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My new friend Lucia Behler was wearing the cutest Halloween pin at the Baltimore Regional earlier this month and I told her how much I loved it. Well, guess what came in the mail to me earlier this week - just in time for Halloween?! Yes, a pin of my very own!!!
Don't you just love it?! I wore it proudly on my Stampin' Up! apron at my events this week. Thanks so much, Lucia!!
Happy Halloween!
This Boo banner from my Wicked Cool Halloween class came together so quickly and easily. I got the idea from one shared by my friend Rachel Yurkanin at the Baltimore Regional earlier this month. I kept mine more simple since it was for a class with multiple projects.
I adhered 5-1/2" squares of old olive, cajun craze and rich razzleberry card stock to 5-1/2" squares of the white backboard that comes in the packages of DSP (for sturdiness) using Tombow multipurpose adhesive. After they dried, I ran those through the Big Shot with the scallop square clear bigz die to get the bases of my banner. Next, I cut the striped paper from the Wicked Fun specialty DSP package into squares that are 4" square (you can make 3 banners from one piece of DSP!).
The backgrounds of the letters are pieces of 3-3/4" squares of basic black card stock that were run through the Big Shot with the scallop circle bigz die. Once cut out, I ran them back through the Big Shot with the spiderweb impressions folder from the Holiday Mini to add some fun texture. Don't adhere them yet!
To create the letters I cut a sheet of sticky pages to 2-1/2" squares and ran them through the Big Shot with the red side facing down (important!!) using the Serif Essential alphabet set. I peeled the white backing off the letters and pressed them onto the basic black scallop circles. I found that glitters from the Super Nova and Fine Cosmo packs matched these three colors perfectly! I mixed and matched the glitter on the letters so that like colors wouldn't be on like bases. Pull off the red top layer on the letters and you get a super-sticky surface to attach the glitter. It is important that you have them adhered to another surface so you have something to hold (quite a messy experience, but it's only glitter!). I found that using coffee filters to catch my individual colors of glitter was the easiest way to keep the glitter from mixing with other colors and getting it back into the respective containers.
The final step was to adhere the basic black scallop circles to the centers of my bases and then I used my crop-a-dile to punch holes in the bases to string a long piece of basic black 1/4" grosgrain ribbon through, ending at the top to tie a bow. Easy-peasey!
Thanks for looking and I hope you have a safe and spooooky day and may you only get treats and no tricks...
Products used with today's project include:
Look at this beautiful and elegant thank you card I received in the mail yesterday. It was made by Nicole Tugrus, a winner of my blog candy from the Sisters in Stamping blog earlier this month. She sent this to me to thank me for the stamp set that she received from me and I just love it! The pink pirouette textured card stock base is so pretty and I love the texture and pearls. Thanks, Nicole! I will be CASE'ing this for sure!
This week on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are featuring Thanksgiving cards. I must admit that these aren't cards I normally send, but I think I may start as this one was a lot of fun to make! I love the idea of sending a card to let my friends and family know how thankful I am that they are in my life!!
My card this week features the Falling Leaves stamp set - only seems fitting since it was my fellow "Sister" Rachel Yurkanin who convinced me I *needed* this stamp set after I saw her shoe box swap at Convention last year! Can I just say how very thankful I am for the blessing that Rachel, Jacque and Karla have been in my life? I look forward to my Fabulous Friday project assignment each and every week and the creativity that they contribute to the Sisters in Stamping blog as well as their friendship!!
Check it out - I even stamped on the inside of the card. I normally have a lighter base for my cards (very vanilla, whisper white, naturals ivory or crumb cake) but there just wasn't enough room for all the stamped panels on the front of the card if I did that. I wanted a bravo burgundy base and had to put a piece of whisper white on the inside to be able to write in it. The Tope Note diecut is great, isn't it?!
I also wanted to kill two birds with one stone while designing this Fabulous Friday project because I have a downline swap due at my team meeting next week and a busy week ahead of me. The swap theme for November was to use a past weekend sketch challenge and color combination from my group for a card - I went with sketch OCCSC312 from Our Creative Corner's blog and color combo CQC #29 from the Colour Q blog. Sadly, two of the colors have since retired (yoyo yellow and green galore) so I substituted daffodil delight for the yellow and pear pizzazz for the green. For the last year, two members of my downline (Cindy Blekas and Sherri Gough) were surfing the web looking for fun sketch and color challenges to inspire creativity in my group each weekend. These are both two great blogs for finding that!
So what do you think... did I manage to pull it off? I did rotate the card sketch to make a landscape-oriented card, used the colors and made a Thanksgiving card... looks like I did! Thanks for visiting, please be sure and visit the Sisters in Stamping blog after Noon EST today to see what my fabulous friends came up with for Thanksgiving themed cards. Hope you all have a safe and spooky Halloween this weekend!
Products used with today's project include:
Oh my - where has the time gone? It has been a super-busy week and I apologize for the lack of posts. I held my October stamp-a-stack this week and wanted to share the cards with you.
This first card is a CASE of one I received from my new friend Akemi Geary at the Stampin' Up! Baltimore Regional recently. I changed the basic black of her card to concord crush and made my card a sympathy card using the sentiment from Thoughts & Prayers, which fit perfectly inside the open image from the Just Believe stamp set (thanks to my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig tool). I really like the crispness of the certainly celery, whisper white and concord crush color combination.
This next card is a Christmas card which is also a CASE of one I received at the Baltimore Regional. I thought the penguin needed wings so I used the 2-step bird punch in addition to the owl punch to create him. The Big Shot was used to cut out the Top Note die shape as well as the bashful blue snowflake (Northern Frost snowflakes decorative strip sizzlit die) and add texture with the polka dot impressions folder.
This thank you card is one based on my scrapbook club layout from earlier this month (see, there's no need to always come up with an original idea!). I loved the colors and texture of the medallion image and used the idea again. I really like this Day of Gratitude stamp set from the Holiday Mini catalog!
The last card for the class was a masculine birthday card featuring the Autumn Days stamp set. I tend to keep my cards for men pretty simple - no froofy ribbon or glitter on these cards! The colors were pulled from my Color Coach - a very valuable tool, especially with all of our new colors. I really like the pop of the baja breeze against the warm very vanilla, riding hood red, so saffron and soft suede color combination.
Next month I'm holding a MEGA Christmas card stamp-a-stack with my Design Team featuring 10 different designs and I can't wait. We've got 28 stampers attending and it's going to be be so much fun. If you weren't able to get in on this stamp camp but want to make Christmas cards, I will be having my last stamp-a-stack of the year on Tuesday, November 30th from 9 am - noon. There will be 4 different designs so you'll go home with 16 cards. I still have space in this class if you're interested - just send me an email and I'll get your more details.
I'll be back tomorrow with my Fabulous Friday project for the week. Be sure and come back!
I fell in love with the punch art kitty I CASE'd on my Fabulous Friday project earlier this month and had to make another project with one. This is a card I designed for my Wicked Cool Halloween class this week. I changed the color of the kitty's mask from tangerine tango to concord crush - I found purple glitter in the Fine Cosmo glitter assortment that matched it perfectly!
The card was stamped using my favorite Wicked Cool stamp set with old olive, tangerine tango, concord crush, basic black and whisper white as my color palette. I also used a TON of punches for the card, not only to create the kitty, but also nested for my sentiment.
To achieve the ribbon effect, I attached a small square of the Big Shot multipurpose adhesive sheet to a square of whisper white cardstock and then punched it out with my large circle punch (sorry, it is temporarily unavailable due to quality control issues). I assembled my kitty cat on the front of the whisper white card stock circle and when that was dry and done I flipped it over and pulled the back of the adhesive side off. I centered a smaller 1-1/4 punch of card stock in the center of the large circle, which left a sticky edge. I then took my old olive satin ribbon (hint: leaving it on the spool is so much easier - you don't have to guess how long to cut your piece) and just started folding and wrapping it around the piece. Go slowly and crimp and press as you go around - super easy!
I don't have a lot of time before needing to post this - will try and edit the post later to include a full list of supplies. Thanks for your understanding!!
Thanks for visiting me today - I hope you have a wonderful weekend! What kind of Halloween projects are you planning to create?
Did you realize that Stampin' Up! carries raw materials for use with the Big Shot like cork, chipboard, vinyl and magnet sheets? This week on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are focusing on cork for our projects. I decided to pull out my Lattice bigz die and decorate a plain glass votive holder that I picked up at a $ store. What do you think? I like the way it turned out!
This cork is fabulous - you get six sheets of 6" x 13" sheets! I cut mine down to four squares that were 3-3/4" in size and then ran them through the Big Shot with the Lattice Bigz die. I adhered them to the sides of my votive holder using Crystal Effects - it worked great. After I let that dry for a few hours, I wrapped it with a piece of 1-1/2" old olive striped grosgrain and embellished the front cork piece with our largest basic pearls.
My candle was a little too fat at the base to fit squarely into my container, so I filled it in with some flat glass marbles. Voila - an easy gift that started with something I picked up at the $ store thanks to my Big Shot!
Don't forget to visit the Sisters in Stamping blog after Noon EST today to check out the other great ideas that were submitted this week featuring the cork sheets.
Additional products used with today's project include:
My scrapbook club met for the month and I wanted to share the layouts with you - my hostess for the month, Sandy, requested Halloween and Thanksgiving themes for the pages. This layout above was the one I came up with as a Thanksgiving one. It features the Autumn Spice specialty DSP and it's coordinating stamp set, "Day of Gratitude" along with the "Thankful For" stamp set. I pulled the colors from the DSP - more mustard, cajun craze, old olive and early espresso.
I created the layout based on this scrapbook sketch my sister Cindy shared with me, but she couldn't remember where she found it, sorry! If you recognize it, will you please share the site with me? Thanks!
ETA: Cindy shared the link with me... you can find the sketch here. It is from Liz Goldhawk's blog. Thanks!
Rather than putting the title in the scallop circle, I used my Day of Gratitude large flower and inked it with different colors using sponge daubers and then ran it through my Big Shot with the square lattice folder in order to add texture.
I added the sentiment from this stamp set and punched it out with the decorative label punch found in the Holiday Mini.
The Halloween layout was one that I created for my Fabulous Friday project recently. You will find all the details on this post here.
Are you interested in joining a club? It's a fantastic way to budget the purchases from your wish list over several months while getting a free class and hostess benefits. Contact me if you'd like to join!
Here are the last three cards from our downline swap this month. If you'd like to learn how to make any of these cards, please contact me to book your workshop and I'll be happy to teach you how to recreate it with you and your guests!
This beautiful card was created by Beverly Cole. Visit her blog to get all the details. I love the richness of the rich razzleberry against the whisper white.
This sympathy card was created by Heather Guilliams and features the Peace Within stamp set. Nice job coloring, Heather! She also added texture with the Elegant Bouquet impressions folder - a nice touch.
This last card was designed by Lori Subosits and features the Awash with Flowers stamp set, which she watercolored. The colors are really soft and great for a sympathy card.
As you can see from the cards I've shared with you over the last few days I am very blessed to have so many talented demonstrators on my team. We all share inspiration and learn from each other month after month - if you'd like to join us, please contact me to learn all the wonderful perks you get as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and member of my team.
Thanks for stopping by today! Here are some more of the sympathy cards from my downline swap this month that I promised to share with you. These three cards all share one thing besides being a sympathy card and that is awesome texture added with the Big Shot and square lattice impressions folder. Enjoy the inspiration...
This beautiful card was created by Sherri Gough. She used the Uncharted Territory stamp set - I love this lighthouse image - and her coloring is minimal, but adds just the right touch. The hemp twine is a great embellishment, too, don't you think?
Jaime Penney submitted this card which features the Vintage Vogue stamp set - she was our swap hostess this month and chose our theme. I need to pull this stamp set out and dust it off... I love it. Her color combination of crumb cake, old olive and not quite navy is one I'll have to use because I really like it.
This card submitted by Delores Wilson is a CASE of a card we both received from Lucia Behler at the Baltimore Regional. The Autumn Splendor stamp set is great for a sympanthy card, isn't it?
Tomorrow I'll share the remaining cards - they're fantastic, too, so you won't want to miss it!
