A bird in the hand...

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!

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

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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!