A Few Patriotic Creations

EDITED TO ADD: I used rubber that already had cling mount attached, so the shape is stuck to the acrylic mount permanently.

A few little thingies I created after gazing at patriotic blogs over the weekend. I made the ATC as part of a set that I am going to incorporate into Birthday calendars for my family for Christmas. The tag is for today's Theme Thursday challenge, which was to make, well, a tag! (Or incorporate one into your artwork :)

I am always looking for ways to use the rubber I have left over from rubber stamp sheets and sets. I decided to try a few rustic stars (I say "rustic" because these things I make myself are NEVER perfect. So they're "shabby chic" LOL!) I just used an ancient template I had, traced out a medium and large star, and adhered on either side of a 50-cent acrylic block.


I stamped the stars in blue and red inks on the base of a tag, and embellished from there.


The "real" stamps are from Prairie Rubber Stamps, Stampabilities, Hero Arts, and JustRite.
Have a great day!

Limited Supplies Card Challenge

My card today is for the "Limited Supplies" challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers . The challenge was to use only one color of cardstock, two patterned papers, and three embellishments. It's very liberating to do a card like this sometimes, because you stop obsessing over whether it "needs more" - you're simply not allowed to do it LOL!!! I made the dotty background paper with a handmade stamp. I will have a tutorial for you early next week. But for now, I am Without. My. Camera. YIPES!!!
I never knew how totally attached and addicted I am to my camera until this weekend, when hubby and my son took it on a camping trip. I tell you, it's making me NUTS!! I had wanted to finish getting photos of the stamp-making process to post with the card, take pictures of my daughter's volleyball game, take pictures at tonight's Carolina Hurricanes vs. Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game (I'll be third row away from Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal - with NO CAMERA!), and also get some shots of the beautiful blooming trees that are everywhere on this bright sunny day. Ack! But I know I will be treasuring and scrapbooking the pictures my husband brings home of their fun weekend. Still, I think we need to be a two-camera household very soon ;).
Have a wonderful weekend, and LET'S GO CANES!!!

Black and White

I decided to make a card for the Limited Supplies Challenge over on SCS, and this one was to use only black and white. The focal image is an Anna Griffin stamp by All Night Media. I used the little side scroll image from my $1 stamp project on my last post for the border. The only other embellishments are pearls from Hero Arts and ribbon from Jenni Bowlin. I've never used this color combo before, but I think I like it!

Easter Damask

Hello and welcome to my first-ever blog post! Today I turned to Jodi's color challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers for inspiration, which was to use Stampin' Up!'s Pretty in Pink, Kiwi Kiss, and Baja Breeze. I was in the mood for Easter, so here's what I came up with:




















I didn't actually have Pretty in Pink, so I had to use Pink Pirouette instead, but I think it keeps the spirit of the challenge! The image is an adorable label stamp from Cat's Life Press - their images just make me smile! I also used some Hero Arts bling, a felt flower that I cut using my Cuttlebug, some Martha Stewart Ribbon, Fiskar's Threading Water border punch, and some Jolee's leaves that I stamped with Kiwi Kiss.

The damask background was made using an altered $1 stamp from Michael's. Have you noticed how NICE these $1 stamps are getting? LOL! Anyway, if you'd like to try it, here' what I did.

First, I removed the rubber from the wooden mount (hubby was kind enough to be my model for the first shot). I then used sharp scissors to cut the design into three separate parts. I did this to make it easier to use two colors, opening up more pattern possibilities.

I stuck the separated rubber images onto a 50-cent acrylic block from JoAnn's; the center medallion went on one side, and the two little scrolly thingies went on the other side of the block, to make switching colors easier. Note that to start out, I aligned the scrollies on the back to be pretty close to where they were in the original design, just on the reverse side of the block. This will make the first placement of this design easier (bear with me, you'll see what I mean in a minute ;). ) There was enough stickiness left on the back of the cling mount so that I didn't have to add anything more to make them stick, and they easily come off. Eventually I may have to use some non-permanent adhesive.

Next, it was time to stamp. I started by stamping the larger center image in Baja Breeze.

I flipped the acrylic block over, and inked up the scrollies with Kiwi Kiss. You can use the position of the center medallion on the reverse side to see how to line up the Kiwi scrolls. After you stamp the first set of scrolls, remove ONE of them, since from now on, you'll only stamp it singly.

Keep on stamping the image in ROUGHLY a straight line (don't stress - imperfections give it more appeal!!) When you get to the second line of images, off-set them, so that the blue center medallion lines up directly underneath the green scrolly.

Just keep going until you fill up as large of an area as you'd like. This technique has endless possibilities. Hopefully, I'll have another example using this same stamp tomorrow!!

Thanks so much for staying with me 'til the end of this very long first post LOL!! I hope you enjoyed it.