Whirlpool of Imagination

Dinosaur Kisses

I recently had a Valentine's request for kisses bags but with dinosaurs. Perfect timing since I had just ordered new Valentine's stamps from amuse art stamps. A muse has always been wood mounted stamps but they just came out with the cutest valentine's in acrylic - that means more stamps for less the cost.

Here is my dinosaur example. I used dark green chalk ink which gave me the perfect dinosaur color and a red blow pen for the background. Each bag contains 10 hershey kisses.

I wasn't sure what to do for Meg's valentine's but I'm loving these stamps so much that I'm going to do an assortment. Check my picture trail site closer to Valentine's if you'd like to see more examples.

A Little Melon Flavor

I am drawn to these new spring colors. Today I went with a melon creation.

These are new stamps from stampin up that I just ordered. The green layer is versamarked and the flowers are chalked. The sentiment was created using chalk inks. These are some of my favorite inks. The colors are wonderful and they are so easy to use and consistent. I love the fact that every time you ink, you will get the same result and "juiciness" from the ink pad.

Valentine orders will be completed by the end of the week (out of town orders already completed).

It's All About Inspiration

Just got some new tunes - I'm an 80's girl at heart and a big Mellencamp fan. Just got his newest greatest hits album and what awesome music to have on in the background when creating. I'm loving it!

I also just got the new Nancy Curry book on techniques and texture. If you love creating new art, go get this book. Now. The images are fantastic, the instructions easy to understand and follow (or adapt to your own designs). I went back to the book tonight and planned on a resist technique. But plans went awry as they so often do in the studio. This is inspired by Nancy's book but I've changed and adapted it to my own.

I wanted to use the fireman image and I wanted to create a fire background. I am pleased with the final result.  Stamp credits: Stampin' Up

Swimming in Lollipops

This weekend I'm working on Valentine's orders and VERY popular this year are the lollipop covers. Poor Conor has been eyeing those Jolly Ranchers for the past two days. We actually found him this morning with six tootsie roll pops in his hand, all uncovered, and he was having a grand old sticky time!

But I'm still taking the time to play and create. Here is another card using the cubist technique that I mentioned earlier in the week.

Instead of glossy cardstock and markers, I used matte cardstock and twinkling H2O's. The larger blue mat needed something so I versamarked a harlequin stamp. Love that stamp as a subtle background.

Now back to those Jolly Ranchers........

Another Use for Baby Wipes

Today, after reading the Creative Collage blog, I was dying to get out the acrylic paints and have some fun. I had an hour to myself this afternoon so I grabbed the paints and the baby wipes and gave it a go.

I also decided to continue the 2006 spring colors theme so I used three shades of pink to get the background. I didn't have an exact match for the purple card itself but this card is aiming for a pantone colors cameo pink and viola mix. This technique is a bit messy but fun and the beauty is you don't know what the final color will be until mixed in. If I was brave, I'd even try it with Meg and Conor. Nope, not that brave. I've found that you can continue to soften the colors with extra swipes of the baby wipe. The flower stamp is from Fontwerks, LOVE this set.

Colors of Spring

I am so not a trendy person. I'm usually a few years behind the trend and never know the "in" colors and styles. But today, that all changed. I went over to the Pantone site to check out the colors for Spring 2006. And I am loving the colors for spring! It looks like blues of all kinds are definitely in and all the other "soft" colors are so soothing and very pretty. The institute described the colors as "not pastels, not brights, but a nuance in-between." I'm hoping to get a chance tomorrow and play with the new colors. You'll be the first to see my results.

Baby Blue

The beauty of crafting is the variety. You only stay in a rut if you want to. There are so many techniques to try and products to use that the possibilities are endless. The card I uploaded yesterday is miles away from today's card. Today i went for the cute factor. Remember how I needed to mount a slew of stamps? Well, that's done and now I have more to play with. I have fallen in love with the stamps at Pink Cat Studio. They are whimsical and lots of fun. So since I created a girl baby card recently, I decided to play with the blues today.

The bear and the sentiment are both from Pink Cat Studio. At the bottom of the card, I used a background stamp from Stampin' Up with versamark just to give the bottom a bit of texture.

What will tomorrow bring?

Cubist View

I love techniques. I know that a lot of cards are various forms of paper and ribbon arranged just so. And those are pretty, in fact I make them that way at times. But when I can get out the stamps or paints or markers and really experiment, I feel like I've really accomplished something. And because I love techniques, I was drawn to the technique junkies site. I've debated and finally got a subscription to their newsletter. And already I love it (of course now I have to go back and get all the back issues).

I have never tried this cubist background before so I decided to play around a bit with it today. I was going to go for the Valentine's theme but I've overdosed on the color red lately so went in a completely different direction. It's been ages since I've used this stamp but saw the possibilities as soon as I saw it. Not bad for a first try.  (stamp: Hero Arts)

And for those of you who have placed Valentine's orders, I've already started them. You'll have them in plenty of time before the holiday.

Organization

I love to organize. Since I seem to acquire things often, I also get to organize often. And today I started tackling my studio. When I work on projects, I pull things out, change my mind, pull more things out.....until I can no longer see the table. After a couple of weeks of this, I start to get antsy. When my area gets too cluttered, I can't seem to create. I have reached that point. Now it's time to organize.

I have been stamping for 15 years and for the longest time I resisted unmounted stamps. I had no idea how to mount them for use. Well, along came this awesome product called EZ Mount. Love it. Now I can buy unmounted stamps (at HALF the price of wooden mounted stamps - translation, I can buy twice as many stamps), slap the ez mount onto the rubber and use with my acrylic blocks. Its a beautiful thing. So tonight I'm cutting rubber and mounting these stamps. Baby step towards an organized studio.

Now, I didn't like my old way of storing the unmounteds (in a binder) so I got a tip somewhere along the way about shirt boxes from the Container Store. I know it doesn't look like much but the sheer number of stamps that can be stored this way makes my life so much easier. Another baby step towards an organized studio.

Now that I have a clean work space, I'll be stamping tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Newsletter on its way

I'm not good with computers. I try but man, that learning curve is tough. I'm waiting for Meg and Conor to get old enough to explain everything to me! One of my goals for the new year is to change the newsletter. I want a template of some sort but that involves research and learning. So this month I toiled my way through and its finally done. If you are interested in getting the newsletter, just contact me. And maybe, just maybe, next month I may have a new format for the newsletter (no promises, mind you.)