We have been busy stamping and scrapping all year and before we take a week off, we are going to show you what we have been creating for our friends and families.

Hoping you will find a last minute inspiration for a card.

by Jolene Johnston

by Jaine Drake

by Els Brigé

by Agata Pfister

gift card holder by Sue Sykes

card and details by Wendy Morris

cards by Linda Abadie

by Marsha Valk

by Janet Zeppa

by Isolde Pyncket

We wish you and your families a peaceful and very merry Christmas and a happy and crafty 2012. Keep stamping!

Best wishes from the myStamp BOX team,

On the 11th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me….eleven pipers piping, so let’s “deck the halls”.

Hiya all!  Wendy here with Day 11 of our 12 Days of Christmas.  Are you enjoying all the fab inspiration?!!  Just a great wealth of amazing stamped projects with Christmas/winter/holiday themes.

I’m lovin’ all the amazing inspiration!

So, I’m here to help you “deck the halls” with a card showcasing several mSB stamp sets.

Here in this card, I used three stamp set from myStampBOX: Deck the Halls, Back to the Basics, and Repeat After Me.  What a great medley of stamps and I really love the end result!

Using Versamark ink, red embossing powder, and a heat gun, this is how I embossed the red ornament from Deck the Halls. The second ornament (stamped in black) is also from Back to the Basics.  For the “string”, I used the straight stitch stamp from Repeat After Me.

Here I stamped “deck the halls” from Deck the Halls above the paper phrase mounted on pop dots.

And if you know me (and cards), you know I love to also stamp the flap of the envelope with a matching/coordinating greeting with the card.  So, here you have it! Then, embellish with a random splash of bling/pearls of your color choice.

I hope you enjoyed my Day 11 card share!

So, share up with us what will you do on the 11th day of Christmas?

Supply List -

mSB Stamps Sets:

Deck the Halls

Back to the Basics

Repeat After Me

Other: White Cardstock – Source Unknown; Paper – Simple Stories – 25 Days of Christmas; Ink – Stampin’ Up! – Real Red, Ranger – Archival Ink – Jet Black, Versamark – Tsukineko; Embossing Powder – American Crafts – Zing – Rouge; Pearls & Bling – Kaisercraft, Stampin’ Up!; Pop Dots – American Crafts.

Hello everyone! Agata here with some more inspiration before Christmas!

The older I get, the more I’m nostalgic and realize how important traditions are. My husband’s grand-mother, 96 yrs old, was organizing each year a family gathering for her 6 children and their families. The latter grew and all in all we were something like 40 around the tables. But I said “she was” since she passed away this year. There will be a family gathering this year, too, and we’ll try to keep some of the traditions but will we be able to keep them all?

Fortunately last year I took some pictures of the important “pieces” of this great puzzle. And made a layout about it, using myStamp Box stamps of course! Here it is:

I also used some leftover papers from last year’s collection by My Little Yellow Bicycle. To embellish the upper part of my layout I stamped Winter Flakes with Versamark ink and then added pigment powder to them. This gives a nice shine to images.

I also stamped ornaments from Deck the Halls set on some patterned paper and embossed them with powder with glitter finish. Then I cut them out and adhered them to my layout using dimensional adhesive. All those glittery accents compliment nicely the paper and frame that also are glittery and the letter stickers I used for the title.

I hope you enjoyed today’s inspiration and will also remember about the importance of traditions when you gather together this Christmas! Have a merry one!

On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me………yes I am singing! LOL!

Okay I will get to the crafting in stead. I decided to make some gift tags using some little tags from our product partner Canvas Corp. They are just the right size to put on my Christmas gifts.

I stamped the little stars from Deck the Halls with Versamark and heat embossed, and then my sentiments were stamped using the Ho Ho Ho set.

I think they turned out so cute!!

One of the best times of the year is the time leading up to Christmas, when we get to light candles, bake cookies and keep many secrets. As a kid I always have had an advent calendar, made by my grandmother. It was mostly filled with sweets.

Our boys still enjoy their calendars and don’t seem to outgrow them. For this advent I made a family calendar which will be hanging in the kitchen. For every day between today and December 24th, we will be adding one mini ornament to the Christmas tree, until it is fully decorated.

For the tree I chose different colour card stock, cut it into organic shapes and assembled the tree. I stamped it with zipper and zigzag stamps from “Repeat after Me” in brown, then smeared brown and green inks and white acrylic paint all over the tree. I punched 24 holes and added 24 gold brads which will be holding the ornaments.

The background was cut from a piece of gardening burlap and stamped with white snowflakes (“Let it Snow”) and acrylic paint. I added green and white acrylic paints and the word “advent” at the bottom.

For the ornaments I chose a selection of our Christmas stamps from several stamp sets and used brown ink on shrink plastic. The images were cut out, hole punched and shrunk. A small wire was added and they were ready to be hung!

The whole project took about 3 hours from start to finish.

Come and see the fully decorated tree on December 24th on our blog!

Until then enjoy our 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS projects coming up in the next days! We will have some very decorative and festive ideas in stock for you!

Happy Stamping,

Love,

Today I’m going to show you a quick way to reuse a fun packaging product in your everyday life.

My 6 year old son, Spencer, just lost his very first baby tooth and I promised him I would make him a fun way to present the Tooth Fairy his tooth so I grabbed one of the Maya Road packages like the one’s shown below and set off in making something fun for him to present his tooth to the Tooth Fairy.

I decided to use the plastic slip off front on the front of a card.

Dear Tooth Fairy

Stamps used: Wishing You Sunshine, Graphic Borders, Mini Pennants and Deck the Halls

As you can see below, I designed the plastic piece to slide off the front of the card so you can not only put your tooth in the box but reuse for the next tooth!

To finish off the card, I decorated the inside too!  I figured he could leave a sticky note for the Tooth Fairy so the inside can be used again and again.

So I challenge you today to come up with a fun project where you reuse or re-purpose a piece of packaging from your crafty stash.  It may be a simple as reusing a piece of plastic backing, a piece of the package backing or even some of the cardboard that your supplies get delivered in.

Good luck!  I can’t wait to see what you creating using some recycled packaging!

Wishing You Sunshine Stamp (myStamp BOX)

Graphic Borders Stamp (myStamp BOX)

Deck the Halls Stamp (myStamp BOX)

Mini Pennants Stamps (myStamp BOX)

The finished effect is so cool and looks like a work of pure art.

Firstly, for this technique to work well,  I used watercolour card, the smooth kind but you can use any white card as long as it’s fairly stiff. You’ll be sloshing alot of water onto it so it needs to stand up to all that wet!

Clear emboss your design onto the card.  I used the Repeat after me and Funky flowers stamp sets for my tag.

Spray a little water onto the background and using watercolour paint and a brush, touch the background in places and watch the colours run. I like to get it fairly wet and hold the tag up to watch it run down as I love the effect of the paint collecting in the embossing.  Let this dry.

For the next step you need  a fairly hot iron and some brown parcel paper (printer paper will do).  Place the paper over the top of your design and iron until all the embossing has melted off onto the paper.

You’ll be left with a totally smooth surface again.

This second tag was over stamped after ironing with the circle from the Deck The Halls stamp set.  

I used the same technique to create the background on this card and over stamped the butterfly after ironing.  

I guess the picture speaks for itself.

I believe you already know that empty glass jars make perfect ribbon or button storage:

Those transparent sour cream lids go for cool shaker cards:

And coffe filters… In fact I don’t even use them everyday. I bought this package for this particular project. But by doing this, I discovered a great stamping material! I love how dye inks melt into this texture! Here’s a pic of them stamped before the crumpling:

Stamp sets used: Floating Leaves, Itty Bittys and Graphic Borders

And here’s what I made out of them:

I also love how the light shine through those filters. You could make a garland like this or gather all lights into a bouquet like on the next picture and offer to someone (or yourself ) as a gift:

And here’s my challenge to you: find some unexpected stamping material around the house and up-cycle!

Other sets used for those projects: Deck the Halls, Royal Flush, Pennants, Funky Flowers, Repeat after Me, Everyday Lines

I have a fun and easy tutorial for you today.  Grab some of your favorite myStamp Box stamps, some ink and paper and lets get going.

Making pattern paper from your stamps is a super easy technique and one that really does not take very long to work up.  You can make your designs as simple as you want, of if you are in the mood to go for it layering your stamps and ink colors can produce some great pieces.

For this tutorial I will use no more then two stamps and two colors of ink.  The stamps below are some of my favorites.  Here is what I used…

Here is my first example…check out my patterend paper below and then I will tell you how I did it.

I used the circle ornament from the Deck The Halls set to create the blue and grey pattern.  I first started with the back of the round ornament and stamped a solid cirlce in grey.  I created a line pattern with the stamp.  I then flipped the stamp over and in blue I created a honeycomb pattern a little off center from the solid grey circles.  One stamp, two uses, endless possibilities.

For the second pattern I used the polka dot cloud from Wishing You Sunshine.  I created an off center pattern in blue and then with a grey marker I freehanded a line to color in the white space.  So easy…you have to try it!

Here is a card I made using my new pattern papers.  1.  Cut a square background to fit your card base.  2.  Stitch around the edges with a coordinating thread.  3.  Cut a small square from the cloud paper and double mat it.  I uesd a square mat and a scalloped mat. Stitch around the edges.  4. Stamp a sentiment on to the small square.  5.  Poke two holes in opposit sides of the small sqaure pieces and string some ribbon through.  6.  Attach this piece with pop dots to the middle of your card.  7.  Attach a metal embellishment of your choice and you are done! 

Here is an example from the same set using the star ornament and small star accents.  This you have to try…it is SO SUPER EASY!  Black and pink ink and a lighter pink marker for coloring in.

Pattern paper…

Card using pattern paper mixed with a little premade paper.  1.  Cut premade pattern paper to fit card base.  2. Cut a circle from star paper and mat it onto a coordinating cardstock cirlce.  3.  Wrap ribbon around lower part of card base.  4.  Add rinstone brads to small circle.  5.  Attach circle over ribbon and you are done!

My last example used the Deck The Halls set as well as the leaf from the A Flower For You set.

Patttern paper…btw I did not use the star here.

Card made using the patteren papers as well as some Core d nations cardstock.  Look at how cool the stamped strip of leaves looks on this card.  Really neat huh?  I also love the look of the honeycomb effect you get from the ornament stamp.  Here I overlapped them with grey and brown.

I hope you find some inspiration here and give this turotial a try.  Post a link to your work here at MSB….we would love to see it.  Have fun!

I think my favorite scrapbooking supply is paper, specially patterned paper. I love the colors, the designs and I love to cut it to create my own embellishments. Today I wanted to challenge you to create a project using only cardstock, no patterned paper,  embellishments , alphas, etc… only cardstock!

It was really hard for me to use only cardstock for my LO but my myStampBOX stamps helped me so much!! This is the LO I created:

I wanted to make something simple and to use different cardstocks for my background. I chose 4 different Core’dinations cardstock and in each one I created a different backgruond with white embossing powder and my stamps.

I used my Deck the Halls and Funky Flowers sets to create the background and the Hive of Life set to create the embellishments, I then added them with my Zap Dots for Helmar and they added the perfect touch!

For the title I used the same technique with my Rough Copy Alpha set.

When I finished this LO I realized that cardstock and stamps offer so much versatilty! sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed with all those embellishments, alphas, stickers, etc… It was nice to come back to basics. Now it’s you turn, we’d love to see what you can do with only cardstock and your stamps, please leave a comment here if you try it out!

Bye!

I started with kraft cardstock and added only one sheet of dark brown patterned paper for some depth. For texture I added dry embossing, twine and lots of layered Spellbinders cuts. The stamped star layer uses the Review Time set of myStampBOX stamps. The sentiment is from Small Greetings.

The fun star embellishment was made from an ornament in the Deck the Halls set of myStampBOX stamps.  I love that you can make custom embellishments using stamps! To create this look, stamp a shape with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and cut out the image. Apply a generous coating of Antique Linen Distress Stickles and allow to dry. Then apply a coat of Ranger’s Crackle Accents and allow to dry. The finished embellishment has a crackled, shiny appearance with the sparkle of the Stickles captured inside.

Enjoy making a monochromatic stamped project – be sure to link back here with your results. Happy stamping!

Supplies: Deck the Halls, Review Time, Small Greetings, Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Vintage Photo, Colorbox Fluid Chalk Inks: Chestnut Roan and Amber Clay, Ranger Distress Stickles: Antique Linen, Ranger Crackle Accents, Spellbinders Die: Deckle Rectangles, Cuttlebug embossing folder, The Paper Studio cardstock, Bo Bunny paper, Tim Holtz Memo Pin, We R Memori Keepers Corner Chomper, pop dots, twine

Card 3:
When I saw these ornaments, I immediately thought this one looked like a peppermint so I designed this card with that in mind, making festive peppermint lollipops. I used the cracked glass technique (using clear UTEE or several layers of clear embossing powder and cracking it after cooling down) to give added dimension to the image.

Our guest designers are so very inspirational, they bring great projects to us when they visit and we really love to show them off. Carisa is our guest designer for December and she has been playing with the “Deck the Halls” stamp set.

This set contains 4 ornaments, but Carisa has not stopped there and came up with a number of very cool ideas for the stamps. Check out what Carisa has created!

But first we will let her introduce herself. We love to have you with us this month, Carisa!

Hi, I’m Carisa. I was raised in Florida but moved to Colorado 7 years ago. I married my high school sweetheart 10 years ago and we have 3 beautiful kids together – 2 girls & 1 boy. I really got hooked into stamping about 2 years ago when I went to a crop at a local scrapbook store. Since then, I’ve made some amazing friendships with women that share this fun hobby with me. I’ve come across new stamp companies and new techniques and love learning something new all the time.

My main passion is making cards – I think my style varies because if I see something I like I will want to try it! My favorite type of stamp is a line art image that I can color with my copics. I just recently got Copic Certified & have been having fun trying out the new techniques I learned. I stamp down in the basement where I have a little corner set up (which is usually a mess with all my stuff spread out) – it’s in the playroom and my hubby made the girls a workbench where they love to stamp & color with me. I love that I can share my love of crafting with them & that allows me to get in a couple minutes of stamping or coloring done throughout the day which keeps me happy.

I usually have my laptop with me when I’m making something & will generally catch up on TV shows on Hulu.com while crafting. LOL If there isn’t anything I want to watch, I’ll put on some music. I love GLEE and listen to that over and over! I’m so thankful to Bettina for giving me this opportunity to Guest Design for myStamp BOX. I really love these stamps – clear stamps are wonderful to work with because you can see exactly where you are stamping & I LOVE that. I hope you will enjoy what I’ve created this December and will give you some ideas to create some fantastic handmade Christmas cards and gift packaging!

Carisa used one of the ornaments to create a Christmas tree. Another of the ornaments was cut to make up the trunk. We love the baker’s twine and the pearl decoration!

Tomorrow Carisa will show us a set of fun Christmas cards, you will love them!

Check out these bookmarks I created using the Deck the Halls and Ho Ho Ho stamp set.

Love the Santa in the Ho Ho Ho set.  He is so easy to color in and glitter up.  I even used some old fashion snow that sparkles for his beard.

Here is a close up.

Love this simple design using the Ho Ho Ho word stamp and star from the Deck The Halls set.

Thanks it for me everyone!  Have a super day and a wonderful holiday.  Enjoy!

Hi everyone, welcome to another 12 Days of Christmas here at the myStampBOX blog! Today I’ll show you a gift wrapping kit made with several Christmas stamps.

Here’s the kit closed. I made the box with kraft paper and the lid with acetate. I used different embellishments and twine to close it and give it a festive look.

And here’s the inside of the kit!

Inside the kit you will find:

Gift bows: I made these from strips of cardstock previously stamped with the stars of the Deck the Halls set.

Christmas tags: I stamped gift boxes and Christmas tree decorations from the Merry Mr. Snowman, I coloured them and added some bling. I made the tags using the Deck the Halls and the Small Greetings stamps sets and some coordinations cardstock for the back.

Christmas ribbons: To embellish the ribbons I simply stamped with Staz on ink Christmas sentiments from the Merry Mr. Snowman and the Lines of Life sets.

I hope you like this little project!

Happy holidays to everyone!

…I started wondering what is it all about!

Hello everyone! It’s December, already! I truly can’t believe how fast that year came and went! I can still remember the beginning of it, how hard it was for me to start making a non-holiday projects and here I am, making the Christmas ones again!!! Speaking of which, what’s December all about? For me, it’s the most beautiful time of the year and the most beautiful holiday, remembering Christ’s birth. Sharing that joy with others means for me sending a huge amount of Christmas cards, tokens of friendship,wishing everyone a happy holiday season. This year, I started really early, my first card was made in August!!! But even now I’m still short of some cards! So I need to make quick cards. Here are some ideas for you.

For the first card, I timed myself – 20 minutes. It’d be faster if I haven’t searched for my scissors for a while.

In fact, I finished in 18.5 minutes but then decided to jazz it up a bit and added some shiny touches with a Stardust gel pen.

The second one took only 15 minutes and is easy peasy. Could be made faster but instead of regular markers to color the hat I used some dye inks mixed with Perfect Pearls and water.

I just love that subtle shine…

For the third one I forgot to look at my watch but it didn’t take long to make it.

Lastly, December is also about gifts. And what are gifts without tags? Here’s an idea for you:

I used a non-holiday stamp sets for this one but I think one just can’t tell…

I feel a bit more prepared for Christmas now. How about you? What’s December all about for you? Anyway, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Stamps used: Funky Flowers, Mention it,  Deck the Halls, Dotty Christmas, Everyday Lines, En cette occasion

I made an ornament using the Deck the Halls set of myStampBOX stamps.

I gold embossed four long ornaments from the set on some beautiful cranberry Bo Bunny paper and handcut each image. I glued them together using some Helmar craft glue and pressed the edges together from the tops to just below the center of each ornament shape. I tucked a loop of metallic ribbon inside before sealing it closed. Once assembled, I dipped the edges of the ornament where the papers met into embossing ink and more gold powder and heat set to seal the ornament closed. I further embellished the ornament with a dangling Magistical Memories chipboard heart covered with matching paper and a layer of Stickles over the entire ornament. A sheer ribbon and pearl pin added the finishing touches. This lovely vintage-inspired ornament was easy and fun to make. I hope you give one a try!

See you tomorrow for another great Christmas idea using myStampBOX stamps!

Can you tell that we are slowly getting into the Christmas spirit? If you are working on your cards, check out our great Christmas stamp sets. These are great for layouts, cards and tags!

card by Kristen Swain

cards by Stephanie Ackermann

layout by Allison Cope

card by Cari Locken

layout by Maryfrances Fabbri

cards by Agata Pfister

Window decoration by Jaine Drake

tag by Melissa Wright

card by Jolene Johnston

tag by Eva Pizarro

Have a wonderful (american) Thanksgiving weekend, enjoy your family and friends!

Next week (Dec 1st) we will start our 12 days of Christmas showcase with 12 different Christmas projects. Lots of inspiration and great ideas to look forward to!

Happy stamping!

Now that Halloween is over it might be nice to jump right into those layouts needing to be done with you kiddos pics.  Here is and easy and fun sketch to get you going.

How about trying this one…

How about checking out some close ups using the stamps.  I love these Boo stamps soooo much.  I can’t stop using them.  Anything Halloween just gets me everytime.

And the line stamps from the Just Add Notes set is perfect for journaling lines…I use it all the time.  I even added some lightly stamped cobwebs to add something extra.  And don’t forget your date stamp…not that we all don’t know when Halloween is…lol.

And one last peak at the title of this layout.  I uesd the stars from the Deck the Halls set to add to my chaulkboard chipboard nubers…just perfect!

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you find these sketches useful and give them a try.  Link us to what you come up with…all of us at MSB would love to see your work.

I used some craft paper for the wrapping paper and stamped it using an ornament stamp from the Deck the Halls set.  I then embossed the images to give the wrapping paper a bit of dimension.

To finish off the gift set I created a card that features the same ornament as on the wrapping paper.  I also used the Deck the Halls sentiment from the same stamp set.  I stamped the ornament image on core’dinations cardstock and to add some pizazz I added stickles and bling.   To help my image pop off the page I used Helmar Zap Dogs.

I hope that these projects will inspire you to get creating for the Christmas season!

Happy Scrappin’!