Oval All Thank You

Happy Tuesday! Hope your week is off to a great start! I had a question in the comments from Nicole (Hi, Nicole!) about the Texturz plate and the Big Shot, so I thought I'd show you some pictures of how I do it. I used our Stamp Club challenge materials for March to make this card. (Although when the girls came Monday night with their challenge cards...see below...they pointed out I had not used the pink flower and white grommet thing I gave them...oops, I forgot I had given it to them...so officially they said I cheated! Doh!)


When using the Texturz plate, the first thing I do is put the score line of the card into the top line of the Texturz plate.


Next, make sure you roll it through the Big Shot with that score line/top part first. When I tried rolling it through the other direction, it slipped more.


Lastly, I was feeling good about these tips, but last night at my second stamp club gathering, it started slipping again! ugh! So while experimenting, I found it worked to make sure you flip that top black piece everytime you run it through. It was starting to get warped a little bit (like the clear cutter pads do too), so after we started flipping it each time, it worked perfectly again! Hope that helps y'all!

Okay, now for some super cute cards from some Stamp Club girls! (Quite a few cards are missing here...hmmmm, maybe I should start making them fill out a homework excuse record like my students?! hee! hee!)

Here is Beverly's card, I love, love, love everything about this card!


Here is Lori's card, in all its cuteness too! I love how she added the So Saffron patterned paper, what a sweet combination!



Here is Tracy's card, totally love the wavy border edge and the darling button in the center of the flower! Doesn't the vintage, coffee-drinking lady stamp look great on pink too?!


Okay, that's it for now! I'm off to administer the 3rd grade Math Taks test! Ack! Wish those little darlings throughout Texas good luck today! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!

Recipe
Stamps: Oval All
Cardstock: Basic Gray, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Basic Gray Patterns Hostess Level 1 Pack.
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Going Gray marker.
Accessories: Scallop Oval Punch, Oval Punch, Pretties Flower, Big Shot, Background 1 Texturz, Glue Dots, Dimensionals, Janome Sew Mini.

Laura's Sketch #19: hello!

Happy Thursday! Here's a card I started and messed with for about 30 minutes on Tuesday night and it was going nowhere so I went to bed. I messed with it about another hour last night, still didn't go anywhere I loved, but what they hey, here it is anyway! lol!

The design is based on Laura's Sketch #19 over at 2S4Y, which I love, so I may have to try again with another card. And I know, the Billboard alphabet die...AGAIN! I swear the next card, I will just say, "No!" But I did at least ink up one of my favorite new sets, Trendy Trees. It is WAY cute!

On another note...Stephanie asked me the other day how I photograph my cards. I asked advice on here a long time ago when I was thinking of buying a light box. The winter is the hardest because all the daylight is gone when I'm at work, so I have to make do. Natural light is the best. But for now, I just use some white cardstock and shine my Ott Lite and 2 cheap Ikea desk lamps onto the project.

The biggest thing that helped was reading my camera's manual...there's a special setting on there for detailed, close-up photos, like portrait mode or something. It makes the photos much crisper. Lastly, after taking the photo, I edit it in Photoshop Elements...I adjust the image size, sharpen, and adjust the lighting levels, sometimes the contrast, etc. That program can really work magic on your photos! I'm FAR from an expert, but I hope that helps a little! Here's what it looks like when I photograph right now:


Lastly, a lot of friends had been *urging*/*bugging* me to sign up for Facebook and I finally did last night. So there went a few hours! lol! If you're on, let me know so I can find you! I chatted with an old childhood friend for a long time, it was so awesome! I'm afraid I'm going to need a few more hours in my day now, though! I can see it becoming very addicting...there may not be anymore time for stamping or scrapping! lol!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!


Recipe
Stamps: Trendy Trees, Polka Dot.
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, So Saffron, Good Morning Sunshine DSP.
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss.
Accessories: Big Shot, Billboard decorative strip die, 5/8" Chocoalte Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Spiral Punch, Wide Oval Punch, Chocolate Chip Library Clip, Dimensionals, large glue dots, Sherbert retired ribbon.

Paper Rosette Tutorial

Happy Monday evening! I'm posting early for Tuesday because I've received several emails asking how to make these paper rosettes and I promised to post a tutorial last week but didn't get around to it, so sorry! So here they are again, this time as a holiday decoration or table centerpiece. I found some old bottles while going through a box of stuff recently and thought they would look really neat with holiday rosettes in them! So here we go...

First, decide how large you want your rosette to be and cut four squares to that size. For the ones in this vase, I started with 3" squares for one and 4" squares for the other. Then score the squares every 1/2".


Next, fold on the score lines to make a mounain fold. If you're using double-sided patterned paper, you want the side that you want to see the most of facing up. (Sorry for this crappy photo!)


Next, take your four mountain folded pieces and fold them in half.



Next, put sticky strip or strong adhesive in the center of each piece and close them up.


Next, put sticky strip or strong adhesive on one side of each part and adhere all four parts together.

Voila, the finished rosette!


Just an FYI, the rosette on the pillowbox below started as a 2" square.


The rosettes on the gift bags below started as 4" squares.


FYI, I'm pretty sure, like 90% sure, that I read how to do these in Matthew Mead's Halloween Book that's on newsstands now (with the magazines). He is sooo talented. He's often featured in Country Home magazine, and I have an awesome special Christmas issue that he did last year. Definitely go to his website, he has tons of resources and free Halloween templates and other downloads too!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me! I hope this helps! Thanks for your interest in these, I'm glad you liked them! If you make some, be sure and post the link here so we can check them out! Hugs and happy stamping!

Spooky Week Day 3: Top Note Treat Holder & Tutorial

Happy Tuesday! I worked late and came home and had to come up with something for Spooky Week Day 3 (because that's the stupid demand I put on myself, lol!), but I'm pooped and kicking myself right about now! lol! (And by the way, I put that black chunky glitter on the witch hat with Crystal Effects and it looked a lot better before I *impatiently* picked it up and attached it before it was dry! doh!)

Anyway, I had this idea the other day...to take the treat box holder I showed on Sunday that I had modified from Jen del Muro's great pizza box tutorial...and turn it into a box inside the Top Note Bigz Die. Doesn't it remind you of those "Lifesaver book" things you used to get for Christmas when you were a kid? Of course, I had to put another Reese's peanut butter cup inside, now I have two! Bwahaahaaa!


So here's a quick tutorial...below is the first one I made tonight and I HATE it, which is why you see another one, the Kraft one, above. But this Basic Gray one is the one I took pictures of while making it for the tutorial, so oh well, they can't all be works of art, right?! This photo shows how it looks from the side, where you can see the treat box part.


Here are your cutting and scoring instructions (click to enlarge if necessary):


After scoring, cut the little score lines on each side up to the 1" mark to make your flaps:


Instructions for running your card through the Big Shot with the Top Note Bigz Die, it comes out looking like this:


Then cut it in half on the score line:


After your treat box is all assembled and closed with treat inside, put Sticky Strip on top and bottom of box:


I used Jumbo Eyelets to run the ribbon through, and I attached the ribbon with some Sticky Strip along the back "spine" so the ribbon would always stay with the box!


Variation...on this Kraft one, I did the ribbon a little bit differently...


I attached the ribbon on the inside, so put down your Sticky Strip first:


Then attach your ribbon:


And again, after you attach the treat box inside, it looks like this when open:


Hope you like this little Top Note treat holder! I did this really quickly, so please let me know if something doesn't make sense or if I forgot something!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I appreciate it! Have you stamped something today?

LSC181 Think Snowman with Top Note

Happy Saturday! Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Thanks for all your super nice comments on yesterday's cards, I appreciate it! I received several questions about the Top Note Bigz die, so I thought I would show another one with a few more how-to pictures. (It's overcast today, so the pictures aren't great, sorry!)

I made this card for the Splitcoast Limited Supply Challenge 181, which was to make a card with a snowman. I love this little snowman from the SU Merry & Bright set from last year's Winter Mini Catalog and was so glad it made it into the big new catalog! I colored the snowman white by dipping a blender pen in the white craft ink, love that technique.

About the Top Note Bigz die, it is an exclusive SU design for the Big Shot Sizzix die-cutting machine. The size is approximately 3 3/4" x 4 3/4". It, along with the lots of other dies and the Big Shot machine, will be available for customers to purchase on September 2. Your local SU Demo can email you the brochure of available products if you're interested. If you don't have a SU Demo, email me and I'll be happy to send it to you.

To make the card, start with a basic card cut the tall way at 4 1/4" x 11" and scored at 5 1/2", like this:
Then place the card on the die so that the top edge of the card is scooted a little bit down inside the die. When it comes out, you'll cut along the perforations of the scooped in part like shown in the picture. After I took the picture, I sanded the rough edges and the top curves to smooth them out a bit. The finished card size comes out to approximately 4 1/2" x 3 3/4".

That's it, easy peasy! Let me know if you have any more questions!

Oh, here's my funny from dh today...while watching the Ebby Halliday home show this morning, it says that this featured home has "surround sound" and dh's response to me: "The only surround sound you have is me jumping back and forth yelling at you." Ain't it the truth! lol!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a super weekend!

Have you stamped something today?

Recipe
Stamps: Merry and Bright
Cardstock: Kraft, Red Riding Hood
Ink: Staz-On Brown, Craft White
Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note Bigz die, 1 3/4" Cirlce Punch, Mini Library Clip, Red Riding Hood Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Blender Pen, Dimensionals.

Ribbon Yo-Yo Gift Bag & Tutorial

Happy Friday! I've been making a lot of cards lately (I actually made 3 yesterday to actually mail out!), so I thought I would try something 3-D this morning. I loved the ribbon yo-yo we made as one of the Convention make and takes, so I thought I would try another one. The only ribbon I had wide enough was the twill tape, so I decided it needed a shabby chic look, which is so easy with the Bella Rosa paper. (I know SU calls it Bella Rose, but that's wrong, and it should be called Bella Rosa!) I loved the way it turned out, finally a *great* use for this extra-wide twill tape!

FYI, I stumbled across Marlene's great blog yesterday, and this card inspired my piecing strips. I'm bad about always making my strips straight, and I really liked the way they were overlapped crooked. Hers had stitching, which was even better, but I can't attempt to do that until I get that Janome mini sewing machine!

Okay, wanna see how to do the ribbon yo-yo? It's easy peasy.

Simple materials: wide ribbon, needle & thread (I used SU linen thread, but it won't show, so it doesn't really matter. Also, I used about 12" of twill tape and don't worry if it's wrinkled like this one, it won't show!)

Run a simple running stitch along the edge:


Start gathering it up when you get to the end:


Run the stitch from the finishing end through to the other end where you started and knot. (I usually try to tuck under the unfinished edge, but I forgot in this photo. No worries, I tucked it under later and you can't see it.)


The finished ribbon yo-yo:


Let me know if you have any questions! If you want to try the fabric version, Heather Bailey has a great tutorial here. Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!

Have you stamped something today?

Recipe
Stamps: Wow Flowers.
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Red Riding Hood, Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rosa DSP.
Ink: Red Riding Hood.
Accessories: Twill Tape, 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Glue Dots, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Crop-a-Dile, needle & thread, kraft bag from Joanns.

Bamboo Skewer Mini Album Tutorial

Happy Saturday! Hope y'all are enjoying your weekend! Here's a quick tutorial on the bamboo skewer mini album. Thank you, Sarah Jane, for reminding me to post this. I'm so bad! I had totally forgotten that I promised to show this...I must starting writing things down! Sheesh, getting old is rough!

Step 1: Score a sheet of 12x12 cardstock in half at 6". Then cut at 6" the other direction. (There is a score mark there, it's just really hard to see, sorry!)



Step 2: This is how the "pages" will look when laid upon each other. Note: you can use another sheet of 12x12 cardstock to make more pages.


Step 3: Punch a 3/16" hole (the larger one) with your Crop-a-Dile on both ends of the album.
Note: you can also use a 1/4" punch (I used the one from SU last year before I had the CAD.)


Step 4: These are the materials you need to bind the album: a bamboo skewer and some elastic hair bands.


Step 5: You will need to cut off the end of the bamboo skewer, so you can make a guide mark to show you where to cut (like shown) or I normally just put it next to the book and hold it with my finger where I need to cut.


Step 6: Using regular or heavy scissors, cut the end off at the mark.
NOTE the DANGER: the sharp, pointed ends go flying when cut, so be careful! I would not do this with children around. Even when I attempt to hold it low to the table and close to me, some still go flying!


Step 7: Take the elastic hair band, starting at the inside of the album, and pull it through the hole to the outside of the album, looping it over one end of the bamboo skewer.

Step 8: Take the other end of the elastic hair band and pull it down through the other hole (it will be a little tight and stretchy!), looping it over the other end of the bamboo skewer on the outside of the album.

Step 9: When finished, this is what the inside of the album will look like.


Step 10: This is what the outside edge of the album will look like. (Sorry for the blurry photo!)


Lastly, decorate the inside and outside pages as you wish! Here is the book I made for myself to have my students sign. I used two 12x12 sheets of cardstock (one blue and one red/white patterned paper), and I layered them every other sheet. For the student books I used one 12x12 sheet of blue, and 1/2 sheet of the red/white patterned paper. I wanted mine a little bigger so I could add more photos. If you have any questions, feel free to email me or post in the comments and I'll respond.



Thanks for stopping by! Have you stamped something today?