Posting on Saturday?

Wow! It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted on Saturday, but I’ve got more Our Craft Lounge cards to share!  If you haven’t visited the storefront yet – be sure to check it out.  Scroll down to the bottom of the home page there and you will see a link for the forums!  Yep! They’ve even created a forum for the OCL!  Joy, Cambria AND Marianne are all there!  If you are a fan of Copics, then you are probably a fan of Marianne (hey that rhymes) and you will probably be interested in her hints and techniques for coloring the OCL images!

So I’ve showed you a few dogs, a beaver, and an elephant….now how bout a tree and maybe even a giraffe?

This tree is from the set Tree-mendous Love.

I made this card for Splitcoast Stampers Ways To Use It Challenge – watercolor paper!  I went a bit overboard really on my coloring, but I like the fun bright feeling it gives.  After I tried to watercolor, I drew some clouds and a bit of texture on the tree.  I messed up so many times on this card I dubbed it the Stamping Pit!  I kept having to try to ‘fix’ things….especially after I dropped it right into my black ink!

Okay, so that was the tree….. now here’s the giraffe!

And the coolest part?  They are in the same set!  Yep! You get the tree and the giraffe!   This set is actually available in Crafty Cling Rubber (pink rubber) that is precut to perfection – no fuzzies, just perfect!  It is also available in Crafty Clear Acrylic.  I haven’t gone into much detail about the rubber or the acrylic yet (that’s below)– but it is FANTASTIC! 

The Crafty Cling Rubber has just the right firmness/softness combination – I find this VERY important with stamping and cleaning the stamp – and I’m actually a bit picky about how firm/soft the rubber should be.  I find that when rubber is too soft, it “mushes” the stamped image AND it isn’t very easy to clean; when it is too hard, it is hard to get a nice crisp stamped image, and again, it is hard to clean! So, like my rubbah right in the middle… not to hard, but not to soft – just right!  Another very cool thing about the CC-Rubber is the storage sheet it comes on!  It looks like a page out of a notebook, it is sturdy, and it has 3 holes punched in it…. I think this means STORAGE might just be popping up at the Lounge sometime soon! 

The Crafty Clear is high quality as well.  It has just enough stickiness, but not so bad that you can’t remove it from the packaging!   It has a nice crisp stamped image and so far the staining has been minimal.  Of course, the black will stain it – but I prefer it stained – I feel like I can see it better!  The CC-A comes on a clear piece of acetate (or whatever that stuff is) with a top piece ATTACHED!  I LOVE this part!  I own SEVERAL other clear sets from other companies and if they don’t come attached, and if I haven’t already lost the top protective sheet, I tape it together! I was thrilled that this was already done for me!  AND the images are pre-printed on the acetate for easy placement and identification!  Cool Beans!  I’d say that the girls at OCL (Our Craft Lounge) really put a lot of thought into their stamps!    Thanks- cuz I love them!

Don’t forget about the pink tickets! For each stamp set you buy this weekend from the OCL you will get a ticket included in your order and be eligible to win prizes!  Info Here!

See you later! I’ve got LOTS of stamping plans for this weekend  - I sure hope I get a bit of it done!