Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I Luv my mummy




Hello. I threw this card together kind of quick tonight, and thought I would share it. The stamp is from a mini clear stamp set from Studio G, from the Archiver's hot spot. The card fold is cased from Jennifer McGuire, check out her blog sometime. The scalloped ovals were made with my "one and only" Nestibilities die cut set. I heat embossed the mummy image with SU Black embossing powder, sponged the small oval edges with SU's Going Gray, which is also the color of the card base. The outer oval is SU Basic Gray, inner oval is SU Whisper White. The cobweb ribbon is from Hobby Lobby. When you open the card up, it says "Happy Halloween" under the scalloped ovals. The mini clear bling around in the scallops are from Michael's, and the white Ghost shapes are these little die-cuts that I can't remember the name of. You are supposed to pound on them with a special tool made for them, but I ran them through my cuttlebug machine the same way I would the Nestibilities die cuts. I will enclose a photo of the die cuts since I can't remember what they are called. All I know is that they looked cute, they were seriously marked down on clearance, and they called out to me to give them a home. haha. That's all for tonight. Take care, and keep stamping.


Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Card with "Fuzzy Punch Spider"

I finally put the spider from one of my previous posts onto a card. I decided to keep the card simple, and except for popping up the "fuzzy punch spider", it is a one layer card. The card base is Stampin Up's Pumpkin Pie. The ink is SU Basic Black. The spiderweb stamp and the saying stamp is from a retired SU stamp set called Web Wishes, one of my favorite sets. The little baby spiders on strings is a stamp from a mini stamp set from Studio g. One of those bargain bin clear stamp sets. Nothing else to say about it, it was pretty simple to make. Not counting the punch spider it took all of approx. 8 minutes to make. Well, that's all for today, I'm keeping this one short. Imagine that! Take care. Lisa

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Made with the Paper Crafting Fairy's goodies




Hello. Remember all of the awesome "stuff" that a friend of mine gave to me? In case you don't page down and see my previous post. Anyways, I found this heart shaped box a while back on a clearance shelf at Wal Mart. I just love those clearance shelves! I chose to decorate it in lavender and purple; big surprise there. The picture looks a little blue to me though. Anyways, I also said that I would be letting you know when I was using some of the awesome goodies that my friend gave me. The Dark purple gems on top of the lid and the butterfly ribbon on the rim of the lid are courtesy of the "Paper Crafting Fairy". Ok, the first thing that I did was to cute my designer paper of choice to fit the shapes of the box and lid, then I adhered the paper with Martha Stewart's Mod Podge (awesome, it has an application brush attached to the inside of the lid), then I let that dry..................Then I brushed the edges of the lid and base with a lavender pigment ink......let it dry.......... Next I added another layer of Mod Podge to the top of the paper, and before it was dry I added the dark purple gems that are on the lid and the butterfly ribbon to the rim of the lid. Mod Podge is sticky, so it served as my glue for these items. Next I added a layer of Mod Podge to the base as well, and added a few royal purple satin butterflies. The satin butterflies were actually from a specialty ribbon I have had around for awhile, and I just cut a few of them apart to use on my box. That pretty much sums it all up. I will list the product manufacturer's below. One thing I wanted to say for those who have never used Mod Podge, it is not absolutely necessary to put a top layer on your project, but it does give it extra protection and makes it look shiny.
Designer paper, dark purple gems, and satin butterflies - Sorry don't know
Butterfly White Ribbon - Making Memories
Until next time............... Take care Lisa

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Hit by the Papercrafting Fairy!

Hello. Wow, a friend of mine called me last week, invited me to lunch and said that she was cleaning out her paper crafting stuff, and was going to give me a FEW things. Notice I put a little bold emphasis on the word "few". Well, I feel as though the paper crafting fairy swooped down upon me, and yelled "Merry Christmas". It seems this friend is getting into quilting, and has decided to tone down her other hobby. I am reaping the benefits. I lost count on how many times that I said "wow" as I was looking through the boxes. I now have an endless supply of ribbons from many of the popular companies. I also have buttons, bling of several different kinds; such as sticky gems, glitter, and 4 of the cutest little bottles of non-sticky gems, magic mesh, some pre-cut/pre-scored shimmer card stock (I see some embossed silver and white snowflakes on those). I have micro beads, specialty papers, blank cards with window cut outs of several varieties, a paper piercing template with piercing tool and mat, a kit to emboss on metal sheets with rubber stamps (gotta educate myself on that one), some absolutely gorgeous flower stickers that will look great on cards or scrapbook pages, and loads of items to alter such as board books, wood boxes, large wooden clothes pins, wallet size photo frames (would make cute x-mas tree ornaments decorated and with photos in them). I am posting all of the photos below (hopefully), and I promised her that I would show her whatever I make with all of this, so I will be posting these projects as I get them done on my blog. I am blessed, that is all I can say. So, to Linda....I can't thank you enough, and I love you! everyone else, I will be back with something paper crafted as soon as I can. Lisa

















Oops, how did that kitty picture get in there?Kidding, she was waiting for just the right moment to pounce on my ribbon.





Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Season of Simple Grace

Hello again, I have been wanting to make a card with a stamp set out of Stamp Up's Holiday Mini Catalog, called "Season of Simple Grace". I bought it during our demo preorder period so that I would have time to put together some sample cards with it. So, tonight I sat down at my craft table, and went completely blank. Absolutely no creative juices flowing what-so-ever! How depressing, and frustrating. Then I remembered that I have always wanted to try to make a card with only two colors, black and gold. This was a more difficult challenge than I thought it would be. But I did it, I am not thrilled with what I did, but here it is anyways. I added a close up of the phrase that is on it below, because I absolutely love it. There is actually another phrase that came with the set, along with two other images, which can be seen on SU's web site. Just click on the link on the right sidebar of my blog that mentions the online catalog. I heat embossed everything with Detail Gold EP, and the only thing on the card that is not an SU product is the gold cardstock (DCWV). I was very low on my SU Gold Supply, so I chose to conserve. I may need it for my next workshop. Well, I am off to browse my favorite blogs.

Fuzzy Handmade Spider

Hello, I was just goofing around with a few paper punches, and thought that I would share the result with you. I punched a circle with one of my SU punches, darn it, I forget which size. Sorry. The legs are made of the SU small slot punch, 2 of them glued together, and I used one of the points of the small star punch to punch all around the circle to attempt to make him look fuzzy. His squiggly mouth was made with the SU white gel pen, and of course I had to add googly eyes. That about sums it up. When I figure out what I am going to do with him, I will post that. Till then, Take care. Lisa

Monday, October 20, 2008

Fall Card and Ribbon

Hello. I am running so late tonight, and can barely keep my eyes open. Well heck no wonder, it is almost 2am. I must be nuts. My silly daughter slept in today until 12:00pm, so I couldn't get her off the computer to go to bed until way past her bedtime. Thank heavens she doesn't have school on Monday. Anyways, after I got her to bed, I was checking out my favorite blogs, and lost track of time. Better late than never, I guess.

I bought a stamp from the Archiver's dollar spot a while ago, and had not used it yet, so I decided to play around with it yesterday. It is one of those acrylic stamps (which I am not particularly fond of), but have a few, because the designs were just too cute not to buy. I am sure you know how that is, right? It is made by a company called Autumn Leaves. Since it is acrylic, it would not hold onto my Stampin Up Classic ink. It wouldn't even hold onto my SU Craft Pigment ink. So, I had to trick it by first stamping it onto a Versamark Pad, then taking my little sponge daubers and dabbing the ink colors onto the places where I wanted them. Then, while the ink was still wet, I added some clear embossing powder and heat set it. It took a lot of time and patience.

After that, I decided to try out my very first Nestibilities diecut/embossing shapes. I got the large scalloped ovals (40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby), and used them in my Cuttlebug Machine. Not realizing that in order to emboss as well as cut, I needed to have some special embossing mat. Duh!!!! So, not wanting to wait, I embossed them the old fashioned way, with a stylus. Me no likey that method anymore! My Cuttlebug dry embossing folders have me extremely spoiled! So, being out of patience, I set it aside after that and didn't come back to it until Sunday evening. This is when I put it together in the form that you see above. Now, I am still not too good with bows (I need to watch a few tutorials over and over), so please do not ask me how I made that bow. I don't mean to be rude, but I am just not sure that I could repeat it, nor do I want to. That thing took me a lo..................ng time. I am thinking that I may have to frame that card in a shadow box, so nothing will ever happen to it. It took me far too long to put into the mail. Ever had one of those days? Anyways, the punched border at the bottom was made with a Fiskers border punch. The little blings in the scallops came from Michael's, along with the pretty sparkly ribbon. They had Halloween ribbon on sale dirt cheap this past week. I picked up two other colors as well, which you can see in the photo below. Isn't it gorgeous, I love fall colors, especially when they have some sparkle. Oh, I forgot to mention that the sparkle brad on the bow is from Stampin Up, along with all of the cardstock used, and both scalloped ovals are popped up with foam dimentionals. Well, I can no longer keep my eyes open, so I will sign off for tonight. Take care, and stay healthy. Lisa

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Halloween Frights


Well, I am back again. Finally. I wanted to post something that goes with the upcoming holiday, something Halloween-ish. My new word for the week. I also wanted to post something made with the Halloween stamp set "Halloween Frights" that is in the Stampin Up Mini Catalog. However, like a dingbat I did not purchase that cute wheel of the broken fence that coordinates with the stamps in "Halloween Frights". So, I hit a definite creative block. But, I also wanted to use my new scallop square punch, so I came up with the card above. It is pretty simple, and I need a smaller square punch to coordinate with that scallop square punch. Me no likey how it turned out. Anyways, The striped DSP on the left side is from the current Halloween paper pack in Stampin Up's Main Catalog, the base of the card is SU Pumkin Pie, the scalloped squares are made from SU Lovely Lilac, the stamped images are on Very Vanilla Cardstock, and the stamped images were heat embossed. One last tidbit was that I popped up the stamped images on foam dimensionals. Me likey to do that! I am going to try to attach a close up so you can see the popped up images.
Ok, thanks for visiting my blog. I will be back again sometime Sunday afternoon! Lisa

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

A little bit of Christmas


Hello. Well, I had not even one fresh idea for my post tonight. Please forgive me for that as I am having alot of sinus trouble starting last night, so my head is feeling *#*#*#*#*# tonight. Sorry, I didn't want to loose my lady-like status by saying what I really felt. Anyways, I chose a chistmas card that I made last year with Stampin Up's "Merry & Bright" stamp set. I absolutely adore that cute little snowman and reindeer. I am not too sure about that funky tree yet. Anyways, I stamped Mr. Snowman onto SU's VeryVanilla cardstock, gave him some color with SU Marker; Real Red, then mounted him onto SU's Real Red cardstock. The card base is also Very Vanilla, and stamped with the snowflake background stamp which is also from the same set, and Real Red Classic Ink. I know there is no such thing as red snowflakes, but it color coordinates, so go with it. Then I stamped the greeting from SU's Sincere Salutations in SU Basic Black classic ink. Last, I mounted Mr. Snowman to the base, added an absolutely horribly tied bow made from SU Grosgrain ribbon ( I need to view some ribbon tieing tutorials and practice). I absolutely adore ribbon, so I need to seriously work on this. My final comment is that I am so happy that this stamp set made it into the new catalog, so I can use it in my next workshop. If you love it too and want to buy it, click on the contact me link on the right side of my blog, and we will get one ordered for you. Thanks for viewing, hope you enjoyed the card. Until next time.....keep smiling and keep crafting. God Bless, Lisa

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Simple Pocket Silhouettes


Hello. Boy it feels good to be back in the land of Bloggers.com. I received my set of Stampin Up's Pocket Silhouettes stamp set, and was ready to play with it. The first thing that came to mind was what you see in the photos. Something simple, but pretty. So, I began by creating the base of the card out of SU Very Vanilla card stock, and punching the right hand side of the front of the card only with Martha Stewart's Lace Border Punch. As I have said before, I am not a Martha fan, but she sure has some cute paper punches. To create the flower pot, I punched out an SU Designer Label shape out of SU Creamy Caramel card stock, then snipped off the bottom portion. Then I colored the Stamp with Stampin Up markers, before stamping them onto the card. The flower pot was adhered with snail adhesive after stamping the flowers. Markers used were Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Lavender Lace, and Lovely Lilac. If you have any questions, just leave me a comment. Pretty quick and simple card though. I also plan to make some of these with the Stampin Up Scallop border punch when I am able to buy one. I think it would look cute either way. What do you think? Well, I hate to quickly blog and run, but I am gonna. Take care and God Bless.


Lisa

Sunday, October 12, 2008

After the Craft Sale..............


Hello. Well, have you heard that old public service announcement that states; "This is your brain on drugs". Well, I have got one similar which states; "This is my craft table after an all nighter of crafting". I got to bed only a couple of hours before dawn, so I went all day at the craft fair on 3 hours sleep and 2 cans of Pepsi. Boy have I been lazy the rest of the weekend. I decided that I am too old to stay up all night. I am thanking the Lord that I have Monday off work. Well, the craft bazaar did not go very well for anyone who had a booth there, I think that the economy is just too poor right now, especially in Ohio. People are just not spending. I can't say as I blame them, because I am one of them. I mostly gave it a try because it was for my mother-in-law's church, and it helped them out to have every booth filled. Her church is a very small one with not many members, so their income is not too good. Anyways, I thought I would post some photos of the things on my table at the craft bazaar, for you to view. I did not sell even one of those altered photo frames that was in a previous post on my blog, I also had some altered large binder clips that are great for holding a photo or a recipe in the kitchen. I sold some magnets that were made by stamping an image, gluing with clear glue to the back of a large flower clear flower pebble, and then gluing a magnet to the back, behind the stamped image. My best selling item was an acrylic post-it note holder. What an easy item to make, I think it needs no instructions, just look at the picture. I also had a couple of key chains that I could insert stamped images into, so I threw them on the table as well. Last, but not least, my 9 year old daughter made some book markers to sell, and she actually made $6.00. She was very proud of herself, "Go Amanda". So, before I go, I will upload my photos. I hope you like them. Take care, and See ya later. Lisa







Friday, October 10, 2008

Sorry, nothing creative tonight.

Hello. So sorry, but I am still working on my stuff for that craft bazaar tomorrow morning. I was under the weather at the beginning of the week, and got nothing done. So, now I am crafting like Speedy Gonzales. Remember him, he was that cute little mouse on Looney toons cartoons years ago. He was the fastest mouse in all of Mexico, and so dog gone cute too. Yep, those were the good old days. Anyways, I will have photos of all of the stuff that I made for the craft thing, and will post them on my blog on Sunday or Monday afternoon. I do have a couple of cute photos of my family pets to share though. Hopefully, you all like animals. So without further wait, here are Brandy the Miniature Dachshund, and Mittens, the cat.













Aren't they cute?

Have a great weekend! Lisa



Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I'm too tired to blog tonight!

Hello, I am just too tired to blog tonight, tune in on Tuesday evening for something new and creative........At least I hope it will be creative.... Kidding, I'm too tired to make much sense!

Lisa

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Friends are Angels

Hello everyone! A close friend of mine sent me an email today and it had a great story in it. Of course I was supposed to forward it to"X" amount of people. You all know how that goes! But, I decided that instead of doing that, I would instead share my favorite part of it with you on my blog. The last sentence in the story really caught my attention. So here it is:

"Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly"

That would be great as a rubber stamp quote. It may be one already, and I am just too much of an airhead to remember. If anyone knows if it has already been made into a stamp, and where I can get it, please, please leave me a comment and tell me where! Thanks a bunch.

OK, on to some crafting....... I am signed up to have a craft table set up at my mother-in-law's church this coming Saturday, October 11th for their annual craft bazaar. In case any of you live in Southwestern Ohio it is going to be at the Sharonville Presbyterian Church on Cornell Ave. from 9am-4pm. They are a small congregation with little money, so they appreciate all who will come. They will also be selling some homemade lunches, and I hear someone is making some awesome Chicken pot pie from scratch. So, with that said, I thought that I would share an altered item that I will offer for sale at my booth. I found this cute little photo frame, and decided it needed a creative touch. So there it is. It had this pitiful decoration in the left hand side that was just screaming for me to do something with it. So, I removed what was there, stamped an image from Stampin Up's "Embrace Life" stamp set, colored it with SU Markers, decorated the wooden frame with some Prima flowers and bling centers, then punched a blue (SU Bashful Blue) butterfly with a Martha Stewart Butterfly punch, which I doctored up a bit, then it was finished. Now , what I did with the butterfly was a little tedious, but I was pleased with the end result, so all was OK in my little creative world. After punching it out, I scored it on each side of the butterfly body, then colored the body with SU Ballet Blue, then I turned it over, took my stylus and dry embossed it, so that the front of the wings would look slightly curled. This was a tip that I got from someone on the SplitcoastStampers Website. Sorry, I forget who. Then, I took my SU Crystal Effects Clear Adhesive and put it on the body of the butterfly, and held the wings up slightly for a few minutes until the Crystal Effects became tacky. Thus, holding up the wings and giving the butterfly a 3-D effect. So it ends up being a kind of homemade 3-D embellishment. I know what you might be thinking, and yes it is very delicate, and if on a card or scrapbook page it would always have a chance of getting squished. But, I had fun making it, and it looks cute on the frame, which hopefully won't be getting squished. I also am enclosing a closeup of the flowers and Butterfly in case anyone wants to see it.
Well, I am going to be super busy every evening this week finalizing my craft projects for the bazaar this coming Saturday, so if I miss a day or two of blogging, I am apologizing right now, and ask for you to keep checking back because I will have more to show you. Thanks, and have a great Monday!








Friday, October 3, 2008

Outline Stickers on Cards?

Hello. I decided to step away from stamping for tonight's post. I did however stay with Stampin Up's Card stock. It is such a great quality card stock for card making, you just can't beat it. I got out some Gold outline stickers that I have had around for 2 years, and decided to play with them. For those of you who have never seen them, which can't be very many of you...they are a very delicate, classy looking sticker that you can do so much with. I decided to do a Fall card with my leaf stickers. Here is the card. The photo doesn't really do it justice. First I chose my colors: Creamy caramel for the base, the leaf is on Speckles Ivory, which is matted onto Close to Cocoa, then popped up onto Really Rust which is also popped up. Now for how I made the leaf look iridescent. This was so simple; all I did was put the sticker onto some Iridescent orange paper, then cut it out, which you can do easily with a pair of small paper snips. I will admit, that it takes just little bit of patience. I love cutting, so I didn't mind a bit. I took another photo of the card at a different angle, so that you could see that the paper under the leaf was orange. You know how iridescent paper looks different depending on what angle you are looking at it. Well, I know that iridescent paper is not easy to find, and I got this at the stampaway convention a couple of years ago here in the burbs of Cincinnati. Unfortunately, I can't remember what the booth's name was. I do know a couple of online stores that might have it, and they definitely have the outline stickers, in several colors. I will post a link to those stores at the end of this post. I have shopped with both of them, and they are wonderful stores. Anyways, here is that other view I mentioned earlier. Now I promised you a couple of links to online stores. Oh, one of them; Marco's paper is having an awesome sale right now, and I think they always have the best price on Nestibilities diecuts. Here they are:
Marco's Paper
Frantic Stamper

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! God Bless!

Lisa

Butterfly "Inchie" card

Hello. I have really got to find a time earlier in the evening to do these posts. What a crazy week I have had. I feel like I have had somewhere to run to everynight.........hmmmm.......maybe that is because I have been running every night. Do I get to sit and relax tomorrow night? No way baby! We are low on the basic essentials in the kitchen such as milk, and bread, so guess where I get to go on a Friday evening after dinner? Yep, a busy grocery store! Do I lead a dangerous life or what? What a partier I am! Oh well. Now that my complaint portion of this post is off my chest, let's get onto some paper crafting.

Ok, I decided to share what I think is a simple card to make. I decided to make a card with what everyone is calling "inchies". Yes, I chose the color variations of purple. I just couldn't help myself. My purple/pink spectrum pad was calling out my name. I think all of you veteran card makers know what a spectrum pad is, but if you don't, leave a comment and I will address any questions. So, I decided to work with a Stampin Up set called "Garden Whimsy". It is a set that I use a lot. I highly recommend sending me an email, and ordering a set of it for yourself! Anyways, I chose SU Orchid Opulence as my base for the card, and stamped the little ladybug stamp with Orchid Opulence on the left side to create a border. You can also achieve a very similar effect by doing this with Versamark watermark stamp pad. I think the Classic ink lasts longer than the versamark does, so I prefer the Tone-on-tone effect that you see here. Next, I stamped the big butterfly image onto the spectrum pad, and onto some white card stock. Be careful where on your sheet of card stock you do this, so that your square punches can reach the image. Then, I very carefully lined up my 1-1/4" square punch, and punched out my butterfly in four different pieces. Next I used my 1-3/8" square punch to punch out the mat pieces in SU Lovely Lilac card stock. I used a little snail adhesive to mat my images, and then some foam dimensionals to pop them up. Use your favorite greeting, and you are done. For my purposes, I chose two words from the SU stamp set "Everyday Flexible Phrases", which is also a current stamp set that I would be happy to sell to you. Well, I have had enough fun for one day, so I am going to sign off. I hope you have enjoyed today's post. Happy crafting. Lisa

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

My First Paper Crafting Post

Hello again. Tonight I actually have a card to show you, but before I begin, I happened to see something online that just screams "Stampin Workshop". Being a Stampin Up Demo, I am always on the lookout for stuff like this. Here is a link. If it for some reason doesn't work, let me know. Anyways, it is an awesome 16 oz travel mug on the LTD Commodities website. Being an all around paper crafter from scrapbooking, to card making to altered 3-d items, I am imagining hundreds of possibilities for this item.

Ok, now that I passed that info on, I feel like posting something purple! Imagine that! Yes, my favorite color is purple! However, I promise that I will create with other colors as well. Ok, that picture didn't quite load where I wanted it to, but oh well. I made this card in August right after I bought a new Cuttlebug die-cut/embossing folder duo called Gratitude (I think). I kind of borrowed the "bling inside the little flowers" idea from one of my favorite bloggers, Becca. I sure hope she doesn't mind. I will insert a close up later, so you can see the detail of the embossing. I love my cuttlebug! The cardstock is all from SU, and the saying in the middle is from a retired SU set called "Winged Things". The scallop at the bottom was made with the SU 3/16" corner rounder with the removable base taken off. The flowers were a part of the die-cut that came with the embossing folder, and the Ribbon is from a dollar bin at Michael's. I popped up everything with some dimensionals, and in order to make room for the ribbon weaving, I cut off a row of the embossed flowers, which I incorporated into another card. I will show that card as well.


Here is that detail photo that I promised. Next I wanted to show you the card made with the leftover strip of embossed flowers. I am a thrifty girl, so I hardly ever let anything go to waste. Besides, if you come up with something you like with leftovers, you will be even more proud of your creation. So, here it is. All of the Cardstock is SU except the Lavender piece under the greeting which is from DCWV 8x8 shimmer pack. I also couldn't resist trying out my new Martha Stewart border punch. I am not a Martha fan at all, but she sure sells some cute punches. I don't know if you can tell, but there is a little window on the right top corner with a die-cut flower in it. Funny thing happened to me....I seriously didn't notice that the square opening was there until I was scoring my card base. So, I decided to go with it. I don't know what you think, but I kind of liked my improvisation. Wow, that big word hurt my brain a little. The last little detail that I wanted to mention is that I popped up almost everything with some dimensionals. My other favorite thing besides the color purple is using some sort of dimensionals and popping things up. Well, I would love to keep going with another post, but I need to get to bed. It is almost 1:00am in the economically depressed state of Ohio that I live in. Hey, at least I can be cheerful about it. "A" for effort! Don't forget to check out the photo below, and I will post again tomorrow; until then..... God Bless.