Winter is Coming...on Paper

Winter is my LEAST favorite season, so I'm not trying to rush anything. Fall has just arrived here in the South, so, Old Man Winter, if you're listening, "Keep your distance!" Still, I found myself creating a wintry scene the other day and want to share it with you.

I stamped the trees from Season of Friendship on a Baja Breeze base and stamped a third on a scrap and cut it out. I did this awhile ago and was so stumped by what to do next that I put it in my BB slot in my paper storage area and left it there. When I stumbled across it the other day, I thought I'd try my hand at it again. Letting things rest is good for creativity.


I took a retired snowflake wheel (but you could use the Sparkling Jumbo Wheel) and rolled it over the entire surface using Versamark. Then I sprinkled Heat and Stick Powder over the whole thing and heated it until it was glossy, i.e. sticky. Then I sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds on top of that, knocked off the excess, and finished heating the H&S powder, which bonds the glitter to the paper. Oh my. What a beautiful, shimmery scene--my kind of winter, especially if viewed from the cozy confines of my house with a fire in the fireplace.

The third tree was popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals and placed in the center. The little bird from Season of Friendship was the perfect splash of color accent when colored with Real Red and placed in the tree branches, also with a dimensional.

These would make very lovely Christmas cards or thank yous for gifts received during the season. Everything you need to craft these is highlighted in this post; go shopping online through my online store and make some winter on paper for yourself. It'll be here before you know it anyway.

Falling Leaves Card

The South is lovely in the fall, but the ratio of evergreens to deciduous trees is skewed in favor of the pines, so for me, falling leaves are a big deal.

I saw a great tutorial for this card (which I'll post here after my 2 events this month--I have to incent you to come somehow!), and she made it look so easy that I decided to give it a whirl. I'm considering using this as one of the cards for my Stamp-A-Stack and another monthly group I host (hi, Dunwoody Stamper Gals!), but I was concerned it might take too long to assemble. It's really quick and easy, once you get the pieces cut. Since I'll have that part done already, this makes this a "go" for the events.

This card features moving parts, which are made using a strip of 2" x 9" card stock scored at 2", 2.75", 3.5" and 4.25". I used Season of Friendship, Woodgrain background stamp, Soft Suede card stock, Very Vanilla card stock, and Early Espresso classic ink and .25" grosgrain ribbon. It's really fun to make. Here's a little video that shows how the card moves:



If you'd like to attend the Stamp-A-Stack that will feature this card, it will be held Sat., Sept. 26, from 10a-1p, at my home in Cumming. Just leave a comment indicating your interest and a way to get in touch with you, and I'll add you to my guest list!

Changing Leaves are the Flowers of Autumn

I LOVE AUTUMN! Cooler temperatures, the smell of wood burning, the need for long sleeves and pants, apple picking, and the beauty of the changing leaves give me cause to smile. This card was my attempt to capture some of that on paper.

I reached for the Season of Friendship stamp set and stamped the tree in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla card stock. I chose More Mustard for the leaves and filled the tree with them. THEN came the fun addition behind the title of this post: flower shaped buttons!

Each SU! color collection features Designer Buttons in three sizes, and these little flowers are just too cute for words! They come in Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Elegant Eggplant, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, and Not Quite Navy (not shown) in the Regals Collection, a perfect combination to depict Fall. I tied Hemp Twine through the holes and mounted them on the tree using Mini Glue Dots.

Then I decided to add a few leaves in each of the colors to give the tree a bit more contrast and interest. I used the same colors as the buttons, and of course they matched perfectly! Love that!

I wanted a unique fold for this card, so I went with the joy fold. Mine is adapted from what I saw on splitcoaststampers. I used Always Artichoke as my base, and secured an Antique Brad to the Very Vanilla layer so that the strip with the sentiment would have something to tuck under to anchor it.

When the card opens, there's a piece of Very Vanilla for writing (my husband's suggestion). It also covers part of the anchor strip for the sentiment, which is good.

This is a little plain and I think it could use something. Any suggestions? Perhaps some ribbon along the right side? I don't want anything too distracting from the main image, but just a bit more snaz.

Is anyone really experiencing Autumn yet? It's still warm here, but we had a taste of cooler temperatures over the weekend. It was blissful! Just a few short weeks and it will be here.

Find the Birdie

I'm always on the lookout for unique cards, and I saw this technique on a gallery at SCS over the weekend. It's called a tunnel card, and it's a fun card to experiment with!

I have wanted to pair the new Woodgrain background stamp with the 2-Step Bird Punch since I purchased the stamp in my first order from the new catalog. This technique gave me the perfect excuse! I inked my stamp with Crumb Cake (aka Kraft) and stamped it twice on a 5.5"x 8.5" piece of CC card stock. Then I scored it as the directions indicate.

Since I needed an opening for this portion of the card and I wanted to simulate a knothole in a tree, I pulled out my Ovals original die for the Big Shot. I wanted to use the biggest oval, which measures 2.25" across. But since I was positioning it on the center fold, I only needed half of it.

I measured and marked the halfway point on my die, lined up the card stock, and ran it through the machine. Perfect! Now I was ready to fill my tunnel and knothole with a bird in a nest.

My punch made quick work of that. I used Always Artichoke for the branches and Real Red for the bird.

With that accomplished, I needed to create the card front. I chose Season of Friendship to continue the tree and bird theme and made the main focus the sentiment. This was stamped using my color scheme of AA for the leaves, RR for the bird, and Soft Suede, my card base, for the wording. I hope the front isn't too plain. I just didn't want to do too much and have it compete with the interior.

If you'd like to learn how to make this card, consider hosting a group of friends at your house (or mine) for a private class! Contact me to find out more details. There's a hostess special going on through the end of the month, and there are extra hostess dollars up for grabs. You don't want to miss out on FREE money, do you? Get in touch with me and let's set a date!

Recycled Flowers for a Friend

When recycling came to our town in IL, I embraced it wholeheartedly. I loved the fact that we set out more blue containers than garbage cans weekly, and that so much of what we didn't need anymore, i.e. glass, plastic, cans, paper, and cardboard, could be repurposed.

Moving to GA brought a bit of recycling disappointment into my life. GA residents cannot recycle EVERY number of plastic, only 1s and 2s. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY THINGS ARE 5s?!? We can recycle glass, but not curbside. I have to save it up and take it to an area recycling center, but there's no fee to participate.

Well, as much as I've accepted recycling as part of my life, I'd never thought of repurposing items for CRAFTING before I read these posts by my cool Texan friend, Lydia. She thinks WAY outside the box creatively, and inspires me to do the same. How does this play out? I think of her every time I open a business sized envelope that has junk mail or a bill inside it!

Lydia LOVES blue. All things would be blue if she could find a way to make it so. So, when I saw the guts of these unassuming envelopes on a fine spring day, I knew what I wanted to do with them.

I pulled out my 1.75" and 2" scallop circle punches and made flowers! I cut down the scallops so that they'd fringe a bit, thus becoming more three dimensional, plopped a 3/4" circle of Yo Yo Yellow in the middle and topped it with a little button.

Then I needed a "landscape" for these flowers. I chose the swirly doodle from retired set Doodle This and stamped it in Garden Green to simulate funky foliage. Okay, this is coming together, but what about saying something? This card needed a sentiment, and I was a bit stumped as to how to incorporate it into the design. So I left the elements on my desk for a few days and came back to it yesterday. I decided I wanted a pennant, so I went to my stashes of SU! blues and chose Ballet Blue because it's the closest to the flowers. The sentiment is from Season of Friendship and it's stamped on Whisper White with BB ink.

I hope this makes you proud, girlfriend! I'll never be as cool as you, but I can try!

Can You Finish This Phrase?

Give a hoot, ______ ___________! I'm dating myself by making this mention, but I couldn't ignore what my brain gave me when I started this post. Use it or lose it, they say, and I want to keep my brain active for a long time.

So, that PSA aside, here's another card we're making at this month's Stamp-A-Stack. It features two sets, Season of Friendship and Owl Together Now. I don't own the second set, but my dear friend Lydia sent me some stamped images from this set almost a year ago for a project I was working on, and they've been flittin' around between my desk, storage, and another table in the craft room, and I decided they needed to be used.

I chose a color scheme from the 2009-2010 InColor Collection that has been popular this month--Rich Razzleberry, Dusty Durango, and Soft Suede. It really is a nice combination, and makes me yearn for true autumn, which begins officially in 4 days! It's pretty easy to see which colors were used where, and Very Vanilla is the top layer. I stamped the tree trunk from SoF in Soft Suede. Then I inked up the leaves stamp with DD and stamped it with once and then again after I remoistened it with a huff. I stamped off the RR leaves before placing them on the tree.

Then for the fun part! I used my InColor Stampin' Write Markers in the aforementioned colors to beautify my owl. Those attending Saturday will have two to place in their trees. Then I went to place the sentiment "you're a hoot!" on my card, only to realize that it was stamped on Whisper White card stock. What to do? I pulled out my light table and traced the letters with my SS marker! There's a .25" strip of SS across the bottom to ground the tree, and it looks more natural in real life.

In case you're too young to know, the answer to the fill in the blank question above is "don't pollute!" Have a great Thursday!

Inspired by my Grocery

As I was checking out a few weeks ago, I looked down and saw this WAY COOL reusable bag. Does your grocery do this good a job of enticing you to bring your own bags to its grocery? I really loved that bag, but instead of buying it, I took a picture of it and used it as inspiration for a card! (I know it was only $1, but I'm stupidly frugal that way. I reasoned that I already have 10 boring bags, so why should I get another?)

ANYWHOO...I don't have a way cool, funky tree like this one, but I used what I had on hand, Season of Friendship. I hope you are getting the concept that these stamp sets have many uses in creating a variety of cards! If you're new to my blog or just a little slow on the uptake this Monday morning, click on "Season of Friendship" in the labels section of the sidebar and you can see different examples of cards I've made with this set.

I chose Baja Breeze--I will be VERY sad when this color retires--and Kiwi Kiss for the leaves. I had a scrap of BB sitting on my table, so I stamped several greens with my leaves stamp in order to determine which one would be the closest match to the bag. I realize it doesn't quite look like the leaves and the ribbon match, but in real life, they do. I'm not real stoked about the white bird but, again, I had limited options. It's good not to overanalyze things...

The sentiment is on a banner that I curled slightly by running the strip of Whisper White over my finger a few times. It's tacked in place with a glue dot on the end and just after the curve. I tried regular adhesive, but it didn't stay. The card base is Pacific Point.

I have the day off today, after a busy weekend, so I'm going to get after my house's furry tumbleweeds and laundry. There's always laundry. We're saying goodbye to a Starbucks partner who's moving to CA, so I'm having sushi for dinner!

I'm Making a List...Checkin' It Twice...

not because Santa's comin' to town, but because I'm goin' downtown tomorrow! Sandy is hosting a SAS for 6 of her colleagues/friends after work at her office. Since I have to "take the show on the road", I am checking, double-checking, and triple-checking my supplies in order not to forget anything.

Those of you who have come to classes at my house know how crucial this is, because I'm back and forth between my craft room and the dining room table umpteen times during each class for stuff that has been left there! There's no Hobby Lobby or Michael's nearby, so I'll be so hosed if I neglect to bring everything I need.

Since my boss was kind enough to give me the day off tomorrow, and I can check things over in the morning, I have procrastinated awhile this evening making some cards for a little girl I don't know. Her name is Abbie, and her mom is a fellow blogger. I'm going to meet her (the mom, Stephanie) Saturday night at a blog party. What's a blog party, you ask? Well, this one (I can't say what others are like, since I've never been to another gathering like this!) is a meetup of bloggers who all read Heather Whittaker's blog.

Anyway, Abbie LOVES owls, and I thought she'd enjoy getting some cards made with owls. How do I know she loves owls? Her mom posted about it here, and so the cards I've made coordinate with her room's colors.

The owls are from the set Owl for You, new to the Fall-Winter Catalog. In this first card, the birds have beeen stamped on the card stock and cut out, and the winged one has been paper pieced. They're perched in the tree from Season of Friendship. I went with brown leaves because it's fall and because I didn't want to detract from the colorful birds. I had the hardest time deciding where to mount the "hoot-hoot hurray!", and I'm not sure it's best where it is, but what's done is done.

In the second card, I colored each owl using the four colors shown in the bedding--Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, and Pumpkin Pie. If you click on the picture, you can examine each owl more closely. My favorite is the first one, with multi-colored rings around his eyes. I also had a great deal of fun positioning each one on some branch of the tree. I had these left over from another card I made. Saving scraps is ALWAYS a good thing!

Managing to incorporate the sayings was the most challenging, as all these images were courtesy of Lydia from Understand Blue. Thanks, girlfriend! This meant that I had to cut out the word "hoot" from a couple of the stampings of the sentiment "hoot-hoot hurray!" that she'd provided. The other sentiment she sent was "you're a hoot!" which I also used. There are several others, including "something for you from owl of us," "whoo-la-la!," and "guess whoo loves you!". There's a tree branch, a balloon, a party hat, a long stemmed flower, and 3 hearts in this 14-piece set.

I hope you can tell that one of the owls "flies" on each card. I did this by creating a paper spring and mounting the image to it. This closeup should help you get the idea, but if you want a full tutorial on this, check the "spring technique" label category in the sidebar.

Sorry I've been quiet, but now you have some idea why. There's a lot going on around here, and I'm just not getting much down time. Here are a few other things happening this weekend.

1) Heather, the blog party hostess, asked me to make the nametags for all those coming--about 40!
2) I'm hosting 2 folks on Friday and Saturday night...adventurous college kids who are traveling from IN for the festivities!
3) I signed up to make a batch of cookies and 10 Christmas cards as part of a team effort to supply a battalion of servicemen with Christmas cheer. Those need to go in the mail on the 10th.
4) I have to attend a learning coach class on Saturday so that I can officially teach other partners what I have learned while working at Starbucks this past year.
5) We're going to a potluck Sunday evening and have to make soup to bring.

All good stuff; I'm just going to be exhausted by the time it's all done!

Here's a funny photo from the weekend that I'll leave you with. What do you do when you're bored on a Sunday afternoon? You climb the walls! Notice where Michael's hands are compared to Bob's...

Living in the Cone of Creative Silence

Hey ya'll. I know it has been some time since I posted, and I can't really offer any better explanation than the title of this post. I've just had no desire to craft--gasp! I don't know how I got to this point. I don't know how I found myself there, but you'll be happy to know that I think my time in the "cone zone" is nearing an end.

Today I finished a card I had put aside almost 2 weeks ago. (You may not be impressed, but I am.) I had been putzing around with the Haiku DSP and Season of Friendship, since the colors seemed to beg for a tree devoid of leaves. The sentiment is from the retired Lots of Thoughts. I seem to always choose a thanks sentiment when I'm not designing a card for a specific person. Why? There's always someone to thank, isn't there?

I'm not going to blather on. There's laundry to do, dinner to prepare, and a beautiful evening walk with my dogs and my husband awaiting me before day's end. Thanks for bearing with my silence. What have you been up to while I've been quiet?

Fourth Post of the Day...This Must be a Record

My husband says that sometimes his brain is like a thunderstorm...a flash of brilliance and then sudden darkness! That's probably how you'll feel about this blog in the next few days, since I've exhausted my creativity quotient for the week with all this activity today!

But, while the mojo's flowin'(and you have a deadline for a hostess on Friday) you have to take advantage.

The first card is yet another using Season of Friendship. If you haven't figured out that I meant it when I said that this set is versatile, the THREE cards I made with it and posted TODAY should be sufficient evidence. This one incorporates the new Ski Slope DSP from the Holiday Mini Catalog--it's scrumptious! I used Kraft as my base again, matted three pieces of the DSP on Chocolate Chip, and then created my focal point on Baja Breeze.

The snowflakes were embossed using White Embossing Powder. For some reason the stuff and I don't get along. It left behind some dusty spots in places I didn't want them, so I got out my brayer and the Versamark and covered the entire piece in the sticky ink. Then I doused the whole sheet with Dazzling Diamonds. Problem solved! Except...the stuff began to molt when I handled it. Next time I'm going to douse the whole thing in Heat & Stick Powder and then add the DD. Then it won't go anywhere. Glitter's great, but it makes a MESS! Still, I love the look. The little ribbon accent is done with the white satin ribbon, and I cheated and tacked it around the backs and then tied a separate little knot in the lower corner. So much easier than wrestling with positioning it while trying to keep said glitter from coming off...

The second card is a mighty quickie, and I am thrilled. This sentiment is from the Home for Christmas set, also in the Holiday Mini. The image in the set is best colored with markers, colored pencils, etc., but I don't want to use that at the SAS I'm making this card for...too time consuming when you have 15 cards to make in 3 hours or less.

I was about to give up about an hour ago after several experiments with this weren't going like I wanted. Then I had a lightning strike of creativity and went back to the craft room and pulled out these FANTASTIC felt snowflakes! They come in a pack of umpteen bazillion and they're AWESOME in their three sizes and three colors! Stamp the sentiment from the set, lay down a sweet layer of way cool felt ribbon, adhere said flakes, and it's done! SWEET! I made my deadline with a day to spare, so now I'm going to read a book and fall asleep.

Have a great rest of the week!

Second Try at Season of Friendship

After I posted my first card of the day, I really wasn't feeling I had much creativity. The first one felt, I don't know, flat somehow. I was going to avoid the craft room the rest of the day, but I have 2 cards I need to make, so I went back in and tried again with Season of Friendship. This is not the card I needed to make, but I SOOOOOOOO love it!

With this layout, the entire tree image is utilized. Again, I chose the seasons theme, and I kept adding to it because I was really digging how it was coming together. Don't think I'm marvelous because I have a tire swing hanging from my tree; someone else came up with that and I remembered seeing it and CASE'd it. As I was crafting away, I began to think about the size envelope I'd need for this card, and that determined where the final panel went. This card is 8.5" x 5.25" and scored at 4.25", so that left very few options. Thus, it became a sort of square card in order to fit into the largest square envelope SU! sells.

I really like that the final panel is on the inside of the card. It saved any time I might have wasted thinking about where to put the sentiment on the front. It completes the interior so nicely, I think.

The question now is, "Who will receive this card?" I'm meeting on Friday morning with the manager of a Pak Mail store to see if she'd be interested in selling my cards at her location. I think I'll save it to show her and then begin to ponder whose mailbox it should end up in. Speaking of selling my cards, I think I could charge $6/piece for this kind of detail, don't you? I'm not good at determining things like that, but if I'm going to make more of these, I need it to be worth the time it's going to take.

Hey, I hope more of you participate in yesterday's post by sharing something random about yourself. Thanks, Kathleen, for coming out of hiding! What about the rest of you?

One more thing...I neglected to mention that I sponged in the sky with Baja Breeze, stamped off once, that the mat for each panel is Mellow Moss, and that the base is Kraft. Also, each panel is 1.5" x 4".

Seasons May Change, But Friendship Remains

This morning it was crisp as I walked to the car to take Michael to school. I LOVE FALL! The cooler air is one of the sure signs of changing times, but the debut of the new Holiday Mini Catalog is another! This card was made using a very versatile set from the catalog called Season of Friendship.

As you can tell, there are stamps that are elements of the seasons--snowflakes, flowers, leaves, and a little bird--as well as a full size tree. The sentiment is the best: "The season of friendship lasts forever." I feel that way.

I wanted to capture all the seasons in this layout, but I'm already looking forward to making other cards that only feature one at a time. The squares are 1 5/8" and that's the perfect size to create small focal points. I used almost every one of my Earth Elements Stampin' Write Markers for this, and silver embossing powder for the snowflakes. Each square is mounted on Baja Breeze and then onto the Garden Green base.

I struggled a bit with this layout, and I think I might try it as a larger card with all the boxes on one side of the card. How fun to have more options to experiment with!

Leave me a comment requesting the new catalog and I'll put one in the mail to you today!