For the Birds Circle Thinlits Card

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As I’ve said before, I really LOVE the new Circle Card Thinlits Die! I just made this easy card using it and the stamp set For the Birds, one of those good, all-purpose stamp sets. I used some flowers from the Betsy’s Blossoms stamp set to add some interest to the plain card stock and on the greeting on the inside. I also added some Gingham Garden Washi Tape along the edges of the card. Washi tape is so much fun and easy to use! Just tear it off and then trim it with your Paper Snips. I even pulled one piece off and tried a different Washi tape and then decided to stick with the flowery one and put it back on. It’s repositionable! The Early Espresso circle is punched with the 2 1/2″ Circle Punch, a perfect fit for the circle on this card. The stamped image is cut out with the scallop circle that comes with the Thinlits Die. That’s another great thing with the Thinlits Dies is that they both come with extra elements to use in your designs!

Be sure to watch the Stampin’ Up! video about using the Thinlits Dies on the store page!

Here is the inside of the card!

The most difficult thing about this type of card is photographing it! Since it doesn’t lay perfectly flat it comes out looking odd-shaped and standing it up also makes for an odd angle. But I assure you you will enjoy using either one of the thinlits designs. I will warn you, it will make a HORRIBLE noise going through your Big Shot! But that is normal.

Oh, and in case you need a Big Shot, be sure to order one of those too. Another decision you won’t regret!!

Artisan Label Punch with Butterflies Card

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I wanted to play with the Bitty Butterfly Punch included in the Butterfly Bundle Special going on during September and this is the butterfly card I came up with using the Artisan Label Punch as a background for each butterfly. If you don’t already own the Elegant Butterfly Punch I would suggest getting that also in addition to the Butterfly Bundle. Then you can layer the two butterfly sizes. The paper is the Modern Medley Designer Series Paper. The greeting is from the Happy Day stamp set.

To make it less plain, I embossed the Artisan Design Punch pieces with the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder and the butterflies with the Flower Garden Embossing Folder. And I even added some Basic Pearls Jewels for the butterfly body and some Whisper White 5/8″ Organza Ribbon.

The Butterfly Bundle Special is available through September 30, 2013. If you need any Stampin’ Up! supplies, you can always get them here in my Online Store.

Friday the 13th Black Cat Card Idea

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When I realized today was Friday the 13th, I came up with this black cat card idea. The cat face is cut with a Circle Framelit, the eyes with the wing on the Bird Punch. That black ear I punched with the 1″ Square Punch and then cut that square in half diagonally to make the triangle shape. Then I punched a piece of Silver Glimmer Paper in a square, cut the square in half on a diagonal, and then trimmed down the triangles so they would fit on the black.

For the eyeballs, I punched a 1/2″ Circle of Old Olive and colored in the pupil with a black marker.

The whiskers are just cut by hand from Silver Glimmer Paper and stuck on the back of the Small Heart Punch for the nose. The mouth is just drawn on with the new White Chalk Marker. I’m afraid people may have overlooked the Chalk Marker in the Holiday Catalog. I’ve found it very useful and think you should check it out on page 20, top right, of the Holiday Catalog. I also used it to draw the little glimmer in the cat eyes.

Do you have any Friday the 13th superstitions? Why is Friday the 13th lucky? My one grandfather was born on a Friday the 13th so he always considered it lucky! My mother’s aunt considered the number 13 unlucky, so if there were already twelve people seated at the dinner table, she wouldn’t sit down. I don’t know if Friday the 13th is always unlucky, but I think my black cat turned out kind of fun looking so hopefully it will be a lucky day!

Modern Medley Bitty Butterfly Card

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I was working on some cards with the Bitty Butterfly Punch, included in the Stampin’ Up! Butterfly Bundle during the month of September. The Butterfly Bundle includes

* Papillon Potpourri Clear-mount stamp set and
* Bitty Butterfly Punch

Save 15% by purchasing the Bundle!

For this card, I used a piece of the Modern Medley Designer Series Paper layered on Whisper White on a card base of Coastal Cabana. The butterfly is mounted on a piece of Coastal Cabana punched with the Artisan Label Punch. I very lightly stamped it with the lines from the Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set. It just adds a tiny bit of something to the background. Then that punch is layered on a piece of Silver Glimmer Paper on top of a 2 3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch in Strawberry Slush.

The butterflies are punched with the Bitty Butterfly Punch as well as the larger Elegant Butterfly Punch. I stamped both butterflies with the stamp from Gorgeous Grunge that has the diagonal lines in one direction. I only stamped that once on the Elegant Butterfly. But on the Bitty Butterfly I stamped the diagonal lines once and for the second time stamped the lines perpendicularly and that made the crossed diagonal lines! I love how it looks! And a few Rhinestone Jewels add a little bling to the butterfly! The greeting is from the stamp set A Dozen Thoughts.

Today, as we all remember September 11th, perhaps we should each make a card for someone and send it. It can be to a loved one, to a friend, a neighbor, a teacher, a child, anyone. The act of making the card and sending it will make you feel good today to express your feelings to someone or just to say “hello” or “I’m thinking of you!”. And imagine the good feeling THEY will have in a day or two or three when they receive it as a surprise in their mailbox.

Check out the Butterfly Bundle from Stampin’ Up! today in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store. You’ll find that Bitty Butterfly Punch rather useful as well as the beautiful butterfly stamp set. You can put it on your order tomorrow with the newly available Magnetic Platform, which goes back on sale September 12th.

Teddy Bear Baby Card on Teddy Bear Day

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Today is Teddy Bear Day so here is a Teddy Bear punch art baby card. Teddy bears are named after President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. The name supposedly came after a 1902 hunting expedition where Roosevelt was offered the opportunity to shoot a young bear but refused. A cartoonist illustrated the incident and the larger bear was later redrawn as a cuddly cub. The whole story became famous and a toymaker brought out a cute stuffed bear and named it “Teddy’s Bear”. The teddy bear, of course, has become a staple with babies and children and even adult collectors.

My teddy bear is made with some punches, but also some hand-cutting was involved! Actually, I also used some of the new Circle Framelits. It’s good to sponge the edges of the pieces with ink before you assemble so that they stand out more. My bear is made with Soft Suede and Crumb Cake card stock and adhered to a layer of Marina Mist on a Whisper White card base. The Marina Mist is embossed with the popular Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder.

Do you have a favorite teddy bear? Get it out today and celebrate Teddy Bear Day!

Make a Halloween Card with Scraps!

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This Halloween card was primarily made with scraps after I had made another Halloween card! The background is a piece of the Witches’ Brew Designer Series Paper and the banners are scraps of the same designer paper, card stock, and the Champagne Glimmer Paper. It was all just laying their on my table anyway! I punched the ghost with the Owl Punch, cut off the feet, and turned it upside down. I thought it would be funny for the ghost to be peeking out from the banners!

For the greeting, I stamped the Tags 4 You Trick or Treat image on Summer Starfruit card stock. And then I cut each letter apart with my Paper Snips! I like the way it looks on this card! And on that tag were two little spiders, so I cut out around those two spiders also….not super crazy but just around them. For just using scraps, I like the look of this card.

Click on the link to go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store if you need some Halloween paper and stamps! The time is getting close! You can view the Holiday Catalog items in the store or view the catalog HERE.

Simply Created Spooky Halloween Banner

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One thing I easily passed up in the Holiday Catalog was this Build a Banner Simply Created Kit. But after seeing several banners created at the Stampin Up! Convention this summer, it was one of the first things to go on my next order! The Build a Banner Kit has the canvas pennants with grommets and all the stencils. All you need to do is decorate it! To make that easy for you, purchase the Halloween Banner Simply Created Accessory Kit and you’ll have everything you need!

I found it worked well to use Sponge Daubers to dab on the ink from the ink pad over the stencils onto the pennants. Most videos show using alcohol and reinkers sprayed on (lightly!) with the Spritzers, but some people were having trouble with that, and it just seemed easier and cleaner to use the sponge daubers. I think the Black Stazon works better than the Basic Black, although then you have to scrub that Stazon off the stencil!

This might look like a complicated project, but I really found it pretty simple and quick. I could have made two more rosettes on my own, but I mostly stuck with what came in the kit, although I used my own modifications a little bit.

Put these supplies to make a Halloween banner on your next order! I’m sure you will enjoy making one!

Here are some close-ups! You can use your own imagination and decorate yours how you like.

Please order your supplies on my Stampin’ Up! website HERE or contact me with your order.

A Fun Spider Card for Halloween

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You never know where creative inspiration will come from! I got an email advertising Halloween gifts. The designs on the items were so cute, and I thought, “I could make a card using that idea!” So here is a fun Halloween spider card!

The Halloween spider is made by cutting a Gumball Green circle with one of the Circle Framelits. In order to get the stripes, I used a technique I’ve seen a million times but hadn’t tried myself. Before I embossed the circle with the Stripes Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, I inked the inside stripes of the embossing folder with a darker green color, Garden Green. That made some of the stripes colored! It looked really neat when I took it out of the folder! For the eyes, I punched two Pumpkin Pie circles and smaller Basic Black circles and colored in the whites with the Signo Gel Pen. I hand-drew the squigly mouth with a black marker and just hand-cut two little triangles for his teeth. Do you know what the legs are? They are punched from the new Chevron Border Punch!

The card base is Elegant Eggplant layered with a piece of the new Witches’ Brew Designer Series Paper. For a little greeting I used a stamp from the Halloween Bash stamp set and punched out with the Ticket Duo Punch. You could use this stamp and this card as a Halloween party invitation! Since the card is such a dark color, I put a Whisper White layer on the inside and stamped with a another greeting from the same Halloween Bash stamp set.

It’s fun to spot something cute that you know you can duplicate or at least copy to some extent with your stamps, ink, and paper. Keep your eyes open for ideas in unusual places for papercrafting inspiration!

New Circle Card Thinlits Die Halloween Card

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I LOVE the new Circle Card Thinlits Die! And I loved making this first Halloween card of the season for me! I didn’t even know what, exactly, I was going to make so actually what I came up with was a pleasant surprise! I knew I would start with a card base of Basic Black card stock with some Witches’ Brew Designer Series Paper. Then I got out my new Halloween stamp sets in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog to see what I could use. I decided to stamp the flying witch in the stamp set Halloween Hello on a piece of Summer Starfruit punched with the 1 3/4″ Circle Punch. It is layered on a scallop circle die cut which comes with the Circle Card Thinlits Die and that is layered on a 2 1/2″ Circle Punch of Champagne Glimmer Paper. The die also comes with a small star die but for this card I used the star punch in the carryover punch pack from last year’s Holiday Catalog, Merry Minis Punch Pack #126882.

The Halloween greeting on the front is part of a stamp in the Halloween Bash Stamp Set in the Holiday Catalog. I covered up the top part I did not want to ink up with a part of an old business card and inked the bottom part with Versamark. Then I embossed it with White Stampin’ Emboss Powder.

For the inside circle, I thought a surprise was in order since it is a Halloween card and what could be a better surprise than a ghost! Do you know how I made that ghost? Just use the Stampin’ Up! Owl Punch! Snip off the feet of the owl and turn him upside down! You could punch out some eyes and mouth but I just used a black marker. The “Boo” is handwritten with the brand new White Stampin’ Chalk Marker in the Holiday Catalog.

Here is a close-up of the focal point of the card. The scallop circle die cut does not come with the holes in the scallops. I wanted more of the Glimmer Paper to show through so I grabbed a hole punch in my stash and punched those holes. I had also considered doing some doodling with the Chalk Marker. So whatever works for you! The Summer Starfruit circle is also sponged with some Pumpkin Pie ink and even a little bit of Gumball Green.

I hope you enjoyed my first Halloween card. You know the fall season is fast approaching!

Go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store and check out the products in the Holiday Catalog and get yourself in the mood! I’m sure you will want and enjoy the new Thinlits Dies, too!

Pop’ N Cuts Dress Form and Card Base Birthday Card

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These Pop’ N Cut Dies were introduced in the Stampin’ Up! Spring Catalog and honestly, I didn’t pay much attention to them. I think I had already added so many things to my order that by the time I got to their page in the catalog I wasn’t interested. I didn’t take any time to see what they were about, although I did order the Dress Up Framelits Dies. Those seemed easy enough.

But then as so often happens, I started to see really cute things other people made and also watched some videos made by the designer of the dies, Karen Burniston. That’s when I put them on my next order! The shape of the Card Base Pop’ N Cuts Die is a Stampin’ Up! exclusive, made with the decorative edge and made so you can tuck it into the slits to close. You can use just this without the pop up portion.

The pop up portion is easy to do once you get the hang of it. You want to be careful not to fold things that shouldn’t be folded. In order to get the pop up going, it works best if you get your fingers behind that table part and then you will see and feel where the score lines are and how to get the pop up to pop up!

Once you get the pop up popped up, you can adhere it to the card base. Just be careful to see where the adhesive should go and shouldn’t go. I haven’t gotten the hang of that yet! Even though I think I’m being careful, I always get adhesive where it shouldn’t be! But as long as you pay a little bit of attention, you’ll be okay! Then you can embellish and decorate your card however you like on the inside and on the front!

This is what the pop up looks like from the side. You want to get that rectangle shape from the side. That’s how you know you have it right! Once you get that shape, then the rest will take care of itself.

These Pop’ N Cut dies are easy enough to use and fun besides! You can also trim that dress shape off the pop up and add another piece of card stock for a gift card holder or for a message or other design.

Here are the Pop’ N Cuts dies I used plus the framelits:

Just go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store any time! Just think what magical cards you can make with the Pop’ N Cuts Dies!

Daydream Medallions Birthday Card

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The Daydream Medallions stamp set I have thought is a beautiful one. And this birthday card my longtime dear friend made for me for my birthday with Daydream Medallions is certainly a beautiful card. She always makes a beautiful card in a simple elegant style.

Don’t you love the cupcake on the envelope, too?! Always stamp something on your envelope! We don’t want to send a naked envelope! If that cupcake wasn’t stamped on that envelope, wouldn’t you just toss it out right away?

My friend also sent me a funny book with quotes about old age! My favorite one I’ve found so far is one by Ann Landers, the advice columnist. Let me first state that I did NOT turn 70! Just to be clear!! But whatever decade below that it was, this describes exactly how I feel!

“Inside every seventy-year-old is a thirty-five-year-old asking “What happened?”

Maybe the essence of ourselves doesn’t age past thirty-five and that’s why we don’t feel as old as we get!

The book is called Old Age Is Always 15 Years Older Than I Am by Randy Voorhees if you need a funny gift for a middle-aged friend!

Gold Embossing on Modern Medley Designer Series Paper

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At the Stampin’ Up! Convention this past July, Pam Morgan from the Stampin’ Up! Home Office demonstrated on stage embossing in gold stamped images on the trendy Modern Medley Designer Series Paper. I even won that Prize Patrol, winning Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder and a pack of the Modern Medley paper! Pam was using a lot of the images from Gorgeous Grunge, a stamp set we got free at Convention. On this card I stamped the beautiful flower from Blooming with Kindness and added some of the small splatters from Gorgeous Grunge off to the side. Kind of different, but I think I like it! This time I purposely chose a light colored background thinking the gold embossing would show better, but I think next time I will try a dark background.

For a greeting I punched a piece of Brushed Gold card stock with the Scallop Oval Punch and layered a piece of black card stock punched with the Large Oval Punch. On top of that is the sentiment embossed in gold from Itty Bitty Banners and die cut with the Big Shot and the Bitty Banners Framelits.

If you would like to try your hand at the magic of heat embossing, you’ll need a Stampin’ Up! Heat Tool and your choice of embossing powder! It’s easy and amazing!

Shop at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store or email me with your order!

A Birthday Jar of Notes!

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My daughter, last weekend, did so many things to make my $%&^th birthday the best one I ever had! I’ll just say it was one of the milestone ones! She took all the sting out of turning this age with all her surprises, the best one being her flying in from California and surprising me! In addition there was a beautiful birthday cake and a mother-daughter cooking class at our neighbor’s house. I couldn’t have imagined anything else, but she had one more surprise up her sleeve!

I don’t even quite know the FULL story, but apparently months ahead of time she contacted friends, neighbors, and relatives and sent them packets with colored note cards and asked them to write some special memory or story or birthday wishes to me or about me. Then they sent them back to her and she put them all in this jar she decorated with a ribbon and button.

It was SO much fun to read all of them, see who they were from, and see the old photos some people included! Even all 8 of my brother’s children wrote notes! My one long, long, long time friend and college roommate even copied excerpts from her diary when we were in college and about when I met my husband. My other equally long-time friend sent photos of when I was a bridesmaid in her wedding and our story about how hard we’ve laughed over all my Quilt Show purchases through the years (before stamping) that I would drag out when she visited. Some neighbors talked about all our activities with our kids through the years; swim team, Cub Scouts, even college graduations! My sister-in-law mentioned her visit when our girls were little-bitty and I bought them matching outfits. Not only were the memories and nice notes great, it made clear the connections I have with all these people, built up through all these years. If you are looking for an exceptionally special gift to give someone for whatever occasion, this idea is certainly it!!

Surprises Galore for My Milestone Birthday

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What a weekend and what a birthday! I went from not having anything special planned at all for my birthday except probably my husband and I going to a nice restaurant for dinner, well not probably, for sure!!

My one son emailed and said he and his brother were coming home for the weekend (they live about 3 hours away). On Friday he emailed again that he and his girlfriend were coming that night but Steven would come on Saturday, and Eric was staying over Monday and Tuesday, but Steven and Heather would drive back on Sunday. Ok.

Everybody arrived Friday night and Saturday at the designated times. Steven’s car needed to go in the shop for a new battery and oil. Since my back had been acting up for two weeks as well as our new refrigerator, I hadn’t done any grocery shopping and didn’t. But Steven is sticking to his food allergy diet right now which means Mom needs to cook food at home so he doesn’t get any offending substance. Since my back was doing better I made a quick trip to the grocery store and bought some very nice beef tenderloin steaks and other stuff for a nice dinner. When I got the groceries put away, Eric told me he and his girlfriend were meeting a high school friend at 6:30. I thought that was a bit early and wondered how I was going to get this expensive dinner I’d just bought prepared very quickly so they could leave and besides, Steven’s car needed to be picked up at the shop. But I’m pretty good at that so I got dinner made fairly quickly and as soon as they were finished eating they left, ignoring my suggestion to let their friend know they were going to be a little late rather than rushing through dinner. But moms are used to being ignored with advice.

When Eric and Heather came back home, a little earlier than I expected, I looked up, and here was my daughter Amy who had flown in from California for my birthday!! Eric had gone to get her at the airport, not visiting his friend! I haven’t had a surprise like that since my bridal shower! I was completely stunned! She usually isn’t home except at Christmas. And that was just the day before my birthday!

On Sunday besides birthday phone calls from friends and family, I got red and white roses from my husband, large fancy chocolate bars from Eric, fancy brownies Steven had baked himself, and and a beautiful chocolate birthday cake Amy had ordered from a really good bakery here.

Cooking class photos are still on Amy’s camera so I don’t have them yet!

This was a birthday I’ll never forget and what could be better than spending it with all three children (plus my son’s lovely girlfriend!)! I would never have dreamed this big birthday was going to be so wonderful and memorable and fun!

Projects on Display at the Stampin’ Up! Convention

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I can’t get enough of these photos I took of the display boards at the Stampin’ Up! Convention! Such creative projects and cards! It’s amazing! You should be able to click on each photo to enlarge.