Babushkas

I have a confession to make. I have a ridiculous amount of Studio Flergs digital scrap supplies in my hard drive. I just love her stuff. I bought these this collection, Crafty Cutesy, the day it came out. Then I looked at it. A lot. And never did anything with it. Then it was time to go bananas making things for the craft sale at the church bazaar. So, I opened up the folder and started picking things. I made a number of notebook covers using the background papers and the cute little nesting dolls. ALL of my notebooks sold this year - I counted 4 on the tables left over from last year, and I brought a dozen more. I was happy with that, so I will continue to do this. I have made hybrid notebook covers for the last few years. It's nice to use digital supplies to get everything exactly where you want it. I used to use Photoshop to create them, but this year I used My Digital Studio to set everything up.

Cute or what??? I dressed up the parts I had printed with Stickles, ribbon, punched shapes, baker's twine, and Tiny Tags sentiments. It was a perfect project to do while I was away from home for work, holed up in my hotel room with nothing else to do. I pumped all of these out during an episode of Law & Order SVU, in case anyone is keeping track!

Thanks for looking! Hope you get a chance to try your hand at a little digital hybrid!
Becca

One Sheet Wonder

I followed Jessica Taylor's instructions here to make a variety of cards. I made 3 full sets of 16 cards before I knew it. I highly recommend the template and instructions. Here are some pics of sets I made. I packaged them in groups of 4 and donated them to my church bazaar, which took place yesterday.

For this set, I used a retired DSP and the new Nursery Times stamp set, plus Tiny Tags sentiments. I highlighted with Pretty in Pink and Perfect Plum solid card stock, and stamped all images in Basic Gray.

Below - Regal Rose DSP, Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink solid card stock, and Basic Grey for most of the images. I also used matching Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink markers (not sure about the green shade), along with some Dazzling Details glitter glue and shapes cut from the Beautiful Wings embosslit. Stamp sets include Pursuit of Happiness, Because I Care, and Precious Butterflies.

The next set is my favorite. I used Afterthoughts, Pursuit of Happiness, Bold Blossoms, and Bliss stamp sets. I love that retired Razzleberry Lemonade DSP and it was so much fun to use on these cards. I used Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, and Crushed Curry for inking the stamps and the solid card stock. I also accented the cards with flowers punched from the Punch Pack, and the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch. I had some matching gems in my stash. I always make matching envelopes as well.

A few close-ups...

Thanks for looking! I had a lot of fun and I will definitely be using this template again.
Becca

I am lame-o

Hey! I feel bad. It's been over 2 months since my last post. Not that I have given up crafting, far from it! I have been so overwhelmingly busy it feels like I have to schedule in time to sleep. Anyway. I'm back! Last weekend, my friends and I hosted a Stamp-A-Stack. All three of us came up with a design, and then the attendees made 4 of each. It was a blast. Here is my offering:

I love the Greeting Card Kids stamp set! We used the little girl on the pumpkin for one of last month's stamp club cards. Here, she is part of a vintage pastel Christmas vignette. The color combination was inspired by LeAnn Greff's post here. (Some days I would like to pack up and move to Minot so I could play with her all the time, she has an awesome blog full of amazing projects!) I also love the throwback look of the type in the Merry Christmas stamp from Four the Holidays. It really adds to the nostalgic feel.


Some details - base is Crumb Cake. On top of that, I layered Pool Party. I wanted it to look like a snowstorm, so I swiped my white craft ink pad over the paper until it was nice and streaky. The sentiment (and the little girl) are stamped in Early Espresso. I ran a piece of Pink Pirouette through the Big Shot with the Snow Burst embossing folder and ripped it at an angle on the top and bottom. I also sprayed it with Vanilla Smooch Spritz for a little snowy shimmer. The girl is stamped onto Whisper White and cut out with the 2-1/2" Circle Punch. The edges of the circle are sponged with Pool Party ink, and the image is colored with Pool Party, Pink Pirouette, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Pear Pizzazz, and Daffodil Delight. The tree ornaments and the buttons on the coat are dabbed with Dazzling Details glitter glue. The circle was then mounted on 2 Crumb Cake shapes cut from the Designer Label Punch, and popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals.The conservationist in me decided it was a great idea to punch these shapes from the center of my base panel! I got 3 from each, so I am saving the remnants for other projects. Genius!

Our church bazaar is tomorrow, and I've put together a large variety of card sets and covered notebooks to add to the craft sale, including a dozen of these cuties. I try to do this every year. That is part of what has kept me crazy-busy recently, added to school and work madness - this mama is so very tired. I told my husband today that even my toenails are tired! I should be able to catch up (ha ha) a little next week.

An apology for the yucky photos to come - it is North Dakota, and winter is threatening. The light is not great. Between my inability to take photos in the daylight due to this thing called a J.O.B. and the late hours I work on my crafting endeavors, the picture quality suffers - if I get pictures taken at all! At any rate, this weekend is looking like a doozy so it's off to bed for me. No supply list to follow as all items are mentioned in the post. :) Good night!!

Becca

Brown & Blue and slightly the same??

I made a couple of cards and when I had finished the second I sat back, looked at it, and thought, WOW I am kind of in a rut. :) Same colors, same basic layout... HELP! Well, I'd say HELP but I like the colors and they have appeared more than once already in the short life of this blog so Oh Well. It's all good.

Anyway I picked up the combination from the Elegant Soiree designer paper from last year. I don't care if it isn't "current", I like it and it's going to take me forever to use it up. Which is OK by me. Anyway this is the second card I made, another one for a new baby. Lots of babies lately after a dry spell in my circle.

Cute as a bug! Isn't that the name of the set? Retired but I can't get rid of it. I used some markers to just barely color in the little guy and make him stand out. Another Curly Cute congratulations... I used Crumb Cake as the base and banner, and punched my circles from Crumb Cake and Soft Suede. The banner tails are curled and shredded a little with my fingernail. I used the Early Espresso striped grosgrain ribbon (retired, of course, I just can't catch a break) to add texture and interest. There's a lot of print going on with all the DSP but it's fun to add a little something more. I used halfback pearls from my stashed Pretties kit to bling it up.

Here is the first card I had made. The picture stinks but the card has been mailed, so there's no re-taking it. I can re-MAKE the card but what fun is that.

I used Soft Suede textured card stock for the base, with Creative Elements stamps for the flourish in the corners and the fussy-cut flowers. Another Curly Cute sentiment! Lots of mileage, well worth the $$ spent on that set! I used the Eyelet Border Punch to add a strip of Early Espresso under the Crumb Cake "Thinking of You" tag, which I notched with my paper snips. Simple but pretty. I think my grandmother will like it.

Here is a close-up of the elements on the card. At least this is in focus!

Stuck in a happy rut! Off to make ANOTHER baby card, and a birthday card!
Becca

Bright Scallop Birthday

I sent this one to my grandmother in Maine. She's dealing with Alzheimer's and it is just so important to keep in touch. I loved the colors in the Sweet & Sour DSP, but I hadn't bought it yet when I made this card. I was clearly loving the layered scallop look! I still do... Anyway this was fairly quick and I consider it CAS.

I used markers to ink up the center of the So Many Scallops birthday stamp, then punched it out with a circle punch. This was layered onto a Pumpkin Pie circle, which was layered onto a scalloped white circle that had been stamped with the same stamp in Rose Red. I had tried to color the whole stamp but the outer design looked like... well, not good. I popped this up on dimensionals. The scallops and straight pieces are cut from Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, and white. I offset the scallops and then trimmed the sides so they were even. The white part opens upward, placed on the layered, color base. The bottom of the front is the bottom white scallop. The lower stripes are glued onto the white base. It was fun to make and I sure hope Baba enjoyed receiving it.

Becca

Supplies Used - all Stampin' Up:
Stamp: So Many Scallops (retired)
Ink and Card Stock: Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, White
Tools: Scallop Edge Punch, Circle Punches, 1-3/4" Scallop Circle Punch, Dimensionals

A Very Merry Un-Birthday!

My stepson's girls came to visit, and since they were here right between their birthdays and I am HORRIBLE at mailing things, we had an Un-Birthday party! Think Alice In Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. Hats for everyone, and little food. :) A blast for little girly-girls! I made them mostly-matching cards, with enough differences to each be special.

I was cleaning up, and of course got sidetracked and pulled out some discontinued SU colors, some bright baker's twine, and a strip of 3-D stickers from a dollar bin. Plus a carnation I had made and set aside. The green was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder I had bought ages ago and never used. They're cute, right? And talk about BRIGHT.....

 Supplies used:
Retired SU card stock: Orchid Opulence, Green Galore, Pink something...
Dollar bin stickers; twine; Cuttlebug folder; Tempting Turquoise carnation.

My girl's birthday THIS year!

I showed you last year's card, here is this year's for my now 13-year-old. (Wow does time fly... I cried a little...) She is SO INTO peace signs. She has zillions, I think. I bought her some peace signs stamps out of a dollar bin so she can decorate her school binders. I had some holographic stickers sitting around that she hadn't used yet, so I took inspiration from them to make her birthday card!

Do you know how hard it is to photograph holographic items, not to mention holographic embossing powder?? As you can probably imagine, I stamped "Peace" "Love" and "Cake" inside. :) Taking the lead from the stickers, I punched Melon Mambo and Concord Crush with the Small Heart punch and the Build a Cupcake Punch top. I stamped Crumb Cake card stock with cupcake wrappers from the Create a Cupcake set, using Melon Mambo and Concord Crush ink, then punched them out with the cupcake bottom portion of the punch. The tops were stamped with Versamark and the Cupcake stamp set, and heat embossed using some retired SU hologram embossing powder. She loved it.

I showed my other daughter's 17th birthday card here while we were on the road. I'll show her card from last year another day - I'm pretty proud of that one, too.

Happy Birthday!
Becca