Monday, December 31, 2012

12-12-12 A Fun Stamping Day

My friend Lynette and I celebrated 12-12-12 by stamping. Actually, that day just happened to be a good day for both of us to stamp together. Here are the cards we made.
These special fold cards were inspired by Darlene's Santa and Reindeer Owls card. Used paper that is 5-1/2 by 12 inches, scoring it at 2, 4 and 8 inches.


 
These Twisted Cards were made with scraps inspired by the card on Peg Craft a Lot.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

2012 CSF Winter Tag Swap

We have a tradition of swapping winter themed tags at Christmastime on the Creative Stamping Friends Yahoo Group. This year's swap was hosted by Sue Erickson. Our theme is:  PEACE   LOVE   JOY

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

November Stampfest with Lynette

Lynette and I spent the day stamping. She helped me with my Christmas tags. We each made a Christmas tag inspired by Nancy Burke's tag

We also tried out a new technique shared by Theresa's blog, inking the non-labeled, "debossed" side of the embossing folder directly with distress ink pads. Then we spritzed with water till the ink "beaded up". Added white card stock and ran it through the Cuttlebug. Dried the paper with a heat tool. As you can see, we were on a roll. This technique does not work in lettered or numbered folders because the inverse letter or number is highlighted with the ink.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Oct. 10 Stampfest with Hetty, Lynette and Shelly

Lynette and I stamp together frequently. On October 10th, we had the wonderful opportunity to stamp with Hetty, who came all the way from The Netherlands and Shelly, who is a friend of Hetty, but lives fairly close to me! Shelly brought her Pan Pastels for us to try. Lynette showed us how to use gesso and brass stencils to get gorgeous textured impressions on paper.
A sampling of everyone's artwork.

Hetty shared the Stampin' Up Owl punch with us and guided us in making cool Halloween Cards inspired by Michelle Zindorf's Any Hooooo Tutorial #409
Hetty actually worked in her journal at my house! How cool to be on vacation and actually do something like this in your journal!!!
Here are some photos of our fun day:
Lynette, Hetty and Shelly.

Laura, Hetty and Shelly.

Hetty and Raymond.

Lynette and Doc (Robert)

Don and Laura (Hetty gave me that Dutch designed apron!)

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

CSF Fall Card Swap-2012

Here are cards from the CSF Fall Card Swap. Creative Stamping Friends is a yahoo stamping group that has been around since 2001.
Created by Jane Giggy.

Created by Jinny Boyce.

Created by Anne Case.

Created by Sue Erickson.

Created by me (Laura Holm).

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Diamond Fold Cards

Barb I. from the Enjoy Michael Strong Yahoo Group shared a Diamond Fold card with us along with the link to Frenchie's tutorial. Here are my versions of this very fun card. Using 4 x 12 inch paper, you get 3 cards from scrapbook paper...of which I have a ton!




I made a visual to help me remember how to score/fold this.
I always have to refer to notes when I make another interactive type card!

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Stamps: Hero Arts, Stampin' Up! and Verses Rubber Stamps
Inks: Distress and Stampin' Up!

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Contest Entry and Anniversary Card

Spent some fun and relaxing time stamping this week end!
Above is my entry for Michael Strong's September 2012 Challenge at the Enjoy Michael Strong Yahoo Group. The theme is to express in a visual composition, any part of  "September Song" composed by Kurt Weill. There is generally a monthly challenge on that group...with a prize!  I would love to win, but the competition is stiff. There are many creative and artistic people on that group!

Here is an anniversary card that I made for my daughter and her husband for their 5th wedding anniversary in October.

Materials Used:
Hero Arts and Michael Strong Stamps
Stampin' Up! and Distress Ink pads
Blick and Staedtler colored pencils
Cuttlebug Allegro embossing folder
Bazzil Basics Paper (from Archiver's that has the awful sticker on the back, which makes a mark or is difficult to remove!)

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Altered Book Update-Sept. 2012

Lynette and I worked on our Altered Books in September. 
These 3 layouts are Lynette's:
This one is mine:

Friday, September 28, 2012

Printed Paper Scraps

Here are 3 cards made with scraps.
My inspiration came from the Unity cards displayed at Archiver's in 2011. Suzi's Scraps had some samples here and here that got me "jump started".

Stamps by Stampendous and Stampin' Up!
Used Distress Inks and my new vintage photo distress marker from Ranger.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Dare I post another Fall Tree Card

The tree is Fantasy from Penny Black.
The fall "leaves" are made with Itty Bitty Background from Stampin' Up!
The 2 birds are Bird Trio from Savvy Stamps (used marker to color in just the 2 birds).
Used Distress Inks: vintage photo, shabby shutters, scattered straw, barn door, broken china  and my new vintage photo distress marker.

Again, this card was inspired by Heather Telford's lovely autumn card 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Fall Tree Card

I have been mesmerized by Pinterest...what about you? So many great ideas for cards and crafts and home decor, etc. etc. This card was inspired by Heather Telford's lovely autumn card
Stamps by Hero Arts, Rubber Stampede and Stampin' Up!-(used a flower part of Spring Garden)
Distress Inks by Tim Holtz


Monday, August 13, 2012

A Healthier Coffeecake?

I just love coffeecake! When I was young, both of my grandmas would make coffeecakes, but I preferred cake with frosting back then. Now that I'm old, I understand...
This coffeecake has some whole wheat flour along with some oat bran and blueberries:

1 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oat bran
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder-I like aluminum free, such as Argo brand
1/2 cup sugar
about 1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup milk-you can use water plus powdered milk
about 2 tsp. vanilla
Blueberries-about 1 cup-I had less than 1 cup today (also good with cut up strawberries)

Mix dry ingredients well. Make a well in the center and add egg, milk, oil, vanilla. With a fork, beat the egg with the wet ingredients. Then, gently but thoroughly, mix all together. I poured a little more than half in to a greased 10 inch pie plate, sprinkled my blueberries on top and topped that with the remaining cake batter. You could just fold the blueberries into the batter, or you could top off the batter with the blueberries.

Bake at 375 degrees F. Check after 20 minutes. Toothpick inserted in center should come clean. Edges will be golden brown. I usually sprinkle a cinnamon sugar mixture on top before baking, but did not do that this time. It looks better with the cinnamon sugar!  You can sprinkle powdered sugar on top just before serving.

I have made this with diced fresh strawberries. It reminded me of that strawberry quick bread recipe from years ago.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Stampfest-Altered Books

Lynette and I began a new stamping project today...Altering books. We found lots of inspiration on Pinterest boards showing altered books and art journals! It was therapeutic (relaxing) to play with the papers, inks and stamps,and also to work on these together!
These 2 "layouts are Lynette's creations:
..and these two "layouts" are mine:

Distress Inks by Tim Holtz
Stamps by Peny Black, Rubber Stampede, Studio K/Inkadinkado, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous, and unknown stamps from Lynette's stash.
Perfect Paper Adhesive
Liquitex Basics Acrylic Gesso (used on cover-not shown in photos)


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Family Photos On My Wall

My daughter helped me re-arrange the photos on the wall in the living room. I plan to add more photos as time goes on. The above arrangement is a HUGE improvement from the previous arrangement.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Stampfest cards from June 25, 2012

My friend and I like to stamp together. I call it a "Stampfest". We found inspiration for these cards at some marvelous websites...listed below the cards.

 Some guy cards

3 close up's of this "nesta" flap card

This "nestability flap" card was inspired by a card by Val at Val's Craft Room

This tri-fold card was inspired by a card on Holly Simoni's Wyoming Art Cafe


 This card was inspired by a card found on Karen Titus' blog Stamping on the Back Porch