~Trendsetting Spotlight on Rhonda Z ~

It's time for the Trendsetting Spotlight! Each Thursday we feature a card made by someone who has participated in the previous week's TSG Challenge. Would you like to be in the Trendsetting Spotlight?? Join in the fun by participating in our weekly challenges posted every Monday!


Happy Thursday, TSG friends! This week we are shining our spotlight on Rhonda Z. Rhonda caught my eye with this little fun scene card made with the Spring Fever set.



I have to say that I think I get just as much kick out of asking these girls to be in our spotlight as they do being in it! It is such fun to hear (or rather read) their excitement when asked. I have to attribute that to the enthusiasm for the stamps!

Rhonda was introduced to the stamping world when her best friend had a Stampin' Up! party seven years ago. Although she confesses that she was a lover of all things crafty before, she says that stamping has been her favorite. Like many of us, Rhonda is a ribbonista. She has walls covered in row upon row of ribbon spools. When she's not using her ribbon to make cards, she is shopping for more ribbon! Go, Rhonda!!

Rhonda has been married 18 years and has three teenage sons. God bless you girl! I can SO relate!

Thanks so much, for sharing your life with us, Rhonda! You can see more of Rhonda's beautiful work on her blog "Pickles Cards".

Hugs!

Wednesday Trends/TSG Tips and Tricks - Holly

What is Wednesday Trends / TSG Tips & Tricks? Every Wednesday the featured Trendsetter will either share a stamping trend that they love or will show you new ways to use their favorite TSG stamp sets! I hope you are inspired by this tutorial, and that you will try it out for yourself! :)

Hi Friends! Holly here :). Today we're going to talk about making your stamps work harder. When I first started stamping, I thought the ''creativity" part of the art came from layout and color, etc. Then one day, I needed a Happy Birthday stamp that had the Happy over top of the Birthday. I didn't have one like that. So, I bravely got my scissors out and cut apart a Happy Birthday sentiment stamp and reworked it to my needs. Ever since then, no stamp is safe! :)

Stamps can be manipulated in different ways. You can:

• Manipulate their shape (unmounted)
• Embellish the image
• Use portions of an image

.... and so much more.

For my samples today, we're first going to see how you can embellish an image. I wouldn't normally think of a flourish stamp as a focal image, but with a little (very little!) work, it can be!



First, stamp your image (solid line).. in a dark ink so that it shows up vividly.



Next, take a gel pen (white used here, but you could use gold or silver as well) and place tiny dots all around the image.


Use your newly embellished image on a card or project. There She Goes' Flourish set used here.



My second sample is using the same "embellish" theory and the manipulation theory. For this sample, I first stamped the sofa image (from Tastes Like Chicken) onto a card base and again on a scrap piece of paper.

Cut the image out of the scrap piece. This creates a reverse mask.

Next, place your mask over your card base image, using sticky notes to hold it in place.


Next, take an image or background stamp (I used the small flower from the Dance set) and stamp randomly over your image.

I then picked a piece of patterned paper that I wanted to use and pulled the colors from it to color my image (leaving the mask in place to help keep within the lines!)



For the "manipulation" portion, I took the "Mi sofa es su sofa" stamp and cut it in half. Then I lined it up on an acrylic block with a bit of a space between it and stamped it onto the base. I then added a few "...." between for dramatic effect.

I used Aleene's Tack It and the tip of a Q-Tip to create the stuffing on the couch.


Voila! There you have it. Next time you look at a stamp, think of a new way to use it!

Happy stamping!

Mother Of All Blog Hop Winners!! / Trendsetter Tuesday- Holly

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated in TSG's Mother Of All Blog Hops! I was absolutely thrilled to see how many people signed up to represent a TSG stamp set in this fun blog hop. Each and every single card/project that the participants made was beautiful and made me so proud to see how much time and creativity went into each one. This was such a wonderful experience that I think that we just may have to make this an annual event! Ok, ok... now on to the winners!

Participant: Wendy

http://www.bondgirlbliss.typepad.com/

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:5
Timestamp: 2010-05-18 05:14:39 UTC

Reader: Arielle
http://snappystamper.blogspot.com/
Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:58

Timestamp: 2010-05-18 04:04:45 UTC

Congratulations ladies! Contact me to find out how to claim your awesome prizes!! For those of you that are curious, you can reread the MOABH details right here to find out about the prizes that were available.
 

**********************************

This week our featured Trendsetter is the wonderful Holly! She is so creative and I love all of the great projects that she comes up with :)

 

(click to enlarge)

TSG55- Make An Impression

This week’s challenge is brought to us by Jessica! She is challenging us to create a card using line art as your background. This is a fun technique to use when you might not feel like coloring or are short on time. Larger line art type images (like the café from Daily Grind) work great! Simply stamp your image in a light colored ink for the background. You can then use dimensionals to add smaller images (that have been colored and cut out) on top of the background image.

To be eligible for the giveaway, you are to create a card that utilizes line art as a background, then go to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the Mr. Linky that is located at the bottom of this challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (May 24th). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the look out to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)

You do not need to have a blog to be able to participate in the TSG Challenges! You can simply add the URL link from your project after it has been uploaded to your online craft gallery. If you upload your card to an online craft gallery, please use the keyword TSG55 so we can check out your beautiful work!

Need some inspiration to help you get started? Check out these great cards made by the following Trendsetters!
~ Sandra
~ Mercy
~ Pam
~ Jessie
~Jessica
Winner from last week's TSG54 Make a Scene challenge: Giovana
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:4
Timestamp: 2010-05-17 06:03:28 UTC


TSG55- Make An Impression Participants

1. Laurel S 2. Chupa 3. rhonda 4. Maki Jones

5. Lori 6. Arielle ~ SnappyStamper 7. Katie Skiff 8. Michele L.

9. IRIT 10. Maureen W.

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Week In Review (May 10-16) & Card Give Away!

What is Week In Review (WIR)?- WIR is where we showcase cards made by the Trendsetters and myself throughout the week. Not only to you get to see gorgeous projects made using TSG stamps, but you also have a chance to WIN one of these cards! Leave a comment on this post and tomorrow (Monday) I will choose a winner using a random number generator. That person will then get to pick out their favorite card and the Trendsetter that created it will send it to them :)

Winner from WIR (April. 26- May 1): Shirley N.
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:11
Timestamp: 2010-05-16 13:11:49 UTC

Holly

Pam

Danielle

Sandra

Sandra

Sandra
Jessie

Jessie

Jessie

Jessica

Jessica

Jessica

Lisa

Mercy

Mercy

Stampbook Saturday -Jessie

Hey everyone and welcome to this week's Stampbook Saturday!! This is my first time helping out with this, and I gotta tell you, it was a TON of fun!! In fact, I was so excited, and I knew EXACTLY what picture I wanted to use, so I spent almost an hour trying to locate it!!LOL!! Guess I still have some organizing to do, huh?
Before I get into what my page is all about, here is some info on just what a stampbook page is!!

What is a Stampbook Page? A Stampbook Page is a scrapbook page created using stamps and inspired by a card. Each week I create a new Stampbook Page to give you ideas on how to use your stamps in a new way and hopefully inspire you to catch up on those family photos that you've been meaning to scrapbook ;)

So, my inspiration piece was this SUPER gorgeous card made by my fabulous friend, Jodi. Jodi has been one of the most amazing friends I have met through stamping, and although we don't get to talk as much as we used to, I still love her to pieces!! I knew I wanted to use the Fairy Good Day set for my page, seeing as how I had my heart set on using this picture, so I looked in the TSG gallery, and found her card, and was instantly inspired.

So, you probably want to know a little bit about the picture, right? Well, it was taken December of 1999, right before Christmas. My mom and late stepfather paid for my siblings and I, and my cousin Mandy(in the middle), to all go to Disney World for a Christmas present....BEST GIFT EVER!! Not only do I LOVE Disney World, it was the Millennium celebration and everything was just spectacular. On this particular day, my two sisters, cousin, and I all went into one of the stores, and in true to us fashion, decided to have a little fun. My picture was taken of my girls wearing their tiaras, and holding their wands.....HAHAHAHAHA!!! I bet I get into so much trouble if they see I posted this.....hehehehe.

I used SU's Baja Breeze, Cameo Coral, and Walk in the Park DP. My images were stamped on MFT Perfect Panels, and then colored with my Copics. My ribbon is from SU, as well.
Well, that is it for me for now!! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my page and were inspired to make one of your own!! There is no better way to preserve a memory, in my opinion!!

Dollar Find Friday and Blog Candy!!

Join us tonight right here in the TSG forum for our Friday Night Chat!

Everyone is welcome and we love to meet new people :)

Hello everyone and Happy Friday!! This week the girls and I stopped in to our local Michaels to see if they happened to have anything new. I love all things sparkly so you could imagine my delight when I found these awesome 4 packs of glitter by Studio G for only $1 each! Not only did they have glitter but they had flock too!! I have been wanting to try using flock for awhile and now I have the perfect reason :)

Here is a card that I made earlier in the week using flock to color the images from the adorable $5 mini set Rain and Sunshine. The images were stamped and embossed in black, I used a glue pen to fill in the images before gently pressing on the flock. (tap off extra)

For this second card, I used the beautiful black glitter with the mini sets Polka Dot Hello, Everyday Greetings and Polka Dot Blooms. I experimented with a bunch of different ways to adhere the glitter to my images and the best way that worked for me was to use my Diamond Glaze.


Here is a quick step by step-

1. Stamp image    2. Add Diamond Glaze    3.cover with glitter and tap off extra

I had so much fun playing with my new goodies that I want to share them with one of our lucky TSG Blog readers! I am going to be giving away 5 packages of glitter and 5 packages of flock!! Would you like the chance to win? Simply comment on this post sometime this weekend. Winner will be announced on Monday :)

Have a great weekend everyone!!