Wednesday, September 30, 2009

More Fair projects

I went to pick up my state fair entries on Monday and remember from this post I told you that I forgot to take pictures of 2 of them and I would show you when I got them back. Well here they are. Neither of them won a ribbon but I still love them!

This one is my 'All Occasion' card and I think this one is my favorite of all of them-well except the frame. I love the frame! I used my stamp a ma jig to line up the pattern in the back. It took a while but it was worth it. I love those colors together too! They're very fall-like colors and they're probably colors I wouldn't have normally put together. Ruby Red, Cameo Coral and Chocolate Chip. So pretty! After I stamped the background I lightly sponged it with Chocolate Chip ink to deepen the colors.

The next one is my Christmas one, so sparkly! The base of the card is on a window sheet. I stamped and colored my image with markers then used versamark, heat and stick powder and dazzling diamonds to make it sparkle!




So those are all of my fair entries. Not sure if I'll enter again next year. I really want to judge next year. I'm going to call the fair offices and see how you become a judge. You never know and it doesn't hurt to ask!
Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Tutorial Tuesday-Sweet Cup Garage Door

It's Tutorial Tuesday again and today I thought that I would show you how to use our sweet treats cups and make a door in the card so that you don't need to rip the card apart to get to the candy or the treat!
You'll need your card base (I'm using a 4 x 8 card base, to make a 4x4 card). You'll also need your 1 3/4 inch circle punch, dimensionals, a pencil and your 'door' (I'm using cardstock that's 2x3)


Start by punching your circle from your base and then line up your next layer and trace a circle, so you know where to punch. Punch that one too.


Do the same with the next layer, you'll need at least 3 layers for this card. Make sure they all line up, but don't glue anything yet.




Attach your sweet treats cup to the middle layer.


Then attach your top layer on that and embellish as desired.




Lay your 'door' piece on the back, make sure it covers the cup. Use dimesionals and place them around the cup. This is so that your door can only go in so far and it can't go up and down, making sure all your treats stay in the cup.





Line up the circle on the base of the card and fill up your cup with your treat.



The 'door' will easily slide open and closed.
Cute huh?!
Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Bithday Medallion and Apple Pie!

Well I had a really fun weekend, how about you? Friday afternoon I went to pick up 3 bags of Dixon Apples. Dixon apples are grown here in New Mexico and they're soooo yummy. I love them. So I went to pick up 3 bags of apples and they were huge apples and there were 7 in each bag so I have a ton of apples. So what do you do when you have a ton of apples---you make apple pie of course! Now normally I don't show you what I cook, only because a) that's not why you're here and b) most of the time it doesn't come out looking very pretty-yummy yes, pretty not really. BUT this pie was so pretty and yummy and I had to photograph it.
This picture was taken just out of the oven so it's still bubbly! YUM-RIGHT!? And it tasted really good too! Logan and Dan both loved it!

So then on Sunday evening I had a workshop. And it was a blast. I LOVE what I do. The workshop was small but so much fun. I sometimes think that the small ones are the best. We laughed so much and it was so much fun! And we're gonna do it all again in October!
So here we go for today's project--today is my sister Julie's birthday. I sent this to her last week so hopefully she's received it by now.

I just love that Medallion stamp set and I'm convinced that you cannot make a bad card with it. It's literally impossible. For this card I stamped the medallion in white craft ink and then sponged over it with More Mustard ink to soften the look of the medallion. I highlighted some parts more then others with the ink. Then I used my markers to color and stamp the flower image from the Charming stamp set. These are just super fall colors and I love the softness of the Medallion!

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Medallion BG, Charming
Cardstock: More Mustard, Old Olive, Crushed Curry
Ink: White Craft pad, More Mustard Classic Pad, More Mustard, Crushed Curry and Old Olive Marker
Accessories: Silver Brads, Old Olive Ribbon, Sponges, Dimensionals

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow for Tutorial Tuesday!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Swaps from the meeting

Here are the swaps from the meeting this month. Our theme was anything from the mini catalog and I think they are all great!!

Kim S. did this one. Can you believe that I don't have that punch!!???

Karen did this one. She used our new My Digital Studio for this card. Isn't it cool? My copy of MDS is sitting in my desk, not yet opened. I'm excited to use it but just haven't found the time.



Michelle did this one. LOVE IT! That punched pumpkin is too cute!



Corrina did this one. She use the shimmer paint on the snowflake. I love it!



Amber did this one. What a sweet card little bear.




Jane did this one. Another cute punched project.




Theresa did this one. She used the shimmer paint too. If you haven't had a chance to try it, I really suggest it!





I don't know who did this one. There was no name on it, so I'm not positive about who did it. Anyone out there who knows feel free to let me know :) I love it though. It's a gift card holder.




And last but not least, this one was done by Amber. She did 2 because she had a new recruit. I love candy corn--and this cute bag!
Thanks for looking, have a great weekend, I'll see you Monday!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Fixed and now I have a post!

So I finally got my computer to read my memory card. I'm not sure why it wasn't reading it last night. After we turned the computer off and back on in the morning it read it just fine without problems. I would have tried that last night but I was tired and grumpy from the computer not working. So I decided to just wait until the morning and then fix it.
And it gave me time to get pictures of my demo and swaps-better pictures too. I don't like taking pictures at night because the colors get distorted with the overhead light and flash. I really prefer to take pictures with natural light. They just come out so much better.
Ok so yesterday I mentioned that I had 2 demos to show at the meeting and the first one was this box, that I showed you in August. It's so simple to make. You use 4 of the petal card dies and attach them all and it makes a box. Super quick and easy.
The other demo I showed was how to make a 'garage door' for your sweet treats cups. I love these cups but the thought of having the card ripped apart to get to the candy was horrible so this little 'garage door' fixes that. To make it, you'll need to punch a circle (or use your circle scissors plus) through all 3 layers of cardstock--REMEMBER if you're using a punch, you'll have to punch all 3 layers separately. You'll attach your cup to the Melon Mambo layer and the door behind that layer. If you'd like a tutorial on this leave a comment and I'll be happy to do one.





So that's all for today. Tomorrow I'll show you the swaps from our meeting.
Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Delayed

Sorry to have to inform you that today's post will be delayed a little while. We had our demonstrator meeting last night and my intention was to show you the 2 demos that I did and since I didn't make them and photograph them before the meeting I took my camera with me. Well I took my camera, but not my camera card! Geeez, so I'll have to photograph them later for you. When I got home, I took pictures of all our swaps and had planned to post those instead but now my computer isn't reading my camera card--UGGGGHHH! So I'll spend the morning trying to figure it out and why it's not reading it and hopefully by this afternoon I'll have a post for you.
Check back later and hopefully my issue will be solved. Thanks for your patience!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Seasons Greetings in Melon Mambo

So yesterday I showed you what might have been my swap had this card not come along. And I mentioned yesterday how much I love these colors together. The original idea for this card and color combo came from Rose's Blog. Isn't her blog great! She has such great ideas and it's the second time I've sent you to her blog this week. I really love this card though. With the Petal a Plenty embossing folder for the snow and the trees are so pretty from the hostess set in the mini catalog!

Now if I were to jazz it up a little I would have probably added some glitter to the trees but I really didn't want to take away from the patterns that are already in there! It's hard to see on the picture but there are snowflakes stamped in Blush Blossom on the Blush Blossom cardstock.

Supplies:
Stamp Sets: Four the Holidays, Patterned Pines, Serene Snowflakes
Cardstock: Melon Mambo, Blush Blossom, White
Ink: Melon Mambo, Blush Blossom
Accessories: Big Shot, Petals a Plenty embossing folder, paper snips, dimensionals, White Taffeta Ribbon

Tomorrow I'll show you the two 3 minute demos that I'm going to show tonight--YEP I have 2 demos tonight. I'm very excited!

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Could this be my swap?

Well I thought about it, but I decided to do a different card for our card swap at our meeting tomorrow, I'll show that one to you tomorrow. But I love this color combo. Blush Blossom and Melon Mambo-so pretty together! Huh, my swap uses the same color combo-so does my 3 minute demo for the meeting, I must be obsessed with this combo. Our theme for the swap is anything from the mini catalog. So I thought I would use the Charming stamp set but after I made this card I decided to do another card. This one is great and so pretty in person but I love the other one I did and I wasn't sure if I'd have enough of the Melon Mambo ribbon. I'm running a little low on it. Better add it to my list!

The medallion on this card is embossed in clear EP and is so pretty.
Supplies:
Stamp Sets: Medallion Background, Charming stamp set
Cardstock: Melon Mambo, Blush Blossom, White
Ink: Versamark, Blush Blossom, Melon Mambo
Accessories: Heat tool, clear EP, Melon Mambo ribbon, dimensionals
Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Tutorial Tuesday-Flower Folds Pin

Good morning. It's Tuesday and there's a cold front coming, yuck! It shouldn't last too long and it should warm up again by the end of the week. For my readers north of me who are already in the cold weather I don't envy you. Anyway, I have a really fast tutorial for today. I have some kind of head cold. I didn't get alot of stamping done over the weekend like I had planned. We have our demo meeting and I have workshop Sunday so I'm hoping it doesn't last long. Lots to do and I don't need a cold to make it more challenging.
For today I wanted to show you some really cute pins that I'm making. I'm doing a craft show in November and I plan to make a bunch of these to take to the craft show. This one is the simple no frills version. I'm hoping to jazz them up when I really start making them. This one is really simple, I just used some scrap fabric that I had lying around.
I've already cut the biggest and littlest flower out with the flower folds die.
Now I'm ready to cut the 2 middle size flowers out with my die.

Run it through the big shot and here's what you should have.



I stacked my flowers up on top of each other in the order and positions that I wanted them in.


Using your paper piercer, poke through all the layers of fabric. You'll need to really press hard and maneuver the piercer to make a large hole.



Stick a brad through the hold to hold your pieces together. I'm using a Chocolate Chip jumbo brad. You could also use a button and sew it on. Attach a pin back on the back of your flower and you're done.




Here's my cute SU Build a Bear Emma modeling the one I made. She need a smaller one though, don't you think?

Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Are You Ready For Some Football?!

Some football bears that is! How cute are they!? I saw these little football bears on Rose's blog and I just had to make some of my own for the football lovers in my life. My bears have gone pro and they're celebrating the Bronco's 50th anniversary. I printed out the football and the Broncos Logo on White cardstock then cut them out. They're just so cute aren't they!?! I just love these bears and what you can do with them.

Here's a close up of the bear.



What a nice way to kick off the football season.
Supplies:
Cardstock: Only Orange, Bashful Blue, Glorious Green, Night of Navy, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Black, White
Accessories: Big Shot, Build a Bear dies, dimensionals, linen thread
Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow for Tutorial Tuesday!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Let's here it for Shimmer Paint!

I think you have alot of Christmas examples coming in the next few months. I love to make Christmas cards and projects and no better time to start then right now. Well I actually started a few weeks ago huh? This card I love! The shimmer on this card is amazing. I really wish I could photograph it well for you. I am loving the shimmer paint and if you haven't had a chance to use it yet or see it in person, well you don't know what you're missing then! When I first saw the shimmer paint in the mini catalog, I wasn't real thrilled about it. It certainly didn't go on my wishlist, BUT when I saw it demoed at Convention and the great things you can do with it-I was sold and at only $6 a bottle it's totally worth it to try it. I've only used the white one. The platinum at convention was a little to much. I thought it stuck out too much on the projects instead of giving it a subtle shimmer. The champagne mist is next on my list to get, but I think the white is a great way to start especially if you're still unsure of the paint.

For this project I used the shimmer paint as paint. Shocking huh!? When I've used it before I've used a sponge and sponged on the paint on the stamp then stamped it. This time I mixed my reinkers with the paint and then painted on the color. Once I was done painting it and before the image had dried I used a sponge and sponged and pounced the paint on the rest of the paper to give the whole paper a shimmer look.

And it's still really hard to see in the pictures that it's shimmering. But you'll have to trust me on that. I took about 20 pictures and none of them show the shimmer well. Hopefully you can see it a little.
I hope you give shimmer paint a try and remember you can always order it directly from my demo website. Have a great weekend!
Supplies:
Stamp Sets: All Holidays, A Wish For Peace
Cardstock: Crushed Curry, White, Thoroughly Modern DSP
Ink: Staz on and Old Olive pads, Crushed Curry Marker, Close to Cocoa and Old Olive classic refils
Accessories: Small paint brushes, Soft Suede ribbon, Horizontal Slot punch, dimensionals, Wide Oval Punch, White Shimmer Paint, sponges
Thanks for looking, see you Monday!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Petal Card Box

Oh my goodness I love, love, love this die. This is the new flower folds die in the catalog and look how pretty those flowers are when you stack them up. Plus it helps that the Cottage Wall DSP is really pretty too. I can't wait to use this die on scraps of fabric and make pretty flower pins. Shelli showed those at convention and it was one of the reasons I got this die when I did. It was already on my wishlist but if it hadn't been shown at convention I don't think I would have been so quick to get it when I got home. But that's a project for another day. Let's try to focus on today's project shall we. This box is so adorable and I found the idea for this box on Elaine's blog.

I almost had a mini meltdown while making this project. I knew that I wanted to use the Cottage Wall DSP so the lid had to be Rich Razzleberry, right!? Well, when I went to get my Rich Razzleberry CS I couldn't find it! How could I be out??? But not to fear it was just simply misplaced. And if you could see the lack of organization in my stamp room this week you'd understand.
Isn't this box great! Now I know that when I make boxes I normally do a Ghirardelli count, you know, how many fit in this box perfectly, well I didn't do that with this box BUT it's a pretty good size you could probably fit a whole lot in there! The box is really simple to make, it's a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 square, score it at 1 1/2 on all four sides, assemble and your done. Your lid is the Petal Card die, it fits perfectly and the embellishment on top is anything you want it to be. In this case it's the Flower Fold Die.

Well I think that's enough of my chatting. Here's the supplies.
Supplies:
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Rich Razzleberry, Cottage Wall DSP
Accessories: Big Shot, Flower Fold and Petal Card dies, Old Olive ribbon, sticky strip, dimensionals, Jumbo Grommets
Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Embossing the Medallion

Have I mentioned how much I love this stamp set? Not today anyway. The medallion background is just so awesome! I love it. This card also uses another one of my new favorite products, the Cottage Wall DSP! I've wanted to try this resisting technique for a while but just never got around to it. Here's how it did it.
I stamped my Medallion in versa mark on the Cottage Wall DSP. Then I embossed it with Clear EP.
Once it was dry I used my brayer and brayered over the image in Old Olive ink and where the embossing was it 'resisted' the ink and the DSP comes through. Isn't that just the coolest thing ever. I think that when you've been a stamper for a while you forget the big wow's that the simple techniques like embossing give. I can still do any workshop and show embossing and everyone is always impressed. It's just magic, and it always adds a little extra touch to your card. So go out today and emboss something!


Supplies:
Stamp Sets: Medallion Background, It's Your Birthday
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Cottage Wall DSP
Ink: Old Olive, Versa mark
Accessories: Brayer, Circle Designer Brads, Certainly Celery ribbon, heat tool, Clear EP, dimensionals
Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Give Thanks!

I have another stamp set from the mini catalog to show you today. This set is so nice it's called Gifts of the Earth. And if you like to watercolor then you'll love this stamp set. I made this card a few weeks ago but it's been just sitting there waiting for me to post it. I made it with the intention that I would put it in the fair this year but when I finished with the other cards I liked them a little better, so I put them in instead.
I love the texture on this card though. I watercolored the image with ink pads and Blender Pens then when it was dry I crinkled it up and smooshed it and wrinkled it and then I adhered it to the card. It makes great texture on the card.
The ribbon on the card was originally Vanilla, but I wanted a pumpkin color, so I put it in a ziplock bag with a few drops of reinker and shook it up, until the ribbon was colored. Layed it out on a paper towel to dry and they you have your own custom ribbon.
I did jazz up the inside just a bit. I'm starting to do more on the inside of cards then I ever have before. But if you think about it, it does make sense. You spend so much time and effort on the front of your card but just stamp a greeting inside. Why not jazz it up!?!
Supplies:
Stamp Set: Gift of the Earth
Cardstock: So Saffron, Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa, More Mustard
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, So Saffron, Ruby Red, Summer Sun, Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Bordering Blue, Ballet Blue, Going Gray pads and Pumpkin Pie marker and ink refil
Accessories: Vanilla ribbon, linen thread, dimensonals, stamp a ma jig, blender pens
Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tutorial Tuesday-Sweet Treat Cup Flower

I just love the sweet treat cups and Sweet Centers stamp set from the mini catalog BUT I don't like having to cut out a ton of petals to make a flower. My upline Amber gave me a tip that the Flower Folds die is the perfect size for the little cups so after a little bit of experimenting I've found an easy way to make a sweet treat flower.
You'll need the 2 largest flowers from the flower fold die, I'm using Handsome Hunter and the Rose Rose patterned DSP from the Thoroughly Modern pack. You'll also need a sweet treat cup and 1 3/4 inch circle punch. I'm putting mine on a stick but you can also just attach it to a card.


Now I've tried this a bunch of different ways and this is the way that I like, because it comes out perfect every time. If you are good at eyeballing things then you can probably skip this set. Gently fold the flower petals up so that you can find the center of your flower. Punch a 1 3/4 inch circle from a scrap of cardstock and place it in the center. Don't glue it just set it there.


And trace a circle lightly with a pencil and remove the scrap cardstock. Then fold your flower in half.





Now that you have a template of where to punch, just line your punch up with the circle you traced and punch. Now you can set that aside.




I cut 4 petals off the Handsome Hunter flower and glued them randomly to the edge of the sweet treats cup. I didn't want them perfectly spaced, I just glued them randomly with the Tombow multi glue.



Then glue your flower on top of the leaves and the circle you punch out, fits perfectly over the cup.



The only candy I have in the house is Ghirardelli Chocolate and those don't fit in the cups. So I decided to fill up my cup with some corduroy buttons. Isn't that cute. I added a Crushed Curry back to it and then attached it to my popsicle stick.
A great gift ready to go!
Thanks for looking, see you tomorrow!