Craft Stamping Quartet: May 2011

Thursday, 19 May 2011

There's no Present like the Time (posted by Jo) and, yes, you did read that right!

I was excited to have Debbie's great project to work with this month as we have come very close to choosing her projects before. She is a designer we all admire. But strangely, the things I loved most about her box card were things I didn't carry through when I made my own. I intended to go with Debbie's colours and to choose a similar stamp as I love anything with even a hint of ironwork. But things changed along the way as they often do. I was going to go with architectural stamps and make something for my son who is a student architect. But I eventually settled on a time theme. I made a masterboard using stamps by Paperartsy and The Artistic Stamper. I embossed in gold and inked the background with Tumbled Glass and Vintage Photos Distress Inks (I've always admired people who can pull off the blue/brown combination). I used the resulting papers more sparingly than Debbie did with hers as I thought it would look cluttered with all sides of the box covered. On the front page I mounted a strip of the paper onto a piece of watercolour paper edged with Vintage Photo and gold embossing and matted this on brown card. I wanted a cluster of chipboard flowers but was surprised at how small the card was when I made it up to Debbie's dimensions so I settled for just the one flower with a clockface centre. I stuck this over my favourite flourish from the Inkadinkado Dotty Flourishes set and completed the page with the time adage from The Artistic Stamper's Time and Keys plate.

Inside the card I used another strip of the masterboard mounted onto another piece of watercolour paper. This time the paper had been embossed with Creative Expressions' Time embossing folder and inked, again with Vintage Photo. Over the panel I added a clock charm using a chain and swivel clasp.

One inspiration for the contents of the box was the Sizzix label die that is shaped like a watch. But the die turned out to be slightly too big for the box front so I had to improvise. The watch inside the box is rather special. It belonged to my late father in law and is a treasured possession of my husband's. So the box is a display box for now but will maybe become a gift box when my son inherits the watch.

We didn't see the back of Debbie's card in Craft Stamper but I couldn't resist using Crafty Individuals' lovely watch and clockmaker label on the back. On the watercolour background I have used clock stamps from The Artistic Stamper and also the free clock stamp from February's Craft Stamper which features Debbie's project.

Looking at Lesley's and Elaine's posts I am struck by how differently we work with the magazine projects we take as our inspiration. It's especially surprising as we have quite similar tastes. I sometimes wonder if I would do things differently if I saw their projects first as I am very easily influenced. But then this one has turned out very different from the one I had in my head when I started so it's all a bit of a mystery ride.

Sunday, 8 May 2011

The Secret Garden (posted by Elaine)

It's my turn to post our next project which is actually from as far back as the February issue of Craft Stamper. Life has been so busy for us all one way and another. This is my take on Debbie Dolphin's card gift box project chosen by Jo. I decided to make mine as a birthday card for my CSQ buddy Lesley.

I am afraid I stayed in my comfort zone again with this project, a vintage nature theme! My main colour scheme was green as that is Lesley's favourite colour. I wanted to make my cover look like a vintage book and used a combination of stamps and pieced together different pieces of embossed card to do it, using a ton of extra strong DST!

I used a large fern background stamp I bought from Rubbernecker at Ally Pally for the main panels, embossed in two colours of my favourite Moonglow Obsidian powders and cut in half. I edged the panels with a border of an ancient letters border stamp from Third Coast. I love their border stamps - they are brilliant value for money too - available from Happy Daze! I added large square bronze brads like studs on the book cover.

For the book title I stamped some words from a much larger Secret Garden B Line stamp that I adore. For the spine I used another Third Coast border with the letters.

The inside uses papers from the lovely 7 Gypsies Conservatory collection, (just rights as Lesley crafts in her conservatory!) with some elements cut out in the pocket and an image stamped from a Crafty Individuals image stamped in Olympia Green Versafine and aged with Vintage Photo DI. I added a little cream guipre butterfly ribbon, again aged with a little VP DI. I decided to add a picture on the gift box section as I planned to put some ribbons and braid in there and I felt it might look a bit messy with all the different colours if I didn't cover it up. I used an image from a vintage postcard that I love.

I edged the photo with lots of little leaves cut out of scraps of the 7 Gypsies papers with one of my favourite little Woodware punches, edging each one with a little more DI.

Thank you Debbie for such great instructions and inspiration and thanks Jo for choosing the project!

Elaine

Welcome to Our New Blog!

Elaine, Jo, Judith and Lesley are four crafters spread across the country, united in their love of crafting. They met over the Internet through the Graphicus Guild, a group set up for crafters by Glenda Waterworth owner of Graphicus and manufacturer of Elusive Images rubber stamps. After some discussion, they decided that they would like to 'craft together' in spite of the distance between them. To accomplish this ambition, they decided to choose one project each month from Craft Stamper magazine, and allow themselves the following calendar month to complete the project. Each person would take it in turn to choose a project. The four participants would then post 'sneaky peeks', progress reports and mini tutorials throughout the month. At the end of the month, they would then post their projects, hopefully producing four very different finished items.

Elaine

Elaine lives in the rural South of England, in a small house with a huge, wild garden and many of her craft projects are inspired by the natural world. She has been crafting for several years, mainly making cards and some mixed media projects with a strong focus on using rubber stamps. She now also enjoys making book based projects and is just starting to dabble in art journals. Elaine is a bit of a perfectionist, with many of her projects never seeing the light of day, but she is working on being more relaxed about her artistic endeavours!!!Elaine has a serious craft stash addiction and treasures the precious times when she can meet up with her distant crafty friends.

Jo lives in the East Midlands. She loved papercrafting as a child, but only rediscovered it as an adult in her work with children, and then again when she had children of her own. She'd promised herself that one day she would try some grown up 'cutting and sticking'. So when her work pattern changed in 2006, it seemed an ideal time to find a new hobby. She started a major collage project, (still unfinished of course), and then got sidetracked into playing with polymer clay. This in turn led to her watching rubber stamping demonstrations on television, and stamping has been her passion since that time.
She loves to travel to craft shows around the country and still hasn't lost the sense of wonder at what can be achieved with ink and paper. At one time she may have gone home from her job in child care with messy hands, now she is as likely to arrive with them looking that way!

Judith

Judith lives in a Norfolk village with her husband and son, while her daughter is at University. She keeps chickens. She has always been a crafter in one form or another, knitting, sewing, etc, being taught by her Mum growing up, and finding inspiration from others as an adult. She has been making cards for about eight or nine years, and runs a small card making class from home. In the last year, she has discovered mixed media, and her focus has moved very much towards dimension, layering and texture. Rubber stamping is her passion and she is a serious stamp collector! She also makes jewellery which allows her to indulge in a love of all things shiny. She enjoys blog hopping, and keeping in touch with her crafty friends.

Lesley

Lesley lives in Nottinghamshire and has always crafted in one way or another from about the age of 7. At one time she took a City and Guilds Fashion and Design course (just for the fun of it), which involved quite a bit of Art in different forms, as well as designing and making garments.
She discovered cardmaking about three and a half years ago, and after seeing Glenda Waterworth, the owner of Graphicus and Elusive Images on a craft TV channel about a year later, became hopelessly addicted to rubber stamping. A closer association with Glenda and her company in the form of workshops and open days over the past couple of years, has led to a growing obsession with different media that can be used in conjunction with rubber stamps.

Lesley is thoroughly excited to be a member of this little group of friends whose enthusiasm is so infectious. She is also very grateful to be around in this age of technology that enables a group such as this to come together with such ease to share ideas and give each other support and encouragement.

Craft Stamping Quartet

Thursday, 19 May 2011

There's no Present like the Time (posted by Jo) and, yes, you did read that right!

Sunday, 8 May 2011

The Secret Garden (posted by Elaine)

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