Always Cherish Every Moment

 

I was terribly annoyed with myself that I missed the So Sketchy Design Team call. There was just so much going on here at the time of the call. I missed it by only a few hours and the next morning, I wrote to Alli asking that I be allowed to submit late (Puh-lease!!), hoping that my stint as a Guest Designer might count for something. Early Bird that she is, the team was already chosen and notified! NUTS! She was very sweet in her email and suggested that I play in her challenges each month. So I looked through July’s card sketches so far and found this one. Very unusual. I am also entering this in Verve’s Divine Details Project Parade Contest. “make a project or card that shows us your Divine Details”.

I won’t mess around here, I had a dickens of a time  getting this layout to work. The diagonal piece was easy (and FUN) but I first tried a large scalloped circle in the darker pink floral paper.  Pretty, but the lovely scalloped diagonal paper was lost against the darker pink circle, SCRATCH that. I used some peach chipboard photo corners that came in the scrapbooking kit I was working with, mmm, too heavy looking, SCRATCH that. I tried a circle in the turquoise paper (on the back of  cross-stitch paper) for the center, also not right, SCRATCH that. Flowers from the Honey Pie Cosmo Cricket die cut sheet  instead of the bows? Not enough contrast, SCRATCH that!! Circle in the middle of the card? Too unbalanced since the diagonal is not in the middle. SCRATCH that.

I finally settled on the cross-stitch circle sponged with worn lipstick Distress ink, the cherry blossom paper in the center sponged with cocoa ink, the turquoise reverse of the cross stitch paper as the corners (they fit perfectly on the scrap left from die cutting the scalloped circle!!) and bows instead of flowers on the diagonal. With the circle offset, I needed something for the other corner. This rub-on is so sweet, I know even in the close up it is hard to read, “always cherish every moment with those you love.'” Sweet huh? I wish the small letters showed up a bit better **SIGH** I used pearls to bring more attention to the sentiment and added one to each corner die cut for emphasis. Over all, I am quite pleased with the result and if I were part of the So Sketchy team, I would be proud to send this to Allison.

In case I need to list them, my Divine Details are: Die cut photo corners, buttons tied with twine, ‘shabby chic’ ribbon bows, scalloped edges on the circle, pearls as accents and for adding emphasis to the sentiment, sponged paper edges, scalloped edge on diagonal and three different button colours!

Just a little note, I ADORE making generic cards. Consider not adding a sentiment to your card (I know!! GASP!!***) or using a very generic one like an uplifting quote or Thinking of You. Then you always have a card when you need it. You will find most of my cards have no sentiment unless I am making them specifically for someone.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: gulp, none!
Ink: worn lipstick-Ranger, cocoa-SU!
Paper: Sassafrass, Honey pie-Cosmo Cricket, Blush CS-SU!
Accessories: corner die-Cuttlebug, scalloped circle Nesties, seam tape-stash, buttons-Maya Road, hemp twine-Hemptique, rub-on-SU!

Rose Romance Card

Not much to say on this one. I sewed the lace in place to get the imperfect gathers. I used my bow easy to make the bow and I purposely left it as a ‘shabby chic’ bow (tails on opposite sides of the loops). The swirly die cuts are from a new Sizzlits die, I was very surprised to see the same one in the SU! catty because I thought they were exclusive dies! I cut them from moss CS and sponged them with old olive using Cut n Dry foam, my new favourite tool! Watch Jennifer McGuire videos and you will see what I mean! The rose is coloured with R20, 32, 59 and a bit of 00.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: SU!
Ink: olive-SU!, frayed burlap-Ranger, Memento cocoa
Paper: chocolate, moss CS-SU!, Porcelain-Basic Grey
Accessories: Porcelain brads-Basic Grey, Sizzlits scribbled swirl, Copics, Kaisercraft pearls, ribbon and lace-stash, foam sots-stash and Jody Morrow

Bow Easy and Tutorial Plus Bow Tying Tips

I bought a Bow Easy from Sharon Johnson of No Time To Stamp. She has great photos on her site but I thought I’d add a bit more adding how to include extra tails and an extra ribbon to tie around a panel or jar etc. I also took my photos very close up so hopefully it can help some of you out there. Now I already tie a pretty nice bow so I was skeptical of how much I would end up using this little gadget but for $6, why not! I actually really love it. I find myself wasting less ribbon because I know exactly how much I need after making the same bows over and over.

When you are new to this, choose a long piece of ribbon so you don’t have to worry about it being long enough. A short ribbon is very hard to work with. Start with a piece you don’t care much about to practice and try different sizes out. You might also want to check your Bow Easy for little sharp pokey things on the edges, I just used a nail file to remove them before I went any further. I think they were just leftover from the manufacture, the edges weren’t cut perfectly smooth. If you don’t, they will catch on thinner ribbons, snagging them and make thicker ribbons harder to remove!

Bow Easy Tying

Step 1. Starting at the left side of the Bow Easy template, lay your ribbon over the plastic. 

Step 2. Wrap your ribbon under the template and back across to the right side. The tail is under my right thumb.


Step 3. Thread the tail into the groove in the plastic above the ribbon you have already laid across. If you are using wider ribbon, you may need to scrunch the ribbon lower on the template  to make it work.
Step 4. Bring the ribbon tail  from the back, up in the groove on the lower edge of the template. Do not pull the ribbon tight, YET! This will create a loop. (Keep in mind that the ribbon you just looped around the back is the center of the bow front so you might want to check and make sure that your ribbon is right way up if it is one-sided!)
 
Step 5. Cross your ribbon tail over the loop.

Step 6. THIS IS WHAT NOT TO DO!!! A big mistake and one I’ve made often! This bow will not tighten and stay tied.
Step 7. This is the RIGHT WAY!! Tuck your tail into the loop and out to the right. (not out the bottom)


Step 8. Now all you have to do is tighten it!
 
Step 9. Remove it from the Bow Easy. If you like a ‘shabby chic’ bow, stop here!

Step 10. Fiddle with the tails so they are both on one side of the loops.
 

General TIPS I think bows look classic (my favourite look) when the loops are 1-1.5 times as long as the ribbon is wide and the tails are 1.5-2.5 times as long as the ribbon is wide. Of course you can do what you like but this is a great guideline to start with if you aren’t sure how you want your bow. One the Bow Easy, I use the 1 1/4 width for 3/8” ribbon and 1 3/8” for 1/2” ribbon. I haven’t got a ‘rule’ for ribbon sizes beyond that yet.

Part 2! Adding extra ribbon to your bow.

If you read my blog much, you will know I don’t like the look of a bow glued right on to a ribbon unless the ribbon is puckered making it look like you really tied two different ribbons across the panel. So I tried adding a ribbon at different places in the tying sequence, here are the results.

Extra Bow Tails

Please perfect your bow tying before you try this! It is easy to get confused. I recommend you practice with different coloured ribbons!

Step 1. To get extra bow tails, lay another ribbon (or as many as you’d like) across the first ribbon wrapped around the template. I will have to shimmy  my ribbon down before I can tie it! Place the ribbon face down if it is one-sided. 
Step 2. Tie as normal. Try your best to ignore the extra ribbon.

Step 3. This is what the bow looks like when removed. Just like a normal bow, you may have to fiddle with the tails.


Extra Ribbon for Tying Across a Panel Etc.

 

Step 1. Tie ribbon up to the point where you are ready to tuck the tail into the loop. 

Step 2. Lay a ribbon across the template. Because I was taking  photos holding the template in front of my camera, the ribbon slipped down. This actually makes it easier to tie! You can see I am holding the ribbon tail at the back so it doesn’t slip out of the slot. If your ribbon is one-sided, place it face down during the tying.

Step 3. Tie as usual.  

Step 4. This is what it looks like in the end. Now you can tie these around a jar or basket handle. Or glue the ends around the back of a panel like in my example above. Don’t worry about exactly where on the ribbon you tie the bow, you can slide it along later. however, if your ribbon is very  delicate, you might want to leave extra at both ends to help you with placement. You could even use embroidery floss, fishing line or twine instead of the second ribbon if you want to tie the bow around a 3-D object and not have much showing. You could also bead the ribbon etc. for a really cool look. 

Enjoy, Rebecca

Twinkling Tuesday Belated! Monsters!! Oh No!!

Let’s see, my excuse for being late this week… Monsters invaded my home...   Really?? you don’t believe me! Humph, I am offended!! Well, look below, I have PROOF! Three of the scariest monsters I’ve ever seen snuck into my home and have been wreaking havoc! They have eaten EVERYTHING, messed up my house (of course that is why it’s messy!) and kept me from crafting! Don’t you think they are scary??

 

The inspiration for this card was Madelynn’s sketch for the week. After this, the Twinkle Team is taking a break for the summer. It makes me sad but at the same time I am looking forward to not having to remember when we are out doing fun stuff! I’ll miss the team too! We tend to banter back and forth a fair bit through emails. A really great bunch of gals! I will be sure to post when we are coming back for anyone who follows the Team. Apparently, we are going to have a name change come the fall too! Even I don’t know what it is yet, Madelynn is keeping it a secret!

Quite the doozy of a sketch huh? I debated between wanting to split it down the middle, doing only half of the sketch and working with the whole thing. I considered doing a scrapbook layout but the pix I wanted to scrap aren’t printed yet! So decided to be brave and I went for the whole thing in the end. Obviously I didn’t manage every little detail this week, there were quite a few, well tons actually! Let’s just say I moderated them a little!

 

These little guys are cute huh? I coloured them with Copics and used blender solution on a piece of terry cloth to get the texture on the red and turquoise monsters. The yellow one I ‘dotted’ by hand with lots of touches using my blender pen. To get the feet to show up on the patterned paper, I first scratched the top layer of paper off with the tip of my scissors leaving white paper behind. Otherwise the turquoise feet would have looked brown and the orange feet simply wouldn’t have shown up at all!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: MFT
Ink: Adirondack black
Paper: Bazzil CS, Fancy Pants Summer Soiree DP, black CS-SU!
Accessories: red droplets (epoxy stickers)-Kaisercraft, red brad-Doodlebug Designs, Ribbon-Sweet Pea Scrapbooking Kits, foam dots-Jody Morrow

Bits and Bobs of Flotsam and Jetsam!

Part 1                Awesome Giveaway from Andrea Walford

The EZ View Desktop is designed with a clear, glass-like top and three drawers with built in partitions for easy organizing on any home project. The desk is 36 ½ inches wide by 25 inches and it stands about 3 ½ inches high. The picture above was taken by Rachelle to show you what it looks like filled.  The Original Scrapbook is currently selling the EZ View Desktop for $195 US in either vanilla or black and is offering FREE Shipping to the contiguous United States.  They have lot of other cool organizational units for crafters so make sure you hop on over to The Original Scrapbox and take a look.  During this blog give-away they’re offering $100 off shipping (on qualifying items) just by entering this coupon code: 100Writes. Visit http://andreawalford.com/?p=2674#comment-30413 to enter!

There’s several different ways to enter the draw to win the EZ View Desktop.  The more options you choose the greater your chances of winning:

• Visit The Original Scrapbox website and choose your favourite product. Once you’ve done that come back here(Andrea Walford) and leave a comment and tell me what your favourite is and why you would like this product.
• Post about this contest on your blog. In your blog post you need to post a photo of the EZ View Desktop by right clicking on the image and then selecting “Save As”, this will allow you to upload the photo on your blog post. You may use photos of the desktop from my blog or The Original Scrapbox. Feel free to copy and paste the information above into your blog. Please link back to my blog (Andrea Walford) and also to The Original Scrapbox, and of course come back and leave me a comment in the comments section of this post with a link back to your blog post.
• You get 5 extra entries for each friend you refer who then posts about the contest on their blog. Just have your friend post an entry, come back here and leave me a comment with a link to your friend’s entry that says something like, “I told Becky about this contest and she posted it on her blog (include blog post link)”. This friend will also be entered into the contest according to contest rules.

This give-away will run for 10 days. The winner will be announced in a follow-up post on Monday July 20th. So if any of you choose to post this to your blog, please let me know so I can get more entries!! Pretty please!!

Part 2            The Art Glitter Institute is looking for DT members!

Click on the link to visit their website, newbies welcome, you just have to be innovative with glitter!

Part 3           An AWARD!!!! YEAH!!!! (Saved the best for last!!)

Thank you so much Bonnie for this AWESOME Blog Award! I really appreciate that you think my blog is lovely! After all, Bonnie Sharp is a current Dirty Dozen Member on Splitcoast stampers! Pretty prestigious! And she likes my blog (grinning and giggling like a school girl!!) Love ya Bonnie!!

Best Blossoms Get Well for Peggy

ETA: I meant to take photos of the bow technique but didn’t get to it. I will edit this post tomorrow with the photos. Sorry there is no Twinkling Tuesday post today. Come back and visit tomorrow; at least half of us were having trouble getting our posts up today, me included!!

I needed a get well card for a dear old friend, Peggy, who was in hospital. The kids and I went to visit her Thursday and I whipped up this card in about 25 minutes (that has to be a record!) before we left. I probably have a get well card stashed away somewhere and tons of general cards but it was more !!FUN!! to create a new one!

Pretty simple layout, the flat ribbon bow was the hardest element on the card. I always find it hard to make these and get the center perfectly centered so I tried a new technique. I only used two pieces of ribbon. Most times I have done it before I have used three, one for the straight piece across the card, one for the loops and one for the center. This time I used one piece across card AND the loops. (There is a center piece in the middle of the bow, because I added the flower, it is hard to see but if you look closely or enlarge the photo, you can see it!) First I decided where I wanted the bow, how big and how long for the tails then cut my ribbon accordingly. I folded the ribbon where I wanted the center of the bow to be. I had already determined the size of the loops so I laid down a line of glue and clamped the ribbon-see photo 1. When it was half dry, it was easy to fold the ribbon at the glue line, clamp it a bit longer then when dry, wrap another piece around it for the center. see photo 2

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: best blossoms, sincere salutations–SU!
Ink: eggplant, rose red, celery-SU!
Paper: white, regal rose, rose red, eggplant CS-SU!
Accessories: rhinestone-EK Success, crocheted flower-Rebecca Wu, foam dot-Jody Morrow, brad-stash, ribbon-SU!, rectangle Nestabilities
Technique: flat ribbon bow

Oooh La La!! French Corset Card!

Boy I wish I looked this good in my underwear! And red too, Wooo Hooo! Can you tell how much fun I had making this card! I sat down to make cards and I really didn’t feel like crafting but DH took the kids out to play at the mall playground so I felt like I just HAD to take advantage of so much alone time! So I started with
the card you saw in the last post, easy peasy and then, browsing my blog list, I saw this card! It reminded me I needed to use a French Boutique set I’ve had for ages but barely used. After choosing the stamp I looked through a tin full of French labels I’ve had for ages which I save for cards where they will really shine. This one was just begging to be used on such a girlie card. I shabbied it up a bit with caramel and cocoa ink applied with Cut n Dry Foam. The background was inspired by recent videos on Jennifer McGuire. Trust me, I am not even going to link to a specific video because you HAVE to watch them ALL! Even if you aren’t a technique fan, these videos are AWESOME! I used one of her resist techniques to create my background. Start by stamping a background pattern on your cardstock, then stamp a semi-solid or solid image in Versamark and heat emboss with clear embossing powder. You can stop there but if you sponge a darker ink over, the clear embossed areas will resist the sponged ink and you get a background like mine! If you don’t love the shiny areas, put a couple layers of paper towel over the card/background and iron, the embossing powder will melt into the paper towel and your design will be much less shiny!

I used Copics on the corset itself, I had a lot of fun colouring this one, I am actually REALLY pleased with the results. Copics do take a lot of practice but they are so worth the effort!!!! I started with a medium pink, covered it with red, then  shaded with deep red. Imagining this fabric is a bit shiny, I left a highlight where the fabric folds into the seams. I couldn’t decide what to do with the bottom of the dressform which had a wire ‘cage’ extending the bodice making it longer. The lines were too thin to cut out around and I didn’t like the white paper showing so I just cut them off. The skirt was fun to do, I had a roll of tulle left from my wedding! (1997!) so I cut off a piece, stitched a quick running stitch along the edge and inserted it into a slit I cut at the lower edge of the corset. I had cut almost all the way along the dropped waistline just leaving bits attached at each edge so the tulle fit in there perfectly. I attached the dressform with a double layer of extra tall foam dots so it is about 1/2” above the main card. The pearls are tiny beads meant to be strung so I placed them carefully so no holes where facing up. The ribbon is hand dyed and painted seam binding tape from Kim Hesson, her Etsy store is Miss Alayneeah (get it, miscellanea!), wasn’t it just perfect for this card??

  This card screamed, “Add Bling!!” so I put rhinestones all over, so pretty! I added clear Spica pen to all of the flowers and leaves on the sticker, outlining them, then added more to the roses and the lilacs. I also glittered the oval around the sticker, the dots on the corset and the dressform stand to make it look more like metal. I even managed to get an angle that shows the sparkle and bling. WAY COOL!!! You might have to enlarge it to see it though.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Fashion Boutique-can’t remember! I thought I had transferred the company name to my newly organized CD cases but I guess not!, flower-Hero Arts, script-Hero Arts?
Ink: Memento brown, perfect plum, cocoa, caramel-SU!
Paper: pale plum CS-SU!, Taylored Expressions 
Accessories: tiny pearls, tulle-stash, ribbon-see above, rhinestones-Zva, Clear Spica pen, foam dots-stash, clear EP-SU!, Copics, sticker-Cavallier Printing, Shimmer Mist-Luminarte
Technique: emboss resist

Doggie Welcome

My girlfriend, Rebecca, absolutely LOVES animals and she is such a softie when it comes to any of them even if they aren’t smart or pretty! Her little Shit-zu is adorably funny looking, not too bright and mostly blind, he is so cute and we both love him to bits. Her other dog is also sweet but not quite so unusual! She just told me the sweetest story about her neighbour. Apparently she loves dogs, buying treats for all the neighbour dogs and was dying to have one of her own. Why she didn’t just buy or adopt one wasn’t part of the story! So she finds a beautiful, older Golden Retriever who is apparently lost and not only takes her in but takes her to the vet, tries to find the owner and treats her like a queen. The Humane Society finds the owners 6 days later and a woman and her 15 year old son come to get the dog. There is a lot of crying from the boy and the temporary ‘mom’, the ‘original mom’ didn’t really get how a stranger could become so attached to a dog in such a short time! The lady explained how she had bought treats, food, bowls, a leash, a bed and spent a ton at the vet. The family took the dog home but called back later, offering her the dog. Apparently the dog has arthritis and she was going to be put down later that summer because they couldn’t afford the vet bills! The boy is very attached to the dog but felt it would be better for her to live a couple more years even if it wasn’t with them! Isn’t that amazingly mature and sooo sweet! so after telling me this story, how could I not offer to make a card for Rebecca to give to her neighbour. There isn’t much to tell about how it’s made, you can see all the details. If you have any questions, fee free and email me!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Dog Lover-See-Dees, Right at Home-SU!
Ink: night of navy, ruby red-SU!, Memento brown
Paper: not quite navy, CS-SU!, white CS-Taylored Expressions 
Accessories: twill tape, fire hydrant charm-stash, Labels 4 Nesties, Copics YR20, Y00, E33, E35, Ranger Inkssentials white gel pen (eye accent)

Whimsical Butterfly Card for Twinkling Tuesday

So sorry I’m late y’all! I was at a three-day convention all weekend so I was too tired to make this card yesterday for posting last night or this morning! I took Monday to just CHILL! But it is still technically Tuesday so I guess I am safe! Hee Hee!! :) This card was inspired by a doozy of a sketch by Jack, Madelynn’s little brother. But just wait ‘til the next 2 weeks, then the sketches get really intense! I enjoy a challenge, that’s for sure. I don’t even usually post the sketch in advance of showing you the card but this card requires the sketch to make sense! This sketch doesn’t look too hard at first but look again at all the details! Dots in each corner of the card and the stamped panel, tabs at the end of each ‘line’ and all of the stars at the bottom. Whew. Now in case anyone is wondering, I had a great time trying to think of what to do and loved using this sketch. It is just that my card is a wee bit busier than normal; I decided to use ALL of the details in this sketch, every last one! Well, OK, I didn’t use the crosshatching on the lower tabs…

I love how this sketch allowed me to show off this awesome DP! It really shows through the design. I was thinking about butterflies lately because of the Butterfly Project. Heard of it? The Holocaust Museum of Houston is creating an exhibit of 1.5 MILLION butterflies, one representing each child killed during the Holocaust. The exhibit opens 2012 and anyone is able to send in a butterfly (or more) to the exhibit. They can be of any medium, flat preferred, no glitter or food products, no larger than 8x10”. I hope I get to see this exhibit once it opens. Please consider making a butterfly or two (or more!) for this worthy project. Craft Critique is going to send a huge package of butterflies so if you wish, you can send yours to them by September 15th. You can also send them to the museum directly. If you wish to read more, click HERE. If you do make a butterfly, I’d love to see it so leave me the link here. No blog? Registration is free to upload to Splitcoast Stampers or Paper Craft Planet. This is a great project to do with your kids, I’m pretty sure construction paper would make awesome butterflies. Craft Critique has and I’m guessing will continue to have ideas for butterflies for both kids and adults. You could paint, sew, quilt, stencil, weave, punch, die cut, knit, sketch, crochet, scrap, stamp, cut, colour, photograph, collage, tole, pierce, paper piece, emboss, iris fold, embroider, cross-stitch, needlepoint, rug hook, dye, tat, batik or silk-screen your butterflies. ‘Nuf ideas??

The paper I used was from Basic Grey Phoebe, the flower cut out from another paper in the same pack. I punched the butterfly from a solid section of the flower paper and outlined it in marker to help it stand out. I used a larger pearl for the head and two smaller ones for the body. The ‘red’ dew drops aren’t really red but a deep, bright pink, matching much better IRL. Ditto for the butterfly within the sentiment; I stamped the image a second time on white cardstock and cut it out. I can’t remember where I got the eyelet brads but they used to be silver, I heated them with the heat gun and dipped them into my white embossing powder which makes it stick and heated again to melt the powder until smooth. I LOVE that technique! You don’t even need embossing ink. The more I worked on this card, the more it appeared whimsical, like I should have a faerie on it somewhere, thus the post’s title! The sentiment didn’t end up quite as dark as I would have preferred it and then I think the camera focused on the butterflies wings making the sentiment a wee bit blurry. In case you can’t read it, it says, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly. –Richard Bach'”

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamp: Verve
Ink: Stazon brown, rose red
Paper: banana CS-SU!, Phoebe paper pack-Basic Grey, vellum-stash
Accessories: MS butterfly punch; flowers, sheer white ribbon, white EP, ‘eyelet’ brads -stash, Kaisercraft pearls, Dew Drops, foam dots-Jody Morrow, regal rose marker-SU!
Technique: use embossing powder to change embellishment’s colour

BBQ and Pony Party!!

Remember the BBQ invitations? I have been so busy this month. All last week, I was finishing my Clear Dollar Stamps cards and getting ready for the BBQ . Finally the day came this past Saturday. This was our third annual church potluck BBQ, each year I get braver and invite a few more people.  There are always quite a few who can’t come so I ended up with about 50 people there. The kids came first to play in the water and ride the ponies, the adults start arriving during the pony rides. In case you are wondering, we provide burgers, freshly made by yours truly!, hotdogs, punch and a few snacks to get the kids started before everyone arrives. Graciously, everyone else brings something so it only ends up costing about $150. (Not including the $150 for the pony!)

We couldn’t have ordered up better weather. Just warm enough for the kids to be able to play in the water and not so hot that the adults were melting (or the block of ice in my punch pitcher!) It turned out to be the best BBQ so far. I thought I’d show you all a few of the pictures we took during the event. I can’t believe with all of the time Jameson spent in the water, we do not have a single picture of him sliding and I can’t show the other kids without permission from their parents. We have a cross between a kiddie pool and a wet banana, remember those? It is a sheet of plastic with a plastic tube around the edge forming a ring, it gets filled up with water to hold it up. This allows the sheet of plastic to hold a couple inches of water. Then the kids slide either on their tummies or on a mini surf board. Best $40 bucks we ever spent! Hope you enjoy the pix.

Jameson and Spencer on the pony. Spencer is happier than he looks.

Jameson with slightly purple lips from playing in the water before the sun warmed it up!
Jameson on the pony. He says he went on 7 rides but I manage to have few pictures of him. Hmmm…

Spencer holding nana’s hand waiting for his turn.

 
My sister, Sarah, with Spencer on the pony. The first ride he kept saying, “No, no, no” but after a ride with his brother, he went over and over quite happily!

Sarah and Spencer again.

Spencer just smilin’. He is very serious so this was a great catch by a young friend of mine who manned the camera part of the day. Thanks Caleb!

Sarah chatting with the boys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you pony for all the rides!

Enjoy, Rebecca!

RECIPE
Great weather + 2 ponies + oldies music + 1 BBQ + great food + fabulous friends and family+ 1 camera = Lifelong Memories!!

Lavender Flower Soft Card

Finally, the last sympathy card. I made this over a week ago, but I am spacing out my posts! I love posting ahead and your work magically pops up! So cool! I love this stamp for adding Flower Soft. I think it can look like lupines but more closely resembles larkspur because larkspur is a looser shape like this image. I found that I much prefer using a NON two-way glue (dries to repositionable) with Flower Soft. Some people were recommending SU! Two-Way glue but I found it was still sticky after drying if even a tiny bit of adhesive missed getting a piece of Flower Soft on it. So I used regular old white Elmer’s Glue. I believe this particular one is acid-free so I hope it doesn’t yellow over time.

I thought that the gold embossing would show up OK on the script stamped background but not very well. So I sponged over the sentiment thus blending in the script and making it much easier to read! Save! Especially since I waited ‘til the last to stamp it! Typical me!

Wondering how I made the scallops match so perfectly? I always start by marking the center of my panel so the shapes match at each end. Then I cut a pale plum panel a bit larger than needed, just to be sure. I marked the center of it and punched the edge. Then I glued the focal panel to the pale plum panel. I used my Perfect Layers tool to trim the other three edges of the panel with perfect 1/8” edges.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: French Script and flower, unknown sentiment
Ink: mellow moss, Versamark
Paper: mellow moss, pale plum and confetti white CS Accessories: Hodge Podge Hardware-brass, moss gingham ribbon, MS cornice punch, perfect plum, celery markers, foam dots-Jody Morrow, Lavender Flower Soft, gold EP. All products by SU! unless otherwise noted.

Wisteria June Rose for Clear Dollar Stamps

This is my last Clear Dollar Stamps post as June Guest Designer. I’d like to thank both Lori and Laurie of CDS for their faith in me, the great stamps and warm welcome! Thanks to all of the Team Members too who came by to leave lovely comments on my cards. I had a great time despite how insane June turned out for me overall and I hope you think I gave your stamps a good workout!

I just love this rose image. It is so delicate and lovely! And you can kind of see where to shade with this stamp. For me, the more petals, the easier it is to shade. For someone new to stamping, each petal can be coloured darker away from the light and lighter towards the light source. After some practice, you can add shading within each petal, at least the ones large enough to do so. I’m afraid my colouring looks too washed out here. I used reinkers to watercolour with for the first time! It takes several layers and an almost dry brush to colour like this. You can click to get a larger photo. It is so much prettier IRL. I can’t wait to take my photography course. We tried resetting the white balance on my camera as all my previous  photos were slightly sepia toned and now it is a bit too blue-grey. I will get it right eventually!

Back to the card!! hee hee!! I embossed my image to make colouring even easier. It is much harder to accidentally slop colour on a neighbouring petal and sure looks pretty too! The shine actually showed up this time and so did the rhinestones in the corners of the card! The bow was made with the Bow Easy and I threaded another ribbon through the back so it appears to be tied from pieces of ribbon coming from each side of the card. The only drawback to doing it this way is that the bow skews slightly to one side. I promise, it is even! I used the text stamp in the set for the background.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: June Rose by Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink: VersaMark, eggplant
Paper: Wisteria-Basic Grey, eggplant, white CS-SU!
Accessories: gold EP and ribbon-SU!, rhinestones-Zva, Bow Easy, pale plum, prefect plum, mellow moss reinkers
Technique: reinker watercolouring

Peaches Tag for Twinkling Tuesdays

THIS IS THE SECOND POST FOR TODAY, BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN.

This week, Madelynn gave us an inspiration challenge. What a beautiful and tasty photo!

I only have one citrus stamp and I didn’t feel like using it. I need to use Bold Brights ink for most citrus fruits and I just wasn’t in a BB mood. So I opted for another fruit. PEACHES. My favourite fruit, well maybe along with raspberries. The two together mixed with frozen yogurt is AWESOME! This tag came together quite quickly! AND I used all scraps! WOOHOO! The tag was cut with a Coluzzle template, it was a bit too tall for my scrap so I shimmied it up part way through the cutting to make it shorter. I stamped the image with Stazon brown on confetti vanilla and then again with apricot ink and again with olive ink. I cut out the peach and leaves and layered them on the main image. I added a bit of shading with pumpkin and regal rose markers.

As always, be sure to play along with us! Make a card or other project using the photo to inspire you and upload to SCS or PCP using MTTSC29 or post to your blog. Be sure to link up to Madelynn’s Twinkling Tuesdays so we can all see your creations. Visit all the team members blogs to see their work and we all love reading your sweet comments so be sure to leave some love!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: peach label image and canvas-SU!
Ink: olive, apricot-SU!, Staz on brown
Paper: confetti vanilla, apricot, celery
Accessories: button-stash, hemp twine-Hemptique, twill tape-stash, Coluzzle template, foam dots-Jody Morrow, ribbon-Masterstroke, celery, pumpkin, regal rose markers-SU!

Wisteria Pretty Perches for Clear Dollar Stamps

Really quick post this time. Love Wisteria paper by Basic Grey. This card reminds me of the song, “I’m just a bird in a gilded cage.” Yep, really old, no wonder you haven’t heard of it! This card used Pretty Perches by Clear Dollar Stamps.

I cut the patterned paper edge with scalloped scissors and edged it with my gold paint pen. The bird was stamped with eggplant ink and then I overstamped the cage with Versamark and embossed with gold EP. The patterned paper beneath the birdcage is cut with Labels 3 Nestabilities die and also edged with the gold paint pen. I thought the upper right corner looked a bit naked so I added a few halfback pearls. The ribbon was tied with my Bow Easy, the other ribbon isn’t attached, just glued in behind.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Pretty Perches by Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink: eggplant, VersaMark
Paper: wisteria-Basic Grey, vanilla, eggplant CS-SU!
Accessories: gold paint pen-Pilot, Labels 3 Nestabilities, foam dots-Jody Morrow, green ribbon-stash, champagne pearls-Kaisercraft

Welcome Home for Clear Dollar Stamps

AWWW, the one birdie is coming home to roost with the other birdie is anxiously peeking through the birdhouse hole. After all, it is spring and the babies could hatch any day! At least that is the story I created in my head while making this card! This set just screams, “make a scene”! No, not like a grumpy diva, like a pretty picture! Especially with a set called Pretty Perches!

This was a pretty easy card to do, for the most part anyway. The clear stamps make it easy to line up and stamp the two-part bird house. I used my largest punch to open up the doorway and another smaller one to make a hole in the roof. The chain is part of a bracelet extender chain from my jewellery making stash. The hardest part was getting the chain to stay through the slit I cut for it along the tree branch and then getting the chain to stay in the hole in the bird house along with foam dotting the birdhouse in the correct place. Fiddly but so worth the effort!

The blossoms were stamped with the a two-flower stamp in the set, I coloured in the centers with a pretty in pink marker. I drew in little stems for the flowers and sprigs with a celery marker. The branch was stamped full-length using a thumping technique in which you bounce the sides of two different coloured markers on your stamp to get variegated colour. It ended up great but the lightest brown was a bit too light so I just coloured over it again by hand. Perfect! I also stamped portions of the branch twice more so the tree looks denser. The last step in the image was to sponge some blue ink lightly to show the sky. I kind of made up the layout, using a bowl to cut the DP into a neat curvy shape. The ribbon is silk and sprayed with Glimmer Mist (are you seeing a theme lately?) to make it brown and sparkly.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Pretty Perches-Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink: Memento brown, Staz on brown, riding hood red-SU!, ColorBox brown chalk ink, Pink pirouette-SU!, SS blue-SU! ( I forget the colour name and am too tired to get up to check!)
Paper: vanilla, confetti white, chocolate, DSP-SU!
Accessories: jewellery chain and flower-stash, brown button-basic Grey bittersweet, white button-SU!, silk ribbon-May Arts, Glimmer mist-Tattered Angels, pretty in pink, cocoa, celery, chocolate markers-SU!, foam dots-stash

Charlie Horse Thank You for Dad-Clear Dollar Stamps

My dad generously paid for the ponies we hired for out BBQ on Saturday. Thanks DAD! (Not that he reads this or anything!) I can’t wait to sit down and look at all the pictures but Design Team commitments await. (I will post some soon!) Besides, my stamps were getting lonely and I was missing them too! I had a lot of fun putting this card together. I am kinda getting into the whole western theme since I got this stamp set.

This sweet little horse is from Lean on Me Charlie by Clear Dollar Stamps. Remember, I used him on my lasso card earlier this month? The largest star is from SU!, their first pack of chipboard whatever it was called. Who remembers these things!?!? I covered the star with western-themed paper and cut it out with an x-acto knife. I stamped Charlie on the star and on white CS. I managed to position him on the star just right so his arms and legs didn’t need to be cut out! YEAH! I coloured Charlie’s body and hooves on the white CS and cut them out and popped them up with foam dots. The two hooves that are off the star required extra layers of foam dots to give them enough height. I got a little carried away with the Glimmer Mist I was using on another card so I decided to spray the small chipboard stars heavily and the card base lightly too. OK, not typical on a Western card especially one for a guy but the final result is subtle, especially since the stars are largely covered by this oversized brads! I wish the brads were a bit smaller but they were so perfect for this theme that I used them anyway. And the card base looks speckled, not sparkly. Under the stars are ovals punched out and folded over the edges of the card.

The layer of brown star paper is distressed with white pigment ink, brown chalk ink and Heidi Swapp distresser, the one that looks like a pink Pac-Man. I came up with a tip while using it. If you use the distresser at a 90 degree angle to the paper or cardstock, I find the distressing is fairly fine, it kinda fuzzes up the edge. However if you lay the disk down somewhat so it is closer to being parallel to the paper, it can take out bigger chunks! Who knew? (Besides Heidi!) The next layer is sage CS heavily distressed with first sage ink, then chocolate chip ink and then hit with the distressing tool. The sentiment was stamped then cut out with the word window punch. I reinserted the punchie into the punch from the bottom to remove some the length. Custom word window length!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Lean on Me Charlie-Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink: memento brown, chocolate, sage-SU!, Cloud white-VersaMagic, ColorBox chestnut brown chalk ink
Paper: white CS-Taylored Expressions, sage, chocolate, kraft, DSP-SU!
Accessories: chipboard: large star-SU!, small stars-Sassafrass Lass, Brads-stash, oval, word window punches-SU!, Glimmer Mist-Tattered Angels, Heidi Swapp Distresser, silver paint pen-Pilot (horseshoes), foam dots-Jody Morrow and stash

June Rose for Clear Dollar Stamps

Finally, I got time to make more cards! I was busy all week preparing to have 50 guests over for a potluck BBQ plus I was sick because I tried changing medications and the new dose was too low. On top of all of that, hubby is on STRIKE! This has been one H*** of a month! Fortunately, as a paramedic, he is an essential service so is only down to 75% of shifts rather than none but that is still 75% pay. Hard to deal with when we only have one income! **SIGH** Tonight, I got to sit down long enough to make THREE cards, look for the other two soon.

I coloured this image, June Rose from Clear Dollar Stamps,  so long ago I can hardly remember doing it. Probably three weeks ago now! Isn’t it gorgeous!! It is hard to see but I made my own Glimmer Mist for the music background. It was already aged to start with. Of course, as with all things shimmery, it looks much better IRL! For this very pale colour I used 1/2 of a mini mister of water, one drop cameo coral reinker, same of pretty in pink and enough Aztec Gold Pearl Ex (or Perfect Pearls) that would cover a dime about 1/16” deep! I mean seriously, how do you measure an amount so small, maybe 1/16th of a teaspoon? My measuring spoons only go to a 1/4 teaspoon! If I were to do it again, I would use maybe 2 drops of coral and 3 of pink to get a deeper colour.

The image is coloured with Copics; I really tried hard to leave more highlights this time. I find that the hardest thing for me. The ribbon is coloured with R32,a peachy rose colour that I also used to outline the rose panel and for the roses themselves. Other Copic colours in the photo. The panel behind the rose is kraft CS heavily sprayed with a dark brown Glimmer Mist, I forget the colour name. It is again, really pretty IRL! I wish I could photograph it so you could see it!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: June Rose-Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink: Memento brown
Paper: white CS-Taylored Expressions, kraft and chocolate-SU!
Accessories: Copics as pictured, seam binding ribbon-stash, Kaisercraft blush pearls, music-vintage, cameo coral and pretty in pink reinkers-SU!, Aztec Gold Pearl Ex, Mini Mister-Ranger, frayed burlap Distress Ink, Bow Easy-Stamp Simply Store, Glimmer Mist-Tattered Angels

Canadian Eh??

Yep, I AM CANADIAN! (from a beer commercial, I don’t even drink beer!) This super quickie card is for Three Clovers Designs Challenge to make a card that represents where you are from. Nope, I don’t expect to win anything, not even sure if there is a prize! I just had to use the $1.50 bin stamp I bought from Michael’s ages ago. I just unmounted and EZ Mounted it two days ago so it was fresh in my mind. The tie makes the whole thing look crooked because it is very thick and the tie warps the ribbon spanning the card. And seriously, can I make a card without making a mistake? I covered the goof with white gel pen but even though I heat set the red ink on the focal panel, it smudged! How did that happen??

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: maple leaf-SU!, eh!-Michaels bin
Ink: real red-SU!
Paper: white and red CS
Accessories: foam tape-$ store, ribbon-SU!

Masculine Gift Card Holder Tutorial

I needed a gift card holder for  my son’s gymnastics coach. I’ve only seen him a few times as I usually drop Jameson off letting him go in by himself and he comes straight out to the car after. That way I don’t have to take the baby out of the car. It is hard to watch anyways because unless you lean against the glass and cup  your hands around your eyes, the glare on the glass prevents you seeing into the gym. Which means watching the baby is impossible! But today I got to go in and take pictures in the last 10 minutes. Not enough time and Jameson refused to show me his best skill because he was scared. GRRR! Anyway, I figure this poor guy deserves something for trying to teach my ADD kid in an environment where he can run, jump and play! Almost impossible to keep him focused! So I bought him a Tim Horton’s (THE donut shop in Canada, there are a few in the US) gift card. I had so many choices of how to present it but could I be bothered to look up the tutorial for the style of gift card I chose? NO WAY! I am getting ready this week for a BBQ for 60 people this weekend so quick and easy was required. Once I get on to the computer, I can get lost for hours. So I came up with my own tutorial! I am going to share it with you here.

Gift Card or Gift Certificate Holder Tutorial
makes a 4.25x5.5” card

Step 1. Cut Cardstock 5.5x11”. Score at 4 1/4”, 5.5” then turn the paper 180 degrees (turn, not flip) and score again at 4.25. ( I have a Scor-Pal and 4.25” has its own channel so it is easier to turn it than figure out where to score again!) Fold with bone folder as shown below. Two valley folds and one mountain fold.

Step 2. Mark the width or length of your gift card/certificate on the mountain fold, centering it. Add 1/4” at each end. (Whether you use the length or width depends on which way you choose to put your gift card in. Either way will work.) Use your word window punch to punch the center of the mountain fold. Only insert the paper into the punch a bit less than half way.  You will probably need to punch twice to cover the distance. Just line the punch up with the previous hole for the second punch. If you don’t have a word window punch, try using a 3/8” hole punch on each end, paper only inserted to  bit less than the half way point of the circle, punch. Then connect the tops of the two circles with your paper cutter or a ruler and craft knife.

Step 3. Flip the cardstock over and apply adhesive to the fold as per the photo below. Do not remove the backing yet!

Step 4. If you wish to stamp directly on the front of the card, do so now.

Step 5. Remove the adhesive backing, close fold and finish the card front.

Now I have to explain something. I am totally creeped out by anything supernatural including vampires. I know there are a TON of you out there who are crazy for these books and movies. However, I am not. I only have this card because I was given it when I returned something. I didn’t notice what was on it until later and I didn’t notice which card I had picked out of my wallet until I looked back at these pictures. If I still had the gift card holder I would have changed it and if I knew how, I would blur it out. I apologize to anyone else who is a strict Christian like me.

Here’s the finished card. This is an AWESOME way to use up scraps. And so easy to make!

There is a foam dot under the chocolate circle at the top and the ‘graph’ paper at the bottom. I used the second and third from the smallest of Nesties large and small circle dies and my SU! 1” punch. Here’s a tip. My paper was double-sided so I placed the pieces side by side on my Cuttlebug plate. I put one of the circles I had chosen on each paper and one underneath each paper. Make sense? Two on top and two below. I cut 4 circles in one pass!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: rough edges wheel, letterpress alphabet, everyday phrases
Ink: Java (scented ink)-Ranger, bordering blue
Paper: bordering blue, vanilla and chocolate CS, DSP (actually only two pieces of double-sided paper)
Accessories: Nestabilities circles, chocolate eyelets-CTMH, foam tape-dollar store. All products by SU! unless otherwise noted.

Baby Pail Tutorial

Jameson’s teacher is having a baby due  in August. So instead of a teacher-themed gift, I decided to make a baby gift. I mean after all, teachers aren’t just teachers, they are people too! I emailed her to ask the gender of the baby but I didn’t get an answer in time so I made it yellow, white and green. Funny thing is, I am tickled pink about it! I just love it! I am going to add a few gender-appropriate coloured ribbons to the handle because now I know! I guess I can list it here because my son doesn’t read my blog. The teacher is going to keep it a secret from them and have them guess-boy or girl. Since I love this project so much, I decided to make a tutorial for covering and decorating the pail. (Sorry about the picture, I took at least 20 pix with different settings. The colours are too grey, especially the celery front panel, the shadows too dark and the handle is blurry, don’t worry, there is a close up of the handle later!)

Step 1: Choose your paper. For this type and size of pail, you will need 2 sheets of 12x12 designer paper (DP) to cover the pail, 1 sheet of a coordinating paper and three colours of 8.5x11” cardstock. I think I ended up using 2 of each celery and white and one of banana. You could use two different patterned papers to cover the pail, but then you will have to be WAY more precise with your placement to get it even on both sides. I don’t recommend it.

Step 2: I started with my lid. Use a circle cutter or appropriate sized circular item to trace and cut cardstock. Cut another, slightly smaller, circle from the single sheet of DP. (I ended up using two different kids bowls from IKEA to cut mine.) Cut the largest of the large set of scalloped circle Nesties from cardstock. I embossed mine with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. It just fits the width of the folder! Cut another from the largest of the small set of plain circles. Stamp a background on it or embellish it with stamping or die cuts. Adhere in layers as shown here. I used a SU! bear which I sponged to give him more depth and rosy cheeks.

Step 3: Cover your pail. This part can be a bit tricky. Measure your pail height in several places, average them and cut both of your sheets of DP . Be sure to cut them both with the same side up. My pattern isn’t too directional and I noticed after that I had cut mine differently! I added ribbon to the top and bottom of my pail so I didn’t have to be too careful. But I recommend you try to be accurate because it gives you more room for goofs! Mark your paper where the handle goes. You can see my marks in the photo. I placed the smallest small Nestie circle (I think) under the paper because I didn’t have a punch the right size. The paper is too large for my Cuttlebug so I simply pressed my finger over it and it gave me an impression strong enough to see and cut along. Even if you use a punch or a have a larger die cutter, you still need to make a small slit from the edge of the paper into the circle. Mine needed a fair bit of trimming (larger) but I finally got it PERFECT! Wrap your paper tightly around the pail, making sure the paper doesn’t slip from it’s position over the handle attachment. Mark the edge of the paper with your fingernail, pressing it right down into the groove between the pail and the handle attachment. (Photo below) Use this mark as the starting point for marking the placement of your second circle cut out. Measure down from the top the same amount as you did on the previous circle, mark and cut. Because I had to trim so  much in addition to the size of Nestie shape I cut for circle one, on the second side, I tried using one size larger Nestie and it was too big. GRRR! It also ended up a bit off  (photo below) so make sure that your wrap tightly, I must have had it a bit too  loose when I marked mine. Now you can do it your own way, but I will deliberately offset my cut circle slightly next time! And I figured out how to get the perfect size circle  between sizes. This time I layered and pressed BOTH of the Nesties I had used before  into a scrap to repair my handle, I found that by cutting EXACTLY between them gave me the size I needed. I slipped my scrap underneath and you wouldn’t even see it. So don’t stress if it isn’t perfect the first time. You can fix it unless your patterned paper is difficult to match. Next step is to cover the back of the pail first. I think the seams should face to towards the back, therefore  hidden from the eye which they will be if the front overlaps the back. So the back paper goes on first. The back piece will be cut to the length between the handle attachments.  No more cutting out the circles! Stick it on with red line tape or similar adhesive. I used several small pieces rather than one large one. It made it more manageable when applying it and was easier to keep it straight.  Now apply the piece with the holes. If you wish, you can trim the second side to match the first as the holes will likely be different distances from the paper’s edges. I didn’t bother. Apply with adhesive the same as the back. Tricky part over!

Step 4: Create the front panel. The green cardstock is 8.5” wide and the white is 7.5” wide but I don’t have the other measurements and the punch took some off anyway. This is the fun part!! Decorate this panel anyway you like. I used a Sizzix alphabet to cut my letters. You could of course stamp them, use letter stickers or rub-ons. TIP: If your letters are small enough, put several dies through on one ‘crank’. I managed to do all those letters with only two passes. I lost the dot for the letter ‘i’ so I cut the prongs off of a brad, used dimensional glaze to fill in the back and once it was partially set I added it to the white panel. Not only did I forget to put the brad through the paper until after the layer was adhered, of course! but I also wouldn’t want the brad prongs to show through. My BFF makes these gorgeous Irish crocheted flowers. Email me if you want to order some of these. We haven’t set up the official post yet but she is almost ready to make more. Any colour, minimum order of $8 CAN. (There are other styles too, mix and match) We can match floss to SU! or PTI colours or send us the floss colour numbers you want.

Step 5: Finish any other decorating you choose. Maybe add a ‘Made by…” tag on the back or add ribbon to the top and bottom edges like I did. I put my ‘made by’ tag on the inside of the lid. Along with my contact info, I’d love to make these to sell!

Step 6: Decorate the handle. I chose to use a bunch of tags but you can use ribbons or any little embellishments you can glue to ribbon. I suppose you could glue them right to the handle too. Buttons would be cute… I made a special tag with a poem I wrote on it. Please feel free to copy and share it but please put my name at the bottom. (yeah I know my handwriting sucks)

Memories never seem to last,
Kids grow up quick, much too fast.
Put special things into this pail,
Come back later, they’ll tell the tale,
Of how they were when they were small,
And then you will remember all.
Rebecca Ednie

(Feel free to replace ‘they were’ with ‘he was’ or ‘she was’ if you wish, I didn’t know the gender.)


The middle tag is a bit too big (I already trimmed it some) but I like it anyway. I used SU! markers to colour the images.

That’s it! I hope you like it as much as I do. One last thing, open up the pail and you get this…
…8 cards with matching envelopes! I also wanted to add a small notebook with pages listing special dates, occasions and ‘firsts’, kind of like a baby book but just for her to write in things quickly before she forgets. She can scrapbook them or write them in a proper baby book later.
 

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Ink: Memento brown, banana, celery, pretty in pink, pink pirouette
Stamps: various SU! baby sets, baby set by Fiskars,
mini heart background-Hero Arts
Paper: celery, banana, pink pirouette, white CS, DP
Accessories: ribbon-Offray, striped ribbon-Taylored Expressions, Nestabilites, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Markers, word window punch, large and small tag punches, Crop-a-dile, green and baby shoe brads-stash, Sizzix alphabet. All products by SU! unless otherwise noted.