Running With Scissors…

I finally used my Season of Joy set.  In fact, it took me three days to finish this card because I’ve been a little worn out in the evenings.  Due to a flare up of an aggravating foot problem I’ve been not so much walking as lurching around like Frankenstein at work all week.  Lurching takes more energy than ordinary walking so I haven’t had much left over for creativity.  I think it’s finally getting better, though.

The papers I used are Stampin’ Up!’s Apple Cider collection along with a piece of So Swirly wheeled background I had left over from another project.  The scalloped border was made by cutting along the edge of a row of overlapping circles that pattern one of the sheets in the collection.  I used my Sakura clear glitter pen on the star and the flower centers.

I finally counted up my Christmas cards because it seems like I’ve been making an awfully lot of of them and I still have several in mind to make this year.  The total came to 61.  Not too many, I guess, unless you think of it in terms of the extra postage many of them will require.  I think a trip to USPS online is in order because these will start going in the mail soon.  When do you start mailing out your Christmas cards?

I’ve got to run now, so I’ll leave you with a wish for a very happy Friday and a great weekend.  I’ll see you again soon!

Stamps:  Season of Joy, So Swirly jumbo wheel

Paper:  Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Apple Cider designer paper

Ink:  Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Basic Black, Close to Cocoa, Barely Banana

Accessories:  Offray Ribbon, 1/2″ circle punch, eyelets, Scotch brand dimensional mounting tape

I’ve been wanting to use this little string of lights from my Flourishes O Christmas Tree set.  The stamp is actually only a three-light section but that allows you to do pretty much anything you want with it.  It was easy to put the pieces together since these are clear stamps, though as you can see, I wasn’t very imaginative in simply stringing it straight across the panel.

I colored the lights with markers and outlined them with my Barely Banana marker for a little glow.  I also sponged around the panel with Barely Banana for an all-over glow.  After coloring the lights I went over them with a Sakura Stardust clear glitter pen.  It muted the color a little bit so I went over the lights again with my markers.  It didn’t diminish the sparkle but it brought some of the color back, which shows more in real life.  Funny thing — when I used those same markers to color the ornament hanging up there in the corner they had become *sparkle* markers!  It was fun while it lasted but it didn’t last long.  The markers reverted to ordinary after just a bit of coloring.

I used more of my Figgy Pudding paper on this card, too.  The “Merry Merry!” is also from the O Christmas Tree set, as is the little ornament.  The ornaments in this set are all very cute.  I need to do more with them.  I hadn’t planned on using this one but I felt I’d positioned my scalloped circle too close to the center of the panel and I was trying to balance it out a bit.  It still doesn’t look right to me, darn it, but it’ll have to do.

I’ve been using a lot of clear stamps lately and I feel I’d like to tell you something about the Flourishes stamps.  They’re good quality.  I’m not just saying that because I’m on their design team.  Like all clear stamps they work better after they’ve been rubbed with an eraser and used a time or two, but it takes very little conditioning to get them working well with ordinary dye-based ink.  They also peel off their plastic sheets easily and cling well to the blocks.  They’re not flimsy.  While I’m all about the enjoyment of creating with pretty images, I do appreciate a quality product and an honest assessment.  I’m thinking maybe you do, too.

Now…I’m trying out my post timestamp for the first time today.  If all goes well this should show up sometime around Wednesday, the 28th.  If not…well…oops!  Thank you for visiting with me.  Have a wonderful week!

Stamps:  O Christmas Tree

Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Old Olive, Whisper White, BasicGrey Figgy Pudding designer paper

Ink:  Ruby Red, Barely Banana, Palette Noir, markers

Accessories:  Scallop punch, 1 1/4″ and 1 3/8″ circle punches, ticket corner punch, ribbon, antique brass Hodgepodge Hardware, Scotch brand dimensional mounting tape

I almost feel like I cheated on this Ruby Tuesday card because there’s not much Stella showing on it.  I wanted to step away from the Christmas cards for a moment and use my Fancy Pants From The Garden set.  I had the notion I could use the sage and saffron papers from the collection but once I stamped this image in Sage Shadow it looked so delicate and wispy, all the Stella Ruby papers seemed too heavy for it.  I was feeling Banana and Blush and sweetness and light.  I’d been fooled by the bold black image on the acetate sheet when I should have known better.  I’ve been surprised before by how color can change the character of a stamped image.

This is a rather large stamp, too.  I started out with a 4 1/4″ square image panel, thinking to mount it on a 5 1/4″ square card, but that left even less room for Stella and no room at all for the white organdy and blush taffeta ribbon I was determined to use.  I also immediately saw a Banana on white Floral background with this and…oh, geeze…this was getting further from Stella by the minute.  She is, however, a gracious lady and agreed to step quietly to the background just this once.  I couldn’t have done it without her, though.  There’s just enough sage with yellow highlights in this richly colored piece of Stella to save this card from pale oblivion.

This card measures 5″ by 7″ which seems huge to me but it’s actually the size of most cards you buy.  Buy?  Did I just say “cards you buy”?  Did you just feel a chill?  The white in the background is SU!’s textured cardstock, which I love.  The image is stamped on Whisper White and the swirls were outlined with my Blush Blossom marker.  I used a sponge dauber to add a little Barely Banana shading around the swirls.  The flower buds are colored with Barely Banana and Blush Blossom, some shading added with Really Rust and blended with the Blush Blossom marker.  It’s hard to make out all the detail in the photo but I think you can see some of the shading.  These little Primas are the same size and shape as the flowers that are part of the image so I thought they’d be a fun touch for a little dimension.  I dotted the centers with pink Ranger Liquid Pearls.  The panel was finished by sponging Blush Blossom around the edges.

The Circle of Friendship accent was stamped in Versamark and embossed with sage EP.  I cut around it with small scallop scissors and mounted it on a circle of the same Barely Banana Floral that’s in the background.  I was hoping to balance the design by bringing the background color to the fore and echoing the scallops and flower shape in the eyelets.

Well, this was fun for a change.  I’ve got more Christmas cards planned but I’d like to throw something like this into the mix once in a while, too.  I get to missing my flower cards this time of year…sigh…  Happy Ruby Tuesday!

Stamps:  From the Garden, Circle of Friendship, Floral

Paper:  Blush Blossom, textured white, Whisper White

Ink:  Blush Blossom, Sage Shadow, Barely Banana, markers

Accessories:  Ribbon, liquid pearls, 1 3/8″ circle punch, eyelets, Primas, scallop scissors, Scotch brand dimensional mounting tape

There’s something about this paper that reminds me of pajamas.  I think I’m having a flashback to the Sears Christmas Catalog that came to the house every year when I was little.  We received both Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogs.  Mom mostly ordered from Montgomery Ward because it was more economical but, oh, that Sears catalog…they had the best toys!  When I was older it was the clothes that caught my eye — mohair sweaters and shoes of every color.  When the catalogs expired I made paper dolls from the models, searching through the pages for whole images (all their arms and legs intact) and clothes that would “fit” them.   Anyway, when I look at this I can’t stop thinking of the Christmas themed flannel pajamas that were always in those catalogs.

I bought this Festive Favorites set last year.  Loved it much but used it little.  It was very popular.  I’ve concluded I simply have too many stamps.  Yes, I’ll admit it.  I just scrolled through almost a year’s worth of blog posts and I’ve rarely used the same stamp twice.  I’m still trying to catch up with all the stamps I haven’t used yet.  This little snowman tag is a first timer.  I’ll be using this set again soon, as well as a new BasicGrey Christmas set and my SU! Season of Joy set.  I’m determined to use this BasicGrey Figgy Pudding paper this year, too.

I sparkled up the snowmen with my Spica clear glitter pen.  That’s about the only detail that’s not apparent in the photo so I’ll just list ingredients below.  I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

Stamps:  Festive Favorites

Paper:  Soft Sky, River Rock, Whisper White, BasicGrey Figgy Pudding designer paper

Ink:  Basic Black, Ruby Red, markers for coloring

Accessories:  Soft Sky double stitched ribbon, Moss gingham ribbon, swirl clip, ticket corner punch, brads, Scotch brand dimensional mounting tape

You know how sometimes you want to give a little something “just because”?  It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, just one of those things that says, “I was thinking about you”.  It truly is the smallest things sometimes that bring the biggest smiles.  When a coworker stops to pick up an autumn leaf in the parking lot and brings it to my desk, saying “I thought you’d like this” — there’s a big smile.  When another makes sure she photographs the trilliums on the trail because she knew I’d love to see them — another smile.  Gosh, even when a patient smuggles a puppy into the Lab in her purse and someone says, “you have to go get Leslie” — that’s a gift.  Life is full of them.

So that’s what I’ve made with this set, one of those “just because” gifts.  There’s an emery board holder and a sampler box of nail care products along with the matching card.  Just a little something.  All those beautiful swirls and curls that I love so much are done with my Flourished Elements set.  I think the folks at Flourishes have really hit their stride with this set.  It combines beautifully with many of their other sets and I’m guessing there’s more to come along this line.  Just guessing…and hoping…  The “Merry Christmas” on the card is from their Flourished Christmas set, and the “With Love” on the tag is from Flourished Words.  The cardstocks are Going Gray and Soft Sky from Stampin’ Up! and the designer paper is BasicGrey Periphery.

That gorgeous frosty blue flower is a Heavenly Prima that I found at Jacksonbelle Embellishments.  What a wonderful Prima collection this is!  This flower comes sprinkled with blue glitter, too, but it doesn’t show in the photo.  There’s also a darker blue in the collection as well as snowflakes and glittered sheer flowers.  They come packaged in a rhinestone-studded tin with a clear lid.  For a closer look at the flower you can scroll to the end of this post where I’ve included a photo of just the card.

The little box is a really simple version of a 2-4-6-8 box.  It was cut 4 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ and scored at 2″, 4″, 6″ and 8″.  I covered each panel with the Periphery paper that I’d stamped with Flourished Elements and then trimmed along the top edge with decorative edge scissors before I folded up the box.  The construction is the same basic premise as the card tote in this tutorial.  Here’s a photo of the box as it was cut and scored:

The emery board holder isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I started.  I thought I was going to make a simple sleeve but this large-size emery board was too thick for a mere sleeve so I wound up making, essentially, a long, skinny box.  It has a nice feel to it, though.  I don’t know if you’d be interested in making this but, just in case, I’ve included a couple of photos and instructions.  This is the holder as it looks from the inside after I cut and scored it:

1.  Cut cardstock 8″ long x 3″ wide.  Stamp design on one side.  Score on the stamped side at 1 1/8″, 1 1/4″, 2 3/8″ and 2 1/2″.  Turn and score across the bottom at 7/8″ and 1″.

2.  Use a 3/4″ circle punch to punch a notch in the center panel, top end.

3.  Cut away the bottom flaps as shown.  I cut across the remaining flap with scallop scissors.  This flap will be folded up on the outside so it doesn’t interfere with the emery board sliding into the holder.

4.  Fold sides and crease sharply on score lines.  The folds are very close and you’ll flatten one somewhat as you crease the next one, but at this point you’re just establishing the folds.  It’ll shape up in the following steps.

5.  Apply Sticky Strip to the outside of the long, narrow panel.

6.  Fold the opposite side over the Sticky Strip like a very thin box, aligning the edge with the first fold on the Sticky Strip panel.  Remember, those tiny 1/8″ areas between the score lines are the sides of the box.  Don’t worry about flattening the box at this point.

7.  Now, straighten the sides into a skinny box shape.  Apply Sticky Strip to the inside edge of the bottom flap and fold up to the outside front.  This will secure the box shape.

If you have any overhanging edges you can sand them down to size.  I sponged all the edges with Going Gray and added a little Periphery trim and ribbon.  It’s quicker and easier than it sounds and if you’ve made any kind of boxes before, this would be a piece of cake.

So, finally, here’s the card.  I love the flower with the flourishes and the Periphery paper.  The flourishes are stamped with Stampin’ Up!’s Basic Gray and the sentiment is Taken With Teal.  It doesn’t look very much like Taken With Teal, does it?  It seems to come out a lighter shade when used with this delicate, photopolymer stamp — a very pretty blue.

Thank you for visiting today.  I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  I’ve been spending my time either in the kitchen or with family.  I did get outside in the garden for a while today, too.  It was a beautiful day.  Not much time for stamping but I’m sure I’ll manage a few cards before the weekend’s over.  After all, I’ve still got a lot of uninked stamps…

Stamps:  Flourished Elements, Flourished Christmas, Flourished Words (that’s a lot of Flourishes)

Paper:  Going Gray, Soft Sky, Whisper White, BasicGrey Periphery

Ink:  Basic Gray, Taken With Teal, Going Gray

Accesories:  Basic Gray taffeta ribbon, Heavenly Blue Prima, brad, swirl clip, tag punch, 3/4″ circle punch, Scotch brand dimensional mounting tape

I was pretty sure if Stella could do Halloween, she could do Christmas, too.  I’ll be darned if she didn’t!  Stella can do anything in her own Stella kind of way.

This is another one of those old stamps I had at work and colored on my break.  No fancy shading, just plain old streaky marker coloring.  The stamp is a Running Rhino & Co. design for Uptown Rubber Stamps.  I have no idea if it’s still for sale anywhere but I sure do love the image.  This is exactly how it was colored on the label.  I didn’t have any particular plan for it until I realized these are Stella colors.  I ran one piece of Stella through the Cuttlebug to make the snowflakes and layered two others with some Martha Stewart twill.  The tab is made with the key tag punch.

So there you go — Stella Does Christmas!  I’m sorry I have to rush off now.  No time to linger today but maybe I can visit longer next time.  Take care and have a wonderful Ruby Tuesday!

Stamps:  Uptown Rubber Stamps Tree Dance

Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Whisper White, BasicGrey Stella Ruby designer paper

Ink:  Basic Black, More Mustard, various markers for coloring

Accessories:  Martha Stewart twill, Making Memories brads, key tag punch, Snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder, Scotch brand dimensional mounting tape

There have been a lot of punchy Santas made over the years…a lot of punchy everything, actually.  Still, I thought it would be fun to design my own punchy Santa and see if maybe you might like to try him, too.

My Santa is a little more involved than some I’ve seen but once I had the design and measurements all figured out and my list in front of me I had four of these cut out and put together before I could say “ho ho ho”.  I don’t know if the scallop punch has been used for a beard before.  Chances are, it has been.  I’m not usually the first person to think of these things.  It was an epiphany for me, though, and maybe…just maybe it’s a new idea.

The background on this card uses papers from both the SU! Holiday Harmony and Apple Cider collections, as well as one piece of white wheeled with So Swirly.  The zigzag stitch is Hero Arts and the little card he’s holding is a stamp from SU! Glad Tidings.  I had so much fun with this!  I felt like a little kid with a school art project.  He reminds me of some of the things my son used to bring home.

So…if you’d like to play, too, I’ve included instructions which are much more detailed than you need, I’m sure.  But just in case…

You’ll need:

Red — 2 1/4″ square for body, 2″ x 1 1/4″ for legs, 2″ x 3/4″ for arms, 1 1/4″ square for hat

White — 2 3/8″ x 1/2″ for coat trim, scallop punch circle for beard, 1 3/8″ x 1/4″ for hat trim, 3/4″ x 1/4″ for sleeve trim, 1/4″ punched circle for pom pom

Blush — 1 3/8″ punched circle for head, 1/4″ punched circle for nose

Black — 2 1/4″ x 3/8″ for belt (can use ribbon instead), 1″ punched circle for shoes, 3/4″ punched circle for mittens

I used a heck of a lot of punches, but you can improvise, too.  The punches sure do make it easier, though.

Here’s an overview of Santa’s parts.  I’ll explain why some of them look the way they do in the step by step.  As you can see, the Santa in the card I’ve pictured had his beard Cuttlebugged before it was punched.  There’s lots that can be done to dress him up but I mostly kept it pretty simple.

1.  Prepare at least one layer of the card.  You’ll be gluing Santa directly onto it.

2.  Score legs at the 1″ mark.  Glue to lower edge of card.  Cut the 1″ black circle in half and glue to legs as shown in the finished card.

3.  Cut the 3/4″ black circle in half and tape to lower edge of arms.  Glue arms to body at shoulders.  You can position the arms however you want.  Just keep in mind that you don’t want them hanging too far off the edge of the card.  The next photo shows how my Santa’s arms and body look from the back after taping and gluing.

4.  Glue white trim to sleeves.  Glue coat trim to lower edge of coat.  It will be slightly wider than the coat.  Glue belt just above white coat trim.

5.  Glue assembled coat just above legs, leaving the arms free.

6.  On the head, color two small black dots for eyes and two larger pink spots for his rosy cheeks.  Position head on body.  You can tilt the head, as I’ve done here, or just set it straight on.

7.  Cut a slice off of the scallop circle.  Please refer to the photo of Santa’s parts for an example.  Turn the sliced off piece upside down and glue to beard to form a mustache.

8.  Glue beard to face so that just the tops of his rosy cheeks are visible.  Center 1/4″ nose circle over mustache.

9.  Cut the 1 1/4″ red hat square in half on the diagonal.  Cut the tips off the ends of one piece as shown in the photo of Santa’s parts.  Glue white hat trim to lower edge of that piece.  Glue hat to Santa’s head just above his eyes.

10.  Glue the other half of the square (which is now a rectangle) to Santa’s hat.  Glue the 1/4″ white circle pom pom to the tip that overhangs.

11.  Give him a belt buckle of some kind.  I used a ribbon slide but cardstock or a large brad or eyelet would work, too.

Now you can finish assembling the card and add whatever creative touches you’d like.  He’d look great with liquid applique, white puffy paint, fun flock or maybe a little glitter.  I’ll finish up with one more photo of another Santa card I made, using the same layout but different colors and papers.

Have a super great Sunday!  I’m having a rainy, stamping kind of weekend.  I hope to try out a different sort of project tomorrow.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!  See you again soon!

Hello!  Just sharing a little something I made tonight per request for a Thanksgiving card.  I used an old Stampendous stamp called Pumpkin Feast.  I think it’s so cute but I’ve only used it once before and that was about three years ago.  The folks who buy my cards don’t seem to mind if a stamp is old, retired and not the current hot item, thank goodness.  I love having the opportunity to give these tired old stamps some exercise.

I colored it with markers and shaded around the image with Stampin’ Pastels (soft chalks).  After I stamped the sentiment I sprayed it with a couple of coats of matte sealer to help pop the colors and give it a nice finish.  The leafy background was made by lightly and unevenly stamping Canvas on Naturals Ivory with Creamy Caramel, then wheeling Leaf Prints lengthwise in More Mustard and crosswise in Really Rust.  The layout is simple to try to minimize weight and bulk.

I had to hurry to get this finished tonight and now I’ve stayed up too late so I have to keep this brief, but…hooray for Friday!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Stamps:  Stampendous Pumpkin Feast, Stampin’ Up! Happy Harmony sentiment (retired), Leaf prints wheel

Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Garden Green, Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla

Ink:  More Mustard, Really Rust, Basic Black, Garden Green, Creamy Caramel, various markers for coloring

Accessories:  Ribbon, eyelets, Scotch brand dimensional mounting tape, spray matte sealer

I’ve made a quick card today, stamping only this elegant sentiment from Flourishes’ Rejoice set.  With a sentiment this big and beautiful there’s not much more required other than some pretty papers and a couple of accents.  I stitched across the Shimmery White panel with copper metallic cord and added the copper brads and velvet ribbon.  Very simple but sometimes that’s just what I need.  The designer papers are Stampin’ Up!’s Holiday Harmony papers.  I love this paper collection because there’s only one sheet in the pack that’s exclusively Christmas.  I’ll enjoy these papers on my cards all year long.

Thank you for stopping by for this quick card and even quicker post!  Have a great day!

Stamps:  Flourishes Rejoice

Paper:  River Rock, Purely Pomegranate, Shimmery White, SU! Holiday Harmony

Ink:  Purely Pomegranate

Accessories:  Velvet ribbon, brads, copper cord

Hello, again, for another Ruby Tuesday!  I know, I know — does this paper never end?  Trust me, we’re getting there, and when we do, we’ll go out with a bang.  I’ll be planning a celebration…

I’ve stocked my cupboard at work with a few items from my stamp room — Basic Black and Basic Brown ink pads and quarter sheets of Whisper White and Very Vanilla cardstock, for instance.  I also carried in a selection of older, non-SU! stamps figuring I could bear to be without them at home since they’ve sat, for the most part, untouched since 2004.  That’s when I met SU!.  It’s only been recently that I’ve ventured beyond the SU! boundaries once again.

This autumn wreath by PSX is a timeless image and one worth hanging onto, I think.  The intricacy of its design makes the coloring of it a time-consuming proposition.  Each morning and afternoon break that wasn’t otherwise claimed was spent adding little bits of color and shading to the wreath with the SU! water based markers I’ve taken to carrying in my bag.  There was no hurry because, what the heck, I had nowhere to go other than back to work and I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to spend my breaks.  By the end of the week it was ready to bring home for the finishing touches.

I used a sponge tipped applicator to shade around the image with SU! chalk in Perfect Plum. The Hero Arts sentiment was stamped in Ruby Red.  The last step, and one that was vital to the final outcome, was to spray the finished piece with matte sealer.  The sealer has the effect of melding the different coloring mediums and intensifying the color.  I hope you’ll try it sometime so you can see for yourself.  I gave this four light coats with a few minutes drying time between each coat.

This large image is mounted on a 5 1/4″ square card, using Chocolate Chip and Summer Sun cardstocks as well as some of the wonderful SU! textured cardstock that I keep forgetting to use.  This piece is Ruby Red.  Sometimes texture is a nice substitute for pattern and with this busy image it seemed like a good way to go.  The designer paper is, of course, BasicGrey Stella Ruby.

I hope this finds you well on Ruby Tuesday!  Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Stamps:  PSX autumn wreath, Hero Arts sentiment

Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Ruby Red textured, Very Vanilla, BasicGrey Stella Ruby designer paper

Ink:  Basic Brown, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip (for sponging around the edges), various markers for coloring

Accessories:  Ribbon, hardware, Stampin’ Pastels soft chalk, spray matte sealer, Scotch brand dimensional mounting tape