the restaurant next door to the hotel had closed for the night so when we checked in Ian asked if there was anywhere to get something to eat at that time.  The lady whispered that she had a number so we could get a Pizza delivered, Ian doesn't eat Pizza either but food is food so he replied that he'd hoped to get fish and chips but pizza would be fine.  Fish and chips turned out to be an option for delivery too so that was brilliant.  They were lovely fish and chips with the fish packed separately so it was still nice and crispy.

Normally we stay in hotels and the lighting is terrible to read with, but I just had to take this photo of a very contented Ian, full on fish and chips sat in a comfy armchair with a light shining down on his newpaper.  What more could a man ask for eh?  There were a couple of steps up to his little reading alcove and it was so funny seeing him sitting up there.  All this for a bargain price room of £10 too!!

We booked the same hotel for this last weekend for the show at Nissan in Sunderland but unfortunately that room had gone, there was no special offer on the room either, maybe next time:)

Well, that's my lunch break over, it's back to getting ready for the Harrogate show this weekend!

Really looking forward to it and hope to see you there:)

Jill x

New Challenge - Vintage Theme - Part one!

Our new fortnightly challenge starts today over on our Challenge blog HERE.  The team have made fantastic projects again, and I've certainly enjoyed playing making this embossed frame.

I bought 3 frames for £1, so a great bargain, and the photo was 50p (a local original from October 1928).  I just loved playing with the Stampendous Fran-tage products last September at the Woodware retailer day, I can see me having much more fun with them in future!

The great thing about new things is they can combine your old crafty bits and pieces and I used my old faithful Moonshadow inks to paint the wooden frame

The things I used are:

Moonshadow ink
Stampendous CRS5031-R Cling Jumbo Hollyhock
Stampendous Fran-tage mica and embossing powder mixes

The Moonshadow inks all appear brown when first applied due to their walnut ink base.  The colour will show when they dry, as will the gorgeous shimmery finish.  Add one or more colours, they blend really well, even on wood.

Once dry I stamped with the border stamp in the hollyhock stamp set.  I then added more of the ink to one of the corners before adding the Stampendous Fran-tage embossing powders.  The ink held the powders in place like an embossing ink normally would on card. Using the ink made it more random than applying the ink from an ink pad.

I added some of the Shabby Chic colours to the metallics.  You need to hold your heat gun far away until the powder starts to melt otherwise it flies everywhere.  If you have a heat gun with a low setting or one of the hair dryer type guns then they are the best to use.

When using Fran's Fran-tage technique on card you would normally hold the heat gun underneath so that the powder doesn't fly about.  This is a slight variation, but still using Fran's encrusted jewel technique.

While the powder was hot I added some mesh ribbon then sprinkled and heated more powder on top to make sure it was embedded.  Test and make sure that your mesh is heat resistant before you add it!

I had some left over pieces of metal that are ideal for embedding into the molten embossing powder to add more texture.  Keep building up the powder for extra texture

Well, as blogger won't let me add more photos to this post I will continue with it another time, probably when I get back from our show this weekend at the Nissan Sport and Social Club in Sunderland.  There's packing and lots to do today to prep for it.  The show is open on Sunday from 10am - 3pm.  Show details are available here:  http://www.rosspapercraftshows.co.uk/

If you are able to attend the show do visit our stand as I will have this frame and other new things to show that I am working on plus other products that I will be demonstrating.  We will have some lovely new stamps and things with us plus lots of bargains for you too!

If that's not local, we'll be at the Harrogate show next weekend, maybe we will see you there.

Thanks for visiting, have a great weekend :)

Jill x

A sneak peek for Sunderland show on Sunday

Are you coming to the show?  If so do visit our stand and say hello!!


SUNDAY, MARCH 11TH 2012
Nissan Sports and Social Club, Sunderland, SR5 3NS (10am-3pm)
More Info: http://www.rosspapercraftshows.co.uk/

I thought I'd give a little peek at some things I'm playing with at the show

I've probably prepared too much to show you but we'll give it all a go!!  

I'm sure I'll be having a lot of fun!


Jill x

20% off sale ends this evening!

Just a reminder to let you know that our 20% off sale ends this evening.

So if you wanted anything from Stampendous, Woodware, Dreamweaver or Magenta, with 20% off, then please place your order before 9pm as I will start putting the prices of these companies back to normal prices from then.  All these companies have new products so if you haven't looked at them yet, now is a good time;)

They are on our website HERE

We will still have lots of bargains on the website with 20% or more discount and orders placed before 19th March will still qualify for a chance to win that gorgeous shabby chic bag!

Jill x

Hopes and Dreams ATC Swap

 

Our ATC challenge theme for March is Hopes and Dreams.  My ATC was inspired by teamie Brenda's dream to visit Paris, well, I'd love to visit Italy, one of the main reasons being I LOVE Italian food!!!

I have used Artemio Clear Stamp Set - Italy - 10001235 with a Starburst Stain background.  Both products are available on our website.  I think it is the nearest I am going to get to Italy as a visit there is not on the radar at the moment but I can hope and dream:)

If you'd like to join us you can either join online and add your ATC via Inlinkz, or post them to us to be swapped.  You can of course join in with both the online and postal swap!  The instructions are on the ATC Blog HERE

Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday

Jill x

Colours of Spring / Easter Challenge

Well, we are one week into our latest Stamp Man challenge, there is still time for you to join in as the challenge ends on Thursday at 9pm.

I'm only just getting round to adding my entry and chose a deep almost mustard yellow which is a favourite shade.

I have wanted to play with the Stampendous Frantage embossing powders so chose the aged gold.  The picture above shows this combined with a scrunch Starburst Stain background paper I made a while ago.

Normally when I emboss these background papers I gently swipe my embossing pad over the peaks then add the embossing powder to highlight and make texture.  This time I poured the embossing powder onto the dry paper and moved it about with my hand until it fell into the recesses.  I then carefully heated it from underneath.

I wanted to add more texture to the border, so used the same card  that was an offcut from the main image.  I frayed some white mesh ribbon and coloured it with alcohol inks.  I used alcohol inks rather than normal ink as the ribbon has a coating.

The products I used are

Stampendous CRP152-R Cling Botanical Daffodil
Stampendous Aged Gold Fran-tage Embossing Enamel
Starburst Stains
Mark Richards Self Adhesive 5mm Mosaics - Gold (MR5537)
Mark Richards Self Adhesive - Metals - Gold 3mm (MR1983)
Buttons
Mesh ribbon
Copier paper for scrunch technique

I love the randomness of Fran's Fran-tage embossing technique, you can see it on the border strip below.

I added a bit of bling too, the gold button was nicely textured and I added some gold mosaics, I really must use them more often!

So, I hope you will join in with our latest challenge too!

As I'm going on about the challenges, I would like to welcome our newest DT member, Kim Reygate.

I've know Kim for many many years, she is a very talented card maker and a very lovely lady too.  Kim has written a couple of books, one on tea bag folding and the other rubber stamping and is frequently featured in magazines as well as producing artwork for a number of other paper crafting companies.  We are proud and honoured to have her on our team.

Here's the link to Kim's blog Kim x, you'll find amazing artwork there and I believe Kim is on a mission to blog every day if she can so it's well worth you bookmarking or following her too.

We have a new challenge starting on Friday so I'd better get this current challenge card posted and get on with the next one!

Thanks for visiting

Jill x