Peaceful Stampscape Night

It's a beautiful day outside and I'm off to catch a class at Destination Marysville where Connie has invited a representative of Tsukinko to teach us about their products! Before I go, I wanted to share another card from my Stampscapes Getaway Class this weekend - same store. This particular card reminds me of Saskatchewan and Alberta Canada, where my husband Gerald mostly spent his growing up years. It's barren, quiet, huge, lonely and sometimes beautiful. I would say it was always beautiful...but after experiencing it in the cold of winter with snow and wind blasting you at 60 degrees Celsius....I just can't say Glorious...you know??!! But if I had all my stamping around me and the dog was at my feet, with a warm fire burning close by??...I might change my mind...until it was time to do chores. Yikes....forget it!

With Stampscapes it's almost hard to stamp ugly. Get a white piece of paper and black ink and you're in business! I did mess with this one quite a bit though. I wanted to convey how the landscape made me feel...so there was quite a bit of fiddling. As long as my husband Gerald likes it?....I'm good!

Products Used:
Stampscapes Stamps:
Milky Way Lg. -059G
Tonal Applicator-084E
Farm-176C
Old Fence-293C
Leafless Limbs-052C
Tall Grass (sm) -254B
Windmill-190C


Inks
Stonewashed Adirondack
Pesto Adirondack
Black Soot - Distress Ink by Tim Holtz


More
Diamond Stickles
Glossy Paper-Inkssentials
Fragments- Idea-ology Charms - Tim Holtz
May Arts: Silver Cord SM31
Printed Cardstock: US font 12pt

Lonely Tree

I was digging around in my box again and picked up one I made with a brayer. I remember when I was making it that I wanted to use colors that looked great on the inkpad, but had previously given me pause because skies don't really look like that! But since I frequently color things with colors that don't happen naturally (especially flowers) I decided it was worth messing around with. The bottom color looks like a cove blue - but it is eggplant and is not translating well on to this photograph.

I think I'm going to start one more blog! Trying to determine what needs to be accomplished each day in a small business is turning out to be the biggest decision of the day. I frequently get side tracked by the curse of the immediate, and sometimes wish that I could go to another small business blog and read about what to do next! It occured to me that none of us have the time!!

I've been looking around for some to follow - but my idea of a small business doesn't seem to compute with whats out there. Everything is professional and uptight. I want the poor shmuck like me who stayed up to late glueing things and had to get "readers" because they're having trouble making straight cuts. When I started my store in Anchorage, I looked around and looked around for a plain old common sense commentary on the realities of daily living with a cottage industry....but had little success. I do think we don't have time for that sort of thing. I don't even do this blog properly! Look! I didn't even put a watermark on my picture today (signature on the picture to stop plagiarism). I think I'll call the blog "the Small Business Schmuck!" I've heard that shmuck stands for a certain part of the male anatomy in Yiddish. Do you think that's true?? If it is ... I probably shouldn't call the blog that!

Products Used

* Cardstocks were pulled out of the leftover box!

Stamps by Stampscapes (go visit the website!)
* Ledge - 054F
* Oak Tree Large - 179G

Inks by Adirondack
* Cranberry
* Slate
* Pitch Black
* Eggplant
* Butterscotch

* Stamped on Inkssential Glossy Paper

River Cabin

I was going back through some of my cards and came across this one. Sometimes I go back through my stash and say..."What was I thinking?" But when I saw this again, I couldn't help thinking what a wonderful company Stampscapes is! Where would I be without these amazing and realistic images that take you away to the vacation you wish you took last year??

I did use the tonal applicator on the edges of this card (I know the applicator brings up memories of endless tapping and unintended pear shapes!) but when done right...it's just looks like nothing else (you can see my yucky part in the upper right hand corner!)

Other than that, I used a sponge and inks from the Adirondack line to give impressions of color. You can't be precise with a sponge! I'm always careful to include white as one of my colors, and left it on the mountains and the cabin roof. I learned this from Kevin (creator of Stampscapes) and try to do this every time. If you haven't been to the website - you really must go...there are endless galleries, tutorials, and ideas that will entrance you for hours!

Products used

* Inkssentials Glossy Paper
* Various Cardstocks fished out of the bin!


Stampscapes Stamps
* Gulls - 302A
* Cattails - 016B
* Tonal Applicator 084E
* Cloud (Cumulus) - 018E
* Rocky Peaks - 188F
* Cabin with Fence - 144F
* Sedge Bank (left) - 234F


Inks (dye)
* Adirondack / Eggplant 
* Adirondack / Denim
* Adirondack / Slate
* Adirondack / Butterscotch
* Adirondack / Espresso
* Memories / Hunter Green

Shoreline

As much as I love Stampscapes - I sometimes think that I'm making a class that has to top the last one with technique, bells and whistles! After chatting a while with Connie from Destination Marysville we decided to make her next class accessible to not only our much loved and loyal Stampscapers but hopefully another interested set of folks who just want to make some great nature cards or manly cards...Me Too!

But how do you do that?? I was stumped for a bit and came up with some truly ugly cards .... until I came across some inspiration! Hallelujah! The important point about inspiration is to Not copy the artwork of another card maker and take credit for it....you just need to get pushed in another direction so that you grow, learn and get some inspiration. So check out this inspiration card from Beate Johns who is Fabulous! Beate used an "encaustic technique" involving irons and wax crayons that I'm happily avoiding (too much work) but you definitely have to watch the video and add her blog to your google reader list!

What I loved about it was the Spellbinder frame, the pearls and the Single Stamp! Everyone's got one great tree stamp right?? The next step was to add a horizon without using wax! hmmm... I decided on makeup sponges and masking. Everyone has that too right??
Now I was cooking! A few more cards hit the trash...and then I was off and running! Thanks Beate!

Products Used!

Stampscapes: Oak Tree (Medium) 178E
Coredinations Cardstock / Mantis
Black Tie Bazzill Bling
12 x 12 Imaginisce "Exotic East" Simply Nirvana

Adirondack Inks: Caramel, Red Pepper, Meadow, Pitch Black

Pearls by KaiserCraft: Denium , Black

Little White Church

I love using a brayer to color my glossy paper. It's a little tricky. You'd think it would be better to start with the lightest color, but at a recent class, we discovered that starting at the bottom of the card with the darkest color will give us an opportunity later to re-activate the green in this case and blend it into the light blue gradually.

You can make this card at Destination Marysville on April 10th along with two other cards, lunch and access to several dozen Stampscapes Rubber Stamps so that you can take what you've learned and play for another 2 1/2 hours. Check out the Stampscapes website as well...it has the most amazing gallery and tutorials you'll find anywhere.