Classic Decor

Welcome to the next stop on the StarvingArtistamps/DoodleFactory: Classic Decor Blog Hop. (Woah, that's a mouthful!) If you're on track, you probably jumped here from Natasha Trupp's blog. But if you're lost and want to start at the very beginning, head back to the company blog where you'll find the entire blog-hop path PLUS information on the 3-Day special going on at StarvingArtistamps.com. In addition to all the eye candy you'll see along the way, you don't want to miss out on the secret blog candy hidden in one of the stops.

Now onto my contribution to the hop. Playing with this set felt like playing with a 2D Doll House, and I found myself having fun moving the pieces in infinite configurations. I aspired to make one long accordion-style card with every last image in it, but I was feeling a bit rusty and had to reign in my compositions to include just a few stamps to showcase.


As you can see, the style of this set is a bit of a departure from any of our previous releases. There are two new characters in the set, and my boyfriend informed me that they don't look like my "usual" work. I purposely made them more "refined" to go with this "refined" set of furniture...however, I think the good ole DoodleFactory fans will find these images will still work quite well with any of the DF sets.

Both of my cards combine some of the old with some of the new. On top, I used Ambrose, the chaise lounge, pillows, cuckoo clock and frames from the Classic Decor set. The portrait wall is made up of a half-dozen mini-Yapples from the original Creatures Set.

Below, Banjo from the Valentine Remix set is having coffee with his newest neighbor, Ms. Poose. I thought the wainscotting made a pretty good bar when fitted with bark-paper slats, and the side table doubled as a cat stool. See? Versatile!



Anyway, I won't take up much more of your time because there's still plenty of blog hop to go! Next, please point your mice in the direction of our very special guest designer and DoodleFactory's biggest cheerleader: Dawn Mercedes!

Today in L.A.

Mike and I were two of the 20,000 people who "won" tickets to the Michael Jackson Memorial today. I threw our names into the lottery on a whim, mostly because we live within walking distance of the Staples Center, but also because I have a knack for winning random things and was fairly convinced I'd get this. On Sunday, we both got rejection emails...but on Monday the Powers That Be changed their minds and decided to give me two tickets afterall.


There's so much media coverage and I'm sure you all can't get away from the memorial as it is, so I'll just say it was a touching ceremony and I'm glad we were there.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming! The long-awaited DoodleFactory reveal happens TOMORROW. You'll want to head to starvingartistamps.blogspot.com at 8am PST for the kick off of our 2nd ever blog hop. I haven't seen any of the design team's project so I'm just as anxious as anyone to see what's in store.

DF Logo and How Stamps Are Born

A short time ago, I collaborated with a friend and came up with this DoodleFactory logo. I thought it would be good to have a stamp made of the design, and Tracey helped with with her infinite stamping wisdom and hookups.

I asked her to send me the metal plate and matrix, which are the tools used to press rubber molds. I thought it would be neat to see/own, and it totally is. I didn't take any pictures of the rubber sheet, but you all know what that looks like.

In other DF news, the target release date has been set for the NEXT and newest DoodleFactory release. There was some delay while the expo season wrapped up, and because we're planning a fun blog hop to showcase this special set. More details on that next week... But if you'd like some insider information: I've actually drawn TWO MORE sets that are waiting in the wings. Yeah, I know this doesn't give you a lot of information, but the DoodleFactory is revving up for the summer and you'll be seeing a lot of new stamps in the near(ish) future.

Lesson 2

It's too late to take good photos, but here's the next feltie I made. I pretty much stuck to the instructions without any embellishments. I think I have the general concepts down, and I just have to wait until the custom colored wool I ordered comes in before I start making my own designs. If anyone has any good sources for raw wool and felting supplies, please share!

I think the thing I like about felting is that it's so forgiving. You slowly build as you go, so it's hard to make reckless mistakes, but even if you do, it's easy to add or cut away the wool and fix it.

I probably should have filled this birdie's tummy with some catnip for Toby, but he seems to be having fun batting it around and trying to knock it off the coffee table without any added stimulants. Mike said it would be a shame to have spent all those hours needling this thing into existence only to have it destroyed, but I think I'm okay with it serving as a cat toy. I was never into chicks anyway :P.

My First Feltie

I signed up for an online Intro To NeedleFelting course thru joggles.com. Last night I completed the first project, which was an egg.


So far I like needlefelting and hope to turn some of the DF characters into needlefelted-beings. I did manage to stab my thumb quite thoroughly with the felting needle and it still smarts today (the instructions warned this could happen if I stopped paying attention to what I was doing). I also broke one of the three needles the felting kit came with which was another bummer. So far felting is slow-going, but its amazing what you can make out of a clump of sheep fuzz, and I look forward to learning the more advanced shapes.

I think we get instructions for the next project this Friday, so I'll be sure to share how it goes.

I'm a Technique Junkie

I'm a few days late in posting the news, but I've been credited with a "technique" and published in Pat Huntoon's Techique Junkie Newsletter. Most of you would have already seen this card if you were around for the first ever StarvingArtistamp Blog hop for the release of the Set the Scene background stamps, but I've had to remove it from my blog until now.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to try this in the stamping world, but the pastoral landscape of the country scene just lent itself to a painterly style (even though I was working with copics) and using dots and dashes as accents came naturally. There was some debate over what to call this, but I was definitely influenced by the era of Impressionism. For the record, it's been dubbed the "Van Gogh" technique and if you subscribe to the Technique Junkie Newsletter you can see Pat's instructions as well as a range of incredible cards created by the Starving Artistamps design team.

If you'd like to give this technique a try, please visit this post on the Starving Artistamps blog and enter your creation. There's even a prize for a full sheet of SA rubber (and no you don't have to own or use any SA stamps to enter, you just have to show your take on the "technique").

From Blogger Pictures