Color Challenge #50 - Jaime's Frame

For Kristina Werner's 50th color challenge, I tried something a little different than a card. This is actually a refrigerator magnet (although a rather large one at about 7" in diameter). The photo was taken last summer when my stepdaughter, Jaime, who is now a stem-mom herself was playing around with her kids, Dillon (right) and Nai Nai. Jaime is a terrific mother and I wanted to send her a little something for Mother's Day.

To stick with the brown, red, yellow, turquoise, and yellow pallete, I printed the photo in sepia. The frame is a large chipboard scalloped circle from Stampin' Up inked in Riding Hood Red and Basic Brown. Actually everything is Stampin' Up except one brad and and the tag. The largest flower is done with poppin pastels technique in Summer Sun and Ruby Red and all other flowers are stamped and cut out. I embossed one of the buttons in turqoise to give it a little more texture. This was really a fun project and a break from cards and scrapbook pages.

Ingredients: Stamps: Petal Pizzazz, All Holidays for greeting, One of a Kind for embossing button.
Inks: Basic Brown, Riding Hood Red, Summer Sun, Tempting Turquise, Whisper White
Cardstock: Whisper White
Ribbon: So Saffron from SAB 2009.
Chipboard Tag: Oriental Trading

TIPsy Tuesday Kickoff

Welcome to to my first TIPsy Tuesday! No alcohol is involved, I promise. Unless of course we can figure out a way to use Margaretta Mix in a cool stamping technique.

Seriously, every Tuesday I’ll post a Tip, Technique, or my take on a Tool you can use in your paper or fabric crafts. To kick things off, I’m going to do 2 tips this week.

First off, ribbons. We all love putting ribbon on our cards. Correction, we love having ribbon on our cards; but getting it to stay on and look pretty can be a fuss. There are several techniques; more will be covered in coming weeks. Today, I’m showing you something really simple. To get the ribbon to look pretty and stay put (and I’ve handled this sample a lot so I know it stays put), is very easy. Plus we are only using a small amount of ribbon. This works particularly well with thicker ribbons that are hard to tie in double knots.

1. Cut a ribbon 5" and tie a single knot. Trim the ends as desired.
2. Position the knot however you want it to be on our card.
3. Slip glue dots under the ends – not under the knot. You can put a glue dot under the knot if you want but it isn’t necessary.
4. Press lightly to keep the ribbon in place. Too much pressure will make the glue dots stand out under the ribbon. If you have a very light weight ribbon, place your glue dot under the knot and use a little glue stick under ends to keep it in place.

My second tip is for ink distressing the edge of paper. For Stampin’ Up! customers, use Sahara Sand for a beautiful natural color to add an aged look to your lighter papers. I used the color here on this white tag.

When distressing the edge, hold the paper steady and move the stamp pad over the edges. Put a little more ink on the corners. For darker papers, Basic Brown works well. We often focus on the basic 48 colors and the In Colors. Don’t forget to work those neutrals!

May Stamp-a-Stack

Could you use a night out?
My next Stamp-a-Stack is Monday, May 11 at my house (5:30 – 8:00). We will make 10 cards total – 2 each of 5 designs. The theme is All Occasions. We will make this “Loads of Love” card and a “A Little Birdie Told Me” design for Get Well/Thinking of You. Also, we’ll do an elegant Sympathy card, Thank You, and this Congratulations card which you can stamp for weddings, births, all sorts of events. I’ll show you now to turn the Congrats card into a gift card holder.

Please e-mail or call to register by May 1. Cost is $15 which includes all materials including envelopes for the 10 cards and a light meal before class. You also get a fun night out!

Join me back here on the blog tomorrow where I kick off ...TIPsy Tuesday. (And you don’t even have to be over 21 to participate.)

Notebook Covers

"A Dream without a Plan is a Wish." A dear man who I worked for a few years back used to say this along with many other words of wisdom. He died a few weeks ago and I've often thought about him in the last few days. This quote seemed appropriate on a notebook I'm using to capture in one place all the ideas I have for blog entries, classes, designs, etc. Plato was certainly a man who lived his plan and made dreams come true for himself, his family, and his employees.

I often use this type of notebook from Office Max. It is 6" x 9 1/2" and is ruled on one side of each sheet and gridded on the other. Perfect for sketches, ideas, and to-do' lists. I always do a cover with designer paper and some flat embellishments. They get a little haggard or "loved" over time, but they are so much prettier than an ordinary notebook. And it is much easier to find buried on my coffee table or desk!

Ingredients for notebook cover above: Designer Paper all from Stampin' Up! Green Tea and Notebook.
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Lovely Letters, Define Your Life
Ink: Baja Breeze, Old Olive, Kiwi Kiss
Font: Courier New
Gold brads and Baja stripe ribbon also from Stampin' Up!

Happy Earth Day!

Celebrate Earth Day by looking through some of the nature photos you have taken. This is one from my front porch at sunrise.

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

Digi Pages

Doesn't this layout make you want to head to the beach? A cruel thing to post on a Monday morning, I know. Yet, this is one of the many benefits of scrapbooking. Seeing your pictures and journaling brings it all back. Soon you can smell the ocean, feel the sand between your toes. Oh, enough, you get the idea.

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I did these pages this weekend using both digital and traditional scrapbooking. The combination is called Digi Fusion. A form of digi fusion is how I've always done my scrapbooks. I'm one of those crafters who hates her handwriting and with good reason. My second grade teacher announced in front of the entire class that my handwriting looked like 'chicken scratching.' I learned to write in cursive the next year and things didn't get a whole lot better. So I use my handwriting sparingly and type my journaling. In my early scrapbooks I would sometimes print out clipart for the pages. Then I would put it all together on the pages in a traditional scrapbooking way.

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Having tried some all digital pages, I'm not sure I'll ever be a complete convert. I still like the textures and true depth of traditional pages. I added stitching to one of these pages for an embellishement. Yet, I loved using entire photos for backgrounds on the pages above. Some of the photos on the right page were printed with the background. Some I printed separately and used dimensionals to adhere. In person it looks like three different layers of depth.

So for now I'll enjoy the best of both worlds - digital and traditional scrapbooking.

Wall Art

Less than 30 minutes. That's how long it took me to place on my painted wall these Eastern Blooms Decor Elements in white, playing with a couple of different arrangements, adhere them and clean up. Basically the clean up consists of throwing away the peel off materials and carrying the step ladder downstairs. That's my kind of clean up. Wall art that accentuates my fabrics and the clean white trim of this attic bath for around $15 in 30 minutes!

Vinyl wall decor called Decor Elements from Stampin' Up! stays up as long as I want it to and it can be removed if I later decide to change my decor. I spent days removing the old wallpaper but I tried a sample of this and it came off easily.

I'm really excited about this product! There are tons of designs, colors and options. If you like what you see, give me a call and I'll get you a catalog or look on-line at http://www.stampinup.com/us/enu/12177.asp

Have a great weekend!