Society of Stamp & Scrap-aholics

The Kitchen Kamikazi

Our kitchen is, to put it kindly, a nightmare because the former owners were dimwitted, tasteless, and design-challenged. 

Which is one of the reasons our house payment is so much lower than yours (a thought that sustains us as we trudge ever-onward in our remodeling journey). 

Over the last few years we've:

• ripped out the nasty carpeting; 
• replaced the dishwasher, stove, and garbage disposal; 
• installed one of those spray attachment-thingies at the sink; and 
• removed a truly disgusting range hood.

(If you're wondering why this is all we've done in the kitchen, the answer is simple: the rest of the house is just as awful and has required miles of woodwork, carpeting, painting, etc.) 

However, I've decided that I absolutely cannot - NOT FOR ONE MORE STINKIN' MINUTE! - deal with our kitchen as it currently is. 

So check out the BEST piece of real estate in the room, the Park Place of our kitchen:

If the funky wall and ceiling coverings (a type of pressed sheeting that's a cross between pegboard - sans holes - and malamine) aren't enough to turn your stomach, check out that hip, UNCOVERED fluorescent light and the cheap, oddly-cut, and protruding counter. Feeling nauseated yet? Did you notice the cabinets and drawers have no hardware? How 'bout that gaping void between the cabinet and the ceiling? 

So here I am, just sick, SICK of the kitchen, (sick, I tell you!) and determined to do something about it, even though there are no funds for this enterprise. I am digging deep down within myself - tapping into every last drop of creativity and imaginative problem-solving with which the good Lord has blessed me - to come up with an Answer. A Solution. Something. Anything.  

More tomorrow....

Stamp Kissing Challenge at the Lily Pad!

Simon Says Stamp is sponsoring a month-long stamp kissing challenge over at the Lily Pad, and the prize is a gift certificate worth $25 smackers!

If you don't know what stamp kissing is, you'll enjoy fooling around with it....

Bah-dah-BUM!

Yes, I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitresses.

Stamp kissing means you ink up one stamp (usually the larger of the two), and you press the other stamp into its inky goodness (this is the "kissing" part of it). Then you press stamp #2 onto your paper. So what you get is your stamp with another stamp on top of it. 

For my card, I first inked a silhouette stamp of a clump of wildflowers in pink ink. Then I pressed it against my background stamp of newspaper text (inked with brown). My flower clump image was rather sparse in its use of continuous negative space, so my results were rather subtle (compared to what would have happened had I used the silhouette of a person's head, say). But this is one of the nice things about the technique. It's very easy and you can come up with lots of variety.

Unfortunately, the colors in my picture look dreadful because I had to shoot at night with a flourescent light above. (You can always tell when I'm shooting at night: lousy color and the dimpled texture of my fridge as a backdrop!)

Despite the muddy color, you can see the basic idea, I think - you can make out the text best in the big flower on the left. (By the way, remember that if you use a text stamp in this manner, the text will be reversed in the final product.) There are plenty of other examples from the rest of the Design Team on the challenge post.

S U P P L I E S:

Papers: Bazzill, Cougar 80# white; Hero Arts Stamps: S5601, CG172, CL173; Inks: Old Paper, Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap (Ranger Distress), Pink Grapefruit (VersaMagic Chalk), Rich Cocoa (Memento); Fibers: ribbon (unknown), lace (Kaiser Craft); Embellishments: heart gem (Mark Richards), pearls (Recollections); Tools: foam ink applicators

Head on over and enter this challenge before it closes on Thursday, March 29, 2012, 11:59 p.m. EST. Who doesn't wanna win a $25 GC from the best supply store on the Web?!

Thanks for visiting and have a blessed day!

Check Out Carol Theng Chai Foong!

Today's Guest Designer over at the Lily Pad is the very talented Carol Theng Chai Foong! Carol makes ultra feminine cards with a bow to anything vintage, floral, or lacy. She made five new cards to share with our readers, but here are a few of her past creations:

This is what Carol made for her DH for Valentine's Day!

Girly-girl gorgeous!

What clever magnets she made with her spare stash!

Check out Carol's Guest Designer post and her blog, Carol's Paperie, for more great cards!

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!

Memory Box Drift Flowers Card

Hello, everybody!

Today's card features a blend of old and new products. I love how easily Memory Box collections and dies mix and match, don't you? This card can be used for a variety of purposes - just stamp in the sentiment of your choice above the ribbon buckle: Thanks, Happy Birthday, Sympathy, Get Well Soon, Just a Note, you name it!

SUPPLIES:

Drift Flowers Cardstock: (Dill, Eggshell, Antique Gold Soiree Shimmer) Memory Box; Patterned Paper: (Minuet collection); Memory Box Rubber stamps: (Drift Flowers, Distressed Garden Record) Memory Box; Dye inks: (Frayed Burlap) Ranger Industries (Vintage Sepia) VersaFine; Pens: Sharpie; Accents: (gems) K & Company, (diamond stickers) Memory Box; Fibers: (adhesive ribbon) K & I; Dies: (Simple Buckles, Blank Ticket) Memory Box; Tools: (Vagabond) Sizzix

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Make card from cardstock.
2. Cut paper panels and adhere to card.
3. Stamp Distressed Garden Record and Drift Flowers on cardstock, die cut, and adhere to card. 
4. Die cut buckle, thread with ribbon and adhere both to card.
5. Color gems with Sharpie and adhere.

Thanks for looking and have a blessed day!

Virginia's View February Challenge at the Lily Pad!

It's time for a new challenge over at the Lily Pad: Virginia's View! This challenge offers an inspiration photo by our resident muse Virginia Lu, and an OPTIONAL sketch as a supplement to the inspiration photo (you do NOT have to do the sketch - it's just there for our readers who like a little more sturcture).

So here's Virginia's inspiration photo:

And here's the sketch:

The little pearls and ribbons of icing spoke to me, but you know how I can be (clueless), so I turned to the sketch to help guide me. (We anally-retentive nutjobs need all the structure we can get!) 

 

S U P P L I E S:

SWEET STAMP SHOP STAMPS: Melvin & Vernie; INKS: Black Onyx (VersaFine); CARDSTOCK: Water (Memory Box), brown, teal, orange (Bazzill); PATTERNED PAPERS: Lost & Found Sunshine (My Mind's Eye); FIBERS: ribbon (Offray); EMBELLISHMENTS: pearls (Recollections, Mark Richards); DIES: Leafy Branch, Fancy Blossoms; OTHER: pop-dots, glossy accents

T O O L S:

Precision scissors, Vagabond

The prize for winning this challenge is a $25 Gift Certificate from the Sweet Stamp Shop, so head on over and dive in! The challenge ends on Thursday, March 1, at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Thanks for looking and have a blessed day!

The Cracked Pot

I received an email with a cool story a number of years ago and I always meant to share it here but I misplaced it on my computer. I don't know who authored it, and it's probably been around the globe a hundred times, but it was new to me, and I like its message. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Cracked Pot

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hanging on either end of a pole she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. 

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After bitterly perceiving itself to be a failure, it spoke to the woman one day as she was filling the pots with water at the stream.

“I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.” 

The old woman smiled. “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?"

She continued, "That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.” 

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

And it works even better if you can find something inside of you that will bring out the best in them.

I like the author's comment at the end, but I took this story as a personal reminder to examine my own flaws - the ones that embitter me - and try to see if there's a way to use them positively.

So, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

Check Out Karen Baker!

Today's Guest Designer over at the Lily Pad is the very talented Karen Baker! She's the Queen of Clean! She made two new cards to share with our readers, but here are a few of her past creations:

Who wouldn't love to receive this valentine?

Is this gorgeous or what?!

My birthday cards never turn out this good!

Told y'all her cards were terrific!

Check out Karen's Guest Designer post and her blog, The Bald Dragonfly, for more great cards!

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!