Martha Stewart Punches in Stock!

Just before we left for the CHA in Orlando, most of the new Martha Stewart punches arrived, including the new border and corner punches. We put them out right before we left on Sunday. We're still waiting on the "Icicles" punch that a lot of you want. We did get in some "Dripping Goo" punches and the new "Spiderweb" border and corner punches. We played with them at the show and I took a picture of them below. I was pleasantly surprised with how the spiderweb punches worked. To create the design show below, you need the corner punch and the border punch. The designs are sized perfectly for card making. There are several designs and all of those came in last week. Be sure to check them out!

A look inside Impression Obsession

Recently I was in Williamsburg, VA and visited Impression Obsession. I took a few pictures so you can see what it is like to produce red rubber stamps. Most stamp manufacturers press their own red rubber - a process which uses a machine called a vulcanizer. Steel plates are made of the designs and the rubber is pressed into the plates with heat and pressure - creating the red rubber stamps we all know and love. Clear stamps are produced by a different process and most stamp companies do not make their own clear stamps. All the red rubber stamps at I-O are made right there in Williamsburg - hand cut and either put on cling mount or mounted to wood blocks. Mitra Friant, the owner of Impression Obsession was gracious to let me poke around and see some of the new items that are releasing this summer. We can all look forward to her "mega-mount" acrylic mount for large stamps and the fabulous 6x6" square background images she created. This allows you to completely cover the front of an A-2 size card with one pass of the stamp. The mega-mount allows you to get a nice, even image. Hopefully these will be at Stamped Designs by the end of August.

Tilda in a hat...

How can you not like this image of Tilda with a fancy hat from Magnolia? I colored Tilda with Staedtler watercolor pencils and a Dove Blender. The background paper is from Melissa Frances - I distressed the same paper with Ranger's Old Paper Distress Ink, then punched out the flowers. The words are by Hero Arts.

This is a great multi-purpose card that can be easily changed with different wording.

A Favorite Image

We all have them - images we love and can use in many ways. Sometimes I call them "go to images" because they are the ones I pull when I need to make a card and don't have a lot of time. This Leigh Hannon dragonfly image by Impression Obsession is my newest "go to" image. I just love the design and have used it already for birthday cards, get well cards, thinking of you cards, etc. In the card shown above, I also used a leafy vine background image from Printworks and wording from Northwoods Rubber Stamps and colored the image with Copic markers. You can "bling it up" with a little glitter on the wings or use some Twinkling H20s. The possibilities are endless!

Playing with Acetate...

If you haven't done anything with acetate, you really need to give it a try. I prefer the 10 mil thick variety, as it makes the card seem a little more substantial. The cat card in this post (cat stamp by Penny Black, flourish by Impression Obsession) uses acetate as the base card. The flourish is stamped with pink opaque Stazon. The trick with a card like this is that you need to adhere some cardstock on the inside of the card for inside wording. It is best placed behind the front image. You also have to remember that the adhesive on the lowest layer will be visible through the acetate. I prefer to use a Xyron for this.



The snowman card (stamp by Darcie's) has 10 mil acetate run through a Cuttlebug embossing folder. This gives a wonderful effect and does not alter the size of the cut acetate.