First ever BLOG CANDY!

Well, as I promised, I've gone through my supplies after moving and I've put together some great BLOG CANDY for those of you interested. If you want a chance and this candy, you have until July 31st to sign up. I'll draw a random winner on August 1st. To be eligible, you must do the following:

1. Follow my blog if you aren't already
2. Link my candy to your blog and leave me a link to your blog in your comment so that I can check out your blog too.
3. use inlinkz below to sign up
4. Stop back on August 1st to see if you've won the candy

Included in my first ever BLOG CANDY is:

1. Penny Black clear stamp set titled Holly Day Critters
2. ki Memories 12 x 12 paper pack titled Family Time
3. a DIY 12 x 12 scrapbook calendar
4. Deja Views Home for the Holidays 8 x 8 paper pack
5. Jim Holtz idea-ology Game Spinners
6. Dress It Up swirl center flower buttons
7. Paperbilities Daisy Flower Accents
8. Leisure Arts memories in the Making Collection SWEET embellishments
9. Rhinestone stickers
10. Jolee's by You dimensional stickers
11. Two packages of Making Memories label holders
12. AMM Expressions Rectangular Zipper Pulls
13. Stampendous Class A'Peel Congratulations stickers
14. Sticko Stuffed Ups adhesive envelopes

That's 15 items and all you have to do for your chance to win is follow the four simple steps above! GOOD LUCK and thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll like the tips and samples that I share with you. HAPPY CRAFTING!

Formula Friday #3--Simple Cards

There is something to be said for simplicity in cards. There is a way to bring elegance and beauty in simple touches. Look at the two cards below. Beautiful cards don't have to take hours to create. Don't get me wrong, I spend plenty of hours on some of my cards, but my point is that you don't have to. :0) Both of these samples I made for my stamping club card exchange. They're simple, but I'm still proud to share them with others.

Simple Wedding card

This card is very simple. There is one piece of pattern paper, one piece of cardstock that is embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder, one piece of carstock cut with a border punch on both sides to make the "banner", and two stamped images cut out with a punch and adhered with pop-dots.

Simple Sympathy card

Next is this simple sympathy card. I again used an embossing folder to make the background textureds, and then a simple sentiment and coordinating ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Thrifty Thursday--Handmade Embellishments

Sorry for being late with the post today. I wasn't feeling well so I cam home early from my paying job and took a nap. So, here it today's finished product and the tips to help you be a thrifty paper crafter.

One of the things that I do to help save money in my paper crafting is making my own of some things. For example, flowers, mock-brads, or even buttons. In some of my recent work that I've shared with you, I've used this money-saving techniques. I made the two blue flowers from punches and a brad. Below are step by steps for the flowers as well as a button, and the final project that I used them on.

This card has a handmade button and flower. By using scraps of paper you can create the perfect touches of coordinating embellishments.

We'll start with the quick button.

You'll need (4) 3/4" circles in the scrap cardstock for the thickness of the button. You'll need a 5th cut from the same cardstock for a template to punch the holes. You'll need (1) 3/4" circle of the pattern paper or whatever you want the top layer to be.

You'll place glue on four of the layers leaving the top layer of your button without adhesive. Take the fifth carstock circle and fold it in half to form a "x" through the center for hole placement.

Once all your layers are adhered, place your template on the top and pierce two holes.



Here is a side view of the button.

Here is the final button finished with hemp twine tied in a knot.

Now onto the pink flower.

I used the following supplies:

large flower and 5-petal punches from Stampin Up!, a pearl brad for the center, scrap paper for the petals and the leaves.

Punch three of the large flowers and 1 of the 5-petal flowers for the leaves.

Crumple up the three flowers

Open the flowers and arrange the layers as you'd like.

Pierce the center of the layered flowers.

Cut a section of two petals for the first set of leaves.

Then cut the "extra" petal to make another set of two leaves

Place adhesive only on the very bottom of your leaves sections

Place the glued leaves as you desire onto the back of your flower.

Repeat with the second set of leaves

Here is your finished flower.

And here is a final look at the finsihed card with two thrifty embellishments that coordiante perfectly!

Thanks for stopping!

Card Organizer

I've been working on a card organizer that utilizes 6 x 9" envelopes and chipboard. I finished this late last night, so the picture are only of the front, but I hope to get you better photos of it tonight. There is an envelope for each month that is decorated on the front and back, but the back is a list of lines so that you can make note of the dates you need to send a card for that month. I'll be listing it over on eBay or Etsy, but I haven't gotten that far yet. :0)

Here is a sample of the monthly envelopes inside the album. I tried to use some techniques that are out of my norm. I used lots of stamping and distressing.

I'll try to get more pictures ready for later today.

If you're intersted in knowing how I made this, please let me know.

Two Challenge Tuesday #8 and Tutorial

Hello All! Today's Two challenge Tuesday is sketch and technique challenge. Use the sketch below and use a background stamp. Here is my sample and the steps I took to make the card. I used to be afraid of background stamps because I struggled to get an even image.

First, here is the sketch to today's super simple card.

I started by scoring my paper.

In order to make sure that the inked image only shows on the side of my card that I want it to, I masked it with a scratch piece of paper.

Then I inked up my background stamp with a good layer of ink.


Lined it up with the edge of my guide (masked), and applied even pressure, rubbing the stamp back and forth without picking it up off the paper.


Now this is what my card looks like. You'll note that the background image doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the card, but that's fine since there will be a layer of patterned paper covering that section.



Here is the front of the card with the pattern paper in place

Next I stamped my sentiment and punched it out. I then inked the edges with the same color ink that I used to stamp my background.

Here is the completed inked sentiment.

Then I used the horizontal slot punch to make the "buckles" on the sentiment.

I slipped my ribbon through the holes.

Used glue dots to secure the ribbon to the card, and I'm done.

How will you answer this challenge?

Because I Care

Today I'm sharing a card with you that I made using my newest stamp set called Because I Care by SU. I love hydrangeas, so this stamp set was calling my name the minute I saw it! Because of all the detail in the stamp I didn't color it. I worked with Krafy and Bravo Burgundy cardstock and Timber Brown Stazon ink. I used punches, embossing folders, border punches and pop dots for the embellishments, and that's it. I actually like this card. For me it was a stretch to make a card taller and narrower than the traditional 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, but I think it works.

What do you think?

Sunday--Challenge Card

Hello All! I worked on a card that works for 3 different challenges.

1. Sketch Saturday: Sketch #112


2. Stamptacular Sunday Challenge: Ice Cream Challenge


3. Split Coast Stampers Color Challenge CC46: Pink Passion and Only Orange

Let me know what you think!

Challenge Cards

Hello All! Today's all about the card challenges I participated in for this week. I'm working on a few more, but here are some that I finished up this morning.

This card uses the sketch from the blog Stamptacular Sunday Challenge. It is a little hard to see in the first picture because the base of the card is Whisper White. Anyway, the card measures 5 1/2 x 5 1/2" and the pattern paper used is from DCWV. I used the Stampin Up! set called Elements of Style.

This next card is for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge # 109. I followed the sketch for the most part, but I did move where the text/sentiment was placed as I liked it under my image.

Let me know what you think!

Formula Friday # 2--Simple Masculine Card

Hello Everyone! HAPPY FRIDAY! Today's fast formula is for a simple masculine card. When we were getting ready to move I knew that I had to make Birthday cards for a card swap for my stamping group. I needed to make two months worth of cards before I could pack up my scrapping/stamping supplies and let's just say I ran out of creative juices after the more elaborate month's cards. So, I decided to go with an easier card. I started and finished 12 of these cards in less than an hour. A personal best for me and I actually like the final product.

The colors aren't showing up very well, but I used Stampin Up! Dusty Durango, Night of Navy, Soft Suede, and Kraft cardstock and then pattern paper from K & Company and buttons from my stash. Here is the final product from this month's swap.

This is an A2 card. The base is folded at the top. I used Timber Brown StazOn stamp pad. The layer measurements are below.

• Kraft: 3 x 3 3/4"
• Soft Suede: 3 1/4 x 4"
• Night of Navy: 3 1/2 x 4 1/4"
• pattern paper: 4 x 2"

This recipe can work for any theme or stamp set and comes together really quickly. The longest part for me was picking the right colors. I'm not one that usually combines oranges and blues, and I usually stamp my images on white or vanilla, so this was a combination inspired completely by the pattern paper.

What will you create?

Thrifty Thursday--Get the Most From Your Paper

As always, I'm looking for ways to stretch my stamping and scrapping supplies and dollars. Today's tip is sometimes an easy thing to overlook. I don't know about you, but for me, the more layers of paper on my cards the more I like the finished product. The problem can be that there is often a lot of paper underneath other layers of paper that is really wasted. For example, in the card I showed you for the Two Tuesday Challenge # 7, the largest layer or cardstock was 4 1/2" square, and only 1/4" shows around the edges. That equals a lot of paper wasted for the two layers that are hidden. The other problem can be the final weight of the card can cost you additional postage to mail. My suggestion, cut out the center of the bottom layers and use them as scraps for punches or stamping. Some of you have cutting machines and accessories that will allow you to cut perfectly from the center. I don't, so I use an Exacto knife.

Here is my paper saving from Tuesday's card.

Repeated for the next layer as well.

To look from the top, you'd never know the layers aren't full.

Share your thrifty tips with me!