Couple of cute kid projects

I always love looking through Stampin' Up!'s Idea Book and Catalog(s) over and over. I have the past 7 or 8 catalogs, and I still enjoy going back to the old one's to get ideas if I'm drawing a blank on my own. There have been two projects recently in the catalogs that I have been dying to try, and this week I finally got around to making the projects myself.

The first project is in the current catalog. It is a 3-D project - a way for you to "spice up" a photo in a frame. I just bought a frame I liked at Target, then cut my own cardstock to match the size of the frame. I had to resize my photo a little bit - but that of course is the great thing about digital photos, it is so easy to resize and print a new one! Anyway, I love how this frame turned out, especially with the adorable photo of my son playing in one of the fountains at our local botanical garden's children's park. NOTE: for the placement of the letters on this one, I just took my chances of free-handing the stamps. If you want to be sure your letters are straight though (like for the next project), you can use the Stamp-a-ma-jig.

Frame Supplies:
ABC Lower and Prehistoric Pals stamp sets
Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Garden Green, Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, and Riding Hood Red Classic Stampin' Pads
Whisper White card stock
Paper Snips
SNAIL and Stampin' Dimensionals
store bought frame

The second project was in two or three IB&C ago. It was on the page with the ABC alphabet sets, and was one of the main reasons I bought all the ABC sets. I've been wanting to make these flashcards for quite some time. My husband and I are going away in a couple of days for our 10 year anniversary (we're going to Paris and London!) and the grandparents are watching our kids. I thought the flashcards would be a great gift for them to have when we leave for our trip.

I used our 2008-2009 in-colors as my card stock and ink colors for the flashcards. I decided to only use the Pink Pirouette for the wheel color because it is such a light color and I thought it might get lost in the brightness of the other colors if I tried to mix it in with the letters. Also, I didn't use it as a card stock base, just an accent color, because, honestly, I need more Pink Pirouette card stock! :-) I'm also saving my Baja Breeze card stock because that is my favorite color and I know it is going to be retired next month (watch out for a post tomorrow about the retiring stamp sets and accessories). Anyway, once I got the hang of making these, they went relatively quickly. This is a great project to make with your kids too - especially if you have older kids who want to help make the flashcards for their younger siblings. NOTE: it is a good idea to use a darker ink color (like Chocolate Chip) on the imaging sheets of the Stamp-a-ma-jig, even if that isn't the color you are going to use on your actual project.

Flashcard supplies:
ABC Upper, ABC Lower, and ABC Images stamp sets
My ABCs Stampin' Around Wheel
Whisper White, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, and Pacific Point card stock
Tangerine Tango and Pink Pirouette textured card stock
Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, and Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pads
Kiwi Kiss 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
Stamp-a-ma-jig
1-1/4" Square Punch
1" Circle Punch
Tag Corner Punch
Crop-a-Dial
Wheel Guide
Stampin' Around Wheel Handle
SNAIL and Stampin' Dimensionals

So Shelli Father's Day Challenge

I have to day off today for the Memorial Day Weekend, and I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my day. I decided that one of the things I would work on is some things to enter in different challenges and contests hosted by Stampin' Up! and folks in my upline/sideline. I realized it had been a little while since I had participated in one of Shelli's challenges on her web site (Shelli is the co-founder and CEO of Stampin' Up! - the link to her blog is on the left). So, this month's theme is Father's Day, and I had a perfect card that I had created for my upline's monthly meeting a couple of weeks ago. The layout may look familiar to you - it is the same layout from the card on pg. 81 of our current catalog, and the one I used for my friend's baby shower invites in yesterday's blog post. Similar to the shower invites, I used Whisper White Craft ink on Close to Cocoa for the background look on the bottom portion of the card. I've also included the inside of the card for two reasons. 1) I've started decorating the inside on some of my cards, especially if my base is a dark color card stock. I figure this both adds some interest to the inside of the card as well, but also allows you to be able to write your message easier without using a white gel pen, or silver marker, etc. 2) I wanted to show you a great technique for tying your ribbon around a card front when you want to put the ribbon in the direction that would take it over the card fold (you may have to take a second to see what I mean on the card... it is along the left side of the photo below). I found this on another demo's blog (I'm really sorry -it has been a while and I don't remember who's blog I found it on), but it is so simple. All you do is take your Horizontal Slot punch and punch a hole in the part of the card fold where you want the ribbon. The thickness of the ribbon hides the "dent" in the card fold when you are just looking from the front. I thought that was a great idea!

Supplies:
All Holidays, Full of Life and Sanded stamp sets
Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pads
Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad
Close to Cocoa, Kiwi Kiss, and Whisper White card stock
Close to Cocoa textured card stock
Candy Lane Designer Series Paper
Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware (star brad)
Silver Brads
Kiwi Kiss 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
Horizontal Slot and Photo Corners punches
SNAIL, Sticky Strip and Stampin' Dimensionals

Baby Shower Invite for my college friend

A good friend of mine from college (and my sorority big sister) asked me to help her design a baby shower invitation for her sister. They know that her sister is having a little boy, but Lainey was interested in having the invitation be more of a tea party theme than overwhelming "baby" theme. Since she lives about 2 hours away from me, I sent her some images from the current catalog as some basic formatting ideas. We ended up settling on using the card on pg. 81 of the current catalog as our basic layout (and some of the color palette too). She came to visit me last Saturday and we had a blast making the invitations. I've included photos of both the original layout I had ready for her when she arrived and then the final layout we ended up going with for the invitation. The original card was made using the Parisian Breeze Specialty Designer Series Paper (which we both loved) but I wanted to come up with a way to use a similar design but not have to buy a bunch of packs of the Designer Series Paper for just one design. So, what I ended up doing was using the Bella Toile background stamp, and stamping it in Whisper White Craft ink on textured Baja Breeze card stock. The effect is pretty darn close to the one pattern in the Parisian Breeze paper (if I do say so myself) - and I think it turned out perfectly. As you can see in the original, I had planned on also using the Bella Toile stamp in Blush Blossom as a background on the main image, but we thought that was a little too busy - so Lainey suggested making the main image smaller and just having the bunny on the Whisper White card stock. (Yes, I accidentally messed up the stamped image on my example - I promise that double stamp was not anywhere on the final versions though!) We had a great time stamping all day (with a break for a great lunch) and it was a wonderful reason to get together and catch up on all that was going on in our lives.

Card Supplies (for the final version - the card on the right):
Bella Toile and Cute & Cuddly stamp sets
Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, and Whisper White card stock
Baja Breeze textured card stock
Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad
Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad
Baja Breeze 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

Now it's my little girl's turn...

You get two scrapbook pages today since I know I won't be posting tomorrow. I will be at the monthly meeting that my second level upline is hosting. It's one of the great perks of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator - there are a ton of ways to get together with fellow demonstrators and share ideas. Lisa hosts a shoebox swap: some of the folks coming to the meeting volunteer to bring a project. If you are bringing a project (like I am tomorrow night) you provide all the supplies such as ink pads, stamps, card stock (already cut to the correct dimensions) and put them all in some sort of small box. Then you will have one card that is your example card that everyone can look at to see how to put the card together. At the start, we all show our project (card or 3-d project) and describe any things that might be a little tricky. Then we pass the shoeboxes around the table. By the end of the night, you have 8 or so projects to show as examples, use as ideas for future layouts, etc. It's an awesome time to talk and share and just have fun with fellow demonstrators!



Ok... so on to tonight's scrapbook layout. I did this double layout as a project for the Scrap all Day vendor fair I did in late February and my March club meeting. As with my son's birthday page, everyone made the two 6x6 layouts and I showed the way those could either be 8-1/2x11 or 12x12 pages. I admit that I used a ton of supplies for these pages, so I don't know if I'll be able to correctly identify all of them here. I'm going to try - oh, and yes, I did use the Sale-a-Bration paper and ribbon here again (sorry)...

Supplies:
It's a Loop Thing, Big Deal Numbers, and Heard from the Heart stamp sets
Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Barely Banana, Pumpkin Pie, and Chocolate Chip card stock (some of it is textured - Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette)
Delicate Dots Designer Series Paper (SAB '09 - no longer available)
Certainly Celery Poly-Twill Ribbon (SAB '09 - no longer available)
Pink Pirouette 1-1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon
Rose Red 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon
Bashful Blue 1" Double-Stitched Ribbon
Scallop Border Punch
5-Petal Flower Punch
Summer Sun Corduroy Buttons
Flower Fusion
Filigree Brads
Rich Regals Brads
Gold Brads
Metallic Eyelets
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
Stampin' Up! Top Note bigz die
Stampin' Up! Join in the Cheer sizzlits decorative strip die
Note: I did use a different letter decorative strip die than is in our catalog - I think it was called Broadway. It is still a Sizzix die - but it is also easy to use the Bollboard die offered in the catalog.

My little boy's birthday scrapbook page

If you look down (or remember) my previous post about Sale-a-Bration, you might recognize the smaller 6x6 portion of this scrapbook page. I created this page for my February club meeting. In the club we only created the 6x6 portion of the page. I then had this set up to show them how you can take a 6x6 scrapbook page and easily turn it in to an 8-1/2x11 or 12x12 page. Just to point out exactly what I'm talking about - and since I know you can't take a tape measure to the computer screen - the Baja Breeze (blue) square portion with the main larger picture is the 6x6 layout. Then the Certainly Celery (green) portion is the 8-1/2x11 layout. This is just one way to easily start small if you are unsure about scrapbooking, and as you get more comfortable with scrapbooking, you can always go back to your inital 6x6 pages and just add a few elements to make it one of the larger sizes.

Oh - and yes, the designer series paper on this is from Sale-a-Bration this year, so unfortunately it is no longer available; and the jumbo wheel I used is retired (I actually did not do that on purpose, I realized after I made the page that the wheel was retired), but since it is National Scrapbooking Month, I wanted to put more scrapbook pages out there. You can easily use other great designer series papers and wheels with this layout.

Supplies:
Define Your Life & It's a Loop Thing Stamp Sets
Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, and Close to Cocoa Classic Stampin' Pad
Certainly Celery and Brocade Blue Craft Stampin' Pad
Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, and Whisper White card stock
Baja Breeze and Basic Gray Textured card stock
Delicate Dots Designer Series Paper ('09 SAB - no longer available)
Certainly Celery Poly-twill Ribbon ('09 SAB - no longer available)
Linen Thread
Silver Brads
Clear Buttons
Ice Square Rhinestone Brads
On Board Timeless Type
Leaves a la Carte Jumbo Wheel (retired)
Jumbo Wheel handle
Wide Oval Punch
Key Tag Punch
Ticket Corner Punch
Heat Tool
Mat Pack & Paper Piercer
Stampin' Sponges
SNAIL
Sticky Strip
Stampin' Dimensionals
Mini Glue Dots

National Scrapbook Month

I'm so excited - I managed to post two days in a row! I'll try to keep this up for most of this week, but I make no promises!!!!

Tonight I'm going to combine National Scrapbooking Month (you know, I never remember if it is "scrapbook" or "scrapbooking" month - so I go back and forth) with Mother's Day. I had created this scrapbook page for my May club meeting, but we never got around to making it. You'll see the project we did later this week and you will understand why we didn't make it to the scrapbook page! Anyway - for those of you who look over and over the catalog like I do - you may recognize the layout. I CASEd it from page 4 of the current catalog. I love this picture and thought it perfect to use - it is the four generations of "Elaine"s. My grandmother, my mom, myself and my daughter all have Elaine in our names whether it be as a first or middle name.

A couple notes about the parts of the layout... for the "mom" at the top, I used craft ink to color some of our on-board letters. I had always been hesitant to do that because of how long it took to dry; but then I discovered the joy of using our heat tool to make that drying job so much quicker! You have got to try it! You can tell when the ink is dry - there is a slight color change. Also, I don't know if you can see it in the picture (sorry it is a little dark, and I promise it is a 8-1/2" x 8-1/2" square - I just had to take the photo at a slight angle in order to avoid the camera flash in the photo - and I still got a little bit)... anyway, I don't know if you can tell in the photo, but I also stamped the Lilly of the Valley stamp behind the Whisper White scrap; on the Going Gray card stock.

Supplies (don't forget - you can always order Stampin' Up! products at any time of the day or night from my web site; link is at the top left):

Ever After stamp set
Basic Gray, Always Artichoke, and Cameo Coral Classic Stampin' Pads
Cameo Coral Craft Stampin' Pad
Cameo Coral Stampin' Write Marker
Going Gray, Baja Breeze, and Whisper White card stock
Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper
1-1/4" Square Punch
Eyelet Border Punch
On Board Lots of Letters
Baja Breeze and Basic Gray Corduroy Buttons
Fresh Favorites II Colored Buttons
Baja Breeze 1" Double-Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon
Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon
Linen Thread

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! I hope you had as wonderful a day as I did - my husband and kids spoiled me all day!

I know it has been way too long since I posted. I finally got everything done with my grad school class and my May stamp club. I'll be working this week on getting updated posts to my blog. And I'll try to make sure I am better about keeping this up to date more regularly than I have been!

So, I thought it only fitting that I post the Mother's Day card that I made for my Mom and Mother-in-Law. I had seen a number of other Stampin' Up! demos use this quilt technique with the Top Note Bigz Die for the Big Shot and thought it was finally time I try it. I love the Parisian Breeze Specialty Designer Series Paper; I'll be sorry to see it go with the new catalog, along with the Baja Breeze in-color. I'm excited to see the new in-colors - I always think I won't like them as much as I did the previous ones; but then I'll find I love one or two (or more) of the new in-colors just as much!

Here are the supplies:
All Holidays Stamp Set
Baja Breeze, Whisper White card stock
Baja Breeze Classic Stampin' Pad
Parisian Breeze Specialty Designer Series Paper
Pretties Kit
Whisper White Organza Ribbon
Big Shot
Top Note Bigz Die
1-1/4" Square Punch
SNAIL
Dimensionals