I started by putting Gesso on the Chipboard album in such a way as not to cover the edges too perfectly.

Then I got to work layering ink and stamped images… Using several of the stamp sets with each other. I was also heat setting in between layers!

To make the background in this page I simply used my Clearsnap ink pad and twisted it right on the page.

Well I hope you enjoyed my first post and it has inspired you to play and mix up your stamp sets.

See you soon!
Christy

So here it is, my one sheet mini or is it a rather over sized card?!!

The first thing I did was use a sheet of bright green scrapbook paper and painted turquise, yellow and white acrylic paint onto it with a brayer.  When that was dry I stamped randomly with stamps from the Graphic Borders and Repeat After Me sets.

I folded my paper in half, turned it 90° and folded in half and in half again so I ended up with 8 rectangle shaped pages.

Cut the centre 2 folds where the 4 middle pages meet.

Fold the paper back in half as shown.  As you press down the creases you’ll end up with a star shape.  Simply fold these up into book pages.

I stitched a very simple 3 hole binding and decorated it with stamps.

I added a little bit of machine stitching and some washi tape.

The image stamps I used are Garden Sketches, Striped Stems, Funky Flowers, Lovely Houses, Rustic Outlines and Border Lines.

I hope it inspired you to make one of your own.

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 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.

The base for the journal was a wonderful long black envelope which I folded into three to make a fold over cover.  The front has a doily and stamp from the Seal It stamp set.  I then collected tags, packaging, envelopes and all sorts of other goodies, folded them and laid them on top of one another then just ran it all through my sewing machine.  To hide the spine stitching and strengthen the fold I use some furnishing fabric glued on with gel medium.  The furnishing fabric came in a huge box of samples and given to me as a christmas present by a crafty friend. Even the closure is the bottom from a felted jumper with a button on it.

Once it was put together I just needed to decorate it.  I wanted the book to reflect my personality so it became a journal about me.

Here I’ve used a tag by Canvas Corp (partnered with My Stamp Box) and splattered it with ink, stamped the journaling before adding it to the page.  That coffee ring stain in the new Enjoy your Latte set comes in very handy for backgrounds. Here I used it with black acrylic paint. (Clean your stamps well afterwards).

Below I’ve used mini pennants and some of the Snapshot stamps.

I’ve totally fallen in love with the houses from the new Lovely Houses set, they’re just so totally me.  All the craft cardstock used throughout the book was recycled from packaging. 

Funnily enough the piece of acrylic for the page below came in my box of new stamps so nothing has gone to waste.  I painted over some gesso, sprayed with some ink and stamped on the tea cup from the new Special Teas set.

The flowers from the Garden Sketches set was stamped onto some recycled craft card and glued to the music score page.  A few more flowers were added to fill in the gaps.

You can just about see the coffee stain stamp again on this last page.  I did say it makes a truly funky background especially on a grunge look.

By this time my book had become quite fat and uneven so stamping the tree from the Tree for all Seasons set, wasn’t perfect.  I had to touch up some of it with an embossing pen before adding some embossing powder.  When I wanted to stamp the snowflakes from the Let It Snow set, I used the tip of my finger rather than the acrylic block as this gave a much better impression on the uneven surface.

I hope you enjoyed my show and tell junk journal.  Have a go at your own and see what interesting things you can find to stamp onto.

Here is what everyone made of it:

by Isolde Pyncket

by Agata Pfister, a simple and elegant card

by Janet Zeppa paired with green

by Els Brigé, just in blue

by Jill Hildebrand

purple exploration by Jaine Drake

by Linda Abadie using the new Warm Tweet set and Back to the basics

by Jolene Johnston, beautiful pairing of the colours

layout and detail by Jill Hildebrand

this beautiful little chest is by Marsha Valk, the colours just pop!

… and inside! The Itty Bittys fit perfectly on the cubes.

We hope you liked our challenge!

Stay tuned for our design team call coming up later this week!

Until then, happy stamping!

Do you love to run your fingers over a project and feel the textures?  Touch is just as important a sense as sight and a project with a 3d embellishment on it just begs to be stroked. 

Stamps can be wonderful for adding texture by adding embossing powders, stamping into something like clay or UTEE but have you considered making an embellishment in papier maché using your favourite stamps?

The steps are very easy and require nothing more than some craft glue, water and tissue paper.

I started by putting a little linseed oil onto the surface of my stamp to ensure the papier maché comes away cleanly afterwards but you could use olive oil or any kind of greasy substrate.

Mix a little PVA glue with water and lay the first layer of tissue onto the stamp.  With a stiff brush and the glue/water mixture, push the tissue down into all the recesses of the stamp.  It’s important to take the time to make sure all the little grooves and crevices of the stamp are covered. 

Keep adding layers in the same way (I added 4 layers of two ply tissue).  Leave it to dry overnight.  It needs to dry out completely and will take time. 

Once it’s totally dry you can gently pull it away from the stamp.  Wash your stamp with warm soapy water to get rid of any glue residue.  Cut around the image and add some colour.  I used spray ink and used my finger to wipe over some gold acrylic paint to highlight the raised parts.  Don’t over saturate it with paint as it might make it go soft again and you’ll loose the image. 

Now you can add it to your project. 

It’s all very well being able to cut your favourite shapes from patterned paper but with all the stash in the world, there’ll still be times when you won’t have the right colour or pattern for a project.  A piece of plain coloured card just won’t cut it (sorry for the pun, I couldn’t resist).

Try creating your own patterns on die cuts and using alcohol markers to colour them in.

I stamped using Memento ink from Tsukineko as it doesn’t react with alcohol markers.

Stamping on the die cut shapes also means you can tie everything together by stamping the same pattern on the background.

I’ve used Funky Circles and  Garden Sketches on my cards.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

For the remainder of March, all of our Design Team members have been paired up to create inspirational projects to share with you!  Stay tuned to the blog for LOTS of great inspiration.

Since today is St. Patty’s Day, we thought we would bring you some Irish inspiration.

Melissa has created this fun glass to toast with the finest green beverage of your choice…

She has used the Mini Alphas for her sentiment and the cute flower centered circle is from the Lots of Dots alphabet set.  To ensure that her ink is permanent, she’s used StazOn on the glassware.

I decided to wish Spring an early arrival.  I’ve stamped a St. Patrick’s Day quote all over this plain-jane green plastic watering can to spruce it up.

The quote reads:

St. Patrick’s Day is an enchanted time – a day to begin transforming a winter’s dreams into summer’s magic. ~ Adrienne Cook.

I used a variety of different stamp sets to complete the quote:

Royal Flush, “St. Patrick’s”, “magic”;  Color Me – Sentiments, “day”;  Mini Alphas, “is an enchanted”, “transforming”, “Adrienne Cook”;  Lots of Dots, “time”, “summer”;  She Says – He Says, “=”;  Rough Copy Alphabet, “a day”, into”;  Color Me – Sentiments, “to”;   Garden Sketches, the bee;  Colour Me, “gin”, “a”;  Funky Alphabet, “winter”;  Lots of Dots Sentiments, “dreams”;  Funky Flowers, leaves, dotted lines;  Let It Snow, snowflakes.

We hope these green goodies have inspired you to create today!

Happy stamping!

&

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

Let’s start with a fun flower pot card.  Here are the dimensions of the pieces of cardstock you will need to create this card:

• 9 x 3 1/2 – flower pot
• 3 x 4 5/8 – tag
• 2 3/4 x 4 1/2 – tag mat
• scrap pieces for flowers & leaves

To begin, score your largest piece of cardstock (flower pot) at 2 and 5 1/2 inches.

Fold your score lines to create one valley and peak.  See below.

Now, measure in 1/4 of an inch on the bottom fold.  Use these marks to trim your card base to create a tapered pot base.

I then edge punched my pot edge and inked all of the edges of the card to create more dimension.  I also added some foam adhesive under the pot’s decorative edge to hold it up and create a shadow.

I then added some decorative dots using my Funky Circles stamp set using Versamark ink for a subtle effect.

Then using a scrap piece of green cardstock, I stamped a variety of fun leaves from the Floating Leaves stamp set in various green inks.

I hand cut them out and added some soft air brushed Copic colouring to them for some depth.

I then stamped a variety of floral stamps onto some pretty patterned paper.  For these blooms, I used the Garden Sketches and Kind Flower stamp sets.  I also cut them out.  I added my center flower images using our Preferred Partner, Helmar’s 3D Scrap Dots to pop up the centers.

I then cut the tag and tag mat and adhered the two pieces together.  I tied a bright ribbon around the top of my flower pot to hold the 2 halves of my card together.  I used some glue dots to hold the ribbon secure.

With the tag tucked inside the pot, adhere all of the greenery to the top of your tag.  Don’t worry about the adhesive showing under your leaves.  The flowers will cover it up.

Add all of your flowers and add gems or pearls to add some shine to your card.   I also added some of our Preferred Partner’s crystal glitter from PK Glitz to one of my flowers.

Here’s my finished card!  You can add some stamped images or a sentiment to the front but I decided to leave mine plain.

Since we’re all about interactive cards today… let’s make one more!!!

Let’s make a fun easel card.  Here’s how I made mine!

For this card, you will need only two pieces of cardstock;

• 4 1/4 x 8 1/2 – card base
• 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 – card front

Let’s get started!  Take your largest piece of cardstock and score it at 4 1/4 and 6 3/8.  The Scor-Pal has a groove for both fold lines!

Fold your card to create one valley and one peak.  See the image below.

Now take your square piece of cardstock for your card front and adhere as shown below.

Create a fun 2 inch piece to go on the inside of your card.  I used the beautiful floral block from the Itty Bittys set and stamped in on a whole bunch of one inch squares in soft Spring hues.  I added a funny butterfly from the Colorful Companions set with some polka dots stamped on his wings from the Itty Bittys stamp set again.  I made sure that my lacy cardstock edge was pulled up a bit as to catch the bottom of my card front.

I created my card front to look like a continuation of my inside piece.  I also added some glitter paint to the exterior to give my card some shine!  Sorry it’s so hard to photograph that aspect.  The sentiment on this card is from the Oval Office set.

And now you have two more interactive cards to add to your creative knowledge.  I hope you give them both a try for your next card project!

Have a great Thursday!

~ Allison Cope ~

So in honour of all the lovely additions to our mSB family, I thought I would fun to focus on BIRTHDAYS today!

Let’s start with some fun and simple birthday cards; cards for all ages and genders!

I started off with a very simple, masculine card.  Clean lines, darker colours, simple patterns like polka dots and some fun stamps can make a great masculine card!

Happy Birthday

I used one of the cute little circles from the Funky Circles stamps sets and created a quick line of fun stamped circles on my off white paper.  I added a heat embossed “Happy Birthday” greeting from Happy Word Jumble stamp set on some dark brown cardstock and popped it off this simple card background.  A very easy birthday card for that special man in your life!

Programmed

I absolutely love all the little robot creatures from the Programmed Robots stamp set and knew that I had to make a fun birthday card for that special little guy reaching that next year of life.  I bent the greeting from the set around a circle of fun patterned paper and heat embossed the greeting and the little robot using some gorgeous embossing powders by one of our sponsor’s, PK Glitz.  I love how this fun birthday card turned out!

Wish Come True

For my last card, I wanted to create a “girly” kind of card for my stash so I searched through my patterned papers for one that jumped out and I found this fun polka dot paper.  It started me off with a fun colour scheme for this card.  I stamped the subtle green branch from the Floating Leaves stamp set for the window first.  Then I layered on a pretty pink butterfly from the Colourful Companions set and also a fun greeting from my Oval Office stamp set.   I also used some Versamark ink and stamped a frilly edge along the label shape at the bottom using one of the circles from my Funky Circles stamp set.

——————–

Now that I had created a few cards, I also wanted to showcase a birthday themed layout so I created this frilly page showcasing lots of fun mSB stamp sets. That’s me and my son just hours after he was born.

Special Delivery

Here are all the fabulous stamps I used on this layout: tag (Road Trip), title (Mention It!), butterflies (Colourful Companions),  flowers (Garden Sketches), branch and leaf (Floating Leaves).

Here are a few close ups of my stamping and design…

I used only one colour of ink for all my stamping on this page.  To create a lighter ink colour, I first stamped my image off on a scrap piece of paper, then I stamped the image on my page.  It’s as simple as that!

And another close up of one of my butterflies with a touch of glitter.

So the next time you are looking for some birthday inspiration, just take a gander at your myStampBOX stamp sets!  You never know where you will draw inspiration from!

Have a great weekend!

~ Allison Cope ~

Today I want to show you an easy way to use glitter.  Yup… you know.  All those little tiny bottles of wonderful and super clingy glitters we all hide in our scrappy stash!

So grab your stamps and glitter and come play along with me today!

I started off by stamping a few flower images from the Garden Sketches stamp set with black Memento ink.

I masked off the flower images and stamped a few fern images from the Floating Leaves stamp set.

Then I coloured my flower images with my Copic markers, using the same colours (or close) to the colours of glitter you choose to use.

Once all the images were coloured, I used my Quickie Glue pen and started to colour each flower in individually.   Once my glue was applied, I sprinkled on my glitter and tapped off the excess.

Here is the image completely coloured and all the glitters applied.

I finished off my glittered squared with some soft inking around the edges, some Copic airbrushing for some speckles, some piercing using my piercing tool and adding some pretty green adhesive pearls to the center.  I then took my square and applied some hairspray to it.  This was to ensure the glitter stays in place and it didn’t effect the ink either!

I added some purple frames and then used the same fern stamp again with Versamark ink on the green card base and placed the purple frames on the card base.  I also added a quick sentiment using the Oval Office stamp set.

I hope that you too grab your stamps and glitter and create a fun card today!

Thanks for joining me today!

~ Allison Cope ~

Step One:

Stamp the images you want to highlight.  For this card I used the two small flowers from the Garden Sketches stamp set.

Step Two:

Grab that white or light coloured crayon from your kid’s marker stash and take it and draw right over your images where ever you want them to stay white.  The wax in the crayon prevents any ink that you use over top of your image from becoming coloured.

Step Three:

Take a sponge or your ink pad directly and start applying colour right over top of your stamped and crayon traced images.  The richer and darker the ink you use, the more your crayon accents will appear.

For the above image I used my Tim Holtz ink applicator and my inks to create a rainbow effect across my cardstock.  See how the white crayon pops!

Here is my finished card using the rainbow stamped image:

Wish

by Allison Cope

The oval shaped sentiment is from our Oval Office stamp set.

I also stamped a couple of the dragonfly images from the Garden Sketches stamp set on a piece of scrap white cardstock and highlighted them using the white crayon resist technique.  Here’s the card I made using that piece of paper:

Born to Fly

by Allison Cope

I hope you have enjoyed this simple and easy technique and hope you give it a try!  Visit my blog for more myStamp BOX inspiration.

Happy Friday everyone!

Allison

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

Step 1

Choose your paper colours. For the first card, I chose 4 different shades of pink cardstock and sorted them from lightest to darkest. Punch out a square from each colour.

Step 2

Choose one image that you repeatedly stamp on all four squares or choose a different image for each square. I decided on two different butterflies and stamped them alternately.

Step 3

Fix the four squares to a black panel that is the same width as the card, leaving the same amount of space on the outside as between the images. Fix the panel to the card.

Step 4

Add a sentiment from “Lines of Life”. I chose “Happy Birthday to you” as this card will go to my mom, whose b-day is on March 13th.

pink butterfly birthday card

Step 5

A variation to the first card. Choose a card colour that is the same as one of the squares and place the panel slightly diagonally. Here I took 4 different stamps to create a garden feeling. The obvious sentiment was “hope you’re better soon”, as yellow always cheers me up. This card will have to wait in the “for future use” box. You can add some glitz with a bit of glitter, which I tried on the bee’s wings.

garden sketches card

TIP: Always keep a stash of squares, which you punch from card stock leftovers that are too small for anything else. Great for quick cards!

Supplies: stamps: my Stamp BOX (“Colourful Companions”, “Garden Sketches” and “Lines of Life”), cardstock: Bazzill and others, punch:EK Success, ink: Nick Bantock

Happy stamping, love, Bettina