Scrappy Time Well Spent

More Time Well Spent blooms! These were watercolored with Purely Pomegranate and Regal Rose, and the green dots were colored in with a marker. This entire card was made up using scraps from my scrap bin. The flowers are stamped singly and cut out (obviously) and then mounted on dimensionals.

We'll be making a card very similar to this one for January's stamp camps. I'm going to work up some faux buttons.

Artful Cracked Glass

This weekend I stamped up a storm (a tiny, gusty storm, but more stamping than we've seen in these parts in quite some time) and I wanted to use my Artfully Asian set and some more hardware - I'm trying to learn not to hoard things I buy. I was admiring a card given to me by my friend, Jeanine, on my birthday where she used the cracked glass technique and it made me want to do some "glass" cracking of my own. I had to stamp two of these central images because I dragged my pinky (or something) across it and smudged the original beyond get-away-with-it-ability; after the first botched try, I went and washed my hands and then heat-set the color after every addition of a new color.

For this technique I used Ultra Thick Embossing Powder, and heated/layered/embossed it probably 4 times and then I popped it in the freezer for about 15 minutes - but it doesn't necessarily need that long, I just kind of forgot about it when I got distracted by something else; once the card kind of curls on the ends and feels brittle, yank it from the freezer and twist it so you get these little cracks running through!

This card is very similar to one that we'll make at my January Stamp Camps. Everything except the ribbon (Martha Stewart) and the hardware (We R Memory Keepers) are Stampin' Up! supplies.

Christmas (post) catch-up!

If you'd noticed I wasn't posting, you may have been wondering where I was. I've been swamped at my day job and trying to get ready for Christmas. In the meantime I had a stamp camp and a stamp club meeting that I made projects for.

The gift card holders are Stampin' Up!'s preprinted holders that I embellished with a scallop punch done twice in different colors and then added grosgrain ribbon in either Old Olive or Real Red. These came out cute once I figured out what to do with them. I don't know if others were confused by them too once they had them in hand, but when I went searching for inspiration, there just weren't many examples out there!

The color is way off in these photos, but I'll show you the layouts just the same. The first is a catalog case as requested by my stamp club hostess for the month. All I changed was the use of rhinestone brads down the belly and the background stamping is a little different.

This second card is also a stamp club card. I'm so sad this set will be retiring so quickly! It hardly seems like it got a chance! The stitching was done with the cutting kit tool used for perforating - I just ran it over the Old Olive pad and then wobbled my way around the edges of the main image a couple times to replicate stitching. The star was colored in, covered in Crystal Effects and then doused in glitter.

Thanks for hanging in there with me! I cleaned off my stamp table and hope to show off more samples (more often) as the new year gets under way. :)

Another Halloween cat card

The main image on this card was a leftover of the Boo Kitty card immediately below this one. Once it didn't make it into the lineup for this weekend, I was able to put on some retired Stampin' Up black organdy and some More Mustard-ish Joann organdy. The words are from Everyday Flexible Phrases, and I changed the lower case 'h' into a capital 'H' when I saw that it looked a little lopsided as the first word with a lower case letter. While I was able to make the words line up using my Stamp-a-ma-jig (even WITH the ribbon already ON), I wasn't able to make it centered on the piece from side to side - so I doodled a bit to help trick or distract the eye into thinking it was more centered than it is. :)

Kitty boo!

I believe this is the third card in this month's stamp camp lineup...but don't hold me to it. :) I have been so indecisive on projects for this month, and I've left planning off to the end (even more than usual).

It doesn't help that I've been having issues with making a card, not liking it, showing it to others, and they like it. Or, I make it and don't like it, look at it the next morning, and suddenly it's an ok design. Luckily, I'm not someone to rip up elements just because I don't like them, so usually, they get a new life in the new perspective; whether it's mine or someone else's varies. :)

This set uses the sets Autumn Apparitions and Dots are Hot with my Coluzzle and circle cutting templates. I carried the circle/dots theme throughout the card, with my black rectangle to balance it out and also to weight the main image visually.

What do you think? Do you like the card? Would you make changes? If you'd change something, what would it be? When you get stuck creatively, how do you get un-stuck?!

Happy Friday to everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

Boat Catalog Case

I was looking for some inspiration last night for stamp camp, and I knew that I wanted to use the Boatloads of Love set because I wanted to use the Crop-a-dile to put ADORABLE (can you tell I'm really proud of this look) eyelet "tire" bumpers on the side of the boat like I'd done in an earlier card.

I don't think you can see their impact on this shot, but man, oh man, do the little puffs of steam really "make" the card. I also liked the added ribbon with the eyelets run through along the bottom. I hope my stampers like this!

Side note - I am so mad at myself. I went back to link to a photo of the previous card - AND I DON'T HAVE A PHOTO of it! It was adorable, too! (if I do say so myself). Humph! Moving right along...

For my card I used the Fall Flowers designer Stampin' Up paper, because I didn't want to use the red/green combo shown in the sample on p. 53 in the Idea Book & Catalog (and shown below). I will have other sentiments that they can put in their "word window", but I used "friend-ship" which is available in the set. I was trying to move away from watercoloring because I wanted to showcase other techniques at stamp camp - which is what I was hoping to be inspired to create samples for - but markers just don't do coloring in like watercoloring does.

Thankful Watercoloring

This Friday and Saturday I'm holding my monthly stamp camp. This is one of the cards that we'll be making. Watercoloring is always a hit!

When I saw this set in the current holiday mini catalog, I knew I wanted to watercolor it. They highlighted watercoloring techniques at this past summer's Stampin' Up convention, and what I really brought away from it was the need for white space within the watercoloring. I also realized the importance of actual watercolor paper, and using enough water to move the color around. I hope that I can help pass along some of my insights onto my stampers/painters.

I stamped the sentiment with the help of my Stamp-a-ma-jig and even with that, I held my breath while I pushed the inky stamp down on top of my newly painted image. :)

I am very pleased with the softness of the Groovy Guava paper behind the striped paper and liked that it was an unusual color choice that tied right in.

Stamp-a-Stack card 1

This is card #1 for Saturday at my Stamp-a-Stack for World Card Making day. We will make 10 of these in addition to 10 of a second design. There was no way for me to photograph the main image piece of this card to show it off, but it's so pretty in person! It's stamped on Shimmery White card stock. This paper is so pretty! I don't think we've ever used it for a stamp camp project, and I'm excited to show it to my stampers.


The main image is stamped in Blue Bayou and is from the set Season of Joy except for the snowflake which is from Punch Pals, and is stamped in Soft Sky and punched out with a 3/4" circle punch. That piece was then mounted on a dimensional. The Wild Wasabi strip was inked up in same-color ink and wheeled with the Whimsy wheel which reminded me of swirling snow.


I absolutely love the untraditional colors and clean lines of this card. I hope my stampers do too!

Stamp camp cards

These are the cards for tomorrow night's stamp camp. The last card photo is what I'm basing the final stamp camp card on. The third photo is actually of a commissioned card that I made at the request of someone at work for her sister's birthday. I hope my stampers enjoy these!

Birthday dots for stamp camp

On a girlier, more flowery note, this is another card for tonight's stamp camp/workshop. I wanted to show off the textured cardstock and more of the designer paper.

It was also a good opportunity to pull out Big Pieces and Little Pieces which I'd purchased when they came out in the mini, but which I haven't really used. I thought I'd (vaguely) mimic the pattern in the Fall Flowers designer paper and none of my (many) other flower sets looked similar enough to work for me. Also, since this is for a stamp camp, I don't like my stampers to have to clean the stamps too much between uses because it cuts down on their productivity time. This really only matters since I'm holding camp on a Wednesday night, and they're giving me their time, which means that I like to get them in, get them stamping, and then get them on their way! Then, if they want to stay and browse or chat or snack, they can do that if they have the time.

Stamp camp winner

Today's earlier western card is still much liked by me, but I seriously don't want to recreate it for tomorrow night's workshop! So we won't be - 'cause I'm in charge. Ha!

This is the card that we'll be doing instead! I partly changed it up because I got a request to use the Paisley background stamp with clear embossing.
[hi Adrienne!!]

I love how the embossing looks like leather, and that's just perfect with the western theme! I still loved using the Outlaw designer paper, so it definitely had to work it's way into this card, too. And the scallop punch?! How could I not use it? There's also quite a bit of sponging and direct-to-paper on this card.

I hope my campers like this card as much as I do!!

Wanted pocket card

This is my first creation with the set Wanted. I was trying to come up with Stamp Camp projects for tomorrow night, and this, or something like it, will be one of the cards. Nothing like last minute prep, eh? :) The star background and the piece with the eyelets through it are the same piece, front and back, of a piece from the new paper pack, Outlaw.

Birthday Card Box

This is for my mom's birthday. Her birthday was last week, but she got it last night at dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. She comes to my stamp camps and purchases stamping supplies, but she's still at the stage where she doesn't want to actually G I V E A W A Y the cards she makes. Having been there myself, I completely understand! So, in the meantime, I thought she might like a little can for them to live in. The photos, unfortunately don't do the colors justice the way I'd like them to, but these are better than nothing. You can click on the photos for larger versions of each.


I really worked my ribbon stash over for the handle on this project! It felt good to actually use some of it. Especially when I just keep acquiring more and will soon run out of the currently allotted ribbon storage space. The can for this project is another of the "coffee" cans that I got on clearance at Michael's earlier this summer. Now I wish I'd bought more because I love that they're pre-painted in a khaki/beige color with the red lid. They're also a matte finish so that the paper sticks really nicely to it.

The letters are quadruple mounted after being stamped and cut out. They're from the Stampin' Up set, Headline Alphabet. The letters are on a piece of Cool Carribean and that's on a thick piece of foam mounting tape. The stick-pin and beads are from an SU Pretties Kit, as is the flower piece on the back of the can.

For inside the can I made four all-purpose cards using the leftover pieces of 12x12 paper from the can. Those cards are each shown below. I still have some paper left, but I ran out of time!

The scallop edge on the card above was made using the new SU corner-rounder punch with the guard taken off. I then punched at each scallop with my 1/16" hole punch and circled the hole with my white gel pen. The ribbon is Martha Stewart ribbon.

The stick-pin on the above card is a Memory Makers pre-made pin that included the beads. Because it doesn't include an end cap like the SU Pretties, I glued the end of the pin to the card with Crystal Effects. It isn't very visible, and keeps someone from sticking their finger on it.

The card above was another excuse to try setting eyelets with my Crop-a-dile (with the copper matching the orange tones in the flowers).

And last, the card above has flowers from Best Blooms (I think that's the name) which was punched out using my Fiskar's circle punch and the mega and giga scallop punches - each punched all around with my 1/16" circle punch. The 1/2 pearls on the flower centers are from the SU Pretties kit also. The Pretties kits are amazing and really do come with tons of elements that can be mixed together or used separately to add special touches.

This last card is her birthday card for tonight. I used Pick A Petal for this card, too, stamping the solid stamp petal in Ruby Red ink and layering it over the striped designer paper. The center is punched from the flowered paper and popped up on a dimensional. The "happy birthday"s are from Stem Sayings.

Final cased layout for stamp camp

This is another CASEd layout from page 115 of the current Idea Book & Catalog. I don't have the Office Accoutrement set but I liked the flower with the lined paper, and the way they used the spiral punch down the side of the card. I did want to incorporate some designer paper, too, though, so I used some of the Petals and Paisleys paper and I like the happy, light feeling that it brought. This is a good example of making use of what you have on hand....particularly when your order of new catalog goodies wasn't slated to arrive until AFTER your camp has already happened. :)

The card on the left below is the original that I cased.

IBC layout CASE

This is one of the cards for tonight's stamp camp. Because my "campers" will be getting their copies of their catalogs tonight, I want to focus on the usefulness of the catalog outside of just ordering from it. It's such a resource of IDEAS! I know that when I started stamping, I felt the pressure to come up with ideas for cards - as though I should know how to do it just because I wanted to. Hopefully, this can help them see that you don't have to make an exact replica, you can instead look for inspiration to guide you.

This layout was inspired by the layout on page 55 (see below for photo of original in the catalog) of the new Idea Book & Catalog. I was going to do a straight CASE of the layout using different colors, but then I didn't like how it was turning out, so I just started fiddling with the elements. I just LOVE how soothing these colors are together.

Another feature that I love about this card is that is uses ONE set, rather than multiples. A bonus for the budget-conscious stamper.

June stamp camp cards

These are the cards we made at Friday's June stamp camp. I couldn't believe how fast these cards went for the group. Everyone was done in under 2 hours!

I know, this isn't an overly masculine card, but I figure the shirt puts it enough into the category that we can maybe get by with it. The base of the card is a long note from the spring mini, which I really enjoyed using because I didn't have to cut them!! My stampers all got a kick out of making the shirts, and seemed pleased that they weren't as hard to fold as they anticipated. I did hover by that station to lend a helping hand, but they also assisted each other. It's so funny to me, but I just love watching them work together to get things made.

This flower card was mostly patterned paper and then I spritzed the white watercolor paper and stamped the flower on it. It was super quick and a sentiment can be added when it's ready for use. I love how happy this card looks.

And here's the final card from the camp. I've really been enjoying using these classic cars. They're great for a masculine feeling. The color combination on this card was suggested by Ky. There's Crystal Effects on the bumper and headlights. Also, I used black Stazon because I prefer the true-black of it to the Stampin' Up classic stamp pad.

Going away card

This card was for one of my co-workers/customers whose last day was yesterday. She's very fond of the Bold Brights color family, while I'm less sure about them. However, since she was the intended recipient, and since her departure was a happy occasion (for her, at least), I wanted to make a cheery card! I haven't used All About U in such a long time! The layout for this card was pretty much cased from my monthly demonstrator magazine from Stampin' Up.

Obviously I'll miss seeing her at the office, but I look forward to catching up with her at future stamp camps. :)

Chicken in a Bucket

My friend Janet's mom will be visiting soon. She is bringing along a friend, and Janet asked me to do a little stamp camp for them. They're my first long-distance stampers! Janet has since signed up to be a demonstrator (hi, Janet!!!) but since she first joined my stamp camps, she has been sending supplies and completed projects to her mom in Wisconsin. We're going make two cards with some different punches and techniques, and hopefully I haven't gone overboard and wear them out. :)



Janet asked me to include a card using Best of Cluck and I'm happy to do so because it's one of my favorite sets. I love putting the chickens in or on something. This time the chicken is in the bucket from the Basket Full of Fun hostess set and it's body was stamped on Au Chocolat paper and cut out. The "straw" is the largest flower from the Spring Bouquet Flower punch with lines drawn on them in creamy caramel. I traced the ribbing in the bucket with Ruby Red marker, then crystal effects over that. I also layered over the stamped handle with silver cording for a little more dimension. The sentiment is colored individually with a marker and stamped then punched out with the small tag punch and layered on Chocolate Chip that was punched out using the large tag punch.

Once I got rolling -- I had a little stampers' block to contend with -- this was a quick card and fun to make. I hope my stampers think so too!

Oh! And I've included a new version of my watermark. What do you think? It includes the required Stampin' Up! copyright information. You'll be able to see it better if you click on the photo to open it in a new window and enlarge it.

Don't forget to comment and enter to win your own watermark and blog banner combination! See my earlier post for details or to enter.

Stamps: Best of Cluck, Weathered, Basket Full of Fun
Paper: Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Au Chocolat (SU designer paper
Ink: Ruby Red, Choc. Chip, Creamy Caramel, Brown Stazon
Accessories: Linen thread, small and large tag punches, notched corner punch, spring bouquet flower punch, silver cord, Crystal Effects, sponges
Techniques: sponging, dtp, coloring w/ markers, punching

Watercolored doodles

This is the second card for my mini-stamp camp tomorrow night. On this one, the focus is on trying watercoloring with an Aqua Painter and watercolor wonder crayons. The doodle flowers were stamped in black Stazon on watercolor paper then watercolored with the crayons. Because the watercoloring takes a little more time, the rest of the card is simplified. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig for the "Happy Birthday" and still got it a little crooked, darn it! Good thing I used it, or who knows how it would have turned out! The brads are Stampin' Up brads. I originally stitched around the Apricot Appeal mat with my white gel pen, but it just didn't have enough impact, so I switched to my black pen and just went over my stitching. The card base is Certainly Celery.

This is also my second use of my brand new watermark (designed by me!). It shows up a lot better on this card than my Chicken in a Bucket card. I'll have to alter a version of it for dark projects. Live and learn, eh?

March VSN cards

I was busy Friday night and Saturday morning with Stamp Camp and then a wedding reception in the afternoon, so when I got home, I hopped over to Splitcoast to check out the Virtual Stamp Night challenges that were going on. I knew I didn't have time, or energy, to complete very many, but the following cards are samples of what I got to make. VSN is such a good way for me to jump-start my creative thought processes. You're given a challenge with certain parameters and asked to make a card following them within a 45 minute time frame.

Frazzled Ribbon:

The Bunny Hugs bunny's tail is done with frazzled ribbon. If you take a piece of grosgrain, and pull the thread out that ties all the fibers together, (the one that makes it be ribbon), you get a tassle-type piece (feels like the tassles on a corn cob before it's shucked) and a very zig-zaggy thread. I balled up the zig-zaggy piece actually to throw it away, and loved how soft and puffy it looked. I'm loving this bunny and he clearly needed a fluffy pink tail. I glued it on using Crystal Effects. The flower centers on the Basic Grey designer paper have Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The sentiment is from Bunny Hugs, too. I doodled the edges of the card base (Vintage Violet cardstock) with my white gel pen to frame the images a little more.

Anything that flies: aka, Froggy Godmother:

This Unfrogettable frog is colored in Certainly Celery, cut out and mounted on the butterfly from Reason to Smile (hostess set). The butterfly was Rock n' Rolled in Regal Rose and Cranberry Crisp. Some of the flowers on the butterfly were filled in using Tempting Turquoise. The background is the retired Dots and Daisies background stamp that came out with Simply Said in its mini debut last year. I highlighted a few of the dots and daises with my white gel pen. The "Froggy Godmother" tag is handwritten in black and mounted on Tempting Turquoise and stitched using a Regal Rose marker then dotted between stitches with the Old Olive marker.

I love how much crafting bling I was able to break out for this project. The crown is colored in gold paint with my Zig Painty Pen and topped with 3 small rhinestones. Her wand is a toothpick with punched out flowers that were dipped in Dazzling Diamonds and topped with another rhinestone. The stem of the wand is covered in silver microbeads (attached with Crystal Effects, but next time, I'd cover the toothpick with sticky strip instead).

Faux Postage:

We were to incorporate faux postage into our card. I'd never done this before, but thankfully, Beate had created a tutorial for Splitcoast Stampers that was linked from the challenge thread. Like all of her tutorials, it was so easy to follow and I love how it turned out! This lady bug and sentiment are from this year's Very Punny Sell-a-bration Set. The bright cheery colors were just perfect. The colors on this are Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, and Cameo Coral. The celery brad is a Stampin Up brad.

Accordian Fold:

I didn't think that I was going to get to do any of the VSN challenges, so I didn't check the supply list before hand. I'm guessing that 3.5" x 5" tabbed index cards were on the list since the challenge called for using them, but, since I started at about 8 p.m., I didn't have time to shop for them. Instead, I made my own index cards out of Creamy Caramel stock and the SU rounded tab punch. The stamp set is Farm Fever and the background is the retired Chicken Wire background stamp. The sheep was stamped in Chocolate Chip on watercolor paper and then I spread the color around with my aquapainter. I watercolored below the sheep in Creamy Caramel ink. When folded up, the two tabs together read "Bee well soon!" The primas are attached with aged copper brads and I did the doodling around the Very Vanilla pieces with my Chocolate Chip marker.

If you get a chance, you should definitely participate in VSN. It's so fun, and makes you think outside of the box.