Moonlit Castle

This was in my drafts folder from waaaaay back.  Not sure if Heather will run the class again or not, but usually if she has enough people wanting to take it, she will run it.

I'm going to post this now because it's a cute little card and I am cleaning out my drafts folder!

This is a sample for my next class at Heather's Stamping Haven. I wanted to try to make a card in the style of Michelle Zindorf, a stamper whom I really admire. I've spent a lot of time reading her tutorials and looking at the various ways she makes her cards so special. I don't know if this card achieved the goal, but I quite like how it turned out, so I decided that was enough. Michelle loves her brayer, and I love mine, and I love making backgrounds, which I think is why I'm so drawn to her work.

This is a short post because if you want to find out how to make this card, you'll have to take the class!

Supplies: All stamps Heather's Stamping Haven or the Stamp Barn.

Faux Batik butterflies

Hi!  Here's a card we'll be making at Heather's Stamping Haven in August for her anniversary celebration make and takes.  I'll be running this class on August 25th, but it may run during the week as well.  Keep an eye on Heather's calendar for the schedule.  The stamp I used is a butterfly image from Impression Obsession (copyright Hannah Davies/Impression Obsession Inc) and I did a number of these in different colours over the past few days.  It was fun!  I like how this looks like faux batik.  So colourful!  The colours in the top card are: spiced marmalade, seedless preserves, salty ocean, peacock feathers (card base More Mustard).  The middle card: mowed grass, shaded lilac, salty ocean (card base Cool Caribbean).  The bottom card: peacock feathers, mustard seed, spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon (card base Bermuda Bay).    Thanks for stopping by!

Creative Chemistry Days 7-10

Day 7 (l-r): Nostalgic Batik,
Rusted Enamel, Distress Powder Resist

 Hello!  Here are the rest of the tags I made to go with the Creative Chemistry class with Tim Holtz that I took on line.  I really, really enjoyed it! 

Some of my favourites are the Rusted Enamel (can't wait to try that in different colours) and the distress powder resist - isn't that fabulous with my big Fred B Mullett fish!  I love the colours.  And I just got a wonderful bubble stamp at Heather's for the background by Ryn Designs. For that resist I used some sprays in shades of red.  Scrumptious!  I also loved the perfect pearls and am going to get them out far more often. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Now I'm off to clean up the aftermath in my stamping room.  I had hoped the elves would do it while I was out at work, but as usual, they didn't. 

Day 8 (l-r): Paint Dabber Resist, Crackle
Paint Resist, Shattered Stains

Day 9 (l-r):  Perfect Distress Mist,
Perfect Distress, Perfect Splatter Distress



Day 10: Rock Candy Distress Stickles



Alcohol Ink Splatter Card

Here's something I came up with after being inspired by Tim Holtz's video clip on alcohol ink splatter technique. I thought it looked like a really cool thing to try, so I got the few supplies together (compressed air, glossy paper -not photo paper - and alcohol ink), put on an old shirt, and sat down to play. I can't quite recall all the colours of alcohol ink I used, but if I were to guess: citrus, lettuce, denim, sailboat blue, red pepper, cranberry, lemonade, and currant. I am a big believer in using lots of colours! But you knew that about me already.

This background was my second attempt, since it does take a bit of practice. I used a variety of colours, some bright, some deeper, just fooled around a bit really. DH was not at all impressed with the initial (pre-stamped) background, and to be fair, it did look a bit blobby and messy (but to be fair back again, this is the point).

I thought my grungey-collagey stamps would be perfect for this. I got them in Victoria (BC) when I was there last year and my aunt took me to her LSS. They're Australian (Stamp-It) and are really useful for this kind of thing - very pretty background stamps in interesting textures and shapes. I used the corner mesh with a flourish and the large flourish and stamped with black India ink. The sentiment is embossed in black and sponged in yellows and greens, with a bit of navy around the edges. It's more vibrant in real life. (I couldn't get through a post without saying it looks better in real life, now could I!)

Normally I have a hard time figuring out what to do with this kind of background (generally being loath to cover up the splendid colour, but I took a deep breath and went for it. This one looked great on an early try with black and real red. I thought the sentiment panel being fairly plan balanced things nicely. I had some flowers in my stash, with some brads to finish it off. As an afterthought I pried off the sentiment panel and added the cord, and stuck it down again. This card also has a side hinge. If you're going to go outside the box, go all the way I say. Nothing says "wild and crazy stamper" like a side hinge card......

Here's a better shot of the alcohol ink (at the expense of washing out the sentiment panel and flowers). There's quite a lot of colour going on. It's so pretty that I want to try this again!

I highly recommend this type of card for late-night NVR (no vendor restriction) stamping therapy. The bright colours will really cheer you up and you will feel extremely clever and pleased with yourself for very little effort. Plus you get to use the canned air that has been kicking around the office for ages!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps: sentiment - Full of Life set (Stampin' Up), background - Laura Koh set (Stamp-It, code sisetoo8lk); Ink: versamark, India Ink, citrus, yoyo yellow (yes, I used yoyo yellow on a card!), gable green, tempting turquoise, night of navy (yikes - did I really use that many????); Paper: whisper white, glossy, basic black, real red; Other: Adirondack alcohol inks, black embossing powder, silver cord (SU), Making Memories flowers (Fifth Avenue collection), BasicGrey brads.

Fruit Stand Speed Demo sample

The countdown to Stampin' Girls Convention is on!!! Only 2 more sleeps till the big day. My up-up-upline hosts a really fabulous stamping convention each year for her downline. She really goes all out and we get great speakers, lots of swaps and displays, a yummy lunch and wonderful make and takes. One of the fun things she does is set aside some time for speed demos, where lots of great ideas are shown from start to finish in two minutes or less. This means lots of swap-outs along the way, but that just makes me feel a little bit like Martha Stewart, which is a good thing ;-)

I'm demo-ing stamping on painted cardstock for my speed demo. Basically, you paint some acrylic paint on dark cardstock (and admit it, you have some in your craft drawer!) and let it dry. It won't take long. Then, stamp your line art image with black stazon and colour in with markers. Because of the paint, you won't get great blending and the colours will lighten quite a bit as they dry. For my card I overstamped with Weathered once it was coloured. Then finish your card as desired. For this one I went a bit crazy with the matting, but I think I like it. The background is kraft, stamped with Canvas (in sahara sand) and the Itty Bitty Background spatter (with heavier concentration at the bottom) and the stitched exotic leaf (my current favourite stamp for adding the perfect finishing touch) in burgundy. (I'll re-make this card using my Judikins mosaic background for a non-SU event - I think it would be perfect!)

Thanks for looking!

All supplies Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted: Stamps: Fruit Stand, Weathered, Canvas, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Stitched Exotics; Ink: black stazon, sahara sand, bravo burgundy; Paper: always artichoke, bravo burgundy, blush blossom, kraft; Other; sahara sand eyelet, mellow moss ribbon, slit punch, acrylic craft paint (Plaid).

How sweet it is!

How sweet it is... nap time that is! I'm a SAHM (stamp-at-home-mom) on an extended maternity leave from my job. Nap time is one of my favourite times of day when I can steal a few moments of creativity for myself.

When I don't have a lot of time to stamp, I like to jump-start the ideas, usually with one of the daily challenges from splitcoaststampers or by using a new stamp set or something I've gotten recently. For this card, I went with today's sketch challenge on a Valentine's theme. I started off by making the pink background layer by wanding shades of pink from my fluid chalk queue (how nice to have various shades in one easy spot!) and adding the small swirl from Priceless, which I just got, in three shades of pigment ink. I heat set it with the iron and then moved on to the focal image. I wanted a horizontal image, but nothing was jumping off my shelf. Then my eye lit upon my jumbo outline alphabet and I thought that would do the trick. I used my stamp-a-majig to get the letters (mostly) straight and coloured them with the lid of my purely pomegranate ink pad and my aquapainter. These panels were mounted on a sheet of rose red designer prints, on a pomegranate card base. The accent is a flower and brad from my Pretties kit, which I have vowed to stop hoarding. I tinted the flower to match with more pomegranate ink and my aquapainter. Isn't that nice to have perfectly matching embellishments!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Stamps: Jumbo Outline Alphabet, Priceless (both Stampin' Up!); Ink: Palette black noir, purely pomegranate, fluid chalk rose petal queue, color box pigment ink (velvet, pink, peony); Paper: papertrey ink white cardstock, purely pomegranate, rose red designer prints (SU); Accessories: stylus and foam tip, Pretties kit (SU)

You're So Sweet

I made this card for today's Ways To Use It Challenge (149) on splitcoast. The challenge was to incorporate heat embossing creatively. I chose to emboss one of my new stamps from my Valentine cube from Sunshine Designs. These were part of my prize package for the contest I won in November {thank you Sunshine Designs!!!}.

I started off by making the heart background using the emboss-resist technique. I embossed the hearts on Naturals White using clear embossing powder and then added various shades of pink from my new fluid chalk queue (rose petals). It's nice to have various shades of the same colour. I find it gives the background more interest and depth. I matted the background on a piece of whisper white, with just a narrow border showing.

For the focal image, I embossed the candy dish with black embossing powder and coloured the candies with my Tombow markers, and a bit of the chalk ink to tie in the colours. The sentiment, another one from Sunshine Designs, was embossed on pomegranate paper with white embossing powder. The sentiment panel seemed to need a little something so I trimmed the bottom with my scallop-edged scissors. The ribbon accents are from the Flirty Ribbon Originals package that's been mostly hoarded until now. The last little bit of embellishment was some Fruit Punch stickles on the pink hearts. I just love how the stickles draw the eye to the focal image and give it that extra pop.

I think this will make a nice valentine card. My DH has been known to grumble that he doesn't get cards, which is actually true. It's a bit of a case of the shoemaker's children not being shod around here.... Maybe I'll make this for him. On the other hand, I bought several valentine stamps when I was in Edmonton with a view to making him a valentine and this card doesn't use any of them! I'll just have to make a few cards and see which one I like best. This one is a bit pink for a guy-card.....

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Stamps: Sunshine Designs; Ink: versamark, black pigment ink, fluid chalk ink (rose coral, rouge, warm red, warm violet); Paper: watercolour, Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White, Naturals White; Accessories: clear embossing powder, black embossing powder, white embossing powder, Flirty Ribbon Originals (Stampin' Up!), Tombow markers, scallop-edge scissors (Fiskars), stickles (fruit punch).

Welcome to my new blog!

Hello! Welcome to my new blog! I called it The Daley Stamper because I love to stamp and I stamp almost every day. And, being a Daley (as well as someone who can't resist a pun) I thought that would be a good name.

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a long time now, and have finally decided to take the plunge. It's taken me a while for a couple of reasons. First off, it always takes me a while to catch up with the trends, whatever they are. I'm much more of a trailing-edge person than a cutting-edge person, but I'm ok with that. Second, the whole technical aspect of blogging didn't really appeal to me. However, my mother is a very tech-savvy person and has really helped me out with all the behind-the-scenes stuff. (Thanks Mum! :D)

So here I am, another voice in the stamping-blog world. I hope you enjoy what you see here and I hope it inspires you to make something special for a special someone in your life.

For my first post, I thought I'd share something I made on my visit out west. My mother and I took a class at Western Educational Activities Ltd. (stamping swoon!!!) in Edmonton, taught by the amazing Cathie Allan (yes, it's true! I got to take a class from Cathie Allan and it was fantastic, another stamping swoon!!!).

In the "Back to Basics" class, Cathie taught us how to make gorgeous backgrounds using fluid chalk and pigment inks. The trick to the pigment inks is heat setting them with an iron. Who knew! I will definitely be using this technique in the future. Not only is it a lot of fun, you can really get some gorgeous colour combinations.

I love this card - I don't usually make them so big (it's 5.5x7"), but it was fun to try something new and this technique really works well on a large palette. I made it a pocket card, with a tag insert that's big enough to be a book mark.

Notes on the card: I won't go into a lot of detail about the technique since it was from a class and I don't have permission from the store or instructor to share. Basically, the panel is created by layering colours and uses pigment and chalk ink, and resist techniques.

Supplies Stamps: Daisy - Old Island Stamp Company, "Magic Happens" and dandelion - Serendipity Stamps, "Life is the flower" - Paper Inspirations; Paper: whisper white, basic black, taken with teal; Ink: colorbox fluid chalk (lavender, aquamarine, blue lagoon), colorbox pigment ink; Accessories: clear and black embossing powder, Dove blender pen, flower brads, Tombow and Marvy markers, eyelash yarn