Almost Artisan – Card 5

Jun 16, 2010 | 2-Step Stampin', Almost Artisan, Big Shot, Cards, Thank You | 6 comments

I’m going to finish posting my Artisan Award projects.  If you missed my earlier posts – this is an annual contest that Stampin’ Up! holds for its demonstrators.  It is the biggy!  Anyway this was the first year that I entered the contest – and while I had high hopes of winning – I was not chosen as one of the winners – they picked 10.  To enter we had to create 5 cards, 3 scrapbook pages and 2 3D projects.  I have been showing my projects over the past couple of weeks.  If you want to go back and see what I already posted CLICK HERE.

Today I’m sharing my 5th card.  This one is fun and really much easier to make than it looks.  I have seen lots of versions of this card – called a Tri-Shutter card – all over the internet.  I created this one earlier this year and shared it with my Stamper’s Club.  I really loved it so I decided to use it as one of my entries since I hadn’t shared it online with anyone else yet.  I made one minor change to my original before mailing it in.

The card is cut and scored so it has multiple panels that fold together to create a really cool card with lots of places to embellish and add little things here and there.

I used the Simply Said stamp set for this one.  This is a two-step stampin’ set that has been around for several years and I think many people have forgotten it.  The Designer Paper is the Tall Tales paper.  My colors are Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron and Whisper White. 

I used the Beautiful Wings Embosslit to die cut a variety of butterflies with my Big Shot.  I also used the Big Shot to cut the large Scallop circle and for adding texture using Embossing folders on some of the panels.

The large butterfly on the front was cut twice – once in So Saffron and once in Chocolate Chip.  The Chocolate Chip butterfly was cut in half and layered on the back of the So Saffron butterfly.  The body and antenna are made from Linen Thread.  The circle scissors was used to cut the inner circle.  I used the distressing tool, sponging and the white gel pen as accents on the card.

The one thing I changed from my original card to the one I sent in to Stampin’ Up! was the addition of the center of the flower on the inner panel.  I added some Tombow glue and added a swirl of linen thread to make the center of the flower.  I really like how it turned out.

This is probably my favorite card out of the ones that I entered and of course the colors are some of my very favorite. I’m so glad they aren’t retiring!

I have two more projects to post – my last scrapbook and 3D projects – so I hope you will come back.

Thanks for stopping by!

Almost Artisan – 3D project 1

Jun 10, 2010 | Almost Artisan, Animal Stories, Big Shot, Build-a-Bear, Rock 'n Roll | 5 comments

I’m back with another project that I submitted for the Stampin’ Up! Artisan Award Contest.  This is one of the two 3D projects that I created.

I actually made this box originally as a project for Create with Connie & Julie and it was a birthday theme – click here to see that one.  I recreated it for the contest and made a new baby theme.  One of my friends, Jenn, said she thought the box would be perfect for a baby gift and I agree.  I needed something to go inside so I bought cloth diapers and cut Build-a-Bears with pajamas on them and put those on the diapers and added the ribbon trim.  I thought they would be cute burp cloths.

The box has 6 burp cloths inside – 3 in So Saffron and 3 in Old Olive.  I rolled them up and tied them with the Striped Ribbon.

The box is made from the Fancy Favor box – actually two of them.  On each side of the box I have two Build-a-Bears and they are all “holding hands” all the way around the box.  I made a boy and a girl on each side.  I added the animals in between.  The paper is the Tall Tales Designer Series paper.

I was really happy with the little hanging tag once I figured out what I wanted to do.  The giraffe is cute with the Rock-N-Roll technique – inked in So Saffron and rolled in Chocolate Chip. The tag is two sided since you could see both sides of the project and I didn’t want an “ugly” side.  So the back of each animal is colored to match the front.  You can just barely see the back of the other giraffe – it is So Saffron.

I hope you like it.  It was fun to make.  Although I don’t see myself making any more little bear burp cloths.  The material of those cloth diapers was just hard to work with because the edges were pretty thin.  Oh well.  All in all a cute project.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Almost Artisan – Card 4

Jun 7, 2010 | Almost Artisan, Big Shot, Bleaching, Cards | 6 comments

And I’m  continuing on with  my projects that I created for the Stampin’ Up! Artisan Award Contest.  This is another card that I made.  I know it is the wrong season for this winter card but I love how this technique turned out.  I originally used this on a scrapbook page and decided to create a card for the contest using the same technique.

This is my bleached snowman card.  I love the snowmen in the Holiday Lineup stamp set.  They are just so fun.  I cut out a Top Note with the Big Shot from Close to Cocoa card stock.  I stamped the snowmen with Chocolate Chip craft ink and embossed them with clear embossing powder.  This makes what I call little “walls”.  Then I used fresh bleach in an aquapainter (I have one that I only put bleach in).  And put bleach on the places that I wanted to be lighter – the snow parts.  The bleach on the Close to Cocoa gives a Very Vanilla shade rather than white so the rest of my decorations were in Very Vanilla. The “walls” help keep the bleach from seeping into sections that you don’t want bleached.

The background is stamped with the snowflake from Tree of Friendship using Very Vanilla Craft ink.  I also pulled the edges of the card across the ink pad to add some color there.

The card itself is not a traditional card opening. Instead the two end fold up to the center and the Top Note with the snowmen hangs over the front.  The picture on the left shows you what the card looks like when it is opened.  The inside panel was also decorated.

I added some Bashful Blue Designer Series Paper, a punched Very Vanilla Snowflake, Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon, and a Chocolate Chip corduroy button all tied together with some Linen Thread.

My pictures are a little bit dark but I think you can see it all.

I think so far I’ve shown 6 of my 10 projects.  I hope you’ll be back to see the rest.

These snowman look so cool on a hot day – we have bright sun today and a perfectly blue sky – not a single cloud was out this morning when I walked.  And Kyle walked with me – we went all the way around our big neighborhood loop.  I had forgotten how big those hills are.  I think we walked about 45 minutes.  Then I took Ryan to tennis camp.  I have a workshop tonight at Kimberly’s house – going to pack up for that now – it should be fun!  And yesterdays Simply Adorned class was great.  I can’t remember if I have shared those ideas with you or not – I’ll have to do that this week too if I haven’t already done that.

Thanks for stopping by today – have a great day!

Stencil Smooch card

Jun 5, 2010 | Cards, Create with Connie & Mary, Decor Elements, Smooch Spritz techniques, Stamper's Club, Summer Mini 2010 | 1 comment

Hey everyone it’s Saturday and no I don’t have another challenge card for Create with Connie & Mary.  The summer session of posting new projects and challenges has ended. But if you are looking for some GREAT ideas on how to use your summer mini stuff, you can still subscribe for $24.95 and have access to ALL the GREAT ideas that were shared.

And guess what Connie & Mary are continuing to do weekly challenges that are open to everyone!   They will be posting on Thursdays – and the first one was this week.  I hope you’ll visit the Create with Connie & Mary blog and try to play along.  I will when I can fit it in.

So on to my card for today.  Last night was my Stamper’s Club meeting – we normally make three projects – 2 cards and a 3D.  This was one of the cards we made – it looks so much harder than it is.  The card was designed by my friend and upline Wendy and uses several products from the Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini catalog.

It has a masculine look to but also looks elegant and vintage at the same time.  So i think you could use for a variety of things – Father’s Day, Anniversary, etc.

The card base is Basic Black – which is a little hard to see in the photo because it kind of disappears into the background.

Then you need two Whisper White pieces – one for the front and one for the inside so you have a place to write.  So here is a fun technique that you can do with the Smooch Spritz .  Use a plastic project folder like you use for a school report – spritz inside the folder – Silver Foil  – you could also add the gold if you want.  Close up the folder and smoosh the spritz around  a bit.  Open it up and lay the two pieces of white card stock back to back inside the folder.  Close it again and smoosh the spritz on to the card stock.  Take the card stock out and you have the marbleized looking pieces.  Each person will get a different looking piece.

Then add the Decor Elements stencil to the front – the stencil is called Mostly Vintage and it is in the Summer Mini.  Use a Stamping Sponge and Jet Black StazOn ink and add the stencil to the front of the card.  Remember to pounce the sponge and don’t rub or you will bend the little pieces of the stencil.

To finish add one of the little vintage tags that are in the Summer Mini.  I hope you like it.

Almost Artisan – Card 1

May 31, 2010 | Almost Artisan, Baroque Motifs, Cards, Embossing, Occasion Mini 2010, Sale-A-Bration 2010, Thank You | 6 comments

It was really hard not sharing these projects earlier.  Since we made them during the Sale-A-Bration and Occasions Mini Catalog sales period some of my projects use items from these.  They were current at the time so they were eligible for the contest.  Even though the judging occurred after they ended.  I wonder if that had anything to do with the chosen winners.  Between that and using what are now going to be retiring colors – that was announced after I sent my entry in and when you see one of my scrapbook pages it ended up with a bunch of retiring colors on it.  Oh well…

So here is card #1 – I considered this to be my vintage card.  I had actually created a scrapbook page with this idea and posted it on my blog earlier – click here to see it – and when I was creating for the Artisan contest I kept coming back to that page but knew I couldn’t enter it since it was already on my blog.  My solution was to make a card using the same idea.

It is a very pretty card in person – I’m not sure the picture does it any justice.  The card base is Basic Black and the stamping is done with Versamark and embossed with Clear Embossing powder.  I love this look.

I used the Vintage Labels stamp set from Sale-A-Bration – too bad that one isn’t still available.  The others are all still current – Charming, Tiny Tags, and Baroque Motifs.

The colors are Crushed Curry, Basic Black and Whisper White.

I had also decided to decorate the inside of each of my cards.  I go in phases of doing this.  And I usually always do it when the card base is dark like the Basic Black.  The inside was pretty simple but matched with the front of the card.

So that is my first entry for the Artisan Award.

I hope you like it.  And that you’ll come back to see the rest!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

CLICK HERE – to go to the post for other Almost Artisan blog links.

You’re Invited

May 29, 2010 | Baby Wipe, Big Shot, Cards, Create with Connie & Mary, Rock 'n Roll, Summer Mini 2010 | 2 comments

The time has passed so quickly and today is the last post for Create with Connie & Mary Summer Edition.   I have had such a great time creating projects for the members and for the challenges each week.  For the last five weeks we have been featuring  some of the new stamp sets and products from the Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini Catalog.  This week our featured items are the Sweet Scoops stamp set, July Fourth stamp set, Red/White/Blue jumbo wheel, and the King of the Grill stamp set.  Our last challenge is a special Theme Challenge to create a Summer Invitation.

This week I have been working with the Sweet Scoops stamp set – there are so many little techniques you can do with this stamp set.  In my weekly project I should the Kissing technique and for my challenge card I used two more fun techniques – Baby Wipe and Rock and Roll.

I tried several different things before I finally ended up with this card.  I even debated creating an invitation that matched the Ice Cream kit from earlier this week, but decided I wanted to show you something different with this same stamp set.  I’m so happy with the final result!  I really like how it turned out.

So first of all this is a tall card – one that fits in the small open-end envelopes instead of the medium envelopes.  The card base is Pretty in Pink – a 6″ x 6″ piece folded in half.  The panel in the center is Kraft card stock that was embossed with the new Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  I love this folder and the picture in the Summer Mini catalog does not do it any justice – I never even considered it until I saw samples with it.

The top and bottom of the card are done the same – I used a piece of Kaleidoscope Designer Series paper with one edge torn and layered it on a piece of Close to Cocoa that has one edge torn.

Now some of the fun is making the ice cream and the cones!

For the ice cream I used the Baby Wipe technique – take a baby wipe and fold it into quarters and set it on something plastic – I use one side of my Stampin’ Scrub with the pad removed.  Using reinkers in Pretty in Pink and Close to Cocoa add drops to the baby wipe.  You are basically creating a multi colored ink pad.  Then use that to ink your stamp.  I stamped on Whisper White card stock.  Each one will turn out a little different as the ink blends together.

For the cones I used the Rock and Roll technique.  To do this I inked the cone in Creamy Carmel ink and then rolled around the edges using Close to Cocoa.  This gives it shading around the edges of the cone.

I cut out all the cones and ice cream and then these are added to the front of my card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The “you’re invited” banner is stamped and punched with the Modern Label punch.  A second Modern Label punch is punched from a piece of Pretty in Pink – cut in half and then each half is layered behind the white one.  I used a marker to add some stitching around the edges.

I added a couple of other fun elements – first of all the Bitty Buttons!  I just love these little buttons.  I used Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack to punch out Close to Cocoa card stock and layered each one behind a clear button.  Pierced with a paper piercer and added linen thread.  I put the whole card together and then the really fun part starts.  I sprayed my whole card with the Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz!  So everything is covered in shimmer!

I also stamped on the envelope with the ice cream and cone.  The party invitation information is on the inside of the card.  This would be fun for a back to school ice cream party or summer birthday.  Ryan has a summer birthday but I don’t think he would appreciate the pink invitations!

Check out what the other Create designers did with this theme challenge:

Connie Babbert – Inspired Treasures

Kerin Sylvester – Stamps, Paper, Glitter

Mary Brown – Stamper Camper Corner

Supplies:

Sets:  Sweet Scoops (117078w, 120078c), Family Phrases (114960)

Inks: Close to Cocoa classic (103139), Pretty in Pink classic (101301), Creamy Carmel classic (103220), Close to Cocoa ink refill (102444), Pretty in Pink ink refill (102295), Close to Cocoa Stampin’ Write Marker (100072)

Cardstock: Close to Cocoa (101341), Pretty in Pink (100459), Whisper White (101731), Kraft (102125)

Accessories:  Big Shot Die-Cut Machine (113439),  Square Lattice Embossing Folder (119976), Modern Label punch (116630), Paper Piercing tool (116631), Mat Pack (105826), Kaleidoscope Designer Series Paper (115680), Bitty Buttons (118761), Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack (118309), Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz (118772), Color Catcher (121093), Linen Thread (104199), Stampin’ Dimensionals (104430), Small Open-End Envelope (107286).