Made by *B*

Here are 2 samples we made at my clubs last week using the set Happy Heart Day from SU!

The elephant is a sweet little 4 1/4″ square card with a Celery base. Look closely at the bg flowers-we stamped those using the baby wipe technique. Take a baby wipe and drop a few drops of reinkers on it and you can use that as your pad. Here I used Celery, Apricot, and Lavender for a springy feel!

Main elephant image is on shimmer white, colored in with markers and a little dazzling diamonds added for some shine.

The next project is an m&m holder made using a cellophane bag. 3 of the mini m&m tubes fit right inside. Fold over and hold closed with a dimensional. The square tag on the front is layered Rose Romance, River Rock, and Vanilla. I stamped the little mouse on teh vanilla as well as on a piece of designer paper. I cut out the heart part from the dsp and glued it on so that the heart has a nice pattern. Highlighted with my white gel pen and added a ribbon tab *rose and river rock grosgrain).

I thought these little bags were fun because you could easily mail them with a little bubble wrap around them-a fun way to deliver a little Valentine’s Day love to someone far away!

This is one of the cards my stampers made at my holiday Stamp a Stack. It uses Crab & Company and the funny phrase “Sandy Claws” that goes with it. Our state saying is “MD is for crabs”

Does that make any sense to you? Me either! But it is what it is-and our crabs ARE the yummiest-so I decided to go with it!

Stamps: Crab & Company

Paper: Real Red (4 1/4″ square card), Dashing, Confetti Ivory

Ink: StazOn, Real Red, Certainly Celery

Accessories: White Gel Pen, Wiggly Eyes, Dazzling Diamonds glitter

Happy Holidays from us in MD!

I love givng note card sets as gifts. We made these little totes at my stamp club in November-each one uses 1 sheet of paper and holds standard (4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″) cards. You can make them using any color/pattern-since we always make 3 projects at club, I had to keep it simple so folks could get through all the projects in the evening.

 To start lay your paper and stamp your design-here I did a very simple one color (Real Red) using the SU! set Snowflake Spot.  Score horizontally across at 1 1/4″ and 7 1/4″.

Then score vertically at 4 1/2″ and 6 1/2″. You will cut up to the other score lines that run horizontally at those points (2 cuts at the top, 2 at the bottom).

I added patterned paper and a strip of red across for the “bracket”. Before I added the brads I used SU! wide grosgrain robbon and created the tote handles.  Once they were on I used folded up the box and used SU! sticky strip for the sides.

VOILA! a cute little tote that can be filled with cards or other goodies!

I am making notecards for the “specials” teachers at Camden’s school (PE, Music, etc.) and will make totes to match each set of cards as a holiday gift.

…a “CUT” above the rest<- so says the inside of this card-but the “cut” is the image of the scissors embossed in silver.

 This was one of the cards we created at my “Back to School” workshop using the chalkboard technique. I created the sentiment for the inside on the computer and left a space for the embossed image to go. To do so I changed the view to 100% on my screen and actually held up the stamp to make sure it would fit before printing them out.

I also thought using this same set you could just stamp the “U” (from All About U) on the front and stamping the ruler from the set (Elementary Essentials) on the inside.

U Rule         (sometimes I crack myself up-nobody else need laugh)

QTFM: If you are like me and like puns and sarcastic sayings, bring a little notebook with you when you go to look at cards. I often jot down little sayings I think are funny and then can go home and recreate it on my own using the goodies I have. This card ended up being a note for Cam’s teacher-who really is pretty amazing!

These little pumpkin “candy catchers” were one of the make and takes at my workshops.  I had seen the wonderful larger ones that many folks had for garlands or table decorations, and decided to shrink them down a bit. They are easy to do and were a big hit!

I started with 1×4″ strips in Groovy Guava, Pumpkin Pie, and the Apple Cider designer paper available in the Holiday mini catalog. You can make them any size-just all the strips need to be the same. I used 8 strips to make them and they fit a few Hershey Kisses or mini Reeses cups inside-one of my customers was even able to pop in some mini Play-doh containers for her daughter’s preschool class.

And here are my favorite pumpkins-Camden and Phoebe. We went to a farm this weekend and milked a cow, rode a tractor, cheered at pig races, and pet llamas, goats, pigs, sheep, and baby ducks and geese. A good time was had by all. The pumpkins were pretty small (we will need to get nice big ones for carving) but Phoebe had a good time just trying tp pick them all up. Camden tried to give her advice on what to look for, but she really was just interested in crawling around.

New baby trick:

dancing to the theme song to America’s Next Top Model (quite funny).  She was with me when I was watching a re-run and started shaking her head back and forth when they were singing the “Na-Na-Na-Na-Nana…” theme song. Now I sing the “nanana” part and she dances and shakes-too cute!

When I hold my stamp club nights I always try to have a theme.

This week’s theme was “FUN of July” (yeah yeah lame I know-but the projects were fun!).

Card 1 was a “Flip-Flop” card since you flip and flop it open. It is actually a variation of a card that most people call a “Joy fold” card because of the fan-tabulous Joy Kennedy who 1st started using it.

1-can you take how wonderful and easy to use the Baroque Motifs set is?

2-And do you LOVE Purely Pomegranate like me?

3-and don’t the new rhinestone brads just add the *perfect* amount of pizazz to a card?

4-PUNCHES ARE WONDERFUL. Here I used the Scallop punch, 1″ circle, 1 3/8″ circle, and the new Snow Blossom punch. I love the way it changed the look of the rosette from Baroque Motifs!

The 2nd card is NOT done justice by the photo. I tried in a bunch of different lights and settings and it does not sparkle like it does in real life.

The set “Fabulous Flowers” is so fun and easy to use. LOVE all teh samples I have seen with it!

Click below to see some other fun ideas:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?si=&limit=&thumbsonly=0&perpage=48&cat=10588&ppuser=&thumbcheck=0&page=1&sortby=&sorttime=&way=&cat=10588

Aren’t they gorgepus? This set jumped out at me instantly in the new Fall/Winter collection.

In my sample the big bloom was dabbed with Crystal Effects, and the microbeads were poured on. I then sprinkled on Dazzling Diamonds Glitter-my absolute favorite glitter!! In real life the card is so sparkly and with the bead and glitter looks like fireworks since it almost glows against the red background.

The last project Iwill photograph later on-I am getting ready to take 3 kiddos to Tae Kwon Do-woohoo!

Have a great day!

QTFM: Use glad containers to store your beads, glitter, and embossing powder. That way you can sprinkle right over the container and not have to filter it back and forth after a project.

This is another one from my Sarcastic Stamp a Stack.

SUPER easy to do. The background is made using the SU Hot to Dot wheel in Turquoise, and then a few colored in with markers in Apricot and Celery. I love the POP it gave to the background.

The inside reads:

Congratulations on your BIG DAY!

 (in dog years you’d be dead by now)

heehee my best friend gave it to her husband on his 40th b-day. The best part is they own a dog kennel and he does volunteer search and rescue work. I love knowing cards we make at Stamp a Stacks and classes get well used!

QTFM: When you are wheeling a background, sometimes it looks a little plain since it is all one color. Use markers or daubers to highlight little areas (like the dots above). Having those little accents can really pull a color combo together.

I saw a cute card layout idea on Dawn’s blog:

http://dawnsstampingthoughts.typepad.com/dawns_stamping_thoughts/2007/05/cruise_card_tut.html

I wanted to try it but on a smaller scale and used the Zoofari set that will be available in a few short weeks!! (the left is the inside-the right side is the front)

I started with a card base that was 4 x 12″- or 1/3 of a piece of 12×12 paper.

I scored at 3 1/2″, 6″, 8 1/2″ so that I had 4 sections.

The middle two sections got folded inwards (like it was accordion folded).

Those are the 2 pieces that got punched through using the keytag punch.

 I laid the card back flat again and stamped the swirl from Baroque Motifs along the top in Craft Celery, and the diamond from the same set along the bottom for grass.

I used StazOn black for the animals and colored them in with Watercolor Crayons. The middle two parts are secured in the back using redline tape.

I like that it is a little surprise on the inside. Enjoy!!!

I held a “Superbly Sarcastic” Stamp a Stack at the beginning of the month. Folks came and made 10 cards-2 each of 5 designs. They all had a little Sarcastic *zing* to them. I had planned the SAS a while back, and coincidentally they used retiring sets.  The carsd are simple so that they could be easily recreated-not a lot of fuss or fanfair about them at all.

I am sure to do another in the Fall, so know I need to revamp my Sarcastic sayings and pick new sets to match.

 the inside reads:

“Just lay down and the feeling will pass.”

I used the “Bubble Queen” set for this one-the main image was embossed in Versamark with Black embossing powder and then colored in using Watercolor Crayons and Aquapainters. 

 What’s retiring?

Bubble Queen and the Cool Caribbean cardstock-boohoo!

The Banded Brayer technique that I presented at Regionals can also be done with regular sized pads. In the following example I started with Cool Caribbean on the top third of the brayer. In the center (starting next to the CC) I used Tempting Turquoise, and at the end, I used Taken With Teal.

With both the Caribbean and the Teal only about 1/2 of the ink pad was used to ink up the brayer-the other half hung over the end of the brayer.

The brayer was then used to ink up the Au Chocolat paper so it was a graduated tone from Caribbean blue down to Teal.  The horizontal slot punch was punched through the main image, and Caribbean and Chocolate Chip paper were woven through like faux ribbon. 

I love using the brayer over this paper-really opens up the possibilities!