Our December issue is out this FRIDAY and it's packed full of beautiful ideas to make sure you have your most creative Christmas yet! You can order your copy from our online SHOP or download your digital version from POCKETMAGS!  

Are you looking forward to Christmas already? Well if you're looking for some Christmas stamping ideas, then look no further than our December issue, on sale this Friday 7th November!

Our December issue goes on sale next Friday 7th November and is full of Christmas inspiration! Are you making Christmas cards and gifts already? Here are a few sneak peeks at a few of the beautiful projects we have for you....

We are looking for submissions for our Ready, Set, Stamp feature on the following theme for the December issue of Craft Stamper. If you've always wanted to see YOUR card in print, now is your chance!!!

Santa Baby: Traditional Christmas cards featuring good old Saint Nick Colours = Traditional Xmas – red, green and gold (gold, not yellow!)

Don't miss our special Christmas issue, on sale in the shop tomorrow (1st Nov).

December 2013 Issue

Our cover girl this month is Joanne Allison, who has a tutorial for some really elegant decorations for your festive tree. Plus there are lots of card designs, packaging ideas and an adorable Advent Village to countdown the days.

The free stamp is a gorgeous collage designed for us by myStampBox.

Plus we have altered bottles (great for crafty storage), a gorgeous embossing technique using glue, our crackle Masterclass and an adorable address book made from upcycled materials by reader Sharon Dobson.

I hope this issue makes you very merry!
Katy x

I've finally started on my xmas cards - about time eh? It's no secret that I am not a big fan of Christmas but I do like to make cards for my crafty friends - i.e. people I know will appreciate them!

Here's one of my creations. The papers I've used are the simply yummy PaperArtsy Rum & Raisin collection. The main stamped image is the snow baby from Crafty Individuals - isn't he adorable? It's an easy card - I simply stamped him onto a piece of card coloured with various Versamagic inks and then highlighted a few details with red Coloursoft pencil to match the image with the background. I stamped the swirls to 'frame' the image a little. You can't tell from the pic but the swirls are embossed with crystal powder and the snowflakes are highlighted with Stickles so they are all twinkly and Christmassy.

I've made a whole other one card I can show you in a few days!

...until Christmas - panic has well and truly started to set in and I simply MUST get making cards or I am not going to make last post!!! I made a couple last night including this one for the daughter of my other half's best friend. I used Toodles and Binks from Stamp Galaxy as I thought she was just perfect for a little girl (she's a really big stamp too, so not much more was needed). I also used some truly ancient Papermania paper, a Stamps Away! greeting and a Penny Black swirly stamp. She is coloured with Twinkling H20s.

Been having fun today playing with my NEC stash! Bit limited in what I could do because our boiler has broken down and am managing with basics - i.e. card, ink and stamps and not much else - as it's tooooooooo cold to work in my craft room (brrrrrrr).


One of my favourite purchases was a pack of Inkadinkado clear stamps called Ornate Christmas (I got these from the very friendly people from Crafts U Love). I've made two cards today with the stamps, with quite different looks.


On the snowman card, his scarf is coloured with my new Xmas colours Gelly Roll pens (which I also got yesterday from Stamposaurus) and his body is coloured with Broken China Distress Ink. All the stamps are from the Inkadinkado set.




On the Seasons Greeting's card I've coloured the stamped image by blending Distress Inks (Antique Linen and Fired Brick). The swirl is a Penny Black stamp. It's a lot nicer in real life - sorry for the awful photo, it got dark fast!

The paper is from the new Basic Grey Wassail collection (have I mentioned I am addicted to Basic Grey papers???).

I hope you like them :).


See you soon,
Katy x

Another Santa Hat card today.

I made this using one of my favourite stamps by Bam Pop, called ‘M is for Monster’.

Been soooo busy, so I hope you'll forgive me that it’s a very simple card.


Ingredients:

• Bam Pop M is for Monster stamp (from Angel Crafts)
• Papermania clear stamp set - A Wonderful Christmas Time - Seasons Greetings
• High Hopes Santa hat stamp
• Papermania Christmas papers - A Wonderful Christmas Time
• Silver card, fuchsia card and lime card
• Scrap of fuchsia ribbon
• White gel pen (I used Ranger Inkssentials)
• Snow Writer

1 Stamp Monster onto lime card and colour his teeth and eyes with an Inkssentials white gel pen. Cut him out.

2 Stamp the hat and word monster onto the snowflake paper in areas which are unpatterned. Cut them out. Cover parts of the hat with Snow Writer to give it a fluffy dimensional effect.

3 Stamp the greeting in brown ink onto white card. Mat onto pink card. Stick the word monster over the top of the word merry with 1mm foam pads.

4 Cover a card blank with snowflake paper. Stick the monster and greeting onto a piece of silver card. Round all the corners and mat onto a slightly larger piece of white card which also has rounded corners.

5 Add the panel to the card with 3D foam and finish by adding a bow to make the greeting resemble a present.

It might be a little bit bonkers as Christmas cards go but I like it!

Probably won't be around at the weekend but I'll be back next week. Have a fab weekend.

Katy x

PS ATC SWAP: I've chosen a comment at random and am delighted to swap with KIM. Please email me at cs@traplet.com Kim. :).

CANDY: Tomorrow is the last day for the launch blog candy (see first post).

The theme for this month’s ATC swap in Craft Stamper is Christmas. We've had some lovely entries on this theme which really seems to have inspired you to create.

I loved this month's winning entry - see Joanne Wardle's blog for a picture and more of her lovely work.

On the left is my take on the Christmas theme. I sponged inks onto white card, sprayed lightly with red Glimmer Mist and over-stamped with swirls using Brilliance inks. I then stamped with a wreath (Basic Grey Winterland) and seasonal message (Fancy Pants Designs) in black ink and finished with a wee bit of glitter glue (my latest favourite product), a swipe of Ranger gold paint and some paper flowers.

Trade with me! I would love to swap with a reader – please post a comment here if you would like to swap with me . If there's more than one comment, I will choose one person at random to exchange with.

Thanks for visiting, hope to see you again soon.

Katy x

I got a cute little Santa Hat stamp by High Hopes and decided to have a go at using it with stamps I already had in my collection to create some Christmas cards. Have a look in your stash - with a little imagination it’s pretty easy to utilise your existing stamp collection for Christmas makes.

OWL CARD
Ingredients:

• Hero Arts Big Owl stamp
• Perfectly Clear Snowflake Symphony stamps (from Handy Hippo)
• Studio G mini xmas stamps
• High Hopes Santa Hat stamp (from Silly Monkey Crafts)
• Blue Brilliance Ink
• Versamark Ink and Versamark Pen
• Snowflake White embossing powder

Instructions:
1 Stamp the owl onto white card, colour with brush markers and cut out. Stamp the hat, colour the main part of the hat red with a marker. Colour the trim with a Versamark pen and emboss with the snowflake powder. Cut out.

2 Stamp and emboss multiple snowflakes onto white card using snowflake white embossing powder. Using a sponge, ink over the embossed images with Brilliance Ink – the embossed images will resist the ink. Swipe with a baby wipe to remove excess ink from the embossed images. This will be your background.

3 Cut a branch shape from brown card (I traced around a Grungeboard shape – I was too stingy to use my precious Grunge on a Christmas card!). Emboss the branch with a Cuttlebug folder if desired, and ink the raised areas in brown.

4 Stick the branch to the bottom of the snowflake panel. Stick the owl in position ‘standing’ on the branch and stick the hat onto his head. Finish with an embossed, matted greeting. (TIP: If you don't have an Xmas greeting, stamp the word 'Joy' using any alphabet stamps you have in your stash).

I've made a couple more cards with this hat stamp which I'll post soon.

Thanks for visiting, see you soon.

Katy x

I've actually started my Christmas cards early this year (usually I start preparing around about Xmas Eve, so I'm allowed to be a little bit pleased with myself). I've been playing with this new stamp from the Toodles and Binks range, exclusive to Stamp Galaxy . His name's Joel and I’ve made a couple of cards with him to share with you. He’s painted with Twinkling H20’s with a little bit of glitter added for Christmassy sparkle. I coloured over his eyes with an Inkessential white pen and black Glaze pen to really bring them out.


On the red and green card: I’ve stamped the background paper with a swirl stamp (Basic Grey Winterland) in both red and gold to add a bit of depth. I layered my paper with a die cut scalloped circle which I embossed using Cuttlebug Divine Swirls folder, a strip of stripy paper and a length of lace. Before adding Joel to the card, I stamped the edge of the panel with the swirl stamp again as a finishing touch. The papers and greeting stamp are both from Papermania.





On the blue card: I masked Joel and stamped a circle background stamp (PaperArtsy Mini) over the top to look like snow. I left a void at the bottom where I added Snow Writer and glitter glue, inked over with Brilliance Ink to look a bit like a mound of snow. The ‘Let it Snow’ greeting stamp is by Autumn Leaves and the paper is Basic Grey Blitzen range. The snowflake is a Heidi Swapp ghost shape which is covered with blue glitter glue on the reverse. The little pebbles are called Zoomz ,also from Stamp Galaxy. These are a great value buy and make a lovely alternative to gemstones.


I hope you like them :0)

Thank you all for the warm welcome to blogland. Don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post for a chance to win some candy!

See you soon,
Katy x