Make Believe

I want to apologize to those who have been expecting postings from me. My Dad died and so I took a break from blogging.

I am now ready to get back on track so expect daily postings from me from now on. With the holidays fast approaching I plan on having ideas for gifts, decor and memory keeping. So be sure to check back often.

Today I will leave you with a 5"x5" card I made with another digital image from Mo Manning. It reminds me of my childhood when my cat was a substitute for a doll.



Supplies:
Cardstock-Close To My Heart
Patterned Paper-Making Memories
Digital Stamp Image- Mo Manning
Copic Markers used to color image
Flowers-Prima, Misc from Michael's
Half Pearls-Martha Stewart

Thanks for stopping by. Next week I will start Make it Monday when I introduce the first of several ideas for make it yourself Christmas gifts.

Pam

Mo's Digital Stamps and Challenge Card

I have become addicted to Mo's Digital Stamps. Always a lover of rubber stamps, acrylic stamps came along and were easy to use so I added them to my ever growing collection of stamps. With Digital Scrapbooking growing over the past couple of years, I suppose it was only a matter of time until digital stamping arrived. I have seen many digital stamps popping up on the Internet over the last few months, but none enticed me until I found Mo's digital stamps. Mo Manning is a children's book author and illustrator. Her images are unique, detailed and a delight to use in my own card making.

A challenge blog using her images can be found at Mo's Challenge Blog. Here you will find weekly challenges, design team creations to inspire and general information on digital stamping. Below is my entry for the week's purple challenge, I did not use any embellishments other than paper because the image itself is so cute:



Image: Monday's Child: Mo's Digital Image
Cardstock: Close to My Heart
Patterned Paper: Making Memories
Ink: Distress Ink: Ranger
Markers: Copics
Other: Corner Punch: Creative Memories

Check out Mo's site when you have a chance, it may spark your interest in digital stamps.

Pam

How My Stamping Hobby Turned into an Obsession

I bought my first stamps twenty years ago. I needed some Texas themed images for my rehearsal dinner invitations. In the days before clip art was available, I found a set of stamps that were perfect. The invitations turned out great and the stamps were put away. Twelve years later I found some beautiful Christmas stamps and decided to make our own Christmas cards.

The rest probably sounds like many of your stories. One stamp led to another. I found more and more that I needed. Soon I began to run out of space. Why? Well besides the space the stamps took up, there is the supplies needed...inks, embossing tools, ribbon (many types in each color!), cardstock etc. I took over the cabinets in our laundry room. This made it easy to ignore the sheer number of stamps I was accumulating. Scrapbooking became popular and I added this paper craft to my favorites. When we moved to our current home I took over the room that was to be the kids playroom. They never used it, preferring to stay in their rooms. So I made this room my studio.

I think this is how it happens to most people. It sneaks up on you and before you know it yo have a room full of material and a love for paper crafts of all types. I became disabled five years ago and this hobby helped provide an outlet for me. Having always worked, suddenly staying home all the time and unable to do most daily tasks, I found that being able to create cards, altered art or scrapbooks provided me a feeling of being able to accomplish something. I am thankful each day for these hobbies and a supportive spouse.

The introduction of digital stamps in recent months have added an additional way to add to my hobby, without taking up space on anything but my hard drive. There are some great artists out there providing us with new unique artwork to use on our paper creations, I will be introducing some of them in the coming days.

Today I am leaving you with a Thank You card I made. The stamp is from Great Impressions. It is colored with watercolor pencils and a blending pen. This is one of my favorite techniques for coloring images, it is easy to learn and the supplies are not expensive.

Joining the Blogging World

I have finally decided to jump into the world of blogging. There is no other thing I want to share more than my love for stamping, altered arts and other paper crafts. When I had to stop working as an oncology nurse five years ago it was so hard not being able to go to a job I loved every day. I really thought I would retire from nursing in another 20 years, caring for children with cancer as I always had. I was so limited physically in what I could do, it was a blessing to have my stamping and paper arts hobbies to keep me involved in something that felt productive.


Over time I have stopped teaching my workshops and I really miss the friends I made while sharing stamping and scrapbooking ideas. I plan on using this blog to share ideas and inspiration, introduce you to new products and connect with others who do the same. Since I know that I have some beginner and advanced stampers reading here, I will include basic as well as advanced techniques and information. In addition, I have many online friends who blog and now I can share more of my artwork with them and the rest of those who seek inspiration online. Hopefully you will find inspiring ideas and learn something new when you check into my Accidental Studio.


I thought I would show you a sneak peak of my studio. I have found that if I can see my stuff I will use it, so I have made an effort to use items that will show off my stash. I was fortunate to get in on the Pottery Barn wall storage shelves before they were discontinued. They cover one wall in my studio, from floor to ceiling. This system holds lots of different things and makes finding items a breeze. My Mother-in-law collected antique jars over the years and now they house my ribbons. You can see my ribbon shelf here:


Thanks for stopping by, I hope you join me on my blogging journey.

Pam