Something Old, Something New...

something that has come out of retirement, and of course, something blue!  No, nothing to do with a wedding, just a card I made to show you some of what is in the new catalogue.  Can you guess which is which?

Something old (Carried over from the last catalogue):

Fifth Avenue Floral Stamp Set (the flower on this card is made from several flowers that have been stamped, cut up, and reassembled)

Cropadile (the little circles in the centre of the flower were punched using the cropadile) and 1" circle punch (for the curves at the end of the greeting)

Something New:

Scallop Trim Border Punch (I used it all around the outside of the mat, and I love it!)

Something that has come out of retirement, or back from a mini:

River Rock  - an old 'in color' that is making a comeback - yay!

Teeny Tiny Sentiments Stamp Set - back from the latest mini catalogue - a very versatile greeting set.

Something Blue:

Baja Breeze - an 'in color' from the last catalogue, that has returned as one of the revamped core color range.

Now, while I love this new border punch, I must confess that my favourite part of this card is the flower.  I love the texture it has, with a few of the petals turned up, and that lumpy, bumpy flower centre.  Worth the effort of cutting out all those flowers anyway!

A Teacher's gift using the Spiral Punch.

Last week Hayden's class said goodbye to the student teacher who had been working in their class for the past few months.  He decided he wanted to give her 'something like that thing we gave Mrs Q' - a decorated notebook and matching pen, so that is what we did.  We used the lovely Haiku papers, and matching So saffron card, and Tangerine Tango ribbon, and made it so that when the notebook is finished it can be easily removed, and a new one put in its place.

We kept the outside simple - with just a jumbo eyelet and bling brad to fancy it up a little.  Instead of a ribbon closure this time we went with a magnetic one (that would be that black thing in the photo above!)

To get the patterned paper to fit nicely to the front of the notebook cover I used the spiral punch along the top.  The only problem with this approach, was that the spirals on the notebook were a lot closer together than the spirals on the punch, as you can see:

So, what to do?  Why, make the spiral punches closer together, that's what!  It may sound fiddly, but is actually really simple.  Firstly I made the paper a little wider than I needed, and then punched it with the spiral punch as usual. I then held the paper over the underside of the punch, and lined it up so that the holes in the punch were halfway between the holes that had already been punched.  I made a mark on the paper where the guide notch on the punch was, and then cut a little square from the corner of the paper.

The next step was easy - simply position the paper in the punch so that the edge of the cut square is against the guide notch, and then punch as usual.  You should be able to see the original holes just to the left of the guide notch.

 

Here is the paper showing you the original holes only, on the left, with the repunched section to the right. 

When you have finished punching the patterned paper, you can match the spiral holes to the spirals on the notebook, and then trim the paper to fit the cover of your notebook perfectly.  Easy!

Make a matching card, and your gift is ready to give.

Campbell's thank you card

First a little bit of background.  Security at school is pretty strict.  The external doors are locked.  You have to be 'buzzed in' at the main entrance (we're still trying to get our heads round it all).  Before school the kids line up in their classes, and the teachers open various doors for them to come inside.  Yesterday Campbell was a little leisurely joining the line, and the door closed before he got there.  Normally that wouldn't be a problem, he would knock and they would let him in, but yesterday an alarm was going off at that end of the building, and the knocking went unheard.  Poor Campbell was not sure what to do, and feeling rather upset.  Locked out of school! Then a nice girl came along, and helped him.  Taking him down to the front office, so he could join his class.  Turns out, that nice girl, also happened to be his teachers daughter.  He was very impressed to find that out, and decided he should make her a card.  Who am I to argue with that!

After a brief conversation about what girls might like on their cards (hugs and kisses apparently - look out ladies!) he suggested that flowers may also work, and perhaps we could use the punches. So that is what we did, and this is what he came up with. 

He has obviously spent a bit of time watching Mum, as he had a very clear idea of what he wanted - right down to the layering of flowers, and 'those sparkly things' in the middle.  I especially like the filigree flower on the pink flower (and can hardly believe Campbell used them before I did!)

When it came to the inside I did make the suggestion that a pop-up card might be fun.  We stuck with the flowers, and I think it turned out really well.  I especially like the bigger flowers he suggested we add to the background.  His theory was 'she won't even notice they are not part of the pop-up Mum', and you know what?  I think he was right.

As for the hugs and kisses?  He didn't forget those!  They were added at the bottom, and double as maths homework too - 'look Mum - it's a pattern - x, o, x, o'   Homework has never been so much fun!

My little girl's birthday card

This week we have been celebrating Bridie's birthday. She is officially three, and although I still like to think of her as little, she tells me she is a big girl now. I don't know about that. What I do know, is that she knows what she likes. Pink and Purple. Glitter. Dancing and music. Her dolls. Did I mention Pink and Purple? You can be sure that if I didn't she will have!

When it came time to make Bridie a birthday card the boys decided to go with a store bought card instead. Mum didn't have any Barbie or Disney Princess stamps in her stash, and they had seen a little card (Snow White, Cinderella ... all the Disney favourites) at the supermarket that they thought would be perfect. Who am I to argue with a big brother or two? Turns out they were right - she loved it.

I on the otherhand decided to go Mummy made. That said - this little dancing girl was the original creative genius of someone else - sorry - not sure who made her first, but I was introduced to her by the lovely Karen Rogers. (I am not sure if Karen has featured her on her blog before - she shared her on our demonstrator team forum - but you should go visit her anyway, as she has some lovely stuff over there).

So anyway, after that rather lengthy introduction, here she is - pretty in pink, with added sparkle - Bridie's dancing girl birthday card...

Isn't she pretty?!

Punches used to make her were the scallop circle, word window, heart to heart, 3/4" circle, and I used my cropadile to punch out those little blue eyes. Sponge a bit of pink ink around the edges, add some glitter to her skirt, stampin dimensionals to give her some lift, and a stamped greeting from the 'Occasional Greetings' set, and you have one happy little birthday girl.

one idea, and a couple of cards

So this is me just playing. I had been wanting to give that little chicken from Nursery Necessities an outing for a while, and it was a soft subtles kind of a day. Punches are welcome anytime! First up was this pink card. I looove that soft taffeta ribbon. It is so easy to work with.

Then I got to wondering, what if I used the scallop square for the mats instead? (forgetting for a minute that the scallop square wasn't that much bigger than the square punch). Too lazy to cut my own, slightly smaller white squares for the chickens, I decided to go all scallops instead, this time going for a celery card and ribbon.

I am really liking how, although they do look the same, they also look quite different. Amazing how a change of colour or shape can make a whole new project.

Making scallops with a Circle Punch

There are a lot of great scallop punches available - circle, square, and of course the scallop edge punch. Sometimes though, these won't do the job. The circle or square may not be the right size. Or perhaps you have a different shape - such as oval, that you want to add scallops too?

Cue your trusty circle punch. Size dependent on the project at hand - for this quick demonstration, I have used a 3/4 inch circle, and an oval of card, cut using a Coluzzle template.

All you need to do is punch out lots of circles, and then apply repositional (non-permanent!) adhesive to the back of your oval (or whatever it is you are 'scalloping'). You only need to put the adhesive around the outside edge of the shape - just enough to hold those circles in place. And then you get to work positioning the circles. This is where the repositional adhesive proves a winner. You can rearrange as much as you like until you are happy with the spacing. (As you can see some of the circles aren't perfect circles, and that is okay because that bit will be hidden anyway!)

This is what it looks like from the front. The scallops are actually even, top and bottom, but the photo was taken on an angle so they don't look it! I have the circles sticking out a long way - kind of petal like. You can stick them down just however you like, with one or more layers of circles/scallops.

The final step is to use a more permanent adhesive. You don't want all that carefully positioning to fall off on the floor! If you want you can do each circle, one at a time, sticking them to the oval, but I am not that patient. Instead, I applied the permanent adhesive to the back of the oval and all the circles, and stuck them on the front of the card. I figured that even though the circles and ovals are attached together 'temporarily', the fact that the circles and oval are attached to the card permanently, should mean that it will all stay intact. So far, so good!

A monster of a Kristina Challenge

Time for another of Kristina Werner's colour inspirations. This time she is doing it a little differently - instead of specific SU colours, she has gone with broader colours - brown, red, yellow, turquoise and white. So now it is even easier for us all to give it a go - so off you go - make something!

I was determined to make something, and have been thinking about what I might do. I had a plan that involved lots of flowers. In fact, I had stamped out the flowers, and had just about cut them all out, when the plan changed, and this happened instead...

Cute monsters huh?! It was much easier than the flowers too, - all made with bunches of punches (oh dear, did I really just write that?!) The reason for the plan change? I blame Campbell. He came to see what I was making. After admiring all those flowers, he announced he had made something at school last week and had forgotten to show me. Would I like to see it now? Well of course I would, bring it on! So he did. And here it is...



A little monster. The cutest little monster I have seen in a while. When I told him so he suggested maybe I could make one too, when I had finished with all those flowers. As you can see, the flowers were relegated to the background, and out came the punches - I do love my punches - and some more little monsters were born...

Made by Tracee, and Campbell!

The SU card colours I used for this were Red Riding Hood (new incolour) tempting turquoise, chocolate chip, so saffron, and whisper white. The sentiments, stamped in Red Riding Hood, are from the Family Phrases stamp set. Not forgetting of course - an assortment of punches - 1 3/8" square, word window, 1/4" circle, and the 1/2" circle.

A Present for the Teacher

So last month it was Valentine's day. As well as the requirement for Hayden to bring a card for every member of his class, there was also the small matter of something for the teacher. She is a lovely lady, who had been really helpful in getting him settled in his new class, so we wanted to make her something special. So this is what we did. A simple little notebook from the $2 shop was transformed into something a little bit more special, with the help of some lovely Ginger Blossom patterned paper, card, and a few embellishments. Add in a matching pen, and boxy thing to keep it in, present complete. We were really pleased with how it turned out, and the teacher loved it. And all for under $5.

Materials used for this project:

• Ginger Blossom patterned paper (summer mini)
• River rock, groovy guava, very vanilla and ruby red cardstock
• River rock ink
• ABC Alphabet lower stamps
• Spring Flowers Bouquet punch (retiring)
• Five Petal Flower punch
• Scalloped border punch (summer mini)
• Ruby Red Brads (earth elements)
• River Rock double stitched grosgrain ribbon
• 'Love Notes' gift card (vanilla)
• Stampin' Dimensionals
• notebook, pen
  
  

Spring Special!

The 'Spring Flowers' and 'Spring Showers' Designer patterned paper packs from SU have both been keeping a low profile for the past year. Although they have been available to purchase, they were missed from the catalogue, so of course, people didn't always know about them.

Both sets have the same designs, but the colours are slightly different. 'Flowers' has coral and moss in the mix, while 'showers' has bashful blue and caramel. Although both sets do contain some floral papers, they also include pages with more 'neutral' patterns, so can be used for both feminine and masculine projects. (I have a pdf file with the swatches for both sets. Email me if you would like me to send it to you). They also coordinate perfectly with the 'Looks like Spring' stamp set and the 'Spring Flower Bouquet' three flower punch. And they are retiring this month!

So here are some samples for you, two of my favourite scrapbook layouts. These will be familiar to many of you - they have done the rounds on my display boards!

Firstly though, a little side note about the photos. The lighting in our apartment is terrible. I am still trying to figure out just how best to photograph projects here, so please excuse the less than great photos! (and remember, if you click on the photos they will enlarge, which may make it easier to see the details!)

For this layout I cut around the outline of the flowers from the patterned paper. It took AGES, but I was really pleased with the finished look.

Ingredients for 'Safe' Layout (All SU!):

• Spring Flowers Designer papers (using three of the patterns from the pack)
• Mellow Moss and Very Vanilla Card
• Mellow Moss Ink
• Big Deal Aphabet stamps
• Rough Edges Alphabet stamps (retiring this month - get in quick!)
• A-Z accents stamps (for the little tag - retired last year - sorry!)
• Black Stampin' Write Journaller, Hemp Twine, Stampin' Dimensionals, sponges
  

Ingredients for 'Plotting Mischief' layout (All SU!):

• Spring Showers Designer papers (using three of the patterns from the pack)
• Creamy Caramel and Very Vanilla cardstock
• Creamy Caramel and Bashful Blue Ink
• Looks Like Spring stamps (retiring this month)
• It's a Date stamps (retiring this month)
• Warm Words
• Day to Day flexible Phrases stamps (retired already)
• Newsprint Alphabet stamps (retired already)
• Round Tab Punch
• Spring Bouquet Flower Punch (retiring this month)

For this second layout I decided not to cut the flowers out! Instead I used the stamp set 'Looks like Spring'. The large flowers are stamped and cut by hand. The smaller flowers are stamped and then punched using the Spring Bouquet punch. The three different flowers line up oerfectly with the three different flowers on the stamp, making it a quick, easy, and best of all, unique embellishment for your projects.

As mentioned, all these lovely spring products (papers, stamps and punch) are retiring this month. The good news is they are on special!

Both paper packs have 50% off - now $6.98 +pp (and just think, in the catalogue last year they were $19.95, so it jst gets better and better!)

The Punch has 25% off - now $26.95 +pp

and the Looks Like Spring stamp set is part of SU's Red Cross Bushfire Appeal. No discount to you, but 50% will be donated to the appeal to support those people affected by the recent Victorian Bushfires. I will cover the postage on all bushfire sets. Contact me for more info!

Of course, being on the retired list these products will not be available after March 31, or sooner, if they sell out - no backorders available. Get in quick if you are keen!

Happy Stamping!