TIPsy Tuesday - Reducing Bulk

I made the cards in this post for friends who are moving to California. I've printed their new contact info inside the card so they can send these to friends and family here or wherever. I wanted to make sure these had no problem being mailed.

My first effort was this version with the brads in the upper right corner - a blank area that cried out for a little embellishment as balance. While I love the look, a card like this is likely to either get rejected by the post office, require additional postage, or get ripped in their long trip across the country. So I tried a similar look with three punched holes using the small punch of my Crop-a-dile (shown above). I backed the holes with scraps of gray designer paper or cardstock.

Another simple and non bulky embellishment is to use paper piercing. If you don't have the Stampin' Up! mat pack for paper piercing, it is a definite buy. I love this technique.

I don't always worry about bulk and really haven't had any problems. If I think something will have issues being mailed, I use extra postage. The rule is that an envelope must fit through a 1/4" high slot in order to go without extra postage. Of course, there are size requirements for a single first class stamp also. Details are at USPS.com.

Ingredients: Stamps: Loads of Love and Loads of Love Accessories from Stampin' Up!

Watercolor paper, Watercolor crayons and markers from Stampin' Up!

More Mustard cardstock and Basic Gray DSP from Stampin' Up!

Blue cardstock and gingham ribbon from unkown source

Light gold designer paper from My Mind's Eye

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

From Paper to Card

Here's the card I made with the leftovers from the scrapbook page below. Those circles I cut out for photos contained these pretty glittered flowers. With a little gingham ribbon and a stamped greeting, they made a bright birthday card.

Ingredients: Stampin' Up! A Little Birdie Told Me for greeting
Ribbon from Paper Studio
Paper from DCWV

From Paper to Page

Browsing my stash for a little something different to work with, I found this decorative paper as part of a paper pack I bought probably 2 years ago. I trimmed out the top of the scalloped paisely intending to cut it up and and use it on cards. Then I thought this would make a really neat scrapbook page if I used some of the circles to hold photos. It turned into a fairly quick page.

Typically I pick papers to fit my photos but this time I went in search of photos to work with a paper. The most important design decision for me is getting papers, embellishments and ink colors that communicate the feelings from the photos. I love how the vibrant colors reflect how much fun it was to have Dillon and Nai Nai visit us last summer. So much of my scrapbooking is about our travels, hiking and such, that it is a refreshing change to get to use a bold paper for a scapbook page.

Ingredients: Decorative paper from DCWV - Pocket Full of Posies
Chipboard letters are Hip from Basic Grey
Ink is Lovely Lilac from Stampin' Up! Gold brad is also Stampin' Up!
Cardstock, buttons and ribbon from unknown sources.

TIPsy Tuesday - Use It Up

The motto "Use it up" from the depression is so appropriate today. We are all looking for ways to save a little money. Saving money though usually means less shopping - the All American Therapy. And that is depressing. What about 'shopping' at home for free?

One of the many great things about card making and scrapbooking is that just about anything goes. Take a walk through your home, browse cabinets, rummage that junk drawer, old storage containers under the bed, in the closet or scan the basement with a fresh pair of eyes. Look for things you can use in your crafts.

Some ideas:

• buttons - bet you have a button stash where you keep all those extra buttons that come attached to your clothes. Chances are many of those buttons are from clothes that are long gone so why not use them on your cards.



• other craft supplies - did you knit, crochet, macrame, or bead at another time? Do you really need to keep all those other supplies just in case? Yarns make great additions to cards in place of ribbons. I found some old velcro that wasn't strong enough for any of my window treatment projects requiring velcro (I bought it long before I started my business) and now use it when I make paper boxes and bags for closures.



• embroidery thread - who among us didn't do crossstitch. If you still do, that's great. If not, embroidery thread can be used to handstitch on cards and pages or as decorative ties for buttons. Or do you have a crosstitch or needlepoint kit that you know you will never finish?



• fabric- fabric can be used so many ways on cards and scrapbook pages. Using leftover fabric is how I got started making cards.



• paint - a little acrylic paint goes a long way on paper crafts. Scrapbooking magazines often have ideas on how to incoporate paint on your projects. I'll try to do a blog post soon on this cheap and useful material. One idea: dry brush just a little paint on a piece of textured cardstock for a background page.



• office supplies - I found some linen resume envelopes - a #10 business envelope we sent out resumes in probably 20 years ago. Those envelopes still look and function just fine and a 4" x 9" card fits great and is a nice change from the usual sizes. Also, do you have some transparency film? Stamp on it; you'll love the results. Extra paper clips, binder clips - all can be put to use.


• silk flowers - an old arrangement gathering dust? Some flowers can be pulled apart and used for decorations on cards.

Even the bathroom cabinet has makeup sponges you can dip into your inks and apply to paper for a great look.

I'll bet you can find many more treasures just waiting to be put to good use. Cheaper than 'retail' therapy and just as valuable.

Switching it up

Whenever I make several cards, I almost always switch things around a little. Sometimes I don't have enough of one ribbon or buttons. Mostly I just get bored if I tried to do too many of the same thing. I love to experiment. Here are a couple of Thank You's from a set made recently. I used a card from Splitcoaststampers.com as an inspiration.

Ingredients: Stamps from Stampin' Up! So Many Scallops, Define Your Life, One of a Kind, Little Flowers

Ink: Brocade Blue, Cameo Coral

Striped Paper from Three Bugs in a Rug

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:

Last Chance Birdie

With a new catalog comes new colors and great new stamp sets. Unfortunately, to make room, some sets have to be discontinued. "A Little Birdie Told Me" is going away at the end of this month. I love this set because the birds are so cute and there are several accessories such as an umbrella, the party hat, and a flower. Most of all this set, has several greetings that make it a true all occasion set.

Here is the link to the Last Chance (discontinued, retired, whatever they are going away) sets available only until June 30, 2009 --> http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/CategoryPage.aspx?categoryID=310

Call me if you would like to order any of these sets or accessories before they are gone for good. Keep in mind that Stampin' Up! makes their own stamp sets so they will fill orders on discontinued sets through the end of June. However, accessories like buttons, paper, and ink are available only while supplies last.

Ingredients all by Stampin' Up!: Stamp set: A little Birdie Told Me
Apricot Appeal Designer Paper
Cardstock: Not Quite Navy, Bashful blue, Whisper White, watercolor
Button: Apricot Appeal
Inks: Basic Black, Not Quite Navy, Soft Subtles watercolor crayons, Earth Elements markers