Calendar Class: Day 3 - Spring

For the spring months I wanted to fresh green colors.  I chose Certainly Celery, Pear Pizazz and Wild Wasabi.  They pair so well together don't you think

Tomorrow will be the summer months ... bright cheery colors.  Stay tuned!

Calendar Class: Day 2 - WInter

I chose blues for the first three months of the year ... cool colors for the coldest part of the year. 

 January is Marina Mist

February is Baja Breeze

and March is Bashful Blue

I had a hard time coming up with something to stamp for March.  January and February were pretty obvious, but March can be such a blah month.  I tried several different ideas and settled on a strip of polka dots.   Not the most exciting thing int he world, but it is after all ... March

Thanks for stopping by .... Come back tomorrow to see the Spring green

Calendar Class: Day 1 - Prep

After PTI introduced their calendar set a few months back I took a poll among my stamp camp group to see if there was interest.  I thought there might be a couple people who wanted to make a calendar, but was completely blown away that most of the group wanted to ... what had I gotten myself into !!

I knew it would be a lot of prep work and since I had the week of Thanksgiving off I figured that would be the majority of what I did while on vacation. 

I started with this stack of paper:

my big shot and the calendar die :

and a fully loaded NetFlixWatch Instant queue!  :)  Three episodes of Stargate SG1 Season 2 later, I had all the paper cut and ready for class:

I decided to to make the cover for everyone.  I used a basic red/black/white color scheme since the calendar itself is so colorful.  I'll be going through each "quarter: through out the week with more details, but today I'll just show the cover

I used the lined paper stamp from Its Official along with a few stamps from the Calendar Basics set to make this.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's preview of January, February and March!

Thanks for stopping by

{Calendar Cover Supplies }

Stamps: Its Official, Calendar Basics [PTI]

Ink: True Black, Pure Poppy [PTI]

Paper:White, Black [SU!]

Other: Calendar Die, CD Cases [PTI]

Magnetic Book Mark

I saw the coolest little magnetic book mark at the coffee shop I frequent.  I looked it over and thought ... I can make that :)

I ran some Early Espresso paper  through my Xyron with the magnet cartridge loaded.  Then I trimmed 2 pieces down to 1.5" square.  I had to sand the surface with a coarse grade sandpaper because adhesive would not adhere to the slick surface (yes I learned this the hard way ... this is actually the second one I made ... the first kept sliding around!)

 I cut a strip 1.5" by 2.25" and scored it at 1.5"  This was used to adhere the two magnets together.  I used Zip Dry to adhere the strip t the magnets so that it will have a good strong hold.  I played around with my new Banner Builder set and made a little decoration for the front side.  Since this is a prototype and I'm trying to figure out how to make this easy for a stamp camp project, I didn't decorate the back side, but you could do that in a heart beat if you wanted.

And there it is marking a spot on a stray piece of card stock :)

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies}
Stamps: Banner Builder, Take Note [PTI]
Ink: Early Espresso, [SU!]; Pure Poppy [PTI]
Paper: Early Espresso,. Crumb Cake [SU!]; Pure Poppy [PTI]
Dies: Banner Builder
Other: Xyron with magnet cartridge

Joy to Your World

Quick post tonight  .... after all its Black Friday  - happy shopping to those of you who brave the crowds.

 I cut the windows with the Take Three die, then stamped Take Three: Winter on lighter cs

Added a sentiment and some bling ... instant Christmas card :)

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies - all PTI}
Stamps: Take Three: Winter
Ink: Ocean Tides
Paper: Ocean Tides, Aqua Mist
Other: Rhinestones

Papertrey November Blog Hop - Tags for the the littlies

Welcome to the Papertrey November Blog Hop.  This month's theme is tags.  Just so happens I've been working on some. 

My eldest daughter helps out in kindergarten class every day before her classes start (she is a senior and has her first hour or so free).  We call them "the littlies" after a book my 15yr old was reading last year.  Kindergarten age is the age Colie loves best ... they are potty trained, want to play fun (some times weird) games and will listen to her and do what she says (every parents dream right :)  Well as luck would have it after this semester she will have a first period class and won't be able to see the littlies every day like she has so far this year.  Last year at the end of the year she was kinda teary eyed, but she knew she would see her first littlie class this school year when they were first graders.  Now its happening earlier especially since she won't be back next year since she'll be off at college.  She wants to give them a little something and so I made some tags for her to write a note to them (and the teachers she helps out)

I used the color inspiration from my curly topped table decorations but kept these much simpler since  I had to make 30 of them.

I stamped the text strip from Background Basics: Christmas as well as the little mouse down in the corner from the same set.  The snowflakes on the focal layer are from Friendship Jar: Holiday Fillers

On the back is a piece of white card stock for her to write a quick note to her littlies.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies}
Stamps: Background Basics: Christmas , Friendship Jar: Holiday Fillers [PTI]
Ink: Fresh Snow [PTI]; Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green [SU!]
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Whisper White [SU!]
Other: Circle Punches, corner punch and Crop-a-dile [SU!]

Mini-fold wedding brag book

Rachel (of the peacock feather invitation fame) and I worked on a wedding mini brag book the other day.  We kept the theme a cross between her wedding invitations and some thank you notes I gave her as a shower gift.

Here's what we came up with:

I once again used Lisa Johnson's tutorial, but cut the height of the pages to 3.5" so a full sized wallet print would fit inside.

The wedding date was 10/10/10 so I stamped that on the spine (I used the 2011 stamp from Calender basics, masked the 2 and the last 1 off before i inked it then stamped it upside down ... turned out pretty cool IMO!)

Added small rhinestones between the numbers as separators.

And if you are wondering if the peacock feathers were only on decorations, take a look at their wedding cake ...

... and the shoes she wore for the wedding!

All in all a fun evening and her hubby liked the book so much he took it to show pictures to coworkers who couldn't make it to the wedding.  We are already planning on making some more for her mom and new mom-in-law, but I was running short of black paper so we are going to do that in a few weeks once I replenish my supply

Thanks for stopping by!

{Peacock wedding brag book}

Stamps: Peacock Feather [Stampendous]

Ink: Old Olive, Bermuda Bay, Concorde Crush markers [SU!]; Fresh Snow [PTI]

Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Bermuda Bay (retired) [SU!]

Other: Elegant Lines embossing folder [SU!]; Rhinestones [Kaiser Kraft]; Velcro, Zip Dry

OWH S&S Sketch

2 posts today ... both quick easy cards for different sketch challenges ... be sure to scroll down to see them both

This card is for the Operation Write Home Star and Stamps blog sketch challenge.   I turned the sketch on its side and used my color scheme du jour : Ocean Tides and Aqua Mist.  Threw in a little black just to mix things up a bit

I used my new banner builder stamp set and also cut the little toppers out of black felt.  Those dies are tremendous.  Clean cuts through a variety of materials.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies - PTI unless noted}
Stamps: Banner Builder, Trajan Mono Alphabet, Polka Dot Basics
Ink: Basic Black [SU!]; Ocean Tides
Paper: Ocean Tides, Aqua Mist, White; Basic Black [SU!]
Other: Banner Builder dies, black wool felt, Provo craft hand-held heart punch

CPS 194 - Archway Mission

Greetings!  I am on a mission this week ... I'm on vacation and I want to fill a box with Valentine's Day Cards for Operation Write Home for the Archway Special Mission. OWH is teaming with Archway Cookies to send  Valentine Cards and Cookies to our troops.  Archway will match card for cookie with a goal of 4000.  The deadline is Dec 1.

Here is one of the ones I am sending:

It is for the CPS Sketch Challenge #194

I am stuck on this Ocean Tides and Aqua Mist color scheme but I love it for its non-traditional-ishness. 

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies - all PTI unless noted}
Stamps: Heart Prints
Ink: Ocean Tides
Paper: Ocean Tides, Aqua Mist, White
Other: small corner rounder [SU!]

Curly topped book mark table decoration

Well that's a mouthful to say out loud and probably my longest blog title ever!  A friend of mine is hosting a holiday dinner party and wanted to have a Christmas table decoration.  She showed me a picture in a magazine of a book mark with "Joy" on it ... I had to one up that.

Ya got yur ribbon, ya got yer bling ... what else could you need for a holiday party!

Instead of die cutting an "o" I used the leafy wreath from Wreath for all Seasons.  I colored some rhinestones with an R59 Copic sketch marker for the red ones  to put on the green book marks and decided to leave them the plain/clear on the red book marks.

The curly tops are baked grosgrain ribbon (I kid you not)  I saw the tutorial a year or so ago on-line and love the look.  You wrap grosgrain ribbon tightly around a wooden dowel (the smaller the dowel the tighter the curl).  Secure each end with a wooden clothes pin and bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes.  Let it cool, remove from dowel and use it however you like.

Thanks for stopping by!

What makes it masculine?

To me its color ... darker colors, blues and green s and browns.  Here is a masculine card I made:

To make the 3D stars, I punched out stars using my large and small star punches.  Then I scored from each point down.  Once all 5 scores were made I crimped the star up along the scor marks into the center (this is from a tutorial that I saw on line ... I'm sorry I did not write down who did it).  I mounted all the stars on foam tape.

For the sail boat I stamped the outline sails on the white focal layer then again on striped paper from Cosmo Cricket's The Boyfriend minideck.  I cut and mounted the sails using foam tape as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies}

Stamps: Men of Life [Papertrey Ink]

Paper: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Night of Navy, Always Artichoke, Whisper White [Stampin’ Up!]; The Boyfriend [Cosmo Cricket]

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke 

Misc: Distressed texture plate, Big Shot [Sizzix], Large and small star punch [Stampin’ Up!], twine

You are my sunshine

Feeling the need for some sunshine so I made this card:

I created the cloud strips by adhering the blue strips to a piece of scrap cs.  I ran the whole thing through my sizzix using he back side of the PTI cloud dies (Nichole had posted once that the PTI dies are made they way they are so you can use the front side to cut and the back side to emboss if you want ... I want ... thank you very much :)

The ribbon treatment I was just playing around with but I like how it turned out.  I edged the striped layer with scor-tape and then corkscrewed the grosgrain along the edge adhering it to the tape.  I then sewed a running stitch along it to hold in place better and flatten down the loops.

I created the sentiment in Adobe Photoshop, inserted into a Word document then printed.

{Supplies}

Paper: Crumb Cake, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, More Mustard, So Saffron [Stampin’ Up 

Misc: Inverted scalloped circle nestabilities, circle nestabilities [Spellbinders];
Lemon Tart vintage button, Cloud dies [Papertrey Ink]; White grosgrain ribbon [Stampin’ Up!]

Fonts: Times New Roman, Shelter Me

Graffiti Graduate

I was at it again ... submitting stuff for publication and being denied :(  but I love the challenge of trying and I know someday I'll get that magic email saying they liked me ... they really liked me :)

This was for a grad gift category.  I made a gift card holder out of Newsprint DSP and added some graffiti to the outside ....

Inside is an envelope to hold the gift card and another little encouraging message

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies}

Stamps: Extreme Elements [SU!]; For the Graduate, Calendar Basics [PTI]

Ink: Basic Black, Melon Mambo [SU!]

Paper:  Basic Black, Melon Mambo, White, Newsprint Designer Series Paper [SU!]

Another OWH Valentine

I had some cut pieces left over from stamp camp.  Usually I make up the cards and toss them in the "soldier box" but since this was a Christmas card and that deadline is passed, I decided to see if I could come up with another Valentines card to feed the OWH Archway mission

Here is what I came up with:

It was a non-traditional Christmas card so I made a non-traditional Valentine too.  I used Framed and Heart Prints from PTI.  That center heart is stamped with a rock-n-roll technique, punched and attached with foam dimensionals

Don't forget to vote for Operation Write Home in the Jo-Ann's Craft for a Cause charity event.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies - all PTI unless noted}
Stamps: Heart Prints, Framed
Ink: Ocean Tides, Aqua Mist
Paper: Aqua Mist, White
Other: heart punch

Black and White Birthday

A while back I made a non-traditional baby card using black and white with just a hint of red ... I decided to try the SFYTT this week using the same theme but making a birthday card.

I used one of the fillable frames (#5 I think .... I have so many I'm starting to get them confused :)  I bent the stamp so that the sentiment follows the curve of the circle a little bit more

I used Ivory Flower Soft to give the cake a little texture .. I'm sure a talented cake artist could decorate it that way too !

Inside I stamp a row of dots and added a strip of ribbon to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies}
Stamps: Polka Dot Basics, Fillable Frames #5 [PTI]; Fast and Fun Notes [SU!]
Ink: True Black {PTI];p Tuxedo Black [Tsukineko]
Paper: Black & White patterns [PTI], Black, White, Real Red [SU!]
Colors: Sketch markers T6, R35 [Copic]; Chalk [SU! retired]
Other: Circle Punches [SU!], red twill [PTI]

Operation Write Home Valentines Card Blog Hop

I am very excited to be participating in my second blog hop for Operation Write Home.  The theme of this hop is Valentines Day ... Its coming up faster than you think and the deadline to get Valentines cards into OWH is January 7, 2011.  Even though its only November, the Christmas card deadline has come and gone.

If you've been following the links you came from Kate's blog.  Isn't her spinner card so sweet!

If you get lost you can go back to the beginning at the Stars & Stamps Blog

Here is my addition to the OWH party:

I had this image in my head when I saw the theme.  I wanted something vintage, but also kind of grungy ... I'm more of a graffiti girl than a romantic lace and roses kind of vintage

I stamped the heart image from Stampin' Up!'s Punch Potpourri hostess set and punched it out with a large heart punch.  I made the accordion fold layer out of some sheet music I've been hoarding.   The tutorial for making the according fold layer can be found on Nichole Heady's blog (isn't Nichole just amazing!)

My original plan for the sentiment was to get a handwriting font and print out "Love always", but after I made the sheet music layer, I changed my mind and went with a matching sentiment.  The font is called Shelter Me

Remember to vote for Operation Write Home in the Jo-Ann's Craft for a Cause event.

You can also join in the special mission with Archway to send 4000 valentines and 4000 cookies to our soldiers overseas.  Archway will match cookies for cards.  Lets fill the mailboxes and the cookie jars!  Deadline is Dec. 1.

Next up on the hop is  >>> Meg Bean <<<

Go show her some love and enjoy the rest of your day

{Music of my heart supplies}

Stamps: Fancy Flourishes [PTI]; Punch Potpourri, Linen Background [SU!]

Ink: Smokey Shadow [PTI]; Cherry Cobbler [SU!]

Paper: Cherry Cobbler [SU!]; Cream [Bazzill]; Sheet music

Tools: Inverted Scalloped circle nestability [Spellbinders]; Big Shot [Sizzix]; heart punch [SU!]

Embellies: Rhinestones [PTI]