joy gift box

hello friends! 

Here is another gift box I just completed.    I love getting and giving gifts that I have wrapped in such a way that the package is as pretty as what is inside.

Here are the details:

For the box – it measures 8″ wide x 6.25″ tall, x 1.5″ deep.   I used  Sizzix dies for this – these are the very large (12″) dies  (one for the top and one for the bottom) that only work in the Big Shot Pro or larger machines.  But not to worry if you don’t have the die or larger machine!  You can easily take a sheet of cardstock and score it on each side to make whatever size box you want.  For this I used red Bazzil textured cardstock – the heavier the better for your box.

For the main panel:  The image is from Peddlers Pack and was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with the following copics: R59, R37, R35, R0000, G24, G21,  and G40 .  Prisma pencils would also work well for this image.  You can’t tell from the photo, but I used a stardust gel pen to add some glitter on the bow and parts of the wreath.    This particular image would work wonderful on a card as well.

This panel was layered on black, then green.  Once the layering was done I mounted a piece of decorative red cardstock onto black and put strips of green cardstock that had been punched with a Martha Stewart border punch on each end.  A strip of red rhinestones were place on the bottom.

Before attaching these pieces onto the box, I wrapped the top of the box with a white satin ribbon.   The double bow was made separately and glued onto the front.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

it’s a birthday blog hop!

We’re celebrationing Tracy Jackson’s birthday with a big birthday hep!!  Here is my card – Happy Birthday Tracy!

To continue on with this hop, head on over to Michelle Singer’s blog – MyCreationTime –  and when you are done, please leave some birthday love for Tracy on her blog – Stampingseasons.    Let her know we sent you over there!!

My card was made with one of  the super gorgeous DigiDesignHouse image’s from the Floral Perfunes set.  It was very tempting to go all out vintage with this image, but I wanted a bit of a twist and went clean and simple.

I printed it out on copic x-press it cardstock and colored with the following copics:

R59-R46-R29…YG99-YG97-YG92 ,,,E18 andY15 for the flower.   I  often use the darker YG colors for leaves – this range is  a nice olive green color.  I printed an extra image, colored the main blossom and popped it up.  E40 was used for the label and the bottle was colored with BG0000-BG10-N1. 

I sponged the edges with Palette Ballet blue ink.  For a little interest I added a red mat just on the left side and used a May Arts red satin ribbon as the only embellishment.  The textured cardstock is from Bazzill.

Thanks for stopping by today!

grey is the new black

That is what all the fashion and design magazines are saying, so I figured I’d be trendy with today’s clean and simple card.

This weeks clean and simple challenge at SCS is to use “flourishy” type things on your card.  I started with a piece of grey cardstock and embossed part of a flourish image in white on it.  The bird was stamped and embossed in white on a piece of the same grey cardstock then cut out and popped up on the main panel.

I sponged the edges of the grey panel in white then mounted it on white cardstock.  Because it looked a little plain I took a scrap piece of the grey, punched it with a scallop border punch and added it to the bottom.

From here I was not sure which color to use for the base card and after trying several different colors I settled on this textured lilac card from Bazzill.  I like the look of lilac and grey together.  A piece of silk white ribbon with a pearl brad was added at the corner.

Paper:  Bazzill textured, Stampin Up grey, generic white

Ink:  CTMH white pigment, Palette Charcoal

Stamps:  Autumn Leaves Swirls, Flourishes Birds and Vine

Other:  May Arts Silk Ribbon, Bazzill pearl brads, white embossing powder

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Check back tomorrow for another card I made for the clean and simple challenge.

 

snow day

I grew up in New England and each year we usually had one big snow storm – big enough to close the schools for the day.  My brothers and sisters and I would wake up, look out the window and then listen to the radio with Mom and Dad to see if we would have a “snow day”.    As kids we loved it…and my Dad was a school teacher and although he never said it, I’m sure he was happy to have a day off from work as well.  My Mom on the other hand probably hated snow days!

So when I saw this weeks clean and simple challenge on Splitcoast was “a day in the snow” I immediately thought of those days long past of not having to go to school and getting to play in the snow. 

In keeping with the challenge I kept the design and color scheme simple.  I’ve been doing so much coloring with copics that it was very refreshing to simply emboss – and I love the look of white embossing.  Here’s my card:

The cardstock is Kraft/Crumb Cake, with the darker brown behind the embossed image Bazzill textured.  I stamped the sentiment (from JustRite Times New Roman Font) with Palette Burnt Umber ink.  The small spray of snowflakes is one of those $1 clear stamps from Michaels.  The tree image (from Stamp Zia) was stamped in versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.  The twine and brown button were added because I felt it went with the “natural” look of the card.

So, how is your new year going?  I hope well!  I taught a copic class on Saturday at my LSS and it was a wonderful success and I have another class scheduled next month.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you will join us over at SCS for the clean and simple challenge this week!

clean and simple monday

Today’s clean and simple challenge at SCS is the technique of “kissing”.  To do this ink up one stamp – a solid stamp works best – then ink up another stamp and press the second stamp onto the first, then onto paper. 

Here’s my card:

I started with one of those shadow stamps (from Rubbernecker) and inked it up with Palette Ballet Blue ink.  Then I took a Cherry Blossom image (from Stamp Camp) and inked it with a cocoa ink, and pressed it onto the inked shadow stamp.  Then I pressed the shadow stamp onto a piece of white cardstock.

Using a Martha Stewart “All Over The Page” punch (more on these punches later) I punched the label out of a piece of textured cardstock to make a window and sponged more  Ballet Blue ink around the window edges and outer edges of the square.  The stamped piece was placed behind the window and everything was mounted on a piece of chocolate cardstock. 

To add a little interest I used a stardust gel pen and highlighted the cherry blossom image, but you can’t see this in the photo.  It looks very nice irl.

The textured white cardstock is Bazzill, the blue and chocolate cardstock is SU, the ribbon is chocolate satin from Offray.

A note about the MS “All Over The Page” punch.  The punches consist of a top and bottom which are held together with strong magnets.  You separate the two pieces, place your paper in between them, then line up the top and bottom sections and punch.  Lining up the top and bottom is not as easy as it sounds – you need to be careful that the paper is straight and not off kilter.  Then to punch it takes two hands – and if the top and bottom magnets are not perfectly aligned it will not work.  I purchased the punch prior to getting a Big Shot Pro because I wanted to be able to punch anywhere on a piece of paper.  Now with the Big Shot Pro and its very large cutting platform, I can use my nestabilities dies anywhere on the page.  This MS punch may be banished to the “sell” box of my craft room. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you will join us at SCS for this weeks Clean and Simple challenge!

in a color rut….

I was looking through my gallery the other day and noticed that so many of my cards are in shades of blue and green, with the occasional pink thrown in.  

Realizing that I was in a color rut, I decided to go bold and red today.

This card is made with the beautiful patterned paper from the My Mind’s Eye – Lush series.  It’s the damask and floral paper on the card – both of which are flocked papers.  The red ribbon is also from My Mind’s Eye.

The butterfly is from Sweet n Sassy stamps and was colored with two shades of red copic markers – the closest reds I could find to match the paper.  I cut the image out and popped it up on the floral piece.

Nestability dies were used to cut the circles, a Papertrey die cut the scallop border.    The red textured cardstock is from Bazzill.

So – I’m out of my color rut, at least for this card!  I really like pop of color that red provides and will have to work more of it into my cards.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

clean and simple happiness!

I love it when a card just “comes together”!  It does not happen often with me, but it did today in this card for the Clean and Simple challenge at SCS.

I had the layout already in my head  – usually this is the hardest part for me! The butterfly and sentiment images (from Sweet and Sassy Stamps) were also already selected.  All that was left to decide was a leaf type image for the background and a color palette.

True confessions here:  I have alot of leaf stamps.   And I think I need more.  While going through my stamps looking for one, I stumbled across this old and well loved Stampin’ Up set – Ferns.  I used this set so much when I first got it, but it had been pushed aside for newer leaf stamps.  I am so glad I found it again because I love how it looks on this card. 

I stamped the leaf with Memento Bamboo Leaves.  The butterfly was colored with copics YG03, YG06, YG17 and RV32.

I don’t know if a pink and green butterfly actually exists in real life, perhaps only in the stamping world!  Originally I thought this would end up more pink, but as I got to coloring the butterfly I liked how the green looked, so I just went with it.  The little bit of pink adds just enough color to offset the greens.

The green cardstock is Bazzill Swiss dot.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Up, up and away; recreating a famous photograph

Today’s challenge at SCS was to create a card based on things you collect – that is other than craft supplies!  I really don’t collect anything, but Orvil is an aviation aficionado so I thought I would make a airplane themed card with more masculine colors.

I stamped the plane image (from Sunday International) in Memento ink and colored with a red marker.  I sponged blue for the sky and green for some hills.    I drew a couple of lines off of the tail of the plane and attached the sentiment (from Papertrey) to make it look like a banner.

The green paper is swiss dot textured paper from Bazzill.    This is a quick and easy card that can be converted to a father’s day card by changing out the sentiment.

Notes from the travel journal – recreating a famous photograph

While in the Outer Banks we visited the Wright Brothers Memorial and Museum.  This is the place where the brothers spent years testing their aircraft.  Most people associate Kitty Hawk with the first airplane flight, but is was actually a few miles south on a field in Kill Devil Hills where the historic flight took place. 

How often are you able to get an action photograph on the first try?  How about one to record a historic moment?  Take a look at this photo – it records the first time an airplane took flight over one hundred years ago.  Orville Wright is flying and Wilbur is running along side the plane.  The brothers were the only ones who had ever used a camera on the field that day, so who took the photo?  

The brothers set the camera up and positioned it where they thought the airplane would leave the ground.   They enlisted the help of a bystander, John Daniels, to push the shutter.  With a little ingenuity and alot of luck he snapped this photo.  It was the first and only picture he would ever take!   It really makes you think just how incredible this photo is.

The museum has a set of bronze sculptures set up on the field showing this moment and they invite you to stand where John Daniels stood and try to recreate the photo.  Here is my photo – made black and white for effect.  The grounds were different 100 years ago (sand instead of a grassy field) but I think it turned out ok!

The brothers learned alot that day, including the first rule of aviation – tie the plane down when you are done.  After the 4th flight that day a large gust of wind picked up the plane, flipped it over a few times and it crashed – leaving it damaged beyond repair.

As we were leaving we turned on the radio and the shuttle Atlantis was just lifting off.  We both marveled about how fast aviation progressed since the Wright  Brothers flight that day.  It only took 66 years to go from that day to the moon walk.   I wondered if the brothers ever envisioned space flight during those early years?  Orville lived until 1948 so he saw aviation through WWII – did he realize flying into space was going to be a reality?

Thanks so much for stopping by today – from the Outer Banks we traveled north into Virginia to travel the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping in Asheville to visit the Biltmore Estate.  I’ll share more of our travels in my next post.

An 8 x 8 mini book

Last Saturday I was able to spend a good part of the day at my local scrapbook store, Scraphappy Pensacola, where they were celebrating National Scrapbook day. 

I know I wanted to work on a mini book, so I took with me (along with a bunch of other stuff) a pad of 12 x 12 paper from My Minds Eye that I picked up at a Hobby Lobby for a steal! I don’t know the name of the design series, but the package contained 48 sheets of glittered and embossed cardstock in some very pretty patterns. 

Normally I don’t go for the glittered paper, but on this series the glitter was nice and subtle, plus I love most of the designs.

Here is a look at the cover.  The entire album uses paper from the My Minds Eye pad, with the exception of a few sheets of solid color Bazzil cardstock.  The front and back cover uses chipboard pages from another MME kit from the Lush collection.  That particular kit contained an album with a front and back, as well as three inside chipboard pages  and I just figured I’d use two of the three pages to make a front and back cover for this album.

I just love these two patterns – I plan on adding a title in chocolate letters soon.  The border was created using a MS punch on chocolate cardstock.

One of the great things about this paper pack is that some of the designs are so pretty all I did was cut a square from a sheet and created a page with it – I”ll add photos and journaling later on and maybe an embellishment or two, but that’s it.  Here is a photo of one of these pages:

Here is a look at another page – the chocolate paper is Bazzill, but the rest is all part of the MME pack.

It turned out to be a very productive Saturday!  I made the front and back as well as 8 inside pages.  And I won a door prize to boot!    Thanks Scraphappy Pensacola for hosting such a great day!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

one for the guys

For card makers it is so easy to whip up cards for women and girls.  Then you get to the point where you need something more masculine and look through your card stash only to find……nothing.  No “guy” cards.    So, here is a quick and easy one  – for the guys!

I actually made the four square panel about two months ago.  It was for another project that started one way, but ended up completely different (how often does that happen to you?).  I ended up not using any of my original pieces, but thought I’d keep them around for awhile  “just in case”.

Today was that day!  While looking through my room for masculine inspiration, I came across the four square panel and it was on top of a piece of green Bazzill textured cardstock.  The colors just looked so good together. 

The panel was stamped using Memento Rich Cocoa ink on Bazzill textured white cardstock .  I think the texture on the white cardstock gives the stamped images a look like they are on canvas instead of paper.  A square hand punch was used to punch out the four squares.

The stamps are from Rubber Stampede (the two left leafs), Stampin Up (the two right leaves) and Rubbernecker (the sentiment).   The sentiment is generic enough so that the card can be used for birthday, graduation or retirement.

The green panel was mounted on chocolate cardstock  with the green panel making up the majority of the front of the card (meaning the front only has about an inch border of chocolate cardstock.

The “dots” on the left  side are just pieces left over from a small circle punch from chocolate cardstock. 

Once I finished and photographed the card, I thought that the inside (which is just chocolate) could use a piece of green cardstock – the same shade as the front, in order to be able to write a message on the inside, so that will be added later!

Thanks so much for stopping buy!