Stampin' Mama: A mama that stamps

Sneak Peeks Day 4 - GinaK Designs

Today is the last of the sneak peeks before the big release party over on the GinaK Forum. That starts at 7 pm (CST) and I'll be posting a scrapbook challenge at the party using one of the sets we're sneak peeking today! Make sure to stop in for chatting, fun, prizes, contests and challenges. 

This first project uses the One Free with Three set this month, which is called Love Notes. It's a set of 8 sentiments that can be used on cards, scrapbook pages, gifts and more. 

My project took a little turn from what I intended it to be. I've had nothing but trouble with my printer lately and it just didn't want to cooperate to print out the cute black and white pictures of my hubby and I so I had to improvise and find some small enough pictures in our albums to work for this. I decided to go with some photos from when my hubby and I were dating. I have duplicates of them, so I didn't feel too bad cutting them up.

I used a glue stick to cover three 2-inch wooden blocks with different papers from the Neopolitan Digital paper pack and sanded the edges with fine grade sandpaper. 

Three of the sentiments were stamped on the new Innocent Pink cardstock, trimmed and layered onto Chocolate Kiss cardstock. I mounted these on the blocks with pop-dots.

I cut the pictures to 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches and mounted them on Chocolate Kiss cardstock that was cut at 1 3/4 x 1 3/4 inches. Those also got adhered to the blocks with pop-dots.

I couldn't find a third picture small enough to go on one of the blocks, so I improvised again and stamped one of the hearts from Tami Mayberry's set, Happy Hearts (you can see another project I did with this set by going to the Day 1 Sneak Peek post). This was stamped on white cardstock with Rose Romance ink, trimmed out, mounted on Chocolate Kiss cardstock and put on the block with a pop-dot.

The three sentiments I used say, "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be." "The best thing about me is you." And "Love is friendship set to music." I realized that it doesn't matter that the pictures I had wanted to print out in black and white didn't get used for these blocks....any pictures of the two of us will do because all pictures of us are my favorites!

This card uses Nina Brackett's new set, Heartily Yours. There's also a companion set, Heartily Yours Additions, which is full of sentiments to use alongside the GROOVY images in this main set. 

I chose to work with the wishing well for my card (I'll be using some of the other images in this set for my scrapbook challenge at the release party). I started with a base of Lipstick Red cardstock (new with this release). I stamped the image on white cardstock with black ink and colored it with Copic markers.I layered it on top of a piece of the new Passionate Pink cardstock.

 I used my scallop circle punch to punch out some white circles which I then poked holes into with a thumbtack. I adhered them to the back of my image and then sponged them with Pink Passion ink. The half circle was cut with a circle cutter out of patterned paper and layered onto a larger white circle. The red and pink buttons (from the new Romance Collection) added some bling and dimension.

The greeting comes in the new Heartily Yours set and was stamped with black ink.          

For even more inspiration with our new stamp sets being previewed tonight, check out these GinaK Designers' links:

Nina Brackett {Illustrator of Heartily Yours}

Gina Krupsky {Illustrator of Love Notes}

Jessica Fick

Theresa Momber

Melanie Muenchinger

Carolyn King

Cathy Tidwell

Lee Murphy

Donna Baker

Lynn Mercurio

Erika Martin

Emily Giovanni

Tami Mayberry

Bev Gerard

Colleen Schaan

Valerie Stangle

Jen Charboneau (CSS Designer)

Suzanne Dean

Sneak Peeks Day 3 - GinaK Designs

Day 3 of the GinaK Designs sneak peeks and the design team has put together amazing projects using the new StampTV Showtime Kit. Gina will be showing a video on StampTV to show you, up close, all the great things that come in this versatile kit. 

The Organize It! StampTV kit comes with 2 new stamp sets, an assortment of 8 different cardstocks, 6 yards of assorted 5/8 inch ribbon, 6 yards of assorted 3/8 inch ribbon, copper and black brad assortment and 12 ivory sateen flowers. Gina showcases videos on StampTV to show you different techniques that you can use with the new kit, though you can use the techniques with countless other sets, too.

I used the two sets to create a Goals & Dreams Box for myself. It's a great time for me to start filling this up as the new year always inspires me to come up with new dreams and goals. 

I used a sturdy cardboard box that was given to me by a friend and it originally held a collector's mug in it. I sanded it down so the surface wasn't as slick on top. I painted it with a tan acrylic paint, then layered a crackle medium on top, let it get tacky and then painted over it with moss green acrylic paint. I love the crackle effect and the way it gives surfaces and antique feel. I swiped over the top and edges of the box with a Basic Brown ink pad to age it even more.

The top of the box was done with the two new sets that come in the StampTV kit - Picture it! and Organize it!. The frame was done on Kraft cardstock with Basic Brown and the words were done with Basic Brown and Creamy Caramel. I used Mellow Moss craft ink to do the leaves. I distressed the edges and then sponged Basic  Brown around them. I mounted this on top of a piece of distressed Chocolate Kiss cardstock with pop-dots, but added a trimmed piece of green stitched ribbon underneath (part of the StampTV kit).

I wrapped a length of ribbon around the front of the box and secured it with a double knot and trimmed the edges.

I totally dig aging and distressing things......the effect makes me heart feel warm. I really think I was born in the wrong era! But then again....if I were born back then, everything would be new and shiny and I'd have to wait years for it to get aged and distressed. *wink*

For the inside of the box, I created three different sections for my cards to go in.

I used Chocolate Kiss cardstock to create the dividers. I made them by scoring the pieces in half and then scoring an inch from both bottoms so that they had something to "stand on" inside the box. I anchored the dividers to the bottom of the box with Sticky Strip tape (REALLY strong tape!)

I stamped the dotted half circles onto Fresh Asparagus cardstock and punch them out with a 1 3/8 inch circle punch. I wrote on them with a Black glaze pen. The first says, "Dreams," the second says, "Goals" and the third says, "Accomplished."

My plan is to write my dreams and goals on each of the cards (I can add plenty more as there's a LOT of space in this box) and expand on those goals and dreams on the front and backs of the cards. As I accomplish them, I'll move those cards to the back section. The Accomplished section!

I'd love to see myself making another box JUST for Accomplished dreams and goals! That would be awesome!

I cut 12 cards each of Kraft and Fresh Asparagus (from the kit) and stamped them with the oval frame stamp in Basic Brown. This will be a place to title my cards with either a goal or a dream.

I added the sprig of leaves to each one to carry the theme. I used Mellow Moss craft ink for the Kraft cards and White craft ink for the Fresh Asparagus cards.

Now to start writing on my cards!!

To see more projects made with the new StampTV kit, check out these designer's links:

Gina Krupsky

Jessica Fick

Theresa Momber

Melanie Muenchinger

Nina Brackett

Carolyn King

Cathy Tidwell

Lee Murphy

Lynn Mercurio

Emily Giovanni

Erika Martin

Then, tune in to the newest StampTV video available tomorrow morning at StampTV as Gina will be sharing a special project she made with the new kit too!

Sneak Peeks Day 2 - GinaK Designs

 Day 2 of the GinaK Designs sneak peeks is here!

The first card is made with Theresa Momber's new set, Purrr-fectly Delightful. I know that this card gives no hint that this set is full of furry images of kitties and mice, but I promise you that it is! I was just so drawn to the vase of flowers and being that we got 25 inches of snow yesterday, my mind is on my garden and the long awaited spring that will eventually get here.

I started out with stamping and coloring the vase on white cardstock and then wanted to go vintage, so I started over by stamping on Kraft cardstock and coloring with Copic markers. I did a light swiping over the top of the colored image with a Creamy Caramel ink pad to distress it a little bit more. I mounted this with pop-dots on top of a piece of patterned paper that I also swiped around the edges with Creamy Caramel ink. I layered this on top of Chocolate Chip cardstock and then on top of a card base of Sweet corn cardstock that was distressed with So Saffron and Creamy Caramel ink.

The greeting comes from the Lovely Shelf set and was stamped with Basic Brown ink. The ribbon is from the new StampTV kit. 

The second card is made with Melanie Muenchinger's new set, Square Pegs. This set works really well with so many of Melanie's sets.

I used the adorable button image and greeting along with two of the brand new pinks that GinaK is debuting with this release: Passionate Pink and Innocent Pink.

I stamped the button images on white cardstock with Pink Passion ink and then VERY carefully cut them out with scissors. I thought I had the circle punch in that size, but that's the one punch I don't have yet. I think I did pretty good considering. *wink*

I adhered these to my card with pop-dots and then added some of the new black and white buttons (coming out with this release) with mini glue dots and finished the card off with the greeting in black ink.

For even more inspiration with our new stamp sets being previewed tonight,check out these GinaK Designers' links:

Melanie Muenchinger {Illustrator of Square Pegs}

Theresa Momber {Illustrator of Purrr-fectly Delightful}

Gina Krupsky

Jessica Fick

Nina Brackett

Carolyn King

Cathy Tidwell

Lee Murphy

Lynn Mercurio

Erika Martin

Emily Giovanni

Bev Gerard

Suzanne Dean

Joan Ervin 

Betty Neville

GinaK Sneak Peeks Day 1

It's time for the January release from GinaK Designs and today starts off Day 1 of the sneak peeks, which will last all the way through Wed. and then the release party will take place on Thurs. night. Make sure to check back each day for new peeks, as I'll be peeking ALL of the new sets, including the new StampTV kit.

First up is the new set by Rupa Shevde, Sung from the Heart.

I used Ocean Mist cardstock for my base. The grass was hand cut from Creme de Menthe cardstock which I swiped with my Certainly Celery ink pad. I used a scalloped circle punch out for a stencil against white cardstock and sponged around it with Bashful Blue ink to create the clouds.

The bird was stamped on white cardstock and colored with Copic markers and mounted with pop-dots. The greeting comes in the new set and was stamped with black ink. I added some button flowers using buttons from the new Romance Assortment. I used a marker to draw the stems and leaves. 

Rupa has once again come up with an all-around set with lots of adorable image and sentiments that match.

The next set is by Tami Mayberry and it's called Happy Hearts. This set is full of patterned hearts in two different sizes and lots of words that you can make countless combinations of.

I created an 8x8 scrapbook page using a picture that was taken while we were hiking in 2008. Girly and David have a great daddy-daughter bond and I wanted to capture that on a scrapbook page.

The colors in the picture were mostly gray but there was a pop of color in Girly's shirt, so I went with gray and blue an then popped some pink in there to add a feminine touch.

I used Moonlit Fog cardstock for the base and swiped around the edges with Going Gray ink. I stamped the hearts on Ocean Mist and the new Innocent Pink cardstock (debuting with this release) with Going Gray ink, cut them out and adhered them with pop-dots.

I stamped some of the words from the set with black ink on Innocent Pink and cut them close for the top of the layout. The black buttons are new with this release and I adhered all of those with mini glue dots. My journaling at the bottom of the page reads: Daddy's girl, Always has been, always will be. I wrote that with a Black glaze pen.

My 9 year old daughter also created a couple cards with the new sets. Make sure to check out her blog: Creative Girly - would you mind leaving her some comment love??

The third set is drawn by AliciaK, Gina's daughter! She's such a talented young woman. The set is called Wishes and Dreams and is done in the anime style of animation. 

I created a Dream Box using 6 chipboard coasters. I covered the coasters with patterned paper and used my Crop-a-dile punch for the holes and used some of the new gold lined Romance organdy ribbon (from GinaK) to thread the coasters together. I used ribbon to make a hinged lid for my box, as well.

I stamped one of the greetings on white cardstock, added some bling with glitter, sponged it with Pink Passion ink and mounted it on Innocent Pink and then put it on top of the box lid with pop-dots. I added some buttons from the Romance collection for extra fun.

I stamped one of the fairy images (there are 3 in this set) on white cardstock with black ink and colored it in with Copic markers and added some glitter to the wings. I also stamped and cut out the wand and added some glitter to that, as well. I mounted the fairy on top of an Innocent Pink oval that I punched using the Giga Scalloped Oval punch and sponged with Pink Passion ink.

If you're going to have a Dream Box, you're going to need something to write your dreams on, so I cut a piece of Innocent Pink cardstock into 3 strips and stamped the "Dream Big" image down the strips with black ink. I cut them all apart so there ended up being about 30 strips to write dreams on and put them into the box.

My 9 year old daughter also created a couple cards with the new sets. Make sure to check out her blog: Creative Girly - she'd be thrilled to know what you think of her cards, so leave her some comment love if you'd like. 

For even more inspiration with our new stamp sets being previewed tonight, check out our other GinaK Designers' links:

Tami Mayberry {Illustrator of Happy Hearts}

Gina Krupsky

Jessica Fick

Nina Brackett

Melanie Muenchinger

Theresa Momber

Carolyn King

Cathy Tidwell

Lee Murphy

Donna Baker

Lynn Mercurio

Erika Martin

Emily Giovanni

Colleen Schaan

Sankari Wegman

Valerie Stangle

Life is Good Blog Hop - brayered sunset

Who says that "going back to the basics" has to be bland? Personally, I love going back to the basics every now and then. It never ceases to amaze me that sometimes, simple can be STUNNING.

I can never get enough of silhouette type images. The cattails stamp in the Life is Good set is, by far, my favorite image in this set. It's incredibly striking when it's done in black over a sunset background.

I took out my brayer to create the sunset. When I do backgrounds like this, I like to use ink refills rather than rainbow pads so that I can create whatever color scheme I like. A few months back, I created a video tutorial to show how to do this easy technique. You can check it out here: Brayer technique with ink refills

I used the same color scheme on this card that I did in the video: Cranberry Crisp, Pumpkin Pie and Summer Sun. Rather than embossing my images, though, I did my brayering first and then stamped my images on top with black ink.

I used glossy cardstock for the brayering (this technique NEEDS to use glossy cardstock to get the right effect) and then layered my card onto Black Onyx cardstock and then layered those onto a card base of Sweet Corn cardstock. Oh, so simple and oh, so quick, but oh so stunning!

For even more inspiration tonight with the Life is Good stamp set, check out these links:

Theresa Momber {Illustrator} Jessica Fick Nina Brackett Melanie Muenchinger Lee Murphy Erika Martin Emily Giovanni

Colleen Schaan  (CSS Designer)

Cheri Weston (CSS Designer)

 Melissa Shultz (CSS Designer)

 Peggy Wainman (CSS Designer)

Jenny Charboneau {guest designer}

Geri Utterback {guest designer}

Brenda Turner {guest designer}

Linda Payne {guest designer}

The Life is Good discussion on the StampTV Idea Center is also a valuable resource for tips, samples, and tutorials. Theresa's tip sheet and the Card Kit is available in the discussion as well. And, finally stop by GinaK's blog today to leave your comment on her blog for your chance to win today's featured stamp set or another stamp set valued at $23.95 of your choice!

Homemade Doggy Treats in Cute packaging

This past Saturday, Girly and I set up at the local craft fair (it's been years since I've done that) and she was excited to showcase her handmade soaps, chocolate treats and the doggy biscuits that we both made together. We wanted to package them in a cute way so we turned to our stamp supply!

First off, we made 4 different kinds of doggy biscuits, so we also made 4 different tags for the biscuits. I tried to pick colors that would work well with the types of biscuits. The Peanut Butter biscuits got Kraft tags, the Apple Cinnamon got red tags, the Chicken biscuits got mustard tags and the Banana Peanut Biscotti got yellow tags. 

We wrapped the biscuits up in cellophane bags and used GinaK ribbon to tied around them in a bow. I then printed out the tags on pieces of cardstock and cut them apart. I folded them in half and punched a hole through the upper right corners, stamped them with the cute little puppy image from the Warm and Fuzzy set and tied them onto the bags with some gold ribbon.

If you have doggies that you'd like to make some of these biscuits for, I'm including two of the links to recipes in this post, as well as the PDF file for the tags we used.

The first recipe is for Banana Peanut Biscotti. The second recipe is for Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits.

Here's the PDF File for the tags: 

Download Banana Peanut

Download Peanut Poppers

You'll need to do a little trimming on the side and then fold the tags in half so that the ingredients go on the inside of the tags and you'll have room to stamp on the front of the tag.

These biscuits recipes are Doggy Tested and Doggy-Mom Approved. I even tried the biscuits myself! Hey, they're all natural! By the way, we adopted another doggy back at the end of September. Her name is Willow and we got her from a shelter up in Montreal. She's another Husky mix and 8 months old(a year and a half old) has someone to play with and pal around with. They've been best friends since 5 minutes after I brought Willow home. 

Why not make some doggy treats for your doggies this holiday? Or make some for friends that have doggies! After all, we don't want to forget our furry friends at the holiday times!

Sweetest Memories Sneak Peek

Day 3 of the GinaK Sneak Peeks has arrived. Tomorrow night is the release party over at the GinaK Forum on Splitcoast. It runs from 7-10 pm (CST) and it's full of all the things that make the GinaK Release parties famous - chatting, friends, sneak peeks, prizes, challenges, contests, etc.

The Design Team is showing off the new One Free with Three set, called Sweetest Memories. This set seems to scream "SCRAPBOOK" to me, so that's what I did with it. Hey, if your stamps are screaming to you, wouldn't you perk up and pay attention and obey, too?

I chose this photo of my kids and I as it seems to embody what this stamp set is all about.

I used two of the sentiments from the Sweetest Memories set and paired them with the two butterflies from the Take Flight set and embossed all my images with black powder. I added some hand journaling and cut some free hand patterns from patterned papers

For even more ways to use this fabulous stamp set, please check tonight's featured Illustrator's blog:

GinaK {Sweetest Memories}

Then, visit our Designer's blogs participating in the previews tonight:

Carolyn, Cathy, Emily, Erika, Jessica, Lee, Lynn, Melanie, Nina Tami, Theresa

 

(Photo courtesy of Family Room Studios)

Life is Good & Warm and Wonderful Sneak Peeks

Day 2 of  the GinaK Sneak Peeks is here and we're showing off 2 more sets.

The first set is Theresa Momber's new set, Life is Good. This is a beautiful set perfect for creating scenes on your stamped projects. Theresa is a goddess when it comes to scenery and I can't wait to see what she comes up with.

I went with a winter scene for my card. I stamped the trees and deer onto In the Navy cardstock with Versamark ink and embossed them with white powder. I added some snowflakes from Rupa Shevde's new set (sneak peeked below), Warm and Wonderful, and added a greeting from Theresa's set, A Very Merry Christmas and stamped them with white ink. 

I used the white ink pad to swipe around the outside edges of the navy cardstock and up onto the bottom of the cardstock to give the ground a soft fallen-snow look to it.

I mounted the navy cardstock onto the new Mother of Pearl cardstock ( shimmery white metallic) and then onto a card base of the new Ocean Mist cardstock. 

The second set is Rupa Shevde's newest, Warm and Wonderful. Rupa has such a way with clean and crisp images.

I'm a big hot chocolate fan so this little mug image was definitely the one I gravitated to first. This cardstock tote filled with peppermint hot cocoa packets, candy canes and marshmallows is a quick and easy gift for teachers, co-workers and to give to hostesses at all those holiday parties you get invited to this time of year. 

I stamped a sheet of Ocean Mist cardstock with the 3 snowflakes from Rupa's set with Versamark ink and embossed them with white powder. To make the stamping quick, I placed all 3 snowflakes on the block at once.

I added a piece of patterned paper on top of Chocolate Kiss cardstock and adhered it across the front of my box. I stamped the mug and sentiment with black ink on white cardstock and colored it using my Copic markers. I added a shadow using the Cool Gray 1 Copic marker. I hand drew some steam lines with a Black glaze pen and added some sparkle to the snowflakes on the mug and the marshmallows with a Stardust Glitter Pen. This was put on top of Chocolate Kiss cardstock and mounted on top of the patterned strip with pop-dots.

I used some Rocket Red Polka Dot Satin ribbon for the handle. I also used some Rocket Red stitched ribbon to tie around a cello bag filled with marshmallows.

I tucked some white tissue paper into the box and filled it with the cocoa, candy canes and marshmallows and it's all set to go!

For even more ways to use these fabulous stamp sets, please check tonight's featured Illustrator's blog:

Theresa Momber {Life is Good}

Then, visit our Designer's blogs participating in the previews tonight:

GinaK, Carolyn, Cathy, Cindy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Jessica, Lee, Lynn, Melanie, Nina We also have one of our special Center Stage Spotlight Designer joining tonight:

Peggy Wainman

Lovely Shelf & Tech Talk Sneak Peeks

It's Sneak Peek time again for the GinaK Designs release!

First off is the new set from Nina Brackett. It's called Lovely Shelf and it reminds me so much of my mother as she used to have beautiful shelves full of tea cups and tea pots back when they were still living in the farmhouse here in Vermont. When they moved onto their sailboat 5 1/2 years ago, my mom gave away or sold most of her collection. It just didn't make any sense to take hundreds of tea cups and tea pots (yes, hundreds!) onto a sailboat. After all, boats move and that doesn't work well with delicate china.

I knew that this set would make a lovely card for my mom. I went with a patterned paper that looked like wall paper and stamped the shelf onto it with black ink and then stamped the tea cup onto white paper and colored it with Koh-i-noor pencils. I cut it out and mounted it on top of the shelf with a pop-dot. I used a Black Sakura Glaze pen to draw some steam coming from the cup. The sentiment is also from the Lovely Shelf set and I really like that the "person" stamps (like Mom, Grandma, Friend, etc.) are separate so you can customize your projects.  I adhered the patterned paper to Chocolate Chip cardstock and then onto a Kraft cardstock base. 

The second set that is sneak peeking tonight is Melanie Muenchinger's new set, Tech Talk. This is a great set for all ages, since all ages are totally into the "computer age" these days. I created a card for my hubby, who, ironically, really isn't into computers, though he knows how much I am, so I know he'll appreciate the gesture.

I wanted to go with something clean and crisp but also something that would convey love, so black, white and red was where I went with it all.

I stamped the computer image onto black cardstock with Versamark ink and embossed it with white powder. I added some of the text images to spell out the greeting. I cut around the laptop and added it to a piece of Rocket Red cardstock with pop-dots. I also stamped some white satin ribbon with one of the emoticon images with black Staz-On ink so it wouldn't bleed into the grain of the ribbon. The hearts across the top strip of black cardstock were done with white embossing powder.

For even more ways to use these fabulous stamp sets, please check tonight's featured Illustrator's blogs:

Nina Brackett {Lovely Shelf} Melanie Muenchinger {Tech Talk}

Then, visit our Designer's blogs participating in the previews tonight:

GinaK, Carolyn, Cathy, Cindy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Jessica, Lee, Lynn, Tami, Theresa

We also have two of our special Center Stage Spotlight Designer's joining us with samples as well:

Cheri Weston Melissa Shultz

Vintage Borders Blog Hop

My daughter has been busy making soap for the upcoming craft fair in town the first weekend of December. This is her first time setting up at the fair. She's really excited about it. She's also going to have some other items available and we've been coming up with creative ways to package what she's selling. The soaps are especially fun to package. This is one of the boxes that we created to package 3 little heart soaps in pearlescent greens.

We used Chocolate Kiss cardstock for the base of the box and decorated it with patterned paper trimmed with a scalloped edge punch. The top of the box was made from acetate (also know as transparencies or window sheets).  

A little bit of tissue paper and the soaps were put in the box based and then the acetate top was placed on top. The acetate top rests inside the Chocolate Kiss box base.

I wrapped a piece of Red organdy ribbon (from the Holiday Organdy ribbon assortment) around the box and adhered the ends underneath the box. A piece of patterned paper was adhered across top of the acetate and then layered with a piece of Rocket Red cardstock. I stamped the ornament image from the Vintage Borders across a piece of white cardstock with black ink and colored them in with Copic markers and stamped the word, "peace," underneath (also from the Vintage Borders set).

How about some more inspiration with the Vintage Borders stamp set? First, check in with the Illustrator of this versatile stamp set, our Senior Designer Nina Brackett and her friend Lisa Hjulberg joining in the blog hop tonight. Then, stop by these GinaK Designer's & Center Stage Spotlight blogs for even more samples:

Asela, Carolyn, Cindy, Emily, Erika, Jessica, Kurtis, Lee, Lynn, Tami, Theresa and Melanie

Deb, Melissa, Karen, Sharri, and Sue

Before you finish hopping, be sure to check in on GinaK's blog to enter your comment for a chance to win Nina's Vintage Borders stamp set. If you already have purchased Nina's set, you can substitute any GinaK Designs stamp set valued at $23.95 or less. For those of you are who looking for a quick and easy Christmas card idea, check out the Vintage Borders Card Kit available online in GinaK's store tonight. The Kit includes the step by step tutorial as well as all the card stock cut to the exact measurements needed to make 4 cards. For more details and photos of this card kit, see Jessica Fick's blog link as well as this Class Kit link.