More stamping stuff

I have really been neglectful at posting my creations. Call it laziness. Call it lack of inspiration. Call it whatever you want. I am trying to motivate myself to get creating some cards as I need to design and complete them for Convention. Yesiree, it is the female version of the Star Trek Convention- it is the Dream Big Stampin'Up! Convention in Denver at the end of July. A bunch of grown women getting really excited about rubber stamps. Hey, don't knock it until you try it.

There are a lot worse things to be addicted to- like crack. Or so I tell myself. But just like crack, the purveyors of all things crafty, are always reinventing the product so its bigger and better- the goal being to SELL more of their crafty stuff. Newer is always better. I have managed to not succumb to getting a new TV but new punches, well, an addicted gal has just gotta have 'em!


Anyways, I'll get off my soapbox and post some things I worked on in the past and some new things I've done.

First off- more inchies. The butterflies are one I created some months ago. I alluded to them in my previous post. The pears, too are ancient. I punched out the pears, used some chalks to give them colour and added some dimensional magic to it to give it a gloss and shine.



finally came up with a cool idea for my asian inchies. I used some scraps I got off a friend, so it was a bonus. She had brayered the Pumpkin Patch Spectrum pad and inked them on glossy cardstock. I love the gradation of colours from the Spectrum pad. It melds so well. I inked some chinese calligraphy in bronze(SU, od course, retired) stamped the buddha head over (same set, Ancient Asia), with the word "spirit" on it. This was done using Versafine Sepia(my new favourite ink!!)

The newest card I worked on is a baby announcement card. My friend Jen just had her baby- a little girl named Avani Marley. I promised her I'd make her some announcements. I love the new animals set from Hero Arts. I am also very sad that Stampin' Up! is retiring one of the best colours they've had- Cool Caribbean. Its such a fantastic, happy blue. The base is cool caribbean. I also paired it up with "Only orange"- I inked a reverse polka dot stamp from the "Petals and Dots" set ( SU Spring Mini) and punched out circles. The orange strip in the back also has some large dots in orange (stamped using a retired corn cob from the Vegetable Garden set, but can be recreated using small bubblewrap) and although you likely cannot see it, the dots on the orange strip also has some Orange Peel Stickles glitter glue on some of the dots for added bling. Ribbon is SU black grosgrain. The elephant is gamsoled. In other words, I used grey and pink coloured pencils to shade in the colour, then went over the image with a stump and some odourless mineral spirits to blend in the colours. I am doing a variation of this card for one of the numerous swaps I am partaking in at Convention.


The Christmas Card is also another card I am working on for Convention. The sets are mostly new- Baroque Motifs, Hugs and Wishes and an oldie lace stamp from Trimtastic (All Stampin'Up!)Paper used: Always Artichoke, Soft Sky, Read Red and Black. Inks: Versamark (for embossing), Real Red, Sahara Sand and Pigment white.

Inchies Galore

Some of you may be wondering what the heck are inchies..... it 's a miniature piece of art- a smaller form of an ATC (artist trading card, for those of you green to the world of papercrafting). Inchies are exactly what they sound like- it's whatever you can get onto a one inch by one inch piece of paper. Apparently its the newest craze in the UK. I stumbled upon the inchie earlier this year. I was intrigued by the thought of trying to get works of art onto such a small area. I mean, any idiot can slap on stamps and layers of paper together- but try doing it on a limited space! Also, what appealed to me was the fact I could use up all my smaller scraps on the inchie- a scrap scavengers dream! And I've always been fascinated by things that are small and cute.... so I got into this inchie swap hosted by Caroline (Aunt Sally on SCS). My submissions were: a japanese washi paper punched butterfly (with metal feelers) on a black and gold printed bkg and a punched pear that was chalked and coated in diamond glaze on a coral background. I waited and waited for my inchies to get back to me but they got lost in the mail. Talk about heartbroken! I did manage to see some of the inchies the others had made because they posted them but I didn't get to see all of them.

So, subconciously, I 'forgot' that I had signed up for round two of inchie madness. I finally checked what I had agreed to do and to my horror- I had signed up for four different kinds of inchies- stamped, black and white, asian and vintage! Arrgghh!! And they are due June 9th in the UK too! For those of you who are going "huh?". I joined a swap. I agree to make 10 inchies for each swap I join and typically, they are she same item. I send them to the swap hostess, along with lots of other people. the swap hostess collects all the swaps and trades them out. I get back 9 different inchies plus one of my own. So, I'd committed to making 40 inchies and they should have been in the mail last week!

So I got busy last night. For the stamped inchie, I stamped the edges on a fern to look like seaweeds. I also stamped a crab and coloured it using gamsol and punched it out. I diamond glazed the body of the crab, and edged the punch circle in lime green pastel chalk. On the inche, I stamped "surprise!" over the seaweed and popped the crab on a dimensional to make it pop up, I was laughing the whole time I made the inchies as this gave me a brilliant idea for a wicked cheeky card when I get my Crab and Co stamps from Stampin' Up! next week.I'll post it when I do make it.

For the vintage inchie, I am not sure I understand vintage correctly so I hope they will forgive me for it if it is wrong. I stamped the word "sacred" on it and underneath it, I stamped an image of an artichoke. I coloured the artichoke in with shimmer green radiant pearls (green fandango) and then added Tim Holtz crackle effects over that so the artichoke is aged and crackled.

For the black and white inchie, I chose to stamp in black, on white, an image of a northwest coast indian image of the sun. I am going to overlay a transparency with the word "grand father" on the image. The white image is matted in black.

I am still drawing a black for the asian inchie. I will work on it tonight. Caroline, if you are reading this, the inchies are coming!!!