Blog Candy Alert!!!

The super talented Asia King has recently been picked as a design team member for Stampendous and will be one of their Blog Stars for the next 3 months!! It is a well deserved position and Asia is the only UK member on this team.

We know that she is SO excited and therefore have decided to sponsor a prize as part of Asia's current blog candy competition.

There are 3 parts to the competition that you can enter, you will find all the details on Asia's blog HERE


The competitions end on 31st July 2012 and are open to those residing in Europe, so do pop over to Asia's blog to join in.

The prize is a mystery... But I can say that as Stampendous will be releasing new goodies at the CHA Trade Craft Show in Chicago we thought it would be great to offer something newly released!!

If you want some sneak peeks at the new stuff do keep an eye on the Stampendous blog for their up to date news from the show. Click on the image to visit their blog.

We will of course let you know about the availability of the new stuff as soon as we know.

Good luck!!!!

Jill x

A couple more Frantaged Handbag Chippie cards

I made some more of these handbags cards using various Stampendous Frantage Shabby Embossing Powders, mainly shabby white, pink, blue and green along with the colour fragments, glass, glitter, and shaved ice.

I also embossed the smaller pieces to add as embellishments, but otherwise tried to keep the cards quite simple.

I used the same ingredients on a piece of A5 card then cut it down to use as borders. I also added some brown chalk to the edge of the embossed handbag to give it definition.

Someone asked me at a show last week if I use hairspray to seal the chalks on my cards and I have found that I haven't needed to with the Woodware chalks.

I've used a tiny strip of my embossed border piece along with some printed paper on the card below.

Although the pearls are self adhesive I used silicone to adhere them to the embossed pieces as I felt they needed to have something extra strong to keep them in place.

There are 6 handbags and other smaller embellishments you can add from the chippie sheets.  They are A4 sheets and are currently £1 each so a good price.  There are many other themes too including a pack of 2 blank sheets that you can use to cut your own shapes with Sizzix dies, (they are probably too thick to use with Spellbinder dies).

Just ink them with VersaMark ink and use the shabby embossing enamels as you would with normal ultra thick enamels but you can sprinkle in the fragments, glitter glass, and shaved ice for extra texture as I've used above.

The items I've used are:

Woodware - JL726 - Chippies - Handbags
Stampendous Fran-tage Embossing Enamels/Shaved Glass/Micas/Glitter
Mark Richards Bling
Woodware Blending Chalks

Just to let you know in advance, I will soon have news for you about a competition with blog candy, so do call back to get the details for that.

Well, this weather is getting really stupid, we have had sunshine today and a chance for everything to dry up but all of a sudden, out of the blue, there was a really loud clap of thunder, our poor dog who normally isn't that bothered about thunder was outside in the garden and he was really spooked by it, it was so weird when the sun was shining.  The down pour followed soon after.  Crazy crazy weather!!!!!!

Apart from the weather, I hope you are having a great weekend!

Jill x

Bling It On Challenge

Our latest challenge starts today and I've certainly seized the opportunity of using Fran's encrusted jewel technique for my project!!!

I used:
Woodware Chippies - handbags and numbers
Stampendous Fran-tage Embossing Powders/Shaved Glass/Micas/Glitter
Mark Richards Bling - Gold Pearls and Mosaics

Organza Ribbon

Woodware Blending Chalks

I built up the texture with various colours of the shabby embossing enamels, shaved ice and glass glitters

I love these mosaics, they are self adhesive and can be cut into shapes so they can be added as a whole piece to save trying to line them all up!

All the chippie shapes are great to use with the enamels but adding numbers to cards are great for the special years.

I've been busy encrusting lots of chippie shapes, it's great fun!!!  I'll show more next week

Just a reminder that we are at a show on Sunday, 

Doncaster Rugby Club, Doncaster, DN2 5QB (10am-3pm)

More Info: http://www.rosspapercraftshows.co.uk/

Whatever you are doing, have a great weekend, and I hope the weather improves for us all!!!

Jill x

Simple Stampendous Peony card

Here's another card with the Stampendous Peony stamp.  I used the scroll that comes in the same set as the background with Versamark ink and chalks

I used Stampendous Aged Black embossing enamel, so there's no encrusted jewel technique for a change.

We are getting ready for the Ross Papercraft show in Rainton Meadows on Sunday, let's hope the weather is kinder to us all over the weekend as it's a really wild one out there today!!

Jill x

London and the Thames Pageant Card

This is one of the cards we didn't get to show on last Wednesday's Stampendous show.

It is the London stamp that Fran Seiford designed and released early for us here in the UK as it is not available in the States until the Christmas supplement comes out.

I am beginning to wonder where my brain wanders to as this is my interpretation of the Thames drifting through the London word, maybe it is because I made this over the Jubilee weekend and I was inspired by the pageant.  I should have put some small boat images on there but maybe not the full 1,000!!!

I really should write down all the blingy bits that I use but I know I used Stampendous aged aqua embossing enamel for this one, it was perfect!!

I added some blue fragments, blue glitter glass and I'm sure other smaller amounts of the enamels and glitters, maybe even some aqua tinsel, which are all HERE.

Here's another card, a simple one and a bit less dramatic!!  I used Stampendous silver detail embossing powder onto blue vellum and mounted that onto red vellum.  Both colours are in the brights pack of vellum that is in our Special Offer section on the website.  I also used this to make some bunting as the colours are perfect for that along with some normal white vellum.

Well, it was nice seeing some sunshine over the last couple of days, have sadly waved it goodbye again today :(

Thanks for visiting!

Jill x

Peony card from Stampendous show

Here is another card from last Wednesday's Ideal World/Stampendous show for the International Event.

I demonstrated with the Stampendous CRS5001 CLING - Jumbo Peony stamp 

I chalked an A5 piece of white card then stamped the peony in black ink onto the card so that I could use it as a guide to add the enamels.

I had prepared another that I had embossed with aged black embossing enamel, chalked, then cut out to place over the top once I had finished adding the enamels, glitters, and glass fragments.

I used mainly the shabby enamels, letting them flow from the bottom of the peony design before heating from underneath.

Heating from underneath without any ink gives a more natural flow than applying ink from a pad.  Using pens to hold the powders tend to give a scribble effect so perhaps try painting the card randomly with embossing ink, a Versamark re-inker would be good to paint onto the card or, a glue stick like Tombow clear glue stick is also possible if you are struggling without any ink.

There is no right or wrong way to do it so best to try it out and see which way suits you.  The main aim for this flowing type of encrusted jewel technique is that it should look random with a natural flow.

Once this had cooled down I added the embossed cut out peony.

As the dragonfly chippie is a shape, I inked it with Versamark ink before adding the enamels, glitters and glass.  Unfortunately the photos don't show how gorgeous the colours and textures are.

Chippies are available in many shapes HERE.  I'll be showing a lot more with these as they are great with the enamels

Here's a reminder of the shows we have for the rest of June and July where I'll be demonstrating these techniques.  Local people note the show in Leeds, I want to remind you as I know people who didn't know about the last show were disappointed to have missed it.

SUNDAY JUNE 24TH 2012

Rainton Meadows, Houghton-le-Spring, Sunderland, DH4 5PH (10am-3pm)
More Info: http://www.rosspapercraftshows.co.uk/

SUNDAY JULY 1ST 2012
Doncaster Rugby Club, Doncaster, DN2 5QB (10am-3pm)
More Info: http://www.rosspapercraftshows.co.uk/

SUNDAY JULY 22ND 2012
Leeds Grammar School, Leeds, LS17 8GS (10am-3pm)
More Info: http://www.rosspapercraftshows.co.uk

SUNDAY JULY 29TH 2012
Bonus Arena at KC Stadium, Hull, HU3 6JU (10am-3pm)
More Info: http://www.rosspapercraftshows.co.uk

Thanks for visiting

Jill x