Stamps & Smiles

Well here I go again! I gladly accepted the request to join another Design Team. I will be designing for the Stamps & Smiles Sketch challenge! Please come and play along!

Here's the sketch for this week:


And here's my card!



Just Mr. Linky your project by Next Thursday. Show us your best interpretation of the sketch!

Stamps and Smiles stamps are not required for our challenges, grab some of your favorite stamps & supplies and have fun with our sketch!

Why Random Vintage Finds and a giveaway

I am a avid garage sale/thrift shop/antique store/flea market shopper. I really like the hunt for those great finds and treasures. I am also a collector of quite-a-lot, that's why the finds are random. I collect everything from Shiney Bright Christmas ornaments to clear rhinestone brooches, to flower frogs and everything in between. When I started my blog I thought I was going to use it to showcase those great deals and give some before and after suggestions of the items I found.

But, since then the blog has changed. I now use it to showcase the paper crafts I do, give tutorials and participate in challenges. Every now and again I will show some of those great "random vintage finds" I come across, but I hope you find it just as interesting seeing all of my creations. I really like showing you guys what you can possibly do. I hope it sparks some creativity in you!


GIVE-AWAY!!!
Please leave a comment with your best "find" and I will choose a random number to win a little gift pack of rubberstamps and blank cards, so you can create your own masterpiece!

Pile It On Challenge #8 Watercolor Card...Feel Better

If your looking for "Where Bloggers Create" it is below this post.

I accomplished using 7 challenges for this card. I am pretty sure that is the most I've ever used.





Challenges used:
Pile It On-Watercolor (and extra Stamps & Smiles)
Daring Cardmakers-On the Edge (borders, punches)
Three Clovers-Bling
Scrap or Dare-Color combo: yellow, blue, bright purple, red, bright/lime green
Spoon Full of Sugar-Swirls
Charisma-Tag It
Cute Card Thursday-Eyelets


Supplies
Paper: PP-Kangaroo (I've had this for at least 10 years) SP-Archivers
Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Sentiment)
Ink: StazOn-Black, Distress Ink-Tea, Versamark
Ribbon: Offray
Punch: Fiskars Treading water border punch, Marvy Tag
Other: Pop dots, Hero Art crystals and Stampin' Up eyelets

Where Bloggers Create

Hosted by my desert cottage. You can go to that blog and see a list of all the bloggers that are participating in the blog hop. It was all inspired by the book "Where Women Create". If you have not seen that book, go find it and look through it. It is a wonderful sneak peek into the studios of some wonderful women artists.

Below are some pictures of my studio, for a detailed description, please visit this post on my blog where I describe my studio in more detail. I am mostly a paper crafter (ATC's, cards and scrapbooking), but I will try anything. I've tried quilting, made 2 quilts... HATED it. I've tried beading, too expensive and took too long. I've tried purse making (had a business for 3 years) was too hard on my back. But the one thing I ALWAYS came back to was paper crafting. I think I love the tactile and smell and what paper can do.

I have a lot of "stuff" around me for inspiration. I also tend to use vintage items to hold all of my paper crafting supplies. I really love the old blue Ball jars, wire baskets and old bins/boxes. I have quite a few old bread boxes in my closet to hold those things I don't need to get to all the time.

So please stay a moment and see where I create!



































































This is my back wall, I tried to put 3 pictures together to show the whole wall.

If you have any questions on a particular item, or what to know where I got something, or what a certain item is, please e-mail me.

A few ATC's

I've been so bust with cards lately that I have been forgetting to post all of the new ATC's I've made and JAMS I've added to. Finally found some time last night to take pictures of them, and here they are:

This cat ATC is for a animal theme swap I am part of. I decided to stamp and emboss this leopard print on the background. I added black fun flock to the cat so she is fuzzy, also added gem eyes and double stamaped her head so it is another layer that is popped off the card. I always picture domestic/house cats wanting to be the "big" cats so she is saying "roar" with her biggest voice... which you can see is not so big.



This beach theme ATC is for a swap that my local stamping store We're Stampin' Mad in Osseo. I saw something similar to this made into a card, so I altered the design a bit and made it for an ATC. This one is very different for me... no popping up, no moving parts, no over-the-top anything. Just very clean and simple. I guess that it really reflects the theme. I was going to use a fine grit sandpaper as the "sand" but thought that might distract from the cleanness of this card. I happened to find some great shimmery paper at Michaels in two shades of blue, that represent the water really well. I just tore and rolled the edges so that it looked like water washing up on the beach. The shells I stamped with Versamark on the Kraft paper and embossed with clear. I used water color pencils to color in the shells for a soft "sea" look, I really like how the watercolor pencils look.



This ATC is for my small group swap. There are 7 of us to get together once a month to talk, swap, and create. We have so much fun! For this ATC we did not have a theme, we were supposed to use a stamp we really like but never get to use. So I chose this abstract stamp that I have that I've NEVER used. After trying quite a few ways of coloring it, I ended up embossing in black and using my watercolor pencils (again) and coloring it in. After I was all done I thought it looked like a Kandinsky painting during his Bauhaus period. So I found a great quote, it reads "The impact of the acute angle of a triangle on a circle produces an effect no less powerful than the finger of God touching the finger of Adam in Michelangelo" and added it to the ATC. I thought that was quite fitting for this stamp. Hope the girls like it!



The last one was a JAM I was the third and last person. It was started in England, went to North Carolina and then came to me. I added the embossed and colored girl, the pearl earring, the stamps, and the pink ribbon.



That's all. Next time I'll try to do them one-at-a-time. This was a long posting.

Fun new stamps

I've been selling a lot on my Randomvintagefinds and Motherdaughterdesign Etsy sites lately, so I decided to treat myself to some new stamps. The first couple packages came in the mail yesterday so I thought I'd show you.


(sorry for the weird angle, had trouble with the above light reflecting)

The sets on the left are from My Cute Stamps, and the other set is from Flourishes. I LOVE this set. I collect Shiney Bright ornaments so this set was just perfect for me. (Had to get a pad of paper too, just because. That is also from flourishes)

So, my tip for Tuesday, is go and look at these stamps over for yourself, both sites have many more designs.

PIO Challenge #7-Mostly Orange

I have to tell you I don't own a lot of orange... anything. I worked for a company for 6 years who's logo was orange, so I think I got burnt out of seeing orange everywhere. But having to do this challenge, I ended up really liking orange, especially after I found I had this cute lion stamp!






Challenges used:
Pile it on-Mostly Orange
Mojo Monday-Sketch
Paper Blooms-Animal Fun
Stampin' Bee's-Butterfly
The Cuttlebug Spot-Inside Counts
Lili of the Valley Thursday -Animals

Supplies
Paper: PP-DCWV and Making Memories SP-Treasures
Stamps: Sandylion (lion) and Papertrey Ink (Sentiment)
Ink: StazOn-Brown and Distress Ink-Tea
Ribbon: Offray orange grosgrain
Punch: Martha Stewart Butterfly, Fiskars Treading water border punch
Other: sewing, pop dots