Rubberstamp Madness Column Sharing Holiday Joy

After writing an article recently for Rubberstamp Madness magazine, I was asked if I wanted to write the Card Shoppe column for the Holidays 2022 issue and I was thrilled to do so. One of the cards in the column was mine (see above)  and the other three were by talented card artists who I contacted and got the details on each card as well as their holiday memories and how they share joy with card making. 

I have always believed that as card makers we feel great joy in the fun of creating our cards and then spread that joy out into the world when we send our cards into the world. "Seek joy, embrace joy and share joy" is my resolution all year round.

I created the card shown in the magazine with fun Christmas cactus stamps by Impression Obsession, musical note dies from Dies...to Die For, sand embossing powder from Stampendous and a A2 shaker pocket from Tonic Studios. 

I love to personalize holiday cards for loved ones and made this one for my sister and brother-in-law who live in Arizona. I also love to use humor and changed the words on a Christmas song to say "Have Yourself a Merry Little...Cactus." 

I was honored to be the author and one of the cardmakers for this column, and you can check it out and all the other holiday cards in the Holidays 2022 issue of Rubberstamp Madness available here and in bookstores.

In The Garden Layered Stencils In Different Monochromatic Choices

I am working this week on an article for Rubber Stamp Madness magazine featuring Taylored Expressions In The Garden Mini Slim layered stencils. The cards in the article (to be published in Spring of 2023) are in traditional bright floral colors, but as the stencils were out, I decided to play with mono-chromatic tones. There is no law the leaves have to be green or the flowers in more traditional colors, right? After completing three card fronts with these unique layered stencils (which make 3 cards all at once!), I die cut the card fronts on all these cards with Kat Scrappiness Wonky Mini slimline dies. I love the eclipse look on cards like these, so on this and the next card, I die cut YOU using dies also from Kat Scrappiness, raised them on fun foam and put them back in the card with the pattern flowing from the background into the letters. The stamped sentiment is from Stampendous. 

I decided to try browns and greys in my next two selections of mono-chromatic choices and love how they turned out!

I used a Gina K Designs layered Hello die for the eclipse look on this one. This experiment reminded me to step out of my box when choosing colors for flowers and other elements on my cards!

I am entering the first card in the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday. 

RubberStampMadness Summer Issue Salad Spinner Article

I have some fun news to share - I have an article I wrote and designed the cards for in the newest issue of RubberStampMadness! You can find the issue at their website or at local stamp shops and book stores. I wrote about how to use a salad spinner to create colorful unique backgrounds for stamped cards and here is the first card I shared:

The feather and birds stamp is from Visible Image, the sentiment stamp is from Penny Black and I used Wilted Violet, Peacock Feathers, Wild Honey and Picked Raspberry Ranger Distress Oxide reinkers in the salad spinner. Here is another card I created for the article:

This card features the Baseball In Motion stamp from Technique Junkies and a sentiment die from Karen Burniston. 

I am currently playing with the floating strips technique for an upcoming video, and I tried it with a piece of salad spinner watercolor paper returned from RubberStampMadness with my card samples. The "hi" die is from Spellbinders and I used a pinpoint burst plate from Memory Box on the background of the card. 

I have written many articles in the past for Scrap and Stamp Arts (in addition to doing the card samples), but this is the first time I wrote the copy for an article in RSM so that was fun! I hope you will help print magazines stay in business by buying and reading them.

I am entering the first card in the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday. 

RubberStampMadness Summer 2021 Article Cards

I am honored to share that 4 of my cards are featured in a three page article in the newest issue of RubberStampMadness! Most of the cards feature stamping with stencils and this is one of the cards. I applied yellow and orange ink through a Mini Galaxy stencil from The Crafter's Workshop and then over stamped the gorgeous "Part of the Dance" stamp from Technique Junkies in black ink. As I so often do I completed the card with some of my favorite gems from Gina Marie Designs. 

I love how this card turned out with the combination of a stamped text background created with the Romantic Script Background stamp from My Favorite Things and the layered floral Sweet Spring stencil from Altenew! I added a sentiment strip stamp from Taylored Expressions and more gems from Gina Marie Designs.

I told the author of the article about my cards that this card was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest years ago, but do not have a link to credit the original cardmaker. The beautiful bride stamp set which includes the sentiment stamp is called Haute Wedding Dress from The Ton and the stencil is from Carabelle Studio. After I did the stamping and stenciling, I created a reverse stencil and added Irisdescent Glitz Glitter Gel from Gina K Designs and Therm O Web. 

One of my cards chosen for the article included no stamping or stencils but is a favorite of mine featuring gorgeous dies from Sue Wilson and Creative Expressions in a slimline format. And of course because I almost always do, I added some gorgeous gems from Gina Marie Designs.

I want to thank RubberStampMadness for again featuring my cards and Christina Hecht for her amazing writing of the article after interviewing me.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow Published Card

To be honest, I used to get dozens of cards and articles published in the many stamping magazines that used to be available and never blogged about them. But now that there is only one or two stamping magazines left in the United States, being chosen as featured card artist is a huge honor. One of the themes in the Spring 2020 Rubber Stamp Madness issue is "Stamp A Song" and my "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" card was the first featured card. One of the reasons I like this magazine is that they interview each artist and write such a nice article about the card and artist. 

The stamp I featured on my Somewhere Over the Rainbow card is one of my all time favorites from Visible Image called "Learn to Fly Again." I created the rainbow with my blender brushes from Taylored Expressions. I love that they are color coded and there are no concerns about dark colors remaining in the brush and messing up lighter colors. I also find them so much easier to use to brush on colors than the older blending tools. 

Next issue I am going to be even more excited. HINT: remember the old song "Cover of the Rolling Stone"? Well, if you change the title of the magazine...

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.

Ktichen Sink Stamps Ice Skates Times Three in the Holidays 2019 Rubber Stamp Madness Issue

A few years ago when there were many card making magazines being published in the United States I never blogged about my published cards because there were dozens and dozens each year as well as full length articles in many issues. Now, however, we are down to maybe two stamping/card making magazines in the U.S. and the competition to be published in them is fierce. So now when a card of mine is chosen, I am thrilled and want to share it with you and encourage you to find the issue. The Rubber Stamp Madness Holidays 2019 issue is available on their website here and also in bookstores. My friend Pat Schulz also has two of her cards published in this issue and I encourage you to check out her blog here.

The theme for the article my card is in is "Repeat Yourself", and we were supposed to use a stamp three times on the card. I chose to use the Kitchen Sink Stamps Figure Skates Multi Step Layered Stamps in three different colors hanging up ready to be grabbed for a fun afternoon of skating. I did that as a child, but as noted in the Rubber Stamp Madness article, nowadays my favorite cold weather activity is playing with my stamps, dies and cardstock.