Stamp-A-Faire 2012: DIYer

I’m on the fast track to becoming a regular homemade embellisher! In addition to creating some homemade washi tape that has yet to find a project-home, and creating a doily rosette medallion, Jessica Witty made a tutorial using Clearly Creative Cardstock to make a stamped transparent overlay for a card front. Well, the nano-second I saw that, I was all over it like white on rice. Only with much more enthusiasm.

I had recently gotten a package of this very elusive cardstock when I noticed it had finally come back into stock after a very lengthy delay in which my nails became nubs from tap-tap-tapping them in anxious impatience during the wait. I love the look of clear transparent overlays, and had some transparency sheets (you know, those kind teachers use for the overhead projector in school?), but they just didn’t work so well for stamping…or die cutting…or regular cutting…or, well, any type of crafting endeavor I could wrap my little brain around. So I was uber excited when I finally got my greedy little paws on the diamond mine. But as is my way, I put it “away” in its new home where it would be safe and then never got around to pulling it back out and using it. Ppsh. Yeah, I know.

So what happened next, you ask? Well, another designer had me in mind when she made her DIY homemade embellishment tutorial. It’s so nice to be thought of. 😉

I LOVE how this card turned out!! The colors didn’t come out right at all, mind you. The satin ribbon should be closer to Hawaiian Shores, not Ocean Tides, but you get the idea. I love how bright and sunny and positively FUN it is! It really came together perfectly considering I didn’t have much of a plan in mind when I started out. I wanted to add a little touch of something into the inside of the card since the outside is so happy, so I stamped a sun and some rays around the inside. It’s meant to be written over with your message, so I kept it light and simple.

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Hello Sunshine (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Clearly Creative Cardstock, Stamper’s Select White (Papertrey Ink); Bright Prints (Recollections)
Ink: Jet Black (Staz On); Lemon Tart, Harvest Gold (Papertrey Ink)
Accents: Celebrate It Basic-Basic satin ribbon (Michaels); Mini Library Clips (Stampin’ Up)

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Stamp-A-Faire 2012: DIY

There were so many fantastic ideas for the homemade embellishments tutorials challenge that I couldn’t pick just one – it was another ribbon moment, relived. I created some homemade washi tape using the tutorial Danielle Flanders made, but I haven’t yet put them on a card. They are currently in a time out under a heavy stack trying to straighten out their behavior. 😉 More on them later.

I happen to swoon for rosettes. Total foot-popping, heart soaring, swoon. As it happens, Betsy Veldman must have had me in mind because she created a tutorial on making a homemade rosette from a doily die. A doily die?!? Yes, you and I both heard right. A doily die. I’d never used one to make a rosette before either, but as it turns out, it makes it very pretty! And as it so happens, I’d recently gotten my hands on some utterly beautiful doily dies that I suppose I was destined to put to good use today.

The die that I used had pretty wide spaced scalloping around the edge, so the rosette came out pretty fat – too fat for a card to my way of thinking. To remedy that issue, I took a 6×6 pattern paper pad, splayed my palm over it, and crushed that little rosette into submission. The result was a very pretty looking, much flatter and more appropriate for a card rosette. The colors weren’t what I envisioned when I started with that purple paper. I pictured bright and cheerful in my mind. It’s a little more muted this way and less my-comfort-zone, so I kept adding little touches until it looked/felt right.

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Rosie Posie, Modern Wood Mats (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Kraft, Vintage Cream (inside), Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Dot Pattern (K & Company); Pattern Pad (Studio G)
Ink: Ocean Tides, Vintage Cream, Classic Kraft (Papertrey Ink)
Dies: English Tea Party Doily (Cherry Lynn Designs)
Accents: Ocean Tides, Plum Pudding, Vintage Cream, & White buttons (Papertrey Ink); Botanica ribbon (Michaels); Natural Cotton Twine

Stamp-A-Faire 2012: Correspondance

Another of the challenges was to create a set of cards for yourself or for a gift. I opted to make a set of thank you cards to give to my mom for helping me recently with a very heart shredding situation. But we won’t get in to that. I need to keep my tear ducts dry and my heart firmly entrenched in my chest.

I wanted to make her a set of cards that was both elegant and universal, so I hit up my all-time favorite, go-to stamp set, Mehndi Medallions. I absolutely, positively, unconditionally adore that set. It has a infinite number of uses. It’s the Ranch Dressing of stamp sets. It goes with everything. 😉

I wanted to give it a subtle amount of dimension, so I added an assortment of rhinestones & pearls to each card and used some small circle punches to cut out a couple of the smaller medallion accents to pop them up with foam dots.

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Mehndi Medallions, Sending A Big Thank You (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Kraft, Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Jet Black (Staz On)
Accents: Rhinestones, Faux Pearls (Recollections)
Tools: 1/2″, 3/16″ Circle Punches (Stampin’ Up!)

Stamp-A-Faire 2012: Craft Conservation

It’s a challenge upon a challenge for me to work with only a limited, set number of supplies. Why did I try to strong-arm this challenge, again? Oh, yeah, I was still preening from my success with the ribbon. The tail feathers blind sighted me. Being an eternal optimist (hi, that’s me), on the bright side, it turned out very nicely. It’s a lot prettier than I was expecting it to be when I was creating it. I think the colors really contributed to that. I wasn’t sure about them at first, but they came together in harmony at the end. Yeah to success!

See the bow? Yeah, that’s more preening. heh.

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Pretty Peonies (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Aqua Mist, Stamper’s Select White (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Linen Vellum (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Lavender Moon, Autumn Rose, Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides, Winter Wisteria, Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink); Versamark (Tsukineko)
Dies: Pretty Peonies (Papertrey Ink)
Accents: Spool O’ Ribbon (Offray)

Stamp-A-Faire 2012: Knots Badge

The Knots Badge included tutorials encompassing ribbon techniques and tips. I was really looking forward to this lesson because I absolutely love me some ribbon! I find ribbon very flirty and girly and fun, so I’m all over that. The problems arise when I can’t stop staring at it long enough to figure out how to incorporate it into my project. I try. Diligently. I just fail. Repeatedly. But no more! Now, armed with these versatile and broad techniques, I can feel confident tackling the application of ribbon onto my cards!

Did I just sound like a cheesy commercial sales pitch? Because it sounded like I just sounded like a cheesy commercial sales pitch.  …

I was so impressed with all the wonderful ideas, that I tried more than one for this challenge. The first one I tackled was Erin Lincoln’s idea to back a negative die cut image with ribbon strips to create a colorful pattern in the die image. She made a beautiful pink ombre hued tiered cake in her card. I immediately thought how cute it would it be to do it using the clouds die.

It may be hard to see in the photos, but I gave the sky a beautiful pearled sheen with some Tattered Angel’s Glimmer Mist. When I first started assembling it, I wasn’t diggin’ the plain white and thought it needed just a little something, but not too much of something because I didn’t want to detract from the scene in the sky. I rarely find myself using Glimmer Mist (I only have two shades), but in this case, it gave the sky the absolutely perfect touch!

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Up, Up, & Away (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Stamper’s Select White (Papertrey Ink); Bermuda Bay (Stampin’ Up!)
Paper: Patterned Paper Pad (Studio G)
Ink: Jet Black (Staz On), Enchanted Evening (Papertrey Ink)
Dies: Up, Up, & Away, Clouds, Doubled Ended Banner (Papertrey Ink)
Accents: Dots & Stripes Ribbon (Michaels), Pearl Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels)
Tools: Arrow Border Edger Punch (EK Success)

The other technique I really wanted to try was Dawn McVey’s basic bow & basic knot. While this may sound simple, she ties some of the most gorgeous bows I’ve ever seen & getting it just right is a lot more challenging that it may seem. In fact, after giving it a try, I can safely say my hands & fingers are going to need a lot of practice!

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Simply Jane (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Kraft, Vintage Cream, Chipboard (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Winter Wisteria, Smokey Shadow, Fine Linen (Papertrey Ink)
Dies: Simply Jane, Quatrefoil Plate (Papertrey Ink)
Accents: Plum Pudding buttons (Papertrey Ink); Celebrate It Basic-Basic satin ribbon (Michaels); Hematite Glitter Glue (Martha Stewart); Natural Cotton Twine

Papertrey Ink Presents: Stamp-A-Faire 2012

The amazing gals over at Papertrey Ink worked their collective tails off this month to create an all-emcompassing “stamp camp” for their customers. It made the “all-encompassing” benchmark because it was executed entirely online. People got together in their own locales, of course, but everyone participated collaboratively via the wonderful convenience of the internet. Bless Bob Taylor and his revolutionary-inducing lightbulb moment. Now if only someone can devise a way for me to sleep normally without having to miss the opening ceremonies because West Cost time (hello, moon) doesn’t confer well with East Coast time. They may not even be on speaking terms anymore…

Yes, my long-winded explanation has a point. I’m glad you asked. The point is that although I missed the first few technique challenges due to unconsciousness, I was able to catch myself up – more or less – and get some cards done to submit. I have until Monday, you know. Noon by East Cost standards, which translates to 9 here. Nichole was gracious enough to allow for the incongruence of timezones.

But the beginning challenge – the “make and take” – was due by Saturday night, which I inconveniently missed. Whoops. But fear not, fellow readers (do I even have any of you yet??), showcasing my creative whimseys is what this blog is all about! Now put your right foot in and let’s hokey pokey!

The card Nichole created utilized single layer stamping, but that morning I was the unfortunate victim of a Stamper’s Slip (I dropped my inked stamp). Thankfully, I’m not currently hormonal and I was able to keep my wrathful fury on a very jerky leash, so instead of raining my image with tears or shredding it into tiny pieces, my caffeine-alert mind came up with a solution. Die cut and re-stamp a new image of the flower that my **** inked leaf stamp landed on and pop it up to overlay onto that little mishap. And since I was adding some dimension with the popped flower, I opted to add some pearls for a slightly more romantic look. It all worked out in the end, which is what I love best. 🙂

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Happy Hydrangeas (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Raspberry Fizz, Stamper’s Select White (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Linen Vellum (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Hibiscus Burst, Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf (Papertrey Ink); Jet Black (Staz On)
Dies: Happy Hydrangeas (Papertrey Ink)
Accents: Faux Pearls (Recollections)

Hello, Nice to Meet 'cha.

I’m one of those people. Yep – you guessed it – those people. I have a master’s degree in the fine art of procrastination. I have interest; really I do. It just seems all my lofty dreams and wayward aspirations are always thwarted by my utter lack of motivation. I blame my willpower. It abandoned me for greener pastures some time ago. Just packed up an oversized suitcase and took off. Really, the suitcase should have tipped me off. I mean, aside from my mother, who packs up all their belongings for a short trip? Not me.

Anyway, I digress. Procrastination. Right. Supposedly, it took 7 days and 7 nights to create our wondrous planet (this, of course, depends greatly upon who you ask). Well, on the historic day of February 11, 2012, it took me 7 hours to create my very first blog (did I mention I get distracted easily?). Of course, it’s now taken me 5 months to write my first post. That’s 162 days. (I counted). And according to my trusty calculator, that’s 3,888 hours or 233,280 minutes. Wow, what the heck did I do with it all?? Ok, yes, over half of it was spent sleeping, but come on. That’s still a tiny sliver of my life right there that I could have been blogging about. haha. Just kidding. Am I digressing again? (er, Yes, I am). Back to the task at hand. My departure time may have been 5 long months ago, but I have finally arrived at my destination: this blog. Hopefully, after all this, you’re still reading and I haven’t lost you at a layover somewhere.

I fully intend for this lovely blog to be an all-encompassing retreat into the vast and enchanting realm of papercrafting. Specifically, the charming kingdom of card-making. It’s one of my hobbies. I love making and giving cards to the people I care about. It just seems so much more personal to me than spending 3 hours in the store rummaging through all the card pockets looking for just that right-phrased something for the occasion. You know the one; that elusive perfect card. I can never find it. My mom’s got the talent there. It must have skipped a generation. So my kids will have it too…damn them.

When it comes to card-making, I’m a big fan of Papertrey Ink and Stampin’ Up and the vast majority of my artistic creations stem from something I have of theirs. Of course, being a compulsive shopper (I blame Willpower for that one too), I have many (many) other craft supplies from other companies, but Papertrey Ink and Stampin’ Up remain – by far – my favorites.

Hopefully, if luck is on my side since Willpower isn’t, my layovers will be less frequent now that my terminal is officially up and running. I’ll try to head off any pit-stops when I can. I spend enough time at Procrastination Station.

Till next time. 🙂

~Bonnie