JFF Tuesday: Valentine ATC

Just add chocolate.

Sage ink along with the beautifully scripted word "Love" made for a subtle, elegant background on today's ATC.

Stamping the rose four times (first onto the ATC itself, then onto two shades of green paper, and finally onto bright red) allowed me to then cut and piece together the image.  This is one way to achieve deeply saturated color.

I stamped "Love" in sepia to bring it to the fore, but unfortunately I did this prior to affixing the rose.  A better plan would've been to stamp that part last!  I corrected it by filling in the "L" with a colored pencil.

A solitary heart-shaped brad was added as a final touch.

Stamps Used: Just For Fun Rubber Stamps (Rose, Love)

Won't You?

ABC's, the gateway to reading!  I'm teaching our five year old to read, and he loves it.  He is a very enthusiastic learner, which makes my job all the more fun.

His three-year-old brother likes to copy everything he does (naturally!), but he falls short when it comes to reciting the alphabet.  Declan's version starts off "A, B, C, D, EFFA, GEE..." and then it falls completely apart.  So cute.

Stamps Used:  MaVinci's Reliquary (A,Z), Beeswax (girl w/flowers), Unknown (girl w/apron) 

JFF Tuesday: Just Sweet Enough

snaps and snails and puppy dogs' tails

This valentine was made with my little sons in mind.  They are much more into bugs and bakugan than frills and flowers!  I started with an orange/brown and flecked card stock that has been in my stash forever.  I inked up the swirly image, then removed ink from the dots (see original image here) to prevent those parts from making an impression.  After stamping the image onto the main card, I drew little hearts where the dots would've been.

I stamped the curious little snail and painted him with watercolors.  He was cut out carefully, then stuck to the card with Pop Up Glue Dots.  (It looks like he's about to exit the scene here!)

The sentiment was over-stamped onto a white panel that I covered in skeletal leaves.

All images are Just For Fun Rubber Stamps.

RB7003-4 sided Assorted Motifs (modified)

C2546-Skeleton Leaf

B2759-Snail Sketch

E2658-Love

Snowy Day

this'll be fun

Thinking snowy thoughts today, and remembering some great images from a company that I wish was still around, Remarkable! Rubber Stamps.

Using older stamps like this brings me right back to the stamping friends I had "back when"... Back when S. used to object to anyone suggesting that she "collected" rubber stamps.  She didn't merely "collect", she reasoned, but actually used her stamps.  "They are my tools," she said (and I heartily agreed--then and now).

Stamps Used: Remarkable! (both scarf-wearing kids), 100 Proof Press (girl in yellow), Impression Obsession (tree).

JFF Tuesday: Soaring

Here's an early Valentine for you!

giving love wings

All images are from Just For Fun Rubber Stamps.  I stamped the large heart onto white card stock, then added wings with my trusty Sharpie.  The original image is from the Heart Cube.  The other hearts are from a two-stamp set, Heart Mini 2-Sided.

Notice how Love has emerged, leaving a trail of chaos behind?
Love doesn't notice chaos.

Happy New Year 2013

Hello out there!  I'm back and happy to announce that I am now one of the new members of the design team for Just For Fun Rubber Stamps (note the nifty new badge on the sidebar).  I've included links to the other DT members' blogs as well.  So much to be inspired by!  Please do check them all out.

More excitement:  Through January 18th, you may visit Just For Fun Rubber Stamps and enjoy a whopping 35% off everything you purchase online!  What could be better than that?

Tuesdays here (starting today!) will feature projects that I've created using JFF images.  I'll get back to PCs on Wednesdays and ATCs on Saturdays as soon as I get my time-turner working properly.  I'll be blogging over at the JFF Blog site, too.

I could use a cuppa joe about now.

Enough blather, I hear you saying.  Here's my first JFF project.  We were tasked to use either lace or buttons in the design.  I confess, embellishments are not my "thing".  I tried to be clever and made paper lace using loopy scissors and a hole punch.  Then I dug through my stash of fabric trims to find actual lace.  Strike three came when I dug through my decades-old stash of gold leaf paper trims.  I even tried drawing some lace!  "Lace hates me!" I cried.

Then I noticed what a pit my crafting area had become (oh, there's a week's worth of posts on that topic) and that is when inspiration struck.  My daughter had left out some ribbon spools, and when I was putting them away (we call this "creative avoidance" around here) I spied some ribbon that had lacy edges.  Huzzah!

Though it took literally days to get to that spark of inspiration, once it did finally strike the card went together in a matter of minutes.  Minutes!

The mind is a terrible, wonderful thing.