UDI Inspiration Challenge 136

 So, the snowstorm started a little late and didn't get here until tonight.  It's supposed to last for the next three days, so I'm planning to stay put and play with my paper and ink!  So glad I have some UDI Challenges to inspire me and keep me off the streets and out of trouble!  The above picture is this week's Inspiration Challenge.  They are gumdrops, and the napkin reminds me of those old fashioned paper bags you used to get at the carnival or the circus, or maybe the beach boardwalk filled with popcorn or peanuts or a candy store filled with...hmm, let me think... maybe gumdrops! The gumdrop colors immediately make me think of summer at the beach, and in keeping with the boardwalk theme, Dippin' Dots or shaved ice, a wonderful way to cool off on a hot summer day!

So here's what I came up with.  It's an 8 x 8 Scrapbook Layout that I was planning to use for a swap I'm participating in, but halfway through it I realized I had used  Pink Pirouette for the background and the friend I'm swapping with has 3 boys... um, yeah, I'll be working on another layout before the storm's over.  But that's okay, 'cause I've got time on my hands this weekend!

Anyway, back to the layout, I used a sheet of Poppy Parade DSP to represent the candy strip or popcorn bag, and the white eyelet border reminded me of a candy store doily. I used Pink 5/8" grosgrain ribbon for the bows, and stamped "Summer Fun" with my Sweet Shoppe Alpha set in Melon Mambo and punched each letter with my 3/4" and 1/2" circle punches.  The letters are sponged around the edges with Melon Mambo ink, and raised on dimensionals.

I used the new 3.5" and 3" Circle dies to make the 2 white circles as eventual mats for pictures of my adorable nieces & nephews at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. For the remaining circles I used Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Marina Mist, So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie along with various Circle punches.  I used my Textured Impressions folders to give some of them dimension and popped them up on dimensionals.  There's still room on the DSP to put another photo or a Journaling tag once I decide what exactly I want to use.

Well, that's all I've got for tonight. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! I love the way everything looks with a fresh layer of snow, and we don't get it here very often, so three days will be a treat!




http://utahdivasinternational.blogspot.com/

UDI Color Challenge #24

 

So I decided to play along with today's color challenge from UDI after getting home from my mother's hair appointment and the last minute grocery run to prepare for the snowstorm that's supposed to come through California tonight.  Now I know those of you in the midwest, not to mention Canada and Alaska, are saying to yourselves "What a whimp! Stinkin' California chick wouldn't know real snow if she were buried in it!" and you'd be right.  I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, and we're billed as being "above the fog and below the snow".  We get anywhere from 2 to 6 inches each year, and it washes or melts away fairly quickly, but this storm is supposed to bring snow to sea level in the Bay Area, and with 2 octogenarians in my care (otherwise known as Mom and Dad), I like to be prepared so that even though I COULD go out, I don't have to until it thaws and I don't have to worry about any of us slipping on the ice!

Okay, back to the challenge: The colors are So Saffron, Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler, and Always Artichoke.  They reminded me of the wallpaper in the kitchen of one of my neighbors growing up.  She was my babysitter/adopted grandmother, and I have to say thoughts of her brought back wonderful memories.  The wallpaper was on a white background and had lots of strawberries on it. Anyway, I stepped out of my comfort zone a bit, because I really haven't used Blushing Bride very much, and I loaned out my favorite Textured Impressions Folders last week and won't get them back until tomorrow, so I was left with the Petals a Plenty, which I thought kinda fit the fruit theme if you think of them as fruit blossoms; and my Spiderweb folder, which I guess if you stretch it a bit fits the garden theme, 'cause I always have lots of spiders in my garden.  My first choice would have been the square lattice folder to give it more of a fruit basket feel, but as I said, I loaned it out... (sigh).

I trimmed around the perforation on the Blushing Bride top note, and sponged it with Cherry Cobbler ink, then I sponged Always Artichoke over the texture on the So Saffron circles.  For the fruit I stamped each one once in Cherry Cobbler and once in Always Artichoke.  Then I actually cut out the green stems and pasted them over the red ones.  I have to admit, I questioned my sanity as I was cutting around the cherry stems, but it worked out better than I expected.  I popped the So Saffron layer and the cherries up with dimensionals and wrapped Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding Ribbon around the card base with a finishing bow on the side.  

So, that's how I spent my evening, and now I'm going to settle in and wait for the flurries!  Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Link to Utah Divas International Blog

Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay, so Valentine's Day was on Monday and it's now almost Thursday...  I'm running just a teensy bit behind! But I had so much fun making my Valentines this year, I had to share, and I think the ideas are usable with a few tweaks for other occasions, so here's to inspiration!

For my "Grown-up" girlfriends, I made a swivel card using the Big Shot and my Scallop Circle for the back, and the Circle, 3.5" Circle and 3" Circle dies for the front.  I attached the 2 layers with a brad so you can swivel the top open to read the message inside.  I also used the Circle die to make a DSP liner for the inside.

This card has Sunny Garden DSP and is embellished with Rhinestones, a metalic brad, grosgrain ribbon and glimmer paper. The stamp sets are Simply Said and Monogram Sweet.

This card uses the Be My Valentine Stamp from the last page of the Occasions Mini. I stamped it twice and cut out the banner portion and popped it up with Dimensionals.  It's difficult to see in the photo, but I added a couple of Rhinestones in the centers of the flowers on the big heart. I used the small heart punch to make the hearts out of Glimmer paper found on page 7 of the Occasions Mini. The layered flower under the brad is made from the Boho Blossoms punch

 This one uses Victorian Crochet Trim, and Pearls.  I layered the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle punch and 2 Fancy Flower punches with a 1-3/8" Circle punch for the center. The leaves are made with the wing from the 2-step Bird punch. I popped the flower up with dimensionals, and the brad is hidden under the ribbon.

 I used Rose Red Seam Binding Ribbon found on page 16 of the Occasions Mini for the bow and the Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit die for the bottom layer of the monogrammed heart. The brad is hidden under the glimmer paper heart at the top.

The Melon Mambo cardstock is embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions folder. The 1-1/4" striped grosgrain ribbon is scrunched on a line of sticky strip.  A scrap of Victorian Crocheted trim is layered on top with glue dots.  The Jewelry Tag punch is stamped with 2 different Tiny Tags stamps and tied to the crocheted trim with Linen Thread.  The brad is hidden under the flower.

I used the 3" circle die to cut the Glimmer Paper circle. The Red Satin Ribbon is scrunched on a line of Sticky Strip.  In order to make the sticky strip curve to follow the circle's edge, I clipped it halfway in every 1/4-inch or so.  (Note: This method works well for adhering Glass Glitter, too.) I attached the front to the back with a Glimmer Brad through the center of the layered Boho Blossoms and added pearls to the centers of the flowers.

Here's a view of the inside.  I used Teeny Tiny Wishes to stamp the greeting inside each card.

I hope you enjoyed the Grown-ups Valentines!  I love the variety you can get when you add different embellishments to a few of the same simple foundation pieces.  The kids' cards are coming in my next post!

"Green" Coffee Sleeves

 Ingredients:
Candy Cane Fabric
Bigz XL Die-Tasteful Trim
Candy Cane Big Designer Buttons
1/4" grosgrain ribbon in Real Red and Marina Mist
Brights Designer Buttons
Victoria Crochet Trim
Quilt batting scraps


Here's my attempt at coffee sleeves using the new Stampin' Up! Fabric line.  These were very simple for those of you who sew.  I'll be trying a no-sew version soon for those who don't.

First I took a sleeve from the local coffee house, and pulled it apart at the seam. Then I folded one of the fabrics in half with "right"  or "patterned" sides together.  After pinning the folded fabric to keep it from shifting, I laid the opened sleeve flat on the fabric, and used a pen (or chalk) to trace around it. Here's the trickiest part of this project:  When I cut it out, I "eyeballed" a 1/4" seam around the traced line.  I did the same thing to cut out a single layer of quilt batting. 

I pinned the fabric pieces together with "right" sides facing and the batting on the bottom of both layers.  I used my sewing machine to sew along the traced line on three sides of the sleeve, leaving one end open.  I used the open side to turn the sleeve outside in and stitched the remaining side closed by hand.  I quilted the sleeve to minimize bulk by machine sewing along each red stripe, along the entire sleeve. 

For the sleeves that used lengthwise trim, I sewed it on at this point.  I used the Big Shot with the Tasteful Trim Die to make some of the embellishments. 

I used the cardboard coffee house sleeve to measure where to stitch the ends together, and sewed the seam by hand.  Then I embellished over the seam to help hide it.   I gathered the bric brac trim to make the rosettes.  I think you can figure out what I did from the pictures, but if you have any questions, feel free to email me. I apologize if any of this doesn't make sense, but it's very late, so I'll recheck it tomorrow.

6 x 6 Christmas Scrapbook Layout

Stamp Sets: Dasher, Bright Christmas
Textured Impressions Folder: Northern Flurries, Perfect Polka Dots
Cardstock: Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Real Red
Ink: Versamark, Real Red, Gold Embossing Powder
Accessories: Rhinestones, Boho Blossoms Punch, Decorative Label


Hi all, my upline started a new scrapbook swap, doing a 2-page layout each month, and I have to say I had a lot of fun working on this one!  I'm not exactly sure what happened with the lighting in these pictures, but the lighter one shows the embossing powder better.  Here's how it came together:

I used my Big Shot and the Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Folder to emboss two 6" x 6" pieces of Real Red Cardstock.  You have to run it through twice, making sure you line up the dots in the folder the second time.  It leaves a slight impression down the middle of the cardstock and doesn't quite reach the far edge, but it doesn't show once you apply the layers.

Next I took two pieces of Whisper White Cardstock, measuring 1-1/2" x 6", and placed them on the outside edge of the Real Red Cardstock pieces using snail adhesive. (This is the layer that covers the edge the embossing folder misses.)

The next layer on each page is 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" Wild Wasabi Cardstock.  I put one piece through the Big Shot with the Northern Flurries Textured Impressions folder in the upper left corner.

On the 2nd piece of Wild Wasabi, I used the Dasher Stamp in the lower right corner with VersaMark ink. Then I sprinkled Gold Embossing Powder over the stamped image and used the Heat Tool to set the embossed image.


I used sticky strip to adhere the Wild Wasabi layers to the Real Red layer because I find that it's difficult to get a good "stick" with Snail Adhesive on textured cardstock.  You have to be very careful with alignment when placing a piece with Sticky Strip, though, because once it's down, it's DOWN.

For the left page, I cut a 1-1/4" x 6" strip of Whisper White, and used the Bright Christmas Stamp set to stamp Merry & Bright in VersaMark ink, then sprinkled with Gold Embossing Powder and used the Heat Tool to set the image. I placed it about 3/4" from the top of the page. Snail adhesive works okay on this one, even with the texture because both of the edges are flat enough to hold with Snail.

The Garden Green Mat for the Left page is 3" x 2-7/8" . The Whisper White mat is 2-5/8" x 2-3/4".  These layers are fine to adhere with Snail Adhesive.

The Garden Green Mat for the right page is 2-7/8" x 4". The Whisper White mat is 2-5/8" x 3-3/4".

I used the Decorative Label Punch to punch one Whisper White and one Garden Green label.  I used a paper trimmer to cut the Garden Green Label in half lengthwise (I trimmed the points off the cut ends.) and used Snail Adhesive to adhere both pieces to the back of the Whisper White label and to adhere the finished label & mat to the right page.

I used the Winter Wonderland stamp from the Bright Christmas stamp set with Real Red ink, and cut around it freehand. I used Dimensionals to adhere it at the bottom of the right page.

I used the Boho Blossoms Punch to punch the 2 Real Red flowers to accent the greeting strips, and Rhinestones for the flower and snowflake centers and to embellish the Reindeer's antlers.

Hope this helps inspire you on your own pages. If you have any questions I didn't answer here, feel free to contact me!

Utah Divas Color Challenge, Week #1

This is my submission for the Utah Divas International Color Challenge Week #1.  The challenge colors were:

1. Crumb Cake
2. Rich Razzleberry
3. Early Espresso
4. Pear Pizazz
5. Pretty in Pink

I used the After Thoughts stamp set in Early Espresso ink for the greeting.  The card base is Rich Razzleberry, I added Pear Pizazz DSP from the Level 1 Hostess Benefits pack.  The tag is made from Early Espresso and Crumb Cake Cardstock, with 5/8" Pretty in Pink grosgrain ribbon.  I used the Boho Blossoms punch to make the Rich Razzleberry and Pretty in Pink flowers, with glimmer brads for the centers.  The Little Leaves Sizzlit die was used with the Big Shot to make the leaves. Finally, I used the Eyelet Border punch to make the Pretty in Pink edge.

Late Night Stampers' Scavenger Hunt--Round 2 Clue: A Cute Christmas

This is my card for the

Late Night Stampers Blog Scavenger Hunt-Round 2!  

If you are reading this post, you can play for a chance to win free merchandise!
  Blogs scavenger hunt round 2

My clue is:  A Cute Christmas

Here are the rules:  After you find your 20 blogs with clues, email me your list at stampinmagic@gmail.com with  "Scavenger Hunt" in the Subject line.  On September 15th, I will forward those entries to Sherrill to be entered in her drawing. 

Are you ready to play?  As more blogs add clues, I will add them to this post so check back often for more places to hunt!

www.maddiebugdesigns.blogspot.com

http://monikastamp.wordpress.com/

www.mimitojett.blogspot.com

http://www.scrapcrazydiva.blogspot.com

www.southerncaliforniastamper.blogspot.com

www.raychells-stampin-treasures.blogspot.com
http://wendiethestampingqueen.blogspot.com

http://pennytokensstampinspot.blogspot.com

 This card was fairly simple to make.  The base is Cherry Cobbler cardstock.  The mat is Soft Suede cardstock.  The top layer is Whisper White cardstock.  I used the Scallop Trim Corner Punch on all four corners.  The Snowman and the greeting are from the "A Cute Christmas" stamp set.

The snowman is stamped with Marina Mist ink.  I used Stampin' Write Markers to color in the scarf  and hat with Cherry Cobbler & Black. I also used my black marker to trace over the face and arms.


I used my 2-in-1 Glue pen along the bottom of the snowdrift to adhere Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I placed Rhinestones over the buttons on the snowman's belly.

The Ribbon is 1/4" Early Espresso grosgrain ribbon.  I used the "rabbit ears" technique to tie the bow and a Glue Dot to hold it in place.

For the label, I punched Soft Suede with the Scallop Oval punch, and stamped the greeting in Early Espresso Ink on Whisper White cardstock, then punched it out with the 1-3/8" x 5/8" Oval punch. I used a dimensional to make it stand out.