I love the classy look of black and white photos but I also wanted a touch of fun so I created a card using black, white and one color – love how the bright blue from Tim Holtz’s Broken China Distress Ink pops against the black and white card stock!  Since I was only using black and white card stock I layered the card stock several times.  I used the circle stamp from myStamp Box’s Funky Flowers set and ‘it’s your b-day’ sentiment from myStamp Box’s Mention It set.  I hope this inspirers you to create a project using black, white & one color.

Thanks for stoppin’ by!

~Carolyn

Sometimes it seems like we are scrambling for a quick birthday or thank you card so I decided to make a set of note cards for my son to have quick access to, though he liked them so much he said he was going to keep them – how cute!

The images are colored with Prisma color pencils and gamsol with accents of Smooch and Smooch Glitz!

These cards were created using myStamp Box – Warm Tweets, Mention it and funky flowers.

Thanks for stoppin’ by!

~ Carolyn

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!

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 like to give presents. But there’s always THE problem of what to offer. Hand made gifts are always appreciated but they take some time to be made. So I guess if I start early making them, the better I’ll be prepared! Here’s a project that I think may make someone happy. A gift box that may contain different things, accordingly to the recipient.

It’s made from just one piece of cardstock, some patterned paper and mSB stamps, of course! Even though I’ve chosen a Christmas themed paper, it doesn’t show that much. I find it can be offered and looked at all throughout the year.

As you can see, I’ve stamped one of the borders from Repeat after Me set on the kraft sleeve as well as on the spine of the box. To cover the seam of the sleeve, I made a tag with stamped flowers and a sentiment. Some red Stickles add the finishing touch.

The kraft sleeve slides off to reveal the box’s secret: some cards, a mini album or some sweets!

How about you, what would you put inside? Anyway, I hope this project will inspire you to start your Christmas preparations early!

Love,

You see I didn’t start scrapbooking until they were all grown up so I have a lot of catching up to do.

I found a photo of my daughter when she was having her 5th birthday so I promptly pulled out some stamps and paper and got busy creating.

To add some detail to a diecut tag I inked up a stamp from the Mention It set. It has so many great sentiments and they are not just for cards.

For my title I used the Friday Night Stencil alphabet set. I stamped onto patterned paper, circle punched the letters out and put them on my layout with pop dots.

I hope that you will pull out your stamps and some photos that you have been meaning to scrapbook and get scrapping!

I remember watching in my childhood a TV show called Beyond 2000. My English was sort of in its beginnings back then so I was puzzled by the word “beyond”. Plus year 2000 seemed so far away!

Today I believe I understand better the meaning of this word and scrapbooking-wise it means for me going for a bigger project. We’re all running after time trying to get the most of it but let’s be honest: sometimes it’s not possible so we go for those small projects that offer us a short creative escape. The result is that some memories get lost in the process. So today I’m challenging you to add up those short periods of time and create something bigger: a layout if usually you make cards, or a mini album if you make layouts etc.

Personally, I do make cards and layouts quite often but I do envy my friends who create mini albums all the time! So here’s one that I offered to my in-laws with pictures of their grandchildren.

It’s an accordion style album with a fabric covered front and back. Here it’s open.

And here it is page by page. Sorry for the fingers that are holding it down! I’ve chosen the best pics of my in-laws grand-children and adorned each page with myStamp Box stamps. Snapshot and Seal it! on this one:

Repeat after me and Snapshot again:

As you can see I tried to keep the same colors as on the cover for the unity of the album.

I used Funky Flowers and Mention it sets for the last page.

As for the detail on the cover, I stamped the frame from Snapshot set on a piece of cardstock, added a sentiment from Itty Bittys set and glued to fabric using a product from our partner company, Helmar Adhesives, Liquid Glue Dots.

So my today’s challenge for you is this: go beyond the size of your usual projects and make something bigger. Maybe it will cost you some effort but it will be a very rewarding experience! Happy stamping!

First, stamp images of your choice on watercolor paper. Here, I used Abundant Blossoms set.

Second, spray them lightly with water. You can add pigment powder for a  subtle shine. If you find that your images bleed too much, you can stop the bleeding by heating images with your trusted heat gun. Once they’re dry, you can stamp the same images over the first ones once again with a different color of ink.

Now, cut your images out and distress them with a light colored dye ink.

Now all you need to do is to add your images to your project. You can jazz them up a bit before, of course!

The sentiment is from Mention it! set. And here’s a close up:

Here’s also another card I made  earlier with this same technique but with another stamp set, Floating Leaves.

Hopefully those projects will inspire you to make some watery projects. And while you’re at it, you can also use the spray to freshen your face up a little bit. It’s hot after all! Happy stamping!

For most of us it was a challenge to work with these subtle hues, but the end products are all spectacular! Get inspired to leave your regular colour range and try out a new and different palette.

Marsha Valk stamped and embossed on felt with the “Abundant Blossoms” and used white gesso on plaster eggs. She finished the eggs with the solid shapes of the Abundant Blossoms set.

Allison Cope used the oval stamp from “Back to the Basics” for her egg shapes. The background is done with the checkered stamp from “Graphic Borders” and the sentiment comes from “Straightforward”.

Jolene Johnston’s Easter Card was stamped with the flower shape from “Oversized” onto the background. The sentiment is from “Mention It!”.

Birgit Koopsen created a pastel coloured travel diary. She used “Seal It” stamps and the bracket from “Just add Notes”.

Jaine Drake hid her Easter eggs in this sweet little birdhouse. It comes with a matching tag and is decorated with stamps from “Border Lines”.

Agata Pfister let little button rain drops come out of her rain cloud from “Wishing you Sunshine”. The sentiment is from “Mention It!”.

Rebecca Keppel made this Spring colour inspired layout of her daughter. She stamped the “Colourful Companions” Butterflies on white cardstock and used “Summer Alpha” letters for part of her title. *smile* comes from “Sigh, Gush, Gasp”.

Janet Zeppa created the eggs in this cute Easter basket with the oval shape in our “Back to the Basics” set.

Sue Sykes used “Colourful Companions” and “Mini Pennants” with her patterned paper. The sentiment comes from our popular “Straightforward” set.

Linda Abadie outlined the Colourful Companions butterflies on this card, coloured some of the spots in and used a sentiment from the “Itty Bittys” set.

Jill Hildebrand stamped “Floating Leaves” on green acrylic paint for this Passion Play layout and used “Lots of Dots” letters for part of her title.

We hope to get you to take out your pastels and try a new favourite colour combination.

To you and your families a very HAPPY EASTER from the entire myStamp BOX team!

I decided to play with the design of the patterned paper and incorporated my stamping right into the design. The single sheet of paper was trimmed just slightly, distressed and mounted to cardstock.

In two different places I stamped a selected set of words from the new Timelines stamps. It’s so easy to get the stamps to match any curve in your paper’s design!  I used a little floss to mark which month and day I wanted to remember with some simple and lightweight stitching.

The title is really old school – embossed with copper powder. I loved creating the extra shine on the Splash Me a Lot! letters while keeping things simple.

The final detail was to add some cute, yet subtle, sentiments to the trees on the patterned paper. I used a tone-on-tone effect with a similar color ink as the background and chose sentiments from the Mention It and Seal It! stamp sets. In the end, I have a layout that really lets the memories from our family farm visit take center stage but still has plenty of fun stamping.

Supplies: Mention It, Seal It!, Timelines and Splash Me a Lot! myStampBOX stamps, Karen Foster Design paper and Scrappers Spool, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Bazzill cardstock, Heidi Swapp Distress Tool, PSX embossing powder.

Today we want to challenge you to create your own patterns and use only solid card stock. We hope you will find some inspiration below!

Agata Pfister used stamps from the “Itty Bittys” set to create this clean and simple graphic pattern. The sentiment is from the same set.

Allison Cope used the X from “Rough Copy” to create  the pattern on the teal background. It’s a very subtle and beautiful effect. The outline houses from “No place like Home” are perfect for the house pattern on the white card stock. The sentiment comes from “Whatever!”.

Stephanie Ackermann used several sentiments from “Mention It!” to create this fun background for her Thank You card.

Eva Pizarro created a background from hexagons taken from the “Hive of Live” set. These stamps fit together perfectly, forming a dense pattern on the kraft paper.

Cari Locken used the flower stems and circles from the “Funky Flowers” set for this beautiful graphic pattern. The sentiment comes from the “Seal It!” stamp set.

Look at your stamps in a new way, you can use many of them for unique patterns and share your patterns with us, if you like!

Happy patterning!

I started with the following selection of papers, punch, and the Mention It stamp set.

Then I made 4 diferent cards using 4 different stamps from the  Mention It stamp set.  While the papers and style of each card is similar, the sentiments really set the tone of each card.

Thanks Card:

have a great day card:

Congratulations card:

Just for you card:

Happy stamping.

Now we would like to show some projects that our team has come up with during the month of February. We did not have a chance yet to share these with you and hope you will be inspired by our many ideas.

Maryfrances Fabbri

by Agata Pfister

by Allison Cope

by Jaine Drake

by Jolene Johnston

by Cari Locken

by Jill Hildebrand

details

by Eva Pizarro

by Melissa Wright

by Stephanie Ackermann

Thanks for checking in today!

Happy Stamping!

I cut the basic shoe from cardstock and the inside from pattern paper.  I added a punched border around the edges.   Using my Scor-Pal, it was very quick and easy to create good folds and then put the shoes together.  The candy kisses were placed in a cellophane bag and inserted in the shoe and then manipulated so it fit properly.  I then added ribbon and sentiments from the  Mention It stamp set.

Just for You – perhaps a Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or Teacher’s gift…..

happy day – perhaps a small birthday item….

you’re so sweet – perhaps a Valentine’s Day treat or a special treat for no reason at all

thank you – perfect for any kind of thank you that is needed

Now just change up your paper selections and I can see these shoes being used as favors at any kind of event – think bridal shower or even a baby shower.  And of course, these would even be a great idea for giving as Teacher gifts or Thank You gifts or “Just Because” gifts for any occasion.

…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

This week’s challenge is all about pretty pockets!  Yup… I want to see some use of a pocket on your creation.

To get you started, I thought I would show you a few ways to use or create a pocket on your layouts or cards.

Sweet Treat

Stamps sets used: Let It Snow, Mention It!, Symbols.

First off, I started by using a kraft envelope that I punched the edge of using a snowflake design.   I don’t have anything store d in this particular pocket but you could add some journaling or another picture or two.

For the second part of this layout, I used the top of brown paper bag as a pocket to slip in my journaling tag.  I stamped a few subtle ice cream cone images from the Symbols stamp set.

I used some fun snowflakes from my Let It Snow! stamp set to stitch and attach along with a fun statement tag from the Mention It! stamp set.

The next way to add a pocket to the design of your work is to create a faux looking pocket.  For this, I used some Moda fabric swatches and stitched it up to look like a pocket you might find on a shirt or pair of pants.

This particular pocket has no actual pocket but you could certainly create a space behind it to drop in a fun tag or gift card.

Have a Very Merry Christmas

I used the edge of the journaling box from the Just Add Notes stamp set and the stamped in the “Winter Greetings” message from the Winter Flakes stamp set.  I also used the Winter Flakes set to stamp and layer my snowflake images.  The beautiful greeting on the embossed banner is from our Lines of Life stamp set.

And the final reason that you might add a pocket to your layout would be to store something in it.  In my case, I wanted a layout to store the 2 pieces of art that I had kept from my son’s pre-school year.

Just Like Mom

For this page, I used some of our fun papers from Kiki Art, one of our generous partner companies.  I used the Wishing You Sunshine stamp set to continue the cloudy patterned paper by Kiki Art and stamped out my title using the alphabet stamp sets, Color Me and Lots of Dots.  The Color Me alphabet set was perfect for that “child like” drawing quality I wanted on my page.

I created the pocket by popping up the red cardstock with long lines of foam adhesive to create a space behind to slip in the artwork my son created.  So fun and so easy to do!

There are so many ways to include a pocket on your creations and I can’t wait to see what you come up!

Happy stamping everyone!!

First, we are going to use a sentiments stamp and repetition.

I chose a set of nesting chipboard from Magistical Memories. The outer part and inner part, I misted both with RED Maya Mist. The middle frame I painted black.

Once these were dry, I then dug out my LINES OF LIFE stamp set. I used the large center chipboard for my stamping.  I chose the SENDING YOU SINCERE THANKS stamp, inked it in black and began stamping in straight lines starting in the middle of the chipboard. I moved the stamp to the left and right so that the wording was spaced over the chipboard. I covered the entire piece using this technique.Then, I nested all three pieces back together. Now you are ready to create something with your customized chipboard!!

And here is a simple card I made using my stamping technique!

*************************************************************************

Here for my second technique, we are going to try embossing and using a cloud stamp to make a design throughout the entire piece of chipboard!

Again, I chose to use nesting chipboard from Magistical Memories. This time, 2 hearts are used.

Using the WISHING YOU SUNSHINE stamp set (one of my favorites!) I chose the cloud with the flourishes on it. I inked it with clear VersaMark ink and stamped over the entire piece of chipboard. It is ok to overlap some, but try not to do it too much. Do this step quickly as we don’t want the ink to dry.

Next, generously sprinkle entire chipboard piece with embossing powder and heat et it until melted.I then chose a red glimmer mist to fill in the rest of the bare chipboard. Remember, the embossing powder is now going to act like a resist, so only the bare chipboard will soak up the mist. I used a paint brush for more control.

Notice that i was not too fussy with  … it gives a really random and fun look without the need for perfection!

Now your stamped chipboard is ready for use! I layered patterned paper underneath and here is the card that I created with it!

So there are 2 fun techniques to do with your stamps!! Can’t wait to see what YOU create using stamps and chipboard!!

And Remember, Helmar makes the BEST Adhesives for chipboard! Try the Premium Craft Glue or the Quickdry 450!! You won’t be sorry!!

Happy Scrapping!

Tina

I love to mix up my fonts in my title work. On this page, I used the Mini Alpha set mixed with pre-made letter stickers.

If you look carefully, you will also find a phrase on this page from the Mention It! set.  Can you find it?

You don’t always have to use alphabet sets to create titles.  This page uses two different symbols from the Bits and Pieces set to create the title.

You might also wish to use a sentiment stamp as part of your title, like I did on this page from last month’s post.

I used a stamp from the Bold Blocks set as part of my title here.  There really is no limit to the combinations you could use if you put your myStamp BOX sets to work for titles. 

Please see my blog for more links to stamped title pages.  Until next time,

Tracey

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 ~

If you are like me, you always are doing things at the last minute!! So, I thought it might be a fun idea to show you some “make it quick” cards using the brand new SYMBOLS set of stamps!!

Each one of these took less than 10 minutes to make!!! You can dress them up more, or make them as simple as you like!!

Here we go!!

Supplies:

Scraps of paper ( i used all the same line in these 3 cards)

Cardstock for base

Circle punch, border punch, corner rounder

Tule, lace, ribbon, flower…

Embossing powder, beads

THANK YOU

For this simple card, I simply used one pattern for the bottom half of the card… used my border punch for a trim on another piece. Then added Tule, a flower and my stamps! Rounded the bottom edge…

To achieve this stamped look, I stamped the Heart from the SYMBOLS set first in pink. I outlined it in pink with a glitter pen. Then I stamped my sentiment in green! So simple!!

HAVE A GREAT DAY

For this card, I cut my cardstock base in a rectangle to add interest. The Patterned paper was cut slightly smaller, rounding 2 edges. Again, i added a strip with one edge trimmed using my border punch. Stamp… add ink and you’re all set!

Gor this stamped image, I stamped the coffee cup from the Symbols set onto white cardstock. I then cut it out using my circle punch, inked the edges to match my flower. I adhered the stamped image to the flower, and the flower to the page. Did the same with the sentiment… but chose a rectangular shape… To complete the card, I inked the outside edges  in pink.

HAPPY DAY

This final card is another quickie, but has a few more techniques in it to try! I cut out 9 circles using my circle punch.  I chose a solid circle for the center.  I positioned the outside 8 circles to the card with a small amount of glue and then stitched them down with my machine!

For the stamped image, I stamped the circle from the SYMBOLS set onto matching cardstock using VERSA MARK ink, and added some embossing powder to it!! I heat set it using my heat gun and them cut it out using my circle punch. I stamped the cupcake from the SYMBOLS set in brown in the center of the circle. I then used Dimensional pearls in white to make the icing! While it was wet, I added some beads… looks good enough to eat!!

I also heat embossed the sentiment using the same technique onto white cardstock and mounted it onto the card. Embossing powder was from PK Glitz!

So there you have less than 1/2 an hour’s work… and 3 simple cards to show from it!!

All sentiments were taken from the MENTION IT stamp set.

Can’t wait to see what YOU can do in 1/2 hr!!