Against the Grain

So. . . this is the first time, in a long time that I've done some thing that wasn't "my style" and truly loved the outcome. I also haven't done any ripping in a long time (actually I don't know that I've ever posted anything ripped on this blog. . . ).

The lamb (ewe) is from Pun Fun and the papers are from "Summer Picnic" (mini catalog) . . . which reminds me. I got news from SU! "headquarters" that the Occasions mini collection will not be ending on May 31st! The mini catalog will actually be available until June 30th. The sad news is we will have to wait until August to see our new catalogs! But, I'm sure it will be well worth the wait!

Also, don't forget a new project pack and new promotions are coming this Thursday! I can't wait to share all the new goodies with you all!

As always, thanks for looking!

Simple Kitty

Another cute card using Pun Fun. . . isn't it funny how when you first get something all your other "favorites" seem to take a back seat to the new item, until of course the new wears off and you get another "new". . . .

As always, thanks for looking!

TP Challenge Winner!

Congratulations to Beth, she's the only person who had time to participate in the TP challenge so Beth if you'll e-mail me your details I'll send your blog candy out. You can see Beth's Card HERE I'm so impressed with what she did, I may have to try it again.

As Always, thanks for looking!

Look ma' no ribbon!

I love this little rocket out of Pun Fun . . . I've been excited about making a card using this stamp. I think this card will be for my nephew's birthday. I wanted to try and keep it simple and actually finished a card without using any ribbon! I was so proud of myself.

As always, thanks for looking!

More time to Play!

My friend Christi and I had a virtual stamp night tonight and challenged eachother to CASE a card from the other's blog. HERE is her blog and HERE is the scrapbookingpage that I used as my inspiration for this card. I'm still not convinced the colors turned our right but I like it overall. . . .

The skunk is from Pun Fun, one of my new stamp sets. The background flowers are from Spring Solitude. The colors are rose red, whisper white, and basic black.

As always, thanks for looking!

New goodies and time to play!

I got new goodies and time to play . . . this is what I made. . . .

This little birdy is from a CTMH stamp set. . . just too cute! I made him for a friend of mine. . . shhhh can't say who.

I made this for a sympathy card. They are always difficult for me, but I think this one turned out well.

As always, thanks for looking!

Back to my style

well, a number of you have mentioned wanting to do the TP challenge but the timing is difficult. So, in the spirit of kindness I'm extending the deadline for the blog candy. You have another full week to make a TP card and link a picture to the previous post. Good luck, I can't wait to see the goodies!



Tonight I felt like I had been making so many cards "reaching out of my box" and I really just wanted to make something that felt like mine. I know that it isn't stampin up but I think this set is so cute!



This is a CTMH stamp set on SU! cardstock (soft sky, choc chip, and old olive). The ribbon is 5/8" Olive Grossgrain. The giraffe was stamped with saddle brown staz on onto SU! watercolor paper and then using SU! markers I blended the colors.

As always, thanks for looking!

Many Thanks

First of all, don't forget to show me your toilet paper card. I'll be choosing a winner from the comments on THIS thread tomorrow (Monday, 4/14/08)!

Long ago I labeled myself an admitted copy-cat. I take ideas from SCS, friends blogs, magazines, and the Stampin Up Catalog. From there I tweak colors, design, layout and images to suit my taste. So tonight, I thought I'd give you a little example of this. . . .hope it's useful.

Let's say this was the card I found in a catalog (it's really not, I made it. . . but let's pretend). Not my usual colors and not completely crazy about the stamp on the bottom right. So I usually mentally make note of the design but for your benefit I've actually drawn out the template.

Here you see each element in a slightly different color. I've changed the square with the sentiment to a circle, but as you'll see in the samples below it's not a hard and fast rule, just guidelines.

Here I simply took the template and two coordinating colors, and the Delight in Life stamp set. . . pretty simple.

I mixed it up a little more here, looking for extra notions and adding the ribbon (It was driving me crazy that the other card didn't have ribbon).

For the next card, I simply rotated the card and left the layout as-is (like I said before it's just a suggestion, don't stress about getting it perfect!).

This is probably my most favorite. . . . and if you look closely you can tell that it's the same layout just rotated.

When you get in a slump, or are looking for card ideas try to view the sample cards you look at with a good bit of imagination and very little perfectionism. Don't have the stamp set, no big deal! Use one you have. . . don't like the colors? Change them! The one thing that drew me to stamping (and keeps me coming back) is that your creativity has no end. There is no right way and no wrong way. You do what is comfortable and visually pleasing for you!


Some people may not like my style, and I'm sure I've seen cards out there that I won't be copying any time soon, but that's the beauty of any art. . .


as always, thanks for looking!

Happy Purple

Trying to reach outside my box. . . I like the purple and the green and I've had these flowers for a while. So. . . This is what I came up with. Here is an close-up of the flower, I just thought it was cute. :)


Hope you like it!

As always, thanks for looking!

DL on the TP & a CHALLENGE!!!!

Just a little translation "DL on the TP" is "Down Low (details) on the Toilet Paper (see one of the crafts from Monday night). So, yes. . . since there seems to be confusion I decided to give you all a little more information on the toilet paper project. (just cuz I luv you all :) )

Okay, you'll need a roll of your favorite toilet paper (I haven't found one yet that won't work). It might take more or less layers for different kinds of TP, just play with it! Then you'll also need a stamp (open patterns work best), stipple brush and small bowl of water.

Turn your stamp upside down and place one sheet of TP on top of your stamp.

then, dip your brush in the water and begin pressing (gently) onto the toilet paper. The first layer requires that you be a little more gentle. Don't stress if you have a rip in the first layer, the other layers will cover it up just fine.

Repeat this process with 4-8 layers (depending on the thickness of your toilet paper and how thick you want your final product).

When you are done, your paper should look about like this (while still on the stamp). I prefer to leave the paper on the stamp over night to allow for clearer embossing when completely dry, but depending on how many layers you've used sometimes you call pull it off and let it dry that way.

When you get done, you will have embossed or textured paper that you've made yourself. This wasn't the best stamp to use now that I'm looking at this, but you get the idea. Hopefully this will help clear up some of the confusion from before. . .

hum. . . want a challenge? Try the TP technique and show me your cards. Post the link in the comment section of this post and next monday I'll choose a random number to send some goodies too! Good luck! Can't wait to see what you all make!

As always, thanks for looking!

Late night Craft

I've had the "Flyin' High" stamp set from CTMH for a month or so now and finally had an idea. I new my son would love to play with these little cars and planes so I mounted them on heavy cardstock, colored them and then put magnets behind them so he could play with them on the fridge. . . .

What do you think?

It's hard to see in the picture but, the red car has jumbo eyelets for tires, the green plane has a brad between the propellers and the brown plan has small eyelets for tires. also, all bumpers were colored silver with my zigpainty pen.

As always, thanks for looking!

How much fun can you have on a Monday night?

Each month on the first Monday night I have a stamp club that meets. Last night was the last club meeting for this "round" of participants. So we all brought ideas and toys from home to play with and share. I just thought I would share some of our fun with you. . . .

Paula showed us all how to use toilet paper and a stamp to make our own embossed paper. All you need is toilet paper, water, a stipple brush and the stamp of your choice. So much fun!

Ann, Joyce and Diane brought Sizzix, Cricut and other things similar. We had so much fun playing! I definately think the Cricut will be on my list to Santa this year.

Then Marcie showed us how to make these adorable ornaments.

You simply start with a clear or frosted glass ornament. Then you take acrylic paint in white and blue and pour your white in first (be generous). You have to roll the ornament around and shake it (make sure you cover the hole with your finger VERY WELL) until it is more covered with white than you really think you want. then you pour the blue paint in and contiue the rolling and shaking. Once the outside gets close to what you want STOP. It is going to keep changing for a while so don't over-do the shaking. you will not get the swirl color pattern if you keep shaking. You can then decorate the outside however you wish. We chose to make a reindeer or snowman for each member of our family. I think I'll come back later and paint our names also.

As you can see we had tons of fun ( I didn't get home until after 10pm!). Just a side note, if you live in the Shoals area (Russellville, Sheffield, Florence, Killen, etc) and are interested in a group meeting like this please let me know. I now have a few customers in that area and I am looking for a way to host events for that area, but I need to know how many people are interested.

If you have any questions about any of these projects please let me know. As always, thanks for looking!

Embrace Life, From the Heart

Well, so maybe the title is a little lame, but at least the card isn't. Once again, I'm trying to get away from my normal colors and style. I'm not sure about the green piece of floral on the right, but other than that I like the way it turned out.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to upload pictures from tonight's stamp club.

As always, thanks for looking!

Grateful Flair

I made this card this past weekend while in "groove" mode. I love these colors and actually like the way the brown ribbons work together.

As always, thanks for looking!

How Sarah Got her Groove Back

First of all, let me say thanks for the nice comments about my new blog layout. I'm glad that you all like it as much as I do. Secondly, I'm sure you've noticed that I haven't been posting very frequently lately. I lost my groove. Not really sure where it went, I'm hoping at least one of us went some place nice with palm trees, warm breezes and random little cabanas. So, in an effort to lure my groove back home I spent two weeks working on different crafts (more on that later) then today I used some of my free time to clean and reorganize my craft space.

After my space was cleaned and organized. I pulled my favorite magazine and decided to use the pictures for inspiration and try to make cards that were different from my "normal". So I left my baroque background set in the drawer and pulled out some other sets.

This was the first card I made. I haven't used Doodle this in quite a while. The colors are from a picture of daffodils in my magazine. . . . and look. . . . BLING :)

This was the second card I made. I liked the way the layers were going until I got to the stampin' part. I couldn't get the words straight which frustrated me a little but, I still like the overall look.

This was the last card I made, and by far my favorite. I love the colors and I truly think this stamp set has much better potential in someone else's hands other than mine, but I was pleased with the overall outcome.

Hopefully there will be more to come soon. Hope you like these cards.

As always, thanks for looking!

Props for Blog Design

http://cutestblogontheblock.blogspot.com/

April Project Pack is Here!

Well, as always I'm a day late and a $ short. . . BUT, I have the April Project Pack! You may check out this month's special by going to my website at http://www.sarahsstampin.com/, or by clicking on the photo below. Please let me know if you have any questions, and remember you still have a few days on the March project pack if you are interested.



As always, thanks for looking! (I'm off to make more thank you cards) :)