saying farewell to favorites

While I do get super excited when a new Stampin' Up! catalog is about to start, sometimes it's hard to say goodbye to some of my favorite retiring products. The Build a Blossom stamp set and Blossom Petals punch are two coordinating goodies I'm having trouble letting go of. They will most likely make their way into my "vault."  :} 

I like how you can make a special, elegant flower that's sure to cheer anyone up! The stamp set has both flower and leaf images that fit perfectly in the punch. 

When assembling the flower, I like to punch out a scrap circle to have a base for adhering the petals. 
One of my favorite flowers to make with these goodies is a poinsettia. It looks nice on cards, scrapbook pages, and gifts!

And buried in my computer files was a video tutorial I made a while ago showing you how easy this is to make! 

Don't you just want to make some right now!!  ;)  I love how amazing the flowers turn out. Make a few for your friends and they will think you are the craftiest person they ever met.  :}  

Be to to shop for all of your favorite retiring goodies before they are all gone!

happy birthday, Marine Corps

I love, love, LOVE using Stampin' Up!'s My Digital Studio to create scrapbook pages! Especially with all the new features added in MDS2  :}   If you haven't checked for new updates in a while, be sure to do that ASAP! 
Did you know that today is the 237th birthday of the United States Marine Corps?! WOW. Celebrating it is quite a tradition, and my husband has many fond memories (and stories I won't repeat here) of those celebrations. 
As my husband digs up photos from his time in the Marine Corps, I create pages in the My Digital Studio program for him. This page highlights his time as a Tank Commander on an M-1A1 tank. Some day, I'll compile all the pages together into a book... but I might as well wait until he's done finding all those photos!

One of my favorite embellishments for vintage and/or masculine projects is digital tape. Here's a short video tutorial on how I used it on this page: 



Thanks for dropping by! And for all you Marines out there... OORAH!

Woohoo!!

I feel like a little kid today... I'm so excited to share my projects with you! So excited that almost skipped making coffee so I could start my blog post... almost. 
I found a really neat blog the other day, and since they're hosting a challenge, I thought I'd play along. This week's challenge on the Cupcake Craft Challenges blog is to use the color Kraft.  Teehee, that's like challenging me to breathe!!
Did you know that the color Crumb Cake used to be named Kraft? It's been a while since the latest color revamp, so I forget sometimes... but it's handy to know in case you're ever in a knock-down, drag-out battle of Trivial Pursuit -- the Paper Crafting Edition.  ;} 
You might not give the color Crumb Cake (Kraft) all that much thought. I mean, who gets excited about shades of brown? (well, besides me) But Crumb Cake is the perfect neutral... the perfect "base" for tons of projects. It can be simply the "glue" that brings the colors in your project together, or a main player in vintage and masculine projects. 
On today's project, the Crumb Cake card stock was the base that I started with, and built all of my elements around. 

Ok, stop staring at the wine and focus on the tag.  ;}   Hubby made the wine, and I made the gift tag so I could thank a friend.

I started with a 3" wide strip of Crumb Cake card stock, scored a fold line at the top, and used the 1-3/8" Circle Punch to make a hole so that the tag could just slip onto the neck of the bottle. 
Then I used sticky notes to mask the bottom and the left side before I stamped the Woodgrain Background stamp in Early Espresso ink. I pressed lightly for that soft, partially stamped image. I removed the sticky notes and spritzed the Crumb Cake card stock with Gold Glow Smooch Spritz®.  A strip of Orchard Harvest DSP and embossed Raspberry Ripple card stock complete the "base" of the tag. (click here to see how to create the embossed diagonal stripes) 

The leaves are die-cut from Very Vanilla card stock (Autumn Accents Bigz Die) and stamped (Wonderfall stamp set) in Cajun Craze, Lucky Limeade, and Raspberry Ripple ink. I made the medallion out of another pattern in the Orchard Harvest DSP, scoring the 12" strip every 1/4". I had to add the apple (Perfectly Preserved), since this is a bottle of apple wine... hubby made this with apples from a local (for us at the time) orchard in Kenosha, WI. A Vintage Faceted Button and some Linen Thread are just the most gorgeous finishing touches! To make the doubled up Linen Thread bow (hmm... that's a "Kraft" color, too) simply fold a length in half and thread both pieces through the button holes at the same time.

Now, I know you're lovin' this project and you're ready to grab your Crumb Cake card stock... but WAIT, there's MORE! 
How about a freebie on my Facebook Page AND a video tutorial??!!  Woohoo!!! 

You're Welcome  ;}  Thanks for dropping by today. Luv ya!

my new friend, Eleanor

I might just have a new best friend. Her name is Eleanor. I have barely had any time to get to know her, but the time we've spent together stamping has been wonderful. Want to meet her???

I'm sure you think she's as pretty as I do! Today I'm sharing the first card I made using my new stamp set called Everything Eleanor  :}  I used three stamps from this set on my card - the "label" shape, a flower, and the bird - all of which I fussy-cut with my Snips.

I started with a 4-1/4" square More Mustard card base. Then I added a 4" square of Fan Fair DSP, which I dry embossed using the new Chevron Embossing Folder and lightly sanded the raised surfaces. The sentiment, from the Loving Thoughts stamp set, is stamped in Island Indigo ink onto Island Indigo card stock. 

Isn't the layered flower pretty??? I used 4 layers of Fan Fair DSP, which I die cut using the Floral Frames Framelits, and then sponged the edges with Riding Hood Red ink. An Antique Brad holds the flower together and makes a lovely flower-center.

I'll bet you would like more details on that flower, wouldn't you... Surprise! I have a video for you today!!  :} 

Easy, right?!! I can't wait to make more  :}  Thanks for dropping by today!

big and bright

Even though it doesn't feel like summer outside (not even close!), it sure does in my stamp room  :}  I am having the best time playing with my Summer Smooches goodies!!
Today's project uses a super fun card sketch from Connie & Mary:

It's a great sketch, so I had a ton of ideas. As I was clearing a spot to create my masterpiece (I am such a messy stamper), I came upon an envelope left over from a My Digital Studio 5x7 card project that I had printed from the SU print service. I would never waste a perfectly good envelope, so I decided to create a 5x7 card. I LOVE how it turned out!
To the Daffodil Delight card base, I added two patterns from the Summer Smooches DSP. To hide the seam, I added a strip of Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon.
After die cutting an oval with my Big Shot, I used the Bright Blossoms stamp set to stamp my focal point. I wanted a very simple "mat" around the oval, so I adhered more Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon to the back of the oval.
**Technique Tip** I find it a little tricky to use a marker to color tiny little leaves and stems, so I inked the whole image using a Lucky Limeade stamp pad. Then I used a Blender Pen like an "eraser" to remove the ink from the flower-dots. It's much easier to use the markers on just the dots  :}
I used Circle punches to create the flowers and leaves. Then I added Basic Rhinestones (one of each size) to my flowers for a fun little touch.
**Bonus Technique Tip** Here's a short video to show you how I rounded the corners on the bottom layer of DSP-

Thanks so much for dropping by today... I think I'll go clean up from this project and start another one  :}

Mojo Monday 228

There's nothing like a good card sketch to get your stamping "mojo" going for the day... well, that and a few cups of coffee! For today's post, I used the Mojo Monday 228 sketch. 

I turned to my trusty companion - the Color Coach - for the colors on this card. I used the 'Dynamic Duo' of Always Artichoke and River Rock. Then I pulled in some white to lighten it up.
I wanted to add interest to the Always Artichoke background layer, so I dry embossed it using the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder and the Big Shot. Then, I used a Sponge Dauber to brush on some Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint.
The Paisley Petals DSP takes its place in two spots on this card... once as a strip and once as a die cut. To make that nice little die cut, I used the third largest Framelit from the Labels Collection. Wanna see how??? Taadaa!! I have a short video for you today!

Here's a close-up of all those yummy details and layers on my card-

The Artichoke 3/8" Denim Jean Ribbon looks great on this card! I'm glad I finally used it - what a wonderful texture! This ribbon would work great on masculine cards... which is a good thing for me since I have a hard time not using ribbon  ;)
The leaves, from the Build a Blossom stamp set, are stamped in Always Artichoke ink onto the same color card stock, and then punched out with the Blossom Petals Builder punch. The sentiment is actually two stamps from the Fabulous Phrases stamp set - an excellent set to have on hand. I stamped them in Always Artichoke ink onto a scrap of River Rock card stock.
The Paper Daisies - which I really need to use more - look great on this card. To add interest, I spritzed them liberally with my mixture of Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint (in rubbing alcohol). I just {love} the look of it! A Basic Pearl in the center of the flower and a Large Basic Pearl add just the right amount of elegant bling to finish the card.

Thanks for stopping by - have a wonderful day!!  :}

my first video tutorial

At my last Technique Tuesday class, I had the pleasure of sharing fun cards with different folds. I used to shy away from making these somewhat "fussy" cards, but now that I have the Simply Scored, it's such a breeze. While making the cards is tons of fun, sharing is even better. So I tried my hand at making a video tutorial... my first ever!!
You get a little break when you try something for the first time, right??! I will appreciate that break, as I noticed I said "bone folder" about a billion times  :)
This is the Halloween card from my Fun Folds class... a Diamond Fold card.

The base of the card (before all the scoring and folding) is a 4" x 12" piece of Frightful Sight DSP. The larger square from the Scallop Squares Duo die fits perfectly over the diamond center.

This is what the card looks like when you open it... so cute! I used Basic Black and Cajun Craze markers to ink the image from the Scaredy Cat stamp set.

I used the Scallop Edge Border punch to add detail to Basic Black card stock. I also added a square of Whisper White card stock to the inside so I could stamp my greeting from the Grateful Greetings stamp set.

Soooooo.... here's my video tutorial on how to make the Diamond Fold card. Thanks for watching!