OSA layout #39

Just a quick post today. Here is a card I made using the sketch over at Oriental Stamp Art. The stamps are by About Art Accents.

Stamps: About Art Accents, Paper: American Crafts, Other: Charms, paper tagger, hot glue dots

Thanks for stopping by, till next time happy crafting!

Hey Girlfriend!

ser⋅en⋅dip⋅i⋅ty: (noun) an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

That explains this project. I was lucky enough to get published agin last month in Vamp Stamp News, I was extra lucky to be the winner of 10 back issues of VSN and I was even more lucky to pick the April 2000 issue that had load of goodies in including the template I used for this project. I also had the “Girlfriend” pad of collage papers and stamps from Crafty Secrets that I thought would be perfect to use being October and Breast Cancer awareness month.

A girlfriend gift! Paper: K&Co, Collage stuff: Crafty Secrets, Template: Nancie Waterman from Vamp Stamp News April 2000

As you open the book the flaps fold out to reveal more surprises 😉

I love the funny collage clips in this pad from Crafty Secrets!

"I got your back" A great reminder to do your monthly breast self exams girls! If you notice in the first photo you see the ribbon loop, that is so you can hang the card up, maybe in your powder room so you wont forget to do your exam EVERY MONTH! It saves lives ladies 😉

I love the caption "It takes a long time to grow and old friend" with the old ladies.

Here is the card closed, it is very dainty, I added a ribbon rose and a strip of scalloped paper and thats it.

This was pretty quick to make. I made a version of the template so I could cut it with my Cricut and SCAL software. The little scallop frame was from the free font Kutups. I cut the template from a sheet of double-sided K&Co pattern paper and clipped bits from the collage pad and adhered them to the layers. I stamped the pin-up lady, phrase and awareness ribbon on a cream panel and adhered. This template would make an excellent gift card or ATC holder. Mine was 3 3/4″x2 3/4″ but you could eek out a slightly bigger version (3″x4″) if you stretched the template to the full width of the paper. If you would like a copy of the template (and 3 other fabulous envelope templates) you can order the April 2000 back issue of Vamp Stamp News here. While you are at it why not subscribe?  It is $3 (or less) an issue if you do, I consider myself an advanced stamper and I always find inspiration in the pages of VSN but even if you are just starting out I’m sure you would enjoy it too.

Thanks for stopping by and till next time happy crafting!

Delightful!

Whenever I clean my studio I like to grab stuff lying around and make quick cards rather than put (or Throw) away scraps. Here I use a neglected SU! stamp set and some purchased card bases and brads to make a 5 minute card:

Stamps: SU!, Paper 7 Gypsies, Card base: MME, Brads: Dollar Tree, Ink: Sugarloaf

I liked it so much I made 4 more and you know what? the Studio still isn’t clean, Oh well 😉

Thanks for stopping by and till next time happy crafting!

With Sympathy

Sympathy cards are hard to make in my opinion. It’s easy to whip up a birthday or thankyou card buy a sympathy card is difficult because you want to make a cheerful card for a somber occasion, I hope this brings a friend a smile and some comfort:

Stamps: Lindsay's stamp Stuff, PP: K&co, Cardstock:SU!, Die cuts cricut

I had the Iris and bud digital stamp colored and cut out for months but I hadn’t made it work with other projects. The Deepest Sympathy stamp is from the Leaf Prints set and you can find the butterfly stamp here. The cardstock is by Stampin Up (So Saffron) and the Pattern paper is K&Co.

Have a great weekend folks and till next time happy crafting.

Recoloring digital stamps and a freebie! {or two!}

Happy October everyone! Hard to believe that September is gone already! A new month bring us a new guest designer at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff but first, have you ever wanted to print your digital stamps in different colors? Heck yeah! I’ll show you an easy way to go from black to bright, it’s like having a million new inkpads 😉

Here is an example of the recolored digital stamps. See below to learn how.

All of the new stamp sets at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff offer png files as well as jpg files, they give you more versitility and the transparet background allows you to layer images. Let’s learn how to recolor our stamps:

Stamps and paper: Lindsays Stamp Stuff. The Sentiment and the background paper are today's Freebie! See download links below 😉

In the above example the stamp has been changed from black to yellow, the pattern paper was made from recolored stamps as well.

In these examples I added color to colored stamps with my bic Mark its:

After Printing my recolored stamps I added another layer of color with solvent based markers.

Quick and easy, that's my type of card! Stamps&paper: Lindsay's Stamp Stuff

you can make these cards in a minute since there is no elaborate coloring involved, nice!

here is how to recolor a stamp:

Step one: Open your graphic editing software. I’m using Paint Shop Pro Photo software but Photoshop elements is quite similar. Open the file you wish to recolor. A png file is best but this will work on a jpg file too (I tried it to make sure;)

Click on the Adjust tab and choose Hue/saturation/lightness.

Click adjust and pick Hue/saturation/lightness. If you are not using PSP look for works like hue, color, channel mixer or red/green/blue. you will find there are many ways to adjust the color of your stamp in any of the graphic/photo software you use.

Click the default button and you will see two preview boxes that look the same. Click colorize, then play with the sliders to get the color you want (top slider), the brightness aka saturation (Left slider), and the lightness (right slider). Note if you are using a jpg file you will need to keep the lightness towards light because the fader will effect the background too making it black or grey, with a png file you don’t need to worry as the background is clear.

Here is what it looks like is PSP. You may have faders like I do or you my have boxes where you type how much red, green and blue you want. Just play around until you get the color you want;)

I layered the colored leaf stamps over one another (see, because it is a png I can overlap them and you see the colors beneath) to make this free card background paper for you. I even put a “created by” spot on the back for you to sign your name because DT Tracey gave me heck for not signing my cards 😉

Here is a freebie for you, print and cut the paper in half and you have 2 card bases ready to go! It is easy on the ink cartridges too!

Download the free card base paper here

Click below to download this Lindsay's Stamp Stuff Free digital stamp!

Download the free “So Grateful” stamp here for a png version, and here for a jpg version.

Here is a peek at the Leaf prints stamp set. I included a printable sheet too (not shown) with the sentiments inside the frame as shown in my card samples because I know not everyone has (or wants) fancy software, sometimes ya just want to print and color!

Now lets see what the fabulous Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff DT has cooked up for us this week. I want to welcome Ceal Pritchett as out October Guest DT, I want to thank Ellen Smith for giving us a bonus project this week and big hugs to Shannon Neparko who designed the way cool stamp preview and who has been helping me tirelessly zipping up stamp set files (this chick knows her stuff) and I’m happy to report she is joining the team Full time!

Ceal Pritchett October Guest DT

Shannon *Welcome to the team!

Cindy

Katt

Diana

Margie

Lisa

Janet

Melissa Craig

Kim

Tracey

Ellen Smith AKA “Tink” September Guest DT Bonus Project!

Now that you are all inspired I want to remind you that we are sponsoting Insparational Card Sketches again (see yesterdays post for my take on the sketch) this week where you can win some Lindsay’s Stamps! Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!