It's been awhile. . .

since I have posted anything. Life sometimes gets busy, and I too often find I don't have time to sit down and stamp, let alone post anything. It seems that lately, the only time I have actually worked on projects, it's been for a swap. But I finally got to have some fun when I put together some items for my sister's baby shower.

We went with a non-traditional color scheme since she doesn't know whether the baby is a boy or girl, and focused instead on colors--Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and Groovy Guava.

I also made a little altered book that I titled, "Baby Advice and Blessings," so that the guests could write their wishes and/or advice for a first-time mom.

It was a lot of fun to create these projects--but the topiaries took forever!

Where's the Mojo?

I feel as though I haven't really stamped in ages, except in a rush when I need to get something done. Now, every time I sit down to work, I have the hardest time finding my mojo. So, I have decided to focus on just using the supplies and stamps I have for awhile. I'm hoping I'll find that creative spark and be able to put my 'stuff' to good use (I keep finding things I'd forgotten I even had!). So, over the past few days, I have pulled out things I've started and never finished--stamped and colored images, mainly--and my scrap box, and have tried to work with those items.

This card was based on a flyer I found at the bank a few months back (I'll post it if I ever find it again). It had bright yellow sunflowers and hot pink rain boots. So, this is my take. I stamped the boot from Papertrey Ink's Green Thumb set with Pink Passion and Night of Navy Craft inks and embossed to make it shiny. I cut it out and raised it on dimensionals. I drew in stems for the flowers and attached tiny primas that I had colored with a yellow Prismacolor marker and used jeweled accents for the center. The Yoyo Yellow strip was scalloped with my SU! slit punch and the ribbon is from May Arts. I'll add a sentiment when I decide to use it, but for now I left it blank because I think the bright colors are enough at this point.

Stamps: Green Thumb (Papertrey Ink), Dotted bg (SU!)
Cardstock: White, Night of Navy, Yoyo Yellow, Pink Passion (SU!)
Accessories: primas, jewels, May Arts dotted ribbon, slit punch

Seattle Girl

This is one of my all-time favorite A Muse stamps. I have had this little girl ready to go for quite awhile, but couldn't decide how to use her. So, I decided less is more and opted to place her on a simple white 4.25 square card with a cute A Muse sentiment.

What isn't clear in the photo is that the girl's slicker, boots, and umbrella are covered in crystal effects, so they are nice and shiny.

Stamps: Seattle Girl and Sentiment from A Muse
Inks: Basic Black, markers from SU!
Cardstock: White (Various), Green Galore & Basic Black
Accessories: scallop and regular square punches, stitched ribbon, needle tool, white gel pen, crystal effects

Happy Birthday. . .

to my mom! I had so much fun making this card for my mom; I only wish my photography skills were better to capture all the detail! The main image is Bubblebella (from Stamping Bella) stamped in Brilliance Graphite Black ink. I colored her using Prismacolor markers (and a couple of the Prismacolor pencils as well). All of the bubbles and the water on the ground are covered in Stickles and the entire tub is covered in Crystal Effects to make it shiny! My mom loves a nice long soak in the tub; I hope she loves this card!

Stamps: Bubblebella (Stamping Bella), Paper Tray (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, Bashful Blue (sponged background)
Cardstock: White (Papertrey Ink), Basic Black, Wild Wasabi (SU!), last year's Christmas DP (SU!)
Accessories: scalloped oval punch, Cuttlebug, May Arts ribbon, Stickles, Crystal Effects, Prismacolor markers & pencils, black eyelet, Crop-a-Dile

My Favorite Things

I love, love, love this little stamp set by MFT! Of course, being a native of Caffeine Country, how could I not love anything dealing with my favorite beverage?! This card was a fun one. I paper pieced the shirt, used ribbon to match, and of course, I had to add stardust clear glitter pen as an accent to the coffee mug and steam swirls. I sent this one to my SCS DSS (I hope she doesn't see it here!)

Little Lady Bee

I just love the Little Lady set from Papertrey Ink! I've been having so much fun with all of their acrylic sets--I guess I've taken a bit of a break from my stash of SU! stamp sets so I can gear up for the new catty!

For this card, I turned the ladybug into a bumblebee using the Faux Ribbon set (also by Papertrey Ink) and the 'kissing' technique. I did have to use my marker to darken the stripes a bit, bit it was easy. The body of the bee is Barely Banana ink, and the main card is the same color. I edged the white panel with black ink to set it off just slightly (you can see this IRL, but not so much in the photo). To finish, I added this fun prima with a large silver brad in the center and the fun dotted May Arts ribbon. And the 'celebrate' sentiment makes this a good card for many occasions!

Faux Ribbon Background

I was in the mood for some fun springy/summer colors, and I love how easy the Faux Ribbon set from Papertrey Ink is to use when making backgrounds! For this card, I used SU!'s Cool Caribbean, Certainly Celery, and Pretty in Pink to create the background. The sentiment is in pink as well, and is mounted on black that I cut out with decorative scissors (no mega scalloped circle here). I mounted that on a Cool Caribbean giga scalloped circle that I punched around the edge. To finish, I added some matching May Arts ribbon I found locally and a small gem to the sentiment.

This was my first attempt at using dye inks with the acrylic stamps. Usually, I use either the SU! pigment inks or, more often, I use the VersaMagic chalk inks. I have to say that I really do prefer the pigment or chalk inks for coverage, but with practice, i think I'll like the dye inks as well.

One Sheet of Designer Paper

These are three more cards I made with this EK success paper. Emily posted a challenge to use up an entire sheet of decorative paper, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Let me just say, it's not as easy as it seems. Perhaps it's because there aren't many colors in this particular sheet, but I've made 4 cards and I'm stumped! I still have almost half a sheet left, too!

The first 2 cards are standard 5.5 x 4.25 cards, and the third is a simple 4.25" square. Martha Stewart ribbon. All stamped images are from www.papertreyink.com.

First Card Upload

Here is my first card upload for my new blog! My hubby wanted a card for his mom for Mother's Day, and this is what I whipped up. I used the Green Thumb set from www.papertreyink.com, stamped using the yummy Versamagic chalk inks. The card was inspired by the EK success paper I found the other day, and I also used some of the new Martha Stewart ribbon from Michael's. Cardstock is SU! Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip, and the hardware is from SU! as well.

jumpin' off a cliff. . .

is what this feels like. I've toyed with the idea of actually creating my own blog, instead of simply spending hours surfing and lurking in the lives of others via their blogs. But what if I don't have anything interesting to say? What if noone ever sees my blog? What if those who stumble on it think I'm a total idiot? Well, I've decided to take the plunge, and if I come off looking silly, I guess it was just meant to be.

So, what do I hope to accomplish here? Nothing really. I'll probably post photos of my stamping creations from time to time, wax poetic on occasion, and generally use this forum as an outlet for the chaotic ramblings I'm prone to.

I've jumped off the proverbial cliff. . .let's hope I have a soft landing!