Apr 30, 2014 | Cards, Occasions Catalog 2014, Starburst technique, Techniques |
Do you like to try new techniques? At my team meeting this past weekend the theme for our swap was to try a technique that was featured in one of the past Stampin’ Success magazines (that is the magazine that all Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators receive). I decided to try one called the Starburst technique that I had seen a few months ago.
It just so happened that I already had a spritzer bottle filled with Crushed Curry ink (and alcohol) so I thought I would play with that to begin with. And that made me think of sunrays and being happy which made me think of the phrase Cheer Up buttercup in the Geometrical stamp set. Now I feel like I’m tell the “when you give a pig a pancake” story….. well maybe not.
I was pleased with how it turned out. So let me tell you how I made it.
- Create a starburst mask. I used a piece of the cardboard that comes in the back of our Designer Paper. First I cut it to be slightly larger than my white card stock. I found something on my table that was round and traced it. Then used a ruler and drew lines through the circle. Then I cut out every other wedge up to my circle. Here is what my mask looks like –
- I laid the mask on top of my Whisper White card stock and then spritzed it with the Crushed Curry in my spritzer bottle. I aimed towards the center because I wanted it darker near the center and light out near the edges like a starburst/sunray.
- While the mask was still on I stamped the dots on there using the Gold Encore ink. The dots are from the Happy Watercolor stamp set. Then I moved the mask.
- I stamped the greeting “Cheer up Buttercup” also in the Gold Encore ink.
- I tied a piece of Whisper White Baker’s Twine around the White layer before adding it onto a Crushed Curry card base.
- To finish I added a punched Butterfly. It’s the Elegant Butterfly punch and the Eastern Elegance designer paper. I added a Vintage Faceted button that I tied with some of the gold thread that I pulled off the Gold Baker’s Twine.
- It’s bright and cheerful!
Thanks for stopping by today. Oh and I got to look in on my bluebird today. I thought she had laid 5 eggs and when I checked today – there are 6!! It’s going to be one crowded nest box with 6 babies in there. I have a picture on my Facebook page.
Apr 29, 2014 | Catalogs, Clearance Rack, Demonstrator, My Digital Studio, Stampin' Up! Events, Weekly Deals |
Well Monday turned out to be a busy day! Right after I finished my blog post yesterday I left the house – met my friend Diane – and then headed to lunch with a few other Stampin’ Up! demonstrators to be part of a Focus Group. We were treated to a delicious lunch – family style at Maggianno’s – and discussed our topic. I think when it was all said and done we were there for about 3 hours. Diane and I walked around the mall – the restaurant is attached to the mall. And slowly made our way over to the pizza place were we were meeting 23 other Stampin’ Up! demonstrators for dinner. That was fun!
Following dinner we headed to the movie theater and waited patiently for the Stampin’ Up! Catalog Premiere! I believe there were about 150 of us in this theater but total across the country there were over 7600 demonstrators. We were all ready to watch a live-streaming video of the new annual catalog premiere. I thought it was a great event and an exciting way to introduce the Stampin’ Up! catalog. I sure hope that Stampin’ Up! does this again.
We were there for 2-1/2 hours as the Stampin’ Up! staff showed us the new catalog, new stamp sets and products and made us laugh. They were live in California. As we left we got our brand new 2014-2015 Stampin’ Up! Annual catalog!! Plus a brand new stamp set! And a few people even won prize patrols. One of my downline Cindy won the first prize patrol – so exciting! And I can show you the front of the catalog! Are you ready?
You might just be able to find some new things shown on the cover…… and you might really want to be part of my Stamper’s Club and come to my house for the meeting this weekend – Friday night or Saturday morning – just sayin’!
So I didn’t have time to list all the supplies for my frog card yesterday – so I’m going now to update that post – so be sure to go back and check it out again.
A few other Tuesday updates for you:
- New Paper Pumpkin Kit and Refill Kits: As a special perk for Paper Pumpkin subscribers, Stampin’ Up! offers a selection of past kits and refill kits for purchase, while supplies last. We just added four new kits to the offering. Visit www.mypaperpumpkin.com/pastkits to get all the details.
- New items have been added to the Clearance Rack in my online store – holiday items from last years Holiday Catalog if you want to get a head start!
- Don’t forget the RETIRED LIST – things are selling out so don’t wait to order something that you wanted. Check in my online store under Retired List to see what is still available – once it is gone, its gone!
- New Weekly Deals 4/29 – 5/5– This weeks deals….
- New My Digital Studio Downloads – a new online class!
Order online at my store any time – START HERE.
Apr 28, 2014 | Cards, Punch Art |
Animal Talk is one of the sets in our annual catalog that I really like. I love the animals and what they are saying. But I’m sad to say it is on the retired list. This fun card was one I received last year at convention as a swap from Shanae Nay. She created a punch art frog and paired it with the Animal Talk stamp set for a cute card. I used this as a card for my Welcome Spring class earlier this month.
Here are some of the details on this card:
- The front of the card is actually a pocket and the frog itself slides in like a book mark – you could take him out and use him elsewhere. Afternoon Picnic Designer Series paper (retiring) and a strip of Basic Gray embossed with the Needlepoint Embossing folder (retiring).
- The frog is a punch art frog and here are all the pieces
- Arms- Square Framelits to make the arms – cut out a corner
- Body – Apothecary Accents Framelits
- Hands – Boho Blossoms punch – trimmed to 3 petals
- Head – 1-3/4″ Circle punch
- Eyes – 1/2″ circle punch in Basic Black & Whisper White, 3/4″ circle punch in Old Olive
- use Sponger Dauber for the cheeks (these are on the retired list but only because they are changing the packaging to a smaller quantity)
- hand draw the mouth – you can trace an oval punch out it you want
- The tag is the Hexagon Punch and the Six-sided Sampler stamp set along with the Animal Talk little frog. Drag the edge of the hexagon in the ink to add color on the edge. To color the Baker’s Twine use a Stampin’ Sponge to hold the Whisper White Baker’s Twine into the ink pad while you pull it through.
- Animal Talk stamp set (retiring) was used to stamp the background and on the frog on the tag.
There are many retiring items on this card – I’m going to come back later and fill in with a list of everything used. Right now I’m leaving for the day for Stampin’ Up! business. Going to join a focus group prior to dinner with 24 of my demonstrator friends and then the catalog premiere in the theater tonight!!
Have a great day!
Apr 26, 2014 | Wildlife |
Yes the Bluebirds are back (well still here really). I cleaned out the birdhouse after the first set of babies fledged and they promptly built a new nest. This week they started laying eggs again. Today is Saturday and there are 4 eggs. I’ll check tomorrow to see if they lay a 5th egg. Here are some pictures for you.
The new nest
2 bluebird eggs on April 24th
3 bluebird eggs on April 25th
4 Bluebird eggs on April 26th
Have a great weekend!
Apr 24, 2014 | Designer Series Paper, My Digital Studio, Occasions Catalog 2014, Stamper's Club |
Do you ever walk through the dollar spot at Target and look at things to see what you can use to create something really great? I took a trip through the dollar spot back before Christmas time and spent $50! That’s 50 items. What sort of gems did I find? Well one was this little holiday themed standing sign.
I added the holes in it for my project. So it was just something to set out for the holidays – pretty plain really. But I had an idea! I asked Greg to if he could drill holes in it and he said no problem – so I brought him a stack and a few minutes later he had all the holes drilled. Any thoughts on what you think I might have created?
It’s a 2014 desktop calendar! I thought if I could get the holes drilled I could add the cards for each month and make a flip calendar! What do you think??
Here is a little bit of info on how I made it –
- as you saw above we drilled two holes in the stand
- I covered the front and back of the stand with a piece of card stock – I used my Punch Board to round the corners and glued the card stock directly to the front and back of the stand – punch the holes before you glue it down
- I created my calendar for each month using My Digital Studio and printed them on Whisper White card stock. I cut each piece to fit the stand. This took a little bit of trial and error to get everything spaced where I wanted.
- I used Fresh Prints Designer Paper Stack to decorate the side of each month. On the left side I also added a piece of card stock punched with the Ribbon Border Punch – it just barely has the little scallops peeking out.
- For each month I used a different print and I alternated the card stock colors each month – I used Coastal Cabana, Real Red and Crumb Cake. After attaching the designer paper I rounded the top corners and punched the holes to allow the pages to be threaded on the rings.
- During my club meeting where we made these I created a “cheat sheet” for them to see which month had which designer paper and what color card stock.
- I threaded all the months on the ring and as the months change you flip the previous month to the back.
- To finish I created a tag in My Digital Studio with the 2014 that I could punch out with the ticket punch. I added that to the ring along with a piece of Real Red ribbon.
- I do open the ring, slide of the ribbon and the tag off so that I can switch to the next month – then put those back on so they stay in the front.
I was totally pleased with how this little project turned out! My stamp club girls made one and I also gave them as gifts for my Leadership roommates. I hope you like it as much as I do and that it gave you an idea for a future calendar project – just take a stroll through that dollar spot and see what you find. Think outside the box and come with something different to do with what you find there.
Thanks for stopping by today!
I was pleased with how it turned out. So let me tell you how I made it.
