It’s Wednesday today, which means it’s challenge day! I’ve been trying to use perfect pearls lately and I really love the shiny effect they bring to a layout. So here’s the challenge: make something shiny with stamps of course!

Here’s my layout:

I’ve put pearls to add to the shiny effect.

And for the ones wondering how to use perfect pearls, here’s a step by step (which shows one of the many ways to use them):

You need an ink, i’m using versamark.

Ink your stamp.

Stamp on paper.

Dip your brush in the perfect pearls, and lightly brush on the stamped image.

Spray a fixative, and there you have it!!

Good luck!

Our designers have been busy and created an abundance of wonderful designs. Check out what they create in the Summer:

Happy Birthday Card by Jolene Johnston

Thanks You Card by Eva Pizzaro

Sigh Layout by Jill Hildebrand

Gruta do Lago Layout by Virginie Delbecq

Ready, Set, Grow Layout by Tracey Taylor

Thank You Card by Agata Pfister

Hope you enjoyed the pretty display!

Happy Stamping,

I’m getting ready for summer-vacation right now, and am busy packing all the stuff I need for a couple of weeks at the south coast of Norway.

This year I thought it would be a great idea to journal a bit to help my self remember all the good memories from this summer – so I created a little summer journal to bring along.

This is a fun and easy to make journal, and I had a blast making the stamped cover.  I made my cover with flower-stamps, heat-embossing and glimmermist for a really summery feel.

1. For this project you’ll need:

“Abundant blossoms” and “Funky Flowers” stamp sets, acrylic block

white cardstock 8,5×11 inch or A4, turquoise cardstock 8,5×11 inch or A4, note-paper 8,5×11inch or A4

Clear or pearl embossing-powderm, Embossing stamp pad

heat gun, glimmer mist, hole-punch, jewelry tread or embroidery floss, glass-beads for embellishment, sewing machine.

2. Start stamping flowers with embossing ink on to your white cardstock

3. Cover the stamped areas with embossing-powder. Remove all exceed powder from the cardstock before heating.

4. Heat the stamped areas until embossing-powder melts to a glossy finish.

5. When all areas of the cardstock is covered with stamped and embossed flowers (it might be a good idea to stamp and emboss the cardstock little by little ) spray the cardstock with glimmer mist. I used two shades of turquoise and blue. Let dry.

6. Using a paper towel dry away all exceed color from the embossed areas. The flowers will now show clearly against the blue background.

7. Fold the turquoise cardstock in half, cut the stamped and “inked” cardstock in half and make it fit to the front and back of your turquoise book cover. Attach the homemade patterned paper to the turquoise cardstock using your sewing machine.

I glued a nice patterned paper on the inside of the cover too.

8. Fold the note-papers in half and add them to the inside of your book-cover. Make holes for the binding using a hole-punch or a crop-a-dile.

9. Using double tread, bind your book and tie a knot on the outside of the book. Leaving the loose ends and add beads as embellishments.

VOILA the summer-journal is ready to use.

Hope You feel inspired.

Happy summer – and happy creating!

Take a piece of white cardstock and color it with three different colors of Distress inks.

Then, stamp an image over this rainbow colors with Versamark ink and heat emboss with a clear embossing powder.

Then, take another Distress ink, a dark one and cover the stamped piece in order to reveal the image and to cover other areas.

It’s like magic, don’t you think? Now, put this piece on your card and send to someone you love!

How about making another one, with three butterflies, each in a different color but on the same piece of paper?

The clear embossed area resists the dark ink but reveals what’s underneath – beautiful colors!

There’s a little variation to this technique. You can emboss your image on a cardstock that has some fine print on it. I printed some text from my computer in a light shade of green and than stamped my butterfly…

I used two shades of Distress inks to cover my piece.

And I have an extra tip for you. Having a right shade of cardstock to match your creation is a real challenge (unless you live close by a scrapbooking supplies  store!) I take a regular white card base and color the edges with some Distress inks in one of the colors I used on the embossed piece. Like so:

Hopefully you learned something new today! And you’ll be able to try this technique using our great stamps!!! Have fun!

Agata

Sometimes it all comes by itself. But there are other, harder times when I need some help with getting started. Like when it comes to making a 12×12 layout. Making those is sort of really challenging to me. So I’m always on the lookout for a good design because that’s where I can learn something. This is what happened with the layout I’m about to show you. I had a vague idea, I wanted to make a layout about my 3 year old son. One day it just hit me that all the questions he’s asking evolve around the same ones we ask when we scrap: who ~ what ~ when ~ where ~ why. I was turning this idea in my head trying to figure out some details. I made many sketches but it still wasn’t good. I knew I wanted to have sort of a central panel with those questions but the rest was mystery. So I came here, to the DT’s gallery and browsed. And I saw this fabulous layout by Jing-Jing named “This is me”. And from this point on, all the things fall into place for my layout! I shifted the panel to the left, kept the picture in the same place as Jing-Jing, chosen to write  my journaling on strips. Here it is:

The journaling says: When one hears you ask all those questions, one could think that you know the essence of scrapbooking, namely the 5 w! But is this asking exercise (and for me sometimes the torture)  going to guarantee that you’ll become a scrapbooker in the future? I doubt that!

While working on this layout I encountered another problem, namely the five words on the central panel. How to make these? Use chipboard alphabet? But even though I have plenty of those, it would kill any of my sets because all those words start by a “wh”! That’s where the Summer Alpha stamp set came in VERY handy! And since it is an outline alphabet set, I could color the letters in with a white pencil! Under each word I printed the actual question my son asks: WHO ~ Who is it? WHAT ~ What is this man doing? WHEN ~ Are we going to grand-mother’s today? WHERE ~ Where’s Daddy?  WHY ~ Why?

At first, I wanted to place all the questions together, not separated by anything. The layout by Jing-Jing suggested something else. And in fact, I’m glad that the picture came before the last question because this question is the one I hear most often. And it will inevitably follow any answer I’ll give him! So the fact that it appears under the picture, puts an accent on it and makes it more important than all the others.

The last part was to add some embellishments. Jing-Jing used some stickers and many buttons. I kept some of those but thought I’d rather add some stamped embellies instead of stickers since my layout was already full of words. So I took out my favorite Funky Flowers stamp set, white embossed some of them, applied distress inks over these and cut them out to finally attach them with brads to my layout. And this is it!

Now it’s up to you! Whether you’re looking for an idea for a card, a layout, a little gift, come to the DT’s gallery and browse it! The inspiration there is overflowing! And I’m sure you’ll leave inspired and you’ll have no more difficulties scrapping!

Agata

Jing-Jing

My son is not very much interested in drawing. He would use his colored pencils in funny ways, ways you wouldn’t even think of! His sister, on the other hand, who is two years younger, loves to play with pencils and markers. Anyway, there are some of those items on the cupboard where they do not really belong. The other day, I grabbed the first thing I found to put them all in, it was a tin can which looked like that:

Not a very decorative thing, don’t you think? So I decided to alter it a bit. I took two pieces of cardstock, scotched them together on one side and made a border with the circle stamp from Funky Flowers set. And then I called my son for help! He could chose the stamps and colors he liked and do what he wanted. Here’s a pic of the process:

The only thing it was hard to explain to him was to not stamp over already stamped images and that it was enough to touch the paper once instead of turning it around. (Note to self: if I want to make a stamper out of my boy, I need to have a smaller acrylic bloc. This one is too big for small hands!) Once the stamping was done, I cut out the border following the stamp’s shape and heat embossed  another row of  circles in clear embossing powder in the middle. Then, I punched some holes and wove some twine through them.

The twine helped the paper to stay in place and added to the recycled look of the tin. And here’s the finished project:

Now my kids’ crayons and markers and Play-Doh accessories are all in one place. And my son is quite hooked on stamping! He could do it again and again! So here’s to mommy’s  little helpers and to stamps which can stand harsh treatment by little stampers!

Agata

Stamp the “grass”:Stamp the grass again upside down, so the flat edge of the grass are lined up:This is what it looks like after the grass has been stamped:Trim the grass with scissors:Stamp the funky circles in two different colors:Use a circle punch to punch the funky circles out:Stamp the sentiment three times and cut them out using scissors.Start layering and adhering  the elements onto the base cardstock:Adhere the punched out circles using 3-d adhesives:And here is the final card. Funky flowers doesn’t have to be flowery at all!  I hope you enjoyed this step-by-step demo and now go stamp some mSB stamps!

Jing-Jing Nickel

The circle stamp that I am using today is from the Funky Flowers Collection. As you can see, it was designed to be used to build your own flowers but today I am going to use it as a plain old polka dot stamp to create my own background.

First, I just start stamping on my piece…

Adding more…

Adding some different colors…

And Voila! I have my own embellished chipboard piece! Would you have know this stamp was from a Flower Set?

Can’t wait to see what you come up with for this challenge!!! Have a great week…

Ellen

Since it’s my first time to blog here on the my Stamp Box blog, I thought I’d share some facts about me. From the scrapping point of view, of course!

First of all, I love stamping. I started last year and I was hooked very quickly. And that’s why I’m here (aren’t we all?) I love working with dye inks because there are plenty of things one can make with them. They come in an array of different colors and possibilities are almost endless. Look at that card: I used only dye inks in several colors, a marker to make the dash border and a brad.

Second, I love quick. There are so many things going on in our lives that we do not always have time to make a complicated project. On the next card, I repeated four times the same stamp, heat embossed it, put a brad in one of the circles, added a border and a sentiment. Fun & quick.

I just mentioned another thing that I use a lot on my cards: heat embossing. I find, this technique adds just a little bit of dimension and of sophistication to any project. But there’s a little twist to that technique which I {heart} in particular. And that’s emboss resist. Which means heat embossing white on white and adding color to the background afterward. Just like on the next card.

And last but not least, I love simple. Clean & simple, that is! Because I believe that a good design can make a very loud statement! Don’t you agree?

This card combines a little bit of all my favorites I mentioned before.  And thanks to all those cards, you know now a little bit more about me. And hey, did you notice? I used a very cool stamp set on all of my projects. It’s called Funky Flowers.  As I started working with it, I found it was very versatile. In fact, I only used a portion of the stamps that are in the set and there are still so many possibilities that my head is spinning! So I better leave you and go to my favorite place: my desk. That’s where you’re most likely to find me…

Agata

If you want to start this blog hop at the beginning, visit “PK GLITZ’s BLOG” first and follow the instructions posted there. It is the starting point of your fun “hopping” activity! Be sure to click the link on each blog to “hop” to the next blog for some great eye candy. All of the projects will have a Spring, bunny or flower theme just in time for the warmer weather!

To celebrate we are giving away a small stamp set during this blog hop. To win this set, just leave a comment before you hop off to the next participant. The deadline for entering all blog candy giveaways is midnight Central time Sunday night, April 4th. We’ll announce our winner next week – stay tuned

If you get lost at any time, come back here and pick the next link on the list to keep hopping. Here are the links for you:

P K Glitz Blog (www.pkglitz.com/blog)
Tammy, Not Just Paper and Glue (http://www.lifeonpossomtrot.com/)
Colleen, Happy Little Art (http://www.lifeonpossomtrot.com/)
Bettina and team, My Stamp Box (http://mystampbox.com/blog/)
Deborah, Country Heart and Home (http://countryheartandhome.blogspot.com/)
Janet, Janet’s Joy (http://janetsjoy.blogspot.com/)
Wendy, Dazzling Reflections (http://dazzlingreflections.blogspot.com/)
Jamie, Bits of Paper (http://jamielanedesigns.blogspot.com/)
Andrea, Andrea’s Scraps (http://andreasscraps.com/)

And now enjoy our creations:

This pretty light Spring card is by Gudrun Loennecken. Gudrun used “Turqouse Glitz embossing powder”, and the “White Orchid Glitter Glitz”. Stamps are used from the “Lots of Dots – Sentiments”, “Itty Bittys” and “Funky Flowers”.

Jolene Johnston made this sweet turquoise Easter Card. She used the flowers from “Tree for all Seasons” for the flower pattern and a sentiment from “Straightforward!” stamp sets. Jolene embossed the sentiment and flowers with “PK Glitz E P Max Merlot” and added spots of “Glitter Glitz in Bronze Patina” to some flowers.

My card is made from easter egg coloured papers. I stamped flowers and leaves from the “Garden Sketches” set with matching inks. Some flowers were stamped with glue ink and covered in “Glitter Glitz” glitter and “Powder Keg – Mirage” embossing powder. Then all flowers and leaves were cut out and arranged as a bouquet. The sentiment was stamped with the “Mini Alpha” stamp set.

And now off to visit DEBORAH to see what Glitzi project she has in store for you.

Happy Easter,

Bettina

Aren’t you tired of winter? Well, I am and i want to put a lot of colors in my layouts. So here’s what i came up with: a color combination which makes me feel like it’s spring…

It’s a bright pink, with a grass green, a sky blue and a brownish grey. I hope you like it.

Here’s my page:

I used the “funky flowers” stamp set. I stamped the small flowers on the spiky circle in a bright pink to mimic the color of the background and i added little pearls in the center to add dimension.

Then i stamped the dragonflies with their trails in the sky blue color. It looks like they are flying!

Don’t forget to show us what you’ve done with this color combination by leaving a comment!

Virginie

Today’s challenge is a simple one. I want you to create a tag and use it as an embellishment on your layout/card. The tag doesn’t need to be fancy, mine is very simple. You can use any technique you want, like embossing, resist… I just did simple stamping on that one.

Here is what it looks like:

I used the “you name it” set and the “funky flowers” set. I took what is supposed to be the stems of the flowers to make the straight and dotted lines on my tag. It’s just a different and funny way to get the most out of your stamps.

Here is the final page:

In addition, i used the “wishing you sunshine” set and the “funky flowers” set to create embellishments for my layout.

The butterflies are embossed with yellow embossing powder, and for the red strip i used clear embossing powder (i wanted a shiny tone on tone effect).

Don’t forget to show us what you create, by posting a link here, or in the gallery!

Virginie

First, I stuffed the box with my dried seeds.

then, I stamped the image of the flower on white cardstock with different colors and then cut each one out of the cardstock. Then, I layered each image and fanned them out so you could see each stamped image below the other one. I finished the box off with some ribbon and tag with the stamped “thanks friend” from the Funky Flowers collection.

I dug out my most recent stamps from my Stamp BOX - A tree for all Seasons, Floating Leaves, and Funky Flowers and I created scenes using these stamps, leaving room on the pages for plenty of journaling.  I made large, full pages for the teachers and staff to write on, and smaller (4/page) sections for some of the students who have had this teacher for many years.  Everyone loved it, and I got to play a little putting together trees, flowers and leaves into scenes.  It was so much more interesting than blank journaling pages and WAY less expensive than buying a Guest book or something.   Thanks for looking!

The front cover

The 4/page section for student comments

Some of them even coloured the images in, exactly as I thought they might

One of the staff pages with stamps from Funky Flowers

Thanks for looking,

Cathy

I hope you feel inspired to try some very simple cards and add your sewing. It doesn’t have to come out perfect, but it’s SEW much fun!

Happy stamping,

Love,

Bettina

Here I decided to go with a simple look with the Stamp Set Funky Flowers. I used punches as accents.

Now for the reverse punch effect – a window card! These are so much fun to make and instantly adds interest to your card! I did a bit of distressing to add to the visual of the window.

I think these makes for a great masculine card, even though it’s uses floral elements.

On the card below, I stamped the word “heartfelt” on the green ribbon using the Many, Many Thanks Set. The dragonfly stamp is from the Garden Sketches set.

On this card I used the mini flower from the Funky Flowers set and stamped it in two different colours on the ribbon. This is a great way to create unique, one of a kind ribbon. The butterfly and greeting are from my two favourite sets; Colorful Companions and Small Greetings.

On my final card, I stamped the greeting from the Neighborhoods set on the twill and placed it under the scenery stamp.

So next time you’re creating, try pulling out some of your ribbon and stamping on it. I think you will be happy you did!

Happy Stamping!
Cherie

my Stamp BOX Many, Many Thanks and Abundant Blossoms

my Stamp BOX Floating Leaves and Small Greetings

my Stamp BOX Funky Flowers

Happy Stamping!
Cherie

For this card, I stamped a buttefly in the upper right corner of the T and then stamped “thanks friend”  from the Funky Flowers set. I used the Many Many Thanks set (which I can’t stop using because it’s awesome) to create the sentiment in the lower right corner.

For this card, I took a raw chipboard arrow and coloured it green. I then took the itty bitty circle stamp from Funky Flowers and randomly stamped a pattern. The “Thanks a Bunch” stamp is from the Small Greetings set.