Black Birthday

It probably seems like quite a strange request.

I was asked to make a card for a birthday.  After asking my usual questions, I found this information:  favorite color - black, no frilly things.

Hmmmmm  

This is what I came up with.  I used the new stamp set "Number of Years" and the Large Number Dies that coordinate with the stamps.  I also really love the balloon punch!  I've used it so much already!

Stampin' Up has some GREAT specialty paper.  I used the black glitter paper, and the silver glimmer paper for the accents on this card.
I also carefully heat embossed the silver glimmer paper with black and used it to cut the "30".  It turned out really well!

Click on the link of any product below to purchase from my site!

Number Of Years Photopolymer Stamp Set

$27.00

Large Numbers Framelits Dies

$31.00

Silver Foil Sheets

$4.00

Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$7.00

Heat Tool (Us & Can)

$30.00

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Gifts for my Father-In-Law...

Christmas gifts in August.
We cannot send the gifts I made for family this past Christmas to my Father-In-Law simply because he wouldn't get them because of where he lives.

 SO, at my husband's request, I prepared these so they could be hand delivered!

 My hymnal is getting low on my favorite Christmas hymns but I did find one that had some meaning. 

My husband and I went to choose the V.  It couldn't be too big so it would fit into the suitcase, or too thin because it might break with the flight...  We settled on an already painted, smaller 3/4 inch thick letter instead of the very thin plywood pieces I usually work with.  As usual, it turned out just fine! :)

I used the Mocha Morning paper stack since browns were requested. 

It's been an incredibly busy week, but I got them finished in time.

Crayon Wreath

I ALWAYS wanted one of these!!!  So, I made a Special Order for Me!

Actually, making it was much easier than I expected.  I used a little less than 88 crayons (a 64 box, and most of a 24 box...  some lettering I found online, and the chalkboard (with Cricut-cut lettering) and ribbon.

You need:
12 inch embroidery hoop
8 inch embroidery hoop
64 and 24 box of crayons
decorations (anything school related!)

You can find the letters HERE.  I copied to a word document, resized, and colored them with markers, and added black Glaze pen accents.

Teacher and Support Employees of the Year 2013-2014

Little did I know this past October I would start working with wood!  Again, a big THANKS to my upline Kathy who always gives us new projects and challenges at Stamp Camp!  Since working on the monogrammed letters and wooden crosses, I'm no longer afraid of crafting with it... well, not afraid exactly - it's just a new medium.

Our team leader approached me once the school voted on our TOY and Support Employee of the year and asked if I would make a plaque or something we could present to them.

This is what I came up with.

I used the Team Spirit cartridge to cut out the Huskies, and Plantin Schoolbook to cut the letters.

In hindsight, I should have Mod Podged AFTER I took the pictures, but that will have to be for next time. :)

One thing I will say is that after they had more time to dry, some of those still wet looking areas cleared up nicely, and weren't fuzzy looking at all.

Commissioned Crosses

The cross project for Christmas gifts went over quite well!  One of my high school classmates asked if I'd make one for her, and then I had a request for a 2nd.

These are the crosses I came up with.  They are almost identical.  I haven't found a reason to work with any other paper stacks yet.  The Modern Medley DSP (black and vanilla)  and Mocha Morning DSP (ret.) make them look so elegant in my opinion.

It's rather a long process, but so much faster when I had only 2 to make!
Paint the canvas backing, tea stain the hymnal page (after the decision on which hymn), paint the edges of both crosses and cover with DSP.  Sand the edges and then ink to finish the look.  Adhere the hymnal page to the canvas, and adhere both crosses.  Finish with a center medallion.


They turn out so beautifully - it's definitely worth the amount of work.

Commissioned Project - Signature Book

A little over a month ago, one of my colleagues came to me about putting together a signature book for one of our very special teachers who was chosen as our Teacher of the Year!

I work with some of her students, have been in some meetings with her and know exactly how fantastic she is!  SO.....  after my normal amount of 'thinking time' for a big project like this, and one false start, this is what I came up with.

The main theme is Spring and along the way  incorporated some of her personal likes/activities.   My Cricut got a good work-out on this project.  Almost every page has Cricut cuts, lettering, and lots of goodies.

 On the front cover I used my Cuttlebug quilled flowers with some lettering from the Plantin Schoolbook cart and lots of inking and Stickles!  If you look closely, you should see the 'fade' inking with 3 shads of pinks.

 I discovered that she is crazy for OSU, and you'll see it incorporated around the book.  The inside cover will be used as a dedication page from the staff.

 Here's another variation on the spring theme with Stampin' Up flower trim, Cricut cuts, and a flower border I found at HL.
*As I was working on the project, I sent out an email to my colleagues looking for some words they would use to describe her and incorporated them into the pages, either cut with different Cricut fonts or stamped and added to the pages.

 These two pages include Stampin' Up doilies I inked and a stamp set with the framelits dies to cut the words.  The Iris stamp comes from another company using the tole technique of layering.  I stamped 5 of these, colored and layered them.

 Here you see another one of the descriptive words from colleagues, a flower border, and a Cottage Cutz die I bought in Tennessee when we were traveling.  I also layered this one, inked, and used the Stickles!

 This page was originally going to be butterflies, bees, and ladybugs, but it seemed WAY too busy, so this is what I came up with.  LOVE these bees!  So pretty!

 Just an OSU page!

 Here we have yellow daisies with blingy centers, white doilies, one of those adjectives, and a fork bow!

 Our campus has a sister school in China with which we have visit exchanges!  Every year they bring students here in October, and we take a group of students in early May.  She's been lucky enough to go to China with this project and will go again, I'm sure!!

This is the last page of the book....  she and her husband are travelers!   Found that out at one of the meetings, and I just had to include it since we are big travelers as well.  AND of course, some more OSU.

I hope you've enjoyed my take on a signature book.... a very specialized signature book!

Cricut Cartridges used:  1.  Walk in My Garden, 2.  Plantin Schoolbook, 3.  Lyrical Letters, 4. Calligraphy Collection, 5.  Pagoda, 6.  Sentimentals
All ink:  Stampin' Up.

Valentine's Day 2013 - Explosion Heart Valentine

Is it Valentine's Day ALREADY!?
2013 certainly is flying by!!!

I made a total of 7 of these cards - and used so many stamp sets!  I'll have to update this post and make a list of all the stamp sets I used.

You can see the "How-To" video HERE that I watched to make the card initially, but I used lots of different things on this card, and some trial and error to make it nice.

 I used some of the retired stamp sets and retired Valentine paper - it's really too bad, because the papers were so pretty, and I wasn't very fond of what was available this year.  I don't call it making do, just using the GREAT stuff I already had!

The fun is when you untie the ribbon, and the card opens.  See below!

 Here you can see the heart opened - The embossed heart on the left is on designer paper, with glossy Cherry Cobbler powder because I know how much my sister likes the feel of that embossing. :)  Just for you, Gail!!

Just enough room under the Be My Valentine to write a short note.

I added the lace behind the card to make it nicer, and needed to come up with a new technique to solve the problem of the lace coming off of the TTT - It worked pretty well, and the lace is staying put.

I made a total of 7 of these - my first sample went to my husband, had orders for 5 from work colleagues, and gave one to someone I work very closely with for his new fiancee.  I got a text this morning saying that she LOVED it!  :)  NICE!


Please leave a comment. Thanks so much!

50 Christmas Card Order - COMPLETE!

My dear friend (and boss) of the 2nd job I work at ordered 50 Christmas cards late in July, beginning of September.

I had some samples laying around because I've been making so MANY Christmas cards this year!  I wasn't able to stop just at the Christmas Card Challenges because I'd seen so many really amazing cards, and wanted to play with some new techniques.

We decided on 4 different designs, and one sight-unseen (which I think turned out the best)...  With just a few little details and delivery to complete next week or the week after, my project is finished.  WHEW! :)

 Many of the cards use the Triple-Time Stamping technique, some old stamp sets, and some very new ones.
I think I'll call the next series of two pictures Triple-Doubles - Triple-Time Stamping, with a Two-Step Stamping set.  Whew!

 The picture directly above and below feature the new stamp set for the season: Watercolor Winter.  I REALLY love it!!!  It's a two-step stamping set, so I ordered them in wood mount, and made a permanent Stamp-a-ma-jig template for the outline pieces.  You wouldn't believe how much time this saves!!!

 These 3 cards feature one of my very favorite stamp sets: Bells and Boughs.  I get lots of use out of it!  There are quite a few of these, and they took an incredible amount of time coloring with markers.

These cards feature the Joy-Fold technique, and once all the pieces are cut, go together very quickly.  I used the new ornament stamps and coordinating dies as well as some Be Of Good Cheer Design Series Paper to make these colors work together so well.

 The above card showing the inside view is the last set of 10 cards to complete the order... and are stunning in person.  All the materials here are from last year's Christmas catalog - even the velvet ribbon.  I used embossed vellum to cover the star, and pearls to cover the glue dots.  LOVE the Stampin' Up glitter paper!  It is amazing in person!

Stamp sets used for this card order:  Christmas Collage, Bells and Boughs, Christmas Postcard, The Sounding Joy, Many Merry Messages, Watercolor Winter, and Watercolor Winter.

Your comments are treasured!

Our Chinese Visitors!

 This is a very exciting week at my Elementary School!  We are having our yearly visit with our sister school in China's visitors return!

Last year was my first experience with this AWESOME project our school takes part in.  One of our sponsoring teachers asked me to make something for the visitors to remember their visit to our school.  She's been so kind to order gifts and projects from me before, we went through our usual discussion and idea session, and came up with this.

I used green cardstock for Oklahoma, since we live in what they call "Green Country" though it's been pretty brown this year with the drought!

I lucked out that the Hello Kitty cart had a nice Friends cut, and the other letters were cut and adhered individually.  Oklahoma, the names, and the dragon all have gold Stickles accents.  Each person chose an English name to use.  With the exception of one teacher, and two girls that chose Angel; I added their given names to differentiate the booklets so they wouldn't get mixed up.

There will be 15 visitors in all for the week, 10 kids and 5 teachers.  The assembly on Friday will be GREAT!  We had lots of interesting things to see, a gift exchange between the schools, and I got to see a Native American dance in person.  What an experience that was!  In early May, we send students and teachers over to China for a week to 10 day trip.

 Here's one of the booklets close up.... and if I could figure out how to rotate the pictures with this new interface, it would be in portrait format! 

I am thrilled to know that some of my work will go to China....  so exciting!  I hope they like and appreciate their books.


Your comments are treasured!

Flowers for Mom

 Here is a series of cards I made for Mom while she was here visiting - She approved all the colors, layouts and sentiments, but I pushed a little for the yellow flowers. :)

This is one of the new Stampin' Up sets, and it is quickly becoming one of my favorites.  It will be used for a LONG LONG time!

This is one of the Two-Step Stamping sets called Stippled Blossoms (#126745w /#126747c) and I ordered it in wood because I knew I'd use it so much.  I made a Stamp-a-ma-jig permanent template on some transparent film I had with Staz-On ink, so in the long run, this is going to save LOTS of time - keep the piece with the stamp set, and you are ready to go!!

The cards stamp really fast - and after I trimmed up some of the rubber edges from the first card, they turned out GREAT!!!

Question:  Can you tell where I've used the "new" ink pads, and needed to use the "old" ink pads?  Look at the ink coverage!  LOVE those new pads!!!

So, here they are - a series of 11 cards, in all different Stampin' Up colors.  Please enjoy!

 After I stamped this initial card, the rubber edges were trimmed to get rid of the ghosting near the edges of the stamps.

Your comments are always appreciated!

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