Are you a Stampaholic?

Hi Everyone,
I am not really sure why once you become a crafter, you are also a collector, the more I have the more I collect.
I am a stampaholic and very proud of it as well. I love stamps, from rubber,clear,and digital brushes also known as digital stamps..
Do you ever wish you could find the itty bitty stamps that fit your needs when you are creating?
Wish no more, Robyn aka the Pinkstamper has introduced a new line of itty bitty stamps sentiments to fit the bill. Whether you are a scrapbooker, or stamper these stamps will fit nicely in your collection..
1. What makes those stamps different?
They are made with the finest polymer. You can tell about the quality of the stamps in the details, they  are very sharp, and are carved high enough to create a very clean image.
2.These stamps goes perfectly with several Provo Craft Cricut Cartridges, if you don’t use a Die cut machine that’s ok, the stamps are quite versatile.
Here are a few cards I’ve created using several of the lines of stamps.

Supplies used:
Mypinkstamper line stamps, staz on, Provo Craft Cricut Cartridge Martha Stewart Elegant Cake, Cricut Expression machine, Coredination black magic and glitter paper, Colorbok fluid chalk,Mambi rhinestones, GCD Melody Ross pattern papers.

I use the family & Friends line on this lay out, here are more details.

Here are 3 cards I have created,

Pros:
The stamps are very well made, sharp details, they cling beautifully even after several washing, they don’t stain like other clear stamps on the market.
The packaging instead of a sheet over the stamp, the overlay is like an envelope very easy to keep the stamps in one place..Each line has at least 25 sentiments, which is a bargain..

Cons:
Since this is a new company there is not a wide selection, Robyn will be coming out with more stamps.
Would like to see even smaller sizes.

You can see more of the stamps in action HERE for more inspiration..
Here are the lines I worked with.



We are offering you a great prize Robyn’s Dvd on how to create awesome projects.

How you can win:

• Leave as many comments as you wish on all the post on this blog, from today till Sept 30th. 

• Follow the blog and tell your friends about this giveaway.
• Let me know which stamps set you like from here

     Winners will be announced on Oct 1st 2010

Please remember: Help spread the word about this giveaway!


Who is eligible:

Everyone! You don’t have to be a blogger to win, just supply a valid e-mail address.

When the giveaway ends:

October 1st. I’ll e-mail the winner(s), and results are always posted here as well. If the winner doesn’t respond within seven business days, a new winner will be drawn.
Have a great weekend, Don't forget to follow the blog and leave a comment..

Maggie

PS don't forget we are giving away 3 Cricut Cartridges (2 Home Decor) ( 1 Once Upon a Princess)Here
$10.00 GC to William Sonoma Here

Are you a Stampaholic?

Publication Review: Creating Keepsake Magazine special issue!

If you are anything like me, you have tons of 4x6 pics just waiting to be made into pages.   There are so many photos I’ve been collecting for the past few years, just waiting to be taken out and worked with.  Yet, the time never came and were finally put back in storage for another later date.
If you find yourself in the same boat,, perhaps you have no idea where to start?  Well, if you need a little nudge on getting those pics out of storage and into beautiful projects, then this book is for you!!

Creating Keepsake Super Fast Pages with 4x6 Photos

I was at the check out yesterday when I noticed this magazine. What drew my attention was the very strong color combo on a relatively very simple layout. With it’s simplicity, I realized I could scraplift this layout very easily with the tools I currently have on hand.  For example, I could use all my Provo Craft Cricut cartridges such as the butterflies, borders, flowers to follow the basic design presented on the cover.  What could be easier??  

After flipping through the magazine quickly,I decided to buy it. I rushed home  to explore the magazine more leisurely and soon realized that a lot of the layouts looked familiar. . . especially the Kelly Purkey and Mou Sasha's projects.

Finally, it dawned on me that most of these projects have been published before in Creating Keepsakes magazine. Now, if you don't have a subscription that's ok. You can catch up. If you do have a subscription, this makes it easy to find layouts that fit your need.  You can easily find project by page separation for 1-2 photos, 3-4 etc.. and so on. 

Before delving into this magazine in length, here's all the things on the cover that drew me in:

• 95 simple quick pages, make 1  tonight
• 27 sketches to create pages in a jiffy
• Scrap more photos with no cropping approach

I was motivated enough to grab my post-its and make notes on different pages.  I noted layouts I liked or the pattern papers, tips and even some sketches I wanted to try. I plan on making 10 lay outs from this book using the sketches and some other great ideas I've found. For example, on page 45, there is a great tip on using a pen in place of that perfect color thread you just cannot find!  

What I liked about this magazine:

• It is very functional and has the photos separated
• Tips at the bottom on how to finish a page faster
• The layout photos are huge. They take up most of the pages so you can see the details better.

What I didn't like about this magazine:

• Price tag was a little too high at 14.99
• 85-90% of the layouts were previously published hence the reason the price is too high
• Not much direction on how to recreate most of the layouts (loved the tips though!)
• Might be a  hard book for a brand new scrapbooker to follow

What do you think? Do you have this magazine? We will be giving away one of these magazines to a lucky reader!.  To win simply:

1. be a follower of this blog
2. leave a comment

That’s it!  What could be easier??  Drawing will held on October 7th and the winner will be chosen by the random.org  tool.  :)

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Don’t forget to participate in the GYPSY GIVEAWAY!!  We are giving away two!!  Deadline is October 3rd.  More details HERE!
GOOD LUCK and have a great day! 

Publication Review: Creating Keepsake Magazine special issue!

Part 3 - Gypsy Adventure in Italy

The Gypsy in Siena

Hi, It's Diane again, checking in from Italy where I have been having a wonderful vacation with my husband - and the Gypsy makes three! Steve has been the "Gypsy holder" for all of the photos - he is a very helpful husband!

We left the home of our friends in Milan on Monday morning and headed to the airport to pick up our rental car for the drive to Siena. The weather had turned rainy but we didn't mind since we were traveling. We stopped at some rest areas along the way and at one they were selling these "Pinocchio" jars full of lego-like blocks - aren't they cute and colorful!

We made a mistake in our directions - not really a mistake but we followed a sign for Roma (Rome) - the direction we wanted to go - and it turned out to be the wrong Roma road! Roads on maps don't seem to have numbers, or if they do, you can't find the numbers on the actual road signs - so driving was an adventure!

Eventually, we found our hotel - behind these very impressive gates! The photo to the right is a view from behind the hotel - what a beautiful landscape. The rain had ended around Firenza (Florence) and the light was lovely. (Remember, you can click on any photo to see a larger view).

We were so glad to be out of the car at last that we decided to stay at the hotel for dinner. The food was delicious and I had the most amazing dessert - a "chocolate muffin with cinnamon pear" - basically a hot chocolate cake with molten chocolate - yum! The meal was so rich and we were so tired that we went right to sleep. I woke up after a while and couldn't get back to sleep, so I pulled out the Gypsy and did some designing for a while. It was nice that the Gypsy does not beep or make noises - I could do some designing without disturbing my sleeping husband.

I welded some titles into frames and also tried doing some of the full page designs that I like to make (paper lace). It is a bit trickier to do these on the Gypsy than in Design Studio - you need to pay close attention to the "x" and "y" coordinates to line things up properly. I think there are some software updates that are coming soon that will make these easier to do ( the Gypsy I am using is an early release).

Tuesday we went into Siena and did some more exploring - the photo at the top of this post is the Gypsy at the Siena Duomo - an absolutely stunning cathedral with distinctive black and white marble stripes inside and out. The churches are so ornate and full of art. Here is one inside view.

We saw an amazing display of very old illuminated manuscripts in the Duomo. I never realized how thick the gilding is on the page. This photo was taken through glass so I hope you can get the effect.

Here is another floor tile pattern from inside the Duomo. I am fascinated by all of the intricate patterns - this one is actually rather simple compared to many we have seen. This may very well end up as a Design Studio or Gypsy file that I will share sometime after I return to the States next week.

I was on the lookout for some unique paper items and I found this store in Siena. I bought some cards and bookmarks and some beautiful hand made marbled paper. I plan to try cutting some of it with my Cricut and using it in a few titles for my scrapbook pages.

What would a trip to Italy be without a time out for a bit of gelato? We enjoyed some delicious cold treats in one of the many squares - in front of yet another church!

The Gypsy has been a great travel companion so far - it is useful for getting some titles done while still on vacation and it is also a nice diversion - sometimes I like to make designs just to relax and I don't need to pull out the laptop to do this.

One thing I have noticed as I create more and more files is that it is very important to be thoughtful in the way you name and save the files. I haven't found a way to collect the files in folders. They seem to appear in strict alphabetical order, with numbers before the letters and there is one interesting wrinkle.

If you use a Capital letter at the start of the saved file name those files appear in one list that is then followed by the titles that began with a lower case letter - so there are actually two alphabetical lists. I hope that this may be changed by an update so you can keep groups of files together in folders. So far I have about 50 files, but as the list gets longer and longer it will be harder to find the files quickly.

We have a lot more sightseeing to do in the next few days - where will the Gypsy go next?
Sign up as a follower to be the first to know about the Gypsy adventure in Italy:)

Don't forget to sign up to be a follower and also to win 1 of the 2 Gypsies we are giving away HERE

Have a fabulous weekend,

Part 3 - Gypsy Adventure in Italy