Saturday, March 31, 2012

Vintage Collage ATC

The inspiration for this Artist Trading Card came from a browse through a great book:  Scraps: An Inspirational Field Guide to Collage.
Clip Art from Lisa's Altered Art
Background - watercolour

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Playing with New Toys

I was playing recently with distress stains and a new JustRite background stamp.  This artist trading card was the result:

Stamps by JustRite, Stampendous, and Kelly Panacci

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Love

Here's a little bit of love for you all - a recent journal page.

Oil Pastels
Stamps by Stampin' Up

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Stamp It! 3 Ways Part 5

 
I really like this next card, by Laura Williams.  The bird houses are stamped on different coloured papers and then cut out.


I thought I would do the same thing, but my birdhouse stamp suited some pencil crayon colouring.


Stamps by Studio G, Maryse Carrier
Sentiment by Daisy Bucket Designs

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Stamp It! 3 Ways Part 4


This delightful card by Mariana Grigsby was my next inspiration: 

I'm not a huge ribbon fan, unless it is small and flat (for mailing), so my card doesn't have one:


Stamp by Impression Obsession
Greeting by Hero Arts

I learned something about using chalk ink on clear stamps from this project:  DON'T.  At least not on solid stamps like these frames.  I don't mind that the chalk doesn't clean off, except the next layer of ink will clean it off, and then the colours become muddy.  Grrrrr.  (That's the noise I make when I'm frustrated.)

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Stamp It! 3 Ways Part 3

Please see this previous post for an explanation of my new project.  

Here's another card by Ambre Daigre.  (Please ignore the blue ribbon on the left side; it is from another card on the same page of the magazine.)

I'm seeing a couple of trends in my choices so far:
  • I'm drawn to single layer cards
  • I'm enjoying these creative uses of border stamps.  I keep buying them thinking, "Oh, how versatile!". But then they don't get used as much as I thought they would.
Here is the card I made:


Border Stamps by Autumn Leaves
Greeting by Studio G

And a few observations about my creation:
  • I'm sticking with the colours used by the original creator, but after I'm finished I can envision all kinds of other choices.  This is good for me.
  • Freed up from design decisions, I can concentrate on matching the greeting font style to the stamps.  This is good for me!  (Did I say this already?)
  • This is fun!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Stamp It! 3 Ways Continues

Please see this previous post for an explanation of my new project.   


Next up is a masculine card by Jaclyn Miller.  Don't you love what she did with these border stamps?  


And here's my attempt:



Stamps by Fiskars
Greeting by Biblical Impressions
Coloured with Prismacolors

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Stamp It! 3 Ways: First Attempt



This card by Amber Daigre in Stamp It! 3 Ways, inspired this attempt of mine:


Flower stamps by Autumn Leaves

I'm sorry, I don't know who makes the greeting, but I like the way the swirly font matches the swirls on the flowers.

So far so good........

Monday, March 12, 2012

New Project



A few weeks ago, in Michaels, I spotted Stamp It! 3 Ways, a new magazine from PaperCrafts.  As usual, I did a quick flip.  OK, more than a quick flip.  Usually these magazines full of cards are too reminiscent of the many I already have at home and I put them back on the shelf.  This one has a new twist that intrigued me, so I bought it.

The magazine contains card designs for 40 different stamp sets.  As I flipped through the magazine I realized I didn't have any of the sets but that I had similar sets.  Then I would see a card and think "I never would have thought to do that".  Somehow, seeing the stamp set pictured and what you could do with it made all the difference for me!

So, get set for upcoming posts showing the card samples I copied from the magazine.  I'll show you the picture in the magazine and my own creation.  Most of all, I'm having fun with these!

If you see a copy of the magazine I encourage you to take a look.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Aquamarine Bicycle


The design prompts for the Vancouver Artist Trading Card swap this month are Aquamarine, Bicycles, and Scale.  It isn't often that I can manage to use all three at once, but the different sized circles completed this one.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

This Technique Could be Addictive


3.5 x 4.5 inches
Stamp by Hero Arts

This is a simple white heat embossed card, with some areas coloured in with black marker.  I loved this simple technique so I made just a few more: