PaperFections

September Calendar Page

Here's September's 6" x 6" calendar that hangs in a scrapbook page protector from my Vertical Album holder. Again, I created the calendar page myself in Excel and sized it a little differently this time. It is printed in brown ink onto the same shimmer ivory (Poison Ivory) cardstock as the background, then zig-zag machine stitched with mustard thread onto an olive mat. The background paper was created by stamping the flowers and leaves from PaperTrey Ink's Beautiful Blooms set onto shimmer ivory cardstock with Versamark and clear embossing it. Then I applied dye ink with sponge daubers, using a mustard color to resemble sunflowers. This technique is called emboss resist. Then I stamped the flower centers with StazOn Timber Brown on top of the embossed flowers. (I've been intending to get a photo for the past few days of the fields of sunflowers growing around our house that inspired this page! I'll try to get that done this weekend and post it.) I stamped a few more leaves and flowers onto the calendar and made the tab read "fall" by inking selective letters from the sentiments in the Beautiful Blooms set. It is attached with an antique brass flower... Read more →

Desk Calendar

So here's that cute desk calendar hanger I mentioned in the post below. Isn't it cool?! I thought it was when I first saw my friend, Julie Brooks, decorate hers (< click over there to see it!). You can get yours at her online store, Doodliedoo. It's called a Vertical Album and it's made of wood so you can paint and decorate it as you wish. Instead of an album or scrapbook page(s), I chose to put calendar pages in mine. It comes in 6" x 6" or 8" x 8". Julie decorated hers super cute because she was using it as a frame and applied complimentary paper to the base that matched her scrapbook page. I chose to keep mine neutral (I stained it to match my desk) since I'll be changing out the pages each month -- that way I won't be locked into a certain color scheme or patterned paper. Your page fits into a sheet protector and hangs by round ring binder clips. I punched additional holes in the tops of my sheet protectors and tied ribbon thru them that matches each of my pages. Again, that way I don't have to take anything off and... Read more →

WSC19 - 6x6 Calendar

I happened to be working on some calendar pages for a cool new desk calendar hanger I got (I'll share that a bit later today) and Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge came to the rescue for this layout! This calendar page is 6" x 6" and fits into a scrapbook page protector. I stamped PaperTrey Ink's Beautiful Blooms in rose red, pomegranate, regal rose & artichoke on a strip of shimmer ivory cardstock, to resemble poinsettias. Then I scalloped the edges using a corner rounder and matted it with a strip of scalloped black cardstock. Three poinsettias were stamped, cut out and stacked together using dimensionals. The centers of all the large poinsettias are glittered, of course! Here's a closeup for you, so you can see all the dimension: Small flowers are Versamarked onto the artichoke background layer and 'Happy Holidays' from PT's Faux Ribbon set was stamped in metallic silver ink onto the rounded tab punch. Vintage silver brads attach the tab to the calendar and also black tabs to the edges of the poinsettia strip. I made the calendar page myself in Excel, so I could print it in whatever color, font, size and onto whatever paper/cardstock I want.... Read more →

Gina K - Parts 4 & 5

SCALLOPED FLOWERS This Flower Trio had been a favorite of mine out of Gina's flower collection for a while and I was happy to finally get to color it! I stamped it in burnt umber on vanilla cardstock and colored it with a blender pen & ink pads. The shading you can achieve with a blender pen is very similar to a watercolor brush but less messy. Here's a close-up showing more detail: The 'For You' script was added to the bottom of the flower vase using celery dye ink. The focal image's corners were rounded and matted with cranberry cardstock (matched the cranberry color in the patterned paper perfectly!) and sponged with cocoa ink. The patterned paper's edges were scalloped, using a corner rounder with the corner guard taken off. Holes were punched in the scallops, using the Crop-A-Dile's small eyelet hole. Prima flowers, a threaded rust button, and Stampin' Up's beautiful moss taffeta ribbon finishes off this card. Stamps: Gina K-Flower Trio & For You Script Paper: BasicGrey Mellow, Stampin' Up Vanilla. Ink: Palette Burnt Umber, Stampin' Up Classic Celery & Cranberry. Accessories: Stampin' Up Moss Taffeta Ribbon, Rust Button, Linen Thread, Blender Pen. EK Success Corner Rounder,... Read more →

Gina K - Part 3

GLITTER HEARTS Isn't this Heart Bouquet beautiful? They'd be great for Valentine's Day or an anniversary or "just because" you love someone! I stamped them on a 4.25" square white textured cardstock base and then colored the hearts with Prismacolor pencils blended with Odorless Mineral Spirits. Tip: Why did I use the pencils to color the hearts and not watercolor them with dye ink or use a dye-based marker? Because I wanted to cover the hearts with Stickles glitter glue (for maximum sparkle!) and it will make dye ink run. Trust me, I learned this the hard way! Next, I lightly adhered my ribbon tabs to the side of the card, so I could adjust them the way I wanted (they are looped around to the inside of the card). Then I machine stitched them to the card with a squiggly black stitch. Another Tip: This particular textured cardstock is pretty light-weight, so I stitched it to a thicker card base. Without the additional cardstock thickness, the machine stitching will tear thru the lighter weight cardstock and/or the stitching will, for lack of a better term, mess up terribly! Again, trust me -- I learned this the hard way TWICE!... Read more →

Gina K - Part 2

ACETATE PUMPKINS I adore Fall's deep, rich colors and pumpkins are one of my favorite images for the season. I stamped Gina K's Pumpkin Patch on an acetate sheet and then colored on the reverse side with Copic markers. The markers dry very quickly and streaking is minimal. The acetate piece was then adhered to patterned paper with chocolate brads. I like how the paper still shows thru the pumpkins and gives them pretty swirly shading. Here's a close-up, showing more detail: Additional patterned paper was machine stitched to a chocolate card base and the edges were sponged and distressed. Gina's 'Happy Harvest' sentiment fit perfectly inside this antique copper frame, after I inked and stamped parts of it individually. Stamps: Gina K-Pumpkin Patch & Happy Harvest Paper: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, Daisy D's Brighten My Day 8x8 Pad. Ink: StazOn Timber Brown, Stampin' Up Classic Chocolate Chip, Copic Markers. Accessories: Acetate Sheet, Making Memories Chocolate Brads, Stampin' Up Copper Hodgepodge Hardware & Chocolate Wide Grosgrain Ribbon, Sewing Machine & Chocolate Thread. Be sure to keep a watch on Gina's blog or store, Stamping Freak -- she says her new Fall & Winter stamps will be released next Friday, September... Read more →

Gina K Guest Designer!

I was so honored when Gina K asked me to be a guest designer for her! Gina's one of the sweetest people I know, who is always looking for a way to give back to the community and help others thru her Stamps for a Cause. Gina designs, manufactures & ships all her stamps herself AND is a fabulous rubber stamper & instructor, to boot! Her stamps are made of deeply-etched red rubber, available in either wood-mounts or on smart cushion, to use with your acrylic blocks. You can check out her online store, Stamping Freak, to see all her designs and be sure to check back in there soon, as her Fall & Winter releases are about to hit the store! It was tons of fun to play with some of her stamps and I'll post my creations here, too. You can see my projects on Gina's newly revamped Guest Designer page, along with all the previous guest designers' work -- check it out! How adorable are these reindeer?!! They are so playful that I had to make them into a cute Christmas ornament for my girls (they are all about Rudolph, you know, so I guess these are... Read more →

Thankful

Well, the long day is almost over and the hectic busy-ness of life has settled down a bit. Amongst all my harried morning duties of getting kids fed, dressed and off to school with all the appropriate belongings and running errands, I had forgotten what day it was. It wasn't until I passed a school and then the fire/police station and saw flags at half-mast that it dawned on me and I remembered that it was September 11 . . . 911. I let out a long sigh and began to reflect on that Tuesday morning 6 years ago . . . I was going to write a long reflective story about that day and subsequent happenings, but what it all boils down to is that I'm eternally thankful for the family I have and that none of them were injured that day. We came it near it, though -- too near for comfort. My husband was supposed to be flying to the NE on business that day, but thankfully didn't. While I held my children tight tonight and gave them extra kisses, I also wondered about those children who lost parents that day 6 years ago. What they would... Read more →

Happy Birthday, Sweet Sue

About a month ago a sweet friend of mine, Sue, announced she wanted to do something different for her upcoming birthday and that was to give someone ELSE a gift -- a free Stampin' Up! stamp set of their choice AND a roll of beautiful ribbon. There was just one catch . . . you had to make and send her a card for the troops, expressing your appreciate for their hard work. How sweet is that? So she thought she'd make it fun and have a little contest and award the winner with gifts (you can read all about the details HERE). Not only is she (and those card makers) helping to lift the spirits of some of our soldiers but also being so kind as to give away some free gifts. Well, TODAY is her birthday and I'd love it if all of YOU would do something kind for Sweet Sue . . . go visit her blog and wish her a happy birthday and thank her for all the hard work she did, okay? You can also view all the cards that were entered into the contest. If you missed out on Sue's contest and would like... Read more →

Back to School

It's been a busy first two weeks of school -- so much so, that I forgot to share a picture of my girls we took that first morning! Here they are with their new backpacks on and ready to go! That new backpack is a bit big on my little Kindergartener on the right but she insisted on the bigger one like her sister's! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Read more →

WSC18 - PaperTrey Blooms

s It's time for another one of Beate's weekend sketch challenges, so join in the fun! This week, I chose PaperTrey Ink's new set, Beautiful Blooms, to use. I created a background paper on shimmer ivory cardstock using artichoke, guava, celery & cocoa dye inks (Stampin' Up!). This panel was zig-zag machine stitched to an artichoke mat with chocolate thread and secured with celery brads to the 5.25" square guava card. The guava focal flower was stamped on the same shimmer ivory cardstock and die cut with the Cuttlebug flower die-cut that matches this flower perfectly (I love that)! Then the flower was matted with a scalloped punch (SU) of artichoke cardstock and popped up on dimensionals. I free-hand machine stitched the flower's stem with chocolate thread, to match the sqiggly lines I also stitched around the outside edges of the card base. All paper edges were sponged with cocoa ink. I hope you enjoy the weekend and try out Beate's sketch and take a look at some other samples created by Lori, Jenn, Charmaine & Beate! Read more →

Wave Craze!

It seems waves are all the rage lately, so I thought I'd get out my much-neglected Creative Memories wavy Decorative 12" Trimmer and put it to some use, using today's Sketch Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers.com. ^ That's a link to the sketch, so you can try it too, and see how I changed it up a little bit. I also tried using this week's Splitcoaststampers Color Challenge of Groovy Guava & Always Artichoke but somehow along the way not much Artichoke made its way into the card . . . but this background paper reminded me of the groovy 70's, so there you go! Oh well, that's what I love about these challenges -- they give you a great starting point. So that's how the Guava card base came about. Instead of making a traditional folding card for this design, I decided to hinge it at the top with the brads & Prima flowers and cut a wave along the bottom edge, which flips up for your writing space. "Friend" from PaperTrey Ink's latest release, Beautiful Blooms, was stamped on the inside of the card with Stampin' Up's Chocolate Chip dye ink. The patterned paper is from BasicGrey's Pheobe collection... Read more →

Shower Time ~ CPS

Shower Time . . . or in this case, Birthday Time for my cousin! This is the new mini set, Shower Time that is now available from My Favorite Things. I used Card Positioning Systems' (CPS) sketch #29 for my layout. I stamped my image with Timber Brown StazOn on PaperTrey Ink's Stamper's Select white cardstock and colored her with Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol. Her pretty umbrella is paper pieced from BasicGrey's Pheobe paper. The background paper is BasicGrey's Infuse -- I trimmed along the wavy pattern and matted it with Stampin' Up's Pretty in Pink cardstock that had been sponged with chocolate chip dye ink. This large size card base (6.25" x 4.50") is also PaperTrey Ink's white cardstock (love this stuff!). Pretty pink taffeta ribbon from Stampin' Up finishes off this birthday card. Be sure to check out the September special at My Favorite Things . . . In September, if you purchase a My Favorite 48 Pencil Set, they will be automatically upgrading everyone to the My Favorite 48 PLUS at No Additional Cost, which includes this cute Shower Time stamp set!! Read more →

Happy Labor Day & New Look!

Hello everyone, I hope all my U.S. friends are having a nice holiday weekend! Looks like I probably won't finish any stamping I wanted to get done this weekend, so check back for that tomorrow. Instead, the family is spending time together and enjoying the weekend with friends. Meanwhile, check out the new blog look for fall -- I love these colors! Read more →

Got Ribbon? . . .

. . . Then you need storage! Check out my Ribbon Storage article over at Craft Critique, just posted today. While you're there, check out the PURSuE Your Art articles posted by the Staff Reporters this week . . . their artwork will knock your socks off! I'll hopefully be back a little later today to post a card with that great new mini stamp set, Shower Time, that goes on sale today at My Favorite Things, along with Kim's wonderful Favorite 48 Prismacolor Pencil special bundle that starts today too, so check it out! Read more →