top note gift card holder club project

One of the items we made at club was this gift card holder made using the Top Note die for the Big Shot. I see that I didn't take a picture of it in the pocket, but the little card actually slides into the side of the Top Note card and the ribbon tab sticks out for easy removal. It's hard to see but I used the slit punch to punch holes into the insert card to hold the gift card. The gift card will either cover up the Happy Birthday so they see it when they pull it off or that can be the back side, so there is options. I stamped the back side of mine too. so it's flexible and pretty too.

The words are embossed so they stand out. This could also be modified for other occasions too. Just change the wording on the front of the insert. It could be thank you, Mother's day, just for you, etc.

Thanks for looking

Sneak peek - 3d ball

If you haven't seen the Big Shot, it's a pretty cool tool. Right now is a great time to get the Big Shot as Sale-a-bration is going on. With the Big Shot and a die you would qualify for two free Sale-a-bration items and if you chose the kit you would get even more, plus hostess benefits. Not to mention if you'd like more dies you could easily qualify for hostess benefits that way too as well as more sale-a-bration sets.
Anyways, I'm enjoying my Big Shot and have used it a whole lot.
Coming in April you can purchase two 3D dies to go with it. This pop up ball die (it will lie flat and then pops up) and a pop up cake die (it folds flat in a card and then pops up to form a whole cake when opened.)
I was able to pre-order them and I picked this one. I thought it could be used several ways. In a scrapbook, on my desk as an ornament, in a card, as a calendar, etc. I did a quick sample before club and I made one with Upward pics of my kids and put '09 on the top with our new Varsity numbers. The uniforms were green so I picked garden green to make the ball. Sorry, but I forgot to take a picture of it squashed down.
For the simplicity and speed that I created it I thought it turned out pretty cool. It's a little tricky to put together, but it went faster then I thought it would and the directions were good (except I don't think the directions said what size rubber band to get). The good thing about being a demo though is that SU provides us with training videos and there they told us what size to use and also provided us with a template to use for cuting out the pictures. It's fun being a demo getting to preview stuff and getting to see the ideas and training. If you ever thought about doing it there are special incentives during Sale-a-bration which ends March 31st. Let me know if you are interested.

6x6 or a card

This posting shows how you can take the same idea or and make either a card or a 6x6 scrapbook page using pretty much the same materials (on the inside of the card you have white which is hiding here). I know some of you like to scrap and some like to make cards and some both. So here is an idea on how you can take the ideas we use and modify them either way. Cards can be used as scrapbook elements or ideas and vice versa.
This is a theme similar to the one we did at the kid's stamp a stack. It uses the masking with the rollers and the star punches.
It was fairly easy to accomplish, but I think makes a fun card or page.
So next time you get a card or a scrapbook page, look at it a little differently and see how you can modify your items to fit your needs. It is sometimes fairly easy and takes minimum changes. Hope you enjoy this and have a great day.

Here is what I used.
papers: real red, basic black, whisper white
ink: white, black
stamps: a little birthday cheer (for card)
accessories: big and little star punches, roller handle and whimsy roller, gel pen, Big shot and GoGo alpha die (scrap page numbers), heat gun and white embossing powder (for words on card).

St. Patty's day

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's day. It's also my daughter's 10th birthday and she is excited. I hope she has an awesome day. (Happy Birthday, Sweetie!). Yes, she checks out my blog too, so I had to say that.
So anyways I was playing around with my sale-a-bration set and came up with this design. I had seen some hearts used something like this before, so I modified it to use the Polka dot punches set to celebrate St. Patty's day. I also thought it would be good for anything you just want to say good luck for - new job, new date, etc. You could also switch this to a birthday or thinking of you greeting - any of these would work.
I made this by stamping the heart in Handsome Hunter on Garden green paper. I stamped good luck on white and inked the edges and punched out with the wide oval punch and then popped up with dimensionals. The stem is made using the oval punch. I punched once and then shifted my punch over slightly and punched again, making this little stem. I then layered this on celery and garden green paper on top of a white base. It took a bit to stamp and punch all these out, but I thought they turned out pretty cute. I ended up giving these to my club members. I hope they liked them.

More Fifth avenue

Can you tell I like this set? To me it's really versatile.
Here is a card I created to prepare for a workshop, but I decided to add a little more, so I created the next example and added a few elements. Both cards are nice. The first being more clean and simple and the second having a little more punch to it. I like them both, but I thought you might like seeing how just a few extras make a difference.

So feel free to experiment with your cards and scrap pages to see what you can come up with. Actually it's kind of fun if you get the time.
The top card uses the following elements:
Paper: bashful blue, night of navy, whisper white
ink: night of navy, bashful blue, almost amethyst
stamps: fifth avenue and thank you kindly
accessories: wide oval punch and dimensionals, sponge dauber.

The second card is uses most of the same items of the first card except I added the following
inks: night of navy craft (I embossed the words)
accessories: night of navy grosgrain ribbon, eyelet border punch, clear embossing powder and heat gun.

So take time and experiment and have fun with your creations. It really is fun.

Decor Element video on my SU site

If you would like to see a quick video using the Decor Elements go to my SU site http://detailmama.stampinup.net. Here you will see Jaron Winder demonstrate how to use them as well as a couple of different uses for your decor elements (think bathroom). It was interesting to watch anyways and it might inspire you to try something new.

flower fancy - clean and simple

I know I like to color a lot and I sometime spend a lot of time on one card, but every once in a while I try and make what they call a clean and simple card(CAS). It's hard for me, because I keep wanting to add to it, but I played around with this one and this is what I came up with.
I demonstrated this card at a workshop just recently. Every now and then I like a quick and easy card, so I showed this one.

This one uses the Flower Fancy stamp set and Really Retro words.
The flower Fancy stamp set is a two step set. I stamped the solid color in Lavender lace and the outline in Elegant Eggplant, so no coloring just stamping. I also stamped the words in Eggplant too. I used Eggplant and lavender paper and whisper white as my base. I used white grosgrain ribbon and I edged the eggplant paper with the scallop border punch. It's hard to see but I also pierced holes in the middle of each scallop to give it some detail.
So what do you think? Do you like a simple one every now and then?