Reasons to Stamp in June

Ever been Mojo-Challenged?  Happens to me all the time, LOL!!  That's why every month, Gingersnap Creations does a post of lots of holidays and inspirational reasons to stamp for that month.  You can check out the post for the month of June HERE.  The DT have come up with TONS of gorgeous cards and projects that'll get your creative juices flowing.

We are a baseball family in this household.... (at least, in the summer months... then we switch to hockey!).  I grew up with the sounds of New York Yankees games on the TV, and my dad played in the old-time town leagues.  My son is currently playing (he's 8, so he plays machine-pitch ball), so we are deep into schlepping to practices and games twice a week.  For my baseball-inspired card, I used an old baseball set from Mirkwood Designs.  I just love this plate.... the round text stamp is actually "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".  And of course, the dapper looking athlete is a Yankee!  I did a little embossing, a little distressing, lots of stamping, and a little Copic coloring.  A totally fun card to make (will probably go to our son's coach at the end of the season!).  Hope you all get time for a little sporting and crafting this weekend!

Vintage Fairy ATC

A little ATC project I've been working on... All of the stamped images (except the script) are Oxford Impressions - the fairy and the stars are from the Fairy Sweets set, and the flower swag (lovin' that little thing!!) is from The Fairest Flower set.  I just adore this little girl image.... colored her with Copics, as well as the Prima flower, and added a little glitteryness (hmmm.... computer says that's not a word - what does it know of crafting??).  The identification card and the air mail thingy are free ephemera images from Just Something I Made.

Hope you're all having a great Wednesday... my kids get out of school early on "Wacky Wednesdays" - so I'd better get crafting! ;)

52 Weeks of Tag Tuesday!

Congratulations are in order, and I'm squeaking them in just under the wire!!  Louise at Kard Krazy has been inspiring everyone with weekly Tag Tuesday challenges for an entire year.... 52 weeks of dedication and wonderful inspiration.  So fittingly, the challenge this week is to use the Number 52 in our tags.  This was a fun one... I used my brand new Glitz Vintage Love Calendar stamp, along with a bluebird image that I scanned from one of my Bluebird button cards.  A bit of lace, a cupcake foil, and the definition of "inspire" from a Stampin' Up set jazz it up a bit.  I've circled the Tuesdays in the calendar (US calendar, that is... I know the European calendar orders the weekend differently) and added a memo to remember Tag Tuesday.  Congratulations and Happy Tag Tuesday Birthday to you, Louise!  Thanks for the inspiration! 

Be sure to check out all of the other wonderful tags HERE.... good stuff, that!

Cornish Heritage Farms Peek and Enabling

A little sneak peek at "Emerging Shell," the new Sara England set being released by Cornish Heritage Farms on Tuesday, May 25th.  In the interest of "keeping it simple" as the sentiment suggests, the only papers I used for this card were Kraft and Simply Smooth Vanilla cardstock.  The base of the card is Kraft, and on top of that is another kraft panel that has been embossed using the Cuttlebug script embossing folder.  Next comes a layer of burlap, then the focal image, which is white embossing on a kraft panel.  I used a white gel pen for a little shabby outline detail.  A length of twine holds the sentiment tag.  Also debuting on Tuesday are "Emerging Starfish" and "Emerging Crab" - so your beach-themed scrapbook pages are covered, LOL!  These would also all work together beautifully for a set of seaside-themed cards.

So how 'bout some enabling?  There's more free stuff to be had at Cornish Heritage Farms.... just spend $25 or more at the store (after Club CHF discounts & before shipping) & Liz will put a FREE Mocha Chica set from the Kim Hughes Collection in your package! No need to add it to your cart (you'll end up paying for it if you do!) Offer is for online orders only & ends Thursday June 3rd, 2010. If you already ordered today & your order qualifies you will receive the stamp also :-)  Happy Stamping, and I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Lots of Quotes ... at Gingersnap Creations

It's Wednesday, so that means another inspiring and creativity-invoking challenge at Gingersnap Creations!  This week the challenge is to use a Quote on your project (you can click on the photo above to make it bigger, and easier to read the quote).  What a great excuse to get out all those fun phrase stamps.  My quote comes from the Life Scrapblock from Cornish Heritage Farms (you don't realize these little gems are tucked into this stamp at first, but if you start thinking about inking only one phrase, the stamp becomes even more versatile.)  I paired it with a photo of some dudes hanging out at the Paris Exposition.... certainly a marvel of what imagination and creativity were within the great minds of the time. :)  The image is from Artistic Outpost's Paris Exposition plate.  For the background, I got out the ol' box-o-scraps again, and punched a bunch of inchies from patterned paper and cast-off stamped images.  I distressed-inked them all and played with them until I liked the arrangement.

Now, here's a little jewel of a tool for aligning said inchies on a card.... it's a quilting rule, found in any fabric shop or some of the big box crafting-and-fabric stores.  Anything you need to line up... this little tool can make it easier (see below).  Just make sure your card or project is lying perfectly straight along the left and top ruler lines, and you can easily see the one-eighth-inch markings to guide your way.

Hope you can find time to play along with us.... with all of the graduations and weddings going on at this time of year, you can pass along a little wisdom (or perhaps humor!) using your favorite quote on a card or gift.  Have a great and crafty Wednesday!

A New Backgrounder

Tomorrow, Cornish Heritage Farms is releasing a new backgrounder called Fuchsia Tiles.  This line of stamps is great for creating your own patterned paper, in any color combination you wish.  For both of my cards today, I've chosen to emboss the backgrounder panel for a bit of texture, and to enable me to get a light-colored pattern on a darker cardstock.  For the card above, I embossed in white on a fuchsia pink cardstock.  I accented the pattern with a few pearls, tied it up with some silk ribbon, and added a sentiment from the Domestic Love set.  This makes a great, quick and easy wedding card, done up in the couples' wedding colors.

For my second card, I've embossed in pale blue on black cardstock.  I stamped the Freesia image in black, along with a sentiment from the Ornamental Beauty set.  A little velvet ribbon is the only accent.  I've kept the color palette very limited, for a more elegant look. 

You'll be able to see lots of great samples using this backgrounder in the gallery tomorrow.  Hope you're having a great Monday!

Tag Tuesday - A Perfect Excuse

...to use a stamp I have never inked up before!  The challenge this week at Tag Tuesday is to use a piece from your home as your inspiration.  I bought this stamp some time ago, intending to use it in a scrapbook of one of our vacations to Greece.  Hmmmm... do you know how much scrapbooking I've been doing lately?  Nada, zip, zilch, and nuthin'.  Pitiful.  But, I decided to use a painting we got on one of our trips to Santorini as my inspiration piece.  There is absolutely nothing fancy about this tag..... I inked up the stamp (by Auntie Amy's), colored the image with Copics, distress inked a little, punched a Greek key border, and added some Greek key paper clips (from Stampin' Up!).  That's it.  But at least I had an excuse to get out this lovely stamp and dream of returning to the land of the sapphire blue Aegean.  Aaaah.... someday. :)

Hope you're having a great Saturday!

Thomas Kinkade Expressions at CHF

The new Thomas Kinkade Expressions sentiment set releases today at Cornish Heritage Farms.  Now, I don't actually have any Thomas Kinkade stamps, but I just had to get this set anyway, since it's got some great sentiments that go with lots of other stamps I own.  Here I've used the "East or West..." sentiment with the 1938 Suburban single from the General Motors line to make a fun masculine card.  The map paper is from Graphic 45, and the postage is vintage.  The photo strip die cut is from Tim's Alterations line. (BTW, these go through the Cuttlebug beautifully - I purchased the Sizzix 12" cutting base and the smaller 12" cutting platforms, and they went through just fine.)

Here's another card I made where the sentiment is the feature.

For this card I used some flourishes from the Ornamental Beauty set.  The paper is K and Co.'s Blue Awning, accented with my favorite Prima flower petal trim.  You can view the DT's artwork in the gallery HERE.

Yippee, it's Friday!  Hope you all have a great weekend.  We're gonna have some grandmother-mother-daughter time this weekend, so it should be fun.  I'm hoping it includes some crafting.... ;)

Play Date Cafe Challenge #28

Squeaking in just under the wire, with a Play Date Cafe Color Challenge #28 entry.  I always space, and think that the deadline is Wednesday, when it's really Tuesday.  Anyway, it's so good to be back playing again at this wonderful challenge.  Take a look at this gorgeous inspiration photo!  I simply couldn't resist. 

For my card, I've used lots of images from Oxford Impressions' The Fairest Flower plate.  I was recently blessed with blog candy *and* a discount from Suzanne Melvin, founding femme of Oxford Impressions, and believe me I took full advantage, LOL!! Thanks so much, Suzanne!  I know this will be one of my all-time favorites.  I also used the Vintage Chintz backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms, and an old music image from Anna Griffin for All Night Media.  And of course, I had to add some crinkly ribbon from Bluebird Lane etsy shop (the perfect vintage pink).

Sorry for the double post today (after spacing for a bit last week, LOL!).  We have a slight lull in our schedule, so I'm hoping to do lots of crafting this week, since next week isn't looking so good, time-wise. :(  Have a great evening. 

A Little CHF Sneak Peek

Cornish Heritage Farms is releasing a new sentiment set from the Mona Lisa Moments line called Thomas Kinkade Expressions on Friday, May 14 (see the peek at the entire set on CHF's intro page?).  This set of expressions goes perfectly, of course, with their series of Thomas Kinkade images, but they are versatile enough to be used with pretty much anyone's stamp collection.  Here I've paired one of my favorite sentiments, "Live simply......", with the lovely pear image from the Can It set (ATC collection).  (Eeeee, just reread that line... so punny!)  I used some of my yummy new Queen Bee 6x6 paper pad from Pink Paislee.... even the image is stamped on a pale yellow distressed patterned paper.  The best part was I found it at our local A.C. Moore (which is a "big box" craft store that did not previously carry the smaller lines.... they even have Tim's Alterations dies!  You can use your 40% off coupon!  But I digress....).  I colored the image with Copics (very easy, only a few colors), and distressed the sentiment panel a bit... but the papers, image, and sentiment stamp did most of the work for me.

Hope you're all having a great week!  The kids are taking their end-of-grade tests that are mandated by the system this week, so there's a bit of stress in the air.  I'm trying to keep them calm, feed them well, and maintain strict bedtimes.  Hopefully all will go well. :)

P.S. Almost forgot... Mountain Cabin releases today.  You can see the DT's artwork HERE in the gallery.

Gingersnap Creations Art Flower Exchange

For something a little diff- erent..... These are the flowers I created using the template provided at Gingersnap Creations for our second art swap.  I gotta say, these little guys were the most difficult project I've tried to photograph since I've been blogging, LOL!  Anyway, I started with a base of patterned papers (atop some grunge paper for stability), then added embossing, distress inks, stamping, and a little bling on each one.  For the centers, I used images of ladies from Waterhouse paintings from Dover, mounted underneath a crystal pebble (hence the photo difficulties).  Each little lady is surrounded by some blooms that have been cut using the new Tim Holtz Alterations dies.  I sprayed coffee filters with Glimmer mists, cut out the flowers, then stamped them.  I gave them a little curl by wrapping the petals around a piercing tool (hopefully that will hold up in shipping!).  Here's a close-up of one of them.... I *do* apologize for the rotten pics!

Hope all you moms out there had a lovely Mother's Day.  The weather here was absolutely divine, so we spent much of the day outside.  Now it's back to the (not-quite-as) busy routine.  Hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

Mountain Cabin

A quick little post today to show you a new release from Cornish Heritage Farms, coming out on May 11.  This peaceful image is "Mountain Cabin" from the Saturday Evening Post collection.  I've colored it with Prismacolor pencils, and set in on a background of mini Webster's Pages patterned paper.  The sentiment is from the Friendly Kritters Scripture set.

For those of you who don't get the Cornish Heritage Farms newsletter, I'll pass on a little enabling.... For all orders over $25 (after Club CHF discounts & before shipping) you will get the Freesia Cling Mounted Rubber Stamp for free!  No need to add it to your cart (you'll end up paying for it if you do!) - it will be automatically put in your package. Here's a link to the GALLERY with samples of this image (there are actually more scattered around the gallery, but this is the feature gallery.  Here and here are links to cards I had on my blog a while back).  This offer is for online orders only and ends Thursday May 13th, 2010. (BTW, If you've already ordered today & your order qualifies, you will receive the stamp.)  A nice little Mother's Day bonus, I think ;).

I wanted to thank everyone who's been visiting and leaving comments.... we've had so much to do every night after school, I haven't been visiting your lovely blogs as much as I'd like.  And, I haven't been able to participate in all my favorite challenges much these days either.  A few more weeks and things will settle down here.... I'll catch up with ya soon, 'kay?  :-)

Time to Read - At Gingersnap Creations

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for a new challenge over at Gingersnap Creations.  Today, the theme is "Read".... make a card with vintage text; use an image featuring readers, books, libraries; alter a book; perhaps feature a familiar story... interpret it any way you wish!  It's teacher appreciation week here, so for my project I made a card and bookmark set to go with a gift for our school librarian.  Both stamps are from the beautiful Soul of the Rose set from Oxford Impressions.

For the card, I used some vintage book pages to surround the image, which I colored with Copics (after finding the real deal - J.-H. Fragonard's Young Girl Reading - to use as a coloring guide).  The bookmark I kept rather flat - so as not to damage the book :) - embellishing with a rhinestone frame and some posies, again with a background of vintage text.

You'll want to check out all of the samples from my fabulously talented design team buddies.... and hopefully it will inspire you to play along!  Or maybe to read a book.... either way, a pretty fun way to spend the day. :)
Have a great one!

Vintage Geese - Stamp of the Month at CHF

Vintage Geese is the lovely new Stamp of the Month for May at Cornish Heritage Farms.  This image reminded me of a vintage children's storybook illustration, so I paired it with the Vintage Text Scrapblock, a little satin ribbon (as a "bookmark") with a Prima flower, and a shabbied-up dark red card base.  I sanded the corners so that it would look more like an old book.  That little "caption" is from the School Primer set from the ATC collection.

You can see lots of great samples from the design team HERE in the gallery.  Now here's the best part.... now through May 6, you can get a *FREE* Cling Mounted Vintage Geese May SOTM on all orders over $20! (Before shipping & after Club CHF discounts). No need to add it to your order, they'll just put one in all qualifying orders. (Offer is for online orders only & ends Thursday May 6th, 2010).  Pretty cool, huh?  And you'll get instructions to create a beautiful card designed by Kristine Reynolds, as well.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!