Stamper of the Year! OMG it's me!!!

I've been bursting to share with you...

but my lips were sealed till publication day.

Craft Stamper Magazine

have voted me

Stamper of the Year!

Can you see me doing a happy dance?

I am flabbergasted! I am in disbelief!............I'm the one in the middle! HOL

What’s more, silly me forgot to renew my subscription and I have only just been able to buy a copy from my local W.H Smith LOL

(not so local as it's 5 miles away!)

Some of you may have had your magazine ages now and not have realised it was me as I have never posted my full name here.....I have always been a bit wary of posting too much personal information....you never know what fruitcakes there are out there! LOL

I was thrilled enough when Katy, the editor, asked for my pieces to be sent for judging on the short list from the photo’s I sent, as I had been in two minds whether they were good enough and left it very late to send the e-mail!
People say things like “I’m over the moon” when faced with such wonderful news

…..but that does not really convey how I feel.

How about......

“I feel like running to the edges of the universe and back in 30 seconds”!!!

Do you get my drift? Do ya?

I want to thank those that judged my pieces special enough to be chosen as

“STAMPER OF THE YEAR!”

what an honour and I still can't believe my "Dance to the Music of Time" canvas is on the front cover....I mean just look at all the talent on the front cover with little old me!!

It is surreal..........ooh er!.........I feel a wobble coming on.....

that means I have to live up to this!

Can I do it?............I will certainly try :)

xoxo Sioux

P.S. If you are looking for my T!m 12 days of Christmas tags and any newer posts please scroll down as I am leaving this as a sticky for a little while.....

just so I can get used to it ya know! HOL

P.P.S. Detail of how the canvas was done are on the Craft Stamper website here.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 12

T!ms day 12 tag is here.

And mine?

Bet ya didn't think I was going to make it in time!

Wasn't sure myself!!! LOL

Here is my day 12 tag.

Stamps used Stampers Anonymous, Paperartsy, Craft Stamper freebie ticket and Royal & Langnickel.

I don't have any grunge paper so made these roses out of ordinary 160gm card stamped a dotty background and a Paperartsy Christmas wording background and coloured with DI SS edged with PN and Adirondack cranberry....can't sploosh all that water and shimmer on this card so added a bit of PSX Diamond glitter glue to add sparkle......If anything....I have more of a hatred of ripping up music paper than pages from a book!!! LOL

....so the free digital download from Craft Stamper

of an antique music sheet has come in handy for me a few times already...thanks for that.

Well that is the end of 12 Tags of Christmas :(

...it has certainly been entertaining...it has been fun finding some new faces in blog land playing along too :) Big Wave

.....I have had a fab one to one session with T!m Holtz ;).........what?!

....you mean he didn't do it just for me? HOL

Thanks for looking

.......and my goodness there seems to have been an awful lot of you

....sending a big hug to you all for taking the time to leave such wonderful comments.

Happy stamping

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I'm off to have a lie down!.....I may be some time!!! LOL

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 11

T!ms day 11 tag is here.

Amazingly I've made tag 11 too! LOL

Stamps used Stampers Anonymous, Paperartsy, Papermania and Royal & Langnickel.

I love reindeer images but sadly do not posses the gorgeous T!m one :(

I did draw this up....well trace actually as it is based on some Xmas lights I have in the window..........and embossed with disco black on grunge board....the swirls are stamped in Adirondack cranberry (I must put some of that aged mahogany on my wish list!)......don't have white rub ons so embossed the wording with winter wonderland again.....the fab flowers and ribbon were in my candy from Minxy and no........I do not posses that latest must have gizmo.........I had some buttons in my stash that were already fabric covered so had a go at stamping the Paperartsy images on them.....rather pleased with how they came out.

Tomorrow is the last day and I hope I can play along.......unfortunately DH is not too well

........we had to cancel a planned trip to a candlelit Dartmouth

........otherwise know as a marketing ploy for late night shopping!!! LOL

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

P.S. My computer man did arrive but has not completely sorted my problem out yet.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 10

Today is a special day!

Not only is it T!ms' day 10 tag.

Not only have I managed to join in for 10 days in a row....no mean feat!!!

...but

Today

is

my

BIRTHDAY!

I'm celebrating with T!m (in my dreams) LOL

But seriously how else would I be able to have a one to one session with Tim Holtz?

And for free to boot!!!........I'm embracing the experience.

Here is my day 10 tag.

Quite honestly......although it don't look too bad on the photo!....this was a disaaaaaaaaaarster as Craig would say on SCD.

My lucky streak continued as I had some chipboard letters and some metal tape my DH had that I thought would suffice as a substitute for the Ten Seconds Studio metal stuff! How wrong can you be? The chipboard stuff was in the main way too big for the tag......I ended up using some peel offs......yep........the "dreaded"....and stuck them on chipboard to cut out the smaller letters.....however :) I discovered that you can get a fabby effect with the embossing as they provide extra patterns!! Take a look see at the bauble.......additionally I don't know if the paint dabbers react differently but the black acrylic I had simply wiped most of the alcohol inks off!!!!!!!! I had to go back and dab more alcohol inks on and hope for the best!!! LOL......The metal tape is not very thick and does not stand up to the rubbing down so the elements are not as shiny either!!! Hey HO!

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I'm trying to leave comments but my computer is on a go slow....a very nice man is supposed to be coming tomorrow to take a look.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 9

T!ms day 9 tag is here.

I can't believe I am still keeping up.....mine is here!!

Stamps used Stampers Anonymous and Cherry Pie.....love that advert stamp T!m used today but don't have it nor anything like it!! :( inked with DI FJ and ML

......isn't it great that T!m shared his photo's with us today?

It helped me out no end!! None of that film strip :( so dug out a strip of film negative with nothing important on it and punched out the openings with a square punch (just moved a bit along to get the oblong)....the letter dome sticker was a freebie from a magazine an eon ago and I discovered it fitted nicely on the same washers I used on day 3 tag...numbers are We Are Memory Keepers..........because my negative strip is not the same size I left out the metal flower part as it was looking a bit crowded

.........that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!! LOL

I used two of T!ms' photo's and three of my own......I don't seem to have much in the way of childhood Christmas photo's but I did have one of me in a group photo of a school nativity play from when I lived on the Isle of Wight (top) one of me in a group photo from my secondary school yearly panto when I lived in Lancashire (middle) and one of my DH when he was two standing beside one of those old fashioned trees that did not have much in the way of branches!!! (bottom)

........and yes the large photo is me about 8 years old and can you guess what song people insisted on singing to me?

......again..........and again...........and again!!!!!!!

"All I want for Christmas is?..............my two front teeth" HOL

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 8

T!ms' day 8 tag is here

Mine.....at last is here!

Well......I don't have that fabby lamppost and did not see the point in trying to re-create something similar.......you can't improve on the best lamppost in the world!! So I drew the church onto grunge board and went over with an emboss pen and heat embossed with disco black.....filled in the walls with a white pen.......distress glitter antique linen on the windows and gel pens on the roof and door........holly is just bits of paper cut out and inked and art glitter glue with the red glitter over....used a pricking tool to get the scratch effect on the background.

Stamps used Stampers Anonymous, and Prima.........I had the most gorgeous naturally aged and distressed key and hoped to use it but it is too heavy for the tag to stand so I'll have to save it for something else.

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 7

Day 7 and had to change around T!ms tag today

So here is my day 7 tag.

I could have used the same Santa as on day 3 but as I have a feeling there might be another Santa on T!ms tags before we reach the end I decided to try something else and used this wonderful stamp that Laura generously sent me.........I have to thank her so much because I had got in the doldrums and I don't think I would have even attempted to enter the Craft Stamper competition if her amazing goodies had not kick started my creativity off again.....you must go and visit.....she's a star!!

Stamps used were Stampers Anonymous, Inkadinkadoo and Paperartsy.......I masked the focal portion of the very large stamp and basically the rest is like T!ms except I tried some distress emboss (not paint dabber) for the swirls in scattered straw and reverted to the colourway that my day 5 tag should have been i.e. shades of brown and red.........before I could stop myself I had daubed some green on and it was too late then to go back!! LOL......believe it or not I did stamp a music stamp on the top portion but it seems to have faded into the other inks and I had already rescued this a couple of times so did not want to ruin it entirely by trying again!! Stamped the Paperartsy word stamp on the ribbon.......added a bit of raffia as I did not like the harsh line where the main stamp ended.......and the metal star is AMM.....finally a touch of diamond glitter glue on the rays and around the head of baby Jesus and a tad of distress glitter glue antique linen on the halo.

I'm not a religious person....but I do class myself as spiritual.........and whilst I love Christmas it is easy to forget why we are celebrating sometimes.........I think this will fill that gap in my 12 tags perfectly and the more of the tags I do the more I feel there is some sort of Kismet behind it all!!

Thanks for looking and happy stamping

xoxo Sioux

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 6

A BIG thank you to everyone for your warm wishes on my Stamper of the Year post....I promise I'll get back to you all individually just as soon as :)

Anyways it is day 6 and when I saw T!ms' tag this morning I thought hells bells! There was no way I could complete something just like that so......apart from the background!.....I've run with trying to get the feeling he was conveying instead.

Here is my day 6 tag.

Stamps used are Stampers Anonymous, We Are Memory Keepers, Papermania and Royal & Langnickel.........stamped and embossed the trees with verdigris and added Liquid Pearls white opal for the snow with a sprinkle of silver glitter on top before it dried.......stamped and embossed the houses in disco black firstly onto chipboard and secondly onto a bit of reject card from practising the tartan technique on day 3, then coloured parts with some gel pens...........didn't have any bingo numbers so embossed a chipboard 4 in disco black.......didn't have any stamps that said HOME so cut them out of grunge board and glittered with red...................stamped a flourish, the word Christmas and post card............

so as you can see it is absolutely nothing like T!ms but I like it and that is what counts! LOL

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I have a big problem with tearing up old books! So I scanned a page that included the definition of home and printed it out on paper!

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 5

Day 5 Tag - Yer 'tis!!

I was sooooooooo lucky to win some of those fragments on last years 12 tags of Christmas so......although it still took me forever..........it did make it slightly easier than yesterday! LOL

Stamps used are a mixture of Stampers Anonymous, Paperartsy, Papermania and Royal & Langnickel.

No red or green distress powders for me so tried hand painting a conifer bough with Adirondack Acrylics.......did not look quite right when the tag was nearly done so added a bit of the twigs I had left from day 1 tag.........had to rescue it somehow! LOL........no red or green stickles so used art glitter glue and sprinkled on normal glitter and used the PSX diamond sparkles again.....no gold dabber so heat embossed the flourishes in gold......no white rub-ons so heat embossed the Merry Christmas in winter wonderland (Stamp & Stuff)......Did have some German scrap :) used some of the same on yesterdays tag spookily.............and did have a T!m script stamp and flourish :)

I've now added people I find playing along on the side bar...think it might be easier.

xoxo Sioux.

P.S. Might not see you tomorrow as we really must decorate the tree! :)

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 4

T!m does it again!

Unfortunately I nearly didn't!!! However here is tag number 4.

The stamp collage is a mixture of Paperartsy, Royal & Langnickel and Papermania....that bit took a while to get a pleasing arrangement!!! Then the challenge today for me was T!ms' dangly bit....whoops pardon the expression!! No idea-ology but it must be my lucky month 'cos only a couple of days ago a threw away a bit of plastic bubble packaging just 1" square so I dived into the waste paper basket to retrieve it......see you should never throw anything away!!! HOL. The post card background and Madonna & Child image are both from the Graphics Fairy thanks Karen SSBFL..........added a bit of chunky glitter flakes and German scrap from Paperartsy to finish.......don't look too closely at the beading it is not my best subject!

Want to join the splinter group?!

What's that?

Laura coined the phrase because a lot of us don't have many or even any T!m Christmas stamps but still want to play along so

........why not leave me a comment and tell me you are playing along also and then I can take a look see at yours then I'll add to the links every day as I get them? It will then make it so much easier for us all to visit often :)

Cheryl

Hels

Jennie

Karen

Joanne

Laura

Helen

Anita

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I've always wanted to do something daring like belonging to a splinter group! LOL

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 3

Here we are again! Well I use the term we loosely as I haven't found many people playing along just yet...I know how they feel....work and life get in the way......I couldn't play last year :( So this year I am trying to make up for it :) I realise everyone isn't as dotty as me.........getting up at the crack of dawn like on day 2! LOL

Here is tag number 3.

I knew it would happen.........T!ms' day 3 tag obviously has his stamps bold and large all over them!! I've used the only large Father Christmas stamp I posses from Paperartsy.....sorry T!m!!

(Bang goes me winning a prize then!).

I had my husband searching for some washers all morning while I was at work and when I got home for lunch had him punching the brads.....who needs a T!m hammer when you have a DH!! LOL. I had a bash at the tartan effect but I don't have any of that glossy card so used some paper that seemed glossy but the colours are not nearly as bright as they should be I think....hey ho you can only work with what you've got....then stuck the paper onto some card so I could distress the edges.

I also do not have any gorgeous idea-ology metal bits :(........but I did have the heart slider embellishment :)........AMM bargain in a sale £1.50 for 4 marked down from £3.50........so used that threaded on the string......

The snowy bits were another challenge and in the end I used some Liquid Pearls white opal to stamp a dotty bit with........don't have black soot DI so had to substitute greens.....scrummy fibres again from Minxies candy!

Apart from all that.........it is just the way T!m did his!!!!! ;) Ha, ha, ha.

P.S. Here are some links to people I have found playing along........why not leave me a comment and tell me you are playing along also and then I can take a look see at yours then I'll add to the links every day as I get them? It will then make it so much easier for us all to visit often :)

Cheryl

Hels

Jennie

Karen

Joanne

Laura

xoxo Sioux

P.P.S. Thanks for the nice comments on the tomato paste tube rose...I got the idea from Laura who sent the metal to me and obviously was also influenced by Leandra at Paperartsy. Thanks Laura and Leandra SSBFL.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 2

So far so good with not having T!m Christmas stamps!!

Can you believe I got up at 6:30 today?

........just to see what the tag of the day involved! :)

Here is tag number 2.....glad it was not too tricky today I would not want to miss Spooks!

The challenge today for me was the metal rose and leaves........decided to use a bit of the tomato paste tube Laura gave me and make a flower out of that! Alcohol inked the edges a bit with espresso and did the leaves with a pesto and espresso mix. Espresso inked the metal corners which are from Making Memories....had 'em ages got to start putting them to use!! LOL

The sentiments are Royal & Langnickel.......luckily I had the very same frame and, although the flourish is one of T!ms', it is not the same one you can see on his day 2 tag here. I had to substitute the Antique Linen distress emboss colour with Scattered Straw and used Worn Lipstick instead of Aged Mahogany DI. I managed the splatter bit by mixing a bit of PVA glue with water to get the consistency and adding a bit of Cosmic Shimmer dark bronze.....

it seemed to work and I could get to like that effect!

Finished off with a bit of gorgeous ribbon in the candy stash I won from Minxy....thanks Minxy!

Thanks for your kind comments on my day 1 tag.

....only 10 more tags to go!!

Happy stamping!

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I might not be posting every day...........

T!m is allowing us mere mortals an extra 7 days to finish! LOL

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 1

"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me - ?"

Well not going to waffle on....barely got time to dream the piece let alone make it! LOL

As I mentioned before I could come unstuck here as I don't have any T!m Christmas stamps but I'll give it a go :) Here is the first tag.

Had to use some chipboard circles for the snowman and heat emboss some snowflakes and drag black acrylic over....couldn't be doing with cutting fiddly arms so found some twiggy bits in the back garden for those! Cut a Santa hat similar to one I made last year (free download available here) and embossed with Disco Black powder, also did this on the nose. Cut the swirl from dotty grunge board (it is the only sort I have) and painted gesso on (no white acrylic!).

Here is a close up to show I really did put some rock candy on the tag....just not as thick as T!m did... it is a big tag and takes a lot to cover it and I'll run out if I need some again in the next 12 days.

Rest is pretty much as T!m showed us so take a look at his 1st tag.

Thanks for looking and Happy Stamping

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I might not be posting every day as T!m is allowing us mere mortals an extra 7 days to finish. I think I just might need the breathing space! LOL

I'm off to bed.....nightie night! :)

Serious Flaw!

I've just realised there is a serious flaw......

in my desire to play along with T!ms' 12 tags of Christmas.

I don't' posses any T!m Christmas stamps!!! LOL

Me thinks a spot of improvisation (that's a tricky word to say after a bottle of rose wine on a Saturday night! HOL) is called for.

Perhaps......seeing as he seems to be a very nice man......he will excuse this small flaw.....I will be using all that I can that is T!m after all!!!

Maybe I will chicken out?..............maybe not!

xoxo Sioux

Journal Girl

I've been blog hopping......you know how it is........you start one place and can sometimes end up somewhere completely different! LOL

I ended up watching some You Tube vids by Teesha Moore about art journaling.......facinating stuff.

I've never made an art journal or any other sort of journal for that matter but am very tempted to try something having watched all these vids......she talks through the whole making of one start to finish. The link above takes you to the first one on painting the pages at the start........although there are two more before that about actually cutting up a large sheet of watercolour paper to make the journal............after that I landed on Teeshas blog and she had posted a fun drawing lesson..........

I've always been a bit of a doodler........doodle whilst on the phone talking to someone etc.......so I suppose this was an accident waiting to happen! LOL I think I could get hooked!!

Anyhow........I've something to show you........something like nothing else I've put on my blog before so please no tittering in the back there!

Here is my attempt at Journal Girl

It is only a small thing on a bit of scrap paper about 8x10 cm.........perhaps I'll draw a bigger one and colour that in........Oh! Please don't ask me what the significance of the wording is 'cos my pen just seemed to take on a mind of it's own as I did it!! LOL

P.S. I had started this journey via Ginny's Small Studio blog (I feel she would be a lovely artistic person to meet.....don't suppose I ever will, but visiting the blog is the next best thing) and she is organising some workshops next year and Teesha is one of the guests so if you are interested.....and you can afford to go to America........keep a watch out for when the class goes on sale.........I know I'd be signing up for this one at least if I won the lottery.

Thanks for looking

Happy doodling!

xoxo Sioux

Be Happy!

I have admired the stamp of this lady for quite a while....it's from Elusive Images........but you know by now I have to be careful what I spend my money on so you can understand how the sale at Graphicus last week sort of tipped me over the edge and I bought it!!!

I have been working on this piece all week when I had a few spare minutes and it was going to be a card for future use but it just seemed to grow like Topsy and it's now hung in a frame and it is definitely staying here on my wall as a cherished piece!!

I'm entering it in this months Graphicus blog challenge which is to use a resist technique and colour scheme metalics.

I stamped the swirls from Dawn Chorus and the top part of the grass the little bird is perched on from the same plate all around the edge in Versamark and clear embossed.......

stamped the words "art" from the lady plate in Versamark and embossed with

Stamp & Stuff pewter........love that............

swooshed DI FJ and SS with a hint of WS onto the craft sheet spritzed with water and dragged the card through it...........stamped Be Happy from the words of wisdom plate in black Staz On.

Stamped the lady in Impress chocolate, masked and stamped a T!m script stamps in DI SS and partially cut out the image...........Made the flowers using the same script stamp using DI TD, SS and WS and drew with an emboss pen round the edges and heat embossed with pewter again.

All layered onto a piece of cream card then a card edged with DI FJ and heat embossed with pewter.....then onto the background made with DI SS and stamped in TD using the script stamp........and what about those metal filigree corners? They cost me a fortune...not!

They were a bargain pack of laser cuts for 50p and I just heat embossed with pewter.

Thanks for looking.

Happy stamping.....I have been this week.

xoxo Sioux

P.S. Here it is in the frame.....if you look close that is DH's fingers holding it while I take the photo.....bless! Just caught a chink of sunlight today.

Whiter shade of pale?

I have been very taken with the fabulous white space cards that Paula often creates and have been wanting to have a go myself......just for the challenge you know!

Not sure that this is "what it says on the tin" as I seem to have stamped all over it!!!

It does appear to fit the Tuesday Taggers theme this week though which is no patterned paper so am entering it there.

I stamped the umbrella man in Impress chocolate onto some card adding one of my own background stamps in DI SS and partially cut out the outline on one side. Stamped my own distressed alphabet stamp onto the background card again in chocolate and a T!m scroll stamp at the opposite bottom corner in DI SS. I stamped the watch face (a freebie from magazine) onto a bit of the tomato paste tube metal that Laura ever so kindly sent me.....fab or what!?......then had a go at trying some embossing onto metal just like Leandra from Paperartsy shows on her blog.....think I must try harder..............but then that stamp was not specifically designed for that technique!! Stamped and cut out the Artifact pen nibs and added my own sentiment stamp.

Thanks for looking.

Happy stamping!

xoxo Sioux

P.S. I'm still waiting for the rubber stamps I won in the Paperartsy draw the other month as the first lot got lost in the post!! Hoping the second lot have not ended up the same way!!!!

Spooks!

Not another Hallowe'en piece I hear you say?

Yep your right it's not! LOL

Just a picture of two people who make Spooks on the BBC worth watching.

I read recently that Richard started out as a dancer.......and what's more his favourite ballroom dance would be the Argentine Tango........I went quite weak at the knees at the thought of that!

I can dream........... :)

.......and Peter? Lets just say that's a long standing thing.........

involving the Double Deckers and Scooper..........Equus/riding naked on a horse.........

and after very infrequent television appearances...........Spooks and Harry!

So glad he did not get terminated last night!

Live as if..........

I think this may be my last Hallowe'en piece for a while.......had to do one last twinchie for the challenge over at Theme Thursday using your favourite colours!

Two of my favourite colours are Spiced Marmalade and Scattered Straw distress inks both used on this twinchie.

I cut a positive and a negative mask to sponge the DI SS and DC onto the textured card and stamped the T!m clock in SM over the SS........stamped the Paperartsy wrought iron in Adirondack wild plum and the corner decal and wording (my own stamp) in black archival.

Over the past few challenges I seem to have inadvertently built up a little collection of Hallowe'en pieces and this twinchie fits nicely with the rest that I am going to make into a wall hanging......

at least that is the intention! LOL

Watch this space.....

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

Don't look at the Eyes!

Here I am again for the inchie month over at SCD with the theme "Hallowe'en".....Yeh!

Did the trick or treaters come your way last night? We don't, as a rule, get many round our house but the bags were at the ready just in case!! In the end not one visitor........looks like we will be munching Haribo's for a while. LOL

Stamped the backgound with DI TD using a Cherry Pie harlequin stamp.........

added a T!m script stamp (barely visable) in Impress chocolate.........

stamped the Inkadinkadoo eye and coloured the eyeball with Adirondack cranberry.......

sponged a bit of DI SM over and hand wrote the word fragments.

"Don't look at the Eyes!"................

for anyone struggling to remember where they have heard the phrase before....................

comes from the film The Devil Rides Out........an all time classic Hammer Horror!......starring a very young Patrick Mower the fabulous Charles Grey and the deliciously spooky Christopher Lee who happened to be playing a goodie in this one instead of the Prince of Darkness for a change!

I read in the paper yesterday that he had been given a gong and is now Sir Christopher Lee.....

Congratulations!

Happy stamping

xoxo Sioux