Paper Piecing Pun Fun

I {heart} paper piecing!!! If you haven't tried it yet, you really should. It's way easier than it looks and is a fun new way to use stamps that you'd normally color. Paper piecing is Beate's feature technique in this week's SCS weekly inking and you can see her great tutorial HERE. I did some paper piecing at my workshops earlier this year and you can see my brief tutorial HERE. I also used this week's SCS sketch challenge 178 for the birdie card. I stamped the birdie from the Pun Fun set (don't you just love his belly & that sweet little grin on his face?), with Jet Black Stazon and colored his beak with an SU Pumpkin Pie marker. The DPs, self-adhesive flowers and textured cardstock all came from my Crew Kids Girls Simply Scrappin Kit! Here's a little closer look at that birdie and the paper piecing : ) ~
I know, I know...you're probably tired of seeing the Pun Fun set...but it's perfect for the paper piecing technique (besides, I just love it...a bunch!). Here's another card I made today. I think this one should have a coffee gift card inside, don't you? Mmmm, makes me want a latte right now...I wonder if Starbucks has ever considered doing home deliveries, like the pizza guys, only way better, cause they'd be bringing coffee, good coffee, yum! Maybe we should start a petition. lol !!! The DP is from the Prints Pack Designer Series pack (hostess level-1). I stamped the cup and sentiment in Black Stazon, then added some Dazzling Diamonds to the hearts and dots with a Sakura quickie glue pen. Then I added some White Liquid Applique and Irridescent Ice EP for "foam" and hit it with the Heat Gun. The foam is puffy and shimmery, you can kind of see it here ~ Okay, now it's your turn...when you get a chance, try some paper piecing...you'll love it! Hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy EVERY minute : ) !!!

Supplies for the Birdie card ~ Stamps: Pun Fun Paper: Wasabi & Regal Rose (regular and textured), Whisper White, Crew Kids SSK DP Ink: Jet Black Stazon Acessories: Word Window Punch, Horizontal slot punch, Paper piercing tool/mat pack, Ticket corner punch, Self adhesive die cut flowers from the Crew Kids SSK, Kaiser self adhesive rhinestones, 1/4" pink gg ribbon, striped Amuse ribbon

Supplies for the Latte card ~ Stamps: Pun Fun Paper: Regal Rose (regular & textured), Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Designer Series Prints Pack Ink: Black Stazon Accessories: Pink Brads, 1/16" hole punch, 1/4" circle punch, Paper piercing tool/mat pack, 1/4" pink gg ribbon, Liquid Applique, Irridescent ice DP, Heat Gun, Dazzling Diamonds, Sakura quickie pen, Sakura clear glaze pen

Happy Stamping : )

More Blog Candy!

Hello from Seattle = ) !!! We're here visiting family for a few days (I LOVE Seattle!), so this will be my last post until early next week. But, I was thinking, since I can't stamp for a few days, why not give away a little BLOG CANDY!!!You probably recongnize this butterfly image from the Sale-a-bration set, Merci. I absolutely love this set! If I was stranded on a desert island and could only have 5 sets with me (forget the food...give me stamps!),this would be one of them! Now that SAB is over, this set is no longer available (gasp!)...BUT, I just happen to have an extra set, and I want to give it away to one lucky winner!
Here's what's included in the blog candy~
1) One die-cut, unmouted Merci Stamp set
2) One 3 x 3 butterfly notecard (pictured above)
3) Enough pre-cut/pre-scored cardstock to make five 3 x 3" notecards
4) 3 yards of coordinating ribbon (not pictured)

More details coming up on how you can win....at the end of today's post! But first, I mentioned that Merci set was my favorite, and a big reason for that is because I love to color, especially with markers! Coloring doesn't have to be difficult or complicated. Sometimes just a few strokes of color is all you need. SU Markers are a great way to add color & shading to your projects. For the butterfly card above, I used markers in Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery & Old Olive. Two of those colors were the same as the cardstock and the other two were a deeper shade of those colors.

Here are a couple of photos that show how I used the fat/paintbrush end of the Regal Rose marker to outline the wings:
...And the fat/paintbrush end of the Pretty in Pink marker to fill in the rest of the wing. I use light, circular strokes, and sort of "paint" the color on. I went right over the top of the Regal Rose outline, to blend the edges. I used the skinny end of the Old Olive Marker to outline the body of the butterfly, then the fat end of the Celery marker to fill in the body and trace over the antennas (sorry...I didn't take photos of those steps, but you can see those details in the first photo). Really simple....Really quick. And for the finishing touch, I used the 2-way glue pen to hi-light a few spots on the wings then dusted them with Dazzling Diamonds glitter! The Cardstock is Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery and Whisper White. I used the Ticket Corner punch on the image layers.

My stamping time has been very limited these past few weeks... but I am so excited....I should be back to my regular stamping (yay!) and posting (yay!) routine next week!!! In the meanwhile....If you'd like to be in the drawing for the blog candy, just leave me a comment under this post, telling me what you've been up to with stamping ~ Do you have a favorite stamp set, technique or tool?? I'd love to hear about it! I'll pick a random winner on Monday morning....one entry per person please = ) !!!

Since I find myself in Seattle....I'm going to make a trip over to A-muse Rubber Stamps tomorrow and check it out! I hear it's a great shop!! Hey, maybe they'll have paper & ink out to play with...that would be so awesome!!!!!

Happy Stamping!

Easter Workshop Projects

Here are a variety of projects we worked on at my workshops, clubs & classes last month. Wow, these past few weeks have been crazy busy! So much fun and excitement during Sale-A-Bration!! Only a few more days till all those wonderful SAB bonuses are gone till next year! We used a fantastic little stamp set called, Never Ending Joy at the workshops, to make some fun, simple little Easter projects, while exploring a variety of techniques. This basket is just the right size to hold one egg, or a few small goodies...I'll be sharing that tutorial a little later this week. I think I may have already shown you this card...but I'll show you again, because it's what we made using the Two-Step Stampin' Technique (just click on the words to pop over the SU and see how two-step stampin' is done). We used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to get those stems, flowers and the bow all lined up...that tool makes it easy! We finished off the image with some touches of dazzling diamonds and the new Poly-Twill Old Olive ribbon!!

This next card is a super simple 3 x 3 enclosure card. I kept it very simple so we could concentrate on the technique (hey, 2 hours in a workshop goes by soooo fast!). For the Pink card, we used markers. I chose 2 shades of each color: Pretty in Pink & Pixie Pink...Almost Amethyst & Lovely Lilac...Certainly Celery & Old Olive. Using the lighter marker first, you just cover the entire portion of the image then color in accents/shading with the darker shade. Then, you "huff" some breath onto the stamp to re-moisten, and stamp the image. You can see a brief tutorial on this technique at Stampin Up's website, along with other technique & project ideas...check it out HERE! I love my markers and this is yet another great way to use them!! You can see the color and shading variations in these photos ~

And for this last Lavender Lace card...we used the Poppin' Pastels technique for the tulips. First, we stamped the stem in Certainly Celery, the bow in Barely Banana, then Stamped the tulips in Versamark. Using a Sponge Dauber, we added some Lavender Lace Pastels (aka chalk) to the tulips. It gave them a really nice soft look (little hard to see in the photo). We did a brief introduction to the Poppin Pastels technique...but if you're interested in learning more, Beate has done a great tutorial over at SCS and you can see that HERE!

So...that's part of what I've been up to for the past few weeks. It's fun to explore new techniques, and this stamp set works perfectly for doing just that! I still have a few more orders to get ready for delivery, and some workshop prep to finish up for this month's events and then....on to some challenge & sketch cards = ) !! Yay! Don't get me wrong, even with being super busy, I wouldn't trade a minute. It's been a blast helping my friends and customers earn free merchandise during SAB!

Supplies for the basket: coming up later this week along with the tutorial

Supplies for the card:

Stamps: Never Ending Joy

Paper: Lavender Lace, Old Olive, Whisper White, Bali Breeze DP

Ink: Lavender Lace, Old Olive & Apricot Appeal

Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds with 2-way glue pen, Pewter brads, Paper piercing tool, Ticket corner punch, Poly-twill 1/4" Olive ribbon

I've got some exciting news to share with you later this week ... = ) !!

Happy Tuesday!

My Excellent Stamping Friends

Two of the most amazingly talented stamping girls sent me this wonderful award...and coming from them, it means a lot to me!! A GREAT BIG thank you to the wonderful Cami, Stampalittlelovebaby and Sarah, MyScrapbookTable, for sending me this most excellent award:

Plus...this card is in honor of Sarah being this week's Feature Stamper at SCS! She is a bundle of creative talent and you can find her card that I cased HERE. And the details for playing along with the FS Challenge HERE. This card actually combined Sarah's basic layout, use of floral background and oval sentiment, with the Poppin' Pastels technique that Beate recapped for us this week in SCS's weekly Inking. I'd already planned on using this technique at my workshops this month, but in a much smaller way. This card is my first attempt at doing it on a larger scale and combining several colors. I had asked Cami, a couple weeks ago, what I should use to seal the chalks..and she suggested "cheap hairspray"...and guess what...it works beautifully! A light spraying with Suave and the chalks were sealed!! Two of my customers ordered this Simply Said, stamp set recently, and it reminded me of just how much I love this set. It's just an awesome stamp set...hearts, flowers, sentiments...stamps that can be used alone, or with 2-step stamping...lots & lots of versatility in this little set and a great one to use for springtime & valentine cards and projects! It was really fun to take it out and use it this morning. We just returned from a cruise that stopped at some tropical ports, so I was feeling inspired by the bright flowers we saw...that was the final inspiration for this card and my color scheme!! First time I've stamped in about 10 days...it was fun to try some new things = ) !!!

And now, it's my pleasure to pass this EXCELLENT award on to 10 other people. There are so many wonderfully talented stampers out there, it's hard to narrow it down to just 10, but here we go:

Amanda ~ mystampingspace
Angel ~ angelosity
Dawn ~ treasureoilerdesignz
Diane ~ dianesdesigns
Flossie ~ flossiesfollies
Jackie ~ thescallopededge
Jen ~ stamping therapy
Michele ~ thestamplink
Nancy ~ istamp
Silke ~ mylife

Supplies for my card~

Stamps: Simply Said

Paper: Lovely Lilac, Pixie Pink, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White

Ink: Lovely Lilac, Versamark

Accessories: SU Pastels/Chalks, Sponge daubers, Silver Eyelets, Cropadile, Self adhesive rhinestones, Pumpkin Rhinestone Brad, Large Oval punch, 1 1/4 & 1 3/8" circle punches, Paper piercing tool/mat pack, Tag corner punch, 1/4" pumpkin gg ribbon, May arts polkadot lavender ribbon

Have a Marvelous Monday = ) !!!

Wanna See A Trick???

A Round Tab Punch trick that is! I love my Stampin' Up Round Tab punch and I use it often. At the SU Regionals in Portland a couple weeks ago, I learned a new way to use it! I can't remember who did the presentation...and I'm so sorry, I would truly like to credit the person who thought of this. I believe it was one of the SU employees, but again, not entirely sure. In the excitement of arriving, visiting with friends and anticipating the big event, we didn't get much sleep, so some of the details are a little fuzzy! In any case, here's how it works:






Step 1: You can either start with a 3 x 3 inch piece of cardstock or a 6 x 3 inch piece that's been scrored at 3 inches to make a 3 x 3 inch love note size. You'll be working with a 3 inch square. First, you slide the round tab punch in as far as it will go from the side...while centering it on your square, then squeeze to punch.





Next, turn your paper & push the punch as far in as you can go again. Make sure you're centered on the 3 inch square. It should look like this:





Squeeze to punch. Whaa-laa! you should have a 2 inch circle punched out!! Isn't that cool?








And here's the fun part...the scallop circle punch fits perfectly inside. So you can use your square to create a 3-dimensional frame or you can create a little 3 dimensional love note....like the one at the top of the post or this 4 1/4 inch card ~





So...get that Round Tab punch out and try! I haven't even figured out everything I can do with this trick yet, but it's going to be fun to find out!! If you don't have a Round Tab punch and would like one...just click on my SU link and I'd be happy to help you out ... it's a GREAT punch. Also...I'd love to see what you do with this trick...be sure to leave me a comment and a link to your card or project!






Supplies used for these cards (lots of punches....LOVE those punches!!!):

Stamp set: Merry & Bright (it's my favorite!)
Paper: Winter Bright DP/Scrapbook kit, real red, bashful blue, wild wasabi, pretty in pink, whisper white
Ink: basic black, real red
Punches: Round Tab, Scallop, photo corner, small & large oval, 1" circle
Accessories: Winter Bright Scrapbook kit self adhesive dye-cuts, red brads & non-su brad, Dazzling Diamonds glitter with 2-way glue pen, bashful blue 1/4" gg ribbon, red gingham ribbon, markers

Crop-a-dile Embossing

I made this card earlier this week & used a technique I learned at the Portland Regionals last weekend. Did you know you could dry emboss with your crop-a-dile? Yep, sure can! And it's really easy too. Just use the eyelet "setting" part of the crop-a-dile. I used the small eyelet setting for this card. Gently squeeze the handles as if you're setting an eyelet, only there's no hole and no eyelet. It's just that easy (don't squeeze too hard, or you'll create a hole rather than an embossed circle). The guide that comes with the tool kit/mat pack is VERY helpful for keeping the embossing nice & straight! Don't you love it when you learn something new that you can do with a tool you already have? I sure do. Okay, now you give it a try & have some fun = ) ! Be sure to leave me a comment with a link to your card so I can see what you create!!

Paper: Bravo Burgundy, More Mustard, Really Rust, Very Vanilla

Ink:Bravo Burgundy, Really Rust

Stamps: Holidays & Wishes, All in a Row, Autumn Harvest, Linen Background

Accessories: Cropadile, Paper Piercing tool with guide, Apple Cider DP, Photo corner Punch, Hodgepodge Hardware, natural twill & twine & Burgundy 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, dimentionals