The Flowers are Here

As we impatiently wait for spring we'll have to make do with some beautiful new stamps from Stampendous.  Although these stamps appear to be quite large in size, it is easy to use portions of them on a standard sized card. 

The Dahlia card below (by Claudette), was white embossed on white card stock and coloured with Ranger Adirondack inks in shades of yellow and orange.  The Hydrangea card was embossed on white card and Shimmer sprays were used to colour it in. 

The Peony, below, works well white embossed, and cut out.  The card on the left (by Claudette), has been coloured with metallic H2O's. The card on the right has been white embossed as well and coloured with Teal Zircon Twinkling H20's.  We used the scroll from the set with Adirondack Pool Ink to create a soft background.  The verse stamp is from Impression Obsession.

We'll have to make do with these flowers until the real ones appear, Happy Stamping.

Hopefull Spring Wishes

There are a couple of elements we used to create this card.  Let's start with the Martha Stewart border punch called "Infinite Loop Trim".  We have layered this punched out trim on top of printed paper to draw from the colour combination for the card. 

We used a Magenta paper in shades of greens and pink underneath the punched out trim.  On the white card we've stamped just the leaf portion of the Hero Arts stamp, (pictured further down), in Peeled Paint Distress Ink (A wet paper towel will clean off any ink that strays to the flower head).
 

To create the scrolled edge of the card and white layer, we've traced the edge of the Hero Arts envelope template on both layers.  Below you will see the punched trim which will lay on top of the matching size printed paper.

Using Victorian Velvet Distressed ink, we've only inked the flower portion of the Hero Arts stamp below and stamped 3 or 4 times resting at the top of the grass designs.  The card was embellished with Glue Pen and Prisma Glitter towards the center of the flower head.

Don't forget that if your polymer stamp design is thin enough, you can force it into a curve onto the clear block.  We used the Kaiser Craft clear set below, and did just that with our verse.  As a finishing touch, don't forget to hide your smudge marks with a little bling. *L*

Maybe if we all think and stamp Spring it will come a little bit faster. Happy Stamping.

Belated Happy New Year / Early Valentines Day Wishes

I am slowly catching up after holidays and pneumonia.  I would like to say thank you to all those well wishers, my energy levels returning to normal and I'm finding some time to play.  The following card was made with Nellie's Heart dies.  After the large heart was cut out, I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder to add some more texture.  The pink heart is stamped with Impression Obsession's flourish C2040.  The edges of the smallest heart have been distressed with Adirondack Watermelon ink.  All the hearts have been raised with foam tape and adhered to shimmer card stock.  The "With Love" is from a clear kit from KaiserCraft.

Keep in mind that it's easy to turn any stamped image into a valentine by using the traditional heart shape to stamp on.  For all of you cat lovers, this clear set from Penny Black can cover lots of occasions. Priced at $16.95. Paper flowers and Bling have added the finishing touch.

There are so many Heart Shaped punches on the market.  You can always make a quick card by punching some out of printed paper or different colours of card and then adhering them in a 'tumbling' pattern across a card face.

I used an already distressed Labels #1 cutout from my scrap drawer. The small envelope punch gives the hearts a starting point to tumble out of.  The 'Be Mine Valentine' is from Impression Obsession, priced at $6.25.  Don't be afraid to use non-traditional colours as shown in Earthtones below.

Ramblings for A Winter Day

I know I've shown this stamp before, but if you're looking for a fast and easy winter card try a plaid background with alcohol inks on gloss cardstock. To create the plaid effect use your felt applicator and make vertical and horizontal wide and thin stripes in single colours.  For this background we used Celery and Stream from the Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  Remember when stamping on top of an alcohol ink background you will need to use a water-proof die ink (Not Stazon).  Ranger's Archival Ink is a good choice.

After last week's snow storm here in London a statement like "think snow" should be forbidden. However, I like the look of this card for a masculine birthday or greeting card.   This great image from Northwoods has been embossed and coloured with Tombow markers.  Embellished with a mylar snowflake, and a gold cord for the sled rope. 

For those of us already wishing for Spring, I had to show you this new embossing folder from Crafts-Too.  I love the open line daisy combined with the dotted scroll.  There is still time for you to put this on your Christmas wishlist.  Only $6.95.

 

We're getting down to the crunch.  Two weeks from today and the Christmas holiday will be all over.

Happy Crunching.

Christmas Open House

Just A Reminder

Please come Join us on December Saturday 4th, from 10:00am - 3:00pm we will be celebrating our Christmas Open House with make and takes, refreshments, and even more great deals. As usual, the store itself will be open till 5pm.
Hope to see you soon,

Happy Stamping.

Just a Little Note

There's a few things going on in this card to describe.  First of all, what does one do with a lot of left over ribbon?  I love this heavy duty punch from EK Sucess which allows you to easily punch through two or three sheets of card at the same time creating a thin rounded rectangle slot, (shown in the 2nd picture below), to slide ribbons through.  Secondly, when I'm hand colouring a solid image stamp with markers, (one of my favorite things to do), this is an easy way to use some of your printed papers. 

 The stamp used is Floral Silhouette 2 by Stampabilities.  It was so easy to choose some shades of green markers to work well with this background paper by Magenta. 

Don't forget that tommorow we have a "We Pay The Taxes Day" on everything in the store plus a few other deals. If your not already on the newsletter, you can check this out at http://www.stampart.ca/. Look on the homepage, bottom left.  And next saturday December 4th is our Christmas Open House. Look for more details to come in our new upcoming newsletter.

Happy Stamping.

Here is the card I promised made with the Hello stamp from the TPC clear set of greetings (Shown earlier). We have used Broken China and Spicy Marmalade Distress Inks with the Tim Holtz Blending Tool onto water colour paper.  The image from Crafty Individuals has been stamped twice along the bottom and white heat embossed.  I cut off the butterfly from the rest of the stamp to prevent it from showing up twice in the same location.  This way you can also add more butterflies to your final image wherever you want to place them.  We made a paint from Rangers' white Opal Pearls and water and lightly brushed over the surface of the card.  Next, we spritzed the entire front panel with some Perfect Pearls and water in a Mini-Mister.  This technique really creates a Pearlized finish on the card face. We tore off the top edge of the cardstock and actually used it inside.  The Hello has been stamped in the Rangers' Stream Ink and the Nestabilities shape behind the Hello is Labels #4.  The gold dragonfly brad is just a fun touch for any floral card.

See you next week,  Happy Stamping!