halloween spotlighting

Tonight's card features a technique called spotlighting. It's a great technique to use when you only want to do a little bit of coloring. You basically stamp your image in black on white, then stamp it again on another piece of white card stock and punch out a portion of it. You color this one portion and then, preferably, either punch out or cut a slightly larger mat. For this card I used the 1 1/4 and 1 3/8" circle punches, respectively. After the image is colored and matted, you adhere it over your black and white image in exactly the same positions on the black and white photo. The result is a "spotlight" on one portion of your image. Pretty neat!

The images on this card are from the Haunting Halloween set and the sentiments are from Ghostly Greetings designer series paper.

holiday mini swap card

This was a card I made for a holiday mini demo swap. I used the new A Cardinal Christmas stamp set and stamped the bird in basic brown on very vanilla. My mom and my aunt helped me color the image using creamy caramel and always artichoke stampin' write markers as well as riding hood red and always artichoke classic inks and aquapainter. The edges of the very vanilla card stock were also sponged with creamy caramel ink before the image was attached to an always artichoke mat.

I used a riding hood red card base with a Kraft mat stamped with the leaf image in versamark ink and the sentiment in chocolate chip ink. I also decorated the mat with a bit of a new riding hood red candy striped ribbon from the holiday mini. Then I just added the image with a couple of dimensionals to complete the card.

Now here's the caveat. I may have copied this design from someone else. I say may because I designed the card in my stamp room with no immediate reference to any photos or designs. However, earlier in the day I had seen some cards made with this set and other sets from the holiday mini, and I'm just not sure that this layout/color combo wasn't among the cards I saw. I tried looking back to find my potential inspiration, but was not successful. Which, i suppose, may mean that this is, indeed, my own design. But if this is your design or if you know who I may have copied it from, please let me know and I will give proper credit where credit is due. Thanks!

Winter acetate box

Yes, I'm still working on treat boxes, but I decided to change to another season. This clear acetate box is intended to be a winter gift. I apologize for the bad photos -- no matter how hard I tried I just could not take a good picture of this project. This first one, showing the box filled with chocolate kisses, is especially awful!


The box is very simple. It's a variation on a 2,4,6,8 box, except that it has a top and a bottom, instead of being pinched together at the top. The top is attached with ribbon and lifts up and off the box so that the recipient can get to the contents easily.

The side panels are stamped with stazon ink.

Yet another candy holder

I know what you must be thinking -- when is she going to run out of these candy holder ideas? Well, if you're getting a little tired of these you're going to be disappointed, because there's actually lots more to show. In fact, if I made a treat holder every day between now and Halloween I probably would not run out of ideas. OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it's not that far off the mark. Don't worry, though, I will throw in a card or a different project here and there.

Tonight's candy holder is called a diaper fold pouch. It sure is a funny name for such a cute little thing. It's actually super simple to make. You start with a square piece of card stock or, in this case, double sided designer paper and fold it in half on a diagonal. With the fold at the bottom, you find the midpoint of the other two sides and fold the corners up so that the two folded corners meet and form a straight line across that midpoint. then you simply fold down the first layer of the top triangle and use your hand to pop out the pouch so you can fill it with candy (or other small trinkets). To make the pouch stand up by itself I fold in the bottom corners and try to flatten out the bottom. It does take a little time to get the balance right, especially after you put in the candy, but if you;re patient enough you can make these stand!

For those who are curious, the materials I used to make this project are: Ghostly Greetings designer paper, pumpkin pie and apricot appeal card stock, Eat, Drink and Be Scary stamp set, basic black ink, 1/8" handheld circle punch and and 1/4" pumpkin pie grosgrain ribbon.

Hostess Set fun

I needed a quick card tonight so I turned to two sets that I really haven't utilized to their best advantage yet -- the Organic Grace and Best Yet level 1 hostess sets (both on page 18 of the fall-winter idea Book & Catalog).

I just love the images in the Organic Grace set. They're detailed enough to look gorgeous stamped in a single color, so you can put lovely cards together in a hurry. For this card I simply stamped the fern image in garden green ink on very vanilla card stock, sponged the edge of the card stock with so saffron ink, and layered the very vanilla card stock first on certainly celery and then on garden green card stock.

I used garden green for the card base. I made a faux knot with my 5/8" wide certainly celery grosgrain and attached it to a back of a so saffron mat, which I attached to the card front. Then I stamped the greeting from the Best Yet set in garden green ink on the so saffron mat. Finally, I attached the layered stamped image to the card base with a couple of dimensionals.

Directions for triangle box

I apologize for not including more details on yesterday's triangle box. I'm not trying to keep any secrets. It's just a case of not realizing that this idea, which is "old" to me, may be completely new to some of you. Here's a quick and dirty verbal explanation of how to make the box.

Take a 3.5x8.5 piece of card stock and fold it in half (each half should measure 3.5x4.25". Find and mark the midpoint (1.75") on each of the short sides and score lines between that midpoint and both outside points of the center fold. When you're done the card stock should have a diamond shape in the center. Now just fold the four triangles on the outside of the diamond in towards the fold and fold the card stock together until the edge of the triangles meet up to form a triangular box shape. Punch holes in the sides and close the box by threading a ribbon through the holes.

I sure do hope the above made sense. Good luck!

Still more Halloween treats

Edited to add: please click here for triangle box directions.

Halloween is all about candy and treats, so no wonder I've been absolutely obsessed with making a whole bunch of different treat holders. Tonight it's a triangle box and this was so easy to make! All you need is a 3.5x8.5 piece of pumpkin pie card stock wheeled with the arachnophobia wheel in basic black ink. Fold it up, tie it closed with some striped pumpkin pie ribbon and black gingham ribbon, tie on a tag made with the East, Drink and Be Scary stamp set from the Holiday mini and you're done! How much fun would it be to hand these out to the little munchkins on Halloween?

And speaking of Halloween and treat holders, I have a special October offer to all my Chicagoland readers who love Halloween and stamping as much as I do -- a traveling Halloween workshop. Here's how it works. You gather together your friends, neighbors and family for a fun stamping activity. You decide the combination of quick and easy Halloween treat holders and/or cards you want everyone to make, for a total of 6 projects. Each participant has an option of paying $10 to make the 6 projects or making one project of my choice for free.


Anyone who wants to make the 6 projects must register and pay in advance, but if they place an order of $75 or more on the night of the class, a $10 credit will be applied to their order, so the class will be free! On the night of the class you and all the participants can place orders, though no one is obligated to do so. You will serve as the hostess and will receive all hostess benefits from the purchases made that night. And, as a special October bonus, if sales on the night of the workshop are $350 or more, you will get to choose a stamp set from the fall/winter catalog sampler brochure free over and above the regular hostess benefits.


This is a great way to introduce your friends to stamping through a great class at a fantastic price. But you must act quickly, as I only have a dates in October when I can stage the traveling workshop. Contact me to reserve your workshop date today!

Just for me!

I classify the cards I make into 4 groups. There are cards I make as samples for my business, usually for workshops and classes, card I make for sale at craft shows, cards I make to give away to friends and family and, last but not least, cards that are just for me. Today's card falls into that last category. Don't get me wrong-- I can still use it as a business sample or sell it or give it away, but I didn't make it with any of these reasons in mind. I made it because I had the idea for this scene and I love using all these different stamp sets together and the earth element colors and the stampin' pastels! IT was just a really fun card for me to make, without having a care if another person is going to like it or not.

Please note that while I didn't skimp on the stamp sets, I only used 1 color of ink on the entire and only two colors of card stock on the entire card with absolutely no ribbon, brads or punches! So even though the design is a little more time consuming than some of the other cards I've been stamping lately, it isn't particularly complicated. Here's the recipe:

Stamps: Autumn Harvest, Lovely as a Tree, Hugs & Wishes, Frightful Fence Jumbo Wheel (from the upcoming Holiday mini)
Ink: Chocolate chip
Card Stock: more mustard, very vanilla
Accessories: stampin' pastels, cotton tipped applicators, dimensionals

More Decor Elements

One more non-stamped project before we return to regular programming tomorrow. This time I wanted to show you the area above the range in my kitchen which I decorated with Stampin' Up! Decor Elements. When we remodeled our kitchen 2 years ago the original idea was to tile the back splash and the area above the range, but in order to save money we (and by we I mean my DH) were going to do the tiling ourselves. Now two years have gone by and, as you can see, still no tiles, so when the Decor Elements line came out I knew these would be a perfect non-permanent way to create a decorative focal point without breaking the bank.

To create this look I purchased the Baroque Medallions and 2 packs of the Flourishes Decor Elements. I only used the square medallion and the vines from the sets I purchased, which means I still have the round medallion plus 6 flowers to use elsewhere in the house.

I think the decor elements were perfect for this application because the area above the range no longer feels so bare but, at the same time, the decoration does not distract from the range hood , which is the real focal point of our kitchen. The swirly vines also mimic the grape motif that was used on the range hood and is duplicated elsewhere in the kitchen. And the best thing was these were super easy and quick to apply! Talk about instant gratification!

You can purchase various Decor Elements images and phrases from our Phase 1 brochure right now. As I mentioned yesterday, you can also purchase the Spooky Spider Decor Element. And, starting October 1, you will be able to purchase even more Decor elements including new fun images and phrases, seasonal decor for Thanksgiving and Christmas, two-step Decor Elements and images in more colors!

Spooky Spider

Another break from stamping today, this time to show you the cool new Halloween Home Decor product Stampin' Up! is making available now through October 31.

This fun self-adhesive vinyl spider image is here just in time to help you get ready for Halloween, and is priced low so it won't break your candy budget.

Decorate your candy jar to thrill the treaters, or adhere it above your door to scare off the tricksters. As you can see, I chose to to use my medium size black spooky spider to decorate a mirror that I use each year at our pumpkin carving party. I will also order a small white spider to put on the back window of my car for the duration of the spooky season! However you decide to use this fun image, you'll be a Halloween hit!

The exclusive Spooky Spider comes in two colors (black and white) and is designed to coordinate with our Ghostly Greetings Designer Series paper and our Chills & Thrills Rub-Ons from the Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalog. You can get the image in three sizes:

Small (4 5/8x4") $5.95
Medium (8 7/8x7 3/4") $10.95
Large (14 15/16x13") $14.95

Contact me to place your spooky spider order to make sure it arrives in plenty of time to be part of your spooktacular Halloween decor!

Punches and paper

Today I wanted to show you two Halloween items I made recently using absolutely no stamps. Now, you know I still love my stamps, but sometimes you can make really cute stuff and never even reach for ink.

The first item is a 2-4-6-8 box made to look like a monster mummy (it's not a real mummy because her skin, peeking our from beneath the bandages, is green). Anyway, the inspiration for the box was a card front I received in a swap at last year's Convention. I love the card front, so I just translated it to a treat box. The only problem was that when I used the 1" and 3/4" punches to create the largest eye layers, the 1" punch was just too big, so I had to cut it down freehand after I attached the "white." To keep the box closed at the top I added a bit of narrow basic black grosgrain, which also made the mummy look like a girl with a bow. Cute.

The candle next to the treat bag could not have been simpler. It's a large tea light candle (about 2 inches in diameter). I found these at Big Lots last before Christmas and they just happen to be old olive in color. So I just grabbed one and wrapped the outside edge with some Ghostly Greetings designer series paper and slipped it into a glass large tea light candle holder I found at Ikea. Super easy way to add a touch of Halloween to any room in you home!

And, of course, you can use the large tea light candles for any occasion. Here is a photo of one that I decorated for a craft show last year to serve as a quick Christmas gift.

Halloween Treat holder tutorial

Tonight I was finally able to put together the tutorial I promised. I decorated the treat holder a but differently than the last one, but the "bones" are the same.

Start with a 3.5x8.5 piece of card stock (in this case, basic black) scored along the longer side at 1, 4.25 and 7.5 inches. Eventually you will fold this piece of card stock as shown in this photo.



Fold the card stock in half (along the 4.25" score line and use the 1" circle punch to punch a semi-circle along the fold.


Decorate the front of the treat holder, making sure that all the decorations are above the 1" score line. In this case I used some textured old olive card stock, a piece of Summer Picnic designer series paper, and the spider from the Batty For you set stamped in basic black ink on whisper white card stock, punched out with the 1" circle punch and distressed with the distressing tool from the cutter kit. The spiders were attached using dimensionals and I used my basic black stampin' write marker to simulate the thread outside of the whisper white circles.





I took 3 Hershey's miniatures and wrapped them up in strips of the Ghostly Greetings designer series paper before placing them in a small cello bag.

I folded the basic black card stock into a triangle, with the two 1" pieces overlapping at the bottom and adhered to each other with SNAIL. Then I fished the top of the cello bag through the 1" circle opening at the top.

I stamped the tag from the "Eat, Drink & Be Scary set (available October 1 in the Holiday mini catalog) in versamark ink on pumpkin pie card stock and heat embossed it with black embossing powder. I punched the tag out with the small tag punch, layered it over a larger tag punched from old olive textured card stock, punched a hole at the top with my 1/16" handheld punch and tied a piece of black hemp twine through the tag.


As a final touch I looped the tag through a piece of pumpkin pie narrow grosgrain ribbon, which I tied around the top of the cello bag.


This is such a cute and fun design. I can't take credit for it, though. I actually copied it right from page 86 of the Fall Winter Idea Book and catalog. I guessed on the dimensions, but I think they're fairly close. I also modified some of the details, but the basic inspiration was definitely from the catalog.

As I've said before, there are a ton of great ideas in that Idea Book. I always study each page very carefully dozens of times and take notes on particular details that catch my eye. And even with that, I still find new cool things every time I look in there. Every page is filled with inspiration!

For example, take a close look at page 86. Besides the neat treat holder, you'll also find a very cool way to use a half-pearl on a card plus, a unique way to use the ribbon slide from the hodgepodge hardware, plus a very interesting way to create a corner treatment with taffeta ribbon. And that's just what caught my eye -- you may find other neat things by closely looking at the samples on this page. So be sure to study your Idea Book and Catalog closely, and really use it as the inspiration piece it is intended to be!

Another Halloween Treat box!

First, I apologize for a lack of tutorial today for the treat holder. I just didn't have enough time to take and edit the pictures. I will definitely post it tomorrow, though. I promise!

I love this project because it's so easy! I found the directions for this on SCS. Basically you take a square piece of card stock and divide it into equal thirds in each direction with a scoring tool of your choice, so it looks like a tic tac toe box. Then you score each corner box on a diagonal from the outside corner (the actual corner of your whole square piece of card stock) to the inside corner of that corner square. Use some designer paper to decorate, fold along the score lines and use a bit of ribbon laced through punched holes to keep the whole thing together.

Here's what it looks like from the top. It would look great filled with candy but a larger version could also be used as plastic utensil holder at your next BBQ or party. It's really quite a fun little project that comes together in a snap.

Treat holder tytorial - coming tomorrow.

Several readers have asked for the measurements and pattern of the treat holder I posted a few days ago here. The truth is, this treat holder is embarassingly easy to make. But since I haven't posted a tutorial in a while and I haven't anything else to post one on, watch this blog tomorrow or Thursday for a treat holder tutorial.

Green inspiration

I know what you're thinking. The title for the post is green inspiration and there's absolutely no green on the card. What gives?

Well, it's not that kind of green. It's the kind of green that makes us reduce, reuse and recycle. In this case I'm reusing an item that most people probably toss away every day. But hey, I think it's really cute. Can you guess what it is?

Before I get to that, let me tell you about the card. I used riding hood red card stock for the base and stamped the sentiment from Heard from the Heart in chocolate chip ink. Next I added a strip of bella rose designer series paper, a strip of chocolate chip card stock, scalloped on one side with the scalloped edge punch. I stamped the flower from the Eastern Blooms set in riding hood red on whisper white card stock and trimmed the flower out with my paper snips. I added a half-pearl from the pretties kit to the center, and adhered the flower to a piece of chocolate chip card stock punched with the new wide oval punch. I punched 2 1/8" holes on either side of the oval and slipped through some new riding hood red taffeta ribbon. Then I attached the oval and the ribbon to my reused substance and attached the whole thing to the card front.

And just what is the reused item? It's a coffee cup collar. You know, the thing that prevents you from burning yourself as you're holding your scorching cup of coffee? I found this style in our work cafeteria and I really liked it. In addition to the cute print on one side, the whole thing is textured and it's completely white on the reverse side. So even though I usually stick to using only Stampin' Up! products on my cards, I just couldn't resist using this little gem. All I did was cut a piece to size with my desktop paper cutter and lightly brayered on some pink pirouette ink. This left the "peaks" of the collar pink and the "valleys" white -- a really nice effect.

Hope you liked my little "green inspired" card. I'll be back tomorrow with another Halloween treat holder!

Eastern Happiness

This is the last card for this month's stamp camp. It's very soft and feminine, isn't it? Kind of makes you wan to break out in to your very own rendition of "I feel Pretty" from the West Side Story. No? It must just be me, then.

To make the card I first stamped the three flowers in riding hood red and punched them out using the 1" circle pinch. I then layered each flower on a 1 1/4 pink pirouette circle and then on a 1 3/8" riding hood red circle. I attached all three to a piece of whisper white card stock that I stamped with the cherry tree branch pattern in pink pirouette ink. I added a riding hood red mat and I used my scalloped edge punch to create ric rak from a strip of riding hood red card stock. I mounted the finished image on a pink pirouette base and stamped the sentiment from the Heard from the Heart set.

Making the ric rak is a little challenging the first time, but thanks to my friend Trina, who taught us some scalloped edge punch tricks at our last demo meeting, I managed just fine. I predict a lot of ric rak in my future!

Green Tea Birthday

Another card from this month's stamp camp. This was a fun card to design because even though it may be hard to tell, it felt completely different than the other cards I've been making lately. It also gave me a chance to use a bunch of stuff that I haven't played with enough lately.

I wanted to do a card that really featured the double sided nature of our designer paper. I thought about using the traditional fold over techniques, but that didn't quite do it for me. And then I remembered the envelope templates and I just had to make a card featuring an envelope. I used our mini envelope template, choosing the envelope that would fit a 2x3" note card. I reached for my new Green Tea designer series paper, traced the pattern onto the paper and cut it our using my paper snips. I wanted to decorate the envelope a little bit more, so I used an Old olive flower from the Felt Fusion assortment and a baja breeze flower from the felt fusion too assortment and attached it to the envelope with a celery square ice rhinestone brad. Please note that the envelope was not glued together yet, to make attaching the brad easier. Only after the flowers and brad were attached did I use snail on the side flaps to put the envelope together.

Next I used a flower from the Eastern Blooms set to create a background on the square piece of old olive card stock, before I attached the envelope to the card stock. I took a 2x3" piece of certainly celery card stock and rounded the corners with my corner rounder punch. I then took a 2 7/8" x 1 7/8" piece of whisper white card stock and rounder the corners as well. I stamped the happy birthday greeting in old olive ink on the whisper white card stock and added some more flowers from the eastern blooms set stamped in baja breeze ink which I stamped off onto scratch paper first to tone down the intensity of the ink. I attached the whisper white piece to the certainly celery mat and inserted the note into the envelope.

I attached the old olive card stock to a certainly celery mat and stamped the greeting from the Heard from the Heart set (on sale for 15% off through the end of this month!) Then I mounted the certainly celery card stock to the baja breeze card base to finish the card.

It's not Ike yet, but it's not pretty, either

Well, we didn't get any hurricane or even tropical storm strength winds, but the Chicagoland area sure got our share of water this weekend, and nature's not quite done yet.


It rained here pretty much non-stop since yesterday afternoon for about 24 hours, with some areas getting as much as 7 inches of rain. While we're finally getting a little break, tomorrow's forecast calls for more rain as the remnants of hurricane Ike make their way into our area. We're told we could get another 3-6 inches and, as you can see from these photos, there's just nowhere for this water to go!

These are photos my husband took as we drove around our neighborhood at about 1:00 p.m. this afternoon. By this time, many roads in our village were impassible, and the rain had not let up yet. A couple of hours later we received a recorded call from the county, letting us know that sandbags were available for pickup at the local 7-11 store.

Since we live on one of the highest points in the whole village, thankfully we didn't need the sandbags, but obviously many of our neighbors were not so lucky. Now we just have to wait and hope that the water recedes overnight before the next storm arrives.

Obviously this is nothing compared to the harrowing experience people in Texas and Louisiana have been going through this weekend, but it just goes to show that nature can strike anywhere and with little or no warning.

Another treat holder

As promised, here is another project from this month's stamp camp. Each month one of the projects will be a 3-d item, and this month, with Halloween around the corner, I thought I'd demonstrate how easy it can be to make fun party favors.

Once again, using the Ghostly Greetings designer series paper made it super easy for me to use just one stamp on this whole project. But you won't find this stamp in the Fall/Winter idea book and catalog -- it's a preview from the new Holiday mini catalog called Eat, Drink & Be Scary. I debated whether or not to use this set, since it won't be available for purchase until October 1, but if I waited to use it at the next stamp camp it would be too late to order it in time for Halloween, so I decided to go ahead with the preview.

I love how the stamp fits perfectly into our curly label punch and I really like how the curly label shape looks layered over the 1 3/4" circle punched with another new punch.

Once the outside of the treat holder is made, all you need to do is put some candy in the small cello bag, fish out the top of the bag through the hole in the treat holder, and use some black hemp twine to attach the tag to some 1/4" pumpkin pie grosgrain ribbon.

It really is most adorable and, in addition to party favors, it could easily be used to hold treats for your kids' classmates or your co-workers.

Garden du Jour

Tonight I took a little break from designing cards for the stamp camp. Instead, I completed the 4th card in my Dreams du Jour/Windsor Knot series. (If any of you have studied psychology, feel free to weigh in on why I seem to be a little obsessed with this stamp/color/designer paper combination.)

To make this card I started with a chocolate chip base. I took a piece of the so saffron designer paper from the Windsor Knot assortment and finished off one edge with the scalloped edge punch. I then added a scalloped edge to a strip of old olive card stock, which I layered under the designer paper before I attached both to a piece of whisper white card stock.

The next part was the most time consuming. I used the two images in this set with flowers in them, stamped each of the images twice on whisper white card stock with chocolate chip ink, colored them with so saffron and old olive stampin' write markers and trimmed the flowers and leaves out with my paper snips before layering them over and under the old olive scalloped edge. My husband thinks this makes the flowers look like they're peeking over a picket fence. I admit, I didn't think of it that way until he said it, but now I can't see them any other way.

In the white space above the flowers I stamped three butterflies with chocolate chip ink and colored them in with my so saffron and sage shadow stampin' write markers.

As a final touch I stamped the sentiment on 5/8" old olive grosgrain in versamark ink and embossed it with white embossing powder. I then layered the old olive ribbon on a piece of double stitched chocolate chip ribbon and attached both ribbons to the card stock. Then I just attached the stamped card front to the chocolate chip card base.

Tomorrow I'll go back to stamp camp projects!

Say it with scallops - larger mat tutorial

Here's another card we'll be making at this month's stamp camp on September 20. Would you believe this whole card uses only one stamp? Looks pretty good, doesn't it? It just goes to show, you don't need a lot of stamps if you have the right accessories.

On this card I started with a kiwi kiss base, then wrapped some baja breeze double stitched ribbon around the front so that the raw edges would be hidden under the front panel. I then attached a piece of the Muirfield double sided designer series paper to a piece of whisper white card stock, added a pacific point mat and attached the whole panel to my card base. Next I punched two large stars out of baja breeze and pacific point card stock and attached them to each other, offsetting the points. I punched a hole in the center through which I inserted a 3/8" star brad from the styled silver hodgepodge hardware collection, and attached the star over the front panel with a dimensional. Finally, I stamped the congrats sentiment from the Say it With Scallops set in pacific point ink on whisper white card stock and punched it out with the scalloped square punch.

I liked the card so far, but I wanted a scalloped mat for the sentiment, so I decided to make one using my scalloped square punch. And since some of you asked me how I did this back when I made this Dreams du Jour card, I decided to do a quick tutorial.

Take the card stock in the color of your desired mat. Punch on whole scalloped square and three sides measuring just 2 scallops on one side and all scallops on the other. (If you wanted a bigger mat you could have 3 or even 4 scallops per shorter side).


Attach one of the smaller sides to the full square by overlapping the last scallop on the full square with the scallops on the smaller piece, so that your composite is now 1 scallop longer than the full punched square.

Next attach the other smaller piece to the longer side of the new scalloped rectangle as shown in photo.


Finally, attach the third piece so that all the sides are now 6 scallops long, as shown in photo.
The reverse side of this "mat" will look like this photo. I prefer to attach my stamped piece to this reverse side. For some reason the "joints" between all the pieces don't seem as prominent to me on this side.

As a final step just adhere your stamped piece over your mat. From far away the joints are almost invisible, and even up close you have to be looking for them to find them. This technique is a really good way to introduce some more color to your scalloped squares, adn you could take it one step further by adding yet another bigger mat.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

A Flower for Fall

Tonight I made another sample for this month's stamp camp. I used the new stamp set called A Flower for All Seasons, which I just fell in love with when I first saw it in the catalog.

Since this is September, I used the Sunflower image because it goes so well with fall colors. I stamped the image in basic black ink on whisper white card stock and colored it in using my aqua painter and summer sun, chocolate chip, old olive and riding hood red inks. The summer sun and really rust parts were a little light, though, so after the image dried I went over those parts with my stampin' write markers.

For the base I used really rust card stock and stamped it with the Sanded background using really rust ink. I then took a piece of chocolate chip card stock and wrapped a piece of 5/8" old olive grosgrain ribbon around it (with a faux knot, of course). I then added riding hood red and summer sun mats to my main image and attached it to the chocolate chip card stock over the ribbon with two dimensionals.

I stamped the sentiment from the Say it with scallops set in chocolate chip ink on whisper white card stock and cut it out with my paper snips before attaching it to tags punched out of riding hood red and summer sun card stock with the small and large tag punches. I used my 1/16" handheld punch to punch a hole in the tag through which I threaded some red hemp twine and used it to attach the tag to the old olive ribbon. Then all I had to do was to attach the tag to the card with a dimensional.

It's a cute little card and it was very fast and fun to make. I'm sure everyone at the stamp camp will enjoy it!

Stamp Camp Sample - Haunting Halloween

This is totally uncharacteristically forward-thinking of me, but I'm starting to work on samples for September stamp camp. While this stamp camp won't be all about Halloween, there will be a few projects featuring a Halloween them, including this one.

I was really glad to see this Haunting Halloween set back in the catalog this year. I purchased it last year and actually used it to make our pumpkin carving party invitations, but I felt it still had a lot of life left in it, so I'm excited to be able to showcase it again!

For this card I stamped the sentiment and the cat on whisper white card stock in basic black ink. I colored the cat using my aqua painter and elegant eggplant, pumpkin pie, summer sun and creamy caramel inks.

I used basic gray for the card base, layered with elegant eggplant card stock which I stamped with the stars in elegant eggplant ink. I then added a layer of summer sun and the Ghostly greetings designer paper. Finally I added the image and sentiment, layered with mats of pumpkin pie.

I hope everyone enjoys making this card at the stamp camp! Click the events link in the side bar to get more details!

Pocket Silhouettes

I'm still playing with my polished stone technique, but this time I broke out a new stamp set -- pocket silhouettes. I actually had to borrow this set from my friend Liz, because my set is not here yet and I knew it would just be perfect to use on the technique card for tomorrow's class.

For this card I started with a piece of glossy white card stock and a rubbing alcohol soaked cotton ball onto which I drooped one drop each of so saffron, sage shadow and baja breeze. I used the cotton ball to make the background and, after it dried, stamped my sentiment with chocolate chip ink. When it was dry I punched it out with my word window punch and used my paper cutter to get a straight edge so i could use the remaining background for my main image. I then stamped the two sets of silhouettes, one in chocolate chip and the other in old olive ink. I love the way this turned out!

I added chocolate chip and so saffron mats to the main image and then a larger mat from Windsor Knot designer series paper where I rounded the corners. I layered the sentiment onto a small chocolate chip oval and large so saffron oval and, finally, onto a wide oval punched out of the Windsor knot paper. I used my 1/16" handheld hole punch and inserted old olive brads through all the layers.

I took a sage shadow base and added a wide strip of chocolate chip card stock which I tore down both long sides. I ran a piece of the new so saffron poly twill ribbon down the center of the chocolate chip strip. Then I added the image and the sentiment to complete the card.

At the class we'll just make the main image panel, but I'm glad I made this card because it really shows off how you can take a stamp set with fairly small images and use it to make a full size card! So cute! And the pocket Silhouettes set is on sale for 15% off through the end of this month! Make sure you don't miss out on this great deal!

Pumpkin Boo

Tuesday night is this month's Technique night and I'll be teaching a class on the polished stone technique. Polished stone involves using re-inkers and rubbing alcohol to create marbled backgrounds. We'll be making a traditional polished stone card with the background serving as, well, a background, but I also thought we'd o something a little different and use the background on just the main image by combining the polished stone technique with paper piecing.

To make this card I used glossy white card stock and more mustard, pumpkin pie, real rust and old olive re-inkers. I stamped the pumpkin, leaf and stem on the background I created and cut each piece out with my paper snips. Next I stamped the pumpkin on whisper white card stock and overlaid it with the pieces I trimmed out from my marbled backgrounds. I popped the leaf up on a dimensional and added an old olive "grass" at the bottom of the "scene". I added a pumpkin pie mat to the photo. I layered a piece of the double stitched chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon over a strip of more mustard card stock, which I attached to an old olive base. I attached the stamped image to the base with dimensionals. Finally I stamped the sentiment from the Pictograms set on the card base in chocolate chip ink and colored in the ghost with the white gel pen. At class, students who do not celebrate Halloween will be able to leave off the jack-o-lantern face and use the "gobble" sentiment from the pictograms set.

Please note that I know traditionally polished stone uses a metallic re-inker, but I usually leave metallic re-inkers out. I have no good reason for it, except that I like the non-metallic look.

Mystery project - Halloween Treat!

If you came to read this blog some time between midnight and 1:a.m CDT tonight, you found a little note telling you that a project would be loaded soon. Well, I didn't lie. Here is what I came up with in the wee hours of the night. A fun little container for your Halloween treats. Isn't it cute? I know I'm biased, but I think so!

I was inspired to make this by a gift I received from a demo friend at Convention. She gave a a cute little jar decorated with the Seeing Spots set (see last photo in this post). I really liked this idea and thought the jar would look awesome filled with ribbon scraps, but I haven't had a chance to fill it up yet.

In the meantime, Bill and I went to IKEA today and, among other things, I found these adorable little jars. SO when I was looking for something to stamp tonight, the jar just sort of jumped out at me and begged to be decorated.

Decorating the jar was really straightforward, except for the pumpkin pie circle covering the lid. I used my coluzzle to cut out the basic black circle, but I had no way to cut the pumpkin pie circle to size. I actually ended up tracing the lid onto card stock and cutting the circle by hand, trimming off some of the edges after I attached the circle to the lid. Other than that minor inconvenience, I just used my punches to punch out the scalloped circles out of the new Ghostly Greetings designer series paper for the lid and the sides. For the lid I used the 1 3/8" circle punch to get the smaller basic black circle. I then stamped the image from the Batty for You set on whisper white and pumpkin pie card stock in stazon black ink. I punched the white card stock with my 1 1/4" circle punch and the bat with my 1" circle punch. I layered everything together and attached the layered image to the lid with a dimensional. To finish off the lid I covered the side first with pumpkin pie striped grosgrain ribbon and then with 1/4" basic black grosgrain ribbon, ties into a bow on top.

For the side of the jar I punched some more Ghostly Greetings designer series paper with the 1 3/8" circle punch, stamped the bat image twice more on pumpkin pie card stock in black stazon ink and punched it out with the 1" circle punch. The designer series paper is adhered to the scalloped circle using snail,. and the bat is popped up on a dimensional.

And this is the project that started it all for me. Isn't it cool? I just love it! Thanks, Jan, both for the gift and the inspiration!