Halloween Letterpress Card

October 19, 2010 under Big Shot, Cards

When I was first playing with my letterpress plates and trying out different inks and paper, I ended up with extra pieces as samples.  This Trick or Treat was one of the pieces I made using Confetti White paper and classic Pumpkin Pie ink.  It turned out pretty well, so I had set it aside to use later.  Then, I also had this card base I made using Basic Black paper and torn Old Olive cardstock originally for a punch art card that ended up going a different direction, and so I had that lying around too.  So, put them together and add a fun halloween pumpkin and this is what turned out:

Punching the pumpkin -

I also had to get a little creative with the pumpkin.  I didn’t have oval punches, which is what I would normally use, but I did have a 1-1/4” circle punch available.  So, I punched out three full circles from some Tangerine Tango cardstock.  I then slid one of the circles back into the punch so I could punch again, trimming off one side of the circle to make an oval like shape.  Now, I did this by sliding the circle in and tapping the side of the punch to shift it into place – the complete pain in the tush method.  If I were to do this again, I would either stick my circle to the back of a post-it note or use dotto to temporarily adhere the pumpkin to a piece of computer paper so that I had a bigger piece of paper to hold when trying to control how much of the circle I was trimming.

To finish the pumpkin, I sponged the edges of the circles with Chocolate Chip ink,.  Then overlap two of the circles and adhere together.  Adhere the trimmed circle/”oval” on top of the two circles.  Cut a strip of Old Olive CS and adhere to the back of the pumpkin you just created for a stem.

Trick or Treat Recipe:
Ink: Pumpkin Pie classic ink, Chocolate Chip classic ink
Paper: Basic Black CS, Confetti White CS, Tangerine Tango CS, Old Olive CS
Accessories: Trick or Treat letterpress die, 1-1/4″ circle punch, sponge, paper piercer, Ice Rhinestone brads

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , ,

Embellished Pocket Calendar

October 10, 2010 under 3D projects, Big Shot

This summer, I discovered at one of those big box fabric stores, some pocket calendars at a rediculously low price.  So, I just had to pick some up (I’m such a sucker for a good sale).  The calendars ran August 2010-July 2011 and so I thought they would be perfect for me to keep in my craft tote for scheduling Stampin’ Up! events while I was out at workshops and classes. 

But a storebought calendar just wouldn’t do.  So what do we do?  We embellish!!

I grabbed some of my scraps, punches, and the BigShot and went to town:

I printed out some of my favorite photos of Nicholas so that they would fit being matted by the 1 1/4” square punch.  They make me smile everytime I pull this out.  Smile And of course, I couldn’t leave the back empty, so I put a photo I love of our family from a vacation this summer. 

This project is so fast and easy that I made one each for my mom and dad as well.  All you have to do is
- pull the plastic cover off the calendar and measure the cover
- cut a piece of DSP that is slightly wider than the cover dimensions
  (you want it slightly longer so that it doesn’t pull away from the ends when you adhere it to the cover and fold it around the spine of the calendar). 
-I printed off photos and then punched 4 squares out of Basic Gray to use as mattes for my photos using the 1 1/4” square punch. 
-Then I used the BigShot to cut out the numbers for the year using the Simple Numbers Bigz die. 

The biggest thing to watch out for is to not add too thick of embellishments and layers so that you can fit your calendar back into the plastic.

These are a fun, inexpensive gift.  Hmm..,I think I may have to see if I can grab a few more.

comments: 1 » tags: , , , ,

Experimenting with the Stampin’ Up! Letterpress Dies

September 21, 2010 under Big Shot, Cards, Techniques

As I mentioned last week, I received the new Letterpress Dies and made my first card using the method recommended on the packaging.  However, I’m not always good with rules and recommendations and so I had to start experimenting myself with how these dies worked with different inks, paper, and BigShot “sandwich” combinations.

I wanted to share my results with you so you could try some of these ideas out yourself or avoid the methods that didn’t work so well.

But first – a new sample using the bigger Trick or Treat letterpress die:

The green ribbon in the Pumpkin Pie button is actually the 1/4” Old Olive grosgrain ribbon cut in half.  If you do this to thread through a button, I highly recommend using a needle to thread it through the holes.  I was using the “wet the end of the ribbon, twist, squint, shove, and hope enough gets through to grab with your fingernails” technique.  Lets just say the ribbon frays much more easily that way.

Experimenting with Paper, Ink, and BigShot techniques

Click Read More to see my experiments with the Letterpress dies including photos for the different papers, inks, and techniques I used. Click here to read more.. »

comments: 9 » tags: , , , , ,

A Letterpress Card for the Stamping 411 Challenge #168

September 13, 2010 under Big Shot, Cards, Convention 2010, Techniques, Tools

If you’ve seen the holiday mini, you’ve seen one of the new products Stampin’ Up! just released – the Letterpress Plates.  These plates are made to use with your BigShot and instead of embossing your image by causing the pattern to raise up off your paper, these plates deboss your image – making empressed images that go into your page.  Add some craft ink, and you get imprinted colored images to spiff up your project.

At convention this year, Stampin’ Up! unveiled the plates and then offered a special convention bundle of all the letterpress plates at a discount for convention attendees.  Yet another awesome benefit of being a demo (see even more benefits here).  So, I decided to try them out and after getting my bundle, spent some time this weekend playing with them.  So, today, here is the first card I made with the Northern Trim plate for the Stamping 411 sketch challenge.

I’ve also been playing with different types of papers and inks, so check back later this week as I’ll be posting my results and offering tips for what I’ve found from using the plates.  Until then, here is the video Stampin’ Up! released to show you more possibilities with these plates.

Oh, P.S. – if you are a demo or become a demo when attending their regional seminar, they have another special bundle just for attendees!  Contact me at jennifer@nwstamper.com for more info or find out how to be my guest when I go to the Portland Regionals in October.

 

Demonstrating the Letterpress Dies

Kind Thanks Recipe:
Stamps: Thank You Kindly
Ink:  Always Artichoke Classic ink, Always Artichoke Craft Ink, Rose Red Craft Ink
Paper:  Elegant Soiree DSP, Basic Black CS, Rose Red CS, Confetti White CS, Always Artichoke CS
Accessories:  Basic Black Satin ribbon, Scallop edge punch, Basic Rhinestones, Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, Modern Label punch, glue dots, Stampin’ Dimensionals

comments: 6 » tags: , , , , , , , ,

Punch Art Flower for my August Meetup

August 9, 2010 under Cards, punch art, Techniques, Tools

Yesterday was the August meet and greet for my Meetup group here in the Bay Area.  A few of us got together and had some pie at Marie Callender’s and I brought a free make and take for everyone to do.  This month I decided to do some punch art and so I modified a past card I had made to use some new stamps and colors and came up with this card.

This was an easy card that used 7 punches in all, though you could modify this card to use fewer punches or more stamps.  Here are the steps to create it yourself:

  1. Punch the base of the flower using the extra large Fancy Flower punch
  2. Stamp the five petal flower image from Punched Posies hostess set, once on colored cardstock and once on white cardstock
  3. Punch out stamped images using the Five Petal punch
  4. Stamp the smaller six petal flower image from the Punched Posies hostess set on white cardstock and punch out the center using 1/2” Circle punch
  5. Layer these punched images together and glue
  6. Punch the leaf using the Small Oval punch
  7. Fold the oval in half and trim one side to form a point
  8. Stamp the vase using one of the ornament images from the Delightful Decorations stamp set on white cardstock
  9. Punch out using the ornament punch and trim the bottom of the ornament to form the flat base of the vase
  10. Stamp the sentiment from the Because I Care hostess set on white cardstock
  11. Punch out sentiment using the Large Oval punch
  12. Punch corners of base white cardstock with the Ticket Corner punch
  13. Stamp the stem using the stem image from the Punched Posies stamp set on base white cardstock
  14. Glue down onto your card base and your done!

Punched Flower Recipe:
Stamps: Punched Posies, Delightful Decorations, Because I Care
Ink: Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive
Paper:  Old Olive CS, Whisper White CS, Poppy Parade CS, Daffodil Delight CS
Accessories:  Fancy Flower punch, Five Petal punch, 1/2” circle punch, Ornament punch, Ticket Corner punch, Small Oval punch, Large Oval punch

comments: 2 » tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Organizing my craft room

August 8, 2010 under Tools, Updates

Between the big color renovation, the old catalog retirement, and getting ready for convention, my craft area had become a disaster zone.  You know the feeling… table buried under paper scraps, adhesive backing, ribbon, stamps, half completed projects.

IMG_1103Well, I decided it was time to dig out and get organized so I can start using all the cute and fun new stuff that I’ve gotten recently.  Now I’ve gotten everything put away and it is definitely more motivating to craft.

If you have any tips or tricks for organizing, I’d love to hear about them.  Please leave a comment and/or a link to a photo of your creative organizational techniques.

For me, I love this bookshelf I got at IKEA (its called Besta).  It is very strong, which I need for all the paper I’ve accumulated. Smile I have a shelf for retired stamps, ribbon, current stamps, cardstock, 12×12 paper, ink, wheels, and misc other stuff.  Plus the doors keep it out of the sun and away from little baby fingers.

Tip: Turn you paper holders (the mazagine file style) on their backs so what is normally the top is pointed to the front.  This makes it really easy to see what paper you have and you can grab and go without pulling out the whole container.

IMG_1102

I also have a smaller bookcase where I store my catalogs, magazines, small albums and my stack and store spinners.  Let me tell you, I LOVE these spinners and for some reason it just makes me so happy and ready to embellish when I see them sitting out in a row.

Tip: Use a magnetic board (again, I found this one at IKEA) to put up cards or projects that inspire you.  Hang embellishments that you want to use but don’t have an easy storage space with magnetic clips so that they are in front of you (so you remember to use them) and easy to grab and then put away.  You can also get magnetic spice containers with clear lids to store small items like die cuts, brads, or gems.IMG_1106

Finally, I have my punch storage.  These rods work perfectly for the old style of punches and I recently found that the hanging wire baskets that you can get to go with them are just the right size for the new slim style of punches.  It’s the perfect system for a punch junkie like me.  These rods were in the kitchen section of IKEA and are the Bygel collection.  They are something like $1.99 per rod and $1.99 per basket, I love cheap and super functional!IMG_1107So that is my craft space.  Hopefully you saw some new idea or at least a reminder for one of your own projects.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on what organization solution you like or if you have some new ideas for me!  Until next time, I’m off to make a mess again!

comments: 5 » tags: , , , , , ,

Stampin’ Up! Convention 2010– Punch happy swaps

August 6, 2010 under Cards, Convention 2010, Techniques, Tools

I had a few more swaps that I had to share so here is one more post including my second swap I took to convention.

So, you remember my first swap I showed you (recipe in this post) -

Well, after punching out the leaves and the flowers from the BigShot, I was going to recycle the scraps when I looked at them and said, “I could totally punch out stuff using these scraps”.  So, I started punching out little hearts using the small heart punch and managed to actually get 5-6 hearts per scrap.  So, from there was born the idea for my second swap.

This card uses the new Occasional Quotes hostess set.  It is a perfect set for an outside and matching inside sentiment for your cards.  Anyway, I had made 40 swaps and so had 40 of each color scrap, I watched a movie with my hubby and drove him crazy punching out hundreds of these little hearts.  Then, the night before I left for convention, I punched out the scallop rectangles using the new Scallop Rectangle Clearlits die and then did the assembly from my hotel room.  These took a bit of work to assemble but again, I felt very happy with them.

hearts swap
Finally here is another round of some of my favorite convention swaps.  Pretty cool huh?

card by Mary Booker                                       card by Valerie Taylor

card by Lorri Heiling                                     card by Jill Kelley

card by Kathy Kuffel                                      card by Diana Curtis

card by Terry Bolender

Hearts Swap Card Recipe:
Stamps: Occasional Quotes (hostess)
Ink:  Concord Crush classic ink
Paper:  Concord Crush CS, Pear Pizzazz CS, Whisper White CS, Crumb Cake CS, Chocolate Chip CS, Blushing Bride CS
Accessories: Small heart punch, Scallop trim border punch, Scallop rectangle clearlit

comments: 2 » tags: , , , , , , ,

Stampin’ Up! Convention 2010 – Swaps, Parties, and a Baby!

August 2, 2010 under Big Shot, Cards, Events, Updates

I’m back from a trip to Salt Lake City for the 2010 Stampin’ Up! convention with my Mom and upline, Kathy, my dad, and my son.  I love the chance to go meet other demonstrators, including folks whose names I’ve seen on emails but now I got to meet in person, hang out with friends, get super cute stuff, swap gorgeous cards, and generally get pumped about Stampin’ Up!  I have way too many photos to share all of them in one post so I’ll be posting pictures in future posts as well.  But for now, here are some of my highlights.

Before convention even got started, mom and I participated in two days of preconvention stamp camps and swaps with Late Night Stampers. 

IMG_0819 Then came Wednesday – Check in day.  This is the day that everyone lines up in the early morning for a chance to be one of the first to get into Memento Mall (the SU convention gift shop).   My dad was kind enough to go get in line when he got up around 6:15am and he wasn’t the first in line!  By 7:30 the line was around the block. :)   checkin day line photoBut unlike Disneyland, its fun to stand in line at convention.  Everyone is swapping and I even saw a friend of mine from Portland (Hi, Liz!) and got a chance to introduce her to Nicholas. IMG_0856

After we swapped, checked in and got our free stamps and bag, we relaxed before meeting up for a group photo and swap with our upline group – the SBStampers.  It was there that Nicholas got his very first swap.   He loved playing with this fabric squeaky toy made by Charity Lawson using the Scallop Square die for the BigShot and a squeak toy from a pet supply store.IMG_0871IMG_0873 

Later we got dressed up in our grooviest attire for the Flower Power party.  Sadly, I missed getting my face painted by SU illustrators but I did participate in some fun games.

IMG_0876

That was only the beginning of a fun weekend.  Here is one of the swaps I created to trade with folks over the course of the weekend.  The flower is made using the Flower Fusion sizzlit that in one tiny little die cuts out 3 flowers of different sizes.  I then folded up the petals and stacked them using glue dots.  It really does pop off the page, which I thought was fun and cool.  I think you could step it up a notch even more by adding a pearl or rhinestone to the center of the flower.  I would have done it but I ran out of time.  But still, i like how it turned out and folks seemed to as well. Flower Fusion Swap Card

I have to say, I love all the cards I got swapped and will be showcasing come of my favorites in a future post so you can see these great ideas too.  More photos and swaps to come!  Until then… Happy Stamping!

Convention 2010 Thank You swap card:
Stamps: Because I Care (hostess set)
Inks:  Concord Crush classic ink
Paper:  Basic Black CS, Whisper White CS, Pear Pizzazz CS, Concord Crush CS, Play Date DSP
Accessories:  Polka Dot Impression Folder, Flower Fusion sizzlit, Little Leaves sizzlit, glue dots.

comments: 2 » tags: , , , , , , , , ,

A little love with the Rough Type alphabet

May 31, 2010 under Big Shot, Cards

So, the May scrapbooking promotion was the kick in the pants I needed to commit to getting the rough type alphabet stamp set.  I loved the idea of a high quality clear mount alphabet but was initially on the fence.  Well, the incentive of free designer brads was enough for me to just go for it and boy am I glad I did! 

Sure, it takes a little bit to label all of the stamps but once you do, it is so easy and fun to make all kinds of words.  In this case, I was playing and decided to spell out Love.  It also gave me a good excuse to play with my BigShot – both with the polka dot impression folder and my heart die. 

Stamps – Rough Type alpha
Ink – Melon Mambo, Rick Razzleberry, Old Olive
Paper – Melon Mambo CS, Rich Razzleberry CS, Whisper White CS, Cottage Garden DSP
Accessories – Polka Dot Impression folder, Rich Razzleberry ribbon, small heart punch, 1″ circle punch, Heart BigShot die

comments: 0 » tags: , , , , , ,

Trying out the BigShot – a card, a box, and the matchbox

April 9, 2009 under 3D projects, Big Shot, Cards, classes, Techniques

I wanted to put up a quick post before I had to run into work.  This week has gone by so fast and has seemed so busy, but the rest of the week should be more relaxing.  On Tuesday, I was hosting a Technique Night focused on using the BigShot.  Unfortunately, that night I had some folks cancel because of illness, unexpected time conflicts, delays, and getting lost, so it ended up not happening.   One the upside, my friend Jennifer recently decided she wanted to make a baby book for her daughter but had been overwhelmed by where to get started.  So, since she had come over, I helped her figure out what she needed.  She ended up deciding to get the Stampin Up! Baby Girl simply scrappin kit, and after looking at it more closely, I can’t wait for her to get it because I think it is going to be so stinking cute.  Then last night we went to Michaels and picked out an album to go with it.  So, I’m feeling good that we got something productive done. 

 

So, since the Technique Night didn’t happen this week, I rescheduled it for next Tuesday.  I’m trying something different this time.  I created a meetup group called Portland Card Makers recently and since some of those folks were going to come, I thought I would try out a public location that most people could easily get to and find parking.  So, I ended up finding a Round Table pizza that had side sections with long tables that you could reserve for free.  It may seem odd crafting in a pizza place, but I’ve been to an event at a Fuddrucker’s so, hopefully this will work out.  I guess we’ll see!

 

Here are some samples I was playing with for the BigShot.  The first is a card using the Top Note die.  It was an interesting and different way to create a card since the inside of the card is the inside of the Top Note die.  Then, I was going to do a box/basket using the Scallop Envelope die and some ribbon.  The last thing we were going to do at the technique night was a card using texture plates and an embosslit but I’m reworking that card right now.  And then finally I thought I would share a box I made with the new Matchbox die.  It was sooo easy to make since everything is cut and scored for you.  You only need to use one piece of sticky strip or snail and its together!  Plus the die punches out the label that I stamped and put on top.  Easy peasy.

 

bs_technight_wmbs_matchbook_wm

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
comments: 6 » tags: , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Next »