Wednesday 25 June 2008

Stamp Magic

I played a while longer with the Mini Memories set on Saturday night. I could have gone on until the early hours but I knew it would take me an age to clear away and I needed to make a reasonable start if I was going to make it to the show on Sunday.



This was the last Beautiful Dream card and my favourite so far.



I stamped and masked to give the impression of floating bubbles and wanted to make the swirly border look like hanging vines. It's hard to tell because of my poor photography but there is a subtle background made from the flourish stamp in the set. The background was made with Distress Inks after I was inspired by Lynn Robinson-Hunter's tags at the Graphicus open day. She has achieved some really rich shading on her cards which I'd love to copy. I think there are a couple more of the inks I need in my arsenal before I can even get close.

Anyway, it was a longish journey to Stamp Magic but I was really pleased I'd gone. Highlights had to be Once Upon a Stamp and Crafty Individuals. There were a couple of CI stamps on my wishlist but I talked myself out of them in the end. Not a bad thing after my recent spending. Curiously, I noticed that some motifs from the Crafty Secrets sets I'd just bought also appeared on some of the Crafty Individuals stamps. I asked if there was a connection between the two companies but apparently not.

Overall my purchases were modest. I picked up a handful of Versacolor cubes in colours I felt were missing from my range but will have to experiment with those. I stocked up on EZ Mount and bought a pack of mixed tags. As usual, the biggest shortage is not materials or inspiration but TIME!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jo, thank you for the mention! The success of the inking technique I use is due mainly to two products in addition to the Distress Inks and they are the Cut 'n' Dry Foam and a non-stick craft mat. They honestly make a huge difference and allow me to build a rich depth of colour, evenly.
I am so pleased you enjoyed your day at Doncaster, I was in two minds whether to go myself but decided against it in the end.
Love your card - great colours!

Anonymous said...

Hi Jo,

Really like the card on this post especially the masked area. I only have a few Distress inks at the mo but am impressed by them.

I too was supposed to be going to Doncaster (it's only about 45 mins from me) but my daughter and family came down from Harrogate so I felt I had to give it a miss. Was a little miffed 'cos it's the nearest and easiest for me to get to. Oh well, suppose it saved me some money to spend at Graphicus instead.

Best wishes

Lesley GG197