New House Congratulations

Here is a quick card that I made to send to my cousin and his wife who recently bought their first house. I was inspired by this card and this card over on Splitcoaststampers...there is a never ending supply of inspiration and ideas over there!

Since I still have so much of the Sweet Pea Designer Series paper pack left I cut into yet another pattern that I haven't used yet. The hounds tooth pattern keeps the Old Olive layer from looking too flat. I used the scallop trim border punch for a quick little detail under the house panel. And a brad and small loop of Chocolate Chip satin ribbon complete the embellishments.

I tried out a new setting on my camera to take this photo and it doesn't show the detail of the textured Old Olive cardstock that I used for the strip of "grass" under the house. I guess I'll go back to the old settings!

The stamping is pretty basic using the clear mount Good Neighbors Sale-A-Bration set (only 4 days left to get free stamps & accessories!!). I did learn a little trick with this set to make sure your roof doesn't end up floating high above your house. Just take your craft & rubber scissors and trim off the little bit of extra rubber underneath the roof piece so you can get the 2 pieces to match up just right. Mount the house panel using dimensionals.

Remember there are only 4 days left to get Good Neighbors and other great sets for free during Sale-A-Bration. Click on the link to the right to begin shopping on my Stampin' Up website! Don't miss out!

Stamps: Good Neighbors

Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue

Paper: Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Old Olive Textured, Chocolate Chip, Sweet Pea DSP

Accessories: Scallop Trim Border punch, brad, dimensionals, Satin Ribbon

Quick Spring Decorating Project

My husband brought this little Norfolk Pine home from a holiday work function. It was the centerpiece and he won the one on his table. It was decorated with little silver plastic Christmas balls and had a foam snowflake stuck in the pot. It was a cute addition to our Christmas decorations and my older son calls it the little Christmas tree. After Christmas we took the ornaments & snowflake off of the tree and it's been sitting on my plant stand kind of bare and sad ever since. My son asked the other day when we were going to decorate the little Christmas tree again. Perfect time for a spring decorating craft!

Yesterday we punched out a bunch of birds using the XL 2 step bird punch and made cute little spring ornaments for our little Christmas tree. It took all of about 25 minutes to make about 20 little birds....remember I was doing this with a 3.5 year old so it would probably only take you about 10 minutes to do this project! As we all know "help" from a 3.5 year old is usually counterproductive! He was good at counting the birds and wings and he had fun deciding which color wing to put with which bird body though.



I used the Tea Party Designer Series Paper for the birds since I had some scraps leftover (perfect for punching!) and it was the most spring like. We mixed and matched the different patterns so each bird was unique. The wings are popped up on half of a dimensional. The loops to hang the birds from are made out of white embroidery floss. Now all I need to do is find a better pot for our little Christmas tree---the snowflakes are a bit out of season now!

Supplies: Tea Party DSP, XL 2 Step Bird Punch, dimensional, embroidery floss

Twin Owl Baby Gift

This is a baby thank you gift set that I made for my husband to give to a co-worker who is expecting twins. I had a hard time coming up with a design for this set as the there is going to be a girl and a boy so I had to make the cards so they covered both genders. I finally decided on a pink owl and a blue owl perched on the branch from the XL Bird Punch mounted on a Top Note. The owls are cut out and popped on dimensionals. The branch is punched out of Delicate Dots DSP (retired 2009 Sale-a-Bration item). I accented the sides of the Top Note with a pink & blue brad. The thank you sentiment is stamped in Basic Gray and punched out with the large oval punch and layered on a Certainly Celery scalloped oval.

And of course since this is a gift I had to make a box to put the set of 10 cards in! I added some scallop border trim along the box top to give it some pop. The box is tied with retired Certainly Celery ribbon (Sale-A-Bration 2009) and finished with a "For You" tag using Vintage Labels (Free this year during Sale-A-Bration!!).

And here is the quick gift bag I made to put the whole shebang into... I punched out scallop squares using the Delicate Dots DSP (green & blue squares) as well as Tea Party DSP (pink squares).










Stamps: Animal Stories (owls), Spring Solitude ("Thank You") Vintage Labels

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Basic Gray, Certainly Celery

Paper: Kraft, Whisper White, Delicate Dots DSP, Certainly Celery, Tea Party DSP

Accessories: XL 2 Step Bird Punch, Big Shot Top Note die, brads, dimensionals, large oval punch, scalloped oval punch, scalloped circle punch, Certainly Celery twill ribbon, scalloped trim border punch, scalloped square punch

Punch Art Fairy

Our friends daughter is turning 4 in a few weeks and they asked if I would make the invitations for the party. She is very into princesses and fairies so the party theme will be along those lines. When my friend first asked me to make the invitations I thought, "Uh-oh!" as I don't have any girlie type of stamps besides a lot of flowers. No fairies or princesses to be seen....now if you want some trucks or animals or trains I'm your lady but the fairytale characters are no where to be seen in my stamp room. Short of ordering a brand new set I decided to take a cruise around the internet to see what I could do without stamps. After seeing a few examples online I came across this little beauty made by Ellen Kemper. Ellen is a fabulous designer of punch art. If there is a Stampin' Up punch that you think you don't need all you have to do is browse Ellen's creations and you'll see why you have to have every punch out there! She was so helpful to me when I e-mailed her to ask some specific questions about how she put her fairy together. And this is my version of the Punch Art Fairy. I kept fairly close to Ellen's design for the face but changed up the body to work with what I had on hand.

There is quite a bit of sparkle going on here but a fairy wouldn't be complete without some pixie dust, right? Her wings and shoes are highlighted with Dazzling Diamonds, her wand is sponged with Shimmer Paint and her dress is sprayed with Shimmer Mist. The whole fairy is made with hand held punches except for parts of the dress; the shoulders, front dress piece and pink piece are made from the Beautiful Wings embosslit. I thought those cute little embossed butterflies added some nice texture to the front of the dress. I just layered them a little bit and then added the scallop oval punch to make the dress bottom. The mouth and eyelashes are hand drawn and the rosy cheeks are made with pastel chalks lightly rubbed on with the sponge tipped applicator.

I layered her on a panel of Whisper White that was run through the Big Shot using the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder.







Supplies:
Head- Ornament punch
Eyes - Heart to Heart punch- wide heart trimmed, small circle punch
Nose - Small circle punch
Ears - 2 Step bird punch
Wings - Wide Oval punch trimmed
Hair - Large oval punch
Arms & Legs - Word Window punch
Wand - Small Star punch
Dress - Beautiful Wings Embosslits, Scalloped Oval punch

Happy Moments Birdcage - February Stamp Club

This is the 3rd project we did last week in my February Stamp Club. This is an easy card and comes together quickly.

The Pretty in Pink cardstock is run through the Big Shot using the Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions folder. The Designer Series Paper is from the Sweet Pea DSP pack (of course!).

Ink up your birdcage stamp from the Happy Moments stamp set (Sale-A-Bration) with Chocolate Chip. Take a q-tip and gently clean off the Chocolate Chip ink and using your Taken with Teal Stampin' Write marker color in just the bird. Then huff (breathe on the stamp to re-moisten the ink) on the stamp and stamp on Whisper White. Punch out the image with your wide oval punch. Stamp your sentiment and punch that out with the small oval punch. Sponge the edges of both pieces with Chocolate Chip ink.

To attach the ribbon to the top of the birdcage I used a Vintage Brad and stuck the prongs through a length of new Satin Ribbon right along the edge, then I folded the ribbon back over the prongs again. Using the small hand held circle punch make a hold near the top of the birdcage and attach the brad & ribbon. Trim the edges of the ribbon so they are even. Add a strip of Chocolate Chip cardstock (great way to use up scraps!) between the DSP & the Pretty in Pink. Using dimensionals on the birdcage piece adhere that to the card front. Voila! All done!

Stamps: Happy Moments

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Taken With Teal (marker)

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Sweet Pea DSP pack, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Satin ribbon, Vintage Brad, dimensionals, marker, sponge, wide oval punch, small oval punch, hand held circle punch, Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions folder