Stampin' Mama: A mama that stamps

Brayered Butterfly card

As you can see from this adventurous card, I AM feeling better, though not completely "out of the woods," yet. But WOW, it felt good to be back at my crafting desk again. I've missed sitting in that seat and looking out over the fields the mountains across the lake in the distance. Sure, I can look out my windows and see the mountains any time (as long as it's not hazy out) but it's not quite the same as when I'm sitting at my desk and doing something I truly love and enjoy.

My Girly-girl is home sick from school today, so she's been crafting and drawing in my studio right along with me. Tovah-puppy has been sleeping on the feet of whichever one of us isn't moving the most. Apparently, crafting will help make any sick soul feel better. :)

I have been aching to get this new 3-Step Butterflies set (from Kitchen Sink Stamps) inked up and put to paper. I absolutely ADORE butterflies and I decided to try my hand (and brayer) at the "Zindorf Technique", as it's come to be known. Michelle knows how to work magic with a brayer and I have been inspired by her art for a long time. I'm starting to get the hang of it, though it will be a long time before I can wield that brayer with pizazz that she does.

When I took out the 3-Step Butterflies set, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I wanted to brayer, sponge and emboss like Michelle. I'm so excited with how this card turned out and hope that it does Michelle proud. :)

The thing that really gives so many of Michelle's cards that extra POP is the white gel pen around her flourishes. I gave that at try with the flourishes that I used from the Backgrounds & Borders set. I stamped the flourishes in black and then highlighted them with a white gel pen. I LOVE this effect!

The sentiment that I added comes from the new Vintage Words set and I stamped that in black on top of Tempting Turquoise cardstock and sponged around it with Basic Black ink. I adhered the sentiment on my card front and then accented it with a white photo turn, anchored by a light blue brad.

In case you're wondering, the colors that I used for the different steps on this card are as follows:

Butterfly:
Step 1) Apricot Appeal
Step 2) Pumpkin Pie
Step 3) Basic Black

Brayered and sponged background:
Step 1) Tempting Turquoise (brayered)
Step 2) Brilliant Blue (sponged)
Step 3) Basic Black (sponged)

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Oh nuts! - 3-step Squirrel Set

This little squirrel made me giggle as soon as Maria showed us the new sets that just debuted from Kitchen Sink Stamps. Probably because I've seen the Geico commercial one too many times where the squirrels try to freak out the driver of the car coming down the road. That commercial cracks me up every time I watch it. I love it when the squirrels pump fists with each other.

This squirrel comes from the new 3-Step Autumn Squirrel set. I still can't get over how Maria creates these amazing 3-D looking images. Maybe I'm easily amused but I love putting the first and second images on top of each other and then putting that third one to see it all come together. It gets me every time.

I used Mellow Moss for my card base (LOVE that color) and added some subtle leaves in two of the corners. For those leaves, I only used the 2nd and 3rd steps of the image rather than using all 3. I stamped the 2nd image with Mellow Moss first and then went over it with the 3rd image in Always Artichoke.

For the squirrel, I stamped him on a piece of Very Vanilla in 3 steps. Here's the colors I used for each step:

1. Creamy Caramel
2. Close to Cocoa
3. Chocolate Chip

I mounted this on top of Creamy Caramel and then on top of a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock. There are pop-dots separating the Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip layers.

My dear friend Bee (from Dare 2 Bee Creative) sent me some cute printed ribbon last summer and one of the prints was PERFECT for this card and stamp set! Look at how well the leaves on the ribbon coordinate with my cardstock and ink colors! It was like it was tailor made for this card!

I adore the greetings in this set. Especially the "Oh nuts!" Is that cute or WHAT? Both of the greetings you see on this card came from the 3-Step Autumn Squirrel set and I used Always Artichoke ink to stamp them. It's such a cute way to send a belated birthday card, don't you think?

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Bake it, Make it & Take it - Zucchini Bread & Interactive Packaging!

Hard to believe, but it's been since JUNE that my mom and I teamed up to do a Bake it, Make it & Take it post. I've been saying that I was going to use my zucchinis for a while now to make zucchini bread but there has been so much going on that it didn't get done until yesterday. The great thing about zucchini is that it lasts what seems like forever!

If you're new to my blog and have never seen one of our BIMITI posts, let me introduce you to my mom. Her name is Donna. She's the best mom ever. She and Dad live on their 40 foot sailboat year round in Rhode Island. My mom is amazing cook, chef and baker and you can check out her awesome blog over at ---> Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases

We like to team up and do baking and packaging posts. For the BIMITI posts, Mom sends me one of her recipes and I make whatever delectable goody she's sent my way. Then, I create a cute and innovative way to package the goody (but not before I've made a full batch and done complete taste and quality control on it in the form of eating my fill) and then share it here on my blog.

For this post, I used my  mom's amazing Most Moist and Delicious Zucchini Bread Recipe.

If you garden and you're like me, you have a ton of zucchini just waiting to be used. One of the best things about the summer for me is zucchini bread! I can't get enough of it.....and I love mine with chocolate chips in it. Heck, I love just about anything with chocolate chips in it.

The recipe that my mom gives makes 6 large loaves, so I cut the recipe in half and made 6 mini loaves.

You all know how much I love to bake and show up on the doorsteps of my neighbors. Well, with moving, we have all new neighbors. The house on the other side of us just sold so we'll have new neighbors moving in some time next month and I'll have more people to bring stuff to. My daughter has been baking up a storm, too. It's in her blood. She can't help loving to be in the kitchen. And poker night is every Wednesday night at our house so we bake up a storm for that, too.

When we lived at our old place, we had a big veggie garden. Our landlords were really kind about letting us come back and harvest the garden until the season is over. They knew that we put a lot of time, money and energy into it and moving in the middle of the summer is not the best time to leave a garden. We're so thankful that we can still reap the bounty of what we planted there until the garden goes to sleep for the winter season. We only live a mile and a half from where we used to leave and Davy rides his bike to work right past the house every day so he can check in on it and pick from it on his way home. One of the couples that lived at the apartments is helping to take care of the garden and keeping an eye on it. I got a call yesterday telling me that they had harvested all the onions and had cucumbers and zucchinis waiting for us. I stopped in today to pick beans and pick up some of the harvest they'd picked and found that Toby had spent a good portion of yesterday evening weeding! It's been so wet here and we've been so busy that the job of weeding has gone by the wayside for us. What a sweetheart she is!

I wrapped up one of the loaves of zucchini bread that I made so that I could have Davy drop it off tomorrow on his way to work.

I wanted to do something different for the packaging this time. I wanted to make it "interactive." Whenever I get something that is packaged so creatively, I always feel bad about taking the packaging apart. I often wonder if the people that I give these packaged creations to feel the same way that I do. I decided that I would create packaging for this bread that could be used even after the packaging was taken apart and the bread was long gone.

I used a ribbon to tie around the bread but the stamped focal point can be used later on as a book mark or tucked into a little flower pot......and I'm sure that other creative ways to use it could be found, as well.

I used the new Pretty Tear Drops set from Kitchen Sink Stamps. I love the brilliance of this set! It can be used to create all sorts of things. Candle flames, flowers, butterflies, dragonflies......the possibilities are endless!

I stamped the flower petal six times on a piece of Soft Sky cardstock with Versamark ink and then embossed them with Irridescent Ice embossing powder. I like the tone on tone effect with just a bit of sparkle. I cut each of the petals out and mounted them on a piece of Wild Wasabi cardstock to form a flower shape. I then trimmed the Wasabi cardstock so there was a border around the flower petals. I added a yellow button in the center of the flower.

To make the flower into a bookmark, I wrapped a popsicle stick with Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon. I taped the stick to the back of the flower and then slipped the flower under the ribbon. It's easily removed from under the ribbon wrapped around the bread.

I wanted to add a little "thank you" in there somewhere but didn't want to visually overwhelm the packaging so I stamped the word, "Thankful," (from the new Vintage Words set - also from Kitchen Sink Stamps) on Soft Sky cardstock with Bordering Blue ink and cut it out in a thin strip and notched one of the ends to make it look like a paper ribbon. I attached it to the ribbon-covered popsicle stick with a mini-glue dot.

I can totally see myself making more of these flowers to use as little gifts, not just attached to a loaf of zucchini bread.......but with all the zucchinis I have right now, I might as well give them a loaf, too!

Here's another quick link to the Awesome Zucchini Bread Recipe

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Swirly, sparkly heart-bursts!

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in all the "extras" that it's nice to go back to the basics now and again.

I challenged myself to use one color of ink and one color of cardstock (base color). To be honest, I sat at my desk for a good 15 minutes trying to think of what I could do with Real Red. I didn't want to just have a flat card, so I punched it up a little bit with dimension and sparkly embossing powder.

I used Real Red for my cardbase and then Whisper White for the cardstock layer on top.

I used the Swirly Hearts & Stars set from Kitchen Sink Stamps to create what I like to call a "heart burst" (because it's made of hearts, not stars - come on, laugh....you know that was cute!) in the center of the cardstock with Real Red ink. I adhered a piece of black gingham ribbon across the center for a little bit of "pop."

I then painted a chipboard circle with red acrylic paint and gave it a few coats. Right after I put on the last coat of paint, I sprinkled it with Irridescent Ice embossing powder while the paint was still wet. I then embossed it to give it lots of sparkle and shine. This was adhered in the center of the heart burst.

I used the same small swirly heart stamp to do 3 corners of the white cardstock. As I was stamping those, though, I first inked my stamp up with Versamark ink (you can also use clear embossing ink) and then inked on top of that with Real Red ink and THEN stamped it onto my cardstock. I did this so that it would turn the Real Red ink into a sticky ink so that it would hold the embossing powder. If you do this, you need to make sure that you clean the stamp off after each stamping so that it doesn't stain your Versamark pad for the next inking. I embossed each of the corner swirls with Irrisdescent Ice embossing powder.

I did the same thing for the heart in the middle of the chipboard. I wanted that to shine, as well. I cut that out with a pair of precision tip scissors (the SU Paper Snips work great for this!) and mounted it on top of the chipboard circle with pop-dots.

Both the heart and the "Love" greeting come from the Love & Luck set (from Kitchen Sink Stamps).

And oooooooh......this is the first card I've made in my brand new studio! It's so much fun creating in here! Now I can't wait to share it with other people!!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

15% off at Kitchen Sink Stamps!

Maria is having fun over in her air conditioned craft room, stamping away, and she wants YOU to have some fun, too!

Through July 25th (tomorrow!), she's offering 15% off in the Kitchen Sink Store!

Use the promotion code HOT when you check out!

2-4-6-8 box.....Kitchen Sink Style

It seems like ages since I've made a "2-4-6-8 box." I remember when I first learned this at a Stampin' UP Regional seminar what seems like eons ago. I showed this at all my workshops back then. Sometimes I forget that I still have these old tricks up my sleeve and that they can be resurrected with all new and exciting stamps, papers and accessories. It makes it feel like a fresh coat of paint or a make-over for an old stand-by.

Speaking of old tricks.....I often forget what a hot ticket item colored wire used to be. Shhhh....don't tell anyone but you'd be surprised how many old trick items I have sitting in my bins that I forget about. Yes, I hoard. If you don't know that about me by now, you might as well learn it now and remember it. *wink*

I adore patterned paper but I don't remember ever making a 2-4-6-8 box with patterned paper. You'd think that after years of papercrafting that I would have figured this out. I guess you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. *snicker*

I used some of the Summer Picnic Designer series paper....it's no longer available, but many different kinds of paper could be substituted for this project. I did a tall 2-4-6-8 box. All you need to do is score an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper at 2, 4, 6 and 8 inches across the 8.5 inch side. Then score 2 inches up from the bottom of the paper on the 11 inch side. Cut along the bottom 2 inch squares from the edge of the paper up to the 2 inch scored mark. The little 1/2 x 2 inch piece gets cut off at the end. The 1/2 inch long lip along the long side of the paper gets adhered to the opposite side. The little 2 inch blocks on the bottom get folded in and adhered to each other.

To close the box, I brought the top edges together and pinched them clothes. I used my rectangle punch to punch slots in the edges. These were perfect for wrapping some wire around and holding it in place.

I used a coordinating piece of patterned paper to wrap around the box before I pinched it.

The star was stamped on a coordinating piece of orange patterned paper (all of the patterned papers are from the Summer Picnic pack). I inked up the star stamp (from the Playful Stars set by Kitchen Sink Stamps) with Versamark ink and then inked it up (with the Versamark ink on it still) with Pumpkin Pie ink and then stamped it on the orange paper. This allowed me to have a darker orange on my paper while still having it be sticky (since I only have this color ink in dye based ink) so that my embossing powder can stick to it. I used Iridescent Ice embossing powder over the star image so that it would give a lot of sparkle. I did the same technique for the greeting on the tag (which is from the Ready 4 Any Holiday set from Kitchen Sink Stamps).

I cut around the star to leave a little bit of a border of the orange paper showing and then mounted it on a piece of Bashful Blue cardstock and trimmed around that to leave a border. I curled a bunch of lengths of orange wire around the handle of my X-Acto knife and adhered them to the back of the star with pop-dots. I then mounted the star on top of the red patterned paper. The pop-dots hold the wire curlies in place but also add a little bit of dimension to the box by popping it up off the red strip.

This type of boxes fits all sorts of wonderful gifts. You can put candles, chocolates, a scarf, a check, a tie, cash, jewlery, etc. in these boxes. They're great for small gifts to hand out to teachers, co-workers, other moms, etc.

I've got a give-away coming up this week so be on the lookout! I had wanted to get it up on my blog before we left to spend the weekend on my parents' new boat in RI, but it never happened. I promise to get it up this week. It's a good one!!!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Big Birthday Candle card - Kitchen Sink Stamps

Today has been hot and muggy and I sat at my desk trying to find my muse and some inspiration. I felt so tired (the heat will do that to you, apparently) and I laid my head down on my desk for a while. I finally picked my head up and told myself that I needed to pull out some stamp sets and find a new and unusual way to use them. That was my challenge to my self.

I took out the new Plaid Plus stamp set and stared at it for a while and tried to think of a way that I could use it that wouldn't fit the norm of what everyone else would think to use it as. I looked at some of the other Kitchen Sink Stamps I had to see if inspiration would hit. When I saw the long thick double line image from the Plaid Plus and the petals from the Pretty Petals set, I suddenly thought of birthday candles. So, that's exactly what I made with these two sets.

I started with a Real Red cardbase and then added a Pumpkin Pie layer, which I punched on opposite corners with a corner rounder punch. I then cut a Whisper White layer and punched the corners to match the Pumpkin Pie layer.

I stamped the double line image four times using Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Wild Wasabi and Blue Bayou ink. I stamped the "happy birthday" greeting (from the Never a Loss 4 Words set) across the candles  using Basic Black ink.

The flames were done using the outline petal image from the Pretty Petals set. I stamped them on a piece of patterned paper (a polka-dotted light yellow paper scrap that I've had hanging around for a few years) with Basic Black. Then I cut them out, leaving just a tad bit of a yellow paper border around the outline.

I didn't want my card looking "flat" so I mounted the flames above the candles with pop-dots for some added dimension.

I'm am REALLY digging this design and now I'm thinking of all new ways to use those petals, along with those double thick lines.

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Little Slugger Card.....3-Step Baseball from Kitchen Sink Stamps

When I saw the new 3-Step Baseball set from Kitchen Sink Stamps, the first thing that came to mind is sepia toned pictures of the baseball greats from years ago. Those old mitts worn from years of playing, the dirt stained uniforms of days gone by, the little boys sitting in the bleachers with their mitts in their hands just waiting for that home run ball to come flying into the stands.

I wanted my card to look like what I think of baseball to be. I never watch the modern games, but I love to watch movies that involve stories of those good old fashioned games long before my time. I knew that meant I was going to need to work with lots and lots of browns. It happens to be one of my favorite colors so I was really looking forward to inking this set up.

The 3-step image makes this card come alive with memories of those old games. Using the brown shades of ink give this card the vintage feel I was looking to create.

I started off with a Close to Cocoa card base and swiped my ink pad of the same color around the outside edge of the card.

For the panel on the left side, I swiped a piece of Creamy Caramel cardstock with the same ink. On top of that, I mounted a piece of patterned paper from Basic Grey. I roughed up the edges of both with the distressing tool from the SU Cutter Kit. I wrapped a piece of natural hemp twine around the bottom and crossed it into an "X." I used a little bit of tape on the backside of the cardstock to hold the twine in place. I added a couple of mini gold brads on either side for a little bit shine.

I stamped my mitt image on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock. The colors I used for the different steps are as follows:

Step 1: Creamy Caramel
Step 2: Close to Cocoa (stamped off once on scrap paper)
Step 3: Close to Cocoa (fully inked)
Step 4: Basic Brown

I swiped my Creamy Caramel ink pad around the edges of the vanilla cardstock and then used my distressing tool to rough up the edges. I mounted it on a piece of Creamy Caramel, which I also swiped with the same color of ink and distressed the edges. 

I mounted the mitt on top of the card with pop-dots for some dimension.

The greeting for this card also comes from the 3-Step Baseball set. The words are separate images so all I had to do was position them one on top of the other on an acrylic block, ink them up with Basic Black ink and stamp it onto the card. This was really helpful because of the limited space I had to work in.

This set is great for making masculine cards for both the little boys AND the big boys in your life that love baseball! And just think of the great scrapbooking you can do with all those Little League photos (and older boys baseball pictures) when you pair them with this set!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

May Freedom Ring.....Kitchen Sink Stamps style

I'm on a patriotic kick this week! Of course, with stamp sets like the new Playful Stars set, it's easy to come up with great ideas!

I'm also really digging the Real Red and Bashful Blue combo for patriotic cards. It's a little softer than the Real Red and Brilliant Blue combo that most people choose to work with.

I also don't have any Brilliant Blue cardstock big enough to work with for a layer on the Real Red cardstock.....so the next color to go for was Bashful Blue. I did that with yesterday's Star Spangled Card post and thought, "hey, this looks really good with Bashful Blue!" So, here I go again....using it today on this card.

I created the starry background on the Whisper White cardstock using the 4 smallest stars that come in the Playful Stars set. To make this really easy, I stuck all 4 stars on my acrylic block in a diamond pattern and then inked it up with Real Red ink and stamped it onto my carstock. I reinked and stamped a few times to get my entire background. I didn't have to worry about even placement of the stars because I had them all mounted on the block at once. It was like having my own custom background stamp.

I like my stars to have lots of bling and sparkle. At first, I was just going to emboss the images with clear embossing powder and then realized I had an almost new container of Iridescent Ice embossing powder in my drawer. It's not that I don't like using it, it's just that for quite a few years, I didn't have any and kept forgetting that SU carried it. Now that I have it, I forget that it's there and that I can actually use it! I stamped my star images on Real Red and Bashful Blue cardstock with Versamark ink and then embossed them with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I cut the images out and popped them up on the Whisper White cardstock with pop-dots.

The greeting is from the new Ready 4 Any Holiday set. I stamped this on a scrap piece of Real Red cardstock with Versamark ink and embossed it with Black embossing powder. I cut above and below the greeting with a pair of pinking edge scissors. This got popped up on the Whisper White cardstock with pop-dots, as well.

Have a lovely evening and a wonderful week!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Have a star spangled day - Emboss Resist

I keep forgetting that July starts on Tuesday! Is it just me or did June go by really fast for the rest of you?

This is the first year in a VERY long time that we'll be gone for the 4th of July weekend. My kids were disappointed when they heard we weren't going to be in town for the town fireworks. I explained to them that we'll be camping and, while they were excited about it, they were STILL disappointed about the camping. I asked them, "What would you rather do? Spend 4 days at Taylor Pond or spend the whole weekend at home just to see an hour of fireworks?" Girly voted for camping, Zach voted for fireworks. I had to laugh at them because they were totally typical answers and I fully predicted them. Girly can see the value in spending a whole weekend camping while Zach just looks at the hear and now....he sometimes can't see the big picture. I struck a compromise with them. I told them we'd bring sparklers along so they can have their own little version of fireworks. Zach wasn't convinced at the time, but I'm sure once he's out there, he'll forget all about the fireworks happening without him. ;)

Anyway..........I finally got a chance to ink up these new stamps from Kitchen Sink Stamps. The three stamp sets that I used on this card are perfect for the patriotic holiday coming up. They're also great for scrapbook pages that show off the pictures you take this 4th of July holiday (or Canada Day pictures for those of our friends living north of the border).

Sometimes I get so caught up in trying new techniques and creating my own techniques that I forget all the "oldies but goodies" out there. When I first started stamping 7 years ago, one of the techniques that I fell head over heels with was the Emboss Resist technique. It's such a simple technique, but when you play around with it, the effects you can get are stunning!

It's refreshing to go back to the things I first learned while stamping and enjoy playing with those techniques all over again. It gives me a renewed passion for why I love this art form in the first place!

I used the Playful Stars set for the large star in the middle of the cardstock (Whisper White). I then stamped one of the swirls from the Swirly Hearts & Stars set in between each of the points of the star. I stamped these in Versamark ink and then embossed the images with Clear embossing powder.

After the embossed images cooled down, I inked up a sponge with Real Red ink and rubbed it in a circle around the large star. I then inked up another sponge with Bashful Blue ink and rubbed it in a circle around the red ink. The harder you rub into the cardstock, the more ink you're going to transfer onto the cardstock and the more your image is going to pop out.

I inked up a third sponge with Blue Bayou ink and sponged that around the top and bottom edges. I didn't plan to use the Blue Bayou ink when I first started with this card but I felt like the card needed a darker blue and when I was done with it, it really looked like fireworks going off in the night sky. The Blue Bayou gives you the feeling of the night sky.

I wanted to add a little fireworks sort of sparkle, so I applied some dots of 2-Way glue around the outside of the swirly image and sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds glitter on them. The glitter took it to a whole new level. LOVE IT!

I mounted all of this on top of Bashful Blue cardstock and then on top of a Real Red card base.

The greeting was done with Basic Black ink using one of the images from the new Ready 4 Any Holiday set. This set fills in with the holidays that you don't often find greetings for.

Enjoy your last day of June!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama