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!

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!

These are so easy to make on a sewing machine by simply sewing the fabrics together in a strip, strengthening by sandwiching iron on interfacing between the front and back and trimming down to size.  I then stamped my images with a black stazon ink pad and used fabric paints to highlight parts of the stamp. 

I decorated and attached buttons or loop hook fastenings and they’re ready to go.

Here’s a closer look at the details.

The stamps I used for this project are Colorful Companions, Rustic Outlines and Border Lines.  The button on “I wear my heart on my sleeve” has been stamped using a flower from the Funky Flowers set.

It’s Sue and I’m going to share a fun tutorial to make this quick and easy hostess gift.

To start, you’ll need patterned paper scraps; a sheet of coordinating cardstock (8.5 x 11 or 12 x 12); a scoring board or blade trimmer and stylus; scissors, your favourite myStamp BOX stamps; coordinating inks; punches; a strong wet adhesive; dimensional foam adhesive; twine or ribbon.

Start by cutting your cardstock to 4.75″ x 10.5″  This will create a box that is slightly larger than 3″ x 3″ x 0.75″.  Turn your cardstock as shown below.  Beginnning at the left side, score your cardstock at 2.5″, 3.25″, 6.5″ and 7.25″.

Turn your cardstock and score at 0.75″ and 4″.

Fold along scored lines and crease sharply, using a bone folder or the edge of a ruler.  Turn your cardstock so it is lengthwise and cut along the scorelines just to the vertical lines.

Repeat on both sides.

Using your border punch, trim the 2.5″ flap at the end of the cardstock, as shown:

Using your patterned paper, cut the following: 2 pieces that measure 3″ x 3″ and 4 pieces that measure 3″ x 0.75″.  You will also need two pieces for the sides of the lid that are 0.75″ wide and one that is 3″ wide – the length of both will depend on the punch that you used.  Attach them to the cardstock and assemble your box, using a strong adhesive.

I punched a circle from patterned paper and stamped it with the “just for you” sentiment from the Itty Bittys stamp set.  On a scrap piece of white cardstock, I stamped and embossed a butterfly from the Colorful Companions stamp set.  I cut out the butterfly and attached to the side of the circle just down the middle.  I then folded up the wings for a bit of dimension.

I added a line of foam adhesive horizontally to the back of the circle and attached it to the box.  I then wrapped twine around the box several times, sliding it under the circle and tied it in a bow.  Voila!

I also created very simple, coordinating 3″ x 3″  cards to slide inside the box.

I used the Border Lines, Colorful Companions and Symbols stamp sets

The sentiments (from left to right) read:  ”You Make My Heart Flutter”, “You’re SWEET!” and “You’re tea-riffic!”

This project can be adapted to house any size of card or occasion.

Cheers!

I used a combination of orange and watermelon ink to stamp flowers from the Bits and Pieces stamp set around my daughter’s soup thermos.

Next I used the Colourful Companions stamp set, combined with cool words from the Whatever set to decorate the lid of her sandwich container.  I stamped only the top half of one of the butterflies, and used lilac and ocean ink to stamp the “hip hip hooray” logo.

I then used the Border Lines stamp set and white ink to stamp on the lid of a little snack container. 

Lastly, a school lunch is not complete without juice, complete with a stamped banner that gives “hugz” to your little one at school.  I used Bits and Pieces & the Whatever stamp sets.

Hope everyone has another GREAT year at school. 

Keep up the great work & keep stamping.

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.

Here’s how I created my minibook:

1. Cut 12 sheets of watercolor paper into pieces of 12 x 6,3 inches and fold them in half.

2. Take the myStampBOX Funky Circles – small box set and stamp and emboss all pages with embossing ink and Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE).

3. Ink all pages with Distress Inks. I currently seem to have a rainbow crush, so I urgently needed to use all colors of the rainbow .

4. Have fun splattering (spray) ink all over the pages!

5. Next step are the covers. Cut two pieces of cardboard to size and spray one side of each with spray ink. I decided to cover the other side with white cardstock, that I had stamped with the myStampBOX Border Lines set. Adhere the cardstock to the cardboard, cover that with embossing ink and emboss it with UTEE. Repeat until you’re happy with the result. For me: three coats.

6. Bind the minibook with a Bind-It-All.

7. Adhere the photo’s, write a few words and stamp the title on the title page with the myStampBOX Blueberry Stencil Alphabet.

Here’s the finished project:

Have a great day! Surprise yourself and go somewhere unexpected!

Last time I was at a crop, I had with me: my myStampBOX sets, a couple of brand new shades of stamping ink, a few markers, a small block of stamping paper and a Studio Calico Kit. As usual I didn’t have a specific project in mind and I didn’t bring any photos to scrapbook. I decided to just start stamping with the circle from the Border Lines set. I loved the repetition and it turned into a pattern:

Then I went to see what I could do with this pattern. I liked the collage so much that I turned it into a card:

After that I did some colouring with markers and a white gelpen:

And then I stamped even more of the same pattern and when I got home, this piece of 12×12 paper turned into a lay-out!

To cut a very long story short: today’s challenge is to get out your stamps and create a pattern! Link up your creations in the comments below. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Here I’d like to show you a few of my journal pages featuring My Stamp Box stamps with just a bit of paint, ink, black and white fine liner pens and all done on watercolour paper.

Here I’ve used the Border lines stamps, Pennants and Wishing you sunshine to create the art doll on the page along with a little hand drawn face.  The title Dance was stamped with the Colour Me set.

Here I’ve used the Border Lines border stamp which I absolutely love and the leaves from the Funky Flowers set. The background which you can only just see has been stamped with white acrylic paint and My Stamp Box stamps. I hand painted my birdie.

For this page I’ve used the Friday Night Stencil on my background which I love to do, used Oversized as accents on the page  and Repeat After Me to create the stitching and a border at the bottom using stamps from the Timelines set.

(ink, a MyStampBox circle stamp from the Border Lines collection, an acrylic block and paper). First ink half of the circle:

Stamp the first half circle at the edge where you want your border to begin:

Next, re ink half the stamp and line it up next to the last image.

Continue stamping half circles until you have completed your border and you have a fun addition to your layout or card:

Thanks for stopping by!

Here as they say is one I made earlier. The little chipboard birdie is from Magistical memories.

I’ve discovered that the pockets inside the tubes are the perfect size to hold artists trading cards, so here are three I added to the pockets of the books.

Other materials I’ve used are my trusty black marker, book pages, Adirondack inks, scrap bits of paper and ribbon and my beloved typewriter.

I stamped it tone on tone on the green polka dot paper. I used the same camera stamp and stamped it in black on Kraft cardstock and punched out small circles. Those I popped up on hearts from the Border Lines set. The whimsical hearts match the feel of the patterned paper and the theme! So next time you want to add stamping to your layouts think about matching them to your patterned paper and theme.

Rebecca

We’re thrilled to be sharing some fun projects with you today.  We tried to think of different products to use our stamps on because normally we stamp on paper.  So we, Jaine and I (Cari) gave ourselves the challenge of stamping on anything BUT PAPER. I admit it was a bit difficult trying to come up with a variety of things to use but we did it!

First off, Jaine made this fabulous card by stamping into black polymer clay in a beige coloured chalk ink. After it baked she rubbed the chalk ink over the surface just to take the shine off the clay and make it look more like fragments of black stone.  The stamps she used were from the Funky Flowers, Repeat after Me and Wishing you Sunshine stamp sets.

For this next sample I used felt as my stamping source.  I stamped on the large turquoise flower with black pigment ink using Funky Flowers and then stamped again with turuqoise pigment ink on the small cream rectangle shape using Seal It stamp set.

This third example Jaine created another card that has been stamped using a red pigment ink and the Wishing You Sunshine stamp set onto a piece of denim.  The red card mat has also been stamped using the Repeat after Me stamp set.

Using some a transparency for my “non” paper source I stamped a sentiment using Stazon ink in black from the Oval Office-Small Box set. This would make a great Father’s Day card.

The third card that Jaine created (which she says is her favorite!) has been stamped onto shrink plastic using a black Stazon and the Border Lines stamp set.  The shrink plastic pieces were torn rather than cut and coloured with Adirondak ink before shrinking. Tearing the shrink plastic makes it look more like fragments of sea glass. (I love the tearing idea!)

The last two cards that I created I stamped on canvas with pigment inks in Peony and Pink, Dark Moss and Moss Green using the Funky Flowers stamp set. I really like how the images turned out on the canvas too. The second card I used Colorful Companions and Oval office – Small Box stamp sets on the canvas.

And here’s one last card from Jaine where she stamped on the button and then embossed it. She also stamped on the ribbon as well. Fabulous! She used Funky Flowers stamp set.

WE hope that you have enjoyed our projects and have encouraged you to try different ways to use your stamps.

Thanks for stopping by!

and

I adore the Border Lines stamps for their quirky look and I usually use this type of border in my art journal pages.

I came across a piece of canvas recently which was crying out for a bit of altering and stitching.  A quick layer of gesso gave me the perfect base for stamping onto.

To make the house shape, I used the square shape and masked off the cross in the centre, after inking the stamp, so I’d get an empty square. To get the roof shape, I used  another mask to cover the parts of the canvas I didn’t want stamped and turned the square on its point to make the roof shape.

Some watercolour paint and a simple brooch back sewn onto some felt turns it into a wearable piece of artwork.

It’s a WELCOME BLOG HOP today at myStampBOX and we are thrilled to introduce our new design team to you. 6 of our designers are returning, 6 are new to myStampBOX. We will let you visit each of our old hands blogs to meet the new designers there, one by one. Make sure to leave a comment on each participating blog and another one once you are back here. On the way enjoy our welcoming cards made with our fun myStampBOX stamps.

But first we would like to thank all the wonderful and talented designers that are leaving our team. A BIG thank you goes out to:

Jing-Jing Nickel
Lynda Lindley
Gudrun Loennecken
Cherie Nymeyer
Tracey Taylor
Leica Forrest
Virginie Delbecq
Monique Liedtke
Ellen Sosnoski

Thank you for your hard and wonderful work over the last 6 months. You’ll always be a part of the myStampBOX family. Best wishes from all of us in your next endeavors!

Now… let’s find out more about who will be joining the myStampBOX design team. Follow the blog hop and visit each of our returning designer blogs. Each team member will be introducing a new member of our team. At each stop, please leave a comment and when the blog hop is complete, return to the myStampBOX blog and leave one final comment to have a chance to win a myStampBOX stamp set of your very own! You can participate until Sunday evening. We will publish a winner on this blog next Monday!

mSB Blog (http://mystampbox.com/blog/)
Allison Cope (http://yourmemoriescanada.blogspot.com/)
Jolene Johnston (http://jolenejohnston.blogspot.com/)
Agata Pfister (http://underconstruction-agata.blogspot.com/)
Jill Hildebrand (http://www.fromthefarm-jill.blogspot.com/)
Maryfrances Fabbri (http://maryfrancesfabbri.blogspot.com/)
Eva Pizarro (http://www.evascrap.blogspot.com/)
mSB Blog (http://mystampbox.com/blog/)

We hope you enjoy our little welcoming blog hop! Don’t forget to leave a comment on each one of the design team blogs and the mSB blog for your chance to win! Good luck and happy hopping!

Here is a card that I made for the new team. Since our team always work their magic with myStampBOX stamps, I made a magic card that colours in magically. What better stamp set to use than “Colour Me”. Hope you like it Here is my message for the new design team:

Now…. Check out our first new design team member and a fun card at Allison’s blog!

Happy Hopping,

This flower just makes me happy no matter how many times I look at it.  Here is the page I made.  I’ve used three different stamp sets:  Seal It, Floating Leaves and Border Lines.

I used paper from Kiki Art’s Familia Collection on this page.  I just love the flocking on the yellow paper.

I used my trusty  Helmar Zapdots to attach the stamped “stay true to yourself” seal.  The thickness of the foam mounting circle made it perfect for adding the center to the flower all the while preserving the integrity of the flower’s shape. 

That’s all I have for today. I hope you are as inspired by I am with the beautiful sunflower.

Cheers,

Tracey

hello everyone.  hope you are all having a wonderful summer and enjoying your days spent outside. 

recently our family spent a fantastic Sunday afternoon at my parents (about an hour away from our house).  They just put up an gigantic new play-structure at the park where I used to play when i was a kid (and actually split my head open while playing way-back-when).  Instead of doing a million layouts of the photos i took, i decided to create a little, homemade fabric mini album to showcase the memories of the afternoon.

here’s a photo of the album cover:

i used the Wishing you Sunshine stamp set on the fabric cover of the album to create the fun, whimsical cloud pattern.  The 3D butterfly on the tree is stamped using the Colourful Companions stamp set and embossing powder. 

and here’s the pages inside:

The back cover flowers were stamped with the Border Lines stamp set with a little addition of buttons for the centres. 

hope your day is filled with inspiration from your favourite summer memories of your childhood…….and those you are making today.

enjoy,

To give your chipboard tree a little something extra, all you need are a few supplies.

Step 1:  Color your chipboard shapes with ink.  I prefer ink to paint as it is much quicker and less messy.

Step 2:  Stamp a series of “leaves” in green on green cardstock.

Step 3:  Cut out your leaves and curl them slightly on one end.

Step 4: Adhere them to the top of the tree.

This same idea could be used on any of your chipboard shapes. Think adding dimension to flower, birds, etc.  Hmmm…that gives me another idea. 

Until next time, happy stamping.

One of my greatest joys in life is walking into the Kindergarten classroom and all the kids running up to me to give me hugs.  There’s no better feeling on a Monday morning, I’ll tell ya’.  And one of the best parts of the Kindergarten day is “Show & Tell”……..always an interesting part of the day.  So…….it’s only fitting that this Kindergarten substitute has the privilege of sharing my “Show & Tell” with you.

For all three of the layouts I’ll be sharing today, I used the Mini Letters stamp set AND the Your Story stamp set (with a few additions of other mSB stamp sets).

Crazy Kids: 8 x 11 inch single-page layout

mSB stamps used:  Mini Letters, Your Story, Borderlines, Bold Blocks.

To create the “Crazy Kids” title on this layout, I carefully inked the stamp from the Bold Blocks set, making sure I didn’t get any ink on the word “STUFF”.  Then I hand wrote the word “kids” to create the title.  I doodled around the whole thing to make it stand out.

Happiness: 8 x 11 inch double-page layout

mSB stamp sets used: Mini Letters, Your Story.

Using the Mini Letters set, I stamped the word “run” three times on a dictionary paper heart and then stitched under each word with my sewing machine.

Finders Keepers: 12 x 12 inch single-page layout

mSB stamp sets used: Mini Letters, Your Story, What’s your Numbers?

If you look closely, I used the number “1″ stamp from the What’s your Number? set to create the turquoise rectangles and the little yellow squares for “check marking”.  I stamped only the outside border of the journaling block from the Your Story set around the rectangles, making my own personalized journaling tag.

Hope you’ve enjoyed a journey back to Kindergarten this morning with a little “Show & Tell”.

smiles,  jill