Dec 8, 2010 | Bingo, Cards, Christmas, Holiday Mini Catalog 2010 |
Last night was the Christmas concert for the High School Band. Both Tyler and Ryan were dressed up in tuxedos last night. I just love to see them dressed up like that. I wish I could have gotten some good pictures – but the auditorium was too dark and after wards they are more interested in their friends than letting me take a picture.
The heating repair man just left – our heat is not really working upstairs – it figures since it has been 10-20 degrees below average here the past few days. We had tiny snow flurries on Sunday – we are in Georgia and any kind of snow flurry makes everyone excited. I had to turn off my fountain because all the water is frozen and I don’t want the pump to burn out and it isn’t even getting warm enough to melt the ice during the day. I’m waiting on the repair man to come back – he had to go get a part for the heater which will hopefully fix it. Sigh…..
Today’s project is another Christmas Card from my Holiday Stamp-a-Stack class last month. This one took the longest to make only because it has a lot of pieces to attach. It uses the Tags til Christmas stamp set from the Holiday Mini catalog – but rather than making tags out of them they are the ornaments on the front of this card.
If you are a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator you might recognize this card. It was in the November Stampin’ Success magazine. That is the monthly magazine that all demonstrators get and it has lots of great information and ideas for us. I really liked how they used all the different images as ornaments on the front of the card. Here are some details about the card:
– The card base is Always Artichoke.
– The next layer is Pear Pizzazz card stock and it was run through the Big Shot with the Perfect Details Texturz Plate – do this after you stamp the greeting. I stamped mine in Always Artichoke ink. After I added the texture I used the Color Spritzer and the Always Artichoke Stampin’ Write Marker to add some spritz here and there.
– Then the ornaments – the ornament shape was stamped on Whisper White card stock with Baja Breeze ink and punched out with the Ornament punch. I added a small pearl to the center of the design. “Dec. 25″ was stamped on Whisper White card stock with Cherry Cobbler ink and then punched out with the small oval (now called the 1-3/8″ x 5/8″ Oval Large) punch. Punch a 1/16″ hole in the top and add some white crochet thread to that one. The Holly is stamped on Always Artichoke card stock with Always Artichoke ink and punched out with the 3/4″ x 15/16″ Oval punch. The snowflake on my card actually comes from the Season of Friendship stamp set – it was stamped on Pear Pizzazz card stock with Always Artichoke ink and punched with the 3/4″ circle punch. Last punch a 1” circle out of Cherry Cobbler card stock. Then stamp the word block from Tags til Christmas on Whisper White card stock with Cherry Cobbler ink. Cut out the word “CHRISTMAS”. Glue that piece to the circle. Then I used a Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Write marker to add dots above and below the word. Trim any white that hangs over the edges of the circle.
– Add the ornaments to the front of the card – all are on Stampin’ Dimensionals except the holly. Draw the “strings” with a ruler and Always Artichoke marker. Attach the string for the Dec 25th ornament to the back of the layer and then attach that to the front of the card base.
Stamp a matching envelope using one of the same images and you have a cute card.
Let’s continue with Bingo….
Here we go with Monika’s Blog Bingo. This is Round 7! The group is full and all the cards were emailed out Monday 11/29. See this POST for more details on how to play and the previous winners and the players for this round.
And now for the next piece – Here is piece #8–the floral sprig from Tiny Tags stamp set (stamped in Pear Pizzazz).
If you have Bingo – 5 in a row be sure to email me.
Dec 6, 2010 | Bingo, Cards, Christmas, Designer Series Paper, Holiday Mini Catalog 2010 |
I forgot to post something on Sunday – ran out of time – if you are looking for Bingo the next piece is at the bottom of this post.
Last month I had a Holiday Stamp-a-Stack class. I had four cards that were fairly quick and easy to replicate and everyone that came to the class made four of each card plus coordinating envelopes. They left with a nice little stack of Christmas cards ready to send out to those that they love. I wanted to share those with you and here is the first one. We also made this at my card club meeting this past week and I demoed it at a workshop I had this weekend.
This card idea was one that I found last year from Cindy B. – I started keeping a file on my computer with ideas that I like and I have a folder by stamp set – so this was in my Dasher folder – to help me remember where I found the idea I try to put the name of the person or blog in my file name. So I don’t have a full last name for this one – it just said designed by Cindy B. on the watermark of the picture. I made a few changes from the original but the idea of the card is the same.
This is also a great idea for using up scraps of your designer series paper. For my card I used the Deck the Halls Designer Series paper – I had scraps left from other projects. I used a variety of circle punches to get all the circles from the scraps – the 2-1/2″ circle, 1-3/4″ circle, 1-3/8″ circle, 3/4″ circle and 1/2″ circle. The different circles are just layered on the edge of a piece of Very Vanilla card stock – and then trimmed what hangs over the edge.
Next to the circle I stamped Dasher in Soft Suede ink and underneath I stamped Merry Christmas – which is from the Christmas Greetings stamp set. Then I attached the Very Vanilla to a Soft Suede card base. The matching envelope has Dasher on it too.
If you want to add a bit of bling – use a 2-way glue pen on the antlers and where the snowflakes are mixed in then sprinkle with the Glass Glitter from the Holiday Mini catalog – shake off the excess. If you want something less chunky use the Dazzling Diamonds.
Let’s continue with Bingo….
Here we go with Monika’s Blog Bingo. This is Round 7! The group is full and all the cards were emailed out Monday 11/29. See this POST for more details on how to play and the previous winners and the players for this round.
And now for the next piece – Here is piece #6–the soccer from the All in the Family Accessories stamp set (stamped in Concord Crush).
I guess it is time for me to make my signature more wintery – I’ll have to work on that this week.
Dec 4, 2010 | Bingo, Cards, Christmas, My Digital Studio |
One of the great thins about demonstrators getting together is we share ideas and things we have learned with one another. At my November meeting I asked Cindy Schuster to do a presentation for the meeting. She told us lots of great information, showed us 12×12 Individual pages that she had printed by Stampin’ Up! and showed us how to make a Hybrid project using My Digital Studio. Hybrid project use a combination of digital and traditional to create a finished project. Cindy even brought materials for everyone at the meeting to create our own hybrid card for one of our Make&Take projects – how great is she!
Here is the card we all got to make. You can go HERE to Cindy’s blog to read her details about this card and some other hybrid projects that she made.
There are two elements that were created using My Digital Studio – the patterned paper layer that is on top of the Real Red card stock base. The elements are from the Candy Cane Lane Photocard Digital Kit digital download. Two of the different paper patterns are combined on the back and then a punched edge was added in between them.
The top layer added the ornament elements and then a greeting. The two different MDS elements were printed on Whisper White card stock. We cut them out and layered them on the Real Red card stock – it was a quick card to put together. You could even add ribbon, or glitter or other elements.
Let’s continue with Bingo….
Here we go with Monika’s Blog Bingo. This is Round 7! The group is full and all the cards were emailed out Monday 11/29. See this POST for more details on how to play and the previous winners and the players for this round.
And now for today’s piece – Here is piece #5–the snowflake from the Season of Friendship stamp set (stamped in Concord Crush).
Nov 30, 2010 | Bingo, Cards, Christmas, My Digital Studio |
So I’m slow getting started this week. This cold has just drained me for the last couple of days. Believe it or not I still have to clean up from the class I had right before we went out of town for Thanksgiving! I had the class, ran a million errands, packed and we left town – all I did was put all the stuff in baskets and all in one room and today I moved it all back up to the craft room to put away. I did spend time this morning finishing a Christmas Card in My Digital Studio. I sent it off to print at Stampin’ Up! – I just printed a few so I could see what they look like before I print a bunch. I hope it gets here soon so I can see it. Here is a peek at the inside of the card:
For a card you get to create three pages – the front, then two insides – in my case the card folds at the top so it has a top and bottom inside page and this is the bottom one. I can’t show the front yet because I entered it into a My Digital Studio contest and we won’t know the winners until the end of December (I think). Although now that I created this one I may like it better – its so hard to decide – but it doesn’t matter because I can print them all as part of my card. I even added pearls – it is one of the newest downloads available for My Digital Studio.
Speaking of My Digital Studio – TODAY is the LAST DAY to get it at 50% OFF – half-price! Don’t miss out on this awesome deal. It is part of the Online Spectacular – there are lots of other great things on sale so do it today before its too late – the link is below. And you can still join my Stampin’ Up! team too – for $87.50 you get the full Starter Kit – this is the best try out being a demonstrator deal – you get from now through the end of March to try it out after that if you don’t want to stay a demonstrator – no problem – you keep everything from the starter kit – over $300 of product. If I weren’t already a demonstrator I would do this pronto!
Online Spectacular – Nov. 22 – Nov. 30th – CLICK HERE.
50% Off Starter Kit – Nov. 15 – Nov. 30th – CLICK HERE.
ABCs of the Perfect Handmade Holiday – Oct. 19 – Dec. 16th – CLICK HERE.
I don’t know what your weather is like but it is POURING down rain here – like you wouldn’t believe. And I feel so bad for the UPS man – you might wonder why – well in our neighborhood this is the week that UPS starts delivering inside of our neighborhood using a golf cart and trailer. I think it is a way for them to make better use of the trucks – so they fill the truck – it comes to our neighborhood and unloads into storage trailer – then they spend all day delivering on the golf cart while the truck goes and gets more packages. Well today is not a good day to do that – the poor guys is getting soaked not to mention trying to keep all the packages dry. I just saw him go up our street – he has a tarp covering the trailer with all the packages. You may wonder if this means my packages are delayed – over the last few years I actually get things a day early when they do this!
It is time to start a new round of Monika’s Blog Bingo. This is Round 7! The group is full and all the cards were emailed out yesterday (Monday 11/29). I am going to take a break from Bingo after this group is done so I am not taking any more names at this time. I may play again in the future so I hope you will continue to visit my blog and leave comments. See this POST for more details on how to play and the previous winners and the players for this round.
And now for today’s piece – Here is piece #1 –the gift box from Family Accessories stamp set (stamped in Pear Pizzazz).
Nov 19, 2010 | Bingo, Cards, Ronald McDonald House Charities |
This week I got to go back to the Ronald McDonald House to stamp with the guests that were there. I missed last month because Tyler had his first Show Choir performance. I was really glad to be there again and two of the girls that were there in September were there this week – and they have made so much progress – it was really nice to see the changes in them in two months. The card was designed by Nadine this month – it is a really cute card.
I took photos of everyone with their finished cards. I was very excited when one of the girls, Rachel, finally let me take her picture. The last few months of going were so worth to see how happy she was last night making her card and the smile when she was done. Earlier this year she wouldn’t even come to the table or look at us. We may not get to see her again it sounded like she was headed home for good in early December.
The last time I saw Josie she was in a wheel-chair and now she is not – isn’t that exciting! Her mom decided to make some cards too.
I didn’t get the chance to learn much about the other kids that were there last night. It sounded like everyone was going home for the Thanksgiving Holiday.
We had lots of girls this month. I think this is the most people that have joined us for making cards in a while. Although I think they were busy last month too.
And no boys this time. We did have a dad helping.
I hope my post shows up correctly. I seem to be having trouble getting the pictures to stay.
Now I’ll see if I can get the Bingo game on here. We are getting close – who is it going to be – will it be you?
It’s BINGO TIME! We are playing Round 6 of Monika’s Blog Bingo. I have now filled group 7 and won’t be taking any more names right now – I”ll be taking a Bingo break after group 7 plays – I may play again in the future so I hope you will continue to visit my blog. See this POST for more details on how to play and the previous winners.
And now for today’s piece – Here is piece #16 –the owl from Cute by the Inch stamp set (stamped in Chocolate Chip).
Make sure you send me an email when you get your 5 in a row.
Nov 18, 2010 | Big Shot, Bingo, Cards, Christmas, Holiday Mini Catalog 2010, In Colors, Valentine's Day |
In the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini Catalog Stampin’ Up! introduced a new crafting option with the Big Shot machine. They are called Letterpress Plates and let you create an inked debossed impression. I demonstrated these at my meeting Saturday night and had three cards for everyone to make. Here are a few of my notes:
There are four Letterpress Plates
#120980 Trick or Treat
#120983 Lots of Love
#120981 Joyful Season
#120982 Northern Trim
What you need to use your Letterpress Plates:
- Letterpress plate
- Craft ink – pad or spot
- Brayer – optional
- Paper – watercolor paper is best – porous, card stock and textured card stock also work
- One cutting pad – newer is better, no lines
- Multipurpose platform on Tab 1
- Baby wipes
Build sandwich on a flat surface like this – Multipurpose Platform on Tab 1, a shim if needed, LetterPress Plate, Card stock (it works better to use dotto and secure to the bottom of the cutting pad), cutting pad. I tried some other combination’s but this one worked the best. I also think that the bigger plates are thicker – or seem to be than the smaller ones.
Use dotto to adhere paper to cutting pad so it doesn’t slide or move. There are several ways to ink your Letterpress Plate.
- Use a full size Craft Ink pad and apply directly to the plate.
- Use a brayer and apply ink from either the ink pad or an ink palette create with a refill.
- Use a Craft Ink spot
- Ink areas with mulitple colors using the ink spots
- Ink only portions of the plate using ink spots – the uninked portion still debosses
- Use VersaMark ink on all or portions of the plate
I found that for my Big Shot it worked well for me to use a cardboard shim underneath – I used the thin card board that comes in the package of Designer Series paper.
Here are the cards that I created:
This first one used the Northern Trim Letterpress Plate.
I used Watercolor paper and a full sized Craft Ink pad. I filled an uninked pad with Wild Wasabi Craft ink and we used it directly on the pad to get it inked up. 
To finish the card the watercolor paper was layered on a piece of Bashful Blue card stock and adhered to the front of a Wild Wasabi card base. The base was stamped with the Northern Hearts hostess stamp set which matches this Letterpress plate.
The card was finished with pearls in the center of the flowers, a Bashful Blue punched snowflake and “merry” in the center on Whisper White card stock.
You can’t see it in this picture but I finished the card by spraying the whole thing with a mixture of Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint mixed with Rubbing Alcohol – it adds a fine shimmer to the whole card – you just can’t see it in the picture.
For this next card I used the Joyful Season Letterpress Plate.
I used Confetti White card stock and Craft Ink spots in Real Red and Old Olive to ink the plate.
The card is very simple – just layered the piece on a Real Red card base. You could dress it up more with ribbon/buttons/etc. But we had a lot to do at the meeting so I kept this one very basic.
The third card used the Lots of Love Letterpress Plate. This one turned out to be my favorite.
The card stock is Blushing Bride and I inked the plate first with a VersaMark pad and then used a Craft Ink spot in Chocolate Chip to ink only the large LOVE. I saw this technique on a video that another demonstrator had created – I think I saw it on Stampin’ Connection. The plate is much larger than the card it is about 8″ x 6″ – so you can position your paper to where you want it on the plate.
To finish the card I tied a piece of the Blushing Bride ribbon around the card stock and then layered it on a Chocolate Chip card base. I punched some hearts using the Heart to Heart punch out of the Blushing Bride Designer Series paper (it is in the In Color stack). I sponged these a little bit on the edges and popped them up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.
From what I heard this was everyone’s favorite of the three. I do like how the VersaMark makes the debossed words pop.
I hope you learned something about using the Letterpress Plates.
I have heard several people are close – needing only one more piece in multiple rows – maybe today will be the day we have a winner.
It’s BINGO TIME! We are playing Round 6 of Monika’s Blog Bingo. I have now filled group 7 and won’t be taking any more names right now – I”ll be taking a Bingo break after group 7 plays – I may play again in the future so I hope you will continue to visit my blog. See this POST for more details on how to play and the previous winners.
And now for today’s piece – Here is piece #15 –the cat from All in the Family stamp set (stamped in Peach Parfait). 
Anybody have Bingo? Make sure you send me an email when you get your 5 in a row.
Here we go with Monika’s Blog Bingo. This is Round 7! The group is full and all the cards were emailed out Monday 11/29. See this POST for more details on how to play and the previous winners and the players for this round.
And now for the next piece – Here is piece #8–the floral sprig from Tiny Tags stamp set (stamped in Pear Pizzazz).
