Stress-Free Stamping with Shana: May 2015

Sunday, May 31, 2015

The Stamp Review Crew: Dotty Angles Edition

Wow, can you believe it is June 1st?! This year is just flying by! Only one week of school left for us, but I'm sure a lot of you are already out and enjoying the start of your summer break. I am very jealous of those of you who are! I have been subbing in a math class full time for a little over three months, and my house and my crafting room have been missing me. lol

It's time for our first Stamp Review Crew blog hop for the month and this one was a tricky one for me! Dotty angles is a great stamp set for backgrounds, but for the life of me I couldn't think of anything else to do with it! That is the great thing about blog hops...you can get so many creative ideas when you are stumped! I can't wait to see what all of my stampy friends have come up with. I went with a simple background in Tangerine Tango and Pumpkin Pie. This was actually the first time I have used this background, I think! It's so easy to line up in the Photopolymer.

I used the Hello You thinlits and cut right through my background. I was going to pop it up, but I liked the way it looked flat, so I just added dimensional tape to the back of the entire piece and stuck it down to my card front. Then I looked at it and said "Phooey! You forgot to stamp the rest of the sentiment first you goof!" lol Lucky for me, it stamped wonderfully. I think the cushion of the dimensional tape actually helped! :) Finally, I punched out a circle for my balloon and added some cotton thread for the string and popped it up for more dimension. Here is a closer look at the sentiment. It shows up a lot better in real life!

Thanks for stopping by today. Make sure to click on the links below to see what the rest of the gang has created! Oh...as a side note, I made a card for the last blog hop, got my card done and post written DAYS early (very unusual for me lol), and accidentally deleted it on my phone minutes before the hop went live! I didn't have computer access because my husband was out of town for business with the lap top, so I couldn't rewrite my post. :( Sad day! I will be sharing that card, which uses Four Feathers, later on this week. I hope you will check back in to see it, as it's one of my favorite that I've ever made! :)

Blog Roll:

Rochelle Blok http://rochelleblok.blogspot.com/2015/06/stamp-review-crew-dotty-angles-edition.html
Deb Currier http://artfeltimpressions.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-stamp-review-crew-dotty-angles.html
Nancy Smith https://iguanastamp.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/stamp-review-crew-dotty-angles
Tanya Boser http://tinkerin-in-ink.blogspot.com/2015/05/stamp-review-crew-dotty-angles-edition.html
Shana Gaff http://stressfreestamping.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-stamp-review-crew-dotty-angles.html
Heidi Baks http://runningwscissorsstamper.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-stamp-review-crew-dotty-angles.html
Holly Krautkremer http://rubberredneck.typepad.com/rubber-redneck/2015/05/the-stamp-review-crew-dotty-angles.html
Debra Burgin http://heartfeltinkspiration.com/2015/05/31/stamp-review-crew-dotty-angles/stamp-review-crew-dotty-angles

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Down to Single Digits!

Yes, that is correct. Only 9 days of school left, 9 days of full-time working, 9 days until I can STAMP whenever I want to! I am so ready to be FREEEEE again!!! I haven't had much ME time lately, but I was able to sneak in a few minutes when we got home from the ballgame tonight. Our challenge this week at ATCAS is a fun one!

After looking through my stamp sets, I realized that I have a big void in the animal department! lol I guess I know what I MUST buy from the new catalog. :) :) :) I do have this cute koala stamp, and it makes very easy CAS cards!

It's kind of hard to tell, but I snuck in a BRAND NEW color from the 2015-2016 catalog, Watermelon Wonder. It looks dreamy with Smoky Slate! My background DSP is Calypso Coral, and I think it will pair nicely with that color too! I will have more sneak peaks for you in the near future. Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, May 9, 2015

No time for play!

Wow, I don't remember a time in my life that I have been as busy as I have been lately! Between teaching, coaching Academic Super Bowl, taking the boys to baseball practice and games, and going to watch Brett coach varsity baseball, our schedule is pretty much filled every week! While it's been nice to be busy instead of sitting at home all week, I do miss my stamping time. :( Only 20 more days of school though and then I will hopefully be back to more stamping!

Our challenge at ATCAS this week was a tricky one for me.

I'm not a huge bird lover, and I don't have many bird sets. The one I do have, For the Birds, requires coloring for it to look good, I think, and I'm not a fan of coloring! lol I do love feathers though and they are fast and easy to stamp!

Being short on time this week, I knew I was going to have to be quick with this one. I have a card on Pinterest that gets pinned ALL the time, so I decided to CASE it. :) I don't know why it gets pinned so much, but I'm guessing because it's CAS and one layer. I went the same route with this card, The splotches from Gorgeous Grunge remind me of spotted birds egg, especially when stamped in Soft Sky and Marina Mist! I stamped the feathers in Baked Brown Sugar and Marina mist, stamped my sentiment and called it complete! :)

Thanks for stopping by today. Make sure you check out our guest designer, Monika's, lovely card that she has to share with us this week, as well as the rest of the design team of ATCAS. This week there is also a call to be on the new design team, so be sure to enter your own card if you are interested! I am sadly stepping down because I just don't feel I am able to put the time into it that it deserves. :( I have been on the ATCAS team since its conception and I will miss it so much!

Sunday, May 3, 2015

The Stamp Review Crew: Butterfly Basics Edition

It's time for another round of The Stamp Review Crew and this week we are using one of my favorite stamp sets from the Occasions Catalog, Butterfly Basics. I was so happy to see that this set, along with its coordinating thinlits, are returning in the new catalog. We demonstrators got a sneak peek of the catalog this week, and it is fabulous! I can't wait to start ordering from it so I can share some of my new favorite things with you!

For this hop, I combined the color challenge at Colour Me with the layout from retro sketches. Lots of fun ideas floating around blog land this week and I just couldn't resist the "help." lol

Using these two challenges, along with our fabulous Butterfly Basics stamp set, I was able to throw this card together in less than 30 minutes. I really encourage you to try challenges if you are stumped for ideas. They have helped me tremendously, especially now that I don't have much free time on my hands.

I started by stamping the background with Rose Red at the top and Coastal Cabana at the bottom. As I got closer to the center from each direction, I stamped off to create sort of an ombre effect. I thought the long stamp at the bottom created an almost brick wall effect. I love this stamp set in Photopolymer, because I was easily able to line it up each time for the repetitive stamping. The leaves are stamped in Cherry Cobbler. I used generation stamping for this stamp to get the different intensities of color. It's kind of hard to see, but I used this same technique with the little butterfly and Coastal Cabana in the background. This stamp set is great for layering!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my card. Make sure to continue on to the fabulous Ann's blog to see what she has to share with us. Or if you like to be different and are working backwards, you will go back to the talented Dawn's blog! I know I can't wait to see what they have in store for us!