Donut Worry, September Kit of the Month is SWEET!

September is upon us and WAHOO...We've got a new YUMMY and Delicious kit coming your way! Take a peek at our newest Kit of the Month:  Donut Worry!

Ever so trendy, every so delish!  This DONUT set and its perfectly punny sentiments are sure to get your stamping juices flowing!  Soooo...What's in the kit?

*One complete- exclusive stamp set called DONUT WORRY
*Inspiration/Instruction sheets for each of the four cards featured in the photo above.
*FOUR card kits (precut diecuts, printed and solid cardstock and embellishment packs to help you complete four perfectly yummy cards!)
*A supply list of materials used to help you plan future cards and projects

All this for the sweet price of $24.95 plus tax and priority shipping. When you sign up for a Kit of the Month subscription through MY shop, I'll also send you an additional FOUR card kits for FREE on or about the 15th of each month you subscribe to the KOTM club.  Remember, the KOTM is a six month rolling commitment-so after six months, you can continue to subscribe or unsubscribe if you wish.  

Won't you JOIN me on a Kit of the Month Journey?  DONUT WORRY will begin shipping the first of September.  Sign up on the FIRST of SEPTEMBER to get it in your hands!

August Kit of the Month:  "Forever Friend" available until 8/31/2015

SIGN UP FOR THE KIT OF THE MONTH HERE!

Back to school...and a prize!

Hello there Journey friends!

Today I'm sharing a project collection that I'm extremely proud of.  I think this has to be one of my most favorite projects to date and I'll be displaying and using it in my classroom this year.

Some of you may not already know, but before joining Fun Stampers Journey as a Coach, I spent some time designing for other companies.  I have another stamping blog that chronicles my various stamping adventures too.  One of the companies I LOVED designing for was Heartfelt Creations. The whole team at Heartfelt Creations is friendly, generous and oh so amazing.  I loved creating beautiful cards and three dimensional projects that I could give to family and friends and also send to Heartfelt Creations for display in their trade show booths.  Although I'm no longer designing for them, I have an opportunity once a month to join my fellow Heartfelt Creations Design Team Alumni for a fun blog hop.  It gives me a chance to remain connected to the fabulous Heartfelt Creations community and to continue to enjoy their stamps and dies, papers and extras!

So this month, I fell in love with their new release called "Farmer's Market".  It's a collection of yummy fruit, berries, and vegetables all intricately and realistically hand-drawn by Linda Bontrager (I think).  This collection just spoke to my heart and reminded me of my grandma...It just SCREAMED "COLOR ME!"  I knew it was the perfect opportunity to mix my love of FSJ reinker coloring with beautifully realistic images.

Soo...Please join me (and my fellow Heartfelt Creations Alumni Designers) August 25 starting at 8:00 EST as we host August's BLOG HOP.  One lucky commenter will win a $25.00 gift certificate to the Heartfelt Creations store and perhaps you too will get bitten by the FSJ reinker bug!  :)

***As an added bonus, take a close look at my project that will be featured on this hop.  See if you can identify the FSJ products that were used.  Comment NO LATER THAN AUGUST 24 at Midnight EST.  I'll select one person that comes the closest to the actual total.  That person will win a fabulous inky prize from me.

So...are you ready???

GO...

PS...Prepare for picture overload on my blog hop post.  I just couldn't help it!  :) :) :)

Lead Me...

Hello Journey Friends!  Today I'm sharing a card I created today that was inspired by some trading cards I made for a swap.  I incorporated a vellum overlay to make the stamped background soften up a bit and I think it made it more "fancy-schmancy".  I love that little bit of earthereal magic that vellum can inspire!  Don't you?  

I rubbed (WOO HOO!  Get your fingers dirty!) some FSJ Gold ink onto the sides and along the torn edge of the vellum to give it just the perfect hint of shimmer.  I also incorporated the gold into the Natural Journey Twine.  I love this gold.  It's not too shimmery and not too metallic, so it works well with softer cards like this one today.

Of course I had to layer elements to create a collage effect around my sentiment.  To me, it's kind-of- like a hug...Perfectly situated goodies always make me smile.  I added half of a chocolate candy wrapper (Wilton Chocolate wrappers come in a variety of metallic colors-GET SOME!)

Here's a closer peek at the flower that I fussy cut and popped up over an oops...YES...I did mess the sentiment up a bit so I cut the sentiment apart GASP, stamped the "me" below the first word, and popped a flower over the oops! Shhh don't tell.  I also added some Journey Glaze and a sprinkling of sparkle dust on top to give it some shimmer.  A perfect triad arrangement of pearls finished the card off!

FSJ Materials Used in this creation: 

Stamps/Dies:
Lead Me Stamp Set
Treat Label Die Set

Background:
Cocoa Powder Ink
Sweet Pear Ink
Lemon Grass Ink
Kiwi Slice Ink
Bubble Gum Ink
Journey Gold Ink

Flower:
Orange Creamsicle Ink

Sentiment:
Black Licorice
Pool Play Ink (hand rubbed with die attached)

Papers:
Whip Cream Cardstock
Butter Cream Cardstock (sentiment panel)
Cocoa Powder Cardstock
Sweet Pear Cardstock (A2 card base with a top fold)
Vellum

Embellishing Elements:
Journey Glaze
Journey Sparkle Dust
Natural Journey Twine
Pearls
Gold Chocolate wrappers (Wilton)

Aquatic Dreams...CAS159

Phew...Finished in the nick of time!  Oh drats, no I didn't.  Missed out on the deadline by an hour or so but oh well, I had fun anyway!  

I've been away at the VABeach Yummy and Delicious Rubber Stamping event and had not had a chance to work on my card for this CAS159 challenge, so when I got home yesterday,  I started thinking...  It'll be a fun time to create something watery and dreamy with our yummy reinkers.  A little Yummy...and Delicious.  hee hee...

I don't often create CAS cards because I'm not a planner and tend to just jump in and add layers upon layers upon layers until I think my card is "just right"...But when working in the CAS style, I tend to work in a miniature layered element or create a simple background.  It works for me and satisfies my desire for layering.

I decided to play around with my reinkers and made some fun "ocean-like" backgrounds.  The technique went VERY quickly and I was able to create several beautiful backgrounds to use on future cards.  I think my technique worked very well with the blue/teal tones of reinker and I can't wait to share this fun technique with some friends at my next Make-It event...and possibly on my next Periscope adventure.

For the first card, I splattered some Silver Silk onto the background to give it some added dimension. After that, I applied a collage of graph paper and natural twine then added some pearls and the little shell from ...colored with Banana Cream and Hazelnut Blend reinkers. The tiny "faith" sentiment comes from one of my new favorite sentiment sets called Text Happy.  This is a set that includes 36 perfectly understated sentiments.  This stamped panel was mounted on foam squares and placed onto an A2 Whip Cream card base with a top fold.  

This close-up shows the collage in detail but does not quite capture the gloss finish (Journey Glaze) on the shell from the Wish in a Bottle set.  It's a perfect element, I think! You might also see a few glimmers of sparkle dust...Not too much sparkle but just enough to help mimic some shimmer on the water.  

Soooo Yummy...I used the Cool Pool, Pool Play, Beach Breeze and Denim Days re-inkers to create this fun ocean-like background.

My second card was even more simple.  I wanted to have almost complete focus on the beautiful water...Love how some areas leave the impression of white caps.  Perfect, simple and quick.

Perfectly serene...  This stamped panel was mounted onto Black licorice cardstock then foam squares were added before adhering the whole panel to an Oatmeal Cookie card base with a top fold.

I tried many arrangements and placements of the sentiment but decided to stamp in Black Licorice ink directly on the background so the background focus would speak for itself.  Just a little Black twine and some sparkly pearls and voila...it's done!

Hope you enjoyed these beachy cards.  It took me back to the beach without the dreaded salt in your eyes effect!  I really had fun making this duo and look forward to sharing the technique soon.  Thanks for popping by!

Spread Your Wings..

Hello Journey Friends,

Today I'm sharing a card I created for the Color Throwdown Challenge this week.  I REALLY love the color combo in CTD355, so I decided to head to my craft room and play. I really love how the card turned out as I felt free to just sit and explore, experiment with different techniques and of course, play...SO FUN!

I started out by creating a strip of colored blocks using the color challenge colors...That turned into incorporating part of a leftover diecut negative (in Pool Play paper), then led to the addition of graph paper, and then a bit of ribbon.  The silver ric-rac, image and sentiment came last...I paged through all my stamp sets and found a set that I would be able to color AND incorporate a lovely sentiment.

The butterfly in the Gifted Wings stamp set was the perfect image for this card.  I colored the butterfly using FSJ re-inkers (Pool Play, River Stone and Banana Creme) and a fine tip paint brush.  I also incorporated some non-traditional layout designs in this card.  I LOVE how it turned out.

Other Material used in creating this card include:

Black Licorice Satin Ribbon
Silver Silk (for splatters)
Pearls
Fancy Label Die
Pool Play cardstock
River Stone Cardstock
Huckleberry Fusion cardstock
Journey Craft Glue
Journey Foam Squares (Small)
White Liner Tape (double sided tape)

Non-FSJ :
Strathmore Watercolor Paper
Graph Paper
Watercolors:  Blues, Gray
Memento Black ink
Silver Ric-Rac

Thanks for stopping by!  Please consider participating in this fun color challenge!  It was lots of fun! Have a fabulous day and remember, FLY!

Starstruck!

Hello Journey friends!

The other day I received a package of goodies I ordered from FSJ.  It's so fun to get treats in the mail and I was even more excited because it also included the FREE gifts lasercut wood stars that I've been drooling over since their reveal.   I ordered some blending brushes and blending solution and the sentiment set you see in this card and POOF:  I got my prized wooden star embellishments!!!

So by now you know that I love to spend my Sunday's rescuing scraps from previous card and crafty projects.  I believe "unwanted"  scraps hold so much potential and they're just waiting to demonstrate their power if you just take a chance with them.  Sooo....While listening to my favorite gospel music station on the radio, I set out to create a few cards...with leftovers...and some embellishments.

I really love how these two cards came together.  They are fun and whimsical with a splash of collage-artsy...just the way I like to create!

Perfect little stitches and splashes of reinker and Silk just pull everything together!  

Oh how I love those little stars!  Perfect embellishments for these fun cards.  I think they're meant to dance with those sparkle drops, don't you think?  

And that itty bitty sentiment?  PERFECTLY snuggled in under that pop of sparkle!  :)

 Now to figure out who will receive these two little treasures.  HMMMM...

Please join me in discovering the joys of crafting with scraps.  They will give you every bit of pleasure (and maybe more) than a big old cut piece of paper...and will encourage your creative muse to step out into HER spotlight!

FSJ Products used:

Retired Black and white printed paper
Scraps of Black Licorice, Whip Cream, Pool Play, River Stone and Sweet Berry cardstock
Card Base: Whip Cream, Oatmeal Cookie
Graph Paper scraps
Stamps:  ATS Tag Elements
Ink: Black Licorice
Reinkers/Silks:  Pool Play Re-Inker, Sweet Berry Re-Inker, Silver Silk
Ribbon:  Gold ribbon and Silver Ric-rac (by Simplicity), Black Journey Twine
Embellishments:  Laser Cut Wood Star Frame Elements, Sparkle Drops

*** AUGUST SPECIAL***With every $50.00 purchase at FSJ (and in the month of August you get DOUBLE the gift rewards!)

Pantone Fall 2015 Color Trends are OUT!

Hello there stamping friends,

I'm always on the lookout for upcoming color trend forecasts and while surfing the internet today I was reminded of the Pantone color forecasts for fall.  This earthy, yet sophisticated jeweltone collection is sure to bring some smiles to all those who love to decorate for Thanksgiving...I see so many fabulous color combinations that I will incorporate into my cardmaking and crafting designs.  I think I'll also pull it into my sewing and quilting hobby.

I'm planning on recreating these colors with the yummy FSJ reinkers...I think it'll be fun to brew up some "potions" and mix colors to find the perfect matches for these ON TREND colors.  I'm looking forward to sharing my recipes with you too, so watch for that in the near future.  While you're waiting for that, why not head over and check out the forecasted colors and let me know what you think? What's your favorite?  What combo would you like to use in your crafting designs???

Pantone Fall Color Trends 2015

 So let me take a walk through the newest FSJ catalog (specifically focusing on the printed paper line) to see which combos I can uncover:

Going Places???  Why yes!  I see Dried Herb, Amethyst Orchid, and Biscay Bay
Vintage Paris???  Well, Hints of Stormy Weather, Cashmere Rose, Oak Bluff
Journey Media???  Perhaps a little Oak Bluff, Dried Herb, Stormy Weather, Cashmere Rose, Cadmium Orange and a touch of Biscay Bay
Yummy and Delicious???  Biscay Bay, Amethyst Orchid, Cashmere Rose
Journey Basics Neutrals???  Dried Herb, Desert Sage, Oak Bluff, Biscay Bay, Stormy Weather and a hint of Marsala...

So there you have it...MY EYE SPY!  What can YOU discover???