Ho Ho Ho and a Cup O' Joe!

 Quickie post today featuring the Ho Ho Ho Santa from the Murray's Law line of stamps from Gourmet Rubber Stamps. I love this line as they are full of sarcastic and cynical humor...the best kind. For this card, I created a pocket on the front of the card that will hold a gift card for a local coffee/tea/cocoa place (in my case...Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf). I have several more of cynical Santa, so be expecting to see more of him in future posts! Meanwhile, you can check out the entire line on the GRS website, along with several other lines including Lizzie Anne Designs.

Positively Angelic!

I've had kind of a fixation lately with working with the positive and the negative of images, and this new image from Gourmet Rubber Stamps worked perfectly for this process. I stamped the music score from the Lizzie Anne Designs "Good to Be Queen" set with Rich Cocoa Memento ink once over the the one ivory panel, and repeatedly over the second ivory panel. Then after wiping the surface of each with some talcum powder (preventing the EP from adhering other than where I want it), I stamped the angel, from the new GRS "Season's Greetings" Diner's Club set, on the multi-stamped-music panel in Versamark and embossed with Stampee Bonding Powder. I heat this slightly before placing a panel of Stampee Gold Foil over the top, face up. Placing this layered panel between a folded sheet of printer paper, I then ran this through my heat laminator for a perfect cover of foiling on the angel image. When removing the carrier, you could see the angel within. This was used for the second card. For this one, I inked the other ivory panel with the entire Versamark pad just once centered on the panel. This was embossed with the same bonding powder before carefully placing that carrier sheet of foil over the top. This too, was run through the laminator to adhere the reverse portion of the image over the ivory panel. Pretty cool, huh? The remainder of both cards is fairly self-explanatory and simple to reproduce...adding this great sentiment from the GRS (LAD) "Season's Greetings" set and a few rhinestone accents. This technique works the best when you have a fairly solid, recognizable shape, and can even be done with a sentiment if the lines are fairly bold.

Homey and Sweet

 Quickie post featuring a super simple card created with Gourmet Rubber Stamps Diner's Club set for November, "Season's Greetings". I stamped and embossed the curly tree in white on a kraft panel, matted by a kraft Dotted Swiss panel, on top of a kraft card with just a strip of plaid ribbon. The simple sentiment at the bottom in red, and the one red rhinestone on the tree finish this CAS card off nicely. I kind of wish I'd made an entire batch of this card as I love the simple hominess of this design...maybe I'll just have to do that! Check out the rest of this Diner's Set HERE.

A Simple Snow Globe

 The Lizzie Anne Designs' line from Gourmet Rubber Stamps are the perfect images to go CAS. This card may not look precisely simple, but really...it is! I ran a white cardstock panel through the Big Shot with an embossing folder. A layered panel of white cardstock with a panel of glitter paper over a ribbon border. A Nestie cut embossed panel for the window. And finally...I embossed this darling snow globe in white on acetate. Cute, huh? This image and sentiment are from the November Diner's Club set, "Season's Greetings", which is full of wonderful images for all manner of holiday greetings...cards, tags, gifts, decor. You will totally want this set, so go...get it...NOW, right HERE! Better yet, sign up to receive each Diner's Club set...one each month. It's a great gift to give yourself, the fun of opening a new batch of creative goodies every month! Need inspiration? Sign HERE to receive the email newsletter each month.

A Gourmet Rubber Stamps New Release!

 Time can make suckers of us all. I just spent the weekend at a Copic Retreat taught by Jenn Dove of Doveart Studios. Had a fabulous time. Thought that I had taken care of all blog and design responsibilities before I left on Friday, except somehow I managed to forget the new release date for the Gourmet Rubber Stamps images. It was switched to the 25th of every month now, and I totally forgot to create something and have my blog ready. So here it is ten minutes to midnight on the 24th and I'm scrambling to write my post, and finished this card in record time for me. Fortunately, the Gourmet Rubber Stamps Lizzie Anne Designs' line lends itself well to CAS so that's just what I did. I stamped and embossed this darling curly tree in Winter Wonderland White on both the bottom panel of MME paper as well as the a scrap of contrasting paper. Popped up the one on top of the other, added this super cute yet traditional sentiment in red ink, some pompom trim, a sparkle pompom and tinsel bow on top, and some very tiny rhinestone stickers near the sentiment. Whew! I think I just made it in time! Of course, all of their designs are so much fun, that coming up with a design plan is never a problem. The problem is deciding which cute image to use first! As you can see here, the latest Diner's Club Set, "Season's Greetings", has a wonderful variety to choose from. Check out the rest of the design teams' creations as listed at the right, as well as the Gourmet Rubber Stamps blog! Be sure to come back to see what I come up with next using the GRS images. You can get your own by purchasing HERE or by joining the Gourmet Rubber Stamps Diner's Club HERE.