Hello, my name is Stephanie Low and I am a licensed designer for Spellbinders.  I have always been an artist and began illustrating for tattoos several years ago.  Now I get to add stamps and dies to my illustration resume and it is so fun and rewarding!  I cannot even get over seeing people using my stamps for their own projects.  Like in all seriousness, I stalk the internet for people and projects like an addict!  It is an amazing feeling.

I illustrated this Handmade stamp collection with this in mind.  I want creatives like me to make cute things and give them to those that they love – and I want to see all of the projects!!!  Here are some of the fun samples that my homies over at Spellbinders made with my stamps and I am in love with them!

This blog post here:  Goodies & Gifties  shows several projects I cranked out for this purpose.  And then of course Spellbinders blog never has a shortage of cute and inspired ideas of how to use my stamps and dies.  The card in the link above and stamp set has been a huge favorite of everyone who comes across the collection.

There are so many great card samples to choose from so I wanted to try to come up with several NON-Card options for this because the whole theory behind this is we don’t just give cards to those we love,  we give GIFTS!

I used this image in a previous post and had made several little tags designed to accompany the handmade gifts we give to those we love.  It is an added layer of sentimental thoughtfulness which we can never have enough of.

I had a blast making these little cross stitch beauties and they would make great gifts or even the making of a gift tag if you take them out of the embroidery hoops and cut them into tag shapes!

The “Handcrafted” project is so simple, I just stamped the word twice by first masking off the “Crafted” part and then only stamping the “Hand” part in order to have the words stacked on one another. Then I simply stitched over the stamped image in alternating rainbow colors!  The rose is a die from my “Good Vibes Only” collection which will hit the shop very soon!

I am in love with my little sewing box – except that it actually doesn’t hold all my sewing stuff but that is irrelevant…  I got this cute little wooden box at Target (of course) and immediately I knew I was going to stamp on it!  How perfect are those buttons stamped on there!?!?!  Stupendous! I am such a nerd and get excited about silly things.  These button images were designed after real vintage buttons and I wish I could have made a dozen of them.  They are each so cute and unique!

I keep buttons in this box and my embroidery stuff.  Someday I will fill it entirely with buttons.  I should talk to Tammy Tutterow who is also button obsessed!

Ok – last one – PROMISE.  I keep all sorts of little bits of things and I had this little linen bag from some packaging at some point, so I apologize that I cannot tell you where you can find something like this. I just keep things that many people throw away and then re-purpose them!  I simply stamped my “one of a kind” stamp on there with permanent ink, traced parts of it with Gelly Roll pens, filled it with Hershey kisses and called it good for my neighbor who needed a bit of chocolate! Done!  I would say the Gelly Roll ink would likely bleed if it got wet but I am not sure.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my ideas and my stamps and for those that leave comments, I love you extra special!

Much Love, Stephanie Low

xoxo

#CreateEveryday   #NeverStopMaking

My new stamp and die collection is just adorable and I sure hope you love it!  You can find it to purchase in these different locations:

Spellbinders

Scrapbook.com

Simon Says Stamps

Amazon

Now without further adieu I will move you on in the Blog Hop

You will want to see all the amazing projects and insights and pretty things along the way.

If you get lost along the hop then be sure to refer back to this list and see which sweet blogs you missed.

I guarantee you wont want to miss any!

Spellbinders

Stephanie Beck Low  (You are here!)

Nichol Spohr

Yana Smakula

Vanessa Menhorn

Hussena Calcuttawala

Rebecca Luminarias

Emily Leiphart

Erum Tasneem

Michelle Short

I am digging all these blog hops lately!  This is my third one and so I feel like I am finally getting the hang of it!  It is so wonderful to be grouped together with so many crafty, talented, creative, beautiful and kind people who want to showcase amazing and fun products together in the spirit of sharing the gift and JOY of creativity and art.  Such a privilege.

Ill be sharing my Christmas collection this time around and I am pretty pleased with it!  In case you missed the other Christmas collection blog post I completed for Spellbinders you can find it here.  I did a whole array of cards and tags and had a blast.

As many of you know I am not a crafter by “trade.”  I have enjoyed many a nights scrapbooking and card making over the decades but I just have fun with it and don’t get too fancy.  I am in AWE of the amazing things that “professional” paper crafters do with their projects; things that I would have never even thought of doing and the results are incredible.   Since I know they have all of those fancy bases covered with their glitter and glam, I figured I would get back to basics and see where that would take me.

When I told my six year old daughter that her mommy illustrated a bunch of stamps she went nuts!  To her stamps and stickers are a badge of a good deed done or an assignment completed.  She wanted to stamp everything and see all of them!  So of course I obliged and whenever I have my stamps out and she catches wind, she always gets a simple card stamped or a stray scrap of paper or even, often, a hand or arm “tattoo” when the mood strikes.

She decided this year that she wanted to give some of her friends at school and her teacher some Christmas cards.  We went to the store and checked out the card section first and I was blown away by the prices (because I am super cheap!) and eventually it occurred to me that we could simply make them ourselves (I’m a little slow).

I bought a little 10 pack of 3″x3″ green ombre cards made by American Crafts and began stamping backgrounds on them.  I then told her to pick out which stamps she liked best and I stamped those separate and die cut them and placed them on top of a few of the cards.

DONE!  The rest was up to her – she got to color and scribble and mark them up however she wanted and addressed envelopes and sign her cute little name and call it good.

Mission – First Grader Christmas Card Project: SUCCESS!

Little brother got in on the coloring action (for five minutes and then lost interest and began scattering colored pencils and then his sister got mad at him)

I see so many sophisticated things being done with stamps and dies and paper these days and I think we need to remember that stamps are synonymous with coloring and creativity and a “job well done” for our little ones and let them get in on that action.  Inspire them to create!

NOW FOR THE BLOG HOP DEETS!

Spellbinders has the best blog hops!  Great prizes and great ideas.  What better?!

To celebrate this release, Spellbinders is giving away a $50 gift certificate to FIVE lucky winners. Please leave a comment on Spellbinders blog by Sunday, December 10th 11:59 pm EDT for a chance to win. The winners will be announced in the blog hop post on Spellbinders blog the following day.

In order to FOLLOW the blog hop linky chain from this point forward, please check out the Lovely Svitlana Shayevich at her blog here: Svitlana Shayevich

For a COMPLETE list of blogs which are participating in this blog hop, see below:

• Spellbinders
• Simon Says Stamp
• Yana Smakula
• Laura Bassen
• Stephanie Low – YOU ARE HERE!
• Svitlana Shayevich
• Sharyn Sowell
• May Sukyong Park
• Elena Salo

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY AND FOR THE LOVE AND CREATIVITY AND JOY YOU BRING WITH YOU! Sorry for being shouty – I just really appreciate you all and the sweet comments you always leave me.  I would love to see your creations so be sure to tag me on social Media (facebook: Stephanie Low Creative, Instagram: stephanie.low.creative and #stephanielowcreative)

Love and Peace to all,

Stephanie

xoxo

#CreateEveryday #NeverStopMaking

I renovated this popular design this week and added some color even!  It is always a lot of fun to return to a tried and true image!

This is now my second time adding color in and I think I love it!  I will be adding color to my price list effective immediately.

Save

I had a scare yesterday. And I’ll tell you at risk for sounding like a wussy whinner.

I dropped and broke a glass and when I went to pick it up an unnoticed part punctured the fatty part of the palm of my right hand (I’m right handed) right in the crease where my thumb meets my palm.  Immediately there was pouring blood since there are a lot of veins right there and I may have panicked and may have almost passed out. Maybe.

After applying pressure I noticed that aside from the pain from being cut, I was feeling sharp pain inside my hand which I worried meant there was glass still in my hand. I dismissed this and waited for the pain to subside, which it never did. I couldn’t move my thumb and my hand was in constant sharp pain and swollen.

I started to worry that I would not be able to draw and create for an indefinite amount of time and this terrified me more than there most likely being glass in my hand. I tossed and turned all night last night and finally woke this morning feeling depressed. After less than 24 hours knowing I couldn’t write, draw, cut, color, glue, paint, BRUSH MY TEETH (I eventually used my left hand, don’t worry) I was depressed. I knew then that I had to fix this.

I called my doc, they told me to try the ER or urgent care. At this point all I had was a bruised hand with a TINY puncture wound and scab and knew I would be waiting for eternity for them to probably roll their eyes and or laugh at me. Not an option.

So I went to my craft tool box, found tweezers and an X-Acto knife and  will spare you the details of the rest… I WILL say however that I fished out a 1 cm long shard of glass and was immediately able to move my thumb again.

the MORAL of this seemingly pointless, feel sorry for me, story: upon realizing I would not be aloud to create I immediately became depressed. And that was significant. Creation is so important, for me, for you, for everyone.

For almost a decade I had no creative outlet in my life. I abandoned drawing, I hardly scrapbooked any more. And I was not happy in this state. Once I began to create again I found a happiness and satisfaction and pride that I hadn’t known in far too long.

I truly believe that creativity is what sets our species apart from other animals. And at risk of sounding like a know it all, I will move on.

We have this ability to create art and beauty from nothing and we need to use it!

I say it all the time, but I truly mean it – CREATE EVERYDAY!

Doodle, paint, cook, garden, sew, crochet, stitch, plant, bake, knit, build models, write, photograph, decorate, run a business, play music, put an outfit together, string a necklace, whittle, weld, fix a car, do nails, create a spreadsheet – literally endless possibilities of creativity!!! There are so many ways to create. Find what makes you tick. Find what gives you life and joy and positivity. There is something for everyone. And if you don’t think there is, get creative with the way you are looking at your life.. likely there is something you are creating that is going unnoticed.  Take a class at the local junior college or community center. Find a mentor or friend to create with. Go to stores that encourage creativity. Find your creative passion and feast on it! I promise it will enhance your life. PROMISE!

Im sorry my lame story about glass embedded in my hand had to preface this revelation, but it was on my mind so whatever… 😉

I love you all and thanks for reading rant

xoxo, Steph

#createeveryday