Back to School Ben

My son went back to school today. *sigh* He's growing so quickly. I made this card and put it in his lunch. The image is B is for Ben (4th down on right) and is a digi image from Victoria Case. Love this little guy with the backpack! It retires 1 September.

I used the current CPS card sketch #130. I love this sketch! I also used this week's Copic Colour Challenge #27 for *some* of the colors! This card uses C03, YR04 & E37 (the closest I have to #57). Since it is for my DS (who's 6) I used a number of bright colors. He loves jeans so of course he has jeans on. :) There is C03 on the soles of his shoes, zipper tag and around the lower portion of the image to help ground him. It is difficult to see the red layer has various items from the Back to School set from My Favorite Things.

I plan on having lunch with him today, a tradition we started last year. I couldn't leave with sharing a picture of my DS and DH on the playground before school started.

Stamps: B is for Ben (Victorian Case), Riveting (SU), Back to School (MFT); Ink: Night of Navy (on sentiment) Real Red (on red layer), various Copic markers; Paper: Ballet Blue, Night of Navy, Real Red, Solar White (Neenah); Accessories: Sky Blue atyou Spica pen.

Artful Inkables Fox

I just love Kristin's stamps (Artful Inkables.) I have used her fox from Critter Country. I made this card for the Think Ink challenge in the Artful Inkable's blog to use red, black and white. (There is some yummy blog candy at stake!) Do you think this qualifies? ;D

I also used the sketch from Mojo Monday. This week Mojo Monday is celebrating with a sketch a day and this is actually Tuesday's sketch.

I also used color challenge from Copic Creations challenge #10 to use red and pink. The pink is the fox's head. I actually did a quick Google search for red foxes and noticed that their heads were a lighter, almost pinkish, color from their red bodies. The black layers are sprayed with Pearl Glimmer Mist so there is some sheen to them. You can't tell much, but the bottom black layer was embossed with the Bird and Swirls folder to add some texture.

Stamps: Critter Country (AI); Ink: Tuxedo Black & Bamboo Leaves (Memento), various Copic markers; Paper: White Pure Luxery (GinaK), Basic Black (SU), Red (Brights mat stack from DCWV), Solar White (Neenah); Accessories: scallop rectangle Nestabilities, Sunburst Border punch (Fiskars), Horizontal Slot punch (SU), Corner Rounder (SU), Bird & Swirls (CuttleBug), white organdy ribbon; Pearl Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels).

Check this out!

I try to be very conscientious to only post artwork and keep the non-artwork posts to a minimum, but this is quite an incredible blog candy. Check out Stefanie's blog for an awesome blog candy giveaway!

Retirement Challenge

My DH has a woman in his office that will be retiring soon. I had been working on this image for several challenges and thought it appropriate for a retirement. The sketch came from Rubber Stamp Chat's August Challenge. The fairy is from PMS' August Challenge #1 to use a fairy, (and a few other requirements) AND a challenge to upload fairy creations to SCS. (I'll be uploading it there after I finish here.) The colors were inspired by this week's Copic Colour Challenge #26, (the blog candy for this challenge is 3 of PMS' new releases!)

I changed up the card from my initial take on it. Here is the first draft.

I decided that the background paper was just too busy. Plus you couldn't really tell that the second designer paper was the scallop circle. I also needed to add some ribbon. Here is the reworked card:

I do like this one better. The ribbon is the black velvet ric-rac. I needed a sentiment and decided to add it to the inside and give people plenty of room to write comments inside. I used my computer for the sentiment. Don't you think it is fitting? ;) It had too much blank space so I stamped Kirstin as a second generation in Going Gray ink.

Stamps: Kirstin (PMS); Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Going Gray (SU), various Copic markers; Paper: Basic Black, White (Neenah), Scarlet's Letter (Basic Grey: scallop circle, black & white in first card), Wild Asparagus (green polka dots), blue polka dots (SU - retired); Accessories: black velvet ric-rac, scallop circle & standard circle Nestabilities, Sea Glass Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels: on scallop circle), clear star gelly roll (Sakura: wings), clear atyou Spica (dandelion), white gelly roll (Sakura: highlights on fairy), scallop edge punch (SU).

PMS August Challenge

The challenge was to CASE a card from the PMS gallery at SCS. I chose Dawn Mercedes card here.

Here is my card:

The sentiment is this week's Friday's Freebie from the PMS blog. Isn't it great? Well, this card has NO stamping! That doesn't happen very often!

Stamps: I'll Just Be Me (PMS - Digi); Ink: Gold (Encore), Y11 Copic Marker, printer; Paper: Basic Black, DCWV designer paper, White; Accessories: black ribbon, Labels Nestabilities, Paper Piercing, crystals.

Updated Stamp Storage

I wanted to do an update to this post to show how I am storing my unmounted stamps. I am not as thrilled with the Stamp Keeper as I was originally was. I am continuing to use my Stamps Keepers as there is some benefit to using them, but for the most part they are just not as easy or inexpensive as this system.

I start out by cutting the stamps and using a permanent marker to write the company name on the back. Learned the hard way! I will try to add the set name if there is room. (I am showing you my process using my recent order from ISC.) Here is a picture with the stamps cut and the name on the backs.


Next I adhere that sheet that comes with the uncut rubber to a piece of typing paper. I right the company name on top to make identifying the company easy.

I put a piece of chip board into the page protector then add the typing paper with all the images attached. (If for some reason I don't have an image sheet from the set I just stamp the images on the typing sheet after I have prepped the stamps.) Here is the finished page protector.


Next I use Alene's Tack It Over and Over onto the back of the cut stamps. It dries pretty quickly. As you may be able to tell, the first ones are clear by the time I reached the end and took this picture. (See all the extra uses for your Scor-Pal!) ;)

After the glue has "set" and is clear I just put the stamp onto the page protector. Voila! I'm finished! Using the page protectors like this gives me flexibility to move around my collection, to expend or organize as I please. Fairly inexpensive as well!

BTW, often with sentiments I will stick them to the side of their image so I can read the sentiment.

I hope this is helpful to those of you still looking for ways to organize and store your unmounted stamps!