STAMPYRA

Sunday, October 4, 2009

9:43 PM

I'm putting up another post today. To me, the last post was part of yesterday, but whatever! I am entering my first challenge over at House Mouse Monday Challenge blog. The challenge was to make a House Mouse card with buttons. I don't really like to use buttons, so I don't have any buttons. Whoops! No problem, I made a button. I'm really happy with how it came out. Now I can just make buttons if I decide I need to use them. I got the button making directions at Splitcoaststampers. It really simple. Just punch five pieces of cardstock. I used a 3/4" punch. Attach all the layers with crystal lacquer. Use the Cropadile to punch two holes in the center. Apply a thick coat of Crystal Lacquer to the button top & let dry.

This card was done on purple shimmer paper. I stamped the baroque image from Stampin' Up's Friends 24/7 set with purple brilliance ink. The button is made with a spare piece of the background. The House Mouse image is colored with Copic markers. It is matted onto Spellbinders oval & scalloped oval Nestabilities.

This is just a closer view of the cute little mouse. I really like the way they look when done with Copics.

I think I'm in a cute mood. This owl sure is a cutie! It is from the Hero Arts Christmas owl clear set. It's stamped with Onyx Versafine ink & colored with Prismacolor colored pencils. His hat is colored with an Orange Copic marker. The background is another Splitcoaststampers idea. It is Aluminum foil (from the kitchen) attached to cardstock and then embossed with a Spellbinders Impressability folder (flowers-I think.) I then cut it with one of the label Nestabilities. The orange is a copic marker. The bat is from Stamps by Judith & the Happy Halloween image is from Inkadinkado. The pearls are from Hero Arts.

World Card Making Day

4:21 AM

Today was World Card Making Day. So, what did I do today you ask? How many cards did I make? None! I didn't make one single card today. I've been making several cards a day for the last few weeks & I choose World Card Making Day to make no cards. Of course, this doesn't mean I was in my stamp room for hours today. I was working on holiday goodies. I made little coffin boxes for the yearly Halloween party we have with the boys. I used my Ultimate Crafters Companion tool to make coffin shaped boxes that have yet to be decorated. I also started working on some Christmas decorations. My long awaited Stowlake One Shapabilities arrived today. They are as awesome as I thought they would be! I'll have to get the Snowflakes 2 set. I can see making several ornaments with these. I don't have any samples yet. The glitter is drying on the first two ornaments.

The Snowflakes dies were really easy to use. I just put them with some scraps of paper and ran all 5 shapes through my Cuttlebug at one time. Then I embossed them & made another set(for the back.) I stuck them all together with foam tape & then glittered them with some stickles. They would be dry, but I had to re-glitter them after my cat sat on them. You should have seen me folowing him to get one of the snowflakes off of his back! I'll post them soon.

This is a card I made a few years ago. It's one of my favorite Christmas cards. It's from a Make & Take I did at Impressions From the Heart when they were still open. We made a simpler card with the flower image. It was just a basic technique showing them how to blend Tombo markers with a waterbrush. It;s a really simple technique with stunning results. Each flower used just two colors.

This is the card open from two different views. The greetings are from Penny Black. The birds are from Hero Arts. The holly leaves are from Magents. I'm not sure about the large flower. It was a store stamp & I don't have it.

Using more scraps...

4:36 PM

I've ben busy using up my scraps. Like I said before, I have tons of them & will be using them for quite a long time. I seem to have a ton of strips that are about 2" wide. Many of them are really nice papers with shimmer in them. They're a really odd size to use & I can only make so many scraplings before I get bored.

This card is a different type of scrap. I am really into trying new techniques, but I often fail to follow through and turn the images into cards. I'm trying to get better about that. I found a box full of scraps and really nice, but unused images. I used one of them on this card.

This is a close up of the image. The angel stamp is from Stampers Anonymous. The main image is layers of Powder Keg embossing powders. I'm sure I made her in a class I taught.

This is the full view of the card. The side pannels are Powder Keg embossing Powders on a retired Stampa Rosa image. The purple piece behind the angel is the Celtic Knot Cuttlebug embossing folder. I found the design for this card on Splitcoaststampers. It's really easy to put together. I just love all the idea I get from that group of talented ladies.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

10:34 AM

I have been on a mission to use my pre-cut cards and scraps. I'm doing pretty good. All of the cards I'm posting lately have included not cuts from a whole sheet of paper. I've used just scraps. I have a lot of scraps so I plan to keep using them until I've used them up.
I'm still going crazy stamping & lovin it! I'll post a few cards today. I have several more to post, but I keep forgetting to add them to my blog. Here are a few.

This is scrapling I made for a challenge at Club Posh. They are fun! It is a folded mini card that is 1 1/2" x 4". Thestamps are all from the Hero Arts Clear set called Christmas owls. The Layer is polished stone stamped with the snowflakes in Mediteranean Blue & Starlight Silver Brilliance ink. The Owl was colored with Prismacolor colored pencils & OMS (Odorless mineral spirits) with blending stumps.

This is a card I made with the scrapling. I use a Stampin Up punch to make a slit so the scrapling card front can be opened to reveal a message.

I made this Halloween card for the boys. They asked me to make them cards with the pop-up tree (below) and I couldn't refuse them. The front is really simple. I used my Cuttlebug folders from last year. I embossed them onto black scraps & rubbed the Starlight Silver Brillance inkpad over the raised areas.

This is the pop-up tree on the inside of the card. It's really hard to photograph because the tree skirt is foil. It made it really hard for me to get a good picture of the tree. The little foil bats & skulls on the tree. The tree is stamped with an Anna Griffin background with Starlight Silver Brilliance ink & embossed with glow in the dark embossing powder. I think the boys will really like them!

Blogging Again

1:48 AM

I am a bad blogger. I know this! I've been quite sick for several months now & just haven't had the energy to stamp while I've been home. The other day, my great friend Char told me I need to start blogging again. So, here I am! I've been really inspired to create this last week. It's a combination of two things. I'm no longer on any pain killers & I started to play with the many new tools, embelishments and stamps Char got me for Christmas & my birthday. She sent me a huge box & it arrived right after I got out of the hospital for the first time. I was so out of it I didn't get a chance to really enjoy what I received. Now, I am enjoying all of the goodies she sent. I've been making cards and boxes like crazy. One of the things she sent me is the Crafters Companion Ultimate Tool. This thing is cool. I'vs used it to make boxes, tri-shutter cards, gate-fold cards, K Cards, explosion cards & I'm just getting started. Over the next few days I plan to post my most recient cards & boxes. I also have some pictures of cards I made right before I got sick & didn't manage to show here. I'll probably post them with just descriptions so I have time to keep stamping.

This is a box I made with the Ultimate tool. It opens like a pizza box. The main image is stamped in Onyx Black Versafine with a stamp from the Hero Arts set Together. I colored it with Prismacolor colored Pencils. It is layered onto a scrap of dark brown paper & then onto a piece of copper paper that was stamped with Coffee Bean Brilliance ink using the dots & flowers background from Hero Arts. It is on top of a teal shape cut with my Cuttlebug & Scallop Rectangle Nestabilities. The box is stamped with the swirls in the Hero Arts Valentine Flourish Clear set. I used StazOn Opaque ink in the color Butter Cream.

I forgot to mention that I won a $100 shopping spree on the Hero Arts Blog! All I did was post to the blog. Each month they pick one random post & award that person a shopping spree. How awesome is that? All of the stamps I used above are part of my winnings.

I'm Copic Certified!

12:54 AM

I don't have any pictures to post yet, but I had to share with anyone that is reading this. I went to Pensacola this last weekend, and got Copic Certified. It was a great weekend. We stayed there Sunday night. My clas was all day monday. I learned everything I need to know about Copics. Ieven learned how to use them to color! For those of you that know, I really stink with them. Now, I've figured it out! it only took a six hour class and fifteen hours in the car, but I've figured them out. We used the airbrush system and now Iwant one. I was soooo happy to met several prominate stampers. I had a great time & just had to share. I've done some images from the class samples. I've even finished a cute card. I'll have to upload it soon. I'm just so darn happy to finaly be able to use my Copic markers! JIL

I'm thinking about Spring with flowers

12:43 AM

As you can see, I'm ready for spring. I made three spring cards. Two of them are for Club Posh challenges and one is an old favorite that I made for a friend at work.

My friend Kathy lost her grandmother last week, so I had to make her an over-the-top card. This card has to be one of my favorite cards. Years ago I took a class with Marilyn Parke from the stamp company Parked on Rubber. I have been making this card for special occassions forever. It's such an elegant card and I wish I designed it myself! Kathy loved this card so much, she had her husband frame it for her. That was a huge compliment. The funny thing is, I didn't intentionally sign up to take the class. I thought I was signing up for a class on Magic Colored Pencils with Debbie Gunyon. I was dissapointed about the mistake for about two seconds. I'm sure I would have loved the class with Debbie, but I have since had chances to see her demonstrate her awesome technique.

The stamps are from Parked on Rubber & Me & Carrie Lou. I'm not sure what stamps are from each company, sorry. They are stamped with Glitter Gold Embossing Powder and embossed on vellum. The vase design is actually a blank vase that was stamped with a floral egg stamp. The images are colored with Tombo Markers on the front of the vellum. All images were cut out right next the embossing and layered into the vase. The centers of the flowers were accented with Swarvoski crystals that were applied with a toothpick and crystal lacquer.

My next card was inspired by Becca on her blog, Amazing Paper Grace. She did a video of her medallion technique on her blog and you can find it on the right hand side of her links. Here is her blog http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/ It is so wonderful what combinations she has come up with for her layers. I did this card for a Club Posh Challenge to create a weather themed card while uing a new tool with my favorite adhesive and my favorite punch. Here it is:

This card was made using her medallion technique straight off her video with an EK Success punch. Please check it out. I will warn you that her techique is addictive! LOL! My main image is the tree from an Inkadinkado Clear set. The flower is also from another clear set. The tree is stamped on a circle of watercolor paper with Onyx Versafine ink. It is the largest plain nestabilities circle. I colored it with a light wash of Twinkling H2O's. The flowers were stamped on the watercolor paper scraps with the Onyx ink & colored with H2O's. The card came together really quick. The papers are a 12"x12" stack that I picked up at JoAnns. I didn't keep the cover page, but I saw it there last weekend. I used foam tape to add the flowers & the medallion. I added three sizes of flat backed pearls to accent the card.

The last card was another Club Posh Challenge. I did it before a challenge was declared, but it was posted as a challenge today. It was posted as a technique that I had seen before, but hadn't tried. So, of course I had to finally try it. The technique is called thumping. It's really a fun, loose technique. I inked up my stamp with an Aqua Vivid inkpad. Then I took a blue Marvy Brushart marker and thumped it onto my stamp. I just tapped it all over the image. I did the same technique with two Posh Impressions stamps. I first did the oriental writing background and stamped it onto white glossy paper. Then I inked up the cherry blossom stamp and stamped it over top of the background. It is layere over two colors of paper that were punched with my new Martha Stewart Boarder punch. The word is stamped with Dark Blue Brilliance Ink. I was going for the textured look or I would have embossed it on that textured paper.

I'm still working out how to properly photograph my images. It's a work in progress. I'm loving working with my textured papers. It's my goal to use up my older papers before I use them, but I keep reaching for those textures. I am using some of my older papers as I go , so I guess I'm doing pretty good. Until next time, JIL