Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Embossing Fun

Last night I had an embossing class.  We made cards using both types of embossing.  We had so much fun!  I forgot to take pictures at class but here are the projects we made:

For this card I used the Woodland Textures embossing folder - still one of my favorites.
I adhered it to the crumb cake piece before embossing so it would all match perfectly.
Then I added leaves using the Colorful Seasons bundle. I love those intricate die cuts.
Did\ you notice the little piece of fluff above the leaves? That is the copper ribbon all
 stretched out. f you pull it apart you end up with this really fun netting.

This card uses the Cheers to the Year stamp set. I embossed the circles on the 
background in gold and silver. I added a strip of the gorgeous Year of Cheer specialty 
designer series paper.  All of it has metallic foil - just beautiful!  The piece behind the 
sentiment is one of the foil snowflakes from the holiday catalog. I just punched the 
middle of it out with a 2" circle punch.  I'll  save the outside of it to use as a wreath on 
another card.

The card on the left is the card we made in class. It was made with the emboss resist
technique.  I stamped the snowflakes from the Colorful Seasons set in Versamark
on Shimmery White paper and them embossed them with clear embossing powder.
Then I took my aqua painter and Dapper Denim and applied a wash of color all over
 the card. The embossed areas resist the ink.  After that, I took my aqua painter and 
splattered drops of water on the card and blotted them with a towel. The water 
caused the ink to lift leaving little spots with less color.

The card on the right I sponged with Soft Sky, Marina Mist & Pacific Point. 
Sponging makes the colors a little softer.


Hope you enjoyed this peek at the fun class we had last night. Hope to see you at a class soon!



Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Not so scary cat punch

One of my favorite new bundles in the Holiday catalog is Spooky Cat.


Here are a few spooky projects I made with it:




But then I decided to make some not so spooky cards for my friend Elizabeth:


This card uses some of the Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper.  
The sentiment is from the Wood Words set.

I used the Lovely Inside & Out bundle on this card.

Looks like I'm partial to black cats! The Happy Celebrations stamp set
& Celebrations Duo embossing folder work great together on this card.

The Painted Autumn Designer Series Paper doesn't have to 
be just for fall projects.

This would be a good card to send to
someone who recently lost their fur baby.

I had so much fun playing with this punch.  It's not just for spooky Halloween cats!

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Mini pizza box fun!

I spent some time over this long weekend playing with new products.  I had more fun creating with the new pizza boxes!  They are food safe so perfect to give as a gift with a cookie or some candy inside.  Another great gift idea is to fill them with 3 x 3 cards - we now carry envelopes for those.  Those 3 x 3 cards would be perfect to use on gifts. I'm planning a class for this in October - watch my weekly email for details.   Here's what I created with them:

I sponged this pizza box with Pumpkin Pie ink.
I'm loving this new cat punch!


The boxes look great left white. I created a belly band for this one.
It slips off easily so the box can be opened.

There are so many possibilities for these pizza boxes!  I'm sure I'll be creating more fun projects soon!

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Fun with Embossing Paste

I am officially an empty nester now.  We moved my youngest son to college 2 weeks ago. It's been very quiet around the house!  But on the bright side, I had time on Saturday to just sit & create.  It had been awhile since I took time to do that - it was so fun & relaxing.  I decided to play with my embossing paste.  I'd made 1 or 2 cards with it before.  This time I decided to try some new techniques.

Here's a photo of the tools I used:
Aren't those masks fun?!  I decided I wanted to make something with each one.

Here's the background I made using the clouds mask:
This was made using the embossing paste just as it comes out of the jar. I used a die cut oval in the middle to keep the clouds just on the outside. I knew I wanted to use the flying pig from the This Little Piggy set.  Here's the card I ended up with:
I stamped a few clouds in Soft Sky to go with my flying pig. The pig stamp has a saying at the bottom of it that I didn't want on this card.  So I put a piece of scotch tape over the saying when I inked up the stamp.  Just be sure you remove the tape before stamping on your paper! 

This background was also made with the embossing paste as it came out of the jar. But this time I put it on one of the gorgeous wood Designer Series papers:
I didn't want to cover up much of this beautiful design. So I used the cat punch from the new Holiday Catalog (available Sept 1st). I punched it out of Shimmery White card stock and colored it with an aqua painter to look like a Siamese - simple but elegant:


Then I decided to try coloring the embossing paste. I took a little bit and put it on my Silicone sheet and added a drop of Pumpkin Pie reinker:
I made this background and one that covered the whole piece of card stock.  This is the card I created with the piece that was fully covered:
This uses some new dies from the 2017 Holiday Catalog.  I just love this pumpkin die!

I've been wanting to try this next technique with the embossing paste.  For this one I used the brick mask.  Right after applying the embossing paste (after removing the mask), I sprinkled copper embossing powder on it.  I set it aside & let it dry for a little bit before heating it.  I didn't get a picture of the background by itself but this is the card I created:
I think this is my favorite!  I also used one of my favorite new sets - Painted Harvest.


I had so much fun spending the afternoon playing!  I need to make sure I do that more often.  I just got another fun bundle today from the Holiday Catalog.  I'll have more to share with you next week!







Tuesday, August 8, 2017

This Little Piggy

Just a quick post to share one of my favorite stamp sets from the new catalog.  We got to see this set in action at On Stage in April.  While everyone else was picturing cute, pink pigs - all we could see were red Razorbacks!


So of course we had to make some in card class last week.  These are the 2 cards we made:

The pigs were stamped with Archival Black on Shimmery White card stock.  Then we used an Aqua Painter to color them. You can find lots of cute examples with this set on Pinterest. Let me know if you'd like to add these cute hogs to your stampin' stash!

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Climbing Orchids

My parents have grown orchids since before I was born  So when I saw the Climbing Orchids stamp set in the new catalog, I knew I would have to get it. The orchids in this stamp set are Phalaenopsis or 'moth orchids'.  They are probably the most popular orchid sold, you can usually find them at your local grocery store.  Most orchids are epiphytes.  This means they don't grow in soil, but get their nutrients from water and air. In tropical areas, you will find orchids growing outside on trees. Ok, that's enough orchid facts for today. 😊   How about seeing some cards made with this gorgeous set?

This card is quick and easy. I stamped the orchids 
in Powder Pink and the Sheet Music in Early
Espresso.  I also used the new Ruffled textured 
embossing folder.

For this card I used the coordinating
framelit to cut out the orchids and buds. 
I stamped the orchids in Rose Red on 
So Saffron card stock. I used the Petal 
Burst embossing folder for the background.
I got this idea from Robin Messenheimer. 

This one is stepped up a little more. I used the
coordinating framelits to cut out pieces of the
orchids and then assembled them on the card. 
They were stamped in Peekaboo Peach and I
used Chocolate Chip for the sentiment & branches.
The background paper is from the Wood Textures
Designer Series Paper Stack. 

I had so much fun creating with this bundle.  I can't wait to send one of these cards to my parents - I know they will love it!

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Memories & More

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy memory keeping! Last week I had a Memories & More event. Here are a few of the pages I made - these took me maybe 30 minutes total. This type of memory keeping is so quick and easy.



It was so fun to look back at these pictures from several years ago. 
Such a good feeling to get these pictures out of a box and into an
album where the whole family can enjoy them!


I'll have another introductory event later in July.  Watch email for the exact date.  I also will be starting a monthly event where we can get together and get caught up on our photos. The first event will be Aug. 18th at 6:30.  You'll have access to my stamps, ink and die cutting for a small fee.  The fee will be waived with a minimum order.

Bring a friend and you each get to pick something out of my prize basket: