A card swap for ORSA with a packet of seeds inside

I made 3 different cards, indicating the 3 different packets of seeds I had purchased for someone else to plant.
The seeds I bought:  poppy, echinacea, and pansy.
Here are the cards:

 

 

A Sympathy card for the loss of a baby

This card I cased from Monica Weaver(http://www.addalittledazzle.com).  The poignancy and the simplicity of the card struck a responsive cord in my soul.  This card was made for a mother who had just lost a baby due to prematurity.  I too had lost a baby - a full term  The reason for the loss doesn't matter. Memories of this baby always stay with you..  My loss was a long time ago, and I went on to have 3 healthy children, but that one lost one still haunts me.  How old would he be now?  Who would he look like?  You grieve on his birthday, and celebrate occasions with an empty spot in your heart.
Thus I cased the card.  It spoke to me.  Thank you Monica for making this card.

A Mother's Day Gift Idea

Mother's Day is not far away.  Here is a gift suggestion to this important person in your life.  Make a sexy high heel shoe out of acetate and put her favourite perfume, lotion, bath salts, nail polish, etc in the shoe.  Tie with a nice ribbon and you have a memorable gift.

Olympic Fever in the Park

There is a park within a block of my house where a skating rink is maintained every year by one of the neighbours.  Usually it's a baseball diamond, and in the spring and summer I hear the boys and girls play ball there in the early hours of the evening.
This park has been transformed into an Olympic tribute - with Olympic circles, and lots of Canadian flags.  Today I took some pictures.

These skaters look like they are having a good time.  We had a dumping of snow last night, so the skating conditions were good where the snow was cleared away.  All the flags fluttering in the breeze is quite a sight?  Even the goal station is red. Thank you to whoever took the time to show this level of support of our athletes.

 

 

Blooming Box with hand made roses on lid

This box has 5 layers and opens up like a flower - thus the term "blooming box".
It can hold up to 50 wallet size photos, or 25 with journally spots.
The box lid is made using Origami folds.

There's a good tutorial on how to make roses here

 

Here the box is open and you can see the layers, and the decoration that I have done.

 

This makes a great wedding/anniversary gift, or a bridesmaid gift, and is a wonderful memento of a special occasion.
The pictures are inside the box and becomes a decorative piece on the shelf or the coffee table.

More paper flowers - roses on a pink basket

Believe it or not, I made this rose using the ornament punch.  I punched out 10 punchies, rolled each of them up, unrolled them and glued them together to look like a rose.
My fascination with flowers continues.

Looks so real doesn't it?
I added a little sparkle to the ends of the petals - just for glam.

You Make me Smile - Meet Eunice

Whenever I use this stamp, I get the biggest grin on my face.  She displays such attitude ---like she's right in your face and doesn't care.  I just love her.  I don't know why, but I named her Eunice.

Meet Eunice:

I coloured her with alcohol markers - don't you just love them?  The kitten playing at her feet was a separate stamp, cut out and applied there.
Papers:  Basic black, Old Olive, Whisper white, brilliant blue.
Other:  polka dot embossing folder, stampin' dimensionals, arrow punch.

She's actually a Christmas stamp, but knowing Eunice, it doesn't matter what time of year it is she'll wear what she wants!!

Hand made buttons - thinking otside of the box

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Inspired by the video I had posted on my blog earlier, and the article in Stampin Success, I decided to make some buttons to have on hand.
These are the ones I made.
Some I stamped and embossed first - some I superimposed another punch on the top layer.  Various size punches were used.  You are only limited by your imagination.
Basic Method:
.Stamp and emboss desired image on a coloured piece of card stock.  Cut out that image with chosen punch size.  Punch 5 more pieces of the same size.
.apply tombow adhesive or crystal effects and adhere the 6 layers together, with the stamped image on the top.
.with a pencil, mark where the 2 button holes will go
.punch the  holes with a crop-a-dile
.cover top of buttons with crystal effects and let dry.

Note:  this is a good way to use up your scraps.

Why stop at buttons?  Why not make necklaces, bracelets, ear rings ------  Just a thought.

Go Canada Go!! Olympic Fever

Alexandre Bilodeau won's the gold medal in the men's moguls this weekend.

This win marks the first time a Canadian athlete won a gold medal at a Canadian game, and cheers erupted from sea to shining sea! It was a spectacular sight to see, as was the medal ceremony last night.  Talk about patriotism!!!
The excitement will continue as more medals are being anticipated. Iin the meantime, congratulations also go out to Jennifer Heil for her silver in Ladies Moguls, Snowboarder Mike Robertson with another silver medal in Men's SBX, and Kristina Groves for her bronze in the Ladies 3000m speed skating.

GO TEAM CANADA!

Chrysanthemum Punchie card

Okay, so I'm staying with the flower theme.  This tutorial for this 5 petal flower card I originally saw here  in Sept. 2008, but the link doesn't work any more. 

This flower is made with the 5 petal flower punch.

Isn't it beautiful.  Here's how I did it.
I punched out 6 flowers from So Saffron card stock.  Two of the flowers were sponged with More Mustard ink, and the remaining 4 with Only Orange.  The last 2 flowers were sponged slightly darker so that there would be a gradation of colour from the middle (light) to the outer edge (darker)
All 6 flowers were stacked on top of each other and the paper piercer was used to pierce a hole in the  middle of the flowers.
One of the More Mustard flower were set aside.  The remaining 5 flowers were cut apart - between each petal to the pierced hole in the center.  Keep the different coloured petals in separate piles.
Add a drop of Tombow Adhesive to each cut more mustard petal.  Adhere all five to the uncut More Mustard flower to the back of it, centering the petals.
follow the same process and glue the 10 Only Orange petals on the next layer, centering between petals of previous row.  Finish flower with 1 more row of 10 Only Orange petals (the heavily sponged flowers).

Vancouver Olympics- Go Canada! A Canadian Card

Today is Family Day in Ontario - thus a holiday - yeah!!  Thus it's  a good opportunity to take in some of the Olympic events.  Canada has already won 1 gold and a bronze!!!
But it did start off in a very tragic way.  My thoughts are with the family.
I wanted to post a card for the Olympics, using the Olympics circles - however, there is a very stringent copyright to that logo, so I scrapped that idea even though I had the card made already.
So this is the substitute.

Valentine Stepper box

This is the same stepper box and is the previous post, but is one specifically for Valentine's day.  I used the SDSP from SU - I love that paper).

"Goofy Swap" Items made

Two days I was presented with a challenge (I agreed to it) in the form of 5 pieces of one sided designer paper (non SU) - about 5 of them sized at 5 by 3 1/2.  My mind went blank and I had to sleep on it over night.

Some suggestions did come from the groups I belong to, but here are my creations:
This is the paper with the accompanying note.
As promised, I am posting them today.

I as able to make 3 projects with those little pieces of designer paper - 2 cards and 1 covered matchbox.

The split coast stamper "folded paper frame" tutorial arrived just in time to give me another idea.  I had to do some piecing, but you can not see this as it is in the back.  This frame was attached to a an embossed vanilla cardstock, which was attached to a chocolate brown card.  Remnants were made into little flower embellishments at the corners, and I cut out 2 pink flowers from the paper, layered them and placed them inside the frame.  Dazzling diamond was applied with glue to the yellow centers of the flowers.
Although other suggesions were forthcoming, one person mentioned making layered flowers.  I immediately thought of the eyelet border paper flower tutorial by Julie Davison here As you can see, I made 3 of them for this card, one slightly smaller than the other as I was running out of paper.  I placed the flowers on a polka dot embossed vanilla cardstock background and lightly brushed the polka dots with pixie pink ink to "pop" them a bit more.

To balance the card, I placed a small stip of designer paper at the bottom and tied a pink satin ribbon around it.  Stamp set:  Teeny Tiny Wishes.  Paper:  chocolate brown, very vanilla.  Ink:  Pixie pink.  Other:  buttons (non SU threaded with SU twine).  The matchbox is in the picture above.

Stepper Box

This box is closed.
It is made using so saffron designer paper, and so saffron card stock

Here the box is open revealing the 4 little boxes made using origami folds and then decorated with ribbon. The lid id decorated with brown, beige flowers and a button with twine in it. These boxes are easy to make, but a bit time consuming.  Plan at least 2 hours for the first one. 

 
This is a view of the top of the box.  The top can be decorated in any way you want.

A stepper box made specifically for Valentine's Day is on my other blog:

http://craftymariasstampingworld.blogspot.com

"Who's the Boss" An embossing technique challenge 57

The technique used is called Layered Dry Embossing using embossing folders and the Big Shot.  I ran a 5.5 by 4.5 piece of whisper white cardstock through one embossing folder...then applied Ballet Blue ink to the raised impressions.  Once that was dry, I flattened the embossed or raised area by rubbing the bone folder over all the embossed areas until the paper was as smooth as possible (this was done very carefully so as not to tear the paper) . Next I chose another embossing folder and ran the same piece through the Big Shot.  This time I coloured the raised area with Chocolate brown ink, followed by a metallic gold medium.

Stamp:  Vintage Vogue

Paper:  Chocolate brown, whisper white, summer yellow

Other:  yellow rhinestone brads, playground button, brown satin ribbon, small and large glue dots, stampin' dimensionals

You can't see it very well, but the yellow matting was crimped and then rubbed with a metallic gold medium

ORSA sketch challenge - friends

This is my interpretation of a sketch for the ORSA group (Ontario Rubber Stampers Association).
Paper:  Celery green, very vanilla, Shades of spring DSP, lavendar lace, pink pirouette
Ink:  lavendar lace, kisi kiss, rich razzleberry
Other:  rich razzleberry ribbon, green and white ribbon unknown, Beautiful wings embosslit, 1/2 pears from Pretties Kit, pink rhinestone brad. crystal effects, stampin' dimensionals
It's not the clearest of pictures, but I like it.

To write or not to write - unique journals

Butterfly journal

A Puppy and a butterfly

A green butterfly broach recycled and now graces the cover of a journal.  The buttons were filled with tiny glass beads.

Pink and feminine looking. A little pocket notebook was included with this journal. 

This one looks somewhat antique.  It was bought by a boy who apparently was crazy about journals.  Bet he's going to be a writer someday.

 

Easiest way to remove sticky adhesive off wooden blocks

The easiest way I've found to get the sticky adhesive off the wood blocks is to apply some adhesive killer. That's what I call baby powder. I pour some on a piece of paper and then stamp the sticky side of the wood block into it. Make sure you get some powder on all the adhesive. Then it will scrape off easily and the block isn't sticky at all.

My Cuttlebug is history...a friend is grateful

A friend of mine was in a panic.  Her cuttlebug was broken and she didn't know what she was going to do.  She was really traumatized!!   Up to this point I had been unable to persuade her to upgrade to a Big Shot,  nor could I now.So, I finally did it… I gave my Cuttlebug away.
I had tried to sell it a number of times, placing ads in Kijji etc, but there were no takers.So, I finally did it ...I gave my Cuttlebug away!
The machine has been sitting on the shelf gathering dust for quite a while now, overpowered and over-shadowed by the versatile, and mega useful Big Shot machine! 

I really don’t know why I held on to it for so long… for some reason, I had an emotional attachment to this tiny and somewhat antiquated embossing and cutting machine. 
Reflecting on the day, I realized that I had used the Cuttlebug very little since the Big Shot arrived! I had moved o n to the grown-up versatile die cutting and embossing machine..
My  friend was very grateful, but I haven't given up trying to persuade her to get the Big One! She  has an emotional attachement to this machine and not yet ready to let go.

Ribbon flower video and tutorial

This very interesting and informative video was done by Mary Beem at this site

Hanging heart box made with Big Shot Petal Die - a tutorial

The original tutorial  can by found  on Margaret Rayburn's  blog .

Here is of one of the projects I've been making using the Petal Card Die:  a Hanging Heart Box.  It takes on greater dimension if the paper is passed through  the Big Shot in an Embossing Folder, this time the Stampin' Up! Finial Press folder. 

Cut out two  diecuts.
Decorate the front diecut as desired.
Fold back two of the scallops, forming a heart.  Do this on both diecuts.
Cut a piece of cardstock 5"  by 2.5". Crease it in the center at 2.5", then put Sticky Strip heavy-duty double sided adhesive down both edges of this strip. The crease will go at the point of the heart and the scallop is adhered to the cardstock strip, forming the "box".

Apply a Jumbo Grommet with the Crop-A-Dile and tie a hanger of the luxurious Satin Ribbon through the grommets, knotting the ends.

This box can be used for so many things, or simply as a home decoration. For instance it could be a lovely container for a gift or candy.

Another version of this box can by found here

A Valentine gift - a covered journal and matching notebook

I love the colours brown and pink together, and this piece of designer paper (non SU) was crying to be used on a journal. The intent is to sell it at the craft sale tomorrow, with a bonur of a matching small notebook  to carry in a purse.  The inside cover of the journal is shown below.

 

Valentine treats for our furry friends.

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One of my friends is an avid animal lover, so she felt that our pets should have something for Valentine's Day as well.
So she make these treat holders for both a cat and a dog.
They were made using the big flower die .

Video tutorial - embossing ribbons

Valentine cookie bouquet

I cased this from Andrea Walford's blog here.  I was able to get the cookies from the dollar store, but already had some dowels from another project.
I don't have the particular die she used for her project, so I used another die cutting machine to cut the flowers.  I put each of the flowers through the polka dot embossing folder to give them more texture.
This bouquet will look nice on my table on Saturday as I am at a craft sale.

A Video on Shimmer Paints

Find more videos like this on Stampin' Up!

I viewed this video on Sharon Field's blog here 
Apparently the shimmer paints which were introduced in the winter mini catalogue, were so popular Stampin' Up is continuing to offer them as a write in item on  Stampin Up merchandise orders.
There's also a video on how to use the corner and edge punches.  Go to the Stampin Up link above.

What is there about butterflies???

 

I recently joined a new Yahoo group called StampinUpLNStampers.  LN stands for Late Night - maybe this group is like me in that the creative juice flows better late at night.  Butterflies i.e cards made with butterflies was this week's challenge.  See this link  This is my version of the butterfly challenge . Colours used:  melon mambo, bermuda bay, crushed curry and razzelberry raspberry.  Kiwi kiss was used on the embosslitte single flowers, the center of which is a designer brad with , of course, a butterfly in it. Paper is Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Melon Mambo, and Old Olive.  Designer paper from the Neighbourhood Pack.  Ribbon melon mambo . The new edge punch made those lovely scallops.

This is another butterfly card I made.

This card was made with non SU products.  Butterflies are so beautiful aren't they?