Make & Take at Stamp Garden

Last week before I left for the Philadelphia convention, I stopped by Stamp Garden in White Bear Lake:


I met with Dawn, the owner, a very nice lady whom I've known for quite a while. Here she is pictured next to their wall o' ribbon:


My main reason for going there was to plan for a FREE make & take event I'm hosting next Thursday evening, April 9th, from 5:30 to 8:30 PM. We'll be creating a fun card using designs from our Spring '09 collection. Yes, I do already know what it looks like...but it's a surprise and I'm hoping that will tempt you enough to come join us if you're in the area!

If you've never been to Stamp Garden before, I think you'll enjoy perusing their great selection of stamps, cardstock, patterned papers, embellishments, and other goodies:


Did I mention they offer lots of classes, too? Sure do...and you can check 'em out in the Stamp Garden Newsletter, along with a Spring Retreat and their Five Year Anniversary Celebration. So please mark your calendar and visit with me. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Puppy Love

We've got another double show weekend at the Memories Scrapbooking Expo in Columbus, OH and StampScrapArtTour in Philadelphia, PA. I'm heading to the airport in a couple of hours, but first I wanted to post this cute card made with 0695J Puppy Love:


It was created by Deloris, who is participating in Marie's RAK Challenge and kindly sent this photo so I could share it with you. (Great job and thank you, Deloris!)

If you're going to the Philly convention, please stop by and introduce yourself to me. And if you have plans to attend the one in Columbus, say hello to Darby. She'll be demonstrating at the Inky booth there, and I'm sure you'll enjoy meeting her. (Darby, by the way, is one of the original artists from Art Gone Wild! She still creates stamps for AGW and is a super talented lady...besides being a really sweet person, to boot.)

And if you cannot make it to either location, I hope you can find time to stamp up a card for our challenge. Have a great weekend, dear readers!

Turtle Smiles

Instead of making a bunny project today, I decided it was "turtle time." This covered mini lunchbox tin features 0780F Turtle's Flowers and 10247D Smile. It'll be going with me to the show in Philadelphia this weekend as a sample for the booth:


What to fill it with? Anything that makes you smile, of course! Candy is always a favorite (yes, my name is Jackie and I'm a sugar-holic...). But the 5 1/2" W x 4" H x 2 3/4" D size means it's also large enough to hold 3" x 5" index cards, which would be great for a themed recipe collection. Or how about nail polishes and emery boards (decorated with 0289G Manicure Girl and 0176D Too Cute or 0152C Girly Girl) or travel size shower gel and a bath pouf for a cute little spa gift? A set of small photo albums made with the CarlaCraft Binding System would be fun, too!

For instructions on how to make the Turtle Mini Lunchbox Tin (including a printable pattern for the front and back panels), you can download a .PDF file by clicking here.

Update on Marie's RAK Challenge

Hey, Inky blog readers, there's still time to participate in Marie's RAK Challenge and get a chance to win some stamp "candy"! Check out the beautiful cards that Marie herself sent out last week:


Isn't the floofy stuff on 10124J Coneflower in that last card cool? Hope YOU decide to join us and help brighten someone's day with your own creativity!

Bunny-rama, Part III: Bunny Bandage Tin

Have I mentioned how much I like 3-D projects? Cards are great, of course, but there's something about a little book, box, tin, or other non-flat object that really floats my boat. Hare's another bunny project you might enjoy (sorry, couldn't resist the pun!) using a bandage tin box:


This one was really simple to put together, but I did have a couple of things I wanted to mention. The patterned cardstock that covers the tin measures 3 5/16" x 8". After cutting out this panel, trim a 1/16" wide x 2 1/4" long sliver from the long side starting 7/8" from the short edge:

Then place the cut-out sliver part on the back of the tin, just underneath the hinge, when you adhere the panel to the tin. That way, the edge of the panel won't get crinkled when you open the lid. And the green eyelet-style edging along the bottom? I made it with the Fiskars Threading Water Border Punch.

For more detailed directions on the Bunny Bandage Tin, you can download a .PDF file by clicking here.

Update on 11/23/09: Unfortunately, the Bandage Tin has been discontinued by the manufacturer and we are no longer able to get this product in stock.

Bunny-rama, Part II: Clear Pillow Box

It's hard to choose favorites because we have so many wonderful stamps in the entire Inky Antics line (although I don't actually draw any of them myself...our talented artists do that), but 3200L Huggin' Bunny definitely ranks high on my personal list. So today I decided to use him with the 3150D Bunny Hugs saying when making this clear pillow box project:


It was easy to do with my Mini Scor-It Board, and of course I enjoy any excuse (um, I mean "important reason", LOL!) to pull out my colored pencils and Gamsol. If you'd like the instructions, you can download a .PDF file of them by clicking here.

Chicken Hello & RAK Challenge

Recently I received an email from Marie, who wrote the following:

"This has been a very difficult start to 2009. Friends of mine have been diagnosed with cancer; had a family member diagnosed with cancer; have fallen resulting in a broken hip; and suffered the loss of family members. Finding the right card has been a challenge since emotions swing from tears to laughter. The [3504K] Bouquet Chicken with [10777D] Chicken Hi are perfect for cheering people up without causing tears or making light of the situation. These are a few of the cards I will be mailing to help spread a little happiness.

Thank you for creating these wonderful stamps. They are a joy to work with. You can't help but smile when you use these delightful stamps. Your stamps make me happy and I am sure that the recipients will smile a little when they receive these cards."

Attached were pictures of these four lovely cards she'd made:


When I asked Marie if I might have permission to share her note and photos, this was her gracious reply:

"Everyone loves to know that someone is thinking of them. If I can bring a bit of joy into their lives, it makes both of us happy. Please feel free to post the cards and the story. Everyone is feeling stress in some way and sending/receiving cards is a great stress reliever. Perhaps it will inspire others to take the time to send a RAK card to someone."

* * *

Marie's message reminded me that this wonderful hobby can still touch people's lives in a small way. Isn't that one of the coolest things about stamping? It's therapy for both the stamper and the recipients.

So, with that in mind, I wanted to issue a RAK Challenge to our readers in honor of Marie. As an added incentive, I thought it'd be nice to attach a little blog candy to this activity! To participate, think of someone you know who might benefit from a bit of stamping cheer. Send them a RAK card, and then leave a note in the comments section of this post telling us you've done so. (Yup, we're on the honor system here, folks!) You're welcome to send more than one RAK, but each person gets one entry regardless of the number you mail out.

We'll accept entries until Tuesday, March 31st, at midnight Central time. I'll randomly choose the winners on Wednesday morning, who will each receive a cute set of Easter and/or spring stamps from the classic Inky collection with a $20 retail value (our choice, please). There will be one prize package given for every 20 people who participate, up to 5 packages total...so that means more prizes if more people play! Please ask your stamping buddies to consider joining Marie's RAK Challenge.

As usual, be sure to add your name if you post anonymously (in other words, without signing in) or we won't be able to include you in our drawing. It will be the winners' responsibility to contact me via email no later than April5th. If I don't hear from the winners, I won't be re-drawing; please remember to come back and check by the deadline.

Finally, this isn't required to play, but we hope you'll choose to use Inky Antics stamps in your RAKs. If you do, we'd love to see what you make! You can email .JPG files to me at inkyantics@aol.com. I'll post them as time allows to help encourage others to participate. We hope you'll help us spread some joy the stamping way! :-)

Back From Carson

Last night, I took the red-eye flight from Los Angeles and arrived home early this morning. Now that I've had a long nap and caught up with laundry and other housework, I wanted to check in with everyone and share a few photos from the show.

Our Bunny Triangle Treat Box was really popular, and we sold out of the Bunny Maker Clear Stamp Set by Sunday morning. Not sure if my "furry ears" had anything to do with that, LOL:


Wendy Vecchi, who designs her exclusive line of stamps for Stampers Anonymous (one of Inky's sister companies), was kind enough to send me the above picture she'd taken on Saturday. At the convention this weekend, she demonstrated the techniques she uses to create her amazing grungeboard projects.

Our friends Daisy and Joy from eclectic Paperie stopped by and had a special surprise for Ted. Check out the hilarious t-shirt they brought for him:


Ted is the owner of Art Gone Wild! & Friends (which includes Art Gone Wild!, Stampers Anonymous, Darcie's, and Inky Antics). He's my boss, and I like to refer to him as "The Big Cheese." If you have the chance to meet Ted at any of the conventions we attend, you'll quickly understand why! Here's an example of what I mean:


Pretty funny guy, huh! And he's really a good sport about the nickname I call him. So when Joy spotted this shirt, she said she just had to get it.

Thanks so much to Joy, Daisy, and all of our Carson customers. It was wonderful to see you there!

Double Show Weekend

I'm headed to the airport in a few hours to catch a flight to LAX. We've got two conventions this weekend, one in Carson, CA and the other in Rockford, IL. If you have plans to attend either show, please stop by and say hello to us! I'll be back home on Monday and will look forward to posting again then. Hope you all have a great weekend!

What's That Saying?

You've heard that "necessity is the mother of invention." How true! Today's card is a good example:


After cutting out the chick with Nestabilities dies, I wanted to dry emboss the edges...except that one of my embossing pads is in my convention suitcase with the booth and I'd lent the other one to a friend. I thought stitching around the border would be a nice touch, but my sewing machine is at my mom's. So I improvised by using a push pin to punch tiny holes as a border.

Next, I planned to add a pink flower on the sentiment tag. I didn't have that color, however, so I grabbed a cream one and tipped the edges with shimmer chalks instead.

My final touches were applying Diamond Glaze over the egg to give it a shiny finish and stamping the saying "Have an Eggstra Special Easter" inside (unfortunately, both of which you cannot see in the photo, LOL!). Now THOSE items I did have!

Just goes to show you that when Plan A doesn't work, you can always try Plan B, C, or D. Don't you love all the possibilities with stamping?

Stamps: 10750F Chick on Egg, 10743D Sm. Hey Chick, and 10740D Eggstra Special
Ink: Archival Black Ink - Ranger
Printed Paper: PA1344, Pastel Pokey Polka - Darcie's
Cardstock: Simply Smooth White - Prism Papers; Azalea - Paper Accents
Dies: Classic Oval & Scalloped Oval Nestabilities - Spellbinders
Other: Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol & Blending Stumps, Pebbles Shimmer Chalks, JudiKins Diamond Glaze, Flower, and Brad

Congratulations!

Here are your random numbers:

14

Timestamp: 2009-03-09 05:42:57 UTC

* * *

Congratulations to Gina, our winner from Saturday's blog candy drawing. Please contact me at inkyantics@aol.com no later than this Wednesday with your full name and mailing address to claim your prize.

Thanks to everyone who played, and here's wishing you all a great week (full of jelly beans, Reese's peanut butter eggs, Peeps, and all those other sweet treats)!

Bunnies Doing Their Job

We went to Steve's brother and sister-in-law's yesterday for dinner, and I brought the Bunny Tree as a hostess gift. Allyson was excited when she saw it:


Nathan, Tyler, and Abby also thought it was pretty cool:


...especially once they started opening their bunny boxes and saw what was inside. Then they liked 'em even more:


If you want to make a Bunny Tree, you can find directions here. Overall, I'd say it was a big hit, and I think your family members and friends will think so, too! :-)

Hugs To You!

It's slowly been getting warmer here in Minnesota...well, relatively speaking. Yesterday the high temperature was 44 degrees, which is sorta spring-like. It definitely put me in the mood for spring, though. So let's do a quick round of seasonal blog candy!

To enter, leave a note in the comments section of this post telling us what your favorite Easter candy is (or any candy, if you don't celebrate this holiday). I'll accept entries until Sunday, March 8th, at midnight Central time. I'll randomly choose the winner on Monday morning, who will receive this cute pair of stamps:


Here are the details: If you post anonymously (in other words, without signing in), be sure to add your name or we won't be able to include you in our drawing. It will be the winner's responsibility to contact me via email no later than March 11th. If I don't hear from the winner, I won't be re-drawing...so please remember to come back and check. Good luck, and consider yourself hugged today!

Jelly Bean Joy

As you may know, a couple of weeks ago I wrote a tutorial for our Square Box Template stamp. Did you know that we've also got one in a rectangle shape? It's the V1-1223 Rectangle Box Template, and the finished box measures 3 1/8" L x 2 3/8" W x 3/4" D. That means it's just the right size for a gift card, which is handy when you want to present it in something other than an envelope.

Of course, it works perfectly for candy, too...my personal favorite choice, LOL! So I pulled out 3131K Jelly Bean Prayer and 10762H Elegant Cross to make this quick project:


It was a good excuse to buy some Easter candy early this year! ;-) Here's the inside:


The directions to make it are the same as those for the X2-2940 Square Box Template, through step #9. I used the Nestabilities dies again to create the oval and scalloped oval cut-outs. This time I added a ribbon closure instead of Basic Grey's Magnetic Snaps. And it's kind of hard to see in the photos, but I also sponged all the edges with VersaMark for a bit of depth since I didn't have a dye ink pad in the right shade. (Gotta love that VersaMark. It's useful for so many different applications.)

Here's hoping you have a very "sweet" day!

Howdy, Y'all!

Wow, Keri did it again...take a look at this charming card and matching treat box that she made for her older son yesterday:


I just love the "vintage vibe" going on here...very Western and cowboy-like, don't you think? She actually sent it through the mail and signed it as his "secret pal." How fun is that!

Stamps: 10643J Tex, 10598F Western Wear Background, 10544D Howdy, 10599G Bunches of O's, and 10215V Triangle Tree Template
Ink: Frost White Pigment Ink - Clearsnap; Toffee Versafine and Tuxedo Black Memento Ink - Tsukineko
Cardstock: Simply Smooth White, Red Pepper Columns, Sunflowers Dark, Herbal Garden Light, and Tawny Light Prismatics - Prism Papers
Dies: Classic Rectangle, Scalloped Rectangle, Classic Oval, and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities - Spellbinders
Other: Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol & Blending Stumps, Ribbon

Bunny-rama: Triangle Treat Template Tutorial

In preparation for the March website special, Steve and I made bunnies on Saturday night. (Don't worry, this is still a G-rated post!) I should clarify...we made bunny boxes using the Triangle Treat Template stamp and new Bunny Maker clear stamp set. Lots and lots of bunny boxes! Thought you might want to see the process. Let's begin, shall we?

1. On white cardstock, stamp 10215V Triangle Treat Template once and the ear and foot from 2261S Bunny Maker Clear Set twice each. Stamp the toe marks onto the feet, and cut out all pieces. (For the bunny parts, I cut just inside the solid lines. As a speedier alternative to stamping and cutting out the feet, you can punch out two ovals and then just add the toe marks afterward.)


2. Score on all dotted lines of the Triangle Treat box, and use a 1/8" hole punch on the four dots where indicated.


3. Stamp your choice of faces in one of the triangular areas, adding the whiskers if desired. Color in the bunny nose. Use pink chalk on the cheeks and ears.


4. Fold along all score lines. See how the box will close up like a clamshell?


5. Thread a piece of 1/4" ribbon through the punched holes: With the bunny's face toward you, create an upside down "U" shape with the ribbon. Starting on the left outside part of the box, insert the ribbon through the hole. (See lower left corner of photo for the first hole to thread the ribbon through.)

Draw the ribbon across the long way to the opposite end. Thread it through the second hole from the outside again (upper left corner of photo). Pull it across the short way, and now thread through the hole from the inside (upper right corner of photo). Return to the opposite end, and thread ribbon through the fourth hole from the inside again (lower right corner of photo).


This photo shows the same step as above but from a front view.


6. Gently pull the ends of the ribbon until the box closes halfway. Fill it with your goodies. Of course, jelly beans or M&Ms in spring colors would be a great choice. You can also fit three Hershey kisses with the tops of the candy facing the corners. Or what about mini malted milk balls (I love the kind with the crunchy spotted white shells that are only sold at Easter)? For non-candy alternatives (gasp!), stickers or small novelty toys (Oriental Trading is a good source) would work. Making this for a stamping friend? A bunny tree filled with embellishments would make an amazing gift...you could fill each bunny with ribbons, eyelets, brads, paper flowers, etc. I could go on and on!

Once you've filled the box, draw the ribbon ends tight and tie closed.


7. Fold along the dotted lines of the ears, and apply adhesive to the tab on the "right" side. Attach ears near the top of the box. Apply adhesive to the "wrong" side of the feet on the end opposite the toe marks, and attach feet to the lower sides of the box.


You're done! If you're making a bunny tree, you can add a tree topper using one of the sayings from the set that's been cut and layered with punches or Nestabilities dies. Or just create a card to coordinate with your single bunny box.


To see the finished tree, click here. You can also download a .PDF file of these instructions if you wish. Special thanks to my friend Dawn Blomquist for her super creative and adorable idea!

Blogging For Two

Did you know we're a member company of StampScrapArtTour? It's a group of manufacturers who produce stamping and scrapbook conventions. We do about ten of these per year, in addition to the other shows that Inky Antics attends. And guess what, I've taken to this blogging thing so much that I'm now writing for the SSAT Blog!

I just made our very first post today, and there's a fun project you might want to check out...plus BLOG CANDY! Yay! So please head on over and then return here to tell me what you think.