Craft Stamper Blog Hop - Looking Back

Welcome to this stop on the Craft Stamper Blog Hop looking back at favourite crafty things of 2012. If you didn't arrive here from Helen Chilton's blog you are missing out on fun and prizes! Pop over to the Craft Stamper Blog to start your journey at the beginning.

I'm Kate and I joined the Craft Stamper Design Team around three years ago after winning Stamper of the Year. For me crafting fun is as much about experimentation and the process of creating as it is about the finished piece. I work in a very organic (and messy) way, usually with the smallest germ of an idea to start with and just see what develops.

I have been making things since I was a child, making clothes and knitting as well as doing papercraft and mixed media experiments and confess to having lots of unfinished projects lurking as I get distracted by a new idea or new must have product.

Looking back at 2012 I wouldn't like to confess to how much new craft stuff I obtained. Suffice to say it significantly outweighed the amount I used! I was lucky enough to get an embellisher machine of which more later (much later as I am still learning to drive it ). But of all the things I got last year the most used and loved, as of now, is my Gelli Arts printing plate.

If you haven't come across these yet take a look at their blog or at the February issue of Craft Stamper for ideas. You can get fantastic results really quickly and easily with a very basic technique or develop ideas and skills further with very artistic results. I find the process of making prints somewhat addictive and made a huge batch of background papers as soon as my new toy arrived last summer.

Here are a few of the first background prints I made...

This is the absolute basic method - if I can do it anyone can. Truly it is simple. You get your Gelli plate out and put it on a smooth (imprtant so you don't give it a permanent pattern from any texture that a craft mat may have) surface. Add some small, and I mean small, blobs of paint. Roll the paint out into a thin layer with a brayer then make patterns with whatever stamps, stencils and other materials you have to hand.Then lay a sheet of paper - or fabric - over the top and burnish gently with your hand and peel back to reveal your print.

 

 

You'll find that bubble wrap crops up in virtually all the prints I have made so far. It is fantastic for making patterns, is soft so it doesn't harm your plate and best of all you don't have to wash it up. I am a very messy worker and find cleaning up a chore. Working with paint does mean a lot of washing up to keep your stamps and stencils in good condition. I am now thinking up ideas to use painty bubble wrap in projects - I have lots and can't bear to send it off to land fill without at least one more use first.

 

The next print is actually three or four prints on top of each other - made each time using the dregs of paint left after an initial print. A convenient way to substantially clean your plate without wasting paint. Whilst I was playing I didn't give any thought to what colours or patterns went on top of each other, it was only afterwards I discovered I rather liked this effect.

 

 

Again this is a basic print - with bubble wrap! This time however there was far too much white in the print so once the paint had dried I spritzed with spray inks and water which fills in the blanks so to speak. This is the reverse side of the print which has a softer watery feel. I think this may become the background to a spring themed project because it reminds me of frog spawn and ponds.

 



 

 

I think now the mornings are a bit lighter I must have spring on the brain because another of my background prints inspired me to make this quick tag. (Now there's another new toy from 2012 that I am more than a little obsessed with, a Sizzix die for cutting tags.) This was just a basic one colour print in orange. Not my favourite I have to say but making prints is a good way to use up those paints that are hanging about - they somehow get a new lease of life used in this way. I added yellow spray ink to fill in the white areas and worked on the front of the print this time. 

 

Bubble wrap again what a surprise! This time though the colours and shapes cried out honey comb so I used gel pens and some foiling to convert the circles into hexagons. Some are then filled with honey - Diamond Glaze actually but they look nice and glossy just the same. The bees are a stamp from the Artistic Stamper Insects and Butterflies plate 1.

These prints will be appearing in virtually every crafty make for some time yet as I think I must have used at least 100 sheets of paper and old book pages whilst playing with paint so please do visit again and see what I've been up to.

Thanks for looking. The letter you need to collect from me is F and the next stop in the hop is to Kim Costello. If you get lost at all simply return to the Craft Stamper blog for a full list of the hop participants.

2013 swaps

A new year brings...resolutions. And as ever I start the year filled with good intentions and in January I manage to deliver my swaps on time.

The first swap was product of the month - for January using Distress Ink. I've made two little projects using a couple of different techniques here. Take a look at the series running in Craft Stamper for great ideas using Distress products. Up first, a jigsaw puzzle blank coloured with the wrinkle free distress technique with depth of colour added round the edges direct to paper with a piece of foam. The images and back ground pattern are stamped on with Distress Ink too. I scanned the puzzle whole to decorate the box lid before breaking it into pieces.

 

I also used a favourite technique using Brilliance and Distress ink to make this book mark. Stamping Brilliance ink onto glossy card creates a resist. The Distress ink was applied with foam with extra colours applied through a stencil. You need to leave a lot of time for it to dry on shiny card though. The stamps for both projects were from Paper Artsy.

 

 



 

We are also having a monthly colour themed tag book swap. For January the colour is turquoise with a hint of orange. I think I may have used rather more than a hint though. The ftont of each tag is covered with turquoise Gelli print. I stamped Paper Artsy Squiggly Ink dragon flies and stuck on wings stamped and cut from paper coloured with Distress ink again - well I had them out on the work top and it seemed easier than looking for something else...

 

The photo is a bit dodgy but the reverse sides were embossed with an embossing folder and then highlighted with Versamark and mica powders.  You can't see in the picture but they are embellished with a die cut cog in orange and a good splatter of paint. I'll get five different ones back - can't wait to see others' take on the colour scheme.

 

10th, 11th and 12th days

Here is installment two of the lovely presents I got in the 12 days of Christmas swap.

A really clever pencil pot which folds flat for posting from Lyn.

 

 

An elegant bracelet from Hilda.

 

 

A lovely zipped case from Natalie - so nice I daren't put pencils in it in case I make it messy.

 

 

A pretty needle case from Fiona.

 

 

And last but by no means least, a really colourful flag book from Pauline.

 

With thanks to all the swappers for their amazing creations.

 

I'm looking forward to a new year of creativity and swapping.

On the 9th day of Christmas part 1

Christmas 2012 was the fourth year I have had the priviledge of participating in a 12 days of Christmas swap with some very talented artists.

I was kept very busy for several weeks in October and November creating my 12 gifts for the swap. This year I made little cards of handmade buttons, parcelled up in decorated boxes.

The boxes are little papier mache ones. The lids were embossed with various types of fruit which I wasn't keen on so I started by spreading on a thick layer of molding paste to disguise this. I then painted a couple of coats of white acylic. once dry I applied clear Croco to a few areas. Once this had dried and cracked I rubbed Distress Ink into the gaps and finished off with pools of Diamond Glaze sprinkled with glitter.

 

Here are a sample of the buttons I made. Each box had four cards - one of resin buttons created in a mold, one of polymer clay square buttons, one of shirnk plastic flowers (coloured with alcohol ink and Brilliance Ink) and one large molded clay button.

Any one any ideas what to do with a large batch of shrink plastic flowers with no holes made without sufficient attention!

I made a little stamped gift card for each parcel.

And tied them all up with sparkling cord.

 

This year twelve of us participated so I got one of my own parcels back and for the other days of Christmas I received:

 

A gleaming textured canvas from Annie.

 

Two little books from Pattie and Wendy respectively.



 Three brooches from Adrienne, Jean and Mary.