Money Holder graduation card tutorial

Tonight I taught a class on how to make 4 different styles of money and gift card holders. I think they all turned out pretty cute and I'll be showing you all of them over the next few days, starting with this graduation money holder. Of course this is the front of the card, so it's not exactly exciting.

The card base is kraft. The mats are soft sky and a piece of east coast prep double sided designer series paper. The graduation cap is from Year after year stamped in basic black on whisper white card stock and then colored with wild wasabi ink and a blender pen (I also used a more mustard marker at the top of the tassel). The edges of the whisper white card stock were colored with soft sky ink using the direct to paper method and the image was adhered to a more mustard mat before being added to the card front.

The sentiment was stamped in basic black and wild wasabi on whisper white card stock, edged with soft sky and matted with more mustard before being attached to the card base. So far so ho-hum.


Inside the card is where things get a little more exciting. To decorate the card I stamped the graduation cap again with the hats off to you! sentiment from the Hattitude set (I won this set in a drawing held by my upline during Sale-A- Bration this year -- Thanks Jen! I love it!). I also stamped the congratulations from Birthday Hugs and Wishes, all in basic black.

You can see the money holder peeking out from the word window punched slot. I used the rough edges alphabet to stamp the word "pull" on the tab, just in case the tab alone was not enough of a clue.


When you do pull up the tab you get to the gift! Fun, isn't it? And not exactly complicated, either.


To make this type of card you start with a full 8.5x11 sheet of card stock and score it down the middle in each direction. Then you cut out the lower left hand quadrant and use the word window punch to punch a slot at the bottom of the lower right hand quadrant. Since this side of the lower right hand quadrant won;t be seen, you can actually draw yourself some guidelines to ensure straight punching. For this card I used a 1/2 inch margin from the top and the sides. After the slot was punched I added some sticky strip as shown in the photo.


I then peeled off the red liner tape and folded up the lower right hand quadrant. Now the card looked just like a regular 8.5 x 4.25" card.

I took a 4.75x3" piece of soft sky card stock and rounded all the corners. I then added several tabs using the slit punch. I made 3 tabs at the bottom and 2 at the top, but you could do the same number of tabs on both top and bottom. I punched a round tab piece out of wild wasabi card stock and adhered it to the top of the soft sky card stock. I then punched two 1/16" circles using a handheld punch and inserted two more mustard brads. Then I went back and decorated the card as shown in the photos above.

I'll actually be using this card for my cousin's graduation later this month. Hope he likes it!

Father's Day inspiration

Tonight I want to show you the second card I made based on this Sunday's Pillow CASE challenge. Admittedly, this is not a CASE (for those of you who have been puzzled by what CASE stands for -- it's Copy and Share Everything -- stamper's lingo for copying someone else's design). Rather than attempting to use the pillow design as a main feature on my card, I used it to create a color palette and I also created a "faux designer paper" strip to mirror the stripes on the pillow. (you can actually visualize this better if you look at the second photo, which shows the pillow in the same orientation as the stripes on the card.

Anyway, the color palette of this pillow seemed very masculine to me, so right away I knew that I would like to use it to make a Father's Day card. I grabbed my new For Father stamp set from the Occasions mini catalog and decided to go with the apple image. I stamped the image on naturals ivory card stock in basic brown ink and colored it using an aqua painter and classic inks in ruby red, old olive, more mustard, soft sky and chocolate chip. After the water coloring dried I used the fine tip of the chocolate chip stampin' write marker to color in the "Apples" sign.

I added a chocolate chip mat to the main image along with a picture hanger and brad from the aged copper hodgepodge hardware assortment and some more mustard narrow grosgrain ribbon. I attached the "faux designer paper" strip and the main image to the ruby red card base and added the Happy Father's Day sentiment from All Holidays which I stamped in basic brown on naturals ivory card stock and then cut apart into three pieces.

While this card may not be totally in the spirit of a CASE challenge, it's a good example of the ways you can use just about anything around you to inspire your artwork. So if you ever feel stuck just grab some fliers, catalogs or magazines and I guarantee within a few minutes you'll find the perfect jumping off point for your next creation!

My Pillow CASE

As promised, here is my first Pillow Case from this Sunday's challenge. I think it came out pretty well, although in my typical fashion I didn't leave quite enough white space and the flower from Older and Wiser turned out to be just a bit too large in scale. Still, overall I think I captured the feel of this bedding, so I guess I met the challenge.

As I mentioned, I used the flower from Older and Wiser to stamp the background on whisper white card stock with bashful blue, ballet blue, certainly celery and chocolate chip stampin' write markers. I used the Frames with a Flourish set to stamp the square frame in bashful blue ink on whisper white card stock and stamped the sentiment from Sincere Salutations in ballet blue, then added a ballet blue mat.

I punched two holes on either side of the frame with my 1/8" handheld hole punch and wove a piece of wide certainly celery grosgrain ribbon through the holes, attaching it at the back of the whisper white background. I punched the corners of the background layer with the ticket corner punch and then adhered the background layer to the bashful blue card front. As a final touch I punched 1/8" ballet blue circles with the handheld punch and adhered them in the corners of the card front.

If you don't remember what the inspiration looked like, here it is. So what do you think? Did I do a good job? And are you willing to take up my challenge and create a pillow CASE of your own?

cute duckies

Are you still working on your pillow CASE? I know I am. As predicted, I didn't have time to stamp this evening, so I will have to create and post my cards tomorrow.

In the meantime, here is the last of the cards from my single layer class. On this card I first wheeled the duckies at the bottom of the card and colored the ducks and water bubbles in with stampin' write markers. Using the wheel guide as my mask, I went back with my bashful blue chalk from the stampin' pastels and, using a cotton-tipped applicator I colored in the water. I used the stampin' Pastels to do this because it was the best way to achieve a soft color on the white card stock base.

I then stamped the Let the Cute Begin sentiment and colored the letters and onesie with my stampin' write marker. Using the brown paper backing from the dies cut stamp and the wheel guide as a mask, I used a sponge dauber and cotton tipped applicator to add so saffron chalk to the top of the card. I needed to use the cotton tipped applicator to get close enough to the wheel guide so there would be a definite line between the blue water below and the yellow background above.

Of course, I then went and covered the line by wrapping a piece of pumpkin pie striped ribbon around the card front. So now you can't see the line between the faux layers, but I know it's there!

Sunday Pillow CASE challenge

Tomorrow is Sunday which means a new Pillow CASE challenge. This time I'm posting two pillows to inspire you. Why? Well, first there are just too many gorgeous pillows out the re to limit yourself to one and, second, I wanted to provide color and style options.

I found the first photo in a sale flyer from The Great Indoors. This is a design called "Mille Righe" by Bellino. It's very soft and pretty and should provide a lot of inspiration.


I found the second pillow in the outdoors section of a Kohl's sale ad. Who said cool pillows are only found in the bedding section? What drew me to this pillow was the interesting color combination as well as the vertical stripe motif (another way to use those scrap strips!)

I will do my best to upload the cards inspired by these pillows tomorrow or Monday (I have a workshop tomorrow so I may to have a lot of time for leisure stamping). I hope you will join me. Remember, your cards may be replicas of the patterns seen in the pillows or they can just use the same color combinations or layout. I look forward to seeing everyone's creations!

Single layer graduation

This is the single layer graduation card we made at today's single layer stamp-a-stack. Surprisingly, I think this card turned out to be the day's favorite, even though it did involve the wonderful, yet sometimes temperamental, sticky strip.

The point was once again to make the card look like it was a multi-layer card without actually using more than a single layer of paper. To do this I started with a glossy white card base. I used basic black ink to stamp the cap and sentiment. I then masked the cap with a post-it note cut down to the appropriate size.

I added a sticky strip border around the post it note, making sure to leave the top red film in place. I then used the brayer to coat the unmasked card front with brocade blue ink. The trick to this is to go over each side of the card front several times to even out the ink distribution.

After the card front was evenly coated with ink, I removed the post-it mask and colored the cap in with my brocade blue stampin' write marker, adding a bit of silver with my zig painty at the top of the hat and tassel. Now it was time to peel the sticky strip and press the card front into a powder pal full of chunky black glitter. the glitter adhered to the sticky strip creating a really fun border.

The really fun part is that some of the ladies in class chose to modify this by using the present image from the Year after year set instead of the graduation cap. That turned out very cute as well! I think everyone was very happy with the class and all of the different techniques they learned to create a multi-layer look with just a simple card base.

Make a Wish

We return to the single layer card class with this little birthday card where I used punches and reverse masking to create a layered look. This is actually a very simple little card using only an apricot appeal base, pumpkin pie classic ink and chocolate chip craft ink, plus some chocolate chip poly twill ribbon for decoration. I hope the ladies in the class will like it!

Celebrate Your Day

I do have more single layer cards to show you, but just for a little variety I thought today I'd upload a celebration card I stamped recently using the embrace life set. I used naturals white card stock and basic black ink, then colored the cherry blossom images with my old olive, regal rose and rose red stampin' write markers. To reduce some of the white space I sponged in a little tempting turquoise in between the flowers.

I mounted the stamped strip on a mat of rose red and old olive, then added some regal rose wide grosgrain and attached the whole thing to a tempting turquoise base. To finish the card I just added the sentiment from the Celebrate Everything set stamped in basic black.

Single - but not for long!

As you might have guessed from the title of this post, this is another card for my single layer Stamp-A-Stack. This one is intended as a bridal shower card, for the soon to not be so single girl.
On this card I dry embossed the circles, then used a mask to sponge on the pretty in pink classic ink and added a stamped flower from the Simply Said set, colored with an almost amethyst stampin' write marker. The main image from the Big on Spring set was colored using regal rose, bashful blue, almost amethyst and certainly celery stampin' write markers, then covered with crystal effects and sprinkled with dazzling diamonds glitter. I also added glitter to the center of the flowers in the two borders.

I think this card succeeds in showing how you can create an illusion of a second layer of circles simply with some dry embossing and masked sponging. All that and it's sparkly too! Perfect for any bride to be.

She's All that in White

I know this will sound strange, but I'm so proud of this little card. If you could only see how many different designs I started and discarded before I finally came up with this one, you'd understand.

I spent quite a bit of time today finalizing my samples for this weekend's "Single and Loving it" single layer stamp-a-stack. At this event each person will stamp 2 cards of 5 single-layer designs. The goal of the class is to show the students ho to achieve a multi-layer look without actually using any layers. I knew that it wouldn't be as easy as it sounds, but I had some great ideas in my head so I thought I was all set.

Unfortunately, the idea for the wedding card just did not translate well in practice, no matter how many times I tried. So I finally gave up, stared from scratch, and came up with this.

I love this card because it reminds me of a cameo, which is the first thing I thought of when I saw the "She's All That" set in the Occasions Mini Catalog. I also love how easy it is to make it. Don't believe me? Just check out the recipe:

Stamps: She's All That
Ink: versamark
Paper: Came Coral
Accessories: Coluzzle cutting system, clear and white embossing powders

That's it! I don't think I have ever made a card using so few "ingredients". The secret is making a reverse masking oval template with the coluzzle cutting system. Once you have that the rest is just stamping and embossing. You stamp the bride with versamark inside the oval and emboss her in white. Then, using the reverse mask, you cover the inside of the oval with versamark ink by stamping the card front with the ink pad until the entire oval is covered and emboss that with clear embossing powder. Then you stamp the sentiment with versamark ink and emboss that in white. Could a card be any more simple? And yet the result is classy and elegant. Woo hoo!

East Coast Prep Birthday

Today's card is just a simple birthday card using the Older and Wiser Level 3 Hostess set and East Coast Prep designer Series paper. I started with a more mustard card base and added a mat of the striped design from the East Coast Prep Designer Paper assortment.

next I inked up the candle portions of the main image (carefully omitting the flames) with the wild wasabi ink pad. I used a baby wipe to take the ink off three of the candles and colored them with my real red and tempting turquoise stampin' write markers. I used the more mustard stampin' write marker for the flames. After I stamped the first five candles, I cleaned the stamp, re-inked two more candles using my stampin' write markers and stamped those in line with the other five. I then added a tempting turquoise and real red mats.

I took a piece of wild wasabi card stock and stamped the Happy Birthday greeting in versamark ink. I then heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I wrapped a piece of the striped ribbon from the jersey ribbon originals assortment and wrapped it around a strip of tempting turquoise card stock. I then attached the tempting turquoise strip to the wild wasabi card stock and added the main image with dimensionals. As a last step I attached the wild wasabi card stock to the card front.

I really like this card. It's very bright and happy. Hope you think so too.

I also wanted to give you an update on my MIL. She and I went to get the cast off her wrist today and it looks pretty good. She will have to wear a brace for a couple more weeks and won't really be able to drive until next week, but on the bright note the doctor said everything healed very well and she probably won't even need physical therapy. The brace is not nearly as restrictive as the cast, so she can use her right hand again to write (it was really hard for her not being able to even sign her name for the past 3 weeks) and perform a lot of other ordinary tasks that we take for granted.

So good for mom! In another couple of weeks she'll be as good as new!

Mother's Day gift certificate holder

Before Mother's Day is officially over, I just wanted to show you a gift certificate holder that I stamped recently. The size of the closed holder is 9" by 4" and it is very similar to the money holder card I showed you in December except that instead of a belly band I chose to use the ingenious oval punch latches -- a little trick I picked up from Glenda at her April stamp camp.

For the front of this holder I just used a piece of Afternoon Tea designer paper stamped with a few butterflies from the Live your Dream stamp set. I added a Happy Mother's Day greeting from the All Holidays set stamped in chocolate chip craft ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I used the ticket corner punch in two corners and sponged the edges with groovy guava ink. I then mounted the sentiment on a mat of wild wasabi card stock and added an oval clip from my aged copper hodgepodge hardware assortment along with some double stitched grosgrain ribbon in groovy guava and wild wasabi.

For the inside of the holder I used some more Afternoon Tea designer series paper and made the latches out of wild wasabi card stock punched with the large oval punch and the slit punch. I decorated the latches with flowers from the Live your Dream stamp set stamped in groovy guava ink on whisper white card stock, punched with the 1/2" circle punch and attached to the latches with brads from the aged copper hodgepodge hardware assortment. On the reverse side of the flap I used some whisper white card stock on which I stamped a border of flowers from Live you Dream stamped in groovy guava and close to cocoa. I attached the white card stock to the wild wasabi mat before adhering the whole thing to the underside of the flap.

I stamped the gift certificate itself with more stamps from the live your dream set and mounted it on a wild wasabi mat. I think the whole thing turned out pretty nice.

If you'd like to learn how to make this type of gift certificate/cash holder plus three more styles of gift certificate/cash/gift card holders, make sure you sign up for my gift holder class on May 21. See you there!

Pillow CASE Sunday Challenge

I had just a little too much fun making that card based on a toss pillow earlier this week, so I decided I had to do it again. And I'm actually thinking about making it a regular feature, at least for a little while. And I'd absolutely love it if you would join in -- there are lots of inspiring pillows out there!

Take this "lakeview" bedding from Nautica that I found in the Bed Bath and Beyond flyer. There are lots of pillows worth CASEing in that shot. In fact, I think I may revisit this photo somewhere down the road. But tonight I only made one card. Can you guess which pillow I copied?

If you guessed the Navy, green and white striped sham on the right you were correct! (Funny thing about this set -- if you look closely at those two shams, they're not exactly alike, which is unusual and kind of cool!)
Anyway, I once again saw this pattern as a great way to use my scrap strips of card stock, so I just copied the patterns on the pillow as closely as possible (I had to vary it a little) with strips of certainly celery, bashful blue and whisper white card stock. I also added a bit of always artichoke narrow grosgrain ribbon just for a little bit of texture and interest.

I had a hard time coming up with the right sentiment for this card. Choosing the sentiment was as much about the font as it was about the greeting. I finally settled on many happy returns (form the many Happy Returns set) and accented it with the little strip of hash marks. Both were stamped in versamark and embossed with white embossing powder. I liked the simplicity of the greeting and the font, and I thought the hash mark striped nicely mirrored the color stripes on the card.

(By the way, I've really enjoyed using my custom mounted Many Happy Returns set. Separating all of the sentiments and images does make them more versatile and easier to use. If yuo'd like to read more about how I custom mounted this set click here.)

So now I re-issue my challenge from Monday. Go out and find your own pillow inspiration. It's Sunday so there are lots of ad flyers in the paper and one of them is bound to have the pillow that inspires you! Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day!

I just want to take this opportunity to wish you all happy Mother's Day. I hope you have a nice, relaxing Sunday with your loved ones.

This card is pretty straightforward and it was actually my swap card for my Stampy Nation team swap. I used the Live your Dream set for the main image with groovy guava, wild wasabi and close to cocoa classic inks on whisper white card stock.

I mounted the image on a piece of Afternoon Tea designer paper and added some double stitched wild wasabi ribbon. I added a close to cocoa mat and mounted it on a 4x5.25" piece or wild wasabi card stock. At the bottom I added an oval label holder from the aged copper Hodgepodge hardware assortment with the sentiment stamped in close to cocoa on whisper white using the everyday flexible phrases set.

Then I just mounted the wild wasabi card stock to the groovy guava base and the card was done. So quick and simple even those of us who procrastinate can get it finished tomorrow morning! :-)

Mom & Me Father's Day Class (in person and by mail)

The sample projects for the Mom & Me Father's Day class are finally done -- Yay! You can see them all here. First is the reversible On-Board scrap desktop centerpiece which you saw in more detail earlier in the week. Next the Father's Day card and last but not least, a mini photo album made out of our clear plastic envelopes.

As you can see, all of the projects use the same color scheme, taken directly from the Jersey Shore Double Sided Designer Series Paper which is also featured on all of the projects. I did this so that if these all end up being given to the same person they will constitute a unified whole, as opposed to a bunch of disjointed pieces.

I kept the card pretty simple. I started with a bashful blue base and a piece of scrap designer paper I had after covering the On Board centerpiece. I decided to use the Loads of Love set and to stamp the truck in basic black and leave it blank, thinking that at class the kids can be coloring this truck with a variety of coloring media. I used the All Holidays set for the greeting, stamped in wild wasabi. I added a brilliant blue and pumpkin pie to the greeting and image, adhered them all to the card base and I was done. Cool!

The last project was a clear envelope mini photo album. The back cover is brilliant blue and the front bashful blue. The gate fold covers the flaps of he clear envelopes which are adhered and stapled together. The ribbons serve a decorative function as well as reinforcing the glue and staples underneath. For the front cover I used a pumpkin pie mat, a piece of the Jersey Shore Designer Paper, a wild wasabi mat, and the title stamped with the Taffy alphabet and the heart from Simply Said, in brilliant blue and pumpkin pie. very, very easy -especially since the letters do not have to line up perfectly. Inside the album I inserted plain card stock in coordinating colors into the pockets. You can either insert photos and journaling into these pockets or have your kids draw art small enough to fit into the pocket (roughly 3 3/8" x 5.5".)

The Mom and Me Father's Day class will take place in Itasca, IL on Saturday, May 31 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The fee for the class will be $15.00 per project kit. You can have more than 1 child working on the same kit but each child must be accompanied by an adult. I will let the adults decide if the children are mature enough to handle this kind of class, and I will depend on the adults to supervise the children so that they are not disruptive to other participants. No food or beverages will be permitted near working surfaces.

I hope you find time to join me for this fun class. If you cannot join me on may 31 but would like to make these projects, you can order the class kit by mail. The cost of the project materials will be $15 (including shipping and tax). To assemble the project at home you will, at minimum, need your own adhesive and hole punch for the ribbons on the clear envelope album. You will also need to use your own stamps and inks, if desired. If you would like me to stamp all the stamped pieces for you, there will be an additional $5.00 charge. And if you would like to purchase all three pre-assembled projects, the total cost will be $25.00.

Lunchbag Album and Stewie Update

I know I said that today I would show you the clear envelope album that we're going to make at the Mommy and Me Father's day Class, but I didn't have time to finish my prototype, so instead I want to show you this lunch bag album. I made it with white lunch bags and since the sides of the bags are naturally a bit crooked, I didn't even try to measure my card stock to cover the pages edge to edge. Instead I cut all pieces (except the covers) just a little smaller so that the white edges would be exposed. It looks just as good with a heck of a lot less hassle.

For this album I used 2 white lunch bags. This creates 6 pages inside the album plus 3 pull out pages which can be scrapped on both sides (so 12 pages total). That's actually a lot of scrapping space, considering the amount of materials used. And you can make bigger albums by adding more lunch bags -- Cool!

I used the Taffy alphabet and Year after Year to stamp the title and - how embarrassing - because I'm not used to the taffy alphabet yet I made a mistake. can you tell what it is? Well, I won;t make you guess. I used an upside down exclamation point instead of the I. Understandable, but silly nevertheless.

I haven't had a chance to decorate the inside pages yet, so this is the only photo so far. but more will definitely appear down the road.

In the meantime, I thought I would give you all an update on Stewie. Somehow the little bun managed to get all better and is now totally back to his old self! And here are a couple of pictures to prove it.

In the first one he's "devouring" his favorite book (I think it's John Grisham's The Client). I know some of you will think this is what made him sick, but he's been eating books all his life (this particular one for oever a year) and he's alwasy been fine with it. Bunnies needa lot of fiber and their digestive system is completely different from our, so paper and cardboard are actually good for him.

In thi ssecond photo you can see him snacking on something more nutricious -- parsley. What you see on the ground here is about 1/5 of what he eats in fresh greens in a day. At his last vet visit he weighed 6 lbs, and that's just about what he consumes in lettuce every week (that's not counting the paper, cardboard and hay). Can you imagine? I don't even want to think of what I'd look like if I ate my weight in food every week, even if it was all salad. For those of you who are interested, Stewie typically eats Romaine, Red Leaf, Green Leaf, Endive and either Escarole, Parsley, Cilantro or Kale every day (2 different types of lettuce for breakfast, one for dinner and then 2 right before bed). He also gets a baby carrot at bedtime and 1 or 2 pellets (bunny kibble) at dinner. On occasion he'll get a strawberry, a small piece of apple, plain cheerios or a yogurt treat, but not too often because his digestive system doesn't handle too much of that very well.

Anyway, tha's probably way more than you ever wanted to know about bunnies, but if you have any questions feel free to as and I'll try to answer as best as I can. I'm certainly no expert on bunnies' medical ailments, but I can tell you more about Stewie!

On Board Scrap Centerpiece for Dad

I am having just too much fun playing with my On-Board Book basics. Today I finished a sample project for a Mommy and Me class we'll be doing on Saturday, May 31 from 9:00-11:00 a.m. We will make three projects in class -- a clear envelope album, a father's day card and this chipboard centerpiece made with one of the large On Board Book Basics.

Before I get to the other details of the project, I have to tell you that I take absolutely no credit for the idea of using covered binder clips as "feet" for this centerpiece. I found it on -line on SCS and I'm pretty sure the person who cam e up with was another SU demo, Staci. If anyone knows for sure leave a comment and I will modify the post to give proper credit. In any case, isn't this brilliant? Who ever would have thought to use these binder clips as feet?

As you can see from the two pictures, I covered both sides of the board. that way if this project is sitting on a desk, the people on both sides of the desk have something fun to look at.

I used the Jersey Shore double sided designer paper to decorate both sides of the "centerpiece". On the first page I added a strip of brilliant blue wheeled with the Classic Stars jumbo wheel in versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I also used some double striped wild wasabi grosgrain ribbon, some punched stars and a chipboard star covered with bashful blue card stock and stamped with a star from the classic backgrounds set. I also punched some photo corners out of the designer paper and them with brilliant blue brads from the bold brights assortment. I stamped the "My Dad" title with Taffy alphabet.

The reverse side was even easier. Once again I used strips of the Jersey Shore double sided designer paper. Instead of the double stitched ribbon I used the pumpkin pie striped ribbon. I also punched some photo corners out of wild wasabi and pumpkin pie card stock and secured them with more brilliant blue brads. The "fun time" title is on this side is also stamped with the taffy alphabet.

At the class you will be able to use my stamps and wheels to customize the centerpiece in accordance with your needs and wishes by changing the titles and repositioning some of the page elements or adding new ones. Just think of how much fun you'll have creating your own masterpiece!

Tune in tomorrow for the other two projects we'll make in this class.

Tickled Pink

It's been a while since I stamped anything based on a photo in a catalog or sales flyer, but when I saw this bedding in the bed bath and beyond catalog I just couldn't resist. First of all, I loved the colors. But I also loved the geometric prints, especially on the toss pillow. Want to know what it reminded me of? Hmmm . . . what am I known for hoarding that everyone else just throws away? Any guesses?

That's right! Scraps! And this pillow was just perfect for the scraps that are hardest to use -- the 1/2 inch strips that are left over after you cut down card stock for layers. Woo Hoo! I now have the perfect layout to use all those strips.

As you can see, I didn't exactly use a lot of imagination on this card. In fact, it's almost a perfect pillow CASE (tee hee hee -- I crack myself up!).


Clearly there wasn't a lot of stamping to this card. I just took a whisper white base, added a piece of pretty in pink card stock and then added strips of whisper white, pretty in pink and regal rose. I was trying to figure out what sentiment to use on this card when it hit me -- I had just the thing in my "Many Happy Returns" set. It described both the card and how I felt when I put it together -- tickled pink!

So now it's your turn. Create your own perfect pillow CASE. Find some bedding that really inspires you and make a card! And when you're done post a link so we can all admire your handiwork!

March and April Book of Me Layouts

I am so very sorry. With all the stuff going on last month I completely forgot to post the March Book of Me layout. So today I get to post both the March and the April layouts together.

For the March layout i used one of my favorite color combinations -- sahara sand for the base with groovy guava, river rock and apricot appeal as accents.

I also used close to cocoa ink to stamp the title and the embellishments. The first three photos in this post show potential layouts for this kit, keeping in mind that the photo mats are just recommendations and that their size will change for each purchaser depending on the photos they want to use. Each purchaser received full sheets of the accent colors so they can cut mats of exactly the right size for their pages.

As always, I tried to create a kit that could be used for both horizontal and vertical scrapping orientation. I really like it and I can't wait to add my own March photos to my Book of Me!


The last photo features the April Book of Me kit. For this layout my color choices were real red, pumpkin pie, wild wasabi and bashful blue. Again, the kit purchasers receive full sheets of the accent colors so they can create photo mats and journaling blocks to fit their needs. The flowers are pre-assembled, but the wild wasabi ribbon is shipped uncut so you can use it, as I did, to create stems and leaves or in an entire different way altogether.

FYI, some of you have asked what adhesive I use to attach ribbon to card stock. Most often I use SNAIL. Recently, when I'm dealing with particularly heavy ribbon (like the red and white zigzag ribbon from the jersey ribbon originals collection) I've also used the tombow mono-multi glue.

Click here for more information on my Book of Me club. You can join any time!

Mom

Just playing around today with chipboard and designer paper. I thought this was a very cute and simple Mother's Day project. First I took the three hearts out of the On Board Accents assortment, covered them with so saffron prints double sided designer papers and sponged the edges with rose red ink.

I then stamped the word MOM on rose red ink on whisper white card stock with the Lovely Letters set and punched out each letter with my 1 3/8" circle punch. I layered this on two scalloped circles punched out of the prints designer paper in certainly celery and rose red, and attached each letter onto a heart.

I punched 1/8" holes in the hearts with my crop-a-dial and used certainly celery narrow grosgrain to string them together. I thought the sign was a good start, but something was missing. I tried adding some felt and punched flowers, but that didn't seem right either.

Finally it hit me -- what this project needed was a little double striped ribbon and hodge podge hardware. So I reached for my aged copper hodge podge hardware assortment and my purely pomegranate double striped ribbon and added a piece of each to each heart.

I like this result much better! The ribbon and hodgepodge hardware add just the right bit of decoration to take a plain wall hanging and make it stand out.

The best part, of course, is that right now you can get a 25% discount on the price of the the On Board Accents chipboard assortment with any non-chipboard $35 purchase of Stampin' up! products. And you can get the aged copper hodge podge hardware Free if you sign up to be a demonstrator this month. Both are great deals int heir own ways, and if you;d like to take advantage of these just e-mail me or give me a call!

Older and Wiser

Today I only had time to stamp a quick card for a birthday party we're attending tomorrow. I know it's not too fancy, but I'm sure the 4-year-old recipient won't mind.

Paper: very vanilla, not quite navy, ruby red

Ink: basic brown, not quite navy, ruby red

Stamps: Older and Wiser, Itty Bitty Backgrounds

Accessories: Earth Elements Buttons, Neutrals Buttons, red hemp twine, linen thread.

scrapbook on your wall

I don't mean that you should literally turn your wall into a scrapbook page, but pretty close. Keep reading to see the project we'll be making at my May 28th class.

Yesterday I mentioned that now is a great time to become a demonstrators because new demonstrators can register for Convention on Tuesday. Great, you say, but what's so special about Convention? Well, Convention, just like all the other Stampin' up! events, is a great place to pick up loads of inspiration and creative ideas that will keep you stampin' all year long! I just looked over my notes from last Convention and I haven't had time to use half of the ideas I picked up there. So for a busy demonstrator or for a hobbyist who wants to see the latest and greatest trend and projects, this treasure trove of creative ideas is priceless!

One of the trends we were introduced to at last Convention was using stamping in home decor. This idea was reinforced in January at our Leadership meeting, where we were shown this adorable scrapbook wall hanging made with our new small On Board Book Basics. I filed this idea for future use, and now can happily offer it to you in a month that features a fantastic special on all of our chipboard products and is the month in which we are supposed to celebrate scrapbooking.

While I loved the project shown to us at Leadership, I wanted to create something a little brighter and perhaps a bit more unisex. So I decided to use the Summer Picnic Double Sided Designer Series Paper from the Occasions mini catalog. Here is my final result. No pictures yet (I guess I always leave the hardest part for last) but you can get the idea where they will go from the placement of the mats.

I used a whole bunch of different accessories to decorate the panels, from jumbo eyelets, to chipboard, to build-a-brads to a wide a variety of ribbons. I really like the way it turned out. It's just a perfect thing to hang during the summer months that really don't have too many decorative occasions of their own.

Since this is a wall hanging for my home, I made it "couple" themed. So read in order, the captions say "you and me, happy together, just because." At class participants will have access to these and all my other stamps, so they will be able to use whatever theme best suits their needs. This Summer Picnic designer paper is so versatile, both on the sides I chose to feature and the reverse sides, that it will go with just about any theme.

Here is a close-up shot of the first panel. Here I used a stamp from the Text and Texture set (stamped in versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder), some old olive poly twill ribbon and bashful blue striped ribbon, circle punches, pewter jumbo eyelets, chipboard discs and build a brads. In retrospect I might have skipped the build a brads which, using the designer paper I chose, reminded Bill of eyeballs. At class participants will be able to alter the design and skip the build-a-brads entirely or use them in a different manner.

This is a photo of the second panel. The sentiment (heat embossed in white) is from the Happy Everything set. I went light on the accessories for this page, using only a bit of the twill old olive ribbon from the Jersey ribbon originals assortment. The bashful blue mat (purposely cut in funky angles) if popped up on dimensionals.
And here is the last panel. I heat embossed another sentiment from the Text and Texture set, used some red zig-zag stitched ribbon from the Jersey ribbon originals assortment as a boarder between the designer papers, used some pieces from the On Board Accent assortment covered with more Summer Picnic designer paper as both accents and the main mat for the photo, added some punched stars and more striped ribbon and yet another ribbon from the jersey ribbon originals assortment. I attached the chipboard tag to the base with pop-up glue dots to accommodate the thickness of the various ribbons.

So there you go -- the May chipboard scrapbook home decor class project. If you would like to make this project be sure to register and pay the $20 class fee by May 16. The class will take place on may 28, 6:30-8:30 in Itasca. Please note that due to the nature of chipboard assortments, not everyone will be able to duplicate this project exactly. However, there will be plenty of chipboard for everyone to be able to personalize their projects! And, as I mentioned before, all of my stamps will be available to help with the personalization as well.

Top Chef

This was the card we stamped at Monday's marker techniques class to showcase the use of markers with the spritzer tool. If you're a long-time reader of this blog you may remember that I used a very similar design for a shoebox swap a year ago. I felt a little guilty about that, but I already had the mask all done and this fat chef does lend himself so well to the spritzing technique.

We first stamped the chef and cake and colored them in using stampin' write markers. We then put a mask over the chef and spritzed the background with creamy caramel and real red markers. We added a bit of red gingham ribbon in the corner and stamped the birthday greeting in the other corner and we were done. Very quick and simple card.