What to do with tiny rubber stamps, and of course other links :)

Hello again.  Wow, two posts in two weeks, am on a roll :)

Our house is still torn up (installing new flooring in the hallway, dinning room, family room, kitchen and hopefully our bedroom as well, and then painting).  And even though we are not doing anything "major" it seems like there are so many choices to make!

What color for the walls?  Accent wall or not?  New lighting fixture for the dinning room/hallway, bronze?  Brushed nickel?  Fan for the family room, white?  Brushed nickel?  What fabric for the dinning room chairs?  Should the chairs be painted or left as is?  What about the dinning room table?  Paint or just try to fix it up a bit.

And new artwork/decor for the walls.  Have pictures for the new craft room that I have to get frames for, and the rest of the house needs tons of updated decor as well.

Anyhow, am looking forward to getting everything done, will post pictures as things move on.

Now, onto stamping stuff.

My collection of stamps includes many of those tiny little stamps that come with sets, and most of the time I forget to use them, or they get lost.  The reality is that those tiny little stamps can do a whole lot of creating for you, if you know some fun ways to use these little gems.

Below is an old card I made using small stamps to create a background for the main image.  Using different colors for each stamp, and then coloring in the background by sponging in color created a nice effect:

And here is a new card made with one small stamp, I stamped the leaf in four different colors, and made sure that I stamped them such that they formed a box and had a small border around them:

And here is one I did today, a repeat of three images:

When using the small stamps remember the elements of design, here is a good link I found from Mel Stampz (she has GREAT stuff on her blog by the way).  When using small stamps overall design components become even more important as you do not always have that one large image to design around.  

Another GREAT place for ideas on what to do with small stamps is Stamps by Judith.  Many of her stamps are the "stubbies" or "sticks," tiny stamps that allow you to create wonderful wreaths and more.

Here is one of her border stamps used with the sticks and stubby stamps:

Tapestry also has some peg stamps, check them out here, and they have tons of ideas as well.

And....did you know that you can make your own peg stamp?  Go to any hardware store and pick out dowels (if you have some peg stamps take one with you for sizing).  Have the store cut the stick down to size and hot glue or adhere your stamp using other adhesive.  Here are a few I have done with tiny stamps that always seem to get lost:

                                     

                                         

Here is another card, note that the card uses cut out images (the butterflies), but you could use stamped images from a small stamp instead:

Tiny stamps also are great for making gift cards: (think of all the gift tags you can make for Christmas)

Nona Designs has some inchie stamp ideas  click on the various cards for complete list of how to and supplies. 

Here is a link to a few more cards on Pinterest using small (inchie) stamps.  You can also visit Inkadinkado for ideas (see below) and to purchase the Inchies stamps.

More fun stuff online:

And, there is a new product that I really want to try, the Sizzix Framelits Die set, square flip it.  LOVE the idea of having all the pieces cut out all at once, and you can use your small stamps with the cut outs.

Once again Jennifer McGuire knocks my socks off, she is really amazing.  And this post by her is nothing short of genius.  I LOVED the fact that she made her own coordinating paper (how often have you found that you have 12 million different colors of cardstock, but not ONE matches what you are doing?)  Great post and if you have not bookmarked her blog you should!  Also, you can subscribe to her on YouTube so you will not miss any of her wonderful videos.

Have you seen the new punch boards from We are Memory Keepers?  I have the new envelope board (have not used it yet), and LOVE these other punch boards which can make gift bags and boxes, way cool.


Fiskars Intricate Punch:  Mmmmmm.....this looks so nice!  Of course I want to get one : )  but...that means I have to get rid of something because that is my new rule, too much stuff and I am not going to overstuff the new crafting area lol.  What do you think of these new punches?




And WOW!  Love how this card is put together, especially how she shaded using the Inktense pencils, am going to have to play around with some of the mixed media stuff I have in the craft area.



Ok, that is it for now, hoping to be back again next week, but may have to wait a week if our house stuff gets in the way.

Thanks so much for stopping by and coming back after all this time : )