It's not the stamps that are expensive....

I am the first to admit - Stamping and it's cousin Scrapping isn't cheap...the multitude of paper, stamps, tools and embellishments that are crammed into my Craftin' Corner can attest to that.

I am a sucker for a cute stamp...but I have had to revise my buying stratgy over the years...being a demo for a stampin company I have access to order lots of cute stamp sets at any time...this can be an evil thing sometimes.

I am often enabled to buy things when I find they are cheap...how cheap...like $1 - cause really what crafter can't talk themselves into a stamp when it is $1...you say to yourself...I am sure I will use it sometime...and it only costs $1

Although I have found it is all well and good that you have a stamp for a $1 - unfortunately like any stamp it needs buddys - ink, paper, ribbon...sometimes a bling embellishment...and buddy's don't come cheap....

I have a whole container full of $1 rubber wood mounted stamps from Micheals (don't even get me started on the smaller acrylic $1 stamp sets...you just dont' want to know)

I needed to make some Easter cards and I don't have an Easter "set" and some of my other fall back sets I have used for previous years cards...so off to my Micheals stash...this is what I came up with...

Stamps: Some Bunny, Happy Easter (has a rectangle around it I inked just the words with marker) - $1 Micheals stamps
Paper: SU - Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Shimmer white, Flowers for you DP
Accessories - Old Olive twill ribbon (from SU Occassions Mini), Marvy Giga Scalloped Punch






The next card...when I saw the line of bunnies I immediately thought PEEPS...and the more I thought PEEPS the more this card started filtering through my brain - thank goodness for Snap Stamps...The bunnies are colored over with a Stardust clear glitter pen. the bunny strip is popped up on SU dimensionals








Stamps: Bunnies, Wishing You Joy - $1 Micheals stamps "and Peeps" - Snap Stamps
Paper: SU So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Vintage Violet (Thought I grabbed basic grey...but guess not)
Accessories: MM pink brads, SU ticket Corner Punch, Stardust Glitter


The final showing...is not for Easter but I recently were able to snatch these cute Penguin Imaginisce Snag 'Em stamps from ALL THAT SCRAPS (ATS)- they were $1....they are clear Acrylic stamps...

So they were sitting on my desk...saying "ink me, ink me" and I wanted to do something simple...that would really showcase the stamp itself.. So I used SU Notecards...I love these notecards because they are so easy to use to make a fantabulous simple card.

So I stamped the Penguins and then used some Eclipse Masking - you can also get this at ATS - I LOVE this stuff...it is like a big roll of sticky post-it note - nice and thin to use for masking...it is a bit pricy ~$15 for the roll and I hemmed and hawwed about buying it and finally gave in - I am so glad I did - if I ever run out (Its a pretty big roll) I will definately buy more...

Anyway I masked the penguin and used the CC large solid shadow spot (also available at ATS) - I went ahead and spent the extra change to have it wood mounted before being sent to me because I figured I would use it alot...and I DO...I recently got the small shadow spot and can't wait to use that) to anchor the little penguins...

I colored them in -

for the gal I used a blender pen and some SU soft Sky ink - I added a small Prima with a self adhesive rhinstone. I used Stardust clear glittle pen on the skirt to give it some sparkle. Used soft sky ink for the shadow spot

for the guy I used some SU Apricot Appeal for the shorts - with some glitter pen on the swirls, pumpkin Pie ink for the popscicle and used Wasabi ink for the shadow spot

I used coordinating double stiched ribbon and outlined both with Copic Ciao warm grey 0 (you guessed it also available at ATS) just to give a slight shadow and make them pop a little from the card

I decided to use one of my SU SAB sets to put a small greeting on the side - so I used Lots of Thought to ink up just Happy Hellos and stamped away...

so as you can see - while stamps may be cheap....using them isn't :)

Hope you enjoyed...