Running With Scissors…

I’d like to take a moment to share with you some of the goings on with Flourishes and the design team.  First of all, who doesn’t like candy?  Show of hands?  Take a trip over to Susan’s place Monday, July 7, to see what she has to offer.  Hint:  It tastes great with candy!

Now, as you may have guessed from the title, this skinny little photo is a sneak peek at something I’ll be sharing on Wednesday.  Three new stamp sets will be released by Flourishes that day and I think you’re going to love them!  I don’t know for sure who all is doing sneak peeks today but just for fun you might want to visit Faith, Julie, Linda, Sharon and Susan to see what they’re up to.   Those girls always have something fabulous to see!

Do you like to chat and be challenged?  Need some motivation?  Julie Koerber would like to see you over at the Flourishes Forum on SCS.  Be sure to check the forum again on Tuesday to see what Faith has up her sleeve, too. 

Also at SCS, there’s still time to enter a card in the Coffee With Friends challenge.  It’s going on till Thursday, July 10.  Did you see the gift set Sharon made for the prize?  Oh, my word!  You know how good she is with gift sets!  I would so love to have that set!  Click here for the challenge and a look at the prize.

Gosh, did I leave anything out?  I hope not!  Enjoy!

I’m posting this little paragraph just to check my email subscription service.  I subscribe to my own blog so I can keep an eye on things and I didn’t get my last email.  I suspected that would happen.  You see, for some unfathomable reason if I post in the middle of the day, or anytime other than late at night, the email won’t be delivered.  It happens every time.  It will generally be carried along with the next post (if I do it at night).  So…just checking.  Blog stuff…can’t live with it, can’t live without it.  Have a great day!

There’s a birthday celebration in the works and you’re invited to join in!  Monday, February 25th, is Jan Marie Caruso’s birthday.  She’s one of the Flourishes ladies and a very generous soul — she’s celebrating by giving away all these presents:

*Xyron 900
*Nestabilities-Classic Standard Circles
*Nestabilities-Classic Scallop Circles-LG
*A pair of Fiskars scissors engraved with Flourishes, LLC
*Various Flourishes stamp sets
*Lots of smaller gifts throughout the 24 hour period

Is that amazing?  Oh, my goodness!  Just look at all those chances to win!

All you have to do is upload any card or project to your Splitcoast gallery made with Flourishes, LLC stamps using the keywords:  fllcjanmariesbirthday.  It will be important that you type the keyword exactly as shown to enable Jan to find your card or project.  If you have a blog, but no gallery, you can still play.  Just post a link in this thread in the Flourishes forum on SCS and Jan will make sure you’re entered in the drawings.

Random drawings will take place thoughout the day and winners of the smaller prizes will be announced on the spot.  Winners of the BIG prizes will be announced on Tuesday.
I hope you can join the fun and help Jan celebrate another great year of life!  Enjoy, and good luck!

Card details:

Stamps:  Mardi Gras

Paper:  Basic Black, Whisper White, BasicGrey Two Scoops designer paper

Ink:  Almost Amethyst, Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, Basic Black

Accessories:  Ribbon, fibers, Scotch Brand dimensional mounting tape

If you’re a regular visitor at Splitcoaststampers you probably know how hard the site owners and other folks behind the scenes work to provide a pleasant community for everyone.  I can testify first hand to how sincerely and selflessly dedicated they are to this task.  The benefits of becoming part of the SCS community are huge in terms of resources of all kinds:  a gallery full of ideas and eye candy and where you can share your own work, challenges in which to learn and play, step-by-step tutorials, forums full of information on all topics where you can ask for or offer help, spread your news, shed a tear.  As you become acquainted with SCS you wind your way deep and deeper, discovering more each time you visit.  The next thing you know, you’ve made a new friend.  To that I can testify as well.

All of these benefits are free.  Some of them are priceless.  Will you take a moment to answer some survey questions for the folks at Splitcoast?  It’s very quick and easy.  I did it last night.  The survey will be available until Thursday, January 31.  They’re only asking in an effort to give you more of what you’d like to see.  It’s all explained here where a link to the survey is provided, too.

Just for fun, I’ve included a couple of cards I uploaded some time ago to my SCS gallery.  This card was my first effort with the Stampin’ Up! Wild Rose set when it was brand new.  More details can be found here.

This one I called “Extreme Sheen” and it was made in response to the Ways to Use It Challenge #88 — using Lumiere.  The flowers were stamped on black cardstock, then painted with a mixture of Lumiere and Pearl Ex.  The background is Stampin’ Up!’s Paisley in Bordering Blue.  Hmmmm…I think I need to bring that background out to play again soon.  Please click here if you’d like to see more cards made for this challenge.  If you’d like to see a list of all the challenges you can participate in, even if you do it silently without ever uploading your card, please click here.

Thank you so much for your time!  I hope you have an absolutely marvelous day!

Enjoy this time with your family, however large or small and however many you have gathered ’round.  We’ll all be stamping and sharing again after Christmas.  If there’s one thing I know, it’s that the Christmas spirit seems prevalent all year among the friends I’ve made through stamping.  Have a wonderful day!  –  Leslie

Clip art copyright pcCrafter and can be found here.

The quote was found here.

Hi, there!  I spent a little time performing some administrative duties tonight.  Heaven knows, I have plenty of other things to do but sometimes a person just has to take a minute, you know?  Quite some time ago I settled on a three column theme for my blog.  It was the only three column theme available that wasn’t in use by several other people.  Gee, maybe because it wasn’t very pretty or interesting.  I couldn’t do anything with the header except change the color, and most of the colors were ghastly.  Even with the less offensive colors I selected my blog had more the look of a newsletter than the quiet, relaxing, feminine online stamping sanctuary I hoped to share with my friends.  I despaired of being stuck with it, though, because every time I tried to change it my posts went all wonky.  I still see some wonkiness here and there but I think from here on out it will (maybe?) be okay.

I believe I feel comfortable with this theme.  It has a light and airy feel.  The type is easy to read.  The comments are nicely separated one from the other.  Best of all, I can customize the header any old time I want to.  As of this writing I have one of my garden photos up there — not a very wintery scene, but pretty.  Yes, I think I’m okay with it.

Regular stamping will resume shortly.  Promise.  Have a wonderful day!

Hi, there!  I just realized it’s been quite a stretch since I posted anything and thought I should check in.  I’ve been a little busy…  Sorry about the absence!  I do have a few things cooking that I’d like to share later.  I’ll have a few cards this week, but I’ll be doing a couple of tutorials after that — some designs I’ve been figuring on.  Please bear with me!  Have a great day!

I now know the source of the little stickers with the amazing prismatic sparkle that I used on the Christmas tree in my last post.  They were a gift from my friend, Linda Bullard, and she provided this information in her comment:

“As far as the identity of those fun little stickers, they are Class A’Peel Dot Sparkler Stickers (Silver), by Stampendous. I bought mine at Archiver’s, but they are supposed to be available at Michael’s too: http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=pc1151&channelid= Linda”

Thank you, Linda!  These stickers are well worth checking out!

I was visiting Laura at The Stampin’ Soldier the other day when I saw that she’d posted this sketch challenge.  I’m not sure why I took to this particular sketch, but I had an urge to use it.  As always with challenges, I’m late but I still wanted to do the sketch.  The only thing extra I added was the ribbon and brad.  Gosh, after spending all that time sorting my ribbon I just had to use some!

This is the same paper I used on my tin and ribbon gift set yesterday.  Regarding colors, sketch, theme, papers, etc. I was asked by Jodene, Dianne, Melissa, Michelle R. and Kim B. if I would explain a little something about how I get started on a card.  I was asked where I get my inspiration and how I decide which papers to select and combine.   Sue suggested I take you through the creative process of designing a project.  I thought about those questions and suggestions as I began yesterday’s project.  It is interesting (to me, at least) to read about the stamper’s thoughts as they create their work, how they reach that end and what occurs along the way.  Some folks hope to find the technical details in the content of a post so I try to provide that, too.  Since so many people asked about this, I’ll make an effort in the future to express some of the thought process.  Sometimes it’s more a feeling than a thought, like the feel of a color, for instance.  There’s not always time to go into a lot of detail and I cringe at the thought that I’d be rambling on like a know-it-all and boring you to tears.  Truly, we all go about this in our own way and all I can do is tell you how I do it and what goes on in my head.  It’s not necessarily the right way or the only way.  Okay?

Today I thought I’d just narrow it down to the paper. 

Paper selection:  When I started these last two projects I had unfinished stamp room cleaning still on my mind but I thought, gee, it would sort of be cleaning if I used scraps — one of those justifications — we have a million of them, don’t we?  So I went to the new and improved scrap drawer (devoted only to DP scraps) to see what was at hand, figuring to select papers I could come closest to finishing off.  If you click on the thumbnail you can see how my papers are clipped together in pairs.  Whenever I buy individual papers (as opposed to packs or pads) I always buy two coordinating sheets.  Three is ideal but that’s how I discipline myself to use my stamps for backgrounds — it doesn’t always work that way, though, and I may “borrow” a piece from another pair sometimes.  By the way, they’re only clipped after they’ve been cut into — all the scraps from the two coordinating sheets are clipped together so I can quickly grab a pair of papers to work with.   It’s just one of those time saving necessities because I’m usually stamping on the run.  So that’s how I chose the papers for my tin, ribbon spools and Halloween card — they were the smallest possible pair, and we all know how everyone loves a purple, orange and green color combo, right?  Kidding…

When choosing paper pairs, to my mind’s eye, color is the most important consideration.  This is made easy in most places we shop because collections are grouped and there are always coordinating colors in collections.  As long as each piece picks up the colors in its companion you can be wild and free with the patterns — almost.  I’ll combine a big pattern with a smaller, opposing pattern such as a big plaid with a small polka dot (see the blue papers in the photo).  Or I’ll combine two bold but opposing patterns (see the big dots with the wide stripes).  A busy pattern with a quieter, more open pattern works, too, such as the two papers on my Halloween card.  So…opposing combinations of big/small, bold/bold, busy/quiet — that’s one way to get started.  It’s possible to combine large and small polka dots, stripes in opposite directions and lots of different patterns.  Just look at the colors and lay them out together.  You might just say “yep, by golly!  That works!”  Well…maybe you wouldn’t say “by golly”…

So that’s just a little something about how I decide on paper combos.  I’d love to think that this information is helpful to someone — any little part of it.  We do read a lot of tips and tricks and glean from those what’s adaptable to our own way of doing things.  Whatever you do, I just hope you have fun doing it!  Have a wonderful new week!

Part One:  Altered Items

This post is dedicated to Claudia F. and Andrea Mason and to everyone else who’d like to see more altered items.  I do have a category, listed to the right, called Altered States that includes every altered item I’ve posted.  There’s not a lot in there right now, but I’ll see what I can do about that in the future.  I’d also like to again thank Pattyjo and Mary R for the nudge toward chipboard.

I absolutely love altering these tins.  Truthfully, beginning to end, it’s a lot quicker than designing a card.  There are far fewer decisions to make.  My tin came from a friend but I found this site that sells all kinds of tins and other containers at wholesale prices.  This particular tin is priced at only 74 cents!  I now have a new love of chipboard, too, and even though I did take a peek in the Stampin’ Up! catalog, I’m not going to rush into buying every piece of chipboard I can get my hands on.  That was the old me.  The new me just cleaned her stamp room and doesn’t want to clutter it up again.

Before I go any further I’d like to address the ribbon spools.  The idea to alter them was completely inspired by Candy Williams (SCS user, cwilliams).  If you’re a Splitcoaststampers Fan Club member you can view what she did with ribbon spools here.  The functionality is different in that Candy dressed an empty spool to the nines and turned it into a gift bag tag.  Not just any old tag — more like an ornament.  Very cool!  The spools I altered are much simpler, ribbon intact, intended to be used as a ribbon spool — stacked, lined up in a drawer, thrown in a basket, hung on a dowel.  In this case, the two ribbon spools fit perfectly inside the tin to make a cute little gift.  I made this set for a doorprize for an upcoming Portland, Oregon SCS dinner.  I plan to decorate a gift bag for it, too, and include a couple of unaltered tins for the recipient’s altering pleasure.

To cover these Offray ribbon spools I just smeared Alene’s Tacky glue over the surface of the spool, then pressed it onto the cardstock.  I burnished it and let it set up for just a few seconds and then trimmed around the edges with scissors.  The center was cut with an exacto knife and all rough edges were smoothed with sandpaper.  I used wadded up toilet paper to smoosh ink onto the cardstock and stamped the surface with some little circles from Seeing Spots.

For the scalloped center I punched a 3/4″ hole in the designer paper, then punched with my Stampin’ Up! scallop punch centered over the hole.  Of course, I covered both sides of the spool in the same manner.

The cardstock on the top of the tin was applied in the same manner, with tacky glue, but the sides were adhered with Sticky Strip (red liner tape).  The chipboard flower was covered with the tacky glue process — smear, press, trim and sand.  I had mentioned before that I would photograph the process of covering chipboard but, darn it, I was having so much fun I forgot to take pictures — sorry!

Stamps:  Seeing Spots

Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Lovely Lilac, Green Galore, My Minds Eye Kaleidoscope designer paper

Ink:  Same as cardstock

Accessories:  Stampin’ Up! On Board Blossoms & Basics chipboard, ribbon, scallop punch, 3/4″ circle punch

Part two:  Some questions answered

As I go along in my posts in the following days I’ll be trying to provide some of the things folks mentioned they’d like to see, such as the chipboard and altered items in this post.  I’ll also begin answering a few questions at a time.

Allison asked:  “Do you have any fav paper/stamp/embellishment companies you’d like to list?” 

Well, I do get all my cardstock from Stampin’ Up! because I like the weight of it and I love all those matching inks and accessories.  Their designer papers are fun, too, because of the coordinating colors and patterns.  BasicGrey designer paper is one of my favorites, but I use so many others, too — My Mind’s Eye, Wild Asparagus, Bohemia, Chatterbox…the list is endless!  As for embellishments, I get those here, there and everywhere and I couldn’t pick a favorite company but I find a lot of fun stuff at Paper Wishes.  Most of my ribbons come from Stampin’ Up!, Wal-Mart, Joann’s.  When I want to indulge in something really gorgeous I visit Jacksonbelle Embellishments.

Linda Beth Smith asked:  “I would like to know what kind of paper cutter you use or would recommend. I seem to go through a lot of cutting blades. I use the Fiskars cutter with the swingout arm. Is there a better cutter or one that is self sharpening?”

I have the Fiskars cutter, too, and used it for a long time, constantly replacing blades.  I finally took the plunge and got the guillotine cutter sold by Stampin’ Up!  I don’t know if it’s self-sharpening, but I’ve had mine for about a year and it’s not the least bit dull.  It won’t cut your fingers but it cuts through paper like butter.  It’ll shave off the tiniest sliver and still be straight.

Kammie asked:  “What do you do when/if you’ve lost your stamping mojo? Where do you find your inspiration?”

When that happens I usually just let it go.  It’ll come plodding back sooner or later.  If I make too many duds in a row I’ll take a short break, a day or two.  I’ll visit some galleries and blogs, leaf through Paper Crafts, go shopping at the local scrapbook store, talk with my stamping friends.  It won’t be long before all the colors and fun projects get me excited again.  Maybe I’ll just go look at my stash of designer papers.  Really, nothing gets me going like those designer papers!  A lot of folks will tell you that the challenges are a great way to get going again.  Gosh, I’d say the combination of a sketch challenge and some designer papers ought to do the trick.

Jan Scholl asked:  “Do you run with scissors or will you poke your eye out like mom’s always said?”

I know this question was asked in fun, but I’d like to answer it, anyway.  Figuratively speaking, I do run with scissors.  When I was trying to think of a name for my blog all the usual things about paper, stamps and ink came to mind but I wanted something different.  When I thought about the other paraphernalia used in stamping, scissors came to the fore.  Yep, I thought, that’s me — running with scissors.  It seems like I’m always stamping on the run — a little here, a little there.  I have a full time job and it’s not easy to work in all this stamping and blogging.  A lot of the stamping takes place in my head while I’m waiting for the opportunity to get to my stamp room.  Chances are that might be about 15 minutes before I leave for work in the morning, so I may just pull out a couple of designer papers, cut a card base, select a stamp set, throw some things in a bag to work on during break times.  Writing a blog post is the same way — I’ll write a little, save it, come back later.  Yes, I do run with scissors but it’s not my preferred method of stamping.  It is possible to find time for the things we love and once in a while I have the pleasure of some uninterrupted stamping time — Heaven!

Thanks for visiting today!  This was another rather lengthy post but, as always, there’s the option of just looking at the pictures or skipping to the end.  I used to subscribe to all kinds of gardening magazines and that’s mostly what I did with them — look at the pictures.  At least this is free!  We’ll talk again soon.  Have a wonderful day!