Hand Made Notebooks

I'm really proud of how well these little notebooks turned out. Can you tell by how large I made the pictures? If you have a sewing machine and can sew a straight line you can make these. I will definitely be holding a workshop to let people give it a try. If you are in Knoxville and want to attend shoot me a comment or email. the workshop will be in September. Plenty of time to make a bunch for stocking stuffers or as Christmas gifts for teachers.  Stamp sets accessories are listed below

Stamps:
Flower Shop
Best of Butterflies

Accessories
Pansy Punch
Chevron embossing folder
Fancy Fan embossing folder

Washi what?

I will be the first to admit I'm not always on the cutting edge of what's hot in the craft world .OK not in  technology or fashion or music either but I will come around eventually. So if you are like me you may not have seen or even heard of Washi Tape. It originated in Japan and has the feel of thin masking tape. It comes in lovely colors and designs and you can really dress up a card or scrapbook page quickly with it. Here are a couple of cards with washi tape

 washi tape set: Gingham Garden
Stamp sets:
Flower Shop
Simply Sketched
Best of Greetings

Summer vacation

Why does summer seem to be so much busier than the rest of the year? I have not been to yoga class for five weeks but I made up for it this week doing construction work or rather demolition work.  The old 80's parquet tile in the kitchen and hall is gone. It took the better part of three days and some very sore muscles on my part but it is finally gone. Now I just have to level the floor and install my new laminate. That will be a snap right?.....we'll see.

Demolition doesn't leave much time for crafting. Fortunately for my creative needs I was lucky enough to be invited to a get together with my upline this weekend. That motivated me to design one card for a swap. The swap was to feature new products or colors and this is the result.

Colors are from 2012-2014 In Color collection

Primrose Petals and Midnight Muse

Stamp sets are

Best of Butterflies

Best of Birthdays

Featured new product is the Modern Mosaic embossing folder

Spring Topiary

Last week working with vellum on one of my cards gave me an idea for a decor project. Here it is. A Rainbow colored butterfly topiary. Many times my brilliant ideas turn out to be lots of work and a great big mess all over the dining room table for a week that gets transferred directly to the trash. Once in a while they work. That is what keeps me crafting.

These are really easy and can be completed in just a couple of hours. First step is stamping the butterflies in black ink on vellum. give them couple of minutes to dry. Next color half  your stamped images using Stampin' Up! ink and blender pens in you choice of colors. Then cut out all your images and glue colored butterflies on top of the uncolored ones. Finally affix butterflies to a pre-made topiary, wreath or other decor item of your choice. I picked up the top ball and pot at a floral supply store and the stick came from my back yard.

supplies I used are:

Vellum

Best of Butterflies

Blender Pens

Stampin' Up! ink

1/2 inch Seam binding ribbon

Swarm of Butterflies

I knew this was going to be a great stamp set. This week I went butterfly crazy again with the Best of  25 years butterfly set available here
When you stamp on vellum and color from the reverse side the result is a beautiful, life-like image. After creating this card I have a surprise up my sleeve for a home decor project using the same technique. Check back in a few weeks for that one.

Stamped on Vellum and colored using Stampin' Up! ink and Blender pens

Here is a simple yet sophisticated card suitable for sending to anyone but particularly a father or husband or son who doesn't like all the frills. A butterfly card for a man. Yep I just did that. If i were sending this to my sister I would just change up the colors for something more pastel and add a little bling to each of the butterflies.

Use Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up stamps perfectly

Next up is another masculine example with butterflies. This one is for a young man who is graduating  high school this weekend. It's such a great feeling to be able to give a card you made with care rather than just something you bought. Both the butterflies and the word "congrats" are stamped using ink that matches the card stock color. I love the tone on tone look. One of the best bargains for beginning stampers is to buy a set of card stock and stamp pads together. I recommend the In-Color collection as a good place to start. The colors in these collections are changed every two years so you know they won't look outdated.

2012-2014 In-color collection
Two colors from the collection are featured below, Midnight Muse and Summer Starfruit.

Multiple embossed elements add depth to the image

Finally this is the most simple but perhaps the most elegant card of the week.  Done completely in Whisper white and Basic black card stock with Basic black ink for the stamps; this card is also for a specific event. My brother is getting married and nothing says wedding like black and white. 

Best of Butterflies

I am seriously loving working with this set of butterfly stamps. Rather than stick to just cards this week, I branched out and decorated a few candles. These are amazingly easy and make great teacher gifts. you can use any smooth pillar candles. scented, unscented wax or soy. you simply stamp on tissue paper then transfer the image using a wax paper overlay and your Stampin' Up! heat tool. (available here) As you can see on the top candle using more than one color is no problem and fine details show up very well.  If you are in the Knoxville, Tennessee area and want to learn this technique for free, Just call or email to schedule a date for your own workshop.

Best of 25 years

 Last week's blog post featured stamps from the sets Best of Love and Best of Flowers. I put up links to the sets but didn't really talk about the promotion so here you go. To celebrate their 25th Anniversary, Stampin' Up! is making some favorite retired stamps available for a limited time. This Is my Favorite promotion because it allows you to get some great stamps as a really great price. All sets are priced at $14.95. And when you buy six sets you earn a Free set of your choice from the collection. A new set is introduced every month and they will only be available until March of 2014.

This week I receive my Best of Butterflies set. I'm really looking forward to working with that one so check back to see how that turns out.

Available online or by calling 865-219-3181

January Best of Birthdays

April Best of Butterflies

Open House

We had so much fun and creativity floating around at the open house on Saturday. This was a card I designed to demonstrate how you can use some of the stamps from the Best Of 25 Years line. I love being able to get my hands on some retired stamps and I really love being able to earn a free set for just buying the sets I want.

When my guests arrived they really steped it up and made some amazing variations on the theme. I can't wait to see what my next event will come up with. 

Stamp sets used: 

Best of Flowers

Best of Love

Colors used:

Verry Vanilla

Rich Razzleberry

So Saffron

Basic Gray