Stamp Simply-- Mass Produce It!!

Hi all! Happy Friday! Hope you had a happy turkey day and ate lots of goodies! :-) With the official start to the holiday shopping season, you know.... your time is limited for stamping! So, today the Stamp Simply team has you covered! Today's challenge (ssnotime115)is all about mass production! Create a card that is SUPER easy to mass produce -- like once designed you could realistically sit down and do 6 or 8 or more within an hours time. Super simple, easy to reproduce cards for Christmas or any occasion that suits your fancy -- that is our today's challenge!

Recently, I decided to make a handful of Thank You cards to have on hand and with a fun new embossing folder I picked up -- it was easy as pie to create 6 of these in 45 minutes!
I used some textured Coredinations cardstock that I bought in a big pack at Hobby Lobby and cut it to measure 4 by 5-1/4" I ran it through my Wizard with the Quick Kutz Vine Label Embossing Folder and then the fun began! I used a sanding block to sand down the embossed part to reveal the pattern. Since this folder has a little "window" for a sentiment - I cut a strip of paper 1'' wide to fit in that window. Stamp a sentiment in Teal ink (Vivid) and.... the rest is matting! I matted it on some pearl paper and then again on a standard size white card stock base and .... voila! You can see -- picking the paper, finding ink to match and cutting was the longest part of this process! I easily made these in a half hour.

Here's a peek at the sanded portion - I just love the look on this paper!

Well my friends, that's it for today! Be sure to check out the official challenge rules over at Sharon's place and then, stop in and say "hey" to the rest of the Stamp Simply Team!

Sharon
Janine
Jennifer
AJ
Tammy
Deb
Barbara
Jenny
Barb

Bethany

Oh, before I forget... are you in the mood to shop a bit? If you are or if you know a stamper you'd like to Christmas shop for... Flourishes is having a.......

15% off everything in the store! You can even use this code for Gift Certificates! Simply use the code JINGLE in the promo code box at check out! You can click HERE to learn more or click HERE to shop!

Thanks for stopping by!!

p.s. I almost forgot! Flourishes is having a HUGE Black Friday Sale!!! You'll have to check it out HERE!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hi all and Happy Turkey Day! Yesterday while the kiddos were at school, I took some time to whip up these turkey day cards for them. I want to write a little note inside to let them know that I am soooo very thankful they are in my life! They are both amazing kids and I'm pretty blessed.

Both of these cards are pretty easy peasy! I stamped this cutie patootie turkey in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics - E31, E33, E25, E27, R14, R27, Y17, YR14, E08,100 and a little C00, C01, C03 and B0000 for shading.

Card#1

For Card #1, I cut out my turkey with a Nesties Circle. While the shape was still on, I sponged some Antique Linen Distress Ink all around my turkey. I left the die on so that I could create that bit of white edge. Mat it on a shape cut with the Spellbinders Blossom Die. Then... mat the entire card up! My main card measures 4-1/4 by 4 and then I layered the circle so that it spilled over. The card will still fit in a standard size envie because I made sure the circle wasn't placed too high above my fold line. The sentiment is also from this fun little clear set called Happy Turkey Day from Impression Obsession. The papers are Basic Grey Porcelain, and 7 Gypsies Nottinghill. The buttons were some I grabbed from the ole button jar.

Card #2
For Card #2, the only difference is really the paper. I ran some Lasting Impressions Weathered Nutmeg paper through my Wizard with a Swiss Dots Embossing Folder and then sanded down the dots for a little something extra.The red paper is Weathered Barn also by Lasting Impressions and the strip is a paper from Prima. Add some May Arts twine and a button (Little Yellow Bus Epoxy Buttons)and... voila!

Hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving and along with counting all those calories... can count your blessings too! :-)

See you back here soon!

You Warm My Heart....

Hi all! Happy Monday! Hope you had a fabulous weekend. I actually got a little time to just stamp for no reason! I think that's the best when you can walk in to your craft space and not have any real motive - just pick up a stamp and go with it! ;-) I got my hands on this fun Snowman Marshmallow Mug recently and had been itching to ink it up!

Isn't that stamp the cutest thing? I inked it up twice - once in a light blue Memento ink and the second time in a Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. I colored it with Copics and only used a few colors - RV00 for the rosy cheeks, BG0000 to edge my snow guy, and then some blues - BG10, B21 and B24. The cocoa was colored by E31 and E25. The marshmallows were just given a bit of color with the help of YR0000. Now you might wonder why I inked and stamped twice? Well, the snowman is actually paper pieced. I wanted him to stand out but I wanted my cup (in blue) to be real soft looking. I also paper pieced the snow man's hat by stamping just the hat portion onto some blue decorative paper (Stampin Up). The marshmallows and cocoa were also paper pieced. You can also see, I used the same light blue to sponge some color around my mug. After I was done assembling, I added some Crystal and Diamond Stickles to my snowflakes and marshmallows.

See?

The rest is just matting it up! I added a strip of decorative paper edged with a Martha Stewart Snowflake Border Punch and added a bit of silver stitching. Using Adirondack Stonewashed ink, I added the You Warm My Heart sentiment!

Well my friends, that's it for today! Hope you have a great start to your week and I'll see you back here soon! Hope my American friends are getting excited for turkey day! I love this day -- full of wonderful family times!

Stamp Simply -- All Wrapped Up!

Hi all! This week for our Stamp Simply challenge we're getting all wrapped up in the Christmas season! Since Christmas is just around the corner and many use the Thanksgiving weekend to get a head start on wrapping their gifts, Sharon challenged us all to share some of our gift wrapping ideas!

I absolutely love using bags to "wrap" my gifts. Why? Because you don't have to wrap! ;-) I am an awful gift wrapper. What's funny is -I was trained to be a professional gift wrapper at a department store while I was in high school. I never made it.

So, what I do now instead is, I buy bags! When I see a cute one, I pick it up knowing I can deck it out with a fun tag or some fabulous ribbon! The dollar store seems to be the place where I find a lot of them. And... it's even better when you have a stamp to match a bag you find!

See?

Look at this fun bag I picked up! It just is a perfect match to the Christmas Borders set! I colored up the candy using the Poppy, Spring Greens, Daffodil, Meadow and Holly Copic collections packaged up by Flourishes. I did use the lightest shade too from the Dahlia collection. Use some Distress inks in Tea Dye and Antique Linen to antique it. Add fun Christmas ribbon and some stitching and you're almost done....

I added some faux sugar (it's a chunk glitter that is actually called faux snow -- but looks more like sugar!) to my gum drops! The "dots" of antique ink were created by a really old stamp that is just that... dots! Sometimes I turn to it to just create some extra "texture" on my image.

Here's a peek at the entire tag.....

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how I like to deck out my holiday packages! For those packages that "have" to be wrapped, I love getting a simple silver or gold wrapping and letting my ribbon and tags do the talking! I am glad I have some tags ready in my holiday gift wrapping arsenal -- ready to go for Black Friday! :-)

Want some more inspiration? Check out the Stamp Simply teams fun wrapping ideas!

Sharon
Janine
Jennifer
AJ
Tammy
Deb
Barbara
Jenny
BarbBethany

Also, this week over on the Flourishes Newsletter, I created five other tag designs that are fun! You can click HERE to see and don't forget to visit the other members of Flourishes' fine and fabulous DT!!! Latisha, Christine, Laura, Stacy, and Leslie! Cindy is taking the week off!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll see you back here soon!

Just Shake It!

It's time for another Impression Obsession challenge and this one is all about shaking it.... with IO's new Shaker Card pouches! These little plastic forms are ingenious! I have made many a shaker card in my day but NONE was as easy as this one!!!

If you are curious at all how these little forms work -- you can see them HERE. Or, if you want the measurements for all of the openings for the shakers, you'll find that HERE.They are really fun and super duper easy! Along the lip of the shaker form, there is an adhesive strip - so that you can set your shaker material down on your colored image and then, remove the adhesive backing, set it down and... bam! Done!

I used a circle cutter for my hole but you can use a 3" circle punch for this particular pouch. The stamps I used were the Skating Snowman by Sarah Phelps and Snowflakes, also from Sarah Phelps. I stamped the snowflakes in a light blue, the snowman was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copic Markers - I used B00 and B0000 for the snowman and the snowman's jacket. I used R24, R27, R29 for the red in my hat, scarf, mittens and pocket. and then I used RV000 for the rosy cheeks. Add some Crystal Stickles to the fluff on the hat and jacket and you are almost done! The sparkly snow was actually found at Michaels and is called fake snow!

Here's a closeup! The rest is just matting! I used my circle cutter to cut a hole in a red piece of paper and then used the Classic Scalloped Circles Nestabilities. Add some stitching and a punched snowflake and..... voila!
So, now to the challenge! Creating a shaker card with IO stamps is all you have to do to be in the running for a $25 gift card from Impression Obsession! You can click HERE for all the official details! In the meantime, be sure to hop on over to the rest of the IO DT to see what fun they shook up! :-)

ShirleyKathy
Dina
Kelli
Laura
Jenny
Deborah


Thanks for stopping by! See you back here soon!

The Naughty... or Nice List!

Hi all! I don't know about you, but when Thankgiving hits and those after Thanksgiving Day sales flyers start to come out, my purse becomes an absolute mess! I am talking stuffed pockets with snipets of this flyer or that. They look "Sharpied" to death with who might want what scribbled all over them.

In an effort to simplify, I spotted this fun little accordian folder in the dollar bin at Michael's and immediately thought... HEY, this could work!

I thought that it would be fun to alter this and keep all my little Christmas ideas inside. It's funny, when I was working on this project, I tried to keep it low key so my kids would have no clue what I was making. Afterall, it might be disasterous if they knew where I keep my secrets!!! LOL!

So, with some fun Christmas paper and a great stamp set - Christmas Borders from Flourishes - I let the paper fly! And, this is what I came up with!
I didn't go overboard on decking it out because, let's face it, it will be in my mess of a purse and it will likely look like it's been through a war once the holidays are over with. But, in the meantime, it will be a perky and fun way to organize my ideas! You can see I have some index cards that I stamped the borders along the side in shades of red and green. Each person I want to buy for will have a card. Kids lists will go on there and then, those ideas will go in their folder in the file!

I absolutely love this new Christmas Borders set - it's too fun and could be used for so many different projects. Can't you just see Christmas tags with this set? I stamped the packages in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored them up with copics. I used Flesh Tones 2, Fields, Spring Greens, Poppy and the Dahlia collections from Flourishes. You can see all the collections HERE.

And, here's now my cards fit inside! Love this! So, with my new gift idea organizer in hand, I say... bring on Black Friday! I can take it! And, maybe my purse won't be such a mess! Snipped pieces of paper won't fall out every time I try to write a check at the grocery store! YIPPEE! Hey... it's a start right?

Hope you're having a great week! I'll see you back here soon!

The Sneaks.... are over!

I had a blast this week showcasing all the fun projects that you can create with the new stamps in Flourishes November Release! Hope you've enjoyed them and that they inspire you as you whip up your holiday creations! And... now for some good news! All of the peeks we've been sharing this week are HERE! They are now available in the Flourishes Store for your shopping pleasure!

Christmas Bouquet
Fancy Labels

Christmas Borders

Christmas Tea

Lamp Post Greetings

And, don't forget about Flourishes NEW RELEASE BUNDLE! Purchase the bundle, and get 10% off all five of the new release sets!

Happy Shopping!

See you back here soon!

Sneak Peeks.... Day 4!

When I first laid eyes on the concept for this next set, I actually shook my head and said, now that's creative! I thought of all those main streets in America where the lamp post is the conversation piece. It's the place where cities announce big events, holidays, and celebrations! It's a charming way to connect with the community. So, why not bring that same feel and that same message to a card sized creation? That's exactly what illustrator Lauren Pope did!

Introducing......

This set not only has the lampost that you can deck out, it has a half dozen "flags" that you can perch on your post as a way to say "hi" or celebrate! Celebration was on the brain when I whipped up my Lamp Post Greetings creation! I wanted to make a fun coordinating card... to match a little bit of birthday sweetness! When I saw this flag - a cupcake flag popped into my head! And, when you see this set in full, you'll see how many FUN cupcake flags you could make! Welcome, baby, patriotic, birthday, holiday, Mom's Day, Dad's Day... you name it! TOO FUN!

Here's a close up of the cuppy cake! And, this is a peek at the flag before I wrapped it around a toothpick - I left a little tab of paper to glue to the pick.... Now for the deets on my creation! Easy peasy! I stamped in Versafine Tuxedo Black and colored with watercolor pencils, blending with a blender pen. The light blue accent around my flag was done with the BG11 Copic marker and then blended with the Blender Pen. For the color on my lamp post image on my card, I simply sponged on some blue and green ink. I left my spellbinders Nesabilities die on my Mega Rectangle shape to serve as a mask while I sponged. Add some fun decorative paper, some fun ribon and some bling.... and that's pretty much it!

And, as you're about to see when to take a trip around to the Senior Design team, this set can be used in so many different ways! It can even be combined with other Flourishes stamp sets to make an even bigger impact! So stop by these fine ladies' blogs to check it all out....

Christine Okken
Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan
Cindy Lawrence
Laura Fredrickson
Leslie Miller

Would you like to win this set? Hop on over to the Flourishes Newsletter and leave a comment to be in the running for the daily drawing!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR MORE FUN AT FLOURISHES...

Did you see our Favorite Things Challenge? If you play, you will have a chance at winning all FIVE of our new releases for November! That's one valuable prize - you could even call it an early Christmas present! Click HERE for the details.

Speaking of the release, you'll want to join us this Friday for our POWER HOUR RELEASE PARTY! It's a super duper fun time full of games, goodies, and prizes up for grabs! We'll host it in the Flourishes Forum over on Splitcoast HERE from 9 to 10 PM Central Standard Time. As the party wraps, all of our sets that we peek this week will be put in store for your shopping pleasure!

Tomorrow's set will have you relaxing and sipping some tea with winter dreams swirling through your head! Stay tuned! We'll see you back here tomorrow!

Flourishes Sneak Peaks.... day 3!

Did you see the latest offerings from Flourishes? The sneaks continue! To see the goodies, click HERE to check them out and leave a comment for a chance to win them!

I'll be back tomorrow with another creation of MY own! :-) See you then!

Flourishes Sneak Peeks.... day 2!

How many times have you searched and wanted just the right touch for a package or gift? You knew you wanted a fancy element, but after searching your stamp room, you came up empty handed.

Today's sneak peek from Flourishes has you in mind! This fanciful set from Lauren Pope is sure to give all your gifts and homemade creations a dash of elegance!

Introducing.........

This set full of tag elements, sentiments and frames is perfect for gift giving. Some of them, as you can see in the sneak peek above have been created to fit some of Spellbinders most popular Nestabilities dies like Labels 2, Labels 3, and Labels 4!

Now, to my creation! It really is as easy as a label and a tag! I'll even have a recipe and pattern for you with this one! I was surfing the other day and found some fun recipes for home made spa gifts and thought -- why not?After making some Lilac scented body scrub, some rose shaped Shea Butter soap (this is so easy if you've never made soap before - just melt a soap brick and pour into a mold!) and a cotton spa cloth, my gift needed a fun tag and label!

So, I used the soon-to-be released Fancy Labels to frame my label after printing off the text on my home computer. Like I said, I love how elements of this set fit perfectly inside the shapes created by a handful of the Spellbinders Nestabilities! I used Labels 4 for my creation! I used Violet Mist ink from Vivid!

And, here's the tag I made for my homemade knit spa cloth!

Just as easy as pie to give a classy look to your homemade creations! Now for a few recipes!

HOMEMADE BODY SCRUB
1 c. Epsom salts or Cane Sugar
1/2 c. of carrier oil: Sunflower, Olive, Grape seed or Almond Oil
8 drops of essential oil or fragrance
Decorative jar
Optional: food coloring

DIRECTIONS

To make the scrub all you need to do is stir your salts or sugar with your oil and mix well. Add the essential oil, one drop at a time. Add food coloring, stirring until you achieve an even color. The next part is bottling and packaging it up!

SPA WASHCLOTH
For you knitters out there, this spa cloth couldn't be any easier! I used some orchid colored cotton (Cascade Yarns) and did a broken rib stitch - CO 29; K3, P1 to the last stitch, K1.
Continue this pattern on every row until your project is the size you wish. Bind off. This pattern was from hometown knitter Kim Haesemeyer.

That's it my friends! The Senior Design Team and some of our Friends of FLourishes have let their creativity flow and has some fun samples! So... stop on over and see what these ladies cooked up!

Christine Okken
Latisha Yoast
Stacy Morgan
Maki Jones
Kimberly Crawford
Betty Wright
Dee Jackson
Silke Ledlow

Would you like to win this set? Just hop on over to the Flourishes Newsletter and leave a comment for our daily drawing!

You'll want to stick with us this week for more sneaky peeks! Tomorrow, we have one Christmas themed set that will allow to add a colorful dash of whimsy to all of your holiday creations!

Thanks for stopping by!

Let the sneaks begin!

This Friday, Flourishes will unveil a bevy of stamps just in time to help you finish up your holiday gifts this year! And, lucky for you, our Senior Design team has been letting those creative juices flow. All this week, they will share not just cards, but projects fit for the season! You will LOVE what you see!

Today's sneak peek involves a gorgeous spray of greenery full of holly sprigs, pepper berry, cedar fir, and who could forget beautiful pomegranate and amaryllis!

Introducing....

This breathtaking bouquet was drawn by the ever so talented Marcella Hawley. It's such a classic image and delivers a dose of sophistication!

For my project, I thought that this beautiful bouquet would be a great focal point for a set of coasters! I got the idea rummaging through the clearance aisle at Michaels.... when I found a set of four "naked"circular wood shapes. Here's a peek at the packaging and a look at the finished base after I painted them up with some Decor It! Gold Paint (fast drying) from Ranger.

I cut a circle using my Classic Circle Nestabilities dies so that it was slightly smaller and would show a hint of the gold paint underneath. I stamped the bouquet up with Memento Rich Cocoa and then colored up the bouquet with my Copic Markers. I used Spring Greens, Forest, Poppy, Dahlia, and the Flesh Tones collections arranged by Flourishes. I edged the paper by sponging on some Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress Inks. I adhered it to my gilded circle and then sealed it with Modge Podge - it's a glue medium that seals your work and makes it waterproof! Here's a peek at my set of four!

And, here's a close up!

When all was said and done, I tied them up with a bow and paired it up with one of my favorite winter time drinks... Fireside Coffee! It's an instant drink that you can add two heaping teaspoons to warm milk or hot water for just a delicious coffee, cinnamon, chocolate flavor! I shared this recipe last year at this time, but just in case you missed it, here's the recipe!

Ingredients:
2 cups of Cocoa Mix
2 cups of non-dairy creamer
1 cup of instant coffee
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of cloves
1-1/2 cups of sugar

Here's a peek at the set!

Want to see what the rest of the Design Team cooked up? Hop on over and see....

Leslie Miller
Christine Okken
Julie Koerber
Latisha Yoast
Laura Fredrickson
Stacy Morgan
Cindy Lawrence
Sharon Doolittle

Would you like to win this set? Who wouldn't!! Head on over to the Flourishes Newsletter and leave a comment there to win!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR MORE FUN AT FLOURISHES...
Did you see our Favorite Things Challenge? If you play, you will have a chance at winning all FIVE of our new releases for November! That's one valuable prize - you could even call it an early Christmas present! Click HERE for the details.

Speaking of the release, you'll want to join us this Friday for our POWER HOUR RELEASE PARTY! It's a super duper fun time full of games, goodies, and prizes up for grabs! We'll host it in the Flourishes Forum over on Splitcoast HERE from 9 to 10 PM Central Standard Time. As the party wraps, all of our sets that we peek this week will be put in store for your shopping pleasure!

It's going to be a fun week at Flourishes! Tomorrow's release is one that will give all your packages a truly fancy feel! You'll see why when you come back tomorrow!

Twice as Nice Friday!

I have another double duty challenge for you this Friday so... get ready!

First, It's amost time to unwrap the latest batch of sets from Flourishes! And, to get ready, we are issuing a challenge to you. We call it ... the Favorite Things challenge. How does it work? All you need to do is be inspired in some way by the words of the decades old Christmas favorite from the Sound of Music! Be sure to tell us which line of the music inspired your card! :-)

Here's just a snipet of the lyrics....

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When I read the lyrics, I thought immediately of the brown paper packages tied up with strings line! So, I grabbed some-- think it's kraft paper? Think again! It's actually brown paper that I bought on a roll at the beginning of the school year to cover my son's books! Because it was on a roll, I had to really use a lot of tape to make sure that my edges didn't curl or buckle.

I stamped the evergreen tree from Flourishes' Forest of Trees set using Olive green Vivid! ink. I added some Crystal Stickles and then, masked off the bottom of my tree and sponged on some white ink. I also used a small dot stamp to create my "snow" around my tree. Add a sentiment from the Holiday Greetings set and mat it on a lovely tag from the Spellbinders Fancy Tags die set and you're almost done! I had to add the string! So, I picked up some May Arts Burlap string. Add some bling and mat it up and you're good to go! For all the official details... visit the Flourishes Newsletter! If yours is the lucky name drawn, you could win all FIVE of the new sets that are soon to be released! Be sure to check out these fine Flourishes Designers!

Cindy Lawrence
Christine Okken
Latisha Yoast
Laura Fredrickson
Stacy Morgan
Leslie Miller

Now... the second challenge? Well, Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge this week is to... THINK THRIFTY! She loves the simple and natural look of brown postal wrap (kind of like I used!) or brown grocery sacks. So... she challenged us to use these things in our cards! It's a fun and inexpensive way to get creative! If you play, be sure to check out the official challenge rules HERE over at Sharon's place. If you upload to Splitcoast, don't forget the keyword ssnotime112. And, don't forget to hop on over and see the rest of the Stamp Simply gals!

Bethany, November Guest Designer
Janine
AJ
Tammy
Deb
Barbara
Jenny
Barb Schram

Thanks for stopping by everyone! Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Another IO Challenge!!

Hi all! A couple times a month the Impression Obsession gals get together for a fun-filled challenge. This time, we were challenged to make a wreath using (of course) IO Stamps! And, you know what? You can play too! There is even a gift certificate there for the taking! All you need to do is visit the IO Blog HERE to find out the official details!

Moving on to my creation! As I was flipping through my IO stamps, THIS one called Circle Elements #2 hit me. I have no idea why - but when I looked at it, I saw a mod wreath that could take on a kind of retro feel! So, I grabbed some Lettuce and Meadow Adirondack ink and some Red Vivid ink and... I went for it! There was some cutting involved but.... I love the result!

I traced a circle on my white card stock and then stamped one of the images around it to form the base of my wreath. Then, on a scrap, I stamped another one of the elements from the sete in the darker green ink and then cut them out for the top layer of my wreath. Add some bling, a bow from THIS set and you're pretty much done! The rest is just layering paper, adding a fun corner punch and some green rhinestones!

I did want to show that the top layer of the wreath is popped up with some mini pop dots. On the bow, I added two layers of the pop dots. And that, my friends, is it! A wreath made from stamps found in the least expected place! Want to see what the rest of the DT whipped up? Visit....

Shirley
Dina
Deborah
Jeanne
Laura
Kathy
Daniela
Jenny

Thanks for stopping by! I'll see you back here soon!