Digital What?

Digital stamps! If I took one thing away from the blog hop over the weekend, it was the awesome new (to me) technique of digital stamping. And boy, do I have big ideas about THIS!

Digital stamps come from all sorts of websites and ETSY stores and blogs. I have found a couple of fantastic ones. Hambo Stamps is a great one - and one of the first that was linked on the blog hop. Dustin Pike also has a great selection of stamps. I am loving his style. :)

So the technique of digital stamping - involves collecting or buying these little digital images or "stamps." They are a lot like clip art or coloring pages. Then you use an image editing program to size them and print them. I am quickly finding out that there are a lot of fun pros and cons of digital stamping. The definite pros are that you can make the stamp any size or direction that you want it to be. You can also add text to your stamp if you want. You can color it digitally, or with pencils, watercolors, or whatever your usual medium may be.

Another great thing about digital stamping is this. I had an "A-HA!" moment while searching for them. It was then that I realized that I already have hundreds. . . or quite possibly thousands of them stored on an old computer of mine. I used to make clip art all the time! This is exciting, because I have a huge collection of Halloween ones, just in time. I am even going to share. :) So stay tuned.

Here is an example of digi stamp adventures from this week. I printed the fish and aquarium background stamps on to white cardstock after sizing them how I wanted. I colored the stamps using some Jelly-Roll glitter gel pens. I cut them out of the card stock with a craft knife. The background is glued directly to the card base. The fish are adhered with some 3-D glue dots, so they stand out nicely. Finally, I used some Paper Glaze to make some "bubbles."





Super fun! If you want to give digital stamping a try - go ahead and download some freebies from Hambo's or Dustin's - or Google digital stamps - there are tons of imagaes available out there. And I should have a few available soon too.

Card day club should be meeting again soon too. Hurrah!!!!

CFH Bloghop!

Hello! I have decided (last minute of course!) To join a blog hop from Cards For Heroes! So welcome, hoppers to my little blog about Scrap.

Here is a little Christmas Card that is easy to duplicate and sent to friends, family, or Any Hero!

You will need a card base, some white cardstock, some green floss, and some little christmas lights. I found these at Michael's. They are flat on the back, but there are several other varieties that are round... or you could even use little paper lights if you wanted to!



There are a ton of stitching templates out there that have a little curvy line like this. You could also free hand it. When it comes to a string of christmas lights, I suppose the messier the better. :) I stitched with green floss and was sure to add a light every inch or so. You could add as many lights as you want. . . the final step is to glue the stitched cardstock down onto the card base and add a sentiment. I added a "Merry Christmas" stamp, but you could use anything similar.

There you go! So much easier than hanging Christmas lights up on the house, don't you think? And nobody got hurt.

I am kind of new to Cards for Heroes but have had and currently have lots of friends in the service. I think that this is a fun way to show support and lift the spirits of those who really need it!

If you are interested in getting involved with Cards for Heroes be sure to check out their website and remember that NOVEMBER 1 is the deadline for sending in Christmas cards for this season, plenty of time to get those done!

This post is for the CFH BLOGHOP . . . I thank you for visiting and please add me if you like!

Hopping along, your next stop will be Midnight Crafting by Angie. . . sounds like something that would go along great with my night shift job don't you think?!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

August

Having just returned from a trip to Tennessee for my Grandma Bettie's memorial, I was super excited to see that this months' ETM kits were ready for pickup! Creating things is always a great way for me to reflect, relax, and just let my mind go for a little while. What a treat!

While in TN, a wonderful Reverend named Mr. Martin Fischer read from a book called "When God Winks." I got to read a little bit of it after the service and I found it to be quite delightful. It's about how little things happen in your life that may be seen as irony, or chance. It talks about how these little experiences and says that these moments are when God is "winking" at you or sending a little message. Where was I going with that? Oh. . . this months' kit was just the little "wink" I needed!

This months' kit includes a ton of adorable patterened papers and embelishments but my favorite thing of all was the little butterflies. Let me back-track for a moment. Butterflies have always been a favorite thing of mine, but they are specially relevant when someone close to me has gone. There are stories in the family of butterflies at the graveside service for my Aunt. There were butterflies in April at my Dad's funeral. And on the 4th of July as I was looking at the pink roses in the yard, a large monarch butterfly was flying around my garden. Chance? Maybe. . . Butterflies, chance or not, are always a pleasant reminder to me that people change, and move on from this life. Seeing them makes me think happy thoughts that the souls of those who pass before us are not gone, but they are free to float and fly away, visiting us occasionally in our lives and in our hearts. :)

I went with the butterfly theme for all of my cards this month, and best of all there was an adorable gift bag to decorate, so I made a bag and tag too. What fabulous therapy! In the background of these pics I chose to decorate with two special treasures, a vase of pink roses given to me by Grandma Bettie when I graduated high school, and a pink rose china plate that I picked up in Tennessee last week. It is one of her belongings that will always be special to me.

Of other note, the Card Day Club will be getting together again very soon for another great day of creating bags and tags, and I will soon have a really great package to send off to Cards for Heroes . . . I would love to challenge all of my friends and fellow card makers to take part in this great project. The website has tons of ideas and stories about the people who need and recieve these cards!

That's all for now. . .