Garden Still Life

Hello stampers – I hope all is well with you.  Today I want to share a few cards I made for a RAK group that I am in.  I am using one of my favorite stamps called Garden Still Life from I Brake For Stamps.  Unfortunately the company is no longer in business.

This little stamp is one of my favorites for a few reasons.  First, it is a good size for a card front, small enough to be able to frame it and add embellishments, but also can be used for a clean and simple card.  The design is well thought out.  It colors up quickly and as you can see from my selection of cards just about any color will work.

Here’s a closer look at each individual card.

 

I’ve used this image a couple of times before on my blog and here are photos of those earlier cards:

 

 

It’s amazing how one little stamp can be used for so many different styles.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pinspired – Inspiration from the Scor-Pal Pinterest Board

Each month one of the members of the Scor-Pal design team looks back at Scor-Pal’s Pinterest page and recreates a project, using their own design.  This month it is my turn.  Looking through the Pinterest page, I found this lovely Z-fold Christmas card made by Lois Bak.

The design is simple yet elegant and can be used for any occasion.  I decided to go with a summer fruit theme and created this strawberry card.

Start with cardstock measuring 4.25 x 11.  On the long side score at 5.5 and 8.25

Fold and burnish on the score lines so they make a Z shape.

Attached decorative or stamped paper to the panels as shown.

Attach the focal panel to the front.

The Scor-Pal can be found HERE.

Scor-Tape can be found HERE.

The stamp is from I Brake For Stamps and was colored with copics. The diamond pattern stamp is from Papertrey and was stamped with Memento ink.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you find inspiration to make your own project!

 

Autumn ATC cards

Hello crafters and happy September! Are you feeling the fall season yet?  Here in Florida it is still very warm but that has not stopped me from getting into thinking about autumn.

Today I want to show you a couple of ATC cards I made for a recent swap I was in.

As you can see the theme was fall and I took advantage of the ATC  size to use some of my scraps.   The one with the leaf uses patterned paper for the background,  a die cut tag and a leaf shape die cut from patterned paper.  I ran the tag through an embossing folder to give it a bit more interest.  A few rhinestones add a touch of sparkle.

The second one uses a great sunflower stamp from I Brake For Stamps, (found HERE) although I covered much of it up with the sentiment which is from an old Cloud 9 set.

I decided to go one step further and enclose each ATC in its own open ended vellum envelope.

I used the WRMK 123 punch board and found the dimensions to make an envelope to fit the size of each ATC.   I ran the vellum through a leaf embossing folder then created the envelope, cutting off the top flap to make it open ended.

Thanks for stopping by today!

 

 

Christmas in July

Hello friends – I know it has been months since my last post.  We’ve been busy!  We took a two week road trip across much of the USA (and saw so much of this great country!).  Before and after that trip we’ve been doing some home improvement projects that I can now say are done.   I am glad to get my house back in order!  We want to tackle the 2 bathrooms next but that will have to wait till next year at the earliest!  We’ve also had family visiting last month which was wonderful but all this has cut into my craft time!

I am getting back into the groove with a few, easy to do tags for Christmas…

Almost everything was done with dies, with the one exception being the stamped “North Pole” image, which is from I Brake For Stamps.  The tags were put together very quickly and I used scraps for almost everything.  I can easily make a bunch of these in no time at all.  Now to get a head start on the Christmas Cards!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope your summer is going well!

I Brake For….Garden Still Life!

Hello stampers!  Welcome to Wednesday with I Brake For Stamps!   Let’s get ready for spring planting…

This darling little stamp is called Garden Still Life and can be found HERE.

I had intended this to be a “one layer card”, but one layer led to another and it soon became multiple layers!  I kept the color scheme simple – red and green.  I love how the red pops out – and made the ribbon on the hat white with black polka dots!

I colored the image with copics, using a stitched square die and swiss dot embossing folder to frame it out.  I love red gingham ribbon and added a touch of it to the bottom.

This is a small, adorable stamp that still makes a statement on a card.  It is probably my most favorite from IBFS and this card is a little bittersweet for me.  This post is my last as a design team member for IBFS.  I used this stamp for my first DT card and thought it was fitting to use a my last.

I have absolutely loved being on this team!  The other designers are wonderful and the owner Della has been so generous. The  sheer variety of stamps is wonderful and the rubber is high quality, deep etched.   I’m taking a break from design team work because we have a bunch of things going on here at home – all good!  We’ve already started some long overdue home improvement projects, with more to do through the summer.  In between those, we are taking a couple of weeks next month for some traveling, and after that have family coming to visit.  We’ll be busy throughout the summer and I hope to get a little stamping done in between.

In the meantime, I hope you check out the thousands of stamps available at IBFS.   Thanks so much for stopping by today!

 

I Brake For….Hooks and Lines!

Hello stampers and welcome to Wednesday with I Brake For Stamps!  I hope the weather is starting to warm up wherever you are – it’s been a wild winter this year!

I have a cute card for all the fishing fans out there..

The main image is called Hooks and Lines and can be found HERE.

This is such a great stamp and I did something with it that some of you may not have done before – I cut the stamp up!  I knew I wanted to use the images in a variety of ways  – it started as one stamp and ended up being a group of individual stamps – take a look:

Don’t be afraid to cut up stamps – I have never regretted any that I have taken apart.

I stamped the lures using a stamp positioner and colored them with copics.  Once the coloring was complete I cut a generic fish shape using a Silhouette cut file and stamped a birthday sentiment on it.

Then I pulled out another stamp set called Luncheon Meat – fund HERE – and stamped one of the fish images, colored it, cut it out and popped it up on the front.

I used a bunch of prisma pencils to color the lures,,,,,

I hope you hope on over to the IBFS store where there are a nice variety of fishing and lure images.  Perfect for Father’s Day , or for anyone who likes fishing!  Use code SAVE10NANCY and get 10% off your order.

Thanks for stopping by today!

 

I Brake For….Lemons!

Hello stampers and welcome to Wednesday with I Brake For Stamps!  Today I h ave a bright and cheery card to get you thinking about warm weather and summertime.

The card uses the great Lemons and Phrase Set, found here.  

It can also be found as part of a larger set called MS86 Full Plate, found here.

I colored the image with copics, just three markers in the Yellow range and two in the Green range did the trick.  I also tried to “stipple” the markers on the lemons to get a dimpled appearance.  Not sure if that really shows up in the photo, but it looks good irl!

Some patterned paper and a green ribbon pull it all together!  Now I am ready for lemons!  We have a lemon tree in the backyard and I look forward to getting the fruit each year.

Thank you for stopping by today!  Hop on over to the IBFS store – there are thousands of stamps available and there is a very nice selection of fruit stamps  I hope you take a look!

I Brake For…..Large Lily!

Hello stampers and welcome to another Wednesday with  I Brake For Stamps!  I hope your Easter was wonderful!  And I am sorry that some of you are experiencing some spring snow – I hope it all melts quickly so that you can start enjoying spring.

Here is my card for today…

I am using the lovely stamp called Large Lily with  Forever, found HERE.

It’s a beautifully drawn Lily with the Asian forever symbol  I’ve colored it with prisma pencils. Once the coloring was finished I cut the lily blossom out, popped it up on the main panel to give it a little dimension.

I pulled out some orange/yellow patterned paper from my stash  – the colors on the paper worked well with what was used on the lily.

Hop on over to the IBFS store where there are thousands of stamps ready and waiting.  There are a large selection of floral/flower designs just in  time for spring and summer.  I hope you will take a look!

Thanks for stopping by today!

I Brake For….Poppy Tile Collage!

Hello stampers and welcome to another Wednesday with I Brake For Stamps!  My card for today is elegant and shimmery..

The stamp used here is called Poppy Tile Collage – it is one stamp and can be found HERE.

This is such a pretty and versatile stamp – so many uses for it.  I chose to break out something that I had not used in a very long time – my Twinkling H2O’s – more on that in a bit.

First I stamped and embossed the image twice in black.  I knew I was going to pop up the middle section, so I stamped and embossed that section first and then did the full image second.

After cutting out the two pieces I pulled out the glimmer!  I have quite of few Twinkling H2O’s and most of the time they sit in a drawer.  Essentially they are watercolors  with mica powder in them so they have a gorgeous shimmer when you paint them.  I’m not even sure if they are available anymore.

I used Solar Gold and Poppy Red on this card.  Here is a close up – hope you can see a bit of the shimmer.

Once all the coloring was done I mounted it on red cardstock and added a black ribbon for embellishment.  I really love how this turned out and this stamp makes it easy to create something elegant in a short amount of time.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Hop on over to the IBFS store to find this and thousands of other beautiful stamps.  Use code SAVE10NANCY and get 10% off your order.

I Brake For…Cactus Silhouette!

Hello stamping friends.  I hope you are all doing well on this first day of spring!  No spring flowers for me today, but I have a card showing the beauty of the southwest with a stamp from I Brake For Stamps.

The image is called Cactus Silhouette and can be found HERE.

The American Southwest is one of my favorite places to visit.  When we lived in California many of our vacations were spent doing road trips throughout this area.  And I am happy to say that this May we will again be taking a trip here.  I am so excited – we’ll be leaving from Florida and heading west to visit many of the National Parks and other destinations.  It’s been about twelve years since we’ve been there.  And I can’t wait to get some good Southwest/Mexican food!  Where we live in Florida you can get some great food – barbeque, seafood, southern food – but there are no good Mexican/Southwest restaurants here.  What they consider good Mexican restaurants here would not last a day in the southwest!

Here are the details on how I created this card:

A stamp positioner is very helpful to line everything up, so I first stamped the image on the acrylic plate – it does not have to be perfect, just good enough for you to get an idea of what it looks like.

 

Take your cardstock and sponge some Memento Dandelion ink over the area where you want the sun to be

Then take a circle mask (I made it using a circle punch and masking paper, but you can use a circle die and post it note too) and place it where you want the sun to be, then continue sponging Dandelion ink.

Add Memento Cantaloupe ink on the sides and above the mask. Then sponge Memento’s Angel Pink and Lulu Lavender above the Cantaloupe ink.  This is what it looks like at this point.

 

Remove the mask and stamp the image – this is where a stamp positioning tool is helpful.

I cut the card down to size and realized I wanted the top part of the sky to be darker, so I sponged on some Memento Grape Jelly ink

From here I just mounted the stamped card on to orange and purple cardstock.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Hop on over to the IBFS store – they have a large collection of southwest stamps, you can find the all HERE.  Use code SAVE10NANCY and save 10% off your order!