stampomatic

A bird in the hand...

2011-08-30T15:59:00.000-07:00

Well I don't get much time to work much less craft or blog these days taking care of my little baby girls but this week I have been feeling the urge to create. Time being of the essence and a studio that should be featured on "Hoarding: buried alive" I went back to basics and played with the stuff I had on hand. I got an awesome Stampin' Up! owl punch that I had been dreaming about for months in the mail last week and some basic grey paper pads ("sweet threads" and "out of print"). My nieces came over today and I decided to make some punch owls. Here's the results of our play time:

Here is the punch and some punched out parts

Here are the six owls I made:

Sophia's owls:

Danielle's owls:

Lexi's owls:

My sisters cellphone, she commandeered and owl from each girl:

The whole flock of owls:

Another pic:

Close ups of my owls:

my favorite:

Well that was fun to do, I don't know what I'm going to do with them but it

sure satisfied my urge to create. On Sunday I took some much needed me time

and asked John to watch the girls so I could work on a painting. I will show it

off tomorrow if I can find some time to blog. Dare to dream LOL

Blog Candy Winner Announcement!

2010-06-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Sandra from Connecticut!

You are the winner of our new Antidepresstamps Giggle Bears, Birds and Bees complete unmounted collection!

Sandra's comment chosen by random selection:

Sandra said...

these images make very cute cards, I love the bee hive and honey comb background - but my favorite is the bird!
So cute!
Sandra

June 23, 2010 7:24 PM

2010-06-23T05:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the last stop of our Giggle Bears blog hop!

By now you have seen lots of great cards and are just about done. You've still got one more thing to do and thats leave me a comment because I've got the CANDY!!

This card features our two new backgrounds designed with love

by Irene to coordinate with the new Giggle Bear stamps:

http://starvingartistamps.com/backgrounds_honey_comb_and_woodgrain.html

I Love this little birdie, she is so perfect for perching on all sorts of things.

You made it, you reached the end!

All you have to do to enter our blog candy giveaway is to post a comment on this post and tell us what your favorite image is in this set! One entry per person please.

And this is what you could win:

A complete unmounted set of the new Giggle Bears, Birds and Bees!

http://starvingartistamps.com/ninas_giggle_bears_1.html

We are keeping the blog candy open for only one day so your chances of winning are even better! (blog candy ends June 24th, 2010 12 midnight PST). We will post the winner here and on our company blog no later than 12 midnight June 25th, 2010. If you just can't wait to get your hands on the new 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 head on over to our company blog for the starting point http://www.starvingartistamps.blogspot.com

If you got lost along the way here is the complete list to start from the beginning:

>Irene http://www.doodlefactory.blogspot.com

> Nina http://krumelurkonst.blogspot.com

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

> Juliana http://www.stampinwinkyfingers.blogspot.com

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

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

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

> Laura http://www.adayinthelifeofthepaperpoppy.blogspot.com

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

> Eva http://muffinspyssel.blogspot.com

> Tracey http://www.stampomatic.blogspot.com *you are here*

Thanks for hopping by!

Happy Fathers Day X3

2010-06-22T17:43:00.001-07:00

I got inspired to make some last minute Fathers Day cards on Sunday. I kept them pretty simple because of time constraints but I think they turned out ok.

The first one uses some of our new Juniper and Jupiter Beach images.

I made this for my Daddy who has a great love of the sea and who is an actual boat captain.

In fact I named the sea captain stamp after him (Captain Roy).

This next one I made for my Father In Law. This was actually the first time I ever gave him a handmade card. He got a kick out of it. I get a lot of use out of this Super Dad stamp.

This last one I really shouldn't be showing you but I just HAD to.

I made this card for Poppy, my Sisters Father in Law.

This is a brand new unreleased image which is not even coming out for several months. Consider this a super sneak peek of what's coming down the road. (LOL)

The sentiment was computer generated. I think if we immortalize this sentiment in rubber it will probably be a smaller version. The image actually does not have a beard, I added that for Poppy to personalize it and make it look like him.

Thanks for visiting! Stop back tomorrow for a new release blog hop it's going to be awesome.

Todays the day! New DoodleFactory Creatures II Release!

2010-03-31T18:12:00.001-07:00

Today's the big day!

Our new DoodleFactory collection DF Creatures II is officially released. You can find the new set here on our website: http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_creatures_ii.html This has got to be one of our most anticipated new releases. DoodleFactory Creature's is a much loved set by our customers: http://starvingartistamps.com/doodle_factory_creatures.html. We have had so many requests for a sequel that we knew we had to do one or we might have a mutiny on our hands!

Our design team has had the best time playing with these images and as a result we ended up with quite a big collection of cards to show off! To take a look at all the cards our designers have come up with using the new set visit our company blog http://starvingartistamps.blogspot.com where you will also be able to post a comment to enter to win a free set of the new Creatures II and once you are done head on over to our gallery for even more inspiration!

Here's a couple of cards I made to start you off:

This first card was made for our wonderful friend Eva Andren for her birthday:

Close up of Gumbo and Flob:

Inside:

This next card uses what has to be one of my most favorite creature in the set.

Meet Goonter:

Close up of Goonter in all his tantrum glory:

This last one features a new cutie pie named Spinkle. Check out that adorable face! I made this ATC for our first ever SADF design team ATC swap. (don't worry, I will post all our cards at a later date).

Rainbow butterflies

2010-03-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

I made the background to this card a long time ago. I had suggested this as a technique for technique junkies newsletter and it was published this month, the technique is called "corduroy". After I made the background I couldn't decide what to put on top so there it sat in my studio for all this time until my rainbow butterfly epiphany:

Here's a better look at those wings:

How to:
line up strips of 1/8" wide double stick on black card stock, I just eyeballed it. Go from the top to the bottom of the cardstock, I like to do enough for more than one project.
remove tape liner from all stripes you want to be a certain color. Dump glitter, flocking, or anything else you want to make your stripes out of on to the strip of tape. Rub the stuff in to make sure its nice and stuck. Return excess back to the jar and then continue to do this for as many colors as you plan to use. (I do all stripes of a color at the same time)

Once all the stripes are done I cut the cardstock to size and then cut it apart to make the various blocks. I mounted those on to a black cardstock base.

For the butterflies I stamped (2) of each size. Colored them with copics and then attached the first one on top of the second one. I used Black 1/4" Stampers Magic Foam to keep the wings raised.

Last thing was to add some black Flower Soft to the body of the butterflies.

http://starvingartistamps.com/flower_soft.html

Other products used:
1/8" Stampers Magic Tape, 1/4" black foam tape:
http://starvingartistamps.com/other_cool_stuff.html

All stamps Starving Artistamps
Cethosia butterfly: http://starvingartistamps.com/page_3_1.html

Cethosia butterfly Jumbo: http://starvingartistamps.com/page_4_1.html

Glitter: from Michaels, not sure what brand it is but it came in a set of 5-6 primary, opaque colors.

Gary Update!

2010-03-24T08:14:00.001-07:00

Gary received his package a few days ago and was very happy with his Dunkle stamp and super gary card. He has his super gary card propped up in his office already. When John asked him if the stamp was ok (due to its size) Gary said, "It's great, you can never have too big of a jackass stamp". I guess if John's vacation gets approved we will know just how much he loved it.

Now John is asking me to make a card for Frank another one of the higher ups so that he doesn't feel left out. A stampers work is never done.

Super Gary!

2010-03-15T17:52:00.001-07:00

I made this card for Gary, my husbands supervisor as part pre-thank you and part bribe. He is in charge of approving vacation schedules. Even though John has 13 years at his job unfortunately he will never in his entire career have seniority. This causes some difficulty every year with booking trade shows where dates are set in stone and contracts have to be submitted almost a year in advance. Add to this, the time of year I need him most is also a highly sought after time for taking vacations. Hence this little package I mailed today.

Recently Gary commented to John that he would love to have a "Jackass" stamp to stamp on paperwork. The closest I could get to a Jackass was our Donkey Dunkle from our DoodeFactory Fairytale set: http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_fairytale.html I made Gary a wood mounted Dunkle and shipped him off along with this Super Gary card:

Stamps used:

Super Dad: http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_super_parents.html

Cityscape: http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_urban.html

Pigeon: http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_set_the_scene_1_2_1.html

Sentiment: http://starvingartistamps.com/sentiments_baby_.html

Valentines

2010-02-28T08:54:00.001-08:00

The kids (my nieces) all slept over the day before Valentines day. They love to craft when they are over so I figured making valentines might be a fun way to keep them entertained. I pulled out a bunch of supplies including my Epic 6 die cut machine, a bunch of spellbinders and quick kutz dies, cardstock and Martha Stewart tinsel glitters. We spent several hours talking and crafting. They had a blast. Here's what we made:

My valentine for John:

Inside:

Lexi's valentine (age 10):

Inside:

Sophia's Valentine (age 8)

Inside:

Danielle's valentine (age 8):

Inside:

Mass production Holiday Cards 2009

2009-12-20T06:27:00.001-08:00

O.K. well if by "mass production" you mean 8 cards then this was mine. After buying all 3 spellbinder snowflake sets I was committed to using them as much as possible. I had decided to send out a few christmas cards (a major task for me who has never in all my stamping years attempted to take this on) and I figured I could put my snowflakes to use. I love how they look and although they are time consuming I think they are very much worth it. I actually started this project by spending several hours making these snowflakes. I used Pop! tape http://starvingartistamps.com/stampers_magic_pop_tape.html to give each layer some height. After making the snowflakes I made my first attempt at a snowglobe card (see below) which came out O.K. but I wasn't crazy about the overall look of my globe card and decided on this card instead:

Stamps used:

http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_arctic.html

http://starvingartistamps.com/sentiments_holiday_sentiments_3.html

http://starvingartistamps.com/backgrounds_weaves_and_circles_1.html

Pop! tape gets a workout with all these layers.

My version of a mass production:

My first snow globe card:

I used pop tape to make Eva my eskimo girl a little more solid. I was planning to attach her but then decided she would have more fun if she stayed loose and was able to make snow angels and play in the snow.

If I ever attempt to make multiple cards again please remind me that it took me most of my spare time over the course of a week to get these done!

Blog Candy Winner Announcement!

2009-12-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to catdidit!

Winner of our new Arctic blog candy giveaway.

catdidit said...

What awesome creations Tracey! Love all of them, so very creative! I am sooo loving that moose, love his expression on his face!! LOL thats what I love about the doodlefactory stamps, they have personality!!

Please send us your mailing address and we will have your new set out to you ASAP!

Arctic Blog hop and Blog candy!

2009-12-06T14:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the next stop of the Arctic blog hop!

By now you have seen lots of great cards and are about half way thru.

You've still got much more to see, but for now why not take a minute and leave me a comment because I've got the CANDY!!

All you have to do to enter our blog candy giveaway is to post a comment on this post and tell us what your favorite image is in this set! One entry per person please.

And this is what you could win....

27 fabulous winter themed images from our DoodleFactory line:

We are keeping the blog candy open for only one day so your chances of winning are even better! (blog candy ends December 8th, 2009 11am PST). We will post the winner here and on our company blog no later than 12 midnight December 9th, 2009. 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 head on over to our company blog for the starting point http://www.starvingartistamps.blogspot.com

If you get lost along the way here is the complete list:

Start Here: http://starvingartistamps.blogspot.com/2009/12/doodlefactory-arctic-blog-hop-and-blog.html

Juliana Swanson: http://stampinwinkyfingers.blogspot.com/2009/12/arctic-blog-hop.html

Donna Duquette http://deesstudio.blogspot.com/2009/12/brrrdoodlefactory-has-gone-to-arctic.html

Lori Tecler http://inkingaloud.blogspot.com/2009/12/doodlefactory-arctic-blog-hop.html

Lydia Fiedler http://understandblue.blogspot.com/2009/12/welcome-to-arctic.html

Tracey Berkey http://stampomatic.blogspot.com/2009/12/arctic-blog-hop-and-blog-candy.html

Jenn McMIllan http://jennmcmillan.blogspot.com/2009/12/starving-artistamps-blog-hop.html

Eva Andren http://muffinspyssel.blogspot.com/2009/12/welcome-to-starving-artistamps-new.html

Nina Aaslund http://krumelurkonst.blogspot.com/2009/12/one-day-doodle-factory-blog-hop-and.html

Dawn Mecedes http://dawnmercedes.blogspot.com/2009/12/brrrran-artice-blog-hop.html

Now you can head on over to Jenn McMillan's blog for the next stop on the hop.

http://jennmcmillan.blogspot.com/2009/12/starving-artistamps-blog-hop.html

Thanks for stopping by!

2 sketches Angel card

2009-12-06T11:56:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to participate in the 2 sketches challenge since we are sponsoring this week and today is the last day. (FYI the prize this week is a complete collection of our Nativity set and coordinating sentiments AND a full pack of Sakura pens. Total value for this prize package is over $60.00!)

I started my card with the idea that I wanted to use a big glittery silver snowflake. I have been in a huge snowflake mood lately (stop back tomorrow for the blog hop and you will see just how many snowflakes I have used on my cards!) All the snowflakes are spellbinder dies. I used a mix of different flakes from 3 different sets. I used our 4" wide Stampers Magic tape to cover a piece of cardstock. Then ran that thru my cuttlebug with asst. snowflake dies. I had to use a couple of sheets of extra cardstock to shim it up and make it cut all the way through, but as you can see it worked. Once I had them all cut I mounted each layer using 1/8" thick POP tape.

I learned with my first snowflake its better to attach the parts together before you glitter it as it makes a stronger bond. So I layered each layer peeling off the liner so that each part was sticky. Once the whole thing was assembled and each layer was sticky. I dumped a container of ultra-fine silver glitter on it. I used a brush to dust off all the excess from the nooks and crannies.

I also made the glitter stripes using Stampers Magic Tape in 1/8" wide. I just ran the double sided tape where I wanted it and then added the silver glitter, again brushing off the excess. I love using the tapes for glitter stripes. Its much cleaner than using glues and the layer is even and not lumpy.

Products used:
Stampers magic POP! tape:
http://starvingartistamps.com/stampers_magic_pop_tape.html
Stamps: DoodleFactory O' Holy Night Angel:
http://starvingartistamps.com/o_holy_night_3.html
Stampers Magic Tape:
http://starvingartistamps.com/stampers_magic_tape.html

Visit with us tomorrow for our new release DoodleFactory Artic BLOG HOP and ONE DAY ONLY BLOG CANDY!! The hop will be on the company blog and can be viewed anytime after 11am. www.starvingartistamps.blogspot.com

Blog Hop Save the Date!! DoodleFactory Arctic

2009-12-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

We will be having a blog hop on December 7th starting at 11am EST. There will be a one day only blog candy giveaway of the compete collection so come on over to our company blog to start the hop: www.starvingartistamps.blogspot.com

See you there!

Magnolia + Starving Artistamps = fun!

2009-11-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

Well I finally bit the bullet and splurged on some Magnolia stamps, man those things are pricey! I suppose thats because they come all the way from Sweden. I confess I didn't like these images when I first saw them, but they recently grew on me and I have started collecting them. Expect my blog to be filled with mixed company cards for a while, I'm on a bit of a bender.

This first card uses Magnolia Stamps and Starving Artistamps DoodleFactory Tropic backdrop and sentiment from the tropical set. Links can be found here:

Backdrop:

http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_set_the_scene_1_2_1.html

Sentiment:

http://starvingartistamps.com/tropic_sentiments.html

Weave background:

http://starvingartistamps.com/weaves.html

This next card uses Starving Artistamps: weave background, cartoon draft horse, "it happens" stamp set. I also used the saddle cut out from our cartoon equestrian stamp. You can see an example of the entire stamp in the post below this one. stamps can be found here:

Saddle:

http://starvingartistamps.com/cartoon_equestrians.html

It happens sentiment and horse poop:

http://starvingartistamps.com/cartoon_horses_page_1.html

clydesdale horse:

http://starvingartistamps.com/cartoon_draft_horses.html

Smithtown, Long Island new displays photos

2009-11-16T08:12:00.001-08:00

We made a few changes to the displays during our

last show of 2009 in Smithtown, Long Island, NY.

All of these photos were taken during set up before

the show so there may be a few things out of place.

Front middle of the booth

View from the right side looking across the

inside of the booth. The far wall is 25' away.

this is also part of the middle of the displays,

there is a complete section of products to the left of this.

The lighting in this venue is incredibly low but I

wanted to document the changes to the displays for posterity LOL

Just horsing around

2009-11-16T07:08:00.000-08:00

All stamps Starving Artistamps

2009-10-31T15:03:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2009-10-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

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..

2009-10-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

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!

Blog Hop Winner Announced!

2009-07-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to: TONILEA!

Tonilea is the winner of our Classic Decor blog hop candy!

Please send me your mailing address and we will get your Classic Decor Stamps, Classic Decor Sentiments and Cling cushion right out!

Tonilea's comment:

I am still chuckling as I write this! The folks in this blog hop have to have the best sense of humor on the internet! Not only are the stamps and sentiments clever, wonderful and useful, they provide the artist to use any and all of their talents and creativity. Wonderful fun!

thanks
tonilea

BLOG HOP DAY!!

2009-07-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Hooray!! You did it! You made it to the end!

I'm so glad you stuck with it because I've got the candy :o)

Here are the final cards in the hop,

the blog candy info can be found at the bottom of this post!

(this is my favorite card out of the bunch. I love Mrs. Poose!)

Mrs. Poose is so spoiled. Look at her with her fancy collar!

Flowers in the vase:

Flower soft in colors christmas green, shamrock, bright pink, poppy red, baby pink.

card inside:

I made the card above and decorated the chandelier with clear austrian crystals.

Then I decided I wanted to see what it looked like colored crystals and made this

card using the smaller chandelier.

Austrian crystal chandelier accents.

Idea to note: use the oval frame as a mirror and reflect another image.

I hope you enjoyed our new release blog hop! If you love these stamps and don't want to wait for the random drawing and want to take advantage of the 3 day only Blog hop special visit the website today. (don't worry, you can still enter the drawing and if you are our winner we will let you choose a different set of stamps and coordinating sentiments with cling cushion instead!)DECO

R STAMPS:

You can find the new stamps here:

http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_classic_decor.html

http://starvingartistamps.com/sentiments_classic_decor.html

And now for the BLOG CANDY....

All you need to do to enter to win the

COMPLETE COLLECTION OF CLASSIC DECOR UNMOUNTED

STAMPS, CLASSIC DECOR SENTIMENTS WITH CLING CUSHION

...is post a nice comment about our blog hop (on this post) and be sure to leave a way to

contact you. The winner will be chosen randomly.

We are going to leave the blog candy open until SUNDAY July 12th, 2009 midnight Eastern time. The winner will be announced no later than Tuesday July 14th EST.

If you arrived at my blog independently, and didn't make all the stops on the hop

You can start at the beginning by visiting our company blog:

www.starvingartistamps.blogspot.com

Random NYC photos

2009-06-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

On the way home from Uncle Eddies memorial service we hit some major traffic in Jersey and John decided that the quickest way home would be to cut thru NYC to get from New Jersey to Long Island. Normally I opt for going up and over via the George Washington bridge (thru the bronx) or even settle for cutting thru Staten Island but heavy traffic on a Saturday evening made him think NYC would be the quickest of the 3 routes. Needless to say I was a little apprehensive. Although John works in NYC and drives there daily, I myself can count on one hand the amount of times I have driven in the city. Add to my nerves the fact that I was driving my very large (and powerful 8.1 liter V8 -insert manly grunting) but not very responsive or known for its handling Chevy Avalanche in a place where aggression, speedy lane changes and quick braking is the expected driving technique. My big black behemoth was amusingly out of place amongst the two doors coups, taxi cabs, bike delivery boys and infesting pedestrian population.

Fortunately sometimes MIGHT makes RIGHT and I managed to muscle my way in after much tailgating, some quick lane changing, and lots and lots of avoiding double parked cars (All you people in NYC, just so you know double parking is illegal!) we manage to get to 34th (or something around that number) street and have to cut across to get to the mid town tunnel or at least that is what John was telling me we did. Due to all the jaywalkers, backed up traffic and double parkers I had some time to snap a few photos of our 1.5 mile Jaunt from NJ to the midtown tunnel.

Its really not possible to feel the immensity of NYC in any photo. In person its much much bigger, busier and chaotic than a still photo can possibly capture.

broadway and 34th street

Empire state building reaching way way way up into the clouds.

(my favorite photo)

church photos

2009-06-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

John's Uncle Eddie passed away unexpectedly before Christmas. He and his wife lived in Florida and after his passing the family decided to bring his ashes up here to be buried near his son in New Jersey. The service was last weekend in John's cousins church. The church was lovely and I managed to snap off a few photos before the service.

I wish you could see how nice this looked in person,

the arches and stain glass windows were beautiful.

The entire inside of the church has incredibly archways and domed architecture

and all of the arches are hand painted. This photo was taken where I was sitting

The statue up near the ceiling is larger than it looks here.

I'm not quite sure these marble columns are real. They have a clear coat on them that

doesn't look like what you would seal real marble with. I wonder if these are incredibly

well painted faux marble or poorly sealed real marble.

From far away they were really quite handsome.

After the church service we went to the funeral. Uncle Eddie's ashes were laid to rest

in a vast and tremendous cemetery with more crypts than I have ever seen in any other cemetary. There were hundreds of them. They were everywhere. I happened notice that a good amount of those crypts were of substantial size and engraved with Italian last names. I didn't recognize any of the names on the crypts we passed as possible crime family names but I watched the Sopranos so I know there are lots of them in New York and New Jersey. I would have taken photos but the rainy graveside service started right away.

After the services we went back to John's cousins house for what turned out to be an

"Irish" funeral. (I was designated driver and refrained from the spirits)

Johns cousin's house is quaint. Although he is a bachelor

John's cousin has a talent for mixing interesting historical and vintage pieces, sports and guy memorabilia, hand painted furniture and feminine botanicals for what has got to be one of the most eclectic yet comfortable houses I have ever been in. Its part museum and part English cottage. Its a cosy little old house filled with interesting artifacts that makes you feel like you can kick off your shoes, settle in on one of the many mismatched chairs and enjoy time spent with family and friends.

new cards

2009-04-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

Here are a few cards I did to submit to the Stampers Sampler. Stampers sampler is probably my utmost favorite magazine as it contains more cards for the cost than any other stamp magazine published.

The first few cards I made were for their holiday art card call:

Stamps used: Starving Artistamps "crash landing witch", sentiment from Witch trio set, clouds set and silhouette graveyard. Paper from Die Cuts with a View pets stack.

This card uses stamps from Starving Artistamps "flying wedgie witch", clouds set and haunted house from our DoodleFactory collection. Papers are from assorted companies.

Fence punch is Martha Stewart. Oh and P.S. if you liked Martha Stewarts drippy goo halloween release punch from last year you will be exited to hear that due to its overwhelming popularity they will be re-releasing it again this year!

Well, this card isn't quite a halloween card, I got off track a little bit. But at least it shows that

you can use the halloween witch for other things once halloween is over!

Stamps: balloons from simple birthday set and "old hag witch" and sentiment from Witch Trio set. Papers are from Die Cuts with a view Pets stack.

I liked my cards so much that I just couldn't bear to part with them.

So I made two of each. I did a couple of them slightly different but not by much.

The next two cards are my submissions for the call for beads on cards. I'm not so sure I knocked these out of the park but they went in the envelope too:

Stamps: Starving Artistamps flower bunch, Sentiment from Simple and Sweet sentiments set.

Paper from Basic Grey's urban prairie.

Ok, this next one is some bead over kill. I think I should have used smaller beads. Originally I had the beads as the top layer of the center of the sunflower, but then decided that was a little excessive and decided to add an additional top layer to frame the beads. It worked out better:

If I decided to recreate this card I think I would skip the border and/or try it with smaller beads.

The Calm before the Storm

2009-04-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard the expression the calm before the storm? Thats what Saturday morning is right before they open the show to the shoppers. I took these photos a few minutes before the Akron, Ohio Adventures in Stamping show started. I figured you might be getting tired of photos of my displays so I will spare you more shots of our booth, but I did want you to see how my new sign came out:

this shows the middle of the back wall of the booth,

what you are seeing is 10' of the 20' across.

Various vendors finishing up some last minute details.

This is the far right isle of the show. You can see a tiny bit of

our displays in the left (black table cloth, wooden shelves.)

This is the next isle from the far right.

You can see a section of our unmounted displays

(the first two carts on the right of this photo)

behind us is Just for Fun Rubber Stamps owned and operated by Rick and Deb.

Rick's nickname for me is "Trouble" and he likes to razz us a lot about how long we take to drive to a venue. Jezz, you take a few extra hours (about 5 actually) to get to a show in Virginia three years ago (due to massive traffic delays and bridge closures, so not our fault! ) and they never let you forget it!

Also, interesting to note, unbeknownst to Rick, one of the other promoters we work with also calls me "Trouble". A title that I have unfairly received I tell you!

Other side of that same isle.

These are my neighbors to the right of me. This is also the first front row of the show.

We were in the front row, to the right. This is all the booths to our left across

from the front entrance. With over 50 vendors at this show, it was a good location.

I didn't get much time to shop and I really wish I had. There were several vendors at this show that I didn't know and wish I had been able to check out their offerings. I did manage to stop at the one booth that I had a shopping list for. Outlines rubber stamps. Another must have company to check out. You really need to see their displays in person though, photos really do not do this companies products justice. I picked up a huge, glorious assortment of sparkly austrian crystals, soon to grace the fronts of my cards I hope!

A little known fact about us. We frequently travel with one of our dogs.

This is Joshua, he is our 7 lb chihuahua. He loves to travel with us and has been doing

so for all of his life. Sometimes he has to stay back at the hotel and sometimes he is allowed

in the venue. It depends on the location and promoter. We tend to stick with the same chains

of hotels and with over 60 days on the road Joshua has come to recognize them very well. He feels right at home right away when we check into our room.

"Seriously? It's 8am already? Do you REALLY have to leave at this ridiculous hour?"

"Stop taking my photo mom, I just want to go back to bed!"

Well, I hope you have enjoyed a few glimpses from our trip!

Tomorrow I have a couple of new cards to show you :O)

These are the people in my neighborhood

2009-04-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd take a moment to upload my latest show pictures from the last show we did before we head off to Akron, Ohio for Adventures in Stamping this weekend. Last post I mentioned I wanted a new smaller sign to fit in with my Wall O' cards backdrop. I will be picking up my new sign on tuesday, right before we leave for Akron.

Here is a picture of the digital version of the sign. I am very curious to see how the sign will turn out compared to its little digital version. So while I was in "new sign mode" I somehow diverted to "new logo mode" and managed to wrangle a super special doodle out of Irene. It's Doodle ME! (o.k.. a cuter, thinner, younger me, but me none the less!) I'm totally jazzed about being doodlized. Granted she was kind to me and took some liberties, but you will notice a few of my features.. such as my straight blonde hair, blue eyes, full lips and a round nose.

and here she ("I") am digitalized and ready to be printed on our new sign:

I will post follow up photos of our booth with the new sign in Akron when we get back.

Our previous show was in Allentown, PA. I had some extra help for this show:

My beautiful niece in all her Starving Artistamps accoutrements.

She loves to do shows with me and this show she was especially helpful.

She and I unloaded the entire trailer by ourselves during a bit of drama

when my sister realized she was missing her wallet and spent the first

couple of hours of show set up on the phone canceling all her credit and bank cards.

(post script: she dropped her wallet before we even left home, the police

called her monday morning. No cash was in it but she did get her coach wallet,

drivers licence, photos, and all her now canceled cards back.)

Booth shot after set up was complete.

Oh, so the title to my post.. These are the people in my neighborhood

(my fellow stamp vendors friends)

This is Sam. Sam is so cool. I call him "other John" ... actually, I call him and his wife Debbie

"other us" because so many things about them reminds me of John and I. We have the same

taste in products, the same over stuffed booth philosophy. The same affinity for big black trucks and pimped out custom trailer set ups. I especially adore Sam because John and him get along like peas and carrots.

Here are some other stamp gypsies I adore...

MaryKay, the brilliantly talented owner of Stamp Camp rubber stamps. She has a fabulous

eye for stamp designs, definitely worth checking out her wonderful line of stamps.

This is Kathy of Sea Side Stampin' ink. They are out of Maryland and put on

The coolest annual stamp show in Ocean city, Maryland. It goes on on the same

weekend as a HUGE car show. All weekend are hot rods and vintage cars crusing up and down the main road. Lots of traffic and exhaust fumes in the air but super fun to do.

(plus there are DOLPHINS in the ocean there, that alone would inspire me to go... the crabs are a good bonus too!)

This year we are talking about crashing at Kathy and Joe's (meet Joe below) house for the show. And all we have to do is bring them a couple dozen NY bagels... can you say sweet deal!

This is Joe, Kathy's husband. He looks like a big ol' teddy bear here but sometimes he sports a Harley doo rag and other Harley gear and then he looks like a bad-a** biker dude. He also loves the guitar so I suppose we will be doing some jamming while we are crashing there. (him more the jamming , me more the scratching out some sort of tune with my rudimentary guitar playing skills.

This is actually a pic of John from the show in Philly.

I figured I would throw it in here because my husband is so darn cute an all.

Setting up Stamp Scrap Art Tour Philadelphia '09

2009-03-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what we do with all those cards that all of us from Starving Artistamps have made? Most of them go on display at the various stamp and scrapbook expos we do around the country. I told the team I would take some pictures of the new display boards I had just put together with some of our (mine, the team and the guest designers) newest cards.

Yesterday we got to set up about 2 hours before it was supposed to open. We managed to get into the hall early and were lucky enough to be able to drive our truck and trailer right into the expo hall (a major treat as it save a lot of running back and forth wheeling heavy boxes and racks over to our assigned location) Even with saving all that time and energy it still took us eleven... yes... ELEVEN hours to set up our booth. Our space was 10' deep by 20' across. And the answer to the age old question just how many products can you fit into 200 square feet of space?

This much:

part of the back wall displays

My demo table in the middle front of the booth

Shot of my new Wall O' cards (work in progress)

I need to get a smaller sign, once I get it I will

have room for another 2 boards on this backdrop.

I have another 10'x10' backdrop which can hold

9 more display boards for future expansion :o)

John covering the displays for the night before we got kicked out since set up was over.

Assorted clear stamps and stickers

CLOSE UPS OF SOME OF THE NEW BOARDS:

A few of the DoodleFactory sets on a hanging rack.

left half of back wall displays

far right side of the booth, the outer wall is being remodeled.

Prima flowers, just because John did a fantastic job

making everything so straight and organized.

Im writing this from the hotel. Its about 10:30 pm and the first day of the show is now over. Tomorrow we have another full day and then about 3 1/2 hours to pack up an break down the displays before we head home. It was a really good show for us, especially good considering that this was the first year in this new location. We are especially grateful given the country's current economic worries.

2009-03-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Back in November we did a stamp show out here on Long Island and several cards were stolen from our display, you can read all about it on our company blog ( www.starvingartistamps.blogspot.com under the post: Missing, heartbroken ) anyway, so one of the cards that were taken was one of my demonstration cards. We have our 2009 show's coming up starting this weekend so I figured I'd better get up to the studio and recreate my card. While I was up there I managed to make a few more.

All of these cards use Starving Artistamps stamps and the Square tile mosaic for the backgrounds.

It's the same basic formula for all the cards (you can find full color step by step instructions on the website for this technique under NO Effort Tile mosaics instructions www.starvingartistamps.com) I will put a general step by step written instruction at the bottom of this post but if you are like me and prefer to visualize check out the website.

Stamps used: square tile mosaic, sm. and lg. dark sea horses, spatter stamp.

Stamps used: square tile mosaic, geode from fossils sheet, lily, sm. butterflies.

Stamps used: Large butterfly, spatter stamp, square tile mosaic, sentiment from sweet and simple sentiments set.

Stamps used: geode, nautilus, large and small plesiosaur, square tile mosaic, sentiment from urban sentiments set 2.

Stamps used: Faith sentiments set, large natural leaf, splatter stamp, square tile mosaic.

How to make mosaic backgrounds:

Flip your mosaic tile stamp on its back, rubber side up.

Ink your stamp with versamark, clear embossing powder, or posh irresistible clear ink.

you can now add any light colors of PIGMENT ink on top of the clear ink or you can use a pattern or texture stamp to stamp some colors on top of the versamark ink.

Add more images if you want, like I did with the leaves.

Do not stamp words, numbers or other images that need to point in a certain direction (like clock faces) because you are stamping on the stamp everything will be reversed.

Once you are done stamping and coloring on the tiles you can stamp out your creation onto regular cardstock.

since all the inks are slow drying, you can cover the tiles in clear powder and emboss them.

Idea to note: you can also stamp more images on top of the tiles once you stamp the tiles. Stamp in pigment ink and then clear emboss the entire thing. (like I did in the fossil card)

Feel free to email me if you have any questions! strvingartistmp@aol.com

2 sketches 4 you

2009-03-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

Starving Artistamps is the 2 sketches for you challenge blog sponsor this week: http://www.2sketches4you.blogspot.com/

these next 5 cards are all done using this sketch:

I really enjoy using sketches, I find it really frees up the mind!

Some of these came out a lot closer to the sketch a couple were a little "looser" interpretation.

This is probably one of my top favorites.

I used the new Basic Grey Marrakech pad and those colors make me so happy!

Products used:

Basic Grey Marrakech 6x6 pad

Stamps: Starving Artistamps Sweet and Simple Sentiments, Percy SA DoodleFactory Animals collection.

Lots of layering going on with this one.

I wish I did the Martha Stewart fence punch in a darker color.

But other than that I thought this card was nice and cheery.

Supplies used:

Basic Grey paper

Stamps: Starving Artistamps Faith Sentiments set, Autumn sunflower set.

Stamps used:

Starving Artistamps All about Easter sentiment, bird tracks, and SA "twee" from the country set and DoodleFactory Easter for the cracked egg.

This is another top on my list of favorites. I just love Sir Silimus.

Stamps used:

Starving Artistamps Western Flourish background, Starving Artistamps DoodleFactory Fairytale set (knight and steed)

Other: Quickutz dragonfly alphabet covered with diamond glaze.

Ok so I strayed a little with this one!

The cowboy, bronco, saddle (hand made) and saddle pad (basic grey Marrakech)

were all layered separate pieces.

All stamps Starving Artistamps: cowhide (background), bronco, cowboy, howdy sentiment.

praying for you cards

2009-03-08T16:26:00.000-07:00

Two new cards I made today....

Products used:

All stamps Starving Artistamps www.starvingartistamps.com

Simple vases set and sweet and simple sentiments set

Paper used Basic Grey blush

Flower Soft colors bright pink, baby pink, shamrock green

Stamps:

Starving Artistamps DoodleFactory "Snoop" the lamb (Easter collection)

Sentiment from sweet and simple sentiments set.

Easter

2009-03-01T08:44:00.001-08:00

Poor Sven he comes home from a hard day working in the field to find Freckles his only daughter being courted by Georgie the town heartthrob. At least they can agree on one thing, Freckles is some bunny special!

All stamps Starving Artistamps Easter DoodleFactory Collection www.starvingartistamps.com

2009-03-01T08:40:00.000-08:00

I did this for the paper craft planet Starving Artistamps paper piecing challenge.

All the stamps are Starving Artistamps (fresh and funky farm sentiment, Elephant, Giraffe, Zebra Starving Artistamps DoodleFactory Animal collection) www.starvingartistamps.com

There are a couple of neat things about this card.

First is the go wild letters. They are quickkuts alphabet dragonfly. I cut them twice, glued them together offset, and then coated them with diamond glaze to make them look like expoxy stickers.

Another cool thing about this card is the matching animal print buttons. I used a circle punch to punch out discs from the paper under the animals, then glued the discs under the clear button.

2009-02-18T08:02:00.000-08:00

I started making this card at the same time I did the accordian book.

Ever since we did the Urban set I have been wanting to be able to deliver a care package. Well with the addition of the Valentines ReMix set to the DoodleFactory line we have finally been able to do it! This card was a long time coming!

Colored with Copics on 110# PTI paper
Stamps used:

Starving Artistamps DoodleFactory Collections:

Urban -Arno and airplane

Valentine ReMix- Sack

Rooftops backdrop

Sentiments: All about Love and Valentine sets

Some new Flower Soft Cards

2009-02-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of new cards using some of the new flower soft stamps and new colors. Both of these are done with alot of dimension. I like to do 3D on my cards alot. I usually have at least a low layer paper tole style with some 110 # or 120 # cardstock and then the foreground elements are usually done with pop ups. Its hard to see in the photos but in real life these look really cool.

Flower Soft colors used:

Bright red, bright orange, bright yellow. Shamrock green and light green.

Stamps used:

Starving Artistamps brick outline background

Flower Soft country window and cat from quiet corner bench

The back of the bench, cats head, toes, top pages of the book and ribbon on the hat all have an additional layer of 110# cardstock for dimension, the front of the bench is popped up on pop up dots.

Products used:

Flower Soft flowers: summer, and shamrock. Also either heather or Fuscia for the hat, im not sure which it is.

CPS sketch 102

2009-02-11T05:52:00.000-08:00

We are sponsoring the CPS Sketch blog anniversary this week (yesterday and today) and it uses a really fantastic sketch (#102) Here is my card for the sketch. The center Iris is actually raised up sort of paper tole style with an additional layer of 110# cardstock. The heart and both bees are on pop ups, this card has lot more dimension than it appears.

Stamps I used:

Starving Artistamps Big Iris, bees, leaf.

The sentiment is from the Valentines sentiment set.

Coming home project booklet

2009-02-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

Today is the day of our new release blog hop. If you haven't started your hop stop reading and go visit our company blog for the list! www.starvingartistamps.blogspot.com There are so many amazing projects and one of us has blog candy! If you are already done with the hop but just can't get enough of our great new DoodleFactory backdrops then read on!

Normally I'm someone who is big on instant gratification, so this project was a demonstration of my patience. It took a few hours to put this project together but I really love it and I think it was worth it. See if you can guess what the theme for this booklet is!

This is the inside of my four panel accordion booklet:

first two pages:

Last two pages:

Back of booklet, grosgrain ribbon secured with ATG gun
and reinforced with red snaps (on the inside)

Front cover
I ran into some technical difficult when I realized all the backgrounds
except for the jungle are all horizontal! So I did some clever editing

some nipping and tucking and expanded the vertical layout on the

jungle by adding the plant and vines to the sides.

First page:

Second page:

Third page:

Last page:

So what's the theme? Well it's returning home!
Be it by airplane, skateboard, helicopter, taxi or bicycle,
however you have to get there, just get there!

Stamps used:
Set the Scene backdrops: Jungle, Tropical, Countryside, and Rooftops.
DoodleFactory collections:
Urban: skateboard, helicopter, airplane, taxi, guaco the mole
Valentine ReMix: vines and plant, chip the monkey
Outdoors: sneeq the racoon and the bicycle
Fairytale: princess winifred
Creatures: Skoober
Sentiment: From Urban sentiment set # 2

babies and my ribbon haul

2009-01-31T12:50:00.000-08:00

I have been slowly collecting the Martha Stewart border punches with my Michaels coupons. So while I was there using my last coupon on a fence border punch before it expired I decided I really needed to start collecting more fat ribbon. I have tons of ribbon that I rarely use but you know how it is, its never the right color, pattern, thickness, or texture for whatever project you are currently working on. So I decided I really needed to collect some more ribbons.

Here is the result of my little ribbon shopping bender:

Most of this ribbon was a buck or two at Michaels. Can you tell I'm all about Valentines right now? Those heart buttons and pink ribbons will be popping up on a card or two very soon Im sure.

I made the cutest little baby gift card from this adorable baby onsie front and back stamp I picked up at the stamp show. The stamp is from Just for fun (I really need to double check that) and they have lots of other clothing as well. Another especially cool one I would like to pick up is the hoodie style. I saw some samples of the hoodie with a zipper in the middle that was just so incredibly cute!

I needed this card because one of my closest friends had a baby. This is my first unofficial nephew. I have 5 nieces but this is my only nephew! The colors match her nursery (sage green and cream) She went with a teddy bear theme but she is a big cat lover so I opted for cats instead:

See how the bottom folds up! How cute is that!!

Little paw print for the butt. Too cute right!

The colors are pretty off on these pics, the card is more

of a light vanilla.

And this is the baby I made it for...
Meet my new Nephew Christopher!

A little Whimsy

2009-01-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

Here are a few cards using some of the new Whimsy stamps we just got in . They remind me of Dr. Seus, what do you think?

brown and blue christmas

2008-11-12T07:46:00.001-08:00

Not quite swedish collage but it is a square anyway!

inside:

Sweet shoppe... how sweet it is!

2008-11-11T15:23:00.001-08:00

Here are a few cards I made using the new DoodleFactory Sweet Shoppe set.

What I have been working on lately

2008-10-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of cards I have been working on lately.

I have wanted to do this first card for a while. Although I released these brick background stamps several months after the release of the DoodleFactory Urban set I had these made long before and they were the reason why I commissioned Irene to doodle the Urban set in the first place. I knew I wanted to do some graffiti style stamps and I wanted a spray paint dude. Little did I know at the time we would have two and one would be a skunk and the other a mole of all things! (as is what typically happens when Irene is involved!) Anyway so once I had the brick backgrounds made into rubber I came up with this idea for the broken wall. I call this card my Yapples cool aid card because whenever I look at it I picture that cool aid guy bursting thru the wall saying "OH YEAH!!!"

The next three cards were all done during some down time at the York, PA stamp convention.

I thought it would be cool to use a part of the solid bricks background to make a wall to a building. This is my favorite card of the group.

These owls were colored as part of my copic demonstration at the show. I figured I'd put them to work on this card. This card also uses the no effort mosaic tile technique (instructions on the website www.starvingartistamps.com ) on the solid bricks background stamp with the ornate tooled leather background and the branch stamp.

Ah, cupcakes. This card uses a new set called Simple Birthday. I thought having two different sizes of cupcakes could be quite useful. The big cupcake is big enough to stand on its own as a focal point and the little guys sure do look cute all stacked up! Polka dot background is one of our background stamps too. This card was a serious labor of love. I didnt think it would come together but in the end it all worked out and Im really happy with it. I think Yapples is one of the most versatile stamps in the DF collection, he can eat stuff, he can yell, he can jump up and down.

This card features both the Classic Halloween silhouette (sentiment and graveyard scene) along with the DoodleFactory graveyard shift set. I realized when I made the sentiments for the DF Halloween II sets we left out an important sentiment. It prompted my late release of the Halloween silhouette stamps. I knew they would look really cool as a background scenic element.

This card didnt come out how I thought it would but what I love about this card is the zombie and the tombstones. I stamped them in brilliance black but they came out a little light. I used a pigment pen to color in the zombie to make it darker, add the RIP and outline the stones. I really like how these came out, here is a closeup:

So it seems I STILL have not mastered the swedish collage style, but I really like the coloring on the cat. I need to go back and add a chipboard title I think it really needs it.

Yeah, this one is not my favorite. Its really missing something, I might need to go back and figure that out but for now it is what it is.

I love this card.

In person its alot nicer, stop by the stamp show and visit with us in Indiana and you will see what I mean!

A few new cards to share...

2008-09-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of new cards I had done a while ago using some of our new cowboy cat stamps!

And one using the Flying Wedgie witch stamps with the Witch's brew sentiment.

All cards use brilliance black ink, copic makers (for the backgrounds too), and PTI prescored cardstock.

My maiden post!

2008-09-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog.

Here it is... my maiden post. Such pressure!

Even though I have not two but three other blogs they are all dedicated to the company. I realized I'd still like to be able to show off my personal projects, which sometimes feature companies outside of my own, so I figured I should set myself up a personal blog.

Since this is my first post on my brand spanking new blog I figured Id tell you why I named this blog Stamp-O-Matic. It all started about 11 years ago when I was a die hard scrapbooker. Did you ever notice that alot of us scrapbookers and stampers refer to ourselves as OCD? Well Im pretty familiar with the affliction. Its a running joke in my family, my compulsion to collect every color paper, sticker, embellishment, pen, ink pad and other gizmo associated with my hobbies and my sister surveying my every increasing collection nicknamed me Scrap-O-Matic. For the past 11 years that has even been one of my email addresses and I think its only natural to carry it over into my stamping, as stamping has taken over such a big chunk of my life.

As I said I started out as a scrapbooker...and to this day I still do not understand how not every stamper scrapbooks and how not every scrapbooker stamps. It makes no sense to me. They are logically intertwined. The beauty of scrapbooking is that you get to KEEP a large portion of the projects that you make. Where as with stamping, most of it is given away. In stamping the projects are generally start to finish in a couple of hours, instant gratification. In scrapbooking you are making something infinitely more significant to your family, friends and your own personal history, but you use so many of the same products with both hobbies. Stamping enables a scrapbooker to use a non consumable product (stamps) to create a uniformed look in your albums with the use of alphabet stamps, pattern stamps and well.. any stamps. You get alot of mileage out of your stamps when you scrapbook. Scrapbooking generates a ton of scraps that would most certainly be put to good use on a card.
Consider making a photo card one of these days and merging the hobbies! Humm... is that a new future challenge?

As I said before, I started out a scrapbooker. Scrapbooking lead me to rubber stamping and I became a demonstrator for one of the direct sales companies. At the same time I also had pet chinchillas. We had been breeding them and got very involved in breeding mutation colors for pets. At one time we had chinchilla couples in colors chinchillas Grey (the color most fur coats are), beige, white, black, chocolate, spotted, silver, and violet. I being a stamper naturally I wanted chinchilla rubber stamps. There were none. So I looked into making my own stamps, (http://www.chinstamps.chinchillas.org/) the company was born (http://www.starvingartistamps.com/) and so was a new nickname... StampOMatic.

Speaking of challenges I think I will break in my first post on my new blog with my first challenge card. The challenge is Swedish Collage Style. (more details about the challenge on the company blog http://www.starvingartistampsgallery.blogspot.com/) Here is my first attempt. I really thought this was going to be an easy challenge. Several of us have had the same reaction to our first challenge cards. Those Swedish girls make them look a whole lot easier than they are!

Originally this card didn't have spiders and webs. It had a chipboard "BOO" on the top right. But it seems a few of us had the "boo" inspiration and I figured Id trade in the boo for the spiders and then I added the stitching. I told myself I really need to stop overworking this card and thats where I stopped.

Here are a couple of close ups:

This is not going to be my final attempt at the Swedish Collage Style. Im considering this my "warm up" card.