Stacked Stones Studio!

I had a great phone call from a friend recently...she was calling to tell me she was pleasantly surprised when she went to her mailbox and found something other than a bill or store circular waiting for her...a little card from me.  My "take away" from that was to realize that in this ELECTRONIC-centric world that we live in....cards and handwritten notes take on new significance.  People rarely get cards "just because" - and when they do it has a high impact. I was headed out to a family get together today...and in addition to the pan of baked beans (remind me to share my recipe with you sometime...it is super simple and always a big hit) I made a quick card. I tend to be a bit "punny" so the sentiment inside says "Thanks for inviting me to hang out with your flock!" Flamingos are a favorite of the hostess so that was really the inspiration for my card...I cut them out on my Silhouette.  Here are a couple of details... I used a re...

If you have been a following of my blog - you know that I am a big proponent of using up my "stash." Oh yes, I love new crafting supplies as much as the next person...but I sometimes have greater inspiration when I try to use what is left in a creative way.  My last blog post showed you two layouts where the "confetti" was actually the stars and hole punch outs from other projects...and I think several of the ribbons and strips of die cuts were also things that were just snippets left from other projects that I hadn't "put away" just yet. So today, I though I would do a quick share because three elements of this card came from "using what is left...from other projects. First...the green grassy hills is a bit of creative cutting and placing from a strip of left over pattern paper. When I make cards I like to use 6x6 paper pads because the scale of the print is appropriate, and you have "pre matched" colors and patterns to wor...

Well hello there friends. I was really hoping to get a video edited for you all today...but I didn't.  So...in the meantime I will share a couple of layouts. One that uses the same technique that I shared in my last video...and one that I am going to show you in the video I need to edit! (I shouldn't even tease should I?) Do you see the flowers?  I used the same technique of masking and quick coloring on these flowers...just a LOT brighter...more Kati-esque than my rather sedate cards!  I stamp a couple extras and cut them out and popped them up to create the floral frame.   A couple of other details...I used my score board to  score two parallel lines on each side of the white paper that I stamped the flowers on.  Here is a tip - mat your picture first and draw some light pencil lines before you stamp....then you only have to color the parts of the flowers that are going to show. Once I had done the stamping and I put the picture back in p...

Well I hope you have had some time for creativity this week...I did - and the thing I am MOST excited about is that I have been able to get back to creating videos for some of my projects!  I have missed getting to share the "process" with you and am super glad to be back on track. I have a fun project to share with you today...using a Papertrey Ink stamp set - A Year In Flowers: Marigolds . It is perfect for this type of card because it is "line art" which works great for doing a little or a lot of coloring....with markers, colored pencils or watercolor. You can see I opted for doing just a bare minimum of coloring. I needed to make several gifts for some friends and wanted them to be handmade...but I had a real short window of time to create them in...so I just had to come up with an idea that had a lot of visual punch but could be created fairly quickly.  These line art stamps were just the ticket. One of the things that I love about working with Papertrey...

Ok...so you all know that I have a tendency to stamp just about everything.  I have been known to alter chipboard embellishments with some custom stamping...stamp a background for a card or layout, stamp a title or even all of my journaling.  I have stamped buttons, metal flowers, acetate and photos. So - it was probably a natural progression for me to take my love of stamping to my fingernails. There is a bit of a backstory.  For the past 25 years, I have worn acrylic nails.  As a teacher and speaker, I KNOW I talk with my hands...it is unconscious....I just do it - and I have just worn acrylic nails - usually in a really understated french manicure.  As a crafter, I can be REALLY hard on my hands....I am always splashing paint or ink and my hands just end up being a mess.  A few months ago I decided it was time to leave the acrylics off my nails and let them just BREATH!  I loved my well manicured nails, but I felt like they needed a break...but...

Summer is full of birthdays in our family...and that is just the excuse I need to get out my stamps and come up some fun new cards...and my family knows that I really can't resist a good pun! Thought I would share this fun little card with you...it is square 4.25 x 4.25.  I used a couple of Papertrey Ink stamp sets and Dies: On The Farm and Hello Sunshine. The sky and grass part of the scene are from On The Farm - and I stamped the sky on a piece of My Mind's Eye paper from a 6x6 pad...love these for card making because they are smaller scale prints that work well for this format. I did a little machine stitching around each of the pieces to give them a bit of definition. The cows in the "herd" were die cut with the On The Farm dies from another piece of My Mind's Eye paper...I love how they look kind of "mod-ish!" To make them stand out against the background, I took a Copic marker and just ran it around the edge...instant POP!...

Have you ever been working on a project and just not known what you needed to do to finish it? I had such a clear idea when I started on these cards. I wanted to create a monochromatic card with a stamped background. Specifically, I had found this set of stamps by Technique Tuesday when I was cleaning my studio...and stamping sounded MUCH more fun than cleaning! As you can see, the stamp set has flowers, leaves and swirls of different sizes - perfect for creating the background. And that was the end to my inspiration.  I should have taken a picture of the stamped panels...I certainly had plenty of time to do that - since I finished stamping them three weeks ago and they have been sitting on my desk just staring at me. Nothing. I had nothing.  Not one single idea. I had two 4.25 x 5.5 panels with pretty purple flowers all over them....and nothing I tried worked.   But then, last Monday I popped over to the Papertrey Ink blog to check out the Make It Monday ...