I'm baaaack...

Sorry for the week of silence. I have no "real" excuse other than...life. If you found yourself checking daily (yeah, right) and finding nothing, I suggest you subscribe to my feed. It's simple. Do you see the link on the right that says "subscription"? Just click it, pick your service (if you don't have one, don't worry, it's free) and subscribe. That way you'll receive an email letting you know when and what I've posted without having to check here daily.

That being said, I am determined to post more often. I've joined a wonderful group of SU! Demonstrators on SCS, and we're all going to keep each other motivated to post more frequently. You can see their blogs, as well as a couple more of my favorites, in the column to the right.

So, in my absence I HAVE been inking. I received the new Snow Swirled stamp set in trade (thanks, Denise!!) and couldn't wait to ink it up. I created a couple of simple Christmas/winter cards, just to see what I could do with it. There are more scraps and experiments that haven't made it to card form, just yet. But I hope you'll enjoy these.
Next month our monthly stamp-a-stack will be all about Christmas. We'll be making elegant, classy and fun cards that are fairly simple to reproduce in a larger quantity. The Snow Swirled set is perfect for this (and it's 15% off all this month!!). In fact, (you should be sitting down for this shocker) this is my first ever snowflake set...GASP!!! How did I ever live so long without such a versatile set??? I have so many ideas for this set, I hope you won't be sick of it my the time I'm done. haha


The first card is really basic. I wanted to see what I could do with just one color of cardstock, 0ne color of ink and one stamp set. The sponging on the main image, as well as dimensionals, not only add a soft touch, help it break free of the background and hold its own. This card could be stepped-up by adding a dyed-to-match ribbon along the left side or dazzling diamonds glitter to the main image...or both!!












The second card is rather similar to the first. I used a bolder color and matted the main image in a matching cardstock, rather than sponging, to give a more structured look. Also, there are 2 stamp sets used on this card. This could also be stepped-up with ribbon
and glitter. Oooo...or a rhinestone brad in the center of the main image!












This third card is actually the first I made. I've been dying to make this card ever since I started admiring snowflake stamp sets. This is also fairly simple to reproduce, with a few more supplies than the previous cards. This uses 3 ink pads, white embossing powder and a heat tool. I started with the lightest snowflakes, added the darkest and filled in with the white embossing. The trick to keeping it from getting too crowded and overlapped is to stamp much less of each color than you think you need. That way there is ample room for the other colors.






This final item is a test for a local craft fair I'll be participating in next month. I want to offer a wide range of items, rather than just cards, and thought Christmas ornaments would be a good place to start. I pulled a tile from my stash and made this. I first treated the entire tile with the embossing buddy...those tiles are clinging little buggers! I inked my image in versamark and pacific point, stamped the image, added heat and stick powder, heated just until clear, poured on my dazzling diamonds and reheated to set. I attached the hodgepodge hardware clip (retired) to the back with crystal effects. I'm thinking of tying a ribbon around the clip and adding a piece of cardstock to the back to cover the tile back and allow for personalization.

I hope my snow swirled items were worth the wait. Let me know what you think (comments keep me going...haha)

Thanks for stopping by!

Card#1: snow swirled stamp set, very vanilla cardstock, baja breeze ink, stampin' sponge, dimensionals
Card#2: snow swirled and holidays & wishes stamp sets, very vanilla and pacific point cardstock, pacific point ink, dimensionals
Card#3: snow swirled stamp set, baja breeze cardstock, baja breeze, not quite navy and versamark ink, white embossing powder, 1/4" white grosgrain ribbon
Ornament: snow swirled stamp set, ceramic tile, versamark and pacific point ink, heat and stick powder, dazzling diamonds glitter, heat tool, retired pewter HPH, crystal effects