Dear Mama Elephant

Dear Mama Elephant:

How do you do it?  How do you make such cleverly designed stamp sets that are nearly impossible not to covet?  My bank account does not thank you one bit.  I do though.  How could I not?  You have an adorable typewriter that works for men and women which I used to make a simple birthday card for my younger (don't ask by how much) cousin who plans on becoming a writer.  Perfect?  Yes, indeed Type It was.  You can even just stamp it right on your cardstock with the little separate sheet of paper without losing one iota of its beauty.  I also love the little typed sentiments...happy b-day. and to you. are just right.   Let us not forget the ever useful, Trifecta because I certainly have not!  I reach for that baby when I want some filler without it being fussy and still trendy.

Any success of my card I contribute to your designs:

I am looking forward to inking up more of your stamps and adding to my growing collection (again angering my bank account).  Should you like to give me special sneaks of upcoming releases for a very biased reaction, don't hesitate to ask.  I am on it!

A fan,
Shay.

Supplies:
Stamps: Type It and Trifecetta, Mama Elephant
Ink: weather vane, Jenni Bowlin for Ranger; raspberry fizz, Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: white, Georgia Pacific; raspberry fizz, Papertrey Ink
Patterned paper: Soleil 6x6 paper pad, Basic Grey
Other: sequins, Studio Calico; pearls, The Paper Studio; doily

Man Oh Man Monday No. 12 (on Tuesday) | Father's Day Edition No. 4

Man Oh Man It's Not Monday.  No excuses from me...my Memorial Day was spent mostly watching movies with my family including "Argo".  I hope you also had a wonderful Memorial Day with family and friends.  I want to thank those who serve/served our country to allow us to do just that. 

So today we are going with a card to honor the men in service who are also proud papas because although we have days marked off on the calendar to commemerate our service men and women, I think any day of the week is a good day to honor them as well.  

 

 

The background is actually something I started on Saturday using the Watercolor Wonder stamp set by Papertrey Ink for another card for Papertrey Ink's May Blog Hop, but it was all sorts of shades of wrong for the floral card I envisioned and reminded me of camouflage.  I saw it again sitting upon my table and decided it would be perfect for today's card.  I added more stamping and a banner sentiment stamped from Papa Love by Mama Elephant which I gold embossed.

 

 

 

I think it is turned out pretty striking and cool.   What do you think? 

 

Thank you for taking the time to visit and have a wonderful week!

 

Happy creating,

Shay,

 

Supplies:

Stamps: Watercolor Wonder, Papertrey Ink; Papa Love, Mama Elephant

Inks: Versamark, Tsukineko; peeled paint and shabby shutters, Tim Holtz Distress Ink by Ranger; limeade ice, Papertrey Ink

Cardstock: stamper's select white and spring moss, Papertrey Ink

Other: detail metallic gold embossing powder, JudiKins; heat embossing tool; dimensional adhesive

Man Oh Man Monday No. 11 | Father's Day Edition No. 3

Celebrating Father's Day continues here on MOMM.  Clean and simple are the themes of the day.  Some new stamps from Mama Elephant were awaiting me in today's mail which I wanted to play with and what better excuse than I have to post on my blog?  Self-enabling just got necessary now that I "have to" post on my blog. 

 

The keystone stamp set for this Father's Day clean and simple smorgasbord is Papa Love.  Packed full of great sentiments, a ticket frame and a few images, Papa Love will serve you well as a foundational stamp set for your stamping needs for guys.   All of the cards are one layer and I added dimension with Copic markers.

 

For my first card I decided to play with the moustache and tie images to create a man of sorts.  I am hoping the circle sentiment comes off looking a little like a monocle.

 

My next card plays off the "man of the house, king of my heart" sentiments paired with the little Leo lion in Cosmic Stars.  I saw these and immediately had a vision of a card.  The darling little heart is from Midnight Letters.  Seriously, am lovin' on this little number.  I also imagine changing out the lion for the ram, bull, scorpion, crab, fish or goat depending on the guy's astrological sign (my dad is a Scorpio and it would be awesome to do this card with that instead).

 

For my last card I paired Papa Love with So Breezy.  I saw these two stamp sets and it clicked together to me.  I added a hand drawn double border for just a bit more interest.

 

Super simple cards, but so much fun.  I hope you are inspired to create some Father's Day cards now too!  

Happy creating,

Shay.

Stamps: Papa Love, Cosmic Stars, Midnight Letters and So Breezy, Mama Elephant
Inks: tuxedo black, Memento by Tsukineko; Versamark, Tsukineko; cough syrup, spice tin, weather vane, fountain pen, stick candy, seed packet and speckled egg, Jenni Bowlin for Ranger
cardstock: white, Georgia Pacific
Other: colorless blender (0), cool gray no. 00 (C00), cool gray no. 1 (C1), cool gray no. 3 (C3), pale fruit pink (E000), skin white (E00), pink flamingo (E01), caribe cocoa (E25), dull ivory (E43) and blush (R20), Copic; chipped sapphire and weathered wood, Tim Holtz Distress Markers by Ranger

Mama Elephant Sketch Challenge 03

Happy Sunday!  Today I am here with a quick card for Mama Elephant's Sketch Challenge 03.

Triangles and arrows are all the rage right now.  Perhaps I am not trendy, but with Mama Elephant stamps at least I can pretend to be!  For some reason I thought about paper weaving which became the the beginning of this card.  I picked out a rainbow, ombre triangle patterned paper from Studio Calico's Snippet 6x6 paper pad.  Ombre + rainbows + triangles = trend-tasticness!

Here is the card I came up with:

Fun, right?  I was happy that I was able to stack the sentiment from Geotagged over the bull's eye from On Target.  All of the arrows are from On Target as well.

I accented the patterned paper with three enamel dots following the sketch.

That's it for now, but I will be back tomorrow for Man Oh Man Monday.

Happy creating,
Shay.

Stamps: On Target and Geotagged, Mama Elephant
Inks: limeade ice and ocean tides, Papertrey Ink; charcoal, butter bar, soft cantaloupe and pale tomato shadow inks, Hero Arts
Cardstock: white, Georgia Pacific
Patterned Paper: Snippets collection 6x6 paper pad, Studio Calico
Other: He Said She Said (She Said) enamel dots, Teresa Collins; dimensional adhesive

Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger: Set the Table

Dear Reader,

I am back after the Oscars to squeeze in an entry for Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger: Set the Table.

And here is my take on the Trigger:

I was inspired by the colors, shapes of the plates, the linen and silverware.  I chose an older patterned paper from Basic Grey's Nook & Pantry collection which has a linen design to cut a couple of circles from with a circle of gold sandwiched in between.  The other patterned paper is a pale grey by Basic Grey from their Basics collection with a distress that reminds me of the tarnished silverware.  I stamped a sentiment onto a strip of vellum which reminds me of the shape of a napkin using Mama Elephant's Midnight Letters (can't get enough of them since I finally inked them up this week) in a brown ink I stamped off once before stamping upon the vellum and gold glitter Thickers.  The sentiment is part of a quote from the great movie "Auntie Mame" (the rest of the sentiment is: "...and most poor suckers are starving to death").  On the main circle I stamped utensils with soft stone which peeks through the vellum very subtly.  I attached the vellum to the card by hand sewing with gold thread.  With enough practice I may become a mediocre sewer.  One can dream.

I am off to get some sleep.  Have a marvelous Monday!

Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit,
Shay.

Life is a Banquet card
Stamps: Midnight Letters, Mama Elephant; utensils, Teresa Collins/Stampers Anonymous
Ink: brown sugar, Jenni Bowlin for Ranger; soft stone, Papertrey Ink
Paper: metallic gold cardstock, stash; vellum
Patterned paper: census from Basics collection and waffles from Nook & Pantry collection, Basic Grey
Other: gold glitter sunrise Thickers, American Crafts; Sew Easy Stitch Piercer, We R Memory Keepers; gold metallic thread, Coats; circle and scallop circle Nestabilities dies, Spellbinders; Cuttlebug, Provo Craft

Simon Says Stamp Challenge: White on White

Dear Reader,

First, I wanted to welcome all the new followers to my little blog as well as all of the kind comments.  Thank you so much!  It is a real joy and honor.

 

Now on to tonight's offering.

 

 

I took on the Simon Says Stamp! challenge from their challenge blog for the first time--the White on White challenge.  I won't lie I did some struggling with this one especially as I pulled out the Sew Easy for the first time.  It wasn't the actual tool that was the problem, but my inability to sew.  Talk about a learning curve!

I used two embossing folders from the Fabric Swatches Set by Cuttlebug to add some texture and interest.  I decided to use the Midnight Letters from Mama Elephant...I have been wanting to use this stamp set (oh so cool!) and they were the perfect size to fit in the squares.  I added just a touch of pale grey. 

I hope you enjoyed my card.  Thank you so much for visiting.  Have a terrific Tuesday!

Happy creating,
Shay.

Wish Big Card
Supplies:
Stamps: Midnight Letters, Mama Elephant
Ink: soft stone, Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: white, Georgia Pacific; grey, stash
Other: Fabric Swatched Set embossing folders, Cuttlebug; Cuttlebug, Provo Craft; Sew Easy Stitch Piercer Handle and zig zap attachment, We R Memory Keepers; circle and scallop circle Nestabilities, Spellbinders; white embroidery floss (25), DMC; fresh snow buttons, Papertrey Ink; brad setter & piercing tool, We R Memory Keepers

Mama Elephant Color Challenge 01

Dear Reader,

Mama Elephant is having their first color challenge...the blog post is HERE.  I had first discovered Mama Elephant about a month or so ago and was immediately smitten with their designs.  As I love the color scheme (in fact my rooms are in reds and aquas) and I *needed* to ink up some of their fun stamps I decided to try the challenge even though I had somehow forgotten about it until last night.

I was watching "Now, Voyager" with Bette Davis and perhaps it influenced me a bit.  Do you see the little stamped piece of washi over the aqua heart?  Like Charlotte in the movie, this little heart is mended and the healed heart is even more dazzling than before...or so I like to imagine was my unconscious reasoning for my design choices.    

Regardless, this is a sweet little card celebrating love in all its many facets which is pretty appropriate as we look at beginning a new year.  I used the hearts and arrows from On Target, tag from No Peeking and wood clip and washi tape from We Click.  I double stamped the wood clip to give the appearance of depth and mimic the real deal...it was immediate love with that one stamp.

If I don't get a chance later, I wish all of you a new year brimming with laughter, good health, possibilities and most of all love in all its incarnations.

Happy creating,
Shay.

Supplies:
Stamps: No Peeking, On Target and We Click, Mama Elephant
Ink: speckled egg and cough syrup, Jenni Bowlin for Ranger
Cardstock: white, Georgia-Pacific
Other: diamond Stickles, Ranger; silver glitter fabric tape; foam dimensional adhesive, Stampin' Up!; corner chomper, We R Memory Keepers