Sponges

I had someone ask me about the paper tab on my sponges from the post the past few days.  Here is how I make them.   I used the rounded tab punch, which has been discontinued, but you can use any punch really.  It is a nice place to hold the sponge and not get your fingers all inky.  I then attached the paper to the sponge with a brad.  Easy Peasy.  I used to not have a sponge for every color, but every once and a while I would mess up a project because a sponge I used for blue tones had too much of a greenish blue or something on it and my colors ended up not true to life.  The are actually not very expensive.  You get three sponges for $3.50 and I cut them into 6 pieces each, so 18.  This container (from the container store ) holds the perfect amount for Stampin' Up's core colors.  I do have some extra sponges for when I need to use the In-Color collection.  I have them all by color family, and there is a sponge dauber in each square too.  The sponge Daubers are 12 for $10.95. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Halloween Purse!

Another Halloween Purse.  They are just so much fun!  Same Die as the past few days, the Petite Purse Die.  I ran the Bacis Black Cardstock through the Big Shot with the Spider Web Textured Embossing Folder.   The ears and teeth are points from a star punch.  The wings are made with an oval punch and a small circle punch. I folded a small flap into the wings and attached them with glue dots.  The eyes are fun Glimmer Brads.  You could also make paper eyes but I thought those glimmer brads give this bat a Vampire Bat look, perfect for Halloween.

Thanks for putting up with all my purse die posts!  and thanks Missi Roeber for the fantastic Idea!

Pumpkin Purse

Yesterday I showed you a cute Frankenstein purse by Missi Roeber.  Today I made her Pumpkin purse.  So cute!  The Die is the same, the Petite Purse Die.  I then added some sponged stripes on the purse to give it some more real pumpkin like detail.  Missi did this with the Stripes Textured Embossing Folder, but I decided to try out sponged stripes.  I used a scrap of paper and sponged up against it to create a shadowy line.  Its hard to see it in the picture but it showed up nicely in real life.

I punched an oval in black, cut it in half, then added some teeth for my mouth.  The eyes and nose are points of a black punched star.

 

The stem is just a scrap of  Old Olive paper that I ran through the Big Shot with the Wood Grain Embossing Folder, sponged with some ink.  I added a small paper curly by wrapping a thin piece of paper around a stylus.  The stem and curly vine are attached with glue dots.

 

I hope you like this project!  Feel free to contact me with any other questions you may have!

 

 

Halloween Treat Purses!

I just love the Petite Purse Die, I have used it so many times.  You can dress the purses up for a bridal shower favor or change them into diaper bags.  I put some money inside to give a gift to my nieces.  So easy and so cute!   I would have never come up with this though.  Halloween purses.  And they are just so cute!!  I think my favorite is the Frankenstein.  I can not take any credit for these cuties, they were designed by another demo named Missi Roeber.  I loved them so much I had to make them too.   The petite purse holds about 7 or 8 Hersey kisses, which is what I filled them with.  You can fit a chap stick or other small things too. 

Start out with the die.  This die uses half of a sheet of cardstock, so two purses out of one sheet. 

I then sponged some ink around the purse, so it was a little smudgy.  This adds some depth, and we don't want a nice neat Frankenstein anyway, right?

Trace around the flap to get your hair for Frankenstein.  Attach the hair to your flap.  I added sticky strip to the back and front. Because the flap gets rounded, its easy for glue to separate your hair from the flap.  Be sure not to glue the little tab that keeps your box closed. 

Add a mouth with a black marker, two eyes and a nose, and you are all done.

I hope you like today's project. 

As always, feel free to call or email with any questions!

 

 

 

Monster Munchies

Monster Munchies is such a fun Halloween stamp set!  I am having a lot of fun with this one.  These little treat bags will go to the kids in my Church class.  I'm sure they will love it.  I made up a batch of assorted snacks, pretzels, raisins, M&M's, yogurt covered raisins, and peanuts.  I may switch this up a bit for the kids in my class.  I saw some fall colored M&M's so I may switch to those, or I may go with some sort of popcorn treat.  Popcorn is great because you get a lot of bang for the buck.   
I started out my embossing several on the Frankenstein stamp onto Old Olive card stock with Basic Black embossing powder.  I made some scallop circles and striped circles with my paper punches.  I used some dimensionals to pop the Old Olive paper up off the striped circle.   I used my Old Olive dolled scallop ribbon to attach the tag to the treat bag.  I have a twist tie under the ribbon to keep the food extra secure. 

Jillian helped me mix up the ingredients.   This was a fun project for Jillian and I to work on together.

This is what the whole stamp set looks like. 

And look at this cute "Bone Appetit!  I am going to put these on some cupcakes!  Fun Stuff!

Bird Nest

I really like the new stamp set Take Care.  It has a cute birds nest and branch and is just so sweet.  I decided to use some twine for my nest.   I looped some twine around my fingers and tied a knot around it.  I used glue dots to attach the twine nest to my card.  The designer series paper is from the Comfort Cafe collection.  The wood grain background is achieved by using the new Core'dinations Card Stock and the Woodgrain textured embossing folder. 

I made the eggs sort of speckled by using markers to ink the stamp up.  I stamped in Pool Party, then dabbed some Midnight Muse around the edges and some Crumb Cake spots. 




























Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you enjoy your day!

Popsicle Thank you

I received these really cute Popsicles in the mail today.  They were from a summer swap I participated in, made by Kathy Petersdorf.  They are so cute and easy, I thought I would share them.  The bites are made with the scallop circle punch.  A layer of white adds to the Popsicle feel.  I think these would be great as invitations to a fun birthday party, picnic, etc.   Thanks Kathy!

Paper Ornament

Yea!  I did it.  I just loved the paper ornament that was featured on the Seasonal Mini Catalog.  So pretty!  I admit, I was a bit intimidated, but I decided to tackle it since I had many customers asking about it.  Well, I love that I can tell you that it was super easy!  The only time consuming thing is stamping and cutting out all the ornament shapes with the big shot.  But even that wasn't too bad.   First thing you need to do is stamp 15 of both ornament sizes. 

Stamp 15 of each.  I was able to use one full sheet of paper and one tiny scrap of another.  So, cost wise, this is a pretty inexpensive project. 

Now, cut them all out with your framelit Dies and your Big Shot.   I cut one of each size at the same time to cut down on the number of times I had to crank the Big Shot.

Now, fold all of the onaments in half.  You them glue three together for each arm of the ornament.

I used these new Sticky rounds for the base.  They come 12 to a pack, and they really made starting the ornament very easy.

Next, I added some bits of tulle in between the first layer of ornaments, this adds a nice soft layer.  I didn't need to add any glue, the sticky round still had enough area for me to press the tulle down.  I did take my scissors to trim the center a bit.

Next i added a glob of hot glue.

Add the Red layer next, pressing them down into the glue, and moving them in between the green layer.  Then add another glob of glue to the center for you medallion.   I forgot to mention that you should have your medallion ready to go so the glue doesn't dry. 

There are a few ways to make a medallion.  I think the easiest is to use your scallop circle punch.  I used the large one for this ornament, but I think I'm going to go down a size for the rest of them, to show more of the red ornament.  I cut out my paper by centering the punch over the patterned paper to get the pattern to look centered on my finished medallion. 

  Fold the circle in half in between each scallop, then snip one of the fold lines to the center.  Fan fold them, and attach the two together.

I then added a vintage faceted button with a pearl in the center.  All done.  Very pretty!

I hope you'll give this project a try, its a great bang for the buck, easy, just a bit time consuming to cut out all your pieces.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Clean Room!!!

 
Yea!  My room is clean.  That means I can get back to work.  My big projects to tackle this week are that really pretty ornament from the Holiday Mini Catalog Cover, and the Fall wreath from last years holiday mini.  Do you save old catalogs too?  I save one of each.  I probably should go through them and  only keep pages that have things I want to copy.  But, that is a project for another day!

Look, a clean desk!

Nice organized punches!  I used to not have a craft room, and my stuff was all in bins in the hall closet or a shelf on the enclosed porch.  It is so nice to have my own space that doesn't need to get all cleaned up after each project so we could eat dinner at the table.  It's a pretty small room, just big enough for one person, but I love it!

Too many stamps?

 

OK, this area still needs some organization, but its good for now.  The white pencil boxes on the top shelf hold left over die cuts or letters, one box is full of googlies eyes in all sizes, one holds magnet dots or Velcro, stuff like that. 

Enough adhesives?  I didn't know exactly how much I had until I gathered it all together.  I usually added an adhesive or two onto workshop orders so I always had some on hand.  I think I will cut back for a bit, huh?

Thanks for stopping by!! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

What a Mess!

Did you ever have such a mess in your craft area that you just couldn't get anything done?  Well, that's where I am at right now.  So, Its cleaning day for my craft space!  I wanted to make a rosette wreath and some of the ornaments from the Holiday Mini catalog, but my room is making me nuts.  I hope to post pictures of those projects next week.  Check back, I'll show you my nice organized room!

Whooooo ...Doesn't love an owl Christmas card?

I love the stamp set Owl Occasions from the Holiday Mini  catalog.  This time I used it for a Christmas card.  The base is Cherry Cobbler, the frame is Gumball Green and the strip of Designer Series paper is from the Be of Good Cheer paper pack.  I added a layer of Embossed Cherry Cobbler for some texture.  I used the modern label punch to punch out the Merry Christmas stamp.  I wanted a bit of a frame around the modern label punch, so I punched an additional piece from some Cherry Cobbler, cut it in half, and attached it to the sides of the Very Vanilla piece. 

Quick post today, I have to go back to making my Welcome boxes from yesterday!  Thanks for stopping by!

Box it up!

I needed a box to fit a specific project.  Not too big, not too small, not too costly, or to fussy ( I need to make a bunch).    I stared at the items going into the box for a long time.  They were too big for the size of cello bags I had, so that wouldn't work.  My only solution was to just make a box from scratch.  I started by measuring the items going into the box.  A book, some pamphlets, and a pen.  These are for the welcoming committee to use as welcome gifts for visitors at church.  I was asked to make something to hold them all together.   This is what I came up with.   I have to make quite a bunch of them, so I couldn't make anything with too many steps or supplies.  I think they turned out pretty nice.  These look very fall like, so I'll make some others more neutral to get started for now.    I measured the items for how wide they are, and how thick.  Then I measured out the paper by adding an inch to each side of the width, added an inch for the thickness of the bottom. and scored.  I used my simply scored tool to score all my fold lines.  Then, sniped the tabs, and glued my box together. 

Next I decorated the box with a strip of co-ordintating designer series paper.  I added a bow and a button, and a tag reading "Welcome"

You can see that the ideas are endless for decorating.  You could add flowers or butterflies and make your box in any color and size. 

So, one down, twenty nine more to go! :)