Life should be about challenging yourself and stepping out of your comfort zone to coin a phrase, so I gave it a go.

For the background, I glued on some old book pages then with my brayer I added gesso, pink acrylic paint and some more gesso.  I stamped the butterflies from the Colorful Companions set in sepia Versafine ink then brayered some more gesso over to dull them a bit.  I stamped flowers from The Garden Sketches set and embossed them in white.  I didnt like the shiny embossing so I sanded it down a bit for more distressing.  (If I’d had a good white ink pad I may have simply used that and not embossed at all).

I added the collage bits and some lace and wanted a large embellishment on the front. After much playing about I hit upon the old stamping on UTEE.  It’s been ages since I saw my UTEE and to be honest I’d forgotton I’d even got a black one.  After 2 layers of black UTEE on a chipboard heart I added a third layer and stamped the butterfly into it.  It was beautiful but too shiny so I wiped over with some gesso and a baby wipe and hey presto I  now had an embellishment which looked  like black stone or slate.

I’m pretty glad I was challenged to do something different. Why not challenge yourself to try something you’ve avoided before, you may surprise yourself.

I started by stamping the bubble wrap image from Backgrounds in shades of pink, purple, and green Distress Inks. I allowed the image to stamp off the left, top, and bottom edges. Next I stamped butterflies from Colorful Companions using the same inks, fluttering randomly over the bubble wrap pattern. I stamped the main butterfly two times in black Archival ink on a scrap of white cardstock and colored them using Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol for blending. After cutting both images out, I glued one flat to the card and the other with the wings lifted. I completed the card with a birthday sentiment from Straighforward stamped next to the focal point butterfly.

I added a few touches of shimmer to butterfly wings using a glitter pen for some added fun. The finished card is pretty and very lightweight. The next time you reach for patterned papers and lots of bulky embellishments, consider making a big impact with stamping alone. I’m sure you’ll love the effect!
Check out myStamp BOX for all sorts of great sentiment, background, and image stamps.

Normally when I make a project and I want to include a bow I pull out my ribbons. Well not this time. This time I made a bow from patterned paper and I love how it turned out!!

Here is my card:

So my challenge to you today is to create a project with a paper bow on it and of course include some stamping too.

I thought I’d turn it into some sort of fabric story book which I could wind up around the reel.  I cut my strip of calico and got out the stamps which would help me tell my story.   I just started stamping from one end and the story ended up playing itself out through the stamps.  I added some colour with Faber Castell Big Brush pens and stamped onto some pieces of coloured fabric.  I cut small pieces of fabric and ironed them onto heat and bond, stamped then cut out the images.  I could then iron these onto the fabric with the heat and bond.  I used a black journal pen to write the story and added a few beads and french knots.  I then cut a second piece of calico and backed it onto the main piece and ran it all through the sewing machine.  I wanted a raw, almost journalistic look so I used black thread and left all my edges raw.  I stitched onto each end some fabric to tie around the cotton reel.

Here are the stamps I used to tell my story:

I hope you enjoyed my fabric story book.  Maybe your stamps could tell your story. For a full list of all the stamps I used see the top of this post.

This calendar is also supposed to help me remember people dear to my heart to whom I’d love to wish birthday wishes. So I’ve printed their names and dates on copy paper, cut it in stripes and adhered over some stamped images along with one small picture of one of the birthday persons. Here, obviously, it’s my daughter! Along with snow flakes from Let it Snow! set.

Next up is my son. The other day, my kids were playing with my inks and stamped with pads directly on paper. Then my son doodled something over the squares and it looked gorgeous! So I took his idea, stamped colors from his tee and stamped also some robots from Programmed Robots set! Frankly, after I did this page I didn’t want to move forward unless making all other pages with the same technique! Finally, I overcame this tentation but not entirely. To be continued…

For the April page I was inspired by the proverb “April showers bring May flowers”. And clear embossed a cloud from Wishing you Sunshine set and then colored rain drops with markers in rainbow colors. Stamping Cherry Blossoms from the new set was a breeze and a pleasure!

My birthday is in May and I even have a not very old picture of myself with my daughter! It was a nice occasion to print it! And since it’s quite rare, I used the camera from Snapshot set to underline this fact!

Another page without any picture! And with only one birthday date!!! I’ve added a simple but nice stamping technique: first, I’ve stamped some flowers from Abundant Blossoms in white, let them dry and second I’ve overstamped with butterflies from Colorful Companions set. The flowers are gently peeking from under butterflies, here’s a detail shot:

Next up is the July page with my nephew’s picture. I used the stamp from Road Trip set – this sweet boy and his family will be going away soon after plus it’s the usual vacation month. So this “bon voyage” stamp was very “à propos”!

In August, in Switzerland we’re celebrating our country’s foundation day, there are always tons of fireworks! Hence the stars (Back to the Basics set) in all the colors of the rainbow! And my favorite technique of the moment – multi color heat embossing!

September is the back-to-school month by definition so I’ve stamped the whole alphabet from Summer Alpha set after first aligning each and every letter on my cutting mat. I liked the effect so much that I’ve stamped the alphabet on copy paper for my kids to play with. Some more ideas are coming…

We’re skipping one month and going straight to November. In Polish, my mother-tongue, it means literally “falling leaves”. So here they are (from Floating Leaves set), white embossed and stamped over with ink pads directly to paper! I told you I liked it!

A little close up for you to appreciate the look! After stamping with pads, I’ve smeared ink with my fingers which made those leaves pop a bit more.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this “trash-to-treasure” post and understand now why I’m sort of proud of saving us some money on buying another DIY calendar. But I might spend some more for next year! Yes, stamping is dangerous so beware!

Happy stamping,

I started by stamping many images from Funky Circles using three colors of Tim Holtz Distress Inks on plain white cardstock. It was fun to overlap the images in any way I wanted! The sentiment was stamped from our Oval Office set and layered on more dark purple cardstock. Normally when I work with purple I will pair it with other cool colors such as turquoise, royal blue, or green. This time I opted for a pop of warm orange and loved the result! I stamped a butterfly from Colorful Companions in two shades of orange Distress Ink and cut it out for extra dimension. An orange button and some matching twine tied it all together, literally! Thanks for stopping by today. Stay tuned for more great projects and our Design Team announcement next week!

to this…….?

You use some fabulous myStampBOX stamp sets, that’s how!!!!!!

Here’s a list of favourites that I used for this project:

Lovely Houses, Enjoy your latte!, Repeat After Me, Striped Stems, symbols, Sigh Gush Gasp, Snapshot, What’s your number?,  Border Lines, Itty Bittys, Neighborhoods, Floating Leaves & Colorful Companions.

Now I just have to think of the perfect place to hang it.

Happy Stamping.

Up until this week, anyways!  Brrrrr… temperatures have dropped and already, I can’t wait until summer!

So, to warm up our spirits and brighten up our days until it arrives, I have a bright and cheery colour challenge to share with you!

Doesn’t that make you feel warm and fuzzy?

Here’s a layout created with this colour palette:

I stamped images on patterned papers, using black ink and the Colorful Companions and Wishing You Sunshine stamps sets.

Hope this colour challenge inspired (and warms!) you, too!

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!

Well today I am going to show you how to make a quick and easy card that I think still has impact.

1. Make a standard A2 card with white cardstock.

2. Use post-it notes to mask off the front of the card.

3. Stamp a butterfly image from Colorful Companions on the unmasked area.

4. Peel off the post-its and draw lines above and below the stamped area.

5. I stamped a greeting from Mention It but any sentiment from any collection could be used.

6.I then coloured in my images using Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol but you could colour using any type of medium.

I’m sure that you could find some time in your busy schedule to make a card using this recipe and brighten someone’s day!

Today, I want to share a canvas that I created, after reading this quote:

“Every artist was first an amateur.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It felt good to get inky and painty!  It’s been so long since I’ve worked with any mixed media so I eased into it with a small 4″x4″ canvas:

I covered the canvas with gesso and let dry.  Then, I gathered all sorts of goodies for my collaged background:  sewing patterns, book paper, punched cardstock, tissue paper – stamped with Staz On and Colorful Companions.  Using gel medium, I attached all of the bits and liberally covered it all with a thick coat.  Once dry, I used mists and paint to add colour to the background.

Using white and black acrylic paint and my Backgrounds stamps, I stamped the corners of the canvas.

Using a dye based ink, I stamped a butterfly from the Colorful Companions set onto white glossy paper and cut it out, adhering it to the canvas with a dimensional glue dot.

The quote was written first in black India ink, using a calligraphy pen nib, and then overtop with a white Sharpie paint pen.

Thanks for looking!

Now the eye is taken right to those elements that have been stamped and given that “wow” factor that I was looking for.

Here is a closeup of the banner that I randomly stamped with a little flower from the Funky Flowers set.

I stamped the heart shaped chipboard piece with a butterfly from the Colorful Companions set. One of my new favourites.

My challenge to you is to use your stamps and some embossing powder on your next project and I hope that you will share it with us.

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.

including 3 inch squares of patterned paper, MyStampBOX stamps, ink, punches, 2.5 inch squares of cardstock, an acrylic block, scraps of ribbon and a crop o dile.

I glued the patterned paper back to back so the note is double sided.

On one side I left a blank piece of cardstock so that I could write a personalized note:

On the other side I stamped several different images (including images from Colorful Companions, Wishing You Sunshine, Bold Blocks):

A small punched hole for tying some ribbon is the final touch. And here are a bunch of them together:

My kids totally appreciate them and I figure I might as well enjoy making them before they get to be too “cool” for lunchbox notes from Mom

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!

This mini proved to be just that so I had to find cunning ways to use my favourite stamps on pages which are only three inches by three inches.

This is the cover page and the butterfly from the Colorful Companions set, has been stamped onto shrink plastic. It’s only half an inch wide but has lost none of it’s detail.

On this first page I really wanted to use the Mini Pennants stamps so when cutting them out I left a small tab at the top which I folded over and threaded some coloured thread through them so I could wind them around the two pages allowing them to poke out of the page in a couple of places.

Stamping onto acetate also allowed me to make my own overlays and kept the pages free from bulky embellishments.  It keeps the finished look light and uncluttered. I attached my overlays using Helmars Scrap Dots as it dries clear. Incidentally you can compare the butterfly with the one on the front page – it’s the same one!

On these two pages I’ve used the Snapshot stamp set for the photo corners, camera (again stamped onto acetate) and the sentiments.  The tiny size is absolutely perfect here.

On this final page I’ve again used shrink plastic with the Seal It stamps to make the flower centre. Compare the shrink plastic version with the stamps on the right for an idea of the shrink ratio.  You can clearly see how the full sized stamps could have swamped the page.

I hope you enjoyed my mini and it gave you one or two ideas for making your own.

Rebecca and Agata are here to put some color into your world! We’ve teamed up for this challenge and chose to make some layouts using a great stamp set: Colorful Companions which is all about butterflies! Here’s Rebecca’s beauty:

She took only one stamp from that set, stamped it numerous times in colors that matched her patterned papers. Then she cut out all those butterflies and pop-dotted them on her layout for some dimension. Rebecca has purposely chosen the butterfly with a simple shape as she knew she would be cutting out a lot of them!

As for me I used almost all stamps from the set to create a patterned paper of my own. I used some chalk and pigment inks which was useful since I’ve embossed two images with an iridescent embossing powder.

Depending on ink’s color this technique gives different effect. Here are some close-ups:

Hopefully those layouts will inspire you to take out this beautiful stamp set and get inky!

&

I came across some wonderful resist techniques and had to try them out.

One of our partner companies is Clear Scraps and their clear acrylic shapes are perfect for some alcohol ink treatments.

I first used my ink tool and felt pad to apply the alcohol ink over the surface of the shape. Using an archival ink pad (this is important – it MUST be archival for the technique to work but the colour isn’t important), I stamped the butterfly from the Colorful Companions set onto the alcohol ink background.  I then took a piece of kitchen paper and carefully dabbed off the archival ink (don’t rub or you’ll smear the image) which takes  the alcohol ink off with it. Keep dabbing until you’ve taken off as much as possible, then and only then, carefully buff over the image to make it really appear. To make it pop out I backed the clear acrylic piece with white card.

In this second resist, I first clear embossed the butterflies all over some glossy white card.  

Using the inking tool and felt pad, I covered the entire piece of cardstock with alcohol ink, really working it into the negative spaces in the butterflies.

Once that was dry, which took less than a minute, I placed a clean pad on my inking tool and squirted blending solution onto it. Carefully I dabbed the blending solution over the butterflies to remove ink.  You could also use a piece of kitchen paper or a cotton bud to be even more precise about it.

 If you end up taking off some of the alcohol ink from around the image just re-ink that area again.

Here are the finished results.

I’ve put together a mood board to emphasize my point.

So here are a few projects using the colours I’ve chosen.

 Now it’s your turn.

I want to share this card, using a very simple resist technique.

I stamped the glossy cardstock with the Colorful Companions stamps using Versamark ink and heat embossed the images with clear embossing powder.  Then using my Clearsnap stylus and pigment ink in orange and pink, I added ink directly over the stamped images, building colour in layers.  I then buffed the stamped images with a paper towel to remove the ink from the embossed images and to blend and soften the background colours further.  I stamped the sentiment on twill ribbon, using Tim Holtz distress ink and the Straightforward stamp set.

And voila!

Thanks for visiting – enjoy your weekend!