TIPsy Tuesday - Leftover Chipboard Letters

My 12x12 Sterlite stackable drawers not only help keep me organized (as much as possible for me) but also from getting too out of hand with my purchases (again, as much as possible).  When I run out of drawers, I have to stop buying pretty paper.  So what to do when I see all these great new paper collections? Well, I have to clear out drawers of course!

In clearing out a couple of drawers yesterday, I found some chipboard that was running fairly low and thought I'd use some of it up along with older pattern paper collections.  One great way to use up those extra letters whether chipboard or stickers is to make cards.

I had so much fun with these.  Typically, I really like my chipboard to match at least for a full word but I just used what I had extra and it made these more whimiscal.  Using up your stash is so freeing.  I find I can really experiment when I'm not saving paper for something later on.

When using leftover chipboard on cards, you may find it a bit like playing Scrabble.  You have to form words with the letters you have and you have to pick words that will work on a card.  It's just a new kind of challenge.

Ingredients:  DSP:  Offbeat 6x6 paper pad from Basic Grey; Daily Grind 8x8 paper pad from Fancy Pants; a little J'adore from Making Memories
Chipboard letters:  Various that I think are Making Memories
Cardstock:  Naturals White and Bashful Blue by Stampin' Up!

TIPsy Tuesday - 4 Steps to great leaves

For today's color challenge at Splitcoaststampers, Mary asked us to use Cajun Craze, Peach Parfait, and Early Espresso - all new to the Stampin' Up! palette.  As new colors, I still don't have all the inks and papers.  I don't have anything in Cajun Craze so I had to use Dusty Durango but I darkened it with watercolor and embossing powder so I hope it will pass :-)  These colors go beautifully together for fall.  I threw in just a touch of kraft (now Crumb Cake) for my neutral to balance the chipboard.

To create the leaves:

1. Cut leaves with a paper cutting system.  I used the Cricut.  You could also trim some out by hand.
2. Score the main veins.  I used my bone folder and a ruler.  This makes the most difference in making them look real.
3. Add some color depth in the vein lines with watercolor crayons in slightly darker shades and a blender pen.
4. Coat each leaf with Versamark, dip in clear embossing powder and heat.  Be sure to use your tweezors!  I edged the lighter Peach Parfait one with a little Early Espresso marker.  You could distress the edges too with some Ranger ink.

Hope you have had a happy day!  I'm so thankful to have card making as a hobby.  I think this may have been the only constructive thing I got done today besides voting.  The repairman came but my stove still needs more parts. We are now on day 15 of no stove... and counting.  I'm to pick up the latest part tomorrow.   We'll see...

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Woodgrain by Hero Arts; Define Your Life by Stampin' Up!

Cardstock:  Early Espresso, Dusty Durango, Peach Parfait

Ink:  Versamark, Early Espresso marker; various watercolor crayons

Embroidery Floss:  DMC

Painted Resist

This weeks (Oct 25-31) Thinking Inking video at Two Peas in a Bucket shows us how to stamp with paint.  This first project is a paint resist using metallic paint.  I'm in love!!! Doing this technique was so much fun I experimented with several backgrounds and made three completed cards.  Here is the first:

Project Notes:

• The background is stamped using Anita's Pearl Metallic paint.  I couldn't find the Ranger paint dauber shown in the video but found this paint to work fine when applied with a makeup sponge.  After drying, I went over it with several colors of Ranger Distress inks.  I've experimented with Stampin' Up! Classic inks since they are also dye inks and they work OK, not quite as good as Ranger.  I found the colors brighter and harder work work into the crevices.
• I also experimented with several types of paper and preferred a cheaper quality photo paper.  I'm not sure where we bought it - Walmart maybe.  It isn't that great for printing but because it is thin and shiny, it really works great for this technique.
• I did the tree much like the video except I had no tree stamp so I just stamped some Mellow Moss cardstock with a couple of backgrounds stamps to add interest, trimmed to a triangle shape and then went over with Peeled Paint distress ink. 

The chipboard 'snow' on the bottom is a piece of scrap chipboard leftover from shaped chipboard cutouts. 

Be sure to check out Jennifer's great video at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/.  Click on the Thinking Inking ad for all the videos in this series and the projects.  I'm definitely hooked.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Greeting and Sanded background from Stampin' Up!; Leaf background from Hero Arts
Ink:  Ranger's Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass, Concord, Vintage Photo
Paint:  Anita's Pearl White Metallic
Cardstock:  Mellow Moss and Choc Chip by SU!

BH&G CASE card

BH&G Scrapbooks Etc. for June has some great card sketches.  This one really shows off designer paper.  It was a good fit for the Basic Grey Offbeat collection because of the matching chipboard.  As promised by PeachyCheap where I bought it, there are about a "gazillion" little letters - wonderful for cards. It's been awhile since I challenged myself to use pre-cut chipboard on a card. The version in the magazine featured some real sewing but I did faux stitching with a journaling pen.

Ingredients:  DSP and letters:  Offbeat by Basic Grey
Chipboard heart by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock:  Summer Sun and Spring Moss by Papertrey Ink
Pen:  Brown journaling marker by SU!

TIPsy Tuesday - Inspiration TV?

Where do you get inspiration for your cards and scrapbook pages?  I love to browse blogs, on-line galleries such as Two Peas and Splitcoast, and scrapbooking magazines.  There are oodles of challenges to get us going on our cards and pages, too.  There are also many non-papercraft related ways to get inspiration.  Most any magazine with its staff of professional graphic designers can be inspiring.  I still mourn the loss of House and Garden which had the best photographers. 

Another place to get inspired is television.  Yes, when you are unwinding with the Housewives or watching a favorite comedy, look at the set or the clothes.  There are some cool ideas just waiting for you to turn them into cards.  Since the first time I watched Modern Family (ABC, Wed. 9:00 p.m. ET), I've wanted to lift the color scheme from Claire and Phil's living room for a card.  Their walls are a perfect match to Bordering Blue.  The draperies and pillows are a deep orange with a hint of saffron.  Finally, on Sunday I made the card above using those colors and I love it!  It is a departure from my typical colors and look.

So I actively looked on Sunday when we watched the Housewives for inspiration and found it at Bob and Lee's home - the two most wasted talents on that show (but that is another matter).  They have some framed pictures in their living room that inspired this simple card.  I was going more for style but ended up with a great color combo.  Rarely do I use Creamy Caramel, yet I really like it as the background for this simple, more masculine card.

Project Notes for both cards:

• I'm low on orange buttons so I sponged Only Orange craft ink on a small round piece of chipboard and then stamped an image with Whisper White for the embellishment of the top card.
• For the "Life" card, I wanted to emphsize the tone-on-tone flowers so they are stamped in a red color on the orange background. 
• I wanted the words to show but not take over so I stamped them in Basic Gray rather than black.  Colors will definitely change when stamped on a colored cardstock.

So tune in - in more ways than one - to your favorite shows looking for style, form and colors you can employ in your crafting.

Ingredients:  For birthday card:  Stamps:  On Your Birthday (greeting) from SU!; Polka Dot Basics from PTI; Plenty of Paisley from Paper Studio; Circles and dots from Inkadinkado
Ink:  Bordering Blue, Whisper White, Only Orange, So Saffron; white gel pen
Cardstock:  Bordering Blue, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron
Ribbon:  So Saffron from SU! (SAB '09)

Life card:  Stamps:  Fabulous Flowers from Hampton Art; Make it Count from SU!
Ink:  Riding Hood Red, Basic Gray
Cardstock:  Dusty Durango, Creamy Caramel

Quick Cards and Good Books

Hope everyone's holidays are going great! I did these birthday cards last weekend or early in the week. I've lost track. The starting points were layouts of cards I'd seen on Splitcoaststampers. From there I used all different papers, colors and stamps. Sometimes you want a sketch or a favorite card to go by so you can just create - a little less thinking and deciding and a little more cutting and gluing.

Also, I've updated my Shelfari though there aren't many books added. I haven't been reading as much this fall as usual. I do highly recommend the "Knitting" series by Kate Jacobs. It absolutlely has to be read in order though. The Friday Night Knitting Club is the first book and I just finished Knit Two. Any crafter can appreciate these books whether you knit or not. I used to but don't anymore. Jacobs has created a large diverse group of characters that are all flawed and immensely likeable and identifiable.

Surprisingly I enjoyed Jude Devereaux's Return to Summerhouse. I'm surprised because I normally don't take to the supernatural yet it was entertaining. The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews is enjoyable but not her best. You see where this one is going very early on. If you have never read her books, I highly recommend them but start with Savannnah Blues or my fav Hissy Fit - (now here is a book I love to live vicariously through!). Finally, I normally enjoy Sandra Brown but not Smash Cut. It started with a completely unbelievable premise and could never recover. So those are some of my hits and misses in chic lit and suspense reading this fall. Nothing like a good book on a cold day.

Ingredients: Stamps by Stampin' Up! Scallops; On Your Birthday

Ink: Various markers, Tempting Turquise, White gel pen

DSP: (top card) American Crafts (bottom card) Stampin' Up!

Ribbon: fabric store

Borrowed Ideas for Fall

I can not believe it is late October! We are a month in and I'm not into fall yet at all. Over the weekend, we did an installation in the mountains and it was freezing - by my standards - so I guess it is time I thought about changing leaves and wearing sweaters.

Last fall's mini catalog by Stampin' Up! had this beautiful designer paper. It inspired the color scheme for this all SU! card. Having ignored my chipboard collection when doing cards for quite awhile, I finally found a use for some of those plain chipboard circles. I think I saw this idea on Splitcoast stampers or maybe it was a button someone used in place of the circular tree. No matter, either adds more interest and dimension than paper cutouts alone. The larger Really Rust tree is from the Trendy Trees set.

Other ideas I borrowed for this card: The folded paper in place of ribbon is a money saving idea from Leah Fung's in Scrapbooks Etc. Nov/Dec issue. Kristina Werner frequently uses a white gel pen for drawn on stitching lines. I made the first of these cards with just the papers and embellishment, went away for awhile and when I returned, adding the stitching lines was an "ah-ha" moment that really finished this card.

Ingredients: All from Stampin' Up! Stamps: Trendy Trees, Funky Forest Wheel

Inks: Really Rust, Chocolate Chip marker, More Mustard, Mellow Moss, white gel pen

DSP: Autumn Vine

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Tools: Tab Punch

Brads: Fire square

More than just a Snowflake

Serene Snowflakes will probably show up on some of my Christmas cards. I'll post a holiday card using this set next week that we are making in our Stamp-a-Stack this Saturday. However, I bought this set because of the detail and versatility of the images. It would make beautiful background stamping for a scrapook page.

This card features the largest of the snowflakes stamped in Versamark and embossed with some Ranger powder I had. I could have probably stamped in Bordering Blue Craft and embossed in white for a similar affect. Before stamping, I sponged the chipboard with Very Vanilla craft and then Ranger's Weather Wood on the edges.

The center is my first build-a-brad. I love it! These are the pewter ones; the antique brass will be on an order very soon.

Ingredients not listed above: Stamp Set: Serene Snowflakes, Define Your Life and One of a Kind (center of the brad) by Stampin' Up! Also Flourishes by Paper Studio.

Cardstock: Dark Heritage Gray by Worldwin Papers

Not Quite Navy and Very Vanilla by Stampin' Up!

DSP is Bella Bleu by Stampin' Up!

Embossing Powder: Weathered Wood by Ranger

Ink: Not Quite Navy by Stampin' Up!

Chipboard: Stampin' Up!

Ribbon: Hobby Lobby

The 2009-'10 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog has some great projects for stamp sets I have and have on my wish list. The set featured here is "One of a Kind." It coordinates with the Boho Blossoms punch. I CASED this card by changing the colors and papers to coordinate with some ribbon I had in my stash from a couple of years back. Ribbon is another place to get color inspiration. Otherwise I would have never considered using Melon Mambo and orange together. Yet, they really work.

I did mess up a couple of cards in stamping the "for you" greeting so I did a 'thank you' instead on some rectangular chipboard pieces I had. First I brushed the chipboard with a Bordering Blue craft Stampin' Spot. Then I stamped the greeting in Melon Mambo.

Ingredients: Stamp Set: One of a Kind

Ribbon: Paper Studio

Button and cardstock: sources unknown

Stamping on Fabric

The new Stampin' Up! catalog will be available this week! (I'll post a link as soon as it is available on-line.) I received mine as part of a demonstrator order earlier in the month. One of the things I really like about the new catalog are the projects. The nearly 200 page catalog is full of great project ideas as usual. In this catalog I thought the projects were particularly applicable to cards and gifts that I would like to make. One of the projects showed stamping with Watercolor Crayons on twill tape. I didn't have wide enough twill tape to do what I wanted so I figured it would work on fabric, too - and that is something I have tons of!




I cut these fabrics out of discontinued fabric sample books and washed them out to get the finish off. It may have worked without washing (something I'll have to try next.) Anyway, the light part of the flowers on the card here on the right was stamped by coloring the image using a pale plum watercolor crayon, misting the fabric, and then stamping. The words and the outer edges of the flowers were stamped with craft ink onto the fabric.



You can use classic ink, too. The card on top was stamped with Kiwi Kiss and Ruby Red in classic. I love this card; you really can't get a feel for the texture here on the screen. Now here is an idea for some savvy computer company - give us screen where we can 'feel' and 'smell' - Ok, maybe that is going a bit far.



Well, my cat just climbed onto my lap and is trapping my arms so that is my queue to stop this rambling. Until tomorrow, Tipsy Tuesday....

Ingredients: card on top Stamps: Kindred Spirits and Baroque Motifs
Ribbon from unknown source
Chipboard from ---
Gemstone brads from Oriental Trading

card at right: Stamps All Holidays and from Stampin' Up!
Metal embellishment from unknown source

Happy Father's Day!

My Dad's favorite colors are yellow and blue. I remember him bringing me a gift when I was in high school. I can't remember where he had been but the opportunity to purchase bath towels came along. Odd, I know. Anyway, he bought me a set of yellow towels with embroidery on them for my 'hope chest.' I kept wondering why he picked yellow when I hadn't been collecting that color for my future home. Then it dawned on me, my room was in blue and yellow and those were his favorite colors too.

The office in my home now, the room originally used for my sewing room, is done in blue and yellow. No matter what the trends we will all always gravitate toward colors we love.

When you make your own cards, it is easy to give someone you love a card made in their favorite colors. Yet another perk of this fun hobby! (And another excuse, I mean, reason to buy more paper!)

Ingredients: Paper from My Mind's Eye
Ribbon source unknown
Chipboard from
Stamps:
Stickers:

Birthday Season

We are in the midst of 'birthday season' in our family. Does this happen in your family too - where you have many birthdays within just a few weeks or months? Ours starts in late March and runs to mid-June.

The card above was for my Dad's birthday this week. I finally found a great use for those extra large chipboard letters I bought three years ago. Or rather, I'm using the frames the letters came in. I love this so much I'm already thinkng of others I can make. There is only one of each letter so I have to plan carefully. With the green leaf background paper, flowers would be a pretty embellishment, maybe even some rhinestones.

I think Daddy liked seeing these photos of himself through the years. They were already scanned in my laptop for their Anniversary party last fall. This time though the photos were concentrating on his life. It is fun to see how someone has changed, or not, over the years.

Helpful hint: The Crop-a-dile made easy work of punching the holes in the corners of this think chipboard. I ran hemp twine through to tie them together.

A Star's Birthday

This card is a little on the busy side for me. But I didn't make it for me; I made it for a special boy in our lives. Our grandson, Dillon, turns 8 this week and this wish is on its way to him in Missouri.

I was reminded of an important lesson in using chipboard while making this card. Like paper, chipboard has two sides. Depdending on the design, if you don't like how one side comes out, you can just flip it over and start inkng and stamping again. My first take on this star was a Summer Sun background with Ruby Red polka dots. Yeah, it looked like part of a clown's costume. Way too young for Dillon. His favorite color is red so I turned it over and started again, keeping it simple this time in Ruby Red with chocolate distressing.

All the words are stamped. I outlined the word "birthday" with dark brown marker.

Happy Birthday, Dillon!

Ingredients: Paper: American Crafts

Ink: Stampin' Up! Ruby Red, Not Quite Navy, Garden Green, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip

Stamps: Hearts and Stars from Rhonna Farr, Letters from Stampendous and Paper Studio

Caught!

Oops! Note to self: When I make a card for my husband, put it away! My dear hubby came upstairs a couple of days ago and I was showing him some cards I'd made for a Birthday Stamp-a-Stack this week. He pointed behind them at this card and said, "I really like Kindred Spirits." What he didn't know was it was supposed to be for our anniversary. Oh, well, that is months away so I'll have to make something else. What are the odds he would pick out the one card out of about 8 on my worktable made for him? Just a coincidence or are we really Kindred Spirits (Ok, that's corny but true)?

Anyway, this is also my chipboard challenge effort for the week. I used a Stampin' Up! chipboard frame and glued pearls in the little holes normally used for brads. The frame was inked in Ballet Blue and sponged with a little Whisper White. The real feature of this card is the emboss relief technique with pastels in a variety of the blue and green shades. This technique produced dramatic results quickly.

Ingredients: Stampin Set: Kindred Spirits by Stampin' Up!
Inks: Ballet Blue, Whisper White, a variety of Stampin' Pastels
Ribbon: Unknown source

Chipboard Challenge

A popular activity on crafting sites is to host a challenge. For card making, these are often color challenges. Someone selects colors that you might not think to put together and people post cards they make with these colors. It really expands your ideas on what colors work together.

I'm issuing myself a challenge. Use some of my expansive chipboard collection in a new card design each week. How did I get an expansive chipboard collection? I fell in love with chipboard, almost as much as I love paper and fabric. I particularly like alphabet chipboard and I use it often for titles on scrapbook pages. Through trial and error I discovered a preference for unfinished chipboard - which happens to be what Stampin' Up! sells, but I made that discovery before I ever tried their chipboard. I like the flexibility of creating any color or pattern that I need. I dislike the frustration of not having a use for that green or blue patterned chipboard I loved in the store and then only used a few letters of once I got it home. Where am I ever going to use a large bright blue "Z"? Seriously, if you have any ideas, please let me know.

Chipboard always comes in sets. Many of my sets contain tags and label frames. I keep saving them for scrapbook pages but I know I'll never use them all. Plus, if I use them up, I'll have to buy more. :-)

To escape the trap I talked about yesterday of only making one card of each type, I selected chipboard I had more than one of and made in this case two of the same card. I also like this card because it uses only one stamp set, ironically called- One of a Kind.

You'll have to check back and make sure I keep up my challenge to whittle down my stack of chipboard and build up my stash of cards.

Card Ingredients: Stamps: One of a Kind from Stampin' Up!(r)

Ink: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Whisper White

Chipboard is also Stampin' Up!