The Stamp Man 2010 Awards Event, with a Blog Hop, FaBuLoUs Candy, and lots of FuN!!!!

Happy Christmas everyone!!

Thank you for following our blog and for your support and custom this year, it is truly appreciated. 

To celebrate we are holding another special event.

Starting Friday 31st December

Our next Stamp Man challenge is something ReAiLy SpEcIaL for the end of 2010

You are invited to join us at

Our 2nd Stamp Man annual blog awards event!!!


It's the same FuN and PoPuLaR event that we ran last year, and you don't have to make anything new so you've No ExCuSe FoR NoT JoInInG In:)

What we Do want to see is the best/favourite project YoU feel you made in 2010 entered on our challenge blog.


For this you can grab The Stamp Man Award, but to win the amazing prizes we have lined up for you, you HaVe to join in with AlL the extra fun stuff too!


Please don't be ShY, all the design team here are looking forward to seeing your amazing projects and having you join us for some New Year FuN!

So, start thinking about your favourite card/project of 2010 now, and then present it with us proudly!

Please pass on the news to your blogging friends with this blinkie, the more that join us the merrier it will be!!!

Have a happy and peaceful Christmas!

Jill

Blog hop, candy and awards event 2010!!!

This proved to be good fun last year and we hope you will join in again.  

I'll post the finer details nearer the time, but I'd be grateful if you could spread the word on your blogs, the more people that join in, the more fun it will be!!!

I hope everyone is getting on OKwith the Christmas prep and taking care in the icy weather! 

Jill

Challenge # 12 Anything Goes Tag

Time for another challenge!!  This time it is a tag of your choice, it can be Christmas or any theme you fancy.

For my tag I used

Hero Arts CG197 Old Letter cling stamp

Tim Holtz Alteration Dies - Tattered Floral, Regal Crest, and Elegant Flourishes

Starburst Stains

Black Webbing Spray (only available from the shop)

Moonglow Embossing Powder stamped 

with  TH Stamps - Reindeer Flight, and Hero Arts  S5449 Fabulous Flourish

Distress inks

Here's a few close ups

I used T!m's Tattered Floral die to cut the flower from a sheet of scrunched Starburst Stains paper that I had sprayed with webbing spray.  I've forgotten which set the stains came from, it is one I had made a while ago.  I used distress inks to create the background.

I added a few layers of the Moonglow wmbossing powder onto a cardboard tile before stamping into it to create the patterns.

I hope you have time to join in our challenge some time over the next 2 weeks, we'd love to see your tags.  Our design team have made real beauties, pop over HERE for a peek at them

How's your Christmas prep going?  It's not long until the big day now, I'm hoping we get it all done before the next lot of snow comes!!

Jill

USArtQuest collage

I thought today that I'd show another USArtQuest collage piece that artist and company owner Susan Pickering Rothamel made some years ago, it shows a number of products that I'll point out in the following close up pics so you can see how they have been used.

The pic below shows layered mica tiles along with mica flakes.  The background edge has a number of different coloured webbing sprays

You can see the colour of the mica flakes a little better in this photo

The background of the fern is Pearl Ex mica powders mixed with Perfect Paper Adhesive, yes adhesive = glue but in this case it makes a rich shimmery paint!  The colours really pop on dark card.

I hope you have a good day!

Jill

USArtQuest Faux Lace

Here's another card from my play time with USArtQuest products, back to the faux lace and vintage watercolour mica paint set!

Again, I ruched up the great tape and added those sprinkly Mica Flakes and D'Lights, then watercoloured with the vintage set.

I added a mini postcard from the travel (trains, planes, boats and places) mini postcards.  I cut down the postcard and distressed it as well as the large labels 8 nestie to create loads of texture on the card.

The colours aren't showing too well in the photos, the flower colour looks a little out of place here but it matches well with the cards shimmer in real life, how odd how the colours in our photos turn out wrong sometimes!

I used the Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish stamp on the border panel and added a couple of copper curly clips.

Everyone else in blogland are showing Christmas cards, so I'm feeling a little out of place showing non Christmas cards at the moment.  After 20 odd years of Christmas card making, I decided that this year I would stick to one design and you've already seen it (no surprises for anyone getting a card from me then!), I've made loads of them so, to be honest, I'm Christmas carded out!!!!  It's been nice to move onto new makes.

Can I shock you and tell you that I've already made 5 Valentines cards!  I'd like to be able to tell you they are all for Ian, lol!!!  Can you believe that two of them have already been lost in the post...So much for getting ahead of things!  I'm usually late for everything and this has proved that bad things can also happen when you're an early bird!!

I got our Christmas tree trimmed yesterday, so I'm feeling a little more festive.  I was down south last week for a very brief and rare trip just to visit my family, normal visits to them are when I've been down for some of the Create and Craft shows and if the timing is right I get to visit them so it was a great time to just focus the trip on visiting them, it was so LOVELY to see and spend time with them all and it just flew by far too quickly. 
 
Short notice I know, but Nigel fans (from Create and Craft), hit record for the Weakest Link on BBC1 at 5.15pm tonight.  Nigel is a contestant, I'm looking forward to watching that later!

Jill

More from the USArtQuest napkin kit

The bird is another napkin kit image that I've fixed to one of the ATC boards in the kit.  I used T!m's Elegant Flourish die to create a branch.

This piece was mounted onto a large Nestie 8 die cut that has been painted with Vintage watercolour mica paints.  I mixed one of the paints to a creamy consistancy then wiped my brush around the edges to give a distressed look.  I also painted the border and other background with the same watercolour paints.  I took the photo at a strange angle to catch the shimmery gold paint effect.  The paint set has a gorgeous blue that works perfectly with this napkin that you can't really see in the photo.

I used the Hero Arts cling stamp  CG197 Old Letter on the background.

To prepare the 'topper', cut out design, or if you want a wispy edged piece to collage then use a wet paint brush around the design, it will tear away easily.

Apply the Perfect Paper Adhesive to the board.

Use the sponge to gently remove any creases, use very lightly or the napkin will tear.

Apply glue to the edges of the reverve and fold napkin to the back.

It's an ideal card for any bird or nature lover.

I hope you are having a great weekend, at least it is a bit warmer outside!!

Jill