Maggie's M

I haven't been posting too much lately, but wanted to show you this beautiful (in my not very humble opinion) decorated letter for my work neighbor/friend. Every paper on this is from Stampin' Up's "Bella Rose" paper. I cut out the roses on top while I was watching tv, then covered them with Crystal Effects to dry overnight. The brads are Ruby Red and the ribbon was from the most recent holiday mini. Everything was adhered onto a wooden letter that I got at Michael's.

Wow, wow, wow, do I love how this turned out.

If you've stuck with me through this dry spell on my blog, thank you! Watch for blog candy soon. :)

Card copy for Christmas mojo ...

This is a card that I hoped would jump start my Christmas card stamping, and I think it may have worked! I now wish that I could put aside going to sleep.

I copied this card with just a couple of tweaks from Silke Ledlow's card with the same paper and stamps. I wanted to tie in the use of the black ink a little more, so I used the black and white gingham, and put VERY slim black mats behind a couple of the layers for some additional pop. I wouldn't be surprised if some glitter or Crystal Effects show up on here before I'm really done with it... :)

Bella Rose Gift Bag

This gift bag/box is made with the new Bella Rose designer series paper, sets Dots are Hot, To Have and to Hold, and the words on the card on front are from the set Full of Life (which I WON during Convention!), Pirouette Pink and Riding Hood Red inks and paper. Around the top of the bag that's folded over I used the new scallop punch from Stampin' Up! that will be available on the 11th. As always, you can click any photo for larger views. If you have questions about how this project was made, please leave a comment.

The bag is made with 2 sheets of 12x12 designer paper and one sheet of 12x12 white cardstock for the "lid" piece. The final box is 5" x 6" and everything is held together with sticky strip. I used two jumbo eyelets for the ribbon (Chocolate Chip 5/8" grosgrain) and the ends of the ribbon are just knotted on the inside of the bag.

The round card on the front was done with my Coluzzle template and the corner rounder punch around the red circle for more scallops which I further punched out with my 1/16" round punch for a doily effect. Some faux stitching and the words Love and Fairytale are stamped and then cut out and popped up on dimensionals.

In the picture immediately above you can see where the "lid" is partially pulled out from the bag. I stamped all over the paper before doing my scoring, folding and assembly with the Dots are Hot set. This is an alternative method to stamping tissue paper to put in with the gift (primarily because I couldn't find my tissue paper). :)

And here's the lid removed from the bag - I think it's cute even by itself! It just slides down inside the bag to hide the goodies.

Summer Color Fun

I know! I've been missing. We installed hardwood, and I've been doing a lot of design work and just haven't been able to make time to stamp -- I know, that's baaaad. But here are a couple cards I've squeezed out over several days of sneaking away to my rubber room.
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Have you ever looked at a set and thought, "I guess it's cute, but what would I DO with it?" This hostess set from Stampin' Up!'s current catalog made me think that. But then I thought about that I'd earned the set A Little Bit of Happiness, and before it retired, I should at least use it!


I love my Stampin' Up! markers and one of my favorite TV watching activities is to stamp out some images and then see where they take me. Before I started coloring, I took out my Summer Picnic designer paper to pick my colors. And these cards are two that I've managed to finish in amidst my VERY busy life that has been happening lately. I know I've been busy because this post was drafted on the 10th, and I'm just now getting to writing the text!

The "thread" on these buttons is actually made of very thin strips of paper cut on my SU! Tabletop Paper Cutter (another crafting item that I really love and consider essential). I got that tip from Spazzgirl. It looks very realistic and is easier to deal with than thread. They're tacked down on mini glue dots.

Crystal Effects with white gel pen over top after it dried gives it an extra little pop of color and shine. Easy, cheap, and fabulous.

Graduate Card w/ long horizontal piece

These cards use the set Great Grads. Most importantly, I got help from another stamper through inspiration in her stamped pieces. This was the inspiration post.

I've made some with a masculine feeling or a feminine feeling, based on the patterned paper and colors that I used. The striped and "starry" papers are from the retired Stampin' Up designer paper - Wintergreen. The flowery paper below is from the current Ginger Blossoms paper.

Masculine card #1:

Masculine card #2:

And a feminine take on the layout:

And a close-up on the various layers making up this card ...

Thanks for looking!!

Subdued Father's Day

This was just a quick card with some of my patterned papers and the father's day stamp from the set, All Holidays. I don't have much to write today, and want to get out into the nice weather, so I'll just leave it at that! Hope you're having nice weather to be in as well!

Chocolate wedding

Edited to add: this just happened to fit into Joanne's "What You Got" challenge of using 3 patterns from Berry Bliss, so I've added a link to her blog's challenge if you want to play, too!

I don't know what I think of the grooms that I've done with this set being dressed in white tuxedos ... I'll have to tackle that issue next. But in the meantime, I adore how her dress turned out!

Her dress is paper-pieced out of Berry Bliss designer paper, as are the background patterned papers. I purposely extended her dress beyond the border for a little visual interest.

Because of the tricky cuts around the flowers, I did a little pre-coloring before I glued her dress on. This is where it's VERY handy to have all the coordination of Stampin' Up products to work with. The base color of her dress is "Pretty in Pink," so with my matching marker, I colored around the flowers and down the "sides" of her dress (although it isn't shown in the picture below). The helps just in case I've trimmed a touch too much, or her dess is scooted just a little out of place, it's good back up.

Something else that I've done is to add little dots of eyes on both bride and groom. I feel like this gives them a LOT more life, especially in relation to the amount of effort that it takes. The photo below is of the stamp image as it appears in the catalog, and I just think they look a little sleepy.

Wheelbarrow Love

Another card made with Bali Breeze paper and the Set Blooming with Love. I don't looovvve this card, but it's ok. I do wish that I had not emphasized the wheel by putting that rhinestone brad in there. That's just kind of silly. But, in case YOU might have though it would be a good idea ... it isn't. Save your rhinestone brads for something more important! :)

And nope, Mom, this still isn't your mother's day card! You'll have to wait some more.

Mother's day wishes

Happy mother's day!

I was just having some watercoloring fun with this card and this set, Blooming With Love. I'm also using up some bits and pieces of my Bali Breeze Designer paper, hence the kind of patchwork pattern laid out behind the main image.

Mom, this isn't your card, instead you'll get yours when we get together. :)

I watercolored using my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an aqua painter on watercolor paper which is simply the best paper to watercolor on because you can move the color around so nicely. When it dried, I put on some Crystal Effects over the top of the pots, and added some dots with my trusty white gel pen.

The square metal piece is from the pewter finish hodgepodge hardware. the ribbon is attached behind the paper piece inside of the square with the brads you can see on top and glue dots behind.

Here's a look at the ribbon/metal piece as it is when it wasn't on the card. I sized it for the card, but didn't want to permanently attach it until the rest of the card was laid out. Shown below are some pictures of how I put it together.

First, I laid it the ribbon and the square element out as it would fit around the card front to get the sizing right. Then I marked dots through the holes where the brads would go onto the ribbon with a black pen. In the picture below, you can see it with one brad attached (top) and the ribbon pulled aside again with it's spacing dot (bottom w/ circle showing pen dot).

Here is the square embellishment from behind. It really is the back, there are just words because I had to restamp my words again to get it to show through and leave space for a couple flowers. So far only the brad is holding the ribbon on. Then I put a couple glue dots below the ribbon, to attach it to the paper.

And after that, I put the other brad through the ribbon on it's dotted mark, and put a couple more glue dots between the overlapping layers of ribbon for extra grip, especially with the satiny ribbon.

Thanks for looking! Enjoy your mother's day. :)

Egads! Grads!

I'm getting requests for graduation cards, and I need to send one out myself, so I made these up last night using the set Great Grads and Bali Breeze designer paper.

I also threw in some Purely Pomegranate and Old Olive ribbon on this first card for a more feminine feel, while I left the others below more gender-neutral. The hats are all stamped, then stamped again on a separate scrap and popped up on dimensionals for a little more interest.

Most of all, I wanted these cards to feel really FUN. I remember when I graduated high school and college, I felt such a sense of relief to be getting on to the next step of life.

Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend! I hope to get some more stamping done this weekend as well as design work that you can check out on my blog banner design site. I've put up several new designs and still have a couple more customer orders to go. If my creativity holds out, I'll wrap their orders up this weekend. :)

Card ministry cards

Can you tell I currently own only one cross stamp? :) I also have a ton of "Outlaw" designer paper to go through, and I just loved how that paper went with the style of the cross. These are a collage of the cards that I handed off to our minister's wife last week, and ones I'll hand off this week. You can click on the photo to look at a bigger image.

I really enjoyed that this project/task pushed my creativity with only limited supplies (especially with using only ONE stamp).

Finally feeling mostly "whale" again!

The coughing crud has finally passed (and so has my birthday). I don't feel any older, but I sure feel better. :) I have been so lucky to have people wanting to celebrate with me, but it seems they mostly want to EAT with me. I do love eating though, so it hasn't been too rough on me. But I'll also have to put my new tennis shoes to work to make up for it! I got fitted for new running shoes (that I'll never RUN in), and I'm excited to hit the trail by our house for some intense walking.

While I was sick, I made these two paper-pieced get well cards with the most cheery colors I could get my hands on. I made two while I had the supplies out, but you can see that the whales came out a little differently based on where they were stamped.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you're healthy as you read this! It seems like there's been so much sickness going around this winter and I'm hoping there's no more in my near future or yours.

This little piggy is resting in bed ...

Having been sick myself lately, I have get well cards on the brain. I made this card last night while watching some TV and taking it easy. I paper-pieced his bedding and bed "frame" from patterned paper, and I just love that he has good "bedding" to snuggle down into - it's so important to get comfortable to get better. :) I also like the juxtaposition of the elegant designs, with the pig. The dots on the blanket are brads that just happened to match really well. The ribbon is Stampin' Up! taffeta in moss.

EDITED TO ADD: Since KT asked (see the comments), the stamp set is a retired Stampin' Up set, Farm Fever, and the pig was colored in with Prisma Pencils and Gamsol.

Paper-pieced long notes

The color is off in these photos, but I want to share them anyway, because otherwise, I'll never get anything posted! I've been sick, and right now I can't sleep (but at least I'm not coughing), so I'll finalize this post and put it out there.

The green in this first card is River Rock (not celery like it looks). We made these cards as a stamp club project, and the girls got to choose the stamp to use from Pun Fun, and then they paper-pieced the bodies of the various animals out of Ginger Blossom designer paper.

These first two cards are mine (my sample that was prepared beforehand, and the one that I made so they could see the process).

The one below uses faux stitching with a white gel pen to tie in the stitched guava ribbon and to break up the guava cardstock so the patterned paper can really POP.

This next one is a close-up of one of my stamper's coffee cups from her card (with Crystal Effects on the liquid). I think this looks like an expensive ceramic Starbucks cup that changes with the season.

And, then -- this card is great with the cutie skunk on it, but this stamper took it a step further and embellished her envelope with flowers cut out from the Ginger Blossom paper and mounted in the corners. Such a simple step, but really impactful and lovely.

Wildly colorful Valentine card

You may be quite relieved to hear that (for a while) this is the last of the Happy Heart Day cards that I've made up. The scallop-bordered piece was done with my Nestabilities that I bought from Ellen Hutson. I feel like I finally have them figured out without pressing them deeply into the top plate of my Cuttlebug when I use them. The paper is retired SU! designer paper and the card base is Old Olive stamped in Old Olive ink on my Polka Dot background stamp. Buttons and brads are both Soft Subtles items from Stampin' Up! with the exception of the black brad which is from a Stampin' Up brad collection a while ago. And the heart has Crystal Effects on it with the layered buttons set into it before it dried.

Tonight I have my first Stamp Club meeting of the new year that I'm looking forward to. We're figuring out logistics of who is hosting in which month, and then we'll top it off with stamping a couple of cute birthday cards! I'll share those with you after the club gets together.

Then on Saturday I get to get together with my friend Jeanine to stamp while the guys play poker, and we'll do a little prep-work for our Opportunity night late Sunday afternoon. If you're in the Denver metro area and would like to attend and find out about hostess opportunities or becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, drop me an email and I can send you the details.

Have a great weekend!!

In the Pink

This is a fun, bright, cheery Valentine card. The "love" sentiment comes from the retired set, A Light Heart. I love the strong color combinations of Pretty in Pink, Purely Pomegranate, Regal Rose and Whisper White. The ribbon, I believe, is a spool from Michael's.

The stripes on the vertical piece are from a piece of designer paper, backed with a piece of Purely Pomegranate, and topped off with some faux stitching done with a white gel pen.

The heart in the O is part of the stamp, but I punched it out with my 1/2" punch, put it on a dimensional and reset it. I'm obsessed with Crystal Effects right now. I always like it, but it's just working great for all these Valentine cards. I covered the word, and the newly raised heart dot, with Crystal Effects, and I think they look good enough to eat!

You're seeing so many Valentine cards because I sell them at work, so I really try to kick up production! I hope you're not tired of them!

My heart is bigger than an elephant

Heh, heh, get it? Bigger than an elephant? Sorry, I really shouldn't write the text for my blog so late at night. I get slap-happy.

The elephant is from the Happy Heart Day set. I colored in the elephant with a Going Gray marker and you can see the lines. I may try using a blender pen to smooth out the marker lines. The heart at the end of the elephant's trunk is colored in with a marker and covered in Crystal Effects.

TIP: When coloring in something that I know I'm going to color in one color and then cut out, I simply color from the outside of one side of the image right on through the image to the other side. For the elephant I then went back in and colored in the toe nails with my white gel pen.

This card features retired Stampin' Up! designer paper. I cut the heart out by lightly folding a square of the designer paper in half and eyeballing/cutting out a heart like we used to do in elementary school. I used my Janome sewing machine to add some stitching around the top layer. The button in the upper right corner with the gingham ribbon threaded through it is hiding the start and end of my stitching.

TIP: when threading ribbon through button holes, cut the end of your ribbon at a very sharp angle and thread it through the top of the button and then back up from the back using the same end. This reduces the need to have two sharply angled cuts on both ends of the ribbon. This is only important because the cut end going through the button hole becomes very frayed, so you do waste a little ribbon, but there's no sense in losing waste from both ends of the piece. You can also do this while the ribbon is still on the roll and then tie your knot and snip off the second end. The cuts down on waste - no pun intended. :)

Edited to add comments that I've received:

Simone says:

"Use a floss threader to thread the ribbon through the button, then you only have to clip the end once. Works great for me." When I emailed her, thinking she was talking about a needle threader (I was picturing something like cross-stitch floss, not dental floss) She was nice enough to clarify, and said, "Nope...tooth flosser thingy. In the aisle of floss there are things called threaders, they are thick like fishing line and have a loop on one end and a point on the other.

Put one end of ribbon through the loop part and pull through with the flosser, then clip to make pretty. Sometimes the ribbon frays when I try to just thread it with a good point, like you do, but with the flosser I don't have to cut the pointed end at
all.

Look for them, it's like $1 for 5 or 10. I use them on all kinds of things. The needle threader is too flimsy (I broke mine) but the floss threaders are perfect."

And Melissa also commented with her solution:

"Singe the end quickly with a lighter, then it won't fray at all. The S.U. ribbons work amazingly well for this."

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out my stamps for sale in the post before this one!

Don't forget we're friends

This is another stamped image from the Happy Heart Day set. The elephant was watercolored in with Going Gray reinker and an aqua painter. Grass and flowers were colored in with markers. The dotted paper is from the Stampin' Up! Bali Breeze designer paper. Other cardstock colors are Certainly Celery, Purely Pomegranate, Regal Rose, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink and Whisper White. The flowers/hearts also have Crystal Effects for some nice shine. The ribbon is Pomegranate stitched ribbon.

Polka dot birds

This is my follow-up paper pieced card from yesterday's post. Those primas were a pretty way to use up supplies while covering up a cheesey chip smudge. Don't these birds look ready to party?!

I added some additional details to dress it up. A clear Spica glitter pen was used on the flowers, dots and party hats.

And small dots of Crystal Effects were added to the stars on the patterned paper for additional texture.

Tips on A Little Birdie Told Me

Tip One: Do not eat cheddar sunchips while stamping or you'll have to find a way to cover up your cheesey fingerprints (hence the giant Prima flower stack that you'll see on a similar card in a later post).

Tip Two: Pay attention when lining up your phrase or it makes the whole card look a little drunk.

Tip Three: attach metal embellishments with Stampin' Up! mini glue dots with great stick-a-bility. To get the dots off the waxy, non-stick paper onto your item, press your item onto the dot, the dot will pull away with your item, and you won't have to fight to get the dot off your finger.

Stamp mounting TIPS for the little birdies: Before you even mount your stamps, you may notice that the large bird and the central phrase are on the same piece of rubber and are meant to live together that way forever.

But it doesn't have to be this way. You can mount them separately! I preferred them separate from one another so that I can put the sentiment wherever I want to.

However, you need to remember to remember that you did this, rather than thinking it came that way because otherwise, you'll spend needless time scouring your work surface patting piles of scraps, looking under your desk, incriminating your dogs, only to find, when you go back and count the stamps, that there are 12 in the set, and you count 12 blocks ... Learn from my mistake, people.

Back to the actual act of stamping these birds for paper piecing. Stamp your birdies' bodies on small scraps of designer paper - and don't worry about the legs.

[said in your best monster truck rally advertising voice:]
Stamp the bodies, BODIES, BODIES, because you'll NEVER NEED THE LEGS!
Ahem. Back to stamping.

Then cut them out of your designer paper, snipping off the tops of their legs, and even their beaks! Cutting off the beaks was figured out after this picture was taken, but you can see the clean lines that resulted from this decision in the first picture in this post (from a different card front), versus the second picture.

Stamp your two whole birdie buddies on a piece of cardstock that you'll use for your central image. Add hats, umbrella, flower, whatever you'd like at this point. Since these are B-day birdies, they've got hats.

Fill in birdie body #1 with some glue - I used Stampin' Up 2-Way glue. Try to stay in the lines, but don't freak out if you don't.

Lay your birdie body cutout over your glue covered silhouette, and press it into place.

TIP! You may have some glue overlap, but that can be handled with an Adhesive Remover. This little gizmo is just under $2 and lasts for months and months. It works to remove adhesive spillage from 2-Way glue, rubber cement, glue sticks, etc. Anything but actual tape. You just let your adhesive dry and then rub the Remover over the affected area and it balls it up for removal.

TIP! This results in adhesive "boogers" being stuck on the corners, but when enough pile up, just take your scissors (but probably not your "good" scissors), and snip, snip them off! Good as new, and only marginally smaller.

Thanks for looking, and let me know if you have any questions!