Happy New Year

We are still only into the first week of the new year, so I am not that behind in wishing you a very happy, healthy. creative and prosperous New Year!!



For this card I used:

• Cute Penguin from Inkadinkado (coloured with Copics)
• Warmest Winter Wishes CL103) from Hero Arts
• Cloud Trio Die from My Favorite Things!

Cheerio! Isabelle

Beaver Hugs...

... is what I sent to a fellow Canadian, a couple of weeks ago.



If my friend still lived in Canada, I prolly would not have sent such a patriotic card on her birthday. But since we both live outside of Canada, it gave me the perfect excuse to pair the Beaver with the Martha Stewart Maple Leaf punch-around-the-page tool, LOL. Still, I think this new Inkadinkado beaver image is cute enough to stand on his own, anytime!

Wishing you many happy stamping hours! Isabelle

Rosy Loveliness

Just by going through my own rose collection, I found another stamp that lends itself perfectly to the fun and addicting 'Floating Ink Technique'.



There are two more rose cards in the works. Come back to see those - SOON! :)

The Stamp:
94785O - A Rose is a Rose by Inkadinkado

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders:
37-1171 - Border With Love
37-1168 - Leafy Branch

Father's Day Robin

Dh asked me to make a card for his Dad and for once, I was completely stumped. Well, actually, masculine cards usually tend to throw me off track. Whatever I deem appropriate, dh finds too cute or simply too kiddy. The easiest thing to do was for him to choose a stamp - while hoping it would be one that does not take hours to colour, LOL.



Good choice on this very manly Inkadinkado stamp, honey! It made for a quick and very fun to colour card.

The Stamp:
97894O - English Robin - by Inkadinkado

Beary Cute!

A few weeks ago, I invited a friend and her two kids over for an evening of stamping. They knew nothing about this crazy craft and I wanted to ease them into it by making a few easy cards. Quite frankly, I found the task a little challenging, because I was preparing projects for a woman, a teen girl and an 11 year old boy. While I wasn't worried about the 'girls' at all, I did not want to scare the boy off with girlish images, pink card stock or even glitter, LOL.

This is the very first card we made:


We stamped the Cute Polar Bears image on glossy paper, using the Indigo Blue Ancient Page ink pad. Once dry, we coloured it in with markers.

Luckily, all three of my guests enjoyed our evening of stamping and they have since come back for another one. Woohoo! :)

The Stamp:

98340P - Cute Polar Bears by Inkadinkado

Chill Out

This is not one of my favourite creations, but nonetheless, here it is:

I used the Circle Nestabilities with my Cuttlebug and then stamped the Cute Penguin on white glossy paper. After assembling the layers, I drew a silver border around the red card stock and added a little sparkle to the black circle with the Sakura Stardust Clear Pen that I love, love, love. In my stash of embellishments I also found a tiny red pompom for the perfect finishing touch to the penguin's cap.

The Stamps:
98339K - Cute Penguin by Inkadinkado
Chill Out (from M129 - Snow Fun Clear Set) by MSE!

Hydrangea Hello

All Stamps by Inkadinkado:
97151DD - Hydrangea
97221MM - Hello
94806X - Vine Background

Got Cake?

If you like this cute little critter as much as I do, you will enjoy the Humorous Birthday set by Inkadinkado.

I coloured the 'critter' with my long-forgotten chalks before I masked it and stippled the yellow glow around him, using a yellow ink pad and a
Stipple Brush.

This set includes 7 clear stamps that are ready to use with your acrylic blocks and the possibilities are endless!

Grandma's Garden Rose

Unfortunately, we have been experiencing technical difficulties at The Stampbuzz recently. However, we are feverishly working on a new website and hope to switch to a more reliable Web Host very soon. As of now, I am happy to report that things are up and running and I was able to add a few new Impression Obsession stamps that just arrived, too.

One of the new arrivals is Grandma's Garden Rose.

For some reason, I've always had trouble colouring any kind of rose image in the past. With the coloured pencils (I used my Koh-I-Noors for this particular image) and Gamsol or baby oil, I slowly seem to be getting a handle on things. :)

The sentiment is from a clear Inkadinkado set (97608O - Expressions by Kathy Davis) and I like that it's quite large. Still, something with this card is not quite right. I think it's missing something, but what? HELP!

Friends Forever

This is a card I made for my friend Andy. He and I have been friends for about 25 years and sometimes I am amazed that our friendship endured despite us living on different continents. A lifetime ago, he dated the sister of the guy I was seeing and during that time, the four of us did everything together, including vacationing in Greece.

When we broke up with our respective partners (because we broke up with them, not the other way 'round!!), Andy and I bonded even more and if I thought that my moving across the pond would change things, I was wrong. He visited my husband and me several times alone and later with his wife and their little girl.
Andy is a really good guy and I treasure the times we get to spend together and the many memories we've made over the years. I am also grateful that his wife, daughter and I are so close.

Now, I have to rush Andy's card to the post office so it will reach him in time for his birthday.

The Stamps:
97652AA - Cookies of Life (clear stamps) by Inkadinkado

The image was coloured using my new Koh-I-Noor woodless, high-density pencils and Gamsol. Boy, those pencils are samooooth!

Father's Day

Of course, I said yes when my husband asked me to make a card for his dad - weeks ago. Of course, I knew I had to make it early enough to be mailed to Canada. Naturally, I saw my husband's secret glances as we walked by the Father's Day cards at Target, a couple of days ago. I even offered the option of buying one, right then and there. But my husband's trust in me has not wavered yet and he thought it would be a sin to buy a card. Or perhaps he just knows better, LOL!?

So, last night, I finally hunkered down to make a this simple card for my father-in-law. I stamped the English Robin in Brown Memories and just added a tiny bit of colour from my marker mixed with water. The temptation to add a little glitter on those red berries was huge, but I did not think my father-in-law would appreciate it, so I resisted. :)

The Image:
97894O - English Robin by Inkadinkado
stamped on:
Fabriano Medioevals Soft White deckle-edged card

Daffodil Hello

My mom is an avid gardener who loves flowers. Anytime my parents would come visit me, my garden would look beautiful for all the hard work they'd put into it. A good thing, because otherwise, it would be hard to entertain them for three or four weeks at a time. :)

Yesterday, I inked up my brand new Art Impressions Daffodil stamp to make Mother's Day cards for my mom and mother-in-law. Unfortunately, it was one of those days when things don't go smoothly and you wonder if you should just leave it all and return some other time. My colouring wasn't very successful, I dropped a black ink pad on a pre-embossed card (ruining it completely) and I spilled gold embossing powder all over the place. Still, I managed to make the aforementioned cards, as well as a set of floral cards for my mom and a birthday card for our niece's upcoming sweet 16. The list of cards needed was much longer than that, but I think I should be happy with what I accomplished, in light of all the little mishaps, LOL.

The Stamps:
P3342 - Daffodil by Art Impressions
97221MM - Hello by Inkadinkado

(The very same daffodil stamp is also available in the Love & Joy Clear Set - CS3367 - from the Encouragement Series by Art Impressions)

Need Therapy?

We all know that stamps and chocolate are cheaper than therapy, don't we? Although, I am starting to wonder about the stamp part. Looking at my stash, (and considering the amount of chocolate I have devoured) years of therapy might have been cheaper at this point, LOL.

Inkadinkado has released a series of funny and witty clear stamps that retail at $2 a set. There are typically two to five stamps to a set for a great value. Buy them at The Stampbuzz and you'll get an additional 20% discount. How can you beat that? With prices like these, we can still give the therapist a run for his money and have loads of fun!

For my card I used:
97664AA - Chocolate Therapy by Inkadinkado

Continental Breakfast

A very simply card. One note card, one stamp. Although, I will certainly add a sentiment to it, once I am ready to mail the card out.


97899DD - Coffee & Croissant by Inkadinkado
stamped on Fabriano Medioevals Soft White deckle-edged card

Do-Over

The great thing about stamping is that we can take as many do-overs as we like or require. You may remember my card, using this stamp, that I wasn't too crazy about?
So here is my revised version.

Tomorrow, Darth Vader, ehem sorry, my husband is hitting the slopes one last time for the season, which means I might get some time to get inky. Wooohooo!

Have a terrific weekend everyone and go ink up your stamps!!

The Stamps:
3829H - Kickin' by Penny Black
and
94818MM - Housework by Inkadinkado

Blue Skies and Sunny Days

My light box is usually stashed away in a cupboard. There are heavy paper organizers in front of said cupboards that must be removed before accessing it. Since the cupboard is hard to get to it is filled with things I don't need regularly.
I also tend to hesitate using some of my tools and gadgets, because I simply don't have the space to spread out.

Because I already had my light box out from another project, I decided to do some more embossing.

The deets:
L9133 Flower w/Dotted Frame Brass Stencil by Lasting Impressions

98030G - Puppy
and
96065M - Blue Skies by Inkadinkado

Talk Nerdy to Me

My husband is a geek, ehem, a computer programmer. That's why I knew I had to have this stamp, the moment I saw it.

Last night, I inked up my new stamp to make a card for my sweet husband and just as I'd suspected, he loved it. In fact, he liked it so much, he wanted to take it to the office, but not displayed as a card. Maybe he is worried that someone might read my personal (saucy?) message to him? Nah, my note was harmless, but still, he hoped to display the little critter differently. The obvious solution seemed for the image to be framed. But as these things go, the Fabriano note card was too small for the frame that I had handy. So, I stamped another one on watercolour paper, to fit my frame, and it turned out quite well.

We don't know what kind of critter this little guy is supposed to be (a dog, a hamster?) but he certainly is cute.

97692K - Talk Nerdy to Me by Inkadinkado.
Stamped on Fabriano Medioevals Soft White deckle-edged card and coloured with Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol

Hydrangea Hello

All Stamps by Inkadinkado:
97151DD - Hydrangea
97221MM - Hello
94806X - Vine Background