Handmade Holiday

Janice and I teamed up together this year to hold a Handmade Holiday workshop based upon the new Stampin’ Up Holiday Catalog. I focused my projects towards Halloween and Thanksgiving and Janice prepared Christmas. It was a fun filled, paper crafters delightful afternoon. Let me show you some of the projects we completed.

Starting with the Boo Banner:

My inspiration for this banner was from the Halloween Banner Kit (pg. 4-5 of the holiday catty). Although the Build a Banner Simply Created Kit includes 18 - 5” x 7” canvas pennants, my pennants were made of paper. Also included in the banner kit are 26 alphabet and 3 image stencils, 9’ of jute twine and 2 Stampin’ Spritzers.

We started out by stenciling the backgrounds; stripes, dots, and chevrons with Pumpkin Pie and Crushed Curry on the pennant pieces and then the b-o-o letters in black.

Additionally, items to embellish the pennants were; Toil & Trouble, Halloween Bash, Tags 4 You stamp sets, Witches’ Brew Designer Series Paper, the Label Bracket, Oval and Scallop Oval punches, and the Apothecary Framelits. (Oh, and the retired bat punch – sorry, I still like that guy for Halloween projects).   

So far I have created three banners from the Build a Banner kit and have found this to be a fun and versatile kit from holidays to birthdays!

 

Bats about you card   

After completing the banner, another Halloween inspired project was the Bats about you card. Staying with the Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, and Black color scheme, this card uses the Halloween Hello stamp set for its images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the bat looks like it is flying off to look for ____ (fill in with your own idea – candy, blood, etc.) by stamping the image 3 times without re-inking.

 

 

Are you wondering what punch was used for the BATS ABOUT YOU image? Clever trick ~ I learned from my crafty friend Wanda. First, stamp your image. Then, punch out the image aligning it close to one side or the other for your first punch, (I used the new Artisan Label punch). Then, adhere a strip of scrap paper to your punched out image (making a handle). Insert that piece back into the punch and line up to the other side of the stamped image – punch. So, now you have a smaller version of the original punch.  Note: you can do this with other punches to achieve a variety of custom ‘punches’.  

Tag a Bag – eat IF YOU DARE!

For my final Halloween project, I changed up the color scheme to Black, Real Red, and Silver Glitter. Again using the Halloween Bash stamp set to achieve the 3 colors for the stamp image, we used the Stampin’ Markers and inked the words individually. This is an easy technique to do if you want a more customized image.

The image was then cut out by hand and adhered to a pre-cut (Label framelit) out of the Silver Glitter Stock. I like adding a bit of bling to Halloween (ha, ha that rhymes). The 2 strips behind the glitter stock are Witches’ Brew Washi Tape and black card stock cut to size. For the red Rhinestones I just colored them with a red Sharpie pen. Note: you can do this with other Sharpie colors, too.

After layering all the label pieces together, it was simply tying a bit of the Black and Silver taffeta ribbon around the Chevron Tag-a-bag and adhere the label over the knot. Janice prepared a special treat of Sugar Cookies that you could put inside your bag if you wanted to, but I saw a lot of empty bags – hehehe, they were tasty.

Thankful Candy-bar Wrapper

Moving on to Thanksgiving, we did a simple candy bar wrapper. Using the new Thinlet Expressions “thankful” die, it was just a matter of layering it on the new Cotton Ribbon, adding a die-cut acorn, a button, and a small “thankful for you” banner from the Hostess Banner Greeting stamp set.

I really like the new expressions thinlets. They come in three sayings; thankful, merry, and love. I will be using the “merry” words in November for a Christmas card – keep your eye out for that post.

Truly Grateful card

My last, but not least project was a Thanksgiving card. This card used another new SU product called the Label Thinlets Card Die. This card die comes in 2 versions label and circle. I like to call these “swing-cards” because the cut out label kind of swings back and forth when you open it up. The stamp set used for this card is Truly Grateful. The embellishments used were Washi tape, Jumbo Pearls, and the Birch Paper from the Thankful Tablescape Simply Created Kit. The picture of this paper in the catalog does not do it justice. It is something that you need to see and touch to truly appreciate it. I would think that SU would do wisely if they offered it as a stand-alone product as a specialty DSP. 

Here are some of the crafty ladies who participated in the event:

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by - Happy Halloween! 



Back and Blogging!

I’m back and I'm blogging!

I am so sorry that I have not posted the past couple of months projects. I had some personal issues to contend to and then just got super busy plus a little bit of R&R to round things off. So, you will see a few blog posting back to back to catch up and here is the first one…….

 

 
 

Yippee-Skippee!

First off, isn’t it fun to say Yippee-Skippee? I could just say it over and over, Yippee-Skippee! No, really you should try it – it will put you in a great mood. Go ahead, say it now and you will see what I mean.

Back to the cards, I semi-cased this cards design from Anne who is in my Saturday Scrapper group. I loved how the inner piece reveals the “hidden” sentiment. Her card had more flowers on it, but the idea was still the same. Thanks Anne.

If I was making this card for one of my boys, I would have to stamp the inside sentiment three (3) times so it would read: You can never have too much happy, happy, happy!

Yes, we are big time Duck Dynasty fans in our house.   

Here is another fun card, again using the Yippee-Skippee set and adding the cake and Happy Birthday banner from the Sketched Birthday stamp set.

 

 

For both cards I used the same color scheme of Crisp Cantaloupe and Strawberry Slush, and DSP - Birthday Basics. In addition the Ruffle Stretch Trim ribbon around the DSP is Pistachio Pudding. This ribbon is so fun to use, it comes already pleated (time saver!).

 

Hello Halloween!

I guess I should say Halloween Hello, because that is the actual name of the stamp set used for the next two cards. This first card was so fun. I loved using the clean crisp colors of Halloween; Pumpkin Pie, Black and White, matched with the simple one image per square, layered on the black and orange. I then added the Halloween Washi tapes and stamped the background with the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set. I think it gives it a kooky twist.

Between you and me I had never used the Washi tape before and everyone just raved about it. Had no idea how fun it is to use and add a bit of flare to your paper crafting.

Oh, I have to give a shout out to Carrie King for this card, because I cased it.

 

It is all about the candy!

And that is what I was going for on this card. But I will admit, I think my creativity fell a little short on this card. It happens. I won’t go into detail about this card, but I continued to use the Halloween Hello stamp set.

Okay, you may have picked up on a trend with these cards. Yes, we are completing two (2) cards per stamp sets for a total of four (4) cards at my Mojo Monday’s group. This will give you a couple different ideas to use per stamp set. After that sky’s the limit for your own creative masterpieces….pieces are we talking about candy again, because it is all about the candy in October!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Haunting Stamping!

 

 

June's Mojo Monday Cards

Wow, June has been a very busy month for me both personally and Stampin’. I helped out my up-line manager Janice with her two groups and then had my own Mojo Monday group this month, too. With everything that was going on, we did cancel Saturday Scrappers. That was a bit of a break, even though I missed seeing the ladies in the group.

For my Mojo group, we did 3 projects; 2 cards and 1 note card.

Starting with the note cards, I saw this idea from another SU demonstrator Becky Roberts quite some time ago and finally decided to make them. This was an opportunity to use one of my favorite, but newly retired, DSP Twitterpated stock, plus I now have both butterfly punches. For the base stock, I again used up retired card stock. For my sample, I used Pretty-in-Pink, but I gave the others a choice of this and/or Baja Breeze and Lucky Limeade. I layered with Vanilla where I punched out the large butterfly. Under the butterfly is the DSP “peeking out” from underneath.  On top is more DSP that gave a more delicate edge using the Scalloped Trim Border punch. On the small butterfly, I added a couple of Rhinestones to give a little more bling.

My next card project was themed for July 4^th. I had received this card idea from a swap at last year’s SU Convention from Billi Parus and then modified it for my group.

For the stripped portion of the flag, I started with Vanilla card stock and used the Stripped Embossing Folder. Yes, I know there are more stripes on this flag than a real one – Artistic License was invoked here.  The red stripes are small strips of Real Red. I cut them out for everyone, but with the new SU trimmer it was very simple (Let me know if you would like a new trimmer, too. I can order one for you.) Next, I used Night of Navy card stock for the blue edge and USA letters. The letters were cut out using the Big Shot and the Typeset Alphabet dies. I have to admit the small star at the top is an old retired set. I am not even sure of its name. I think it was from 2008, but I liked how it has happy written into one of the stars points. I liked this card and how being in the USA makes me happy.

Happy early Birthday USA!

 

The last card is one that I had designed all by myself. See my idea mock-up below.

I had thought about using the Polka Dot Parade DSP originally, but when I sat down and started cutting out stock to bring my idea from paper to fruition the bling in me came out. So, I used our Silver Glimmer paper instead. I like my change, do you? The two stamp sets I used are returning sets from the Spring Mini Catalog; Just Married for the Cake and Mr. & Mrs. for the same name.

Additionally, I used just Basic Black and White card stock and Black Staz-on ink. To achieve the perfectly cut oval, I used three layers dies from the Oval Collection. You can see that I was able to cut all three layers at one time, a real time saver.  I like how the silver glimmer paper with the black and white produced an elegant, clean card.

 

Thanks for stopping by. See you next month.

Inspire, Create, Share

 

The new Catty is here, The new Catty is here!

 

Click on the link on the right hand side and take some time to review the new beautiful catalog. If you are attending my next Mojo Monday or Saturday Scrappers you will be treated to one of your own. See you then.  

 



 

 



May Projects.....Good bye colors...

Wow, after looking at the photos of my projects I realized that it is all about the men in my life (except the purse).

I wanted to use retiring colors and papers for this month’s projects. I also knew what themes I wanted to showcase; Graduation, and Father’s Day along with using the Purse Die for both the Mother’s and Father’s Day theme.

 

Starting with the graduation card.

My youngest Conner, will be graduating from 8^th grade this year. As it turns out his school colors are Burgundy, Black and White so I used the retiring Bravo Burgundy in this card. In addition to the black and white card stock, I added a bit of bling with the Silver Glitter Paper to accent behind the stamped graduation hat. The hat stamp and sentiment can be found in the Pure Gumption set, from the Spring Mini Catty.* Also used for this card is the Houndstooth Embossing Folder ~ ha, I thought this folder was new, but upon further research it is just new to me.

 

Next is the Father’s Day card.

This card uses the Clockworks* set (again, thought this was a new item but only new to me…). Of course the men in my life for this card are my father and husband. The main colors used for this card are all retired; Night of Navy, River Rock, and More Mustard. The latter two are two of my favorite colors that I will be sad to see go. In addition, I threw in some really old retired ribbon to add another layer of dimension.

Lastly, we did a 3-D project using the Big Shot Petite Purse Die.

I’ve had this die for a while, but for some reason never used it at my groups. For the ladies purse version, just in time for Mother’s Day, I used retiring DSP and corresponding ribbon. For the Father’s Day fishing creel, I used Crumb Cake card stock for the body. I then embossed it using the Square Lattice Folder, to give it a look of woveness (new word ??). The corners and handle are Chocolate Chip stock and then one of our Metallic Brads to look like a clasp. The fishing pole is a wooden skewer cut down to size and the line is Early Espresso Baker’s Twine from the Holiday Mini Catty. So, are you wondering what set the fish are from? It is C for Cat. Yes, this is an old-old set, but I couldn’t part with it, nor the D is for Dog set, hehehe.

Thanks for stopping by, see ya next month.

*Spoiler alert – these sets will be carried over to the Annual Catalog

Easter Scrappin' Pages

Easter for me is a time to get together with family, annual egg hunt, food, and of course the religious aspect of the holiday. So, I wanted to do a couple of pages that would fulfill all of those feelings.  

The first two pages have the feeling of the hunt with the basket, eggs, and flowers all made with punches and dies. The basket was made from weaving strips of Crumb Cake cardstock, cutting them out with the Top Note die, and then two Oval Framelits for the handle. 

For the eggs, I used miscellaneous colored card stock. I ran them through the Big Shot with various embossing folders; Polka Dot, Elegant Bouquet, Vintage Wallpaper, Chevron, and Adorning Accents to get the texture, and then punched them out with the Large and Extra-Large Oval punches. The funniest thing about these eggs was seeing Sally have so much fun picking through the various eggs, it was a delight.  

The flower was made by punching out petals with the Large Oval punch. The top is the 1-3/4 Scallop Circle punch then cut in half and the stem is from the Secret Garden Framelit. Both the petals and top of the flower were sponged to achieve the shadowing effect before layering together.

At the bottom of the page is grass. Okay, it would be so much easier to have a punch for grass, but the technique is really simple. I cut 1 & 1/2” strips of green stock and then cut the strips with my snips varying my angle and depth of the cuts.

The letters were cut out with the Big Shot Alphabet set. The cardstock used for these pages were Daffodil Delight as the base, Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder, and Regal Rose for the additional layers.  

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For the next two pages, I wanted to complete a more sophisticated religious look. The base card stock used for these pages was Bashful Blue. Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, and Crumb Cake were used for the accent pieces. The coordinating DSP used was Twitterpated. This was one of my favorite DSP from the Annual Catalog and I will miss it.

The accent pieces were cut using the Label Collection Framelits. The stamp used was Easter Blessing, a single stamp available in the mini catty. It was stamped with Rose Red on Bashful Blue and cut out with the Framelits then layered on the DSP. Extras used on these pages were In Color Dahlias, Pretty in Pink ½” Scallop Dots Ribbon, and a bit of Cherry Cobbler ½” Seam Binding Ribbon.

Sad note: SU! is saying goodbye to Bashful Blue in the latest Color Refresh.

Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

April Mojo Monday Projects

How does the old saying go; “April Showers bring May flowers”? Well, not so much of April showers, but we did do flowers for my April Mojo Monday groups.

SU released in the Spring Mini Catalog a new stamp bundle Secret Garden. It comes with beautiful flowers stamps and coordinating Framelit dies. We used the set for two cards along with embossing powder and a different “painting” technique for one of them.

For the first card Bloomin’ Marvelous, we layered Baja Breeze, Early Espresso, White, Pretty in Pink, and a touch of Old Olive cardstock. I just love the blue, pink, and chocolate color combo. The flower is embossed with Early Espresso embossing powder on the pink. The Baja is embossed using the new Fancy Fan embossing folder. It reminds me of lattice work in a garden with the flower on top. The stamped sentiment was from this year’s SAB collection called Bloomin’ Marvelous, ha! Extras used on this card were the Bitty Butterfly punch and Early Espresso ¼” Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon.  

 

Sad note: SU! is saying goodbye to Baja Breeze and Pretty in Pink in their Colors Refresh in the new Annual Catalog – more about the Color Refresh to come later.

The Happy Mother’s Day card also uses the Secret Garden bundle and White embossing powder, but that was just the first technique done to this card. After the embossing, we painted with an Aqua Painter layers of colors on the flowers. We started with White, then Regal Rose (another “lost” to the Color Refresh) and finally for the pop of color we accented with Rich Razzleberry. The card stock used was Pear Pizzazz, Regal Rose, and White. The DSP used was Sunshine & Sprinkles from the mini catty. The stamped sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and then punched out using the Word Window punch. We then layered it on top of more Pear Pizzazz stock using the Modern Label punch. The final touch was a bit of Whisper White Organza Ribbon to finish it off.

Good note: In-Color Pear Pizzazz has migrated into the new Annual Catalog as part of the Color Refresh. It’s such a fun green color I’m glad it is staying.

The last card uses a new stamp set By the Tides from the mini catty. I embossed the Coral stamp image with Pool Party embossing powder. I liked the texture it gave to the card. The card stock used was Crumb Cake, Early Espresso Core’dinations, Marina Mist, and white. Embellishments used were the Honeycomb embossing folder on the Core’dinations stock, with light sanding using the sanding block, old retired SU twine (sorry, I still have some of this around and thought it was perfect for the card), the ½’ circle punch, and some Dazzling Details over the coral, shell and sea horse for a little bit of bling.

I can see using this set for some summer time beach scrapbooking pages, so look for those to come.

Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.