No Time To Stamp?

This is the card that Deb and I did jointly as a demo/project for all in attendance at the 2nd Annual Stampin’ in the UP event about a week ago.  6 x 6 sheets of designer paper were used on each card — all were either Basic Grey or Memory Box.  The card packets were passed out in the morning, and then Deb worked one on one with each girl to Copic color their image, coordinating it with the designer papers they had in their packet.

I came home from the event with no finished card and no image — wouldn’t you know!  So Deb kindly colored up this image and got it to me so I could do this post.  Each girl made a similar card, but all had different DP’s and Silk Ribbon colors — they were SO gorgeous!!!

Here’s a closeup of Deb’s colored image, Happy Birthday by Our Daily Bread Designs.  The girls all loved this image and had SO much fun learning to Copic color it!

After their image was colored, I took them in small groups and showed them my favorite, QUICK way to put a card together, using minimal layers, minimal cuts, Silk Ribbon and the Bow Easy.  Following this method you can use your card either vertically or horizontally.  We all used 6 x 6 DP sheets, and they work GREAT for this method, but any paper will do.  But for my measurements below, just realize we are working with 6 x 6 sheets, so all lengths are 6″ long.  The card is a standard A2 - 5.5 x 4.25″.

• Start with 2 sheets of 6 x 6 DP — one Solid (or small print) and one Printed (medium print).
• Cut your Solid Sheet so you have two strips — one 1.5″ wide and one 3/4″ wide.
• Cut your Printed Sheet so you have a 4″ wide piece.

2nd photo:

• Take the 3/4″ strip of Solid and turn it upside down so the white side is up.
• As shown in photo, adhere the 1.5″ Strip to the 3/4″ Strip, white side up, forming what I call a little *piping*.

• Apply adhesive around all 4 edges of your card front and adhere your 4″ Printed piece to the card front, as shown, lining up top and right edges  – YES, it is hanging off the edge by nearly 2″.

2nd photo:

• Now take your Solid strip with piping and attach to card front, lining up top and left edges.  It will overlap the Printed sheet just a bit.

• Now, go to your paper cutter, open the card up and insert so the card inside is facing up towards you.  Line up the edge of the card with the cutting blade and cut.  You are cutting off that excess DP.
• 2nd photo shows the card with the excess DP cut off.  This is just SO much quicker than trying to cut the DP exactly to fit.  I do this ALL the time — I always cut larger and then cut off.

• Now it’s time to apply the ribbon and image.   Wrap the ribbon around the card front, securing with heavy double sided tape under the area where the image will be placed, and then adhere the image. 
• You’ll note on this card we did not mat the image.  The paper was a crisp white and all DP’s had a lot of interest and offered contrast, so the image could stand alone and pop off the DP just on it’s white base — just another step saved!

2nd photo:

• Using your Bow Easy, make a bow.   The one in this photo is a double bow.  See  links below if you don’t know what a Bow Easy is.
• Using 1/4″ Silk Ribbon in a color to match your bow, run the ribbon under the wide ribbon, as shown.  Then lay your bow on top of the wide ribbon and over the narrow ribbon.  Now you can draw up those narrow ribbon tails and tie them in a snug knot to hold the bow in place, then using your fingers or a tweezers, pick up the knot and run it under the bow so it is out of sight.  You can clip the 1/4″ tails to make them look like a part of the bow.  Clip the longer tails as well to a proper length.

And here again is the completed card — quick, easy and pretty!  My absolute MOST favorite way to throw together a quick card!

Refer to this post if you aren’t familiar with a Bow Easy. 

Refer to this post if you’d like to read a Bow Easy Tutorial. 

Refer to this store page if you’d like to purchase a Bow Easy.

Refer to this store page if you’d like to purchase ribbon.

Thanks for stopping in!  Hope this little photo tutorial of our demo project was of benefit to someone!!! Have a wonderful remainder of the weekend and we’ll see you soon!!!

I had a short post up last night, which  mysteriously disappeared about 7:30 this morning.  This is  a very abbreviated version as I test to see if I can get this post to stay up.

1) Check out Jenny Gropp’s Blog on coloring silk ribbon with copics and other helpful tips on bows and adhereing embellishments.

2) I’ve added 1/8″ Silk Ribbon, Suede Ribbon and Leaves and Scor-It Score Boards (and more) to the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store.  I have a limited number of the Mini boards available that come with a free carrying case.

Thanks — hoping this test post will stay up!  This blog loves to challenge me of late — as if I don’t have enough daily challenges — LOL!!!  Keeps me on my toes if nothing else!!!  Thanks for bearing with me here!!!

Keyword ssnotime84 -There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload yourproject at Splitcoastand/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.

Let’s Pipe Up! Piping is a sewing term and I can’t think of a comparable stamping term to explain what I mean. Since my sewing background goes much farther back than my stamping background, I often view, in my mind’s eye, my paper as fabric and my embellishments as other sewn features. In sewing, piping is a piece of covered cording used to visually separate (but actually join) two patterns or two pieces of fabric. Think of a darling little girls dress with piping separating the bodice from the gathered skirt, or a much heavier type of piping on upholstered furniture. What I’m looking for today is that narrow strip of paper to separate 2 other pieces of paper. It is a long time favorite of mine in card making and I hope you enjoy it too!!! And if you’ll scroll down to see my sample, I’ll show you how I easily do this! I hope you all have fun *piping it up* today!!!

Check out the greatsamples for the Stamp Simply Challenge today on the blogs of these designers:

• Jenny,April Guest Designer
• Janine
• Jennifer
• Julie
• AJ
• Becky
• Dee
• Tammy

Please bear with us as we are all uploading and linking on Thursday night.

You can see all Gallery Submissions here.

What wonderful samples!!! Thank you girls!!! Much appreciated!!!

Heres mypiped up creationfor today:

This is my absolute most favorite and simple of what I would call a Stamp Simply style creation — LOVE this layout with the *piping*. I use it often. I’m going to show you how I do it so simply below, but first I’d like to point out the gorgeous cup and saucer — pretty, pretty! JustRite has come out with many new little colorable images in fun sets. (Check out this ADORABLE Calender Count Down Project done by Sharon Harnist using another of the new JustRite sets.)My projectis in a set called A Little Caffeine Set that I know will be a HUGE hit — it is so fun — and this little cup and saucer just called my name!!! Here’s the how-to:

The first photo shows that I have covered the upper portion of my white card base with the solid green DP andyou can see how I have taken a 3/4″ strip of the darker DP and adhered it to the upper part of my lower DP to form what is my *piping*. Using my Glue Glider, I just run a strip of glue along the top underside of my lower DP and then carefully lay it on top of the 3/4″ strip to insure that it is put on straight. Once my *piping* is attached to my lower DP, it is then very easy to attach it to the card base. Once attached, I then corner round my bottom corners.

Isn’t this just a gorgeous image — I LOVE it and you can bet I’ll be making some gift sets with this one!!! The Little Caffeine Set lends itself to a pretty card such as this, just as well as a more trendy or funky card to represent today’s coffee shops — fun set!!! This set is availableNOW to pre-order from JustRite, and it will ship on May 10, so that’s not too far off!!! Check out the gorgeous card Debbie Olson did the other day using this same cup and saucer. Pretty, huh? And here’s one more by Debbie Olson, so pretty!!! Her work just makes me drool!!! And you will NOT want to miss this GORGEOUS and CLASSY gift box made by Kellie Fortin — truly outstanding!!!

Here I wanted to show you some of the fun images/sentiments with this set, but I also wanted to explain how I stamped it. It uses the new 2″ Wood Stamper, a size I love.

I stamped the cup image first onto white cardstock. And can you see how I cut away the excess rubber. Cutting away your excess rubber prevents the ink from collecting on the rubber’s edge and making unwanted marks as you stamp. I then removed my cup image and inserted the border sentiment, which I stamped onto the green DP sheet. I used Petite Circle Nestabilites to cut my layers, bordering it with a scallop. Quick and easy, and that’s my style!!!

Stamps: A Little Caffeine Set by JustRite, used with the 2″ Wood Stamper

Paper: PTI White, Eva DP by Basic Grey

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, ColorBox Chalk Lime Pastel, Copics to color

Accessories: 1.25″ Silk May Arts Ribbon from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store, Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, SU Corner Rounder and Dimensionals, Glue Glider

Shopping:

JustRite has The Little Caffeine Set available for pre-order and the 2″ Wood Stamper is currently available.

The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store carries the silk and other May Arts Ribbons.

Joan’s Garden carries Spellbinders and Glue Glider. Glue Gliders are on sale right NOW, but not for long!

Thank you so much for stopping in today. I so appreciate it! I hope you all have some spring weather to enjoy and have a wonderful weekend to look forward to. And if you are spending some time stamping, join us in our challenge this week — it’s never too late to play! Thanks much everyone — see you soon!

This is one of those projects that turned direction once I started, due to a shortage of time, but I do like the end result. I was planning to do a standard paper bag pocket album type of thing to insert seed packets in as a Mother’s Day Gift, decorating all the pages. Well, as so often happens, the day got away on me, time was short, and I had to make some cuts — and the result is this sort of honeycomb design pocket bag for my seed packets. I do love this design and after the photos I’ll show you how I did it. Here’s the finished product:

Kind of shabby, which I thought would go well with the Heirloom seed packets. This is made like a bound book. The binding is on the bottom, partially covered with my wide silk ribbon. There are 3 pockets for my seeds. But the way it opens, thereare actually more like 6 compartments, 2 in each pocket. Here’s how I started:

These are 3 standard white lunch sacks from the grocery store, layered on top of each other. I inserted 1 seed pack as my guide as to how big the pockets need to be. I then clipped the sides so they’d stay in place. I then went to the sewing machine and sewed across the bottom. I had first measured and drew a line to follow with a pencil.

I then took my sewn together bags to the paper cutter and cut off the bottoms, 1″ below my stitching line. Since this was a garden theme, I thoughtthe picket fence might work (this was definitely a plan as you go project), so I straightened my top edge at the paper cutter and cut each bag with the Martha Stewart picket fence punch. The full thickness of the bag top (all layers) cut easily with the punch. I punched the tops of all 3 bags.

Using my Glue Glider, I then taped the bags together. Actually, the center bag got taped to the one in front and one in back, so the bags no longer would separate from each other, and you end up with this kind of honeycomb arrangement. There are now 3 pockets, but because of the folds in the bags, you kind of have 2 compartments in each pocket. Now that the basic pocket bag is made, it’s just a matter of decorating it up — the fun part!

I apologize for this poor photo — it’s been one of those kind of nights — LOL!!! As you can see, I covered my bag with DP by Daisy’D’s. I wanted a bit more white in my DP, so I applied very hurriedly some Gesso with a foam brush — not a great job - but this was Shabby, so I was good to go, and it gave me the bit of white I was after. I used the SU tab punch to top off my seed packs and make them easy to pull out of their pockets.

Here’s a closeup of the detail to the focal image. The tag was a punch out in the paper pad. I used JustRite Times New Roman Uppercase Font (50 pt and 25 pt) on the larger of the Vertical Wood Stampers to create my sentiment. The sentiment in thehalf circle is from JustRite’s Celebrations Demi Phrases, used on a Wood 2″ Stamper. The lower ribbon is 1.25″ wide silk, and the narrow yellow silk was fine enough to thread into the eye of a needle and I used it to sew the button onto the panel. The die cut is from the new Floral Accent dies by Spellbinders and the gingham is 3/8″ by May Arts.

And here’s the back. I wanted to show you the CUTE little *made with love* for the back of projects — I was so excited when I saw this! Actually, there are 2 for the backs of projects in a set called Tiny Words by JustRite, available on 5/10, but available for pre-order now. It fits on the new tiny 1 3/16″ Wood Stamper. This will surely be a fun little set to work with. It’s shown in the picture below.

Here’s what I used to make this project. Everything shown is currently available, with the exception of the Tiny Words Set, which is available now for pre-order with a 5/10 shipment date. Fun new things!!! You’ll love them!!!

Stamps: Times New Roman Uppercase Font, used on a Vertical Stamper, Celebrations Demi Phrases, used on a Wood 2″ Stamper, Tiny Words Set, used on a Wood 1 3/16″ Stamper, all by JustRite

Paper: PTI White and Vintage Cream; Prism Dark Green; Beacon Hill 8 x8 pad by DaisyD’s.

Ink: Versa Fine Vintage Sepia, Color Box Chalk Creamy Brown.

Accessories: May Arts Silk and Gingham Ribbons available at the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store, Vintage buttons, Sewing Machine, Needle, Thread, Primas, Lunch Sacks, Petite Circle Nestabilities and Floral Accent Dies by Spellbinders, SU 1 3/8″ Punch, SU Scallop Punch, SU Tab Punch, Martha Stewart Picket Fence Punch, Gesso, Paint Brush, Glue Glider, Glue Dots

Shopping:

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store has all the May Arts Ribbons used and more.

Joan’s Garden has the products used by Spellbinders, Martha Stewart and Glue Glider.

Thank you so much for stopping in today. It’s been a crazy day around here and I’m wishing for a quieter tomorrow!!! Hope you are all having a good week. Again, thanks much for stopping in and we’ll see you soon!!!

Today’s a fun day! TheJustRite CHA Release #1 Blog Hop is today, featuring a good 10+ fabulous designers creating fun projects with NEW JustRite product that they now have available to ship to you!!! How fun. Scroll to the very bottom of my post for links to all the designers participating in today’s Blog Hop. And here’s the project I made:

It’s a 5 panel Accordion Pocket Card holding seeds for herbs! What a fun gift to give, and so simple to make. I’ll show you how after a few more pics!

Here’s a close up of one of the pocket panels. This was so easy to do using my Scor-It to create the accordion folds and pockets, and again, instructions will follow. I have to tell you, I knew a while back I wanted to do an accordion pocket card for seed packs, so I went on a seed buying spree — LOL!!! I have many coordinated sets of seed packs in some GORGEOUS colors, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you see me sowing more seeds in these parts — LOL!!! All the perimeter verbiage is with NEW Just Rite product which I’ll explain in a bit.

This is what the accordion looks like with the seed packs removed. I love this Blue Awning paper by K & Co from Michaels. I accented the tops with my 1.5″ striped grosgrain ribbon by May Arts which I have in the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store.

Here I just wanted to show you the SU Jumbo Eyelet and those little tiny Mini Library Clips. Gotta love that SU hardware!!! Those Jumbo Eyelets work so well just to run a wide ribbon through totie up in an application such as this! See the *Sprinkled with Love* - that is one of the new Demi Phrases from JustRite that fits their new 2″ Wood Stamper. It’s just the upper half of the border. You fill in the bottom with whatever you like using the new 15 pt font that comes with the 2″ stamper. I filledmine in with the names of my seeds — how fun and how versatile!!!

OK, now let’s get to the HOW TO for this Accordion Pocket Card. Here are the measurements for your card base:

Panel #1

Cut 4 wide x 7.5 high

Using your Scor-It, score 2 up from bottom to form pocket

Panel #2 & 3

Cut 8.5 wide x 7.5 high

Using your Scor-It, score in from left edge to form tab

Score 4.5 in from left edge to form 2 panels

Score 2 up from bottom to form pocket

Panel #4 & 5

Cut 8.5 wide x 7.5 high

Using your Scor-It, score in from left edge to form tab

Score 4.5 in from left edge to form 2 panels

Score 2 up from bottom to form pocket

Just a view of the last 2 panels as they are being scored. Sorry you can’t read the writing on these views — that’s why I printed all the measurements above. As you can see, using the Scor-It, I can quickly and easily score all my folds as well as my pocket that runs across the bottom.

Once all 3 pieces are cut and scored, this is what they’ll look like. As you can see, I cut off the lower left bottomtab section, and angled the bottom of the tabs. I then also cut the score line on the pocket that folds up at the center score separating the panels. Justusing my scissors I cut out only a sliver — just the width of the scored channel from the Scor-It. Doing this makes a world of difference in how your pocket accordion will function. It gives it room to bend on the folds without any extra bulk. These are layed out in position to be adhered together with red sticky tape.

Once the base card is adhered together, I then cut and adhered on my DP pieces as shown above. (They were DTP’d (directto paper) on the edges first) Even before that, however, I did clip my corners. I just made a corner template from heavy cardstock and then used it as a guide to clip all my corners with scissors. I also stamped my initials using the Times New Roman Font Uppercasein 95 pt on my original Harmony Classic Circle Stamper1. Meanwhile, I also had my 2″ Wood Stamper set up with the Demi Phrase on top and I kept changing my bottom herb names as I stamped along. I had a regular little assembly line going — then I cut all my circles for mat layers.

And here’s the new product in its blister packaging. You’ll love the 2″ Wood Stamper. It comes with that fun bonus center and the new 15 pt Times New Roman Font. That bonus center is a fun colorable image!!! You can also see the package of Celebrations Demi Phrases that I used. Talk about NICE to just snap in an entire phrase — very cool!!! And for my initial I used my Times New Roman Font Uppercase in my originalHarmony Classic Circle Stamper I. Tried and true — love those original stampers for monograms!!!

Stamps: All by JustRite: Wood 2″ Stamper w/15 pt. Font and Bonus Center, Celebrations Demi Phrases to fit the 2″ Wood Stamper, Times New Roman Font Uppercase, Harmony Classic Circle Stamper I.

Paper: SU Chocolate Chip; PTI Vintage Cream; Prism Spring Willow Dark (Stampers Dream); K & Co. Blue Awning (Michaels)

Ink: Versa Fine Vintage Sepia; Color Box Chalk Blue Iris

Accessories: Scor-It; May Arts 1.5″ Striped Grosgrain, Hemp (Wal-Mart), Seed Packets (Fleet Farm), Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders; SU: Jumbo Eyelets, Mini Library Clips, Cropadile, Red Sticky Tape, Dimensionals; Glue Glider

And please HOP ON OVER to these fabulousmembers of the JustRite Blog Teamto check out more fun and innovative ideas to use all the new JustRite product NOW available to you:

JustRite Stampers Blog

Barb Schram

Becca Feeken

Debbie Olson

Heidi Blankenship

Kellie Fortin

Lauren Meader

Lisa Somerville

Michelle Wooderson

Sharon Harnist

Taylor Van Bruggen

Thank you SO MUCH for checking in!!! I always appreciate your visits and hearing what you have to say — now, be sure NOT to miss those blogs linked above — you’ll enjoy the trip!!! See you soon!!!

I finally got back to my Sue’s Kitchen projects! And I had help on this one from Martha. I purchased a Martha Stewart Bag Set, but decided it needed a little spicing up (sorry, Martha). The set was on a 1/2 price sale at Michael’s the last time I was there (about 2 weeks ago) and it consisted of 15 of the square bottom cello bags with heavy DP inserts, pre-scored to fit (as you see in the bags), and narrow white grosgrain ribbon. Cute to throw together quickly — sure! But I KNEW we could do better!!! Here’s my finished product:

Aren’t they fun! And those are supposed to be delicious homemade cookies wrapped up in the tissue. I, of course, had no such thing on hand, but I know Sue will!!! Sue loves to make up gift bags of treats, so I made these especially with her in mind - not that I’m making up the entire set for her — oh NO — but I’m giving her the remainder so she can make them up herself, using these as inspiration and guidance. I hope she likes them!!!

The bottom of Martha’s bag was plain, so I personalized it with my JustRite font sets and Spellbinders Double Ended Tags die. I also added the lace doily, cutting it down a bit to fit in the bag perfectly. And the top of Martha’s bag was rather plain, too, so I added the scalloped white lacy border, using one of Martha’s lace border punches. I think it adds a lot! And, of course, I thought my 1.5″ May Arts Gingham Ribbon was a huge improvement over Martha’s narrow white grosgrain - LOL!!! And now that I’ve been a bit tough on Martha, let me say that I KNOW she would have had beautifully baked cookies in her bags, whereas I merely have mason jar rings wrapped in tissue under the pretense of being cookies — LOL!!! Seriously, these ARE cute little bag sets to pick upand personalize for your own needs, and I’m sure that was Martha’s intent all along!!!

From Sues Kitchen was done on the smaller of the Harmony Rectangle Stampers with Times New Roman Font, both Uppercase and Lowercase (in 25 point), except the S that was done with Special Occasions Font. I LOVE mixing up the font sets for an interesting look! The Times New Roman LowercaseFont is available from JustRite on 4/10, but you can get those sooner if you like. Check out this post on the JustRite Blog for a list of both brick and mortar and online stores.

Stamps: Times New Roman Lowercase, Times New Roman Uppercase, Special Occasions Font, Harmony Rectangle Stamper, all by JustRite.

Paper: White, Martha Stewart Bag Set from Michaels (bags and scored DP)

Ink: Versa Fine Onyx Black

Accessories: 1.5″ Gingham May Arts Ribbon from My Ribbon Saleabove my Blog banner, Double Ended Tags by Spellbinders, Martha Stewart Lace Punch, Doilies, Brads, 1/4″ Hole Punch, Glue Glider.

Super Simple Ribbon Treatment

I’d like to take a minute here today and show you how to do this type of bow. I get a lot of questions about bow tying. Many of you feel you aren’t able totie a decent bow. Well, this is the perfect ribbon treatment for bow challenged stampers!!! I know many of you are very familiar with this treatment, but for those who aren’t, here we go:

Punch holes in your card top. As I knew I wanted to use a 1.5″ wide ribbon today, I used a 1/4″ hole punch. The ribbon runs through each hole twice, so this is a perfect size hole for this ribbon treatment when using such wide ribbon. Cut your ribbon long enough that you have room to trim your ends when done. Cutboth ribbon ends at sharp angles tomake it easy to run them through the holes.

Run the ribbon through the holes to the card back, as shown. With both ribbon tails on the back side, now take one, cross it over, and run it through the hole to the front, as shown.

Now take the 2nd ribbon tail and cross it over and run it through the other hole to the card front. The 2nd photo shows what the card front now looks like.

Merely trim your ribbon ends in whatever fashion you like, and you are done!!! This ribbon treatment can have different looks depending on how far apart you punch the holes. You’ll note the pre-punched holes in my Martha bag were farther apart, giving one look, whereas I punched my holes closer on this sample, giving more the look of a standard bow. This is a perfect ribbon treatment for those who feel they can’t tie a decent bow!!! It comes out perfect, every time!!!

Thanks for stopping in again! Hope you are having a good weekend. We really got dumped on with a heavy, wet snow again. I just wish spring would come, and STAY!!! Leaving you with warm spring wishes!!!

Since I had my velvet out yesterday, I couldn’t bear to put it away without trying to emboss on it. I had done this years ago using a rubber stamp, but the heart image I wanted to try today was an acrylic stamp, and it worked wonderfully!!! I used the Lace Heart by Flourishes and embossed it on red dressmaker velvet. Here’s my card:

Before I go any further, I want to say that this is a birthday card for my good friend, Deb, over at Dream in Color. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEB!!! Hope you are having a good one!!!

This is a 5.5″ square card. The background is stamped using one of the Plain Jane Christian sentiments by Verve, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4. The white and black panel are edged in gold.

Here are the steps to embossing on velvet. You’ll need an iron, and the fewer steam holes on the bottom the better, a spritzer bottle of water, a stamp with good line images and velvet fabric. My velvet is a leftover piece so I don’t know what type of velvet it is, but it worked great!!!

1. Lay your stamp right side up on ironing board.

2. Cover your stamp with the velvet, fuzzy side down.

3. Spritz the velvet with water over the area where the stamp is.

4. With a DRY iron set to Cotton/Wool, try to place it on the velvet over the stamp with NO or as few holes as possible on the velvet/stamp. Hold firmly in place for 10 - 20 seconds. I did 20 seconds. Check to see if the velvet is dry. If still damp, hold longer. Be very careful that the velvet does not move under your iron or your image will be messed up.

5. Carefully peel the velvet off the stamp and it should look GREAT!!!

I then placed my Heart Nestability over my embossed velvet heart, taped it into place so it would not shift, and ran it through the Cuttlebug. I ran it through twice to make sure it cut and it did. This time I only had 1 little string to snip with scissors. Just as I did yesterday, I turned my heart upside down and gave it a good spray with spray glue, especially around the edges in an effort to prevent the edges from fraying. I then adhered my embossed velvet heart to my larger heart cut from Black Mirricard from Marco’s Paper. It is highly reflective and looks great against the velvet heart. I added a stick pin and adhered to my card front. A fairly easy card again!!!

I made a card with a black velvet heart yesterday, using a slightly different method that you can read about here if you like. Having fun with velvet this week!!

Stamps: Plain Jane Sentiment by Verve Visual; Lace Heart by Flourishes

Paper: PTI White; SU Black

Ink: Versa Fine Onyx Black, Gold Calligraphy Pen by Marvy Uchida

Accessories: Classic Heart Nestabilities by Spellbinders; SU Pretties Kit; Black Sheer Ribbon; Glue Dots, Glue Glider, Dimensionals, Iron, Water Spritzer, Velvet Fabric, Spray Glue

Note: Joan’s Garden has the Heart Nestabilities and theGlue Glider.

Thanks much for stopping in again today!!! Tomorrow we have our usual Stamp Simply Challenge up and I’m excited about this one. It’s one I’m going to be especially excited to see all your creations from!!! Hope you’ll have time to check in!!! As always, wishing you all a wonderful week!!!

Today’s Altered Valentine Tin coordinates with the Valentine Accordion Card I uploaded yesterday. Here’s the completed tin, with instructions to follow:

This was a fun recycling project as I used a tube shaped tin that had cookies in it. Here’s the before shot:

I’m not including any measurements for this project as they will be different for each can you use, but the first thing I did was to determine the size of my base red paper, remembering that I need it to be wider than the measurement around the can as I plan to score it to create embossed lines and when we score a lot it eats up length. My can was about 10″ around, so I left my paper at the 11″ length.

I used my Scor-It to create the embossed lines in my paper, scoring every 1/2″. I love adding these embossed lines to the base paper on the can — it really just adds a bit of richness that I love. And when you score thepaper repeatedly like this, it takes on a natural rounded shaping, making it so easy to wrap it around the can. Here’s an older photo of a sheet scored on my Scor-It from another similar project:

Once my base paper is scored I adhere it around the can using red sticky tape. And then it is just a matter of making my focal image, my topper, determing what ribbons, etc. I want to use to pretty it all up!!! I’ll take it section by section.

I used stamps by JustRite for my focal image and my can topper. The Harmony Classic Circle Stamper III Ensemble was used for the focal image on the can front. And notice how this is the largest of the round stmapers, over 3″. Well, you can look below and see that my focal image is oval shaped, not round. No problem — just stamp the center image ONLY onto cardstock and then cut out in any shape you desire. I thought the oval suited this image well and also suited my project. Just wanted to share that versatility tip with you! Take a look:

Doesn’t it make a perfect oval? I thought so! I used my Petite Oval Nestabilites to cut, mat and frame this Just Rite image and further added a few Kaiser pearls — fun!! The can is also wrapped with a layer of white, thenmy Bella Rose DP, and then mywide checked ribbon by May Arts. After adhering the image, I then attached a sheer ribbon bow with a glue dot. I wrapped the very bottom of the can with the red sticky tape and adhered some velvet ribbon to finish off the bottom! Here’s a look at the upper can:

This was a great can with a nice lid that slips on — love when I find those! I made the white lacey strip with my Martha Stewart Lace Punch. After adhering it over the red, it just looked a bit bare, so I added a band of red velvet and it seemed to do the trick. As for the lid, the side is also wrapped with the red velvet and a topper was made and adhered. Take a look:

Just simple layers stamped using my Harmony Classic Circle Stamper II Ensembleby JustRite. I stamped the center (With Love) and the border (hearts) in two differnet applications and then cut them with my Petite Circle Nestabilities and layer them to form my topper. The top 2 layers are up on SU Dimensionals. And here’s a view of the back of the can:

My bows, or knots, are all staggered intentionally, just for interest. There is red sticky tape under the velvet and Glue Glider tape under the checked ribbon so everything is nice and snug. With so many layers on this can there are many overlap seams on the back. I was just trying to pretty it up and take away from all those seams. And don’t the embossed lines add a nice touch! Here’s a pic of this altered can along with the Valentine Accordion Card I made yesterday.

What a fun Valentine card and little treat box! Hope the recipient likes it!!! A full tutorial on the Valentine Accordion Card can be seen here.

Stamps: Harmony Classic Circle Stamper III Ensemble and Harmony Classic Circle Stamper II Ensemble, both by JustRite

Paper: PTI White; SU Real Red, Pink Pirouette, Bella Rose DP

Ink: Versa Fine Onyx Black

Accessories: Scor-It, Petite Circle and Petite Oval Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Martha Stewart Lace Punch, Piercer and Mat Pack by SU, Kaiser Rhinestones, May Arts Ribbons, Red Sticky Tape, Glue Glider, SU Dimensionals, Zots

You can read about the Scor-It at the Scor-It site, but you do need to locate a retailer to purchase. A large list of retailers is available on the Scor-It site, but I know Joan over at Joans Gardenhas listed the Scor-It, so you may want to check it out. She always has fun things to share! She has the Glue Glider andKaiser Pearlsup today, too! I know Marcos Paper also always has a good supply of Scor-Its on hand and thats another great site to shop!!!

Thank you so much for the time you spent here today — so much appreciated!!! I still am working on Valentine themed projects this week, so there’s more in store!!! Hope you can stop back in!!! Hope your week is going well!!!

Accordion tags or cards are high on my list of fun things I enjoy making, so I thought Id start my Valentine series of posts with a small 3-panel accordion card. I made this using mostly SU product. Im running low on my Bella Rose DP so Im trying to stretch it by using some red Designer Print Series papers I had. I know the Bella Rose is designed to go with the Riding Hood Red, but I enjoy using it with Real Red it gives me a lot more options for ribbons and embellishments. Here it is:

Isnt it fun! Both the checked ribbon and the sheer dotted ribbon are by May Arts. The I Love You is from a set by Papertrey Ink and the To: and From: are from a Crafty Secrets set. I used Long Rectangle Nestabilites on the *I* and *U* and I used them again to make my scallop border between my 2 DP patterns. I used the Heart Nestabilities on my heart.

To start I cut my Pink paper 10.5 x 5.25. Each panel is 3.5 so using my Scor-It I scored first at 3.5, then I flipped it over as we want mountain and valley folds on our accordion tag, and I lined my score line up at 3.5 and scored again, essentially scoring at 7. Done!

To create the shape on top I used a template I had from another project and just cut my corners with scissors. I then decided I wanted a flat top rather than a point, so I went to the cutting board and cut so my panel ended up at 4.5 high.

Then it was just a matter of making all my pieces. I used my Long Rectangle Nestabilities to make my scallops. This is so quick and easy for a scalloped edge. I used the longest Scalloped Rectangle in the full set. I cut and embossed it I have white in the sample but ended up using red on my card. Once it is cut, use the 2 long edges for your scallop. Just cut off what you need. In this case I cut off just about , and using my GlueGlider I adhered my scallop to my red DP. After the floral DP was adhered to the red panel, I then adhered it on top quick easy scallops for a fun look!

Heres all my pieces before I adhered them to the card base. I *I* and *U* were stamped with Letterpress Alphabet by SU. The heart is from Simply Said by SU.

Once all pieces were adhered together, I added a Jumbo Pewter Eyelet on top, ran my checked ribbon through, made up my little tags and tied them on with the dotted sheer ribbon. The main image pieces are popped up with foam mounting tape. Heres a close up of the center panel.

Stamps: SU Simply Said and Letterpress Alphabet, Papertrey Ink Out on a Limb Sentiments, Crafty Secrets Vintage Christmas

Paper: PTI White, SU Pink Pirouette, Real Red, Bella Rose DP, Red Prints DP

Ink: Versa Fine Onyx Black, SU Real Red, SU Markers

Accessories: Scor-It; Spellbinders: Long Rectangle Nestabilities, Heart Nestabilities, Tag Die; SU Large and Small Tag Punches; Cropadile; SU Jumbo Eyelet, Brad, Eyelet; May Arts Ribbons; Glue Glider, Mounting Tape

These accordion projects are so fun and easy, especially if youuse a good scoring tool.This project could have easily been done on either the fullsized or MiniScor-It. You can read about the Scor-It at the Scor-It site, but you do need to locate a retailer to purchase. A large list of retailers is available on the Scor-It site, but I know Joan over at Joan’s Gardenhas listed the Scor-It today, so you may want to check it out. She always has fun things to share on Mondays! She has the Glue Glider and Long Nesties up today, too! I know Marco’s Paper also always has a good supply of Scor-It’s on hand and that’s another great site to shop!!!

Thanks so much for stopping in again today! I plan to feature Valentine Projects all week long, so if that interests you, please stop back in. Hope you are off to a good week ahead!!!

Please accept my apologies for this tiny print tonight. I had major issues here tonight and as far as I can figure this is only fixable by re-doing the entire thing — so I’m leaving it — I’ll have my regular size type up tomorrow!!! Thanks for understanding!!!

Welcome to Day6 of Stamp Simply Celebrates! If you are new here, check out Party Central for a full rundown of our 12 day schedule. Feel free to jump in anytime at all!!!

Anyone can play ANY of the challenges by ANY of the hostesses during our 12 days of Stamp Simply Celebrates!!!You DO NOTneed to have a Blog to play uploading your project to SCS (Splitcoaststampers.com) is not only permissible, but HIGHLY ENCOURAGED. When doing so, use the KEYWORD SSC08. Thanks!

Heather Telford - bits and pieces - Heather is sharing a Featured Project with us today how to Dress up Your Table! Fun!!! And Heather is also incorporating a Challenge in with her project, making it 1-2-3 easy for us to decorate our own tables!!! Be sure to stop in at Heathers place today for many great samplings of table decor!

You can see more samples from Heather’s designers. They are Jennifer, Darlene, Joan and Jerri.

LeAnne Pugliese - Wee Inklings - Doesnt every Mother need a helper, especially during the Holidays? Well, for LeAnnes Featured Project that is just what she is giving us, a Mothers Holiday Helper! LeAnne is running a Challenge along with her project, providing us with templates and instruction so we can quickly and easily create our own helper!!! Dont miss it!!!

And you can see more samples from LeAnne’s designers as well. They are Barb, Deb, Janine, Darlene and me (just scroll down to see mine).

As usual, please bear with us all as we are busy uploading and linking through outtonight — everything should be up and in order by morning!

AJ Otto - The Willow Garden- AJ has some BLOG CANDY to share!

Sharon Johnson - No Time To Stamp? - Me again, with more BLOG CANDY! And here it is down just a bit.

To be entered for this Blog Candy drawing, all you need to do is comment below — nothing more than that today!!! Nice and simple!!! This post will be closed for Blog Candy entries at 6:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008. Shortly thereafter a random winner will be selected by random.org. The winner will be posted both on this thread and at Party Central. OK, now on to my project:

Once again, HUGE THANKS go out to the folks at JustRite!!! They know how much I love the various fonts and rectangle stampers, so they are most generous in allowing me to give some away to you!!! This time we have the Times New Roman Font (3 sizes in a box) and the Rectangle Stamper Set (2 wooden blocks in a set, one large and one small). Times New Roman is one of the fontsI used on my project for today. And before I show you my project, once we are talking JustRite, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about a sale they have going on – and the sale is especially for all of you Blog readers — they are grateful for their Blog traffic (which comes from YOU) and wanted to offer you a special. You may read about it here.

OK, now let’s move on to my project for today. I played as a sample maker for LeAnne’s Challenge, which you can read more about on LeAnne’s Blog. But basically, she provided us with templates for her Mother’s Holiday Helper which is made from a basic pocket file folder. Well, the only pocket file folders I had at home were neon colors or school colors with school logos - not QUITE what I had in mind. At Deb’s suggestion, she told me they had some plain kraft pocket folders at Office Max. Well, they sure did, plus they had some kraft folders that had designs on them, so I chose one of those. Here’s what I bought and used for this project.

The folders had designs in white, while all the complimentary pieces had black accents — now WHY didn’t they make them all the same??? I’m really into matchy/matchy — LOL!!! Anyway, I figured I could make them work. And rather than follows LeAnne’s very cool template, I decided to make a gift for a friend — sort of an organizer for craft needs — you know those lists we all keep? I just wanted to make something to contain lists and notes of our crafting needs so when we go shopping everything is contained in one place. Here’s a look at the completed inside of my folder.

Isn’t it fun? I LOVED making this!!! My brainy idea here to make this a little different than a normal folder was to create a spine. See it? It functions very well, allowing plenty of room for all my little pads and notebooks and whatever else one might throw in there. The spine is 1″ and it was created very easily with my Scor-It. Takea look.

See the center line? That is the line, the fold, that came on the folder. All I did was score 1/2″ on each side of that line, giving me a 1″ spine. Score with the right side down so that your score folds properly. This kraft folder is VERY thick. I don’t know how thick, but MUCH heavier than 110# cardstock. To score this on myScor-It was totally effortless. In places I scored over 2 thicknesses — no problem at all. I got perfect score lines and my folder now had a totally functional spine!!! Now to create a *pretty* spine, this is what I did.

I cut 3 strips of black cardstock, 11 x 7/8″. Leave 2 of them the full 11″ long and cut the 3rd one in half. Each half will be 5.5″ long. Now score these 2 shorter pieces right in the middle, which is 2 3/4″. Adhereone of the 11″ strips right in the center of the spine. It won’t reach all the way, so just center it. Do the same on the outside of the spine. Now here’s where the little scored piecescome in. Corner round the ends of these 2 little pieces and they’ll look more like tabs. Now,just adherethem, top and bottom. They fold around the top or bottom, covering both sides. Can you follow me? In the photo the bottom is done, but the top still needs to be covered with the tab. Easy!!! It hides that unsightly midde*original* seamline and it sturdies up the spine — PERFECT!!!

And here’s a look at the completed spine on the outside. Can you see the rounded tabs? I just added some pewter brads to make it look a bit more finished off. I LOVE this spine — it was EASY, FUN and added great FUNCTION to my folder. I chose pewter brads because the little clips that went with this set were sort of grayish/pewtery in color.

Here’s a look at the cover of my folder. The sentiment is from the JustRite Harmony Circle Stamper III Ensemble. (This is one of thesale items right now!) I omitted the outer ring and used my Labels 1 Nestabilities by Spellbinders to cut the sentiment out. As I’ve said before, you have a lot of options with your JustRiteimages/sentiments — they don’t all HAVE to be used in a round or oval format. I added some little rhinestones. The DP is by K and Co., (Margo) and it is edged with black. I used the Martha Stewart scallop punch on the right and then punched holes with my Cropadile. My favorite 1.5″ May Arts striped ribbon is adhered with 1.5″ wide double sided tape to the back and spine of the folder. It easily ties and unties for use.

Just showing a close up with some detail.

This is the inside left. I covered the inside with the K & Co. paper (Margo). I thought this rather vintage looking old paper design would go well. I then stamped the larger words in Times New Roman Font using my Rectangle Stampersand Charcoal Palette Ink. I used a Stamp-a-ma-jig to get them positioned as I wanted. My Stamp-a-ma-jig is home made. I should show it to you sometime! A friend made it from left over window trim during a house remodel. She made about 10 of them and gave them to all of us here. She purchased the sheets from SU and we are good to go. This is the SAME friend who is making a Cuttlebug out of an old wringer washer — I KID YOU NOT!!! If she ever gets that up and running I WILL show you, for sure — LOL!!!

This is the inside right. The sticky notes are adhered to the top, but I am having technical difficulties there — LOL!!! They are too heavy. I’ll end up taking about 1/2 the pad off, I’m sure! Again, I stamped on the NOTES with Times New Roman Font. I love the little clips — they are pretty and functional, if needed!!!

Here’s a look at the left pocket. The monogram was done with the Damask Monogram Set (it’s on sale — see above) and I used a J from Trompe Script Font, which is a really pretty, more fancy, font that I love. The little book just has a simple J on it, front and back.

This is the right side pocket, no different. The top border is made with the retired SU Wrought Iron punch with the corner guard removed. The bottom border is made with the Martha Stewart Scallop punch and holes added with a Cropadile. I used my new Glue Glider from Joan’s Garden for this entire project and it sticks tight! It’s super easy to use and very light weight. I am one happy camper with my new Glue Glider glue gun!!!

And that wraps it up again today!!! Hope you are all enjoying your time of Christmas preparation, however much or little that may be. And I hope you are getting some ideas you can use from all of us here working on Stamp Simply Celebrates!!! We are mid-way now, 6 days down, 6 to go!!! Hope to see you soon!!! Thanks so much for stopping in!!!

The winner selected by randon.org is #6, for Blog Candy #6, who is Nina. Here’s what Nina had to say:

nina

I just love the way youve used this font - the Times New Roman is tops on my (large) list of JustRite items to buy!

Dec 5, 11:22 PM

Congrats! Nina and THANK YOU SO MUCH to all the rest who played!!!