My Most Popular Posts of 2015

We have come to the last day of 2015 and I look back fondly on my creative endeavors during the year! I wish you all a Happy New Year and look forward to having you visit my blog in 2016!

January–Bokeh Technique and Sneak Peek From 2015 Occasions Catalog




February–My Least Favorite Card To Create




March–Projects From Stamping Group







April–Remnants of Easter






May–Corner Garden Blues




June–2015 Catalog Launch






July–New Floor and Grateful For You




August–Best Thoughts Joy Fold Card




September–Pretty in Pink Poinsettia




October

This was a busy month for me and I didn't get to post AT ALL :( Hopefully, 2016 will allow me to post every single month!


November–Color Burst Christmas and Wonderful Wonderland






December–Tag Exchange and December Stamp Class







I hope you have enjoyed this review of my most popular posts from 2015. I look forward to your comments in 2016!

Sympathy Card Using Zig Markers

More and more, it seems, I am in need of sympathy cards. I don't keep a surplus of them because I prefer to personalize the card for the recipient.

This time, the passing was of a former stamper in our stamp group and the mother of one of our stampers. She had been ill for some time and she hadn't attended a stamping class in at least a year. She was a special, one-of-a-kind lady and will definitely be missed.

The card I designed uses images from the Open Heart Stamp Set.

The stamping of this card gave me some difficulty! Because I wanted the leaves to appear to be behind the bird, it was necessary to mask the bird after stamping it with Basic Black Archival ink on Watercolor paper.

I didn't want to have to fussy cut so instead I chose to use my Molotow 2mm Masking Pen. Unfortunately, it was dry and I had to use my 4mm one. I colored in the area of the bird that needed to be masked and then waited for it to dry. I then stamped the leaves.

It was when I tried to remove the masking that it was apparent that I hadn't fully dried the masking fluid and it ripped off part of my bird!

So I re-stamped the bird on another piece of Watercolor paper. This time I decided to use Miskit Masking Fluid. I had it in a bottle with a fine precision tip but I still had trouble applying it to the area I needed to mask. After applying I again waited for it to dry and then stamped my leaves again.

Disappointment again as my bird ripped when I tried to remove the masking. :(

Now my only option left was to fussy cut a mask. I re-stamped the bird on Watercolor paper and then on ordinary copy paper. I fussy cut the bird on the copy paper, just cutting enough for where the masking needed to be. I then used my Scotch Restickable Glue Stick to apply to the back of the bird. After allowing it to dry for about 30 seconds, I stuck it over my bird on the Watercolor paper and stamped the leaves.

Then came the critical moment–removing the mask. It was no problem this time! This is the first time that masking has worked well for me in getting my image stamped the way I need it to be!

I used my heat tool to zap the stamps to make sure they were completely dry and then proceeded to color the images with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. When I was finished coloring, I stamped the sentiment.

Next, I knotted a piece of Ruffled Pool Party ribbon around the right side of the colored panel and then adhered the panel to the Pool Party card base using Dimensionals.

I'm hoping I won't need any more sympathy cards for awhile.

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Glitzy Gift Bag

The Christmas season is such a busy time that I usually don't get the opportunity to do exquisite gift wrapping or create numerous embellished gift bags to give to my friends and family.

This year, however, my work schedule at Walmart has been quite slack so I've had additional crafting time. This allowed me to create a gift bag for a good friend and crafting enabler.

Because I had already created Christmas cards for the ladies in my stamping group, I decided to match the bag to the particular card that I gave my friend.

I used my Gift Bag Punch Board to create a Medium bag (3.25" in width) by using a piece of Bermuda Bay card stock measuring a full 8.5 x 11". The 11" is necessary to make a Medium bag while the 8.5" determines the finished height of the bag, minus about 2" for the bottom bag closure.

Once the bag was punched, folded, and adhered, using Fast Fuse Adhesive, I sprayed all sides of the bag using my Heidi Swap Color Shine Spritz in Gold Lamé. I haven't quite mastered the spraying process yet! I tend to get too much spray on my projects or the drops are too big. Regardless, I think the addition of the spray really amps up the wattage on a project!

I used my heat tool to ensure that all sides were dry and then threaded a coordinating sheer ribbon through the holes I had punched in the top of the bag. I knotted the ends to form two separate handles.
Next, to match up with the Christmas card, I used sticky strip to adhere a piece of burlap ribbon completely around the bag, from one edge to the other. To cover the raw edges of the ribbon, I adhered two Metallic Foil Doilies, folded in half over the edges of the bag.

Since the card utilized snowflakes, I decided to use two of the Snowflake Elements on the bag. The top side of each snowflake was painted with Picket Fence Distress Ink and then I adhered Iced Rhinestones to the centres of each snowflake.

I adhered a folded strip of Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim behind each snowflake and then adhered the snowflakes with Dimensionals to each side of the bag where the doily met the top of the burlap ribbon.

With very few embellishments or time, I had a elegant gift bag to fill for my friend!

Though I did not take a picture of both the card and bag together, you can see below that they match quite well.

 

The Gift Bag Punch Board is ideal for creating unique bags for gifting. Have you used the Gift Bag Punch Board? Drop me a comment below with a link to your projects!

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Rustic Poinsettias

I was immediately drawn to the poinsettia on Wendy Weixler's card when I received it in my email and knew that I just had to CASE it! I thought it would make lovely Christmas cards for my stamping group and would look pretty in a number of colors.

Because I knew that I would punch petals from 3 x 7" strips of paper, I trimmed five Whisper White sheets to 7 x 9" and then used a stamp from Gorgeous Grunge to stamp over the entire sheets. I chose these colors–Real Red, Pacific Point, Strawberry Slush, Bermuda Bay, and Melon Mambo.

I trimmed each sheet into three strips and punched 8 small petals and two double petals using the Festive Flower Punch. I also punched Whisper White circles using the 3/4" Circle Punch to serve as a base for each flower.

For each petal, I folded it in half lengthwise to give it some dimension and then inked the edges with Soft Suede, using a sponge dauber. I used my glue gun to assemble each flower on its base.

I cut three mattes of each of the five colors of card stock and then used Heidi Swapp's Color Shine Spritz in Gold Lamé to spritz each one. This gave a festive look to the panels and I loved the look of the paint drops of varying sizes!

From Thick Whisper White I cut card bases and then used my heat tool to make sure all the mattes were completely dry. Next, I stamped the sentiment from the Embellished Ornaments Stamp Set on each matte and heat embossed it using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Using the Burlap ribbon, I cut lengths for each matte and then frayed the bottom edge. To make the ribbon not look quite so heavy looking, I also pulled some strands from the centre of each ribbon. I used sticky strip to attach the ribbons to each matte.

The mattes were adhered to each card base using Dimensionals and the poinsettias were adhered to the burlap ribbons, also using Dimensionals. To complete each flower, some Gold Cording Trim was threaded through a Gold Basic Metal Button and tied in a bow, and the button adhered to the flower using the glue gun.

The finishing touch for each card was to add three snowflakes from the now retired Frosted Sequins mix. However, the stark white of the snowflakes wasn't quite right so I painstakingly dipped each snowflake in glue from the Fine Tip Glue Pen and then sprinkled them with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter. Once they were completely dry, I adhered the snowflakes using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

Close up of one of the Melon Mambo cards.

Close up of one of the Melon Mambo cards  from another angle.

I am very pleased with how these cards turned out! The poinsettias and the gold-sprayed mattes remind me of the vintage enamel ware pots and pans people used to have! Such a homey look!


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Sale-a-Bration Freebie Sneak Peek

I have a Sale-a-Bration sneak peek for you tonight!

My husband, when I first met him, was busy building a glider with his father. This was a special glider because it contained an engine allowing it to be self-propelled to soaring height rather relying on a tow plane.

Though the completed glider was sold many years ago, my husband still has an interest in flying and exercises it through remote controlled planes and helicopters.

Because of this, I thought the new stamp set, Sky Is The Limit, would be appropriate.

You will be able to earn Sky Is The Limit for FREE during Sale-a-Bration which starts January 4! You should be receiving your Sale-a-Bration brochure and Occasions Catalog this month from your demonstrator.

I chose Blackberry Bliss for a card base, knowing that would work well with the gold embossing I planned to use.

I cut a piece of vellum for a matte and embossed the top half of it using the Cloudy Day Embossing Folder. (My husband always remarks when there are puffy clouds in the sky that they are "flying clouds.") I then used Versamark to stamp the images of the plane and its cute little contrail and then heat embossed them using the Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.

I glued the vellum matte to the top of the card base using the Fine Tip Glue Pen on just the top part of it. To cover the glue, I used the Adorning Accents Edgelits Dies to cut two pieces, one from Gold Foil paper and one from the 2014-2016 In Color DSP Stacks. These were glued together and then adhered to the top of the card front using Dimensionals.

I chose to stamp a Happy Birthday sentiment, using Blackberry Bliss, on the inside of the card on the now retired Naturals White card stock and also inked its edges with a sponge dauber.

I think this works for a masculine card, don't you?

The Sky Is The Limit stamp set will only be available for a short time when Sale-a-Bration begins so be sure to grab it before it disappears!

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Festive Color Burst Ornaments

Such a busy time of the year! I've been working on Christmas cards lately but can't show you those quite yet! In the meantime, I got a chance to use my Color Bursts again!

Ever since seeing the Delicate Ornaments Dies, I have been dying to use them with my Color Bursts! Finally got the chance and this is the result!

I started by using my Color Bursts on three separate pieces of watercolor paper. I used Yellow Ochre and Orange, Pthalo Green and Ultramarine Blue, and finally, Alizarin Crimson and Violet.

I used the method where I wet the papers first and then applied the colors, adding more water and color until I was satisfied with the results. I set them aside to dry while working on another project but then returned to them and zapped them with the heat tool to ensure they were completely dry.

I used two of the ornaments from the Delicate Ornaments Thinlits Dies and one circle from the Circles Collection Framelits to cut from each of the papers. I also cut three ornament toppers from Gold Foil paper.

I then used the Leafy Vine Embossing Folder from Taylored Expressions to emboss each ornament. To make the embossing more apparent, I sponged on Black Soot Distress Ink across each ornament and then applied to the sides to give them a bit of shape. Once this was completed, I used Distress Glaze to seal the paints and ink.

I decided to make the ornaments even more vibrant so I brushed on a coat of Crystal Effects and left them to dry overnight and then attached the toppers using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.
On a Garden Green matte I stamped the Watercolor Wash background stamp using Versamark and heat set it.

I decided on my arrangement for the ornaments and then adhered them to the matte using Dimensionals. After die cutting the sentiment, from the Wonderful Wreath Framelits Dies, from Gold Foil, I attached it to the ornaments using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

Using my MISTI and one of the ornaments from the Embellished Ornaments Stamp Set, I stamped on the bottom right corner of a piece of the now retired Naturals White card stock in Blackberry Bliss and then also inked the edges of the matte using a sponge dauber. Fast Fuse Adhesive was used to adhere it inside the card.

Lastly, I added a few gold sequins to the front of the card using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

So, what are your thoughts on this card? Drop me a comment below!

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May Your Season Sparkle

Writers have been known to remark that when they write, their characters often take over, seeming to develop a mind of their own and change the plot as they see fit.

In creating art, it seems that this can also be true; what you sit down to create may not always be what you end up with because the tools and media you use react in ways that may not be what you intended.

Tonight I sat down to craft a card with my beloved Woodland Embossing Folder. (Have you heard? Stampin' Up is bringing it out of retirement and putting it into the new annual catalog due out in May! How great is that??)

On Pinterest I have seen many different backgrounds used with the folder but I hadn't seen red. I thought that using Real Red would be very festive and I could pair it with a nice green and a coordinating ribbon and have cheery Christmas card.

I started by inking up the inside of the folder (the side with the Sizzix on top) using a brayer and Real Red ink. I then placed my Thick Whisper White card stock on the uninked side of the folder, closed it, and ran it through the Big Shot.

When I opened the folder, I was not as pleased as I thought I would be. I needed the red to be stronger. Because the embossed paper seemed to be still clinging to the other side of the folder, I re-inked the folder, closed it, and smoothed all over it with my hands to press the ink into the paper.

It still didn't look as I had imagined it would.

I used my Basic Black Stampin' Write marker to touch up the birch trees but that still wasn't the answer.
I thought that by playing around with matte colors and the card base color, I could make it look better. Black seemed to be right for a thin matte layer but red for the card base didn't seem to look great. Mossy Meadow was too dark and Garden Green didn't look quite right either. I decided against Old Olive because it was too light.

I still couldn't get it looking quite right.

With nothing to lose, I turned to a crafting girl's best friend–glitter!

I employed a technique that Jenny Day demonstrated in this video. I covered the entire embossed panel with Versamark ink and then sprinkled Heat & Stick powder all over it. I heated it just until it was completely wet looking and then sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds Glitter over the whole thing. I heated it once again to seal in the glitter.

Now, it was looking better! See, almost anything can be improved with glitter!

I started playing with matte and card base colors again only to realize that my tree background was no longer red–it had taken on a rosy hue due to the covering of glitter!

Instead of Real Red card stock, I needed Rose Red for my card base; I used black for the matte. Before adhering the panel to the black matte, I used a sponge dauber with some Basic Black Archival to ink up the sides.

I wrapped some Silver Sequin Trim around the bottom of the panel, securing it at the back with tape. The sentiment, from the Sparkly Seasons Stamp Set seemed appropriate so I stamped it in Basic Black Archival on Whisper White and then punched it out using the Large Oval Punch.

I used the Scalloped Oval Punch on the Rose Red card stock and then layered the sentiment on it with Dimensionals. The label was then adhered to the card front over the sequin trim.

The finishing touch for the card was to add some rhinestones to frame the sentiment and provide a little added sparkle!

Though I set out to create one card, I ended up with a different version of the card but one I may not have created except by trying out an idea!

Have you tried out an card making idea only to end up with something else? Drop me a comment below about it!

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Tag Exchange and December Stamp Class

Friday night we had our December meeting of my stamping group. This class is always festive because not only do we all bring food to share, we do a Tag Exchange where members bring multiple tags that they have designed and we all go home with a set of unique tags!

For my tags, I knew I wanted to make a snowman shaker tag. I started by choosing my tag color–Perfect Plum–and some sequins to go in the shaker.

Next, I cut two pieces of Perfect Plum card stock 2 1/2 x 4 1/8". Using the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, I carefully fed both pieces into the punch (it is possible to cut the tag top on pieces larger than 2" but you have to carefully feed them through the punch) so that they would cut in exactly the same spot.

Once they were cut, I used scissors to snip off the excess part at the sides and then used the Snow Friends Framelits to cut a snowman in one of the tags.

Using Versamark and the snowflake stamp from the Perpetual Birthday Calendar Stamp Set, I stamped all over the tag front. I used the To: From: stamp from the Very Merry Tags Stamp Set to stamp at the bottom with Basic Black Archival ink.

I chose an assortment of Crystal sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and a few other plum-colored sequins from my collection. I tried to estimate how many sequins I would need for my shaker by pouring my chosen sequin mix into the snowman hole in the tag.

I measured around the snowman to find out how large a shaker pocket I would need to fit comfortably within the borders of the tag. Once I had this measurement, I cut a piece of Whisper White card stock for the inside of the shaker pocket (the sequins seem to move better when they have a piece of card stock or DSP behind them rather than to put them just between pieces of plastic–too much static that way!).

My Fuse Tool was used to create the shaker pocket by sealing the card stock, between pieces of a page protector, on three sides. I stuck a piece of a dryer sheet into the little pocket to try and reduce the static as well as pouring the shaker sequins from a dryer sheet into the shaker pocket (probably overkill with regard to the static reduction but it seems to work for me!) and then sealed shut the remaining edge of the pocket.

Fast Fuse Adhesive was used to secure the shaker pocket between the two pieces of the tag.

Using the Framelits again, I cut two sets of ear muffs for the snowman, one from Silver Foil paper and one from Dazzling Diamonds Glitter paper. I trimmed off the two "muffs" from the Dazzling Diamonds and adhered them to the foil ear muffs using the Fine Tip Glue Pen. They were then adhered to the tag front.

I used a permanent black Sharpie to draw on a face, added a carrot nose by punching a very small piece of Pumpkin Pie card stock, using the now retired Blossom Builder punch, and then used a stamp from the Snow Place Stamp Set with Stazon ink to stamp on the snowman's buttons.

To finish the tag I inserted a length of the White Glitter ribbon and knotted a piece of the 1/8" Silver Ribbon around it. Once my tag prototype had been designed, I simply prepared several of the needed pieces for each tag and put the remaining tags together, assembly line style!

Here are all the tags from the night:

A closer look (for an even closer look, click on the photos):

Of course, the Tag Exchange is not the only thing we do in December; we also host a regular stamp class. On Friday afternoon, I had only to prepare my speaking points and demo pieces for the evening to come since I had prepped my projects and the materials for the class the week before.

It was in preparing for one of my demos that I about pulled all my hair out!

I was trying to align a die on the paper strips that I had prepared for class. Strips which two items could be cut from, but for the life of me, I could not get the die and paper to line up properly on my Magnetic Platform to allow me to cut two! Luckily, a posting on Facebook got me the help I needed (Thank you, Lydia! I owe you big time!) so I still had hair to wear to class!

The first project we created was a Christmas Light Treat Holder. I first saw this posted by Lydia Fiedler on her blog, Understand Blue. As soon as I saw it, I knew that this would be one of our club projects for the December class!

To create the treat holder, you cut two "bulbs" from a 3 x 11" strip of card stock (Cucumber Crush) using the pointy end of the Curvy Keepsake Die. The following photo is the one that Lydia sent me to explain exactly how to place the card stock and die on the Magnetic Platform.

Photo courtesy of Lydia Fiedler showing proper placement of die.

A picture is indeed worth a thousand words!

The excess card stock is trimmed off the side of the base of the bulb and then the base is scored 1 1/4" from the natural score line at the top of the bulb base. This resulting little piece is folded on each piece and then adhered together to form the bottom of the treat holder.

A 2 1/2 x 1 1/4" piece of Gold Foil is inserted through the top of a Scalloped Square Punch to create the scallops at each end of the foil. Using a scoring tool, the foil is scored between each scallop. Two foil pieces are created in this way and then adhered to the bulb base.

The tag sentiment, from the Peaceful Pines Stamp set, is stamped on contrasting card stock, Real Red, and then die cut using one of the tag dies from the Curvy Keepsakes Dies.

A white gel pen is used to color in the highlight marks on the side of each bulb and then, using Glue Dots, a treat can be adhered to the inside of the treat holder. The tag is then tied onto the top of the bulb using Gold Cording Trim.

So cute!

Our second project for the evening was cased from Sage Kimble from a shadow box frame project shared with her email subscribers. Again, as soon as I saw it, I knew this would be a project for my stamping group!

Shadow Box Project by Sage Kimble

To create the card, the Sleigh Ride Thinlits Dies were used to cut three pieces of Whisper White card stock. On the Sleigh piece, the sentiment from Jingle All The Way Stamp Set was stamped with Versamark and then embossed with Silver Stampin Emboss Powder.

The Two-Way Glue Pen was used to place glue in the indent created by the die (under the houses, trees, and sleigh) on all three pieces, as well as on the trees and then Dazzling Diamonds was applied. These were set aside to dry while the sky piece was created.

Using the 3/4" Circle Punch, a moon mask was punched and placed in the "sky" area on a panel of watercolor paper. Alternately, Island Indigo and Daffodil Delight were sponged onto the sky area to create streaks akin to the Aurora Borealis. The moon mask was removed and the moon was sponged in with Daffodil Delight.

If this wasn't beautiful enough, Dazzling Diamonds was sprinkled over the sky and then the piece was sprayed with ordinary hair spray to seal in the glitter.

Breathtaking!

A sponge dauber and Basic Black Archival ink was used to ink the edges of the panel and then the three die cut pieces were adhered to it using Dimensionals. The completed panel was then adhered with Dimensionals onto an Island Indigo card base.

Using a piece of the now retired Naturals White card stock, the trees from the Happy Scenes Stamp Set were stamped at the bottom right corner using Island Indigo. The matte was then adhered inside the card using Fast Fuse Adhesive.

Here's our stamping group–such a great group of ladies:

Photo courtesy of Brian Cunningham

I hope you enjoyed our tags and stamping projects!

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