Bombshells are FIVE Blog Hop!!!

Can you believe it's the end of August already?! It's nearly time for the kids to head back to school(our bank balance is severely depleted after last week's uniform and shoe shop!!) As it's the last Wednesday of the month it's TIME TO BLOG HOP!!!
Here's Alison with our theme for the month:  
"This month's theme is "Let's Hear it for the Boys." You can interpret that as you like, but I can assure you that you will be singing that oh-so-popular 80's song from Deniece Williams for the next week. You're welcome. Did you know that August marks the 5th Anniversary for Bombshell Stamps??? How rad is that?! So, in honor of this very special celebration. We want this hop to be big...REALLY big. So tell everyone you know to join us. We want to shout from the rooftops how much we love Bombshell Stamps! So please, join us!" 
 

 Supplies:
Vintage Motorcycle Bombshell Stamps
Prima Craftsman Paper
Tim Holtz Paper Stack
Distress Ink
Memento Ink
Copic Ciao Pens
Spellbinders Nestabilities Postage Stamps
Sizzix Alterations Gadget Gears
Kaisercraft Collectables

We have SIXTEEN Blog Hoppers ...how fabulous is that...so sit back with a coffee and get ready to see the creativity and "Let's Hear it for the Boys!"

Bombshell Blog
Alison 
Alex
Rachael
Alaine
Kelli
Jodi
Laura
Sparkly Mary
Terra
Kim
Stempelientje
 Nicole
Glittery Katie YOU ARE HERE!!
Kas
Kathi 

 Remember there are prizes at stake here people and they can be won 2 ways: participate in the blog hop and show us YOUR take on this month's theme to receive an entry into the draw OR leave a comment on everyones' blogs and receive an entry into this month's prize package drawing EACH time you comment!

Happy Crafting !
GlitteryKatie xxxXxxx

Mermaids!

I love mermaids and this one by Stampotique is so cool- she has so much attitude! I decided to have a go at the Stampotique Designer Challenge this week- it's for a FLAT card...no layers *gasps* this is hard as I'm a layer girl!! Anyways I stamped the mermaid, masked her embossed so chicken wire with Crafters Workshop template and white embossing powder and then swirled on various Distress Inks to create a sea background! I stamped with Kaisercraft stamps on the edges of the card Numbers Background and Script and I stamped with a lovely HEro Arts swirly stamp too! I couldn't resist adding some STickles glitter! I coloured the mermaid with Copic Ciao pens!

 

So that's it...off to upload to the Stampotique Blog now LOVE their work! Happy Crafting! GlitteryKatie xxx

"Little things....

....please little minds,"  is probably very true for me as I've always loved miniatures; I've always collected miniatures, loved dolls houses and made mini toys. So I thought after my shrink plastic experiments the other week I'd try miniaturising a Bombshell Mermaid!
I used Mermaid Anchor stamp set and Lotus Garden set:

Tutorial details are HERE

Hope you enjoyed my project!
Happy Crafting!
GlitteryKatie xxXxx

Red, White 'n' Blue

As you may have noticed there's a little sporting event taking place here in London called the 2012 Olympics!!
Well everyone's feeling very patriotic what with the Queen's diamond Jubilee in June so there's lots of Union Jack flags and bunting around.
Emilie over on Merly Impressions blog came up with a patriotic themed card challenge- which I had fun taking part in.
I used some of the Collections from Kaisercraft including Check In and Miss Match. I used papers from Papermania's Portabello Road collection and some Kaisercraft stamps and a Hero Arts stamp.

Here's Emilie's Challenge over on the Merly Impressions blog, go look at Emilie's cool card!

Happy Crafting!
GlitteryKatie xxXxx

Bombshell JULY Blog Hop!!

 Here's Alison with her challenge for us all this month:

The July hop theme is called "Iconic." So you will need to break out those fabulous, teeny weeny stamps that come with all of your sets and use them as your focus. You'll be able to use 1 large image too, but let's keep it as 1 (feel free to use none!). The focus is on all of the little icons. 

 Inspired by Susie's Jewellery challenge earlier in the month I decided to keep with that theme for Alison's Iconic challenge as I liked the idea of creating a little biddy frame for these iddy biddy stamp images!
I had some easy squish bottle caps from a friend and put them through my Cuttlebug to create the bezel for these brooches. I had tried a normal beer cap but it was considerably stronger than these ones and for while was embedded in my A plate: so if you can get the softer tops I'd recommend them!!
I made a template so I knew what size circle fitted in the bottle cap: I then stamped inside this area firstly with the Retro stamps in red ink from the Bombshell Angel stamp set  followed by the cherries from the Love and Luck set. The cherries I used Distress Markers to colour onto the rubber so I had red cherries and green leaves, Tim Holtz demos this technique on his blog if you want to see a video of it! I matted the card circle onto some brown cardstock to form a little outer frame and added some Distress ink in brown around the edges. Once the completed piece was stuck onto the bottle cap I poured some Crackle Glaze onto the surface and left it on a level surface (out of reach of my pokey fingers) to dry and viola it was complete!

For the second brooch I stamped the image using the 'K' for Katie from the Classic Tattoo Font in red ink and used the teeny star icon from the Anchor Mermaid set- it's so small it's just wonderful all round the edges. I used Distress ink round the edges of the cardstock circle and stuck it onto the bottlecap. I added a little red Distress Stickles round the edges and poured some clear crackle glaze all over the bottle cap as before!

Lastly you need to add brooch pin to the back or a clip for a chain and your piece is ready to wear!

So that's my take on Alison's challenge now see what the other's have created this month.
Here's the road map to all the Bombshell goodness by the DT:

Bombshell Blog
Alison
Laura
Torrey
Sparkly Engineer Mary
Stempelientje
Glittery Katie: YOU ARE HERE!!!!
Kelli
Jodi
Alaine
Kim
Kathi

Now it's YOUR turn- play along via the BOMBSHELL BLOG and our cool linkydink for a chance to win gorgeous Bombshell gooodies!!

Happy Crafting!
GlitteryKatie xxx

Smudged and Smeared HOT Blog Hop!!

It's that time again! Time for the Smeared and Smudged member blog hop.

The theme is BRING THE HEAT! This is totally up to interpretation....some ideas would be using heat embossing, hot glue or fire. Or even using imagery of fire, heat, or even something SEXY!  Step outside your comfort zones - the HOTTER the better!!!  It can be a canvas, a card, a scrapbook page, an altered item, an art journal page, etc. Use your imaginations.

Here's my project- I wanted to use a flaming unicorn, inspired by the science-fantasy books I love to read!

I used the wonderful Wild Horses Bombshell Stamp stamped and embossed in gold on a Tim Holtz paper and glittered with gold glass glitter. 

I used sentiments from the Girl's Ruin Stamp set.

The flames were stamped and embossed in gold and were from the Tattoo Background set.

Papers are by Tim Holtz and Cosmo Cricket.

Sorry my project was late- had an unwell Beagle yesterday so I'm running a bit behind In the meantime have a hop round to see everyone's projects!!

Blog Roll:

Tori
Black Dragon
Windy
Jane
Shell
Susan S.
Madelein Bouquet
Lady Brayton
Kristy
Glittery Katie
Alison

Lisa

Bombshell Stamps Blog

Wendy

Kathi

Dianne

Bombshell Challenge by Ms July

This month's challenge from out guest DT Susie was to make some jewellery with our Bombshells. Why not pop over to the Bombshell blog to see what the DT have come up with.
Here are my two projects; first of all a brooch made from a paper flower and Butterfly Dreams 

 I glued some Cosmo Cricket paper to some thin card and die cut several flowers using Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals die .
I inked around the flowers with Distress Ink and after punching a whole in the centre of all the flowers I joined them together with a fancy brad!
I stamped a small butterfly from the Butterfly Dream Bombshell set on a pice of the Cosmo Cricket paper and embossed the image in gold. I added a few drops of Distress Stickles to the butterfly for a bit of extra bling; I attached the butterfly to the flower with foam pads and added a brooch pin on the back of the flower!

I also made a charm style brooch using Classic Tattoo Bombshell stamps

I created a Lucky Cat charm by stamping in Staz-On ink onto some clear shrink plastic . I coloured in the hat with a Copic Marker.

I punched a whole in the shrink plastic so I could attach it to the charm brooch then using my heat gun I then shrunk the cat.

I used various Tim Holtz Idea-ology items to create the charm brooch; I used mini gears, game spinners, long brads, Muse Tokens, jump rings and a Swivel Clasp. I added a mini bottle of glitter and some beads too for extra bling!

 I had a great time making Bombshell jewellery and my mind is still buzzing with lots of ideas of projects to make!
Why not have a go yourself; come on over to the Bombshell Blog and enter our monthly competition for a chance to win Bombshell goodies!!

Happy Crafting!
GlitteryKatie xxXXxx

June Bombshell Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the June Hump Day Hop!

 Alison's given us a VERY appropriate seasonal theme for us this month;

 The theme is..."3 Cheers for Summer!" What's that about? Ya gotta make a Summer themed project...but there's gotta be either the number 3, or 3 of something on your project. 3 eyelets, 3 patterned papers, etc. Simple! And fun! I hope you sign up. 

Here's my take on Alison's 3 Cheers for Summertime! A little late but I'm here!!!

Now hop on around the other DT member's blogs to see their fab projects!!

Bombshell Blog

 Alison

Mary G.

 Jodi

Stempelientje

Kim

Rachael

 Laura

 Alaine

 Cassie

Glittery Katie-that's me!!!

 Susie

Torrey

Kathi

Happy Crafting!
GlitteryKatie xxx

Painty Boxes...painty boxes....!

A group of four crafty friends decided to do a cigar box swap where we each altered a cigar box with a theme in mind chosen by our swapee! My swapee chose 'Vintage' as her theme which of course I was pleased with as I do like a bit of vintage! As I'd recently been stalking Andy Skinner on his blog http://andyskinnerorg.blogspot.co.uk/ I decided I wanted to have a play with some paint effects on the cigar box. I haven't done any paint effects before but thought I'd need some rust coloured paint ( I used burnt sienna), some verdigris coloured paint (dark turquoise), some gold and a crackle glaze which were all easily found in Hobbycraft for less than £8! First of all I painted the box completely black to cover the stickers on the cigar box and to create a nice matt surface to paint on. I did two thin layers of black and allowed each layer to dry in between- I hate waiting for paint to dry so I had a couple of other things on the go in the meantime! I bought a mini wooden artist doll- those jointed ones from The Works for £1.99 and found a little cardboard jewellery box to go inside the cigar box. I painted the artist doll black stippling the paint into the joints to coat it well and I painted the jewellery box inside and out with the rust coloured paint to make a rusted metal trunk! I allowed these items to dry before doing a second coat of paint.
 
  Going back to the cigar box I added some half pearls to the lid of the box as brads or rivets then painted the box with a couple of coats of gold paint inside and out and allowed to dry completely - this only takes 20 mins or so per coat so I went back to the artist doll and the trunk which were now dry! The artist doll was going to be verdigris, like tarnished copper so I lightly brushed on the dark turquoise paint all over the doll. When the doll was dry I then took a dry paint brush and a tiny amount of gold paint and lightly brushed gold paint here and there on the doll to give copper-like highlights. The doll was left to dry then I added some Tim Holtz gears using Glossy Accents to glue them on. Once these were dry I sealed the doll with a couple of thin coats of Crafter's Companion Spray and Shine. For the small rusted trunk I attached some half pearls to the lid and gave them a coat of burnt sienna so they looked like rivits in the lid. When the paint was dry I brushed some black lightly around all the edges of the box and when dry I brushed a tiny bit of silver paint over the edges too- this gave the impression of a steel box that had aged and rusted. Back again to the cigar box and I coated the top of the box with a thick coat of the crackle glaze and allowed to settle for about an hour until it was dry to the touch. After this I painted all over the outside of the box with the dark turquoise then had fun watching the crackles appear revealing the gold paint beneath! When the turquoise paint was dry I brushed black paint lightly on all the edges of the box for an aged look. I stamped onto the lid with a Tim Holtz stamp and added an ideaology metal frame with a sticker inside - I glued this on with Glossy Accents. To make the copper roses I used some Kaisercraft paper roses (large ones) and brushed Dark Turquoise paint onto them then when this was dry I added a light brushing of gold paint. I mixed a little tiny amount of black with some dark turquoise and added this into the folds of the rose to make it look old and more metallic. The leaves were some old ones on wire I found which I brushed over with gold paint. Roses and leaves were then stuck onto the lid with Glossy Accents. Some other items I added to the inside of the box were some wooden cotton reels which I aged with a bit of brown Distress Ink and wrapped some lace, ribbon and copper wire onto them. I had a Tim Holtz bottle or vials and usin a piece of foam I lightly dabbed some black, turquoise and gold paints on to make it look old and musty! I filled the bottle with glitter, glued in the cork then cut a little quicKutz tag with 'Faerie Dust' written on it! So that was my box finished. Essentially it's very simple the only faffy bit was waiting for the layers of paint to dry and that's only because I'm so impatient! I love making small, detailed items and had great fun with this project! I was very pleased with how my paint finishes turned out considering this was my first attempt- is was messy as you can see.... ...but it was a lovely, absorbing way to spend and evening! You don't have to do a WHOLE cigar box but maybe you could use one of these 'faux' techniques on a small project of your own? I'm thinking that it would be great as a background for a card! Remember there are plenty of Faux artists out there and Amazon has some cool books like Paper Transformed by the Artist Julia Andrus and Andy Skinner offers tutorials and online workshops! Have fun and happy crafting! love GlitteryKatie xx

Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop

It's June 4th which means today is Smeared And Smudged Skull Appreciation BLOG HOP!!!
Welcome to my Blog!!
I LOVE skulls in fact I have a lovely Sugar Skull tattooed on my back!!
So I created two projects from this awesome Blog Hop!

The first is inspired by the legend of ghost ships and I went totally vintage:

I used A Pirate Life and added a small skull for her face from the Sugar Skulls stamp set.

For my second project for the Bombshell Blog part of the Skull Appreciation Blog Hop I went with a favourite insect of mine, a moth:

I made my own Deaths Head Moth (I also have a Moth Tattoo!) using Butterfly Dreams Bombshell Stamp set and adding little skulls from the Woodcut Madonna and the Tattoo Background stamp sets.

Now set off round the other players to see the LOVE we have for SKULLS!

Love
GlitteryKatie xXx


Terra
Tori

Black Dragon
Monique

Helen
Lady Brayton
Fiona
Christine
Jane
Judy
Alison
Susan
Andrea
Smudger Challenge
Laura
Lisa
Kristy
Steph
Glittery Katie
Lisa
Kapree
Ms. Ruin
Kathi
Bombshell Stamps Blog
Dianne
Donna
Nydia
Lady Coral
Suzi
Julia
Patti
Miko
Renee
Wendy
Christina
Hazel
Skye
Wenchkin
Betsy

Scrapbook Stamp Society

Happy May Blog Hop Day!!

Hello Again Bombshell Lovers!!
Can you believe it's the end of May already??
Here in England we've had a mixed bag of weather, in fact we have a saying about the weather  in May:

Ne'er cast a clout till May be out!

...which essentially means keep your coat nearby until the end of May as the weather can change so quickly and we've certainly had strange weather this month. The month started off with drought warnings THEN we had two weeks of heavy rains and this week we are all roasting! I know that 27 degrees probably seems lame to many of you  but it's HOT HOT HOT for us Limeys!!

We have a lot of traditions in England associated with May and lots of festivals as it signals the start of the better weather, people are out and about more and want to party. With this in Mind Alison our Blog Hop Captain has chosen May Celebrations as our theme:

Wanna know what the theme is? It's May Celebrations! May has lots of fun, interesting, and sometimes bizarre holidays. So the challenge is to pick one of these holidays, and make a project out of it. Here's a link that will give you lots of ideas. http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/may.htm
 ~You have a look at that website because there are some WEIRD and wonderful celebrations listed- I particularly loved Lumpy Rug Day!!


So here's my project:

Happy No Socks Day- May 8th!!

Hee-hee I love her cheeky pose- I guess socks aren't the only thing she's not wearing!!

Supplies:
Peek-a-Boo Geisha Digital Bombshell Stamp
Banner Sayings Bombshell Stamps
Spellbinders Floral Ovals Nestabilities
Kaisercraft and Bo Bunny Patterned Papers
Kaisercraft Flowers, Stickers and Gems
Distress Ink and Memento Ink
Copic Markers
Distress Ink Markers

Now hop along to Kathi's Blog to see her fabulous project!!
Don't forget to visit the other girls and play along for a chance to win Bombshell goodies!


Bombshell Blog 
Alison
Cassie
Jodi
Mary G.
Kim
Emily
Torrey
Kapree
Kelli
Glittery Katie  You are HERE!!!
Kathi

Happy Crafting!
GlitteryKatie xxX

Yellow well Pink Rose of Texas!

A little late to the party due to technical difficulties but here's my go at Jennie's cool 'Bingo Card' challenge. I chose Red, Roses and Pins

This is my debut of the no lines colouring technique where you use a plae ink instead of trad black to stamp your image in. I did have a little go before but decided to through my lot in and do Retro Cowgirl AND the roses in this style!
Well I did OK I think although I it's something which I feel I need to practise, to become more comfortable with- it's definitely different from using black ink to stamp with!
I relied on the darker shading to create an outline, something which was tricky with the roses as there are so many edges on a rose petal!!
I went a bundle on Bombshell Stamps too as I used the cowgirl from Retro Cowgirl, the poem and sentiment from Rose's Portrait, the roses and scroll decoration from Dead Necessities , a banner from Banner Sayings , and a  swallow from Love and Luck!
I created a decorative pin for the card using a pin (!) and some pearls glued on with Glossy AccentsI also broke out my new Spellbinder Nestabilities, Floral Ovals which are so perty!!
Thanks to Jennie for the ACE May challenge I loved it!
Happy Crafting everyone!!
GlitteryKatie xx

TOOT! TOOT!!!

Tooting my own trumpet I'm afraid!!
Just found out I was chosen by Emilie as the first Merly Impressions Challenge Winner!!
I'm flabbergasted and so chuffed *beams*
Thanks to Emilie for a fab challenge- it really got my scrapping mojo started and I had such fun messing with papers and pictures again!
Thanks to Chrissy for have a gorgeous shop and cool blog!!
I'm looking forward to the next Merly Impressions Challenge AND I'm going to their crop on Saturday so I get to do Chrissy's beautiful kits (see a preview here ), rifle through loads of KaiserCraft stock and natter all day to my pals- BINGO!!!

Happy Crafting!!
Love GlitteryKatie xx

Scrap yourself for Stash!!!

My lovely friend Chrissy who owns the glorious Merly Impressions is running a cool scrapbook challenge on her blog!
Merly Impressions DT member Emilie has challenged us to scrap ourselves- always a scary thing to do but I think a fun thing to have a go at!!
What aspect of your personality or which of hobbies, habits, loves do you want to show off?

I decided to show- off my Gemini split personality- I WANT to be cool and sophisticated but somehow the appearance of a camera brings out the DORK in me!!!

Supplies:
Kaisercraft and Bo Bunny Patterned Paper
Spellbinders Floral Ovals
KaiserCraft Clear Stamps
Tim Holtz film Strip
7Gypsies Stickers
Dymo Tape
Making Memories Slice Dies shapes
Distress Inks

There's some AWESOME stash to be won- a £20 gift voucher from Merly Impressions!!
So zoom to their blog to see details HERE
Hurry there's 5 days left to enter!!!

Amigurumi Makes

Made these Amigurumi for my friends Anna:

Cups are from Ana Paula
Happy Pill is by EssHaych
The Little Dude (also known as Ed Sheeran!) is from June and is a free pattern (LOVE her stuff!)

Yesterday I finished a lil unicorn based on Yagi the Unicorn :

.. I changed his head so he's more male looking!!

Happy crafting!
GlitteryKatie xx

Spring!!!

I bought this pot of 3 hyacinth bulbs from the local market for £2!
I was going to repot them but they grew so fast that I didn't get time!
They were in a yucky plastic pot so I decided to hook up a quick jacket for it!
The hyacinths lasted about 2 weeks and smelt gorgeous!!

 

These pot jackets were really easy to hook up and I was thinking that potted bulbs and a pot jacket would make quite nice pressies next year!!

Happy Crafting!
GlitteryKatie xxx

Bombshell Stamps - a Quick Tip

Hi there!
I love to colour in my Bombshells then cut them out and add them to my cards- sometimes raised up on foam pads.
Cutting out can be tricky but with practise it is possible to get a good result!
Here's a little tip I use to make those cut out stamped images look a little less snaggy:
Here's the little Koi from the Lotus Garden Bombshell set which I've coloured and cut out

I've done an OK job but some of the ripples around his fins and tail were too fine to cut accurately and could look a little snaggy so:

I take a sponge applicator and some dark ink- I like Walnut Distress Ink and apply all round the edge of the stamped image, work it into the corners so all the white card stock edges are covered.

With the white edges of the card stock covered the stamped outline shows up much better and makes your cutting out look MUCH neater!

Much neater, hiding any less than perfect cut edges!

Anyway that's my first tip for making your stamped Bombshells look even better- I'll be back with another one next month!

Happy crafting!
GlitteryKatie
xxXxx

Ms. April's Altered Challenge

This month we have a fabby challenge from our new Ms April, Teresa:

"Hello, I’m so happy to be Miss April. My brain went crazy with ideas. This is what I settled on.... “My Altered Ego” We all have one and you who your is and what she looks like. So my challenge to you is to alter something, change its purpose or take the plain and make it beautiful. Bring out your altered ego. Most important rule....Have FUN!!"

Here's what I did for Teresa's challenge:

So I decided to get my craft metal out and alter this cute little box I'd kept after all the choccies had been eaten!!

First of all I covered the sides of the box and the lid with Tim Holtz tissue for a cool vintage look!

I cut some small panels from Prima Printery paper and adhered them to the box sides and lid.

For the lid of the box I took some Brown craft foil and cut out a piece with my fave Spellbinder die Labels 22! 

On the back of the foil panel I stamped the Sailor Girl for the Ahoy Sailor stamp set with Staz-On ink!

I then traced the inked image with an embossing instrument- a blunt pencil will work too.

Flip the foil over to the brown side and the stamped image will be standing proud.

Take a sanding block or a piece of emery paper and sand over the surface of the foil to reveal the stamped image!

I cut 6 little circles from the Prima Printery paper, dampened them and squished them up.

Once dry I unfurled the circles, inked the edges and put them together with a brad through the centre to make a cute little flower!

I finished the box with a strip of copper tape all round the sides and that was it!

So pop along to the Bombshell Blog to see what amazing projects the other girls have come up with!

Happy Crafting!

GlitteryKatie 

XxxxxxX

Make something for Bank Holiday Monday!!

I hope you had a lovely Easter Sunday and enjoyed your choccy eggs and other celebrations!!
As it's a dank and rainy Bank Holiday here in Oxfordshire and I'll be in most of the day I thoughI'd look for a crafty challenge to get my mojo flowing!!
Hels over on her blog has a cool NUMBERS challenge for her 200th post AND she has yummy blog Candy on offer!!

So dash over to INK on my Fingers and leave a comment for a chance to win or play along and get a second chance to win!!

Happy Crafting!
GliteryKatie
xXx

March Madness Bombshell Blog HOP!!!!

Here we are nearly at the END of March and for us in the United Kingdom the clocks have just SPRUNG forwards and we are enjoying lighter evenings and wonderfully mild weather- WOO-HOO!!!
So it's appropriate that Alison our Blog Hop Capitain has chosen a very spring-like palette for our Blog Hop!

Here's what Alison had to say about the challenge:
 I was in the mood for a color challenge...so I found a beautiful palette from http://design-seeds.com/ that I think you will enjoy.

Aren't these colors pretty? Perfect for those of you that want to go the St. Patrick's Day route, but not so green that you couldn't do something else.
You are to use at least 3 of the colors in the palette. But go for the "gold" and try to use all five! Try to keep your colors as close as possible to those shown above. But don't make yourself crazy! Color challenges are great, because you can make anything you want, any theme. 


Here's what I made:

Supplies
Lotus Garden Bombshell Stamps
Copic Ciao and Spectrum Noir Pens
Distress Ink
Spellbinders Labels 22
Paterned Papers by October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket and Fancy Pants


So now you're ready to HOP and see what the rest of the Bombshell DT have created!!

Bombshell Blog
Alison
Laura
Etsy Ketsy
Kelli
Mary G.
Alaine
Glittery Katie You are HERE!!!!
Kathi 

Remember to play along with us either by entering your creation at the Bombshell Forum 
or via the Bombshell Blog cos there are cool Bombshell prizes to be won!!!

Happy Crafting!
love,
GitteryKatie xXxx