Embossing Bigger Stamps

I realize I have posted yet another thing to do with spring, but didn't I say I was behind in my scrapbooking?! These pictures were taken last summer! I had wanted to use Knobbly Gnomes with the Big Blossom, but I wasn't sure how until I started to look thru my box of 2006 photos. These photos just seemed perfect to me.

The only embossed image on my scrapbook page is the Big Blossom stamp. I wanted to show how much of a "pop" it is to use the same color craft ink as the powder you are embossing with. I chose white craft ink and white embossing powder to use on the Marigold Morning cardstock. I think that using the white craft ink with the white embossing powder is a little more of an eye catcher than if I used clear embossing powder. Maybe it's just me, but the white does make this page look a little brighter. The photos in this page came from my aunt who used to do photograhpy as a career. The flowers are grown around her house.

This page is an original created by me and uses all SU! products.

Stamp sets - Big Blossom, Knobbly Gnomes and Simply Said

Ink - White Craft Ink, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and SU! markers

Cardstock - True Thyme, Marigold Morning, Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive and Very Vanilla

Accessories - Metallic eyelets, Soft Subtle brads, linen thread

Embossing With Craft Ink

This card I made is cased from the demonstrator side of SU!, however I could not tell if embossing was done to it or not. And I'm not exactly sure if the scan did my card justice or not since only the saffron flower is embossed. Anywho...while Mother Nature is dumping snow into the heart of Cambridge, I still decided to showcase a Spring card with flowers. Winter came so late here that I was already preparing for Spring and Summer. Shame on me. The fresh snow is beautiful to watch.

Using craft ink to emboss is done exactly the same way if you were to use a versamark pad. Craft inks are a rich pigment ink designed for a long lasting color. I call them gooey because they are not fast drying like the standard ink pads. Tap your stamp into any color of craft ink, stamp onto cardstock, sprinkle and dump with a clear embossing powder and then heat set. Voila! Easy and beautiful!

All products used are from SU!

Stamp sets - Looks Like Spring and Everyday Flexible Phrases

Ink - Craft So Saffron, Standard Pretty in Pink and Mellow Moss

Cardstock - Very Vanilla, So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, Mellow Moss, Pretty in Pink and Spring Flowers Designer Series Double-Sided Paper

Accessories - Spring Bouquet Flower punch and gold brads

New Technique Week - Heat Embossing

Hi there! So it's Sunday, home from NH after a long weekend and why I haven't made any recent posts. I chose to showcase heat embossing this week because it's one of my all time favorite techniques. I love watching the embossing powder turn from powder to a shimmery finish.

The top photo shows you some basic supplies that you will need. These supplies are all from SU! A heat gun, a powder pal to shake off excess powder, a Versamark pad to make your powder stick and a embossing buddy to keep static off your card. Other supplies you can use are the VersaMarker and craft ink pads.

The second photo is a card I made using silver embossing powder. This card's color scheme is cased from the Stampers Showcase on the demonstrator only site of SU! All supplies used are from SU!

Supplies used:

Stamps - In the Wild and Sincere Salutations

Cardstock - Real Red and Whisper White

Inks - Versamark pad

Accessories - Silver heat and stick powder and Fancy Fibers

Scrappin' Friends

Splitcoaststampers is a treasure chest filled with inspiring people who create jaw-dropping pieces of art every single day. I call myself a Queen Caser because I don't have very many original thoughts in this empty head, but I sure can case (Copy And Share Everything) like its nobody's business!!

I have a workshop this weekend where the hostess asked me to demo a 6x6 page and these are the 2 I came up with the help of SCS. The first one is a not so over the top of the second page. I loved how marthaunplugged used the Kindness wheel as the background for her card and then colored in random flowers. I used her idea on page 2, but then I added some sponging to create a tye-dye kind of look. I used a sponge to add certainly celery, cool caribbean , and regal rose. These colors, btw, are courtesy of emilymomto3boys who does the color combo challenge every week at SCS.

The second page I came up with is cased from NurseT. I especially liked how she made her page a pocket so that you can add more than 1 photo. I did the tye dye sponging again.

These pages are creatively cased and hopefully I gave proper credit where credit is due!! And all products used are from SU!

Stamp sets - Love Matters, SA Jumbo Kindness wheel

Ink - Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, and Cool Caribbean

Cardstock - Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Cool Caribbean, and Whisper White

Accessories - Ticket Corner punch, Rich Regal brads, Bold Brights brads, celery grosgrain ribbon, and SU! markers

Joyful Winter

I saw this stamp at AC Moore and just had to have it. It reminded me of a young couple in love and getting their first Christmas tree. The silhouette stamp is from http://www.stampendous.com and the Night of Navy cardstock is cut with Paper Shapers to add a cute border. I used the Bold Snowflake wheel as a background and added dazling diamonds glitter for a little sparkle.

This card is an original card by me.

Stamp sets - silhouette image from Stampendous, Small Script and Bold Snowflake SA wheel(both from SU!)

Ink - Night of Navy, Brocade Blue SA ink cartridge

Cardstock - Brocade Blue, Night of Navy and Whisper White

Accessories - Dazzling Diamonds glitter(SU!), and paper shapers scissors

Smilin' in Dallas

This is probably one of my first 6x6 scrapbook pages that I ever made as a demonstrator. It is very plain with no embellishments, but it still came out nicely. This is me with my friend April. We and her husband had taken a trip to Dallas tohang out together one last time before I moved to MA. We went shopping at the Galleria Mall, went to Six Flags Over Texas and hit a couple of country clubs for some nighttime entertainment. A fun day with lots of laughs is the very best to have with friends!

This page is an original made by me and uses all SU! products.
Stamp sets - Alphadots and Ladybugs SA wheel
Ink - Basic Black ink cartridge, Real Red
Cardstock - Real Red, Summer Sun, Whisper White

Kindness in Thank You's

Before I put my Kindness wheel back in its safe little plastic storage case, I wanted to make one more card. This card, I believe, is a case from SU!. I tried to find the card SU! put on their website, and to no avail I could not. I do remember they used the frog from Very Punny and shades of green and brown/gray. I used Taggers Dozen instead because I wanted to show my friends what else they could match up their winter sets to.

This card is a thank you that I will use because it was easy and versatile to make.

Stamp sets - Taggers Dozen and Kindness wheel

Ink - SA cartridge Ballet Blue, markers in basic black and Rose Red

Cardstock - Rose Redk, Ballet Blue, So Saffron

Accesories - Basic eyelets, Regal Rose brads, horizontal slot punch, Tag punch, Small tag punch, Bluebird grosgrain ribbon

A Wheel of a Good Time!

So now that I have kept this blog going for a whole week, I thought I would change it up a little and be faithful about posting. Unless, I'm out of town, sick, yadda yadda. Each week I'm going to pick a technique and use it in either a card, scrapbbok page or some sort of 3-D item and post those each day! To start off this week I've chosen to use Stampin' Around wheels. Using wheels as a background or an accent is fun and versatile. SU! makes this super easy because they off self inking cartridges that pop right into the wheel handle and keept your wheel inked while you're using it.

All products used in this card are fromSU!

Stamp sets - Simply Said and S.A. Kindness wheel

Ink - Basic black, Lovely Lilac S.A. ink cartridge, and markers in Lovely Lilac, Apricot Appeal and Certainly Celery

Cardstock - Lovely Lilac, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Whisper White

Accessories - Celery grosgrain ribbon

FYI - If their is a technique you would like to see, please leave me a comment and I'll do my very best to showcase it for an entire week!

Big Thank You!!

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you who encouraged me to sart this blog, kept checking in and left comments!!!! This has ben the first whole week of my new blog and I hope their will will be many more weeks to follow!!

Think Spring!!

Here in MA it is so cold that I had to sit down and scrap a spring page! This is my younger cousin Lena with her hamster, "Cocoa Puff". Cute, aren't they?!

This page lay-out is cased from a Splitcoaststampers challenge (SBSC 62). All products used are fromSU!

Stamp sets - Bunny hugs (from new Spring mini), Headline Alphabet and Brushstroke Alphabet

Ink - Old Olive and Tempting Turquiose

Cardstock - Barely Banana, Old Olive, Certainly Celery and the Petals and Paisleys Designer Series Double-sided paper (also from new Spring Mini)

Accessories - Celery grosgrain ribbon, Spring Bouquet Flower punch and mini glue dots

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Some people think of Valentine's Day as a Hallmark Holiday and others think of it as a day to spend with their one and only. I have friends who have their anniversaries on this date and others who have their infamous break-ups on this same day. Valentine's Day has never been one of those special days to me. After all, I have yet to meet my one and only! Although, my very wonderful roommate did get me some very beautiful tulips to put on the hutch in the living room. He is a sweet guy if nothing else! LOL!! These two cards are what I put together to mail to a few special people in my life!

These cards are an original made by me. All supplies used are from Stampin' Up!

Card 1 - Stamp sets - Wild Hearts and Tagger's Dozen

Ink - Real Red and SU! markers

Cardstock - Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White

Accessories - Tag punches (both small and regular), basic eyelets, silver cord, Red wide organdy ribbon

Card 2 - Stamp sets - All Mixed Up and Beyond the Basics

Ink - Rose Red and SU! markers

Cardstock - Rose Red, Pretty in Pink and Naturals White

Accessories - Ticket Corner punch and Soft Subtle brads

I just came home from my overnight shift as an x-ray tech at Mt. Auburn Hospital and the weather is definitely crummy! There might be a half inch of snow, but right now it is snowing with a combo of freezing rain. The roads are getting plowed, but I drove home in muddy gray slush. Yuck!! Thought I would share some pics of my 8-year-old Lucy girl in her winter sweater. She's a mix of pug and dachsund. I like to call her a pugsund!

My Geishas

I don't know what fascinated me more about watching "Memoirs of a Geisha". The beauty of of the Japanese culture, the rivalry of the up and coming geishas or the two sisters being torn apart from each other and never really knowing who they are. Whatever it was, I was completely drawn into that movie. A friend let me borrow her book knowing I will definitely enjoy that more, but I still haven't sat down long enough to start reading it.

I saw this stamp at AC Moore a couple of weeks ago and just had to have it. So I made a standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card so I could have a couple of plain notecards laying around should I need one. My roommate sees them and says they don't have the pizzaz that my cards usually do. I took this as not having any ribbon, brads, glitter, etc. So I woke up one morning at 4 am with that card on my brain and had to make a 6x6 card that would have a lttle of my pizzaz.

These cards are an original done by me.

Stamps - Kanji from Stampin' Up! and the Geisha from AC Moore (www.limitededitionrs.com is the site listed on the stamp itself)

Ink - basic black, markers from SU!

Cardstock - from SU! - whisper white, basic black, real red and garden green and the patterned paper is scraps from a mat stack

Accessories - gold cord

Birthdays should always be special!

I just finished making this card for a special boy I have never and possibly will never meet. Why would I do this you ask? Back in November, I signed up through SU! to be a volunteer with Ronald McDonald House Charities. Our group of stampers is under the leadership of Barbara L. and what we do is go to the chapter house in Brookline to cook dinner for families who come from other states and countries to be with their children who are being treated at area children's hospitals. Please visit the link on the side to learn more about making the difference in the lives of children.

So getting back to what I started to say...I have only been able to participate in one night of cooking so far. I missed the last dinner and a little boy commented on how much he liked their applesauce. So Barbara L. thought he would get a kick out of all of us sending him birthday cards as a surprise! Of course the parents know about this since their boy will be getting 30-50 birthday cards from strangers. And we're all signing the card "From a member of Jamie's Applesauce Crew"! I wish I could be there to see his face light up when he gets all of his cards!

This card is an original by me and is made using all SU! supplies.

Stamps - All Mixed Up, It's Your Birthday, Spot On wheel

Ink - Basic black, Old Olive ink cartridge and markers

paper - Brilliant Blue, Gable Green, Yoyo Yellow and Confetti White

Accessories - silver cord, bold brights brads, ticket corner punch

Behind in my scrapbooking

I worked on this 2 page lay-out last night. I'm so far behind in my scrapbooking - these photos are from October 2006! My roommate and I took a vacation to Austin, TX. It was mostly to see the sights, he had never been and friends of ours recommended Austin as a place to see. Austin was a great city. We had alot of fun there, especially downtown on 6th Street!

This lay-out has all SU! supplies except where noted.

Stamps - Love Matters, from Winter mini

Inks - Basic Black ink pad, all SU! markers

Paper - all paper is from the Simply Scrappin' Just Delightful kit from Sell-A-Bration mini

Accessories - Prima flowers, from SU! - soft subtle brads, cream grosgrain ribbon

Jumpin in!

Well, I decided to go ahead and start a blog. Many of my friends have their own web pages and since many of us live in different cities and states, I thought I would do the same.

I truly am a basement stamper. I moved to Cambridge the week before Thanksgiving and the only space in the house for my ever-growing compilation of stamps and scrapbooking stuff was in the basement. It is a finished basement and I share my space with my roommate's gym equipment, but that's ok. I have enough space.

These photos were taken about 2 weeks ago. I feel embarrased and ashamed to say this is how I've been stamping and scrapping for the last 3 months. I got too busy over the holidays and just didn't take the time to get my space set-up the way I wanted to and before too long it turned into this colossal mess! Last weekend I finally plunged into the mess and started what is going to be an on-going decorative challenge.