Another RS Baby Card

Used the same color scheme as the engagement cards I made the same day





Stamps: Rubber Soul Baby Collection
CS: blush blossom, white, moss, retired SU DP (?spring flowers/showers)
Ink: Palette Noir, blush (for sponged heart)
Markers: moss (on dad), pretty in pink, banana (on baby blanket)
Other: Sakura glitter pen (on baby blanket)

Rubber Soul Baby Cards

More Pregnancy cards - and more cute RS stick people! I really like the option you have with clear polymer stamps (a/k/a "acrylic" stamps, although they aren't acrylic, just the blocks are) to bend the sentiments around the image, like I did below with "bun in the oven"




Stamps: Rubber Soul Baby collection
CS: banana, not quite navy, white, retired SU DP
Ink: Palette Noir
Markers: celery, pretty in pink
Other: celery grosgrain, wide white grosgrain, corner rounder, ticket corner punch, banana brads, Sakura glitter pen (on her dress)

Rubber Soul Engagement/Love

I have a friend who got engaged at Christmas, so I had a reason to break out my other Rubber Soul stick people! I am crazy about these cute people. The 'so happy for you' sentiment is from the Baby collection, the rest from the Love collection



I cut a heart shape out of a scrap piece of CS to sponge the heart in Blush Blossom ink. Really like how it turned out! (I am a horribly uneven heart shape-cutter, so I drew one side of a heart, and cut, then laid that cut half of the heart on the other side and cut around it to make it evenly shaped. I was all proud of that. I'm easily pleased).





Stamps: Rubber Soul Love Collection & Baby Collection (sentiment)
CS: blush blossom, white, moss, retired SU DP (?spring showers/flowers)
Ink: Palette Noir, blush (sponged heart)
Markers: moss, pretty in pink
Other: stardust Stickles (on bouquet), Making Memories velvet ribbon (pink and brown)

More Bellas

I used a Christmas rub-on to be sarcastic with Ms. Grumpy

Stamp: Grumpabella, Paisley Print bkgd
CS: moss, rose red, black, white
Ink: stazon black
Markers: moss, rose red, blush, caramel, going gray
Other: Making Memories rub-on sentiment






I found this holi-tini ribbon at Michael's over Thanksgiving, and knew I had to have it for Cosmobella

Stamp: Cosmobella
CS: gable green, pink passion, white, black
Ink: stazon jet black
Markers: turquoise, gable, passion, blush, caramel, going gray
Other: ticket corner punch, Making Memories bling brads, Michael's ribbon, stardust Stickles on bella's top and drink

Faux Stitched Sidekick Sayings

I just about completely CASEd these cards from one posted by mrsparker on SCS here.

Stamps: Sidekick Sayings (retired Hostess)
CS: wasabi, white, banana, not quite navy
Ink: not quite navy, wasabi & banana on flower w/ aquapainters, not quite navy marker for faux stitching
Other: photo corner punch, banana brads, mat pack for piercing

Big Baby News

I have several pregnant co-workers, and made the card above for a basic Congrats card, and the pink/blue cards below for the day they get their ultrasounds and find out the sex of the babies.

I love the Think Big stamp set, and trying to figure out different images to replace the "i" in Big. I just bought a load of $1 Michael's stamps that are vertical so I can try to fit them in this set for different occasions, so stay tuned.




Close-up of two of the baby feet cards:



Stamps: Think Big (retired), Stampendous baby foot, $1 Michael's stamp
CS: white, banana, apricot, pretty in pink, Lasting Impressions patterned CS, bashful blue, Candy DP (retired)
Ink: black, apricot, sage, pretty in pink, bashful blue
Other: wasabi stitched ribbon, circle punches, scallop punch, stardust Stickles, bashful brads, white grosgrain, pink grosgrain, white gel pen

Stampendous Gift

One of my co-workers found out I was a stamp addict and brought me 4 ink pads and a Stampendous rubber stamp that is a big 4-sided wooden cube with different background images on each side that she never used. As a thank you, I made some notecards for her using the stamp. Pretty simple, nothing exciting:





A little more close-up pics:


Stamps: Stampendous Foliage Cube, Sincere Salutations
CS: white, ruby red, perfect plum, black, silver, going gray
Ink: silver, gold
Other: lg and small black eyelets, lg silver eyelets, small gold eyelets, nonSU silver ribbon, photo corner punch, ticket corner punch, silver cord, narrow black organdy, narrow gold organdy, gold cord

More Carolers

Forgot about these cards too:





This 2nd card was a quickie, no-big-deal card. Not very exciting, but thought I'd post anyway.The tree image is a single tree in the Carolers set, and thanks to the joy of clear stamps, I was able to place a row of 3 trees without effort - or stampamajig. Again, not crazy about the gray shadow under their feet with the markers; plan to sponge it next time.


Stamps: Rubber Soul Carolers set
CS: Cricut holiday paper, white, ruby red, gable green, yoyo yellow
Ink: Palette Noir
Markers: ruby red, pumpkin, garden green, not quite navy, coral, going gray
Other: photo corner punch, banana brads

Google Reader

Ya'll, if you are still checking your favorite stamping blogs manually, or 'subscribing' to emails for updates of each blog you like, let me share something with you:
Google Reader
which will make your surfing SO much more productive, and one-stop-shopping-ish. And relieve you of a boatload of emails in your inbox~



You will love it, I promise you.

It works like an email account for all the blogs you read - they are all in one place (the ones that have new content are bolded, just like when an email is unread). You can read all your blogs from here (photos too!) and never have to surf around again (except when you want to add a new blog to your Reader list)

Note: this is NOT some paid-blog-ad thing. I just happen to LOVE me some Google Reader, and let you know about it.

Rubber Soul Carolers

I have a new love (besides Stamping Bella) - it's the Rubber Soul Stick People stamps. I HEART them sooooo much!

I'll be posting a LOAD of cards with different stick people over the next few days, but thought I'd better get ALL my Christmas themed projects grouped together in posts, then move on to non-holiday cards.





This image is from the Carolers set, aren't they so cute?

I'm not terribly thrilled with my 'shadow' coloring underneath their feet (too dark and streaky) - will sponge next time with a reverse-mask oval, I think.

The inside sentiment is from a $1 Michael's clear set (I love those!) and it fits perfectly in the large oval punch (raised on a pop-up glue dot).

And they are ::gasp!:: clear polymer stamps, which I NEVER thought I would use. Perish the thought! A few years ago, I would have scoffed -pfft!- at using clear unmounted stamps, but the technology (and inks!) have come a long way, and I am really enjoying them (and seeing EXACTLY where your image is being stamped is AWESOME (more on that in future card posts)~

Plus, hello? Totally cost-effective compared to wood-mounted rubber. 11 images for $14 retail - woot! (yes, I am a tightwad)

I'm a wood-mounted traitor, who woulda ever thunk it? Not I. (I'm actually :::gasp again!::: mulling over unmounting all my SU stamps in the interest of space and image placement - like the Bellas, which are unmounted rubber stamps. No action plan yet, still considering, as that would be a HUGE undertaking).

Stamps: Rubber Soul Carolers set, $1 Michael's clear sentiment
Ink: Palette Noir
Markers: turquoise, green galore, yoyo yellow, amethyst, orange
CS: white, celery, Cricut holiday DP pack
Other: stardust & orange Stickles, colored snaps, lg. oval punch, pop-up glue

Wreathabella ... again

Yes, it's January, and these will sit in my card bin for 11 months, but I DON'T CARE! I love her, stamped and colored a bunch of images in November and am still using them. So I'm ahead for 2008, yes? (just noticed I still need to color her dress, and Stickle her pompoms- will do!)







Stamps: Wreathabella
Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Markers: real red, olive, celery, blush, caramel
CS: real red, olive, white, Dashing DP
Other: mat pack (piercing), corner rounder, wide red grosgrain ribbon

Holiday Jars

I washed & saved spaghetti sauce jars for months, and here's what happened to them in December. My children and I made white chocolate covered pretzel rods (with red/green sprinkles), and filled these jars for teachers and incidental gifts. Was nice to have them on hand for an oh-I-should-give-them-something gift. These took a while to make, only b/c I was creating a bunch of different designs for fun; if I had made them all the same, it would have gone much faster!












Stamp Sets: Cold Play (retired), Riveting (retired Hostess),
CS: Holiday Thyme DSP (retired), Dashing DSP (retired), bashful blue, brilliant blue, old olive, white
Ink: Olive, Cranberry, Real Red
Ribbon: cranberry stitched (retired), wide red grosgrain, narrow white organdy, nonSU wide organdy, blue grosgrain, silver cord
Punches: word window, scallop, large oval, circle (3/4", 1", 1 1/4", 1 3/8")
Other: various sauce jars (Bertolli, Ragu, Paul Newman), white gel pen, crimper, ATG 714 gun, paper snips

More Wreathabellas a/k/a Love my Crop-a-Dile

OMGosh, what was I waiting for? I just recently purchased a crop-a-dile (finally) and I will be using every eyelet I own in short order. EASY PEASY, so fast and quiet, and no getting out tools and making noise, etc. Woot! Love this tool, use it every time I enter my stamp room now! Get thee a crop-a-dile, stamping friends!



Stamps: Wreathabella
CS: Dashing DP, white, real red, celery, olive
Ink: stazon jet black, markers: blush, celery, olive, red
other: Making Memories word ribbons, ticket corner punch, slit punch, white eyelets, wide red grosgrain, gold cord

Holiday Think Big

Stamps: Think Big (retired), $1 Michael's candy cane
CS: white, black, celery, cricut Christmas patterened papers
Ink: old olive pad & marker, real red
other: red gingham, gold cord, large red eyelet, corner punch, 3/4" and 1" circle punches, stardust stickles on 'wish', red stickles on candy cane stripes