A Sketch Challenge

Hi! There are some great things going on at 2RedBananas right now. First, we are sponsoring the House Mouse Challenge this week. It's a sketch challenge and this is the sketch that Jami designed for it. (She has so many talents :) You can go to the House Mouse Challenge blog to read all the details and post your project. You will be entered into a drawing for a new House Mouse stamp :) If you don't have any House Mouse stamps, you'll need some after you see all the fun projects that the dt's have created with them. You can find them here. :) We also have some new House-Mouse stamps on order and they should be here soon, I'll let you know when :)

We have just received papers from My Mind's Eye's CHA release. Hope to get them all up on the website today! :) The nestabilities from the CHA release as well as some new metallic dew drops from the Robin's Nest are ordered and I'll let you know when we get those in too :)

Our 'Week of Peeks' will begin Monday, February 23rd and the new stamps will be released Monday, March 2nd. Deb Felts (our guest designer) will be joining us for our 'Week of Peeks' so don't miss out! We will be doing things a little bit differently than we did last month, we don't want you to get bored of the same 'ole thing, so stay tuned for more info on that :)

Thanks so much for stopping by and be sure to check out the House Mouse Challenge!

News, News and more News :)

Hi Banana Friends! We've got lots of fun news for you today.

First I would like to introduce you to our very first 2RedBananas Guest Designer. It's Deb Felts. She has a fabulous blog and a fabulous SplitCoastStampers gallery. Her SCS name is debdeb. We're so excited that she said yes to being our first Guest Designer. She has this to say,

Hi! I’m Deb Felts, and I am so thrilled to be the very first guest designer for 2RedBananas! Having been born and raised in southwest Louisiana, joining this team of Texas and Louisiana girls and their friends seemed like the perfect fit! I first came across 2RedBananas on my friend, Jami Bova’s blog, when she announced that she would be having some of her fabulous illustrations made into stamps. As I read the names of Wendy’s and Jeanette’s blogs I couldn’t help but grin…and I couldn’t wait to read more! Words like Lagniappe and Nowhere Bayou might sound foreign to you but they’re near and dear to my heart! And sure enough, these girls are from right there in my neck of the woods! In fact, our parents are practically neighbors!

I have been a scrapper since our son, Matthew, was born. He’s almost 15 now! It wasn’t until about 3 years ago that I was introduced to stamping. Immediately I was hooked, because stamping merged my love of texture (from my sewing days) with my love for shading and tints that I learned in tole painting. The more I stamp, the more I love it!

If you love stamping and you’re looking for a good challenge, check out The Daily Dare! It’s a blog that lists card challenges by the day of the week they’re posted. This idea was one that I had been mulling over for quite a while, and after collecting bookmarks for a month or so finally the idea became a reality. It’s only about six weeks old, but its popularity is growing and I’ve heard good things about it! Hopefully it will be a valuable resource for you! I hope you’ll visit 2RedBananas, The Daily Dare, and my own blog, With a Stamp and a Song, on a regular basis! I’m looking forward to sharing my designs with you!

Please help me to welcome Deb to 2RedBananas!

Product news:

The March 2009 House Mouse stamps are in and on the front page of the website. They are soooo cute and now our own Jami Bova is on the House Mouse Challenge dt, so we all get to play along with her! Congrats Jami!!

These are the March 2009 House Mouse Stamps.

And last but certainly not least, we have some new products on order. The new Spellbinders Nestabilities, Labels three, Labels four, Dahlia, the Nested Bird Shapeabilities, all the new Impressabilities, Stardust pens by Sakura (very glittery and very cool colors), and some Colorbox Cat's Eye Chalk inks (very cool and easy for distressing the edges of your paper). The brand new My Mind's Eye papers should be here soon as well!!! I will let you know as these new items come in. We also now have a New Products category on the website, be sure to check it out!

And our next exclusive stamp release will be Monday, March 2nd. We will be doing thte "Week of Peeks" starting Monday, February 23rd. Look for something a little bit different than we did last month :)

Gettin' Punchy with Come Home Soon

Today I'd like to share some ideas on using the smaller stamps in the Come Home Soon set. I absolutely love to use my nesties and my punches. I always admire the layered medallions I see on other peoples cards using various punches. So when I designed this set, I wanted to be able to create some of those looks.

The stamp with the circle and small letters saying "Land of the Free...Because of the Brave" will fit perfectly into a 1.5" circle punch. It also works nicely with the smallest of the Large Scalloped Circle nesties and the SU Scallop punch.

The 5 smaller stamps in this set will all fit inside that circle. Here's a look at a few things I did with these 6 stamps. I'm sure there are many many more. I would love to see what you can come up with!




Here are the various punches I used for these
- 1.5" Circle Punch
- 2" Circle Punch
- SU Scallop Punch
- SU Word Window Punch
- The smallest of the Scalloped Circles Large nesties

I'll describe these starting with the bottom layer and work my way up...

- Pink SU Scallop Punch
- Stamped on White and punched with nestie/cuttlebug. Sponged turquoise ink on the edges
- Stamped "I Miss You"




- Cream colored nestie
- Stamped circle onto striped DP then punched with 1.5" circle punch.
- Stamped ribbon onto DP
- Stamped ribbon onto yellow cardstock, cut out with craft knife, popped up on dimensional and added Golden Wheat Shimmerz.



- 2" punched red circle
- SU Scallop punched from Olive DP. Popped up with dimensional
- Stamped circle onto white and punched with 1.5" circle punch
- Stamped HERO onto Olive and cut out.



- SU scallop punched in blue
- Stamped circle onto white and punched with 1.5" circle punch
- Stamped Come Home Soon onto white







This ribbon can also be used to support other things too...here's a pink one for Breast Cancer Awareness.
- Stamped support ribbon onto brown cardstock with brown Memento ink
- colored ribbon with Prisma pencil
- Stamped HERO over it with white Kraft ink.


And I love the Word Window punch...the Come home soon is spaced just far enough apart that you can put each word into this punch.
I stamped the sentiment twice onto red SU DP. I punched the Soon and the Come from the first part, then punched the Home from the second time I stamped it.


- The blue was cut with the nestie/cuttlebug
- Stamped circle onto white and punched with 1.5" circle punch
- Stamped flag onto red cardstock, cut out and popped up on a dimensional.


- White square of cardstock
- Red square just a bit smaller. I punched a 2" circle in the red before adhering it to the white. Leaving a circle window.
- Stamped the circle and the Come Home Soon onto the white.
- Used the leftover blue from the flag medallion above to create a little frame which I popped up on dimensionals.


Just a few simple squares with the I Miss You stamp. Easy Peasy...but oh so versatile!!


Hope this gives you some different ideas on how to use the stamps in this set. As I said, I'm sure there's tons more...and I would LOVE to see them. If you create something new - send us a link so we can see.


If you send us a picture in an email, we'd love to share it on our blog!

Some Cool New Ribbons to go with the Cool New Stamps!

Just thought I'd share the VERY cool ribbons that we have recently gotten in stock at 2RedBananas. The leaves are so very cool as they are faux suede and are really soft and have an awesome texture to add to your projects.!!

These ribbons are also faux suede on both sides, so when you tie bows or knots, it doesn't matter which side is showing, they both look the same. They are all really cool. While you're at the store looking at the new stamps and the samples we have with them, be sure to look at the ribbons as well!

Here is a sample I made with the olive suede leaves. You can get an idea of the size of them here too. They are sold by the yard and you get about 17 leaves in a yard! Fun stuff!!!

The Stamps are Now Available!!

Good Morning!!! Well, this morning we're announcing the winner of the last set we are releasing this month.


Chosen by random.org, our winner of the February Journaling Spot is.....Jacqueline. Congratulations Jacqueline.....please email your address to me and I'll get your stamp set out to you!

We had some issues with blogger yesterday, so if you didn't comment on each of the dt member's blog, for today it wasn't a big deal. But normally it will be checked so be sure to visit them all :)


That's it for the blog candy for this release, but based on your answers to yesterday's question, we will probably do something similar for our next release!!


Here are the February releases in their entirety with links to the store. If you go directly to the 2RedBananas store you can find them in the "What's New at 2RedBananas" section or in the Stamps, then 2RedBananas February Release section. The stamp sets are listed here in the order that we previewed them in our Week of Peeks.



The first one is Jami Bova's "The Gift". When you go to the website you will notice some color pictures under the picture of the stamp set. Click on those and you will see some samples of what the dt has done with this set. You can also click on the enlarged picture and it will make it even bigger and easier to see :)



The second set is January Journaling Spot.


























The next one is January Journaling Spot2.


















This one is Jami Bova's "Come Home Soon".






















This one is "Snowman Love".

Jami Bova's "Value of Joy".


















Abbey Westemeyer's "Heartfelt Friends".














and finally "February Journaling Spot".

Thanks again for blog hopping with us this week! We had a great time!! Happy Shopping! :)

The Stamp Sets are Now Available!!! :)

Just a quick message to let you know that the February releases are now available in the 2RedBananas store!!

Hop on over and see all of them in their entirety!! The new stamps as well as the new suede leaves ribbon are all in a What's New category so you can see them all together.

Thanks so much for hopping this week with us!

Our last blog hop for this month - February Journaling Spot

Good Morning!!! Well today is out last blog hop for this month at least. Our question today has to do with whether we will try to do this again or not, so be sure to keep reading :)

First, we'll announce the winner of the "Heartfelt Friends" set. Thanks to random.org the winner is........... Heather, congratulations Heather!!! Her comment was, "Love this set it is very cute!!!! Great new illustrator!!!I guess these days you will find me mostly blog serfing!!!But I do spend some time on both PCP and SCSI read and subscribe to Creating Keepsakes Magazine.Heather

Please send me your address and I will get "Heartfelt Friends" right out to you!

We really like to read your comments and want to make 2RedBananas a place you love to come for inspiration and to shop, so thank you for sharing you thoughts with us!!!

Now to today's featured set.
The first card is made by Jami. Doesn't she have the most gorgeous handwriting!!! Jami - let's talk about getting a font made with your handwriting :) She has lots of details on her blog about how she made her card so hop on over there after you finish reading here.



This next card is made by Maraya. Such talent I tell ya! I LOVE the colors and how they just POP off the black and white! More details on her blog as well!

Okay, now to the 'rules' of the blog hop.
Visit each of the dt member's blog to see what they have created with the February Journaling Spot and be sure to leave them a comment.

Jami
Jeanette
Maraya
Teresa
Wendy

After you have visited each of those, come back here a leave us a comment answering this for us,

"Have you enjoyed blog hopping with us this week and would you like to see us do something similar for our releases next month?"

You will then be entered into the drawing for the "February Journaling Spot" stamp set which will be drawn at 9:00am EST tomorrow, February 2nd.

Remember the releases go on sale at 12:01am EST Monday, February 2nd (that's really tonight - kind of :)

Thanks so much for participating with us!!!