Well, Hello there!

Is is hot where you are? It's 30 degrees in my garden and I am melting in the heat! Not the best time to be crafting, however I seem to have recovered a tiny sliver of my mojo (I cannot believe that the last time I created something was in March) and when the mood strikes, you just have to go with it!

I decided to enter a challenge as it's the best way to get the creative juices flowing. I chose to enter this month's challenge over on the Hero Arts Blog which is Clean and Simple style stamping, a sketch challenge or make your own embellishment.

I decided to go the 'make your own embellishment' route. I have had a pack of fimo sitting on my desk for ages, I had such grand plans for it, I was going to make my own cabochons, cameos and frames, all of which fell by the wayside and I'm left looking at this squidgy lump feeling completely uninspired. As the weather is balmy and where I would really rather be is at the beach I pulled out my 6x6 pack of Pink Paislee Nantucket papers and ephemera, my Hero Arts Antique Engraving stamps and came up with this:

As you can see i'm still a beginner when it comes to stamping into clay, here are a couple of LFMF (learn from my fail's)

1. Make sure your work surface is really clean. I run my finger along my craft mat, hmmm, seems clean, errr.....NOT. Always use a wet wipe
2. If it's hot where you are or you have really hot hands and the clay is sticky, let it rest and cool before stamping
3. ALWAYS protect the stamp by inking it up with your chosen colour or a versamark watermark pad....Why?
4. If you don't you will spend ages scraping clay out of all the tiny grooves and scrubbing it to within an inch of it's life. Like I said, LFMF ;)

I rubbed the shell over using a peach coloured Faber Castell Gelato and dusted it with Cosmic Shimmer Mango mica powder. I attached it to my prepared card base with a squidge of silicone glue.

Give me links to your favourite stamped clay embellishments in the comments?