Corner Die Medallion with Cheery Lynn Dies

Corners are COOL! And they don't just belong in a corner...they make beautiful decorative medallions that can be the centerpiece for any papercrafting project.
Take this card for instance, I cut four of one corner die design from Cheery Lynn Designs B165 Lace Corner Deco E out of black CS, sprayed with Krylon All Purpose Adhesive and mounted onto Vellum (I etched the hearts from the diecut on the vellum using stylus tools and the blue embossing pad) that I cut with L12 French Flair Silver Stacker French Flair Nesting Dies (Cheery Lynn Designs) and mounted onto DP that was cut with XL13 French Scalloped Flair XL Stackers Nesting Dies (Cheery Lynn Designs) using V2 Vellum Adhesive Spray. I cut the Anastasia Border (Cheery Lynn Designs) from green patterned DP and placed them at the top and bottom edge of the stripy DP, then adhered to Echo Stardream CS.

Isn't it gorgeous? Now I've gotta play with all the other Cheery Lynn corner dies to see what great medallions they make!
I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C124 Stripes AND Polka Dots

Fab 'n' Funky - #109 Colourful Recipe: Green, White & Blue

Paper Pretties - PWC194 Use Punches or Die Cuts

Simon Says Stamp - 3 Different Papers

Sassy Cheryl's - #103 No Embossing

Creative Inspirations Paints - Inspired by Polka Dots 

Penny Black & More - Colour Bingo (brown, black, blue OR cream, white, green)

Card Crafter's Circle - #10 To Die For (Die Cuts)

Sarah Hurley Challenges - #60 Die Cuts 

Happy stamping,

BINGO Challenge at SweetStamps

This week's challenge at SweetStamps.com is BINGO! We have a card for you to play along with, you can choose the technique or item in any row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) or you can even do an X or + pattern.
Here's what I chose to do on my card:

 

and here it is:

The flower image was heat embossed, and I dry embossed both the cardstock (with an embossing folder) and the vellum. Finished it off with a die cut border and added some bling. Not too bad considering we've been driving all day and I only had a short amount of time to whip this up!

Here are the products I used:

445G Open Flower Bunch by SweetStamps

White Dye Ink

36# Parchment Craft Vellum

 Medieval Metals Fine Detail EP 

Blue Etching/ Embossing Pad

Soft Grip Stylus Tools

Tiffany Border Die by Cheery Lynn Designs

Sweet Flowers Embossing Folder by Crafts Too

Pitt Artist Pens by Faber Castel 

All Purpose Spray Adhesive by Krylon

V2 Vellum Spray Adhesive

pearls from my stash

Check out the SweetStamps blog for inspiration from the talented ladies on the design team. Play along with us this week and you could win a $20 shopping spree for rubber stamps at SweetStamps.com!

See ya next week when our challenge will be St. Patrick's Day!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Always Crafting - Anything Goes

Cutie Pie Challenge - #12 Flower Power

 Drunken Stampers - #83 Texture

Make My Monday - Victorian Romance

Paper Pretties - Use Punches or Die Cuts

Stamp N Doodle - Lace & Flowers

Stampin' Sisters in Christ - #127 2 Cor. 2:16b 

Happy stamping,

The Best Valentine's Present

I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day. Maybe you received a pretty bouquet of flowers, or a box of chocolates or went out to a nice dinner. Well, I'm just so excited about my Valentine's Day present I had to share it with you! 
For those of you who know my family, you know that we live on the road (in our 1961 GM bus) with our three homeschooled kids traveling from state to state to set up the SweetStamps booth at rubber stamp and paper crafting shows most every weekend.
The sad part is, although stamping is my life, I rarely have time to create! I really look forward to show days because then I have my craft stuff out and can get inky and creative and share the things I've learned with all the great people we meet at shows.
So what would be the perfect Valentine's present for me - other than supplies of course? How about a craft room! Everyone needs a place to create and now I've got a small space in our trailer that I can work in - I'm so excited! 

We just picked up a trailer from John at Macon Custom Trailers (nice guy, great prices - we highly recommend him) in Georgia and not only will it hold the contents of our booth, but will give Jeff and I a much needed workspace. Jeff's excited too, because now he doesn't have to be outside in the extreme temps (cold, snow, rain, wind, hot, humid) to be pressing and cutting rubber. I don't know who's happier, we both enjoy our work. Now we've just got to customize the inside with a countertop and some drawer units...everything will have to be secured to the walls or floor.
We're headed to South Carolina for a show this weekend, and it will be nice to have a place to be able to assemble display boards, pour embossing powders and price orders without crowding up the bus.
Once we get out to Arizona next month, the workspace should be ready for me to shoot some tutorial videos in - YAY! 
I LOVE my Valentine's present!!!

Roses for Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Our challenge theme at SweetStamps this week is Roses. Seems like a good choice for the day, and these ones will never wilt!


Join the weekly challenge following this theme and you could win $20 of SweetStamps rubber stamps! Don't forget to stop by the SweetStamps blog to see the beautiful card creations from the Design Team!


I've set a goal for myself to try to make a new card at each show we do, as Sundays are usually not quite as busy, and it is the only time I have a workspace and my craft supplies accessible. I created this card in Lawrenceville, Georgia. It is sweet and simple (that's my style), I only wish I would've had some of that 1/16" shimmery mauve cording (that I know is sitting back home in my craft room) to weave around the frame.

I used Echo Stardream cardstock for my A2 card base, stamped 786h Swirly Rose Vase with White Dye Ink onto a 36# vellum layering swatch and etched the vase white with a stylus and blue embossing pad.


I love sparkle so I colored the vellum on the front using Stardust Gelly Roll Pens (Rose and Pink for the flowers, Green and Lime for the Leaves) and blended the colors with a Dove Blender Pen. For the darker centers of the roses, I put some Fuschia Fizz Shades™ Dye Ink on the back side of the vellum using my Dove Blender.


I cut the vellum layer with Cheery Lynn Designs XM7 Oval Little Stackers Dies that I adhered to the dark A2 card with V2 Vellum Adhesive Spray. I cut DL136 Japanese Garden Lace Oval (Cheery Lynn Designs) from cream CS and adhered over the vellum layer using Krylon All Purpose Spray Adhesive which works like magic when adhering the delicate, open lacy of Cheery Lynn's dies.


The corners are adorned with two different sizes of pearls from the Cream & Pearls Embellishment Collection.


This card has been entered in the following challenges:

• Cheery Lynn Designs - Pretty In Pink
• Crafty Boots Challenges - Valentines
• Lexi's Creations - Love
• Make It Monday - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp & Show - Anything Goes 
• Stamp & Create - Valentines/Love 
• The Crazy Challenge #106 - Valentines Day
• Addicted to Stamps #23 - Valentines/Love
• Dream Valley Challenges - Valentine
• The Squirrel & The Fox #11 - Valentines Day
  

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Next week's challenge at SweetStamps.com is using the BINGO card you see below. You can choose any line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) to create your card. Hope you'll join us for your chance to win $20 worth of SweetStamps.com rubber stamps!

Happy stamping,

I Heart Valentines

Hello. I thought I'd share a Valentine card I made while in Texas last week, guess you could call this one my "Houston Heart"!

I stamped 465 Scrollwork Corner with Distress Embossing Ink onto a 6x6 panel of Core'dinations CS and filled in the outlined areas with a White Gel Pen. For the heart, I stamped 434 Scalloped Heart Frame with White Dye Ink onto 36# parchment and heat embossed using a new powder called Valentine Sparkle, which is a fine detail deep red with red glitter...pretty! I then used my blue embossing mat and stylus tools to etch the white around the lacy part of the heart image, the straight grid was used to add embossed dots to the open area of the heart, and finally I used the 4-split perforating tool and black perforating pad to cut around the design.
This would make a pretty box topper or the front page of a mini album too!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

• Allsorts - Free & Easy February
• Creative Inspirations Paints - Hearts
• 2 Sisters - Challenge #78 I Heart You
• Sweet Stampin - Clean and Simple
• Card Makin' Mamas - Valentine
• Fussy and Fancy - #56 With All My Heart 
• Simply Create Too - #6 Red Hot
• 4 Crafty Chicks - Love Is In The Air
• Creative Belli - #136 Hearts/Valentine
• Catered Crop - Recipe Swap Quickfire with Hearts

See ya next card!
Happy stamping,
:) stacey

Pick 6 at SweetStamps.com

Long time no post, I know! I've been on the road (except for the month of December) and working on new stamp designs (coming later this year), new techniques (I've been sharing my Sparkling Stained Glass technique at shows) and bringing more awesome products to the shows and our online store!


This week's challenge at SweetStamps.com is for the Senior DT members to pick 6 items they always have on hand to craft with. And let me tell you, it is hard to narrow down all the wonderful, sweet stamping supplies to just a handful, but here are my favorites and why I love them so! Needless to say I love ALL our stamp designs and our Shades dye ink, so I'm focusing my Pick 6 list on those other things I cannot live without!

#1 Parchment Crafting Kit This is first on my list because I use at least one of the items in this kit every time I craft!


#2 Fantasy Embossing Powders These are fine detail embossing powders infused with holographic glitter for a subtle sparkly effect...they are GORGEOUS on vellum and cardstock!


#3 Dove Blender Pen I use this ALL the time, it is so easy to blend colors! You can use it on vellum with ANY fade resistant media: Shades Dye Inks, Watercolor Pencils, Markers (like Memento, Pergamano & Pitt Artist Pens), Chalks, Smooch, Gelly Roll Stardust Pens, even Peerless Watercolors (coming soon to the store!)


#4 DL113 Small Butterfly Dies by Cheery Lynn Designs These are a favorite to adorn cards and other paper crafting projects, and you get three different shapes: swallowtail, art deco and monarch! One of these days I will make a spring mobile with them!


#5 Scor Tape OMG, I LOVE all the sizes of this tape! 1/8" & 1/4" make great borders, the 1/2" and 2" to 2-1/2" sizes are great with Cheery Lynn Dies for my Sparkling Stained Glass Technique. You can heat emboss it (try this with the Fantasy EPs), glitter, flocking and Micro Beads. Here's a link to another project for "sugared" flowers using the Scor-Tape, Cheery Lynn Dies and micro beads....just scroll down and see how much fun this tape is!


#6 Distress Embossing Ink This is the ink I use when embossing our stamps on cardstock. It keeps the lines nice and thin, it isn't thick and sticky like other pigment inks, and it has a pleasant cinnaminny smell to it! The BEST part about using this ink is I can "trick" my dye inks into becoming embossable inks on cardstock! Here's how to do it:
  • Ink your stamp with Distress Embossing Ink
  • Immediately ink the same stamp with any color of Shades Dye Ink
  • Stamp onto cardstock, apply embossing powder (I usually use Clear, Pearl or Diamonds & Pearls fine detail EPs) and heat


Well, I hope you have found this post informative and fun...maybe you'll even be inspired to try something new with one of these products.


Don't forget to leave a comment over on the SweetStamps blog site for your chance to win FREE stamps, two random winners will be chosen this week from those who leave a comment!

Join the SweetStamps team next week for a fun card challenge on Valentine's Day and another chance to WIN FREE STAMPS!


Happy stamping,

How a box of rice saved me over $600

Yes, it is TRUE! A box of Minute Rice (brown) saved me a small fortune! While we were in Arizona, I was stupid enough to go hot tubbing with my phone (it was in my suit pocket, in case you're wondering). I know I feel brain dead after a show, but I obviously really was this day!


The worst thing is I had to place orders and FAST for the next show, which we had to travel to, and there wasn't much time for stops (like the Verizon store). Need I tell you how time consuming it was to order on a 3" screen with small buttons? It took F-O-R-E-V-E-R and was very frustrating! Needless to say, I was off the grid for awhile and I'm still trying to catch up!


I finally got Jeff to stop at a Verizon store that was close to the Walmart we were camping at for the night, so I went in to discover a new phone was going to cost $600+! What was I to do? It's my only internet connection, and most of my business is done online....that's how I order, that's how I communicate with customers, that's how I entertain the children (and myself) on long drives! So I purchased a new phone {OUCH!} and berated myself for being so stupid!


I'm glad I told Mechele of my stupidity because she told me how to get the moisture out of the phone (both her sons had used this trick successfully)! I always tell people to learn from my mistakes and that will be less that you have to make on your own, so don't go hot tubbing (or swimming) with your phone! But if you do, here's how to fix it: Immediately remove the battery from the phone. Place the phone, backing and battery into a zip close bag with the rice covering it and leave it sealed for a few days to a week.


After 3 days I was getting impatient and needed to see if the phone had risen from the dead...I took it from the bag of rice, blew it off, and reassembled it. ... ... ... Powered it up ... ... ... waited ... ... ... waited ... ... ... and it worked!!!!!! YAY!  Now the only problem was that the new phone had service and this one did not! Time to find another Verizon store, but not in Vegas...we'll look in Utah.


This story has a happy ending, I was able to return the new phone after using it for only a week while my old one dried out, but I'm still having a time getting caught up online....we took the north route out of Utah and east through Wyoming....if you've ever been through this territory, you know how desolate most of it is! Today we crossed into Nebraska, lost an hour and maybe tomorrow I can stay online.