Onto our next Project (written by Judith)

The Summer is coming to an end, and the Autumn is starting to make its presence felt with the reds and browns appearing on the trees. We get a spell of lovely warm weather, and then the blustery winds appear, making us want to wrap up inside, and keep warm. This is ideal crafting weather, don't you think?
We have had a very busy few weeks, what with holidays, and other commitments, and although we have still managed to fit some crafting time in here and there, we have not been able to keep up with our deadlines on here unfortunately. Our next project is from August's Craft Stamper magazine, based on Isabelle Norris' project 'Seaside Memories' on page 26. This was my choice, as I love the idea of combining stamping, pictures and pieces of memorabilia all in one piece. Isabelle's design is lovely in washed blues, but where we all head? Who knows, with our track record! Will we stay small, or go large? You will have to wait and see. Some of us are well on the way with these projects, and some of us are not so well advanced... hopefully, we'll show you some sneak peeks as per usual, and keep you posted with our progress.
We'll be skipping past September's Craft Stamper magazine in an attempt to get caught up, and next month, we'll choose from October's projects, to bring ourselves back up to date.
Keep popping back for those little snippets, and we'll see you soon, Judith xx

Courtesy of Morticia's Wardrobe? (posted by Jo)

This project was a long time coming for a number of reasons. I haven't been around much over the summer to do any crafting and when I have, it seemed I didn't have all the materials I wanted for my canvas. My plan changed several times and I only knew what colours I was going to use when I finally had a brush in my hand.

The canvas itself was coloured with Aqua and Cool Peri Adirondack Dabbers. I applied the first layer with a baby wipe and then added extra texture and depth of colour with a natural sponge. Over the top I used a Tim Holtz Cobweb mask, sponged through with Dusty Concord Distress ink.

The Grungepaper squares gave me some problems. I was in two minds as to whether to go for a lighter or darker contrast with the canvas. But the first of my elements looked lost on the lighter colour background so I went with Dusty Concord. I was disappointed at first with the colour and considered using a white card with the ink or embossing a ready coloured card. But I did like the velvet texture of the Grungepaper and wanted to keep the textile feel to the squares. In the nick of time I remembered inking Grungepaper roses at Linda Elbourne's workshop at LB Crafts. She told us we needed to really work the ink into the surface and we certainly hammered the Cut n Dry foam getting our flowers coloured that day. So I tried again with the Dusty Concord on my squares and got a much more vivid colour. I embossed with a Jamara Cuttlebug folder but the embossing didn't show too well so I went back and picked out the raised surface with Black Soot and got an effect I was really pleased with. The word 'goth' wasn't in my head until I read the comments on my sneak peek but the black and purple velvet/flock effect is straight out of Morticia's wardrobe.

To colour the tag on which the images were stamped, I used Tumbled Glass, Dusty Concord and a little Faded Jeans. I dabbed these onto my craft mat, spritzed with water and dipped in the tag. Over this background I used a Tattered Angels Ironworks masks. It is a fantastic iron gate. I picked out the shape in more Dusty Concord then stamped over the top. The stamps I used are mostly Inkadinkado but the 'Trick or Treat' and 'Shadows' text is from a new Halloween plate by Elusive Images.  

I didn't have the Tim Holtz Fragments that Linda used on her tag in the original project but I got by using three Creative Acrylics pieces and a few round and square acrylic 'pebbles' which I've had for a while.

I added into the mix a variety of Grungeboard minis which were painted with a Silver Dabber and immediately embossed with silver embossing powder. This gave the paint a lovely bubbled effect and even the tiny pieces look quite gnarly. I also used a couple of pieces painted with Aqua Dabber. I tried quite hard to repeat motifs across the canvas to pull everything together. A chipboard arrow echoes the spikes on Crow Gate and a tiny star flourish in a square pebble (sorry, lost in the glare on the main photo below) echoes the silver chipboard stars. Can you spot the others?

Sadly, I wasn't able to make the word 'Boo' with the type charms because there is only one 'o' in a set. So I computer generated my own letters.

I really enjoyed this project once I finally got to grips with it. I love the way I was able to use so many different elements and techniques. I know it is very different from Linda's canvas in the magazine but I feel I have put my own twist on the piece and was glad I was able to use what I had learned from her to get Grungepaper squares I was happy with. Thanks, Linda, for continuing to inspire us!

PS Sorry for the picture quality. I waited for daylight but it has been murky again today so no chance to improve on the photos I took in artificial light last night.

Don't give up on me just yet! (posted by Jo)

You might be forgiven for thinking I was a figment of your imagination and that this was really Craft Stamping Trio! But I am still here. I've just spent a lot of time gadding about over the summer and consequently I have got behind with our projects here. But after seeing the girls produce such gorgeous tag canvases I thought it was time I started getting mine together. I've made some headway today and hope to have my piece finished in time for a dash to the deadline with Judith's choice of project from the next issue.

 Here is a little taster of things to come.

My red and turquoise canvas (posted by Elaine)

Well you may know from my sneeky peek that I chose a rather unusual colour palette for my canvas inspired by Linda Elbourne's project in Craft Stamper. I love turquioise, but wanted to add something with a bit of punch too, hence the red - I think it works although it is rather unorthodox!

Unlike my blogging companions here, I have not gone for the understated approach, rather the more is more technique, or what I often call my "everything but the kitchen sink look"!! I have also gone a bit glittery and blingy, which is another diversion from Linda's original, I hope I will be forgiven Linda!! I painted my canvas wirh a Pool dabber, then I wanted a really true turquoise colour, so I actually made my background squares from a pale chipboard that I ran through the cuttlebug and then painted with precious metal paint. I backed each square with a matted layer of glitter card and let just a tiny edge show for a little sparkle.

I used a lovely Darkroom Door set of stamps as my words and some images. I really struggled to find some words that fitted the memory frame, so this was a bit of one of the main stamps in the set. I needed a bit more space than a tag allowed so I used a semi gloss postcard to work on. I can't remember for sure which inks I used now, I know one was Tumbled Glass DI. I used a nice swirly mask as my background. Although I did use Fragments for the first time, I also used some of the Tim Holtz film strip ribbon too for some of my images. Linda very kindly demoed how to stamp tiny images for using the ribbon when we were at Ally Pally a while back. Linda also got me over my fear of making Grungepaper roses when I did a brilliant class with her when me and my CSQ pals went in holiday together in June, so I wanted to add some of them onto my canvas. I made these out of red velvet paper and thought black leaves would set them off nicely.

I used the lovely Jo Capper Sandon small bee stamp and a key hole that I think was a lovely freebie from Crafty Individuals. I added some lovely metal keys from K & Co, some red buttons and some jewelled flourishes. I just inked my chipboard frame and shape as I had already used metallic finishes, after all you can see I didn't want it to be OTT!

So this is the full canvas and like Judith and Lesley I really loved doing this project, so thank you Linda for the inspiration in your article, on your blog and in your classes and demos. You make us laugh and we learn a lot too - what better combination could we ask for?

Thanks for popping by and sharing our fun!

Elaine x