No Time To Stamp?

This post comes a day late, but at least it’s here now!!!  And 10 Minute Tuesday will be about a 1/2 day late as well, but it’s coming!!!  Trying real hard to get caught up!!!

This is a fairly quick and easy grad card for a guy, featuring a *somewhat personalized* monogram made with the JustRite Monogram Stamper (C-45) and the Harlequin stamp set by Flourishes.  When I say *somewhat personalized* what I mean is, rather than having the graduates name on each card I make (I had 8 cards to do for grads from this school), I found it much quicker to put on the year and a simple *Congrats BHS Grad*.  This way they get their year and their school name on the card, though not their own name = somewhat personalized!!!  Using the C-45 I can kick out 8 of these in a matter of seconds, as opposed to the time it would take to change the grads name on each, so — it works for me!!!  Oh, and I loved the colors to work with — our school colors are purple and gold and the class colors were black and white — a great combo!!!

I used the Small Letters and the Medium/Large Numbers on the Monogram Stamper (C-45) to make this monogram.  However, since all the letters and numbers are interchangeable from the C-45 to the smaller wooden stampers, and vice versa, I could have just as easily done this with one of the smaller wooden stampers.  Personally, I just prefer the ease of being able to stamp out many of the same monogram super quickly with the C-45.

The grid pattern is done with Harlequin by Flourishes, stamped tone on tone on the Eggplant Paper, with the diamond centers being gold embossed.  The gold matting layers on the grid image and the monogrammed image are made with gold metallic cardstock.  The monogrammed image and all layers are cut and embossed using the Circle Nestabilities.

• Stamps:  Harlequin by Flourishes and the JustRite Monogram Stamper C-45 by JustRite.
• Paper:  White, Black Textured, Elegant Eggplant, Gold Metallic.
• Ink:  Black, Elegant Eggplant, Versa Mark.
• Accessories:  Gold Embossing Powder, Tassel (tutorial below), Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Mini Glue Dots, Mounting Squares.

The tassel on this card is home made and a tutorial follows.  I have received a lot of questions from readers as to where I get these — well, it is getting to be a problem.  I have picked up the bookmark sized tassles with the longer strings at craft stores often times.  The short ones that I’ve been using for graduation tassels have become hard to find.  They used to always be in the sewing section of Wal-Mart, but I haven’t been able to find them in black for months, though the last time I checked they did have the gold.  Here’s a picture of what I’ve been buying, and what I just made and used on the card above:

The tutorial that follows will all be done in thumbnails, so just click the photos if you’d like to see larger views.

The first thing we need to do is make our little template.  I used a lightweight chipboard coaster, but I think a heavy one would have worked better.  I cut it to 1 3/4″ wide and then  measured 1/4″ down from the top and drew a line with a ruler and pen.  Then I  used my Word Window Punch and punched just under that line, and off the end of the chipboard, as shown.  The black string I am using is Crochet Cotton from Wal-mart with all the other crochet threads, near the yarns.  I think DMC Embroidery Floss would work as well, but I didn’t have the right color and our Wal-Mart doesn’t carry that anymore either.  But this Crochet Cotton worked just great!

Start by wrapping the Crochet Cotton around your template as shown, over the opening.  I wrapped mine about 15 complete rounds.  Let long tails hanging  down when done.

Now take a nice big darning needle with a large eye and run a length of Crochet Cotton through the eye and just tie the thread on at the eye so it doesn’t keep falling off as you wrap a band around the threads — see photo — you are wrapping this band in the open area.  I wrapped it around about 10 times.  Then tie it tightly in the back.  When I was done tying it, I put a Mini Glue Dot over my knot, just so I can see that tiny black knot again and to make sure the knot holds.  Let your leftover strings hang down.

Thread your needle with another length of thread.  Run it under the top portion of the loop, as shown in the photo, keeping your thread doubled. Cut the end so you can get the needle off, and then tie it into a knot that you can slide down close to the base.  I don’t know what knots are called.  I just loop it around my finger and pull it through itself, then slide it down and tug to make it tight — if that makes any sense.

Now you can take your scissors, insert them under the threads right at the bottom and cut them.  Now you can slide the entire tassell off the framing and give it a little haircut to take care of those long ends that were left hanging, and it should be done!!!  When I attach it to the card, I make sure the Mini Glue Dot is on the back, and use that to help adhere it to the card.

I hope this helps some with the tassel dilemna!!!  10 Minute Tuesday will be late, but hope to get it up sometime on Tuesday!!! Sorry, but I’m trying to get back on track!!!  Thanks so much for stopping in!!!

The graduation announcements are starting to flow in, so I thought I’d better get busy!!!  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out the numbers and small letters that can be purchased to go with the DIY Monogram Stampers by JustRite — which, as you may know, is my latest obsession!!!  I have always loved monograms, but rarely did them, having to fuss with perfect alignment of letters within frames, etc.  But, now — well, it couldn’t be easier and I’m having so much fun!!!

I wanted to personalize this graduation card with the recipients name, and the small letters are perfect for that.  They are small, and I mean VERY small!!! They come with a set of tweezers to pluck them out of their tray and pop them into the groove in the stamper.  Once in the groove, you can just use the tweezers to scoot them over to get them spaced properly.  To be perfectly honest, I was a bit apprehensive about using these tiny letters — my eyes are every bit of their 54 years, properly clad in bifocals, and somehow over the years my fingers have become clumsy, and are no longer nimble.  But, where there’s a will, there’s a way — so I picked up the tweezers and away I went — and, much to my surprise, it was truly no problem at all!!!  It was quite easy to get the little letters into the groove on the stamper, and then very easy to move them about once in the groove.  It was certainly not the challenge I feared it might be!!!  And that’s a good thing!!!  But after I show you the finished card, I will give you some little hints.   Here’s the card:

I personalized the monogram with Congrats Tyler around the outer perimeter in the Small Letters.  The center 2008 was done with the medium numbers from the Large and Medium Numbers package.  These were stamped using the DIY Monogram Stamper C-45.  However, this also could have been stamped with any of the smaller Kits.

Question:  Now let me address another question I’ve been getting all day long — people are wondering how these circle images work with the SU 1 1/4″ and 1 3/8″ punches.  Well — they don’t.  These images done on the C-45 and the wooden stamper (the Classic Stamper)  with the wording on the ring around the border are too large for the 1 1/4 and 1 3/8″ SU punches.  They work perfectly with the Circle Nestabilites by Spellbinders.  I still don’t have my Circle Nestabilities, so again, I had to make due without, which isn’t always a bad thing — it stretches the imagination!!!  I’ve been doing these in squares, but really wanted a rounded image for this card, so I punched my monogram with a 2″ Marvy Punch.   I then used my Oval Nestabilities to make a matted oval on which I mounted my circle punched monogram — then I just added the gold brads to finish off the look!!!  I was very pleased with the end result of my monogrammed piece!!!

Now, to make the rest of the card, I used the Harlequin set by Flourishes, stamped in Elegant Eggplant and the diamond centers are embossed in gold.  The far left Elegant Eggplant strip is stamped with Damask in Versa Mark for a subtle flourishy look.  I used a strip of Gold Metallic Paper as piping between my Harlequin and Damask, and also as the card front.  The tassel is a bookmark type of tassell I got at Wal-Mart.  Such fun personalizing these cards!!!

• Stamps:  Harlequin, Damask, DIY Monogram Stamper, Numbers and Small Letters, all available at Flourishes
• Paper:  Black, White, Elegant Eggplant, Gold Metallic from Flourishes
• Ink:  Black, Elegant Eggplant, Versa Mark
• Accessories:  Gold Embossing Powder, Tassel, Gold Brads, Petite Oval Nestabilities, 2″ Marvy Punch, Pop Dots, Mini Glue Dots

Hint:  Now, if you think you’d like to get the set of small alphas, here’s a little tip.  Before you ever take even one out of the tray, just ink the entire set as one unit and stamp it on a piece of paper for future reference.  Once taking out many small stamps, having the stamped reference sheet proves to be invaluable when looking at the small letters and not being able to tell a comma from an apostrophe, etc.  It’s a simple thing to do and will be helpful in the end!!!

Links:   I’ve seen several personalized cards of recent done with these small alphabets that I’d like to link for you to see, in case you’ve missed them.  Here they are:

Jerri Kay — A Gift Set of Cards with Box — this is the group photo, there are individual photos as well (not the small alphabets, but worthy of a look)!!!

Kellie Fortin – Boy’s Birthday Project          

Kellie Fortin — Altered Band Aid Box done by 10-year old Jack — very cool!!!

Susan Roberts – Boy’s Birthday Card (plus a gorgeous Wedding Card)   

Debbie Olson — Anniversary Card

Aren’t they fun!!!  Thanks so much for stopping in again!!!  We have a really simple Stamp Simply Challenge lined up for Friday, so please check back for that!!!  Hope you are having a great week!!!                               

This is my first attempt using the new SU graduation set called Great Grads!  I can not even begin to count the number of graduation cards I have made in the last many years, and can you believe I have never had a graduation set, just odds and ends from here and there!!! So, I’m very pleased to have this set!!!

I made 2 cards — one is more masculine and is a check holder and the other is definitely feminine and is a gift card holder.  I did them both in black and white, which I think is a classic and always works.  Personally, I’m not real nuts about doing grad cards in school colors.  School colors may look great in uniforms, but they typically just don’t do it for me when I’m making a card, and I want to enjoy the process as much as the end result, so I often use colors that I prefer — though I do sometimes cave and go with the school colors — LOL!!!  So much for team spirit — huh!  I also used the Cuttlebug with some new embossing folders on these cards.  Here’s the 1st:

This is the check holder.  The Grad flap is held secure with Velcro dots and inside is a pocket for a check.  The tassel is a bookmark tassel.  I used 2 new embossing folders — the Swiss Dots and Stripes.  This card is 7.5″ wide, and at the end of this post, I’ll show you how to get a strip of dots or stripes that long.  To make this card, cut your paper 7.5″ wide and 7″ high.  Score at 2 1/4 and 5 1/2, making sure you are scoring along the 7.5″ width.  This will leave you with a 2 1/4″ flap for the top and a 1 1/2″ flap which folds up for the pocket.  Use red sticky strip on the ends to adhere the flap up for the pocket.  For the embossed panels, cut 2 white strips 7.5″ x 4 (this gives you left overs for another card — once you are running it through, might as well get enough for extras).  Refer to bottom of this post for the Cuttlebug photos.

This is the card that is definitely feminine.  We don’t usually make graduation cards too frilly, but I think it is totally appropriate to make a card like this for a girly-girl type, don’t you?  This one is done in a similar fashion, only this is a gift card holder.  Start with a 1/2 sheet of paper. 8.5 x 5.5.  Score at 2 and 6, which gives you flaps of 2″ (the pocket) and 2.5″ (the top flap).  This card uses the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  I also used the Rectangle Scallop Nestability by Spellbinders to frame the sentiment.  However, none of the scallop dies was quite the right size, so I took the one that was the closest to what  I needed — it was just 1 scallop too long — so I cut it in half right across the middle and then re-taped it together with a one scallop overlap.  I have done this many times before, and it is just amazing at how nearly invisible this is.  I used a Ticket Corner punch on the sentiment before mounting it to the scallop.  I used a flower and brad from the SU Pretties Kit and retired SU black organdy ribbon.  The sentiment is adhered to the card top and there is a Velcro dot underneath so it will stay closed.

Now, I’m going to try to do the following pictures in thumbnails, so just click on them to enlarge them if you’re interested.  The first is a picture of how to insert the paper into the folder to get a long run of pattern.  My sheets of paper are 7.5″ x 4″.

Insert the paper as shown in the photo above.  Once it runs through, take it out and put it back into the folder as shown below:

Now, we run into a problem when using the Swiss Dots pattern, so I’ll try to explain it here.  This does not happen with the Stripes — they work out just fine.  When we take out the Swiss Dots sheet and put it back in the folder for the second run through, make sure you align up the dots so the pattern stays consistent.  Now, I’ve done this many times, and I can’t figure another way to do this to avoid the problem — but what happens is when you align up the pattern, the last row of dots gets squished flat when you run it through.  It’ll look like this:

Can you see that line in the center of squished dots?  Well, there MUST be a way to run it through so that doesn’t happen, I just haven’t had the time to play any more to figure it out — so I just did a quick fix, as shown below:

I turned the pattern over so it is upside down, on a soft piercing mat, and VERY GENTLY (because it pokes through so easily) pressed on each squished dot with an old wooden stylus tip — with hardly any pressure at all, the squished dot was back up and good as new.  In just a second you can do the entire row and it is impossible to tell what had happened — so that was my quick fix to the problem.

You’ll also notice I told you to cut the sheets going into the Cuttlebug 7.5″ wide, which is the same width as the card.  But when we mount it onto the card we need it to be  7 1/4.  Just cut it to the 7 1/4″ you need.  I have found that if I put it in the Cuttlebug at exactly the right size, it often comes out smaller because of how the embossing can change the size a bit, so when size is crucial, I like to start a bit larger and then cut after embossing.

OK, now once I had this set out, I thought I’d show you how you can use the Key Tag Punch on the long sentiment with the rounded ends.  I haven’t used it in a card, but here’s a sample of how to punch it .  First stamp the image on a strip of paper, then cut  the strip to 1″ wide.  I just find it easier to stamp first, then cut to size.  If I start with a 1″ strip and try to perfectly place and center a long stamp, I often mess up — course if you are one to use a Stamp-a-ma-jig always, that would solve that problem.  Anyway, once your stamped strip is 1″ wide, then we need to run it through the Key Tag Punch.  Now, since it is the right width, we are only clipping the ends in the punch.  Put the strip in the punch, but then pull out (up and and through the hole) one end of the strip, then position and punch the other end that is still in the punch.  Then repeat for the other side.  This is what it looks like in the punch:

Hope that helps!  Here’s my list of supplies, and this list covers both cards.

• Stamps:  Great Grads
• Paper:  Basic Black and Whisper White
• Ink:  Black Stazon
• Accessories:  Tassel, Pretties Kit, Spellbinders Rectangle Dies, Ticket Corner Punch, Cuttlebug and Embossing Folders (Swiss Dots and Stripes), Mini Glue Dots, Mounting Tape, Red Sticky Strip, Velcro

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!! Thanks much for stopping in.  My next couple projects will be more SU samples.