Good morning everyone!  I think our rain has stopped – we had a little bit of snow/sleet on Thursday but it stopped and I was able to head out to a class at Tammy’s house that night.    The rain is not helping the work that is going on at our house.  We are having our old screened porch/deck converted to a large sunroom/small deck.  The construction has been going on the days in between the bad weather – I’m hoping for nice weather all week so they can get it done.  And hopefully all the construction isn’t keeping my birds away.  I’m would expect to see them already shopping for bird houses to nest in but I haven’t seen much activity.  It might be because the weather has been colder than normal or a combination of the two.  This year I have added the woodpecker house and I have one more house to add but I haven’t put that one out yet.  I’ll keep you posted as soon as the action starts.

On to my project for today.  These are some cute cards featuring Sale-A-Bration stamps and accessories.  I have been using these cards in some of my classes/workshops the last couple of weeks and everybody loves them.

The idea for this card came from the Stampin’ Success magazine that Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators receive each month.  It is packed with ideas and articles for us to read.  I decided to use the layout and then make more than just the one card that they showed but create more cards using the other stamps in the Punch Bunch stamp set.  I gave everyone at my classes the choice of what they wanted to make.   Each card was unique as every person used a different stamp and selection of the die cuts from the Ice Cream Parlor pack.

The card base is Old Olive.  At the bottom is a die-cut strip, then above that is a piece of the double-sided Designer Series paper – some people chose to show the dotted side and others the pink side.  Above that is a piece of the Ice Cream parlor ribbon – this ribbon has flowers printed on one side so when you tie it in a knot make sure you twist the end so the printed side shows. Stamp the image and punch out with the coordinating punch and add it to the front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.  See below for the instructions on creating the pierced circle and do that before you add all the die-cuts and the buttons.  One trick that you might want to know about the die-cuts – if you want to pop them up with Stampin’ Dimensionals – stick them to your jeans first to remove some of the adhesive on the back and then add the dimensionals to pop them up.

Do you see the pierced circle in the background?  I love that idea but I thought there is no way I can make an even circle like that.  I remembered that Stampin’ Up! used to have the brass embossing templates and many of those had piercing patterns on them too.  We don’t sell those anymore so I wanted to come up with a way to do the same thing with what we do have.  It just so happened I had one of the large die-cut scallop circles lying on my craft table and that gave me this idea.  So here are the instructions on how to create a pierced circle:

Step 1: cut a die-cut scalloped circle using the Big Shot machine and one of the dies – you can vary the size of your circle by using a different sized scallop circle for your template.

Step 2:   Place a piercing mat underneath your card stock and the scallop circle on top.  Use a paper piercer and pierce in between each pair of scallops to create a circle – using the scallop keeps the holes evenly spaced.

Step 3: If you want the holes closer together add another hole in between each pair that you punched.

Ta-da!  A pierced circle!

How easy was that?  I’m going to use this idea on some other cards not that I figured it out and I’m going to take a look at my other dies to see if I can create some other piercing patterns.  To save the templates cut them out of the cardboard backer from the Designer Series paper and it will last longer than using a piece of card stock.

Have a fun weekend!

Stamping Together at Monika’s Place – February 2011 Newsletter – CLICK HERE.

February 2011 Ribbon Share – CLICK HERE.