Prairie Paper & Ink

SNEAK PEEK - Sweet November Briar The Imp and Sonata

It's time for another sneak peek!

CC Designs April Release stamps will be available Sunday April 3, 2011 at 9pm CST at the All That Scraps site.

Today I've got Briar the Imp and Sonata - one of the soon-to-be-released Sweet November images that I inked up for this card:

 
I ended up doing a couple of things I haven't done in a LONG time - airbrushing and using my sewing machine LOL!

To start off with I stamped Briar onto white cardstock, colored him in with Copics then cut him out with one of my Labels 4 dies.

 
I stamped Briar onto some Eclipse masking tape and cut him out to place over the colored image to mask it so that I could airbrush some clouds in the "background".

 
To make the clouds I diecut a cloud from the MFT cloud trio dies then simply held it in place while I airbrushed the color (BG72) around it - moving it around to each spot to get the effect you see here.

And yes I got it all over my finger (and the rest of my hand actually) - so I recommend wearing disposable gloves when doing this. It cleans right off with rubbing alcohol so I don't bother wearing gloves.

 
And that was the end result.

The grass was made using the MFT Fresh Cut Grass die and some felt. I used Scor-tape to adhere it.

 
The sentiment is from my It's Your Birthday set. I stamped it onto the patterned paper then stitched it to the cardfront with my little sewing machine. I ended up not liking how it looked as you could hardly see the white thread so I went over it with one of my brown Copics - a little messy but I was ok with that.

All of the patterned paper is from the new MME Stella and Rose Hattie 6x6 pack.

I also used some Cappuccino Twine to attach all the buttons.

 
On the inside of the card I used more patterned papers and die cut another Labels 4from white cardstock. I stamped Sonata onto that and colored him in with Copics.

The sentiment I used on the inside is from my Best Birthday Wishes set - I did the same thing with that as I did on the card front.

And that's it! If you're still reading this after such a long post then be sure to head on over to the ATS blog to check out what the Design Team did with this stamp as well as all the other Sweet November stamps that are being peeked for this release!

 

SNEAK PEEK - AmyR Stamps All About YOU - and a VIDEO

Time for another sneak peek! And this one is accompanied by another Cardmaking Video :o)

For the CCDesigns April release I have a small sentiment set coming out called All About YOU.

All the new CCD Stamps including my set will be available on the All That Scraps site Sunday April 3, 2011 at 9pm CST.

You can check out what the Design Team did with this set HERE <----click!

And here's my video:

 

You can watch the video on YouTube HERE <-----click!

AmyR Stamps All About YOU set (available Apr 3,2011)

Memento Ink

Spellbinders Labels 4 Dies

WeR Sew Easy Floss

Basic Grey Kioshi Collection

Product Review Video - WeRMemoryKeepers Brad Setter and Piercing Tool

**Post #2 for today!! Be sure to scroll down and check out my previous post - it's a SNEAK PEEK of one of the soon-to-be-released CCDesigns stamps!**

I had several questions about this tool when I used it in one of my videos so here's my review of it:

 

You can watch it on YouTube HERE <-----click!

I just saw a comment saying Michael's carries these now as well so if you have one close to you you can go check it out.

Stamping Bella Tool Section (it's still not there but that's where I got it from originally - not sure if it's out of stock or they just aren't selling it anymore?)

WeRMemoryKeepers

SNEAK PEEK - CCDesigns Rain Lilliput

It's that time again - we're counting down until Sunday April 3rd when all the new April CCDesigns stamps will be released at All That Scraps!

Here's the card I made with the soon-to-be-released Rain Lilliput image:

 
As I said in my previous card post I was on a mission to use up my Basic Grey Kioshi papers - today's card and the couple I will be posting tomorrow are the last of it!

 
I paper pieced (video tutorial on how I do that here) her umbrella and her boots and used Copics to color in the dots and the rest of the image.

The flowers were pulled from my stash as was the ribbon.

The 'under the weather?' sentiment is from my Get Well sentiments set. I stamped it onto the pale purple cardstock then used one of my Spellbinders Label Trio Dies to cut it out.

 
I lined the inside of the card with more Kioshi papers then die cut a piece of white cardstock using one of my Curved Rectangles dies. Both sentiments are from the Get Well Sentiments set.

And that was it!

Be sure to check out the ATS blog to see what the Design Team created with this stamp as well as the other stamps that are being peeked today (there are several!).

 

 

A Peek Into My Life

My girls have been begging me lately to play Wii Mario Kart with them - and so I did the other night and thankfully my camera was handy and Tim was able to get this bit of video without Josie noticing. That kid cracks me up - and as hard as it is for me to admit (I'm a little competitive by nature) she can kick my @$$ at Mario Kart a good half of the time. Which is saying something b/c I'm not *horrible* at video games (just don't ask my hubby for his opinion LOL).

She gets very into it - and our cat makes a bit of an appearance too:

 

You can watch it on YouTube HERE <------click!

And if you missed it I posted a new card late last night so be sure to scroll down and check that out.

Celebrate

I hope y'all had a good weekend! Mine didn't go as planned at all - I was supposed to be at a Zumba certification class all day today and couldn't make it because the highways are a mess and travel wasn't recommended - but I'd rather stay home and be safe than risk my life just to get to the city (and I can take the class within the next year so there's no worries). Then to top it off my hubby got sick with the flu and so far *knock on wood!* I haven't caught it and neither have the girls - that's the last thing we need. It's been going around again and it's a rotten one.....

Anywho - he's slowly getting better and I've got a bunch of stuff to do so I gotta get this post done quick.

Oh and make sure to stay tuned this week as I've got lots to share - I've made a lot of cards lately and filmed a few videos so I'm hoping to have something new up every day!

To start it off here's a card I made the other day:

 
I have been bound and determined to use up the last of my scraps of the Basic Grey Kioshi collection and as of this afternoon I finally did it LOL! So there will be several cards over the next little while using the same papers - this being one of them.

 
This is the new Swiss Pixie Birthday Gretel image that was just released with all the other CCD March stamps. I colored the image in with Copics and glittered her up with Stickles.

The Primas and ribbon were from my stash and the stitched brad and other brads were all from the BG Kioshi collection.

 
The 'celebrate' sentiment is from my new It's Your Birthday set - I stamped it onto pink cardstock and punched it out with one of my SU punches (I really should label them b/c I forget the names of them all the time).

 
 
On the inside of the card I used one of my Labels 4 dies (which I used on the front as well) along with the new CC Designs Cutters Balloon Dies (LOVE those - they're so cute) the I "attached" to the card with embroidery thread.

The sentiment is from my Best Birthday Wishes set - I punched that one out with my SU Key Tag punch (I remembered that one!).

I hope y'all like it! Gotta run and get more laundry done...

 

Happy Birthday Bunny

As usual this card is late - but I HAD to make something for the TCP Tuesday 150 challenge - the layout was so neat and it gave me a chance to finally use my Pennant Cut Ups dies. So it's technically too late for the challenge but it's the thought that counts right? LOL

This was the sketch:

And here's what I made:

I got the TCP Forget About the Cake set in a recent order and have been dying to ink it up - all those bunny images TCP carries just crack me up.

I also used more of the new Basic Grey Hopscotch collection along with some Caribbean Divine Twine (I went nuts when ATS got the Divine Twine in and ordered a bunch of it - haven't posted that haul vid yet though).

Like I said earlier I used my TCP Pennants Cut Ups dies to cut the triangles, then matted them with black cardstock so they would stand out a bit more.

I stamped the image onto CCD CQ80lb white cardstock using Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colored it in with Copics. Again it's REALLY hard to pick up the shimmer on camera but I added some sparkle to the candle flames, layers, and plate with Copic Spica pens (Pink, Baby Blue and Yellow).

I go through such obvious phases with my stamping - right now it's the Spica pens and turning all my sentiments into little flags:

I just can't help myself ;o)

The sentiment is from my It's Your Birthday stamp set - I stamped it onto the cardstock with black ink, trimmed it out and cut the ends with scissors to make it a little flag, banner whatever you want to call it.

I had to add some hopscotch buttons while I was added so I sewed them on with more Caribbean Divine twine (which is actually a tad difficult - Divine Twine is thicker than regular embroidery floss which is what I normally use - so pulling it through a couple layers of cardstock and small button holes takes a bit of work just FYI).

The wide yellow ribbon (that I was SO proud of finally using on a card - it's SO wide and slightly stiff that it's difficult to pull off on a standard A2-sized card) is from May Arts.

The inside was kept pretty simple - more Hopscotch papers along with some ribbon doilies and another stamped sentiment - this one from the Best Birthday Wishes set.

Then voila! Card done :o)

Making a Card #6 VIDEO - Paper Smooches

I've had LOADS of requests to do more card-making videos - and I have a new one here for y'all!

I can't promise that I'll do these very often - they take up a ton of time (just the editing and uploading took a good hour and a half this morning - blah) but mebbe I'll get faster at it. Plus I do enjoy doing them - it's something different (for me).

 

You can watch the video on YouTube HERE <----click!

And here's the links:

Paper Smooches Friendly Flowers Set

Paper Smooches Spiffy Scooters Set

Basic Grey Marjolaine Collection

Tombow Mono Multi Adhesive

Heavyweight White Cardstock

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Best Friends

I just finished this card last night and HAD to share it ASAP!

I don't know about you guys but I am in love with the new Sweet November Zodiac images. I don't even read my horoscope LOL but I LOVE these images! They're big enough to have fun coloring them and you can tweak all of them so that they don't look like "Zodiac" images at all - giving them a ton of possibilities.

I got the SN Gemini and the Sagittarius ones to make samples with and I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy all the other ones in the near future so I can play with them too.

This first card uses the Gemini stamp and the first thing I thought of when I saw it was to make it into a Best Friends card - so that's what I did:

 
I pulled out all my Basic Grey Marjolaine papers and accessories for this card, and used several Glazed Brads along with one of the Stitched brads and a couple regular ones too.

The flowers were from my stash, as was the ribbon (May Arts). I added a bit of the Marjolaine Ribbon Doilies to the left side under the flowers too.

 
I ignored the fact that she's wearing a necklace (they each have their sign hanging from necklaces) and colored her shoulders as a shirt instead - it was that simple.

I colored them in with Copics making one a blonde and one a brunette. After I had the card put together I felt like adding a bit of sparkle to the card - so I pulled out my Copic Spica pens (Chocolate, Sky Blue and Lemon) to add some shimmer to their eyes and hair - much more subtle than Stickles but it looks SO cool in real life! It was really hard to pick up the shimmer on camera.

 
And of course I used my Friends Sentiments stamps to finish off the card.

 
 

I kept the inside of the card pretty simple. I stamped the Gemini image with a light green ink onto white cardstock, trimmed it out and matted it with black before adhering it to the inside of the card over the patterned papers.

I stamped another sentiment from the Friends Sentiments set, rounded the corners of it and that was it!

 

Paper Smooches March '11 Haul VIDEO

 

You can watch the video on YouTube HERE <------click!

I am seriously BEYOND excited that Kim's back designing stamps. Her images have been long-time favorites of mine and it took me no time at all to sign up for the 12-month membership - not only do you save money (compared to buying the sets each month without the sub.) but it's less hassle for me LOL! I know I'd want them all anyway!

Off to stamp!

ATS Order Haul #11 VIDEO

I need to get this post done quickly - I have to get to work right away!

I got in yet another order from ATS a week or two ago (and have another one on the way *sheepish grin* - I couldn't help myself!!) and filmed the video and then forgot about it LOL. I had it all sitting in the box on the floor by my desk (as I've been trying to keep all my "new to me" stuff in one spot so that I can pull it out and use it faster) and am planning on using some of it this weekend - so I thought I better get pics of the new stuff and get this video edited and uploaded so here it is:

  

You can watch it on YouTube HERE <----click!

And here are the pics (links are below them):

 
I just friggen love these Penny Black images - don't know why but I do!

 
And then these adorable Cat's Pajamas sets. That bunny just cracks me up.

 
 

As always here are the links:

Penny Black Stamps

Spellbinders Clearance section (candy corn dies)

MFT Flat Bottom Cloud Die-Namics

MFT Butterflies Die-Namics

Cat's Pajamas Stamps and Cut-Ups Dies

WeR Sew Easy Stuff

Miscellaneous Clearance Stuff (seashells, brads)

Stickles

Memento Ink 

100th Video! And a Giveaway.

Today I uploaded my 100th YouTube video!

So I decided to turn it into a giveaway.

You have to watch the video on YouTube and comment ON the video ON YouTube in order to be entered.

So I won't post the video here on my blog rather I'll link to it so that it takes you directly to YouTube:

100th Video! And a Giveaway <-----click!

Good luck!

 

Time to Celebrate - and a Coloring VIDEO

OK folks I FINALLY have a card to share with y'all using some of the new CCDesigns March stamps!

I had originally planned on doing a video of making the entire card, but after filming the coloring part my camera battery died (of course). So only one quick video today but I definitely plan on doing more card-making vids in the future!

Anywho on to the card:

 
I HAD to use the new CCD Birthday Monkey image first. Isn't he the cutest thing EVER?

And here's the video I made of me coloring it:

 

You can watch the video on YouTube HERE <-----click!

 
I added some Christmas Red Stickles to the cherry to make it all sparkly (I was planning on making it glossy but I couldn't find my glossy accents so I went with the Stickles instead), and adhered the monkey to the card with dimensionals.

All the patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Hopscotch collection - I used the papers, ribbon doilies (thelittle banners that I crisscrossed at the top of the cardfront) and buttons that I got from the collection.

The latest Wednesday Challenge on the ATS Weekly Wednesday Challenge blog is to use buttons - make sure to check it out (and play along if you can!). I use buttons pretty much on every other card so this one was easy.

 
The sentiment is from my new It's Your Birthday set. I stamped it with black ink onto one of the patterned papers, trimmed it with my paper trimmer then used scissors to make it into a little flag. I added a button to the one side and think it turned out so cute!

 
On the inside of the card I used a sentiment from the Best Birthday Wishes set, and the pinked edge was made with the CCD Saw Tooth Die. I've had that die for a while and haven't used it then while making this card I pulled it out and actually had a lot of fun with it! I added a strip that I cut with it to the inside of the card and if you look at the card front you can see I cut 3 pieces with the die then added some May Arts crinkle ribbon over it.

I finished off the inside of the card by stamping the cupcake portion of the Birthday Monkey image, coloring it in then cutting it out and adhering it and that was it!

Gotta run - I have a Zumba class in a few minutes and I don't want to be late!

 
  

You Are Too Kind

How is everyone's weekend going so far? I haven't had a chance to do any stamping - everything else around the house that gets neglected during the week really piles up and is a complete time-sucker....ah well!

I still have cards to share that I had made a couple of weeks ago - so here's one of them:

 
 
I stamped the CCDesigns Honey August image onto CCD CQ80lb cardstock with Memento ink then colored it in with Copic markers. I added a tiny prima to her hair with a mini brad, then cut it out and adhered it to the card with dimensionals.

All the patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Nook&Pantry collection (another one that I'm thisclose to using up).

I added some Primas from my collection, attaching them to the card with Nook&Pantry brads and a couple of stitched brads.

The ribbon is May Arts.

 
The sentiments are from my Big Words and Handy Additions sets. I stamped the 'KIND' from Big Words onto the Aqua cardstock in a darker ink then stamped the 'You are too' from Handy Additions over it with black ink them punched it out with my SU! Key Tag punch.

 
I lined the inside of the card with more Nook&Pantry papers then added a piece of the aqua cardstock that I stamped the Honey August image on with darker ink and that was it!

 

 

TWO Videos - a Review and Making a Card #5

First off I am STILL bummed - my CCDesigns March Stamps still haven't arrived - I checked the post office *3* times yesterday and no luck. So frustrating!

However I do have a couple of videos to share.

*side note - thanks to those that suggested different back-up devices for my Mac. I actually already had one I had bought a couple years ago from Costco that never worked with my PC (it's a Dell and I have had SO many issues with programs/printers/back-up hardrives etc etc not working with it!) so I thought I'd try it with my Mac and it worked like a charm. So YAY I was finally able to clean things up a bit and get back into editing/uploading videos!*

First off I got a new punch a couple of weeks ago so I did a review on it:

 

You can watch the video on YouTube HERE <----click! 

And SECOND I have had a lot of requests to do more Making a Card videos. Which has presented a bit of a problem for me as it takes me a fair bit of time to make a card. If I'm coloring in an image there's a good chance a card can take about an hour to make - which is WAY too long for a video! Even if I speed it up it's too long. That and I have a pretty random process when making cards - I don't have much of a plan and just go with it and create and see how it all ends up.

So I tried something new with this video. First off I kept the card simple (no coloring!), and I filmed it all start to finish. Then I sped it up and just did a voiceover to explain everything. I know it needs tweaking but once I get the hang of it mebbe I can do more videos like this in the future - we'll see what happens!

Here's the video:

 

You can watch the video on YouTube HERE <----click!

AmyR Stamps Get Well Sentiments set

Basic Grey Kioshi Collection

Heavyweight White Cardstock

May Arts Ribbon