Prairie Paper & Ink

SNEAK PEEK - AmyR Stamps Congrats Sentiments

It's time to start the peeks of the NEW stamps that will be released at All That Scraps on the first Monday of the month!

So Octobers release will be at 10pm EST on Monday Oct 5th!

Today is the first day of the peeks and it's starting off with my newest soon-to-be-released set called Congrats Sentiments!

I really like my font combinations on my sets like Autumn Sentiments, Beach Sentiments, and Underwater Sentiments and everyone else seems to really like it too - so I thought I would continue with that for a while and do more sets like it - this one being a set with a lot of possibilities and uses.

Here's my first sample using it:

I pulled out my Amy's Butterfly set for this card - I've been dying to ink this set up some more so I HAD to use it for at least one sample with this set!

I inked up the butterfly with SU! water-based markers then stamped it onto white cardstock.

The pale yellow shadowing behind the body of the butterfly was done with Copics (YR20 and YR0000).

I spritzed some olive ink onto the image, and added some glitter by dabbing on glue with my quickie glue pen and pouring glitter over it.

The congratulations was stamped with brown ink then I sponged the edges of the oval with SU! So Saffron ink.

I just got the Labels 5 dies in a recent ATS order so I HAD to use them on this card - I LOVE the elegant feel they give!

The inside of the card was lined with more patterned paper (all the paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love line - another new product I got recently and had to use!).

I die cut another oval from white cardstock, then inked up the butterfly again (using Groovy Guava ink from SU - it's retired) and stamped it off twice before stamping it onto the oval.

I then stamped another sentiment from my Congrats Sentiments set.

That's one of the cool things about this set - there is the large "congratulations" (as well as a "congrats" and several other sentiments) and then there are several "companion" sentiments:

 

By having all of these stamped out with different companion sentiments I can have a card to fit a bunch of different occasions. I can either mass-produce the card above or I can just keep these to adhere which ever one I need into the card when I go to use it!

I hope you guys like my sample and don't forget to head on over to the ATS blog to check out some more samples using this set plus enter in for your chance to WIN this set for FREE! Go HERE<----click! for all that!

Eeeekk!!

I'm still here - I promise!!

Getting my salon up and running has been a LOT more work and time than I ever imagined. That plus I've been helping my mom out quite a bit at the coffee shop as they have been WAY more busy since they re-opened (it's a good thing for sure - it just means I've been running around like a crazy person for the last 2-3 weeks trying to keep up with it all!!).

LOL and my little "plan" of taking some stamped images with me to work to color on between clients?? Yeah they haven't even been touched yet - there's always other things that need to be done!

And THEN - to top it all off lookie what my hubby brought home last week:

Meet Princess Sparkles (yup the girls named her!!).

She IS very cute - and so tiny. The poor thing was abandoned at his work in an old car in the back lot - he could hear her crying and he couldn't resist!

I was NOT happy - I have enough on my plate right now and even though we've talked about pets for months (prolly years!) there never seemed a good time and honestly I've never been much of a pet person.

That and the fact that I've opened this salon and things are crazy right now I was so unimpressed - but she IS really cute, and really friendly and so small!

And of course the girls LOVE her - they want to take her everywhere to show her off LOL. They immediately named her "Sparkles" and I had them change it to Princess Sparkles so I can call her Princess (Josie gave her a little pillow that says "The Princess sleeps here" so I thought it was more fitting that she be named Princess!).

We've (or I'VE) got a fair bit of work to do with her but she's adjusting and we're adjusting and it will hopefully be all good!

Any advice from you seasoned cat owners out there would be greatly appreciated! I used to have cats when I was little and we lived on an acerage - but the majority of them were outside pets and were pretty much left to do as they pleased (except the one that insisted he was a house cat and would always sneak inside to curl up on the couch and watch TV ROFLOL). 

ANYWHO that's a quick update on me.

I DO have cards made - one actually photographed, and I have a sneak peek later today as I'm releasing another stamp set at ATS - there's a new release on MONDAY so I gotta get in gear and get some samples made!!

I'll be back later!!

Friday Sketch! (Sept 18/09)

Are y'all shocked?? I'm posting the Friday Sketch ON Friday LOL!!

I'm glad you guys are liking the videos - I still have one more to finish and upload so mebbe this weekend.

And thank you all for the sweet comments regarding my business venture with the salon and whatnot. This week has been CRAZY and I still have some major things to get done over the weekend and into next week.

However I did take some suggestions that were provided regarding me taking some stamping stuff with me to work!! I stamped out some images (all Fluffless Halloween ones right now - I've been dying to use them again as I have some that I got LAST year and never used!!) and took my Koh-i-noor pencils and blending stumps and OMS so I'll have something to color when I'm between appointments. So we'll see how that all goes!

I still have several colored Autumn Sugarplums sitting on my desk that I haven't had time to make into cards!! :( I need to get that done too!

Speaking of work I have to run!!

Anywho here's the sketch!

This week it's another oldie-but-a-goodie. You can check out the original HERE <---click!

As always here's all the info:

(PLEASE read all this if you're new or not sure how to post direct links - I've had to delete several submissions over the past few weeks as they weren't uploaded properly :o( )

- keyword to use when uploading to public galleries is AMYRS7.

- link directly to your creation when posting a link to your card - why you ask? Check out this link for more info. (I've been editing the links that lead just to a blog to the proper link directly to the post - BUT generally I don't have time to do that. If I don't then I'll just delete the link - if yours is missing this is generally the reason why and you can just re-enter the proper link to your creation in the gallery/blog post!)

-not sure HOW to link provide a DIRECT link? Check out this post by Kristina Werner - she explains how to with her video (it's meant for her color inspiration challenges but it's the same idea) - check it out HERE <----click!

-you are welcome to save this sketch to your computer (right click then save to your computer) and upload it to your blog post along with a direct link to this post with credit given to me for the sketch :o)

- have your card done and linked before next Thursday at 10pm EST in order to have it included with the participants links - other than that there is no time limits - this is all for fun! If you've missed the deadline feel free to include a link to your creation in the comment section of this post!

- ANYONE can participate- you can use whatever products/stamps/embellies you want - sky's the limit :)

- I WILL remove any links I deem inappropriate (self-promotional, spam, card not following sketch in any way etc etc etc).

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AmyR's Friday Sketch! Participants

1. orit 2. k berthiaume 3. Tanja 4. RobbynW 5. Colleen Wold

6. Mercy Kerin 7. Shannon Erskine 8. Rachel A. 9. StephC 10. JoAnn V.

11. Itzuvit 12. Misti 13. dawnmercedes 14. Hazel 15. Jill (Scrap Wench)

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Copics - Creating Patterns with the Colorless Blender VIDEO

Here's the video I've been promising for what - over 2 weeks now??

Here's the link to the post with the Pumpkin Trevor Card <-----click!

And the post with the Apple Emma card <------click!

You can also check out all the videos I've done so far over on YouTube HERE <-----click!

Apple Emma

This is a CRAZY week for me! My salon and my mom's coffee shop opened yesterday so things here are SO busy!!

I need to get a "travel pack" made of stamp stuff done up that I can take downtown with me to have things to work on between clients. Since I need to be there during set hours I don't want to be just sitting around doing nothing when I don't have clients booked so I thought it will be a perfect opportunity to make cards and all that. It's now just a problem of WHAT to take and HOW?? I have SO much stuff so having to narrow it all down is not going to be easy!

Anywho I finally got this card done this morning so here it is:

Apple Emma

I LOVE this Apple Emma image - as soon as Christine showed me all the Autumn Sugarplum images for me to make the Autumn Sentiments set for and I saw this Emma I HAD to make the "for a Special teacher" stamp - they just go together!

I used a BUNCH of Copics to color this image - here they are:

E31, E33, E35, E37, E50, E51, R20, R27, R29, YG03, G07, G99, BG000, Colorless Blender.

I DID do a video on making polka dots and the crosshatching with the Colorless blender - so I'll be finishing it and uploading it tonight to show y'all :o)

The sentiment is from my Autumn Sentiments set - I stamped it onto the aqua cardstock and punched it out with an oval punch.

The ribbon is May Arts, and I punched a half-circle out of the main image for the bow - something I haven't done in a while - but I always like how it looks when I do that!

The patterned paper is from the new Cosmo Cricket The Boyfriend line - SO perfect for teacher/back to school cards.

I decided to have a little fun with the inside of the card and lined it with the red patterned paper then instead of just cutting a rectangle of the lined paper I ran it through my Big Shot with the largest of the Labels 4 dies. I LOVE how it looks!

I gotta run but I'll hopefully be posting again SOON!!

Friday Sketch! (Sept 11/09)

Here's the newest sketch!

And all the info:

(PLEASE read all this if you're new or not sure how to post direct links - I've had to delete several submissions over the past few weeks as they weren't uploaded properly :o( )

- keyword to use when uploading to public galleries is AMYRS75.

- link directly to your creation when posting a link to your card - why you ask? Check out this link for more info. (I've been editing the links that lead just to a blog to the proper link directly to the post - BUT generally I don't have time to do that. If I don't then I'll just delete the link - if yours is missing this is generally the reason why and you can just re-enter the proper link to your creation in the gallery/blog post!)

-not sure HOW to link provide a DIRECT link? Check out this post by Kristina Werner - she explains how to with her video (it's meant for her color inspiration challenges but it's the same idea) - check it out HERE <----click!

-you are welcome to save this sketch to your computer (right click then save to your computer) and upload it to your blog post along with a direct link to this post with credit given to me for the sketch :o)

- have your card done and linked before next Thursday at 10pm EST in order to have it included with the participants links - other than that there is no time limits - this is all for fun! If you've missed the deadline feel free to include a link to your creation in the comment section of this post!

- ANYONE can participate- you can use whatever products/stamps/embellies you want - sky's the limit :)

- I WILL remove any links I deem inappropriate (self-promotional, spam, card not following sketch in any way etc etc etc).

.................................................................................................................................................................

AmyR's Friday Sketch! Participants

1. lisa gobea 2. Bronwen 3. Jennifer Muraoka

4. Tanja 5. Kirsty 6. Elena

7. StephC 8. Kimberly O'Rosky

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Copics - Adding Color Around a Stamped Image VIDEO

Well I got one video done and uploaded - I still have a couple more to finish.

I woke up yesterday with a HORRIBLE tension headache in my neck and even tho it's not as bad as it was yesterday I STILL have it.

Needless to say I haven't been doing much - most tasks make it hurt even more so I've been keeping low-key for the past 2 days :(

I know I'm late with the Friday sketch (as usual! LOL I should change it to the Saturday sketch eh?) but I will prolly have it up either later on today or tomorrow.

Anywho here is the video I uploaded - the Pumpkin Trevor card I posted the other day is the sample I made for it:

Pumpkin Trevor

I went to take pics of this card just now, and of course my camera battery was dead.

And OF COURSE I couldn't find the charger for it. I searched everywhere and still couldn't find it - so I resorted to using my point-and-shoot camera that I really don't LIKE using for card pics - they just don't turn out as well!

And then as I go to connect the camera to the 'puter to upload the pics what do I see sitting right in front of me????? The stinkin' charger for my other camera.

ANYWHO - the battery for my good camera is now charging, but since I took all the pics and I don't' have time to wait and then re-take them all again! - here's the card!

I stamped this Autumn Trevor stamp onto white cardstock and colored him in with my Copics.

I created the same pattern on his sweater as I did on this card - and yes I did take a video of it. I'll hopefully be able to edit and upload that later on today.

I didn't take a picture of the markers - but here are the ones I used:

Colorless Blender, Y0000, Y00, Y15, YR12, YR14, E50, E51, E33, E35, E37, R20, R27, B95, B97, BG 93, BG96.

The sentiment is from my Autumn Sentiments set - I stamped it then punched it out with SU's oval punch then matted it with the larger oval punch.

Those leaves are from Prima - I got them a couple of years ago and still have a nearly full jar. I barely use them so I decided to use them on this card and just glued them in place with Mono Multi.

I pulled out another embossing folder for this one - this time I used my Argyle folder.

For the inside of the card I stamped the garland of leaves onto the top and bottom of the white cardstock then colored them in with Copics.

You can get all the Autumn Sugarplums plus all the other September releases here at ATS :o)

NEW STAMPS Available!

I'm glad you guys have been liking the samples with the newest ATS images! I actually have a TON more to share - I just need to get the actual cards done - I've stamped and colored a bunch of images and they're all sitting here begging to be finished!!

I've also been filming a few little videos - so once all the editing and uploading and whatnot is done I'll be posting those soon as well.

I was going to do a bunch this morning but my mom called in a panic needing help - we're still renovating at the new building where she'll have her coffee shop (and me my esthetics salon!!) but right now she's catering all this week and I have to run and help her out for a bit. So mebbe I'll get some stampy things done later on this afternoon!

Anywho before I run here's the two latest stamp sets by me! *grin*

Autumn Sentiments:

Spooky Sentiments:

You can get both of these sets at ATS here <----click! as well as all the rest of the September images!

Gotta run - talk to y'all later!

Tonight's the night! September Release Party at ATS

Woot woot!! It's stamp release day!!

ALL the new September stamps will be available on the All That Scraps site at 10pm EST.

And at 8pm EST (right away!) we'll be "partying" in the forums - basically the Design Team will all be online at the same time chatting it up on the forums and we all would LOVE for you to join us!

We move pretty quickly and chat about pretty much whatever comes up (LOTS of Bachelor/Bachelorette chatter when that's on, and whatever other reality shows the DT members are hooked on at the moment LOL) plus answer any questions and post samples and all kinds of things.

It's lots of fun so if you're curious to check it out you can do so right here <----click!

CC Designs Autumn Sugarplums BLOG HOP!

Welcome to the CC Designs Autumn Sugarplums Blog Hop!!

The Autumn Sugarplums release is so large the whole team wanted to participate so we decided to do our very first blog hop!

If you've just happened across my blog and didn't start at the beginning click here<-----click!

I didn't know which image to choose for my sample - and I was planning on posting more than one sample - but time got away from me when I was finishing up this card - I just kept adding to it LOL.

Isn't she adorable?? I LOVE all the images in this Sugarplums fall release - they are so cute and so much fun to color!

I stamped her onto CCD white cardstock with Memento ink then colored her in with my Copics.

I actually colored this image along with several others in the release during my Copic class with Julie - so now I've got a bunch of finished images to make cards with!

Here's the Copics I used (sorry no picture of them this time - I wrote down all the colors as I used them and it turns out a couple that I used I don't have):

E47, E29, C00, C-1, C-3, C-5, 0 (Colorless Blender), BG0000, BG10, BG49, G94, G99, YG03, R27, R29, YR12, YR16, E50, E51, R20 (yeah I used a LOT of markers for this image!!).

The pattern on her apron as well as all the polka dots was done with the colorless blender (if you guys are interested one of these days I'll do a video of that showing how).

The sidewalk was drawn in by hand - just a couple of quick lines with my black Copic Multiliner then colored in.

The sentiment is from my soon-to-be-released Autumn Sentimentsset that co-ordinates with the Sugarplums Fall release :o) I stamped it onto white cardstock then punched it out with a SU punch.

I made the pumpkin behind the sentiment using an oval punch and sponge daubers. The stem and leaf I free-hand cut from cardstock then sponged and glued on.

I used my Houndstooth CuttleBug embossing folderon the green cardstock and added some (what else?? LOL) orange May Arts checkered ribbon.

On the inside of the card I masked and stamped the pumpkin images from the co-ordinating images set - they all go with the fall sugarplums stamps.

After stamping them I colored them in with Copics, then stamped and punched out another sentiment from the AmyR Autumn Sentiments set.

After sponging it and adhering it that was it!

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Don't forget to comment! ONE random comment from one of the blog hop posts will be chosen to win the ENTIRE Autumn Sugarplums stamp collection!! So make sure to leave a comment on each post to increase your chances of winning! 

Thanks for stopping by! Continue the hop by visiting Eat Sleep Stamp.

This contest is now closed! A random winner was chosen from one of the posts and is posted at the top of the original ATS blog hop post HERE <-----click!

Thank you all so much for stopping by and commenting! We can't wait to do this again!

SNEAK PEEK - CC Designs Halloween Candy

This soon-to-be-released set is SO cute!

If you liked the Chasing Butterflies and School Days set then wait 'till you see this one!

Here's the card I made:

ACK isn't it CUTE??

I stamped the puppy onto CCD white cardstock with Memento ink then colored him in with my Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol.

I've been "revisitng" this coloring method lately and am loving it! It's fun to take a break every once in a while since I seem to go in spurts when ALL I use is my Copics.

I also really like using pencil crayons when I'm coloring an image that is "supposed" to be black - it's easier to create depth with them as opposed to using markers.

Anywho after coloring in the image I cut it out with my Nestabilities Label 1 die.

I cut out a second one from black cardstock and trimmed off one side where I stamped the sentiment (also in this Halloween Candy set) with white pigment ink.

I used orange and grey cardstocks on the cardfront - along with more of my current favorite - May Arts checkered ribbon.

On the inside of the card I added more orange cardstock and cut another label 1 from white and black cardstocks and finished it all off.

Don't forget to check out the other DT samples using this set HERE<-----click!

Friday Sketch! (Sept 4/09)

Here's the newest sketch!

Along with all the usual info:

(PLEASE read all this if you're new or not sure how to post direct links - I've had to delete several submissions over the past few weeks as they weren't uploaded properly :o( )

- keyword to use when uploading to public galleries is AMYRS74.

- link directly to your creation when posting a link to your card - why you ask? Check out this link for more info. (I've been editing the links that lead just to a blog to the proper link directly to the post - BUT generally I don't have time to do that. If I don't then I'll just delete the link - if yours is missing this is generally the reason why and you can just re-enter the proper link to your creation in the gallery/blog post!)

-not sure HOW to link provide a DIRECT link? Check out this post by Kristina Werner - she explains how to with her video (it's meant for her color inspiration challenges but it's the same idea) - check it out HERE <----click!

-you are welcome to save this sketch to your computer (right click then save to your computer) and upload it to your blog post along with a direct link to this post with credit given to me for the sketch :o)

- have your card done and linked before next Thursday at 10pm EST in order to have it included with the participants links - other than that there is no time limits - this is all for fun! If you've missed the deadline feel free to include a link to your creation in the comment section of this post!

- ANYONE can participate- you can use whatever products/stamps/embellies you want - sky's the limit :)

- I WILL remove any links I deem inappropriate (self-promotional, spam, card not following sketch in any way etc etc etc).

.................................................................................................................................................................

AmyR's Friday Sketch! Participants

1. Susan 2. Jennifer Muraoka 3. lisa gobea 4. Sonja Webster

5. Misti 6. Miss Magoo 7. Sparkle 8. Lily

9. Mary J 10. RobbynW 11. Kimberly O'Rosky 12. Judy Applegarth

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Long Day (non stamping post - just me blabbing)

I know the Friday sketch is late AGAIN!! And I have more sneak peek samples to share too.

It's not all my fault - I haven't been able to get in to Typepad all evening until just now - and now I'm exhausted and heading to bed so I'll be posting everything in the morning!!

I spent the day in the city doing salon business stuff - I got my teeth whitened and actually got trained and bought the machine to do it myself in my new salon! I am SO excited about that - I've been wanting to do this for some time now but wasn't going to get a loan and spend a lot of $$ on the machine and supplies till I knew FOR SURE that it would work and deliver the results. Thus me getting it done - and I am stoked at how much whiter my teeth are!

I took before pictures and I'll have to take "after" pictures either tomorrow or the next day - by the time I got home and everything it was too dark to take pics. If anyone wants to see them I can post them later on here (I have a few friends that want me to e-mail the pics as they want to see the results too LOL).

That and I really AM exhausted. It was a long day and I came home to a wonderful "rotten egg" smell (meaning we had a natural gas leak in the house).

Thankfully b/c of where we live in town I was first on the grid to get inspected from the gas company and the guy told me that they just added more "scent" to the lines and they had got a LOT of calls tonight. 

We DO have a leak - a small one on our water heater. He said it wasn't dangerous (we didn't have to leave the house - just open the windows) but we obviously need to get it fixed soon.

So even thought I'm beat I have to wait up for another guy to come fix it (Tim's working late tonight AND he's sick - so even when he does get home he'll prolly go to bed before I do)

I'm glad tho that the gas company added more scent to the gas as I could smell it as soon as I walked in the door (it was NOT subtle - SO gross really) - and now we'll get that leak fixed ASAP.

ANYWHO sorry for all the rambling. I've just got nothing else to post right now as my camera and files and everything are upstairs in my stamp room and I am too lazy tired right now to go up there. All I want to do is go to bed but I can't - gotta wait for the guy to show up and fix the leak! :(

I will be back tomorrow to post a sample (mebbe more if I can get some stamping time in the morning!!) and the Friday Sketch!!!

SNEAK PEEK - AmyR Stamps Spooky Sentiments

Sorry this post is late!! It's another one of those days I guess....

Anywho - yup I'm releasing another couple of sets this month - BOTH are sentiment sets - y'all will see the 2nd one this weekend - for now I'm peeking the soon-to-be-released Spooky Sentiments set.

I gotta say I am SO happy with how this set turned out. I was happy with it when I made it and sent it off to Christine forever ago - and happy when it got here and I cut it out - but actually inking it up and USING it?? LOVING it!! LOL

SO - this is a set of 22 (23 if you cut one of the stamps apart) stamps that will retail for $8 (yes only EIGHT DOLLARS) - and it will be available along with all the other fab September stamps on Monday Sept 7th at All That Scraps!

Here's what I made:

I decided to use just the Spooky Sentiments set - except for the bat images which are from another CCD set that will be released on the 7th.

I made this set of 3 "boo boxes" (a friend of mine started calling the 2,4,6,8 boxes "boo boxes" years ago when I first showed her how to make them - it always made me laugh - but for these ones it's the perfect name!!) using all SU cardstock (Old Olive, Lovely Lilac and Only Orange) along with CCD White for the labels.

If you don't know what a 2,4,6,8 Box is you can check out this tutorial I did on them eons ago here <-------click!

For the labels I die cut the white cardstock using my Spellbinders Labels 1 die, then stamped the sentiments onto them.

The "Spooky" is one stamp, as is the "treats" and "sweets" stamps (I wanted to be able to mix 'em up!) and the "for you" is one stamp.

I took some black cardstock and used my SU! scalloped edge punch on it then cute it into strips before stamping the "yum yum yum...." stamp onto it with white craft ink (the stamp is just under 4" long - it's a lot of "yums"!!).

I attached those to the bottoms of the boxes - love how that simple touch dressed them up!

Finally I punched holes in the sides of each and added some May Arts ribbon as handles (and I LOVE how that turned out - all my hoarding of ribbon and having to have ALL the colors of certain styles (like this gingham!) just paid off LOL).

I also stamped the small "Happy Halloween" onto little cardstock tags that I die cut with my Tiny Tags CuttleBug die - I spritzed and sponged those as well.

I think this would be such a cute (and cheap! Each box only takes a 1/2 sheet of cardstock and then a few scraps for the labels and strip along the bottom) project to make for my daughter's class this year. If they end up having a Halloween party this year I'll definitely have to make a bunch of these as they're easy to mass-produce!

Don't forget to check out the other DT samples HERE<-------click! (and leaving a comment on THAT ATS post will enter you in to win this set for free!).