Tami Lynn Designs

(posted just a tad bit late, oops!)

The beauty of autumn seems to take me by surprise each year, even though it was just as beautiful the year before. Nothing says autumn to me like going to the pumpkin patch, acorn squash fresh baked in the oven with brown sugar & butter, The Puyallup Fair, and the amazing colors of the changing leaves.

I got this fabulous Build-a-Tree stamp by Memory Box that is perfect for celebrating the season.

Memory Box also makes this great little dashed Thank You stamp that I used for this card.

I used foam mounting tape to create depth.

And, I always like to decorate my envelopes to coordinate with the cards. Beauty is in the details!

One of my best friends sisters got married this summer at St. Paul’s Church in beautiful Port Gamble, and I had the honor of assisting with the wedding coordinating. One of my special projects was making the place cards for the reception.

We originally planned to simply stamp on pre-made place cards from Michael’s, and hand write the guests names. While they were great quality, the pre-made cards were embossed, which did not allow the stamp ink to dry on the shiny film. Dealing with all the stress of the final wedding details, the bride was willing to throw in the towel and simply have the plain ivory place cards with names handwritten on them. But, I knew the bride really wanted the tiffany blue floral stamped cards, tying in with the blue hydrangea centerpieces, so I opted for Plan B.

Plan B was more work, but definitely worth it. I purchased plain ivory 8 1/2″ x 11″ card stock. I measured and cut the place cards to the size of the ones from Michael’s, folded them in half, and then the stamp ink soaked into the paper fibers beautifully.

A friend gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for my birthday last week that contained some amazing vibrant dahlias.

Inspired by my birthday bouquet, I have created some new dahlia cards.

Our out-of-the-ordinary Seattle heat wave that we are in the midst of is a good reminder to take time to enjoy and really appreciate some of the simpler things in life. Such as: ice cubes, running through a sprinkler, air conditioning (which is not a common thing to have in the Northwest), ice cream trucks, or a neighborhood lemonade stand.

I made this simple cherry blossom card in lieu of these simple times. No rhinestones or glitter. No layers or cut-outs. Just simple asian-inspired beauty.

I have fallen in love with this happy little cake stamp. Combined with my fancy square punch, it is my new favorite birthday card embellishment.

I created this blue bird card on this years 4th of July with my new fancy square punch by McGill. I thought it was only appropriate to use America’s colors. Happy Independence Day!

For our Independence Day Holiday, I treated myself with a visit to Impress rubber stamp shop. Amongst the many aisles of fabulous stamps, embellishments, punches and dye pads, I found these beautiful butterfly and bird tags.

I mounted the butterfly tag on orange velvet embossed hand-made paper.

I also picked up a few new stamps while I was there. The polka dots have become one of my new favorites.

One of my favorite paper crafting collections is by K&Company - Brenda Walton’s Mira Collection. I just can not get enough of these asian lantern embellishments.

K&Company always includes wonderful details and textures on their products.

Todays overcast Seattle skies drew me to bright colors of summer hope.

And, nothing adds shiny brightness quite like glitter…

Springtime has inspired me to try some new techniques. Here is my latest bird card:

I have learned to fill in a stamped image with colored pencil BEFORE pasting it onto textured paper, which apparently leaves grid marks (oopsie!):

To get a raised 3-D appearance, first I stamped swirls in the corners of the card. Then, for the first time, I tried attaching my stamp embellishment to the base card with foam mounting tape, overlaying the swirls. The foam mounting tape was very easy to work with, and I am definitely pleased with the results.

And, in true Tami Lynn style, I highlighted my stamp with Martha Stewart’s fine glitter.