Colour me Quick!

I was so excited as the new distress inkpad colours arrived this week, and of course I had to try them all! So I got out my little chipboard tags and started using them right away.. here are the results

I then used one of Tim's new stamps to stamp on top in the same colour.. see how organised I am ..lol

Favourite colour? I love them all, but Barn Door, because red is my favourite colour closely followed by the blues.... They are now on sale in the shop, and we will have them at Stamperama, which is where we are tomorrow. We even have a make and take with Hels . where you can get inky with the new inks and get hot under the collar too!

Come by and say hello if you are there....

Have a great weekend!

So little time....

Over on Gothic Arches, this week's theme is steampunk. I have had so little time to create this week, that my early morning forays have been blog hopping and doing emails before starting my "proper job"! lol. But I thought I would love to do this, so gathered a very random set of stamps, including one of the new Tim Holtz's ( don't tell Mal , cos they are really for sale in the shop, and he will kill me for taking stock! ) . The clock and bicycle came from Purely Random, and the cogs are PaperArtsy. I have to say when I started this I wasn't going to use the bicycle, but it all came together by accident. Is this steampunk I ask myself? The other bits are idea-ology., and a couple of new bits from Vintaj, which wil be available soon. I made the background by spraying colour sprays from Crafty Notions, and then while wet putting a bit of bubble wrap on it, and allowing it to dry. I am so wanting to create, but time is limited this week :(

We will be at Stamperama this coming Sunday, so if you are thinking of coming , do drop by and say hello...I will be the one getting hot with a meltpot, and Mal will be the one with shiny shoes!lol
Have a great day!

To alter or not to alter, that is the question?

On Sunday I got a belated birthday present from Hels, and I was so chuffed with what she got me that I just had to share! The begging question is do I alter it or not? It is already distressed, or what they call in the business shabby chic...but I just love it as it is , but I feel alcohol inks coming on... would you or wouldn't you?
Thak you Hels for the bestest pressie.. now I have to find a bit of wall space to hang it on!

Don't forget the post below to be in with a chance to win a £10 voucher to spend in the shop!

Birmingham Trade show, and 400 followers!

Yesterday was brilliant day. I travelled up to Birmingham to the annual UK Craft trade show , and met up with Hels to go and view and buy some of the new products that will be coming out from UK , European and US companies, and to generally meet and greet! lol. We certainly bumped into a few people, Suze Weinberg, Tim Holtz, Claudine Hellmuth, Lin Brown from LB Crafts, Leandra from PaperArtsy, Wendy from The Stamp Attic, and of course Linda E , who was smitten with Mr Holtz..lol
We had a very tiring but successful day, and I think I wore Hels out dragging her up and down aisles! I know my feet hurt!
I have ordered lots of new goodies for you, and one of them arrived today! We now have Tim's stamps online for you to buy. I didn't take my camera, too much to carry, but my blackberry served a purpose , and here is the only photo I took of me Hels and Wendy resting in between shopping!

Oops looks like my top fell down, but actually that is a top underneath my jumper!!

I was so amazed when I came home last night to find that I had got 400 followers  on my blog,  so I immediately though BLOG CANDY!
 I shall randomly choose a person from either the comments left on this post or one of the followers , and they can win a £10.00 voucher to spend in the shop! If you are not a follower , then please add yourself, and I would love to reach 450 followers...hehehe ( ok I am asking a lot, I know!)
 I will choose the winner next week on Monday, after we have been to Stamperama!
Have a great evening and good luck in the draw.

Somewhere over the Rainbow...

This week, a gorgeous surprise came to me in the form of some wonderful coloured utee , namely from Crafty Notions. These gorgeous coloured utees are being released today at the Birmingham Trade show, Stitches, and I am the proud owner of a set of them! I did a little sampler of some of the colours , and am in love with the blue, oh and the pink, and the yellow....lol
I just triple embossed very thick card with the powders, and then just stamped directly into the melted utee, with no release agent with the new Karantha stamps.

I will definitely be having some of these in the shop as soon as they are ready to ship.
Have a great Sunday!

Timed Out-updated!

This is a rather appropriate title as The Artistic Stamper website has some server issues at the moment, and consequently may be rather slow to load, but never fear we have a back up site at http://www.theartisticstamper.co.uk/, but if you buy you need to use the back arrow rather than the continue shopping button! All the new distress inkpads are on their way to me and will be here next week, so you can pre-order those too! For Tim Holtz idea-ology I have put the link pages on the sidebar as the main page to these didn't load properly...grrr. Hopefully all will be fixed later today! It is now fixed! YAH! And as a special, Sarah Lawrence of Karantha fame has let me pre-release her new stamps a day early, and boy are they gorgeous! Check them out here.
I had hoped this week would be gentle with me , but it has gone by in a flash, but I did get some artwork done, and over on Gingersnaps, they let me do a post..( did they know what they were in for , I wonder! lol) . This is the piece I did for them, so go check out how I did it.

Have a great weekend and I will be back tomorrow with something new and stunning! hehe just to keep you guessing....lol

Honey, honey....

Several people have commented that they were curious about a "sequin" style solid piece that I have shown on my blog a couple of times in the last week, and so I thought I would show you exactly what it is! . It is actually a piece of utee moulded from a honeycomb mould that I first saw Suze using in the States. All you do is melt utee in your meltpot, and pour generously into the mould!

I actually made this piece by using a memory frame laid on top of the mould and pouring red utee mixed with perfect Pearls on to the Frame.. This gives it its gold sheen.

The back is just as beautiful as the front too!

I added a red metal bead and a little dangly thing from an old bracelet. I added a pin to the back for use as a brooch.
Happy Creating!

WOYWW

Oooh this is my second post of the day, but I have been very lax in showing my workdesk on a Wednesday, but never fear as this was my desk this morning! As you can see, I use the push back and pile it up method of storage! There is an unopened bottle of Claudine's Extra Time just waiting for me to get my grubby paws in it, and a piece of artwork not yet shown which involves the lace square and alcohol inks and glue....

Thank you to Julia once again for the opportunity! lol

Alcohol Ink class and a little hiccup...hic!!

Last Saturday I taught a really great group of ladies, and we had such messy creative fun, getting very inky and creating! We did lots of techniques and played with all the alcohol inks from Ranger, and some of The Artistic Stamper stamps. Thank you to Kate from Pickleberry for letting me wreck her tables! lol Ink did kind of splatter all over them!
Here are the girls with their messy hands: in no particular order, Sam Lauren, Sarah, Amanada, Kris, Sarah and Rosemary. Thank you for letting me teach you.. it was fun!

While I was researching and prepping this workshop, I came across a new technique to me using glue with alcohol inks from Kat Toys, called drunken scotch technique.
Here Kat used clear glue and dropped alcohol inks in it, and then heated it to create an  antique rusty look. I am always cautious when heating glues, and especially ones with alcohol inks in them! One pouf and you never know!! and the smell can sometimes be horrific. However, I thought about it, and decided to use PVA glue. I spread it across the card with a craft scraper, and before it was dry dropped into it, single drops of alcohol ink. They spread naturally across the glue creating puddles.  Allow it to dry naturally. I did try it with Glossy Accents too, and it had the same effect but a little shinier. This is the result.

 I then stamped over it with a Gibson Girl.

Thank you Kat for showing the technique. I hav lots more ideas for it! If you have alcohol inks, and PVA go try it you will be amazed!
Have a very creative day!

One World, One Heart Winners!

I have used Random .org to pull the winners from my wonderful list of comments. Thank you so much for commenting and I hope to see you again soon:)
The winner of the book is CATHY
The winner of the lizard tin is GINI
and the winner of the canvas is MAGIC MOONLIGHT

Congratulations to you all, and please email me your snail mail address so I can post your gifts to to you.
Looking forward to next year's OWOH.
Hugs
 

One World, One Heart- comments now closed

It is that time again! I cannot believe how quickly the last year has gone by! But it is ONE WORLD ONE HEART time again! I took part in this amazing blog hop/giveaway last year and there were 911 participants from all over the world.

Lisa does an amazing job with this just co-ordinating everyone and adding them to a list. I am proud to take part. I have several things to give away, including a copy of my book which I wrote in 1996! eek that long ago! So to WIN one of these goodies, all you have to do is post a comment on this post which will stay at the top of the blog till the end date of February 15th. The more comments I get the more goodies I shall add to this magic carpet ride!

Pop over to One World One Heart to see all the magic carpet riders, and have the best fun visiting everyone's homes!

Good luck in the draw!

Happy Creating!

One Stop Craft Challenge

A Very Happy Love day to you, and after yesterday's exhausting and very full workshop, I have managed to find time today to make a little card for the One Stop Craft Challenge, which we are sponsoring this week. This is a chance for you to get out your cardmaking kit and get creating! I made a card using a little piece I made yesterday with one of the Gibson girls on alcohol inked card, distress inks, and the new lacy stamp. The FREE postage still applies today, so if you are thinking of browing , it is certainly worth it!This piece also qualifies for Hels Sunday Stamper..coo I am getting a lot in one blog post!

Don't forget the blog hop, below, and the final day for enetering my mega giveaway with One World, One Heart, which has over a 1000 blog hops!
Tomorrow I will be back with inky fingers from the workshop , and a new technique for you too! will also explain the love tin on the post below too...
I am having a fabulous meal cooked by the packing pixie, so hope that you have a great evening, and if you were lucky enough to get chocolates or roses..enjoy, and if not, a big hug to you!

Gingersnap Creations’ Valentine Blog Hop and Hop Stop # 9

Welcome to the Gingersnap Creations’ Valentine Blog Hop and Hop Stop #9
If you’ve already been hopping then hopefully you have just come from Shar at Ill Tempered Ink. If you are starting here, welcome! It's a loop so you can start anywhere along the way!
At each stop, you need to collect a word! There are 9 stops in all starting and ending with the Gingersnap Creations blog where you can get all the specific information and get a peak at the the goodies in the Valentine Giveaway including some treats from The Artistic Stamper.
When you get all your words, 9 in all, unscramble them to form a quotation about love.

Once you have your guess at the quote, email it and your name to gingersnapstamp@gmail.com by February 20, 2010. We will be picking one lucky winner at random from the correct entries to win the Valentine Giveaway package!
If you visit all the stops, you should end up right back at Gingersnap Creations with 9 words! Unscramble the words to come up with a love quote and email it on to gingersnapstamp@gmail.com. That's all there is to it!
Don't forget to leave me a message , so I know you have been here..lol, and over on The Artistic Stamper , we have FREE postage this weekend to celebrate too!
If you get lost along the way, you can see the entire route at Gingersnap Creations.
My word is "the".

Your next stop on the hop is Gingersnap Creations. Have fun and good luck!

A little interlude..

Where has this week gone? I blinked and it is Friday! Can anyone explain to me the vagaries of missing days? lol I guess I have just been busy making stamps, and filling orders, and prepping workshops! I only blinked...doh! I have been so busy, that no artwork has been made, and I feel bereft of creativity, but never mind, here is a piece that I made at CHA on the 7 Gypsies booth. It was such fun making this piece and this is where I met Gerrie, who I just love and who is so full of life! Check out her version of a Mabel stamp.

and then we stopped by Crafty Chicas stand, and played with feathers and glitter and got thoroughly messy! This was a fun piece!

This weekend I have lots going on, as there is a brilliant blog hop tomorrow, and a new challenge too! oh, and my workshop which I will try to remember to take photos of ...just have to tell the brain cells to take the camera! Oh and there is  free postage too on the website this weekend WORLDWIDE! Did I tell you about the new stamps? Lace! Yummy, check them out here!
Don't forget to pop back on here tomorrow afternoon after 3pm!
See you then
Hugs

Alcohol ink workshop

A very quick post tonight to say there is one space left on my workshop this Saturday learning all about alcohol inks at Pickleberry Papercrafts in Faversham Kent , just off the M2. Here is one of the pieces you will get to make while having fun and picking my brain! ( do I have one? lol) I made this metal piece with alcohol inks using one of the new Ten Seconds Studio moulds which will available from me at the very beginning of March.

Have a fun filled evening!
 

Life through Rose "Coloured" Spectacles!

Over on Hels blog, the Sunday Stamper challenge is The Rose. I have been wanting to do this technique for a while.. so thought I would use it to make an unusual project today. I "borrowed" my son's 3D glasses he bought while seeing a film, used a book of rose pictures from a secondhand bookshop, and set about making my "rose" coloured glasses.
Over on Claudine's blog she showed a technique using the sticky backed canvas as a transfer technique. I used a scanned in version of two of the pictures from the book, and carefully cut them out to cover the lenses. I painted the glasses with Crimson Precious metal paint, and let them dry. I then added the " rose lenses" and added a bit of Prima bling to the corners.

Life is always so much better through rose coloured spectacles!
Thank you for the challenge, Hels :), and hope you like my different take today.
Hugs

New Idea-ology and Wendy Vecchi

I was very lucky when I was at CHA to get a chance to have a little play with the new Idea-ology on the Advantus booth. We made a fabulous necklace usng the Ornate Frames, and the link Chain, and one of the new keyholes, and the bird charm which I just love! All due in soon to shop!

I also watched Wendy Vecchi demonstrating dye inks, Pigment inks, and perfect pearls, and she very kindly gave me a tag to bring home to show you.

Don't forget to add your comment to my One World , One Heart blog post to be in with a chance to win one of my goodies. The more posts I get the more I will add.
Happy Creating!