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!

Last-minute CAS for Christmas

I always seem to find myself making a few more Christmas cards at the last minute.  Sadly, thanks to the last minute thing, I'm far less than thrilled with how these photos came out!

Single-layer card with white embossing and clear (NOT yellow) rhinestones on Basic Gray cardstock.  
Snowflake image from Stampin' Up! Mixed Bunch stamp set.  I mixed a touch of Iridescent Ice emossing powder in with the white and it gave the snowflakes a subtle sparkle that I thought was just right for the feeling of softly falling snow against the gray background.   The photo just doesn't do this card justice.   I think I'm going to try this again for holiday thank you notes using Midnight Muse cardstock and the sentiment from Curly Cute.

Embossed the same image onto white this time and sponged each snowflake with Island Indigo and a touch of Not Quite Navy.  The sentiment is from one of the German sets available in the USA, Kleiner Wortschatz, and it's embossed in white onto the colored base.  

Hope you enjoyed these... have a peaceful holiday!

Fall-i-days Grand Finale

This is the end, my friend!   The final blog entry in the last of the llama ladies' Fall-i-days blog hops.  If you click on the banner above, it will take you to the blog home page where you will find links to all the other blogs and hops.   At the bottom of this page, you'll find the buttons to click if you want to travel forward or backwards thru this hop.

I haven't blogged in ages because I was trying to get ready for my first craft show.  So now you get a mega-post with a few of the things I made!  (pics can be enlarged by clicking on them.)

Magic Santa Keys

  

Framelits Labels and Apothecary dies, Elegant Lines embossing folder, Lovely Labels punch for belt buckle

Cardstock in Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black & Brushed Silver

Poem printed out with MDS2+

Retired Trinket Keys and Garden Green grosgrain ribbon

Lots of Gift tags - I used a lot of retired product on most of the tags, but these were made with currently available items.  (thank you Kath & Diane for sending mittens!)

 Nicely Knit wheel stamp, Baker's Twine

Punches:  Mitten, Ornament, Owl Builder (heart), Large circle & Scalloped circle

Garden Green, Real Red & Very Vanilla card stock for the mitten tag,

Baja Breeze & Night of Navy for the ornament.  You could use Brushed Silver cardstock for the ornament, but I actually glued yogurt lids to scrap cardstock, then after they dried, punched out the ornaments and ran them thru the Big Shot with different embossing folders.

 Gift Card holder

Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red

Everything Eleanor, Holiday Hostess stamp sets

Basic pearls, Retired ribbon, non-SU! corner punch 

Wine bottle tags - I made a few different styles, but this was my favorite.  Thanks for the color combo, Buffy!

Cardstock:  Sage Shadow(retired) & Sahara Sand 

Just Beleive & Lacy Snowflakes (retired) stamp sets 

Ink:  Crumb Cake & Baha Breeze

Pennant and Boho Blossoms punches

Silver Glimmer Paper, Purely Pomegranate (retired) satin ribbon

Christmas Pocket Planner

Cover

I used Letters to Santa Designer Series Paper and Quick Accents, which are available on the Clearance Rack right now.   This was based on an idea found at http://christmasplanner.com/tour-christmas-planner/pocket-planners.  Since I started a regular white pocket folder, then accordion folded it, I needed different sized pages than the pre-printed ones I found, so I made some in MDS2, and of course then I could make the inside sheets coordinate using miniaturized versions of the Merry & Type digital stamp brush set!  If you mention the planner in a comment before Dec 31st 2012, I'll enter you in a free drawing for one!

First two pages

Last 2 pages

 Don't miss all the other lovely creations my friends have made.  Click the links below to check out the rest of the hop.   See you next year!

MDS for Advent

No sooner than Thanksgiving had passed, my kindergartener started asking if tomorrow was Christmas!  Clearly, an advent calendar was called for, and having none handy, what is a busy crafty mom to do?  Whip one up in MDS2 of course!  Super-simple, and my little darling just colors in one ornament each night before bedtime; when the tree is fully decorated, it will (finally!) be Christmas tomorrow!