Inspired Stamps New Release

Lots of gorgeous new stamps at Inspired Stamps TODAY!  We are introducing the new Hymns stamp collections. I used the Wings Stamp Set which includes yummy feathers, angel wings, butterfly wings and more. All are backed/filled with hymns.  You can color them or stamp them on colored paper as I did. You must go to the Inspired Stamps Blog to see the different creations using the Hymns stamps sets-some of my favorites are the lovely Hymn Girls.

I chose to make a wall hanging for a friend of mine.  I used a set of wings stamps to transform the figure into an angel and used another pair of wings for the butterfly.  The scripture is from the Psalm 91 Stamp Set.

Mixed Media with Inspired Stamps

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Good  Saturday everyone! I had so much fun with this project! It really came together quickly and will now go in my kitchen as soon as we are done painting the walls.  If you have been visiting Inspired Stamps this month then you know we have been having a ball with Mixed Media projects.  

I chose to alter a wooden frame I picked up at Michael's for less than $2.  I first sprayed it with cherry Color Shine from Heidi Swapp.  After a few minutes it was dry enough to stamp.  

For the stamping, I used the hymn stamp from the Background Stamp Set and Memento ink.

For the ribbon, I used my favorite seam binding and sprayed it with the same spray as I used for the frame.  After spraying it, I used a paper towel to crumple it into a ball and then let it dry.  For the center of the frame,  I stamped a verse from the new stamp set Draw Near from Inspired Stamps.  I finished it off with washi tape, a fabric flower and some bling.  

Inspired Stamps Tutorial: Ribbon Calendar

It's my turn to share a tutorial as part of the Inspired Stamps Design Team!  I am excited to share a fun Christmas gift you can make fairly quickly and inexpensively.  The ribbon calendar is my daughter-in-love's favorite thing I have made for her and she requests a new one every year.  I have used Inspired Stamps for my scripture panels.

 

These are the basic supplies you will need: 5- 6x6 decorative papers (I like to grab a 6x6 paper pad), 5- 5 1/2 inch heavy cardstock sheets, roll of ribbon, mini monthly calendars, mini clothespins or decorative paper clips or bulldog clips, assorted embellishments, stamped scriptures

 

Choose the pages for your scriptures and glue down your clips.  I really love mini clothespins and you can get a box for less than $3 in the office supply section at Wal-mart.  The clothespins allow you to change out your scriptures or even use photos.

 

 Set them aside to dry well.  Cut apart your mini calendars if needed and adhere to your other 3 panels as desired.  You can try to make up your own calendars with a computer program or do what I did and spend a $1 and download one here: http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/purpleponyart

 Now it's time for the ribbon!  Line up your panels so the backs are facing up.  Space them apart as much or little as you'd like and then take the ribbon and hot glue down both sides, leaving a loop for hanging at the top.  This photo shows the 2 bottom panels.  You only need to glue the ribbon to the top of the bottom panel. I glue all 4 corners of the other panels.

 

To make the back sturdier and look neater, adhere a card stock panel to the back of each panel over the ribbon. 

 Now for the fun part!  Get out your box of embellishments and go to town! That's my "pink" box! 

For your scripture panels, cut a decorative base or use a journaling box and stamp your scriptures and any decoration.  For the top panel, I used Inspired Stamps Strength Stamp Set. For the bottom panel, I used Favorites Collection 1 Stamp Set. On both, I used the doily stamp from Lovely Lace to decorate the edges. 

 I hope you have been able to understand my tutorial and that you will find some time to make a few of your own ribbon calendars!  The clothespins allow you to change out your scriptures or even use photos.

Philippians 4:6 Project

My sis-n-law saw read this scripture in The Message and asked me to make her a project that included it so she could read it every day.  This is the result and I really am happy with how it turned out.  Hopefully she will be as well.

I printed the scripture out with my computer printer on paper from Close To My Heart's Florentine Paper Pack.  I used the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the rolled flowers and leaves out.  The biederm flat flowers and heart are all from the Florentine Stickease pack.  The rest of the embellishments were from my stash.

Remember, you can always order any of the Close To My Heart products from my website www.belindak.ctmh.com.  This month is a great time to purchase your favorite stamp sets as they are all buy 2 get 1 free!

Inspired Stamps Favorite

This week the inspired stamps design team chose their favorite stamp set to create with.  I can tell you, it was not easy to narrow down all the choices to my favorite but I finally settled on Winter Ruth.  Now, part of why I love her so much is I feel I had a tiny part in her creation-I had told Antoinette I would love a character stamp who could hold various objects in her hands.  Antoinette took that idea and created more than I could imagine!  Ruth is a larger character than the His Little Ones so she is so easy to color in.  She comes with 6 different items to place in her hands which makes her one of the most versatile stamps for several occasions.  For today's project I used the cross w/heart.  The set also includes 6 phrases to choose from.

For this project, I used up stuff  in my stash.  This was so easy to do since I had just reorganized all my embellies by color as Antoinette shared with us on her blog.  The pink canvas was left over from my craft show days last year and gave me the color to start with.  The tag on the bottom was stamped with 3 words from another of my fave inspired stamps' set-Perfect Christmas Sentiments.  As you can see, this is not a Christmas project at all but there are several words on this set that are great for all year.

I chose once again to cut away the tree and snow bank from Ruth and then added "wings" with 2 silver leaves I've had forever!  I really was pleased that I was able to use up "stuff" and create a cute project with my favorite Inspired Stamp in the process!

A Reason to Celebrate

My in-laws will celebrate their 50th anniversary this Friday.  In August  I posted about my parent's 65th anniversary.  We are so thankful both sets of parents have left such an amazing legacy of love and commitment.  Their examples are so important for their children and grandchildren.

I created my in-laws a similar shadowbox to the one I made my parents.  I think they will really love it.  I used the Wings paper from Close To My Heart.  I cut the flowers and journal box with the CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge .  I think my fave way to do these flowers is to use the Colonial White cardstock and then ink the edges after rolling-so pretty!

The card photo does not do it justice but all that gold just wouldn't let get a good photo. I used the CTMH Universal Background music stamp for the back of the frame and embossed it in gold, the rose is from the CTMH Sweet Moments stamp set-also embossed.  The frame was cut with Art Philosophy and I ran the edges of it and the card through Versamark ink before sprinkling with embossing powder and heating to glimmering goodness.  The word is from the Art Philosophy coordinating stamp sets.

I bought a new toy at Michael's yesterday and went a little crazy with the gold gems using my new I-Rock.  I love this gadget!

As always, click on the photos to see more detail.  Have a wonderful rest of your Wednesday!

Anniversary Tray

I bought this tray and paper (7Gypsies) awhile back and just left it out until I could decide what to do with it.  I started a couple of times to use it but nothing ever came together until I got these photos back from the printer.  The photos are from my in-laws 50th anniversary trip.  They took the whole family along with them-except me-I had a previous commitment :(  You can click on the photo to see all the yummy vintage touches I added.  The buttons and spools were my grandmother's, probably from the 50's.  Now, I hope that it stays on my shelf after my in-laws come to visit!  I have a special gift for them but she might just want to exchange it for this!

Sonoma Canvas

Happy Thursday everyone!  Another Sonoma paper project for you today.  This may be my favorite project of all the ones I've made with Sonoma so far.  This is my beautiful 84 year old mother.  Her absolute favorite, #1 and only color is purple and she has closets full of every shade of purple clothing you can imagine.  That's one reason I was so excited to see this new Close To My Heart paper.

I'm sure you've guessed by now that I used the Cricut-CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge to create this confection!  The lower flower is an exception though.  For it I layered punched round scallops from our Scallop Punch. The rolled flower was straight from the cartridge as were the scalloped mats. The word strips and the green diamond strips are from the strips on top of pages from the Sonoma pack.

Remember, you can order any of the Close To My Heart products from my website: www.belindak.myctmh.com.

inspired stamps-Acrylic Wall Hanging

I made this in early July,  took photos, hung it in my den and forgot to post it!  These colors are not ones I typically use in my art but the center "frame" paper was left over from another project and I thought it would hold a scripture from inspired stamps perfectly.  Luckily, I was correct! The scripture is from E3013 His Cross stamp set that came out for Easter but the scriptures are appropriate for any time of year. This scripture is near and dear to my heart because I claim it every day for my healing from MS and spinal cord damage.

It appears this paper and this stamp were made for each other.  The background paper and the butterflies are from a kit I bought on clearance months ago and then just could not decide what to do with them.  I adhered the scripture page to the front of the acrylic page and the background paper to the back.

inspired stamp used
E3013 His Cross

other supplies
Zutter acrylic page, CTMH ink and buttons, ribbon scrap, butterflies and background paper from Micheals

Inspiration H2H Challenge

This week at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com the challenge is to find something to inspire your artwork.  It's probably  not the kind of inspiration they had in mind but,  I found lots of inspiration starting with this white shadowbox frame I found on clearance for $1.20!!! at HL.  However, I didn't think I could get the back off to change what was on the inside.  Then, I was inspired by Antoinette at inspired stamps who actually figured out she could take the back off and made a cute anniversary display with the frame.  So, back to the store to buy several of these frames.

My final inspiration came from the rejection I received from a card magazine for my card submission.  I loved the card and didn't want to put it away so now it is proudly residing in my clearance shadow box!  Thank you to H2H for the challenge and to HL, Antoinette and the not to be mentioned magazine who rejected my card! 

Be sure you check back August 1st for some THRILLING news from Close To My Heart, our new catalog is available that day and it is a DOOZY!

Supplies:
Close To My Heart Sophia stamps
CTMH Miracle and Emporium papers
CTMH card stock
CTMH Buttons
CTMH Inks
Baker's Twine and reproduction stamps

Be sure to check out my previous post for a great give away!

inspired stamps-"Leftovers" Wallhanging & BIG GIVEAWAY

  

Like any avid  Scrapbooker, I have a room absolutely FULL of supplies.  Often, I look at my workspace and see lots of leftover bits and pieces from my latest creative frenzy!  This week, instead of trying to find somewhere to store the leftovers or in a fit of cleanliness (gasp!) throw them away, I determined to put them to use.  This little wall hanging is the result.  To tie all the ephemera together, I used an inspired stamp which was actually already stamped on a little brown paper bag (thanks Antoinette).  I trimmed the bag, crumpled it up and then adhered it to the leftover pennant piece in a free form way to give it dimension.  Click on the photo to see all of the yummy goodness. 

inspired stamp used: Deuteronomy 31:8

BIG GIVEAWAY:

Each Design Team member will be sharing a SCRIPTURE FOCUSED project sometime between tomorrow and next Tuesday.  EACH Design Team member will be choosing ONE person who commented on that inspired stamps Scripture-focused blog post to win a FREE INSPIRED STAMP SET of the winner's choice!!  You have from the time the DT member posts their inspired stamps Scripture-focused post UNTIL Friday, July 22nd at midnight CST to get your comment in to be eligible to win.  the inspired stamps blog is participating in this BIG GIVEAWAY too!!  You'll want to comment on each DT member's Scripture-focused inspired stamps blog post  plus our inspired blog Scripture-focused blog post to enter to win.  YES, if you enter on all 9 DT blog posts and the inspired stamps blog post you can win more than ONCE!!  You could win up to 10 times!!  WAHOOO that's a lot of FREE stampsets!!  

Amy Edwards
Dennen Treble
Jan Hunnicutt
Jenn Smith
Lynn Miller
Melissa Elsner
Shana Tedrick
Sylvia Solorio

inspired stamps

For those who left a comment on my Canvas below, I will include you since I "jumped the gun!" last week

Inspired Stamps Scripture Canvas

I picked up this pink canvas in the Michael's clearance bins for 50 cents!  The finished project  took about a week to evolve and started quite differently than it ended up!  I love the end result and it now has a home in my studio.  I started the project with the scripture stamp from the fabulous inspired stamps Strength set. Psalm 18:2 is definitely a scripture I have turned to many times in my journey of living with both MS and a damaged spinal cord.  I can attest it is TRUTH.

I know I've said it before but it is worth repeating-inspired stamps stamp so clean and neatly.  The clear polymer allows you to see exactly where to stamp.

How do you like the "flowers"?  I found the example for them on the eighteen25 blog.  Simply cut a card stock circle.  Completely cover circle with adhesive and press a piece of twine in center and then start tightly winding and pressing all the way around the circle.  When you get to the end,  tape the end to the back of the circle.

Be sure you leave a comment on this post because the creator of inspired stamps, Antoinette,is giving away a stamp set of your choice (except Alpha set) to 1 lucky winner on EACH of the Design Team Members' blogs!  So, leave a comment here and then go check out the other amazing blogs and comment there.

Amy Edwards
Dennen Treble
Jan Hunnicutt
Jenn Smith
Lynn Miller
Melissa Elsner
Shana Tedrick
Sylvia Solorio

Inspired Stamps Supplies
inspired stamps Strength Set


other supplies: CTMH, Martha Stewart punch, twine, pearls, canvas

Family Canvas

 

I have been doing my best to "use what I have" and I have a bunch!  So, when www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com announced an ABC Challenge (anything but a card) it gave me the push I needed to use up my canvases I've been "saving". 

This is the one I made for the challenge using my Wings papers from Close To My Heart.  This is one of the most versatile packs of paper we have because of the diversity of patterns and colors.  You may have to click on the top photo to see all the details but I matted the photo of my parents, me and my siblings on 3 different stacked mats from the Wings papers to give it importance.  The banner conveys my feelings of what I feel to have both of my parents and 4 siblings alive and living nearby.  Love them all so much!

I made the flowers using our 2"scalloped circle punch.  I just slit the circles every 3rd scallop to create the petals and then stacked 3 together and pierced with a button brad.  Then I fluffed them until I was happy with the look. This project did not use a lot of supplies but I think it packs a punch with the colors and embellies I chose.

Supply list from Close To My Heart

Wings B & T Paper

Button brads

Pleated Juniper Ribbon

Juniper and Black ink

Sophia Stamps

Circle of Love stamps

Non-CTMH

black lace-Michaels

hat pins-stash

Banner chipboard-Maya Rd

Silver paint-stash

Baker's Twine-Crafty Scrapper

Canvas-Michaels

Bird Canvas-Ice Day Project

This is what I spent my "iced in" day doing.  This is day 2 and apparently tomorrow will be the same so I would love to join this bird in flying the coup! 

I started with a plain canvas that I painted with a mixture of CTMH Perfect Pearls paint and Vineyard Berry re-inker.  I then adhered 3 papers from the gorgeous CTMH Wings collection.  I used a 4th pattern from the same collection to die cut the cage (Tim Holtz Sizzix die).  I cut a 2nd cage in Kraft cardstock to adhere to the back of the patterned paper to make it sturdy.  To give it a 3D look, I bent it out in the middle and adhered with CTMH Liquid Glass.  The heart charm is from a broken bracelet-I always save broken jewelry for future projects.  The sentiment is from a pack of vellum quotes I bought on clearance.  I used Vineyard Berry ink and Juniper ink from CTMH to ink the bird-CTMH January Stamp of the Month.  The flowers were made from old sheet music using the spiral flower technique.  I added some brass looking flowers in the center and to the side.  The larger brass flower and leaves are from Tim Holtz, the others are CTMH.  The lace is from Michaels.  I finished it off with stick pins, rhinestones and gold pearls.

Stay warm and leave me some love!

Christmas Canvas

Let the Christmas crafting begin!  Truth be told, I have actually been creating Christmas gifts, cards, etc for months.  However, some items required appropriate holiday photos.  When www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com announced a sketch challenge this week all the pieces of this gift came together.  This photo of me and my 3 sons (loved that show!) was taken on Thanksgiving and I knew my mom would love to have one.  What else does an 83 yo need? She loves photos of all her kids, grands, greats and great-greats.  So, when I saw the sketch challenge, I pulled out a canvas I'd had for a while and my CTMH Mistletoe papers and it all came together.  Now I need to make another for my MIL! 

Close To My Heart Supplies:  Mistletoe paper pack, cranberry and New England Ivy inks, Versamark ink, gold embossing powder, Everlasting Life and All the Best stamp sets, Mocha Pearls.  Other Supplies:  modge podge, canvas, ribbon and tiny bow from Michaels.  Thanks for stopping by!

Fall Banner

Banners are all the rage right now in scrapbooking and card making.  I jumped on the bandwagon wholeheartedly and have created a few for decorations.   I have a fence attached to my dining room wall with birdhouses above it and I change out the foliage on it every season.  This is my Fall banner for the fence.  I used premade canvas triangles and then cut the letters from chipboard and paper using the Cricut Cindy Loo cartridge.  I attached other embellishments that have been hanging around my studio and just seemed to be waiting for this project.  The paper I used is from Close To My Heart and is called Grace.  It's absolutely one of my faves for fall projects.

"ABC" Challenge

The challenge this week at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com is an
"ABC" challenge which means make Anything But a Card.  I polished off 2 projects in one with this one.  I am in a swap with some other paper artists that was a "groupies" swap which meant to use anything laying around your scrap room and group them together.  The trick was to not buy anything especially for the swap.  Easy Peasy when your stash runneth over like mine!  I made a door (or wall) hanging. 

The Close To My Heart products used are:
papers from "Splendor" pack (cloud, bird, bottom grass and butterfly), Colonial white flowers sponged with ink, Organdy ribbons from the Spring Harmony collection, stamps from "Over the Rainbow" (sun, sentiment, design on butterfly), "Delightful Things" (flower stems), and "Soul Mates" (joy on  hanger), inks:Sunflower, Topiary and Moonstruck, Glitz glitter glue on the butterfly and sun, Liquid Glass to hold the micro beads.

Non-CTMH products from my stash are microbeads, hanger, pearls and solid cardstock. I cut out the bird with the "Home Decor" Cricut cart and the butterfly with the "Walk in My Garden" cart.

Thanks for flying in!

Gift for hubby

I made this for my sweetie for Valentines.  He gave me tickets to Fiddler on the Roof at Bass Hall!  This was super simple to make.  I started with a purchased canvas and photos of our handsome boys. I cut the letters from vinyl with the "Winter Woodlands" cart from Cricut.  I tore the photos and then used "grey wool" ink pad from CTMH to add color to the torn edges.  I also used grey wool and black ink pads to add some "distressing" to the sides of the canvas. I added some vintage looking brads and charms that were in my stash.  I just used the Xyron to adhere the photos,.  Since this is my first canvas, I am anxious to see if it will hold up or if I need to use mod podge from now on.

Writing on the Walls

Here's my newest vinyl project on our kitchen wall.  It says "Hope is the bird with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without words and never stops at all.