Designer Cupcakes - SWEET!

Hi again friends!

I'm back to show off Witt and Sass Stamp Company's new Designer Cupcake stamp set! This set has a little something for everyone, it allows you to pick your toppings, has a nice large sentiment, and some really neat little ones too!

I decided to make a gamer cupcake that would work for one of the guys in my life. I started by no-line coloring the cupcake using Ink On 3's Fade Out Ink. The controller was a bit small for me to no-line so I went ahead and stamped it with black ink and colored it in dark shades of grey. 

Next, I used Catherine Pooler inks and the Layered Stencil Dots to create a card background. I used different Pretty Pink Posh sequins to fill up the card and used the part I had cut out for the back of the card too, it was a little tricky so it's not perfectly lined up.

Last, I couldn't decide on how to stamp the "happy birthday", a friend suggested I heat emboss in white, which was just perfect! (I always suggest showing a friend when you're stuck, fresh eyes are the solution 99% of the time for me!)

I added a the "dude you rock in the corner and my card was complete!

I hope you enjoy my take on this set, stop back by on Wednesday for a different twist from me!

~R. Winn

Magical Friends!

Hello again, are you sick of me yet friends? Too bad! I have more fun things to share and you need to see them all!

Today's fun, is brought to you by Witt and Sass Stamp Company! When Amy showed me her Magical Friends set, I was SO excited. These cuties started off as digis and are now full blown clear stamps! I've got THREE projects to share with you today!

I started out by no-line coloring the friends with Ink On 3's Fade Out ink, the little smartypants bird almost killed me... but I did it! Next, I fussy cut them out, and then they just sat for a little while. I was so excited that I had zero ideas. Opps!

Then, I started looking at the other supplies that Witt and Sass has launched... and that Layered Dot stencil in the right colors, looked to me pretty magical! Then, I looked through the dies I have, because I do a ton of die cutting... and I realized I have this amazing box card by Pink and Main that I got from Kraftgali months ago but haven't used yet. Suddenly, I knew what I was doing!

I started with a navy base, I love dark bases for box cards, I find they are forgiving and when I'm messy on accident (constantly) it doesn't screw over my project since the dark paper is more forgiving. Next, I knew I wanted to use the flying keys, I decided to heat emboss them in gold on vellum. I hit the inside of the keys with a gold Wink of Stella pen, and the wings, I used the white Wink of Stella, and topped it with clear Wink of Stella once it was dry. I used some small silver star sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to cover the glue dots I used to hold the vellum to the card base. This became the card background.

I chose the brave and patient friends to be on this card, I feel like they are a good pair of companions, and well, they look good together! After I built the card base, and placed the friends, I started working on building the extra elements to polish the look of the card. My stencil came out to play, I started with purple Distress Oxide and brushed it over the white card stock, then I took the Dots Background Builder Stencil and a iridescent silver ink with a blender tool to the top of the purple. I added a few large silver stars from Pretty Pink Posh to the side panels. After I die cut and affixed them to the card, it was time to pick the sentiment. On box cards, I like to use a sentiment on the exterior and interior of the card. For the inside, I picked "You are magical!".

Finally, I need to finish the outside of the card. I brought the flying keys back out and used my lightest grey ink cube from my Altenew set to create a light, simple background for the front. The front sentiment is perfect for these two friends "I'm glad we're friends" which I heat embossed onto the same navy card stock and used a silver powder. To finish the card completely, I cut down a piece of white card stock to fit on the back, to give me a writing space, I added a single flying key in the light grey to tie it all together!

My next project, I decided to break out a few new stamps I picked up at 7 Kids Craft Store to build a spooky forest scene. I started by blending the greyscale Altenew inks, I worked lightest to darkest and finished the bottom with black MementoLuxe ink. Next, I took the Lavinia Scared Tree stamp from 7 Kids and stamped it using brown Distress Oxide Ink 3 times.

I wanted to create a magical protection spell, with my spirit animal, a unicorn, and the Lavinia Unicorn 2 was perfect for that since it's a silhouette stamp. I heat embossed him using a mixture of Brutus Monroe's Mermaid and Rainbow embossing powders.  He looks iridescent and slightly sparkly, like a spell!

I added my witty friend to the card and finished the card off with the "Happy birthday to my favorite muggle" sentiment from Magical Creatures. For the sentiment, I stamped it then spritzed with a shimmer spray, which ended up causing the ink to bleed, but it looked magic spell like to me, so I went with it. I used a tattered edge die cut for it.

My last card, I was running out of steam and decided to keep it simpler,. I still had the clever friend from Magical Friends to showcase, and well, I wanted to make a shaker card using the Kindred Stamps Little Green Men Shaker Pack that I had just gotten.

I started by picking a neutral colored DSP from a retired Stampin' Up pad and cutting it down to size for the background. Next, I used two sizes from the Stampin' Up's star die cuts to create a "hallow" star for my shaker portion. I used the center star that was cut and outlined it in dimensional line strips to bump star up and then added the Little Green Men shaker pack and a few Pretty Pink Posh small silver stars (I'm almost out of these and really need to order more!) to create a pretty, magical looking star.

Then, I used the center star and another small, white die cut star and stamped "For you're outstanding achievement..." and " I award you 100 points! Well done!" in black ink. I added my clever friend next to the large star, and then hand placed a few sequins by the smaller stars to finish the card!

I know that was a lot, so thank you for baring with me! I hope you don't forget to swing by Witt & Sass and pick up a set of Magical Friends of your own, I can't wait to see what you make!

~R. Winn

Chubby Unicorn!

Guys... GUYS! 

The day I've been waiting months for is here. I've some how been blessed with amazingly talented friends. I stumbled across this insanely talent gal, Amy, a few months back and stalked her a little bit until we became friends. She told me about her plans to launch her designs from digital stamps to clear, I was on board immediately. I loved the designs that I had purchased from her Etsy store, and well, I love clear stamps. So, when she invited me to join her design team, I was floored.

I am pleased to bring you my first blog as part of the Witt & Sass Stamp Company Design Team! Today, I feature Chubby Unicorn... he's my favorite! My first card, I worked with a design sketch I found from Google (I really can't remember who designed it and I'm sorry for that!) Normally, I build my cards as I go, planning is actually a little outside of my comfort zone.

I had picked some really beautiful pastel papers but they ended up working against this awesome pink dude that I colored up using Copic markers. So... I tried again! I worked with richer, darker colors, the result is beautiful! (Well, at least I think it is!) I wanted him to become the focal point of the card, to make him really pop, I made sure to keep his coloring bright and the background I did in shades of Warm Grey. I finished him with a clear Wink of Stella to add sparkle.

The sentiment, I heat embossed using WOW powder in Earthtone Grape and layered using Stampin' Up's Layering Oval die cuts. The beautiful star strip is from this set too, it reminds me of a bar of music! I used Chameleon Pens to color it, and finish it off with Wink of Stella on the stars. 

Finally, I finished the card off with red and black DoubleClick Skittles and Silver Star Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

My next card, I chose the original, full body Chubby Unicorn! I used the Blue Green family, and just colored the shaded parts of him, more of a reflection than color. This was followed by using the colorless blender marker to pull some of the brightness of the color out. My best friend, Molly, and her purple hair were the inspiration for the hair color!

So, I had this adorable unicorn all colored up, with no where to go. I reached into the box of goodies that Witt & Sass Stamp Company is launching with, and pulled out this AMAZING, Background Builder Hill Stencil. I love using stencils in a variety of ways, ink is always fun to play with, but really, we have some truly skilled ink blenders on the team that have been playing with these stencils too. Glitter paste is always fun, but I didn't want to overwhelm the unicorn, then I saw it... my Tonic Embellishment Mousse! I recently have been picking up additional colors here and there. I had the Citrus Green, which was perfect for this grassy hill so I started there. I off-centered the hill a little so you can really see how well it rounds, on a 5.5" x 5.5" card, it covers from edge to edge. On my A2 size, I got to pick my placement!  

You all know I love my clouds, stencils, die cuts... stamps. Well, you've never seen something this fantastic! Amy came up with this brilliant Background Builder Cloud Stencil and my life was completed! I used my powder blue mousse for the base of these clouds (yes, I know clouds are white, but in unicorn world the sky is inverted.) and did the cloud shadows in black ash mousse. After that was all done, I placed my little guy on the hill, and added a few bunches of grass to the top of the hill with the stencil!

The sentiments with this set are just fun, I love how encouraging this card would be to get. I stamped the sentiment out on some scratch pink paper using Versafine and used one end of a Lawn Fawn sentiment banner die cut to give it shape. I layered both my card front and the sentiment strip on purple glitter paper I picked up at Hobby Lobby! To finish the sentiment, I used a Luna Wink of Stella pen to fill in the word "cool"!

I hope you all enjoyed my cards, and if you haven't already, come check out Witt & Sass Stamp Company! We'd love for you to join us on Facebook and to see what you end up making too!

Thank you all for joining me, and thank you to Amy for believing in me!

~R. Winn

Addison's First Shaker Card!

So, my amazing little sister, Addison, has been itching to try a few of the more taxing card making techniques. I love her desire to learn and the fact that she loves to craft with me, so when she asked to make a shaker card, and I actually had the energy to teach, I said "yes!" Plus, it's been a little while since you've all heard from the Beth Duff Designs, Jr Design Team!

She started by coloring up one of the newest digi releases at Beth Duff Designs, Make Waves. She loved the whale and had to make it a "Shamu" whale... it's a thing in our house, my explaining that "Shamu" is the name of a Killer or Orca whale, and her insisting I'm wrong. Again, she is wanting to learn new things and I recently gave her my old set of Stampin' Up alcohol markers to let her have practice with blending. She used a black Copic on the whale, and the SU markers on the water he is spouting. She also chose to color the puffer fish and the crab. She cut them out by hand.

One of her favorite tools is the Big Shot, so we die cut her sentiment out, which I absolutely adore. I had visions of using it to cover most of a card, and she stole it from me! Next, we broke out another new to her tool, the Blending Tool and Distress Oxide Mermaid Lagoon ink (which I got from Kindred Stamps, you can use that link for 10% off your first purchase!) Addison loved seeing the change once we sprayed water on it and patted it dry. Very watery!

Her next step was building the shaker... let me tell you, I was a bit spacey so we went around in a few circles on that one. Picking the sequins colors was probably her favorite part, I have... a lot of options, but ultimately, she chose Pretty Pink Posh's Strawberry Burst and Sparkling Clear Mix so they stood out from her blue background.

She also chose a sheet from Sunny Studio's Rainbow Bright paper pack that I picked up at Crafty Doodle Chick that looked like waves but wasn't blue, to create her ocean look. She wanted her sentiment tipped a little so we die cut the paper at an angle to make that happen. She chose her water babies placement all on her own!

All in all, I think her first shaker was a success, she now understands that it is pretty time consuming, and that I need to nap before we start one! (True story!)

I hope you enjoyed seeing my and Addison's process, and we can't wait to see what you make with Beth Duff Design's new Make Waves digi set! Make sure you join us on the Beth Duff Designs Fan Page to see more makes from our team, and to share your own with us!

~R. Winn

Puppy Love... LooLooLoo, I Love You!

LooLoo, Olaf, and Dottie... before Dottie took Olaf's face off...

Hi all! 

Be ready for tears.... this is a tough one.

October has been a difficult month here in the Winn household.  Our little LooLoo passed away a week ago today.  She spent the last 3 days of her life in emergency vet care in an oxygen kennel.  Despite the doctors and staff going above and beyond to try to help her, our little girl had fluid in her lungs and was working so hard to breathe.  At 4 am on October 4th, I received a phone call letting me know it was time.  LooLoo was exhausted, she couldn't sleep because breathing was work for her, and her condition was not only not getting better it was getting worse, rapidly. She has crossed the rainbow bridge and is now resting with our German Shepard, Lilly, and her grandpa, who I know she has missed.

 LooLoo came to us about 4.5 years ago, she was a Pomeranian/Chihuahua mix.  When we got her, she was a grumpy old woman who barked out a tooth in our bed, the first night we got her.  She had several medical issues, a skin fungal disease, several teeth that needed pulled, worms, and hip issues.

Our poor little girl had been living a rough life, she was not very trustworthy of people, hated Dottie, and was terrified of kids.  Despite all of that, she had our hearts immediately.  We worked with our vet to get the medical issues taken care of, and under control. Taught her that she could trust us, and tolerate Dottie and other dogs, and that kids, while clumsy have so much love to offer.

LooLoo, aka Little Bear, aka, Tinkerbell, aka our little monster, was a huge fan of pillows. She would commandeer couch cushions, bedroom pillows, laps, chests, anything that was soft and fluffy.  She did a happy dance or circles whenever she was excited or when she wanted something!  She spoke for Dottie, who doesn't tend to let us know when she's hungry, wanting to go potty, etc. Would tell her Daddy to go to bed or get up if he was taking too long... (hehe) and would demand that someone be present while she ate her food (off the floor, bowls were scary!)

This last week with her being gone has been more difficult than I can express.  In order to help myself come to terms with the fact that my baby would in fact not be coming home, I created thank you card for the two amazing vets that took care of our little girl the last few days of her little life. 

  This first one, I was determined to use only Stampin' Up products.  I needed something to make me focus.  I can't tell you if half of these items are still available, and it's a little rough if you look too close, but for the local vet, who took care of LooLoo at 3 AM on Friday when I came in with her breathing rapidly, I think it's perfect.  They let me cry, made sure I was comfortable with her condition prior to my leaving her there, and when it was time to send her to a specialist, they did all of the research, found one in Tacoma for us, made sure they were aware that we would be on our way, and provided a portable oxygen kennel for us to use on the 30 minute drive. 

LooLoo in her travel oxygen kennel.

The next card, for the doctors and staff at the specialty ER vet, was a bit more personal.  I used stamps from Unity and Paper Smooches, I colored them with my Copics, and finished it with a few Pretty Pink Posh sequin stars.

These people took care of LooLoo for almost 3 full days.  They reached out to their associates who were on days off to get their opinions, one even both an in flight wifi package to review her x-rays, loved on her when we weren't there, promised me that someone would be with her she ate, so she wouldn't be alone, allowed my husband and I to visit every single day, talked to us like parents, not owners, she was our child, not our dog. I could go on. They set it up to we could hold her before we left each day, made sure that when my little sister came with to visit she could see then helped us get her hot cocoa to just the right temperature so that she could have it to comfort her, allowed my other sister and her boyfriend in to the ICU to say goodbye and love her as well.  They made sure we were prepared for the worst but strove for the best possible outcome... I know we paid them to do a job, but I owe them my heart for loving my little girl and taking care of her the way a mom can only hope her child is taken care of. 



Good night mommy's little girl, daddy's little princess.  We miss you each moment of each day.  Watch over us, and remember that sometimes, we will need you to put your little paw on our shoulder to let us know it's going to be alright.

 Love,

Mommy and Daddy 

If you are interested in helping make an animal's life a little better, and can't bring a pet (or another pet) home, please donate in LooLoo's name to the Thurston County Animal Services.