Mar 16, 2011 | Big Shot, Bingo, Cards, Occasions Mini 2011, Thank You, Wildlife |
When the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini Catalog first came out there was one stamp set that I just loved. Can you guess which one?
It is the Nature Walk stamp set – and I got the wood version because I think it is so pretty that I can just set the stamps out on a shelf for decoration if I want to. I have been using the set but I’m not sure if I have shared any on my blog. Today I have a card that is similar to one that we saw at Leadership. It was a card that Shelli showed us on stage – I think hers was possibly a 3×3 card – mine is actually a 4-1/4″ x 4-1/4″ card. I have been making this size card lately and like that it is a square but it still fits in our medium sized envelopes.
The card base is Cherry Cobbler. There is a strip of Basic Black that was textured with the Square Lattice textured embossing folder.
The scallop circle is a Big Shot die cut from White Naturals card stock. Then the Nature Walk stamp set is sort of stamped as a collage on the scallop circle. The bird cage in Crumb Cake, the floral in Always Artichoke, the bee in Basic Black, the number in Cherry Cobbler. I added a thank you greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes but you could use this for many different things. 
The inside is stamped to match. On both pieces I used the Color Spritzer with the Stampin’ Write marker to add some more speckles. At the top of the scallop I punched two holes and threaded a piece of Linen Thread through it – then I created a cheater bow – I’ll have to try to find the blog that I saw this on – basically you take your ribbon and hold it like the cancer ribbon with the loop at the top and the ends crossed. Then you take the center of the loop and bring it down to the crossed part. Take and place that in between the Linen Thread and then tie the thread around it until it is tight – adjust the loops and tails to get the bow you want.
There is been some bird activity around my bird houses. Here are a couple of pictures of House #1 – one is a tufted titmouse from a couple of days ago and the other the female bluebird from last week.
Tufted Titmouse
House #2 and #3 have also had some visitors.
Bluebird
And I’ve even had some lookers at the Woodpecker house – that is exciting because it is new – I didn’t have it last spring.
There is also a new house that my friend Sue gave me – it looks like a cat and the birds go in and out through the mouth. I haven’t seen any birds near it yet. The dogs do check it out occasionally making sure it isn’t a real cat hanging there.
Spring Bingo players – is anyone getting close – any three or four in a row – or is there a 5 in a row winner today?
Here are the next two pieces –
images copyright Stampin' Up!
images copyright Stampin' Up!
Have a great day!
Mar 15, 2011 | Bingo, Cards, SU Ribbon, UDI Color Challenge |
Tuesday is here again. And its UDI Color Challenge day. For those of us on the design team we actually create our projects the week before and send them to Gretchen so she can get the post ready to go for Tuesday. Some weeks I cut right to the deadline (ok a lot of weeks) and other weeks I’m a little ahead of the game. This week I made it ahead of the deadline and thought I had a pretty creative idea to share too. I’ll see if you agree.
Here is the inspiration photo for this week –
Click on this link to go to the Utah Diva’s Color Challenge blog. There you can see the creations from the entire design team and add a link to your creation if you decide to play along. So here is my card creation for this week –
I was very happy when I realized we had the Seam Binding ribbon in three of the colors in our challenge this week – Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke, and Very Vanilla. I wanted to use all three but couldn’t decide exactly the best way to do that. I finally decided to try braiding the three colors together. To start tie a knot with the three pieces together and then tape that down to the table to hold it still. Then do a loose braid for the length that you need. For this card I used a trick that one of my demonstrator friends, Joyce, reminded me of this weekend – I had seen it before but had forgotten. See where the knot is right under there is a hole punched through the Very Vanilla card stock. So to start come from the back and bring the ends of the ribbon through. I used tape to hold the ends together while I worked. Bring the ribbon (in this case my braid) around to the front of the card, all the way across, and to the back. For mine I secured the end of my braid at the top edge and bottom edge with tape on the back side – and then un-braided what was on the back so it would lay flat. When the end gets back to the hole on the back bring the other end of the ribbon through the hole. Now both ends are in the front – put one on each side of the braid and then tie the knot around. This keeps everything in place and everything secure. Then I decided to fray the ends – I think that actually took the longest. Trim just the very edge off each side of the ribbon and then pull out all the cross hairs until you are just left with the long pieces. I did that 6 times one for each end of each color of ribbon.
The stamp set is Herb expressions. I used sponging on the edges of the Very Vanilla and the Color Spritzer with the Stampin’ Write Markers. The Rosemary image is colored in with the markers too. I created a matching inside panel but forgot to take the picture of it. I’ll try to add that later. I hope you like it!
I hope you’ll visit the UDI site and play along with us this week.
Stampin’ Up! Supplies:
- Card stock: Basic Gray, Very Vanilla
- Ink: Basic Grey, Stampin’ Write Markers in Basic Grey, Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke
- Stamp sets: Herb Expressions
- Accessories: Scallop Edge punch,Crop-A-Dile, Color Spritzer, Seam Binding: Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Stampin’ Sponge, Stampin’ Dimensionals.
To order Stampin’ Up! Supplies to make this project click here.
Monika’s Spring Bingo – here are the next two pieces for you:
images copyright Stampin' Up!
images copyright Stampin' Up!
Mar 10, 2011 | Big Shot, Bingo, Cards, Occasions Mini 2011, Sale-A-Bration 2011 |
Yesterday I told you about all the great ideas that other Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators share. My card today came from one that I saw on Stampin’ Connection (a demonstrator only online community) – the original was created by Christy Galang.
The front panel on the card is Very Vanilla that was embossed with the Tulip Embossing Folder and the Big Shot. In the very center I stamped the large flourish image from the Sale-A-Bration Bliss stamp set using Not Quite Navy ink. The butterflies are cut using the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die and the Big Shot. One is cut from Blueberry Crisp Designer Series paper – the edges are stamped with the little swirls on the edges of the bliss stamp in the set. The smaller butterfly is Very Vanilla and then stamped with the large flourish. The butterflies are layered and add to the center of the card. In the very center of the butterfly is a pearl – if you look closely the pearl is blue – on this particular sample I colored the pearl with a Night of Navy Stampin’ Write marker and let it dry for a while, then wiped it off and let it dry overnight – this gave it a very light blue tint. I made some darker ones by coloring with the marker then covering the pearl with Clear Embossing Powder and heat setting it. 
I put my card on a Not Quite Navy card base so I created an inside panel to match.
And added a greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set to finish. We made this card in my Towne Lake Card Club and everyone was able to choose what they wanted to use the card for. Teeny Tiny Wishes has ended up being one of my most used stamp sets since it has so many greetings in and covers all different occasions. It is perfect to use in a class because everyone can choose what they need.
I watched American Idol this morning – I had my neighborhood friends over last night to play Pokeeno – so I had to record it and watch this morning. I wonder what everyone thought. I think as a group the boys are stronger than the girls but I was having a hard time deciding who would be the one to go tonight – I’m assuming they are eliminating only 1 person but I’m not sure. I think my least favorite was Ashton. The best for me include Casey, Jacob, James, Pia and Scotty. Some of them just didn’t choose the best song. I guess we’ll find out tonight what happens.
And on to Monika’s Spring Bingo – we actually played this for Pokeeno last night instead of the traditional pokeeno cards. We all had fun doing something a bit different – I had a garden themed night – so the gifts were garden themed which was fun. I had decorations and made little boxes that I’ll share in a later post. So for my bingo players I’ve decide for the next several days I’m going to call two pieces at a time. So mark your cards and let me know when you have a Bingo. Here are the pieces for today.
images copyright Stampin' Up!
images copyright Stampin' Up!
Good Luck!
Mar 8, 2011 | Bingo, Cards, UDI Color Challenge |
It’s Tuesday and the Utah Diva’s Color Challenge Day. Honestly I waited until the last minute to make my card this week – and I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do but when it was done – it is so cute! I think I’ll be using this in a class or club at some point. Here is the inspiration photo for this week –
Click on this link to go to the Utah Diva’s Color Challenge blog. There you can see the creations from the entire design team and add a link to your creation if you decide to play along. Normally I work only with the colors that are in the inspiration piece and not the piece itself but this week was different – I decided to try to create a purse card like the one in the photo. And here is the result –
What do you think? It is quite cute in person. It will fit in the open-ended envelopes that we sell – it is basically a 3×6 finished size but the corners are angled to make it look like a purse. Colors are Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Daffodil Delight, and Tempting Turquoise.
Are you wondering at all about the ribbon handle? Stampin’ Up! used to carry lots of Chocolate Chip ribbon, but then we got Early Espresso and all the Chocolate Chip ribbon went away and we got Early Espresso. I considered using it for this card but it wasn’t one of the colors in the challenge – while in reality you probably wouldn’t notice the difference I wanted to stick to the colors. So instead I used Very Vanilla Taffeta ribbon and colored it with a Chocolate Chip Stampin’ Write marker to make it all Chocolate Chip.
I hope you’ll visit the UDI site and play along with us this week.
Stampin’ Up! Supplies:
- Card stock: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Daffodil Delight
- Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise
- Stamp sets: Fast & Fabulous
- Accessories: Designer Label punch, Boho Blossoms punch, Chocolate Chip Stampin’ Write marker, Gold Brads, Very Vanilla Taffeta ribbon, Paper piercer, mini glue dots, velcro dot.
To order Stampin’ Up! Supplies to make this project click here.
Day 3 – Monika’s Spring Bingo – here is the next piece –
images copyright Stampin' Up!
Mar 7, 2011 | Big Shot, Cards, Hello Again, Occasions Mini 2011 |
This is a quick and easy card. It uses the Sweet Buttons Embosslit from the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini catalog. Use with the Big Shot, standard cutting pads and Multipurpose platform. I cut buttons in Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango and Daffodil Delight. Each die cuts 6 different button shapes so you could make 6 different cards using all the buttons.
I used a paper piercer to pierce holes through the embossed buttons – it doesn’t actually cut the little holes for the thread. Then threaded some white crochet thread and tied little bows. Each button was attached to the card with a Stampin’ Dimensional.
The card base is Chocolate Chip. Doodle a line with a Chocolate Chip Stampin’ Write Marker around the edge of the card. One corner (bottom left) was corner rounded.
In the corner I stamped “hello” from the Hello Again stamp set. On the inside of the card I stamped a button image from the Button, Button stamp set that coordinates with the Sweet Buttons Embosslit. Both are part of a full collection of coordinating products from the Occasions Mini Catalog called Oh Sew Suite.
Today is day 2 of Monika’s Spring Bingo – for those of you that are playing here is the next piece.
images copyright Stampin' Up!
Have a great rest of the day!
Mar 3, 2011 | Big Shot, Birthday, Cards, Occasions Mini 2011 |
Every few days I take a couple of minutes to check out some of the creations that demonstrators have added on Stampin’ Connection – a demonstrator only online community. There are thousands of ideas out there for us to look through. I found the cutest cupcake card created by Andrea Thompson. I considered changing up the colors but I really found her color choices to be so pretty that I ultimately decided to keep the colors basically the same. I loved the little pearl accents but I didn’t use quite as many as Andrea’s original card.
The texture on a couple of pieces is a fun addition. The Build a Cupcake punch make this card much faster than you would think. The only piece you have to hand cut is the little flower – the rest of the pieces are punched. The colors are Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Pear Pizazz and Whisper White. I did use Melon Mambo for the heart, cherry and flower.
Something fun and exciting is that Stampin’ Up! is giving all of it’s demonstrators a birthday present this year – we get 15% off one item during our birthday month and guess what mine is just a couple of days away! I’m trying to decide what to use it on – should I get a bag for my Big Shot or the other set of Alphabet dies? Plus I have a Stampin’ Up! Gift Card that I got for my Great Rewards points – so I don’t even have to spend my own money on it! Whoo hoo – I love being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator!
Does anyone have thoughts on American Idol? I watched the boys sing Tuesday night and some I don’t like at all, some I really like and then there is the in between group. I think they are picking 5 – so this is who I choose as my top 5 – James, Jacob, Casey, Paul and Scotty. What do you think? Did you pick?
The girls sang Wednesday night and I don’t think I like them as much as the boys – it may be a boys year. My 5 for the girls are Karen, Haley, Thia, Pia (that just sounds funny with both of them), and Lauren Alaina (she’s from Georgia so I have to root for her – but she was one of the better singers too). So tonight I can see how well I picked.
Have a sweet day!!
The card base is Cherry Cobbler. There is a strip of Basic Black that was textured with the Square Lattice textured embossing folder.
