IT's Halloween time!

How sad that the last time I posted was Father's Day!  We have had a very busy summer, and stamping and posting got put on the back burner.  Luckily for you I love Halloween cards, and want to share the fun with you! 

We made some great cards at our workshop, but the favorite was the Waterfall card.  Many of you wanted directions, so here is my attempt at putting a Waterfall card together. 

You will need to cut paper:

card base: 5 1/2 x 8

decorative paper: 4 x 5 1/4

neutral color for stamping: 1 7/8 x 1 7/8 (4)

colored card stock: 2 x 2 (4)

                           9 x 2 (1)

                           4 x 3/4 (1)

Attach the 4 x 3/4 piece to the front of the decorative paper using brads.  Do not glue this to the paper

because it needs to be loose behind for the card to work.

Layer the decorative piece to your card base.  This will hide the brad backs.

(I have pictures of two different cards- please don't let that throw you off.)

Next, stamp and color the images you want to waterfall.  I used the Googly Ghouls set.  Do not add any embellishments like glitter or googlie eyes until you get your card put together or they may smear.

Take the 9 x 2 piece and score at 2", 2 3/4", 3 1/2" and 4 1/4". Fold over at the 4 1/4" mark.

Now stick with me for this next part- it is important!

Put the unscored part of that strip under the piece that is held on with brads.

Line the top of that strip up with the bottom of the bradded piece and tape down.



See how the scored strip is held on with tape?  (The unscored end has been pulled out. )



Now take the cute images you stamped and attach the bottom one.  It will be glued on to the square section of the scored piece that should be taped down at this point.

Here Frank is taped down to his square on the scored piece.



Now put adhesive on the rectangular space right above the first square.  Do not put adhesive on the back of your stamped square or your waterfall wont work.

Keep going till all four of your stamped images are on the scored piece.  You should be able to pull the end of the scored piece that is under the bradded piece and your images will waterfall! Now, breath- you have finished the hard part!.

To finish this card, you need to punch a hole in the bottom piece that you just pulled and tie a little ribbon there so one will know to pull it.  Then you can embellish your images with Dazzling Details and googlie eyes!

                                                              Finished card! So cute!

Please know that I copied this card from another SU demonstrator, Dora Visky.  I changes a few things to make it my own.  There are directions for waterfall cards all over the internet, so if mine don't make sense, either ask me or Google it!

These cards can be made with any images- I have even seen them made with photos- now that I think about it- the Googly Ghouls could be my family!  That's me there on top with the green face!

Let me see the cards you make!

Dawn

Father's Day card

If you need a great looking Father's Day card or birthday card for the man in you life - here is a great looking card that is easy to make. 

Supplies: Old Sea stamp set, any greeting, Crumb Cake, So Saffron, Very Vanilla card Stock

Early Espresso, So Saffrom, Versa Mark ink

Gold Embossing powder, linen thread, Denim ribbon, sponge daubers, paper clip, oval punch

Pop Up Flower How to

 

At our workshop last week we made a great pop up card for Mother's Day.  This one is a case of a card made by Heather Hampton Freeman on the Stampin'Up! demonstrators web site.  I unashamedly copied the front of her card because I thought the colors were so pretty.  As always, I made a few changes to make it work with what I have.  The inside I made way different because I wanted it to look and work a certain way!  It looks intimidating, but it is not- and it is really fun to make. 

The front of the card is Daffodil Yellow layered with Old Olive card stock on Whisper White background.  The old Olive I ran through an embossing folder in the Big Shot.  I stamped three flowers onto white card stock using the rock and roll method.  That is, you stamp in the lighter of two colors, then roll the edge of the stamp in a darker color, press on your paper- and boom- you have beautiful two toned images!  I used Daffodil Yellow, Tangerine Tango and Chocolate Chip ink.  Punch these flowers out with the Blossom punch.  The greeting is stamped on card stock and punched with the 1 3/4 in punch.  A few rhinestones top it off and give the card front a little bling.  The butterfly comes from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die.  It also has a little sparkle with Dazzling Details, and old SU wire wrapped around the center.

The inside of the card is a little more involved!   But worth the effort!

 

 It is important to use copy paper for the flowers on the inside of the card.  Rock and Roll stamp 6 flowers on copy paper.  Punch them out, fold in half, then into thirds so that each piece looks like a piece of pie.  Open the pieces so they look like the ones in picture 1.



Picture 1



 I am using different color paper only for this demonstration.  You will be working on the back (or outside) of your stamped flowers.  You need to place a small amount of tape or glue dots everywhere you see a black dot in picture 1.  I also lay my flowers out like this, just so I don't get confused.

        Now you are ready to put the flowers together.  Place flower 2 on top of the center and right petals of flower 1.  Be sure to line things up neatly!

Picture 2

(picture 2)

Put flower 3 on top of flower 1's left petal, and flower 2's center petal.

Picture 3




Picture 4

The 4th flower covers all the glue dots.  So it covers flower 2's center petal, and flower 3s center and right petal.
Whew- that sounds complicated!  Test your flower a couple of times to make sure it opens and closes like you want. 

Now you are ready to put the whole thing together. 

Glue the two remaining paper flowers inside the card in the crease. 

Add your flower stack by placing the flower away from the crease far enough that the flowers opens and closes fully.  You can hold the number 1 and 4 flower with your fingers while you try it.  Now lay the flower on one side of the card, put tape on the top flower ( in this case the green one- only) and close the card.  Open, and repeat the tape on the other side.  Now your flowers will pop open when the card is open!  

I highly recommend playing with this before you make a real one- I cannot tell you how many I made before I got one I liked- then I made them without even looking at the directions.  It is not hard at all once you figure it out!   

Please let me know if you have questions.  I hope I included all the steps here- if not just let me know. 

Retiring Stamps

Make your list- the last day to order is May 31st!

                    http://204.228.150.61/docs/lastchance/en-US/RetiredStamps_0412_en-US.pdf

Lovely as a Tree

 Lovely as a Tree is an all time favorite Stampin'Up! set.  A friend of mine bought a set of cards I made with this set for her daughter who loves trees.  When she called to order some more, I decided to play a little with the design. 

All cards fit into the Small open-ended envelopes which measure 6 3/4 x 3 1/2. 
This card uses Very Vanilla  and Pool Party card stock with a background of decorative paper that I have been hoarding!  The ribbon is a piece of muslin fabric that I frayed a little and another piece of brown on top and threaded through the piece from the Hodgepodge kit.

The card to the left is the same size and idea- I just changed up the paper a bit.

 The base is Naturals Ivory with Early Espresso, and Pear Pizzaz
layered ontop.  I used the woodgrain background stamp with Crumb Cake ink to give it a subtle woodgrain look.

The ribbon is tied in a knot and run through the holes in the jumbo eyelet. 
 The card on the right is made by cutting the Early Espresso, patterned paper, and River Rock with the Edgelit Die-  Adorning Accents.









Finally, I changed tree and went for the old oak.  The base is Baja Breeze layered with Soft Suede, and First Edition decorative paper.  The Baja Breeze Seam Bindidng Ribbon finishes the card off with a sweet touch.

Get your Lovely as a tree set out and try some new ideas with this set.  
I am glad I did!

Workshop cards

We had a great workshop with pretty and easy cards. This was an idea that I found on the Stampin'Up! web site.  The idea is using magazine pages to make the punched flowers.  Recycle mailers or magazines and get great cards like this one!

Use your 2 3/8" scallop circle punch to punch 5 pages from your magazine, go ahead and punch the front of your card too.  Next punch 5 -1 3/4" scallop circles.  Stack these up and punch a tiny hole in the center and hold them together with a brad.  Start in the center and pinch each flower to give dimension, smush and pinch to get a puffy flower. Then you will stick it down in the window you punched.  Decorate the card any way you would like.  I used an embossing folder to emboss white cardstock, then lightly ran the brayer over till I got the intensity I liked.   Lucky Limeade was  the perfect color to go with anything in the magazine.  Just like a stem in the garden!

When you open the card there is a nice surprise...

   I did a test on this card by mailing one to myself- One postage stamp did the trick.  It went through the machine, and actually looked even better smushed up a little more! 
I loved the idea of recycling and with results like this I will be doing more of it! 
Thanks for looking,
Dawn

My Copy Cat

I loved this card that I found on http://stampin-style.typepad.com/.  It is so bright and happy!  I changed the shape and a few colors which make it the perfect candidate for a workshop card! 

Join us on March 22nd or 23rd for the next workshop and your chance to make this and other great cards.
Dawn

Monogram card

A friend of mine asked me to make her cards with a monogram which I hesitated to do because I don't have a good way to do monograms.   I used the JustRite stamp that I have which I am sorry to say is very hard to get a good stamp with.  The stamping gods must have been with me because I came up with a great looking card, and am excited to see if it is what my friend is looking for! 

Pool Party paper embossed with the Baroque Motifs stamp with clear ep.  The frame is made with textured Early Espresso embossed with the Saleabration embossing frame.  So Saffron butterflies cut with Beautiful Wings embosslits and one little pearl. 

I hope this inspires you to make something today! 
Dawn

Stampin'Up! Edgelits

Here is a great way to use the new Edgelits from Stampin'Up!  This card is made using the Adorning Accents edgelits die, Bordering on Romance stamp set, and the Beautiful Wings embosslits.  The pattern can be used for many different looks by just changing the butterflies to hearts for Valentines, or flowers for anything- you pick the greeting.

These are samples of cards we made at our last workshop.  Try using the pattern to make your own card. 

So Stinkin' cute - punch skunk nugget holder

 

I am going to do the best to give you a tutorial on how to make this cute skunk. I saw the idea at Danee Hoangs blog site. Mine is a little different than hers, but it is still stinkin' cute!

Cut a strip of black card stock 1 1/2 inch by 5 1/2 inch. Score at 2 and 3 inches. You will need two large white petals, one small white petal, and one oval. (its hard to see the writing)


Punch these pieces using the Word Window punch, Ornament punch, Large oval punch, Blossom Petal Builder punch
The Heart can be any heart punch or the new Framelits, you will also need a round pink circle- mine came from the Owl builder punch.



The top half will be the centers of the ears, the bottom half will be the stripe in the tail.

Trim the ornament "holder" off the ornament.  Glue the small white petal to the ornament.

Glue the top half of the large petal to the small black petal- do two for the ears.Trim the extra white.

Glue the ears to the back of the head, and the oval to the top of the strip.  Glue the oval above the score line.

Cut the word window in half and glue ends to back, then bend to come around the front, glue heart in hands.  If your heart is smaller, you may need two word window punches to make the hands long enough to hold the heart.

Glue the bottom of the large white petal to the large black petal for the tail.  Trim the extra white.

 

Glue the tail on the back, the pink nose, and googlies eyes!



Fold on score lines and tape the back together making a pocket for the nugget.

I hope you have a clever saying to go with your skunk like: Your so stinkin' cute! or I Love You so Stinkin' Much... you get the idea!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a happy and productive new year.  My family headed out west for a fun ski trip after a great Christmas. The boys went to school as soon as we got home, and I started everyone on their New Years resolutions (that I had made for them)!  So far the boys have been to bed earlier, but are not doing a great job of getting up earlier.  David spent all day organizing his home office.  My goal for this house is to have all of his electronic things together so when we want to watch one of our videos we can- without two hours of searching for a connecting wire, then a trip to Radio Shack to buy the piece we cannot find.  I finally got the new hall closet organized -and labeled! 

I hope you are thinking about how you will make this year a better year, and if you need some help, let me suggest some things...

1. Stamp more.  Stampin'Up!s mini catalog has tons of new stamps and supplies to get you stared.  Go here to see the mini catalog:http://204.228.150.61/catalogs/flash/en-US/2012_OccasionsMini_iwer/index.html
2. Send more notes.  Do you know anyone who doesn't love to get a note from a friend?  Surprise someone who gave you a gift with a thank you note.  These are simple and quick to make, and can easily be adapted to fit stamps you already have.
3. Shop more.  January 24th starts Sale-a-bration.  You can earn free SU merchandise with each $50.00 purchase.  It is a great time to stock up on necessities like paper and ink and earn free beautiful stamp sets!  See the catalog here: http://www.stampinup.com/us/documents/20120124_SAB_en-US.pdf

Let me know if you need any help getting these resolutions started.  I hope to have a workshop soon- stay tuned for details.

Dawn