Friday 30 August 2013

CS meets Sir Tim of Holtz

 
This is me and my glamorous assistant Paula with the lovely Sir Tim at his UK event yesterday. We were very lucky to get tickets for this (Paula stayed on the phone for 2 hrs bless her!) and it didn't disappoint. Tim is a wonderful teacher - very relaxed and personable. The kits were awesome too - packed with goodies galore! And Personal Impressions did a fantastic job of the organising - so professional.

We had the best time and three hours felt more like three minutes!

I must say a big hello and thanks to the lovely Sue who was sat next to me - she helped me to catch up with the class and was so welcoming, even though I disrupted her with my lateness. Thank you Sue!
 
This is what the class should look like - mine, er, doesn't. (We were half an hour late - I was so embarrassed but bless him, Tim was cool about it.We caught up but our tag backgrounds were a little lacking having been done in approx 2 mins!) but I'll work on it more and try to share later.

If you get the chance to go to a workshop with Tim make sure you snap up the opportunity!

Katy x

PS - Excuse the dodgy photo - not sure what's wrong with my iPhone camera but clearly something is!

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Welcome Back Kay Carley!

It is with much joy that we welcome back Kay Carley to the Craft Stamper family in the latest issue. Kay worked with me way back in 2008 when I was just starting out as Editor of the magazine. She was a huge help to me in those early days and I really missed her when she decided to take a break from publishing.
In the latest issue (Sept) she shows you how to make this stunning card combining Distress Inks and Copics and there are lots more tutorials coming from Kay in future issues.

A warm welcome back Kay!

Katy x

Monday 12 August 2013

Reader Art!

Thanks to Paula Holifield for sharing this gorgeous chunky ATC she made with us! It's a little inspired by our lovely Trish Latimer I think. The paint effects are gorgeous and I love how quirky she is. See more of Paula's work on her blog.

Art by reader Paula Holifield

Friday 9 August 2013

Take It, Make It -Challenge Four!

Hello everyone!
It was great to see all your entries for our embossing challenge, we can't wait to see what you all come up with for this one!

What Can You Win?  
This month, we are delighted to be sponsored by A Sprinkle Of Imagination!


A Sprinkle Of Imagination are online retailers of all things mixed media, art journalling, scrapbooking and general altered art. Lots of fabulous stash to be found in the shop!
The prize for the winning entry in this months challenge is a voucher to spend in the shop....you'll be spoiled for choice!


PLUS:The Design Team will have a look at all your gorgeous work, and choose their Top Three..... and the overall Winner will get published in Craft Stamper magazine! Yep, the winning entry will appear in the UK's number one stamping magazine! Did you see our second winner in print? Maddy's stunning card was featured on page 59 of the September issue..... that could be you!

Now for the Challenge details!
We want to see how you lovely lot tackle a technique showcased in Craft Stamper magazine. This time, we have decided to give you all a bit more leeway in your art work, so its not really a technique to tackle for this challenge, more of a product! 
Kim Costello has shared two fabulous projects using acetate on pages 46/7 of the current issue of Craft Stamper (September 2013 issue). Don't panic if you haven't got hold of this issue yet, the challenge lasts for a good few weeks, so you have plenty of time to grab a copy, get inspired and enter!

So, we would love to see your creations using acetate......your project can be anything at all, card, layout, 3D item etc, any theme or colour, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE USED ACETATE ON THERE SOMEWHERE! Oh, and stamping too, this is a Craft Stamper challenge after all! 
You DO NOT have to use the techniques showcased by Kim, (although you could if you wanted) As long as you use acetate somewhere, somehow, you're in! 

To give you a little inspiration, some of the Craft Stamper Design Team have come up with some rather fabulous projects to share... (if you click on the artists name, it will take you to their blogs, where there may well be loads more pics of these gorgeous creations!)

















 Have we inspired you to have a play and enter? Yay!!!
All you need to do now is have a read through the boring (but essential!) rules and guidelines, then upload your entry using the Mr Linky tool at the end of the post! Can't wait to see what you create!


Do you love our challenges as much as we do? Feel free to grab the button and display it with pride!

Guidelines for Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge
  • Entry dates: Friday August 9th 2013 -  midnight Friday October 4th 2013
  • Winner to be announced in a blog post here: 10am Monday October 7th 2013 
  • All entries must feature acetate AND stamping. No digi stamps please, unless combined with actual stamping.
  • The winning entry MUST be posted to the magazine for photography before it can be published. Please keep hold of your entry, we cannot publish in the magazine images sent via computer.
  • Entry is via the linking tool at the end of the post. We are very sorry that we can't accept email entries to this challenge. Please provide deep links to your actual project post, not just a link to your blog (to do this, click on the title of the relevant blog entry and copy/paste the URL in the relevant box when uploading your entry). When judging many entries, the DT do not have time to go searching your entire blog for the project we want to see!
  • No backlinking, new work only please.
  • Entry is welcome from anywhere in the world.
  • Multiple entry is fine, as long as each piece is original and fulfills all the entry requirements.
  • Entries can be combined with other blog challenges, as long as a link back to the Craft Stamper challenge is included in your blog post.
  • The fifth challenge will be announced here on Friday October 11th 2013.
PLEASE consider turning off word verification on your blog. It is very difficult for the DT to comment on as many blogs as we would like to when word verification slows us down!

Competition rules: Competitions/giveaways are open to all (including overseas readers) except employees of Traplet Publications Ltd and their families; regular contributors to any of Traplet Publications’ magazines; employees of our printers; or anyone connected with the prizes offered. By entering the competition you accept that your project may be printed in the magazine. All entries must be received by midnight on the specified closing date. There are no cash alternatives and prizes are non-transferable. We reserve the right to use the winners’ name/work in any Traplet-produced literature including, but not exclusive to, our website and marketing materials. Judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.



Monday 5 August 2013

Take It, Make It Challenge Three -The Winner!

Hello everyone!
Thank you so much to all those who played along with our third challenge -Colourful Layered Embossing.
The DT were blown away by the standard of the entries, but there can only be one winner! That honour goes to.........
                                                               Congratulations Tracy!
We love the cool blue colour scheme contrasted with the dramatic black texture paste. The subtle text and crackle stamping is delicate, yet brings the whole look together!
The winning entry will be published in Craft Stamper Magazine (I hope you kept it somewhere safe Tracy!), and the winner will also receive these gorgeous stamps from our sponsor Indigo Blu



As well as our worthy winner, we also have the remaining two spots in our Top Three to reveal! In no particular order, they are..... drum roll......

Congratulations ladies!
If the Top Three could Email me (just click the 'posted by' name at the bottom of the post), then I will pass on a Take It, Make It winners button you can display on your own blogs should you wish! For anyone else who would like to, please feel free to grab the button below!
Sadly, we were unable to include several entries in this challenge. We really need the link provided to go to the specific challenge entry, not just your general blog address. Can everyone please double check the link before submitting!
A huge THANK YOU to all those of you that took part in our third challenge, and we can't wait to see what you come up with for our next one. You don't have to wait long for that either, check back here on FRIDAY this week for the big reveal!

Trish xxxxx