Today I have a very quick project to show you. I love this type of project--it gives you a nice handmade gift for someone in literally minutes! This was one of the projects we made at my Valentine's bundle class.

I wrapped the Riding Hood Red card stock around the candle and used Sticky Strip to adhere the paper to itself. (Although you can, I didn't actually adhere the paper TO the candle, just around.) Next I wrapped and adhered the Candy Land Designer Paper.

For the tag, I stamped with Riding Hood Red ink on Very Vanilla card stock. I used a blender pen to color the heart Pink Pirouette, and then a 1" circle punch to punch out just the center of the image. I layered it on a 1 1/4" Riding Hood Red circle and tied it to the candle with Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon. So easy. :-)


Tomorrow I will have another Valentine's project with a tutorial, so check back!

Stamps: Love You Much

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette
Paper: Riding Hood Red, Candy Land Designer Paper
Accessories: Blender Pen, Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon, 1" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1/8" circle punch, candle (Ikea)

Happy Heart Day!

Yesterday I went to my first (of many I am sure!) school program. My son's preschool had a little Valentine's program which was of course very cute. :-) As part of their party, they exchanged Valentines. So another first was making Valentines with my son--a lot of fun! Start to finish it only took a little over an hour to make 20, and my son loved being able to pass out Valentines that he had made.

I did the stamping while my son started to color. While he finished, I cut the Real Red and Basic Black layers, punched the holes (I punched 5 at one time with my Crop-A-Dile) and started assembling. Next my son helped me put the dimensionals on the back of the Basic Black layer, and then we finished assembling together and added the suckers.

And of course I couldn't let my son have ALL the fun coloring--so I had to make one using my crayons. ;-) I colored mine with Watercolor Wonder Crayons and then used an Aqua Painter.

Note: The dimensions of the red layer are 2 3/4" by 4 1/4" This way I could get 8 bases per sheet of cardstock.

Stamps: Happy Heart Day

Ink: Basic Black

Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White

Accessories: Crop-A-Dile, Watercolor Wonder Crayons (Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Basic Gray), Aqua Painter, dimensionals

Good Bird Confessions

Don't you just love these bright colors! Here's a little confession. . . . I got the idea for this color combination from the Good Morning Sunshine Designer Series Paper. *wink* If I'm ever stuck on coming up with a color combination, I often turn to the section of the catalog with all the Designer Papers and pick out a color combination from there. Makes my job easier!

This is a card we made last month at my Technique Club. We made several cards using different types of dry embossing. This card used the Punches Plus Classy Brass Template and Empressor Stylus. Now here's another confession--I don't have a light table! Since I was doing a random pattern, I wasn't too worried about exact placement of the circles. For this card I just put the classy brass template on the table, and then the card stock on top. I would feel through the paper to get a rough idea of where I was, and then I used the stylus. It does take a few minutes to do all of the circles, but I like that the finished product has more texture.

This cute bird is from the set Good Friend--the set I received for free at Leadership. :-) The bird is stamped in Pacific Point, and the legs and sentiment are Chocolate Chip. For the beak, I stamped on Summer Sun paper and then cut it out and popped it up with a small piece of a dimensional. The Pacific Point layer is distressed and also up on dimensionals. The sentiment is from A Little Birdie Told Me. Finished card size is 5" tall by 5 1/4" wide.

Stamps: Good Friend, A Little Birdie Told Me

Ink: Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Summer Sun, Whisper White

Accessories: Punches Plus Classy Brass template, empressor stylus, 1/4" chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon, cutter kit, dimensionals

Love You Much

There are only a few days left to purchase the Love You Much bundle at 20% off! All of the items are still available in the new catalog, but not at a discount after Jan 31! See below for the details of the promotion. This is a card using the Love You Much bundle that I originally made to use as a swap card for Leadership.

I embossed the hearts and the sentiment with white embossing powder and then punched out the hearts with the Heart to Heart punch. The hearts and the sentiment are all up on dimensionals. I also added little bit of Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds on some of the hearts to give it a little sparkle.

This is also one of four projects we are making at my class on Saturday. If you purchase the bundle from me, you can attend for FREE! Contact me for details.

Stamps: Love You Much

Ink: Versamark

Paper: Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Close to Cocoa, Candy Lane Designer Paper

Accessories: Heart to Heart punch, Word Window punch, white embossing powder, heat tool, embossing buddy, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds, Linen Thread, 1/16" circle punch, corner rounder, dimensionals

New Catalog!

The new Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book and Catalog is here! Lot of gorgeous new stamp sets, accessories, and tools! To see the new catalog online, click HERE, or to browse the new products, click HERE.

One of the new sets from the catalog is called Sweet Stems. I've already had a chance to play with this set, and I'm loving it! This card is what I made for my floor swaps at Leadership. I'll admit that I was in a little of a rush to get all my swaps done beforeI left (you can't imagine me procrastinating can you!!), so to speed up the process I actually took an old idea of mine and just changed it up a bit.

So HERE is a card I made over two years ago (my very first card I posted on Splitcoaststampers!), and then below is the 'updated' version. Hopefully I've improved a bit in my stamping over the years! At the very least I've learned to love dimensionals. ;-)

Note: The black for the flowers and the word are embossed to give the card an extra little 'bling'. A little trick I learned a while ago, is to use Black Craft ink and then emboss with clear embossing powder (EP)--MUCH easier to use than black EP! Stray specks of clear EP just don't show as much as stray specks of black EP.

Stamps: Sweet Stems, Wonderful Favorites

Ink: Basic Black Craft, Rose Red Kiwi Kiss

Paper: Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White

Accessories: Clear EP, Blender Pens, 1/4" Whisper White grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals, cutter kit, heat tool, embossing buddy

I also thought I would show another fun picture. One of the reasons I've been so quiet lately is that I was very fortunate to attend Stampin Up's Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida earlier this month. It was a wonderful experience! Among the many highlights was being able to meet Shelli (CEO and co-founder of Stampin Up). Shelli was truly one of the kindest, most sincere, down-to-earth people I think I've ever meet. Also very photogenic! It was truely a pleasure to meet her!

Lots of Holiday

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season!! I still can't believe it is already 2009! I always look forward to a new year and the excitement it brings. I haven't done any posts in awhile, but I thought today I'd at least move all of these projects (projects we made at the 1st Annual Los Angeles Holiday Stampers' Meet-Up) from the event page to my main blog page. So if you haven't already seen these, here they are. :-)

Tree Threesome

Stamps: Baby Jesus is Born (for the sentiment)

Ink: Kiwi Kiss

Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Kraft, Whisper White Kiwi Kiss Patterns Designer Series Paper

Accessories: lots of Dimensionals, (dimensionals are double-stacked between the Kraft layer and the Kiwi Kiss base), Rope Twine (from the Holiday Mini Catalog)

Snow

Stamps: Snow Jumbo Wheel

Ink: Pacific Point

Paper: Pacific Point, Whisper White

Accessories: Pacific Point 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

Simple Nativity

Stamps: Season of Simple Grace (from the Holiday Mini Catalog)

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Bordering Blue, Summer Sun

Paper: Bordering Blue, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Alpine Ribbon Originals (from the Holiday Mini Catalog), dimensionals, cutter kit, sponge

Note: the ribbon slides off to open the card.

Hanukkah Sayings

Stamps: Shalom Sayings

Ink: Versamark

Paper: Night of Navy, Brushed Silver, Whisper White

Accessories: Silver Stampin Emboss Powder, Heat tool, Silver Brads, 1/16" circle hand punch, dimensionals

Nugget Boxes


Stamps: Snow Swirled, Best Yet

Ink: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Baja Breeze, Brushed Silver, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Ski Slope Designer Paper

Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note Bigz Die, Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon, 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Sticky Strip, Hershey's Nuggets candy

Note: I found the idea for these boxes on the Stampin Up Demonstrator Website. The idea was part of a Halloween Class idea submitted by Hillary Fetzner.

Gift Card Holders

Stamps: Snow Swirled, Punches Three

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Versamark

Paper: Kraft and Riding Hood Red Gift Notes, Close to Cocoa, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Bella Rose Designer Paper

Accessories: Clips Assortment, Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon, Wide Oval Punch, Cutter Kit, Sponge, Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon, Scallop Square Punch, dimensionals