Winner & More

First off without delay.... The winner of the Ippity stamps is #22

patty w said...

You do lovely work ! Love the sisters page alot !
Just now getting here, it kept saying service unavailable earlier !
signing up to follow ..
patty 2832

Well Patty I guess it was lucky that the service was unavailable earlier since it made you the winner lol.  Send me your snail mail address at sgray110 at gmail dot com & I'll get your stamps out right away.

Thanks so much to EVERYONE who left such sweet comments over the weekend.  It sure was a great hop with so much inspiration that I'm dying to get to my table and start creating.  I really enjoyed visiting all of your blogs - Fiskateers rock creativity.

Next I thought I would share some things I'm excited about in the scrappy world....

If you haven't already I hope you will join us for the Paperclipping.com Monthly Challenge.  Winner will be spotlighted in the internationally read newsletter that Noell publishes.  See all details in the community forum here.

I love all things Teresa Collins - she is one of the sweetest people in the world.  She is going to be interviewed on Sudie TV tonight.  If you don't know Sudie she is a Fiskateer who has a weekly live web scrapbooking show.  See details here & tune in at 9:30 pm eastern time to hear what's going on with Teresa.

Who doesn't love Prima.... I saw a post about a Prima Idea Book & had to share.  They are having a giveaway on their blog for a copy.  Check it out here.

And finally I wanted to a sneak peak of the School Time mini album I designed & kits will be sold at EMI Scrapbooking in Cumming GA or order & will be shipped to you.  Crate Paper knocked it out of the park with all their lines that are available.  I loved this School Spirit line.  Thanks Susan for the opportunity to create for you.  I love your store, you are such a great friend & have a wonderful family.  (sorry gushing but it's true)

That's it for today... thanks for stopping by & remember do something creative.

IPPITY STAMP Sale

All my in stock Ippity Stamps are on sale now to clear out what is left & make room for the to die for new releases next month.  Click here to shop now... remember I ship free to USA/APO & give allowance for international shipping.

I've been so neglecting my poor blog... I'm so sorry.  Our house is still a construction zone with the master bath and sunroom slowly being remodeled.  Chaos just seems to suck the creativity out of me... I like organization and everything being just so.  To top it off the pages/mini books I've been working on are all about my sons... and you all know that gives them "power of veto" when they don't want current things shared about them... oh how I miss having little ones with no say so lol.  I've also been trying to submit to CK and other card magazines which means no sharing that project online prior - why aren't they easy like the Trends?  So if they don't get picked up I'll have quite a few to share with you.

Also my sister is finally home from the hospital - wow almost a month was unbelievable.  She's recovering at our parents house.  Thanks so much everyone who sent her hand made cards - y'all are awesome and I can't tell you how much it encouraged her.  Thank you thank you thank you!

Well gotta run I promise to post something tomorrow

Everything Scrapp'n' Monthly Challenge & Design Team work

It's challenge day at Everything Scrapp'n'... I hope you will join us for a fun challenge with a super duper prize (Pink Paislee - Starlight paper & Tattered Angels Marshmallow Glimmer Mist.

Click here for all the details.

Here is my layout for the challenge (which is to use Red, White & Blue in a non 4th of July way).

I love anything Pink Paislee & have had a lot of fun working with the Starlight line.  It's great for layouts about my guys - so I'll be going back for more since good masculine lines are hard to come by.

I made my own distressed letters inspired by the Pink Paislee ones that were the wrong color for this page.

The sticker sheet for this line is filled with borders, journaling spots & embellishments.  They add a touch of shimmer to them but not too much that it distracts in any way for those who aren't glitterers

Supplies:   Paper (Pink Paislee - Starlight Bright, Pink Paislee - Starlight Dazzle, Pink Paislee - Starlight Glow, Pink Paislee - Starlight Shine, Pink Paislee - Starlight Spark); Stickers (Pink Paislee - Starlight Sticker Embellishments); Punches (Stampin' Up, McGill, & Marvy); Diecut Letters (Making Memories Slice); Spinner & Brad (Tim Holtz); Ribbon (Offray); Clip (Paper Studio); Thread (Coats & Clarks); Twine (Making Memories); Stickles (Ranger - Antique Linen Distressed); Buttons (stash); Alpha Stickers (Cosmo Cricket - Tiny Alpha Cream); Adhesive (Diamond Glaze, Tombow & Glue Arts)

I love ledger paper for my backgrounds, journaling, ANYWHERE goes.  This is a great one to add several pieces to my stash.

Pink Paislee - Starlight Shine

I also made a couple cards.

The first is made from scraps of the layout above.  I just love that subtle flourish on the background paper.

Supplies:  Cardstock (Paper Resources); Paper (Pink Paislee - Starlight Bright , Pink Paislee - Starlight - Glow, Pink Paislee - Starlight Shine, & Pink Paislee - Starlight Spark); Ribbon (Offray); Punch (Stampin' Up); Diecut (Making Memories Slice); Brads (Heidi Swapp); Stamp (Ippity Stamps - Fall for You & Unity Stamp KOTM); Markers (Copic); Ink (Hybrid)

My second card mixes October Afternoon (another one of those companies that makes my heart sing) with the Pink Paislee & some Webster's Pages scraps... I should have named this post scrapping with my favorite companies lol

I've been wearing out the Tim Holtz Bird & Cage Die by Sizzix lately.

Supplies:  Cardstock (Bazzill); Paper (October Afternoon - Thrift Shop Good Junk, October Afternoon - Thrift Shop Collectors Item, Pink Paislee - Office Lingo & Webster's Pages); Die Cut (Sizzix - Tim Holtz); Stamps (Unity Stamp KOTM & My Sentiments Exactly); Ink (Ranger - Tim Holtz Distress Ink Broken China & Tattered Rose & Hybrid); Ribbon (Vintage hand dyed stash);

This is the paper with the music on the back.  For my card I used about an 8th of the sheet - there are many different songs.  It's a must have for your stash so stock up.

October Afternoon - Thrift Shop Good Junk

Well hope you have a fantastic day & make sure you enter to win those great prizes at the ES blog.

I'm Going Hybrid...

I have tried digi layouts in the past & wasn't thrilled.  But today is a new day.  I don't have to do all digi but just use digital elements.  It doesn't hurt that I can find high quality products out there....

There are still pros & cons to it...

I LIKE:
Image can be used over & over
Customize for my project by changing the color or size
Very economical & "Green"


I love the idea of being able to scrapbook anywhere.  There is no mess to clean up.  If I don't like the color of something I can change it with a couple clicks then everything will match perfectly.  Designing a project is super easy.  No more cutting a piece of paper wrong.  I love the undo button.   There really are some great companies out there & even if I don't print the paper it is easy to make my own embellishments.  

CONS 
Quality of many of the image designs available


Recently digital images have come a long way.  There are still many out there that don't have the depth of color and pattern on the "papers" that is what I am drawn to in a piece of pattered paper.  My Photoshop skills are OK (could be better... could be worse) so I guess  I need to be working on this.  I usually don't even type my journaling (unless it's a long story) so I guess it's just that I need to get into the habit of using the computer for scrapbooking.  The bottom line is... I just LOVE the traditional scrapbooking products & making the mess.

Hybrid Scrapbooking allows me to take the best of both worlds & still make my paper mess while creating.  I will be printing more elements for my pages to save money, personalize them & still do pages my way.  That's the great thing about scrapbooking - no rules... do it your way.  We change, evolve & learn new things that is all part of creativity.  I sure wouldn't want to be doing the same thing the same way 3 years from now - change keeps it fresh.

Here is a page I made with a digi element from House of 3.  Thanks Heidi Swapp for helping me make a fun quick page.

I am participating in the summer challenge there to do 3 pages a week for a total of 50 pages completed by the end of summer.  They are encouraging us to create pages that are more simple & less time consuming.  I'm a slow poke scrapper but this one actually was finished within 35 minutes.  I think a lot of my problem is dragging out lots of supplies to audition them before committing & making a decision.  I am trying to resolve to trust my first instincts more & just go with things.  Every page doesn't have to be a well thought out masterpiece to be a great page... right?

So killing 2 birds with one stone I combined this with the Ippity Stamps weekly challenge to use some fabric on a project.

Everything is better with Ippity...

I used this set of Ippity Stamps (on sale this week on my selling page above or here)

Don't forget to enter the giveaways over at The Paperlife this week for my spotlight.  There are some great prizes up for grabs.  Click here to leave a comment.

Prize Update with Photos

 Lots of prizes up for grabs.  

We'll have 4 winners........

Prize #1

Paperclipping Premium Membership

($55 Value)

Winner will receive 6 month membership & have access to the huge archives of Paperclipping video tutorials.

Courtesy of Noell Hyman owner of Paperclipping.com

Prize #2

Unity Stamp Company Prize Pack

$75+/- Value

I believe these are available only in retail stores

Courtesy of Angela Magnuson owner of Unity Stamp Co.

Prize #3

2 sets of Ippity Stamps & Goodies Kit

 2 great sets of Ippity Stamps & a huge kit filled with supplies for creating (including 2 mini albums, tons of embellishments, 50 sheets of 6x6 designer paper, 3 magazines, adhesive, ink, Prima Journaling Paper & lots of journaling spots)

Courtesy of ME

Prize #4

$10 Gift certificate to Everything Scrapp'n' Online Scrapbook Store

Courtesy of Heather Turner owner of Everything Scrapp'n'

To enter leave a comment over at The Paperlife post here.

All in stock Ippity Stamps are on sale this week in honor of my spotlight.  

Click here - shop early for best selection.

The Winners Are.....

Wasn't that an inspirational blog hop?  With my busy weekend I had to hop in bits but I think that gave me the time to really read the posts & gaze at the variety of talented cardmakers.

Thanks so much for all the great comments & follows.  It really means a lot.

As a thank you to everyone who visited & left a comment during the blog hop.  I'm offering 15% off all {ippity} orders over $20.  Remember I always offer free USA/APO shipping.  Just type OWH HOP in the comments & I will refund 15% of your Paypal payment back to you.  Shop HERE.

Winners selected by:  Random Integer Generator

The winner of the Lucky Me Mini Album Kit

courtesy of Susan Moore - Owner of EMI Scrapbooking Store in Cumming, Georgia.  She also has an online Etsy store called creativekits4u where she sells these kits to customers all over the world.  This kit features Little Yellow Bicycle Lucky Me papers.  MSRP $22.

Here are your random numbers:

17

Timestamp: 2010-06-01 12:27:35 UTC

 Paula said...

Oh my gosh, what great cards. I love how you incorporated the lined notebook paper. Thanks for sharing the story of your personal heroes with us too. Wonderful post!

May 29, 2010 5:00 PM

and

The winner of the {ippity} Stamps sets courtesy of me is:

Here are your random numbers:

4

Timestamp: 2010-06-01 12:33:37 UTC

 2 Worlds said...

Thats a good cause thanks for the giveaway Suz

May 29, 2010 12:39 PM

Congrats Paula & Jana!

Please shoot me an email with your snail mail address (sgray110 at gmail dot com) & I'll get your prizes out to you.

3D Layered Flower Tutorial

This is a tutorial for the flowers I created for my cards on the OWH Memorial Day Blog Hop.  To keep my post from getting too long I thought I would do a separate post for the photo how to tutorial so those who wanted to see how I made them could look & those who didn't wouldn't have to scroll thru so many photos.

Here's the finished card showing the layered dimensional flower

Ok now I'll show you how I made them.

Step 1 - Gather Supplies:  Watercolor Paper, Stamp that can easily be cut apart once stamped (I used Ippity Stamp's Now & Always kit which I sell here); Watercolors (I used the cake style artist quality ones); Paintbrush; Waterproof Black Ink (I used Palette Hybrid Ink); Scissors or craft knife.

Step 2 - Stamp your image.   My stamp has 4 different sections so I will stamp it 5 times (in case of error you have a spare... I learned from experience)

Step 3 - Cut out your layers. I like to use micro tip scissors for the best detail.  But, you could also use a craft knife.  It is ok to cut outside the line leaving extra white since we are watercoloring and it is a casual technique.

These are the different types of watercolors that can be used that I had on hand.  Watercolor crayons (might be too think for this stamped image); watercolor pencils & water brush ( would work well for this since you could get in small places); watercolor paint in tubes (this would work well but I was being lazy not wanting to get out a pallet)

and finally the artist quality cake watercolors (which I chose to use for this project).  A fine round brush is helpful to keep control and still get good coverage.

Note:  You'll see I'm no expert on watercolor painting I just do my own thing.

Step 4 - Painting the layers.  I find it best to wet the paper lightly first then layer the color on in stages.  I start with lighter coverage and build intensity of color coverage as I go.  You can use a paper towel in between to blog & "erase" mistakes.

You can either paint choose to paint the next smaller layer in or leave it white.  The reason I paint it is because when the layers are assembled with dimensional foam adhesive it looks better.

Notice  I didn't do all the shading with different colors on this example.   The thing I like about watercolors is you don't have to be neat.  You'll see it will come together nice even when it looks like this lol.

Step 5 - Shape Petals.  To add interest & more depth I curled the petals by putting my index finger in center of each petal then squeezed it with the index finger and thumb on other hand.  Pinching & working it until I  get the desired curling.  This is best done while the paper is still damp.

Step 6 - Adhesive.  I added foam adhesive squares to the back of each layer making sure I only put it toward the center of each layer.  This allows the petals freedom to move & curl further.

Here's the finished flower ready to go on any project.

The coloring could be done with Copic markers, craft makers, colored pencils (blended with gamsol or left natural).  But I like that watercolors are translucent so the stamped lines show thru.

Here is another card where I did not cut the layers apart but just painted the stamped image whole.  The shading with different colors helped to give it depth.  I stamped the leaves on canvas fabric for interest.

So I hope this gives you some ideas of different things you can do with your stamps.

What's up...

I know I've been neglecting my blog.  I'm still getting my creative space in order.  Which is more of a challenge than I thought.  I'm already missing my beautiful sunroom.  I so wish I would have taken more photos before the devastation... note to self:  don't wait until something is "perfect" to capture the memory.   Most of the problem is stemming from the fact that Charley doesn't want me to put a bunch of holes in the wall if this is going to be a temporary space.  Hello there is always spackle and paint!  We have this issue all the time when I'm hanging artwork since he knows how I am about moving furniture.  A running joke when the kids were young and he was an over the road trucker was that if he came home in the middle of the night he needed to use a flashlight because things might not be in the same place as when he left the week before.  I can't do the moving as much by myself anymore but I do still like to shake things up.

Sorry... I got off topic (known in the south here as chasing rabbits).

Back to the room.  So without the shelving on the walls everything is covering the table & just looks cluttered.  I have a gift card for ikea & he wouldn't even drive me down there in the pickup truck to buy a shelving unit on the weekend.  Well I'll give him that one since that store is a mad house if you don't go during the week.  But I need it NOW.  lol I sound the the girl in Willy Wonka.

So today I hear the angels singing & the drill going... at least 2 of the shelves that were in my craft room in the old house are going on the wall to put lesser used items.  So I am working hard to get it semi in order so that I can start creating cards for the Operation Write Home Blog Hop this weekend.

I participated in the blog hop last year & knew I had to do it again.  This is such a great organization collecting handmade blank cards to send to our deployed troops all over the world so they can keep in touch with their family & friends.  Such a simple little thing but it creates such an impact on the soldiers.  Many send in video comments or photos in their thank you emails.  It just warms my heart.

So I hope you make plans to hop along with us this weekend.  There will be loads of inspiration & amazing cards.  Last year I was so moved by the stories and tributes people shared about family members.  Some of the blog stops were even military family members sharing how important receiving the cards was to their deployed loved ones & themselves.  You'll see the well known paper crafters & those who just love to create.  Some companies also participate to support the cause.  Lots of the blogs offer RAK/prizes too which is just icing on the cake.   (I'll be giving away some {ippity} stamps!)

Even if you aren't a card maker you can support this cause by giving a tax deductible donation.  They always need money for postage to send the packages off to the service members all over the world.

Have a great day!

Ippity is in the House....

 

 

 

 

I just received my first big order from Ippity Stamps & have them in the storefront (see tab above or click here).  I have all the new releases and a couple oldies but goodies all on sale.  USA/APO shipping is free.   Orders over $30 receive a free pack of October Afternoon's newest paper.

 

I have the entire new release in stock in addition to some of my favorites from prior releases.

I'm really excited about bringing these stamps to you.  I've been a longtime customer of Unity Stamps & if you've read my blog I can't say enough good things about them.  These stamps are high quality rubber & give clean detailed stamped images every time... and they are so cute.

 

=================================

I can't wait to start creating with them.  But those of you who are friends on Facebook & Twitter know that I've had water coming into the scrap room.  The carpet was soaked so it ruined 3 of the base cubes that make up my desk - where all my paper is stored.  Thankfully the paper is fine but the cubes are warped, slimy and had mold.  It wasn't just the skylights leaking it was the wall that the contractor fixed.  Since I wear shoes and it's carpeted I didn't notice the small amount of water until I saw some mold when I moved my rolling tote.  I pretty much had all the walls lined with storage stuff so couldn't see the walls/baseboards.  

 

So I've lost 2 shelves, 3 cubes, rolling tote, several tote bags, vintage furniture storage items, new pack of American Crafts cardstock, all my 12x12 white & kraft cardstock (they filled one slot in the cube - this was what I was most upset about next to the vintage furniture & Tombow tote bag lol). 

 

Since we didn't hire the contractor... the appraiser wasn't going to sign the loan approval papers if repairs were not done so bank who owned the house didn't want closing to fall through so they hired and authorized repairs).  So now the contractor isn't returning my calls & I'm going to have to send a certified letter because the problem sure wasn't fixed.  I hope he will live up to his word... otherwise I may have to write to Mike Holmes (Holmes on Holmes HGTV) lol to fix the mess they made.

 

So this is the relocation mess I'm dealing with right now moving everything to the living room (thankfully we hadn't bought any furniture yet so it was pretty empty since we only had 1 living space in the old house).  I'm missing the built in unit already.  I think I need to take a trip to ikea & get one of those big shelving units everyone has.

I also got my order from Scrapbook.com today.  (UPS guy had a double delivery).  So many goodies that I'm dying to get creative with.... it's killing me.  (Pink Paislee paper, tape & tags, Sassafras paper, edges & tags, Girls Paperie paper, Studio Calico paper & tags, Dear Lizzy paper & flowers, Lily Bee papers & diecuts, Little Yellow Bicycle paper, Prima flowers & gems, Webster's Pages, Jenni Bowlin tags & calendars, Cosmo Cricket, letters Martha Stewart punch, Maya Road pins & chipboard & this great newspaper from Donna Salazar to make flowers & things with.

Thanks to my friend Lori for the gift certificate she sent me back in Feb. for my b'day.  Lots of great scrapbook pages & cards will be made with these yummy products.

Well I guess I'll never be using these if I don't get back to organizing & moving things around.

Have a great day!