Got stamps?

I love my stamps!! By far, dollar-for-dollar, they are one of the best investments I have in my stash. 

I've used them as backgrounds on my layouts:

Go here for more info.

As my title and subtitles:

Go here for more info.

And as a journaling spot:

Go here for more info.

Aside from scrapbooking, I've used them on cards:

Go here for more info and to see two other stamped cards.

I store my stash of stamps here:

Yep.  That's all stamps... except for one black box of small color sorted embellies.  Scary right?!

And this is the inside of one of the green boxes:

And this is one of the green boxes... it's filled with sets that are better stored in the plastic they came in... the other green box is alphabet sets.  The black boxes have all wooden stamps.

And here:

This is the binder... it's filled with Technique Tuesday stamps, the big Fancy Pants 12x12 stamp sets and lots of little dollar stamps!

Yep.  It's a lot of stamps.  In my defense, I inherited my Mom's 30+ year teaching collection of stamps when she retired last year, which accounts for a good portion of the stash!  The older wood stamps are a lot of fun and I haven't even gotten the chance to play with them yet. 

So what are my favorite techniques and where do I go to be inspired?

Hands down, my favorite technique is using inexpensive Gamsol odorless mineral spirits and colored pencils to color stamped images.   A great alternative to the super cool, expensive Copic markers (that are on my wishlist!).  Jennifer McGuire has an awesome Gamsol video tutorial and InkyAntics has this Gamsol instruction sheet if you want to know more about this easy, inexpensive technique. 

Splitcoaststampers has a ton of inspiration, as does the Hero Arts blog.  And aside from Jennifer McGuire, I also have learned a lot from Kristina Werner!

And if you didn't already know... Flamingo Scraps carries some fabulous affordable stamps including these:

7 Gypsies Paddington stamps.

Maya Road Milk Cap stamps.

Prima Vintage Script stamp.

Pink Paislee 365 Degrees collection stamps.

Of course, don't forget Susan's tip for stamping the image first on clear plastic to help decide if it's right for your project or Suzanne's technique of using stamps to create a beautiful background on altered art shown here previously on the blog.  And then there are the fabulous talented ladies on our Guest Design Team... have you seen some of the adorable cards that Tiffany has made using stamps?!

So that's my love for stamping.  I still feel like a beginner sometimes despite my extensive stamp collection!
Please share with me all your favorite stamp sets, projects, techniques... I'm always on the hunt for inspiration and ideas!!

Guest Blogger Kia: Cool Challenge Wrapup!

I have had such a great time guest blogging and challenging all you Flamingo Fans!  Thank you for playing along with us - I hope you got some layouts done and maybe challenged yourself to step outside your box and design something a little bit different.

We had two entries this week:

Entry number one from Cindy, one of our September Flamingo Scraps Guest Design Team members!

Family
by Cindy312
Scrapbook.com

And entry number two on our Facebook page from Kathleen Natale:

I am pleased to announce the winner of  Cool Challenge #4 is........

Kathleen Natale!!  Congratulations! Please send your shipping info to flamingoscraps@yahoo.com.

If you get a chance, stop by my blog,  Shiny Happy Veggies, where I try out and critique meat-less recipes!

Please join us in thanking Kia for guest blogging for us this month!! We've enjoyed the challenges and loved seeing everyone's layouts!!

Susan's Favorite Tips & Tricks for Scrapbooking

I'm certainly no expert, but I thought I might share a few things I've learned since I started scrapping in 2004.  I hope you will share back with me and the other readers too!  Here we go......

1. Not sure if a stamp is the perfect design for a certain spot? Stamp it first with a solvent ink like "StazOn" on a piece of plastic and lay over your project in progress to check. Clear inserts or packaging that come with products are handy for this.

2.  Older stickers and diecuts that you probably won’t use again make great masks. To use the diecuts,  lightly apply a re-positionable adhesive to the back. Then ink, paint or spray over them.  Use baby powder on the sticker adhesive to make it non-sticky and re-positionable.

3.  Place embellishments in odd numbers like three and five for more visual impact.

4.  Push pins are a staple in my toolbox.  I use them to pierce a pin hole in paper to set a brad or if I need to do a little hand stitching.  I also use them to unclog glue bottles.  I store them by sticking them in an old piece of packaging that some brads came in.

5.  Keep a scrapbooking notebook.  I buy those 99 cent composition books and then cover and embellish them...

This is a composition book my niece covered and embellished using Prima's Rebellious Papers and Rub-Ons

Mine is with me most of the time.  I can jot down ideas and inspirations.  Or maybe I just need to remember a cool website or the name of a new paper company.  I also use mine to draw layout sketches.  Of course, my notebook ends up holding my Flamingo Scraps to do lists too!

6.  Always date your layouts - even if it's only on the back.  Years and years from now, your descendants will be glad you provided a timeline for family events.  At Amanda's urging, Flamingo Scraps now carries 7 Gypsies mini labels.  These are perfect for writing dates on.

7.  Don't reinvent the wheel!  Use easily available resources like Two Peas In A Bucket-Pea Soup.  It's an awesome compilation of titles, quotes, poems and sayings for a variety of subjects.  Just use the search function.  Or how about using this Bazzill card stock matching service?  Use the arrows to find your patterned paper's manufacturer, then the paper collection and voila! - the coordinating Bazzill cardstock colors are already matched for you!

8.  Do you have a drawer full of partially used embellishments?  Perhaps you bought something specifically to go with a themed layout and now you're stuck with the leftovers?  Take a look at the remaining items with an objective eye.  Maybe some Glimmer Mist or Stickles will change it enough that you can use it for something unrelated.  Glimmer Glam and Glimmer Glaze cover quite well as does dipping something in melted UTEE.  Step outside your box and experiment - what do you have to lose?  Just some old embellishments that were just taking up room.

9.  Inking makes everything better!  Inking your paper edges, especially those you are layering, gives the illusion of depth.  Patterned papers tend to get "lost" in each other without inked edges to show where one paper ends and another begins.  Did you crop that photo?  No one wants to see those stark white raw edges - ink your cropped photos!  It's important to know what kind of ink to use too.  Here is a Scrapjazz article that explains the differences in inks.

10. Challenge yourself to learn something new.  The internet is a wealth of information in the forms of blogs, videos and social networking.  Find several blogs that are good for tutorials and techniques and follow them.  Blogging has been a real revelation for me - would you believe that four months ago I had never written a blog?  I didn't even have the password to our blog!  Now, I'm a bloggin' fool!

I hope you have found something useful in today's post!  Won't you leave a comment with one of your favorite scrapbooking tips or tricks?

Guest Blogger Heather: Lily Bee Audrey

A few months ago I searched high and low for a snow themed paper collection that would match the photos of my son playing in his jacket. The problem with that was that most of the snow themed papers were pink and purple! They wouldn't work at all. So I started looking for individual papers that would work, and I came across the Lily Bee Audrey paper line in the Flamingo Scraps shop. The bright yellow and navy blue couldn't have been more perfect. I also ordered the coordinating navy and yellow e-line flowers.

Here is the first layout that I created with the collection:

From Flamingo Scraps: Lily Bee Audrey patterned papers, Prima e-line flowers and bling
Other supplies: American Crafts Thickers (now in the store!!)

It came together quickly and easily! To add an extra frosty feel to the layout, I added Frosted Lace Stickles to the top of the white foam Thickers. As you can see, even though the papers could be considered girlie and the patterns to floral for a Winter/Boy layout... it totally works!

The second layout is one of me. I just happened to notice while pulling the photos for the previous layout that the burgundy paper exactly matched my fence in the photos. I ended up scrapping a photo of me in the snow. I live in Southern Louisiana, so snow is a BIG deal!

From Flamingo Scraps: Lily Bee Audrey patterned papers, Prima bling, stickles
Other supplies: Making Memories alpha stickers

As you can see, I repeated the Stickles on the title again. It worked well on top of the white velvet alphabet stickers. I added Stickles to the snowflakes and pearl bling to the centers.

My entire point behind this post is to remind you not to get stuck in a rut using themed papers! If the colors work, go for it! You may just end up with an even more lovely end product. You can check out the Audrey papers in the Flamingo Scraps store here.

We thank Heather for sharing even more of her fantastic work with us!!  To view more of her layouts and read about her adventures of three adorable kiddos, check out her blog! 

Always Laugh

As soon as I saw the orange plaid patterned paper in the Like Father, Like Son collection from Fancy Pants, I had to use it with this picture of my nephew!

From Flamingo Scraps:  Fancy Pants Like Father, Like Son patterned papers, Pink Paislee Expressions alphas in orange
Other Supplies: Star punches, EK Success binder edge punch, edge distresser, navy blue fine point sharpie pen
Photo by: Jenny Skibo, Passion for Life Photography 

This layout came together so quickly thanks to another fabulous sketch over on Sketchy Thursdays!!  And if you haven't checked out this great paper line from Fancy Pants, make sure you go visit the store and get some before it's all gone!!

My First Adventures in Steampunk!!!!

Once upon a time, I had a career in Historic Preservation.  I was an architectural historian and historian, and while I worked on almost every conceivable type of building, landscape, district, and structure -- I found myself drawn to industrial buildings and structures like textile mills and bridges.  Maybe that is why I am so fascinated by the Steampunk trend in scrapping.  It reminds me of a time when huge, noisy, smoking machines were housed in vast buildings with lavish architectural details and when bridges were works of art and not just a way to get across water.

Steampunk to me is the iron fist in the velvet glove, a steel magnolia, it is, well it is the movie The Wild, Wild West with Kenneth Branagh wearing a brocade waistcoat while manuevering his outlandish mechanical inventions.  It is chainlink and pearls, gears with jewels, it is wings on things that were never meant to fly.  Steampunk is hard and soft, vintage and futuristic.  I may never really master Steampunk as a scrapping style, but I am sure going to have fun trying!

This is my first foray into Steampunk as I braved the Steampunk Challenge on Scrapbook.com in July -- Prima paintable, lots of Tim Holtz distress ink, transparency of an industrial scene, metal elements from Flamingo Scraps Steampunk/Vintage grab bag, distressed, embellished, and inked picture is of my great grandmother

And this is my second for the same challenge this month -- Webster's Pages Seaside Retreat, dimensional seahorse stickers with Tim Holtz grunge board wings and gears, elements highlighted with Crackle Glossy Accents, image of woman and seahorse from internet images is printed on canvas, covered with Antique Linen distress stickles, and embellished.

Since then I have been experimenting with different materials and textures to create Steampunk embellishments of my own!

My experiments in Steampunk Embellishments!

Ranger metal slide mount frame with glass plates and keepsake pocket insert -- vintage image of gears with tiny gears in the pocket and a gear on a jump ring and torn strip of silk for finishing touches

Similar embellie with shell image, tiny shells in pocket, and shell on curled wire and vintage lace

Vintage watch  crystals with tiny watch pieces embedded in them using clear and sepia Glossy Accents -- Crackle Glossy Accents creates a fabulous effect as well!

Whether you go all out with Steampunk, or just incorporate some details into your layouts and paper crafting,  it is an exciting and fun style to play with.  It will really stretch your imagination and creativity and add fabulous texture and dimension to any project!!  And just look around you -- the Steampunk influence is showing up everywhere -- fashion, home decor, and my personal favorite, the new Blue Plate Mayonnaise commercials!!!

FOUND: Super cute Prima Animal Bash projects!!

Animal Bash is a paper line from Prima... a super cute one too!!  We carried it in the not too distant past and loved it.  In fact, we gave some away here on the blog and Heather won it!!  You might recognize Heather on here... we featured her once before!! She just finished using all of it and look at all the awesome stuff she made with just that one set of Prima papers:

More info about layout here.

More info about layout here.

More info about card here.

More info about card here.

More info about layout here.

More info about layout here.

More info about layout here.

Coming soon to the store... some of the new lines of Prima patterned papers of course!  The Jack & Jill collection... the Annalee collection... the Paisley Road collection... and some of the Fairy Flora collection.   If you haven't followed us yet on Facebook, make sure you do... we post an update when items are listed in the store!!

Thank you so much to Heather for letting us share her beautiful layouts and cards on the blog today!!   If you haven't checked out Heather's blog before, go swing by and leave her some love!! :)

Guest Blogger Kia: Cool Challenge # 4

 I can't believe how fast the Flamingo Scraps version of Scraptathlon has gone!  This is our last challenge so I wanted to make it one to remember.  If you missed the original post describing this challenge, here's a link.


Cool Challenge #4 ~ Steam - Peter Gabriel.
The hottest trend to come out of CHA has got to be Steampunk!  Your challenge this week is to find a way to meld the past with the future in a LO. As Steampunk melds the Victorian era with science fiction, what can you find from the past that meshes with your future?

Required Item:
This week's required item is Metal.  You must use something metallic in your Layout.

Here's a sample layout from Amanda:

A note from Amanda:  I'm not sure how "steampunk" this really is now that it's finished... but it is an old layout, using a key and a little vintage looking right?!  This photo is of my grandparents and my thoughts about the photo.
From Flamingo Scraps:  Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante patterned papers, Prima white flower and Say it in Crystals with Flowers bling.
Other supplies used: American Crafts grey thickers and presicion pen, Martha Stewart ribbon loop punch and Making Memories metal heart, key and word "love"

All Layouts must be uploaded to the Flamingo Scraps blog(using Mr. Linky) or Facebook page no later than 8pm EDT on August 29, 2010* to be eligible.

On sale this week at Flamingo Scraps ......Selected Graphic 45 tags, frames and borders for Steampunk Debutante and Hallowe'en in Wonderland, also Steampunk/Vintage Embellishment Grab Bags and brand new from Summer CHA - Vintage Embellishments from Prima!

The winner of  Week # 3's challenge drawing is:

Stacey Rodriguez!  Congratulations!  Please send your shipping info to flamingoscraps@yahoo.com.

I will be back next Monday to announce the winner of Week #4.

*Edited to correct the deadline

My First Old Page Maps Challenge

I joined the Weekly Old Page Maps Challenge on Scrapbook.com this month.  And then things got busy and the Layouts are due this week and I only got two done :(

But that's two more layouts than I had this time last month so that's good :)

I'd like to share those layouts with you.  The first one is from this page map

 I've been trying to use existing photos in an effort to clean out and organize the photo box under the bed.  So this is a 5x7 of my daughter when she was about 6 months old.

Sorry for the lousy photo!  For some reason, we couldn't get this one to scan right!

I used Sassafras Lass' Indie Girl papers.  They are so cute and each page has a border on the reverse side of the UPC - thanks for being value conscious Sassafras Lass!  Of course the edges are inked with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and the one paper edge is punched using Martha Stewart's Loopy Border Punch.  I added some pizzazz to the Bengali Bloom by Prima by adding some Stickles to the center and on the petals.

The second layout is from this page map

The photos are of my niece Katherine.  When she was a baby, she always had that pacifier in her mouth!  It seems like every photo I have of her, she has a pacifier.

I used Upsy Daisy's A New Day collection papers for this.  So cute!  I love the colors and the clean lines.  The patterned papers remind me of calico.  The flower centers are the fabric brads from A New Day collection.  There's a little Prima bling and some Navy Blue Velvet Mini Ric Rac.  The red alphas are from Pink Paislee's Starlight collection.

I have enjoyed participating in this challenge and my thanks to Nati Tristan for hosting it so capably each month!  I'm looking forward to the September challenge.

By the way, Upsy Daisy's A New Day collection (and London Blush!) is on clearance at Flamingo Scraps!

Announcing our first Guest Design Team!

We are thrilled to announce our Guest Design Team for September - December 2010!!

We were overwhelmed by the response we received and all the talented scrappers who applied.  We wish we could have each and every one of you on our team!   Alas, we could only pick eight this time around.... and what a tough choice it was for us!!

After we finally made it through all the applications, we picked eight amazing artists that we hope will inspire you as much as they inspire us.  So without further ado our Guest Design Team is......

Cindy is a 4th & 5th Grade teacher who is currently the stay-at-home Mom of handsome little Trevor.  Wife of Steve, Cindy loves to dream up new recipes and is a master at putting multiple photos on one layout.... her current record is 14!! Cindy resides in sunny California and will be here to inspire you during September.  Want to get a peek at Cindy's fabulous work?  Go check out her gallery and leave her some love!

Diana is definitely no stranger around here at Flamingo Scraps! Graphic Designer by trade and profession, Diana is the founder of Sketchy Thursdays, one of our favorite blogs and is one of our favorite artists!  Diana resides in New York (the state, not the City!) and will be here to inspire you during October. To see Diana's gorgeous artwork, go check out her blog and swing by Sketchy Thursdays to play along with her fantastic weekly sketch challenge!

Genie is a part-time portrait photographer, happily married Wife, Mom to two adorable little girls and, rumor has it, she has the best cheesecakes in town.  (We want to taste test please!!)  Genie resides in Michigan and will be here to inspire you during October. What are you waiting for?!  Go check out Genie's blog and gallery to check out her fabulous work!

Janet is a retired medial laboratory technologist, Mom of three adults and is impatiently waiting for one of them to hurry up and give her a grandbaby to spoil & scrap about!  Janet was born, raised in and never left St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada and will be here to inspire you during December. Janet's super cute blog showcases her beautiful work and you can also catch up with her over on Facebook.

Jill is Mom of cutie Abigail, Wife of Dean and creator of beautiful scrappy stuff!  When Jill isn't spending time with Dean and Abigail or scrapping, she's playing soccer, cycling, taking photos and working in IM/IT (even though she's trained personal trainer and nutritionist!).  Jill also hails from Ontario, Canada and will be here to inspire you during September.  Want to see one of the cutest blogs around with all kinds of scrappy inspiration?!  Go check out Jill's blog!!

One of Jolaine's favorite quotes is "The way to love life is to love many things"... which she does!!  Home decor, reading, cooking, event planning, anything crafty and, of course, scrapbooking... Jolaine loves them all!  Jolaine was born in the Domincan Republic and now resides in upstate New York with her husband and two children, Emily and Dylan.  Jolaine will be here to inspire you during the month of November and has many beautiful scrappy things over on her blog (so go check it out)!

Tiffany is a happily married momma to a really cute 3-year old Mateo and is living the good life in beautiful San Diego, California.  Orginally from a small town outside Las Vegas, Tiffany dreams of owning her own restaurant someday!  Tiffany will be here to inspire you during December and in the meantime, you can find her gorgeous work on youtube, her blog/gallery and over on Facebook!

And last, but certainly not least....

Tonya (a.k.a. Psycho Mom) is happily married to her high school sweetheart and has two teenagers, Brittany and Brighton!  When she is not volunteering her time for not-for-profit kid oriented organizations, she's hard at work as a Web Designer for the University of Florida Foundation.  Tonya recently guest blogged for us, sharing her fabulous Steampunk Debutante album and will be here to inspire you during November.  Make sure you go check out her website and catch up with her on youtube to check out her fabulous work!

So that's our fabulously talented guest design team and we couldn't be more happy!!! So go check out their blogs, galleries and be inspired... we are!!! 

Stay tuned for September 1st, when we will introduce our first two guest design team members for the month of September, Cindy and Jill, in more detail.

Have a great weekend!!