How do you evolve?

I don't know about you, but I am always in a quest to become a better stamper. Like you, I visit blogs, watch artwork in e-groups, and go to a few online galleries when I have time (maybe that is the problem -- I never have time!).

When I first started stamping, I would study the cards that appealed to me -- usually they were from one or two artists -- to figure out what I liked. I would adapt the elements that I liked into my own stamping until my own style developed. A style overhaul is overdue for me -- I am in a design rut!

I have a blocky, sparse style. Too sparse. Too blocky. I have been watching the trends lately, and it seems to be leaning toward a style that is very do-dad-esque. I am not very good at random embellishment placement. Since I received a shipment of stamps, I thought I would give the highly-embellished style ("do-dad style") a whirl.



Well, this is my result (it is much more dimensional in real life). I do like how it came out, but it took me a long time to go from start to finish, and frankly, I just don't have the luxury of that much time usually (I didn't have it today, either, but sometimes you need to throw the clock out of the window and just go with the flow).

I think what I like best about this card is the background. It is a simple random VersaMark resist background. To make it, I randomly stamped the large flower image onto glossy cardstock with VersaMark, then brayered Stampin' Up!'s Pomegranate and Chocolate chip inks over it. To smooth and blend the inks, I brayered over that whole thing with pink ink. After it dried a bit, I swiped over that with a paper towel to remove the ink from the flower (hence, the resist : ). The background was the quickest part!

I lowered the resolution so much on this that some of the details were lost, like the painstaking paper piercing on the edges of the pomegranate and the distressed edges on most of the card. The "one of a kind" saying is also popped.

So what do you think? Was it worth the time I put into it? Should I continue on this quest to upgrade my style or should I just stay the course?

More layouts...

Yes, I scrapped again this weekend, on Friday. More laughter, and more fun! I did finish 8 pages -- and the entire November 2007 Club Scrap kit (Serengeti). I thought I would just post these layouts rather than doing a slide show ( you can click on any of the images to make them larger):

More RAKs...

I hope you enjoy looking at these RAKs as much as I have enjoyed Receiveing them! Thank you to everyone who took the time to make and send me a card:
Lila Holgate
Lisa Somerville
Judi Hays
Anita Faull
Joan Hajek
Manna Caffrey
Kat Merryman
Shelly Banghart
Vicki Allgaier
Mary Garvey
Sharon Bertram
Pam Tiedke
Terri Capobianco

I feel so special to receive such outstanding artwork.

Blogger's Challenge #29 - Two ways

This week's Blogger's Challenge was to use the layout on page 37 from the new Stampin' Up! catalog to create a piece. Personally, I didn't care for the layout...I mean, it looked nice in the catty, but for some reason, I had a hard time with it. I am okay with what I made, although, not over-the-moon!

The first card I made, on the right, uses Stampin' Up!'s "Moose You." (I only thought it right to use SU stuff for the SU challenge). I hated the card at first, but really, as it sits on my desktop, it is growing on me. Well, I couldn't stop there, so I made a second:

So, I cheated on this one...I matted it. The original is not matted, and I think that is what bothers me so much -- it needs a mat! Don't you think the moose card would look better with a chocolate chip border? I do!

In any case, it is good to be back in the Blogger's Challenge this week. Although I had a great holiday season, I do not miss the frenzy at all!

Congratulations, Trina Chinn!

Trina Chinn was the lucky winner of the Artistic Outpost Stamp sheet. Congrats, Trina!

I have new stamps for next week -- and a new company to introduce you to, also!

Hey, how about another giveaway?

I just love Artistic Outpost! Not only are the stamps fun, funky and yet still elegant, they work really well with a variety of techniques. The card above uses a stamp from the Thai Buddha sheet, and is on a Brayered Spots background from the December 2007 Technique Junkie Newsletter. I really like this sheet -- it has images on it that are unique and unlike anything I have in my personal (read: vast) collection. Although the giveaway today is NOT that sheet (it is a different sheet, see below), Artistic Outpost has the Thai Buddha sheet and the Chinese proverb sheet on sale through January 31 for 20% off. I think they are sinfully inexpensive!

Okay, now for the giveaway...
The sheet below will be mailed to the winner of the giveaway...

For today's giveaway, you will receive the gorgeous unmounted stamp set above, plus the card above. The stamps are deeply etched and gorgeous -- all of Artistic Outpost's stamps are! Go take a look at the site when you are done entering the giveaway and take advantage of the sale! Tell Robyn I said "HI!"

ANYONE can enter this giveaway. One entry per person, per give away, please. To enter the give away for today, simply leave a comment on this blog entry telling me that you would like to enter by 11:59pm EST on Thursday January 10th. No other entry methods will be included in the give away. If you email me to enter, your entry will NOT be considered a valid entry. When you leave the comment, make sure to put your NAME in the comment -- if you enter your comment as "Anonymous", I cannot give you the prize! Blogger does NOT record your email address for me, so you will need to check back to find out if you have won or include your email address in your comment so that I can notify you. I will have a random number generator pick one number from the comments to select one winner. Each give-away is separate, so to be eligible for a specific item you must enter that day's contest on the post where it is listed. Enter today -- good luck!

My Weekend Scrapfest!

This past Saturday my husband went away for the weekend with my youngest son, and I had a 10 hour scrapfest with my friends. There is nothing like a few good friends, a creative hobby, and alot of laughter to recharge a girl's batteries. It was a productive day, too. The holiday months have been crazy for me and I haven't had any time to scrap for many weeks. As a result, my October, November and December Club Scrap kits have been woefully neglected... I had looked through all of them, but I hadn't done much more.

On Saturday, I dug into the December kit -- rich browns, shimmery blues, coppery-browns, and pure white luscious textured papers. I always find it best to dig into the kit and match up pictures until the papers are depleted (see, that way I don't need to try to find space in my already jammed 12"x12" paper file drawers!).

I used the whole kit on Saturday -- I not only made 8 pages and an 8" x 8" Paris book for my coffee table, I dug into the November kit, and finished three more layouts, too!
I finished 11 scrap pages and made a mini book about Paris for my coffee table. I hope you enjoy them!