Encre, papier, ciseaux

Santa's Route

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #274 + In[k]spire Me #494

After I was finished packaging my Christmas gifts, I decided to use the Home for the Holidays collection from Doodlebug (2013) to make a card. Hopefully, some more Christmas cards will be collected next year to give to the children's hospital again and those fun, cutesy collections are perfect to make cards for a younger audience, so I figured, why not start the new stash...

I went to my list of old Mojo Monday sketches and picked one based on the Santa image I wanted to use. I liked the idea of making a circle card, so I pulled out my Tonic layering circles dies (the largest ones I have) and prepared the card base, plus three layers of patterned papers. I used the street paper for the rectangle behind Santa and matted it with brushed silver cardstock before die-cutting the circle.

Tip: To ensure that the card stands up on a flat surface, I cut a small portion at the bottom of the card backside. This also ensures that the card stays level when it is displayed. 

I picked a sentiment from the French Spellbinders stamp set (still excited about that one), stamped it in Gumball Green ink and cut the strip at an angle, before adding to the circle and cutting the edge to match. I added a sparkly button from Buttons Galore & More, threaded with silver cord. I added white mini pompoms from Queen & Co to the Santa suit and hat.

The overdyed seam binding I used is actually hand dyed. It was inspired by one of the Facebook Lives Tim did this season, where he used his Distress mica sprays to dye seam binding. I was curious so I tried it with a couple of ribbons I had on hand. The seam binding worked out the best, especially to hold the crinkling after it dried. I got this really cool green shade that will work well with a lot of holiday collections in my stash. I will need to dye more and now I'm wondering if I'll be able to reproduce the same colour, as we know with hand dying that every time produces unique results.

I made a square envelope out of matching patterned paper, using one of the stickers for the address block and adding a stamp sticker, since this card will most likely be hand delivered. Considering how hard it was to find my crafting groove earlier today, I'm pretty happy with this finished project.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Joyeux Noël (Spellbinders)
Cardstock: Smoky Slate, Basic White (Stampin' Up!); Silver Opulent Cardstock (Sizzix)
Patterned Papers, This & That Stickers: Home for the Holidays (Doodlebug Design)
Ink: Gumball Green (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Layering Circles (Tonic)
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board, Seam Binding (Stampin' Up!);
Santa's Sparkle Buttons (Buttons Galore & More); Black and White Mini Pompoms (Queen & Co);
Mica Distress Sprays (Tim Holtz for Ranger); Silver Cord (Unknown Source)

 

Ugly and Bright: Create With Us Cards

Inspiration: Create with Us Live from Lawn Fawn

I was excited to find out Lawn Fawn's next Create with Us Live would fall on a Friday evening. I was thinking it would be a great way to end the week and I was happy that it would be featuring my favorite set from the new release, Ugly and Bright, which I had not used since purchasing. I ended up having quite the hectic day at work, so I hastily prepared a very quick meal and then started watching the Live while eating. Which means that when I sat down at my crafting desk, I had not prepared the material for the class and I was already quite behind when I started putting ink to paper. Thankfully, it did not matter because they have a very comprehensive guide that they provide to follow along, so I was able to work in a different order and still craft along with Jen and Kelly. It was great to finish my week crafting when I would have otherwise crashed and burned on the couch after a very long and demanding day at work.

I knew if I was to make those samples that I would have to think outside the box, as both were designed around large English sentiments, which I would be trying to change for French ones. The first card was not so bad as it was using alphabet dies, so I knew I would make my own French word. When looking through stamps, I found a sentiment that reads, "Being together is the best gift," which post-pandemic is a very meaningful sentiment, so I hid the last word, inked the stamp in black and I created the French word for gift using Oliver's Stitched ABCs. I colored white cardstock with two shades of pink Copic markers before doing the die-cutting to make my life easier.

As you can see, the word ended up being a really tight fit on the card, barely making it on the card front. Jen's original had aqua letters, which were really pretty, but I went with pink because my background was already aqua. Hers was using a stencil set that I don't own, so I used a snowflake stencil with Coastal Cabana ink and I layered a different stencil over it, using Nuvo's Moonstone glitter paste for this second layer. Because my sentiment was not going across the full width like on the original, the card felt a little bare in the middle, so I went back with the snowflake stencil and added a couple more and it really elevated the card. The critters are done pretty much how the original was showing it. I did add chunky glitter on the letters, but I used the Stampin' Up! one (long retired), which I like because it is clear with no pink, green or orange highlight.

The second card ended up more challenging. I had made my stenciled background while my supplies were out, covering the whole panel with the snowflakes and Moonstone paste. I don't have any of the Giant sentiments sold by Lawn Fawn since they're all in English and I went through my French sentiments, to find out none of them are super big. The closest I could find was the Joyeux Noël dies from Stampin' Up!, but the card still felt quite bare with the words on it. I was thinking about maybe adding patterned paper at the bottom or even scrapping this specific design altogether, but then I remembered that there's an additional sentiment banner at the bottom, and when I added the Coastal Cabana banner, the card already felt more balanced.

To create the die-cut sentiment, I inked cardstock with a blender brush and Saltwater Taffy and Candied Apple Distress Oxide inks, then I sprayed the cardstock with Pearl Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels. I die-cut the words again out of Basic Grey cardstock and I loved how the shadow really made the words stand out better against the background. I also added some Marshmallow Scrubby Sparkle yarn, just because I'm still excited over this recent find, and then I placed the images similarly to the original sample, moving the reindeer down to fit with the width of my words better. 

It's always interesting when you try to follow along with a class, but use what you have on hand. It definitely becomes more about picking the parts of the project which you love the most and fitting them in a redesigned project. I'm glad those worked out - for a second there, I was considering using my leftover part to decorate a matching envelope for the first card because I was not liking where my second card was headed...

TIP: You will notice how I used the Santa sweater die-cut image as is on the fox and how it cover its chin. There's no way around it if you use the die-cut as is and want to fit it properly over the shoulders. But if you run your scissors along the edge of the stamped sweater at the top (as I did for all other three images), you can see we now see the neck and the result is nicer. I know that one design member was showing in one of the videos how she uses her markers to color the white part and a black pen to fill in the lines, but that looks like a lot of trouble when snipping the excess cardstock is faster and produces a nice result. 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Ugly and Bright (Lawn Fawn); Joyeux moments, Nombreux joyeux messages (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Coastal Cabana, Basic Grey (Stampin' Up!); Solar White (Neenah);
Blush Pink (Dress My Craft)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Coastal Cabana (Stampin' Up!);
Saltwater Taffy, Candied Apple Distress Oxide (Ranger)
Dies: Ugly and Bright, Outside In Stitched Rectangles, Oliver's Stitched ABCs,
Everyday Sentiment Banners (Lawn Fawn); Joyeux Noël (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Blender Brushes (Taylored Expressions); Moonstone Glitter Paste (Nuvo);
Falling Snowflakes Stencil (Carta Bella); Jack Frost Stencil (Echo Park)
Markers (Copic); Clear Chunky Glitter, Stampin' Dimensionals,
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter (Stampin' Up!); Marshmallow Scrubby Sparkle Yarn (Red Heart)

 

Smile

Inspiration: November 2019 Page Maps Sketch + Lasting Memories Layout Challenge #563 (polka dots)

As I finished making a card with the Hello Summer papers, I made some simple layered embellishments using the leftovers punched and fussy cut images I had. Then I thought they would look cute on a page, so I went to my trusty family calendars I've been pulling pictures from and found this adorable picture of my nieces in their summer outfits. I picked a sketch and started cutting papers and before I knew it, I was going on this new page.

To do my large scallop border, I cut a strip of patterned paper and made a line with a pencil at about ½" from one long edge. I then used my 2" circle punch to punch out circles. I should be noted I have recently marked the middle of my circle punches to help me line things up. Tip: To do so, you punch a circle with that punch, you fold the punched circle in half on one side and then in half again. You then place that punched circle back in the punch opening and you can use a Sharpie to add tick marks around your punch following the fold lines on the circle. Simple but useful! (Some punches already have those marks on them - not all of mine did.)

So I basically placed the half mark on my pencil mark and punched along my strip of paper. That then helped me glue the circles straight and evenly on the back of my polka dot paper. I didn't realize it when I did it, but this step was even more important due to the fact that I was using striped paper and it would have been very apparent if it had been glued crooked. I added doodling around the edge of the scallops with a black paint marker.

The sticker sheet included bold words in fun fonts, so that made it easy and fast to create my title. I knew I had to place something underneath the word otherwise it would get lost on the patterns, so I looked through my smaller paper scraps and found this interesting rectangle that looked like a Polaroid. I backed it with one of the floral cut-aparts and popped my title sticker on foam adhesive to make it stand out.

While looking for something else, I found my piercing templates and decided to add a pierced heart at the bottom. That led me to adding a die-cut heart, on which I layered a couple of stickers. One of the cut-aparts had an adorable flamingo on it, so I fussy cut the image and added it on foam adhesive in the corner.

On the left side, I added fussy cut flowers and my initial handmade embellishment. I added another strip of patterned paper to ground it better. I have recently rearranged my ribbons - I've grown quite the collection over the last two decades, so most of my spools are in an upcycled boot box under the bed, and I have a smaller show box that I keep on my desk with current ribbons plus a few favorites. I made a rotation and pulled colours that I might use for the Holidays or that I want to use more off, so I had this pink satin pleated ribbon, which made a nice border and the white pompom trim, which looked pretty slipped under the bottom edge of the picture. I was not liking the gap I was getting at the top of the page between the title Polaroid and the ribbon, so I backed a paper sticker with white cardstock, leaving a border, and I used a leftover die-cut tag from my desk to add a little banner sticker to and I threaded green organza ribbon in it. The sticker page had a cloud, so I decided to add it to the top of my page, with a second smaller cloud fussy cut from the patterned paper. When looking at ornaments, I found the Sunny Skies Cute Clips from Doodlebug and decided to slip a sun paperclip on the cloud. I added a rhinestone sticker on the smaller cloud. I added my last handmade embellishment to the right edge of the picture, with a sticker tab underneath.

I embellished my images a bit with enamel dots and pearls and then I remembered I wanted to add the year to my page. I looked through my alphabet stickers and I found the One Fine Day stickers from My Mind's Eye. Those were found in the clearance section and I wrongfully assumed they were white rectangles with black print. They are actually clear stickers, so their use is a little different. I decided to use them here and because the stickers are quite large, the date is pretty space out. I wasn't sure at first, but once all the numbers were in, I decided I liked it. You'll also notice the little smiley at the top of the page, also one of the stickers from this set.

I was about to be done with the page and put things away when I noticed the sketch had a border on the right edge of the paper that looked like stitching. I have some black stitching rub-ons from 49 & Market that I really, really love, so I pulled them out. I was just planning on doing that edge, but then I saw the heart rub-ons and I wondered how they would look added around my die-cut circle... This is where last-minute ideas are something tricky. The flamingo is on dimensional adhesive, so it was in the way, and preferably, I would have done the stitching and then added the word sticker over it. So I cut the top part of the heart off to work around the flamingo and in retrospect, I wish I had done the same around the words, but hey, I still very much like the result. I also got the idea to "stitch" my numbers in place and I love the result.

What started out as a simple page where I thought I would only use a few sheets of papers and stickers with my handmade embellishments turned into a pretty involved page in the end.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers, Stickers: Hello Summer (Simple Stories)
Punches: 2" Circle (Stampin' Up!)
Ribbons and Trims: Blushing Bride Satin Pleated, White Pompom, Lemon Lime Twist Organza (Stampin' Up!)
Alphabet Stickers: One Fine Day (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Exotic Onyx Pearls (Studio Katia); Sunny Skies Cute Clips (Doodlebug Design);
Enamel Dots (Studio Violet); Darcelle Say It In Crystals (Prima Marketing);
Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Piercing Templates, Paper Piercer (Stampin' Up!);
Black Roughly Sewn Rub-Ons (49 & Market); All Occasions Enamel Dots (Pink & Main);
Bling Stickers (Recollections); Black Uni Posca Paint Marker

 

I Predict Your Year Will Be Filled With...

Inspiration: ColourQ #299 + Just Us Girls #516

This was one of those cards where I didn't have a clear plan when I got started. All I had was a background created during a testing new mediums session. 

I was very happy when Deco Foil came out with its Transfer Gel Duo, which allow you to foil without a heat machine. I was curious and I grabbed a jar at my local store to test it out. I made a couple of backgrounds at once, this one using the Hocus Pocus stencil from TIm Holtz. I used another new item I was curious to test: black watercolor paper! I remember wondering earlier this year when I was working with Nuvo's shimmer powders if black watercolor existed and how the powders would look on it. Then, not long afterwards, my local store owner mentioned in one of her weekly videos that she had black watercolor come in. She was already sold out when I asked for a pack to be put aside, but she called this week to confirm she had received some more. I will say the first try with the shimmer powders was not conclusive. You get the shimmer but not the colour, which was a little disappointing. Because the colour was not popping, I decided to add the stenciling on top with the foiled stars.

Here is another thing I noticed and want to share. I invested in Pixie spray to use my stencils, which I love, but it does not adhere well to watercolor paper (gave me that problem on white watercolor paper before and on the black one again today). Because of that, some of the gel seeped underneath the stencil and I would say about half of the stars are not really crisp. The background was still usable, but I will keep this in mind in the future when pairing stencils and watercolor paper. The foil I used on the stars is Amber Watercolor. It has a nice ombre look that goes from soft gold to dark copper, which gave the starry background great dimension. 

Once I was done with the background, I went hunting for images that would look cool pair with it. Nothing was really jumping out at me until I spotted the Fortune Teller Tabby set and thought that could look cool. I picked an unusual colour combo from an old ColourQ challenge and pulled out the Take the Stage Die-namics to create curtains around the tabby. Lawn Fawn does have curtains on the Theater Shadow Box Add-On set, but they're significantly smaller. Initially, I thought I wanted to use the Reveal Wheel to have various sentiments appear in the crystal ball, but I couldn't get the table placed where I wanted it using the dies as is and I didn't want to fiddle, so I switched to another idea instead. Because new year is coming up, I decided to switch the original sentiment from "I predict your day will be..." to "I predict your year will be..." Thanks to my sentiment spreadsheet, I was able to quickly filter the options to find a Lawn Fawn set where the word "year" would be included in a sentiment. I pulled out two options, but the Yeti or Not stamp set had the best size and font of the two options, so I performed stamp surgery and cut my clear stamps apart so that I could insert the new word in the existing sentiment. I was hesitant the first time I ever did that, but I've quickly discovered it is totally worth it.

For the floor, I decided to have her be in a fog cloud, so I used the Puffy Cloud Borders die and I added fine glitter around the edge. There was empty room above the cat's head and I decided it might look nice to fill in the space with the year. I wanted to do a banner and remembered there is a small one in the Scalloped Box Card Pop-Up, but the numbers I wanted to use would have been too big for the little banners, so I ended up using the string on its own and gluing the numbers directly on it. I like how that detail turned out. I then added a few copper stars from Stampin' Up! to fill where the stencil didn't have any, and I decorated my matching envelope.

Tip: I wanted to add Crystal Effects on the crystal ball, but I have noticed in the past that it sometimes change the colour of the dye ink underneath, especially for inks with red or pink undertones. So I decided to test out what would happen if I applied a thin layer of microglaze over my crystal ball before adding the Crystal Effects. I'm happy to report that it works very well! Only thing is that I had applied Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer on around the edges and the microglaze totally dulled the sparkle. That was not a problem since I have the Shimmering Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up! and I got the shimmer back when I applied it.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Fortune Teller Tabby, Yeti or Not (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Summer Starfruit, Rich Razzleberry, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Whisper White,
Grapefruit Grove Foil Paper (Stampin' Up!); Black Watercolor Paper (Stonehenge)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Rich Razzleberry, Summer Starfruit Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!);
VersaMark
Dies: Scalloped Box Card Pop-Up, Fortune Teller Tabby, Puffy Cloud Borders (Lawn Fawn);
Take the Stage Die-namics (My Favorite Things); Mini Caps Alpha and Numbers (Taylored Expressions)
Accessories: Amber Watercolor Foil (Deco Foil); Hocus Pocus Stencil (Tim Holtz);
Antique Shades Iridescent Shimmering Watercolour Paints (Cosmic Shimmer);
A2 Anthracite Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com); Gold Uni Pen (Posca); Markers (Copic);
Star Designer Elements, Calypso Coral Stampin' Emboss Powder, Sponge Dauber,  
Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!);
Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer Brush, Shimmer Powders (Nuvo)

 

Fish Tank

inspiration: Lawn Fawnatics #57 + Simon Says Stamp Monday (Bright and Cheerful)

I usually make packaging and then find candy to go inside, but this time around, it was the candy that inspired the project. I found some fruit juice candy at my Bulk Barn and I immediately thought it could work great paired with the Keep on Swimming stamp set to create a fish tank. Initially, I was tossing around ideas where I would have created a window to see inside the packaging, but when I went looking in my packaging box to find cello bags, I actually found little acetate boxes from Stampin' Up! that were just the right size to be turned into a fish tank.

I inked blended a long panel of white cardstock, on both sides, using Distress Oxide inks (Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers and Lucky Clover) and Blender Brushes. I spritzed with water and dried with my heat tool on the low setting. I then scored at 1-15/16" intervals twice so that I had a three panel insert to put into the box. I cut the last piece to 1-15/16" x 1-15/16" for the bottom of the box. By having the folded panel, I was able to simply slip the insert inside the box and now have to glue it in place, which is preferable when working with a transparency. I did glue the bottom part in with narrow double-side adhesive as it kept popping up a bit, but it didn't matter since we won't really be seeing the bottom of the box. It doesn't really matter when there's candy in there because the weight is keeping the panel down, but I've noticed that people tend to keep the empty boxes for a while after it's empty when I'm giving away candy as they think the packaging is cute.

I glued various fish and shells on both sides of the panels and added the Hope your day is fantastic on cardstock strips on the back. For the cat at the front, we would have seen the adhesive inside the empty box, so I die-cut the cat image (and snipped the tail off the image) and the fish food image a second time using grey cardstock and I glued it inside the box, lining it with the colored images. Then it looks like a shadow and hides the adhesive in between. My tip for you: glued the grey pieces inside first and then add the colored pieces outside afterwards. It's way easier to line up the small pieces on the outside since you have room to work. (I forgot to do that with the fish food image and I struggled to put it in place inside - I worked smarter with the cat and it was much easier.)

To finish the package off, I tried various ribbon and twine options. I didn't like it wrapping all the way around the box as it hid the fish, so I did pink ribbon around the cover only and baker's twine on top to tie the tag on it. I tried another colour option first but was not liking it, so I went back to my inked cardstock scrap and die-cut a tag out of it, which looks much better.

This set with the cat looking at something is fun. I can see using it for many more projects to come!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Keep on Swimming (Lawn Fawn); Étiquettes des Fêtes (Tags & Tidings - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Inks: Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Features and Lucky Clover Distress Oxide (Ranger);
Tuxedo Black (Memento); Night of Navy Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Flirty Flamingo Ruched Ribbon, Basic Black/Mint Macaron Baker's Twine,
Clear Tiny Trest Boxes, Christmas Tags Thinlits Die (Stampin' Up!); White Gel Pen (Gelly Roll);
Markers (Copic); Blender Brushes (Picket Fence Studios); Candy

 

Wishes Sprinkled with Love

Inspiration: Freshly Made Sketch #374 + ColourQ #150

I have been meaning to use my Oddball Sprinkle Fairy for a long time and when I saw the Freshly Made sketch, I knew she would look really cool floating over a background of dots. I wasn't sure if I'd punch out cardstock or inked circles so while I was pondering, I went looking for a colour combo to work with and found a bright and fun one in an old ColourQ combo: Poppy Parade + Daffodil Delight + Lucky Limade + Bermuda Bay. I decided to made circle stencils by punching out circles of various size out of print paper and ink blend colours using Distress Oxide inks and my blender brushes.

I'm happy with the result, but there were a few issues while creating the background. My purple tape ripped the cardstock in some spots when I pulled it up. (I know people have been raving about the purple tape, but I find you have to use it very carefully - it tends to take some of the cardstock with it when you pull it back.) Because I only have four blender brushes of different sizes, I initially washed the ink off on a baby wipe and dried the brush on a microfiber cloth and went back to my second ink colour. That was a mistake - the brush was still wet and not only made the colour muddy, but also made the cardstock pill! Once I realized that, I stuck to one colour per brush and only washed them at the end. (Something to keep in mind if you don't have enough brushes for the number of colours you are using - let them dry thoroughly before you blend with them again.) Then, because my paper had pilled, it created problems for me when I went to stamp my sentiment. Thankfully, I was using my stamp platform, which allowed me to go back and reink and restamp, but I quickly found out that it was not for lack of proper pressure or ink that I was not getting all of the letters down - it was the pilling and also the texture of the Oxide ink that was making getting my ink down tricky. In the end, I had to use my Tuxedo Black Memento marker to fill in the missing letters. The stamping is messy - some of the letters are wider than others and there are speckles of ink around it, but I decided I could live with those imperfections. The next one will have better craftmanship because I'll have learned from this experience, but this card still turned out good enough to use. The sentiment reads, "Wishes Sprinkled with Love." It's from the Hello Cupcake stamp set currently offered as a Sale-A-Bration freebie from Stampin' Up! I made the sentiment a bit shorter by omitting ink on one of the words (the full sentiment reads, "Sweet wishes sprinkled with love"). I took out my confetti mix and started putting those here and there on the card. I quickly realized that it would look better if they were all falling from the fairy's hand, like she's sprinkling her wishes. (Doesn't she look thrilled to be doing that?)

I never used to buy the matching dies for the Stamping Bella stamps when they started coming out, but the Bella images are always quite large and I found it difficult to make my cards interesting because the images were taking so much room, there was not a whole lot of room for patterned paper or embellishments (which are my trademark creative tools). I started buying a few dies and quickly realized that they allow me to float the images over other elements, opening a lot of doors creatively. This is a good example of that. While I've resorted to hand cutting in the past, this is a tricky image but if you look closely, you'll see that the die cuts out the little openings between her wings, her hair and arms, and there's no way I would have been able to do such a neat job with a craft knife. So this die was a good investment.

 

 

 

A little more info on the different temporary tapes I've tried:

I was mentioning some riping on my cardstock during the making of this card. Because we pretty much die-cut the majority of our colored images nowadays, I've invested in a few different tapes over the last few years to try and find the perfect one for me. The first one was Scotch 3M's Matte Finish Removable Tape, which I purchased at my local office furniture store. I liked it and never ever ripped a single image with it. It's also a tape that I was able to use more than once before throwing it away, which is an important factor for me as it seems wasteful if I can't do that. The only downside of this tape for me was that it's very thin and would sometimes get cut while going through the machine, which meant that I had to fiddle to pick up small slivers off my cardstock, my die-cut image and my metal die. Not a big deal, but just an annoying waste of time.

When I saw 3M Post-It Masking Tape being used in videos, I gave it a try. This option is easy to use, peels off easily, rarely gets cuts by the die while going through the machine but unfortunately, it rips the cardstock easily. The pressure of the machine really binds the Post-It in place and I would say that of all the options I've used, this is the one that most consistently ripped the cardstock up. Not only that, if you reuse the tape, it transfers ink or color really easily to your second piece of cardstock! I gave up on this option pretty fast because it ruined too many a pieces for me in a short period of time. (Keep in mind that some of those problems can be avoided by always throwing away the tape after use, but the roll will not last very long if you do that.)

The third option I tried was 3M Micropore Tape. I was eager to try this one, as on paper, it seemed like the option that might fit my needs the best. The price initially gave me pause, but I was curious enough to finally go for it. The microtape comes in a blue plastic dispenser and I find that the tape is hard to rip using the dispenser only. The microtape would also sometimes gets cut apart by the die while going through the maching so that annoying problem happened again, and I got some rips, although not as often as with the Post-It tapes. On the positive side, I liked that the microtape was narrow, which made it easy to hold small dies (like the Lawn Fawn ones, for example) in place. The Post-It tape in comparison is quite large and I often had to tear it in smaller sized by hand. I liked that the microtape was already of my preferred width. This tape can also be reused a few times, but you get more rips and tearing of the tape when it's been used more than a couple of times.

Recently, the purple tape (Therm-o-web Purple Tape Easy Release) became all the rage in crafting videos and when my online store started carrying it, I used a sale to get a roll. (Again, the price was a little prohibitive.) This is the widdest of all four tapes I've tried, so you definitely have to tear this one in smaller sizes if you want to get your money's worth. It's just as easy to tear as washi tape, though, so you don't need scissors. I have ambivalent feelings for this one. It can easily be reused, it rarely cuts in half when die-cutting (it only does when I wrap it around a die and cut it on both sides of a die - then I end up with three different pieces that are really glued in place and hard to pick up) and it usually lifts up nicely. I have read a tip to pull the tape back on itself slowly - it helps, but it has not prevented tears 100% of the times. Again, there's nothing more frustrating than spending time on inking or coloring and messing up your finished piece just as you were about to be done.

It looks like I will go back to using my Scotch removable tape after all! You can buy rolls to refill your dispenser, which cuts down on the price, it's readily available since it is sold in office supplies stores and the roll last for a long time! (The original dispenser holds 16 m and the refill roll has 32 meters on it.)

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Oddball Sprinkle Fairy (Stamping Bella); Bonjour sucré (Hello Cupcake - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Mementp); Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, Candied Apple, Squeezed
Lemonade Distress Oxide (Ranger); Bermuda Bay Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Outside In Stitched Rectangle Dies (Lawn Fawn); Blender Brushes (Picket Fence Studios);
Oddball Sprinkle Fairy Cut-Out Die (Stamping Bella); Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Circle Punches,
White Medium Envelope (Stampin' Up!); Markers (Copic); Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer Brush (Nuvo);
Sparkling Clear Confetti Mix (Pretty Pink Posh); A2 Seafoam Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

High Five!

Inspiration: Color Throwdown #507

I liked the pretty color combo from Color Throwdown and wanted to play with it, but I also wanted to use the new Lawn Fawn stuff, so I ended up turning this combo into an untraditional Holidays color combo. The two shades of greens were perfect for the elves, anyway, and I had this idea to use the new Reveal Wheel Square Add-On die: use the reveal wheel to show the toys that are inside the decorated box.

It also appeared to me that the elves had their hand up like they were about to high five, so I capitalized on that and made it as if they are pleased with a job well done. The Stampin' Up! 2018 Holidays Catalogue is introducing a really cool 3D embossing folder called Corrugated, which looks like a cardboard box, so needless to say, it worked perfectly with the boxing and packaging theme of this card!

For reference, the new square add-on measures 3-3*4" x 3-3/4". With the matting, I ended up with a card that measures 4-3/4" x 4-3/4". It's a cute, but still substantial size.

TIP: The lid is a separate stamp from the box, so you can choose to have it closed or open. And the die set includes a tiny line that follows the shape of the inside of the box, so you can die-cut a slit and place characters or toys inside. Very clever! Anyway, I used the dies to die-cut the lid and the bow, but that created a lot of white borders when stacking the two pieces on top of the box. I used my scissors to take off the bottom white border of the bow and the lid. I find that the finished piece looks much more cohesive that way and looks like one stamped image.

 

 

 

 

 

Color Combo: Granny Apple Green + Tranquil Tide + Gorgeous Grape + Pool Party

 

Supplies
Stamps: Holiday Helpers (Lawn Fawn); Polka Dot (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Pool Party, Gorgeous Grape, Granny Apple Green, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Designer Series Paper Stacks: Brights, 2017-2019 In Color (Stampin' Up!)
Inks: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Pool Party, Tranquil Tide ((Stampin' Up! Classic Inks)
Accessories: Corrugated 3D Embossing Folder, Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, Adhesive Foam Strips (Stampin' Up!);
Reveal Wheel Lawn Cuts, Reveal Wheel Square Add-On Lawn Cuts, Holiday Helpers Lawn Cuts (Lawn Fawn);
Markers (Copic); White Square Envelope (envelopes.com)

 

Buffalo Check Christmas

Inspiration: Global Design Project #150

Today's card shows a lot of the new Christmas stuff I'm really excited about from the 2018 Holidays Catalogue, particularly the gorgeous photo-realistic papers from the All is Bright Designer Series Paper pack and the gorgeous Merry Christmas Thinlits - which have been translated to French!! The font is absolutely gorgeous and has a retro, classic vibe to it. The paper is also midway between classic and modern, because of the pine boughs and white Christmas lights. Some of the designs on the back of the pages are more whimsical, though, so you can get two very different looks from one paper pack depending on which patterns you choose to use.

Two more items I was over the moon about were the Corrugated 3D embossing folder and the Buffalo Check background stamp. For this stamp, I jumped ship and decided to get the unmounted version for the first time. My background stamp collection started with wood-mount and I've stuck with that option even after the clear-mount became available. That being said, the last few times I used background stamps, especially the ones with a striped or geometric pattern, I found it hard to line it perfectly on my card base and also to get an even impression, so for the Buffalo Check I decided to try unmounted in order to be able to use a stamping platform with it. It goes without saying that it really shows if you stamp plaid crooked, and because the squares were the lines meet up are full images, it helps to ink the stamp twice and use a stamping platform to repeat the image. This was my first try at using it and the difference really showed when I overstamped a second time.

As for the Corrugated embossing folder, this is one of those patterns that, just like for the Subtle embossing folder I raved about all month, you wonder how come it took so long for us to have one. Of course, I know it's because those patterns would have been hard to produce before the 3D folders hit the market, but I think it's pretty ironic that the two folders I'm most excited about are the two with the most basic patterns to them: linen texture and corrugated texture. I was really excited to test out the Corrugated one and let me tell you, it does exactly what it promises and the resulting cardstock looks just like the real thing - especially when you pair it with Crumb Cake cardstock like I did here. It totally changed the look of my card, especially since the little die-cut tag (made with a die from the sentiment Thinlits set) seemed a little bare. I don't have the stamp set that goes with the dies. I kept going back and forth on it but I found the words to be big (and if I'm honest, I don't really like the mix and match sentiment sets all that much) so I didn't get it. The catalogue period is just starting out so we'll see if I regret it, but for now, I don't have the frame stamp that would go with the die-cut, and that's when I got the idea to dry-emboss the tag.

The cotton twine comes from another suite, the Festive Farm one, but the Cherry Cobbler twine matches those papers nicely. This is another item that kept getting on and off the order, and I finally used it to round out my hostess benefits. I still have the previous cotton twine from years ago (the one that included Soft Sky, Whisper White and Wild Wasabi in the pack) and at first view, it seems like this one is a little thinner, which I like better, so I'm happy with the purchase.

Of course, the lovely Joyous Noel Glimmer Paper made a comeback for the sentiments, and I used the Sprig Punch on the green glimmer paper to fill out around the little tag. This is another item I got individually (there is a bundle with a stamp set), as I like adding little sprigs peeking out from under layers or with flowers and a punch makes it easier to do repeats than a die does, as evidence by the three sprigs added here.

Quick tip: I've lined up the back of a sheet of glimmer paper in each color with a piece of Multipurpose Adhesive Sheet (Annual Catalogue, p. 213). Gluing those intricate words and twigs would be time-consuming otherwise with any kind of glue, so you just need to peel off the back and you're done with your piece. I also didn't bother adding adhesive only to the back of what I needed - I did the whole 6" x 6" page as I know I mostly use glimmer paper for embellishments. If I ever use a piece for something else, I'll simply cut into a second sheet, since the pack has multiple of every colour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Buffalo Check
Cardstock: Shaded Spruce, Call Me Clover, Crumb Cake
Designer Series Paper: All is Bright
Ink: Shaded Spruce
Accessories: Joyeux Noël Thinlits Dies, Crumb Cake Medium Envelope, Sprig Punch,
Joyous Noel 6" x 6" Glimmer Paper, Stampin' Dimensionals, Festive Farm Cotton Twine,
Corrugated 3D Embossing Folder

 

Beach Selfies

Inspiration: July VSN challenge H + Mojo Monday #357 + CAS Colours & Sketch #281 + Tic Tac Tuesday #4 (Ocean + Yellow + Tearing) + Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Use a die or punch)

For such a cute, uncluttered card, you'll be surprised at how many different items I pulled out to put it together. I'm super happy with the result, though - it's clean and sunny and sort of puts you in a good mood just looking at it.

The starting point was a July VSN challenge based on a treasure hunt, where you had to put together various summer vacation-related items. I paired something "that reminds you of summer" (the beach, "that tastes good" (the pineapple) and "that is red, yellow or orange" (the pinapple). I had this idea that I wanted to make a little Polaroid frame with a summer picture. I decided the CAS Colours challenge had the perfect summery vibe (by the way, I'm très happy that Coastal Cabana is back in the current colour roaster!) and as I was looking for stamps that would work, I was torn between using the pineapple or the flamingo. I decided I wouldn't have to choose if I simply did two Polaroid pictures instead. I was looking for a sketch that could work and I found inspiration in an old Mojo Monday sketch. I then realized I could do a tic-tac-toe line for the Try Stampin' on Tuesday challenge since I already had Ocean and Yellow. I simple added tearing with my pink cardstock.

To make the picture background, I took the center square of the Selfie Frames die and cut the squares in half using a Simple Stitched Border on one for the beach, and a wave border on the other to make the ocean. I blended Distress Oxide inks on my various cardstock pieces, added fine glitter to the edge with a glue pen, and I used the Stitched Windy Backdrop on one sky piece and the Stitched Cloud Backdrop on the other. (See how the stamps and dies are starting to add up?)

When I had flipped through stamps, the hashtag stamps from Wild for You had caught my attention and I later decided to pull that set out again to add the #selfie underneath the flamingo picture. I kind of wanted something else for the pineappe but the other hashtags were not really what I was looking for, so I found a small "miss you" in the How You Bean? Conversation Heart Add-On set, which was perfect.

Finally, I used the Scripty Aloha die on teal glitter paper and I die-cut a piece of white foam to glue underneath it and give it dimension.

 

Tip: While using fun foam to quickly add dimension underneath a die is a quick way to raise it up, I have noticed that the foam gets squished when going through the die-cutting maching and often gets out flattened and therefore a little wider than the cardstock die-cut. Here, the white shows around my scripty word. I didn't mind and decided it's part of the look, but be mindful of that. I had tried the foam trick on a previous project using a triple window die and I decided against using it because the foam was way too apparent. In that case, your best bet is still to die-cut the same image a number of time out of regular cardstock and stack those cardstock die-cuts together to get the thickness you want.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Flamingo Together, Aloha, Wild for You, How You Bean? Conversation Heart Add-On (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Lemon Lime Twist, Powder Pink, Coastal Cabana (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Lemon Lime Twist, Powder Pink, Coastal Cabana (Stampin' Up! Classic Ink);
Tumbled Glass, Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers (Distress Oxide - Ranger)
Dies: Selfie Frames, Stitched Windy Backdrop, Stitched Cloud Backdrop: Portrait, Aloha, 
Flamingo Together, Scripty Aloha, Simple Stitched Hillside Borders, Shadow Box Card Ocean Add-On,
Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn); Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Two-way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, White Medium Envelope,
Powder Pink Glimmer Ribbon (Stampin' Up!); Glossy Accents, Blending Tool (Ranger);
Teal Glimmer Paper (unknown source); Alcohol Markers (Copic)

 

Tiki Garden

Design inspired by Page Maps sketch from November 2017 and Lasting Memory Layout challenge #404 (scanned and printed a picture dating back to 1996 for a now and then layout).

When I bought the Fun in the Sun collection from Doodlebug Design, the totem pattern reminded me of the decor at a famous kitsch restaurant in Montreal called Jardin Tiki (Tiki Garden). The cuisine is nothing to write home about (it's a Chinese buffet), but the place was fully decked with big bamboo chairs, lanterns - the whole nine yards! They even had a little bridge going over a pond filled with live turtles! When I was a kid, we used to stop there for dinner when we were vacationing in Montreal. Sadly, the place closed down in March 2015. It was the end of an era, Coincidentally, we had eaten there the year prior, not knowing it would be our last meal there. I had not taken a whole lot of pictures, mainly because my niece was sick and in a foul mood. I picked the best picture in what I had, and I also scanned an old picture which I believe dates back to 1996 or us there, for a fun then and now layout.

The place also had an impressive cocktail menu, most of which were served in fancy thematic glasses, so the Doodlebug stickers and sprinkles fit the theme perfectly.

 

TIP: I used my computer to generate my journaling. To ensure that the font color would match the papers, I found an image of the Fun in the Sun collection on the Doodlebug Design website, opened it in Photoshop Element and used the Color Picker to find the exact RGB color code. Select the Color Picker tool, push on the Shift key on your keyboard and at the same time, click with your mouse on the color you wish to pick up. A box will open, showing you the RGB values. (My screen shot shows RVB, because I have a French software - rouge, vert, bleu!)

 

 

You can then go to your Word software, type in your journaling, select your text and click on the Font Color icon arrow to open the menu, and at the bottom, click on Other Colours.

 

 

This will open an additional box. Click on the Personnalized tab, and then enter the three RGB values that were showing in Photoshop previously. As you can see, I obtain the exact shading of green I was looking for, which I used to highlight the name of the restaurant and make it stand out in the journaling. My pink shade was found the same way.

 

 

See that little black arrow on the side of the color strip? You can move it up and down to get a lighter or darker shade of the same hue. This is great when doing journaling, because lighter colors can be very hard to read. I used that arrow to darken my pink. It remains in the same color palette, but prints a little darker.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Papers and Icons: Fun the in Sun (Doodlebug Design)
Cardstock: Bazzill
Shaoe Sprinkles: Tropical Punch (Doodlebug Design)
Alphabet and Number Stickers: Life of the Party Charmed Alphabet (Lime Twist);
Bonjour Thickers (American Crafts); Bon Bon Candy Shoppe (Doodlebug Design)
Font: Copperplate
Accessories: Glossy Accents (Ranger); Sparkly Enamel Dots, White Lace Doily (Stampin' Up!)

 

Light in a Dark Place

The starting point of this card was CAS(E) This Sketch #247 and Create with Connie and Mary #483. Initially, I thought the colour combo could make for a soft Christmas card and I decided to reach for the Brightly Lit Christmas stamp set to fit in the left edge of a big, bold sentiment. Then, when I started digging for current sentiments in my sets, I spotted one in Heartfelt Sympathy that I had not used often up until now because of how big it is. I thought that a sympathy sentiment could actually work well with the lamppost. Something about brightening up a dark spot in someone's life. It was a good opportunity to get a different use of this stamp set and dies as well. From there, the card evolved quickly and easily. I used a paintbrush to create a very soft background using the brick stencil from the Pattern Party Decorative Masks.

The sentiment initially felt a little bare, so I added the bow from the same stamp set, the flourishes from the Christmas Lampost Thinlits dies and little flowers made with a tiny flower die I found in the Quilt Builder Framelits set. I used a paper doily for the oval shape from the set - I haven't purchased the new design from the current catalogue because I want to finish the ones that I have from the past catalogue first, and I topped the bottom scallop with a clear gem­.

The inside of the lights was created with the die for this purpose (if you are wondering what the three trapeze shapes are on the same die, it's to die-cut a little piece of yellow cardstock that will go inside the lights. In this case, I sponged a bit of So Saffron ink on a piece of Whisper White cardstock and covered it with Clear Wink of Stella before die-cutting and adding to the lights.I also ran the Wink of Stella brush around the lampost lights to give a sparkly halo.

 

Tip: There's a lot of small details on the dies I used. I made sure to cover the back of all of my papers and cardstock with a piece of Big Shot adhesive sheet to make my life easier when gluing everything in place on my project. We carry precision glue, but the adhesive sheets are definitely easier and cleaner to use. You just have to remember to use them before running your pieces through the Big Shot.

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Des adieux du fond du coeur (Heartfelt Sympathy),  Pleins feux sur Noël (Brightly Lit Christmas)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Night of Navy, Powder Pink, Pool Party, Silver Foil Paper
Ink: Night of Navy, Powder Pink, Pool Party, So Saffron
Accessories: Quilt Builder Framelits Dies, Christmas Lampost Thinlits Dies, Clear Wink of Stella Brush,
Pattern Party Decorative Masks, Paintbrush, Clear Faceted Gems, Paper Doily, White Medium Envelope,
Sponge Dauber, Big Shot Adhesive Sheets

 

O Christmas Tree

This card was inspired by the Stamp Ink Paper challenge #114. This card is fairly straightforward, using the Merry Little Christmas super suite from the 2017 Holidays Catalogue. The most intricate of the card was stamping the sentiment in black ink and then overstamping in VersaMark so I could clear-emboss the sentiment to make it stand out more on Real Red Cardstock. Then, I stamped the sentiment in black again on a scrap of Old Olive cardstock and following the shape of the wave pattern, I handcut it in a little banner, to overlay on the sentiment using mini Stampin' Dimensionals. The fun trim at the bottom is the Mini Tinsel Trim. (The Combo includes both silver and red.)

TIP: By the way, after doing the same die-cut frame on another card, I quickly figured out I was not doing the frame right after I wound up with four holes on each side. This time around, I realized I had to find the middle of my vertical side and place the two holes of the frame at that mark. Then, when you turn the die around to cut the second part (the die is not a full frame, it's only an half, which you use twice), you place the holes at the center mark again, making sure they go into the holes that were previously die-cut. Now that I've realized that, the frame came out perfectly.

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Cantiques de Noël (Carols of Christmas)
Cardstock: Real Red, Old Olive, Thick Whisper White
Designer Series Patterned Paper: Merry Little Christmas
Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento, VersaMark
Accessories: Merry Tinsel Trim Combo Pack, Envelope Punch Board, 2-1/2" Circle Punch,
Stampin' Dimensionals, Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stitched Shapes Framelits,
Card Front Builder Thinlits Dies

 

The Belly Test

Not sure how we wound up with a bunch of pictures of us comparing our bellies with my sister's when she was pregnant, but this seems to be a new test of some sort: making sure you have a flatter stomach than the pregnant lady! haha! Because those pictures are so silly, it was a good opportunity to pull out the Emoji Love collection from Simple Stories.

The design was inspired by a November 2016 Page Maps sketch. I used various square and rectangle dies to create my patchwork background, and my typewriter to add journaling to the tag. The tassel and twine used at the bottom came from the Cupcakes & Carousels Embellishment pack from the Occasions catalogue (retiring May 31st).

Tip: When I want to mat a picture or an image in white on a page, I pull out old one-sided patterned papers and use the backside as my mat. There's no need to reach for the quality cardstock when a paper scrap will do just fine and you really can't tell the difference.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Papers: Emoji Love (Simple Stories)
Dies: Chevron Stripes (My Favorite Things), Wonky Stitched Circle (MFT), Wonky Stitched Square (MFT),
Pinking Edge Square (MFT), Dotted Scallop Rectangles (Elizabeth Craft Designs),
Stitched 4 Bar Rectangles Stackables (Lawn Fawn), Ref. Articles (Kesi'art), Alisha Lowercase (Echo Park)
Accessories: Cupcakes & Carousels Embellishments Pack, Project Life Corner Punch,
Curvy Corner Trio Punch (slit), Aqua Mist Felt (Papertrey Ink), Yellow Petite Posies (Queen&Co),
Paint Sample, Stampin' Dimensionals

 

Thanks from All of Us

This is another project I made to send out to downline members, and the colors were inspired by the Color Throwdown challenge #435. Two of the colors were a match for the Pretty Pocket Card Kit (SAB freebie) so it was the starting point for my design. I paired it with two Sale-A-Bration stamp sets: So Very Much and Delicate Details. The Thank You sentiment was embossed with Copper Stampin' Emboss powder, which looks really good paired with the Peekaboo Peach cardstock.

TIP: I had some Peekaboo Peach washi Designer tape from the Tasty Treats pack, but it was too large to fit into the space between my sentiment and the doily. I took advantage from the fact that washi tape is tacky and can be pulled back up from a surface it's been adhered to. I placed a piece of washi tape on a scrap sheet of paper, cut it in two using my paper cutter and gently pulled the tape back up. That allowed me to get a thinner piece for the front of the card, and the second piece went on the insert, between the stamped sentiment box and the lines for the text.

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Infiniment et plus (So Very Much). Delicate Details
Cardstock: Peekaboo Peach
Card Kit: Pretty Pocket (SAB)
Ink: VersaMark, Peekaboo Peach
Accessories: Project Life Corner Punch, Tasty Treats Designer Washi Tape,
Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder, Pearl Basic Jewels, 2016-2018 In Color and Subtles Enamel Shapes

 

All Fun and Games Until...

Just having fun with the Paper Craft Crew Card Sketch #219 and some fun Christmas stamps and papers. The elf and gifts were colored with Prismacolor pencils, and the sentiment was embossed with the Real Red Glitter Stampin' Emboss powder from the 2016 Holidays Catalogue.

Tip: Here's a tip I picked up and that has really helped me get better result when using the glitter embossing powder: shake the closed container before using. The glitter Stampin' Emboss powders are made of colored embossing powder and glitter and the glitter tends to stay at the top of the container and the embossing powder at the bottom. If you don't have enough embossing powder to hold onto the glitter, it will not stay in place and your embossing will tend to flake. You also won't get an even result, which is particularly important is you are embossing wording. I've noticed that by shaking the container first, I get really good results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Elf Grumplings (Taylored Expressions)
Cardstock: Mossy Meadow, Whisper White
Patterned Papers: I Love Christmas (Echo Park)
Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento, VersaMark
Accessories: Project Life Corner Punch, Elf Grumplings Dies, Gingham Brads (Queen & Co),
Prismacolor Pencils, Real Red Glitter Stampin' Emboss Powder, Red and White Cord,
Sequins, Wooden Snowflakes (Calico Studio), Home for Christmas Enamel Dots, White Medium Envelope

 

Have a Sparkly New Year

I went through my [extensive] paper pile and pulled out the Holidays DSP we've carried in past years so that I could combine them with new stamps for a fresh take on them. After seeing the In[k]spire Me #263 sketch, I was inspired to pull out the It's a Celebration stamp set (2016 Holidays Catalogue, p. 38) because the sparkler fit the sketch so well. I wanted to use a light patterned paper to stamp on it (as per Inkspirational Challenges #115) for the background and the All is Calm DSP from two years ago was perfect. It's winter-themed with the snowflakes, but not Christmasy per se, which was perfect since my sentiment reads, "Happy New Year." I used the Curvy Corner Trio Punch to punch two opposite corners, and I added silver sequins from the Metallic Sequins pack.

Here's a tip for you: I won't deny it took me a little while, but I took some time to separate all five colours from the Metallic Sequins pack into five different containers. I keep my old SU! embellishment containers when they're empty so I can use them for other stuff or to separate colours sometimes. While it does take additional room (although I used the half-containers – the ones that are not as high and that you can stack two of in one slot of our former container holder), for this particular sequin pack, I felt it was worth it. I had the hardest time pulling out only the colours I needed - particularly the clear ones, which totally get lost in the pack!! I only wanted silver sequins on this card and thanks to the fact that I had separated my colours yesterday, I was able to find the shapes I wanted and add them to my project in a snap. I've even snuck a couple of flat sequins that come from the sequin trim on my card. (I added them to the container after they fell off the end of the cut trim.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Fêtons les Fêtes (It's a Celebration)
Cardstock: Pear Pizzazz, Lost Lagoon
Designer Series Paper: All is Calm
Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento, VersaMark, Island Indigo
Accessories: Metallic Sequins, Envelope Punch Board, Curvy Corner Trio Punch,
Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals

 

Thanks for Everything You Do

So after passing on the Loads of Fun stamp set the first time I saw it, I couldn't resist the second time around. I've seen a bunch of cute cards made with this set online and it was unique, so I decided to go for it. I've had it for a little while and hadn't inked it up just yet, though - I knew I wanted to make a cute shaker with it, and have the clothes float around inside the washer. I wasn't sure, though, what to stamp on the card if I wanted to make a French version. The set has English sayings like, "I hope you birthday is loads of fun" or "I am missing you". Those make total sense with the washing machine image, but the meaning would unfortunately be lost in translation. So after putting together the washing machine shaker, I pulled out my stamp set binder and started looking at options. There were a few things that could have worked, but I wasn't sure I would actually get any use out of the sentiments I was seeing, and then I thought, Maybe something for a mom? Along the lines of "Thanks for everything you do"?

ORGANIZATION TIP: So I have put together 2 different tools to help me find useful sentiments for my card. The first one is the binder, where I've stamped the images I own so that I can leaf through when I'm looking for sentiments or images. (It's a work in progress - I add a few pages at a time when I have spare time.) I leaf through the pages and place little Post-It notes in the margin when I find options I like and at the end, I pick my favorite amongst the options I flagged. This works great, except when I am looking for very specific words. Then I thought a spreadsheet where I could do a word search would offer a better option. So I did just that - typed the various sentiments I have into one Excel document. I won't lie - it required a bit of time, but it has turned out to be very useful. Including tonight. I just did a word search for "merci pour tout" and found out the new Feather Together set includes the sentiment "Thanks for everything you do".(And sine it's a new set, I haven't had time to stamp my reference sheet and add it to the binder, so I would have overlooked this option using the binder alone.)

AND it fit perfectly into the "bubble" I wanted to stamp it in. That bubble is in fact the front of the washing machine, which I had die-cut out using a Circle die. When I saw it on my desk, I thought it looked like a bubble and decided to use it to add my sentiment to the colorful card.

This card was inspired both by As You See It challenge #140 and the Dare to Get Dirty 2016 challenges on Splitcoast Stampers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Loads of Fun (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Silver Foil
Patterned Papers: Snapshots (Bella Blvd.)
Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento, Bermuda Bay
Accessories: Window Sheet, Markers, Sequins and beads,
Stampin' Dimensionals, Daffodil Delight Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon,
Envelope Punch Board, Project Life Corner Punch

 

 

Bonjour and Happy Birthday

The Mojo Monday Sketch #432 inspired me to pull out the Specialty Project Life Cards offered as a freebie during SAB. I'm very excited about those because there's some gold-foil acetate cards in there, some embossed ones, some frames... They're all awesome! Whether you're a scrapbooker or not, you can see from my project here those cards can be used to make tags, cards, packaging, etc. so not scrapbooking shouldn't deter you from getting them as a free gift. On this card, I layered a clear-embossed star patterned Daffodil Delight card and a clear card with a gold foil circle frame in the center.

The stamp set I used is also a SAB freebie set called Salut. I stamped the big sentiment on white cardstock in Old Olive ink and fussy cut it. I added the "and happy birthday" stamp, die-cutting this part with the Bitty Banners Framelits Dies. The little party hat, from the same set, was inked with Stampin' Write markers, cut out and added to the gold circle. Two gold sequins (taken off of the gold sequin trim) were added in the top right corner and topped with Wisteria Wonder candy dots.

Strips of Wisteria Wonder and Old Olive patterned papers were punched with the Triple Banner punch, and a piece of narrow olive ribbon was tied in a bow at the bottom of the card.

The colour combo came from ColourQ #326 and the theme from the Nacho Average SAB Blog Hop.

 

TIP: To glue the clear Project Life card over the Daffodil Delight one, I started by glueing all my embellishments in place with mini glue dots on the clear card first, then I turned it over and applied the adhesive underneath my sentiment and embellishments, where it wouldn't show through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Salut (Hello)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
Designer Series Paper: Polka Dot Parade, In Color DSP
Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Stampin' Write Markers, Memories in the Making Project LIfe Specialty Cards,
Subtles Candy Dots, Gold Sequin Trim, Triple Banner Punch,
Square White Envelope, Stampin' Dimensionals, Bitty Banners Framelits Dies,
Old Olive Narrow Organza Ribbon

 

 

 

Key to my Heart

This is another PInterest-inspired love creation. This card was originally designed by Wendy Weixler. It's really simple but super sweet. The sentiment reads, "The key to my heart."

 

Tip: When dry-embossing white cardstock, use our Thick Whisper White cardstock. There will be less crackling on the embossed design than when you use the regular Whisper White cardstock, which is not as thick and buckles more under the pressure applied by the Big Shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Mon trésor (You're a Gem)
Cardstock: Thick Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Soft Suede
Designer Series Paper: Everyday Enchantment
Ink: Soft Suede
Accessories: Small Heart Punch, Calypso Coral Narrow Organza Ribbon,
Pearl Basic Jewels, Stampin' Dimensionals, 3/4" Square Punch,
Large Oval Punch, White Medium Envelope

 

Christmas Joy Wreath

Inspired by:

• Fab Friday Challenge #76 (sketch)
• Stampin' Royalty Challenge #301 (Anything Goes)

 

Featured Stampin' Up! Items:

• Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper (Holidays Catalogue, p. 9)
• Home for Christmas Enamel Dots (Holidays Catalogue, p. 9)
• Wondrous Wreath Stamp Set (AC, p. 72)
• Wonderful Wreath Framelits Dies (AC, p. 172)

 

Tip: Use markers to use different sentiments together. The set includes "nuit de" which can be combined with "Noël", but I wanted to use the word "joie" instead, so I only inked the second word of "nuit de" using my Mossy Meadow Stampin' Write marker and stamped it beside my other word. The set is made out of photopolymer so I was able to stamp the word right where I needed it without the use of the Stamp-a-ma-jig.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Wondrous Wreath, Project Life Instantanés de saison 2015
(Project Life Seasonal Snapshots 2015)
Cardstock: Mossy Meadow, Very Vanilla
Designer Series Paper: Home for Christmas
Ink: Real Red, Mossy Meadow
Accessories: Mossy Meadow Stampin' Write Markers,
Wonderful Wreath Framelits Dies, Stampin' Dimensionals, Circle Punch,
Home for Christmas Enamel Dots, Medium Vanilla Envelope

 

Stuffing Our Faces

These pictures are just silly. My favorite dessert is my mom's choux à la crème (cream puffs).  We've never seen any go to waste, I can tell you that. While my sister and I usually stuff our faces with them, we did ham it up for the camera for sure, here. Makes for funny memories. My niece was so little on those pictures, a couple of months at the most. She's turning three in a month, reminds me how fast she's growing up.

The Project Life cards I used for that layout are from last year's Sale-A-Bration offering.

 

TIP: I used an Halloween greeting stamp set on my page. The sentiment read yumyumyum and I stamped it repeatedly on a scrap of paper to create a border at the top of my page. Try to see how your greeting stamps can take a different meaning when used on your pages to get more mileage out of your supplies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Parfaits fanions, Alphabet Rotary Stamp, ABC-123 Outline Alphabet & Numbers,
Sweet Shoppe Alphabet Lower, Salutations effroyables
Project Life Cards: This Day Mini Card Collection
Ink: Island Indigo
Accessories: Punches (Stamp, Ticket Corner, Scallop Circle, Heart),
Stampin' Write Markers, Project Life Cards and Tags Framelits, Brads, Candy Dots,
Baker's Twine, Silver Glimmer Paper, White Stampin' Emboss Powder

 

Fangs for the Memories

One of the DTGD challenges was to pull out one of our oldest stamps. It was a great chance to revisit an old favorite. I wanted to use my new Happy Haunting Designer Series Paper (page 47 of Holidays Catalogue), so I selected Booglie Eyes, which I acquired a decade ago. I think the artwork of this one aged well and the Dracula image was perfect with the bat design of the paper I selected. I die-cut a box using the Hamburger Box Die. I also used the new Black Glimmer Paper (really excited about this addition to our line).

I got the idea to use my zigzag scissors to add a border to the box, and after using it, I thought it looked like little fangs, which fits perfectly with Dracula and the spiders. (If you look closely, you can see fangs on the both of them.) Speaking of that spider, how cute did it turn out? I know most people aren't really fond of spiders, but I think that one with its perplexed look is just cute enough to not inspire too much fright.

I used the ribbon slot found in the Triple Corner Punch (new in the Holidays catalogue as well) to slip the Tangelo Twist Satin Ribbon through my main image.

 

TIP: Let me share a tip with you when assembling the hamburger box. I heard it from another demonstrator and it helped me get better results when assembling the box. If you follow the instructions of the die, you're supposed to fold the corners in and glue the folds together. It's quite tricky because the room between the fold is small and none of the adhesives that we have work great for that. I tried mini glue dots and found the folds weren't flat against each other like I wanted them to and the gap bothered me. I then tried liquid glue but had a hard time not having any ooze out, plus I had to keep my fingers on it while it dryed and it took more time to assemble the box than I would have liked.

So what's the trick? Simply snip one of the sides on the fold line and glue the tab inside like you would any other box. WAY easier. WAY prettier corners. WAY faster results. And since we now have the Fine Tip Glue Pen, this is what I used to get in those tight corners. It has great hold!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Booglie Eyes
Cardstock: Watercolor Paper, Tangelo Twist, Black Glimmer Paper
Designer Series Paper: Happy Haunting
Ink: Basic Black, Tangelo Twist, Pear Pizzazz, Basic Grey, Blushing Bride
Accessories: Tangelo Twist Satin Ribbon, Hamburger Box Die, Fine-Tip Glue Pen,
Zigzag Border Decorative Scissors, Triple Corner Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

 

Smile for the Camera

Oh, how I love the Hello December 2015 Project Life card collection! I thought, "Wow!" the second I spotted them in the catalogue and was eager to create a project with them when I received my order.

The soft colours and watercolour look are just gorgeous and I'm torn between the urge to put it to good use and the instinct to hoard it all... (Which is a ridiculous habit, I know, but one that I haven't been able to rid myself of after all these years, just improve on it.)

The pictures are from last year. My niece had turned two a couple of months before Christmas and she was starting to understand the notion of smiling for the camera before opening gifts. It was hilarious to see her climb down the sofa, go grab a gift, climb back up and smile for me before tearing into the paper. As the evening went on, the smiles were shorter and shorter so I had better be ready!

I used the new Triple Corner Punch to punch the cards and the picture. I've learned that the result on pictures isn't always great, so be mindful of that if you decide to give it a try. I couldn't always get a crisp edge after punching. The punch also includes a slit, so I used it on one of the picture (bottom right) and inserted a piece of Mint Macaron Lace Trim tied in a bow.

I wanted to try my new Photo Sleeve Fuse tool from Project Life (not carried by SU! as of now, but we can always hope it will be eventually), and so I inserted sequins in one of the pockets and shut it closed using the tool.

Sold in the Holidays catalogue is Real Red pompom trim, which I really wanted to use on one of my cards, but I didn't work too well when I slid it in the protector because it was too bulky. I solved the problem by gluing the pompom trim on top of the protector using glue dots.

 

TIP: With Project Life Protector, it is better to avoid bulky embellishments altogether, but if you can't resist adding some, simple glue them on TOP of the protector, over the spot you want to decorate. Use a strong adhesive like glue dots or sticky strip to make sure your embellishment does not fall off.

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Skinny Mini Alphabet, Autour du monde, Project Life Hello December 2015
Project Life: Hello December 2015 Cards and Accessories
Designer Series Paper: 2015-2017 In Color Stack
Ink: Mint Macaron, Lost Lagoon
Accessories: Triple Corner Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, Real Red Pompom Trim,
Red Glimmer Paper, Perfect Print Alphabet Bigz Dies, Subtles Candy Dots,
Gold Marker, Stampin' Write Marker, Very Vintage Designer Buttons,
Snowflake Elements, Designer Washi Tapes, Mint Macaron Lace Trim, Starburst Framelits Dies

 

Don't Judge...

There are days when one drink just isn't enough... The "Don't judge" sentiment just cracked me up, and when I spotted the drink and the coffee cup images in the set, I immediately knew what I would make with the set.

The design was inspired by the Create with Connie and Mary sketch #361.

 

TIP: The Tag CutUp I wanted to use was a little long for my design, so I cut the shape once out of cardstock, then placed the die-cut a little lower in the die and ran it through the Big Shot a second time to shorten the tag.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Show Me the Monkey (The Cat's Pajamas)
Cardstock: Mint Macaron, Hello Honey, Tip Top Taupe, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla, Peach Passion
Patterned Papers: Prairie Hill (Pink Paislee)
Ink: Early Espresso, Black Tuxedo Memento
Accessories: Jute Trim, Circle Punches, Stampin' Dimensionals, Triple Banner Punch,
Two Tags CutUp die, Twill Embossing Folder, Markers, Twill, Metallic Brads, Enamel Brads,
Envelope Punch Board, Deco Scissors

 

Does my Bum Look Big in This?

Every once in a while, I have a big pile of pictures sent out to be printed for scrapbooking. Some make it to my album right away, some stay in that pile for a long time before I find the right products to pair with them or the right inspiration. This picture of my niece is one of them. I thought she looked adorably confused in her little booster seat and knew there was a page to be made out of it, but didn't know yet how to go about it.

Inspiration struck when I saw the Shake, Rattle and Roll stamp set. First of all, seeing Bunny as a baby made me go "Aww!" out loud. I thought I could use this set on page rather than a card for a change and flipped through my baby pictures. And then I saw the sentiment that says, "Does my bum look big in this?" and thought it'd be perfect for this booster seat picture!! I also have this brightly colored papers from Doodlebug that I have just acquired that were beggint to be paired with the bright picture, so once I found those elements, the page came together naturally. I wouldn't say quickly because even though it's small (6" x 8"), there's a ton of details in there. But the ideas kept coming and I couldn't put it down until I was done.

A few details:

Upper left

I cut the lined paper from my patterned paper and created a torn notebook page edging using a Toppers CutUp die. At top, I used the He Says, She Says CutUp die to create a thought bubble, and I used the "Hello Baby" sentiment to decorate. It's all one block, but I colored the first word with markers and then handcut each letters to separate them. I stamped the whole sentiment in Melon Mambo and handcut the Baby banner to use alone at the bottom.

 

Upper right

Using the Project Life Cards & Labels Framelits to make 3" x 4" cards, I cut two cards, then split one in the middle at an angle, then layered the two pieces. I added a strip of green paper in the middle, then I paired the Icing CutUp die with Tempting Turquoise cardstock. I wanted a sparkly border so before cutting the cardstock, I covered it with VersaMark ink and pourred Halo Hologram Stampin' Emboss Powder (bought ages ago!) on the cardstock and melted the powder before cutting out the design. (Easier than working with the already-cut piece.) At the bottom, I cut out a heart using the Small Sayings CutUp Dies out of Real Red textured cardstock, then layered a little banner stamped with another sentiment from the set. Yellow Baker's twine was added.

TIP: I love using ribbon and twine on my pages. Since starting out with Project Life, it's been a frustrating process, though, because the ribbon tends to bunch up or move around on the card when I slip it into the page protector pockets. I was trying to keep the ribbon or twine in place with scotch tape on the back, with little success. It finally dawned on me to use my hand punches to create little slits on each side of the card before adding the ribbon or twine so that it latches into place. This made the world of a difference and it looks much better that way.

 

Bottom left

Waste not, want not! I used the other part of my card cut at an angle (the backside) to decorate my third card. This had the added bonus of changing the angle when I turned the piece around to use the backside design. A piece of Melon Mambo scalloped ribbon was added on the seam (this ribbon has polka dot on the front - I chose to use the back to make it less distracting). Then I embossed the title sentiment on Daffodil Delight cardstock in Melon Mambo powder, cut it out with another die from the Project Life Cards & Labels set, added Tempting Turquoise brads and popped it up on Dimensionals. The bunny was colored with markers separately, handcut and added on top. A red button was glued in the bottom corner.

 

Bottom right

I cut my picture with the same die and then wanted to add the date and had a flash: the County Fair CutUp die has little pennants with stitching on it, so I used it four times on cardstock scraps then stamped my numbers in black on each of them and glued them on the picture with glue dots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Shake, Rattle and Roll (The Cat's Pajamas), Euphoria Alphabet & Numbers (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore
Patterned Papers: Sunkissed (Doodlebug Design)
Ink: VersaMark, Tuxedo Black Memento, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: Project Life Cards & Labels Framelits, Stampin' Dimensionals, Buttons, Brads,
Icicle CutUp Die, Small Sayings CutUp Die, Melon Mambo Scallop Ribbon, Toppers CutUp Dies,
He Says She Says CutUp Die, Halo Hologram Stampin' Emboss Powder, Yellow Baker's Twine,
Markers, County Fair CutUp Die, Stampin' Write Markers, Melon Mambo Stampin' Emboss Powder

 

Gift Exchange

I hadn't had the chance to use the Hello December Project Life card collection that was offered as a add-on to the Holidays catalogue last December since it came out just before Christmas. I knew I'd put it to good use eventually once I got around to scrapbooking Holidays pictures. Those pics were taken a couple of years ago, back when I was still working in Quebec City. We had done a gift exchange before Christmas and the rule was that the gift had to start with the same letter as the recipient's name. Some people were quite clever with their gifts and we had a few good laughs!

A lot of the cute embellies and stickers you see on the page came from the Hello December embellishment pack. I think this was one of the best Project Life kit we've had so far and I hope to see more like this one over time.

Since the cards were sized 4 x 3" and I had 4 x 4" pockets on the protector sheet I chose to use, I cut the cards apart and glued them together to change the format. I also used parts on my pictures to add my journaling about each of them. I used the Rotary Alphabet Stamp to write the gifts.

 

TIP: I'll be honest - the rotary Alphabet stamp can be frustrating to use. With our foam pads, the ink get everywhere and it's hard to get a clean stamped image. Either you get ink where you don't want it or parts of the letters are missing. I only started liking this stamp after seeing a short clip from convention where they advised to ink your sentiment, then rotate the letters around your sentiment that are not being used to get clean ones in place before stamping. Afterwards, you go back and clean everything with a baby wipe. (Or the Stampin' Scrub, but this is one instance where the wipes might allow for a better cleaning.) Much, much better results!

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Alphabet Rotary Stamp, Skinny Mini Alphabet
Ink: Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Lost Lagoon
Accessories: Hello December Project Life Card Collection and Embellishment Pack,
Project Life Corner Rounder Punch, Stampin' Write Markers, Silver Ribbon

 

Stampin' Up!'s Retiring List: Happy Hour - Cheers to You

Here's a quick, fun card that came together quickly thanks to the fun notecards I have leftover from last year's Sale-A-Bration. Based on Mojo Monday sketch #397, I added a few elements and quickly wound up with this cute card.

Happy Hour has been one of my favorite and most used sets since I bought it the second it was released. Although we've had it around for a few years, I'm still sad to see it go from the catalogue, as I was still using it regularly. To get the two-tone image, I stamped the glass in Bermuda Bay ink, then I stamp the same image in VersaMark ink on a scrap of paper, embossed the image in gold and handcut the liquid part, then paper pieced it onto the main image. I added bubbles using some Bermuda Bay sequins taken off of the trim, and In Color Sequins as well, glued in place with mini glue dots.

I've also used chevron ribbon, another item I've been raving about ever since it first came out.

One item I'm surprised made it on the retiring list is the Alphabet Press embossing folder because it had just been released this year. That to me indicates that it probably didn't sell well enough to remain in the next catalogue, which I have to say surprises me, because I love the look of it and the idea of the alphabet background, which is perfect for baby projects, school pages or teacher cards, and even generic projects as well. I wish it had stayed around for at least another year.

 

TIP: I used the paper piercer and Essentials Paper Piercing Pack to add the pierced circle around the Starburst die-cut. I pierced the holes from the back to the front to get the dots pointing upward instead of regular holes. Just a little detail that make for a different look.

 

Retiring items featured:

• Happy Hour Stamp Set
• Starburst Framelits Dies
• Basic Black Chevron ribbon
• 2013-2015 In Color Sequins
• Alphabet Press Embossing Folder
• Essentials Paper Piercing Pack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: À ta santé ! (Happy Hour)
Cardstock: Pistachio Pudding, Calypso Coral, White White, Gold Foil Paper
Simply Sent Kit: Good as Gold
Ink: Bermuda Bay, VersaMark
Accessories: 2013-2015 In Color Sequins, Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim, Circle Punches,
Starburst Framelits Dies, Basic Black Chevron Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals,
Alphabet Press Embossing Folder, Paper Piercing, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack

Stampin' Up!'s Retiring List: Around the World & Just Sayin'

Today's card is inspired by Colour Me Challenge #68 and the Deconstructed Sketch #198. The challenges were paired with some of the supplies that will be retiring from the Stampin' Up! catalogue at the end of May. One of the sets I'm most sad to see go is Just Sayin' (and the matching Framelits *pout*) It's a cool, fun set that I've used quite a lot on its own or paired with other sets. Here, I paired it with Around the World. I also wish the Dictionary background stamp wasn't leaving, but unfortunately it is.

 

Retiring items highlighted on this card:

• Around the World Stamp Set
• Just Sayin' Stamp Set
• Dictionary Background Stamp
• Stamp Punch
• Word Bubbles Framelits Dies
• Crushed Curry Chevron Ribbon

 

TIP: As I was putting the card together, I decided I wanted to stamp the card base with something, so I pulled the arrow image from the Around the World stamp set and created a frame around the card with it. Once I layered the other elements on top of the card base, I felt it was too busy, though. To save on work and cardstock, I then simply folded the card inside out so that the frame is now inside of the card. That way, the inside is decorated and I was able to start over with my card front without losing any cardstock!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Around the World, Just Sayin', Dictionary
Cardstock: Lost Lagoon, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Whisper White
Ink: Lost Lagoon, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo
Accessories: Brights Sweet Dots, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, Crushed Curry Chevron Ribbon,
Stampin' Dimensionals, Stamp Punch, Stampin' Write Markers, Word Bubbles Framelits Dies,
Stamp-a-ma-jig, Medium White Envelope, Ticket Corner Punch

 

Full Heart

Happy 2015 to all of my readers! Welcome to a new year hopefully filled with kindness and creativity!

I had a little bit of time to stamp over the Holidays - not as much as I had predicted, which often seems to be the case, but I still got a bit accomplished. What I didn't end up having time doing, though, was blogging about it! I drew inspiration from quite a few challenges, but missed the deadline on all of them. In an effort to share at least one project before the challenge closes, let me post this pocket that contains a notecard that was inspired by the ColourQ challenge #274.

I was a nice opportunity to play with some of the great new items that just came out with the launch of the Occasions catalogue. One of the new released item I was all over was the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits dies. How much will I use the bag die? We'll see... Well, maybe more than I think because I can certainly use it on scrapbook pages to add hidden journaling. But aside from the bag die, I was really excited about the other dies included in this set. Have you stopped and looked at it carefully? The little rows of dots, hearts and stars are going to be super practical to make fun borders. My favorite piece, though, is the cute little bow. It's so tiny and delicate! I'm already adding it to everything I'm creating.

My tip to you? Use the adhesive sheets on the back of your cardstock before you cut it out. This is the best and easiest way to glue the bow die-cut on your project afterwards. You could always use the two-way glue pen, but the adhesive sheets will save you a lot of grief.

The narrow velvet ribbon I used at the bottom is from the Artisan Embellishment Kit - check it out on page 27 of the Occasions Catalogue!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colour Combo: Rich Razzleberry + Old Olive + Calypso Coral +
Crumb Cake + White

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Grandes nouvelles
Cardstock: Calypso Coral, Rich RazzleberryDesigner Series Paper: Under the Tree Specialty, Sweet Pea (retired)
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies, Champagne Glimmer Paper, Calypso Coral Pompon Trim,
Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Stars Embossing Folder, Gold Stampin' Dazzle Marker,
Artisan Embellishments Kit, Sweet Dreams Designer Buttons

Branch Out Sympathies

I was completely out of sympathy cards already so I wanted to use the retired set Branch out to make one. I centered my design around the Make the Sketch Challenge #33 and knew I wanted to use the new Typeset Specialty Designer Series Papers. Then, I decided to use the Woodgrain embossing folder on Basic Black Core'dinations cardstock to make my background.

When I pulled out my Very Vanilla cardstock file to grab cardstock for my card base, a die-cut of a maple leaf fell out of the folder (die-cut with the Autumn Accents Bigz die). It was a leftover that hadn't been used on a previous project and that I had left with my vanilla cardstock. I thought it would make a great accent to go with the tree image, so I decided to include it in the design on a whim.

The front panel is a piece of designer paper on which I embossed the tree in Black powder. I also stamped the splatter image from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set in Gold powder. The center panel is a piece of Brushed Gold cardstock, which gives just the perfect subtle shimmer to my project.

I used a piece of the new Gold satin ribbon (which is just luscious) and wanted to add a button on top. I first thought of the new Gold Basic Metal Buttons we carry in the Holidays catalogue, but the tone-on-tone wasn't popping enough, so I remembered the Very Vintage Designer Buttons. I also remembered a trick Shelli Gardner had shared at convention a little while back: rolling the top bottom of your bottom on your VersaMark pad then dipping it in Gold Stampin' Emboss powder. Beautiful result! I added a bow made out of Gold baker's twine as well.

Here's my tip to you: The metallic baker's twine (silver and gold) comes undone easily, so don't even bother trying to put it through the button holes. It's too finicky and you'll lose your patience and your mind over it. I simply tied a bow and added it to the top of a button with a mini glue dot. Much simpler and allows for perfect placement!

 

The sentiment comes from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set. It is interesting to note that I've been keeping track of the use I've made of my supplies to see what I use most and what I don't use enough of and I noticed that I have used my Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set on 74 projects so far!! Now, if that doesn't prove that this sentiment set is the most useful and versatile stamp set you can invest in, I don't know what will! It includes sentiments for all occasions and is the perfect size to fit on your project, whether it's on a tab, a punched piece, a little tag, etc. I try to vary the sets I use, but this is the one I always fall back on whenever I can't find what I need in any other sets.

Notice how the envelope is decorated as well? This is a piece I salvaged from my first try, that didn't make it on the card. I tried doing a resist technique by embossing the tree in clear powder and rubbing ink around it. The Specialty paper is very, very thin (think dictionary pages) so the embossing on it wasn't as crisp as it usually is and I didn't like the look of the emboss resist. I was using So Saffron ink and we could barely see the tree amongst the dictionary entry, so I switched gear and stamped another image on another piece of paper. At the end, though, instead of chucking my initial image, I thought I would experiment with it. I wanted to know if I covered the whole paper with VersaMark then gold powder, if the tree image would show through once I heated the powder. It didn't, but you could kind of see the shadow of an image in the light because the clear embossing was a little thicker. Definitely not enough to be a main image, but I did like how we could see the dictionary text through the gold embossing. My first idea was to die-cut another leaf to decorate the envelope or the inside of the card, but then I decided to keep experimenting instead. I stamped the tree again in VersaMark OVER the embossing and added black powder, then heated. The image stayed in place but it did melt into the gold powder instead of being raised and the black image isn't as glossy as regular embossing is. It's a neat, different result, and I wanted to showcase it on the envelope. Goes to show that you can find some cool ideas when you try and reuse the leftover pieces you have on your craft table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Branch Out, Voeux mignons (Teeny Tiny Wishes), Gorgeous Grunge
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Basic Black Core'dinations, Brushed Gold
Specialty Designer Series Papers: Typeset
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: Very Vintage Designer Buttons, Gold Satin Ribbon, Gold Baker's Twine,
Autumn Accents Bigz Die, Stampin' Emboss Powders (Black, Gold), Vanilla Envelope,
Woodgrain Embossing Folder