ATC Saturday: Baby Chicks

This ATC features fluffly little baby chicks.  What could be sweeter?  The image is from Art Impressions.

For the upper portion, I stamped onto tracing paper then ripped the edges and glued it onto the ATC back.

For the lower scene, I stamped onto green cardstock, then again on yellow card stock.  I cut out the chickies from the yellow paper and glued them on top of their green counterparts.  I colored their beaks and dragged the edges of the green paper through a black ink pad.

I like the look and feel of this paper-piecing technique and use it often in my stamping projects.

On the upper panel there are rough edges and a lack of color.  On the bottom we see sharp, straight edges and bright colors.  Contrast--even on such a small scale--adds interest.

ATC Saturday: Treasures of the Sea

This is one of the first ATCs I ever made.  I remember stressing over it a lot. Happily, making ATCs these days is a lot more fun.

I started with a beautiful blue paint chip, then added some swirly background paper that I designed in PhotoShop.

I made the paper tape seen at the top and bottom of the ATC using PhotoShop and a couple of free fonts (Treasure Map Deadhand, and Windings).

The string of pearls was stamped, then painstakingly cut out from standard white cardstock and glued into place.

The mermaid was stamped, colored, then stamped again directly on top of the original image (thank you, stamp positioner) with embossing ink.  Powder was applied and heated.  Seeing the powder transform and the colors pop is a lot of fun.  I cut the mermaid out, and fixed her into place.
Finally, a little bling was added in the form of sparkly faux stones.

Guest Stamper

Last night as I was working on a set of greeting cards, my 13 year-old daughter joined me in the stamping room.  She has a style all her own, and it usually involves lots of images, and LOTS of masking. 

She comes up with great ideas, and I love having company in the stamp room!


Cats from Eat Cake Graphics.
Flying donut Coffee Break Designs,
all other food images from TooMuchFun.

ATC Saturday: France

This ATC combines scrapbooking paper, stamping and a teeny bit of collage.  I would love to visit the City of Light one day!

Did you know that France issues heart-shaped postage for Valentine's Day?  What a lovely practice!

All stamps are Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers images, now available from Stamp Francisco.

Spring Cleaning

I've wanted an indexed catalog of my stamps for a long, long time and I am just now getting around to creating one.  I started with a stamp company's catalog, trying to recall which images I owned, but found that my memory wasn't so great.  I'd ask my daughters, "Do we have this one?" every five minutes or so.  They got annoyed!  So instead of trusting my memory (or theirs), I took photos of each drawer of stamps, the wall rack, and the binder pages (I will do a post on storage one of these days).  Armed with these  photographs of my stamps, I then turned again to the supply of old stamp catalogs that I could never bring myself to recycle.

It's been fun to revisit these old catalogs.  Sad though, to come across really excellent images that can no longer be purchased because the company went out of business.


Butterfly, flower, chicks: 100 Proof Press
Girl, small flowers: Leavenworth Jackson
Carved sunburst: TooMuchFun Rubberstamps
Alpha, dragonflies: Hero Arts

ATC Saturday: Library Week

Celebrate National Library Week, April 8-14, 2012

There are few places I'd rather be on any given day than the library! What better place to forget time and soak up some inspiration?  This week's ATC celebrates that wondrous storehouse, the library.

The little girl stamp is one I bought early on in my stamping life.  Several companies offer it, but I think mine came from Leavenworth Jackson.

I stamped her first, then the books.  I masked those two images and then stamped and embossed the background.  I added a little color, then shipped it off to my swapping partner.

Laughter: The Best Medicine

It's been a rough week, and I know I could use a good laugh--though, it hurts when I laugh.
But!  Let us not dwell on that.

This is an envelope I made for a swap.  There were no guidelines, we were just supposed to "decorate an envelope".  I don't know about you, but having NO guidelines is difficult for me.  I went for my trusted "surprised guy" stamp.  He has been so useful over the years.  Depending on the context, his face can read as happy surprise, horror, or even that look the old ladies in the grocery store give you when they realize your baby is wearing unmatched shoes.  Not that that's ever happened to me...much.

Speaking of useful I have probably used these ball images more often as balloons or backgrounds than as balls.  They're fun and I love that they are available in two sizes (Stamp Francisco).