balloons! {mama elephant stamp highlights}

Hi! Today, the Mama Elephant design team is blitzing you with stamp inspiration for both Balloon Letters and Balloon Et Cetera.

Let's get this thing started:

I couldn't help but pull out my Alpine Carolers! I stamped and masked the couple and the balloon letters and (copic) airbrushed a sky background.  I added some snow and twinkling flakes in the background and glossed up the letters.  They are balloons, after all!



I am in love with these glossy balloon letters.

Also glossy, the heart balloon:



I reached beyond Christmas to Valentine's day for this one.  I borrowed the little envelope from Pandamonium, the dotted trail from No Peeking, and curved the Cross My Heart sentiment to fit around the trail.



The cloud borders on either side frame out whole thing.

Lastly, I made a huge baby tag:

I stamped all of the animal-shaped balloons, masking and clustering them together. I added some extra shading to the solid images and then used scissors to cut them all out.



I added some blue ink to the huge tag shape and used a white gel pen to add the polka dots.  I can't wait to add this to a gift! I have a few girls in mind who will be getting larger and more rounded bellies soon - hee hee!

I hope you like them! Check out the ME blog for more balloon fun - click!

♥.

fa la la!

Hi there! I have one last Alpine Carolers project to share for this release. I just want to thank the Mama Elephant girls, and all of the Ele-fans for making this an exciting past month for me!

Let's dive right in!

I created a couple's Christmas card, and borrowed elements from Arctic Penguins to do it: the hat on the mister and the cup of steaming cocoa for the missus.

Once I had everything stamped the way I wanted, I masked them both (and their accessories, and a snowy ground for them to stand on) and sponged on a light brown sky. I love how it makes the carolers stand out.

Before removing the masks, I grabbed another new set - Basic Borders - and used the polka dot strip to mimic a snowfall. It's very subtle, and shows unevenly on the card, so perfect for a snowy sky.

The wavy border from Tags a lot was perfect for stamping a nonchalant "fa la la" greeting. I accented it on either edge with a swipe of a green marker. It looks so much more festive that way!

To finish things off, I cut my panel with the Femme Frames rectangle die, and then cut into it again with the new Borderlines Trio edge die. I slipped in some candy cane patterned paper to make up the difference. I love the stitched border all the way around!

I hope you like what I've created! Thanks for stopping by!

♥.

let it snow {mama elephant stamp highlights}

Hi there, and welcome back to another day of Mama Elephant stamp highlights! Today, we're showing off the beautiful hand-lettered sentiment set, Season's Greetings.

I made a shaker card! I cut into the femme frames rectangle with the new instalove die - it created the perfect opening to showcase the greeting and sequin flurries.



I did some stamp tampering again, shrinking down the two largest carolers so that they looked more like my own trio of children.  And then I used the partial die-cut technique to cut them out together.  I know, I'm obsessed with doing this, but it looks amazing!

I added white polka dots to the middle girl's coat and skirt, and then carried the look to the card base, using Basic Borders.



The bow makes it feel like a Christmas present! It also helps balance out the carolers at the bottom.

I hope you like it! There's more to see on the Mama Elephant blog today - click!

♥.

sing it out {mama elephant stamp highlights}

Even though I've been showing it off for awhile now, today is the official alpine carolers highlight day over at Mama Elephant.

I've shown you:

some masking to get the kids to cozy up together,

how to create a bald-headed hubby,

how to customize the height of the carolers,

how to create a giant figgy pudding cupcake for a tiny caroler,

and that's just to name a few.

Today, I thought we should simplify things. I'm showing you how I originally intended the stamp set to be used:



No crazy masking - just stamping and die-cutting in the simplest way. A family, holding hands and singing their way into your hearts.



Sometimes, it's enough to just show off the images and put together a fun card.  I stuck to a light brown, grey, black, red and white color combo - in the coloring of the images and in the background papers.

The carolers, the quote from Elf, the polka dot paper... this card just makes me happy.

I hope you like it too. Check out more from the rest of the design team on the ME blog today!

♥.

custom carolers {mama elephant stamp highlights}

Hey there!

We're back for another day of Mama Elephant stamp highlights, and we're showing off the new Boutique Borders.

I couldn't help but pair the striped image strip with my cutie carolers:

Remember I told you that it would be easy to customize the look of the carolers?  The ones on either side have been tampered with. hee.



I used the ones in blue for these tags, and you can see the difference in the photo above.  All it takes is a little careful inking. Wipe off the ink below the skirt (or shirt in the boy's case) before stamping down once, and then ink only part of the legs and match it up. I love that it's so easy to do with clear stamps!

When you are die-cutting the smaller carolers, you'll want to make sure to not cut it all the way through in one pass. Use the partial die-cut technique to send it through and cut each end separately.



Once I stamped and die-cut the carolers, I popped them up onto a tag base - I love this shape, with its scalloped border. I swiped the scallops with a brown marker to make them pop, and did the same to the edges of the sentiment banner with a blue marker. It adds interest and polish to the final tag with hardly any effort at all.



The sentiment is from bloomsies, and fits perfectly onto the banner found in the tags a lot set.

I hope you like what I've created! In case you missed it, I also turned the "daddy" caroler into a spitting image of my own hubby, hee hee - click!

♥.

of penguins and carolers {mama elephant stamp highlights}

This is my second post of the day. If you're looking for lawn fawn gingerbread tags, scroll down or click *here.*

It's time for Mama Elephant stamp highlights! We're showing off 2 sets today, arctic penguins and jolly & merry. The sets were meant to work together, with images in the one and sentiments in the other.

I made 2 cards for you today. First off, a sweet little lonely penguin.



The ice blocks in the set are really small, and I wanted to have a huge one that would fill the entire card width. Some selective inking and voila!

Here's an idea of what I did, although I didn't end up using this for my final card:

If you stamp the penguin first, and then build the bigger ice-block around him it works so much better. You don't need the lines to join up over the masked penguin.

I hope the picture makes sense to you! It's really easy to customize almost any stamp this way.

Once I had him on his larger ice block, I used the partial die-cutting technique to cut them out together, and set him adrift on the ocean. Two different copic markers are all it took to make a sea and sky, and I used a white gel pen to doodle in some waves.



The sentiment is from jolly & merry, and so cute!

Speaking of jolly & merry, I just love the larger script words found in that set:



I created a giant tag shaped card, and used the starburst cover as a backdrop to my scene.  The alpine carolers are holding a string of Christmas lights.



Aren't they cute? A lot of masking and inking to get the entire tag covered in a night sky color, with a yellow glow for the sparkling lights.

I heat-embossed "merry" and let it spill up onto the images. It's nice and thin, so it doesn't overwhelm the carolers.

I hope you like both projects! There's more to see on the Mama Elephant blog today!

♥.

my husband, the caroler and the alpine giveaway winner.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but before I begin, I just want you all to know how much it means to me that you like alpine carolers!  I have been blushing for a few days straight now.

When I wrote up my stampede post, I mentioned that I would show you how to customize the kids. I have 3 kids, and wanted it to look like that. You'll see a few projects where I did just that in the coming week.  So anyways, I was reading through the comments when I got to one that made me go: oh crap.

Wait a minute, Karen. You thought I meant I would turn a caroler into Amar? whoops. I hadn't thought of doing that, but....

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

I must warn you that what follows is extreme ridiculousness.

haha.  Who knew that it would be as easy as wiping the ink off the top of the head, and scribbling in a beard?



I cleaned off the ink right above the ears, stamped in the glasses and carefully drew in the scalp and beard. No sweat, and it kept me giggling for an entire hour straight.

I added some mistletoe up top, from the new set Peace on Earth, and created my own greeting to fit within the Bloomsies banner.



I kind of love it.

Now, onto the giveaway winner! Random.org picked this comment:

Yay, Yainea! I will send out your set very soon!

In case you don't know what my hubby looks like, here's who I want to be smooching under the mistletoe come Christmas:

♥.

Mama Elephant October Stampede!

I'm so excited to be kicking things off for the Mama Elephant October Stampede! To celebrate their 2nd birthday, Mama Elephant is stretching the stampede into a 3-day-long affair, with different designers ready to wow you each day. All of the October products are available in the store right now.

Let's get this thing going with more Alpine Carolers, yes? I designed this set in collaboration with Kryssi and Angela and I couldn't be more excited to see what others will do with my sweet carolers!

Until you get your order in, here's my take:

All of the masking makes me a happy gal.  I bunched them together to look like a family: mom, dad, brother and sister. I know I'm missing an older sister in there (and a bald hubby, ha ha) for it to look like my family, but I'll show you what you can do for that next week.



I love the ornament and stocking and other accessories that they can hold onto. The little kids are obviously flapping them around...



I also added in the "happy" die-cut and sentiment from the featured promo set. You can see the full set - click here! It isn't in the store this month, but you can snag it for free. And you should. Skinny scripts and red embossing make it perfect for the holidays.

Mama Elephant is offering some special deals this month:

♥ there will be a 10% discount code active for the duration of the 3 day stampede blog hop (HAPPY2ME)
♥ purchases over $100 will receive the HAPPY EVERYTHING stamp set free
♥ purchases over $150 will receive the HAPPY EVERYTHING stamp set and HAPPY SCRIPT die free.

AND, as usual there are giveaways!  Mama Elephant is giving away THREE $25 gift certificates each day of the stampede blog hop, for a total of 9 winners. In addition, there will be exclusive prize giveaways on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  The winners will be chosen and announced on the ME blog on Monday, October 20th.

You know what to do! Comment on this post, comment on the ME blog, follow them on facebook and twitter and good luck!

For AN EXTRA chance to win a copy of Alpine Carolers, you can enter my personal giveaway *HERE* until October 17th at midnight (EST.)

There's more to see today on these blogs:

Pamela Ho ♥ Debby Hughes ♥ Elena Roussakis (you're here!) ♥ Geralyn Sy ♥ Emily Leiphart ♥ Karolyn Loncon ♥ Kristina Werner

Alpine Carolers: first look & giveaway

Hi there!

I am over the moon excited to give you a first look at Alpine Carolers, the set I designed in collaboration with Mama Elephant. They are showing it off on their blog today too - click!

I couldn't help but pair the littlest girl from the set (in her bear coat and tiny ugg boots) with a figgy pudding cupcake.

Here's how I transformed the Carnival Cupcakes treat:

I stamped the liner first, the one in the middle, and then did some selective inking on the cupcake top with the scalloped bottom (the one I circled.)  I inked it up and completely wiped off the ink from the bottom before stamping down.

With a copic multiliner, I drew a straighter line to fill in the bottom, and gave it the drippy line for the white glaze you'd see on a figgy pudding cake.

For the mistletoe topper, I inked up the floral cluster from Carnival Toppers (circled above) but wiped off the ink from the flower before stamping down. Three hand-drawn circles created the signature berries.  

Easy, right?

I love the whimsical fonts that Kryssi chose for the set (that is not my area of expertise at all!) I inked up part of the sentiment at a time, so that it would frame the image.

I hope you like it!

I created another card for the Mama Elephant blog today - click over to see it in full!



I'd love to know what you think of Alpine Carolers so far!

Leave me a comment on this post and I'll make it worth your while: I have an extra set to give away to one of you.  I'll leave it open until midnight on the 17th (EST) and announce the winner later that same day.

♥.

just me.... stamp designer!

Have you seen the October Mama Elephant stamp previews?

If you scroll down a bit, you'll find this:

Along with this description:

We are all so excited to bring you Alpine Carolers! It is designed in collaboration with our very own Elena Roussakis! We are so thrilled to support the artistic talents of one of our own. :) Elena really brought these sweet carolers to life. And let me tell you, they are so much fun with all their accessories! It's a blast to color! And even better, Alpine Carolers comes with a coordinating die set!

Somebody pinch me!

Do you ever set crafty goals for yourself? Stamp designing was the only one on my list for the year. And when I wrote it down, it seemed impossible. I am an amateur doodler, had no knowledge of Adobe Illustrator and absolutely no idea how to get started.

When I emailed Kryssi, it was literally just to let her know that this was something I was planning on pursuing. When she wrote back that they would be interested in working with me, I was shocked. Angela and Kryssi have been so patient and kind with me: taking a chance on my designs, helping me to make changes to the illustrations to make them better, and giving me tips as I go about learning how to illustrate my own drawings.

I hope you will all love Alpine Carolers as much as I do, and that I will have more opportunities to design for Mama Elephant in the future!

♥.