Happy Sparkly Egg Tree

After one of the snowiest winters on record it's fun to play with happy, cheerful, spring themed stamps such as this egg tree from the new Easter Release....

The tree was stamped on a print paper from the Frond collection.  Then came the fun part! Coloring ALL those eggs with Spica glitter pens! I placed all then pens on my desk and began to color the eggs, one by one, using a different color for every two eggs. It was almost as much fun as actually coloring eggs, but with much less mess *lol*

The sheer ribbon was placed along the bottom edge of the print paper, but you will notice it only goes 2/3 of the way across the paper. At the end of the ribbon I placed a white tag with the sentiment. Then a little brown button was placed over the ends of the ribbon and the tag. A tiny piece of ribbon was knotted and placed on the button.

This has put me in the mood to dye some real eggs!! Hmmm...my "little girl" is all grown up and living in another state, so I wonder if my furry people would be interested in helping? I can see it now - a purple Princess Phoebe, Spike would end up green and orange and Buddy would be rainbow colored! Maybe I need to rethink that idea and stick to my stamping.

Supplies include: Petal Pink and Sage card stock; Frond print paper; Easter Egg Tree Combo (G1343); Spica Glitter pens in numerous colors; StampinUp! slot punch and miscellaneous sheer pink ribbon and brown button.

Christmas in March???

I know - Call me crazy, but I make Christmas cards from January through November. For the last three years I have been offering a monthly Christmas Card class at Ink About It  for those who like to get their cards done early. Actually, the goal is to have 60 cards ready to mail by December 1st.  It's a lot of fun! 

This is one of the cards we made in class last week.  I love this Poinsettia Portrait (D298) image. I stamped it first onto cream cardstock and then twice more onto pattern paper (Fully Ripe from the Brandywine Collection).  I cut out a few layers of the petals and raised them for added dimension. I colored the stem and leaves with Prisma Colored pencils and added a Daffodil Pearl for the flower center. The image was layered onto black velour paper which matched the velour ric-rac (Maya Road) down the side.The card base is Memory Box Meadow.

If you are in our area and want to get a jump start on your 2010 holiday cards - sign up for the April Christmas Card Challenge class.  We include a free holiday stamp with every class. 

Another idea is to create a holiday design of your own each month and make five more just like it. Do this for the next 8 months and you will have nearly 50 holiday cards by December 1st, 2010. Then the real fun begins - you can sit back, relax and enjoy your holidays while your friends are all scrambling to get their cards made.  :-) 

Have a great week.

Honey, I Shrunk the Flowers!

My sister recently gave me a brand new toaster oven, not to cook food in but to make art in.  I have tried in the past to recycle old toaster ovens into art ovens with limited success as twice I've had to throw smoking ovens out the door into a snowbank.  This was quite scary and did not bode well for the creations inside!  I do have a number of customers at Your Maine Stamper who LOVE shrink art, and my samples today are for Monday's  All Things Floral shrink art class.  

 

I like to use PolyShrink artist's grade shrink plastic from Lucky Squirrel.  For this class we will mostly be using the white 8" X 10.5" 10 mil sheets. (It is also available in translucent and black.)  They will first need to prep both sides of the sheets by sanding them vertically and horizontally--I use the Lucky Squirrel sanding blocks.  This gives some "teeth" to the surface so ink and other colorants stick. 

Part of our class time will be spent stamping floral images from the Memory Box collection on the PolyShrink.  You do want to keep in mind that any image will shrink to about 45% of its original size. For my samples I used Flower Bundle (E1321), Vine Border (D1322), Leafy Shoot (D1325), Vintage Peony (E1341), and Create Art (G1330).  There will be even more stamps to choose from during class.  For inks I used Brilliance Gamma Green, Fabrico Green, VersaCraft in Peony Purple and Burgundy and Real Black, as well as Azure StazOn.  I think almost any kind of a pigment ink will work.  And there is no end to the art supplies that one may use to color on the PolyShrink--colored pencils, chalks, Sharpie markers, Zig Memories pens, other permanent markers, Pearl-Ex--I will have a  wide variety for class participants to choose from.

Once the designs are stamped and colored, they will cut them out using decorative scissors or punches. They may punch holes in the designs to use them as charms or buttons or leave them as is to use as pins or card front embellishments.  A corner punch is a good tool to help avoid sharp corners on squares and rectangles.  Scallop punches also add a decorative edge to an image.  

The real fun for me begins as each person loads up a foil-covered cardboard tray with her creations and takes a turn watching her pieces shrink.  This is usually accompanied by lots of anxious cries as things begin to twist and curl.  Once the pieces are flat, or nearly so, I will remove them from the oven (using a potholder!); and because the PolyShrink is still pretty pliable, I can flatten any pieces that need it with the back of a large wooden stamp block.  (If you don't have a toaster oven, you can use a Heat-It tool to shrink the plastic, employing a bamboo skewer to keep the piece from blowing away, and that also works well.) 

This is a really fun medium and another way to use one's stamps to create unique and interesting embellishments and jewelry pieces.  

Happy Stamping!

Spring Spring...

Oh how I love Spring... The colors of the outdoors and the smells of the orange blossoms on the trees.  The weather here is San Diego has been GORGEOUS!!  That's a bit of an understatement even.  Oh man, it makes me want to be outside all day long.  

Today we are celebrating my mama's birthday and we will be having a get together.  My mom ADORES photography and pictures of the grandkids.  For her present we are giving her a photoshoot with her and her grandkids at a park of her choosing.  It will be shot by me so hopefully we can catch those perfect moments.  Hopefully we will get a few good ones since she does have 7 grandkids between my sister and I and all but two are pretty young (this could get interesting).  

Take a look at the invite I made for her...

 

Stamps used are: Happy Birthday (B1228) 
Flower Bundle (E1321)

 

Stamps Used: Egg Nest (A1017)
Just a Note-Script (B864)

Thanks for looking and enjoy your spring. 

Squirrel in a Tree

    When I looked out my kitchen window a couple of days ago, I spied out of the corner of my eye a squirrel leaping from the neighbor’s roof.  He jumped toward a pine tree about ten feet away.  He latched onto a branch and it bounced up and down from his weight.  It reminded me of someone bungee jumping.  The usual trick for the squirrels is figuring out ways to steal food from the bird feeders outside my kitchen window.  No matter what we do to discourage them, they seem to find a workaround.  I can’t believe how persistent they are.  If they climb up the tree and the feeders are low on food, they will even give me dirty looks before climbing back down the tree.  Nature can be very entertaining.

 

    On to the card details:  I used a Blue Poppy notecard for the base.  I wanted the tree to look like a birch tree so I stamped D1324 Log Home with Timber Brown Stazon onto a wallpaper sample. I stamped the leaves from the end of that same stamp with Timber Brown Stazon several times onto background paper that I had made with a mixture of alcohol inks on glossy paper (polished stone technique) and cut them out.  Next I punched out the knothole in the with a tiny oval punch.  I stamped the B1320 Big and Little Squirrel with Memento Cocoa Brown ink onto white cardstock.  I colored the squirrels with Copic markers and cut them out.  I punched a little larger oval out of a scrap of Truffle brown cardstock and attached that and the little squirrel behind the knothole of the tree so that it would look like he was peeking out.  Attach the tree and a piece of Frond paper cut into a hill shape to the notecard.  Attach the leaves and the big squirrel.  Punch the right front of the card with an EK Success border punch.  Stamp the B1209 Bright Sun with yellow pigment ink onto the top right corner.  I love how the Frond patterned paper is already shaded, so that is one step that is done for you.  I must admit that I love all of the Memory Box patterned papers.  Enjoy your Saturday, and I hope the sun is shining wherever you are today too!  Happy stamping!

      

 

Heritage Hues

 

This Vintage Peony stamp (E1341) just makes me smile.  

Unlike the many colorful cards I've made lately, this one came together with just a few muted hues. 

With the "Frond" patterned paper as a background I stamped my favorite Brandywine Flourish (D1161) several times with Vintage Sepia ink so that it would peek out behind the focal layer.

Stamp the Peony design with Vintage Sepia ink on smooth white card stock and again on a separate piece.  Cut, color (Copic markers) and layer the blooms.  Versamagic "Gingerbread" ink sponged on all edges created that aged look.

  
 I added the "Happy Birthday Script" (B828) and dressed it up by stamping leaves on either side.  The leaf is a bonus stamp which is mounted on the side of the Vintage Peony. 

Create a subtle shadow by outlining the design with a very light vanilla colored marker.

 

Pretty gold pearls in the flower centers give it a little shine and that antique feel.  

I hope you'll experiment by using just a few muted colors to create a similar card---don't be afraid to step "Outside the Box".

 
 

Spring Bouquet

VersaMark and chalks create this simple spring card in soft shades of blue, lavender, purple and green. Combining chalk colors is easy - just color the roses first, remove the excess chalk, then color the remaining areas with green. The green won't cling to the areas already colored in lavender and purple. 

For a pretty-in-pink version of this card, use  Cotton Candy Cardstock, Cherry Blossom Notecards, the Gossamer 6x6 Set, pink chalks and ribbon, and Petal Pink Jewel Stickers. Stamp Spring/Sings Combo in Memento Bamboo Leaves for a nice contrast - and edge the pieces with Memento Pear Tart. Just as easy - and a great way to use up little bits of ribbon and printed papers.

It's been a week since Impress celebrated St. Patrick's Day with their first Go Green event, featuring projects accented with recycled items.  Old magazines, newspapers, coffee sleeves and junkmail became cards, tags, gift packages and home decor.  Here are cards made of old magazines, ribbon and felt scraps, newspapers and packaging materials - on Soiree Goldfish, Grass and Azalea Cardstock.  It was fun contrasting everyday items headed for the trash with the beautiful shimmer of our Soiree Collection.  

 

We'll be making a similar card - with the little origami dress from a magazine page - in my Greet Green classes at Impress at Bellevue Square (Saturday - March 27th)  and University Village (Sunday - March 28). Here's an example of a card from the earlier class at the Tukwila store - same origami dress, different magazine page - with Vintage Notes stamped in the background.  We'll also be combining the First Flight, Springtime Wishes Block, Clear Tree Border and Vine Border stamps with some "trash-to-treasure" items otherwise headed for the local landfill. 

 

Read more...

Basket full of Eggs

I have been wanting to create some beautiful eggs with these lovely egg stamps and using scraps from the Frond, Spearmint and Gossamer paper collections.  Here are the steps to create this basket full of eggs card.

1. Cut cardstock base from Truffle cardstock 11" x 5 1/2".
2. Cut background paper 5 1/4" x 5 1/4".
3. Stamp the basket using Versafine Vintage Sepia on white cardstock.
4. Copy the basket in a color copier at 250% enlargement. Cut out basket using scissors.
5. Sponge Light green dye ink across and around basket and leaves.
6. Stamp Ivy border on basket front using purple pigment ink.
7. Stamp eggs on scraps of pattern paper using brown pigment ink. Cut out eggs using scissors.
8. Punch out oval using oval punch. Stamp sentiment using brown pigment ink.
9. Punch four small butterflies from Frond paper and stamp center of eggs using brown pigment ink on the eggs.
10. Sponge edges of basket, eggs, oval and background using brown dye ink.
11. Accent center of butterflies using flowers and purple pearls.
12. Attach pattern paper to the front of cardstock.
13. Tie light purple ribbon on th front of cardstock.
14. Attach basket handle to front of card. Arrange eggs and attach. Attach bottom of basked to the front of card.
15. Attach butterflies to handle of basket.
16. Attach sentiment to ribbon.

Products:

• Memory Box - C1344 - Filigree Egg
• Memory Box - C345 - Nature Print Egg
• Memory Box - C1348 - Woodland Basket
• Memory Box - C1340 Ivy Border
• Memory Box - Frond, Spearmint, Gossamer 6 x 6 Paper
• Memory Box - Truffle Cardstock
• Versafine - Vintage Sepia, Imperial Purple
• Memento - Rich Cocoa, Pear Tart 
• Marvy Uchida - Oval Punch, Small Butterfly  
• Lavendar Ribbon
• Light Purple Pearls
• Prima Flowers

Hope you have a lovely Monday!

Suzz

Nature Sings...

I have been noticing the prettiest birds in my yard these past few weeks - Bluejays, I think.  They have inspired me to create this card with the Orchard Bird image (D1342) from the Song of Spring release.

Using Versacolor Turquoise Gem ink I stamped the bird and added the flowers from the side of the stamp with Colobox Wisteria ink onto a piece of white cardstock.  I tore the left side of the cardstock and also edged it with the Wisteria ink.  Twine is wrapped several times around the left edge and used to attach the small oval punched piece of Pool notecard that is stamped with Spring Sings ((B1337) in Wisteria ink. This piece is layered onto a matte of Epiphany paper over a Pool card. I added a Deep Lagoon Jewel Sticker for the bird's eye.

I have to admit, this card just makes me happy. The combination of soft colors in the Frond paper line are personal favorites of mine so I am a bit biased.

I hope you are seeing signs of spring in your area, too.  Enjoy the weekend.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Whether you're truly Irish or only Irish at heart, most everyone will be "wearin' o' the green" today!  While the cabbage boils and the corned beef cooks, you'll have plenty of time to make a St. Patty's  card.  This card was created using three of my all time favorite stamps, plus the brand new Shamrock Combo stamp...

The base card is a Dill colored note card and the smaller strip down the left side is Meadow, cut to 2" x 5 1/2" with three lines scored at 1/4" intervals to give it texture. The tree is stamped in cocoa brown on cream card stock.  After the images were stamped I outlined areas with Copic BG10 and gave each shamrock a sparkly center with a green Spica pen.  This section still needed "something" so I used a Staedtler Fine line black pen to draw the lines around the edges.

The green Spica also adds lots of shimmer to the penguins coat and hat!  After stamping and coloring the penguin, he was paper pieced over the ribbon.  Last of all was adding the sentiment. 

The leaves on the tree were replaced with tiny shamrocks...

 

Don't you just love those tiny stamps that Dave has been putting on the sides of a few of the wood mounted stamps!  I sure do!! This card was a lot of fun to make and I hope you enjoy it! This card will be featured today at One Little Spark's St. Patty's Celebration!

After years of thinking I was of Irish decent (could it have been the red curly hair??) I discovered my true ancestry is Scot, but I'll always be Irish at heart!!  My wish for all our stamping friends out there on this magical St. Patty's Day ...Go mbeannaí Dia duit!

 

Supplies include: St. Patrick's Penguin (C1243), Happy St. Patrick's Day (B1229),  Build A Tree (D1273) and Shamrock Combo(E1336); Green and orange Spica; Copics YG25, YG03, BG10: Memento Cocoa, Pear Tart and Tuxedo Black ink; Staedtler black fine line pen; miscellaneous green sheer ribbon.