Sweet Grass Stamps, End of the Trip

This is our last article featuring the stamps of Sweet Grass Stamps. The team thoroughly enjoyed creating samples for Barbara, and for you, showcasing Barbara’s stamps.  Sweet Grass Stamps are deeply etched, red rubber stamps, of excellent quality.  They come both mounted and unmounted. You can find Sweet Grass Stamps at the home of The Rubber [...]

Sweet Grass Stamps, Day 4

Barbara DiPrizio, Owner & Artist
Sweet Grass Stamps
More samples? You bet! And as a bonus, an interview with Sweet Grass Stamps owner, Barbara DiPrizio.
Q:  How did Sweet Grass Stamps and The Rubber Stamp Shack come into existence?
Barbara:  I think it was in 2000 when I went to my first Stampin’ Up! demonstration.  I remember thinking, “Inking a [...]

Sweet Grass Stamps, Day 3

Today we continue on the trail exploring Barbara DiPrizio’s Sweet Grass stamps, headquartered in the unique little Montana town, Big Timber.
After reading entries from William Clark’s journals (of the Lewis & Clark Expedition), a railroad official from St. Paul, Minnesota, named the town Big Timber. The entries he read about in the journals described an [...]

Sweet Grass Stamps at The Rubber Stamp Shack, Day 2

We continue our hike down the trail with our feature for Sweet Grass stamps. Yesterday I told you that The Rubber Stamp Shack is located in Big Timber, Montana.  In spite of its name,  Big Timber has a very small population: only approximately 1800 folks call Big Timber home.
Prairie land borders Big Timber to the north [...]

March Featured Rubber Stamp Company – Sweet Grass Stamps

The Rubber Stamp Shack
Home of Sweet Grass Stamps
This month we feature Sweet Grass Stamps, owned by Barbara DiPrizio. Sweet Grass stamps resides under the wide blue expansive skies of the Big Sky Country in Big Timber, Montana, approximately 90 miles west of Billings.  Barbara operates the company out of her home, saying she has inventory stacked everywhere!
Sweet Grass images are widely [...]

Embossed UTEE Magnet

Embossed Magnet
By: Jennifer Willis, Artistic Guide
Supplies:
FS-9096 – Pretty Pixies Stamp
Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE): Black
Embossing Powder: Tarnished Gold – Ranger
Embossing Powder: Red Dragon – Unknown
Embossing Ink – CTMH
Metal Juice Lid – Found Object
E6000 Adhesive – Eclectic Products
Silicone Baking Sheet – Wilton
Heat Gun – Marvy
Melting Pot – Suze Weinberg
Directions:

Heat the melting pot to the UTEE temperature, [...]

March Guest Artist – Sherre Hulbert

Sherre has always loved creative pursuits. Her love of the arts include painting, quilting, photography, embroidery, journaling, digital art, and jewelry-making. She has tried almost every form of craft at some point or another. Working on a Heritage scrapbook led her to submit a page to Somerset Studio. The page was published and this led [...]

Creativity from Chaos

The studio is clean and orderly. Yay!  As promised, here’s the first project I made after finishing up the room.  I found embellishments I forgot I had!  And I finally dusted off the new Cricut Expressions my hubby bought for me a year ago and gave it a good work-out! 
This project was created for our local stamp [...]

Background Techniques with Melanie, Part 2

Today I have just a couple of variations on the original Credit Card Technique, and I’m going to get straight into it.
Credit Card with a Drop – There may be a better name for this technique somewhere but I think this explains it quite well.

Starting with a light colour, blob some paint onto the bottom [...]

March Sketch

The March sketch is finally here!  Regena created a fun and fantastic sketch this month.  You can layer it up, layer it down.  Make it long and skinny, or a little shorter and squatter.  There are sooooooo many possibilities with this sketch.  Our Artistic Guides have only scratched the surface with their ideas!
Are you inspired?  [...]

New Artistic Guide on the Trail!

We are so excited to welcome our newest member of the design team and introduce her to you!
By day, Sue Trembeth is a meek and mild Center Director for a busy outpatient endoscopy unit. By night, though, look out! She becomes ‘Sue the Stamper!’  She began stamping 13 years ago, and for the past 10 [...]

Creditcard Background Techniques with Melanie Smith

When I first started stamping I had (like everyone starting out) limited supplies.  I used stamps, inks, embossing powder, tombow pens  and coloured pencils for colouring images and white or coloured cardstock.  Most of it was shared in the little stamping group that I went to, and as we became more addicted, we each added [...]

We Say Good-bye…

We sadly say good-bye to Artistic Guide, Kittie Caracciolo. Kittie is pursuing her own stamp line, Kittie Kits Cause a Scene with Rubbernecker Stamp Company.
We will miss her unique and classy projects. Hopefully she will share her beautiful artwork with us occasionally here on the Trail.
Kittie, we wish you the best of luck in all [...]

Michael’s Basic Stampscapes Tutorial

Michael’s Stampscapes Tutorial
By: Michael A. Trent, Artistic Guide 
I received many comments about the projects I made using my Stampscapes stamps and several people asked me to explain how I made the scenes.  After discussing it with Stephanie and Bea, they suggested I put together a tutorial.    
Although I have loved, and have been in awe of [...]

Readers’ Sketch Cards

Just a quick note to let you all know we have more talented reader’s out there sharing their work with us! Mary Jane Downey of Canada and Karyn Campbell of Ohio submitted their interpretations of the February sketch.
Take a hike on over to the Sketch Book and check out their work, and the awesome work of [...]

Soft Flowers for the Adventurer

Soft Flowers
By:  Kittie Caracciolo, Artistic Guide 
Finished card size: 5.25″ x 5.25″ 
This scene full of flowers reminds me of spring where I grew up in West Virginia. I love the soft texture of the Flower Soft.
Supplies:
Stamps:
Cause a Scene Outdoor Master (Kittie Kits-Rubbernecker)
Cause a Scene In My Garden (Kittie Kits-Rubbernecker)
Paper:
Watercolor Paper (Arches)
Regal Rose (Stampin’ Up!)
Old Olive (Stampin’ [...]

Victorian Style for the Adventurer

Victorian Style
By: Stephanie Loomis, Artistic Guide 
Finished card size: A2 (5.5″ x 4.25″)
 Supplies
Stamps:         
Elaine’s Hat (StampLand Chicago)
Beautiful-sentiment (I Brake For Stamps)
Ink:                
Mementos Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)          
Paper:
Green textured paper cut to 5.5″ x 4.25″ (Die Cuts With a View)
White cardstock (scrap)
Burgundy text weight paper (scrap)
Gold vellum (unknown)
A2 note card              
Other:
Pastel chalks (Pebbles Ink.)
MicroGlaze (Skycraft Design Inc.)
Twinkling Watercolors: Moss Green, Sunflower, Playful [...]

Alcohol Inks and Resists for the Adventurer

Being Grateful Card
By: Marcia Mattos, Artistic Guide 
Finished card size: 7 x 5.5″
Supplies:
Stamps:
Pollen Dust (Fancy Pants Designs)
Sentiment Stamp (The Angel Company)   
Ink:
Not Quite Navy Dye Ink Pad (Stampin’ Up!)
Denim Alcohol Ink (Ranger Industries)
Lettuce Alcohol Ink (Ranger Industries)
Peeled Paint Distress Ink (Ranger Insustries)
Versamark Stamp Pad (Tsukineko)           
Paper:
White glossy paper (unknown)
Black cardstock (Bazzil)
White Cardstock (Bazzil)     
Blue Cardstock (Bazzil)
Other:
Green Grosgrain Ribbon (unknown)
Clear [...]

Faux Marble Technique for the Discoverer

Faux Marble Technique
By: Marcia Mattos, Artistic Guide
Finished card size: 6.5 x 4.75″
Supplies:
Stamps:
Floral Favorites (The Angel Company)     
Ink:
Groovy Gauva Dye Ink Pad (Stampin’ Up!)
Riding Hood Red Dye Ink Pad (Stampin’ Up!)
Frost White Ink Pad (Colorbox)     
Purely Pomegranate (Stamping’ Up!)        
Paper:
White glossy paper (unknown)
Purely Pomegranate Cardstock (Stampin’ Up!)    
Black cardstock (Bazzil)
White Cardstock (Bazzil)     
Other:
Polka dot ribbon (unknown)
Waxed paper (3 pieces)
Very fine brush
Water
Copy [...]

Textured Waves for the Discoverer

Textured Waves
By:  Kittie Caracciolo, Artistic Guide 
Finished card size:  5.5″ X 4.25″
Supplies:
Stamps:
Boatloads of Love (Stampin’ Up!)
Paper: 
White (Papertrey)
Real Red (Stampin’ Up!)
Baja Blue (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink:
Real Red (Stampin’ Up!)
Baja Blue (Stampin’ Up!)
Brilliance Black Graphite (Tsukineko)
Accessories: 
Grosgrain (Stampin’ Up!)
Scalloped Decorative Scissors (Paper Shapers)
Cuttlebug Swirl Embossing Folder (Provo Craft)
Oval Nestabilities Die (Spellbinders)
Paint Brush (Loew-Cornell)
Paper Snips (Stampin’ Up!)
Mounting Tape (3M)
Dimensionals (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink Blending [...]