Get 25 percent off 25 stamp sets

Visit the online store for further details on the discounted sets 

 

and don't forget to check the weekly 

Tuesday deals while you at it!

PSSST.... Stampin'Up!'s 25th anniversary sale

Starting Tuesday October 22nd, Stampin'Up! is starting their 25th Anniversary sale.

 

25 stamp sets will be discounted with 25%!!!

 

 

Dolls and Miniatures - displays

As I mentionned, I attended the "Ottawa New Dolls and Miniatures" show last Saturday. Quite an event and interesting to see what other people create too. Amazing people and amazing things they create - life sized (and looking) baby dolls, teddy bears and what not's - bunch of VERY creative and talented people!






I was VERY proud of my new display rack (pretty good job, even if I say myself).

I have to be honest too - I wish I would have had more time to create more spectacular cards - well... I guess I did HAVE the time - I just didn't use it properly :-)

But I was proud of all my Disney Princess cards and I got several positive comments about them. And everybody really loved the dress form dies.

I think I was most proud of my "doll house" cards. I had 2 cards, that could be used as paper doll rooms.

The first one is using "Soho Subway" Designer Series Paper as the back ground. The table is with Early Espresso Card stock, which was embossed with woodgrain embossing folder. On top (which you really cannot see) is a piece of Natural Trim with fringed ends. The flowers are done with Brights Blossoms stamp set (Crushed Curry, Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush and Pistachio Pudding). The base form is done with Baked Brown Sugar.

And the carpet?? That is a piece of Natural Composition Specialty paper inked with Crisp Cantaloupe and the fringe is Baked Brown Sugar Ruffle trim ribbon.

I really liked how this turned out.


The other one - the baby's room. I had most fun with this one.
The back ground again is from Soho Subway Designer Series Paper. All layed on top of Baked Brown Sugar background.

The carpet is Pool Party Core'dinations paper embossed with Square Lattice embossing folder and sanded. Then I snipped around the edges with my scissors to make the fringe - pretty nice - eh?

The stuffed animals are from "Zoo Babies" stamp set - I stamped them on whisper white card stock and then mounted the cs on a second layer of whisper white - then cut them out and mounted them on top of the dresser. The dresser is whisper white and the drawer fronts are mounted with Pop Dots. The handles are Wild Wasabi Candy Dots
The branch is done with Bird Builder Punch.

While I was there, I decorated couple of the extra dress form shapes I had with me. I did couple of "Scottish" ladies (the blue skirt actually has a small safety pin from the Vintage Trinkets. The blue and white dress has sleeves made from Delicate Details Lace tape (the narrow one).

This truly was a new experience for me - creating cards and display items in a particular theme - more challenging than I thought.

Happy and haunted - Halloween is here!!

As some of you know, Halloween is one of the toughest holiday for me. Reason being that back home in Finland we do not celebrate Halloween. Well, apparently it is creeping it's way in there as we speak, but way back when I was a kid - no Halloween.



1) Cased from Michele Reynolds

We did dress up and go from door to door hoping to get some treats, but this was during Easter and we dressed up as Easter Witches (even boys).

So for me to create Halloween cards, is always very strange, I'm okay with the pumpkins and all the cute stuff, but spooky and creepy things - yes, not my cup of tea 

But here goes - hope you enjoy them



2) Cased from Debra Lehigh

Couple of them have been cased from fellow demonstrators and quite a lot of them use "Best of Halloween" stamp set (one of the Best of 25 year special stamp sets)

I especially enjoy the very simple card from Debra Lehigh (2). So easy to make, but I guess it's just enough Halloween for me  - and not too scary !!!

3) Best of Halloween and Washi

Several of the cards use Washi Tape - why? I decided not to order the Witches Brew Designer Series Paper. Last year I orderd couple of sets, and hardly used them at all, so this year I figured that I'm trying NOT to order them and figure other ways to embellish my cards. One thing I really miss is the Spider Web Embossing folder - that was such a great background for Halloween cards and made great impressions on the die cut leafs also!



4) Gorgeous Grunge background



I also used stamps to create some background for my cards. One is using Gorgeous Grunge in Pumpkin Pie and Off the Grid in Smoky Slate. And since Stampin'Up! retired their bat punch, demonstrators have been either using the retired punch or trying to make bats with various different punches. I saw a bat done with the larger butterfly punch and thought - that is the best thing ever!

You punch the butterfly from black card stock and then adhere it to a piece of post-it note. Then you punch the same butterfly again - just the bottom of it so that you get the shape of the bat.




5) Off the Grid, Gorgeus Grunge and Butterfly punch



You can see the bat on the card #5
The moon is sponged to the back ground through a round hole on a piece of scrap paper.

Oh and most of my halloween cards are using Pumpkin Pie. I just like it a bit more than Tangerine Tango - which to me is a bit too dark and "dull" colour.









Label done with My Digital Studio. Background with Washi Tape

Then one of my favourites - this is a hybrid card. The label is done with My Digital Studio and printed on a piece of Whisper White Card Stock (took me couple of prints to get it matching the size of the Apocathery Accents Framelits - but got it pretty accurate.

Then I just used the Witches Brew Washi Tape to create the background.








Romantique dress Form

I saw similar card on Pinterest and liked the look, but since I didn't have all the supplies (WHAT!!! There is still some Stampin'Up! stuff I don't have??!!!) - well, I had to improvise a bit

The base is Whisper White and I embossed a Rose Red Card Stock with Modern Mosaic Embossing folder.

I then tapped it with Silver Encore Inl pad (since I DON'T have the golden, which I wanted to use!!!) and it got really messy. Oh well, I thought this for sure was a doomed card. I then dipped it in Silver Embossing Powder and it got even worse (almost threw it into the garbage at this point)

But I thought, maybe I just heat emboss it partially and rub off the non-heated parts. Well, changed my mind when it started looking MUCH better.

I then added some Delicate Details Lace Tape (I've had this product FOREVER, but NEVER used it!!)

The dress form is Whisper White and it has a Soft Suede stamp from Flowering Flourishes and Sahara Sand stamped text from Postage Due stamp

The Ribbon rosettes are rolled on sticky tape backing with Rose Red Seambinding, Whisper White Organza ribbon and Silver ribbon from the holiday catalogue

Disney Princess cards

Here (finally) are the finished cards

Alice in Wonderland

Cinderella

Label from Etcetera Designer Series Paper

The birds body is done with Bird builder punch (wing from the punch) and the head is the small round punch from the mini punch set. The Wing is a leaf from Bird builder punch branch

Snow White

The 'mirror' is cut out with Chalk Talk framelits from silver Foil Sheet (Holiday Catalogue). I stamped the sentiment from  Really Good Greetings with Silver Encore ink (Holiday Catalogue). And since that ink does not dry - not even with heat - you have to treat it like versamark (well... That actually does dry). So once I had stamped it with Silver Encore ink, I covered it with Silver Embossing Powder and heat embossed it. LOVE the result!!!!

Backpacking - Stampin'Up! style

Oops... I just realized that I never posted the final cards with the Disney Princesses... Come to think of it - I didn't even take pictures of those cards. I guess I have to fix that tonight.

For the past 2 weeks I have been working on my display rack. Okay, it's not a huge project - but my hands can only handle a little sanding and filing and painting per day.

Here I have just started the project. Now I'm already painting it - still needs some paint and small assembly.

Once I have it all ready - you will get to see the final project.

Let me just say.. it would help to have a STURDY workbench, good light and proper tools (read: Drill) to work on wood :)



So for the past 2 nights I have worked more on my paper projects. Last night I finished 2 petite purse backpacks.

 They both are done with Wild Wasabi card stock and the ribbon is also Wild Wasabi. Both are done using Petite Purse Big Shot Die and the idea is cased from a fellow demonstrator Maryse Pelletier.

The "red" backpack has Whisper White scallop (done with medium Scallop Punch), Rose Red and So Saffron punched with Large Oval punch and then embossed with Square Lattice embossing folder (I guess you could emboss first, but I punched the ovals first and then embossed all the ovals for both backpacks at the same time.

So you need 2 ovals of each colour.

Then you just fold them partly, push the brad through the hole. I also pushed it through the backpack to secure it firmly - I did add 2 glue dots to the edges to hold them flat against the backpack.

The Rose Red/ So Saffron version has Candy Dot Brad Bases with Wild Wasabi Candy Dots from the Subtles pack, where as the Chocholate Chip / Pool Party version has 3/8" Glimmer brads (brown).

I still have to work on my picnic basket, tool box, Channel Purse and I think there were couple of other ones I wanted to do. Well.. I'll be busy for the next 2 nights.

And I should also post my Monday's Halloween card class samples soon too.... busy busy!!!