Just Stamp It!

Another CASE

2012-01-26T17:41:00.001-05:00

By now I think we are all painfully aware that I don’t have any original ideas of my own anymore, and when I saw this card on the I’m in Haven blog I just had to give it a try. There are more of her wonderful creations I will be ~~CASEing~~ using for inspiration in the future, I love her stuff! Have a look around and I bet you will be inspired, too.

My first try failed miserably and it is now in the round file. I thought (hahaha) that I could draw straight lines without the aid of a straightedge. Um, no. So I got out my ruler and the second one turned out pretty fair, even if the lines are still a little crooked -or maybe it’s the angle of the photograph - yeah, that’s it, bad angle. Seriously.

Fewer lines, different size flowers, and less bling, but I liked it alright. Last night while I was trying to get to sleep…ok, tossing and turning…I had a brilliant idea. I have a Penny Black background stamp that I haven’t used yet and it has lots of lines and dots. No more ruler! That’s right up my alley - easy. I happened to remember this brilliant thought this afternoon so I got busy. I like this one very much better. For once, I was able to successfully bring to life the concept in my head, rather than beating my head against the proverbial wall for hours on end.

I stamped it on textured card stock so I had to fill in most of the dots with a black marker but all in all it was much easier. More lines, more bling, and different placement of the flowers. The black dots in the center of the flowers are from a sheet of Halloween rain dot-type stickers from the big M that I’ve had for quite some time. I ran the colored pieces through the Swiss Dot Cuttlebug folder for a little texture, added some gems… done! The front is popped up on some foam tape for a little dimension. No sentiment, which means I can use it for almost any occasion.

I was also inspired by this post on Leslie’s blog a few days ago but I am sad to say that the results were not as good. I tried several times, swore at all of my corner rounders - why can’t they REALLY round the corner instead of leaving little sharp bits on the edges??? - cut up more than a couple of pieces of paper, tossed one version and finally decided to keep this one:

I gotta tell you, I am not crazy about it. See those corners? Click on the image to see it larger, if you dare. Ugh! I even trimmed and sanded them, which should not be necessary. It didn’t help much. At least the papers go together well enough. But I still don’t like it. I was hoping for a relatively quick and easy card. Ha! This one took longer than the other two put together.

If anyone has a suggestion for getting rounder (more round?) corners, I’m all ears. I tried the Zutter, EK Success (both sizes) and Fiskars corner punches, and they all did the same thing. Now, I could understand if my paper was not perfectly square but I punched the squares with a square punch. No, I did not check for square but I hope the punch would be more accurate than cutting them on a paper trimmer (which I also tried). Manufacturers….are you listening? Please, please, please….make a good corner rounding punch. You will sell a million of them if they work better than these do. Is that too much to ask? I think not.

A little reorganization

2012-01-24T17:24:00.000-05:00

Not a lot, just a wee bit. You see, I have lots of Memory Box, My Favorite Things and some Taylored Expressions dies. I wasn’t happy with the way I had them stored, in little plastic zippered baggies with the name written on the baggie with a Sharpie. I totally forgot to photograph that before I changed it all, but I think you get the picture. It wasn’t very inspiring at all. This way I can flip through and actually SEE what I have. What a concept! I’m sure I will use them more now that I can see them.

Leslie had a reorganizational post on her blog recently and then I saw Dixie’s lovely stamping space and I decided enough is enough, there has to be a better way. Here is what I came up with. It looks a little messy but it is so much better than the previous storage, it was just hard to get a good photo.

I cut some card stock to 2.5 x 4.25, and some a little larger for the bigger dies, die cut each one,adhered them to the front, and labeled them.

On the back is a magnet to hold the dies, since they are, of course, metal. I had one smallish sheet left but I saved all of those magnets from the front of the phone books, newspapers, wherever I could find them, and used those as well. I adhered them to the card stock with my ATG - I love that thing!

I was able to cut one set of dies apart with my trusty Tim Holtz scissors, too. The one on the left is from My Favorite Things and the flowers were all one die. But I didn’t want them to stay that way, and I had seen on a couple of other blogs that people had cut apart some Papertrey dies, so I gave it a shot. It’s not easy at all and it was a little scary - what if I ruined the die?? But I persevered and Voila!, separated flowers. The leaves are just too small to cut apart. I need to find a metal file for the sharp edges but in the meantime I will just be careful.

Yep, there’s my little helper again. The black fuzzy thing in the upper right corner…little kitty toes.

He’s checking the placement of the lighting, I think. He’s such a sweetie, but he is everywhere!

I hope this is some info you can use, and thanks for coming by!

I never thought I would say this…

2012-01-24T14:05:00.001-05:00

but I love glitter. Well, Glitter Ritz glitter, at least. Ever since I saw the sample at Stamper’s Alley I can’t stop glittering things, mostly the Maribelle Butterfly die cut from Memory Box. It is a huge die cut that takes up almost the whole card front, but with some glitter and a little Copic marker coloring….I am in love.

See what I mean? Just look at all that sparkle! How could I resist?

This is the one that started it all. I was going to save it as a sample of the Copic colors but decided to put it on a card instead. I used YR18, YR15, YR38 and Y17, the Memory Box Ringed Buckle die and a stamp by Outlines from the Posy Greeting Centers set.

So I thought, why not try some blues and greens? I colored this one with Tombow markers 195, 133, 173, 452, 493, and 451, and added a few gems and pearls here and there.

More blue and green with Copics again - B05 and G05, I think - I forgot to write them down. Sizzix embossing folder, no bling.

Copics BG01 and YG01 for this one, and a little blinginess. I’m still working on randomly placing the gems and pearls. I’ve seen it on a lot of cards lately and I love the look, but it’s not as easy to achieve as one might think. I think I like this look best, it’s a little more subtle.

I did have a little help with these photos. My trusty assistant, Sheldon, was giving me photo tips. He’s such a helpful kitty.

Thanks for stopping by and I have an organizational post for tomorrow. Or maybe today. You never know.

Glitter and Copics and Stickers, oh my!

2012-01-17T20:19:00.001-05:00

When I was at Stamper’s Alley last week I saw a gorgeous little cupcake image, all glittered up and colored with Copics. I couldn’t figure out how it was done, so I asked Brenda and she spilled the beans. Stamper’s Alley will soon be having a class on these wonderful new products and if you are in the area you really should stop in a sign up.

The glitter is a micro fine glitter named Glitter Ritz. It is super sparkly and once it is applied correctly it doesn’t come off all over everything like most glitters. I found some jars of this wonderful stuff at Claire’s in St. Augustine when I was there a few months ago, and I am so glad that Brenda will be carrying it at Stamper’s Alley! I also bought the gold stickers at Claire’s and the black sticker is from my sticker stash, it’s by Magenta.

Check out this glittery goodness:

These two are the same image, I just tried to get a better shot of the glitter. I colored this one with Tombow markers since the sticker is gold and I am not careful enough to keep the Copic markers away from the sticker.

This one was colored with Copic markers! OVER the glitter! I know!!

Again, colored with Copic markers but this is a die cut (Memory Box) instead of a sticker.

I bet you wanna know how I did it, don’t you? Should I tell?? Oh, alright, but you have to promise to keep it between us. Promise?

First I applied Scor Tape to a piece of white card stock, then either punched out a circle or trimmed close to the die cut by tracing around the die cut image. I removed the protective liner from the Scor Tape and applied the sticker or die cut, making sure that they were stuck down really well. Then I applied the glittery goodness and rubbed/burnished it in with my finger until no more glitter came off. It feels like velvet, it’s very soft to the touch once it is burnished down. And mucho sparkly!

I got out my markers and got to coloring! You need to be careful with the Copic markers and not to linger too long in one spot or the alcohol in the marker will cause the adhesive under the glitter to dissolve and the glitter will fall off. The colors blend so well that a lot of blending is not really necessary. The pink flower at the top was colored with Tombow markers and they take a few minutes to dry but they blend really well, too. Maybe my Tombow markers won’t be so lonely now. Once I was through coloring the butterfly I just carefully trimmed around it.

I am not sure I will put these on cards because I want to keep them as samples for the colors. I did remember to write the colors on the back, too.

Who knew you could color over glitter?? I didn’t try it with any of the others glitters in my stash but I’m pretty sure it needs to be the micro fine glitter. I did try some of the other glitters over Scor Tape and burnish them down really well, and it looks much better but some of it still comes off. The Glitter Ritz glitter is awesome!

I understand there are other techniques and they will be taught in the class, so if you are close by you really should stop in and sign up soon. There are 2 classes, Feb. 4, one on the morning and another in the afternoon, both with the same cards and technique. Two classes were scheduled to be sure that there would be enough spots, but I know they will fill up quickly.

Barb is having a giveaway!

2012-01-15T20:34:00.000-05:00

She is a very talented and creative crafter and card maker, and she is having a wonderful giveaway. She asked us to spread the word, and although it doesn’t improve my odds of winning, I told her I would be glad to.

Her blog is called Enjoying Life and you can find the giveaway by clicking on the photo below:

While you are there please take some time and have a look around. Her projects are fabulous and I’m sure you will find much inspiration there.

Somebody is over the hill!

2012-01-15T18:29:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know I am, but now my good friend Brenda Mott is, too! It’s getting crowded here on the other side of that hill. The girls got together today at O’Charley’s to celebrate her birthday, which was actually December 28. Because of the holidays this was the first chance we have had to get all of us together, and we had a wonderful time.

She is a crazy cat lady like me (well, she only has 2 cats, but that’s a good start), so I made a special gift box for the occasion. I cranked up the Silhouette and out came this. I call him Murray:

I saw the design online somewhere and was able to duplicate it and cut it out using the marvelous and magical Silhouette. The “stripes” on the kitty are cut by hand, I added a little pink heart for his nose and some white crochet thread for whiskers. Murray even comes complete with his own little kitten, Tabitha.

The kitten is made from several punches, with a little hand trimming here and there. He was the bearer of the gift - a pair of pink and black earrings, also handmade by moi. Hey, when you’re broke you gotta get a little crafty and creative.

Here is a shot of the box I made to go in between to hold the gift. I made it from plain black paper and adhered it all together with some Scor-Tape.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your team wins this weekend. I don’t follow football but I do look forward to the Super Bowl commercials every year. I still love the FedEx commercial from several years ago - the one with the cavemen. Remember that one?

A long forgotten project

2012-01-11T17:15:00.001-05:00

Several years ago I begged for a Pro-Click binding machine, and I got it! I had big plans for it - making handmade journals to sell at craft fairs, to give as gifts, etc. I did a little bit with it, a few small books, I think, and then it was forgotten as soon as the Bind It All came along. The BIA was cool for a while, too, but those O-Wires were annoying to work with so I sold it at the Stamper’s Alley Used Stamp Sale last year.

Last week I was looking through a box of dollar journals from the Big M and found a whole stack of colored notebook paper (and don’t ask me where I got that!) that I had trimmed and punched with the Pro-Click to make a handmade journal. I decided to finish that project - better late than never - and this is the result. I am quite pleased with it, if I do say so myself.

The covers are chipboard, covered with patterned paper from Basic Grey’s Indian Summer collection. I added a scalloped border, some pearls and gems, and a felt flower with a button. The flower was made using PTI dies and the doily behind it is an MFT die. The ribbon down the side is some seam binding I bought at the CK Convention last year and finally was able to talk myself into cutting. I tied a ribbon to the top of the spiral coil for a bookmark and I was done. I did add a pocket inside the front cover but forgot to take a photo of that. I put the covers and pocket on with my ATG tape gun. Love that thing!

I prefer the spiral bindings to the wire ones and although I was able to stretch these to fit the BIA holes, I still prefer the round holes to the square ones. Odd, I know, but what are you gonna do? I have thought about getting the Cinch but I don’t really do enough binding to justify the cost so I will stick with this one for the time being.

It’s not as versatile as the other binding methods since you cannot choose which holes to punch or just punch a few at a time, but that’s ok.

I hope you all are doing well, and thanks for stopping by.

A New Baby

2012-01-03T15:33:00.001-05:00

One of the fur covered, four legged variety. This little adorable ball of fur wandered up, starving and cold, on to our back porch on New Year’s Eve and I was able to lure him close enough to me to snatch him up and bring him in. I don’t know where he came from but he lives with us now.

He/she (we don’t know yet) is solid back and absolutely adorable but still a little skittish, which is to be expected. We keep him in the guest bathroom at night and have begun letting him have the run of the living and dining room during the day, but he spends a lot of time sleeping under the couch.

The other 3 full grown kitties are mostly terrified of this tiny little kitten, especially Michael. We thought sure Michael would be happy to have someone to play with, since the other two cats think he’s a nuisance to be either ignored or smacked on the head. I think he was a little intimidated when the tiny cat hissed at him and didn’t back down. This little guy is a brave (or foolish) baby. I don’t know how long he was outside alone and fending for himself but he’s not afraid of big kitties at all. My best guess at his age is maybe 10 weeks or so.

He’s been out to play a little and loves his new toys. We won’t mention that they are hand-me-downs….and he wouldn’t care anyway. He’s just glad to have a warm place to sleep, people to love and pet him, and plenty of food to eat. Which, btw, he scarfs down like it’s his last meal every time.

A little play time...

All tuckered out and having a nap on mama’s feet…

Apparently this is what the other cats see when they look at him…

That would scare me, too!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T17:00:00.000-05:00

I have to say that I will be glad to usher this year out and be done with it. It has been one of the worst years for our family and my hope is that things will begin to change for the better. They already have in several ways and I am grateful for that. My wish is that 2012 bring health, happiness, peace, and prosperity to each and every one of us.

Making New Years resolutions is not something I usually do, since I am often too good at setting myself up for failure - lose 30 lbs., get more exercise, eat healthier, read more books, spend less time in front of the computer…..like any of that ever happens. But I have decided that I need to spend more time being creative and journaling on a regular basis, maybe even trying a little art journaling. I am also committed to commenting on more blog posts this year. I am a lurker more than a commenter and I have seen so many wonderful cards and projects but left very few compliments. That’s not fair. It is a bit of work to create blog posts, not to mention the creations which are posted, and at the very least they deserve the few moments it takes to leave an encouraging comment. I am also going to cut down my blog reading list so that I don’t spend all my time blurfing and none of it creating. I have added a few journaling and inspirational blogs to my list. I found some good posts on the New Year and wanted to share a few of the links here, for those of you who might be interested.

Amy Oscar - The Edge of the Year

17 Ways to Be Happier in 2012

How to Craft a Vision You Won’t Give Up On

30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself

This is one of my favorite blogs - The Warm Milk Journal

My hope for this brand new year is that I can become more hopeful and optimistic, looking for the good in things rather than the not-so-good. I would like to worry less and be happy more. Be grateful for what I have, which is an awful lot, and spend less time wanting more. Spend time with family and friends, both near and far, because that’s what’s most important in life.

I would love to hear your resolutions and hopes for 2012, if you’d like to share them with me. Thank you all for stopping by my blog. There may be some changes this year, I am not sure what kind just yet, so stay tuned.

Love this video!

2011-12-21T11:15:00.000-05:00

This is too cute - why can't we all just have fun! You're never too old to do goofy stuff.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Get out and do something unexpected and fun. Go! Enjoy yourself - you only live once!

Poinsettias and trees

2011-12-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

Not a lot of sparkle or bling on these last cards, just lots of red and green.

I love this new Layered Poinsettia die from Spellbinders. It is a little difficult to get out of the die after it’s cut and embossed - even if it’s not embossed - but then most of their dies are that way. Why? Does anyone know? Does anyone care? Probably not. Anyway…I sponged the petals with some Fired Brick Distress ink before I pried them loose and I really like the look. The patterned paper is Basic Grey from last year and I only have a few sheets left so I use it sparingly. Why do we feel the need to hoard paper? You do it, too, I know you do. It’s not going to multiply in the drawers, so at some point we will use the last piece. But not today. No siree.

More Tsukineko Delicata gold ink on this card. The edge was punched with a Martha border punch and the layer popped up on foam tape. The wispy ferns are Martha and McGill punches.

I tried to capture the shimmery goodness of this ink and this is the best I could do. If your LSS has some you really should buy it, you will fall in love with it. We need to start a petition to Tsukineko for a silver version. Have you seen that commercial….Can I have a puppy, can I have a puppy, can I have a puppy???? Be persistent. Wear them down, I say.

A closer view of the poinsettia - so much texture, I love it! That’s a big gold pearl in the center of the flower, from one of the $1 packages of bling at AC Moore.

Another CASE of a Tami Hartley card from last year here. I just cut a triangle from some Bazzill paper, stamped a damask design (yep, Hero Arts again) on it, and sponged a little Peeled Pain Distress ink around the edges. Too easy. The hardest part was getting the triangle the right shape. It’s not as easy as I thought it would be. Once I got it right, I saved a template so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time I need another one. I do have a good idea now and again.

This is the last of them, along with my wish for your holidays…..filled with happiness!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope the New Year bring us all peace, happiness, and love.

Party on, people.

That’s All, Folks!

2011-12-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

This is the last of the Christmas cards. My room is all clean and straightened up again, Christmas stamps put away till next year, and the cards are in the mail. Whew!

Isn’t he adorable? And so easy to make, too. I found him over on Cindy Lawrence’s blog, complete with instructions, and just had to make a couple of them. I used suede paper rather than card stock, to give his beard, ‘stache, and hat a fuzzy feel, but other than that I followed her instructions. I also made a template for it so I can make it again next year.

This one was inspired by Sharon Harnist. Don’t you just love her work? I didn’t have the poinsettia stamp that she used, so I used an older swirly Hero Arts stamp instead. The stamps are from Gina K Designs and I colored them with Copics (R29 and YG95), and added 3 gems to the center of the ornament. The border was punched using a Martha border punch and I threaded a little green ribbon through it, made a bow on the Bow Easy and attached it with a glue dot. Am I the only one that wished they would make the “legs” on the Bow Easy a little longer, to make it easier to use with wider ribbon?? How hard can that be? I know they have a larger one but it makes larger bows. I want to make the small-ish bows but just use a little wider ribbon sometimes. I know, I’m the difficult one.

Last, but not least, a CAS design. I could have made it a one layer card, but it just didn’t seem substantial enough so I layered it up on some red card stock and then on to the card. The trees are by Penny Black (Snow Dust) and I stamped them using that gorgeous Tsukineko Delicata ink. The shine doesn’t show up here, but it sure is beautiful in person. The sentiment is from PTI, embossed with clear powder for a little more shine.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Winter Solstice…..keep calm and party on. Time to get started on Valentine cards now?

Put a little bling in your Christmas

2011-12-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

I do love sparkly things and Christmas cards are the perfect showcase for them, don’t you think? I can’t resist adding a little extra bling and I break out the heat tool for embossing a little more often this time of year, too. It helps keep me warm while I’m crafting on these cold winter nights.

This one is so sparkly, I wish it showed up better in photographs. I love this embossing powder! It’s Stardust from Stampendous and it really shines. The die is from Memory Box, it’s called Country Landscape, and I added a little Stardust Stickles to the edge, trees and house roofs for snow. Is the plural of roof rooves? Hooves is the plural of hoof, right? I give up. Anyway, there’s a pretty stardust-y theme going on with this card! Do you think it needs something? A sentiment across the bottom? I’m no good with white space. I feel the need to fill it up with something. Maybe I better get these mailed quick, before I try to add something.

I found the inspiration for this card on Jenny’s blog, Crafting the in Country. Check this card out, using the same Memory Box die. Gorgeous!! Why didn’t I think of that??

I was trying to get a good angle to capture the sparkly goodness and got lucky with this shot.

More bling and embossing. Hero Arts tree, embossed with gold detail powder and encrusted with jewels. Ok, so they are actually craft store rhinestones. In my world they are jewels. Torn edges adorned with Stardust Stickles for the snow banks and the sentiment is………….wait for it…….Hero Arts! Again! So is the music background, stamped with Memories White ink, as well as the starry background, stamped with Memento Desert sand. I sponged a little ink around the edges, too. SeaShell Sandal, I think. I might have found the inspiration piece on the Hero Arts Flickr group or on Pinterest, I really don’t remember.

A little close up of the precious gems.

Same thing, different stamp. I’m not even going to tell you who makes it, I think you already know.

Are you tired of Christmas cards yet? I hope not, because I have a few more to show you tomorrow. See you then. Shine on, people.

On the second day of Christmas…

2011-12-16T11:00:00.000-05:00

more Christmas cards!

I think I first saw this one on Pinterest and went to Lisa’s blog, I’m in Haven, and found many more treasures. It uses the negative space left by the Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia die and I added holly leaves and some gems. Which, btw, were a PITA to attach to the centers of the flowers. The top layer of the card is popped up on foam tape and the gems in the flower centers didn’t have aggressive enough adhesive on them, so they didn’t stick down very well. I tried a dot of glue and that didn’t work. I ended up using mini Glue Dots on every one, and several of them got away from me before I could get them stuck. Wily little creatures. In the end I prevailed and this is the result. I only made one of these so far and may make a couple more, but I may have to come up with a different center for the flowers.

Another one from I’m in Haven. You really should pop over to her blog and have a look around. There is lots of inspiration there, she is so talented! The branch, leaves and berries are made with a Memory Box die, Twigs and Berries, and the sentiment is, of course, Hero Arts. Can you tell I love their stamps?? I added some veins to the leaves with an embossing stylus for a little texture.

That’s it for today. I better get busy with address labels and stamps. See you tomorrow with a few more cards. I hope you are having a wonderful day!

At last!

2011-12-15T22:26:00.001-05:00

Christmas cards!! Done. Now all I have to do is stamp the backs, insert some white card stock on the dark ones, sign them, address and stamp them, and get them to the PO. Whew. I’m tired already.

I cranked up the Silhouette for this one. The trees and “merry” are both cut from designs for the Silhouette. The trees were downloaded from the online Silhouette store and I created “merry” by typing a font and welding the letters together. The background is a Hero Arts stamp, stamped with the awesome Tsukineko Delicata gold ink. No embossing necessary and it actually dries pretty quickly. I love that stuff and I hope they are making a silver version. So far all they have is gold. The “& bright” is embossed in gold and it is a Hero Arts stamp from one of the smaller Sparkle Clear sets from last year, I think. I cut it in half and didn’t use the “Merry” part of it.

Let me just say now that Pinterest is a wonderful place for inspiration and I spend a LOT of time there. That’s where I got the inspiration for this card. I used the PTI zig zag die and Taylored Expressions Trim the Tree die, along with a Hero Arts sentiment. A few gems, a little red Stickles on the tree, tie some twine on the tree trunk and there you go. Christmas card. Done.

I also made some in blue, just because I could. I think I used burgundy Stickles on this tree. I do love that little die set. I will be making more cards with it before I am through this year.

That’s all I have for today, but I will be posting more cards tomorrow and next week, so stay tuned!

No Christmas cards yet...

2011-12-14T00:51:00.002-05:00

But can I interest you in a birthday card? The mess on my work table is still there, lots of pieces and parts waiting to be transformed into cards but I had to stop working on Christmas to make a birthday card. One which will arrive late, I'm afraid. I knew the birthday was coming up, it's in my calendar on my computer and it reminds me, but because procrastination is one of my specialties I didn't get around to making it until today (her birthday is tomorrow). I wish I was one of those people who could whip up a card in 10 minutes or less, instead of the 2+ hours it usually takes me. But I'm not. I should have started earlier. By the time I was finished the light was gone and so was the mail carrier. I took the photo anyway but the card won't get in the mail until tomorrow, so it will be late. Boo.

Submitted for your approval...

I used a brand new Just Rite set named Topsy Turvy Cakes. I had to have this one. I heard it calling to me. It kept saying, "Take me home. Ink me up. Make pretty things with me."...over and over and over again. Who could resist that, I ask you. Don't look at me like that, I know stamps have spoken to you before. Don't even try to deny it.

The index is printed in pretty colors, and I am a sucker for pretty colors. I tried several times to color it exactly like the cover photo, but I suspect they used a computer graphics program to color it. I'm sure there are Copic masters who could duplicate it exactly, but I am not one of them. I am, however, quite happy with the way it turned out. I used several different kinds of markers, see the list below. I love my Copics but they really need to work on the purples and pinks. I used Letraset for the purple and a Tria marker for the pink. You can't see it, but I added a little glitter pen to the yellow dots. The photo is a little off color-wise, it's much prettier in person. I can't figure out why my fancy schmancy camera has so much trouble with purple and red/pink. I did do a little color correction but still didn't get it exactly right.

Maybe tomorrow I can jump back on the Christmas card bandwagon with both feet and get them done so I can mail them before Christmas! Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

Stamps: Topsy Turvy Cakes by JustRite, sentiment is from an unknown small clear set, might be Inkadinkado
Markers: Copic - B04, Y38, Y35; Letraset Orchid and Leaf Green; Tria R8; Copic Spica Sky Blue; Martha Stewart Glitter Pen in gold
Spellbinders Lacy Circles, Ribbon Banners, and Labels 18
Martha Stewart border punch - Scallop Dot
Sizzix Textured Impressions folder
Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass

Another mess

2011-12-11T21:01:00.000-05:00

I had a pretty template up here but apparently parts of it disappeared so I'll just go with something plain for now. At least it's Christmasy colors.

I do have some Christmas cards done but I also have another mess on my desk.

It doesn't look so bad when I photograph it, but it really is a mess. I have been using my Silhouette to cot out some things and I have cheated a little and printed out a few things, now all I have to do is figure out what I want to do with them.

I hope to have some actual cards to post soon. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

More Christmas Cards

2011-11-17T11:50:00.000-05:00

Here are the last 3 samples I made for Stamper's Alley using the new Hero Arts Christmas stamps.

The ornaments are embossed in white, trimmed out (I know - again with the scissors!) and sponged with Peeled Paint and Barn Door Distress Inks. The flower was white and I colored it with my R29 Copic marker, added a button in the center and a twine bow behind it, a la Jennifer McGuire. Don't you just love her creations? Anyway, The scalloped border is done with a Fiskars border punch and I added a couple of gems to the snowflakes on the ornaments. A little silver cord and the red ornament is popped up on foam tape...one more card done!

This card is a copy of one I found through Pinterest at Poppy Paperie's blog. I kept the basic design but changed everything else since I didn't have the die, the stamps, or the ribbon she used on her card. The die I used is from Spellbinders, it's the Reverse Wonky Rectangle. The border around the sentiment is a small Hero Arts snowflake stamp stamped halfway onto the circle and I sponged a little Shabby Shutters on it, too. The snowflakes on the card, although they are difficult to see, are stamped with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. The card itself is made from Hero Arts Grenadine Layering papers. Color on the outside, white on the inside so there's no need to put another piece on the inside. Love that!

This card is my favorite of them all and it is a shameless, flat out copy of this card on Vicki's Clips-n-Cuts blog. Do go visit her blog and have a look around, she has the best tutorials and great ideas! The only thing I changed was the background stamp, because I don't have the one she used. Again, I trimmed out the ornaments - I am becoming a little better with scissors! I have become quite fond of the Distress Ink sponging as well, I love the effect.

Thanks again for stopping by and I hope you are having a wonderful day!

A Few Christmas Cards

2011-11-13T11:33:00.001-05:00

I was asked to create some samples for Stamper's Alley recently, using some new Hero Arts stamp sets. I do love Hero Arts, they are one of my favorite stamp companies.

So, here's what I came up with (all stamps are Hero Arts):

The snow banks are sponged with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and I added some Stardust Stickles to make the snow sparkle a little. The tree is cut out and popped up on some foam tape. The loopy thing around the sentiment is a Memory Box die that I modified a bit. It has pointy things on opposite sides of the loops, so I trimmed off the points and used 2 die cuts layered together. I also added a little Stardust Stickles to that...no such thing as too much sparkle on Christmas cards!

The image is embossed in white on watercolor paper and the panel is colored using Twinkling H2Os. I added a few gems here and there for a little sparkle. I also used ScorTape to attach the watercolor panel because it curls a little when it dries, but the ScorTape holds it really well. Just place the tape close to the edges.

I actually cut out the ornaments myself! I just took my time, held my breath, and used my Cutterbee scissors. I wouldn't want to do 50 of these but onesies and twosies are not too bad. The ornaments are stamped with Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress ink and sponged with Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass, and Broken China. The snowflakes in the background are stamped with Tumbled Glass and the sentiment with Peeled Paint. A little bit of silver cording, a bow attached with Glossy Accents, and a few gems for sparkle and there you have it!

Thanks for stopping by and I will have some more Christmas cards for you soon.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-28T01:36:00.001-04:00

At last, Halloween cards….done! But before I get to those, I have a question for you all. Do you ever get all of the stamps, embellishments, punches, paper, etc. out and in plain sight, then put off doing anything with all of it because you think you have plenty of time? Until you realize that the occasion for which you are making these cards is only days away? Please tell me I am not the only one. A few weeks ago I got all of my Halloween stamps, punches, etc. put out on my work table (aka the Hot Mess from the last post) and couldn’t come up with a good idea. I wasn’t worried - I had weeks to formulate the perfect design. Weeks! Nearly forever!

Then procrastination set in. I spent hours surfing the blogs and galleries, searching for inspiration. I did find a couple of things I liked, pinned them to Pinterest and kept on looking. I even made a few cards I was pretty happy with, but kept on surfing. Then….Look a squirrel! I took my eyes off the prize and got sidetracked with another project, which hasn’t gone any further for lack of the perfect stamp. The stamp with which the project was made is only available online and, luckily for me, is out of stock. But that didn’t stop me from spending precious time searching through my collection and trying to make something else work. But not to worry, I still had plenty of time to get Halloween cards finished. At least that’s what I thought….and then I looked at the calendar. Uh oh. How did it get to be the 27th already?? It was just October 12 the other day! Damn squirrels.

So, that’s my justification as to why my cards are a little less spectacular than I had originally planned. But I’m happy with the way they turned out. Have a look and see what you think…

The house was cut with the Silhouette, the cloud, moon, bat, and ghost are punches. I put some gold vellum behind the windows, sponged a bit of Memento London Fog on the cloud and popped the house up on foam tape. The inside of the card is below. Since I feel like I got a little lazy with the outsides I decided to trick out the insides a little more than usual. The verse (it’s on the inside of all of them) is from Lizzie Anne Designs.

Spellbinders die - no, actually it is a free Silhouette design I found online and I created the oval on the Silhouette to match the inside of the cut out. Hero Arts stamp, Memory Box and some unknown patterned paper.

Inside. The scrolly things at the top and bottom are another Spellbinder lookalike Silhouette design, cut in half. I have the actual die, but used these instead - one of the Fancy Tags, either Fancy Tags Two or Three.

Black suede paper punched with Martha Stewart punches, another Silhouette design, Just Rite sentiment, Basic Grey paper from an older 6 x 6 paper pad.

Just Rite image, colored with Copics. Yep, more Silhouette stuff.

This one is mostly patterned paper. I added the scaredy cat (Silhouette), the bat and the bit at the bottom - the pretty clouds, moon, etc. are all printed on the paper. I have no idea from whence it came or who makes it.

The witch is a dollar stamp from the big M from several years ago, layered onto an actual Spellbinders label die. Same punches and paper as the other card above.

Nothing new and different here, but I do like this one a lot.

Inside. The Silhouette shape cut in half again. Same sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my ramblings….it is late and I should know better than to try to write anything of value at this time of night, but I wanted to get this posted before Halloween was over!

Happy Haunting everyone!

A Hot Mess

2011-10-20T20:08:00.001-04:00

Autumn seems to have arrived here in NC, at least temperature-wise. The leaves are slowly changing and since we had a fairly dry summer there may not be as much brilliant color this year. I do hope I’m wrong about that, the colorful trees are one of my favorite things about Autumn and one of the reasons we chose this area. This is what the trees in the backyard look like this afternoon. It was cloudy, windy, and quite cool out today.

It’s pitiful. There’s one reddish leaf and way too much green.

See that sad little red leaf?

Enough leaf looking… on to the hot mess that is my craft room. I realized yesterday that Halloween was quickly approaching and I had yet to make the first card. So, I cranked up my Silhouette and got to work. I cut out some haunted houses, bats, scaredy cats, trees, and lots of frames and labels. And here they lie.

Stamps everywhere… and a sewing machine in the midst of it all. Looking at the photos it doesn’t look all that messy but, trust me, it is. I tossed a bunch of the cut out pieces into that plastic bin behind the stamps in an attempt to straighten up a bit. It didn’t help much.

This happens every year around the holidays because I keep my holiday stamps separate from the rest of my stamps and have to drag them out en masse in order to get holiday cards created. Hence they are spread all over creation, and that makes a slightly OCD person such as myself a little nuts.

I have to say that I am loving the Silhouette. With a good sharp blade and the right setting it cuts through paper like buttah. See that scrolly tree in the bottom right corner of the photo above? Yep - cut with my trusty Silhouette. It has some very fine detail and it cut it perfectly. Some designs cannot be made too small or it won’t cut them well, but the ones I have chosen so far have come out fine. Some of the labels in the first photo are exactly like Spellbinders Fancy Labels Two and I found the cut file - free! - online. They can be resized to any size needed and I can cut as many as 6 or seven at a time depending on the size of the label. That’s what I’m talking about! Mass production, baby!

An ever-so-slightly less chaotic mess even over here…

A drawer of Halloween papers sitting atop one of my many paper trimmers, scraps of paper here and there….. arrrgghhhhh! It has to stop. This is what I will be working on this weekend. I will be at Stamper’s Alley working tomorrow, but on Saturday I will attack this mess with gusto and maybe have some cards to show you next week. Oh, I did have a little helper…. but he spent most of his time sleeping on the job. It’s hard to get good help these days. Maybe I need to get better cat treats.

That is Mr. Michael, taking a little cat nap. I disturbed him a bit with the Silhouette - that thing sounds like a cat caught in a lawnmower! - but he persevered and once the noise was over, he rolled over and went back to sleep.

Since Halloween is right around the corner and I was in a picture taking mood today, here’s a little treat for you. (If you are squeamish you might not want to look - you’ve been warned).

I noticed this guy on the table on our back porch. Isn’t he adorable?

Thank goodness for a zoom lens is all I gotta say. These things creep me out big time. He’s lucky I didn’t squash him after I took his picture. Here’s a little close-up…what are those things on his head? Eyes? Eewww. Yep, he’s lucky I let him live. He may not get a second chance.

Happy Halloween!

Adorable Owls

2011-10-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

Recently I was in need of a couple of small gift boxes to hold a couple of pairs of earrings I had made for friends’ birthdays (yep, forgot to photograph the earrings). I have some of the silk pouch thingies and those work fine, but they were kind of big for such a small gift. Then I remembered seeing these adorable things:

I found them on this blog. They are made using the Sizzix Pillow Box die and some punches. I have the die, and we all know I have some punches! So, I came up with these little guys:

Aren’t they just too cute? They are much easier to make then they seem. I use a 3/4” punch for the circles, applied a bit of glue to the top half and glued them down. The wings are made using an oval punch and the beak is a long, skinny heart punch. The feet are actually flowers. The Sizzix die is hard to fold so the top and bottom are a wee bit crinkled (hers look a lot better!), but next time I will use my Silhouette to cut the pillow boxes. It puts perforations where the box folds and it is so much easier to assemble.

Here are the only punches I used for these:

The one on the top left is 1-1/4” EK Success punch and the oval is a Stampin’ Up punch, but I also have some oval Nestabilities that would work just fine. The smaller round punch is also by EK and it is 3/4”. The heart is from eMaginations, a company that’s no longer in business, but it wouldn’t be hard to cut a beak without using a punch. I’m just lazy that way.

Thanks for stopping by!

Renuzit Fresh Accents Review and a Giveaway

2011-10-17T18:17:00.001-04:00

I belong to an online product testing group which occasionally sends me products to test and review. Renuzit brand provided free samples of their new Fresh Accents air freshener so I could review them. However, all of the opinions expressed here are my own.

I have tried these types of air fresheners before, although not the Renuzit brand, and I was not impressed. These changed my mind. The scents are wonderful! I received Winter Berry and Festive Snow. Yes, I know snow does not have a fragrance of its own, but this air freshener does. The Winter Berry has a delightful berry fragrance (imagine that!) and Festive Snow has a light pine/Christmas tree scent. I know what you’re thinking…pine tree? Like those little trees you hang in the car? Not by a long shot. This one smells like a fresh cut Christmas tree and the scent doesn’t hit you in the face when you walk into the room.

I put the Festive Snow in the bedroom and the Winter Berry in the bathroom a couple of weeks ago and I can still smell the fragrance when I walk into the room. It is a very subtle scent, not overpowering at all. They are attractive as well, they don’t look like a typical air freshener.

Here are a couple of photos of the new products from the Renuzit website. Aren’t they pretty?

They are available in stores now so pick up a couple next time you go shopping and give them a try for yourself. Better yet - how about a free one? Renuzit sent me a couple of coupons (which I was tempted to keep for myself!) to give away, so leave me a comment on this post (not an email) telling me what your favorite scents of the holiday season are and I will choose 2 winners on Sunday, October 23.

Covered up with Cupcakes!

2011-10-16T20:28:00.001-04:00

Yes, we are at it again. My daughter needed cupcakes for her boyfriend’s roommate’s birthday and I needed some for a girly get together - both of these events were this weekend. She wanted to make Chocolate Cherry Coke Cupcakes and I was just going to do Devil’s Food with vanilla buttercream. We made hers first and they were so good I decided to go with that recipe. No cake mix involved, we did it all from scratch. We used this recipe - Chocolate Cherry Coke Cupcakes. The recipe said that it made 24 cupcakes, but we actually got 30 from each batch, so we ended up with 60 cupcakes! 60! She took some to work, I took some to my party, she gave some to the roommate and we have some left. There goes my diet.

I would recommend skipping the glaze since ours ran off of the completely cooled cupcakes and didn’t add any Coke flavor anyway. Next time we will use Cherry Coke instead of regular Coke, too. Or even a Black Cherry Soda if we can find it. I wish we had Publix up here……sigh. They have the best Black Cherry Soda. Did you know they have an apple pie ice cream?? It is delicious! But I digress.

Don’t they look scrumptious? She took this photo with her phone - I think it turned out really well.

Here are mine. She used homemade whipped cream for the frosting and I used a cherry flavored buttercream. The cherry flavor was pretty subtle, next time I will add more cherry extract. I had no idea cherry extract even existed until I saw it in the grocery store last week. They also have orange, cinnamon sugar, banana, and several other flavors. Who knew?

Those are maraschino cherries on top and a little of the juice has run down the frosting. There is some cherry pie filling inside of the cupcakes, too. They were all delicious! I can highly recommend the recipe, with the few changes I mentioned above. After we were through I found this recipe, too.

Vanilla Cherry Cola Cupcakes with Cherry Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Thanks for stopping by and happy baking!

A card and a trip

2011-10-06T11:18:00.001-04:00

My sister was kind enough to take me on a belated birthday trip to my hometown of St. Augustine last week and I have a few photos to share. I was born and raised there, my family has been there for hundreds of years (see the Minorcan sign photo - and yes, I am a Minorcan) and it will always be home to me. But first, a card.

Yes, I have gotten a little obsessed with using the negative part of the dies, but it’s just so easy and makes such a pretty card. The butterfly is from Amuse and the tags are by Spellbinders (the small one, Grommet Tags) and My Favorite Things (it came in a set with some stamps). The verse is by Papertrey - I have almost worn that stamp out and used very few of the other ones in the set.

Here are a few photos from my trip and if you are interested, you can see more here.

St. Augustine Beach. My toes were so happy to get in the sand and salt water. It was a beautiful evening, just a light breeze and very few people on the beach.

The cross and statue at the Mission. I grew up 2 blocks from here and remember watching them assemble this huge monument! The Mission of Nombre de Dios traces its origins to the founding of the City of St. Augustine, America’s oldest city, in 1565. On September 8, 1565, Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed and proclaimed this site for Spain and the Church. It was here that Menendez knelt to kiss a wooden cross presented to him by Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, chaplain of his expedition. It was on these grounds that Fr. Lopez would celebrate the first parish Mass and begin the work at America’s first Mission. It was at this sacred spot that the Spanish settlers would begin the devotion to Our Lady of La Leche that continues into the present.

Boats in the harbor at the Mission. I swear these are the same boats that have been anchored here for years. We took some peanuts in the shell and fed the squirrels. Oh look! A squirrel! They come right up and take the peanuts out of your hand - it’s wonderful!

Claire’s stamp store - I miss it so much! It was good to see Claire again and I hope it won’t be another 6 years before I get to go back.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a wonderful week.

Taco Pizza!

2011-09-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

Yes, this is another NSR post. It’s either stamping for food with me these days. I should be doing more stamping and less eating, I think. Anyway…I found this recipe on Pinterest and it is delicious! Crescent rolls are used for the crust and they are so moist and tasty, not like a pizza crust at all. Not that pizza crust is bad, but this one is very tasty.

Yes, I know, the corner is a little wonky but I don’t care. I will be making this again! Doesn’t that look yummy? Shredded cheese, taco seasoned hamburger (you could use turkey), green onions, black olives, tomatoes….yum! I added a little olive oil to the crust and sprinkled it with garlic salt.

Here’s a link to the recipe - http://realmomkitchen.com/5301/taco-pizza/. Maybe that’s what’s for dinner tonight? Follow me on Pinterest - I find all sorts of goodies on there.

Short and Sweet

2011-09-27T14:00:00.000-04:00

This is a card I made a while back and forgot to post. Nothing fancy, just a handmade rosette in the center (no die cutting), a strip of Memory Box patterned paper, a faux button cut from thin coasters, stamped and some baker’s twine added in the center. The scallop behind the rosette is a Spellbinders die - Eyelet Circles, I think. The green and pink card stock is from Bazzill and it comes with dots already embossed. The rosette is made with some BoBunny patterned paper. I used a border punch on the edge before scoring it. The rosette dies are nice but not really necessary, even though I have 2 of them. One by Tim Holtz and the other from Memory Box. They do make it much easier and the Memory Box die can be trimmed to make a smaller rosette.

That’s all I have for today. See you again soon!

A Pentagon/Polygon

2011-09-20T14:41:00.000-04:00

It’s actually just a five sided box. I saw the instructions on the Scor-Pal blog a couple of weeks ago. I love making boxes and bags and this one was so easy to make. Check out the instructions and make one for yourself. Mine holds 15 Letraset Promarkers and I made it a little shorter than the one on their blog. I cut my paper to 6-1/2” and scored at 2”, so the box ended up being 4-1/2” tall. It’s actually quite sturdy, made from a sheet of Bazzill card stock. The flaps at the bottom are a little tricky, so be sure to take your time with that part so you don’t have to try to re-do them when you discover the box is lopsided. Just sayin’…

Look at all that ink in the background…who has that much ink??? Who needs that much ink??Sorry, I digress. Anyway…the sides are covered with pretty glittery paper from Best Creations. I added a strip of ribbon at the top for a little stability, adhered with Scor Tape, and Glue Dot-ted on a ribbon flower from my stash.

These little boxes would make great teacher gifts, don’t you think?

Click on over to their blog and make one - I’d love to see what you come up with!

Butterfly Birthday Cards

2011-09-13T14:15:00.000-04:00

I seem to be stuck on the butterfly theme lately. I am really enjoying using the negative part of the die cuts as windows in the cards. It’s so easy! I got a new Amuse butterfly die set and had to break it in. A couple of friends had birthdays coming up so I had a good reason to do it.

I used all 3 of the dies plus a Martha Stewart punch on this one. I know, there should only be 3 elements instead of 4, but I had to put something in that white space on the top left. I just couldn’t stand it.

This one uses just one of the Amuse butterflies and a ribbon technique I learned from someone’s blog recently. The ribbon is attached flat all the way across, the bow is made with the Bow Easy and the brad is used to attach the bow to the ribbon and secure it all to the card stock. That way it looks like the bow is actually tied on the ribbon. If I can find the link to the tutorial I will post it soon.

Paper: Memory Box
Dies: Amuse (butterflies), Spellbinders (Grommet Tags, oval)
Sentiments: Close to My Heart, Hero Arts

I hope you are having a wonderful week and thanks for stopping in.

Cupcakes everywhere!

2011-09-08T16:04:00.001-04:00

My daughter and I recently had a couple of occasions to bake some cupcakes. My husband is on the Board of the Mooresville non-profit organization, Welcome Home Veterans. The head of Bojangle’s restaurants was coming for a visit to learn more about them and possibly donate to their building fund. DH asked me to make some cupcakes for his visit and this is what happened:

I tried to find red sprinkles but all I could find was red sugar, so I used chocolate sprinkles and the red sugar on bright yellow frosting. The cupcake is a moist devil’s food. He made the flags and we cut skewers in half to use for the flags. They were a big hit and the Bojangle’s guy was impressed. Mission accomplished.

My daughter’s boyfriend had a birthday recently and she wanted to make S’mores cupcakes for him.

We filled the devil’s food cupcakes with marshmallow cream filling and made a marshmallow frosting. We sprinkled the graham crackers crumbs on top, dipped a graham cracker in melted chocolate and stuck that in the frosting. They looked pretty good, too… until the graham cracker sucked a lot of the moisture out of the frosting and sort of fell over. No, I don’t have photos of that. They were delicious and that’s what matters. Lesson learned. No graham crackers stuck into the frosting. The frosting does not actually contain any marshmallow - it’s sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar and vanilla. Tastes just like marshmallow, though.

The BF took them home. He and his roommate and their friends enjoyed them. We will try the marshmallow frosting again, I think it needed to cook a little longer in order to be a little more firm.

I will have a stamping related post later in the week. Thanks for stopping by!

Twisted Yellow Rose

2011-08-25T14:00:00.000-04:00

I thought I had posted this one a long time ago but apparently I didn't. It's very similar toone I posted back in May, so maybe that's why I didn't put it up. But, here it is now!

Another birthday card. Not for anyone in particular, just to have on hand. I’ve been making some more twisted flowers and this is one of the better ones. I used some golden yellow satin ribbon, added a pearl to the center and mounted it on to a doily die cut (one of Martha’s, I think) with some felt leaves peeking out of the side. The leaves are cut with a Papertrey die and some wool felt I bought on etsy.

I punched the border with a Martha punch, added some Memory Box patterned paper, a Hero Arts sentiment, and a little more of the ribbon from which the flower was made. Put it all on a piece of Papertrey card stock - done. Ready to send.
I really enjoy making these flowers. Once I get in the groove I can make lots and lots of them. The satin ribbon does work best for me. If you saw my ribbon stash you would think I have enough to make hundreds of these, but not all of the ribbon works that well, unfortunately. I do have some pretty grosgrain and lots of sheer ribbon but I just don’t like the way they turn out.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is going well.

Look what I found!

2011-08-21T09:14:00.000-04:00

I was in Hobby Lobby the other day with my daughter and naturally I had to go down the paper crafting aisles. I am glad I did because they have new stuff and I found this little gem:

A wood grain embossing folder! I know! Not quite as wood-grainy as I had hoped but I liked it well enough to bring it home with me. It was only $4.99, too. Such a deal! I broke it out this morning and gave it a test run with some Core’dinations paper, thinking I would run it through the Big Shot and then sand it to bring out the texture. Eh. It didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. This is it, straight out of the folder:

It looks ok, right? I tried sanding it and it didn’t help much. If it was a darker brown paper sanding might have been more successful. (I didn’t take a photo of that stage of the process) Then I had a brilliant idea! Get some Distress Ink and run it over the top to add some contrast. What’s the worst that could happen? It’s just a piece of paper, after all. So I did exactly that. I used Vintage Photo, and here is the result:

I like it. I like it a lot. I do wish the folder had more of a knotty pine look, but for $5 I thought it was a pretty good deal. I know Papertrey has an impression plate that is wood grain, but I just can’t bring myself to pay $6.95 to ship one thin metal plate (which is $16, btw). This will work for me for the time being. I see more owl cards in my future. Stay tuned…

One more box

2011-08-20T21:04:00.000-04:00

I can’t remember if I posted this one before, but if I have it has been a long time. This makes such a pretty gift box for cards that I thought I would post it again, with instructions. I found some instructions here on Val Stangle’s blog after I had already made mine a little differently. Either method works fine.

This is how it looks empty:

Here is the template I used. I started with an 8-1/2” x 11” pieces of card stock and scored as indicated on the photo.

The assembly is the same as for the box I posted previously with the exception of the top, which is the piece that’s scored at 2” and 3”. The small flaps still get adhered onto the inside of the box but the large piece gets folded over the outside and around the back of the box like so:

I punched the same half circle notch in the end of this box to make it easier to remove the cards. This one doesn’t hold as many cards and envelopes as the previous box, but if the cards were not overly embellished you could probably get 8 or so in there.

Enjoy!

A Birthday Card

2011-08-20T16:00:00.000-04:00

Not for me, but for a friend of mine whose birthday is this weekend. I saw a card very much like this somewhere online recently and loved the way the Spellbinders dies were layered. I just got this BG paper pad and the papers are so pretty together. The pink strip is just a scrap I had in my stash.
While the die cut was still in the die I sponged some Memento Bamboo Leaves over it for a little bit of contrast.

It isn’t too busy, is it? I hope she liked it, I enjoyed making it.

Patterned paper - Basic Grey’s Sweet Threads 6 x 6 paper pad
Spellbinders Fancy Tags Three, Large Labels, and Labels 21
Sentiment - Close to my Heart
White gel pen, Hero Arts gems, May Arts lace.

Card Box Instructions

2011-08-18T20:39:00.001-04:00

Remember these boxes?

Here is how I made them. I don’t claim to be the original author of these instructions and there probably are instructions in the Resources section of SplitCoastStampers.com, but this is how I made my boxes.

You will need 12 x 12 card stock. You can use 8-1/2 x 11 if you cut the sides smaller (you will see what I mean later in the post) but I like the boxes to be sturdier so I double the sides.

The top measures 12” x 10-5/8”. The bottom measures 11-7/8” x 10-1/2”.
Score both pieces at 1-1/2” and 3” on all four sides.
This will make a box that ends up being 1-1/2” tall and large enough for A2 cards and envelopes.

I put 12 cards and envelopes in mine and they fir perfectly. All of the cards weren’t flat, either. Some of them had flowers, gems, ribbons, or other embellishments on them.

** You can click on any of the photos for a closer look. **

This is actually the bottom of the box, so it should read “Do the same for the top of the box”. I didn’t realize that until I was editing the photo, and the box was already assembled.

Fold and crease all of the score lines, then cut away the corner squares on the long sides.

It should look like this when you are finished. I trim them at a slight angle to make it easier to assemble.

Apply Scor-Tape or Red Line tape to the flaps as shown. I use Scor-Tape and it works really well for me. I tried using the ATG tape once and the box didn’t hold together well at all. Don’t skimp on tape.

Remove the protective paper from one of the small flaps and fold it in on the long side. I find it easiest to hold the box in my hand and line up the corners.

Repeat for all four flaps and your box should look like this:

Remove the paper from the tape on one of the long sides and fold in; repeat for the other side. I don’t know why I do the long sides first, I don’t know what difference it makes.

Voila! You have a box top (or bottom). Repeat the process for the other half of the box..

See how nicely they fit together? And the envelopes fit in there perfectly, too.

Since they do fit together snugly, it cam be a little difficult to get them apart.

Use a 1” circle punch (or close to 1” - smaller would be better than larger) and punch half circles on both long sides of the top, like so:

There you go! Embellish to your heart’s content, fill with cards and envelopes and it makes quite a lovely gift. You could make a deeper box but you wouldn’t be able to double the sides unless you had larger card stock, or made the top shorter (which just now occurred to me).

Also, one strip of 12” paper isn’t long enough, of course, for a belly band, so I used a strip of each of the colors for the one on the right. I just tied a ribbon around the other one to keep it closed.

I hope this all makes sense, and if it doesn’t please feel free to ask questions. Boxes are actually quite easy to make in any size. It just involves a little simple math and some experimentation with copy paper to avoid wasting card stock.

Card boxes

2011-08-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

My sister is taking me to Florida next month as a birthday gift, so I made a couple of card boxes and filled them with cards for both of my sisters as small thank you gifts. There’s no need to show you the cards since I have posted all of them in the past, but here are the boxes.

The first step was creating the boxes. I thought I had it all worked out. I measured and cut and scored and taped, and the cards fit perfectly. Then I remembered I should probably include envelopes. That’s when my well thought out plan fell apart. They didn’t fit. Great. Now what?

I laid the envelopes on top of the cards and put the lid on, added a belly band or some ribbon to hold it all together. But I didn’t like it. I laid awake for hours one night trying to work out new measurements in my head. I got up the next morning and set to work making new box bottoms with my new measurements and it worked beautifully! I will see if I can get some instructions together soon and post them if anyone is interested.

Memory Box patterned paper, Martha Stewart butterfly punches and doily, and Papertrey flower and leaf dies cut from felt.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week!

Cards!

2011-08-15T11:14:00.001-04:00

I made some thank you cards for all of my wonderful birthday gifts and, as usual, forgot to take photos before I mailed them but I did make a couple of extras to have on hand so I was able to get photos of those, at least.

I have seen several examples of using the negative space from die cuts lately and I really liked what I saw, so I decided to try it. These are the results - I love it!

I used a Spellbinders butterfly die for this one. It does emboss a tiny bit around the edges, but it’s not that noticeable. I raised the white piece up on foam tape to give it a little more dimension. The matching patterned paper and ribbon are both from Papertrey. The sentiment is Hero Arts.

I used a Papertrey die for this one and added a button with twine. The sentiment is Hero Arts.

I also used a Papertrey butterfly die on a couple of the others but since I didn’t get photos I can’t show those to you . I tried using a Sizzlit die but it left the impression of the square part of the die, so that didn’t work. It really needs to be a Spellbinders, Memory Box, or other similar type of die to work. If anyone knows how to use a Sizzlit die and not get the square impression, please share your secret.

Thanks for hanging in there with me in my long posting absences and I won’t offer any promises of posting more frequently so I won’t have to break those promises!

Happy Birthday to me!

2011-08-10T19:00:00.001-04:00

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday and the day before a bunch of my friends hosted a lovely birthday dinner for me at a local restaurant. I was so sweet of them and I received lots of beautiful presents, but the best gift was just getting together with everyone for some fun and good food. Thank you all so much!

They all brought gorgeous handmade cards and I wanted to share those with you (especially you, Curt!).

This one is from Joy. I love how she heat embossed the embossed background.

This is from dear Brenda. She is an expert at water coloring, this is just stunning in person, but difficult to capture with a camera (at least for me).

From Vicki - she knows how much I love cupcakes!

From Connie. Isn’t that bicycle adorable?

Another masterpiece from Emogene. She used the Grand Nestabilities to make this gorgeous purse. Inside it had a little pocket for a gift card.

From Pat - I am always amazed at her creativity. The dress is made with scalloped circles, and she has been using her Cricut, too. The hanger is cut with the Cricut. So pretty!

From Brenda Mott. I knew I should have bought this embossing folder when we had it at the shop. It makes a beautiful background! Inside is a Penny Black kitty with a balloon - we both have sweet fur babies in our lives.

From dear Marsha. Below is what she wrote on the back of the card. Love ya, Marsha!

Last, but never least, is this beauty from Barbara in Wisconsin. Her cards are so beautiful, I don’t know how she keeps coming up with such great designs!

I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone and I thank you all again for a wonderful evening! Love you all!

It’s about time, right?

2011-06-24T23:26:00.001-04:00

I was recently reminded that I haven’t posted anything since June 2. The reason for that is I hadn’t made anything to post. I just haven’t been feelin’ the mojo lately. But, when I saw this card by Paperlicious I became inspired and just had to CASE it. I also did a couple of variations on that theme.

This is what I have to show for it:

This is the original CASE of Joan’s card. I used a different sentiment and left off the ribbon on the side, but other than that it’s almost identical.

Then I discovered something about that PTI set (Butterfly Dreams). The outline of the butterfly also fits perfectly (when stamped precisely) over the solid butterfly images. Imagine that.

I used Memento ink and a couple of custom ink pads made with Tsukineko reinkers for these images. I don’t know if Tsukineko makes single color ink pads other than the Memento inks, but I wish they would. I have some Kaleidacolor pads and liked several of the colors in them, so I just got some uninked pads and the reinkers and made my own. They are by far the best inks for clear stamps, in my opinion. I found it easier to stamp the solid (patterned) image first and then stamp the outline over it. Most of them lined up quite well. The butterflies above the sentiment were done with a Martha Stewart punch.

I custom colored some pearls and gemstones with Copic markers to match the butterflies.

The idea of stacking things along the left side of the card led me to this:

These images are from an older Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Set. They are colored with Copic markers and I used 3 different sets of googlie eyes on the owls. The sentiment is, of course, Papertrey Ink. These owl cards make ME smile! I made several of them, smiling the whole time.

My mojo has once again gone missing, but at least I have some all occasion cards on hand. If anyone happens to find my mojo anywhere, please send it along. I will be forever grateful. It is a slippery little devil and sneaks away whenever it gets the chance. I really do need to keep a closer eye on it.

A Little Fun with Stampendous stamps

2011-06-02T11:51:00.001-04:00

I have had these stamps for months and not inked them up, so I thought it was time. I liked the images but couldn’t figure out what to do with them until I saw this card on Kimberly’s blog.

Here is my version. I colored the image with Copic markers, sponged the edges of the patterned paper (Memory Box paper, I think) with some Distress Ink, cut out the image and popped it up on some foam tape. The pattern on the Kraft card stock is from the screen in the window where I was taking the photo, it’s not stamped. Which is a good thing because it is really crooked.

I made another card using a different Stampendous stamp – I just love these images. They remind me of Italy. I’ve never been there, but I have seen lots of photos and it is high on my list of places to go someday.

Same process as the one above but different patterned paper. I stamped the center piece with an Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card stamp, trimmed it with some deckle edge scissors and sponged the edges with some Wild Honey Distress ink. Instead of sponging the edges of the patterned paper I just layered it on to some black card stock.

It was difficult to keep from adding ribbon, bling, or something else fussy, but in the end I think they look best with the focus on the main image.

I will be using these stamps a little more often. The coloring was pretty easy to do and since they have irregular edges I don’t have to stress over cutting the edges straight. I am no good with scissors but I keep trying.

On another note, I saw this cool Copic marker storage idea on Pinterest. I had mine stored in Eldon X-Cubes and it was getting a little tight so I got some Foam Board, grabbed my X-acto knife and rulers, and gave it a try. I won’t be posting photos of mine. They are functional but not as pretty as hers, I’m afraid. The hardest part was getting the grooves for the shelves to line up. I made 3 of them and the last one was the best, of course, but there was no way I was going to make two more. They work for me and it’s not like my craft room is going to be in House Beautiful any time soon, so I am content with them as they are. I used 3 sheets of 20” x 30” Foam Board for all of them and 2 of them hold all of my Copic and Prismacolor markers, with room for more, so I’m happy. I put my Sharpies, Bic and other markers in the other one. The final cost was around $10, not including the glue – I have lots of that. She used hot glue on hers, and I tried one with that but I didn’t like it. The glue dries too quickly, so I ended up using Aleene’s Quick Dry tacky glue (and maybe just a little clear packing tape), which I found to be easier to work with.

BTW, if you haven’t tried Pinterest yet, I suggest you give it a try. You can find some really cool stuff on there and pin it to your own board for future reference. There is a link to my boards on the right sidebar. Check it out and let me know what you think.

They say it’s your birthday…

2011-05-09T16:00:00.000-04:00

Ok, maybe not your birthday, but it was Emogene’s birthday recently. I wanted to make something cool, something unusual, something that would make her smile.

I know - a tri-shutter card covered with glittery dots, owls with party hats, and a great big birthday cake! That’s just the ticket!

I saw the idea on DarleneDesigns.com blog and changed it up a bit.

I dusted off my Silhouette to cut out the birthday cake. I cut 4 cakes – brown, pink, blue, and yellow – and used the pieces that were cut out of the blue, pink and yellow to put in the cut out parts of the cake. The white dots are made with a white gel pen. I almost got too carried away with that, but I think I stopped just in time. Did I go one (or ten) dot(s) too far?

Here it is partially open. I used yellow Stickles for the candle flame and put a little green pom pom on one owl’s party hat.

Open all the way. Baker’s twine for the balloon strings and googlie (sp?) eyes for the owl’s eyes. All of those tiny pieces that get punched with the owl punch are too much trouble to use for the eyes, and i like the googlie eyes better anyway. The hats were cut out of some patterned paper that had a banner design on it. I just used the banner pieces for hats. The owl bellies and balloons are patterned paper, too. The sentiment is stamped inside a Gina K Designs stamp that coordinates with the Nestabilities. Love her stamps! The little cupcake circles are made with a Tonic punch, then punched out with a circle punch, and popped up on some foam adhesive.

Here’s a close up of the cake. Chocolate, of course.

I had a lot of fun making this card and Emogene said she really enjoyed getting it – mission accomplished. It even arrived intact – no eyes crushed or missing. Good job, PO.

I really do need to use my Silhouette more often. There are so many pretty designs and it’s easy to use, I don’t know why I don’t use it more. I tried to cut this cake design by hand and wasted several pieces of paper before I decided to look in my Silhouette library to see if I had something that would work. Bingo - this is exactly what I had in mind. I should poke around in there some more, there’s no telling what I might find.

The best card ever!

2011-05-08T13:08:00.001-04:00

While I was at Stamper’s Alley yesterday, working at the used stamp sale, my beautiful and talented daughter got to work in my craft room. She made a card for Mother’s Day for me!! She chose the papers, measured, cut, stamped, embossed, punched, and embellished her way to a gorgeous card and I am SO proud of her. She has made cards before, but usually with a little help from me. She made this one all on her own.

I love how she put the gems in a little semi circle under the sentiment. I would have lined them up in a straight line. She’s creative that way :-). It’s hard to see in the photo but the paper has glittery stripes on it and there’s lots of my favorite color – purple! Green and purple is one of my favorite color combinations, too. She said she was going to add a ribbon but had everything stuck down before she remembered that. That’s ok -I love it just the way it is.

I think she is wonderful and I will treasure this card forever! We need to make more cards together, she will help me think a little more out of the box, I do believe.

Happy Mother’s Day ladies!

Product Review

2011-05-04T16:00:00.001-04:00

I recently won some crafty products from Elmer’s and X-acto from the Letters & Journals blog, and decided to post a review of them here. It was a really nice size box of goodies – I love getting packages in the mail!

The decorative scissors are sharp and cut very well. I tried them on Bazzill card stock as well as a lighter weight and they performed well on both. These are designs I would use a lot on card edges and layers. I know we all have some of these types of scissors lurking around our craft rooms, and they are probably pretty lonely. Since so many of the new dies do the same thing it is easy to forget about the scissors, but I do find that when I just need a quick decorative edge on something, these are just the thing. I like ‘em!

I also love the retractable craft knife. It’s easy to use, feels good in my hand and cuts like buttah! I have several other craft knives and I really like that this one is retractable. I can retract the blade and put it in my crafty tote without worrying about getting my finger sliced open when I grab it, or toss it into the bucket that holds my tools on my craft table and not worry that the tip will get bent. It is refillable with a standard #11 blade, too.

The Glue Spots work just like regular Glue Dots, are about the same size as the regular Glue Dots, and perform every bit as well. I stuck a rather large button down using just one of them and it is still stuck. The come on a waxy paper roll and are easy to use.

The tape runner is like a lot of tape runners, is not as permanent as claimed. I adhered 2 pieces of plain cardstock together with it and after an hour or so, I could still peel them apart. Disappointing.

On the other hand, the glue stick performed much better than I expected! I haven’t used glue sticks for a long time because of their tendency to not stick very well, but these work quite well. Again, 2 pieces of plain card stock adhered together, after just a few minutes I was not able to peel them apart without ripping the paper.

The Tacky Glue is nice. I used it to adhere some Flower Soft and it works really well. It does tend to warp the paper when used on card stock, and the tip is a little larger than I’d like it to be for use with small punched pieces. The best way to use it for those would be to squeeze some out and use a toothpick to apply it to the piece. the adhesion is quite good, too.

I love the cutting mat! The color is perfect, I do love pink, and it has just the right amount of measurements on it for me. Some cutting mats are hard to use because they have lines going everywhere and they are just plain confusing. The mat had a sticker on it, which peeled right off, but left a slight sticky residue. Goo Gone took that right off and didn’t mess up the lines on the mat at all. I tried using some window cleaner on it first and although it didn’t remove the residue, it also had no effect on the lines. This will be staying on my craft table from now on.

The circle cutter was another disappointment, I’m afraid. I had high hopes for it. There are no instructions on the packaging at all. It comes with a center point protector, a little round hard plastic disc with a rubberized circle on one side, to protect the paper from the point of the circle cutter. I tried it with and without this and maybe it’s operator error, but I couldn’t cut a decent circle no matter what I tried. I will see if I can find more information on their site or even a video, and do some more tests. The Letters & Journals blog gave it high marks, so apparently I am not doing something right.

The gel pens are…well….gel pens. They write fairly well, but do tend to skip a little now and then. There are 18 pretty colors in the package, including a couple of gold and silver pens, which would be great for writing on darker card stock. Those actually wrote pretty smoothly.

I only opened the white Painters Marker to test it on some black card stock. Since these are the calligraphy markers, they have a good size chiseled tip, which doesn’t really work for me as far as using it in place of white gel pens for smaller dots and lines. But it is very opaque and would work well for posters and such – which is what they are meant for anyway. They do come in different size tips, so a bullet tip would work well for cards.

They also sent me some Bi-Fold Foam Core board and photo corners, which are not shown here. The foam core board is 12” x 18”, folded into 12” x 9” in the package. It looks like it is about 1/4” thick, is lightweight and rigid. The photo corners are self-stick, black and silver, and come in a nice little dispenser box.

A big Thank You to Letter & Journals for choosing me, you can see their evaluation of the products here. Another big Thank You to Elmer’s and X-acto for providing all of these great goodies. All in all I was pretty pleased with them. I was in Wal-Mart yesterday and I noticed that they do carry this line of products. I haven’t seen them at Michael’s and I’m not sure about AC Moore carries them or not.

Got Flock?

2011-04-13T22:43:00.001-04:00

If you do you can make some pretty cool things with it. If you don’t have any, you’re going to want some :-) I’ve been doing a lot of flocking lately - here are a few examples. I hope you are able to see the texture in these photos.

Spellbinders Butterfly die cuts

Papertrey Blooms die cut

Papertrey leaf die cut (from the Dahlia set, I believe)

It’s simple to do and ads just a little something to the die cut, especially the Spellbinders dies, since they emboss as well as cut. Those were only run through the Big Shot once and they came out very embossed.

I used Scor Tape sheets, cut them just a little larger than the shape I was die cutting, removed one side of the protective paper and applied flock all over it. It does need to be well covered so that it doesn’t stick to your clear plates when you run it through your machine.

Rub the flock onto the adhesive really well and shake off the excess. Since flock doesn’t always cover completely, I adhered the flocked piece to a similar color of card stock before cutting so that if there were any tiny gaps in coverage they wouldn’t be noticeable. It also makes the piece a little sturdier. The butterfly above was easier to get out of the die and didn’t lose his antennae in the process like he has in the past when I was using just card stock. Once you have this done, just die cut as usual, using whatever machine you have.

As you can see with the butterflies, the Spellbinders dies come out with a really pretty embossing. The Papertrey – and other similar dies as well, I’m sure – come out with a clean, rounded edge. The flock gives a subtle, soft, almost suede-like finish to the shape. You can click on the photos to see them larger, if you like.

I did do a comparison between flocking before die cutting and after die cutting and this is the result. I used a Papertrey die for these.

Flocking before die cutting – clean, rounded edges:

Flocking after die cutting – a little fuzzy around the edges:

I’m sure you could go around the edges with your fingernail and get the fuzz off, but I am lazy that way – I want it to come out of the machine ready to go. The flocking after cutting does leave it fluffier all over, naturally, and if that’s the look you want then you can certainly die cut first, flock later.

I also tried running card stock through the Xyron and that worked really well, too. I don’t think liquid glue would work, for obvious reasons, unless you let it dry completely after applying the flock. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

You can also punch shapes after applying the flock, at least it worked for me using the Scor Tape sheets, so there are lots of possibilities. I like the look of it, it adds a little texture to a project without adding a lot of bulk, and the flock is available is lots of pretty colors. I got mine at Stamper’s Alley and I’m sure it is available at your LSS, or online.

Our first paying gig

2011-04-11T17:23:00.001-04:00

My daughter and I have become quite the cupcake bakers lately. She takes some of them to work with her, to save us from ourselves. We have been experimenting with different frostings, fillings, etc. and so far everything has been very popular. Last week, one of her co-workers commissioned a dozen cupcakes for his parent’s anniversary tomorrow. Red velvet with cream cheese frosting and marshmallow crème filling, to be exact.

So we set out on a red velvet cupcake baking adventure. Let me just say up front that we will not be making a profit on these cupcakes. Baking from scratch is, in the first place, not as economical as it used to be. And, in the second place, when you have to do a test batch (or two) it gets even less economical. The first batch, on which we tried to save a little money by halving the recipe, didn’t turn out quite as expected. The second batch (no more halving!) was very tasty, so she took them to work for his approval. They passed with flying colors.

This morning we baked the cupcakes once more, filled them with marshmallow crème filling (also made from scratch), and frosted them with homemade cream cheese frosting. Miss Amanda did the mixing, I was merely the sous chef (sous baker?) and general helper. They are delicious!

Submitted for your approval, the finished product:

He also requested the letters B and M on top of the cupcakes, which was done with melting chocolate by my super talented daughter.

A few close-ups:

I prefer frosting that is a little stiffer and can be piped on with a pretty star tip, but cream cheese frosting is softer than that. We tried adding more confectioners’ sugar to the second batch but it never did stiffen up, so I went with a large round tip.

Looking back, I wish I had taken photos of the process. Then again…with all that powdered sugar and frosting flying around that might not have been the best idea. A Kitchen Aid stand mixer is definitely on my wish list, it would have made the process SO much easier.

We are pretty proud of ourselves today :-) We are a few ~~ounces~~ pounds heavier, too, I think. Hey, someone had to taste test them!

Twisted flowers

2011-04-08T10:42:00.001-04:00

Remember the twisted flowers from the previous post? I used one of them, my favorite one, on this card:

The doily is from Martha Stewart, as is the border punch. The sentiment is Hero Arts and the leaves are felt, cut with a PTI die. PTI Berry Sorbet card stock and patterned paper. I’ve had this paper for quite a while and have decided I need to quit hoarding it and start using it. It matches the ribbon perfectly, since the ribbon is also PTI Berry Sorbet – imagine that! I colored the pearls with a Copic marker to match.

Here’s a sneak peek at a tutorial I am working on:

I will try to get this finished up this weekend, wish me luck!

Happy Friday, everyone :-)

Happy Birthday

2011-04-05T00:14:00.001-04:00

To no one in particular, just a Happy Birthday card I CASED from Inkspired Treasures the other day. Her card is here, and mine is a very close copy. Different stamps and paper, but the very same layout.

The flower stamp is Hero Arts and I’m not sure about the sentiment. I used a Martha Stewart punch for the butterfly and the papers are all Memory Box. I cut the scallops with a QuicKutz scallop die. Nothing special, just a fun little card. Hers turned out much better than mine, I think.

I tried my hand at making the twisted ribbon flowers I have been seeing everywhere, too.

The first one is my favorite and I think I used PTI Sweet Blush satin ribbon. The other ones were made with various ribbons from here and there. I did find that softer, more supple ribbon makes a prettier flower, and is easier to work with. I used Scor Tape sheets to stick the ribbon down, and it is holding very well.

This one is made with some May Arts ribbon that I won on their Facebook page – gorgeous coral/peachy colored satin center and sheer edges, very pretty ribbon. A little wide for using on a card, though, it’s 1-1/2” wide.

These were fun to make and I will try to get them on some cards soon. I am also planning either a tutorial, or perhaps even a video, so stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are all staying safe in these storms we’ve been having. They are coming our way tonight but not until the wee hours of the morning :-(. I’d love to stay up and enjoy the thunder and lightning but I have to be up early in the morning.

In Distress

2011-03-10T20:51:00.001-05:00

Not me, my card. I have been messing around with the Distress Inks. I saw the Hero Arts blog a week or so ago and loved this card.

Here is my version:

I used Distress Inks to watercolor the background, stamped the “hello” stamp and embossed it with white embossing powder. Then I inked up the stamp using the “walking through the ink” technique on the Hero Arts site and stamped it on the watercolor paper. Add a little lace, a couple of flowers with some twine and there you go. Oh, and I stamped the envelope pattern on the Kraft card before putting it all together.

The ink colors I used are Broken China, Peeled Paint, and Rusty Hinge. All stamps are from Hero Arts, as are the paper flowers.

I hope your week is going well, thanks for stopping by.

Spring is almost here!

2011-02-23T21:25:00.001-05:00

At least I hope so! The past few days we have had lovely warm weather, which has put me in the mood to make some bright and cheerful cards.

Instead of using patterned paper I made my own background paper, using Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card stamps. These were done with the paisley stamp. The flowers are cut from Papertrey felt using a set of their dies. I wish I had thought to take photos before I assembled the cards because I sewed the flowers together with the baker’s twine and tied the button on top to hold it all together. I didn’t have a needle that the twine would fit through, so I used my Crop-a-Dile and punched two holes through all of the flowers at once. I threaded the twine through the holes and up through the button, tied a knot and Voila! On the second one, I added a circle of cardstock on the bottom of the flower to make it easier to adhere to the card. I used Glue Dots to attach the flowers to the cards.

Now, check out these fabulous flowers!

I bet you can’t guess what I used to make these flowers. No peeking.

Give up?

Mini cupcake liners! Yes, really! I KNOW! How cool is that??

They started out as ordinary, everyday mini cupcake liners….

and ended up like this…

Here’s how I did it. First, a disclaimer…I did not come up with this wonderful idea on my own. Surprised? No, I didn’t think so. Anyway, I saw one on a card somewhere online and had to try it. The cupcake liners are so inexpensive - $1.99 for 100 and you can find them at a party supply store, craft store, or even the grocery store. I only use 3 or 4 liners for each flower, so that’s a lot of flowers for 2 bucks!

Here’s how I make them (click on any of the photos to see them larger):

Separate the liners first or you will have a hard time getting them apart once they are cut. Stack them loosely and cut just up to the bottom, through all of the layers at once. 10 or 12 snips should be enough, depending on how wide you want the petals to be. Don’t worry about getting the cuts evenly spaced, it really doesn’t matter.

Separate them and flatten them just a little bit.

Apply some glue to the middle of one of your layers. I use Tombow Mono Multi glue and it works well for me…use whatever you have.

Attach one of the liners, being sure to offset the petals just a bit. Apply glue to the middle of that one and attach another liner, offsetting the petals again. Repeat as needed. I find that 4 is usually sufficient, all of these only have 3 layers.

I punched out a scalloped circle from some Bazzill embossed card stock for the center of the flowers. You could also just use plain card stock, or run some through the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder.

A white card stock circle to go in the center of the pink one.

Thread a button with some pretty baker’s twine, ribbon, or embroidery thread and attach to the center using a Glue Dot. I used baker’s twine.

There you go – one gorgeous flower! I used the Mono Multi glue to attach the centers and attached a circle of card stock to the back of the flower to stabilize it a little, too.

A couple of variations:

Purple, of course!

A sunflower. The center was cut with the smallest scalloped circle Nestability and run through the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.

Here’s my little stash of baker’s twine. I don’t remember where I got it, but you can get some online at The Twinery. It is wonderful stuff. The have full rolls or you can get a sampler package, which is what I have. I love this stuff!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Valentine’s cards

2011-02-16T13:46:00.001-05:00

Ok, Curt, I hear you. Enough waiting, right? I haven’t been doing a lot of card making lately, we have all been sick with nasty colds but I did receive a couple of very pretty Valentine’s Day cards and even managed to make one for my sweetie.

Barbara sent me this gorgeous card. It looks like she used ink to color a doily a lovely shade of purple, it’s just beautiful! She is so creative.

Pat sent me this beautiful card. The window is cut using a Nestability, I think, and then she wrapped quilling paper all around a hand cut oval frame. Wow!

This is the one I made for my sweetie. Not a lot to it, just some patterned paper, some Papertrey stamps and a little ribbon. The little stickers are from my stash, I don’t remember where I got them.

This is a Thank You card that Pat sent to me a while back. Same technique as the Valentine card but she used ribbon on this one and did two oval frames. Amazing! This photo does not do it justice, it is absolutely stunning in person. She offered to teach me the technique but I don’t have her patience, I’m afraid.

That’s all I have for today. Thank you, Curt, for lighting a fire under me – I needed that! We are all feeling much better now so perhaps I can get back to creating this week. I have a couple of new Hero Arts stamps that need to be inked up :-)

Clean and Simple

2011-01-02T22:11:00.001-05:00

It is a concept that eludes me most of the time, but I needed a couple of Thank You cards recently and thought I’d give it a go. I like the way they turned out and made extras to have on hand.

This one is stamped with a Rubber Stampede leafy branch stamp using Shabby Shutters ink, I think. The sentiment is from Papertrey. I just love that set – Signature Greetings – and I wish they would come out with more of them. There are only a couple in the set that I use a lot and I’d really like some different verses. They do have a Christmas set but more all occasion verses would be wonderful.

This stamp is from Stampendous and I used Memento Cantaloupe ink. I used Papertrey white card stock for the card base on both cards, because it’s nice and heavy.

I did it – one layer cards! I am impressed with myself. Maybe I will try some more clean and simple designs soon.

Cake Pops…..or not

2010-12-30T16:56:00.001-05:00

My dear hubby gave me Bakerella’s Cake Pops book for Christmas, so today my daughter and I set out to make some cupcake pops. The cake had already been baked, combined with some frosting, rolled into balls and chilled in the fridge overnight.

This is what we were shooting for:

Adorable, yes?

Well, this is what we ended up with:

Hmmmm. Similar? Barely.

Maybe we had the wrong size cookie cutter for the bottom or perhaps the candy melts were not the right consistency. So, we melted some green candy melts and tried to do one of these:

Looks simple enough. Make a cone shape, dip it into the green melted candy, give it a little texture with a toothpick and add a star and some sprinkley things for ornaments (they look like teeny tiny Hershey’s Kisses). We thinned the candy down a little more this time, too.

Well, this is what happened:

I think we are going to need a lot more practice. I also think that the cake mix was too moist, but all of them except the store brands say “Moist”or “Super Moist” on the package. I will try a store brand mix and see what happens. The cake mix I used was a Super Moist Milk Chocolate and we didn’t really care for the taste of it anyway.

This was a fun first experiment and we, as usual, dissolved into a couple of hysterical laughing fits. But that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Having fun! We are very good at that!

After the first two semi-failures, we just dipped the rest of the cake balls like they were – round-ish. Here is the whole gang, in all it’s glory:

It was fun, and we won’t give up. Never give up, never surrender! We will not be outdone by cake mix and candy melts. We’re stronger than that!

More Birthday

2010-12-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

Another birthday card, this time one for one of my friends. I don’t think she reads my blog very often and her card should arrive today, so I think I am safe in posting this.

I got one of the new Martha Stewart punches that punch anywhere on the page. They are in two pieces and have magnets that keep them together on the paper. I hoped there would be instructions on the inside of the package outlining how to line up multiple punches in a straight line, but no such luck. So I did it this way instead.

BoBunny paper for the front and the grass, Memory Box paper behind, for the flowers. I cut the grass with some decorative scissors first, then with the MS shredding scissors to make blades of grass. Some pink buttons with green and white twine tied through the holes, some May Arts ribbon for stems, and there you go. The grass and top layer are popped up on mounting foam and the buttons are attached with Glue Dots.

Here is the inside, I just couldn’t leave it plain. I used a Nestabilities Big Scalloped Circle for the sentiment and more Memory Box paper behind that. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado and I colored it a little with a green Spica pen to give it a bit of a shimmer. The edges are sponged with Memento Bamboo Leaves for a little dimension.

I hope she likes it, I had a lot of fun making it. There are a few more birthdays coming up soon, so hang in there. One of my goals this year is to post more consistently instead of every three or four months. To those of you who still read my blog, thanks for sticking with me!

Birthday Owls

2010-12-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

This is a card my daughter made for her dad. His birthday is December 26, poor guy.

She used the SU owl punch and a Cornish Heritage Farms stamp for the feathers on their adorable little bellies. The wood grain, sentiment and musical note are Hero Arts, and I think the hat is from a dollar set from Michael’s. The wood grain was stamped in Versamark and embossed with clear powder. A Nestabilties die was used to cut the oval in the front of the card.

She did good, don’t you think?

White Christmas!

2010-12-26T12:22:00.001-05:00

The weather forecast was for a white Christmas here yesterday and I was pretty disappointed when I didn’t wake up to snow on the ground, but it started about 5pm and I think it is still snowing a little bit outside now. This is the first time it was snowed here on Christmas since 1947. It is so beautiful! DH took DD to work so I didn’t have to get out in it and I am very grateful for that! I did get some photos this morning, though, without going too far out in it.

Judging by the snow piled up on the porch railing, it looks like we got about 6 inches or so.

Alex would rather be outside no matter the weather. Silly cat!

I’m glad the bird feeder was filled yesterday, thanks to my DH. The birds appreciated it very much. We don’t have it sitting on the ground by choice, the snow has bent the branch that much! It usually hangs about 5 feet up.

Mama cardinal trying to stay warm and waiting her turn at the feeder. Brrrr.

Stay warm everyone!

The last batch

2010-12-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

I know we are all probably a little tired of looking at Christmas cards by now but since I procrastinated so long in getting them finished it is taking me a little longer to get them posted.

My daughter made the first two :-) This one is a Penny Black snowman from last year and I just love this little guy! She colored him with Copics, added some black stones for his buttons, a glittery snowflake and some pretty glittery patterned paper for a background.

It’s Fluffles, in trouble again, apparently. She colored him with Copics, put some Stickles on the ornaments, punched the edge with a Fiskars border punch, added a little ribbon and made an adorable little card!

This is a take on a card I found on a someone’s blog, too. Their card was done using Fall colors and I changed it up for Christmas by using the holly punches and a red & green theme. The squares are punched out of white Bazzill, layered with red and green behind the negative space, then layered onto the opposite color. I popped them all up with foam mounting tape, added a sentiment (Hero Arts) and some ribbon. The edges are punched with a scalloped border punch, used some Hero Hues metallic doodads for berries on the green holly and red rhinestones on the red one.

I am in love with this paper! There is no stamping at all on this card. The background is paper from the Basic Grey Jovial collection, and the strip is from a paper pack, but I’m not sure who makes it. It was left over from last year, but goes so well with the BG paper. The flower is die cut out of wool felt using the Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers Sizzix die. The leaves are also wool felt, cut with the PTI Dahlia die. I needed a gold brad for the center, so I covered another color brad with gold embossing powder, heated it up and Voila! Gold brad. I was amazed. I have never tried it before, but that’s definitely a tip I will keep in mind.

Same paper, same Sizzix die but I used card stock this time and Prima lace on either side the green strip. Gold pearls for the center of the flower and the sentiment is Hero Arts, from a clear set I had last year.

I added Prima holly leaves and used a Martha punch for the borders this time.

Another CASE of a card I found on Joy Taylor’s blog, almost an exact copy, in fact. She is so talented! If you haven’t seen her work yet, you really should take a moment and hop on over there. Hero Arts stamps, the house is colored with Copics and the circle is sponged with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. A little white string around the bottom, a few rhinestones and there you go!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. Merry Christmas everyone!!!

A little more Christmas

2010-12-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

Just a few more cards from this year’s marathon last minute Christmas card making session.

This little guy is the other Stampendous snowman from that set. I used a Hero Arts stamp for the sentiment, colored him with Copics, added a little glitter and a rhinestone. The edges of the main image are distressed and sponged with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

The rhinestone was added with my newest toy:

I wanted the Imaginesce iRock tool but Michael’s was out of them so I found this one over by the fabric paints. It works exactly the same way, and was $2 cheaper. It was $12.99 and I used a 40% off coupon. It’s so easy to use! It’s cordless, uses 2 AA batteries and shuts itself off. You have to push in the little pink button after turning it on to make it heat up. The rhinestones are Imaginesce and they come in a nice little dispenser with 5 different colors as well as a a dispenser that has all clear stones in different sizes. The most difficult part is getting the little gems out of the package and turned right side up.

These next two cards are both made with a Memory Box stamp and embossed – one in gold and one in silver. The background is a Hero Arts Design Block stamp, also embossed. I added the rhinestones to these with the Tulip tool, too. Stardreams paper for layering and a little ribbon.

Hero Arts again. Yes, it is my favorite stamp company. The trees are stamped with Encore Metallic Blue and embossed with Judikins Iridescent Sparkle powder, as is the sentiment. It is very sparkly in person and reminds me of a snowy winter evening. I added some Flower Soft for snow at the bottom of the trees to some of them, but not this one, obviously.

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful holiday season!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2010-12-22T14:22:00.001-05:00

Since I finally got my cards in the mail yesterday and gifts wrapped and under our little tree today! Procrastinate? Me? Pfffftttt. I am right on schedule. If by schedule you mean get it all done at the last possible second.

I thought I would share a couple of the cards since I did remember to take photos before mailing them this time. My daughter and I had a lot of fun, and several hysterical moments, making some of these together.

I loved these snowmen from Stampendous the moment I saw them and loved coloring them, but coming up with a way to use them on a card was a little more challenging since I am not good with scissors. I thought he turned out well, though, in spite of my poor scissoring (is that a word?).

He is colored with Copics, the swirl background is a Hero Arts cling stamp called Magical Background, stamped in white Memories in and cut with a Nestabilities die. A few punched glittery snowflakes, some glitter on his hat and scarf, a little ribbon and he’s ready to go!

I saw a card very similar to this one on someone’s blog and wanted to give it a try. The background is a Hero Arts cling but I don’t know the name, it’s got musical notes on it. The sentiment is also Hero Arts and the paper is probably Memory Box. I die cut the main image with a Nestabilities die, then traced around the outside of the die and cut the red mat by hand. They don’t layer closely enough together for me – I really wish they would make intermediate dies for a lot of these.

My daughter made this one – isn’t he adorable? She is becoming a wonderful stamper, I am so proud! It’s a Penny Black Christmas kitty, colored with Copics. Polar White Flower soft on his hat, the tag is a Nestabilities die and S.E.I. paper for a background.

That’s all I have for today but I promise to be back later on with more cards. They are predicting a possibility of snow on Christmas Day here – I have my fingers crossed. I’d love a white Christmas this year!

A little behind

2010-12-10T15:35:00.001-05:00

I wish I had one of those….a little behind…get it? Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Nothing new on my craft table yet but I did want to share a couple of very clever gifties that I received the other day. These are so adorable!

We had a birthday dinner for a friend and Vicki brought us all one of these:

Do they come in bigger containers?? I could use some more, I think. I do love the Christmas season but I can’t say I care for the stress of shopping. It’s cold, everywhere is crowded, I don’t know what to get, money is tight…..there are lots of reasons. I would be just as happy to send cards and visit with friends than have to deal with gift giving, and receiving. Enough whining, on to the next cutie.

This was also from Vicki – she is so clever! I don’t know if you can read the poem or not, but I hope you can.

And here is the “homemade fudge”, which suits me just fine, actually. Chocolate in any form is good, except if it has nuts in it. Thank you, Vicki, for leaving out the nuts!

That’s all I have for today. I need to get started on Christmas cards very, very soon, time is slipping by too quickly. I also need to change the blog background but by the time I get around to that Christmas will be over, I’m sure. Maybe a nice winter theme would work. Hmmmm.

I hope you all are having a lovely holiday season and keeping the stress level to a minimum!

I just had to share this

2010-11-04T23:48:00.001-04:00

Totally not stamping related, but I had to share this – along with a little couponing information I learned today. Harris Teeter is doubling coupons up to $1.98 through November 9, so I took my coupons and went out in the rain today. I saved over $40 at HT alone and that was where I learned this awesome little bit of information.

I was looking at the dishwasher detergents with a Finish Quantum coupon in my hand when I saw another woman with a BINDER full of coupons (there are lots of these women on double coupon days) pick up one of the Finish detergents that were on sale but not the one on my coupon. She had the same coupon. She smiled at me and shared her secret. Now, if I am the last one to know this, please don’t tell me, ok? Anyway, she said that if the first set of numbers on the barcode on your coupon match the first set of barcode numbers on the product, it will work, even if it is not the same product on the coupon. It has to be the same manufacturer, of course. So, I picked up the same detergent she had, as well as some Welch’s juice that was a different brand than the coupon I had – the coupon item was gone already . The barcodes were the same. It worked. This isn’t harming the store, they will still get reimbursed for the coupons. She said someone that worked at a grocery store told her about this. Some stores and/or cashiers may be pickier than others, in which case I wouldn’t suggest arguing with them. Just go with it and either take the item anyway or put it back, no big deal. The reason I do like this is because some stores run out of the couponed items so quickly and some will offer rain checks and some won’t. Just a little FYI to keep in mind if you are a couponer (is that a word?).

THIS is the deal I just have to brag about a little bit. I bought all of this at Target today for $3.27, using coupons.

Yes, you read that right. $3.27 – here is the receipt to prove it. The tax was almost as much as the items – apparently the tax is computed on the price before the coupons are applied.

All coupons, and none of the using them on other products thing that I mentioned. They were all for the products that I bought. The nice thing about Target is that you can use their coupon AND a manufacturer’s coupon on the same item. Rite Aid, Walgreen’s and CVS do this, too. I think I have enough air fresheners for some time to come!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Party on.

Halloween, the sequel

2010-10-28T23:00:00.000-04:00

These are the last of the bunch. I will miss making Halloween cards, it’s my favorite holiday.

This one uses many of the same elements as the previous ones – Impression Obsession background, Silhouette designs house, etc. The graveyard is last year’s Martha punch and the sentiment is from a Studio G set – probably last year, too.

The main image on this one is Impression Obsession, and I sponged the edges with purple inks, Marvy, I think. I added a little Marvy Brilliant Yellow to the center, just to add a little interest. Nestabilities Label dies and some Best Creations glittery paper complete the ensemble.

Another Silhouette design – isn’t she an adorable witch? I colored the hat band, the collar of her dress and the band on the broom with a Stardust gel pen. She, and the houses, are cut from suede paper. The Silhouette cuts it like buttah. The flourishes in the corners are older Cuttlebug dies and the paper is some I had from last year. I used the same Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card background again, too. The sun was punched with one of the few Marvy Clever Lever punches I have left – the pink circle punch. The edges are sponged with Spiced Marmalade Distress ink. The sentiment is also from Impression Obsession.

That’s it for my Halloween cards, now it’s time to start on my next favorite – Fall cards. I just love the colors of Fall, the deep yellow and orange, dark red and even deep purple. Hmmm…Deep Purple. I seem to remember seeing them in concert many, many, many years ago. Smoke on the Waaaater…..sing it with me. Help me out with the words, it’s been a long time.

Party on, people.

Halloween, one more time

2010-10-27T20:10:00.001-04:00

Just a couple more of my Halloween cards. This one has very little stamping, just the background, sentiment, and the spider web. I punched the moon from a scrap of BoBunny Buttercup Dot paper and sponged it with Spiced Marmalade Distress ink. I sponged the edges of the clouds with Weathered Wood Distress ink and London Fog Memento ink. The “light” in the windows and doors of the house is a piece of gold vellum. The ghost is punches from white vellum. I distressed the edge of the green paper with the Tim Holtz Paper Distresser (is that a word?) to make it a look a wee bit like grass. I saw a card similar to this on a blog and had to give it a shot.

Details:
House - Silhouette design
Tree and moon - EK Success punches
Witch - Martha Stewart punch
Ghost - Punch Bunch punch
Clouds - Papertrey Ink dies
Stamps - Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card, Inkadinkado (Happy Halloween)

Great Impressions Witches, bwahahahah. These adorable little cuties are inked with Versamark and embossed with detail clear embossing powder. I colored them with Copic markers, and stamped a couple of spider webs in the corners. I added a floor with a gray Copic marker so they wouldn’t be floating in mid-air. Although, now that I think of it, they are witches after all, and could very well BE floating. Right? The background is embossed with a CB folder and the spider web border at the bottom is a Martha Stewart border punch from last year and I was able to line it up and punch both sides to make a complete web. I added the green May Arts ribbon down the center to hide the middle part of the punch, which is a little wider than I’d like. It’s tricky getting just the right width paper for that technique. The sentiment is Impression Obsession and I sponged the edges with some lime green Versamagic chalk ink. Done.

It’s raining again here this evening but no tornado warnings so far. I am hopeful we will get a little thunder and lightning, if we’re lucky. I hope everyone is having a wonderful evening, wherever you are. I still have a few more cards to post, so come back soon!

More Halloween

2010-10-26T23:15:00.001-04:00

And no Renaissance Faire this time. Aren’t you glad?

Same DRS Designs stamp but this time I brayered it with yellow and orange, and a little bit of light blue at the bottom to make the ground a bit green.

Hero Arts spider web stamp, stamped with Versamark and embossed with Judikins White Diamonds powder. The big spider is a Martha Stewart punch, which I think looks more like a tick than a spider, unfortunately. I did make a couple of others like this but I used the Silhouette and cut out more realistic spiders. I also forgot to photograph those before I sealed the envelopes and popped them into the mailbox. I also added a little bling to the Happy Halloween on those cards, with some red gemstones just like I have on the spiders on this one.The sentiment is a Studio G dollar stamp from either Michael’s or AC Moore.

That’s all I have for today. Thanks for stopping by and I will have more Halloween cards this week, so please stop back by soon.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

2010-10-24T21:01:00.001-04:00

It will very soon, All Hallows Eve is just around the corner, and you know what that means. Halloween cards! But first a few photos of the Renaissance Faire. We went opening weekend and there were lots of people there. It’s always crowded that weekend because tickets are cheaper than - $20 for two people rather than the regular price of $19 each. We are frugal that way. The traffic was backed up for miles, so we are not the only frugal old fogies in the neighborhood.

We saw this guy as soon as we walked in – yep, that’s a dragon on his shoulder. I couldn’t get a shot from the front, but it was quite the costume. When he moves the lever in his right hand, the wings flap. People really get into the whole Renaissance thing and it creates a wonderful atmosphere.

The Storyteller – she was a just a wee thing, and so pretty.

This guy was looking for something. He said it had big, billowy, white sails. I didn’t see it. Good luck, buddy. Have some more ale and maybe it will magically appear.

This is the costume I want for next year. I don’t know who this girl is but it suits her, don’t you think. It can’t be that hard to stitch up, right? It looks a lot more comfortable than some of the costumes we saw that day – boned corsets and such. Ouch.

The Ded Bob Sho – same routine as last year, unfortunately, but funny just the same.

I’m not sure what this was all about but she had a duck on her head, a duck quacking whistle and a line of people following her. Lots of interesting sights to see here, that’s for sure.

Love the wings.

The Green Man – he is amazing to see. A big walking tree.Totally cool.

Harpist, is that what they are called? Check out those shoes.

I don’t know who these guys are but I love the costumes.

The Painted Lady. Yes, that’s paint all over her. Made me want to offer her a wet wipe.

As we were leaving these people were kind enough to pose for a photo.

Thanks for hanging in there. Now for the cards…

The main image is all one stamp, from DRS Designs. The sentiment at the bottom is by Impression Obsession. I brayered the background using Marvy Inks – purple and a couple of shades of blue. I like the Marvy inks for brayering because they blend really well. I didn’t even have to use glossy paper. The background swirly stamp is also Impression Obsession, stamped with Making Memories White ink.

Stamps by Impression Obsession. Instead of a brayer this time I used the jumbo daubers from Tsukineko. I love those things! They blend the inks really well and are easy on the fingers, too. I colored the rest of the image with Copic markers and added a little Stardust Stickles to the stars and moon for a little extra sparkle.

Stay tuned for more cards this week. Thanks for stopping by!

The envelope please…

2010-10-11T23:09:00.001-04:00

I have had a busy and fun weekend and nearly forgot to choose a winner! We went to the Renaissance Festival this weekend and I have some photos which I will post later in the week but right now it’s time to announce the winner of the MyBlogSpark prize.

I threw the names into a basket, closed my eyes and picked out……...Debbie,

who said “that recipe looks yummy! My favorite way to eat biscuits is right by themselves, hot with melted butter and maybe a touch of jelly. Pure enjoyment and probably why my scale says what it does :)”

10/10/10 10:27 AM

Congratulations, Debbie and thank you all for playing. Debbie, if you will email me with your mailing address we will get your prize on the way to you.

I picked up a bag of the frozen Pillsbury Grands Biscuits at the store today and am looking forward to cooler weather soon – I love biscuits with beef stew and/or chili.

A Giveaway!

2010-10-07T11:25:00.001-04:00

The folks at MyBlogSpark were kind enough to send me a box of goodies the other day. I am always thrilled to get a box in the mail, especially when I wasn’t expecting anything. I opened the box and found all of this!

It’s a lovely bread basket, butter knife, butter dish, a $15 Visa card (it’s already in my purse), and a coupon for free Pillsbury Frozen Grands or Mini Grands Biscuits. Pillsbury^® Grands!^® Frozen Mini Biscuits, the new freezer-to-oven biscuits that come warm, fluffy and fresh from your oven in just minutes. Each 70-calorie biscuit is a delight when served hot from the oven, with a warm fluffy center and golden, flaky crust. Pillsbury® Grands!® Mini Biscuits are the perfect size for kids, or for mini sandwiches and appetizers. There are countless recipe options, from miniature ham sandwiches come lunchtime, to delicious sliders for nighttime entertaining. There are so many ways to make these biscuits and your family will love trying each one.

The best part is they said I could give another one of these prize packages away to one of my lucky blog readers. I know!

You will have to work for it a bit, though. Just share your own recipe idea, demonstrating how you would use Pillsbury® Grands!® Mini Biscuits. Get creative – I know you can do it. If you don’t have one, that’s ok, just tell me which dishes you think go best with biscuits. Chili? Beef Stew? Eggs? Chicken Soup? Inquiring minds need to know. Here is a recipe idea for you to try. It’s quick, easy and very tasty!

Grands® Fiesta Chicken Casserole

INGREDIENTS

1 can (16.3 oz) Pillsbury® Grands!® Homestyle refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

1/2 cup Old El Paso® Thick 'n Chunky salsa

1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken

1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (6 oz)

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/4 cup sliced ripe olives, drained, if desired

DIRECTIONS

CUT each biscuit into 8 pieces; toss with salsa to coat.
SPREAD in sprayed 8-inch square (2-quart) glass baking dish; sprinkle with remaining ingredients.
BAKE at 375°F 35 to 40 minutes or until edges are deep golden brown and center biscuit pieces are no longer doughy. Let stand 15 minutes. Serve with additional salsa, if desired.

How easy is that? Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment here and I will draw a winner on Monday, October 11. Be sure to leave a way to contact you, either your email address or blog address. Good luck!!

I’m shameless

2010-10-02T20:34:00.001-04:00

Absolutely shameless, and a slacker, to boot. The slacker complex creeps in every time I watch Julie & Julia. I feel like a slacker for not cooking (much) and for blogging even less. Not that any of that is going to change, mind you, but I do love watching that movie. Maybe if I watch it enough I will become immune to feeling inadequate. Or I will learn to ignore those feelings. But I won’t stop watching it.

Now for the shameless part. This card is an absolute shameless CASE of a card I saw on DarleneDesigns’ blog. It was so adorable, I couldn’t resist. She does some very clever things over there, you should go see. I didn’t take the time to change it up except using different stamps and a Nestability for the oval on the front, only because I don’t own all of the supplies she used.

There you have it. I will probably be making more of these at some point. They were fairly easy to do once I got the hang of it, and other images/punches could be used to vary the design.

Happy World Cardmaking Day to you all! Back to my movie.

Details:
Stamps: Hero Arts (wood grain, Happy Birthday, musical note), PaperTrey Ink (owl “feathers”, inside sentiment)
Other: SU Owl Punch, Copic markers, clear embossing powder, Nestability die – standard ovals

Another trip around the sun

2010-09-21T21:02:00.001-04:00

I couldn’t resist making another of those cards. I found this cloud paper in my stash and had to cut it up. The clouds are all glittery :-) The oval is made with a Nestability and I distressed the edges, then sponged it with Memento Cantaloupe ink.

The grass is cut with decorative scissors for the uneven grass effect then I cut it with Martha Stewart shredding scissors to make blades of grass. The edges are sponged with Memento Bamboo Leaves ink for a little added dimension.

I cranked up my Silhouette and cut out bunches of suns in different sizes and with a couple of different yellow papers. This paper is my favorite – Bazzill Fiesta, Washboard Texture. You can see the glittery clouds a little better in this photo, too.

Here is the inside. Nestability die again, sponged with Bamboo Leaves and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

I will probably be making more of these in the near future. At least until I get into the Autumn colors groove. I like the sentiment on the front of the card but I’m not all that crazy about the font. So…..I had a small brainstorm last night and created several more with different fonts….on my computer! Duh!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my latest creation and now I have to go watch the season finale of Warehouse 13.

Is this week over yet?

2010-09-15T21:49:00.001-04:00

Without boring you with the details, let me just state for the record that this week, so far, sucks. A lot. And it’s only Wednesday. The one bright spot was a lovely birthday gift from my friend Marsha. An adorable pair of earrings by a local artist in the mountains. Thank you, Marsha, I love them! No photo, sorry. I’m a slacker.

But I do have a card or two to show you. This is the one I gave Marsha for her birthday this week:

Once more, I should have considered the background in the photo. Sigh. The image is a Bella stamp (Stella’s Cupcakes), one of only four that I have in my possession. The Bella stamps are pricey, and especially for bare, unmounted-to-anything-at-all rubber. This girl was too cute to pass up, though.

Another card I sent to my daughter:

Yep, another Bella. Bitty Bloom is her name, I believe. Can you tell I am on a layering squares with punched corners binge? It’s just too much fun! And so very easy. Squares in increments of 1/4”. The largest is 3-1/2”, the second is 3-1/4”, and the top is 3”. I added two layers of a Nestabilities die, some pearls and a little ribbon on top of some of that glittery Best Creations paper. Voila. I padded it within an inch of its life to go through the mail. It made it there intact, I’m proud to say, and she was a happy girl when she opened it.

Here is the beautiful girl herself. This was taken a few weeks ago when she was here for a visit. She lives in Asheville, for now. The plan is for her to move in with us for a while, go back to school, get a better job, etc. I will be glad when she is over here – I miss her a lot! We always have such a good time together. She’s a sweetie!

I think I will go drown my sorrows in some coffee, watch some mindless TV and go to bed early tonight. Tomorrow is another day – hopefully a better one as well. I did get a good haircut today so I am grateful for that.

Nighty night, people.

Under pressure

2010-09-12T00:32:00.001-04:00

So, last night – at 11:15pm, mind you – DH says to me, “R is having a birthday tomorrow, do you have a birthday card I can give him?”. Seriously? Does he like flowers? No? Are you sure? Men!!

The search for some “manly” patterned paper begins. I start in the Blue/Purple drawer, pass over the purple and hope I have some blue which is suitable. You know, no blue butterflies or swirly things, just a blue plaid or even stripes. No luck. I moved on to the Yellow/Orange/Brown drawer. Jackpot! A piece which is mostly brown with some blue and white lines on it. I knew I kept that paper for a reason. I think I’ve had it for several years.

I set to work creating my next masterpiece. I found a sentiment which wasn’t too sappy (Penny Black), stamped it half a dozen times (after stamping several others as many times) and die cut it with 5 or 6 different shapes. Meh. Scrap the cool shapes, they aren’t working. Several pieces of card stock later I decided on rectangles.

Before I make a short story any longer, here is the result, of which I am quite proud, by the way. Apparently I work well under pressure.

The patterned paper was brown with white and blue, I added the yellow over some of the white with a Copic marker because I needed a spot of yellow to go with the ribbon and the sun. The cloud is a Papertrey die, the sun is a Carla Craft punch. I’d love to find a larger sun punch.

No bows, just grosgrain ribbon. A manly, masculine ribbon, not foofy and girly at all. No bling, no Stickles, not a brad in sight, yet I am happy with the result. I probably should have photographed it on something other than the blue paper I used on the card. Too late. By then it was 2:30am and I was just plain done. I’m happy that I remembered to take a photo of it at all.

Not bad for a last minute scramble, huh? I should make some more to have on hand so next time I don’t have to scramble.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. We finally got a little rain here today and are hoping for some more tonight. Is it Fall yet???

I’m back already

2010-09-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

Back with another couple of cards to show you. These will be going to the shop in Mooresville to be submitted for their approval.

No butterflies this time, only flowers.

Sentiment from Papertrey, glittery paper by Best Creations from Stamper’s Alley. Martha Stewart border punch and some silk flowers complete the ensemble.

Hero Arts stamps – Wildflower Garden (I think), and Large Canvas Stripes Design Block. The flowers were inked up with Wild Honey and Worn Lipstick Distress inks and stamped on watercolor paper. Nestabilities Labels die (dunno which number).

Each time I photograph a card I intend to do an artsy shot, with brads, ribbons, or something artsy in the photo to add a little interest. Then I get lazy and just shoot the thing. Maybe I will surprise myself one day – and you, as well – and do something cool like I’ve seen on other blogs. Something to strive for, I suppose.

Rumors of my demise are highly exaggerated

2010-09-10T00:49:00.001-04:00

I’m still alive and kickin’. I’ve just been busy, and sometimes lazy. I’ve been preparing for a few classes up at Stamper’s Alley, one of which I taught this evening. There were nine wonderful ladies in class, we made 6 Halloween cards using Great Impression stamps and we all had a great time. Thank you, ladies!

I have been doing a little card making lately, though. A shop in Downtown Mooresville has expressed an interest in carrying a few of my cards, so I’ve been trying to come up with some designs for them.

The request was cards with flowers, butterflies, or angels. I don’t have any angel stamps so I settled on flowers and butterflies and this is what I’ve come up with so far.

This card didn’t photograph very well. The colors go together much better IRL (in real life). I stamped the polka dots on white card stock and used a Papertrey die to cut the flowers. The sentiment and leaf stamps and die cuts are also from Papertrey.

The butterfly on this one is from Inkadinkado, colored with Copics, and the sentiment is, again, from Papertrey.

I’ll be back soon with some more, I promise! Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Mission Accomplished

2010-08-09T21:00:00.000-04:00

I am now, or will soon be, the proud owner of a current NC drivers license. We went to the DMV in Statesville and although there were a lot of people waiting, and we did have to wait for 2 hours, it was a much more pleasant experience. We had some interesting people to talk to, and the employees were not snarky at all. I only missed one sign – I called it a triangle. Not even close to correct. It was Passing Zone or No Passing Zone, I forget which.

Brenda and Harold stopped by, bearing gifts, this afternoon. She is trying desperately to turn me into a gardener. She brought me this:

Is that not the most adorable thing you have ever seen? His head wobbles and he has gorgeous green eyes made of sparkly glass. He has a springy tail but it’s hidden behind the flowers. That’s an azalea in the pot, and it is absolutely beautiful. Let’s hope I can keep it that way. I will do my best.

She actually made a card for me, a rare treat indeed. We always tease her about the cards she sends. Sometimes she does make them herself, but she also buys cards from other card makers. There’s just not enough hours in the day when you own a stamp store and have a life, too.

It’s beautiful, I love it! Her cards are always so pretty, she is very talented and creative.

But wait, there’s more. She knows the way to my heart!

Now, as any well-informed birthday girl knows, there are no calories in anything on your birthday. Plus, this is healthy cake. Look closely. There is real fruit in there. Peaches. I swear! And on top, too. Look at the strawberry. Vitamin C. Very tasty healthy cake.

My plan was to save it for tomorrow. That didn’t work out so well.

It was delicious. DH helped me with it a little bit. Speaking of DH…this is his contribution to this wild and crazy calorie-free celebration:

Chocolate cake with chocolate icing. OMG. It is a small, but very deadly, cake. I mentioned the other day that all I really wanted for my birthday was a SLICE of this chocolatey goodness from a local bakery. Yes, they sell it by the slice. The “healthy” slice of cake from Brenda and Harold came from that same bakery. Well, in typical male fashion all he heard was blah, blah, blah chocolate cake, and blah, blah, blah, La Patisserie. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Oh, no, not at all. Neither is he, since he will have to help out with this confectionery masterpiece. On second thought….maybe he did hear what I said after all – could there be a method to his madness? Hmmm. At any rate, I see many miles on the treadmill at the gym in my near future.

The mailman brought more birthday cards today, from crafty and non-crafty friends.

From Claire in St. Augustine. She never forgets my birthday. I still miss her very much.

From Princess and Deen, friends and clients in Arkansas:

The inside says, “…dance as though no one who is qualified to commit you is watching”. LOL! I wish those bathing suits would come back in style again. Then I could go back to the beach and not scare small children. Love those hats, too.

Thank you all for stopping by and we will return to our normally scheduled programming later in the week. Now you must excuse me, I do believe I just heard a chocolate cake calling me. Yes, I definitely did. I’ll be right there…..

Happy Birthday to me!

2010-08-09T08:00:00.000-04:00

Yes, it’s my birthday today! You don’t really need to know how old I am, do you? Not that it matters to me anyway. Some days I feel much older than I am, and other days I am quite surprised when look in the mirror. Who is that old lady and why is she in my bathroom, and wearing MY nightgown? The nerve! Oh, wait, that’s me. Ok, I’m 55 today. Seriously? How can that be? When did that happen?? Where have the years gone?

Do any of you feel that way? I can’t possibly be THAT old! It gets a little trickier every year too – finding the right clothes and shoes, getting the right haircut, carrying the perfect purse, etc. I don’t want to look like an old lady (because I’m not!), but I don’t want to be “that woman”, either. You know the one I mean. She’s 60 if she’s a day, but she’s still in denial. Tight clothes, electric blue eye shadow, cherry red lipstick, hair teased up to heaven and bleached within an inch of its life, lacquered nails that should be registered as lethal weapons. No, I don’t want to be her. But I don’t want to be my grandmother, either. It’s a tough age. It also doesn’t feel as old as I thought it would when I was 20. That’s a good thing.

I will probably always be a smart ass with a rather sarcastic, and slightly twisted, sense of humor. I may even be a crazy cat lady someday. With 4 cats I’m well on my way, don’t you think? I can’t let my hair be grey just yet, either. I’m still too young for that. Mademoiselle L’Oreal is my BFF.

I feel very lucky and blessed. I am in good health (let’s not talk about weight, ok?), I have a husband who loves me and supports my ~~stamping addiction~~ hobby, children that I love with all my heart and that I miss very much, very dear friends that I cherish, a comfortable house, a nice car to drive (yes, with heated leather seats, dear), four sweet kitties, lots of stamping toys….life is good and I am grateful, very grateful.

Our 14th anniversary was last week and we received some beautiful anniversary cards from friends.

From Emogene and Buddy -

From Pat and Joe -

This is the one I made for my sweetie -

I have received some lovely birthday cards, too.

From Pat – what an adorable kitty! She hates to color, but she did it just for me. So sweet!

From Emogene – she makes the most amazing creations!

From Vicki – I envy her cutting-out skills, that flower is perfect -

From Andrea – she takes some beautiful photos -

Thank you all for thinking of me :-)

As you are reading this I am probably wasting away at the DMV waiting to get my license renewed. What a way to start a birthday celebration, right? Totally my fault, though. I got the renewal card in the mail a few months ago but didn’t really read it. This is my first license renewal in NC. In Florida we renewed online and it was not a big deal. P.I.T.A. here! Long lines and snarky DMV employees. Your tax dollars at work. Right. I plan on being there when they open tomorrow morning and maybe I will only have to wait a couple of hours instead of A L L day. DH has volunteered to accompany me and I appreciate that very much. I waited for 2 hours the other day at another local DMV (with snarky employees), and the last straw was when the entire staff went to lunch for an hour and just left us all sitting there. I know! So I left before I had a meltdown. I also found it a little disconcerting, and perhaps a sign that I’m approaching over-the-hillness, that I was one of the very few without a “smart phone”. Texting, web surfing, and emailing was going on all around me and there I sat with my plain ol’ vanilla it-just-makes-phone-calls cell phone. Well, it does have a camera. Hmmm. I even forgot to take a book to read. Good times.

So, I’ll suck it up and try again tomorrow. I have no choice now. My license expires tomorrow, so I will have to endure whatever long lines and snarky employees there may be. Lesson learned, though. Next time I will make an appointment. Which, btw, was NOT mentioned on the renewal card. Thanks so much, dear DMV. Very helpful.

One cool bit of trivia before I go – this year my birthday is 8-9-10. I know, I’m easily amused.

A Little Reorganization

2010-07-29T16:26:00.001-04:00

I spent a little quality time with my ribbon collection, winding it up to fit in the new containers. Well, as we all know, one thing leads to another and I ended up doing just a wee bit of reorganization to go along with my new ribbon storage solution.

What started out like this (and was a little more crowded because this is an old photo) -

ended up like this -

Of course, that isn’t all of my ribbon but it is a good portion of it. The only limitation I found to this system is that, depending on the thickness of the ribbon, you can only fit about 3 yards of ribbon in each slot. Since most of what is in here came on spools of more than 3 yards I stored the rest in a box in the closet. I did give away some of it to my daughter and her roommate, both of whom are card makers/crafters, so it went to a good home. I have sworn off buying any new ribbon until I have depleted a LOT of what I already have.

The racks, formerly known as ribbon racks, have a new purpose -

Big-honkin’-punch storage! Yes, I see that row of ribbon. Papertrey and Stampin’ Up ribbon, to be exact. I have more than 3 yards of each one and will put those into containers when I get them. Since they match card stock I wanted to keep them separate for now. I know, there’s more ribbon hanging there, too, but most of that is a yard or two here and there, and I didn’t want to take up valuable slots with so little yardage right now. Again, as I get more containers, I will revisit the hanging ribbons.

Since I was able to clear a few shelves by moving the big punches to a new home, my punch shelves got a little reorganization, too.

The overexposed shelf (forgot to turn off the light, duh!) are Martha Stewart punches. The baskets on the bottom shelf hold flowers – silk flowers, paper flowers, felt flowers….lots and lots of flowers. They used to live on a shelf over my workspace and it was getting a little overcrowded up there. It’s better now.

Jars of buttons and big background stamps now occupy the space. Do you think I have too many background stamps? No? Really?? Ok, good. Because I like background stamps and I’m going to keep them. I might even buy some more.

I didn’t do all of this all by myself, though. Oh, no! I had a helper…

That’s Michael. He is my sweetie cat. He is also known as the Chunky Monkey – he’s addicted to cat treats and it shows. He likes to come in here every so often and see what kind of trouble he can get into. This time he jumped up on to the shelf and crawled behind the drawer stacks, and I had to take the drawers out to get him out from behind them. The white IKEA drawers are deeper than the plastic ones on top, so there is a perfect little kitty hideaway back there. Or so he thought. Doesn’t he look like he’s found the perfect spot for a cat nap? I love the kittehs and he is my baby. He’s such a sweet kitty and a good snuggler, too.

That’s all I have for today, peeps. Thanks for checking in and feel free to leave a comment to let me know you were here, I really enjoy reading them.

Ribbon Organization

2010-07-24T16:50:00.001-04:00

I probably should have said “Future Ribbon Organization”, since I only have one little roll of ribbon in here so far.

I found these at the convention last weekend. Inky Antics was selling them and ran out, they were so popular. I think Brenda may start carrying them at Stamper’s Alley, at least I hope so because I will need more. I bought 4 of them, which translates to 144 slots for ribbon. Actually it can hold more because there are separators that can be inserted between the ribbon rolls if you have narrower ribbon. They are not terribly expensive either. The started kit contains 5 ribbon containers, the tray to keep them in and the spooler and I think it’s $19.95. A package of 6 containers was $12.95.

I have a LOT of ribbon and need to get busy organizing it but I have been, as usual, procrastinating. I want to get an Etsy shop started, I need to put together a Hero Arts class, and make some cards and earrings for this not-yet-existent Etsy shop, and the list goes on. I will post more photos once I get it all together.

Anyway, here are some links if you want more info about the ribbon organization system:

Inky Antics

As I said, I think Brenda may be looking into getting them for Stamper’s Alley so if you are local, you might want to wait and see – no shipping charges!

I hope you are all staying cool on this sweltering summer day. If we had a pool that’s where I would be today.

The last one, I promise

2010-07-23T16:00:00.000-04:00

I will move on to other things. These other things may still involve bright colors, felt, buttons and BoBunny paper……or not. I haven’t decided yet.

I used a different Papertrey die for the flower, same BoBunny paper and a Hero Arts sentiment and background.

We went to the StampScrapArtTour convention in Winston-Salem this past weekend and I found a wonderful new ribbon storage solution. I am waiting on my new camera to arrive and I will post photos for you. I have SO much ribbon and I know I will need more containers, but this will get me started. I may even have to purge some of this ribbon that I absolutely had to have. Maybe. Possibly. Wish me luck.

Hello again

2010-07-22T17:00:00.000-04:00

I liked those cards so well I just couldn’t stop with two. Hero Arts stamps again, and the same BoBunny paper.

For this one I used the Hero Arts Distressed Stripes background stamp and made myself part with one of my crocheted flowers. Why do I feel the need to hold on to these? It’s not like I can’t make more if I want them. This paper is BoBunny, from the same Petal Pushers collection. The swirls are on one side of the paper and the yellow strip is on the other side.

I love BoBunny paper! It’s double sided and color coordinated, takes all of the guesswork out of matching papers. I think the ribbon might be May Arts but I really don’t remember.

Helloooooo!

2010-07-21T12:17:00.001-04:00

The other day I was in the mood for some bright and cheerful cards and this is what I came up with. I love the Papertrey felt and when the Raspberry Fizz arrived I went to work die cutting some of it. It cuts like buttah! I’ve had this paper for a couple of weeks and was tempted to hoard it but decided to do something different this time and just cut it up.

These are very simple cards, quick to put together but have a big impact, I think. Very little stamping involved. The most difficult part was getting the ribbon threaded through the buttons. The sentiment is stamped on a Nestabilities die cut that I cut in half. Labels 4, maybe? I could make these all day. I used some felt glue to put the flowers together, I think it’s made by Beacon Adhesives.

Stamps – Hero Arts (Hello), Studio G (Just a Note) Paper – BoBunny Petal Pushers collection Accessories – Papertrey dies and felt (raspberry fizz), Yellow wool felt (an Etsy shop), Hero Arts buttons, May Arts ribbon, Corner Chomper, Nestabilities die

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that the weather is cooler where you are – it is wicked hot here! Is it September yet???

SCDC

2010-07-19T18:00:00.000-04:00

Same card, different colors. I liked that design so much I had to do it again….and again…one or two more times.

I chose a different color palette for these but still used the same image and basic layout. I also left off (quite my mistake) the twine bow and used a plain button and gems for the flower centers.

Also missing – again, by mistake – is the sponging on the edges of the image. I didn’t realize that until I had adhered it to the background paper. There was no pulling it up either, I use really sticky tape. This is a good thing until you make a mistake and want to un-adhere (a word?) something.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a wonderful day.

Birthday

2010-07-18T00:52:00.001-04:00

It was DH’s birthday last week and I needed to make a card. He’s not terribly fond of flowers, so I had to come up with something else. He doesn’t fish, hunt, or play golf or any other sport, unless decimating entire populations of virtual aliens is considered a sport. Even so, I don’t think they make a stamp for that!

What to do? He does like hot air balloons. Ah HA! Not so fast – I didn’t have the Papertrey Up & Away set (yet). Hmmmmm. I don’t really like digital stamps, but this was an emergency. I did a quick Google search for hot air balloons and digital stamps, and found some really pretty ones. Twelve of them and all free – right here. They are awesome. I downloaded them, resized and printed them, and remembered seeing a beautiful card made with the Papertrey balloons on Natasha’s blog. Since I had left it until the last minute, I didn’t have time to come up with another idea so I pretty much CASEd her card. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

He loved it! I loved it, too. The balloons are colored with Copics, of course. The clouds are made with the Papertrey die and some fleece that I found next to the craft felt at one of the big box stores. The dies didn’t cut all the way through the fleece like they do the felt but it was easy enough to trim them out.

I now have the Up & Away set but I do still love these balloons. Since they are digital they can be resized to fit any project. Check out Bird’s blog and snag some free digistamps for yourself. They will never take the place of real stamps for me, but they certainly do come in handy now and then.

Copycatting

2010-07-10T09:00:00.000-04:00

Is that a word? Probably not. But that’s what I was doing when I made these cards. Ok, I think we call it CASEing – same thing :-) I saw this card on the Hero Arts Flickr Group and it was love at first sight. I didn’t change the design much at all and made 2 with just slightly different colors. I like ‘em. I am proud of myself for stopping at two. I could have made dozens!

All stamps are Hero Arts. The flower and the flourish behind the sentiment are in the Speckled Ornaments clear set and the sentiment is from the Thinking of You Messages clear set.

As CAS as I can manage

2010-07-09T08:55:00.000-04:00

There are a couple of blogs that I follow that feature CAS (Clean and Simple) card designs and try as I might I cannot be happy with too many of my attempts at CAS. I don’t know if it’s guilt over not using more of my embarrassing collection of supplies on a card, or if it doesn’t take as long to create a card so I feel like I am cheating, or if CAS is simply not my personal style. I certainly do like the cards I see on those blogs, though. Clean and Simple Designs is one and Simplicity is another. See what I mean? Beautiful cards!

Here is one attempt. Hero Arts cling stamp (I forget the name) and the sentiment is Papertrey (another one that I use a LOT!). The image is stamped onto Hero Hues layering paper and embossed with white powder. Bingo. Done.

Same idea but with a little bit of decorative paper on the left and a few more gemstones. But I restrained myself before I added ribbon. Or flowers. Or any more layers. That’s progress. Right???

I really do enjoy one making layer CAS cards and will make more, I’m sure. There are so many images that are well suited to this kind of design. I think I might need some more colors of embossing powder, though. :-)

DH has a birthday today and I have his card all finished but I can’t show it to you yet. I meant to take a picture before I sealed it in the envelope but that didn’t happen so I will get that done later today. It is a bit outside the box for me and I have to say that I am very pleased with it. I will tell you that it is not CAS at all! I am also working on more cards for OWH and thinking about putting some in an Etsy shop, but I’m still mulling that one over. Do any of you have an Etsy shop - what are your thoughts on that? Worth it? Pain in the neck? Gimme the scoop.

I am also getting a little antsy about doing a redesign of my blog but am afraid of losing all of my links and gadgets. I would not be happy!So if you stop by one day and it looks awful you’ll know what happened.

More Hugs

2010-07-08T17:00:00.000-04:00

Can you tell I like this sentiment stamp? Well, I do like it a lot, for several reasons. When I am making cards for Operation Write Home and need an affectionate, but not too smoochy-kissy, sappy kind of sentiment this fits the bill perfectly. When I am making cards to have on hand for some unforeseen card-sending occasion, it also fits that bill. Someday I will move on to another sentiment but for now this is working for me, most of the time. I also like it because it is a large stamp and can fill up some space on the front of a card. I bet you’ve seen it so much on my blog I don’t even need to tell you who makes it, do I? Ok then, I won’t.

I found a couple of sheets of the Basic Grey Kioshi paper at AC Moore one day and I am trying my best to use the paper I buy rather than hoard it. Not easy, I know! But very satisfying. Try it sometime. Just repeat after me – it’s only a piece of paper, it’s only a piece of paper, it’s only…..you get the idea.

I used a Fiskars border punch for the ribbon threading border and I wish someone would make an adjustable one so the holes could be spaced out differently depending on the size of the paper. See how the ribbon goes over the front at the bottom and under at the top? Phooey. I could have made a larger card, I guess, but A2 is the size I am most comfortable with. I tried several different sizes for the ribbon threading part and none of them worked any better so it is what it is, peeps. I’m open to suggestions.

The scalloped border is an EK Success border punch – I do love those punches. I won’t even tell you how many of those I have, no matter how much you torture me. It’s embarrassing.

That’s it for today. Thank you so much for stopping by and I really appreciate your kind comments. Truly, I do.

Sending Hugs

2010-07-07T22:33:00.001-04:00

On the way home from our little trip to Wilmington we came back through Raleigh so I could stop at Archiver’s. DH is good that way – he rarely minds going out of our way to take me to a stamp store, isn’t that sweet?

Anyway, I saw a card there that I wanted to make. Did I take a photo of it? Of course not. I thought I could remember it. Uh huh. After searching the Ideas section of their website for an hour I finally found it. I did, at least remember which Hero Arts stamp sets they used and added those to my collection once I got home. Stamper’s Alley is THE best place to shop! Ok, I did get a couple of things at Archiver’s but only stuff I can’t get here.

I’ll quit yapping now and show you the cards.

These little green dots are made with a Viva Decor Paper Pen. They aren’t really pens at all, but tubes of paint-like stuff. The Paper Pens are not shimmery like the Pearl Pens are but this green matched so well I chose to use the non-shimmery stuff this time. I really like the way they just even out and don’t leave little tips on the dots like some other dimensional paints can.

No Viva Decor here, those are Hero Arts gemstones for a little bling on an otherwise plain-Jane card. Sometimes plain-Jane is good.

Stamps: Hero Arts clear sets - Real Flowers, Speckled Ornaments, and Truly Appreciated Ink: Hero Hues Soft Purple and Soft Leaf, Memento Rich Cocoa Other: Viva Decor Paper Pen, Martha Stewart border punch (pansies, I think), Hero Arts Gems

More Distressed Flowers

2010-07-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

I don’t know if I am going be able to give this one away. I really like it. It is a little outside the box for me, because I am used to doing more structured, straight and orderly designs. This one happened quite by accident. I had adhered the Glimmer Misted paper into the card, trimmed the image and just tossed it over on to my work space. It landed almost as it is on the card, a little off kilter. I liked it and went with it. I added a couple of Hero Arts flowers, some buttons and twine, and some pearls to finish it off. It doesn’t even need a sentiment to make it complete.

Jennifer McGuire is such an inspiration and so talented! I’ve seen her add bows of twine to so many cards but this is the first time I remembered to do it.I just tied a little bow and anchored it down with a mini glue dot. Voila!

Whatcha think?

Distress inks: Wild Honey, Shabby Shutters

Distressed Flowers

2010-07-06T07:00:00.000-04:00

As promised, a card made with that pretty, shimmery Glimmer Misted paper from the last post.

The flower is a Hero Arts cling stamp (Wildflower Garden, I think)which I inked up using Shabby Shutters and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks. I spritzed the image with a bit of water and stamped it onto watercolor paper. The edges are inked with Shabby Shutters. The paper flowers started out white but I colored those with Glimmer Mist to match the paper. Add a few gems and a sentiment and that’s all you need.

I did make quite a few of these using different color combinations but haven’t made cards with all of them yet. The watercolor paper seems to make all of the difference. The colors blend so much better on it than on regular card stock.

Stop back by soon – you never know what you will find :-)

Playing with Glimmer Mist

2010-07-05T07:00:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day weekend. We watched some fireworks and just had a nice, relaxing couple of days.

Last week I decided to get out my Glimmer Mists and some faux mulberry paper and just play a bit, to see what I could come up with. What’s nice about these sprays is that it’s so easy to get really nice color combinations. The lighter, pastel colors seem to work best for this, I think. Here is how the paper started out:

Pretty white paper with some gold and silver speckles. It’s a smoother texture that regular mulberry paper but you can see the threads that run through it. The paper is really lightweight, too. This is what it looks like after a little bit of spraying with Glimmer Mist.

Tutti Fruitti and Blue Skies

Hula Hoop and Mimosa

Hula Hoop and Blue Skies

Mimosa

Hula Hoop with a little Mimosa here and there

I love that stuff! There are such beautiful colors with so much shimmery goodness. I am really pleased with the way these turned out. As always, they are much prettier in person. It’s hard to get a good representation of the color variations with my camera and the shimmer is almost impossible to photograph. I made several others but the colors were so subtle that they didn’t show up well in photos at all. I did make a couple of cards with these papers and will be posting those later in the week.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Great Big Pile of Cards

2010-07-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

All stamped with the OWH logo, ready to go up to Stamper’s Alley and off to Operation Write Home! I decided to stop hoarding most of my cards and send them off to someone who could use them. Cards from classes I’ve taught, cards I made for no particular reason, as well as those I made specifically for OWH. I have to confess I did keep a few, just in case an occasion pops up unexpectedly – at least I will be prepared. Those might be in the next batch of OWH cards.

Do you have some cards lying around your craft room that could be put to good use? Maybe they are tucked away in a box or a basket, saved because you liked the design, or because you just liked the look of the colors together. I do the same thing. Why? Dunno. It’s not like I can’t make more, right?

Anyway, they are always in need of something on which to write home. If you don’t live in my area check out their website for a shipper that is near you. It will definitely bring a smile to someone’s face… and to yours, too! Really.

I’ve been playing with backgrounds again and if you look closely you can see one of them peeking out at the top left of the photo, just to the right of the blue and white card with the flowers. Faux mulberry paper with sparkles in it and Glimmer Mist….yum! I plan to get something pretty made with those very soon, so stop back by and see what I was able to conjure up.

I like shiny things

2010-06-30T10:00:00.000-04:00

I do. A lot. I put a fair amount of them on this card. See?

I warned you. It started out as a one layer CAS design, but I just couldn’t stand it. So I stamped the butterflies and let it sit for a while. I came back and wasn’t happy with it. I added the gems to the bodies of the butterflies and walked away.
When I came back I still was not happy with it. So I added some more bling – the bluish gems. They needed some balance so I added the green gems. That made me happy. It is still only one layer. Does it still qualify as CAS (clean and simple) or did the bling knock it out of the ballpark? I don’t know.

Shiny things. Sparkly things. It’s all good.