Stamps, Paper, Scissors

Plaid is SO in!

Have you noticed? My girls are wearing plaid shorts and they think they are cute! And actually, they ARE cute! I love plaid! Maybe I'll even get brave enough to take the plain slip cover off my plaid sofa and shout to the world I LIKE PLAID!!!

Um...maybe not. Even though it was pretty when I bought it, my children have done unspeakable things to it and it now looks horrible. Sigh...if I didn't love stamps so much I probably would have replaced it long ago with the money I spent on stamps, but then my kids would have just destroyed that one too. Probably better to wait until they are older and not so destructive. I have a question for those of you with older kids and teenagers: DOES THIS EVER HAPPEN?

Back to regularly scheduled showing off: there is a point to all this talk about plaid and that is to show off what fun Kitchen Sink Stamps' set Plaid Plus is! Lookie:

Ingredients: stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps Plaid Plus, Never a Loss 4 Words, 3 Step Honey Bunny; Paper - PapertreyInk Stamper's Select White, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue; Ink - Barely Banana, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery; Other - Scalloped Rectangle Giga punch, white gel pen, Diaper Pin punch (SU! retired), Bashful Blue markers, Making Memories button brads, light blue gingham ribbon, sponge wedges, dimensionals.

STINKIN' CUTE!!!! (YILM!) I have been plotting to do this card ever since I received this set. I can make a plethora of plaids with this set, because I get to choose the colors and position...oh, my...I'm having a flashback to Pretty Woman right now...I'm not talking about THAT! ANYWAY...

It's fun to stamp with, so there! The last time I used this set, I made a nice boyish plaid for my softball card, this time it's a nice fuzzy wuzzy baby plaid for this card. Who knows what I will come up with next?!?!? It could be ANYTHING! You'd better check back to find out!

I finally found the perfect card to use the little button brads that I bought in as many colors as were available and to use this retired diaper pin punch that you would have to pry out of my cold dead hands! I punched once with brushed silver for the pin and again with Bashful Blue for the head and paper pieced them together. It adds just the right touch!

Anyway, now I have to run to buy some chicken to put on the grill. I made my famous macaroni salad and Dan is going to grill the chicken, so my cooking be done for the day. Yo. Later!

It's time to count down....

To Christmas! That's right, in just 6 months, it will be Christmas!! Are you as excited as I am?!?!?!

Well, if you're not that excited, you probably are as excited as I am, LOL!

Actually, I'm here to do some shameless advertising for Kitchen Sink Stamps, which is having a sale starting tomorrow on the following sets:

3 Step Holly & Mistletoe
Playful Christmas
Snow Flurry

For three days, June 25-28, these three sets will be 15% off! And to help you fall in love with them (well, at least ONE of them) all over again, I have a card to show:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Holly & Mistletoe; Paper - Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Bravo Burgundy, Basic Grey Figgy Pudding 6 x 6 DP; Ink - Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Bravo Burgundy, Ruby Red; Other - Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware, VIntage Brads, white taffeta ribbon, Round Tab punch, dimensionals, sponge wedges

Isn't it GOJUS?!?!? Note the cool little tab in the upper left hand corner! I found out how to do that on Mel's website here. I will add one improvement to her directions, Jan Tink's Fabulous Punch Trick works marvellously to put the punch exactly where you want it.

I hope this inspires you to start thinking of Christmas a little early this year!

Only the second week of vacation...

And already they are bored. Sigh...I am already tired of the dirt, disorder and disagreement that accompanies summer vacation. I am counting the days!

It helps a LOT to have a nice stamp room to retreat to. So this afternoon, I made a coolio project with some of my Kitchen Sink Stamps. Lookie!

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps Playful Stars, Ready 4 Any Holiday; Paper - Whisper White, Night of Navy, Cranberry Crisp, More Mustard; Ink - More Mustard (SU!), Rhubarb Stalk, Paris Nights (Memento); Other - Striped Ribbon (May Arts), Navy dotted satin (Doodlebug), Scallop & Classic Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinder), Large & Small star punches (SU!), 3/4" & 5/8" circle punches (EKSuccess), Wavy Crimper (Fiskars), gold eyelets (SU!), striped bucket & flags (Target $ Spot)

Is not this GOJUS?!?!?! It is filled with Wild Cherry M & M's, which, if you have not yet tried them, are DELISH!!! And I'm not even that big of a fan of chocolate covered cherries, but I sure like these!

I picked up the bucket and flags in the Target $ spot and knew that I would be decorating the bucket to hold candy. When I finally got around to doing that, I went on a hunt for red white and blue M & M's. I have yet to find them! I guess they don't put them out until closer to the holiday. So I settled on the all red M & M's instead.

For those curious folks who asked me how I did on my retirement predictions, I had a 63% accuracy rate. I knew I should have put all those lower case monograms on the list, but I figured they'd give them just one more year. Ah, well.

Well, I need a nap, been going since 7 AM and I'm tired...tonight is softball AGAIN. It's very cool outside today, so I need to dress warm...probably a good day to take along those alphabet stamps that need trimming and mounting. Tah!

And now for something completely different....

Yes, I know you're waiting with bated breath for A Light Unto My Path, but I still have to take care of business, which in this case is playing with Kitchen Sink Stamps.  Not only did I get the 8 new sets that debuted this month, but recently Maria gave me $25 in store credit for winning the "You Knocked My Socks Off" award, an award granted to design team members, for the month of February. I opted for a new selection of inks from Tsukineko called Memento. Memento inks are fast drying fade resistant dye inks and they come in 24 luscious colors...and since $25 would not buy all of them, even with the discount I get, I opted to buy the rest myself so I wouldn't have to make up my mind which colors I wanted! Works for me!

I stamped out all the colors to see what they looked like. Here's a link to the Tsukineko website where you can see all the colors. Some are pretty close to SU! colors, but there are some that really have no matches to current SU! colors. Used with clear stamps, the inks have a very even coverage, more even than SU! inks and they do dry very fast. The most disconcerting thing about the ink that I found was the tiny bubbles that appeared on the surface of the pad after I inked up the stamp; at first I thought I'd gotten dirt or glitter on the pad, but when I looked closer I could see little bubbles. The pads are very juicy when they come, so I did not get as crisp an image as I get with my SU! pads, but it's possible that once the pads dry out just a bit that that will change.

Since not all the colors match SU! colors, it was a bit more work figuring out which cardstock I could mate them with, but I think I managed to work around it! I don't see replacing all my SU! inks anytime soon, though, but for those of you who scrapbook, you may wish to consider buying the ones that match SU! colors to give you a faster drying fade resistant ink. For those of you who (like me) simply like to have a bigger choice of colors available, you may want to buy the colors that do not match SU! colors. Here's a list of colors and how they compare to SU! colors:

Dandelion (Summer Sun)
Tangelo (slightly darker and softer than Only Orange, brighter than Pumpkin Pie)
Rhubarb Stalk (darker than Ruby Red, lighter than Cranberry Crisp (retired))
Angel Pink (slightly lighter and cooler than Pretty in Pink)
Lilac Posies (purpler than Pink Passion, kind of like the old Marvelous Magenta, but not as bright)
Sweet Plum (Perfect Plum)
Bahama Blue (slightly darker than Tempting Turquoise)
Paris Dusk (nothing that really matches, this is a richer dark blue than Night of Navy)
Pear Tart (this is unique, though I'm thinking the new In Color coming in the next catalog called "Kiwi Kiss" might be the same as this)
Bamboo Leaves (Wild Wasabi)
Potter's Clay (browner than Really Rust)
Tuxedo Black (a true black, unlike the slightly purple Basic Black, which some people have a real problem with, but I don't. SU!'s Basic Black is the ONLY ink that does not run when using a blender pen to color (including this Memento ink) that I have found. And I *heart* my blender pens! So don't throw away that Basic Black pad...there is a use for every black ink that I have...and I have almost all of them!)
Cantaloupe (Apricot Appeal)
Lady Bug (slightly pinker than Real Red)
Rose Bud (slightly lighter than Pink Passion, darker than Pixie Pink)
Grape Jelly (darker than Lovely Lilac, should make people looking for a good purple very happy)
Lulu Lavender (purpler than Pale Plum)
Danube Blue (richer and warmer than Ballet Blue)
Summer Sky (Bashful Blue)
Cottage Ivy (slightly lighter than Garden Green)
New Sprout (not as bright as Gable Green, not as dark as Certainly Celery)
Rich Cocoa (slightly darker than Close to Cocoa, not as dark as Chocolate Chip)
Desert Sand (lighter than Creamy Caramel)
London Fog (slightly colder than Going Grey)

If I were asked to recommend colors that are totally different than SU! colors, I'd say Pear Tart, New Sprout, Paris Dusk, Danube Blue, Bahama Blue, Grape Jelly, Lilac Posies, and Rhubarb Stalk would probably offer you colors that are unique enough to where you wouldn't feel like you were duplicating inks. But if you like the even coverage, fade resistance and fast drying time, you may want to get them all anyway! And since they are only $2.10 a piece for the Dew Drops at Kitchen Sink, you can certainly afford to!

And now, for the card I made using these new inks:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Hibiscus, Plaid Plus, Ready 4 Any Holiday; Paper - Apricot Appeal, Chocolate Chip, PapertreyInk Spring Moss, Regal Rose, Whisper White; Ink - (Memento) Angel Pink, Rose Bud, Rhubarb Stalk, Potters Clay, Rich Cocoa, Cantaloupe, Tangelo, Lady Bug, Lulu Lavender, Lilac Posies, Sweet Plum, Pear Tart, Bamboo Leaves, Cottage Ivy, (SU!) Whisper White; Other - Scallop & Classic Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Scallop border punch (Martha Stewart), gold brads (SU!), White gel pen, Apricot Appeal 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (SU!), Swiss Dot Cuttlebug embossing folder, dimensionals

Is this not GOJUS?!?!?! (YILM!) I used Mojo Monday sketch #40 from Julee Tilman's Poetic Artistry blog. I love the Hibiscus set and the fact that not only can I make beautiful plaids, but also stripes with the Plaid Plus set! For the "for you" I used the "Just for you" stamp in Ready 4 Any Holiday set and omitted the "Just" by covering it with scotch tape before I inked up the stamp, then removing the scotch tape before stamping.

Well, off to photocopy the church bulletin and practice the organ a bit for tomorrow. Hopefully, there will be some stamping time sandwiched in there SOMEWHERE! Ta!

If you had just one wish, would it be for...

New stamps from the Kitchen?

Today 8 new sets will debut from Kitchen Sink stamps and I have all of them! I've just begun to have fun...here's just a couple of the cards I've made so far:

Ingredients: Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Baseball, Playful Stars, Plaid Plus; Paper - Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Creamy Caramel, Whisper White, Ruby Red; Ink - Brocade Blue, Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel, Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Going Grey; Other - White Twill Tape, Large Star Punch, Dimensionals, sponge wedge, 3/16" corner rounding punch, Ruby Red marker.

Isn't this card STINKIN' CUTE?!?!?! (YILM!) I can see I will be getting a lot of use out of these baseball stamps (even though my kids play softball, it's all good!) I'm looking forward to making those great cards for the coaches at the end of the season! The white twill tape, by the way, was recycled from a package of pajamas I bought at Sam's Club. The pajamas were tied up with this beautiful twill tape...I couldn't throw it away!

And the Plaid Plus set...that is something that Maria asked me about shortly after I used the stripy stamp in the Borders & Backgrounds set to make a plaid. She said she had been thinking of making a "create-your-own" plaid set, like the old Perfect Plaids that SU! used to have. I begged her to please, please make the set! I used to have the old Perfect Plaids set and it was a PITA to use because you couldn't see what you were doing and so hard to get even. With a clear set, all those problems are gone...I'm going to be getting lots of use out of this set, I can tell you! It was dead easy to create the manly plaid for this card!

Not only did Maria come up with these cool sets (and a great star set, Playful Stars...stars are so IN right now!) she came up with the very set I needed this past week! Remember how I told you I volunteered to make thank you notes for the teachers for my daughter's 8th grade graduation? Well, originally I was going to make them all different, then I decided it would be better to make them all the same. And when the Flourishes ladies sent me those Just Rite monogram stamp sets, I started to get an inkling as to what I was going to do! And the arrival of the Kitchen Sink 3 Step Graduation set clinched it! Lookie!

Ingredients: Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Graduation, Other Important People , Just-Rite Medium/Large Numbers, Small Letters; Paper - Real Red, Basic Black, Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White; Ink: Versamark, Basic Black, Basic Grey, Going Grey, Real Red, Bravo Burgundy; Other - 1 3/4", 1 1/8" circle punches (EK Success), 1 1/4" circle punch (SU!), star eyelet (SU! retired), 5/8" Real Red Grosgrain, 1/4" Whisper White grosgrain, Gold Glory EP.

I got so many compliments on these cards (maybe because they are GOJUS!!! (YILM!)!) I made 13 of them and sent them to school with Laurel to be signed by the class, then sent home with another classmate (who was told to take great care of them or her mom would kill him!) The cards were passed out at the graduation dinner, accompanied by flowers and including some gift cards.The teachers just loved them...the principal told me today that she is saving hers! That is the ultimate compliment!

In addition to these 5 great new sets, check out 3 Step Hibiscus, Ready 4 Any Holiday, and Swirly Hearts & Stars.

 

For more rockin' designs using the new stamps, check out the blogs of the other members of the Kitchen Sink Design Team:

Nicole Cooke - KS Blog Coordinator
Tracy Durcan
Tammy Hershberger
Dee Jackson - KS Crew Leader
Erika Martin
Julie Masse
Rebecca Oehlers
Beth Silaika
Lori Tecler

Just to let you know how very...

...ahem...cough...yes, @N@L I am, when I get a set of stamps, I feel like I have to use every single one at least once. So when I got Never a Loss 4 Words from Kitchen Sink and saw the "blah blah blah" and the three "yada" stamps, I just knew I had to figure out a way of using them!

Here was my first thought...it's been a while since I've made one, but I thought that "blah blah blah" and "yada yada yada" would be good for a message pad:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps Playful Alphabet, Never a Loss 4 Words, Mix It Up - Monogram & Alphabet, Pretty Petals; Paper - Cool Caribbean, Whisper White; Ink - Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron; Other - 3 1/2" x 5" acrylic stand up photo frame, post-it notes, white gel pen.

Isn't this STINKIN' CUTE?!?!? (YILM!) To make the message pad stand, you create an insert for a 3 1/2" x 5" acrylic photo frame...but instead of standing the frame up, you lay it on it's back. Then you can stick a post it note pad to the top of the frame. Be careful to buy a good quality frame...the ones you find at dollar stores are usually too thin and break easily as you are writing on the pad. Because a standard post-it note pad was a little wider than I wanted, I used my craft pad to cut 1/2" off the side of the pad. Another view:

I was so in love with these colors, which are almost the same ones as the Verve challenge I did the other day (I left out the Pumpkin Pie) so I decided I had to make a card as well with the same elements:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps Playful Alphabet, Never a Loss 4 Words, Mix It Up - Monogram & Alphabet, Pretty Petals; Paper - Cool Caribbean, Whisper White; Ink - Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron; Other - white gel pen, Word Window Punch, silver brads, dotted grosgrain (Michael's), sponge wedges.

Sigh...I just amaze myself sometimes! (YILM!!)

I pulled out my very first set of Kitchen Sink Stamps, Pretty Petals, for this project. But it was hard to pull myself away from the brand new releases coming your way next week on June 3rd...if you want just a little peek, I will give you a tiny look at part of a card I made that uses three of the new sets:

Don't forget the contest to win FREE STAMPS from the Sink! And, if you want to see more sneak peeks of these stamps, check out Maria's Kitchen Sink Blog...she's got some great give aways and a new peek every day!

Yesterday was a busy day. Laurel graduated from the 8th grade. In parochial schools, this is a BIG deal! There was a mass, a graduation ceremony, then a dinner, followed by a bowling party! We didn't get home until midnight. Here's the lovely graduate (on the right) with her sister:

I have to admit I cried a couple of times. Laurel won a scholarship from the Men's Club of the parish...that surprised me (not that I thought she wasn't qualified, but somehow I expected that they would give them to kids who were parish members) and it made me very happy. Add to that the great slide show that one of the parents put together and I was a goner!

We spent a couple days gussying Laurel up for this. Her graduation present from us was getting her hair cut and highlighted, then we got her ears pierced yesterday. She looked GOJUS (and so did Emily!)

And now to acknowledge something wonderful I got this past week:

More love from Hawaii! Faye Tsukamoto sent me this selection of Hawaiian chocolate goodies and coffee! Here's her GOJUS rak card:

Isn't that STINKIN' Cute!?!? I will definitely have to CASE this one! Thank you Faye, for sending me chocolate when I desperately needed some! It's been a long hard week and the chocolate definitely has been helping keep me on an even keel!

Well, off to stamp some more! Ta!

Tool Time - Paper Lantern Technique

Welcome back to the next installation of Tool Time! We're still talking about the paper crimper. An interesting note: the first crimpers used in paper crafting were actually small ones made for squeezing the last paint out of tube oil and acrylic paints. And if you want to get the last toothpaste out of the tube, you can use your paper crimper to do that too!

Someone asked how I adhere crimped pieces down. Usually, I use my ATG, which seems to hold very well, but if I wasn't using my ATG, I would probably go for Tombo Mono Multi. I put the ATG adhesive on the cardstock to which I'm adhering the crimped piece...it's too easy to squish the crimping by running adhesive on the back AND having the adhesive on the layer below makes sure there is still adhesive if the crimped piece shifts.

Today I'm going to show you one of the techniques I "unvented". I like to use the term "unvent", which was coined by Elizabeth Zimmerman, a famous knitting maven. She had tons of knitting tricks she came up with, but she hated to say she invented something because it was always possible that someone else had done it before, so she always said she "unvented" something. I feel the same way about a lot of my techniques...there is no guarantee that I'm the only one that ever came up with a particular technique. But since I did the grunt work and sent it in for publication, I have claimed it as one of mine. Your mileage may vary.

I submitted this to Technique Junkies a few years back. I call it "Paper Lantern":

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Hydrangeas, Never a Loss for Words; Paper - Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Confetti Cream; Ink - Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Lavender Lace, Lovely Lilac, Chocolate Chip,  Adirondack Espresso; Other - Magic Mesh Gold (SU! Retired), gold brads, Fiskars Paper Crimper, Gold gel pen

Isn't this GOJUS?!?!?! (YILM!) To do this technique:

• Stamp the focal image.
• Crimp.
• Turn the focal image face down on a dark colored ink pad, pat gently to transfer ink to the top of the ridges.

You don't want to make the ink on the ridges really heavy or even...the unevenness adds to the oriental feel. I thought it looked a lot like the paper lanterns you can hang outside when you're having a party, hence the name.

Today my children have a half day and now they are off until Tuesday. Four and a half days to listen to arguing, watch my house slowly slide into dishevelment and wonder why I ever thought it was a good idea to buy Webkinz, let alone let my children on the computer to play. Four and a half days to see the same episodes of Sponge Bob and iCarly over and over again...good thing there is a stamp room to escape to in my basement! But somehow, I must get some chocolate first. Ta!

Tool Time - Getting the Most Out of Your Paper Crimper

A while back my BFF Mary left a comment on one of my cards that, among other things, said this:

Keep with the spring colors.  You were getting a little dark there I was getting worried. 

Well, this card ought to make Mary very very happy. In fact, I know it will:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Daisy, Never a Loss for Words; Paper - Whisper White, Lovely Lilac (SU!), Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White; Ink - Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Real Red, Pixie Pink, Lovely Lilac, Green Galore, Glorious Green, Versafine Onyx Black; Other - Fiskars Paper Crimper, gold brads, Basic Black marker, sponge wedge.

Is this GOJUS or what?!?!?! (YILM!) This card is part of a new feature on my blog called Tool Time. I'm going to show you some of those tools you may have sitting in your drawer that you don't really know what to use them for! For this post and a few others, I'm going to be showing you a few different things to do with a paper crimper. I love mine and have invented a few techniques using it and have explored a few other ones I've found online.

Here I've just used it to crimp my focal image; one of simplest, yet most effective, ways of using a crimper. It's a great  way of toning a bright focal image down just a bit. Uncrimped, this focal image would probably burn your eyeballs right out of your head...well, maybe not quite THAT bad, but it would be almost painfully bright. But by crimping it, I've essentially added a grey stripe to the focal piece. It adds texture and it's just plain FUN. Plus, it dressed up the card enough that I really didn't have to add much to it to make it look great!

Some tips about crimping:

• There are no mistakes in crimping because you can always put the paper back in if it comes out crooked and recrimp it!
• The trick to getting the paper to go in straight is to close the crimper almost all the way before you put your paper in. You want to snug the edge of the paper into one of the ridges on one of the rollers. That will give you a straight start. Then tightly squeeze the crimper and slowly roll the paper through.
• Remember that you are shortening the length of your paper when you crimp it. A 5 1/2" piece of cardstock will come out of the crimper 1/4" shorter!
• A crimper and a few pieces of scrap cardstock will keep a child happily occupied for probably 30 minutes (as long as they are old enough to be able to hold onto it!) Unfortunately, it's too big to really throw in your purse and take with you, but it's great for moms who just want a few more minutes to finish a card.

This Kitchen Sink set was perfect for this card...I always have fun using KS's 3 Step sets! And speaking of Kitchen Sink, did you know that there is now a monthly contest called "What's Cook'n with your Kitchen Sink Stamps?" You can find out all the details here.

Thanks, everyone, for the great comments on my post yesterday. The truth of the matter is that I haven't gotten published before because (here's my deep dark secret) I had not ever sent anything in!! So, yes, there is plenty of hope for those who haven't gotten published yet...you just have to do the work of sending in pictures of your creations and detailing what you used to make them. It's a lot easier than the old days where you had to send the actual project and most of the time, you might not get it back.

Well, I'm off to stamp some more...stay tuned for another great crimping project!

The Thank You wagon rolls on

I managed, finally, this morning to get down to stamp a new Thank You card:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Daisy; Paper - So Saffron, Handsome Hunter, Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Whisper White; Ink - SU! Handsome Hunter, Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip,  PapertreyInk Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet; Other - Stampin' Write Marker Handsome Hunter, white gel pen, Fruit Punch Stickles, Berry Sorbet Saddle Stitch Ribbon

Now, forgive me, for whoever's blog I found this cute card on this morning...I've gone back and looked and looked because I can't remember where I found a post with this. If it's yours, let me know! It's a gift card holder:

I got this color combination from Kris's Color Stripes blog and I just think it's YUMMAY! I decided that my 3 Step Daisy had been a little neglected lately and I think the card turned out GOJUS (YILM!) but I only have one problem:

I have to send this to school for the kids in Laurel's class to sign and for the gift card to be inserted. WILL they be able to retie the bow to look like this? What if it looks WONKY?!?!?! Ack! This is really bothering me, because I *am* a control freak! I need to know that it is going to look just this GOJUS when the teacher gets it!

Speaking of Kitchen Sink, did you know they have a sale going on in honor of Mother's Day and National Scrapbooking Month?!?!? Yes! You can get 10% off your entire order simply by using the promotion code MOM. The offer is good through the 10th of May, so get on it before it's too late!

I deal in straws....

The kind that break the camel's back. Savvy?

'Cause if you didn't love these stamps before now, your camel's back is going to be under a bit of strain:

Ingredients: Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps - 3 Step Hydrangeas, Whole Family; Paper - Whisper White, Ballet Blue, Almost Amethyst; Ink - Elegant Eggplant, Ballet Blue, Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst, Old Olive, Wild Wasabi, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, PTI Spring Moss; Other - Martha Stewart Scallop Lace Border Punch, Large & Small Tag Punches (SU!), narrow white satin ribbon, dotted organdy ribbons, white gel pen

Isn't this GOJUS?!?!? (YILM!) This morning as I was contemplating with panic once again the need to boogie on some Kitchen Sink projects since it's the last day of the month the beauty of these stamps and feeling as if I better get a move on or I will be in arrears yet again in my design team quota and Maria might just kill me I simply could not resist stamping with them again! So I ran shrieking and gibbering in fear to turned to my stash of miscellaneous stuff waiting to be turned into something fab and found this candle that I bought because I'm one of those people that just buys things on impulse, every retailer's dream lemming shopper just 'cause I liked the color. It's been a long time since I wrapped a candle and it really dresses up even the plainest dollar store candle (though I bought this one at Michael's as I recall!)

Actually, I really do love these stamps...JK, Maria, LOL! I've had a hard time tearing myself away from using them, if the truth be told, but I can't stamp with them ALL the time. My other stamps get lonely! ANYWAY...

Here's some other views of my faboo candle:

I took a piece of Ballet Blue cardstock, scored and folded it, then put it in my large tag punch so that the folded edge was lined up on the left side of the window. The punch will then punch out a perfect folded tag. I wouldn't try this with really heavy cardstock...you'd probably break the punch. I was pushing it with this Ballet Blue, but luckily, it worked just fine!

The narrow satin ribbon was a lucky find in a drawer where I keep ribbon for sewing and other crafts. Every other ribbon I tried was just too wide. The butterfly was stamped on a separate piece of paper, then cut out and placed with a glue dot.

The seam on a wrap is always a hard thing to manage. I cut out the leafy edge and overlapped two layers of the wrap one way, then the top layer was overlapped with the floral cut out edge on top.

I use sticky strip as the adhesive, but only at the ends of the wraps. Because, as you wrap the cardstock around the candle, the top layers actually are going to be longer than the bottom ones because they have a farther distance to travel. So it looks nicer if you stick all the ends together, put them on the candle and wrap, then stick the other ends down one by one.

The border punch is one I got at Michael's...Martha Stewart does not show this punch on her website any more, so it's probably retired, but I've seen it on Ebay, so you might be able to get it there.

If you decide to make something like this for your mom, or any other well-loved person, be sure to tell them to remove the cardstock wrap BEFORE they burn the candle. We are expressing warm wishes to our Mom, not letting her get too warm by burning her house down!

Well, I've got a kid at home with a cold today, so I can't go shopping to buy more stuff to stick in my drawer and not use for 4 years like this candle my options are limited. Might as well stamp to pass the time! Ta!