Stamps, Paper, Scissors

More Verve!

2008-09-02T05:58:48-07:00

And not just because I'm on my second cup of coffee!

I'm going to show you the rest of my stuff for my guest designer spot with Verve Stamps! It was a close thing, but I finally finished everything! We'll save all the accolades and self-love until the very end, shall we?

Ingredients: Stamps - Verve Stamps Beautiful You; Paper - Certainly Celery (SU!), Rose Red (SU!), Cool Caribbean (SU!), Pretty in Pink (SU!), PapertreyInk White, Basic Grey Euphoria 6 x 6; Ink - Rose Red Craft (SU!), Versafine Onyx Black, Cool Caribbean (SU!); Other - Dotted grosgrain (Michael's), white gel pen, SU! Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Basic Black and Old Olive Markers, white gel pen, Certainly Celery Brads (SU!), Ticket Corner punch (SU!), 3/16" corner rounder (SU!), Scallop Edge punch (SU!), dimensionals (SU!), clear EP (SU!)

The flower uses one of my favorite techniques: marker over white gel pen. I stamped with Rose Red craft ink on Pretty in Pink cardstock and embossed in clear. I painted in the center parts of the petals with Rose Red ink. Then I colored in some of the outer parts of the petals with the white gel pen, then used markers to color on top of that. The gel pen soaks up a lot of color, so you should always start with one shade darker than the color you want to end up with.

Ingredients: Stamps - Verve Stamps Fairy Tales; Paper - Soft Sky (SU!), Certainly Celery (SU!), PapertreyInk White, Whisper White, Basic Grey Lily Kate 6 x 6; Ink - Adirondack Express, PapertreyInk Sweet Blush, Certainly Celery (SU!); Other - Flower (Prima), Button (Autumn Leaves), Martha Stewart border punch, Ticket Corner punch (SU!), white pearl cotton, Pearl Stickers (Mark Richards), Soft Sky Double-stitched grosgrain (SU!)

The Prima flower was a cooler pink than the pink used in the DP, so I sponged some of the Sweet Blush ink onto it...then it was all matchy matchy poo poo!

Ingredients: Stamps - Verve Artful Elegance; Paper - Basic Grey Sugared 6 x 6, SU! River Rock, SU! Very Vanilla; Ink - SU! Very Vanilla Craft, SU! Red Riding Hood, SU! River Rock, Adirondack Espresso; Other - SU! Ticket Corner Punch, SU! Large Oval Punch, SU! Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware (retired), SU! Vinatage Brads, SU! Red Riding Hood Taffeta Ribbon, sponge wedges, PSX Weathered White EP

Stamps - Verve Stamps Grateful Elegance; Paper - Basic Grey Euphoria 6 x 6, SU! Lovely Lilac, Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Pink Pirouette, Baja Blue; Ink - Versafine Onix Black, SU! Pink Pirouette; Other - SU! Photo Corner Punch, black dotted organdy (Michael's), Rose Red Large Oval Eyelets (SU! retired), SU! Basic Black marker, dimensionals (SU!), sponge wedges, Bella Liquid Watercolor Glitter, purple Stickles

Here's a close up of the flowers that I painted with the Bella Liquid Watercolor Glitter I got on my last road trip...oooooohhhhhhh.....

And finally, for the pièce de la resistance:

Ingredients: Stamps - Verve Notes of Prayer, Grateful Elegance; Paper - Making Memories Noteworthy Ava & Hillary, SU! Baja Blue, Purely Pomegranate, Taken with Teal, Ink - SU! Purely Pomegranate, Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Taken with Teal, Versamark; Other - Petaloo flower, Button, Light pink gingham ribbon (SU!), Teal velvet ribbon (SU! retired, Scalloped and Classic rectangle Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders), Heidi Grace Playbill Rub-ons

This started its life as a composition book from CVS. I have always admired people who are intercessors (this is not my spiritual gift, alas!) and decided to make this as a gift for someone I know. I embossed the cross in gold EP:

And covered the inside covers as well as the outside covers.

To create the title, I omitted on one of the Notes of Prayer stamps so I could simply stamp the word "prayer" above the word "Journal" I had already created with rub-ons.

Well....? Aren't they all GOJUS?!?!?! (YILM!)

I have truly had a wonderful time playing with all these stamps for a whole month...now I just need to find a quiet corner to collapse into! August was one wild ride! But I can't collapse just yet...the swap mines are calling my name! Ta!

If you didn't love me before...

2008-08-31T15:59:55-07:00

You will now! Once you see what I did with the new 3 Step Butterflies set from da Sink! Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Butterflies; Ink - SU! Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Summer Sun, Only Orange, Pixie Pink, Lovely Lilac, Basic Black; Other - Avery Ink Jet T-Shirt transfer, white t-shirt

Isn't this GOJUS!?!?!?!? (YILM!) These butterflies made it so easy! Here's a close up:

Don't they look just like they are going to fly off the shirt?

If you've never stamped on an ink jet t-shirt transfer before, it is SO easy. You simply stamp on the side of the transfer that you normally would print on, then you follow the instructions to iron it on your t-shirt. I highly recommend that you use only Avery t-shirt transfers, others that I have tried simply do not work as well.

You have to be aware that some inks will run the first time you wash your t-shirt, depending on how much ink was used. So be careful to wash it in COLD water (following the directions in the transfer package) and throwing one of those dye-catcher sheets in with it wouldn't hurt either.

I've found you can sponge color on the transfers, stamp on them, and use markers (those tend to run more because they deposit more ink on the surface, but some colors run more than others.)

The color WILL fade over time, soft colors get washed out much faster, so stick to vibrant colors if you want your t-shirt to look good longer.

You can also first print on your transfer, then stamp on it before transferring. Everything you stamp on your transfer is going to come out mirror image, so stamping words or letters will not work. So if you want to have words on your t-shirt, print them on the transfer before stamping.

Now, I KNOW you are just LOVIN' ME!!! I am going to go off and stamp and bask in all the love...you be good, now! Ta!

3 Step Get Well Teddy

2008-08-30T13:21:13-07:00

I've had this set for a while and just haven't got to play with it. What can I say...the past two weeks have just been CRAMMED with activities, stamping, and shopping for school stuff. I finished all the projects for my Verve guest designer spot yesterday and was able to cross one more thing off the LONG list of things I needed to stamp, so I was able to turn my attention to Mr. Teds today. I think you'll agree it was worth the wait:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Get Well Teddy, Plaid Plus; Paper - Sahara Sand, Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White; Ink - Sahara Sand, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Whisper White; Other - 3/4" circle punch, 1" circle punch, Word Window punch (SU!), striped grosgrain ribbon (American Crafts), Chocolate Chip marker, sponge wedge, paper piercing tool.

Isn't this STINKIN' CUTE?!?!?! (YILM!) I wanted to make a "boy" card, since so many cards are geared to the feminine, so I pulled out my Plaid Plus set and got busy. And it's kind of like potato chips, once you start laying down lines, you just keep adding more and more. So I got a very flannel-looking plaid, which was my aim.

Originally, I stamped the bear on Very Vanilla, but it looked odd because the bandages are left without ink so they look white and if you stamp it on Vanilla you end up looking like the bear has had parts cut off and they are floating next to him since the bandages are NOT white, but vanilla. So I stamped again on white and I was happy I did because I found this PERFECT ribbon in my stash and it has white in it!

I still have some Kitchen Sink stamping to do for the end of the month, so stay tuned! Ta!

Happiness Always

2008-08-29T06:35:01-07:00

I've been playing with this set a LOT, probably because I signed up for two swaps with it! And since the Controlfreaks have all gotten their swaps, I'm free to post this:

Ingredients: (All SU!) Stamps - Happiness Always, Canvas; Paper - Baja Blue, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Lavender Lace; Ink - Baja Blue, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Lavender Lace; Other - Apricot Appeal grosgrain, silver brads, sponge wedges, paper piercing tool, large oval punch, dimensionals

Isn't it GOJUS!?!?!? (YILM!)

The next one was harder to do...I found the leaf in this set to be really hard to work with:

Ingredients: (all SU!) Stamps - Happiness Always, Sanded; Paper - Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla; Ink - Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand, Tangerine Tango; Other - Photo Corner punch, Vintage brads, Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelet, 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, Color Spritzer tool

The color was sponged onto the stippled leaf image before stamping. Yes, yes, it's GOJUS! (YILM!)

And here's another, which is a swap card that the ladies in my upline's group are all waiting patiently for! This is the first time I've missed the deadline for a swap, but there was so much going on last week! So I'm working on getting them done and delivered SOMEHOW this week:

Ingredients: - Happiness Always, Pocket Silhouettes, Canvas; Paper - Riding Hood Red, Close to Cocoa, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Very Vanilla; Ink - Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss; Other - Kiwi Kiss Double-Sided Satin ribbon, Chocolate Chip marker, Scallop Edge punch, gold brads, sponge wedges, dimensionals.

I may change the center on the flower to the stipple one...otherwise GOJUS!!! (YILM!)

You can see I've been stampin' up a storm around here and this isn't all I still haven't shown you! Stay tuned!

Holiday Lineup

2008-08-27T05:36:01-07:00

I really, really love this set! I can imagine all kinds of snarky sayings to put with the reindeer stamp and the elf stamp. But what I am most drawn to is the group of snowmen. They are just STINKIN' CUTE!!!

So here's a card I made with them:

Ingredients: (all SU!) Stamps - Holiday Lineup, Short & Sweet, Twill; Paper - Baja Blue, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Holiday Treasures DP; Ink - Versamark, Whisper White, Baja Blue, Pacific Point, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, Basic Grey; Other - Black EP, Old Olive buttons, natural hemp, Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon, aquapainter.

So? STINKIN' CUTE?!?!?! YES!!! (YILM!) I love the color combination in the new Holiday Treasures Designer Paper and the new Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon is just to DIE for!

Well, I am going to bop off again...lots of stamping to do! Ta!

What you missed...

2008-08-26T07:10:38-07:00

Well, it's that time again...time to make you sorry you didn't come to my class!

What? What kind of excuse is that, "I couldn't afford the plane fare!"? And how lame is, "I had to work!"? C'mon! If it was really important to you, you'd have been there! Here's another: "I was in labor!"?

Sigh...but being the forgiving kind of person I am, I am going to forgive everyone who didn't come. After all, you are gonna feel really, really bad when you see what you missed!

Along with the card I showed in the previous post, there were these three GOJUS (YILM!) creations!!!

Ingredients (all SU!): Stamps - Upsy Daisy, Polka Dot; Paper - So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip; Ink - Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette; Other - slit punch, 3/16" corner rounding punch, gold eyelet, dimensionals, sponge wedges.

Well? Are you sorry now? Huh? If not, keep going, you will be!

Ingredients (all SU!): Stamps - Sock Monkey, Sock Monkey Accessories, All Holidays; Paper - Pumpkin Pie, Naturals White, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray, Ghostly Greetings EP; Ink - Basic Black; Other - Word Window Punch, Vintage Brads, black gingham ribbon, Basic Black marker.

Had enough yet?

No? Lookie:

Ingredients (all SU!): Stamps - Heard from the Heart, Snow Burst; Paper - Tempting Turquoise, Night of Navy, Pacific Point, Whisper White; Ink - Night of Navy, Pacific Point, Whisper White; Other - Pacific Point striped grosgrain, Filigree brads, silver brads, sponge wedges, ticket corner punch, white gel pen.

I saved the best for last! Isn't it just GOJUS?!?!? I've been having a hard time with this color, Pacific Point. It's so rich a blue that it just floods your eyes when you look at it, making everything you see have a blue tinge for about 20 minutes afterwards. Then suddenly, as I was re-reading this:

It came to me! Do a monochromatic color scheme, use Night of Navy as the dark blue, Pacific Point as the midpoint color, then it was just a matter of determining the lighter blue. Tempting Turquoise won hands down.

After I stamped all the snowflakes, I used my Signo white gel pen to add white dots to all the snowflakes. Yes, yes, I am a genius! (YILM!)

So now, I imagine, you are feeling really bad.

I'm going to throw fuel on the fire and show you what you could have made (along with the scrapbook page from one of my other posts) if you were at my workshop on Sunday!

Ingredients (all SU!): Stamps - Fabulous Flowers, Canvas, Sincere Salutations; Paper - More Mustard, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Very Vanilla; Ink - Versamark, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, More Mustard, Baja Blue; Other- Baja Blue striped grosgrain, gold brads, ticket corner punch, Chocolate Chip marker, keytag punch, sponge wedges, dimensionals, Stampin' Pastels.

Oh...don't cry! Don't throw yourself on the floor and scream like that! People are LOOKING! You are seriously embarrassing me right now! If you keep that up, I will never show you what you missed again!

Got a grip now? That's good...I was getting worried.

Now, I have to go down to the swap mines. You be good...and quit looking at your brother...he doesn't like it! Ta!

Road Tripabella!

2008-08-23T11:25:40-07:00

Some of you may be thinking I was keeping this a deep dark secret...but the reality is that it didn't really sink in exactly what we were doing yesterday until I got there.

Paula has been urging me to go to Canada with her for just forever, so I agreed to, finally. She said SOMETHING about where we were going, but you know, it didn't really sink in, as I said. I was so preoccupied with other stuff for the past month that I didn't even permit myself to think about it. Mary decided she could make it too, so it became a BFF event!

What did we do? Why, we went to Stamping Bella in Toronto! If you are not familiar with Bellas, well, I'd like to know what rock you've been under! They are stylish line-art images of women doing all KINDS of stuff and they've been a hot topic on Splitcoast ever since their debut a few years back.

I have to blush and admit that, at first, I just didn't "get" Bellas. I didn't see why everyone was just going ga ga over them. Then I saw a few Bellas that spoke to me, but yet I still resisted buying any. Mostly because this is a Canadian company and the shipping between our two countries is not always inexpensive.

Well, I am a Virginabella no longer. I happily purchased Knitabella with a matching saying! Plus...some other stuff, LOL! Not as much as I wanted to, I hasten to add. I kept myself to a rather small budget. I wish I could have bought more, but if you are a teacher's wife you know that the end of the summer is not the best time to be buying anything.And the fact is, that if I hadn't sold some retired stuff to Paula, I would have had to stick my hands in my pockets and just wished.

Anyway, Paula, Mary and I (the BFF's!) left early yesterday morning and headed over the border into Canada. I have a thing about Canada...it's a rare thing for me to visit that lovely country without something going wrong! I'm happy to say that this time nothing did!

We joined up with Linda and Pauline, Paula's Canadian stamping buddies, near Chatham and proceeded to jump in their car and proceed to Toronto, where we were greeted warmly by Em, the proprietor of Stamping Bella. It's a tiny store that was expanded not too long ago from miniscule (I don't see how it could have been any smaller!) But as small as it was, there was sure a lot of goodies to ooh and ah over.

Em with Linda. There was a delicious spread of sandwiches and wraps for us, plus desserts!

The Bella wall!

Bellas ON the wall!

Mary and Paula, my BFF's!

The Scramping room. Paula gave us a demo of Prismacolors with Gamsol, Linda (standing) gave us a Copic demo. Nicky, one of the store instructors showed us how to use a new product called Flower Soft. And Linda Evans (far right) from Texas just came to meet and greet! There were others there, Carol (Inego on SCS) plus others whose names have leaked right out of my head (I'm really bad that way.) I had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back.

Pudgy suburban housewife and Em.

We finally jumped in the car and made the long drive back. Today I'm tired, but I have to go stamp (oh, darn, oh darn!) because I have a class on Monday and a workshop tomorrow! I have one of the cards ready for Monday, so I will show it to you now, just as a thank you for putting up with my Road Tripabella story!

Ingredients (all SU!): Stamps - Pocket Silhouettes, Tres Chic, Canvas; Paper - Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Baja Blue, Naturals White, Kiwi Kiss; Ink - Kiwi Kiss, Baja Blue, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip; Other - Word Window Punch, Kiwi Kiss Striped Grosgrain, silver brads, dimensionals, sponge wedges, paper piercing tool.

Yes, I know it's GOJUS!!! (YILM!) I love these new colors AND this set!

Well, I better go get some work done! Ta!

These cupcakes are making me hungry!!!

2008-08-21T04:47:37-07:00

What is up with cupcakes, anyway? Why are cupcake stamps so popular? Why not pretzel stamps, or pizza stamps? Or even...CHEESECAKE!?!?! It's a mystery!

Luckily, we don't have to solve the mystery to use these cute cupcake stamps from Verve! Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Verve Stamps A Cupcake Affair, Artful Elegance; Paper - Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Ruby Red, PTI Spring Moss, SEI Dill Blossom 4 x 6 pad; Ink - Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, Cool Caribbean, Ruby Red, Spring Moss; Other - Aged Copper Hodgepodge Hardware, Groovy Guava Double Stitched grosgrain, white gel pen, small oval punch

I bought the SEI Dill Blossom 4 x 6 pad at the Great Lakes Mega Meet because I just LOVED the colors, but I hadn't used it until this card. Isn't it GOJUS!?!?! (YILM!)

Well, there's a whole lotta stampin' goin' on around here! And a whole lotta more stampin' that needs to get done! You stay sweet, now! In the meantime, I have a fabulous idea for a new food based stamp set that I want to pitch to stamp companies!

Ta!

3 Step Seashells

2008-08-20T07:28:59-07:00

Posting on the fly today, as I have to get ready to take my kids swimming (but not in da Sink!)

I have had this Kitchen Sink card almost completed for a while, but was waiting on the 5th step for the big conch shell. (Originally the set had 4 steps for this image and Marie decided (wisely!) that it really needed one more step to make it look right.) I think this turned out GOJUS!!! Let's just get that out of the way right away!!! (YILM!)

Ingredients: Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Seashells, Vintage Words; Paper - Sahara Sand, Pale Plum, Groovy Guava, Close to Cocoa, Basic Grey Boxer 6 x 6 pad; Ink - Whisper White, Bashfull Blue, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Sahara Sand, Groovy Guava, Pink Pirouette, Almost Amethyst, Perfect Plum, Adirondack Espresso; Other - Bashful Blue brads, Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon, sponge wedges, dimensionals

Yes, I know, I know...it's so GOJUS!!! (YILM!) I love how this turned out; it would make a good sympathy card or just a thinking of you type card.

Well, I must dash. Ta!

Scrapbooking....

2008-08-18T19:10:28-07:00

Well, it's been a few months since I have done any scrapbook pages; I pretty much stopped scrapbooking when I dropped off the design team at Scrappy Chic. It's been even longer than that since I have done an all SU! scrapbook page, so it was time and more than time. I also have a workshop coming up this Sunday where the hostess wants the guests to do a scrapbook page, so I figured I'd better start designing a few pages in order to give myself something to choose from.

I was very inspired by pages 120 and 121 in the new Fall/Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalog, or as it's known on my blog, THE BOOK. If you've never noticed, every two page spread in a SU! catalog has samples in a different color combination, making it a great source for color inspiration, even after it retires! These two pages have this combination: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Bashful Blue, More Mustard, So Saffron and Very Vanilla. There is also a beautiful scrapbook page on page 121 the layout of which I decided to scraplift and twist to my own nefarious purposes. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - SU! Upsy Daisy, Defining Alphabet, Define Your Life; Paper - Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Old Olive, More Mustard, Very Vanilla, Bashful Blue textured cardstock; Ink - More Mustard & Old Olive Craft ink, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, So Saffron, Certainly Celery; Other - Top Note Bigz Die, Scallop Circle Punch, Scallop Border Punch, Clear EP, Pretties kit, 5/8" wide Vanilla grosgrain, Bashful Blue Taffeta ribbon, dimensionals, sponge wedges, Cutter Kit

Isn't this GOJUS!?!?!? (YILM!) I got the Defining Alphabet & Define Your Life sets from SU!'s Great Rewards program this past spring and was delighted that they didn't immediately retire. I figure using them for a workshop would be a good idea, since everyone can choose a different letter & definition. The letters and the flowers are both stamped in craft ink then embossed in clear. It's not exactly the same layout as the page in the catalog, but it did provide a jumping off point.

If you're having a hard time reading the journaling, it reads, "Just because you can't see how beautiful you are, but I can see the lovely woman you will someday become and how beautiful you are inside." Sniff...yeah, I am maudlin with emotion as my oldest starts high school...don't get me started...

ANYWAY, the hardest part was figuring out how to adhere the flowers, which I dyed with my So Saffron pad, to the page. I dried them with my heat tool, but glue dots just were not sticking. Mono Multi didn't work...it just sucked the color right out of the flowers, then they fell off. So I finally resorted to Crystal Effects...worked great!

I figure the workshop participants can turn the photo mat either horizontally, as this one is, or vertically, making it a fairly versatile layout.

Well, I must be off to bed soon...I have to get up early to take my oldest to the book sale for her school tomorrow then she starts her first full day on Wednesday. I am really not ready to have a high schooler...but it looks like I have no choice! And to top it off, after having spent a bomb on her uniform, not to mention the huge money-sucking hole that is the tuition payment, and the crater that buying her books is going to create in our financial landscape, I had my youngest try on HIS uniform pants from last year and yep...they are too tight. He is as skinny as a rail still, but somehow the rail got taller and a bit broader in the beam. Sigh...I'm gonna hafta get a job just to keep up. Ta!