Ice Cream Sandwiches and Irresistibly Floral

With thoughts of summer on the horizon, I had a great class with my monthly stamping group on Friday.

Our first summertime project was a direct CASE from Barb Mullikin. Her attention to detail in creating this sweet Ice Cream Sandwich Treat Box was second to none! To get a better idea of how this project is made, check out her video.

To make this project less confusing for my students, I had pre-cut all the necessary pieces, with the exception of the ice cream. This is what was needed:

• 6 7/8 x 7 3/8" Thick Whisper White
• two, 3 1/4 x 6" and 2 5/8 x 7" Chocolate Chip
• 1 1/2 x 2" and two labels using dies #5 and #6 from Lots of Labels Framelits cut from Pool Party
• one label using die #5 cut from Whisper White
• 1 1/2 x 2" Watermelon Wonder
• one 3/4 x 12" strip of striped Tasty Treats DSP
• 2 5/8 x 5 9/16" piece of Tasty Treats DSP for inside lid
• four, 1/x 3" pieces of Tasty Treats DSP for Hershey Nuggets
• spoon die cut from Silver Foil using Frozen Treats Framelits
• cherry die cut from Watermelon Wonder using Frozen Treats Framelits
• one ice cream bowl die cut from Tasty Treats DSP using Frozen Treats Framelits
• a piece of grid paper, 3 1/4 x 6", with holes pre-punched on every other vertical line, and on every other horizontal line, staggered by 1 line

We constructed this project as a group because I knew it might be confusing for some. I also supplied a "cheat sheet" with their supplies for the scoring directions in case they got lost during the class.

We started by constructing the "ice cream" box by scoring along the long side of the Thick Whisper White piece at 5/8", 3 3/8", 4" and 6 3/4." We then rotated the paper 90 degrees and scored at 5/8" from each end. All score lines were then folded and burnished well with a bone folder.

We located the "box" on either side of the middle score lines and cut up the score lines and snipped the tabs right off. Then, turning the paper so that the cut out pieces were on the left and right, we cut up each score line at the ends to meet the other score line. We cut a slight sliver off of each tab to create less bulk when forming the box. The paper was rotated 180 degrees and the ends were cut and slivered.

Next, glue was put on two of the end tabs and adhered to form the bottom of the box being sure to form 90 degree corners.

This process was repeated to form the lid of the box but before adhering the glued tabs, the box was closed. This ensured that the lid of the box would form a tight fit.

Next, the cookies were created. A stack with the grid paper and the two matching sized pieces of Chocolate Chip was formed. A piercing tool and a piercing pad was used to pierce holes in the the card stock. A corner rounder or the Envelope Punch Board was used then to round the corners of each piece. A bone folder was used to smooth down the raised edge of the pierced card stock pieces.

Glue was placed on the top of the box and then adhered to a face-down chocolate "cookie." This was repeated with the bottom of the box.

Next, the remaining piece of Chocolate Chip card stock was xored on the long end at 3/4", 1 1/4", and 1 3/4" from each end. It was then folded and burnished to form a tray liner for the box.

To prepare the Hershey Nuggets, a glue dot was applied to the bottom of the nugget and then the 1 x 3" piece of DSP was wrapped around it, securing with a second glue dot. All four nuggets were placed in the box and the box closed.

The 3/4 x 12" strip of DSP was wrapped around the box, being sure to crease each corner well. The smaller Pool Party label was centred on the box top and the strips adhered to it. The larger Pool Party label was then adhered over it. The Whisper White label was adhered on top.

The small pieces of Pool Party and Watermelon Wonder were stamped with the ice cream swirl, with matching inks and then die cut. Wink of Stella was used to highlight the inking and then the ice cream, spoon, bowl, and cherry were adhered to the white label.

A small Pool Party bow was created using the retired Sycamore Street ribbon and adhered to the bowl using a glue dot.

Check out the cookie details!

Our second project of the evening was much simpler and completed independently.

A matte cut from the retiring Irresistibly Floral DSP was sponged in Pear Pizzazz, Pacific Point, and Bermuda Bay and then adhered to a Basic Black matte, aligned at the right and bottom edges. This matte was adhered to a Thick Whisper White card base, again aligned at the right and bottom edges.

The sentiment from the Floral Phrases stamp set was stamped in Versamark on a Basic Black oval die cut using the Stitched Shapes Framelits. It was heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss Powder and then adhered to a Whisper White scalloped oval die cut with the Layering Ovals.

Two flowers were die cut from Basic Black using the Flourish Thinlits. These were layered above and below the sentiment using liquid adhesive. The sentiment was adhered with Dimensionals. Rhinestones were adhered to the flower centres to complete the card.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about our projects from stamping class!

Blended Bloom Goodbye and Clearance Rack Specials

Today I dove back into my stash to create this commissioned card.

I started with a Thick Whisper White matte. Using the long retired Blended Bloom stamp, I used Versamark to stamp all over the matte and then heat embossed it using White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Taking a sponge, I sponged on Bermuda Bay, concentrating the color more at the middle of each bloom. I stamped, embossed and sponged one more bloom on a separate piece of card stock. I used my scissors to fussy cut this bloom.

On a strip of vellum, I stamped the sentiment from the now retiring Greatest Greetings stamp set and heat embossed it with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder. I folded this around the sponged matte and taped it at the back. The matte was then adhered to a Bermuda Bay card base using Fast Fuse. Plain Whisper White mattes were adhered inside the card to give plenty of room for people to sign the card.

The fussy cut bloom was adhered to the card front using Dimensionals. A now retired Iced Rhinestone was added to the bloom's centre to complete the card.

Using a piece of Bermuda Bay card stock, I created a matching envelope using the Envelope Punch Board. To jazz up the envelope, I stamped the flower, using matching Bermuda Bay ink, on the envelope flap and three times on the front of the envelope.

This was so much fun to create–gotta love emboss resist!

My purchaser loved the card! She plans to buy future cards from me and may also have a class with some other friends.

Besides the Retiring Products at Stampin' Up!, today they added to the Clearance Rack with products up to 60% off! Of course, these products will not last long so shop now! Take a look below at what you can get for a song. Click directly on a product to go directly to my store.

Clearance Rack

Sheltering Tree and a Joyful Wreath

I had such a fun night last night with the ladies in my second stamping group! We shared a few giggles as they worked on their cards.

The first card I designed was actually made last, just so we could all keep our hands and work stations clean so as not to contaminate the second card!

The emboss resist card was CASEd from Lisa Brown.

To create this card, a standard card base was cut from Sweet Sugarplum card stock. Two mattes were cut, one from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper and one from Early Espresso. A piece of Watercolor paper was also cut.

The MISTI was used to stamp the tree, from the Sheltering Tree stamp set, three times with Early Espresso on the Watercolor paper and then it was heat set.

The paper was placed back into the Misti and the Embossing Buddy was used. The stamp was cleaned and then the tree stamp was re-inked using Versamark. The image was then heat embossed using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder.

The Embossing Buddy was used again before stamping both the snowdrift and snowflake stamps using Versamark. The images were heat embossed using White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Once again, the Embossing Buddy was used and then the leaf canopy stamp was used with Versamark. It was then heat embossed with the now retired Iridescent Stampin' Emboss Powder. The purpose of this stamp step was to create ice crystals in the tree.

It was very important to use the Embossing Buddy before inking each time because with using so many embossing powders, it would be very easy to end up with a "blob" on your paper!

The next step was to sponge color onto the image. A sponge was used first with Sweet Sugarplum to cover the entire paper with ink. Next, Rose Red was sponged everywhere except within the branches themselves. Lastly, Rich Razzleberry was sponged on the very edges and deep into the corners. The result of all this inking was a wonderful glowing image that softened from light to dark.

The completed image was adhered to the Early Espresso matte and then some Sweet Sugarplum Glitter Ribbon knotted around it. This was then adhered to the Dazzling Diamonds matte using Dimensionals. Finally, the whole thing was adhered to the Sweet Sugarplum card front.

The sentiment, from the Merry Mice stamp set, was stamped on Sweet Sugarplum and then die cut with a die from the Tags & Labels Framelits. Early Espresso was also die cut to act as a matte. The sentiment was inked with Rose Red and Rich Razzleberry and then adhered to the Early Espresso matte. The tag was adhered over the ribbon using Dimensionals.

To complete the card, rhinestones were added to the branches of the tree.

The second card only involved a little bit of stamping but it used a lot of texture from both die cuts and dry embossing. It was CASEd from Mary Fish.

A standard card base was cut from Very Vanilla as well as two mattes of the same size. Two more mattes were cut from Cherry Cobbler.

One of the Very Vanilla mattes was dry embossed using the Seaside Embossing Folder. This was adhered to one of the Cherry Cobbler mattes and then adhered to the card front.

The second Very Vanilla Matte was stamped with pine sprigs, from the Christmas Pines stamp set, using Always Artichoke. The stamp was stamped off once, very lightly, before stamping the image on the bottom right of the matte. This image was then adhered to a Cherry Cobbler matte and then adhered inside the card.

Two "wreaths" were die cut from Soft Suede using a die from the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits. These were offset and adhered to the card front using liquid adhesive. Pine sprigs, in both Garden Green and Always Artichoke as well as Cherry Cobbler berries were layered over the wreath and adhered using liquid adhesive. A bow of Cherry Cobbler was adhered on the left of the wreath using Glue Dots.

The sentiment in Cherry Cobbler was die cut using a die from the Wonderful Wreath Framelits and adhered to the card front using rolled up Glue Dots to complete the card.

I think that this card is exceptionally pretty because of all the texture and the wonderful color scheme. Feel free to steal this color scheme if you'd like to use it!

I hope you've enjoyed viewing these card projects! Drop me a note below to let me know what you think!