Graduation and Congratulations cards

Hello friends!
I hope you are enjoying beautiful weather this week!  May brings graduations (2 at my house this year!) and weddings, so we wanted to bring you some congratulations and graduation cards!
Deneen starts us off using our HYMN GIRLS: DECEMBER which has a blank book she stamped 2014 using LABELMAKER ALPHABET!  Love the layout and colors used in this card!!  She used PERFECT SENTIMENTS for the 'congratulations' sentiment!
Deneen's card inside and out:

Belinda shared this cutie using our OWLS  stamp set:

Chere used HIS PLANS FOR YOU with our MORE PERFECT SENTIMENTS stamp sets:

Jamie made this beautiful feminine card using HYMN GIRLS: MAY:

Kary created this lovely card using our Hymns: Church and Houses stamp set and the LABELMAKER ALPHABET:

Shanta did some background random stamping with JOURNAL SHAPES and used LABELMAKER ALPHABET for the sentiment:

Thanks so much ladies!  Our May New Release will be here in 2 weeks...can't wait to share all the great new stamps with you all!!
Have a blessed day and we'll be back soon with more inspiration for you!

Blessings,
Antoinette and the Inspired Stamps DT
www.inspiredstamps.com   shipping MOST ORDERS out same day they are placed!

Stamping Mixed Media: Day 7: paper quilting on a canvas

 Hello friends!
Today I have some paper quilting to show you on a canvas.  I chose papers from this set:

Then I punched hexagon shapes out of the paper:

 stamped with the Inspired Stamps JOURNAL SHAPES and inked the edges:

Added a verse:

 placed them on a yellow piece of paper in a quilted shape (you could sew these with thread if you wanted a truly quilted look):

And stamped a sentiment from PERFECT SENTIMENTS in the center! 

I added paper flowers, stickers, and metal embellishments! 

Are you trying something new?  If so leave us a comment and share what you are doing!

Blessings,
Antoinette

www.inspiredstamps.com

Sneak Peek of Thursday's NEW RELEASE + Mixed Media Day 5

 Hello friends!
Above you are getting the first sneak peek at a bunch of new stamps coming to the Inspired Stamps online store on Thursday--we're responding to emails because you want these NOW, so instead of Friday releasing them, we'll release them Thursday (the earliest we can get them in for you!).  The one above is a $4.99 His Little One: Summer Girl stamp that Deneen has colored SO beautifully 3 different ways to show you how versatile she is!  Wait until you see all the other HLO stamps that are joining her this Thursday..totally adorable!! AND we'll have a number of new Scripture sets too, so be sure to come by on Thursday and see all the new sets and their artwork!!  I know these won't stay long in our store!

Next up is Day 5 of our Stamping Mixed Media and I wanted to go simple for those of you who are not ready to add lots of product and layers:  Just a stamp and acrylic paint (with a little bit of glitter tape and bottle cap letters):

 I used the JOURNAL SHAPES stamp set to stamp these hexagons (I may have to do a paper quilt with these for you tomorrow!  LOVE hexagons!)

Next I chose the colors I wanted to paint them: acrylic paints work well but you can use other types!

 Next I painted!

Finally added the bling and called it a card!  Too much fun to do and so simple!

Have a great night and I'll be back with both day 6 and 7 of our Stamping Mixed Media tomorrow!

Leave us a comment and let me know what you think about our new release HLO: summer girl!!

Blessings,
Antoinette

www.inspiredstamps.com

Sunday Scripture Challenge: 52 Weeks of Gratitude: Week 1

Hello Scripture Sunday Challenge Participants and all who have stopped by today!!

Today we BEGIN our 52 Weeks of Gratitude using ALL forms of art from simply making a list of all you are grateful for each week to scrapbooking, art journaling, and even card-making or painting!  Whatever YOUR preferred form of expression....You are invited to join us!

If this is your first time here, please click on the LINK HERE to go to our information blog post about what we are doing!  Here are the Inspired Stamps Scripture Stamps we are using in January (February's list will be up next weekend along with a special if you purchase them as a set).  We have under 20 of each of the January stamp sets left in stock if you are interested in purchasing them, please head over to the online store soon:
January Scriptures ($3.99 at www.inspiredstamps.com)
Jan 6:  Psalm 118:24
Jan 13 Psalm 92:4
Jan 20 Psalm 47:1 (down to 8 left in stock for this set!)
Jan 27 Psalm 28:7 

I am making my pages to use during the week and will share the finished journaled in photos of each of my projects next week. I want to share Belinda's beautiful card for this week, as she is focusing on card-making this year to celebrate gratitude:
Visit Belinda's blog by clicking HERE:

Here is my Scrapbook Journal using our verse for this week and the following products:

 Here is page ONE, which will have one day's GRATEFUL notes on it during.  I will always leave room in case I want to add a photo or other item that will help me remember or describe the gratefulness for that day during the week.

This is page two and I will jot down what I'm grateful for in each box throughout the week (so this will cover the other 6 days; page one will focus on 1 day).  I used Psalm 118:24 and for the lines I used Journaling Shapes for stamp sets.

Here is an art journaling page I also did this week as a sample for you to see an Art Journaling page.  Art journaling can involve any medium, but differs from collage (which can be part of art journaling) and scrapbooking (papers can be part of art journaling) in that there is usually more paint/ink/techniques in an art journaling page than a scrapbook page or a strictly collaged piece (but, of course, not always).  I used glimmer mists, stencils, white paint, white mixed medium paper as based and matted with card stock.  I also use a Bic White Out pen for my white dots over the black (a great option and not expensive) and a black sharpie marker for the edges and pen work.  Here are the 2 pages side by side:

 The first page is done, but there's still room for me to journal around if I felt the need later this week :o)  I used Art Journal Words and Faces stamp set for the word 'thankful' around the edges.

 This page has glimmer mists and white paint, and I got that great light blue color from using a little bleach on the dark blue glimmer mist using a paper towel.  Loved that!  I drew squiggly lines that I will journal on this week.  I wanted you to see a watercolor page I did before with this journal technique so you can see where this is headed:

I used pencil lines on this instead of the obvious black lines I'm doing on my Art Journaling pages above.  The key to making this look good is to make EVERY letter start at the TOP line and end at the bottom line.  Yes, even LOWER Case letters.  If you haven't tried this, I highly recommend it.  It always looks good when you are finished!  And you can HIGHLIGHT some words by using a thicker marker (see REJOICE and TRIALS above in the sample I provided).

We have several of our Design Team that are joining us on their blogs with inspiration for you each week so be sure to click on the Design Team members names to the left of this blog post (Jamie and DeNetra are just 2)

Please leave us a comment and let us know what you think, if you are joining us, or just that you stopped by to see us today!!  

CHALLENGE for week 1:  Create your first week GRATEFUL artwork right along with us and LINK YOUR POST below on Mr Linky (not a general blog address, but a link to your actual post or photo if you are using a photo sharing album: like flickr).  We will be choosing at least one winner this month, to get a stamp set of YOUR choice sent to you FREE from the Inspired Stamps online store (we'll even pay shipping!).  We'd love for you to use our stamps, but it's not required to win!

Tuesday and Thursday we will have our Design Team here with some GORGEOUS CARD ARTWORK to share, so be sure to stop back by to see us! 
Blessings and thanks so much for joining us today!
May you be ever aware of each day's blessings,
~Antoinette and the Design Team

www.inspiredstamps.com

GETTING READY for 52 Weeks of Gratitude (Starts Sunday!): part 4 Art Journaling!

Hello friends!
I cannot WAIT for Sunday where we will BEGIN our 2013 Sunday Scripture Challenge of 52 WEEKS OF GRATITUDE!!  If you haven't heard of this until now, please go to our first post and we have linked ALL of the GETTING READY parts 1-4 there:  CLICK HERE   If you are joining us in any capacity (weekly, monthly, or as you can) please copy and paste this to your blog or your facebook page to let others know what we are doing so they, too, can join in the fun:

Ok, today I have a really fun post to share with you!  This is my Art Journaling post.  Art Journaling is journaling (where you write your thoughts, what you are thankful for in our case, etc.) but some or all of that message can be done with art.  Any art.  Lots of art.  Just a little art.  And art is truly in the eye of the beholder, so do what YOU LOVE.  Do you love to draw? Then draw.  Color? Then color.  Play with paint or airbrushing Copic markers or collage?  Then incorporate that.  Seriously, this is for YOU.  

I love all of the things I mentioned above plus I do miniature clay sculptures and dabble in lots of mediums, so I am going to change it up as the mood strikes!  You can too! And remember, you never have to fill a page with color.  A simple corner with color and your Bible verse can be STRIKING in its beauty.  What do you have time for?  What is your style?  Those should be your guides.

Ok, I used acrylic paint, distress inks, a tag that I embossed and one I didn't, and a sturdy piece of cardstock for this one and of course, my sample Bible verse.  I am keeping all my Gratitude Artwork in a Simple Stories binder (you can do whatever you like; this is just my personal choice):

Here is a peek into my Simple Stories Binder (from now on referred to as my Grateful Binder).  So I wanted a piece of mixed media paper to fit inside a page protector AND be sturdy enough to handle all my mixed media.  If you are doing an ART JOURNAL, you may want to get the Mixed Media bound books you can find at your local art/craft stores (Joann, Michaels, Art&Education, etc all have them).  One note about the size you choose:  start small.  Unless you are sure you want an 8x10 or larger, remember it's gonna require more material (usually) and more forethought to complete a large page than a small one.  I love to work in the 8x8 size, but that is my preference (and I love little bitty journals, too).

I started my page off by adding some acrylic paint with a dry brush (love the lines the brush bristles make!):

 I usually use a permanent ink (like StazOn) when I know I will be wetting the paper after stamping:

 I used the stitching stamp from BIND AND STITCH and the swirls from JOURNAL SHAPES

 Above you can see the blue paint and some white paint I added to give it a little more dimension

 I use the 12x12 Scrapbook papers you can get that are designed (see above) and cut them into fourths to use as masks for my color mists.  I used the Glimmer Mist over this 2 times on my page and then dried it with my hair drier. 

 Next I used my distress inks to ink around my stamped Bible verse and the page.

 I took a kraft tag and embossed it and distressed it with the distress inks (love this look!)

 A couple of options for writing out what you are thankful for.  You can make 2 art journaling pages as shown above and then a black Sharpie marker to write out on one page your grateful items in a list or fill up the page in a journal fashion OR if you want to do the journaling privately, you can attach a smaller tag to the back using twine (like I did above). You could attach a tag for each day or just the one for small private notes.

 I added a little bling, my matted bible verse on the tag, and used a metal clothes pin to 'attach' the tag to the page (so I can take it off with ease to turn it over and write on my journaling tag).  OR

You can put the page into the page protector THEN attach the tag to the outside of the page protectore with the metal clothespin at the top of the page.  This would make your book a lot more interactive and dimensional.

I'll be back tomorrow with a CANVAS idea you may want to do if you love to make canvases and want to have 52 complete with Bible Verses at the end of the year!

Be sure to leave us a comment if you plan to join us and let us know what art form (scrapbook, card, art journal, pen and paper, etc) you plan to use!

Thanks so much for joining us AND for sharing our 52 weeks of Gratitude with your friends!
Blessings,
Antoinette

www.inspiredstamps.com

We ship MOST orders the same day they are placed!  We still have a handful of January's Grateful Bible Verses left, if you are hoping to get those, please order soon!  Those are listed in the first post.

Getting Started in our 52 WEEKS OF GRATITUDE challenge: part 2 Artist Trading Cards

 Hello friends!

Today is part 2 of our GETTING READY series of posts that will provide ideas/samples as we get ready to begin our 2013 Scripture Sunday: 52 Weeks of Gratitude!   If this is your first time here, be sure to head over to our first 2 posts that will explain more about the challenge we are starting. 
CLICK HERE for our 1st post detailing what and why we are doing this

CLICK HERE for our part 1:  Scrapbook focus

Today I am showcasing the Artist Trading Card option.  Artist Trading cards are 2.5" x 3.5" and you can use any type of card base for them.  Many people just cut cardstock to the correct size, but you can purchase these.   Here are a few samples I found (watercolor, bristol, kraft, off-white cardstock, white cardstock, canvas, etc):

We will be using Inspired Stamps for all the stamping and verses, but this is not a requirement for you to participate with us.  You are welcome to use the verses we have for each week or use another verse or quote that you find more meaningful to you, or just print out your own typed verses.   Here are the stamps and the verses we will use for the month of  January.  Each week this year will have a different Psalm verse:
Jan 6:  Psalm 118:24
Jan 13 Psalm 92:4
Jan 20 Psalm 47:1
Jan 27 Psalm 28:7 
You can find all these stamps for $3.99 each by clicking HERE or going to www.inspiredstamps.com

If you do ATCs (Artist Trading Cards), you can create the front (I used2 Cor 9:15 for this week's sample verse and the Snowman from our SNOWMEN set) and then briefly write what you are grateful for each day on the back (The word THANKFUL comes from the ART JOURNALING WORDS AND FACES set and the lines are from the JOURNAL SHAPES set). 

 Here's a close up of the front followed by the back:

So what do you do with the ATCs?  You can store them in pocket protectors (baseball card protectors fit these), put them into a recipe box,  hang them on an ATC spinner (shown below):

Or put them into the hanging dividers(shown below):

Leave us a comment below if you are joining us for the 52 Weeks of Gratefulness challenge!  Let us know if you plan to do ATCs!!

I'll be back tomorrow (Friday) for the CARD MAKERS sample!
Blessings,
Antoinette

www.inspiredstamps.com