Build a Banner Simply Create a Kit

Banners are everywhere these days.  Whether it's a celebration for a birthday, a retirement, a business opening, or for a seasonal event like Halloween or Christmas, someone's created a banner to meet the occasion.  Stampin' Up! has got on the band wagon with this new trend and created some new kits that make banner making extremely easy for the novice and experienced crafter alike. 

Stampin' Up!s Build a Banner Simply Created Kit and Accessory Kits are available from now until January 2nd, 2014 in the Holiday Catalogue.  The following video gives a great run down on this new product and was very helpful when I created my first banner. 

Build a Banner Simply Created Kit #133507 Price: $24.95 cdn

This great kit comes with the following:

• Includes eighteen 5 x 7" blank canvas paper pennants - 6 each of 3 designs (pointed, banner and rounded) .  Each of the wonderful flexible, water proof pennants has two grommets already set so it makes stringing it together very simple.  No fussing with the crop-o-dile on this one!
• 9 feet of jute rope to hang the pennant pieces with
• A full set of plastic alphabet stencils for creating your words
• Three image stencils for decorating the pennants - stripe, dot and chevron designs 
• Stampin' Spritzer for spraying on ink.

Build a Banner Simply Created Kit #133507 Price $24.95 CDN

If you run out of pennant pieces no problem, simply order the Banner Simply Created refill kit.  The refill kit includes another 9 feet of jute rope and 18 blank canvas paper pennants.  

Banner Simply Created Kit # 132699 Price $11.95 CDN

With Halloween and Christmas just around the corner, you'll also find two accessory kits that Stampin' Up! has created to compliment the Build a Banner Simply Created Kit.  The first is the Halloween Banner and the second is the Christmas Banner Accessory Kit.

Halloween Banner Simply Created Accessory Kit #132698 Price $11.95

Christmas Banner Simply Created Accessory  Kit #132697 $11.95

And here's my banner!

Sorry I couldn't get the picture of my banner any larger for you or clearer.  I've hung it in my paper crafting room and it is going to be a work in progress as I add some streamers to both ends and some more sparkle. 

My banner on the back wall behind our vendor table at the Basics for Babies Scrap-a-thon event on September 14th, 2013.

 

Supplies & Design for My Banner:

• To make the two words "Stampin'" "Up!" I needed 10 Pennants from the Build a Banner Base kit. 
• One Christmas Banner Simply Created Accessory Kit
• Typeset Alphabet Bigz Dies for the Alphabet Letters
• 3" Circle Framelit Die
• Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo and Smokey Slate Stamp Pad inks and Re-inkers.  
• Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Whisper White card stocks  and Glimmer Paper
• Sponge Daubers
• Dimensionals and sticky strip
• Hot Glue Gun
• Festive Flurry Framelit Dies for Snowflakes
• Large and Small Star Punches from Stampin' Up (retired)
• 11 Feet of Silk White Cord (I decided to use white cord instead of the jute provided in the kit for this project)
• Basic Rhinestone Jewels (note I used a lot more than came with the kit)

Steps:

1. First decide on a theme for your banner, the colours you'll use and the word(s) you will add to your banner.
2. Assemble all the pieces and accessories and cut out any additional dies you will use on your banner.
3. Lay out the banner pieces on a table top or along the floor so you can see what you are working with.
4. Work from the first pennant to the last and be consistent with your colour and design layout.
5. Note:  I cut additional 3" circles from scrap card stock and used them for mounting the lollies and die cuts to the cord.  This step created more stability for the banner.

I alternated the pennant shapes and colours starting with a pointed pennant in Coastal Cabana dots followed by a banner shaped pennant in Smokey Slate stripes throughout the entire banner.  Each pennant was separated by a lolly or die cut.  I applied the ink to the pennants with a sponge dauber. 

The individual letters that form the words "Stampin' Up!" were cut out of Island Indigo card stock using the Typeset Alphabet Dies.  I chose these die cut letters over the stenciled ones because I wanted the letters to be super clean looking.  Once cut out, I mounted the letters on either Coastal Cabana or Smokey Gray card stock that had been cut out with the 3" Circle Framelit.  I used Tom Bow glue on the back side of the letters to adhere them.  The dots that you can see on the letters are actually medium sized Basic Rhinestone Jewels.  The addition of these Rhinestones really made the letters pop.

The additional of glimmer paper snowflakes and stars really softened the look of the banner, and the Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons added a lot of sparkle.  For the blue stars, I used a sponge dauber and Island Indigo ink on the silver glimmer paper to turn it into a turquoise blue and then I punched out some large and small stars. 

I wish you could see this banner in real life because it's really sparkly and fresh looking and you just can't see that in the pictures.  It took me two hours to create this banner and although it intimidated me at first, once I started sponging the ink on the first pennant my initial fear gave way to creative joy.  The whole process became a lot of fun and it was exciting to see the progress as the banner came together.  

This was such a rewarding process.  I hope you enjoyed seeing how this banner turned out. I'm working on a Fall Banner for Thanks Giving and will take pictures as I complete each step. 

Card Box Tutorial

I promised to make a gift box holder for my Festive Flurry cards in my  September 7th post entitled Festive Flurry in a Festival of Colours.  

Today was the first chance I've had to sit down and work on a tutorial, so my apologies for taking so long to deliver.  

Basics for Assembling Gift Box

1. Start with a piece of card stock or DSP measuring 5 7/8 x 7 1/4" and score at 5/8" on all four sides.

By placing a marker on the 5/8" score line on my Simply Scored Scoring Tool it made scoring this piece so easy! 

2.  Cut from the outside edge to the fold line on all four sides.  Snip a piece off each corner to make assembly easier. These tabs will be folded to the inside of the lid.  

  4.  Add sticky strip to the corner tabs and then remove the adhesive backing.  Fold the tabs to the inside and tape to the side flap.  Make sure that you square up the corners so they match.  Repeat on the other side.

Once all the tabs have been adhered, the box lid should look like this on the inside.

This is a view of the outside of the lid.  I made this mockup box in DSP but it's not as firm as when made from card stock, so my preference would be to make it using card stock. 

Box Bottom:

1.  Cut a piece of card stock to measure 7" x 8 3/8" for the box bottom.  Score it at 1 1/4" on all four sides.

 2.  Cut from the outside edge to the center fold on each corner.  Snip a small "V" to the center line to make the side pieces fit together more easily.  Add sticky strip to the corner tabs.

3.  Remove the backing from the sticky strip and fold the tabs to the inside.  make sure the sides are carefully aligned. 

Festive Flurry Gift Box:

 Supplies:

• 7 x 8 3/8" piece of Whisper White card stock for bottom of box
• 5 7/8 x 7 1/4" piece of Island Indigo for lid
• 81/2" piece of Chevron  Island Indigo Ribbon
• 4 x 4" piece Whisper White for Smokey Slate Large Snowflake
• 3 1/4 x 3 1/4"  piece of Whisper White for Island Indigo Snowflake
• 2 3/4 x 2 3/4"  piece of Silver Glimmer Paper for Glimmer Snowflake
• 2 x 2" piece of Whisper White for Smokey Slate Small Snowflake
• Small Scrap of Silver Glimmer Paper for BoHo Blossoms Punch Snowflake
• Medium Sized Basic Rhinestone 
• Smokey Slate and Island Indigo Inks
• Boho Blossoms Flower Punch
• Festive Flurry Stamp Set and Coordinating Dies

Assembling The Gift Box:

1.  Follow the assembly instructions above to make the bottom of the box. Note:  To make the box bottom more stable I cut an additional piece of white card stock to fit in the bottom of the box and adhered this piece with sticky strip. 

2.  Score and cut the tabs for the lid on the Island Indigo card stock piece.  Before assembling the lid adhere the Island Indigo Chevron Ribbon across the  lid.  I started the ribbon at the score line on the underside of the lid, ran it across the length of the lid to the other side.  I used sticky strip under the ribbon to secure it. Once the ribbon is attached then finish folding and assembling the lid.  

3.  Stamp and assemble snowflakes for the lid top as follows:

• Stamp Large Snowflake image in Smokey Slate ink on 4 x 4" piece of Whisper White and cut out with large snowflake die 
• Stamp the next size of snowflake in Island Indigo ink on 3 1/4 x 3 1/4" piece of Whisper White and cut out with corresponding snowflake die. 
• Cut out a snowflake from the 2 3/4 x 2 3/4" piece of Silver Glimmer Paper using the next size snowflake
• Stamp the smallest snowflake in Smokey Slate on the 2 x 2" piece of Whisper White
• Punch out the 5-sided star with the Boho Blossoms Punch
• Adhere the medium sized rhinestone to the center of the Glimmer star.  

This picture shows the various sizes of snowflakes and dies used to create the center piece for the box lid.

Box bottom, lid with ribbon and snowflakes before final assembly.

4.  Assemble the centerpiece in this order:

• Attach Island Indigo Snowflake to Large Smokey Slate Snowflake with Dimensionals
• Attach Glimmer Paper Snowflake to Island Indigo Snowflake with Dimensionals
• Attach Small Smokey Slate Snowflake to Glimmer Paper Snowflake with Dimensionals
• Attach Small Glimmer Paper Star to center of small snowflake matching the star pattern.

Attach assembled snowflakes to the center of the box lid with sticky strip.

 

Back view of all the snowflakes before they were glued together.

Island Indigo adhered to Large Smokey Slate Snowflake

Silver Glimmer Paper Snowflake adhered to Island Indigo Snowflake. 

 

This view shows the small Snowflake adhered as the fourth layer.  I made sure the snowflake points were turned so they never overlapped and it was easy to see the snowflake layers below.  Hope that makes sense.

Finally attach the small Glimmer Paper star to the center of the small snowflake.  Use the star shape outline as your guide for attaching the star.  Adhere a medium sized basic rhinestone to the center.

 

Finished Box and Lid

Gift Box and four Festive Flurry Cards in Island Indigo, Wisteria Wonder, Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz.

This picture shows the finished lid and the box bottom with the envelopes in it.  I stamped a single snowflake in Smokey Slate on the four envelopes.

I added a piece of Whisper White card stock to the inside of the lid to give it more stability and stamped the Smokey Slate snowflakes randomly on this piece.  This piece also covers the ends of the ribbon so it has a neater appearance.

And that's the end of my tutorial on gift boxes for the Festive Flurry Christmas cards.  I hope you found it helpful.  I'd love to hear from you so let me know if it worked for you.      

Basics for Babies Charity Event

I received an invitation last week to participate in an all day scrap-a-thon fund raiser being held in Aldergrove BC for the Basics for Babies Food Bank charity.  What a great cause!

I was thrilled to be asked by this group, and thought it would be a terrific opportunity to meet some local gals who shared a love of paper crafting and to see what this charity was all about.  I only had one week to prepare and since I've never had a vendor table before I decided to invite my down line Ethel DeTemple and my convention buddy Debby Evoy to get involved too.  Both were available and super keen to try out this experience too.  The following are some of the pictures of the day.

I didn't have a Stampin' Up! Sign or Table Cloth with the Stampin' Up! logo on it, so I decided to make a banner using the Build A Banner Simply Create Kit and the Christmas Banner Simply Create Kit from the Holiday Catalogue. In a later post I'll show some closeups of each of the banners.  It was super fun to make and we had lots of comments on it.

Debby, Ethel and myself contributed over $100 in Stampin' Up! products for a prize draw. At the end of the evening we drew the winning ticket which was held by S. Smith. 

Here's a picture of Debby working at our vendor table.  We had two round tables pulled together to hold all our promotional materials and things we were selling.  Since we'd never done this before we probably brought too much stuff, but who knew!

We had a card display board and some 3-d items behind Debby.  She and Ethel shared the first table and had their Stamp Camp Sign Up Sheets and gift items displayed. 

Ethel was in her element as she making kits from her Owl Builder Punch and Designer Series Paper.  A very productive day!

Ethel designed some fabulous picture frames that show case the Dress Up Frame Lit Dies.

To find out more about Debby Evoy's Stampin Clubs and Card Classes check out her event calendar and blog Debby Duz Stampin.  She's got some great classes coming up. 

Here's a room view of the Basics for Babies Scrap-a-thon participants.  What a worthwhile cause and well run event hosted by Alana and Sandi  C. This fund raiser is held annually the second week in September at the St. Dunstan's Church in Aldergrove BC.  We'll probably participate again next year as we had so much fun!  They had lots of great door prizes and raffles so it was a great value at $40.00 per participant. 

Debby and Ethel participated in a Halloween Card Make N' Take session hosted by Sharka Leigh an Artist from North Vancouver and avid scrapbooker. The card they are holding up used the now retired but ever popular Wicked Cool Stamp Set by Stampin' Up!.  Great demo by Sharka and great card! 

Make N' Take Cards by Alana Fidler and Sharka Leigh.

Make N' Take hosted by Ethel, Debby and myself.  What a team! Unfortunately we were so busy demonstrating our Make N' Takes, that non of us took any pictures...........duh!

Here are some of my Post It Note holders that I worked on during the event.  These are so much fun to make and give.  The Santa Clause one is made with the new Ronald McDonald Stamp Set called Tag It which coordinates with the Chalk Talk Framelit Dies.  The snowflake post it note holder was made with the Festive Flurry stamp set and coordinating Festive Flurry Die Cuts.  The Festive Flurry stamp set and framelit dies can be purchased at a 15% savings when bought as a bundle.  The DSP I used for these holders is from the Winter Frost and the Season of Style paper packs sold in the Holiday Catalogue.  These paper packs which contain 48 sheets (24 each of 2 designs) are terrific for projects like these where you need multiple paper design repeats. 

Festive Flurry Framelit Dies #132193.  Largest Image is 4 3/16" diameter.  Use with Big Shot and Standard Cutting Pads.

Festive Flurry Stamp Set # 131778 Wood Mount or Clear 131781

Tag It Stamp Set #130300 Wood or 130303 Clear is available in Spanish, French and English and is the 2013 Ronald McDonald House Charity "One Stamp Set Can Make a Difference" stamp set.  Stampin' Up! donates $3.00 to Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) when you buy this set.  To date they have donated over $1,000,000.  

All three of us won some great prizes during the raffle and vendor draws.  I'd like to give a shout out for the two prizes I won.  I won a $45.00 gift certificate from Timeless Memories Photography (Cindy Clark) and a Magnetic Platform from Mary Scott of Luv 2 Scrap.  Thanks to both these businesses for their contributions to this worthwhile event and for the awesome prizes!  This made my day, along with all the great people I met and chatted with. 

New Clearance Rack.............It's Been Updated!

If you're a bargain hunter you may want to check out the Clearance Rack as it's been updated and there are some hot deals up for grabs.  Save up to 80% on some items.  Now that's a savings!

You know how the Clearance Rack works, it's always "first come - first served".  Since stock is limited you'll have to act fast to check it out and get the products you may have missed earlier this year or just have to have.  Check it out today.  

Here are my top picks from the Clearance Rack:

 

Cloudy Day Textured Impressions Embossing Folder 127022     Sale Price: $3.99

Early Espresso 3-1/2" Scalloped Tulle Ribbon     127839  Sale Price: $3.39

Ciao, Baby! Clear-Mount Stamp Set     129648  Sale Price: $6.39

Now Available - The Big Shot Magnetic Platform

If you've been waiting like I have for the re-release of the Big Shot Magnetic Platform then your wait is over! 

Stampin' Up has received it's newest shipment of the Magnetic Platforms and they are selling like hot cakes.  Order #130658 Price: $49.95.

If you use Framelits, Edgelits or the new Thinlit Dies then this new magnetic platform is an absolute must for you.  No more post it notes or shifting dies.  Order now and don't risk missing out on it again..................it'll be selling fast.  Here's a great little video from Mary Fish who demonstrates a fun card using the new magnetic platform.  Enjoy!

Note of Caution:
The Magnetic Platform is very powerful so if you have a pace maker you may want to be very careful or not use this product for your cutting as it could affect the operation of the pace maker.  Also do not put your credit cards or anything else that could be de-magnatized on top of the platform or you may regret it.  Just sayin!

Make N' Takes for Fund Raiser

I've been invited to do a vendor table next weekend in Aldergrove, to support a local charity called Basics for Babies. 

It's very short notice so I've been busy trying to pull things together with my downline Ethel and friend Debby.  We'll be doing the table together since none of us have had this experience and it's fun to share.  

So today I'm busy working on Make N' Takes for this event and thought I'd show you the preliminary card that we're planning to do.  They may change a little bit between now and Saturday, but for now let me know what you think  and whether you'd like to do them as a Make N' Take project.  Would they inspire or excite you?

Note:

I made a few minor changes to these cards, but basically cased the design from Chan whose great blog is called Two Rosie Cheeks. Make sure you drop by her blog and leave a comment too.  She's an awesome stamper!