It Isn't Tuesday? or Playing Kissy Face

I know, I know. I said I'd have a post for you Tuesday about a technique I did and how I married it with this flower for another card. I was too tired and distracted with other things and it kept getting pushed to the bottom of the "to-do" list. Better late than never, right?

Okay, here's what happened. I have a group of teenagers that I make cards with once a month. They're temporary residents at Jesse's House, a shelter for girls who need to be away from their homes due to domestic violence or abuse. They're a sweet, polite group of girls, and I wanted to offer them something to do on Sunday afternoons, which can be long, and to show them how to use cards to encourage someone in their lives.

But here's the deal: I'm not hip or cool. While that's no secret to those who know me, I wanted the girls NOT to have that impression of stamping. So I tried my best to come up with a card that was pretty cool. Turns out they liked it, so I guess I succeeded.

What did I do? Well, I took the Extreme Elements set and stamped it on Whisper White card stock. A technique came to mind as I was doing this that made me rethink the card entirely. I eyed a scrap piece of card stock that had been embossed with the Square Lattice Textured Impressions Folder for the Big Shot. I wondered if the "kissing" technique would work using the paper instead of a stamp.

Don't know about kissy face in the stamp world? Well, "kissing" with stamps involves taking a solid image, inking it, pressing it on a patterned stamp, and then stamping it on paper. The pattern on the stamp that "kisses" the original stamp stays on the original stamp and some cool stuff happens.

So, I tried inking my stamp, stamping it on the debossed side of the scrap, which transferred the pattern, and stamped it on the base for my card. Squeal--it worked! And it looked cool and hip, at least in my mind.

I used Old Olive classic ink, and for the flower, cut from the Fun Flowers Bigz Die for the Big Shot, I chose Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie, all from the Brights Collection. The sentiment is from Friends Never Fade. It made the perfect sentiment for this card, although a few of the girls asked if I had any "Mom" or "Dad" stamps. Made me sad.

None of the girls had ever stamped before, and now they're hooked. I'm going back in April and want to do something else hip and cool, but I might have used up all of that on this card. Any thoughts on what I could do that teenaged girls would like? Have a great weekend!

Fun Flower Card

The Fun Flowers die for the Big Shot is great for creating fabric flowers, but it's also great for making quick cards. I took advantage of the deal available during Sale-A-Bration of getting the Ice Cream Parlor DSP and Quick Accents FREE for placing a $50 order (SAB ends MARCH 31), and I really liked the Melon Mambo floral DSP with the sweet scalloped edge at the bottom of the sheet. This became the catalyst for the entire card, and it came together in a few short minutes!

I used Whisper White and Melon Mambo to create a three-layered flower. I added a Melon Mambo button from the Brights Collection Designer Buttons pack. Then I wanted to have some leaves, but the diecut doesn't include them. I thought a minute and realized that I could use the bird body from the 2-Step Bird Punch! Some scraps of Old Olive, and a few squeezes, and I had what I needed.

I added a little knot of 1/8" Old Olive taffeta ribbon using a glue dot. Then I decided I wanted to add a sentiment, so I pulled out another FREEBIE from SAB, So Happy For You, and stamped "birthday wishes", one of 4 sentiments in the set, in Old Olive, and created a little banner.

I used my Scallop Edge Border Punch to mimic the scallop on the DSP and created a little extra border along the card's bottom. It's nice to change up a card from a standard straight edge look once in awhile.

I have another card I made using this diecut and a cool technique that I'll be back to share tomorrow.

Spring, a Fat Quarter, & Flowers

I'm so not a flower kind of gal. I'm lovin' spring and all the blooming of tree leaves and those kinds of flowers, but I don't have much use for flowers otherwise. I'm weird, I know. I'm comfortable with myself. I also don't have a sewing bone in my body. I can sew a button on, but other than that, I'm lost.

When my Club hostess for this month said she wanted to do something with the new Springtime Vintage FLORAL FABRIC, I almost broke out in hives. But, I'm a full-service SU! demonstrator, so I ordered the fabric and the latest floral diecut for the Big Shot, Fun Flowers. It took me several days to work up the courage to pull everything out and start creating. It turned out to be WAY EASIER than I anticipated, and I was kicking myself for waiting so long to try this form of crafting!

Perhaps the reason it worked out so well is that there was no sewing or pattern piecing involved. I layered pieces of fabric--3-18"x28" swatches come in the "fat quarter" SU! sells (I don't even know what "fat quarter" means!)--on the 3 flowers on the Fun Flowers die and ran it through the Big Shot. The machine/die will cut 8 layers at a time, so that makes quick work of preparing lots of layers, which is what makes the flower pin I made so full.

I used a hot glue gun and pressed in the center with my finger or a pencil (the pencil makes for a fluffier flower) until the glue set. I repeated the layering--I used 4 of each of the two smaller sizes--until I had the look I wanted.

Then I added a corduroy Baja Breeze button and used just one of the largest flower from the die to serve as the base. I glued a 1.5" latch pin from the craft store to the back and positioned it on a hat I already owned. I had received this hat as a gift, but I found the same style in khaki on Amazon, so I ordered 1 for me and offered them to my Club gals. I'm going to give one to my niece for her 12th birthday that's coming up at the end of the month.

Check back tomorrow to see what else I made using this beautiful fabric.