Candy Wrapper Die

I finally got the Candy Wrapper die a couple of weeks ago and it's quickly become one of my favorite dies. I made a bunch of these for little hand outs during the Christmas Season. You can put chocolates in them or small gifts. I've been putting chocolate in mine :-). 

To make these, I die cut the Candy Wrapper and embossed just down the center of my die cut so that the ends are not embossed. After embossing them, I added some gold ink with a sponge dauber to make the embossing stand out. The gold really brings out the red and makes them look so rich. I stamped a sentiment and punched it out with the Small Oval punch and added a gold snowflake on a dimensional from the Northern Frost strip die. Tied the ends with gold cord and done!! Easy peasy...and fast! Thanks for stopping by today. I know everyone is busy- Christmas is almost here!!!! Have a wonderful day today!!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes-115370

Card Stock: Cherry Cobbler-119685, Very Vanilla-101650

Ink: gold

Dies: Candy Wrapper-120890, Northern Frost-120901

Punches: Small Oval-119855

Recyclin' !!!!

It may take me a little while to get up and going like I was before summer started, but... here is a little scrapbook I made a couple of weekends ago. My Stampin' Up! order arrived with my customers' orders a couple of days before and I had the box sitting on the floor in my stamping room. Every time I went in there the flaps really stood out to me, lol! So I cut them off and used my Curly Label die to create my book covers :D.

I peeled off some of the outer layers of the card board after die cutting the covers and then stamped them with the En Francais background stamp in Crumb Cake ink. I added a little bit of sponging with Old Olive and Crumb Cake inks. There are ten pages (Crumb Cake) all together in my book, but I'll just post a few of them so you can get the general idea of the layout I used inside the book :).

I stamped various sentiments from several different stamp sets throughout the pages of the book.

The back cover was done the same as the front cover and then I punched the holes in the book covers and pages with my Bind-it-all (LOVE that thing!!!) and bound it together.

So that was my weekend project a couple of weeks ago. I did a set of note cards for a gift on Tuesday, but do you think I remembered to take photos before I gave them away? Nope, sure didn't! That is what comes from waiting till the last minute to get a project done :D. I'm hoping to spend some time in my stamping room today (keep your fingers crossed for me ;-) ) since the only thing we have planned today is going to a birthday party for one of the coaches later on this evening. Hope you all have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by and leaving comments even though I haven't been here most of the summer. Big hugs to you all!!!!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

Stamps: En Francais-109521, Fabulous Phrases-120501, Vintage Vogue- 118598, Flight of the Butterfly- 111564, Apple Blossoms- Hostess Level 2

Paper: Stampin' Up! Box, Crumb Cake card stock- 120953, Old Olive card stock- 100702

Classic Stampin' Ink: Crumb Cake- 121030, Old Olive- 102277, Perfect Plum- 101437, Early Espresso- 119670

Punches: Two Step Bird-117191

Other: gems, Bind-it-all machine

Elements of Style Vintage

I'm not very happy with this card, so I will probably re-do it. I'm posting it though because there are elements of this card that I really like. I like the colors I used- Elegant Eggplant, Soft Suede, and Kraft. My images are stamped on Kraft with Soft Suede ink and then colored in with Watercolor Wonder Crayons and a blender pen. The edges are inked with Soft Suede and then run through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder. I am pretty sure that the only thing I don't like about this card is the oval with the sentiment. I think I need to change that. It seems too bright for the rest of the card :-(.

I know I am late posting, but I am behind this week due to our trip over the weekend. I hope to get caught up sometime this week, but no guarantee that will happen. Hopefully, I will get caught up over the weekend if I don't get caught up this week. I'll see if I can fix this card later and post an updated version :-). Have a great day!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Stamps: Elements of Style-120045 (wood mount- 118611), Vintage Labels-119112 (SAB)
Paper: Elegant Eggplant-105126, Soft Suede-115318, Kraft-102125, Very Vanilla-101650
Classic Stampin' Ink: Soft Suede
Watercolor Wonder Crayons: Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green, Pumpkin Pie
Punches: Wide Oval-112082
Other: Square Lattice Textured Impressions embossing folder-119976, 1/4" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon-111367, Stampin' Dimensionals-104430, white pearls

Life Moments

I stamped an 8.5 x 11 sheet of vellum a couple of weeks ago with the Flower Fancy two step stamp set. You have to let the vellum dry after stamping it. I found it best to let it dry overnight because vellum takes a long time to dry! I knew that I wanted to use that stamped vellum for a background of some sort, but when I pulled it out this morning, I didn't like any paper that I placed behind it, soooo, I embossed Whisper White with the new Square Lattice embossing folder and sponged over it with So Saffron ink. I thought the embossed background worked out much better :-).

I stamped one butterfly die cut with the En Francais background stamp and sponged the edges with Regal Rose ink. I distressed the edges of the smaller butterfly die cut, sponged the edges with Regal Rose, crunched it up, inked over the wrinkles with Regal Rose and Baja Breeze inks. My sentiment and the small background flowers are stamped with Baja Breeze- a returning In Color that will become a core color in the new color palette coming in July. I gotta run- have a great day!!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Stamps: Flower Fancy- 111578, En Francais- 109521, Elements of Style- 120045 (wood mount- 118611)- Elements of Style coming in the Summer Mini 2010 on May 1st
Paper: Rose Red- 102544, Whisper White- 100730, So Saffron- 105118, vellum
Classic Stampin' Ink: Regal Rose- 105211, Old Olive- 102277, So Saffron- 105213, Baja Breeze- coming in the 2010/2011 Idea Book and Catalog on July 1st
Other: Square Lattice Textured Impressions embossing folder- 119976 (Summer Mini 2010), Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die- 114507, Brads- 109109, Stampin' Dimensionals- 104430

Jan Tink's Teeny Tiny Scrapbook

I LOVE little scrapbooks! I think they are so cute! So, yesterday when I found Jan Tink's Teeny Tiny Scrapbook tutorial, I absolutely had to make one of my own. I've linked to the instructions (and a video too) for Jan's tutorial. Just click on the blue link in the sentence above to get there. I used Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper and Rich Razzleberry Designer Series Paper, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, and Pale Plum card stocks to make my little book. I'll add a list of a few of the supplies I used at the end of my post, but most of the supplies are already listed in Jan's tutorial.

I knew I wanted to make my Jan Tink Teeny Tiny Scrapbook to match the notepad book that I posted yesterday. I also made a designer ;-) pen to go with the set. Here is my book...

Is this not the cutest of the cutest little scrapbooks you have ever seen?!!! I love it! Jan Tink is a genius, in my humble opinion, to have come up with this. The little tags above slip into each of the coin envelopes for adding journaling or more little photos. You will notice when you see Jan's tutorial that I made my own coin envelopes. I did post instructions for making your own coin envelopes in the post below this one. I'm not done decorating my teeny tiny book yet, but it sure is going to be fun to finish!

Here is a photo of my completed set. The teeny tiny scrapbook, the designer pen, and the notepad that was posted yesterday. Don't they look great together?

The pen was really easy to make. Usually you see these pens made with the clear barrel pens made by Pentel. Our Walmart doesn't sell the Pentel pens anymore (boo!), but I found some clear barrel pens by Bic. They are called Bic Cristal pens and you get 10 pens for a dollar. To make your own designer pen with the Bic Cristal pens, cut a piece of Designer Series Paper
4 9/16" x 3/4". I used a chop stick to help mold the paper by rolling the paper around the chop stick . Pull the ink pen from the bottom of the clear barrel with pliers and wrap the paper tightly around the ink pen shaft. You will leave the plastic bottom of the ink barrel unwrapped. Just wrap it around the part where you can see the ink. Slide the wrapped ink pen shaft back into the clear barrel as far as it will go. That's all there is to it!

Thanks for visiting- Have a great day!

Blessings!
Barb

For a complete list of supplies, please see Jan Tink's tutorial, but for a shortened list of the supplies that I personally used see below:
Stamps: Vintage Vogue- 118598, Best Yet (retired Hostess set)
Paper: Cottage Wall- 115671, Rich Razzleberry- 115685 Designer Series Paper, Old Olive- 100702, Rich Razzleberry- 115316, Pale Plum- 101658 card stock
Classic Stampin' Ink: Rich Razzleberry- 115658, Pale Plum- 102732, Old Olive- 102277
Dies: Little Leaves:114511
Other: Clear Rhinestone brads- 113144, Coin Envelopes- please see my tutorial below.

Friends Notepad

Some time ago I bought some notepads and I had planned on making a cover for it. I finally got around to it :-D! I used three different Designer Series Paper packs- Cottage Wall, Rich Razzleberry, and Old Olive. I really like the Vintage Vogue stamp set and wanted to use it for this project. I used a card map from Mojo Monday (Week #88) for the cover. The 'Friends' mat is popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals and the flower and leaves are stamped and cut out, with only the flower popped up on another Stampin' Dimensional. I used a clear rhinestone brad for the center of the flower and curled the petals to give it more dimension.

On the inside, I added a 2010 bookmark calendar matted on Rich Razzleberry Designer Series Paper. I may add some small flowers from the Vintage Vogue stamp set to the inside left cover, but for now I am leaving it as is. If you want to make one of these, please see instructions below:

Cut Rich Razzleberry card stock 8 1/8" x 10.5". With the 10.5" side running across the top, score 5 1/8" from each side. Cut Old Olive card stock 4.75" x 7.75" for the front mat. Cut top part of Designer Series Paper 4.50" x 4.25". Cut bottom part of Designer Series Paper 4.50" x 3.25". Adhere to the Old Olive card stock mat. Cut Old Olive card stock 4.75" x 2" and punch with the Scalloped Trim border punch. Trim straight edge so the border piece is 7/16" wide. Adhere to the front between the two Designer Series Papers. Cut two mats from Old Olive 1.25" x 4" and two Designer Series Paper 1" x 3.75". Adhere the Designer Series Paper to the Old Olive mats. Add a brad to the two outer corners of the mats and adhere. Stamp the Friends image onto 1.75" x 2.25" Whisper White card stock in Rich Razzleberry. Mat onto Rich Razzleberry Textured card stock cut at 2" x 2.50". Add Stampin' Dimensionals to the back and center on the two Old Olive mats with brads. Stamp the small flower from Vintage Vogue in Rich Razzleberry, cut out, curl the petals a little, add a clear rhinestone brad to the center, a Stampin' Dimensional on the back and place on the lower right corner. Stamp two leaves from Vintage Vogue in Old Olive and adhere underneath the flower.

For the inside, cut Designer Series Paper 4.75" x 7.75" and adhere. You can add a calendar if you would like, add some flowers from Vintage Vogue, or just leave it plain.

For the top of the notepad, cut Designer Series Paper 2.75" x 5". Line it up at the top, bringing it around to the back and adhere. Use four to five strips of Sticky Strip on the back of the notepad to make sure it stays put and line up the left edge of the notepad with the right scoreline, press down to secure the Sticky Strip.

Hope you will try one of these. It would be great to give with a set of matching 3" x 3" note cards and/or a designer pen made with one of the papers used for the Notepad. Have a great day everyone!!! See ya' tomorrow!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Stamps: Vintage Vogue- 118598 (wood mount- 117690)
Paper: Rich Razzleberry- 115316, Rich Razzleberry Textured- 115719, Old Olive- 100702, Whisper White- 100730, Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper- 115671, Rich Razzleberry Designer Series Paper- 115685, Old Olive Designer Series Paper- 112160
Classic Stampin' Ink: Rich Razzleberry- 115658, Old Olive- 102277
Punches: Scallop Trim- 118402
Other: Clear Rhinestone brads- 113144, Gold brads- 104337, Stampin' Dimensionals-104430, Sticky Strip-104294, 5" x 8" notepad

Vintage Birthday Card

My daughter #3 has a birthday coming up very soon, so I needed to make her a birthday card. She loves pink and she loves vintage, so the Vintage Vogue stamp set was the one I reached for. I had one idea in mind when I started and as I worked, the card took on a life of its own. I love it when that happens, cause you never know what you will end up with :-). I really aged this card as I worked! I first stamped the En Francais background stamp on Very Vanilla card stock with Bordering Blue ink. Added some Bashful Blue inking around the edges and here and there on the front. Next I crunched it up several times and distressed the edges. Flattened it out with my hands and lightly inked Creamy Caramel over the wrinkles. I chose not to age the elements on the card to give it some interest. Here is my finished card front....

The inside of the card really designed itself, lol! I decided that it would be kind of cool if it looked like the pages of an old book when you opened it. I stamped and then distressed the Very Vanilla card stock on the inside the same as the front of the card. The only element I chose to age is the inside of the heart. I also added some flowers and a butterfly to make the inside consistent with the front of the card.

Now I suspect, that this particular card is the kind of card that you will either love or hate, lol! I hope my daughter loves it :-). Have a great day!!! See ya' tomorrow!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Stamps: Vintage Vogue- 118598, Teeny Tiny Wishes- 115370 (wood mount- 117690), Well Scripted- 118601 (wood mount- 117072), En Francais- 109521
Paper: Regal Rose- 105130, Old Olive- 100702, Very Vanilla- 101650, Bordering Blue- 102630
Classic Stampin' Ink: Bordering Blue- 102265, Bashful Blue- 105209, Creamy Caramel- 103220, Old Olive- 102277, Regal Rose- 105211, Summer Sun- 100537
Punches: Scallop Oval- 114889, Large Oval- 107305, Full Heart- 113693
Dies: Beautiful Wings embosslit- 118138, Scalloped Heart of Hearts embosslit- 117322, Little Leaves Sizzlit- 114511, Buttons #5 Sizzlit- 113440
Other: Stampin' Dimensionals- 104430, Very Vanilla 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Crystal Effects- 101055, white pearls, pink gems

Top Note Needle Book

This morning I started out with something completely different in mind to work on than what I ended up doing, but it worked out pretty well :-). I don't know about you, but I sometimes need to use a needle for some of my crafting projects. I kept my needles close at hand by sticking them into a piece of ribbon that had some Snail on the back, which I stuck to my cabinet. First off, that wasn't very pretty to look at, but it was somewhat serving its purpose. This morning as I looked up and saw my little piece of ribbon, I decided I was going to do something about it once and for all. There had to be a nicer way to keep those needles close by! I thought about it for a few minutes and decided that a needle book is what I needed. Needle books were before my time, but I remember reading about them in books as a kid and ya' know, needle books deserve a comeback, don't ya' think ;-) ? I looked around my room wondering what would make a good needle book and then the light bulb went off- the Top Note die would be perfect!! So here it is, my little needle book.....

I used a scrap of Sending Love Designer Series Paper from the current Occasions Mini and paired it with the retired Pirouette Pink. I so wish we still had Pirouette Pink (sigh). I topped my book with a flower punched out from my 5 Petal Flower punch and the Little Leaves Sizzlit. When you open the needle book, there are two pages of white felt to stick your needles into. Two pages is plenty for my personal crafting use :-) .

My little needle book is bound on the inside and on the outside so there are no unsightly edges showing. I think the Scallop edge punch looks pretty as a binding- what do you think? As you can see in the photo below, I put an eyelet in the binding to hold my notebook ring securely.

And here is my completed little needle book hanging on the hook along with my card stock sample ring. All nice and handy and cute, cute, cute! No more ugly ribbon for my needles, no sirree Bob!

I really like my little needle book and I am so glad that I made this instead of what I was going to make this morning. I can sleep well at night knowing that my needles are still handy, but so cutely housed ;-) . LOL!! Have a blessed day today and a wonderful weekend!!!

Edited to add: I did a little tiny bit of research this morning on needle books so wanted to share-
Needles, apparently were quite the deal to make at one time, so people did not want to lose their needles. All the way back to the Vikings, people kept their needles in ornamental boxes and cases, so they clearly were highly valued. During Victorian times needle cases were made of materials such as bone, sterling silver, pewter, wood, and of course, Victorian women hand embroidered and hand sewed needle books to hold their 'labor intensive to make' needles. So there you have it- a little bit of history about needle books :-).

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Paper: Regal Rose- 105130, Pretty in Pink- 100459, Old Olive- 100702, Barely Banana- 102701, Pink Pirouette (retired- boo hoo hoo!), Sending Love Designer Series Paper
Classic Stampin' Ink: Pretty in Pink- 101301
Punches: 5 Petal Flower- 109041, Trio Flower- 109183, Scallop edge- 112091
Dies: Top Note- 113463, Little Leaves- 114511, Big Shot machine- 113439
Other: Hobby Blade- 102449, Crop-a-dile- 108362, 2 small eyelets, 1 large eyelet, brad, white felt, 1/8" white grosgrain ribbon- Offray, 1" notebook ring, Scor-it Board, scrap of white chipboard inside a pack of Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper

Vintage Type Birthday Card

I am finally back. We took some time to grieve the sudden death of our very loved horse (see two previous posts below) and then my husband got sick with a nasty virus. I got it next and still don't feel 100%, but working my way there :-). The snow here is beginning to melt a little at a time, so I am hoping that the snow is done now for this winter and that spring is just on the horizon. We have had such extended winters for the last few years here that an early spring would be awesome! I know that the groundhog says no to an early spring, but I don't know, he isn't always right, lol! My horse, Starlight, is already shedding her winter coat in droves. She and Sadie got their winter coats early in the autumn of 2009, so I knew that the cold was coming early and sure enough, it did. God has equipped animals so well :-). If I want to know when the rain is coming I just have to look out of my kitchen window to see if the horses are down by the barn. Once they get to the barn it will rain within 30 minutes, like clockwork. They know. So, since Starlight is shedding her heavy winter coat as much as she is right now, I am thinking that maybe, just maybe, spring is just around the corner. I hope so. I am sooooo ready for winter to be over and to see some green again.

I made a card before I got to feeling droopy, but with all that has transpired I didn't get around to posting it. I LOVE the Bella Bleu Designer Series Paper by Stampin' Up! I think it has to be my most favorite. This paper lends itself easily to a vintage look, so that was where I took it for this card. I inked the edges of the Top Note die cut and the Small Tag punch with Creamy Caramel to give it a bit of an aged look. I have seen a lot of flowers recently made by stamping tissue paper and then punching out flower shapes. The flowers look great! I ran out of white tissue paper at Christmas time though, and haven't had a chance to replenish my supply yet. I wanted to try these flowers so I used what I had- vellum! It does take a while for stamped vellum to dry, but you can speed up the drying process by using your heat tool. Just don't get too close to the vellum while heating the ink dry because you could burn it or cause it to warp.

I used one of my favorite birthday sentiments on the inside of this card and added three butterflies from the new Beautiful Wings embosslit in the Occasions Mini. The stamped swirl I used for the butterflies is from Snow Buddies, a hostess set from the 2009 Holiday Mini, but you could use any swirl stamp that you have on hand or draw the swirl yourself. I inked the edges of the inside of my card with Creamy Caramel so it would be consistent with the aged look of the outside, then added a touch of Old Olive.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week so far and that you are all staying warm and cozy. I'll be back tomorrow! Have a great day!

Blessings!
Barb

Supplies:
Stamps: En Francais- 109521, Teeny Tiny Wishes- 115370, Snow Buddies- 116505 (hostess-2009 Holiday Mini)
Paper: Bordering Blue- 102630, Very Vanilla- 101650, Old Olive- 100702, Bella Bleu Designer Series Paper- 113974
Ink: All Classic Ink used: Bordering Blue- 102265, Creamy Caramel- 103220, Bordering Blue Stampin' Write marker- 100070
Dies: Little Leaves- 114511, Swirls Scribbles- 113441, Beautiful Wings embosslit- 118138, Top Note- 113463
Punches: Tag- 105934, Small Tag- 108264, Trio Flower- 109183, 5 Petal Flower- 109041, Double Rectangle- 105088
Other: Very Vanilla 1/4" grosgrain ribbon- 109026, vellum