Back in the Kitchen

Well, hello friends!  I haven’t been here in awhile… not sure if anyone missed me, but I’m here today to share some new creations with you!  I don’t stamp nearly as much as I have in the past, but when I do I find it easier to just share on Instagram.  So if you’re an Instagram user, please feel free to follow me there by clicking this link, or click on the little Instagram camera icon there on the top left column of my blog.

But hey, let’s get to the biggest reason why I’m here today!  Many moons ago, I was honored to be assigned to my very first design team by the wonderful owner of Kitchen Sink Stamps.  And today, Maria is releasing a new bunch of great stamps and has asked me to help her share them with you today by being a guest designer.  Little known fact… in addition to being the first design team I was ever priviledged to serve on, I was also the VERY FIRST online customer at Kitchen Sink Stamps!  I logged on to Splitcoaststampers one day, and saw a banner ad for a company I’d not heard of, but in that ad was a pretty flower!  I was intrigued!  I clicked on the link and liked what I saw so much I placed a quick order as I headed out the door to work.  That first stamp set that caught my eye (in addition to a few others I ordered that day!) was the 3-Step Daisy.  Do you remember this card?

Another fun story from many moons ago… I don’t remember how it got started but the Kitchen Sink Crew members were talking about other flowers we’d like to see as stamp sets, and someone (I think it was me?) mentioned dogwoods.  I have the most beautiful pink dogwood tree in front of my kitchen window, and I look forward to it blooming every spring!  Maria, being from California, didn’t know what a dogwood tree was!  The horror!  So I actually plucked some of the blooms from my tree that following spring, pressed them between sheets of waxed paper, then tucked them between the pages of a magazine, and quickly mailed that magazine off to Maria.  And now… 8-10 years later? I FINALLY have my dogwoods!  Just LOOK!

Say hello to the Enchanted Dogwood stamp set.  Aren’t they glorious?!?!?!  I literally SQUEALED when I saw the stamps, I was so happy!  I stamped my dogwoods with a combination of pink inks, because the pink blooms are what I like best.  We also have another dogwood tree in our yard that has yellow blooms, but the shape of the petals are slightly different than this one.  You seriously can make yours any color you want… they’re all beautiful!  I paired my pretty flowers with some gingham paper, and added a sentiment… the “Friend” comes from another new set being released today, the Words 4 Celebrating set.  You will find SO. MUCH. VERSATILITY! in this new sentiment set… as I did with this card…

How do you like that rainbow?  I picked four of the words from the set… Amazing, Special, Perfect and Awesome and stamped them for a background.  Then I die-cut the letters y-o-u, and combined them with a sentiment from the Other Important People stamp set.  I just LOVE how this one turned out, and I hope you like it, too!

And one more fabulous stamp set being released is the Multi-Step Spring Daffodils!  Check it out…

Daffodils in the spring are such a wonderful sight, don’t you think?  Although, here in Norteast Ohio, they can sometimes look pretty sad when they’re covered by a snowfall, as happens quite often!  One more fun fact, if you can stand it?  When I was a little girl, I called these “dack-o-dills”!  Wasn’t I ADORABLE???  I paired my daffodils with another sentiment from the Words 4 Celebrating stamp set, and I also used the digital cut file that’s available from Kitchen Sink Stamps to cut out the daffodils with my Silhouette Cameo.

Finally, I had to use the Spring Daffodils for one more fun card.  You’ll notice included with the daffodils in the set, some frogs and dragonflies!  So, just for the fun of it, I used the current CAS(E) this Sketch #274 to create this fun birthday card…

My froggie is hiding in the weeds along the edge of a pond, getting ready to snap that dragonfly out of the air!  LOL

PLEASE be sure to visit the Kitchen Sink Stamps website to grab these new stamp sets for yourself.  And stop by the KSS Facebook page to see more creations featuring these new designs.  And visit the other Kitchen Sink Crew members today, who will have fun designs to share…

Lynn McAuley

Jeanne Frontz

Maria Colosimo

So, that’s all for me today… I know, I’ve been long-winded!  I hope someone might still be reading my blog here, and that you’ve enjoyed these KSS creations today!  Thank you for stopping by!