My husband is probably going to be sorry I have a new craft room, since now all I want to do is stamp!  It's been so long.  I have several stamp sets that have not yet been touched and I plan to remedy that!

Today I went to my old standby blogs for inspiration: MOJO Monday for the layout and Color Throw Down for the - colors!

I decided to make a clean and simple masculine card, because I never have those when I need them.

Details are short and sweet.  Ink: Poppy Parade and Smoky Slate; paper: Whisper White and Basic Gray;  Stamps: Mosaic Madness and Itty Bitty Banners.

Thanks for stopping by!

~La

Back at it

I finally have a craft room again, and it is beautiful.   I'll have to share photos - another day.  New craft room means I can get back to stamping.   I started by going to Splitcoast Stampers for inspiration.   I CASED this card . (Actually I CASED the 2nd card in the linked blog post.)  Since it's nearly 1:00 a.m., here is my card with no further explanation :

Since I've been MIA for almost 2 years, I expect no one to be viewing this blog.  But I'm going to put cards up for my own sake.  I will have a new craft room very soon and hope to put it to good use.  When that happens I also hope to have cards to post on a regular basis.

Tie dyed look?

Birthday "Wish"

Lately I have been missing contest deadlines - sometimes just by a minute or two!  But not tonight.  I went to The Shabby Tea Room and they had just posted their new challenge.  Inspiration hit me, I was wide awake and so I have a card ready in plenty of time.

The challenge this week at The Shabby Tea Room is to use colors from their photo (which I've tried unsuccessfully to link here), and include material and flowers.  I opened my fabric cupboard and this luscious lime green fabric practically fell into my hands.  It is something I saved from a flower bouquet so I thought it would be perfect to use it as a "floral wrap" on a stamped vase of flowers.  From there everything fell into place.  I mimicked the challenge photo fairly closely as far as the layout of flowers.

Lots of friends and family members have birthdays in September so everything I make for the foreseeable future will be birthday cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ La

Missing my Chance

Another card for Mojo Monday:

Just a note about the fabric flower - While living in Taiwan I discovered a shop near the Fabric Market which sold accessories including fabric flowers in every color of the rainbow.  They came attached to a strip of tulle.  I bought 3 strips of flowers.  A few days ago I ventured into the local scrapbooking stores for the first time since returning to Boise.  Low and behold, one of the stores had a huge supply of the same fabric flowers on tulle.  I thought I had something that would be original but, once again, it has already been discovered here.  I wish I had bought much more of it in Taiwan because it was no doubt considerably cheaper.

Same thing with Washi tape.  I frequented a bookstore in Taipei called Eslite.  They carried loads of Washi tape and I bought some thinking I could do something different than other Americans.  But when I got home I found out Washi tape was all the rage.  Darn it.

I have one more trick up my sleeve.  I had better get busy using it before it, too, becomes popular!

~La

Finding My Style

I am trying to find "my style" in stamping. I know what I like - collage, blingy, shabby chic - but I am not sure I have the knack for it. And so sometimes I think I should just go clean and simple; it's quicker and easier and there are some admirably beautiful stampers who embrace this style. But in my heart that's not what I love, so I am trying to go in the direction of my heart. Accordingly, I have recently begun playing with Tim Holtz' Distress Stains and, I must say, I am loving the results. I've been pulling scraps from my scrap drawer and just messing around with different ways of getting the stain onto the paper. Some have been wildly successful; others, not so much. But I'm having fun! My daughter's birthday is approaching and, finding myself with a kid-free zone for a few hours, I went to work on a card for her. I looked to Mojo Monday for a layout. This week is their 300th challenge (wow!) I've participated in very few of them as I stamp sporadically, but owner Julee does a great job of offering inspiration each week. In addition, I looked to The Shabby Tea Room for color inspiration. Their challenge this week was to use colors from their (lovely) inspiration photo, flowers, ribbon and newsprint. I don't have any newsprint so I sort of manufactured my own which, I think, turned out quite well. So here is my card:

I hope my daughter will appreciate the Shabby Chic style. I think she prefers bright, contemporary cards. Who knows, if I get time before her birthday perhaps I'll make her one in that style!