Featuring: The Cheap Stuff

Yep, today I pulled out my cheap dollar stamps from Michael's. These particular ones are by Kolette Hall. They really are pretty cute. I changed these ones up a good bit for my card today though. You can see the two stamps I used in the picture.

I stamped the flower in the box with Versafine black ink on vanilla card stock. Next, I doodle in the stem and leaves with a waterproof black pen. I colored everything (apricot appeal, certainly celery, close to coco, tempting turquoise) and outlined with tempting turquoise. Then I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp grazie, merci, and thanks in not quite navy in the box. (If I had stamped these first, coloring with markers would have smeared everything.) I layered on close to cocoa, then cuttlebugged Pumpkin pie and Autumn Leaves adhesive mats (Mod). Another layer of cocoa, then a vanilla top-folded card. I finished with accessories: celery grosgrain, two big primas with a brad from Queen & Co., and some Star Dust Stickles on the flower. At Queen & Co., I only see the Big Brads in purple right now, but these Bon Bon Brads look pretty similar.

Product List:
Stamps: Kolette Hall from Michael's $ Bin

Ink: versafine black, markers: celery, apricot, cocoa, turquoise, not quite navy

Paper: vanilla, cocoa, pumpkin, Autumn Leaves Adhesive mats in Mod

Other: Star dust stickles, primas, Queen & Co. brad, Zig Millenium black perm. pen

A Day Late

I didn't stop working around the house all day yesterday. So I'm a day late with this week's Featured Stamps. Since there's lots going on with Amuseapalooza right now, it seems like a good time to feature A Muse stamps. I only own a few, but they are just so cute! Here is the A Muse site. And here is a*muse*a*palooza. Lots of fun stuff going on for the next several weeks.

Here, I embossed the bride and groom with detail black ep and colored the bride's dress and veil with star dust Stickles. The sentiment is from SU! Mini Mates.

Supplies:
Stamps: A Muse bride and groom, SU! Mini Mates
Ink: versamark, black stazon, pretty in pink
Paper: whisper white, brushed silver
Other: cuttlebug embossing folder, light pink organdy ribbon, silver cord, sliver brads, sponge, star dust Stickles, dimensionals


Here's another card I made a while back with A Muse stamps. Isn't Patch just so cute?

Stamps: A Muse palm tree, large oval and Patch, Karen Foster mini casual snap stamps
Ink: timber brown stazon, close to cocoa, creamy caramel, old olive, garden green
Paper: Whisper white, cool caribbean
Other: Sweet and Sassy Ribbon

Featuring: Papertrey Ink

Today's featured stamp company is Papertrey Ink. Here's the website, and Nichole's blog. Nichole is one of three partners in the company. Papertrey releases one new stamp set a month (plus the occasional special release) on the 15th of the month. And they keep selling out more and more quickly. I didn't think I needed the March release, Green Thumb. Oh was I wrong. And now it's still on back order. I'm already so anxious for the next release, and I have over two weeks to wait.

I used last week's sketch challenge to make this card with Papertrey's second release, Butterfly Kisses. I ordered it (like any crazed fanatic) at Midnight as it was released. And it's a good thing too, because, like I said, it sold out and was back ordered for a while too.

I'm really loving working with these acrylic stamps. You can see right where your image is going. I've ruined many a card with a crooked sentiment after everything else was done. Not so with these acrylic stamps.

I stamped the butterflies with timber brown stazon and colored with markers (celery, turquoise, apricot). The turquoise dots also got dabs of Star Dust Stickles for some glitz. I ran the celery thru my Bloom Dots cuttlebug embossing folder and stamped the turquoise layer with Paisley in Close to Cocoa. The apricot appeal for the sentiment was cut using Asela Hopkin's great idea with the biggest scalloped square punch. I added gold eyeltes and brads and some dark brown gingham ribbon from JoAnn's to finish it off.

The stuff:
Stamps: Butterfly Kisses by Papertrey Ink
Paper: chocolate chip, tempting, turquoise, certainly celery, apricot appeal, whisper white
Ink: timber brown stazon, close to cocoa, markers: turquoise, celery, apricot
Other: gold brads and eyelets, brown gingham ribbon from JoAnn's, SU! ticket corner punch, Marvy giga scallop square punch, xacto knife, cropodile, star dust stickles

That's it for today. If you haven't already been there, RUN to Papertrey Ink's gorgeous site!

Featuring: BELLAS

Good morning. I'm sure you already know and love the Bellas, but that's what I'll be using today for Featured Stamp Wednesday. Here's the home page for Stamping Bella. And here's Bloggabella. Be sure to check out more than just the bellas. Yes, there is more. In fact, there are even a few fellas now. These stamps are a really great quality gray rubber. That's it, just rubber. So they take up less space and you can use them with an acrylic block. I just use removable double faced sticky tape to adhere mine to the acrylic block. But I know others have mounted them on cling foam or even on wood blocks, if you prefer the traditional wood mounted stamp. I love that there are now some sentiments to go with the bellas, too. Makes them more functional to me. So here are my cards.

See, I told you there's more than just bellas over at Stamping Bella. This purse is in the Fashion and Makeup category. I stamped with Black StazOn and colored with markers. The dots were done with my tempermental Signo white gel pen and the shadow was done with ink and an aquapainter.

This card style was created by the wonderfully talented, oh so kind Michelle Wooderson over at Mish Mash. And she calls it a tent topper card. Makes sense, huh? She's a creative genius I tell ya. The card even fits right into your regular old, standard sized envelope. I'm sure you'll be seeing this design from me again. Can you tell I love it? I used papers from the Spring mini's Petals & Paisleys designer series, the dots from All in a Row, and the sentiment from Take Three. The pink strip is also stamped with canvas. Oh yeah, the purse clasp is colord with a gold Zig Painty.

Recipe:
Stamps: Stamping Bella purse, Take Three, All in a Row, Canvas
Ink: black stazon, close to cocoa, markers: creamy caramel, tempting turquoise, pretty in pink, old olive
Paper: Regal Rose, Petals & Paisleys, whisper white
Other: gingham ribbon, black eyelet, cropodile, aquapainter, zig painty

This second card uses Beachabella. She's my favorite, though Stacyfishabella is next on my list. What about you? Which bellas do you love?

I paper pieced her beach towel and bag with more Petals & Paisleys papers. She's standing on a large A Muse oval. And her sunglasses are coated with Crystal Effects and a bit of clear glitter. Otherwise, she's colored with markers. The sentiment from Riveting is colored with tempting turquoise and regal rose. I had stamped it a second time in Regal Rose, punched out the daisy center, and layered it on top. The whole thing is layered on a larger Old Olive circle. The two teeny tiny brads and the white flower are from Queen & Co's Sassy Sequins. The color is Kissy Fit. The photo corner I made with my square punch.

The goods:
Stamps: Beachabella, Riveting
Ink: black stazon, creamy caramel, regal rose, markers: creamy caramel, close to cocoa, blush blossom, regal rose
Paper: Pretty in Pink, tempting turquoise, old olive, whisper white, Petals & Paisleys
Other: turquoise grosgrain, Queen & Co. sassy sequins, dimensionals, 1-3/8, 1-1/4, and 1/2" circle punches, square punch

Featured Stamp Wednesday

I did a little tweaking. I didn't like the title of the Wednesday feature: New Stamp Wednesday, because they weren't new stamps. It just didn't make sense. So the concept will remain the same, but I'll be calling it Featured Stamp Wednesday. I'll feature a different stamp company each week, at least until I run out of stamps. Today's stamp company is Inky Antics. You can order directly from the company on their website. They have ALL kinds of stamps. But I really like the Girly Girls, the turtles, and Petey the penguin. They tend to run some sort of special every month, which is fun. I LOVE free stamps. They also have a message board and gallery.



In this first card, I used one of the Girly Girls, Champagne Girl, with a couple of designer papers.
Here's the How To:

Stamps: Inky Antics Champagne Girl
Ink: black stazon, going gray, and markers: blush blossom, creamy caramel, close to cocoa, pretty in pink, apricot appeal, tempting turquoise, certainly celery
Paper: whisper white, tempting, turquoise, chocolate chip, gable green, My Mind's Eye magnolia, Paper Salon harmony: floral
Other: aquapainter, paper piercer and template, silver brads, cuttlebug flower die, half inch circle punch

I used the corner of the MME paper that had the brown swirls, cut to the size of a card front. AFTER putting in the brads (because I prefer to hide the "workings" of my cards), I adhered it to a top folded white card. Champagne girl is stamped in black stazon and colored with markers. The light shadow was done with Going Gray and an aquapainter. This was layered on Gable Green and pierced. The flowers were cut from Paper Salon, choc. chip, and turquoise using the cuttlebug, some of them layered, and placed so they kind of look like they're spilling down the card.




This second card is done using Beate's Triangle Trifold tutorial from SCS. It was also the Technique Lover's Challenge for this week. Since the tutorial covers it, I won't tell you how I made it. I'll just list the ingredients:

Stamps: Inky Antics turtles flowers (#H1-0780-F because it's hard to find) and sentiment (#D4-0752-D)
Ink: Black Stazon, markers: rose red, taken with teal, apricot appeal, certainly celery, old olive, creamy caramel, close to cocoa, pretty in pink, sahara sand
Paper: old olive, apricot appeal, taken with teal, Petals and Paisleys
Other: red grosgrain ribbon

One description: To get the flowers by the sentiment, I covered the rest of the turtle with scotch tape, inked, removed tape, and stamped.

From the French Cafe

Unfortunately, no, I am not in a French cafe. That's just how I think of this picture. It's from Stampin' Up!'s retired set Travel Sketchbook.

This will also be the start of NEW STAMP WEDNESDAY! While I wish that meant buying new stamps every Wednesday, that will not be happening. But, I will focus on a different stamp company every Wednesday. We'll see how long I can keep that up. I'll start today with the obvious. Most likely, all of you are aware of Stampin' Up! You can buy their products thru your very own Stampin' Up! demonstrator (nope, I'm not one of them). I won't go on about this particular company any more, since most of you already know.

I did this card for the Featured Stamper Challenge on Splitcoaststampers from last Sunday. I used this card by HB (Carol) as my starting point. I liked the fold with part of the inside showing on the right and the sketchy watercolored image.

So here's how I did my card:

Stamps: SU! Travel Sketchbook, French Script, and Carte Postale for the "Merci"
Ink: Black Stazon, Handsome Hunter, Basic Black; and for watercoloring: close to cocoa, creamy caramel, going gray, sahara sand, so saffron, real red, handsome hunter, garden green
Paper: Real Red, So Saffron, watercolor paper
Other: ek success circle punch, SU word window punch, paper piercer and template, gingham ribbon and vintage eyelets. The big brad is from JoAnn's and the bit of hemp is from a ball of twine.

I stamped my French Cafe and watercolored it with an aquapainter. The saffron layer, I randomly stamped with French Script using Handsome Hunter, also smearing some ink around with a sponge. The saffron circle and Real Red also got "the smear treatment". Merci is stamped on a scrap of watercolor paper then punched twice with the word window punch. The second punch was to make it shorter. The big brad went into the Saffron circle, so I could then tie on the hemp. By the way, I actually unraveled the hemp and only used one strand of it so it wouldn't be so bulky, a little more delicate. I taped down the right half of the saffron circle so the top of the card could still tuck into it. Pierced the corners of the red. Put in the brads and ribbon. And put it all together.