Happy Birthday, Brenda!!!

My dear friend, Brenda, just had her birthday, and this is the card that I made her!  I used a dark brown card base and liked the inside with white cardstock.  I punched the edge and then inked it using SU Early Espresso.  Next, I cut a green mat and wrapped some gorgeous "pink sorbet" bakers twine from The Twinery around the card five times (taping in the back).
I cut a "pocket" from pink cardstock and stamped a filigre pattern on it with SU Pixie Pink, then glued down.  I then added bling to strategic points across the pocket. and cut a piece of white cardstock to fit inside the pocket.  I rounded the corners of the white paper, inked the edges, and stamped a lighter pink background, using the same filigre pattern.  I stamped and punched a tab, using the SU tab punch and pink zebra paper, then adhered it to the top of the white paper.  I added "happy birthday" in SU Early Espresso, along with several phrases that my friend uses often, from some Pink By Design stamps, in the SU Pixie Pink. 
Finally, I made a cute paper flower using a brad and three patterned papers, which were squares (3x3, 2x2, and 1x1).  I used the torn paper technique and tore each square towards me in a circle.  I then crunched each layer, one-by-one, in my hand until I was satisfied with the dimension of each.  Then I used my paper piercer and mat to punch a hole through the middle and add the brown spiral brad.  I adhered the dimensional flower using glue dots, across the twine.  ~Hoppy Crafting!!!

Pink By Design stamps!

CKC 2011

Scrapbook Survivors around 5pm! (Cindy, Lynda, Terri, Kelly).

Woo whooo!!!  It's finally CKC time!!!  Several friends and I attended the Creating Keepsakes Convention near Seattle yesterday, and had a total blast!  Some of us took classes, while others shopped the vendor faire.  Kelly and I carpooled and spent the ENTIRE DAY at the convention.  We met up with Kate and her sister-in-law.  I also saw friends and fellow crafters Terri and Lynda.  I know our stampin' friend Deb was there, but we were so busy shopping and taking classes, that we never saw her! 

Kate and I took "The latest and greatest with Basic Grey, Simple Stories, and Crate Paper", and enjoyed a FAST-PACED class.  We nearly completed 4 pages, and have extra supplies to finish more.  The rest of the day we shopped, grabbed a little lunch, shopped, shopped, and shopped some more! 

I found some neat stamps at Technique Tuesday and The Stamps of Life.  I enjoyed some make and takes, and shopping at Embellish It and Queen & Co.  I even found some major deals at Scrapbuck and Scrap Mart.  Can you imagine 2 packages of cookie-cutter dies by Quic-Kutz for only $10, total (I saw each clearanced out online for $11 apiece)?   Or, getting 100 yards of grosgrain or sheer ribbon for only $2-$4???  I also got a grab-bag of bling for $2.99, which should last me for quite some time!

If you ever have the chance to go to a scrapbook expo, I definitely would recommend it!  It's a fun day for all, and you may just find a few things that you may not normally find in your LSS (local scrapbook stores).  ~Hoppy Crafting!!!

Gobble, Gobble!

It's turkey time already (well, almost)!  I finally had some open time to really work on a project, and ended up making 20 of these adorable Thanksgiving cards!  I saw a similar turkey a couple of weeks ago at my Stampin' friend, Deb's party, and really wanted to scrap-lift it!  I used quite an array of punches during this project, as well as Twinery twine, my Cricut, Stampin' Up ink, and foam adhesive.  I think it would be easier to put into a list everything I used, so here it goes!  :o)

*Stampin' Up Owl punch (eyes, body)
*Stampin' Up Butterfly punch (feathers & wings-cut in half and apart)
*Stampin' Up 1" Square punch (behind turkeys for support)
*Stampin' Up XL Oval-2" x 1 3/8" punch (behind sentiment)
*Stampin' Up Scallop Oval  punch(for sentiment)
*EK Success Arch Scallop (border)

*EK Success Card Suits (waddle)
*Stampin' Up "Holiday Best" stamp set (sentiment)
*Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie ink
*Stampin' Up Early Espresso ink
*The Twinery "Lemondrop" twine
*Cricut Savory Cartridge (plates)
*"Party-Celebrate" paper from Fancy Pants Designs (background behind turkeys)
*DCWV textured cardstock (card bases)
*Buttons
*Foam adhesive (pop up sentiment and turkeys)

I punched everything, then assembled each part mass-production style (all hats, all eyes, all turkeys, etc), until every last part was finished and I ended up with 20 pieces of art!  I had to add some humor and put each turkey on a dinner plate, haha!  The only thing I did differently, was how I added the twine.  On some cards, the twine is wrapped several times from left to right.  On others, it is looped behind the top left corners, then threaded through buttons and finished in a bow.  Hope you like these as much as I do!  ~Hoppy Crafting!!!

Turkey Army!!!

It's all about the tools....and how you use them!

Today, I have been diligently working on some Thanksgiving cards.  I saw this super-cute idea while I was at a Stampin' Up party at Deb's, and had to see if I could scrap-lift it!  :o)

As I busily began cutting, punching, scoring, assembling, etc., the tools I was using really started to add up, and I felt like they needed their own post.  It's hard to pick ONE favorite tool, but I would have to say that definitely my MOST USED tool is my guillotine-style paper cutter.  I gave up the notion that one of the "travel" paper cutters would be my best friend a long time ago, especially since I work in a school, and use the guillotine-style ones all the time.  I LOVE them!!!  My husband bought me mine for my birthday,about 9 years ago, and it's heavy-duty and going strong (yes, he looked at me like I was crazy then, and asked if I didn't want something prettier.  LOL)!

Another favorite tool of mine is the Martha Stewart Score Board.  This handy tool allows you to score cards, projects, envelopes, etc. (pretty much anything you want to make), with ease! 

Today, I happened to be using the Stampin' Up Owl and Butterfly punches, along with two other EK Success border punches, a Stampin' Up ink pad with sponge (to add soft brown to the project), the Xyron sticker-maker (adhesive), reverse tweezers, regular wet and dry adhesives, and a white uni-ball pen to add accents.

Because I knew that I was making around 20 of these cards, I rummaged the kitchen, and found my neat square divided tray, so that I could punch, assemble and organize everything instead of having a mess on my table and searching for pieces later.  I would really recommend some kind of tray or divided storage when working on mass-production projects to keep everything where it needs to be. 
Hope you enjoy your tools as much as I do!  Crafting really IS all about the cool tools, even though they rarely get the spotlight. I can't wait to share what all these fun pieces turned into!  :o)  ~Hoppy Crafting!!!

It's for the birds!

Here's another pheasant card using the Stampin' Up "Autumn Days" stamp set.  I used a "fall" colored theme, with yellows, reds, and browns.  The patterned cardstock is from K & Company, which I used an EK Success edger punch to create the notebook page look.
The pheasant is stamped is SU Chocolate Chip, and the leaves in the background are in SU Early Espresso.  I also sponged the scalloped oval with Early Espresso.  I used some gorgeous brown and white twine around a corner-rounded mat.  Finally, I added the pheasant with pop dots, and added bling for it's eye.  ~Hoppy crafting!!!

Happy Birthday, Lisa!

Today is my friend Lisa's birthday, so I made a little card for her.  :o)  I used some pink, brown, and tan cardstock for the base and layers of this card.  I also used the Stampin' Up "Dreams du Jour" set for the sentiment, butterflies on the brown paper, and the "dream" embellishment.  Before adding the top layers, I embossed the tan paper, then spritzed each layer with Tsukineko silver spritzer to add glimmer.  I also used the Fleur de Lis edger punch from EK Success along the top of the faux ribbon.  I popped up the brown faux ribbon, the sentiment, and the embellishment/dangle with foam adhesive, and added light pink ribbon and twine.  Finally, I added color using my Zig markers and sponged the sentiment with SU Early Espresso ink.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Fall Pheasant

I have a friend whose family it TOTALLY into pheasants.  A stampin' friend of mine graciously allowed me to borrow her Stampin' Up "Autumn Days" stamp set to create some cards, and here's one!  I used the pheasant, wheat, and some light green satin ribbon, along with some fall-themed K&Company paper.  On the fall paper and around the pheasant, I distressed and inked all the edges.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!  I made this fun little Halloween card using the Cricut Happy Hauntings cartridge for the jack-o-lantern, the Martha Stewart "Drippy Goo" punch, the "Wavy Circle" punch, and a $$ stamp from a local craft store.  ~Hoppy Crafting!