CASEing Papercrafts magazine

 I loved this card on the cover of Papercrafts magazine and I had the stamp and die set from Papertrey so I copied the card.

The difference is that I put a black circle behind my bell to make it stand out better.  I also didn't do the holly on the bell to make it a more mailable card.  I think the circle behind the bell makes a world of difference to the card.

A hunter green version using white embossing powder and a snowflake version using Spellbinder snowflakes.  Hope you like them! - Heidi

Another Ciao Bella card

Yet another card from the DCWV Ciao Bella stack.  The birds and banner are fussy cut and popped up.  The words are from Cuttlebug. - Heidi

Flip Off Art

Maybe this is one of those you have to work in healthcare to understand type of things...  The hospital where I have clinicals saves the Flip-Off tops from injectable medications.  Someone makes them into flowers and the staff wears them on their badges.  A neat idea that I ran with, of course!

Above is a picture of various flip off tops.  The colors are not the greatest, but you work with what you have.

I punched a pumpkin face out and then punched a circle over it and glued it to the flip top.  I hot-glue gunned a brad to the back and added it to my badge.

For Thanksgiving I made a turkey!  The flip off top is under there! No matter how I took this picture it came out fuzzy, sorry.

As a thank you and holiday card I will have my classmates sign this card and leave it at our clinical site on the last day.  Again I used the flip off tops from injectable medication vials.  Way to recycle! - Heidi

New Yoshi and more

Here is a sampling of what I have been up to.

The above bird is from the DCWV stack called Ciao Bella.  I fussy cut around the bird and some of the flowers to give it interest.  See here for other cards made with paper from this stack.  The sentiment is from Perfect Punches (Stampin' Up).

While wandering at JoAnn's in the clearance aisle I found these K & Company stickers for $0.50.  How could I resist?!  The sentiment is from Tiny Tags by Stampin' Up.

Someone emailed me asking me for directions to assemble Yoshi.  I didn't realize that it was over a year ago that I had put that card up!  I see that others have duplicated my card and posted directions.  Well I have gotten off my butt and posted the directions both below and here.

Directions for Yoshi (posted 10-12-2012):

You will need the following punches:
1 1/2 " circle
photo corners (retired, but you could use a square and another square for his arms)
word window
large oval MEDIUM (this is what I am going to call it)
extra-large oval LARGE
scallop oval
1-3/8 " X 5/8" oval (retired 2 catalogs ago) SMALL
corner rounder

Also needed:
thin line black marker
white gel pen
sponges
Wild Wasabi (WW) & Tangerine Tango (TT) card stock & ink
white cardstock
adhesive (I used Tombow glue)

1. Using the word window punch black card stock.

2. Cut black strip in half.

3. Using the small oval punch out two white ovals.

4. Punch two WW ovals with the MEDIUM oval punch.

5. If a shape is WW or TT sponge it before gluing it - EVERY TIME!

6. Overlap the WW ovals and glue.

7. Glue the white ovals on & then the black word window strips.

8. Draw in your eyes with white gel pen.

9. Punch another MEDIUM WW oval and adhere across the eyes.

10. Punch a LARGE oval from white and adhere just below the top of the WW oval.

11. Punch a 1 1/2" circle from WW and adhere over white LARGE oval.

12. Draw in nostrils.

13. Punch another LARGE oval from white and 2 from WW.

14. Glue the white oval over the two WW ovals to make the body.

15. Leave a little space at the bottom of the white belly oval to tuck the legs under later.

16. Punch two and sponge WW with the photo corners largest V of the punch.

17. Corner round off the "elbows".

18. Punch a scalloped oval from WW.

19. Count off 4 scallops and line the edge of the V up to one scallop and cut into the scallop for a longer thumb.  Refer to original picture here.

20. Adhere arms behind body.

21. Punch 2 SMALL ovals from WW & tuck under the belly for legs.  Adhere or tape on.

22. Punch 2 SMALL ovals from TT & sponge.  Cut about 1/3 off to make boots.

23. Punch 2 word windows from TT.

24. Adhere a TT word window with removable adhesive to a piece of scratch paper.

25. Punch the strip again so it is about 3/4" long and rounded on both ends.

26. Assemble boots and adhere to legs.

27. DONE!

Have a fantastic evening - Heidi

Blooming with lots of Kindness

You see an awesome card and then you have to have the stamp set.  We have all been there.  This was the set that I had to have, Blooming with Kindness from Stampin' Up.  I went a little crazy with it!

Below is the flower embossed in black on Perfect Plum.  then I took a watercolor brush and painted with bleach & water.  The PP turned into a Blush Blossom color so that is the other color I used for this card.  The set is called Brighter Tomorrows.

The next card is embossed black on Baja Breeze.  The bleach made it turn Blush Blossom so that is what I used to finish the card.  I added a butterfly from the Papillon Potpourri set and words from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Cherry Cobbler turned Apricot Appeal and yes, I bleached all those dots to make the background.

Then I sponged my brains out with this stamp set and also used the stamp set So Sorry.  I clear or white embossed and then sponged over it.  The dies are from Spellbinders.  I hope you enjoy - Heidi

Did I invent this?

I was working with the Star Tree a la carte stamp from Stampin' Up.  I just didn't like the way it looked stamped or just clear embossed and sponged over.  

I am a big fan of having few embossing powders and using the technique that I saw on Michelle Zindorf's blog.  She inks her stamp with Versamark, then inks the stamp with a color ink, then stamps it and clear embosses it.  This basically gives an embossed look in whatever color ink you used.

So I thought why can't I make this tree the way I want it to be?!  I want yellow stars and a brown tree trunk (I thought red tinsel garland would be too much, but I may still revisit that thought!).  So I inked my stamp with Versamark and colored the trunk with a Chocolate Chip marker and most of the stars with a Yo Yo Yellow marker.  Then I stamped it on Very Vanilla and clear embossed it. I went over the tree with Gumball Green ink on a Q-tip so I could lay ink precisely where I wanted it!  I used Stickles to make the tree ornaments.

Who says you can't emboss in multiple colors?  I was searching for a name to call this technique.  What do you think?  Multiple color clear embossing?  Marker clear embossing?  If you have seen this anywhere before I'd love to know where.  If you can think of a better name for this technique I'd love to hear that too! - Heidi

An African Grey card

I have a Cricut, but I don't use it as much as the price suggests I should.  I bought the Pet Shop cartridge because I like animals.  Xavier asked me to make an African Grey like Sterling.  So I put on my thinking cap and here is what I came up with.

A2 card size, Pacific Point DSP, Basic Black, Yo Yo Yellow, Real Red, Close to Cocoa & Basic Grey cardstock, You're a Gem stamp set.

Below is what the Cricut cartridge suggests that the bird look like, but we know that I don't like to follow anyone's ideas to the letter.  So I changed the colors, used the same foot twice, but flipped it, drew lines on the branch and feet, shortened the tail and sponged a bit of white to make a Congo African Grey parrot.  I think it came out awesome and it took forever so I will never make another one ever again! - Heidi

I'll make anything into a card

In the next installment of "I've seen that before" I have these three cards to offer to you.  I am the great recycler, you know.

Okay so the card below is not recycled, but the idea is.  I saw it in a magazine and tried to recreate it.  I hate this card.  Enough said. 

While looking through my Family Fun magazine I spotted this happy Lorax face in a DISH Network ad so I made it into a card.

A10 card size, Pumpkin Pie & Tempting Turquoise cardstock, Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.

My kids' friend was having a birthday and I needed a card.  This is from a scrap booking chipboard set that I had hung on Isandro's wall.  I "borrowed" the storm trooper from him to make this card.  Previously I borrowed Darth Vader from him.  Needless to say Isandro wants me to replace what I have borrowed.
I think it turned out great! - Heidi

A2 card size, chipboard clone trooper, Yo Yo Yellow & Basic Black cardstock, Happiest Birthday Wishes stamp set.

Rummage find!

My family and I went rummage-saling a coupl of weeks ago.  We were at this warehouse and saw a pile of racks.  There was one in the box brand new so we knew what they were supposed to look like.  Ernesto and I had $12.00 between the two of us.  The guy at the sale said sure go ahead and take them.  We almost didn't fit all the pieces into Ernesto's Focus!  When we got home we had four literature racks!  They are meant to hold 8 1/2 X 11 magazine, but I can certainly modify that!  It holds my bigger cards nicely & look it holds packs of Stampin' Up cardstock!  I looked these up online and they normally sell for $180.00 EACH.  What a deal! - Heidi

Ciao Bella

A10 card size, Ciao Bella paper, Cajun Craze & Blush Blossom cardstock, Occasional Quotes stamp set.

While wandering at Michael's (dangerous, I know) I came across this stack called Ciao Bell from DCWV.  It's girly, glittery and cutesy (everything that I am not) so of course I had to have it!  Plus I had a 50% off coupon!  How could I resist!?  I fussy cut around each bird or the rectangle above to give the card dimension.  My pictures do these cards no justice, of course.  Then I added a sentiment and made matching envelopes. - Heidi

A10 card size, Ciao Bella paper, Tempting Turquoise cardstock, Word Play stamp set.

A10 card size, Ciao Bella paper, Blush Blossom & Rose Red cardstock,  Happiest Birthday Wishes stamp set.