Not So Happy Holidays layout *Inspired By Stamping*

Hello my crafty friends. We all have favorite holiday stories. Some funny, others heartwarming and there are a few that we use to bribe our kids in the future. The story I documented in this layout can be put in all of those categories. 

Not so happy holidays

When my daughter was little, she was super excited about Christmas. At three years old, she had grasped the idea of a special day where we open presents, presents that we had wished for. Well the one thing that she wasn't too keen about was the idea of Santa. The photo I used in this layout was of her clinging very tightly on my shirt while we talked with Santa Claus during a church Christmas party. I can still remember her hesitation while we were in line to meet the big fella. 

For this page, I used the Christmas tree, snowflake and deer images from the Build a Stocking Stamp set of Inspired By Stamping. I wanted my Christmas tree to have more depth to them so I heat embossed them with green powder.

I added a few snowflakes on the empty parts of my layout, just to give it more design.

I also did a lot of sticker and paper layering, something I'm enjoying a lot lately. Plus it lets me use up a lot of my stash.

So there you have it. Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Happy Holidays card *Inspired by Stamping*

Hi crafty friends. I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season and not feeling stressed out already. If you are stressed, I hope a little bit of crafting is in the plan today and this card can be your inspiration for your next project....

Happy Holidays card

I created this card as an idea that can be used for mass produced cards. A little bit of pattern paper, stamping, glitter glue and twine can all be used to create one or one hundred cards.

I used the Holiday Tags set as well as a star from the Build a Stocking set. I decided to cover up the two on the sides with pattern paper and cut out ornament design because I didn't like how I designed the insides of the tag. Something that I'm not ashamed to let you know. Everyone makes mistakes, and I am not immune to that fact.

I also added some glitter glue to the star to add some more "shine" to it.

So there you have it. Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Gingerbread Advent Calendar *Inspired By Stamping*

Hello friends. Today I'm honored to be the designer spotlighted at Inspired By Stamping. Christmas season is upon us. What traditions do you share with your family? 

I love creating traditions with my little family. It's exciting to celebrate seasons like this in a fresh pair of eyes, especially of my children. This year I wanted to take the advent calendar in a different direction. Usually advent calendars have little trinkets or treats to countdown to Christmas. Well I'm trying to teach my children to think less about the 'stuff' and more about the true meaning of the season. I was so happy to have found this scripture countdown online and I thought that I'd do this as the way to count down to Christmas. To get this calendar done, I used some cut files from Inspired By Stamping, as well as a stamp for the numbers. Here's the result...

I used the Sugar and Spice cut file (gingerbread man and the bow tie) cut from brown paper and red and white pattern paper. I love how cut files makes mass producing shapes so easy. I was able to cut the shapes in less than 10 minutes. I added a face to each one with just a marker. 

For the numbers- I stamped this postage stamp on white cardstock. Since the stamp is not a Christmas one, I covered the center with pattern paper. I then used a bunch of Thickers for the numbers. I kept the colors the same so there's cohesiveness even though I used different types of fonts and textures.

To tie them all together, I punched out holes on the sides and alternated the red and gold ribbon.

I didn't know how to add the scriptures on the individual gingerbread man cuts but couldn't think of any way to do it creatively so I ended up just taping it on the back.

So there you have it. I'm so excited about how this will help our family remember the true meaning of the season.

Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Happy Holidays (Christmas tree) card *Inspired By Stamping

Hello my crafty friends. Today I am sharing a Christmas card with you. I hope my project will inspire you to use up some of the latest stamp releases from Inspired By Stamping in your next project.

For this card, I layered some pattern papers from Echo Park and then highlighted the sentiment by stamping it on yellow cardstock. It was a bold move but paid off since I had some busy designs from the pattern papers.

 

To add some texture and interest to the trees, I heat embossed them with green powder, hand cut each of and adhered one with foam adhesive.

 

Big Holidays set, Inspired By Stamping

Build a Stocking stamp set, Inspired By Stamping

Others: Cardstock, Pattern paper, ink pads, green embossing powder, adhesives

Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Christmas card 2014 + video on effective mass production of cards

Hi there friends. I know that in some parts of the world, Christmas starts before Halloween, but I prefer to get into the spirit of the holiday season AFTER Thankgiving. Isn't that how it used to be? Anyways since I'm in the holiday mood now,I decided to share with you my Christmas card for this year...

I haven't massed produced Holiday cards in a while and decided that this year, I will go back to my "roots" so to speak. I loved making handmade cards for the holiday season and it gives me a great excuse to use up my stash. 

I created this card using this a few stamp sets from Inspired By Stamping. They can be found here, here and here. 

While creating my card, I found some easy ways to make this project cost effective and efficient. Want to hear it? Watch the video below to learn more.

And here's a few more close ups of the card...

Now all it needs is a family photo and I might even type up a year in review newsletter. I'm on a roll here!

How about you, do you make handmade cards for the season? What's the best tip you've found that makes it fun for you?

till next time,
Grace

Stockings Gift Tags *Inspired by Stamping*

One of my new traditions for the Holiday season is giving homemade gifts from the kitchen. About two years ago I started making fudge and I fell inlove with how (a) fairly easy it was to make them and (b) they're quite delicious. My favorite one is the pumpkin pecan fudge. Just thinking about it makes me giddy! 

Anyways, part of my packaging for the fudge gifts are handmade tags and I love how most Inspired By Stamping stamp sets come with a downloadable cut file that can be used with the Silhouette machine. In the project below, I made four tags with a stocking cut file as my base. I added some stamping and twine and it's ready to be added to my homemade gifts this year.

Stocking Gift Tags

I cut the stockings twice from each pattern paper so that both sides of the tag would have the same pattern paper. Note: If you are replicating this project, make sure you flip on of the stocking image first before cutting it.

I then inked up the edges, stamped the stocking edge, added some leaves (which I cut as well) and my sentiment. Since the tags were about 1 1/2" wide, the sentiment I chose was small as well. 

So there you have it. Another quick project to add some homemade touch to your gift giving this year. 

For more info about the stamps used in this project as well as all the latest releases from Inspired by Stamping, please visit the site here. 

Till next time,

Grace

Santa's Helper layout *Inspired By Stamping*

One of my favorite part of the season is being able to decorate my home for the Holidays. I usually purchase decorations the day after Christmas so I can steal some deals. One year I got the Santa doll that my daughter is holding in the photos of my scrapbook page. It's so cute and we place him on the living room couch for everyone to see. And when you squeeze his hand, he will talk greeting you a Very Merry Christmas.

 To dress up my page, I used the gingerbread man image from the Sugar and Spice set. I heat embossed the gingerbread man outline and face feature using white embossing powder. I stamped it on Kraft cardstock for that authentic gingerbread man color. I also added a red bow tie to give him some more personality. Super cute!

 
 I also added some candy images on my title block as well as the "believe" paper block.

 
 So there you have it. I hope this inspired you to document some of your favorite Holiday traditions and add some stamping fun in them.
 -Grace

 

Sugar and Spice, Inspired By Stamping

Others: Cardstsock, Pattern papers, die cut borders, circle cutter, white embossing powder

Happy Holidays card *Inspired By Stamping*

Hi there crafty friends. Today I'm sharing a card I made using the latest stamp release from Inspired By Stamping.

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year card

I can't believe that Christmas is just around the corner. I'm still debating if I should make handmade Christmas cards or do a photo card like what I've been doing this past couple of years. I love creating handmade cards and it helps me make a dent in my stash but let's face it, with a new baby, creating 50 or so cards might be a challenge. Do you have any tips to make mass producing cards a "breeze" to accomplish?

Anyways in this card, I wanted to highlight the sentiment which is from this stamp set. I used the Fancy Labels 2 die, cut two and layered them on top of each other. Before adding the foam adhesive on the small one,I stamped some snowflakes from this set using some blue ink. I added glitter glue to the center for a finished touch. 

If you would like to know more about the stamps I used and any other products from Inspired By Stamping, please visit the site here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Winter Bird card *Inspired By Stamping*

Hello there friends. Today I'm sharing a card I made using the latest bird theme stamp released by Inspired by Stamping. I have to admit, I'm not a good colorist. I admire those that can put markets and pens to use in bringing a stamped image to life. Unfortunately despite the hours of tutorials I watch on You Tube, I still can't replicate the technique. So with that being said, I recently had a light bulb moment...I can layer the image using two different inks and see how that looks. And that's exactly what I did with this card. I inked the Cardinal bird design using a brown ink and then another one on red. I used the IBS frame die cut to highlight a part of the bird with the red ink and adhered that right on top of the brown inked image. I love how the dimensional characteristic of this technique made the image pop really well in my card. I also added some glitter glue over the bird image for some shine and more texture.

 

 I also used the new sentiment stamp from IBS for this card. I just love the font of IBS sentiment stamps.

So there you have it. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you create something wonderful today. 

-Grace

 

 

Winter Birds ,Inspired By Stamping

 

Big Holidays ,Inspired By Stamping 

Fancy Labels 2 die ,Inspired By Stamping

Others: Cardstock, pattern papers, twine, glitter, ink pads.

Enjoy it's your birthday card *Inspired By Stamping*

Hello there friends. Today I'm sharing a card that I created with some stamps from Inspired By Stamping. I wanted to "play" with watercolor so I used the flower from the Aster stamp set as my base. I inked it with some dark brown color onto some watercolor paper and then used my Reeves water color pencil set to bring it to life. I then brushed some water on it to create the watercolor effect. As you can see, I'm still a beginner with this technique but I love the result and how the colors just blend together well. 

I cut the image off of the watercolor paper and then transferred it onto my card base. Because I want the attention to go straight to the flowers, I made the whole design simple. I added a heat embossed sentiment, tiny ribbon to create my border around the card and then some rhinestones to finish it off. 

So what new technique have you tried recently?

Make sure you check out the IBS store for the latest stamp release.

Till next time,
Grace

Inspired By Stamping Birthday Blog Hop

Surprise!  I'm here today, along with other gals on the Inspired By Stamping design team, to wish the Inspired By Stamping store's owner, Joanna, a happy 3rd anniversary for the store and an early happy birthday!  You should have arrived her from Donna's blog.  If not, and you'd like to join in the fun, please start at Joanna's blog and hop along with us to wish her many happy returns!  We've all made birthday creations to share using Inspired By Stamping products.  Come and take a peek at mine!

Warmest Birthday Wishes card

I'm still using the Neopolitan line from Dear Lizzy. I hoarded them for a long time and now it's time to actually put them to use. I used a sentiment from the "A Lovely Birthday" stamp set. 

 Instead of using a pearl or enamel dot, I used paint in the center of my flowers. It well coordinated with the flowers and I was able to use one of my small bottles of paint.

Thank you for stopping by today and for hopping with all of us from Inspired By Stamping!  Your next stop is Irit's blog. 

Till next time,
Grace

Autumn Wishes treat bags *Inspired by Stamping*

Hi crafty friends. Today I'm sharing an altered project that I created using some new stamps from Inspired By Stamping. Fall is one of those seasons where we bake up a storm and then spread the love to family and friends. Well, what better way to hand those homemade treats than with a homemade bag as well?

I created the bag using some papers that had the Fall color scheme with it and then added a border using the Free stamp of September which is the Diamonds. I also added a label from the Autumn blessings stamp set. 

Now they're ready to be filled with some fun treats. 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you check out the latest stamp sets from Inspired by Stamping by heading over here.

Till next time,
Grace

I'm grateful for you layout *Inspired By Stamping*

One of my favorite things about the Fall season is the reminder to have a more grateful heart. The new stamp Autumn Blessings helped me get a page documented about one of my favorite people in the world, my husband. He really is my better half and I am grateful for everything that he does for me and my family.

 

One of my favorite ways to incorporate stamping in my scrapbook pages is to use them in lieu of pattern paper. In this page, I used the images in the stamp set to create three blocks of pattern paper (pumpkin, leaves, red bricks) and then used the stamp "grateful" to layer over a Polaroid image cut up from a pattern paper. I also used the stamp set for my title, heat embossing it with black onto white cardstock, cutting around it and then adhering  it onto my picture with some foam adhesive.

 

Thank you for joining us today and I hope you try out the new Autumn Blessings stamp set and create something fun today.

 Happy Creating,
 Grace

 

Autumn Blessings- Inspired By Stamping

Others: Cardstock, Pattern paper, stickers, ink pads (apricot, emerald green, distressed brick red, pewter) , black embossing powder, black pen