simple dreams

I Love You to the Moon and Back!

When my girls were little we would read book after book. I always seemed to have my favorites though because of the way they would point their little fingers at the pictures or would anticipate the next page and help me "read," being they knew the story so well.

Karen Lockhart created an adorable IB Goodnight Moon with this last release and the memories came flooding back when I first saw the image. One of our favorite books was "Guess How Much I Love You." So today I created this little card to give to Katrina as her "after birthday card." Sometimes no matter how hard I try to get it "all" done I seem to fail, so this year I decided that an after birthday card is just as special as an on her birthday card Ü

 

Using papers from the Sweetbay Memory Box collection I created the little foursome representing our family. Being I didn't have the exact sentiment I wanted I opted to use a journaling box and penned the sentence from one of our old favorite books on to my label using my Copic multiliner. I stamped, colored and cut out the IB Goodnight Moon and popped it off the surface of the label.

 

Using the Stardust glitter pen I added just a few stars behind the moon, added a little bling to the "ribbon" and balanced the bottom corner with a few gemstones in a coordinating green to the Prismacolor pencil colors I used on the moon and "ribbon."

We now are reading Roald Dahl books, but I think I'm going to pull out this old favorite book and give Trina this card tomorrow night when we have a chance to sit and read together again and I can share the story with her about how she once would "read" our favorite story with me. I'm not certain what's up with all the sentimental "mutterings" as of late, but I hope that you don't mind me sharing this part of my life and creative process with you. Thanks for stopping by to share in my life.

New Lockhart Stamp Release - Buttermilk Hen

You have all been SO patient with me here - I hope that you have been finding my posts over on the CLASSroom, being I have been hard at work. Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming trying to keep up with so many different blogs - LOL! But I really want to keep my own personal "space" and so I will continue to do my best to contribute ideas here as well!

ETA: I am thrilled to tell you that Cindy has come to my rescue. (THANK YOU Cindy!) She will be helping me with the Inchie INKlings blog - yippie! Please head over to see her WONDERFUL project!

I ADORE the new Lockhart Stamp release. We have added a new category to the sidebar in our store to try and make it easier for you to locate these new images. They are simply SPECTACULAR!

One of the first images I just have to cluck about is this darling Buttermilk Hen. I absolutely love the style in which Karen has drawn this cute little chicken - a touch of folk art together with those charming characteristics that make Karen's images so unique. Thinking that Buttermilk must be some special breed of chicken I asked Karen how she came up with the name. I was quite surprised when she told me about a Buttermilk Sky. Well, needless to say I had to google it and find a photo. As soon as I saw the photo I could envision the feathers on this sweet hen in a much more vivid way.

 

Today I created a simple little 4 1/4" square design using Crimson cardstock. Rather than sharing step-by-step coloring I will instead focus on a couple of other tidbits. The first is the background that I created using the Barbed Wire Backgrounder. Sometimes we can change the way that a background feels by simply stamping it twice (or three times, or...) I could have easily kept with the horizontal lines of this backgrounder and just stamped it one more time to create a background that was more in scale with the size of this chicken, but instead I decided to turn it and stamp it vertically to create a plaid barbed wire. I love how appropriate it feels with this sweet hen. Next I sponged the edges of the Natural White cardstock using Tea Dye ink.  

 

My next tip is to share with you how I attach buttons to my projects. At times I sew the buttons directly to the ribbon or paper, but when I'm not certain as to the best location I simply stitch thread through my button and finish it off with a small "knot". This can then be adhered to the project using a mini glue dot, making it simple to locate the best position for the button.

Please note the ends of the twill tape. Rather than using Fray Check to keep the ends from pulling apart you can add a more rustic feel to your projects by pulling the threads from the ends of your ribbon or twill and creating a frayed look that is at times more apprpriate.

 

Inside I need to stamp the sentiment, "just waiting for you" and perhaps put the IB Nest. This card will be the perfect greeting for an expectant mom who may not be in to pastel pinks and blues. It may also make a wonderful themed baby shower! I can hardly wait to see what type of "chicK' message you create with this charming hen.

Canvas Art - Christmas Angel

As I stated on the CLASSroom post yesterday I am completely intrigued by the possibilities of mixing stamping, canvas art and painting. When I find a new product line that I feel has many possibilities I just get giddy thinking about what I can create using those products. At Summer CHA it was the Claudine Hellmuth Studio Line that tickled my fancy Ü Being able to explore, experiment and learn is something that fascinates me and makes me happy - so my explorations with this product line continue. Below is a creation that is reminiscent of a class that I taught a couple of years ago. So today rather than creating "kitchen art" I put a bit of a festive twist on this little pieces of canvas art and painted it, rather than coloring the images in with pencil.

You could hang these little canvases in a series of three from a ribbon, or set them beside one another on your mantel. You could possibly even turn them in to little stocking holders if you find a simple base to adhere these to.

 

The completed canvas finished size is 4" x 4". These small canvases can be mounted on to a larger canvas surfaces for even more impact.

 

To begin I suggest that you prime the surface withgesso, even though these canvases come already primed. By adding additional layers it helps fill in some of the surface texture, making it easier to stamp on the canvas surface. The piece above has the first steps completed. This canvas was remaining from the class that I taught several years back and being I was on a limited "budget" of time today I thought I would just quickly explain these first two steps that were already complete. After priming the surface I then painted the entire surface with white acrylic paint. Next I inked a soft "foam" stamp using a deep blue chalk ink. I have carried these foam stamps in my store for FAR too long without explaining their purpose - it's about time I shared their purpose - LOL!

As you can see on the right side, the script that I had stamped is rather uneven. This is due to the fact that these little framed canvas pieces have a wood edge that dip down slightly. When using a foam stamp you can easily stamp right off the edge of the canvas without any side effects. The script was stamped using a Silver Encore ink. Once these inks had dried I once again brushed the canvas with a white acrylic wash. 

 

To segment my canvas I use painter's tape. I dipped one side of my brush in Sky Blue and the other side in Blank Canvas (white). Using the edge of the painter's tape as my divider I brush this color on to my canvas as shown. Remove the tape immediately and allow your paint to dry. Once dry I arranged the tape in the opposite direction and adding only Blank Canvas, created my "frame" for the stamped image.

 

As you can see the backs of these canvases show that they are primarily wood, with just a small hole in the section. When stamping on this canvas it is important to have a stable surface on which to stamp and so I fill this little hole with a piece of Penscore. (This is a foam-like material that comes in handy for all sorts of stamping projects.) 

 

I then ink my image with Palette Noir ink and stamp directly on to my canvas. As you can see some of the lines are not as distinct as I would like them to be due to the grain in the canvas, as well as my inability to always stamp evenly - LOL! 

 

Using my Copic Multiliner .05 I fill in any of the image that needs a better outline.

 

I then proceeded to paint the Wreath Angel using the Studio LIne of paints together with a little Lumiere for the Angel wings, ribbon and garment. As you can see I use the smallest of the paint brushes and a little palette in which I mix my colors. I simply dip my paint brush in my color of choice and then proceed to mix it with a small "puddle" of paint that I have transferred to my palette. I always work from one side of this puddle. It is hard to paint and take pictures at the same time, so I apologize for not documenting this better. I simply added the blue paint on my brush to the very right side of this "puddle" and proceeded to mix it in. I leave the left side of this little puddle completely white - this allows me to pick up a diversity of colors and fill in my spaces. It is amazing how many different colors you can fit in to such a small canvas!!!

To create this piece I used a combination of the following colors:

• angel hair - Sable Brown and Charcoal Black
• flesh tones - Blank Canvas, Painterly Pink, Altered Orange, and Yellow Pastel (to create this mix I used SO little - I just barely touch the end of a toothpick to my color and then I mix it in with the white, adding a small drop of water to make this mix a little easier to spread)
• garment - Sky Blue, Canvas White, and Smidge of Blue
• wreath - Landscape Green, Charcoal Black, and Dab of Yellow

Remember - less IS more! I always add just a tiny speck of the darkest color when creating a mix of color for these tiny little canvases.

 

Once all my painting was completed I added tiny specks of Glossy Accents around the wreathe where the little balls were indicated. I then poured tiny silver beads over the surface and then poured the excess back off. Next I stamped the word "joy" and embossed it in Sterling Silver.

 

Next I painted the edges of the canvas with Metallic Brushed Pewter Distress Crackle Paint and once thoroughly dry, I sponged it with Faded Jeans Distressed Ink. Last but not least, I added Stickles to her wings.

 

I would love to see how you create your own custom pieces of art using the canvas selection that we have available for you. If you don't like the idea of stretching your own canvas then purchase those that are "prewrapped". If you prefer to have a flat surface on which to work then I highly recommend the Sticky Back Canvas. You can then wrap your own frame or put it inside of another frame. Options, options, options - it's something I value - LOL!

Tea Time Thank You Note

 

If I had the opportunity to take a poll and ask how many cards each of you send to friends I know for a fact that I would be shamefully outnumbered. I absolutely love to create for others, but it seems that even when I do have a recipient in mind it takes me a VERY long time to address the envelope and just pop it in the mail.

Susan Tierney-Cockburn not only is a wonderful friend, gifted flower and card maker, but is also a prize winning pastry chef, trained at a culinary school in New York. Now she didn't tell me that she is prize winning - we just determined here in our office that she is!!! OMGoodness but she makes THE most delightful treats and bestows them upon us here at work. We are so blessed to have her for a friend, but then to top it off with all these delightful yummies! Well, I just wanted her to know how much we appreciate her thoughtfulness. So I set out to create a thank you note.

Then it hit me - I wanted to make it a little something special. So I took components from an invitation to tea that I had created for Paper Crafts Ladies Only magazine. When they return the pieces to me I typically just leave them in the little ziplock bag and they get buried in a box someplace - not this time Ü

I had used the Lockhart teapot stamp and doodled a design on it using colors from my original papers, so it was important to find products that would coordinate. With some very careful "pulling apart" of the original project, and finding some new papers and cardstock, I turned it into a little "pocket style" card. The card is simply a piece of Granny Smith cardstock with Mocha Chica paper adhered to the top edge. The ribbon is actually Basic Grey's elastic band ribbon turned into a little "garter" of sorts - it holds the pocket together. The little tag in the pocket has our little note and signatures, and the packet of tea is one of my favorite blends, Orange Tazo - yum!

It was so much fun to have all the girls sign this thank you and pop it in to the mail - it felt good even though it was a good week or two late.

Please share some of your secrets to just getting things done in a timely manner. When life is so busy that it seems to be throwing a wrench into your manners, how do you figure out a way to just do the right thing? I would love to hear your suggestions!

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend!

Christmas Tree Dazzles with New VersaMark Dazzle

Finally, one of my favorite things from Summer CHA has now arrived in our store!!!

 

Yes, the VersaMark Dazzle grabbe my attention full force when I saw some of the projects that were created using it at CHA this summer. I knew then that this product would bring something new to our projects, especially those holiday projects that we like to shimmer and shine so much.

I have used the VersaMark Dazzle, Champagne on two parts of this project. The first was definitely easier to capture with the camera, but I'm not so certain I captured it in a good way - LOL!

 

I began by stamping my image on Neenah Solar White cardstock and then colored it with Prismacolor Color Pencils. I could have easily used Copics as well. I do not believe that this ink will affect the Copics in a negative way, but I did not have the time to experiment with that today and wanted to be certain that I created a project that would then "work" for this blog post.

I selected the Della Robbia tree because I have always felt that this tree could use a little gold shimmer to it, being Della Robbia fruits are often gilded. After completing the color I simply applied the Dazzle pad directly to the paper. WOWIE - do you see that shimmer?!? It really doesn't glare like that in real life, but with the flash and overhead lights trying to get the shimmer to show up - well... It really did Ü

The second way that I applied the VersaMark Champagne Dazzle was to the Aged Sheet Music Scrapblock. I began by applying Tea Dye Distress ink to the Scrapblock. I then used my small brayer and added the Dazzle ink over top the Tea Dye before stamping. The effect is VERY subtle - I was hoping that it would shimmer and shine a little more, but it only gives a hint of sparkle when applied this way.

 

I have shared another angle of the focal point that also catches the background in hopes that you can get a better idea as to the final outcome of this project. As you can see in the second photo the Champagne color does alter your white color tone ever so slightly, adding a soft gold.

I have yet to experiment with the Tsukineko Dazzle Frost pad. So watch for more information to come - hopefully tomorrow or the next day. I must warn you that we only received a small portion of our order in today and so they will probably zoom out of the store, so if you are thinking that you would like one in time for making holiday cards you may want to snap one up ASAP. I'm not certain when more inventory will be arriving or when we will be getting the Reinkers, but at least it's a start Ü

Other Supplies Used: Memory Box Frost Paper, Memory Box Amaranth Note Cards, Chocolate Pearls

How Do You Decorate Your Christmas Tree?

SPELLBINDER DIE UPDATE: We received an update on the Spellbinder Dies introduced at Summer CHA - it's a good news/bad news scenario. The good news is that packaging will now include directions for using the dies in most embossing machines. The bad news is that due to these packaging changes the date for the release has now been moved back to the last week of October. We will continue to hold your names on our priority list and as soon as we have more information we will be contacting you with what we hope will be good news only. Thank you for your patience and support through these delays!

One of my favorite times of year is the Holiday Season! The wonderful music, bright lights, beautiful colors and luscious greens that appear at that time of year make it feel so warm and cozy. As Karen developed her new series of trees we talked about the different looks that we found appealing and that suited her style of drawing. I was tickled to see these when she finished up her drawings! I have to admit that my eye immediately went to the design with the birds. Why birds? I don't know being I am actually terrified of them flying around me - LOL! But the sense of calm and beauty that I feel (if I am within a safe distance) gives me the warm fuzzies.

 

Supplies Used: Snowy Tree with Birds, Scrapblock Scroll, Neenah Solar White, Memory Box Dill, Basic Grey Mellow, Foof-a-la Button, Velvet Ric Rac, Liquid Applique, Crystal Snow Glitter, Prismacolor Color Pencils

I began by coloring the Snowy Tree using my favorite colors of Primsacolor color pencils - Chartreuse, Lime Peel, Olive Green and Dark Green; Sand, Goldenrod and Burnt Ochre; Scarlet Red, Crimson Red and Tuscon Red; Cloud Blue, True Blue and Indigo Blue.

 

To create a more "snowy" feel I used Liquid Applique. One must always remember that a teeny, tiny, very small amount goes a LONG way - LOL! I find that this is one of the most essential things to remember when using this product. The liquid applique is barely visible to my eye when I first apply it. I sprinkle glitter on the applique when it is still wet and then allow it to dry for some time. The final step is to take your heat embossing tool and warm the applique. This is when the magic happens Ü. As it puffs out it begins to appear just like fresh fallen snow! The texture it adds to this image and any other snowy scene is absolutely marvelous. If you have not used the product before I would highly recommend testing it out on a piece of scrap paper before applying it to your beautifully colored image. This will help you take the guess work out of how much to apply.

The background was stamped with the Scroll Scrapblock. I completely inked the background and then used my Ink Blending Tool to dab and remove some of the ink from the stamp image. I did not want the appearance to be even or dark - I wanted a more distressed look to the stamped background pattern. I then used the ink that was on the ink blending tool to add additional ink distressing around the edges of the image as well as all over the surface to provide a more "antiqued" look. Experimenting with your tools can lead to some marvelous finds. I would like to encourage you to try this method with your blending tool - my motto is always, "What can it hurt?" If it looks really bad I can just try something else Ü Usually though this experimentation is what leads to some fun little ideas that can create new and different looks.

Thank you for stopping by and don't forget to visit the Classroom because the girls have provided you with a TON of wonderful ideas, eye candy and tips!

White Color Pencil Technique

Karen Lockhart is always "playing" with new color pencil ideas and techniques. In one of our phone conversations just recently she began telling me about a couple of new color pencil techniques that she has been sharing with her students. This past week I needed to make an emergency trip to pick up stamps to fill orders and had the good fortune to spend a little time "catching up" with her. Karen showed me two different cards that she had used this technique on and so I snapped a picture of them so that I would have the time to study what it is that she had done. Below is my first attempt using this "White on Black" technique. 

 

Supplies Used: Lockhart Stamp Company Pears, Basic Grey Ambrosia (I am LOVING the orange!!!), Memory Box Licorice Notecard and Cardstock, Black Pearls, Adirondack Snow Cap Pigment Pad

This technique intrigues me for a lot of different reasons, with one of them being it will add to the variety of looks we can achieve using the Black Inchie Squares. The texture of their surface will be appealing and different to work with, being the surface on the Licorice cardstock is extremely smooth, and the tooth of the paper does not grab the wax from the crayon in the same manner. I will also be experimenting with other black papers to determine which one I like the characteristics of the best.

 

To begin I stamped the pears in white pigment ink on the Licorice cardstock. I really should have tried taking a second picture before proceeding because the flash really bounced on this one. Be certain to allow the pigment ink a short time to dry.

I then proceeded to begin coloring using only my white Prismacolor color pencil. Be certain to have a nice sharp point on your pencil as you begin to color, but before setting your pencil to work on your project color the scratchy tip off on a piece of scratch paper.

Marianne of Copic Markers has done several wonderful posts regarding shadows and highlights, so rather than repeating her fantastic lessons here I am going to instead link you to her blog and would like to suggest that you read through her posts on shadowing.

To color this image I elected to chose an unusual light source. Pretend that my light is in the bottom left corner. I opted to do this because I felt that I needed to add highlights to the pedestal plate on which the pears are sitting so as to reveal the detail in the base. Even though I know the theory behind shadows I still have a hard time actually following them through to completion. In looking at this image in it's HUGE state on the screen I can immediately see where I would make changes. I believe that in studying what I have done in a larger scale it will truly help me become better at it in the long run, so perhaps it is something you may want to try on your own work as well. Take a picture or scan and then blow it up on your screen to see where you hit it and where you missed it.

A tip I would like to share that does help me in figuring out my high points is that I go to each individual element in the group and put a little color highlight (in this case I used my white pencil) where I would envision the light first settling on that item. I then color using that as my "hot spot" on each element. The difficult part for me when only using white is determining the edges of the item and being able to separate it from the next element. Practice, practice, practice - I hope to do more of these and share with you what it is that I learn as I make each new attempt.

My final element in this creation was determining a layout, papers, and embellishments. For some reason the orange Ambrosia paper just spoke to me - LOL! I could have done an entirely black and white card, but the warmth that this paper provided to the overall image made those pears just feel like they would taste "yummy". Ü

The layout was determined solely on inspiration, I wanted to show off a lot of the orange paper and the black and white element are fairly bold or strong and so the assymetrical balance I was able to achieve with this layout seemed to work. You will notice the unusual position along the right edge. The small Quince pattern hangs just off the edge of the Mandarin with the Licorice matting aligning on the very right edge. The Licorice of the focal image then aligns with the Mandarin edge. The black pearls where then placed at the 1/3 mark of the Mandarin paper.

As I work with this more I hope to then add colored pencils on top of the white being this creates a whole other look that I think that you will also find intriguing! One thing I have learned though is to stick with something until I have come close to mastering it before moving on to the next step. I would love to hear your thoughts on this technique. Have you tried this before? If so what has your experience been. 

Copper Acorns

Thank you for your patience as we await the solution to our Typepad problems. Hopefully they will have a resolution soon, but it has now been two days since I last heard from them and nothing has been resolved yet. Oh how I wish I knew a lot more about computers!!!

So now on to some eye candy. I have received numerous questions about the foil and copper that we carry in our store. What is it for? How does one use it?

Today I am going to share a project that I created using the Pure Copper, Two Acorns stamp, and Labels 1 Nestability. I selected the copper because of the beautiful characteristics you can achieve when it is heated with an open flame. If you were to use the foil instead of the pure copper, the flame would burn the color from the foil and you would be left with a project that was not so pretty - LOL! So it all begins with the type of project you want to create. If you want to take advantage of the beautiful characteristics of copper, then be certain to select the Pure Copper to work with.

I began by cutting and embossing the new Label 1. We are still hoping for a September delivery date for the new Nestability dies, but do not have any word yet as to what the final date will be.

When selecting an image for this type of creation it is best to use an image that does not have a lot of little details. Those with a lot of fine detail need visual "editing" - you will need to select the portions that should be outlined. Therefore, I started with a fairly simple fall image to create this box cover.

When needing precise placement of a stamped image I always use my Stamp-a-ma-jig. To locate the position of the Two Acorns on the copper label I first stamped my image on the plastic mat that comes with the Stamp-a-ma-jig. By placing your plastic mat squarely in to the corner of the stamp-a-ma-jig and then stamping your image, also placing the stamp squarely in to the corner you can locate the exact position of the stamped image on your plastic mat. Locate this mat and your stamp-a-ma-jig in the exact location you would like to stamp your image.

Remove the plastic mat and stamp your image by once again squarely locating your stamp in the corner of the stamp-a-ma-jig and evenly applying pressure to your stamp and transferring the stamped image to your project.

 

Unfortunately the glare on this picture does not give you the best depiction of this image, but it gives you an idea as to what the finished product will look like. I highly recommend Palette ink for stamping on metal. If allowed to fully dry it holds up fairly well.

In this case you can begin working fairly quickly after stamping. Being that I am right handed I work from right to left so as to not smear the ink on my project. Place a spongey pad, in this case I used our Ornare Piercing Pad (it's consistency is perfect for use with foil), beneath your project. Using a fine-tipped stylus outline the image as shown above.

Once complete you can flip your project over to see the image outline. You could now leave the project as shown adding color with glass paint or even Copic markers. (Copic markers will only give a slight variation to the color, whereas glass paint will allow you to give it more of a cloisonné or enameled look.)

It is now time to "puff" out the metal and give your project life. Once again work on the side that you stamped on. Using the diferent sized ball points on these stylus tools, as well as the finer point on the teflon folder add dimension to your project. Use even pressure when adding these details for best results. You may want to take a little piece of scrap metal and practice before working on your project to get a feel for the amount of pressure you will need to use to achieve the best results.

Now comes the fun part! My kitchen tools always seem to come in handy - LOL! Who has time to make creme bruleé anyways? Ü If you aren't so lucky as to have one of these little gadgets you can also use a lighter that works with a gas grill. I think (now I could be wrong here, but...) any type of mechanism that shoots a fuel flame will work with the copper.

Here you see me practicing to achieve the best results. Be certain to use tweezers to hold your project because the metal gets VERY HOT! To achieve the most beautiful rainbow effects I found it best to barely focus in on the copper and then pull back. If you heat your copper for too long it will lose it's lustre and the rainbow effect will be diminished. I did find that if you sand the surface again you can get a second chance at success.

To help reinforce the copper and pop it off the surface of the box ever so slightly I cut and embossed a second label of the same size from Craft-a-board. To make certain I did not leave a white edge I used a Copper Leaf pen along the edge. Then I simply used my ATG gun to run adhesive along the very edge of the label and affixed the copper to the Craft-a-board.

I then ran another layer of adhesive around the bottom edge and attached it to a little box that I had on hand for gift giving.

This side view allows you to see how "puffed up" the foil can become with steady even workmanship. Other little features of this project include:

• foil tape wrapped around the box lid (also heated - be CERTAIN to NOT do what I did. Being tired I set to it with my flame not realizing that the back was paper. Talk about not so intelligent to put it mildly. Perhaps you can come up with an alternate method that would be a lot wiser - LOL!)
• box top was stamped using the Small Houndstooth ScrapBlock and Tea Dyed Distress Ink
• box top edges were Distressed using Tea Dye ink and Blending Tool
• edge of copper label had additional dimension added using a tracing tool used in sewing

Fill this box with a bookmark, wine charms or some other fall goodies and you will be prepared with a very unique hostess or birthday gift box!

Lockhart Stamp Company 2008 Limited Edition Release

Sometimes computers can be SO frustrating. Yes, I have been so excited about the arrival of September 1st and the unveiling of the Classroom blog. Well, alas when I went to publish the first post - nothing!!! ARGH!!! I have put a ticket in with Typepad and am patiently (or more accurately - IMPATIENTLY) awaiting their reply. Don't they know that they are supposed to labor on Labor Day Weekend - LOL! So once again patience is a virtue as I await their assistance.

In the interim the only thing I can do is to continue on my merry way here on Simple Dreams and hopefully at some point today I will be able to do all those things I have tried so hard to get ready to do.

Today is the official release of the newest Lockhart limited edition stamp.

Pictured here are the first four years of collector stamps that Karen has created. It all started in 2005 with "The Flurries". This stamp is completely sold out and no longer available. If you are lucky enough to find it on E-bay you will most likely pay a collector price Ü. Then in 2006 "Nicholas and Daddy" was created. I do believe that I am the only one with a few of these stamps remaining for sale in my inventory. Next came "Grandpa and Grandma Flurry with Nicholas" in 2007.

Today I am so excited to share Karen's latest collectible - "Nicholas First Train". These are very special little stamps. Karen only runs a limited edition of 250 pieces. She then hand colors in the face of each stamp image right on the wood block. She also signs, numbers and dates each one of these special little stamps.

Don't delay if you think you may want to collect these limited edition stamps because once they are sold out it is almost impossible to find them! I encourage you to purchase yours as soon as possible Ü

Candy Corn "Boxi-Bag"

Bring a designer look to your gifts this season! FIll these little bags with candy, cookies or your favorite crafting treats. If you are on a diet fill them with craft supplies Ü If you need a gift for you teacher fill it with pencils, erasers and other fun little "school" items. Make something special for your kids or grandkids to include in their backpacks or to have awaiting them upon their return from their first day at school. Oh the ideas I have - now just for more time to actually do it - LOL!

Mish introduced me to these awesome little "Boxi-Bags" when she created her Candy Stand Kit. Well, we have some "leftovers" in our inventory and so if you would like to grab them up before we run out then head on over to our store today. (Please note that the ribbon and other items are not included with the bags and bases.)

As you can see there are so many ways to dress these little "Boxi-Bags" up. I decided to take a different route with these and used an Inchie and brads to add additional embellishment to the little box base. 

Being that the box is a separate unit from the bag it was easy to attach the Inchie and insert the brads.

To complete the Inchie I inked the edge of the white Inchie Square with my YG95 Copic marker and then covered it with Memory Box Twiggy paper. Using the 1" punch it is easy to locate what portion of the pattern to select. Just flip your punch upside down and view where it is that you are locating your pattern on the paper.

Next I stamped the IB Scarecrow on Solar Crest cardstock. I then quickly colored it with Prismacolor pencils and added some glitter to his nose, patch collar and leaves using Spica glitter pens. Simply cutting out the Scarecrow and adhering to the Inchie made for a cute little focal point on this package.

Finally I created the little tag by cutting a piece of Craft-a-Board and then cutting and embossing Key Lime cardstock. The sentiment "enjoy" seemed so appropriate for this little treat. I glued these two pieces together using Perfect Paper Adhesive. Adding a layer of Craft-a-Board to the tag added substance and made it much more durable. Simply tie the tag to the cello bag with a pretty piece of ribbon and you have a fabulous looking little gift item to share! 

Be certain to return tomorrow for a very special announcement and a link to our brand new blog "the CLASSroom"!

Harvest Lantern and Selective Piercing

Coloring is one of my absolute favorite things to do. The moment I laid eyes on the new Harvest Lantern stamp I began salivating - LOL! This image is a coloring dream Ü Being I was just coloring for pure enjoyment this time I failed to write down which colors I used. I have to admit that it was so enjoyable to just color for fun, so I apologize for not writing down the colors I used this go round. I promise that I will color this image again and then list the colors.

To color this image I used my Copic markers together with Prismacolor color pencils. I am only guessing here, but I think perhaps I used at least 12 of each to add the depth to this project. I then used my Clear Glaze pen to add a glassy finish to the Hurrican Lantern, as well as some Spica glitter pens to add a little shimmer and shine to the whole creation. Marianne has talked about the Copic Opaque White - I have found that I am too lazy to use a paintbrush, so instead I pull out my Inkssentials White Opaque Pen. With this pen I can achieve similar results without the hassle of cleanup - as Martha would say, 'It's a good thing". Ü

The Mango notecard was stamped with the Oak Leaves backgrounder. Rather than inking it up in one solid color I used three different colors of Ranger Distress ink to add variation to the image unfortunately this detail is really hard to see it in this photo. I inked the entire image with Scattered Straw, added a little Mustard Seed and then topped it off with Tea Dye.

I then used one of my new Pierceabilities, S4 173 Fancy Scalloped, to add the piercing and embossing to the right edge. As we get closer to the arrival of the Pierceabilities (sometime in September is still the projected date) I will continue to do tutorials showing how to use them in different ways. Our list is growing and so if you would like to be added please be certain to email us at customerservice@ellenhutson.com.

The last little tidbit I would like to share is this little envelope liner template. Using some of the new Twiggy paper from Memory Box I was able to add a colorful decorative liner to my envelope above. Adding a liner to your envelopes is just one of the things that you can do to make your cards appear even more unique and special.

Be certain to take a peak at Debbie's blog today to see how she used the Pierceabilities on her project. It is absolutely gorgeous!

The Stockings Were Hung

My absolute favorite part of Karen's new stamp releases is seeing the images as colored by Karen. If you ever get the opportunity to take a color pencil class from Karen, jump on it!!! Karen is teaching in Missouri this month so if you live in that region of the country be certain to check with the stores listed here on her site to see if she still has space available in her classes. I promise you it is well worth the trip to learn from Karen!

I am also interested in knowing if there is interest in heading here to the Pacific Northwest for some special classes sometime next spring. If you are interested leave a note in the comment section or send us an email at customerservice@ellenhutson.com because Karen and I have put our thinking caps on and would love to be able to meet your needs if you are interested in attending some classes, almost retreat style, here in the Seattle Metropolitan area. Talk it over with your friends and have them send their emails as well being we will do our best if there is enough interest.

Today I am going to share three cards that Karen Lockhart has created to showcase the new stockings in the Lockhart Stamp Company line. I absolutely LOVE the simplicity of the simple styling of these cards and I know that it is something that could most definitely be translated to a larger grouping of cards to send out this holiday season.

Just a simple variation in color tones can bring a whole new look to a card. Starting from left to right Karen used the following stamps and notecards:

• Christmas Tree Stocking, Memory Box Blueberry Notecards and Envelopes
• Candy Cane Stocking, Memory Box Meadow Notecards and Envelopes
• Candle Stocking, Memory Box Crimson Notecards and Envelopes
• Sentiment - the stockings were hung

Be certain to double click on the picture above to view the image larger and look at the detail in each stamp.

Thanks for popping by today - I know it's a tad early for Christmas, but if you are anything like me you need to get started now in order to get it all done - LOL! Don't wait get your supplies out and make a Christmas card today Ü

New Lockhart Stamp Company Images - Final View

The final piece to the puzzle!

KathyN you were right on Ü First I used the brand new Memory Box Twiggy paper. Dave has come out with three new 6x6 paper packs for the fall and winter. You can now find these fantastic collections in our store. I used Cheesecloth Backgrounder to add a little festive Halloween spirit to the paper and then balanced the corners and edges with some of Lesley Langdon's awesome Rummage Bin stamps - one is from Photo Op and the other from Beautiful. I am finding so many ways to use these stamps. I can hardly wait to play with some of the new goodies we have!!!

Just a little touch with a Sketch Copic marker to create a few hearts, a little bit of glitter and voila - a new twist on a Halloween card for this upcoming season.

Now on to the 32 new Lockhart images! Potions and Spells, along with the sentiment, "bippity...boppity...boo" are amongst the fabulous new images you will find in our store. Most of the additions have a Fall or Christmas theme to them, there are some very cute little Itty Bitty's, and a couple of new sentiments mixed in to the fun. So head on over to our store and start your own little treasure hunt in the "New" section.

I have finished uploading all the new Lockhart stamps - whew. You will notice that we have added a few new Copic colors to our stores. These were added especially for those who are purchasing the new CHF Thomas the Tank Engine stamps. I will do my best to collect a list of all the Thomas the Tank Engine colors and post them for those who are looking for those colors. I still have a few new Liquid Pearl colors and some new pearls to post, but I'm just too tired to finish tonight - LOL! Tomorrow is another day - right?!?

We will do our best to get your orders shipped out on Monday, but as you well know with the onslaught that occurs when new product is released it might take us a couple of extra days. We will most definitely try our hardest to get you your brand new goodies asap though!

Thank you for hanging in here with me today! Enjoy the remainder of your weekend and a huge thank you to all who stayed with me and kept me company today!

New Lockhart Stamp Company Images - Part 3

Well I had to take a little break and run down to Tuff Shed and Ikea. We are looking for a little shed for our back yard for our bicycles and garden tools and being Ikea is so close to the Tuff Shed place I just had to take a spin through to get some additional storage "stuff" for our new office. I LOVE Ikea - LOL!

Thank you for helping entertain me with your responses!!! I see several of you have gotten really close. Only one piece to go after this and then I can make everything go live Ü I'm getting closer!

I thought it would be fun to send this to someone special and leave the three pieces loose in the envelope. Or you could just put it in a special little box and have them put the entire puzzle together. It is also just the right size for smaller children - not to overwhelming with only 20 pieces to it.

New Lockhart Stamp Company Images - Part 2

Hmmm - it must be a pretty busy day out in blogging land - only two people are here with me today Ü Well, here comes the next piece of the puzzle.

Now do I have any guesses? Thanks for keeping me company today Ü

New Lockhart Stamp Company Images - Part 1

Karen Lockhart has done it again!!! I think that with each release it can't get any better, but then it does! As I work on readying the store today to bring all the information up-to-date and put the new products in place I thought I would begin with a little project that I created yesterday. You know how it is when you get your hands on new stamps - you can't just let them sit!

I have had this idea for some time and haven't been able to act on it so I decided that yesterday was the day. It all started with the Puzzle Madness die by Spellbinders. I purchased a bunch of these dies to carry in our store in anticipation of how they would work with the Craft-a-Board being many of my family members love to put together puzzles. I discovered that it did a pretty good job for being so highly detailed, but even with the Wizard I still needed to do a little handcutting using my retractable blade knife to separate the puzzle pieces completely.

Following is the first part of the card I created showcasing this die, along with a sneak peak of two new Lockhart stamps that will be released shortly - perhaps even later today, or at the latest tomorrow some time. How quickly can I work is the question?

 

As well there is one other item in this picture that is brand new. Can you figure out what it is? What do you think the new stamps are? What do you think the other new product is?

Be certain to keep checking back throughout the day today being I will reveal more of the puzzle as the day goes along. Hopefully your comments will come in throughout the day so that I can keep myself awake as I sit here at the computer entering the time-consuming little pieces of information one little piece at a time - LOL!

Pierceability Strips

Now that I have shared the very basic edge cut, emboss and pierce that you can obtain when using the Pierceabilities I am going to share another option - creating paper strips. Remember my excitement with the Create-a-cut last year - well some of the elements in these designs came from my desire to offer an alternative to that look. First the shaped cards with the Nestabilities and now more detail and edge options with the Pierceabiltiies - insert big silly grin Ü Detail is one of those things that I love and so to be able to offer new and different detail elements is always a part of what I am trying to achieve. Texture is another element and I have found that the subtle texture that piercing creates just adds such a fabulous detail to our projects.

On the July 4th I shared a red/white and blue apron project with you using the exact same elements that I will share today. Different papers and embellishments provide a different look. For that example I used Basic Grey Boxer papers, for today's look I am using Basic Grey's Euphoria collection and some items from this month's Stamp of the Month Packet.

To create this card I used two of the new Pierceability dies from the S4 167, Victorian Pierceabilities Set. Many of you have asked when the new dies will be available for purchase - we project August some time. Rather than holding your $$$ for a preorder and experiencing the chaos of last July we are hoping that patience will be a better method this go round. We would be thrilled for you to express your interest in purchasing these from us so that we make certain to order enough, but please know that we will do our best to have an inventory supply that will meet your needs (yeah like that ever happens, right - LOL!) You are welcome to write us at customerservice@ellenhutson.com and put your name on a list indicating your interest. This will help ensure that we order enough product to meet your needs.

Several questions have arisen by my confusing addition of "flipping" the Wizard sandwich from it's original version, so I am going to try to verbalize this again to hopefully make this explanation a little clearer.

The Original Wizard cutting sandwich is as follows:

• Embossing Mat (This one of the thick white mats that comes with the original Wizard package - when you first get the package we recommend using a Sharpie to write on your plate so that when you are creating you will hopefully avoid cutting into this mat. Being it looks identical to the Cutting Mat it can get confusing and this is the reason for labelling your Mats.)
• White Spacer Plate (Again this is a plate that is not designed to be cut into, it is the thinnest of the white plates included with the Wizard)
• Die - cut line or blade FACE UP (see picture below)
• Notecard or cardstock
• Cutting Mat (This is also a thick white mat that we designate for cutting only so that we keep the other white mat fresh and clean with no cuts. We do this so that when we emboss, the lines of the cutting will not be transferred to our work. I kid you not when I tell you that you can easily emboss a thread into your paper using the Wizard, perhaps even something as small as a human hair. I haven't tried it, but it might be an interesting experiment. Therefore we need the embossing mat to remain pristine.)

I have inserted the above picture to show a close up of the dies shown FACE UP to hopefully avoid more confusion.

Here is where I confused people - I actually flip the entire sandwich, so below is Ellen's Wizard Sandwich:

• Cutting Mat
• Notecard or cardstock
• Die - cut line or blade FACE DOWN
• White Spacer Plate
• Embossing Mat

Now you ask - why do I do this? I do this so that I can see precisely where it is that I have stamped an image and am placing my die. Being that you can see right through the dies I find that I am able to be much more precise doing it this way. My die still has the cut line or blade going directly into the Cutting Mat and therefore I am keeping my White Spacer Plate and Embossing Mat in pristine condition. I hope this makes sense now, but if it doesn't please keep asking. I will continue to try until it makes sense to everyone. Thanks for your patience with me as I try to get this explanation sensible - LOL!

So here we go again. We start in a very similar manner to the basic project I described a couple of days ago. Start with the cutting mat, then your cardstock and followed by the Pierceability die with the cut BLADE DOWN. Remember I have added a TINY bit of removable mono adhesive to the corners of my die to hold it firmly in place.

Follow this with the white spacer plate. Hmm - I think you can tell by this picture that I have even used not so temporary adhesive with some of my experimenting - LOL! I think I need to give it a good cleaning so that I don't embarrass myself in future posts Ü Now place the embossing mat on the top of this stack and send it through your Wizard.

Pick up the die and remove the tiny cut strip from the edge. Pick up your die and turn it around on your project. Align the edge of your cut paper with the edge of the die. The cut blade is now on the opposite side. See arrow for indication of where the cut line or blade is now.

Once again layer your white spacer plate and embossing mat on top of this sandwich and send through your Wizard.

You now will have a strip as shown above. It can be left as is or sent back through to be embossed. For the picture above I should have changed my plate out before taking the picture and I apologize for this slip. This particular project is fine being embossed with the strip laying here on the cutting mat as shown because the metal completely covers the bottom portion of the paper, but if you actually had a cardfront extending above this strip all the lines from my cut plate would be embossed into my paper project. So for your embossing sandwich I would like you to use the following sandwich with your Wizard.

Ellen's Wizard Embossing Sandwich:

• Embossing Mat
• Pierceability Die
• Notecard front or cardstock - in this case the Pierceability paper strip you see above
• Tan Embossing Mat
• Cutting Mat

Another question I would like to clarify is the big question - do these dies do the actual piercing? No, they do not. You will still need to pierce the holes.

This was one of the areas that we discussed at length and arrived at the conclusion that it will allow the most versatility if we allow customers to choose which portions of the die they would like to pierce and even emboss. Future posts will bring more clarity to these options and will show the amazing versatility you can achieve with the dies. I will show you how to use portions of the dies only and try and help guide you through the possibilities.

These are just two of the completed strips I created with this set of dies.

The other feature I wanted to share with you from today's post is the ability to combine your work using these two dies. They were designed so that you will be able to coordinate and switch out some of the elements between the dies. As you can see above I elected to use the coordinating die to cut the edge on my striped paper.

As you can see from the picture above the "bumps" and "points" are designed to align. Also the size of the pierced circles are designed to accept all sorts of embellishments - gemstones, brads, eyelets - I can hardly wait to see what you discover as possibilities!

Many of you have asked when the entire line of new dies will be revealed - I believe that it will be the first day of CHA! I can't believe that CHA starts this week - it runs from July 17-20. I will be in Chicago from the 16th through the 21st, but the girls will still be here in Seattle keeping things moving along as smoothly as possible. I don't know how I would do it without them - a big thanks to our team that keeps things going when I'm away! Have a wonderful day and thank you for sharing in the excitement!!!

Brand New Lockhart Images - It's all about Versatility!

It is always so thrilling for me to see the new Lockhart rubber stamps drawings! Then the anticipation of their arrival starts - I am so excited to share that Karen has just released 31 new designs! It was a bit of a surprise to me when I received the email notification today that they were up on her site and so I immediately set to getting them up on our site as well, being we already have a nice supply in our inventory.

I have elected to use THREE of them in this month's Stamp of the Month Packet and hope to share the information regarding this project in the next couple of days. We (well, more appropriately my DH, JJ - LOL) are still moving all of my supplies down to the office, but I hope to have that taken care of early this week as well. I have crossed my fingers and toes that my productivity will now be able to increase Ü

Versatility is always key when it comes to how it is that we can use a stamp. The apron in the new collection is just one example of how incredibly versatile Karen's stamps can be. The image on this particular design is approximately 2 1/2"w x 3 1/2"h. This larger size allows us to use the Itty Bitty images as well as some of the sentiments on the apron front. I am going to share the "naked" apron with you today and then some of the incredible options that Karen has colored to show the versatility of this stamp.

This is the apron in it's "naked" form - ha, ha! Below are just a couple of different possibilities for this marvelous piece!

Same idea - different colors and different doodling on the apron pockets.

Or make it masculine!

You could stamp this beauty on patterned paper and piece it together similar to my Robe and Bella post creations. You could also use Itty Bitty's to create a background or Backgrounders and masking to create other interesting versions. Add words like the new "Hot Stuff" or use it as an invitation with the word "Brunch" on the front. I am so excited to see the different possibilities you have in mind!

I'm behind on my Inchie INKlings challenges - it's high on my to do list this week. I will also be working at adding the new Memory Box 6x6 papers to the store and a few other goodies that we now have in our inventory, but I just haven't had an opportunity to get them uploaded.

Be certain to stop by our home page and sign up for our newsletter - I have a big announcement that I am planning on making shortly and you are NOT going to want to miss it Ü Perhaps you can start guessing as to what one special day is in June and in no other month this year. Talk to you soon!

Modern Influence

In my previous post I talked about how the black and white with the pop of an accent color was inspired by the Spring magazine from our local mall. Well the cover of this same magazine also grabbed my attention in a big way and so I decided to replicate it in a card as well. When I saw this very modern, artsy cover my mind immediately went to the butterflies. I chose the Checkered Butterfly because I was drawn to the two circles in the lower portion of the wings. The boldness of this image is so different from the typical "Ellen" look - I just had to share this side of my personality with you Ü

Being a multi-tasker and all I decided to nail down a number of the CHF challenges in just one post - LOL! Time is of the essence these days Ü

The first challenge I missed was partial backgrounder stamping - fading or stamping part of a layer. The texture in the dress and artwork in the magazine photo were wonderful to emulate for this particular challenge. I used the Rice Paper backgrounder to create the striations in the Raspberry cardstock and the Scratched Grid backgrounder to create the uneven appearance on the Lagoon cardstock. To create this uneven texture I place my backgrounder face up on my worksurface. I do not ink it evenly to begin with and then when I place my cardstock on the surface I let my fingers do the walking, so to speak. Rather then pressing evenly over the entire surface I only lightly press in an uneven manner on the areas I want to catch the detail. To really make the white pop off the raspberry cardstock I did use white embossing powder and was careful to only leave a small amount on the surface, brushing away any excess from many spots.

The next challenge was to stamp on anything but paper. I have been dying to show you why I purchased and added clear buttons to my store. VERSATILITY - gotta love it. I began by creating a little tab pull for my button as shown below. I love using blue painters tape for this type of use being it always comes off easily.

As you can see I placed my Scratched Grid backgrounder face up and then inked it with Palette ink. Using the tab on the button I was then able to set it straight down on to my backgrounder, ink it up and then pull straight up. I then allowed this to sit and dry. Now how long it needs to dry I am not certain being I never get to complete a project once I start it - LOL! So mine sat for maybe an hour before I got back to airbrush it. I doubt it takes anywhere near this time to dry, but... I'm just not certain. To add color to the buttons I then airbrushed them with my Copic Markers. Gotta LOVE versatility! Being the buttons are clear I used embroidery thread to attach them - neatly stitching them into place.

Last but not least I just needed to add some additional texture to the base white. Piercing is always one of my favorite fallbacks for adding texture in an inconspicuous manner. I love the fact that the Nestability dies are open in the center. I used a larger size Nestability circle as my outline to aid in keeping my piercing "round". I could never eyeball round - LOL!

Hopefully this post will once again leave you with a "cool idea feeling!" Gotta love a few good challenges for bringing out the creativity within each of us and the CHF challenges have been so much fun! So I challenge you to try something from this post - use the sketch, use the partial stamping, use the button idea, use the piercing or use the magazine ad with the mod colors. Just sit back create and enjoy!

Backgrounder Blitz - Hot and Spicy

Sometimes I just have to create to have fun - this creation was one of those! I am constantly inspired by the things that I see around me. Recently a brochure from the local shopping mall arrived in my mailbox. It was fun to sit down and quickly browse through it. What impacted me the most in this particular issue was the clothing in multiple ads - they were all black and white with just a touch of some sort of accent. That accent was a bright/bold color! This inspired me to just go for it and see if I could bring a similar feeling to a card I had in mind.

I stamped the backgrounder (Open Circles) and the image (Chilis and Cilantro) using Palette Noir. The stamped image was immediately followed with embossing powder. I had thought that I would just leave the image black and white and so I wanted to the black/white detail to pop.

The color pop was added with this beautiful, wide red satin ribbon. BTW what do you think about this ribbon - I would love to hear your response as to the width! The I added the black gemstones. I must admit that I was wondering what on earth one would do with black gemstones, but this hit me like a lightning bolt - talk about bling!

Well as you can see it just didn't feel as "hot and spicy" at this point as I thought it would. It was OK, but... So I pulled out my Copic Markers and added some color Ü

Now we're talking! A little Crackle Accents on the Cilantro and Glossy Accents on the Peppers, another larger black gemstone to cinch the waistline and voila - we have "Hot and Spicy". 

So what can you do with a "Hot and Spicy" card? I thought this bold little number would make a wonderful congratulatory card for someone who has been making an effort to lose weight - or how about an anniversary card?

What inspires you? Where do you get your ideas? Curious minds would love to know Ü

CHF Backgrounder Blitz and Blog Candy!

ETA: Please note that there are new posts following this one - I placed it as a sticky until the drawing for the blog candy is complete. Thank you for stopping by!

Have you heard the news? Cornish Heritage Farms is having a major league "Backgrounder Blitz" over this next week!!! We here at Ellen Hutson LLC are thrilled to be playing alongside them and will do our best to stimulate your creativity and give you new ideas as to how to use these wonderful stamps as well!!! In honor of this special occasion we will have a week long promotion beginning today on the CHF backgrounders in our store. Be certain to enter the code: CHFFun in the Promo Code area as you are checking out to receive a 10% discount on all backgrounders that you order from us during this week.

Today's post is to play along with the wonderful challenges CHF has created for this week. The first backgrounder challenge is to create a card using Lisa's awesome sketch!

There are two techniques I would like to share with you that I used as I created my project for today's challenge. The first is a real WOW in my opinion and I haven't seen it done much lately.

VELVET STAMPING

The key to success with this technique is the velvet that you select. I find that a man-made velvet works the best. In this case I used a velvet ribbon that is 100% rayon. This technique is one that works beautifully with the deep-etched red rubber backgrounders!!!

Place your backgrounder face up on your work surface, I used the new Sophisticated Swirls. I preheat my regular large iron with it set on rayon/polyster. Spritz the face of the ribbon generously with water - I have a mini mister filled with water that I always keep by my work surface, it works fabulously for misting the velvet. Place velvet face down (fuzzy side down) on the backgrounder and then iron from the backside of the velvet. I would typically place a piece of typing paper between the ribbon/backgrounder and the iron, but I wanted you to see the layering process without it being covered. Press your iron down firmly and move it about on the ribbon surface so that you do not create a hot spot.

It is SO beautiful and elegant in real life - I hope that you can get a sense of the beauty from this picture.

EMBOSS RESIST

This next technique is one that I have always loved. From the beginning of my stamping adventures there has always been a sense of wonderment as I watched embossing powder melt. Now being I photographed and worked this portion of my project before deciding to use the velvet I didn't quite think it through enough - LOL!, so my final project doesn't even use this beautiful creation. But at least you get the idea as to how to complete the background of the card I will share below.

Tip: Before I  begin I want to share how it is that I keep my Clear Embossing Powder. Being it is one that I use a LOT I purchased a large supply and placed it in a rubbermaid type of storage container. I do this so that I do not have to clean up the powdery mess that can occur if you use a tray. I love the convenience of just spooning the powder on to my project and letting the excess fall back into my container!

OK - on with it Ellen! To begin I place my backgrounder face up on my work surface and ink it completely with a "sticky" ink. In this case I used Perfect Medium, but Versamark or any other Clear Emboss Ink will work as well.

I then spoon the embossing powder on to the inked paper surface and dump the excess powder back into my tub. I then heat set it using my embossing heating tool. Be certain to watch the surface as you do this so that you don't overheat it and melt the powder until it is completely gone. When it becomes glossy that is the time to move on over with your heat tool. It is like magic as you watch the surface begin to glisten in the light.

Now it is time to make the background pop! Ink your brayer using a dye ink - I love using the large brayer being it covers the background completely in one motion. This does not mean that you do not need to go back and forth across your surface a number of times, but it does make it so simple to get an even ink coverage. I used Adirondack Lettuce as the main color for this project.

Being that I wanted a more distressed look and did not want the white to pop off the paper I then used my iron to "melt" the embossing powder into a piece of scrap paper. Iron over the paper covered image completely - then move your scrap paper to a new location and repeat. Do this until all sheen has disappeared.

I then used my Ink Blending Tool and Adirondack Pesto to distress the edges and "buff" out some of the white in the center of the image.

My focal image is the Lockhart Delphinium and Peony Watering Can. These are two of my favorite flowers and I can't believe that I hadn't given this beauty any "love" yet. To color the image I used a combination of Copics and Prismacolor color pencils. This truly is my favorite combo. The intensity and dense coverage that the Copics provide, followed by the Prismacolor pencils which just grab the tooth in the top surface of your paper gives such incredible depth to your image.

I began with the Copic Markers - BV000, R46, R81, Y21, Y21 Special, YG00, YG63, YG95, B21, B23, W1, W3.

I truly wish that you could all see this image up close - the detail that jumps out when you add the Prismacolor color pencils (Limepeel, Goldenrod, Burnt Ochre, Process Red, Warm Gray 80%, Pink Rose, and Imperial Violet) along with Spica Glitter Pens (Gold, Sky and Pink) is so "purdy".

As you can see I used a square nestability to cut out the image and emboss it. Little mini brads were added to the corners just to draw extra attention to the focal point. Instead of the Sophisticated Swirl background I created above I changed it out for a much more subtle Weave pattern. It would have been great if I would have actually thought ahead to the completed project, but hey now I have an awesome sheet of patterned paper that I can use for a future project Ü

To help celebrate this fun learning experience and backgrounder blitz we would like to give away two of my FAV backgrounders - yep that's right. All you need to do is leave me a comment below telling me which backgrounder is YOUR FAVORITE! You have until Tuesday morning to leave your comment - at that time we will do the Random Number Generator thingy and select two names from the comments section.

The first number drawn will receive the Lined Paper backgrounder and the second number will receive Grid Paper.

For yet another FABULOUS technique you must head over to the CHF Forum and read Mona Lisa's Distress Ink Burnt Edge it is WAY cool. They also are running some of the most fun challenge's - like the one I posted above.

Have a wonderful weekend! I'm going to give it my best effort to play along with the Backgrounder Blitz challenges - I have been missing creating!!! So check back in soon if you get the chance Ü

Stamp of the Month, April

It has been a long time since I posted anything using the beautiful parchment paper we carry. When creating using this paper one achieves such a soft, elegant look. So for the April Stamp of the Month packet I thought I would share this art form with you in a very elementary way to expose more of you to the beauty that can be created using these simple tools.

I began with specific limitations - as you well know one must think in advance in order to have supplies at the ready. This month I had preselected a beautiful springy ribbon and brads to use in my project, but I had not determined what stamp I was going to use. It occurred to me that April is Tulip season here in Washington state and I just knew that this image would translate into Pergamano so well. When coloring flowers I often times Google the particular flower I am coloring to use as a reference. Little did I know that there are EXQUISITE blue tulips! You must click this link to see some other incredibly gorgeous blue flowers Ü

Photo by Nedko

To begin I stamped my Tulips image using Palette, New Canvas on Parchment paper. I then gently heat set it being I am an impatient stamper and don't like waiting for ink to dry - LOL! Be careful to hold your heat source away from the paper though so that you don't "curl" it. Place your parchment paper stamped side down on a dark padded surface. I prefer to use one of the Pergamano Embossing pads, but beginners can use a black piece of cardstock atop a stack of papers. Next I used my Fine Stylus Embossing Tool to trace all the details of the image. As you can see the Fine Stylus, shown on the bottom, has a much finer tip than any other stylus I carry. I really like this stylus for detailed work. You can achieve an embossed look with other embossing stylus, but it will not be as precise.

Copic markers work fabulously on parchment paper! To color this image work on the back side (or opposite side) of the stamped image - the same side as you embossed on. Begin with the lightest colors - B23, YG00, and Y21 (special). Add depth and dimension with B29, YG63, G85, Y21, YR14 and E39. Below is a close-up of the finished image.

One of the little quandries that one runs in to with vellum and parchment is that all detail shows from behind. In this case I really wanted the image to pop. As a solution I then stamped the Tulips image once again - this time I used a very light blue ink pad, Adirondack 's Cloudy Blue - to stamp my image on white cardstock.

To hide the adhesive can be tricky. There are many new adhesives on the market - one is made by Tombow and I tried it at CHA, unfortunately I could still see it through the vellum and so I try to be clever in attaching my projects so that no adhesive will show. I punched holes in the parchment using my Making Memories Slot Punching Tool. I love that I can punch a slot in any location with this tool. I did learn though that one should use the Making Memories cutting board that comes with it rather than the Basic Grey Magnetic Precision Mat - I managed to punch my slot right through to the metal surface - oops! Fortunately I was able to reinsert the little piece and my mat looks as good as new, but I thought I would forewarn you so that hopefully you don't make the same mistake.

Then thread your ribbon through the slots and apply adhesive to the back side of your cardstock placing it directly behind your pergamano piece. Place your project into position and adhere the cardstock to your cardfront. As you can see I removed the parchment from the ribbon so that I could adjust the ribbon to be in the correct spot for tying my knot. Next apply adhesive to the back side of the parchment piece directly beneath where you will run the ribbon. At this point I realized that I wanted to "frame" the parchment and so I ran my E39 Medium Broad tip around the edge of the parchment.

Thread ribbon through slots and adhere the parchment attaching two brads in the upper left hand corner of the parchment aligning them with the knotted ribbon below. I also sponged a little Vintage Photo distress ink on the Ocean Blue notecard to pull it all together.

OK - so I'm a goofball - LOL! I made this post go live and I wasn't even finished with it. So there you have it - a sneak preview of what is to come later tonight Ü I hope that you enjoy this month's project and jump on board with a Pergamano style or parchment craft project!

Inchies from A-Z: C is for...

C is for Cupcake

Created using IB Cupcake, Prismacolor color pencils, Sakura Clear Glaze Pen, Quickie Glue Pen, Ultrafine Glitter

C is for Challenge and Club

As a paper crafter one of the most fun ways of creating is to take on a challenge. Mish just hosted an Inchie challenge amongst fellow blogging friends - you can see the response to their challenge here. If you haven't had an opportunity to view this challenge yet be ready to have your socks blown off. These girls never cease to amaze me!

So here is my first challenge for you!!! Many of you have purchased the Inchie products that we are carrying in our store, so I know you now have the goodies ready to put to good use, so let's have some fun!!!

Spring - March 20th, that's tomorrow, (or perhaps today by the time I get this post completed - LOL) is here! I am SO very thrilled to see my Camellia blooming, the plum and cherry trees starting to bud and blossom. Oh it feels so good to have a little sunshine in the area. I would like to invite you to become a part of our very own Inchie INKling Club. Yep, you heard me right - I am starting another blog that I hope to reveal following Easter weekend - Inchie INKlings: Habitat for those who are Inchie Challenged - oops I mean want to be challenged by Inchies - LOL!

It will be a place where we will hold a monthly challenge. We will set up an album so that you can see what everyone else is creating. We will be sharing Inchie Sketches (card layout ideas as well as little "templates" for ways to divide up your Inchie - I bet you didn't think that was even a possibility on such a small canvas Ü) and a copy of our Inchies from A-Z will be located on that blog as well. There is more to come, but I can't dish it all right now because I need to get going on the challenge and the remainder of this post!

So let's run with our theme, Spring! I would like to invite you to join the Inchie INKlings by making an Inchie that shows what about spring appeals to you. It will need to feature a Lockhart Stamp Company image and be entered in to our gallery by April 20th. Details for how this will happen will be located on the new blog, so please stay tuned.

C is for Cottage Flowers, Crop and of course Challenge continued

I can't propose a challenge without playing myself! So here goes - I'm going to cover as many C's with my challenge creation as possible.

Being that it is the flowers that begin to sparkle and shine I picked a stamp that started with the letter C, Cottage Flowers, and focused on the element of spring I love the most.

Using the Inchie Finder included in the Inchie Papers I located the area of the stamp that I wanted to crop. Cropping an image can lead to all sorts of possibilities. Finding the right part of an image for an Inchie is so much easier if you use an Inchie Finder.

Using a Retractable Blade Crafe Knife I carefully cut out around the Inchie finder being careful not to cut the Finder. You can also trace around it with a pencil if you are afraid of cutting it with your knife.

Begin by coloring your image with your lightest color tones.

Complete your coloring with a range of Copic colors and a little airburshing.

Be sure to add a little sparkle with your Copic Spica Glitter pens or some Ultrafine Glitter.

Just a couple of quick tips using the Inchie Pins (or nail head look) as well as the background above.

Insert the pins through your cardstock before mounting on the Inchie Square. I use a foam pad beneath so that the pins can go all the way through the cardstock. I then remove the pins and affix my decorated surface to the Inchie. Next I reinsert the pin into the hole and hold the base between my thumb and pointer with my left hand and push the pin through the mat board using a spare Inchie Square to protect my right hand fingers as I push (I am right-handed). Once it has gone through the mat board I complete the other pin and then turn my Inchie over pushing the pins firmly into place. Put on a pair of safety glasses and using wire cutters snip off the excess pin.

Copic markers ability to revert back to their original color is truly amazing. To create the color "swoosh" above place the Medium Broad tip of B23 against the Medium Broad tip of V01 - press firmly together. The color will transfer from one marker to the other. The next step is to just color your strips and voila you get these wonderful mixes. Continue to color with your marker and soon you will have your original color back again.

I used my trusty old Snap Stamps to create the word Spring. Oh how I wish someone would come out with a new variety of these flexible stamps!

C stands for some other very important Inchie elements, so watch for a continuation of this post soon.

So let's get the party started ladies - put your thinking caps on and start your creative process. I hope you will consider entering into our Spring Challenge and join the Inchie INKlings, becoming an Inchie INKlet. Watch for more details soon!!!

Inchies from A-Z: B is for... continued

Product Updates:

Nestabilities have just arrived in Phoenix today! Can you see me doing a happy dance? So what does this mean for timing? It means that unfortunately our waiting game will continue just a little longer, but I want to assure you that these items will be included in our sale on Monday, March 17th as Preorder Items. If you haven't looked at or received our Newsletter Coupon please let us know so that we can forward it to you in time for Monday's sale. Or join our mailing list at the bottom of our homepage and we will try and get a current copy of our newsletter to you before Sunday evening at 6:00pm. It will be essential for you to enter this code to receive the discount.

Our Copic supply is also not quite at the levels we would like. We are awaiting the arrival of more sets of CD24D and Copic Gotta Have It All's. Our delivery dates for these items will be the end of March, so with perhaps a little anxiety (OK - so maybe it is more than a little being I truly like to ship your orders immediately) I will go ahead and put them up as Preorder items as well so that you can use your coupon.

B is for Bunny GIrl

Created using: Bunny Girl (this is the last opportunity to pick up this darling stamp being it will no longer be available once our inventory is gone); Copic Markers - Custom Y21, RV11, RV34, E55, E27, E39; Pale Gold Leafing Pen; Gold Glitter Pen

B is for Background

1. Basic Copic Background

Copic markers on the White Inchie Squares are BEAUTIFUL! There are so many ways to create intricate backgrounds, but for that post you are going to have to wait all the way until W. Can you make any guesses as to what the letter W stands for? So for today we are going to look at the Basic Copic Background.

Creating backgrounds for basic designs is simple. By basic design I am referring to an Inchie I create when I stamp directly on an Inchie Square. There are not a lot of layers to this type of design.

Begin by placing your stamp, rubber face up, on your work surface. Ink the surface of your stamp image determining where it is that you would like to position your Inchie on the image. Being that this stamp had recesses in the rubber on either side of the Inchie I was able to easily set my square atop the stamp. If I didn't have this recessed area I would have used my little "pull tab" for the back of my Inchie Square.

This pull tab is created using Blue Painters Tape. This tape is ideal for this application being it will not mar your surface when you remove it from your project.

After inking your Inchie Square using Adirondack ink it is essential to heat set your square. I have found that the porosity of the Inchie Squares does not allow the ink to sink in to the surface as readily as the Neenah paper and therefore if you go straight to coloring on a stamped surface you will more likely than not cause the ink to bleed.

As I colored the background of the image I began with my new Y21. (See this post for information as to how to make your own custom colors.) To create the sunshiney window effect I did pick up my darker Y21 from my palette and added it around the edges.

2. Paper Covered Background

So what can you do with all those bits of paper that you have left over from a large project? Well turn them into 1"x1" squares of course!

Or if you are not fortunate to have saved all your scraps then we do have a packet of Inchie Papers available for you to purchase. This fun collection of 108 patterned paper 1-1/2" squares will keep you supplied for quite some time. You can die cut or trace and trim before attaching them to your Inchie Squares. Each of these packages also contains two (2) Inchie Finders. These little 1" squares of yellow acetate are the perfect tool for "finding" a section of a prestamped image or part of a pattern. Simply place, trace and trim. The yellow color will hopefully help you spot it easier amongst the mish mash that occurs on most of our tabletops when we get in a creative swing.

Karen always has the best organizational tips! I absolutely adore this beautiful box she has put together to keep her Inchie backgrounds prepped and ready to use.

When sorted by color it makes it easy to find the perfect background for your art. Prepare some of these backgrounds for your projects in advance if you are not feeling "it". You know those times when you would like to relax and create, but you just don't have a long-term vision for what it is that you would like to create. Then start at a later time to create the elements or embellishments to complete your Inchies.

I will be sharing more of the backdrop for this little assortment at a later date. For now I just want you to focus in on the assortment of papers that Karen used on these little creations and how she added the focal points to each Inchie. I have to admit I am a bit envious of her beautiful handwriting Ü I would hate to think about how many beautiful Inchies I would ruin if I were to write in cursive on them - LOL! So if you are like me perhaps you might consider printing and cutting out words or stamping them and adhering them to the finished creation instead.

3. Other Background Ideas

• Stamped Backgrounders
• Prismacolor Color Pencils
• Twinkling H2O's or Watercolors
• Old Book Pages
• Word Documents such as Definitions, Special Words

These are just a few of the ideas that I could come up with today/tonight. I hope that they inspire you to try a myriad of different background techniques when creating your Inchies!

Inchies from A-Z: B is for...

Before beginning on the letter B I want to forewarn you to the fact that when you link to Inchies on my storefront it comes back with a blank. This will change tonight! I wanted to ensure that it would be fair to all our newsletter readers and customers that you would all receive the same chance at receiving the Inchies that Karen and I have created to give away with your purchases (see details in newsletter). Please know that the links will all become live tonight, Tuesday March 11th at 8:00pm PST. Thank you for your patience and don't forget to sign up for our newsletter where all details are provided! Click this link and scroll to the bottom of the page to join our mailing list. Our newsletter will keep you up to date on our store promotions, news, and fabulous tutorials and tips. Don't forget to click on the link to the soldering tutorial in the latest newsletter - it has been receiving rave reviews Ü

B is for Bride

 

Created using Bride, Prismacolor color pencils, Spica Clear glitter pen, Sakura Stardust glitter pen, and Ultrafine glitter.

B is for Binder

The question became quite apparent as Karen began producing her Inchies - how would she keep track of them? where would she put them? It was at that time that Lisa of Inchie Arts went in search of a solution. I absolutely LOVE the solution she came up with! This binder is such a cool concept! It is made out of recycled corrugated cardboard and is 100% recyclable. The most unique feature of the binder is that the metal spine containing the rings can be removed from the binder allowing you to lay it flat for decorating.

Simply remove the screws from the metal rings and detach the rings from the cover, lay flat and personalize. Cover with decorative papers, paints, stamps, embellishments and Inchies of course! Reattach the ring spine once complete and you are ready to go. Being that the cover is completely removable you can also change out your covers after they become worn or if you determine that you would like a new fresh look.

Now to inspire you with some binder decorating ideas. Each one of you will have a look that is distinct to you. As I designed my cover I let a creative side of me show that I rarely expose. I love the grungey look and so I decided to bring that side of my creative personality out in this cover.

The wonderful thing about corrugated cardboard is the textural quality it has. I began by removing bits and pieces of the cover surface. This was NOT easy - LOL! This cardboard is VERY well made and so it took me a bit to work it off as I did so in a systematic fashion. I then followed up with two different colors of Distress Crackle Paint - Antique Linen and Old Paper. After allowing the paint to dry I then followed up by sanding the surface and then sponging and rubbing Distress Ink - Tea Dye and Old Paper - over the entire surface.

To enlarge the area of the focal point I stamped the Grid Paper backgrounder in Beaux Arts Blue. I also wanted to balance out the front surface of the binder and have been patiently biding my time hoarding my wonderful Kim Hughes Silhouette Blooms I for the perfect occasion. These stamps coordinate beautifully with Tim Holtz Nature's Moment Queen Anne's Lace. The scale of the two together made me giddy - LOL!

I then set about creating an Inchie "puzzle" using the Lockhart Hydrangea stamp. One might at first wonder how on earth you would incorporate a Lockhart stamp in to a grungey look, but it was SO fun to bring a new look to this otherwise colorful stamp. I began by creating my Inchie definition background using Word. (I still hope that I can figure out how to link up a document here on my blog. If anyone has any suggestions I would truly appreciate knowing how to do it. I have read the Typepad information, but... just not enough time in the day to figure it out without spending a ton of time.) I then stamped my Hydrangea image onto Solar White Cardstock. Next I stamped and created a mask with my Eclipse tape and placed it over my stamped image. I then sent my cardstock through the printer and achieved the results shown below.

Karen has recently been describing a wonderful artist technique referred to as grisaille to me. I do believe that she has some upcoming classes that may include this technique. After looking it up on the internet I learned that it is a multi-layering art process. It is begun by applying shades of gray to your work surface. So using the many Warm Gray's and French Gray's in my Prismacolor Colored Pencils I played with this concept.

This is then followed by the addition of muted color.

I scaled the image to a 2" square and cut it into quarters applying it to Black Inchie Squares. Then these were adhered to a Black Mat Board Base and using a silver tag holder I attached the binder title.

I did have to laugh being in the end my grungey look still has a sense of elegance to it - oh well, what's a girl to do?

Now I want to share a polar opposite of this binder to spur on your creativity and bring you a completely different look. Karen is the queen of covering!!! Her ability to cover boxes and books and... is extraordinary. I so admire the amazing detail and crisp quality of everything she creates.

"Country Kitchen" are the words we are using to describe Karen's binder. It has a warm, cozy feeling to it.

The details are incredible. First I want to tell you about the framed square - it is metal! So you know what that means - she can change the Inchie on the front with a whim.

 

Being that Karen is so meticulous she also covered the inside of the binder!

Look how beautiful the details are!

This view shows the inside of the binder. In this picture you can see how the Inchie Pocket Pages work. In each pocket Karen has inserted a black piece of cardstock to give each Inchie a unified background. After journaling in the Inchie Index regarding each Inchie it is then inserted in to a pocket or put out for display. Much more will be coming on ways to display your Inchies as well as more information regarding this storage system.

Well it is apparent to me that Typepad is not on my side today - LOL! I have just been switched over to the Edit HTML method of posting, being my post has become too complex - aargh. I don't know HTML - LOL! So this last part could be rather interesting when it goes live. I'm going to give it my best shot to wrap up now.

B has many more entries that could be posted about - backgrounds is one that is essential. I hope to share more regarding the letter B tomorrow. I'd best just make this post go live now. Thanks for hanging in here with me and have fun playing with this whole concept!

Stamp of the Month, March

OMGoodness - I can not believe it is March!!! AND I can not believe that Easter is in March - March 23rd to be exact! Can you ever remember Easter coming so early??? In thinking about what would be appropriate for this month's Stamp of the Month, spring fever hit me. I am SO very ready for sunshine, warmth and pretty colors outside! Being those colors are not yet here I just had to use bright cheery colors in this month's creations. Lockhart's Dottie Bunny has hit a soft spot in my heart. I don't know if it is the folksy, cute factor or the little polka dots - LOL!

One of the things that I heard from you is that you enjoyed the simplicity of some of the projects I have created recently. So I took my lead from that and created TWO easy projects for you to replicate using this month's Stamp of the Month packet.

The new collection of Memory Box decorative papers, Sprout, has some of the most wonderful images to use as backgrounds with rubber stamps. I love the scale, diversity and color range within each collection! I began with the Dottie Bunny and selected a very simple tone on tone portion of the floral background to stamp the bunny on. I then colored in the circles with my E27, Africano, Copic Marker. Cutting out the bunny is so very simple and allows you to add depth to your project.

Next I selected a patterned paper that would make a wonderful scenic background and selected "just the right" piece of that pattern to cut out my backdrop. I did use my largest rectangle Nestability to cut and emboss this layer, but you can also just cut a rectangle if you do not own the Nestabilities.

I would like to share the following tip when you work with background papers. If the color of the image on your background paper is not exactly what you want, then simply adjust the color with Prismacolor color pencils or Copic markers. In this case I used Chocolate Prismacolor color pencil to add a little more of the correct brown tone to the leaves - this really helped aid in bringing the entire card together and added a little more texture to the area I wanted the eye to focus on. Place this decorative paper on top of the Vanilla Bean cardstock and punch your holes. I then added adhesive to the back side of this element, but did not place it in position until I had threaded my ribbon. Once your ribbon is threaded you can then affix this element and tie the knot.

Another tip I would like to share is in regards to placing your punch for the holes. Look carefully at the picture below and you will notice two little Sharpie Marker lines on my punch. They are hard to see so I put white arrows indicating their placement. This ensures that I reach in the same distance each time I punch. You can also use your Crop-a-dile to do this, but if you don't own one this is the next best thing Ü

To complete this card I added some brads to help bring balance and interest and placed my bunny to jump over the bushes.

This month I just couldn't stop with one card though - LOL! The next idea hit me like a rocket and I just had to share it with everyone as well. It all began this time with the egg. I purchased an egg shaped McGill punch last year right before Easter - did I use it? NO! What a shame - so I pulled out the punch and created the egg. What could be more odd, yet cute, than a bunny jumping out of that egg? Ü

I will include a copy of this egg, hand-drawn, in this month's packet for those who don't have the punch or who don't feel comfortable drawing a cracked open egg. You will then be able to trace the version that I created.

The next adventure I will share is how to create the tag. Being that I didn't have the exact sentiment I wanted, in the exact size I wanted, I decided to create my own. I selected to use a whimsical font call Witchcraft - OK, so I really don't like the name, but I love the font - LOL! The key to getting precise placement is quite simple. First, print out the font on a regular sheet of typing paper. Next cut out your tag and holding it up to a light source affix it to your typing paper precisely over the printed area, centering as need. I typically use a permanent adhesive being that when I pull it off the typing paper it is the typing paper that will tear and not your decorative cardstock, but I have also used temporary adhesive and it seems to have held quite nicely. Then just reprint by sending that typing paper back through your printer a second time. Voila - you will have a precisely printed label. Filling in the letters with some additional color brought the lettering out a little more. I felt that the striped paper had the appearance of grass and so selected it for this label. The holes on the label were just a little too large for the brads so I punched a little 1/4" circle out of coordinating cardstock and affixed it to the label. Then the brad fit nicely to hold the label in place.

Last but not least I added some texture to the background using the wonderful CHF Paisley backgrounder inked in a coordinating pink (I believe I used Stampin' Up!s Pretty in Pink or perhaps it was Adirondack Shell Pink - I forgot to write it down and now my memory is failing me - arrgh). Prepped the coordinating stripe, egg top edge and bunny tail with 2-way glue and blinged it with this awesome Iridescent Glitter.

So get hoppin' girls - you don't have much time this year to get those Easter greetings prepared and sent!

A is for Adorable - Lis Inspired

Stamping with friends is SO much fun! Last night my buddy Lis came down and ate some yummy cake with me to celebrate my birthday Ü I've been telling myself this past week that with each year that passes I must be getting a little more "learned" - can't think of it as getting older - right?!? So instead of celebrating with a birthday card I thought I'd go back to the very beginning of days when babies are simply "adorable" and celebrate those days instead.

One of the huge benefits of stamping with my friend Lis is that she stamps differently than I do. She will create key elements for her cards, using the oh so clever techniques she has learned over the years. Some of the techniques she has shared with me are from the courses she has taken, others are just things that are trial and error. So I just started to "trial and error" with her Ü. Using many of the fabulous stamping products that are tucked away in my cabinets brings glee to my heart. I am quite tickled with the finished trials of today. At first I questioned them, but I create with an end picture in my mind. I created my elements wondering if they would be good enough and WOW - they all came together when the finishing touches were added.

I began with the letter "a". Lis was playing with her grungeboard and I was loving her results, but instead of grungeboard I had Cosmo Cricket chipboard Alphabuttons. We discussed the merits of these different materials. Lis had also created a piece using a chipboard button and it really intrigued me. So I started off on my little journey emulating and learning from what Lis had done. I painted the chipboard with a handy white Paint Dabber allowing it to dry. Then the Large Polka Dot backgrounder was stamped over the white background and embossed with clear embossing powder. After heat setting the powder I then rubbed a Lettuce Paint Dabber over the letter. This is when the trial and error part started for me - LOL! Timing is obviously of the essence with this technique. You are supposed to let it dry a little and then rub off the excess paint with a damp tissue or wipe. Well this little exercise happened a couple of times before I felt like the color and look of the letter was "good enough".

I couldn't leave well enough alone and so at this point I inked up the Paisley backgrounder with Silver Encore and stamped my letter, quickly realizing - oops I shouldn't have done that if I wanted to keep the polka dots exposed. I grabbed my heat gun and began heating it to see what effect this would have. Not liking where it was headed I grabbed a paper towel and quickly wiped the entire letter. This is when accidents can turn into beautiful discoveries. You can not see it in this picture, but the letter has an almost irridescent quality to it and woohoo - the polka dots were still in place. Yep, a happy mistake.

I then took my blending tool and added several different Distress Ink greens to the edges of the letter. I love the soft feel that this spongey tool gives to my projects. This was followed by edging the letters with a Silver Leafing Krylon pen. Yeah - I had one fabulous element for my card and a fun adventure and new discovery that I wonder if I'll ever be able to emulate again - LOL!

The next component was the brown piece of cardstock. It is also difficult to see the beauty of this piece, but here is a closeup to try and give you a better idea of what it looks like.

This piece was created by taking Vanilla Bean CS and stamping the Paisley backgrounder using a Perfect Medium ink pad. I could have used an embossing ink pad or Versa Mark pad, but this is the one that was convenient - LOL! Once again I used clear embossing powder and then heat set it. I followed this application by sponging over the top of it in a circular motion using Distress Peeled Paint and my blending tool. This helped bring my brown cardstock closer to the brown/greens that were in the decorative paper I had selected from the new Memory Box Sprout collection.

Last but certainly not least was the little Sweet Pea that would be the focal point of the card. I stamped it on Arturo using Palette Burnt Umber (this is a waterproof ink) and watercolored the image using a waterbrush and Lyra watercolor crayons.

A scalloped classic circle, a little more sponging, some piercing, brushed silver brads and some pink gingham ribbon and wheeew - I was finished. Woohoo - I made it all the way through - did you? LOL! I think it took longer for me to describe this process then it took for me to actually make the card Ü So my final thought for today is don't be afraid to experiment - sometimes you discover fabulous things by doing so!

Recess Time

The paper collection Recess, from Basic Grey, was getting completey overlooked by me. I had totally forgotten about it being I seem to be in a rut reaching for the light and bright colors instead. Well Jasper, or perhaps it was Buddy, (one of our cute little puppy threesomes) reminded me that this was a very delicious paper indeed - the corner seemed to be especially tasty. So the girls pulled it out of our supplies and brought it up to my table. I flipped through it and absolutely fell in love with the funky designs and earthy colors that are a part of this collection.

For some time now I have been meaning to decorate a little notebook for Katrina's teacher and this series of paper just screamed teacher to me. No wonder they named it Recess, LOL - it was a bit of a duh moment for me.

This is just one of those cute little notebooks you can purchase at Target. Hunting through Target for little office supplies and booklets was once one of my favorite things to do. It's a good thing that I have a little stash of stuff to work with at times like these when time no longer is a luxury Ü.

I adhered the striped Recess paper using my ATG gun. I then used the seed packet to create the little envelope on the front of the notebook and slipped one of the lined papers cut out as a tag into the little packet. Rather than embossing this little packet I just ran it through my Wizard using the "cut only" option so that the word "seeds" would not be visible. I adore the little curve in the top of this packet - with spring time right around the corner I think I will be using this little packet to perhaps house some real seeds. Can you imagine a garden journal with these little pockets tucked in to the pages?!!

One of the things that people always ponder is the layers of color that appear when using colored pencils. I took a quick picture of the range of Prismacolor (and Faber Castell, yep one lonely one) color pencils that I used on this little colored pencil jar. Beginning with a light color tone and adding layers of varying depth aids in creating the round shape of the pencils. To finish it off I used a layer of Glossy Accents on the jelly jar. I wish I could capture in this photo the incredible depth this adds to this little piece.

The tag was finished off with some of the coordinating Recess ribbon and a red brad that I added some R89 Copic marker to to make it work better with the Dymo Label. I had not yet tried my new little Around the Block labeller until today. I must say that I am VERY pleased with the results - I'm loving the clarity of this particular font and look forwards to trying the lowercase one at some point as well.

My plan is to have Katrina write a short note on the little tag. For once I am ready for teacher appreciatian!!! WOOHOO! Being that you don't have a little puppy reminding you that some of the best stuff you have may be stashed away I hope that this little project inspires you to pull out some of those goodies you may have completely forgotten about.

Monochromatic Bugs

As we go about making cards we sometimes get stuck in a rut. Being that many come to me for guidance in coloring most of my creations incorporate coloring to some degree, but I also enjoy stamping without doing any coloring at all. When I need a really quick card I go back to some very basic stamping techniques. The Lockhart Stamp Company images are ideal for coloring in, BUT they are also adorable just simply stamped on colored cardstock or patterned paper.

I thought about stamping each bug in black on the circles I had cut out using the smallest Nestability circle die. The more I thought about it the more I realized I wanted them to just be a subtle part of the card and not jump off of the paper as a black image would. The final destination I wanted your eye to settle on is the floral piece. Monochromatic stamping is subtle - select an ink color that is slightly darker than the color of cardstock you have selected and stamp your image in this tone on tone format.

It was quite easy to eyeball and stamp each bug in the coordinating ink color, but if you are afraid of missing and having to start over you can always pull out your Stamp-a-ma-jig. It is a tool I use often, but found unnecessary in creating this card. I then placed the circles back in the Nestability die and embossed the images. I find it easiest to cut, stamp, and then emboss.

I am loving my new CHF backgrounders! They are allowing me the freedom to be a "Stampy Stamper". This is a phrase that Mona Lisa coined and it describes me to a "T" - I love stamping and to have the freedom to create distinctive papers that coordinate has given me much pleasure Ü The scale of the Large Polka Dot backgrounder was perfect for this card.

One other design element that I thought about as I created this card was the repetitiion of the circles - it's a LOT of circles I used, but it was this repetition that I felt would bring a strong statement to this card! If I could nudge my focal line of circles over to the right about 1/8"-1/4" then my layout would make me much happier - yes, it's the perfectionist in me. I should have laid my circles down before applying adhesive - LOL!

To finish this card off I felt that the sentiment "It's the little things in life that matter most" would be perfect with all these little bugs. Try creating one of these tone on tone, circle cards and link me up girls - I'm still waiting to see what you are all creating!

Backgrounders - what makes them special?

It was with great interest that I learned the story of Cornish Heritage Farms (CHF) and the details regarding their backgrounders. My little discovery in backgrounder history started about a year ago. It has been an absolute privilege and delight to be able to work with and get to know Richard and Liz Pomeroy, the owners of this family owned business, over this past year. I am VERY much looking forward to meeting them at CHA in a couple of days! I hope that you enjoy the tale of the road to backgrounder discovery that I have followed.

I fell in love with background stamps as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. It was one of my passions to "collect" background stamps and use them to create distinctive papers and looks. I do believe that I owned almost every Stampin' Up! background available - LOL! One of the details that intrigued me greatly was the discovery that SonLight Impressions was the manufacturer of the first background stamps that Stampin' Up! carried. When Stampin' Up! grew they decided to open their own plant and manufacture their own backgrounds. DId you already know this? It was one of those "duh" moments for me - no wonder I loved the CHF backgrounders! Backgrounders were actually "the" first backgrounds created - LOL!

CHF purchased SonLight Impressions in 2005 and they have strived to provide their customers with well-made, high quality products at fantastic prices and with great service. There are little details that we as consumers don't really pay much attention to, but it is this attention to detail that makes a deep-etched red rubber stamp completely distinct from acrylic stamps or lesser quality rubber stamps.

So what makes this difference? It all begins with a metal master plate which is usually made by an engraving company. This is typically done with a chemical etching process - the deeper the etching the higher the rubber image will stand up away from it's background. This is where the "deep etched" part comes in to play. It costs more to make a deep etched master plate, but the difference truly shows in the detail. Cornish Heritage Farms uses this deep etch process to create their stamps.

Then the metal plate is used to make a matrix board. This is a negative plate of your images. There are different materials used to make these matrix boards - some withstand a little pressure and others withstand a lot. Well, CHF wants their images to stamp with precise detail and therefore they use the materials that will withstand a lot of pressure.

The rubber comes on big rolls. Guess what - there are different types of rubber. The denser the rubber, the better your stamped image detail will be. This of course costs more as well, but CHF continues with their pride in quality by selecting the densest rubber available. This rubber is cut to fit the plate size and put into a vulcanizer with the matrix board which has the stamp images impressed into it. Heat and pressure are applied. The greater the pressure, the greater the certainty that the rubber will get squeezed into each and every crevice of the matrix plate.

Therein lies the beauty of a red, rubber stamp - detail. Detail that will not be lost or damaged when the stamp is inked repeatedly or heat is applied for special background techniques.

I believe that Cornish Heritage Farms has achieved their mission and so it has been with great delight that I accepted their invitation to be a part of educating, selling and using backgrounders on a daily basis. Their new designs continue to be innovative and current - I am thrilled to be able to work with CHF!

Yesterday I shared the first of my new Lockhart image designs - today I wanted to share another new design and a different way to use your background stamps.

I began by coloring the image of the Leaves Backgrounder with Lyra Watercolor Crayons. Stampin' Up!s Watercolor Wonder Crayons are the exact same and I believe that Lyra probably makes them for Stampin' Up!

I then use a Mini Mister filled with water to lightly spritz the surface. The fine mist from this spritzer seems to be perfect for use in creating special effects when stamping. Next I placed my cardstock face down on to the colored stamp and rubbed my hand evenly over the entire surface. The look that results reminds me a little of those tie-dyed/marbled Easter eggs that Katrina likes Ü

This is where I decided to try something a little different - I wasn't certain if it would turn out, but I thought I will never know if I don't just try it. The jury was definitely still out once I had stamped the image, but after watercoloring in the cute little carrots and composing my card - I think I like it!

It is difficult to see in this photo, but the image from the background stamp is ever so light in behind the colored in pattern of the carrots. It really is ubber-cool in person!

Once again I selected an idea from Dave's book when composing this card - this one is from page 43. So many of you have purchased this wonderful book and I really want to help you put it to good use - thus the page references for you to be able to see his original idea and the twist I have used with his design. I am hoping to encourage you to begin looking at ideas you see in a new way.

Below is another sketch for you to try. Each of the little circles represents an embellishment, with the focal point layer separated by a small "gap".   

OK - so what is with the bright red lines on this sketch? I wanted to share with you how it is that I select the positioning of my focal point when designing a new layout. Many times I use the rule of thirds. Divide the project into thirds both vertically and horizontally with "X" marking the spot where you are trying to lead the viewer's eye. This is the approximate position that you should try to place your focal point image.

This will be my last creative post for a few days. I will try and find some time to log on from Anaheim. I have so many thoughts I have wanted to share with you regarding trends, what I think will be new, yada, yada, yada. Why is there just not enough time in the day (or night) to do all of these things? Here's to hoping for a few minutes here and there to bring you some of the fabulous creativity that will be my viewing pleasure over the next few days!