May 11, 2016

Kissing for Men


Welcome to the Pals Blog Hop for May 2016.  We are thankful you stopped by to take a look at our new 2016 Blog Hop monthly themes.  This month we are featuring projects that are “stepped up” by using textures or fun techniques. We hope to provide you with lots of ideas and that you enjoy our creations.
You may just be starting the Blog Hop or may have come from the previous link from the Line-up on the Pals Blog Hop listing shown below.  The full lineup will help you move along from blog to blog so you may see all the projects.

I'm thinking my title got your attention! Today's hop is all about technique and I think we could all use some practice on our kissing technique!
In case you're not familiar with this technique, it entails using one solid and one patterned stamp, inking the stamp(s) and pressing them together (the kiss) to transfer the patterned image to the solid image.


There are several ways to execute this technique:
1. ink the solid stamp and kiss the patterned stamp
2. ink the patterned stamp and kiss the solid stamp
(you will note a difference between the two)
3. Use a different colored ink on each stamp and kiss, which is what I did with my project today.

I inked up Another Thank You with Sahara Sand and covered the Hardwood stamp with Soft Suede and kissed them together to get a wooden sentiment - perfect for a masculine thanks!





The card base is Sahara Sand with a layer of the soon to be retired Mossy meadow. The focal piece is whisper white with splatters of Sahara Sand and speckles of Mossy Meadow. I tied it all together with knotted linen thread.
So head off to your stamping spot, choose a couple stamps from your collection and give kissing a try. 
Want to have a little fun? Inform your partner you're off to practice your kissing technique - he or she may want to join you!!





Thanks for visiting. To continue with the hop, please refer to the Blog Hop Line-up below. We hope to see you on next month’s Pals Blog Hop! 



Blog Hop Line-up:  



May 1, 2016

Stampin' Sunday

Hi all,

I had such a fun day, I needed to come home and post. I made a road trip to Waunakee, WI to the home of Lisa Pretto, an extremely talented and generous stamping and business guru. I am so grateful to be a member of Lisa's extended team. Today she rolled out her red carpet and all of the SU! goodies from the new catalog that she could get her hands on and let us stamp! We had so much fun playing with all of the new products. The BEST part was Lisa's multiple door prizes; she always sends us home with bags - quite literally - full of goodies. Check out these smiling faces!


I'll share samples in my upcoming posts.

Because I'm headed to a Brewer's game tomorrow night, I also need to post my PPA challenge card for this week. The challenge ends on Tuesday and I won't have time to get it posted tomorrow.

This week's sketch comes from talented Pal Ginger Toivonen.


For whatever reason, when I saw this sketch, I thought masculine. A stamp set I love, but don't often use is Traveler, so I broke it out for the challenge. I'm happy to say that Traveler will be travelling to the new annual catalog! If you'd like to add this to your stamp collection, click here to purchase it.


This is a great sketch, one that could be used in different orientations and for a bazillion occasions. It comes together so easily.

I typically use a 1/4" border, but went a bit wider with this card and used a 3/8" border to complement the stripes in the DSP.

I really wanted to focus on the globe, but wanted something more than plain cardstock on my second feature piece. I used the Zig Zag embossing folder, which is retiring, to add some texture and accented it with white perfect accents that I colored with a black sharpie. The globe piece is popped up with dimensionals.

I enjoyed creating this card and hope you like it as well. Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Be sure to:
  • Check out the retiring products to make sure you don't miss out on anything you really want. Stamp sets are guaranteed to be in stock through May 22nd. All other items are while supplies last. Click here to shop.
  • Stop back later in the week to see some of the samples we created at Lisa's
  • Mark your calendar for my May embossing classes. Classes are held the 3rd Saturday of the month from 9-11 and the Monday following the 3rd Saturday from 6-8. We'll be playing with the new Copper Embossing Powder! (one of my door prizes from Lisa!)
  • Sign up for my newsletter - enter your info in the fields in the right column.
Thanks so much for stopping. Make each day a good one!