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

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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.

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!)

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).

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!

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!)