Happy Halloween!

Well, if I was on top of things, I would have dug out an old Halloween card to share. But, call me lame! I was busy finishing a costume for my 4-year-old darling! When I asked her a few months ago what she wanted to be for Halloween, she said to my surprise--- "a purple kitty." Ok, I said. A purple kitty? Where does she come up with this stuff? Luckily, I found some purple leopard fur and made a really stinkin' cute costume. My daughter is so fun though, she could wear a knapsack and pull it off!

On to today! A friend of mine, Karen Lindsay, came up with this card design and I "made it my own!" It is a card with a sleeve for a book mark on the front. I love the idea! What a great card to give a bookworm along with a great book?? Fun!

This card was done by just using the marker misting technique. I used different colors of marker to color up the leaf and berry stamp from Stampendous. I stamped it, misted it with water and kept going to get multiple generations of the image. The saying in the bottom is also from Stampendous. The pocket was created by folding and tearing some vellum. I layered some card stock and embellished with brads and I was done! The gold tassel at the top of the book mark was actually created with embroidery thread.

Happy Halloween! Hope you get more treats than tricks!

It's in the bag!

Ok... since my craft room is in disarray, I dug out some old cards to share that I think are fun. Call this---retro week!

This first one is one I created for a class not too long ago with some Hero Arts stamps. I love it because you trim down a brown bag and insert it inside the card. While this card is kind of an "any occassion" card, you could do holiday treats, Halloween candy, Valentine's Day sweets, etc.! The good thing is, you really don't have to modify a standard card. The bag fits!

Enjoy today!

2 Sheet Wonders

Well, as I type this, I can't feel my hands from painting walls. No time to stamp! As you saw earlier, we are in the middle of a basement remodel and it is taking over my life! My mom comes Thursday and this place has to be in tip top shape! No paint cans, no drywall dust--- you get my drift.

This last week I actually taught a class and got away from the mess for at least a few hours. In the class, we took two sheets of patterned paper and cut them in varying shapes and sizes to make four cute cards. These cards are 4-1/4" square-- perfect for those little Amuse Art Stamps envies! I did cheat a bit and used an extra piece of 8-1/2 by 11 to create a little tote for my four cards. It was a fun class. The stamps were the Mod Flowers from Impression Obsession and the sentiments used were from the Circle Greetings clear set also from IO. They are tons of fun to use because you can stamp, layer and create dozens of options. I love that!

2 Sheet Wonders Class






Enjoy today!

Countdown To Christmas... The grand finale!

This is the last "fab find" from one of my local scrap booking stores that I want to share. This one is really priceless. It's an empty box, wrapped in pretty scrapbook paper, but it's the message that is truly touching. It's the perfect gift for someone who has everything that you really want to tell how much you care about them. I would add a little gift card with it for "lunch on me," or something like that to say, "Hey, let's spend some time together!"

Until tomorrow!

Countdown To Christmas... part three!

How fun is this? Like I have been telling you all week, I thought I'd share some of the fun stuff I found at my local scrap booking store, Sisters, here in little ole Billings, Montana. They have some really creative and fun ways to add some sparkle to your holiday home. This one is a candle holder made out of, I think, old vinegar bottles! They covered a band with scrap book paper and stitched on a decorative edge Then, they covered the chip board letters with coordinating paper. That's it! How fun and colorful is this!

Can you see the paper that these little candle holders are set on? Can you guess what that is? It is 12 by 12 paper that has been sewn together and embellished for a paper table runner to match! FUN!

Until tomorrow!

Countdown to Christmas... part two!

As I mentioned yesterday, I saw these awesome creations that you can use during the Christmas holidays at one of my local scrapbooking stores (Sisters). Here's another one to share! This one is one you probably have seen before, but I just love the way they did it with the ornament and sprigs. They also covered the handle with sheer red ribbon and then tied some fun bows off each side. It is such a wonderful way to package up a gift. No two are the same!

Christmas Countdown

Ok, I know we haven't even hit Halloween yet.... BUT.. I saw these adorable creations at one of our local scrapbook/stamp stores and wanted to share! I was doing a feature on Christmas crafts for the magazine I work for, and thought I'd give you all a sneek peek! All this week, I'll share these creations. Maybe you can CASE them with things you have around the house!



Noel
This first creation is so simple to make, you could easily do it in just a few hours! The blocks are actually just scraps of wood or cut branches. They were painted with acryllic paint, covered with scrapbook paper and then stamped with those foam block letter stamps with white acryllic paint. Embellish... and you're done! I have seen this same craft done with the word "Blessings" for Thanksgiving, for a child's room with their name, "Spooky" for Halloween... the options are endless!

Until tomorrow!

Waiting..... for my basement to change.

Ok, I had to post some pics of my basement in progress so you could see why stamping these days would be IMPOSSIBLE! My mom is planning a visit to see our new home November 1st and when she told us in September that she was coming, we decided to jump right in to finish a space for her in our basement. It will be really nice. BUT, right now, we had to move everything we had in boxes into one little corner of the basement to make room for framing, drywalling etc. etc. etc.

The good news, in addition to having a guest room, I'll have a stamp room!I have never had a place to put my "stuff" before. So, below are pics of not just the new stamp room in progress... but a shot of my storage area so you can see the chaos right now! Like I said, stamping is impossible right now! Those little plastic bins in the background are my stamps. I couldn't even get inside the room to take another shot. It's that crowded and messy!! Oh well, November 1st will be here before we know it --- and so will my mom ---who is a stamper too! Fun is just around the corner!


FUTURE STAMP ROOM!




LOOK AT THIS MESS! EEEK!

~Julie

A little late to the party!

Ok... I promised a Thomas Kinkade Friday Frenzy and here I am showing up late to the party! Hee-hee. Well, hope you enjoyed this week. The creations are a ton of fun to work with! Katie left me a comment yesterday saying she hasn't tried them because she didn't think she could do it. HELLO! These are images you can't mess up! The beauty is the image. If you look at some of these photos below... you'll see, sometimes it is just as simple stamping in one color and making a monochromatic card!

Just in case you wondered, the snow house on the light blue polka dot card is colored on vellum, as is the Christmas village scene. I colored with markers on the back side of the vellum. The snow house on dark blue paper is just done using colored pencils and the monochromatic is just stamped with red ink! Just that simple!

Have a great weekend!!!

More Thomas Kinkade!

Hi All...
Hope you are all having a wonderful week! As this week winds down, I realize I have far more in the way of Thomas Kinkade creations than one card a day! So, look for "a Thomas Kinkade Friday Frenzy" tomorrow when I put the rest of my cards up. If you get a chance, you need to go to my list of Impression Obsession Design Team members and check out the latest Thomas Kinkade images on both Asela Hopkin's and Debbie Olson's site. They are not only awesome images, they are really well designed cards!

This card was created by stamping the Forest Chapel in Chocolate ink and then coloring the image with chalks. I covered the image with Versamark ink and then used my Deep Impression embossing powder to create the cracked glass effect. Any kind of ultra thick powder will work. After three layers of powder, I cracked the embossing powder and then covered the image with Vintage Photo Distress Ink making sure the ink really seeped down into the cracks. After it dried, I took my heat gun and "erased" my cracks. I think sometimes when you do the cracked glass technique, there are times when the embossing powder will flake off. So, this gave the impression of cracked glass without actually leaving the embossing powder coating cracked. I really hope I am making sense here!!!!

One other cool thing I did was use the Forest Chapel as an actual background for my green mat piece. It was a fun and easy card to create!

Happy Thursday.....

Thomas Kinkade... day 4!

Hello All!
This was one of my favorite techniques with Thomas Kinkade stamps! I stamped the image on glossy card stock with black Staz-On ink, heat set it,and then colored in the areas I wanted to stay white with snow with a white crayon. Using direct to paper, I slid and "smooshed" (dontcha just love the word smooshed) my distress vintage photo ink pad all over the image. I wiped off the excess ink with a paper towel. This really make my white snow "pop!" After that, I used a very pale blue marker to color in some light blue into the sky and on the snow. I also wiped off the excess so that this color would appear very soft. After that, I went to town coloring in the windows with a golden glow. I colored the door green and added the green, red and yellow Christmas lights at the roof line. Don't forget the lanterns! I matted this image onto a light blue piece of card stock,tied a sheer blue ribbon around it and stuck it to the front of a kraft card stock card base! This is one of those cards that looks like it took some time to create---but didn't!

Have a happy Wednesday!!!

Thomas Kinkade.... day three!

Hello All! This Thomas Kinkade technique is one of the coolest new techniques I have tried. I stamped my Christmas Vignette on acetate using Staz-on ink. I then used Duo adhesive to paint the entire back of my stamped image. Then, I let my chalks go to town coloring the street, cars, light posts and adding a splash of color in the windows and in the light posts. Once you chalk the color of choice in the places you want it,switch to Pearl Ex. I used Micro Pearl for the snow and Duo Red-Blue for the sunset sky. After applying these colors, I covered the whole back of the image with Brilliant Gold Pearl Ex. At this point, you can seal it with a workable fixative or matte sealer spray. I didn't however, I just used double stick tape to stick this to a piece of white card stock to bring out the color, trimmed up the edges and matted this on a piece of red card stock that I had edged with gold leaf pen. I stamped a background image from Impression Obsession on the green piece, edged it with gold leaf and then set the entire image on the red card front. It was, believe it or not, a relatively quick technique that reminds me of those gold foil cards seen decades ago!

Thomas Kinkade Continues.....

Thomas Kinkade continues! This card is one of the easiest there is to create. I stamped the Village Christmas Vignette onto white cardstock with Sky Blue Vivid ink, cut it out, and matted it on pearl Bazzil card stock. I punched the corners with the Stampin' Up ticket corner punch. After tying a sheer white ribbon, I put this on the front of my cornflower blue card stock and added some "bling" wtih crystal rhinetones! The sentiment is also Thomas Kinkade stamped in Sky Blue ink.

Until tomorrow!

It's a small world....

It's funny, when my stamp store asked me to do a demo on the new Thomas Kinkade stamps, I couldn't help but laugh. After all, some of my fellow design team members for Impression Obsession, also design for Cornish Heritage Farms! They've been posting their creations with these awesome stamps ---for months! So, it was an easy thing to say "yes" to with all of that creative inspiration out there. I have to admit, some of my designs are "influenced" by things they did that I loved. Other things, were techniques I special fit to these stamps. So check back all this week for what I guess we could call "Thomas Kinkade week!"

This first image is the super easy way to become a painter of light like the artist himself. Instead of coloring on the front of the image, I chose to stamp it on vellum using Staz-On ink and then color from the back with Prismacolor pencils. I found that the black lines on the front of the vellum helped to keep the image defined when adding the vibrant color. I started with the lightest colors first and then shaded with darker hues. I think this technique is an easy way to bring out the artist in us all! After I finished putting on my layers of color, I matted this on a vellum piece onto a piece of white card stock to help bring the colors out to their fullest. I then matted this onto a piece of burgundy card stock. I stamped the word "dream" on a piece of cream speckled card stock, cut it out and mounted it in the metal frame. I strung some burgundy ribbon through it and taped this not only to the back of the card, but used some mini glue dots to really tack this embellishment down. After mounting this to the front of your card... you're done!

I'm Back.... for now!

I decided I have a love/hate relationship with computers. One day, they work. The next, they have you in a half nelson doing a number on you! Well, after rebuilding a hard drive, I have been beaten into submission again and am in the process of computer shopping! Ick.

This week, however, was a productive one for stamping! I had my Christmas Card Club class and cranked out some cute cards with a new Christmas set from Hero Arts. One of the cards I posted awhile ago, here are a few others! Not much to explain here, just stamping and cutting is all!

Have a good weekend!

Rubber Stamper Magazine

Ok, just got TERRIBLE news today. Christine Chatten, Assistant Editor of Rubber Stamper Magazine emailed me this little note....

"As you may not have heard, The Rubber Stamper Magazine has been sold. Amos
Craft Publishing, publishers of Pack o Fun and Crafts n Things has bought
the magazine. To my knowledge, they plan to roll TRS into Crafts n Things
instead of keeping it as a separate magazine.

All of the submissions that have been written are currently being sent to
them, as well as any cards for "future issues." The design team is no longer. I'm not sure what they will be doing with the projects-which are all written up."

If you love the magazine, now is your chance to let the ladies know that the work they delivered for years influenced all of our lives!

Christine's email is : cchatten@hobbypub.com
Jill, the editor, who is just an awesome lady can be emailed at: jwentz@hobbypub.com

Come Friday, these ladies will be looking for another job.
How sad!!!!!!

I'm going to go cry now.
Julie