Sweet Treats

Today's design team project with Craftin' Desert Divas is a fun triple shaker card! I started by printing 3 of the icecream images from the Cool Treats digital stamp set and coloring them with colored pencils.

              

I die cut the smallest rectangle from the Crazy Stitched Frame Dies set 6 times -3 for the fronts and 3 for the backs of the shaker boxes. For the front pieces, I then cut out the centers to make frames and for the backs, I ink blended the polka dots in 3 different distress ink colors using the Sorted Shapes 2 stencil.

After building the shaker boxes, I filled them with microbeads in 3 co-ordinating colors. The "Sweet Treats" sentiment is from the Simply Said Clear Stamp Set but I'd like share a little tip here for stamping sentiments with Distress Ink...sometimes Distress Ink gets splotchy if you try to stamp sentiments with it, so if you first press your stamp on to a Versamark ink pad and then on to the distress ink pad it seems to help the ink cling to the stamp and gives better coverage that way.

That's it for me until next week~

March Moodboard: Foxy Cupcake Birthday Shaker

Today's design team project for Crafting' Desert Divas is my first creation for the new March Moodboard and I used the rainbow colors as my inspiration. #CDDMONTHLY

 I used the Craftin' Desert Divas Crazy Stitched Frames die set, the Birthday Surprise digital stamp set, the Say It Big clear stamp set, Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink pad, Shimmer sequins and Pastel Paradise sequins to make my card.

Versafine black ink is the perfect ink for sentiments -especially when stamping over patterned paper!

I colored the cupcake fox using watercolor pencils and cut it out using my Scan 'N Cut machine.

Until next time~

Spreading the Joy of Christmas with Vintage Style Handmade Greeting Cards

The calendar tells us that Christmas has passed for another year, but my family has one more gathering coming up in the next few days so I still need several more cards to share. These 3 came together in a few hours time using the beautiful Joyful Rhapsody paper pack and lots of  little Christmas embellishments from Itsy Bitsy for today's design team post.

The first card in the trio is made with a simple Z-Fold design using a 6" x 6" white card base and 3 patterned papers . Using the Script Stencil #2 and white gesso I added some detail to the inside of the card and even sponged some on to the tree embellishments so that they would look frosty too. I then added tiny red star sequins from the Rubies and Sparkles Shaker sprinkles set to the tops of each tree with glue.

I cut the vintage tree picture from the collage sheet and layered it on the red glitter paper from the paper pack. The pennant banner and sentiment were also cut from another sheet from the pack. The sentiment is layered on to green glitter paper.

The second card is also made on a 6" x 6" white card base and the pattern paper was trimmed in a wavy line and layered on the top and bottom of the card using foam tape squares.

The white glitter tree embellishments were then added across the bottom while the sentiments were trimmed out and the larger one layered on the gold glitter paper and cut in a banner shape.

The inside I used more of the patterned paper scraps left over from the card front and glued  on a sentiment.

For the third and last card, I made a shaker panel for the front.

I covered the 6" x 6" white card base with 2 patterns from the pack and die cut the Cross Stitched Oval frames along with a piece of clear acetate for the shaker window. I then filled the window with green, red and gold elements from the Shaker Sprinkles packs.

The vintage artwork on this card really lends it a classic look, while the Christmas tree pack embellishments lend a bit of a more modern flair. Inside the card I layered the left over oval diecut from the inside of the shaker frame with sentiments and borders cut from the sayings sheet.

That's it for me today and I want to wish you all a happy new year! Until next time~

The Making of my October Paper Pumpkin Kit

For those of you that may not know, Paper Pumpkin is a craft box subscription from Stampin' Up! that is all inclusive for less that $20 (INCLUDING the shipping!!!) a month. You literally need nothing other than your box of crafty goodness and a flat surface to craft on!

The kits are a surprise every time and this one made 10 gorgeous holiday shaker cards (in 4 designs) using everything you see pictured below...and it even included the lined envelopes that match. It's amazing how much can fit in that little box, lol!

The first time that you subscribe to Paper Pumpkin you will be sent a clear acrylic stamping block to use with your stamp set each month. You receive at least one ink pad each time and all the adhesives you will need to complete your projects.

A photo instruction booklet and a video on You Tube every month walk you through the assembly process. This time I stamped banner sentiments and sentiments for inside the shaker boxes in the Cherry Cobbler red ink spot that was included.

Everything is precut and or diecut to the perfect size -which leaves you to enjoy the creative process without all the measuring and design logistics. I used my paper piercer to apply the mini glue dots for adhering the acetate windows because it makes it super simple to pick off the sticker backing sheet.

There were more than enough of the sequin shaker elements in 3 colors to fill all the shaker circles with...I have a ton leftover to use on other projects in the future. There were also 5 of the self-adhesive foam shaker circle rings left that I can use in the future -woohoo!

There is so much else you can do to change up your cards a bit and make them your own...check Pinterest and the Paper Pumpkin Fan Club on Face Book for lots of alternate ideas! No need to make the cards all the same unless you want to. I made this kit exactly as instructed because I loved the ideas "as is"...but YOU decide how you want to finish your projects when you are crafting with Paper Pumpkin!

After spending all that quality time crafting these gorgeous holiday greetings, I stamped, dated and signed the back of my cards like you can see here below. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing what I did with this month's kit as much as I enjoyed the time I spent crafting with it! If you are curious to learn more about how Paper Pumpkin works, please click the tab at the top of my blog that says "PAPER PUMPKIN" and contains everything you need to know.

Until next time~

How to Make a Gorgeous Holiday Shaker Card Using the Best Glue Ever

Today's card for my ScraPerfect design team assignment was inspired by sketch #73 @ Your Next Stamp and by the CAS-ual Friday's "Shaker Card Challenge". And since it is a holiday card I will entering it @ ABC Christmas where "S is for Sketch", @ Christmas Card Challenges #22 and @ Crafty Hazelnut Christmas Challenge #352.

This card ended up being an A7 size to accommodate the large Sizzix ornament die that I had my heart set on using. The silver mirror paper was in my stash and I think it may actually have come from Creative Memories at one time. The brushed silver and the snowflake paper I think both came from Stampin' Up a pretty long time ago. The stamp set is also an oldie from SU!

This card has a lot of steps to it and the first one was to cut the ornament 4 times...twice on white cardstock, once from white fun foam and once from a clear acetate sheet. I used my CM circle cutting tool to cut the hole in one of the white cs layers -this will be the top layer during assembly and would have been much easier to do if I had a circle layering die set! Since I didn't, I had to trace and hand cut that same inner circle in the fun foam. After stamping the same large winter scene image twice -once on the bottom (full cut) white ornament layer and once on the top skinny white layer I then layered it using the Best Glue Ever using the No Clog Writing Cap...on the very top went the skinny cardstock ornament layer, then the clear acetate sheet(also cut in the full ornament shape) for the window and then the skinny fun foam layer. I set that aside to dry and worked on trimming layers, embossing sentiments and coloring the rest of the card front.

To heat emboss the sentiment in silver on the white layer, I repeatedly stamped "Happy Holidays" in Versamark ink. Swiping the paper first with the Perfect Crafting Pouch ensured that the embossing powder would only stick where I wanted it to. After the powder was melted and heat set, I gently brushed over the piece with the Perfect Cleaning Cloth to remove any left over residue from the pouch and really bring out the shine of the raised silver letters.

I colored the winter scene on the ornament using watercolor pencils and a blender pen. I accented the white, snowy areas using the clear Wink of Stella pen and I used the silver Wink of Stella pen to top off the brushed silver ornament topper that was die cut and glued on after the shaker was fully assembled. I filled the shaker window with the white iridescent flakes from the Tiny Bottles of Embellishments along with some clear microbeads from the Martha Stewart Collection that I found @ Michael's. 

I found it to be rather challenging to photograph this card due to the mirrored quality of the silver cardstock that covers the card front, but hopefully you can get a feel for how gorgeous this card is in person...my hubby was actually really impressed when he took a good look at it and promptly picked it up to shake it, lol.

On the inside, I used a scrap of paper from the front on the bottom and because I hadn't used watercolor friendly ink when I stamped the sentiment and holly, I ended up coloring the holly using chalk pencils and a Stardust Glitter Gel Pen on the berries and the leaf veins.

That's it for me today...until next time, happy crafting with ScraPerfect and be sure to give their blog a visit so that you don't miss out on all the terrific projects from the other designers!