Inspiration Avenue Swap

It's really been to be an active stamper again and although I haven't held any Funshops, to be active in the demo community as well. I recently did another swap, this one for the new images in Inspiration Avenue. I LOVE the new Halloween images, and even have them all now too--shame on me! So my cards for this swap were naturally going to be Halloween themed. I wanted to do something different and fun for my first card so created a little scene:

I used my Bazzilll mono cardstocks and punches for the base and circles. I cut out the coffin and stamped the cat on it with Memento black, then inked the edges with a duster. To fill in the image, I colored with a warm gray Copic and colored the eyes and nose with Souffle gel pens. I thought it still needed more and added the clouds and moon to the Versamark frost stamped star background. The moon was colored with my stardust gelly to give it some sparkle--Love that pen!

Stamp Sets: Spookalicious and Glitter Gobblins, hostess backgrounds

My second card was a little simpler.

Keeping with the Halloween colors and stamped the backgrounds with versamark. Since the verse stamp has a lot of solid space, I actually stamped this on the backside of the Bazzill to get a cleaner stamped image, then punched it with my scallop punch and mounted it with pop dots. I purchased some scrappers floss for the first time and used it too. It makes for a fun accent.

Stamp Sets: Spookalicious and Glitter Goblins

I can't wait for m swapped cards to get returned to me and see what all the other ladies have done. Should be fun! It also won't be long before the new Serendipity is out either, only a couple more months!

Halloween Smash!

I love Halloween. The colors, the characters. I have been busy these past few days really stamping up a storm with my two favorite new sets: Spookalicious and Glitter Goblins. Both these sets can be found in the new Fall Magalogue. I have also been playing with TAC's digital papers. These came out over the summer in black and white. And, while I like black and white, I've been having fun in Photoshop changing the colors. That was actually the first thing I did when downloaded these, was play with the colors. It's not that difficult and you can get so many different combinations and looks. I use the hue and saturation adjustment most of the time, but have also experimented with various gradients.

This was a simple card using the digital background colored in orange and adding a stamp from Glitter Goblins. I cut out the circle free-hand and mounted it to a punched scalloped circle.

Fun card using Spookalicious! As soon as I saw the spider, I knew I wanted to flock it. Fun Flock is a fuzz that has been around for many years now--I still have some jars that are probably close to 20 years old! It's still available though, and I added black to my collection through TAC. To get the flock just right, my favorite adhesivie is Sticky Embossing Powder. This is like regular embossing powder, but when melted, comes a glue. It's perfect for the detail that I just can't get with a regular glue. I made the web with my Stardust Gelly and colored the images with Prisma colored pencils.


I've been trying to get away from "normal" cards lately, experimenting with different sizes and shapes. This card and envelope set comes from a template I've had for years--with all this stamping lately, I've been digging up some real oldies of mine! The envelope was made with the black and white digital paper and stamped. Pumpkins have been colored with Copics. This card was inspired by a window card by Barb Foster.

A fairly simple card. I used the black and white digital paper for this too, but added a color gradiant to it in fun Halloween colors. The colors are very rich and I think this may need some more playing.

I had a lot of fun doing this card, which was inspired by a digital creation at Peppermint Creative. Now, I'm almost positive I've seen a card similiar to this in design too, but can't find it at the moment. I probably would have used the digital paper for this, but my printer was out of ink and I realized I could easily recreate the design using my scraps and 1" circle punch. To give it some "glitter" I outlined the circle and "ghosts" with my Stardust pen.

The Copics are Coming!

There's a fantastic new TAC promotion starting October first. Double the fun has been extended and it's the perfect opportunity to start getting ready for the holidays!

Yes, you read that right, COPICS!!!!! I am so excited about this and really hoping that they will show up permanently in either the next issue of Serendipity or next year's base catalog. I am also hoping that this will mean more color-in images too. Copics are some of the best markers I've used and are a lot of fun and versatile. Also available with this promotion are two new ink pads, Memento Black and Chocolate. Stay tuned for more projects!

Blog Hop! Home Decor

Here I am with another blog hop. This month's theme is home decor, and was a real challenge for me. As it seems with a lot of the home items I do, I have these fantastic ideas in my head, but can never get them quite right. The same can be said for this project. I'm not as happy with it as I'd like to be, but perhaps it will inspire you. Allow you to take the idea and improve upon it.

When I first saw the theme, I knew what I wanted to do--stamp on cork and create a giftable cork board. Finding the cork was actually the easiest part of this. I do recommend a tight cork though, I think that was part of the problem. I could only find a loose cork and it didn't stamp up as well as I had hoped. You also want to stamp with Versacraft ink. This is a permanent, pigment ink that is great for stamping on those items that are not paper, wood for example. If you want to stamp and color right away, please heat-set the ink first. This will keep your image from smearing, and ruining your coloring medium.

Here I stamped my images, want to fly with the Versacraft and let them sit for several days. (I would have heat-set, but since I wasn't overly thrilled with how they stamped up, I had to sit on this for a few days.) When choosing stamps for this project, you really want one that is more bold than detailed. I colored my image lightly with Copic markers. Any permanent marker will work though, just be sure to test it first on the back, or some scrap to see how it colors.

To make the cork board a little more interesting, I added a post-it pad and ribbon to hang it up. I attached the ribbon with Wonder Tape. I used a wider strip and wrapped it over the edge of the cork for added security.

I hope you enjoy this project and do find some inspiration. It was fun to create and now that I know how my cork works, I think I will try this again with a different stamp set. Here are some other Home-Decor projects to enjoy!

Melisa

Barb
Ellie

Chris

Rita

Kim

Carol

Tri-Fold Shutter Card

I recently saw a tutorial for this card here and really wanted to give it a try. Making it with just my Angel Company supplies was a bit of a challenge, but I'm happy with this first result. This card has so much potential and was actually quite easy to make. It was even easier after a fellow TAC demo posted the dimensions and a map for the patterned paper. Although the card starts off with a 12 inch piece of paper, it folds down to basic A2 size, so no special envelopes are needed.

Materials:

12x5.5" piece of card stock--I used Bazzill in walnut

Rustic Chic 8x8 paper V-928

Paper cutter

Scor-Pal F-358

an'udderbirthday? stamp set T-2642

little cupcake from Serendipity R-2038

Brown ink

distressing ink

Copic Sketch Markers

At You Spica Clear

Adhesive--I used my Xyron for the patterned paper

I wish I had more materials to really embellish this, but I also like the simplicity of the card. The intricacy of the card itself, makes it fun!

Be Playful

I've been working on some cow projects lately, so you'll be seeing more of these guys. This is my first attempt though and I'm quite happy with it. I used anudderbirthday by the Angel Company and sailaway. I love the sayings in this set, but unfortunately it'll be discontinued this year. I love the word sets that TAC puts out. So much variety, if you want to say it, they probably have a stamp for it!

After stamping my images with black ink, I colored with my new found love, Copic markers. Although I'm still getting used to them, I LOVE the colors and the ease with which you can blend and play. I still have a lot to learn though. (I think I'm finally set with a good starting point of pens too.) I used a black gel pen to add some dimension to the sun glasses and crystal laquer to the inner tube to give it a plastic look. I also used my clear, at you Spica pen to add shimmer to the ice cubes in the glass. This is a super cool pen. It adds a glittery sparkly over all kinds of ink. This card was pretty easy, and a lot of fun to make. Enjoy!

Stamped Teacher's Gifts

Look at me, I actually used pre-printed, traditional papers! It has been AGES since I've pulled out my paper and it was such a rewarding experience too. I have to make four Teacher Appreciation gifts, and wanted them to be different. For this project, I pulled out my Angel Company supplies and had at it. I am an official demo again and might even decide to hold a demo or two in the near future. I loved being a demo in the past, but to be honest, since starting TAC five years ago, I haven't done any parties. That really needs to change!

I try to be a minimalist in my projects so this project is relatively inexpensive, using a lot of items I already had. Now, I will admit that the Scor-Pal is the big purchase here, but well worth it! I got this last year, but considering I haven't stamped in ages, I use this tool ALL THE TIME. Scoring projects has never been easier. It's definitely a purchase I have not regretted.

Product List:

Willoughby V-844

Coordinating Cardstock B-324

Thank You--Gift with purchase stamp

Scor-Pal F-359

Wonder Tape 1/4 inch F-241

Scallop Scissors

ink

Step 1

To begin, you need to cut your base paper to 7.5 x 10.5 inches. Your highlight papers can be any width, but keep the length 10.5. These will depend on the design you wish.

Step 2

With all your paper cut, you'll want to score your base at 1/2 inch and 5 1/2 inches. This will fit most microwave popcorn pouches well.

Step 3

With the paper scored, fold and seal with Wonder Tape. Any tape will work, really, but I have found this stuff to be the strongest. It doesn't tend to separate as other adhesives can.

Step 4

Assemble your bands and highlights. You can even stamp your base too, Versamark works great for this kind of work!

To finish off the gift pouch, I added a tag with my stamped greeting. I used gold organdy ribbon to wrap around the popcorn, making it easy to pull out of the pouch. In just a few easy steps, you have a cute, easy gift, especially great if you have several people to gift like those teachers.

Here is another example that I made. I used Bazzill cardstock and an older TAC stamp set--one of my favorites. For the greeting, I used the Mini File Tab Punch (D-881) and one of my favorite greeting sets, tagtidbits T-1186. This is a very versatile and inexpensive set. If you need to say something, it has it! I colored these cute characters with my new foound love, Copic markers. So glad I live in Japan.