this little life of mine

2012 Christmas Card

Prepare to be amazed: I actually managed to make ALL my Christmas cards AND get them mailed off beFORE Christmas!

I KNOW!! 

Well, I did create a pretty easy design and only used four stamps total, but it's still an accomplishment! I used one of the new stamps I bought at Paws on Main in Cambria this past September - a cute little Christmas tree with ornaments by Hero Arts - and stamped it using Espresso ink from Adirondak on some brown, lightly corrugated paper, layered it over some dark sage green paper, then adhered it to an off-white card. The inside greeting, "have yourself a merry little christmas", is by Penny Black and was stamped using Tea Dye Distress Ink by Ranger. And, finally, I stamped a small snowflake from All Night Media and "Happy New Year" by Magenta on the back of the card, alternating between the Espress or and the Tea Dye inks. 

I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself! And, so did the Christmas letter I sent off to my family! Cheers!

E is for Easter Cards #allaboutme #lovekate

This week the letter E is being showcased in the All About Me meme. I had a hard time trying to figure out what word to use: energy, exercise, elegant, eggs ... there are so many words to use and yet so few at the same time. To be honest, I just wasn't too inspired this week. Then as I was going through some of my hand-stamped cards my grandmother had kept, I came across a few of the Easter cards, and though hey, I'll post pictures of my Easter cards!

Aaannnd, then I remembered I just did an entry about Easter cards back in April, so I'm basically recycling the whole idea. But, I can't think of anything else, so hopefully no one will mind! Here are a few of the Easter cards I had given my grandparents which my grandma had kept. Enjoy!

This is one of the first Easter cards I did, soon after I started stamping back in the mid-90s and way before I had a computer that now takes up all my time. All the eggs in this basket were individually stamped and cut out and placed in the basket. Some of them are even embossed which is a very time consuming process! I wish I knew what year this was, but unfortunately I didn't write that down. 

Thankfully I wrote the date on this one so I know I made it for Easter 1999. This is another card that took a lot of time to do what with all the masking and cutting out and colouring in. 

I must've been getting busy by 2000 when I made this card, because it's much simpler than the others above. 

This was the last Easter card I made in 2008. The eggs were stamped on decorative paper, cut out and glued on a blank card, and the greeting was stamped with individual alphabet letters. 

 

E is for Easter

A sampling of some of my hand-stamped Easter cards:

Day 14: Heart #instagram #febphotoaday

Day 3: Hands #febphotoaday #instagram

Beachy Stamp Display #30daysofcreativity

I was inspired by my recent visit to the beach to change out my rubber stamp display case from Easter-ish to Ocean-y. Hopefully I will have some time to use these stamps (and my hundreds of others) to create some pretty cards or artwork.

March Art Wall & Stamp Display

Yeah, I know I promised I would update my Art Wall every month this year and yeah, I know didn't do it last month, BUT I have a very good excuse. You see, because February is such a short month, I figured it wasn't really worth my time (and photo paper and printer ink) to print up eight pictures that wouldn't be displayed and/or enjoyed for very long.

At least that's what I've been telling myself.

Anyway, I finally got around to printing up some photos for this month's display:

 

I also changed my rubber stamp display from the Valentine's theme:

 
to St. Patrick's Day/Easter:

 
While I don't actually plan to make any cards for St. Patrick's Day this year, I fully intend to make a few Easter cards for family and friends. I had such a good time making the Valentine's Cards for Weetabix's card exchange that I promised myself I would stamp more this year. I've gotten away from stamping, focusing more on photography and writing and reading, but I found I really missed the creative rush I get from coming up with a fun design and then making it a reality. I spent part of last weekend going through a bunch of my old stamping magazines, tearing out the design ideas I liked as well as some new stamps I might buy, before recycling the magazines and getting a little more organized. I spent part of this afternoon going through my stamps and setting aside the ones I think I could part with to make room for new stamps.

Valentine's Day Cards

For the past several years, my good friend Weetabix has been hosting a Christmas card exchange, which I have always enjoyed participating in. I mean, who doesn't love getting Christmas cards in their mailbox? Or, just getting cards in general? A card is so much nicer to see sitting in your mailbox than another bill! Am I right?

Miz Bix enjoyes getting cards, too, apparently because for the first time ever, she held a Valentine's Day card exchange!  I initially contemplated buying cards, but then in a moment of creative mania, I dragged out some blank cards, rubber stamps, paper and ink, and put together a couple rather nice (imho) cards for the exchange:

 

I really enjoyed making the cards, and found that the activity kinda stirred a part of my creative being that had been in sleep mode for some time. So. I think I might start stamping again. Yes, I just might do that.

Inspiration

I was very excited to recieve my new copy of RubberStampMadness magazine this past week. It's chock full of inspiration, which is exactly what I need! 

   

Christmas Card #5 #Holidailies

Fifth Christmas card design I hand-stamped this year. Angel is by Acey Ducey and Medium Photo Frame is by Stampa Barbara.