I {heart} Hearts Valentine

This is a really easy ValentineI made using pretty in pink basecard embossed with polka dot folder. White cardstock with trimmed with scallop trim border punch then stamped in pretty in pink with the 3 hearts and sentiment from well scripted stamped in red. Love heart was stamped in real red, cut and used dimensionals to mount on top of one of the hearts stamped in pink. Less than 5 minutes to physically make and your loved one will think you spent a lot of effort on it!

I LOOOOVE my border punch!

Vintage Vogue

During my mom's visit my Stamp n Chat group was having a meeting and I thought my mom would really enjoy it, which she did but I wanted her to participate in a swap. I had her pick out colors she liked and she chose blush blossom and basic gray which I thought were very modern actually. And this is the card I came up with for her to make. I did not have the scallop trim border punch yet so I just punched the edges and then trimmed the area in between and I thought it still pretty. The border was stamped with versamark then I laid down a bridemaid cardstock on the bottom and accented with a strip of blush blossom and tied a taffeta ribbon around the card. The flower was stamped in blush blossoms, the cut out hole punched in center. I made a knot with the taffeta ribbon and fed the to ends of the ribbon through the hole and taped the ends don behind the flower- you could use a crystal brad instead as well. Friends were stamped first on the white CS then embossed on a scrap with silver EP and cut out and added back with dimensionals to add some dimension.

Fox and Friends

Stampin' Up has these really adorable wall decorations called Decor Elements that are vinyl, applied to the walls and then can be peeled off with no damage to the walls.

The images that came with matching alphabets were so darling I was really tempted to get them to decorate the boys' rooms. Then they came out with a stamp set to match in the new mini and I just ADORE them!

The monkey is just so darn cute. This is a template for a monochromatic card that Tami my upline had come up with and I used a variation on that to make a bunch of different cards and this is one of them.

Stamp an image ( here the monkey from Fox and Friends but any small- ish image will work) on the very vanilla CS, punch it out with 1 3/8 circle punch, layer with vanilla TEXTURED CS 1 1/2 inch square then another with 2" square vanilla- Easy to make a strip of 2" cardstock and snip off every 2 inches to make a whole bunch of squares to have to make a stack of these with varying images and sentiments.

Tie striped ribbon around a folded very vanilla base card and use dimensionals to attach the squares. Stamp a sentiment in coordinating color and easy peasy card that looks very pretty.

I thought this would be cute card for a new mom or baby so I was looking for some charms in my stash to dangle from the ribbon and saw the banana stamp from sock monkey stamp set so I stamped it on Shr*nky Dink with stazon then shrunk it with my heat gun thne colored it in with my Cop*cs (alcohol based marker- but it will work with regular markers and colored pencils before you shrink as well- although shrinking does concentrate the colors so test it out). I used some wire to make a jump ring to hook through some fibers of the ribbon so make sure you punch a hole in the shrinky D*nk BEFORE you shrink it and make it big since it will shrink too.

Lynda

How To- Scallop trim border and corner punch EASY

I am great at math but sometimes a bit dense about some things. I had just received by scallop trim edge punch and did the calculations for the scallops but when I did my workshop a few days later I had not had a lot of time to play with it and made the problem much bigger by demonstrating it in the complicated way that I alway seem to make some things.

The reason the given dimensions work is that it is pretty close to what you will have for the final product.

So this is a step by step as to how to use the punches the EASY WAY.

The only rule you have to remember is that the corner of the paper needs to line up with the corner of the punch.

You should be punching out the scallops and the scraps you get should look like the stuff seen on the last picture here.

Just slide in the paper to the corner as shown and punch out a corner. Rotate and do the same on all 4 corners.

If you do 4 scallop side, you will not need to use a borderpunch at all, just the 2 corners.

After you punch all 4 sides, you will have some unpunched sections as you can see on the left.

This is where you bring in the longer border punch. You can line up the punched images in the front but sometimes they are a tiny bit off for small pieces so I prefer to line up the loops in the back so I don't cut into them and then punch the unpunched section out.

Forget punching a corner and then doing the sides as I was doing at my workshop. It screwed everything up and it was really hard to get everything matched up- sorry Folks!

This is a thousand times easier.

See? Perfect loops and it was easier than saying scallop trim punch!

See yesterday's post to get the exact dimensions for the perfect scallop trim frames.

Lynda

Love Bandit Valentine Box

I am looking to make some valentine gifts for my kids and I think this is a contender. I used the Matchbox die from Stampin' Up to die cut the bos base and the wrap around but instead of having it open like a match box, I had it open like a cigar box.

This set is so stinkin' cute I can't stand it. I stamped the raccoon in black stazon, colored in with bordering blue and real red markers and punched it out with heart punch. I wrapped the double stitched ribbon around the lid so that the cut end would end up under the heart embellishment.

I took regal rose CS and used Embosslits Heart of hearts here http://204.228.150.61/catalogs/20091231/OccasionsMini10_CA.pdf to run it through my big shot to get the cutest embossed heart die cut that creates the smallest scallop around the heart punch ( although you can' t see the little hearts embossed in the center of the scalloped heart, believe me it is just darling!)

I separated the sentiment from the raccoon image to stamp the words onto white CS and punched it out with word window punch and put it inside.

The box fits 2-3 of these Ghiradelli chocolate squares or 4 Hershey's nuggets perfectly if you can keep the kid's from sneaking them.

Instead of wrapping the covers and taping it down on the side, the sides are taped onto the box base on three sides. I used a corner rounder to make it easier to slide it in the box. I think I could do 50 of these......maybe.

Scallop Trim Punches

Stampin Up's punches are now more streamlined for those of us who have storage issues. They now come in designs that are collapsible and and coordinating with both edge punches and corner punches to match and can be easily stacked side by side with pictures on the front so you can see what you are grabbing.

On the left is the new scallop trim corner found in the new mini and on the right is the scallop trim border you can get free with any $50 Stampin' Up purchase during sale-a-bration.

The punches come with a button on the bottom that you slide to open the punch.

I wrote the exact dimensions required for the cardstock to give you the number of scallops you want if you want to use the corner punch in addition to go around the side. The sample on the technique card above is 2 3/8 inch square but you can mix and match the dimensions to get 6 scallops on one side and 4 on another for example.

The dimensions are marked that when you slide in your cardstock the it matches up with the lines marked on the underside, not necessarily slid all the way in to the punch (I hope that makes sense- if not it will when you use the punch).

It does take some practice to get a good punch all the way around.

I find it helpful to punch the corner first and use the border punch to follow. Look at the top of the punch to make sure that the design lines up before you punch. It also sometimes helps to turn it over to the bottom to make sure that your cardstock is not askew that can screw up the design and that the paper is really well lined up. It takes a bit of practice to get it just right.

If you don't like to measure it is still perfectly all right. Start with a paper bigger than what yo need then start with a corner punch and punch the edge to follow and when you have a piece big enough cut off the edge close to where you think you want it then line up the design on the top and punch away.

So this is the card I designed to get the feel for the punches. It has a pocket inside for a giftcard or note.

I cut a summer sun CS 6 1/4 x 8 1/2" and scored it at 3 1/4 and 6 1/2" along the 8 1/2 inch side.

The inside is folded over and taped along the side to create a pocket.

I stamped Vintage Vogue flowers in regal rose for the big flowers and stamped off for the smaller flowers to get a lighter shade. Artichoke for the leaves and stamped of Brocade Blue for the images to fill in. Summer sun with a dauber in the center of the flowers as well.

F is inked with brocade blue ink then I used the blender pen to remove the ink then colored the word friends with the summer sun marker to get the 2 different colors before stamping onthe paper. The ribbon is curry polka dot and the button is summer sun corduroy tied with linen thread and attached with glue dot.

I stamped the inside fold with versamark to bet the subtle effect then stamped some leaves in artichoke and attached a flower stamped on white CS with regal rose.

Stampin' Up does not have envelopes for this size so I get them at Targ*t or Office supply store for less than a buck for 80 or so- quality is not up to SU standard but it's cheap and fits the bill perfect. I like to decorate it with similar images and this is how I stamped it.

Sale-a -bration is a great time to stock up on stuff so I got my wish list going. I love the vintage label set so I am ordering a bunch of clear blocks for the clear cling stamps and some wish items from the mini so it will be no problem I am sure......

I did make a new year's resolution to use more of what I already have - but compared to a psychiatrist's bill, this is relatively inexpensive in comparison and I am SO MUCH HAPPIER!

Happy New Year everyone!

Lynda

Ever After version of the SC260 challenge

This is a different version of the SC260 and CC251 challenge on SCS. Basic Grey basecard with barely banana CS and dusty durango with whisper white neutral. The heart was inked with barely banana then the edges sponged on the rubber stamp itself with dusty durango then stamped onto the whisper white CS. The sentiment and the Love is stamped in basic grey ink and love circle sponged on the edge with dusty durango as well.

The corners of the rectangle was punched using the scallop square punch as previously shown on my blog.

Abundant Hope for the New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

I took on the Splitcoast Stampers challenge incorporating the CC251, SC260 and WT250 challenge. The color challenge was for barely banana, dusty durango and basic grey with a neutral - I used whisper white. The sketch challenge is as shown. and the WT was to use a background stamp.

I used basic grey as base card with barely banana on top with Bella Toile in Versamark to creaste a subtle background. I used the same stamp in barely banana ink to create the pattern in the small box to the left below the durango bar. The dusty durango piece was scored and pierced with paper piercer between the 2 scored lines.

The flowers were stamped in black then colored in with barely banana, then accented with crushed curry and dusty durango markers then cut out and offset with dimensionals to make it pop out a bit. I cut out an extra flower to make the accent on the oval itself as shown.

You can see the details of the 2 different inks with the same color cardstock- one with versamark on the background and the barely banana on the cardstock. I wanted to use a designer paper for the accent piece and realized that I did not have one in barely banana so her is how I made do. But I thought it was still very pretty. That's why the background stamp is so great - you can make your own color matched background paper in the pattern of your choice!

Here is the final card and it is simple yet oh so pretty.

Hoping for Peace throughout the world for the New Year.....

Lynda