Sometimes you just need to create for the sake of creating. I have an art journal that I use for this purpose, but I haven’t cracked it open for quite some time now. I was really beginning to feel a need to play with inks, paints and Glimmer Mists, so I decided that it would be fun to try a few mixed media techniques on canvas.

Here’s a step by step-tutorial of how I created my canvas:

Start with an 8 x 8″ canvas. Mine had paint on it already, but as you can see, I covered it completely by painting the sides with pinkish Ecoline and by adhering random pieces of old dictionary pages to the front of the canvas with gel medium:

Once the gel medium is (almost) dry, grab a few vibrant colours of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (I used Pink Bubblegum, Cosmos, Pumpkin Pie and Mustard Seed) and spray the whole surface with it:

Set the canvas aside to dry. You can speed up the drying process with a heat gun, but I let the puddles of Mist dry overnight before I got on to the next step.

Use the myStamp BOX Border Lines set to create the word ‘LOVE’ on a piece of cardboard. Use the corner shape for the ‘L’, the heart for the ‘O’, manipulate the corner shape to form the ‘V’ and then take the same shape to create the ‘E’, by covering parts of with masking tape. Make all of the letters approximately the same hight as the heart:

Use a black pen to tidy up the parts where the letters were elongated:

Cut out the letters and colour them with Ranger Distress Ink Broken China. Emboss them with clear embossing powder:

Stamp another heart. Cover the open heart with Ranger Distress, like the other letters and spray the closed one with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Dragonfly and Chalkboard Peacock. Coat it with Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam Chandelier. Adhere the two hearts together with foam squares:

Time to tackle the canvas again:

Stamp on the canvas. I used the following sets: myStamp BOX Graphic Borders, Colorful Companions, Itty Bittys and Abundant Blossoms.

Spruce up some chipboard buttons (these are from Graphic 45) with Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Glam and adhere them to the canvas with gel medium:

Grab a piece of heavy cardstock and stamp it with the word ‘YOU’ using the myStamp BOX Blueberry Alphabet. Colour the cardstock letters with Ranger Distress Ink Crushed Olive:

Adhere all the letters to the canvas with foam squares. Take the tiny flowers from the myStamp BOX Funky Flowers set and stamp a few of them here and there. Splatter a little bit of Glimmer Mist and as a final touch ink the corners of the canvas with teal ink:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! If you feel inspired to create a canvas of your own, please link it up in the comments below. We would love to see it!

I always love the idea of taking some stamps and making something else with them. So this time I took the Abundant Blossoms set and stamped some flowers, then cut them out and arranged them to create a wreath.

Then I’ve added some smaller flowers to fill in the spaces, red Stickles to flowers’ centers and of course a sentiment!

While playing with my cut out flowers, I had another idea of a one layer card, perfect for mailing! Here it is:

You could stamp the same thing in blue and red to obtain the  Nordic look which is so popular right now.

OK, so here’s my challenge to you. Take some non-Holiday themed stamps and make something very Holiday-ish with them. And most of all, have fun!

We love that you can use many stamps that are not directly topic-related and make them work for a specific project. Stamp are so versatile that way!

Let us know which project you would like to duplicate and you may win a myStamp BOX stamp set! All you need to do is leave a comment on this post until Sunday, 23th October and check in on Monday, when we announce a winner!

The picture shows the front and inside of the card by Janet Zeppa

Layout by Marsha Valk

Card by Jolene Johnston

Journal Page by Jaine Drake

Card by Els Brigé

Card by Linda Abadie

Layout and detail by Isolde Pyncket

Friendship Card by Agata Pfister

Artist Trading Cards by Wendy Morris

Thanks for leaving your comments!

Happy Stamping!

Love,

I buy this magazine, even-though my French is not very good and I never actually make any of the projects that are featured… But there are truly wonderful ideas in there and one of my very favorite things to do is to take a few hints from the magazine before I create a lay out!

Let me show you:

These are just a few random things that caught my eye on the first few pages. I used them to inspire me for this lay out:

I used the myStampBOX Colour Me alphabet to mimic the fabric alphabet, some Funky Flowers, Abundant Blossoms and the buttons from the Border Lines set to recreate the flowers from the fabric pouches and a checkered Graphic Border just because I liked the green and white checkered fabric button.

And this green display:

Inspired me to create a card:

Here I used the leaves from the Abundant Blossoms and Funky Flowers sets to recreate the background in the picture. The branch is also from the Abundant Blossoms set and the little vase is actually an Itty Bitty.

Now are you up for the challenge? Today’s challenge is to grab your favorite magazine and look at it in a different way. Use it to find ideas for your next stamp project. Look for color combinations, patterns, even lay outs and see what you can come up with!

Link up your creations in the comments below. I can’t wait to see them!

I like to give presents. But there’s always THE problem of what to offer. Hand made gifts are always appreciated but they take some time to be made. So I guess if I start early making them, the better I’ll be prepared! Here’s a project that I think may make someone happy. A gift box that may contain different things, accordingly to the recipient.

It’s made from just one piece of cardstock, some patterned paper and mSB stamps, of course! Even though I’ve chosen a Christmas themed paper, it doesn’t show that much. I find it can be offered and looked at all throughout the year.

As you can see, I’ve stamped one of the borders from Repeat after Me set on the kraft sleeve as well as on the spine of the box. To cover the seam of the sleeve, I made a tag with stamped flowers and a sentiment. Some red Stickles add the finishing touch.

The kraft sleeve slides off to reveal the box’s secret: some cards, a mini album or some sweets!

How about you, what would you put inside? Anyway, I hope this project will inspire you to start your Christmas preparations early!

Love,

I decided to fill a couple of pages in my Summer 2011 art journal.  For the first page about our National Day celebrations,  I’ve used music score paper as my background but painted it first with gesso to dull the printing. I’ve used flowers from the Funky Flowers stamp set as fireworks, giving them a sprinkling of glitter to make them shine. I’ve also used the Mini Pennants for the bunting and the border stamp from the Border Lines set to frame the page.

For my second page I’ve transfered the music score paper onto watercolour paper using gel medium to make a subtle background. I cut out some rough circles to use as masks and sprayed inks over the page using dye inks. I’ve used the Friday Night Stencil alphabet for my title, emphasising it with the brackets from the oversized set.  I wanted to stamp the film strip from the Snapshot set at the bottom of the page and ended up dropping it. I could have covered it up by stamping it a second time onto paper, cutting it out and sticking it over the top but I actually liked the messy look it gave me, so I left it there. I finished off the page using the Graphic Borders stamp printed onto book page as a frame.

Here are a couple of gorgeous pages from Birgit and some explaination on how she did them.

For “the sky is the limit” I used Colorful Companions, Bottlecaps, Repeat
after me and Backgrounds. For the background I used Gesso and TA Glimmer
Chalkboard. I stamped with Stazon and colored in the little dots of the
bottelcap stamp with Letraset markers and then I put little punched out
paper circles on top. The stars where made using sequin waste.

For “Heaven” I used Colorful Companions, Abundant blossoms, Bottlecaps,
Backgrounds and He loves me. The background was made with acrylic paint. I
also used acrylic paint to stamp the butterflies and the flowers. I used
Stazon to stamp the bottlecap stamp and the little swirl from the He loves
me set. Again I colored in the little dots of the bottlecap stamp with
Letraset markers. The little circles and the words “heaven” where cut from
bookpaper. The angel wing is a rubon from Hambly.
The little white dots on both pages where made with the back of my brush
dipped in acrylic paint.

Hope you enjoyed them.

When I removed the original flowers it tore the paper underneath, so part of my job was not only adding new decorations but covering up the imperfections made in the process. I started by covering the corners of the letter with coordinating paper and inking around the entire letter.

I chose the smallest flower in the Abundant Blossoms set of myStampBOX stamps and multicolor-inked with shades of pink and red. By stamping a trail of flowers across the entire letter, I was able to create a bit of movement in an otherwise-blocky letter. Each flower was enhanced with a pearl or rhinestone center.

The original design for this letter had a cluster of flowers in the upper right corner, and since most of the damage happened when removing it I had to be sure to cover it fully. I started with a paper flower enhanced with a little Stickles. I stamped a larger flower with Abundant Blossoms also inked with pink and red. I took a small flower (the same as the “trail” created across the letter) and punched it out with a tiny punch to create the flower center. A pearl and more Stickles completed this special flower. I layered it with another paper flower and my favorite leaf from the Floating Leaves set of stamps. Together they have enough texture, sparkle, and interest to make little “M” (and her mama) proud!

Supplies: Abundant Blossoms and Floating Leaves stamps by myStampBOX; Ranger Distress Ink; Cleasnap Vivid! Ink; Clearsnap Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink; Bazzill flower; Prima flower; Ranger Stickles; Basic Grey pearls; Studio G rhinestones; DCWV paper; American Crafts cardstock.

I used a kraft base, white and red ink, white embossing powder and white gel pen. I did not hesitate to use my hand writing for journaling.

I must admit that I cheated a little bit by printing my pictures at home and also I had that butterfly stamped, embossed on vellum and cut out all ready to use. But I’m sure it’s possible to scrap while at vacation. Finally, it’s all about preserving your memories! So happy summer scrapping to you!

Stamps used: Abundant Blossoms, Colorful Companions, Royal Flush, Just Add Notes

First, stamp images of your choice on watercolor paper. Here, I used Abundant Blossoms set.

Second, spray them lightly with water. You can add pigment powder for a  subtle shine. If you find that your images bleed too much, you can stop the bleeding by heating images with your trusted heat gun. Once they’re dry, you can stamp the same images over the first ones once again with a different color of ink.

Now, cut your images out and distress them with a light colored dye ink.

Now all you need to do is to add your images to your project. You can jazz them up a bit before, of course!

The sentiment is from Mention it! set. And here’s a close up:

Here’s also another card I made  earlier with this same technique but with another stamp set, Floating Leaves.

Hopefully those projects will inspire you to make some watery projects. And while you’re at it, you can also use the spray to freshen your face up a little bit. It’s hot after all! Happy stamping!

For this mini album, I started with a raw chipboard album by Maya Road called the “Love Word Album”.  I then adapted it and made it my own and that’s what I’m going to share with you now.  The album pages measure approximately 3×6.

For the mini album I designed a cardstock pocket insert.  The inner panel is the same size as my mini album page; 3×6 and then I added a 1/2 inch on each side (and scored it down the center) and an inch flap at the bottom.

Next I folded up my pocket insert.  The bottom flap gets folded up and the sides get folding in a “V” shape with the bottom of the “V” being folded into towards the center of the pocket.

Then I used some of my sticky Scor-Pal tape to ensure my flaps adhered correctly.  I applied it to each of the top surfaces of the side flaps and a double stripe of it on the bottom flap.

I covered the first 1.5 inches of the end of the album since the pocket doesn’t cover this area with coordinating patterned paper for my mini.  I used the Crate Paper line “Portrait” for my entire mini album.  I then adhered the flap to the chipboard base.

I then peeled off the tape backing and adhered the side flaps… creating a pocket.

For my pocket I began by creating a simple tag.  I used the stitching stamp from the “Repeat After Me” stamp set and then I stamped the word “PHOTO LOG” from my “Snapshot” stamp set.  This became my base tag design.  Then as I completed a page, I created computer generated journaling to go along with my photo.

Let’s take a look at my final product!  Here’s my final mini album…

Photos I Love ~ Mini Album

*stamps used: Snapshot, She Says, He Says

*stamps used: Snapshot, Abundant Blossoms,  Repeat After Me

*stamps used: Snapshot, Abundant Blossoms

*stamps used: Snapshot, Abundant Blossoms

*stamps used: Snapshot, Abundant Blossoms

*stamps used: Snapshot, Abundant Blossoms, She Says, He Says

Thanks for joining me this fine Thursday!  I hope you too can make a fun project like this.  All it takes are a few stamps some cardstock and patterned paper and you’ll have a wonderful project to share with someone special!  Happy stamping!

Here is my first post for the myStampBOX blog!!!

Today is the big royal wedding in England! But did you know that in the Netherlands we have a royal celebration of our own? Tomorrow is Koninginnedag (Queen’s Day) and most celebrations start tonight with Koninginnenacht (Queen’s Night)! Queen’s Day is a Dutch national holiday on which we celebrate our Queen’s birthday.

I’m not much of a party person though and I don’t dress orange like some people do on Queen’s Day, but I love, love, love the ‘freemarket’, where everybody sells things in the streets. I’ve had some of my greatest thrift finds at these freemarkets! There are also a lot of activities for children and in some places there are concerts too.

I’m not sure if I get to visit a freemarket this year, because right now it looks like I’ll be spending Queen’s Day at home… Now, that doesn’t sound very festive, does it? But you know what? My friend Liesbeth loves the Dutch quote: ‘Het leven is een feest, je moet alleen wel zelf de slingers ophangen’ (Life’s a party, but you need to hang up the party decorations yourself). And that’s exactly what I did:

For this simple bunting I stamped flowers from the Abundant Blossoms set onto Core’dinations cardstock. The images on the red, blue and orange cardstock (our national colors) are stamped and then heat embossed with white embossing powder. After cutting all the stamped flowers out, I simply glued two of the same flowers back to back on a piece of string.

Happy Queen’s Day!

Marsha.

For most of us it was a challenge to work with these subtle hues, but the end products are all spectacular! Get inspired to leave your regular colour range and try out a new and different palette.

Marsha Valk stamped and embossed on felt with the “Abundant Blossoms” and used white gesso on plaster eggs. She finished the eggs with the solid shapes of the Abundant Blossoms set.

Allison Cope used the oval stamp from “Back to the Basics” for her egg shapes. The background is done with the checkered stamp from “Graphic Borders” and the sentiment comes from “Straightforward”.

Jolene Johnston’s Easter Card was stamped with the flower shape from “Oversized” onto the background. The sentiment is from “Mention It!”.

Birgit Koopsen created a pastel coloured travel diary. She used “Seal It” stamps and the bracket from “Just add Notes”.

Jaine Drake hid her Easter eggs in this sweet little birdhouse. It comes with a matching tag and is decorated with stamps from “Border Lines”.

Agata Pfister let little button rain drops come out of her rain cloud from “Wishing you Sunshine”. The sentiment is from “Mention It!”.

Rebecca Keppel made this Spring colour inspired layout of her daughter. She stamped the “Colourful Companions” Butterflies on white cardstock and used “Summer Alpha” letters for part of her title. *smile* comes from “Sigh, Gush, Gasp”.

Janet Zeppa created the eggs in this cute Easter basket with the oval shape in our “Back to the Basics” set.

Sue Sykes used “Colourful Companions” and “Mini Pennants” with her patterned paper. The sentiment comes from our popular “Straightforward” set.

Linda Abadie outlined the Colourful Companions butterflies on this card, coloured some of the spots in and used a sentiment from the “Itty Bittys” set.

Jill Hildebrand stamped “Floating Leaves” on green acrylic paint for this Passion Play layout and used “Lots of Dots” letters for part of her title.

We hope to get you to take out your pastels and try a new favourite colour combination.

To you and your families a very HAPPY EASTER from the entire myStamp BOX team!

We hope to inspire you with these ideas for backgrounds!

Jolene Johnston used the cheesecloth stamp from “Repeat after Me” to create the background on the striped blue paper. The sentiment is from “Oval Office”.

Jill Hildebrand used the “Abundant Blossomsl” to create this cool diagonal backdrop on her layout. Some of the stamps were not re-inked to create more dimension.

Jaine Drake stamped a flower field background, partially white embossed, with the “Funky Flowers” and spritzed the inked paper with water to create a mottled effect. The sentiment is from “Wishing you Sunshine”.

Maryfrances Fabbri used a sentiment stamp from “Everyday Lines” to create a 2/3 background on this white card. This allowed the flower to be the centre of attention while still getting the message across. Stamping your sentiment repeatedly allows you to custom “colour” your paper or card stock and create the shades you like.

Melissa Wright used the “Graphic Borders”  for this background. The sentiment is from the “Pennants” stamp set. Melissa used two of the stamps, cut them out and layered them.

Join us next week for a showcase of patterns. We have created a variety with several different stamps!

Happy Stamping,

Love,

I don’t think of myself as a procrastinator, however……….when it came to my Christmas baking this year (every year, actually), I ended up leaving it to the last few weeks.  Maybe I think that it will all be eaten by the time Christmas comes around — I can’t actually hide it from myself.  But I managed to fill the house with some sweet baking smells on a few occassions before the holidays hit.

As I began to mix my shortbread cookie dough, I realized I didn’t have a cookie press to decorate the tops.  So…..out came my stash of mSB stamp sets and I found the perfect “cookie press” a.k.a. a beautiful stamp from the Abundant Blossoms collection.

After I rolled my cookie dough into balls on my cookie sheet, I gently pressed a single flower stamp into the middle of the ball.  I think this stamp looks a little like a poinsetta flower, so it’s the perfect stamp for Christmas stamping baking.

Then it was time to wait while the cookies baked.   And this was the delicious result:

Beautiful shortbread cookies (cracks & all — gotta work on my dough consistancy!!!) stamped with a fantastic Christmas poinsetta stamp from mSB.

My kids were so excited (& hungry) when they arrived home from school.

Thank you for helping me in the kitchen today, myStampBOX!!!!!  I need all the help I can get.

My challenge to you today is to start using your stamps in fun & creative ways.  Take them out of your scrap room and into other areas of your home.  If it helps, carry them around with you as you walk through your house — you won’t look silly at all (snicker, snicker).  Maybe you’ll find other uses for those beautiful stamps you own.

This week, i challenge you to create bookmarks. You are free to choose the size and form, but you have to use stamps of course!

I made 4 bookmarks, one for each season. This one is for summer:

I used the “Road Trip” stamp set. I stamped the luggage in black on a piece of paper i had already coloured with distress ink vintage photo.

That one is for autumn, i decided to go with red and yellow leaves. I used the “Abundant Blossoms” stamp set.

For winter i used the “Au creux des siens” stamp set and the “Bits and Pieces” stamp set. I put liquid pearl in white opal to mimic the snow and give a little bit of dimension.

For the spring bookmark, i used the “funky flowers” stamp set. I embossed the butterfly in yellow; for the grass i used distress ink in shabby shutters and for the sky i used the broken china distress ink.

I didn’t do it but if you want you can laminate the bookmarks to make them last longer.

Hope you liked this challenge!

She used a small paper maché box as the base. She first painted the box in deep yellow, then with black over it, letting the yellow paint shine through. April stamped a flower from the Abundant Blossoms stamp set and cut it out carefully. A brad was added in the centre, then the flower was attached to the box. To decorate, April added a lace ribbon and small tag.

A perfect little box for a small present!

Supplies used:
-Square paper mache box from Michaels
-Michael’s paint in Timber & Deep Yellow
-Colorbox chalk ink in Mustard
-American Traditions brad
-Avery tag

Phantastic creations, April! We have tremendously enjoyed having you over. Lots of great inspiration for all. Hope to see you again soon, good luck with your publishing aspirations.

Happy Stamping,

Bettina

This gift tag was made using Abundant Blossoms stamp set. The supplies were:
-Paper Studio pattern paper
-Kaiser Crafts ‘thanks’ rub-on
-Colorbox Chalk Ink in Hot Orange, Violet, Aqua & Magenta
-Wrights fused pearl strand
-Prima flower
-Stampin’ Up! dimensionals
-Ribbon from Michaels

This 4×4 card was the first project that I created with the Abundant Blossoms stamp set.

The supplies I used were:
-Stampin’ Up! Whisper White  card stock
-Creative Imaginations pattern paper
-Colorbox Chalk Ink in Creamy Brown, Aqua & Violet
-Stampin’ Up! dimensionals
-Making Memories Noteworthy tina alpha stickers

Next week, April will show you her last project, a small jewelry box!

Happy Stamping,

Bettina

Today it’s Tuesday and that means “Project Day” here at myStampBOX!! 

So, which projects am I going to show you?? 

I’m going to start with a layout as that’s what I love to do most! Here’s my layout called “Home is where YOU are”:

For this layout of my youngest I used one of the butterfly stamps from the “Colorful Companions” set for my background. I stamped it various times with Versamark ink so the butterflies wouldn’t be too obvious and therefore just perfect for a background.

Furthermore I used a few flowers from the “Abundant Blossoms” set and the filmstrip from the “Snapshot” set for a little journaling.

Then on to my next project, a photo frame:

As it was so terribly hot here in The Netherlands (and I really had had enough of the sun!) I decided on one of my winter photos taken in Disneyland Paris.

For this frame I used three different stamps from the “Road Trip” set (the tag, part of the title and the circle bottom left).

I had so much fun creating these projects and sure hope you’ve enjoyed them too!

Thanks and have a lovely, scrappy day!!

My name is April Hall, and I live in gorgeous Peoria, Arizona. I have been married to my husband for 6 years, although we have been sweethearts since high school.  We have 5 kitties and 1 dog, and they make us the happiest parents!  I have been doing some sort of crafting pretty much all my life….although just recently over the last 5 or 6 years have I really put my heart and soul into it.  I like to dabble in it all, but my favorites are card making, mixed media, painting, sewing and book/journal making.  Some of my favorite products to use are stamps, ink, paint, found object and paper.  One thing that always seems to find itself on my projects is stamps.  When I create something, I don’t always follow the same “process”.  Sometimes I start with the paper, other times I see a color combination or I’ll just sit down and grab the first scrap next to me and go to town.  My style never really stays constant…one card could be very symmetrical and clean and the next one could be shabby and vintage.  It really just depends on the mood that I am in or what I see around me.

At this time I have not been published.  I have a stack of stuff that I have been meaning to submit for publication, but just haven’t found time to do it!  My favorite time to craft is when I get off work for about an hour or so, and at least one full weekend day. If I don’t get some sort of crating done each day I go stir crazy. The space that I create in is actually our guest bedroom. I have transformed it into my studio, and that’s where I find the most peace at the end of the day. One fun fact that many don’t know about me is that I love being on the beach. If I could live on the beach, most specifically Huntington Beach in California, I would!

Here is how to make this adorable clip board:

Paint the whole clipboard in aqua, let dry.

Stamp flowers all over in pink, purple and green.

Use a brush with black paint to write a sentiment, names, expressions, etc.

Add a few specks of black to fill up empty space.

It is such a fast and fun project, because the paint dries very very quickly.

This altered clipboard was probably my favorite project to do because I had never altered a clipboard before! Even though this project used the fewest supplies, it was so fun to just use nothing but paint!

The supplies used were:
- Abundant Blossoms stamp set from myStampBOX
-clipboard from Hobby Lobby
-Michael’s Paint in Deep Aqua, Hot Pink, Lime, Purple and Black
-Ranger Stickles in Stardust

I even used paint to stamp the flowers on the clipboard.  The trick to using paint on polymer stamps is to use a little bit… if it is globbed on the stamp it will glob on your project.  The image still came out very crisp! I will definitely be using this technique again.

Check out more projects by me coming in the next few days! Hope you like this projec,

April