Challenge 20 - Distressed!

Thank You muchly for playing in our desert island challenge, wasn't as popular as others so maybe you couldn't decide what to take (or couldn't fit EVERYTHING onto your design hehe!) I'm still collating the info and will post it up here when done so you can see what the trends and sure fires are but popular are definately nestabilities, distress inks, promarkers/copics, sticky gems/pearls, magnolia stamps, digi stamps and cuttlebug so will add the full list soon!

Thank You also to Joanna Sheen for sponsoring us once again and to Katie Tate for being our special guest and to Janey and Debs for being our Guest Designers, muchly appreciated!

Remember if you'd like to be a guest designer for our next but one challenge just type GDT after your name on your entry.

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CHALLENGE 20

For our 20th Challenge we are asking you to use DISTRESSING on your design be that by using inks, paper tearing, crumpling etc. If you've never distressed before then have a look at what the team have made and if you have a free evening I can thoroughly recommend a glass of wine (OK for me its a cup of coffee or two!) and an evening with Sir Tim on you tube. The ranger channel can be found here - enjoy the journey!

We are sponsored once again by The Stampman and are also thrilled to be joined by Mrs Stampman as our Special Guest! They are offering a £10 voucher for their shop which has so many niiiiiice products in! I actually got to go there last week and kid in a candy store I was!

There is currently a special offer on the new distress ink colours and you'll also find tons of the new Tim Holtz dies and masks. Also at The Stampman you'll find great stamps designed by Tracey Coates and sparkly things like starburst stains!

Lets see what the girls have been up to for this challenge! We are also joined by our guest DT - Happy Days (Claire)!

Claire

Judie

Loved this challenge, distressing, well I've gone a bit mental here lol, didnt want to go down the normal route of doing something vintage so i have gone sloppy distressed. I have used my rippy faithful friend the ruler and distressed the papers, made my own flowers by ripping papers and added some glue mixed with some paint for the middle, then made some leaves to add on - i used a toothbrush to flick on some inks to bring in the red/pink. I have used distress inks on the edges of all the papers and the actual card as well.

Julie

I started with a square card and a sheet from a paper pad, I cut the paper to size and tore a corner off, I went over the torn edge with two different coloured ink pads maroon and dark sand. I punched two hearts, went round the edge of the first one with the dark sand ink and scrumpled up the second one. I straightened the heart out the best I could and went over the top with the same ink pad, once the ink had dried I went over it with a cool iron under some tracing paper. I mounted the hearts with 3d foam and added the two coloured button brads to two of the corners.

Lisa

I've used a digi stamp from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with promarkers. The papers are K&Co 'sparkly sweet' with Coredinations cardstock. I've embossed a piece of the coredinations with the Cuttlebug 'Julie's jewels' embossing folder and then sanded it back. All the coredinations edges have been sanded, and then I distressed all the paper and cardstock edges with scissors. I then went round all the edges with some stickles for a bit of sparkle. Added a piece of jute ribbon, some tiny punched butterflies and a computer generated sentiment.

Mandy

For the latest challenge we are to use distressing techniques. I personally admire very talented peeps who can do this, however I always feel that my attempts look very amateur in comparison.

The distressing techniques I have used are inking the papers with a Tim Holtz distressing pad and also a Versafine chalk pad in green, love the soft finish the chalk gave to it. The stamped image I have distressed with the edge of a pair of scissors, I love the roughed up texture it gives and this absorbs ink really well. I also bought a distressing tool from Do Crafts and used it to scratch away at the edges of the chocolate background paper.

More details of materials used are on my blog.

Vix

For this challenge I have used my "lucky stamp" which is celestial dreams by stamp oasis available at The Stampman. I call it my lucky stamp as every time I used it to enter competitions or submitted to reader galleries it won or was printed! The background paper was made by stamping distress inkpads directly onto paper to create squares, torn and ink rubbed along the tears. Another piece I used the spun sugar inkpad across a piece of card, used the divine swirls cuttlebug folder then swiped across with the pumice stone inkpad. The sentiment is on crumpled paper where the inkpad is swiped across the crumples and I've brushed ink onto glossy card with the image and added gold foil and glitter.


May I introduce you to our Special Guest Designer, Jill Tuck - Mrs Stampman or to me "Boss Lady"
Jill will be familiar to many for her appearances on Create and Craft TV full of inspiration and tips. She also runs The Stampman shop with her OH Mr Stampman which you will find here! It my favourite place and I was lucky enough to go visit it in the flesh last week and wow! If you've never checked out their site before then you're really missing out on some wonderful products!

SPECIAL GUEST DESIGNER - JILL TUCK - THE STAMPMAN AKA MRS STAMPMAN!





The Stampman's blog can be found here, please pop along and say Hi!

1. You're often on create and craft tv, how did that come about and do you get nervous?

I believe it was about 6/7 years ago when Create and Craft contacted us by phone to ask if we'd be interested. It wasn't until I was chatting to a friend, Wendy Stenton of W S Designs, who said she was going to do it that we considered it as I really didn't want to do it but Wendy said she was happy to do shows for us. Wendy did 3 hour shows and 2 1/2 hours shows for us before I decided I really ought to do it myself. My fear was that when I was 20 I was interviewed (at least 4 takes) on Breakfast TV about the future role of the secretary, mainly about technology in the office etc. It was horrendous and I vowed that I was happy that I'd had my 15 minutes of fame and never wanted to go there again, now look, I have lost count of how many hours I have done now!

I do get very nervous still, and never sleep the night before. I do have a love/hate thing with it though. Funnily enough I've not found any difference in whether the show is live or pre-recorded, either way it's still got to be done so I just get on with it. The presenters and crew are so friendly we are often chatting with 1 second to go before filming and I then turn to the camera and think oops, what am I doing here? My brain goes blank for a bit so I'm grateful that the presenters chat for a while at the beginning of shows!!! By the time a show comes to an end I'm loving it and don't want it to stop. Once the shows get going I'm fine and the hour just always flies by.


2. You've just celebrated your bloggerversary, what do you enjoy most about the blogging and crafting community?

Being part of what it is, a crafting community. About 15 years ago I started a printed monthly newsletter, it grew and grew until it became an unmanagable beast! It ended up being 56 pages, colour and apart from costing a fortune to print and post, it took so much time to do. The project and product photos were not great quality at the time and readers really had to use their imagination with them. It was very popular at the time but as I say, it grew into a beast! I now enjoy blogging as I can post regularly, am able to show photos and it is easy to do when you get the hang of it. I LOVE holding the giveaways, receiving comments etc, and am grateful that people wish to follow it too. I've met a completely different set of people through blogging.

3. What are your favourite crafty items to work with?

Starburst Stains and Moonshadow Inks of course, but basically anything involving using a rubber stamp. Within this I have my long term favourite, which is anything embossing, especially UTEE (ultra thick embossing). Ilove my Cuttlebug, embossing folders, nesties and now my growing collection of Tim Holtz Sizzix dies! Another favourite is Distress Inks.

4. Your achievements and future plans.

The main achievement is to have been in the papercrafting business for about 20 years, we started right at the beginning when it wasn’t even considered a hobby. I have been lucky enough to meet lots of talented people over the years, attend brilliant events here and abroad and I feel I have learnt and shared a lot during this time which is a rewarding achievement. As for future plans, we'll just continue doing what we do, that's as much as I can say on that really.

5. Your Top 3 tips!

Not sure if these are my top 3 tips but those I've just thought of at the moment.

Buy good quality basic essential materials from the start, such as Versamark embossing pads, a permanent black ink pad such as Stazon, Memento or Ranger Archival ink. Never be afraid to ask for information in your local craft shop, there's many a time I've asked customers what they are going to do with a product (just because I'm nosey) and find they've nearly bought the wrong thing because they weren't totally sure what they needed.

A simple and perhaps obvious one is to tape a carrier bag next to you on your work desk, you can drop in any rubbish, all those backing strips and pesky little squares from double sided products can be taken off and dumped in there straight away. Helps keep a tidier work space and saves time for more crafting.

If you haven't already got one, invest in a non-stick craft sheet, I've used them for years and I think they are an essential piece of equipment as it enables you to do so many more techniques and saves wasting paper. It can be wiped clean and any embossing powder residue can be scraped off with an old credit card or acrylic block.

Thank You Jill!