Saturday, December 27, 2008

Ready for Something Besides Christmas Cards?


I am!!!! Here's a birthday card that I made for my oldest son. I stamped the large cupcake from Crazy for Cupcakes in Basic Black and then colored it in with SU! markers. After coloring everything, I put Crystal Effects on the candy confetti and the candle so that they would have a 3-D look. This Rainbow Sherbet designer paper is sooooooo fun! Add a round tab punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, and oval punch, some paper piercing, and you have a fun and easy card.
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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

2-5-7-10 Gift Box



Here's a cute little gift bag under my tree. I used the Ski Slope Designer Series Paper for the main cardstock and a small strip of whisper white for the scalloped edge. The ribbon is retired silver narrow organdy. I stamped the mittens with the Scandinavian Season, tied them with crochet thread and hung them from the bow. The mittens serve the double purpose of decoration and gift tag. I love making these boxes - they're so easy. For those of you who came to my 3-D class, this is the 2-5-7-10 box. I've copied the instructions here so that you can easily recreate this.

Instructions:


Hold an 11 x 8 1/2” piece of cardstock in the landscape orientation and score at 2, 5, 7, & 10, Turn to the portrait orientation and score at 2 & 7. On the longer 2” side, cut all of the first row off except for the 2 x 3 section in between the 7 & 10 scores. On the opposite side which has the 1 1/2” scored section cut along the score lines to the first cross section to create flaps; cut the smallest square (1 1/2 x 1) at the end off. On the 1” wide section, cut the corners off at a diagonal to make the inside flap. Fold on all remaining score lines. Use Tombow or Sticky strip along the 1” flap and attach to other end of box. Glue the bottom flaps together after folding. Use your fingers in the sides of the top of the box to create a fold and then fold the top flap over. Secure with ribbon, Velcro dot, or magnetic snaps.

So let me know what you think. Have you tried this? Upload a pic and copy the link into your comment here. I'd love to see your creations too!

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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Love You Much Promotion from SU!

Say
"Hello"
to
another
wonderful
special
from
Stamp-
in' Up! Starting today, you can buy the supplies to make some wonderful Valentine projects at a discount! And I have to say that it's so refreshing to be able to stamp something besides Christmas cards! After making 80+ cards, I'm totally welcoming Valentine's! Here are the details on the promotion:

Description Retail Value
Love You Much stamp set $25.95
Candy Lane Designer Series paper $9.95
Heart to Heart punch $15.95
Love You Much Bundle (20% off retail value of $51.85; item 115405) $41.48

Or go to see the flyer to see the products included in this special.

Here's the fun card that I made today with the bundle. I stamped the smaller hearts and punched them out with the coordinating triple heart punch. After punching out the hearts, I used the negative that they made to sponge the hearts on the background. The SU! markers are perfect for coloring the flowers inside the main heart image. A bit of glitter, faux stitching with my white gel pen and some vanilla grosgrain finish off the card.





And I had to break out this set, also. The stamp set is Something New to Love. The layout idea came from the XO heart - reminded me of tic tac toe. I also used my Orchid Opulence marker to draw in some faux stitching for the tic tac toe board. Vanilla grosgrain tied and mini glue dotted in the corners give a photo corner look. It was a fun and VERY quick card to make.
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Monday, December 22, 2008

Are you a Designer Paper Junkie?? :-)

Are you like me - addicted to Designer Series Papers? I love them, because they make my projects easier, because I don't need to come up with a color combo and the fact that they look so beautiful that I don't have to do much to make the project look gorgeous. So for those of you who have some DSP sitting around, here's a tutorial for you. A sideline of mine in Idaho shared this link with our group. Scroll down to the end and click on the tutorial pic. It's super easy and fun. I've had this hanging on my tree the last two days, but I'm going to use this beautiful snowflake as a present topper. To all you family out there reading my post - who will be the lucky recipient?
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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Blog Candy For a Cause

I had to pass on this request for RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness). If you follow the link on the title of this post, you'll find an address that you can send a card to a couple who's newborn has been in NICU since her birth on Dec. 1. This is the card that I sent in today. I'll be praying for a complete recovery for this sweet baby and for peace and comfort for her parents. As a parent myself, I can only imagine the agony that they are going through right now. Thank you to Cami for making so many people aware of this opportunity through her blog. For this card, I used a current SU! set called Refuge and Strength and a PREVIEW STAMP SET called Sweet Stems. I was also able to use my PREVIEW EMBOSSLIT which coordinates with the Sweet Stems stamp set and is for use with the Big Shot. Yes, that is the latest and greatest "toy"/tool for me. I LOVE that thing! I stamped the flowers and sentiment on Vellum and stamped the cross underneath. I also used the cut out shape as a template to sponge inside of. Supplies: Mellow Moss, Regal Rose, Riding Hood Red, StazOn Black, vellum, Rich Regals brads, blender pens, sweet stems embosslit, sponges.

This is my youngest son, Zach. He turned 6 today. This morning he was quite anxious to open up this large present. (When he saw it, he pretended to literally be bowled over!) Inside, he found a track car racing set. I found it at Costco with a $15 discount and knew it was the perfect thing for him. Between this and the sledding outside on our steep hill, the kids have been busy all day! I so hope that the couple whose baby is in NICU will have these precious moments with their daughter in the future.
For those of you in the Northwest, hope you're inside your home, enjoying the snow, instead of outside sliding around on those icy roads.
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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

And For My Next Challenge....A Birthday Card!!



Sorry for the dark picture. I took the photo at 11 pm. Ouch! Yes, it will be really hard to wake up tomorrow. I made this card for my youngest son Zach's birthday. He's going to be six on Thursday and loves trains. I used Sketch Challenge 207 for my layout and Color Challenge 197 for my color theme. They made for a great boy birthday card. The background of the train is the Baby Wipe technique on Glossy cardstock. See the end of this post for instructions on this technique. Here, I've used the "pick it up and daube" technique. Over the background, I stamped the train in Not Quite Navy. The small strips of Baja Breeze are stamped with the Canvas Background in Not Quite Navy. I sponged around the Kiwi with Basic Gray to give it that smoky look so common to the steam engines. I hope Zach will like this.

Baby Wipe Technique:

Fold a baby wipe in quarters. Using your ink refills, put dots of at least two different colors on the baby wipe, filling up as large a space as you want to stamp. You can use this as your ink pad to ink your stamp on, or pick it up (after you've donned a plastic glove) to daube on your glossy cardstock. It's really that easy, and another good excuse to buy the ink refills.

Supplies:

Happiness is a Journey, Canvas Background, Not Quite Navy, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, Glossy Cardstock, Sponge, Baby Wipe.

There. Hope you've enjoyed this post. Let me know if you try this technique - I'd love to see the results. Oh, and if you're wondering where to buy the glossy cardstock from? Well, of COURSE it comes from Stampin' Up!

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Monday, December 15, 2008

Starburst Flower Tutorial

Today's Try a New Technique Challenge on Splitcoaststampers was to make a Starburst. The original starburst tutorial was written by ShadowMill on SCS. Here's a tutorial so that you can play along. It's really quite simple!
Supplies needed:
4 1/2" x 4 1/2" vellum (x2 for a double layer starburst)
Designer Paper or colored cardstock
Small and Large Tag Punches
Scissors
Two-Way Glue Pen

Sorry for the blur on this photo. It's really hard to hold the punch, focus your image and hold the camera steady while you snap the picture! Make sure to notice that you first punch with the small tag punch and then punch with the large tag punch over the image. It's much easier to center over your small tag and punch evenly. You'll need 8 of these for one layer, 16 for a two layer starburst. Now don't throw away the small tags that you have leftover. They can be used for your Christmas gifts! Just stamp on them in VersaMark and then emboss with white embossing powder. You'll see how great it looks on the last photo, where I used my Starburst on a Christmas card.
Using your Two-Way Glue Pen, apply glue to the back side of your first tag outline. Line up the next three with the angled sides touching. The Two-Way Glue Pen is perfect for a project like this. The pen makes it very easy to draw small lines of adhesive and also works great for applying glitter to small or lined areas.

Glue your second layer of tag outlines over the first, keeping them lined up in between the first layer of tags. Try to keep everything even. You might want to lay your second layer of tags over the first before gluing, so that you can center the tags.


After gluing on all of the tag outlines, cut along the outsides of the tags, following the star pattern. If you would like to make a double-layered starburst, repeat from the beginning, so that you have two starbursts.





I colored the center of the flower with a marker on the BACK side of the flower. After putting the two layers together with a pop-up glue dot, I mounted the flower on this gorgeous Ski Slope Designer paper. And since we crafters are so good at using our scraps, I used one of the tag centers for my greeting.









Supplies used:

Small and Large Tag Punches, Vellum, Riding Hood Red and Very Vanilla Cardstock, Gold Brads, Pop-Up Glue Dots, Old Olive Stampin' Write Marker, Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Best Yet Hostess Stamp Set, Ski Slope & Bella Rose Designer Paper, Gold Elastic Cord.

So if you play along, post your card somewhere and leave a comment here with the link to your starburst card. I'd love to see them!

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Friday, December 12, 2008

Lingerie Cards



Ok, don't tell my sister and brother-in-law that their birthday cards are here, because I just had to show you. Quite a while ago, I found this template online and had to try it. After making my sister's card, I decided to make a coordinating card for my BIL. I'll try to make a template for it, in case you'd like to try it. On my sister's card I used 1/4" red grosgrain for the straps and some retired fancy fibers for the edging. On my BIL's card, I flipped the Designer Series paper over for the waistband and fly. I also used metallic eyelets and crochet thread for the drawstring. So, do you think they'll like them?
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Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Baja Reflections


This wonderful set, Summer by the Sea, is retiring on January 18. I love this set. It has such gorgeous images. Here I've stamped it in StazOn Black onto my naturals white cardstock. Using my AquaPainter, I picked up a bit of ink off the lids of my stamp pads and colored in. First I diluted the color quite a bit, then went over some areas with less diluted colors. And on a whim, I decided to color in a reflection of the boat. The sky and water are the same color - Baja Breeze. One is just lighter than the other. Same thing with the boat and her shirt - same color - Riding Hood Red. It was a very fun project.
Thanks for looking! Would love to hear from you.
Supplies:
Naturals White, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Bella Rose and Urban Garden Designer Series Papers, ticket corner punch, Riding Hood Red Taffeta, Vintage Brads, AquaPainter, Sanded & Canvas backgrounds.
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Discounts on the Retiring List and Free Shipping Offer


Where do stamp sets go when they retire?
To your home at a discount!
Stampin' Up! is offering 10% off of all retiring stamps sets purchased now through December 23. Wow! I love discounts! And if your order is $70 or more, Stampin' Up! will waive the shipping fees. That's a minimum savings of $7. Now if any of these sets are on your wish list, you will want to order them before January 18. After that they will no longer be available. So hurry over to see the retiring list in alphabetical order or in numerical (page) order. And click here to see the free shipping offer. When you have your list of "can't miss out" items, feel free to give me a call or place your order online. Don't miss out on this fabulous offer.
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Monday, December 8, 2008

Wine Glass Votive Shade


Isn't this a fun idea? I found it on Splitcoaststampers today. It is the technique challenge for today. You can find the instructions here. Go find post #1 and it will have all the instructions for you. My wine glass was tall, so I added a 1" edge to the bottom of the template. That worked nicely. After tracing and cutting it out, I used my Petals dry embossing template from Stampin' Up! to emboss the scallops on the top and bottom. I then used my Priceless template to emboss the flowers, swirls, hearts, and butterflies. I really like it! I do recomment that you find a clear wine glass or votive holder, otherwise the etched pattern will show through your vellum. (mine did!)
Supplies:
Vellum Cardstock, Sticky Tape, Dry Embossing Templates, Stylus, Light Table
You've probably noticed that all my photos this month have been set in my Dept. 56 Dickens Village. My children really love the tradition of the village and especially love the train that circles it. Maybe one of these days I'll post a full photo of it. In the meantime, my children will be taking turns (or fighting over it) driving the train around the village.
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Friday, December 5, 2008

Snowflakes Anyone?


You know how some days you just need to do something creative? Well, this blog gives me a great excuse to get in the "studio" and get some craft therapy in. I took a couple of challenges from Splitcoaststampers and this is what I came up with. It was so fun to make! And note that since the card is made of snowflakes, I placed it on my skating pond in my village. :) I made the swirls down the sides with my scallop edge punch. Starting with a 3/4" piece of white, I scalloped across the edge. Then I turned it around and scalloped across the other edge. I used tiny dots of Tombow Adhesive to glue it down. Like it? After I punched my corner snowflakes out with my 3/4" square punch, I made 1" squares and sponged them with Baja Breeze ink. This lent a slightly different texture and color to the project. For the center of the card, I chose to use the Emboss Resist technique. The center piece is glossy white cardstock, swiped with an embossing buddy, stamped in VersaMark, and embossed with White Embossing Powder. After the embossing cooled, I lightly sponged it with Baja Breeze ink. The large white snowflake is from my snowflake sizzlets set. After stamping the center snowflake in StazOn White (sorry, I was running out of ink on this one!), I cut it out. After gluing everything down, I applied my half pearls from my Pretties Kit with Mini Glue Dots.
So thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you.
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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Today's Sketch Challenge


I decided it was time to try the yesterday's Color Challenge and today's Sketch Challenge in one card. I really loved the colors chosen - they are an unusual combination. The background and medalion are Kind Thoughts stamped in Versamark and embossed with white EP. The rectangle are two scallop squares punched and glued together. I used a black brad from Vintage Brads in the center of my medalion for contrast and there is silver cord tied around it. After threading the pearls from the Pretties Kit, I tied knots to keep them on and then frayed the cord. This wonderful idea came from my extremely talented friend Joanne (aka sleepyinseattle at splitcoast and on her blog). I appreciated how the instructions for the sketch challenge said to remove the 1/8" from in between the panels so that they don't look stretched out. What a great idea for most designs.
Supplies
Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, VersaMark, White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Scallop Square and Circle Punches, Silver Cord, Pretties Kit, Vintage Brads
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Monday, December 1, 2008

More Simple Green (My house smells goooood!)

So here are attempt number 2 and number 3. On the first card, I first used my embossing buddy across the glossy cardstock (a VERY important step with glossy) then stamped the Upsy Daisy flowers in Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder. Did you know that the Stampin' Up! embossing powder has a better coverage and melts better than the cheap brand at your local craft store? I highly recommend our embossing powder for your projects. I then followed the embossing with daubing Kiwi Kiss ink on the cardstock, with a few patches of Old Olive, followed by the spritzing of Simple Green. After it was dry, I stamped over the image with StazOn Black. Pretty cool effect. Wouldn't this card be great for an over-the-hill party or masculine birthday? I stamped the background grass with my Inspired by Nature set in Artichoke on Mellow Moss. For some fun detail, I popped up the ovals on dimensionals and paper pierced the edges of the Mellow Moss and a design on the ovals. All supplies are Stampin' Up!

Supplies

Cardstock: Glossy, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Basic Black

Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note Bigz Die, Paper Piercer and Foam Mat, Oval Punches, 1/4" Black Grosgrain, Piercing Template, White EP


For this card, I wanted smaller spots on the background, so I switched to a pump hairspray. Yep! No longer for just your hair, hairspray is a substance easily controlled when it spritzes out of the bottle. First I daubed Bashful Blue on the Glossy, then spritzed. After drying it with my heat tool, (I highly recommend those - MUCH better and safer than your iron or toaster!) I stamped my Scandinavian Season tree in Night of Navy. I stamped the Scandinavian Season snowflakes in StazOn White and then added the half pearl on the tree. There is a bit of retired Bashful Blue Designer Series Paper behind the tree piece. I used up a bit of my retired silver cord (I'm trying to get rid of it because the elastic cord is so much easier to use) and a piece of 1/4" Navy Grosgrain. I sponged the edges of the white cardstock in Bashful Blue and then dragged the edges on the Night of Navy pad. It's a very defining effect and as usual, looks way better IRL (in real life). And yes, all supplies are SU!

Supplies:

Pretties Kit, Mini Glue Dots, Glossy, Navy & Whisper White cardstocks

Thanks for coming by to visit. I'd love to see what you come up with, using this technique. Give it a whirl and see what you can dream up.
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Simple Green and Stamping DO Mix!



Today I tried out the Technique Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. After daubing ink or using your brayer to apply ink to your glossy cardstock, you spritz it with Simple Green. Yeah, I know, strange but true. Look at how cool this Speckled Background turned out, though! The upper half is mostly daubed with Lavender Lace, with a bit on Orchid Opulence in some places. The lower half has mostly Mellow Moss with some Always Artichoke in some places. After you spray on the Simple Green, set it aside to dry. I think used my markers on my Inspired by Nature stamp and stamped over it. I really like the effect! Very unusual. As usual, all supplies are from Stampin' Up! So, want to try it? I'd love to see what you make with it! But you definitely want to use glossy cardstock. (Available on my website.)

Supplies:

Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Happy for You

Papers: Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Lavender Lace, Glossy, retired SU designer paper

Accessories: Big Shot, Bigz Die, Mellow Moss Taffeta Ribbon, Retired Pewter Hardware

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