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 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!

Stampfest at Lynette's May 26, 2025

Yesterday Don and I visited Lynette for the first time since my knee replacement surgery two months ago. We had a great time visiting. Enjoyed lunch at LongHorn's. Later we all enjoyed Phigment wine, cheese and crackers and chips and salsa for our supper. Lynette and I both loved the Rosemary Flatbread crackers from Aldi-they came in a box.

Lynette and I each made three cards. We found great card samples online, with BIG THANKS to...

Rachel Tessman of Stamp Your Art Out

and

Seeka of Sky Paper Scissors.

 

Note:  you can always click on an image to see a larger view of it.

We used directions from Rachel Tessman's Layering Leaves Square Column Fold Card blogpost. She listed the sizes of the various papers on that blog.

The card base is 5-1/2 x 10-1/8" scored at 4-1/4", 5-3/4", 7-1/4" and 8-3/4".

For the brick dry embossed panels, you start with 3 pieces: 

  2 of them are 1-3/8" x 5-3/8" 

  and

  1 of them is   1-1/8"   x 3-3/4".

We used Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Bricked embossing folder, after cutting the pieces.

We drew our own vase, using Kraft paper for it. Then Lynette stamped a texture stamp with GK warm cocoa ink on it.

The die cut leaves we used were from Lynette's stash.

I stamped a sentiment from Altenew's Leaf Canopy set on the banner of my card.

 

For our second card...

we found A Hidden Scenery Z-Fold Card on Rachel Tessman's blog. I tapped the "Page Down Key" three times to arrive at two photos of this card. She used beautiful printed paper from SU's December 2023 Paper Pumpkin Kit. She has a link there which leading to her Sept. 13, 2023 Autumn Hidden Scenery Z-Fold cards. There you find her directions for this style of card:

Card base  5-1/2 x 8-1/2"

Score at 2-1/8" and 4-1/4"

For the small aqua folded card that is attached later cut layer:  5-1/2 x 3"

For the white layer on the front and inside, cut two:  2-1/2 x 2-1/8"

We stamped our own design on our white cardstock base using Stampin Up's Spring Garden. We stamped the stems in GK's Jelly Bean Green and the flowers in SU's Yo Yo Yellow. For the cloud background, we used Lynette's cloud stencil with Distress Tumbled Glass ink and a blending brush. It was very fun to customize our card design, but if you have printed paper like Rachel's that would be very pretty too.

We used a word art stamp from the Stampin' Up! set called Natural Beauty for the outside of the small aqua folded card. You can write a note inside or you can use a stamp for the inside, like Lynette did.

This card is attached on the left side only. The fold part slips undereath the right side of the folded card to keep the z-fold part tucked inside. Rachel shows exactly where to add foam tape to the back of the folded card in her YouTube, December 2023 All The Best Paper Pumpkin Kit: First Set of Alternate Projects

Lynette added two yellow butterflies to the inside of her card to enhance the scene!

Our third card was inspired by Seeka's April 11, 2022 blogpost on Sky Paper Scissors. We used Gina K's inks. From the bottom up: Key Lime, Lucky Clover and Sea Glass. I think I started using my green blending brush at first, so the top layer is rather green-ish! 

Lynette die cut all the Gina K Botanic Duo flowers/leaves. She used her Cuttlebug, with dies facing up, the cardstock on top of the dies AND a piece of bubble wrap on top of the cardstock. Then the B plate on top of that. In the past I had trouble getting these dies to cut completely. She had no problem. I'll give her method a try the next time I cut these at home.

Lynette also cut stitched circles from Vellum and a smaller one from cardstock. She did not attach her die pieces, putting everything aside for later. That's why I only have my card photo.

A great big THANKS to Rachel Tessman for her wonderful blogposts. Loved your Layering Leaves Square Column card and your Hidden Scenery Z-Fold Card.  You have such an artistic eye for color and design. We really appreciate your sharing the blogposts with us!

Thanks also to Seeka for her Sky Paper Scissors blogpost on ink blending and Gina K's Botanic Duo dies. What a beautiful layout! Love the use of the Vellum circle under the white cardstock circle. Thanks for sharing beautiful cards with everyone.

Thanks for visiting!

Peace and all good!

Fun with Faux Postage Cards

You will see four faux postage cards below. The first one is cut from Lynette's Waffle Flower Postage Collage die. The other three are made with the old Just For Fun wood mounted stamp and stencil set.

For this card, I started with a faux postage layer made at Lynette's house on November 13. At home I stamped some postage stamps from Stampin Up onto white cardstock and fussy cut them. I placed one of them over my badly stamped leaf in the center of the panel. The Postcard "word" is from a Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous clear stamp set called City Central CSS27911.

I was so happy to find my old Just For Fun brand wood mounted postage design rubber stamp and stencil from years ago! I used stamps from the sets shown in the photo above. Below is a close up of my Faux Postage card.

There are lots of faux postage samples on the Waffle Flower website and other blogs. For the design above, I was inspired by the colors of  Galina Filippenko's card with distress pumpkin ink blending at the bottom.

This card was inspired by Lisa of  My Card Trip. I stamped  then ink blended with the same ink in each of the rectangles. 

Gina K inks: bubblegum pink, light orchid

distress inks: lucky clover, fossilized amber

and Versafine onyx black

The card below has the same colors of ink blending as the first card, which was made at Lynette's house. See more details listed on the image. Click on this image or any image to see a larger view.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Peace and all good!

Stampfest at Lynette's March 22, 2024

Lynette and I had a great time visiting and stamping on Friday, March 22, 2024. I finally remembered to have Don take a photo of us. 

We found plenty of inspiration online. This time we decided to try inkblending within a circle "mask" and a birdhouse card. 

This is Lynette's card. We were inspired by Gina K's YouTube tutorial,

Masculine Card Making Ideas - with one mini stamp set! on March 19, 2024

...except I forgot to bring my masking magic to do the strips like Gina did. We decided to just blend the colors together. 

We cut out a circle mask with cardstock and taped it down carefully putting the tape on my sleeve first to make it less sticky for easy removal. 

The blue is on the bottom to kind of resemble the ocean/water as Gina did in the striped circle she created...see 52:30 on the video for the stripes.

Here is my card. I'm wondering if I used a different cardstock which made it easier to get darker colors. I used the same ink blending brushes and ink that Lynette used. We started with the orange and worked our way toward the blue like Gina did in the first part of that YouTube video.

We used the same Gina K ink colors shown in the first part of the video: 

Sweet Mango

Passionate Pink

Wild Lilac

Tranquil Teal

Then Blue Denim over the arc of the edge of the circle mask.

Images stamped with Versafine onyx black. The palm tree stamp is from Lynette's stash. The birds are from a Tim Holtz set.

Our birdhouse card was inspired by Leonie Schroeder's birdhouse card on her Stamp A Latte blog. I worked on figuring out the shape, based on Leonie's dimensions, which were in metric. I used a scrap of paper the size of our cards, which when folded is 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 inches to make a template of sorts. I se that mine isn't perfectly symetrical though! 

We found some Stampin' Up! early espresso cardstock for the card base. And a piece of greyish blue cardstock  for the layer on top. At first we ran the cardstock throught the cuttlebug with a woodgrain embossing folder, but that made it difficult to cut the 1-1/2 inch circle in the center. Lynette used her Circle Custom Cutting System from Creative Memories. It didn't want to cut after the cardstock was dry embossed. The easy fix was to just cut the circle before dry embossing which worked well. 

I used Distress Brushed Corduroy ink to the edges of the birdhouse. 

Lynette colored the stamped birds with colored pencils. Then she fussy cut them. The bird inside is from Stampin' Up!'s set, Nature Walk.  The stamp on the outside is from a set that Lynette bought at Dollar Tree.  I stamped the sprig of leaves, from Altenew's Wildflower Garden.  But I see now that I should have added some brown ink to the branch part so that white did not show! Next time!

Lynette added the circle cut out to the back of the blue layer after positioning the bird inside. We had a lot of fun making this birdhouse card! I love using birds on my card now that it's spring! 

Thank you so much for visiting.

Peace and all good

Fluttering Fall Butterfly and Flower on Dry Embossed Layer

I was so happy to finally use a dry embossed layer (Cuttlebug Victoria) that has been sitting on my stamping desk for some time. I added color to it with Gina K's ink and blending brushes. Then used  stencils and blending brushes to add color to Gina K's flower, leaves and butterfly from her Fluttering Fall Layering Stencil Bundle.   

Here you see the same layout but with a Momenta butterfly embossing folder for the background.

Sentiment from Gina K's Sketched Flowers set.

Inks: Gina K lucky clover, bubblegum pink, sweet mango, wild lilac, wild dandelion

Distress: hickory smoke

Versafine  onyx black

Thanks for visiting! Wishing you Peace and all good!

Stampfest at Lynette's, January 27, 2022

My friend, Lynette and I had a blast stamping last Thursday, Jan. 27. We explored masking and ink blending with brushes. We followed YouTube tutorials as we worked on our cards and layers. We used my new Gina K Friendly Silhouettes stamp set, except for the musical notes background in the first card. 

For this card and the six rectangle card below we followed Jennifer McGuire's YouTube,  Masked Background Techniques - Easily Achieve Amazing Results! Since we did not have the Gina K masking magic, we used post it notes plus some old post it tape Lynette found in her stash.

Starting at the bottom using blending brushes we applied Gina K turquoise sea ink then lucky clover ink. We did go back and add fresh asparagus at the top, just as in Jennifer's demo. 

We stamped a musical notes stamp (from Lynette's stash) with tranquil teal ink. Then we heat set the ink, just as Jennifer suggested. When that was dry we removed all the masking. 

We did place a strip of post its on the bottom of the rectangle before stamping with Versafine onyx black using a Gina K Friendly Silhouettes stamp. 

We did not have Gina's four rectangle window die to create our masking rectangles. We improvised by masking the area by hand. We used a piece of cardstock measuring 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 inches. I placed this layer on some scrap paper. Then with a ruler, I drew guidelines on the scrap paper to help with placement of our masking.  

As you can see in the photo on the left, my rectangles on the bottom layer are "off". Lynette's card on the right have nicely aligned rectangles because she used a long strip of narrow post it tape so she could easily keep everything in alignment. 

We added color with blending brushes using these Gina K inks in the rectangles working left to right--

top layer: passionate pink, sweet mango, wild dandelion

bottom layer: powder blue, turquoise sea, grass green.

Then masking each rectangle carefully, we stamped with various images from the Friendly Silhouettes set using Versafine black onyx ink, just as Jennifer did.

For the card above, we used an oval die to cut out a mask in cardstock.  Then starting at the bottom and working our way upward, we blended with  wild wisteria, passionate pink and bubblegum pink. We did not add a text stamp background as Jennifer's card. 

Stamped one of the Friendly Silhouettes stamps by Gina K with Versafine onxy black ink before removing the mask. 

We followed the Jenny Card Designs YouTube: How To Ink Blend A Sunset Into A Night Sky | Gina K Designs Natural Silhouettes for this card layer. Starting from the bottom, we used these Gina K inks: wild dandelion, bubblegum pink, wild wisteria. Then for the blue we used distress blue denim because I do not have the Gina K blue denim. 

For the trees, I used Gina K's Friendly Silhouettes with Versafine onyx black, just as in all the rest of the silhouette stamping.

Thanks to Jennifer McGuire and Jenny of Jenny Card Designs for their clear and helpful tutorials which made our card making day very fun and productive!

Thank you for visiting!

Peace and all good!