Saturday, February 28, 2009

March FOTM, Daffodil

You were right! March's Flower Of The Month (FOTM) is the Daffodil. Isn't it beautiful? For those of you who have the other FOTM stamp sets you know that the clean lines of the artwork is so nice to stamp and to color. Really a pleasure to stamp with! This stamp set is available in the store www.TheStampingStudio.com in the sections; Rubber Stamps Flowers/Foliage, Ready Set Stamps, and Rubber Stamps Flower Of The Month.

For those of you who took a guess at what the FOTM is and guessed the Daffodil (I think that was everyone... you guys are so hard to fool!) please email me with your snail mail address and I will be sending you a surprise goodie. No I am not going to reveal what it is... then it would no be a surprise!

For those of you traveling in this rainy stormy weather to the Stamp Club Workshop please be careful! We don't want anything to happen to you.

Daffodil Samples by Suzanne Milam

The Flower Of The Month is the Daffodil and take a look at Suzanne Milam's samples. Gorgeous! Great job Suzanne.






Friday, February 27, 2009

Hey everyone,

It is a soggy day here in northeast Georgia but we sure need it to fill up our lake. Below is a card that we are going to make tomorrow at our Stamp Club Workshop. The clover was made using the hearts from our "Forever in my Heart" stamp set.

I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow. If you can't make the workshop then be sure to stop by the blog again as I will be unveiling the new Flower Of The Month and also some great samples made by Suzanne Milam.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

New Stamp Update

I just received notice that our 4 new stamp sets are shipping today and should arrive late afternoon March 2nd. Whoohoo!

Sneak Peek, #4 2/26/09

Good morning everyone,

Here is today's Sneak Peek stamp set by Suzanne Milam full of Irish greetings. You will receive 5 sayings/greetings in the cutest fonts available. This set measures approx. 4.25x5.5" and, as with all of these Sneak Peek sets, they are Ready Set Stamps and come on Ez Mount cling cushion that clings to an acrylic block, are pre-cut so you can stamp with them right out of the package, and come on a clear index sheet perfect for storage.

The new stamp sets are being trimmed out as we speak so they should be here soon. Yea!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

FOTM

Good day everyone,

Can you guess what the March Flower Of The Month (FOTM) is going to be? I posted a "snippet" of a photo of a card I made with this new set and if you can guess what it is I will send you a surprise "goodie"! To guess just respond to this post by midnight February 27th.

I will be posting the new March FOTM a day early this month - February 28th as it is the last day of the month and we are also having our Stamp Club Workshop that day and want for the new set to be available to our Clubber's.

Good luck everyone!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Stamp Club Project Peek

I have a peek project for you this time of a card that we will be creating this Saturday at our Stamp Club Workshop.

This is called a Shadow Box Card, and is really fun to play around with. It is a simple design and you can add more layers and really make it as 3D as you want. I added two layers to this one and it looks great and I bet anyone would love to receive it. It lays flat and fits in a normal size envelope, and also stands up on it's own as well.

It is not too late to sign up for the workshop... I have a few extra supplies cut. So if you can make at the last minute let me know! melissa@thestampingstudio.com

Monday, February 23, 2009

Sneak Peek #3 2/23/09

I wasn't going to give you another Sneak Peek stamp set for another couple days but I am so excited to share these with you I could not resist! Here is the other Rory stamp set from Brooke Smith "Irish Rory" and this cute little bird I can picture colored green of course!

The rubber for these are being pressed as we speak and then they are off to the cutting room and then will be shipped to The Stamping Studio! I will keep you updated on their progress and when they will be available.

I have one more Sneak Peek stamp set to show you from Suzanne Milam with some wonderful Irish greetings that I know you are going to love. I will post that set on Thursday so don't forget to check back!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Sneak Peek #2, 3/21/09

Good morning everyone,

Here is your promised Sneak Peek stamp set with the cute little butterflies! This set includes 3 happy "Rounders" that measure approx. 1.5" round, and then the cute scrolly butterflies that can be stamped inside the rounders or anywhere your hearts desires. The butterflys measure approx. 1". Butterflies are one of the new "hot" images in paper crafting and a wonderful image for spring don't you think? I can't wait for these to come in!

Have a great weekend and I hope you get to set aside some time and stamp!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Stamp Club Next Saturday, RSVP

Happy Friday everyone!
Here is a little "new stamp tease" for you.

This is a small little butterfly that is part of a set that is coming soon! Don't you just love a good tease?!

I also wanted you remind you that we have our monthly Stamp Club Workshop next Saturday February 28th at 11:00-2:00. Please RSVP by emailing me if you can come and join us; melissa@thestampingstudio.com My email program is rejecting some of you emails went I sent out a reminder yesterday, so you may not have received a reminder if you are a regular participant.

Everyone can come to our workshop if you live in the Lincolnton/Augusta Georgia area. We will create 3 fun and cute projects, and feed you lunch as well. What could be better? I can't wait to see you all here!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Sneak Peek #1 2/19/09

Hey everyone,

Here is your first Sneak Peek stamp set by Brooke Smith featuring her new character "Rory". Isn't he the cutest thing?! I love all the elements that Brooke includes in all of her stamp sets including the banner, cupcake and of course confetti! This set will be available in 2/3 weeks and I will keep you updated. I will post another Sneak Peek stamp set Saturday morning so check back here, and please let us know how you like our new sets. We like feedback!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Announcement

Hey everyone,

What is the big Announcement? No I am not pregnant... Ha! Actually I have two things to announce the first being that we have 4 new stamp sets in process and should be here in 2/3 weeks. Yea! new rubber.

The second is that artist Brooke Smith has come up with a brand new little bird character named Rory who is just the cutest thing! Rory is going to be our new mascot and Brooke is working on seasonal and celebration stamp sets with Rory in them. I know you are going to love little Rory and want to collect them all! Below is a sneak peek of one of Rory's new sets.

I will keep you updated on the status of the new stamp sets and will be doing sneak peek's of all the sets in the days to come.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

daffodils

Hi everyone,

We have some early blooming flowers here at the Studio, aren't they beautiful? We have had some unusually warm weather here which we have been enjoying but it will probably turn cold again before spring finally arrives.

My parents are here visiting from Wisconsin so I won't be posting as much, but when I do.... I have a special announcement that I think you will love! Check back early next week for that.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

What I learned today

Hey Everyone,

I learned a time saving trick, that maybe you already know. You can run two pieces of cardstock through an embossing folder and your Cuttlebug and they will both be equally embossed. What a time saver when you are making a bunch of one card design (or getting ready for a class like me!). You know it really is "the little things in life" that get you happy and excited!

Lay two pieces of cardstock/pattern cardstock in your folder.Run it through your Cuttlebug like normal.

There you go... two pieces of embossed cardstock. I did not try this with other weigths of cardstock, so there may be differences.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Inside Flapper Card Tutorial

Hi stampers and scrappers,

Here is the promised Inside Flapper Card Tutorial I promised, and I even used our new Flower Of The Month stamp!
You will need for paper; pink cardstock 5.5x11 and a piece 4x5.5. White cardstock to stamp the main image on. Pattern paper scalloped circle and pattern paper strips.






Take the pink cardstock and score it 4"3" from that scoreAnd then 3" from that score. This will leave 1"Use a bone folder to fold on all scored lines and it should look like this.Glue the 5.5x4" pattern piece to the 1" flap.

Glue this inside flap together with a bit of glue.
It should look like this, at this point in the game.

I would like to take this opportunity to show you a cute picture of our coon hound Marble who is on my studio floor begging for a belly rub. Isn't she the cutest?!Now is a good time stamp! (Actually "anytime" is a good time to stamp) I used this flowery/scrolly image from the "Contemporary Elements" set and Pink Petunia VersaMagic ink.


Stamp the inside as well, and the back of the flap. Basically anything pink will get stamped.Now we are going to make a window in the inside flap. I ran mine through the Cuttlebug using a scalloped oval Nestabilities die. Make sure you only cut out on the flap! You could also use a punch for this or any other cutting system.Walla!For the focal point image on the front of the card I am using our new unveiled Flower Of The Month stamp set, the Iris. It stamps out so crisp and clean!I colored mine with a blending pen and ink pads. If you have not tried it before you should! First you should know that a blending pen is basically a marker without any color, so you will need to add the color yourself. What exactly is in a blending pen?... good question. Like I said it is basically a marker and it contains among a few other things glycerin which extends the drying time of the fluid which means you have more time to move the color around before it dries on you. Use the blending pen to get a watercolor look without using all that water. Besides using ink pads to add the color you can use watercolor pencils, regular watercolors, and chalks... I am sure there are other mediums too that I can't think of at this moment. OK, enough of the blending pen lesson, let's color!The easiest ink to work with is dye based ink which is kind of like a marker too, but with out the glycerin and other things. To use your pad as a pallet, while closed squeeze the ink pad lid to the pad.When you open the lid you will see this, a pool of ink to dip your blending pen into. Use a light hand at first, as you can always add color but you can't take it away. Also remember that you want this to look like watercolor which means you need light and dark shades... you do not want it all one shade. For that you could just use a marker.Here is my coloring and you will notice I did not stay in the lines very well. Don't worry I will take care of that later.We are going to use the pink color now so we need to clean the blending pen out, and you do that by just coloring with it on scrap paper until it runs clear.I am going to use pigment ink now which will work fine but it will not be as crisp and clear as the dye ink. You could think of pigment ink as being more of a gel ink and is thicker than dye ink and takes longer to dry. I am just going to touch the blending pen to the pad itself.I started coloring from the inside of the petals outward so it would naturally have a darker shade inside the flower and lighter on the petals.Here it is finished.Clean out your pen after every use.To clean up my edges and to also make the image "pop" from the what paper a bit, I outlined it using a light gray marker.I cut this out using a circle die and glued it to a slightly larger scalloped circle.Now let's do some more stamping. First stamp the saying "Smiles are..." on the green strip and then "the soul's kisses" on the inside of the card (these are from the Happy Sayings set) and then the word "Smile" through the window. (from the Happy, Smile, Laugh set)Take the strip and corner round it on both left side corners.It should look like this.Round the edges of a slightly larger pattern paper strip and glue them together and then to the bottom right side of the card.It should look like this.Punch two small holes to run ribbon through.Let's make a cute little flower/ribbon embellishment. The ribbon will be the petals. First thing is to cut a length of sheer ribbon.Glue it to itself to make a loop. I just used my ATG gun for this whole thing, or you could use glue dots.Put some glue inside the loop and glue the middle down.Twist it and glue it down.Attach a brad inside a paper flower and then glue it onto your ribbon. Cute Hugh?This is the front of the finished card.Inside front.Inside back... you will notice that I added a paper tab and mini paper flowers.The back of the card.


I hope you enjoyed learning how to make this fun Flapper Card and will try it yourself.