Stenciled Trees

Today's Ways To Use It Challenge at SCS: Stencils! I've purchased quite a stash of Memory Box stencils from Stamp Fanci, my local stamp shop. I love stencils! So easy to use, so many techniques that can be applied. One of my fast and easy stencil treatments...direct application of Distress Stains, which is what I used here.

{Today's Brew: PTI Leaf Prints stamp set and die, SU God's Way stamp set, PTI card stock and ink, Distress Stains, Memory Box stencil, PTI button twine}

I thought this Bible verse was perfect for this card. Whenever I go out to get the mail, I look up into this maple tree and think of what a blessing our new home is. I may be thinking of these "blessings" a little differently when I'm getting blisters from raking all these leaves, but for now, they are a "good and perfect gift".

Blessings, cafe friends!

Out of The Box!

Last week at stamp camp, we made an awesome out-of-the-box card that had us all oohing and aahing! It was the perfect birthday card to give to my sister that weekend. Well, Mom was so amazed by the card that she made me make her a pattern template, and then showed the card to all of her stampy friends.

The big question seemed to be "How long did it take you to make this card? Hours?!"

No, not really. But then again, my SU demo extraordinaire, Cindy, did a lot of the pre-cutting for us. She ROCKS that way!

Here it is:

You've gotta admit, that's darn cute!

The balloons look like they are floating right out of the box, when in truth, they are being supported by thin sheets of acetate.

My favorite part about this project? It still folds up and fits into a standard A2 envelope!

Since making this card last week, I've seen different versions "popping" up all over the place. It seems the possibilities are endless. I'd like to try one again with a flower/flowerpot theme. Or maybe a sunshine/clouds/rainbows/umbrella theme. Or maybe a garden theme. Or maybe...okay, you get the idea.

Thinking out of the box is fun!

For the Birthday Boy!

Here's another fun card I made at last week's stamp camp. This one uses the new arrows embossing folder from Stampin' Up!

I love how the embossing folder mimics the look of tire tread. This card really came in handy, as my baby boy had his birthday this weekend. Luke just bought a new car last month, so this card seemed even more appropriate!

Cindy, my SU demo, came up with this fabulous design, and she mentioned that this card seemed appropriate for big boys with driver's licenses and even little boys with Hot Wheels.

An Ink Comparison

A few years back, when I transitioned from red rubber stamps to clear photopolymer stamps, I noticed that I was becoming increasingly frustrated with my inks. They just were not performing as well as I liked.

Then SU introduced their new firm foam ink formulation, and I thought that solved the problem. Initially, I loved the coverage. But then I quickly noticed that what you gained in coverage, you lost in crispness.

Last month, after much reviewing online, I decided to purchase a boatload of new Hero Arts ink pads. I opened five, used them for a weekend, and decided that these were really not the solution to my problem, either. I wanted to love them. I love the range of colors that Hero Arts inks provides (probably why I am not a fan of the Ranger Distress inks...the colors are just too muddy for me, and I'm not a fan of the dark moody palette). But again, I found the coverage was good, but the crispness was spotty. Another thing that reviewers of Hero Arts Shadow Inks will not tell you...they stain your photopolymer stamps pretty heavily.  I returned all of the unopened ink pads and was back to square one.

I really really wanted to try the ink pads from Papertrey ink. After all, the company sells photopolymer stamps, so maybe they know something that the rest of the crafty world doesn't, right?

PTI had their anniversary sale this month, and I decided it was time to purchase the ink pads. Only this time, I bought the mini cube ink pads. It was a small investment to make, and at $1.86 for each ink pad, it was worth it! (These regularly sell for $2 each, and I still need about four or five colors that were out of stock at the time to complete my collection.)

A new rainbow of colors to play with...what could be more fun?

I got to work sampling a few and comparing them with my old ink pads, and here is what I found:

I like them! I really really like them! You do have to work at it a bit to ensure full ink coverage, but when you do, you end up with very good results. Full ink coverage AND crispness to boot!

I think these may work for me for several reasons:

*The cubes are so easy to store! I have them in the pullout drawer of my work area, easily accessible.

*PTI sells refill ink as well, which will be important, especially for the little cubes.

*The inks match the excellent card stock from Papertrey Ink that I have come to love.

*The color palette is so fresh and pretty!

Here is a wonderful tip that I learned this month from the PTI web forum boards. Before inking up you clear photopolymer stamp, rub your thumb over it. The natural oils on your thumb will coat the stamp, and make the ink adhere much better. I found this tip worked like a charm!

Now the question remains: will I keep my old ink pads or sell them off in time? Hmm. I suppose that if they collect dust, then I will know that they have outlived their usefulness. I am planning my annual spring garage sale for April or May (weather permitting), and we shall see what makes it into the "sell" pile!

Thanks for visiting the cafe today!

A Tale of Two Ink Pads

I have been on the hunt for "the perfect ink pad" for quite some time now.  I want something that stamps with precision every time, no matter the make of stamp or the paper. Basically, I want what I have found with my Versafine Onyx ink, except in a big palette of colors. Yeah, it's a tall order.

I have been reading some good reviews on the Hero Arts shadow inks, and thought I'd give them a try.

I decided to compare the Hero Arts inks to the new formulation of Stampin' Up inks, using a big solid image stamp and similar colors for comparison.

The only inks from SU that I own in the new formula are the current In Colors.

Hmm, don't know why these insist on loading upside down this morning. I have a headache, so bear with me!

As you can see, there are a few spots on the flowers that stamped blotchy. I am using photopolymer stamps here, and I think SU is probably formulated to work best with rubber. I am not certain if I prefer the old SU inks or the new SU inks. The new inks provide a little better coverage, but you do get a little more feathering. You seem to lose some of the crispness.

Now for the Hero Arts ink pads.

What? Aagain with the upside downyness! My head hurts!

Hero Arts has soft shadow inks and midtone shadow inks in a wide variety of colors. They are so fresh and pretty. I think I prefer them to the color palette of Distress Inks, which just seem a little muddier.

So, if you hang like a bat upside down...heh heh...you can see that the new Hero Arts gave pretty full coverage. It stamps in a way that reminds me of chalk ink somehow.

In the end, I could not decide which one I liked better. So I called in an expert.

"Sam, which inks do you think did a better job?"

"I like this one better," said ten-year old Sam.

So there you have it. Sam prefers the Hero Arts inks.

I think I'll need to play with them a little longer before I am fully convinced.

Tell me, do you have a favorite ink?

I have tried Distress Inks, and like I said, I think it's the color palette that turns me off. They just seem dusty or muddy, probably best for a vintage type of project. Maybe they work best with techniques, and I'm just not a technique kinda gal. I do love Distress Stains, but I rarely if ever reach for my Distress Inks or markers.

I really want to pair down and choose just one style to woirk with, so it looks like I'll be culling the collection soon. Stay tuned!

Something Fun For A Monday

Who's ready for something fun on a Monday?

{hand raised way up in the air!}

It felt like an exceptionally long weekend. My husband had taken a few days off (surprise!), so he decided to tackle a painting project (big reveal to come this week!). I find that it's best to stay out of his way when he is in full project mode.

So I hid in the craft room. 

I decided to get a little cleaning done in the craft room, which led to a little crafting in the craft room. Funny how that happens!

I made this card for a friend who retired recently. Lynn loves flamingos, so I think she'll get a kick out of this card.

{Today's Brew: Stamps (Lawn Fawn), card stock (PTI), embossing folder (SU) }

Monday blessings, cafe friends!

My Stamping Community

When you move to a new town, it often takes a while to feel a sense of community. A lot of people will tell you that it takes a full year for a new town to feel like home. I can tell you that in some cases, five years can go by, and you will still feel like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole.

I am happy to report that this is not the case for Pittsburgh.

I have felt at home the minute we moved here. Yes, I love my house. And yes, the hills and rivers and city are impressive. But at the end of the day, it is all about the people. This city has some of the best people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

For the first time in a LONG time, I finally have a stamping community again. I have Cindy to thank for this. Cindy has only been a Stampin' Up demonstrator for a little over a year (she was stampin long before that, though), and she is such a fantastic demonstrator and friend! And if this photo looks a little bit blurry, that's because Cindy is always on the go!

This weekend, Cindy hosted a Stamp Camp at Iris and Ivory's Tea Room. It was so much fun!

I had a lovely winter blend tea that went perfectly with Cindy's homemade snickerdoodle cookies! (I won't tell anyone that you bought the cookies at Walmart, Cindy! LOL). Of course, because she always goes above and beyond, she had the cookies in a perfectly-themed hand stamped presentation.

Lunch was amazing! Balushka, where have you been all my life? One thing I love about Pittsburgh is that it is a town with a rich ethnic history. Restaurants will serve side dishes of pierogies, potato pancakes, and cabbage. There's a lot of ethnic pride here, and it shows in their yummy food!

Cindy had display tables filled with all the new goodies from the Occasions mini and the Sale-a-Bration catalog. Wow, the items are so pretty in person! I have a long wish list now!

We made some really fun projects after lunch. I will try to show them this week, or you can just hop on over to Cindy's blog. She really is amazing! Her projects are beautiful, but they also make you look at them and say "Oh, I can do that!" Unless, of course, it's a project with score lines and complicated folds and math. Then we're all completely lost. Ha ha!

Here's a link:

http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/cindybrumbaugh/blog

Have you ever noticed how wonderful people are often surrounded by more wonerful people? That is definitely the case with Cindy. I have made so many friends from her stamp camps! Sisters Jan and Diane (love you, ladies!), Sandy, Mary, and so many more. Every one of them will tell me "You were so lucky to find Cindy. Isn't she wonderful?"

Yep, she is!

Yesterday, in the sermon at church, our pastor said "You'll never get the full grip of God's love for you until you live in community."

That is so true!

I now have a stamping community!

I'm feeling the love.

A Study in White

I had every intention of stamping these little diecut images. But when I began to play with the layout of this card, I really loved the simplicity of the images in white. I was fairly certain that they would look great stamped, too. But the white, paired with this glitter paper from Stampin Up, really made an impact.

Why mess with complicating it when simplifying it was the way to go?

{Today's Brew: Diecuts and stamps from WPlus9, paper from Lawn Fawn, glitter paper from SU, amuse heart twinkle}

From our house to yours...happy January, cafe friends!

Simple Snowman

I got into my craft studio today to make a card, and found that my work table was littered with stamps and papers for making Thanskgiving cards. Thanksgiving! Yep. It's been a long time since I've attempted anything in the paper crafting department!

It's a shame, too, because I was the blessed recipient of the entire Holiday collection from WPlus9 stamps during their release last October. I had big plans for those wonderful items that I never got around to accomplishing. Oh well, no time like the present!

I thought I'd better ease my way back into cardmaking with something simple.

I wanted something soft and sweet and wintry. I think this one fits the bill.

{Today's Brew: stamps from WPlus9, kraft card stock (PTI), soft sky card stock and ink (SU), kiwi kiss ink (SU), white Versamagic ink, SU glitter paper, snowflake die from MFT}

Tomorrow I'll be heading to my SU demo, Cindy's stamp camp. We're having lunch and crafting at a local tea room. I can't wait!

Blessings on your Friday, cafe friends!

SU Sizzix Circle Card Thinlits

Time for a little tutorial!

Today, I'm using the Stampin' Up Sizzix circle card die to create an awesome Christmas card!

The Circle card die set comes with a large die to cut out the card base, and lots of fun smaller dies that you can use to embellish. For today's card, I'm just using the base. I ran it through my Big Shot with a lovely piece of PTI card stock cut to size, and when it comes out, voila! You have a card base where the circle "flips" and the score lines are ready for folding!

Tip number one: keep your bone folder handy, and use it to press those scored lines into place.

Here's the finished card. As you can see, I stamped the panel on the left, and used some decorative paper on the right.

Tip number 2: Keep some scrap papers handy. I used a few pieces of paper to mask the areas that I didn't want to get the "snowflake" stamping treatment.

Now, in order to get the circle in the center to do the flip, I had to cut out a bit from the Christmas paper panel on the right.

Tip number 3: Place your cut paper panel where you'd like it to go, then flip it over to the backside, as I've done here. Use a light colored marker to trace the area that will need cutting away.

Then simply cut that portion, and your patterned paper panel is ready to be adhered to the right side of the card front!

The thing about these flip cards is that the only place you have to sign your name is either a.) on the back of the card, or b.) on the back of the flipped circle. You'll want to keep the sentiment on the smallish side of the back flip so that you have a little room for your John Hancock.

And that's it! A stunning Christmas card that will have the recipient asking themselves "How did they do that?" My little guy, Sam, loves origami. He said this card was "awesome sauce". I think that's a compliment. :)

{Today's Brew: SU Sizzix Circle Card Thinlits die, PTI card stock, PTI stamps, Simple Stories Handmade Holiday paper, versafine onyx ink, versamark ink, versamagic white ink, cranberry crisp SU ink and card stock circle, amuse star twinkle}

Road Trip

Happy Monday, cafe friends!

This is a week of planning and mapping and preparing for road trips. Our first road trip will be on Friday, when we leave for Michigan to spend the Labor Day weekend with family. And then, after Labor day, we will leave Michigan and make the trip to Indiana to drop my son, John, off at college.

It's going to be a whole lot of driving!

My VW bug is going to be PACKED with all of John's worldly possessions, as he'll be living in an on-campus apartment for his junior year.

Want to know how to scare a college student? Tell him that you plan on ordering the VENTI cup at Starbucks so that you'll be wide awake and chatty for the entire drive. tee hee!

I have been playing with my new SU Sizzix Thinlits dies this weekend, and they are awesome!  They are available in two different designs, and each set allows you to make flip cards in a snap. They also come with a ton of extra dies to add and embellish. Fun!

Today, I used the card base along with some of the coordinating dies to make a road trip card.

{Today's Brew: stamp from Amuse, PTI card stock, Crate Paper Storyteller papers, Glimmer Mist in graphite, amuse heart twinkle, distress marker}

Stop back to the cafe this week! I'll showcase some more ideas with these SU thinlits dies!

Chalkboard Art

Chalkboards...they're not just for classrooms anymore!

Have you noticed how chalkboard art is everywhere? It's hard to pick up a magazine or browse through Pinterest without seeing them. Papercrafting has certainly embraced the chalkboard trend! There are some fabulous new lines from companies like We R Memory Keepers and Simple Stories that feature chalkboard inspiration.

Certain stamps really lend themselves to the chalkboard look, like this vintage-inspired stamp from Stampin' Up.

{Today's Brew: Stamp from SU, PTI Kraft card stock, papers from We R Memory Keepers, versamagic ink, dies from PTI and Paper Smooches, nailheads colored with Prisma markers}

I was inspired to add a little chalkboard fun to my front entryway last week. My new house has a big foyer. BIG. You could probably set up a pool table in there, and still have room to rack 'em up and shoot. (I probably shouldn't give my boys any ideas. Forget I mentioned pool tables in foyers!)

One wall next to the front door was big and bare. It needed something. A mirror? No. Artwork? Couldn't find anything I liked from my stash, and didn't want to spend the big money on something new.

And then it dawned on me. Why not a chalkboard? I could change the look for the seasons and for special occasions...a creative piece of art! But where to find a chalkboard. I started looking online, and found lots of pricey options. No thanks. Then I posted on the PTI forum: anyone know where to find a decent-sized chalkboard? Erin, from PTI's design team, came to the rescue. She'd just purchased one at Marshall's. It just so happens there's a Marshall's down the street. I went that day, and guess what? SCORE!

It was the perfect size, the perfect color frame made of distressed wood, and the perfect price...only $30!

It still needs to be hung properly, but for now it looks great just propped on this table!

The lantern and fall foliage were recent purchases from Longaberger At Home website...gotta love the clearance section!

The sweet velvet pumpkin? No, I did not spend $50 on this one, even though I saw similar pumpkins for that price at a store recently. My pumpkin came from Joann's, and with a forty percent discount, I got this darling specimen for $8!

Thanks for visiting the cafe today!

Frustrated

In my quest for the perfect ink, I thought I had a contender. As I mentioned last week, I had just ordered the new SU firm foam ink pads in the current In Colors. I tried them once and was really impressed with the color saturation, especially with solid photopolymer stamps.

And then I played with them some more.

The love has quickly faded.

While the new ink pads do offer more color saturation, I am also experiencing a lot of feathering at the edges of the image.

Old style, crisp edges. New style, feathering.

Is it too much to ask for it all? I just want complete color saturation AND crisp edges. In other words, I want what my Versafine Onyx manages to accomplish every day, but in 50 brilliant colors!

WHY, VERSAFINE? WHY?

It has spoiled me and foiled me so.

I've read just about every angle on this new ink topic. Gentle tapping, no need for pounding, wipe off excess, takes a gentle touch...blah blah blah. I don't want an ink pad that comes with an owner's manual. I want an ink pad that's easy to use right from the start!

Today, I am feeling like Charlie Brown after Lucy has taken the football away......

AAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!

Let's move on to something happy!

I went to stamp camp at my demo, Cindy's house yesterday. We made this adorable gift bag using the kit from SU.

We played with washi tape and made a happy card, too!

Tell me, please! What is your favorite ink to use with photopolymer stamps?

Finding Community

Community. It is a bittersweet word for me. It has the same impact on me that I suppose the word "baby" has for an infertile couple. When I hear the word "community", I feel an insatiable longing for something just out of reach.

I read the book "Bread and Wine" by Shauna Niequist last week, and I found myself once again feeling like I was on the outside looking in on what real fellowship and community looks like.

When you have community, you have a feeling of belonging and purpose in your life.

And when you do not have community, you know it. It is a big void, like a black hole that threatens to suck you in on a daily basis.

I am trying to find my place in a new town, and let me tell you, it's never easy if it can be difficult instead. For example, I signed up for a stamp camp with my new SU demonstrator, printed off directions to her house, and spent an hour getting lost instead.

No problem! I called the demo, and she fit me into her evening class. I printed off better directions and set out. Of course, the skies turned black, the rains poured down, the winds took down limbs and trees, but I persevered! I made it! And it was good to spend an evening with women, even if I didn't know a soul.

I never had a crafty friend when I lived in Indiana. I'm hoping to change that here in Pittsburgh.

We made this card at the camp, using one of the new SU In Colors with watercolor paper and blender pens.

Then I came home and dug out my old blender pens to make this card. A little more clean and simple.
I used a Hero Arts stamp for the flowers, paired it with a sentiment from Papertrey Ink (Simply Jane), and spritzed with Glimmer Mist (coffee).

Tell me, where do you feel a sense of community?