Stampsmith November Challenge

http://After much procrastination, I finally made time to work on my November challenge from the Stampsmith yahoo group I  belong to.  One of the reasons I was procrastinating was because the product we create had to use at least one Stampsmith stamp and be Thanksgiving themed.  I couldn't see where any of the Stampsmith images I have (and I have a lot) could be interpreted as Thanksgiving oriented.  So I said "screw that" and I just picked one.

The project was to make a card and gift bag into which one will put gifts for and elderly person who might need some goodies for this holiday.

Here's my card, which as you can see, is not too exciting.  Nor is it very Thanksgiving-y.  I see some autumn in there, however.

And here it is tied with ribbon to the gift bag I decorated.

Much better.  And a close up of the bottom of the bag.

I'm so glad I signed up to participate in this challenge.  It has forced me to work within the deadline and try some stamping projects I never would have done otherwise.

Stampsmith October Challenge

One of the rubber stamping yahoo groups I belong to initiated a 3 month challenge, starting in October.  The requirements for this first phase of the challenge were to use a rubber stamp from The Stampsmith, have a Halloween theme, use a file folder and include some stitching.  Fine, I thought.  I have lots of stamps from the Stampsmith and I have file folders.  But Halloween?  I don't usually do holiday specific projects. And sewing?  I don't sew unless my life depends on it.

I always have trouble with the 'blank canvas', so the first thing I did was spray that file folder with black webbing spray.  Ok, I'm onto something here.  I sponged on some colors -- orange, green and purple.  Then I randomly stamped some leaf images in similar colors.  Next, I looked through my catalog of images from the Stampsmith and decided that Bette Davis looked quite witchy, especially when I can only remember seeing her in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.   Then I found this great image of the Wicked Witch of the West from The wizard of Oz, and I was just about done.  The BOO! stamp was from the $1 bin at Michael's.  The minimal stitching is fuzzy fiber that I added along the sides of the folder using a simple blanket stitch.  Voila!  I've met all the requirements and I love the results!

(It's hard to see, but under the Bette Davis image are the words "Good Witch".)

Movie Stars

I recently purchased a sheet of rubber stamps from The Stampsmith featuring photo images of movie stars. I adore these images and made some cards using them. The focus is definitely on the movie star, so I decided to keep the cards simple -- no fancy or complicated techniques or layouts.

I'm sure you recognize Lucille Ball and Betty Grable. It's taken me a while to be able to get good, clean stampings from these detailed photo image stamps. When I finally broke down and purchased a Versafine inkpad (by Tsukineko) I couldn't believe the results. This inkpad is specifically designed to capture the details in fine rubber stamps, such as those created from photos.