As summer slowly winds down, I love to look back on all the fun things we’ve done during the summer.  One of my most favourite summer activities for me and my family includes camping!  So I thought I share a layout featuring photos from my son’s “birthday” camping trip from July of this year.

The Rules of Camping

Stamp sets used: Tall Outlines, Itty Bittys, Review Time, Rough Copy Alphabet, Repeat After Me

Some of the fun ways I used my stamps includes my title work.  I first stamped my “RULES” title using the “Tall Outlines” alphabets set, making sure to overlap my alphabets (I love this look! Makes it easier to cut out too!) and then I took the “wood grain” stamp from the “Itty Bittys” set and stamped all over my title.  I used the “Rough Copy Alphabets” set for the remainder of my title!  I added some fun shading using some Copics to my title.

I hope you too have having a great last week of August as September is just around the corner!

Happy stamping!

For most of you, there’s only a week left of summer until school begins again.  So I thought I would share with you some fun scholarly projects with you today.

My only son, Spencer, is going into Kindergarten this year and we had a variety of school supplies to get to start him off at school this year.  So instead of sending him with boring old looking supplies, I thought I’d make a few special more personal items just for him.

So I grabbed some fun school related papers from GCD Studios called “Schooled” to use as my inspiration.

I first created the cover for one of my son’s notebooks.  This is originally what it started off looking like.  I know… just not inspirational or fun looking at all!

And this what it became…

I used the Rough Copy Alphabet stamp set to create a name plate for the front.  I stamped all the letters so they touched each other and then cut it out all as one word.  I added some pizazz to it with some fun colour coordinating mists and my Copic airbrush system.

Then I created this cute little faux chalkboard piece… so very simple to make.  I stamped my little view of the school yard on smooth black cardstock using my Neighborhoods stamp set using white ink to make it look like chalk.  Then I created a brown mat and adhered it over the stamped image to appear just like a mini chalk board.

I also used my file tab punch and added a stamped “subject” element too using the word from the Snapshots stamp set.

I layered all the elements including a fun embossed ruler piece using a Cuttlebug embossing folder, mini book mark and my faux notebook across the front of my book.

Next I created a fun little back pack.  I thought it might make a cute little mini card holder to give to his teacher as a gift.

I used the GCD Studios lined papers for the back pack and they worked perfectly with the myStamp BOX Mini Alpha – Small Box stamps so I stamped a variety of fun school related words all over the lined papers on the front and back of the little back pack.

And finally I thought I’d make a cute little book mark for his reading books at home.  So I took the fun school themed paper scraps I had and made a fun book mark.

To add some school elements, on the front, I stamped the numbers using my Review Time stamp set.  I also used the star from the set and stamped a row of those in blue ink.  I had some small scraps of lined paper left and using my Mini Alphas – Small Box stamps to stamp a variety of school related words on the back to match his mini back pack.

So in the end, I have a fun notebook, a cute little back pack and a fun book mark for him for school next week.  I thought even if he wasn’t allowed to use that actual notebook, that I would keep it at home to either practice his printing at home or use it as a communication book between myself and his teacher.  One way or another, I have 3 fun school projects I just adored making.

Why don’t you look at your young kids school supplies and see what your stamps can do to jazz them up and make them more personal.  And get your kids to help… that will make them even more special!

Happy stampin’!

Today I’m going to teach you how to make a cute little banner to include on your next layout or card.

Start with stamping your pennant pieces on a variety of fun patterned papers.  For my banner, I used the open scalloped pennant stamp from the new stamp set, Pennants.

Trim all the excess paper around the edges like the top piece on the left side.

Now take each piece and flip it to the back side and apply some adhesive to it at the top of each piece.  In this case, I used some Zapdots by Helmar, one of our partner companies here at myStampBOX.

Next, take a piece of string or jute in this case and apply it to the surface of the adhesive and wrap it around the string to hold it and make it appear more 3 dimensional on your project.  You may need to the trim any excess paper that shows in the front.

And lastly, apply some fun 3D adhesive to the back of each piece of your banner to pop it off of your project.  I used some fabulous black foam adhesive circles from Helmar.

And now adhere it to your project.  Here is my end result…

Make a Wish

To make my page complete, I used some more fabulous stamps sets from myStampBOX:

“make” – I used the Rough Copy Alphabet.

“a” – I used the Mini Alphabet – Small Box stamp set.

“WISH” – I used the Royal Flush alphabet set.

“birthday candles” - I used the Happy Birthday – Small Box stamp set.

“banner pieces” - I used the new set stamp set, “Pennants“… soon to be released!

So make sure you keep your eyes on the myStampBOX store for this fabulous new release and try making a fun banner to add to your next project!

Happy stampin’!

I love the new stamp set just released this month called “Hive of Live“:

I couldn’t resist creating a fun honeycomb back ground using some orangey-yellow ink.

I stamped my hexagon shapes using my eye as a guide.  Having a straight pattern wasn’t my goal and it makes the stamping go a lot faster too!  I only used one ink; I stamped it once to get the darker orange and then stamped again to get the lighter orange colour.

Once I created my honeycomb patterned paper, I carefully cut out and around the hexagon shapes to get a random shaped piece of paper to create my layout.  Here’s my final creation:

Just Because

I also used my Rough Copy Alphabets to create my title and my Just Add Notes stamps to create my journaling block.

Another new stamp set released this month is the super cute Wishing You Sunshine stamp set:

I couldn’t wait to create a fun pattern with the fabulous sun image in this set.

So once again, I grabbed a yellow piece of cardstock and began stamping my sun image in offset rows using a orangey-yellow ink.  I eye-balled my positioning as a stamped.

I knew I wanted to create some depth to my sun images so I stamped a single sun image into the middle of a piece of computer paper and cut out the center of the sun.  Now I have a circle mask for inking only the centers of my suns!

I took my mask and positioned it over randomly chosen sun images throughout my stamped cardstock and using my Copic airbrush system, I air brushed one of 3 different shades of orange Copic marker inside my sun images.  I placed a few orange buttons randomly inside a few of the suns too.

Here’s my final creation using my stamped cardstock…

You Are My Sunshine

You too can have fun making your own patterns!  Simply grab a fun stamp and stamp away!

Thanks for stopping in!  Stay tuned to the mSB blog for lots of great inspiration from all of our designers!

Allison.