Snowy Day

We have about 14" of snow in our yard today!!! It's absolutely incredible! I mean, I know we live in Maine, but usually a storm this late comes and goes and melts within days . . . this one will be here for a while as we're not supposed to temps about the 40's for at least the next several days! Oh boy . . . guess we'll be stuck inside stamping! :)

On an up note! My new set from Papertrey Ink arrived yesterday!!! I was so excited to see that box - they are my very first acrylic stamps and so far I LOVE them!! This new set, Green Thumb has 40 images! There are so many elements to it, I simply love the multiple sizes of the flowers and strawberries. I love the way the acrylic just clings so nicely to the blocks, it's amazing!! And stamping with clear stamps - can that get any better?? It was so easy to line up the images where I wanted them, to add leaves to the stems, to put the peas in the pod (or actually put the pod around the peas)! You know I love SU and I love their stamps, but I am having fun with this whole new world! LOL!

Ok, so here are 2 of the projects I played with yesterday. I loved the SCS Color Challenge from Tuesday, Basic Black, Real Red & Kraft so I decided to try it since the tips sheet that comes with the Papertrey set said that pigment inks work well with acrylic stamps. They were right, the coverage with the craft ink was so nice, no gaps or spots in the white - love it! The other thing I liked was that the set has several different lengths of stems and that when you put them on the acrylic you can bend them anyway you want - so making curvy stems was a snap! This card isn't too involved, but I love it! I used some ribbon that came on a Christmas package I received so I have no idea where it came from. I used black brads for the flower centers and, you can't tell from the photo but, I distressed the edges of the black mat behind the flowers.

Cardstock: Kraft, Real Red, Basic Black

Stamps: Green Thumb (Papertrey Ink)

Inks: Real Red, Mellow Moss, White - all craft, Black Stazon

Accessories: Vintage brads, ribbon

This is the next card I played with. I love the cute little pea pod and peas - oh and did I mention that there are about 9 different sentiments included with this set! Again, this card was very easy but I used classic pads this time because the color was a bit brighter than the craft pads. The card is 4x4 and I just used Whisper White for the base. The next layer also uses white but I did some DTP (direct-to-paper) around the edges with Old Olive to make it stand out a bit. Then I used one of the peas and the other 2 dots that came in the set to make a background with Old Olive and Certainly Celery. It was sooooo easy. Again, the tip sheet said to stamp the peas first, then line up the pod around it and with the clear stamps it was too easy! I simply matted that, tied on a ribbon, used my word window to punch out the "sweet pea", popped them both with some dimensionals and viola - a cute little baby card! I might have to play around with this a little more . . . will be needing birth announcements soon! :)

Cardstock: Whisper White, Old Olive, Certainly Celery

Stamps: Green Thumb (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Certainly Celery, Old Olive

Accessories: Celery grosgrain, dimensionals, Word Window punch

Ok, this post is getting long, but one more thing, I want to share this beautiful card I got from Alex over at Sillybirds Stamping Diary. Thank you Alex, I love the blingies on this great card!

Have a great day everyone - if you have warm, sunny weather enjoy it and send some our way!!! :)