Printable Stamps

I have just found out about a new company called Worldwide Printable stamps. They are a brand new printable stamp company, so you can download your images from the net. I ordered a set and they were with me in no time at all. The image I have used on this card is from a Bee my valentine set. But it's quite a versatile set and doesn't have to be used for just Valentine's cards.

Here's my card

I have cut out the image using a circle nestabilitie and layered it onto two scallops. I've coloured the image with promarkers. This image is only one out of the four images in the set. All the papers are from 3 Bugs in a rug - Rhapsody. On the ribbon I have tied a little silver butterfly charm that came off a pair of my daughter's old trousers!!! The bloom has a little silver spacer in the middle too. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. I stamped it straight onto the paper and then clear embossed it.

Friday Sketchers

Back to challenges now the holidays are over. And this one is for Friday Sketchers.

Kristine designed the sketch for this week and here it is

And here is my take on the sketch.

The images and sentiment are brand new stamps from Alota Stamps. The boy and his dog are from a set called Valentine's Cuties. They have been coloured in with promarkers. I cut the dog stamp out and used 3D pads to adhere him to the main image. All the papers, brads and tag are from a HOTP monthly kit. The eyelets and ribbon are from my stash.

Sale, sale ,sale!!!!!

Wow if you love those Alota bugs as much as I do you have got to go over to here

http://www.alotarubberstamps.com/ars/viewSalesGroup.asp?aid=68&bid=1961259217

Helene of Alota stamps is having a New Year Sale and has lots of gorgeous stamps on sale. Not just bugs (I'm biased) but girls, animals, sentiments even the unmounted sheet of robots is on sale.
How can you resist?

In Style Stamps - Method Monday

Every Monday on In Style Stamps there will be a tip, trick, tutorial or technique with a challenge from one of the DT members. This week it was the turn of the boss , Virginia. Virginia has shown a tutorial for a lidded box. All the details are here on the In Style blog. Great tutorial for an easy to make box. Must be if I can do it!!

Here is mine

This is the top of the box , the lid. For the actual box I used Bazill cardstock, it's a bit more robust than other cardstock and keeps it's shape, just right for a box. I have used Collage Press -Sugar Plum series paper and the main image is Suzie Q. I thought I'd use her so I can hide all my craft shopping receipts in the box!! She's been coloured with promarkers. To embellish the lid I used some ribbon and gems.

Here is the side view of the box. I used some of the same paper and a Martha Stewart punch to make the strip along the sides and then covered the top part with some of the same ribbon used on the lid.

Why not have a change from cards and have a go at this quick and simple box. I'd love to see lots of different boxes.

You can see the tutorial and all the details here

http://instylestamps.com/blog/?p=16

In Style Stamps - Thankful Thursday

Here' s a new one for you, every Thursday on In Style Stamps there will be a sketch challenge. Every Thursday one of the Design Team will create a sketch for you to follow. This week it was

Melissa's turn to create the sketch.

Now I do apologise I made a boo boo because one of the rules is that you must have the words "Thank you" on your card. Teach me for not reading things properly!! I do apologise.

You don't have to use an In Style stamp, but if you do have any that would be great! So all you have to do is make a card using the sketch, include the words "Thank you" and then leave a comment here on the In Style Stamps blog showing us a link to your card. One lucky winner will receive a prize of Making Memories Ribbon Charms.

Your creation must be posted by Sunday January 11th, 11.59 PM P.S.T.

Here is the sketch
And here is my card


I used a cream, blank, square card and covered it with the plainer paper from a Basic Grey Scarlett's Letter pad. I then cut out the semi circle in the red cs from the same pad and layered it with the more ornate paper. I did the same for the rectangle which the main image would sit on. I stamped Roxy from In Style stamps onto white card and coloured in her skin, hair and jewellery. I then paper pieced her clothes and shoes with the same Scarlett's Letter papers. I cut her out leaving a little white border and used 3D pads to adhere her to the rectangle. I punched a hole for the ribbon to thread throught and tied a knot into it. The sentiment is from a Stampin Up set called Riveting. I layered this onto circles of the dp.

It would be great if some UK crafters could join in with this one too as In Style Stamps are quite a new US company and are not known very well in the UK. But the stamps are well worth buying, really modern and great to colour. And I'll tell you a secret I've seen some of the new stamps and kits coming and you'll definately be wanting them!!!

Cute Card Thursday

This week's challenge for the Cute Card Thursday blog is

Use Something New

This week we would like to see you use something you got for Christmas on
your cards (if you didn't get anything suitable for Christmas then you can use
something that you bought yourself over the holidays)!

Well I had some new stamps sent to me by Helene from Alota Stamps just before Christmas and have only had the time to use them now. So here is my card

The papers are all from Sassafras and of course the image and sentiment are from Alota stamps. First of all I stamped the "Daddy and baby bug" image onto a nestabilitie circle and then coloured it in with promarkers. I then layered it onto another circle of DP. The birthday sentiment was stamped onto DP and then layered onto cardstock. I wanted to keep it simple for a man's card so I just added the buttons. I think this image would also be great for a Father's Day card too.

One lucky random winner will receive a Faith stamp from Debbie Moore of the Craft Pad.There are some fab cards from the DT again this week. Why not go over to the blog and join in with the challenge and get to use all your new stuff? All the details are here

http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/

Circles

Over on Paper Craft Planet , Susan has chosen a theme of circles for a challenge on the Alota group.

Here is my circle card

I've used October Afternoon papers and the sentiment is also from the same company. It is a rub on. The fabric covered buttons are from Basic Grey. The images are both from Alota stamps. The picture in the camera is called Jerry at work, I cut out part of the stamp as it is a big one and then used 3D pads to fix it to the lens of the Alota camera. He was coloured in with promarkers. The camera has been paper pieced using Basic Grey cardstock.

The challenge finishes on the 14th January and one lucky winner will win a whole sheet of Alota robot stamps here.

Tilda & Friends ATC Challenge

New Year and some new changes to the Tilda & Friend ATC Challenge blog. We have all decided that you can now use all different kinds of stamps and crafts on your ATC. Well as long as it remains cute that is! So as well as stamps you could use downloaded images, decoupage anything you like as long as it is cute and an ATC.

So this week's challenge is

New Stuff

an ideal opportunity to play with your crafty presents and try out
those new stamps, pens or papers.

So here is my ATC using a new House Mouse image that I recieved from a friend in the US.

I've used papers from a Papermania retro pad. The House Mouse image is called Monica Dozes. She's been coloured in with promarkers and layered onto the same paper. The sentiment is a rub on and the gems are from my stash.

We have a guest designer for January and that is Anesha.You can see her ATC along with the DT's ATCs here on the blog

http://tildaandfriends.blogspot.com/

Blog Background

Sorry but I'll be changing my blog background again later. I'm not too sure that it shows up the text so good and I've played about with different coloured text and it is still not very good.
I will get one I like eventually. :0)

Ok is this brown and pink one good?

For this week's challenge on the A Spoon Full Of Sugar blog Nikki created a sketch. Here it is

And here is my take on the sketch

The main image is an In Style stamp called Jasmine. So now you've seen all the girls from In Style. Still think Roxy is my fav. She's been coloured in with promarkers and stamped onto a nestabilite rectangle. The papers I will have to check out later to see if I can find the name of. The sentiment "New Baby" is a rub on. For the embellies I've used blooms, brads, ribbon and gems from my stash.

It really is a great sketch to work with, why not go over to the blog and have a look at the gorgeous cards the other DT members have made. This week we also have a guest designer Nina. Her colouring is superb.

The prize for one lucky random winner is 2 Alota bug stamps, one of which I have and the other I'd love to have!!!

You can find the details here

http://aspoonfullofsugarchallenge.blogspot.com/

OMG have you seen my temp gauge? -12!!! I've just got back from walking the kids to school. My legs are numb with cold. Same for the rest of the week too.

In Style Match Book

Still snowing here and lots on the ground, so much so that Rob couldn't get into camp so he's been home all day. Wonder if the kids will be able to start back to school tomorrow?

Anyway enough waffling , today I made this little matchbook. I was thinking that you could add a little sachet of bath salts for the inside.

So today's In Style girl is called Sheree. I've paper pieced her bath with the same paper I used for the covering of the matchbook. It's Papermania Retro. The other parts of the image have been coloured in with promarkers and the bubbles have been covered with stickles. I added some ribbon along the centre bottom and I had already punched it with a Martha Stewart border punch. Just some sparkly stick ons and a bloom, with a spacer (kindly given to me by Michelle :0) ) to finish.

Tomorrow I'll be showing you the last In Style girl.

Having fun in the snow.

I thought I'd show you how much Milly has grown she is now 9 months old and I wouldn't be without her. Such a good dog. These were taken this morning . We've had quite a bit of snow and it's still snowing.




And here are some photos that we've just taken in the back garden. Check out the big kids! One of the kids is missing , the 17 year old daughter is too mature to go outside with us!!! ;0)

Rob has put some video of us on my facebook too.

Meet another In Style stamp girl

Today is the turn of Pam from In Style Stamps. I made a "Flap fold card" for this one, directions are on the Scor-Pal site. (Sorry I still can't get a good photo).

I used Cosmo Cricket Fleuriste papers for this one to cover the front and flap. The scalloped circle is a coffee cup coaster, the paper kind. I stamped and cut out Pam and then coloured her in with promarkers and layered her onto a circle of the Fleuriste paper. The sentiment is from an American Art stamp set. To finish the card off I added the green ribbon and the amber gems.

I have two more In Style girls to show you, hopefully I'll have the time now to make something using them both.

I've just been for a sneaky cappuchino at McCafes. They are gorgeous but naughty calorie wise. Guess what my New Year's resolution is??? ;0). It's snowing here so I think one was in order to keep me warm. Don't you agree?

Something New

I came across these when I was browsing around Paper Craft Planet. They are called Scraplings. The ones I came across were tiny 1 1/4" x 4 1/4", I tried that but found them much too narrow so mine are 2 1/4" x 4 1/4". I don't think it matters what size they are just the object of it is to use up the narrow "waste" strips that you cut off from an A4 sheet when you make a square card and all those scraps of paper that are too gorgeous to throw away. So here are mine.

So for my first one I used a Martha Stewart punch to make a decorated bottom. The image is from Stamping Up- A tree for all seasons and the sentiment is a stamps away stamp. The papers are some left over bits from a monthly kit, as is the ribbon.

The second one I've used Forever Friends papers with a little bit of pink rik rak. The stamp is from Stamps Away too. I then added some little pink gems.

The third one's images are from a clear Hero Arts set and the sentiments are from the same set. Papers are just left overs from my stash.

All the images have been stamped onto Avery labels, mine were just the right size and then I rounded them off with my corner rounder punch.

I think these would make great little gift tags or maybe you could put them in with some stamped images that you send to people if you didn't have time to make a card?

I'm going to make a little pile of them to keep , in case I need something quick. It's a great way of using up all those little bits of paper that you don't want to throw away because they are so nice.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2009 is a good year for you. I know it will be for me, as I'm coming back to the UK!!