VC Rocks First Blog Hop of the Year!

Woo Hoo!  Today has been a great (and busy) day!  Last day of school with the kiddos is always crazy and I also needed to make sure I had all my creations ready to go for my first blog hop in quite awhile.  We are featuring tools or embellishments that we love in this blog hop and I sure do love my Envelope Punch Board and Simply Scored Scoring Tool!!

Back in March I saw this adorable concertina card created by Julie Kettlewell a demonstrator from England and I've been enamored with it ever since.  I finally had time to make one for my mom for Mother's Day….but I forgot to take a picture!  So for this blog hop I created a special graduation card for my son's girlfriend who is graduating from college this weekend--yay, Kelsey!

The card base is made with one sheet of 12 x 12 designer series paper cut into 3 -- 4 x 12 pieces.  Use the scallop tag topper punch on one end of 2 of the pieces to create the closure for the card and then score each piece at 2.5", 5", 7.5", and 10"  (make sure you don't start scoring on the scallop end).  You'll have a cut the 2" piece off of the piece that does not have a scallop punch on either end.  Glue them together and decorate!  The black cardstock piece is cut at 3.5 x 2 and the whisper white is 1 3/4 x 3 1/4.  Then the hard part…..deciding how to decorate!  Here is a link to the video that Julie created.

You can't tell from here, but my owl has some crystal effects on his glasses--so cute!

When you have such a special card you need to make sure you also have a special envelope!  I created a box envelope specifically for the measurements of my card by using the "Box Buster" on The Crafty Owl's Blog--this tool allows you to put in measurements and it gives you the size of paper and where you will need to score to create the perfect box using the Envelope Punch Board!  Genius!!  I've linked you to the box buster tool here.

Here's a picture of my box envelope with the card closed. 

Want to keep hoppin'?  Check out our complete blog hop here on the VC Rocks Blog!

Supplies List:

Tools - SU Scoring Tool, Envelope Punch Board, Heat Tool

Stamp Sets - Go, Graduate (Retired), Endless Birthday (new photopolymer), Morning Post Alphabet, Pomp and Circumstance, Blue Ribbon

Ink:  Basic Black, Staz-On black, Real Red

Cardstock/DSP - Basic Black, Whisper White,  Real Red, Silver Glimmer paper,  Polka Dot Parade d.s.p., Quatrefancy Specialty paper

Punches - 2.5" circle punch, 2 3/8" scallop circle, 1 3/4" scallop circle, 1 3/8" circle punch, star punch (from the holiday trio punch pack), decorative label punch, banner punch (SAB and new catty), artisan label punch, scallop tag topper punch

Other stuff:  clear embossing powder, versa mark pad, mini brads, crystal effects

May/June SS of the M--Bright Blossoms and Another Great Year

It's really difficult to pick out the sets to use for this month with so many sets retiring and then the occasions catty coming to a close--also it's a super busy time with graduations etc…

But I chose "Bright Blossoms"  (still available as of today) and "Another Great Year" from the Occasions catalog.  Here's a sneak peek of the cards we'll be doing if you choose to join me!

I'm using up some of my retired or soon to be papers with these projects.  I've always loved the clean look of this stamp set and found some great cards to CASE on pinterest!

Hope you can join me!  June 1 and 2 are the dates--cost is $20 and it includes the stamp set and card makings.  Already own the stamp set?  You have 2 options---choose a comparable set to order or make the cards for $2 each.

I'm off to make a few Mother's Day cards…...

Graduation Time! Pomp and Circumstance...

Hi all!  Just finished up with the gals who wanted to make some graduation cards in preparation for the busy month of May here in Kansas!  We used the stamp set "Pomp and Circumstance" from the Occasions Catalog.  Here are the four cards we did:

First:  A double slider card--directions found here.

One trick I did learn--if you follow Julie's tutorial is that you need to cut the seam part out of the cellophane bag.  I redid my card multiple times before this was figured out--thanks Virginia!

Second card uses the retiring Bigz die 

Our last 2 cards were pretty easy makes…

Sorry--this was the best I could get my camera to do with photos today!  Arghh!  So frustrating!

I'll be back sooner than later!