The Stamps of Life

Spooky house

| Lisa K

I have a Halloween card created for specific person. A young lady has gone through a terrible car accident and is in a nursing home learning to walk and balance again. She needs cheering up and loves Halloween. My goal is for this card to bring a smile to her face.

https://twooldbatshalloweenchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/09/september-anything-halloween.html

The card front has an ink blended background using Lawn Fawn blues and purple inks with a bit of Gina K Designs Black Onyx. The house is from The Stamps of Life hauntedhouse2stamp colored with alcohol markers. The ghosts and moon came from the same set. The pumpkin is from goodies4wheelbarrow. I wanted a tree and the tree I used is from Maymay Made It called Sittin’Tree. It is fussy cut out as there are no dies for the manual machine.

Spooky House inside

The inside brings fun with Paper Smooches ghoulfriends set. I love the greeting! I am sure this will bring a smile to the young lady’s face.

This card will be entered in the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge.

Circus Seal

| Lisa K

Taking inspiration from buddy Gayle and one of her challenges, I went to my stamp room and began finding stamps, a stencil and dies that worked for the Circus Themed challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters.

http://thesisterhoodofcrafters.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-greatest-show-on-earth.html

To find the help I needed, I searched Pinterest for Circus. A seal photo popped up in my search and I knew I had a stamp set purchased around 2013 from Gina K Designs, illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger called Jumping for Joy and it contains a seal, the ball, and the jumping platform as well as other animals. I stamped and then masked the seal, then placed the jumping platform and ball around the seal. Next obstacle was to create a background that looked like a circus. I spotted a stencil that was laying nearby and realized it would make the perfect tent like background. I chose to use a red Copic marker for tracing the lines. This stencil is from Spellbinders and Fun Stampers Journey called Sunny Day Stencil. I realized my tent needed something like curtains or banners. I had a banner close by that had not been colored or die cut, so I colored and cut it with the die, then proceeded to cut two more. I popped a set up for dimension. I made a ticket from The Stamps of Life ticket2stamp which I own dies for, so cutting was easy. Then came the stars. I often use a die from Lawn Fawn to cut small stars and this time I took a scrap piece of cardstock and colored it with the blue Copic marker that was used on the banner and the ball center. Finally everything looks like a circus. I added a lot of sparkle to make the stars and banner shine.

Thanks for reading my process. I enjoyed creating this and using so many items just sitting in my craft room begging to be used.

Crushing on Cardstock Day 4 backgrounds

| Lisa K

I have been using Day 4 background ideas for a few cards.

Happy Birthday

For this card I used a My Favorite Things background stamp, a die from The Stamps of Life, and the butterfly using my Spellbinders Hot Foil machine.

Floral Hi

I used a SU 3D embossing folder on this card along with a stamp set from Unity Stamps. The die is from The Stamps of Life.

I enjoyed the different kinds of backgrounds created by Keisha Charles on Day 4. This is a small look at the kind she created.

Inlaid Floral Hello

| Lisa K

This card will be in two places. It uses only dies, so it will be used for the August Challenge Your Stash card with Split Coast Stampers. I used the idea from Online Card Classes Crushing on Cardstock.

Inlaid Floral Hello

I have used inlaid die cutting on cards before, but not to this extent. I used the Fun Flower Slimline Panel Die from The Stamps of Life along with cardstock from TSOL. I think the blue is Sky, yellow is Banana, and the red is Strawberry, all from the Cardstock Set 2. The white came from a stash of scraps, but I am sure it is Spectrum Noir Ultra Smooth White. The hello is a die from Gina K Designs. In the class in each lesson, it seems they are stacking the die for dimension, so mine is stacked with 2 layers of Strawberry CS and one layer of white. The last time I used inlaid die cutting, it was for a small butterfly, so this was a first for me. I have never used this floral die and gave the inlaid a try. Well, I lost one of the red pieces as it never cut, so I ended up with a white piece. I forgot to look for a matching marker to color the piece, so it is white. I like the card as it is colorful. I am sure the person who will receive this will not notice the bloom I lost.

Sympathy

| Lisa K

Everybody needs a sympathy card on hand and they can be difficult to create when needed. I made one for the Mod Squad Challenge to keep on hand.

https://modsquadchallenge.com/with-sympathy/

I found this idea on Pinterest. I added more water than the one I found and use different inks and a different sentiment, but the rest is the same. The stamp sets used are High Tide by Stampin Up and sign4words by The Stamps of Life. I used Lawn Fawn inks for the water, birds and greeting, and Memento ink for the sky. The gems are from Hobby Lobby.

Hapbee Birthday 2 You

| Lisa K

With inspiration from buddy Gayle, I pulled out several bee stamps and ideas began flowing. My card is a bit different for me, as I rarely create cards using several company stamp sets and/or dies.

http://thepaperplayers.blogspot.com/2021/07/pp550-clean-and-simple-challenge-from.html

I started with Paper Smooches stamps. The bee came from Courteous Cuties and the greeting “hapbee birthday” came from More Courteous Cuties. I decided to stamp the bee near the top, so I cut the greeting apart and placed it around the bee. I saw an idea where the hexagon was cut with a number 2 on it, so I used my hexagon dies from The Stamps of Life along with the stamp set minihexagons4backgrounds, where I heat embossed it with white embossing powder. The number 2 is from graduation2celebrate and matching dies, also The Stamps of Life. The word “you” is alphabet stamps from Hero Arts. I felt the card front needed something else, so I began with the stitched rectangle die from The Stamps of Life, but that wasn’t enough as it still looked too plain. Out came the Cuttlebug Hexagon embossing folder. I like the embossing as it looks like a bee hive.

This will also be added to the MISTI challenge at Split Coast Stampers. This month’s challenge is to use numbers and/or alphabet.

I like how the card came out. It was fun creating.

June Challenge Your Stash

| Lisa K

Today is the day to post cards for the Challenge Your Stash group at Split Coast Stampers. This month the challenge is to Make a project with a Tiger – or a wild cat of any sort: lion, puma, panther, cheetah–just not a domestic pet.

Birthday Lion

First of all, we are having stormy weather and sunshine is not in the forecast for several days. With that in mind, I did my best to get light with a daylight bulb and a few pieces of cardboard around the light. This card looks much better than the photograph will show, but you can see the blue and green.

I stenciled the clouds with a gifted stencil from a stamp buddy, using Lawn Fawn ink in a light blue color. I blended green ink on the ground then added grass with a darker green ink. The grass is from a Stampin Up set called Sending Sunshine; it is retiring on Wednesday so if you like it, get it now. The sun is from a Gina K Designs set called Own Kind of Beautiful; it is long ago retired. The regal lion comes from The Stamps of Life, lions2stamp with matching dies. I stamped the lion with Lawn Fawn and Gina K Designs ink in Kraft, Sandy Beach, Sunshine, and dark brown colors, then came back with Prismacolor pencils to add texture and the orange mane. I have never penciled on top of ink before, but it worked beautifully for the needed color. I chose a greeting from The Stamps of Life set and called the card finished.

Thanks for spending time with me and this lion.

Card for James

| Lisa K

The following card was created and sent to a 10 year old boy who has cancer. I chose an interactive card idea.

Front closed
Inside open
Two flaps open
Flap 3 open

I chose fishtank2stamp and morefishtank2stamp from The Stamps of Life. The patterned paper is also from TSOL. I used lift the flap dies from Lawn Fawn. I made an envelope that is decorated with the fish tank on the front where I wrote his address. I will not post it as I had the address written before the photo was taken. I thought this kind of card would bring a smile to his face. I understand he is currently in the hospital and hasn’t eaten for a few days and his white blood count is not in a good way.

Birdbath Hello

| Lisa K

Today is the day to post the Crafter’s of Faith card for this month’s theme. This month’s verse is Philippians 4:4-7 which begins with the words Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Then it goes on to say to create a card to show rejoicing in God. These days, I hear birds the minute I wake up and they continue throughout the day and into the night with the owls. I chose a card that rejoices in the nature God created.

I followed an idea of Lisa Mears a designer for The Stamps of Life. The sky is stenciled in yellows using Lawn Fawn inks with a blending brush and the stencil from Buddy Bonnie. I used my new Make Art Station which held the paper perfectly and made stenciling quite easy. All images were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with alcohol markers. I fussy cut everything. I created the scalloped border with dies from two different companies. The scalloped portion is a Gina Marie die and I wanted a frame, so used a rectangle die from Catherine Pooler Designs. The stamp sets used are birdbath2stamp and morebirdbath2stamp by The Stamps of Life. I could add gems, run a vine up the birdbath, but I think I will leave as it. This makes it easy to mail.