Quotes...

posted by Cathy/Crafty Thoughts...

We all know them, we all recite them...my family does anyway...at any time in a conversation quotes from Tommy Boy, Spinal Tap, Caddy Shack, The Holy Grail...you name a movie and someone will have a quote from it to relate to the topic at hand! And that brings me to the topic of my post today...all the great quotes that DRS Designs offers in their catalog of awesome stamps...which are available mounted and unmounted, by the way!!!

Here are just a few that I thought I would bring to your attention...

Frogs in your undies (K1016) (eww...but makes for a cute card with a cute kid (H428) and froggie (A420)!)



Beer is proof (E1101)... (I'm sure any guy (or girl) will agree with Ben that a cold beer (C528) hits the spot)



A Summer day (G863)...(I know DH wishes his lawn mower (K866)was broken sometimes!!!)



Thanks for checking in today...I hope you are enjoying your weekend...it's not a long one but the long, warm summer days are right around the next corner!! Join us back here tommorrow with another challenge...this one will provide inspiration and hopefully increase your card stash so you can enjoy those long, warm summer days!!

See you soon...

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Polka Dots and Posies

by Sue

Welcome!

Are all flowers are posies? I wasn't sure, but you get the idea! This was such a fun card to put together, very light and breezy.

These are the stamps I used~

and here's my card ~


I started my card by stamping a regular size (8 1/2 x 5 1/2) piece of light yellow cardstock using my dot background and violet dye ink. I decided to make it a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 card almost immediately and when I cut off the side I liked the strip I cut off so much I had to figure out a way to use it in my card, so I added the pink layer underneath and had the perfect place for my "wishing you" stamp.

Next I stamped the large flower 3 times using black pigment ink and embossed them using clear embossing powder. After coloring them and cutting them out I attached them to my card using flat tape, foam tape and 1/8" pop dots. How easy is that??

and now......


Your Tip by Beverly Y. - Save the heavier clear acetate sheets that come with various products & packaging (including stamp sets!) and you have an easy way to recycle as well as make your own 'ghost' flowers and embellishments. I use my 2x2 die cuts and it is especially easy to create basic design flowers as well as clear snowflakes... all for the cost of just elbow labor !!

My Trick - Did you know all paper is not alike? Duh, right? Except there are differences you may not know about. There are papers that emboss better, cut better, color better (thanks to Cathy for that one!), bleach better, and so on. What that means for me is that I always ask for paper that embosses well (it's better for my addiction that way!)

Thanks for stopping by and please send me your tips at submitdrs@yahoo.com I'm sending new release stamps as a thank you for every tip I use here!

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A Country Western Kind of Day!

Posted by Jennifer

Earlier this week I was inspired by 2 of my fellow DT members, Sue and Dawn. Sue, urged us to get out our brayers and Dawn, gave some excellent tips on how to make the best impression when using silhouette stamps. Make sure to check out both of those posts if you missed them. I'm sure you will find them as informative as I did. Today I'm sharing the Cowboy card I made recently using the techniques & tips they mentioned.

I started first by heat embossing the DRS Designs Cowboy Silhouette image with black embossing powder on white glossy cardstock. Then I masked off a 1" circle punch, punched from a Post-It, and brayered the background in blues to create a night sky. I started with lighter shades of blues on top and gradually added darker blue inks as I went toward the bottom. Next, I removed the Post-It Note circle mask and sponged in the moon area with yellow inks. I also sponged a little bit of the sky with yellow too, making it look like the moon was shining down on the cowboys.

I embellished this image rather simply with a little matting, square gold brads and some twine I had laying around in my ribbon box.

Stamps: DRS Designs-Cowboy Silhouette (M316)
Ink: Versamark, SU! Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Night of Navy, So Saffron, Summer Sun, More Mustard
Paper: Glossy white cardstock, Colored Cardstock by American Crafts
Accessories: Heat Gun, Creative Beginnings Black Embossing Powder, Marvy Uchidau 1" Circle Punch, Post-Its, Nesties, twine unknown from my stash, square brads by Joann's Scrap Essentials, Sponge Daubers, Brayer
Finished Card Size: 4 3/8" x 5 5/8"

Imagine the scenes you can create with all of the different silhouette stamps that DRS Designs has in stock! They offer so much more than the Cowboy stamp that I've featured here today. You can find all of their silhouette stamps here. I'm sure you'll find something that will jump start your creative juices! Which one is your favorite?

I hope this post and the ones done by Sue and Dawn have inspired you to get out your brayers and silhouette stamps just as I have!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy Friday to you all!

Smiles,
Jennifer

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Patriotic Days

Posted by Jessica G./Jess' Obsession


Stamps: DRS Designs (Oval Stained Glass P199,Eagle Profile L1117, God Bless America sentiment D085, Stars background H124). Ink: Tsukineko (Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Blck), Stampin Up (Bashful Blue), Copic markers. Cardstock: Stampin Up (Real Red, Bashful Blue, Black), Georgia Pacific (white 110#). Accessories: Stampin Up (striped red ribbon).

We've officially begun the 100 days of summer, those sun-filled days between Memorial Day and Labor Day! Since the Fourth of July falls right in between these holidays, it seems like the perfect time to showcase the variety of patriotic stamps and sentiments offered by DRS Designs. They are perfect for a general purpose card like the one above with the American eagle against a stained glass panel, or the card below which features a postage stamp frame used as the focal point:

Stamps: DRS Designs (United We Stand Postage Frame F054). Ink: Stampin Up (Real Red, Night of Navy). Cardstock: Stampin Up (Real Red, Night of Navy). Accessories: Creative Memories (star punch), star brad, silver ribbon.

DRS Designs also carries the seals for each branch of the military, so cards can be personalized for a member of the armed forces:

Stamps: DRS Designs (Air National Guard Seal G044, Star background H124, Large Original Plaid P641). Ink: Stampin Up (Pacific Blue, Summer Sun). Cardstock: Stampin Up (Pacific Blue, Summer Sun), Georgia Pacific (white 110#). Accessories: Spellbinders (Nestabilities Circle).

Enjoy those summer holidays and while you are, remember to send a special thought or prayer to the men and women in the armed forces who are celebrating them away from home!

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More ConGRADulations!

posted by Deb, With a Stamp and a Song

Dawn posted some fabulous graduation cards yesterday, and I'm here with a follow-up!

My first post for DRS featured background stamps...I am certainly loving mine and thought I'd show you some more ideas! I spent the holiday weekend playing with new rubber from DRS. I can't wait to show you some images from the next release...you're gonna LOVE 'em, but that will have to wait for now!

This graduation sentiment is actually in the current catalog, but it is new to me and just in time, too! I love the thought it expresses and thought it would be fun to make a never-ending design around it using the open plaid backgrounder. Although I use most of my DRS stamps with tac-n-peel, I have found that the stripes stamp works much better on cushion mount. I also sanded it the way Dawn recommended so that it would make a clean, dark impression.

I love the symbolism of the butterfly, definitely representative of new beginnings, so it is perfect for this sentiment and occasion! This one, with its glittery body, makes an simple, elegant embellishment.

I used the easy dot backgrounder to make a whimsical flip card with the same color scheme. The back is the perfect size for attaching a gift card, something that every grad appreciates! I love that the base of this card takes less than a half of a sheet of cardstock! Here's a link to the tutorial on SCS.

I'll look forward to seeing you for my next post with some new releases! In the meantime...happy stamping!

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Stamping Solid-ly with Solid Stamps

by Dawn Barrett/Amusing Musings

Could that be the latest stamp-inspired tongue twister? Just try to say that 5 times quickly.

DRS Designs has a stately Silhouette Grad Cap(W1092KU) that I chose to use this week. Since we are in the mist of graduation for highschool and college seniors, I thought I'd stamp some conGRADulatory cards.

Solid stamps give some people the fits but here are some ways to help you get a good color, especially when using large images.
1. Put a little texture on that stamp so it picks up the ink. Some people rub the new stamp on their jeans. For this stamp, I used my sanding block and lightly sanded the top surface.

2. Be sure that your ink pad is nice and juicy. Craft ink can help a lot too.
3. When you stamp your image, hold it down a little longer than you usually do.
4. Try adding cushioning. Either with EZmount or place a magazine underneath your paper.


Now on to the Graduation Card examples...


I love using acetate on cards! I stamped and embossed the Easy Swirl Background (688HU) in silver. The black card base is cut slightly smaller than the normal so that it fits inside the acetate "cover." I used black craft ink and clear embossing powder for the simply solid mortarboard. Then, silver cording is added on the spine of the card to create this elegant graduation card.

Solid stamps can be quite versitile! They don't have to stay solid, or one color! One idea is to mask an area and then color it in with daubers. For the Silhouette Grad Cap, I used post-it notes to mask the top area before daubering on a darker blue. This can give a bit of texture to your image.


I used a gold Sakura pen to add in the tassel detail.

If you want to change the look of a solid stamp, you can try the "rock n roll" technique. First, ink your stamp in a light color, then roll the edges in a darker hue. Also, markers may be used to color a section of the stamp a different color too. Be sure to look up DRS Designs' many graduation stamps and sentiments!

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Memorial Day Rememberence

by Vicki/Stamped Smiles:

Just wanted to take the time for my post today to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day and to send a special thank you to all of the brave men and women who serve our country.

It's never "out of season" to create a red, white & blue patriotic card! Anytime is a great time to send cards to show our proud patriotism. DRS Designs has many unique and specially made rubber stamps to help you with just the right look you need. No need to go out and spend lots of money on patriotic decorative papers when DRS has these wonderful background images so that you can custom design them the way you'd like for them to look, especially when you can use them over and over and never run out of it! I used the Open Plaid (P631) to created the red and white plaid panel and I also used the Interlocking Stars (H819) with white ink on the navy colored card stock. The main panel was stamped with the USA thanks (G766) in navy ink and I sponged and distressed the edges. Very easy card to make perfect for any time of the year.

If you haven't checked it out yet, there has been a Memorial Weekend Blog Hop going on given by the group Cards for Heros. (click on the name to check them out.) They will be giving away TONS of prizes and there is so much red, white & blue inspiration to see!
You can check out more of these types of cards using the DRS patriotic images by looking at my post HERE or Cathy's post HERE. We participated in the hop and will be sending our creations to the Cards for Heros so that the military over seas can use them to send to their loved ones back home. Hope that you can find the time to join in somehow!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today, enjoy your weekend and take the time to thank someone for serving our country.

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A Well Deserved Thank You...

posted by Cathy/Crafty Thoughts...

It's Memorial Day weekend...the start of summer, but more importantly a time to remember all that our service men and women have done for us and our country. DRS Designs has some awesome patriotic stamps and I was able to put together a military card set in no time at all thanks to these images and a simple sketch.

Here are individual shots of the set...and the postage frame images to go along with them!









I stamped The Soldier of America (L918) sentiment/poem in versamark on the red panel, at an angle and then stamped it again on the inside of each card...



Here is another shot of the two patriotic postage frames...I stamped them in blue stazon ink so that they would not run if they got wet in the mail...



As you can see, DRS Designs has a stamp for everything you need a stamp for!!!
Are you a member of the Rubber Mania Monthly club? Check out the link in the sidebar...learn how you can get free, yes, FREE stamps!!!

Thanks for checking in...I hope you are having a great holiday weekend...
See you soon...

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Dig out your brayer!!!

by Sue

Welcome!

Are you ready for a wild holiday weekend? As per usual I'm oblivious to what day it is and it was too late for me to do a card celebrating our military. I'm sure Cathy will fix that tomorrow.

Instead...

It's always nice to have a supply of cards on hand, so I spent a little time this week enlarging my collection. I was really pleased with how this get well card came out and even more pleased at how quickly it all fell into place.

These are the stamps I used in this weeks card ~


and here's my card ~


I have to credit/blame this card on my stamping buddy Lisa S. who came to visit at the store last Friday and mentioned using a brayer. Well, that's all it usually takes to get me itching to brayer again.

I started my card by brayering a white piece of cardstock using lavender dye ink, just trying to get an even blending from light to dark. I followed that up by stamping my silhouette leaf background stamp on top of my brayering using violet dye ink.

For the 3 butterfly panels I inked my stamp using black pigment ink and stamped a large piece of white cardstock 3 times without re-inking, giving me a light, medium and dark impression. I continued the light to dark progression with my coloring. All that was left was to add a layer in back of each panel, stamp my message and adhere as shown. What you can't see in the picture is that the message and 2 butterfly's on the last panel are popped out 1/8" to give it a little dimension.

and now it's time for ~


Your Tip - by Mary D. - To create a banner for my card I stamp my image on a narrow piece of paper and then take a square punch and angle it so that the lower right of the punch where the square ends is fitted to where it creates a triangle on the paper piece. You can punch it on either side depending on how you'd like your banner to look.

My Trick - Did you notice on my card posted here that I didn't use the entire get well saying? There is plenty of room on this stamp to only ink the top section, but to be sure I didn't get any ink on the part I didn't want to stamp, I covered it with a piece of scotch tape, inked my stamp like normal, then peeled off the tape before I stamped it.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to send in your tip or trick so you can win some mega blog candy. I'm sending out some serious prizes (several new release stamps) for every tip I use. Send your tip to submitdrs@yahoo.com

Happy Memorial Day!

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Featured Friday Designer #6

Hi There - Welcome back to our sixth Featured Friday Designer!! As you know, back when we had our Guest Design Team call we were so impressed by all the entries we received that we just couldn't limit our decision to only Guest Designers so we came up with our Friday Featured Designer to give even more people a chance to inspire us!

So today we would like to introduce you to Lori Roop aka Loree2000 on Splitcoaststampers. You can find more of Lori's work on her blog, The Paper Yard .

The stamps we asked Lori to work with were:









And here is what Lori created...





Be sure to stop by Lori's blog to check out more of her work and for more info on these cards!!

Thanks so much Lori, we wish you continued success!!!

See you soon...

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Welcome to the Jungle...

posted by: Cathy/Crafty Thoughts...

Sorry if you now have that song running through your head!!! Have you checked out all the new images designed by Dustin Pike and released through DRS Designs?! These jungle animals are a real hit...don't be the only one without them!!! Here is a shot of the whole "gang"!



I used four different stamps on this card...can you find them?!
The focal image is Jimbo and the gang (P891) and of course the sentiment (D908) to go along with them. I also used Vicki's versatile background (H369) and the silhouette branch background (H363)on the kraft and green strips. I ran the chocolate panel through my leaf embossing folder and then added some twill ribbon and twine! Check out the little monkey's head...I stamped it twice and cut the second one out and popped it so it overlapped the sentiment a tiny bit!

These images are so much fun to color! Have you made some fun cards with these images? If so, come back and post a link so we can come check them out. We're always looking for new inspiration!

Thanks for checking in...check back tomorrow for another installment of our Friday Featured Designer...who could it be this week?

See you soon...

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Tall, Cool One... DRS style!

I made this card a little bit ago and I am so happy to share it with y'all! I used the beer mug image and stamped it,colored it and sponged inside of my nestie for some really cool shading. I did this while the image was still inside the die. Than I colored the image with copics markers and I added crystal effects to the mug, but first I painted it with SHIMMERZ too make the beer look sparkling. Then I took my liquid applique and added that for the foam. That stuff is super cool! When you heat it and it puffs... it's like pure magic! I cut another shape with the nesties and then I cuttlebugged it with the circles to make it look like bubbles...

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Happy Wednesday!

Posted by: Heather

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Today I wanted to share a couple simple birthday cards. I wanted to share these to show that not all cards have to be complicated and time consuming. Sometimes we just need a quick and simple card. Both of these cards that I am showing today are simple layouts that could be made in less than 30 minutes (that is amazingly quick in my opinion - I'm usually a 1-2 hour per card maker).

Simply layouts that still give an elegant look:
I hope you all have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!

Heather

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A Fun Non Card Way To Use DRS Stamps!

by: Dawn Knight

I don't know about you... but I have a hard time not making cards! I LOVE them... they are like little pieces of art. But... there are SOOO many other ways to use stamps! I was in a challenge to make a bookmark and one of my friends made a bookmark like this... and it is called a book thong... yes... a THONG!(LOL)

I loved the look and I KNEW that my DRS butterfly stamps HAD to be used for this project. Basically, I took some fun fibers,beads and silver things to separate the beads and got myself started. I stamped the butterfly images onto clear poly shrink with black stazon. Before I colored it, I scuffed the poly shrink up a bit so the color would hold. Then I colored the images in, cut them out and punched a little hole to string them on my THONG!(LOL). After I shrank them, the colors were brighter and so pretty... HOORAY!

Next, I started stringing beads and silver things and tying knots to hold everything in place and
keep all of the butterflies in place. Here is a close up of the finished project and the photo on top shoes the THONG in use(LOL)! This was so quick and such a fun and easy gift to make for someone!!! I know that all of my reader friends will be getting these along with a book store gift certificate for their next birthday! Thanks for stopping by and I hope that I have inspired you! Have a beautiful day!

Stamps used... ALL DRS DESIGNS: Numbers G115, C119 and D117.

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Challenge #21 - Flap Cards

Welcome to our new challenge! The team was challenged to make flap cards this week...these cards can come in all sizes and types of flaps as you will see below! We would love for you to play along...leave a comment on this post with a direct link to your creation so we can check it out. If you upload to a public gallery, please use the keyword DRSC21.

Check out the creations from our design team below...and visit their blogs for more info on their cards!!

Jessica G./Jess' Obsession:

Dawn Barrett/Amusing Musings

Cathy Indelicato/Crafty Thoughts...
Dawn at Dawns Rubber Room

Vicki/Stamped Smiles:


Heather Lee-Reppen / The Best in Life
Sue W. ~ DRS Designs

Jennifer at Ink N Scrap Habits

Deb--With a Stamp and a Song

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