Stamp Platforms - Which One??

I am thinking of purchasing a new Stamp Platform.  The one I have is not big enough to take my longer stamps easily.  

I am thinking of getting the Tim Holtz Tonic Studio one with the 8.5x8.5 stamping are.

The one I have at present came with the stamping foam, but as far as I know the THTS one doesn't have the foam.  From my experience, the foam helps to give a good impression when stamping. 

What do you think?  Which platform do you use?  Does it matter if there is no foam?  Can I purchase the foam sheet separately if I get the THTS platform?

I have looked at different platforms on the net but am confused!  I just want one that has a bigger stamping area than the one I have now.  If you have any thoughts, please let me know!

Thank you in advance!

Sundays Cards!

I made these three cards yesterday.  The top one has yellow sequins in the center of the daisy, as well as on the card.  

The "Hugs" card was made using a new die I got recently.  This was the first card I made with it.The word "hugs" was cut out of white card and grey card.  The grey card is the negative.  The white "Hugs" is inlaid into the grey card.  I attached the panel to a red card and then onto the embossed white card, and finally onto the red card.

For the card above, I water coloured the birds using water colour pencils.  I like the colours on this card!

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  {HUGS} from me to YOU:-) 

Some New "Toys" and What's This??

These are some new craft supplies that have arrived in the last week or so.  The flower stamp in the set above, measures just over 6 inches in length and just over 3 inches wide.  It is a long stamp! I have a card half made with it, and I did the "stamp once and get two cards" thing, as shown in the post I did yesterday. I need a bigger stamp platform because this stamp was a challenge to stamp on the one I have!  (Santa, are you listening?!)  The words on the top word stamp say, "Our weird conversations mean more to me than strong coffee or new shoes..." I am sure I know a few people I can send that to!

The stamp set above is the one I used on the "stamp once and get two cards", in the post before this. The flower stamp in this set is not quite as long as the set above.  (But hey, Santa, I still need a bigger stamp platform!) 

The stamp set above makes these cute flowers, and I also have the matching die set.

This is a new star embossing folder.  I saw a card (somewhere?!) made with this folder and thought I could use it on my Christmas cards.  Which I have yet to make:-)

The three photos below are some new dies I got.  I have some more but have to photograph them.  A couple of the dies (not the ones below) are very intricate and I am having issues cutting them out.  I have tried waxed paper but all I get is a lovely die cut from the waxed paper, not the card.  I looked at buying some drier sheets, but at $8 a pack, I decided not to buy them.  If anyone has any ideas how to die cut intricate dies, feel free to let me know!  Thanks in advance! 

This trio of birds (above is such a cute stamp!  I want to make a few Christmas cards with this stamp.

The bird die below is also cute!  I haven;t done much with any of these new craft things, I have seriously low iron levels and am waiting for an appointment at the local hospital for an iron infusion.  I have been booked in twice for the infusion, and twice I was unwell and had to cancel.  I am now booked in for July 19th.  I feel very weak and lightheaded most of the time.  I just want to get the infusion over an done with and (hopefully!) start to feel better.

 Below are two self healing mats I bought for $4.99 each.  I use them as platforms in my Bigshot die cutting machine, instead of the acrylic ones.  The self healing mats work PERFECTLY!!  I can die cut and emboss.  These mats don't warp or crack and are way cheaper than the acrylic ones.  (I like to save money on craft stuff!)

My last photos is an odd one!  (Even for me!) It is some foil/plastic that my tea bags come in, inside the box.  I am wondering how I can use it for crafting??!  If you have any ideas please let me know!  It is actually a  lovely lime green colour in reality.  It seems such a waste to throw it away!

Ok, I'm done for the day.  I am really tired, even though it's only about 10.20 am.  I really need that iron infusion:-) Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!

{HUGS} from me to YOU:-) 

Thank You "Imagineif"

I recently purchased, online, two Ranger White Opaque Gel pens from a company called "Imagineif" here in NZ.  The pens arrived and I tired to use them, however, neither of the pens worked very well at all.

I contacted the company and was asked to send the pens back to them.  I did this right away.

Today, a couple of days later, they called me to say that they couldn't get the pens to work either, and would give me a refund.  But not only a refund, but they would also refund me the cost of postage I had paid to send them back!  I was stunned that they would do that,and told them so!

So, thank you Samantha Johnson from "Imagineif" in Morrinsville NZ!!  This is a company that really does care about their customers and does their best for them:-)  Check them out on www.imagineif.co.nz they have some great craft products at great prices:-)

That's me for the day, it's getting cold and dark and I am going to get into my jim-jams (pajama's!) now and keep warm!  I HATE Winter:-(

Stamp Once And Make Two Cards!

The two cards above were made by stamping  a large flower stamp  once and getting two cards from it.  I cut the card in half before I stamped.  Aligned it up on my stamp platform with both pieces of card close together and stamped it.  This is a quick and easy way to make cards!  The flower stamp I used it quite long, so it was easy to do.  I added some ink splatters in pink and gold as well as a few gems. I layered the white card onto some SU coloured card.  I also stamped part of the flower image on the inside white panel of the card.  The word stamp and the three dots stamp is from other stamp sets.

The two cards below are made the same way as the two cards above.  I had lot's of fun making these, and as I said, they are quick and easy to make.  As well as being FUN to make!

For the words on these two cards I stamped them on scrap card, cut them out and popped them up with sponge tape to give the cards a  little bit of dimension.  These two cards are splattered with black and gold ink. 

The two cards below are both postcard type cards.  They were some I got from a stamp show some time ago.  I just stamped on the them and added the two angel wings on the card below. 

My health has been up an down recently and I haven't been well enough to do much at times.  Thanks for dropping by!  Have a SUNSHINE day!  (HUGS) from me to YOU:-)  Enjoy your weekend!

"Glad" Press 'n Seal Technique

 The photos above and below show what the Glad Press 'n Seal looks like in the box.  I got mine from Countdown for $6.29.  (For those Kiwi's who are reading this!)

I die cut some flowers and laid them on the card I was making but wasn't sure which way I wanted to display them on the card.  So I lay a piece of Glad Press 'n Seal and played around with it until I had the flowers placed where I wanted them.  (Photo below)

 I then carefully lifted the GPS off the card, making sure the die cut flowers stuck to it.

At this point, the die cut flowers are upside down on the GPS, so I dotted some spots of glue onto each flower.

 Once I had the glue on the flowers, I carefully turned over the GPS with the flowers on and laced it on the card where I wanted it.  I pressed the flowers down to they stuck to the card, and then carefully peeled the GPS back so it came off the flowers which were now stuck to the card.  There are multiple videos on this technique on you tube.

Below is the finished card!  With GPS you can try different placements of die cuts you want to add to your card, before actually gluing them permanently and THEN discovering they are not in the right place:-(

If you enlarge the photo below, you can see I added some sequins to the card to finish it off.  "Romeo-Valentino" managed to get in on the photo as well! 

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  I am in a bit of a rush this morning as I have a few things to do.  {HUGS} from me to YOU:-) 

Tea Tower and How To Re-Purpose An Empty Toaster Box!

I made this Tea Tower this morning.  It's not perfect, but I like how it turned out!  I used a video from Connie's blog, simplysimplestamping.com to make the box.  Her video is the best I have seen and once I had my card measured it was easy to make.  However, during the process of making this, I discovered that SU card stock in NZ is NOT the same size as in the USA.  Our SU card stock is smaller, so I had to use some 12x12 card I had which wasn't SU.  Below is the lid of the Tea Tower Box.

And below is how to re-purpose and empty toaster box!  Romeo decided it would make a great bed for him to sleep in - there went my idea of using it for card scraps!

As you can see... 

 He made himself comfortable!

 I was very surprised he fit in there as it is not a larger box...and he IS a large cat!

And here is Bella in her bed - she likes a bit more room than Romeo does! She was outside enjoying the sun:-)

Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day!  {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)