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!
Thursday, December 31, 2015
My Most Popular Posts of 2015
Saturday, December 5, 2015
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.
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| 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.
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!
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| 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:
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| Photo courtesy of Brian Cunningham |
I hope you enjoyed our tags and stamping projects!
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Saturday, September 26, 2015
Pretty in Pink Poinsettia
I often wake up with an idea for a card. Today was no exception and since it was one of my days off, I was excited to create what I had envisioned!
I started by stamping the petals for a poinsettia using Pink Pirouette ink on Pink Pirouette card stock. I punched them using the coordinating Festive Flower Builder Punch. I also punched out three larger petals from Silver Glimmer paper for leaves and the centre parts of the flower.
Though you won't be able to see it in the photos, I used my Wink of Stella pen to trace over the stamping on each petal, giving each a subtle yet noticeable shimmer. I then folded each leaf in half and out again to give each petal a bit of dimension.
I used my 3/4" Circle Punch to punch out two Pink Pirouette circles to act as bases for the petals. Using my Silicone Craft Sheet and a glue gun, I proceeded to glue four larger petals to one of the 3/4" circles. Once the four were in place–clock fashion at 12, 3, 6 and 9–I glued the remaining four large petals in between the first four.
I glued the four smaller petals to the second 3/4" circle, again in clock fashion, and then topped them with the two double petals criss-crossed on top. I then glued the base for these petals onto the larger petals.
Next I glued the silver centre parts of the flower and finished up by gluing the three silver leaves to the back of the finished flower. What a pretty flower this made!
I cut a 5 x 7" card base from Whisper White Thick card stock. I glued a 3/4" strip of Silver Glimmer paper down each side, using the Fine Tip Glue Pen.
Using the Softly Falling Embossing Folder, I embossed a 5 x 6" piece of Whisper White Thick card stock. This card stock really holds the embossing very well!
On a 1 1/2 x 2 1/4" piece of Whisper White card stock I stamped the sentiment from the Embellished Ornaments stamp set. I first inked the stamp with Versamark and then Pink Pirouette and stamped using the MISTI This allowed me to re-stamp again using the Pink Pirouette to get a nicely colored sentiment which I heat embossed using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder.
Using a sponge dauber I inked the edges of the tag in Pink Pirouette. I then used my Fuse to create a plastic pocket for the sentiment from a page protector, first fusing the bottom and sides and then adding in a selection of pink and silver sequins.
I left the top plastic about 1" in length but trimmed the back piece of the plastic even with the top of the tag. I then threaded the plastic through a jumbo size of silver paper clip and folded the long top plastic piece down the back of the tag. I fused three lines on the back, starting nearest the paper clip and spacing down about 1/4" each time.
An important tip about sequins . . . because they are so full of static, and the plastic pocket also holds a lot of plastic, I take a few precautions to try to eliminate as much static as possible. I pour my selection of sequins onto a dryer sheet and rub them down good with it. Before pouring them into the plastic pocket I stick a rolled up dryer sheet in there and rub it around. Finally, I pour the sequins into the plastic pocket from the other dryer sheet. This seems to help a lot!
I took my completed sentiment pocket and clipped it onto the top right of the embossed sheet of Whisper White. I applied Mounting Tape to back and then adhered it to my card base. I used a few little pieces of the Mounting Tape to adhere the poinsettia to the bottom left of the card.
My last touch was for the inside of the card. Using the poinsettia from the Reason For The Season stamp set and Versamark, I stamped a poinsettia on the bottom right of the card. I heat embossed this with Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder.
I love how this card turned out! The glitter of the Glimmer paper, the Wink of Stella shimmer on the poinsettia and the twinkle of the sequins all combine to produce a beautiful Christmas card!
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Friday, September 25, 2015
Autumn Leaf Shaker and Four Fuse Tool Tips
With Autumn in the air, I decided that my next shaker card made using the Fuse tool would have to have a leaf (or two) in it!
I chose a leaf patterned paper from the now retired Color Me Autumn DSP and adhered it to a piece of Crushed Curry card stock to give it strength.
I then used the Leaflet Framelits Dies to cut a maple leaf in the bottom left. I used the same die to create my shaker from a piece of a page protector. I filled it with an assortment of sequins, including some from Pretty Pink Posh.
As I created the shaker for this card, I realized that there was a bit of a learning curve for the Fuse tool.While my first shaker with the Fuse had been a straight-sided window, a leaf shape was much more complicated!
As I tried to trace the outside of the leaf die, I found it very tricky to fuse all the little angles of the die. It was then that I decided that my first piece of advice for the Fuse Tool was:
1. Don't choose complicated shapes. With that said, there is a caveat to this piece of advice; though a die shape maybe somewhat complicated, your fusing doesn't have to be ie. because the fused edge of the shaker will be generally hidden from view, you can fudge the fuse line a bit so that it is not so complicated to create.
I also had to create the leaf shaker a second time because the first time I was actually trying to fuse the INSIDE of the leaf die! I found it somewhat difficult to wrap my mind around where the die would cut the shape and where I would fuse it. This brings me to my second tip:
2. Die cut the inside of the die; fuse the outside of the die. The fused area of the shaker has to be OUTSIDE of the area where the opening is die cut, providing you with an area to adhere to the surrounding card and allowing you to keep the actual fused line hidden.
As I played more and more with creating the leaf shaker, my Fuse was still plugged in but sitting idle. when I used it to fuse again I actually ended up melting my plastic instead of fusing it! :( So my third tip becomes:
3. Unplug the Fuse when you are not planning to use it for awhile. On my iPhone, I have Siri set a timer for 15 minutes when I first plug in the Fuse so that I get it heated to its optimum heat setting. When I unplug it, I use the stopwatch function on my phone until I am once again ready to work with the Fuse tool. I then set a timer for the elapsed time on the stopwatch (or 15 minutes if it has been longer than 30 minutes) to reheat the Fuse.
4. While the Fuse is plugged in, use a heat safe container in which to hold it. I found that the little stand included with the tool to be somewhat useless. Because of the cord is so short, trying to rest the Fuse on its stand seems to be a very wobbly accident waiting to happen! Instead, I use a squat little canning jar to rest the Fuse in when I'm not holding it. Makes me feel a whole lot safer!
After my shaker was created, I taped it in place on the back of the card stock and then adhered the matte using mounting tape to a Crushed Curry card base. I used a Project Life journaling pen to create a stitched line around the leaf shaker.
The sentiment was die cut from Cajun Craze card stock using the Hello You thinlits and glued in place using the Fine Tip Glue Pen (my newest favorite adhesive!).
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Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Hearth and Home: Fused
I had just the best day today on my day off!
For the last three days, I've been sick with a bad cold and had to take two days off work but finally started feeling better today. Usually if I get a cold, it always seems to strike on my day off–but not this time!
Today I was able to play with a lot of Stampin' Up! goodies from the new Holiday Catalog and I paired them with my new We Are Memory Keepers Fuse Tool.
After reading a lot of posts about this tool and seeing the creations that people were making with it, I decided to take the plunge! Am I ever happy I did!
I decided to use the window from the Hearth and Home Framelits to create a winter scene, suitable for a Christmas card. What could be cheerier for Christmas than a Real Red window frame?
I used the Fuse with a page protector to create the little pocket which I filled (too full, but it's hard to stop!) with a mix of both Stampin' Up! and Pretty Pink Posh sequins.
On a piece of Watercolor paper I sponged in a sky using Marina Mist and then stamped the conifers using Mossy Meadow ink. I adhered this scene to the window using Sticky Strip.
To create the wall for my window, on a Whisper White matte I adhered a Mistletoe-filled paper from the gorgeous new Home For Christmas DSP. On top of that I adhered a piece of Whisper White which I had embossed with the Stripes Embossing Folder to resemble beadboard. A tiny strip of white laid across the top gave the illusion of a chair rail. The completed matte was then adhered to a Real Red card base using Dimensionals.
The window was adhered on the card front using Dimensionals. I added a small wreath to the top of the window.
The wreath was created by first punching a hole in Mossy Meadow card stock with a 1/2" Circle Punch and then putting the 7/8" Scalloped Circle Punch over the punched hole to punch the wreath.
I added flowers to the wreath by using a Memory Box die called Flower Mound to punch tiny white flowers which I adhered using the Fine Tip Glue Pen. I added some red Stickles to the centres and completed the wreath by adding a bow made with 1/8" Real Red ribbon.
The Sparkly Seasons stamp set provided the perfect sentiment for my card! It was stamped with Versamark on Mossy Meadow and then heat embossed using White Stampin' Emboss Powder.
I used the Washi Label Punch to punch the sentiment and it was adhered to the card bottom using Dimensionals. A couple of rhinestones completed my cheery winter scene!
Have you made shaker cards? Have you tried the Fuse tool? Drop me a comment below–I'd love to hear from you!
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