Coffee w/ Kristen Powers...The Play Date Cafe Challenge

I've always loved the way Sherlock Holmes

introduced Dr. Watson to people.

He would say....

"This is my friend and colleague, Dr. Watson."

Although I met Kristen Powers when she

came and taught a weekend at my

store over 10 years ago, 

I will always call her a friend first.



Back then, she 'sorta' worked for me...
Now I 'sorta' work for her as she recently asked me
to be a part of her KPink design team.

This week, once more, the tables have turned and I have
asked Kristen to put her artistic talents to work for us
over at The Play Date Cafe as our
'celebrity' guest designer and sponsor.
She not only said yes, but she made 2 different
digital stamps for our design team to play with.

  One thing I really enjoyed about playing 

with this image, was thatI had the freedom to 's-t-r-e-t-c-h' it beyond it's
original shape so that I could make this unique-sized
greeting card.  I chose to do a little
'paper piecing' on mine and oh my goodness,
I went 'BOO' CrAzY on this one!
Let's just say that the copyright date on the back of the
floral paper was dated MM...yes, 2000!
The embossed satin ribbon is nearly 20 years old!
By the way, that ribbon is embossed satin...I wanted a hint of
green to match the greenery in the inspiration photo, so I inked
it with a bit of VersaMagic in 'Key Lime'.
Although it's hard to tell, the flowers and steam are 3-D
and I actually punched holes in the 'lace' doily.

I am SO proud of our design team this week as each one
who used a digital image, tried a different technique to make
it work for them.  So I hope you will stop by The Cafe
and then to each one of their blogs and
find out all the 'unique' things you can do.

It's not just about 'printing' anymore!

 

I'm on her Team...Kristen Powers is Back!

I am SUPER excited to share this latest news!

A very HaPpY BiRtHdAy goes out to

my girl, Kristen Powers.

Not only is today Kristen's birthday,

but it's the launch of her brand new

paper crafting blog, 'kpink'

and I am on the inaugural creative team!

Kristen and I go way back.

She is an artist and illustrator
and has designed rubber stamp
images for many years.

The image above has ALWAYS

been a favorite!

With the launch of  'kpink',

Kristen will be offering fabulous tutorials,
weekly inspiration,and
opportunities to see what

'she's working on in her studio'.

Her newest line of clear stamps and

digital images are available in her 

Etsy shop.
  

How FaBuLoUs are these?!

There's definitely something for everyone

and I can't wait to get started.
I'll be working mainly with her clear stamps
and offering inspiration along the way.

You will recognize some of the other names

on this new team as well :

Sarah Anderson
Amy Anderson
Carol Carter
Barb Kirkwood
 Tammy Tutterow

 You can read more about Kristen and

her fabulous new creative team over at

'Kpink' 

GREAT NEWS!
Kristen will be our guest designer
over at The Play Date Cafe this week!
Make sure you stop by for an all new
challenge this Thursday!

My First Digi-Stamp Experience! How Fun!

Believe it or not, digital stamps is a place I had yet to go...

I admit, I am pretty 'old-school'...in fact, until recently I had yet to really use many of the fabulous clear stamps that have now become the 'stamp of choice'.  When I think of clear stamps, I have to laugh because my store was 2200 square feet in size.  How on earth would I have filled it with those flat, packages of clear images?!

But the switch ended up being very easy.  After all, you can see EXACTLY where you want to stamp your image, can't you!  So imagine the thought of 'printing' an image from my computer?!
I know, I can hear some of you already,
but I am going to ask a favor of you...

Alison, one of our fabulous designers for The Play Date Cafe has started a wonderful new line of digital images and when I saw this one, I KNEW it was the one I wanted to try.  She has a great selection on her blog Stretch N' Bubbles and
I KNOW there is one just for you!
This one is called 'Unity' and that title is what caught my attention.

When I envisioned playing with this one, I immediately saw dimension in my mind, so much of this is 3-D.

I used the Cool Gray No 1 Copic for the shading.
The word stamps, which I thought complimented this image so well, were from the Wordsworth 'Messiah' set.

Alison has such a great variety of adorable and UNIQUE stamps and if you're like me, you may need instruction on how to use them.  I promise, she will walk you through the EASIEST steps in the world to get you started.  Let me know if you give it a try.
I would love for you to leave me a comment and let me know which one...or two...or three....