[Retired] Layers of love

This card uses the retired items A Light Heart stamp set and Petals and Paisleys designer paper. A couple of things that make this card work, I think, are the bold Purely Pomegranate with the softer colors of the card base and the designer paper. I also love the use of the stick pin for a little flare.

You can see though that this pin has a SHARP end to it. My solution for this situation if I don't have a pin cap/sleeve, is to simply put a dot of Crystal Effects on the tip. It's pretty clear in this picture, but on the card itself, you hardly notice it, whereas if I didn't do something about the tip, someone would likely poke their finger, and then they'd notice it for sure!

The picture above also shows the ribbon groove that I punched out. Stampin' Up! has a little slot punch that's perfect for this size slot, but clearly, it wouldn't reach that far in.

So, I just pencilled in a little box as a guideline, and then took my Crop-a-dile and punched consecutive circles down the box until I had a slot. Then I cleaned up my edges with my paper snips and I was ready to go! At that point I put the ribbon up through the white piece and taped on the Pomegranate piece along the long sides only so the ribbon was sandwiched between them but was still adjustable for when the whole card was assembled.

Stamp club card and candle

These were the projects for November's stamp camp. I can tell I'm REALLY far behind because I've had our DECEMBER stamp camp since the last time I posted! I'll just have to do my best to post those soon.

The candle we altered started out as a plain vanilla pillar candle. We progressively layered paper, wrapping it around the candle and securing it with red sticky tape. The branch and flowers were stamped and the flowers and leaves were watercolored using ink from ink pads. It was then colored and attached with Crystal Effects. The ribbon is held in place by the brads that were pushed through it after poking a starter hole with the paper piercer. When everything was where we wanted it, and how we wanted it, the flowers and leaves were dabbed with Crystal Effects.

This card is the second project for the club. It relies on texture and dimension for its impact. I think this is a great way of showcasing how a few details can give a lot more visual excitement.

The three smaller leaves are on one layer of dimensionals, while the larger leaf has a double-layer of dimensionals to make it sit just a little bit higher and stand out more. The eyelets were placed using the Crop-a-dile, and the sentiment was positioned with the aid of the Stamp-a-ma-jig.

Thanks for looking!

Scrap pumpkins

This card is made all from scrap pieces - even the pumpkins were stamped on a scrap and then cut out. I did add three of the jumbo eyelets to the piece stamped with the Sanded background. I really like how this turned out, and worked the pieces together based on colors.

Boat Catalog Case

I was looking for some inspiration last night for stamp camp, and I knew that I wanted to use the Boatloads of Love set because I wanted to use the Crop-a-dile to put ADORABLE (can you tell I'm really proud of this look) eyelet "tire" bumpers on the side of the boat like I'd done in an earlier card.

I don't think you can see their impact on this shot, but man, oh man, do the little puffs of steam really "make" the card. I also liked the added ribbon with the eyelets run through along the bottom. I hope my stampers like this!

Side note - I am so mad at myself. I went back to link to a photo of the previous card - AND I DON'T HAVE A PHOTO of it! It was adorable, too! (if I do say so myself). Humph! Moving right along...

For my card I used the Fall Flowers designer Stampin' Up paper, because I didn't want to use the red/green combo shown in the sample on p. 53 in the Idea Book & Catalog (and shown below). I will have other sentiments that they can put in their "word window", but I used "friend-ship" which is available in the set. I was trying to move away from watercoloring because I wanted to showcase other techniques at stamp camp - which is what I was hoping to be inspired to create samples for - but markers just don't do coloring in like watercoloring does.

Birthday Card Box

This is for my mom's birthday. Her birthday was last week, but she got it last night at dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. She comes to my stamp camps and purchases stamping supplies, but she's still at the stage where she doesn't want to actually G I V E A W A Y the cards she makes. Having been there myself, I completely understand! So, in the meantime, I thought she might like a little can for them to live in. The photos, unfortunately don't do the colors justice the way I'd like them to, but these are better than nothing. You can click on the photos for larger versions of each.


I really worked my ribbon stash over for the handle on this project! It felt good to actually use some of it. Especially when I just keep acquiring more and will soon run out of the currently allotted ribbon storage space. The can for this project is another of the "coffee" cans that I got on clearance at Michael's earlier this summer. Now I wish I'd bought more because I love that they're pre-painted in a khaki/beige color with the red lid. They're also a matte finish so that the paper sticks really nicely to it.

The letters are quadruple mounted after being stamped and cut out. They're from the Stampin' Up set, Headline Alphabet. The letters are on a piece of Cool Carribean and that's on a thick piece of foam mounting tape. The stick-pin and beads are from an SU Pretties Kit, as is the flower piece on the back of the can.

For inside the can I made four all-purpose cards using the leftover pieces of 12x12 paper from the can. Those cards are each shown below. I still have some paper left, but I ran out of time!

The scallop edge on the card above was made using the new SU corner-rounder punch with the guard taken off. I then punched at each scallop with my 1/16" hole punch and circled the hole with my white gel pen. The ribbon is Martha Stewart ribbon.

The stick-pin on the above card is a Memory Makers pre-made pin that included the beads. Because it doesn't include an end cap like the SU Pretties, I glued the end of the pin to the card with Crystal Effects. It isn't very visible, and keeps someone from sticking their finger on it.

The card above was another excuse to try setting eyelets with my Crop-a-dile (with the copper matching the orange tones in the flowers).

And last, the card above has flowers from Best Blooms (I think that's the name) which was punched out using my Fiskar's circle punch and the mega and giga scallop punches - each punched all around with my 1/16" circle punch. The 1/2 pearls on the flower centers are from the SU Pretties kit also. The Pretties kits are amazing and really do come with tons of elements that can be mixed together or used separately to add special touches.

This last card is her birthday card for tonight. I used Pick A Petal for this card, too, stamping the solid stamp petal in Ruby Red ink and layering it over the striped designer paper. The center is punched from the flowered paper and popped up on a dimensional. The "happy birthday"s are from Stem Sayings.

Welcome to the neighborhood!

This card is for new neighbors who recently moved in across the street. I plan to bake some cookies to go along with it this weekend.

The sidewalk was added in by hand and the clouds were done with liquid applique. The eyelets are added in just because I wanted to practice with my Crop-a-dile. :)

Christmas tree helpers

For this card I wanted to try out my new stamp from Big Celebrations and thought it went well with this saying stamp from Glad Tidings. I wanted to use more contemperary colors and since Old Olive is my favorite green, I had to find something to go with it. All the coloring was done with markers and the gold highlights visible in the picture are done with a Sakura stardust glitter pen. I also used eyelets over the ornaments, mostly just because I'd gotten my new Crop-a-dile and wanted to try it out. I love it! It was a tool that's totally worth the money. I had a whole box full of eyelets in assorted finishes that I hadn't touched in a long time because the hammering method isn't a good one for me because my stamp desk has a glass table top! I also love that the Crop-a-dile is SILENT, for when I get on a stamping roll and am up in the middle of the night.