one stamp set three ways join me

It's time!

I've been talking about doing the One Stamp Set Three Ways Challenge forever...and now it's time.

There will be two stamp set challenges each month. Join in any time you want.

The first featured set is Betsy's Blossom!

Here are my creations:

If you have a blog post featuring three creations (cards, crafts or scrapbook pages) that use any or all of the stamps in Betsy's Blossoms, add a direct link to your blog post below. The inlinkz service will make it easy.

Just click the button below to be added...

One Stamp Set Three Ways

When I fall for a stamp set, I fall hard. :)

I use it repeatedly for many projects...I twist it up, I turn it upside down. I print in different colors and look at it from every possible angle.

I like to really get to know it and all it can do.

With that in mind, I have asked a few friends to join me in a new project I'm calling *One Stamp Set Three Ways*. About every two weeks, we will all take the same Stampin' Up! stamp set and blog about three creative uses for it. Each blogger will show their three uses of the chosen stamp set.

The first stamp set to be featured is already well-known and well-loved in the Stampin' Up! universe...it's called Betsy's Blossoms.

It can be seen here on the Stampin' Up! website...

 

 

If you would like to join in the blog hop for Betsy's Blossoms...email me. Devendorf at bellsouth dot net

 

 

Keep on stampin',

--Sarah

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Let's face it...I love this little Stampin' Up! stamp!

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas! is one of my favorite sentiments of the holidays...it's so festive and cute, so when I noticed this in the Stampin' Up! Holiday catalog, I knew it would have to join my collection.

And PS It's the perfect size for a tag too! Can't wait to turn out some tags!

Happy Stampin'!
--Sarah

not overthinking

Sometimes one has to stop trying so hard to create a wow and just enjoy the process. Take a breath, let go of what's new or trendy, what's challenging, what's cutting-edge...and just do what you love. Embrace the comfort of the familiar. When you have been papercrafting for a long time, some things are just old hat and comfortable creatively.

So it is for me with a black and white color combination and a big bold cut-out flower. What's not to love, right?

 

I find pages about the cat so easy to do lately. I love her so much and she brings such a peaceful balance to our home. And let's face it, she photographs well. :)

 

I realize that the above layout is one of those fluff pieces that I am in a rut with right now...not alot of journaling, no real story, just a couple of photos and some big ol' flowers.

 

And some ribbon.

 

That big flower is by Impress Rubber Stamps now called Impress Cards and Crafts and I love it. They have recently redesigned their website and it's even more awesome than before. The flower is called Chrysanthemum Outline and you can see it here.  It has a good center (in my opinion, that's the mark of a good stamp design) if you wanna leave it as is, but it also makes a great back-up piece if you want to make your sentiment really stand out.

 

 

 

 

I started down the monochromatic road on the cards after reading a challenge at The Stamp Nation from the very marvelous Maureen, who regularly blows me away with her clean and crisp design sense.

 

Check her out here.

 

 

Thanks for taking a peek! Happy Stamping!

--Sarah

 

 

 

 



fallish all over again

In the past, I haven't been one to do fall, Halloween or Thanksgiving stamping projects very much at all. However, I do love pumpkins and going to visit the local pumpkin patch is usually something my boys and I make it a point to do very early in the season, sometimes more than once. The weather here is still warm in the daytime but refreshingly nippy in the evening and frankly, it's downright inspirational for this stampy girl. :)

I have a taken a few days away from the reds and greens and silvers of Christmas crafting and jumped fully into the deep rich browns, golds, oranges and hints of blues and purples that are so much a part of fall.

Here are a few of the proceeds of my excursion into fall...

(Above)

Sentiment Stamp: Stampendous "Angel"

Image stamp: Hero Arts "Tall Wheat"

 

(Above)

Image Stamps: Stampin' Up! Wonderfall

Sentiment Stamp: Hero Arts

 



(Above)

Background Stamp: Stampendous "Autumn Words"

Pumpkin: Stampin' Up! "Jack-O-Lantern Fun" Retired

Grass Die: Quickutz

 



 

((Above))

Pumpkin Stamp: Stampin' Up! "Jack-O-Lantern Fun" retired

Sentiment Stamp: Hero Arts

Grass Die: Quickutz

 

 

Good inspiration is certainly not hindered by a good picture as a jumping off point. This current Stampin' Royalty challenge includes the photo below, which has a little bit of everything fall.

 

The elements that really jumped out at me were the dried stalks of wheat (see the top card) and the shutter (referenced in the third card).

 

I'm also kinda diggin' that small bird egg blue pumpkin on the lower left. :)

 

 

Take a deep breath and feel the cool fall air...

 

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #196 SR196

 

--Sarah 

 

 

cookie cutter dies

Tips on Tuesday

A new feature of White Daisy Press blog is Tips on Tuesday. Every Tuesday...a paper crafting tip.

 

Today's tip is all about Cookie Cutter Dies. You've heard of those, right?

 

Cookie Cutter dies are dies that are the shape of the image they cut (like a traditional cookie cutter). Their obvious shape makes precision cutting significantly easier and of course, they cost less to produce, package and ship. Cookie cutter dies range in size from about the size of a dime (such as the ones in the photo) to up to 12" long.

 

 

 

Standard dies (non-cookie cuter style) are on a "bed", typically square. Usual sizes of the "bed" are 2" square, or 4" square. There are many alphabets available on beds of 4"x8". They can be up to 12" long. These are sometimes called "wafer-thin dies" too.

 

The white foam is called ejection foam and usually comes with the dies. Applying the foam to the die encourages the paper you are cutting not to stick in the super-fine details of the image...but to eject easily. Ejection foam is self-adhesive on one side for easy application. There's a video on youtube about this if you need to see it being applied.

 

And another one here.

 

Some of the newer companies producing wafer-thin dies and cookie cutter dies don't encourage users to apply ejection foam...something I completely do *not* understand. Ejection foam takes the work out of die cutting.

 

One of the largest manufacturers of dies--and I'm pretty sure the originators of the "cookie cutter" reference is Lifestyle Crafts, formerly known (for many years) as Quickutz.

 

Stampin' Up! has a line of dies made similarly called Framelits.

 

Sizzix, the maker of the Big Shot, also does Thinlets. 

 

There are other companies that offer these styles of dies as well, such as

 Die-Namics by My Favorite Things 

 

 Cottage Cutz by Scrappin' Cottage

 

 

Die-Versions

 

Memory Box

 

 

 

--Sarah

 

 

Photo Inspiration at Stampin Royalty SR194

The inspiration bug bit this weekend when I was doing some browsing of blogs...I had to do the challenge at Stampin' Royalty.

Challenge SR#194 was to take inspiration from this photo and create a card (or in my case, 3).

 

Everything about this photo is lovely, right? It's soothing and interesting and creative and...well, you get the idea.

 

So below are my three creations.

 

The die used to create the shaped piece is a product from Lifestyle Crafts that's been sitting on my desk for a while. It's called the Trellis die and can be seen here but, in my opinion, that name simply does not do it justice. It's 12 inches long so it could be used for many things or, as I did, cut up into pieces. The inner pieces could be mixed-and-matched to really go the distance, design-wise.

 

As usual, I almost can't make cards without black and white ribbon of some sort.

 

Thanks for stopping by...please feel free to say "hello".

 

--Sarah