Welcome to Snazzys DT Blog

Hello, my name is Astrid and I am so happy and excited to be part of Snazzy’s design team. I love Snazzys and their wonderful products, - designing for them is like a dream come true!

To start with I will tell you a little bit about myself:

I am a teacher by profession but drawing, painting, playing with colour and form, has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My all-time favourite birthday present was when I turned five and my godmother gave me a big red leather pencil case filled with coloured pencils and wax crayons. I can still see it in my mind’s eye, - she must have known me well….

I have been stamping and paper crafting probably for about 10 years or so, but did not get seriously into it until about 2007.
My paper-crafting hobby has developed from those early stamping and card making days into using many different media. I love journaling, altering all sorts of objects and playing about with gesso, acrylic paints, collage and many layers. Often I use my stamps more for creating backgrounds rather than as a main vocal point. I use many different styles in my work, shabby chic, grungy, even zetti at times, but my all time favourite is vintage. My blog friends often describe my work as romantic and elegant. I have been published in the Winter 2011 issue of Somerset Studios Art Journaling.

I am originally from the Netherlands but have been living in Scotland for 38 years. I am married to a loving Scotsman who is also my best friend. He is quietly indulgent and tolerant of my paper-crafting hobby and turns a blind eye when my next parcel of crafting goodies arrives through the post. (A rather regular occurrence). I am mother to three grown up children.

My all time favourite products are Tim Holtz Distress inks, and you guessed it, the colour I use most is Vintage Photo. In addition you will find that I use Gesso in most of my projects and I love to layer with paper napkins.

My initial was created using many different layers that include all of these products. I started by painting my letter with Titan Buff acrylic paint. I then layered some bits of paper napkins over this, interspersed with plain tissue paper stamped with 7 Gypsies Lille clear stamps and some Tim Holtz stamps. I then sponged Old Paper and Vintage Photo distress inks around the edges and to tie the different elements together. Finally I finished by adding some grunge roses, butterflies and pearls from my stash.




One of my favourite pieces is this altered box. In its first incarnation it was a cigar box I got for free from a kind tobacconist. I covered it with some of my favourite scrapbook papers from Prima Marketing Botanical Collection and some Graphics 45 Once Upon a Springtime papers and embellished with images from The Graphics Fairy and other bits and pieces from my stash.




I hope you have enjoyed seeing all the different projects from the DT so far and that you will find some inspiration for your own art work here.
I will be back at the end of August with some further projects.

Hello and Welcome

I was thrilled to be asked to be part of this new DT, and I'm looking forward to the weeks ahead where we have plenty of wonderful DT creations to share with you - hope you join us!

Anyhow,I better introduce myself - I'm Paula,I'm 39 (cant believe I openly admitted that lol) and live in Norfolk. Ive been addicted to crafting since 2004 - and I do mean addicted, or should I say obsessed!

I love paper,ink and rubber stamps and now Ive developed a taste for paints too - I would say my style is anything from Clean and Simple to the inky grungy look...so,anything goes really.

I was lucky enough to have been a Guest Designer in Stampington & Companys 'Take Ten' magazine, been on the front cover of 'The Stampers' Sampler', had items published in Craft Stamper and recently, Ive had work published in 'Cardmaking and Papercraft' magazine.

For this new DT, we were asked to decorate our initial in our style - I'm not known for techniques etc so my initial is quite simply decorated with paint, some stamped tags and Tim Holtz metal Idea-ology embellishments.(excuse the bad photo's!)

And finally, we were asked for our favourite creation....something I found difficult, as I don't really have favourite items - so I offered a few suggestions and Val liked this tag;

The base, is a Tim Holtz manila tag - Ive used red, blue and black distress ink pads to colour the tag - the word 'Adventure' is by 7 Gypsies from their 'Lille' stamp set.The hand stamp and the dots (Dot Matrix) is by Stampers Anon / Tim Holtz. Ive also added a couple of strips of red paper and three punched out circles.

Hello and Welcome.

Hi, My name is Lesley, known as Craftymamma to my blog buddies. I am thrilled to have the opportunity of working with such a talented team, not to mention the fabulous products available from Snazzy Stamping and Scrapbooking. Like the rest of you I can't wait to feast my eyes on all the goodies when the online shop goes live.

First of all a little bit about me.

I have been officially 'retired' for 2 years but am actually busier than ever and have no idea how I found time to go to work, lol! I am Mum to 2, Mamma to 2 (will be 3 in December) and wife to a lovely Hubby who is very tolerant of my crafting obsession, mainly because it gives him licence to monopolise the TV I think! My crafting friends may say differently but I don't think I have a specific style (you will see my decorated initial and favourite art piece are totally different) and I consider myself to be a bit of a 'Jack-of-all-trades'. I have always crafted from childhood, in one form or another and discovered card making 5 years ago quickly followed by rubber stamping and lately mixed media and altered art. I love making cards and gifts for friends and family which can be pretty, elegant, grungy or even cute if necessary but I also like to dabble in dimensional pieces including decorated boxes, canvases, wall hangings and the odd tag here and there. A bit of everything really but I am quite particular about which work I think passes quality control and will bin anything I'm not happy with.


Now onto my favourite artpiece.

I made this wall hanging in a workshop I attended last year and still like it as much now as I did then. I like the movement of the piece, especially the articulated birdcage at the bottom but I particularly like all the texture I achieved in various ways.

First there are the different materials used, Grungepaper, wood and bookpages. Then there are the various mediums for actually creating texture, i.e. crackle paint, Viva Ferro, embossing powder and Stickles.

The use of different stamps also creates the appearance of texture and of course the three dimensional embellishments add more depth.

Now onto my decorated initial which The Bosses, Don and Val, asked us to do as part of our introduction.

I used acrylic paints to cover my initial with a crackle medium between the two layers on the top portion. I randomly stamped a crackle background over the bottom portion and then tore an old book page and stamped a subtle background using Distress Ink before applying it to my initial with a multi-medium. I stamped the quote onto tissue which I then tore round and applied to the initial again with multi-medium.

I then had fun cutting various embellishments with a range of dies from my quite extensive collection (I think I have a slight problem/addiction, lol). I got quite carried away making the flowers from some lovely papers I've had in my stash for an age and now have some left over for something else. The same paper was used to cut the 'DREAM' from and after adhering this to the initial I arranged the other die cut embellishments. Finally, I used Inca Gold in silver and gold to colour the birdcage and attached this with fine chain together with the little bird charm hanging from the bottom to create some movement.

I do hope you enjoy our intro pieces on this brand new blog and look out for some more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team over the weekend. I'll be back in a couple of weeks with my first proper DT make.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

Welcome To Snazzy's DT 2011/2012 ...

Hello and a very warm welcome to the new DT for Snazzy Stamping & Scrapbooking Ltd 2011/2012. Over the next few days the DT will introduce themselves and give you a sneak peak into some of their creative art pieces. Each week the DT members will take it in turns to post pics of their DT projects, watch out for product reviews and some challenges along the way.The bosses Val & Don are continuing to work hard in getting the online store up & running , meantime you can still order products by phoning the shop on 01793 602470. You can also keep up to date with what's happening by clicking on the Facebook & Twitter logo's.

So without further ado, as Design Team Co-Ordinator for Snazzy's I will kick off this new DT blog with one of my favourite makes and a little bit about me :

My fav piece is a 5x5 canvas which is completely inspired by Tim Holtz. It just drips in all things Tim. I love the grunge/steampunk feel to this canvas. I have also used two of my fav products i.e Adirondack Paint Dabber in Pitch Black and Distress Ink in Vintage Photo, these are must have staples and I couldn't leave home without them! Last but not least is the Ideaology findings, I love that you can use these embellishments in so many ways, sometimes thinking outside the box, they are so vesatile.


About me ... my name is Gillian, I live on the North East Coast of Scotland. I have been crafting for over 10 years now. I am married to a very understanding an patient husband who tolerates all my inky antics. I'm mum to one teenage son. I work full time as a Senior Social Care Worker with an Elderly Day Care Unit. Any spare time is devoted to all things inky. I like to think my style of crafting has an eclectic mix, and ranges from grunge to distressed to shabby chic to vintage. My first love is stamping but laterly I have ventured into the world of Altered Art/Mixed Media Art. I'm a HUGE Tim Holtz fan and was fortunate enough to attend a workshop with the "Duke of Distress" in February. I have also had work published in the April issue of Craft Stamper.

Each DT member was given a Papier Mache Initial to decorate in their "signature style". I started out by painting the initial with Eco -Friendly Acrylic Paint (New Grass), then applied Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint (Old Paper) to highlight the outer edges , I find it best to allow this to dry naturally.

I then stamped various images from Tim Holtz stamp sets in Archival Ink (Coffee). Other stamps used 7Gypsie's Lille clear stamps.

The Ideaology Trimmings have been sprayed with colour wash spray and adhered with Glossy Accents. The ornate plate is also from Tim Holtz's Idealogy line. I have used Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) to grunge the initial up a little more.

I hope you have enjoyed the launch of the new Snazzy's DT, I will be back on Monday with my 1st DT project, don't forget over the next few days the other DT members will be making their debut!