I tried something a little different...again!

Hello! 

I'm stopping by to share another fun art project I made this past weekend!

I needed a gift for my dad, the man that has everything! Usually I end up making my Dad a card and buying him a golf shift but this year I thought I would try something different...

Instead of buying my dad a golf shirt I made him a golf inspired canvas art piece and he loved it! 

I was immediately hooked on painting and designing on canvas after I made my Ann Ellis inspired piece and couldn't wait to bring this golf scene to life!


Warning...there is no stamping on this canvas (sorry!) but this scene is inspired by the YNS Stamp Golf Scene designed by Dale Simpson.

Even though I didn't actually use any stamps on this canvas I did use lots of crafty materials including the YNS Flower Fun Scallop die, it's the light green portion of the tree. 

You'll notice that my canvas is a little on the 'cutesy' side. I wasn't even sure I should give it to my dad after I made it but he knows that my creative style is 'cute' and I find it hard to steer away from cute and fun designs so he got a fun and cute canvas for his birthday! Brandon (my 4 year old) thought I should have made the flag with glitter paper...I opted to go with red dot paper instead ;o)

I started off by painting the background and then starting to piece everything together. I used the YNS Flower Fun Scallop for the main part of the tree and then a round punch for the layer under the button. I had cut the tree trunk, the flag and pole as well as the green and used a small scallop and quick cuts tree top for the bushes.

Here's close up of the texture on the green

Creating the green was my favorite part of this project! 

Here's how to create the green and get all that awesome texture...

• hand cut the green using a thick sheet of kraft colored paper
• coat it with a clear sealer/glue like Mod Podge 
• stick tiny glass beads to the base of the green
• once it's dry you can paint it - I used different shades of green and some brown too
• after you've coated it with paint be sure to dab it with paper towel to soak up some of the excess paint so you can get the nice texture from the beads
• once the paint is dry coat it again with a glossy sealer

All I can say is FUN!!! I loved making this project and I think my next canvas will be one for my master bathroom! We recently moved and I desperately need to get some colorful and fun art pieces onto our plain walls. My mother suggested using Bubbly Fun Fhiona...love her idea!


Thank you so much for stopping by!

Have a fun and creative day!

Christmas/Winter in July Week 3

Hi all!

Are you loving all the fabulous Christmas/Winter projects this month?! I know I am! WOW! So many fabulous projects to help cool us down during this hot summer weather!

Did you miss Week 1 and Week 2 - be sure to follow the links to see all the DT eye candy!

Check out all the awesome projects the DT prepared for you this week! Be sure to visit their individual blogs for more info on their fun and fabulous projects!

Diana Genario 

Holiday Snow Globe Set and Light Up the Holidays Stamp and Die

Love this sweet card! The glittery lights are so pretty!

 Jenny Peterson - Crisscross Border Stamp and Die

Fabulous idea for this stamp and die set! 

This set happens to be on SALE - 40% off!!!

 Jen Roach 

Basket Animals and Fancy Frame Stamp and Die

This is adorable! Great little gift bag!

 Veronica Zalis - Happy Holidays Stamp and Die Set

Love these mugs and awesome card!

Amy Rohl - Skating Ellie Digi Stamp

This adorable digi is $2 and only available until August 1st!!!

Super sweet card layout!

 Peggy Toole 
Tall Dome Globe, Seasonal Fairies and Holiday Snow Globe set
How cute is this?! Love the winter fairy in the globe! Cute!

This is our last Fun Friday post for July so stay tuned for our August theme! 

Thanks for joining us!

Welcome to Challenge 8

It is time for our 8th Your Next Stamp Challenge!

Welcome to another week of fun filled challenges here at Your Next Stamp...this week is a sketch challenge...Peggy worked her magic and created an awesome sketch for us!

Be sure to get inky and play along for your chance to win a $10.00 YNS gift certificate!!!

YNS' stamps are not required to play along, but we would love to see you ink 'em up. 

Here is the sketch...

The Your Next Stamp Challenge team is here with some inspiration. Be sure to click on each of their names to visit their blogs for additional card details.

Suzanne - Song Bird

Kelli - Mini Happy Days Mermaid and Jam Jar

 Julie - Rock Star Fhiona

Wendy - Fall Fun Bear 

Thanh - July Guest Designer -  Safari Fhinn

Link up your own project at the end of this post by next Wednesday, August 1st, 2012.

You are also welcome to link your project to our SCS Forum and into the SCS gallery using the keyword YNSC7. Plus, if you use a YNS product then add the keywords YNS and yournextstamp.

PLUS if you use YNS stamps on your project you may just be chosen as our monthly Rockin' YNS Guest Designer. 
Wouldn't you love to see you name in the spotlight and win a YNS prize pack???!!! 
 Check out all the details in the SCS forum HERE!!!

We can't wait to see what you create!!!

I tried something different...

I've always loved painting but haven't pulled out my paints in years until last week when I had this vision of a mixed media canvas which was inspired by the new stamps Ann Ellis designed for YNS. 


I've never painted on a canvas and I've never tried mixed media so when I got started I really had no idea what I was doing and must admit I had so much FUN creating and learning along the way! 


I started with a 6x6 canvas and after a little research discovered that I needed to prep my canvas with Gesso so after that dried I got to the fun part - painting, stamping and creating!

This is my finished canvas...

I used the Ann Ellis Sun Hat stamp set and lots of stuff I had on hand like Bazzill Flowers, Twinkling H2O's, Glossy Accents, shell buttons, YNS Glittered Skittles, acrylic paints and finished off the canvas with a clear glossy gel glaze to seal it and give it shine. 

The sentiment I used is computer generated and I sponged with distressed inks before sealing it and pasting it to the canvas.

I LOVE how it turned out and I hope it inspires you to try something different too! 

Did you know that our current YNS challenge is 'Anything Goes' ? Be sure to join us for your chance to win some YNS bucks!!!


Enjoy your day!

YNS Fun Friday - Christmas in July - Week #2

Happy Friday to all! 

We are celebrating Christmas/Winter in July so the DT have created some fabulous projects to help cool you down during these hot summer days! 

If you missed last weeks post click HERE to check out all the fabulous winter and Christmas projects!

Let's see what the DT has for us today! Be sure to visit their individual blogs for more information on their Fun Friday projects! 

Jenny Peterson - Holiday Snow Globe Set

How CUTE is this! Love how versatile this set it!!!

Peggy Toole - Freezy the Snowman

Dana Joy - Holiday Snow Globe Set 

Love this sweet tag! 

Another creative way to use this adorable set!

Our YNS Challenge this week is "Anything Goes" so no excuses, hop on over to our challenge post HERE and join in the fun for your chance to WIN some YNS bucks plus you could be chosen to be our special Rockin' Guest Designer!!!


I'll be back later this weekend to share my very first mixed media canvas I made using the new Ann Ellis stamp sets!

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Challenge #7 - Anything Goes

It is time for our 7th Your Next Stamp Challenge!

Take a break from the sun (heat!) and get inky with us.  This week's challenge is ANYTHING GOES!!!

YNS' stamps are not required to play along, but we would love to see you ink 'em up. 
One random winner will receive a $10.00 gift certificate to the YNS store. 

The Your Next Stamp Challenge team is here with some inspiration. - be sure to click on each of their names to visit their blogs for additional card details.

Wendy (with an amazing side step fold card using Mini Hanging Monkey)

Suzanne ( with a sweet tag using Ellie Loves Lattes)

Kelli (with a cute card to cool you off using Ellie Tobogganing)

Julie (with some sparkle using Dress Up Ellie and Tags Galore 2 Die)

Thanh our July Guest (totally adorable card using Soccer Cutie)

Link up your own project at the end of this post by next Wednesday, July 25, 2012.

You are also welcome to link your project to our SCS Forum and into the SCS gallery using the keyword YNSC7. Plus, if you use a YNS product then add the keywords YNS and yournextstamp.

PLUS if you use YNS stamps on your project you may just be choosen as our monthly Rockin' YNS Guest Designer. Wouldn't you love to see you name in the spotlight and win a YNS prize pack???!!! Check out all the details in the SCS forum HERE!!!

We can't wait to see what you create!!!

Smiles,
Julie

YNS Fun Friday - Christmas in July - Week #1

Hello! It's FRIDAY and that means it's time for YNS Fun Friday!!!

We decided to change things up a bit just for FUN! Change is good - right? 

For the past 6 months the YNS DT has been presenting some amazing Fun Friday projects with a little fun tip for you but now things are different...Fun Fridays are going to have a monthly theme! FUN!!! I'll be throwing in some random giveaways too so be sure to stop by every Friday to see all the amazing DT projects and to see what else is going on at YNS!

You may have guessed by my post title our  July theme is Christmas/Winter!!! Never to soon to start all those Christmas cards and the YNS DT has definitely inspired me to get started!


Be sure to visit all the individual blogs for more details about their wonderful Winter Fun projects!

Kerri Michaud - Ellie Loves to Skate

Adorable! Love these fun winter colors!

 

Dana Joy - Light Me Up

So CUTE! This reminds me of my son Brandon!

 Veronica Zalis - Happy Holidays Stamp and Die Combo

This set makes simple yet beautiful holiday cards!

Jen Roach - Holiday Snow Globe Set

and Flower Fun Scallop Stamp and Die Combo

I love this awesome set and Jen's cards are fabulous!

We also have a super FUN YNS challenge going on!

The theme is FLOWERS!!! Click HERE to check it out! We would love for you to join us!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!


Happy Stamping!

YNSC #6 Flowers

Hello YNS Friends!  It's time for another challenge over here where the cool people hang out!  It's me KelliJo, your hostess this week and the challenge is to use Flowers.  You can use flower dies, flower stamps or even get some yummy DP with flowers on it and use that!!! Just wait until you scroll down and see all the DELISH cards that the challenge team has come up with!  I tell ya, my jaw dropped as I saw them, each and every one of them is AWESOME!!!!

Make sure that you post YOUR awesome card here in the link and/or over at Splitcoaststampers in the Your Next Stamp challenge forum.

Everyone is welcome! As much as we would love to see you use YNS Stamps it is not a requirement.

You know you could win $10 to spend in the YNS Store (they just had another great release *wink*) OR you might even be one of the lucky dawgs that gets chosen each month to be a guest designer!

Now how are THOSE for goodies to play for?

OK, let's check out these cards, shall we?  Yes, Let's!!! :)

JULIE   Seasonal Icons 2 and Sending you Sunshine

WENDY   Kali from Hawaii

KELLIJO  Funny Bunny

SUZANNE     Your So Cool

MEREDITH  Seasonal Icons Set 2

     THANH ~ July Guest Designer Seasonal Fairies  and Cylinder Globe

July Hop WINNER and Window Project!

Thank you for hopping along our July New Release Blog Hop!!! I hope you enjoyed all the fabulous DT projects along with all the fun new stamps and dies available in the YNS Store!

Before I announce the hop winners I wanted to share a little project with you...

I couldn't wait to pair up the new window dies which coordinate with the existing YNS Window Play stamps designed by Heather Rolin with the YNS box scenes designed by Dale Simpson. 

I really wanted to capture a little window scene that made you feel like you were sitting in a cottage on the lake, I really like how it turned out!

For this card I used the Inside Window Play stamp set, Inside Window Play Die Set and the Cottage Box Scene. 

I started by picking out some wallpaper and coordinating designer paper that I thought would make a nice couch material, I went with Jillibean Dutch Mustard Soup, and some textured brown cardstock for the floor. I stamped the couch onto the patterned paper and decided to hand cut it out as close to the stamped line as possible and then die cut out the couch shape so I could glue the hand cut out couch onto the die cut to give me the brown edge around the couch. I felt my light yellow paper needed a little boost and the brown edge gave me the look I was hoping for. I also 'dirtied' the couch up a bit using Copics E41, E42 and E43. As you can see I also paper pieced some of the pillows to match the wallpaper.

Then I started coloring the Cottage Box Scene with Copic markers and then trimmed it so that the window from the Inside Window Play Die set would lay on to of the scene. I used 2 window die cuts (without the matching stamp) and glued them directly on top of the cottage scene.  

After I placing all the layers down I felt it needed a little stitching around the wallpaper area so I sewed around the edges prior to pasting everything down. Then to finish it off  I popped up the window with 1 pop dot in each corner and then double popped the couch in each corner of the die cut couch (2 foam dots stacked on top of each other) so that it would sit in front of the window.

I had so much fun making this card that I can't wait to pair the windows up with the other box scenes - Golf Scene, BBQ Scene, Winter Scene - so many wonderful possibilities!

Alright, let's see who our lucky hop winners are...


All names are drawn at random from 4 different DT blogs...

Winner from Susan's Blog 

Winner from Jenny P.'s Blog

 Winner from Dana's Blog

Winner from YNS Blog

 

Congrats Ladies!!!


Please email me to claim your Ann Ellis stamp set!


Have a great day!

YNS July New Release BLOG HOP!!!!

It's New Release Day!!! YAY!!!

Welcome to the Your Next Stamp July New Release Blog Hop!

Hop Start - July 6th at 6 am EST

Hop End -  July 10th at 11:59 pm EST

We are so excited about our hop this month, because we are introducing a new artist to the YNS family - Ann Ellis! We just know you are going to love her fun, contemporary style!

We also have a few new Ellie stamps and a new Fhiona designed by Fhiona Galloway! Plus some fabulous new dies that coordinate with some existing YNS stamps – Window Play designed by Heather Rolin and a selection of dies that go with the popular Mini Fhiona stamps!

All the new stamps and dies are available to purchase today in the YNS Store!

To start at the beginning, hop on over to Veronica’s Amazing Blog! 

Here is the complete hop list so you don’t get lost:

Veronica Zalis
Susan Liles
Jen del Muro
Peggy Toole
Dana Joy
Jen Roach
Thanh Vo – July Guest Designer
Kerri Michaud
Diana Genario
Jenny Peterson
Karen Dedman - that's me!

We have 4 special prizes hidden amongst the blogs, so make sure you leave comments for your chance to win!!! Each winner will receive one of the new Ann Ellis Stamp Sets!

Here's my hop project featuring the new Window Play Outside Die, the new Mini Ellie with Pressies Die and the new Flower Fun Scallop Stamp and Die:

Here is the front view looking through the window

This is a close up of the front

 This is what the inside looks like once you open the card

I hope you enjoyed my hop project! I had so much fun creating the little window for Ellie! 

Just in case you missed it, here's my peek project from yesterday featuring the new Flower Fun Scallop stamp and die and the new Mini Ellie Loves to Bake Die. I really enjoy decorating lollipops for party favors and love how this large lollipop turned out!

Before you go you should know that I'm offering some awesome hop specials and bundles in the YNS Store, so make sure you check those out! 

Plus the YNS BARGAIN BIN has some newly added stamps - limited quantities so grab a great deal while supplies last!!!

We also want to remind you about your new forum on Splitcoaststampers! You can check that out HERE 

You can also find us on Facebook and Pinterest

One more thing...

Did you know that YNS Challenges are back!!! You can find a new challenge every Thursday right here on the YNS Blog!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Remember to leave me a comment be for you head off to the YNS Store for a little shopping!!!

Have a FUN day!!!