Beautiful Cityscape {I love this stamp!}

Howdy friends! I spent some time today just playing at my desk stamping. I got a new stack of rubber from Lost Coast Designs and in it was this beautiful cityscape stamp:

The markers, buttons, doily and washi tape were all left on my desk from a previous project and I was just playing with no expectation…and sometimes that’s when you end up with something you really like. You can see how I made this card here:

So, what new products are you wanting to play with? They don’t even have to be new, sometimes when you revisit old product that you haven’t used in a while it is just like buying something new. No, really. I have been in the process of going through old tins of colored pencils and pastels and just playing (to curb my desire for the set of 72 Inktense Blocks that I have been coveting for months now) and I find that trying new techniques with old products fills that need for “new” and I get to feel good that I used something I already had rather than the guilt of buying yet another medium. Then when you do get something new, like the stamp I used today for example, it magnifies the uses of your old product and keeps it fresh. New stuff is fun but trying new techniques with old products is fun too and not to mention free since those supplies are already bought and paid for. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

I’m cleaning today (and I don’t even have anyone visiting!)

I know what you are thinking “Good one Lindsay! April Fools Day joke right?” But sadly no, I am actually spending probably most of the day cleaning today. It is so muddy out that between the kids and a dog who is always on the wrong side of the door my floors have a nice coating of grit on them to match the fine coating of dust on everything else. Luckily I am listing to a riveting audio book at the moment (11/22/63 by Stephen King) and it will make even the task of cleaning pleasurable. Usually I will tidy and sweep at the end of the day, do it in a mad-dash of sorts because when I start in the morning I end up cleaning all day because once you get one thing clean you notice how filthy everything else is! Thank goodness for the audiobook! Well, you obviously don’t read my blog for cleaning tips so here is a quick card I made last week:

I realized I had never used this bamboo and bird stamp from About Art Accents (the stamp is 50% off too!) before so I colored it with markers and stamped it on plain white cardstock and sponged in a background. I mounted it on a shaving-cream marbleized paper (I stuck it with hot glue because the paper is slick, hence the slight crookedness 🙂 added another layer, a charm, stuck it to a kraft base and called it a day! Well, I suppose I ought to get cracking on the housework, it’s not going to clean itself (unfortunately) and if I get done early I’ll have some bonus crafting time! Happy Monday! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Joie de Vivre!

Happy Sunday folks! It is suddenly starting to feel like fall around here, it makes me want to curl up beside the fire with a good book and a glass of Pinot Noir, speaking of wine, have you seen the “Bon Appetit” stamp set from The Rubber Cafe? It is fabulous, here is a couple of cards I whipped up last night with it:

Stamps: The Rubber Cafe, Cardstock: Co'ordinations, DCWV, other: clear ink, markers, embossing powder

I used my Cricut and SCAL software to make the cards, you can grab my free template and cutting flies below. The purple bottle is cut from Co’ordanations cardstock with the lighter side on the inside so your writing will show up 😉 The green bottle is textured cardstock from Die Cuts With a View. I used the Fleuradidy 2 stamp and clear ink to stamp directly on the textured cardstock (these stamps are so deeply etched and wonderful that they even stamp well on textured cardstock!) then I heat embossed it with gold powder. I smooshed the clear pad on the bottle top and embossed it to look like the foil seal that champagne bottles have, easy, quick,  clever! On the inside I did tone on tone stamping with the pretty leaf stamp, it just gives you a little extra flair i think 😉

here is the inside of the card

To stamp the wine label I inked up the stamp in caramel then used tombow (use any water based marker for this, tombow happens to be my favorite) brush markers to add green, red and purple to the grapes, breath on the stamp to moisten the ink and stamp on cream cardstock, cut out and adhere to card.

Using markers to add multi colors to a rubber stamp is quick, easy and fun!

Download my wine bottle card svg file to cut with your cricut if you have SCAL software.

Here is a printable template.

Don’t forget you have 2 days left to save 10% on SCAL software with the coupon code: 1847253 You will get the latest version of scal (SCAL v.2) with all the new bells and whistles such as converting images to cut and layers, it is so cool!

Have a great Sunday folks and till next time happy crafting!