TIPsy Tuesday - Versatile Double Rectangle Punch

The nifty little Double Rectangle Punch is easy to overlook in the catalog. I did until I saw an Internet video on how to use it to create a flat bow like the one on the card above (sorry, I’ve long ago lost the link to the video.) You've probably received wedding invitations with these bows. They allow your card or invitation to have a bow without the bulk.

And here are photos on how to create a flat bow:

Punch a hole with the double rectangle punch.

With the front side of your paper facing you, thread one end of ribbon into each of the two holes.

Turn the card over and cross the ends on the back.

Feed the ends back through the opposite hole each came out of. Voila! You have a beautiful bow.








Just trim the ends as desired.

Hint: If you are using a double sided ribbon like this Kiwi Kiss/Vanilla, have the ribbon wrong side up (vanilla side) in step on to get it to come out right side up (Kiwi) at the end.




Now here are some other fun things to do with this punch:

I used it in this basket to punch the holes to feed the ribbon through. It made holding the sides of the basket together super easy:










On this card front, I’ve used the punch at evenly spaced intervals to create a weaved design for the strip of cardstock. You could use ribbon, too. You will need to use a ruler or gridded paper to mark your holes before punching. Extra TIP: Those narrow little scraps left from your scallop edge punch are the perfect size to feed through these holes.

One final tip with this punch: If you have a wider ribbon than the punch is designed for (more than about 3/8”), just punch twice. After your first punch, move the punch a little further in or back so that it is still lined up over the edge of the holes and punch again. You can do two punch lengths and the ribbon will work fine. Any more than 2 and your paper will start to get weak in the middle and probably won’t withstand all the ribbon weaving.

For $5.95 US +tax and shipping, this little tool really packs a punch! (Awful, I know but I couldn’t resist. :-)


Ingredients for 3" x3"card: Kiwi Kiss and Very Vanilla ribbon, Rose Red and Cameo Coral Cardstock, Raspberry Tart DSP, Lovely Letters stamp set.

The Little Birdie Who Could...

pack a PUNCH!

The weaving in this card is done courtesy of the double rectangle punch. Check out tomorrow's TIPsy Tuesday for more info.

Ingredients: Stamp Set - A Little Birdie Told Me

Cardstock: Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss

Watercolor Paper

Orange Brad: Source Unknown.

Kindred Spirits Class

So often we need Sympathy, Get Well and Thank You notes. The new Kindred Spirits stamp set makes elegant all-purpose cards. Urban Garden designer paper compliments this set and lets you create cards that can be used for any occasion. Change the greeting on this Sympathy card and you could use it for Thank You or a pretty birthday card.


You get both Kindred Spirits stamp set and 6 double sided sheets of Urban Garden designer paper as part of the class fee. Class is scheduled for Thursday, June 18 at 5:30 p.m. We will go through the complete process for making a card. Also participants will learn:

• How to work with very large stamps as both background images and focal points.


• Taking a large image and using just part of the image in a small but powerful way


• How to make the most of designer paper images

Please contact me by June 3 if you would like to attend. Cost of the class is $40.

Scalloped Notecard

A quick notecard I made using the All Scallops set. This one was much easier and showcases the pretty Raspberry Tart designer paper.

Fabric Swatch Quilts

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE fabric? That is probably a prerequisite for creating custom window treatments. For my business, I acquire numerous fabric sample books and eventually they get discontinued before I've had a chance to sell all those pretty fabric designs to customers. For awhile, I used some of the discontinued swatches for cards, but I found that I liked using pattern paper and stamps more for my cards. I just could not throw the fabric samples out and was running out of places to donate them. I decided to try using some of the fabrics in a quilt.

The first quilt is shown above. I fell in love with these pinks, light reds and warm yellows when I was actually sifting through my books for other colors. I had so many in these colors that I kept arranging and piecing until I had a full size quilt. These fabrics can get a little heavy so I used the lightest loft batting and regular quilt fabric for the backing. I tied the quilt rather than machine quilting.

My parents used it this last winter. Mother had many quilts from her family but like the ones I inherited, they were all too small for a queen bed. She enjoyed it so much I told her I would make her one. I just finished the top for hers using colors she likes - black, brown, gray, red, and gold. All the squares are made with discontinued fabrics but I purchased an animal print fabric to strip piece it and tie all the varied neutrals together. I'm planning to quilt it in early fall and give it to her and Daddy for their anniversary - the top being easier to store than a completed quilt.

In between these, I made one other quilt from discontinued samples - a throw out of mostly upholstery weights. We use it to cuddle under while watching TV.

With all these, I still have a huge stack of discontinued samples though there are very few of the those neutrals and the pink/yellow chintz combos left. These quilts are fun and challenging in that no two fabrics are alike and all the samples are different sizes. The only tedious part is the prewashing. Each swatch must be removed from the sample book and handwashed in the hottest water possible and then put in the dryer. Drapery fabric shrinks excessively if washed but of course we want our quilts to be washable.

With so many varied sizes of fabrics, I haven't attempted any fancy patterns. Yet I'm pleased that I've created three quilts with a minimum of purchased materials. To celebrate, I ordered several 1930's reproduction fabric medleys from Keepsake Quilting. (Ok, this is a little like a dieter celebrating her weight loss with a huge hot fudge sundae, but still, I've been good...)

Anyway, I've prewashed those new fabrics and am making my first cut into them today as I experiement with a pattern idea. Working with beautiful fabric is even better than a hot fudge sundae - at least the satisfaction lasts longer!

Seeds

This birthday greeting is going in the mail this morning to a little girl who loves purple. Happy Birthday, Jennifer!

I'm out to work in my flower beds this morning pulling weeds and thinning sprouts. Lenny saved some of our wedding flowers as he calls them. When we married, we had a garden theme and gave packets of zinnia seeds as favors. We planted ours and they return year after year. Since he has been doing heavy mulching, it takes longer for the seeds to find their way up. Just as a precaution, he saved some of the dried bloom last year and I planted the seeds where I really wanted them to appear in a new bed. It worked, plus many from last year came up in our old beds.

This weekend I'm making several cards. I need "Thank You's" in my stash. The past few days I've been finishing up his birthday party invitations. Also I've been obsessed with working out my next quilting pattern. More about that in another post. Happy Friday!

Ingredients: Pattern paper DWCV
Green ribbon - American Crafts
Stamps: Dots and Punches and a Little Birdie Told Me (greeting) by Stampin' Up!
Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Lovely Lilac and Only Orange by Stampin' Up!

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.

TIPsy Tuesday - Playing up the Paper Design

I love to have a patterned fabric to play up. One of my design strengths is being able to make the most of a pattern's fabric with the right cuts and arrangement of design. Last year I had a job of beautiful toile fabric with different scenes of ladies, gentlemen and children working, dancing and playing. I spent 6 hours working out the arrangement of the scenes for pillows and window treatments before I cut a single piece of fabric! It sounds excessive and it probably is but the results were well worth it.

Patterned paper - called Designer Series Paper (DSP) at Stampin' Up! - gives us the same opportunity. I'm not going to spend 6 hours working out how I'll cut a few sheets of paper for cards but I can take a few minutes to consider the design of the paper before I start cutting.

One of the most effective ways to use a paper design is with a punch. Just punch out some part of the design for your card. When you punch out a design and eliminated all the background and other images, your paper looks totally different. You are really getting more for your money. In the card above, I punched out 1/2" circles out of the Cameo Coral DSP to create the alternating circles on the card. The other circles are stamped and punched.

Here is another example:

The scalloped flower on the bag from a previous post was actually punched from a flower in Urban Garden DSP. The floral design of this paper is large and hard to use on cards, but one sheet of paper would yield several flowers in different colors that are perfect for cards or scrapbook embellishments.













So the next time you are looking for a quick embellishment or are faced with a particularly busy paper, browse your punches and see how you can use it in a different way.



Ingredients for top card:
All from Stampin' Up!
Stamp sets: One of a Kind, All Scallops
Ink: Rose Red, Whisper white
Paper: Raspberry Tart DSP
Cardstock: Cameo Coral
Ribbon: Whisper White 1/4"Grossgrain