Stamping Spot Studio

Here’s a small, simple card I made last Saturday with my new friends. It uses the Tissue Inking technique to get that mottled effect. I inked the solid flower in Buttercup, then basically just crumpled a tissue, dabbed it on the ink pad, then dabbed it on the stamp. I used Hollyhock and Sorbet with the tissues:

All items from Close To My Heart
Stamp set: Friendship Blessings
Inks: Buttercup, Hollyhock, Sorbet, Chocolate
Papers: Taffy and White Daisy cardstock
Other: Clear button, Chocolate Waxy Flax

The best part is, you don’t really know what it’s going to look like until you stamp it, so it’s always a pleasant surprise! Well okay, a few times I picked the wrong color combinations and it wasn’t so pleasant. But now I know red and green make gray!

And this was my view one day when I sat down to sew. Mittens says,

“I’ve got my eye on you.”

My weird attraction to this stamp set continues:

All items from Close To My Heart unless noted otherwise
Stamp set: Thriller
Inks: Chocolate, Sunset, Creme Brulee, Black, Versmark
Papers: Black and Colonial White cardstock, glossy cardstock (retired)
Other: Edge Anchors Cottage set, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Martha Stewart punch

And Jax says,

“Chelsea, take me with you to school.”

Still trying to use up retired papers! Here’s the latest card kit that I’ve created:

All items from Close To My Heart unless stated otherwise.
Stamp sets: Soul Mates, Fringed Phrases
Inks: Blush, Baby Pink, Chocolate
Papers: More to Adore level 1 pages (retired), Hollyhock and Baby Pink cardstock
Other: Chocolate Designer Ribbon (retired), silver brads, Nestabilities tag die

The Baby Pink ink is so light that it doesn’t show up well in the photos. This set is now available in my Stamping Spot Etsy shop!

The “cat tree” is right by my sewing machine. Have you ever felt like you were being watched? ….

For those of you that don’t know me well, I have this weird attraction to Halloween images. So I’m not really sure why I liked the Close To My Heart Thriller stamp set so much…Perhaps it’s just the cool evil-ness of it all. I wanted the big skull to be white, but have more than just one color on the stamp. So I thought, first I’ll sponge the backgroud, then clear emboss the stamp image.

So sponge the background:

Clear emboss the image, then put white paint on it. I can wipe the paint off the embossing, and it will look just fine. Right? WRONG!

That was NOT what I was going for. Okay, how about ink the stamp with blue, then sponge purple ink on the stamp, THEN stamp on paper. Sounds like it should work, right? Right? WRONG!

I can’t even see the purple. Like it wasn’t even there. So then I’m thinking, maybe I can mask the skull to keep it white. So I cut out the mask from a post-it:

Mask the skull part, sponge around it. This is going to work, right? Right?

* cue Evil Laughter *

BWAH HA HA HA!

All items are from Close To My Heart.
Stamp set: Thriller
Inks: Pacifica, Gypsy, Lagoon, Black, Grey Wool
Papers: Grey Wool, Black, White Daisy cardstock

And Mittens says,

“Are you blogging about me again?”

“Stop that. Why don’t you clean off some space for me?”

“See? I’m squished.”

I’m trying something new – and trying to clear out retired papers. Presenting, the do-it-yourself, pick-your-sentiment, handmade card kit!

You get everything you see in the photo above, including envelopes, and several different sentiments to customize your cards with. It uses the Lovely Labels stamp set from Stampin’ Up!

I love that Cuttlebug embossed cardstock. And that patterned paper. And that stamp set. Everything. I love it all.

This kit is now for sale in my Stamping Spot Etsy Shop. I’m hoping to post more kits and quilts soon.

And Mittens says,

“I like when you clean. Now you can store my beautiful shedding fur in these boxes.”

This past weekend, I just met the nicest bunch of gals! I wasn’t sure how much they knew about CTMH, so I just had a simple card for them to make:

All items from Close To My Heart unless stated otherwise
Stamp sets: Happy Birthday, Happy Holidays, Connections
Inks: Desert Sand, Pear, Smoothie
Papers: Olivia level 2 paper pack
Other: Liquid Glass, Prisma Glitter, Nestabilites circle and scalloped circle die, deckle edged scissors

It turns out, they knew a LOT about stamping. Some of them had been meeting regularly for fifteen years!! Whoa!

And other news: My friend Lisa stopped by to visit on her way back to Washington from China. She has her own Stamp Happy blog – go and check it out. Thanks for coming to see me Lisa! We were able to sneak in a photo of us in my sewing cave downstairs.

And Jax says,

“Say chee…Hey is that a gecko?”

Here’s the baby boy version of yesterday’s card, using the same sketch, paper pack, and ink colors. I’ve always loved the Creative Basics paper collections, but so far, this one is my favorite. See yesterday’s post for the Baby Girl version.

All items from Close To My Heart unless stated otherwise:
Stamp sets: Happy Holidays, Sweet Baby
Inks: Chocolate, Sweet Leaf, Hollyhock, Crystal Blue
Papers: Cherry-O Creative Basics collection
Other: Cocoa designer ribbon, Nestabilities oval and scalloped oval dies

Can you spot all the cat toys in this picture? And what does Mittens choose to do? Lie in the box.

And Mittens says,

“So sue me.”

All those little circles in CTMH’s Happy Holidays set attract me, like little round magnets stuck to the fridge. I scanned a ton card patterns on the Mojo Monday Sketch Blog, and found one that would work perfectly:

All items from Close To My Heart unless stated otherwise:
Stamp sets: Happy Holidays, Sweet Baby
Papers: Cherry-O Creative Basics collection
Inks: Hollyhock, Crystal Blue, Chocolate, Sweet Leaf
Other: Hollyhock twill ribbon, Nestabilities oval and scalloped oval dies

The baby boy version will be posted tomorrow!

And Jax says,

“Join me on the Dark Side.”

I love fruit stamps! This one looks so elegant, I wasn’t sure I would do the stamp set justice. I’m not exactly the “elegant” type of stamper. How do you think it turned out?

All items from Close To My Heart unless specified otherwise:
Stamp sets: Fruitful Delight, Thank You
Inks: Black, Brown Bag, Cocoa, Copic markers
Papers: Passages level 2 paper pack
Other: Nestabilities circle and scalloped circle dies, Twill ribbon

And Mittens says,

“Ooo, big box.”

My mom-in-law is going to Japan this fall, and requested a quilt for a 6-year-old girl:

It would look so much nicer if it wasn’t a cloudy day. Four charm packs (5″ squares) of Birdie by Moda was used, along with Kona cotton White. Leftovers got used up on the back:

If you look closely, you can see the loopy quilting. I’m liking it better than stippling!

And Jax says,

“These are my favorite blocks…right here.”