Birthday invitations and Thank you for Dylan and Kyle

We had a blast at my boy's birthday party at a local park few weeks ago. We had a bicycle rodeo and everyone brought their bikes, and I provided decorative tinsel, tape, garland, rolls and rolls of crepe paper in all different colors and people had a ball. We followed this with a lady clown who came and did body painting- the kids loved the dragon, the sparkly unicorn for the girls and some balloon making that followed. We Had pizza delivered and then broke open a pinata, then had cake. This was all topped by a race around the park with those finishing getting a gold medal and a goody bag to follow and it really was a blast. This was the invitation that I made using real red CS and an old retired vellum from SU- (many seasons past) - used some star studded wire from local Mike's and had it printed from my home computer. Stamped and embossed the bicycle from PTI from Nichole Heady in red. The stamp was designed to use buttons and I tried it but it just seemed too fussy and I was really pressed for time so I used some glittery self adhesive paper in red and silver and it was so pretty and sparkly, I knew it was the ticket. I stamped the envelope with a burning wheel from a set I do not have name of company on- sorry! and it was a really easy super simple invitation that you can adapt for any occasion.


I also wanted to give out things that had our personal touch so I got bubbles in bottles, wrapped some hot wheel paper around it and stamped the label and names using a set from again PTI and gave one to everyone to play with at the party and it really filled some of the gap in time at the beginning while some people were still decorating their bikes.



















This is the thank you card I made - that I made the kids sign - using the Just Riding set from SU and extreme elements for the stars and thank you kindly for the sentiment. I inked the stars using the bashful blue ink then again onto a glue pad then sprinkled on the glitter for that extra sparkle. the bike was inked in red then used the black marker to ink up the wheel, handle bar, pedal and seat. I did emboss the helmet for the accent piece.

All in all it was a great time- and for those of you who know my pet peeves- it was outside, physical, no arcade games, and minimal sweets. Tyler even asked on the way home, if he could have a part JUST LIKE THAT! If only I can guarantee no showers in April......

Lynda

Halloween Greetings

I like to have 4 projects at my workshops. At the last one, I had 3 and I was so busy I had not had time to do the fourth until almost 1/2 hour before the party was to start- My brain sometimes gets on fire when I know a deadline is approaching- although it is really stressful, I can be sometimes more creative. Some of my friends told me that this was their favorite project of the evening, even!

I took the color lead from the Cast-a-Spell DD paper. Used elegant eggplant as a base card, pumpkin for the top, wheeled the Haunting Hill on it using pumkin pad. Punched a large oval in eggplant and a 1 3/4 circle in olive then using horizontal slot punch punched the holes for the ribbon. Stmpaed the pumpkin from Twick or Tweet set and colored in the image with pumpkin, olive and perfect plum. Stamped sentiment from greatful greeting- in the mini in plum for a more subtle look and put some stitch marks around the circle for a little something extra and mounted the pumkins with dimensionals.

Happy Haunting!

Lynda

Halloween treats- Witch's broomstick and suitcase

I was asked by my kids' preschool teacher to bring pencils for treats for Halloween next week so I immediately thought of the pencil created by my friend Annette that looked like a witch's broom here at http://stampinwithannette.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-08-06T19%3A34%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7 I was on my way to Philadelphia for a meeting and had a lot of time to kill. I knew that I wanted to give the kids additional treats such as an eraser, a tiny notepad and a book marker so I was doodling and and thought of the Movie Kiki's Delivery Service- a Japanese animated film about a little girl about venturing into the unknown and believing in herself and it made me think of a little suitcase with the witch logo on it. So here is the how to.

Use the matchbox die from SU using the Bigshot. Here I used the pumpkin CS for the drawer part. If you use 12x12 cardstock you can get 4 out of each one if you cut it this way- This has been posted on blogs before but just in case you did not know- Place the CS in the cutter 5 1/2 inches in, cut 6 1/2 inches down and then stop. Rotate 90 degrees and do the same 3 more times. You will have four 5 1/2x 6 1/2 pieces, as shown, perfect for the drawer part of the matchbox.

For the outside of the suitcase, I used eggplant CS cut 6 1/2 by 2 3/4 (you can get 4 pieces out of a 8 1/2 x 11 piece- cut 6 1/2 inches parellel to the long side then cut 2 3/4 inch pieces- you will get 4 exactly.

For the pencils, I used the striped ribbon marked off every 1 1/2 inches then put a sticky strip across the lines as shown and cut apart. It is easier to do this while it is still on the roll if you are doing 55 of them like me.

Trim off the edges of the ribbon to the tape as shown using sharp scissors to start the fray.

I think it is easier to pull some of the warp threads (orange and white stripe) off from both sides before you start pulling off the waft threads (white only). Be careful not to yank on the warp threads since they are being held only gently by the sticky strip on the one side.

Here I am pulling out the weft threads. It is pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it.

pull off the cover on the sticky tape and wrap around the top of the pencil as shown.

Wrap a piece of DD paper - here I used Cast a Spell striped pattern paper in 1 1/2x 3/8 strips again using sticky strips to finish off the broom.

Here are some of the pencils finished- My uploading program is being screwy and would not upload in proper orientation. I stamped image from Twick or Tweet from the holiday mini on the bottom of the matchbox before I put it together as a added surprise.

For the handle of the suitcase, I used the word window punch using black CS. Score the folds for the handle on both sides about 1/4 way from both ends as shown.

Put a little strip of tape and fold over using a pencil or marker to get that rounded edge.

This is how it should look. You may have to play with it for a bit to get the right look.

I put a little bit of double stick tape on the both ends to secure the handle while I punch the hole.

This is how it should look at this time.

Punch the holes and place a silver brad on both sides to mimic a handle on a suitcase.

I stamped Trick or Treat from the Holiday Best hostess set for the back side of the suitcase.

Place a sticky strip on the wider side to create a base.

On the left is the matchbox open but empty. On the right is the matchbox with aforementioned stuff inside- most from OTC on line or from the local Targ*t for the pencils and erasers.
The round moon is SU punch 1 3/8 circle punch and the witch punch is from Martha at the local Mikes'.

The final product.

Now I only have to make 54 more! It is really darling in person and all my boys are wanting to play with it now.

Happy Halloween!

Lynda

Embossing- selective

My girlfriend alerted me to a blog http://indigoinklings.blogspot.com/ where she was playing with Cuttleb*g embossing folders and using different tamplates to selectively emboss the images and I've been following her ever since.

When the petals folder came out from Stampin Up I knew I had to try it. So I cut up some of the chipboards that come with designer paper (and it's FREE!) and layered 4-5 of them depending on how thick they were into different shapes to see how it would look. The poinsettia pattern I thought would look good as a tree, wreath etc.

This is how I made the wreath. I cut circles 2 1/2 inches and then punched out the center and glued a bunch together. Emboss the paper by layering the multipurpose platform, then the folder with the cardstock inside and place the cut out template on top of the folder - then the top layer. You may have to adjust the multipurpose platform depending on the thickness of your template.

When you run it through only the area of the template that was pressing on the the folder will emboss. Isn't this pretty?

I colored the berries with real red marker.

I then put 2way glue pen on the petals.

Then glittered the whole thing- it is REALLY PRETTY in real life!

This is one of my finished cards using this technique in the wreath pattern.

I used a triangle pattern for this tree.

I put a cardstock - full size 1/4 sheet and then trimmed the edges after because the edges do get a bit crinkled- although you could iron it out with your fingernails. Put the base of the tree into the fold of the embossing folder for best look. I thought it looked like it was floating a bit so I tried to ground it with the merry christmas sentiment from teeny tiny wishes set and a little bling on top with the clear crystal brad. The triangle template is 3 inches across the bottom and 4 inches tall.

Here is the final card. My friends from my last workshop thought it was easy to do and it is so pretty.

Try it for your self- You could even emboss and cut out a circle or another shape for an hanging ornament, do a border by doing a strip only, do a scalloped border, so much options with this!

Some people have been cutting the folders but you know me....Can't deface my tools- or spend the money to buy an extra one if I can find a way to use it creatively.


Have fun everyone!

Lynda

Ornament Punch Fun

I have been playing the the new ornament punch from Stampin' Up and have been sketching ideas for a while but have not had a chance to show you so here is some of the things I have been doing with it.

Upside down it looks like fat candle lights- so I used markers- apricot, orange, and red in the center on yoyo yellow. I used sahara sand and punched out the oozing wax using the bloody punch from MS from a local M's and raised it up with some dimensionals and put it on a red CS with All Holiday sentiment stamped with white craft and embossed clear. Mount the whole thing on white CS and a simple Holiday card.

I also thought it looked like an acorn so I punched 2 - one from chocolate chip and another from close to cocoa and cut the chocolate chip one to make a cap. I textured the choc chip one with perfect details Texturz plate and used shimmer paint to highllight the cap detail and the acorn part too. I sponged oak leaf from the Autumn Splendor set directly onto the stamp with rust, olive and mustard and choc chip ink to get a multicolored leaf. Stamped the sentiment with chocolate chip from Grateful Greetings set onto the vanilla cardstock, mount the whole thing onto chocolate chip CS.

Tyler was playing with some of my punched images and he thought it looked like a fish so we made a sparkly fish out of it. This was a card I had left over form another project with the opening diecut with a square Spellb*nders die. He stamped the rest from an old retired SU fishin stamps and sentiment from another company-- name unknown. It looks like one of those rainbow fishes - although hard to see here.

I also made a stingray, noah's arc, a cute doll head, vase and cinderella's carriage- I will post them as soon as I make the samples but the shape of this is so much fun, I can't wait to see what other people come up with! ( yes yes I should not end the sentence with a preposition but this is the way I talk not my resume, so there!)

Lynda