great place for sketches

Hey all, I wanted to share this awesome place for scrapbook and card sketches.  I've always found that it's much easier to make a card or page when you know what the layout will be ahead of time.  I bought a binder called Page Maps by Becky Fleck months ago and it has been very useful.  I didn't realize she had a website and shares for free new sketches every month. Check it out!

http://www.pagemaps.com/

Ornament Punch order details

Hi All, I've gotten details from several readers that you can order the SU! Ornament punch either through your demonstrator or at http://www.stampinup.com/.  This is a write-in item as it isn't in the current catalog or mini-catalog.  The item number is 116794 and the price is $15.95.  If you don't have this punch, you have to buy it!!!  I use it for just about every punch project I do.  Of course, if you don't have access to SU! punches, you can check out my ornament punch substitute instructions HERE.  I have quite a few readers outside the US and Canada.  For those readers, you may not know that the SU! punches are manufactured by EK Success.  Several of the punch shapes that SU! sells can be found wherever EK Success is sold.  Several of the punches are exclusive to SU! such as the ornament, butterfly, boho blossoms & heart to heart (I believe) but the basic shape ones are not.  Hope this helps those readers that really want to create my punch art but have no access to SU! punches.  Happy punching!

Build A Bear card

I had to put this cute little bear on a card.  I used the To The Nines designer series papers by Stampin' Up!

Build-a-Bear Gets a Makeover

I bet all of you people who don't like the sizzix build-a-bear die will change your mind after seeing this little guy!  Presenting the new and improved Build a Bear.  tada!

Build a Bear Notes Holder
Build a Bear Eissel Card

It's amazing how you can make something so much better by adding some punches!  You will need the following Stampin' Up! punches:
1 3/8" Circle for the head
3/4" Circle for outer ears
1/2" Circle for inner ears
Small oval for muzzle
Ornament for belly (or ornament substitute)
Heart to Heart (small heart) for nose
2 teardrop eyes (if you don't have a teardrop punch, see teardrop substitute)

Other supplies:
Sizzix Build-a-Bear die (Stampin' Up!)
Close to Cocoa and Creamy Caramel carstocks
Basic black for eyes and nose
chocolate chip ink pad and sponge
uni-ball white gel pen, zig detail black pen
dimensionals, mono liquid glue

1. Clip off the top of the ornament and round out the bottom.  Sponge the edges of all cocoa and caramel pieces with chocolate chip ink pad.
2. Attach belly to body with dimensionals
3. Glue ears onto head (line up the ears on the die to the 3/4" circles for placement).
4. Glue heart onto small oval. Clip away top of heart.  Attach muzzle to face with dimensional.
5. Glue eyes on and add detailing with gel pen and zig.
6. Attach face to head with dimensionals.
7. Add ribbons, etc.  You could punch a heart and attach to chest like original die.  I left that off.

What a way to start the day

I was driving to work today and traveling on the freeway going about 65 miles per hour.  The car in front of me all of a sudden lost their muffler.  It came flying at me at 65 miles per hour!  Needless to say, even though I swerved to miss it, it still struck my car on the driver side.  Thankfully it didn't cause me to lose control of my car or hit another car trying to get out of the way.  Thankfully my insurance has deemed it a comprehensive claim so I don't have to come up with the deductible.  Funny, when I called to submit the claim, I was told that if the muffler was sitting stationary on the road and I hit it, it would be considered collision but since I was hit by a moving object, it's considered comprehensive.  Go figure.  I just hate the pain of taking my car to a body shop and having to find other means of transportation for a day or 2.

Internet browsers

Hi all, it appears that sometimes certain elements of my blog sometimes don't show up in Internet Explorer.  I personally stopped using IE a long time ago after trying out Google Chrome.  This browser is so much faster and personally, I think safer as well.  If you haven't tried out this free browser yet, you should give it a try, you will be happy you did!  Incidentally, anyone that has had problems viewing my blog in IE, had no problems with Chrome.

http://www.google.com/chrome

Bunny Behind card

I thought it would be fun to do an easter card with Peter Cotton tail and showing his fluffy tail from behind.  I finally broke down and used my Parisian DSP which is retired and I wish I had bought much more of it!!!

Stampin Up Punches needed:

body parts punched out of parisian dsp and tail punched out of textured white cardstock

Ornament - body

1 1/4" circle - head

Small oval - ears

Butterfly (cut in half) - feet

Boho Blossoms - tail

Create the fluffy tail by misting the boho blossom pieces with water (I like to use Febreze).  Wad up pieces to wrinkle.  Unfold and let dry.  Glue pieces together (layering one at a time).  Fluff up edges.  Sponge edges of body pieces with chocolate chip ink.

Card layers measurements:

6 x 12 kraft or caramel colored cardstock folded in half for base of card

5 7/8 x 5 7/8 flower print Parisian DSP

2 x 5 7/8 striped DSP

4 1/2 x 3 polka dot DSP

sign die cut with Nestabilities Label #1

Well Scripted stamp set for easter stamp in chocolate chip

kraft taffetta ribbon

Popcorn Bear

I spotted this cute little bear on SCS and fell in love.  So I got several sets and this is my first creation with Popcorn Bear and I actually dug out my copic markers and used them!  You can see from the photo but several of the flowers are cut out and popped for dimension and they are also glittered with dazzling diamonds.  The background paper with the daffodils was stamped (SCS technique challenge for this week).

Carrot Cone

I saw this technique tutorial on SCS and just had to adapt it to a carrot treat cone!  For the basic cone instructions, go HERE.  To create the carrot, follow the instructions below.

Cut a circle 8 inches in diameter.  If you want longer "greens", cut the circle bigger.  The circle needs to be pliable to mold it.  Lay the circle on some paper towel and spritz with water (I prefer to use febreze because it  makes the paper a little softer and it smells good to).  Wad the circle up into a tight ball and then flatten back out as shown.

Pinch the center of the circle and gather up the edges until you have a semi folded cone in your hand as shown.

Cut 1 inch off the tip of the cone as shown.

Apply a strong adhesive like sticky strip on the inside rim of the cone and then adhere the tip of the cone around the edges of the cone as shown.  You will need to fold and pleat the edges of the paper to fit nicely onto the edge of the cone. For the outer edge of the cone, I punched a strip of certainly celery cardstock with the scallop border punch, sprayed with water and wadded it up, flatten back out and glue in place around outer edge of cone.

Fill cone with treats and then gather the top closed and tie closed with a celery satin ribbon.  You could attach a hand stamped card if you choose.  I created a card (that isn't shown in the picture) that features a little Bunny Chow poem (stamp by Inky Antics)

Hopping on his way to a picnic lunch,
a bunny paused for something to munch.
He reached in his basket for a treat,
something tasty for us to eat!
Not lettuce...not carrots...
it was Bunny Chow!
Who needs vitamins, anyhow?

SCS challenges

I wanted to try out 2 different challenges over at SCS.  One was the Sketch Challenge #270 and the other is a technique called Circle Medallion.  This is such a cool technique!  You have to try this out yourself.  Becca has a great video tutorial HERE.  For this card, I used K&Company designer paper paired with the Well Scripted stamp set.  

comment moderation suggestions?

In an effort to make it easy for people to leave a comment at my site, I've been opened up to spammers as well. It's frustrating as I have accidentally erased nice comments from my readers as I was deleting all of this pornographic spam!  Those of you that have blogs, what do you find is the easiest for visitors?  Should I add the requirement of entering the word verification before leaving a comment?  Or do you all require commenters to have a google/yahoo account?  thanks for any suggestions (of course, your comment will have to be approved to show up here, but I promise to read them all).

SCS TLC 262 Challenge

Splitcoaststampers has a cool challenge right now that is called Faux Nesties.  Basically, you can use your punches or other die cutters to create the look of a nestability layer.  I wanted to take a stab at it with my new Jumbo Flower punch.  If you want to check out the other great projects in the challenge, go HERE.

Following are the steps to make my card.

Punch 6 jumbo flowers out of your choice designer papers.  The papers I used are from a DCWV stack called Linen Closet.  Layer them onto each other as shown.

Back layer is 6" x 5".  Card base is 11 1/2 x 4 3/4 (folded in half).  Stamps are from Vintage Vogue.  Friend stamp is first inked up with sahara sand ink and then use a not quite navy marker to color the friends text and the outer edge of the letter.  Stamp and cut with a narrow border around the image.  Mount onto 2 curly label punch pieces glued together.  For the flower, I used boho blossoms punch.  Punch 2 sets of flowers, layer all flowers on top of eachother, pierce a hole in the center and join with a gold brad.  Mount onto front of card with dimensional.  Tie vanilla satin ribbon into bow.  Stamp greeting with not quite navy ink.

Punch Tree Pop Up Card

The tree on this card is super cute and easy to make.  You will need 3 modern labels punched in close to cocoa and 5 scallop oval punched in certainly celery (it was embossed with swiss dot embossing folder before punching).  Sponge the cocoa pieces with chocolate chip ink and the celery pieces with artichoke ink.

Overlap 2 modern label in the back and layer another modern label in the front center.  Glue on scallop circles (or use dimensionals for additional depth).  Draw detail lines on front of tree trunk with detail black zig pen.  Stamp owl (Love Bandit) in chocolate chip and raccoon in black memento (colored with copic markers).  Base of the card is certainly celery cardstock.  Tag in the back features theWelcome Neighbor DSP (SAB Sale).   Please visit SCS for step by step instructions on how to assemble the pop up card.  If you can't see the link, here it is.  http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/freestandingpopupcard/