That's Life: Stamptember

Showing posts with label Stamptember. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 September 2026

Frozen...

Happy Sunday....

Hope you all had a wonderful and enjoyed yesterday's Tim Holtz STAMPtember Technique Workshop. If you missed it, you can watch the replay HERE.

As soon as I saw this beautiful kit, I knew it was a must have ~ the stamp sets are stunning, and there were matching dies which means no fussy cutting, plus the kit itself was such amazing value for money. Sadly it has sold out but don't worry as you can always use many of Tim's other stamp sets to create exactly the same results.

But in celebration of the workshop, I've created an Etcetera Panel project which I hope you love...

For this project, and apart from the kit itself, I used some extra idea-ology items, Matte Collage Medium, embossing ink and powder. The clouds are from Tim's Edison Colorize Thinlits die set and the extra foliage was cut using the Vault Festive Wreath Die. Both of these die sets are by Sizzix.

BACKGROUND

I covered the edges of the panel with some of Tim's Design Tape that I have in my stash and this formed a border.

I cut a panel of watercolour card for the background and using the Stormy Sky Distress Stain in the kit, I added droplets of the stain to my craft mat, spritzed it with water and then smooshed my card to pick up the colour. Once I was happy, I heat dried the card.

I then stamped the snowflakes onto the background using the stamp from the Season of Magic stamp set and embossed these with white embossing powder.

After adding a machine stitched a border, I adhered the background to my Etcetera Panel.

To create the snowdrift in the background, I cut a piece of the watercolour card to fit across the bottom section of the panel and then using a pencil, I drew a wavy line along the top edge of the panel and cut along the line to form the snowdrift.

I wrapped a piece of the Candy Cane Twine around the bottom of the snowdrift, tied it into a big fluffy bow and added a mini pin to the knot before I attached the completed piece to my panel using foam pads.

SCENE

To create the scene I used both stamp sets from the kit ~ the snowman, tree and foliage and stamped these images using the Nocturne Black Versafine Clair Ink Pad onto the watercolour cardstock.

I watercolored each image with the Distress Stains included in the kit and then used the co-ordinating dies to die cut them. I then applied Glossy Accents where I wanted to add Rock Candy Glitter Highlights. You can see I added them to the tree, the snowman's hat and the foliage pieces.

Using foam pads, I attached them to my background to form the wintery scene.

At this stage, I also added a little more foliage. This was die cut from watercolour card, coloured with Rustic Wilderness Distress Stain, using the same technique as I used on the background to apply colour to the cardstock. I then used the Vault Festive Wreath die set to die cut each piece, and applied Rock Candy Glitter to add some more frosty magic.

To complete the scene, I stamped the shining star and attached this to my background....

...before stamping the sentiment 'winter wishes' which I then die cut with the co-ordinating die set and attached to the right of the snowman.

FINISHING DETAILS

For the finishing details, I added some more glitter along the base of the images to ground them and make it look even more sparkly.

For the clouds, I used one of Tim's older die sets, Colorize Edison and I cut these clouds from more of the watercolour card before adding some shading and attaching them to my project with foam pads.

Finally, I stated added a postal stamp ephemera piece, and some cello sticker tape which completed my panel full of wintery magic.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today...see you soon!

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

STAMPtember Kit SOLD OUT

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous: Etcetera Panel

Sizzix: Big Shot, Edison Colorize Thinlits Die Set, Vault Festive Wreath

Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Cello Sticker Tape, Christmas Ephemera Pack, Design Tape Trim from my own stash

Surface: Distress Watercolour Card

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Versamark Ink, Fine Detail White Embossing Powder

Glass Media Mat

Heat Gun

Wednesday, 2 September 2026

STAMPtember® 2026 Blog Party

HAPPY STAMPtember® everyone! 🥳

Today, I'm thrilled to be joining in with the 2026 STAMPtember® celebrations but can you believe it's been 17 years of this exciting event!?! Time sure does fly when you're having fun and that's something that we intend to have a lot of during this month long celebration, and we hope you will celebrate with us.

To kick things off, we're inviting you to our massive STAMPtember party and with so many talented designers joining and so many wonderful products, it's going to be packed full of inspiration. Don't forget, if you want to see the whole release, then just click HERE.

We also have a few exciting promotions running during this party, so I hope you'll play along, keep looking and fingers crossed, you might be lucky to find them all! Below are the details for one of these promotions, just search for sfd633, add it to your cart and enter the code BBEFD at checkout to claim this FREE gift with a $100+ purchase!

Back to the party and the card project that I created. This card features the glorious Sunflower Basket Die Set (S1195) and I decided to use just those beautiful flowers and leaves from this set as my focal point, set against a dramatic black and gold background.

So, let's begin and here's how I made my card...

1. Using the Simon Says Stamp A7 Arched Die Set, die cut two pieces of black card, score approx 1.5" from the top of one of the pieces, fold along the scoreline and attach the second die cut arch to form the card blank.

2. Cut further pieces of black and gold metallic card, which alternate in colour to build up descending layers.

3. On the first layer use the Floral Elements stamp set to stamp some foliage sprigs in clear ink, before embossing with gold embossing powder. Matt this first layer onto the card blank.

4. Follow with a layer of gold metallic card and then a layer of black card, embossed using the Fanfare Embossing Folder. Apply a light coverage of Gilding Wax to accentuate the raised areas and machine stitch a border around the outside. Attach the layer to your card blank.

5. Add a further matt of gold metallic card before applying Distress Translucent Texture Paste through theh Deco Floral Layering Stencil by Tim Holtz onto the final arch die cut, cut from black card. Remove the stencil and wash immediately and leave the card to one side to dry before matting this layer onto the card blank.

6. Cut and colour two separate pieces of Distress Watercolour Card using Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stains. The first piece with Mustard Seed, Fossilised Amber, and the second piece with Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage. Allow for the card to dry before die cutting a selection of petals. Each sunflower consists of two layers and the centre. Add white highlights to the petals.

Cut the centres for each sunflower from more of the watercolour card and using a blending tool, add Gathered Twigs, Vintage Photo, Black Soot, Crackling Campfire Disstress Ink to the surface of each centre. Shape the centre to create a dome and then attach to the middles of the flowers using foam pads.

7. Shape and layer the petals to form 7 sunflowers and die cut 9 leaves.

8. Arrange the flowers to cascade down the card front.

9. Arrange the leaves by tucking them in amongst the flowers.

10. Finally, ink up the "Limited Edition' Sentiment from the Tiny Text stamp set in Versamark Ink and stamp onto a piece of black card. Cover with gold embossing powder, tap away excess and heat emboss. Die cut the sentiment using the Simon Says Stamp Co-ordinating Tiny Text Die Set. Attach to the front of your card using foam pads.

The card is complete. In the photo below, you can see how much dimension there is in these flowers ~ this die set is a must and creates such wonderful results.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and see you all again soon!

Love Emma xxx

Click HERE to shop for products

Simon Says Stamp: Sunflower Basket, A7 Arches Wafer Dies, Fanfare Embossing Folder, Tim Holtz and Simon Says Stamp Tiny Text Bundle

Stampers Anonymous Stamp Sets: Floral Elements, Deco Floral Layering Stencil

Distress Ink: Gathered Twigs, Vintage Photo, Black Soot, Crackling Campfire

Distress Spray Stain: Mustard Seed, Fossilised Amber, Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage

Mediums and Adhesive: SSS Foam Squares, SSS Tape Runner, Fine Detail Gold embossing Powder, Versamark Clear Ink, Distress Translucent Texture Paste

Surfaces: Metallic Kraft Stash, Black Card, Distress Watercolour Card

Lisa Horton Metallic Wax: White Gold, Rich Gold

Tools: Blending Tool

Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat

Sizzix Big Shot

Monday, 15 September 2025

I Want Candy...

Happy Monday everyone...

I can't believe how fast the last week has gone, it doesn't seem a minute since I was last here but as always, the start of the brand new week means we have a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week our theme is called ADD SOME METAL.

With so many products that either are metal or have a metallic finish, you will be spoilt for choice and we can't wait to see what you will be making and hope you'll join us and play along.

For my make, I chose to add metallic shimmer and shine, using papers, sprays and embossing powders and I used these together with a few metal embellishments to make this Halloween card featuring two of the cutest ghosts I've ever seen.

So, let's get started because it's time to share how I created this project...

To begin with I used a metallic pewter coloured card to create my tent fold card blank, measuring, 15.5 x 19.5cm.

I then used some older Halloween idea-ology Design Tape from Tim Holtz and created a border around the edge of the card.

BACKGROUND

Moving onto creating the background and for this I cut 2 panels of black heavy stock card, the first panel measuring 12.5 x 16.5cm and the second one slightly larger in size, 13.5 x 17.5cm.

Taking the smaller panel, I began by inking up the spider web stamp from the Life of the Party stamp set and stamped this in clear ink across the top section of the cardstock. I sprinkled white embossing powder over the top and then after tapping away the excess, I heat embossed the powder until molten and glossy.

Once the powder is cool, I added my metallic shimmer using the following Distress Mica Sprays: Empty Tomb, Crooked Broomsticks and Decayed. You can see the shimmer from the sprays in the photo below...

I misted these sprays very lightly over the embossed cardstock ~ the embossed web will resist the sprays.

Once happy with the background, I repeated the process on the larger piece of black heavystock card and then allowed both pieces to dry thoroughly.

When the mica sprays were dry, I machine stitched a border around the outside, and instead of having the perfect straight edged line, this time I decided to make it uneven and all "higgledy piggledy".

Across the bottom of the card, I added a sentiment banner. For the sentiment, 'candy made me do it", I've used an older STAMPtember Tim Holtz Exclusive stamp set from 2019. You might be fortunate enough to have this stamp set in your stash, but if not, any sentiment will do ~ I just loved the fun nature of this one. The sentiment was stamped onto a narrow strip of black card using clear ink, and then embossing in White Embossing Powder.

After spritzing the banner strip with the same colours of Mica Spray to match the background, I allowed them to dry and then matted the card onto a piece of silver Kraft metallic card.

I adhered the strip to the panel, securing it with some stitching down each side and then mounted this background panel onto the larger panel, followed by a panel of silver metallic Kraft card.

Mount the panels onto the card front using foam pads to add height and dimension.

I completed the sentiment banner by adding a mini clip to either end of the strip, which I painted with gold metallic paint.

I also added three Hardware Heads on the left hand side of the clip, again painting them gold.

GHOSTS

We're now ready to start bringing the scene to life and I began by stamping the ghosts from the Halloween Doodles stamp set.

Using Black Soot Archival Ink, I stamped one ghost directly onto the smooth side of watercolour card. I cleaned my stamp ensuring there was no residue of ink and then, placed some masking tape across the face of the ghost on the rubber stamp. I inked up the stamp once more, removed the tape and then stamped onto another piece of watercolour card. You now have two images, one with a face, one without.

I watercolored each of my images using Distress Watercolour Pencils, and kept the colours neutral. Once I was happy, I used the dies from the co-ordinating SSS die set to die cut the images of both ghosts and inked the edges with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.

ADDING DETAILS TO THE GHOSTS

I wanted each ghost to have its own personality, but come together to tell the story of the scene and that's why I chose to mask off the face of the second ghost, because I want it to look up to the other ghost. And the way that I did this was to draw my own face, adding the eyes and the tiny mouth using a black fine line pen.

On the second ghost, I added a tiny patch of calico cotton to his sheet, stitching this onto the card to look as if there had been a hole in the sheet.

Finally, the second ghost needed his witches hat and once again I used the Halloween Doodles stamp set and stamped the image onto watercolour card before watercoloring it with Distress Watercolour pencils and die cutting it with the die set. Ink the edges of the die cut with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.

Attach the finished witches hat to the ghost's head and then using foam pads, I attached both ghosts to the background, slightly overlapping them and positioning the one ghost so it looks up towards the other, with a slight look of surprise ~ but in his defence, the candy made him do it!!!

FINISHING DETAILS

We're now ready for the finishing details and I stamped the twinkles from the same stamp set as I've used throughout and stamped these onto black heavy-stock card before I embossed them with gold embossing powder. I then used the dies to die cut them and attached them around the two ghosts, placing them on either side.

I cut some bats from more of the black card, using the die that is in the Sizzix Halloween Coffin Die Set by Tim Holtz and after mounting them onto silver card to create a shadow.

I attached each bat to my card using matte collage medium, ensuring the wings are free, so I can lift them and make them appear to be in flight.

Finally I adhered the number 31 into place. This is from the Halloween Ephemera Pack from 2024, I'm not sure if it's in the 2025 set but if not, then there are plenty of pieces in there that can be used. I adhered this with Matte Collage Medium.

So, that's my card finished and I hope you love all the metallic shimmer and shine that I've used to interpret our theme.

As always, if you make anything, or if you've been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....