Winter Wishes ATC

Here's my SP & Company weekly Design Team post. I forgot to schedule this for the right time. So I'm sorry if you stopped by earlier and missed it.

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I love participating in ATC swaps. It is so much fun to receive all those little pieces of art from so many talented artists. A group I'm in does a quarterly exchange. This last one was a winter themed swap.

Here's the card I came up with:

I created the background by embossing white cardstock with Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, stamping two images - a flourish in black and branch in gray, both from Unity's Imagine It set. Then inked the edges in Black Soot, and randomly ran the entire pad of Weathered Wood over the entire card. I stamped snowflakes from the Falling Snow stamp set to add a little blue to the card. I've used this set so much! It's an oldie but a goody!

I loved the background so much I didn't want to cover it so I stamped the sentiment from the same set onto vellum so you could still see it. I finished it off by adding two snowflakes I cut using SCAL and sprayed with Glimmer Mist and then added some I-rock bling.

All 21 cards:

 I can't wait to see what I get back! Now to start my Spring cards...

I'm entering this into Scrapbook Place Challenges current ATC challenge.


Thanks for stopping by today. For more inspiration using SP stamps stop by the blog for some great ideas.

Lucky

For my Design Team post for SP & Co I decided to use this new Lucky stamp. And since the current Stamping with Sami challenge (SWS #8) is to use a distressed technique, I did that too to play along.

 I stamped my background using the Bold Houndstooth background stamp in Crushed Olive Distress Ink. I then aged the white paper with Old Paper ink and inked the edges in Pumice Stone ink.

I stamped the clover in Forest Moss and inked the edge with Crushed Olive and matted with a scrap of aged brown paper. All the edges of paper were distressed before being adhered together.

I then stamped the sentiment in Black Soot on a long stip of textured cardstock. I cut out the notches on the ends, inked the edges with Pumice Stone, and folded it into a scroll banner. Then I adhered with foam to give it dimension and added the green I-rock bling to add a bit more flair.

 And here is my distressed Lucky card! Thanks for stopping by.

Make sure you stop by the SP stamps blog for more ideas on using stamps and to enter the challenge for your chance to win some free stamps and a guest designer spot!

Happy Valentine's Day

Here are some really quick and simple 3x3-ish cards I made. Most are 3x3 but a few are a bit smaller because I used up some scraps and that's just how they ended up!

I stamped the grid from the SP&Company Journal This stamp set as the background. I added these fun converstation heart stickers in the center, stamped a simple sentiment of love (also from the Journal This set), and then added some black twine as the finishing touch.

I thought these would be perfect for last-minute Valentine's gifts. You know there are always people you might forget about - the school secretary, husband's secretary, neighbors, etc. In fact, I just remembered that there is an aide in my son's kindergarten class that I always forget about!

Some close-ups:

These also work perfectly for the current Stamping with Sami challenge over at the SP stamps blog. The challenge is to use a love theme on your project. I'm sure with this week being Valentine's that  you all have a love project around so go enter it. It could be a card, layout, or altered art. You could win a free stamp plus the opportunity to be a guest designer as well!

For more info and more inpsiration using these stamps please visit the SP stamps blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

SP&Co Blog Hop

It's the 10th of the month and time for a new stamp release from SP and Company. To celebrate here is the monthly blog hop!

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This month's color is Bright Red! After you're done hopping around today, make sure you play along with this month's Red challenge (click here for details) for a chance to win some awesome SP and Company prizes!

Join us for our Release Celebration that is happening today and tomorrow on the SP Forum HERE.  You can talk to all of the designers, discuss projects and chit chat with other stampers!

Don't forget that the random prize patrol is watching so leave a comment on every blog to be eligible for the prizes!!
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All the journaling stamps were just screaming "layout" to me, so I had to listen! It would be rude to ignore the stamps! Right?? Respect the stamps.
But I don't scrap with red.
But....then I remembered this photo of my son from kindergarten with this atrocious red background. Perfect! Here is the project I created with the new Journal This set:

I stamped the grid several times in red to create the matte for the photo. I stamped and fussy cut the tab and added the "you" to it. I also used the month stamps, the round numerals (typewriter style), the line of numbers, and that wonderful handwriting line one!

Some close-ups of the stamped images:

tab, grid, you

months, typewriter numbers

handwriting lines, number line

This is such a great stamp set. I just have to show you what the entire set looks like:

And then I had an idea for a fun card:

I cut out the people on my die-cutting machine and added the hearts.

Then I stamped the words from the stamps and hand-drew the plus and equal signs.

The paper is EP's Metropolitan 6x6 pad which you can also find in the SP&Co store.

Make sure you check out the SP Blog to see what Samantha did with the new stamps! We also have the Stamp Team and the Challenge Team teaming up today to show you lots of amazing projects with the newest stamp sets!


Here is the list of designers that will inspire you today on the hop:

Chrissie

Lori

Jen

Amber {psst..that's me!}

Britt

Vicki 

Kelli

Michelle

Stephanie

Patty

Bonnie

Susan

Tella

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment!

: )

How-to with stamp markers

Today, I am a guest blogger at Scrapbook Steals! If you know me then you know they are my absolute favorite online retailer!! I think they single-handedly created my love of all things stamps and paper!! Today (9AM until 9 PM MST) they are featuring American Crafts stamp markers as their steal. And I somehow conned them into thinking I could demonstrate how to use them ; )

Head on over to their blog for some tips on how to use these wonderful markers.

Here are the projects I created:

Some brief points about the markers:

• Less expensive than stamp pads
• Dual-ended with a brush tip (coloring in stamps) and writing tip (journaling)
• Their small size lets you edge paper getting even into the smallest corners
• You can ink up your stamps in several different colors at once
• You can color in outlined stamp images as well
• If you have a color spritzer you can ust these as a spray mist
• They extend the use of your stamps by allowing you to omit parts of the image easily

Close-ups of the cards and layout made with the stamp markers:

Thanks to Kristy Lee and Lisa Mack for believing I was capable of doing this!!

Make sure you head over to ScrapbookSteals soon if you are at all interested in these American Crafts markers as a lot of their steals sell out quickly! Those girls have F-A-S-T shopping fingers over there!

A NEW challenge blog

There's a NEW challenge blog starting today!

It's called The Paper Girls Challenge Blog.

So me and 8 other girls decided to start this little venture for some crafty fun.

We will post challenges on the first and third Mondays of the month.

Each girl will take a turn hosting and deciding the challenge. So it could be anything from a sketch to color to recipe challenge or anything else we may feel like!

Judy is hosting the first challenge that starts today with this sketch:

 

And here is my take on it:

I hope you'll join us in the challenge.

Judy has a prize up for grabs so head on over and play!