Sugar Nellie Girl in Pan Pastel

Today’s card features a beautiful stamp which is produced by Sugar Nellie (Funky Kits) and drawn by Leanne Ellis.  They can be found HERE.  The image was colored in with my Pan Pastels.  After painting her up, I gave a quick few coats of Matte Permanent Fixative to ensure that the Pastel would not budge.  I love the soft painted type look that you get from pastels.  The colors of these pastels are so vibrant and rich, and they blend like a dream.  It almost feels silky to the touch.  On top of coloring in my images, I use my pastels for shading in my die-cuts.  The one downside of course is that I do have to spray my fixative all the time.  Not much of a downside I suppose when you see them in person.  The rest of my card is pretty simple.  The doily is cut from a Papertrey die, and is called Parisian Lace doily . The banner is from my Spellbinder Ribbon Banners die set, which is from their newest release.  The stamp set for the greeting is another Papertrey die called Handwritten Notes.  The whole card was kept simple so as not to take away from the focal image.

Hope you enjoy,

Supplies:

  • Paper: Basic Black CS, white (Papertrey), Mellow 6″x 6″ DP paperpack (Basic Grey), Baja Breeze colored Canson Mi-Tiente paper
  • Coloring Medium:  Pan Pastels, Soft tools
  • Ink:  Black (Memories), Tea dye, Vintage Photo Distress ink (Ranger ink)
  • Stamps:  Handwritten Notes, Dreamer (Sugar Nellie)
  • Dies:Parisian Lace Doily (Papertrey), Ribbon Banner (Spellbinder)
  • Other:  adhesive pearls (Hero Arts), Roses (Prima), 1 1/2″ Old Olive striped Grosgrain ribbon (Stampin’Up!), Sponges, Sponge Dauber

Hero Arts Life of the Party Birthday Card

You’ve heard me say it once, you’ll hear me say it again – I absolutely LOVE Hero Arts  products. And, no, I’m not being paid to say that LOL.  I first became aware of their products about a year ago when I accidentally stumbled on Jennifer McGuire’s blog.  Now Jennifer can pretty much make you fall in love with just about anything – as she has such a fresh, fun style.  However, after seeing the stuff she did with Hero Arts stamps, and then hopping over to the Hero Arts blog, I found that I really liked pretty much everything I saw with the Hero Arts stamps.

Today’s card is a pretty simple one I put together using some stamps from the Hero Arts Life of the Party Collection.  The ice cream cone and the ticket both come from the Life of the Party Birthday stamp set, and the background which I stamped onto the Kraft cardstock (CS) is the Life of the Party Stars stamp.

Here’s a list of the supplies I used:

Stamps: CL514 Life of the Party Birthday, CG299 Life of the Party Stars (Hero Arts)
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa Ink (Tuskineko); Tea Dye Distress Ink, Spun Sugar Distress Ink (Ranger)
Paper: Pumpkin Pie CS (Stampin’ Up!); Kraft CS (Papertrey Ink); Lime Rickey and Lemonade 6″ x 6″ paper pads (Basic Gray)
Accessories: 1/8″ Pumpkin Pie Taffeta ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals (Stampin’ Up!); orange rhinestones, green rhinestones (Dollar store); ink applicator tool (Ranger)

Hog Wild Birthday Pop-up Card

Have any of you  seen the new Sizzix dies which were recently released?  If you haven’t, then please do, they are AMAZING!!! 

Ok, so why all the exclamation marks?  Well many of you know how much I love doing pop-ups, and while I can make them no problem, I sometimes find it time consuming, and dare I say, kinda boring.  Don’t get me wrong, I love getting into the meat and potatoes of it (ie. the decorating), but the mechanisms can be a bit of a long process.  So that is where these fantastic dies come in.  You just cut, and get straight into decorating.  No muss, no fuss.  I pick out my colors and run it through my machine, and away I go! 

So of course, I had to buy the entire new release to try out lol.  Today I am featuring the new Scallop Circle 3-D die which is to die for (excuse the pun).  It allows a quick simple multi tier pop-up design.  Simply cut, insert into your desired card size (no smaller then 3″ x 5″), and decorate in one of the million ways that you can do.  A picture of the die in use from the Sizzix Website is show below.

So for my card today, I have a whole bunch of fun die shapes going on.  I used a Cuttle Kidz die of a pig which is ultra cute, A Quickutz Barn (easily replaced with another company barn) and Grass, a Martha Stewart grass die, and some Papertrey clouds.  I have a ton of other shapes as well which are listed in the supplies.  There is also a few freehand cuts which will be shown in the upcoming video on Paper Crafter’s Library, as well as some other neat products.
Hope you enjoy

Supplies:

  • Paper:  Basic Black, Real Red, Pear Pizzazz, Chocolate Chip, Blushing Bride, Basic Grey, Groovy Guava (retired), Cool Carribean (retired), Kiwi Kiss CS and DP (retired), Close to Cocoa (retired) (Stampin’Up!), White, Spring Moss (Papertrey)
  • Inks: Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo, Black Soot, Tea Dye, Shabby Shutter, Tattered Rose, Aged Mahogony, Walnut Stain, Pine Needle Distress ink (Ranger inc)
  • Dies/Punches/Digital Die Cuts:   Barn, Grass, Splat, Supermarket Alphabet, Diesel Alphabet (Quickutz), Pig (Provo Craft), clouds, Scallop border  (Papertrey), dripping goop border, grass border (Martha Stewart), Scallop 3-D Circle Bigz die (Sizzix), Birthday Boy (Silhouette)
  • Other:  Sponges, Sponge Daubers, White Sharpie marker, Kiwi Kiss ribbon, Silhouette die machine, Sizzix Big Shot machine, Marvy brown Puffy Velvet Fabric Marker, Dimensionals, Red liner tape

Get Well Soon Door Pocket Gift Hanger

Well I have to say that I am in LOVE with the May Release from Cottage Cutz!  All the dies are kitchen themed, and I have to say that I adore food type stamps and dies.  Take a look at them HERE to see all the available ones.  For those of you interested, I will also have a video coming soon in the library showing some of these fabulous dies, as well as a video of today’s feature project. 
Now today’s project is probably going into my favorites list lol.  I am thrilled with the image panel.  The door hanging box was pretty simple to design, and the dimensions and instructions will be available in the PDF which accompanies the video.  I started by cutting out the pieces for my door hanger and box, then created a wood grain background on all portions of the box which would show.  In retrospect, I probably should have also done the inside portions. (Creating a wood grain BG video is available in Library).  The Stock pot and all accompanying veggies (I am not using all the types available) were cut from SU CS, and were accented with Copic markers, sponged with Distress ink, and highlighted with Pan Pastels.  The chicken is from an old Sizzix die which is retired, but in can be found on Ebay, or you can replace with any die cut chicken or stamped chicken.  The “Get Well Soon” was cut with my Silhouette.
So what can you use this little door hanger for?  Well, how about a few Cup a Soup packets, Neo Citrine, gift card to the book store along with the last two items, or some lozenges and kleenex.  The possibilities are endless.
thanks for looking,

Supplies:

  • Paper:  More Mustard, Basic Grey, Pumpkin Pie, Poppy Parade, Wild Wasabi, Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green, Creamy Caramel, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Very Vanilla CS (Stampin’UP!), White (Papertrey), Shimmer Vanilla cryogenic CS
  • Ink:  Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Tumbled Glass, Aged Mahogony, Black Soot, Peeled Paint, Pine Needle, Rusty Hinge, Dusty Concord Distress ink (Ranger inc)
  • Dies/Punches:  Stock Pot (Cottage Cutz dies) , Chicken and Eggs (Sizzix retired), Deckle Rectangle (Spellbinders), 1 3/4″ Circle punch (Stampin’Up!), Silhouette die cut machine, Get Better Soon (Silhouette Store),  Cuttlebug machine
  • Coloring Mediums:  white Pan Pastel, Copic Markers
  • Other:  Multi purpose glue, Scissors, Tweezers, Sticky Strip, Dimensionals, Coarse glitter (Martha Stewart), 2-way glue pen (Stampin’Up!), Sponges, sponge daubers, White gel  pen, Black gel pen

 

    

Cricut Pop-up Neigborhood- 3D truck

I have to say, that I am really loving this new Cricut Circle exclusive cartridge called Pop-up Neighboorhood.  Now If you are wondering what the Cricut Circle is, it is a membership based “club” (for lack of a better word), where you pay a fee, and get access to a private member forum, get each month a online exclusive magazine, and get 1 free cartridge per quarter.  If you totally love the Exclusive cartridges and only want the one, then you can sign up for just one quarter.  Otherwise, you can sign up for longer and get the four exclusive cartridges without renewing your quarterly membership.  You can find more info about it HERE.  Just so you know, you will only be able to get this one for the next few months, and then it is gone.  Anyways, being the die cutting freak that I am, I love owning lots of cartridges.  This one was an absolute must have for me, as I love Pop-Ups.  Ok, so there is not a lot of stuff to do for this card, but it is a bit time consuming.  You will see the video for this card probably next week (yes it is already filmed lol).  I wanted to create something cute and fun as a birthday card, for any of the special boys in your life.  And wait till you see my idea for a scrapbook page using this cartridge.  It is a whole lot of fun!  Hope you have a fantastic day.

stampin’ hugs,

Supplies:

  • Paper:  Chocolate Chip CS, Poppy Parade CS, Basic Black CS, Basic Grey CS, Soft Sky CS, Kiwi Kiss CS, Close to Cocoa CS, Sahara Sand, Wild Wasabi CS (Stampin’ Up!) White (Papertrey)
  • Ink:  Broken China, Black Soot, Shabby Shuter, Pine Needle, Vintage Photo, Aged Mahogany Distress ink (Ranger Inc)
  • Cartridges/Dies:  Cricut Circle Exclusive Pop-Up Neighboorhood (Provo Craft), grass, splat, rocks (Quickutz retired, but still found on Ebay, or you can exchange these for similar cuts on other Cricut Cartridges, or free hand it), Grass border punch (Martha Stewart), Curved Rectangles (Spellbinder)
  • Other:  tweezers, sponges, sponge daubers, glue dots, dimensionals, multi-purpose glue, White gel pen, Stickles, Sakura Stardust pen, Quickutz hand tool

Snapshot of Donut and Coffee

Not my usual style I realize, but I was looking to do something a little different.  I have this old Quickutz die which is of a Poloroid, and I wanted to use it in some capacity!  I also have this fabulous stamp set from Hero Arts called “Have a Donut”.  It has been begging to be inked.  So voila!  Here is the result.  It is not quite what I thought it would be, but it is growing on me.  The background was stamped with Hero Arts “Crossword” on a Craft Cardstock card base.  The corners of the card were first rounded off with a 1/2″ corner chomper.  The Background was stamped in Frayed Burlap Distress ink, then sponged along the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink.  I next took my Tim Holtz Spills and Splatters stamp set, and using the coffee ring image, stamped it along one side with Close to Cocoa Craft ink.  Next this was embossed with Clear embossing powder to give it a wet look.  The next step was to grab my White Pan Pastels, and with a soft tool, add a bit of lightness to the open squares of the crossword puzzle.  Next step was to punch a 1/8″ hole along the top, and run some Chocolate and White bakers twine around the front three times.
The image is simply made with my Quickutz die, a Soft Sky background was sponged with Chipped Saphire Distress ink, and water sprinkled on.  The images were stamped on Copic Express paper, colored with my Copics, then cut out.  A little lipstick stain was added with my Copic marker.  The donut white whipped cream was created with my white Marvy Puffy Paint marker.  The table was made on More Mustard CS, sponged with Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, and Tea dye, then stamped with the Hero Arts Woodgrain BG to create the table.
Hope you enjoy,

Supplies:

  • Stamps: Have a Donut , Crossword, Woodgrain BG (Hero Arts), Spills and Splatters (Tim Holtz)
  • Ink:  Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Walnut Stain, Frayed Burlap, Chipped Saphire Distress ink (Ranger ink), Black (Stewart Superior Hybrid)
  • Paper:  Soft Sky, More Mustard, Crumb Cake, (Stampin’UP!), PTI White (Papertrey), Copic Express CS
  • Dies:  Poloroid (Quickutz), can also find same cut with Silhouette or Cricut ( or you can cut white CS  3 1/2″ x 4 1/4″
  • Coloring Medium:  Copic markers
  • Other:  Clear embossing powder, Heat tool, chocolate twine (Papertrey), White puffy marker (Marvy Ushida), White Pan Pastel, Soft tool, Cuttlebug

 

    Artful Dwellings Wall Art

    I wanted to create something with the new Tim Holtz Artful Dwellings die.  It is absolutely the coolest die!  It is part of the movers and shapers style, which means that you can move around the doors and windows, or have none of those at all.  I didn’t feel like doing a card, so I made this 8″ x 8″ wall art piece.  It is meant to represent family, the passage of time, the pain, and the beauty.  All other elements minus the Artful dwellings die are made with my silhouette, but the great thing is, that for each element, there is a fantastic Tim Holz die to go with it.  There are flourish dies, tattered floral die, and clock die.  How can you not have fun with that!  Hope you enjoy, and have a wonderful day!

    Supplies:

    • Stamps:  Butterfly Garden (Pinkpaislee), Baroque Motifs (Stampin’UP!), Grid (Kaisar Krafts), variety of flourishes ( Memory Box)
    • Dies:  Tim Holtz Artful Dwellings (Sizzix), poppy, flourish, clock, butterfly (Silhouette)
    • Ink:  Chipped Saphire, Black Soot, Aged Mahogony, Vintage Photo, Pine Needle, Marmalade Distress ink (Ranger Inc)
    • Paper:  Stella Ruby (Basic Grey), Daffodll Delight, Basic Black, Soft Sky, Poppy Parade (Stampin’Up!)
    • Other:Stardust Stickles, Lemon Yellow dimensional pearls, Tim Holtz Ideology Borderline mask (Ranger Inc),   Tiny Type stickers (Cosmo Cricket), Midnight Blue Glimmer mist, Tombow multi-purpose adhesive, Basic Rhinestones (Stampin’Up!), Sponges, sponge daubers, multi-pupose adhesive, 2-way glue pen, tweezers, scissors.

    bowl of cherries with hovering bee

    Ok, so I admit that I am on something of a Silhouette kick.  But I am very excited to show everyone how easy it is to use!  The software has entered my house, and I am just starting to learn it.  In the meantime, I do have a quick card to share with you wich is from my Silhouette.  The cherry bowl and cherries along with the card and labels are fom the Silhouette.  Can you see the delicate little stems?  That is how fine I can get with my machine.  The little bee is from a Cuttlebug die, and is one of my favorite bee images.  The really cool thing is how the bee is mounted to my card.  I created a little spring to attach it.  This way it gets way more lift, and is positionable as well as movable.  The spring itself is so easy to make.  All you need is a fine gage wire which is thin enough to cut with normal scissors.  You also need 6 glue dots and 4 circle paper punch outs.  Simply wrap the wire around a pencil one and a half times around to two and a half times around.  The less turns you do, the less stiff it will be (also more movement will be created when it is not compressed to much).  Next sandwich each end of wire between to circle punch outs, and two glue dots.  Finally attach one paper end to your bee with a glue dot, and the other end to your card with a glue dot.  I know it is kind of hard to see, but the bee really rocks!
    have a great day,

    Supplies:

    • Paper:  Basic Black, Soft Sky (retired), Daffodil Delight, Very Vanilla (Stampin’Up!), October Afternoon DP,  Mr Campy DP (Cosmo Cricket)
    • Die/Punches/Machines: Cherry’s and bowl, Tag, Card (Silhouette), Bee (Cuttlebug), 3/8″ Circle punch
    • Ink: Tumbled Glass, Marmalade, Vintage Photo, Tea Dye,  Chipped Saphire, Aged Mahogony Distress Ink (Ranger Inc)
    • Other:  Copic markers, dimensionals, multi-purpose adhesive, wire, glue dots, White gel pen,  Silhouette machine, Cuttlebug machine, Sponges

    Mr. Busy

    This little card is a great representation of mine and my sisters life some days lol.  I love these little characters which are from a series of books that I read as a child.  And every piece of this card except the grass was done on my Silhouette!  Can you say Love Affair?  I have had it for awhile, but I was never fond of the Robo Coup Software.  It was not instinctavely easy to use.  Well let me tell you, since they have changed to the new Silhouette Studio Software, I am in HEAVEN!!!!  It is so easy to use.  I can easily import graphic images and do print and cut, I can cut the most delicate lines, and I can by cut files by the image rather then by the cartridge.  Does this mean that I don’t love my other machines?  Absolutely not!  I love my Cricut, but would not want to be without my silhouette also.  They are a different breed of animal lol.

      Speaking of which, If you are a Cricut owner, and are on the fence about the SCAL software, well I am sad to say, that as of May 27th, version 1 and 2 which are Cricut Compatible, will no longer be available. All legal battles between Provo Craft and Craft Edge Inc (makers of SCAL) have been resolved and this is the result, that you will no longer be able to purchase it.  If you already have it then you can continue to use it.  If you upgrade to version 3 (which is for use with other digital cutters) then you will lose the ability to use it with your Cricut.

    So anyways, I will be working on a series of video’s using the Silhouette, as soon as the software to film your computer sceen gets to me lol.  I am so excited to share this with you as it is truly an amazing product.  I will still be filming Cricut video’s (heaven knows how much of my income goes to them lol).  Hope you enjoy,

    Supplies:

    • Paper:  Summer Sun CS (retired), Pacific Point CS, Chocolate Chip CS (retired), Whisper White CS (Stampin’Up!), Black (Bazzil), Spring Moss (Papertrey)
    • Dies/Cutters/Punches:  Grass (Martha Stewart), Silhouette Machine, Mr. Busy, Sun Card (Silhouette of America)
    • Coloring Medium:  Copic Markers
    • Ink:  Alabaster, Peach Pastel (Colorbox Pigment ink), Vintage Photo, Marmalade, Shabby Shutter, Walnut Stain, Chipped Saphire Distress ink (Ranger inc)
    • Other:  White Poster Paint marker (Sharpie), Sponges, dimensionals, sponge daubers, multi-purpose adhesive

    Beach Girl

    Boy do I want summer to get  here!  I want warm, soft, sandy beaches.  I think tup with hat I managed to capture my desire here lol.  I took this older Hanglar and Stanglar image, and colored her in with my Copics.  There is just a touch of pencil shading on the deepest shadows.  The surf and sand image is also colored in with Copic, and the video for that can be found in the library.  The crab is a one piece die cut which was shaded with Copic markers, and the waves are cut from a fiscars Wave border punch.  There is a desent amount of bling with the Sakura Stardust pen which I used liberally on my scene. The card itself is pretty simple.  Just a couple of layers so as not to take away from the image.  In order to get the sand look, simply do some liberal dotting with a white gel pen, black gel pen, Sakura stardust pen, and a dark brown waterbased marker.
    Thanks so much for looking!

    Supplies:

    • Stamps:Girl (Hanglar and Stanglar, there is a newer beach pair available under the Duo Kits), Beach Scene (High Hopes Stamps)
    • Paper:  Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Early Espresso (Stampin’Up!), Copic Express paper, Unknown DP
    • Dies/Punches: Crab (Quickutz retired can replace with a Martha Stewart punch), Fiskars Wave border punch (available at any Michaels)
    • Other:  Sakura Stardust pen, Sharpie marker black and White poster paint marker, multi-purpose adhesive,
    • Coloring Medium:  Copic markers, one brown prismacolor pencil and Gamsol