Whirlpool of Imagination

Combining Blogs

You've noticed that I've taken a bit of a blogging break. In fact, since September both of my blogs here have suffered. I've decided to combine the two for the time being. For now all my crafty stuff stuff as well as personal posts will be found on the Running with Lollipops blog.

That means crafty stuff on the personal blog and personal stuff onthe crafty blog but for now, that is what works for me so I'm rolling with it. I hope you'll continue to join me as I jump back into the blogging world.

I am keeping this blog up with all it's past posts. And someday I may separate the two again ~ as they say, nothing is definite!

Flowers on Kraft

Lately when I've been stamping, I'm trying to use the stamp on multiple items so I feel like I'm using the stamp enough to get my money's worth. Many times I use it once and then it sits for ages before I ink it up again. I'm trying to change that.

These flowers first started off on gift tags.

The stamp is from Stampin' Up and stamped with espresso ink.

Then I decided that some note cards were in order.

The set of them. I laugh everytime I see this picture. I stamped the flowers first and second generation so they are supposed to look that way but from the distance I keep thinking I'm seeing double!

Here's a close up....

The summer is winding down so it's time for all that last minute shopping to get ready for school. I'm still trying to get into the studio each day for a little while and I have a few new types of items I have been and will be adding to the store to add that much more variety. So it's busy times here!

Have a wonderful week!

Three Hearts

Okay, I was so thrilled how my flowers lined up so nicely in my last card that I had to do it again, just with different stamps, inks and card stock.

It's my classic red and brown color combo that I love so much. The heart is from Verve and I can't for the life of me remember where the sentiment is from.

Oh, how I love the clean and simple look. Makes me smile to see the white space.

Have a fantastic day!

Three Flowers

Okay, I took a little detour off the turquoise train but I'm back today with another creation using the color I seem to be stuck on!

This card started way off in another direction that included the three square metal die from Papertrey. I don't even remember what the original plan was - all I remember now is that is wasn't working in the least.

Then I looked at the negative cut from the die and thought, this could line up three images really nicely. And yep, it does. So I took my little flower(ish) stamp from Stampin' Up and got it nice and inky with my turquoise ink. The sentiment, I think, is from Verve. I like pairing turq. with red so I went with the red just to brighten things up.

Been pretty productive in the studio lately and getting the store inventory filled some more. My goal is to hit the ground running when the kids get back to school so I'm stocking up in the meantime.

Have a great day!

Indigo Sailboat

I was in the midst of my turquoise ink obsession when I went to make this following card. I started out absolutely sure I would use turquoise but I veered slightly off into some different blues.

The stamp is from Stampin' Up and stamped with indigo ink. I like the sketchy detail of this stamp. I think I need to use it again, but I swear not in turquoise!

Orange Flower

I love flower stamps. If you saw how many I have.....and yet, I still keep buying them. I just realized that I created this set of items with a Gina K flower stamp that I never posted.

First I started off with a card, keeping things to my usual clean and simple look.

I liked these flowers in orange so much that I made flat notecards out of them.

And then I just had to make a tag set too.

All the same stamp and all the same ink but in a variety of items. I love how one little stamp can be used in so many ways. And yet, I still keep buying those flowers.........

Snowflake in August

I was so inspired by my turquoise typewriter from my last post that I wanted to stay with the turquoise theme. So I pulled out some snowflakes! It's supposed to get a bit more humid again so I thought I'd keep cool with some snow.

The snowflake is from Stampin' Up and I think the sentiment is from Papertrey but I've been awake since 4:30am and my brain is a bit fuzzy on details.

I added a quick jewel from Doodlebug to finish off the image.

This is one of my go to tayouts. I really like it when using larger images.

Mo is off today but the van decided to act up so that means a trip to the repair shop. Not sure if that means I'll have more or less time to create. We'll have to see how the day shakes out.

Have a great day!

Typewriter Birthday

I'm back again with another typewriter card. I've found that this week my inspiration came from what I was currently creating. This time I liked the thank you card and wanted to replicate it in another color. Another day you will see I replicated the color scheme in a completely different design, etc.

I wanted to use a bright and cheery turquoise color for the birthday card. The stamps and ink are from Stampin' Up.  Other than the color and sentiment, everything else is the same with this card and the last. They have a different feel to them though, one being lighter in color than the other.

I'm working on getting back into the creative groove. It's been a while since I've created a lot of new items at once - feels great being back in the studio. And one of these days if I ever get it organzied, I'll take pictures of my new studio space - I love it!

Have a great night!

Typewriter Thanks

Mo had a birthday last week and he needed some thank you cards. You know I won't let him buy cards from the store (not even for me!or should I say especially not for me!) so I got to work making some.

I pulled out this new stamp from Stampin' Up to play with. I like the old fashioned type of wording, like the old typewriters that kind of skipped the letters up and down.

It's a pretty straight-forward card. Stamp the image and sentiment. Emboss the grey layer. Put it all together. You know me - I like it simple (and Mo was breathing down my neck to get some made so he could write them). Okay, okay ~ so I had  a week to get some made and I procrastinated a bit......

I am so excited to say that I've gotten some of my creative spark back this week - the ideas are jumping off from design to design. I'm hoping that it wasn't just the quiet from the kids being in camp this week. They're home next week so fingers crossed I'll still get a chance to create.

Have a great night!

Flower Mini's

I took a little bit of an unscheduled blog break. Truth be told, the kids were home last week and I got no studio time. And that means I had nothing to blog about really.

Although before my creative "break", I did manage to make one more quick design with the flower stamp that I was featuring last week. This time I went with mini cards.

I went with this color combo because of a color challenge I'm challenging my guild members to this month. There were more yellows and blues to the challenge but hey, it's a 3x3 card, didn't want to overwhelm it.

The stamp is from Stampin' Up and I used my navy ink.

I decided to stamp one more set but in completely different colors.

This time I used a cherry red on blue.

And with these mini cards, this ends my flower stamping. I plan to put away the stamp set for a little while and try something new this week. Maybe say, no flowers at all!

Have a great night!