Monday, January 31, 2011

Couple Stamp Ideas

Stamps, can't get enough.  It's funny because I really never got the whole "stamp" thing ten years ago...  I just used stickers.  I have to say that now I rarely use stickers.  I love stickers, but not for scrapbooking... unless they are really exceptional and can pass a short quiz before being considered for my art.  As far as decorating my calendar and planner and notebooks... stickers are key! Because you may not want Spongebob next to your nephew at his Christening, but you may want him reminding you to go to the dentist.

So anyway, here's a couple things you can do with stamps.



1. Color em in!

The lighthouse was nice looking all in black and white...  but I decided to grab my colored pencils and give it a little color. And then with a felt tip pen, I accented some edges and added some shadow....
 And you thought you'd never color again!

( also, stamping an image a few times on the same page without re-inking it creates a nice effect. You have lighter versions of the same image.... kinda makes a nice background...  ex. the sand dollar and shell images lining the bottom)


2. Cut em out!
The flower shown in the pic on the right was stamped with a couple different colors. (this can be done a few different ways... one being brushing the ink onto the stamp instead of dabbing the stamp onto an ink pad), and then cut out using micro-tip scissors. I know you're saying "WHO THE HECK HAS TIME TO CUT OUT A STAMP WITH MICRO-TIP SCISSORS!"
and my answer to that is, if you want to do something, and you want that something to look as nice as it possibly can in your eyes, you will take one further step in assuring that will happen. If you don't need your project done by tomorrow, then why not do a little tonight and a little tomorrow.  I find sometimes if you leave it unfinished and come back to it the next day, it comes out better because you end up seeing it the next day with fresh eyes and you'll have a better idea of what will make it work.
And if you have those foam stickies, that makes it pop off the page a little ...

Looking forward to some sweet dreams!

G'night all.




Tuesday, January 25, 2011

New stuffies

Ok...
these are my first crack at stuffed animals so be kind.... ha

I will attempt some more this weekend probably...  but they do have a certain charm...
The elephant (yes, it's an elephant) is a bit awkward...
and the owl (YES, THE OWL)  is kinda....  just a pillow with a face.
but hey, it's great how honest babies/toddlers are.  They just accept things for what they are.  I don't think my daughter has met a stuffed animal yet that she didn't like. So she gladly adopted them into her stuffy family!




I do have some scrappy stuff to post...
just haven't gotten around to the picture taking yet...


So that'll happen once I take a break from sewing machine land.  Who knew it could be so addicting!  And a great activity for insomniacs.
I think I've mentioned this before, but the juices def. flow better when you're tired and inspired.

Nighty!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Blurb.com=LOVE


Here's an idea.
Blurb.com
I was looking for something a bit more special for this Christmas present and I came across Blurb.com on livejournal actually a long time ago.  And it took me a while to actually make a book...  but ya know how the holidays creep up and you get ideas and...  I still have some other projects in the works for them.  But as far as photo books go, I have never had a book come out as excellent as this one.  The pictures just printed so perfect.  Even the digital collages I threw together came out just as they looked on my computer.

This book is 11x 13.  So it's a good size book.  And it's just like a book you'd buy at Barnes and Noble. Hardcover, dust jacket, thick paper....   (there are other options on the site.)
But it was the best money I spent this year. 

 And I'm sure my daughter will enjoy it when she's older too.
So I can't say enough about Blurb.  Love em'.  I even wrote em a thank you note because I was so impressed with the book.  And they wrote a thank you back.. ha...  

Anyway... tis bedtime...

Goodnight friends.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

So lame... I am.

So I never got around to posting the banner...  I did finish it a few days later...  
but here I am, posting it now...


I'm actually really happy with the way it came out.  It really just adds exactly what her room needed.
I'm working on another sewy project for her now.  I'll let ya know how that turns out.

I will be catching up on my scrapbook posting.  I've been scrapbooking, just have been shoving it off to the recipients without any photo taking!  The holidays were so crammed my projects were very time sensitive. But now that things have calmed down, I'll be able to post some more...