from my ink pad to yours

Shine: You Brighten My Day

Sunburst Sayings came to mind right away when I saw today's color challenge over on Splitcoaststampers.

Initially I simply embossed "Shine" with Iridescent Ice embossing powder over plain Versamark but I liked it better when I added Tangerine Twist before embossing. (First ink your stamp with Versamark and then add your color before stamping.) Here is a close-up to try to give you a little better idea of the sparkle you get with this embossing powder:

Main Catalog Supplies:

• Tempting Turquoise cardstock #102067 Tangerine Tango cardstock #111349 or get both with the Brights Assortment #131190 for 8.5" x11"; 131186 for 12"x12".
• Tempting Turquoise Stampin' Pad#126952; Tangerine Tango Stampin' Pad #126946
• Whisper White Thick #140272 for cardbase. 
• 2 3/8" Scallop Circle punch #118874
• Circle Collection Thinlets #130911
• Iridescent Ice embossing powder #101930
• Versamark #102283
• Heat Tool #129053

Occasions Catalog Supplies:

• Sunburst Sayings/Sunburst Thinlets Bundle W#140808, C#140807

Don't forget! You can leave a comment for chance at Blog Candy this week!

 

 

 

 

Celebrate You! (and a clean stamping counter)

This is a quick post as I'm heading out to celebrate a "feeling good" day with a friend who hasn't had that many lately.  Here is a card. So I'm celebrating that and a stamp counter that is actually clean enough to stamp on! Here is a card for the CAS challenge over at Splitcoaststampers:

The challenge this week is Going in Circles.     

Main Catalog:    

• Whisper White cardstock #100730
• Mossy Meadow cardstock  #133676 - time to order these before the supply gets tight!!!
• Regal Candy Dots (the artichoke dots work well with Mossy Meadow) #130932
• White Craft ink #101731
• White embossing powder #109132
• Heat Tool #129053
• Circles Collection Framelits #130911
• Stampin' Dimensionals #104430

Occasions Catalog

• Suite Sayings #140709
• Botanical Builder framelits #140625
• Botanical Gardens DSP #140583

Sale-A-Bration Brochure - ends this Thursday, March 31!

• Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack Free with a $50 order

Play along - You can check out a couple of my pinterest boards that have circles: Circle Focal Sketches and rotary. Whether you play along or not leave me a comment.  I'm sending out blog candy as part of my downsizing efforts. If you leave a comment by the end of the day on Sunday August 3 your name will be in a drawing for the stamp set Looks Like Spring PLUS the coordinating punch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Help Me Downsize!

As I mentioned a few posts ago I'm in the process of downsizing my craft room.  All the way from this (plus the adjacent storage room). The photo, of course, is the cleaned up version that we showed in the real estate listing. The cupboards and drawers plus about 40-50 feet of shelving in the storage room were full of stamps and stamping supplies that I haven't thinned out in the past several years. So I basically need to shrink from this space...

to the storage unit on the right of this picture:

which is about what I can handle for a stamping area in the St. Paul apartment we are moving to next month. Yes, I agree, it's going to take a little experimentation! And I have several stamp sets and supplies that need new homes. I also want to keep my sales up during the moving process so I thought I'd give this a try:

With any online order you place you can choose 1 retired item from my collection of stamps, punches and more.  Some of these are pretty hard to find so I hope it will be worth your while to take a look. I will have 4 categories:

A Group $150 and over... or sign up to be a demonstrator in my group, the he'Artstringstampers.

B Group $100 and over ...or sign up to be a demonstrator in my group, the he'Artstringstampers.

C Group $75 and over

D Group $50 and over

Find out what is available HERE! There is still a little time to place a March order and choose free Sale-A-Bration merchandise too.

I'll continue this as long as it works or until I run out of extra boxes of stamps.

When you decide to place an order, email me to request a hold on your chosen item.  Once I respond you then have 4 hours to complete your order, knowing that I will hold your item.  Email me at [email protected] from 7am - 9pm CST.  If you email between these hours I will do my best to respond quickly.

I recently delivered a carload of stamping supplies to our local Thrift Store. If you are a stamper in the area you might want to check that out too. I dropped off ink pads, stamps, whale style punches and 12x12 paper.  And cards too!

I can't wait to get stamping again and share some new ideas...

 

 

 

 

Botanical Blooms with Wisteria

I started the Wisteria Wonder layer of this card a while back for a color challenge that put Wisteria Wonder with a couple of bright colors. I don't know if I had used the Wisteria Wonder Seam Binding before but I thought was so lovely but just couldn't come up with anything I liked when I put it with the brighter colors required of the color challenge so I set it aside, later putting it together with a simple white 5 petal flower cut with the Botanical Builders framelits.

1. The striped layer was stamped with the Brushstroke background stamp (W#138952; C#139533) in Wisteria Wonder ink on Wisteria Wonder cardstock.
2. I tied a bow around that layer with Wisteria Wonder Seam Binding(#134570) and mounted it onto a Whisper White Thick card using a few Stampin' Dimensionals.
3. There are 14 dies in the Botanical Builder Framelit die set.  So, whenever I need a particular shape cut I grab a few others and cut a few other shapes that will fit on whatever scrap of paper I'm using.  As long as I'm cutting one piece I cut a few others at the same time. Because of this I had a little stash of builder pieces ready to pull this sweet 5 petaled flower together.  
4. Then, I added a little Wisteria Wonder to the center area with a sponge dauber (#133773) and added a So Saffron flower center, also cut with the Botanical Builder framelits and topped it off with Crushed Curry Dots from The It's My Party Enameled Dots (#140554).
5. I stamped the leaf detail from smallest leaf from the Botanical Blooms stamp set (#140757) and cut it with the corresponding framelit. The leaves are applied to the Wisteria Wonder with adhesive. The flower is attached with Stampin' Dimensionals.
6. Three small pieces of Hello Honey Washi tape (Botanical Gardens Designer Washi Tape #140586) are added to the right side of the Wisteria Layer to help pop the flower center. Note how three different shades of yellow blend together really well.
7. I stamped the Happy Birthday Greeting from the Rose Wonder stamp set (#140697).

Here is a close up of the flower and ribbon:

Thanks for stopping by.  What are you stamping today?

Birthday Wreath

I've had  this card done for awhile but was waiting to post it until after I sent it to my mom on her birthday. And now I realized that  I never clicked publish. My apologies for dropping off my posting pace. We have been busy traveling, selling our home and preparing for a major downsize and relocation.  We will be leaving the Belle Plaine, MN home we built 12 years ago with three teenagers and trying out apartment living in downtown St Paul.  It's going to be quite an adventure, a big part of which will be downsizing my immense stamp collection. More on that in another post. For now let's get back to Mom's birthday card:

• This is not a standard sized card but it was easy to make a custom envelope for it with the Envelope Punch Board (#133774).
• The Brick Wall embossing folder (#138288) was inked up with Crumb Cake ink before running it through the Big Shot with a piece of Whisper White regular thickness card stock. The brick layer was mounted onto a separate piece of Crumb Cake before being applied to the card with more dimensionals. 
• I added a little more sponging to age the bricks a bit. 
• "Happy Birthday Greetings" is from Petite Pairs (#128706) and fits perfectly into one of the bricks.
• The wreath from Circle of Spring (#138964) is watercolored with Crushed Cucumber and the white is done with the Signo White Gel Pen(#105021). This is actually a wreath I did awhile ago at the same time I did this card. The wreath and bow are cut with the Wonderful Wreath framelits (#135851).
• Stampin' Dimensionals pop up the wreath. The brick layer was mounted onto a separate piece of Crumb Cake before being applied to the card with more dimensionals.
• Just a reminder if you haven't used these stamps and framelits yet: It's much easier if you cut the inner part of the wreath with the small framelit before stamping the wreath! The photopolymer stamp is easier to line up with the cut circle than trying to line up the non-transparent framelit with an image that has already been stamped.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Stay tuned for more about downsizing my stamp studio - and of course more cards.  This isn't stopping me from trying out new things...