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!  

Happy Easter! Burlap and Blooms Wreath

Hi all--I hope you had wonderful Easter!  We had all of our family home except Amy and we were missing her today, but had fun with the grandkids!  Brody is 2 3/4 years old and Mya is 14 months--they are of course precious to this grandma and I love watching each little thing about them as they grow and change.  You know you can pay so much more attention to that when you aren't about the business of parenting!

A few weeks ago I offered to have a class where we all make our Burlap and Blooms wreaths together, but nobody took me up on it---so here's what I made.  I'm not sure about it to be honest….I know you could create the flowers easily, but when you figure in the cost of the burlap ribbon and wreath form the cost of $20 doesn't seem so prohibitive.

I added the burlap ribbon on the wreath and decided to use some stitched grosgrain to hook the wreath to my nail on my door.  Easter Blessings to you and yours!

                                                                                    

Monthly Party --10 Minute and Under Projects!

Hi all!  Our monthly stamping group got together last night and it was a lot of fun!  After reading my back issues of Stampin' Success I had a new idea for our party….I demonstrated a couple of ideas and then had 4 tables set up -- each with a 10 minute or under project.  I had a lot of fun finding ideas for the tables and hope that the ladies enjoyed making them!

To start off our party I demonstrated these 2 bundles in the Occasions Catalog:

      1.  The Geometricals Bundle

      I stamped the sentiment with Versamark and then embossed with white embossing powder--then       sponged over the top with Smokey Slate using a sponge dauber.  I then stamped the triangles in Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Coastal Cabana and punched them out.  Add a few rhinestones and you're basically done!  Thanks to Mary Brown for her card design that I totally cased!

2.  I used the Petite Petals Bundle along with the Chevron Border Punch to make this lattice card designed by Deb Valder at stampladee.com.  Love how the chevron punch makes such an easy and cute lattice!

Lastly I showed the ladies how to fold these little "carrot treats" and how to make the topper with our new fringe scissors!

You can make the carrot out of any size square paper--this is made with a 5" square.  Fold it diagonally then open it up and fold each side into the fold line to make a kite shape.  Fold back the top part of the kite and then make into a triangular shaped container.  Glue the flaps together.  I put my candy in a small cellophane bag and then put the topper in and closed it with some baker's twine tied around it.  Thanks to Brenda Church for this idea!

This was one of the projects I set up (minus the candy).  Here were the other three 10 minute or under projects:

First--a marker card--the design on the card and card flap were created by using the brush tips of the markers--I used the new in-colors.

The sentiment is from Yippee-Skippee.  The inside has a birthday greeting and the cake from the stamp set "Make a Cake" that is on sale this week.

We made a card using the Happy Watercolor set and some card stock vellum butterflies.

Ink up the "blotch" stamp and then stamp it 3 times without reining.  Stamp the flower with black stazon over the splotches, add your sentiment and then punch out your butterflies attach with a glue dot and add your pearl.  I offered this in either Coastal Cabana or Wisteria Wonder.

Lastly--I have a bit of in-color supplies that are going to be retiring at the end of May--so we made a white flower punch card with the in-color paper and matching dahlias and ribbon.  The d.s.p. is the patterned acetate from the Quatrefancy paper in the main catalog.  I used the 3 sizes of flower punches--Blossom, Pansy and Petite Petal punch.

I'll be back soon with my Burlap and Blossom wreath…..

Stippled Blossoms and Hearts of Oz Fun!

On Saturday I spent the day getting to know demonstrators from the Wichita, Kansas area.  Can I just say that I have met so many nice people through Stampin' Up!  It was a great day--filled with fun conversations, the sharing of new ideas and a yummy lunch!  Here's the swap card I took--of course I forgot to take a picture…not sure what my problem is….I forgot to take my camera too!  Fortunately some great pictures were posted on the Hearts of Oz blog.  Here's a picture of my swap prototype--I changed a few things after I made this card front:

I was able to take a photo from the Hearts of Oz blog and crop it to show you my final card.  I just felt like something was missing when I did this first one so I added another postcard under the top one so it looked like multiple cards were stacked and tied together.  

I was inspired by a card from Nancy Stanelle at simplesentiments.stampinup.net 

Here is my supply list:

Stamp Sets: 

Stippled Blossoms

Vintage Postcard

Blessings from Heaven                                    

Ink: 

Blush Blossom

            Primrose Petals

            Pear Pizzazz

            Old Olive

            Soft Suede

Accessories:

Large Oval Punch

            Scallop Oval Punch

            Crochet Trim

            Linen Thread

            Basic Pearls

Cardstock:  

            Naturals Ivory

            Crumb Cake

            Soft Suede

Backyard Basics

This month's Stamp Set was Backyard Basics and it's matching framelits just happened to be a weekly special a few weeks ago--how great was that!  Have you seen all the "card in a box" samples out there on Pinterest and stamping blogs.  After watching several video tutorials on youtube and looking at a bunch of measurements (since many of the cards did not fit in the standard envelope) I combined several ideas to come up with this:

Closed:

Open from the front, sides and top:

And finally the back:

Want to make one?  Cut your base card stock at  9" x 5".  With the 9 inch side at the top--score at 2 1/8,  

4 1/4, 6 3/8, and 8 1/2.  Turn and with the 5 inch side at the top score at 2 3/4".   Cut on the score lines of the shorter side (the 2 3/4 inch side is the bottom of the box) and remove that top section of 1/2" on the end down to the 2 3/4" score line.  With the 9" side at the top you want to fold the vertical score lines, then add sticky tape to the tab and hook you box together.  Putting the tab at the back add your card stock layer to the back side (4 7/8 x 2) so you don't fold down this side (see right above here).  Now you can fold on the score lines of your remaining flaps.  You will need the 2 tabbed pieces on the inside of the box.  You get those by taking a 3 1/8" square of card stock and score it at 1/2 " on either sides then cut the square in half.  Fold the tabs one up and one back and put glue on those tabs and stick down in the box dividing the box into thirds with the tabbed pieces.  You need these pieces to glue your parts to. Top flaps layers are measured at 2 x 2 1/8 and you need four of those.  Bottom layer is 2 5/8 x 2 (you need 3).  I also added a layer of d.s.p. to these base layers they were just 1/8" smaller.  

Colors I used were:  Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Pear Pizzazz (which were taken from the designer series paper Gingham Garden.  I colored all my pieces using the ink in the top of the stamp pad and blender pen.  I added some Dazzling Details to my butterflies to give them some life.  I love how it turned out--especially the little bird hiding in the tulips.  I cased this from Stampin' T and her tutorial on Youtube (but the measurements are not her's).