New Blockheads Rubber Stamps - Steampunk Wooden Arch By Carol Fox

A lovely new range of stamps are now being stocked in the shop. They are by Blockheads Paper Arts. I have loved this range for ages and I am so pleased that I now have a UK stockist for them.
I have used one of my favourite sets on this Double wooden arch. It is called Vintage Railroad.
I gave the arch a quick coat of in cream acrylic paint, followed by a quick swipe over with some Claudine Hellmuth Sable Brown applied with a baby wipe so it distressed rather than painted on.
I applied the same brown paint through a Crafters Workshop screen for the background.

All images were stamped using archival ink, then coloured in using very thin water colours, for a faded look, I decided they were still to bright so I went over them all using Vintage photo distress ink to tone them down. I then stuck them all in place using Multi medium.

I stamped the "all Aboard" directly onto the arch and embossed it in black to make it stand out a little bit.
I then embellished it with a combination of old rusty bits and newer ideology items that I have aged using inks and paints.

The current challenge is April showers, use a water technique or a water theme for your project. For the full details and how to enter have a look at the blog post here.

Celestial Waters by Samantha Read

It's great fun finding different ways to use water particularly with distress inks as they react so well to water.

To make the background for this card I simply covered the card with broken china distress ink and then put a little water on Jo's star stamp, and stamped. I applied the water to stamp with my finger as I discovered too much water on your stamps and the image isn't clear. I found the best way to get a good water stamped image was to press firmly but not for long and then dry promptly with a heat gun before the image got too watered down. It's really worth practising this technique as the effect is never the same twice.

The Lily and Zoe stamp from Paperbag Studios is quickly becoming one of my favourites, so colouring them in contrasting colours and a bit of textured matting and layering brings this card to life. I do so hope you like it.

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

I used: 

Lily and Zoe, Paperbag Studios

Small Moon, Stampotique 

Jo's Star, Stampotique and

Broken China Distress Inkpad

A Shore thing.... by Julie Dandy

Moira has just got these fabby frames in this week and I <3 them :D

I altered mine with TH distress stains and crackle paint and a bit of bling with distress stickles.

The images are Artistic Outpost Beyond the Sea which were perfect for this months water themed challenge :D

The images were stamped on to Claudine hellmuths sticky backed canvas with archival ink and coloured with distress inkpads.
The TH muse token was coloured with stream and snow cap alcohol ink to give a patina effect.

 Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

New Craft Stamper Magazine Available from the shop

Just to let you all know that the May edition of Craft Stamper is now available to buy from the shop. It has the free postage option if you are making other purchases, or there is a small P & P charge if you just want the magazine.
This months mag has some lovely items from the Happy Daze Design team featured in it.
Paula Tidman has a lovely Jewellery box, Helen Chilton shows you how to do image transfer using Gesso and Carol Fox has altered some childrens puzzle blocks, these are available from the shop which are just the right size for this project.

Sisters by Moira Sutton

It is my husbands Aunts birthday shortly, one of thise big ones with 0s at the end,  I had this fab photo of her with her sister, my husband's mum, as little girls  and I wanted to make a lay out for her as a gift , but I also wanted her to be able to hang it on the wall.  So I used our new 30 x 30 cm canvases as the base and then built it up as normal but using gel medium to make sure it stuck and was sealed.

March Challenge Winner

Bit late posting this sorry!. The Random number wotsit has drawn number 4 and the lucky winner is Asia King. Have a look at her lovely card on her blog here.
If you would like to email Moira at the shop Joanna she will arrange your gift voucher to be sent to you. Hope to see you again this month.

The full details of the challenge for this month can be seen on the post here.

April Challenge - April Showers

The challenge theme for this month is April Showers. Use anything watery on your project, a water technique as Paula has here, or anything water themed, think mermaids and seaside. Your water technique can be as simple as water colour paints or pencils or using some of the lovely ink sprays available from the shop. Let your imagination run wild.
Just remember to be eligible for entry into the prize draw you must use at least one item that is available from the shop and link to this post on your blog.
To get you in the mood this month Paula has made this gorgeous Steampunk canvas.

Paula Say's about her canvas.

I have to admit I’m not really one for techniques, so you could keep it simple like me. Or you can really let your imagination go wild and show us your different skills and methods.

For this steampunk canvas  I  used a variety of  stencils to build up layers and washes of paint to create the background,  and I used water colour paints on my stamped image.

I used an old book page and gave it a light wash of gesso then I used the Lost Coast Designs Balloon Guys stamp as my focal image. I coloured with a combination of watercolour paints and distress inks and rubbed on Inkagold around the edges.

The two embossed panels are made using ten seconds studio metal in slate, humungo tape, card, this was run through my big shot using an embossing folder. I distressed the panels with sandpaper and sponged on different acrylic paints in black, red and orange until I achieved the desired effect and then rubbed on Inka gold.

I used black stazon to stamp an image onto an optical lense then applied gilding flakes to the back. I used a metal corner,a Tim Holtz hitch fastener , sprocketgears, game spinners and time pieces to finish my canvas.

You can enter the challenge by uploading using the linky Widget below, if you dont have a blog you can enter via the Facebook page or by emailing your entry directly to me a waynemonster@gmail.com.

The challnge will close on the 30th April and the winner of the £15.00 voucher drawn by random number will be announced on the 2nd May. Just remember to be eligible for the prize draw you must use one item that is available to purchase from the shop. You can enter the challenge up to 3 times.