Follow Your Bliss…

Hello there!

I know many of you have asked where I have been lately. Well, truth is, the mojo just hasn’t been flowing. Why, you ask? As many of you know, I work in the banking industry. The past couple of weeks have been pretty crazy, and my work days have left me drained of creativity.

I’m happy to report, though, that I am back in the swing of things, and will be back to posting. You will find my posts sometimes here, and sometimes on Ellen Hutson’s blogs In Touch and The Classroom. I’ll be sure to let you know where you can find my work, OK?

So, with that, I am directing you to the In Touch blog this morning, to check out a cool technique using the brayer.

Be sure to check it out HERE and let me know what you think!

Hope you all have a fabulous day! Thanks for your support! Hugs~

I have a fun little project featured on the Lizzie Anne Designs website as a March PTOM! It features one of my very favorite sets, Far East. Check it out HERE! (My ribbon was custom colored with a Copic marker.)

Tea Bag Pull-Treat Pouch 

Here’s what’s inside:

And a closeup of that sparkle! See the “waves” of the water?

Hop on over and check it out! Let me know what you think.

I wanted to use my other Stampendous “Scenic” stamp this morning, so out came the lavender!

This is a very simple, clean card allowing the focus again, to be on the image. It’s watercolored on PaperTrey white cardstock using wasabi, garden green, marigold, lilac, ruby red, cocoa, choc chip, soft sky, and bashful. I cut it out following the shape of the image, and layered it with pop-up glue dots on to a piece of marigold cardstock that was first wet, then scrunched up, and dried with my heat tool. The edges are slightly sponged, as well.

That piece is then matted with wasabi, and black. The sentiment is stamped to the side with Clearsnap Ancient Page coal black ink (same as the focal image). I love this ink!! A gorgeous rich, deep, waterproof and archival black ink!

Next comes the fun. I custom dyed my SU! white grograin ribbon using my Copic Marker! Since these markers are alcohol based, they can be used on so many surfaces, including fabric! I used Grass Green (YG17) which is nearly identical to wasabi.

Here’s how I did it…

FABULOUS!!!!!

The ribbon becomes slightly stiffer, when dry. No messy re-inkers needed, and no green fingers, since it dries so quickly! I love these Copics. They are so amazingly versatile! I can’t wait to use them in more interesting ways. Ellen Hutson will be carrying them soon in her store, in packs of 12, 24 and 48!
Feel free to link this on your blog if you would like to share it with your readers!

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

TGIF!! And a long holiday weekend, to boot!! What could be better? I have several things planned, (gardening, stamping, cleaning/organizing my stamping space, etc) and I hope I can complete them all so that I can go shopping on Monday with my friend Cindy! What are y’all doin’ this weekend?

Today’s favorite will probably come as no surprise: the Stamp-a-ma-jig! I have created a little tutorial on how to use it, for those of you that are not familiar with it. I simply cannot live without mine!! For a shortcut, I will now refer to it as a SAMJ, OK?

The SAMJ is 2 pieces: the handle and the clear plastic imaging sheet. It can be used for both left handed and right handed stampers (I am right handed). The smooth side of sheet is ideal for water based inks and textured side for pigment and dye inks. I always use the textured side. I have several extra imaging sheets that have some of my most used images/sentiments stamped on them in black ink, so that they are always ready when I need them. To remove the ink, just swipe it with a baby wipe. If it’s dried on and you have used Stazon, use a little UltraClean or Stampin’ Mist.

Step 1: place imaging sheet into the “L” shaped corner of the handle. *note* This is how I use mine. You can also flip the handle so that the long end is facing up. I just prefer to use it this way:

Step 2: While holding the handle in place, stamp your image on the imaging sheet, butting the block into the “L” shaped corner of the handle:

Step 3: When you remove your block it looks like this:

Step 4: Take you imaging sheet, and position it where you want it on your card:

Step 5: While holding the imaging sheet in place, butt the “L” shaped handle up against the imaging sheet:

Step 6: While holding the handle in place, remove the imaging sheet. Be sure that the handle does not move. If it does,you will just have to repeat the previous step:

Step 7: Ink your stamp, butt the block into the “L” shaped corner of the SAMJ handle, and stamp your image:

Step 8: You’re finished! A perfectly aligned sentiment!

Now you can finish your card!

I was commissioned to make a baby boy card for a friend. I have been *dying* to use this stamp!

I stamped the Hero Arts giraffe with Memories black ink on PaperTrey’s white cardstock, and colored him with Prismacolored pencils and Gamsol. I also shaded him a bit with the saffron marker.

Then, I used my Sakura quickie glue pen, and filled in his spots, mane, tail, and antlers. I poured on a bit of this FunFlock (snow cone blue), and tapped off the excess. Wallah! a cute little fuzzy giraffe!

I matted him with celery cardstock, added saffron brads using the paper piercing template, and added a strip of SU! Sarah designer paper to the cool caribbean card base. Then I adhered two strips of white May Arts rickrack with fabri-tac glue. I mounted the focal image on dimensionals, and called it done!

Stamps: giraffe (hero arts), curvy verses

Paper: sarah, cool caribbean, celery, papertrey white

Ink: memories black, saffron marker

Accessories: may arts rickrack, fabri-tac glue, saffron brads, mat pack, paper piercer, dimensionals, fun flock, gamsol, prismacolored pencils, stumps, sakura quickie glue pen

Good Morning, and Happy Saturday!

I woke up this morning like a little kid at Christmas…my new PaperTrey ink Little Lady stamp set arrived yesterday, along with their new white cardstock and envelopes! Nichole, to you I say **BRAVO** on this stamp set and cardstock!!

Ladies, if you are in the market for a heavier weight, beautifully smooth, white cardstock look no further than PaperTrey ink! I had become very disappointed in the SU! whisper white, due to smearing issues, and it’s light weight (the weight is fine for layering, but not sturdy enough to make a full card). I have found my replacement, now!

So, I bet you are looking at this card and saying hmmmmm….how did she make those flowers from the ladybug? Well go grab a cuppa’ and take a look at how I did it!

First, I stamped the dots using Pink Passion classic ink:

Next, I stamped the wings using Only Orange classic ink (I have personally found it easier to line up these images by stamping the dots first).

Then, I lined up the image in my 1″ circle punch:

and punched it out!

Then, I just trimmed off the excess to make the shape of the flower :

and that’s it!! Isn’t that EASY?! Depending on how far in you place your punch, you can get different shapes of flowers. See how this one is larger and more round?

So, to finish the card, I stamped the stems using the Faux Ribbon set and Green Galore ink, stamped the sentiment and the little flower stamen in palette noir ink, tied the ribbon across the top, and added the flowers on dimensionals with a touch of Stickles.

I hope this inspires you to look at your stamp sets in a new way today! Go have some fun, and if inspiration hits~~come back here and tell me about it!! I can’t wait to see what you do!!

Have a wonderful weekend~HUGS!

Stamps: little lady, faux ribbon (papertrey ink)

Ink: pink passion, only orange, green galore, palette noir

Paper: white (papertrey ink)

Accessories: 1″ circle punch, may arts ribbon, dimensionals, paper snips, stickles