stamp night......

I had a few friends over to stamp tonight, and I made a couple of pocket cards to give them an idea to start with. Here's what I came up with...theirs were similiar to the non-antiqued one. Fun times!

The 2-step flower set is one of my designs from Biblical Impressions, stamped in Adirondack Currant and Pesto (they have such yummy color names!) I also stamped CHF's Paisley Backgrounder over the top (stamped off 1x first). The flowers in the corner are from the SU Bold Heart and Flowers set...I think this may be the first time I've actually used the set...someone gave it to me before we moved and I always forget that I have it. "Terima Kasih" means "Thank You", and that's a self-designed stamp that I had pressed by Ready Stamps - they will press a full sheet of rubber for you for $32. Great service, and a great cause! Check them out if you're interested in producing a few of your own doodles. The second card...same SU set for the rose vines. I directly applied Bisque chalk ink to white cardstock, then some cocoa brown and Adirondack Espresso around the eges. The crackle stamp is from TAC (oh, BTW, they have their Spring Supplement out now!) "Thinking of You" is from Art Impressions...I love the size and the font of that stamp. :)

One more thing....I must say that I'm rather impressed with myself for designing my first digital paper today! No, I'm not going to try to market it or anything, goodness knows I have more on my plate than I can handle already...but I thought it came out pretty cool! I started with a single image of a pansy (I needed some pansy paper to go with a card idea that popped into my head when I woke up this morning...)...I cropped out the center of the flower and turned and repeated it randomly on the page. After that was done I played with a few photo features, and this was one of the results! I'm using Photo Impact 12, which is from www.ulead.com ... they have a 30 day free trial if you're interested in checking it out too. I'm still learning by trial and error, but it's fun. :)

I need tea....

I haven't stamped for a few days...I'm a bit in a funk besides not feeling so well, and that is probably a good thing to get my perspective back in the right place. I have other things I need to be working on, but I'm getting sidetracked by other stuff. So...here is an older card...I don't remember posting it here before... I was reminded of it yesterday, looking at someone's blog who is having a black/white card contest which I can't enter because I'm a paid designer. Anyway, here it is. I love color and I don't usually do black and white cards, so this was a stretch for me. The main image is from www.myheartstamps4u.com and the paisley background stamp is from www.cornishheritagefarms.com. I found that ribbon in Java and bought the whole roll! I love it, though it ends up too wide for most cards. The image is shaded using a Dove blender pen. I sponged the edge of the card base too. I used my coluzzle to cut out the teaset image and black layer, and to do the arch on the card. It's not as hard as it looks...take your 1/2 sheet of cardstock and mark it at 4-1/4" and where you want your card to fold, then put the top of the oval you want at the mark and cut down evenly on either side. Sorry if that doesn't make ANY sense at all....here's a simpler brown version of the card, using all MHS4U stamps.

Sweet, sweet you!

I saw this little mouse up on my shelf (I have verrrrrrry few wood mounted stamps, but I do have a collection of original House Mouse stamps that I keep on display on top of my inkpad rack). He wanted to come out and play, and he wanted to sit on something fun, so I dug out this slice of chocolate cake from Straight Forward Stamps (formerly owned by Biblical Impressions) for him. I stamped the mouse first, then masked him and stamped over the mask with the cake. Additional coloring was done with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The pink around him is watercolored.

The border strip behind the image...it looks like 3 pieces of paper there, but there are actually 6, in an interesting attempt at using the scraps I had. The scalloped borders are actually 2 punched scallop squares. The heart paper (free download from http://www.amsdigiscraps.com/ - Your Love is Better Than Chocolate(c) 2005 Ams Digi Scraps.) is 2 pieces, and the dark brown is 2 separate strips.

The pink background layer was stamped in Versamark with Cornish Heritage Farm's paisley backgrounder (did you see - they have some new ones...I think I may need the houndstooth one...sigh...), then I rubbed chalks over that (some pink and some brown) and sponged the edges. I made the brown frame with my Coluzzle...I originally had some big photo corners there but it looked off balance, so I scrapped them. I did find an easy way to make them though, with my square punch. I'll have to do it again sometime and write out instructions.

"Sweet" is done using Karen Foster Snap Stamps, and "You" is part of a SU "Thank You" stamp (sorry I don't know what set!). Yes, I cut another stamp in half.......

That's my shnazzy new watermark in the corner there - I'm still impressed with myself for making that swirly flourishy thing!

Oh well..............

My card didn't win the AMRSC contest....sigh.....guess there's always next month! I always like challenging myself...winning free stamping stuff is nice too, especially since I'm living in a stamping wasteland (though I am surviving with the things I brought with me and the basics I've been able to find here)! Here are the entries w/ instructions...mine is listed 2nd after the winner, not sure if that is significant or not!

Marcie, this one is on it's way to ya today! Trish, yours is going out too! Congrats, girls!