Gently Falling Leaves

Sorry I'm late on my post today, had to take my daughter to the Dr. this morning. I don't have much time for chat today since I need to take her this afternoon for a test.

I used two stamps sets on the card below... Gently Falling and Falling Leaves. The leaves from Gently Falling (background leaves) were stamped in Old Olive and Cajun Craze. The leaves on the three circles are from Falling Leaves and I stamped them in Cajun Craze.

 This inside is simple... Very Vanilla matted on Crumb Cake and stamped in Old Olive with one of the leaves from the Gently Falling stamp set. Quick and easy :).

Have a great day today everyone! See you all tomorrow! Please see the supply list below :).

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze
Classic Stampin' Ink: Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Stamps: Gently Falling, Falling Leaves, Thank You Kindly
Punches: 1" Circle, 1 1/4" Circle
Other: Square Lattice Textured Impressions embossing folder

Challenge Card

I haven't had much mojo this week, so when that happens I like to do challenges. Challenges are just that, they challenge you to think outside of your normal box, and that's a good thing :-). The challenge was for The Paper Players. I used the new Peekaboo Frames die in the Holiday Mini on the front of my card. Such a fun die!

 When you open up the little window, there is a stamped message inside. The outside of the window has a wood grain mat that matches the card front. To create the card front background, I first stamped Very Vanilla with the Woodgrain background stamp in More Mustard, and then I ran it through my Big Shot with the Stripes embossing folder. With a sponge dauber, I lightly sponged over the stripes with More Mustard to bring out the embossing.

  

The leaves are stamped with More Mustard, Cajun Craze, and the outlines are done in Bravo Burgundy. For the leaves that are stamped in Cajun Craze, I sponged around the outsides with More Mustard.

The inside is sponged around the edges with More Mustard and the opposite corners are stamped. Thanks for stopping by today! See ya' tomorrow!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Paper: Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Bravo Burgundy
Classic Stampin' Ink: More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Bravo Burgundy
Stamps: Gently Falling, Falling Leaves, Day of Gratitude
Dies: Peekaboo Frames
Punches: 1" Circle punch, 1/2" Circle punch

Build a Bear Pilgrim

Surpise! A Sunday post! :-) I wanted to get this one posted early so I could participate in the SUO Challenge before it was too late.

If you've followed my blog for a while, then you will recall how much I love my Build a Bear dies that are exclusive to Stampin' Up! It's been some time since I've pulled them out, so I pulled them out a couple of days ago with a little Pilgrim in mind for a Thanksgiving card. I also wanted to participate in one of the challenges over at SUO Challenges. The challenge for the week was to use leaves, so I pulled out a few sets that have leaves, and this is the end result...

I used three stamp sets and a couple of retired Build a Bear dies to create my Pilgrim. His hat is actually made from the Large tag punch and the Large Oval punch, with a few alterations to the punched shapes. Please see below for the list of supplies that I used. Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day today!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Paper: Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla, Basic Gray, Old Olive, Basic Black, Early Espresso, Blush Blossom (retired)
Classic Stampin' Ink: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso, Basic Gray, So Saffron, Blush Blossom (retired)
Stamps: Falling Leaves, Season of Friendship, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Dies: Build a Bear- Bear, Beary Essentials, Beary Christmas (retired), Beary Girl (retired), 
Punches: 1 3/8" Circle, Large Tag, Large Oval, Boho Blossoms, 1/4" Circle, 1/8" Circle
Other: Stampin' Pastels- Pretty in Pink

Vintage Autumn

I'm back to autumn again :-). Isn't it amazing how quickly the seasons change? Lol! 

Yesterday morning an idea popped into my head using Crumb Cake and French Foliage. I am really into French Foliage the last few days. Not only is it an autumn set, it's a GREAT set! For my card below, I started out by distressing the edges all around the card, then inking them. I stamped the leaves, the words, and the splatters before moving on to the next step. For the next step, I ran some Very Vanilla through my Big Shot with the Top Note die, stamped it, and then aged and distressed it. I'm not sure if you can tell without clicking on the photo to make it larger, but the edges of the Top Note die cut have been distressed with the Cutter Kit distressing tool as well. The leaves were stamped, cut out, and layered, with the Cajun Craze leaf popped up on dimensionals. The Doily was stamped onto vellum, heat embossed, and cut out to layer on the upper right corner. I think the doily really added to the vintage flair :-D.

I carried the distressed, inked edges to the inside of my card and added a couple of stamped, cut out leaves to the lower left corner. I'm leaving it blank for now until I decide to use it. At that time, I can stamp a sentiment or quote, or add a hand written message. Just a head's up, if you scroll down a bit on my blog to the autumn treat box I made last week... this card would go perfectly with the box :-). I didn't even plan that, lol! Have a great day today!!!!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

Stamps: French Foliage 121166, Winter Post 111780, Hello Doily 122845

Classic Stampin' Ink: More Mustard 103162, Cajun Craze 119671, Old Olive 102277, Early Espresso 119670, Crumb Cake 121030, Soft Suede 115657

Paper: Crumb Cake 120953, Very Vanilla 101650, Early Espresso 119686, Cajun Craze 119684, Old Olive 100702, Vellum 101839

Punches: Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border 119275

Dies: Top Note 113463

Other: Cutter Kit 106958, White Embossing Powder 109132, Stampin' Dimensionals 104430

More French Foliage

All right, so I was pretty into the French Foliage stamp set the two days I worked in my stamp room last week. After I got done with my box that you saw yesterday, I worked on this little autumn album. The cover is a Bind-it-all Cover All that I had just gotten to try out. It came with craft paper already on it and I LOVE the look of craft paper, so there was no need to do anything else, but stamp on it :-). Oh,  and add the strap...

Back and spine of the book

You don't have to have a Cover All to complete this project. You can make your own covers if you have a way to bind your books or you can use the On Board Journal from Stampin' Up! (108495). The inside has 6x6 Very Vanilla pages with some Old Olive, Cajun Craze, and More Mustard pages thrown into the mix. I haven't gotten to decorating the pages yet, but as autumn leaves begin to turn, I'll be adding some of those photos to it. Maybe when I get it done I'll re-post the completed book :-). Have a wonderful day today! 

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

Paper: Old Olive, Very Vanilla, More Mustard, Cajun Craze for the pages inside

Classic Stampin' Ink: Cajun Craze 119671, Old Olive 102277, More Mustard 103162, Early Espresso 119670, Crumb Cake 121030

Stamps: French Foliage 121166

Autumn is Coming

I'm sorry it has taken me a week to get back to my blog. It's taking us longer than I thought to adjust to our new schedules :(. But here I am finally. While waiting at the rink while my daughter is practicing and being coached, I decided to make my wait time productive :). I brought my supplies with me and worked on another Flip Album. This time I used some retired Designer Series Paper that I hadn't used up. I try not to use retired stuff too much on my blog, but sometimes you just gotta use that stuff up! This can be done though, with the new autumn DSP (Autumn Spice- 120808) in the Holiday mini :D.

On the cover, I used a non-Stampin' Up! (gasp!!) die cut leaf. It was just the right size for my cover and I've had this die cut laying in my die cut box since before I became a Demo. It was time to use it :).

I made a pumpkin with one of the oval punches and stamped the pumpkin leaf with one of the stamps from the Falling Leaves stamp set. I stamped the word 'autumn' with my Schoolbook Serif alphabet and added some die cut flowers from the Birds and Blooms Sizzlits. The centers of the flowers have been embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder.

I used the sentiment from Falling Leaves and the Word Window and Modern Label punches on the next page.

Here is the book opened up. Not quite done yet with embellishing it. I need to take it to the rink with me again, lol! On the inside flaps of the book in the photo below, I thought I would add more flower die cuts from Birds and Blooms.

So there ya' have it. I really love making these Flip Albums. They are just too awesome! You can fit a lot in them and they fold up to 6x6 square. You could make several in different themes and keep them in a basket on your coffee table. Great way to show off your photos :). Have a wonderful day today everyone!!!!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

Stamps: Falling Leaves- 115368, Schoolbook Serif- 113510

Paper: Chocolate Chip-102128 & 119926, More Mustard-100946 & 119931, Really Rust (retired :(, but you could use Cajun Craze-119684 & 119689) Very Vanilla-101650, Pumpkin Pie-105117, Old Olive-100702

Classic Stampin' Ink: Cherry Cobbler-119669, More Mustard-103162, Really Rust (retired) Old Olive-102277, Cajun Craze-119671, Early Espresso-119670

Dies: Birds and Blooms-113485

Punches: Oval Large-119855, Modern Label-119849, Word Window-119857, Scallop Edge border-119882

Other: Chocolate Chip 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (retired- but you could use Early Espresso-120931)

First Day of School Mini Book

I love the Summer Mini stamp set First Day, it's too cute! I wanted to make a little scrap book using the set for my grandson when he goes back to school in August. To make the mini book, I used the Movers and Shapers Curly Label die. The die makes a 4.25" x 5.5", 5 page, card sized scrapbook using one sheet of card stock. You can add as many pages as you like, but I generally stick with one sheet of card stock to make my books. One of the things that I like about the Movers and Shapers Curly Label die is that it not only cuts out a window in the card stock anywhere I want it to be, it also adds a decorative dashed line around the die cut. I used Real Red, Basic Black, and Whisper White for the main parts of my book. As you can see in the photo below, I stamped inside the window of the cover.

Inside Cover and page 1

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

I created a black board for the last page of my mini book using some Basic Black card stock and a strip of Textured Soft Suede card stock. The letters are die cut from Whisper White and the chalk is the lower case letter L. To color the little bookworm, I used Watercolor Wonder crayons and a blender pen. Look how cute he is....

Ya' gotta love him! This little guy just makes me smile :-). I hope everyone is having a great week so far. Wishing you a wonderful day today!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Stamps: First Day- 120051 (wood mount- 118521), Tart & Tangy- 111541
Paper: Real Red- 102482, Whisper White- 100730, Basic Black- 102851, Tempting Turquoise- 102067, YoYo Yellow- 102824, More Mustard- 100946, Pretty in Pink- 100459, Apricot Appeal- 105124, So Safrron- 105118, Soft Suede Textured- 115719
Classic Stampin' Ink: Pacific Point (available in July), Real Red- 103133, Tempting Turquoise- 100814, Soft Suede- 115657
Watercolor Wonder Crayons: Bold Brights- 16695 (Green Galore, Glorious Green, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red), Neutrals- 106746 (Going Gray)
Dies: Stars #2- 113461, Billboard Letters- 114510, Movers and Shapers Curly Label- 114506
Punches: Word Window- 105090, 1/8" circle
Other: Silver embossing powder- 109131, 1/8" white grosgrain

Country Morning

In honor of our new little baby chicks ;-), I pulled out a hostess set, which actually is quite fitting to celebrate the arrival of chicks. The set is called 'Country Morning' and is a Level One Hostess set from the 2009/2010 Idea Book and Catalog. It was the very first hostess set I chose because I loved it so much. I used my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and a blender pen to color in my image. My image is stamped on Very Vanilla card stock. I added the sky and the ground colors with my Stampin' Pastels in Bashful Blue and Really Rust. I often mix chalks with ink or Watercolor Wonder Crayons because the chalk gives such a soft color. Anyway, here it is....

Supplies listed below. Wishing you a GREAT evening!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Stamps: Country Morning- Level One Hostess Set-115334
Paper: Garden Green-102584, Not Quite Navy-101722, Very Vanilla-101650, So Saffron-105118, Chocolate Chip-102128, Really Rust Designer Series Paper-116234 (Level One Hostess)

WaterColor Wonder Crayons: Soft Subtles- 106697, Earth Elements- 106696, Rich Regals-106698
Dies: Daisies #2- 114520
Stampin' Pastels:105542
Other: Blender pens-102845, 1/2" Circle punch- 104390

Build a Bear Card for my Grandson

This is the card that I made for my sweet little grandson- yes, he is adored by all the family :-), and he does love to get mail too. He sometimes makes cards with me and he just thinks his grandma is so smart- uh huh, he knows how to rack up the brownie points ;-). So I always make him a special card for all the holidays. Since he makes cards with me, he knows that they take a little bit of time to complete and he appreciates them- who could ask for more? I am training him well :-D.

I used the Stampin' Up! exclusive Build a Bear dies to create this card for him. You can see the tutorial for making the sky background if you scroll down a bit on my blog and you will also find the instructions for making the pumpkin with the Wide Oval punch. This card measures 5" x 7" so that there would be plenty of room for my bear and for his Autumn scenery. I brayered the grass with Old Olive Classic Stampin' ink and the sky was done with the Scallop Circle punch. You can find a tutorial for creating the sky here. It's after midnight, so I am going to add the supplies list and go to bed :-) !

Blessings!
Barb

Stamps: Season of Friendship, Holiday Best (Hostess set)
Classic Stampin' Ink: Apricot Appeal (sky), Barely Banana (sky), Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Ballet Blue
Card Stock: Certainly Celery, Ballet Blue, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive
Paper: Pawsitively Prints Designer Series Paper
Dies: Stampin' Up! exclusives Build a Bear Bear and Beary Essentials
Punches: Wide Oval
Accessories: White DMC embroidery floss (shoe laces)

Card Class October 14, 2009

These were the cards that we did last night in class. The two cards and the matchbox project feature stamped backgrounds to make your own designer paper :). To make your own stamped background, choose one or more stamps and one or more colors of ink and begin stamping, either randomly or in a pattern on card stock or paper. For the first card, we used Whisper White to create our background paper and Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Soft Suede, and Old Olive Classic Stampin' pads. We used two stamp sets: Falling Leaves (115368) from the 2009/2010 Idea Book and Catalog on page 27 and Gifts of the Earth (116501) from the 2009 Holiday Mini on page 15. These are both GREAT stamp sets! Love them!

The inside of the card was stamped with the sentiment from 'Gifts of the Earth' and the edges were inked with Old Olive Classic Stampin' ink.

For our second card, we used the Wide Oval punch (112082) to create a pumpkin as our main element. You simply punch out three ovals from Pumpkin Pie card stock and ink the edges with Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' ink. Layer two of the ovals behind the center oval to create the pumpkin. Using the give thanks leaf stamp from the 'Falling Leaves' stamp set, stamp onto Old Olive card stock. Stamp the polka dotted leaf stamp onto Old Olive card stock and cut out the polka dotted leaf for the pumpkin and cut the give thanks leaf into the shape of a stem. Adhere the stem to the back of the pumpkin and then adhere the leaf to the front. Cut a square of Pumpkin Pie Designer Series Paper and ink the edges with Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' ink. Mount on Old Olive card stock. Take a strip of Old Olive Designer Series Paper and stamp one of the leaf stamps in a random pattern in Old Olive Classic Stampin' ink. Stamp the sentiment Grateful on a scrap of the Old Olive Designer Series Paper and punch out with the Word Window punch (105090). With the Modern Label punch (116630), punch out the label from Old Olive card stock. Adhere the sentiment to the label and adhere to your card front. Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy :D !

The inside of the card is the same as the card above, but we changed it up just a bit by stamping one of the leaves inside next to the sentiment.

For our final project, we created a cute matchbox to match the first card that we made. You need the Stampin' Up! exclusive Matchbox die (114890) to create the matchbox. I LOVE the matchbox die! There are so many things and so many themes you can use it for.... treat boxes for any holiday or occasion, wedding favors, small gifts, to hold small stocking stuffers, hang on your tree with a little surprise inside.... you can emboss them with any of the embossing folders, you can stamp them, you can add Designer Series paper, add cute little tags.... limitless possibilities I tell ya' ;-) !

After we stamped and put together our matchbox, we stamped one of the leaves on Very Vanilla card stock and punched a little tag out with the Small Tag punch (108264) from the Very Vanilla card stock and the Tag punch (105934) from Chocolate Chip card stock. We punched a hole at the top of the tag and threaded through some hemp cord. Tied the hemp cord into a knot about a half inch from the top of the tag. We then wrapped another piece of hemp cord around our matchbox and tied the tag into our knot. To finish, fray the ends of the hemp cord. Just so ya' know, these matchboxes hold four Hershey Nuggets perfectly! :D. If you cut strips of Designer Series Paper into 1" x 3" strips, you can wrap the paper around the Nuggets for a suh-weet presentation :-D

Did you notice that both cards use the same layout? You can use the same layout on a series of cards and change the look of each one of them simply by changing stamps, card stock colors, and Designer Series Papers. This weekend I will be posting two cards on which I created a scenic background, so please check back- they are both so cute :-) !

Blessings!
Barb

Details:
Stamps: Gifts of the Earth, Falling Leaves
Classic Stampin' Inks: Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Dusty Durango, Pumpkin Pie
Card Stock: Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Dusty Durango, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip
Designer Series Paper: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie
Dies: Matchbox
Punches: Wide Oval, Small Tag, Tag, Modern Label, Word Window
Accessories: Hemp cord

Gotta Love Autumn

I love Autumn. Some days are just made for hunkering down in your jammies and creating. Today is very rainy where I live. We have gotten five inches of rain since last night! That is LOT of rain! I got up this morning and started my crock pot filled with everything needed for a beef stew. It smells sooooo good! I don't know if I will be able to wait for dinner before dipping into it, lol! I hoped it would stop raining long enough for me to get out and tend to the animals, but it didn't. Off I went out into the rain to let out my chickens and ducks, feed and water them and the horses and came back in soaked to the skin! The chickens don't like the rain much, but the ducks were in seventh heaven! Out they ran as fast as they could and jumped into their little swimming pool. I saw them later in the morning and they were out in the rain running around and having a grand time! Ahhh, to be like a duck :D.

This card is not a newly created today card :). I made this one a couple of weeks ago. I used my brayer and Old Olive Classic Stampin' ink to create the grass and Bashful Blue Classic Stampin' ink to create the background for the sky. Then I sponged more Old Olive over the top to shade the grass, sponged Close to Cocoa to create the path, and very lightly sponged Night of Navy for the sky. As you can tell, I also sponged a bit of Old Olive on the edges of my card. I used the tree in the 'Branch Out' stamp set as a focal point for my scene. 'Branch Out' is currently on the Dormant List and there is no guarantee that it will make it into the 2010/2011 catalog next year. It's a great set with 8 images in it, so if you would like to order this stamp set, the product number for it is 113200. This set can be used for every season, not just for the Autumn. You can order it through my online store link in the right sidebar or call/email me directly and I can order it for you if you'd like.

Below you will find a list of all the supplies that I used to create this card. Hope everyone is staying dry and cozy! Autumn has definitely arrived where I live! We've even had to turn on the heat for a couple of nights!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Stamps: Branch Out (on Dormant List but still available), Sentiment- God's Beauty (retired hostess level one set), Stitched background stamp (retired)
Card stock: Close to Cocoa, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Classic Stampin' Ink: Old Olive, Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Pumpkin Pie, Dusty Durango
Punches: Modern Label