Stampin' Mama: A mama that stamps

Tuscan Rose....and Question and Answer time :)

It's been a while since I've shown a card where I've "swiped" my cardstock.

On my Groovy Give-Away post where I asked you to leave me questions, Vicky asked: What is your favorite technique?

One of my favorite techniques is what I call "swiping." And no, for those of you that have been subjected to the horrors of having to watch "Dora the Explorer," this has nothing to do with Swiper the fox. ;)

This is basically the "direct to paper" technique, but used in a swiping manner.

You simply take your ink pad and put it directly on the cardstock and then swipe it across the cardstock. Sometimes, I'll even put the pad fully on top of the cardstock and drag it across for full coverage of the cardstock, which is what I did on the card you see here.

I used a piece of vellum to go over the big flourish, just to tone down the bright white I had showing with all of the flourishes. I also swiped the vellum, as well. My favorite color to swipe with is Creamy Caramel. It's not too dark, but not too light either. It's the perfect shade for adding a distressed and aged look to almost any cardstock. I used this color on ALL of the cardstocks I used for this card, including the vellum.

My love flourishes....and my favorite set to use for flourishes is the Flourishes set from Tuscan Rose. There are 13 stamps on this set and I love the little corner flourishes that come in this set. I really like to use these stamps with white ink on darker cardstocks.

Swiping is one of those easy but classic techniques that I go back to again and again. It'll never get old for me. It'll always be in style for me.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Supplies:

Stamps: Flourishes (Tuscan Rose) and Wonderful Words (Stampin' UP); Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Barely Banana, Purely Pomegranate, Vellum paper; Ink: Whisper White Craft ink, Basic Brown and Creamy Caramel Classic ink; 1/16" hole punch; brushed gold mini brads (Making Memories);

Some watercoloring fun.....Tuscan Rose style

I had myself a little bit of watercolor fun today. I love vintage and wanted to try something with this stamp. I would normally use my chalks with something like this, but I decided to go with watercolors today.

Actually, the watercolors I used were actually from pressing the lid of my stamp pad against the pad itself and then picking up color from inside the lid of the ink pad with my watercolor brush. I really love this way of watercoloring.

I used one of the stamps from the Collage Fragments plate from Tuscan Rose. I stamped it with Basic Brown ink (which is waterproof) on Creamy Caramel cardstock and watercolored from there.

I used the new Bayou Blue cardstock (from Stampin' UP) as my cardbase and some textured cardstock (the olive green and purple), which are from Die Cuts with a View. Distressing, tearing and going direct-to-paper with all of my cardstocks really helped to give this card an antique and vintage feel.

I actually got to use some Die Cuts with a View brand brads that I've been hoarding for a while (can you tell I'm really trying to break myself of the hoarding habit??). And in going with breaking the hoarding habit, I pulled out some Making Memories ribbon and tied some around my card (my card measures 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches) and then really went all out with taking out some beads that I'd been saving for a rainy day and created some little tassels that I tied on to the ribbon. These were super easy to make and the brown cording I used also came from Making Memories (both the ribbon and the cording came on the same card of "Antique" color themed fibers). 

This is definitely not a card that you can put in a regular card envelope and send in the mail because of the beads, but it definitely gives me a valid excuse to hand deliver it.

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Dreaming of Paris.......Tuscan Rose

First off......WOW! I had no idea you'd all like that Baby Wipe Swipe card that I created and posted the other day! Thank you for all the lovely comments!

And now.......This was the stamp that started my love affair with Tuscan Rose stamps. Last July, I was looking online for an Eiffel Tower stamp. Davy and I had taken a trip in October of 2005 to visit some very dear friends in Belgium. While we were there, we took an overnight trip to Paris (it was about 3.5 hours drive each way). We spent both days in Paris by walking just about EVERY WHERE! We saw all the touristy sites and had a fabulous time.

I started looking online for a stamp that I could use in some altered projects and couldn't find anything I liked, or it just wasn't big enough.

That's when I stumbled onto Ebay and found this stamp here. And that's when I found Patty from Tuscan Rose.

I fell in love with Patty's stamp designs and her collage sheets. I have a huge folder full of Tuscan Rose stamps and love using them in altered projects, but I also love using them on cards, as well.

I started with Perfect Plum cardstock for the cardbase and swiped my Perfect Plum ink pad all over the cardstock to give it some roughed up texture.

I have a pad of really great 8x8" pad of Vintage collage papers from "Me & My Big Ideas" and took out a piece of brown paper that had some trees on it, as well as a green patterned paper that has a VERY light harlequin print on it. I crumpled up the brown paper, then uncrumpled it and swiped my Creamy Caramel ink pad over it to pick up some ink on the creases of the paper. I tore the edges and then mounted it on top of a torn piece of the green patterned paper. I mounted all of this onto my Perfect Plum card.''

I stamped the Eiffel Tower stamp from the Collage Fragments Plate (#10) of stamps onto a piece of Creamy Caramel cardstock with Palette Hybrid ink (black). I trimmed around the cardstock to get close to the edges of the image and then mounted it on top of Close to Cocoa cardstock.

To give the images a little bit of color, I used my Stampin' Pastels and the little applicators that they came with. Just a little bit of color here and there was all it took to bring this image to life.

I found some little photo corner stickers in a vintage scrapbooking kit that I've been hoarding for a few years and placed those on three of the corners. I found some really nice olive colored twill tape (from Bobbin Ribbon) and tied that in a knot around one of the oval spiral clips that comes in the Antique Brass HodgePodge Hardware Kit and then slipped that onto the corner of the Eiffel Tower image. I mounted this on top of the patterned paper.

To finish the card off, I stamped the words, "she dreamed of being a rose in Paris," (from the same Collage Fragments Plate of stamps from Tuscan Rose) in the bottom right corner with Palette Hybrid black ink.

And now............I'm dreaming of being back in Paris. I'm not a city girl AT ALL, but I fell in love with that city in the short amount of time we were there.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Go, See, Do.....a scrapbook page

I've had projects that I've been working on for a couple of weeks now and needed to finish them. This scrapbook page is one of those projects. (click on picture for larger view)

I took this photo for another purpose but then that purpose ended up being invalid. I still wanted to use it, so I changed tactics and came up with this 12 x 12 page. 

This page is going into my "Me" album. It's basically on what my mind wanders to ALL THE TIME. What I want to do.....Go, See, Do.

A little background on the items in this photo....

Zach loves maps and is fascinated by globes. Actually, Davy and I are, too. In fact, my grandfather was a map maker for the government. My mom used to play a game called, "Where are we going to live tomorrow?" It was game in the midst of moving 6 times in the course of 3 years. She would jokingly take out an atlas, flip through the pages with her eyes closed and pick a page blind. Then she'd open her eyes and we'd look to see where we thought God was going to drop us next.

We'd been thinking that we'd like to get Zach a globe, but they were a bit on the pricey side. We found a small one at the dollar store, but it was actually a pencil sharpener (and did I mention that it was small???). Considering that it was a dollar store find, it didn't hold up well. My parents were here last fall and my dad went out to the dumpster to put the trash out and came back in the house with a globe. Our neighbor out front was moving and cleaning out and dumped a perfectly good globe in the trash. It's one of those gloves that tries to look antiquish. My dad washed it up and it's been sitting on the organ in our living room ever since. It really compliments the travel decor in our living room.

There's actually two passports in this photo. I have one opened up. This passport was the one I got when I was 14. I spent my summer in Uganda, East Africa (along with a week in Switzerland) in 1991 on a missions/work trip when I was 14. I was gone for a little over 2 months. I have some pretty nifty stamps in that passport. The other passport (the closed one) is the one that I got in December of 1999 so that Davy and I could take a 2 1/2 week trip to Ecuador for a missions/work trip in January/Feb. of 2000. We've since put the passports we got that time around to VERY good use.

That first trip to Africa was what started the passion I have to go, see and do and because of this, I wanted both passports in this picture. I turned the globe so that it showed the continent of Africa, for the very same reason.

For this page, I used the new Flourishes stamps from Tuscan Rose with White Craft ink.  I absolutely adore the look of white craft ink on darker cardstock. And as most of you know by now, one of my favorite colors is Mellow Moss. I used the Mellow Moss craft pad to swipe around the edges of the cardstock to darken them up a bit.

My friend, Jen, tweaked up the photo that I used on this page. She went black and white and then added some muted color in for the globe and even more muted color on me. This made for a great antique look.

The torn patterned paper corners (and the green paper mat under the photo) are from the Old World Stack (from Die Cuts with a View). The brads were something I picked up from a scrapbooking store up north and split with a friend (I'm not sure what brand they were, but I'm thinking they may have been Karen Foster). I "grunged" them up with White and Mellow craft ink. I also used the White craft ink to swipe around the edges of my photo to soften the edge up a bit.

I covered chipboard letters (from Making Memories) with patterned paper from the same Old World Stack and sanded the edges. I used the LetterPress Alphabet set with White Craft ink for the other letters. The brown patterned paper that I used for both the bottom mat for the photo and the little journaling blocks (which I swiped around the edges with White craft ink) is from Hot off the Press. I used the retired Euphoria Alphabet (from Stampin' Up) with Chocolate Chip ink to do the journaling.

Now that I think about it, I might just make this the first page in the "Dreams & Destinations" album that I've been thinking about starting for almost 5 years now. It seems to fit that theme so well.

One of my favorite quotes: " We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment."  ~Hilaire Belloc

And what were the other projects I've been working on? Well, you can get a sneak peek here and then click on over to my Etsy Shop to see more of them. :)

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

 

 

I'm really diggin' these Flourishes!

I just can't get enough of these Flourishes stamps from Tuscan Rose. I LOVE the look of the flourishes done with White craft ink on dark cardstock. It's so chic, so vintage looking. I am SO diggin' them!

This card was SO incredibly quick to make.

I used Close to Cocoa cardstock for the card base. I then swiped my Close to Cocoa ink pad across the cardstock a few time and went heavy on the edges and corners. Yes, I know, I do this a lot....but it really IS one of my favorite QUICK techniques to pull off. It makes me feel brilliant. (*conjures up images of Molly Shannon in the movie, "Superstar"*)

I stamped the big corner flourish with Whisper White craft ink in the upper left corner and then 3 small corner flourishes in the 3 remaining corners with the same craft ink.

I tied a piece of pink polk-dotted sheer ribbon (Dots, Dashes & Checks brand) around the front of the card, secured it with a double knot and trimmed the edges close to the knot.

I layered some pink and chocolate prima flowers together and secured them with gold brads. I adhered them to the ribbon with Glue Dots.

To finish off the card, I used the "delight in life" stamp from the retired "Delight in Life" Sell-a-bration set that Stampin' Up offered during Jan. and Feb. I stamped this with Whisper White craft ink, as well.

Super easy, super fast and super shabby chic!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Free as a butterfly.....a Tuscan Rose card

My Tuscan Rose goodies arrived last week and I was anxious to get started. My Creative Cling arrived on Friday, so I was able to mount my stamps before I left for the stamping retreat on Friday. I got back on Sunday afternoon and FINALLY yesterday, I had a chance to play (in the midst of cutting out OODLES of cardstock for an event where we made a total of 100 cards).

I was excited to put the Flourishes stamps to use. I was HOPE HOPE HOPING that Patty would send me that plate of stamps first. I couldn't WAIT to get my hands on them! Patty also sent me the Butterflies 3 collage sheet and I was anxious to cut into it.

I wanted to go for a very  bohemian feel with this card and love how it turned out.

I drew my color inspiration (yeesh, now I'm starting to sound like David Bromstad! haha!) from the colors of the butterfly. I used Tempting Turquoise cardstock and swiped with it with Tempting Turquoise ink. I swiped a strip of Certainly Celery cardstock with Tempting Turquoise ink as well. I stamped the upper left and bottom right corners of the card with a small corner flourish stamp with Taken with Teal ink and also stamped a long flourish stamp along the Certainly Celery strip with Taken with Teal ink.

I inked up a big corner flourish and stamped them in the empty corners of the card with VersaMark ink, then sprinkled it with White Puffs Embossing powder (by Ranger), and heated it with my Embossing gun. The Puffs powder gives more of a grainy and puffed look than the shiny and raised look that most powders give.

I stamped the "free as a butterfly" stamp (from the Collage Fragments plate) with Basic Black ink (I'm so stoked that I have a ton of Patty's images from purchasing them last summer, so I have all kinds of fun stuff to play with).

I haven't had many opportunities to use the little pale green brads from Making Memories (in the pastel pack), but this card was perfect for it. I used my little paper-piercing pad, template and piercing tool (from the Crafter's Tool Kit) to pierce holes in my cardstock and keep them equal distance from each other and straight.

The butterfly is one of my favorite parts of this card. Patty's Collage Sheets are amazing! The detail in the images is unbelievable!

I cut the butterfly out using my Paper Snips, which are great for fine detail cutting. Then I worked and rolled the wings around the handle of my stylus, though you could also use a pen and get the same effect. I then bent the wings up on both sides of the body and adhered JUST the body down to the Certainly Celery cardstock strip. This effect gives a HUGE amount of dimension and makes it look like the butterfly is REAL. :)

I've been working on some really fun stuff lately that you'll be seeing really soon.

I've got so many projects on my "wish list" to do......oh to have more time. :)

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Exciting News!

I have some exciting news to share with you today! :)

I'm a member on the NEW Tuscan Rose Design Team!

Last August, I was looking for an Eiffel Tower stamp. I found the PERFECT one through Tuscan Rose. Click here to see it ----> Collage Fragments  It was then that I fell in love with Patty's products. Click here to see my first post about Tuscan Rose ----> I think I'm in love...

Ever since then, I've been following Patty's blog over at River Bench Ranch Studio. Patty is an amazing artist and I look forward to her new journal pages every day. Her creativity and artistic energy astounds me. I'm always in awe when I see what Patty comes up with.

Through a quick series of emails earlier this week, the Tuscan Rose Design Team was born. I am SO excited to be on this team! I can't wait to get my first package of products to work with next week, though I already own quite a stash of Patty's stamps, so it's not like I don't have anything to work with yet. :) I'm absolutely over the moon with excitement with the first package that she's sending because she's already told me what's going to be in it. :) oooooh! Can't WAIT to start playing with it!

Click here to see all of Patty's great stuff ----> Tuscan Rose

I guarantee that you'll fall in love, too!

There are 4 other girls on the new Tuscan Rose Design Team and you can check them all out by going to Patty's blog and clicking on their blog links. Click here -----> Tuscan Rose Design Team

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama