Exciting News for Scrapbookers!!!!

Stampin' Up! has made one of it's biggest announcements of the year about a new business partnership it has entered into.

Stampin' Up! is excited to tell you they've partnered with the amazing Becky Higgins to bring you the real deal-authentic Project Life products, now in exclusive Stampin' Up! colours and designs. 

Check out all the details on my Promotion's Page for this and other exciting news.

 Penny

Retirement Lists Coming Soon

Just a note to let you know that Stampin' Up! will be posting this year's retired stamp and accessories lists on Monday April 21st.  

Once those lists are posted the frenzy begins, so don't miss out.  This will be your last chance to get some of those sets, tools or accessories that may be on your wish list!

I'll be posting the lists on my blog on the 21st, so mark your calendar and come back and check them out.  

Stampin' On Tuesday Project #3 - Just in Time For Easter

Who doesn't like the Easter Bunny? Everyone I know not only likes, but adores him and that's why Sheri and I decided to make this cute little bunny container for our third project last Tuesday. 

Actually, I don't think I had any choice in the matter.  When I showed Sheri this Easter Bunny I made at Cheryl LeFore's stamp club back in February, she immediately wanted to make one too. 

Supplies:
Card stock: 

• Chocolate Chip
• Strawberry Slush
• Basic Black
• Very Vanilla

DSP:

• Sweet Sorbet (Sale-a-Bration designer series paper - now retired) or DSP of your choice for ears and egg

Framelits:  Ovals Collection

Big Shot:  Petite Purse Bigz L Die 

Punches: 

• Extra Large and Small Oval punches
• Small Heart Punch
• 1/4 Hole Punch
• Word Window

Ribbon:  White Baker's Twine

Accessories: 

• Dimensionals
• Tom Bow glue
• Pom Pom for tail 

Assembly:

For the Basket: 

1. Start with a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2" piece of Chocolate Chip card stock to create the egg basket that the bunny is attached to.  Run this piece through the Big Shot with the Petite Purse Bigz L Die. 
2. Cut off the purse flap as you don't need this piece. 
3. Crease on the score lines and use sticky strip to adhere the sides of the basket.  
4. Attach the handle with glue dots.
5. Glue a pom pom on the back of the basket for the bunny tail.
6. Put shredded paper in basket and add chocolate eggs or kisses for treat.

 

In step two you need to cut off the top flap that looks like a dome in this photo.

For the Bunny:  

1. Cut a piece of Chocolate Chip  3" x 4" and die cut with the Oval Framelit for the Bunny's body.
2. Using 1 3/4" x 2 3/4" pieces of Chocolate Chip cut out two ovals for the ears with the smallest Oval Framelit die. Punch out two more ovals for the arms and legs (2 for ears, 1 cut for arms cut in half and 1 cut in half for legs. Attach arms and legs to the body with dimensionals. 
3. Using 2" x 2" pieces of DSP punch out 2 ovals for the insides of the ears with the extra large oval punch. Attach ears with Tom Bow glue.
4. Punch 2 eyes from Basic Black card stock with the 1/4" punch. Adhere to bunny's face with Tom Bow glue.
5. Punch out a small heart from Strawberry Slush card stock for the nose.  
6. Cut three 1" strips of Baker's twine.  Attach to the back of the heart with a glue dot and then attach heart with a dimensional to bunny face.
7. Punch out a small scrap of DSP with the small oval punch for the egg.  Place this between the arms.
8. Stamp "Happy Easter" sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set in Chocolate Chip ink on Very Vanilla card stock.

 

Here are the two bunnies we made.  Mine has the Sweet Sorbet DSP for the ears and Egg and Sheri has used retired DSP for her version.  She also used different twine for her whiskers and omitted the sentiment.

In this view you can see the cute little basket made with the Petite Purse Bigz L Die. The basket will hold a couple of small wrapped Easter eggs or some Hershey's Kisses. 

 
 

Additional note:  Sheri also made these three "Super Sized" bunnies.  Aren't they adorable?  They are twice the size of the ones we made above and she filled them with chocolate covered eggs.  She gave one to Ethel, myself and Debby at our last get-together!  What a friend!!!  

I hope you enjoyed this post and found the instructions easy to follow.  Happy Easter everyone!  

Penny 

Weekly Deals April 15th to 21st

Don't miss out the Stampin' Up's! Weekly Deals have just been posted on my Weekly Deals page.  Click here to check them out and to see what this month's hottest sellers are.

Stampin' on Tuesdays Project #2 - Watercolor Wonder Thank You Card

Here I am back with the second of three projects from last Tuesday's stamping get-together with my friend Sheri. We made a card featuring the Watercolor Wonder Designer Series paper from Stampin' Up!

Project #2:  Butterfly and Flower Thank You
My inspiration came from a card I made at Cheryl Lefore's stamp camp in February.  I immediately fell in love with the clean design, color combo and designer paper she used.  The card comes together effortlessly.  It's one of those great cards that takes about 5 minutes to assemble but looks so great you'd think you'd worked on it for a much longer time.

Cheryl used Pool Party card stock for her card base and added layers of Basic Black and Whisper White Card stocks to compliment the designer paper. The small flower design with the black dot centers is simply beautiful.  It's from the retired Sweet Sorbet Designer Series paper featured in the Sale-A-Bration sales promotion.  You just had to see these papers in real life to appreciate the high quality and beautiful designs. 

Her sentiment is from the Lots of Thanks stamp set featured on page 29 of the Idea Book and Catalogue (IB&C).  To tell the truth, I've skipped over this stamp set many times as I've browsed the catalogue.  However, once I used it I was hooked and had to put it on my wish list.  Variety in sentiment stamps is so important and this is one of those perfect sets you'll want to have in your stamping arsenal.  

This 9 piece sentiment stamp set is also available in French and German and comes in Wood Mount #129687 $27.95 or Clear Mount #129690 $20.95. 

Our Version:

Although I had some Pool Party card stock and Sweet Sorbet DSP on hand, I didn't have any of the blue seam binding.  After digging through my ribbon stash Sheri and I decided to use some old Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding after matching it up with a swatch from the Watercolor Wonder Designer Series paper featured in the current Occasions Catalogue. 

The DSP we used has a pansy like floral scene coloured in a rich blend of Island Indigo, Smokey Slate and Gumball Green.  The color combo and large flower design might have been overpowering for our card, but because the design has this soft watercolor appearance it actually works.  We made another change by going for lighter colors and swapping out the Island Indigo and Gumball Green for Marina Mist and Pear Pizzazz.


Supplies:

Card stock:

• Smokey Slate:8 1/2 x 5 1/2  score at 4 1/2"
• Marina Mist: 2 14/" x 3 1/3" & scraps for punching out the butterflies
• Whisper White: 2 7/8" x 3 1/4", 3 3/4" x 5" for inside of card

Stamp Set:

• Another Thank You Photopolymer Stamp Set 
  

 

The beautiful Another Thank You Photopolymer Set features 7 beautifully crafted thank you sentiments.  A terrific value for just $16.95.  Order yours today at my on-line store: 

 Ink:  

• Staz On Black Ink #101406 pg 165 IB&C

DSP:   

• Watercolor Wonder  #132994 pg 23 Occasions Catalogue

Accessories:  

• Elegant Butterfly Punch # 127526 pg 183 IB&C
• Bitty Butterfly Punch #129406 pg 183 IB&C
• Basic Pearl Jewels #119247 pg 171 IB&C
• Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding Ribbon (retired)
• Two-Way Glue Pen, Adhesive, Dimensionals

Tips for Punching the Butterflies:

You don't want to end up with something like this because you used the wrong adhesive.  See tips below.

Step One:  Punch out the large butterfly using the Elegant Butterfly punch from the piece of 3 3/4" x 5" piece of Whisper White card stock. Decide which side of the card stock you want the image to be on, then slide the punch up from the corner until you feel it stop and punch out the image. Save the image for the front of the card.

 Step Two:  Punch out the small butterfly using the Bitty Butterfly punch from the scrap piece of Marina Mist. Set the image aside for the front of the card.

Step Three:  Fit the large Elegant Butterfly punch over top of the negative image of the small butterfly and punch out the larger shape.  BE VERY CAREFUL when you do this step because the center parts of the butterfly are narrow and fragile.

You can see there's only a tiny bit of card stock showing at the top and bottom center of the punch. If it breaks glue it on anyway you just have to work a bit more with it.

 

Step Four:  Flip over the Whisper White piece and run a thin line of 2-way glue around the butterfly shape.  Fit the Marina Mist butterfly image against it so the shape shows up in the cut out on the front of the card stock. Use Tape runner or Tom Bow glue to adhere the white liner to the inside of the card.

 

If you use the Silicon Mat underneath the piece you are applying glue to you will save your work surface and your glued piece won't stick to the mat. Just run a very thin line of glue using the two-way glue pen and you'll achieve perfect results.

In this view I've layed the large butterfly image over the one cut from the white card stock.  It's just barely catching the edges of the outline, but it will adhere.  I used my poking tool to push down the bottom of the butterfly wings after I took this picture.

Here you can see the liner adhered to the inside of the card. 

Finishing the Card Front: 

To finish off the card front, stamp the sentiment on the bottom of the card.  Adhere the Marina Mist piece about 1 inch below the top right corner of the card face and approximately 1/4" from the right side.  

Adhere the DSP to the left half of the Whisper White layer leaving enough room to attach the ribbon on the right hand side.  I used 11" of ribbon.  Make sure you place your ribbon before adhering this layer to the Marina Mist layer.

Use dimensionals to attach the butterflies to each other and to the DSP piece.  I finished off the smaller butterfly by adding three basic pearl jewels as an accent.

Stepped Up Version of this Card:

For this version I swapped out the Marina Mist for Island Indigo card stock. I embossed a 5 1/4 x 4" piece of Smokey Slate card stock with the Honeycomb Embossing Folder and then mounted it on the front of the card with dimensionals. The butterflies and DSP were sponged with Smokey Slate ink to give them some added dimension, and the pearls were replaced with small basic rhinestones for a glimmer effect.  
 

Honeycomb Embossing Folder

I sponged the butterflies and the DSP with Smokey Slate classic ink before I adhered them to the white layer.  I also added basic rhinestones instead of pearls for this stepped up card version.

The final change was the placement and choice of sentiment.  I didn't want to too much happening on the front of the card, so I moved the sentiment to the inside and changed the stamp to a larger "thank you" sentiment from the Another Thank You stamp set.

I hope you enjoyed this second project as much s Sheri and I did and that you find these instructions helpful.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you'll take the time to leave me a comment and let me know which version of the card is your favourite and come back to see the final project tomorrow. 

Stampin' on Tuesday Project 1 - April 2014

Tuesdays are a very special day for me because I get to stamp,  no matter what else is happening.  That's right, I try not to  book or make plans to do anything besides going to my craft room and having fun!  Now, I don't necessarily do that on my own, it's always more fun having friends join me. 

This past Tuesday I was blessed to have my great friend Sheri join me and we made three projects which I'm going to share with you. We had such a lot of fun.  I laugh more on Tuesdays than I do any other time of the week. I guess that says a lot about stamping and great friends!  

In the near future I'll be posting some of the class projects I'm working on.  If you're in the Fraser Valley area I hope you'll join me for one or more of them.  You can check out my calendar of events by clicking here or check out my Facebook link. 


Project # 1:  Flower Shop Happy Birthday Card 

Now that Spring's arrived I want to use all my floral stamp sets.  If you're the same, have you checked out all the great cards and projects made with the Flower Shop stamp set that are sprouting up everywhere?  Well I have, and I'm simply amazed at all the great designs featuring this lovely six piece floral set.  

In fact, there are so many great samples out there that I'd like to try, I've set up a board appropriately called Cards - Flower Shop on my Pinterest site (access from the Pinterest pin on my sidebar).  If you're looking for some terrific ideas just check there I'm sure you'll be amazed and enchanted too!

Flower Shop Clear Mount #130942 $21.95 or Wood Mount #130939 $29.95

Pansy Punch #130698 $21.95 as seen on page 183 of the Idea Book and Catalogue.

The Flower Shop stamp set is featured on page 94 of the Idea Book and Catalogue (2013/14). There are six five petal stamps detailing various floral images.  This set comes in wood and clear mount styles and coordinates with the Pansy Punch on page 183. You can use the images in so many ways.  You can stamp them on cards, use them as embellishments on gift bags and wrapping paper, or you can even turn them into stemmed flowers in a vase.  The possibilities are endless.  The Flower Shop stamp set and Pansy Punch are available separately or you save 15% of the total cost by purchasing them as a bundle until May 31st, 2014.  What a great deal!  

Inspiration:

For today's card, I took my inspiration from this one made by Sue Craig of Bensarmom blog  that was posted on Split Coast Stampers.  What I liked most about Sue's card was the clean crisp look and the free-hand cutting around the edges of the stamped flowers and  front of the card base.

 Although Sue's card was my inspiration, I didn't CAS it exactly as shown but made some subtle changes to make it my own. 

Here are the cards Sheri and I made, starting with Sheri's:

Sheri made this beautiful card which features an Elegant Eggplant card base and Flower Shop images stamped in Wisteria Wonder ink. She chose a birthday theme and changed the card opening to the bottom from the side so that the longer sentiment from the Perfectly Penned stamp set would fit.  

The Perfectly Penned stamp set has four sentiments that will work for almost any occasion. 

Sheri did an excellent job of stamping the four perfectly placed flowers on the Whisper White panel.  She managed this by twisting and fitting the stamps petal to petal. Her Whisper White layer originally measured 5 1/2 x 4 and she did not cut away the card front base around the petals like Sue's card.

The smaller flowers from the Petite Petals stamp set coordinate perfectly with the Flower Shop set.  Sheri stamped them in Elegant Eggplant ink to give some contrast when they were attached with dimensionals to the large flower images. The Petite Petals stamp set is on page 33 of the Occasions catalogue also has a coordinating punch, and is available individually or as a bundle.  Check out the bundle price, you'll save 15%.

Sheri embellished the top of her card with a strip of card stock punched out with the Scalloped Border punch in Elegant Eggplant card stock.  She also added Basic Rhinestones to the flower centers and dotted the "i" in Birthday with a small basic rhinestone.  The Happy Birthday sentiment is from the Perfectly Penned stamp set and was stamped with Elegant Eggplant. 
 

For the inside of Sheri's card she cut a panel from Whisper White card stock with the Top Note Bigz Die Cut.  Plain and simple but very effective. Nice job inside and out Sheri........ I love your card!

Here is my card,which is similar in layout to Sheri's but unlike her, I struggled to place my four flowers in a straight line that would fit on the Whisper White card layer piece which originally measure 4" by 5 1/4".

Whether it was because I wasn't wearing my glasses or hadn't had lunch, I don't know, but I just couldn't stamp four whole flowers on that piece of card stock.   I even used my Stamp-a-Ma-Jig, but to no avail. The best I could manage was 3 1/2 flowers, and I did it twice! I didn't want to ruin yet another piece of card stock so I just went ahead and used the 3 1/2 flower image.  I cut around each of the flowers leaving a 1/16" border.  Need I say during my frustrating stamping experience that Sheri was giggling furiously on the other side of the table! 

Never to be outdone, or out-laughed, I decided to fix my stamping "miscalculation" by stamping an additional four flowers on a scrap of Whisper White and punched them out with the Pansy Punch.  Then I stamped four Petite Petals flower images for the centers.  I sponged both sets of flowers with Elegant Eggplant ink to add some definition.

I also sponged a very light misting of Wisteria Wonder ink above the original 3 1/2 stamped flowers to give a shadow effect and then attached the punched out flowers across the panel.  Some of the petals had to be overlapped to make the four flowers fit across the card face.

You can just see the faint shadow in the background of these flowers.  Don't they look pretty and the best part is they fit across the card face. 

For the finishing touch to this piece I cut the card stock down to  5 1/4" x 3 1/2" and used the Scalloped Border Punch on the top of this panel.  I adhered Small Basic Pearls along the base of the scalloped edge in between each scallop, and Large Basic Pearls for the centers of each of the four flowers. I also stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment in Elegant Eggplant on this layer. I loved the way this panel looked when it was adhered to the card base. 

The scallop trim border punch adds interesting detail to your projects and it's firm lever action makes it easy to punch out.  Item #118402 $20.95 on page 181 of the IB&C. 

When I began working on the inside of my card I decided to use the second "mis-stamped" piece of Whisper White card stock instead of using a Top Note layer like Sheri did.  I think it worked out okay.

This view shows how I was unable to stamp the four flowers evenly across the Whisper White layer of the card, but was still able to salvage the cardstock by using it on the inside of the card.

TIPS FOR USING THE FLOWER SHOP STAMP BUNDLE:
One thing I'd like to bring to your attention is when you use a stamp set like Flower Shop and it's coordinating punch is that it's sometimes a bit tricky to punch out the flower image nicely unless you've taken the time to line up the punch and stamp set correctly.  

Fortunately I found a video by Sam Donald on YouTube that helped remedy what could be a frustrating situation if your stamps aren't mounted properly. As you'll see in the video when the stamp and images are lined up correctly they work perfectly.

If you purchase the Flower Shop bundle through my online store, I will be happy to show you in person how to line up your stamp images and punch. 

Penny

Wetlands Card Set

We've been having a lot of rain lately, in our little corner of the Pacific Northwest.  

I'm not complaining though.  I know it's good for the water table since we didn't have a lot of snow pack this winter and it's great for all the spring flowers that are popping up all over, it's just that it's really been curbing our daily walking routine.  

Yesterday when the sun popped out for an hour or so we did get a chance to go for our walk starting out by the pond below our place. The evidence of Spring is everywhere, from the buds on the branches and the vivid hues of the Forsythia and cherry trees. The ducks and Canada geese are nesting by the waterside and soon their hatchlings will be trailing along behind them down the many paths.  

You might be asking yourself what all this has to do with stamping?  Well, let me tell you.  On returning from our walk I was inspired to play with one of my new and soon to be favourite stamp sets called "Wetlands". 

Wetlands is comprised of six stamps - three with images of waterbirds and greenery and three with beautifully scripted sentiments.  Wetlands is one of those sets you can easily pass by in the catalogue but it's worth taking a second look.  You can find it on page 69 of the Idea Book and Catalogue. 
 

Wetlands Wood Mount #126695 $26.95 or Clear Mount #126697 $20.95

Here is a set of cards I made:

I'm a big fan of inchies and window cards so when I saw a card on Pinterest by Julia Carmichael, I was eager to CAS it.  Julia's version has a Pool Party card base and her layered inchies were both in Whisper White card stock.  Click here to see Julia's beautiful card.

For the detail on this card I made three short score lines in varying lengths, using my Simply Scored Board.  I started scoring at the outside and decreased the length of each score by 1/4" as I moved towards the center.  I changed up the position of these scores with the layout of each of the four cards.  Although the cards look nice without these score lines, the addition of such a simple detail takes the cards to a higher level. 

I changed the position of the inchies on each of the cards as well as the sentiments and placement of the score lines.  I think this makes for a nicer set of cards. I also plan to make two Birthday Greeting cards to go with this set and a box to hold them.  What a nice gift this will be for someone.

I stamped the images randomly on a scrap piece of Whisper White card stock with Staz On Black Ink, and then punched them out with square punches. I used a 1 1/4" square punch for the images and a 1 3/8" punch for the coloured card stock layers.  The card stock colours I chose were for a colour challenge and featured Smokey Slate, Crushed Curry and Marina Mist, in small amounts this was a great combination.

  

I really like the sentiments that come with this set.  They are similar to those in the Sincere Salutations Stamp set which retired last year.  I really, really missed that stamp set, so Wetlands now gives me back at least three of the stamps that I use most often. 

I kept the inside of my card simple and just added the shore birds stamp at the base. 

Supplies for My Card:
Stamp Set:  Wetlands   
Card Stock:  Whisper White, small scraps of Crushed Curry, Marina Mist and Smokey Slate for the 1 3/8 x 1 3/8" background layers.    
Ink:  Staz On Black Ink

Accessories:  Simply Scored Score Board and Scoring Tool, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" square punches, dimensionals, adhesive.

I hope you liked these cards.  They are clean and simple, but so rewarding.  You can't make just one, I promise you.  

I'll be posting more Wetlands cards later this week so come back again.  If you like this stamp set and would like to order it just click here for my online store.   

If you live in the Fraser Valley area and would like to attend a class featuring different techniques using the Wetlands set just email me and I'll set something up.  I have a lot of Wetlands sample cards on my Pinterest site.  I hope you'll check it out.  Just click on the Pinterest Button on my side board panel, and then once you're in my cards board, simply click on my picture and it will take you to my other posting boards.  You'll find the examples on the board called " Cards - Wetlands".  

Penny