from the files of the fake field book

A little piece I just did for the Art House Co-Op's 4x6 Exchange Pt 2. It's crumpled notebook paper on watercolor paper, colored with some Old Paper Distress Ink. The stamps are just random ones from my collection EXCEPT for the frame and the exhibit a-d stamps - those are the Paper Wings Productions Details Framer that I picked up yesterday. (They are on page 2 in their shop!)

Absolutely inspired by Shay, the woman who designed that framer set!

Watch out this week -- I'm going to have a card making pack giveaway that's going to include a set of stamps from Paper Wings!

from the tutorial files: making my own foam applicators

I found this tutorial on Pinterest and immediately bookmarked it because I can never seem to have enough of the foam for the Distress Ink pads. Since it's quiet and rainy here today I decided to try it out. I love the idea that I now can have a foam pad dedicated to each color.

Let it be known that I'm so jealous she used some rounded stamp mounts! I took all my mounted stamps apart last summer and kept the wood mounts to use for various projects. I did a little sanding to clean up my wood mounts and used some Red-Line Tape.

Super easy to put together and really, such an awesome idea. I like the size of the stamp mounts, as they fit more comfortably in my hand and I feel like I have more control. The only thing I'm not liking, or perhaps not used to, is the Cut n' Dry Foam. It's so much thicker than the pre-cut foam that comes in the packages. I'm going to play around with these and see how they work for me, but so far, I'm in love!

Paper Wings!

One of my dearest friends just launched her own rubber stamp company and I'm super excited about it! I've known Carrie for years and she's managed to start up a new company while being a mom to two and a class instructor. (I take her book binding and Tim Technique classes!)

I so cannot wait to get my hands on her Birds of a Feather set! I played with them when I saw her last and they are super ADORABLE.

You can find her stamps for sale here. Birds of a Feather and Home Tweet Home are my current faves and I cannot wait to get my hands on my own sets.

Sea of Love

I'd been in the market for making something that didn't involve my sewing machine for a few days now. I came across this tutorial somewhere in the blog-world and knew I had to make it.

I didn't want to buy a template to make a box and I didn't want to shell out for a stamp I was only going to use once, so I improvised. I used a vintage cigar box and one of my favorite stamps, along with the print-out freebies she offers for the project.

Cons: The tutorial is picture heavy and a little slow loading. If you want it to look just like the one in the tutorial you have to shell out for the stamp and the box template if you can't figure out how to make your own.

Pros: The downloads are organized nicely and you have the options of PDF, PNG, or JPEG, along with various color choices. It's a well put together tutorial and the end product is adorable! I think the stamp she used is cute, but it's not my style and won't have a use for it, so I went with my own thing. I think this particular project allows for that flexibility and the possibilities are endless. (I already want to make another!)

Materials: cardstock, lots of glue and tape. The boat is colored with Twinkling H2O's (which I haven't played with in months) and the hearts are just chalked. (So is the sun.) The robot is a Savvy Stamp called 'Valentine Robot' and the little thought bubble hearts are a Memory Box stamp called 'Good Thoughts'. (Neither of which I can find a link for.) He's just colored in with regular pens.

Time to make: about 4 hours, mostly because I had a hard time making the sail look just right. I tried everything from paper to fabric to hearts and finally just settled on the plain triangle sail.

On to the next one. This time I think I'm going to use vintage papers!

The end of the month

While I didn't post every day, I did create every day. (So relaxing! So fun!)

Here's creations from the last few days...


The back of a playlist for the wedding favors I made.



Some button covered paperclips that have magnets on them.


A wristlet I made. I LOVE this fabric.


Handy inside pockets, because I hate carrying a wallet!

I hate being short

Today's project: hand stamp the labels for a friend's wedding favors I've been working on.

The plan had been to stamp their names and the date of the wedding on each label, only I didn't have the right size stamps for that. Too big, too clunky. So I switched tactics. I think they are cute and very simple, but they weren't what I had in my head.



Even better? I thought I ordered 106...and just discovered there are only 47 in the batch. So now I have to reorder. So much for a simple and quick project!