With a Stamp and a Song: April 2023

Thursday, April 27, 2023

America, Land That I Love!

Hello everyone! Stamp Simply has some new brand patriotic stamps and I'm so excited to share them with you!

These new stamps can stand perfectly on their own, but they are so much fun to combine with our earlier patriotic sets. They are for sale individually or in a variety of bundles. See them all here!

One of the things that I love about these stamps is their versatility. They can look rustic or elegant, vintage or modern, and are just as at home on a clean and simple card as they are a fancier project.

In fact, they can make CAS look quite elegant! All it takes is a few minutes with stamps, dies and markers, pretty pearlized paper and gold ink.

Beside the fact that we're proud Americans, the 4th of July is a big deal in the Felts household since my husband is retired USN, and also because the patriotic holiday follows my birthday. Usually we have a big fireworks party in the cul de sac.

I decided that this box of sparklers could use a rustic patriotic make-over for this year's celebration! This photo shows the before and after!

I used the original box for a rough template, tweaking it to fit onto an 4.5 x 11" sheet of card stock. I stamped the stars in black ink, colored and shaded them with Copic markers, then masked over them to stamp The Pledge in metallic ink. I used a variety of patriotic sentiments from our sets, old and new, to create a set of (Tim Holtz) tags for an embellishment. There is also a sprinkling of small gold stars die cut from pearlized gold paper.

The entire project was distressed with tea dye distress ink and given a few splashes of diluted Delicata gold/copper inks to add to the rustic feel. Here's the box viewed from the back.

Supplies:

Copic markers

Be sure to visit the Stamp Simply blog for more patriotic inspiration as our design team has been posting patriotic cards each day this week.

Thursday, April 20, 2023

He Stilled the Storm

Hello again! I hope you're having a good week! So far mine has been fun because I have been playing with some of my favorite products and trying to think a little more out-of-the-box. Today's project started with the idea of a hat card for the fisherman/sailor. I showed my husband my first attempt and he said, "It needs to be rounder" so off I went to search for origami hat instructions on YouTube, only my version is on a much smaller scale.

The strip of paper I used to make this little hat was ~ 2.25 x 7 inches scored 1/2 inch from each end and then at one inch intervals between, with one scoreline ~ 1/2 inch along one long edge. Then it was folded accordion-style and an inverted V cut into the top, just like making paper dolls! I snipped at regular intervals from the bottom up to that long scoreline to make it easier to shape into the round.

I used a paper piercer to make a hole into the top of each triangle, then held it all together with a tiny brad from my stash. I felt it needed some reinforcement so I glued a couple of circles of different sizes into the inside just to help hold it all in shape. Then I set it atop a piece of scrap paper to hand-sketch a pattern for the brim. Once that was the appropriate size/shape, I cut one out of designer paper and adhered everything together.

All of the stamps I used are from our Lighthouse bundle. Moving clockwise around the card, there is the wheel...

...waves splashing around some pilings (the water was colored with Copics, then dabbed and splashed with white acrylic paint and blotted, and finally topped with clear Wink of Stella)...

...and finally the sentiment in the bottom right corner. I thought it would be fun to add a tiny hook but the smallest one we had was too large for the project, so I grabbed some silver wire and jewelry pliers to shape one the size I wanted. I swiped the string from a fresh tea bag. It shows up a little better than monofilament would've.

Here's the inside. This paper is full of lots of fun images of all shapes and sizes and has strips that are perfect for borders.

This card is a standard sized 5.5 x 4.25 inch card but the hat is about 1.5 inches tall so it would require a box for mailing. Alternatively, it would sure be a fun in-person, by-hand delivery for the sailor/fisherman in your life! When I showed the finished card to Patrick he laughed and said, "It's a HAT!" so I think I got it right after all!

Supplies:

Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Lighthouse Full Bundle
Graphic 45 Catch of the Day - 8x8
Memento Full Size Dye Ink Pad - Tuxedo Black
Spellbinders Nestabilities - Standard Circles SM (used for reinforcement inside the hat)
Copic markers
"hook" (made from silver jewelry wire)
tea bag string
small brad and tiny button from stash
white acrylic paint for splashes and splatters

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Graduation 2023

The 2023 graduation season is fast approaching, so I am here today with a slimline card (finished size 3.5 tall x 8.5 wide) in local high school colors with diagonal lines inspired by the school's website banner. All of the stamps, dies, and papers I've used are available from Stamp Simply.

The sheet of gold-green from the Patina paper pad is perfect for representing FIHS colors! The Ink Drops line has colors of nearly every hue so I'd bet you can find one that will work for your school's colors too! Here's a link to all of the store's Craft Consortium papers including Ink Drops papers and more.

These Countdown numbers from Tim Holtz are so perfect for birthdays and graduations. I cut them from the gold pearlescent paper and added one of our die cut graduation caps on top of the zero.

The die has a tassel but I decided to replace it with a tassel made from gold cording. The cording I used is one we have for hanging Christmas ornaments and it's a little stiff which made it perfect for this purpose. I just tied the cording into a tassel, then made a loose knot and threaded the ends through a hole pierced into the cap. I used my piercing stylus to guide the placement of the knot as I tightened the cording, then taped it to the back securely. A tiny thread of glue holds the threads in their proper place on top and a little glue dot holds the top of the tassel to the card base allowing the threads to fall freely.

Here's the inside. The green and gold theme is continued here with a ribbon die cut from the same papers using dies from the Tim Holtz Collector die set.

Supplies:

Thursday, April 6, 2023

Enjoy the Little Things!

Hello y'all! Happy Thursday!

It has been absolutely gorgeous here lately with bright sunny days and just enough rain to keep things beautifully green. I've been participating in Sock Madness and so, knitting a lot lately. Our current sock is inspired by Winnie the Pooh, so as I sat down to stamp this week's Stamp Simply design team project, my thoughts were of celebrating everyday moments and "enjoying the little things!" We all need to keep our inner Eeyore in check! A Springtime floral is just the ticket!

I love combining colors and prints from different paper pads (I suppose from my years coordinating fabric designs back when I sewed all my own clothing) so I used a floral print from Graphic 45 with Ink Drops papers for the background and the focal element. The Ink Drops colors bring out some of the soft blues and the brighter yellow oranges of the Fairy floral paper. The floral stamp (Seasonal Wreaths Srping/Summer) echoes the motifs of the designer paper. The sentiment is from one set of our Farmhouse collection. The flourished font used in this series is one of my favorites!

The inside is simple, with a scrap of that beautiful Fairy paper and a soft pink heart from our Farmhouse Signage set.

Supplies:

And oh, if you're curious about that sock, Round 3 of Sock Madness on the Ravelry website (Socks of Little Brain? by Anne Rutgrink), here it is...well, what I've knit so far, representing Pooh in his red shirt with lots of bees buzzing about! See, that Pooh yellow was one of the things that really did inspire my card! I had red yarn but no gold, so I had to dye some gold myself and at first the pot of dye looked a lot like that swirly ink drops paper!

I'm about to pick up stitches at the bottom of the shirt and knit the leg/foot in a yellow honeycomb stitch pattern. Hopefully I'll finish the pair in time to make it on to Round 4!

Wish me luck! See you next week!