Yesterday I started to panic because my fiance' and I don't have a lot of wedding plans solidified, so I thought I'd go out and buy some stamps and get some prototypes made. The first card has stamps by The Cat's Pajamas and they are like my fiance and I. Sarcastic, :eyesrolling: etc... The second card more suits a wedding invite, and I think suits the colors we've (I've) picked for our wedding. (Sky blue, grey, black, and white). So please help me decide!!

Card #1

Card #2

How can you tell I'm teaching a class using Stamping Bella stamps at my LSS? These are the last two that I will be teaching (the other two are in previous posts) and they all use a masking technique of some sort.







This second card was airbrushed with the Copic Airbrush system and markers. I first went over the whole area with a couple pink colours (R81, R83) then I airbrushed with the BRUSH TIP end of a sketch marker with R37 to get the speckled background.

This is a "2-4-6-8" box. I scored a piece of 8.5x11 at, can you guess? 2, 4, 6, and 8 and on the bottom at 2'. Quick and easy, and that's what I love.

This is just a coffee bag with a window, and it's filled with ribbon because my hubby and I are on Atkins, and I don't have candy on hand to display, but I know many people that would love a gift like this filled to the brim with treaties!!

Play along with the DT at the Elzybells blog!!

I had no idea it was Mini VSN this weekend, but I'm glad there was because I had a little time on Saturday and all day today to stamp, so it gave me something to do. I hope to do a few more challenges before the day's over, but here's what I made so far:

My name is Tobi Crawford and.....

It's here! All of Elizabeth's new stamps are now available in her online store. Run, don't walk over there right now!!!!

I used the inspiration challenge on SCS to...uh... INSPIRE me colour-wise for my card for the second day of Sneak Peeks for Elzybells art stamps.

I went with a black theme with a punch of colour.The red rikrak is actually felt by Creative Imaginations. I love that it's a true, dense red. Yummy.. And it matches R29 exactly. That's good too.

The background is textured with a Cuttlebug folder (the heart one), and I've added scallops to the panel by punching out circle and adhering them to the back of the paper. I used the reverse side of the vine paper (American Crafts) and the background paper is Sweetwater.

Do you LOVE this bear? He's so sweet. Here are some close-ups of the details...

This was the challenge:

*Stamps: Any (bonus points for using a heart image!)
*Paper: any + red...any shade of red
*if you use a punch or die it must be heart shaped
*if you use embossing folders...they must have a heart
*if you use an accessory it MUST be heart shaped or red
*if you use designer paper...yup you guessed it, red or hearts!


How can you tell we're nearing Valentine's Day? Lol.. I used a newly-acquired Bella and this is a card I will be teaching in a masking class at Precious Memories in Langley, BC next month. I can't wait!!! here's a close-up of the bella:
and here's the full card:

Stamps: Stamping Bella, amuse (oval)

Paper: basic grey, bazzill, papertrey (ivory)

Ink: ranger (espresso)

Accessories: bella dots, gingam, copic markers

In the words of my favorite "Friends" character, could I BE more excited? NEW stamps from Elzybells are being released in a couple of days, and I'll be showing you sneak peaks for the next few days until the release date on the 12th.

This card was inspired greatly by Kim Teasdale, and after seeing her cards where she did the paper tole technique, I had to try it myself. Remember those paper tole pictures in the 80's that were so popular? I would like to think this modern-day version is a little better than those... hehe

Here are a couple close-ups:

The other "Elzybelles" are revealing their "sneaks" to so check them out by going to my side-bar where I've listed their blogs. Have fun, and enjoy!

Elizabeth has some great sentiment stamps that I *think* are meant for the inside of the card, but sometimes, if it's a big one, it's nice to feature that sentiment as the main image on the card, especially if it's a really cute font, like this one!


This is a great Elzybells challenge, and you are invited to play along. This week's challenge is:
Pink Blue and Green!
I was fairly liberal with my color choices, but it's still legal! This is one of those cards you could give to a friend for any occassion, or just because... I love those kind of cards.

This sentiment is stamped on a die cut using, surprise, surprise, my SLICE! It's from the Noteworthy cartridge, and it's the 3 inch size. I stamped on Prism cardstock that has a texture to it, so it's not just a flat white paper.


Lot's of product on this card. It was fun to use my stuff. I'm on a mission to NOT HOARD, so this is me, NOT HOARDING!!!

Supplies: Paper: SU! (Kraft), Prism (White), Crate Paper; Ink: Ranger (espresso); Stamps: Elzybells; Crate Paper die cuts, Making Memories Slice Noteworthy Cartridge, Sewing machine, thread.....

I love looking at pictures of people's well-organized stamping space, and I LONG for that one day. But the reality is that I will probably never have one of those beautiful spaces because 1) I will never have enough $$ to make it happen, 2) My hubby and I aren't handy, 3) If we ever moved to a house with more bedrooms it would probably be because we were having another child etc.... SO what I have to do, is do the best I can, with the money that I have available for this craft, in the space that I posess. This is how the room is set up:
I took pictures of my space being used. This is how it looks on a daily basis. Granted, I should have dumped out the garbage bin before I took the photos, this is pretty much how it looks. I just switched some things around because I got a Slice for Christmas and I wanted that on my table, and I've been having problems with my copics, so I moved them away from the window and heat register and onto my Cropper Hopper cart....

Click on the pictures to see a larger version....
































I am frequently commissioned to arrange/compose pieces for choir, and I have a portable keyboard that's just for inputting music into the computer. It fits on my table when I push all my craft stuff to the side..

So this works for me! Ian wishes that this space could have been a library/reading area because he owns literally thousands of books, but I was like, I will use this area on a daily basis, and besides, LOOK AT ALL OF MY CRAP!! So I won.. hehe

It was a process, I tell you. Stamp-a-ma-Jig to the rescue, that's for sure. I'll give you a play-by-play in case you don't know the joys of the SAMJ.

I started off thinking, this will be easy to stamp a pattern, i won't need the SAMJ. I'll just hold the stamp straight. Nuh-uh.. not happening..

This is the background about half way through. 
Here's what the stamp looks like. It's called "Madiera" by Amuse.
Stamp the image on the clear-ish image sheet by aligning the SAMJ along the side of the clear sheet and stamping in the corner of the block.


Place the image on your paper where you want to stamp.

Take the image sheet away, ink your stamp, then place your stamp in the corner of the SAMJ. Voila!