Which is Your Fave Stamp?

Hi there! If I asked you which stamp your favourite is, would you be able to answer? Perhaps some of you have one particular stamp you use more than any other stamps in your collection, but my answer to that question would be: Depends!

I have some fave stamps I frequently use when making greetings cards - which stamps depends on the occasion and person, and some faves that I actually don't use that much - they're just faves because I've had them since forever and just looking at them brings back fond memories of my early days as a stamp addict. New stamps are also often a fave - for a while ...

However! I had to pick ONE fave because my stamp company is sponsoring Stamping Sensation's August Challenge, where fave stamp is the theme. So after twisting my brain and apologising to all my other faves for leaving them out like that, this house from Textured Houses (Rubber Dance), came out to play - as it has so many times before. I find it very versatile as it can be used for many occasions, and it's super easy to cut out (me likes that!) and layer on top of one another like this:

 

I'm going to send the card above to a friend of mine for her birthday later this month. She lives in the US - pretty much on the other side of the globe from me - and I know she has a LOT of stash ...  I think she'll get a kick out of this, especially the sentiment (a stamp from 'You Rock!', Rubber Dance). The flowers are from Floral Wreath and the sun is from a set that was just released at Rubber Dance (free shipping till the 11th of August!), called Tropical Summer. I'll stamp a birthday greeting inside the card and leave room for a personal message.

 

Another friend of mine moved recently, to new beginnings and adventure - sentiment is a Tim Holtz sticker.  House stamp from Textured Houses, wings from Butterfly Trio and hill from Whimsical Summer (all from Rubber Dance).

The challenge at Stamping Sensations runs from 5th to 29th of August.

Come show us YOUR fave stamp!

Sponsored this month by my stamp company: 

 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Here are some things I've made with the house stamp before,

in combo with more houses from Rubber Dance: 

These were published in the Craft Stamper magazine, February 2017

- even made it to the cover! 

Some more houses .....

 

Told you it was versatile! :-) 

The house stamp can be found on this 5 x 7 inches sheet

but if you just want the bottom row it's available here.

Thanks so much for looking!

Mixed Media House and Vintage Tag

Heyyy, lovely people! Happy New Year!

We have a new challenge on the Rubber Dance blog today, and it will run for the entire month of January. You can either use our colour scheme or the theme, or a combo of both.

For Christmas, my sweetheart gave me a big box filled with house shapes that he had made out of wood! Oh, drool! LOVED that pressie!! I've been painting and decorating quite a few alread, having such fun this past week!! This is one of those houses, just shot from two different angles:

I painted the house with blue and pink acrylic paints, then added a thin layer of Gold Metallic Paint. When it was completely dry, I sanded off some of the gold to reveal the pink and blue underneath, and on the corners of all the sides where the wood was revealed, I added purple ink. The houses and windows were stamped with olive green StazOn ink on a piece of thin watercolour paper and coloured in, using our challenge colours (purple, blue, olive green). I cut them out and adhered them around the house, before stamping the hearts and bricks here and there, using the same olive green StazOn ink. Stamps used: Textured Houses and Watercolour Xmas (hearts), both from Rubber Dance.

My second make for our challenge is this vintage looking tag, as "Make it Vintage" is the theme of our challenge (remember, you can either use our colour scheme or the theme - or a combo).

I coloured both manila tags with Distress inks (Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain), and stamped the images with the Vintage Photo ink. I smeared some VersaMark ink around the edges and gold embossed, before adding the bow and lace ribbon. I had coloured the ribbon first, using the same colours of Distress inks. The hand and post card text got a hint of light pink, using a marker. Stamps used: Vintage Postcard and Mail Art from Rubber Dance.

Now it's your turn - let's see what you can make with our challenge colours or theme!

 

or
"Make it Vintage"

You have until 31st of January to join.

The random winner will get a €12 voucher to spend in the Rubber Dance shop.

Thanks for looking!

I wish you all a very happy, peaceful and creative 2018!

 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Gloomy by Night Card

Hey, everyone! Here's my card for this fort-night's challenge at Rubber Dance (October 1.-14th).
It must be the gloomiest card I've made in ages - you know I love bright and vibrant colours, but I also love a real challenge once in a while! :-)

 

I have used two Tom Holtz dies - the distressed diamonds in the sky and the houses in the back, combined with Textured Houses stamps from Rubber Dance. The moon and stars are also stamps from Rubber Dance, from a fun set called Whimsical Summer. I don't know where the barbwire die is from ....

Below is a closeup of the houses. I glued a piece of yellow paper behind some of the cut out windows (from the die) and painted yellow in some of the stamped windows as well, in an effort to make it a bit less gloomy....

 

Here are the colours for this challenge:

If you visit the Rubber Dance blog, you'll find other inspiration makes that are far from gloomy - pop over and have a look at what the other teamies have made! I hope it will inspire you to join our challenge.

Thanks for looking!

Clean House - CAS cards

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post today to let you know that my stamp company is sponsoring the CASology challenge blog this week!

Their cue word this time is HOUSE, and here are two cards I made with stamps from Rubber Dance:

 

This house and the hill stamp, and many more, are on sale this week.

To join the CASology challenge,

jump over to their blog.

The winner will get a whole sheet of stamps from Rubber Dance! 

♥ Have fun and good luck! ♥

Craft Stamper - Cover Girl!

Hello everyone! Just a quick post today to toot my own horn! ;-)

I knew that I would have a 4 pages article in the Feb. issue of Craft Stamper magazine, but I had no idea that one of my whimsical houses - featuring my stamp company's Textured Houses and Textured Flowers - would make the cover! Yooohooo! *happy dancing*

The DIGITAL version of this issue is already available here: https://pocketmags.com/eu/craft-stamper-magazine  and the printed issue will soon be available, too. I couldn't wait for my copy, so I bought the digital one today and I luvvv it! Craft Stamper has long been my #1 fave print magazine and every monthly issue is packed full of awesome articles, tutorials, and readers' submissions.  I think there is something for everyone here, from beginners and intermediate to the more experienced crafter. There are many tutorials with illustrated step by steps, which I find very helpful.

Anyway - I just wanted to brag, really. 

It's not every day that I can call myself a Cover Girl, is it? ;-)

 Toot-tooot!

Blue Winter, Card with Dies and Stamps

Winter is upon us here in Norway. This is what it looks like just a few kilometres from where I live, but a bit further south we don't have any snow ...yet! It'll come soon enough, though ...

 

The stars and houses are from Rubber Dance (Textured Houses), stamped on Strathmore Mixed Media paper (my new favourite) with blue Archival Ink, coloured in with Zig Clean Colour markers and a waterbrush. I made the hills in the back by drawing a line with a Zig marker, then adding water with the waterbrush. The "hills" with the tiny trees in front of the houses are made with a cool die from Your Next Stamp (Evergreen Tree Border). The bigger trees in the front are a die by Dee's Distinctively Dies (Large Snow Covered Tree). I don't use dies very often, but I wanted to join a challenge (see below) and this card was such fun to make that I think I will be making more cards with dies pretty soon!

The big trees were cut out from cardstock that I had given a coat of Gesso. They are coloured in with ZIG Clean Colour markers and a waterbrush. I added some glitter on top of some of the branches. Finally, mounted my scene on a silver cardbase and added a shiny star

I'm entering my card to these three challenges:

1) Happy Little Stampers, November Challenge: 
Anything Goes with Dies 
2) The Crafty Addicts, Challenge #28:  
Anything Goes/Winter Blues
3) Craft Stamper, T.I.M.I. November challenge:
Anything goes, just remember to stamp somewhere!

Thanks for looking!
 

Update: This card won me a place among the favourites at Happy Little Stampers!

CASology Challenge, Week #222: WELCOME

Welcome! I made this card for a new neighbour ... well, first of all I made it for this week's challenge at CASology  ;-)

House stamp from Rubber Dance, all dies from Your Next Stamp, including the stitched frame - which is actually just a long stiched line that I used to make a frame out of. House coloured with ZIG clean colour makers and a waterbrush. The only colour added to the white die cuts is the yellow inside the street lamp - I think the shadows they cast are enough to make them stand out from the white background.  Text made on my PC.

I'm entering my card to this challenge:

 

Thanks for looking!

Beki goes to Town with Zig Watercolour Markers

Hello everyone!
Do you know what it's like when you want to make something but you're not sure what? I bet I'm not the only one who often feel that way. So, what's a girl to do?? Ah - look at challenges, of course! That usually gets my mojo going, anyway. I went to the Paper Playful blog where there are hundreds of challenges listed, and started scrolling ....

The first challenge that caught my eye was that from the As you like it challenge
where the question this week is whether we prefer to use old or new stash (and why). I've never seen their challenges before, but I knew right away how to answer that question: I prefer BOTH! haha ;)
I like using NEW stamps, but OLD and beloved products, such as watercolour paper, Distress inks and Archival black ink. The reason why I prefer new stamps is that they are able to excite me in ways that older stamps usually don't - with a few exceptions of old faves, of course. The reason why I prefer using old products is that I have tried so many different kinds of papers and ink since I started stamping that I'm pretty sure I've finally found the ones that suit me the best - and why fix it if it ain't broken, right?

The next challenge I saw was The Crafter's Cafe #159: Use a new technique.
Yessss, I wanted to use my brand new ZIG Clean Color markers! What - no Distress inks this time? *ahem*  Well,  I love watercolouring with Distress inks but I had seen such lovely results with these watercolour markers that I had to have'em! Using them to colour in stamped images is a new technique for me and this is my first finished card.

So, there you have it. My mojo had been awakened! I decided to use some new stamps and a new product/new technique, and here's the result:

 

Those cool girls is a stamp called Beki, designed by Donna Gray for That's Crafty!

Isn't Beki lovely? I think she's super cool. Notice that little house dangling down from the blue and purple Beki's hair -  I love that detail! Besides, her hair house goes really well with these new Textured Houses stamps from Rubber Dance. The hair house on the yellow Beki ended up on her dress. I'm not a 100 % happy with how my watercolours turned out, but I'm sure I'll get a hang of those ZIG markers with a bit of practise. They're so juicy and vivid!! The first time I saw those markers in use was in fact on Donna's blog, so my colouring her Beki stamp with them is quite appropriate, isn't it? :)

I'm entering my card to these three challenges:

As you like it: Old or New stash? (I've answered that question above)

The Crafter's Cafe #159: Use a new technique (watercolouring with Zig markers)
Cards und More #169: Watercolour

Thanks for looking!