Craft Stamper...just a bit excited!

Hi everyone, just a quick post to share some exciting news....well for me anyway! If you follow the link here to the Craft Stamper blog you'll see some sneaky peeks of April's Craft Stamper issue which comes out this Friday...and one of the peeks is a project of mine!!

I've been sitting on this news for ages and I still can't quite believe it.....I have bruises from pinching myself to prove it! Towards the end of last year I had an email from the oh so talented editor Trish Latimer which resulted in some undignified jumping around in the street (I was on my way to a meeting when I opened the email!).

I'm thrilled to have been asked on board and definitely looking forward to this journey. Thanks again to Trish and as always, thanks for stopping by. Ruth x 

Multicoloured stamping for Craft Stamper

Hi everyone, so pleased to be sharing my GDT project for this months Take It Make It Challenge over at Craft Stamper. This was part of my prize for winning the August challenge ....with 'Mr Rusty' as he is now known. This months technique is muticoloured stamping, which could be inks, pens or in this case....paints!

A floral heart, inspired by those glorious showy blooms that you get right at the end of summer going into Autumn.....and it's definitely Autumn now! A few weeks ago I saw some beautiful dahlias which were such a bright red with a lovely yellow centre and decided I'd use the Lin Brown eclectica ELB01 set ( a favourite) to create this piece.

The text is stamped onto tissue paper and comes from another Lin Brown set - ELB05. I started off with the middle sized heart from a set of 3 Indigoblu MDF hearts.

I used fresco finish paints throughout with a coat of Nougat to start. I was at the HSNW show at Port Sunlight this weekend and 'stalked' Leandra from PaperArtsy demoing a brayering with paint technique....I was just fascinated that's all. I used a mini brayer and just kept building up layers of colour, then added in the leaf stamp in 2 colours (guacamole and hey pesto) some more brayering and then white stamping (snowflake) using Sara Naumanns eclectica ESN10 text stamp.

The flowers were stamped onto off white card and I used a piece of cut and dry foam to apply the paint. Working from the inside to the outside I used yellow submarine, london bus and a touch of french roast. I tried a few other combinations but this was the most dramatic. 'Fussy' cut out and then layered onto the heart with one layered up in the middle. The thong was stained with potting soil archival, which I also used on the side....and of course a little spanish topaz treasure gold on the edge.

To see some more fabulous inspiration hop over to the Craft Stamper blog now. As always thanks for stopping by and huge thanks for all the lovely comments you leave....they make my day!

Emboss Resist for Craft Stamper

I am delighted to be sharing this with you, it's my GDT slot for this months Take It make It challenge over at Craft Stamper. The slot is part of my prize from being lucky enough to be chosen as a winner for 'Pink Gingko' , then the technique revolved around potato printing. This month it's all about 'Emboss Resist'.

I started with a 8x8 canvas board and stamped some little patches of text in versafine spanish moss. I then stamped and clear embossed a mixture of flourishes and text stamps. The flourish stamps are La Blanche and Crafty Individuals.

Then Distress Inks, well I used several and they included peeled paint, bundled sage, broken china, salty ocean, chipped sapphire and dusty concord but I'm sure I used a few others as well. Then some spritz and flick with water.

Hopefully you can see the versafine text underneath the emboss resist.

Now for the flowers, I used the TH tattered florals die and cut them out of cotton paper, as it was a special project. It holds the shape beautifully and has a texture which works so well with the canvas background. I used the same technique on the flowers. The leaves are die cut using TH garden greens die.

The sentiment is from a Lin Browns Eclectica set. This part was a happy accident, I'd used the same emboss resist technique but there was far to much ink on the cotton paper so I thought I would try washing it off (like you do!) the top layer of paper around the edges of the text just gently rubbed off leaving a lovely distressed look....and I did it twice so I knew it wasn't a fluke.

I added a little bird and flower.....and to finish, yes just a smidgen (good word) of  treasure gold. Please hop across here to see some wonderful inspiration from the design team. I do hope you'll be inspired to create something as there's a fabulous prize of WOW embossing powders to be won. Thanks for stopping by.

Pink Gingko

Firstly, can I just say a big thank you for all the lovely comments left on my blog recently, I've been quite astounded, what a lovely bunch of creative people you are out there.

Anyway without further ado Pink Gingko....

Craft Stampers 'Take it Make it' challenge this month is to include potato printing! I don't have any lino cutting tools so after a bit of a think I dug out some Gingko leaf cutters I had from when I made sugar flowers (another occasional creative life). I thought they would work for petals of a flower. Worked really well placing the cutter in the potato and then cutting away the outside.

I'd originally thought of California poppies in red and orange but the paint I used didn't work for me so after a few attempts, I ended up using some Luminarte acrylic silk glaze in 'Love Struck' and Ginger flower' (it has a lovely shimmer). As you can see the the potato started to dry out and crack which I then enhanced to look like veins in the petal.

I stamped the large paler petals first, then masked them off whilst I used the sequin waste stamp from The Artistic Stamper as a background. I've used antique linen DI and before stamping just softened the edges of the impression. I then added the remaining flowers, once dry I drew in the stems and veins in black and added a few gold veins to the larger flowers. The background is DI with a little old paper and tiny bit of walnut stain around the edge and some water spritzing. 

The sentiment is from a much used and loved Lin brown set and I felt the font lent itself to placing centrally at the base in the style of old prints of flowers with the botanical name at the bottom. The shimmery colour doesn't quite show up but hopefully you can see the texture. I did enjoy doing this though potatoes can be a bit difficult to hold properly for stamping! 

I am also entering this in the Artistic Stamper creative team blog challenge  'In the Garden'  and Country View crafts challenge 'Natures Glories'. Thanks so much for visiting. 

Mono printing

Quick 2nd post, I am entering this in the Craft Stamper Take It Make It challenge for March.

A bit different for me in colours and style, mine is very much inspired by Trish Latimers example. Whilst I wasn't trying to copy the original I just found the background lent itself to that design. I used background stamps and the hearts are stamped with Hero Arts text stamp, freehand cut out and scribbles with a posca pen. 

Do like the texture of the paint, yummy.