Suzanne's Favorites from 2011!!!

I will think of 2011 as the year I realized some truths about my papercrafting!!!!  And I think it is all due to some of the fabulous products that came out last year!!

I realized I have a strong tendency toward graphic collections -- I always assumed I was a shabby chic crafter,  but now I think of myself more as vintage graphic!!!  I fell MADLY in love with Fancy Pants' It's the Little Things and Lily Bee's This and That!

"It's the Little Things" that matter! 
Layout of class Tonya Gibbs and I took with Marion Smith!

Hugs Tag
Lily Bee -- This and That,
Maya Road Chipboard Coaster Tag, Pink Paislee Chipboard Letters.

With these two collections, I became almost fearless mixing patterns and textures!!!!

I remembered that I love words.  Though I am not a consistent journaler, I have always loved using words as accents on pages.  I also remembered that I CAN stamp and love to heat emboss thanks to these FABULOUS Art Journaling Stamps from Maya Road!!!!

Maya Road -- Art Journaling Stamps
Late Winter Release 2011
Available at Flamingo Scraps

Tag using MR Art Journaling Stamps, Tim Holtz Alterations Dies,
Recollections paper, misc. clear embossing powder,
feathers, bling, and fabric strips

I love bright, vivid colors!!  I simply fell head over heels for the colors in Webster's Pages Sunday Picnic!!  Having this as a fave is kinda cheating as it came out at the tail end of the year.  I am just enchanted by the Perfect Accents and truthfully, I'm afraid this might be one of those things that is too beautiful to use!  Look for other styles of these to be in the store -- one set even has a FLAMINGO CAMEO!!!!

Webster's Pages Sunday Picnic Perfect Accents
Available at Flamingo Scraps

And lastly, my "why didn't I think of that" new product -- Cosmo Cricket's Glubers (which simply flew out the store and were impossible to find).   Another item that made me remember I love to make my own embellishments and the results are not too shabby...well, they are kinda shabby, but not in a bad way...OH!!!  You know what I mean!!!!

Cosmo Cricket Glubers

The adhesive holds the trim --

Add a sparkly center and you are good to go!

Gluber Flower, upper middle,
Made With Cotton Crochet Trim from Flamingo Scraps

We will be reporting next on our favorites from the new releases at CHA Winter 2012 and let you know what we will be carrying!!  Check out the PREORDERS of Tim Holtz now available at Flamingo Scraps.  In addition, the Maya Road Art Journaling Stamps and the Webster's Pages Perfect Accents are on sale through Thursday!!

Now back to deciding what to order!!!!  If you see steam rising from the direction of the Sunshine State -- it is my brain on sensory overload -- in a good way!!!!

Valentine's Cards - for Cancer

I have a friend, Liz, who was hosting a Valentine Day Card drive to send to kids who suffer from Cancer. She wanted to be able to bring a smile to their cute faces. She asked each of us to do 2 cards, and here are mine.

From Flamingo Scraps: Fancy Pants Designs: It's The Little Things - Headed South; Prima: Fairy Tale roses white, and mini roses - white. Other: Greeting Farm Flutter Anya, Copic Markers, Studio G: Hug Coupon, Bling, Kraft Cardstock, Making Memories: Lace; Tim Holtz: Ticket Die, and Ticket Stamp from 100 Stamp Collection.

I wanted my cards to be themed around love but not the same traditional Valentine’s Day icons of Red and Pink. So I chose Fancy Pants “It’s the Little Things – Headed South” paper. It has these cute I love you stamps and post marks everywhere. There are still a few sheets of it left in the store if you like to use it on your Valentine's Day projects.



I designed the cards like an easle card so that they could be viewed from a dresser or table top. I stitched around the edges for interest and used my Greeting Farm Flutter Anya stamp as the focal point. I love that I can change the look of the image by simply coloring her a different color. Since these cards will be hand delivered, I used the Prima FairyTale Roses and Mini Roses as the easle prop.



Thanks for stopping in today,

My Many Manufacturer Challenge

I'm not a very product-heavy designer.  My layouts tend to be very simple, with just cardstock, some patterned paper, a little ink, maybe a punch, some letters, and a simple embellishment or two.  In that regard, this layout is no different:

From Flamingo Scraps: Fancy Pants patterned paper, Tim Holtz grungeboard

Other: BasicGrey patterned paper, Recollections cardstock, Fiskars border punch, Marvy circle punch, ColorBox ink, Making Memories stamp, Rubber Stampede stamp, Stampin' Up pen, Sketch by Shannon White

But this layout is actually very different from what I usually make.  Every component of this layout is from a different manufacturer.  In fact, 10 manufacturers (and one sketch artist) are represented on this simple page. 

I didn't originally set out to do this.  I knew I wanted to work with BasicGrey patterned paper.  I happened to have some of the gorgeous Fancy Pants scraps from a previous project still out and I loved how they looked together.  I punched some circles from the Fancy Pants using a Marvy punch, then used a Fiskars border punch on Recollections cardstock.  As I was picking up my ColorBox ink, I realized that I'd already used six manufacturers without even trying.  How many others could I use?  I added the Tim Holtz grungeboard and stamped the words "So" (Rubber Stampede) and "Together" (Making Memories).  I did my journaling with a Stampin' Up pen.  That makes ten!

The layout is based on a sketch from the always-fabulous Shannon White.  I rotated it 90 degrees.

I really enjoyed my own little private Many Manufacturer Challenge.  I may just have to challenge myself to beat my own record.

Guest Blogger Jeana O'Laughlin-Pigott: Teresa Collins Stampmaker

Please welcome Jeana to the blog today -- she was our lucky winner of the Teresa Collins Stampmaker back in October!!   We invited her to share her experience with the machine and her super cute card she made with her stamp!! :)

It was about 5 a.m. I don’t remember why I was up that early but I was, so I logged into Facebook only to see the final prize for Flamingo Scraps 2nd anniversary celebration giveaway. The Teresa Collins Stamp Maker Machine, and who had won!? I had!! I could hardly contain my excitement; I literally had to keep myself from screaming out loud and waking the whole house haha. Once I received the machine I was quite intimidated by it. I read over the instructions, multiple times, and finally got up the gumption to try it out.

First I tried to make one of the stamps that comes with the machine, I followed the directions to a T. And…. Nothing. It turned into a big hard rectangle. So I tried to make some expression stamps and while you could make out the expression, they weren’t deep enough to actually stamp with.

After many, trials of leaving the stamp under the UV light for different amounts of time, and going through almost all of the Stamp packs that came with the machine I decided to call it quits for the day and try another time.

This is what I learned, pay attention to the directions!! When I tried again and left the stamps in for the amount of time recommended (3 minutes) they came out perfect!!! So here are some tips for you when using the machine:

• Make sure if you are printing out your own transparency, that it is completely black EVERYWHERE except what you want the stamp to be ( I tried preserving paper/ink and trimming it down and the stamps do not come out nearly as nice!!)
• Definitely do not leave the stamp pack under the UV light for more than 3 minutes as it will harden the entire stamp pack.
• Larger images are much easier to make than small words or expressions!!

Here is the first project I completed with one of the stamps I made!! It is a simple Valentine’s card for my hubs. Hope you enjoy and thank you again Flamingo Scraps for the amazing prize!! Be sure to check out their store, they have incredible prices and beautiful stuff!!

We thank Jeana for joining us and thank her for sharing her work with us!!  To see more of her work and read about her life as a stay at home mom and army wife, please visit her blog!!

Who Loves to Color?

My nephew of course!  Who doesn't love to color though?! :)  He's so cute -- he has his own rules of how to color right now and I wanted to capture it of course!  Pink Paislee Old School's plaids and graphs were perfect to use as the backdrop for this layout:

From Flamingo Scraps:  Pink Paislee Old School collection (patterned papers); Pink Paislee Cushies Alphabet Stickers in Cocoa; Prima Marketing E-line bling

Other Supplies: Bazzill Basics cardstock; Stampin' Up! Notes & Details stamps, Ink in Early Espresso and Stampin' Write Marker in Early Espresso

Notice the crayon over the ears?  All him.  No one knows where he got it but we suspect from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  I know I'm biased, but isn't he the cutest?! :)

Card: Maya Road Doily Stamps

Have you seen them?  I'm in love!! :) 

From Flamingo Scraps:  Maya Road Doilies Stamps; lace trims

Other Supplies Stampin' Up! (cardstock, ink, scallop punch, Crystal Dimensions, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, stamp); EK Success (Real Estate Sign punch); sewing machine & thread

So how did it come together?  Here's a few close-ups of how this card came together.  First, I made my own patterned paper from the stamps using four different colors of ink:

Basically, I assigned four different stamps a color and went for it!  Then I glued down and stitched my patterned paper to my card base:

Up next, I stamped my sentiment on a scrap piece of cardstock, then punched it out with a punch, ran some clear glue around the edge and added glitter:

Hmmmm..... what to do while the glue + glitter dry....

Punch out a border, glue it down, stitch across the top, then add some lace and, finally, add my sentiment with some pop dots of course!

No go, hurry!!  There's only one set of those stamps left in the store and a HUGE sale this weekend.  It won't be there for long!! :)

Have a great weekend!!

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!!