May 5, 2010 | Blog Candy, Blog Tour, Cards, Create with Connie & Mary |
The Royal Blog Tour has ended and wow what a ride it was! I hope everyone that came along enjoyed the tour. Over the 4 day tour – I had 3217 visitors to my blog!!! WOW!! I had 147 comments on my post and I picked a winner for my blog candy! Do you want to know who it is? I know you do…..
The winner is……..
Janet Swofford Says: April 30, 2010 at 12:15 pm
All of your projects are stunning. If I have to pick just one, I would pick the first project. I love the layout and that it is a set. It would make a great gift.Thanks for sharing and for the chance to win the blog candy.
Inky hugs,
Janet
Congratulations Janet!! Please email me with your mailing address so that I can send you your blog candy.
And now on to another project. Yesterday I posted the instructions for the Flower Pot and today I’ll post the Card Kit – it was Janet’s favorite and she won the blog candy so I thought it would be appropriate.
Royal Blog Tour Project 1 – Set of Cards in a Box
This is a set of 4 cards in a clear box. The clear box was one that I purchased online from clearbags.com – they have lots of different things to choose from.
I created a belly band to go around the box – it is Soft Suede textured card stock – 1-1/2″ wide. I then took a piece of Soft Suede Polka Dot Ribbon and used some snail to glue it to the center of a piece of Certainly Celery Satin Ribbon. Then I attached them both around the center of the card stock leaving both ends free and overlapping. Next take a Certainly Celery button from Sherbet Designer Buttons and put some Linen Thread through one hole then around the ribbon and then up through the other hole on the button – pull tight to cinch up the ribbon. 
Add a tiny tag punched using the Medium Jewelry Tag punch and finish by tying the Linen thread in a bow. The little tag has the flowers from the Lavender image and the “for you” is from a portion of one of the sayings in the set.
The colors I used throughout this project are Kraft (the new Crumb Cake), Soft Suede, Certainly Celery and Lavender Lace. Each card uses one of the four herb images and on the inside I added the coordinating quote.
The card base is Kraft card stock with the front edge scalloped using the Scallop Edge Punch. Then sponge the scalloped edge with Soft Suede ink. Cut a piece of Certainly Celery card stock (5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″) for the inside of the card. I stamped the herb image in the bottom right corner of the card front and the Certainly Celery piece and on the envelope. Color the image with Stampin’ Write Markers. 
Then I used the Color Spritzer tool with the Soft Suede Stampin’ Write Marker to spritz across the front of the card and the corner of the Certainly Celery piece.
Attach the Certainly Celery piece to the inside of the card and stamp the corresponding saying in Soft Suede ink.
To finish the front I did the same thing as the belly band on the box.
Because these cards are “fat” with the buttons and ribbon I was able to fit 4 cards and 4 envelopes in the box. Which was perfect for this set. Here are pictures of the front and inside of the rest of the cards.
I hope you like this card set – it was also a popular choice of favorites on the tour!
I’m a Guest Designer at Create with Connie & Mary: Summer Edition.
This week on Create with Connie and Mary we are having a “Tropical Party”! Every day during this week the team has created a project using the items that coordinate with the tropical set, die and paper! Mary found the footnote flip flops at a local store and just KNEW they would be PERFECT for a special project! And since we just HAD to do something with them…we are sharing them with YOU!
Leave a comment on the blog below on the given day and be entered into the drawings to win one! Each of us have two to give away. CLICK HERE for all the details and how you can get ADDITIONAL CHANCES TO WIN.
Wednesday May 5th– Kerin Slyvester – Stamps, Paper, Glitter!
Winners will be announced for everything on Saturday, May 8th. To find out if you are a WINNER…you need to check the Create with Connie and Mary site no later than Friday, May 14th and send us your mailing address. Good Luck!
May 1, 2010 | Cards, Colored Brads, Create with Connie & Mary, Summer Mini 2010, Watercoloring |
Good Morning and Happy May! It is Saturday and time for the first Challenge at Create with Connie & Mary!
I hope you enjoyed the preview week projects – I know I did. To see the winners of the FREE passes please visit the Create with Connie & Mary site. Congratulations to all the winners – I’m so glad you are joining us!
This week our challenge is a sketch challenge. The featured items this week are from the Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini Catalog – Elements of Style stamp set, Presto Patterns Designer Series Paper, Mostly Vintage Stencil and the Rough Type Alphabet stamp set. My choice was to use the Elements of Style stamp set. I actually made two different cards for this challenge using the same stamp set and same colors. One follows the shapes of the sketch and the other is a different interpretation without the rectangular shapes – it is what I call a loose interpretation – I’ll show you both versions – and you can see if you see the sketch in the second one.
For the first card I started with a Garden Green card base. I added a Sahara Sand rectangle down the right side – stamped with Garden Green and sponged the edges with Sahara Sand. There is a Ruby Red scalloped trim on the right edge. The focal point is actually a 3×3 square – so you could use that portion of this card as a 3×3 card if you needed it. The roses are stamped in Black StazOn ink and water colored. The Hummingbird is inked with Stampin’ Write Markers and then cut out and popped up.
The greeting is inside a piece of the Hodge Podge Very Vanilla hardware. I colored my hardware Ruby Red so it would match my card and stand out more than the vanilla color.
This is how I colored my hardware – first I covered the hardware with Ruby Red Craft Ink. Then I covered the ink with Clear Embossing Powder. Use a heat tool and heat the embossing powder just until it melts. I hold my hardware with a pair of craft tweezers – it will get hot and the heat tool is hot and you don’t want to burn your fingers. Don’t overheat because the vanilla finish underneath can burn if it gets to hot and it turns rusty colored.
Here is a full list of Stampin’ Up! supplies for this card:
- Elements of Style stamp set
- card stock: Garden Green, Ruby Red, Sahara Sand, Whisper White
- ink: Garden Green Classic and Stampin’ Write marker, Ruby Red Classic and Craft and Stampin’ Write marker, Black StazOn, Sahara Sand Classic and Stampin’ Write Marker, Black Journaler
- Vanilla Hodge Podge Hardware
- Clear Embossing Powder
- Heat Tool
- Stampin’ Sponge
- Aqua Painter
- Stampin’ Dimensionals
And here is my other card – 
most of the supplies are the same as the first card with the following differences. The roses are stamped on Watercolor paper twice – one full piece is layered on the front of my card and the second set I cut out the larger flowers and mounted them with Stampin’ Dimensionals on top of the matching flowers for a 3-d effect. The roses represent the vertical rectangle in the sketch. I stamped the hummingbird and cut it out – it represents the horizontal rectangle in the sketch. The hardware is the same. Can you see the sketch in this card?Check out what the rest of the Create team did with this challenge:
Connie
Mary
Kerin
If you haven’t checked out the Create with Connie and Mary site yet it isn’t too late to do it! We feature new Summer Mini products every week. For more information and to see our Preview Week projects please visit the Create with Connie and Mary site.
Thanks for stopping by today! Happy Stampin’!
Apr 29, 2010 | Blog Candy, Blog Tour, Cards, Embossing |
I am so excited to welcome you to the ROYAL BLOG TOUR!
I hope you are excited to be here!
I will go back to my regular posting schedule after the tour – this post will be at the top of my blog until the tour is over. I will have a Create with Connie & Mary Challenge Post on Saturday – so scroll down below this one if you want to see that one. Create with Connie & Mary winners and new blog candy are posted below this one so scroll down if you want to see those.
On the tour you will visit Princesses from all over showing you different styles of stamping and different stamp sets.
Have fun on the tour!
My featured Stampin’ Up! stamp set is the Herb Expressions (#113224) set! This set offers images from four different herbs – Thyme, Basil, Rosemary and Lavender along with four sayings that coordinate with each one. I have Thyme and Rosemary growing in my yard – lots! I have created three projects to show you during the tour I hope that you enjoy them.
Project 1 – Set of Cards in a Box
This is a set of 4 cards in a clear box. The colors I used are Kraft (the new Crumb Cake), Soft Suede, Certainly Celery and Lavender lace.
Each card uses one of the four herb images and on the inside I added the coordinating quote.
I used the Certainly Celery Satin Ribbon along with the Soft Suede Polka Dot Ribbon on each card and the box. A Certainly Celery Button and some Linen Thread finish the front.
Check back on my blog next week to see each card in detail and a full supply list. I can’t show you everything today because I want you to have time to complete the tour. You can sign up for email updates by clicking on the link to the right and then you won’t miss it.
Project 2 – Herb Seed Journal
My second project is an Herb Seed Journal. This is based on the design of a matchbook. I originally created a small version of this project (I’ll be sharing that in the future) for something else and decided to adapt the idea to this. 
The inside consists of pockets made from the Glassine Bags in the Occasions Mini Catalog. Inside each pocket I have a card that includes places to keep track of your seeds and a packet of seeds. I created the journal card using My Digital Studio.
I included 4 pockets – one for each of the images in the stamp set. You can keep the seed packet and the journal card in the pocket so that the following year you’ll know what you bought, what you did, what worked and what you need to change so you will have lots of herbs.
I will have more information on this project later next week and more pictures for you to see – so be sure to come back. I need to move on to my next project now.
Project 3 – Flower Pot
When I first decided to use the Herb Expressions stamp set for this tour I had this idea in my head to stamp on a flower pot. I went through several pots and several different ways to get the effect that I wanted. I also made a plant marker which needed to be waterproof so it couldn’t be made out of paper. I was very happy with my end result. If you want the details on how I made these please come back to my blog next week and I’ll posting the instructions.
Inside the pot is a bag of potting soil tied with ribbon and a tag and a packet of seeds. I think this little flower pot would be a great little teacher gift – tell the teacher thanks for all the “thyme” they spent with your child this year. I did something similar years ago when my boys were younger.
I hope you liked all these ideas. Come see me again and leave me a comment – you have the chance to win blog candy!
I’ll be giving away Blog Candy after the tour is over. You must live in the US to win the blog candy – but you can leave me a comment even if you don’t. Here are the details on how to enter:
1. Leave a comment on this blog post with your name and if you are demonstrator or customer and which project is your favorite.
2. Sign up to receive email updates from my blog – there is a link in my side bar on the right-hand side of my blog .
Blog Candy prize:
Picture This stamp set (wood mount), Botanical Blooms stamp set (wood mount), and the consumable supplies to create the card box project and the herb seed journal project featured in this post.
The winner will be announced on my blog after the tour and I’ll also send the winner an email.
And don’t forget to visit the main Royal Blog Tour Blog – if you didn’t start there it is the start of all the Royal Tours and has the details on the Royal Blog Tour Blog Candy. Along each tour there are clues for a chance to win a BIG SHOT die cut machine or other prizes! That’s very exciting so be sure to read the rules on how to enter. Good Luck!
Your Royal Carriage awaits you please click on the Glass Slippers to continue your journey!
Thanks for stopping by!
Apr 28, 2010 | Big Shot, Cards, Create with Connie & Mary, Fifth Avenue Floral |
Wow! I had some amazing comments yesterday! I’m so glad everyone loved the Scrapbook in a Box. It is just a great project and easy to adapt to so many things. It would be cute decorated like a baby block full of baby pictures!
Thank you! Thank you! For all the wonderfully nice comments. I loved reading them all and I think I replied to everyone. If I missed you I’m sorry I had a lot! And some replies came back with errors so the email address didn’t work for some reason.
I was going through some scrapbook pages and found this card mixed in with them. I don’t think I have shared it on my blog. I thought I would share it with you today for a couple of reasons – one it used some of the colors that will be retiring and because the embossing folder matches the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set which is on sale through April 30th.
This card uses the Big Shot Die Cut Machine with the Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder. The roses are embossed onto Shimmery White card stock and then the debossed side is brayered to give the variation in color – I used Regal Rose (a light layer so roll some off onto your scratch paper first) and Summer Sun. Then cut out around the embossed roses before attaching to the card.
The card base is Regal Rose with a layer of Barely Banana. The greeting is from the Oval All stamp set. Since the embossing folder matches the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set I used the flower from the stamp set to decorate the envelope.
Summer Sun and Barely Banana are two of the colors that will be retiring. You could use So Saffron and the new Daffodil Delight in their place. I hope you like it!
Would you like to WIN a subscription to Create with Connie and Mary? Each of our team members will be giving away subscriptions on their blogs this week. To enter to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on our team member’s blog on the day that we are featuring them. TODAY you can leave a comment over on Create with Connie and Mary in order to get a chance to win one of six FREE subscriptions! Don’t leave it here…you must leave it on today’s post over there!
All the winners will be announced on Saturday, May 1st! If you are a winner and have already subscribed, we will refund the price of your subscription!
Thanks for stopping by today.
I’m a Guest Designer at Create with Connie & Mary: Summer Edition going on now – don’t miss out!
I’m also a princess on the Royal Blog Tour: April 30 – May 3rd – visit my blog to take the Royal Tour.
Apr 26, 2010 | Cards, Create with Connie & Mary, Summer Mini 2010, Thank You |
I have been creating 3×3 tags for several months now and showing them on my blog as I create a new design. A few weeks ago I completed a challenge to take a 3×3 card and convert it to a full size card. I used this idea as a Stamp Club project earlier this month. So I had a thought that I would show each 3×3 card and a matching full sized card going forward.
This week I made a 3×3 card using the new Bouquet Bunch stamp set that will be in the Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini Catalog that begins on May 1st. CLICK here to see my original 3×3.
When I saw this weeks Stamping 411 challenge I knew exactly what I was going to do to convert this 3×3 card to a full size card.
This sketch was perfect for what I wanted to do. So I took my 3×3 and created my new full card using the 411 sketch.
What do you think? Didn’t it work out perfectly.
I took the 3×3 and added it to a Basic Grey card base.
I wrapped a piece of the Crushed Curry Polka Dot ribbon around the bottom. The ribbon is held on with the Linen Thread that is tied through the button. The button is from the Button Latte Designer Button set. I stamped another little bird on a piece of Whisper White and punched it with the Jewelry Tag punch – it was added underneath the button so it hangs out from behind.
Today is Monday and if you want a chance to win a FREE Subscription to Create with Connie & Mary you need to go visit Connie’s Blog to see her preview week project and enter to win. Good Luck!
I’m a Guest Designer at Create with Connie & Mary: Summer Edition going on now – don’t miss out!
I’m also a princess on the Royal Blog Tour: April 30 – May 3rd – visit my blog to take the Royal Tour.
Apr 24, 2010 | Cards, Create with Connie & Mary, Summer Mini 2010 |
I have been playing with the new Elements of Style stamp set from Stampin’ Up! and decided to use it for a challenge that I found. The challenge was to create a One Layer Card – basically use only stamps on your card. You can see the challenge HERE on KWerner Design Blog.
It’s not always easy to make a one layer card because you always want to add more. For this card the base is Kraft card stock – soon to be known as Crumb Cake in our new catalog. I stamped the large floral image from Elements of Style set in Chocolate Chip craft ink and let it dry. The hummingbird is stamped in Ruby Red craft ink – once on the card and once on a scrap piece and cut out. I wanted it to have a bit of dimension so it looked like it was flying.
I sponged around the edges of the card with Chocolate Chip ink and also spritzed it with the Color Spritzer and a Chocolate Chip marker.
The flight trail under the bird was down with the paper piercer and as a guide I used one of the Classy Brass templates – Pick a Petal is the name and it has a large circle pattern on it.
I used an AquaPainter to add a little bit of color to the flowers – Sahara Sand, and the leaves – Mellow Moss.
I made another one layer card recently (well except for the ribbon) – click HERE to see it.
That’s it – my one layer card. Starting tomorrow it is preview week at Create with Connie & Mary – be sure to stop by. The Elements of Style stamp set is one of the items we are featuring so you will see more ideas with it. And every day during preview week one of the design team members will be giving away a free pass.
Thanks for stopping by today!
Early Bird pricing for Create with Connie & Mary: Summer Edition is going on now – $19.95 – don’t miss out!
Join me for the Royal Blog Tour: April 30 – May 3rd.
This is a set of 4 cards in a clear box. The clear box was one that I purchased online from clearbags.com – they have lots of different things to choose from.
Add a tiny tag punched using the Medium Jewelry Tag punch and finish by tying the Linen thread in a bow. The little tag has the flowers from the Lavender image and the “for you” is from a portion of one of the sayings in the set.
The card base is Kraft card stock with the front edge scalloped using the Scallop Edge Punch. Then sponge the scalloped edge with Soft Suede ink. Cut a piece of Certainly Celery card stock (5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″) for the inside of the card. I stamped the herb image in the bottom right corner of the card front and the Certainly Celery piece and on the envelope. Color the image with Stampin’ Write Markers. 
