Category Archives: 3-D

Kellie’s Halloween Treats

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Kellie was here this week and shared these fabulous Halloween treat holders.  She told me that she made over 30 of them with her mom and her daughter for her daughter to share at school, and they had a great time together.  Her mom commented that the 9 year old recipients might not appreciate all the time and effort that went into the making, but her daughter responded   “But I’m having a GREAT time!!”  Doesn’t that make your heart melt?

Kellie's Halloween Treats

  • Wicked Cool Stamp set
  • Basic Black Classic ink pad; Whisper White Craft ink pad
  • Basic Black, Whisper White and Pumpkin Pie card stock
  • Wicked Fun Specialty paper
  • Circle and Scallop Circle punches
  • XL Two Step Owl punch
  • Big Shot and Candy Wrapper Bigz die

I don’t have the exact list of supplies from Kellie, so I’m improvising here.  My photo barely picks up the cob webs running along the side of the black cardstock but they are the perfect touch.

Do you recognize the ghost?  Kellie saw it on Stampers’ Showcase, the Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator creative sharing site.  It’s the XL Two Step owl, standing on his head with his feet cut off.  Doesn’t that crack you up?  I guess I’m easily entertained, but it gives me the giggles.

So what’s keeping you from making a few treat holders – and some memories – with your family??

Using up the “bits”

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Sometimes I stamp something that doesn’t fit the project I’m working on, but I like the way it looks.  Those “bits” as I like to refer to them usually end up on the bulletin board above my stamp desk for me to ponder.  If they’re “little bits” they have a jar on my desk, but when things get into that jar they sometimes never leave – they’re too small to remember.   This was a bit on the bulletin board that kept calling me:

Circle Circus Bits

  • Circle Circus and Thanks So Much stamp sets
  • Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and Very Vanilla card stock
  • Chocolate Chip, Real Red and  Pumpkin Pie Classic ink pads
  • Real Red 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon
  • Large oval punch; XL Decorative Label punch

This is a simple concept that could be re-interpreted in many different ways, but I thought the colors were very Autumnal, and I’ve said before that changing the colors of my paper is as close to Autumn as I get here in the islands.  You could even take a full sheet (8 1/2 x 11 inches) of Very Vanilla cardstock and do your random stamping all over that, then cut it into card pieces.  Sometimes it’s all about efficiency!

Letterpress for Christmas

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RemARKable Holiday 2010 Madness

Even though it’s still September, it’s time to have a little Christmas Speak Peek.  After all, there are some pretty fabulous Christmas goodies in that Holiday Mini Catalog – wouldn’t you agree??  There are so many choices  but there was no question in my mind regarding where to start for Christmas.  Have you seen the Letterpress plates??

Joyful Season Letterpress card

  • Big Shot and Joyful Season Letterpress Plate
  • Watercolor paper; Real Red and Old Olive cardstock
  • Real Red and Old Olive Craft Ink Spots
  • Frost White Shimmer Paint and the Aquapainter
  • Paper Piercing Tool, Template and Mat
  • Scallop Trim Border punch
  • Real Red 1/8 inch taffeta ribbon

Can I get an Ooooo and an Aaahhh??  The heart-breaker here is that my photography doesn’t begin to do this technique justice.  The images aren’t just inked into the paper, they are truly pressed.  If you flip the paper over you can clearly see the reverse image, and that deep impression gives this card a very luxe look when you hold it in your hand.  The Frost White Shimmer paint was applied directly onto the image full strength with the Aquapainter for a little extra bling on the stockings – you can just see it at the tops of the two outside stockings, but it’s also on the stripes of the middle one.  (Dang.  I am going to have to spend good stamp money on a camera.  Double Dang.)

By the way, the dimensions for this card are 3 1/4 by 6 1/2 inches as you see it, and yes we do have envelopes for that size (#107286, $7.50 for 20, page 171 in the IBC).  This is a Christmas card that will truly turn heads!

And now for something a little different:

Letterpress Gift Box

  • Northern Hearts Level I Hostess Set (Holiday Mini)
  • Big Shot and Northern Trim Letterpress Plate
  • Watercolor Paper; Melon Mambo and Tempting Turquoise Classic ink pads
  • Melon Mambo and Tempting Turquoise Craft ink spots
  • Scallop Border Trim and Ornament punches
  • 1 and 1 1/4 inch circle punches
  • Basic rhinestone jewels and Linen Thread

I’ll be mailing Christmas gifts to my oldest daughter in Australia this year.  It’s gonna be tough – this is the first time one of my keiki will not be home on Christmas morning.  In case you haven’t checked, postage overseas is kind of expensive, so our gifts to her will be of the “Good Things Come In Small Packages” sort.  This flat little box will ship very nicely, and I have a pretty good idea of what I’m putting inside.  Can’t say, of course – she does check the blog, although I suspect both she and her sister check in just to see if I’ve said anything about them 🙂

I love all the bling on this package.  Those Basic Rhinestone Jewels and Pearls are such fun to use, and I swear that for every two I pull off the sheet, one grows back in their place.  These aren’t exactly your traditional Christmas colors, but I was inspired to go really bright with this project.  Hmmm…since this will be an Aussie package, I guess they are non-traditional Christmas Colours.

Next Stop on the Holiday Madness Blog Tour

Tags for your memories

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Paisley Leaves tag

Welcome to Day Four of the RemARKable Holiday Madness Blog tour!  I hope you’re enjoying all the fabulous creations that the RemARKables have posted for you, and I want to encourage you to leave a COMMENT.   It’s quite easy, and really quite fun.  Those of us who labor to bring you such fabulous and fascinating content LOVE-LOVE-LOVE to get your comments!

Sizzix leaves tag

Do you like today’s projects?  I’ve had this idea in mind for a while but as is often the case, it had to simmer away on the back burner for a bit.  I’ve used the Paisley Prints stamp set as well as the Big Shot and the Originals Leaves #2 die to create the leaves, and I started by just stamping and cutting a heap of them.  The tags are cut from Crumb Cake card stock and embellished with the leaves, Always Artichoke 1/2″ Seam Binding and the Big Designer Deck the Halls Buttons from the Holiday Mini catalog.  One tag is stamped with a “thanks” sentiment from the Thank You Kindly stamp set and the other is rolled with the Bright Blessings Jumbo Stampin’ Around Wheel. The buttons are sewn on with our Linen Thread, one of my favorite “little touches”.

Autumn Napkin Rings

I used the same leaves and embellishments to create some autumn napkin rings.  It was fun to mix and match the different leaves – they’re attached to a 1″ punched circle of cardstock with Tombo-the-wonder-adhesive.

Single Napkin ring

I had a long string of wooden beads that I was given years ago when I was a scout leader, and they have been waiting for just the right project to come along.  I strung them on heavy elastic cord and knotted it, then used Linen Thread to tie the leaves onto the beads.  It was simple and fun and I’m thinking I’ll make a few more leaves and add them to what I have leftover to make a banner of sorts that I can hang in my dining room.

I know that somebody out there is wondering what colors I used for the ink and the card stock.  There are lots of colors!  I used Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke, More Mustard and of course Whisper White card stock.  I stamped with Classic ink pads in Peach Parfait, Wild Wasabi, River Rock, Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Always Artichoke and Old Olive.  In other words, I worked with whatever was in arm’s reach!  It’s liberating to be random – I’m usually so focused on matching and detail, and I enjoyed stretching myself outside of my comfort zone with this.

Next Stop on the Holiday Madness Blog Tour

The cutest little flower pot you’ll ever see

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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…

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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