The Neverending Story (of a room organization without a plan)

August 21st - Weary Wednesday

I don't know about you, but I used to make plans.

Whenever we would move into another house or if I planned to change around one of my rooms, I would haul out my graph paper, draw out the room(s) to scale, measure out all the pieces of furniture that would go into the room(s) to scale, and then arrange my room(s) on paper.  It was anal, yes.  But it did not result in a broken back or a broken spirit.  Is my back truly broken?  Probably not, although there are muscles and ligaments in it that are insisting they will never function normally again.  Is my spirit broken?  Ask me after I have another cup of coffee.

This time I'm taking it straight from the bag...

Yeah, that hit the spot.  No, this room has not yet broken my spirit.  I finished my coffee and moved everything around again.  When I didn't like the way things "felt" the way I had moved the furniture around and I knew it was disorienting, I realized it wouldn't work.  Let me just say this:  I am really, really getting tired of moving extremely heavy pieces of furniture back and forth around my room.  I'd rather be creating.

This is what I began with early this morning.

Note how each side is "stuffed" into the corner.  This is the layout I woke up to.

And after feeling totally disoriented typing on my laptop and looking around the room, I knew I wouldn't be able to live with this layout.  If I had stuck to my former graph paper ways, this would never have happened.

So, after some very strong coffee and a whole lot of ugly language and some screaming muscles, I wound up with this layout.

Note how the table and the desk are both up against the window wall.
Sad to say, the two towers from Ikea are back to being side-by-side
 which is what I began with yesterday.

Okay, after taking this layout for a spin I can honestly say it doesn't make me feel claustrophobic or disoriented.  So I can begin the chore of clearing up.

August 22nd - Clean-Up Thursday

As I was beginning this ordeal, someone told me "Small bites, Heidi, small bites."  If I could have done this over the course of a few weeks it would have been easier.  Sad to say, I could have started earlier, but my natural-born procrastination got in the way and, of course, I'm working to beat a deadline now.  Why a deadline?  Well, Friday, Saturday and Monday will be my Open Houses.  Three of them?  You know what summer is like--it's hard when dates don't work so this way I can accommodate more people on days that they can make it to my house.  In theory, this is a great idea.  With the upheaval in my Craft Room where all the Open House "magic" happens, I am definitely becoming a tad stressed out.  

Bottom line:  this is the way the layout will remain because I have to begin getting ready.  There are samples to make, make-n-takes to prepare, and countless little things left to do.

As I move into the afternoon, this is what the room looks like.  

Clutter, yes.  But I have managed to give myself more room on each side of the room by having the brown table and my desk at the end of the room, by the window.  Today's job is to tidy up, move the table that you can just see a piece of into the centre of the room, and get prepared for my first Open House.  Tomorrow is going to come quickly.  Luckily no-one will arrive before 5:00 p.m.

Stay tuned for pictures of the finished result.

P.S. Hurrah for cork floors.  All this moving around of furniture and not a mark to show for it.

The Neverending Story (of my continuing re-organization)

Optimism:  to expect the most favourable outcome.
Reality:  the way life actually happens.

I optimistically expected that I would get my room re-organized in one long, back-breaking day.  Then reality reared its ugly head, snorted at my expectations, and I had to accept the fact that, unless I was going to add another 24 or more hours to an already long day, my room would be done when it was done.

Well, day one seemed neverending.  I achieved a lot of mess, a back that insists it's broken, and had the opportunity to clean under areas that haven't seen the light of day for a while.  So far this re-organization isn't much fun.

This is the way my room looked when I had a skinny path around the table, with everything pulled towards the door, so that I could somehow manage to move one table (not seen) over to the other wall and move the long desk that was on that wall over to the empty spot you see in the corner of the room.  That hadn't been in the original plan but I didn't like the way the two towers worked beside each other with the brown table in the corner and so a new plan was born.  I should have known that an exhausted brain couldn't make perfect plans, but my optimism assured me that the new layout would be perfect.

This is the way my room looks at the start of Day 2 (which I am truly hoping and praying is the last full day I'll have to devote to this job).

Yes, I managed to get the long, skinny desk into the corner as planned.  I like the towers placed where they are.  You can't see it with all the excess "stuff" on it, but the brown table is over in the other corner across from the desk.  As I look around the room I am at a loss as to how I suddenly wound up with so many piles and no work surfaces.  That's a puzzle I'm hoping to solve today.

Stay tuned for the next episode of the "Organization from Hell".

The Neverending Story (of Organization)

Never, never, never ending!  That's what it's like when you're trying to get organized.  Little by little I'm discovering what works and what I have to replace.  Yes, replace!  Some storage solutions that worked when I was just playing around with my crafting simply are not working now that I have other people come into my space and I have rapidly increased the volume of products with which I work.  And if there is one top thing that I have learned since I began as an Independent Demonstrator for Stampin' Up!, it's that a lack of organization really cuts into my crafting time.  In other words I'm sick and tired of hunting for things!

So I bought another drawer-tower from Ikea.  The first one did wonders for my peace of mind.  You see it replaced one of those plastic-rainbow-drawers-in-a-rickety-metal-tower monsters.  Why monster?  Well, put a couple of heavy items in a drawer and it comes off its slide.  I grew very, very tired of fumbling around, battling with the skewed drawers in order to reach something I needed immediately.  I don't think it's healthy to build up so much rage against an inanimate object, even if I'm certain it was manufactured by demons.

The tower of drawers from Ikea is such a delight.  As soon as I filled the nine drawers, I knew I had to get a second one in order to finish my organization of all those little items that build up and take up room everywhere.  Today I finished assembling it and now the big job begins:  moving everything in my room in order to put it into its new home.  There are a number of items that will be making their way out of the room permanently as well.  Some furniture shifting---you get the drill.  It's going to be a long, tedious, oh-my-back-is-breaking type of day.  The gold ring for which I'm reaching is an organized room.

Shakespeare did "scary" well.

Remember when the witches on MacBeth chanted:

                                         Eye of newt, toe of frog,
                                                wool of bat, tongue of dog...
                                         For a charm of powerful trouble
                                                like a hell-broth
                                         Boil and bubble.

Only Shakespeare could write an incantation so powerful that it remains the focus of endless discussions by scholars around the world.  And now it is part of the Stampin' Up! lineup of stamps for Hallowe'en.  Changing only two of the words, hell-broth, to Witch's Brew, Stampin' Up! embellished the incantation with symbols, skulls and bats to provide a wonderful border to the famous words.

I love the stamp set.  I also love those little pillow boxes as you've surely gathered from my posts.  Well, how about combining two things that I love for a truly amazing Hallowe'en gift box?

Using the printed sheet from the Witch's Brew Designer Paper, I cut the pillow box and assembled it.  I love mixing deep purple and green together for Hallowe'en.  This incantation, especially, seemed to cry out for the colours because you can just about imagine the green froth on top of a deep purple liquid.  I stamped the incantation on Wild Wasabi using black ink and cut it out using the matching framelit from my Apothecary Accents collection.  Then I mounted that on a piece of Elegant Eggplant which I had cut with one of my Oval Framelits.

To finish the little box off, I added the Hallowe'en tag from the brand new Tags 4 You stamp set, using the co-ordinating punch to cut it out.  I love the way the black ink "pops" on the Pumpkin Pie paper, don't you?

 This whole project only took me about twenty minutes from beginning to end.  Wouldn't it make a wonderful Hallowe'en gift for the teacher?

Orchids?

I love the look of orchids.  One of my favourite orchids is the Phalaenopsis, more commonly known as the Moth Orchid.  They say it's the easiest to grow but you wouldn't have known that with the first couple that I had.  I was so worried about their well-being that I loved them to death.

I almost gave up then but there is a stubborn streak in me that refused.  So I bought another one and my daughter gave me one and this time I went to Chapter's and found a good, simple book on orchids.  The title attracted me:  Easy Orchids: The Fail-safe Guide to Growing Orchids Indoors by Liz Johnson.  "Fail-safe" sounded perfect although I did pause for a moment or two at the "Indoors".  Up here in the middle of Alberta where we're lucky if we get five months that don't have frost overnight (or, worse still, temperatures all the way down to minus 40) I wondered whether anyone could ever have tried growing an orchid anywhere but indoors.

One of the first things I read was that most people kill their orchids by over-watering.  Another no-no was putting an orchid right in a window where the direct sun could scorch the leaves.  I was getting a very strong feeling that these "orchid sins" had probably been suffered by my own poor departed plants.

Well, I read, I followed instructions, I bought another couple of orchids, I read more.  Strangely enough all my orchids were surviving.  And not only were they surviving, they were having babies, or as the Hawaiians would say "keikis".  And those keikis, once they developed sufficient air-roots were put into their own pots and they, in turn, survived.  To make a long story much shorter, I am now up to 18 orchids with 4 more keikis on their way.

That's a lot of orchids!  I'm going to have to begin to find good homes for a few because I'm running out of ideal spots for them.  There are, after all, only so many spots in a house where one can provide good but indirect light without drafts.  I don't have that large a house.

You see I don't only have orchids in my home.  I have a lot of other plants, as well.  I counted one day as I was watering them all (a chore that takes more and more time as my plant population grows) and discovered that I have a total of 53 plants.  That discovery came as quite a shock to me.  Until I knew the actual number, I hadn't really admitted to myself that I had an unusual number of plants.

But they're all so pretty, aren't they?  The colours are amazing.  And they're re-blooming for me, too, which simply delights me.

I have a long, built-in shelf in my craft room that holds more than half my orchids.  Seeing them as I'm creating frequently leads me to colour choices I might not otherwise have tried.

And so I suppose I can call them my inspiration.  Bottom line, however, they simply bring me pleasure now that I've finally figured out how not to kill them with too much care.

Doing it your way! (I've just done it my way.)

Have you ever been frustrated that you can't find the stamp that you've imagined in your head?  You know what I mean.  You're making a project.  You have a specific look and design in mind.  Everything is falling into place.  And then you hit a snag.  That's right!  You can't find the stamp that says exactly what you want---or that has exactly the image you know would be perfect.  Well, that doesn't have to be a problem any longer.  You can actually buy a kit and make that stamp yourself.  Whoa!  That doesn't work for you because you have ten thumbs and are simply not an artist?  What about all those great cards, scrapbook pages and projects you've made?  Of course you can do it.  And if you can't draw it, the internet offers all sorts of designs free of charge.

So you've heard all this before in this blog post, right?  Yes, I've told you about the kit and refill already but that was before I had a chance to play with it myself.  To recap, this is what the kit looks like once you open it:

First of all, I love those carving tools!  They fit into your hand so nicely that it feels very comfortable carving into the rubber.  At first I have to admit it is a bit daunting to have blank rubber in front of you while you're holding a carving tool.  The rubber is so perfect---not a mark on it.  I was very hesitant in putting that first mark on it.  But once I did, it began feeling quite natural and good to be carving into it.  

Did I use one of the designs that are provided?  No, I had my own little cartoon and then free-handed the script.  It's quite obvious that I'm a novice when you look at the results, but I still had fun doing it and my next stamp will be much better.  Yes, I'm already thinking in terms of "next" instead of, "well, done that and I'm over it".  Actually, I'm quite excited about doing another stamp.  Oh my goodness!  Is this going to become as addictive as buying stamps has been?

Now that I've gone through the agony of carving the stamp, I should show you what I made, right?  Always taking the more difficult route, I carved my first stamp to fit into one of the brand new Chalk Talk framelits.  Yeah, I know, why not make it harder for myself, right?

Anyway, the little guy's name is Mugsy.  He's a throwback to a mascot I designed for my high school library when I belonged to the Library Club.  I just had to resurrect him.  I used Chocolate Chip for my stamping ink, Chocolate Chip for my base cardstock, and added some Sahara Sand for his face and Blushing Bride for his ears.  His eyes are Summer Starfruit as  is the embossed cardstock behind the image.  It's a bit crude, but I love it.

It's just a little 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" card, but I love it!  Now---don't you want to make a stamp?

The Wacky Watercooler New Catalog(ue) Blog Hop

How exciting!  Our very first blog hop!  It's fun chatting around the virtual watercooler on the Stampin' Connection, but expanding into a blog hop is an incredible feeling.  By now you will have been to the very talented Terri Antoniw's blog.  She's a tough act to follow, but I'll  do my best.

This blog hop is all about the new Annual Catalogue which was released on June 1st, 2013.  It's a fantastic catalogue, full of great new products, a surprising number of discounted bundles and, of course, new colours, papers and other surprises.  I love this catalogue!

My first project is a card that showcases the Six-Sided Sampler stamp set, available in wood or clear.  Hexagons are such fun to play with and this is certainly a playful card.  I love that Stampin' Up! bundled the stamp set with the brand new Hexagon Punch.  Saving 15% by getting the two together in either wood or clear is a sweet deal.  I wanted to use primarily warm colours for this card and so I used a base of the new In-Color, Baked Brown Sugar, and found a yellow and white pattern in the Quatrefancy Specialty Designer Paper.  To those colours I added my old friend and upgraded-from-retired-In-Color-to-permanent Subtle Color, Calypso Coral.

I used the Baked Brown Sugar ink and the Calypso Coral ink to stamp several of the patterns from the Six-Sided Sampler stamp set.  Then I layered the piece of Specialty Designer Paper onto a piece of Calypso Coral cardstock and then adhered the punched out hexagons onto that.  I liked the effect but decided to give it a real quilted look by running it through my Big Shot using the Square Lattice embossing folder.  Then I adhered it to my Baked Brown Sugar base using Stampin' Dimensionals.

To finish it off, I punched a 3/4" circle out of a piece of Champagne Glimmer Paper and then centred the circle in my Hexagon Punch and punched that out.  That circle hole allowed me to arrange my banner greeting, which I stamped in Baked Brown Sugar ink onto a piece of Daffodil Delight cardstock, through the hexagon shape.  I adhered those  with Stampin' Dimensionals as well and then, just for the fun of it, added three Champagne Glimmer rings which I punched out using my 1/2" circle punch and 3/4" circle punch.

One of the products which jumped out at me when I went through the catalogue was the new Modern Medley Designer Series Paper.  The colours are very simple: Very Vanilla and Basic Black.  Simple, yes; boring, no.

My next project, therefore, is a masculine card that not only highlights the Modern Medley DSP, but also puts the spotlight on that wonderful new stamp set, Wetlands, clear or wood mount.   For this card I used the Naturals Ivory cardstock as my base and layered it with Basic Black and  the Modern Medley DSP.  I think the flying birds printed on the Designer Paper makes the perfect background for the Canada Goose and rushes.  It's hard to tell from the photo, but I've heat embossed the goose and "Thinking of You" in black.  That helps it to "pop" behind the Window Sheet onto which I stamped the rushes using Black StazOn ink.

My final project also uses the Modern Medley DSP but aside from that is completely different.  This time I made an elegant Pillow Box using a pattern from Stampin' Up!'s famous Pattern Library.  It was a hard choice with so many striking designs to choose from, but I finally settled on the baroque design with the faint stripes in the background.  By adding Vellum flowers using that wonderful bundle: the Flower Shop stamp set (wood or clear) and the matching Pansy Punch as well as some Vellum leaves cut with the Secret Garden framelit, I added a bit of whimsy to the black girdle which I adhered around the centre of the Pillow Box.  A few touches of gold heat embossing on the flower and in the sentiment, a little black Simply Pressed clay flower, and it was done.  If you want to try your hand at making one of these pillow boxes, I have provided the template here for you to print out and use.

Of course if you really like the Flower Shop stamp set and matching Pansy Punch, your best buy is to go for the bundle in wood or clear, which saves you 15%.  Just look at the flower close up---this is a wonderful bundle to own and use.

Well, that's about it.  I hope you've enjoyed my projects as much as I enjoyed making them.  Your next stop on this Blog Hop tour  is the terrific stamper, Deborah Smart.  I'm sure you'll love seeing her creations.

Terri's Blog

Deborah's Blog

Blog Hop Home Site

Small Sweet Notes---Fun to make and receive!

The majority of cards that I make are 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  They may be conventional folds, fancy folds, or even hybrid cards, but usually I use that sizing for my cards.  Occasionally I make larger cards, especially for my WOW classes or special events.  It occurred to me that I seldom make smaller cards and yet a nice small note is just perfect to enclose in a package to someone or to slip in among the flowers in a bouquet.  And so, of course, I had to make one.

This card uses one of my new favourites from the 2013/14 Annual Catalogue, the Backyard Basics bundle (available in wood or clear).  I love that the bundled stamp set and matching framelits give you a 15% dfiscount!  For this card I used the tulip stamp from the set and stamped it using Stazon black ink on Whisper White cardstock three times.  After colouring the tulips with my Stampin' Write markers, I used the tulip framelit and my Big Shot to cut them out.   Then I used the third smallest of the Window Frames Collection framelits to cut out a piece of Whisper White cardstock and then put the window shape through the Big Shot using the brand new, beautiful Pretty Print embossing folder that will be available in the Holiday Catalogue beginning August 1st.  (I can see myself using that embossing folder a lot in the coming months!)

I cut a piece of 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" Smoky Slate cardstock (love that new colour) and embossed it using the Perfect Polka Dots folder.  Then I adhered the piece to my base cardstock of Naturals White using the SNAIL adhesive.  I also used the SNAIL to adhere the window shape, centred on the Smoky Slate.

For the tulips, first I took a 4" piece of Whisper White Stitched Grosgrain ribbon and adhered it with one Glue Dot near the bottom, inside the Whisper White window shape.  Then I adhered my first tulip directly to the window shape at an angle and the second tulip was also adhered at an angle but the head of the tulip was raised using a Dimensional.   The third tulip was centred and mounted on strips of Dimensionals all the way down from the head to its stem.  Then I tied the ribbon in a little knot to make it appear as if the bouquet was tied together.

Really, this was such a simple card, despite the lengthy directions.  It was such fun to make and I'm definitely going to make more of this size.  Sometimes small can be every bit as special as large.

Oh---just a "heads up".  I am participating in a Blog Hop which will begin Thursday, July 25th at 7 p.m. and continue until July 28th.  I hope you'll enjoy visiting my blog as well as all the other blogs that will be a part of this "hop".

Meeting the Challenge

I've never entered a card-making challenge before.  Today I joined one---it's a colour challenge and I'm excited about it.  How it works is that the person in charge presents three colours and a time limit during which those three colours become the main focus of a card.  The three colours chosen were:

The good thing is that I like the three colours.  They're fresh and happy looking and immediately reminded me of a flower garden (or in this case, flower shop).  What better way to show off the colours than to make them into beautiful flowers using the Flower Shop stamp set and the matching Pansy Punch?

You can buy the Flower Shop stamp set alone or as a bundle with the Pansy Punch.   I think it makes a lot more sense to get the bundle because that way one can save 15%, and who doesn't like to save money?

I decided to use the Coastal Cabana cardstock as my base.  Then I cut a smaller piece of Whisper White and stamped the "Love You" from the Seasonal Sayings stamp set towards the right lower part of the paper using Coastal Cabana ink.  I didn't want to leave the little heart in the stamped image that colour so I took a bit of Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock and punched out the heart using my Owl Builder punch.

After that I stamped a flower onto the Whisper White using Crisp Cantaloupe ink and then another two using Wisteria Wonder ink.  I knew I couldn't leave it like that because I wanted some dimension to the card.  So I took another piece of Whisper White cardstock and stamped another three flowers using Crisp Cantaloupe ink and another two using the Wisteria Wonder.  If you're keeping count that comes to a total of eight flowers.  Those last five that I stamped on a separate piece of the Whisper White were cut out using the handy Pansy punch.  I scattered those across the card using dimensionals.

Not bad but it still needed something.  So I used the tiny flower punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack and punched out eight tiny Coastal Cabana flowers.  I adhered those to the centres of the flowers using dimensionals.  To top it all off I took out my Rhinestones and went to town adding them to the centres of the flowers and the heart and then to two of the corners.

Now there's a card that's up to a challenge!  Love the colours!  Love the happiness of the whole design.  What do you think?

Convention surprises! Making the 25th extra-special!

Well, Convention is over.  The big, long-awaited 25th Stampin' Up! Convention has come with a bang and is leaving its mark on everything to do with Stampin' Up!  Yes, we just had a brand new Annual Catalogue.  Well, suddenly there are new items that no-one could have anticipated and they were all introduced at the Convention.

Beginning immediately, we are offering a new way to look at stamping.  Instead of having to find a stamp to say or show what is in your mind, now you can make your own stamp.  It's a whole new concept that we're calling the Undefined Stamp Carving Kit.  The kit contains everything that you require to make your very own wood-mount stamp.  Or, if you prefer clear-mount, there are sheets of clear-mount cling foam available for purchase (Item #124236---$13.50).  How cool is that?  There are even some sample images if your imagination has suddenly gone blank.  And it's not only about making your own gorgeous stamp!  Can't you imagine making a stamp out of your child's written name or one of his/her drawings?  There is no limit as to what you could do.  And if you just can't get enough of making your own stamps, there is a refill kit available as well (Item #134808---$12.95).

There is even a great video on You-Tube that shows you how to carve your stamp and mount it which you can access by clicking HERE.  

If you thought making an orginal hand-made card was great, just think what a terrific "look what I made!" moment you'll experience when you make your next card using your very own hand-made stamp.

There are some more surprises, too, but since they won't be available until August 1st, we'll talk about those another time.

Walk In the Wild

Those of you that know me, also know how much I love photography.  I love taking photos in the wild.  How appropriate, therefore, is this stamp set which Stampin' Up! just introduced in the new Annual Catalogue?  Don't you just love the moose in it?
Wood 130354, Clear 130357

I've always wanted to take a photo of a bull moose in full rack.  So far I've been lucky enough to have taken photos of several cow moose and some half-grown calves.  Someday---this is on my bucket list.

In the meantime it's easy to indulge myself by using this beautifully detailed stamp set for some of my masculine cards.  The one I've made today is very neutral in tone.  I wanted the main focus to be on the moose rather than the colouring or anything else in the card.  Of course I had to use the wood embossing folder after stamping my background with some of the trees from the Lovely as a Tree stamp set.  It just added the right amount of texture, didn't it?

I also got to play with some other items from the new Annual Catalogue: the Magnetic Platform and the Squares Framelits.  All I can say is that using the framelits has never been easier.  No more taping or any other fussing around.  All I do is centre the framelit, hear the metallic "snap" of the magnet grabbing the framelit, and roll it through the Big Shot.  The magnets are so strong that the framelit never moves.  This is perfect and fool-proof.  Now I'm looking for excuses to use my framelits.

The colours in the card are Whisper White, Early Espresso, Sahara Sand and Naturals White.  I love the way they work together, don't you?

Stamping a Scrapbook Page!

I had some outdoor photos that I wanted to scrapbook and couldn't find any Designer Paper that "spoke" to me.  You know what that can be like.  Nothing feels quite like the page you want to make.  Well, at that point, I decided to stamp my own background for the scrapbook page.

First things first, I chose a sheet of the 12" x 12" Crumb Cake cardstock.  The great thing about this colour is that it is light enough to stamp on and neutral enough not to interfere with the colours in the photos.  To give the page a bit more punch, I used a damp sponge rubbed slightly over my ink pad to add some subtle colour to the bottom and top of the sheet.  At the top I used Marina Mist and at the bottom I used Pear Pizzazz.  It's a very subtle effect, but I wanted to get away from simply stamping on the plain Crumb Cake.

Once that dried, I chose that wonderful new stamp set, Wetlands, to stamp the rushes, the geese and the marsh birds across the bottom of the page.  Then I used my old friend, Lovely As A Tree, to stamp some trees across the top of the page.  For all this stamping, I used the new Baked Brown Sugar ink.  Now I was ready to mount my photos.

For the photos I used some of the new Squares Framelits to crop them and also to cut the mats onto which they would be mounted.  For those mats I used Always Artichoke, Baked Brown Sugar, Naturals Ivory and Chocolate Chip.  As you can see, two of those shapes aren't squares.  I also used my Ovals Framelits as well as one of the shapes from the Apothecary Accents Framelits.

To add a bit of interest, I adhered a piece of the Natural Trim Ribbon in a lazy, meandering diagonal and stamped it using my Fabulous Phrases stamp set and Crumb Cake ink.  Once everything was mounted on the page, I stamped a few sentiments (sorry, a couple are retired but were perfect for my page).

To finish off the page, I added a bit of white on the Canada Geese using my Aqua Painter and white Craft Ink and also put a tiny bit of Always Artichoke on the tips of the fir trees using my Stampin' Marker.

Hurrah! The New Stampin' Markers are now available for single purchase!

What terrific news!  Now, instead of buying a set of all ten of the new Stampin' Markers, we will be able to order the colours singly.  It's great to get only those that we actually need or want, isn't it?  Thank you, Stampin' Up! for making them available this way.

Hexagonals rock!

I love the Honeycomb embossing folder.  I love the new Hexagon Punch.  Put the two together and they rock, big-time.  I had to make a get-well card and, using the embossing folder and punch together, made a quick and easy card that I'm hoping will instantly lift the spirits of my friend.

The colours I decided to use were white, black and red.  I love those colours together and, for this design, really helped make everything "pop".  My base was the Naturals White cardstock.  Then I cut a 4"x5 1/4" piece of the Real Red Polka Dot Parade designer paper and a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of Basic Black cardstock which I embossed using my Honeycomb embossing folder.  I also punched out a piece of the same Polka Dot Parade designer paper using my Hexagon punch.  Finally, I snipped a 1" square of the Creped Filter Paper.

Taking my hexagon piece of Polka Dot Parade, I used my Basic Black Stampin' Marker to draw a line halfway up the centre.  Then I drew a line from the edge on both sides to meet that centre.  I also cut a small hole in the top of the hexagon shape and pulled the folded up piece of Creped Filter Paper through and attached it at the back with a glue dot.  You can see what I'm talking about in the following picture.  You know what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words---and also shows off exactly what I did.

I propped that up on dimensionals on my embossed Basic Black layer.

Then I stamped the Get Well sentiment from the new Tag It stamp set on Whisper White cardstock, using Basic Black ink.  I cut that out using the matching framelit from the Chalk Talk framelit set.  I used the next size up framelit from that set to cut a plain piece of Real Red cardstock to back the sentiment.

I propped the sentiment up on dimensionals as well.  And the card was finished---as simple as that.  But I love the way the colours "pop", don't you?

At this point I have to say that using my new magnetic platform made cutting the sentiment out with my framelit so easy that I felt like singing.  No more post-it notes or tape to hold my framelits down ever again!

Another swap? Are you kidding me?

Remember me?  The one who swore off all swaps until the end of time?  Well, the end of time certainly came a lot faster than I anticipated because suddenly I've agreed to be part of another swap.  This is a perfect time to say Oy vey!

A friend of mine is having a swap using the brand new stamp sets that are being released each month this year in celebration of Stampin' Up!'s 25th Anniversary.  The one I chose to do is the set released for May:  Best of Brides and Babies (item #133482).  So far it's probably my favourite set with the Best of Butterflies being a close second.  You can tell from the name of the stamp set that I would be having a choice of making a baby card or a wedding card, right?  That was a really difficult decision.  The stamps for each were so appealing.  After changing my mind several times, I finally chose to do a wedding card.

You can see from the images in the stamp set that any of those stamps would be fun to use.  For my wedding card I decided to use the Bride and Groom stamp as well as the Bells stamp.  

The designing process can be really difficult insofar as there are so many ways one can use the stamps and also so many colours one can use and so many ways one can use the products. So I decided that I would use the Vellum Cardstock but first emboss it with my Framed Tulips embossing folder.  I love the way vellum turns opaque and white wherever it is embossed.  The pattern of the Framed Tulips embossing folder gave the embossed edges a very lacy look.  Using my StazOn, I stamped the bride and groom towards the lower left of the embossed vellum and then on the reverse side of the vellum, I used my Pacific Point Stampin' Marker to colour in the bouquet and the flower in the bride's hair.

I also chose the Pacific Point as my base cardstock to compliment the colour of the flowers.  In order to emphasize the lacy look of the embossed vellum and also to make the stamped image stand out, I cut a slightly smaller piece of Whisper White to mount on the base cardstock first and then I centred the vellum over that.  You can really see the details in this picture.

Since the image of the bride and groom isn't very large, that left an awful lot of plain white on the card.  To balance the stamped bride and groom, therefore, I chose to put the scalloped heart from the Hearts a Flutter stamp set towards the top right corner of the card on a separate piece of Whisper White cardstock.  I stamped the heart using the new Smoky Slate ink.  After using my framelit to cut the heart out, I used VersaMark to stamp the bells onto the heart and then used silver embossing powder to heat emboss them.  I loved the finished result.

I adhered the heart to the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.  And that, I decided, would be enough.  The finished card looked elegant and simple.

And that is the card everyone in the swap will receive.  

Soho Subway Designer Paper, oh yeah!

I ordered the Soho Subway Designer Series Paper during the pre-order period that Demonstrators are given prior to a new catalogue becoming "live".  We only have a short list of products from which we can choose and, of the three Designer Papers offered, one of the two I chose was Soho Subway.  I really love the colours in the paper.  Early Espresso has always been one of my go-to colours as has Very Vanilla.  Island Indigo is such a deep and rich colour while Summer Starfruit, a colour I barely tolerated when it first came out, has become another go-to colour during this past year.  The new 2013-15 In-Color, Crisp Cantaloupe, worked well with each of the other colours.  The one fear I had was that the large letters or numbers on a few of the sheets of the Designer Paper might be overwhelming when used in a card.

Today I took the plunge and decided to use a piece of the Designer Paper that had "NEW YORK" written boldly across it and that featured all of the five colours.  No, there isn't any Island Indigo in the actual piece that spells out "NEW YORK", but the two skyscrapers beside it are actually the reverse side of the sheet and the graph squares (or windows, as I chose to designate them to be) are actually drawn in Island Indigo.

There is a lot going on in the card, some of which you only notice after you've looked at it more closely.  The layer I've put directly onto the base cardstock of Crisp Cantaloupe, is made up of a piece of Summer Starfruit and Early Espresso adhered together.  I took two strips of the graphed side of the Designer Paper, each a different width and length, and adhered them to that layer, beginning right at the join-line.  Then I put that pieced-together layer through the Big Shot using my Square Lattice embossing folder.  The embossing made it appear as if it was one layer of cardstock.  

Before I adhered that layer to the base cardstock, I tore the top right hand corner away, making sure I didn't damage my skyscrapers.  Once I had adhered the layer to the base cardstock, I carefully tore the corner off the base to compliment the torn corner of the layer.  Then I adhered the piece of Designer Paper with the "NEW YORK" parallel to the skyscrapers, but extending into the Early Espresso section of the layer.  At this point the card was looking very stark.  I knew I had to add some different textures and shapes to break up the sharp angles.

I took a piece of the 7/8" Cotton Ribbon and frayed about 3/4" on each end.  Then I used my Stampin' Spritzer which contained a mix of Rubbing Alcohol and Summer Starfruit re-inker to spray both sides of the ribbon, making sure that the frayed ends also got well-spritzed with the solution.  While that was drying, I took two of the medium sized Simply Pressed Clay buttons and pushed each one into my Early Espresso ink pad, making sure that I got some ink onto the sides as well.  The result was a sort of "ringed" effect since the deeper grooves of the button remained the white of the clay.  That didn't last long since I immediately took them and spritzed them with the same Summer Starfruit solution with which I had spritzed the ribbon.

While the embellishments were drying, I took a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and prepared to stamp my sentiment.  I had decided to use the "make a wish come true" sentiment from the Make a Wish stamp set.  I thought it was appropriate since I would love to go to New York and so would my daughter.  First I inked the stamp up with my new Crisp Cantaloupe ink pad.  Then I used my Blender Pen to remove the ink from "make a" and "come true" and also from the "I" in "WISH".  Having de-inked those portions of the stamp, I proceeded to ink them up using my Stampin' Markers.  I used the Early Espresso marker for the "make a" and the "come true" and then used my Summer Starfruit for the "I" in "WISH".  Didn't the ink begin to dry on my stamp?  Yes, it did.  No worries, however, since a simple series of "huffs" (as if you're steaming up your window in the winter) added enough moisture to reactivate my ink.  You can see from the image that all the colours stamped equally well.

Yes, my sentiment does look a bit grubby, doesn't it?  Well, it just looked too sterile compared to the rest of the card so I took one of my small acrylic blocks and, without a stamp or anything else on it, tapped it onto my Baked Brown Sugar ink pad, stamped it off onto my working paper, and then "stamped" it onto the sentiment.  The ink had separated into droplets and I love the final effect.  I had used a sponge to "age" the edges of the base cardstock as well as the torn corner and now I dampened the sponge slightly and sponged the edges of the sentiment.  It gives a totally different look than a dry sponge does but, done sparingly, is very effective.

I adhered the ribbon using some Snail adhesive and then adhered the sentiment using Stampin' Dimensionals. To finish it off I used glue dots to adhere the buttons and then "filled" the centres of the buttons with the Large Rhinestone Basic Jewels, using tiny pieces of the Stampin' Dimensionals.

There you have it.  The large letters worked perfectly as did the graph side of the Designer Paper.  I enjoyed the challenge and really love the resulting card.

Surrounded by Pillow Boxes! Such fun!

There are a lot of really great samples in our brand new catalogue.  You've probably seen the cute pillow box on page 122 and wondered how it was made, considering that Stampin' Up! retired their little Pillow Box Bigz die over a year ago.  The answer is a template.  Isn't that terrific?  A template just costs the paper you print it on and can be resized to fit your needs.  It truly is the best of both worlds.

Using the pillow box template, I had to try my hand at a couple of pillow boxes (are you surprised?).  My first one highlighted that favourite stamp of mine, the Swallowtail (item #131943).  That giant butterfly has helped me create so many wonderful items!  I'm still madly in love with it.

So, I made a sandwich (no, not the edible type).  At the bottom I placed my Stampin' Pierce Mat (item #126199).  Then came my Designer Paper (or cardstock).  Next came my template and I was good to go.  Using my Simply Scored Stylus (item #125624), I firmly traced all the lines of the template (for the straight lines, I depended on a ruler).  Once traced, the lines were nicely visible on my Designer Paper and I was ready to begin cutting the solid lines of my template using my Paper Snips (item #103579).  When that was done, I simply folded along all the broken lines of my template and was ready to put it together using some Sticky Strip (item #104294) along the side flap.  Before I did that, however, I used my 1" Circle Punch (item #119868) to cut a partial circle into one of the rounded pieces on each end of the box.

After that, it's a matter of decorating the pillow box.  Since it's a nice, generous size, the Swallowtail stamp fit pretty well at a slight angle.  I decided to use the Embossing Resist Technique and therefore stamped it using my VersaMark (item #102283) and Clear Embossing Powder (item #109130).  Once that was set using my Heat Tool (item #129053), I let it cool down completely and then pulled out a Sponge Dauber (item #102892) and my Basic Gray stamp pad (item #126981) and began working the ink into the embossed butterfly.  I was careful not to get a lot of ink past the outline of the butterfly but at the top, around the head and wings, I made it quite a bit darker and went over the outline quite darkly in order to make it appear like a shadow and give a 3-D effect.  Remember, you can always add more ink with your dauber, so begin lightly and keep adding until it makes you happy with the effect.

When I finished with my shading, I adhered the side tab  to the untabbed side and my little pillow box looked great already.  My final touch was to add one of the large buttons made with the Simply Pressed Clay (item #130685) and then used a Stampin' Dimensional (item #104430) to add one of the smallest flowers made with the Simply Pressed Clay to the centre.  I adhered that to a piece of folded 5/8" Crochet Trim (item #118481) and attached it all to a corner of my Pillow Box.  I loved the result.

Of course I had to make another one.  This time I used cardstock and decided to use my Honeycomb Embossing Folder (item #129378).  I stamped a few bees into the pattern towards the edge so that they would still be visible after I added a girdle to the Pillow Box.  I used contrasting cardstock for the girdle and decorated it up using my Secret Garden stamp set (item #129144) and the matching Secret Garden framelits (item #129372).  For a sentiment, I used my A Round Array stamp set (item #129090) and its matching 7/8" Round Scallop Punch for the centre and used a dimensional to put it in the centre of the larger tag which I made using my Label Love stamp set (item #130622) and its matching punch, the new Artisan Label Punch (item #130920).

The two Pillow Boxes couldn't look any more different but they're both gorgeous.  I can't wait to see what type of Pillow Box I'm going to create next!

NOTE:  I added the following Pillow Box on June 28th, after making this one using paper from the Soho Subway Designer Paper and adding extra "bling" to the finished box.  In real life this one sparkles enough to make you put on sunglasses!

Watch for my upcoming classes.  I'll be offering technique classes and other fun classes where you can learn to make some of the items I'm featuring on my blog.

Congratulations! Spring Treasure Hunt Winners.

Congratulations to our two LNS Spring Treasure Hunt Winners:  Lisa Eisner and Heather Hopson.  Each won a prize of $150 in Stampin' Up! products of their choice.  What a wonderful time to make those choices, just as the new catalogue is open for orders.

A big "thank you" to all the participants in the LNS Spring Treasure Hunt.  Remember, there will be another LNS Treasure Hunt this fall.

My Open House Sneak Peek is almost behind me!

Well, it's almost over.  I had part one of the Open House Sneak Peek on June 1st.  It just seemed like a good way to go since I could get the orders placed right away now that the brand new catalogue is active.  It was a good Open House.  I had two waves of customers and finally wound down around 6 p.m. which was an hour later than I planned.  But you know what Robbie Burns said about the best laid plans of  "meece and men".

As expected, everyone loved, loved, loved the new Simply Pressed Clay.  They were amazed at how light it was (featherweight) and how easily it coloured.  No, I didn't show them how to add drops of re-inker.  From all I've heard and read, that is just a mess waiting to happen, not to mention that too many drops of re-inker make the clay really hard to dry.

(IMPORTANT NOTE: I made the buttons and flowers we used ahead of time to ensure complete drying of the Simply Pressed Clay.)

We used the Simply Pressed Clay on two of the make-n-takes.  The first was a simple 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" card featuring the Gingham Garden Washi Tape.  I called that my "happy card" because the colours just made me smile.  Everyone loved it.

That cute button just off the centre is made using the Simply Pressed Clay which, once dry, was so easy to colour using the Daffodil Delight Stampin' Marker.  The tag is one of the six great sentiments that are part of the Hostess Stamp Set Banner Greetings.  I just love the way everything co-ordinates and is perfectly framed by the Whisper White cardstock which I embossed using the Chevron embossing folder.

The second card which we made for the make-n-takes was the standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" size and featured the brand new in-colors.  Again, I kept it simple, having the background embossed with the Modern Mosaic embossing folder and then lining up the butterflies, punched from each of the new in-colors with the Bitty Butterfly punch, along a piece of Whisper White stitched 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.  To finish it off, each butterfly has a little rhinestone in the centre of its body.  The sentiment was stamped with the new Baked Brown Sugar ink, using one of the sentiments from the Sweet Essentials stamp set which is currently on sale at 25% off.

The third make-n-take (yes, I decided to have three!!!) was a simple flower using one of my favourite dies, the Blossom Party Originals, along with the leaves from the Secret Garden framelits and the medium sized flower using the Simply Pressed Clay.  The only non-Stampin' Up! supplies I used were the glue gun and the floral wire.

Don't the Crisp Cantaloupe and the Pistachio Pudding cardstocks look great with a bit of the same colour ink sponged on them?  I sprayed the flower using an alcohol and Summer Starfruit ink mixture in my Stampin' Spritzer.

And there you have it---the basic play/work during the Open House.  Everyone ordered the Simply Pressed Clay and the Buttons & Blossoms Simply Pressed Clay Molds (wow!  That has to be one of the longest names of product in the catalogue!)  Especially after they got to try pushing the clay into the molds by themselves.  I think they were all amazed at the incredible flexibility of the clay as well.  No worries about anything being broken during the mailing process.

Why do I say it's almost over?  I am accommodating a couple of my customers by letting them come on Monday right after work.  This time of the year weekends get really busy.  I can relate to that.