Four Ways Friday #59 - Dot, Dot, Dot

This week's Four Ways Friday is all about the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp!  I combined the stamp with a few other stamp sets to give you some ideas for how versatile the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp is!

The Dot, Dot, Dot stamp serves as a great background stamp for your cards!  Here I stamped the dots using River Rock ink.  I stamped the greeting from Vintage Vogue in Chocolate Chip ink with the help of my stamp-a-ma-jig.  I then used a rock & roll technique to stamp the flowers from Vintage Vogue onto scraps of Whisper White card stock.  I cut the flowers out and then adhered them to the card front using either glue or dimensionals.  Adding the buttons to the flower centers with glue dots was the final touch!

Don't forget that you don't have to stamp the entire dotted image!  Here I used sticky notes as masks to mask off a rectangular area in the middle of the card and then stamped over the masked area with the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp and Tempting Turquoise ink.  I stamped the greeting from Short & Sweet with Basic Black ink and then added the cut out dog from Friends Fur-ever (one of my favorite stamp sets!).  The Melon Mambo punched heart was the final addition - adhered with glue.

I created this tag using the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp in a couple of ways...can you see them?  Here I die cut the tag from Very Vanilla card stock using the Two Tags die.  I then stamped the front flap of the tag with the dot stamp and Crumb Cake ink.  I stamped the back of the tag with Crumb Cake ink at 1/2 strength.  The greeting is a combination of stamps from Define Your Life and Upsy Daisy.  I used the modern label punch to punch out the word "birthday" and sponged the edges with Early Espresso ink.  Crystal Effects was used to adhere the champagne glass glitter to the greeting.  Can you see where else I used the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp?  I took a piece of Very Vanilla seam binding and stamped the seam binding (front and back) with the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp and Crumb Cake ink!  I love dressing up ribbon/seam binding this way!  I tied the ribbon with a small piece of linen thread.  The cut out bird from Friends 24-7 peeks out from the inside of the tag :)

Don't be afraid to stamp the same image over and over on top of itself!  Here I kept stamping the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp, using different ink colors, onto a piece of Whisper White card stock.  I then punched out the card stock using the ornament punch.  It's hard to see, but I added a whole bunch of dazzling diamonds with 2-way glue to make the ornament sparkle!  I sponged the edges of the ornament with Tempting Turquoise and then tied a small piece of gold elastic to the top of the ornament.  A piece of grosgrain ribbon acts as the ornament hanger and was glued to the Very Vanilla panel before adding the ornament with dimensionals.  I sponged the edges with Old Olive ink and then adhered the panel to a Real Red panel.  The large eyelet was added using the crop-a-dile.  I finished off the tag with red satin ribbon.
I hope you've enjoyed this week's Four Ways Friday!  I hope you have a very creative and peaceful weekend and for those of you who live in the United States and are in the path of Hurricane Irene, I wish you a very safe weekend as well!

Short & Sweet Best Wishes Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  How Easily Is Our Attention Diverted?

I remember that as a child I had the ability to sit and play or read for hours.  I remember coloring those geometric patterns in my Altair Design coloring books for long periods at a time (did you color in those coloring books?).  Today, the ability to approach things with that type of focus is what I crave.  It seems that the slightest thought or distraction can totally set me off in a new direction - I might be reading and then I see a reference to another book or author and I am immediately up and out of my chair, headed for the computer, to go and look up the reference.  Or I will start to tell a story to a friend as we walk toward the park and their attention will be grabbed by a person up the street and we will never come back to my story.  So I'm sensing I'm not the only one suffering from this condition - I won't call it attention deficit disorder - although the name seems to fit.  Where has our ability to provide our undivided attention to our tasks or to others gone?  I miss it.  I feel more scattered these days - like I am a bouncing ball who never comes to a state of rest.  I appreciate the craft room as one of those places where, if I am protective and vigilant, I can allow myself to remain in a state of focused attention.  (It's so funny - as I was typing my last sentence, my attention was just taken away by the finish of Stage 2 of the US Pro Cycling Challenge on tv and Willow meowing at the top of her lungs :)  A reminder that I still have some work to do on focusing my attention :)
Today's card began with a Melon Mambo card base that I ran through the Big Shot with the Tulip Frame embossing folder.  I then stamped the floral image from Tiny Tags at half strength using Chocolate Chip ink.  I then took a piece of Confetti card stock and scored it in half and then 3/4" from one end.  I tore the end of the scored 3/4" piece and used a piece of twine to hold this little "pocket" together.  I stamped the pocket with the floral image from Tiny Tags using River Rock ink and then stamped the other decorative image using Melon Mambo.  An adhesive pearl adds a bit of elegance.  Finally, I created a small River Rock insert for the "pocket" and stamped the top with a greeting from Short & Sweet with Chocolate Chip ink.  The pocket was then adhered to the front of the card using dimensionals.  I hope you like it!

Vegging Out

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Sometimes You Just Need To Veg Out!

I think Willow has it right :)  She climbed into this oak barrel where we grow tomatoes and decided it was the perfect place to take a nap!  I am following her lead today and I am going to veg out as well (although not in the oak barrel...not enough room for the two of us!) :)  I will be back tomorrow.  Hope you have a great day...maybe you'll get a chance to veg out too :)

Retired Stamp Set Note Cards

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Sometimes We Fret About Things For More Time Than It Actually Takes Us To Do Those Things

I'm guilty!  Sometimes I get myself so worked up about my "to-do" lists - all the things I need to get done by a certain day.  I think if I counted all of the minutes I worry about getting those things done, they would far surpass the amount of time the tasks actually take to get done.  So why am I bothering to allow myself to worry about them?!  Case in point.  On Friday I had a list of things I needed to get done by Monday and I had anticipated working on them all weekend.  I think I had started worrying about the list beginning on about Wednesday of last week!  So, what happened?  On Saturday I decided to take a 2 1/2 hour hike rather than sit and do work (yeah!).  In my mind I began to realize that the work would likely, in reality, not take me much time.  And then on Sunday I ended up on a 4-hour biking adventure to a gorgeous park!  And here I sit (I am writing this on Sunday night) and guess what?  I was able to get the tasks done in about 2 hours of focused time!  I am so glad that I decided to stop all the fretting and do those things I really wanted to do.  I know I still need to work on minimizing the fretting - at least I'm headed in the right direction!
Today's cards were made using a retired stamp set from a number of years back.  I LOVE the quotes!  I stamped the images with Jet Black Staz-On and then colored the images in with colored pencils.  I added a dash of Crystal Effects and a bit of dazzling diamonds for some added texture and bling.  I really like the simplicity of these cards since the quotes are truly the focal point.  These are headed to a family member as a birthday gift.  I hope she likes them! :)

Friends 24-7 Scrap Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: You Can Miss Beauty So Easily

I was out of town for a few days last week.  The drive to the airport turned out to be a learning experience for me.  I was driven to the airport and rode in the back seat of the car.  Once I was inside the airport I realized that I hadn't even looked up while I was in the backseat and so I totally missed one of the favorite things I enjoy about the drive to the airport - the amazing vista of the mountains to my left.  I couldn't believe I hadn't even caught a glimpse of the mountains!  Usually it is the one thing I anticipate on the drive!  I was fortunate when it turned out that the gate for my flight was at the end of a terminal.  And there, at the end of the terminal was a full wall of windows looking out onto those gorgeous mountains!  This time I got lucky.  What it made me realize is that you can miss beauty so easily if you don't pick your head up and look around you.  I know this is true when I walk with my head down on the sidewalk.  Now I know it is true when I am traveling in the backseat of a car.  From here on out I'm going to do all I can to keep my eyes open and take in the beauty around me!!!!
Today's little 3x3 card is a card that I put together using scraps on the craft table!  This is becoming one of my favorite things to do since I usually end up with a piece that I would never have created if I had set out with intent!  I used bits and pieces from die cuts and a cut out of the bird from Friends 24-7.  The greeting is from Elements of Style.  Life truly is a matter of moments - moments that we will miss if we don't open our eyes!