On January 18th 2012 Nicole Magourik will be hosting a Webinar on how to take better photos of your paper crafting projects. If you’re looking for tips on lighting, props, camera settings and more be sure to click here and sign up and join in.

-Heather

I have had a blast this month sharing with you all the new stamps from Inkadinkado. I’ve also enjoyed reading everyone replies to the giveaway and congrats to all four of our big prize package winners!

If you missed any of my posts with samples, sneak peeks and reviews this month here’s a round up:

-Halloween stamps

-Party Stamp

-Background Cling Stamps

-Stamp-a-Story Stamps

A HUGE thanks to Inkadinkado for this fun month! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

-Heather

Well, sadly this is our last giveaway from Inkadinkado. I hope you’ve had as much fun this month as I have checking out all the brand new and not yet released stamps from Inkadinkado! In case you missed it please check out my post on Monday with samples of Inkdinkado’s Stamp-a-Story stamps.

This last amazing prize package includes:

To be entered to win simply leave a comment on this blog post telling me if you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be. I’d go to the Galapagos Islands. Contest ends Monday Oct. 31th. One comment per person please. Open to US residents only.

Good luck!

-Heather

You’ve still got until Monday to enter to win the huge Background Cling Prize Package of stamps from Inkadinkado. Please click here to go to the original post to enter.

-Heather

TLC is having a blog hop and each design team member is offering a different free digital stamp along the way, seven freebies in all! Start here at the create with TLC blog and work your way through the hop to get all the freebies.

Sample card by Craft Chaos

-Heather

It’s Inkadinkado month here on the stamping blog! Each Monday in October I’ll be sharing samples with new stamps (If you missed it please check out my post on Monday with loads of Inkdinkado Halloween samples) and each Wednesday we’ll be giveaway a terrific prize package from Inkadinkado!

This weeks amazing prize package is all about Halloween, here’s what’s included:

To be entered to win simply leave a comment here on this blog post telling me your favorite Halloween costume (one you wore, or your kids or just one you’ve seen). You have until Monday Oct. 10th, one comment per person please, open to US residents only.

Good luck!

-Heather

The Lawnscaping challenge blog is having its first ever blog hop from Sept 9-11th! This blog host challenges using stamps from Lawn Fawn and now they are having a hop with Magical Holidays as the theme. I’m participating along with 43 other stampers, I hope you’ll stop by my personal blog, P is for Paper, and say hi and check out my card. There are prizes to be won for commentors so be sure to comment along the way. You can find all the giveaway details at Lawnscaping, along with the list of blogs. Happy Hopping!

-Heather

To celebrate the new clear stamp sets coming out in April at Lawn Fawn they are having an inspiration week, with tips and technique videos, sneak peeks of the new sets and giveaways! Click here to visit the blog.

card sample by Julie Campbell

-Heather

-Heather

**auctions are now over, thanks to all who bid**

We are pleased to announce that we are holding a “Help Japan Auction” and our editors are donating their art, books, supplies etc. This event will run from April 1st through April 7th. During this 7 day auction you can bid on any items you see listed, simply leave a comment with your bid amount. At the finish the highest bid for any item or items will win the bidding on the item or items. ALL the monies we collect during this auction will go to the Salvation Army. The highest bidder then sends the payment to admin@craftgossip.com  via PayPal then each Craft Gossip editor will contact you and ship your winning item or items to you. If the winning bidder doesn’t make the payment within 3 days, we will select the next highest bidder. Sorry but this auction is open to US residents only please.

My item is a necklace hand made by me called “Madam Butterfly”. It’s is a lovely 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ soldered pendant made from an original one of a kind collage (not a copy). It features a beautiful geisha with big purple and blue wings, and a tiny pink and purple mulberry paper flower on a background of Asian book paper. The back of the piece has three tiny pink, purple and blue mulberry paper flowers.

The collage has been sandwiched between two pieces of glass and soldered with scalloped, lead free, sterling silver solder. A jump ring is soldered to the top and another jump ring is attached to hang from the 24″ nickel free aluminum 2.4 mm ball chain, which is not pictured but I will include.  A silver kanji charm dangles from the bottom making the entire piece approximately 3″ long.

Retail price is $20, opening minimum bid of $10 please. If you’re interested in this necklace please leave your bid in a comment on this post, good luck!

-Heather

We’ve come to know A Muse stamps and products over the years for their wonderful fun, clean and simple designs, they are now changing their business gears a little with the new A Muse Studio. You’ll still get the same great designs and products you’ve come to know and love but they’ll now be brought to you in a whole new way, via a consultant! A Muse Studio is now doing a home based party business instead of selling to retail shops. Here’s what they have to say about their new lines:

“A Muse Studio carries an exciting lineup of new, exclusive products with the quality you’ve come to expect from us. Rubber stamps are still the cornerstone of our product line; they’re now available in cling mount sets and come in a handy DVD-style case for easy storage. We also have a beautiful line of custom printed papers, a brand new line of color-coordinated inkpads, satin ribbons, custom dies, impression plates, and so much more! ”

Click here to visit the A Muse Studio website for information on how to become a consultant, how to host a home party or to take a peek at all the new products available.

Good luck to A Muse in their new business venture!!

-Heather

Visit Just Something I Made for a chance to win some new Pink Persimmon stamps designed by Cathe Holden and more:

Each Pink Persimmon Giveaway Pack includes:

• 1 of Each New Cathe Holden Vintage Design Series Holiday Stamp Set
• 4? x 5 ” Acrylic Stamping Block
• A Brilliance Dew Drop Ink Pad
• Set of 6 Blank Cards & Envelopes
• 3 Large Tin-Tie Window Coffee Bags
• 3 Small Tin-Tie Coffee Bags
• 3 Yards of Christmas Ribbon, 1 Yard Each of 3 Designs

Be sure to follow the above link to enter and hurry the giveaway ends Nov 4th!

-Heather

PaperWorks stamps is looking for new design team members, you can find all the info you need to apply by clicking here.

-Heather

(image by Heather Holbrook)

Today is World Card Making Day and I hope you will all find some time to make a card or two ( or more ) today.

I’ve been stamping for over 12 years now but I started making cards when I was really young, I’d take a piece of construction paper and fold it in half and draw silly little animals or flowers on them and give them to friends and family. It got so that everyone always expected a hand made card from me on their birthday and the same is actually still true today. I can’t remember the last time I bought a card in a store! Some people might think card making or stamping is a waste of time, some people just don’t “get it” and that’s ok but everyone needs a hobby, a way to be creative and relieve stress, it’s therapy for me. But it’s also something that can easily and quickly be made to give to someone else to brighten their day, not all hobbies can say that!

-Heather

Well, this is certainly a different type of review for me on Craft Gossip. I recently had the chance to play a new crafting video game coming out soon. Yes, you read that right, a video game! From the creators of Cooking Mama comes a new game for the Nintendo DS called Crafting Mama. And yes, I do actually own my own DS and love to play games on it. It’s the perfect thing to take on long car trips or while waiting in the doctors office. 

The Crafting Mama DS game is full of projects and mini games with a crafting theme. I think it’s a perfect game for kids, especially ones who already enjoy crafting. I know a lot of you crafting mom’s out there have kids who always want to play with your craft supplies, if that’s your child then they will love this game! But as an adult I enjoyed it a lot too, the games are fun and have some challenge to them but are not too difficult or time consuming. Choose the project you want to make and using your stylus go through each step and in the end you’ve got your completed project. There is also a practice level for each step so if there’s a part you want to perfect you can try it again without going through all the steps. After each craft is completed a new craft or crafting mini game is added. In the end there are 40 different crafts to complete. And since most projects allow you to pick your materials each one is different or unique each time you make it. Projects include jewelry making, working with clay, paper crafts, flower decorations, toys, sewing and lots more. 

The best part is after you’ve finished your project you can play mini games with it, like keeping your paper air plane afloat, squirting targets with your water gun or tossing flower garlands to friends. You can even dress Mama with the accessories you’ve made, she’ll wear the sweet kitty head band you made or the pretty beaded earrings, that’s a really cute addition to the game. Another fun feature is the ability to have a crafting party with a friend who also has a Nintendo DS.

 As a stamper, I have to mention my favorite part was making my own custom stamp. You carve your own simple design and when you play the stamping mini game it stamps out the image you carved, that was neat!

 Want to learn more about Crafting Mama, click here to check out her Facebook page. And be on the look out for this fun game to hit store shelves on October 26^th and go craft with Mama!!

-Heather