New Eclectica Alison Bomber Stamps and Stencils at PaperArtsy

I'm thrilled to be sharing three brand new stamp sets and three new stencil designs over on the PaperArtsy blog today.  And you can also watch the Live Launch in the PaperArtsy People FB Group, where I'll be talking about some of the inspiration behind these new designs, as well as showing lots of lovely samples I've been creating.

I hope you'll enjoy the floral botanicals and vintage advertising - I've been having a great time playing with these stamps and stencils, and I know there's so much more still to explore.  I can't wait to see what all of you will get up to with them!

Do hop over to the PaperArtsy blog to check out these new summertime releases and/or join me in the PaperArtsy People FB Group on catch-up.  I'll update the link to go direct to the launch video once it's available for catch-up viewing.

Thanks so much, as always, for your company on this creative journey, and happy crafting, all!

Here's flowers for you;

Hot lavender, mints, savoury, marjoram;

The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun

And with him rises weeping: these are flowers

Of middle summer...
From The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

In summer, the song sings itself.

William Carlos Williams

Storytelling in Pictures and Words over at PaperArtsy

Hello all, long time no blogpost - apologies!  But I'm back with a splash today... I'm delighted to be over at the PaperArtsy blog with a hand-stitched book full of storytelling using words and pictures, with a joyful spring colour palette.  And you can also turn the pages and listen to the stories embedded in them over on YouTube. 

The current theme on the blog is mixing and matching two different PaperArtsy stamp designers.  My project uses my own designs combined with some of France Papillon's eclectic range of stamp sets, and the whole thing is inspired by vintage book pages and illustrations.

I hope you'll hop over to PaperArtsy to find out how I brought together lots of different elements by using recurring colours and motifs.

And there's also a flip-through on my YouTube channel where you can hear me telling all the stories which emerged from the pages as I was creating them.  So catch the "how-to" over at PaperArtsy and the "listen-to" over on YouTube... I hope you'll enjoy all of it!

Happy springtime to you!

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
Oscar Wilde

Books are the mirrors of the soul.
From The Waves by Virginia Woolf

Brand New Stamps at PaperArtsy - and Stencils too!!

Hello all - I'm delighted to be sharing three brand new PaperArtsy stamp sets with you... and not only that, for the first time I have stencil designs to share too!

Join me for the launch video in the PaperArtsy People FB Group to hear about the springtime inspiration behind these new sets, as well as to see what I've been creating with them so far.

And of course you can take your time exploring the new designs as well as the samples over on the PaperArtsy blog - with lots of close-ups and angles full of creative inspiration for your springtime art and craft making.

I hope you'll love these new stamps and stencils as much as I do.  I can't wait to hear what you think of them, and I'm even more excited to see what you will be inspired to create with them.  Happy Springtime, all!

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period...
Emily Dickinson

There is no time like Spring,
When life's alive in everything...
Christina Rossetti

Tags from Christmas Past - Parts 2 and 3

Hello all, and a very merry Christmas all round.  I'm dropping in to share some festive inspiration and delight that's available on my YouTube channel.  Yes, there are more Christmas tags, but also some non-tag projects, not to mention a gentle festive reading with musical accompaniment.  

First of all, there's the second part of the crate unboxing... digging deep into my crafting history for some tags and other creations, some of which I'd almost completely forgotten about!  And some are much more recent - those recycled tape rolls you can see in the photo below, for instance. 

You'll find that here: Tag Time - Christmas Projects Unboxing Part 2

And then, as I said, there's some words and pictures and music to enjoy in the Christmas Eve episode - a gentle reading of the words on each of the 25 countdown tags I made a couple of years ago, along with some favourite festive creations from other Christmases past. 

Find that episode here: Tag Time - Christmas Words and Pictures and Music

I know I've only been an occasional presence here in Craftyblogland this year, but I do love to drop in every now and then to catch up with you.  Love and light and peace to all for 2025, and happy crafting, all!

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

Norman Vincent Peale

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.

Calvin Coolidge

I don't think Christmas is necessarily about things. It's about being good to one another.

Carrie Fisher

Getting in the festive mood...

Hello all... well, I did quite well there on posting for a few weeks, and then it all slipped out of focus again!  I'm just hopping on quickly to keep you posted about what's going on over on my YouTube channel - which is also called Words and Pictures, of course.

I always find it hard to get into the festive swing before December arrives - I prefer to keep Christmas confined to as close to the twelve days as possible.  (24th December - 6th January are when I feel properly Christmassy!)  But things are starting to look a little more festive as I try to get myself in the mood.  Tougher than usual this year, what with everything that's going on in the world.

But you can join me for some starry, snowy backgrounds with lots of stencil techniques here... A Few Minutes of Fun with Mixed Media Winter Backgrounds

Enjoy some watercolour stamping with Distress Inks and Tim Holtz stamps here...  A Few Minutes of Fun with Winter Greenery

And/or see a couple of those backgrounds take the next steps, with my PaperArtsy EAB29 Mistletoe Edition stamps and lots of Tim Holtz die-cuts here... A Few Minutes of Fun with Mixed Media Mistletoe Tags

There's a final (for now, at least) episode of Books Books Books, looking at a couple of festive book-based creations - a couple of altered covers and some art journalling here...  Festive Art Journalling and Altered Book Covers. (Over the next couple of Wednesdays, I'm planning to take a look back over past years of Christmas tags... it's a big crate!)

And if you're not ready to go full-on Christmas yet, how about a flip through - including readings of the poetry fragments - of the accordion album I created for my recent PaperArtsy stamp launch.  I promise this one will bring you a few moments of calm in the hubbub of the run-up to the festive season.  Here you go... Winter Sunrise Accordion Album

There's lots more to explore on the channel since I last updated you, so join me at the craft table for the perfect escape from all your festive to-do lists.  I hope you're all doing well, and good luck with the preparations!

Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.
Paul Theroux

Christmas is not an external event at all, but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart.
Freya Stark

Santa Claus has the right idea... visit people only once a year.
Victor Borge

It's all about Nature (and my stamps!) over at PaperArtsy...

Hello all!  The theme over at PaperArtsy this month is Nature, with a focus on my very own Eclectica Alison Bomber stamp designs.  There have been some truly beautiful contributions from the PaperArtsy bloggers, and now I'm there myself with a super-speedy make celebrating the turning of the seasons.

Head over to the PaperArtsy blog to see how easily these textural collages came together, and while you're there, do take a look at the other projects from this month's Nature theme, all using my stamps too.

And I do hope you caught the Q&A with me which started off this month's Designer Focus over on the PaperArtsy blog... it's quite the in-depth interview!!  Thanks so much for stopping by and for hopping onwards, and happy crafting, all.

Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.
John Ruskin

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
Lao Tzu

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.
John Burroughs

(All these nature quotes, and more, are available on my PaperArtsy stamp set EAB21 Nature Edition.)

Designer Focus at PaperArtsy

Happy weekend, all!  It's an exciting focus for me at PaperArtsy this month, and well-timed with my Winter Botanical Textures stamp release.  As part of the Nature theme, the PaperArtsy bloggers are all going to be creating projects with my Eclectica³ Alison Bomber stamp sets.  Expect inspirational creations with lots of words and lots of botanicals!

To kick the whole thing off, there's an extensive Q&A with me over on the PaperArtsy blog, diving in to my creative story, and especially the journey with PaperArtsy towards designing stamps (with lots and lots of photos of projects past and present!)

I hope you'll find time to head over there... I hope it'll be a lovely weekend read for you, with hot drinks and good food to hand!

You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
Maya Angelou

Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.
Osho

The creative adult is the child who survived.
Ursula Le Guin

New Stamps at PaperArtsy - Winter Botanical Textures

Hello all!  I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to introduce you to three new stamp sets I have designed for PaperArtsy.  Meet the Winter Botanical Textures, launched today.  

Do hop over to the PaperArtsy blog to discover a bit more about the inspiration behind these new designs, as well as to see some of these samples in more detail.  (They will also be appearing on Instagram and here on the blog over the next days and weeks, so keep an eye out.) 

And of course, I would love you to hear all about the stamps from me personally, by watching the launch video in the PaperArtsy People Group over on Facebook.  Just click the link to watch the launch video on catch-up.

I hope you will love them as much as I do...

There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons...
... When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
Emily Dickinson

Something Spooky (and Purple!) - Guest Designing for Simon Says Stamp

What a wonderful time I had with this week's challenge theme for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  It's such a thrill to be featured in the Designer Spotlight for the month of October, but to have this much fun into the bargain is a real treat.  Later this week, you can watch a whole YouTube episode on how these eerie moonlit tags came to life, but for now, I hope you'll enjoy these photos and a few details about the ingredients.

As always, the brilliant Monday Challenge team have created some amazing projects to kickstart your creative imagination, so do make sure you hop over to the challenge website to drink it all in.  The theme this week is Spooky/Add Some Purple... I ended up doing both!

I love adding a touch of purple to autumnal projects... for me it has that wonderful echo of both dawn and twilight in it.  Autumn has some of the best sunrises and sunsets, I think - certainly where I live in rural South Bohemia, right in the heart of Europe. 

And those crepuscular times of day have their own inbuilt eerieness, I think - so as soon as the Tim Holtz Moon Masks came out to play, the creepy element became inevitable in the gathering dusk.

My darkening sky is a combination of Shaded Violet and Villainous Potion Distress Inks, with Hickory Smoke, Lost Shadow, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Scorched Timber to provide the neutrals in the landscape, as well as extra shadows.

I added subtle layers of meadow stamping with the grasses from Tim Holtz's Nature Discovery stamps, as well as some of my own PaperArtsy Umbellifer Edition stamps. 

The background layers are stamped in Pebble Beach Ranger Archival Ink, so as to stay put if I'm adding any moisture later.  The Umbellifers are stamped in a secondary imprint of Scorched Timber Distress Ink (oh, how I would love to have Scorched Timber in an Archival formulation!)

(You can see the full process from Saturday onwards, when the A Few (More) Minutes of Fun episode goes live on YouTube - I'll add links here when that happens.)

But hidden away amongst the grasses and wildflower stems are some slightly unnerving objects... the gleaming white bones from the Tim Holtz Anatomy Chart stamp set, embossed in Wow Bright White embossing powder.

As if that weren't creepy enough, there are colonies of bats silhouetted against the moon(s)... courtesy of Tim's The Scarecrow stamp set...

... and more spooky winged things to brush against your face as you cross the meadow... the Idea-ology Halloween Moth Transparencies.  Beautiful, but definitely not pleasant when they're caught in your hair!

My word stickers are from an older edition of the Halloween Clippings Stickers...

... but you'll find similar ones in this year's Idea-ology Halloween Sticker Book.

I love how you always seem to find the exact right phrases (if you look hard enough and don't give up on a compromise option too soon!).

I mounted the tags on some white card, just to give them a bit of framing - and it helps the moon to pop... with slightly raggedy edges done with the blade of my scissors for extra texture.  And some fine twine finishes things off as usual.

Hopefully, that gives you some inspiration to start you off with this week's Something Spooky/Add Some Purple theme... If you still feel the need for a bit more, do hop over to see what the regular team at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge have been creating.  I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

As always, there will be a randomly drawn prize voucher so that one lucky winner can go shopping at Simon Says Stamp... and the Design Team will be featuring projects that catch their eye(s) (how's that for spooky?!) in the spotlight at the end of the week, so do come and play along.

I hope you'll have a grand time getting spooky and/or purple - I certainly did.  Have a great week, and happy crafting, all!

Moonlight is sculpture.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

Oscar Wilde

Between our birth and our death we may touch understanding, 

As a moth brushes a window with its wing.

Christopher Fry

Pressed Botanicals - brand new Eclectica Alison Bomber stamps at PaperArtsy

Hello all!  I'm thrilled to be introducing three brand new stamp sets over on the PaperArtsy blog this evening as well as in the PaperArtsy People FB Group.  These are a continuation and also a development of the botanical textures released in February...  I hope you're going to love the Pressed Botanical Textures!!

I've been having a glorious time playing with the new stamps.  I've tried to make sure they work for all kinds of styles - I've been working with clean and simple stamping as well as exploring some really exciting mixed media effects and techniques.

There are lots of samples to enjoy over at PaperArtsy, and also lots of insight into the thinking behind these new designs.  And of course I'll be talking about all that in the Live launch video too, as well as showing the samples.

Hop over to PaperArtsy now to see the blogpost, and join me in the PaperArtsy People Group on Facebook to hear all about it in person, and see the samples shimmering in the lights!

I hope you'll love these stamps as much as I do... I can't wait to see what you'll create with them.

Those who have never been moved to rapture by the tender curve of a blade of grass, the wonderful sternness of the thistle, the rough youth of sprouting leaf-buds; and those who have never been touched to the depths of their soul by the massive appearance of a tree root, the imperturbable strength of riven bark, the slender pliancy of the birch, the enormous tranquility of a canopy leaves - know nothing of the beauty of form.

August Endell, 1909