TIPsy Tuesday - Plus Side of Negative Space

My hubby recently made an early Valentine delivery for me.  For sweet treats, I made up these treat boxes using The Project Girl, Jen Allyson's, template from her webiste.  (See this older post for info http://lisae-design.blogspot.com/2009/12/treat-boxes.html )  Each box was cut from two 12x12 sheets on my Cricut and held about 10 medium to large chocolate chip cookies. 

Before assembly, I used some left over hearts from another Cricut project to create a negative space design.  First I adhered the hearts to the scored, but unassembled box tops using repositionable adhesive.

Next, I stamped over the images with a fairly busy background stamp.

Then I removed the hearts and stamped a message inside some of them. 

The heart cutout still didn't go to waste.  By the time I finished two boxes, the little hearts were pretty covered in images in a couple of Valentine colors.  I put the hearts inside a little heart shaped box to fall out like confetti and tucked them in my hubby's suitcase.  I was in a hurry to get Lenny off before the storm hit so didn't get a photo. 

We did run into one problem with this plan - distribution.  I made a box of cookies for each child but combined the adults with one couple per box.  I thought this would make it easier on the adults so the kids wouldn't be fighting over the cookies.  Apparently, it was the adults who fought over the cookies!  Good thing Lenny had his own bag of cookies for travel - well, he did until he left them unattended during the Super Bowl.  Oh well, I kept a few for myself so I'm good.

Ingredients:  Stamps: swirls by Impression Obsession; greeting from All Holidays by Stampin' Up!
Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo

Cute, but shocked, barnyard creatures

"You're How Old?"

Inside greeting:  "We haven't been this shocked since Elsie, the cow, ran off with Mr. Ed."

These super shocked looking farm animals just called out for a funny card.   My husband helped me with the inside greeting. Hokey, but cute. 

This designer paper is part of the Farm Fresh collection from October Afternoon.  Still loving these patterns and colors.

Ingredients:  Designer Paper:  Farm Fresh by October Afternoon

Cardstock:  Chocolate Chip by SU!; Summer Sun by PTI

1-2-3-4-5-6 Eggs!

Every day last May we checked the nest in the geranium in front of the kitchen window.  Once the eggs started, our little birdie left another each day.  I couldn't believe it when we were up to 5 but finally 6 was the grand total. 

Lenny and I had been debating how we were going to keep Jasper away from those birds.  He hops up right beside the geranium to look in the kitchen window.  It is his signal to us that he wants in the house.  He never paid any attention to the nest even when the mother bird was on it.  Chirping little birdies would have been another story.  Mother bird sat on the nest for a couple more days after all the eggs came and then abandoned it.  It solved our dilema but we hated that they didn't hatch.

This layout features several papers from the Sweep Pea Designer Series Paper in Stampin' Up!'s mini catalog.  The colors were perfect for these photos.  I used assorted stickers for the numbers up to 5 which is chipboard and the "6" I cut on the Cricut out of more of that DSP. 

The little birds are stamped using the Cheep Talk stamp set.

A fun layout for a fun few days of discovery.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Cheep Talk by Stampin' Up!
Ink:  Rouge by Colorbox; Old Olive, Ruby Red by SU!
DSP:  Sweep Pea by SU!
Chipboard letters:  Sweets by Basic Grey
Buttons:  Various sources including some Pink Piroette from SU!

Rose Garden

I promised Lenny we would stop at the rose garden on the way to Hilton Head this past summer.  Unfortunately, they and we had so much rain in May that the ground was sodden and the roses tinged in brown when they normally would have been at their peak.  Still, getting a break on the six hour drive is welcome.  I love to travel but I'm not much of a road warrier anymore.  About 2 or 3 hours is as far as I want to go without a meaningful break.  Walking through the rose garden, having our lunch under the trees and taking a quick walk by the waterway was wonderful.

This is the last of the Hilton Head pages for 2009.  For this layout, I trimmed up some pieces of two Basic Grey Periphery collection sheets to add to the distressed collage effect of the paper. 

The title is a combo of printing directly on the background paper, Cricut cut letters, and Basic Grey stickers.

Ingredients:  Paper and button:  Periphery Collection from Basic Grey; Rose ribbon also from Basic Grey

Card Sketch Challenge SC266

I was starting to feel like I used a lot of the same type of card layouts so I decided to participate in Splitcoaststampers weekly Card Sketch.  It was a lot of fun finding pieces to fit the sketch.  I limited myself to only paper from the Sunshine Garden kit from last year's SU! catalog.  I still have quite a few stickers and a little paper left.  These soft colors are favorites.

The stamped image is from All Holidays and is one of the few large word images I have.  Need to keep that in mind when I'm shopping for stamps.  I used Earth Elements markers to color in the words and added the flowers from an Autumn Leaves set.

The final touch was rounding the corners with my new We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.  I've been debating this for awhile.  I have their Crop-a-dile and it is terrific for setting grommets and punching holes in thick material.  However, the handles are wide set and tough on my hands.  The handles on the Corner Chomper are closer together.  As long as I don't go chomping through dozens of corners at once, I think it will be fine.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  All Holidays from SU!; Flowers by Autumn Leaves
Ink:  Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, Not Quite Navy
DSP and stickers from:  Sunshine Garden Simply Scrappin' kit

Sweet Pea DSP

4 days.  I made it 4 days before I broke into the new Sweet Pea DSP. 

New stuff at my house does not collect dust.  I take forever to make purchasing decisions but when I buy, I use.  New clothes, worn.  New shoes, on my feet.  New paper and stamps? Often they get opened before they even make it to the craft room!   So, I had browsed the new paper as soon as it came in.  Yesterday I made these first cards.

These use part of one sheet of the designer paper, some Cricut cut labels and a little stamping to make a fast card.  The ribbon is actually Melon Mambo but it goes great with this paper which looks to be combo of Rose Red and Pretty in Pink.


Ingredients all by Stampin' Up!:  Stamps:  Kind and Caring Thoughts  (the flourish stamp is from Autumn Leaves)
Ink:  Close to Cocoa
Cardstock:  Whisper white, Pumpkin Pie
DSP:  Sweet Pea
Ribbon:  Melon Mambo grosgrain dot.

TIPsy Tuesday - Craft Store Savings

Save money on scrapbooking supplies at the craft store by shopping in Non-Scrapbooking Departments.  Check out the rhinestones in jewlery.  Use glue dots to adhere to your cards just like you do buttons.  Speaking of buttons, the fabric departments sometimes have left over buttons on sale.  A fabric store I visit occasionally has boxes of buttons to purchase for a nickel apiece.

I also get my hemp twine from jewelry making department at Hobby Lobby. 

For inexpensive organza ribbon, go to the floral department.  These ribbons are sold on the roll often for 50% off.  (At Hobby Lobby, there are two locations for these - bridal and non-bridal).  Ribbons without wire are best.  If you do end up with a wire ribbon, be sure to trim the ends after tieing your bow no matter how pretty it looks.  The tieing process pulls up the fabric part of the ribbon leaving little ends of wire hanging out that must be trimmed.

And of course the floral department specializes in Flowers!  Here's an previous TIPsy Tuesday on picking silk flowers:  http://lisae-design.blogspot.com/2009/10/tipsy-tuesday-where-flowers-grow.html

Happy Tuesday!  Thanks for stopping by!
Ingredients:  Stamps:  MSE
Ink:  Versamark
Embossing Powder: Gold from SU!
DSP:  Indian Summer collection from Basic Grey
Cardstock:  Choc Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Blush Blossom from SU!
Rhinestones and Ribbon:  Hobby Lobby

Quick Chicks

An easy thank you card using the Cheap Talk stamp set and some American Crafts paper from my stash.  I've had this paper a long time and I love how it coordinates with Stampin' Up! Earth Elements colors. 

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Cheep Talk by SU!
Ink:  Ruby Red, Old Olive, Not Quite Navy and Tempting Turquoise
DSP:  American Crafts
Cardstock:  Not Quite Navy, Whisper White