Well, I waited ALL day for my shipment of brand new TAC catalogues to arrive today. I was so excited to see that my package was on the truck and out for delivery at 7:59 this morning. More than 10 hours later, the UPS guy arrives… with an envelope for my neighbor! After some discussion, the poor guy found my package on his truck, and I had the catalogues in my hot little hands!

Unfortunately, I’ve only had time to peruse the catalogue for myself, so ya’ll will have to wait one more day for photos, etc. In the mean time, let me leave you with a few teasers:

87 NEW stamp sets

Scotch ATG Adhesive Gun

2 Brand New Double Sided Exclusive TAC Cardstock Collections

The Cinch!

Ciao and Sketch Copic Markers!

And, much, much, MUCH, more!

Until tomorrow…

Share

On Friday June 11th, as my hubby was riding his bicycle to work, he was hit by a boat. Yeah, boat! The boat was being towed by a pick-up truck, which was passing him on the right. Although the truck made it past okay, the wider boat did not. Hubby was hit, knocked into a parked truck, then after spinning out of control, crashed in the middle of the street. He has a radial head fracture, (broken elbow), torn ligament in his shoulder, and a sprained wrist among other things, all on his right side.

He is fine and slowly recovering, but once again life has been rather crazy as I have become official taxi to the doctor’s, school, etc. (The real irony is that the following Monday we both started summer school, and my two classes are on-line.) I thought I had more posts scheduled to go live, and so wasn’t too worried about Stamper Heaven. Well, not sure what happened, but my content is gone!

I’ll be doing the best that I can over the next two weeks to get ya’ll caught up. (Tomorrow I will introduce you to the fabulous new TAC catalogue!) Keep in mind though, that while I am only taking two on-line classes, they are both full semester courses squeezed into 4 weeks. That’s like 8  classes worth of work, and boy do I feel it!

Share

Okay, I almost couldn’t wait a whole ‘nother week to post this card. It really is random, and is one of the reasons I wanted to add this feature to the Stamper Heaven site.

This week’s Random Stamping card has a definite “quirky” feel & I hope it makes you smile as much as it does me!

I started with Orange Bazzill cardstock that I scored using my ScorPal. I used the ScorBug to create the dashed lines. The stamped lines on the cardfront are from the retired TAC stamp set Quick Background Blocks. I used orange cardstock, Premium White cardstock, and fine grit sandpaper for the cardstock layers.

The lobster of course just cried out for tiny googley eyes, which I glued on with Zip Dry Paper Adhesive. The red Brites Board Clip is wrapped with Orange Scrapper’s Floss. Oh, I also used my Heidi Swap Edge Distresser to rough up the edges of the white cardstock. You know those lobsters claws are pretty sharp!

All stamping is done with Desert Heat Kaleidacolor ink pad. It’s been awhile since I played with my K-pads, and when this stamp set caught my eye on the shelf, I just knew exactly what I wanted to do! The lobster and sentiment come from the Fishy Friends stamp set. (T-3019 from the 2009 Spring/Summer The Angel Company supplement.)

A fun card just in time for Summer!

Share

I wanted to share a card I created using last month’s SOTM (Stamp of the Month set). Now, I know what you’re thinking… the special was for May, so why am I sharing it now?!

The answer is simple. First, the set is sooo darn cute and life was just too crazy for me last month! Second, I wanted to let you know about an exciting change to The Angel Company’s SOTM program. Instead of offering never-before-seen stamp sets each month, TAC will now offer a set from one of the current catalogues at a special price. Starting with the new catalogue to be released later this month, each SOTM set will be clearly marked as such, along with the month it will be on sale! How cool is that?! You can plan your purchases, and in the meantime there will be plenty of other great specials you can take advantage of each month. Best of all, if you missed out on a SOTM, you can still purchase it at regular price, or at a 20% discouunt or as a Half-Price item with a qualifying order!

And lastly, I wanted to introduce another new Stamper Heaven feature called Tool Time. I may not post Tool Time weekly, but I will occassionaly showcase projects using some of the awesome tools available to help you create your very best stamped artwork.

So here’s the card I created with Wonder and Joy. The first tool I used was my ScorPal to create the solid lines and the dotted lines with the ScorBug. The ScorPal makes is soooo quick & easy. There are markings for easy measurements, and you can fit a 12″x12″ sheet of cardstock. The ScorBug has little teeth, kinda like the gadget used to transfer markings onto fabric that creates the dotted look which you can change by how hard you press. Again, very easy! (The ScorPal is great for creating projects with mutliple folds, or to emboss everything from simple lines like the ones on my card, to more complex patterns such as diamond or lattice.)

I used my second ”tool” to color the dots made with the ScorPal and ScorBug, as well as the girl; my Copic Ciao Markers. Now, I could go on and on about how to use these fabulous markers, but for now I just want to give you a quick overview. There are a total of 144 colors in the Ciao line, including the colorless blender. Each marker has two ends, a fine brush tip and a firmer chisel tip. The markers are refillable, so you don’t have to keep replacing the markers you use most often. You can purchase the refills one color at a time, and they will last for years depending on your particular use. The Ciao markers come in several sets, including the 36 marker sets A,B,C, and D that are available through TAC. There are no duplicates in the four sets.

The most fabulous feature of the Copic markers is their phenomenal blendability! I’m still learning, but you can get an idea of the shading possible in the card above. People often ask, “Which of the four sets should I start with?” Honestly, I chose to save up and get all four sets at once. Besides just wanting all the colors, the markers run in “families”. For instance; light to dark shades of a single color. (I used four different colors just for the skin.) Not all the colors in a “family” come in the same set, so while each set does stand alone and still gives you beautiful markers, I personally find I can maximize the blending qualities of the markers by having all four sets. Also, I do know that set A is the most popular beginning set, and that there may be a short delay on availability.

Because the Copic markers are alcohol or solvent based, they do require a specific ink for best performance. Memento ink in Tuxedo Black or Cocoa Brown is recommended. Other inks will give good results, but the Memento never bleeds. Also, cardstock in an important consideration. The Copic markers will bleed through most cardstocks, which is not a problem if you are layering your stamped piece to another piece of cardstock, etc.  So, cardstock is really only an issue if you are not layering.

Complete Supply List: T-3254 Wonder and Joy stamp set, Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Premium White cardstock, Robin Egg #1 & #3 and Harvest #3 MatchMakers cardstock, Purple Paper Posey, ScorPal & ScorBug, Copic Ciao Markers (E50, E51, R00, R11, R05, TR02, C-3, G00, BG23, Y17, YR20, E21, E37)

Whew! Well, there is some really basic info on two great products that I hope you will get to try for yourself! Just shoot an email to me if you have any questions regarding ordering. Happy stamping!

Share

Today’s Scraps ‘n Stash is great example of what you can do with stuff just “laying around” in your studio or craft room! The materials from this card came from my small “stash” of bits that I keep on my work area, cardstock out of my scrap paper drawers, and embellishments & regular supplies that I keep close at hand.

Here are the elements that were all ready to use: The light pink card was cut & folded to A2 size, the sentiment was stamped and mounted to the small pink panel, the larger dark pink panel was embossed and sanded to reveal the white core and was already cut to size.

What I did to complete the card: I layered the dark pink embossed panel to the card front. I cut a green mat for the sentiment, and then layered the whole thing to the card front. I cut the white panel, then stamped and colored the images. I then layered the stamped panel to another green panel that I cut, and layered that to the cardfront. Lastly, I added the buttons just for fun!

Supply list: TB-3154 Label Lingo (TAC Hostess stamp set) & Baby Style (Retired TAC stamp set), Pink Bazzill cardstock, Pink #2 & Green Apple #2 MatchMakers cardstock, White Ultrasmooth cardstock, Pink Petunia VersaMagic Chalk & Tuxedo Black Memento ink pads, Doodlebug Design Tropical Buttons, Copic Ciao Markers (YG03, Y00, RV000, RV02), Sizzix Texturz Embossing Sheet & Big Shot Machine.

Hope this inspires you to take a closer look at the scraps you have in your stash, and to create something that just may surprise you!

Share