No Time To Stamp?

Today my youngest son asked for a birthday card for his good friend who is turning 19.  My boys often ask me for cards, and the request is always followed by a statement something like this — “and please, Mom, don’t make it anything like your normal cards.”  So, what would you make of that — LOL!!!  Basically, they prefer a plain white card with a simple black sentiment on it — nothing more — LOL!!!  And I have done plenty of those, believe me — but I went out on a limb today — and here’s what I made:

I thought this would do well for a 19 year old fellow???  And this is certainly a Stamp Simply type of card.  This layout is basically the same as yesterday, only this card is oriented horizontally rather than vertically.  Here’s the measurements:

• Card:  Standard 5 1/2 x 4 1/4
• Scarlet’s Letter DP:
  • Top Grey - cut 3″ high;
  • Bottom Dots - cut 1 1/4″ high;
  • Center red strip cut 3/4″ and attached to the top of the dotted piece

As with yesterday’s card — I attached the top DP piece first, then I attached the bottom piece (which has the thin strip already adhered to it), and these are cut so the bottom overlaps the top just a bit, but rather than attaching the DP directly to the card front as I did yesterday, this time I attached it to a light gray sheet, so it appeared to be matted.

To make my sentiment, I stamped Celebrate from Many Sentiments onto white and cut and embossed with a ribbon slide die by Spellbinders.  I would have preferred the double ended tags for this masculine card, but I don’t have them.  So, I used the ribbon slide, which has wider slots on the ends to run ribbon through.  Since I didn’t want ribbon on this card (under the circumstances — LOL!), I inserted 2 brads into each slot — I thought that looked nice and masculine - LOL!!!  I then adhered this all to my black card and was done!

I do like this for a guyish card — and my son’s comment — “why the polka dots?”!!!  I told him these are metalish guy type dots, not girly polka dots - LOL!!!  He’s OK with it — he’ll use it — but it may be back to the plain white paper and black ink for the next one — LOL!!!

• Stamps:  Many Sentiments by Flourishes
• Paper:  Black, White, Office Max Gray, Scarlet’s Letter by Basic Grey
• Ink:  Palette Noir Black
• Accessories:  SU Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware, Tag Dies by Spellbinders

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!!!

Keyword ssnotime35 - There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload your project at Splitcoast and/or your Blog, anytime at all!  You (and that means anyone and everyone, blogger or not!) can play as many times as you like!!!  The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!!  Please link back here.

The challenge this week is to create a trio of panels for your card.  Your panels can be any size or shape, and you may put them on your card in any configuration at all — just get 3 panels on your card — that’s it!!! I love making pieces and then quickly putting them all together to form a card — and I love working in 3’s — so this challenge combines them both!!!  Just have fun and, as always, try to keep it simple!!

Here are some samples:

Check out Julie Koerber’s sample here. 

Check out Dee Jackson’s sample here.

Check out Tammy Hershberger’s sample here. 

Check out Jennifer Buck’s sample here.

Check out Janine Orchard’s sample here.

Check out Becky Oehlers’ Sample here.

What a fabulous Stamp Simply Team!!!   Thank you girls!!!  Much appreciated!!!

And here is my sample:

This card is 5.5″ square and I use 6″ envelopes, so even though the top sentiment circle extends beyond the top of my card, it still fits in the envelope.  My 3 white panels are cut 1.5 x 4.25″, and narrowly matted.  My ties, from Menswear by Flourishes, are paper pieced onto Boxer paper by Basic Grey.  That is the greatest paper for guys — just love it!!!  The sheets look exactly like material for either cotton boxer shorts or silk ties — LOL!!!  I decided to go with the silk ties for today!!!!  The brads for tie tacks are SU.

The Happy 60th Birthday was easily done using the JustRite D.I.Y Monogram Stamper (C-45).  I used the Small Letters for the perimeter Happy Birthday and for the *th* on 60th, and I used the Medium/Large Numbers for the 60.  After stamping it on white paper, it was then cut and embossed using my Circle Nestabilities and then matted.  The sentiment could just as easily have said Happy Father’s Day on the perimeter with a larger DAD in the center — how fun!!!

• Stamps:  Menswear by Flourishes; JustRite DIY Monogram Stamper (C-45), Small Letters, Medium/Large Numbers.
• Paper:  White, Black, Boxer 6 x 6 pad by Basic Grey.
• Ink:  Versa Fine Onyx Black
• Accessories:  Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Ticket Corner Punch (SU), Brads (SU).

Remember when you upload to use the keyword above, followed by a comma.  Please come back here to post (as a comment) that you’ve played, and provide a link so we can check out your card right away. You can find all cards uploaded for this challenge by clicking Gallery Submissions Here.

Some wanting to play said they have never uploaded before.  If that’s you and you need help uploading,  just go to my Challenge No. 1 here.

Thanks much, everyone, for stopping in — hope you get time to play!!!  Have a wonderful weekend!!!

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!!!                               

The Menswear set by Flourishes was released today!!! What a great set for masculine cards!!!  It features a shirt, tie, mug and many sentiments, and here’s my latest:

This set is so fun to play with.  I did this for today’s TLC challenge at SCS to try paper tole, but NOT with a flower, which is how you typically see it done.  The instructions were to stack the images to provide dimension to the key features — fun!!!  But in all honesty, I’m not sure if I did this right, but it’s my attempt!!!  My shirt and tie were actually two different stamps, each stamped on different papers, they layered to provide dimension.  

The shirt was stamped on Soft Sky and the tie was stamped on the diagonal on a sheet of striped paper to give the diagonal stripes in the tie.  Additionally, the shirt was run through the Cuttlebug with the Stripes embossing folder to give it some additional dimension and texure.

My mug was then stamped and colored with Copics — sorry but I don’t have the colors — various shades of yellows and browns, trying to get a beer mug look, but maybe it looks more like root beer — LOL!!!  I tried — I am still very new with my Copics and have barely had a chance to use them (still working on my major stamp room cleaning/reorganizing).  After coloring the mug, I then stamped on the sentiment, then added the Liquid Applique foam on top — fun!!!  I got my Liquid Applique from Ellen Hutson.  I know I couldn’t find it anywhere for the longest time!  My mug is then mounted on thicker pop dots to get it above the shirt sleeve.  The Cheers sentiment is mounted with a pop dot as well.

All DP used is from one of my favorite Basic Grey packs — Periphery.  Love those greens, blues and browns in that pack.  Periphery is available at Flourishes, as is the Menswear stamp set.

• Stamps:  Menswear by Flourishes
• Paper:  More Mustard, Black, White, Soft Sky, Periphery by Basic Grey from Flourishes
• Ink:  Versa Fine Onyx Black, Copics in yellows and browns
• Accessories:  Liquid Applique, Brad, Craft Knife, Dimensionals, Pop Dots, Mounting Tape, Large Oval Punch, Cuttlebug, Stripes Embossing Folder

This card is 5.5″ square, one of my favorite sizes.  I use 6″ envelopes.  Thanks much for looking!!!   Hope you have a great week!!!

Keyword ssnotime28 - There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload your project at Splitcoast and/or your Blog, anytime at all!  You can play as many times as you like!!!  The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!!  Please link back here. 

The challenge this week is to paper piece. Did you like to play paper dolls as a child? Well, then this challenge is for you – it SO reminds me of playing with paper dolls!!!  If you have never done paper piecing, don’t panic — it is EASY and FUN and you’ll wonder why you never tried it before.  I am linking some great tutorials for you to look at if you want some instruction.  Here they are:

Michelle Wooderson dresses Hanna

Jeanne Streiff dresses Bella

Jeanne Streiff dresses the headless woman

See, don’t they make it look so easy — and it IS!!!  If you’ve never done it before, start simple and, as always, try to stick with our overall theme of *stamping simply*.   Here are some samples:

Check out Julie Koerber’s sample. 

Check out Dee Jackson’s sample.  

Check out Tammy Hershberger’s sample.  We are so happy to welcome Tammy to our crew of sample makers!!!  Love her work.  You can check her out on her Blog here.  Thanks so much Tammy for joining our crew!!! 

And my super simple samples are below.

Remember when you upload to use the keyword above, followed by a comma.  Please come back here to post (as a comment) that you’ve played, and provide a link so we can check out your card right away. You can find all cards uploaded for this challenge by clicking Gallery Submissions Here.

Some wanting to play said they have never uploaded before.  If that’s you and you need help uploading,  just go to my Challenge No. 1 here.

This is my first sample and, guess what?  Both of my samples today are a SNEAK PEAK at a brand new set by Flourishes called Menswear that will be released on Monday, March 31.  It’s a wonderful set for the guys in our lives!!!  Fun, fun, fun!!!  Anyway, back to my paper pieced sample — as usual, I take the easy way out and keep it simple — nothing could be more simple to paper piece than this large shirt — I stamped it onto a plaid sheet of paper in the Two Scoops pad by Basic Gray, stamped the tie in a coordinating solid, glued the tie to the shirt and mounted the shirt on the color blocked background with Dimensionals!!!  All DP on this card is from the Two Scoops pad by Basic Grey, also available at Flourishes.

Oh, and I want to add, when I paper piece large single images like this (I often do the large cake and stand from Cake Decorating 101 as well), I don’t stamp the image first on the  background  - since we aren’t matching it up to another portion of the stamp –there is no need.   I just adhere it to the background wherever I please.  And I often pop it up, depending on what it is.  The shirt is on Dimensionals, but the ties below are adhered by running them through my little Xyron X machine. 

And another thing, I will be teaching this plaid shirt card at a class on Paper Piecing at the Spring Stampede in Sayner, WI (near Eagle River) on Sunday, May 4.  It is one of 3 cards in the class.  If you plan on attending the Stampede, check out all the class offerings and make sure you sign up in plenty of time.  Here’s the link to all the activities of the weekend.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page for lots of links to all the class offerings, accomodations, etc.  Sure would love to meet some of you there!  Ok, now on to my 2nd sample:

This card used just the tie from Menswear by Flourishes.  It is stamped on 3 different sheets of DP from the Old World Stack by DCWV.   Paper from that same pad covers the card front, and the lower black portion is black cardstock, embossed in black with the Damask positive stamp by Flourishes.    This is such a fun set with so many options!!! The set also has a foamy mug and several more sentiments.  It is available for purchase on Monday, 3/31 at Flourishes.

Thank you so much for looking!!! Hope you can find time sometime soon to play with us!!!  Have a great weekend, whatever you choose to do!!!

Is that really possible?  Well, I don’t know about with real men IRL, but I think it’s possible in a card — LOL!!!  This was a really quick and simple masculine card, and I like so many elements about it — I love using large stamps, and I used 2 background stamps here, so that gets the job done real quick — just my style!!!  Here it is:

So, how’s that for masculine elegance — LOL!!!  All stamps used are by Flourishes.  The Basic Gray card base is stamped in the same ink color with Flourish’s new release, Damask (positive), and then the edges are lightly sponged to soften them a bit.  The main image panel is the Harlequin design, stamped in black onto Office Max gray (a very light gray).  Love this stamp as it has so many options.  See the dots I have in the cross sections of the grid — well, there are all sorts of little designs included in the set that can be stamped there, changing the overall look/feel of the design — very cool!!! And they are easy to stamp.  And if you count, you’ll see there are 17 of those little dots — but did I have to stamp them 17 times — NO!!! They come on a strip, 4 dots per strip, so you stamp the dots by rows, not individually — also very cool!!!  Anyway, the Harlequin panel is narrowly matted in black, a tassel is attached on the back side and draped over, and the Fleur de Lis is punched and adhered to a matted circle, which is pop dotted up. The entire panel in then attached to the card base with mounting tape.  The Thank You on top is one of the many versatile sentiments in Many Sentiments, also by Flourishes.

Love this card — plus it’s quick and simple!!!  I am seeing this same layout done in many different colors to convey different moods for different occasions!!!!

• Stamps:  Harlequin, Damask Positive, Many Sentiments, all by Flourishes
• Paper:  SU Basic Black, Basic Gray and Going Gray.  Office Max Gray.
• Ink:  Versa Fine Onyx Black.  SU Going Gray.
• Accessories:  Tassel, Fleur de Lis Punch, 1 1/4″ and 1 3/8″ Round Punches, Sponge, Mounting Tape, Pop Dots, Dimensionals. 

That’s it for this one.  Now off to do my sample for tomorrow’s Stamp Simply Challenge.  Thanks so much for stopping in!!!

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.

This evening I am taking the liberty to post a couple of Oldies but Goodies from my SCS gallery.  It seems like you kind of enjoyed the guy card I did a few days ago with a piece of blue jeans on the card — well, these 2 cards were done quite some time ago, and rather than the jeans, I used the tag that came on them.  I ALWAYS save tags that are interesting and fun — never know when you’ll need them!

This card was called A Levi Guy and you can easily pick out the Levi tag, complete with string.  You can read all the details/supplies for this card by checking my SCS upload.

And here’s another called Levi Tag II.  Again, the Levi tag is clearly the focal point.  All details can be viewed on my SCS upload.

Now, DON’T go throwing away your tags — look what great cards they make!!!  LOL!! But seriously, these type of cards make up so quickly - they really do!!!

Thanks so much for stopping in again — appreciate it!!!  My next uploads will be with Flourishes images — and some nice new ones, too!!!!  Can’t wait!!!

I patiently waited this morning for Julia’s Ways to Use it Challenge to pop up at SCS before I started my daily project.  I need to get 2 cards done today, both for workshops — one that is specifically a guy card, and one that is a more feminine card.  Well, when the challenge to use staples popped up — there was my guy card — it called out to me loud and clear.  I knew exactly what I was going to do — LOL!!!  Here it is:

I’ve had, but haven’t used, Stamp of Authenticity for quite a while.  Why is it we always gravitate to making more girly, pretty cards?  Well, today was the day for this set, and did I have fun!!!  I love doing more of a rugged, collage type look for guys - it just seems to *go*, for me anyway!!!  Maybe because that’s the kind of guys I have around here — rugged and just thrown together — LOL!!!  Anyway, for a bit of interest I used a piece cut from a cast off pair of blue jeans — I have stacks of these.  Actually, they wouldn’t be cast off if only I’d repair them — but who has time for that — let’s cut them up and use them on cards (but please don’t tell!)!!!  That surely solves the problem - LOL!!!

OK, I stapled my blue jean piece to the card and used a ton of punched items to fill it up.  I think you can just kind of see what I did.  All stamps are from the same set and I also used the Sanded background stamp, stamped in black on the white base.  Then I took the *authentic* stamp and randomly stamped over the sanded, still in black.  On the *original* tag I did use the retired SU Deckle Scissors, but that wouldn’t be necessary — I just like those scissors!!!  Used lots of Pop Dots (they are thicker than the Dimensinals and I need those all the time it seems, from Wal-Mart) and Dimensionals — tons of texture and elevation to this card IRL.  I like it!!!

• Stamps:  Stamp of Authenticity, It’s Your Birthday, Sanded
• Paper:  Real Red, Black, White
• Ink:  Black Stazon, Real Red
• Accessories:  Jumbo Eyelet, Vintage Brads, Staples, reitred SU Deckle Scissors, Crafter’s Tool Kit, Cropadile, Pop Dots, Dimensionals, Punches:  Large and Small Star, Large and Small Tag,  3/4″, 1 1/4″, 1 3/8″ Round, Corner Rounder, Scrap of real blue jeans

Now, I have a question and I’d like an honest answer, OK?  What would you think if you went to a workshop and were given this card to make?  Would you find it odd to be getting a piece of old blue jeans?  Would you find it offensive?  Or would you consider it different and fun?  The jeans are fresh out of the wash clean.  My hostess for next week requested a specificially guy card, which this is, but I wonder — be honest, please!