Typewriter Stamp Roundup

Sharing Dan's anniversary card yesterday got me thinking about how many typewriter stamps I've been seeing lately.

There's the one I used, which is from We R Memory Keepers:

There's this new wood-mount lovely from Hero Arts:

Hero Arts also has this useful cling set where you can change out the words on the typing paper:

Or, you can get their background stamp with typewriters and typewriter keys flying around all over the place (I'm not so sure about this one.):

Also in the change-out-the-sentiment family are these sets from the new stamping company Lawn Fawn:

And there are tons of super vintagey typewriter stamps, like this one from Technique Tuesday:

And this one by October Afternoon:

So, what do you think of this trend? I mostly just like thinking about the crafters of the future who will be using all sorts of vintage Kindle and i-Pad-themed products on their projects.

2-Year Anniversary

One of my favorite stamping techniques is to stamp the same image on different papers and then cut them apart in order to piece them together, but I almost never remember to try it. It happened by accident on this card, because after I stamped this little typewriter directly on the book paper, it looked all wrong, and the sentiment wasn't clear enough. Then, I stamped it on the deep red paper and cut it out, but it still didn't seem to look right. THEN, I realized that of COURSE typewriter paper isn't the same color as the typewriter! So I stamped the whole thing again on cream paper and cut out just the paper part. To make it look even more dimensional, I stuck the typing paper image directly to the paper, and I adhered the typewriter image with Pop Dots.


The best part about this card is that it wasn't until I took this detail shot that I noticed something funny about the particular circle of dictionary paper I had randomly punched out:

It says "SEXUAL INTERCOURSE"! On my anniversary card to my husband! Do you think he'll notice?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Excuse the harsh shadows in the picture. I just snapped a quick shot before giving this card to my mom this afternoon.

I didn't have any St. Patrick's Day stamps or supplies, so I went with a generic sentiment and die cut four hearts out of green paper to make the shamrock. It looked a little bare, so I made a little flower out of paper scraps to go on top. To learn how to make flowers like this one, check out this tutorial at the Hambly blog.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Quick Birthday Calendar

You know you're too caught up in crafting when you start letting your products dictate your projects instead of the other way around. After I got this beautiful 7 Gypsies stamp set of month titles, I decided to put together a quick and easy birthday calendar to keep track of important dates throughout the year.

I found this Conrad Ring Book from Creative Imaginations at my local scrapbook store, thinking its 6 chipboard pages would be just right for a 12-month calendar. Then, I chose papers from My Mind's Eye new Stella and Rose collection for each month, took it all home, and went to work.

Instructions:
1. Use a paper trimmer to cut patterned papers to the size of the chipboard pages, and round the corners with a corner rounder.

2. Punch holes in the top of the pages to match the holes in the chipboard pages. (If you use a Crop-a-Dile, you can punch all the pages at once.)

3. Stamp month titles on the top of each page with black ink.

4. Format lists of date numbers in word processor and print on printable transparencies. You'll need 7 lists of 31, 4 lists of 30, and 1 list of 29 for February (to go ahead and factor in the leap year). Trim apart the lists and attach to the patterned paper pages with staples. (You could avoid the stapled look by printing right on the pages, fussing with a clear adhesive, or trying to hide the adhesive with embellishments, but I was going for quick and easy.)

5. Adhere the patterned paper pages to the chipboard pages. Sand the edges if paper hangs off the sides. Assemble the pages and secure them with jump rings. I assembled mine so that January through June all face forward, and you can turn the whole calendar around to flip July through December.

6. Write in all your important dates!

I had to scour Facebook to collect a bunch of birthdays I didn't already know, and I still need to do a little detective work to find the rest, but once I'm done, I'll no longer have to rely on my memory (or my husband's) to be prepared for family events.

I'll probably eventually embellish this a little. I'm sure I'll at least tie some ribbons on the jump rings in between the pages. But for now, I like the simplicity. The stamps and papers feel ornate enough as they are.

Let Loose

My typical scrapbooking process involves lots of cutting straight lines, carefully placing  letter stickers, and aligning things in straight rows with even margins, but sometimes it's super inspiring to watch someone just play on a blank canvas. Check out this sped-up video of an art journaling session with mixed media artist Julie Fei-Fan Balzer:

Art Journaling Fast Forward from Julie Balzer on Vimeo.

Two Birthday Cards in One Week?

If you know me in person, you probably know that my personal style is decidedly unfeminine, and my scrapbook pages tend to follow suit. Once in a while, in moments of weakness, I'll break down and buy flower embellishments or pretty floral papers, but these things rarely end up in my albums. It may be because they would look really strange paired with my very non-feminine pictures, but in general, I'm much more comfortable sticking with classic black, solids, stripes, and graphic patterns.

Sometimes, though, I use cardmaking as an excuse to make something girly. The sappy sentimentality of flowers and lace and bows somehow seems more palatable to me when I'm working on a small space with no photos. And since I don't have a large stash of frilly products, card kits make it really easy for me to create something pretty without trying too hard. I snatched up this particular card kit from My Mind's Eye on Peachy Cheap a while back, and it had just what I needed to recreate a version of this beautiful card I spotted in the August 2010 issue of Cards magazine by Belinda Chang Langner.

I just loved the look of that inset circle and the ribbon going around the card front. Visually interesting, but so simple to do with just a circle punch and some foam adhesive.

Blowing the Dust Off

Not off my scrapbook supplies. They get plenty of use. Blowing the dust off this little blog, though. My biggest roadblock to blogging about papercrafting is my aversion to photographing my pages and cards and actually transferring the pictures to my computer. I hate to let this space keep going to waste, though, so hopefully, I can get better at sharing.

Here's the card I made for my nephew's second birthday next week:

Supplies used: paper (DCWV), border punch (EK Success), gems (Target dollar spot), die cut (QuicKutz), embellishment (ki memories), white pen (Uniball), chalk ink (ColorBox)
Has anyone else noticed that birthday-themed products are popping up everywhere lately? From Pink Paislee and House of 3's Soiree line to Basic Grey's Life of the Party and more. It seems funny that something that happens to everyone every single year can suddenly become trendy. This is definitely the time to stock up on card supplies for the whole year.