{ Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday! }

So today was the day for the Mass Shoebox Swap I put together through SCS. It was so much fun! Other than a stamp camp I went to over a year ago back in California it was the first stamping thing I did outside of stamping on my own at home. I got to meet some fun new people too, which was really awesome since I don't really know anyone out here! There were a lot of great creations, I made an SCS album with everything we did. Along with all the really great cards I came home with so many new ideas and a list of toys I now have to have!


A couple of us made two projects since we had so many last minute cancellations. I brought my Hoppy for You card that I posted yesterday (I had no intention of bringing it when I posted it, otherwise I would have waited). Here is the other card I brought.


This is the open version of this card:

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And here is the closed version of this card:

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Recipe:
Stamps: SU Polka Dots & Petals, Polka Dots & Paisley, Print Pattern, Tall Tales Alphabet
Paper: SU So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: SU So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, Cameo Coral
Embellishments: SU Ribbon
Other: SU Round Tab Punch, Kraft Edgers Scallop Scissors

{ Best Fishes }

I really liked how my last card turned out I decided to do another, just a little different though. The background was made by running my paper through my Cuttlebug with the Tiny Bubbles embossing folder. Then I inked up my brayer and lightly ran it over the embossed paper. Aside from a change of colors and stamps I also popped the Saffron layer up with dimensionals. Well, I think that is about all I can say about this one. Enjoy.

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Stamps: SU Very Punny
Paper: SU Close to Cocoa, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, Very Vanilla
Ink: SU Tempting Turquoise, Craft Basic Black, Close to Cocoa
Embellishments: SU Ribbon, Misc Staples
Other: Cuttlebug, Brayer, SU Round Tab Punch, Write Markers, Dimensionals, Joann's Clear Embossing Powder, EK Success Round Punches (2 & 1 1/2 in)
Techniques: Heat Embossing, Dry Embossing, Doodling

{ Hoppy For You! }

Just playing around a little today. I really need to cut all the paper for the Shoebox Swap I'm doing tomorrow... but I'm a procrastinator, so here is what I did instead. Oh and the ribbon was added for the SCS LSC104 challenge. Enjoy!

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Stamps: SU Very Punny

Paper: SU Close to Cocoa, So Saffron, Certainly Celery

Ink: SU Always Artichoke, Close to Cocoa

Embellishments: SU Ribbon, Misc Staple

Other: SU Write Markers, Dimensionals, Crystal Effects, Round Tab Punch, Brayer, EK Success Circle Punches (2in & 1 1/2in), Cuttlebug

Techniques: Sponging, Cuttlebug Dry Embossing & Die Cutting, Doodling (is that a technique?)

{ Candles Galore }

Well the candles I was making for my brother's wedding are finally done and in the mail! Sorry for the not so great picture, I took the pictures then mailed the candles before finding out my pictures were that great. This was the best of the bunch, oh and yes, that is a cat sitting in a basket in the background. I thought that was pretty funny!

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Last Friday my Upline came over and helped me heat the vellum onto the candles. Yeah, vellum! I couldn't use tissue paper because I needed to run it through the printer, there was no way I could have stamped the wording onto the candles... not for nearly 150 candles that is! You can't see the vellum but it is a little harder to heat onto the candle, so I would only use it again if it were for these reasons.


Monday and Tuesday night my Aunt and I sat in front of the TV to watch General Hospital while we bagged all the candles. We used two layers of ribbon to tie them closed. The first one is a wide, shimmery organdy ribbon and the second, tied in a bow, is a narrow satin ribbon. Then we added a tag and they were done!


In the end I think there were 10-12 hours spent on them between three people. Defiantly not bad... and they only cost about $60 to make. Since they are working on a strict budget I was more than happy to help my brother and future sister-in-law out by making these as a gift for them. When Heather saw the samples she said they were gorgeous and just her style, so I'm sure she will be pleased when she sees the final product.

Recipe:

Stamps: SU Doodle This, Delight in Life, In Full Bloom

Paper: Misc Shimmery Vellum (Tag), Clear Vellum (Candle)

Ink: SU Craft Bravo Burgundy

Other: Misc Ribbon, Clear Bags, Heat Tool, SU Small Tag Punch

{ Polka Dots, Petals & A Nice Thank You }

Well... this started off as a card I wanted to use for a shoebox swap, but it ended up being way to intricate and time consuming. Even though I'm a little strapped for time to finish my swap card I figured I better finish it, otherwise it may sit unfinished for a long time... if it ever got finished that is.


I tried a different fold compared to my other cards. I'm really happy with the way it turned out, so I'm sure you will see more of them from me in the future. This picture is the closed view.

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This picture is a somewhat open view of my card. Unfortunately it is a pretty difficult card to get a good open picture of, even so I think the picture is good enough to figure out how it opens.

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Hmmmm... where to start. To stamp the "U" I inked it up with Craft Sage Shadow ink, then stamped the flowers on it in Craft Perfect Plum. I then masked the flower using a piece of SU cardstock. Because it is much thicker than the scrap paper I normally use it left the nice boarder. I did this to draw a little more focus to the flowers instead of the "U." I sponged the brown background and a little Sage onto the the images on the left side of the card and a little Plum on the right side. I think today's SCS challenge was something to do with sponging. Does it qualify for a challenge card if I had no intentions of it being one? Anyway, now all I have to do is figure out who to give this too! Enjoy... and let me know what you think!

Recipe:

Stamps: SU Polka Dots & Paisley, Polka Dots & Petals, All About U
Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Perfect Plum, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla
Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, Perfect Plum, Sage Shadow, Craft Chocolate Chip, Craft Perfect Plum, Craft Sage Shadow
Techniques: Sponging, Kissing, 2 Step Stamping, Masking
Other: SU Round Tab Punch, SU Ticket Punch, Kraft Edger’s Scallop Scissors

{ Au Chocolat }

Oh how I love SU's new designer paper in the Spring Mini!! I haven't been too fond of their designer paper so far, but I absolutely love all three designs in the Spring Mini. Au Chocolat is defiantly my favorite of the three. These two cards were designed around the beautiful paper. I don't think much explanation is needed for these cards as there isn't anything out of the ordinary that I did here, just a lot of layers and a lot of punches! I used two different sized punches to create the squares under the vellum and I used my ticket punch on the larger squares under the designer paper. All the paper I used, except the designer paper was from my scrap bin, so I got rid of quite a bit of it. Same with the ribbon, all scraps. Well, I think that is all I have to say about these cards, so enjoy.

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Stamps: SU Doodle This
Paper: SU Au Chocolat (Designer Paper), Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Regal Rose
Ink: SU Craft Chocolate Chip
Embellishments: SU Ribbon, Misc Eyelets
Other: Joann's Clear Embossing Powder, Ticket Punch, EK Success 1 & 1 1/8 Inch Square Punches

Techniques: Heat Embossing

{ Spring Birthday }

I should be working on a swap I'm participating in, but since I have no inspiration to work on what I need for my swap I've decided to play a little with my new stamps and paper. This is a little busy for my taste, but I really love the way it turned out. I love the colors and a few of the elements, like the eyelets, the round tab punch w/the flower on it, the large heart in the background and the small heart with the ribbon and flower. Well, I think that about covers everything on the card. I hope you like it as much as I do!

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All the flowers are stamped with craft ink, then I colored them in with SU Write Markers, other than the one on the tab punch they are cut out and popped up with dimensionals. Both the hearts were cut out by hand; I stamped them then pierced the edges. Everything else should be pretty self explanatory. Enjoy.

Recipe:

Stamps: SU Polka Dots & Petals, It's Your Birthday

Paper: SU Rebbecca (Designer Paper), Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Sage Shadow

Ink: SU Craft Close to Cocoa, So Saffron

Embellishments: SU Ribbon, Sage Shadow Eyelets, Misc Staple

Other: SU Write Markers, Dimensionals, Ticket Punch, Round Tab Punch, Paper Piercing Tool, Paper Crimper; Fiskars Scallop Scissors, Stapler

{ A Treat for Todd }

My husband has been really stressed over the past few weeks. Mostly because he's been extremely busy with work and has a rough school schedule this semester, plus it doesn't help that I've been pretty stressed out over other things. I'm sure that wears on him as well. He has been trying to cut back on working a little so he has more time for school, but like normal, he's out working on a Saturday again. When he gets home this afternoon he'll have a bunch of school work he needs to start working on, so I thought I'd make a little treat for him.

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I have a bunch of these boxes I received from a special SU was having last year. If you ordered a certain amount of stuff you got a free gift bag of overstock and retired products. I haven't touched them yet, so I thought this would be a great time to pull them out.

To make the circle I punched out a piece of scrap paper and traced it on the inside of the box then cut it out with paper snips. I then taped a piece of plastic to the inside of the box. The picture makes the circle look a little distorted, but in real life it actually is a nice smooth circle.

The stamp work is pretty self explanatory. Once that was done I taped up the box and rubbed ink heavily on the edges and lightly over the surface. All the tags came from the same SU box sheet. I used craft ink on one of the larger pieces, stamped the little phrases and cut them out. I then tied them all together and tied it to the box through small holes I punched on the top. As you can tell I punched holes on the top and tied the box shut. I really like this box, too bad SU no longer carries it, fortunately thought I have bunch of them right now, so you may see more from me in the near future!

Recipe:

Stamps: SU Polka Dots & Petals, Fancy Flexible Phrases

Paper: SU Confetti Box Kit

Ink: SU Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip, Craft Brocade Blue, Craft Night of Navy

Embellishments: SU Cord

Other: Hershey Kisses, Terrifically Tacky Tape

{ For The Bride }

I love the swirl and flourish images from Autumn Leaves so much that when SU came out with Doodle This I knew I just had to have it! Of course I couldn't just buy Doodle This, I also had to buy Doodle That. I'm trying to talk myself out of the Doodle Alphabet & Number sets since I don't use alphabet sets all that often, but knowing myself I'll probably break down and buy them just before the Spring mini ends. Oh boy.

Anyway, I finally finished all the thank you cards I was making for my future sister-in-law and finished the candles for the wedding, well almost. I still have to put them in the bags, tie the ribbon and put the tags on, but that's the easy part. I have plans with my Aunt on Monday to finish the candles so I have the whole weekend free to stamp!

The bridal shower for Heather is on the 24th so I had to make her a card, of course I grabbed my new sets and this is what I came up with.

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The card is sized to fit in a #10 envelope. This is the first time I made a card this size. I wanted to use a lot of the swirl stamps from SU's Doodle This so it worked perfectly. The color scheme is extremely simple, just two colors of card stock and two colors of ribbon. After taking the picture I realized I didn't like the flower on the tag so much, so I pulled it off and embossed the image so it pop's a little more now. I used pastels on the edges and over the swirls. After stamping a bunch of flowers on the card base I masked them off and stamped more, then used pastels over them, similar to what I did with the pastels over the swirls. I like the affect the pastels gave the flowers here. It seems to tone down the ink on the flowers so they weren't a focal point. Enjoy!

Recipe:
Stamps: SU Doodle This, Doodle That, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Paper: SU Rose Red, Very Vanilla
Ink: SU Rose Red, Craft Rose Red
Embellishments: SU Ribbon, Misc Fastener
Other: SU Pastels, Dimensionals, Ticket Punch
Technique: Heat Embossing

{ They're Almost Done! }

I'm surprised how quickly we got done with the candles. It took two of use two hours to make 150 candles. Not bad at all! They still have to be bagged and the bows & tags added, but that will be much easier than heating the image onto the candle. I feel so good that we got them all done! I'll post some pictures when they are completed early next week.