Hero Arts Happy Birthday Cupcakes

Hi Everyone!

I almost passed up purchasing the Hero Arts Happy Birthday Cupcakes Cling Stamp set because I own the Hero Arts Big Cupcake Cling Stamp.  But I liked the font and the stitching around the "Happy Birthday to You" text in the Happy Birthday Cupcakes Cling Stamp set so now those stamps are a part of my collection. 

As soon as I walked in the door with my new stamps I sat down at this work table and started to create.  Most of the papers I used on these 2 cards are from PaperTrey Ink's Bitty Dots Basics paper collection.  That collection includes 3 sheets each of 15 colors of 8" square paper.  I love the quality of the paper and the colors, but wish the paper were at least 9" x 12" so that I could get 4 layering papers from one sheet that would be 4" x 5.25". 

As I do pretty much every time I stamp cupcakes I stamped the cupcake bottoms on one style of patterned paper and the cupcake tops on a different paper.  In addition to the text box I fussy cut the cupcake tops and bottoms.  I added ice cream cone brads to the text image before I adhered it to the layering paper.  I used Scor-tape to attach the cupcake bottoms to the cards and foam tape to attach the cupcake tops.  The foam tape helps the frosting pop off the card. 

I colored the hearts and sprinkles on this card with a dark brown Marvy marker and then covered the hearts and round sprinkles with Glossy Accents.  .  Now those hearts and sprinkles are shiny and look good enough to eat.

I colored the hearts and round sprinkles on this card with a red Marvy marker and then covered them with Glossy Accents. 

Both cards look yummy to me and make me want a cupcake.  Oh...there are some in the freezer!

Have a great night. 
Carol

Wonderful Birthday from Hero Arts

Hi Everyone!

There was a touch of Fall in the air earlier today. I don’t know why, but I always feel like cooking on a day like this so I made 6 quarts of spaghetti sauce, a colorful fruit salad, and a huge garden salad. Then I cleaned the stove, organized the kitchen cabinets, and cleaned and organized the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, back in "My Own Little Corner" I’ve been very busy. I haven’t packed up any of my creations so my living room looks more and more like a little store. I’ve been bouncing back and forth between Halloween and Christmas decor, but stopped last night to work on some birthday cards. No matter how many birthday cards I create I always seem to need more.

I recently purchased a set of "Wonderful Birthday" clear stamps from Hero Arts. Their shipping has been awesome. I have been receiving orders from them sometimes just one day after I order them or two days at the most. When I order something online I want it NOW!

There’s a cute little bird wearing a party hat in the stamp set. I’ve already used him on some mini and some full size cards. I stamped him directly on the cards and I also stamped him on some Bitty Dots papers. I fussy cut just the bird’s body and hat from the Bitty Dots papers and then adhered him directly on top of the images that were stamped on the cards. That way I didn’t have to worry about trying to cut his feet or the twirls on his hat.

The balloons on each card are attached to the cards with foam tape. I attached baker’s twine or embroidery floss to each balloon. The suns were cut with a die.

I created the back ground paper on this card by flicking drops of Twinkling H2Os onto it.

I ran it through a Cuttlebug D’vine Swirls embossing folder before I adhered it to a blank card. After I stamped the cupcakes I used my Copic markers to color them. Then I fussy cut them and separated the cupcake bottom for the frosting. The cupcake bottoms are glued to the card. The frosting tops are attached to the cards with foam tape. The candle flames are epoxy stickers.

The balloons on these cards are from a clear stamp that I had in my stash. I am not sure of its origin.

Once again I stamped the balloons directly onto the card and then stamped then again on white tag. I colored the balloons with Twinklette markers and then fussy cut them. I used foam tape to place them on top of the image that was stamped on the card.

That’s it for today!
Have a great day!
Carol

Mini cards

Hi Everyone!
In my stash I have some clear 3" plastic boxes that I purchased from Denami Design at the West Springfield Craft Show a few months ago. I liked the ideas Denami Design displayed with the boxes and thought they’d be fun to have.

Two weeks ago I participated in Denami Design’s Mini Card Blog Hop. My mini cards were 3.25" squares which is a size I typically create because that is the size of some gift enclosure cards I once purchased for inspiration.

As I hopped along the blog I saw that many participants used the plastic boxes as packaging for gift card sets. I contacted Paulina with some questions about the boxes and her gift cards. She responded quickly and graciously answered all of my questions as she always does. Knowing how much care and thought she puts into helping her customers is one of the many reasons I purchase Denami Design products.

Now my gift cards are 2.75" squares so that they can easily fit in Denami Design’s 3" plastic boxes.   I use my bone folder to crisp up the folds in the boxes. I put a piece of Scor-tape along the opening at the bottom of the boxes. When the gift card sets are complete I wrap twine around each box and tie the twine into a bow.

When I was doing some cleaning the other night I found a bag of buttons that MaryBeth gave me for a gift a while ago. The buttons are pretty shades of green, pink, and blue, and are a variety of sizes, shapes, and textures. I thought they’d be fun to use on some gift cards.

I cut some Memory Box paper so that it measured 2.75" x 5.5". I scored and folded at 2.75" on the 5.5" side to create a 2.75" card and used a corner rounder punch to round off all 4 corners on each card. I pulled out my Baby Button Bits and Blooming Button Bits clear stamp sets from PaperTrey Ink and a few text stamps from some of my Lawn Fawn stamp sets. I mixed and matched image and text stamps and created some birthday, baby, get well, and thank you mini cards. I threaded floss or twine through the buttons before I attached them to the cards with glue dots.

I stamped the bear and the cupcake’s frosting on patterned paper and fussy cut both images before I adhered them to the cards.

Just so you know if you like the look of buttons on mini cards PaperTrey Ink has 2 other "button" clear stamp sets called EveryDay Button Bits and Holiday Button Bits. I recently ordered the EveryDay Button Bits set and may work with my Holiday Button Bits later today.

Have a great weekend!
Carol

Altered Halloween Drawer Dividers

Hi Everyone!

While I was walking around Home Goods the other day I spotted a set of 3 bamboo drawer dividers that looked like "shadow boxes" to me.  It was easy to transform them into Halloween displays.   Be sure to click on each image to enlarge it. 

The background paper is "Batty" paper from SEI.  The fence is an SEI border and the ghosts are SEI accents.  I used a Sizzix haunted house die to cut the house from some SEI paper.  The buttons are Favorite Findings.  I created the text on my computer and then used a purple Marvy Uchida circle paper punch to cut the "moon" out.  I folded back the side pieces of the fence and adhered them to the sides of the drawer divider so that the fence is 3-dimensional.

The other day I mentioned that I had seen a "B-O-O" frame in a store.  I liked the concept, but not the way it was done.  I played around with different size letters and finally was happy with the creation you see here.  
Each letter is like a little sandwich.  For example the "B" sandwich is made this way...foam tape, B, foam tape, B.  This technique successfully raised the letters inside the drawer divider.  The background paper, the black paper, and the ghosts are from SEI.  The borders are from K and Company. 



Everything except for the "moon" in this display is from SEI.  The "hoo's there" background paper is from SEI's Eerie Alley collection.  I used a Sizzix die to cut the tree which I adhered to the paper with foam tape.    Shiny black owls are on shiny black branches.  I cut additional owls and adhered them on top of the other owls with foam tape so that they would really pop off the card.   The tiny owls and jack o'lantern are epoxy stickers.

Be sure to check out my previous post to see the other Halloween displays that I recently made.

Have a great night! 

Carol

Halloween Altered Frames

Good Morning Everyone!

The calendar may say August 23, but nearly every store I have been in is filled with products for Halloween.  I haven't decorated our home for Halloween yet-even for me it's a little too early for that.  But around me there are signs of Halloween cards and crafts.  Orange and black ribbons, pompoms, buttons and sand are out in the open along with Halloween papers and embellishments. 

Did you know that Halloween is the second most decorated holiday in the USA?  I can understand why.  All of those gorgeous fall colors are so tempting.  Although I have become mainly a cardmaker, lately I have been doing a lot of crafts.  For Halloween so far I have created 3 altered frames.

Here's the first altered frame I created this season. 

I just LOVE it.  All of the papers are from SEI.  So are the ghosts, owls, pumpkins, and borders.  I removed the glass from the frame and then cut some of SEI's Eerie Alley "Batty" paper to use as the background paper.  I laid the paper in the frame's opening without actually attaching it and created my scene.  When I was satisfied with my creation I backed the paper with sheets of chipboard to fill in the space that the glass would have filled.

When I was shopping I spotted an altered frame.  Instead of three 3"x5" photographs in the spaces of a frame there were the letters "B-O-O".  I liked that concept and purchased a frame that had spaces for three 3"x5" photographs.  I came home, created different sizes of the letters "b" and "o" and tried them out in the spaces of my frame.  I wasn't particularly excited about the look of any of them and so I created this scene.

It's similar to the first one I created, but you can see that I have 3 scenes in place of 3 photographs.  Study the background paper.  Do you see the ghosts?  More cool paper from SEI.  I used paper punches to create the spiders and the moon, but other than that most of the papers and embellishments are from SEI.  The pumpkins were cut from a K and Company border. 

Janet and I went on a "field trip" yesterday and when we got back to my house we talked "crafts".  While we were flipping through an old copy of a Goosepatch Christmas magazine Janet spotted a holiday shadow box that she loved.  The words "Happy Holidays" were created with gift tags.  She suggested we create something similar in one of my craft classes. 

Well, since I am in a Halloween mood last night I used Halloween papers to create some gift tags and used them to create this altered frame.

It's not my best photography, but in some ways it adds to the eeriness of the project.  That cool sheer spider ribbon is from SEI as are the alphabet stickers and the background paper.  The orange ribbon with a black thread running through it was in my stash.  The tags were cut from a dcwv pad.  I used my Crop a dile to add an eyelet to each tag.  Kind of fun, don't you think?

I'll be back sometime soon to share more of my creations. 

Have a great day!

Carol

Telescoping Cards

Hi Everyone!

While I was blog hopping last night I came across a technique that I wasn't familiar with.  The cards were called "Telescoping cards" and when I googled them I discovered that although the end result is basically the same everyone creates the cards a little differently.  So I took out my trusty scalloped and classic circle Nestabilities and played with them. 

This first card was created with some Lawn Fawn stamps.  Let me just stop for a minute to make some comments about Lawn Fawn.  The quality of their stamps is awesome.  I just tap a little ink onto them and get a perfect and clear stamped impression every time.  They're also easy to clean.  And talk about adorable!  And you can mix and match sets because the stamps are all in proportion to each other.  Everything on the card was created with stamps from Lawn Fawn's
"On the Mend" clear stamp set.  I stamped the tissue box onto a scrap of patterned paper from dcwv's Cotton Bloom 12" x 12" stack and then I fussy cut it.  I used a craft knife to cut a slice in the tissue box's opening and placed a scrap of pink vellum in the opening so that it looked like a tissue.  I used some Copic markers to color the vase and glittery Marvy twinklette markers to color everything else. 
The card looks like this when it is folded.

The card looks like this when it is unfolded.  I wish I had stamped "I'm here for you" a little lower and then I could have moved the tissue box down a little.  Oh, well.  Next time.  This was after all my first telescoping card!

Imagine the possibilities!  You know how gaga I went over accordion cards.  I think it's safe to say you'll see that I have the same reaction to telescoping cards. 

Here's my second card when it is folded.

And here it is when it is unfolded.

The cupcake, gift and balloons are stickers.  The candles were stamped and colored with Marvy Twinklette markers.  I covered the stamped flames up with epoxy stickers because I love the look of a glittery epoxy sticker.  The stamps are a mish mash from my collection. I know that "Let's Celebrate" is from Hero Arts and "make a wish" is a wooden stamp from Dandelion Designs.

My crafting open house is Friday.  So much to do! 

Have a great day! 
Carol

Denami Design Mini Cards Blog Hop

Hi Everyone!

Denami Design is having their Mini Card Blog Hop today. Here’s the information from Denami Design about the hop.

When: The blog hop starts on August 14 at 6 AM, PST. However, you have until August 15, 2011, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize).

Why: To be inspired by beautiful mini cards featuring DeNami Design stamps and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: We are giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to our website! We'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random participant (DT members not eligible) and then we'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

If you started at the beginning of the blog you have arrived here from Rochelle Washington’s blog at  http://www.twotearsinmybucket.blogspot.com

If you get lost along the way you can always start at the beginning at http://denami.blogspot.com

Earlier this summer I treated myself to some adorable Denami Design Halloween stamps. I decided they’d be perfect to use for today’s mini card challenge. They all work together beautifully so there’s potential for tons of fun mini cards.

I cut a piece of SEI patterned paper so that it measured 3.25" wide by 6.5" long and scored and folded it at 3.25" to create a square mini card. Then I stamped and fussy cut 3 bats, one spider and 5 mini pumpkins. I used the face from the Halloween stamp set to stamp faces onto the pumpkins. The fence was created from a Martha Stewart picket fence punch and I used a 1.5" circle paper punch to cut the moon. The spider and pumpkins 2 and 4 are attached to the card with foam circles. Only the bats bodies are adhered to the card. I creased their wings and pulled them forward so that it looks as if the bats are flying through the night sky.

I stamped and fussy cut 2 ghosts, the 3 houses stamp, and a mini pumpkin for this card. I stamped "Boo" from the Halloween stamp set and cut it to make it look like a word balloon. The pumpkin is attached to the card with a foam circle.

This time I cut some SEI ghost paper so that it measured 3.25" x 5.5" and scored and folded at 2.75" to create a rectangular mini card. After I stamped 3 ghosts I deliberately placed two of them so it looked as they were floating off the card. The pumpkin is attached with a foam circle.

Please leave a comment on this post before you move along to Nicki Scheck's blog at http://idreamcreateinspire.blogspot.com

You may want to become a follower of my blog so you’ll know about the other mini Halloween cards I’ll be creating and other cards I plan to share.

Have a great day!
Carol

Watercolored Cards

Hi Everyone!

Every Monday Hero Arts sends out an e-mail telling readers "What’s New at Hero Arts". Every Wednesday they release a new video about a paper crafting technique, card making idea, and more.

This past week they released a video that was presented by Sally Traidman showing water color techniques. Someone at Hero Arts was clever enough to issue a warning that after you watched the video, you’d want to play. I watched the video a couple of times and then I really did want to play with watercolors.

I started out by scribbling a Marvy Le Plume marker onto an acrylic block, spritzing the scribble with a Mini Mister and then dipping a thin watercolor brush into the watery solution. Then just as Sallly had shown in the video I flicked the watery solution onto a piece of tag. Here’s the card I created with that tag.

I love it and think that it has an Eric Carle feel to it. The flowers are Favorite Findings felt buttons. I stitched the middle of each flower with some twine from The Twinery. I ran my Xyron tape runner along pieces of ric rac so that I could adhere them to the card as stems and grass. The text was stamped with a Hero Arts wooden stamp.

I used some of my Twinkling H20s for the watercolors on my second card. The colors of the paints are much more vibrant than the markers, but I like both looks. I ran the watercolored spattered tag through a Cuttlebug Argyle embossing folder.

The tea mugs and text are from the Hero Arts "What’s Perking" clear stamp set. I used some of my Twinkling H20s to color the mugs. The "tea bags" were made from scraps of vellum. I tied some twine to them and added tiny tags so they’d look like the tea bags in my cabinet.

That's it for today.  Tomorrow my friend Janet and I are going to an A Muse class in Nashua, NH. 
Have a great night.
Carol

Monkey Placemats and Cupcakes

Hi Everyone!


Some of my friends are starting the school year off with a monkey theme.  Last night we used that theme for a party to welcome our friend Angela home from Venezuela.  

Many of my readers are teachers, parents, and grandparents.  The paper placemats that I created for the party could be used in a classroom on a bulletin board, as a placemat at a child's birthday party, or as a gameboard for "Pin the Nose on the Monkey".  If you make smaller monkeys they could be used to embellish treat bags. 


I used my Martha Stewart circle cutter to cut 11.5" circles from 12" squares of SEI plaid paper.  I thought the paper was a perfect choice for the placemats because it looks like fabric. 

I used paper punches to cut the pieces for the ears, eyes and nose.

I free cut a heart for the upper part of the face and an oval shape for the lower part.

For dessert we had monkey cupcakes.  They look a little funny, but they tasted good.  The ears are made from m&ms.  I think they may have looked better if I had turned them sideways.

Have a great night!

Carol

Sister's Day and Friendship Day

Hi Everyone!

According to www.punchbowl.com August 7th (which is tomorrow) is Sister's Day and Friendship Day.  So today I worked on some cards for both of those occasions. 

Denami Design's "Best Friends Chickie" stamp

This first card is for my sister Jeanne.  When we were younger I called myself Mrs. Tears and Jeanne was Mrs. Susan.  We named ourselves after our favorite dolls.  My favorite doll was Tiny Tears and Jeanne's was a baby doll that Santa had given to her.  We played dolls together for many years. 

Jeanne has been and always will be there for me, Robbie and Marie.  When Robbie was an undergraduate she turned her guest room into a bedroom for him to help shorten his commute to and from school.  Now that Marie is in graduate school Jeanne has turned the guest room in her new home into a bedroom for Marie to help shorten her commute to and from school.  Thank you Jeanne from the 3 of us.

I've also made cards for some friends I will be getting together with on Monday.  Hopefully I will have time to make additional cards for other friends I'll be seeing later in the week.


Denami Design's "Best Friends Chickie" stamp
"Hello Friend" stamp from Lawn Fawn's Hello Friend clear stamp set

This card is for Kathy.  Kathy is as devoted to her grandchildren as my Nana Riley was to her grandchildren.  Her face lights up whenever she talks about them.



Denami Design's "Girl Chickie" and "Hey Chickie" stamps
Text from PaperTrey Ink's "Blooming Buttons" clear stamp set

Angela creates the most beautiful purses.  I used some papers from the Cotton Bloom stack for the layering paper and used the Girl chickie stamp because she is carrying a purse. 

Denami Design's "Girl Chickie" stamp
Text from Sweet and Sassy stamps

Amy always greets me with a warm smile and the words, "Hi girlfriend".  She always has some new cute purse to show me.  Yesterday she showed me her newest Vera Bradley bag with a cool wristlet inside of it.

Denami Design's "Chicke with a Flower" stamp
Text stamp from Lawn Fawn's Hello Friend clear stamp set

Martha radiates everything that is good and positive in life.  She NEVER complains about anything and is always amazingly upbeat.  She's the kind of person who makes you feel good even on the dreariest of days.



Denami Design's "Chickie with a Heart Balloon" stamp
Text stamp from Lawn Fawn's Hello friend clear stamp set

Peggy is one of the kindest and most thoughtful people I have ever known.  Her eyes are always twinkling and her grin goes from ear to ear.  

If you read the comments directly under each photograph you'll notice that many of the stamps I used today are from Denami Design and Lawn Fawn. On Thursday and Friday those companies shared a blog hop to show how well their stamps work together.  You can still see the cards on that blog hop and now you have read this blog you've seen even more ways showing how their stamps work together.

If you have a sister maybe you can do something special together tomorrow.   Tomorrow would also be a good day to give a few friends that you haven't seen for a while a call.  I already know which friends I will be calling.  Guess I better plan to get all of my work done today!

Have a great day!
Carol



Happy Watermelon Day!

Happy National Watermelon Day!



It's funny that July is National Watermelon Month, but National Watermelon Day is celebrated on the 3rd of August. Over the years I have celebrated all kinds of "major" holidays like today's with my children and students. It's been especially fun to see Robbie using some of the activities I have done with him  in one of the camp programs he's been working in this summer.

Rob's been working in 2 camp programs in this heat and humidity. Marie took 2 graduate classes in the Summer One Session and is currently taking 2 graduate classes in the Summer Two Session along with working part time. She lives at home 4 days a week and lives with Jeanne 3 days a week to help shorten her commute to school. Both kids will be here for dinner tonight so I plan to celebrate National Watermelon Day with them. My car's in the shop and I won't be able to pick it up until later this afternoon so I'll have to make due with what I have for this celebration.

I looked around my house and found

watermelon salt and pepper shakers



watermelon spreaders



dinner plates with a watermelon image



watermelon bowls



a tray with slices of watermelon on it



plastic tumblers with watermelon on them



paper napkins with a watermelon image on them



a toss pillow with watermelon slices

It's not a holiday without some paper crafts so I looked in my stash and found...

a Dandelion Designs wooden stamp of a monkey eating a slice of watermelon, a Dandelion Designs wooden stamp with the text "sending you watermelon smiles, a watermelon clear stamp from the Hero Arts "Simply the Best" clear stamp set



a roll of watermelon ribbon

And a sheet of watermelon slice paper from Little Yellow Bicycle's Sweet Summertime Collection.  Forgot to take a photograph of it, but you'll see it being used on some cards...keep reading!



Well, thought I'd whip up a few cards to help celebrate the day. 

I had some perfect sheets of paper from dcwv's Cotton Bloom Stack (Thanks Peggy!) I used my Martha Stewart circle cutter to cut a 5.5" green circle. I scored that circle and folded it half to create my card. Then I cut a 5.25" circle out of a sparkly green paper. I cut it in half and glued that half to my card. Next I cut a 5" circle from a sheet of red/pink paper. I cut it in half and glued it to the green paper. I used an EK Success daisy punch to punch a black daisy. I cut the petals of that daisy into watermelon seeds and adhered them to the card. Rather than stamp the text directly onto the watermelon slice, I stamped it onto a scrap of paper, punched it out with a one inch circle punch and adhered it to the card. LOVE it!  Hope you can tell that this card is shaped like a slice of watermelon. 

The green paper I used on this card is also from the Cotton Bloom Stack. It reminds me of the green plastic berry baskets strawberries and bluerries used to be sold in. The text was stamped with one of my favorite Impression Obsession's wooden stamps. I cut the watermelon slices from the sheet of Little Yellow Bicycle paper and then used a hand punch to create "bites" in each in slice. Notice that the scallops I cut on my green paper are the shape of watermelon slices.
 

The monkey images and text were stamped with Dandelion Designs wooden stamps.  I watercolored the monkeys before I fussy cut them and adhered them to watermelon images that I also fussy cut before I adhered them to the card with foam tape.  Watermelon paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle and the glittery green paper is from the dcwv Cotton Bloom paper pad.  

 

Remember the toss pillow that I showed you earlier in this post?

 



It's a one of two very cool pillows that Jeanne bought me at Kohls years ago.  You can unbutton the front of each pillow and change the seasonal picture.  One of the summer images is the watermelon you see here and the other is a patriotic design.  Well, this watermelon pillow inspired this watermelon card...

 

Hope you enjoyed this very long post.  The table is set...

And now it's time to plan the menu!

Happy Watermelon Day!
Carol