Llama Ladies' Summer Blog Hop, Take 2

 It's been a very busy spring, and luckily for me, crafting was one of the things I was busy with.  I haven't blogged in ages, and I'm grateful to have this hop as a nudge to share some of the things I've been working on.  Clicking the banner above will take you to the main hop page with everyone's links, and buttons to hop forwards or back are at the bottom of my post.  I know you'll enjoy all the things my talented friends have created!



Father's Day Card
Inspired by Lorri Heilling.  Stampin Up! Brushed Silver cardstock for the metallic bits, a corner of a Top Note die cut for the mower bag, and the body of the lawnmower is made using the Modern Label, Little Labels and circle punches.  Grass with Finishing Touches Edgelits.

Teacher Gifts

I always want to give really special gifts to teachers each June, to show my appreciation for all they have done for my children and I've been wanting to make a framed piece for a while.

• Watercolored image: For the Birds stamp set 
• Sentiment: Touch of Kindness (retired)
• Colors:  Pear Pizazz, So Saffron, Bashful Blue (retired, try Soft Sky instead) 
• Embellishments:  Satin Ribbon, Basic Jewels Pearl 
• Tools: Vines embossing folder (Sale-a-bration 2013), Curly Label and Boho Blossoms punch, Window Frames Framelit,  Festive Piercing Pack - love how quick the piercing is when you use a template!

For the teacher who was always so great about sending home thank you notes every time a parent helped out in the classroom, a boxed set of thank you notes seemed like a nice gift.

• Apple image : From Your Teacher (retired) 
• Sentiment: A Round Array 
• Colors: Summer Starfruit & Primrose Petals
• Paper: 3.5"x5" note cards 
• Tools: 7/8", 1 1/4" and 1 3/4" scalloped circle punches.  

• Paper : Berry Blossoms DSP (retired - aren't the apples with hearts so perfect for teacher gifts?  I stocked up when I had the chance!) 
• Sentiment: Lacy and Lovely 
• Colors: Gumball Green & Calypso Coral
• Paper: 3.5"x5" note cards 
• Tools:  Decorative Label and Large Oval punches, Finishing Touches Edgelits die

Cub Scout Awards - Bag toppers 
Made a lot of these, but they were easy!   Just staple the topper to the bag, then cover the staple with a medal-thingie on the front and a color-coordinated pre-printed name on the back.

• Compass image : The Open Sea 
• Sentiment: Delightful Dozen & kids' names printed with MDS
• Colors: Night of Navy & Crushed Curry
• Tools: Top Note die, 1.25" circle and Word Window punches.  
• Other: 4"x6" cello bags, staples 

Last chance Blog Hop

Sale-a-bration 2013 ends Friday, so if you want your Freebies, better place your Stampin' Up! order ASAP!

Since this hop is the last in our Spring-a-bration series, I wanted to use something cute and springy - Storybook Friends fits the bill perfectly!  I have this adorable set in clear-mount, so I cut apart the animals and sentiments so I can pair them up however I want or need to.  I needed thank-you notes, and this set doesn't have that phrase, so I took a stamp from another set and adhered it to the block right next to the sweet kitten.

Stamps: Storybook Friends, Day of Gratitude (sentiment), Every Little Bit (flower stamped as background)
Ovals Framelits shape cut from Summer Starfruit.  Rose Red polka dot paper from Brights DSP stack.  Adorning Accents scalloped Edgelit and coordinating embossing folder on Old Olive cardstock.
Image stamped in Basic Gray and colored with Rose Red marker and retired Stampin' Pastels to make the cat look nice and soft.  I used a Designer frames embossing folder around my stamped image, cut it out, and accented it with Summer Starfruit marker. 

My second card is sized as a gift enclosure, or could be used to give a gift card.  It uses the Sale-a-bration set Pretty Petites and the coordinating Petite Curly Label punch.  I used 2012-2014 In Color markers on the stamps and raised the punched shapes up with dimensionals.

Hope you've enjoyed this stop on our tour, next you'll be headed to Dancin' Stamps, where Christine is sure to be dazzling you with something gorgeous!

Not Seen in the Catalogs!

Spring Surprise

Designer Type

Dude, You're Welcome

• Four wood-mount stamps (double-mounted) with the perfect sentiment for every occasion
• Twelve 4" x 6" postcards in four different (manly) colors
• Twelve gray envelopes
• A Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad
• An instructional guide (for the most novice stamper!)

132807

Dude, You're Welcome! Kit

$24.95

Sent With Love

Spring-a-bration February blog hop

For our Spring-a-bration theme, I used the Sale-a-bration exclusive set, Feeling Sentimental, and used markers to ink the ferris wheel stamp in a fun, spring-y rainbow.  I also accidentally discovered a new baby wipe technique!  I was cleaning damp glue off my card front *sigh* and the wet wipe touched the ink on my sentiment and smudged it.  Rather than tear it off, I tried smudging the ink a bit more instead, and I think it has a neat, dreamy look to it.   I also used the Occasions Piercing templates available in the Spring Catalog for the banner shape.

The rainbow colors are Raspberry Ripple, Perfect Plum, Marina Mist, Certainly Celery & Daffodil Delight.

Just a tip for saving cardstock - before adhering the layers, use the paper trimmer to  

cut out the center of a mat layer for use in a later project.

I love Chinese New Year because it gives me an excuse to heat emboss in gold on red.  I used a 4"x 5" piece of Cherry Cobbler and heat embossed the image from Pleasant Poppies.  Cut that into thirds, dragged all the edges through a freshly-inked Versamark pad, dipped the edges into the gold embossing powder, hit them with the heat gun and mounted each piece with Stampin' Dimensionals onto a Cherry Cobbler base.  I may add a sentiment later, depending what I use the card for - any suggestions?

Hope you enjoyed these cards, please take a look at the lovely Spring-a-bration projects from my fellow demonstrators by using the buttons to hop from one blog to the next!

This is why I posted pics a day late...
Did not expect to be spending my day fixing my refrigerator.  That was sorta creative, but really nothing to do with Stampin' Up!    I have the project ideas in my head, but not finished in paper.


Spent a few hours this morning cleaning out the innards and lubricating the motor - took this pic to ask my Dad about how the fan blade is supposed to come off.   Apparently this thingie is called a sheet metal nut.  It's gone now, as I spent the afternoon tracking down the part, and the evening installing the new fan motor.

After all that, I really hope that it's all fine and we don't end up having to replace the fridge.

Storage - It Ain't Pretty (or it doesn't have to be)

Storage options are going to be limited by your budget and creativity.  My budget is small, but my creativity is limited only by what my husband throws away!!  I'm always saving odd stuff for a rainy day.

The previous owner of my house left shelving installed on the basement wall, but my love of punches was overwhelming the available space.  I looked everywhere for small shelves that would fit Stampin' Up! punches, but NOT cost an arm and a leg.   These do not appear to exist!  I thought about making them from foamboard, but that didn't seem strong enough. 

Then I realized that a wooden desk-top organizer that I'd had forever, was

1.  mostly full of stuff I rarely used anymore and didn't really need to be kept so close to hand

2.  turned on its side, the perfect size for punches and clear blocks!  done.

On the shelf directly over it, I created more space by cutting a couple of short pieces of 2x4 and putting a piece of scrap wood on top (yes, it's just sitting there, not screwed or glued or anything and it works great).   It's butt ugly, sure, but I paid nothing out of pocket for either of these storage solutions.   Besides, there is BARE cinderblock behind it - not even close to pretty, anyway!

On the bottom left of the photo, you can see that I snugged the punch storage just close enough to an open box of neutral ink pads to create a space for another stack of loose ink pads.

On the upper right are old spice jars with embellishments and below them, my Stampin' Pierce Mat and a 6"x6" album filled with all my Piercing Templates.  I made a short video that can be viewed here.

Spring-a-bration blog hop!

While here in NY we are wishing for a break from the freezing cold Mother Nature is dishing out this week, Stampin' Up! has started Sale-a-bration (SAB).  They're dishing out free products with every order of $50.  Gotta love that!!  I'm sure you're also loving the projects my friends are sharing using product from the new Spring Catalog as well as showcasing some of the exclusive SAB freebies.  Links to the rest of the blog hop are at the bottom of this post.

I'm assembling little love notes (3"x3" cards) for a teacher appreciation luncheon at my kids' school, and I made many variations before the organizer and I agreed on the final design.

 First, Calypso Coral with Pool Party.

How about Domestic Goddess DSP? 

 But the organizer wanted a Real Red , so I tried heat embossing in white with a pearl center from the Pretties Kit.  I was worried my kids would graduate before I heat-embossed 65 flowers, and then the pearl didn't give quite the look I was going for, so here is what I finally settled on...

All of the designs shown here (can you believe there were more!!) use the Mixed Blossom and Pretty Petites stamp sets with coordinating punches - Blossom and Petite Curly Label.

In the final design, the flower is stamped in Craft White ink on Real Red card stock, and the flower centers are made with Whisper White cardstock cut with the Sweet Buttons Embosslit (all the cards will match, but not be identical - yay!).   The sentiment is stamped in Crumb Cake to match the card base.

Last time I checked, the Pretties Kit and Domestic Goddess DSP were available on the Clearance Rack.  All other products used are from the Main and Spring Stampin' Up! catalogs.

Finally, here are a pair of digi-cards I created using My Digital Studio (MDS2) using stamps and paper from the One Big Sale-a-bration CD.  All the exclusive SAB artwork FREE w/ your order of $50!  Too good to pass up!   One of my fave features of MDS is that you can zoom in and out on the DSP patterns inside a punch.  Pattern too big or small for your project?  No problem in MDS!!


You can hop forward or backwards to see more Stampin' Up! Spring-a-bration ideas from Buffy, Stephanie, Debbie, Christine and Jean!  

It's been a sad and busy week here with visits to the hospital ending with a death in the family.  However, better late than never, here is the result for the blog candy drawing for this post.  Five commenters mentioned the planner, so everyone had a great chance!

Buffy needs to let me know where to send her planner!

I've been working on re-organizing and clearing away all the clutter that accumulates during my holiday crafting frenzy.   It's still an unfinished, unheated basement, but I'm happy with the progress I've made to store everything more sensibly and accessibly!