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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Merry Christmas

Whew, it’s been a crazy month!! After Thanksgiving, Aldo & I went on a cruise for his birthday and I’ve been playing catch up ever since then. Thankfully, most of my Christmas shopping is done. I’m missing only one gift, and I’ll pick that up later today. Below are a couple of things I’ve done with my new Pure Innocence girls. I apologize for the terrible photos, but my camera is acting wonky! The first project is a card I made using Jen’s sketch from Saturday. I colored the image with Prismacolors and gamsol.

Project Supplies:

Stamps: Pure Innocence Flower Girl – My Favorite Things

Color: Memento, Prismacolor, gamsol

Tools: Nestabilities, brads, ribbon

Paper: Bazzil, Bo Bunny, My Mind’s Eye


My second project is a gift tag (a big one!) for my mom’s Christmas gift. Michael’s has several chipboard albums in their dollar bin in various shapes. I like to keep some on hand for making unique cards or tags. This tag is using the Presents For You PI girl and some My Mind’s Eye paper. The top of the tag on the front is covered with pink stickles and the back is covered with red microbeads. This PI girl is colored with Copics and accented with liquid appliqué to make her hat and collar fluffy and glaze pens to color her buttons and the heart on her pocket.

Project Supplies:

Stamps: Pure Innocence Presents For You – My Favorite Things

Color: Memento, Copics, Brilliance

Tools: chipboard ornament, Mod Podge, microbeads, stickles, ribbon, Nestabililities, Liquid Appliqué, Glaze Pens

Paper: My Mind’s Eye


Merry Christmas!!





Monday, November 23, 2009

SYTYCS Finals

Entries from the six finalists are due by midnight today for MFT’s SYTYCS challenge. Boy have these past few days been a major rollercoaster! You should check out all the entries, boy are these ladies some TOUGH competition. Not only are they super talented, but they definitely brought their A game to the challenge.

This week’s theme was freestyle and I was fortunate enough to be paired up with the super talented Amy Sheffer as my mentor!! Swoon, I just about fainted when I saw her name!! She’s the best and she’s been so super helpful. Thank you, Amy!!!!

Okay, ready to see my project? Warning: this post is super long and picture intensive (16 pics in all)!! After many hours of brainstorming and a consultation with Amy, I decided to base my project around ballet and make a gift set for a little girl (or a big girl!). The set includes: a ballet stage with several Isabelle dolls, a takeout box with more clothes for her to change into (this can later be stored in her closet), a wall hanging with a frame for a ballerina’s head shot, a luggage tag to identify her toy bag from other little girls’ toy bags, and, finally, a card.

So first off, the stage. This ended up looking different than what I had envisioned, but I’m still happy with it. The stage, a.k.a. closet, closes up thanks to some teeny hinges, some grommets, and ribbon. The base is made of Styrofoam covered up with pink satin and edged with pink tulle. I trimmed the base with crystal beaded trim. The sides are made of chipboard painted with acrylic paints and covered with embossed metal sheets from Ten Seconds Studio. The edges are blinged out with stickles and sparkly trim. Inside, there’s three dolls on white popsicle sticks in different ballerina outfits. Since the inside is metal, the clothes can be stored there when it’s time to put away our toys. I laid down cotton batting that I colored with alcohol inks and sprayed with gold glimmer spray. Here’s the pics:
Next, I made a wall hanging to showcase a prima dona. Okay, so the picture in there is me, but I don’t know any ballerinas! I took a canvas and painted it with acrylic paints and sprayed it several times with gold glimmer spray. It’s so sparkly and pretty in person. Then I stamped several Isabelle sayings in black ink, added a cute 3-D sticker, some black crystal swirls, and prima flowers that are held together with a designer grommet. The edge of the canvas is covered in pink ribbon to hide the staples and a thicker ribbon was attached to the back for hanging. The backside was removed from the frame and the frame was attached with glue dots. Here’s the pics:
Then, I embellished a tiny takeout box I had in my stash of alterables to hold Isabelle’s clothes collection. This was the easiest project!! I simply added a belly band, strung some primas on a brad, and presto! A tiny metal tag with sparkly stickers was also added on with some polka dot ribbon. Here’s the pics: I also decided that every little girl needs a tag to identify her stuff from all the other little girls stuff. The tag was made out of Bazzil cardstock and my nesties. Some bling was added to the corners on both sides. One side reads “My Play Things” in pink sparkly letters and the other side boasts an Isabelle with a blank space to write you name in. A grommet hole on top with pink ribbon finishes off the piece. Finally, you need a card of course. The front of the card is a sketch from Jen Del Muro, I think. A boho blossom, some pink and black bling, and a cute bow tie the concept together. The inside is a pop up card of an Isabelle at her dance studio. The silver cs is the “mirror”; a tiny barre is made up of a thin dowel colored with memento ink, and laquered with diamond glaze; and a shiny wooden floor for her to dance on. Some more sparkly pink letters complete the sentiment.
Here’s a few more details: The paper dolls were colored with copic markers, blinged out with a stardust pen and stickles, cut out, laminated with a xyron, and attached to magnets that were then attached to the wooden sticks. The clothes was also colored with copics and blinged out with stardust and stickles. The Isabelle on the luggage tag has clear glaze pen on the dots and heart on her dress. The metal was embossed with a cuttlebug folder and then sanded with a buffing block to remove the paint on the raised portions. Whew, I think that explains it all. Are you still there? Please be sure to stop by MFT’s SCS forum and show the finalists some love. They did an outstanding job!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Tea For Two

I had a couple of days off last week and used one of them to do some projects in my stamping room. One of my papercrafting goals is to use some of the tools, supplies, and stamps that I haven't used yet or have rarely used. Some of this stuff involves techniques that take me out of my comfort zone so I've kinda dragged my feet on using a lot of this stuff. I decided to take this on slowly so my first project is a simple card I made using primarily unused products: Tea for Two stamp set from MFT, Bloomin Dots CB folder, EK Success Swiss cheese border punch, homemade glimmer mist, and an unopened BG paperpad - Eva.
I colored the stamp using copics and then popped it on the card using dimensionals. I used diamond glaze on the teacup dots and liquid applique on the bunny tail for added texture. The black cardstock was first misted with glimmer spray and then run through the cuttlebug. I also finished out the inside for a complete look.
In total, I made 4 different projects on Friday and I'll be posting them throughout the week as I get a chance to edit the pics.

Supplies:
Stamps: MFT - Tea for Two (have I mentioned how much I {heart} MFT's stamp sets!!!)
Paper: Bazzil, Basic Grey - Eva
Inks: Memento, copics
Misc: Cuttlebug, Bloomin Dots CB folder, homemade glimmer mist, Swiss cheese border punch, ribbon, liquid applique, diamond glaze

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

My First Bella Card

I LOVE the Stamping Bella lines but I only own one stamp and have never used it before today. I’m not sure why, since all their stamps are so cute! I used Curly Surpriseabella to make a birthday card for my aunt’s birthday this week (actually it was yesterday). Although it’s a pretty straightforward card, it took me over an hour to make! I was rather surprised when I looked at the clock and realized that so much time had passed by. Here’s the card I made for her:
I also added a gift card slot inside. When I make these flaps, I like to use my Tombo Mono Multi and stick an old gift card inside while the glues still wet to make sure I leave enough slack for my gift card.
Supplies:
Paper: Basic Grey – Gypsy; Bazill-Preppie
Inks: Memento – Tuxedo Black; Impress – Poppy Red, Lemon Yellow
Misc: prismacolors, OMS, ribbon, button, floss, pop dots, nestabilities

I’m taking a class tomorrow at Anthologies on how to make a decorative cover for candle holders using Ten Seconds products. I just discovered Ten Seconds and I’m loving all of their stuff. The videos on their website are hilarious. I still haven’t purchased any of their product since I don’t know how to use it, but hopefully that will change tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

MFT's Guest Designer Challenge

My Favorite Things is gearing up for what promises to be an amazing release tomorrow at 10 pm EST on their SCS forum. They are releasing a new line of stamps called Pure Innocence that will just make you squeal! They are so darn cute! A new Flopsey and some other furry creatures are set to be released tomorrow as well. I'm so excited!! Be sure to stop by the MFT lady's blog to get a whoppin dose of eye candy from all of MFT's AMAZING design team. These ladies have outdone themselves this time.
MFT is also hosting a November Guest Designer challenge on the SCS forum. The main theme of this challenge is to use white as your main color. This contest has produced some amazing entries so far. Several cards feature dry embossing, heat embossing, lots of sparkle and shine, and some very creative layouts! I had some time yesterday so I decided to play along. Here's my entry:
Supplies:
Paper: White cardstock, vellum
Stamps: MFT - Isabelle Paper Dolls
Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black, Paris Dusk
Misc: circle cutter, swiss dots cb folder, organza ribbon

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Matchbook Treat Tutorial

A nice lady on SCS asked me to provide her the directions for making the coffee packets I made on this post. Feeling brave, I decided to make a tutorial to post on my blog as well. It’s my first tutorial, so I’m quite nervous about posting it. Please feel free to leave me some nice constructive criticism in the comments. Okay (deep breath), here we go.

Materials Needed:
Cardstock
Designer paper
Stamped images
Strong taper runner adhesive (glue glider pro used here)
Glue dots (mini and craft used here)
Scoring tool
Paper trimmer
Stapler
Embellishments
Goodies for inside your matchbook (coffee packets, tea bag, and Ghirardelli chocolate used here)

Step 1: Cut your covers to the selected size. The measurements for the different types of treats are as follows:
Coffee sticks: 3” x 10 ¾“ (4 sets can be made from one 12x12 sheet)
Tea bag: 3” x 8” (3 sets can be made from one 8 ½ x 11 sheet)
Chocolate: 2 ½“ by 7 ¼“ (4 sets can be made from one 8 ½ x 11 sheet)
Step 2: Score your covers at the following measurements on the long side:
Coffee sticks: ¾“, 6”
Tea bag: 1”, 4 ¾“
Chocolate: ¾”, 4”
Tip: If you are making several of these, score your lines on your uncut sheet of paper first and then do your cutting. This will save you some time.

Step 3: Attach your stamped image to a panel of your designer paper and attach to the front of your book. Align the top of your image with the score line for an even border. For 1/8” borders the panel and images should be cut to the following sizes:
Coffee stick panel: 2 ¾” x 4 ¼”
Coffee stick image: 2 ½” x 4”
Tea bag panel: 2 ¾” x 2 ½”
Tea bag image: 2 ½” x 2 ¼”
Chocolate panel: 2 ¼” x 2 ¾”
Chocolate image: 2” x 2 ½”
Step 4: Attach your goodies to the inside of the matchbook. For the chocolate and the tea bag, I use a craft glue dot on the back side to hold the treat in place. Align the bottom of the packaging along the bottom score line. For the tea bag, make sure you scoot the bag up to the top of the packaging as much as possible to avoid stapling your tea bag. For the coffee sticks, attach your sticks to a 3” x ½” strip of paper with staples. Place a mini glue dot on the back of the packets and use your tape runner to apply adhesive to the back of the paper strip. Align your paper strip with the bottom score line and press down to ensure good adhesion.
Step 5: Embellish your matchbook as desired. Here I used flowers, brads, and ribbon. If you are using ribbon, make sure you do not glue it down the front as you will need to gently push your ribbon up to add the staple at the end.

Step 6: Fold all your score lines with a bone folder and add your staple to the bottom of the packet. Remember to push the tea bag up again to avoid stapling the bag.

Variations: You can substitute the inside packet with lots of things: creamer packets for a coffee and creamer set, fun size M&M’s, small gummy bear packets, etc.

Tips: A Scor-Pal won’t work for this since the score lines are fixed at set intervals. If you are making LOTS of these, I recommend using a solid image or stickers for efficiency. Also, set up your steps for an assembly style project: cut out all panels at once; score covers first, then cut; stamp all images at once; set up all your embellishments; etc.

Does this make sense? If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments.

Materials Used:
Cardstock: Bazill
Paper: My Minds Eye, Basic Grey, K & Co
Inks: Memento - tuxedo black, angel pink; Brilliance - coffee bean; Distress Ink - Weathered Wood
Stamps: MFT - Hot Stuff; Whiff Of Joy - Lizzie with Muff; Stampin Up - Bundle of Joy
Embellishments: ribbon, glazed brad, flower brad, Prima flowers
Coloring Tools: prismacolor pencils, OMS, Copics, Sakura Glaze Pen

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Copics

My LSS has been hosting Copic classes taught by the amazing Jen Del Muro! I took the first class a couple of months ago and just took the second class on Saturday. Jen went over the uses of the blender pen, grounding images, shading with multiple colors, coloring black items, and coloring embelishments. She is such a great teacher, if anyone reading this is in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, I highly reccommend you take her classes. She's teaching at Scrapper's Boutique in North Richland Hills. This store is just the cutest little place, and the owner, Cherie, is great! The card we made during the class used the main image from MFT's Flopsey's Flowers. Since I was on a roll, I came home and made this card for a birthday gift:
Flopsey used to really stress me out because I could never color him quite right. Now that I know a few more techniques, I think he's looking much better!

Thanks for stopping by!

Memory Book

My friend's grandfather died recently and I mentioned how many memories she had of him and how she wanted to write them down. With this in mind, I created a memory book for her to write stories of her granparents, attach pictures, etc. I purposely left the pages inside unlined so she would be free to add anything she wants to them.
I made the notebook using a pair of 8x8 covers and 1-1/2 inch coil from Bind It All. The covers were covered in designer paper from K and Co and sponged with London Fog ink to give them an aged look. I wanted to leave some blank space on the front for her to add a picture of her grandparents to the cover. To continue with the aged look, I used a Tim Holtz nameplate to frame her family name and I added Diamond Glaze to the inner oval to give it a shiny look.
The little tag attached to the key ring translated to "Memories of my Grandparents". This key ring is a left over part from my camera's broken strap. It sure came in handy for this project. I think it adds just the right touch.
I also created a simple card to complement the notebook. I think this is the fastest card I've ever made. It only took 10 minutes to make!Here's a picture of the set together: I apologize for the long post and so many pictures!! Did you make it to the end? If so, thanks for hanging in there!

The Waltz

Week 3 of My Favorite Things' challenge brought to us the waltz. Everytime I hear a waltz, I visualize ladies in gorgeous old fashioned gowns, elbow length gloves, dashing men in tuxedos... Sigh, I was so born in the wrong period. Of course, if I'd been born then, I'd have no internet... so I'm good in this day and age. Lol. I made this card thinking of all the elements that would go into making a perfect dance. Passion or love, a cute dance partner, and a great pair of heels!!
I kept the color palette to black and white with a touch of color and sparkle. Also, I used 3 images since the waltz is danced on a three count measure.

Supplies:
Paper: Bazill cardstock, Neenah paper
Stamps: MFT - Boho Blossoms, Flopsey's Flowers, Window Shopping
Misc: copics, pearls, stardust pen, pink ribbon

Be sure and stop by to show all the participants some love on SCS. Everyone is putting so much effort and enthusiasm into their cards! I know I'll have some TOUGH competition at the finals.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

MFT Week 1 Finalist!!

Ohmigosh!!! I was selected as the MFT So You Think You Can Stamp's Week 1 finalist!! I'm so totally on cloud 9 right now. With all the AMAZING projects that were submitted, I was honestly not expecting to be chosen even for the top 3, much less be made a finalist. Kim has already posted this week's challenge on the forum here, and this week we're going RETRO!! Make sure you stop by and admire all the great entries from last week on the SCS gallery here.

If I have time to play this weekend, I'll post some cards Sunday night. Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

A Little Dirty

MFT is having another challenge over at the Splitcoast Stampers Forum!! This week's So You Think You Can Stamp challenge is to make a card that has an unexpected flip, swing, or twist. Kim purposely left the challenge rather vague which was driving my overly analytical mind B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Lol. After much thought and consideration, here's what I came up with:
I added an extra flair to this swing card by cutting the inside panel with a Label One nestie instead of a traditional rectangle. I decided to add quite a few different elements to this card, including: rhinestones, diamond glaze, lots of paper piecing, and liquid applique. Can you spot them all on the card?

Here's what the card looks like on the inside:
The girls skin is colored with copics and the tub, dress, and TV were colored with prismacolors. The floors were made using a journaling pen, a copic marker, and diamond glaze. The mirror in the bathroom scene is a metal flower with a tiny mirror fitted inside. The hem on the girl's outfit is puffed up with liquid applique that I painted pink with reinkers and a tiny brush.

Supplies:
Paper - Basic Grey: Sultry, black cardstock, pink paper
Stamps - MFT: Time for the Bubbly, Maid for You; SU: Baroque Motifs
Inks - Memento: Angel Pink, Tuxedo Black, London Fog
Extras - pink rhinestones, liquid applique, diamond glaze, metal brad flower, round mirror
Color Tools - Copics, prismacolors, OMS

This challenge took several of us out of our comfort zones in many ways. Although I like to stick to familiar territory, I'm glad I got the chance to participate and explore new techniques. I'm looking forward to the next challenges and new techniques. Care to join along? Check out the MFT forum for all the information and details HERE!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Button Bunnies and CKC

This week's MFT challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers is to use buttons on your card. Since I hadn't inked up my Snuggle Bunnies set, I decided to take advantage of the challenge and break in my new polymer. Also, the scraps I had left over from the Double Dutch challenge were at the front of my scrap folder so I decided to go ahead and use them. I just love the combination of pink and brown. The bunnies are paper pieced from two separate scraps of paper.
Supplies:
Paper: Bazill, Basic Grey, The Paper Studio
Inks: Memento – Tuxedo Black, Rich Cocoa, Angel Pink; SEI – Tobacco
Embellishments: button brad, button, embroidery floss
Misc: cuttlebug, classic circle nestabilities, pop dots, glue dots

As I had mentioned before, last weekend was the Creating Keepsakes convention in San Marcos. We went and had a GREAT time!! We took several classes, including some on card making, scrapbooking, making mini albums, and flocking. Overall the classes were really good. Some classes were better than others, but that’s to be expected when there are several vendors/instructors with different teaching styles.

The vendor faire had a lot to choose from. Although I was surprised at the rather limited selection of stamps, there was still plenty to choose from. There was a huge selection of supplies including embellishments, copics, nestabilities, acrylic supplies, glitters, papers, and tools. Several vendors had some great make & takes and cute demonstrations going on throughout the faire. I definitely recommend this convention as it was a great resource for new techniques and new toys. I plan on going next year if they offer something similar close to home.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Double Dutch Challenge and Whiff of Joy

Double Dutch has a fabulous sketch for this week’s challenge. Since I had some time last night, I decided to make another card for Whiff of Joy’s design team challenge and combine it with Double Dutch’s sketch. Here’s the resulting card. I’m very pleased with the way this card came out! I used my brand spankin’ new Prismacolor pencils and gamsol to color in Willow. Since the sketch has a lot going on and I was planning on using several bling elements, I decided to keep the coloring soft. Her mug is coated with Diamond Glaze for a shiny finish. I also decided to add a rhinestone flourish to one of the corners and a clear button threaded with pink and brown floss for a finishing touch. All the panels are edged with Rich Cocoa ink and the smaller brown panel is distressed and edged with Angel Pink chalk ink. The shaker card was made using my classic circle nestabilities, acetate, pop dots and chunky glitter. Gina K has a great tutorial on making shaker cards here and here. If you’re interested in participating in Whiff of Joy’s design team call, please visit Katharina’s page for more details. You can also see the other two cards I’ve submitted here and here.

Supplies:
Paper: Bazill - chocolate brown; Basic Grey; pink cardstock
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Rich Cocoa; Versamagic - Angel Pink
Embellishments: pink rhinestone flourish; brown/pink embroidery floss; clear button; white chunky glitter
Misc: acetate; Diamond Glaze; classic circle nestabilities; Cuttlebug

Thanks for stopping by!