Clear sets from KasierCraft

This company from Australia not only does a great job with their images on clear stamps, but the pricing is incredibly reasonable. At 6' x 4', these sets include lots of images for a price of $7.50 a set. We have a large selection in stock right now, including Butterflies, animated woodland friends, fish & bugs, and a great travel set and "On the Move" (top row, right). This is my go to set for a guys card. The tires and tracks make a cool background for any vehicle card. To add to this collection, they have produced single background stamps which measure 2' x 5'. The cost is $3.95 each with a great selection including a Clock Faces background, Faux Poste and a beautiful distressed flourish just to name a few.
 

Happy Stamping

Fun with Viva Decor's Inka Gold

Viva Decor's Inka Gold is marketed as an art medium to colour porous surfaces for home decor, such as lamp bases.  I love the fact that you can colour cardstock with it! Just apply it with your finger, or a sponge.  When you take a tissue and buff the surface and you'll notice that it dries almost immediately.  In the sailboat card below, we've used water to thin out the product to paint with. The card sample on the right is an example of Viva Decor with Stazon stamped on top. 

The new, Emerald Green, is a lovely shade to work with.  Below, I've used my finger to spread it onto the edge of a piece of white cardstock and buffed it dry.  I'm loving the new verse from Frog's Whiskars. This would work nicely as a sympathy verse or consoling words to a friend who has recieved bad news.   

When I layered the verse panel to the above green edged panel, it looks as if I've used a green metallic paper as background.  This product comes in trial sized pots in 18 colours.  Check out the Steel Blue & the Platnium, both are favorites.  Each pot sells for $3.25.  Recognizing the type of medium this is, it can become hardened in the jar.  All it takes, is a small piece of a baby wipe tucked inside the jar overnight, to soften it.  Another way to soften the product would be to add a few drops of water to the jar and let it sit.

Happy Stamping :)

Art Impression's "Girlfriends"

If your looking for a charming card idea for women "of a certain age", Art Impressions has added to their line of Girlfriends.  Some of the new ones include: Uptown Girls, Picture Perfect, Party Girls and Girlfriend Blend.  As always, the verses are witty, humerous and appropriate.  Come check them out!

New Ones

 
When your thinking of making that special card for a new wee one, a baby onesie makes a nice focal point.  When stamped on velvet paper and cut out, you've added an instant texture to the card.  If you are stamping with Versafine ink on velvet, I recommend that you clear emboss it so that the colour will not run.  The umbrella stamp from Impression Obsession is fun to use for a baby or wedding shower.  All you need to add are a few extra punched out tiny flowers spilling out of the umbrella.  The new Flourishes clear set is called Hello Baby. There are lots of nice elements in this kit including the clothesline tied to two trees.  I also love the small sentiment "Tiny Miracle".  If baby cards are on your agenda, these ideas should get your creative juices going.

Cheery-Lynn Designs New Window Dies!

These are some of the new dies from Cheery-Lynn.  I think there is great potential here for Sympathy cards, Christening cards, or just scenery through a window.  These dies are $12.95 each and will make a great addition to your card making arsenal.  These windows will be great for a Christmas card design.   Watch for an appearance at Christmas in July this year (July 27th & 28th).  Check out our newsletter for further information.  Happy Stamping!

Time for a Vintage look

  This card was made with the Basic Grey Love and Lace set made by Hero Arts.  The lovely lacey frame has a large enough space to stamp the thank you inside.  We've used the Versafine Majestic Blue with Rangers Silver Pearl embossing powder.  We've used Tombow markers on a plastic pallette misted with a bit of water to soften the colours to pastel shades.  We've used a corner rounder on the raised layers to add some softness.  The yellow panel was embossed with a Sizzix Ribbons folder to add a touch of texture.  Happy Stamping.

Viva, Viva Decor!

Viva Decor has a wonderful array of products for the paper crafter.  The Pearl pen keeps wonderful dimension and dries much faster then similar products on the market.  The same holds true of their Glitter liners, Paper pens & Glass-Effect pens.

 
If you have concerns about applying the pen directly to your card art, you may wish to make your pearls on a craft sheet.  Once dry choose pearls of the required size and glue them to your project. 

New Kraft-Core from Ranger

If you like Tim Holtz's Distress colours, you'll love this pad of Kraft backed coloured goodness.  When this card is put through an embossing folder and then sanded, the Kraft colour shows through.  This creates a really nice contrast and allows for further layering with ink.  I like to use the blending tool as well as applying the distress ink directly to the surface, which allows for variations of the ink colour. 

Just a friendly reminder there are still a few spaces left for May's workshop. Please contact the store for further information :)

Stacy's Spring Stamps

These are some of Stacy's wonderful Botanical Florals and Bird stamps.  They are a wonderful red rubber product made in the USA.  Her Floral sets come with two pieces.  One is a single version of the flower and the second piece is a great triangle corner design (see picture below).  The Zinnia stamp is easy to punch out with a 2 1/2" scalloped round punch, if you're not in the mood for a lot of cutting.

Check out the newest desgin on the bottom left, (See above), which is the new Stained Glass Rectangles stamp.  You can easily mask a center design and create your own stained glass effect.  This collection is priced very competivly ranging from $8.25 to $11.

Spring Has Sprung

A new board from Northwoods has come in with some great animal card layouts. If you are looking for some summer ideas and/or guy cards, this board has lots to offer. All of Northwoods stamps are on woodmounts and range from $6.95 to $14.95. Check it out the next time you are in the store. 

Queen and Co. New Ribbon & Gemstones

Queen and Co. have some great new additions.  You've gotta love the tiny rolls of twine.  At only $2.50 a roll there are a number of colours to chose from.  Their Rhinestone packs include 60 self-adhesive pieces from small to large at a great price at $1.75 and a great colour range.  Something new to the embellishement line, is Twinkle Goosebumps.  No amount of words that I use are going to describe this well, but they are 1/4 inch round stick-on that look like a pile of glass microbeads stuck together. (Pictured Below) There are 20 to a pack for $1.75 again, in a great colour selection.

Everybody has their version of printed Scotch tape, but I haven't seen such a wonderfull selection of prints and colour combinations.  At $2.50 a roll, the price is right to pick up a number of them.  Have a look at the white card at the top right corner of the Trendy Tape banner (in the top picture).  You can see how easily these tapes will replace ribbon borders.