Belle Papier {pretty paper}

Little boys birthday’s …like all masculine cards, can be a challenge. It is so easy to get caught in a rut and they just do not like all the frou frou we love to put on cards! LOL In keeping  the recipient in mind, I kept design simple & clean but fun. This card design comes from today’s Sketch Challenge on SCS. A very simple design but perfect for a lot of ideas. If you’d like to join in the challenge, you can find the sketch layout and instructions at SC125.

Cupcake Celebrate

For this card, after seeing the sketch, I pulled out a couple of my new Lizzie Anne Designs sets….Happy Birthday and Designer Dots. They are brand new rubber and were just begging to be inked. I decided to make a boy themed card as my 4yo is always getting invited to birthday parties and it helps to have at least one on hand. I just love these colors together…so fun and funky and perfect for a little guy. A nice change from red and blue. I’ll be so disappointed when SU retires the Cool Caribbean In Color at the end of June. I had to make sure I had purchased a reinker and a couple extra packages of cardstock to tide me over for a while!

This card is a left hinged 4.25″ x 5.5″ standard card of Old Olive. I stamped some random dots over the background of Cool Caribbean for a fun, boyish look. Quick and fun.

The main panel of this card has a little cupcake stamped on the right hand side. I colored the stamp with my markers and then pressed it onto the cardstock. Next I stamped the little celebrate sentiment in Taken with Teal ink. The Designer Dots set has this little starburst style dot in it. I was so excited to see that it would work with my candle! I stamped the image with my Tsukineko Essential Glue Pad and sprinkled on some glitter…a fun touch without being girlie! I wanted to tie a little ribbon around my design and I found some SU Chocolate Chip ribbon. My eyes happened to fall on a scrap of dotted double sided cardstock from the Tres Jolie collection that was on my desk from another project and tutorial I am making for Friday. The colors worked! I just love it when that happens! There were quite a few pink dots on this paper as well are the brown, olive, and aqua so I carefully punched my circle where it would work best for my design. Bright pink was just NOT going to work with this design! LOL After folding over the circl and attaching the eyelet with my Crop-a-dile, I tied the ribbon through and knotted it. It still needed a little embellishment so I stamped the star from the Designer Dots set and inserted a little copper brad in the center.

Quick Tip: Use inexpensive foam mounting tape from the hardware store or dollar store to adhere your image layer. It gives it a slight lift and adds definition to your main focal point. This is a very inexpensive alternative to foam dimensional dots and keeps the bulk down when mailing your project. If working on scrapbook pages, I wouldn’t recommend foam tape as it is not acid free. I used this trick on the above card but unfortunately it doesn’t show up well in the photo.

Looking out the window I happened to notice the mail truck delivering my mail. As I always love mail, I ran downstairs and down the lane to pick it up. Yippee! My Papercrafts issues came today, returning my two Father’s Day cards and enclosed was some darling checked ribbon. Chocolate and Blush and Chocolate and Aqua! I just had to use it! The old plain chocolate ribbon was quickly pried out and the new ribbon inserted through and tied. The perfect finishing touch!

Supply List:

Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate chip, Cool Caribbean, Whisper White - Stampin Up

Stamps: Happy Birthday, Designer Dots - Lizzie Anne Designs

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Taken with Teal, So Saffron, Old Olive - Stampin Up, Essential glue Pad - Tsukineko

Other: ribbon - unknown, glitter - Stampin Up, Circle Punch - EK Success, copper brad & eyelet - Making Memories, Crop-a-dile - We R Memory Keepers

It is always so hard to see a favorite stamp set being retired. Even though you keep them, they do tend get lost in the excitement of new things. Roses in Winter has been one of my very favorite sets. So flexible and perfect for almost every occasion, it is sure to become a classic.

I actually hadn’t planned on stamping today…so much to get caught up on now that the kids are back to school. Benjamin finally started back again and has finally gotten over his Strep. I saw the color challenge though and just had to give it a whirl. Vintage Violet, Certainly Celery and Old Olive are all on my favorites list! If you’d like to join today’s color challenge, follow the CC115 link.

Vintage Roses

I started out by trying something new for this card. It is so easy to always use the same card size and shape. I had just purchased some new envelopes from my SU demo and thought I should try out the different shape. Long and narrow, this card measures 3.25″ x 6.5″. So easy to cut as you just cut a 6.5″ square and fold it in half. How easy is that?!

Quick Tip: If you are using a background stamp and it isn’t quite long enough for your card design….make it work by only stamping a portion of your card layer with it. Add a ribbon over the “seam” and it gives the appearance of two layers and works to help break up your design.

For the background I stamped my Paisley background stamp on the right 3/4 of the card base. I added a strip of one of my new favorite ribbons along the “seam” by cutting a small slit in the hinge of the card, wrapping it around and adhering it under my image. The ribbon is striped black and cream by May Arts and is so flexible and perfect for a vintage look, a retro look and both masculine as well as feminine style cards. My ribbon comes from Jacksonbelle.

The image is stamped on a rectangular scrap of Whisper White paper and then matted with Certainly Celery. The roses and leaves are from the retiring Roses in Winter stamp set. I love the two step stamping approach. I only used one ink color, Vintage Violet, on the roses. To do this and still get a range of color, stamp off the ink on your largest rose stamp on a scrap piece of paper before stamping on the image cardstock. This will give you a lighter look and give extra depth to your roses. After stamping the leaves in Certainly Celery and Old Olive, I sponged the edges with Vintage Violet and adhered the entire panel to the card front.

To add the sentiment, I pulled out my Round Tab Punch by Stampin Up. I love this punch and am counting on it making the new catalogue. I can’t wait to see what is in it! I stamped celebrate on the punched tab and adhered it to my image. To finish up, it is always nice to add an embellishment. I found this darling pewter style brad in my drawer. I still can’t believe that I bought 9 of them for a dollar at the Dollar Store! The little Prima is from a darling little purple bag of Primas that I picked up at my local scrapbook store. I believe it is called Prima Itty Bitty Bag.

Totally Off-Topic: For those of you who wish to view my Papercrafts Online Father’s Day Card, the link is now live…. No Matter How Tall Card.

Papercrafts Idol is down to the top five designers in their PC Idol Challenge! Congratulations Jacksonbelle on making the top five! You rock! To see Jacksonbelle’s final entry, you can check it out here. A beautiful card front, stunning inside, even a matching candle!

The last theme in the challenge is summer themed card designs with a lyric theme and they are so hot! You need to visit Papercrafts Idol to check them out and cast your vote! This is the final round and voting ends Thursday at noon MST so make sure you find the time before then!

This past weekend was the Canadian Victoria Day long weekend, the first long weekend of the summer. The weather was gorgeous both Saturday and Monday, just a little cool and wet on Sunday but we didn’t mind. Victoria Day is also called the May 24 Long Weekend here. What we are actually celebrating, I had no idea until I Googled it! Any excuse for a day off suits us fine and usually we are just celebrating the beginning of wonderful weather, although that is not always the case. One year we went camping in tents and it actually snowed. I said…never again! Victoria Day is the day that we (apparently) celebrate the reigning monarch’s birthday. Now it doesn’t seem to matter when the Queen or King of England was actually born…we celebrate it on the Victoria Day weekend.

We managed to get to the beach on Saturday and play in the sand. The kids had a great time, especially the little boys. It didn’t take Joshua too long to get used to the sand again. LOL About 5 seconds! He was too young last year to remember it but as soon as he saw the water, he was yelling “boap” at the top of his lungs. (Translation: boat) I did promise some photos although I actually didn’t get many. Only the lake and the two smallest boys. My husband was busy at my parent’s cottage doing yard work and I spent most of the time running after the little boys. I did pull it out for a few shots but then put it safely away. It seemed the project of the day was to see how much sand they could get airborne and I was more than a little concerned about the health of my camera!

Monday was a great but busy day as well. My daughter and I headed off to the garden center. Not a great idea as it was packed. The May long weekend in Canada is traditionally the weekend when you plant your annuals. The danger of frost (we hope!) is past and time for our gardening. I was so excited to get quite a bit done. The garden has been rather neglected the past couple years and we bought some annuals and lots of new perennials. I love how they come up every year and I’ve learned to choose ones that are easy care and I just cannot kill. LOL Hostas, daylilies and irises work great for me and this climate.

To finish off a great long weekend, fireworks are always fun. I managed to get Joshua asleep early as he is scared of the noise but the older kids were having a great time running around the yard. My husband had bought them sparklers and some small fireworks. We are also close enough to see the large fireworks display in the park and were able to enjoy the best of both and still get everyone into bed at a reasonable time. My oldest son is on the archery team and came up with the bright idea to attach a sparkler to an arrow and shoot it. It actually worked and was quite a lot of fun although I’m not too sure on the safety issues! I fell into bed last night quite happy but exhausted. I had to laugh when I woke up in the middle of the night, still glowing. I had fallen asleep with a glow bracelet on my arm.

I originally designed this card for a Father’s Day call. My first ever attempt at getting published. While this one didn’t make it, I was SO excited to have Papercrafts take another Father’s Day card I made. YAY! My first acceptance letter…I was pretty excited! The card that did get published is now on the stands in the June/July 2007 issue of Papercrafts at the bottom of page 57. It is an online bonus project. The full instructions are now posted on the Papercrafts web-site at the following link, No Matter how Tall.

This card could also be used as a birthday card and that is actually what I’m going to use it for. My dad’s birthday is tomorrow. Happy Birthday Dad!

Bohemia Dad

For this card, I started out with a Chocolate Chip cardstock base. This card measures 5.25″ square. I direct to paper inked the edges of the diamond patterned paper and adhered it to the cardstock. For the main image & sentiment, I used my Technique Tuesday Eiffel Tower Capital Letters Tall. I inked them up with Chocolate Chip craft ink. These stamps are clear polymer stamps & I find that with large surfaces with this type of stamp, it is better to use the craft ink. You get a better, more solid impression that way. For lining up letters, clear stamps are the way to go. So easy to see through those acrlic blocks!

After inking all the edges, I then matted the sentiment layer with some Bashful Blue cardstock. I also wanted to add a layer of the gorgeous Paisley style paper. I cut it to a width that would give me enough border on each layer to enjoy the pattern, layered it and adhered it all together.

Quick Tip: For a nice, fine matted look…mat your layers with 1/8″ larger mats. Also, make sure that your blade is always sharp or it will be very difficult to get a nice clean edge.

For the last touch, I pulled out an acetate transparency. I love them for adding a discreet touch of interest and layer. Also from Technique Tuesday, my Whirlygig stamps needed to make an appearance. I stamped them on the acetate with white stazon for a neat look. To hold the transparency on the card, I pieced two holes in corners diagonally from each other and inserted two copper brads.

I love the vintage style look of this card and had so much fun making it. I hope my dad likes it too!

Crystal Effects is a dimensional glaze product sold by Stampin Up. I just love this product…it has so many uses! It comes in a small bottle that seems to go on forever. Crystal Effects is perfect for adding that little bit of shine and dimension to any project. With a nice long narrow nozzle, it is easy to apply to your project in just the right amount of product. Crystal Effects is also acid free and is perfect for using on your scrapbook pages. When used in relatively small quanities, Crystal Effects dries quite quickly allowing you to get on with your project. Another fabulous use for Crystal Effects is as an adhesive. It is perfect for gluing on small items to your design and it forms a nice strong bond.

Crystal Effects is a very inexpensive product, only $8.95 Cdn. I hear it is $6.25 US, (thanks Angel)! One bottle of Crystal Effects goes a very long way…mine lasted for almost three years and I’ve just purchased a new one. Crystal Effects can be purchased from any Stampin Up Demo. Visit their web-site, www.stampinup.com to find a demonstrator in your area. If this is not an option, there are other similar dimensional glaze products on the market you may want to look into. I have never had any experience with them so I’m sorry, I can’t help you with product names or recommendations.

Great Ideas for Crystal Effects…

• Use it on stamped images to make glass, water, even eyeballs =) realistic
• Glue on beads with it
• Repair stamps
• Repair household items with it
• Apply with paint brush to use as a sealer
• Adhere microbeads with it
• Sprinkle glitter on it
• Paint with it…add drops of ink from an ink refill to it. Paint onto acetate or other hard surface that it is hard to get ink to stick to
• Add it to flower petals to look like dew drops
• Create water puddles or raindrops
• Use it to make faux page pebbles
• Try a fun stamping technique such as Caught in Crystal or Tissue and Acetate

Quick tip: Cut the tip of your new bottle of Crystal Effects off carefully. You don’t want to large a hole or you may have difficulty applying the product. Another idea is to keep your nozzle down until completely done adding your glaze to prevent bubbles from forming.

My Mom gave me this darling little ornament. I treasure it because of the sentiment. My mom is one of my very best friends. I keep it on a little roll-up desk in my hallway. Unfortunately, it fell off and one of the flowers came off. I quickly repaired it with Crystal Effects….now it is as good as new!

 A quick little design using crystal effects and microbeads… it IS the Canadian Long Weekend after all!

Spot of Happiness

As I mentioned above…busy weekend with the family so when I pulled this together yesterday morning, I wanted something quick. I happened to notice this poor neglected set in the back of my stamp drawers and pulled it out. For the main section of the design, I stamped the little circles randomly in Certainly Celery, Cool Carribean and Cranberry Crisp. I just adore all these colors and am so sad to be seeing the last two of them go. They were part of SU’s In color line and will be replaced with 6 other brand new colors. The white stamped piece was matted with black cardstock and then adhered to a 4.25″ square cardbase of Cool Caribbean.

I then stamped the large circle with Cranberry Crisp and then stamped the small flower in the center in the Caribbean. I punched it out and then matted it with more circles punched with my EK Success punches. In the center of the flower, I added some Crystal Effects and then sprinkled on some microbeads. To tie it all together, I adhered some beautiful black velvet ribbon from Jacksonbelle across the design. Under it I stamped Happiness Always from the Happy Harmony set from SU’s sellebration promotion in black ink. Lastlly, after allowing the Crystal Effects a few minutes to dry, I adhered the circle over the ribbon to complete my project.

Please Note: I am not a SU demo or affilitated with any manufacturer or product that I feature in my C’est Bon entries. Crystal Effects is simply a product I love and feel is worth trying out.

Are you sensing a trend here among my recipes?! Lots and lots of chocolate. We all love it. Probably way too much! I made this recipe Thursday and thought I’d share it here with you. It is one of my faves and so easy! Perfect for a large family. I had GOOD intentions of taking a photo of them for you….alas, they promptly disappeared before I had the chance! So I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it that these are good! LOL Or maybe the fact that they disappeared quickly will do it for you.

We’re off the the lake today! Can’t wait! It’s been since last fall and even though it’s not warm enough here yet to swim…just feeling the sand between our toes will be awesome! It’s been a stressful week here and what is better for that than walking on the beach and breathing that fresh air?! The boats will be mostly in the harbor by now and the kids always love to walk down to see them too.  I’ll try and take some pics to share with you later! This weekend is Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada. Long weekends always seem extra special just made for spending time with your family.

One Bowl Chocolate Brownies

This recipe originally came from a Baker’s Chocolate package. I’ve altered it to use cocoa instead of semi-sweet chocolate in the recipe.

3/4 cup cocoa

1 cup butter or margarine

2 cups sugar

2 or 3 eggs (two for fudgey brownies, three for cakey brownies)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together. Add cocoa and mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and 1 cup of nuts if desired. Spread inot greased 9×13 inch pan. Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes. Do not overbake.

Frosting (if desired): Mix 2 tablespoons butter, 2 squares of semi-sweet baking chocolate and 1/4 cup milk together in saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in 2 cups icing sugar. Spread over cooled brownies. Cut into squares….enjoy!

This recipe freezes well if you can keep it around that long! LOL

This is a fun little card I created for today’s Limited Supply Challenge. The challenge was to design a quick card using one image stamp with a flower on it, one sentiment, some doodling and a few other restrictions. One of them being…no patterned paper! Gasp! If you’d like to see the entire instructions or to play along…the link can be found here.

Funky Birthday Friend

For this card…I started out knowing that I wanted to use white doodling on black cardstock. I had been flipping through a scrapbooking magazine this morning while I ate my breakfast and saw a darling layout with white gel pen handwritten on black cardstock. It really popped and I wanted to try it out. Enter the challenge…you had to doodle…well this mornign was the time to try it out. I had no idea what other colors I wanted to use with it until I saw this darling ribbon hanging out of my ribbon drawer. I’d bought it and only used it once…it would work great as a jumping off point. Black, white, Pink Passion & Real Red…great combo and one I rarely use!

From there I had to pick a stamp set….I wanted to try out some more of my new Lizzie Anne Designs stamps and found this darling little purse and yes! it had a flower on it. That would work! If you are looking for it, it is part of the Happy Birthday set. I stamped the purse on a small scrap of white cardstock and then inked the edges with black ink for definiton and tied it with the ribbon. The purse was then colored in with my pink Gelly Roll Glaze pen by Sakura. I love the fun glossy look! In the center of the flower, I added a little red crystal brad from Making Memories.

The card itself if a 5.25″ square card base of Pink Passion Cardstock. I added a black layer and then strips of red and pink cardstock for a fun, fresh look. After adhering my image, I stamped the [happy birthday] sentiment in black across the strips of cardstock. To add the doodling feature, I pulled out my White Signo Gel pen and wrote words and doodled flowers around the left side of the design.

For the final touch, I added a flower embellishment to the bottom right corner. On the challenge list, it didn’t mention Prima flowers but it did mention a flower punch. I bought the cute little Marvy punch from Michael’s a few months ago and for the most part, it has been hidden in a drawer. I punched out two flowers from vellum and then pulled out one of my new treasures to hold it together….corduroy covered brads! So darling!

Quick tip: To make your colors pop…pair them up with black! Black can be elegant but it can also make this fresh and fun!

This card took me 20 minutes to make…well within challenge limits and perfect for a busy morning! Actually uploading it and writing this blog entry has taken me way longer than that! LOL

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and to my fellow Canadians & friends…a very safe and happy Victoria Day long weekend!

Today for the Ways to Use it Challenge, the challenge is to use small stamps. Often these small stamps can be difficult to use. I know that I tend to gravitate towards larger stamps and usually overlook the smaller ones. I’ve discovered a few tricks to using them over the past couple years and I thought I’d share my ideas and the others I’ve picked up along them way (sorry I have no idea where!) with you. First of all, I’ll start with today’s card and then move on to the list of tips. If you’d like to play along on this weeks Ways to Use it Challenge, you are most welcome at WT113.

Sweetpea

I’ve had this small sweetpea stamp from Ellen Hutson’s store sitting on my desk since I received my order a couple weeks ago. I’ve been really looking forward to using it but life has been a little crazy, even more so than usual these past few weeks. Because I spent all last evening in the Walk-in Clinic, I’ve made this card really simple. Lots of clean white space which is good too as I had really wanted to make a card design for last Friday’s Wide Open Spaces challenge and never managed to do it!

Which brings me to my how I designed this card with a small stamp… Most of the time I tend to make more detailed designs but there is nothing wrong with a simple design. Actually, they can be among the hardest to pull off well. I always think of Julie Ebersole when I think of clean, simple great designs. I just loved the curve of this little pea stamp…so sweet! It just seemed to want to be nestled in the bottom right corner of the card. After watercoloring my pea pod with Certainly Celery and Old Olive and allowing to dry, I covered the tiny round peas with my Sakura Clear Gelly Roll Glaze pen. I love how it gives a rounded glazed effect to the little peas. This dries very quickly and I love that! Crystal Effects would also work well if you have a steady hand in that tiny an area and are willing to wait for it to dry.

The white image panel was then matted with Certainly Celery and then adhered to a 4.25″ square card base made from Kraft cardstock. I’ve been wanting to try out this combo and I just love it!  It looks so fresh in person…perfect for spring or a new little sweet pea. I then tied on this darling dotted ribbon from Starlitstudio. I love the repitition of the circles on the ribbon with the shape of the peas. To finish it off I stamped my brand new congratulations stamp from Lizzie Anne Designs. This stamp is from the Simply Sentiments set. I just love the script on this and it is the perfect size…I know it is destined to become one of my faves!

Ideas On How to Use Small Stamps

This list is by no means exhaustive…just a few ideas I’ve learned. I’m sure that you have some fabulous ones of your own as well and I am by no means the expert on this…just sharing what I know.

1. Simple & Clean can be a great way to use small stamps. Don’t be afraid to leave some empty space in your design. Do plan your layout well if you do this. It often helps to add a small touch of wow when you do this…a little bow or bling always works well!
2. Repetition is another way to go. Stamping an small image repeatedly for a background it a great way to use small stamps. See below entry from an example.
3. Cluster stamps together in a group to make an larger image. For example, if you have a small flower on a stem, stamp three or more to create the effect of a garden. Masking is a great technique to combine with this as you can overlap the images and still get a natural look.
4. Layer small stamps over a background stamp. I love the look of small flowers stamped over a background stamp such as Linen or Canvas by Stampin Up. It adds some fun to the background stamp and the larger stamp helps tie the little images together.
5. Tags are fabulous for little stamps. Because of their smaller size…they help break up the design and the small stamps fit perfectly on them. You can use cardstock tags, metal tags, vellum tags, whatever you wish.
6. Borders are a great way to use little stamps. They can be stamped in a line or even a circle to create a border at the bottom or side or your design, or around a focal point.
7. Design is a big factor in making any project work well. Breaking up the space well with layers or embellishments helps add interest. A small image layer can work well with an interesting design. Scroll up to above entry to see example of this.
8. Patterned Paper adds lots of pizzazz to a design. Pairing up a small image stamp with patterned paper for interest is a great easy way to use a small stamp.
9. Ribbon is fun to stamp on and small stamps are the perfect size for this. Try your ink out on a ribbon scrap first to make sure that is works well with the type of ribbon you are using. Twill is another great alternative.
10. Scale down the size of your card is another of the easiest ideas. If you are having trouble designing with a larger card….scale down to a 4×4″ card, a 3.25 x 6.25″  card, even a 3×3″ mini gift card.

I hope this gives you some ideas to think about and hopefully incorporate into your designs. Pull those small stamps out of the back of the drawer, dust them off and have some fun! Wishing you all a fabulous day!

Another Lizzie Anne Designs card. This is actually the second time I’ve typed this out today…as if I need the extra work! LOL For some reason…I lost the first one when I hit publish. Little boys are still sick….I think we’re off to the Walk-in Clinic tonight!

Vellum Florals

I haven’t used vellum in a while and thought it would be a pretty, fresh look for spring. I actually only used ONE stamp for this entire card! Unheard of for me, I know. I started off with the beautiful paper by My Mind’s Eye. It’s from the Tres Jolie collection that is brand-new and I am totally addicted to! The square card base is made from the double-sided designer paper and I put the patterned side on the inside to create a nice surprise. As I was covering the outside with vellum…I didn’t need the extra competition of patterns there as well.

For the vellum overlay, I cut vellum cardstock from Stampin Up the same size as the card. I stamped the front of it with the freestyle flower from Lizzie Anne Designs Funky Floral set in White Versamagic ink. This ink is specially formulated for use on vellum as well as other paper and dries really well. The bottom front edge is scalloped with my small corner rounder and then the little scallops are punched with a hand circle punch to create a white lace eyelet look. The vellum was then attached to the card base on the back of the card with two small glue dots. To hold it together in the front as well as work into the design, I tied dotted organdy ribbon around the front layers of the card.

The little tag was made by punching a scrap of the designer paper with my Marvy tag punch. I used the patterned side this time to give a sneak peek of the inside design. I then stamped and embossed two more of the flowers on some scrap vellum and cut them out. I then layered them and attached them to the tag with my Crop-a-dile and an eyelet.

This is a very simple, pretty design. I was inspired by the beauty of the paper. It seemed very feminine and pretty and I wanted to compliment it.

Supply List:

Paper: Tres Jolie line by My Mind’s Eye, Cardstock Vellum - Stampin Up

Stamps: Funky Florals - Lizzie Anne Designs

Ink: Versamark, White Versamagic - Tsukineko

Other: ribbon - Michael’s, white embossing powder - SU, tag punch - Marvy, eyelet - Making Memories, Crop-a-dile - We R Memory Keepers