Stamps, Paper, Scissors

That bird sure talks a lot...

Lots of people (okay, only TWO) were asking me about the dimensions on my flap card yesterday. The base of the flap card is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and the folded piece on top (the Certainly Celery piece) is 4" x 12" (or 11 7/8" if you have older cardstock as I do!).

But back to the title of my post: What bird am I talking about? Why this one!

Ingredients: (All Stampin' Up!) Stamps - A Little Birdie Told Me, Sprinkles; Paper - Real Red, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Summer Picnic DP; Ink - Basic Black, Real Red, Old Olive; Other - Olive Green Poly-Twill ribbon, Pumpkin Pie 1/4" grosgrain, white gel pen, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Real Red, and Bashful Blue markers, 2-Way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, small oval punch, word window punch, 1/2 circle punch, sticky strip.

I mined this idea from Corinne Somerville's blog, Stamping with Roxy, way back before Christmas and SHE saw it on Patty Bennet's blog and Patty got it from her upline Sandy, and now I've created one of these for my class at the end of the month, Not Your Standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card! I love how the stampin' sistahhood feeds each other like this! Lookie inside:

There is a very competent tutorial on how to make this on Corinne's blog, so I won't bother to repeat it!

I really love this set. Sure would be nice to get something like this for MY birthday (complete with Starbucks card this one is empty! ACK!) which is...oh, my! It is Sunday! What a coinkydink! And what do I get to do on my birthday? I get to probably go out to dinner...at least, that is my hope. My children are threatening to buy me a new Webkins (that is so thoughtful of them, isn't it?)

Sharon, my friend and upline, came over to stamp yesterday and this is what I made. It's always so great to have someone to bounce things off (what do you think of this ribbon? Too much? Pass the chocolate!) And it did help that Sharon brought some chocolate, since I had none!

I really have not got much stamping done lately, due to incredibly stressful situations that have been happening around here lately. I'm hoping things will settle down soon, though. As a result of the stress I have gotten a lot of cleaning done...it's the only thing I *can* do under stress. It's a testament to my relatively happy life that most of the time my house is a wreck! In the past two weeks, I've reorganized 3 different kitchen cabinets, thrown a bunch of stuff away, cleaned behind the couch (!!!) and done a ton of laundry. As much as I enjoy having these things done, I rather be happier and messy than stressed and clean. Oh well...

Today seems like it's going to be relatively stress-free, so I think I'm gonna go get some stampin' done! Ta!

What's all the flap about?

So, I've been seeing all these flap cards all over the place and, being the highly competitive person that I am as well as always on the look out for interesting folds to do for my monthly class, I went for it!

Instead of using everyone else's measurements, I made up my own. I wanted the finished result to be a standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2", but that is a problem if you want to have enough cardstock for the flap to cover the bottom part of the front of the card. I solved this by mounting my flap card on an A4 base. This way I could cut the rest of the card from a piece of 12 x 12 cardstock, thus getting more bang for my buck (I can get 3 cards out of a piece of 12 x 12). Here's the result:

Ingredients: (all SU!) Stamps - Wonderful You, Stems & Silhouettes Jumbo Wheel; Paper - Night of Navy, Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Whisper White; Ink - Night of Navy, Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, Cameo Coral; Other - Soft Sky Double-Stitched Grosgrain, Night of Navy marker, Scallop Scissors (retired), Coluzzle, Word Window Punch.

Isn't this just GOJUS?!?!?! (YILM!) Paula had come over Saturday night and I made this card while she was there. I have a ton of Certainly Celery 12 x 12 cardstock, so just picked colors out that I thought would go with it. I love this color combination!

This set and wheel are part of the Free Wheeling Promotion that SU! is having this month. Buy the set, get the wheel for free! And since this set was on my wish list, I decided to go for it.

The card is scored at 4 5/8" and then again at 9 3/4". The flap is cut into a round shape using the largest circle on the Coluzzle template. I added the scalloped Cameo piece because it just needed something. Unfortunately, my largest Nestability scallop circle did not fit around the flap, so I resorted to my retired SU! Scallop scissors. They are not that easy to use, so I only pull them out if I absolutely have to. The scallop really makes this card, so I did absolutely have to!

Here is the card open:

After I finished the card, I felt I had to have a way of keeping it closed. I didn't want to use my Basic Grey snaps on this thing, so I decided to use a trick I've tried before. I punched a thin self-adhesive business card magnet with my 1/2" circle punch twice:

When you are adhering them to the card, put the two non-stick magnetic sides together...there is a direction they have to face so that they will stick together. Then peel the first magnet's backing off and stick them to the flap. Then peel off the second magnet's backing and press the flap down for the perfect placement. Make sure your business card magnets are not too thin...the paper thin ones are not strong enough!

This card will be one of the projects at my next class on April 28th, which features cards that are not your standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card.

Well, I'm off. I hope to get some more stamping done this evening...took me all day to clear up the mess my kids left in my house this weekend! Ta!

Important Occasions Class

Seriously, after that last post, you probably are thinking, "Fuh...I may just stop reading this blog because it is just getting TOO SILLY!"

I had a class last night and we did four cards for Important Occasions: Wedding, New Baby, Graduation and Mother's Day. I think I missed the boat though...we made no card for Restocking My Chocolate Reserves Day. When is Restocking My Chocolate Reserves Day? Well, it is an important day. It is SUCH an important day that Congress declared that it would have no fixed date and would be up to the celebrant as to when exactly it would be. Ideally, Restocking My Chocolate Reserves Day would be at least once a week, so as to not let the stockpile grow too low, but really ANY day can be declared Restocking My Chocolate Reserves Day if there is an emergency situation. Which there is, in my house! So today, my friends, is Restocking My Chocolate Reserves Day! Too late for sending me a card to celebrate it, but I assure you I will have ample holiday spirit in spite of that. Luckily, Restocking My Chocolate Reserves Day can be celebrated more than once a year, so you still have a chance to help me celebrate at some time or other.

What? Too silly again? Ooops! Hehehh...okay, here's the cards we did:

Ingredients (all Stampin' Up!): Stamps - Blooming with Love, Weathered; Paper - Certainly Celery, Night of Navy, Chocoalte Chip, Ballet Blue, Confetti White; Ink - Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Basic Grey, Certainly Celery; Other - Ballet Blue & Certainly Celery markers, white gel pen, aquapainter, Scallop Circle Punch, Photo Corner Punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, silver brad, caramel gingham ribbon, paper piercing tool, dimensional

Isn't it GOJUS?!!?! (YILM!) The color inspiration came from a cool blog called Kris's Color Stripes. This was the card for Mother's Day...this set has the sentiments for that built right in...I really like it and it was the one of the first sets to go on my wishlist when the catalog came out.

Then:

Ingredients (all Stampin' Up!): Stamps - Year after Year, See You Around Jumbo Wheel; Paper - Bashful Blue, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Whisper White; Ink - Bashful Blue; Other - white gel pen, Scallop Circle punch, Word Window punch, Soft Subtles brads, Bashful Blue striped grosgrain, dimensionals, paper piercing template.

I know, I know...STINKIN' CUTE!!! (YILM!)

Then this was the graduation card:

Ingredients (All Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted): Stamps - Great Grads; Paper - Kraft, Real Red, Blue Bayou, Blue Bayou Print Patterns DP; Ink - Blue Bayou, Real Red; Other - Slit punch, 1 3/4" circle punch (EK Success), 1 1/4" circle punch, Large Star punch, Small Star punch, Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, Wild Wasabi Double-Stithced Grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals, sponge wedge

Here's the inside:

I got this great gift card holder from Patty's Stamping Spot blog...apparently, this card was shared at a recent regional and Patty's husband, Eric, made one for the husband's swap on the cruise. It's simply a 4" x 12" piece of cardstock that is scored at 4" and 8" and then diagonally between the two score marks. When you fold it up, it becomes this!

I had to dink around with the measurements on mine, because I was really wanting to use the color scheme shown with this graduation set in the catalog and my 12" x 12" Kraft cardstock was bought before we had true 12" x 12"; we used to sell 11 7/8" x 11 7/8". We were told that was to allow a little room in the page protector so that bulky layouts would fit better (and it really does make a difference), but people still wanted REAL 12" x 12" so SU! finally changed it. So this card is something like 3 15/16" square...it was a headache! But the good news is I used up some of this stuff so that eventually I will be able to buy a pack of REAL 12" x 12" kraft cardstock! Woohooo!

The last card we did was the bride card in this post on my blog.

Well, it's off to the stamp room to play with tantalizing new stamps from Flourishes and my new PapertreyInk colors! Ta!

What you missed

By not attending my class last night! You know who you are!!!

Yes, I know some of you live thousands of miles away and for you, I'll graciously overlook your non-attendance. Of course, part of me is puzzled as to why, in spite of high gas costs, family commitments, and stupid things like working for a living, you couldn't just drop all that and come, but I realize that life gets in the way.

Others, who live closer, are just going to have to suck up those feelings of guilt...guilt and REMORSE, yes REMORSE! once they see the GOJUS creations they missed making last night:

Ingredients: Stamps - Stampin' Up! Kind Thoughts, Stitched; Paper - Almost Amethyst, Pale Plum, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom, Whisper White; Ink - Perfect Plum, Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst; Other - White Taffeta ribbon, Scallop Circle Punch, Word Window punch, silver brads, rhinestone Ice brad, blender pen, ticket corner punch.

Are you feelin' that remorse now?!?!? Eh? Eh? Isn't it GOJUS?!?!?! (YILM!) With this card my students learned the technique Embossing with Stamps and they LOVED IT!!! But that's not all, oh no, that's not all:

Ingredients: Stamps - Stampin' Up! Lovely as a Tree, Sanded, Everyday Flexible Phrases; Paper - Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Gable Green; Ink - Always Artichoke; Other - Word Window Punch, Always Artichoke 1/4" grosgrain, Pretties Kit, white gel pen, Certainly Celery, Gable Green, and Green Galore markers.

Aw, now you're feelin' really bad aren't you? I'm sorry...stop crying! I didn't really mean to make you feel this bad...I'm not mad at you, really!!!

This card came about because I wanted to make an entirely green card that gave you a feeling of spring, like this:

Because there's been far too much of this:

and this:

At least around here, there has. It was 50 degrees here yesterday and then what did it do? What? What?

It got cold and it SNOWED. And it's going to snow again TONIGHT! Sigh...I'm kind of hoping for spring myself! I hope my "green card" is at least helping feelings of spring "immigrate" into your psyche, even if the actual season seems to be nothing more than a big TEASE!!! And yes, my card is GOJUS (YILM!) It's been a long time since I had pulled out my old friend, Lovely as a Tree, but if it proves anything, it is that this stamp set is well-loved by many for a lot of reasons...it's so stinkin' versatile!

As for the other two cards, well, I had so many kits left from my last workshop that I used those. The ladies that came loved 'em, so that's two more cards YOU MISSED MAKING. Oh...that's right...I had given up trying to make you feel bad about it. We're still friends...for sure!

Now, don't be hatin'!

(yes, I love Confessions of a Pioneer Woman too!)

But I'm about to show you a card that will have you runnin' for your catalogs, wondering how, HOW you managed to overlook this set:

Ingredients: Stamps - Big Birthday Candle; Paper - Rose Red, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Cutie Pie DP; Ink - So Saffron, Basic Black, Whisper White; Other - Bashful Blue Striped Grosgrain, Vintage brads, dimensionals, So Saffron marker, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter

Isn't this just STINKIN' CUTE?!?!?!? (YILM!) I have had this card in mind ever since I saw this set in the catalog. It comes with patterns you can stamp inside the candles, but my first thought when I saw it was how cute it would be to use it with patterned paper and I was (as I so often am, something Dan has come to realize in our nearly 25 years of marriage) RIGHT!!!!!

One of the things I did to my set was to take the solid candle with flame (I thought they would be separate, but they are not!) and cut the flame off the candle and mount it on the end of the block instead. I figured that I would want the flame to be a different color than the candle, so why would I want them to be together when I inked and stamped? Just makes it harder to use...my way, I can just use the flame stamp as I did here without having to reckon with the solid candle.

I wanted to use brighter paper, but figured I needed to go for a little balance with my other cards AND I wanted a card that wasn't too girly. This one fits the bill...you COULD give it to a guy without the guy feeling like you were casting aspersions on his manhood. (That might hurt too...don't be doin' it! Keep those aspersions in the tackle box!)

The Rose Red cardstock I used for the background was stamped with one of the patterns for the candles. This set is SO versatile and I can see it will be one I use over and over. It's perfect for quick stamping and wonderful for using those spare bits of patterned paper that you just can't BEAR to throw away!

This is the last card for tonights' class...so I have to run and start cutting cardstock! Tah!

Two more projects for class tomorrow!

I got lots of stamping done yesterday evening, after a gala dinner celebrating Laurel's first place in the school spelling bee (which means she will participate in the Scrips city-wide competition!) and Emily's second place in the Science Fair. Woo hoo!!! We had saganaki at our favorite coney island restaurant, something we had never tried before and it was delicious! ANYWAY:

Ingredients: Stamps - Embrace Life; Paper - Ginger Blossoms DP, Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, River Rock, Shimmery White; Ink - Versamark, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Groovy Guava; Other - Detail White EP, 3/16" corner rounding punch, ticket corner punch, Chocolate Chip taffeta, Pretties Kit, Chocolate Chip marker, sponge wedge, dimensionals.

Isn't it GOJUS!!! (YILM!) I started out following someone else's sketch, then jettisoning it to do my own layout. The flower stamp is stamped and embossed with white EP, then painted in using ink pads and my aquapainter. It was one of those ideas I got after I went to bed...frustrating, because I usually lie there and think about stamping when I should be sleeping or...well, concentrating on OTHER things! Hee hee...

But that's not all there is to my creative genius!!!

Ingredients: Stamps - Always; Paper - Soft Sky, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Whisper White; Ink - Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Whisper White, Versamark; Other - Stampin' Pastels, Fiskars Mini Scallop scissors, Flower Fusion, Old Olive Brads, Pumpkin Pie grosgrain, dimensionals.

MORE GOJUSNESS!!!! (YILM!) I knew when I looked at the heart that Poppin' Pastels (pastels/chalk over Versamark) would be the perfect way to get a lovely result. A few pointers:

• I use eye make-up applicators when I apply pastels. That allows me to load a nice amount onto my applicator and the flat surface is perfect for applying the pastels. The teenie little ones that come with the pastels are good for teenie areas, but I really like eye make-up applicators...much better than Q-tips!
• After you stamp with the Versamark, rub the applicator's flat side into the pastel cake, picking up enough to cover it and then some. Then rub very gently with the flat side over the Versamark. If the applicator seems to drag, you don't have enough pastel on your applicator! Put some more on when it starts to drag. Don't do it HARD...rub lighter than you would putting make-up on your eye lid.
• You can keep going over the image, adding more pastel until you get the amount of color that you want. You get a much better result by adding color gradually and gently than trying to force things by rubbing too hard, which will smear the Versamark and make a mess.
• You will get some hazing around the images, which I think adds to it. So consider that as you are putting color down. After you have finished, you can use a Swiffer cloth to pick up some of the loose pastel, but some hazing will still be there (as you can see in my sample.) You can erase it, if it bothers you, with the eraser that comes with your pastels or with a Staedtler white plastic eraser...those are my favorite erasers to keep on hand.

I love the color scheme, which was inspired by the colors in the Flower Fusion...I have to say, I LOVE these little felt flowers...they don't look just cut out, but the have a die cut look that makes them very clean looking instead of snipped with scissors.

I have one more card/project to create for tomorrow night, then it will be a massive clean up of the stamping classroom and environs, the cutting of cardstock and pouring of M & M's into candy dishes. So I will say farewell for now and will have another project to show off tomorrow! Tah!

Swaps are done!!!

And they are on their way. Thanks to Lisa, who generously offered to supply the ribbon for the one swap I did not have enough for, they are ALL on their way. There is nothing worse than getting to the next to the last swap, only to run right out of the ribbon you are using! Usually I call Sharon and scream for help, but I didn't have time! So Lisa will put the last swap together after she gets it.

So I was able to turn my attention to Monday's class. I hadn't really set a theme for the class, but I think it's mostly going to feature new catalog sets, with at least one Valentine's card in the mix, especially since the set in the card I'm about to show you is featured in the current promotion, details on my SU! website here.

Ingredients: Stamps - Happy Hearts Day, Holidays & Wishes; Paper - Berry  Bliss DP, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White; Ink - Regal Rose, Basic Black; Other - Regal Rose 5/8" grosgrain, white gel pen, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink & Certainly Celery markers, 2-Way Glue, Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Isn't it STINKIN' CUTE?!?!?!? I love the polka dotted paper used to paper-piece the elephant...it reminds me of the elephant on the Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, a show I've always had a soft spot for.

In the meantime, I've got to get moving on the other three cards/projects for Monday's class! Tah!

Class tonight!!!

Okay, stamper campers! It's that time of the month again!

No, not THAT time. CLASS TIME!!!

So since my class this month is Bodacious Backgrounds, I kind of had to come up with some! One was a natch, my Joseph's Coat Inside Out technique. We're going to be doing this card:

Which I showed you last month, so I'm not repeating all the info on the ingredients. I won't even rave about how GOJUS it is, since I already got that out of the way. Hee hee...

But that left 3 more cards to be designed by yours truly. Here is one of them:

Ingredients: (all SU!) Stamps - Illuminations, Floral, Canvas; Paper - Purely Pomegranate, River Rock, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla; Ink - Purely Pomegranate, Always Artichoke; Other - Ice Square Rhinestone Brads, Purely Pomegranate Satin Ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch, dimensionals, Stampin' Sponge wedge.

Isn't it SPLENDIFEROUS!!! I love these colors, which are in that designer paper pack. What's the technique? I don't know if there is an official name for it, but I'm calling it "Double Up". It's where you use two background stamps at once.  I needed something that wasn't too labor intensive after I made this one:

Ingredients (all SU!): Stamps - Holy Triptych, All Holidays, Print Pattern, Background Sampler; Paper - Whisper White, Perfect Plum; Ink - Versamark, Perfect Plum; Other - Lots and lots of Silver and Gold Glory EP, Gold Detail EP, Zig Painty Pen, ticket corner Punch, Elegant Eggplant 1/4" grosgrain, dimensionals, Stampin' Sponge Wedge.

Now if this isn't GOJUS I don't know what is! I was inspired by Russian Icons, like this one here. As well as by Gustav Klimt, who used a lot of gold leaf in his paintings, like this one here.

To do this, I started out by stamping my Versamark pad right on my cardstock to produce blocks of ink, then embossed them with gold EP. Then I made new blocks with silver EP. Then I embossed more gold blogs on top of those. I also inked up my Print Pattern with Versamark, stamped that on there and embossed it in silver. Finally I melted the EP again on specific spots and stamped my Versamark-inked little harlequin background from Background Sampler right into the hot EP to create the debossed areas.

After that, it seems a little much to do anything but emboss the Holy Family in gold...I was going to color them, but it's much better just the way it is! The only thing I'm not happy with is the ribbon. I want a nice wide satin or organdy or even grosgrain to match, but SU! does not have those right now. Dang.

Just a little close up so you can see how rich this background is:

This isn't a card for THOSE people...you know, the ones who throw your cards AWAY instead of saving your cards out of all others as the Gojus Artistic Masterpieces that they are! This is a card for that special someone who knows the worth of what you do and would never ever throw this card in the trash...in fact, he or she might even frame it and hang it on the wall!

As far as the 4th card, I may just do one of my reverse masking cards and call it a day. Hey, it's a background technique! A lot depends on how fast I am at cleaning up my stamping room, which is a BIG MESS! Especially since I went scrapbookin' yesterday at Scrappy Chic with my BFF's!!! I got one page done, which is not scanned it yet, so I can't show ya until maybe tomorrow. Now I must dash off and start cleaning!

A full class tonight!!!

I'm so excited...and I just can't hide it....I'm about to lose control and I think I like it! (be quiet, April! April would argue that I never had any control to lose!)

Just a quick post to say I'm very excited that I finally have a full class after three months of NUTHIN! Things are looking up!

You've already seen two of the projects for this class, well, time to show off the other two (I think I can SQUEEZE it into this post!), one of which I just finished.

Well, actually it was finished more than once. I "finished" it last night about 12:45 AM and then when I got up this morning tore it apart and finished it one more time! So here is that one:

Ingredients: Stamps - Simple Snowman, Bright Bulbs wheel; Paper - Gable Green, Real Red, Ballet Blue, Whisper White; Ink - Green Galore, Ballet Blue, Basic Black; Other - Markers (Real Red, Green Galore, Gable Green, Ballet Blue, Going Grey), Silver brad, black gingham, 1/4" whisper white grosgrain, 3/16" corner rounder, 1/8" hole punch, dimensionals, Crystal Effects, blender pen.

Here's a close up of the string of bulbs:

Each bulb has a little Crystal Effects on it...looks cool!

I can't seem to get away from snow and snowmen for this class. I tried, I really did! But all the sets that were making my socks go up and down either had snowflakes or snowmen or both! So without further doodoo:

Ingredients: Stamps - Merry & Bright; Paper - Cutie Pie DP, Bashful Blue, Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White, So Saffron; Ink - Basic Black, Bashful Blue; Other - Silver brad, white gel pen, scallop circle punch, 5/8" Certainly Celery grosgrain, black gingham, dimensionals, word window punch.

Now, aren't these both STINKIN' CUTE?!?!?! Admit it...you love me, you really love me!!! (YILM!!)

And I know you love me from all the comments, emails, PM's and cards that keep coming in. You ladies make blogging worthwhile! Thank you SO MUCH! Smooches!

Still alive and stampin'!

Yes, I've been MIA for the past few days, but between Dan and I having some medical issues, culminating with an ER visit on Wednesday night for him. Add to that a couple days of trying to coordinate different doctor's appointments and the result is I've gotten very little stamping done at all...sigh.

So I had to jump right back in today. Luckily, my endocrinologist's okay for an increase in the amount of Synthroid  I take almost 2 weeks ago is finally taking some effect and I have energy again. I've also been trying to figure out new tile  and paint colors for our kitchen and visiting various flooring stores is not doing much for my stamp time either. I need to get that done before the snow flies and being anal as I am, of course I can't just pick any ole' floor tile, it's got to be just right.

Well, enough moaning, you're here to see projects and I'm going to give you one!

It's been a while since I had a class at Scrappy Chic, so I have managed to whomp up another squash book, this time for Halloween:

Ingredients: Stamps - Technique Tuesday, Karen Foster Snap-Stamps Casual Medium; Ink - Brilliance Moonlight, Colorbox Chalk Charcoal; Paper - Daisy D's, Bazill; Ribbon - Making Memories; Halloween Brads - Making Memories.

Dare I say it? It's STINKIN' CUTE!!! (YILM!)

Here's some more photos:

Of course, I ended up buying the stamps and the ink pads today so I could work up the sample, so it's quite possible by the time I'm done with the class that it will make enough to pay for everything I've bought! Hopefully a little more!

The only thing missing is the journaling, which I will add later.

If you're interested in attending, the class will be on October 22nd at 6:00 PM at Scrappy Chic and will cost $20. Be there or be square!