Stamp outside the...paper

This was an experiment for sure, but I can't wait to get back to our local store, All Fired Up, and practice some more. All Fired Up is a place where you go to paint your own ceramic pieces. They provide all of the paint, brushes, clean-up, and then fire the piece for you. When the piece had been fired I brought it home and added some soft felt "feet", and I now have a great coaster to set my drinks on.

Now the great thing is, this is another fun way to make use of my stamps. I used one of my favorite images from the Kamon clear stamp set by Kodomo Inc. It was actually pretty easy once I got the hang of it. I started by painting 3 coats of a very light yellow base, then chose a dark grey to do my stamping with. To stamp, I simply poured some of the dark grey paint into a piece of Ranger Inkssentials Cut-n-Dry Foam. The key, I discovered, is not to have to much paint in the foam, if it is too wet it won't work very well. To finish it up, I simply painted a border around the tile. The shop did the rest, and in a few days I got to go pick it up. Fun huh!

It's Officially Summer Vacation!

In celebration of Matt (my husband) and Hannah (my daughter) finishing their last days of school, here is a refreshing, summery card for you.

This card was created by stamping all the oranges, masking them, then stamping the background. I love this background stamp by Kodomo Inc. The stamp is only 1 5/8" square, but it is so well designed that it is easy to line up the edges and create a seamless background.

Supplies used:
Kodomo Inc. - Oranges (Suiboku: Sumie-E 002),
Backgrounds (Asian Background I and Asian Background II)
Impression Obsession - Relax and Enjoy stamp
Tsukineko - Tuxedo Black Momento Ink
Judikins - Eclipse Masking Tape
Kraft Card (4 1/4" x 5 1/2")
Pink Cardstock
Button Brads (unknown)

New at Kodomo Inc.

Kodomo Inc. has posted a couple of new project ideas designed by yours truly. Head over to Kodomo's website to check it out.

Night Pier Card

I received this beautiful stamp from Impression Obsession at a class I took in San Francisco. I finally made some time to play with it.

If you have any interest in learning how this card was made, continue reading this paragraph...if not, just skip down to the next one. I stamped the image 4 different times, once each on regular matte cardstock, acetate, brown cardstock, and glossy white cardstock. The sky and sand were colored using Distress Ink and the Blending Tool. The shiny water was cut out of the acetate, and was colored using Aqua and Pearl Mixative Alcohol Inks. The pearlized quality didn't really show much in the photo, but is really neat in real life. The pier itself was embossed with Distress Embossing Powder before being cut out and layered over the other pieces. Lastly, the moon and the shell were painted using various new Light and Bright colors of Ranger Alcohol Ink. I used Matte Accents over the outside of the shell to make it more like a real shell...just the "inside" remains shiny.

We have been enjoying life around here lately. Up until a couple days ago, weather was sunny and beautiful. We were getting some important jobs done around here, like replanting our lawn. Now the storms and rain we are getting are giving the new grass some important time to establish itself, and it's starting to actually look like a lawn again. As I sit here, the birds are greeting each other very noisily as they feast on worms.

School is winding down, end of the year parties and field trips are in full swing, and Hannah is loving all of the extra excitement. We'll see how she handles summer at home this year. I have a feeling she'll be good and ready when school starts again in the fall.

Noah...well he is spending all of his time and energy growing. Seriously, like a weed! One day none of his pants fit (luckily he had some shorts, and it was warm weather), then shortly after that most of his shoes didn't fit anymore. When I went to measure his feet, he had skipped a size and I had to buy him size 10's. Hannah had times where she suddenly grew too, but not the extreme growth spurts that Noah has. A couple days ago I went and bought him size 4 jeans, and when he wore them yesterday, they really didn't look big on him at all. How can watching your kids grow up make you so proud and so sad at the same time?

Chatterbox and more

Hi everyone!
I'm back from a fantastic trip to San Francisco. I was privileged to travel with Stampin' Cat Studios fabulous owner, Lisa, to a trade show.

We had a great time attending classes by some of my favorite companies, getting familiar with some products that were either new, or new to me, and spending lots of money (mostly Stampin' Cat Studio's money...gotta' love helping someone else spend big).

My highlights of the trip: finally learning to work with Ten Seconds Studios products (LOVED it, by the way, yes, it will be showing up in class very soon), finally getting my hands on a new Alcohol Ink Fillable Pen, playing with the Copic Airbrush system, and playing around with some fabulous new product by Chatterbox.

We didn't know going into this class that the project was going to be a couple of scrapbook layouts. Now neither Lisa or I are scrapbookers, and we weren't really interested in making layouts. The teacher was so gracious to let us use the fabulous product from their new...well...Fabulous Collection to do our own thing.

Here are a couple of cards that I made during that class time. Let me just say, they named this collection appropriately for sure. I absolutely love it! It even has it's own stamp set! As well as an amazing set of die cuts...seriously, the picture on the link doesn't begin to do it justice. They are beautiful, and the cork die cuts...I don't even know what to say, they are so fun.

I had a blast playing with the products, and I hardly made a dent in it. I have so much left to play with, so be prepared to see some more of it in the coming months.

Everything on those two cards except for the twine, and the jump rings...oh, and the ink I stamped with, is from the Fabulous Collection by Chatterbox.Last but not least, check this out. Matt came home the other day and said, "get the camera, you have to see this rainbow." It must have just been perfect conditions, because I have lived in Oregon all my life, and have seen some beautiful rainbows, but this one was above and beyond. It was the most vibrant rainbow I have ever seen. Matt took the camera out and started snapping away. He got some really nice pictures. I just couldn't help thinking about how amazingly creative our God is. I'm glad God loves beautiful things too, I must take after Him.

Catching Up

Well hi again everyone! This is going to be a random post, catching you up on what's been going on in my life recently. I realize spring break has been over for awhile now, but I'm just now getting to sharing with you what we did with our vacation.

We have some wonderful friends in California that welcomed us to their house for a whole week. We had a fabulous time with them, enjoying the wonderful sunshine, beaches, good food and bonus...visiting Disneyland and California Adventure. I thought I'd just include the above picture since this was the whole reason that our son was so excited to go on vacation! Lightning McQueen! Getting his picture taken with him, seeing him in the Pixar Play Parade, and getting a new Lightning McQueen toy made Noah's day...scratch that...the whole trip. He wasn't even smiling in the picture because he was just so in awe.

Next event: Noah started getting sick toward the end of our trip, and by the time we stopped at Matt's parents' house on our way home, Noah REALLY wasn't feeling well. He snuggled in with Daddy, and was content to just sit there and pet Poppa and Mommas new little kittens. This kitten in particular settled right in and seemed to enjoy just cuddling up.

Of course, Noah's sickness was followed by Hannah's sickness, which is followed by me currently loading up on Airborne in an attempt to avoid some not so pleasant symptoms on Easter.

I am supposed to be singing in 4 church services on Easter, and have all kinds of rehearsals coming up in the next couple of days, so I REALLY don't want to be sick. So far the Airborne seems to be helping. Or maybe it's the prayer...either way, I'll keep doing both.

In other exciting news: My sister Birdie just recently announced to the world that she is pregnant with her 3rd child!!! AND while we were on spring break my mom got ENGAGED! So it looks like this summer we will be having a wedding! It's so crazy to watch my mom enjoying new love, I hear myself telling her some of the same things she told me as I was dating and preparing to get married. So funny.

Ok, finally, I have gotten back into my craft room and created something. This was a bit of an experiment, and it was finished up last night when I was tired. I'm just saying... The experimental part was that I used a Copic Colorless Blender Pen and dipped it in my new light and bright colors of Ranger Alcohol Ink and used that to color in the image. My inexperience definitely shows, but I'll keep practicing.

The Tulip Girl stamp and the background stamp are both by Cornish Heritage Farms. The background is the new Distressed Circles Scrapblock. I LOVE it! I definitely see it becoming another "go-to" stamp in my collection.

Oh, just in case you want to know. The Tulip Girl was stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink before being colored in. And the background was stamped on vellum and embossed with Tattered Rose Distress Embossing Powder...LOVE the great texture that the Distress Embossing Powders provide.

Oh, and the Trinkets Pin from the Ideaology line by Tim Holtz says "thoughts" on it. I liked how that went with the "Wishes" sentiment from the Expressions set by Hot Off The Press.

My goal at the beginning of the year was to post at least once a week, so sorry about the long wait for this post. But I'm sure you understand that family and home life have to be my first priority.

Blessings to you!

More Woodgrain

I have been crazy busy this week, as shown by the fact that I haven't posted anything in over a week. This is one of 5 projects featured in my upcoming Wonderful Woodgrain class. The woodgrain elements lend themselves well to simple designs with clean lines and a modern, earthy feel.

The stamped images in this class are primarily by Hero Arts. They have some really great new stamp sets. I already bought several of their sets, but my wish list from their catalog is long.

Good Morning everyone,

This morning I would like to draw your attention to a website that I visit almost daily...Craft Critique. If you are a crafter, product information is so helpful. Sometimes we really aren't sure which products are as good as they say they are, exactly what they are good for, etc. This site offers reviews of all sorts of craft products, by crafters just like you and I. I have found these to be very beneficial. In fact, I'll just tell you a little story.

I've been teaching a technique class in which I use the Palette Stamp n' Stick Gluepad. That was the only gluepad I had tried. I was satisfied with the results I was getting, so I stuck with that one. Well, back in October I read this review on The Essential Gluepad by Tsukineko. Based on that review I decided to give The Essential Gluepad a try. I love it. Both inkpads still have their place and I use them for different applications. The Cuttlebug Embossing Techniques Class that I teach now incorporates both of those gluepads and teaches students the very best applications for each inkpad.

I have had a link to the Craft Critique website on my blog ever since I discovered it (shortly after starting my own blog). But I know that with all the lists on the side, things can tend to get overlooked. I hope you will check it out, there is a lot of great information available that could save you money by helping you to make an informed decision when buying your crafting products, as well as helping you gain a better understanding of products you may already own.

Hero Arts Woodgrain Stamp

I've been playing with the new Woodgrain Pattern stamp by Hero Arts...SO FUN! Here I used Distress Inks to create this great "wood panel". I was very impressed with how realistic this looked.

The additional elements were both die cut out of Core'dinations Cardstock with Spellbinders dies.

This post is going to be short and sweet (as most of mine are) because I have a ton of things to do today, but I just wanted to share this with you.

Wonderful Woodgrain

Lately I've been finding myself drawn to simplicity. Maybe it's the fact that my house has been feeling overwhelmingly cluttered lately, I don't know. But when I decided to teach a class incorporating the new woodgrain products that have been flooding the papercrafting market recently, simlicity seemed like the perfect fit for these intricate woodgrain patterns. The card you see here incorporates woodgrain patterned paper by Hambly Screenprints.

I'm glad I can easily simplify creatively, but I think I need professional help decluttering my house. Anyone want to volunteer???

Snow and Daffodils

No I don't have any pictures of it, but yes, it is indeed snowing on the daffodils here in McMinnville. I am sure I've said it before (lol), but I love snow. It is just so magical how it covers up all the leafless trees and bare dirt, and turns them into something spectacularly beautiful. I realize this snow isn't going to be sticking around long, but I'm sure going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Meanwhile, I do have a picture to share with you.This is another of the quick and easy cards we will be creating in the Scripture Blessings class.
I love the beautiful fonts they used in this stamp set by Cornish Heritage Farms.

I hope you all have a wonderful day today!

Nestabilities Jewelry

I've been loving making jewelry lately. This is one of several items that I made for a class coming up soon at Stampin' Cat in Salem. This bracelet is made with Shrink Plastic. I used the Nestabilities dies by Spellbinders to create the ovals. I love it as a bracelet, but have already decided that I am going to make a necklace that is just the same.

On a more personal note, illness has his our household again. It is really crazy. We are generally a pretty healthy family, so this winter has been really unusual for us. It seems like someone has been sick almost constantly. And I have definately had more than my fair share. It is making me really ready for some sunshine...I would LOVE to lay in the sun and soak up some rays.