CRAFT STAMPER BLOG HOP

Hello if you're a regular visitor to my little corner of the WWW, or if you've stopped by as part of the Craft Stamper Blog Hop - however you landed up here you are very welcome! 

(If you didn't arrive here as part of the hop then it'd be worthwhile to pop over to the Craft Stamper Blog to join in, as there are lots of prizes to be won and inspiration to be seen!)

If you are new to my blog let me introduce myself - I'm Jo and I've been stamping for about 13 years, teaching crafts for about 9 and on the Craft Stamper Design Team for 3+ years (wow, time flies when you're having fun!)... I love what I do - if there is paint & ink under my fingernails at the end of the day then its been a day well spent.  I also have my own line of rubber stamps 'JOFY' with the brilliantly creative team over at PaperArtsy.

The Craft Stamper Team were asked to LOOK BACK at what had inspired us last year, what had been a favourite product, or favourite project...  Well that was an easy choice for me - last year I created a line of rubber stamps with PaperArtsy which I'm really proud of and this year there will be more designs added to the range - this time with a floral theme - starting with the set below.  Its very exciting.

When I created my stamps I wanted designs that were versatile - that could be used not just for the theme of plate they were on but in other themes too - so as a mini tutorial/inspiration I have taken a few of the stamps from my christmas plates and repurposed them.

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I've said this many times - I love bunting!  So I have created a couple of pennants using motifs from christmas plates. The pennants are 15 x 21 cm in size and cut from white card.

I love the star on the above plate - the circles are great spaces for bling- gems, buttons, stickles - take your pick! lol

I coloured the pennant with distress ink, and stamped the small line image all over it using the same distress colour (peacock feather) and Champagne Encore Metallic (for a bit of shine).  I also water-distressed the surface.

I dragged the metallic ink around the edges too.  I dipped into my chipboard stash (one of my new years resolutions is to use up my stash of 'stuff') and pulled out letters which I then painted with the metallic ink.  I layered them up and stuck them on to the pennant.

I inked up a piece of white card with Champagne ink and stamped the star design onto it.  Mounted the star onto stripped corrugated card and stuck this on the pennant too:

This pennant was made entirely from christmas stamps but doesn't look christmassy at all - great for giving to someone when they've achieved something!.

Using the same set of plate I created a card with a very different theme to the pennant above:

I took the 'noel' banner & masked off the letters with masking tape which, when inked and stamped, gave a blank banner allowing space for any letters or designs/patterns.

I used PaperArtsy Ink & the Dog Words2 plate to spell out the word 'grow'.  I added some of my new flower designs to create a floral design.

One more pennant to show before you head off to finish the hop

This time I've used  plate05:

The long tiled image that runs across the bottom of the plate is great for creating a woven effect background (as does the block version). I used Walnut Stain distress ink to colour up the base of a pennant. Then used coffee Archival ink to stamp the image all over the pennant.

I used various distress ink to colour a selection of stamped flowers and leaves, arranged them with a couple die cut flourishes and adhered to the pennant. Embellished with a few buttons to finish.

Hopefully these little projects/samples might make you think about your 'christmas' stamps a little differently - just because they came in a christmas set doesn't mean they can only be used once a year!  :o)

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SPOT PRIZE!!!

Well done for getting around the Blog Hop - I hope you've enjoyed it.  I have a spot prize for you - to be in with a chance of winning simply leave a comment on this blog post by midnight on Friday 8th February 2013. The winner will be drawn at random week commencing Mon 11th February. Gotta be in it to win it!!

My spot prize is a set of JOFY stamps worth £20.50 supplied by Paperartsy! Your next stop on the hop is the Craft Stamper Blog at craftstamper.blogspot.co.uk where you will complete the blog hop's circle!!

Hopefully you have been collecting letters along the hop - the letter to collect from me is: N

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed my post and blog - feel free to pop by anytime, you're always welcome!

Don't forget to pop over to Facebook as there is an event: http://www.facebook.com/events/384830431610801/

I hope to see you all again soon.

J