Category Archives: cards

Versamark goodness

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I was going back through some old posts and discovered to my great chagrin that I had repeated a post.  Auwe!  And no, I’m not going to tell you which one it was.  As we used to taunt each other when I was a kid (back in the day before there was dirt) “That’s for me to know and for you to find out!”

On the flip side, I discovered that I hadn’t posted everything I’d intended.  This should give you a little insight into the moderately organized chaos that is my life.  I really work hard at being organized, but I’m far from perfect.

Pasley Prints Heart from convention 2010

  • Paisley Prints and So Many Thanks stamp sets
  • Soft Suede,  Whisper White, Peach Parfait, Pear Pizazz and Pretty in Pink card stock
  • Versamark ink pad; Soft Suede classic in pad
  • Heart, Jewelry tag and Bitty punches
  • Piercing tool, template and mat
  • Linen Thread; Pearl jewels

Sometimes I forget how easy it is to work with the Versamark pad.  When I first started stamping, it was my best friend in the world – any color, any time.  Now I take it for granted unless I want to emboss something and need that sticky Versa-Goodness.

Don’t miss that little sticky pearl on the Bitty Bit.  Those sheets of pearls and rhinestones last so long I think they’re doing the “socks in the laundry” trick.  Every time I go to get another one it looks like they’ve invited friends over.  Maybe I need to put up a video camera in the craft room….oooh, there’s a scary thought!

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

The Season of Friendship…In Color

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Our leaves don’t change color in the fall, at least not significantly.  There aren’t even that many deciduous trees in Hawaii.  Sure, the plumeria tree’s leaves thin out quite a bit in the winter, but you seldom see that bare-branch look you get on the Mainland.  I recall flying through Dallas-Fort Worth airport one year, and looking out the window as we took off I thought there must have been some sort of blight that caused all the trees to die.  It took me half the flight to figure out that it was just winter.  And yes, I grew up on the mainland and I even did my share of raking leaves once I became a homeowner.

Last autumn my husband and I were in New Hampshire and we really enjoyed the beautiful colors despite the fact that it snowed on us MULTIPLE times in October (and yes, I am still taking that personally).  We won’t be flying to the East Coast this year – it’s a very long flight – so any leaf colors I’ll see will be on my craft table:

Season of Friendship In Color

  • Season of Friendship and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait and Pear Pizazz card stock
  • Early Espresso, Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait and Pear Pizazz Classic ink pads
  • Crop-a-dile and Jumbo brads
  • Pear Pizazz ribbon and Hemp Twine

I love our In Colors for 2010-2011.  They’re such distinct, unique colors but they have an intensity that works really well together.

Stamping and other wonderful things

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There’s a group of stampers that meets at my house once a month…well, we call ourselves a stamping group and we definitely do stamp, but we also have a very good time.  We are a really diverse group but the things we all share are a love of crafting and a love of people.  There’s always a little teasing, a little story-telling, and a lot of laughing.   We met last night and here’s one of the cards we made:

Vintage Vogue Gate fold card

  • Vintage Vogue stamp set
  • Very Vanilla, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and Early Espresso card stock
  • Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and Early Espresso Classic Ink pads and Stampin’ Write markers
  • Real Red 1/4″ grosgrain ribbon, Rhinestone Jewels, Blender pen and Stampin’ Dimensionals
  • Big Shot and Top Note Bigz die

This card is really simple to make and a nice change of pace from a standard card.  Use a  quarter sheet of cardstock for the base and layer on  a piece of cardstock that measures 1/4″ less in both length and width.  Before you attach the two pieces together, insert the two flaps one on each side between  the layers and you’ve got the basic idea.

I didn’t include it in the list of supplies, but the Espresso circle in the center of the Real Red flower is an Owlie Bit.

Do you love to stamp?  Can you get to Maui once a month?  We’d love to have you join us…

Putting your heart on paper

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My brother and his wife had to make the painful decision to put their dog to sleep last month.  Anyone who has had a pet knows how agonizing that process is, and the thought that your fur friend is depending on you to do the right thing makes it that much harder.   I never met Ghostrider, but we loved her from the photos and stories and know that Don and Theresa are missing her.  It took me a while to get the feeling right, but I finally finished the card that’s been in my heart:

Thinking of you

  • Just Believe and Silhouette Sentiments stamp sets
  • Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, River Rock, Whisper White and Melon Mambo card stock
  • Crumb Cake, River Rock and Melon Mambo Classic ink pads
  • Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Melon Mambo and Rose Red Stampin’ Write markers
  • Antique brads, Linen thread and Stampin’ Dimensionals

That Melon Mambo panel has a fluorescent pink cast – trust me, it’s our lovely Mambo pink.

The message I’m sending is simple – I’m so sorry.  As much as I love words, I’ve never found any more profound than that when someone has lost a loved one.

While we’re on the subject of Halloween…

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This was one of those projects that sits around for a while and gathers dust while I decide what to do with it.  The final touch was the tree and since my favorite Branch Out stamp set is RETIRED, of all things, I had to wait for Crystal to come by with Season of Friendship so I could use that tree:

Owlie by the light of the moon

  • Aviary, Season of Friendship, Wonderfully Worn and Paisley Prints stamp sets
  • Paisley Party Stampin’ Around Wheel
  • Tangerine Tango, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Whisper White and Shimmer White card stock
  • Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, River Rock and Early Espresso classic ink pads
  • Cajun Craze  and Old Olive Stampin’ Write marker
  • Linen Thread, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stampin’ Sponges  and 1 1/4 inch circle punch

The moon is Shimmer paper sponged with Old Olive…or it might have been River Rock, I can’t exactly remember.  I added the tree after the card was all finished, and I was terrified to stamp directly on the card even WITH a Stamp-a-ma-jig.  I ended up stamping the image on a piece of scrap copy paper (it needs to be thin paper) and cutting the image out carefully.  That left me with a negative image of the tree that I temporarily put in place over the card with Dotto repositionable adhesive.  I very carefully sponged through the copy paper template to put the tree exactly where I wanted it.  Pretty sneaky, huh?

I have to try a couple more like this.  I really like the effeect of that sponged tree.  In all honesty, there’s no way I would have been able to do this with those gorgeous spidery branches on my Branch Out tree.  Season of Friendship finally wins.

Whoooo are you waiting for?

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These owls make me giddy.  I have a bunch of little jars on my craft table with Owl Bits in them…bodies, vesties, and eyeballs.  I punched out a bunch of the medium circles in white and the bitty eyeballs in Espresso and Chocolate and Black.  I discovered if I put that part together in a big batch that it saved a lot of trouble when it was time to finish my owls – I just reached into the eyeball jar and poof! there they were.  Now when I finish a project I check the scraps of paper before I brush them into the trash – anything big enough for Owl Bits gets punched and put in the jars.

Who Owl You Waiting For?

  • Word Play and Wood Grain stamp sets
  • Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and So Saffron card stock; Playdate Designer Series Paper
  • Chocolate Chip and Crumb Cake Classic ink pads
  • Old Olive Stampin’ Write marker
  • Two-Step Owl and Bird XL  punches; Large oval  punch
  • Big Shot and Top Note Bigz die

There are a couple of little punchy tricks in this card that you might not notice.  One owl is sitting on branches that come from the Bird punch, but if you look carefully, the other owl is sitting on a little green patch that happens to be the wing from that Bird punch.  I’m sure all of you are much smarter than me and had this figured out already, but I recently discovered that the little heart that you get from the Owl punch makes a great owl-beak.  I’ll bet the punch geniuses did that on purpose.

You could make this card over and over again in so many colors…just keep an Owl Bits jar on your craft table and you’ll have Owls-in-a-Flash!

Beautiful crochet lace

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I can’t believe it took me so long to use this lace!  Sometimes I’m stubborn about using something new like that.  I should have gotten over it sooner.

All of the images in the Just Believe stamp set are gorgeous, but I found myself returning to that same fabulous wildflower bouquet image so I challenged myself.  Yeah, I do that…sometimes with rather disastrous results.  I’m happy to report that this time the results were kinda cool – at least I thought so:

Just Believe Thanks in Jewel colors

  • Just Believe, En Francais and Vintage Vogue stamp sets
  • Whisper White, Concord Crush, Always Artichoke and Riding Hood Red card stock
  • Always Artichoke and Concord Crush Classic ink pads
  • Riding Hood Red and Concord Crush Stampin’ Write markers; Blender pen
  • Corner rounder, Crop-a-dile, Big Shot and Top Note Bigz die
  • Victoria Crochet Trim and Antique brads

I did NOT have to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig for the sentiment in the middle of the label because with our beautiful Clear Mount stamps I could see just where to put it!  I like that 🙂  I also fell in love with this color combination so watch for it again.

This has a real vintage feeling with the brad and that gorgeous crochet lace ribbon.  It’s really soft and easy to work with, and I’m looking forward to using it for some of my holiday projects.  There are some beautiful new products in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini that will be available to the general public on September 1 – be sure you check with your demonstrator to be sure your copy is on the way!

Missed it by that much…

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Anybody else an old Maxwell Smart fan?  I loved Get Smart back in the day, but I thought the movie was dumb.  Some things shouldn’t be re-done.

Anyway, what does all this have to do with the price of tea in China?  (My we ARE digging out the old chestnuts today!)  I had the ColourQ 45 Challenge colors listed on my craft table all week and finally finished the card yesterday, only to realize that I’d just missed the posting deadline.   Well, I missed being considered for Colour Queen, but of course I can still upload to the site.  Would you vote for me?

ColourQ45 Believing is Seeing

  • Just Believe stamp set
  • Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Early Espresso and Wild Wasabi card stock
  • Wild Wasabi and Early Espresso Classic ink pads
  • Regal Rose and Rose Red Stampin’ Write markers
  • Big Shot and Lattice Embossing folder; Stampin’ Dimensionals
  • Pretty in Pink 3/8 inch taffeta ribbon and Pearls Stick-on Jewels

I couldn’t get into the Tempting Turquoise in the Colour Q scheme, and I thought I would be really sneaky and just put a teeny tiny border in to satisfy the requirements.  Who would have guessed that it would work so well??  I was astonished to say the least.

Today’s ribbon treatment does NOT involve sticky, tacky adhesive, thank you very much.  There’s a simple running stitch on one side of a 2 inch scrap of ribbon, pulled together and knotted to make a half-rosette.  A pair of those are on either side of the sentiment and I am very pleased with they way they turned out.  I’m sure someone has done this before but I haven’t seen it done so for now I am claiming this brilliant concept.

You know you’re gonna need this stamp set…

Bubbly Circles Under the Sea

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I am fascinated with color.  I love to explore the moods of individual colors and color combinations, to mix and match different tones and hues of the same colors.  You know where this is going, don’t you?  Yep – blues and greens.

Circle Circus Blues and Greens

  • Circle Circus and Word Play stamp sets
  • Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Wild Wasabi and Rich Razzleberry card stock
  • Baja Breeze and Wild Wasabi Classic ink pads
  • Whisper White Craft ink pad and White Embossing powder
  • Big Shot and Elegant Lines Embossing Folder
  • Scallop Border and XL Decorative Label punches
  • Brights Designer Buttons and white crochet thread

Don’t you love the Razzleberry with Baja and Wasabi?

The bubbly circle cracks me up.  No particular reason, it just makes me laugh.  Maybe I watched the Little Mermaid with my daughters too many times, but I keep thinking of all those undersea creatures talking underwater.  It seemed to me at the time that they needed little bubbles floating up when they talked, but that could just be the effects of being a SAHM with three active kids.

I love our Linen Thread, but I couldn’t bring myself to use it with all the crisp white on this card.