Category Archives: 3-D

The cutest little flower pot you’ll ever see

Posted on by
1

I was in my local hardware store the other day and spotted the cutest little clay pot you have ever seen – all of 1 1/2 inches tall.  It was $2 which almost caused me to pass it up, but I’m glad I was feeling extravagant:

Tiny Bouquet

Don’t you love it?  I’m not a huge punch-art fan, but I love the flowers you can make with punches.  These are made from the 5 petal flower (the pointed one) and the 1 inch and 3/4 inch circles.  The tiny pale ones are made with the Bitty Punches, and the leaves are from the XL Two Step Bird punch.  I had to put int a few butterflies from the Beautiful Wings Embosslit too.  Here’s another view:

Tiny Bouquet

I attached the flowers with E-6000 adhesive because it’s super-goopy, and the butterflies and Bitty Punch flowers are held on with straight pins.   I wish the little pot had been more reasonably priced, because these would be cute gifts.  It really wasn’t fair – the big 4 inch pot sitting next to it was 79 cents!  Ah well, I would have driven myself crazy making all those little flowers.

Make a little note on your calendar to check in all next week.  I’m participating in my first blog hop and it promises to be full of wonderful inspiration.

Just little tags…

Posted on by
Reply

The convention Make-and-Takes always include some sort of 3-D project… Stampin’ Up! likes to keep us well-rounded.  This year was no exception.  We made a charming pouch style package that was quick and easy:

Just Believe pouch with tags

  • Just Believe stamp set
  • Pear Pizazz, Peach Parfait, Daffodil Delight and Whisper White card stock
  • Pear Pizazz, Peach Parfait, Daffodil Delight and Early Espresso Classic ink pads
  • Versamark ink pad
  • Word Window and 1 1/4 inch circle punches
  • Crop-a-dile and Early Espresso striped grosgrain
  • Small flat cello bag and Sticky Strip adhesive

This is a simple project that would make a great gift and can be easily re-interpreted to suit any color scheme or season.  When you open the pouch you can see the bag inside all ready for the little tags:

Just Believe pouch open

Look how cute those tags look in the cello bag – and they just jumped right in there!  The bag is attached to the pouch with some Sticky Strip so you can take the tags out one at a time – the top stays open.

That ribbon is cracking me up.  You can’t begin to imagine how many times I positioned and re-positioned it while I was taking the photos, and every time it made me think of a handlebar moustache.  Maybe the ribbon is just too long, but more likely my brain is just too weird.

My Desk-top Make-over

Posted on by
2

I’m an office supplies dork.  I love nice pens and Post-it® notes and crisp pads of paper and colored push pins and highlighters and Sharpies®.  You can imagine my reaction when I saw the matching file folders and envelopes in the Family Organization Suite.  Those big bold flowers and that goofy owl are a great starting place for a desk-top make-over:

Play Date Class projects

I’m offering a class this month to get the make-over started.  We’ll make the jumbo paper clip book mark, the Post-It® note holder and the clipboard plus a coordinating card (that missed the photo) for $15.  Class will be Thursday morning September 16 from 9:30 am to 11:30 am and Tuesday evening September 21 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.  Take a 10% discount on any of the Family Organization suite products on pages 92 and 93 of the Idea Book and Catalog with your paid class attendance – a few of those items are pictured below.  I hope you can join us!

Play Date Family Organization Suite

Simple Circles

Posted on by
Reply

I brought home a lot of great samples from convention.  They’ve been a source of inspiration for classes and workshops, and this card is a double dipper.  There were two different cards that used the “circle-as-flower” technique, and I adapted it even further:

Circle Circus Flowers

  • Circle Circus and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
  • Sahara Sand, Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede, Pretty in Pink and Whisper White card stock
  • Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo and Cherry Cobbler Classic ink pads
  • Big Shot and Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder
  • XL Two Step Bird  and Modern Label punches;  1 3/4, 1 1/4 and 3/4 inch circle punches

This is about as easy as it gets.  Stamp 3 circles,  punch 3 circles, add 3 little scraps for stems and 3 little leaves (do you recognize the wing and a leaf from the XL Two Step Bird punch?)  Sahara Sand is such a neutral color that it takes what could be a very femine card and makes it relatively neutral.  If you wanted it to be masculine, you’d need to pull out your Shades-of-Blue stamp pads but that wouldn’t be so difficult, would it?

Spooky things

Posted on by
Reply

If you’re like me, a new Stampin’ Up! catalog makes your heart beat faster.  One of the (many!) perks of being a demonstrator is seeing the new catalogs before they are released – and getting to order many of those products a month ahead of time.

The Holiday Mini catalog this year practically had me reaching for the oxygen.  Not only are there forays into fabulous new product lines – you’ve certainly heard that we have FABRIC – but there are awesome products for cards, scrapbooking, decorating, and just about any kind of crafting you can imagine for ALL the winter holidays (ok, time to cool it on the caps, I know.)  We saw a lot of great projects at convention using Holiday Mini products, but this was one of my favorites:

Spooky Things Decor Elements

Don’t you love it?? This is a perfect solution to my Halloween dilemma.  I know that most of you mainland folks buy your pumpkins and carve them days, maybe even a week before Halloween, and that they last beautifully out on your frosty front porches.  It doesn’t quite work that way here…we usually carve our pumpkins Halloween afternoon.  By the time they’ve spent a couple of hours Halloween evening on the front lanai with a tea light candle burning in them, they are already looking sort of sad.  The morning after is always depressing – there have been years when my pumpkins were already growing things at 8am on November 1.  If the trash man isn’t coming soon those pumpkins need to be well-wrapped before they get the heave-ho!  Ugh.  It grosses me out just to think about it.

Back to the fun stuff – the Home Office Genius Department had to paint orange pumpkins white – just couldn’t find white pumpkins in July – but I think these are just smashing!  (sorry, I couldn’t resist!)  Take some pumpkins and add a  few pieces from the Spooky Things Decor Elements (120909 black, 122296 dark grey, $14.95), some Black Flourish Designer Jewels (123987, $4.95) and black ribbon (lots of choices there!) and you have instant Halloween.   They may not last months and months in the tropics, but they’ll at least make it through the week.

We also saw luminarias done with the same Decor Elements:

Spooky Things luminarias

And one last spectacular project – the Haunted House:

Decor Accents Design-a-House Stampin Up!

It was worth the entire cost of convention to see this project put together on stage.  Suffice it to say that the folks that work in the Stampin’ Up! Home Office have  an enormous dose of creativity and the gift of entertainment.  This house is a Decor Accents Design-a-House (120911, $5.95) – it comes in white all ready for your own creative blast.

Time to put in a Holiday Mini catalog order!  Click on the image and the whole glorious catalog will open in a pdf.

Stampin' Up! 2010 Holiday Mini catalog

A Happy Birthday Lei

Posted on by
1

Women of a certain age don’t tell their ages anymore, but we still celebrate our birthdays.  First of all, we’re worth it, and second of all, considering the alternative we’re happy to be around to have those birthdays!!

Today is Robbie’s birthday and I made her a special lei.  What you may not realize is that I don’t have the Candy Wrapper die – yep, you guessed it – it’s hers and I borrowed it.  But I came up with this goofy idea all by myself (you can certainly tell, can’t you?)  It was actually one of the first things I thought of when I saw the little box.

Candy Wrapper Bigz Die lei

As you can imagine, lei are a very important here in Hawaii.  There are many beautiful and more traditional lei made from plants and flowers, shell,  or feathers, each invested with cultural significance.  This is not one of those lei.  This is a crazy-cousin-who-really-doesn’t-quite-belong-in-the-family-but-we-love-him-anyway lei.  We have many variations on that too – some time I’ll have to do a post on some of the more creative versions.  This one is made from Melon Mambo cardstock rolled with the cupcakes wheel, spritzed with Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint spray and embellished with words from the Fabulous Phrases set.  The boxes are attached to one another with some retired ribbon.  I know, I know…maybe next week when my schedule frees up I’ll post another Un-Tutorial.

If you look closely you’ll see a couple of slightly amusing things in this photo.  The first is Owlie Eyeballs drying on the side of my desk.  The second is my pathetically warped cutting pad from the Ribbon Flower episode (And yes, I’ve gotten my hands on some Sticky Pages and I intend to try again.  But first I need a 2×4 to hold the ribbon securely so I don’t melt anything else in my craft room.)

Don’t tell her…I’m counting on her being too busy to look…but I had to post this photo – her outfit coordinated with the lei!!  Happy 29th birthday, my friend.

Robbie and the Birthday Lei

Maui Stampers Brainstorming Goes Batty

Posted on by
1

The Maui Stampers met Friday morning for our monthly team meeting (wouldn’t you love to be one of us?  You can, you know – email me!).  We mostly gab and stamp and then at the end we try to eat healthy stuff because we’re all watching our girlish figures.  Crystal brought Isaac – she was only going to drop off some stuff and run home but we persuaded her to stay.  I had a senior photo moment and didn’t take one picture of him, but he was very happy sitting next to Auntie Kellie.

We were playing with Halloween stuff (most of it was Robbie’s, and she had to work)  and came up with a concept that we thought needed work but had great potential.  I have faith in all of you and your creative abilities so take a look and then leave a comment on how to spiff this baby up:

The Candy Wrapper gone Bats

  • Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black card stock
  • Early Espresso Classic ink pad
  • Big Shot and Candy Wrapper Bigz L die; small oval punch
  • Stampin’ Sponges, Window Sheets and Tombo the Wonder Adhesive

We punched out the bats and used the negative image as a template to sponge bats all over the cardstock.  We tried adding ribbon to the ends but it didn’t work for us.  To make the bat stand up, we punched a small oval from a window sheet and cut it in a spiral to make something that spproximated a spring.   The oval worked best because of the shape of the bat.

We all think it needs more/another color – some white somewhere to catch your eye?  Can’t wait to hear what you think.

An un-tutorial on the Matchbook Style Sticky Note holder

Posted on by
5

I’ve had a couple of requests for more detail on some projects in the past few days.  I have to be honest – I don’t see tutorials in my future.  I don’t really have the patience to set it all up, and especially to do video.  Ugh.  That means a script, and lighting, and maybe editing, and — aaarrrgg! — a manicure.  I don’t think so.

But when someone asks so nicely and tells me how much they love my blog, how can I say no?  (PLEASE do not test me on this.  Ask my kids:  I am capable of saying no.)  Here are a few photos and some dimensions for the matchbook style sticky note holder:

Matchbook style Sticky Note open

Here’s the basic folder.  The cardstock is cut to 7  7/8″ x 3  1/4″ and scored at 1/2″,  1″,  4 1/4″,  and 4 1/2″.  That gives you room for a standard 3×3″ sticky note pad – it’s about 3/8″ thick.  If you’re making these as favors or give-aways you can split the pads in halves or even thirds and adjust the scoring marks accordingly.  (Sorry, I detest fractions – you’ll have to do the math yourself.)

Matchbook style sticky note holder from the side

Here you can see the way the Sticky Notes fit into the cardstock.  The score marks at 1/2″ and 1″ make the base of the matchbook cover.  I’ve used a 1/2″ circle – actually two of them adhered together with Tombo-the-miracle-adhesive – and attached to the center of that first 1/2″ tab with a brad.  I put the brad through the circle in the bottom half to leave enough room to tuck the top flap in.  I tried buttons, which I thought would be cuter, but you couldn’t cheat them to the bottom like that and they didn’t hold the top flap down.

Ta Da! The Matchbook Sticky Note holder

Here’s the finished Sticky Note holder, all ready to go.  I’m working on my September class and this will be part of it.  Wouldn’t you like to come to Maui to go to this class?  I have room for you…

I need to learn the keyboard shortcut for the “registered trade-mark” symbol – you know, the R with the circle around it.  All this talk about “Sticky Notes” is really annoying.

Share what you love

Posted on by
Reply

At the Stampin’ Up! annual convention every year, demonstrators are invited to a place called “Memento Mall”.   The Home Office comes up with all sorts of merchandise unavailable in the catalog (or for that matter anyplace else) to entice us to spend our stamp money.  You would think we would hold onto that stamp money pretty carefully, but then maybe you haven’t seen Memento Mall:

Memento Mall 2010

This photo is blurry because no one stands still in Memento Mall.  Demonstrators rush in and pounce on every display, grabbing merchandise and trying to figure out how much it costs and whether or not there is a purchase limit.  It’s a stampers’ feeding frenzy!

One of my favorite Memento Mall purchases is this stamp:

Share What You Love post-its

I’m not going to give you a recipe, because the stamp was only available at the Stampin’ Up! Convention and some of the papers are retired.  These are little Post-It note holders (courtesy of the amazing Becky Roberts – I could CASE her all day) and they are gifts for workshop guests who bring a friend.

The heart of stamping – and Stampin’ Up! – is sharing and I hope you enjoy what I share with you.

A Holiday Mini Sneak Peak

Posted on by
1

Robbie is flying out tonight on the red-eye to go to a huge family event in Northern California, and being the amazing and generous soul that she is, she INSISTED I take her brand-new, Holiday Mini Sneak Peak for demonstrators Big Shot die to play with because otherwise it would be lonesome at home.  Now that I have it, I may not give it back:

Sneak Peak Sizzix Bigz Treat Holder in Mambo

I didn’t intend to do anything more than put this Candy Wrapper Box together so that when Robbie returns, I could show her how to assemble the box.  Ha!  If you don’t have the Big Shot yet, you’d better change the channel, Cherie.  Imagine this in Pumpkin Pie with bats and spiders…in Night of Navy covered with stars and snowmen…in Bashful Blue with that cute little onesie rolled around it…you get the idea.

  • Cute by the Inch Hostess Level II stamp set
  • Melon Mambo and Whisper White card stock; Retired Designer Series Paper
  • Regal Rose Classic ink pad
  • Big Shot and Candy Wrapper Bigz L die
  • Pretty in Pink 5/8″ Satin ribbon; Rhinestone jewels
  • Heat tool;  hideously messy non-SU glue
  • Jewelry tag medium punch, 1″ circle punch

Now don’t go thinking I’m rubbah-dulteratin’  (courtesy of Jan Tink) by using a non-Stampin’ Up! flower.  Shannon West showed us these flowers at convention and I’ve been wanting to try them since I got home.  I considered taking photos for you but thought I’d better figure it out first…good decision.  Shannon used our Sticky Pages to form and hold the ribbon into a flower, and since I didn’t have any Sticky Pagges on hand I decided to use a very sticky clear liquid glue – something similar to what hot glue would be if it were liquid.  I won’t name names.

To make the flower, you snip almost all the way through your ribbon at 1/2″ intervals and then use your heat tool to curl up the “petals”.  At this point, I discovered my first challenge.  Any surface appropriate for holding the ribbon flat in order to blast it with the heat tool was not going to survive the blasting, and my fingers were not either.  I ended up warping my old cutting mat (I need a new one anyway, no biggie) because the alternative was holding that ribbon across my lap and believe me, that was not going to happen.

It took a while for the ribbon to heat up, but once it started to curl the edges rolled up quickly and I was on to step 2.  I punched a 1″ circle from a scrap of cardstock and covered it with the Glue That Must Not Be Named.  Shannon had worked so quickly and smoothly, but she wasn’t dealing with those funny stringy bits of glue – you know the ones.  I had to add more and more glue as I worked my way around the circle, mostly because a significant amount of the GTMNBN was at this point stuck all over my fingers.  Not only must it Not Be Named, it does Not Come Off of Fingers very well.

Candy Wrapper Ribbon Flower

The final result is very pretty, especially with that blingy Rhinestone in the middle covering up the messy end bits all covered with GTMNBN.  I want to point out that this was my very first attempt at this technique, and I’m sure I’ll get better.  I’ll also get some Sticky Pages (#114300, $6.95 for two 12×12 sheets and worth every penny).