Peg Stamped Wreath & GiveAway!

Lately I've been playing with my peg stamps and stamping things just to see what I could come up with.  Today I wanted to share a wreath I made using a color palette from a challenge site (it's past the deadline now but that's o.k.)

The challenge was oranges, red, brown and greens 

mixed together and this is what I came up with.

The bow was a MFT die-cut that I colored with my Memento Markers.

Before I get to the wreath I wanted to show you a little tip on how I store my peg stamps...It's done wonders for my stamping and it might just give yours a boost as well.

The sets normally they each come in a little container but after playing with them for a bit I realized that I was restricting myself to work set by set.  So I took all of the stamps out of their respective packages and put them in a container all mixed together.   

After doing this I discovered how much more fun they are and that a flower goes with a pine cone and a tiny sprig can be used for a holiday card just as well as it can work for floral designs.  It was freeing for me to be able to look at them all together and mix them up in my designs.

So I started off with this fern-y looking stamp for the wreath base.  

I used Olive Grove for the base layer...

Then added a layer of Bamboo Leaves and a few more using New Sprout.

A few pine cones sprinkled here and there.

And some berries using LadyBug (red) - actually these are blueberries but hey, now they are red berries!  Then sticking with the challenge color story a few mini 5 petal flowers in Tangelo.  I die-cut the bow and added a few highlights and lowlights with my Memento Markers, pop-dotted it on the wreath.  I finished it off by stamping the sentiment in the center.  

This was a really easy card to make and I can see this being something I'd make for the holidays as there is no right or wrong where the stamping is concerned.  I "low-stress" card for sure.  Something I think we can all appreciate when the holidays are looming.

This is a fun little thing I stamped up to show just how easy it is to create with these stamps...4 little stamps make a huge impact!  These are as a matter of fact some of my favorite peg stamp images as they are so versatile.  By changing up the colors and the design they can be used for so many different ideas.  

I would like to give this set of 4 stamps away to a lucky Ink Stains reader!  Simply comment below if you own any peg stamps and what you make with them -  be it cards, tags, use them on sb lo's or whatever.  If you don't own any that's o.k. too...tell us what you'd like to make with them if you owned a few.

You have until 7-23-16 to post your comment to be entered to win!

Good Luck Friends

and

Ink on!

Note To Self...

I've been told I'm a Type A personality and I recently found out that those types of people are very organized and love lists.  Well, I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a note taker and list maker... I am constantly writing down ideas of things I want to do (yes I really do have a growing "to do" list), techniques I want to try and ideas for card sketches, projects and other "stuff".  Writing it down helps me not only remember but it also un-clutters my mind.  If I don't write it down I usually forget it all.

I'm always in need of just one more notebook or pad of paper so I made this today ... 

It just so happens that this month's Club Scrap kit is Office Space which has a fun funky retro 70's feel to.  Cool huh? 

 As luck would have it the last time I was at Wal-Mart they were setting up their school supply section and snagged some cool composition books - both lined and graph paper! The lined comp book was only 50 cents!!!  How cool is that?  The graph book was 97 cents but who doesn't love to mess with graph paper?  

I set about covering it with some of the cardstock and pattern papers.  Remember, when working with a comp book or journal to protect the inner pages with a plastic bag so you don't get any glue on the pages.  I usually just wrap a bag around the pages and leave it there till I'm finished with both front and back.

I used this pretty teal green paper for the back cover.

And for the inside of both the back and front covers I inked up a couple pieces of kraft cardstock with a variety of Memento Inks to match the color of the papers.  I wish you could see how vivid this is in person.  It is so pretty and you can see all of the various colors I used.

One for the front, one for the back, corners rounded and glued it in place!

I'm ready to start making a "Note to Self"!

Supplies:

Club Scrap - Cardstock, Pattern paper, Stamps, Stencil, Book Binding Glue

Imagine - Memento Inks, Sponge Dauber

Composition Book

Daylilies...

I don't know about you but I love daylilies...sadly they are only here for a short period of time but they are so lovely while they last.  This morning I noticed that I had several colors/varieties blooming all at once so I wanted to get some pics while they were blooming.  I thought I'd share them with you today!

These first two are my favorites.  The yellow one has a giant flower on it - when open it's the size of a mans hand.  The maroon one looks much darker than in the photograph.  Depending on the light it almost appears black at times.

This lily has a lovely faded peach color to it - makes me think it's been distressed a little.

These two are very similar - one is just a bit darker in the center than the other...a bit more orange mixed into the center.

Sorry I don't know the names of any of them....I'm not a real particular grower...I just plant them because I like the colors.   I do know that the bottom one is a lily that grows wild here in Indiana...it's everywhere and takes to most any soil.  Often times you will see long stretches of back roads where they will be growing along the fields.   The others all came from mail order places - mostly Spring Hill Nurseries I believe. 

Been busy here - we got a new roof put on yesterday ~ a blue metal roof.  I LOVE it!  It's very bright...dh was teasing me this morning that I needed to wear my shades if I was going to go out and admire it  LOL!!  He's such a smart ass sometimes.   I thought I'd shake the neighborhood up a bit - add a splash of color.  I should have taken pics when I was taking photos of my flowers but I didn't even think about it.  

Hope you're all having a wonderful summer!

Color Burst Morning Glory

Recently the Color Burst folks were holding a DT call...I honestly thought about applying but at the moment I have too much going on.  You know when you really want something but it just doesn't feel like the timing is right. I didn't submit but I'm hoping they will have another call in the future when I feel that I can give them 110%.

Anyway, this was going to be one of my project submissions....

What do you think?  I was really happy with how it turned out, I just need to find a frame for it and hang it up somewhere.  And yes, the leaves are wonky...just like they were in the reference photo I saw on FB.

Hope you're having a wonderfully colorful day!

Peg Stamp Fade Technique

Well I've been having more fun playing with my peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry and I've got a quick and easy technique to share with you today.

Peg Stamp Fade

This is my favorite card I've made...I'm sure because of the blues I used.

So, here's all you do....

Ink a peg stamp.

Stamp it once starting at the top of your card.

Now imagine your card divided in 4ths.

Without reinking, stamp it a second time in the second quarter the card.

Stamp it a third time without reinking about three-quarters down

and leave the bottom quarter of your card stamp free.

Now repeat!

You just keep stamping the top 3/4ths of the card until you're satisfied with the design.

You can change stamps and colors but I think the more monotone designs look best.

I went wild with this card and used Imagine Crafts Radiant Neon Inks!

WOW, did they ever kick it up a notch or three.

For my final card I added a bit of a tropical feel by using the tropical leaf...

really adds such a nice summery feel to the raspberry, orange and pink inks don't you think?

So there you go - 

Told you it was quick and easy!

Just imagine all of the fun combinations you can come up with!

By simply switching out one or two stamps 

or coming up with new color combos

you can have loads of cards in a very short amount of time.

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Various Peg Stamps
Imagine Crafts - Memento Dye Inks, Radiant Neon Inks
Club Scrap.com - Sentiment Stamps, Cardstock

Happy Little Accident

I am so excited to share this post with you today.  It was truly a happy accident.

Initially I had a really pretty summer sentiment ready to go but alas things did not work out as I had planned!  While I love how this canvas turned out, check out the Imagine blog to see how it all came about....

Happy Little Accidents

Flip Album How To

Happy Tuesday....typed Monday to begin with because it does feel like one.  Several people asked for instructions on how to make the flip album I shared last week and I finally have it all around.

Directions:

1. Start off by making the outside of the album.  Cut 2 pieces of chipboard 4.5" x 8" and one piece 1.5" x 8" as shown.

2. Assemble the cover as you would for any other book. 

Glue these down to desired cardstock that you'd like the outside to be covered in.

Crease and fold excess paper to the inside and adhere.

Before you cover the inside of the album, attach a button to the front cover of the book and stretch cord to the back of the cover.

Cover the inside of the album with a piece of cardstock of your choice.

3. Cut 2 pieces of cardstock 4" x 12" and score every 1/2".   

4. Crease each fold back and forth so they all move easily.  

5. Fold as shown above.  1 hill, 1 flat, 1 hill, 1 valley, 1 flat, 1 hill, 1 valley, 1 flat, etc.  

6. Repeat for the second piece of cardstock.

7. You will glue both of these pieces into the album, one on each side.

From the side you can see that they will become the flaps that your pages are attached to.

8. After you have glued the flap binding into the book, measure the area below each binding.  Cut a piece of cardstock to cover the remaining area, glue it over the bottom of the binding.

9. Cut 16 pieces of 4x4 cardstock - either from a single color or from several different pieces.  I used light blue for all of my pages.

(Optional)  I chose to round the bottom corners of each page.  It's not necessary but it's a nice little touch.

10. Adhere one page to each flap on both sides of the album.

11.  Cut 34 pieces of cardstock/pattern paper 3.75 x 3.75".  

12. Adhere one of the above pieces to the front and the back sides of each flap. Glue the remaining 2 pieces to the area under the flaps.

13. Decorate the cover as desired.  I stamped, colored and fussy cut several images using the stamps from the kit.

Supplies:

Club Scrap - chipboard, Boardwalk pattern papers, cardstock, button, stamps, cut-aparts, book binding glue

Imagine Crafts - Memento Dye Ink, Memento Markers

Other - strech cord

Celebrating Independence Day - Catch the Sun!

Today I wanted to share my sun catcher that I made to help celebrate Independence Day and show a bit of patriotism at the same time...

I made this fun sun catcher with a vintage wooden cloths hanger which was painted with white and blue Chalk Paint from Deco Arts.  Then I cut stars (Seth Apter Spellbinders Dies) from several different sheets of  Vertigo Film and colored with StazOn Inks...

For complete directions please see: 

Catch the Sun this 4th 

Hope you all have a safe and happy celebration!

Pineapple Wreath Card

I saw the newest CAS(E) this Sketch! #179 and I couldn't resist using some Peg Stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry to make this fun summery card.

I ordered the pineapple stamps because I just knew they would be lots of fun to use for tropical, summery cards and I was right!  Below is a close up of the wreath - it is so quick and easy to create with these stamps I was done with this card in a flash!  It took me longer to choose the colors than it did anything else - LOL!!

Of course I used my Memento Dew Drops to stamp up this fun little greeting...I'm thinkin' I need to make several more with different greetings on the banner.  Such a fun sketch to work with!

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - assorted stamps

Imagine Crafts - Memento Dew Drops

Georgia Pacific - White Cardstock

Other - Faux Gemstones

Just For Fun Rubber Stamps - Christmas In July!

Welcome July!

Gosh can you believe the year is half over already?  I don't know where the time goes - seems to be moving at the speed of light these days.  It's July 1st and that means it's time for a brand new challenge on the Just For Fun Rubber Stamps Blog!  The theme this month is Christmas in July with a bit of sparkle!

I am lucky enough to be able to share a couple cards using stamps from their brand new release (not yet available on the site but available at the conventions).  

My first card features a fun and funky Stamptangle Christmas Tree.  I stamped the tree on a bit of watercolor paper then sprinkled with Brusho Colour Crystals.  Once try it was fussy cut and affixed to the speckled card panel.  The sparkle is from a bit of glitter glue here and there.

My second card features this classic NutCracker image.  He is stamped on vellum and embossed with gold embossing powder and I've also added a few glittery gemstones to help finish it off.

If you'd like to participate in the challenge or if you'd just like to get a bit of inspiration for your own holiday cards be sure to check out the link - 

Just For Fun Rubber Stamps - 

Christmas in July Challenge