Just Sharing: Stamping on Candles

I am still getting myself situated in Cairo. Lovin every minute of it too. My guest bedroom will double as my craft room. It has a desk and I've request a bookshelf in there as well. Plenty of room for my printer and my sewing machine.

Until I get that up and running in the next few weeks, I'm going to share some info and tutorials that I've been coming across.

I saw the image of candle and thought "how'd they do that?" Beate Johns from Splitcoast Stampers produced this tutorial. I do like how it turns out and she says that you can still burn the candle even though it has a bit of tissue paper on it. It's a short vid. I hope that you like it as much as I did.

Cuttlebug Challenge :: 14

This week's Cuttlebug Challenge is to make a card or whatever you wish using your favorite Cuttlebug embossing folder. Super simple for me. I love the Swiss Dots. Who doesn't. It just has that classic look. Running a close second though is the Textile Texture.

So here you will find me using them both. This is a design that I've used before and one that I scraplifted from Jodene over at Splitcoast Stampers.

I had wanted to stitch on both layers, but the sewing machine would not cooperate. You do not hear me when I say that I kept trying to eat up the layers. But crafty me was able to forge forward and create this nice little card.

I am so loving this stamp set from Hero Arts. Lots of different sentiments and they are acrylic. I am not so crazy about acrylic stamps these days because I like the Tim Holtz inks and some of the acrylic stamps don't stamp as nicely, in my opinion. But I digress.

Thanks for looking ... here's what I used:
cardstock: Bazzill
dry embossing: Cuttlebug
ovals and scalloped oval: Nestabilities
ribbon: Michaels
stamp: Hero Arts
ink: Tim Holtz
other: sewing

What I've Got Bookmarked

I have tons of bookmarks. I use Mozilla as my Internet browser and I like that it allows me to tag my bookmarks. That is helpful since I have a craft communities folder as well as a craft blogs folder along w/a craft inspiration folder. But once I bookmark the site, I could tag it w/'scrapbooking' and I could locate something in one folder that is not in another folder. Does that make sense. We all have our organizing nuances, don't we.

Point is, if I thought that my life was a bit crazy, it's about to get crazier. More hectic. It's inevitable. I can already feel the slow down, hence, that's why I'm writing this post and not crafting and/or writing this post and not posting about a card that I made.

But back to the bookmarks. Although I have not been crafting, I have been lurking around the web and checking out these places. Most of them are well known.

• Kristina Werner's Design Blog - love the Color Inspiration Challenge (I could sit all day and click through the Color Inspiration submissions) along w/the short and sweet video tutorials: KWerner Design Blog

• Two Peas in a Bucket - I still visit 2Peas daily. I check out the daily poll along w/"The Pub" and "General Scrappin" forums and I frequently check out the Garden Girls projects: Two Peas In a Bucket

• Hero Arts Club Blog - I like the daily posts on the Hero Arts Blog. There are often chances to win prizes too (though I have not been so lucky yet). Just good ideas and I am anxious to see the 2009 catalog: Hero Arts Club Blog

• 2 Sketches 4 You - It's kind of obvious that I check this site out at least once a day. So many wonderful participants globally. Love that: 2 Sketches 4 You

• Splitcoast Stampers - I have not been to Splitcoast as much as I'd like, but it's one of my favs. I like to go and search the gallery under "Cuttlebug" or "Nestabilities" or "labels". Splitcoast Stampers

• {capture the moment} - I love to gawk on this blog, just wonderful ideas and in some cases much detail and precision. It gives me inspiration to make more than cards, though I usually still end up only making cards: {capture the moment}

• One Pretty Thing - how I like this site. It's really an aggregator of how to make things. There are all sorts of ideas for making things - I really nice this in this economy. And often there are seasonal sections like now there's a section for Handmade gift ideas as well as a Hanukkah section: One Pretty Thing
  

And actually, I don't have all of these bookmarked, but I do subscribe to their feeds. There are others too like Donna Downey's blog, Tim Holtz' blog, Keisha Campbell's blog, etc.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sketch-less week, but Inspired!

No sketches for me this week. I might try to play catch up next week or just jump back in w/the most recent ones.

I've been checking out some places for inspiration. Looking for inspiration is everywhere. But recently there was a chat on 2peas hosted by Rhonna Farrer - love her. The chat was a part of 2peas' CHA festivities. Very cool. So Rhonna was asking participants where they get inspiration. It turned into a huge four page chat w/lots of links to inspiration.

Of course I listed Keisha Campbell and here A Bit East blog.

But here are some of the others that I really enjoyed:

• Sasha Farina blog - lots of color and totally thinking outside of the box
• Donna Downey's Fabric Albums - I've always like fabric, this just takes it to the next level
• Rhonna has a photo book that is way cool, very eclectic and fresh
• Melibean always posts her lovely work for me (and others) to oggle over
  

If it's photos that you dig or aspire to be better at, get geeked about these:

• Bobbi+Mike - a wife and husband photography duo composing images in awe-inspring ways
• Tara Whitney's resume of images is deep; you will look and love!

But for my everyday, all the time inspiration, I usually check out my fav forums and galleries:

• 2Peas
• SIS TV
• Splitcoast Stampers

Oh and for techie plus creativity and freebies and just all around good stuff:

• Savitri's blog - just good peeps and so much fun
  

That should keep you busy ... here's to never-ending inspiration (and sharing it)!