Saving My...: September 2015

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Hello, Life - National Stamping Month

Happy National Stamping Month! We're here today with a special blog hop to share three different stamp sets available for this month only. If you've arrived here from Nikka Geers' blog, or if you're just starting out, you're in the right place, so let's get started.

I really wanted to show the versatility of these stamp sets. So, even though the three Hello, Life stamp sets are each labeled for cardmaking, pocket scrapbooking, and scrapbooking, they can be used together on all of those items.

Using a single sheet of white cardstock (plus some scraps for Cricut Artistry cuts) and stamp pads from the Adventure family and Black, I made some seasonal pocket scrapbooking cards. You could also use these on traditional scrapbook pages, or change the words on some and they would be great additions to card fronts.

6 x 4


3 x 4

These were my Spring cards. The first could really be anytime, but the rainbow of colors reminds me of Spring. I used second generation stamping on all of the colored parts of all of my cards, for an even greater contrast with the crisp black stamping. I used Hollyhock, Sunset, Honey, Pear, Lagoon, Pacifica, and Gypsy.


4 x 6


4 x 3

My Summer cards are inspired by Independence Day. The stamp sets only had the word "friend", but since there was also "thanks", I separated the s because I am likely to combine "thank" and "you". I used Cranberry, Honey, and Pacifica inks.

6 x 4

3 x 4

For my Autumn cards, I was inspired by the Autumn leaves. I used Cranberry, Sunset, Honey, and Topiary for my favorite season.

4 x 6

4 x 3

For my Winter cards, I thought of crisp snowy days, and New Year's Eve. I love the color combo of Pear, Lagoon, and Gypsy for Winter.

Here is what is included in each $13.95 stamp set:

Pocket Scrapbooking

Card Making

Scrapbooking

Now, if the photos of the stamp sets alone don't convince you that you need all three (of course at a reduced rate of $34.95), here is a list of all the words included, as well as some of the phrases you can make with them!

& autumn birthday day family friend good happy hello hey life(x2) love(x2) memories oh, our(x2) spring story summer sunshine thank(s) this(x2) times today us welcome winter you

happy birthday
good times
our family
our story
welcome friends
welcome (season)
hello (season)
hello friend
oh, happy day
hello sunshine
sunshine day
love you
love you friend
happy memories
thank you
thanks
oh, hey
love life
love today
life story
this day
(season) day
love this
family & friends
love & life
AND MORE...

See the potential now? What a fabulous group of stamps for $34.95! I am looking forward to pairing them with even more of my stamp sets to come up with more phrases for all of my projects. Be sure to leave me a comment - especially if you have a clever phrase I missed - then let's move along to Chris Robertson's blog and see what she has up her sleeve this time.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Paper Garden - September Stamp Of The Month

Hello and welcome to this month's stamp of the month blog hop! I am super excited to share my project with you this month, and practically all you need to make it is cardstock and ink.

First, a little housekeeping: if you've arrived here from Michelle's Handmade World blog, or if you're just starting out, you're in the right place. Just keep hopping along until you end up back where you started! This month's stamp set has 10 floral images, perfect for everything from sympathy to celebrations. You can get yours for only $5 with any $50 purchase this month.

I decided to make a two-page layout for this month's project, and I must say that I am in love with the results:

I used colors perfect for a country Fall, and I'm really looking forward to getting some pictures taken for this layout. I designed this from scratch, so I thought I'd share my process with you. I started by choosing colors, which can be a challenge when you don't have specific pictures in mind. Since the first thing I thought of with these stamps was a country evening, I decided to use Sapphire for the night sky and Ruby for a red barn. I added Fern for the darkening evening's grass, and Safflower for a harvest moon.

One of my favorite things is a big circle crossing both pages of a layout, and strips across the pages to ground everything. I embossed the Ruby strips with the Woodgrain embossing folder, and I stamped the flower silhouette stamps on the Fern strips. I added a few well-placed stems on the Sapphire base pages, and I random stamped the Safflower circle with individual images from the set. I added a Peacock banner strip and a thin banner strip of the lightest Brown & Tan Glitter Paper.

Next I cut out several photo mats, and played around with the arrangement until I found what I liked. I ended up covering more of the circle than I planned, but I liked this layout the best.

I cut several flowers and leaves using the coordinating Artiste Cricut cartridge, and also decided to cut some of the leaves from more of the Glitter Paper.

I added some natural looking dimension to the flowers and stamped leaves by rolling an embossing stylus around the center, then each petal.

I embossed a couple of the leaves from the back side so they curled the other way. I added some 3-D Foam Tape under those, to keep their shape in the protectors.

For the flower centers, I used Durables Artisan Studs for the large flowers, and the Bling Gems Gold Assortment for the smaller flowers.

So, what do you think? Are you ready to make your own layout now? If you need to shop, a clickable photo list is below. Links open in a new tab so you can continue the hop from here without getting lost. When you're done here, let's head over to Jacquelin Green's Paper Goodness blog to check out her project this month. I can't wait to see it!

Products used in this project: