The Creative Ink Pad

Be Happy!

2010-07-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

I love this card. It just makes me smile. So I had no problem whipping out 10 of these little babies recently. the original sample I saw on Splitcoast Stampers used real ribbon, but I didn't have the right shade of green for 10 cards, but then I remembered I had the ribbon & stitches stamp set from Hero Arts. That sealed using this design for me- I loved the Hero Arts when it came out (like 4 years ago), but truthfully, I've not used it very much. I was so happy to be inking up the polka dot ribbon stamp. And I love that i could use scrap strips of Whisper White card stock to make the "ribbon."

Supplies needed: Be Happy stamp set, Circle Circus Stamp Set, Hero Arts Ribbon stamp set, Tempting Turquoise card stock and ink, Garden Green card stock and ink, Real Red card stock and ink, Metal rimmed tag, Large oval punch, and Whisper White card stock.

Summer Boredom Buster- Getting creative with scraps

2010-07-05T06:12:00.000-07:00

Whats the best way to organize scraps? That's a question many scrappers and stampers deal with. I've tried a variety of methods, and have settled on the ziplock by color system. I grouped my scraps into 6 different 12x12 ziplocks (ok they're really hefty bags, but you get the idea) and grouped two like colors together black, white and cream (ok, so this one actually has 3 "colors"), pink and red, blue and green, orange and yellow and I think purple is actually all by itself.

Anyhoo, with all of my recent card making sessions, I noticed that my bags were getting a little thick. And then that's when the summer boredom buster bag idea popped into my head. My oldest gets into trouble when he's bored- he's not really the destructive type when he's bored- it's more that he will bug his brother to death. So I thought the Boredom Buster Bag would be a great thing to divert his attention and would be a great way to use up a lot of scraps.

So I started with this pile of scraps:

And added different activities to the different scraps of paper so that I ended up with this:

The activities that I put on the cards include: Playdoh, Hop on 1 foot 10 times, Find 3 squirrels, Build a pillow fort, etc., etc. This way, whenever my oldest seems to be bored, I can suggest he pick a card out of the Boredom Bag and hopefully that'll keep him busy and me happy or at least headache free!

He's used the bag once with a good result. I'll keep you posted. :)

Flowers

2010-07-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

There are so many flower stamps available. I'm not into the realistic looking kinds- I like the more fluid, sketchy-type. So that's why I love the flower stamp in the Year after Year set (retired set).

Supplies used: Year After Year stamp set, Certain Celery card stock, marker and ink, Summer Sun Card stock and marker, Ruby Red card stock and marker, Whisper White card stock and Bashful blue grosgrain ribbon.

Welcoming baby

2010-07-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

I made the two following cards for the card packs I'm putting together in advance of this school year. Welcome baby cards are so great to have on hand so that you do't have to *gasp* buy a card or whip all of your supplies out to create a card whenever the little one is born. I made nearly identical cards for a boy baby and a girl baby. Did you know that there are more female babies being born than male babies? That's so weird to me because I have two boys and a lot of my friends have only boys. When my kids are driving me particularly insane, I'll joke with my husband that he could've given me at least one X (vs. Y). But I digress to show you what you really came to see. Again, these cards were inspired from a card I saw on Splitcoast stampers. Cheers to the original creator for her simple clean-lined vision.

Supplies used: Nursery Necessities stamp set, Large Star Punch, Pretty in Pink card stock and ink, Bashful Blue card stock and ink, pink gingham ribbon, blue gingham ribbon Whisper White card stock and a small hole punch.

A lost project

2010-06-29T05:49:00.000-07:00

Seems I neglected to share the following altered tin I made as a Christmas present this year. It was super cute and made very last minute. I filled it with with some cards I had on hand too.

I didn't personalize the tin with the recipient's name because I didn't know where she would store this and/or how she would use it.

Handmade cards are my gift of choice lately for so many reasons- I know the recipient won't have it already and its something very practical. I'm more into giving practical gifts than dust catchers, unless I want to give the recipient more housework, wink, wink.

Super cute cards

2010-06-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've made a card that I liked so much that I didn't want to give it away. And this card is one of those. Good thing I made multiples! This is another card that I tweaked after seeing the original card somewhere on splitcoast stampers.

Supplies used: Circle circus stamp set, Upsy Daisy stamp set, Kiwi Kiss ribbon, card stock and ink, Tangerine Tango Card stock and Ink, Baha Breeze card stock and ink, corner rounder.

Tweaker

2010-06-25T05:52:00.000-07:00

With most things in life, I'm a better tweaker than outright creator. And with cards, this is no different. I saw a really cute card similar to the one below and then tweaked it (for one thing, I didn't have the same stamp sets as the original creator did, so I had to adapt it a bit).

In my quest to use up old supplies, I hit it out of the park using not only the Tangerine Tango card stock and ink, but also the ribbon too. Stamp used in the background is from the Circle Circus set. The stamped image in the center is from an older SAB set.

Cards in multiples

2010-06-23T05:48:00.000-07:00

The card for today is one of the cards I made multiples of, using left over precuts from classes and/or workshops I've done I've the past.

I really dig the color combination- real red, ballet blue and pumpkin pie (I think!). Wow flowers is the stamp set I used again.

More wow flowers

2010-06-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

As you know, I'm not into making cards that take forever and a day to work- I like cute, quick and somewhat simple designs. And this card fits the bill entirely:

Supplies: Wow Flowers stamp set, Kiwi Kiss card stock an ink, Pacific point card stock and ink, Baha Breeze ink, Whisper white card stock, corner rounder.

I actually used this card as a card for a high school graduate. I thought it was way more fun than something with a mortar board on it.

No excuses

2010-06-19T05:45:00.000-07:00

I've been a bad blogger- but really, when have I ever been posting consistently? But you know that- I haven't posted anything new in ages. But that doesn't mean I haven't been stamping.

As a matter of fact, lately, I've been inking things up furiously. As you may recall if you've been following this blog (or maybe not since my posts are kinds few and far between) I have too much craft stuff. And I've been feeling overwhelmed. For a few months, I tried just re-organizing everything- as if that would make some of it go away.

But that didn't seem to help me feel better since I was just moving junk from one place to another. So I decided to really get going. Hubby went out of town for the weekend recently and I really got smoking then- in one night I made 12 cards and 3 double page scrapbook layouts. Now there were only 2 different types of cards I made that night. You see, I was always super prepared for the SU workshops I had in the pat and always had extras of cards cut and ready to go. But now that I'm no longer a demo, I needed to do something with all of those prepped materials. So that's how I cranked out so many in one night.

The other thing I've realized is that I have 2-3 feet thick in terms of 8.5 x11 card stock that I'll never use for scrapbooking- maybe scraps, but I'd never cut into that sized sheet of paper knowing that I could made 2 cards instead. Just because I'm anal like that. The other thing that clicked in my head was the fact that I coul turn all of that unadorned card stock into beautiful teacher gifts without spending a penny. And those of you that know me know that I'm such a thrifty girl. So with my oldest starting Kindergarten in the Fall, I thought it would be great ti get a jump start on making card sets for teachers/secretaries/principals- you get the idea.

So here's one of the cards I came up with:

What do you think?

This isn't a stamp set I own- I stamped with friends a while ago borrowed some of their fabulous stamps. I think this may be Manhattan flowers. Colors are whisper white, rich razzleberry and the dark brown (the fun SU color name is totally escaping me now and I'm too lazy to look it up!)

More cards to follow this week and next- I'm going to spread out the posts so you're now overwhelmed with too much creativity.

Good bye 2009... Hello 2010

2009-12-31T07:28:00.000-08:00

As crazy as the holidays are, I somehow have had more time to do crafty things this year. Just this week I found the time to scrapbook- for 4 hours! A feat I've not managed to do for quite some time. I haven't taken pictures of the layouts I did, but I really felt accomplished. I seem to have lots of layouts with pictures of my still MIA kitty in them, so I had been putting off scrapping those. But I just cried my way through it and got one of the layouts done. I miss that fur ball terribly and still hope he'll be back soon.

I do have pictures of other projects I've done recently- today I'll share the photo calendars I made for my husband, mother and father-in-law.

These came together quite quickly, but that's probably because I made it easy on myself by making the calendars 6x6, so I didn't have to do much measuring- just cut the paper into fourths. Here are the three calendars closed:

I used the In Colors from 2008 for a few reasons- I love the combination of colors and I had a lot of the 12x12 sheets of card stock left, so I thought I should use it. I chose to use Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss and the Tangerine Tango as the three main colors. Since my style is more simple, I chose to use just the photo corner punch to add some accents on each page- I didn't want any of the embellishments to upstage the pictures.

And here is a shot of one of the inside of the calendar. Each calendar was pretty much identical, except for the pictures varied.

Cute, right? The recipients will never know how simple they were to put together. And since I used stuff out of my stash, they cost only my time.

As promised, pics of the photo ornaments

2009-12-21T19:29:00.000-08:00

Here are the photo ornaments I made for my brother. I have another set of these (only they are snowflakes) to make for myself, but projects for me always are at the bottom of the very long list I always seem to have.

These ornaments came together pretty quickly. They were from a kit I picked up from Joanns many, many moons ago. Quite honestly, I was tired of looking at the box and thought it was due time to get them done. The hardest part was punching out the shapes- they were die cut, but not very well, so I actually had to use an exacto knife and go around the entire shape. That took forever (a few day, working about an hour at a time). Then I had to find pictures.

After that, they ornaments came together quite quickly. I put the majority of them together in the car, on the way to visit family in Pittsburgh last week. It was the perfect project for the trip- I finished almost all of them on the leg of the trip when my husband was driving. It was a total last minute decision to grab the project and I'm thankful I thought to do it then. Only about a third of the ornaments are pictured- I didn't want to bore you with more of the same. I didn't embellish them too much- I inked up the edges and added a few rub-ons that came in the kit.

I think my brother will like them, don't you? Even though he's a tough guy, I know he's truly a softie- these types of gifts usually make him teary-eyed.

5 Days to Christmas- and I'm not stressed! How about that?

2009-12-20T19:14:00.001-08:00

Well, I've made much progress in the last 10 days or so. I spent much of today in the kitchen, baking cookies and other sweet treats for this week. I've finished the photo ornaments, the calendars and the book for my Grandma (photos coming soon!). I still have the coupons to make for my husband and I've decided to make a photo book for my youngest since he loves looking at people (especially ones he knows!). I think I have a pretty good handle on what needs to get done for Christmas and I think I should be able to get everything done early. I even threw in a last minute semi-party of sorts.

My oldest, Benjamin, loves the movie The Polar Express, and he mentioned a few months ago that he wanted to have friends over to watch the movie. Also, I was selected to be a Hershey's Kisses Cookie Exchange host, so I needed to host a cookie exchange and decided to combine the two and make life a bit easier. So far so good, except for the rash of stomach illnesses that seems to be going around- some of the kids that were planning on coming are now too germy to come. But that's better in the end so that we don't get sick right before Christmas. That would throw a huge wrench into my plans!

So I had a little time to be crafty with my stamps last night and lookie what I made:

What would a movie be with out popcorn? And we need something cute to put the popcorn in, right? I was pretty pleased with myself. I tend to get excited about the little bits of craftiness that I can bring into my life, especially lately.

Supplies used: Choo choo stamp set, Right on track wheel, Going Gray ink, Red Ridinghood Red ink, Wild Wasabi ink, Chocolate Chip ink.

I really enjoyed this project- it was quick and not so dirty. I have everything on hand and since I knew the bags were only going to be used for a bit, I didn't have the normal stress about making them *perfect*. Maybe I need to do that more often. It would be good to get things done without the self-imposed stress.

15 days until Christmas- I'm totally stressed- how about you?

2009-12-10T11:34:00.000-08:00

This morning I "remembered" that today is December 10th, which means that Christmas is a little more than 2 weeks away. You see, as a mother of young children, I typically don't know what day of the month it is- I know the month and what day of the week, but for as the specific date- that information is usually useless to me because I generally have a similar routine/schedule every day. So the fact that Christmas is not creeping up, but instead coming at me at a warp paced speed got me a little stressed.

Thinking it would help, I began to write (or as it turned out, compile) a to do list. Well, that only made me even more stressed out. As a crafter, I naturally have several handmade items on my gift list: monthly calendars, a few photo books, a set of photo ornaments and some gift certificates (hubby loves to watch movies and I really have trouble finding the time to sit and watch a movie with him, so our to watch list has movies that were released three years ago. I thought it would be a great gift to him to watch at least one movie a month. And to make it more fun, I'd cook a meal in the same vein as the theme of the movie- for example, the movie 7 Pounds is on our list- for that night, I'm going to make a heavy meal like Italian food and make something very rich and filling). Great ideas, right? Well, I haven't finished any of them. In fact, I haven't started 2 of the projects at all and I have no clear idea on how I want them to look or what supplies I'm going to use.

But instead of continuing to stress this afternoon, I took a few deep breaths, ate some chocolate and set my timer for 15 minutes and cleaned during that time. I didn't get more done than I usually do when I play this little game with myself, but I was trying not to be so frenetic about my movements and just slow down. I have 15 days- not 2. The calendars are 90% done- they're together, pictures are attached- pages have been distressed a bit- I just need to finish the covers and add a little extra embellishment to the pages and then photograph them before wrapping them up this year (so I can show you, since you are waiting with baited breath!). Once I finish this post, I'll order the photos for the ornaments so I can get a start on those. And once I get those projects done, I'll be more than halfway there with finishing my handmade gifts.

I guess I'm writing this to tell all of you who are stressed out as I am that 1. You are not alone if you are a stress ball right now; and 2. It'll all get done (or mostly done). So eat some chocolate, relax and be merry!

Update on my cat and other things...

2009-11-05T19:07:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of my cat, Bandit with my youngest Ryan. This picture is over a year old, but it one of the cutest! So Bandit is still out and about. I've chased down leads all Summer and Fall to no avail. But I did just hear from someone yesterday who believes she saw Bandit- with a collar on- so it seems someone has taken him in. Of course it could be yet another black and white cat, but I'm betting that it is him. The last credible siting of Bandit was about 3 weeks ago one street over. As the weather gets colder here, I'm confident that he'll be home before too long. He may have had fun chasing the chipmunks, but I imagine he's not going to want to hang out in the snow. My oldest misses Bandit a lot, but I keep his spirits up by talking about Bandit's grand adventure!

Other news from me is that I'm no longer a Stampin' Up! demonstrator- this economy and my family life (crazy little boys that keep me hopping and the aforementioned MIA kitty) was too much for me to maintain my demonstratorship. But as strange as it seems, I'll probably be stamping and scrapbooking more. I was feeling rather overwhelmed by my stash- actually more like suffocated. So I'm slowly starting to dig my way out and will have lots to show you, so stay with me. Plus, you'll want to know what happens with my cat, right?

So here are two cards I made not too long ago. I love this stamp set and was happy to finally ink it up.

Supplies used for these cards: Thoughts and Prayers stamp set, very vanilla card stock, perfect plum card stock and pastel, pale plum card stock and pastel, old olive pastel, versamark ink, and the corner rounder punch.

Retired Stamp Sale!

2009-09-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

I really need to free up some room in my new crafting cabinet (well, in truth, I'm actually using two cabinets because 1 is just not enough). Here's the list of retired sets and wheels I'm willing to part with:

Fun filled- $7
A Greeting for All Reasons- $25
Soft Swirls- $20
Framed Greetings- $18
Amazing to Zany- $20
Greetings Galore- $20
Love Ya Bunches- $10
Polka Dot & Paisley- $15
Be Happy- $15
Simply Spring- $15
Small Shapes- $5
Time Well Spent (new and unmounted)- $30
Zoofari- $15
A Little Birdie Told Me- $15
So many sayings (new and unmounted)- $10
Riveting (new and unmounted)- $10

Wheels

Whimsical Blossom- $5
Flower Fun- $5

From a non-smoking home.

If you live outside of Cleveland and wish to purchase a set or two, I will ship them to you for the actual cost of USPS shipping.

I'm also open to reasonable offers- I'd like these sets to go to a stamper that might actually ink them up!

Paper bag album from your favorite slacker stamper

2009-08-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

Same old story- my life is getting in the way of my stamping. I've spent the majority of my "free time" this summer looking for my 15 year old, deaf and de-clawed indoor cat. He escaped the last Saturday of June, right before a week of monsoonal rains and I've been chasing him ever since. He was last seen this past weekend with a limp. I'm sorry he's injured, but I'm thinking it may make it easier to catch him. He's just totally freaked out and I saw him about a month ago, at dusk, when other people had already been trying to catch him. He looked healthy- but just plain scared. I'm keeping my hopes up. One of these times, the timing is going to be right and he'll be coming home.

But you didn't come here to hear my tale of woe about my beloved kitty, so I'll move on... in the rest of my "free time" I have stamped a few choice projects- I made this cute little paper bag album for a dear friend earlier this summer. I had shown her the album I made of my oldest and she oooed and aahed over it, so I knew I would have to make one for her. I love giving gifts like this: totally personal and handmade. One of the benefits of having a craft stockpile, is that I didn't have to buy anything- everything I needed was on hand, just waiting to be made into something gorgeous!

Supplies used for this fabulous project (ALL Stampin' Up!, except for the paper lunch bags of course): Circle Circus stamp set, Rich Razzelberry card stock, marker and polka dot grosgrain ribbon, Melon Mambo card stock and marker, Dusty Durango card stock and marker, Crushed Curry card stock and marker, Bermuda Bay card stock and marker, Large Oval Punch, Photo Corners Punch, 5-Petal Flower Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, 1" Circle Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch, Scallop Edge Punch and silver brads.

Another good thing about projects like this is that once you make one, it is so easy to duplicate it again and again- teacher's gifts, anyone?

You Tube for stamping?

2009-05-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

A new customer recently placed an order through my Stampin' Up! website. I emailed her to thank her for her order and for selecting me as her demonstrator and discovered that she is new to the stamping hobby. Turns out she is teaching herself to stamp and is getting tips from watching You Tube videos. How cool is that? I never would've thought of doing that. Well, it turns out I must be a dunderhead because Stampin' Up! now has its own channel on You Tube. So check it out- lots of neat videos are available now, and more are to come.

Stamping is a Beautiful Thing

2009-05-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

How I wish that I could stamp more often. Even thought I'm a demonstrator and love being a demo, I don't make stamping a priority. There's always something else that I could or should be doing- developing a meal plan, cleaning, play dates for the kids, feeding the dogs, chasing down the deaf cat who has escaped from the house for the umpteenth time this week, etc, etc. But really what I'm saying when I don't stamp or scrapbook is that I'm pushing myself waaaay down on the priority list. And that's sad. But that's also when you have young kids. I'm looking forward when I can stamp more than once in a quarter.

I recently discovered just how long it has been since I have stamped- I went to grab a baby card out of my card stash for neighbors who just had their first little baby when I found I had absolutely nothing appropriate to give them. And then I had some family birthday cards- slim pickings for those occasions too. So I need to stamp and soon. And I think I'm going to get my 4 year old in on the action as a project. Pre-school is done for the year until August and I'm going to need somethng to to keep him occupied, right? Well, I have an order coming from Stampin' Up! tomorrow, so I will have some new creations to share soon.

I do have an oldie, but goodie to share for now... So for this fun almost-all-occasion card, I used the Beautiful Thing stamp set and a somewhat striking color combination. I used the slit punch to make the punch-outs to inset the ribbon- I just made sure to not push the punch in too far so and lined up the edge of the paper with the end of the punch.

Supplies used: Beautiful Thing stamp set, Taken with Teal card stock, Summer Sun card stock and ink, Pumpkin Pie card stock and ink, Whisper White card stock, Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon and Marvelous Marker, Slit punch.

Masking fun

2009-03-19T06:32:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not hiding something fun, but I have a great card that shows the wonderful technique of masking.

Sometimes I can be somewhat of a lazy stamper- I'll see a really cool technique that looks fabulous, but I talk myself out of giving it a try because , well... well for no good reason!

So I overcame my case of laziness here and finally tried masking. And I'm so glad I did because I love how this card turned out. And it was a lot simpler than I anticipated.

A win win, don't you think?

Supplies used: Dreams du Jour stamp set, Basic Black ink, Whisper White card stock, Kiwi Kiss card stock and ink, Riding Hood Red card stock and ink, Tangerine Tango card stock and ink, Scallop edge punch, and blender pens.

Tangerine Love

2009-03-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

The richness of the Tangerine Tango color is so rich and deep. I'm not normally an orange fan (non-fruit, that is), but I really like Tangerine Tango. In today's card, I've paired it with the other In Colors, but in a more subtle way. The Love stamp from the Dreams du Jour stamp set is great in this application. It's a pretty quick and easy card to make because of the opened lined nature of the stamp. Just takes a little more cleaning of the same stamp than usual for me.Supplies used: Dreams du Jour stamp set, Tangerine Tango card stock and ink, Whisper White card stock, Pacific Point card stock and ink, Blue Bayou ink, Pink Pirouette ink, Riding Hood Red ink, Kiwi Kiss ink, Scallop border punch.

Springy thank you

2009-03-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

This is another oldie, but goodie... This card uses the Marvelous Markers to color in the face of the stamp. Handy technique if you don't have all of the colors you want to use in inkpads or, as in this case, you want an image to have several colors .

Supplies used: Wow Flowers Stamp set, Whisper White card stock, Bliss Blue card stock, marker and grosgrain ribbon, Pretty in Pink card stock and marker, Certain Celery card stock, ink and marker, Scallop Edge punch, Scallop Circle punch.

Understated elegance

2009-03-10T06:33:00.000-07:00

This is one of my all time favorite cards. I don't think I can bear to give this one away! It has a great design that lends so well to the leggy leaf stamp from the Embrace Life stamp set.

Supplies used: Embrace Life stamp set, Chocolate chip card stock, ink and Stampin' Pastels, Certain celery card stock and Stampin' Pastels, Very Vanilla card stock and grosgrain ribbon, Large Oval Punch, and Slit Punch.

Summery greetings

2009-03-09T06:34:00.000-07:00

I'm jumping ahead a season or two with the summery colors in today's card. Supplies used: A Beautiful Thing stamp set, Hugs & Wishes stamp set, Tempting Turquoise card stock and ink, Pumpkin Pie card stock and ink, Summer Sun card stock. Don't you want to break out your flip flops now?

The softer side of brown

2009-03-06T06:24:00.000-08:00

Brown can sometimes be such a blah color. But Stampin' Up's Chocolate Chip color is simply divine. I love how swapping Chocolate Chip out for Basic Black totally softens the look of cards and adds a certain elegance too.

Supplies used: Embrace Life stamp set, brads, whisper white grosgrain ribbon, Very vanilla card stock, Chocolate Chip card stock and ink, Rose Red card stock and Stampin' Pastels, brads.