Every Day is a Gift

This card is a CASE of one I saw on Laurie Schmidlin's blog, Just Give Me Stamps. I loved the layout and layering Laurie used, so I recreated it with Papertrey's, Out on a Limb set. I also tried the Faux Linen Technique she used on her main image, but I'm not sure mine came out as well as hers. It is very subtle in real life, but I'm not sure you can see it on the card.

I just finished preparing for Stamp Club on Monday, so I will share that project with you early next week.

Recipe:
Stamps: Out on a Limb (Papertrey), Rough Texture Jumbo Wheel
CS: Ruby Red, River Rock, Glossy White
DSP: Ginger Blossoms
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: River Rock Double-Stitched Ribbon, Gold Brads
Technique: Faux Linen

Window Birthday Card

I saw a cute window card on Kristina Werner's blog and thought I'd try my own version.

Most of the time I would just eyeball where I wanted to punch my circles, but Kristina had a video on her blog of how she gets hers evenly spaced. I followed her directions and punched a 1 1/2" circle 3 times from scrap paper and placed the circles (with just a small piece of mono adhesive on the back) on my strip of Brilliant Blue cardstock. When I was happy with the placement, I punched them out again from the cardstock. I then drew a light pencil line around the circles onto my Whisper White cardstock so I'd know where to stamp.

After stamping the present from Big Bold Birthday, I erased my pencil marks and added dimensionals to the back of the Brilliant Blue cardstock to adhere it. I added a few strips of Jersey Shore DSP and stamped Happy Birthday at the top. I decided to change my ribbon placement from Kristina's and threaded it through the left circle window.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon
Tools: 1 1/2" Circle Punch

Curious Cat

I thought I'd share this picture with you today just for fun. My cat, Casey, like most I'm sure, loves to be right in the middle of whatever you're doing, and my craft area is no different. Most of the time she gets up on the craft table to either look out the window or more likely, play with whatever I happen to have out at the time - rubbing her cheek along the sides of the ink pads, batting around any stamps, markers, brads, etc. that may be loose on the table or chewing on sponges. On this day, I guess she was scolded enough to get off the table that she relegated herself to the top of the paper shelves.

As a side note, my hubby built these paper shelves for me last summer. I currently have all of my Stampin' Up! paper on one side, grouped by color, and everything else on the other side. Maybe I can convince him to build me another set this summer! He built me a ribbon holder a few months ago, so whenever my craft area is clean enough to get a picture of it, I'll share it with you too.

Thanks for bearing with me on the sidetrack today. I'll have more cards to share in the next few days. Have a great weekend!

Coordinating 3-D Items

I think I've mentioned before how much I love to make boxes and bags of all sorts. Anytime I see a new way to make one, I like to give it a try. I saw this box on a couple of different blogs, Cambria Turnbow's, Stamp A Little Love Baby and Danielle Lounds', Fat Cat Stamper.

For the bottom of my box, I used an 8 1/4" square piece of Brilliant Blue cardstock, scored at 2 3/4" on each side. In each corner, I also made a diagonal score to the inside line to be able to fold each corner into a point (to see a picture, check out either of the blogs I mentioned). I then folded the 2 corners together on each end and adhered them with a white eyelet where they overlapped. These are very simple boxes to make - and, no glueing required!

For the lid, I used a 4 7/8" square piece of textured Wild Wasabi cardstock, scored at 1" on each side (the opening of my box was 2 3/4", so I added an 1/8" for the top to slip over and an 1" for each side to come up with my 4 7/8" measurement). I added a slightly smaller piece of Jersey Shore DSP on top of the Wild Wasabi before folding. The top is adhered with eyelets also; however, for the top, I tucked my corner triangles inside and added white eyelets to the corners of 2 of the sides to hold everything together.

After putting the box together, I added some Pumpkin Pie ribbon and a tag made from my Nestabilities dies and the Big Bold Birthday and Happy Everything sets. Such a fun box to coordinate with all of those Jersey Shore and Big Bold Birthday cards I've been making recently!

I had a lot of fun with the tin also. I picked it up during my recent trip to Archiver's (I believe it's made by EK Success.) I think it's similar to the round tins sold by Papertrey, but I like the fact that this one is white instead of silver. I added a couple of different patterns of Jersey Shore DSP around the side of the tin (adhered with sticky strip) and then added the Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon around it. The scallop circle is punched out of Jersey Shore also. On it, I layered a 1 1/4" circle stamped with the Enjoy Your Day stamp from Riveting, and a 1/2" circle of just the gift in Pumpkin Pie. The tin is filled with M&M's (only orange, blue and green ones though to match the DSP :) ). I think these would make really cute birthday or wedding favors!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Happy Everything, Riveting (retired)
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon, White Eyelets (unknown maker)
Tools: Crop-A-Dile, Nestabilities Rectangle & Scalloped Rectangle Dies, Horizontal Slot Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1/2" Circle Punch

Celebrate Today!

I saw a card similar to this on SCS, but I don't remember now who to give credit to. The layout is a pretty standard one, and one I like to come back to quite often. The flower and pot are from Papertrey's Green Thumb set, and the sentiment is from Mixed Messages. There are so many great sayings in that set! The background of the card is stamped with Linen.

Recipe:
Stamps: Green Thumb and Mixed Messages (Papertrey), Linen
CS: Ruby Red, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
DSP: Wild Asparagus (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Certainly Celery, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Bashful Blue Taffeta, Bold Brights Brads

First Ever Criss-Cross Card!

I have loved all the criss-cross cards I’ve seen posted on SCS and everyone’s blogs, but for some reason, I have never made one myself – until last weekend anyway. The double-sided DSP made it so easy.

I used the new Ginger Blossom DSP and the coordinating Ruby Red and River Rock cardstock. The sentiment and small stamped flowers are from Papertrey’s Green Thumb set.

Recipe:
Stamps: Papertrey Green Thumb
CS: Ruby Red, River Rock, Very Vanilla
DSP: Ginger Blossom
Ink: Ruby Red, Groovy Guava
Accessories: River Rock Double-Stitched Ribbon, Bold Brights Brads
Tools: Round Tab Punch, Ticket Corner Punch

New Toys!

I had a chance to go to an Archiver's the other day so I picked up a couple of fun new things. One of the items was a package of American Crafts Thickers - foam letter stickers. I intend to use them in my scrapbooks, but I got the idea for this card so I wanted to try them. I love the way it turned out!

The card itself is pretty straightforward. It's 9"x4", and the Wild Wasabi base is a piece of textured cardstock from the Creative License Level 1 hostess scrapbooking kit from the Fall/Winter catalog. Of course I used Jersey Shore DSP again. I really like the way the 2 patterns look layered together.

Hope you like it! Have a great weekend!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
CS: Wild Wasabi (textured), Whisper White, Brilliant Blue
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Whisper White, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: American Crafts Thickers, White Brads (unknown maker), Iridescent Ice embossing powder

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just a quick post today, but I wanted to share my hubby's Valentine's Day card with you. It's ok - I've already given it to him, so I won't spoil the surprise!

I didn't want the card to be too girly, so hopefully, I accomplished that goal. The heart from Always was stamped in Versamark, embossed with white embossing powder and then layered on Whisper White CS. The definition of love background stamp (not sure of the exact name, maybe By Definition? - it's retired now and I couldn't find its original box) was stamped in Versamark on the Real Red CS and then embossed with clear embossing powder. The little tag on the side says "I love you" and comes from Papertrey's Out on a Limb set.

Recipe:
Stamps: Always, By Definition, Out on a Limb (Papertrey)
CS: Basic Black, Whisper White, Real Red
Ink: Versamark, Real Red
Accessories: Vintage Brads
Tools: Ticket Corner Punch
Other: White and Clear Embossing Powders

Simple Thank You

Another card for my basket... This one is pretty simple, but I wanted to have a good variety of cards and thought this would be a good addition since it is gender neutral. And I wanted to have a balance of some quick cards along with the ones that might take more time to create.

The card layout is CASED from one on Alli Miles blog, Card Metaphors. The bottom is stamped with Seeing Spots, a set I’ve had for quite awhile. I used it a lot when I first got it, but it hasn’t seen ink in awhile. I think it's a great set to make fun, but quick cards, and depending on the color combination you use, can be very versatile.

Recipe:
Stamps: Seeing Spots, Papertrey Mixed Messages
CS: Ruby Red, Basic Black, River Rock
Ink: Ruby Red, Basic Black, River Rock
Accessories: Vintage Brads
Tools: Round Tab Punch

Altered Journals

These altered journals are a couple of additional items I'll be including in the gift basket I've been working on. The notebooks are from Target and come packaged together.

I covered both the outside and inside covers with Cutie Pie DSP. I used one side of the DSP for the outside front and back and the other side of the DSP for the insides. I used a pre-colored chipboard "n" for the notebook on the left. I don't think you can tell in the picture, but it has some glitter in it as well. The little tag on the side says "notes" and was stamped with the small Karen Foster snap stamps. The scallops on the edge were created with the smallest scalloped rectangle Nestabilities die. The whole rectange was too large for the space I had, so I just cut off the sides. For the notebook on the right, I used the "memories" definition from Define Your Life and stamped the letter "m" from Jumbo Outline Alpha in the background.

Recipe:
Stamps: Karen Foster Snap Stamps, Define Your Life, Jumbo Outline Alpha
CS: Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Whisper White
DSP: Cutie Pie
Ink: Basic Black, Purely Pomegranate, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Chipboard (unknown source), Green Grosgrain (unknown source), Black Gingham, Purely Pomegranate Double-Stitched Ribbon, Basic Black Grosgrain, Prima Flowers

Birthday Card & Box Set

I thought I'd give you a little break from all of the Jersey Shore birthday cards I've been doing lately (I do have one more to share, but I'll save that for later in the week). Besides making cards, one of my favorite other projects is making boxes or bags of all sorts - I love making coordinating gift sets! This one is for a basket give-away I'm putting together and is similar to a set I made for my niece’s birthday this summer – pre-blog days though, so it is only in my SCS gallery.

For the card and box, I used Papertrey’s Little Lady set – I love that lady bug! After stamping the lady bug on the card, I covered her body with Crystal Effects for a little bit of dimension. For additional dimension, I embossed the Groovy Guava background piece with the Cuttlebug Spots & Dots embossing folder – another one of my favorites.

I stamped the smaller lady bug and one of the small flowers on the box top. You can’t really see it in the picture, but the box bottom is a plain piece of Groovy Guava. The tag on the box was created with my new Nestabilities die cuts. I cut a piece of Whisper White with the smallest rectangle and a piece of Groovy Guava with the smallest scalloped rectangle. The Birthday Wishes sentiment is from Papertrey’s Mixed Messages set. The sayings in this set are a little smaller than I expected when I ordered it, but they are perfect for small tags like this.

Recipe:
Stamps: Little Lady and Mixed Messages (Papertrey)
CS: Groovy Guava, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Basic Black, Groovy Guava
Accessories: Black Gingham Ribbon, Black Grosgrain Ribbon (unknown source), Vintage Brads
Tools: Nestabilities Rectangle and Scalloped Rectangle Dies, Cuttlebug Spots & Dots Embossing Folder, Rectange Punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Crystal Effects

Big Bold Pocket Card

I hadn’t made a pocket card in awhile, so I decided it would be fun to make one with the cupcake from Big Bold Birthday. And of course, I continued my trend with the Jersey Shore DSP.

The cupcake was stamped on a couple of Whisper White scraps and then cut out before adhering to the card with dimensionals. The top was created the same way as the one of my previous cards – inked in Versamark and then Pumpkin Pie Classic ink before embossing with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. (The only craft ink I own is White, so this is my solution when I want to emboss with a different color.) The candle is stamped directly on the insert, and the tab is one of the other patterns in Jersey Shore.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
CS: Bashful Blue, Whisper White
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Versamark, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Brilliant Blue
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon, Bold Brights Brads
Tools: Round Tab Punch, Word Window Punch, Corner Rounder

Another Jersey Shore Birthday

This time I paired the Jersey Shore DSP with Big Bold Birthday. The sketch I used is from Anna Wight’s blog, Sassy & Sweet.

I cut the DSP into 2 ¼” squares and layered them on Basic Black cardstock, alternating the stripes for a little more interest. The cupcake is stamped on a 2 ½” square of Whisper White and is also layered on Basic Black. I stamped the bottom of the cupcake in Old Olive (technically, I think the green in the DSP is Wild Wasabi, but I don’t have that color). The cupcake top was stamped on a scrap – I inked it in Versamark and then in Pumpkin Pie Classic Ink before embossing with the Iridescent Ice embossing powder. It was cut out and then adhered to the card with the Bashful Blue heart on top.

The 2 in the sentiment is from Short Order numbers, and the you is from the Thank You stamp in the Much Appreciated set. The sentiment was punched out with a 1” circle punch and then layered on a 1 ¼” circle of Pumpkin Pie. And of course, I had to add some of that fun striped ribbon! I hope Stampin' Up! comes out with even more colors in the next catalog!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Short Order Numbers, Much Appreciated
CS: Whisper White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Versamark, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon

Take A Number

I don’t usually do a lot of bright colors, but I was drawn to the new Jersey Shore DSP. I just got it and love it! It has such fun patterns!

This card is pretty straightforward, so I won't go into a ton of detail. The numbers are from the new Take A Number wheel. I wheeled it on Pumpkin Pie in Versamark and then wheeled it again on Brilliant Blue. I punched out the number 3 from the Brilliant Blue with a 1 ¼” circle punch, colored it in with a Versamarker, and adhered it to a 1 ½” metal circle tag. I added the Pumpkin Pie striped ribbon to a piece of Brilliant Blue and stamped Happy Birthday in Pumpkin Pie.

Recipe:
Stamps: Take A Number Wheel, It's Your Birthday
CS: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Brilliant Blue
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Versamark, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon, Metal Circle Tag

Sale-A-Brate with Stampin' Up!

It's time to Sale-A-Brate with Stampin' Up! Starting February 1st, through March 17th, receive an exclusive stamp set or set of rub-ons FREE with a $50 order (prior to shipping and tax). Spend $100 and receive 2 free sets, $150 and receive 3, $200....I think you get the picture. There's no limit to the number of free items you can receive! Your order can be anything from the 2008 Spring-Summer Collection or after March 1st, the Occasions Mini Catalog.

Host a workshop of at least $350 and receive a free item from the Sale-A-Bration brochure as well as the wonderful hostess benefits you would normally receive.

Contact me to place an order or reserve a date for your workshop!