Sketch Challenge 348 from Splitcoast

Here's a link to SC348.  I think it looks like a really fun sketch!  I'm hoping to get some stamping in this weekend.

An Awning Card!

Here's another card we made for our August stamp club.  It was so much fun!  It's an awning card and this technique can be used with so many different images.  I've seen dogs, shoes, purses, dresses, cocktails.  Anything you can buy in a store, really!

Stamps: Birthday Bakery

Paper: whisper white, pretty in pink, chocolate chip

Ink: chocolate chip, pretty in pink, baja breeze,

Accessories: word window punch, scallop border punch, square lattice embossing folder, Big Shot, oval punch, scallop oval punch, blender pens, 2 way glue pen, dazzling diamonds

Techniques: awning card, dry embossing, creative uses for punches, watercoloring, glitter

Butterfly Surprise!

I saw a card by Connie Tumm and I just had to copy it and teach it to my stamp club girls.  It uses the lattice die as a beautiful trellis type background on the front, and then as a little pop up mechanism on the inside.  They loved it!  I have so much fun playing with this die, it's one of my all time favorites.

Stamps: Happiest Birthday Wishes

Paper: whisper white, basic black, melon mambo, real red, daffodil delight, old olive, tempting turquoise

Ink: black stazon, real red

Accessories: lattice die, beautiful wings embosslit, dimensionals, 2 way glue pen, stamp a ma jig

Techniques: lattice die pop up card, die cutting, using embosslits

And even more fun with paper quilling!

I whipped up another one!  I'm loving this technique! 

Stamps: A Word for You

Paper: crumb cake, wild wasabi and pretty in pink print patterns

Ink: chocolate chip

Accessories: pink gingham ribbon, paper piercing tool, tombow adhesive

Techniques: paper quilling

I went to Michael's today to get a tool especially for quilling and they don't carry any quilling supplies.  I was shocked!  But I guess I'm doing pretty good with what I've got, so it all works out.  I'm going to try some animals next!

Fun with paper quilling!

After a bit of a crafting dry spell, I was really pleased to learn a fun and new paper crafting technique called "quilling".  It's evidently been around for a couple hundred of years.  I  have seen it before and thought it was beautiful but that it looked hard.  Well, guess what?  It's not!  I got my new issue of Stampin' Success magazine and they had step by step instructions.  I've completed 2 projects and I've got a couple more in the works.  I've checked out a couple of books from the library with ideas and I'm really looking forward to adding this technique to my paper crafting repertoire.  Here's my first attempt:

Stamps: Swirls & Curls Verses Paper: crumb cake, kaleidoscope dp Ink: chocolate chip Accessories: paper cutter, tombow glue, paper piercing tool Techniques: paper quilling

And here's my second attempt, this one also demonstrating the "center step" fold technqiue

Paper: apricot appeal, whisper white, apricot appeal print patterns Accessories: circle punches, paper cutter, paper piercing tool, tombow, scallop circle punch, scoring blade, Techniques: papper quilling, center step fold, 3x3

I have been challenged! By my sister!

My sister has challenged me to find alternate uses for the scallop circle punch, which was one of her first punches.  This one is going to be easy!  This is one of my favorite punches ever.

Here it is, being used as Uncle Sam's gray hair.  I made this for my sister.  We celebrated her birthday over 4th of July weekend.

The scallop circle punch can be used for many Sesame Street characters.  This is from one of my favorite stampers, Dawn Griffith.

This one is cool.  You punch a scallop circle, then stick it on a post it note and put it back in the punch.  Position it so that the middle of each scallop gets punched and you get this cool effect.  This also works well with the scallop border punch and I've also done it with scallop nesties.  This sample is from the wonderful and fabulous Mary Fish.


Thanks for the challenge, Sis!  That was fun.

A future crafter in the making!

A short video of Lydia after I taught her to sew.  We sewed every bit of fabric that we had on hand and then sewed on index cards.  Now she's sewing the index cards into little books.  She's very resourceful.

SC344

I love doing the card sketch challenges on Splitcoaststampers.com.  It's fun to copy other people's work, but I'm rarely happy with it.  It's like when you take a picture with you to the beauty shop of what you want your hair to look like.  It rarely works.  That's the beauty of a sketch challenge, it's all yours!  I'm almost always happy with what I create.  They give you the bare bones and you work your magic.  Click here for the sketch that the above card was based on. 
Supplies-

Stamps: Swirls & Curls Verses

Paper: certainly celery, pretty in pink, pretty in pink patterns, whisper white

Ink: certainly celery, pretty in pink

Accessories: sponge daubers, circle punches, scallop circle punch, beautiful wings embosslit, big shot, flower garden embossing folder, certainly celery ribbon, eyelet border punch, dimensionals, blender pen, glue dots

Techniques: using punches, sponging embossed image, dry embossing, die cutting  This technique is really easy.  Use a sponge dauber to go over only the raised areas, then go back and dab some ink on the flowers.  If you get ink somewhere you don't want it, cover with a butterfly!

He's putting a skirt on his pirate...

I just peeked in on Conner (age 4) in the bath tub and he was working really hard on getting a yellow skirt (belongs to Belle) on his pirate figure.  Should I be worried?

I dare you to challenge me!

One of my favorite things to do (when I can get away with it), is to search the web for crafting ideas. I especially love it when I can find new ways to use items that I already own. I really feel like I get a lot of bang for my buck when I can use my stuff in many different ways. An good example is the owl punch. In my last post, I used the owl punch the way it was intended to be used. As an owl. But check out this example:
Now, he's a penguin. I just clipped off his ears and turned them into arms. He looks like he's ready to party!

See if you can find him in this sample:

Find him yet? He's upside down, making up the babushka part of the this punch art Matryoshka doll.

I've also seen him turned into ghosts, bats, tulips, pigs, and reindeer. I love it!

So, I'm up for a challenge-email me the names of Stampin Up stuff that you have bought over the years and lets see if I can scour the web to come up with some new and fun ways to use it. Not just punches, anything. I really have loads of fun doing this!

Peek a boo owls

This is a great example of "one man's trash is another man's treasure". The wood grain background on this card is actually contact paper. My parents have had a huge roll of this in their basement for about 30-35 years. Now I have
it and I've got lots of cute ideas for it. It has a really strong adhesive already on it. Notice, mine is crooked. There's no pulling it off once you lay it down. I think it goes perfect with my little 2 step owl punch.


And here's a shot of the inside. It doesn't get much funnier than an owl standing on another one's head.
Supplies-

Stamps: Happiest Birthday Wishes

Paper: whisper white, bashful blue, certainly celery, close to cocoa print patterns, bashful blue print patterns, red glimmer paper, chocolate chip

Ink: chocolate chip, bashful blue, certainly celery

Accessories: 35 year old wood grain contact paper, circle punch, scallop circle punch, owl punch, dotted scallop ribbon border punch, scallop border punch, paper piercer, sponges

Techniques: peek a boo

It's been tough to lay low...

Lydia had a tonsillectomy on July 25th and we were told to lay low for 2 weeks. I never dreamed it would be so hard to lay low. Usually, I love to lay low. I'm lazy, so it comes naturally. Well, we nearly killed each other yesterday. So we went against doctor orders and went to the pool for a couple hours today. It was great. We got to hang out some friends, enjoy the refreshing water, and have a nice break from our house. She hasn't asked for pain medication since Monday, so I'm hoping we're out of the woods.

Tonight is "Back to School" night! Lydia is still young enough to be excited about school starting. I know I'm excited. She'll be in Sr. A's homeroom. It will be interesting to see how she does with a male teacher. I'm thinking it's going to be a good thing. She works so hard to impress the men in her life. The women, not so much.

Welcome to my blog!

Thanks for checking out my new blog! I'm not very good at this kind of thing, but I love showing off my crafty masterpieces! You know you want to see the crap I've made! I've got to figure out the ins and outs, but expect to see some pretty things!