Faux Layer Masked Card

SU consultant, Tami White, has this quick video on how to create a "faux layer" by using a masking technique. You can get the same look by using any brand of nesting dies, as long as they're large enough.

Watch this technique and see her pretty finished Faux-Layer Card:

Watch on YouTube: HERE

Twisted Circle Easel Card

Here's is quick tutorial on how to make a Twisted Circle Easel Card. I think you'll agree that they are pretty easy to do :)

Watch on YouTube: HERE

Punched Heart Flower

Cute flower made with punched hearts!

There are no words on this tutorial, so you don't even need your sound turned on. This flower is so easy, that the video images are all you need to follow this technique.

Watch on YouTube: HERE

DIY Bling Flourishes!

Save a ton of money and make your own bling flourishes!

In this video tutorial by Stacy, she shows just how easy these are to make... you just need a few items... a needle, your printer, some rhinestones, Helmar Gemstone glue, and a little time! And if you can
free-hand your flourish drawing, you don't even need a computer printer!

Watch on YouTube: HERE

The Ultimate Pen Storage!

A great system for pen/marker storage because it holds any size... so all brands should fit, even Copics! I can't wait to get these trays for my alcohol ink Spectrum Noir pens!

Watch on YouTube: HERE

You can find the storage trays here.

Easy Window Card without using Cutting Dies!

SU consultant, Dawn Griffith, shows us a very easy way to make window cards without having to use any cutting dies. Watch the video below to see how easy this is:

Watch on YouTube: HERE

Granddaughter UPDATE!!

Just had to share a couple of photos of the grandbaby :)

This first one was taken at 2 months old as she was ready to take a nap. I just love this one... her mom caught her with her eyes still open, not wide open, but enough to see how big and beautiful those eyes are going to be!

 

 

 

And this next one shows her in her first "car".... at only 11-1/2 weeks old!... Yep, that's right.... 10 days shy of 3 months old, and she has her first Jeep! LOL!

 

 

 

Her mom did put a rolled up towel behind her to tuck her in the seat of her new walker, but what amazes me is her head control.... she hasn't needed any support at all for weeks before this photo was taken! The doctor says she's very strong and advanced for her age, and I can see why! And of course, I already have her down as being a little genius, too, so we'll see!!

 

Thanks for letting me gush over this little preciousness! Can't wait to see her up close and in person again... hope that won't be too long, but it's already been 2 months since they were here :(.... time sure flys by....

 



Storage for Spellbinders and ALL Thin Metal Dies!

I am so excited to finally have found a solution to storing all my metal dies!!!

You know what jewel cases are, right? They're the hard plastic cases that hold CD's and they have what I call a "nubbin button" inside that fits in the center hole of the CD to hold it in place. Well, in case you don't already know, that "nubbin button" insert is removable, but it's a pain to do and if you're not extremely careful, you can break at least several fingernails! (you can guess how I know this, lol)

Well, there is a company online that sells King Size Jewel Cases without that insert in them... YAY! The cases are bigger than a normal CD one, about the height of a DVD case. I found out about these from Amazing Paper Grace - Becca Feeken's Blog. The company now also has pre-cut adhesive-backed magnet sheets that fit perfectly inside!

I must say that these are just wonderful... take a look:

Spellbinder Nestabilities

The links to these cases and magnet inserts are:

Cases: click here

Magnets: click here

When you attach the magnets to the inside of the cases, make sure they are in position correctly BEFORE you stick them down.... that adhesive is very strong, and where you put them is where they'll stay.... ain't no moving 'em... just sayin' :) !!!
The magnets hold the metal dies in position so well, and work with all the different thin metal die brands that I have! As you can see, I photographed these all standing up, and I even held them upside-down and shook them, but the dies stayed in place!

These next 3 photos are all still Spellbinders, but just the different 'lines' they carry.

Spellbinder Labels Twenty

the NEW Spellbinders  Majestic Elements

Spellbinder Shapeabilities

Here are some of the other metal die brands:



Poppystamp/Memory Box Dies

Memory Box Dies

My Favorite Things (MFT) Die-Namics

Cheery Lynn Dies (in a regular size CD case)

The magnet sheets cut easily, and since I had several regular size CD cases on hand, I purchased extra magnets and cut them to fit. You can see a few finished cases in this next photo:



Regular Size CD cases

AND.... these King Size cases can also hold cling-mount rubber stamps. I have a few of those as well, so I just ordered some of the cases for them and used them without the magnet inserts!

Cling-Mount Rubber Stamps

I know these cases can take up a little space, but since I already had an old CD/DVD bookshelf with adjustable shelves in my scrapbook room (that my sweet hubby had repainted to match my room), I was able to rearrange a little bit and clear off 3 of the shelves to accommodate my new storage cases. Each shelf can hold 23 of either size, regular or these King Size! I don't have anymore of the regular cases... I used all 23 I had... and I've already placed a second order for more of these King Size cases and magnet sheets!

I'll have 8 spare cases left when I'm done, so I guess that means I can only get 8 more sets of metal dies, right?.... Who am I kidding?.... I'll be clearing off another shelf on the CD/DVD bookshelf before too long, lol :)

Get More From Your Spellbinders

Back on July 17, 2012, I posted a video from Christina called "Starting Your Spellbinder Collection". It showed what would be a good starter set of Spellbinders to purchase. The starter set would allow you to spend your money wisely and still make a variety of beautiful cards! If you missed it, you can check it out here.

Now in the next video, Christina shows how to get even more from your starter set. (You don't have to have the Spellbinders die-cut machine

or even get the big size of metal embossing sheet that she uses. These suggestions can be adapted to your machine and metal dies of choice.)

  





Watch on YouTube: HERE

I use the Spellbinders dies in my Cuttlebug! You just need the extra "C" plate for those skinny metal dies. So, the 'sandwich' layers are different when running it through the machine, but the results are the same! Remember though, the Cuttlebug can only take dies, embossing folders, etc. up to 6 inches wide. So I just watch what I purchase, so I know it will fit. You can purchase all the longer cutting/embossing plates you'll need for the longer dies (an A, B 2-pc set, and C plates). That's what I did! :)

Train Lover vs. Bookworm

My best friend, Carol, is a bookworm... can that woman read!!!... vs....
Her husband, Tom.... he loves trains!!

My dilemma .... what to do for an anniversary gift and card? I had to give this some thought, especially since for the last several years, no, for all of them (LOL!) I've made mostly "girly" cards. So I had to finally take Tom into consideration as well (sigh!) After all, it is his anniversary, too!

What to do, what to do?.... I had already decided that I wanted to give Carol a gift card to Barnes & Noble (she likes to go in there and just smell the new books before shopping... sniff, sniff!... I guess sort of how my hubby likes to go into Wilson's and just smell the leather! LOL!). And if our area had a train museum or something, I would have gotten Tom a gift card to go there, but, alas, nothing of the sort in the area :(

.... the closest thing to anything transportation here is Cadillac Ranch, and that's FREE! Although, we do have trains running through town. I hear their whistles all the time. But I couldn't just send Tom out to the tracks to watch trains, even with good advice 'not to play on the tracks', could I?
So what's a girl to do?

THIS:

I decided to cover a paper mache "BOOK" box for Carol

and do the matching card with Tom in mind.

I've had this CTMH Sweet Home paper for some time now (it's retired). When I saw the paper mache book, I knew I had to cover it in this paper, because for some reason, the striped B&T patterned paper reminded me of story books my Grandmother had when we were growing up. Each book had 3 or 4 stories in them, and those stripes just brought back good memories for me :)

I attached the paper to the box with Mod Podge for Paper, letting each section dry thoroughly before moving on. It was pretty time-consuming to get all the pieces just right, because I had to line up the front cover's side binding with the back side (I'm OCD that way!!) and I went up and over all the edges with the papers. It probably would have been a whole lot easier

to just put the paper to the edges, and color the edges with matching markers!!!

When the paper was done, I covered the entire outside of the box, in stages, with a layer of the Paper Mod Podge... I like it better than the regular, because it's a lot less tacky when dry.

I thought the card turned out well. I got the idea for it on SCS... you can see it here. I found the train image online and printed it out with the sentiment,

in Indian Corn Blue (using RGB codes), above it. I inked all the edges of the pieces before glueing them together. I even inked, lightly over the sentiment, my own "steam" coming from the train stack, which helped give the illusion the train was in motion.

I made Carol a matching bookmark, and put everyting inside the book box, including the card, for them to open.  I added a "Discover" gift card for Tom, so he could use it for anything his heart desired, as long as the entity accepted Discover!

Here's some more photos of the project:

The spine I did with the striped paper. I cut all those pieces separate

because the "leather strips" were bumped up on the box.

All I did to make the 'leather' was color the bumps with several layers of the

CTMH Barn Red marker (old style), right on the paper mache.

It worked perfectly!

Carol loved this yellow B&T in this set, so I decided to do the inside with it.

If you look closely at the bookmark (or click to see bigger image),

you can see how I lined up the skinny blue strips with the yellow pattern.

That blue print was on the backside of the yellow in the kit.

The angle of this photo is off just a little, or you'd be able to see how the

striped 'binding" lines up from the front cover with the back cover... LOL!

And of course, I used I AM ROSES for all the flowers and leaves.

A few small ones I painted with the Lindy's Stamp Gang Magical Micas,

but most are the color they came!

Also, none of the photos show it, but it sure was a challenge to cover the curved inside binding edge at the top and bottom of the spine (you know how hard-covered books have the binding slightly curved out from the actual pages of a book.... well in going up and over those edges, the cut of the paper had to be arched... a straight cut line just didn't cut the mustard!

Whew! I'm glad it's done! But all in all, it was worth the time (and trouble)!

Hope ya'll like it, too. :)

Anniversary Card for my Hubby!

I made an card for my hubby for our 32nd Anniversary earlier this month.
I saw a card on Pinterest, made by Lisa House using CTMH That's Amore paper (retired). I loved the design and thought it would work well with
CTMH Passages paper (which I love and is also retired). I also made 
my card quite a bit wider than the one I saw here.

Here's my version:

My hubby liked it and loved the buttons!

(CTMH buttons with Colonial White Waxy Flax as the threads)

I used Barn Red cardstock for the base and made

the sentiment in MS Word using the RGB codes

I had to match the Barn Red color. Then I inked all

the edges of all the pieces in Desert Sand

before assembling them together on the card.

A peek inside:

I used the RGB codes to match Olive for the inside print, except

for a big "I Love You", which I kept in Barn Red.

Then I printed it all out on Colonial White cardstock,

and trimmed for the shapes I needed.

After inking the edges of the inside pieces,

I first matted the Colonial White on Olive cardstock

and then on the same striped B&T patterned

paper as the one piece on the front.

But with the camera angle, or maybe a tiny

movement when taking this photo, the stripes

came out a little funny looking in the photo!

Oh well, you get the idea! :)

Stamp Swiping Technique

This video from CTMH features the swiping stamping technique. With stamp swiping, you can add texture, distressing, movement, and motion to your products. I want to try this technique!

Click HERE to watch on YouTube

Wedding Card

For my son's wedding, I made him and his new bride a card, of course!
I got the idea from a pin on Pinterest, and I think it turned out well.
Michelle's favorite color is pink, and her wedding colors were pink, yellow
and purple, so I made the card in those colors. I'm just glad they liked it!
But the photos came out a bit blurry... sorry :(

the front

(remember to click on any image to see it bigger)

The ribbon is actually keeping the card closed. I didn't want them to have

to untie and re-tie the bow, so it's a permanent bow with a magnet closure

underneath. It needed something to keep it closed, since it turned out so thick! See what I mean...

I even had to make a custom box for it....





This is the card open and standing (close-up photos are farther down):

and this is the back, both open and closed:

Here are some close-up shots of the front and back of the card:

As usual, I used a bunch of I Am Roses. All the colored

ones are painted with Lindy's Stamp Gang's Magical Mica's!

The white ones are the original colors as they came. 

Now these photos are from the inside of card.... first and second 'page'...

page 1 closeup

page 2 closeup

And then 'pages' 3 and 4....



page 3 closeup

page 4 closeup - (we tucked a check in the pocket behind the tag)

and the closeup of the tag:

I did the embedded-embossed technique on this tag, as well as

the hearts on page 1 and the hearts here on the back:

a closeup of hearts on the center back

Well, that's a lot of photos, and all of them were probably not necessary for this post, but I never know when to stop until I've run out of photos, LOL!! 

Thanks for stopping by.... have a great day! :)

Pay It Forward Game - Spread the LOVE

Pay it forward is a great thing to do!

On Aug 26, 2012, I participated in a "Pay It Forward" blog post at
Scramping with Carol. I was one of the first few people to respond, and as such, I will receive a handmade gift from Carol Labuski (a woman I don't personally know - but I follow her blog, since she always has wonderful creations posted!)... AND I won't even know exactly when it will arrive!... Won't that be awesome?!!! With my brain, I'll totally forget all about it and when the gift comes, I really will be surprised! lol :)

Rules of the game - and you know there are some :) 

They are as follows:

1. To the first 3 people to comment on this post.... I will send a
    
     surprise gift!*  This gift will be handmade by me and I will send
    
     it sometime within the next year (yep... 365 days!) 
    
     Exactly when... well... that will be a surprise!

2. To sign up to receive a gift from me, you must play along, too.

    Share the love on your blog ("pay it forward") by promising to

    send a handmade goodie to the first 3 people who comment on

    your blog post.

3. Of course to do #2, you MUST have a blog!

4. After commenting on my post, you must post this Pay It Forward

     game on your blog to spread the love. If you haven’t posted it

     within 48 hours, then the next commenter will be chosen.

If you want to join in and spread the love around, just comment below and then post the Pay It Forward game on your blog.... AND if you’re one of the first 3 to comment, I’ll send you something before the end of August next year!

* (Sorry, I can't afford overseas shipping) Open to residents in the U.S. or Canada only

Avree

Finally.......

           A close-up photo of that precious baby girl! (I've told both parents that I want 24 pictures a day, at least, but they are NOT cooperating! I think they've tuned me out, lol :(

But I had to share this latest one..... can you tell, I'll be obsessed with posting her photos? I'll try to curb my urges to do that, so I won't overwhelm the Blogger system!!! and you!!

New Mom and Baby Girl

Well, I promised "more later"... here she is!!!...

Our New Granddaughter

Avree Diane

(about one hour old)

Born Monday August 13, 2012 - 4:31 PM

Weight - 8 lbs 7.5 ozs

Length - 22 inches ---21 inches (confirmed by pediatrician at checkup)

And just absolutely PERFECT!!!

and the next morning... sleeping on Mom!

She looks almost exactly like her mom did when she was born.

We can't wait to see her in person in about 3 weeks, when they come for our son's wedding! She'll get to meet this whole side of the family, which is extremely small and only consists of the two of us, her Uncle Josh and brand new Aunt Michelle, her Great-Aunt Melissa (my sister), her second-cousin Derek (my nephew and sister's son) and his fiance, Sandea, as well as my BFF and "adopted" Granny, Carol... she can't wait to get her hands on

Avree either!!

You'll probably be seeing lots more of this little gal on here in the coming months, if I can get her momma to take pictures with a "real" camera, and not just on her phone, lol :)

It's Official!

We're finally GRANDPARENTS!!!... Avree Diane has arrived! :) ... More later...

True Friend

Another quote I saw and made into a small sign to be able to cut out.

I thought I could use this on the front of a card. Might need an encouragment card sometime.

Not a Lack of Love

I ran across this quote somewhere... I can't remember now exactly where, but it was someone's favorite quote, and just typed out.... Anyhoo....

With our son's upcoming wedding and our own 32nd anniversary in October, I have 'marriage' on the brain! When I saw this, I thought "yep, that's sure true!"

So I put the quote in the square box to make it into something I could cut out. And I've counted my blessings that my hubby and I are friends! :)

Engaged!.... (long post with many pictures!)

Our son is getting married on September 8th! Last Tuesday eve, they surprised us with some engagement photos, and this is one of them:

(I added the text)



They had come up for a wedding of friends, the next day, and I had been working on the wedding card for them to take to the happy couple (another Floral Impressions Easel Card!) I wasn't done with making the 3D envelope box it had to go in, so Michelle got to see the card up close and personal! Now, she and her women folk are all "crafty" women (just not in scrapbooking or cardmaking.) 

So, I was very flattered at her attention to and comments about the card.... so much so, that I decided to make her an even more elaborate one... one with a different engagement photo that she mentioned was one of her favorites. I made it so they could use it as a photo decor item in their home (or just throw it out if they didn't like it, lol)

Michelle's sister and SIL gave her a bridal brunch for her shower on Saturday. With my health, I wasn't sure I'd make it since it's more than 2 hours away, but I did. YAY! It was a fun and happy event! There were over 30 women attending, and she received many nice gifts for their new home together.
I had my real gift shipped ahead just in case I didn't make it, so I ended up taking her the photo decor and a card, that turned into a kind of mini-album.

Here's the photo of the decor piece I made:

click to see photo larger

Michelle's wedding colors are pastels... a pink-azalea color, yellow and a touch of purple. Her favorite flowers are daisies, which will be her bouquet. Her bridesmaid's will be in the pink tones and the wedding cake will be chocolate with yellow icing and daisies flowing all over the top and sides, gradually thinning out as they get to the bottom layer. With all that in mind....

That's why I did the easel part of the project in yellow (some Basic Grey color I don't remember). I triple matted the photo, first on white cardstock embossed with an ivy pattern, then on a patterned paper from my stash that I thought complimented the pattern in her dress, and then on
Gold Mirricard from Marco's. The sentiment's I did in MS Word, and matted them on CTMH Cotton Candy cardstock.

There are 2 sizes of daisies on here.... the smaller ones, as well as the small pink roses, yellow cherry blossoms, and the leaves are from I Am Roses.
All the smaller flowers were white to start with, but I painted them with
Lindy's Stamp Gang's Starburst Spray in Cotton Candy Pink and I used their Yellow Rose of Texas Magical Micas... that's in their Prairie Wildflowers set.

The base is 7.25" x 12" and built on chipboard for extra sturdiness. The bottom patterned paper is of small yellow daisies on a white background and the whole paper had a golden shimmer to it. (You'll be able to see it better in the photo of the matching card.) The next layer is the Gold Mirricard again, and then topped with daisy patterned paper from my stash that is so old, I don't even remember the store I purchased it from, lol :)! But it's made from a real photo of a field of daisies, and it really made exactly the look I was going for! I love when that happens!

The 3 large daisies on the project I made myself! I'm so proud of these as they're my first attempt at daisies!.... I started each with 2 paper flowers from CTMH. I had to hand-cut all the niches in each petal of every layer, to get them to resemble the other daisies. I glued the 2 paper flowers together, with petals slightly off-set, making a daisy. In the center of each, I put a CTMH clear button, then covered each button with a custom two-color yellow flower soft to get the "fuzzy" look I wanted. I liked how they turned out so much, that I covered the centers of the I Am Roses daisies with the flower soft as well. I finished it off with some butterflies (punch from Martha Stewart) in CTMH Floral Impressions paper (retired), inked with CTMH Gypsy ink, to get the bit of purple added in, and topped them off with some bling swirls marking their "flight" pattern, and CTMH Bitty Sparkles for their bodies! 

I also made a matching 3D box to hold both this easel project and the card.
Since it had to be longer than 12", I covered the seam with the daisy paper.

And I knew way ahead of time, that I was going to make a card "booklet" (or mini album) for Michelle, because of the things I wanted to include in it. So, I matched the card to this elaborate easel decor piece I had made!

This is the card front with all I Am Roses embellishments. You can see the yellow daisy paper better here, but still not the gold shimmer it had... you had to hold it at an angle to see the shimmer! Same Basic Grey yellow cardstock as the easel, and all the inside 'pages' are CTMH Cotton Candy cardstock.

The inside pages are as follows:

This is a poem I wrote for Michelle to welcome her to our family!

(sorry the photo is a little blurry)

These pages are the "Recipes"!

Left one I wrote for a happy marriage and right one

to add to the recipe book she received!

It's a recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal NO-Bake Cookies!

Just a crazy personal note to her!

And because I had the gift sent to her home,

the last paragraph tells her to turn the page

to see her gift that should arrive soon.

(but she got it the day before! Go figure!)

It's a PINK KitchenAid Mixer with a flexible edge attachment

(see the small photo on the left)

I made this photo collage on PicMonkey's free online photo editing site. The images are all from Google Images... top one says "Bridal Shower" on the umbrella, second one is gold wedding bands, 3rd is the flexible edge attachment, and the bottom one is the wedding cake Michelle wants (from Martha Stewart Weddings).

Can you tell her favorite color is pink?

Well this post is finally done!... I told you it was long and had lots of pictures in the title, so if you made it all the way down here, thank you so much for taking your precious time to check out my blog post! :)

Have a GREAT day!