celebrate spring

The grass is coming back to life. (One of the neighbors has already cut his yard!) Trees are starting to put out leaves. Flowers are blooming. Time to celebrate spring!


I'd been keeping an eye out for crocuses. Those are usually the first bloomers in our yard. Sadly, I think the bunnies ate most of the ones in the backyard. These are some that I found at the front of the house. They're usually late because they're on the north side and don't get as much sun, but at least they're there!


We have a lot of daffodils blooming, too. I particularly like the soft color and delicate look of these flowers.


And last but not least, here's a card that I made to acknowledge the arrival of spring. The tulips aren't blooming yet, but they're getting close. I made this quite a while ago. Yes, I was a bit overly optimistic at the time, but I love spring! :-) I'd have to check to be sure, but I think I made this using some stamps from Michael's dollar bin that were stamped and colored using Memento inks and markers. The chipboard shapes are by Maya Road and were colored using Adirondack pigment inks. The die cuts were made using Spellbinders Nestabilities dies.

Two cards from before the hiatus

I made these two cards a couple of weeks ago, but didn't find the time to photograph them and upload them until today.


This one was made using the Sizzix XL scalloped card die in my Big Shot. The main flower image and the sentiment are both by Cornish Heritage Farms. The background flower images are by Tim Holtz. I used Core'dinations cardstock cut with a Nestabilities scalloped rectangle die and embossed with the Cuttlebug A2 script embossing folder for the main image layer. I also used the Martha Stewart Lace Doily border punch to embellish.

This next card was a lot of fun to make. I'd found a huge package of chipboard on clearance at Joann's not too long ago. I'd never really used chipboard much. I like the look, but I'm not patient enough to paint it and let it dry, and I'm not enthralled by the notion of covering it with patterned paper and having to do all of that cutting and gluing. Well, the layer with my Inque Boutique sentiment is chipboard and so is the star. They were regular old chipboard color, but I inked them up with Adirondack pigment inks and they looked great! Love the way that pigment ink covers! The colors are so vibrant, too. I embellished the stamping with some accents using my Inkssentials opaque white pen and a black Pigma micron pen, and voila! It was an easy card with some fun added dimension. Can't wait to do more. :-)

Core'dinations & DIY embossing folders

I'm still intrigued by the notion of making embossing folders. I'd had it in mind to make one using butterflies, but hadn't gotten around to trying it until today. I pulled out my scrap chipboard, some heavy weight transparency and my Spellbinders butterfly dies. I seem to have quite a few of those dies. I constructed my folder in the same way that I've described before for DIY embossing, but instead of repeating one image several times--that had actually been my original plan--I decided to make it really easy on myself and use all of my butterfly dies at once. So, I made the cuts for this folder all in one pass. Gotta love quick and easy!

The next problem--what to make with this new folder. I'd tested it on text weight paper. I always do that first. Then I'd put folded paper through it. Finally I ran it through with cardstock inside. I figure that by then I've gradually made room for my cardstock to be embossed between those two sides of my chipboard 'sandwich'. Sometimes it's a tight fit starting out.

Now Pearl, if you're reading, this is your fault, you enabler! LOL! Pearl had mentioned the new Core'dinations cardstock a while back, saying that it would probably look really cool with some of the embossing I'd been playing with. I'd been resisting, but I finally did order some to try. No time like the present to try it!


I made this card very simple because I wanted the focus to be on the embossing. All of the die cut shapes that I used were by Spellbinders. I also used Black Magic Core'dinations cardstock and distressed the embossing with a sanding block. I like it! It's a neat effect! The sentiment is by Studio G.

I used more Core'dinations cardstock on this next card, but in a slightly different way.


I distressed the cardstock first by crumpling it then sanding it. I flattened it out a bit and then put it through my Big Shot inside the Perfectly Paisley Cuttlebug embossing folder. I then accented the embossing with the Adirondack Snow Cap pigment ink. The cardstock with the sentiment is the reverse side of the Black Magic, so it matches the distressed color exactly, which is fun. Since that part of the card didn't show up well, here's a close up.


There's a flower vine image stamped in the background with Versamark ink. The sentiment itself is stamped with Memento dye ink. Both stamps are by Hero Arts. The embellishments are Robin's Nest Dew Drops, and yes, this particular set is opaque, and there are white ones which look very much like the half pearls that people often look for only a bit more translucent. Just thought I'd mention that. Turnabout enabling is fair play, eh? :-)

Altered Brides(?!)

Sounds like that should be a headline for one of those weekly papers that you see as you go through the checkout line rather than a stamping blog post title. LOL! Caught your attention though, didn't it. ;-)

Quite a while back I posted that I'd seen a couple of new colors of Brides flowers at Michaels, pink and blue. I managed not to buy those, figuring that I could color my own cream and ivory flowers whatever color I wanted. I didn't need buckets of those single colors. Then the other day I heard that they also had black/silvery ones. Yikes! That was tempting! Fortunately my M's didn't have them. Okay, let's be honest--two of my M's didn't have them. Whew! Saved from an impulse buy, though I did have a couple of 50% off coupons.

Now I'd not gotten around to coloring any flowers. The ivory and cream colors were working fine for what I was making. But the subject has come up again over at the Gingerwood stamping forum. Susan mentioned alcohol inks as a way to color them. Today, di chimed in that she'd stamped some with text using India Ink and that they turned out fabulous. I had to pull mine out and try altering them.


Here are my altered Brides. The one in the top left corner is an unaltered Brides flower, aka table confetti. For those who haven't seen these, they have a pearlescent sheen and are embossed. Very pretty as is, which is why I hadn't felt compelled to do anything to them. At least I hadn't until today.


This is a closer view. I didn't end up using alcohol inks for these. I used my Memento dye inks. They are very fast drying and I love the colors! I just tapped the pad directly on the flower to color the whole thing. On some of them I stamped the flower's center. I used swirl stamps and dot stamps, text stamps and flower stamps. So many possibilities!


Another close up view of the flowers--I was trying to catch the sheen. The black ink was Archival black ink. The white is the new Adirondack snow cap pigment ink.


One more view because you can see some of the pearlescent sheen, particularly on the reddish flower. What I really like about using the Memento ink is the fact that it colored the flower but preserved the sheen. There's a light blue flower with the darker flower stamped on it. I'd colored that one with chalk ink, and as expected, it has a more muted, matte look. The pigment ink for the text was also thick enough that the flower lost that pearlescent look where the words were stamped, but it did make the text stand out a bit more, so that worked out fine.

So yay! Brides flowers can be colored and stamped on in lots of fun ways! Now I don't have to feel like I need to go out and buy any new colors. Woo hoo! The only problem is that I now realize that there are some colors of Memento pads that I would really like to have. LOL!

AHA! moment

Even though I've been playing around quite a bit with those Sizzix movers and shapers dies, I keep trying to think of different ways to use them. This evening I didn't so much come up with a different way to use them, but rather with a different set of stamps to use with them. It was an AHA! moment for me when it occurred to me that some of my Hero Arts Quatros, you know, the ones that have been gathering dust since clear stamps and unmounteds became more popular, would be great, particularly for the four-paned window die.


I made this card using cardstock and patterned paper by Autumn Leaves. I die cut the window and stamped flowers in the spaces using Adirondack pigment ink. I added the Primas with the Robin's Nest Dew Drops at the centers, adhered with Diamond Stickles. The sentiment is by Outlines Rubber Stamps.

Adirondack pigment inks

I have to say that when I read about these and saw the videos featuring these new inks I knew that I'd have to give them a try. Took a while to get my hands on some, but I finally did. Then of course things got busy and I had to put them on the back burner. ARGH!

Today I got to use them. Woo hoo!


The bird is a Sizzix die cut that was made out of a coaster similar to the one that forms the background for the bird. Gotta like that Target dollar spot for stuff like this. Anyway, the bird isn't really supposed to have the funky head feathers, but I'd caught part of a flower while putting that die through, so I thought I'd put it to use. I applied the new Adirondack pigment inks to my die cuts. The Denim covered quite nicely. The Sunset Orange left some of the underlying design showing through, but that was fine with me. I then stamped designs on the bird with a My Favorite Things stamp, first with Sunset Orange then Sunshine Yellow. I accented some of the dots and curls with my Inkssentials opaque white pen. The sentiment is also by My Favorite Things and stamped in Denim. I used the Martha Stewart Doily Lace edge punch to embellish the layers.

I love the vivid colors and the opacity of these inks. They go one easily and smoothly. They dry quickly with a blast from the heat gun if you're the impatient sort. I'm going to like using these! The only problem that I encountered was removing that inner plastic cover from a couple of these ink pads. I think they were caught in the gluing process and it was a bit of a mess to get them off the pad. I mangled one of them quite nicely in the process, too. Other than that, hm, and because of that ;-), I'd have to give them an inky thumbs up!