Criss-Cross Box

Mother's Day and my daughter's birthday party are quickly approaching and I needed a cute little treat box. I was happy to find a template and tutorial for this criss-cross box at Nicole Heady's blog. It was super easy and if you're in a hurry and don't have time to stamp, you can even use a sturdy sheet of decorative paper to make the box!
Recipe
Stamps- Great Impressions, Stampendous
Ink- wisteria ColorBox chalk ink, citrus Adirondack
Plus- glitter glue, SU tag punches, 1" circle punch, cello bag, green and purple ribbon

Foil Father's Day

This card was made for the SCS Inspiration Challenge and it was a safari theme. So here is what I did.
1. Cut a square of sticker paper, remove the backing and lay sticky side up on the desk. Take a piece of gold foil, crumple it up real well, open it back up and lay it down on the sticker paper with the shiny side up. Rub it down and remove.
2. The foil has a crackled look to it with some of the sticker paper exposed. Using a fluffy brush, brush russet Pearl Ex over the paper to completely cover and wipe off with a paper towel and you are left with a beautiful background!
3. Ink lion (Stampendous) with black StazOn ink and stamp onto foiled paper.
4. Layer onto black and gold papers and mount to a rust card.
5. Add stickers and feathers as shown.

Shrink It!

It has been a long time since I have used my shrink plastic so I thought I would dust it off and shrink this great PrintWorks image. So here is what I did.
1. Stamp "rough and ready" clear shrink plastic with black StazOn ink and coloring the rough side with chalks and a "chisel" type brush (the bristles are short and more condensed). Keep in mind the colors really intensify when shrunk so color lightly.
2. Out line some of the images with colored pencils.
3. Before shrinking, rub a light layer of baby powder on the front and back to prevent the plastic from sticking to itself while shrinking.
4. Place the piece in a shoe box lid (so it won't blow away while heating) and heat with a heat gun, moving it slowly across the shrink plastic. As it shrinks it will curl, so don't worry it will start to flatten out when it is done, then place a wood block on top of the piece for a few seconds so it will be completely flat.
The card was stamped with a sentiment by PrintWorks using wisteria ColorBox Chalk ink and it opens in the center.
Shrink Plastic also comes in white, cream, brown and black so the possibilities are endless!

Purse card

Here is a purse card I made, it is a regular card that opens from the bottom. This card is cased from someone else, but I'm sorry I can't remember where I saw it :( But I thought this idea was wonderful and oh so easy! All you need is a circle Coluzzle and cut a half circle from light purple paper using the outer most line to cut on then do the same with decorative paper using one line smaller. I attached the ribbon to the top using little white brads and added a little Fabri-tac glue to make sure the ribbon wouldn't pull out. The Flowers are from Hero Arts, they are layered and a purple brad holds them together, then I glued the half circles to the top of the card. Then I cut a strip of decorative paper, layered it onto slightly larger light purple paper and wrapped it with lime ribbon and a little ribbon frame/buckle. Glue this down then stamp your sentiment.

I think I will use this style of card for my daughters birthday invitations, but make it a little more funky since she is having a "hippie" theme. I'll post it when I get it done.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend :)

I've Been Tagged

7 Things Game

I was tagged by "Keri" for the 7 things game.


The Rules for 7 Things:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, here are my 7 things:

1. I started stamping when my son was 3 months old and my daughter was 3 years old. I found it very relaxing.

2. I was on the design team for Stampendous for 5 years from 2000-2005.

3. I'm afraid of heights.

4. I am an only child.

5. I graduated from the University of Southern California (USC). Go Trojans!

6. I'm always cold even though I live in Southern California.

7. I've never seen it snow where snow actually stays on the ground for more than 5 minutes.

Now the 7 people I tag are

Stephanie

Gill - My SBS Sister

Lisa

Melissa

Maria

Carolina - My SBS Sister

Julie

Foil and Glitter Technique

Here is a card I made awhile ago, but it is one of my favorites and I'm sad to say this stamp by Stampendous is discontinued. I used a really great foil and glitter technique on the fish. What I did was
1. Stamp the fish on acetate with black StazOn ink then applied a piece of Peel N Stick to the back of the stamped image, leave the paper carrier on the exposed side.
2. Place the piece on a light box stamped side down and using an exacto knife cut out the fish on the carrier being careful not to cut threw the acetate.
3. Remove the carrier from the fish, leaving the paper on the surrounding area.
4. Apply variegated gold leaf to the fish and burnish with a kool tool (this looks like a little brillo pad on a stick) until no loose pieces are left.
5. When all of the excess gold leaf has been removed, peel off the remaining carrier and sprinkle with blue glitter, rub and remove excess.
6. Cut out stamped image from the acetate, layer onto tan and black papers.
7. Randomly stamp the branch on a tan panel with copper Brilliance. Layer onto a black card then glue on fish image as shown.
8. Stamp "happy birthday" on tan paper, cut out and mount to card as shown.
Have a great weekend!

Spring Time Card

I made a spring card that could also be used as a Mother's Day card, using this really great PrintWorks stamp that is so versatile, I love it. I stamped it onto watercolor paper with VersaMark ink and embossed it with black glitter embossing powder. I then colored it with Twinkling H2O's that I am finally getting the hang of, I usually use watercolor pencils but I love the shimmer of the Twinkling H2O's. Heart brads were added to the top corners, then layered onto purple, yellow and black papers and mounted to a purple card that has been stamped with dots in wisteria ColorBox Chalk ink.

To Mom

This doesn't happen very often, but I made a card without any stamps! I used stickers from Stampendous to make this Mother's Day card. First I placed the vase of flowers sticker onto white card stock and colored it with watercolor pencils, cut it out and glued it onto torn blue paper. It was then glued to a card and holes were punched along the spine and eyelet stickers (these are so much easier to use than eyelets!) were place over the holes then tied with gold cord. I then put a butterfly sticker on white card stock, colored with watercolor pencils, cut out and popped up on the card. A butterfly chain was placed at the edge of the card and a blue panel was glued to the inside of the card for a border. Letter stickers were placed on a vellum tag and tied to the card.

I am now off to take my Mom to lunch for her 75th birthday. The family took her out Sunday night for a nice dinner, so this will just be me and Mom since my daughter is on Spring break, but she is at the mall with friends and my son is in school (it's year round). Hope all of you have a great day!

You're Special

Here is a quick and easy card that can be made using a bunch of different color combinations and for a bunch of different occasions. I punched three squares out of white card stock and stamped the flower twice in pink pastel and once in french blue ColorBox chalk inks. Then I sponged the edges with sepia ink and placed a circle sticker in the center of the blue flower. Stamp a flower repeatedly on a pink panel re-inking every other time, glue down gold mesh and adhere the flower squares. Last but not least, stamp the sentiment at the bottom with sepia VersaFine ink.
I have a really bad headache today so I will keep this entry short and sweet :)
Hope you all have a great weekend!