Glossy Roses

Brenda popped into see us last week and brought me this wonderful card for the shop, along with some naughty elevenses m&s cake bars, but that's another story!

Back to the card sample.... I love how Brenda's used glossy accents on the Penny Black roses stamp. She's also a really big fan of Hero stamps and there's a hint of a shadow stamp behind the roses, it just gives a subtle look without being too overpowering.

Papers are by My Mind's Eye along with a Cricut cut-out using the same patterned paper. The ribbon border is actually 2 ribbons, a larger organza olive colour with a smaller width burgundy satin ribbon on top of it.

Brenda's recently brought some hat pins too and is having way too much fun decorating them with beads and attaching to her card fronts.
Unlike me, Brenda is very good at keeping her blog updated daily with lots of fresh ideas. You can follow Brenda's Floral Fantasies here.

Big Stamp Show - Here We Come!

We're off to Alexandra Palace, London, this weekend for the Big Stamp Show. We are very lucky to have 2 wonderful demonstrators on our stand all day, both days.

Kim Reygate will be stamping and inking and giving loads of advice about embossing, bleaching, sponging and colouring:

This iris stamp is an older design from the Stamps Happen range but has been brought to life with this great looking card. Kim's used the new Kaiser Craft paper range for the backing and the Hero Arts clear set for the birthday wishes motif,(please bear in mind the Kaiser paper has gone so well we are sold out on lots of the designs but more stock will be arriving in the next few weeks).

This stamp design from Magenta looks great with the same design being used as the background as well as the focal point of the card.

Kim's really getting into the nestabilities and has made an interesting frame here using a scallop and plain oval of the same size, it's a great looking frame without giving the appearence of too many layers:

Bleach isn't just for cleaning! Kim's used bleach to colour in the flowers on the background of the card too (use cheapest, thinnest bleach available and results will vary depending on card type/manufacturer):

Gina Martin will be demo'ing on our stand too. She'll be "watercolouring the Art Impressions way" using the English Countryside rubber stamp range and more besides:

Due to customer demand of all things English, Art Impressions have designed a wonderful range of stamps for us (available in clear sets, ez mount sets and wood mounted individuals).

This traditional telephone box (a slightly modified K2 design apparently!) looks brilliant and with the wonderful array of stamps that Art Impressions manufacture (and of course we carry online and instore!), you can achieve an incredible number of different looks, whether the 'phone box will reside in the village, on cobblestones near hedgerow, adjacent to trees, on a plinth or just standalone.

Here's another idea with the new stamps, create a brilliant scene with the new bridge and foliage, a great, simple idea for father's day considering it's not too far away:

Right, best finish preparing for the Big Stamp Show. It's always a great day out. Hopefully we'll see you there.

Challenge Dawn!

I recently sent some stash to a lovely lady, Dawn wheeler, to see if she could create some samples for Sir Stampalot to help promote some stamps I’d over-ordered on. And wow, did she do it all justice. Just take a look at these:


Flowers for You Duck

This stamp is by Whipper Snapper and the papers are new ones we've recently started to carry by My Mind's Eye.
Now, I’m sure you'll agree, he is just the cutest duck ever.

No Peeking Mouse
Again, a Whipper Snapper stamp design and using My Mind's Eye papers. I love the way that the papers are completely different designs (dots and dogtooth) but still work so well together. Using 2 pattered papers is something I don't venture into so thanks Dawn for making me look at papers in a different light. Being from the same collection of My Mind's Eye also helps make you realise that they'll work together. So that's something to think about when shopping, go for a couple of patterned papers from one collection - the manufacturer has then done all the hard work for you.

The use of buttons and tied ribbon looks really neat - I’ll have to go and blow the cobwebs off my button box and see what I’ve got that I’ve forgotten about - thanks for the inspiration Dawn.

Another variation with the No Peeking Mouse.

Dawn's used some liquid pearls nicely forming droplets around the circle mount (make sure you let these dry overnight). The pink and brown colour combination looks yummy.

Farm Trio
This comical design is another Whipper Snapper goodie.
See how Dawn's used 2 different sizes of ribbon with the button to create an embellishment, what a great idea.

I think the little round fat piggy is great :)

Favourite Time
A Penny Black design this time. Although this stamp was released for Christmas, it can be adapted for any time of year.

Dawn's used the 2D glitter pens from Sakura to colour this design and it really does give it a sparkle. I also love the way she's used the inkssentials white opaque pen from Ranger to give a dotted line frame on the darker coloured card. And then a fine black pen to give a different style frame to the main part itself. Creating these effects just help make the edge of the mounts not so stark and gives added interest. It's worth trying it if you haven't done already, it does make a difference to the overall feel of the card.

If you want to see more of Dawn's work then please check out her blog "All Pink Girl", it's amazing.



Thanks Dawn, these cards are great and for any of you coming to Ally Pally show this coming weekend, you'll see them on display there.

Customer Contributions

It's so great when customers send me thank you cards and samples of their work. These 2 gorgeous cards were sent in from Val Donohue and I just love them so much that I’m actually using them on display in the shop and they're coming to shows with us.

This card is just amazing:

It’s the ice ballet princess stamp design from tilda. What a transformation being in these monochromatic colours. I just love it.
And all that attention to detail with a self adhesive gem as part of her hair accessory, and a heart gem on tilda's top. Glitter on the neckline and bow for added bling:

And, something I haven't done for ages, is using a score board/box maker to create these embossing lines to give added interest as well as a nice little dotted line to help frame the frame!!:

Here's another one Val sent me, with a gated front. This is Valentine Tilda:

Love the self adhesive pearl gem in the centre of the flower and the way she's used her nestabilities to create a scallop frame.

Thanks Val, these are just wonderful.

For those of you who are loving your tildas, the new collection "catching butterflies" should be with us, hopefully, next week.

Elegance Made Easy

Here's a sneak peek for those coming to Jennie's class tonight - "Elegance Made Easy". You'll be playing with the new clear sets from Penny Black along with gold leafing. Jennie's definitely achieved some very elegant cards here and made it look so easy - she assures me it is - i'll find out in tonight's class, looking forward to it.

We have a couple of spaces left if you fancy coming along. Class runs tonight (Thursday) at 7pm, here at Sir Stampalot, Peterborough. Just give me a bell on 01733 324 007 for more details.