Clearly....continued!

In continuing my "Clear Dollar Stamps" week...I have a couple more examples for you. This first card I made for my hubby. The sketch I used is in a cardmaking magazine (don't ask me which one because my brain ain't functioning yet this morning!) Somehow I even managed to wake up early and attempt to take the kids to school an hour early this morning. Ummm...they don't allow you to just drop your kids off an hour ahead! LOL!

Anyways, here is the first card. In real life (IRL) the tape is colored pink to match some of the pinks in the patterned paper...and then I drew little red hearts on the pink tape dispenser. And then I added stickles. Other than that...it's lots of faux stitching. I'm happy with how it came out.



And then I decided to go on and create another sample. I should save it for tomorrow in case I don't make anything today...but I'm too impatient! LOL. So you get to see it today and then you have to forgive me tomorrow if I don't post something!

This card started out in my mind as a cork board. I'm not sure I entirely met that idea. Probably brown around the edges instead of yellow would have looked more like one. Or maybe making a mini corkboard as PART of the card would have worked better. The images themselves are pretty small...do didn't fill up a whole card. Live and learn...and then get luvs...lol.

Without further ado...here's the card...



The "TGIF" and the push pins is from the Inking of You set and the tag and the color for the tag are from the Price Tag set.

Well, since I have some extra time, I think I'm going to go grab a shower before I take the kids to school. Usually I run them first and drop them off and then come home and shower. Today I guess I'll be ahead of the game.

I can see clearly (continued)

This week I've challenged myself to use stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps to create my artwork. The two cards below will go to a couple friends who are teachers...since school just started and I thought they would be very appropriate!

Out of the two cards...I think my favorite is the one on the left. For once I actually like the staples as a decoration on the card. Love the ribbon as well. You may or may not be able to tell it...but I used liquid glass over the main image so it looks glossy and dimensional. The card on the right is another version of the same sketch but I wanted to make it a little different. I like how it turned out...just like the other one better. My dh said..."oh, this is cool" and before I could stop him he stuck his finger in the wet liquid glass on this one. I told him it was going to a special ed teacher and she'd understand. LOL!



The papers are all from CTMH. I just pulled out one of their School Zone scrapbooking kits and everything coordinated. Made putting them together easy.

I think today I will play with the tape image in the set (or maybe move on to a different set all together...you'll have to check back tomorrow to find out! LOL!)

Jane

I can see clearly now...

Decided I'd make this a Clear Dollar Stamps week. Every card I show this week will feature at least one stamp that I bought from their site. Cards may use other stamps as well...but the main image will be from Clear Dollar Stamps.

This first card I made features stamps from a brand new set (that I helped create by giving my input before the stamp set was finalized). It just became available this month. I LOVE this set! So many cute ideas.

Here's the stamp set itself.

And this is the first card I made using the set...



I THINK (although I'm not certain because I don't have other companies to compare this to) that Clear Dollar Stamps has a different way of using a "Design Team". I THINK most companies have designers who help create artwork AFTER the stamps are made. I don't think the designers have any input into the actual making of the stamps. At Clear Dollar Stamps, the owner Lori, has an Idea Team and a Design Team. I'm on the Idea Team (although I hope to be on the Design Team at some point!) The people on the Idea Team all give input into the actual making of the stamp sets. For example, on this set Lori sent us a .jpg file of a few office supply items. We came up with phrases and a few additional items..she makes changes and sends a .jpg back out...repeat a couple times till everyone is happy with it. Then after the stamps are made the Design Team creates the actual samples that you see on the website.

So, how did I GET ONTO the Idea Team? Well, I sought out a couple companies I liked their images and that were new to the scene (or new enough that I felt a newbie like myself might have a chance). Then I ordered a few stamps from the companies and created a few samples. I then sent each company an email saying how much I liked their designs and asked if they had a Design Team - and oh, by the way, here is a card I made with your stamps. Then I let them lead. The first company didn't have a Design Team but told me if I get published with their stamps I'd get a credit on free stamps. The second was Clear Dollar Stamps. Lori had an opening on her Idea Team and took me on board. And I'm happy to be here. It's a lot of fun to be in on the idea side!

Anyhow...keep an eye out for new creations this week using Clear Dollar Stamps!

Jane

The boys are off to school!

I thought I'd be struggling to get the boys up this morning...but they were both awake before I was! Here's a picture of them...ready for the first day of school. Of course...it'd be too much to ask to have them both having nice relaxed faces, eh? Dakota looks like he's rolling his eyes at his brother's desire to hug him. Maybe he IS rolling his eyes! LOL.

Today I get to play "catch up". Have a bunch of little things that need to be completed. So that's my plan for the day. I'll post artwork later!

Jane

Baskets!

Remember, as always you can click on the photos to enlarge them for your viewing. I choose to load smaller pictures so the page itself loads quicker.

I have a couple baskets to share tonight. You may, or may not know, that I used to own a gift basket business. Well, I still have a lot of inventory and one of my friends asked me if I could put together a basket for the new principal at the school (school starts tomorrow). So this is what I came up with. I meant to take a picture before I wrapped it so you could see it better...but I forgot to do that. The basket is a pampering basket and contains a cotton wrap, slippers, pedicure set, eye mask, lotion, bath "tea" (something to soak in the bathtub with), some brushes, a relaxing CD, a washcloth, and an actual tea to relax with afterwards. This would have retailed for about $100 - but I sold it to her at my cost (or maybe below) so she got a great deal at $40 and I was able to reclaim just a little space in my house! I told my hubby he can deposit the check into our bank to help cover my budget "overage" from yesterday's rubber stamping expo. His response was, "I'm not even going to ask." LOL.



The second basket shows some items you've seen before. This is one (of the two) teacher baskets for tomorrow's first day of school. They are complete (other than I suppose I should make a tag or a card so they know who they are from and why!) I added ribbon to the journals, added little white boards (write on, wipe off) that I got at the $ store...I stamped "Notes" and a little flower under it on each one and added ribbons to the handle, the notecards and pen that were posted previously, and then I wrapped and decorated a candy bar. Here's one of the completed baskets.



Tomorrow is the first day of school. The boys are in the bath. Their clothes are all washed and put away. Their backpacks are filled with all their back-to-school supplies. The lunchboxes are waiting in the kitchen. I hope they both enjoy school this year. Mario has never really liked school. His favorite year was 2nd grade...but literally almost every morning he whines and complains and doesn't want to go. (Even in Kindergarten and 1st...the FUN years!) Dakota is the opposite...he's excited and LOVES school. I really think it has to do with how difficult things are for Mario. Due to his prematurity he still has issues with fine motor skills so writing is very difficult for him. They believe he is also ADD. He's mainstream classroom - but goes to special ed for math and reading. What's frustrating is that he really IS intelligent - but it doesn't translate to the book learning. I believe some day he will be a technology genius of some sort.

Ok, Mother Hen needs to go get them out of the bath, fed dinner and into bed before midnight! LOL. Really I'm shooting for 9:00.

Jane

Chalk blender experiences

I tried out the new chalk blender last night that I bought at the expo and I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with it. Maybe with practice? Probably my main complaint is that it won't work with the chalks I bought last year. The reason I bought the chalks last year was because they claimed they were smearproof/etc and didn't need to be sealed. They are MUCH better than my original chalks (from Michael's) but still do smear a bit.

That's why I thought I'd try this new blender material...plus it looked like putting chalks on wet would be easier. Well, I guess whatever they used in the "special" chalks from last year must make it so this new blender stuff can't even pick up color from them. Grrr.

My other set of chalks (from Michael's) is so limited in colors that it's kind of hard to do shading. Probably today or tomorrow I'll be posting a card I made with the blender and my old chalks. I think I'm going to try the same image/card with the chalks I bought last year dry (with no blender) and see which I like better.

For now...here is the card I made with the blender from a couple different angles.





Enjoy.

Jane

What a day!

Last night I could NOT sleep for the life of me. Finally fell asleep about 4a.m. and then had to get up at 7:00. We were on the road by 8:00 and headed to Mesa for the Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo. We followed the directions using mapquest and found the location with no problems whatsoever. I've been to two expos in Tucson and they were both SO crowded that I couldn't stand it. This one in Mesa had fewer vendors but also less attendance (probably due to the heat in AZ in the summer). Probably not good for them...but great for me! ;-) We were able to get "front seat viewing" for almost every booth and watch them work their magic. I learned how to use a melting pot and make jewelry with a piece of glass and some embossing powders and a rubber stamp. Then we were off to the next area where we watched them do several techniques with Ranger Distressing Inks and Embossing Powders. I'd received both these items from my secret pal at Scrap Camp and had no idea how to really use them. So that was fun to watch! Then we watched them work with alcohol inks (one of my new passions). Discovered a couple new things there as well. Then we watched a couple other demos on coloring...one using a dove blender pen and colored pencils and one using chalks and a solution. We also got to watch a new way (or new to us way) of setting eyelets without having to use the hammer and pound them.

I found my changito monkey stamps at one booth - but of course they were sold out of all but the one design. I found a panda bear stamp, a pirate cannon stamp, and a couple small food item stamps at another booth.

The rest of my purchases were more "tools". I bought the new eyelet setter and the new blending solution for the chalks. I had searched out vendors on the internet ahead of time and this vendor had a 10% off purchase coupon for conventions...so I was able to get 10% off my purchase at the booth. I decided to also pick up a couple sheets of EZ-Mount from here since I was getting the discount.

Anyways...here are all the purchases I made at the actual expo.



After we left the Expo we went out to lunch at McD's (thank goodness for the $1 menu) and then we wanted to check out a scrapbooking store that was close by that I'd heard such GREAT things about. It's called Scrapbooks, Etc. and is about 3 miles from the expo. The store is HUGE. Easily twice the size of any stores in Tucson that I've been to. And lots of good deals. First I viewed the 50% off table and picked up these two halloween page elements and then found some paper for .40 that'd match.



Then I went into the "paper room"...yes, literally a room full of row after row of 12x12 papers. I found these two pirate themed sheets (to go with my new pirate cannon stamp) and the monkey themed sheet (to go with my changito monkeys).



And lastly I got another sheet of 50% off page elements for Easter (yes, a little girly...but easter's about the only time I can get away with it in my boys' scrapbooks!) and a sheet of foam that you use to make your own ink pads with multiple colors, etc.



They give you 20% off your most expensive item once per month. So that was off my sheet of foam...which was a whopping $4.99 to begin with. I made it out with spending just over $10! I think that's a record for me.

We left, thinking our adventure was over. We tried to backtrack our driving directions...but got lost. Ended up in Apache Junction...then went the wrong way on I-60...so ended up taking the back route through Florence to make our way back home. When I was little, my oldest brother used to take me hiking...and after he'd hauled me around for awhile he'd ask me which direction was home. Invariably I'd point in the opposite direction. Well, when I got lost today I called him for directions (he lives in the Valley) and he had a good laugh at my expense. Boy, brought back some memories! At least now I know an alternate route from Phoenix to Tucson if I ever need one!

Ok...I'm off to play with my new goodies! Just wanted to share!

Jane