One stamp, two styles

I'm finally getting around to some of my 'new' purchases, and by new I mean Black Friday, and sadly, I have many other new things that are way older than this, but this is the first thing that caught my eye when I was perusing the stack of unloved items yesterday.

I really love this stamp, I love the detail, and I love that there's really not much else you have to do/think about once you stamp it.  I mean, you color it and what not, but beyond adding a sentiment, it really doesn't need embellishments or anything else.

I used my MISTI to stamp it.  This is a cling mount stamp, so you just remove the foam pad from your MISTI and it's just the right depth.  It's great for a detailed/intricate stamp like this because if you miss a spot or a section isn't as inked as you would like, you can easily fix it which you'd never be able to do otherwise.



For this first card I inked the background with Versafine, then I used a spoon to drop some gold embossing powder over random sections of the stamp.  I wasn't being careful, I really wanted just a bit of a dusting over portions of the stamp.  Then I went through and added some very soft watercoloring using my Kuretake Gansai watercolors.

The panel was trimmed down and I added an embossed sentiment from Neat & Tangled's So Good to See You stamp set.  The panel was then popped up with foam tape over my card base.



This second card is a bit more straightforward.  It was also stamped with Versafine, and watercolored, but I omitted the gold embossing and went much bolder and brighter with the colors as well as the sentiment.



Which do you prefer?  Soft and vintagey, or more bold and colorful?

*Affiiate Links below

Tim Holtz Cling Stamps, Botanical Sketch

Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps, Good To See You

Kuretake Gansai Tambi, 36 Color Set

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

VersaMark Ink Pad

Ranger Embossing Powder, Princess Gold

My Sweet Petunia MISTI Stamping Tool

Hosannah!

I'm still working my way through the Neat & Tangled January release, better late than never, right?

Today I'm showcasing my Easter Journaling set.

I first inked up the Sunburst stamp several times using my MISTI and several shades of yellow ink.

Then I stamped the sentiment with Memento ink, and colored in the letters with a red Copic marker.  I also added a bit of Wink of Stella over top for some sparkle.



On the card base I stamped a few of the clouds from the aptly named Clouds set in white pigment ink, just a subtle way to soften the background, added a few mats as well as some clear sequins from the new Crystal Clear mix.  I love that you get small, medium, and large sequins in the mix.

That's all for me today.  Looking forward a long weekend!

*Affiliate Links below

Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps, Easter Journaling

Memento Ink Pad, Tuxedo Black

COPIC Sketch Marker R24, Prawn

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad, Mango Smoothie

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad, Warm Sunshine

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad, Buttercream

Zig Wink of Stella Glitter Brush Tip Marker, Clear

Glue Dots, Mini (3/16")

My Sweet Petunia MISTI Stamping Tool

Finally with the Pixellated Heart!

Because of all the preparation for my class last month, I didn't get to play along at all with any of the January release items from Neat & Tangled which is a TRAVESTY.

Not quite a travesty is the fact that I had to stay home with a sick kid yesterday, the up-side of which was I managed to squeeze in a little time with the Pixellated Heart Die.  

I was really just experimenting a bit here because I just wanted to cut it and see how it did.

I chose this bold paper from my stash, it's from Canvas Corp, I like that the die looks great CAS with solid cardstock, but also holds up well with something very graphic like this.

Now I will confess I had to give this two gos.  The first time I trimmed the width down before I folded it, and I think it works a little better if you trim it down afterwords so you have some more heft to it.  I also used my scoreboard and scoring/embossing tool (you know the kind that has a little metal ball at the end) to reinforce the score lines, I did this both on the front and on the back of the cut piece and I mean to tell you it folded like buttah!  I was really pleased with how it worked.

For the inside sentiment, I used part of one of the sentiments from Lumberjack Love with the small heart die.

On the front, I trimmed out the bit heart and cut the small heart, having a bit of fun with the chevron pattern, fun and graphic no?  The Painted Hello sentiment was embossed with Liquid Platinum embossing powder and I fussy cut it.  There is actually a coordinating die somewhere in my craft room, but if you could see my craft room you would understand why it might not be readily accessible....

Here's one more shot because i just love how it looks from this vantage point:



That's all for me today.  If you happen to be looking for the Pixellated Heart die, it won't be back in the N&T store until later this month, but I know that it's in stock at Ellen Hutson.

*Affiliate links below

Neat & Tangled Dies, Pixelated Heart

Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps, Painted Hello

Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps, Lumberjack Love

VersaMark Ink Pad

Ranger Embossing Powder, Liquid Platinum

My Sweet Petunia MISTI Stamping Tool

Scotch Double-Sided Foam Mounting Tape

Neat & Tangled / My Sweet Petunia Collaboration

Hey everyone!  It's been a really exciting week over at Neat & Tangled.  We are teaming up with My Sweet Petunia, maker of the MISTI.  Not only are we showing off projects on the N&T blog, but we've taken over the My Sweet Petunia blog as well.

OK, I have a dirty little secret:  I am a horrible stamper.  Seriously, not good.  I can't stamp in a straight line let alone create a pattern that doesn't get all cattywompus (sp?) on me, and even when it comes to sentiments I'm forever stamping them crooked or I don't get an even inking.  I have wasted a good forest worth of paper on mess ups in my crafting career.

That's why I'm so enamored with the MISTI.  Not only does it allow you to do a lot of really great techniques, but it's a huge time saver and paper saver because it allows you to stamp correctly and re-stamp when you don't get it quite right.



One quick tip before we get to the card:  when I first got my MISTI (and I'm right handed), I was using it so that it opened like a book that you're reading.  I've since discovered that the opposite direction works best.  If you open the life left to right, it's easier to ink and more natural to shut, at least for me.

OK, so let's talk about the card.  I am a big fan of multi-step stamps.  I love the way they look, heck, I even designed a set for the N&T January release, but I've kind of stayed away from them because, as we established earlier, I am a horrible stamper.

So to really test out my MISTI, I pulled out my new Ornate Frames set and went to work.



The frame is all stamped in Memento Tuxedo black, but the first layer is second generation stamped.  Now when you do this you won't get a really even stamping, that's to be expected, especially with darker colors, but for this application, a kind of vintagey/antique frame, it works.



The second layer is stamped in first generation.  The MISTI made it super easy to line things up, and a tip on this stamp set is to center the frames using the middle opening.



Finally the last layer.  I actually stamped this three times, twice with the Memento to get a darker color, and then a third time with Versamark as I wanted to clear emboss that last layer to not only make it even darker, but to give it some extra shine/texture (sorry this photo is HORRIBLE, I almost didn't include it, but I wanted you to see the darker areas - this is before the embossing)



Here you can see the embossing powder on it.

The MISTI is also great with positioning.  Here I placed my frame (which I had die cut) on the card, then I was able to place my sentiment using the frame as a reference, especially helpful too since I didn't want to use the whole sentiment (from Be My Valentine) and needed to do some masking when I inked.



Once that was stamped, I added a bit of coloring to the stamped heart, popped the frame up (with two layers of foam tape) and placed a few of my Scored Shapes Dies in the center, also popped up (with one layer of foam tape)



I really can't say enough good things about my MISTI.  I would not be stamping multi-step images if I didn't have it!

Now you know that there are prizes involved when we collaborate, right?  This week's prizes are HUGE.  You can win your very own MISTI on the Neat & Tangled blog, just head over and leave comments on each of the posts this week.  AND if you go to the My Sweet Petunia blog and do the same thing, you'll be entered to win a $100 credit to the Neat & Tangled store!

Thanks for stopping by and have a GREAT weekend!

Affiliate links to products used below:

My Sweet Petunia MISTI Stamping Tool

Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps, Ornate Frames

Neat & Tangled Dies, Ornate Frames

Memento Ink Pad, Tuxedo Black

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

WOW Embossing Powder, Super Fine - Clear Gloss

COPIC Sketch Marker R29, Lipstick Red

Scotch Double-Sided Foam Mounting Tape

This Year's Valentines.

It feels to me like our Valentines get less and less complicated/fancy each year.

Which is really OK with me.  That's probably partly because the girls take part a little more each year, and there's some general parental malaise as well.

This year, both girls are doing the exact same thing on account of an insane deal I got over the summer on these adorable rulers from Studio Calico.  It was one of those weekly deals and it was a set of four rulers for $1.00.  You really can't go wrong with 25 cent valentines!

Pretty easy.  I first cut pieces of cardstock 4" x 2 1/4", then I used my paper trimmer 1/2" in from the top and bottom to cut a slit that I could slide the ruler through.  As an aside, I've been considering upgrading my paper trimmer to a Tonic, but this is one thing I can do with my trusty paper trimmer that I wouldn't be able to do with a guillotine.

Once I had the pieces cut, I put together the sentiment with the little ruler stamp and using the MISTI stamped a gazillion little tags.  I heart the MISTI.  That is all.

The girls are in charge of the rest (adding names and coloring in).  Super easy and I like that my portion of the projects diminishes each year.

That's all for today.  

I'm back here tomorrow with my project for the Neat & Tangled/My Sweet Petunia collaboration.  Did I mention how much I love my MISTI?  Did you know that you have a chance to win one on the Neat & Tangled blog and that you could win $100 to the N&T store on the My Sweet Petunia blog?  

Why are you still here????!!!!

What I've been up to

I don't think I've ever gone this long without posting.  I've sorely neglected the blog the last month or so and have been a terrible visitor to my friends blogs!

Not that I haven't been creating, just been totally swamped, because I was prepping to teach a Craftsy class!

From time to time folks have asked or inquired about if I would do a video, and the answer has always been no.  Not because I'm not interested in doing videos, but just because I'm lazy.  I don't want to have to edit or voice over and then get halfway through and have my crazy kids or barking dog foul up the whole process. So, I've been a strictly non-video blogger, and that's not likely to change.

That is one of the things that made this whole Craftsy experience very appealing.  I really do enjoy teaching and I love that I'll be able to 'live' demo techniques for students through this class.  It's kind of the best case scenario since I don't have to do any of the work, I just show up and someone else does the editing.

The class will go live sometime in the next 4-5 weeks.  I've got some fun giveaways planned for when that happens, so stay tuned, and I'll be working my way out of blog hibernation in the meantime.

Today I thought I would share a few photos from my time out in Denver, which almost didn't happen!  I was supposed to fly out last Sunday night and back Thursday morning.  Well wouldn't you know we get an epic snowfall Friday through Saturday that dumped 2' of snow on us.  Needless to say my flight on Sunday was cancelled.  I was finally able to get out Tuesday night, and the folks at Craftsy were really wonderful about working with me to tighten up the shoot timeline so I could get home Friday evening.  My wonderful in-laws who were coming to help with the girls while I was gone ended up coming up a day early to make sure they got here before the storm, and extended their stay when my trip got delayed.  And of course Andrew was doing a lot of grunt work while I was gone, especially since the girls did not go to school all week!

Today I thought I would share some photos from my trip:

The star on my dressing room door.

First time I've worn make up and had my hair done since my sister got married two years ago.

Behind the scenes.



Ordering room service is awesome.

Me on set.



And my GREAT production team, we had so much fun!



That's all for me today, but be sure to stop by the Neat & Tangled blog.  We're hopping with My Sweet Petunia this week (maker of the MISTI), you've got a chance to win not only a MISTI, but also a $100 credit to Neat & Tangled!