Hi Everyone,

Starving Artistamps will be sponsoring and participating (on our company blog www.starvingartistamps.blogspot.com ) in a special blog hop Monday November 2nd organized by Denise (owner of Whimsy stamps) and Erin Bailey (co-founder of the Stamp Something challenge blog)

After being touched by a tragedy that recently took place in a neighboring New Hampshire town. Denise and Erin have decided to make a difference and set up a Spread the Love Blog Hop with the hopes to cheer up an 11 year old little girl who was the victim of a random and violent crime:

On October 4^th, 4 teenagers armed with knives broke into a home were a mother and her 11 year old daughter were sleeping. They stabbed the mom, Kimberly Cates, to death and left her daughter, Jaimie, for dead in their driveway. It was a completely random act, their home was chosen only due to its secluded surroundings.

This is what Erin and Denise hope to accomplish by organizing this event:

"We want her to be showered with cards from around the world in an effort to restore hope to this young girl’s life. We’re also encouraging anyone who participates in the hop to mail a card to Jaimie and/or anyone they know who has been a victim of random violence."

So mark your calenders for 10 am EST November 2nd, 2009. There will be giveaways and a huge list of hop sites with piles and piles of cards to ogle!

Denise and Erin have set up a dedicated blog for the hop and will posting information as it becomes available. The blog is temporarily unavailable but will be set up by hop time on monday. http://spreadthelove-forjaimie.blogspot.com/

Simple halloween bat card

For the past two weeks I have been obsessed with owning the Martha Stewart bat punch. It all started when I saw this card on Sandra's blog:

http://paperfuntastics.blogspot.com/2009/10/tuesday-morning-sketches.html

Well wouldn't you know Martha Stewart has TWO bat punches, so of course I bought both! I even stumbled into a 50% off Martha Stewart Halloween punches sale at AC Moore last week so I knew it was fate. I immediately had to fiddle with them and I whipped up this simple batty card.

Well wouldn't you know Martha Stewart has TWO bat punches, so of course I bought both! I even stumbled into a 50% off Martha Stewart Halloween punches sale at AC Moore last week so I knew it was fate. I immediately had to fiddle with them and I whipped up this simple batty card.

Sentiment: from Starving Artistamps GraveYard sentiment set:

http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_halloween_ii.html

Moon: Starving Artistamps DoodleFactory collection: Final Frontier

http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_final_frontier.html

Grave yard Zombie: http://starvingartistamps.com/halloween_silhouette_sheet.html

Prehistoric Diorama

I started a big project last night. My first star book. I got thru cutting 7 signatures of 3 page layers of double sided cardstock. I thought before I made a mistake I would try out the sizes I cut and do a dry run first so I made this prehistoric diorama card.

Since the most interesting part of a diorama card happens inside the card I'm going to show you that first:

Stamps used: Starving Artistamps fern leaf set and Starving Artistamps Prehistoric one of our DoodleFactory collections.

You can find them here:

http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_prehistoric.html

and here:

http://starvingartistamps.com/house_and_garden.html

I used technique junkies techniques Depth of field and Van Gogh for the leaves and dinos.

Here is an angle shot of the layers together.

I kept the cover plain because there was a lot of action going on inside already.

Those paper leaves are Primas, I did some coloring on them with a green copic marker too.

Here you can see the spacing of the 3 layers, I did the spacing an inch apart.

Measurements and instructions:

1. Cut your cardstock to:

First layer: 5 1/2 x 9 (inside first panel)

Second layer: 5 1/2 x 10 (middle panel)

Third layer: 5 1/2 x 11 (outside/card front)

2. Fold them all in half.

3. cut out your center frames, I used 2 spellbinder nestabilities long rectangular dies.

I cut the larger one first. I taped it down on the back of my first layer card (so the tape wouldn't pull up the front of the card and make it yucky. I eyed the placement but feel free to measure if you feel the need. For the second smaller cut out I lined up the first and second panel on the fold and then centered the smaller rectangle inside the large frame I just made. Then I taped that down, removed the first layer and ran it through to cut out the second smaller frame.

4. The fun part... doing all the stamping, adding all the images and the leaves. Do all this before you attach your panels, it makes life easier. I used stampers magic 4" roll tape to do all my mounting and attaching.

5. glue each end of the card to the card below it. I used stampers magic 1/4" tape http://starvingartistamps.com/stampers_magic_tape.html to attach each edge. I ran a strip of tape on the edge of the 3nd panel (the back one) and then made sure the 2nd panel was lined up right before I stuck it to the second. Once that was stuck I added tape to the 2nd panel and attached the first panel.

6. last step, adding the jute ties to the side, I used a screw punch to punch through all those holes.

So all in all it was an interesting first glimpse of what I'm getting myself into with my star book project times 7! I don't think I will make my star book quite as cluttered as I made this one, I think I went a little over board on the leaves.

Welcome to the Starving Artistamps Final frontier blog hop!

We are so excited to be presenting you with the newest collection in our DoodleFactory line...

DoodleFactory Final Frontier

http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_final_frontier.html

You are going to want to visit all the stops on our hop because someone is giving away a complete unmounted set of the new release for blog candy! We are keeping the blog candy open for one day only so your chances of winning are even better! (blog hop ends October 21st, 11am PST). If you just can't wait to get your hands on the new Final Frontier set don't worry you can order it starting now and if you are our lucky winner we will let you substitute another set of equal value instead!

If you have arrived here all by yourself and are just finding

out about the blog hop please start at the beginning:

START HERE: http://starvingartistamps.blogspot.com

Juliana Swanson http://stampinwinkyfingers.blogspot.com

Tracey Berkey http://stampomatic.blogspot.com

Donna Duquette http://www.deesstudio.blogspot.com

Sandra MacLean http://paperfuntastics.blogspot.com/

Lori Tecler http://www.inkingaloud.blogspot.com/

Lydia Fiedler http://www.understandblue.blogspot.com/

Andrea Cloutier http://andreasscraps.com/

Dawn Mercedes http://www.dawnmercedes.blogspot.com/

Jenn McMillan http://www.jennmcmillan.blogspot.com/

Irene Silva http://doodlefactory.blogspot.com/

This set was SO MUCH FUN to play with.

If you are looking for a feel good collection of images, or maybe you want to do some boy themed cards, or perhaps some "go green" cards, this set has a lot to offer!

This first card is a shout out to my peeps over in

Sweden...Nina and Eva this one's for you!

This one isn't quite a card, I think its more of an free standing art piece. It is over 8" tall.

I knew from the moment Irene made us this giant earth I wanted to make this. I didn't at the time realize how large it was going to be but I think it turned out cool. It was definitely a labor of love! There are 16 mini Doodles, not quite every mini we have but almost. I used Mini's from the Animals, Creatures and the Final Frontier set. All of them are cut out by hand and mounted on foam risers for dimension.

The headline is a quick kutz die alphabet, the insides are empty but they do come with the inserts if you want to put them in, I opted for keeping them clear inside for special interest.

Here is how all those little mini's started out life:

This robot card is pretty straight forward.

Lots of dimensions on here with several heights of popping up!

After all the crazy little details in the big card I needed to take it down a notch and did this

very simple but still snazzy single layer (almost) card. I think the key to doing these simple cards is using quality papers, I used 120# card stock for my base and moon and it really made a difference to the overall appearance of this card.

this was a "left overs" card, I put it together because I had that mini spuddy in the rocket already made. The rocket is from our DoodleFactory Urban set. Its a simple single layer (almost) card. Again just some 120# cardstock, copics and some more images on top.

This clear card was fun to make. I love doing clear cards. The alien is mounted inside the front of the card. I used our Stampers magic tape sheets to add adhesive to the entire top of the image, it is so sheer and clear when you attach it to the acetate you can't see it at all.

Here is a shot of the top of the card and a peek at the hidden sentiment

(from the urban 2 sentiment set)

Thanks for stopping by!

Now it's time to head on over to Donna 's blog for your next stop:

Donna Duquette http://www.deesstudio.blogspot.com

Parrot cards as promised!

All of the following cards were designed for display at a parrot expo we attended this month.

Most of these cards are simple to make, using only basic supplies (cardstock, inks, copic markers and pop up dots)

Eclectus pair

This cockatoo is actually a sulfur crested,

I snipped off the yellow head feather to make her a Goffin instead.

white bellied Caique

Parakeets

Eclectus

amazon christmas card

Cartoon macaws

blue and gold macaw

African Grey, you could also make this guy an amazon fairly easily.

African grey

white bellied Caique with wicker ball.

I kept the embellishments to a minimum with these cards as they are designed for a non stamper (yet!) crowd. I made sure these were generously sized images so they would fill up a card with little effort. Their large size also makes them great for framed art and other large scale products. The backgrounds are from Stamp Camp and they will be available shortly. All of our parrot stamps and accessories (including our Stamp Camp backgrounds) are pre-mounted on 1/8" cling cushion. We are still loading images to the website but if you see something you want and need it now, you can always email us.

I did a bad bad thing..

I am a bad blogger!

Here are some of the cards I forgot to load up back when we released the new Prehistoric and Into the Woods stamp sets. I have probably another 12 parrot cards that I will do my best to upload later today.

Most of these cards feature a technique I like to call "flat layers" its sort of like paper piecing but the goal is not to layer papers but to make a subtly dimensional card. I used 110- 120# cardstock for my layers. I start with the base image and then work my way up. I don't know if you can see in these photos but even cave dad's tooth is a layer! In person it make them look alive!

(Flat layers: ferns, Dino, and snake)

Thanks for stopping in. Stop by tomorrow for our new release blog hop!

Its going to be a blast!