Stamp It - Punch It

You've probably forgotten all about this blog it's been so long since I last uploaded anything. Sincere apologies but I just don't know where time goes. I had started this post a couple of weeks back whilst Kim Reygate was visiting and staying with us. I was very inspired seeing her at work and blogging no matter what the time of the day. So I thought I should join in and update the Sir Stampalot blog, so thanks Kim for making me get my finger out!

Kim was helping out with some up and coming PR features and basically just having crafting fun. You can keep up with Kim and her creative talents by visiting her blog : Kimx

Now I just had to share with you creations and info about our latest event at Sir Stampalot. We were very lucky to have the wonderful Paula Pascual come and demonstrate for us. Such a lovely lady and endless talent.

You may have seen Paula on TV, but those of you who are unfamiliar with Paula, she is the artist behind her own range of stamp designs, that are of the finest detail, great quality, endless variations per each set and unbelievable value for money. Paula was demonstrating on Saturday how her stamps co-ordinate brilliantly with various sizes of punches, both circular and square, to give amazing results with minimal effort. Running out of time to make Christmas cards and need to do a fair number in a short period of time? Read on......

Here's a spread of the cards Paula brought along with her:

And some elements she created during the day:

and here she is hard at work - or is that busy having fun (far too much fun)!

Now here's what I mean about endless variations. This card is using just one stamp set - Large Christmas and two inkpads.

Paula prefers to use memento inkpads and versafine. These work extremely well with her fine detail stamps and help give superb results. I believe she used Deep Lagoon versafine and Summer Sky memento here. As the stamps are clear polymer, you can see exactly where you are placing them when stamping out on your card, so it's then easy to create this honeycomb effect. A self adhesive pearl in the centre of each snowflake and Bob's your Uncle.

Just look at this card. It's amazing how it shows off the combinations available from the extremely versatile stamp set - Filled with Flowers.

By adhering foam pads of varying depths to each of the elements, really gives the card a wonderful stepped feel.

That same stamp set - Filled with Flowers, has been used here in gorgeous colours of Crimson Red versafine and Spanish Moss versafine to make the flowers look like poinsettias.

And just in case you aren't convinced, the addition of the Happy Christmas circle design from her Large Christmas stamp set really gets the message across.

I like the colour blue so here's another of my favourites:

This card is using 2 different stamp sets of Paula's - Large Christmas and Essential Christmas. Love the way she's stamped out the dotty circle with the small snowflake on, then cut around the snowflake on the inside of the circle, to then slide a punched circle underneath it with the "happy christmas" message on it. Now, I'm pretty certain I haven't explained that very well. Next time you pop instore, I'll show you if you wish.

A little blob of stickles to enhance the snowflake and you have a perfectly quick and easy Christmas card.

And with a little adaptation, Paula demonstrated how to turn her designs into ribbon buckles:

This uses designs from All Year Round - a definite must have stamp set!

And Paula also had some very clever ideas for the insides of the cards too:

Paula has used here, her very useful dotty stamp from the Christmas Messages set along with a verse from the same set, and additionally the lovely snowflake from the Large Christmas set.


This next design, uses elements from 3 sets - Joyful Bubbles, Essential Christmas and Christmas Messages. Love the way the flourish makes the box look like a gift wrapped present:

Thanks Paula for all your inspiration and sharing your ideas. I certainly had fun catching an odd glimpse of your demo where I could.

Paula has her own website and blog. I urge you to check it out. It contains fabulous ideas, tutorials, punch charts in great detail and generally a great source of info.

I hear on the grapevine some more designs are due out in the New Year so I'm looking forward to seeing what Paula comes up with. Maybe I can persuade Paula to come back in the Spring and do another demo day - please Paula!!???


Anyhow, until next time....
Happy crafting.


- janicex