The winner is...

The totally unbaised Random Integer Generator says:

Here are your random numbers:5
Timestamp: 2008-05-24 20:29:05 UTC

Which means that comment number 5 is Silly Marie!

Congrats! I'll get those wooden blocks to you shortly!

Baby Card

Here's the card I made this month for card swap. My preview stamp images came in JUST in time! I used two images from the Borders Set: The border and the XOXOX stamp. (The "baby" stamp is from Stampin Up) The finished size is 3" x 6". I like this one because of the fun rectangular size. Just cut a 3" strip of 12" square paper, fold in half, and you've got yourself a card.

New contest format!

It's been a while since my last post. You probably think I've fallen off the face of the earth. Actually I've been working hard on the stamp stuff. (Things that would make boring posts, like packaging and getting the retail website up and running, which has been a challenge! It's still a work in progress as I try to integrate PayPal into it.)

Anyway, here's a smaller project I worked on. These are little refrigerator magnets.

We had an old game that was missing some blocks, the generic brand of Jenga. I knew I could use the left over blocks for something and here it is. This is EXTREMELY easy to do! Just trace the block onto your favorite scrapbook paper, cut out, and use Mod-Podge (or another clear acrylic adhesive to attach paper) to glue down the paper to the block. When the first layer of clear acrylic is dry, put another one on top of the paper, to make the paper resistant to water damage. Then use your glue gun to glue a magnet on the back, and voila, you're done! Really cheap and easy to match just about any decor. I liked seeing the actual wood finish, but you could paint the wood too. (I almost spray painted them a chocolate brown.) Other ideas include:

-Stamping letters on them for spelling practice and learning your ABC's (well maybe your children, you probably already know your abc's :)
-Use scrapbook rub-ons for cute patterns.

And here's the contest part! Leave me a comment at the bottom of this post by Friday, May 23 at 7PM. You're comment must include the answer to this question: What is your most favorite color combination? It can be just two colors, three colors, four colors, or more. Just let me know your favorite.

The winner will get 5 unfinished magnet blocks! I've decided as I do tutorials here I'll also be giving away one of the key items to make the project. (If you don't live near me, I'll include the shipping to get them to you!)

Check back really soon! I will have projects extremely soon with the new stamp sets. My samples get here tomorrow and the final stamp sets get here in about 3 weeks!

Hand Embroidered Kitchen Towels

I made these for Mother's Day presents. (Hopefully my mom won't decide to make this the week that she checks my blog! The J is for Janet, my mom, and the G is for Gayle, my mother in law.)

You might recognize the images...they are from my stamp sets that will be here soon! So here's what you do to make these, using stamps. Just stamp the image with black ink on white paper for the highest contrast. Then find where on the towel you'd like the image to be embroidered. (For these towels I used the cotton flour sack towels. I like how absorbent these are.) I placed the image underneath the area and traced over my stamped image onto the towel with a water erasable pen. (You can find these in the sewing section of your favorite craft store. The ink on mine is a bright blue.)

Next, free hand embroidery using any stitch you want and you're done. You can also use permanent pigment based ink and stamp the image onto the towel. Then try adding small beads for the small berries on the branches.

All the stamps are done!

Well, for the first release anyway. They will be sent off to the manufacturer for production on Monday! I can't tell you how excited I am! I'm going to save the last two stamp set previews for when the stamps are actually in my hands and available to you. However I'll give you the titles of the two unseen stamp sets! Ready?

Hey Cupcake

and

Have A Tweet Day

Stay tuned shortly because I will be announcing a few fun things along with my stamp release. And keep your calendars open because there may be opportunities to host some parties in the future where the hostess will get one free stamp set just for hosting! How cool is that? An entire stamp set for free. I'm not taking reservations yet... So keep checking and I'll let you know when I will!! Thanks for all your support and enthusiasm! It means so much to me!

Ready for the next installment?

This set is called Bough-tiful Blessings. (Hope that's not too cheesy!) It comes with a whopping 39 stamps. The branch/tree (depends on which way you stamp it) is 4 1/2" long. The perfect size for a card or scrapbook page element.

I am soooo excited about this set because of all the different possibilities! The branch can have so many different things stamped with it: stars for birthdays, flowers, leaves and berries, hearts for valentines day, cherry blossoms.... you get the idea. Also included are some small swirls, dots, and starbursts that can be used separately, or layered on top of the other shapes to make a center. These are easy to layout with your clear acrylic blocks and can be laid out however you want! I've also included three different stems, that you can add flowers and leaves to.

This set will also be on a 4" x 6" sheet. The price will be $12.50. (All of my stamp sets that are on a 4" x 6" sheet will be $12.50. Pretty easy to remember, and I think an awesome deal!)

Wait no longer....

Here is a preview of one of the first of four stamp sets to be released soon! This set includes 4 sentiments, 2 corners, and 5 different borders. The circle can be cut out perfectly with your 1 3/4" punch and the square will fit in your 1 3/4" punch. The other three shaped borders are right at 2" wide each. These are great sizes for both cardmaking and scrapbooking! This will come on a sheet that is 4" x 6". Let me know what you think!

Sticker Pizazz

If you're like me, you've got lots of flat stickers that are cute, but just don't cut it anymore on a card or scrapbook page. Many of the online card swaps I've done specifically say that you can't use flat stickers...so what do you do? Here's an easy trick to add a little extra pizazz to your flat stickers:
Stick your sticker on a blank piece of chipboard. (If you don't have sheets of chipboard, try a cereal or pasta box.) Then trim around your sticker. Now you've added dimension to your flat sticker. I used the technique to make this vase. The entire circle is a sticker, but it looks like the printed chipboard that you see everywhere!

Paper Flower Tutorial

This would make an awesome Mother's Day Gift! And it's very versatile. You can make globes, embellishments, and flowers! Click on the link for the tutorial in PDF format.
Versatile Paper Flowers

Tweet Day Gift Bag

Swap is tonight and the theme was a gift bag. It could be a gift box, bag, or anything else to give a gift in. I bought the craft paper brown bags and embelished them. A little tag. (hint: tag sentiment and border might be images from my new stamps. Do you like them?)


Close up of the birdie. I cut out the shape from the paper and adhered that to the bag. Then I used tacky glue and traced around the bird. I pulled out a skein of yarn that I bought just because I liked it. I outlined the bird with the yarn for a little dimension. I think it turned out nicely.

Gift: Baby Journal

A friend at work is expecting her first child (a little girl named Katelyn) soon and we're having a baby shower for her tomorrow. This is what I made for her:

Basically a small journal with a few prompts. I left one side empty so she could put a picture and the other side has a little journal block. I've typed below what each one says...or you can click to see it bigger :)

Our Beautiful Baby Girl (name here) entered the world on (Date here) at (time here). She weighed (weight) was (length) long, and had (color) eyes.


The first time we saw you:

When you were born:


Your first bath:

Our favorite thing about is:

When you met the dog:


Our thoughts for you.

The paper I used was a stack from K & Company designed by Amy Butler. I've been wanting to get some of her fabric and patterns for a while now and when I saw her paper I just had to get it. Anyway, the rest was just solid cardstock to match, with adhesive rhinestones throughout.

Custom Picture Frame

This is what I started with:

-Picture Frame (I got this from Target, my favorite store ever! It was a set of 5 different sizes for $10.
-Scotch Transfer Tape (I'll have this in my store because it is the MOST AWESOME tape ever!! It comes in HUGE rolls and is really inexpensive, and it works for glass, plastic, paper, ribbon, and is permanent.) Terrifically Tacky tape will work too.
-1 yard of ribbon per frame (I got all ribbons shown for $1 each at Hobby Lobby and Michaels.)

Start with a frame of your choice. You don't even need to take out the glass, just make sure that the glass is clean.
Tape your ribbon to the glass right up against the edges of the frame, overlapping each corner as shown below. I tucked the ends under the frame for a nice clean look.

You can add embellishments. I tried the buttons here. Also try larger scrapbooking brads for a metallic accent, flat beads or anything else you like.
I layered two ribbons to make the one at the top. The patterned one which matches my guest bathroom exactly and then a smaller width lime green ribbon to frame it out a little more. I'll be putting it in my bathroom but need a humorous quote to print out and go inside. Any ideas?
All in all the project only took me about 5 minutes and cost about $3. Very easy to customize. It would make a great gift with a photo or quote in it. Don't forget Mother's Day is coming up soon! Check places like Ross, Tuesday Morning, Goodwill, and Big Lots for inexpensive frames.

I'm back!

Thank you everyone for your well wishes on my exam! After 250+ multiple choice questions and a complete design problem in one day I am done with the exam. The unfortunate part is that I have to wait until JULY to find out my test scores....oh the wait! Oh well! At least it's over!


Guess what came a few days ago in the mail? The packaging for my stamps:

Each stamp set will come in a lovely brushed silver hinged tin with a ribbon around it! Like a present every time! It's even got the neat little finger grips seen in the picture above so they are super easy to open. When you get the stamp set, it will be in the tin, all you have to do is peel them off the acrylic sheet and place them into the tin. (No cutting or trimming necessary!!) There will be a 4" x 6" sticker with all the images full size, that you can place on the front or back of the tin to let you know what is inside.

Many clear stamp designers will ship their stamps in a clear CD case. I chose to do the silver tin because, over time, if your stamps are exposed to lots of light, they may yellow. While it doesn't affect the quality of your stamps at all, I still don't like them to turn yellow, thus the tin to block any extra sunlight from getting on your stamps. (As long as you don't leave them sitting in the sun they will be fine. Plus I ordered stamps from many different manufacturers, and looked at ones in the store that had been sitting for a while to make sure mine would resist yellowing!)

I'll also be selling the tin separately! (Soon I'll have some projects to show you that can be completed with just the tin. My mom came up with the idea for one of them!) The tin is the size of a DVD case, and will actually hold two of my stamp sets, so don't worry about needing more room to store your new cool stamps in! I promise that I'll have some images soon of the stamps! I have pages and pages (literally) of images and am combining them and coordinating them into sets. Then I have to choose which ones to offer first! So exciting!

Thanks for your patience!

Thanks for the patience in waiting for my stamp sets! I work on them when time allows, and they will shortly be done. All the packaging is in and it's awesome!!! I'm so excited to get going with everything! I've got tons of ideas, on multiple sketchpads that I'll be sharing with you soon! I have been slowing down the last few weeks because I'll be taking my interior design licensing exam next week. This exam is an extensive 16 hours over the course of two days. It's expensive, so I'm really spending my time studying for that right now because I only want to pay for it once, but in a week it's over and I'm going to hit the stamp images hard. I already have most of the images in the proper program, and I'm just making final adjustments and tweaks. Again, thanks for your patience and understanding!
Erin

Transparency Card

This is a humorous birthday card I made for a card swap! We're looking for more people to sign up so let me know if you're interested! We meet once a month and it's tons of fun!

I cut a transparency into a standard card size, then cut a piece of patterned paper to fit inside it, with 1/4" borders. You can kind of see the border of the clear acrylic around the paisley paper. Then I printed the sentiment on cardstock in a coordinating color. Mat the inside sentiment and tape inside the card. You're done!