Confessions of a Stamper...

Okay, everyone, I'm about to type something that you may find shocking... I've been suffering from a terrible condition these last few weeks and it got frightfully serious this weekend. I was nearly ready to seek medical attention, but thankfully I managed to recover just in time. You see, it seems that I came down with a terrible case of "stampers block"! It's true... not only had I seemingly lost my creativity, it got to the point that I was even lacking the will to try to create! Last night, I was home alone - the perfect opportunity to hide in my stamping room to create, but I sat at the table and had no idea what I might make... I pulled our stamps, ink and card stock, but nothing seemed to go well so I gave up and started to clean instead. Can you imagine? Cleaning on a Saturday night instead of stamping?!! Well, I'm happy to report that this afternoon, with a brief intervention of some serious card surfing on Splitcoaststampers, I am fully recovered! And, here's the proof... I started by "CASE"ing a couple cards and then the creative juices started to flow again!! PHEW!!

The first card is one that I created on my own... It was the fourth card I made this afternoon. It uses the Fun & Fast Notes stamp sets - one of my new favourites! It's such a fun set that's so easy to use. And this card was really simple thanks to the Prints Designer Series Paper that I used in So Saffron, Almost Amethyst and Certainly Celery. In fact, the Prints Designer Series Paper came in very handy tonight... I also used it on the next three cards. The basic ideas for all three of these cards came from Splitcoaststampers...

This baby card is also stamped with the Fun & Fast Notes. I really like the Soft Sky card stock and am planning to make this same card in Groovy Guava for a girl. The Double-Stitched Grosgrain adds a nice finishing touch to this one. This will be a card choice at next weekend's Stamp-A-Stack - spaces are still available on Saturday morning... email be at bevennis@shaw.ca to register.

I love this next card!! This is the first time I've used this stamp set - Garden Whimsy. I've seen so many fantastic cards made with this set - I just had to order it and was excited to use it today. Aren't the colours eye-catching on this card? The main card is Blue Bayou and I've also used the Double-Stitched Grosgrain in this colour. The background papers are Soft Sky Prints with a striped Purely Pomegranate paper from the new Holiday Harmony Designer Series Paper in the mini catalogue. Also notice the little photo corner that I punched out to anchor the main image... The greeting is from the Amazing to Zany set.

This card uses the new stamp set called Stem Silhouettes from the current Holiday Mini Catalogue. It's a very different set which I think that I will really enjoy using for a change. This set is on sale this month - 30% off when you place a $40 order. I also used the wide grosgrain ribbon on this card for a little something new... I think this is the first time I've used it and I do quite like it.


Okay, one last confession for this post... I went to a birthday party today and I didn't bring a stamped card! Don't worry, I didn't bring a store bought card either - no card at all! It was a birthday party for one-year old twin girls... I did bring gifts but thanks to my lack of creativity, I just didn't manage to make the cards. I figured it was just their first birthdays and they'd never know... Well, the birthday girls didn't care of course, but their Mom did comment. I felt very guilty as their Mom dug through the gift bags looking for my card and then seemed quite surprised to learn there wasn't one... So, I made the girls each a card tonight! I wanted them to be similar but not identical. And, I did resort to a retired set - Pretty Princess - because it has the best cake with just one candle on it, perfect for a first birthday card! So, even though this set isn't available anymore, I thought I'd share these two cards with you because I am quite proud of them. I used the Faux Diamond Dust technique on the cakes which adds a little bling. Isn't it amazing how different a card can look just by changing the colours?

Well, that's it for confessions tonight... I'm off to tidy my stamping room after this day of great creativity!

Happy stampin'!

Bev.

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