Halloween Happiness...again!

I can't get over how stinkin' cute and versatile this "Halloween Happiness" stamp is from Stampin' Up in the new Holiday catalog!  I have used it on several projects, and love it!

Here's the recipe:
Halloween Happiness stamp
Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Write Marker
Gumball Green Stampin' Write Marker
Basic Black ink pad
Basic Black cardstock (scallop)
Gumball Green Cardstock (base)
Pumpkin Pie DSP
Whisper White cardstock
Pumpkin Pie ink pad +sponge dauber (edges)
Dimensionals (pop up white w/pumpkins)
Scallop Edge Punch (black cardstock)
Corner Rounder (white edges)

~Hoppy Crafting!

Happy Birthday, Kelly!

Birthday wishes to my dear friend, Kelly!  I don't want to wreck her surprise, so here's what I made for her a year ago, with the Stampin' Up set "Mixed Bunch" and the blossom punch.  Also used, were the Adorning Accents embossing folders & coordinating Adorning Accents Edgelits, as well as the Labels Collection Framelits, all from Stampin' Up!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Daydream Medallions Swap!

 I'm SO excited to attend my first Stampin' Up Regional Event, soon!  In preparation, I'm feverishly cutting and assembling my swaps.  I came up with this gorgeous "flower" idea, using the set Daydream Medallions and the Floral Frames Framelits.  I'm using Lucky Limeade, Summer Starfruit, Basic Black, and Basic Gray, along with a piece of designer paper from International Bazaar.  I have distressed the Lucky Limeade layer, and used the Scallop Trim Border punch on the Basic Black.  Hope you enjoy!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Sympathy

Seems like I've been making a lot of these types of cards lately, and getting more requests for ideas for Sympathy cards.  I guess it's a fact of life, but loss is always so hard.  Stampin' Up needs more sympathy-type sentiments.  I pulled these images from retired sets "Thanks for Caring" and "Forever Young" I also used the extra-large Oval punch from SU for the sentiment. ~Hoppy Crafting!

Baby Toy

I made this baby card using a pink base, then layered it with a brown background, which was punched with the SU Scallop border punch at the bottom, and tied with some of the retired stitched poly ribbon.  I also used the white gel pen to faux stitch a border.  The sentiment was stamped using the SU Itty Bitty Banners set, and cut out with the new SU Bitty Banners framelits.  I also cut another larger layer of brown to add behind it. 
For the toy, I punched a 2 1/2" circle from white cardstock, then cut it in half for the base.  I used SU Pretty In Pink ink and the SU Elizabeth stamp to stamp the pattern on the base.  The rings of the toy were all punched using the SU Word Window punch.  How did I make it longer and shorter?  Very carefully!  :oP  For the longer layer, I measured the width of a word window that was already punched, then cut a strip of paper that would fit.  I fed it thought the bottom of the punch, not the normal slot, then held part of it out of the punch to punch the first end.  When the one end had the rounded edge, I took it out, and fed the opposite side into the punch (from the bottom again), then cut at the desired length.  A Quik Stick or reverse tweezers can be extremely helpful in this process!  The smaller ones were easier, because I just had to shorten them, and didn't have to worry about accidentally cutting it off before it was long enough.  I cut one last white Word Window to put up at the top of the toy, and then I was finished!  Hope you enjoy!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Elegant Wedding Cake

A friend asked me to make her some wedding cards for the summer, and here's what I came up with!  I used several embossing folders, one of which, is Stampin' Up's "Manhattan Flower.  I also embossed silver paper "trim" for each layer of the wedding cake, and punched the cute little flowers, using Stampin' Up's "Boho Blossoms".  For a finishing detail, I added Stampin' Up pearls.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Owl Grad!

I saw an adorable owl grad card, that my friend, Terri, had made, and I just had to scraplift it!  I had been thinking about making an owl grad for a while, but when I saw hers, I knew I just HAD to!  This card was made using several Stampin' Up punches and supplies. 
I used a SU Real Red base, and layered it with Basic Black.  Then I used another piece of Read Red, and ran it through the Big Shot in the Square Lattice embossing folder.  I adhered a strip of gold cardstock over half the embossing (not SU), and started on the dimensional top layer.  I again used a Basic Black base (which has dimensionals behind it), and added the same gold cardstock, which I used Versamark and a stamp from the SU Rustic Rooster set  .  After that, I punched an owl from the SU Owl punch, and also cut wings from a scallop punch, which were then cut in half.  I sponged the owl with SU Soft Suede ink to give him some depth, and added the eyes, beak, and feet.  I cut glasses from the Cricut, and used a Stuido G stamp to make the grad hat.  I used the SU word window punch to make the diploma and drew a sprial on the top and tied a small ribbon around it.  The sentiment is stamped in Basic Black, from the SU set Teeny Tiny Wishes, punched out with the SU Word Window, and mounted on the red SU Modern Label. 

Baseball Valentine

My friend, Lisa, and I spent about five hours crafting just prior to Valentine's day, and she wanted to make some cards for her family.  One of her children is really into baseball, and she came with this adorable background paper!  We brainstormed a few ideas, and this is what resulted!  I cut a baseball player out from the Cricut Baseball cartridge, and stamped the sentiment, then punched it with SU punches (I can't remember the set the sentiment came from).  Lisa layered the players, and we decided it needed something more.  I suggested the player be "catching hearts", and punched a few out of glimmer paper.  We both loved how the card came out!  Hope you enjoy it too!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Valentine Treat Sticks

Happy Valentine's Day!  I made these cute 1"x8" bags of Valentine-colored candy corn for my co-workers, using the P.S. I Love You stamp set in the new Stampin' Up Mini Catalog.  They were super easy (after stuffing all the bags, of course!). 
I got the 1"x8" bags from either Stampin' Up or the G.T. Bag Company (www.gtbag.com).  I have been loving the bags I ordered from G.T., and will definitely order from them again! 
I used SU Melon Mambo ink on two tones of pink cardstock, then punched with the 1 3/4" scallop circle, and 1" and 1 1/2"  circles.
One scallop circle was placed behind the bag, and one placed on the front with the dark pink circle centered.  I backwards stapled through all the layers, then added a dimensional and the smallest circle with "Hand crafted with love for you". 

~Hoppy Crafting!

Christmas Treat Bags

The other day I ended up making around 70 of these fun little treat bags.  In a prior post, I had started this project, by stamping the "VERY MERRY Christmas" from the Stampin' Up set "It's a Wrap Holidays".  I only got about 60 candies stamped and wrapped before running out of candy.  The project was put on hold for over a week, until I could make a Costco run and get the huge bag of Hershey's Nuggets. 
Once I had more "nuggets", I began stamping and wrapped a ton more!  To make the use of "It's a Wrap Holidays" easier, I stamped onto address labels and then peeled to stick to each candy.  After finishing the candies, I worked at getting four into each of the small Stampin' Up treat bags, and then worked on stamping "Joy at Christmas" from the SU set "Perfect Punches".  I also punched a background for each stamped image.  I used  the 1 3/4" and 2" scallop circle punches. 
For the wrap across the tops, I cut a 3" by 6" strip of cardstock, punched the bottom of each with Martha Stewart's snowflake border punch, then folded in half and stapled once in the center.  I made sure to staple backwards so that I could "hide" the staple edges with the scallop medallions I had made.  I love how these turned out!  For colors, I used several greens and reds (both SU and other brands).  ~Hoppy crafting!!!

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!

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!

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!

Trick or Treat! Smell my feet.....

I LOVE fall, it's my favorite season of the entire year!  With fall, comes jack-o'-lanterns and other spooky fare for Halloween.  I whipped up these fun treat bags with some very simple ingredients!  I used notepads that I bought from the $ section at our local Ben Franklin's, and put each one in a small cello bag from Stampin' Up.  I used some awesome purple & black, and orange & black striped paper from a scrap stack, which I cut into a couple of different designs using the "oblong" option on the Cricut Elegant Edges cartridge (5.76"), then folded in half and stapled backwards onto the bags. 

Before stapling the paper, I tried using a trick a friend of mine had shared to seal each bag.  I know there's no candy in these bags, but I wanted to try out her trick, and perfect it, sooooo....I warmed up my trusty flat iron (yes, a hair straightener!!!), and lightly crimped the top of a bag.  The first bag was a total disaster!  Even though I only touched it for a split second, my flat iron was OBVIOUSLY too hot!  I unplugged it, and tried again a few seconds later with another bag.  This time it was WAY better!  By the last of the 10 little treat bags, my flat iron was cool enough to simply seal and not make any plastic shrivel.  Yea!

Now, onto the rest of the bags!  After sealing, I finished the stapling (again, reverse stapling so that you can hide all the sharp spots with decorations).  I was ready for a little blood!  No, not REAL blood, but the Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch has got to be one of my all-time favorite punches!  I adhered a red drippy goo strip to the top of each bag for add some spookiness!

Next, I stamped "Trick Or Treat" using a $ stamp from Michael's.  Then, I punched each out, using the EK Success Wavy Circle punch, and inked each with SU Basic Black.  I also added dimensionals to the back and stuck them on to hide one of the staples. 

Finally, I could focus on the pumpkins!  I used the Happy Hauntings Cricut cartridge, and cut out some ghoulish jack-o-lanterns!  I layered each pumpkin with a green base, then yellow, then an orange glitter paper.  I love how they turned out!  I also love the DCWV glitter paper!  It cuts beautifully in my Cricut, and doesn't leave glitter residue everywhere!  After they were all assembled, I added dimensionals and stuck them onto each topper to hide the other staple.  Now all that's left to do, is to add names, and away they go!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Stampin' Up Haul!

Hold onto your seats, because you won't believe what I just found!  I just hit the jackpot of sales!  Yes folks, the "deal predator" has struck again!!!  He he he!  (Can you tell I'm super excited with all the exclamation marks???) 
My friend, Kelly, and I were on the Northwest Paper Chase on Saturday, when I mentioned seeing a post of a former scrap store, that just happened to be along our route, was clearancing out the remainder of her inventory at 60% off! 
Well, she not only had the normal scrap store fare, but she was "garage sale-ing" her private collection of Stampin' Up stamps, punches, ink pads, etc., at a PHENOMENAL discount!  Let's suffice it to say, that I walked away from the store with three bags of goodies that will last me forever.  
Among my best finds....the TEN Stampin' Up punches!  Yes, they're old-style, but who really cares?  I wish they were the space-saving ones, but seriously at right around $50, TOTAL, for all TEN, I'm ecstatic!  (Those of you who know punches or Stampin' Up, the large ones all retail for around $16.95 apiece!)
Other great finds include: 100 yards of ivory grosgrain ribbon for less than $1.50, as well as other grosgrains and satins for 60% off of  25 or 50 cents; large bundle of 12x12 chipboard for less than $4; approximately 50 sheets of 12x12 white textured cardstock for under $2.50; two sets of replacement Big Shot cutting pads for under $2.50; and, an assortment of other Stampin' Up stamp sets for over 60% off of retail.  I was in total clearance Heaven, and had to stop myself before I bought everything!  Of course, I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a few other punches or stamp sets, BUT, I am quite happy with what I was able to snag.  Hopefully you all can find deals of your own soon, too!  ~Hoppy Crafting! 

Drippy Goo & Martha Stewart

I made a quick trip to my local JoAnn's tonight, and, to my surprise, they had the Martha Stewart Drippy Goo border punch!  Now, as much as I loathe Martha, and believe she is pure evil, some of her stuff isn't half bad.  I have found that her border punches are some of THE BEST working punches I have ever used! 

Well, onto "Drippy Goo"...I feared that I would never find this punch again, since it was released LAST season, but THANK GOODNESS they brought it back!!!  I'll admit that I texted half my friends, updated my Facebook status, and all around, acted like a big dork when I found this punch.  I felt like I had won the lotto (and may have secretly done a fist pump, in pure "sah-weeet, I scored this punch" glee!)!!! 

The only drawback to "Drippy Goo," was the fact that when I tried to use my 40% off coupon on it (because it wasn't on sale), dear MS was EXCLUDED!!! GRRR!!!! @#&%!  Did I not mention that Martha is pure evil???  Well, since I wanted this punch soooo badly, I guess I'll keep it....or wait until it goes on sale...hmmm....decisions, decisions....In the meantime, here's the 'goo'.  :o)  ~Hoppy Crafting!