My Stamping Playground

Wendy Vecchi @ Stamp Fest

WOW!!! That's the best description I can give you of Stamp Fest in Orlando. Stamps, stamps, and more stamps. It was a blast! But, for me, the most exciting part was meeting Wendi Vecchi of Studio 490. She is so amazing!

I have to admit, I kind of resembled a stalker. The poor thing couldn't get away from me. I hung around her booth all day Saturday, took her class on Saturday night, and then kidnapped her for dinner after class. (The poor thing didn't know what she was in for--I had Linda Greiner with me. LOL!) Then, Sunday was worse. I never left her booth. I dropped quite a load of cash there though, including 5 of her stamp sets--totally awesome. BTW - I wasn't the only stalker. There was a really cute mother and daughter team that was there quite a bit too.

So, enough about my stalking abilities. I want to show you a little of her work. Here are some samples I've picked up from Studio 490:

Now, drum roll please, you get to take a peek at my first attempt to make some "Wendy Art." I made this at my crop this past weekend. It was soooo... much fun to do. Everyone at the crop wanted to make one.

So, what do you think? I love it! I love it! I love it! I am sooo hooked. I'm telling you, if you have not seen Wendy's work, check out her blog, buy her stamps, and get ready to have some fun. You will be glad you did. Her work is amazing.

Yikes, I almost forgot the best part. Wendy is revealing 7 new stamp sets tomorrow morning at 7am. So, make sure to check out her blog in the morning. You can bet I will be. :-)

Wendy, I hope I didn't make you too crazy. It was so nice to meet you. I had such a great weekend. I hope that we will meet up again in the near future. And again, thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your artwork, and giving us the tools necessary to make projects like yours on our own. You are the best! MWAH!!!

Click Here to go to Studio 490

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490

I was doing a little blog surfing about 6 months ago, and fell in love with this little house that Wendy Vecchi of Studio 490 had made. As usual, I bought the house (Maya Road), but never made it. Well last weekend, I finally got it out and put it together. I totally love it! Check it out.

For any of you who have not seen Wendy's work, please do yourself a favor and check out her blog. Her work is amazing. I just got a bunch of her stamp sets from Stampers Anonymous, so I'm sure you will be seeing alot of her style in my upcoming blogs.

Wendy, thank you sooo... much for sharing your artwork, and creating those wonderful stamp sets. I absolutely love your work.

Click Here to go to Studio 490

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Recycling Pick-Me-Up

I went to Strawberry Fields in Ft. Myers this weekend with a few of my friends. While we were there, we saw a really cute wine bottle with some flowers in it. (There...the seed was planted.) Last night, my daughter was getting ready to throw out an empty bottle of Olive Oil. (There...the seed took root.) I cleaned out the bottle, removed the labels, and set it out to dry. After work today, I was feeling like I needed a little pick-me-up. (There...the seed grew.) I got the bottle, took out some Graphic-45 paper and some embelishements, and this is what I ended up with.

It was a great pick-me-up. I hope your week is going well. But, if you get a little down, just do a little shopping in your recycling bin, and see what you can create.

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Still Hooked on Tim

This week I've been playing with alcohol inks using Tim Holtz's demos. I've finally found a technique I like. I made some embelishments using fragments, alcohol inks, and stamps. Originally, I was going to make a tag like in Tim's demo. But, I loved them so much, I scrapped the whole tag idea, and used them on something a little longer lasting.

I saw one of these that Tim made a long time ago, and I've been wanting to make one ever since. These fragments gave me the perfect excuse to make the frame, and I love it. I'm so glad I never took any of those classes. It's so much more personal, when you make it at home with all the things you've collected over the years.

The girls at the crop tonight loved the fragments, so we are going to get together again next Saturday for another day of Tim Holtz. If you are interested, please let me know. We will limit the group to 6, so we all have plenty of room, and a good view of the screen. (I already have 3 confirmed, and 2 maybes.)

Tim, I think you've created some distress grunge monsters here at the playground. I can't wait to meet you at the class at Ruban Rouge in July.

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Laugh-a-Palooza!!!

Once again, my husband abandoned me on my Birthday to go to a fishing tournament in Jacksonville. So, once again, I decided to throw myself a "Birthday - Crop 'til You Drop Party." I called upon a few of my friends, told them to put on their jammies, get their scrapbooking and stamping supplies, and come on over.

This year was not different than last. We had so much fun, and laughed so hard, I've had a sore throat all weekend. I have NEVER laughed so hard, or for such an extended period of time in my life. My stomach hurt, my back hurt, I cried, and at one point, I thought I was going to throw up from laughing so hard.

Why did we laugh so much and so hard you ask? Well, first lets start with Jennifer Burke, who brought me one of those birthday cards that plays music when you open it. This particular card plays "Shake your groove thing, ..." every time you open it. AND, evertime I opened it during the night, Jenn would shake her groove thing. She has some belly dancing skills that are amazing, so when she shakes her groove thing, she shakes her groove thing. This, of course, prompted belly dancing lessons, and that had us all rolling on the floor. It was definitely a gift that kept on giving.

Then, how about a little game of Dirty Santa? We had drawings every half hour (or so) during the night, and gave out small gifts with a number. After everyone had a number, we headed to the family room, where we had some nicer gifts displayed on the coffee table. If you've ever played Dirty Santa, you know how much fun that can be. Here is Julie, trying to figure out whether to pick or steal a gift.

Finally, time for the pajama contest. Everyone did a little cat walk to show off their jammies. We even made the girls who didn't wear jammies do the walk. This is where I almost lost my dinner. LOL! That had to be the funniest thing I have ever seen. Personalities really came out here. Julie was a total "ham," Sheri was "little miss priss", and Frizzette gave some "attitude." (Checkout the Laugh-a-Palooza album to see more pictures of the catwalk.)

The girls all got together and bought me a really nice cookie cake. That was very thoughtful (and YUMMY). I feel very lucky to be blesses with such great frinds. I'm not sure any of us got any scrapbooking done, but we definitely had a good time. Check out the Laugh-a-Palooza album to see more pictures from the party.

Thank you for making my birthday so much fun girls. I love you all.

Click Here to See All Pictures

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Tim Holtz Fever!!!

I had such a great response to our "Virtual Class with Tim Holtz," that a few more of us got together this last Saturday to try out some more techniques. I love this weeks tags even more than last weeks. Check them out. (You can check out the individual tags in the "Projects" album on the sidebar.)

You've really got to try this out. It is so much fun, and you get to play with all those toys you don't know what to do with. One of the girls, Naomi Chokr, loved it so much, she said she is going to start using these techniques on her cards. I had so much fun, I just want to keep making more and more tags. I just don't know what to do with them all. LOL!

Thanks again Tim. We love your work!

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Tweety Jill Comes to the Playground

We may be a small, but we don't mess around here at the Playground. This past Friday we had our first celeberty come to teach a class for us. Jill Haglund, "Tweety Jill," of TJ Designs Rubber Stamps came to the Playground to teach us a wonderful project using some of her new stamps, card kits, and collage packs.

I first learned of Tweety Jill a few years ago, when my brother gave me one of her books, Creating Vintage Cards. I fell in love with the book, and have gotten a few of her other books since. My favorites are:

Creating Vintage Cards

Altered Art Projects

Rubber Stamping Artist Trading Cards

Recently, she launched a line of Rubber Stamps with coordinating card kits, and collage packs. They are wonderful products. The rubber stamps give you nice quality images, and the card kits and collage packs come packed full of unique vintage images that can be used in any project. Here are a few pictures of the project that we made in the class. We used the Vintage School Days Card Kit and created a unique table top display.

If you are interested in seeing Jill's new products in person, you can stop by K2 Scrapbook Studio in Sarasota, FL or click on the link below to see them on her web-site.

Click Here to go to Tweety Jill's Website

I'd like to thank Jill for taking the time to come to the playground to show us all her new products and teach us how to make that wonderful project. I hope we can do it again sometime soon. We all had a great time. Thanks again!

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

A Virtual Class with Tim Holtz

My friend, Sheri Maruca, and I are both huge fans of Tim Holtz. So, this last Saturday, we decided to have our own customized class taught by Tim himself. We basically took out all of our Tim Holtz products and some manilla tags. Then we went to the Demo section of Tim Holtz web-site, and picked the techniques that we wanted to learn. It was a total blast. You can start and stop the demos whenever you want, so the class is always at your pace. Here are some of the techniques that we tried.

Distress Inks

This first tag was made using Tim's Distress Inks and blending tool. The Distress Inks are great for blending colors together.

This tag was made using the Distress Inks with a water spritzer and an iron. It's amazing how the color holds when it is wet. I love that crinkled look.

Distress Powders

In this tag, we were trying out Tim's Distress embossing powders. The blue hearts in the background are made using the powder. It's quite different than traditional embossing powders. It has the feel of sandpaper and is made to flake off a little to give it that distressed look. I also tried using some of Tim's Grunge Board, and new Grunge Paper. Love it!

Masks

The background on this tag was made using Tim's masks and Distress Inks. His masks are great, because they have a slight stick to them on the back, so the mask doesn't move the way most masks do. Also, they are clear, so "what you see is what you get." I loved that aspect of it, because you alway knew whether or not to add more ink to get the desire effect. I covered the bird with some of his Distress Stickels, and some of his Alcohol Inks to distres the number one. The little gears give it the perfect touch.

I strongly recommed everyone try their own customized class by Tim Holtz. I guarantee you two things: you will have a blast; you WILL get your hands dirty. :-) (It's no fun if you don't get dirty.)

I'd like to give Tim Holtz a special thanks for having all those wonderful demos on his site. What a great way to help people learn to use your product. Come on, I know you all have them, and some of you don't know what to do with them. Get out your toys and your laptop, and have some fun.

Click Here to See Tim Holtz' Demos

Happy Stamping!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Christmas & the Current Economy

I know that the state of the economy has many of us wondering how we are going to pay for Christmas this year.  Well, this is the time to get creative.  Start perusing those blogs and galleries on line, and come up with some ideas for Christmas gifts that you can make this year.  Here are two projects I made using only materials I already had in hand.  The only thing I had to buy were the frames, and with Michaels sales and coupons, you can find frames fairly inexpensively.  Or, if your husband is handy, maybe he could make some frames for you at a fraction of the price.  Either way,  I think the recipients of these beautiful projects will appreciate them much more than any store bought items.

Project #1

Project #2

Don't forget to sign and date your projects for that added personalized touch.  I hope this helps to make your Christmas a little easier to afford.

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach

Strawberry Fields

Strawberry Fields Scrapbook Shop

... where memories are preserved

I have to share with you this little gem of a scrapbook shop that I found in Cape Coral a few weeks ago (and have traveled to four times since). It’s called Strawberry Fields, and it is the cutest thing you have ever seen. When you walk in, you are immediately greeted by the owner, Pam, who is the sweetest and friendliest of scrapbook store owners. When you look around, you realize you are not in any ordinary scrapbook store. The décor is country primitive which, of course, is near and dear to my heart. So, all of the paper and supplies are not only displayed on the common scrapbook store fixtures, but also in the most unusual cabinets and containers—wooden trunks, antique tubs and muffin pans, etc. Better yet, many of the papers and supplies they carry are not found in any of our local stores. So, if you are looking for something different, this is the place to go. I won’t reveal what companies she carries, because I don’t want to give away her secrets. Just know that it is definitely worth the trip. In fact, if you choose to go, give me a call, because I will probably want to go with you. Check out the pictures below to get a glimpse of the store.

Strawberry Fields Scrapbook Shop

861 SE 47th Street, Unit 1

Cape Coral, FL 33904

239-540-2875

I hope you enjoyed your virtual trip to the store. But, you really need to go there yourself to get the whole effect. You'll be glad you did!

Terry B. Lee

Playground Coach