Poppies Spotlight

Materials needed:
 Pleasant Poppies stamp set (#129499)
Simply Sketched hostess set (#129672)
Marina Mist card stock 4 1/4 x 5 1/2"
White card stock
Raspberry Ripple ink
Canjun Craze marker
Old Olive marker
3/8" Satin Stitched ribbon Raspberry Ripple (#126846)
1 3/4" Circle punch (#119850)
Large Oval punch (#119855)
Stampin' Dimensionals (#104430)

1. Lay the poppy stamp upside down. Use the brush end of the Old Olive marker and the Cajun Craze marker to color the stems and flowers.

2. After finished coloring the stamp, give it a good "huff" of breath to reactivate the ink. Stamp the image on Marina Mist card stock. For a stamp this size, I recommend standing up to give good pressure as you press the stamp down. Re-ink the stamp. Stamp a second poppy image on white card stock. You can either stamp the entire image again or just the top half of the image.
3. Use the 1 3/4" circle punch to punch out a portion of the flowers from the white card stock. Place Stampin' Dimensionals on the back of the circle. Line the flowers up with the ones on the Marina Mist card stock. Press this down to show your spotlight.
4. Adhere a strip of Raspberry Ripple across the bottom section of the card, about 1 1/2" from the bottom.
5. Stamp the "birthday wishes" from the Simply Sketched set in Raspberry Ripple ink on white card stock.
6. Punch out the greeting with the large oval punch. Add dimensionals to the back and place it on the right hand side of the ribbon.
7. Adhere the card front to a card base and add a greeting on the inside of the card.

God's Art Work

It's cold in my part of the world today, in the low 30's. I know for some that's just barely cool but for me here in Central Texas, that's a lot colder than I like! It was in the low 20's last night. So anyway, I'm feeling cold so I've given you this cold card. No matter what I think of the weather, it's still part of God's creations so I'll praise Him even when I don't like the temperature.

Materials needed:
Marina Mist card stock 4 1/4 x 5 1/2"
white card stock
Zoo Review stamp set (#122197)
Trust God stamp set (#126702)
Early Espresso ink
Early Espresso marker
Island Indigo ink
Versa Mark ink pad
Stampin' Emboss Powder clear (#109130)
Heat tool (#129053)
Large Oval punch (#119855)
Stampin' Dimensionals (#104430)

1. Stamp the polar bear image with Early Espresso ink on white card stock. Rub Versa Mark ink on top of the image. Sprinkle the embossing powder on top of the ink and heat until the powder melts.

Just to show you the difference in using clear embossing powder and just to stamp it on white card stock, I've got a picture to show you.

The bear at the top is just stamped in Early Espresso ink. The bear on the bottom has been embossed. The embossed image has more shine and the ink seems to pop out better.
2. Cut the bear around the outside of the image.
3.  Stamp the saying from the Trust God stamp set in Island Indigo ink on white card stock. Punch it out using the large oval punch. Rub the edges of the punched out image across the Island Indigo ink pad. IMO, this helps it to pop better.
4. Using your Early Espresso marker, draw some lines on the Marina Mist card stock to look like ice.. Place Stampin' Dimensionals on the back of the bear image and place it on the "ice."
5. Place dimensionals on the back of the saying and place it on the top left side.
6. Adhere this to a card base and you have a card that you could send to anyone who is one of God's special works of art.

Truck Card

Hey, here's a card any man would love! I think that most men can relate to old trucks, at least, the ones that I know. I know, some like new Corvettes & Mustangs better but still, there's something about an old truck that appeals to a man.

Materials needed:

International Bazaar patterned paper (#126920) 4 1/4 x 5 1/2"
White card stock
Papaya Collage stamp set (#126612)
Countryside stamp set (#120495)
3/8" Satin Stitched Gumball Green ribbon (#126848)
Watercolor pencils (#101879)
Blender pen (#102845)
Wild Wasabi ink
StazOn Black ink

1. Stamp the frame from Papaya Collage stamp set in Wild Wasabi ink on white card stock. Cut it out around the outside lines.
2. Use a blue and a green watercolor pencil and a blender pen to color in sky and grass on the background of the inside frame.

 

3. Stamp the truck from the Countryside stamp set in StayOn Black ink on white card stock. Color the truck, apples, etc, including sky and grass with the watercolor pencils of your choice. Use the blender pen to blend the colors in. 

 

4. Cut out the around the truck, cutting close to the front and back edges of the truck image. This barely fits so you have to cut close to the front fender and the back tailgate. Place it on the stamped frame to check for fit. Trim as needed.

5. Place Stampin' Dimensionals on the back of the truck image and place it in the center of the frame. Adhere the frame to the top center of the patterned paper.

6. Cut a piece of Gumball Green ribbon about 9" long. Tie a knot in the center. Add adhesive to the back and press on to the bottom section of the patterned paper. Wrap the ends around to the back.

7. Adhere the card front to a card base and add your sentiment to the inside. This would be a great card to send to a man for most any occasion.

***SU! no longer carries the Watercolor Pencils but you can find similar sets at many craft stores. This is still one of my favorite mediums to use in coloring my images. I haven't used them as much this past year because SU! is no longer carrying them but that's not going to stop me from enjoying a fun medium. I would encourage you to try different coloring mediums to see what you like the best. Which one do I like the best? Hard to say because I like them all!

 

Birthday with a Flourish

Materials needed:
Best of Birthdays stamp set (#132929)
Elements of Style stamp set (#120045)
Old Olive card stock 4 1/4x 5 1/2"
White card stock 5 1/2 x 8 1/2"
Be of Good Cheer patterned paper (#126896)
Old Olive ink
Framelits Labels dies (#125598)
Brights collection buttons (#119747)
Regals Candy Dots (#130932)
Extra Large Oval punch (#119859)
Glue Dots (#103683)
embroidery floss

1. Build a sandwich using the Be of Good Cheer patterned paper and a medium framelits label die. Run this through your Big Shot machine.
2. Stamp your greeting from Best of Birthdays with Old Olive ink on to white card stock. Use the Extra large Oval punch to punch this out.
3. Using the flourish stamp from the Elements of Style set and Old Olive ink, stamp directly onto the Old Olive card stock. Stamp it near the top left. You might want to lay the Good Cheer label on the card stock to see correct positioning. After you determine positioning, remove the good cheer piece and stamp.
4. Place adhesive on the back of the Good Cheer label and press it in the center of the Old Olive card stock, slightly overlapping the flourish. Adhere the birthday oval in the center of the Good Cheer label.
5. Thread embroidery floss through the holes in the button. Add glue dots to the back and press it on the bottom right side of the card stock.
6. Add 3 red Candy Dots to the top right of the card stock.
7. Adhere your card front to your card base for a cute card.

I don't like to use "naked" envelopes! I love to stamp on my envelopes, etc. The envelope for this card, I used a strip of washi tape from the Seasons of Style set (#132155).

You notice the "25" that I've written on the top right corner of my envie? After I address the cards, I put the date of the birthday where the stamp will go. I keep my prepared cards for the month in a basket on an end table in my living room with a book of stamps. I arrange the envies in date order so I can see if I need to mail a card with just a glance. A few days before the birthday arrives, I place a stamp over the number and put it in the mailbox. I usually send 10-20 cards a month so this helps me stay organized.

Another Stenciled Tree card

So here is another card using the stencil for the tree background.

 

This time I used ink to stencil on the tree background. the other elements are from left over papers from other projects. Even though I am no longer a SU! Demonstrator, I still have tons of SU! products in my craft room. I love SU! I just can't afford to be a demo at this time. Anyway, when you see item numbers listed, you can assume that those are Stampin' Up! products. Many of them are from the current catalog but I do have items I will be using that are not listed in current catalogs at this time.

Materials needed:

GCD Studios paper pack  I used leftover bits and pieces from a pack that I bought at Big Lots years ago

                         1 piece 1 x 4 1/4"      2 pieces 1/4 x 4 1/4"

Ocher Vellum 2 1/2 x 4 1/4"

White card stock 5 1/2 x 8 1/2"

6 x 6 stencil from the Crafters Workshop

Subtles Candy Dots (#130933)

Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set (#128748)

Word Window punch (#119857)

Modern Label punch (#119849)

Baked Brown Sugar ink

Sponge Dauber (#102892) 

1. Fold your white card stock in half at 4 1/4." Position the stencil over the card front. You might want to tape the stencil down as it is difficult to hold it in the Baked Brown Sugar ink pad. Holding the stencil in place, daub ink directly onto the stencil and card stock. Continue until the tree is completely inked.

 

2. Place adhesive down the center of the piece of vellum. Press the vellum onto the tree about 3/4" from the bottom. Depending on the adhesive you use, you will probably be able to see the adhesive through the vellum. That is one of the draw backs for using vellum paper.

3. Adhere the 1" wide piece of patterned paper across the center of the vellum and over the adhesive that may be showing. Adhere a 1/4" piece of patterned paper to each side of the 1" strip, top and bottom. You will no longer have any adhesive showing through.

4. The gcd studio paper that I used is double sided so I flipped a piece over and punched our a Modern Label punch. This will be a perfect color match for the card and other pieces of patterned paper. Stamp a greeting from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set in Baked Brown Sugar ink. Punch it out with the Word Window punch. Adhere it to the top of the Modern Label punch. Adhere this to the center, right side of the 1" strip of patterned paper.

5. Add 3 Candy Dots to the left side of the patterned paper as shown on the card. 

I absolutely love the Candy Dots from SU! I love using brads but I don't like the brad backs to show through on the inside of the card. I often bend the brads back on the card stock before I adhere the card front to the card base. With a card like this one that is made directly on the card base, the Candy Dots work perfect for the brad look. SU! has brads available that the Candy Dots will fit on and I have used those but it is not necessary to use them. The Candy Dots work great with out the brads!

 

A Little Bird Pop up card

So you don't see the little bird until you open up the card!

On the inside you can see the little birdie's open mouth with a message inside! I think this is just too cute!

Materials needed:
Regarding Dahlias stamp set (#130327)

White card stock 5 1/2 x 8 1/2"

Birds of a Feather patterned paper (#126899) 5 1/2 x 8 3/4"

Bermuda Bay ink

Tangerine Tango marker

Wiggly eyes from your craft or dept. store

Sycamore Street 1/4" Island Indigo ribbon (#130812)

Glue dots (#103683)

Stampin' Dimensionals (#104430)

Decorative Label punch (#120907)

Sponge Dauber (#102892)

scissors

pencil

art gum eraser

Ok, so I learned the hard way that you should do all the decorative elements first, before you make the pop up element! You'll find it much easier that way.

1. Using Bermuda Bay ink, stamp the dahlia and the "hello you" greeting on white card stock. With scissors, cut out the dahlia around the outside edges of the image. Using the Decorative Label punch, line up the greeting on the inside of the punch and punch out. 

2. Fold the decorative label greeting in half. Unfold.  Rub a sponge dauber on the Bermuda Bay ink and ink the edges of the decorative label greeting. Lay aside.

3. Lay the inside of the white folded card stock up. Use the dahlia stamp and stamp portions of 3 flowers on the bottom of the inside of the card.

4. Cut a piece of ribbon about 12" long. Lay the patterned paper with the front side up. Put adhesive on the back of the ribbon. Lay it across the patterned paper about 1" from the bottom. Fold the edges around to the back of the patterned paper. Next, get the dahlia that you stamped earlier. Add dimensionals to the back of it and then place it on the front right hand side of the card.

 Fold the white card stock and the patterned paper in half. Lay the decorated front part of the card to the side.
5. Mark your folded white card stock at about 3" from the top. Draw a line 2" long in pencil. Mine is in ink so that it will show up better in the picture.

Cut on the 2" line that you drew. Use the art gum eraser to erase your pencil marks.

6. Fold from the cut line at an angle to make a triangle on the top portion. Use your bone folder to press it down for a solid fold.

Now, make a smaller angled fold to the bottom section so it will look like the picture.

Fold these back and forth a few times so that they will fold easier.
7.  With the white card stock closed with the angled folds on the outside, lay this on top of the inside of the patterned paper, lined up with the edges. Lightly draw pencil lines to show where the mouth will be.

Adhere the decorative label greeting to the inside of the drawing. Erase the pencil lines.

8. Using one finger, push these folds to the inside where you have already stamped dahlias.

  

9. Decorate your bird face. I put glue dots on the back of 2 wiggly eyes and placed on the upper part. I used my Tangerine Tango marker to make the orange mouth/beak. I did that by lightly sketching a small triangle on the top and bottom parts. When I was satisfied with those, I used the brush end of the marker to fill it in with color. The wiggly eyes do make this card a little thick. If you prefer not to have the thickness, you might want to just draw eyes on the face.

10. Place adhesive on the inside of the patterned paper on 3 sides as shown in the picture. Do NOT put adhesive on the inside folded part. It will not open right if you do.

11. Do one side at a time. Place the white card stock inside the patterned paper and carefully line up the edges. Press in place. Then, add adhesive to the other side and stick the card stock to the patterned paper.

12. You can add an additional greeting or note to the inside if you wish. There is plenty of room to write or stamp on the inside. Since I send so many birthday cards, I stamped a birthday greeting on the inside. It would be cute for many different occasions. This would be great to send to a child but adults will get a kick out of it too.

Tri-fold Popped Balloons

I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year and you've gotten a great start to 2014. I pray that it will be a wondrous year for everyone.  Here in Texas we all make sure that we eat our black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck. You get one day of good luck for each pea you eat, or at least, that's what everyone tells me. I've never been too crazy about black-eyed peas so I usually don't eat too many of them. It hasn't seemed to effect me one way or the other as far as my luck goes! I just look at Jeremiah 29:11 and know that God already has everything planned for me so I don't depend on luck! I do hope that you all have a glorious 2014!


Ok, here is a little more complicated card but I know you can do it. It is using the same pop-up technique that I used to use with my second graders. We would make 2 or 3 pop up books each year to help increase learning about different topics. So, if my second graders could do it, I know that you can too.

This is the card laying flat.

Here it is standing up. You can see the balloons "flying" in the sky.
(***I am no longer a Stampin' Up! demonstrator which means that I can use anything that I want on my blog. Previously, I could not name any brand item other than SU! in my blog. I will continue to give you the SU! item numbers when appropiate. I will also try to give you other brand info on the items that I use. It is not unusual, when I dig into my paper stash, that I will have papers that have been with me a while and I may not know where it actually came from.)

Materials needed:
Best of Birthdays stamp set (#132929)
Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set (#
Patterned Pack II patterned paper (#114325)
Other patterned paper (I think this is a Doodle Bug design that I used here.)
Coastal Cabana card stock
white card stock 5 1/2 x 8 1/2"
1/2" Circle punch (#119869)
1" Circle punch  (#119868)
Modern Label punch (#119849)
Stampin' Trimmer with scoring blade (#126889)
Rose Red marker
Primrose Petals ink
embroidery floss

1. Cut 2 pieces of patterned paper to measure 3 x 5 1/2". Cut one piece for the front of card to measure 3 1/4 x 5 1/2". Lay aside.
2. Use the trimmer with a scoring blade to score the white card stock 3" from each end. Fold on the score lines so that it opens as a tri-fold card.

3. Turn your folded white card stock so that you are working on the outside of the second fold. Measure and mark with a pencil from the top at 1", 1 1/2", 1 3/4", and 2 1/4". Cut on the first 2 measurements 1/2" into the card, cutting both folds. Cut on the 3rd & 4th measurements 1/4" into the card, cutting both folds.

4. Fold the cut tabs back and forth 2 or 3 times.

5. Using a finger, poke the folds to the inside of the card.

 The top tab fold will stick out 1/2" and the bottom one will stick out 1/4".
6. Cut 2 Coastal Cabana card stock pieces to measure 1/2" x 2". Place a small amount of adhesive on the top side of the tabs. Lay and press the Coastal Cabana card stock pieces onto the tabs.

7. Turn the patterned paper that you will use for this part onto the back side. Measure and cut out the pieces of paper to match the tabs.

Lay the paper to fit on this section of the card. Then add adhesive to it to stick to the card.
8. Cut two 1" circles and three 1/2" circles from patterned paper.Cut 5 pieces of floss 2 to 3" each for balloon strings. Add adhesive to the back of a circle. Fold the floss so that 1/4 to 1/2" of floss hangs down and stick it to the adhesive on the back of the circle. Adhere two of the 1" circles to the front (1/2") tab and 3 of the 1/2" circles to the back (1/4") tab. Allow the floss to hang loose. Using the smaller circles on the bottom tab will give it the look of being farther away.

9. Adhere the other 3" piece of patterned paper on the back of the card to cover up the cut out tab sections. Not only will this look better, I will give the tabs more strength.
10. Adhere the 3 1/4" piece of patterned paper to the front of the card, lining the right edge up with the fold. This makes your card look a little wider and more balanced. Punch two 1" circles and one 1/2" circle to use for balloons on the front of the card. If one of the balloons on the tabs is sticking out, you can place a balloon on the front overlapping the inside balloon. Do some pen work to give the balloons dimension and to make the "strings" on the balloons on the front of the card.
11. Stamp the "celebrate" greeting from Best of Birthdays stamp set with Primrose Petals ink on Coastal Cabana card stock. Punch it out with the Modern Label punch. Adhere it to the front of the card with about 1/4" overlapping the front edge.

12. Stamp a slice of birthday cake from Best of Birthdays and a greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes in Primrose Petals ink on the inside, center section of the card.
This card will fit in a standard invitation sized envelope. Have fun and let the balloons fly to wish your friends a happy birthday in the new year.