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!

 

Stampfest at Lynette's December 12, 2025

 

Don and I visited Lynette yesterday. We had great time visiting. We took a short walk to a restaurant for lunch which was delicious and we got a few "steps in".

For our Stampfest, we were inspired by two cards made by Meghann Andrews. She used Gina K's Great Outdoors stamps on her June 30, 2025 blog and Youtube: Gina K. Designs The Great Outdoors Livestream. 

We had some technical challenges. Lynette's Waffle Flower Postage Collage die did not have three rectangles going across. However, we were able to use my Gina K Master Layouts 4-it has a single rectangle postage die. So we cut three for each of us. We were glad we could squeeze these three postage pieces on a 5.5 x 4.25" card. 

Lynette found a beautiful wood  mounted stamp from Stampin' Up! called Homespun Plaid to use on blue cardstock. She stamped  both of our cards in Gina K's In the navy ink.

We used Lynette grip mat from Waffle flower. I cut strips of printer paper to mask off the rectangles, using washi tape to hold the paper in place. I liked how securely the grip mat held the three postage rectangles side by side as we worked.

For the sky and water, we ink blended Gina K wild dandelion, Stampin'Up only orange and Gina K powder blue. 

Then we carefully stamped the rocks stamp and the birds with GK in the navy ink. The rocks stamp was not long enough, so we had to mask off part and re-stamp trying to "match" the scene. I think it worked out pretty well.

You can see how well Lynette inkblended the sky and water and how she did a great job on stamping the rocks, which was tricky because the stamp was not long enough for the whole width. 

I did not get good coverage of in the navy ink in the center rectangle. And I had an empty spot on the left which I tried to re-stamp. It's not perfect, but I'm afriad to mess it up worse with a marker.

It was very fun creating this scene with the faux postage look. Having Meghann Andrews' sample was super helpful! Thank you Meghann for sharing your art with us on your blog and in your YouTube!

Now I'd like to try her golf version!

Lynette generously helped me make these three Christmas cards. She showed me cards she had made before our get-together with a Stampin' Up! kit called Sparkling Holiday that had adhesive on the back of the printed cardstock. I loved the design she created!  

Just wanted to thank my blog visitors. Just a reminder that you can always click on an image to see a larger version.

Wishing you peace and all good!

More Browns Technique Cards

This card started as a panel made at Lynette's house on Oct. 23rd using Natasha Foote's YouTube tutorial,  Browns Only Technique, Video #1237 from Sept. 24, 2025. The embossing of the hill and trees was demonstrated by Natasha at about the 10:15 minute mark in her video tutorial.

I tried the technique, first wiping the bottom of the panel with an anti-static powder bag. I tore a piece of paper to make the mask for the hill.  I applied Versafine embossing ink to the paper below the hill mask with a makeup sponge. Then I stamped the trees with embossing ink. Finally I added the gold embossing powder and heat set it all.

I liked how the gold embossing looked, but the paper I used was thin and there was warping from when I did the browns technique. I tried to "get rid" of some of that warped paper by cutting my panel with a Hero Arts Oval nesting infinity die. I cut a black "frame" with the next size larger oval die. I did not get my panel centered perfectly, however! 

The photo above shows  the way the "swiping" of the 3 colors looks, working from the bottom of the page toward the top: Gina K's dark chocolate, warm cocoa and soft stone at the top. 

Below are three cards and another sample showing the swiping of the inks at the beginning. Below each card I list the ink colors I used for the sky. Info about the stamps is at the end.

Ink blending: distress tumbled glass for the lake and streams. The sky, bottom up: distress fossilized amber, Gina K sweet mango, blue denim.

Ink blending: distress tumbled glass for the lake and streams. The sky, bottom up: Gina K wild dandelion, sweet mango, bubblegum pink, blue denim.

Ink blending: Gina K peach bellini, lovely lavender, wild lilac.

Above you can I tried swiping greens for the land. Used Gina K's asparagus, then jelly bean and soft stone at the top. I liked using the Fabiano Smooth Bristol paper 103 lb. (280 gsm). It worked much better than my regular inexpensive cardstock. It held up to water without much warping to much. 

The stamps for the outline mountain and a solid, filled in mountain are from Momenta, a small set that Lynette gave me. 

The tree stamps are from Gina K's Natural Silhouettes & You Warm My Heart, Stampscapes:  Tree Duo 085A and Inkadinkado-2 pine trees 96683 K, 

The birds are from Gina K's Fearless Flyers and Stampscapes-Gulls 302A.

The ground cover filler in the green card is from Stampscapes: Bush, 191A.

You can always click on an image to get a larger version.

Thank you for visiting! 

Wishing you Peace and all good!

Stampfest at Lynette's October 22, 2025

On Wednesday, October 22, we spent a wonderful day with Lynette. We went to a delicious Mexican Restaurant, La Marina Mariscos and enjoyed their lunch special, with lots of left overs to bring home.

Then we had a ball working on cards.We made a quick card stamping on  printed paper. Then we tried a simple ink swiping technique from Natasha Foote's YouTube Come Crafting with Natasha. 

Below are the cards we made with printed paper, inspired by Sharr Lm's Oct. 9, 2025 post on Facebook, at the Come Crafting with Natasha group. 

We used Lynette's Tim Holtz printed papers from her stash, stamping flowers in Versafine Onyx Black ink. 

Stamps:

Hero Arts wood mounted H3258 Real Dill

Gina K Natural Silhouettes

My Sentiments Exactly Happy Birthday

For the next four cards we tried Natasha Foote's Browns Only Technique, Video #1237 from Sept. 24, 2025. 

We used Gina K dark chocolate, warm cocoa and soft stone inks for the "land" in our panels. As shown in Natasha's video, we dabbed a small amount of brown ink on an acrylic block, spritzed it and tried to drag it across the white cardstock. It was difficult to drag. The ink did not go on smoothly. Natasha used the words, "hot mess" at one point...and we were thinking the same thing. Natasha encourages to keep on going and we did! 

NOTE Oct. 25, 2025...I just revisited Natasha's YouTube and noticed that when she dragged the inked and spritzed acrylic block across the paper, the block was held at an angle, so only part of it was touching the paper. That must be why we had trouble dragging it across the paper.

For the second panel we tried Natasha's "wet paintbrush and ink from an acrylic block" technique. That was a little easier. However after our panels were complete, we LIKED the uneven look of the browns and gray colors applied with the acrylic block. That method added more texture than just painting the browns and greys. We dried the paper with a heat tool and also set it aside to dry completely. 

We colored the sky by using blending brushes and ink.

Stampin Up orchid opulence, Gina K wild lilac, blue denim and blue in the navy.

For our lakes: Gina K powder blue and sea glass.

Stamps used:

Gina K Natural Silhouettes...very small pine tree

Gina K You Warm My Heart...various pine trees

The first two panels are Lynette's. The second two panels are mine. Lynette found some beautiful dark brown cardstock to back the panels. 

After a day, our panels look 200% better and I think we both are going to try this technique again!

Thanks for visiting! You can always click on an image to view a larger version.

Peace and All Good!

Stampfest At Lynette's August 20, 2025

Note: You can click any image to see a larger view.

On Wednesday, Aug. 20th, Don and I visited Lynette and had a great time.  We all had lunch at Naf Naf's and then Lynette and I had a wonderful time stamping. Lynette had lots of great ideas! 

Lynette found great inspiration for the Altenew Leaf Canopy stamp set on Pinterest. The title of the Pinterest page is, "Colorful Leaf Stamping". This card inspired the next seven cards below: the three brick embossed layer cards and the four cards mounted on orange cardstock. 

The first three cards were initially a trial on some odd colored watercolor paper from Lynette's stash. We lightly spritzed the Altenew Leaf Canopy stamp which was on an acrylic block. Then we colored the leaves with Lynette's wonderful Caran D'Ache watercolor crayons, using a few different colors. Then we lightly spritzed again, before stamping on the watercolor paper. Adding the color from the watercolor stamp was a fun way to stamp the leaves! The three cards above started out as a test, but we liked the result. We added them on top of a "brick" panel made with the Sizzix Tim Holtz Bricked embossing folder.

Leaf Canopy on orange cardstock:

For the four cards above, we did the same technique, using different colors from Lynette's Caran D'Ache watercolor crayons. When dry, we used a dotted stamp from Stamps by Judith with Gina K Peach Bellini ink to created a splattered look. Then we mounted the watercolor layer onto orange cardstock.

Kraft cards:

Our inspiration for these kraft cards is from an Altenew blog hop back in 2018. Scroll down to card #3, #4 and #6 to see Erum Tasneem's card. We used Brilliance ink on the leaf canopy stamp.

For these cards we were inspired by Erum Tasneem's No-Line Watercoloring using Leaf Canopy Stamp Set by Altenew, July 29, 2018. On watercolor paper we stamped the outline of the leaves with distress antique linen ink. Them used Caran D'Ache watercolor crayons and a water brush to add color within the stamped antique linen leaves. For splatters, we used that dotted stamp from Stamps by Judith. We mounted the watercolor layer on kraft paper, then on a white card.

Lynette helped me to copy this card design that she made previously. When I saw her card, I fell in love with it. 

We inked one side of Gina K Tapestry embossing folder with brilliance blue ink....the side where the images are raised, I think. .

We stamped the Stampin Up Marvelous Morning Glory flowers with SU Tempting turquoise, stamping off three times for the lighter shade (the fuller stamp). Then stamped the inside details part with full Tempting Turquoise.  

Thanks so much for visiting!

Peace and all good!