Stamp Camp Fun!

Stamp Camp was certainly fun this month. Halloween is just so much fun whatever you make, do or dress up as! On this card we used the brayer over a Versa Mark stamped image. The stamp set is "House of Haunts" and the DS paper is "Cast a Spell".

Of course, "From the Crypt" is a favorite stamp set of mine, just because the designs are so cool! We "rocked" our orange spider in black to get the tips a different color. We used ink pens to color in the greeting in different colors. The greeting came from the level 1 Hostess set, "Holiday Best". We also added some black glitter to the card to give it a little zing!

Boy, oh boy! I sure have seen this cute little coffin floating around blogs and splitcoast stampers a lot this season. The pattern is directly from Martha Stewart's site. Click here to get the pattern. So these are just 3 of our stamp camp make and takes. Happy Stamping! Happy Haunting!! :)

Creepy Crow Card Tutorial

I thought I was losing my mojo for stamping. I felt uncreative and bored. I was browsing Splitcoast Stampers when I came across a card by Michelle Zindorf. I was totally engrossed with her style. I quickly clicked over to her blog and went nuts! My juices started flowing again! I think over the past couple of years, I had been using more designer paper for my backgrounds and forgot to use my whole stamp set, like I used to!!!! I quickly ran down to my stamp room to recreate her card that I posted here: Michelle likes using the brayer and teaches classes on how to use it all over the country! I have a brayer, but just never used it. Why? I don't really know. I guess it was because I haven't been real successful at it. After looking at her blog, I pulled it out again for the first time in probably 8 years!!! Yes, 8 years! Needless to say, we will be using the brayer at our next stamp camp on the 28th of this month! Ha ha!

Okay, so now that I have given a shout out to Michelle for getting my mojo flowing again, on to my card. I love paper, stationery, etc... like I have said in the past... yada, yada, yada! Anyway, I got an email from on of my favorite sites that I have ordered from in the past, (Stationery Studio) great website with great stuff and I saw this Halloween Invitation. My head was spinning with ideas!!! Even though I broke a lunch date to stay home and clean, I couldn't help myself and I am so pleased that I did!! Sorry, Linda and Cathy! Hope you forgive me!! So here is my VERY FIRST TUTORIAL!! YEAH!!

The finished card.
1. You will need a brayer, Versa Mark Pad, Basic Black pad or Staz On pad. More Mustard and Pumpkin Pie ink pads, glossy card stock, black ribbon and, if you choose, punches for the Halloween sentiment.
The stamp sets that I used are: Graveyard Gala, Autumn Days, Branch Out, Teeny Tiny Wishes and the retired set, Simple Shapes.

2. Stamp the moon (circle) with Versa Mark on to glossy card stock.

3. Using the lighter color first, brayer it on to the bottom of the card. Use the darker color for the top of the card. The circle will show up during this step.

4. Tear a piece of paper and place it just below where the two colors meet. Brayer it in the darker color again to give it shape.

5. This is how it should look.

6. Take the tree from Branch Out and turn it upside-down to make it look like the tree is above.

**Branch Out stamp set is on the Dormant List and is not in the current catalog. If you don't have this set, it is one I highly recommend. It is also one of my favorites!! :)

7. Stamp the crows on the trees from Graveyard Gala. 8. Using the Autumn Days stamp set, stamp the wild weeds over one another to make it look wild. I even turned the stamps over and used the bottoms to make more weeds.

9. Adhere the glossy cardstock to Basic Black card stock. If you look closely, you will notice something has changed on my card. I only have one crow and my weeds are a little different. Why? Because after all that work, when I went to adhere the glossy to the black cardstock, I didn't notice how messy my hands were and I got BLACK FINGERPRINTS all over my card! UGHHHHH! So I had to go back and start over. Make sure your inky fingers are clean!! Oh well, didn't I say this was my FIRST tutorial! hee hee! 9. Add whatever you like to the inside of the card...

10. Add ribbon and a punched out sentiment and voila'! The finished product!

How did I do??

Creativity Unleashed!

I love it when I can let my class go free to get creative! These ladies did such a great job, that I had to photograph their finished products. This is my original. I gave them chipboard, paper and stamps and let them go! Look how great their finished products turned out!

Jodi's frame is below. She used an orange jewel on the skeleton's tooth. Looks great!I love how Alison sponged her background. Especially around the tree! So artistic!

I love the white scrolled paper as the background on Linda's frame, but I really love her little frame where she used the crows and sponged the background yellow. Fun! Fun!
Linda's small frame...
Alison used the crows on the inside of her card with the circle punches! So creative!!

Thanks for coming to class ladies!! Hope to see you at Stamp Camp on September 28th!! It will be spooky and fun!

Spooky Sponged Card

It is rare that I see a card that I just HAVE to try right away, but I saw this card on SCS, by Michelle Zindorf, this morning and I couldn't wait! I ran right down to my "office" and got started! I LOVE IT!!!!!! It was so much fun to make, even though I have a horrible head cold! I actually felt like I accomplished something today!! Check out Michelle's blog here.

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

I don't know if this has ever happened to you fellow bloggers, but my camera had such a hard time focusing in on this card, I had to take quite a few pictures to get it clear. I also had to take the picture with the card at an angle to get it this clear. I was wondering whether it was the wrinkled paper or the printed paper itself? HMMM?? The only decent picture I took of the front of the card is way off center, so please forgive.
Anyway, I LOVE Halloween and I LOVE this card! I used "From the Crypt","Graveyard Gala"
and "Eat, Drink and Be Scary". The orange card stock is the new in color "Dusty Durango" and the printed paper is from the new Mini Occasions Catalog. I am crazy about it! More Halloween goodies to come. Hope to see you at my "Boxes, Bags and More" class on the 31st.!

September Stamp Camp

I love this picture! What a great looking group of stampers!! Welcome to your first stamp camp Jackie and Leslie! Hope you had fun! Cathy looks cute with the Grim Reaper hugging her!! Too funny! Below are a few cards and goodies that we made at stamp camp.

This was fun to make and so easy! The test tubes came from Michaels. I knew I wanted to use them, but was having the hardest time finding something fun to do with them... then I spotted this on Lisa Summerville's blog. Click here to find her pattern. I modified the pattern to fit one test tube. I will post the pattern shortly.

Didn't this card turn out cute? This is my favorite card that we made today. I love the colors and the glitter!!
Isn't it amazing what you can create with punches. Here we used all 3 oval punches, the word window punch and the horizontal slot punch. This card reminds me of the pumpkin patch in the Charlie Brown Halloween movie. Thanks for a fun day, ladies! Mark your calendars for October's stamp camp!! :)

Just Jawing and Tasty Sweet

I like the printed paper from "Ghostly Greetings" so much that I almost left the card without the lovely skeleton from the stamp set "Just Jawing"!! I added the glasses. Not sure if I like them or not. You will see more of this cute set. Here I used the chalkboard technique for the candy corns. I stamped everything with the Whisper White Craft pad and then used chalks to color in the candy corns. I went outside the lines with the chalk and I kind of like it that way. Kiwi Kiss is the background card stock and Kiwi Kiss ribbon. I just love Halloween!! Yay!! :)

We carved our pumpkins this evening. It was so much fun sitting outside on this warm evening! Taylor's pumpkin (bottom pic) is actually a bat. It is upside down because I (great mom!) taped her image upside down. She wasn't too happy with me! We will fix it tomorrow by cutting out the bottom and flipping it over. Turn your head a little and you can see the bat! LOL! Mark did his free hand (right top) and swears this was the first time he has ever carved a pumpkin! Good job, honey!!

Additional Photos from Stamp Camp 10-01-07

These easy luminaries are made from stamped vellum placed inside glass canisters. I used battery operated flames that I found at Target. If you want to use real tea lights, I would suggest attaching vellum to the outside of the glass.

Please ignore the date on the pictures! I need to fix that! :)

Halloween Goodies

Here are a few Halloween samples that were either made or displayed at Stamp Camp, Monday, October 1st.