#44: Another Angelina Fiber Creation

Here's another Angelina Fiber creation that more clearly shows the halo of fibers around the stamped image. This was inside a tri-fold "New Baby" card. The color name of this fiber is "Calypso Blue" and has a definite iridescent sheen to it, as do all of the various fibers.

I have mostly done solid color images, but at the convention, Class Act did some wonderful things with mixed colors. For example, they used a large dragonfly stamp and added bits of pink, yellow, and orange to several shades of green for a beautiful creation that looked as if it came straight from a sunny day at the pond. It was stunning! By adding a stick-on pin back, they provided many attendees with a small work of art that took only moments to create. I'm thinking that in the future, rather than adhere the image directly to the card with adhesive, I should add a pin back. It could then be a little gift within the card, especially for birthdays and Christmas.

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Stamps:
-Onesie from a 10-pack set of wood-mounted stamps by "Studio g" (A great deal for only $10.00 then used a 40% off coupon at AC Moore! Contains images of a baby bottle, onesie, rattle, diaper pin, baby carriage, umbrella with raining gifts, and four sentiments: "Bundle of Love," "Just Arrived," "Baby Shower," and "Welcome Baby."
-"Congratulations" $1.00 clear stamp by DMD, purchased at JoAnn's

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#39: Fiskars Border and Corner Punch

I love-love-LOVE punches of all kinds, but I'm really impressed with one of the new Fiskars Border and Corner punches. I haven't seen them in stores, yet, but did purchase one at a recent Rubber Stamping and Scrapbooking show in Syracuse, NY.

The names of the punches are truly, truly awful (one that's a woven-type of style is called "Lattice Entertain You".....), but I just adore the beautiful intricacy of the one I purchased, called "Comin' Up Roses."

You must start with a square or rectangle that's measured in full inch increments. There are actually two punches, side-by-side: the corner punch and the border. You begin by pressing both simultaneously, then move your paper/cardstock along the very clearly marked base, pressing only the border punch, to make your design. When there's one inch remaining, turn the paper 90 degrees and repeat. One of the easiest punch systems I've ever used, with spectacularly intricate results. It almost appears laser-cut.

On this sample, I used a heavy cream paper matted on black cardstock, resulting in a simple, but elegant, sympathy card. With the right stamp and by substituting a pretty pink or green mat, and it could be a wonderfully feminine birthday card.

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Stamp: My Sentiments Exactly! Clear Stamps "Sympathy Sentiments" (Set #M123)
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#14 Little things make a difference

I have been snatching up every single $1.00 clear stamp set from Michael's that I can find-- well, not every one, but most of them. Since I've previously purchased wood-mounted exclusively, there are a lot of gaps in my stamp library. It seemed that those little flourishes cost almost as much as a big, yummy stamp, so I had a tendency to avoid the sentiments and the decorative stamps. These little, inexpensive clear stamp sets have opened a new door for me and I'm inching my way through!

Both the "Hello!" and those rows of tiny little stars come from various Studio G sets. The scalloped square was stippled in the same turquoise ink and is from a punch (it's a Marvy punch that provides a 2" square punch-out-- not sure what hyperbole of a size that makes it), and the delicate yellow lacy thing is a die cut from a Cuttlebug 4 piece "Victorian" die set.

The sunflower is from a pad of Mary Engelbreit page markers-- tiny little post-it notes to mark your spot... or make a focal spot on your card!

#13 Simple isn't necessarily bad, I guess

I have had a couple of very busy months, and although I've made a lot of cards, they have been very simple ones out of sheer necessity. Maybe that's not all bad.

Initially, I didn't really care for this Thinking of You/Get Well card I made for my mother-in-law, but she loved it. I guess it's growing on me, although without a lot of layers, embellishments and stamping, it still feels a little naked to me-- and as if I've somehow cheated.

By the way, Louise over at Kard Krazy had the most wonderful tip today-- a real "smack-up-side-the-head-why-didn't-I-think-of-that???" idea. She separated out all of her little clear stamp sets into categories (e.g., all the flowers, all the sentiments, etc.) rather than leave them in the pre-packaged sets. As soon as I have a few minutes to call my own, I'm going to follow her lead:

http://kardkrazy.blogspot.com/2007/07/something-different.html

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Stamps: Studio G Clear Stamp Set from Michael's

Background: Anna Griffin

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