Stamp Happy

Seize the Cupcake!

Here is a card I designed for a class at the store last month.  The focus of my class was little tricks and techniques... little "extras" that add Wow! to your card. 

So for this card, I showed customers how to punch out circles from cardstock and designer paper and apply crystal lacquer to create their own faux brads and page pebbles.  (I actually made them up a few days before so they'd be dry enough to use on the cards in class, but had all the supplies available so everyone could give it a try!)  We just punched out 1/4" and 1/2" circles, applied a glue dot to the back and stuck them down on wax paper.  Then put the tip of your crystal lacquer bottle in the center of the circle, and squeeze and swirl the lacquer around until the circle is covered.  Let them dry overnight.  Or instead of wax paper, save the paper that your glue dots come on and use it!  I read about this technique on someone's blog, but unfortunately I didn't "star" it in my Google reader to know who to give credit to.  (If you know who I'm referring to, please let me know!)  Another little accent idea that I showed customers (and often don't remember to do!) is to stamp one word from the sentiment on a scrap, as seen here with the word "seize."  And a third little "extra" on this card is the green scalloped border along the edge of the designer paper.  Instead of cutting each of those scallops with a corner rounder, or decorative-edge scissors (I NEVER get a straight line with those things!) I showed customers how to use the large rectangle Nestabilities to cut a border.  (Credit to Sharon Johnson for that great trick!)

Here are a few close-ups of the faux brad and page pebbles!

This was one of the most fun cards from our class!  One of my customers had a great time teasing me about the fact that this card has no ribbon!  (They know me so well!)

Hope you're having a great Saturday!  Happy stamping!

 

 

Stamps:  Cupcakes (Hero Arts); Cardstock:  Pomegranate Smoothie, Parakeet, Lemonade (Bazzill), white (The Paper Cut), designer paper (Basic Grey); Inks:  Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), markers (Tombow); Accessories:  1/4" and 1/2" circle punches (EK Success), Crystal Lacquer (Sakura), Nestabilities (Spellbinders).

Sketches by Tamara #56

Another week, and another great sketch challenge from Tamara!

I've loved these Inkadinkado birds ever since I saw them in the catalog, and then started seeing them on some other blogs and had to give in and order them!  What fun they are to color, too!

For the doodling around the edges on the sketch, I chose to do a zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine.  And I've had these chipboard accents from Maya Road forever, so I was determined to make them work for this sketch instead of doing photo corners.  I painted the chipboard with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint in Fired Brick, and then lightly sanded the edges after they were dry to distress.

My "thanksful" sentiment is another stamp from the new Vintage Words set from Kitchen Sink Stamps.  If you're looking for a great sentiment stamp set with words appropriate for cards or scrapbooking, then you really need this set.  It's perfect, and has such a fun and different font!

I hope you have time to give this sketch a try today!  Be sure to leave a link in the comments on Tamara's blog, and leave me one here too or send an email so I can see what you did, too!

Have a good one!

Stamps:  Duet (Inkadinkado), sentiment from Vintage Words (Kitchen Sink Stamps); Cardstock:  Blue Bayou, Soft Sky (Stampin' Up!), red (Archiver's), designer paper (Basic Grey), white (Gary Burlin); Inks:  Adirondack Pitch Black (Ranger), Soft Sky, Blue Bayou (Stampin' Up!), Versamagic Red Brick (Tsukineko), markers (Copic); Accessories:  Distress Crackle Paint (Ranger), chipboard (Maya Road), sewing machine, thread.

New Releases from Kitchen Sink Stamps!

Today's the big day!  Kitchen Sink Stamps is releasing 7 new and incredible stamp sets!  Once you see them, you're going to want them all!  Maria continues to out-do herself with each new release!

Squirrels have always been a big fascination around our house.  My daughters' always got a kick out of watching them out the window when they were little because my husband would always leave them corn to eat.  We also used to have the greatest time watching their antics as they tried everything in the arsenal to get to the bird feeder!  And of course, the dog will never believe that he can't catch those little critters so he always gives chase!  So I was immediately drawn to this set for those reasons, and also because I owe a very, very belated birthday card to a friend!  And I mean really belated... her birthday was in JUNE!  So this set came just in the nick of time for me!

The squirrel and acorn are both stamped in 3 steps.  This set also includes a smaller acorn, an assortment of 3-step leaves and cute sentiments!  For the squirrel and acorn here I used Versamagic ink.  The first layers were stamped in Gingerbread, stamped off once.  The second layers were stamped in Gingerbread, full strength.  The third layers were stamped in Jumbo Java, as were the sentiments.

For more samples of the other new releases, please check out the blogs of the other Kitchen Sink Crew members!

Dee Jackson

Julie Masse

Tracy Durcan

Nicole Cooke

Lori Tecler

Jan Tinklenberg

Beth Silaika

Keri Lee Sereika - August Guest Designer

Maria Colosimo

So, don't wait!  Head on over to the Kitchen now to pick up 3-Step Autumn Squirrel and the other 6 new releases!  And stayed tuned... I'll have some more designs to show you with the new sets over the next few days, including one for tomorrow's Color Throwdown!

Stamps:  3-Step AutumnSquirrel (Kitchen Sink Stamps); Cardstock:  Kraft, Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!) designer paper (Basic Grey); Inks:  Versamagic Gingerbread, Jumbo Java (Tsukineko); Accessories:  1" circle punch (EK Success), 1 1/4" circle punch, twill ribbon, jute, word window punch (Stampin' Up!).

Silhouettes

Here's another card I did yesterday trying to get caught up on the Dare to Get Dirty challenges!  This one was for a sketch challenge, and a challenge to use silhouette stamps.  My BSF Darlene let me use this stamp set yesterday, and I am totally in love with it now, and I'm going to have to place an order for the store from Stampers Anonymous so I can have my own set!  It's all Darlene's fault!  (And Tim Holtz for designing the stamps!)

I kept looking this card over, feeling like it needed something else but I couldn't put my finger on what it's missing.  I decided not to mess with it further because my supply of Rose Red and Certainly Celery cardstock is limited so I didn't want this to go to waste!

Hope you like it, and thanks for looking!

I've received several blog awards lately!  I hope I'm not forgetting anyone!  Thanks to

Maria at Scraps by M - Maria has some wonderful designs on her blog, and I'm so grateful to her for sharing her 3x3 notecard box pattern with me!

Ida at Faith Artistry - She's got really designs and does such a great job with cards for the Blogger's Challenge each week!

Barb at Country Blessings - Barb is a fairly new blogger with some really wonderful designs!  Please show her some blog love when you time!

Mauna at Ink-Paper-Scissors - Mauna is a new stamper to me, and I'm so glad she gave me a shout so I can keep up with her great designs!

I hope and pray I didn't forget anyone in this list!  I appreciate those blog awards so much, but unfortunately have a huge deal of difficulty naming ones in return!  I just hate to hurt any feelings by neglecting someone!  Thank you so much to everyone for thinking of me!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great evening!

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Stamps:  Nature's Moments (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous), sentiment (Impression Obsession); Cardstock:  Certainly Celery, Rose Red (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Euphoria by Basic Grey); Inks:  Rose Red, Certainly Celery (Stampin' Up!); Accessories:  Cuttlebug embossing border (ProvoCraft), ric rac (craft supply).

CPS #74 - JustRite Stampers

The sketch challenge at Card Positioning Systems this week is being sponsored by JustRite Stampers, so I pulled my stamper out to participate this week!  As luck would have it, I saw the challenge on Sunday morning before leaving for church.  Then, during announcements at church a young lady in our congregation announced that she will be moving to North Carolina in a few weeks to begin a new teaching position!  So I decided to make her a set of monogrammed cards to take with her using this sketch.  I made 2 different sets, then packaged them in one of these great clear boxes that I have at the store, and made a "For You" belly band for the box.  I hope she'll find these useful!

Stamps:  JustRite monogram stamper; Cardstock:  Bazzill; Designer papers:  My Mind's Eye and Basic Grey; Nestabilities by Spellbinders.

Extend the Celebration! - Kitchen Sink Project of the Month

  Did you happen to give my 4th of July firecracker display a try?  If you did, now that the holiday is over, what do you do with this?  You have to admit, even though its a great project and fun to make, this isn't the kind of thing that will store well until next year, right?  In my house, even if you found a nice, high shelf to set this on, chances are someone at sometime will toss a blanket, a pillow, or something up onto that shelf and *kersplat*... no more firecrackers!  So why not repurpose those tubes into something for another celebration?

To continue the Kitchen Sink Stamps July Project of the Month, here is a pair of birthday candles, a matching hat for a birthday girl, and some horn blowers!

The candles are made with some of the leftover paper towel tubes from the firecrackers.  They're covered with cardstock that's been stamped with images from Backgrounds & Borders with some additions of Basic Grey Cupcake paper and jumbo ric-rac.  It's so easy to create your own designer paper with the Backgrounds & Borders set!

The candles flames were made by stamping images from Pretty Petals on acetate with my Essential Glue Pad, and then sprinkling with yellow glitter, the same way I did the stars for the firecrackers!  Some black wire and a little red-line tape attaches the flames to the candles!

Every adorable birthday girl needs a special party hat, so I made one to match the candles!  This was simply done by taking apart an old party hat my daughter scrounged up for me in her bedroom, and tracing onto cardstock.  I made an extra pattern and used my ruler to mark up 1" from the bottom all the way across.  I used this to cut the piece of designer paper, then just scalloped the edge with my corner rounder.  The top was made by cutting out a scalloped circle with my Nestabilities.  The "Birthday" comes from the Whole Family stamp set, and "Girl" comes from Other Important People set.

And of course, the party isn't complete without noisemakers!  I took one horn apart and traced it onto the designer paper to customize these.  Then simply added an adornment from the Happy Birthday Cupcake stamp set!


So here you have a great way to recycle your 4th of July decorations!  Create a great birthday party set!  And you know, Christmas will be here before we know it, and think of what a beautiful centerpiece you could make of this as Christmas candles!

I hope you've enjoyed my Kitchen Sink Stamps Project of the Month for July!  Happy stamping!

No party is complete...

...without pretty party hats, right?  So, for the My Favorite Things Guest Designer contest, I decided to create a party hat birthday card!  The winner of this contest gets to be the guest designer for the month of August, so all my fingers and toes are crossed for this one!  I hope it's good enough!

For the card, I just cut a regular A2 sized card, then angled off each side to form the triangle.  My thinking was this way it would still fit into an A2 envelope!  Bwahahahaha!  Yeah, this is going to fit in a regular envelope???  This ends up being one of those cards that you just hand-deliver, right?!  I cut a piece of Cupcake Basic Grey DP and covered the front.  Stamped the candles from You take the Cake in Adirondack ink, then colored them with my Copics.  The sentiment is stamped in Colorbox Scarlet pigment ink, then heat embossed with clear powder.

I made the pom-pom for the top of the hat, and the fringe around the bottom by crimping red cardstock then cutting it into tiny slivers with my table-top cutter.  Then I made a little pile of the strips and tied tightly around the middle with string.  (A red Copic marker was used on the string so the white didn't show!)  I left the top pom-pom nice and big, and after attaching the smaller ones for fringe using red-line tape, I trimmed all the ends so they looked a little "tighter."

I attached the two triangles with a small brad at the top so the card swivels open.  The pom-pom is attached over the brad with a medium glue dot.

I hope you like my card (and I hope the MFT people like it enough, too!)

Did everyone have a great 4th of July?  We had a really nice picnic with my Dad and my sister then came home and crashed.  I'm at work today, but unfortunately have been up since 4:00 a.m. with my daughter Kaylie who was busy being sick.  :(  She and hubby leave tomorrow for a mission trip to the Appalachian region in Kentucky so hopefully her yuckiness improves throughout the day.  She doesn't have much packing done, so guess what Mom will be doing after work today?

Have a great weekend!

Stamps:  You Take the Cake (My Favorite Things); Cardstock:  Watermelon, Squash (Bazzill), Confetti White (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Cupcake by Basic Grey); Inks:  Adirondack Pitch Black (Ranger), Colorbox Scarlet pigment (Clearsnap) markers (Copic); Accessories:  clear embossing powder (Ranger), brad (Basic Grey), string (craft supply), crimper.

Mojo Monday #44

Here's my card for yesterday's Mojo Monday sketch challenge from Julee's blog.  I really love Julee's card, and how she used the rectangle Nestabilities to emboss the optional layer.  I decided I was going to try that too, until I got downstairs to my studio and remembered that I don't have any of the plain squares or rectangles!  LOL  So then I tried using my Scor-It to achieve a similar effect, but it just didn't look right to me.  So I used the pretty green houndstooth paper from my Basic Grey Sultry papers instead!  Hope you like it!

To those of you having problems viewing the pictures on my blog... I didn't crop this picture quite as closely as I usually do.  Please let me know if you can see the whole card now!  And also, remember you can always click on the picture for a full view.  I know that can be a pain sometimes, but it's an option if you need it.  I'm really not sure what else can be done otherwise.  I'm being told that it's more of an each individual monitor problem, and not anything that I can necessarily change.  Sorry!  :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Stamps:  Floral Whimsy, sentiment from Fluttering By (Verve Visual); Cardstock:  Leapfrog, Petunia (Bazzill), white (Gary Burlin), designer paper (Sultry by Basic Grey); Inks:  Adirondack Pitch Black (Ranger), Pink Passion (Stampin' Up!), markers (Copic); Accessories:  circle punches, scalloped circle punch, photo corner punches (Stampin' Up!).

You're Something Special and Simply Sweet

I had a semi-productive day and got some stamping done that I'm quite pleased with, so without further ado I will share what I made with you!

This first card is for the color challenge this week at Cornish Heritage Farms.  I'm so glad that Julie posts reminders about these challenges on her blog because I always forget!  The colors specified in the challenge are actually Prism colors, of which I have none so I improvised with a combination of Bazzill and Stampin' Up! colors.  I used Kim Hughes' Nature Silhouette stamps, and a sheet of designer paper from the Basic Grey Sugared pack.  I was really worried that this card would turn out looking very "autumn" with these colors but I think I managed OK!  I even tried my hand (first time!) at coloring my dew drops with a Copic markers, so now I can make them match.  I also used one of Taylor's old Cupcake Challenge sketches for the layout on this card.

This next card is for the Card Positioning Systems sketch #71.  I am so in love with how this card turned out!  I basically built it around the idea to use a sentiment on the 3 small panels in the sketch.  I had been planning to use "Here's the Scoop" but decided to use the other 3-word phrase in that set instead.  I'll tell you, this lady sure has a bright living room, doesn't she?!

The CPS sketch this week is being sponsored by Rubbernecker, and if I would have remembered that, I would have tried to use my RN stamps, but I forgot.  (All the more reason to get the old computer up and running in my basement studio!)

Oh, I should mention that I flipped the sketch, too!  The small panels ended up covering up a lot of my stamped image, and flipping it allowed me to put the panels where there wasn't a whole lot else going on!  It's a fun (and challenging!) sketch!  Give it a try this week if you have time!

On a little side note... I had an email from a reader asking me why I don't show the entire card in my photos.  I'm a little puzzled by this question and am not sure what she's referring to as she has not yet responded to me.  However, I did have a friend mention that ever since I changed my blog layout last week, she can't see the entire picture of my cards, either.  So I'm just curious as to whether anyone else is having these problems?  I'm not sure what I can do to fix the problem... it sounds to me as if it's got something to do with how others have their monitors set.  I do know that I see everything fine on my end here at home and at work.  Please let me know if you're only seeing partial pictures, too!  I may be able to contact Typepad for a solution if it's a problem for others, too!  Thanks!

Tomorrow is Pink Cat Monday, so I'll have a card to show you later in the day also!  Happy stamping!

Something Special card - Stamps:  Nature Silhouettes (Kim Hughes collection for Cornish Heritage Farms); Cardstock:  Pickle (Bazzill), Soft Sky, Really Rust, Confetti White (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Sugared by Basic Grey); Inks:  Really Rust marker (Stampin' Up!), Dark Ochre marker (Tombow), Really Rust, Soft Sky dye ink (Stampin' Up!), Versamagic Spanish Olive, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko); Accessories:  dew drops (Robin's Nest), ribbon (Offray), slot punch (Stampin' Up!).

You're Simply Sweet card - Here's the Scoop (My Favorite Things); Cardstock:  Green Tea (Bazzill), white (Gary Burlin), designer paper (My Mind's Eye); Inks:  Adirondack Pitch Black (Ranger), Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), markers (Copic) Accessories:  ric-rac (Creative Impressions).

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!!!  Well, not really but it will in six months!  And to celebrate, Maria is having a sale in the Kitchen Sink!  Beginning tomorrow June 25th through Saturday, June 28th you can get Playful Christmas, (shown here), 3-Step Holly & Mistletoe, or Snow Flurry for 15% off!  So hurry on over to the Kitchen and pick one (or heck, get all 3!) so you can get a jump start on your Christmas cards!  I promise, you'll love these sets!

Again, my card uses the Playful Christmas set, and I dug out some Basic Grey Figgy Pudding paper from last season because I love how the trees in the paper go so well with the trees in the stamp set.  Very fun!  I also used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch challenge for my card!  (yeah... I'm not 5 days late for a change!)

I hope you'll take advantage of this awesome sale!  And don't forget you have until midnight on June 25th to get your entries in to the What's Cookin' with Your Kitchen Sink Stamps contest!  Contest details can be viewed by clicking on the link!

Have a great evening!  Thanks for stopping by, and please check back tomorrow when I'll post my card using the weekly My Favorite Things sketch from SCS!

Stamps:  Playful Christmas (Kitchen Sink Stamps); Cardstock:  Jade, Maraschino (Bazzill), white (Gary Burlin), River Rock (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Figgy Pudding by Basic Grey); Inks:  Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, River Rock (Stampin' Up!), Versafine Onyx Black, Encore Gold metallic (Tsukineko); Accessories:  corner rounder punch (Stampin' Up!), scalloped oval, regular oval punches (Marvy Uchida), brads (Creative Impressions).