Stacked Stones Studio!

I brought this birch bark box back (say that three times fast!) with me from Russia several years ago. I loved it's embossed top and the lashing that holds it all together. I have loved birch trees since I was a young girl. Our family would spend time up in the Boundary Water area in Northern Minnesota...and the white papery bark of the Birch trees always caught my attention.  My sister and I would find pieces that had "flaked off" and use them for all sorts of creative projects. While we were in Minnesota, she and I would use the papery bark as roofs for the little stone houses we built from stones we gathered from the edge of the lake. Sometimes our Barbies got to live in them...and sometimes we dreamed that little elves and fairies would find the homes we had built for them and would think we were the "best-est" home builders ever. *smile* We also would use pieces of it to write postcards to our grandparents...I still have a couple of ...

I am honored to get to be a June Release Guest Designer for Olga from Little Blue Button Stamps.  Isn't this the cutest coffee themed set of stamps? You know me and my love of coffee...getting to work with these was just a melding of two of my favorite things...stamping and sipping coffee! The set is called Coffee Love...and in addition to the cute and sassy girl holding a hot cup of coffee, we get coffee and tea  elements that work well together to create all kinds of cards and tags. Two of my favorite sentiments, "Life Begins with Coffee" and "My Blood Type is Coffee"  - and truer words were never spoken...I am such a nicer person in the morning....AFTER I've had my first cup of coffee...ahem...ok .... second! I know you will love Olga's designs too! If you are interested in her rubber stamps you can find them here: on CC Designs website . Her digi stamps are available for download here: on the Little Blue Button Stamps website . ...

Check out these Quirky Turkeys and Funky Punkins Does that ever happen to you? You run out of hours in the day before you run out of things to do?!?! Seriously! LOL I feel like I have been sprinting since July! I have lots of things to catch up on with you - my dear friends! But I will try and do it a little at the time! First of all…HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Here is just a quick OVERVIEW…and I will be back to fill in the details soon! I have some new tutorials up on YouTube with some Christmas projects…I will put the links here… I am working on creating a classroom here on the blog - and sharing my first on-line class called All That Glitters ! It is going to be fun…and pretty economical…like $15! I've also started a new series over on YouTube… Trending Techniques . The first one focuses on the Inlaid Die Cuts….such a hot trend…and super easy to accomplish….check out this video to learn how. This will be kind of a RANDOM series…as I find trends...

Working on my Christmas Cards and creating some goodies to sell at a couple of Fall Craft Fairs. I hope to have some new videos to share soon...but thought I would put a few pictures of some of the cards and card sets I have been working on. I love these blueprint stamps by Tim Holtz. They are perfect for doing the Faux Chalkboard Stamping technique. I have a video that demos that technique - you can watch it here :  These next few sets were a lot of fun to make! I started by embossing watercolor paper...and then used various sprays (Lindy's Starburst stains, Heidi Swapp Colorshine, Dylusion Sprays) to create these colorful splats. I love how bright and fresh these cards turned out. Those Dylusion Sprays are just so fun to work with...and get great results every time! When they had dried - I just did I direct to paper technique with Distress Inks to highlight the embossing. Fun and Fresh...great for any occasion. These next two cards, I have crea...