The Sweet Stop is a new blog started by the folks from Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps and they posted their first sketch challenge recently.  I definitely wanted to participate even though I always feel like I have no supplies!

Turns out I ran around the house like a squirrel foraging for nuts, looking for anything I could use possibly.  I ended up making a very earthy card with cardboard backing, white tracing paper, brown packing paper, piece of raffia, pieces of pasta and leftover papers from other card projects.  Turned out pretty nice, although my cut-out flowers turned out giant, so I positioned it half out of the card.  I sort of like that out of the box look and thinking I should try more of it and not be confined by the card shape!  Here is my finished card that has “enjoy the journey” lightly stamped at the bottom – just a suggestion!

Posted on April 28, 2009 at 9:49 pm | Showcase | 4 comments

In tune with the Hero Arts theme this week, I am hoping that April showers will bring May flowers.  This gloomy rainy weather is not for me!  I decided to use that inspiration and all my happy flower-power feelings to make a Mother’s Day card.  I miss my mom, besides the fact that Mother’s Day is coming up as well.  I’m working on a package to send off…

Since I have piles of brown packing paper all over, I decided to use that in my card.  I used it for the base of the flowers stamp in rainbow color, because I actually don’t have any markers with me in Italy to color with!  I also used the brown paper to construct a flower-ish thingy in the upper left hand corner.  I popped some recycled raffia ribbon on top and used a purple decorative button to secure it all down.  The little note you see under that says, “Happy Mother’s Day” in Chinese and it’s printed onto tracing paper – the only other supply of paper I have with me here.

I also added some decorative clasps on top of the stamped area to add more dimension and texture.  In the end, I distressed everything with gold by rubbing the ink pad over all the edges.  I like the vintage look and really wanting to learn more techniques to create those types of effects.  I am happy the way it turned out, although I still need to finish more items for the rest of the package I am sending out to my mom.  Since the mail here in Italy is unpredictable when it comes to shipping times (and actual delivery sometimes) – I have to give it a big head start!  Here is the finished card…

Posted on April 27, 2009 at 6:59 pm | Showcase | 1 comment

Now that I am semi-settled here in the Tuscan hills of my new home and life, the next step is to familiarize myself with the crafting community here.  I am so happy to find that there are lots of people interested in crafting and stamping paper crafts.  I’ve found many blogs that I have added to my RSS reader and looking forward to new inspiration in this new country – famed for the arts nonetheless!

Recently I camed across Serena’s Scrap Work, a new blog about stamping and scrapbooking by woman who is definitely inspiring!  She is a member of the Italian Association of Scrapbooking and works for Impronte D’Autore – a major website for crafting products, techniques and classes amongst other things.  It’s so exciting and inspiring to find out more and start getting involved in the Italian crafting community.  Serena is offerning blog candy for the inauguration of her blog, so definitely check that out (only in Europe!)

Now I will go back to my maniac surfing and exploring of Italian craft blogs and sites and figure out which stores to hit up to buy supplies!

Posted on April 26, 2009 at 11:34 am | Showcase | 1 comment

The latest Caardvarks challenge is around the theme of trees!  Perfect idea since it’s April and with Earth Day as well, folks have been concentrating a lot on nature and eco-chic topics.  I decided to experiment a bit with the creation of my card after reading so much about various techniques on craft blogs this past week.

Recently I came across some designer websites and there was the mention of digital stamping.  I was wondering what the heck that was, until I realized that it’s just printing out designs instead of actually stamping with a physical item.  It was a great idea and I don’t know why I never thought to do it before.  Here in Italy we don’t have the luxury of giant craft stores, not to mention it costs a lot when you do find a places that sell craft materials.  Maybe that is the case everywhere!  I created my own decorated paper instead by printing the love poem, How do I love thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, repeated many times in a nice handwriting font.

I happen to have rolls and rolls of brown packing paper and used that for the inner rectangle.  I was trying a semi-distressed look by stamping various gold and bronze colors on the brown paper and accented the edge with a greenish ink pad.

The tree is actually created from a decorated paper by Stamperia where the backside I used for the trunk and the front side I cut out into tiny leave shapes.  To finish it up I stamped the gold and bronze metallic color lightly on top and added the left-hand side tulle cloth and fasteners to embellish.  I realized my X-acto knife needs a new blade (I’ve always had issues cutting straight and mounting!) and stronger cardstock would have made it sturdier, but otherwise it turned out quite nice.  I was running around trying to find the proper light to take a photo, here’s the final finished card:

Posted on April 23, 2009 at 7:11 pm | Showcase | 5 comments

The latest Caardvark challenge is titled “Good Knight!” in reference to a fantasy theme.  Of course it is up for interpretation and who knows what your fantasy might be?  Okay, this is a rated G site, so don’t let your imagination run too wild!  I have actually been looking forward to Spring and warm weather, so wanted to use some natural products in my card.

Here in Italy I have been searching for arts and crafts stores, but they aren’t very big stores and usually center around country painting and decoupage specifically.  The paper stores are usually geared more for business where they sell office supplies.  By chance this past weekend, we went to a do-it-yourself store like Home Depot and it had two aisles of decorate art supplies.  It certainly felt like I had found a treasure trove and picked up a few random supplies, since my stash of craft materials is virtually non-existent since moving to Italy.

I decided to use dried flowers in my fantasy theme card, all about dreaming and pursuing those dreams.  We all have a few things we would like to do, but perhaps fear of failure, difficulty or lack of time prevents us from pushing forward?  I say take little steps and overcome your fears, so you can move closer to your dreams.  Regardless of what other people think or worries that you might have in the back of your mind, the dream is yours and only you can make it come true!

Posted on April 7, 2009 at 1:57 pm | Showcase | 7 comments