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 November 15, 2023

Lynette and I had a great visit almost two weeks ago. We took a walk, had lunch at a nice restaurant and stamped! 

After watching Natasha Foote's YouTube #915 called Is the the best layout ever we made these cards.  We both loved how easy these cards were to make.

Close up of Lynette's card-with 2 pieces of coordinating paper cut to  3-7/8 by 5-1/8 inches, your first cut is 1-1/2 inches. Then you turn the pieces and your 2nd cut is 1-1/4 inches. You are able to make 2 cards! And use up some of that printed paper in the stash!

This is the card I made the night before coming to Lynette's to test out Natasha's idea. I used one of Lynette's Stampin' Up! Stamps for the "hugs and kisses".

On this card, I used Lynette's pretty kraft paper with a delicate design printed in black. I wanted to try my new Gina K stencil, Bold Bouquet. My inspiration was Gina K's YouTube, Gift Card Holder Card - Inspired by Mindy Eggen. 

Lynette let me look through her stash of stamps for a Christmas stamp for my Christmas cards this year. I found this beautiful PSX nativity scene. I stamped it in Gina K's blue denim ink.

Just wanted to include this photo with  "Graphic Tree" from Gina K. I was experimenting with possible Christmas cards.

Thank you for visiting!

Peace and all Good!

 

Valentines 2023

Thanks to Lynette for helping me get started on my Valentines two weeks ago. She gave me this pretty collage Valentine printed paper. I added a few embellishments. Was glad my white Gelly Roll pen still worked. Sometimes they dry up quickly. The red and pink die cut hearts were in my stash.

Made this card with Valentine scraps. The "14" is stamped with an old mini Valentine set of 4 stamps by Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous that I bought at Archiver's a long time ago.

Here are kids Valentines I made for my grandkids and some special friends. 

Inspiration for the dog Valentines are from Andreja of Easy Peasy and Fun.

Inspiration for the cat valentines are from Michelle of Crafty Morning.

Click on images for a larger view.

Thank you for visiting!

Peace and all good.

First Stampfest in the Condo

 

Lynette came over to visit us at the condo yesterday. It was her first visit here! We had a wonderful time visiting and stamping.  She graciously catered to my wish to make Valentines. She brought a big tablet of 12 x12" Valentine printed papers for us to use.

Lynette made these cards. The background and the "hugs and kisses" strips are from the printed papers she brought. The heart die cuts are from my stash.

The printed paper Lynette brought was perfect! I had been thinking of stamping my own background. Using her paper for backgrounds made this quick and easy. The Love stamp is from a small Hero Arts February stamp set.

Lynette left early. I continued working on my cards and  made four more cards.

Used a printed paper scrap from my stash for this background. The heart was cut with a Gina K Master Layouts 4 die. The sentiment is from Gina K's Fluttering Fall stamp set. I stamped with Distress Black Soot ink and used clear embossing powder on it.

Thanks for visiting!

Peace and all good!

Valentines 2020

This year I made Tent Valentines. They are also called Teepee or Pyramid cards. My friend Margo kindly explained how these are made, emailing details on how she made hers, using three pieces of 4" square papers for the base. These are scored and folded diagonally then glued together in such away to form the tent. For layering on top, she uses 3.75" squares, which are cut in half diagonally. These cards are VERY FUN to make!
Click on any image to enlarge.

There are lots of methods and tutorials online. It really liked seeing a video of how the 3 main pieces are glued/adhered together. I liked Frenchie's Video Tutorial and also Dawn Griffith's YouTube tutorial.

Frenchie had good tips on Velcro dots, which connect the sections and create the tent shape. I started with some velcro strips in my sewing stash. I cut them into small pieces, but that was hard to open, especially at first. I bought the Velcro Thin Clear Fasteners, General Purpose, 58 circles, 3/8 inch from Amazon and they worked really well. I saw the Velcro circles at JoAnn fabrics too. Frenchie recommended putting the rough side on  the top  and the soft side on the bottom of the closure area. The package says to wait 15 minutes after application.

At first I used solid paper, 4 inch square, for the base. Then when I was low on red cardstock, I used 2 pieces of red cardstock with 1 piece of printed paper. It was really fun using the printed papers because they all coordinated well together.

I punched flowers and fussy cutting hearts and the word banners. Most of my printed papers were from a 6 x 6 Lost & Found designer pad called Blush. I think one piece came from a 6 x 6 designer pad by Teresa Collins called Memories.

The nice thing about this card is that it folds flat and fits into an A2 envelope: 4.375 x 5.75 inches. However, I chose to use a larger A7 envelope: 5.25 x 7.25 inches. To help the recipient figure out how to make this card stand up, I printed this on a piece of computer paper:

Find the 2 little spots with Velcro and attach to make this card into a tent/teepee/pyramid shape. Enjoy!

Then I folded the paper with that message and kind of wrapped it around my tent card before placing it into my A7 envelope.

Stamps

Michael Strong, Stampin' Up!, Hero Arts, Judith Stamps

Inks:

distress festive berries, worn lipstick

oxide worn lipstick

Stampin' Up! rose red

I just LOVE Valentine's Day. I think it's because my parents were married on Valentine's Day!
That was a very long time ago...in 1953!

Let love shine every day!

Thanks for visiting! 

Two More Christmas Cards

A few more cards are getting mailed...

Still using my large stash of Christmas papers

and Tim Holtz stamps with festive berries distress ink.

Love the look that old crimper gives on this holly paper.

Added a strip of  "red line tape" to attach the green ribbon, making loops here and there.

Thanks for visiting!

Hoping you are enjoying the season of Hope and Love!

Christmas Cards

I started working on making Christmas cards after Thanksgiving.

Was hoping to be on top of this, but the cards are still here...

Hopefully to be mailed tonight!

Stil using printed papers from my stash.

Stamps from Michael Strong, Hampton Arts, Tim Holtz and Stampin' Up!

Below are some close-ups:

Thanks so much for visiting.

May your day be merry!

Stampfest with Lynette Dec 5, 2018

Lynette and I spent the day on December 5th visiting and stamping.

We used some printed Christmas papers from my stash.

Lynette brought along a Tim Holtz stamp and die set from awhile ago.

I pulled out some of my Tim Holtz Christmas stamps and my Michael Strong Christmas tree.

It's fun to see all the bits and pieces and parts of the cards before they are done!

Thanks for visiting! Wishing you JOY!