Valentine Cootie Catcher

Can I just tell you how fun these are to make?? I saw so many of these popping up in the gallery today and decided I had to try one! This was one of the Try a New Technique Challenges at SCS. Click here for instructions and samples.

They're fun, and a little time consuming but I love the reward at the end! I used my Marvy punches as well as EK Success small folk heart and tiny folk heart, EK Success 1" and 1 1/8" circle punches. I used two stamps as well; sentiment by Stampa Rosa, and a tiny circle stamp. It actually has three tiny dots on the stamp and it came with a backgrounds set from Joanns or Michaels.The tiny brown hearts are raised with dimensionals, The large bow is wired ribbon to hold it's shape, the little white bows are attached with glue dots, the circles are also attached with glue dots. Each pocket flap is lined with red cardstock. The large pink heart is also raised with dimensionals. I used a popsicle stick to hold the large heart and then cut a slit on the top of the peak and slid the stick through. It actually touches the table so it gives it more stability. I used uchida inks for my distressing and stazon blazing red for the sentiment. Here are the instructions for the fortune teller fold. It's very simple; remember those cootie catchers we made as kids? Same thing!
After making all the folds, I unfolded mine and then in each corner I stamped my dots. I started out with an 8x8 piece of cardstock so my squares in each corner were 2 inches in diameter. Once I stamped in each corner, I flipped the cardstock over and in each corner again, this time I put a piece of red cardstock that was slightly smaller in diameter (1 7/8). This gave me my lined pocket flaps. When you fold down the flaps you see the red. The entire project is made from cardstock and can be hard to fold so you have to use a bone folder to get crisp creases. Hope you try on of these too! Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine Cards

Started making Valentines Cards! Early start, actually! I am usually trying to get some done at the last minute! So here's my first Acetate card. Okay, don't laugh at my terrible embossing job! ;) I couldn't get all the powder off around the words. Acetate is so clingy! Next time, I won't emboss on the acetate. This heart pocket was inspired by http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ga...73109?cat=3741however, I made this heart bigger using my Cricut and scallop circle punches. Much faster to have tools cut it out for me! LOL I have a punch that has 3 different size tags on it and that's what I used for this tag. I pierced the scallop circles and the heart. I added faux stitching to the heart after piercing it.I like how it turned out with the exception of the embossing mess! LOL This is my first pocket heart card based on the template provided here http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/fo... heart+pocket

A lot going on for this one;I used my word window punch to do the scallops and then a 1/16" punch on each scallop. A large brad holds it closed and attached to is wire and a tiny tag from a tag punch I have that does 3 different sizes. I stamped Love on the tag using a hero arts stamp.I did faux stitching with my white gel pen around the hearts.On the flaps of the heart, I used versamark and a stamp from Art Impressions to randomly stamp the hearts.I used several different ribbons and fiber and hanging from it is the word LOVE stamped on shrink plastic with an Inkadinkado stamp. I used red stazon and prismacolor pencil to color in the L.I used 4 different different prima flowers and a brad and attached it to the heart with a glue dot.I rubbed chalk ink over the white cardstock to pull out the embossed flowers and mounted the whole thing on pink cardstock. I used my ticket punch on each corner.Whew!

So here is one I did using Inkadinkado stamps. The sentiment is from Stampa Rosa. I used my CB to emboss the chocolate cardstock and then adhered it to a white card. The sparkly pink papers came from my LSS and I don't know who makes them. I used Stazon Blazing Red to stamp everything on this card. I cut the kitties out and mounted it to the darker pink paper. I found the little heart stickers from Michaels and they are from Stampendous. I also used my word window punch and my ticket corner punch as well as some brads. This one looks sooo much better in person. Sorry about the not so great picture. The shaker box is made of acetate and foam core board. I used my Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife to cut a heart shape out of the foam core board. I used my scallop heart punch to do the heart on the chocolate cardstock. The background of the shaker box is also chocolate cs that I ran through my cuttlebug. I cut the kitties out and adhered them to the embossed cs. I used a handheld heart punch to do all the hearts inside the box. I wrapped the white heart ribbon around the top of the shaker and then wrapped 1/8" red ribbon around the edge of the box so you wouldn't see the foam core. Then I adhered this whole box onto my red cardstock. That then went onto pink cardstock and finally my embossed chocolate cardstock. Lastly, I added dots and stitching with my white gel pen. I love how this turned out!

So what do you think? Any comments are appreciated! I am having so much fun making these cards! Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Layouts 12x12

Wanted to share some Christmas Layouts I did. Some of the ideas were inspired by a book I have that I absolutely love! The first layout was so fun to do! I love to use chalks so you'll see chalks on every page, by the way!

In this layout, I did "presents" with rub on letters on white cardstock and then punched out each letter with a 1 inch square punch by EK Success. Then I chalked all the edges, alternating red and green letters. On the letters "P" and "e" and "s", I added an eyelet and some ribbon. Then I adhered them to the page.

I love this little detail....after adhering the red cardstock, I set eyelets on the red and also the printed paper about an inch and a half apart. I then tied ribbon between each set of eyelets. A fun little detail!

In this layout, I used patterned paper and cut them into strips and then rounded the corners. I again used chalk on all the edges. I punched holes and tied ribbon to each strip.

The little white journal boxes have brads set in.

On the next layout called "My Christmas Jammies," I added a lot of elements; fiber, chalk, rub on letters, QuicKutz letters, tags, faux stitching, and a secret journaling box.

Here's a close up of the tags that spell out "jammies". Each letter is stamped and then each tag is chalked. Then each tag is hung by the light blue fiber running across the page.

Here's a closeup of "my" and the first part of Christmas. The word My is done using rub on letters, and Christmas is done with QuicKutz.

Here is the secret journaling box. The mat for the photo isn't attached on the right side so you can pull out another piece of cardstock from behind it. The letters are stamped with brown ink.On the next layout, I used a few different patterned papers. At the bottom you'll see a pocket with a circle vellum window in the center. The pocket is made file folder style and adhered together on three sides with the top left open for a journaling card. Once the journaling card is written on and placed inside, you can see it through the vellum.

Close up of a journaling box. The numbers are stamped on patterned paper and then mounted on red cardstock. I used circle punches to cut them out.

Here is a closeup of the pocket. It is held together with staples on the sides.

The last Christmas layout is simple and I couldn't get a decent photo of it. Sorry about that. I even did some editing on my computer and this is the best I could do. Just two different colored cardstocks and two different patterned papers. The strip across the top of the page has stamped words; christmas, tradition, family and gather.Here is a close up of the words across the top.Hope you enjoyed my layouts! Drop me a line and tell me what you think! Thanks for stopping by!

Fiskars Fingertip Control Craft Knife

Have you all seen this? Or does anyone have one? I just purchased mine today and haven't used it yet but saw it in a magazine and had to get one! 3.49 at Michaels! Check it out here...
http://maggiesscrapbooking.com/images/7848406305.JPG
In all it's like 3 inches long. It grips your index finger and you're supposed to have much more control when cutting. I can't wait to try it. If you have this, let me know what you think! ;)

Ribbon Spools

Look what I made with empty toilet paper rolls and my scallop circle punches! Ribbon spools! I plan on hanging them on some wooden dowels. The center hole is punched out with a 1 1/8" circle punch. I glued the scallop circles to the toilet paper roll with diamond glaze. They are holding up great! I plan on making more colors this weekend, so I will be posting those as well!

Punch Holder

Hi Everyone! Having a nice weekend so far? Sorry I haven't posted in a while.....haven't had any pictures to put up until now! My husband and I put up some dowels in my craft room to hang my punches on! I love it! I used to have them in a canvas shoe holder that hangs on the door but I like this much better! I finally have some of those mega punches that everyone raves about! I love those too! :)

Brayered Sky Cardinal

Hi Everybody! Have you seen the Brayered Sky Technique on SCS? Michelle Zindorf is amazing! Her cards are gorgeous! I had to try it and let me tell you, it's not an easy technique! It's not as simple as loading up your brayer and running it across your cardstock! It took me a few tries to get rid of the verticle lines that sometimes appear and the horizontal lines between colors. But this is what I came up with.... I also did an asian one but I haven't mounted it on a card yet so I haven't taken pictures of it. For this one though, I used Summer Sun first, then Bashful Blue and then Ballet Blue. On a thread at SCS I read people having problems with the lines between colors.....I do find it hard to get the lines out once they are down. I used a cosmetic sponge instead of those yellow ones with holes for shading and also to blend the colors. The cosmetic sponges pick up more ink than the yellow ones do and I don't have to repeat this process as long. To eliminate the horizontal lines between colors, when I run my brayer across each ink pad, I take a piece of paper with a torn edge and lay that on the ink pad covering about 1/2 an inch on one end (on the short end). That way, when I run my brayer across the cardstock it has a wavy edge on the brayer and I don't get hard lines. Does that make sense? Or you can unload some of the ink on just the edges of the inked up brayer by tilting the brayer up and rolling just the end of the brayer on scrap paper first. This helps to not produce a hard line. If you get verticle lines, your brayer may have a dent running down the length of it that you don't notice. Try replacing the rubber. And when you store it, place it upside down so it rests on the handle and not the rubber.
When I did these cards, I brayered an entire sheet of white cardstock; not just a piece at a time. That way I can crop and pick the best sections for my cards. I did the yellow first with the brayer and then I used the cosmetic sponge to darken it and fill in any empty spots. Then I used the lighter blue and did the same thing, followed by the darker blue. I then cut my cardstock in equal sections. I stamped the cardinal directly onto my brayered piece of cardstock with black ink. Then I stamped the cardinal on red cardstock with black ink and cut out just the bird parts, discarding the rest. I then attached the red bird parts to my brayered piece making sure to line them up with the stamped image below. I colored in the branch with watercolor pencil and then sponged some Old Olive on the pine needles.
Then I stamped the trees with Old Olive. The lighter trees are achieved by first stamping on scrap paper and then onto the card front. The darker trees, I didn't unload first. To add the landscaping, I used a piece of torn paper and place it on the card front where I wanted it. I used Old Olive and a little pom pom and sponged it on. I moved the torn paper around the card front to make various little hills. In the picture below you can see that I used different trees on each one. After all the stamping was done, including the sentiment, I shaded all the edges with Old Olive.
It's a beautiful look after you've practiced! LOL. I like how these turned out! I will definitely make more of them. What do you think? :)

Weight Loss Journal

Look! I made something today! LOL. This was a spiral bound notebook I found in the dollar bin at Michaels and I finally figured out something to do with it! The cat stamp is a Penny Black stamp and I colored it in with watercolor pencils and blended with a Dove Blender. I applied clear EP over just a few of the flowers and also the sun. The sun looks silver in this picture but it's not :) The ribbon is wired and 1.5" wide.
After I colored in the image, I used my Ticket Punch. Then I used a stipple brush and Bashful Blue and added a little color around the edges. Then I mounted the image on a piece of white foam core matboard the exact size of the image. Next I mounted that onto Bashful Blue Cardstock which I also punched with the Ticket Punch.





This is what the notebook started out looking like. Just plain pink and white stripes. Picture is a little blurry sorry!































I ran my cardstock through my Cuttlebug for some interest. Then I attached the ribbon.



































Then I attached the cardstock to the notebook. I haven't decided if I want to put something in the blank space at the bottom of the book or leave it as is. I toyed around with some things but didn't like them. So I may just leave it alone! I plan on using this as a weight loss journal. Thanks for looking! :)

Post It Note Coaster Book/Pocket Notes Purse Box

These are things I made a few month ago at least; before my blog days! The Pocket Notes Purse Box, which is JanTInk's creation from SCS, is something I had to try! I used my Cuttlebug on the entire box and added stitch lines to all the edges. I used my Cricut to add multiple layers to the front. This was a fun box to make! Thanks Jan for the inspiration! This Post It Note Holder was inspired by Cambria's found here. I used rounded corner coasters for the top and bottom covers and covered them with patterned paper. I again used my Cuttlebug to do the center piece. Very easy to make!

12x12 layouts

Wanted to post some layouts I did. I have them in my gallery at Splitcoast but

wanted to post them here for friends and family who don't visit Splitcoast. All the letters I cut out using my Cricut. I love the layers of vellum in the top layout! Thanks for looking!

Super windy here today!!!

Wow, the wind here is amazing today! My kids didn't want to stand outside and wait for the bus this morning! Lauren said she was "flying" outside! LOL. It's pretty mild as well; temps in the high 50's yesterday and today. Thirty degrees higher than normal for this time of year!

Last night, I helped count inventory at my local stamp store. 5 hours either sitting on the floor or hunched over. My back is killing me today! It's amazing what 900 square feet can hold! LOL

Going to try to get some projects done today. I have a lot of cards and such to make. I will try to get something posted tonight!

Have a great day!

Covered Shoe Box for Toys

Lauren needed some small boxes for her tiny little ponies and accessories.......so I found some shoe boxes and decided to cover them! I started with brown kraft paper, and basically cut it like I was going to wrap a present.

Then I got my acrylic ruler and a pencil and drew in lines going from each corner of the box out to the edge of the paper. Then looking at the box I figured out which sections I needed to cut out.

In this picture you will see on the left, I wrote "cut out" or "leave attached.

I used a rotary cutter and my ruler as a guide to cut out all the sections that needed to come off. What you end up with is what you see below.

Then I started attaching patterned paper. I lined up the edge of the patterned paper with the edge of the brown paper extending out in the other direction.....See below for visual.

I used glue stick and my brayer to make sure it was secure all the way to the edges and there weren't any bubbles. Then I just scored the patterned paper on all three sides to make some lines that I could see and I folded the corners in FIRST to make a nice corner and to be sure to cover all the brown paper.

Then I folded in the sides and attached them with gluestick......again using my brayer to smooth it out.

Of course, one of my dogs had to come be nosey and see what I was doing. Couldn't resist taking a picture of him!

I then just started attaching all the sides down in the same manner, just turned my box around when needed.

When I got to one of the sides, I attached the papers first and then I folded it into the box and attached it to the inside.