Tutorials Archives - Create Scrapbooks with Project Life, Scrapbooking, Stamping, Creating Cards, and Scrapbook Kit Club Information and Layout Ideas

The Stamps of Life July 2012 Club Release: crayons2stamp Card Tutorial

Posted by Contributor on July 1, 2012 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone! I’m Gretchen and today I’m here to share the latest club release from The Stamps of Life. This new set is called crayons2stamp. There’s a fun crayon outline plus a solid so you can make it whatever color you like, 14 different sentiments (most of which will fit inside the crayon – how cool is that?!), and some extra fun crayon drawings and other decorations too.

crayons2stamp crayon color clear stamps from The Stamps of Life by Stephanie Barnard

I’ve got a photo tutorial for you today with the details on how I made this super cute Hi, I Miss You So Much card featuring the crayons2stamp stamp set.

You’re finished card will be 4-1/2” x 5-1/2” and will fit into a standard A2 sized envelope.

To start, create your card base, you’ll need a 5-1/2” x 8″-1/2” piece of paper that’s been folded in half. You’ll also need a piece of cardstock that is 4” x 5-1/4” to mount on the card base and a smaller strip of patterned paper that is 2” x 4”.

Adhere the 4” x 5-1/4” paper onto your card base, centering it. Glue the patterned paper strip down towards the right hand side of the card as shown.

On to the stamping! Use the solid crayon to stamp three images in coordinating colors.

Stamp on top of each of those images in black using the crayon outline and then add a sentiment inside each one.

Cut each crayon out and then stack them together using Glue Dots, having them fan out a bit. Wrap a piece of embroidery floss around your crayon set and make a knot.

Tip: Don’t tie your knot to tight. You’ll want it to shift slightly so you an make sure you can read your sentiment properly.

Almost done! Place your crayon stack towards the bottom of your strip of patterned paper but don’t glue it down (you’re using it as placement so you know where to stamp your heart). Lay the heart stamp where you want it on your card.

Finally, stamp your heart moving your crayon stack right before so you don’t stamp on top of it. Adhere your crayon stack down and stamp “hi” right above it. As a finishing touch, outline your card in black if desired.

Supplies: crayons2stamp (The Stamps of Life), Licorice Premium Dye Ink (Stephanie Barnard, Colorbox), Stick Candy, Lavender Sachet, and Speckled Egg (Jenni Bowlin, Ranger), white cardstock (Bazzill), black cardstock (American Crafts), Bee’s Knees patterned paper (Country Drive, Echo Park). Other: black pen, embroidery floss.

If you would like to purchase your own crayons2stamp stamp set from The Stamps of Life or sign up for the monthly club, head on over to their website to find out how.

Thank you for stopping by Create Scrapbooks!

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On a personal note: In April I taught a class for True Scrap 3 and I’m happy to announce that my class – as well as all the other awesome classes – are now available individually. Please click on the graphic for details.

Filed Under: Cards, Kit Clubs, Scrapbook Products & Reviews, Sponsors, Stamping, Using Your Scraps | Tagged: Tagged With: Cards, Gretchen Schmidt, Sponsors, Stamping, The Stamps of Life, TheStampsOfLife.com, Tutorials

The Stamps of Life June 2012 Special Releases: chevrons2stamp, hexagons2love, & faces4stamps

Posted by Contributor on June 8, 2012 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone! Gretchen here introducing three new stamps sets to you from The Stamps of Life These three sets are from the June 2012 mid-month special releases. They are chevrons2stamp, hexagons2love, and faces4stamps.

hexagons2love

This set has 14 different hexagons shapes that will look great on cards or scrapbook layouts. It comes with outlines so you can really highlight the shapes or leave the outline blank and stamp a sentiment inside it.

For my card, I stamped the larger hexagon outlines first, filled my sentiment in one, and then filled the other hexagons in with solids and some of the shapes. I love how it turned out and it was a pretty quick card to make.

chevrons2love

This is an awesome set! This set comes with two main stamps, one set has three thinner chevrons and the other set has two larger ones.

For my card example, I paired the stamp set with one of Stephanie Barnard’s Sizzix Flip-its as well as a few other The Stamps of Life stamp sets. Those sets are happyBDay2you, happy2becircles, and greetings4birthday.

faces4stamps

As you can see, this super cute set comes with a ton of smiley faces and fun sentiments.

I decided to make some simple notecards to really show case all the cute smiley faces the set had to offer and added another sentiment and smiley inside the card to finish it off.

I’m loving these three new stamp sets and I hope you do too. Chevrons are really popular right now as well as hexagons and the smiley’s are just way to cute! You’ve got some awesome new options in front of you.

If you’re interested in joining The Stamps of Life club or purchasing these stamps, inks, or the Flip-it die, please visit www.thestampsoflife.com. They offer really great, high quality stamps… there’s something for everyone!

Thank you so much for stopping by Create Scrapbooks. If you have any projects that you’d like to share with us, please do so in the Create Scrapbooks Flickr gallery, we’d love to see your creations.

Filed Under: Cards, Kit Clubs, Scrapbooking, Sponsors, Stamping, Stamping | Tagged: Tagged With: Cards, Gretchen Schmidt, The Stamps of Life, TheStampsOfLife.com, Tutorials

The Stamps of Life June 2012 Release: turtles2love Plus Video Tutorial

Posted by Contributor on June 1, 2012 1 Comment

Hi Everyone! Gretchen here and I’m excited to share with you the newest stamp release for The Stamps of Life plus a video tutorial. This set is the June 2012 release and it’s called turtles2love.

turtles2love stamp set the stamps of life stephanie barnard video tutorial turtle stamps clear

This is such an adorable set, I love the turtles and all the sayings. Today’s video tutorial features a card using the turtles2love set and Stephanie Barnard’s Circle Flip-It die.

Here are two more views of the card so you get a better idea how the Circle Flip-It Die works.

Supplies: turtle2love (The Stamps of Life), Circle Flip-It Die (Stephanie Barnard, Sizzix), Licorice and Artichoke Premium Dye Ink (Colorbox), Weather Vane Dye Ink, Jenni Bowlin, cardstock (Bazzill), patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket), Glossy Accents (Inkssentials), black pen.
Thanks so much for stopping by Create Scrapbooks! We’re happy that you’re here!!!

Filed Under: Cards, Create Scrapbooks YouTube Tutorials, Sponsors, Stamping, Stamping | Tagged: Tagged With: Cards, Create Scrapbooks YouTube Video Tutorials, Gretchen Schmidt, The Stamps of Life, TheStampsOfLife.com, tutorial video, Tutorials

The Stamps of Life May 2012 Special Releases

Posted by Contributor on May 11, 2012 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone! Gretchen here bringing you the May special releases for The Stamps of Life. There are three fabulous new stamp sets now available. They are patterns4pops, onesie4baby, and minabc2stamp.

Today I wanted to share a little bit more about the patterns4pops and miniabc2stamp sets.

Let’s start with patterns4pops. Remember the super cute May club release called pops2eat?

Well, patterns4pops was made just for that set. That means, you’ve got more patterns to use to fill in your fun popsicles to really give some extra detail and pop!

There are three large and three small different textures you can add to give your project some extra dimension. There are also 4 new sayings so you can really mix and match when creating. There is also a cute little heart included in this set (and a heart always seems to add just the right touch to any project!).

Details of the larger popsicles -

Details of the smaller popsicles -

Super cute right? Definitely a great addition to the pops2eat set.

Next I want to share the miniabc2stamp set and a little trick I do for making stamping out a lot of words at once easier.

One of the reasons I love this set is because it comes with lots of extra letters… doubles and triples of some. When you are adding words to a card or a title to a layout, this is very helpful.

Here’s my handy tip: I find it so much easier to place several letters on a block at once rather than to stamp one letter at a time. Decide what you want to stamp (I’m stamping “welcome to Create Scrapbooks”). Place as many letters on your block as you can. I’d used the three “e’s” so that was my stopping point.

Next, to make sure everything stays lined up, I like to leave the last letter in place. In this case I left the “t” and “r.” If you are at the end of the block, simply remove the letters, place them over your stamped letters, then pick them back up with the block, placing them more in the center with the new placement.

Leaving the end letters helps act as a guide and takes the guess work out of placement. This way you can just continue on with your word and keep everything all lined up. When it’s time to stamp, I remove the letters that have previously been stamped and then ink up the remaining letters.

Easy peasy!

What about those inks?

In the above example showing patterns4pops, I used some beautiful and vibrant dye inks. These are Stephanie Barnard’s Premium Ink Pads by Colorbox. I did a previous post about them but thought it was worth sharing the information again. Please check out my video for all the details.

Watch the video on YouTube – http://youtu.be/GJnvYNNkeMY

As always, we thank you for stopping by Create Scrapbooks and checking out the latest releases from The Stamps of Life!

Filed Under: Cards, Create Scrapbooks YouTube Tutorials, Sponsors, Stamping, Stamping | Tagged: Tagged With: Create Scrapbooks YouTube Video Tutorials, Gretchen Schmidt, Stamping, The Stamps of Life, TheStampsOfLife.com, Tutorials

The Stamps of Life May 2012 Release: pops2eat plus a video tutorial

Posted by Contributor on May 1, 2012 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone! Gretchen here with a fun new stamp set to share from The Stamps of Life, this new set is called pops2eat.

I’ve got a brand new video tutorial for you also making this sweet little card (sweet? popsicle? get it? I crack myself up!)

Supplies: pops2eat stamps (The Stamps of Life)

Other: Big Stripes patterned paper (Big Splash, Echo Park)

The Stamps of Life is a monthly kit club that also offers mid month special releases. To find out more information about The Stamps of Life or to join the club, please head on over to their site and check it out.

Filed Under: Cards, Create Scrapbooks YouTube Tutorials, Kit Clubs, Scrapbook Products & Reviews, Sponsors, Stamping, Using Your Scraps | Tagged: Tagged With: Cards, Create Scrapbooks YouTube Video Tutorials, Gretchen Schmidt, Sponsors, Stamping, The Stamps of Life, TheStampsOfLife.com, tutorial video, Tutorials

The Stamps of Life April 2012 Special Releases

Posted by Contributor on April 18, 2012 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone, Gretchen here! I wanted to share with you the April mid-month special releases from The Stamps of Life and a few samples I made to showcases them. These three new sets are really versatile, they are pattern2love, frilly4abc, and tinytitles2stamp.

Patterns2love is a beautiful background design that will work perfectly on cards and scrapbook backgrounds alike. It comes with a vertical “birthday wishes” sentiment. I made two tags to show how pretty this background stamp really is.

I used Versamark ink to stamp on the tags to give them a really subtle effect. The sweet sentiments are from the tinytitles2stamp set. This set, which has a ton of different sayings (15 in print and 15 in cursive for a total of 30!!!), might be my new favorite set. I love simple and cute sayings and these definitely fit the bill.

I decided to make a small, simple card to showcase the frilly4abc’s set. This cute little card measures 4” x 4”. The stamp set itself comes with a few additional letters to make stamping a breeze if you are stamping out a long word.

This card was very quick and easy to make: I rounded the corners, outlined the card, added some antique looking brads through the petite flowers, and wa-la! I was done. Sometimes you need a quick card to put into a gift bag and a 5 minute card is all you have time for. 5 minutes and it’s still super cute!

Supplies – pattern2love, frilly4abc, and tinytitles2stamp (The Stamps of Life)

InLinkz.com

Other: flowers (Prima)

If you would like to purchase these stamps sets or any of the other great sets offered from The Stamps of Life or sign up for their monthly club, head on over to their website to find out how.

Don’t forget, if you have anything you would like to share with us, please feel free to upload your creations into the Create Scrapbooks Flickr Gallery.

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Filed Under: Cards, Sponsors, Stamping, Tags, Using Your Scraps | Tagged: Tagged With: Cards, Gretchen Schmidt, Sponsors, Stamping, TheStampsOfLife.com, Tutorials

The Stamps of Life April Club Release 2012: birthday2celebrate

Posted by Contributor on April 5, 2012 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone! Gretchen here with the latest club release from The Stamps of Life. This new set is called birthday2celebrate. There’s a present box and lid outline that can be decorated with two different patterns or a solid piece, three bows, a cross bow for the present, and a ton of different sayings.

I’ve got a photo tutorial for you today with the details on how I made this festive Happy Birthday card.

To create this Happy Birthday card, stamp your images onto cardstock. I stamped the outside in black and then filled the insides with some of the cool patterns that come with the stamp set. Add a bow to each present.

Cut your images out. I decided to just use three for my card.

Create a standard 4-1/4” x 5-1/2” card base out of cardstock. Layer with two different pieces of patterned paper and a cardstock strip as shown in main example on the card front. Outline papers in black. Add stamped presents to card front, adding pop dots behind the center present.

Cut a banner using the Holiday cartridge with an eclips machine and stamp the sentiment. If you don’t have an eclips machine, improvise with another cutter or cut a plain strip to stamp onto instead.

To get the curved letter look on the banner, turn the sentiment gently and press into your block to make it match the curve of the banner. Outline the banner shape with a black pen.

Stamp sentiment onto the inside of your card.

Supplies: birthday2celebrate (The Stamps of Life), white cardstock (Bazzill), Hopi cardstock (Bazzill), Licorice, Banana, Artichoke, and Strawberry Premium Dye Ink (Colorbox), Silly Skedaddle patterned paper (Neapolitan, Dear Lizzy; American Crafts), eclips Electronic Shape Cutting System (Sizzix), Holiday eclips cartridge (Sizzix), black pen, pop dot.

If you would like to purchase your own birthday2celebrate set from The Stamps of Life or sign up for the monthly club, head on over to their website to find out how.

Thank you for stopping by Create Scrapbooks!

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The Stamps of Life mid-March 2012 Special Releases plus a Tutorial

Posted by Contributor on March 12, 2012 1 Comment

Hi everyone! I’ve got three new releases from The Stamps of Life to share plus a tutorial featuring one of the stamp sets. The new sets are moremums2love, Easter4Him, and humor4woman. The moremums2love stamp set matches perfectly with the March 2012 club release called mums2stamp.

In today’s video tutorial, we’ll be making this card:

(for a larger view of this card, please visit our Flickr gallery)

Supplies: moremums2love and mums2stamp (The Stamps of Life), Kraft cardstock (Bazzill), Straw cardstock (Bazzill), patterned paper (from my stash), Peeled Paint, Walnut Stain, and Barn Door Distress Ink (Tim Holtz, Ranger), Licorice and Artichoke dye ink (ColorBox), Ink Blending Tool (Ranger), Styled Labels die cut (Sizzix), Pearls (Jewels, Stampin’ Up), pop dots (Zots, Therm-o-web), Fingertip Tweezers (Fiskars).
If you’d like to purchase your own The Stamps of Life stamp sets or join their monthly kit club, head on over to The Stamps of Life!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

~Gretchen

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On a personal note: I am teaching for True Scrap 3. For more information about this amazing two day event, the other teachers, my class and all the other fabulous classes, please visit the True Scrap 3 site. Thank you!