A Peek Into My Stamping Room

Cascading Valentine's Card!

Since today is Monday, I checked out the Technique Lover's Challenge on Splitcoaststampers again.  It is a great new technique called a TLC362 Cascading card!  Love it!  I had so much fun making this card.  I used a new stamp set from Unity that I got as a Christmas present called We Treasure You.  I am a member of the Unity Kit of The Month club and I know I haven't used many of their stamps here....I do love them.  Here is my cascading card.

 

I used lots of bling from Want2Scrap.  I also used 12 x 12 Really Red Smooth Cardstock for  the base of this card.  This cardstock happens to be on sale this week at Discount Cardstock.  You should check it out!!  I tucked a couple of S5-025 Labels Seventeen from Spellbinders in the middle spaces and on the back of the card.  I also used the E8-002 Classic Bracket Edgeabilities along the front bottom of the card.  I punched out the sentiments.  I thought this was a fantastic fancy fold card!  Don't you? 

 

Flower Soft Wire Works!

This week's Flower Soft challenge was to use Flower Soft Wires & Fuschia Mixed Color on any project.  Well, as you know I have a college student who needs to decorate her college dorm room for Valentine's Day.  So here is what I came up with!

I cut/embossed some old hymnal paper using the Classic Heart Nestabilities® from Spellbinders™ Paper Arts.  I inked the edges using Tattered Rose distress ink.  Using my Scor-tape, I added some vintage lace around the edge of the hearts. I made some Flower Soft Stems using wires, Flower Soft Glue & Fuschia.  I bundled 3 of the stems along with a pearl hat pin and some ribbon tulle and tied it all together using some twine.  Here is a close-up....

I added a lock charm to the twine and seam binding ribbon to complete the bundle and then using my hot glue gun, adhered this into place onto my heart.  I had already added the large brads to make this a wall hanging.  I printed the names onto Simply Smooth White cardstock and punched them out using a label punch.  I inked up the edges with the distress ink and glued this into place using 3d foam squares. 

You can particpate in this challenge and check out what the other Flower Soft Design Team Members have made for this challenge on the Flower Soft Blog!

Love Life Mini Album!

For the past couple of weeks, I have been working on a mini album using various Grand Nestabilities.  I have to say that I don't know what I am going to put in it yet but I think it has started out to be pretty cool.  I wanted to share with you what I have made so far.

Can you see the different Grand Nestabilities I have used?  I used Creative Book Pages, Grand Big Scalloped Circles, Grand Labels Four and Grand Labels One.  I used the largest dies in the Creative Book Pages for the size and cut each page to fit just where I wanted them too.  I used some large eyelets and lacey ribbon to hold them together.  All the patterned paper is from Pink Paislee's Vintage Vogue collection.  The base of each page is some cereal box weight chipboard.  When you cover that with a sheet of patterned paper on each side, it becomes quite sturdy!

Here are some pictures of the various pages.......

 

 

I think I will have my oldest daughter help me put her High School Graduation pictures in this mini album.  It's always fun to finish a project like this with the person you are giving it too.  That way they can help pick their favorite pictures and journal about their favorite memories.  Of course, since she is away at college it will have to wait for summer......or spring break.  But I can wait!!  LOL

Bisque Pottery - A New Technique!

Today I am sitting around with my foot propped up because I twisted my ankle in our driveway this past weekend.  So I took the opportunity to participate in the Try A New Technique Challenge - TLC361 -  over at Splitcoaststampers.  I had to modify the technique because I don't have any embossing folders...so here is my card and the technique I used!

The technique is called Bisque Pottery Technique.  You were to ink up the negative side of the embossing folder with a neutral ink and then emboss.  Since I have no embossing folders I used my Spellbinders Impressabilities™ for this technique.  I started with a base of Neenah Solar Crest White #110 for my base and Simply Smooth White for everything else.   I inked up the Flower Silhouette Impressabilities using Versamark Embossing Ink and ran it thru my Grand Calibur using the embossing sandwich.  Then I sprinkled on clear embossing powder and heat set it.  After it cooled, I cut/embossed the panel using Labels Seventeen die #5 and inked the whole thing using Antique Linen Distress Ink.  The embossed parts resisted the ink leaving the cool look you see!  Then I cut/embossed a frame using Lattice Rectangles #3 and Labels Seventeen #2.  I inked all the edges on this frame, too.  I printed out my sentiment on my computer and cut/embossed it using Ribbon Banners die template.  As you can see, everything got inked really good - which is always fun!!  Plus I added a seam binding ribbon to complete the card.  Hopefully this does look like Bisque Pottery, if you don't think so I just hope you think its pretty!!

 

Keeping To The Resolution is Hard!

Already I am only 3 full weeks into 2012 and finding it hard to keep to my resolution to make 1 scrapbook layout a week!  I just haven't taken the time to sit down and work on a layout.  I have been creating but its not something I can share yet.   I did get a new book last week about making interactive scrapbook pages.  It's pretty cool and I will be trying some of the techniques in the book over the next few weeks and will share my results with you.

Before Thanksgiving, the girls had a 3 day weekend.  So on Friday, Cassie (my youngest) packed up her stuff and went with Matt (Colleen's boyfriend) to visit her sissy at college.  Matt took some fantastic pictures and the weather was fantastic.  Plus Cassie got to see just where her sissy was living and going to school.  It's funny....from the moment Cassie could talk she called her oldest sister - "Sissy", and if I wasn't available then her sissy was next in line to help.....they have a very close relationship and Colleen moving away to college has been kinda hard on Cassie.  But having a laptop with Skype seems to help.  LOL

Here is my layout of the weekend visiting Sissy at college......

I kept this layout pretty simple.  I used patterned paper from Echo Park's Life is Good Collection.  Plus I used 4 photos!!  So proud of myself!  LOL  I used Grand Nestabilities Labels 11 and Labels 11 Nestabilities for this layout.  I love that you have 12 sizes of dies if you buy both sets.  It makes things so simple when you want to journal with your computer like I did here.  I printed out my journaling and then die cut/embossed.  The bottom heart detail is from the Egdeabilities line called Classic Bracket from Spellbinders, too.

I will try to take a better picture tomorrow - hopefully the sun will be out.  I didn't realize it was such a wonky angle.  Sorry......  Talk to you tomorrow!

Step It Up! Flower Soft Challenge

Today its time for another Flower Soft project!  I have a little bit of a different style of project to share with you.  We were to use the new Mabel Lucie Atwell kits from Flower Soft and the challenge was called Step-It-Up!  So I thought a great way to step up a Flower Soft project was to make something other than a card.  Here is a shaped tag I made using the Mabel Lucie Atwell Kit #8 and some Diamond Range Gold Flower Soft.

 

Don't you just love those kids?  They are so cute.  I started this tag by cutting some chipboard into a house shape.  I totally eyeballed this so I don't really have any special instructions.  I covered all the chipboard with scraps of patterned paper from The Girls Paperie.  Right above the scalloped edge of the paper I added a strip of Scor-Tape and on the Scor-Tape I sprinkled some Diamond Range Gold Flower Soft.  For this look, its best to press the Gold into the Scor-Tape so it will stick really well.  I added the vintage lace from my stash using Scor-Tape, too.  I printed out the Love Is....on my computer.  I fussy cut the kids out of the Flower Soft kit and glued them into place.  This was such a fun project for me!

You can see what the other Flower Soft Design team members made for this challenge on the Flower Soft Blog.  Check it out and have a great day!!

Third Scrapbook Page

Well its the start of the third week in January and I am keeping to my resolution to make one scrapbook page a week!  Pretty proud of myself!!  I have only shown you 2 of the 3 scrapbook pages.  I will show you the third one when I can......I made it for a pub call!

The base of this scrapbook page is 12 x 12 sheet of Kraft cardstock.  The patterned paper is from the Pink Paislee collection - Vintage Vogue.  I love the colors and bling that came in the collection.   Even the wooden alphabet was part of the collection!!  For the alphabet, I sponged the letters with purple ink and then used a Signo White gel pen to doodle on them.  I thought it made them look much cuter!  The was a really easy scrapbook page and was pretty fast.  The only thing that took time was that I had to wait for the glimmer mist to dry on the Simply Smooth white cardstock.  I just gave a few good sprays of the mist and then let it dry.  I also matted the black and white pictures of my daughter onto some New Piggy Pink cardstock.  I just love the name and the color of that cardstock!!  LOL

Did you make a New Year's Resolution?  What is it and have you stuck to it?  I would love to know!  Hope you have a great Sunday!

Are You Ready for Valentine's Day?

You know what the next big holiday is?  It's Valentine's Day!  I love making projects for this special day.  The colors are so easy to pick and everything is about love. of chocolate   ;)

Here is a quick Genie Bag I made using a regular brown lunch bag and some of my favorite Spellbinder Paper Arts™ dies and papers from Discount Cardstock .

I used LF-246 Grand Nestabilities Labels Eleven to cover the front of my lunch bag.  After cutting/embossing 2 from Really Red Smooth Cardstock, I attached them to the front and back of the lunch bag.  I made sure that I cut off the bottom scallop (before adhering to bag) so it would sit flat.  Then I trimmed the lunch bag along the top following the die cut scallops.  I just used some Scor-Tape to adhere these into place. 

To make the pennant sentiment, cut/emboss 6 pennants from S5-029 Nested Lacey Pennants.  This is really easy if you have a typewriter.......yes.....a typewriter....then you can just type each pennant with the letter.  Otherwise, print out the sentiment onto some Simply Smooth White cardstock and cut/emboss each letter.  Attach some red twine to each side and adhere each letter into place using 3d foam squares.

Make the rosette from New Piggy Pink Cardstock 70# by cut/embossing 2 S4-293 Lacey Circles #4.  Using a Scor-Pal, score at each scallop, mountain and valley fold both circles,  then adhere together to form a full circle.  I added a S4-293 Lacey Circle #2 in Simply Smooth White cardstock plus a S4-296 Nested Hearts #1 in Really Red Smooth Cardstock.  I added a bling flourish from Want2Scrap to finish this little gift bag!  I love making genie bags!

Flower Soft Wednesday!

Well, its the first Flower Soft Wednesday of 2012.  The Flower Soft team has added some new members and I would like to welcome them to the team!  Be sure to check out the Flower Soft Blog to meet all the new members of our very talented team.

Here is a cute project I made using Flower Soft Fuschia Mixed Color in a little different way.

To make this frame, I first die cut some Grunge Paper (yes, it cuts GREAT in the Grand Calibur) using the S4-310 Labels Eighteen.  I used die numbers #3 & 4 to cut the grunge paper frame.  Then I coated the grunge paper with Flower Soft glue and sprinkled the Fuschia Flower Soft all over.  I lightly pressed the sprinkles into the glue since I wanted everything covered really well.  Then after it dried, I finished my card!  I used some more old hymnal papers and the sentiment was printed out using my computer.  The font is called Mom's Typewriter from www.dafont.com.  I have been using it alot lately!  I cut/embossed the sentiment out using S4-324 Ribbon Banners.  Then I used some Antique Linen Distress Ink to sponge around the edges.   The base of the card is Orchid Cardstock #67 from www.discountcardstock.com

This was a really fun card to make!  Thanks for all the nice comments and emails about my first video.  Be sure to let me know if you want to see a specific technique in my next video......yes, I am excited to do a second!  Have a great Wednesday.

My First Video!

Yes, you read that correctly.  I have had a flip video camera for at least the past 6 months, just sitting here in front of me everyday I work at my crafting table.  I have used excuse after excuse to try to get out of making a video and today I decided that I am no longer making excuses.  So I filmed a short video on how I made the musical background paper for this scrapbook page.  Hopefully its okay and you can see it fine.....let me know what you think!  Please be kind.....I haven't really figured out how to edit yet!  LOL

 

 

 

Hopefully this will work great AND I can learn to edit the video better, I will be making more tutorial videos.  So be sure to comment and let me know what you would like to see!!  Hope you have a great day!