Company Spotlight: Whimsy Stamps

The Quixotic Paperie design team and friends hope you have been enjoying the Quixotic Paperie 2nd Anniversary celebrations. We have been throwing the spotlight onto some of the fantastic stamp companies available from Quixotic Paperie and our last celebratory spotlight for you is:

Whimsy Stamps 

Whimsy Stamps is owned by Denise and Kevin Lynn, with Denise as the papercrafter and Kevin illustrating their Kids Collection based on their two children. As the company has developed they have built up their collection of contributing artists, stamp collections, dies and papers.

The ranges include the Crissy Armstrong Collection; Melissa Jenkins Meljen's Design Collection; KennyK Collection; Whimsy Sentiment and dies by Raindrop Echo Designs; Whimsy Animals Collection and Whimsy Kids Collection. 

Whimsy Stamps are available in the UK/Europe at Quixotic Paperie. 

If you're in the US then you can find the stamps at Whimsy Stamps direct!

As part of the celebrations and the spotlight today, we have a PRIZE GIVEAWAY!
ONE LUCKY WINNER will receive a SURPRISE rubber stamp pack from Whimsy Stamps!  

To enter, all you have to do is pop your details in Inlinkz at the end of this post.  The draw will end at 0900am on Sunday 3rd July 2011, and later that day a winner will be drawn at random from the entries!

So now for the inspiration! Hop on over to each of the blogs below to see some fantastic Whimsy Stamps makes!

- Annika - Elaine - Judy - Kim Dellow - Mary  -

- Ann - Crystal - Iris - Minna - Patricia - Vicki -

PLUS here's a slideshow featuring some of the fantastic past Whimsy Stamps creations from the Quixotic Paperie Design Team!

Thanks for joining us and we hope you are enjoying all the Whimsy Stamps fun.

Tutorial for Prismacolor pencils on kraft card

Here I am finally with the promised tutorials for Prismacolor pencils on kraft. The image I'm colouring is by Make It Crafty.

The first two videos are a very long-winded introduction about supplies, different suitable cardstocks and also basic techniques for colouring. The lighting is quite bad but I hope you'll find something useful there.

It is probably NOT essential to watch introduction videos, especially if you have some experience with Prismas already.

I had to split the video because Youtube rejected the full length so here's Part 2.


Next ones are THE ones you've been most asking for - colouring skin with Prismas on kraft.

I am no expert - this is just the way I happen to colour. I want to thank wonderful Dorcas who's amazing talent and skill inspired me to start playing with pencils again!

Part 1


Part 2


The colours I've used are: Cream, Sand, Peach Beige, Blush Pink, Light Peach, Peach, Goldenrod, Mineral Orange, Henna, Burnt Ochre, Burnt Umber, White.

Hope you found something useful!

Hugs
Annika

Masking tutorial

Hi all!  Mary J here my card and a tutorial on how I use the masking technique to make this card...

 

Ohhhh, I just so wish I was in the Caribbean right now!  I wanna dance like this Make It Crafty Hula Girl in front of a bunch of Make It Crafty Palm Trees!  I kept it pretty simple, using Bazzill Basics Kraft cardstock to give it a natural feel and my every trusty Sew-Easy Stitch Piercer Tool and Straight Head with cream floss.  I found that material in my stash - I have no idea where I got it from!!


So onto the tutorial!  There are loads of them out there on this but this is how I do it....

You can see from picture 1 the tools I use.  So first, create your mask, picture 2.  Stamp the image you want in the forefront onto your cardstock and then stamp it a second time onto thin paper (if it is too thick, it will create a 'halo' effect around the image).  I've seen others stamp onto a Post It note, using the glue end, but I just use pieces of scrap paper. 
 

Let the ink dry and then cut out as close as possible to the line, picture 3.  You can see in picture 4 that I use serrated scissors which gives me complete control (especially as I am clumsy!).

Spray repositional glue on the back of the mask (picture 5) and then place it over the top of the image on your cardstock, picture 6.  I coloured some red pen on my mask to help show the mask but it didn't work out very well, lol!!

The next step is to stamp your second image that you want behind the first image, picture 7.  Keep the mask in place if you want to stamp more overlapping images.  Picture 8 shows the mask still in place...

 ...and picture 9 shows it with the mask removed - voila!  I keep my masks as you can re-use them repeatedly.

Thanks if you're still with me!  I hope you found that useful - as usual, any questions or have any tips you'd like to share, please leave a comment to this post!  Bye for now!

Double Celebration With Make It Crafty!

Today is a joint celebration! As you may be aware, this is the month that Quixotic Paperie turned TWO! What you may not know is that it is also the month in which Australian company Make it Crafty is turning ONE!

Quixotic Paperie have been stocking the fantastic Make it Crafty range of products (Rubber Stamps - Lasercut Chipboard - Make it Colour Blending Card) since April 2011, and are one of the first places you can find them outside of Australia! We are thrilled to be celebrating with Make it Crafty today.

To celebrate we thought that rather than a blog hop we would set a CHALLENGE using Make it Crafty products!!

To get inspired, hop on over to the Make it Colourful challenge blog where you will see the amazing creations our fabulous DT’s have created for this event! PLUS find out all the details on how you can play along!

OF COURSE THERE ARE PRIZES!!

There are FIVE challenge categories and there will be FIVE GRAND WINNERS!

PLUS, PLUS, PLUS

There will be random winners throughout the whole month. The numbers have been pre-selected and as soon as an entry is added that matches that number they WIN! Winners will be announced soon after entry on the sidebar of Make it Colourful.

PLUS there’s MORE!!

Quixotic Paperie have a little something for you too!! Make sure you pop on over to HERE to enter your name for a chance at MORE Make it Crafty Goodies!!

PLUS THERE’S MORE!!!

Zoe, the owner of Make it Crafty has a super duper HUGE Candy give away – choc-a-block FULL of Make it Crafty goodies!! AND I have heard a whisper that she is planning on having random giveaways on her blog throughout the month of July! All you need to do is leave her some love as she’ll randomly be choosing people who have commented on her posts throughout the last year!!

So I do hope you will celebrate with us this month and get into the Make it Crafty spirit of FUN!!

PRIZE GIVEAWAY!!

Here at Quixotic Paperie I have a yummy prize pack for one lucky winner!  To win the items pictured below, all you have to do is enter your details in Inlinkz at the bottom of this post.  No blog required to enter.

The prize draw will end at 0900am UK time on Friday 1st July and a winner will be drawn at random from the entries and announced here on this blog later that day.  GOOD LUCK!

NEW RELEASE! Victoria Case for SCACD Stamps

Now in stock over at Quixotic Paperie - the latest release from SCACD Stamps!

 

 

There are EIGHT fab and fun new images illustrated by Victoria Case, available individually or in great value discounted sets.

LOTS of fun to be had with this collection!

Gift Set Tutorial

Good Morning, Kim here today, I have a written a little tutorial on...

 creating a pencil and notepad gift set, so easy to customise and give as a special gift.

I tried without success to upload this tutorial yeserday but Blogger was not playing along, hope it's better late then never as they say... enjoy and hope you have a go!!!

To begin take the cover off a mini notepad or jotter,

remove it on the back too Cut some kraft cardstock to recover the pad remembering to continue the cover to the back.

Use a corner rounder to shape the corners, simply hold a few pages at a time instead of struggling with too many.

Stamp A Pen Friend image on the front with coffee archival ink, ink edges.

Create a box envelope the depth of your pencils, I've used scallop circle die to give decorative flap.

Attach a large metal snap or (circle card and eyelet), then ink edges.

Secure some twine to the back before constructing the envelope.

For the cover cut three pieces of chipboard, two just a bit bigger then the box envelope and a spine the depth of pad and envelope.

Adhere patterned paper to the two large covers and ink the edges.

I've cut a strip of sticky back canvas for the spine, lay the covers and spine directly onto the sticky side allowing a gap between pieces.

Then adhere another strip of patterned paper to cover the two ends, and score the channel's to secure.

Next it's simply a matter of adhering the pad and the pencil envelope in place.

I've added more twine for tying a closure.

For the front, stamp and colour your image, fussy cut leaving a border and matt onto black card, then fix on the front with dimensional adhesive.

and here's the copics I've used!

I hope you feel inspired to try creating a little papercrafted gift too!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

BiG HuGs Kim :)

Paper Makeup Stamps Spotlight Giveaway WINNER!

Thank you to everyone that popped along to check out the Paper Makeup Stamps spotlight here!

A winner has been drawn for the prize, and the lucky crafter is...

CARLYANN - SWEET 'N CRAFTY

Congrats!  Drop me an email to the address in the sidebar, with your choice of three individual stamps from the Paper Makeup Stamps range!

A little sunshine for Monday :)

As you might or might not know, I am a wee bit intimidated by manga. :) I'm never quite exactly sure how to colour it - which is a darn good reason to keep practicing. :) I have loved Make It Crafty summer/beach line of stamps from day one - about time I got around playing with them! Today I have happily mucked up the Hula Girl.

 I decided to be awkward again and mat kraft card on designer paper (Basic Grey Hello Luscious) instead of other way around, like normal people. Sponged and distressed everything on sight with linen-hued acrylic paint. I love regular acrylic instead of crackle paint because IT DRIES FAST. 'Nuf said. 

 The colouring is done with Faber-Castell Art Grip pencils. Yes, I am going through all the possible pencils I can get my hands onto. Those particular ones are pretty good. Not as soft and vibrant as Prismas but easier to achieve precision and detail in colouring.

 For the sentiment I have used brand new Whimsy Good Life Ticket sentiment set - it fitted like a glove! The flowers are old Primas - I was real happy to finally use them! And under the flowers - yes, you guessed - uber cool laser cut chipboard I am happily obsessed with! lol

Now, that's it from me today - big hugs and happy crafting!
Annika

Company Spotlight: Paper Makeup Stamps!

As part of Quixotic Paperie's 2nd Anniversary celebrations we are throwing the spotlight onto some of the fantastic stamp companies available from Quixotic Paperie and we have another gorgeous stamp company for you this week:

Paper Makeup Stamps - 'Where Beauty and Paper Meet'

Paper Makeup is owned by Katie Cotton and to give you a clue as to where the name of her company came from - Katie is a professional makeup artist. Katie has some fabulous artists contributing to her company including Steve Hammond with the Monsters range, Diem Pascarella's Beautiful Day Fairies, Moody Girls by Cynthia Liu and the Retro Cutie Critters by Diem Pascarella.

But that isn't all, there are also some background and accessory stamps as well as some beautiful word art and sentiments and some fabulous sets all from various artists.

The Paper Makeup Stamps range is available in the UK/Europe at Quixotic Paperie. 

If you're in the US then you can find the stamps at Paper Makeup Stamps direct!

As part of the celebrations and the spotlight today, we have a PRIZE GIVEAWAY!  
Enter your details (no blog necessary) in Inlinkz at the end of this post, and you will be entered in the draw to win your choice of THREE individual Paper Makeup Stamps stamps!

A winner will be drawn after 09:00am UK time on Thursday 23rd June 2011.

So now for the inspiration! Hop on over to each of the blogs below to see some fantastic Paper Makeup Stamps fun!

- Elaine - Judy - Kim Dellow - Mary -
- Andrea - Tangii - Stephanie - Tina - Katie - Dawn -
- Randee - Lisa K - Jami - Anita - Michelle - Shaela -

PLUS check out this slideshow, featuring some of the past Paper Makeup Stamps creations from our fab Design Team!

Thanks for joining us, hope you're enjoying this spotlight!

DRAW CLOSED.

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Spotlight Giveaway - WINNER

Morning all!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to check out the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps spotlight this week!  A winner has been drawn from the entries for the giveaway, and the lucky crafter is....

SAL of SAL'S BITS AND BOBS

Congratulations!  Please drop me an email to the address over in the sidebar, and I'll get your Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps prize winging its way to you!

Stop by tomorrow to check out our Paper Makeup Stamps spotlight!

How To Make A Mini-Concertina Book Using Wooden Shapes

Hi Guys, hope you having been enjoying the celebratory makes and projects from the design team for Quixotic Paperie's birthday? Here is my offering for you, I'm using the wooden alterable shapes from Quixotic Paperie along with other yummy items to make a mini-concertina book.

You might have noticed it is the round ornament bauble shaped wooden shape? You don't have to use them just for Christmas!

What you will need:

Stamps - Artistic Outpost Ephemeral Backgrounds; Artistic Outpost Birds Of A Feather; Studio G Alphas

Papers - Kraft Card; Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante

Colouring - Pencils

Inks - Distresss inks; Distress stains; Archival Jet Black; Archival coffee

Usual Suspects - Golden Gel medium; Gesso

Tools - Scissors; Crop-A-Dile; Cuttlebug; Spellbinders Nestibilities Circle dies; Blending tools and foam; Ruler; Scoring tool

Others - Wooden Shape Round ornament with hole; Fabric; Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Sprockets; Viva Decor Gel Pen Walnut; EZ Mount

Make A Template For The Inner Pages

If you need to make the hole in the wooden shape bigger then before making the inner pages template use the Crop-A-Dile to make the hole bigger. Then use the wooden shape to cut a rough template to give the size of the inside pages. I've made sure that the hole in the ornament is not covered.

Score And Fold Kraft Card

To make the inside concertina pages use the template to score a line in the Kraft card and fold it.

Use the fold to score the next line and keep scoring and folding until you have the number of pages you want or until you run out of card! Make sure that your first and last pages are both folded in the same direction i.e. the first and last page are both valley folds when attached to the covers (see picture below - 'Assemble Mini Book').

Cut Inside Pages

For this step you can either use your template to cut out the inside pages, making sure you leave the left and right folded sides of the circle uncut to give the concertina effect.

Another method is to use the Spellbinders nestibilities dies. Pick the die nearest to the size you want and line up the folded Kraft card on the die, again leaving the left and right folded sides untouched by the die. Use the thinner cutting plate and some shims with your cutting machine and run the card and die through the machine a couple of times. It wont cut all the way through and you might need to experiment with the shims to get the right thinkness.

Finish cutting the pages with the scissors, the die will have left guidelines in the card it has not cut through.

The inside pages are ready to decorate anyway you want. For this tutorial I've used distress stains to colour them.

Prepare the wooden shapes with a layer of gesso and once it is dry colour as you wish, I've used distress ink and stains in this tutorial.

Assemble Mini Book

I used soft Golden Gel Medium to apply the first and last page to the covers making sure that the holes are next to each other at the 'spine' of the book.

'Bind' The Book

I've used a strip of fabric coloured with distress stains to tie the covers together, making sure that it is not so tight that you can't open the book. You can of course make the knot easy to tie and untie so that you can see both sides of the concertina pages if you have decorated both sides.

The book is finished and ready to decorate however you want!

Have fun with this tutorial.

Kim