PaperFections

Ten Inchies = A Christmas Tree Album!

So what are Inchies, you ask? I had never heard of them when Ellen Hutson & Karen Lockhart first mentioned them to me. They are a tiny, 1-inch square canvas to create or highlight your artwork, similar to ATCs (Artist Trading Cards). You can place them on chipboard, fabric, tiles, swap them with friends . . . the possibilities are endless! At first, I thought how in the world can you do much with a 1" square?!! But then just as Debbie Olson did, I created masks by punching a 1-inch square and circle in a piece of cardstock and started by placing them over the images I thought I might like to work with. It's fun to see the same images you may have worked with before take on a whole new perspective when cropped. Be sure to click on Debbie's name above, to see her take on Inchies -- she created beautiful note cards to showcase hers! Then I started rummaging thru my craft stash (we all have those, don't we?!!) and pulling out anything that might frame or otherwise enhance a 1-inch image and tons of ideas started popping into my head! This is the first one... Read more →

Lockhart Stamp Co & Ellen Hutson LLC

What a fun week I've had . . . aside from still recovering from bronchitis/upper respiratory infection and consequently strained neck muscles from all the coughing I've been doing over the last two weeks -- ugh! A stiff neck makes it hard to do much stamping or creating but I had a blast yesterday creating something I'll share with you later this morning. (Read: I'm still finishing and photographing!). But a few weeks ago, Ellen Hutson & Karen Lockhart approached me, wondering if I'd like to join their team of multi-talented women. Well, of course! I've admired Karen's beautifully drawn rubber stamps for quite some time, since they are all line images which are perfect for coloring (my favorite thing to do as a rubber stamp artist) and they are all so elegant! You'll want to visit her website (linked above) and check out all the coloring tutorials and card samples she shares there. I've been a customer of Ellen's since she opened her online store, where she is the exclusive online retailer for Lockhart stamps and carries fabulous, innovative new products, tools & embellishments. She's usually the first to either discover and provide to you unusual products that no... Read more →

Tim Holtz . . .

. . . did you know he now has a blog? And, of course, it's quite cool, just like him. Check it out: Tim Holtz Blog. Scroll down a few posts and you'll see his studio space -- Wow, very vintage (which I love)! It's very nice to see a man's perspective on how to organize and store crafting products -- some really neat ideas! I had the privilege of meeting him about a year ago at a class I took at my local stamp store: It was the most fun I've ever had at a class and was SO informative on how he designs his products! If you ever get a chance to take one of his classes, don't pass it up! Read more →

Scalloped Note Card & Sale/Giveaways!

I've had a few inquiries as to how I made THIS card with the Spellbinders Nestabilities Scalloped Circle. This is how you place your die on the folded cardstock: Oops, sorry -- I should have outlined that photo or used colored cardstock . . . the white note card is blending into my blog background here! Just imagine the white below the die is a piece of folded cardstock, okay? LOL! The photo above is what the die looks like when it's facing up on my cutting plate when it goes thru my Cuttlebug (I cannot wait to get my new Wizard machine next month!). This is what the back side looks like: Basically, you don't want all of the top fold to be cut -- leave some space at the top (or side) for a "hinge". I successfully cut thru two layers of thicker cover-weight (105 lb.) cardstock with my Cuttlebug machine just fine . . . with just a tiny bit of creaking & praying that my B plate wouldn't crack! If you want to play it safer, use a lighter text-weight cardstock or paper. I hope that helps . . . creating these little scalloped note cards... Read more →

Birthday Celebration!

This birthday card is a wee bit late for the recipient -- I hope she forgives me! I used SplitcostStampers' weekly sketch challenge for the layout and these bright & cheery glittery papers are from DCWV's Glitter Mat Stack -- aren't they fun?!! I began by stamping Lockhart Company's Cupcakes in Brilliance Graphite Black on shimmer ivory cardstock and colored them with Copic Markers. The frosting is Liquid Pearls . . . I love this dimensional paint, it's perfect for creating swirly frosting! Then, a little Creative Candy bling garnishes the tops of these cupcakes. More glitter was added in the black drawn mat by coloring it with Black Spica Glitter Pen -- wowee, you should see all the sparkle this card has in person! The main image was then cut & embossed using Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Rectangles and matted with a Scalloped Rectangle of black, then mounted with dimensionals to the card. Here's a closeup of the cupcakes -- I loved the way they turned out! Black zig-zag machine stitching accents the side vertical striped paper and black brads embellish the top horizontal squiggles. A bit of black dotted organdy ribbon finishes this card. SUPPLIES -- Stamps: Lockhart Company... Read more →

Embossing Marvy Scalloped Punches with Spellbinder Classic Nestabilities Dies

Another question I've had is from someone who has the Marvy Giga & Mega Scalloped punches and would like to compliment them by embossing the Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic (straight) shape onto the Marvy punches, until she can gradually replace her scalloped Marvy punches with Spellbinder dies. These are my findings: For Marvy's Giga Scalloped Circle, I found the 3rd largest of the Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Classic Circle Set fit best, when fully embossed. I don't know how well it shows for you in the photo below, but the very outside of the Nestabilities die embosses right up against the scallop indents of the Marvy punch. Closeup of embossing: So my best assessment for this question would be the Large Classic (straight, not scalloped) Spellbinder Nestabilities Oval and Circle sets matches best. I hope that helps, and don't forget about Ellen Hutson's online store sale starting this Friday, November 30th at 12:01am PST -- even the Nestabilites will be included in her sale! Be sure to watch Ellen's blog for some giveaways and answer yesterday's post for your chance to win a new set of Spellbinders Scalloped HEART Nestabilities -- WOW!! Read more →

Spellbinder Nestabilities Scallop Match To Marvy Punches

I've had a few questions about the Spellbinders Nestabilities Scalloped dies lately and I thought I'd share my findings. One wanted to know which sizes of Nestabilities Scalloped Circles & Ovals most closely matches the larger Marvy Scalloped Punches. In the top photo, Marvy's Giga (largest) Scalloped Oval is most closely matched with the Spellbinders 2nd to largest of the Small Scalloped Oval Nestabilities. My Nestabilities sets are housed in CD cases -- the small sets on the left and large sets on the right. The Marvy Giga Scalloped Circle Punch is most closely matched with the Spellbinders 3rd to largest of the Small Scalloped Circle Nestabilities. The Mega (next to largest) Marvy matches the next smallest size (3rd to smallest) of the Small Scalloped Circle Nestabilities. As you can see, the Spellbinders have at least 2 to 3 larger shapes than Marvy's largest punches. I hope this helps in your selection of the Spellbinder Nestabilities dies! Read more →

Microscope Slide Ornaments

This Christmas tree ornament was made with 2" x 3" microscope slides. I really like this size better than the 1" x 3" since you have more "canvas" to work with. As soon as I find a good source for these slides, I'll post it -- these were given to me by a friend (many thanks, again, Sharon B!). The stamp is Lockhart Company's Autumn Wreath and was colored with more "Christmasy" colors. Sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink's Believe set. For instructions on these ornaments, please see the tutorial I did HERE on SplitcoastStampers. These would be great projects for this weekend, to get ready for your holiday decorating! Be sure to check out the other tutorials that were posted over the last two weeks of Holiday Tutorial Blitzes HERE for lots of gift and decorating ideas! A few more samples to get your creative juices flowing: ^ Stamps by PaperTrey Ink ^ Stamps by Stampin' Up! ^ Stamps (c) Thomas Kinkade by Cornish Heritage Farms Read more →

A Dirty Challenge!

My friend and fellow SplitcoastStampers Dirty Girl Alumni, Jami, issued a challenge to current and past Design Team members and since I love a challenge (and new stamps!), I accepted! To see everyone's cards, click HERE <== that link will take you to the SplitcoastStampers' gallery where you can view all the cards! The guidelines were as follows: * Use A Winter Song from Elzybells * Required - Use the color Pretty in Pink in your card or project somehow, somewhere. * Restricted - NO patterned paper (ugh!) I had forgotten about that last requirement, so that's why I'm late with my card . . . I had to start over again from scratch this morning, using no designer paper, AFTER attending my youngest daughter's Kindergarten Thanksgiving play! THEN, my computer held the card image hostage until now -- ARGH, I'm about to drop-kick my laptop to kingdom-come! If you know Jami, you know her favorite color is PINK, so that's where the pink comes into play! So finally, here's my card: Since these images are pretty small, I decided I wanted to make a round card, so I started by cutting a scalloped round of Stardream Metallic Rose Quartz... Read more →

WSC28-Indian Corn Thanks

Another Friday and another sketch challenge from Beate. This week, I used this Lockhart Stamp Co Indian Corn image and paired it with Stampin' Up's retired sentiment set, Fancy Flexible Phrases, for a Thanksgiving card. I began by stamping the corn in Brilliance Coffee Bean on Curious Iridescent Poison Ivory cardstock and then embossed/die cut it with Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Oval. The image was colored with Copic Markers and then highlighted with Copic Atyou Spica glitter pens (gold & melon). Here's a close up of all that glitter you all know I love! Then I matted the image with a Spellbinders Nestabilities embossed cut of chocolate Scalloped Oval; all was mounted with dimensionals to the card. The card base is a Memory Box Paprika note card and the patterned papers are from Memory Box's Studio 6x6 Studio pad. This layer was distressed with Tonic's Edge Distresser and has a beautiful May Arts shimmery copper-edged chocolate ribbon tied around it (from Anna's Sassy & Sweet Crafts online store). The finishing touch are three tortoise-like Dew Drops -- aren't those delightful?! Be sure to try this sketch this weekend and check the samples from Beate, Charmaine Ikach, Jenn Balcer, Laurie Schmidlin, Lori... Read more →

Joyful Snowflake Set

I adore this Snowflake Serenade set by PaperTrey Ink -- the sentiments are such a beautiful font and snowflakes so elegant. If you missed out on getting it last month, it's back in stock -- so hurry on over to get one! I stamped the snowflakes with Brilliance Moonlight white on kraft cardstock and highlighted them with Stickles' new Baby Blue glitter. "Joy" was stamped in Brilliance Graphite Black. The kraft piece was embossed and die cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Rectangles and then the embossed edge outlined with white gel pen. The Bashful Blue mat was cut with Nestabilities Scalloped Rectangle. The black background is Stampin' Up's Textured cardstock and it was distressed with Tonic's Edge Distresser on the card on the right. The black layer on the left card was machine stitched to the PaperTrey Stamper's Select White cardstock base. Both cards were finished off with Stampin' Up's blue taffeta ribbon. I'll be back tomorrow with Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge, so come back now, you hear?!! Read more →

Exciting News!

Woo-hoo, there's some exciting news up at the Spellbinders' site . . . check it out HERE! I'm thrilled to have been asked to join this exciting company's 2008 Design Team that will consist of: Beth Pingry - Naperville, Illinois Cathy Chlebana - Chicago, Illinois Donya Schroeder - Ionia, Iowa Heidi Blankenship - Albert Lea, Minnesota Holly Craft - Lawrenceville, Georgia Jeni Caulkins - Mesa, Arizona Jennifer Ellefson - Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania Linda Duke - Tulare, California Michelle Klomp - Oak Harbor, Washington Sally Lynn MacDonald - Sandy Hook, Connecticut Sharon Harnist - Grand Prairie, Texas Wendy Weixler - Salt Lake City, Utah Big congratulations to everyone! You all know that I love my Nestabilities embossing dies this company makes, so you can definitely be assured of seeing a lot more projects with them, as well as many more products this wonderful company produces! Read more →

Spellbinders Nestabilities Pumpkin

When I saw the link on Emily's blog to these darling pumpkin placecards Joanna at Crafty Kid had made (click on Joanna's name and you can read her tutorial), I knew I had to try them with my Spellbinders Nestabilities Scalloped Ovals! The link to Emily's blog shows how she made the pumpkins into round Christmas ornaments. For my pumpkin, I used Daisy D's Brighten My Day 8x8 pad which has some rich colors that reminded me of Fall and the largest of the large set of Nestabilities Scalloped Ovals. Basically, after cutting 8 ovals (and you can do this quicker by cutting thru two layers of thinner paper-weight paper at a time), you fold them in half (with the side of paper you want showing on the inside of the fold) and glue them together. Place a loop of ribbon in the last section that you glue together. I sponged the edges of each section with cocoa ink. Then I attached a small Nestabilities Scalloped Oval cut of olive cardstock and my name (computer generated on vanilla cardstock) die cut with the Classic Oval to resemble a leaf. I have one additional tip for you when making the pumpkins... Read more →

Got Ribbon / Need Ribbon?

Jody Morrow is having another ribbon share you might not want to miss out on . . . check it out here: Confessions of a Ribbon Addict. She has that yummy wide May Arts satin ribbon, very similar to the holiday wide satin chocolate and pomegranate Stampin' Up currently has. I hope to be back soon with some new creations and that blog giveaway I promised, but have been under the weather the last few days. Read more →

12 Days of Christmas

Are you ready for the 12 days of Christmas yet? If so, then go to Terri Conrad's blog and follow the instructions there to play along. Terri is the creater of that gorgeous new paper line, Webster's Pages, that you've been hearing a buzz about. Even if you're not in the holiday spirit yet, she'll be giving away lots of goodies each day, so maybe that will get you jump-started! You can also visit Terri Conrad Designs to see more of her creations there. Good luck -- the giving begins tomorrow, November 12! Read more →