Blog Hop, Challenge, and Award Event for 2010!!

The Stamp Man Award for proudly presenting

my best craft project of the year 2010

With blog hop, challenge and prizes!

We are doing something a little different for Challenge # 13.  Last year we held our first awards event, the awards were for proudly presenting your best/favourite crafting project you feel you made during the year.   We are going to hold it again this year but we are also linking it with our fortnightly Challenge. 

We would like you to join in the challenge, which is to show us your best/favourite project of 2010.  The award blinkie is just a nice random award for anyone that joins in.  Display your award blinkie on your sidebar with a link back to this blog.

The most important part of this is that we would like you all to have fun and enjoy taking time to look back on your crafting over the last year. 

We are also holding another blog hop!  As you go through the blog hop you will see that the ladies on the design team have shared their favourite challenge projects with you too.  Their cards are shown below as usual but visiting their blogs will give more details about their projects, also they will be giving you clues for a chance to win prizes!

For the challenge and the blog hop, prizes will be randomly picked and given to those that have completed the following

• Join in the actual challenge with your best/favourite project linked with Inlinkz as usual
• Take your award blinkie with pride and display it on your sidebar with a link back to here.
• Follow your way around the blog hop in the order you are given along the way, collect all the letters/code you will find on each blog. Write these down then work out the answer when the blog hop is finished.
• Leave a comment on ALL of the blogs you visit in the blog hop 
• Post our event blinkie onto your blogs or a post about the event with your best/favourite project
• Email the answer to: thestampman@btconnect.com by 9pm (GMT) on Thursday 13th January 2011.  Please put blog hop answer as the email title

If you get carried away looking through the work on the blogs you visit and run out of time to complete the hop that day, make a note of where you stop and start again another day.  You have 2 weeks to complete the awards, challenge and the blog hop, so there is no rush to get to the end, enjoy the journey and admire the scenery along the way!

So, the blog hop starts here!

But first here are the prizes…

Cardmaker's Collection worth about £70, a general papercraft selection of stickers from 7 Gypsies, Doodlebug, rub ons, ribbon, and embellishments

Moonshadow Ink set of 6, with DVD.  Create background effects like those shown in the photo with instruction from the DVD, worth £35

Set of 4 Stazon Opaque ink pads, worth over £30.  The pads come with a reinker to ink up the pads.  The best use for this pad is for vellum and acetate as it is a permanent ink for both surfaces.

Set of 2 Non-Sequitur unmounted stamp sheets crammed with images, worth about £40.

Set of French Country Starburst Stains with an instruction DVD, worth £35.  I used this set to create this tab book

Now for my favourite project this year, Ian’s birthday card, I really enjoyed making it!  It is an 8" x 8" easel card, shown here closed.

I did write a very detailed technique tutorial for it if you are interested in reading all the details.  It’s spread over a few posts, here’s the intro, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and the finished card

Ok, so for the blog hop, your first letter is A

Don’t forget to leave a comment here and make a note of your first letter,

You now need to go to the challenge blog for your next letter and to enter your challenge project

Have fun hopping!!

I wish you a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year and thank you for visiting and leaving me comments this year

Jill

PS:  Unfortunately due to computer problems, Frankie is unable to join us, therefore you will be collecting 2 letters from Vix

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

Altered Challenge Blog Hop Winners!!

Did you enter our Altered Challenge blog hop?  If so, pop over to our challenge blog to see if you won a prize!!!

Our design team members that hosted the hop were each allocated a prize to give away on their blogs, the winner for this blog is...

Tracy Evans
AOD 62 Artistic Elements unmounted stamp sheet

The winners' list was announced last night and Tracy has already claimed her prize.  All the winners have until midnight next Monday to claim their prizes.

The winner of the prize draw for actually entering the Altered Challenge is Janet Wilson, who won £30 of Stamp Man Gift Vouchers.

Congratulations to all winners!!

Jill

Altered Challenge Blog Hop

Have you been taking part in our blog hop?  If so, you should have arrived here from Addicted to Stamping, if not, then please join us at the beginning of the hop HERE, you don't have to enter an altered item into the challenge to join in, anyone can take part.  You'll find all the info you'll need on the challenge blog to get hopping with us!

I painted my letter M with Lumiere Sorbet acrylic paints, when dry I painted a clear glitter glue all over with a brush.

I painted the swirl with white acrylic paint and used scrunched Starburst Stain paper to create the flowers. 

Well, this is the last blog on the hop, I hope you've enjoyed it, you've certainly seen lots of different styles and products used.  I think the DT did a great job with their letters.  How are you all getting on with your own altering for the challenge? 

The final prize for the blog hop is

Aspects of Design 62 Artistic Elements unmounted stamp sheet by Tracey Coates

Please leave me a comment for a chance to win this or the other prizes you have seen.

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Just to remind you, if you have now collected all the letters, left comments at every blog and worked out the anagram, please put a comment in the NEXT post this.  

PLEASE DON'T LEAVE THE ANSWER ON THIS POST!

Last chance to enter our blog hop today, there are 16 prizes to win, so get a move on!

Have you entered yet?  Please click HERE to find the blog hop details

You have until midnight tonight to hop along and get your answers in by email.  There are 16 prizes, so the odds are very good to win a prize!

The winners will be announced this week, so do call back to see if you have won, what you have won and to find out how to claim your prize!!!!

There is still time to enter the awards too, we'd love to see your best/favourite work of 2009, so click HERE for the award details.

Jill

UPDATE: The Stamp Man Blog Hop and Awards

Well, we've reached the middle of this event and I have to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone that has taken part so far, I'm personally overwhelmed at the effort you have all put into making this such a fun and inspirational time!

The ladies you visited on the blog hop happily took on my idea when they must have been frantically trying to organise their own Christmas arrangements. They humoured me, I'm sure, as it probably seemed a very confusing concept and quite a challenge when I first asked them to be part of it!! I'm very grateful to all of them, great job you lot:)

Plus, they also had to choose their best/favourite work of the year too when everyone else was wondering what else they needed to do for Christmas finishing touches! They are all true stars, as you've probably seen, they had lots of great work to choose from so not an easy decision. But they made it and it has been brilliant seeing their work again, I've hopped along it fully 3 times in the right order and been back to each one many times to read the comments you've left them!

We've had lots of international visitors too, fantastic!!

The Awards
Apart from the blog hop we had arranged, we have a whole new whopping great blog hop developing over on the awards post! Have you hopped around that one yet? If not, do so, it's brilliant!!

Thanks to you all it's actually become a much bigger blog hop than the one I first started. I'm sure it'll take you to all sorts of places for inspiration to get your 2010 crafting off to a brilliant start. There are so many new great blogs to visit, blogs to start following, challenges to take part in and new friends to be made. It's become an index of a whole new library of ideas. Fabulous... It's going to take me time, but I'm going to visit all the blogs of the people who left comments on the main blog hop eventually too, phew, almost 100 comments there now!

Do leave comments as you travel through the blogs you visit for the awards as I'm sure they will all be really appreciated and so encouraging. It will also enable people to visit you back sometime too!

Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to share your favourite work with us. Honestly, it has been amazing going down that list visiting your blogs!

So, thank you, thank you, thank you, it's been a fantastic, and it was great receiving all the lovely comments in your answer emails too:)

Some emails have been about the anagrams... I'll let you know the prize anagram answers when we've finished this. I do hope Brenda and her family and friends will eventually forgive me, they were hard, impossible for non crafters I'm sure!!! Way to go Brenda... keep them amused while you cook, tee hee! Have you revealed the answers yet or are they still working it out?

Please, if you haven't joined in yet, don't be shy, don't just lurk, join us and have some fun, leave comments, show and tell your favourite projects! No-one bites:)

Happy New Year!!

Jill

PS: In case any of you are wondering, so far, you've all got the blog hop answer right. Not one wrong answer!
 

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Please scroll down to the next posts for the blog hop and awards instructions

Happy Christmas Everyone!

Please...lovely snow, stop falling:)  It's not so nice anymore...

We've had quite enough snow now, these photos were taken on Tuesday after a bit of a thaw and we've now had so much more since then in our little village.   Flipping heck... Enough is enough I say!

Hamish has really enjoyed playing in it when it was this deep but since we've had even more, I think even he has had enough of it.

It's getting a bit deep for his little legs, and springing about in it for too long seems to be hard work for him now.

I was playing chase the snowballs with him, when we came in I realised he had brought some snowballs in with him, they had got so caught in his fur I couldn't remove them.  How did he pick that lot up?

I thought it was a matter of waiting for them to melt, but...

He decided to eat them off... what a mess!

I hope you have all managed to finish all your shopping, and are over the worst of the prep so you that can enjoy the next few days.  If you are travelling visiting family I hope you have a safe journey.

We finally managed to get our food shopping done yesterday, as it snowed heavily again on Tuesday night, I thought we may be eating whatever we could find in the freezer over Christmas, but by lunchtime the road was a little better after having the sun on it.  It was actually a lovely winter's day, but not nice to have to drive on the roads as they are. 

I did forget tin foil and icing sugar.  I'm sure we really can manage without both.  I picked up a tip about grinding caster or granulated sugar into a powder to make icing sugar so as the weather is horrid again today, I'm sure I'll still be able to make the brandy butter and dust the mince pies:)  There's probably a lot worse that I've forgotten.

Another top tip, don't live in a village that doesn't have a corner shop!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, thank you for all your great comments and support for our blog since I started it this year, it's become another wonderful hobby, and it has been lovely meeting and getting to know new people through it.

I also hope you will join us here for our blog hop and awards that starts on Sunday.  We will be starting at 11am, bring a mince pie and something warming to drink with you and join in for as long as you like. 

It will be lasting a week, there are 16 brilliant prizes to win too, so do pop in whenever you can, do the blog hop and also take part in the awards.  Don't be shy, it'll be great if you introduce yourself so we can get to know you too, especially with the awards!

Jill

PS:  I will be back later with a short post to announce the winner's of the blog candy giveaway no.3!

Tuesday Taggers Blog Hop here today & tomorrow!

Good morning and welcome to all the Tuesday Tagger blog hoppers!

I mentioned in yesterday's post about the prizes we are sponsoring, so scroll down if you missed that info yesterday.  Basically Tracey, Debbie and I are each sponsoring one of Tracey's recent unmounted stamp sheets each.  My sheet is the Classical Instruments from which the above card has been made.  I'll give more details about it after the blog hop info.

If you would like to join in the Blog Hop, then you will need to go to the Tuesday Taggers Blog which is your starting point.  You will find the instructions there.

For those that have already started, well done on getting this far.   I'm going to hop along too just for the fun of it and I'm sure I will be tagging along at the end as I'm sure to get sidetracked reading everyone's blogs along the way!

Just to check you are hopping in the right direction, you should have arrived here from Avril's Blog, if you have missed any of the hops you may want to go back to the beginning and check through from the Tuesday Taggers blog which is the starting point.

The letter you need from me is an O!  Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a prize!

Your next visit should now be to Janet's Blog.

Thank you for joining in and I hope you have enjoyed your journey so far!

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OK, back to the card...

The next couple of pictures shown the fold for the easel card, it is so simple to do.  You can use any shape or size card, I've used a 4" square card (that was already folded in half).  Now fold the front of the card in half so that the mountain fold is at the front.

This is how the fold should be made. 

You will need to cut a separate piece of card that is the same size as the folded card, I used a 4" square piece cut from a sheet of Starburst Stain/cling film technique.

Here's the same technique but in a different colour.  Both are from the French Country set.  Amaryllis Burgundy and Jack in the Pulpit Teal.

You can decorate as much of the card as you like, I did the back top panel and half of the bottom base with the same stain card but left the inside triangle part blank. 

I embossed the trumpet and all the wording with gold embossing powder.  I then layered them onto gold mirri card. 

I added double-sided tape to the back of mirri card then cut thin strips for borders (they aren't peel offs), so it would all match, I also added gold brads.  Here is a side view of the finished card.

I used wording on the bottom piece, lifted with foam pads, to hold the front panel in place.

To close the card to put in an envelope, lift the front panel and it will lay down to form the original 4" square card.

Thanks for visiting,

Jill

Blog Hop here on Sunday, do join in for prizes!!

Something really different to share today... about something happening here tomorrow!!

We are sponsoring some prizes for the Tuesday Taggers Blog Hop tomorrow, which is a celebration event for St. Nicholas day.

So, settle down in front of your computer with maybe your first mince pie of the season and get visiting some blogs that you perhaps haven't visited before.  I'm sure you'll find lots of interesting stuff on the blogs as you follow them through on your guided tour!

Just brief details today, you will find out more tomorrow as you follow along with the actual hop!

Tracey, Debbie and I are sponsoring prizes from Tracey's recent unmounted stamp collection, here's a sneak peek of our prizes. 

Debbie is giving away a sheet of Starburst Fairies

Tracey is giving away a sheet of Butterfly Beauties

and I am giving away a sheet of Classical Instruments

There are other prizes to be won too, that you will find out about along the way if you take part in the blog hop! 

You will need to start at the beginning, we'll all be posting about your start point tomorrow (the first blog to go to) and from there you will find out which blog to hop to next, and so on... 

Follow the instructions and visit all the blogs in the correct order.

On each of the blogs you visit, you will find a clue, collect the clues, put them all together and at the end of your blog hop you'll have an answer! 

We will be giving details of where you need to contact at the end to enter your answer into the competition for a chance to win a prize.

We will all be posting a card that features the prize we are sponsoring, mine will be with the Classical Instruments stamp sheet from last Saturday's Create and Craft telly show.

I hope you won't be shy and will join in, it should be fun along the way!

So, see you tomorrow as you hop by...

Jill