more valentine projects

Do you all remember the little fortunes we made in school.? You know the ones where you pick a color and move the fortune as many times there were letters. Then you did a number and did it again until you got to the end and you lifted up the fortune for that person. Well these were made the same way. They make cute little candy holders. Just fold them and add handles. I also rounded my points to make it a little more baskety. I know that's not a word, but I couldn't help it.
I thought this was a great idea. Stampin' Up! shared it with us demos and I couldn't resist. I gave these to my club members. Each one was slightly different as I used our hostess 6x6 pack to make them. I forgot to take pics of the group though, so this is all I have left.
Isn't it cute?
My handle is the Dotted Scallop Ribbon punch.










I also made some more mini cards. Here is one of them. It uses the Filled with Love set and the heart of hearts embosslit from the big shot. I stamped the background on it and then I added a punched heart using the full heart punch. Don't you just love it when they coordinate? Then I backed it with a black heart from the embosslit - another coordinating piece. Then I added some real read grosgrain ribbon and then a little gem in the top right hand of the heart. The heart is also raised up on Dimensionals.
Pretty quick and easy card.
So I hope you enjoy more Valentine ideas.
Sorry I've been such a slacker posting. Life has been very busy lately. I'll be glad when it slows down.

mini valentine cards

Here is one of three mini cards we made for club to fit in the little magazine box. This one is real red basic black and then our new glitter paper and the dsp that was on special earlier this month. The glittered heart is punched out with our full heart punch and the black outline is the scalloped heart of heart embosslit used with the Bigshot. I tried to make simple, reproducible cards to make it easy to make Valentines this year.
I love this new glitter paper. Its so shiny and adds such a pop to the cards and items.

This second one uses the same embosslit and also uses a stamped image from the Filled with Love stamp set. It is also punched out with the full heart punch and lifted up with Dimensionals. The sayings are also from the Filled with love set and are stamped using Basic Black ink. All these were really quick to make. They are 3 x 3 cards which fit our mini envelopes really well.
So I hope you enjoy my mini cards and they inspire you to make some fun valentines for the ones you love, because its always good to let others know that we love and care for them.

Christmas treat box

This is the Big Shot treat box die. With a little bit of bone-folding it's really easy to put together. They are fun to make. I used Old Olive paper to make mine and then rolled it with my jumbo roller and the Jolly Jingles roller with Olive ink. I tied it with real red Grosgrain ribbon. I punched out a white snowflake and then inked the ornament with red and also punched out with the ornament punch. The ornament is in the tags till Christmas set in the mini, which ends around the end of December and is currently on special. I then punched it out popped it up using a Dimensional and then added some olive grosgrain ribbon for the bow and a little pearl for the center. It really was a quick and easy treat to make. I really like quick and easy. Especially lately.
I hope you like the little box today. I also hope you have time to make some little treats for someone special. It's always fun and nice to give little surprises. Hope you have a great day today.

Just believe club project

This was one of our last month's club projects. We used the Just Believe stamp set. We decided to create a sunset look using daubers this time. This picture really doesn't do this card justice. It really doesn't show the gradual shading or the glitter that is in various spots showing some shine.
Basically we stamped the flowers with black stazon on Whisper White paper. We then took Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful blue, Not Quite Navy and Night of Navy to apply shading to the card. We also used markers and colored in the saying (Pumpkin and Navy) and then punched with the 1 3/4" circle. The Pumpkin circle was cut using the Big Shot and the circle die.
The ribbon is our fun new 1/8" taffeta ribbon in Daffodil Delight. It was a pretty quick card even with all the shading. I hope you enjoy the card today and I hope this reminds you to take time to enjoy some of God's beautiful gifts he gives us.
Blessings.

6x6 progressive pages elements of style

Okay, I showed you the 6x6 page or card I did for my last workshop and here is where I showed off my progressive pages (it was also one of my hostess gifts.) What are progressive pages? Well, it's one way to show how you can "progress" a 6x6 page into an 8 1/2 x 11 page and then into a 12x12 page. That way you can show how to use what we make in a workshop to fit other sizes. Not everyone scraps in 6x6 so this shows them another option.

This first page has my 6x6 page on an 8 1/2 x 11 page. I matted it with Razzleberry and then added some more vanilla and then an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of razzleberry. I again stamped the flowers from the Elements of style set and punched out another butterfly with my Big Shot and then added some olive satin ribbon. Have I said how much I like the satin ribbon? Well I definitely do as you can tell by most of my samples. :)

Next I laid my 8 1/2 x 11 page onto a 12x12 piece of vanilla and then stamped and inked some more and then of course added more butterflies. I wrapped the butterflies with the linen thread and tied the knot near the top to make them look like antennae. I thought it turned out to be a pretty page and can't wait to add some pictures and journaling.
So I hope you enjoy the share and it gives you an idea of how to make some progressive pages if you need too. Sometimes it's easier to start with a smaller project and work out, especially if you just have maybe one or two pictures.
Have a great day and hope you get a chance to be creative today. Blessings.

workshop project - elements of style

This is a card that I made for a friend of mine's workshop. It folded into a 6x3 card that will fit into one of our open ended envelopes.

They got the choice of making one of these cards or a small 6x6 scrapbook page, which I will show below.

For this version of the card I inked up the large flower with stazon and stamped it over the large and small butterfly. I then took the ink pads and a blender pen and we colored the small butterfly using Rich Razzleberry, certainly Celery and Old Olive. We then inked all edges with Suede ink and a dauber. We stamped the saying using Razzleberry and punched it out using the large oval and then punched a scallop oval out of suede. We layered all of this over rich satin Razzleberry ribbon to finish it all off. Pretty quick and easy. It showcased our punches, markers (which I used for the saying), daubers, Big Shot, blender pens, ribbon and dimensionals (for the saying). I thought it was a nice, but elegant card to make. Not to mention that some of them learned a new technique (coloring with blender pens).

I got the original idea of making this from a fellow demo named Dawn Olchefske. I changed some colors and added some items, but got the original idea from her.

So I hope you enjoy my share today.
Have a great day.

owl 3x3 for you card

I always like giving my club members a little something extra when they come to club. Just a small way to say thank you for coming and learning together with me and helping support my business each month.
This was a little card I made for them last time they came. It uses our new owl punch. I also used our bird punch (for the leaves) and I also used the Big Shot to texture his little belly area using the textured embossing folder to do that.
I also used the saying from Teeny Tiny wishes which is a great versatile set with lots of different sayings. It's one of my favorites since there are so many to chose from.
This punch is kind of fun to work with. I've also seen several other things made out of it that I'll have to try soon. I mean if you look at the base of it what can you make out? hhmmm? I see a flower, an animal head (without the feet) and possibly some other items too. I'll have to play around with it some more, so I can share some of the different items it makes. If you see something in it you'll have to share what you come up with too. That's one of the fun parts - being creative and sharing together. With our new Stampin' Connections website that demos can access there are thousands of ideas out there. I love being able to access that and getting to see and get all the new stuff first. It becomes almost like Christmas...too fun.
So anyways, I hope you enjoy my little note card. I also hope you have a great day tomorrow and are able to stay cool. Blessings.

elegant lines birthday

Seems like lately with so much going on, I'm really liking easy. To me this card is soooo simple and yet very classy. I just ran the Marina Mist paper through my Big Shot with the Elegant Lines embossing folder.
I just love the embossing folders. They give such deep rich embossing and look so pretty.
I then stamped the birthday sentiment from the Perfect Punches set in Marina mist. Punched it out with my wide oval punch. It's so much fun when sets coordinate with punches. I can't resist those types of set. :)
I then tied on some vanilla satin ribbon and tied in a little bit of 1/8" marina mist taffeta ribbon for the knot. I then added some of our new self adhesive pearls to the little circles that were embossed and that just gave it the last right touch I thought. I didn't come up with the pearl idea, but have seen it on several cards lately along with jewel brads, crystals and various items like that. I don't know who originated the idea, but I like it. For this card though I thought the pearls especially matched the paper and silky look of the satin ribbon perfectly.
So I hope you enjoy the share for the day.
Keep creating and have a great day.

presto prom page

A friend of mine's daughter got to go to prom this year with her boyfriend for the first time. I decided to make her a page for some of her pictures. It's really hard to tell by these pictures, but this is super sparkly and really is neat in person. Her prom dress had purplish blue stripes on it. So I took one of our presto pattern papers and inked with navy and lilac. I then spritzed the paper with vanilla smooch spritz and made the whole thing glimmer. Her shoes and his tux cumberbund was silver so I added silver paper mats. I then punched out some flowers using the Big shot and drew lines on them and smooched them too. I inked the edges and put together with a silver brad. I punched the word prom out of my Big shot as well and added more smooch. Basically everything on this sparkles, even the mats.

I tried to get some close up shots to see the glimmer, but couldn't get it to pick up well. I would try again, but I don't have the page anymore.

So I hope this gives you an idea of a way to use these papers. I have had questions on how to use them and this is one way you can use them. You can also cut them up and just color parts and use on cards or as accents and such.
Hope this helps. Have a great day today.

tropical sign for my daughter

My daughter was sticking papers to her door to tell people messages, so I made her this little sign for her door. Now there isn't as much hanging there as she can write different messages on here depending on what she wants to say (the black part is chalkboard). Of course it didn't get rid of them all as she has lots to say, especially to her brother, but it did get rid of some. :)

It's uses the 5x7 on board boards that are retiring this month. I covered it with the island Oasis paper and rounded the corners. I then used my top note die to cut out a chalkboard decor element. I then used the tropical party stamp set to stamp some flowers. I cut them out and raised some up on dimensionals. I used my Big shot to punch out her name and my cropodile to punch holes for the hangers.
The ribbons look different at the top because I intertwined them together so when it hangs they wind around each other. It just doesn't lay flat well without hanging, so that's why they look bunched up. I also took a piece of chalk and added some cardstock at the bottom and tied ribbon around it that way they don't get chalk all over their hands and ultimately over their clothes. It was a fun rainy day project to make and I think would make a fun kid's camp project too.
So I hope you enjoy the share today. As always if you have questions, just ask.

sheep card

Here is a little sheep card I made. It opens up like the big chick card did. You could also use it as an embellishment on a scrap page too. It could be just single layered or you could make it like the card and have hidden journaling. It's made using the Big Shot and several punches. You could also make a smaller version with just punches too (which I did, but forgot to take a picture.) I used white and Basic gray paper. I used the large and small ovals, word window and scalloped oval along with the large scallop Big Shot die. The eyes are the white gel pen. On my smaller one I inked all my edges with the gray and it gave it more dimension, which I liked better and would add again next time. So I hope you enjoy my little sheep. Also, so you know I didn't design the sheep, but I'm not sure who I saw it from first or who designed it as several demos have made similar items. Another thing I saw recently that demos have done with this type of sheep is they put the white parts through the Big Shot again and give it texture and then lightly ink it so it looks more 3dish and adds texture. Hope that gives you some ideas. Have a great day today.

club project - matchbox and scallop flower

This was another of our club projects this past month. It is made with the matchbox die using Saffron paper. If you look really close you can see that I rolled the base of the box with the friends wheel using Saffron, so it gives it a tone on tone look. I wrapped the box in chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon and punched some leaves with the 2 step bird punch out of celery. The flower on top is made with 5 scallop circles. I balled each one up, inked all the edges and put a small flower (trio flower) and a brad in the center. You then smoosh all toward the middle (brad) and then loosen up the layers. It's a fairly quick and easy flower to make but it's fun and gives a nice effect. I'm liking making the flowers and trying out different punches and such to make them. It's spring and I'm ready to see some flowers. How about you? I actually saw daffodils blooming today. I like seeing them as it means winter has pretty much gone away (with a few exceptions, but for the most part). I mean here it can snow one day and have record heat the next. You just never know. It makes life interesting for sure, which is how I like it for the most part.
So I hope you have a great day today. Blessings.

black and white purse with flap

I was playing around with the purses and I decided I wanted one with a flap as I like my purses to have a covering. So I was playing around and came up with this one. The side picture doesn't look as good as it does in person. I guess after I opened it I forgot to smooth it back down. The flap lifts up and is attached to the back and lays over fairly nicely. I thought it turned out pretty good (just don't look closely) as I'm still a beginner. I learn a lot as I go and the black and white is forgiving as it hides a lot. I think if I did this again though I would add various pockets as I forgot those this time. Live and learn. :) The longest time taken on this was just sewing it (especially for a beginner). Cutting the fat quarters (term for fabric if you didn't know) is simple - just keep folded in half, cut in 5" sections, fold over 2x and run through the Big Shot with the scallop square die (I used an extra shim). Can do 2 sections at a time. Got all the 72 squares cut out within minutes that way. Much better then cutting by hand and it gives you the nice curved edge to boot a bonus.
So I hope you enjoy my ideas and if you've never sewn you have to try it. I created one project over 15 years ago with help, so after that long I didn't remember anything and am new to sewing. I even had to get the book out to see how to thread the machine and set everything up. The first one was definitely frustrating to me, but I persevered and it was still fun in the long run that's why I made 2 more after the first one.
So I hope you enjoy my idea about adding a flap. Have a great day today. Blessings.

My Daughter's purse

Here is the little purse I made for my daughter. We picked out the colors together. We decided we liked the rag look for her so I put that side out. We also decided to make it reversible so we didn't put a button on it to. That way she can decide if she wants the rag look or the the clean look. I added another picture of the bag showing the clean look, but something was up with the program as it kept turning the picture and we (including my techy husband) couldn't get it to flip right, so you get the sideways view. The picture looks just like this first one on the drive, but when the program pulls it in it flips. Don't ask me why - I don't understand it.
So I thought it turned out to be a cute fun purse. It's made with the scallop square die from the Big Shot. As I make more, they get easier and easier (just don't look closely still as it's only my third project using the sewing machine). My daughter likes it though and that's all that counts. :) So I hope you enjoy my purse share. Hope you have a great day.

big Shot scallop flower

Here is another fun flower made with the Big Shot. This one is made with the scallop circles and fleece. It bunches up and is really soft and fun. My daughter loved it as it was her favorite color. I might see about adding one of these to one of the new bags I'm making. A red one might look really cool on it. It would also be cute on a hair band too. I bet it would also be cute decorating a gift bag too. You could add some scalloped cardstock flowers to a card to match. I bet that would be very festive and fun. The center is a flower brad holding it all together. I just snipped the scallops to give it some dimension.

This next picture I had to share. Since I've been trying to learn how to sew, my son has decided to get creative with what I make. So he decided instead of a sack, he wanted a fish with the material he picked out. So he drew out what he wanted his fish to look like. We enlarged it somewhat and cut it out of the 3 materials we picked out. This is what it turned out looking like. The only thing SU on it are the button eyes. They come from the Button Latte set. The rest is all fabric from a fabric store. He came up with the design for it and I put it together the best I knew how. A little interesting, but he loves it. Of course now he wants a shark to go with it. He drew up a design but it looks kind of like a mean fish, but don't tell him that. Next thing I know he's over in my stash flipping through buttons for it. I told him one thing at a time. I had my daughter's bag to finish which hopefully I'll get a picture of tomorrow. So now you know why I haven't had as much time to make cards and such. Sometimes creating with your kids is just as fun. So I hope you like my share today and have a great day tomorrow.
Blessings.

fabric purse - big shot scallop square

Guess what I spent a portion of my afternoon doing? It wasn't a hard project if you know how to sew on a sewing machine. Unfortunately for me I hadn't touched one for 15 years and had help then. So I basically had a huge learning curve trying to figure it all out. The actual set up was easy. I just used my Big Shot and the scallop square die and cut out all the squares. You can cut 8 fabric squares with one pass through. Didn't take long and that part was done. Then I cut fabric for my straps and closure and also the batting for the inside. The inside looks like the outside except it includes the rough edges that were sewn together. Now this picture looks odd because of the flash. The yellow on the bottom is a shadow and not there and the button is actually silver and black, but the glare made it yellowish. The top picture is the front. The last the back and then I took a small side pick showing that I added a little pocket on both sides. For my first time, I love it, but I definitely need to practice a lot. :)
I'm thinking about getting some more fabric and making another where I put the scallops out and make it more like a rag purse.
So I hope you enjoy my share today. Have a great day.
Blessings.

felt circle flower

It seems like I've been on a flower kick lately. I've been making them out of fabric and paper. I've been trying various punches, dies, etc to see what I can make. Now I need to figure out what I want to do with them all. :) I also need to take some more pictures. Here is another one that is made out of felt. It could be used on a card/scrap page or it could also be added to anything fabric - headband/barrette, purse or bag, made into a pin, etc. This little flower is made out of pink felt and I used the circle #2 Big Shot die. The shape I got was by accident. I inked my edges with craft ink and wanted to speed up drying, so I used my heat gun. The kids started talking to me and before I realized it I had held it in one place too long and it curled up and it got that cool crinkled look, so I did it to the rest of them and this is how it turned out. Pretty cool I think. I used a Chocolate brad for the center and it was done. Really quick, easy and fun.
I guess I'm hoping that spring gets here sooner then later. Hope you have a great day. Blessings.

fabric and Big Shot - sunflower

Since we had a snow day, I decided to play around with some items. I dug out some felt I had laying around and decided to make some flowers. Of course my kids had to help too. I'll have to post more tomorrow of the various color combos they chose. This was just one of the ones we made. You could put this on a bag, a headband, barrette, which we are talking about doing for my daughter, or even a blanket, or even make it a pin. It has lots of options being material. It's also very bright and colorful which is great on this snow covered day. This is just basic yellow felt cut out with the Daisy die. I then just inserted a Chocolate chip corduroy button in the middle which holds it all together. Very fun and easy and definitely cheerful. Now if we could get the snow to melt so I could get more fabrics to try that would be good.
Anyways, I hope you have a warmer day tomorrow. Stay safe everyone. Blessings

heart tree

Look, isn't this fun? Karen Burniston shared this idea with demos. It's made with the tree die and the Big Shot. You can put it in a card, but I completed mine on all sides and it makes it pretty sturdy that way, so I like mine just as a little decoration. It also took a lot of time, but I thought it a cool idea and had to share.
It looks like the tree die is still available online as well as several other items from last month's mini (including shimmer paints, Charming stamp set, other dies and also raw vinyl which was on sale near the end.)

I thought about adding stuff to this like more hearts for decoration, shimmer paint, etc. I think I like it like this for now. I may add more later, but I think it's cool plain and will leave it like that for a bit. Kind of admire my work kind of thing. I think because it took so long to complete. I think I worked more on this then I have most of the items I've made. It turned out pretty cool in my opinion though.

The base of the tree is made from the tree die. Then I punched various hearts with the full heart and the three heart punch. I used real red, pretty in pink and regal rose as my colors.

So I hope you enjoy my heart tree. Special thanks to Karen Burniston for sharing such a fun idea. Have a great day and stay warm. It's already snowing here and the streets look covered, so I hope everyone stays safe driving tomorrow. Prayers and Blessings.

breast cancer card - happiness always and a share

In February I'm holding a SAS and I'm giving part of the proceeds to breast cancer research. I made some alternate cards for people to see in case they want to send out cards that use the Ribbon of Hope stamp set.
This was one of the cards. It is really pretty in real life. The picture doesn't do it justice. That's really Chocolate Chip in the picture even though it looks black. It's whisper white, chocolate and pretty in pink. The white background is textured with polka dot embossing folder and sponged with a light pink. The ribbon is stamped in pretty in pink and cut out and raised up on dimensionals. The saying is from Whimsical Words ( a Sale-a-bration set you can earn free.) It's punched with the wide oval and highlighted with some chocolate and raised up with dimensionals as well. The ribbon is the new satin ribbon in the mini which is absolutely gorgeous in real life.

Okay, I know this isn't stamping but I have to show a couple of things my son did. He is really creative in my opinion, so I thought I'd share. My son turned 6 in November by the way and is in Kindergarten. He's learning about American symbols/landmarks in class. So a couple of days ago he decided he wanted to make some and disappears in his room. These were 2 of the ones he made.
This first one is made out of Legos - Can you tell what it is?

It's the Statue of Liberty. The spikey things are a part of her crown. The brown thing is her torch that people can go up into and see out. He even put the eyeball legos in there too. The little green thing under the brown thing represents her hand holding the torch. He was very detailed telling us about it. As a parent you wonder what your child is doing in their room when they are quiet, but that day this is what he was doing. I thought it extremely cute for a 6 year old.





The second item is a drawing he did. He taped 3 pieces of paper together (with the lady bug tape (which you can see he used to tape to his wall).
He then proceeded to draw and color an American bald eagle. It's hard to see the feet, but they are there. It's standing on a rock and has grass under the rock. It's probably almost the size of a real eagle too (a little on the small side, but pretty close.)

Aren't these clever? I just had to share. I hope you enjoyed the card and the fun things my son made. I enjoy hearing kids talk who have pride for their country and love learning about it. It's always fascinating what they say. We are truly blessed here with the freedoms we have and I'm glad he is learning about it. So blessings today to all of you and have a great day.