A supporting role (posted by Judith)

Hello everyone, I have a couple of cards to show you today using the sewing stamps in a supporting role, stretching their uses and hopefully letting you see how versatile they can be.

My first card uses one of the lacy borders on a wrinkle free distress background. I added some background stamping using a stamp from the Harlequin Fragments stamp set. I stamped a heart image from the Punky Hearts stamp set onto a piece of scrapbook paper, colouring in some of the details with watercolour pencils, and finally added a sentiment from the Sweet Nothings stamp set onto a die cut.

My second card uses another one of the borders to create a masculine romantic card using the Key to my Dreams stamp set. I stamped one of the locks onto the background before adding the border on either side. I coloured the background with an acrylic wash, and added some shading with Distress Ink around the edges. I coloured the images with pencils and added some background detail with a stamp from the Lace Fragments stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Vintage Crocus (by Lesley)

Little did I know when I made today's card that Maria had also had the same idea yesterday for using Kraft as the base for her designs.  Anyway you can never have too much of a good thing so here we go.

I am so happy to be showcasing our brand new March stamps and chose the Song Bird Crocus set for this card and to create the vintage feel I added an old sewing pattern into the mix.

• To create the topper take some dictionary paper and adhere to a piece of kraft card using matte gel medium and then attach a piece of sewing pattern over the top, again using the gel medium. Mat onto a piece of plain black card
• Attach another plain piece of sewing pattern to some kraft card and allow to dry.
• Stamp the crocus image from Song Bird Crocus onto this plain background using Versafine Onyx Black. When dry cut around the image leaving a fine border. Curve the edges slightly to give it a little dimension and adhere to your background using a gel glue to give it some height.
• To assemble: Take a piece of kraft card and fold into a DL size. Attach a piece of suitable ribbon across the bottom of the card, fix the completed topper with 3d foam pads and stamp the sentiment from Sweet Nothings using Onyx Black

I quite often use dictionary paper as a background, but sometimes it can be too strong on the eye and overpower the focal point. By overlaying a piece of dress pattern it softens the image of the wording so that it is still visible. Likewise with the sewing pattern over the kraft card. Sometime this type of card can be quite porous which means it will soak up your ink and can make your stamping appear poor quality. By attaching the sewing pattern over the kraft card you have created a much more stable surface on which to stamp.

Hope you have found these tips useful and that you'll try this technique for yourself. 

As this is only the first day of March there are loads of stunning projects to follow from the Design Team girls so please keep visiting us for more inspiration.

Signs of an early Spring with our new Stamp releases (by Lesley)

The days are starting to feel a little longer, the sun is shining a little more and March is just around the corner. So today I am pleased to announce our latest stamp releases which I hope will help us all feel a little closer to Spring. Plus there are some new clear stamp sets that should really help you get your words straight.

First we have three DL sets, Spring Bird Crocus

Spring Bird Tulip

and finally Spring Bird Daffodil.

Of course these wonderful sets are available individually or as our usual money saving multi-buy.

And now for the clear stamps.  

I don't know about you but stamping words in a straight line has always been a bit of a problem for me. However, once you can see through the stamp it is much easier and there is less chance of ruining the project that you just spent hours creating.

So the clear stamps we are releasing today are all sentiment sets that you won't want to be without. First is an A5 set entitled Sweet Nothings

followed by two A6 sets, Thinking of You Sentiments

and Card Sentiments

Both A6 sets are also available as a multi-buy.

All our Spring sets are just asking to be coloured with your favourite mediums. Here I stamped the tulip stems and heads onto spare pieces of card that had already been coloured with Brushos. After cutting them out I glued them onto the folded card, which was covered with patterned paper. I added a little distress ink around the edges of the card and finally stamped one of our new sentiments. A relatively quick make because I used saved scraps of card for the flowers and I didn't need to mat and layer the sentiment. Sometimes we just need quick and simple don't we?

As you can imagine the Design Team girls have gone to town with their Spring creations, so please keep coming back every day to see a new piece of inspiring artwork.