Stamp Your Heart Out

Happy Wednesday everyone!  This is going to be a super quick post.  After my creative burst of stamping on Monday I came down with a terrible cold.  I’ve spent the last 1 1/2 days lounging on the couch or sleeping.  UGH!  What a way to start the school year.   I’m feeling better today, but taking a shower used up my supply of energy and I have a lot to do today.  Colin needs a haircut, we have to shop for snacks for soccer as it is our snack day and we have a game tonight at 5:30.  You can tell that I’m not feeling well because I didn’t even hear UPS drop off my package yesterday and all I did was check to make sure everything was in the box before I went back to sleep. 

This card was made with the sketch from 2 Sketches for You.  I used Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette, Bella Rose dsp and Whisper White.  The Dreams du Jour stamp was colored in with blender pens before I cut it out and mounted it on dimensionals. 

I hope you have a fantastic week and you’ll hopefully excuse my absence if I don’t get stamping time in.  Hopefully I’ll be back to my normal self in another day or two.

Jenn

Today is a fantastic day!  My Big Shot is coming along with my first order of the new Stampin’ Up! catalog.  Colin has his Kindergarten Orientation and gets to meet his teacher and his classmates.  Roger is taking the day off and we are going to celebrate Colin’s big day.  We are thinking about taking the boys to Fair Oaks Farm. 

Yesterday the Try a New Technique challenge was to make an Acetate Treat box.  I don’t have any candy in the house, so I filled mine with stamps.  I’ve often wanted to make one of these, but never got around to it.  It is so easy and I think it is so elegant dressed up with roses cut from the Bella Rose designer series paper, some Whisper White taffeta ribbon and a half pearl from the Pretties kit. 

I hope you all have a fantastic day and that you find some time to celebrate your creativity.

Jenn

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.  We started out Saturday by getting up at 6 am and were at soccer pictures by 7:20.  Right from there we had a soccer game and Colin’s team is still undefeated.   Our major plans for the day were completed by 10 am, and I was exhausted the rest of the day.  I think I was in bed by 9 pm and it felt like midnight.  Sunday was spent doing yard work.  I got a few more plants added to our flower beds and we ran the kids and ourselves ragged.  When I finally got to sit down at the computer I was surprised to find that my Baby Bella card has been picked for the card of the week at 2 Sketches 4 You!  What an honor! 

I finally got a chance to stamp this morning.  I sat down and completed the Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS.  This week it was Jessie’s turn, and I chose this card from her gallery.  I decided to stick to the layout and the amount of layers she had.  I changed the stamp set, moved the paper piercing, added a row of scallops and omitted the cuttlebug embossing.  The color combo I chose is not in my normal comfort zone, but now that it is together I really like it. 

A few weeks ago Tina gave me an award and I just realized I didn’t get it posted.  Sorry Tina.

I noticed that I am running really low on quick Thank You cards.  I like to tuck them into workshop orders or send out to people, so I mass produce a lot at a time.  I saw that Kristina Werner had a sketch posted on her blog and I thought it would be the perfect fit and it was.  I used Kraft cardstock for the base yet again and I’m using up scraps that are left over from my Control Freaks swap, so you will notice that I used the same colors of Bella Rose paper as I did yesterday.  I really need some new designer series paper.  I’m going to place an order along with my Open House orders, so I promise to have some soon. 

The sentiment and little flower are both from True Friend.  The flower is stamped in Riding Hood Red on Whisper White cardstock and is then layered on Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip.  The sentiment is stamped on Pink Pirouette in Chocolate Chip ink. 

Simple, yet pretty is what I was attempting.  Have a great Saturday!  We are soon headed out to the soccer fields and for team photos. 

Jenn

stamps - True Friend

paper - Kraft, Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Bella Rose dsp

ink - Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip

accessories - 1 1/4″, 1 3/8″ and scallop circle punches, dimensionals, vintage brad, Chocolate Chip 5/8″ grosgrain ribbon

It’s Friday!  I thought this week would never end.  A lot of you mentioned that your kids were doing the same thing over the last week, with the older kids picking fights with the younger ones.  I’m glad to know I’m not alone.  Tuesday is Kindergarten orientation for morning Kindergartners, Thursday is the first day of riding the school bus.  I’ll have some scrapbook pages of this event soon.  I’m actually planning an order just for my personal scrapping, as I’ve run short on supplies. 

I wanted to make a simple yet elegant card, so that is what I hoped to accomplish with this one.  I have a Kraft base, a strip of Kiwi Kiss, some Bella Rose paper and the butterfly is stamped on Whisper White.  Chocolate Chip ink was used for the sentiment and the butterfly was inked in Pink Pirouette and then rocked in Riding Hood Red.

Thank you for all of the comments on my Watercoloring Tutorial and the poll.  It looks like most of you like the daily postings and love the videos, but most of all you all said to do what was best for my schedule.  Thanks so much, it really did help.  Watch for weekly videos starting in September.  I’m going to use the first few weeks back in school to get some taped and edited.  That is a project I have to stay ahead of. 

Have a fantastic Friday!  Tomorrow is picture day for us at soccer and we have a 7:25 time slot and then a game at 8:30.  Colin’s team is 3 - 0 right now!

Jenn

stamps - Dreams du Jour

paper - Kraft, Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rose dsp, Whisper White

ink - Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red

accessories - mat pack, scallop edge punch, pretty in pink taffeta ribbon, mini glue dot, horizontal slot punch 

Yesterday I sat down to stamp and I made a video on Watercoloring with an AquaPainter.  Often in classes people ask my how I figure out what to color and how to shade.  There is no right way of watercoloring.  It honestly just takes practice and it took me a long time to figure it out.  The easiest way is to start with a bunch of water a little bit of ink smooshed into the lid of the ink pad.  For the first layer I just use a light color wash and then as you will see in the video I then build the color up.  It took me about 16 minutes to make the card from start to finish, but the video is in double time, so it will go much faster. 

I started by stamping a pattern on the base of my card with Frames with a Flourish.  I can’t put that set down.  I really do love it.  I then went on to watercoloring my main image, then masked off where I wanted a soft frame of color and finally added the paper piercing.  The remainder was assembling the card and adding embellishments. 

I am still learning the best set up for taking videos.  The tripod I have doesn’t set to the right level, so I tried using my video camera attached to my Ott light, but it tends to bounce on my table, especially if the kids run into it.  My only countertops are upstairs so that means taking all of my supplies upstairs to tape.  If my video bounces just a bit I apologize. 

Video editing takes up quite a bit of time from start to finish.  I’d like to add a weekly video (starting on a regular basis in September), but I don’t want to take too much extra time away from family time.  So I’d like your opinion. 

1. Would you prefer to see a weekly video?  If this is the majority of the vote, I wouldn’t have a new post 7 days a week.   I’d post Monday - Friday and use the weekends to tape my video, edit it and then upload to You Tube.

2. Would you prefer daily posts 7 days a week?  If that is the case I’d probably have 2 videos here a month. 

I hope you enjoyed the new video.

Jenn

Last night I desperately needed a break from the boys.  The summer is getting to be 1 1/2 weeks too long for them.  Colin is longing to be back in school, and him and Evan are constantly fighting.  I got so tired of them throwing toys and fighting over them I took them all away.  Then I sent them back outside.  I was out there too of course, but at least if they threw something the TV wasn’t in danger of getting smashed to pieces.  So after dinner I went back down to my stamping space and told Roger he was in charge. 

I wanted to make a quick card because my energy was down to zero, but I needed a way to work my stresses out.  I had gone shopping at Archiver’s with my Mom and I picked up a package of American Crafts Thickers.  That was a few months ago, and then I never opened up the package, that was until last night. 

I pulled up a quick sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You and took the sketch literally.  I really like the colors and I think the paper was all I needed along with a little Chocolate Chip ribbon.  Now I have a card to send out to a friend who recently had a baby girl. 

I hope you have a great day and have time to stamp something.

Jenn

stamps - none!

paper - Pink Pirouette, Bella Rose dsp

ink - none!

Accessories - American Craft Thickers, 5/8″ Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon

When I saw today’s Color Combination I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off.  Elegant Eggplant is not one of my favorite colors at all.  I’ve never been a big fan of purple.  However, I used the Taken with Teal and Old Olive to soften it up.  On the old Olive layer I sponged with Old Olive ink and then used the color spritzer to add some dimension.  The taken with Teal layer is stamped with Whisper White craft ink and Frames with a  Flourish.  I think it makes a great background set.  I then moved away from the color combination a bit with coloring in the Sock Monkey.  I used Ruby Red and More mustard to color him in with my AquaPainter and then paper pieced his body with Close to Cocoa cardstock. 

From there I added the ballons, complete with linen thread strings and a Tempting Turquiose bow to tie it all together.  To highlight the ballons I used my white gel pen.  The ballons and layer with the monkey are popped up on dimensionals.  This card took a long time to make, but the results were worth it.

Jenn

stamps - Sock Monkey, Hugs and Wishes, Frames with a Flourish

paper - Elegant Eggplant, Taken with Teal, Old Olive, Whisper White, Close to Cocoa

ink - More Mustard, Ruby Red, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Basic Gray

accessories - white gel pen, dimensionals, AquaPainter, Tempting Turquoise ribbon, Linen Thread

Boy, oh boy am I counting down the days until school starts.  I’ll have my normal stamping schedule back and my kids will be so much happier not being on top of each other all day long. 

This post is going to be a short one.  I have to get dinner started as we have a 5:30 p.m. soccer game today. 

I have to say that some of the new color combinations in the Stampin’ Up! catalog make for some beautiful and easy masculine cards.  I needed a card to send out and this one came together quickly and easily and I usually struggle with masculine colors.  I used Sage Shadow, Not Quite Navy, Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, Sahara Sand and Kiwi Kiss.  The stamp set is A Beautiful Thing along with the It’s Beautiful Jumbo wheel. 

Did you see the new Stampin’ Up! catalog, that made it online today?  Isn’t it gorgeous?  I think so.  Today I ordered the Big Shot Starter Kit, Tasty Sweet stamp set, Halloween dsp, some new punches and some 5/8″ Kiwi Kiss striped grosgrain ribbon.  While it sounds small the Big Shot was a big purchase, but I am so excited about it!  I can’t wait to see what kinds of projects I can come up with for you in the next few weeks.

Have a great day!

Jenn

I have updated my For Sale page with retired sets.  Please click on the tab at the top of the page, or visit by clicking here.