Checking in from Summer

WOW I can't believe its been almost a month since I posted.  I have a backlog of projects to post but we have been busy this summer at the trailer we just got and I have no internet access there.  To top it off we have been transforming the add a room so that I can scrapbook in it.  Happy to say that got finished last weekend so this weekend I can relax and work on some stuff (even if I just edit photos to post when I get back).

My downstairs craft area was an absolute disaster from the kids latest projects so I decided after cleaning and putting stuff away a sketch would be a great place to start.  Here is the sketch

and here is my take on it

Supplies used:  DCWV French Country Stack, DCWV Pastel Stack, Unity PH Stamps, Spellbinders Blossom 2, Spellbinders Floral Flourish

I love Big Books and I can not lie

I just love this stamp from Unity, I bought it specifically for the end of year teacher gifts.  My daughter helped make the cards as well and I had to explain the joke to her.  Not sure my husband apprciated me teaching "the song" to my seven year old daughter.  Finally got the mini albums done and these went with them.  I will post a picture and video of the albums later but for now I need to get ready for a nice long weekend.

 

Supplies used: Lily Bee Paper, Unity Stamps, Spellbinders Floral Motifs, Spellbinders Lacey Circles

Christmas Mini Album # 2

I am sharing the second of three mini albums I made for Christmas gifts.  This one was for my mother in law and she loves bright colors so I made this one from the Mango Frost stack by DCWV.  This was one of her favorite paper stacks and I wanted to use papers I knew she would love.  I will be posting the third album later this week and with that one I will post a video since I find its really hard to take pictures to show the albums with all the flaps, pull outs etc.

Supplies used: DCWV Mango Frost, Spellbinders Butterflies 2, Blossoms 2,  Flower Bouquet Miniabilities, MS Doiley Lace Border Punch

Volunteer Thank You

I made these cards to go with a small gift that I will be giving to the volunteers in the Preschool Class I teach at church.  I will post the gift after this week (no sneak peaks) but I wanted to make a nice thank you card to go with the gift to let them know how appreciated they are.  I love teaching the 2 and 3 year olds but lets be honest it can be a challenging age group and these are people who actually want to be there and I can't thank them enough for making a difference in the life of a small child.

Supplies used: EP Be Mine Paper, Spellbinders Blossom 2, Spellbinders SW Blossom Tags and Accents, Unity Stamps Blossom Stackers. Distress Ink, Bling

Die Cut Easel Card

I just love making easel cards and one of my favorite kinds is the die cut easel card.  The only thing is that not all my family knows how to open them and it can be a a bit awkward when I have to show them how to open it and display it.  Luckily I think I have them all trained by now and I can make them to my hearts content

Supplies used: Unity Stamps EP Be Mine, Carta Belle So Noted Paper, Spellbinders Foliage, Blossom 2, Butterflies 2, Lacey Squares

FWF Easter Baskets Continued

After making my first Easter basket, I got a request for another one.  So I decided to make it for Crop Chocolate's flower challenge and Unity Stamp's friends with flair.  The flowers were made with the income tax act and I used Unity Stamp's Heartly Barley stamp set (it's so versatile I love using it on projects for the kids).

Supplies used: Spellbinders Floral Doiley Motifs, Floral Doiley Accents, MME So Sophie Paper, DCWV Card Stock, I Roc Bling, Festive Berries and Dusty Concord Distress Ink, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, Unity Stamp Co Heartly Barley Stamp Set

Easter Basket with Spellbinders

It's getting close to Easter here, although you wouldn't know by looking at the snow that is falling right now. I love using glitter paper with Spellbinders dies, and I decided to use it to create an Easter Basket for my daughter. I always enjoy making things like this for her because she appreciates them so much and this style is sturdy enough for a young child to handle without tearing. I used the Classic Bracket and Classic Triple Scallop Edgeabilities to create the handle from 2 layers of cardstock. I then added a decorative strip of the glitter cardstock down the center for a bit of sparkle. I then cut some more of the glitter cardstock and made some decorate strips with the Classic Petal because my daughter loves bling and sparkle. To finish it off I made some flowers with Spellbinders Rose creations and added some leaves and its now ready for the egg hunt.

Basket Detail

Closeup of the Flower

Supplies used:  Spellbinders Rose Creations, Classic Bracket Edgeabilities, Classic Triple Scallop Edgeabilities, Classic Petal Edgeabilities, Spellbinders Foliage, American Crafts Cardstock, MME Quite Contrary Paper, Glitter Cardstock, Prima Pearls 

Tax Act Flowers

Our the DT theme for this month was nature inspired, and I knew right away what I wanted to do.  I first saw flowers made with the dictionary a long time ago but I didn't have one and I didn't want to buy one just to cut up when I knew I had another book made of the same type of paper.  I am an accountant (not a tax accountant) and I have a few out dated copies of The Income Tax Act and they were perfect for this kind of flower.  I used Hearty Barely stamps from Unity Stamp Co.  They are so cute and just perfect for little note cards for my daughter.  She loves getting them in her lunch and in fact when she saw me making the flowers she asked if I could use them on cards for her and then picked out the stamps (little imp).

Step 1
Cut 8-10 scallop circles, I folded my paper and cut 4 at once

Step 2

Ink the circles

Step 3
Spray with water or glimmer type mist

Step 4
Scrunch the circles as small as they can get

Step 5
When the circles are dry flatten them out and stack neatly on top of each other, put a brad in the centre

Step 6
Starting with the first layer pull it up around the brad and repeat for the other layers, once they are all done you can pull them apart and "fluff" the flower, after I was done I inked the edges but this is optional

  
Products used:

• Winter Festive Berries Distress Ink
• MME So Sophie Savvy Paper
• MM Brads
• Spellbinders Scallop Circles
• Spellbinders Lacey Circles
• Unity Stamps Heartly Barley

My Core’dinations Creative Frenzy

My favorite cardstock to use is Core'dinations and I have to be honest I tend to save it for only my favorite projects.  What makes this cardstock so great is that it has a different color core and that means you can do wonderful things to expose it.  I love to emboss and then sand the embossed area to show the other color underneath.  It works so well with spellbinders, because when you emboss the die cuts you can sand them to show the color underneath.  Here are my three projects:

Quad Easel Card
This is a such a hard card to photograph and I wish I knew a way to take pictures that show all aspects of it because its very dimensional and hard to photograph as a result.  I love making easel cards and these are so much fun to make.

Supplies used:

• Core'dinations Aqua/Pink/White
• Core'dinations Whitewash
• Spellbinders Flower Bouquet Miniabilities
• Flowers
• Brads
• CTMH Ink

Easel Card
I have to admit I love making easel cards so for my next card I made a regular easel card.  I made the flowers using the Black Magic Card stock, and I like the contrast it gives to the flowers.  The top and bottom flowers were made using the same color I just rolled them in the opposite way to expose the other color.

Supplies used:

• Core'dinations Black Magic
• Core'dinations Rose/White
• Spellbinders Foliage
• Spellbinders Floral Doily Accents
• Twine
• Bling

Thank you card
This was a clean and simple card using the Core'dinations white for the base and flower and then I used the blue in behind the flower.  The flower was made using Spellbinders Blossom 2 and the tutorial can be found here (just scroll to the bottom).

Supplies used:

• Core'dinations white/blue
• Spellbinders Blossom 2
• Unity Stamps Blossom Stackers
• Memento Ink

Valetines Tags

Wow where did the month go?  It seems like last week that I was rushing to get my valentines out and now its the 25th.  These are tags I made one was for my daughter and the other was for a secret swap partner.  My swap partner has a very different style than I do so I decided to make one for my daughter and use it as a prototype for the second.  I love how both turned out and I love the script background stamp, it adds just a nice detail.

Supplies used:
Hero Arts French Script Background Stamp
Spellbinders Blossoms 2
Spellbinders Floral Foliage
DCWV Be Mine Paper
Trinity Paper Arts Sincerely Yours

Valentine's Easel Card-FWF

I recently published an iGram for a "pizza style box" and one of the questions I get asked most often is what are they used for.  I like to use them for Easel Cards, they are the perfect holder, I made one to hold this Valentine card for my husband.  I got to use my unity stamps I got at Christmas from the EP Be Mine Collection.  They are so nice and I loved using my new stamps.

Inside of the Card

Supplies used:

• Trinity Arts Paper
• Spellbinders Blossom 2
• Spellbinders Foliage
• Unity Stamps Be Mine
• Hero Arts Stamps
• Distress Inks

Tax Time

It's almost tax time and I am getting tax stuff in the mail so I thought it would be a great time to post this card.  The flowers were made using the income tax act, its a card for an a crafty accountant so I think she will appreciate the flower.

Supplies used:

• MME Portebello Road
• Spellbinders Scallop Circles
• Spellbinders Label14
• Tax Act
• Distress Ink
• MM Flourish 

Die Cut Easel Card

I love making easel cards and I thought my new spellbinders postage stamp dies would make a great die cut easel card.  I made the flower from the income tax act, I am an accountant and it's year end (which means I am crazy busy with work) but crafting is my stress buster and this seemed fitting for year end.

Closeup of the flower

Supplies used:

• Spellbinders Postage Stamps
• Spellbinders Scallops Circles
• Spellbinders Rose Creations
• MME Portebello Road 6x6
• Distress Ink

Glitter Flowers

I made this birthday card for my Mom's birthday, and I decided to combine it with a challenge at Crop Chocolate as well.  The challenge was to use ribbon and something else (bling, glitter, buckles, etc).  So I decided to use glitter.  I made the flower by stamping Aztec Flowers 2 using embossing ink, and then using heat and stick powder.  I then heated the powder till it melted and viola I have a great glue for glitter, then I sprinkled black glitter on the glue and cut the flowers out with my spellbinders.  The heat and stick powder is great for glitter it doesn't flake off at all.  I had tried the glue pads for stamps but the glue never seemed to hold and then someone suggested heat and stick powder and what a difference.

Closeup of the flower

Products used:

• Carta Bella 6x6 Paris Girl
• Carta Bella Craft Cardstock
• MS Black Glitter
• Spellbinders Blossom 2
• Heartfelt Creations Aztec Flowers 2

Flower Box

I made this box a little while ago from 2 sheets of 8x8 DCWV baby girl paper. I followed the instructions on my scoring board and came up with this. I liked how it came out but so did my daughter as she staked a claim before it was even finished. I am joking here she oohed and awed over it and then asked very nicely if she could have it. How could I resist? It is holding her treasures in her room and she is very proud of it. I liked how the flower turned out, it was the same one I used on the tutorial I made.

Supplies:

• Spellbinders Blossom 2
• Spellbinders Floral Doiley Accents
• Spellbinders Foliage
• DCWV Baby Girl 8x8

Core Cards Creative Frenzy

Core'dinations is having a DT call for a card maker and since I love their products so much I decided to try out.  One of my favorite things about their cardstock is the different color core.  You can do so many things with it but my favorite is to emboss and then sand it.  It is very heavy and makes a great base cardstock as well, so don't think you have to do anything besides use it. Here are my three cards

Whitewash Card
For my first card I chose this beautiful Whitewash cardstock, I love this paper and wish I could get it locally. Unfortunately I can only get it from the US and I have only been able to get a bit, but now that they have 6x6 pads I will be able to get it shipped in.  I really love working with the Whitewash, it is so soft and elegant.

Supplies used:

• Victoria CB Folder
• Spellbinders Flying Beauties
• Core'dinations Whitewash
• Core'dinations Cardstock (teal)
• Core'dinations Pearl Cardstock
• Pearls

 Faux Criss Cross Card
In the DT post, Core'dinations specifically mentioned that they were looking for people to create cards using A2 card bases.  Even though I don't have Core'dinations card bases I challenged myself to start with an A2 card base.  For this card I made a faux Criss Cross card from an A2 base.  I used regular Core'dinations cardstock for the card pocket, some Black Magic for the belly band, and some Whitewash for the cupcake embelishment

Supplies used:

• Core'dinations Cardstock (White, Teal)
• Core'dinations Whitewash
• Core'dinations Blackmagic
• Spellbinders Big Scallop Circles
• Spellbinders Lacey Ovals
• Martha Stewart Swirling Lace Punch

Flower Card

I made a flower card for my final card, because I wanted to show a tutorial on the flower.  I made a video for Crop Chocolate but I never made a step by step tutorial so I thought I would combine them together.  I love making these flowers, and they are very versatile.  I have used them on boxes, cards, scrapbook pages, and even altered items.

Here is the video tutorial I made for the flower, it was my first time doing a video and I remember having to do it over three times. Thankfully I later learned how to edit them, I don't think I would have ever done another.



Step 1:
Cut three flowers of the same shape but in different sizes (I used Spellbinders Blossom 2)

Step 2:
Emboss the flowers (I used CB folder Victoria)

Step 3:
Sand the embossing (this brings out the core color of the Core'dinations)

Step 4:
Cut the flowers between the petals, about a 1/2" for the larger flowers a bit less for the smaller ones

Step 5:
Curl the petals of the flowers up, you can use a bone folder, something round or just your fingers

 Step 6:
Glue each layer together, try to offset the points of the petals between layers.  Add an embellishment to the center  you can use a button, brad, or another flower.

Supplies used:

• Core'dinations Cardstock (white, light and dark purple)
• Spellbinders floral flourishes
• Spellbinders Blossom 2
• Spellbinders Flower Bouquet Miniabilities
• Twine

Core'dinations Hard Core Crop Die Cut Challenge

I made this easel card for the Core'dinations hard core crop.  This was for Andrea's challenge, the challenge was to create a layered and dimensional die cut with Core'dinations paper.  I made the flower from some purple Core'dinations I had and then embossed and sanded to get the other color to come through.  If you haven't used their card stock before you should.  It is very heavy but has the added benefit of a different color once you sand the surface.

Easel Card

Close up of the flower

Closeup of the bottom

Supplies:
Core'dinations card stock
Spellbinders Blossom 2
Spellbinders Floral Doiley Accents
EP Springtime Paper
Twine
Pearls