JustRite Friday #098 Challenge: Make it Manly!

A fun one for JustRite's Friday Challenge -- a masculine card. My hubby had shoulder replacement surgery a week ago & I'm FINALLY finding time in my crazy caretaker schedule with the one-armed patient to craft.  He previously had both knees replaced, so this should be a piece of cake for him. I've been telling him a LOT recently, "You're my Hero!" for the grace, humor and generally positive way he handles the adversities in life. Trust me, I'd be grumpy, miserable to deal with, and simply not in a good way IF I had to deal with what he's been through. I think he's more than earned that title and think he'll enjoy waking to find this card to greet him tomorrow!

Premium Labels clear stamp set is perfect for my needs! First I chose a dark blue CS with red flecks to layer onto my white 5" x 7" card. Using Snow Cap Distress paint, I stamped the stars image from JustRite's new clear set Pattern Basics across the top. QuicKutz Stripes EF adds detail along the bottom and a striped ribbon at center.

Next I stamped the "You are the Best" image several times in Memento's Lady Bug and Danube Blue. I used Antique Labels One and Standard Circles Large #'s 2 & 3 to die cut my images before layering with foam dimensionals. Then I stamped "You Are My Hero" onto a Ribbon Banners LG die cut in red and edged it in blue, centering it over my Antique Labels One stack.

Finally, I stamped the "Guaranteed 100% Authentic" image in Stazon Blazing Red (since my preferred blue Stazon pad is dry) onto white shrink plastic, punched a 1/8" hole in the top with my Crop-a-dile and shrunk it with my heat gun. I punched a corresponding tiny hole in the bottom of my Antique Labels One tag and attached the shrinky through it with a jump ring.

I really like the end result! My day got quite crazy and I'm just now able to finally post this in the 'nick' of time! ;~)  Good news is we saw the Dr. and hubby's doing well, so that's all that matters right now!

My Sheri Crafts #096: Halloween

Our My Sheri Crafts' Challenge this week is: Halloween -- create anything your spooky little heart desires for this holiday! Several years ago I created a double-sided Halloween decor piece (here) that I was inspired to do by a piece of 6x6 Making Memories' paper. It was sooo fun that I've fashioned another using Spellbinders' Labels Twenty-three, Martha Stewart's latest Halloween mat stack and some Hobby Lobby bottle caps. For these decor pieces, the sky's the limit with the plethora of Halloween papers, dies and embellishments available.  It can be really unique and FUN -- make it 'sweet' for the younger ones or 'spooky' for the older crowd -- even personalize it, if you'd like!

I chose two different 'bird' papers to cut with my Grand Labels Twenty-three die from the MS stack and a piece of Tim Holtz grunge paper to sandwich inside, as I wanted to be sure the piece had the strength to hold up well when hanging and to support the bottle caps! I cut/embossed, sanded and distressed my paper with Black Soot ink and used a combination of Scor-Tape and Glue Dots to secure my 'sandwiched' pieces. Next I punched holes in the top/bottom and added 1/8" black eyelets, all with my beloved Crop-a-dile. From my stash I then attached different framed spooky mirrors @ center front & back. To build my double-sided 'boo', I first ran 3 bottle caps through my Grand Calibur using the cutting plate and adapter plate, which works like a 'charm' to flatten them! Again using my Crop-a-Dile, I easily punched 1/8" holes in the bottle caps. Circles die cut/emossed/sanded from the reverse side of one 'bird' scrap piece using Spellbinders' Standard Circles Large were then glue-dotted to the caps and glittered letters spelling 'boo' were added. "Eek" would work also! Tim Holtz jump rings were used to attach the bottle caps @ the bottom so they dangle/move and TH ball chain completes the hanger @ the top.

I hope you'll join us @ My Sheri Crafts this week by creating/posting your own Halloween concoction(s) to share with us!

JustRite Friday Challenge 059: Fall Festival

I've been wanting to create a banner with Spellbinders' Nested Pennants' dies, so this JustRite challenge was perfect: "think warm, rich colors for your Fall themed project -- which can be anything you choose: a card, scrapbook page, 3D/altered project or maybe even share a Fall recipe/card that utilizes your JustRite stamps! For purposes of this challenge, “Fall Festival” covers the general Fall season or any occasion/holiday within: Back-to-School, Fall sports or outings, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.  If you don’t have any Fall themed stamps for this challenge, remember you can always use our Fonts to create anything you’d like!"

Awaiting the arrival of more fonts/stamps from JR's current Super Sale, I die cut each pennant from different Halloween-patterned papers and varied my CS colors for my Lacey cuts. Then adding Frilly Velvet Ribbon (Hobby Lobby) to each pennant's top edge, I taped with 1/8" Scor-Tape, punched and set eyelets with my Crop-a-Dile II.
'Halloween' was created using JR's 95-pt. TNR Upper Case Font in the center of their “Damask” 1-Letter Borders. Because I LOVE the decorative touch these borders add, I alternated each of the three across my nine pennants! They were stamped with VersaMark Ink, heat embossed with "Halloween" EP (black EP/orange glitter) onto Vintage Cream CS (Papertrey Ink), die cut with Spellbinders' Lacey Circles and mounted with foam squares. After stringing the pennants together with black hemp twine, I tied a Bazzill bosher and fun fiber trims to each end. It's all ready for my recipient's Halloween decorating (if I can bear parting with it)?!

JustRite Friday Challenge 036: Color Challenge

JustRite's Color Challenge for this week included the "twist" to also create a handmade embellishment. Mine did just that in the making -- twisted, curled, turned & flattened out once again, as I used shrink plastic.
After Copic coloring my main floral image from JRs Plant a Little Love, I took black Stazon ink to stamp "Just Because" from Just a Note Borders & Centers on almond Shrinky Dink. I die cut it with Spellbinders' Lacey Squares, colored the flowers with Copics R29 & YG67, punched a 3/16" hole and shrunk it with my heat gun -- what a fun process!
I decided it was best to let the floral image take center stage, so simply tied red tulle through my embellishment and upper corner of my Lacey Square, added black & red layers and pop dotted it onto a 4 1/4" square note card, finishing with my 1/2" corner rounder.
Appreciate your stopping in for a peek today!!!
Stamps: JustRite's Plant a Little Love & Just a Note Borders & Centers
Inks: Memento's Tuxedo Black & Stazon Black
Papers: PTI's Vintage Cream, Pure Poppy & Black CS
Embellishments: Copics & Spica Glitter; Shrinky Dinks Plastic; tulle
Tools: Spellbinders' Wizard & Lacey Squares Dies; WeRMemory Keepers' Crop-a-Dile & Corner Rounder

PTI's Birthday Bash Challenge #6

Papertrey Ink's 3rd Anniversary bash is well under way, so stop by Nichole's blog & check out all the fun!!! For my 6th challenge card I chose Tiffany Pastor's fun birthday greetings sentiment. I wanted a masculine card so chose PTI's Ocean Tides CS and coordinating Green Tea Leaves DP, eyelets, button and twine. It's now dark here, so my photograph isn't great, but I'll upload a clearer one tomorrow.

Paper: PTI's SS White & Ocean Tides CS; Green Tea Leaves DP

Sentiment: Tiffany Pastor's Download

Tools/Accessories: PTI's Holiday Mix Vintage button; MM's Slot Tool & ribbon; Crop-a-Dile; Copic #BG000; eyelets & twine from stash

TEBBSW Challenge #12

TEBB Challenge #12 was to use more than one button as your focal point on a project. I covered this International Coffee tin my friend Marilyn so kindly brought all the way from MN (a box of them, actually) with these awesome Cosmo Cricket Wanted western-themed papers for my hubby, who is a die-hard Western fan. I made my own "button" with a Rollabind circle. I punched a cowboy from paper, fit it inside & then covered it in Ranger Glossy Accents, a really fun technique. I then added the brown & metal buttons for my focal accents. For my handle, I hole-punched the ends with my trusty Crop-a-dile to attach a folded strip of the paper that has my hubby's "motto": "there's nothin like a good western", secured with large metal brads. If you knew him, you'd know I couldn't get him to a movie theater UNLESS it was to see a Western movie! I originally intended this for his jelly beans, but none available to use in my photo, so I had to go with peanuts instead!

Congrats w/Tim Holtz Idea-ology Word Keys/Keyholes

Our son recently purchased his first home, which definitely warrants a Congratulations card from us! I was influenced by Becca Feeken to use my Spellbinders' dies & Tim Holtz Idea-ology hardware after seeing this awesome card on her fabulous blog. I don't have the new dies she revealed in this post, but they are fabulous & are high on my Wish List! Her blog is one I visit daily, as her cards in my opinion are works of art!!! The Tim Holtz line of Idea-ology products are awesome when you need a masculine touch on a card (though this one would certainly work for a lady too).
Paper: Strathmore Watercolor; The Paper Company's Espresso CS; SEI's Windsor DP
Ink: PTI's Dark Chocolate
Stamps: PTI's Father Knows Best (Compass); Fiskars Round of Applause (Sentiment)
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Words Keys, Keyholes, Swivel Clasps & Game Spinners
Tools: Spellbinders' Plain Oval Nesties, Symbology Shapeabilities, Ribbon Tag Trio & Labels One; Crop-a-Dile

Male Gift Tin Treat Holder

My friend from MN drinks General Foods International Coffees and brought me 30 empty cans to decorate, which I'm going to share with my Designing Diva's stamping group. I decided I'd better try one to see how difficult a job covering one would be. It wasn't actually too hard, but I did discover that the circumference of the tin is 12 1/4"so you will need to either splice a small piece to cover the gap or run the handle from bottom edge to bottom edge to cover the void. Either way, it's not much of a problem. I had thought these had metal lids, but they are plastic, so if you choose to use the lid as I did on this one, you'll need to cover it, as it has wording embossed on the lid. It was a bit tricky getting the tin into the Crop-a-dile II in order to punch holes for attaching my handle, but it does work. I simply added large brads to attach my handle, eyelets across the handle and Sizzix Initial for accents on this masculine tin, wanting to keep it simple! My mind is reeling as to how you could embellish these to the hilt for a girly-girl gift holder!!! ;~) Oh, I just realized this matches perfectly with the Masculine Valentine Card I made here.

Paper: Metallic/Velvet Dot Paper and blue cardstock from stash

Embellishments: Large brads & small eyelets from stash

Tools: Crop-a-Dile II; Spellbinders' Wizard

Blog Hop November, 2008

Welcome everyone! I decided to use a favorite fold of mine, a Spring card by Sandy Hulsart, found here. I used PTI's Stamper's Select White Cardstock and after folding my card, I covered the bottom & front with 2 different PTI Pink Patterns papers. Due to our unusually dark/cloudy weather, I was unable to get a decent photo, though not for lack of trying! ;~{ If you click on the photo, you can see the detail much better!!!

For my floral embellishment, I altered a felt flower from the $1 bin @ Joanns. After punching a center hole with my Crop-a-Dile, I added "veins" to it using six-strand DMC embroidery floss. For the flower center, I used sheer green ribbon, doubled it over & tied a knot at the fold. I pulled it through from the top of the flower, securing it on the back with a large pop dot. For my stem, I pulled the cotton from both ends of a Q-Tip and bent it slightly. I then wrapped the stem from top to bottom with the same sheer ribbon, securing at top & bottom with a small glue dot. I also folded a small piece & glue-dotted it to the stem for a leaf.

Papers: PTI Stamper's Select White CS; PTI Pink Patters DP

Stamp: PTI's Birds of a Feather

Embellishments: Island Blossom Dew Drops; ribbon & floss from stash

Tools: Crop-a-Dile; Scor-It

Wise Owl Card for Blog Hop. . .

For my first Papertrey Ink Blog Hop entry I made this simple Wise Owl half-window-fold card using Bazzill's scalloped cardstock and a tutorial I found here. I just love finding unusual folds/shapes for my cards on all the awesome blogs out there. I also incorporated the "innie/outie" nesting idea from Alli Miles' post here for my red circle on the front, but I actually used 3 Nesties. My card didn't turn out exactly as I'd seen it in my head, but I was a bit short on time today. I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with for this month's challenge!
Stamps: PTI's Wise Owl & Wise Owl Bellies
Paper: Bazzill & cream cardstock from stash
Ink: VersaFine's Vintage Sepia
Tools: Scor-It; Crop-a-Dile; Spellbinder's Wizard
Embellies: WeRMemoryKeepers' Large Eyelet; American Craft's Ribbon

Making Memories with Cuttlebug & Mr. Bones

Recently purchased this fun Halloween paper by Pebbles and my friend, Ilene, brought over her new Cuttlebug holiday folder and made me the white background. Sorry I don't know the name of this particular folder, but beware (no Halloween pun intended) if you go to check them out, you'll want them all! They even have new card border folders I haven't even seen yet -- I'm afraid to look! ;-)
Paper: The Paper Company's Mandarin Cardstock; Pebbles Spooky Characters/Dots double-sided cardstock; black & white cardstock from stash
Stamp: Making Memories Spellbound Collection acrylic stamp set
Ink: Tsukineko's Brilliance Moonlight White pigment ink
Embellishments: Darice Eyelets; White Embossing Powder
Tools: Crop-a-Dile; Spellbinders Wizard

Mini Scrapbook Purse in Black & White

I thought my Mother-in-law would enjoy this little birthday purse. I'm just sad I didn't have enough of her fabric to include any of the flowers used in her card (see my previous post). This is the pattern I've previously used from Susan Mast, whose link is here. I'm planning to make another purse yet this week & Susan kindly helped me find the paper for it!

Paper: Luxe Designs Chick Flick Cardstock; Swiss Dots from stash

Embellishments: Blue Moon Beads; Petaloo Silk Flowers; brads, ribbons, button, vellum saying, chipboard from stash

Tool: Crop-a-dile II

Happy 20th Birthday Waterfall Card

Another fun, interactive waterfall card, as in my baby boy card 10 posts back on June 6th, but this one has 5 pieces that eventually spell out "happy" & slides out to reveal birthday with the 20th enclosed in the circle around the "y", shown in photo below. Another card for this Stampendous Stamp set is in my 5-26-08 post. This one (using the same background paper Designing Diva Judy used when she introduced us to this technique) is for a relative's upcoming birthday. I'm getting better about not waiting until the last minute to do my cards--finally! Just hope she doesn't check out my blog before then! ;-) I even know what I'm making for our Designing Diva's get-together later this month & actually have most of the pieces assembled already! Woo-hoo! Better be careful or I'll lose my procrastinator's crown, huh?!!!
Another darling way to do this waterfall card is vertically, if you have a vertical stamp to put on the pull-out piece. That tutorial is here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/waterfall_card. Very cute variation, I think! You'd then want your fold to be at the top for the card to open at the bottom, whereas with this horizontal style, you have a choice to have it open @ either the left side or bottom. Otherwise, you can just use that tutorial & orient your pieces horizontally instead! Either way, it's a very fun card to create, so enjoy!!!
Paper: DCWV DP & solid cardstock
Stamps: Technique Tuesday's Wild Vines (still a special favorite!) & Stampendous Circle Talk Birthday
Ink: Tsukineko's VersaColors: Lavendar, Lime, Canary, Baby Blue & Marigold & VersaFine Black
Embellishments: Darice Eyelets/Washers; Yellow Stickles; ribbon from stash
Tools: Crop-a-dile; SU's Horizontal Slot Punch

Pink Passion for Papertrey Birds of a Feather

I'm posting this card as my entry for this week's Pink Passion challenge @: http://caardvarks.blogspot.com/.

Since I just received my first Papertrey Ink order, I wanted to play with the Birds of a Feather set. I have to say, "I just LOVE it"!!! These stamps are so detailed and just so sweet! There are so many phrases included to use in so many ways!!!

Did I say yet that I just LOVE these stamps?!!! If you're not familiar, go immediately (do not pass GO, do not collect $200 -- though you're surely going to wish you could spend that $200 when you get here): http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/ for her wonderful blog & to the left you'll see her store -- enter at your own risk, as I'm warning you, you're going to fall in love too!!! ;-) I also have to say that I love that their stamps sets include a matching "hand stamped by" phrase to coordinate with that set!!!
To make this little card I actually used this tutorial: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ee/index.php/resources/tutorials/camis_trifold_card/.

Paper: DCWV's Pink #1 cardstock; white cardstock

Stamps: Papertrey Ink's Birds of a Feather set

Inks: Papertrey Ink's Custom Palette Hybrid Inks: Spring Moss, Berry Sorbet & Summer Sunrise

Ribbon: Martha Stewart's Valentine Ribbons

Tools: Crop-a-Dile II; SU's Slit Punch