Stampfest at Lynette's August 19, 2026

Don and I visited Lynette yesterday. As usual, we had a wonderful time visiting! We took a nice walk to a nearby restaurant. Then Lynette and I worked on some fun stamping techniques! In the evening we walked to a concert in the park and we really enjoyed that too. 

  

Our first project was to try out a product called Ken Oliver Color Burst. We each made six panels using it. We spritzed the panels with water. Then sprinkled the Color Burst granules on the wet watercolor paper. It was fun to see the vibrant colors "travel" and fill the paper. 

Lynette added some Color Pour to the panel on the lower right. It gave a metallic look.

Above are my panels. It was very fun trying out different color combinations and having some backgrounds to use in the future.

Below are watercolor panels using Natasha Foote's YouTube Dropping Color Technique #1362

 We wet the watercolor paper with a fine mist of water. Then we "dropped" various colors of watercolor onto the paper in the areas that will become a vase and flowers. Talk about a HOT MESS...

We followed Natasha's instructions, drying the wet panel with a heat tool. We then used a black 0.5 Fine tip black PITT pen to turn our blobs into flowers and a vase! It was kind of amazing! ...and very fun! Just as Natasha demonstrated we added...

the plain black outlined leaves 

and outlines of the flowers and petals 

and dots and lines inside the flower blossoms 

and more dots in the white space! 

This was a very fun exercise! 

I love hearing Natasha give us permission to work on a "loose, happy, free watercoloring project with no plan"..."it doesn't have to be perfect"... It really gives a person permission to just have fun with the process. I will admit that I was stressed a bit with trying to work through this. 

Below we followed another of  Natasha's YouTubes: Make Your Own Little CUTIES DIY #1230 

We made a circle template by punching a 1-1/4 inch wide circle punch into cardstock. You trace the round bird using the INSIDE OF THE CIRCLE and LEAVING an open area where you will draw the tail feathers. Again, we used a 0.5 Fine tip black PITT pen for drawing. We used Jane Davenport brights watercolors, a scrap of printed papers for the wings and bottom of the birdies. 

I messed up when I traced the circle, first by using the circle itself. I should have used the "stencil" part with the circle opening!  Then I did not leave an open area in my circle for the tail feathers. My birdies survived me!

Our sunburst cards were inspired by Nicole Nowosad's card on her August 30, 2012 blogpost, Jillibean Soup-Grandma's Lima Bean Soup! It's the fifth image down on her blogpost.

Supplies used:

Vicki Boutin 6 x 8 inch Storyteller Paper pad by American Crafts

Reflections set of 6 heart dies

Crimper

Love to Craft die set #2560377, a gift from my friend, Hetty-white lacy circle

Black and white twine, paper flower from Lynette's stash and paper with "friend" stamped in Versafine Onys black ink

& Friend stamp

Image above shows the template we made, estimating the widths at the top and bottom of the strips of printed papers. It took quite a while to cut each strip. I could not think of another way to be sure the strips would be long enough when cut at various angles. 

Today I decided to try again, without a template. I cut longer strips than the 5-1/4 inch height of my base paper. Then I tried to estimate the approximate widths at the top and bottom of the strips. You can see today's sunburst panel below. I think it worked out ok and was much faster to create than the template.

When this panel is turned into a card, I will share a blogpost of it.

Thank you for wading through this LONG post.

Wishing you

Peace and all Good

Stampfest at Lynette's July 23, 2026

Don and I visited Lynette on Thursday, July 23. We had a great time visiting! We took a walk to a favorite little restaurant for lunch. The weather was so pleasant...not too hot! Then Lynette and I had a productive stamping session. We enjoyed making quilt style cards, an impressive style one layer card and fun collage cards.

For our Quilt Look cards, we followed the YouTube tutorial by Jacque Williams

from September 7, 2022

Three Easy Ways to Create A Quilting Effect with Paper!

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AruyIo_KxDw&t=198s

This card tutorial starts at about the 7:42 minute mark.

Lynette found the perfect paper for this technique from a 12 x 12 paper pad. It had one inch rows of different designs. We each needed a 3 inch square for this technique. We cut that square in half vertically and horizontally. That gave us 4 pieces, each 1-1/2 inch square. We rotated each square to get a new design. We used a piece of blank printer paper as our base, adhering the 4 pieces to that. The center where the 4 squares meet need to be even. It's ok if the sides are not even. Any uneven part on the side can be trimmed. Once our 4 squares dried on the printer paper, we trimmed and ran that piece thrrough the cuttlebug in an embossing folder. Lynette had a great "quilt look" embossing folder! We mounted our "quilt piece" onto dark green cardstock...then onto a cream card.

For our One Layer cards we followed the YouTube tutorial by Justine Hovey

from June 7, 2026

These One-Layer Cards Are Fooling Everyone (Here's How I Made Them)

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZT8KDvw4aw&t=298s

This card tutorail starts at about the 9:13 minute mark.

We used Lynette's pretty outline flower stamp.  For this technique the flower has to be just an outline. We will be ink blending over the flower, but with the bloom part masked, so it remains white. We stamped the flower on the left side of a white card with Versafine Onyx Black ink. It needs to dry thoroughly.  

On a separate piece of printer paper, we stamped the flower and let the ink dry thoroughly. Then fussy cut out just the bloom part to create a mask. Lynette did that! She's excellent at fussy cutting! She added removable tape runner dots to the back of the flower and placed it over the flower to mask it before we added the blue ink blending!

We tore a piece of printer paper large enough to cover the right side of the card. Placed that on our card where we wanted the card to be white. You can tear the paper to whatver shape/design you like. Then we ink blended the left side of the card, where the flower is stamped and where the blossom is masked. The home made mask worked very well. No curling up as we ink blended. Lynette used Distress Faded Jeans ink. I used Gina K Turquois Sea ink.

Lynette's collage cards

For our collage cards  we were inspired by Sherry Roth's Stamped Treasures blog

from June 17, 2026

Have Scraps? Try This!

LINK: https://stampedtreasures.com/have-scraps-try-this/

We used old book paper, vintage look yellow vellum with advertisements, printed tags from a 12 x 12 printed paper pack, and some other odds and ends.

We stamped some images and text with Versafine Onyx Black ink, Distress Frayed Burlap and Ground Espresso. 

All our cards were fun to make. It's especially fun working with Lynette, who is very creative and artistsic and is very welcoming!

Thank you for visiting!

Peace and all good!

Stampfest At Lynette's, June 20, 2026

We visited Lynette yesterday and had a great time! Enjoyed the summer activities with food specialites of the area. And we had lots of fun stamping! Above are the cards we made.

Our moon tags were inspired by a YouTube by Jenny Card Designs...called 

Simple Nature Scene-Ink Blending and Stamping

from May 30, 2026

LINK:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgCJ-LBOwk0 

We cut our own tags with white cardstock, 6-1/4 by 3-1/8 inches. Then we made our own circle mask for the moon area using Hero Arts infinity dies-the same diameter as our moon stamp from Gina K (To the moon and back).

We used blending brushes with  Distress Antique Linen to add color to the circle/moon. Then we stamped the features of the moon with the "To the moon and back" Gina K stamp using the same Distress Antique Linen.  When done, we covered the moon with our circle mask to create the blue sky on the rest of the tag. We used Distress ink and blending brushes. 

Starting at the bottom of the tag Lynette ink blended with Faded Jeans ink, then Broken China and Weathered Wood at the top. I think I used Weathered Wood at the bottom, then Broken China, then Stormy Sky at the top.  

The rest of the stamping was done with Versafine Onyx Black. We stamped a wood mounted Hero Arts stamp, #K5517, retired Tall Wheat (sometimes referred to as Large Cattails). We used a stamp from the Stampin' Up! set called Garden Silhouettes, a Tim Holtz clear stamp from the Flights of Fancy set. The birds are from a Tim Holtz clear stamp set called Lost and Found.

This group of cards is inspired by Natasha Foote's 

6 Splotches Technique: Use ANY Materials for Amazing Card Backgrounds! (#1290)

from January 26, 2026

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SglTDkNu8fw&t=2s

Lynette's card are the two above. Mine are the two below.

Lynette had some metallic watercolors in her stash, so we used those. We had to set the panels aside to let them dry. We used her sweet Waffle Flower Lake Sunset and Beach Days stamp sets and Versafine Black Onyx ink to stamp the "squares". Immediately after stampin the summer images, we used clear embossing powder with a heat tool to set the black ink.  I love using those very fun summer images! Thank you, Lynette!!

My paper warped quite a bit. Lynette's not so much. We decided to run the layers through her old crimper, which saved the day. The corrugated look and it hid the warping! Next time will use watercolor paper or maybe my Tim Holtz multi media paper, which I keep forgetting about!

Above you see the result of trying Natasha Foote's debossing technique. Her YouTube is called,

1000 VIDEOS!! Let's Celebrate With a Freebie FOR YOU! Debossing In Card Making(#1000) 

from March 22, 2024  

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3XwgSUEd4w

We used a Cuttlebug embossing folder called Stylized Flowers.
On the debossed side (indented part of the flowers, leaves and stems, we ink blended with Stampin Up's Pink Passion and Green Galore. 

Then using Distress Chipped Saphire, we swiped the ink directly from the inkpad onto the entire surface of the panel, going backand forth till all the white areas were gone. The result was dramatic!

Our final card is from Natasha Foote's 

SCRAPS into TORN ELEGANCE (#1337)

from May 15, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_rzhDBOj6Q&t=490s

We were inspired by a flower card like this created by a member of Natasha's Facebook. It was rough going at first. We were not sure how to do the paper piecing. Finally decided to create a 5 petal sketch on computer paper. We didn't have scraps of printed paper, so we tore into Lynette's stash. It sure looked like a "hot mess" at first (as Natasha would say!). But we were happy with the results. The stitching lines really help it come together. 

Thank you for visitng!

Peace and all good!

Stampfest at Lynette's May 22, 2026

Don and I visited Lynette yesterday. We enjoyed a nice lunch at Olive Garden. Then we returned and had a wonderful day of visiting and stamping!

 

Lynette showed me the "Tommy Bahama" Tropical shirt card she had made after seeing Tami White's YouTube: "Tommy Bahama" Tropical shirt card featuring Stampin' Up products . I am grateful that she was willing to help me make two of them! We used navy cardstock cut in half at 4-1/4 inches to get two topfold cards. With another piece of the navy cardstock Lynette cut four-2 inch squares to get 2 sleeves on each of the 2 cards. She also cut two navy collar pieces, 1 x 4-1/4 inches and two white inner collar pieces.

Using the Stampin' Up ink colors Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun, Only Orange and Real Red, I ink blended the white panels. Then stamped the tall palm trees from Gina K's Ocean Silhouettes using GK's  In the Navy ink. On the pocket, I stamped It's Your Day with an old 2001 SU stamp. 

Lynette cut two pocket about 1-1/4 x 1-1/2 each. We just trimmed the bottom corners off before ink blending with Tempting Turquoise. 

The sleeves were just a  2 inch square adhered to the front of the navy card at an angle, before the "shirt" panel was added.

The shirt panel is cut in half at the center, 2-1/8 inch from the side. The left panel is then prepared with a paper pierce tool. Lynette had a plastic template with tiny holes to get an even placement.  The tiny holes make the shirt edge looked stitched. Lynette had navy brads to use as buttons. I added 6 evenely down the shirt front. I inked the edge of the shirt with a dark navy marker. 

The collar is folded so that the top corners meet. The white panel is put inside the collar. It should not go beyond the diagonal fold. You cut partially into on the fold, about 1/2 inch up from the bottom. This allows the front part of the collar to be placed over the inked shirt part. You adhere the back part of the collar centered on the top of the blue card base. It will be behind the shirt when you add the 2 shirt panels. I made a mistake on the first card, gluing the collar to the back side of the navy card. So then I  had to add a crease in collar back to open the card. It's a bit confusing. I didn't watch the YouTube closely enough! Once this card was done, it really looked impressive. On the inside white panel that is 4 x 5-1/4 inches, I stamped Happy Father's Day with a stamp from Lynette's stash-not shown. 

Our pink rose card was inspired by Karen Dunbrook's Everything Rosy? blogpost.We used Lynette's Stampin' Up! Mixed Bouquet wood stamp set for the flower and leaves. The  card we saw had green leaves but with some stamping on those leaves from the stamp with the 6 circles with dots.

First we inked a separate piece of white cardstock with Gina K's dusty rose ink. Then Lynette stamped the big rose stamp with Brilliance white ink and used white embossing powder over that for beautiful outline/texture. 

We did the same for the leaves, inking the white cardstock with Gina K's jelly bean grean ink. Then we  stamped the "6 circle stamp with dots in the centers" using the same jelly bean green ink. If you look closely, you can see portions of that circle stamp in the leaves. Lynette used Brilliance white ink to stamp the leaves and then used white embossing powder over that for the outline texture.  

The rose and leaves were fussy cut. We added a strip of black polka dot paper to our card base. Then using foam tape added the rose.  The leaves were adhered with double stick tape and a little bit of clear acrylic medium for glue.

It was so much fun making this Swing Card. Again, Lynette had made one previously and she was willing to take the time to show me how she did it. She found this YouTube

HOW TO CREATE A SWING CARD THE EASY WAY!  by Angela Pyjas of StampingWithAmore

from May 19, 2020.

The card is a regular 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 inch card. The front flap is scored at 2-1/8 to get the fold back flap. We used 2 circle dies and a Cuttlebug machine.

Our circle die that cut just half of the circle in the card was 2-7/8 inches in diameter. 

Our die to cut the entire white circle was  2-1/2 inches in diameter.

As shown in the YouTube...we placed our card flat onto the Cuttlebug plate centering the larger circle die evenely between the edge and the fold. We taped it (with low tack, easy release tape) and placed the top plate over, just to the edge of the fold...maybe a tiny bit over the fold as instructed in the YouTube. You hold the plate in place until the rollers grab and then you run everything through.

Stamped a sentiment on the inside white circle (2-1/2 inches wide) and adhered it to the inside of the circle.

We cut a piece of printed paper 2-1/4 wide by 5-1/4 high and left a small border of the cardstock. 

I may add a piece of white cardstock next to the printed paper to add a personal note.

All of these cards were so much fun to make! I am so happy that Lynette had such good ideas for our cardmaking day!! Thank you, Lynette!!!

And thanks to my friends who visit this blog!

Peace and all good!

Stampfest at Lynette's March 23, 2026

Yesterday Lynette and I had a great time stamping. We worked on ideas we have been thinking about.

Our trees in the sky card was fun to make. We used a layer of dark blue card stock from Lynette's stash, Stamped trees from Gina K's You Warm My Heart and Natural Silhouettes stamp sets with Versafine Onyx black ink. The die cut happy is from Hero Arts and the "birthday" is from Lynette's stash.

Lynette and I saw a card like made by Audrey Pettit on her Audrey Pettit Designs website. We had lots of fun with this. Seems like we do a lot of substitutions but thie time we actually had the Leafy Texture Fades embossing folder. We inked the raised side of the embossing folder with Gina K white pigment ink, then placed the kraft paper inside and ran it through the Cuttlebug. We die cut 3 flowers from the Tim Holtz Sizzix WILDFLOWERS Thinlits Die set from white cardstock. Then ink blended with Gina K's lemon drop, powder blue and lucky clover inks. Sentiments from Lynette's stash.

Lynette and I saw Vicki Perry's February 22, 2026 post in the Gina K Designs & StampTV Friends Facebook group where she created her own background paper using blue and brown inks. We both loved it and wanted to give that a try. We used leaf stamps from these Gina K's stamp sets: Gentle Silhouettes, Flower Builders, The Greatest Gift, the Original Wreath Builder and Hugs and Wildflowers and Fresh Florals (the Birthday Blessings sentiment). 

We ended up liking a kraft oval for the sentiment in black ink. And stamping flower outlines from the Hugs and Wildflowers set on blue cardstock. The white oval got lost in the background print and so did blue flowers stamped on white cardstock.

We always have such a great time together! I'm so glad that Lynette hosts this very fun day!

Thank you for visitng and wishing you

Peace and all good!