Tag: budget stretchers

Art Inspiration, Books, Journals & Albums, Budget & Stash Stretchers, Scrap Attack

Tag Journal Tag 1 Scrap Attack

Ruth Cooper

Hi Friends!

I have been busy, busy reorganizing in the studio. Over 37 years of stamping, I have a lot of stamps, I stopped counting when I knew I had several thousand. Well 10 boxes, mostly wood mounted, are walking out the door soon. I reduced from 28 drawers full to 19. I kept only what I really love using or for the type of art I am planning to do. The remaining 19 drawers are organized by type & labeled. It’s wonderful!

I started following the Scrapbooking with ME YouTube channel a few months ago and decided to work on her newest project to create a Tag Journal. Of course I watched the first video then promptly went rogue. I plan to make 2 one using my huge pile of scraps from the Bo Bunny Believe & Faith Collections and a Christmas one from a paper pad I received as a gift a couple years ago.

Miss E created a swing tag for the first tag but I created a booklet tag more less following her design.

Cover with 2 pockets
Cover Tags
Inside of Booklet with lots of journaling space
Back Cover
Back Tag flips up for more journaling space.

It was lots of fun to pick through the scraps, design the booklet and add some tags. I will add some more embellishments as time allows. I loved switching to the inverted corner punch or ticket style punch for my corners to change it up a bit.

I hope you are having a fabulous Labor Day Weekend.

Blessings!

Art Inspiration, Budget & Stash Stretchers, Cards

Valentine Smile

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

You guessed it, it’s another Bits & Pieces card.

I grabbed the pieces to make this Valentine/Love card. I like to make my heart cards versatile for either the holiday, just to say “love you” or for an anniversary.

A classic red & black color combo. All the pieces came out of the box, I just had to die cut the sentiment down & add a card base.

In case you were wondering, this is a picture of the infamous Bits & Pieces box. It’s a 12 x 12 Iris Scrapbook case. I could probably make cards everyday for a couple of months with this box, just add card bases.

While fine tuning my schedule, I am going tentatively scheduling Wednesdays to be class/tutorial day where I catch up on some of my classes or try a tutorial I’ve been wanting to try. It’s important to try new things & keep skills up to date.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bash That Stash, Budget & Stash Stretchers, Cards, Challenges

Bash That Stash Polka Dots

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

It’s Monday and that means my heavy cleaning day so not as much time for art, which is why I am working on trying to manage my days a bit better.

Over on the Caffeine Fueled Chaos and Card Making Group they started the year with a “Bash That Stash” challenge. The premise is to use what you already have on hand. Some of us have bigger stashes than others, LOL! I certainly do.

Today’s challenge was Polka Dots and since I wanted to still do some quick creating, I dug into my infamous Bits & Pieces box.

I often test my embossing folders on plain old white cardstock so have a stack of them on hand. This one happened to have a swiss dot background, instant polka dots. I didn’t even have to dig in the patterned scraps for polka dot paper, the red was within reach. A quick sentiment, a little Stickles & instant card flat enough to mail easily. Which is important with rising postage costs.

I will probably only participate in the challenges now & then but I am definitely working on using more of my stash this year all around.

Have a Fantastic Week!

Art Inspiration, Budget & Stash Stretchers, Cards

Card Candy

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

I hope you are enjoying preparing for Christmas or other winter holidays you may celebrate.

I recently created some card candy for a small holiday swap with my fellow admins & mods on the Let’s Make Card group. I haven’t made card candy in ages.

If you are wondering what card candy is…… it’s basically premade card elements to make a quick card. Most of the work is done you just pop it onto a card with maybe some background paper & it’s ready to give or send.

We were to make 2 sets, one Christmas themed & one everyday based on a set of questions everyone answered. You will see 2 duplicate pieces here from my recent Winter Sparkle post. I was trying out 2 different blues and decided why not make the 2nd set for my card candy. You will also see in a couple of days that the snowman in buffalo plaid inspired a card for our last card class of the year.

I was going for a country/nature theme for the second set. I actually pulled out the infamous bits & pieces box for ideas. I was thinking that maybe after the first of the year I should spend a week with the bits & pieces box & see how many cards I can make. Might make a good New Year’s challenge.

Try revisiting an old technique or card making style & see what you can create. It helps keep your skills sharp & new materials give things a whole new look.

Thanks for stopping by!

Budget & Stash Stretchers, Cards, My Favorite Things

Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses

Ruth Cooper

Hi Angels!

I have been puttering around & working on projects as well as contemplating some possible changes for the new year.

I follow Sandy Allnock on FB and remembered after seeing one of her posts that I missed last month’s project with My Favorite Stamps. So I went looking to see if the download was still available & it was. So I printed it out and followed along with Sandy’s tutorial.

Here is the result.

The MFT stamp set is named Warm Hugs and Frosty Kisses and this is just one of the images and a sentiment. It’s so nice of them to offer a digital image to try and is good marketing. I opted for a turquoise balloon instead of the red in the tutorial. I wasn’t too sure about the clouds at first but a little softening of them and they look pretty good.

I really appreciate these simple free classes. They don’t take a lot of time, are lots of fun and I’m learning a few new coloring tricks as I go along.

Some of our budgets have taken quite a hit this year but there are plenty of free/inexpensive classes & tutorials available if you start searching on Youtube & Pinterest. When you can afford it, support your favorite artists and companies.

Find something that looks like fun & play along. For a lot of them it’s pretty easy to use what you have on hand and I always encourage in my classes to change up the colors and layout to suit your taste. Then it’s more your own creation and not just a copy of the original.

I just checked and Sandy will be live with My Favorite Things Stamps this Friday. Head on over and check it out. The link to the tutorial above will take you to Sandy’s page.

Thanks for popping by.

Budget & Stash Stretchers, Cards, Fun Stampers Journey

February Card Buffet Part 2

Ruth Cooper

Welcome back!

Today I am posting the last 4 cards from my February Card Buffet.  Check them out:

 

Aren’t these Color Cross cards beautiful? There are 2 because I colored them differently with the Confectionary Days Panpastels within the silver embossed outlines. The lovely flower card was made with the Amazing Day stamp set from the Bloom This Way mini catalog & colored with the Color Burst pencils.

 

I was trying to incorporate a couple of cards into the set that could easily be used for guys. The pup yesterday & the world card today are what I came up with. Again if you are not a Bloom Box subscriber, you will be waiting a couple of more months before  you can order the My World stamp set. It looks gray but the mat for the globe axis is brushed silver for just a touch of elegance on this card. The Bunny Bum was just pure fun. Unfortunately I had nothing on hand to create a fluffy white tail. The sentiment is from Happy Eggster which is a free Bloom Benefit. With every $50 you order, you can pick a Bloom Benefit for free all year round. We all like bonus & free items! Bloom Benefits include stamps, dies & embellishment pieces, there are several to choose from.

I hope you enjoyed this look at February’s Buffet cards. Think about joining in on April 29th for the next Card Buffet.  For March 25th, I will be hosting an RG Presents Spring into Summer event instead of a card buffet. There will be more RG Presents events this year. Stay tuned for more info.

Do something creative this weekend!
Cards, Classes, Fun Stampers Journey

February Card Buffet Part 1

Ruth Cooper

Welcome back to my blog!

I’m  running a bit behind my goal to get 2 blog posts in a week but determined to make this week work. Life is still just upside down enough that I also am not getting my samples done as early as I’d like but I’m improving.

Most months of 2017 I will be offering a Card Buffet on the last Saturday of the month. It will include 8 cards for $1 each & you can make as many as you like. Now in order to keep it budget friendly these are simple, basic cards with just a touch of WOW. Also at this price point everyone is required to bring their own adhesives. It works really well & leftover card kits are modified either for Cards for the Troops or the Salvation Army to bless others.

In this post, I am highlighting the first 4 cards.

   

These cards feature our FSJ ATS stamps, perfect size for quick cards as well as Artist Trading cards and very affordable for starting your stamp collection. I also used our newest embossing folders for a bit of dimension. Fun! You can check out the newest products in the Bloom This Way mini catalog, but you’ll need to hurry as this is the last month before the Spring into Summer catalog launches April 1st.

  

These cards are so yummy! I cased the butterfly idea from a fellow coach because it’s so pretty. If you are not a Bloom Box subscriber you are going to have to wait a couple of months to purchase the butterfly. Bloom Boxes are so much fun & at $24.95 plus shipping a great way to treat yourself to a new stamp set & 4 cards kits, plus learn some new techniques each month. Bloom Boxes are a 6 month minimum commitment. You’ll get to play with brand new stamp sets a full 3 months before they are released for everyone to buy.

I used Panpastels on both of these cards for the fabulous bold color. On the banner card, I stamped the background in clear pigment ink & then colored with the Panpastels. The butterfly is stamped in Black Licorice & then colored.

Thanks for popping by! Stay tuned for Part 2 of the February Card Buffet.

Budget & Stash Stretchers, Cards

Budget & Stash Stretchers #1

Ruth Cooper

snowman-Christmas

 

Purchasing a stamp set can be an investment if you are on a budget. It is helpful if it can be used for different occasions or holidays. This Sweet Snowman by Penny Black is a great example of versatility. I created these as Christmas cards but this little guy can also be used for a winter birthday, anniversary or congratulations. Or if you know someone who just loves snowman, he can easily be used all year. So next time you pull out a stamp set or consider purchasing one, consider what types of cards, occasions or even mixed media art they might be used in. An old artist caveat is>>>>if you can use it at least 3 different ways it is probably a good purchase.

I will endeavor over the course of the next year to provide ideas for using what you have, shopping your stash, stretching your dollars and thinking outside of the creative box. You don’t have to always purchase the latest/greatest new or most expensive art supply on the market. Believe it or not, I enjoy using my Crayola Pencils just as much as my Prismacolors. One is very affordable, one is on the pricey side but I can usually get similar results with both. These snowmen were colored with a Crayola Pencil Set. My secret to colored pencils is to have a good blender pencil on hand to smooth out my strokes. Easily makes my Prismacolors & Crayolas look surprisingly similar in results.

I have often heard it said to buy the best you can afford. After a lifetime of creating, I am not convinced that’s a good statement. I can often get similar results from all price points of art supplies. There are some cheap supplies that are truly cheap & you can’t do much with them. But there are some that produce fabulous results for little money.  Now if I was a fine artist I might be more concerned about pigment levels & quality. But I’m not Picasso nor do I exhibit in galleries. I create for the joy of creating & blessing others.

Stay tuned in the weeks ahead for more Budget & Stash Stretcher ideas.

Find some time to be creative this week.

coopersiggy