Apr 8, 2013 | Cards, Demonstrator |
Every other month I have a Team meeting for my downline, my sidelines, and any other Stampin’ Up! demonstrators in the area that need a group to be part of. I love this time together – we share not only business topics from Stampin’ Up! but creative ideas. It is a fun casual time where we can come together and do what we love. One of the optional things we do is have a swap – at the last meeting the swap theme was to take an idea from Pinterest or a crafting magazine or website and recreated with all Stampin’ Up! materials. It was really fun to see what everyone made. For some I have their inspiration but for some I don’t. And hopefully I have the correct name on each one too. Here we go.
Diane’s swap card
Anne’s swap card.
Becky’s swap card
Fran’s swap card.
Laree’s swap card.
Leishman’s swap.
Lisa’s swap card.
Monika’s swap – box from the Pop ‘n Cuts card base die.
I’ll share more about mine in another post.
I hope you took advantage of the Free shipping – it ends Monday night – April 8th – so hurry.
Apr 2, 2013 | Big Shot, Cards, Pop 'n Cuts, Spring Catalog 2013 |
I had one of those “a-ha” moments last week while assembling my brand new A Round Array stamp set. It’s a sneak peek from the upcoming Stampin’ Up! Annual catalog and right now you can get it in a bundle with the coordinating 7/8″ Scalloped Circle punch for 15% off or just order the stamp set early. I got this stamp set in Clear mount (that’s available early if you want wood you’ll have to wait for the new catalog) and one of the things that I have been doing with all of my clear mounted stamps is to trim the labels close to the image before attaching them to the stamp. Doing that leaves a little bit of the foam exposed and it sticks better to the clear block than the label clings. You could leave the labels off but I want to know what I’m stamping to I want the labels on. Any way – my “a-ha” moment came when I realized I could PUNCH the labels! Before you peel any of the backing off just use the punch to punch them out then attach to the stamp!
That was so much faster and cleaner than cutting them out. I wish I had figured that out sooner and did it on some of my other stamps too. So if you can punch them then you can also use the framelits to cut out the ones that match those.
Now to show you the card that I created using this cute set –
Do you see the fancy edge on the right side? Well the card base was cut using the Pop ‘n Cuts Card Base die. The back of the card has the little slits that the tabs can slide in to hold it shut. Here are a few more details:
- Cut Island Indigo card stock with the Big Shot and Pop ‘n Cuts card base (I actually scored my 4-1/4″ x 11″ piece of card stock first – lining up the score line with the marks on the die).
- Punch a strip of Lucky Limeade card stock with the Ribbon Border Punch and attach to the edge of a piece of Tea for Two Designer Series paper.
- Punch a So Saffron card stock with Blossom punch and pierce using the Paper Piercer and Occasions Piercing Pack template.
- Stamp image from A Round Array stamp set in Island Indigo ink on Whisper White card stock, punch out with the 7/8″ scallop circle punch.
- Punch Island Indigo with 1″ Circle punch.
- Punch Lucky Limeade with 1-1/4″ Scallop Circle punch (carry over from the Holiday catalog).
- Layer the punches together and add to the front of the card.
(from the Stampin’ Up! Spring catalog)
I checked in on the bluebirds today while mom and dad were out – all 5 eggs are still there – no babies yet. Today is day 12. So any day now they will start hatching – we shall see how many babies we get – hopefully all 5 will be there in a few days. I better fill up the bird feeders again. The squirrels have been driving me crazy – they have learned how to get around the baffle finally – he uses it as a spring board now – grrr. And the squirrel proof feeder – while it does close once the squirrel has his weight on it but he know that when he jumps on it seed flies out and he can jump back down and get all of that. I call the them “he” but I’m sure some are “she’s” in fact one looks like she is either going to have babies or just had some babies.
Thanks for checking in with me today!
Mar 28, 2013 | Big Shot, Cards, Create with Connie & Mary, Easter, Spring Catalog 2013 |
Well this is my last Create with Connie & Mary challenge card. It has been a fun time each week with the sketch and colors challenges. I’ll be doing something different for the month of April and then with a busy few months through the summer I don’t plan to be on any challenge teams for a while. Connie & Mary will have some new designers on the challenge team and they have a new Card class going on to so be sure to check out what they are doing.
This week at Create with Connie & Mary we were issued a sketch challenge!
I created an Easter card actually a few weeks ago and now I can’t remember if I made it based on this sketch or if it just conveniently worked out that way 🙂 – I think I’m getting old because I really can’t remember. So here it is –
It’s a perfect match to that sketch don’t you think? But it is a twist since it is an Oval shaped card – I love it! I made use of the Oval Framelits for all the layers on the card.
Here are the are some details –
- Cut a piece of Lucky Limeade card stock – 4-1/4 x 11 and score at 5-1/2″ – fold it in half and position it on the Big Shot with the large scallop oval framelit – you want the folded edge to be below the top of the oval so that it doesn’t get cut – this creates the folded base of the card.
- Cut a Chocolate Chip Oval with the next size oval and then cut a piece of the Tea for Two Designer Series Paper with the next size smaller. Layer these two together.
- Cut a strip of Chocolate Chip card stock and glue it across the layered ovals – then trim the ends along the oval shape.
- Tie a piece of Linen Thread around the strip – I used some snail on the back side to help hold it in place so it didn’t slip. I tied the bow to the left side where I added a Designer Builder Brad. The brad has a punch out from the designer paper in the center – covered by the clear bubble. Punch a hole through the layered oval and add the brad.
- Attach the layered oval to the front of the oval card base. I used Stampin’ Dimensionals.
- Stamp Happy Easter (from Teeny Tiny Wishes) and cut with the Itty Bitty Banner Framelit – then attach to the front of the card.
- A beautiful egg shaped Easter card!
I’m spending the rest of the week getting ready for Easter – I will have 30 people here for lunch – mostly extended family and a few friends. I’m not sure we will have an egg hunt though – all the kids have grown up most are in college now – we have a few high schoolers but no little kids here this year. I may need to come up with some games to play instead.
Visit the Create with Connie & Mary site to see the creations from the rest of the design team and to submit your own creation for this new challenge. I hope you will play along. Every week the top 3 are announced from each challenge – maybe this week it will be you!
Stampin’ Up! Supplies:
- Card Stock: Lucky Limeade, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
- Accessories: Big Shot Die Cut machine, Itty Bitty Banner Framelits, Oval Framelits, Linen Thread, Designer Builder Brads, Tea for Two Designer paper, Itty Bitty Punch Shapes, Stampin’ Dimensionals, mini glue dots
Thank you again for letting me be part of the weekly challenge team. Continue to enjoy the challenges!
Mar 21, 2013 | Big Shot, Cards, Create with Connie & Mary, Spring Catalog 2013, Thank You |
I’m wrapping up my stay with Create with Connie & Mary – I have just a couple more projects to share for the weekly challenge team. It has been fun and I’ve enjoyed seeing the creations every week. Thanks for letting me be part of the fun.
This week at Create with Connie & Mary we were issued a color challenge! Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist, and Not Quite Navy – they make me think of summer and water – so naturally I thought of the Oh, Whale! stamp set in the Stampin’ Up! Spring catalog.
Now that I had my colors and knew I wanted to use the Oh, Whale stamp set I had to decide what to do with it. I have wanted for the last few months to make the little envelopes that are shown in the Sale-A-Bration brochure. I had many people ask how are those made. Well it’s really hard – you use the Big Shot and the Scallop Envelope Die and fold in the top, then the bottom, then one side and it’s done. Really – that easy! Not hard at all. The little envelope is just folded up so the decorative flap becomes one of the sides that is tucked in.
Here are the are some more details –
- Cut Daffodil Delight card stock with the scallop envelope die and the Big Shot. I went ahead and folded it all together the way I wanted to make the pocket. Then ran it through with the Cloudy Day embossing folder. Then I went back and added a little bit of Tomobow glue to hold it all shut – I guess I could have added that before embossing – but I didn’t do it that way.
- I stamped the whale in Not Quite Navy on Whisper White card stock and cut it out with the Happy Whale Clearlits die – isn’t it the cutest thing? I added a tiny silver mini brad for his eye.
- Tie a piece of the Marina Mist Striped Organdy Ribbon around the pocket then add the whale on with some dimensionals.
- I cut a piece of Marina Mist card stock to slide inside the pouch. I added a whale clip to the end of it. And on the card I added a little banner.
- The words are from the Oh, Whale stamp set and then cut with the Itty Bitty Banner framelits.
- Write a sweet little note and give it to someone special!
Visit the Create with Connie & Mary site to see the creations from the rest of the design team and to submit your own creation for this new challenge. I hope you will play along. Every week the top 3 are announced from each challenge – maybe this week it will be you!
Stampin’ Up! Supplies:
- Card Stock: Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist, Whisper White
- Accessories: Big Shot Die Cut machine, Itty Bitty Banner Framelits, Cloudy Day Embossing Folder, Scallop Envelope die, Happy Whale Clearlits Die, Mini Brads, Marina Mist Striped Organdy Ribbon, Elements Cute Clips
Enjoy this week’s projects and I’ll be back one more time for next’s week challenge. If I have an update on the Bluebird I’ll post that later.
Mar 20, 2013 | Cards, Simply Scored, Spring Catalog 2013, Wildlife |
Sale-A-Bration is coming to and so quickly! I haven’t even shared all the things I have made using these stamp sets. Here is another idea for you using the Bloomin’ Marvelous stamp set.
I know I got this idea from somewhere – but can’t seem to find it now – I checked my Pinterest boards but don’t see it on there. So if you know where I saw this let me know. I know I made some changes but the card idea and I’m pretty sure the stamp set was the same.
I’m not sure you can tell in the first photo – you can probably tell better in this one but the front of the card has 1″ cut off of it and the Designer Paper is glued to the inside of the card and peeks through to the front. The 1″ strip that I cut off was used to stamp the butterflies that are punched out and added to the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
Here are a few more details for you:
- Card base is Naturals White
- Designer Paper is Tea for Two from the Spring catalog
- Near the fold I did some embossing with the Simply Scored Borders plate
- colors are Calypso Coral, Marina Mist and Wild Wasabi and Early Espresso for the words
- Pearls in the centers of the flowers
And a quick bird update – the Bluebirds are right on schedule – egg #4 came today –
Bluebirds lay 4-5 eggs so we’ll see if she adds one more tomorrow or if she is done. It is supposed to get cold here – we have had nice spring weather and we could get some snow flurries Thursday or Friday – I hope she keeps those eggs warm. I feel like these are really early this year. Let me go see when they were doing this last year. So I wend back and check my blog posts from last spring and on March 18th I was posting about the Chickadees and Bluebirds fighting over the same house. Perhaps the Bluebirds didn’t want that problem this time (they lost out last year) and started earlier to beat them. I guess I’ll have to wait and see where the chickadees go – no nests in the other houses yet.
Have a great day!
Mar 19, 2013 | Big Shot, Cards, Sale-A-Bration 2013, Thank You, Wildlife |
Here is one more quick card using the Madison Avenue stamp set and a few other Sale-A-Bration items.
The Sycamore Street Designer Series paper was used along with the coordinating Madison Avenue stamp set and Vine Street Embossing folder.
This is a 4-1/4″ square card.
I used this card as an example during some new demonstrator training sessions. This would be easy to change to use the products you have on hand.
The base used here is Shimmery White card stock – but you can just as easily use Whisper White.
You could use a different embossing folder or not emboss it all.
Switch out the ribbon – the Sycamore Street ribbon would have worked here too.
The Fabulous Phrases stamp set that I used here has a ton of different words to choose from – but if you don’t have that one choose something you do have.
The stamped flowers were embossed with clear embossing powder and the heat tool – but you could stamp with just VersaMark ink or use the same color as the card stock.
Switch out the designer series paper – and then use matching card stock.
There are so many different ways to alter this little card you could have a whole stack and each one be different.
Oh and another picture to share with you – my bluebird is right on schedule – egg #3 arrived today –
Let’s see if she adds another one tomorrow!
