Swallowtail Note Card Set

I love how these turned out!  We made this Swallowtail Note Card set at my In-Color class last month.  I think this was one of my favorite projects and the perfect gift for someone.  I’m not sure why I waited so long to get the Swallowtail Stamp.  I know it is big and can be intimidating to use but it worked out so nicely for this project.

Swallowtail-notecards

The set includes 5 notecards with the envelopes packaged inside a clear bag, tied with ribbon and finished with a cute tag.  Here are some close ups for you to get a better look at everything.

swallowtailThe note cards are smaller than the regular cards we normally make and the big Swallowtail stamp is much bigger than the front of the card so I decided to wrap the stamp around the back.

  • Don’t fold the note card until after you do the stamping.
  • Stamp the Swallowtail image in Versamark Ink and cover with Clear Embossing Powder.  Heat set with the Heat Tool.
  • use a Stampin’ Sponge and ink to sponge around the embossed image – I start in the center where I want it to be darker and then sponge in a circular motion out to the edge.  Repeat until the whole butterfly is covered – it pops right off the card!
  • Stamp a greeting on the bottom of the card.
  • Stamp a matching envelope – I use the smaller swallowtail image from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set.

swallowtail-notesI made a card in each of the five new In-Colors – Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar, Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe.

After sliding all the card inside the bag.  Tie it shut with a piece of the Ruffled Ribbon and add a tag from the Chalk Talk set.

Chalk-Talk-tagLove that set with the matching framelits!  I added a little flower to dress up the tag.

A cute gift don’t you think!

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I love this fish bowl

I love this fish bowl stamp (Fishin’ Around) in the new Stampin’ Up! catalog!  I think it is so cute!  And I had it on my first order along with the new In-Colors which are so beachy feeling that I decided they were the perfect colors for the fish bowl.  Last week we were at the beach and I had one day alone in the condo and I spent part of that time playing with this stamp and these colors.  I actually made this project earlier for my In-Color Hands On class (right before I left for the beach trip) and loved the project so much I wanted to make something for convention that used this stamp.  So I made a whole stack of these and I thought I would share the “steps” with you on how I water colored my fish bowls.

Wait – here is the finished project from my class –

Fish Bowl treats - Monika Davis

Fish Bowl treats

Would these be so cute to send to camp or school with your kids!  Anyway so here is what I did – I took pictures of each step so you can see the bowl come to “life”.  First use Watercolor Paper – it works the best for watercoloring.  Stamp the fish bowl image in VersaMark ink and cover with Black Embossing powder and heat set with the heat tool. The raised embossing gives you little wells to water color within.

fish-bowl-1

I started with the Baked Brown Sugar color – squeeze your ink pad a little before opening it and it gives you a little palette in the lid that you can dip the aqua painter into.  The Baked Brown Sugar is the perfect color for sand!  Remember load your brush and touch down where you want the darkest color, as you brush out the color will lighten up.

fish-bowl-2I also used the Baked Brown Sugar for the treasure chest.  Next I used Crisp Cantaloupe for my fish – body and faces.

fish-bowl-3To add some dimension to the fish add the Strawberry Slush to give some darker coloring to the tails and fins. When you are watercoloring its ok to leave touches of the white space so don’t worry about covering every little section – you want the variations of the color.

fish-bowl-4

For the bubbles I used the Pistachio Pudding ink – just a tiny dot inside each of the bubbles.  And you could use it for the jewels in the treasure chest (emeralds) – or use the Strawberry Slush if you want rubies.

fish-bowl-5Now add the water using the Coastal Cabana – just the perfect color!  I started with darker areas under the waves and under the fish and along the little ripples in the water.  And then lightened out from there.  I also added the Coastal Cabana to the rim of the fish bowl – that may not be easy to see though.

fish-bowl-6Let it all dry.  To finish I punched the fish bowl out with my circle punch ( I think it was the 2″ punch – I don’t have it right in front of me to check).  And finally I added a dot of Crystal Effects to each of the bubbles.  Let those dry for a hour or so.

fish-bowl-7I think it is so cute!  I hope you like it too.

To finish the project for my class we put some gold fish in a ziploc bag and punched a hole through the top – added some Calypso Coral Bakers Twine (it works fine with the Crisp Cantaloupe color) and tied on the fish bowl tag and another little tag that says “just for fun”.   here is the finished project one more time.

Fish Bowl treats - Monika Davis

Fish Bowl treats – Monika Davis

Enjoy your day!

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Let’s Sale-A-Brate – Feeling Sentimental

One more Sale-A-Bration project using the vintage style set called Feeling Sentimental.  These images are really nice when they are embossed.

feeling-sentimental

This is a quick easy card and this is how I created it –

  • Card base is Crumb Cake and the front flap is embossed with Delicate Designs Embossing Folder.  Sponge over the edge with Early Espresso ink.
  • Tie some Linen Thread around the card front – tie  in a bow.
  • stamp Celebrate in Versamark ink on the bottom of the card front and cover with Early Espresso Embossing Powder and heat set with the Heat Tool
  • stamp the Ferris wheel image on the First Edition Designer Paper with Versamark ink, cover with Early Espresso Embossing Powder and heat set with the Heat Tool
  • Sponge around the image with Crumb Cake ink
  • Distress the edges of the Early Espresso card stock with the Distresser tool.
  • layer together and add to the front of the card

You could use any of the images in the set and switch out the word with something else from another set.  Clean and simple.  I hope you like it.

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Create a Little Scrapbook Page

One of the problems with going away is that you loose track of the days and then it takes a few days to get back into a routine.  Luckily I checked my calendar Monday night or I would have missed my dentist appointment on Tuesday – I thought I still had another day before I had to go.  I still need to go look at all of last week’s creations – I haven’t caught back up since I was gone from Thursday through Sunday for the Getaway Trip.  And Monday and Tuesday I was gone to various appointments finally a couple of days at home so I can get myself back together – I don’t like being disorganized – but I really am right now. 

On to better things – at least I did remember this!  It’s time for this weeks Create with Connie & Mary weekly challenge!  This week is a new sketch CCMC221 – and I think this is a good one.  I started thinking of lots of different things to do with this sketch but I didn’t have time to implement them all for this challenge.  I do plan to go back though and use this one again!

For now I decided to use this one for a 6×6 Halloween Scrapbook Page.  I think a My Digital Studio page would be cute too, or a card, or a framed piece, and more…..

Here is my little layout.  I actually want to add this to a 12×12 layout and include the rest of my photos but I haven’t had a chance to do that yet nor did I decide what the rest of the layout would look like.  I’m headed to a scrapbook crop on Saturday and I may let them do this as a Make ‘n Take project if they visit my table – what do you think?

I had to dig deep for a good Halloween photo – it has been a while since all the boys have dressed up – this may have been the last year that Kyle wore a costume – this is from 2005.  He isn’t actually in this group picture but I did get an individual picture of him – that’s part of the reason I want to include this on a larger layout so I can add the boys individual photos that I do have.

Did you see the news about Stampin’ Up! selling some of the stamps individually out of the stamp sets?  Well the Happy Halloween that I used on this layout is one of them that you can buy all by its little ol’ self.  I’m excited to hear what everyone thinks about the idea.  Stampin’ Up! is trying it out on three of the greeting stamp sets and I guess they will evaluate the results towards the end of the year to decide if they want to continue once January gets here.

Stampin’ Up! Supplies:

  • Stamps:  Seasonal Sayings
  • Ink: VersaMark
  • Card Stock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla
  • Accessories: Tangerine Tango Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Houndstooth and Scaringbone Designer Series Paper, Silver Stampin’ Dazzle Marker

Visit Create with Connie & Mary and submit your creation for this weeks challenge – each week 3 top creations are selected.  Each challenge is open for a week. Have you been enjoying all the holiday creations at the online 2012 Create Class – the final week is here – but it’s not to late to join – there are some really fun projects!

Monika Davis

Mouthwatering Sweet Shop

This card features a bunch of products from the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini Catalog and the new Diagonal Score Plate.  The Diagonal Score Plate was used to create the waffle background on the Soft Suede piece.

There is a strip of Designer Series paper from the Sweet Shop collection.  I used the Label Framelits to create the Pool Party  label.  The yummy ice cream cone is from the Mouthwatering stamp set.  There are a couple of different things going on with the ice cream cone.  The cone is colored first with a Crumb Cake Stampin’ Write marker and then thumped with the Soft Suede marker – that gives it the different shades of color.  The ice cream was colored with the Calypso Coral marker and then I put a drop of Versamark ink on it and spread it around to cover the ice cream – sprinkle with the Cherry Scented Embossing Powder and heat set.  I know you can’t smell my blog post but if you could smell the card in real life it smells like cherries. The cone is cut out and added on the label with dimensionals.

There is also one of the Jelly Bean brads right by the label.  and the greeting punched out with the decorative label punch  – I thought this one was perfect – “Happy birthday with a cherry on top!”.

I did tie some Calypso Coral ribbon that came from the Sale-A-Bration ribbon&brad pack onto this card – I thought it finished it off quite well.  This card was based on something I saw at leadership.

Have a sweet day!