Map It Monday - Button Chateau

French Country Shabby Chic gets a taste of Sweet & Sour

What do you think a card would look like if you mixed a bright, contemporary teen-inspired designer series paper with a French country shabby chic style?  To me, that doesn't sound very appealing.  But as you can see on today's card, it sure turned out beautiful!  The polka dotted dsp is a design from the Beau Chateau dsp (current 2011-2012 IB&C), and the orange dsp is from a recently retired Sweet & Sour Specialty dsp (last year's 2010-2011 IB&C).

The flower is created by crumpling up the dsp, flattening it out & punching circles with circle punches.  The inner petals are partially punched circles.  The edges of all punched circles are distressed and sponged with Soft Suede.  A bright orange button & hemp twine decorates the center of the flower.  I also frayed the ends of the twine knot.

It's not obvious on the photo, but the bottom cs is actually More Mustard cs that had been embossing in the polka dotted embossing folder through the Big Shot.

You may notice a design on the orange dsp.  I did nothing to that piece of dsp - the paper itself has shiny embossed designs on it.

I chose a Crumb Cake card to further add to the shabby chic look of the card.  Edges of the card are also sponged with Soft Suede.  I didn't meet the photo quality challenge today - my apologies for the blurriness.

Notice the beautiful fabric in the background?  The fabric is Stampin' Up's "Spice Cake" designer fabric from the current 2011 Holiday Mini Catty.  Beautiful cannot even begin to describe this fabric!  I've been having fun cutting, tearing & fraying this fabric into strips and faux ribbon to use on greeting cards.  It's a fun change of pace from ribbon.  If you'd like to order this fabric or the similar Christmas themed fabric in the same catalog, send me an email.

The map layout for this card:

Happy Monday!

Linda

Guess Where I Have Been?

I just arrived home last night from the Stampin' Up! Regional Convention in Louisville, Kentucky!  I'll be catching up on some things at home for a couple of days, but I hope to find some time to post a few stamping ideas that inspired me from the convention!

It was a fun filled trip with fellow Stampin' Up demonstrators.  We packed in lots of inspiration, new stamping and technique ideas, fun project ideas, laughs, chats, inspiration, and, of course, we stamped!  I now have countless ideas spinning in my head of stamping and papercrafting projects to blog about for quite a while!

Do you know what that means?  I also have countless project ideas to offer you at my stamping events!

Linda

Tuesday Tips - Cutting Tools

Hi stampers!

When you have paper punches and cutting dies for the Big Shot diecutting machine, a trio like this one is created with ease.  Isn't the little mummy treat box adorable?  All of these projects are 3 of the 6 projects that the ladies made at last week's "Inspired by Autumn" stamp camp.  The spooky white card has a pop-up window created with the new Stampin' Up Peek-a-boo frame die.
When you open the peek-a-boo window on that spooky card.....

What a hoot!  Love it!

The pumpkin card is made with a Crumb Cake cs base, Pumpkin Pie cs punched with the large oval punch, and a diecut scrap becomes the stem!  The edges of the pumkin are sponged with Soft Suede classic ink to soften it a bit.  The "ribbon" is actually a cut strip of Stampin' Up's Spice Cake Designer Fabric!  The dsp is also from the same Spice Cake suite.

I hope you can join me at my November stamp camp when we will make six more lovely projects!

Linda

Map It Monday - Furry Top Note

Hi stampers,

Today I am working on swap cards for Stampin' Up!'s Regional Convention.  This is the first card I made and I think I shall ponder a few other ideas.  I thought I'd share it with you.

 

The chair is stamped in Soft Suede ink onto Very Vanilla cs before running the cs through the Big Shot machine in the Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  I also ran the embossed cs through the Big Shot one additional time on the Top Note die to cut the top note shape.

Cutting out the little pup is a bit tedious, but quick.  She is sitting on stamping dimensionals & I added Stampin' Up's new "Dazzling Details" glitter to the collar for bling.  Not sure if you can see that in my photo.  I also included a little piece of Stampin' Up's new velvet Very Vanilla ribbon under the Poppy Parade oval.  {It is furry like the pup.}  :)

A map you can use if you like this card and want to make a similar one, is this:

Back to the drawing board.......  have a great Autumn day!

Linda

Fast Friday - A Quick Tour of a Party

Have you noticed that my blog has been stagnant for a little over a week?  I spent weeks preparing for an 80th birthday brunch for my dear mother and this week I've been catching up on some other tasks that had been procrastinated.   So, today I'm back!


Instead of the traditional "Fast Friday" post {a quick & easy project}, I'm showing you some of the decorations I made for the party!  Ready?  Here they come at a "fast" pace......

Dipped Pretzel Favors (fresh, not 80 year old pretzels)

Desserts !  Notice the cute diecut butterflies on the cupcakes?!?!  Thank you, Big Shot Machine!

Little tabletop signs were everywhere showing what life was like 80 years ago !

Pretty banner to welcome guests and congratulate the birthday girl !  Ooooh, notice the pom-poms hanging from the light fixture?  They were adorable !!!

 

 

Well, I hope you liked seeing just a few of my decorations.  It was so much fun creating party decorations using Stampin' Up card stock and the Big Shot dies and Big Shot Diecutting Machine !

Hope you have a happy weekend.

Linda

Whatever Wednesday - Boxer Shorts

At this evening's stamp camp, this boxer shorts card was one of the great cards we stamped!  Isn't it cute?

The Valentine Defined stamp set's clothesline of hearts stamp is the perfect width for the waistband! To soften the brightness of the waistband strip, I sponged the edges.

The "fly" is made by punching  a large oval and  then cutting it in half lengthwise.  I also sponged the edges of the "fly".  Faux stitching is done with a Stampin' Write marker.

I showed the gals at stamp camp the secret to drawing a straight "faux stitching" line.......rest the pinky side of your hand on the table while you draw short dashes down the paper, as far as is comfortable, which should be only a few inches at most.  At that time, slide the side of your hand downward on the paper & draw another inch or two of dashes.  Pretty soon, you've drawn a long row of stitches!

If you are wondering how the card itself is made, I drew a pattern for the boxers, traced it onto the wrong side of dsp, cut it out & adhered the dsp boxers onto a standard A2 card.  I then used a scissors to cut along the boxer sides & between the legs so the card itself was shaped like boxers!

Linda

Tuesday Tips - Pocket Trilogy Card

3 pockets made from A2 envelopes!

Have you begun to think about your Christmas gift list?  If you have college aged or adult children, or even teenagers, it can be a struggle to figure out exactly what the perfect gift would be.  There have been times when there is no "wish list".  Pocket Trilogy Card to the rescue!  A card with three slots for gift cards (or cash and gift cards) might be a fantastic Christmas gift for a college student or teen or "adult child"!  I know my college students absolutely love getting restaurant gift cards!  You can even pick up gift cards while at the grocery store & accumulate the benefits of your frequent shopper cards!  Have fun stamping your card, then stuff three gift cards inside!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD:

stamp set:  Pines & Poinsettias (current 2011 Holiday Mini Catalog!) 

Crumb Cake card: 7 3/4" x  5 1/2", scored along the long edge at 3 1/2"

other cs:  Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

dsp:  Holly Berry Bouquet

punches:  Scallop Circle, Eyelet Border, 1" circle

Stampin' Write markers:  Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi, Real Red

other:  Stampin' Dimensionals, paper snips or trimming scissors, paper trimmer and scoring blade (or Stampin' Up's new Simply Scored platform!), two A2 envelopes (sealed shut), pencil

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.   Mark the halfway point across the top edge of the envelopes with a pencil.

2.   Cut both envelopes in half, cutting where your pencil mark is.  You will have four little pockets.  Set one aside for another project - you will only need 3 of pockets for this project.

3.   Now, you want to trim one-quarter inch from the cut edge of one of the pockets and one-half inch from the cut edge of another pocket.  Your pockets now will each be a different height.

4.   Punch a partial 1" circle in the front along the top edge of each pocket to act as a finger pull area.

5.   Adhere all 3 pockets together with the shortest one on top & the tallest pocket at the bottom (like little stairsteps).

6.   I put adhesive onto the seamed side of each pocket & then the top does not have a seam.

7.   Cut dsp: 1" x 5" and 3 1/4" x 5".

8.   Cut from a coordinating dsp pattern: 1" x 5".

9.   Make a "finger pull" area in the 3 1/4" x 5" dsp - the easiest way to do this is to slide the dsp into the top pocket, lining up the top edges of the dsp & the pocket, then slide the 1" circle punch in & punch.  Both punched finger pull half circle areas will be aligned!

10. Adhere the dsp pieces onto the card.

11. Adhere the back of the pocket trio piece to the card interior, making sure the bottom edge of the pocket is about 1/8" higher than the bottom edge of the card front when the card is shut. Doing that will ensure the white pockets are hanging out from underneath.

12.Now decorate the card front.  I used Pines & Poinsettias, which is a lovely vintage Christmas stamp set from the current Holiday Mini Catalog 2011!

So, when the kids say they don't know what they want for a Christmas or birthday gift, make a Pocket Trilogy Card and fill it with a few gift cards!  Marvelous!

Linda

Map It Monday - Butterfly Crumb Cake

Today's card is mounted on a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card stock (postcard orientation).  The folded card opens at the left side and a decorative embossed cs strip is adhered to the left of the card fold.  The lighting and shadows played a few tricks on me today, though the only card stock colors are Pink Pirouette, Crumb Cake, and Whisper White.

Postcard Orientation Card Map

I've been working consistently with Pink Pirouette, Crumb Cake, and Whisper White, in preparation for a party.  The party decorations are turning out beautiful!  The butterfly theme and colors of the party have inspired today's card.  Perhaps I will post the pretty decorations I have been making lately very soon!

Linda

Think About Color Thursday - Island Indigo, Certainly Celery & Whisper White

"Island Indigo" is one of Stampin' Up's 2011-2013 "In Colors".  It seems to be an updated  twist on the retired "Taken with Teal" color.  This shade of blue also seems to be one of the trendy colors in the scrapbooking and papercrafting industry.  Today I give it a whirl.


The color combination of the week is:


Island Indigo
Certainly Celery
Whisper White


The Sweets for the Sweet stamp set from the 2011-2012 IB&C sure is a cute stamp set for any happy celebration.  I stamped the pinwheel sticks with Certainly Celery classic ink and used Certainly Celery ribbon across the top and bottom of the card instead of card stock.  The added texture is a nice touch.


I adhered the pinwheels with Stampin' Dimensionals to give them a lift.  Each pinwheel is hand trimmed with paper snips.  You also could punch out the pinwheels instead.

Linda

Whatever Wednesday - Bashful and Ornate Retired Blossom

The Ornate Blossom a la carte stamp from last year's IB&C is still proving to be such a versatile rubber stamp.  Here I have stamped the image twice and layered the second image with Stampin' Dimensionals.

The Bashful Blue and oranges are an unlikely duo, and I like it! 

No stamp camp this week, but I'll be ready to go next Wednesday evening, so register now if you haven't done so!

Linda