Silhouettes Gift Card Holder

Here's another quick gift card holder. I made this up after I took pictures of the tutorial the other day. Since I already had the base done, I figured I could just quick embellish. :-) This is what I came up with. The stamps are from the Pocket Silhouettes set (15% off through the end of September!) and the belly band uses the 1" Double-Stitched Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon. There is actually a strip of card stock under the ribbon though to help give it support so that it will slide on and off easier.

The tag is tied on with linen thread and uses the faux metal technique. Oh and if any club members happen to see this today. . . yes, this is one of the projects we are making at Technique Club tonight. :-)

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes

Ink: Really Rust

Paper: Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Accessories: 1" Double Stitched Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Linen Thread, Word Window Punch, Round Tag Punch, 1/8" Circe punch, Cutter Kit, dimensionals

Gift Card Holder Tutorial

Here it is! This is the tutorial for the gift card holder I posted last week (HERE). Since black paper is hard to photograph, I used different colored paper, but of course the idea is the same. . .

Start with a 4 1/4" by 11" piece of paper. Score at 3", 5 1/2", and 8". Then fold so that you have an "M".

Fold in half and use the Word Window Punch to punch out half of the oval shape. Repeat on the other side.

Here I used the top part of the Round Tab punch to punch out a little more and connect my punches from the Word Window punch. Although, you could use a circle punch, tag punch, etc.
***Note--if you want your corners rounded as I did on the graduation card, do that at this point. Do not glue (the next step) until the corners are rounded.***

Open the card and use either Tombow Mono adhesive or Sticky Strip to glue just the edges of the 3 sides of the middle as shown. Don't glue in the middle as this is where the gift card needs to fit.

After you glue, the base of the gift card holder is ready to go! Now you can embellish as desired.

Here's the inside of the Grad card again:
On the graduation card, I used a belly band as my closure. The yellow band is 1" by 7". The silver band and the scallop square are Brushed Silver card stock.

To make the scallop square, I found these great directions by MJ Albright on her blog Beauty Lies Within. Her tutorial about making different sized scalloped squares with the Scallop Edge punch can be found HERE. MJ did a lot of work for us in figuring out the correct sized paper to start with to get perfectly rounded scallops on the edges! For the graduation card I started with a 1 15/16" square piece of card stock. Just make sure you read all her directions (like I didn't the first time!) and don't push your card stock all the way to the back of the punch. Just line it up with the edge of the scallops on your punch.

And finally, to add the yellow to the Designer Brad (Star Assortment). . . .This is a trick that I saw at Convention and finally got around to trying out. All you need is a Craft Pad and your Designer Brad. Here I used Yoyo Yellow.


First just dip the brad face down into the ink. Take a paper towel and wipe it off. I found it easiest to leave the paper towel flat on the table and rub the brad that way. Then dip again and rub it off again. Repeat about 3 times total.What happens is the ink stays in the depressed areas on the brad and rubs off on the rest. Then just let the brad dry and you have a custom colored brad!

Open House Projects

Well, the gift card holder tutorial is still in progress, so I thought I would post the two projects that we made at my New Catalog Open House in August. Neither of these projects was my idea, but I thought they were both just too cute to pass up. I just made couple minor changes here and there.

The first one shown above is one of the cute popsicle cards that a lot of people have been making. When I received one of these popsicle cards from LeeLa Smith as a convention swap, that's when I decided to used it for my open house. They are even cuter in person! The only change that I made from LeeLa's was that I added the Kiwi Kiss Designer button in the middle and the Kiwi Kiss Striped Grosgrain ribbon on the stick. Here's a picture of the inside. Stamps: Think Happy Thoughts
Ink: Basic Black
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Corner Rounder, Horizontal Slot Punch, Designer Buttons, 5/8" Kiwi Kiss Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, dimensionals, popsicle stick



The second project is my version of a project that was shown during Demonstrator Theater at Convention. I was glad to be reminded of the simple, yet pretty technique to sponge directly on your stamp to add a second (or third, as shown at convention) color.

This technique is very easy. All you do is first ink the stamp in the lighter color (here Pink Pirouette) and then use a sponge duaber to add a second darker color in select places. Here I added Rose Red. Then when you stamp the image you have a two-tone effect. I used the scallop edge punch along the bottom of the flowers and the top right side is just a 1 3/8" circle punch folded in half. I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch through all 4 layers of card stock and then tied the ribbon through. This layer is up on dimensionals. Oh, and the final size of this card is 5" by 4 1/4".

By the way, Upsy Daisy is one of the stamp sets that is on sale 15% off until the end of September! To see a flyer of all the sets on sale, click HERE. If you would like to order this or other sale sets, contact me or just click the button at the top right of this page to go to my demonstrator website where you can shop online.

Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Rose Red
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Whisper White
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Crop-A-Dile, Pretty in Pink 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, sponge dauber, Dimensionals

Scalloped Congrats

It's not really the time of year for graduations, but I've had the idea for this card in my head since convention, and I finally got it on paper--so to speak. :-) I saw this cute way to fold a gift card holder a little while ago. I'm not sure who the origional creator is, but what a fun idea! I'll be working up a tutorial for this card to show not only the unique fold, but also how I added the yellow to the Designer Brad (something I learned at convention). So, check back later!

Stamps: Say it with Scallops

Ink: Basic Black, YoYo Yellow Craft

Paper: Basic Black, YoYo Yellow, Brushed Silver, Whisper White

Accessories: Large Star Punch, Star Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, 1 3/8" Square Punch, Designer Brads-Star Assortment, 3/16" Corner Rounder Punch, Word Window Punch, Round Tab Punch

Online Ordering is Here!

Awhile back Stampin' Up! announced that soon customers would be able to order online--and that day has come!  Now you can shop for Stampin Up products online anytime and have your order sent directly to you.  You'll just need to first click through a demonstrator website.  Visit my Stampin' Up! website and click on the "Shop Now" button at the top right of the page.  The button at the top right of my blog will take you to my Stampin Up website too.  If you want to go directly to my Stampin Up webiste, the address is http://allison.stampinup.net.  Easy to remember, huh?  ;-)  

Also, you can earn Stampin' Rewards (same as hostess benefits) once your merchandise total is $150 or more.  Even if you want to just browse through the catalog, this where you want to go.  It is easy to search, and you'll definitely want to check out the projects section to get your creative juices flowing!  

Of course you can still order directly through me, but this is just one more option!  And I am still here to help teach you about stamping products and techniques whether you order though me or online.  So, go check out the new online catalog--you'll be glad you did.  :-)    

Bashful Tango

The other day I ran across a Color Challenge over at Belinda's blog stampwithbelinda.com. The colors were just so fun that I just had to join the challenge! Follow this LINK to see the post about her color challenge and the pillows that gave Belinda the inspiration.

The colors Belinda chose were Bashful Blue, Tangerine Tango, and Basic Black. To me these colors are bold/funky. Since that isn't my 'usual' stamping style, I had to take a long look at my stamp sets to see what could work. And Wow Flowers came to the rescue! My card is very simple and litterally came together in a few minutes once I had the idea. The card base is Glossy White cardstock. I hope I still qualify for the challenge even though I used very little black (only for the sentiment). I tried to add more, but it just didn't seem to fit. :-)

By the way, the 5/8" Tangerine Tango Striped Grosgrain Ribbon that I used here is part of my Accessory Sampler that you can order before Sept 18th. Check this link for details.

Stamps: Wow Flowers

Ink: Bashful Blue, Tangerine Tango, Basic Black

Paper: Glossy White

Accessories: Tangerine Tango 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon