Viva Las Vegas and Recessionary Card Making

(excuse the photography below, I had to shoot into the sun to get him in the pic)

I know, I've been a bad blogger. But, I had good reason! I went to Las Vegas for a little under a week with my most of my mom's side of the family. It was certainly entertaining. We saw shows, hung out and had a lot of fun. We also exchanged Hanukkah gifts.

I wanted to make cute themed thank you notes for my aunts, uncles and grandparents. But, alas due to the recession buying some new Vegas themed stamps seemed frivolous. So, I decided to do what us stampers do best...get creative!!! The concept started with some ancient foam stamps from Making Memories. Those babies had to be 5 years old. I took the 7 out and inked it up with Not Quite Navy, stamping three times on a piece of 5.25"x 4" paper. Then I took my grey EK Sucess marker (another old product in my stash) and my handy dandy ruler, dividing the paper (starting in the middle) into three 1.5" columns.

Next, I stamped my medium star from the Little Paper Shop set Basic Shapes (Love this set!) in More Mustard. Then, I worked on the other options per slot. I took and old cherry stamp and inked in Ruby Red and Old Olive. Lastly I used the flourish from Basic Shapes in Pumpkin Pie for the remaining slots. I shaded the sides with Old Linen from Distress Inks.

For the inside, I used my Little Paper Shop set A-Z for the inside sentiment. I love clear stamps for letters because they're super easy to line up straight on a clear acyrlic block. It's hard to see in the picture because I my dog seemed to want to get in the picture but the sentiment says "I'm Lucky To Have You" with stars from the Basic Shapes set.

Ok, so it was a little more intensive then my usual quick and easy stamps, but it was CHEAP! I made a totally themed card without buying a thing!!!

Do you find yourself doing recessionary card making? Let us know how!

Happy Stamping!
Elyssa

It's a Little Paper Shop Chanukkah!

...Well maybe it has a little bit of PTI too.

When Little Paper Shop came out with the set Global, I fell in love. The idea of a blank snowglobe conjured up so many ideas for me. From NYCesque skyscrappers to every holiday under the sun, I could feel the flexibility. One particular thing I liked about it was the idea that I could put a Menorah in it, to make my own holiday verison.

I'll explain the Snowglobe by steps:

1. Stamp Globe from Global set and Menorah from PTI onto 90lb watercolor paper in Staz-on Black.
2. Use a tempting tuorquoise reinker to color in the 'globe'.
3. Use a Rose Red reinker to color in the bottom.
4. Place distress stickles in Antique Linen on the flames and Broken China under the Menorah.
5. Shade globe with Night of Navy sponge.
6. Shade bottom with Adirondack Acrylic paint.
7. Cut out!

I had a blast playing with all the colors and blending everything!

Hope you like it!
Happy Stamping,
Elyssa Blair

Happy Chanukkah!

Christmas comes but once each year...

...but Channukah comes for 8 days!!!

I'm finally home and settled. AND I'm FINALLY working on Channukah cards. You've heard of Limited Supply Challenges, right? Well, somehow it seems that every Channukah is a LSC. This year, I thought ahead a little bit and when my LSS was moving a purchased this stamp from American Art Stamps and last January I got this ribbon on clearance at Ms. PLUS the background (stamped in Encore Silver love that pad! on Brillant Blue) is another side of the stampendous four sided background maker.

I colored the American Art Stamp in copics (B00. B01, E00, B29 and B39). The Happy Channukah is from the PTI set Mazel Tov. I framed the sentiment with Crackle Paint (Broken China), Distress Stickles (Broken China) and Adirondack Acrylic Paint.

Hope you like it!
Happy Stamping!
Elyssa

PS.

If you're into MAC Cosmetics they are having a 25% off sale on their holiday kits. They NEVER EVER put ANYTHING on sale, so if you're interested check it out!

PPS.
It has been brought to my attention that the pic is small today to make room for the menorah. Just click on the picture and it will come up A LOT bigger!!!

Clean and Simple?

I like to play. I like glitter. I like mess.

Clean and Simple?

Not usually.

While, I love the concept, somehow my cards always end up funky. I decided to challenge myself to LSC178 or the Simple Birthdays Challenge. I started of with a piece of Not Quite Navy. I stamped on it with one of my stampendous cubes from Michaels (again the 50% off plus 20% off deal) in Not Quite Navy. Next I placed a piece of burgandy vellum over the NQN and a piece of olive ribbon on top of that. Then, I used Diamond Glaze to stick on the three baubles. Lastly I used a sentiment from 'Best Yet' (which is one of my all time favorite sets-and it was a hostess gift!).

Clean and Simple? Check and Check!

Happy Stamping!
Elyssa

Thinking of You-Spritzing and Spraying!

Although coloring will always be my favorite card related activity, I do love to play with a new technique every now and again. One in particular that I have come to love is 'Spritzing and Spraying'. It really is very easy! All you need is a mister (I love my mini mister by ranger) and some dye ink.

1. Ink up your stamp (for alot of these layers I used my marveys to ink up the top of the flower in a different color than the stem.
2. Spray various degrees of water on your stamp(more water=less of an image will come out)
3. Stamp!
4. Repeat with various levels of water and stamping off to create layers of images
5. Lastly, Ink and Stamp one non-watered layer.
6. Add sentiment and bow

Easy Peasy!!!!

Happy Stamping!!!
Elyssa Blair

P.S.
I'm back with another sale, this time from www.allthatscraps.com.

50% off all Adirondack Pigment Ink pads and Reinkers-What a deal!!

Almost Famous!

Do you remember this little post from a few months ago??? Well, shortly thereafter I got a PM from none other than Mona of Cornish Heritage Farms and Mona Lisa Moments. I was completely humbled when she asked me if she could CASE my card!!!

Thats right Mona likes my little ol' card enough to copy it!!!! (Happy dance around the room)

Which of course makes me Almost Famous (watched the first 15 minutes last night, It's All Happening!!)

Anyway, finals are this week so unfortunately no card today, BUT I will be home this week which means...

BACK TO DAILY POSTS!!!!! WOOHOOOOO....

See you soon,
Penny Lane

Thank You So Much!

I just love this card! I don't think the picture came out so great, I tried to play around with it in photoshop to make it look more like it's amazing counterpart. Oh, well!

I had a ball making this card. It started with the swirly shape stamp (the image that 'thanks SO much' is attached to). I bought it at Michaels during their turkey day sale, so it was 50% off then another 20% off, which was perfect! So I stamped it in Versamark on my Georgia Pacific paper, then brushed over it with Perfect Pearls. Have you ever used PP?? They are just so glittery and cool, I think Ranger makes them. The 'Thanks SO Much' sentiment is from an old SU! Hostess set (So Many Sayings), which I also HIGHLY suggest because you can cut apart the blocks which makes it SUCH a great deal. I used my SU! word window punch to punch it out.

The flowers are from prima. I squirted a tiny bit of 'Broken China' distress stickles into the center (also love this product, can you tell I'm in a good mood??? lol). Next I rolled my wheel (I can't recall its name) over the bottom third of my card and finished it off with some impressions of an old Outlines stamp.

Publish Post

Love it!!!

Happy Stamping,
Elyssa Blair

PS. If you are a SmashBox (makeup) fan, then you have to check out the deals ulta.com is running! Just search SmashBox gifts and you'll find so many good deals!!!

PSS.
Can you tell I LOVE a good deal?