New Use for Stampscapes

Ever since I first got my stampscape stamps, I've been thinking of ways to use them for crafts other than just cards. I've used them for tags and my wedding invitations but this is the first time I've used them on a medium other than paper. I wasn't sure how well it would work but I was amazed the detail transferred just as well to wood as it does to paper. I sealed these coasters with acrylic spray and now they're ready for use!

Winter Wonderland

This scene was inspired by one of my fellow stampscapers in my yahoo group. I used a white gel pen over the top of the finished scene to create the frost and snow. I like the serenity in this scene. It seemed appropriate to post on my blog with the coming of the holiday season!

New Craft Desk~!

It may only be November but I'm already getting excited for the holidays. I'm ready to snuggle up in a sweatshirt and a cup of tea and start getting crafty (maybe not the sweatshirt yet - still getting used to fall in Southern California). To get ready to make holiday crafts I made myself a new craft corner. I am so excited to have everything organized and in one place.

I've already gotten started on some holiday gift tags. I used my pine cone stamp and also part of my stampscapes set for these:

Sewing and More!

Yikes! Where has the time gone? I am embarrassed at how long it's been since I posted last - but hey, getting married, moving to California and starting a new job takes a lot out of you!  So anyway, I have been experimenting with new stamps and now I've also starting dabbling in sewing.


My newest stamp is the 'Smokey Says' stamp from Paper Source. I LOVE this Smokey the Bear stamp, there's just so many ways you can use it and I love the vintage forest service feel of it. Above are some cards I've created with my Smokey stamp, along with a few stamps from my stampscapes collection.

In other news, I bought my first sewing machine, a Brother LX3125. I've only made a few projects so far since I had to learn how to thread the machine, wind a bobbin, etc. I've made a few pillow covers for the pillows in our living room and my favorite project so far has been cases for my new Droid X phone. I couldn't find a case that protected the screen and that wasn't really bulky so I used my sewing machine to make my own! I used a brown corduroy for the outside and a soft buffalo plaid flannel for the inner lining.

Now I have started trying new fabrics for phone sleeves in my etsy shop. So far I have an orange design ipod case and a blue floral Droid X case, both with a creme-colored cotton lining.

 

Woodsy Cake Topper

I've been searching around for awhile now for the perfect cake topper. I saw several cute ones on etsy but they were just too pricey for me, especially since many of them  I could possibly make myself. So a few weeks ago Tim and I went to Michaels and picked out some fake foliage, a nest and two fake birds. He was actually into helping - what a guy! So anyhow one afternoon, I gathered my tacky glue, some white fabric scraps and dried moss...and here's what I came up with:

I know, pretty corny but I get a big kick out it!

Round 2 - Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

I've been very busy lately with tons of wedding projects. My latest are the rehearsal dinner invites. The design I used was originally one of my ideas for the wedding invitations themselves so I'm excited I still got to use this idea for something else. I printed the information on the note cards and hand stamped the faux bois/wood grain stamp on each of them. A new addition to my stamp collection is a small pine cone; I used it on each of the green envelopes. I love how crisp they turned out! There's something vintage about it - I'm excited to use it again. Here are the pics, enjoy!

Father's Day Card

I received the 'Cloud with Rising Moon' stamp for my birthday, this is my first stampscape using it. I made this one for a Father's Day card because my dad likes loons. I think I need to work alittle more on the blending of the sky but I like having the ability to do moon-lit scenes.

Invitations are Finished!

It's been way too long since I've done a blog update. In the last 2 months I've been looking for a job, moved to California and trying to stay on top of wedding planning so I haven't been crafting as much as I would've liked. But I wanted to share one of my biggest projects that I've finally completed - wedding invitations! I used Paper Source paper and envelopes and did the design and map myself. I also had a custom stamp made from Impress for embellishing the envelopes and other wedding paraphernalia.

Trees are growing up

Today it was finally warm enough for my tree seedlings to spend the day outdoors. I'm going to slowly transition them so they can be outside once the weather is consistently warm. They are getting their second set of needles - starting to actually look like trees!

It must've been the perfect conditions for trees this year. I found tons of little seedlings in my backyard. I dug up 25 of them so they won't get trampled and hopefully they'll grow as big as my originals by the time the wedding rolls around.

Stampscapes are for lovers

I made this card for my lovely friend Page who is getting married this weekend. I was excited to make a scene for a specific purpose, the wedding is in Colorado so I thought the mountain stamp was appropriate. It's been alittle while since I did some stamping, more to come soon!

Sprouts!

My tree seedlings have started sprouting! On Sunday, I checked in the morning and there was nothing...then in the afternoon 5 had broken the surface. Now 30 have emerged! It's so exciting to see how many are there each day. My newest challenge is to not over or under water them. I am trying not to over-think it, they make it on their own outside so my goal is to not smother them.

Finally time to plant!

Spring is just about here and after 30 long days in the fridge my Douglas fir seeds are finally ready to plant! The seed planting ended up taking a bit longer than I expected. Finding 120 tiny brown seeds in a bag of soil is quite a time-consuming process. Luckily I was able to get Tim to help me and together we found 118 of the 120 seeds. I planted the seeds in two different containers so that I can put them in separate growing conditions to see what works best. Now I just have to wait 15 - 30 days for them to pop up. Hopefully it's sooner rather than later. I can't wait to see if they all germinate or not - crossing my fingers that they all do.

That's not all the planting that happened this week. To my delight, I found several fir seedlings in my parents backyard. They popped up on their own and were in danger of being trampled so we transplanted them into pots as backups if all mine don't grow. They look like tiny little fir branches - very adorable. Now I'm even more excited for mine to emerge!

More Stampscapes

I've been busy doing several stampscapes lately. I am slowly learning by trying out new techiniques. I was so excited to find another store in the area that sells stampscapes stamps. Unfortunately, they only had two of the stamps I really wanted, but they also had marvy inks which is something else I needed more of. I'll be trying out my newest stamps this week hopefully and I'll try to post them soon.

Etsy Sale!

 

I made an Etsy sale last week! It's so exciting to get a sale and my favorite part is packaging the item before sending it off.  My latest packaging was gluing a leaf skeleton on the top of a box made of recycled paper. I think this has a simple organic look to it that I really like - I hope the buyer did too!

New Technique - Stippling Brushes

This week I got two stippling brushes to try instead of the colorbox stylus tool and makeup wedges I've been using to apply color. I really like how you can add just a little color over a large area with the brushes. I found that it was easier to control where the color was going and how much with the small brush. I'm hoping that the brushes will be more cost effective - I've already worn out one of my stylus pads on only a few scenes.

These three scenes were all done with stippling brushes. I experimented with using a gel pen for putting snow on the trees  (I got my inspiration for the snowy scene's background here). All the stamps here are from Stampscapes except for the winter scene - one is an Impress stamp and the other is one from Joann's.

Wedding Favor Project

When I was thinking of what wedding favors we could have nothing fit better than giving everyone tree seedlings. I love the idea of so many tiny trees getting a start somewhere in the world because of our wedding. I've even gone as far to imagine getting to see them 20 years from now in one of our friend's yards, *sigh* it touches my little green heart. There are several places online to get seedlings but they are all about $2+ each, which doesn't fit with my budget when you multiply that by 115 potential guests. So I thought, well I have a few months why not try to grow them ourselves? Now I know there's a big possibility they won't grow or will be really tiny when August rolls around but hey for $8 it's worth a try! 

I ordered 120 Douglas Fir seeds from Whatcom Seed Co in Oregon and they arrived last week. Little did I know Douglas fir seeds need to be cold stratified, which this time of year means the seed have to be put in the fridge for 30 days to mimic the fall frosts. I soaked them overnight and today I put them in a small bag of soil and put them in the fridge. Now the waiting begins.

My First Stampscape Attempt

Ok - here it is. I actually think it turned out pretty well. I love how you can stitch these scenes together! I used the lakeside cove stamp and the rocky mountain stamp, both from Stampscapes. I stamped both in the middle and then partially stamped them on the ends so they extend over the whole piece of paper (this is a 4x6). I didn't go overboard on the colors because I was afraid of going too far. I just slowly added more layers of color as I got more comfortable with how it was turning out. For the clouds I used the paper towel techinique that Sandy Hulsart shows in her YouTube video. I wish I could just buy every Stampscape stamp and all the ink colors - there are so many possibilities! I have three stamps that weren't used in this scene and I'm excited to see what I can make with them.

                                          

Here's attempt number two. I used Babbling Brook and the large tree stand from the Lakeside Cove set. I wasn't really sure where I was going with this and ended up overdoing the clouds - I continued to add the blue color on the edges and I think it panned out.

Browse through the Stampscapes Gallery - it's amazing what people can do with these.

Stamps!

My newest obsession is rubber stamps. I stumbled across a local specialty stamp store a few months ago and was amazed by all the options and how intricate some of them are. I bought several stamps with the idea that I might be able to use them in designing wedding invitations as well as make cards for friends & family. I've been making several cards and gift tags.

I love all the woodsy ones which lead me to stampscapes. I first found them on Sandy Hulsart's blog. She has amazing artwork with stampscapes and several how-to videos! I ordered the Lakeside Cove set and am so excited to start using them. I bought them unmounted so I am impatiently waiting for the glue to dry now that I have mounted them on wooden blocks made by my dad. I'll be posting my first attempts at stampscape scenes soon.