Furry Friends Forever

Hello, and welcome to Day One of Sweet Stamp Shop's newest preview--Furry Friends Forever. I couldn't wait to ink up these adorable critters! I pulled my Copics out of hibernation and colored them up in no time at all.

I used Nestabilities Labels One dies and pre stamped some kraft cardstock with Hero Arts' Designer Woodgrain stamp--I wanted to give my card a "foresty" feel. The leaves are from the Melvin and Vernie set.

I curved the sentiment--gotta love clear stamps to be able to do that!--and stamped it above the critters. A bit of Twinery twine and my card was done. A great little card to share with a BFF!

Here's the best part of a new stamp release: Nicole is having a giveaway of a stamp set each day to one lucky person! Simply follow Sweet Stamp Shop and the rest of the design team and leave a comment along the way.

Get a bonus entry when you share on Facebook, and leave a comment on Sweet Stamp Shop's wall, letting us know that you shared. That gives you two chances to win!

Now hurry over to Geny's wonderful blog to see what she did with this sweet set. Before you go, here's a sneaky peek of tomorrow's card.

Thanks for stopping by today...hope to see you tomorrow!

Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop, Hero Arts
Ink: Memento, Ranger distress inks
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Paper Accents kraft
Other: Copics, Nestabilities Labels One, dimensional adhesive, twine

Sweet sneaky peeks!

Hello there! Hope you're all having a great, crafty weekend! Beginning tomorrow, October 31st through November 2nd, Sweet Stamp Shop's design team will begin sharing cards using three new stamp sets with hand drawn sweetness by Nicole Rixon.

I thought I'd tease you with a sneaky peek of my card. Any guesses?

Tomorrow, start here at Sweet Stamp Shop and visit the rest of the Sweet Tooth gals and see their wonderful cards and projects all featuring the same set. And be sure to come back to see my card's full reveal!

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And are you signed up for Holiday Card Boot Camp 2011? Summer Card Camp was so much fun, I decided to join Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner for more cardmaking fun and tons of holiday inspiration.

Class begins on November 7th and registration is opened indefinitely. Hope to see you there!

with hope...and a giveaway!

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Hero Arts has this stamp for sale with all profits going to various charities that fight breast cancer. My stamp arrived a few days ago and coincidentally, I had my annual mammogram, too.

I created a card using Hero Arts' Traditional Butterfly and added the pink awareness ribbon in place of the antennae. The sentiment was stamped in the center of a Labels 18 die that was sponged with pink distress inks before it was removed from the die.

I happen to have an extra stamp that I would like to give away, along with a 6x6 pad of Lost and Found Two Blush patterned paper from My Mind's Eye, and two pink Cat's Eye stamp pads.

Simply leave me a comment here and I'll choose a random winner on November 1st. I'll ship internationally, too, so spread the word!

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope that you'll "think pink" for the rest of the week!

Stamps: Hero Arts
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Ranger distress inks, Versafine
Other: Spellbinders Labels 18, Couture Creations Pinstripe embossing folder, gemstones, ribbon, dimensional adhesive

Winter Wonderland tags

The current challenge at the Penny Black blog is to create gift tags. For my tags I used some Spellbinder ornament dies and the adorable birds from the Winter Wonderland set.

I sponged the background before I removed it from the die and I stamped each of the birds from the set. They were all colored with Copics and I dotted some falling "faux snow" with White Opal Liquid Pearls. Liquid Pearls were also dabbed on the furry parts of the Santa caps.

The sentiments are from the Winter Wonderland and Winter Wonders stamps sets.

I knotted some red grosgrain ribbon and added a bit of twine and the tags were done.

Hope you're having a great week so far. Thanks, always, for stopping by!

Stamps: All Penny Black
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Ranger distress inks, Memento
Other: Spellbinder Heirloom Ornament dies, Copics, Liquid Pearls, twine, ribbon, hole punch

full of gratitude

Hello, hello! It's taking me a while to get back to stamping. Feeling a little tired. A little lazy. I'm trying to catch up visiting blogs and commenting but it seems there aren't enough hours in a day. Somebody please give me a jump start with those battery charging cable thingies.

Going through my stamping supplies, I discovered some Papertrey Ink stamps that have (gasp!) never touched ink! I always do that. Buy the stamps as soon as they come out because someone made such a fabby card that I HAD to have those stamps. Do you do that, too? Please say that you do.

I did a bit of hunting for my heat embossing tool and Cuttlebug and after a two month hiatus, I managed to finally stamp a card.

I loved Dawn McVey's card when it was on the cover of the Create: Stamping magazine and used it as inspiration for my thank you card.

I substituted the paper doily she used with the Starburst Lace stamp from Hero Arts. And the butterflies that she used are way smaller than the ones I had, so I used only three on my card. The sentiment is also from Papertrey Ink.

After I made my card, I went and ordered the set that Dawn used on her card. Yes, I just HAD to have them! Hopefully, I'll ink it up sooner than I did these.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope to share some Purple Onion and Sweet Stamp Shop cards very soon. Have a happy, crafty week!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (butterflies, sentiment), Hero Arts (doily)
Ink: Memento, Versafine
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Other: Dimensional adhesive, pearls, corner chomper

Halloween fun with Purple Onion Designs

My fellow Onions and I were asked to come up with some Halloween projects using Purple Onion Design stamps. Instead of my usual "go to" project, I actually came up with something other than a card. Yay, me!

I used the Caution Labels set and stamped them in Spiced Marmalade and Black Soot distress inks. I love the distressed look of the labels so you don't have to be concerned with a clear, crisp image. After cutting them out, I added some Halloween buttons for a bit of fun.

I filled some skinny cello bags with black and orange M&Ms, tied them off with some black and orange twine that I found here on Etsy (thanks for the heads up, Torico!) and tied the labels on. Done! I'm planning to assemble a bunch of these for my daughter's first graders for Halloween.

Visit Purple Onion Designs to see many more Halloween cards and projects from the rest of the design team. Trick or treat!

Stamps: Purple Onion Designs
Ink: Ranger distress inks
Other: Cellophane bags, twine, decorative buttons

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For anyone interested, I'm happy to announce that our kitchen is 99% complete! 

Here's a "before" shot. All the cabinets and drawers were ripped out and several layers of flooring were removed.

Here's the finished project. The porcelain tile flooring still has to be waterproofed and some finishing touches done on the walls, but for the most part, it's functioning and we love it! Our workman will build an island and then it will be completely done. 

I'm so happy to be cooking again and not having to order take out anymore...

Thanks for visiting today! I'm fully recuperated and hope to share some cards and projects soon. Have a great week!

Operation Julie's Smile & Sweet Stamp Shop Release

Hello, friends! I know many of you have heard of, or personally know Julie Ranae Murray. She's the design team coordinator/consultant extraordinaire for numerous craft/stamp companies (The Twinery, Craft's Meow, Sweet Stamp Shop to name a few) and today, she needs our help. Here, in her own words, is Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop:




Many of you may know that a few weeks ago, Julie Ranae had to have emergency oral surgery resulting in the removal of her two front teeth.  The dentist at that time believed the best course of action would be to remove the rest of her teeth and replace them with permanents to avoid years of dental work. Relieved at finding a solution to this major dental problem, she visited the office for dental surgery that week. 


Unfortunately, it wasn't the visit she was expecting.  After the consultation and scheduling the surgery, the surgeon's office informed her that she would need to bring $4000 back to the appointment with her and they would proceed.  This amount would not include the dentures to follow.


Here Julie is today, sitting without front teeth that were pulled with the belief that they would be replaced immediately. It is an overwhelming experience for our dear friend and one that I hope our creative community can help with.

So Nicole, with the help of our awesome stamping community, put together a HUGE three day blog hop with various companies and design teams to help raise funds for Operation Julie's Smile. So far, over $2500 in prizes are available for both participants and those who donate to this worthy cause to bring Julie's smile back.




The hop starts here tomorrow, Friday, October 7th and runs through Sunday, October 9th. There's a fabulous line up of designers and friends, and you won't want to miss all their creative cards and projects they're going to share.


And if you're so inclined to help Julie, I've posted a donation button on my sidebar. Thank you in advance for your consideration and generosity. I just know that Julie will be sharing her sweet smile with us again!

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I'm still on "blog leave" but I wanted you to know that Sweet Stamp Shop has been having blog hop previews of their newest stamp release. The Sweet Tooth gals have been sharing such amazing cards and projects and the exciting news is that stamps will go on sale today!




Nicole is offering some super sweet deals, too. Buy any 3 (new) sets and receive any one set for FREE. Use code 3FREE.


Or buy 1 or 2 stamp sets and get 15% off using code OCT15. These discounts will run through Thursday, October 13th. Make sure you grab the new sets before they run out. They're super sweet and coming out just in time for the upcoming holidays.


And if you missed the hop, you still have the weekend to visit each blog (start here) and leave a comment to win one of four new stamp sets. Lots of amazing sweet deals for you!


Thanks so much for visiting today. Happy hopping and shopping!

Have a great day

Hello there! Here's a card I made a while ago but never shared on my blog, using all Purple Onion Design stamps by Stephanie Ackerman and Stephanie Tafoya.

All the images were paper pieced with My Mind's Eye and Basic Grey papers. The house, heart, clouds, and sun are from the Home Sweet Home set. The sentiment is one of four in the Homegrown Sentiments set, the zig zag "grass" uses the Stitches set, and the flowers are from the Doodle Flower set by Stephanie Tafoya. I used dimensional adhesive on the sun, cloud, and heart for a bit of dimension. I wish I had a house that looked like this!

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I'd like all of you to know I'll be taking a little blog break. I have some health issues to take care of and it will give me some catch up time to visit your wonderful blogs while I'm recuperating.

Thanks, always, for stopping by! I hope you all have a great day...and a great week!

Stamps: All Purple Onion Designs
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Paper: My Mind's Eye, Basic Grey
Ink: Memento, Ranger distress ink
Other: Copics, corner rounder, dimensional adhesive, button
Finished card size: 4.25" square

Purple Onion Designs + Tombow

This week, Purple Onion Designs and Tombow have teamed up to showcase each other's products on their respective blogs.

Here are the cards that I made using Tombow's Dual Brush Pens. I loved using the blender pen and it felt like I was watercoloring--without the water!

I stamped the images with Staz On ink on watercolor paper and brushed some ink onto an acrylic block to use as my palette. I loved how effortless it was to get the look of watercoloring with just a few swishes of the blender pen.

On my second card, I colored the flower using the brush pens and blender pen on watercolor paper. I trimmed it out and used Tombow's Foam Tabs to attach it to the card base. There are two sizes in a pack and I was able to use both sizes on different parts of the image.

The zig zag stitches were colored using a brush pen and since I used it to color in the leaves, it was an exact color match.

Be sure to visit both blogs to see more ideas using Purple Onion stamps paired with Tombow's awesome products. Thanks for stopping by today...

Stamps: All Purple Onion Designs
Ink: Staz On
Cardstock: Strathmore watercolor paper
Other: Tombow brush pens, Tombow Foam Tabs, Twinery twine

Scary without you

Hello, hello! Today I'd like to share a Halloween card made with a new Penny Black stamp set--Scary Halloween. I was planning to make a Polaroid, but the image went way beyond the frame, so it became a regular sized card. I hope it still looks like a Polaroid.

 

I ink distressed a square piece of cardstock with Black Soot, Pumice Stone, and Orange Marmalade distress inks and water splotched it for a spooky sky.

The main image was stamped and colored with Copics. A few bats from this set were stamped flying off in the distance as well as the perfect sentiment to the owl's expression.

Gray cardstock was embossed with Cracked, a Tim Holtz texture fades embossing folder and the spooky cute owl and Polaroid frame were attached. My first Halloween card for the year is done!

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Our kitchen renovations are well under way and you're welcome to go here to see pics of an almost completed project. I'll be sharing a photo of the finished kitchen here on my blog when it's all done and pretty.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a great, crafty week!

Stamps: All Penny Black
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Memento, Ranger distress ink
Other: Copics, Sizzix embossing folder, dimensional adhesive