Wink Wink Ink: Little Bird

Friday, July 29, 2016

Back to School Freebies!

Hello, everybody!

Well, I can't believe we are already 2 months into summer already. I noticed this week that the stores are putting out their school supplies. I'm not sure why but that always triggers waves of nostalgia for me like nothing else does. Being the introvert that I am, I can't say I really liked school. Actually, I dreaded it about 95% of the time. However, I loved all the brand new books and school supplies and even school work!

I have a very vivid memory of being 6 years old, tummy full of butterflies, standing out at the bus stop, the smell of Fall leaves and wood smoke in the air. I feel very awkward. There are older kids waiting too, talking about me like I'm not there. I want to hide under a rock. So I do the next best thing and stick my face in my book bag, pretending to look very intently for something. I inhale the smell of brand new crayons, paper, pencils, and erasers and it makes me feel happy and excited. So many possibilities!

To be honest, I haven't changed much in the last 40 years. I have found slightly more socially acceptable ways of going to my "happy place" so you won't find me sticking my head in my purse or anything like that. And my tablet carries the equivalent of everything I used to carry in my book bag and then some. But I still feel like I could change the world if I had enough good books and paper and the BIG box of Crayolas!

Freebie time!

So that brings me to my newest freebie! A set of 3 actually. All just in time for back to school crafting. You can find them here. If you haven't checked out my Freebies Page yet, there are even more goodies there!

In an earlier post I talked about making little add-on images to make my existing stamps more versatile. I even revamped my entire collection to include versions that could be layered on top of each other without lines showing through so you could create new scenes and essentially brand new stamps out of the ones you already own. Now I can finally show you what I mean!

I love working with this new Night Owl stamp so much! (Thanks, Ruby, for introducing him for me last week!) The glasses work great on him! Looks like he's ready to pull an all nighter to me!

Stamp: Night Owl and Books free stamp

Digital Papers and Embellishments: Pixel Scrapper

Font: My Underwood

Here's a great reminder for someone having those first day of school jitters, a big scary exam, or just anybody who is dealing with stressful situations in general. I made the stack of books taller and heftier for this one and I think it worked out great.

Stamps: Catnap and Books free stamp

Digital Papers and Embellishments: Pixel Scrapper

Font: Victorian Parlor

This last one reminds me a lot of little me. I tried stacking 2 book images on top of each other for this one. I flipped one around so it wouldn't look exactly like the one on top of it. Don't you love the versatility of digis?! So many possibilities!

Stamps: Little Bird and Books free stamp

Digital Papers and Embellishments: Pixel Scrapper

Fonts: Goldsmith Vintage and Jenna Sue

All digital cards were made using Craft Artist Pro 2 Software by Serif!

Fall Stamps

Only 3 more days until I start rolling out the new Fall stamps! Stay tuned!

Until next time...
Melanie

Friday, July 8, 2016

Sunshine, a sweet treat, and a little peek at Fall stamps!

Hello, Everybody!

I hope you are all enjoying your summer. I know I am! There are fresh veggies ready in the garden, the flowers are blooming, and I have been drawing and designing up a storm! (More on that later!) I chased this little guy all over the place the other day and finally got a picture with his wings open before he flew away. Isn't he beautiful?!

I used a variety of stamps on the cards I've made for you today. I've been trying to design at least one card for every stamp in my store. I've had a couple of people ask about my design team. I probably DO need a design team but things are just a little too uncertain at the moment in "moving purgatory". It's one thing to fly by the seat of my pants by myself but dragging a whole team of people along for the ride would probably just make everybody mad at me! So that's something I may be looking into after I am settled, whenever that is. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Sunny is a stamp I have had sitting in my store for awhile but I had yet to use him on a project. The whole time I was making him I kept humming "You are my Sunshine" so it wasn't hard to decide what my card was going to say! I had a much more flowery, feminine version in my head but this is how it turned out and I like it. This would be a great card for guys or gals who light up your life!

Stamps: Sunny and Cloudy

Font: My Underwood

Digital Paper and ribbon: Pixel Scrapper

Little Bird (as in "A little bird told me...") is a great image to use on cards for surprising someone who wouldn't expect you to remember their special day or congratulating someone on a new bit of good news in their life. I've included the transparent png sentiment in black below. Just right click and save.

Stamp: Little Bird

Fonts: Clicker Script

Digital Paper and Embellishments: Pixel Scrapper

Light Hearted reminds me of when I was a little girl and every time I had a helium filled balloon I would skip along and then jump up in the air in hopes I might fly a little bit. I never did fly and it's even less likely to happen today but I can still dream!

Stamp: Light Hearted

Font: Mathilde

Digital Papers and embellishments: Pixel Scrapper

I have also been overhauling my Freebies page this week. From now on all of the freebies will be the same quality as my stamps for sale. I've also added pictures with links directly to the corresponding file so you don't have to go hunting for it. Not that there is much to search through yet but I have big plans!

This cupcake was on the page once but I took it down and gave it a major makeover this week. It's been redrawn at a higher resolution, colored, and all the individual images now come in the 4 different versions of transparent png files just like the stamps I sell in my store. So you can now easily layer the pieces and build yourself the perfect cupcake. Yummy!

And lastly, I have a little sneak peek of some of the new Fall images I will be listing in my store in August! Whether holiday images are your thing or you just like cute critters, I think I've managed to come up with a little something for everybody!

That's all for now. Hope you all are having a beautiful day!

Melanie