More Snow :)

Yes, there's lots of snow here!! I was also looking at my discontinued stamps and samples. I'm sad that almost all my wheels are now discontinued... I love this snowman wheel. Here's one of my favorite cards made with it...

The card base is Going Gray and the snowmen are done in Night of Navy ink. I used the Letterpress Alphabet to spell out SNOW on Bashful Blue and Brocade Blue CS. I rolled the snowmen on white CS too and cut a couple of them out. I stapled on a couple pieces of blue gingham ribbon & adhered all the elements. Ta da! All done :)

Wintergreen Again :)

Phew! I think we've been buried in snow!! My shoulder is very sore today! We got about 2 feet of snow yesterday and with drifts, there was some serious shoveling to do!! The schools & daycares are closed today and the snowbank outside my window is level with the sill. We've started kitchen reno too, so things are getting hairy!

I have another Wintergreen card to share today. I wanted to used the snowflake pattern from the set but I only had a little left. My personal challenge was to design a card with just a little strip of it. Here's the result. I think it's a little plain but I still like it.

The card base is Always Artichoke. The two pieces of Wintergreen DSP are matted on Soft Sky and the square piece has faux stitching around the edge. I distressed the edges of both pieces. The snowflakes, from All Through the Year, are stamped in Soft Sky on Whisper White. They're punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch and matted with a 1 3/8" circle of Soft Sky. Matted again on a scalloped circle punched from Always Artichoke. I stamped "winter wish" from Everyday Flexible Phrases in Always Artichoke on Whisper White and punched it out with the small oval. This was matted on a large oval of Always Artichoke. A piece of double-stitched Soft Sky ribbon, hodgepodge hardware buckle and two brads finish off the card. I'm liking the subtly of this card.

3D Flower Frame

Good morning again. Today I'm sharing one of the most gorgeous things I've ever made. I entered it into one of the Stampin' Up! contests but I did not win. It was, however, on display at Convention in Denver this summer. Go me! I was really excited.
The frame is a mini shadow box type. The background is Cranberry Crisp stamped with Linen in Cranberry Crisp. The next layer is True Thyme, which is zigzag stitched onto the Cranberry Crisp. I used two ribbons from last years' Ribbon Original across the bottom third. The next layer is Confetti white CS with French Script stamped in True Thyme. I also distressed the edges of the white to make it curl up from the background a little. Next is the easy but time consuming part. Stamp lots of flowers on Whisper White CS in Cranberry Crisp & Bravo Burgundy and lots of leaves in Mellow Moss and True Thyme. Now start cutting. For this layout I chose three of the middle sized flowers, three buds, three bud holders and four leaf collections. Each piece was laid out in the design I wanted and adhered to the background. Next I took more of the same image & cut away part of it. Attached it on top of the previous one with a dimensional until I thought I looked properly popped up. The flowers are about 3-4 layers, the leaf collections are 2-3 layers and the stems for the buds are stamped directly on the background. This project is definitely not for people who dislike cutting out stamped images!!!

My original frame is larger and has more flowers on it. It was made about a year ago during a trip to Nakina (about 4 hours from home). I went to train some (real job) clients. Nakina was a railway town of 250 until a few years ago when they built a sawmill. Now there's more people but it's still in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing much there. Not even any restaurants open for supper, so I went to the Northern Store to buy supper. (The Northern Store is the only store in town... food, hardware & clothes) Knowing the lack of entertainment, I brought all my stamping stuff to work on, alone, each night.... it was a good option for evening entertainment. I think the large frame took about 10 hours total. This smaller on took around 3 1/2 hours to make. I'm doing a class on this frame November 30, so we'll see how it goes :)

Mitten Strings

Good morning again! This is another of my older cards from my stash that I think is pretty cool. I really like the hanging pair of mittens. The card base is Brocade Blue and the background is done with the Snowflake wheel in white ink. The long string of mittens is stamped on Whisper White with black ink & colored with the Stampin' Pastels and a blender pen. The central image is matted with a larger piece of Mellow Moss which is folded over the top & ripped. I used white crochet cotton to wrap around the top & then tied a bow. This is mounted on a piece of So Saffron. Last step was to stamp two of the larger mittens on Whisper White, color them with Stampin' Pastels & blender pen and cut them out. I took another piece of crochet cotton, tied a loop in the center & attached each end to the cut out mittens. Attached them to the card & your done! Funny how your tastes change each season. I still think this is a cute card, but I don't think I'd come up with it now. Well, happy evolving all you stampers :)

On Board Jumbo Snow

I love making up titles for these posts... Most of the time they're pretty boring but today's title makes me laugh. Sounds like it should be a snowboarding post or something :)

So this is a card I used at one of my last parties. I wanted to show off the On Board stuff & I still had all these circle/flower things I ordered during convention. Great chance to do multiple projects with the same piece of On Board shape, don't you know. Also, I've been dying to use my Jumbo Snow Wheel. So here we go. This card was actually completely original, which is rare for me. Usually I like to look at layouts & color from other projects until something sticks, then make my own. This time I just set rules & waited to see what would happen.
Rule 1: must use a piece of On Board.
Rule 2: must use patterned paper.
Rule 3: must use Jumbo Snow Wheel.

I started with my Wintergreen DSP. Chose my card base (Certainly Celery) from the DSP. Decided to use just a little strip of DSP so I'd only use up one page. Decided it needed to be matted, so put Whisper White behind it. Chose Always Artichoke as the accent color because of the DSP. Decided that the "Snow" should be wheeled across the bottom in Always Artichoke... Didn't have a jumbo cartridge in Always Artichoke so had to hand ink it... hmmmmm... Next grabbed the only On Board shape of which I had enough for everyone, sanded and inked it in Always Artichoke Craft ink. Started looking around for a matching snowflake to put in the center & chose the one from All Through the Year. Stamped it in Certainly Celery on Whisper White and punched it out with the 1 3/8" circle punch. The whole thing looked OK, but then I sat there because it needed more..... didn't know what.... just more. I was going to pierce along the top but then I started to think "snow" and decided to make white dots with the gel pen instead. While I was doing that I noticed that the wheeled image also had some nice polka dots that would look lovely if I added white gel pen to them too. Now it looked better!

So, this is not my most favorite snowflake card I've ever done, but I think it's pretty cool and a little unusual. I like the idea of green snowflakes. Reminds me of Bartholomew Cubbins and the Ooobleck :) Hope this was fun!

Little Cards & the Tab Punch

These two little cards are my take on a samples I saw on the Stampin' Up site from one of the confrences. They're very cool, showing the use of many punches :) Both cards are 3x3.

The fall card has a Pumpkin Pie CS card base and the front is covered with a piece from the Close to Cocoa Pattern Prints DSP. The circle in the front of the card is made using the Tab punch. Punch the first tab by placing the front of the card as far into the punch as it will go. Next turn the card 90 degrees, put the paper in as far as it will go and punch again. Because the bottom of the tab is rounded, you end up with a nice circle when you punch twice. As a bonus, you end up with two nice tabs you can use on something else :) Next step is a scalloped circle punched from the same Close to Cocoa Pattern Prints DSP, in a different pattern from the card front. Punch a 1 3/8" circle from Close to Cocoa CS & stamp an acorn from the All Through the Year set onto Very Vanilla. To get the multicolor acorn I coloured the stamp with Old Olive, Chocolate Chip & Close to Cocoa markers. Punch the acorn out with the 1 1/4" circle punch & attache all the circles together. Attach that to the inside of the card in the center of your punched circle. To embellish, I stamped "for you" from the All Holiday set in Close to Cocoa onto a little strip of Very Vanilla CS and rounded the end with my 3/4" circle punch. I punched a little hole in the end with my 1/16" punch and strung a piece of crochet cotton through it. Last, but not least, I tied a little piece of hemp around the side of the card & attached my tag. Fabulous, if I do say so my self :)

This Chirstmas one is even easier! The card base is Real Red and the patterned paper on the front is from the Dashing set of DSP. The circle in the center is punched the same as above and then I stamped two of the flowers from the In the Spotlight set in Real Red on Very Vanilla CS. Next I punched them out with the flower punch. I layer the two together and secured it with a vintage brad. The scallop is punched from Dashing DSP & the flower is attached with a Stampin' Dimensional. Finished! Wasn't that quick? So love the repeating polka dots on this card :)

Thanks for looking... you should leave a comment :) (that's very subtle, subliminal messaging...)

In-Laws' Birthday Cards

As is usually the case, my newest card is my MOST favourite one! These cards are the most totally gorgeous things ever! My in-laws' birthdays are only two weeks apart. The first is my mother-in-law's & the second is my father-in-law's. Both cards are based on Beate's October Stamp Club.
This first card was inspired by the Porcelain Prints DSP. I love the colors in this paper! The card base is 5 1/4" square and made from Not Quite Navy CS. The base was matted with Wild Wasabi & the top portion was stamped in Wild Wasabi with the leaves from the Wild Rose set. The bottom corners were clipped with the 1/2" circle punch because I don't have the ticket corner punch. Next the two pieces of DSP were cut & the smaller one matted on Not Quite Navy. Both pieces were faux stitched using the Not Quite Navy marker. The focal piece's leaves were stamped on Very Vanilla CS and matted with River Rock & Not Quite Navy. The rose was stamped with Blue Bayou & Not Quite Navy, then cut out & attached with a Stampin' Dimensional. The leaves were done in Wild Wasabi, but I stamped off once for the first leaf stamp. The dots around the rose were made with the piercing template and the Not Quite Navy marker. The ribbon is from last year's Ribbon Originals and the sentiment uses last year's Warmest Regards hostess set. I stamped the sentiment in Not Quite Navy on textured River Rock and punched it out the the 1 1/4" circle punch. It's matted with the 1 3/8" circle punched from Wild Wasabi and a large oval punched from Not Quite Navy CS. All the brads are from the vintage set. Under the brads at the top are 1/4" circles punched from River Rock.

This card is much closer to Beate's card. I only switched the bear for a reflected moose. The card is 5 1/4" square again. The Really Rust base is stamped with the small & large medallions
from the Wanted set as well as the Canvas background stamp in Really Rust ink. The moose in the center is from the Yukon set that's discontinued. I inked it with Chocolate Chip craft ink & then rolled my Brayer over it. Then I rolled the Brayer over Very Vanilla CS to transfer the reverse image. Next I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the "real" moose. This was matted on Chocolate Chip CS and embellished with a photo corner of Really Rust & vintage brads. The green paper behind is from the Outlaw series of DSP, but I'd used all my Sage & Chocolate paper so I stamped the medallion in Chocolate Chip on the plain Sage paper from the same package. Next I drew the lines between images with a Chocolate Chip marker. This was also matted on Chocolate Chip CS. I used the buckle & brads from the Pewter set of Hodgepodge Hardware with the middle size of twill tape and attached it over my Sage Shadow paper. Finally I stamped the "Happy Birthday" from the All Holidays set in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla paper, cut it into a strip & trimmed each end with the 3/4" circle punch.

I keep emoting about theses cards :) I can't believe how classy the larger square cards look! Until another day then...

Christmas Class!

I'm getting all pumped again. Our family was finally together for a short time & everyone's happy and well vacationed! I have a class in Nipigon on December 1 and I'm so tickled about the projects. I've been getting much better at speeding up the Make & Takes at each workshop and I think everyone's enjoying that. My two projects for the class are super quick but look pretty sharp!
Here they are:
Glass ornaments are from Micheal's and I put an acetate circle inside. I left a little notch up at the top of the acetate circle to keep it from moving inside the globe. The snowflakes, from the Snowburst set, were stamped in white craft ink on the acetate and heat embossed with white. Tie a red gingham ribbon on top & you're done! How cool is that!

The card uses the polka dot paper from the Dashing DSP, a card base of Real Red & uses Old Olive for the matting. The tree is from "Lovely as a Tree" and was stamped in Old Olive. I used a Close to Cocoa marker to accent the tree trunk. The photo corner is River Rock CS and I used the piercing template & an Old Olive marker to draw circles on it. To make them dimensional, I dropped a dot of crystal effects on each circle. Next I pierced around the the matted tree. Finally, I punched an Old Olive 1 1/4" circle and stamped the "Merry Christmas" from the Party Punch set in Real Red and Old Olive. I punched out the Real Red image with 1" circle punch and the center of the Old Olive image with the 1/2" circle. Stuck all the circles together and finished the card! So pretty!

I can't believe my site's almost at a thousand hits! Thanks for all the visits!

Christmas Stamp-a-Stack

Today is another fabulous day :( I think sleep deprivation is now etched in my psyche. My oldest son cried for 3 hours last night!!! He has a cold & got all wound up crying, then he couldn't stop. I thought this no sleep thing was supposed to end as they got bigger! Tonight is my Christmas Stamp-a-Stack so I hope I can stay awake...

Here's what we'll be doing. Four designs, three of each, for a total of 12 card in one night! I printed a color flyer again with the instructions so that it would ease my time contraints. All the cards were CASE'd or inspired by other cards, so I can't take much credit for how cool these cards are :)

Card 1: 5-Petal Flower Christmas Card
This card is the easiest. It was CASE'd from "You Betcha!" here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/658980?cat=10060.

Ingredients:

Kraft, Old Olive, Whisper White cardstock, Old Olive, Real Red ink, Canvas Background stamp, In the Spotlight, All Holidays, 5-Petal flower punch

Card 2: Christmas Quote Card
This card is a combination of three cards. Here were my inspirations... http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/694412?cat=10728 http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/609022?cat=10728
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/654660?cat=10728

Ingredients:

Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White cardstock, Dashing DSP, Old Olive, Real Red, River Rock ink, Party Punch stamp set, Sidekick Sayings stamp set, 1" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch.





Card 3: Wintergreen Snowflake Card
This card was inspired bya a card I can no longer find... Why doesn that always happen? Anyway ...

Ingredients:

Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Whisper White card stock, Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky ink, Wintergreen DSP, Scallop punch, Large oval punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1" punch, 1/16" punch, silver brads, crafter's toolkit, white gel pen.


Card 4: Icy Reverse Masking
This card was CASE'd from Jan Tink. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ga...8059?cat=11094
I just switched out the colors, made the matting larger and cut down on the embellishments.

Ingredients:

Basic Grey, Bashful Blue, Whisper White card stock, Basic Grey, Bashful Blue ink, Snow Burst stamp set, All Holidays stamp set, sponge dauber, clear rhinestone brad


On a completely different note, my husband got to see the Prime Minister last night. My kids' school was 100 years old & he showed up for speeches, etc. I'm not too into Stephen Harper but it was interesting none the less that he was here. Maybe he'll remember we exist after all ;)

Paper Bag Books

Hello again, everyone! Life's been very busy again so this time I'll share my favorite Paper Bag book. I decided last year to see how many things I could make with one Simply Scrappin' Kit. I started off with this mini book. The kit I used was At Home. There's another kit this year with the same pieces in different colours called Home Again and it's definely on my wish list!

The book is created by taking two paper lunch bags and placing them in opposite directions. Next you fold the bags in half to form a book. On some books I just punch holes and tie with ribbon, but for this one I decided to do saddle stitching. I used my piercing template for the holes and white crochet cotton to stitch. The "BOYS" title is stamped with the Letterpress Alphabet and cut out. I added vintage brads to the corners and all the rest of the cover is from the Scrappin' kit.

These are the inside pages...

Everything from these pages is from the kit. I tried to make each 2 page spread match. Brown & green for the first two, blue & cranberry for the next set & brown & cranberry for the last two. The whole thing went together in a flash! All I had to do to finish it off was a little journaling around each picture. All my pictures were printed in 3.5x5 so that they'd fit the page size better. I've had so much fun with these books & even done a couple classes with them. Everyone seems to love them for quick Christmas gifts or Grandma brag books :)

Hope you'll have fun with them too.

Halloween Cards

Good morning again everyone! If you're Canadian, hope you've had a great Thanksgiving! Over the weekend I had another party. I wanted to show how much fun punches and DSP were, so we made this set of 3x3 cards. Sorry the picture's a little dark. As usual, I was working on things until all hours of the night. These cards were inspired by the great set made by whitetigers, here... http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/673721?cat=10553 .

These cards were made with the Batty for You set. The card base is Basic Black, with a square of Prints DSP in Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery or Lovely Lilac on top. The circle images start with a scallop circle punch from Basic Black, a 13/8" circle punch in the matching color of CS, the image stamped in black on white punched out with 1 1/4" circle and finally the image stamped again in matching ink and punched with the 1" circle punch. The last circle is popped up with a Stampin' Dimensional. Black grograin tied in a knot and "Happy Halloween" stamped in black are the finishing touches!

Because I knew there were going to be a lot of people at the party & we had mulitple projects (either the two card projects or a scrapbook page) I decided to make an instruction booklet for everyone. It was a life saver! As long as I can manage it, I will always print instruction sheets for parties now! Here's a look at the layout for that party... Loved this layout. It's so simple, still looks cool & uses faux stitching and circle punches. I really wanted to show everyone how great punches were at this party :) The bottom scallops were made from tracing the On Board Ginormous Pieces square scalloped frame. The patterned paper is from the Cutie Pie set and the page base is Night of Navy. I used the blue ribbon from Jersy Ribbon Originals. The alphabet is Well-Worn and the circle embellishments were made by punch a 1 3/8" Night of Navy circle, a 1 1/4" Bashful Blue circle & a 1" Whisper White circle . The images on the white circle are made using a circle from Polka Dots and Petals set in Bashful Blue and words from the Everyday Flexible Phrases set stamped in Night of Navy.

Hope you enjoyed this :)

Another Sympathy Card

As I mentioned the other day, I've been working on a batch of sympathy cards. After some of the flowery ones I did, I though I should include some slight more somber ones :) I LOVE this card!!!! It's probably one of the best watercoloring attempts I've ever made!! I found a card by Beate that was so pretty (here... http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/675627?cat=500&ppuser=458) and copied the layout for this card. The base is textured River Rock & is layered with Very Vanilla & some K&Company double-sided designer paper (one piece of which is also matted in River Rock). The tree image is stamped with black StazOn on watercolor paper. I used Old Olive, Close to Cocoa & Soft Sky ink with an aqua painter to color it in. The tree is matted in Close to Cocoa CS. The ribbon is from the Beachfront Ribbon Originals and I used a stamp from one of the Sellabrations sets for the little flourish in Close to Cocoa craft ink. Added the little half pearls to finish :) Isn't it GORGEOUS? I don't suppose this card has to be a sympathy card. I didn't end up putting any sentiment on it.

I think I'm becomming addicted to my sites now too... Several times a day I feel the compulsive urge to check the number of people who've looked at the cards in my splitcoast gallery & check for new comments... I often have to check the web counter on my blog too... Do you think this will end up in couselling? ;)

Sweet Old Cards

For National Card Making Day, I'm having a party in Nipigon (a little town about an hour from home), so most of this week has been getting ready for that. I'll share some of that later :) Instead I've been going through some of my favorite old cards. This is another old card that I love. I was sooooooooo sad when Like it a Latte was not in the big catalogue!!!!! I love this set!

This card is made on a silver CS base. The white background is stamped with Pretty in Pink candy canes & spritzed with Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink & Barely Banana and edged with Regal Rose ink, direct to paper. The "Sweet!" is stamped in silver ink. The pink ribbon is layer on top of another piece of silver CS. The cup is embossed in silver EP & cut out. The whip cream is stamped in Barely Banana & embossed with clear EP. Next I used the Versa Marker to color in the whip cream & embossed that with white EP. Finally, I glued on the soft subtles beads for candy sprinkles. All of this is layered on whisper white CS spritzed the same as the background, Pretty in Pink CS, Regal Rose CS and Barely Banana CS.

What a yummy card! I normally don't do a lot of pink, but this card just seemed to say PINK & CANDY to me :) I saw these stainless steel espresso cups at a specialty kitchen store & loved them! I think that's why I decided to do the silver embossed cup on this card. You can find inspiration anywhere. You know you're truely addicted when every item around becomes an idea for a card or a page... hee hee.

Old Doodle Card

Today I thought I'd post a card I made quite a while ago. I still like it so that 's gotta say something! Do you get bored with your cards as soon as you move on to new ones? I often do. Funny how that happens. My newest projects are always soooo much nicer :) Making more than one of something is often difficult for me too.

Right after the doodle sets came out I worked on this one. I know Doodle That is no longer available, but I'll post this anyway! It's a pretty straight forward card... 51/2" square Always Artichoke card base, everything stamped in basic black. Center image matted with So Saffron, Rose Red & Regal Rose and colored with Stampin' Pastels. The little hearts along the bottom were stamped in black on Rose Red, cut out & touched up with white gel pen. Finally, I used a black marker & added the little circles all the way around the center image. Tah Dah!!! Isn't it pretty????

One of my next projects to share is going to be this cool 3-D tree centerpiece I made for my Halloween Hostess Party. It's somewhat time consuming, but interesting none the less. I've also continued working on the Sympathy cards, so I'll have some more pretty ones soon :)

The Sympathy Cards

One of the guys at work asked me to make 10 Sympathy cards. This has been a fun project. It seems that cards are more interesting when they have a specific purpose. I'm so much more motivated when I have a goal. Here are a couple of the designs I've made. Both are CASE'd. The 5-petal flower punch is sooo cool! Here's the link to Lauraly's card that I LOVED!

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/646538?cat=10060&si=guava&perpage=12&thumbsonly=0&thumbcheck=

My card is very similar. I switched the placement of the guava & sky, added stitching on the Kraft background instead of polka dots and used pearls instead of gems in the flower centers. Because this was supposed to be a Sympathy card, I changed to bottom of the card as well. I love the Word on Word set, but nothing in it is appropriate for Sympathy. Went with the soft sky double stitched ribbon & the white rick rack from the Beachfront Ribbon Original set instead. Added an oval piece of hodgepodge hardware for the sentiment, stamped in Groovy Guava.

The second card was CASE'd from a blog that I can't find now... Sorry. Again my card is very similar, with just a few alteration. I've had such a thing for those half pearls since SU convention!! This card is on a River Rock textured background. It uses the swirls from Baroque Motifs... *again* in River Rock and the flower from Heartfelt Thanks. I matted a piece of Tapestry DSP with chocolate chip CS and wrapped a piece of chocolate chip taffeta ribbon around it. The flower is stamped in regal rose, old olive and the detail is stamped over top in chocolate chip. I don't have the ticket punch so I used the 1/2" circle for the corners. Finally added stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip & added the half pearls. Love the elegent look of this card :)

Hope everyone has a great day!

Three for You...

Today will have to be quick :) I'm actually posting one without Baroque Motifs too! What a switch. My mom got the Three for You Punch box & lent it to me for my party last weekend. Since it was there, I had to try some other stuff as well, didn't I? Here's one of my attempts. I think I've almost used up all my Cutie Pie DSP. That paper works with so many more things than I thought! Again, it was something I thought I could wait for until I went to convention... absolutely had to have it after that!! Why am I so persuadable??? Anyway, here's the card.

I used Purely Pomegranate for the base & Cutie Pie DSP for the background and middle strip. Next I put a layer of Wild Wasabi double-stitched ribbon across the middle. I punched the Three for You flowers out of Purely Pomegranate first & then cut my center piece down to size. Stamped sentiment in basic black & layered whisper white behind it. I used my paper piercer for the center of each flower & inserted a black brad. Finally, I matted the whole thing with wild wasabi & stuck 'er in the middle. *Cute*, isn't it? It was really quick too.

Have fun stamping!

Ramblings...

Good day! I was working on some sympathy cards last night so I'll have a few to show you in the next day or two :) Only problem is, some of them use Baroque Motifs again (hee hee *sigh*) Even today's project has Baroque Motifs too... BUT... I managed to find one that doesn't! The projects today are from my hostess gift package. At the beginning of September I had a hostess only thank you night. Each of my hostesses from last year were invited and were allowed to bring one friend. Each hostess got a little gift package. As well, I showed them some of the new merchandise, my swaps & pictures from convention and we did 2 make & takes. It was an awsome party! Lots of people, but fun.

The first picture here are the coupons, each good for a one month period. I printed my coupons from Word on a colour printer & then cut them down to size, leaving one end for binding. Next I masked the binding end and stamped my Baroque Motif in chocolate chip, using the Stamp-a-ma-Jig. Next I use the cutter tool to make perferations on each coupon. To bind them, I cut a piece of Bashful blue slightly larger than the coupon with enough left over on the end to fold & staple. Before stapling, I unbent one end of the staple and strung on some beads. I pierced holes throught the whole thing, placed the staple in the holes and then bend them over by hand. This was a little annoying but afterwards I thought it was defintely worth it :) Last step was the little flower from Baroque Motifs, stamped in chocolate chip. Everyone was so impressed...

One of the other gifts in the hostess package was a set of 3x3 mini cards. I wanted to show them how easy it was to make cute cards using only 1 stamped image & 1 accent. These cards are all made from the Fun & Fast Notes we got at convention. Each image is stamped on whisper white with Basic Black ink.

The Baby card is Barely Banana matted with So Saffron. I just coloured the image with a So Saffron marker. The scallops underneath the image are 3/4" circles with 1/16" holes punched in the center. I stuck them on behind the mat & trimmed off the extra. The one accent is a button strung with white crochet cotton.

The Birthday card is Lovely Lilac & Pixie Pink. The image is coloured with watercolour pencil crayons. I dry embossed the circles down the side with the Crop-a-Dile and used my piercing template to line them up. My one accent for this card is Dazzling Diamonds. I used my glue pen on the embossed circles and the icing of the cake & sprinkled with glitter :)

Last, but not least, the Christmas card was made with textured Wild Wasabi. The image was coloured with ink & blender pen and the one accent was a piece of red gingham ribbon.

Aren't they cute???? (maybe Stinkin' Cute?) I packaged them together with envelopes in a cello bag. I wasn't crazy about 3x3 until convention. We made the cutest cards in the Watercolor class. It totally changed my mind. (of course my mind is always so firm too... and I'm never persuadable)

Hope you're inspired or tickled or something after all this expounding :) Leave me a message if you can.

Good Morning!

So it's Monday morning again. Funny how that happens every week! I'm in the same mood almost every Monday morning too... Had a good weekend except dear husband (DH) worked all weekend again. The boys really miss him. We bought a pumpkin from the grocery store on Saturday and son 1 has been bugging me ever since about Halloween. He's been asking me every morning, "Isn't it Halloween, YEEEeeET?" Funny how kids remember stuff like candy & presents :) Which brings me to my project for today.... a white fake pumpkin with stamping. How cool is that? I bought this pumpkin at Michael's. (maybe I should call it a gourd... does pumpkin only refer to orange ones? In Australia pumpkin means squash... hmmm... I digress.) First I masked off an area around the center about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide with masking tape. I used several layers of tape to make a wide boarder to give me lots of over stamping room. Next I used Stampin' Up!'s Baroque Motifs with black StazOn. Going around the curve and in to the dents was a bit of a challenge, but I'd start at one end of the scrolly stamp and roll the stamp around the pumpkin. Filled in the blank spots with the small flower stamp. Finally, removed the tape and, voila, pretty pumpkin!

I was just previewing the blog. Almost all my projects are Baroque Motifs! I really do have other stamp sets, it's just my favorite right now. I'll have to make sure the next one's diferent! Really, I promise... I'll resist the Baroque Motifs... hopefully :)

P.S. All that pumpkin wondering got me started... Have you ever wondered?

My Baby Started School!

Today's a big day! My oldest son started Junior kindergarten... he's so excited! He loves his lunchbox and thinks his teacher is the most wonderful person on the planet :) Wonder how long that'll last.

My stamping project for today is an older one. My downline & I made this card just after I came back from the Stampin' Up! convention in Denver. It uses the Faux Metal technique. This is a 3x3 card made from textured Wild Wasabi paper and has the swirls from Baroque Motifs heat embossed in black. The sentiment is embossed in silver and the faux metal embelishment is attached with Stampin' Dimensionals. To make the embelishment I took a small square of white CS and covered it with versamark. Next I heat embossed the whole think with silver. Inked the whole thing again with versamark & this time, while the second layer of silver embossing powder was still hot, I pressed the "flower" stamp from Baroque Motifs into it. Once it was cooled I cut around it and attached a black brad in the center. It's a super cute card, really quick and shows off the technique perfectly! Sometimes I love how things turn out if you're just playing around.

Last note for the post today, I'm hosting a scrapbooking night @ my place one Friday night per month. There are still 2 spots available for anyone who's interested. You're welcome to call for drop ins if there's room. $10 per night. Dates are:
September 28, 2007
October 19, 2007
November 23, 2007
December 14, 2007
January 25, 2008
February 22, 2008
March 21, 2008
April 18, 2008
May 23, 2008
June 20, 2008

Christmas Stamp-a-Stack is $17 (12 cards - 4 designs) also has a couple spots free.
October 26, 2007

Don't forget October 6 is National Card Making Day :) Make a card for the fun of it!

Monday Morning

So it's Monday morning. Didn't get to do a whole lot of scrapbooking this week-end, only made one card. It was a CASE of a beautiful one I saw on splitcoast. Very slightly modified.

I started with a background piece of river rock CS (card stock), stamped the swirls from the Baroque Motifs set in chocolate chip and then distressed the edges with a sponge dauber and chocolate chip ink. Then I covered the bottom with some Brocade Background DSP (designer series paper) and a little stip of chocolate chip CS and chocolate chip taffeta ribbon to cover the divide. Next I coloured two flowers from the Pretties Kit. The large flower was coloured with river rock ink and then blended with an aqua painter and the smaller flower was coloured with a chocolate chip marked and also blended with an aqua painter. Attached a vanilla half pearl in the center of the flowers, as well as the flowers themselves, with glue dots. Finally, I stamped the sentiment in chocolate chip. Finished! Fabulous, isn't it?

I've been dying to use my Brocade Background paper. Have so many classes and workshops booked! I don't know if I'll have enough time to create all the projects never mind work on samples! Some day I'm quitting work so I can scrapbook and stamp, LOL!

So I Started a Blog...

So I started a blog.... I've always thought that blogging was one of those things I'd never do. Seems kinda creepy to just yap about yourself to anyone, without knowing who's going to read it. I was really bored and started reading people's blogs from the links on http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/. I have a few favorites now and keep drooling over everyone's cards. Now I feel the need to show my cards & stuff to everyone on the planet :) We'll see how it goes.



A couple of my girlfriends were over last night just to work together & this is the fruit of my labour.

Everything on this page is from Stampin' Up! I used the "Doodle This" set for the flowers & corners, the "Big Deal Alphabet" for the title and the "Three for You" punch box set for the flowers on the central circle. The centers of the doodle flowers are pop-up glue dots covered with black heat embossing powder, the pointy flower is on dimensionals and the two large center circles are traced from the ginormous pieces chipboard collection. I pierced the center of the flower punch outs, filled in the doodling with a black journaling marker & the white gel pen and then traced around my title letters with the same black journaler. The patterned paper is from the Cutie Pie DSP(Designer Series Paper).

Now I'm feeling quite pleased with myself because I think this page rocks! Still need to work on the journaling circle in the center.