March 6 and 8 cards

Cards Made at March 6 and 8, 2010 Stamp Club

All supplies Stampin' Up

Easel Card

The first card demonstrated was an Easel Card. The tutorial for how to make this card can be found at http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/. Click on Resources at the top right, then Projects, then scroll down alphabetically until you find Easel Card.

This card was CASED from RobinStamps on splitcoaststampers.com. See her card here (click on here) posted January 29, 2010.



Here is a side view of the card so that you can see the easel set up. Stamp sets: Happy Memories and Whimsical Words (both SAB 2010); Cardstock: Meant to use Pretty in Pink but picked up a retired pink instead, So Saffron, and Whisper White; Markers: So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery; Scallop Trim Border Punch (SAB 2010), Soft Subtles brads, Tea Party DSP.

For a 4 1/4" square card, you begin with a 4 1/4" x 8 1/2" piece of cardstock.

The 4 1/4" x 8 1/2" piece of cardstock is

scored at 4 1/4" (show here in pink from the right

edge) and again at 6 3/8". Then red sticky tape

is applied on the left portion as shown.

Then turn the pink piece so it is vertical in front

of you and the part with the tape is facing away

Line up the 4 1/4" square piece with the top of

the portion with the sticky tape and tape down.

When you finish and turn on side, see Sage Shadow above. It should look like a chair with long front legs -- or like a lower case "h".

Then pull the card over so that the base is down. Then decorate as desired. The card we made had "stops" about 1/3" way of base - would have been better to make them at 1/2 the distance of the card base for it to stand better. Here we used flowers punched from the Trio Flower Punch with brads in them as the stopper. Other things used: buttons, punched shapes like circle(s) or oval(s) raised up on dimensionals, ribbon, a panel (with or without decorative edge) at bottom of bottom part, best raised up on dimensionals.

Side Stair Step Card

This card is cased from: craftdoc. See her card here posted on splitcoaststampers.com on March 24, 2009.

Stamps set used: One Good Egg, Cardstock: Green Galore and Whisper White, Basic Black ink pad, Kaleidescope designer paper, So Saffron marker, So Saffron Striped Grosgrain Ribbon.

Here is a picture of a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 piece of cardstock and where the one cut line and the score lines should go. I have more directions in a Word document if you would like me to send you a copy.


Brayering Bride Paper

This card is CASED from calebandmemsmom. See her card here posted at splitcoaststampers on January 27, 2010.
The white Bride's Paper on page 158 of the Stampin' Up Catalog can have ink brayered on. The design in the paper resists the ink, but the background soaks it up. We made sure we had the brayer well inked and inked and brayered several times, coating the paper. If there is some unevenness, it seems to go away after a while -- I think the ink soaks in.

I made a couple more cards trying out Certainly Celery Ink and then Pretty in Pink Ink.

Stamp set used for the greeting is Well Scripted in the Occasions Mini catalog (deadline April 30); wide oval punch is used to punch it out. Card base matches ink color.

The package of Bride Specialty Paper (12" x 12") has 5 sheets of the swirly paper and 5 sheets of the striped paper. I had seen the striped paper used around Christmas with red ink, so I tried that also, but used a birthday greeting from Well Scripted. Ribbon is white taffeta.

Then I tried some more colors. On the left: Yo Yo Yellow, Lavender Lace, then below Sahara Sand, and Apricot Appeal.

On the right: Perfect Plum Pale Plum, and below is Orchid Opulence.

Stamping 2.6.10 and 2.8.10

The card above is a direct case (except sentiment changed) from Claudia Perry, a fellow demonstrator in Columbus, Georgia. See her card here. (Just click on the word "here" and it will take you there - scroll down as there are a couple of other "kissing" cards before you see this one. I decided to learn to do links!) The technique demonstrated is "Kissing." Appropriate for February, I thought! The butterfly is the piece on which that technique was used. (See directions below for how to kiss! : ) ) I learned about printing the designer series paper from My Digital Studio from reading her blog - it is from the Sweet Pea download - and printed on Pretty in Pink cardstock like she did. Other items used: Pretty in Pink cardstock and ink pad , Chocolate Chip cardstock and ink pad, white cardstock, chocolate chip 5/8" grosrain ribbon, Pretty in Pink 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (even though it looks white here, it is pink in real life), Butterfly Accent stamp, Sanded background stamp, kite string, eyelet border punch. I did change the sentiment and punched it out with wide oval punch. Both butterfly and large oval adhered with mini glue dots I believe. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes - which is one of the best sentiment sets ever! I scanned the directions that I had at each station below each card, but I must have done something different than last time. They weren't readable. If you want the directions, please email me and I'll send you the Word document.

I also encouraged everyone to develop the habit of stamping "Hand Stamped By" on the back and putting their name or initials. I need to work on developing that habit too.

This card was created by juls716. I found it posted on splitcoaststampers on July 29, 2009. See her card here. I just loved the colors in this - especially the pastel chalks used on the peacock. The stamp is from the Very Thankful set on the inside back cover of the Stampin' Up! catalog - it is a Ronald McDonald stamp. In class the Bermuda Bay A2 card front piece was textured. (Mine pictured here is not textured - it is regular cardstock - because I wanted to save the textured for class use.) The pink grid piece is from the Razzleberry Lemonade pack of designer series paper. Then a Crushed Curry layer, and the Whisper White layer with the peacock adhered on top of that. The peacock was stamped in Versamark and then the chalks were added using sponge daubers. I tried q-tips first, thinking they would work better for the small areas - but actually the sponge daubers worked best. The Q-tips smudged the chalk more when I went to put it on the peacock. Sponge daubers daub better. Photo Corner punch also used.

The other things I learned are:

- Can see the Versamark better on the Whisper White cardstock

- Works better to do this in the daytime in good light (like under kitchen table light and with the window blinds open to let in natural light). Was a challenge to see the Versamark image the night before when I was using a different white cardstock and didn't have the better lighting.

The above butterfly card is cased from cmstamps on splitcoast. She uploaded the card on December 14, 2009. See her card here. I did change the border punch - used the Scallop Trim border punch rather than the pinking hearts punch that she used.

Products used, all Stampin'Up!: Whisper White cardstock, Bashful Blue cardstock, Pretty in Pink cardstock, Sage Shadow cardstock and ink pad. And from the Occasions Mini catalog (which lasts through April 30, 2010): Well Scripted stamp set for the sentiment, Scallop Trim border punch, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Beautiful Wings embosslit die (punches out 5 butterflies and embosses them all at the same time).

Extra Large Two Step Bird Punch

What a super Play Day we had last Saturday! Really good turnout - about 8 of us! I walked out one time and came back in and looked at the dining room table while everybody was in the midst of working -- meant to go get camera and take a picture, but forgot -- it was REALLY, REALLY COVERED!!! Delightful picture of everyone working hard!

While cruising Splitcoast, I came across this different idea for using the Extra Large Two Step Bird Punch that is in the present Occasions Mini catalog. So that is what I worked on Saturday. For those of you that weren't there, I wanted to share the cards below with you cause I thought the rosebuds were SOOO neat! (You know I love it when someone comes up with "out of the box" - new way to use something ideas.) (For those of you that were there, there is one card at the bottom you haven't seen yet.) I am so LOVIN' this bird punch!

Thought I'd show this card first of the normal use of the Bird Punch and how the bird normally looks. The wing has been punched out of designer paper so that it is different from the bird. Isn't she sweet? (Started to say "he," but decided this was a "she" since she is pink!)



And here is what I was entranced by -- one of the posters - windyredbird -- who posted these on Splitcoast on January 25, 2010, used just the wing part -- 3 of them - and made a rosebud. I loved her creativity! (Maybe because I remember doodling back in high school and drawing rosebuds. But mostly because she did something different and innovative.) The stem part is part of the punch also. I cut off the topmost leaf so that the rosebud could be cradled in the two leaves you see here. Pretty in Pink cardstock, Old Olive cardstock.

Then next I decided to try yellow - Barely Banana cardstock -- since she had also made a yellow one. And because I like yellow.

And then, since it is close to Valentines, decided to try a Real Red cardstock one.

And then I rememberd that Earl's Mom likes white roses. And she likes lavender. And she reads my blog. So Mom - this white rosebud is for you! I've decided I like the tips of the rosebuds close together, like the ones above. The tips of these white ones could be a little bit closer together. Cardstock is Lovely Lilac - or Lavender Lace. I had pulled both out to play with.

Then, another day, windyredbird had this cardinal! (She posted it January 27, 2010).
So I tried that. The tuft on top of his head is the wing, situated just so. The cardinal is sponged some with Basic Black ink around his beak and on his feather. I punched just the beak out of Crushed Curry. I was able to position the punch to just punch his beak, so didn't use a lot of the Crushed Curry.

And -- the birds can be turned around and used either way. Bird positioned on the right is above. Then I turned him over and decided to position him on the left - see below. I added an eye with permanent marker on the pink one at the top and this cardinal below (forgot to add it on the above cardinal). I like the eye added.

Then I also saw a bird punch card using the little Kisses notes that are in the Occasions Mini -- I really like the way they are shaped and how they dress up the card. They come 20 to a packet for $3.95. The bird is punched out of designer series paper (a retired pack). This is still A2 card size. I love the size and shape of the Kisses note cards! They are one layer, so work perfectly for embellishment like on the card below. "Love You" is from the Well Scripted stamp set with the "much" covered up. This card below is red all the way to the edges. All the cards above the colored cardstock is 1/4" less on two sides so that there is 1/8" of the white cardbase on each side of the colored cardstock after it is layered on. Then the white top part is 1/2" off on two sides so that the white top layer is 1/8" smaller on each side than the red.

Windyredbird also decided to try some other birds. She posted cards with a chickadee, robin, goldfinch, and a bluejay. Yes ... I printed them out. I think my next ones to try are the robin and the bluejay. The bluejay is similar to the cardinal in that the wing is used to make the tuft at the top of his head.

Sue Robertson posted a Peace redbird - it had the branch cut out of white cardstock in its mouth. Anfimem also crafted a chickadee.

There were several cards that made the birds into lovebirds -- two birds facing each other and a heart either between, below or above them.

And some used part of the branch to make more tree limbs.

I've just had the best time playing with this bird punch!

Erin's Straw Knitting

I thought this was so neat I just wanted to share it with everybody! I was over at Erin's house one day in early December and went up to see her room and her craft areas. She showed me these scarves she makes -- she designed her own method of knitting - with straws! Yep -- regular drinking straws! I was fascinated. So I got her to show me and took pictures. (And I went right out and bought some yarn!)



Oh -- before I get into that - I was reading Erin's CaringBridge site today -- Erin was at a craft store in Memphis, Tennessee, for a class and her mother went shopping several stores down since it was going to be a couple of hours. When it was about time for Erin to be finished, Ann texted her to see if she was ready. Erin texted back to her -- "No, I just saved someone's life!" Ann wrote on CaringBridge that one of the employees choked on a peppermint. Someone asked if anyone knew the Heimleich manuever and Erin said yes and ran to the lady. After performing the Heimleich four times, the lady coughed and out came the peppermint! We're so proud of you Erin! That lady was blessed that you were there!

Here is one scarf that is getting close to being finished - she is still working on it though - you can see how it is still attached to the straws.



Straw knitting, as explained by Erin, (but in my words, so I hope got it right - I'll get her to proofread before uploading!):


Yarn needs to be thicker than just regular yarn. What she was using was Homespun and it was kinda curly - so that gives it more bulk than just a regular skein on yarn.


1. Decide how many straws you want -- i.e., width of scarf. She recommended about 6 to 10 - have to remember need to be able to hold them in your hand. Cut the flex part off if they are flexible straws.


2. Decide how long you want your scarf to be. Erin usually measures her lengths of yarns by the armspan -- from fingertip to fingertip. Some scarves she does by one armspan; some scarves are 1 1/2 armspans. Cut yarn to length desired - one length for each straw.


3. Then thread one end of one length of yarn up through the straw. You might need a skewer to help poke it up through there. When you have it through - pull about an inch down and scotch tape it to the straw - wind tape around straw. Do this for all straws and lengths of yarn.



4. Go to other end of lenths of yarn and holding the batch together, tie a knot.


5. Then take the end of the yarn from the skein and tie it to one of the straws, which will be the first straw on your left when you line all the straws up in your left hand. It can be kinda toward the middle or bottom.

6. Then line all the straws up in your hand, and with the yarn from the skein, weave it behind the first straw, in front of the second one, then behind the third one, in front of the fourth and so on.

7. When you finish the weave with the last straw on the right, then go back the other way, doing the same thing.

8. See how it builds up a weave? Let it build up on the straws for a little while.

9. Then as you get more and more, push the weaved part off the straws and down the lengths of yarn. As you work more and more, just push the weaved parts off and closer together.

10. Here's a closer up view with a darker yarn she was making a different scarf with. See how the weave is built up on the straws and you can see how it is close together soon after coming off the straws.

And here is one even closer to completion than the one at the top. She is still working on this one too though as the skein of yarn is still attached.

And here is the explanation for the end step - Erin typed it in Comments - but I copied the straw knitting specific info back over here to make it easier for y'all to see.

From Erin:

"Before you take it off the straws, you tie your string in a knot to one of the outside straws like you did in the beginning. Push all the yarn off of the straws. Then, you cut the “guide strings” at the top of the straws between the top of the straw and the tape. Slide the straws off of the loose yarn and tie the ends together! Trim your fringe if you want and VOILA!"

Stampin' Saturday 1.2.10

Happy New Year to you all! I am trying something different with the blog this time. I also scanned the direction sheets that I put on the table at Stamp Club which gives the step by step directions -- so we will see if they can be read.



The first thing I showed was a reminder that we can make a subtle background on a card or card layer -- two ways. One by using Versamark ink and just stamping on the cardstock. I just quickly picked up a stamp from Sincere Salutations and stamped it on Pretty in Pink Cardstock. It is hard to see at first, but as the Versamark Ink dries, it leaves am image that looks like a watermark. Almost the same thing can be done stamping with ink that matches the cardstock color as you can see in the other example. You can see that it is very similar -- just a little bit darker. As Kristina said when I was talking about this -- "it can give your card a more finished look." It just adds a little more personality to what might be a plain cardstock layer.



























The next thing we talked about was the new Clear Mount option for Stampin' Up! stamps beginning with the new Occasions Mini Catalog and the Sale-A-Bration catalog that start January 5. When I talked about them in a recent email, I had not tried them yet. Now I have, and I am loving them! The actual stamp is still the same red rubber that SU! uses -- but you temporarily mount them on clear acrylic blocks. One thing I read was that you can put several different images on one block and stamp them all at the same time -- and line them up the way you want them. And one place I was reading pointed out that you could line all these houses from the Good Neighbors stamp set (from the Sale-A-Bration catalog) up level, whereas with wood mount, you would need to stamp each house separately. And since you are using the clear block, you can see where you are placing your stamp. And the blocks are grooved on all 4 sides so that they feel good in your hand.



Here is a card below that I made using the stamps and block above. I did mount each roof separately on a smaller block and just visually stamped them in Melon Mambo on top of the houses -- you do have to remember there is a little bit of a margin around the image, but I think it turned out fine. And I stamped the trees separately using Green Galore ink. And the cloud I stamped separately also. If you wanted the roof to fit exactly on top of the house rectangle, you could use a Stamp-a-ma-jig. The "welcome" sentiment came from the Short and Sweet stamp set -- the "welcome baby". I just inked the "welcome" part with a Melon Mambo marker.

There are a number of advantages to this Clear Mount option (indicated in the catalog with a square with a C in it -- i.e., like a clear block with a C in the middle. The stamps are also available in the wood mount that we are used to, so we will need to be careful and make sure we pick up the correct item number according to which we want - wood mount or clear mount -- on the stamps where clear mount is available.

There are a number of advantages to this Clear Mount Option --

1. It was so easy -- no having to mount stamps on the blocks. This was the fastest "get a set ready" I have ever done! I just popped the stamps out of the rubber like I usually do, took the paper off the back sticky part, and stuck the stamps in the case. (there is a label that you could put on this sticky part so you can see what your image is when you're looking at your block, but I haven't felt a need to do this yet, so I have left my labels untouched. The labels are sticky also so they stick to the sticky part of the stamp and also stick to the clear mount block or the case.)

2. The cases are close to the size of a CD case. Since the cases aren't very thick, they will take up much, much less storage room!!!!

3. I always scanned the label to put in my other stamp cases in the past. With these new cases, the image of the stamps in the set is on the front and also on the spine of the case. So I don't have to scan a sheet for the case so I know what stamps go in each case.

4. You can see better where you are placing your stamps on your cardstock.

5. The clear mount option for a set is less expensive than the wood mount option.

Stampin' Up! has some new punches in the new Occasions Mini Catalog and Sale-A-Bration catalog too. Below is a red square where I used the Pinking Hearts Border Punch on the right side, and then I punched both top corners with the Pinking Hearts Corner Punch. This was just a quick demo I did to show those new punches - it was not made for a card.

Also in the new Occasions Mini is a heart shaped Embosslit die. It cuts out the scalloped heart shape and embosses dots on it at the same time. And it coordinates with the Full Heart Punch. You can see below where the bottom scalloped hearts were made using the Scallloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit die and the top hearts are made with the Full Heart Punch.

Now -- for the cards we actually made Saturday! Hope you've made it this far in your reading!

This first card was made using the Clear Mount I {Heart} Hearts stamp set abd Real Red ink. One of the stamps in the set coordinates with the the Heart to Heart punch (that has 3 different sized hearts.) I know you can punch out the "friend" heart in this set with the Full Heart Punch - it has a white border around it, but the shape is the same; I think the polka dot heart will coordinate the same way with the Full Heart Punch - the punch is larger so there is a white border, but the shape is the same. The other hearts are different shapes. The "happy valentine's day" sentiment is from A Happy Heart set in the regular catalog. (That is the set that has the heart dandelion that I made a sample card where I embossed the dandelion in white on red cardstock. The white on the red is very striking and a lot of people have indicated they liked it. I CASED it.)

Instead of me "talking" about how to make each card this time, I also scanned the direction sheet. So we will see if those are readable and if you can enlarge them if need be when you look at the blog. (And I'll check that out too.) So if you're not able to enlarge and read the directions and want them, email me and ask for them and I'll send by email attachment. (See end - I was able to click on directions and they popped up bigger and was also able to print one.)

This card was CASED from Stamp Addict 77 who posted on splitcoast on December 3, 2009.

Lines look crooked here - but they are not on actual card. The thickness of the ribbon knot causes that when the card was scanned.

This next card showcased the SU! Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder (Stampin' Up! embossing folders cover a whole A2 card front - they do not leave an unembossed border area).

The white rectangle in the back was embossed with this folder.

Also showcased is the Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit die mentioned at the beginning of this blog. And the Pinking Hearts Border Punch and the Small Heart Punch - both of which are the new punch style. All these items are in the new Occasions Mini and are available until April 30 - although with some of the heart items, they will probably be more popular now before Valentines -- so might want to consider ordering them early in case a backorder situation occurs. The 1" red stitched ribbon is in the regular catalog - I wasn't too sure about 1" wide ribbon, but I really like this ribbon. The sentiment is from Short and Sweet set and was stamped and then punched out with Wide Oval Punch. The card from which I cased this had a the "Love You Much" sentiment from the Well Scripted Set in the Occasions Mini - I didn't have it to use for this card -- but it is on my order this time -- I LOVE the curls on the words!

The layers look a little crooked in this picture -- again that is caused when the card was scanned because of the ribbon knot thickness.

Card CASED from Technique_Freak posted December 4, 2009 on splitcoaststampers.

This card below intrigued me the first time I saw it - to me it is an optical illusion -- the center part around the Thank You looks like a brown square with a vanilla square on top of it and then another vanilla square turned diamong shaped and the sentiment stamped on it. But it's not!
And Wendy W. pointed out that it makes a Star of David.

Card CASED from favre821 and uploaded to splitcoaststampers April 30, 2009 (I think 2o09 - I didn't write that part of the date down.) This card has one change from hers - I used the Elegant Thank You stamp.

The background stamp is French Script, which is retired. The current catalog as En Francais, which is very similar.

She called the Technique Quilting Pattern. Below shows you how it is made:

First a 2 5/8" (actually I went a smidgen over -- so between 2 5/8" and 2 11/16") Very Vanilla square as shown here. (Ignore the yellow background - that was so you could see the square really well. Many times I will use a backing sheet when I am scanning to make things show up better.)

Then I punched out photo corners out of Chocolate Chip using the Photo Corner Punch. There are two sizes of photo corners on this punch -- this card uses only the large one. Kristina said that you can position the punch on the edge of the cardstock and only cut out the large one.




After I glued the 4 large photo corners on each corner of the Very Vanilla square I had that part and then just stamped the Elegant Thank You sentiment in the middle - it fits perfectly and the photo corners being there don't affect the stamping. I'm really liking that Elegant Thank You. I've seen it used where the sentiment was stamped and then punched out with the Scalloped Square Punch -- diamond shaped orientation.

Here's the directions for the Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla card above.

And -- the BASIC POP UP CARD. I plan for us to do some different pop up cards in the future, so thought I'd start with this basic one.

This is just the front of the card which I had embossed with the Manhattan Flower embossing folder. It could use something else on the front, but I was more focused on the inside.

The white part is cut smaller -- 4" wide -- to fit inside as you will see further down. On the fold, mark the center at 2" and then make bigger cutting indicator marks 1/4" on either side (i.e., at 1 3/4" and 2 1/4") and then I came down about 1/2" and made two dots. Then you cut down to the dots.

Then you open up and push the tab inside - you made need to help with where it needs to fold so that you end up with a step. See directions and picture below. I had done a google search on pop up card and some directions indicated to make a score line where it needs to bend.
Beate Johns has a tutorial on her blog for this card.

Then we stamped the rose from Fifth Avenue Floral in Bermuda Bay ink to match the BB cardstock, cut it out, and adhered it to the front of the tab.

This pop up concept could be varied some -- you could pop up more than one item, and you could make different tabs different lengths so that the pop ups would be staggered when you opened the card. I thought it might be interesting to try the pop up idea with the Good Neighbors set and have the houses and trees on different length tabs so the trees might be closer up and the houses further back or vice versa.

Card CASED from hudsonhannah on splitcoast - card was uploaded June 9,2009.

Erin stamped her sentiment on the top instead of the bottom, leaving more room on the bottom to write a note and sign her name, and everybody liked that idea.

So that's what we did Saturday!

I may upload some other cards a little later - sample Valentine ones I had on display.

Ok -- now to go upload and see if you will be able to look at the scanned directions. I am wondering if you will be able to click on the picture and enlarge it.

I checked it out -- YES! You can click on the picture of the directions and it will pop up big so that you can read it. I also told it to Print on one of them and it printed out the directions just fine. (If you try this, experiment with one first like I did to make sure it will just print out that picture and that it will fit it all on one sheet - all these directions this time are on one page.

Happy stampin',

Helen

Sock Bouquet

This is the sock bouquet Candi gave me for my birthday. Just wanted to share with you this creative idea for presenting a present of socks! I thought it was pretty neat.

I now have lots of coral, purple/lavender, and white socks! This is 10 pairs of socks, each separate sock made into a rose bud.