Everyone loves chocolate!

Both of these cards use the wonderfully versatile Curly Cute stamp set with Chocolate Chip ink and retired ribbon.   Currently you can still purchase Chocolate Chip ribbon in 5/8" Satin and 1/2" Scallop Dotted, but here I used plain Jane grosgrain because I still have lots of it, and I needed to make a bunch of Thank You cards after my daughter's birthday party.  (Remember the cute Princess and Magician hats I made as favors?)

This card uses Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip and Cameo Coral cardstock, Language of Friendship stamp set, the Finial Press Embossing Folder and the Eyelet Border Punch. 

The masculine card uses Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake and Old Olive cardstock, the oak tree from Lovely As a Tree, the Stripes embossing folder, and the Blossom Punch.   I stamped the sentiment on a 1" wide strip of CS and then fed it through the back of the Blossom Punch to get the shape on either end.  I think it creates an interesting frame for almost any sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Princess Party Favors

I know I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again, I think the Petal Cone Die may have been my single smartest Stampin' Up! purchase ever.   Tooting my own horn...Toot, Toot!, but I think these little princess hat favor boxes are so cute!   If you wanted a circus theme, you could easily top these with a pom-pom to make tiny clown hats or with a frill of shirred paper to make a"party" hat.

1.   For each hat, use your Big Shot (or similar machine) and cut 2 shapes using the Stampin' Up! exclusive Petal Cone Die.   Cut one in half down the score line.  In these pics, I was using cardstock, so I stamped and embossed the images at this point.   Not necessary if you're using Designer Series Paper.

2.  Trim off a bit of the half-circles on both sides to allow the box to close correctly.    Easier to do it before you begin assembly rather than after, like I did here :)

3.  Apply Sticky Strip to tabs; you won't need the piece you cut off that has no tab.   Fold an 8"-10" piece of ribbon in half and adhere it to the top of one of the tabs. 

3.  As if you were using a curling iron, wrap the ribbons around the handle of a paper piercer, dowel or pencil.   Heat ribbon with Heat Tool for 10-30 seconds, more or less.   This depends very much on the type of ribbon you are using.  The more polyester content, the quicker the curl will set.   It's not that hard to melt 100% polyester ribbon or set all-cotton ribbon on FIRE when what you really want is a curl, so use caution and common sense!   Allow the curls to cool undisturbed for a minute then arrange them to your liking.   

4.  Assemble box as usual.   Decorate as desired.  Fill box with treats and seal.

Hard to see the sparkle in this photo, but the  Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder with Versamark is very sparkly and pretty.




For the projects shown above, I used the Modern Label punch,  Season of Friendship stamp set, Short and Sweet stamp set, Calypso Coral CS, Whisper White CS, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Brights Patterns Stack DSP, Stampin' Up! white taffeta ribbon and some ribbon scraps from gifts.   I hoard anything pretty that could be used for crafting, so it's nice to justify that craziness by using the stuff occasionally!  The hat below uses retired Specialty DSP (with glitter, of course) and retired pink ribbon along with the Boho Blossoms and Modern Label punches.

So the boys didn't feel left out, I made some magician hats with Basic Black CS (Night of Navy would work great, too).   I stamped them with White Craft Ink and the star is from the Every Little Bit stamp set.

I don't have a tiny crescent moon stamp, so I made one!  I just cut the shape from a piece of the scrap rubber that you get with every stamp set.

Hope you enjoyed these as much as the kids at the party did!   Let me know if you try your own...

Lean on Paisley

This is a variation of a sympathy card I created for a friend who recently lost a close furry friend.   

I don't have a toile stamp, but wanted to create that type of a background, so I used the images from Paisley Petals on a 4" x 5 1/4" white cardfront.    I made the black band across the center of the card using the Adorning Accents Edgelit die and coordinating embossing folder on a 2 3/4" x 5 1/2" strip of Basic Black cardstock.   I found that cutting the strip of CS to size first really helped to keep the final edges from being crooked.    I have Lean on Me in clearmount, so I've cut the sentiments apart from the images; easy to use them separately or together that way.  To be sure that the sentiment and frame stamps were aligned,  I stamped the sentiment first, then used the Decorative Label punch, and finally, placed the Four Frames stamp face-up on the table and pressed the punched shape down onto the inked stamp.   I have not got the hang of the Stamp-a-ma-Jig, so this alternate method worked for me.  I thought just 2 little Basic Jewels rhinestones made the card prettier without detracting from the fact that it's a sympathy card... what do you think?   The punched sentiment is attached with dimensionals.   I forgot to take a pic of the inside - I'll add that later.

Berry Good Friend

Around Valentine's day, when I decorated a couple of mailboxes, one piece of the Berry Blossoms Designer Series Paper (DSP) had to be ripped off and replaced.   I couldn't bear to throw away something so pretty, even though the edges were torn to bits, so I saved it.  When I saw the sketch at Stamping 411, I realized I'd found a perfect use for it and trimmed out a couple of rectangles.  The patterns on this paper are so sweet, I thought they'd be a good match with the images in the Lean On Me stamp set and a perfect fit to the Spring Has Sprung theme on the Paper Players Challenge.

The 2 different patterns are opposite sides of the same sheet of DSP.   I stamped the image in Basic Gray, and colored the girl using the Subtles Watercolor Wonder Crayons and a Blender Pen.  I stamped just the the butterfly portion of the image onto a strawberry in a tiny scrap of the DSP and cut it out with Paper Snips.   I credit the sharpness and fineness of the scissors with my being able to do that at all!   I dotted the butterfly image on the white cardstock with the Glue Pen and then positioned the tiny cut-out butterfly on top.  Textured card stock in Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral to mat the pieces, then added some texture with a white card front embossed with the Elegant Lines Folder.   Finally, some of the Lucky Limeade ribbon from the Sale-a-bration brochure (wrapped the ends around a paintbrush and hit them with the heat gun to get the curl), popped up the focal image with Dimensionals and glued everything to a Calypso Coral card base.