Stampotique circles challenge.

I am just in lurve with Stampotique stamps at the moment, space I'm really not much of a colour but I have really enjoyed using these . I used distress inks and a white and black gelly pen with a waterbrush.   I am really quite chuffed with how this turned out and look forward to playing with them lots more.

 Are used Neenah desert storm card to stamp on and unicorn white heroarts ink.  Well to be honest I stamped loads of this cute girl in a variety of colours and inks.  Are you distress inks in spiced marmalade and tumbled Glass and weathered wood.  At first I thought I'd made a huge mistake as I come round the edges with the black pen and it was all smudgy but I persevered and kept playing around and love the way she turned out . When I fussy cut her I deliberately did a bit Jaggi as I think this suits the style of the stamp.

 I made the background using shattered coredinations card and a crafters companion embossing folder.  I love embossing this card and then sanding it back to reveal a really cool grungy look.  I used paper smooches thanks Die and cut it out of the desert storm card, white and the coredinations . I offset them slightly then used a bit of wink of Stella and glossy accents.

 Hi Cut out a few of the circles using the blue side rather than the black, added a bit more wink of Stella and glossy accents. the little sentiment I made on my computer .

 I make this card for the stampotique circles challenge

thanks for having a look, the stampotique challenges run until 5th of May so pop over and have a play

 take care

Tracey

Paper Piecing, Once you Pop You Cant Stop.

I tried my first paper piecing card for my new niece Baby Lucy.

I realised I had made a few mistakes and wanted to practice as I love the look of this type of card and have always loved jigsaw puzzles.  There is just something I find so relaxing and satisfying about popping those bits out of the dies and then assembling them in different colour combinations.  Add that to the lovely dies I used from Paper Smooches, Lawn Fawn and of course My Favourite Things and I have been in a paper piecing paradise.  The only real shame is how tricky it can be to get stamps and dies from these companies in the UK at a reasonable price :(  if you guys have found a good supplier please let me know

As I was practicing I found some brightly coloured card blanks I have had kicking around for a while, I cut them down and then started cutting some of my favourite shapes out of them.  I then wanted some cool patterned paper to piece into the shapes.

 I used distress inks and water with a little perfect pearls in it and was really chuffed with how they turned out.

The great thing about this type of paper piecing is that you just never run out of cute little bits waiting to find homes in new cards.  I have a little..ish box full of little bits and bobs just calling my name and a whole lot of note cards :)  I am on the look out for some new wordy dies as I think these look great in the form.

Thanks for looking and if you haven't had a go at paper piecing I urge you to try it

Tracey