Robot and Cupcake Valentines

Good Morning Everyone!

I purchased a dcwv "All About Boys" small stack at JoAnn's the other day. It's filled with all sorts of cool papers with outer space, pirate, zoo, under the sea, cowboy, superhero, and robot themes. I just had to use some of the robot papers to create more valentines along with the Stampendous robot stamp I showed you a few blogs ago. This time I masked off the text from the stamp and used just it on some punched out hearts.  I positioned the text on the hearts and the hearts on the cards in such a way to make them look like word balloons.
I'm nearly out of what seemed to be an endless supply of Lil' Robots chipboard pieces from My Mind's Eye. I added a few of the ones I had left to my valentines. The tiny "Happy Valentine's Day" message was created with an A Muse Artstamp.

Just couldn't pass up the opportunity to use my Hero Arts large cupcake cling stamp on some valentines. After all it does have some hearts on it. As I have done in the past on birthday cards I stamped the "muffin wrapper" part of the stamp onto one patterned paper and the "frosting" part of the stamp on a different patterned paper. I fussy cut both images out and ran the "muffin wrapper" through my crimper before I adhered it to the layering paper. I used dimensional tape to attach the "frosting" to the layering paper. The text is stamped on some Martha Stewart "ribbon style tags" that I spotted at TJ Maxx a few days ago.
 



Now I need to stop creating cards for a few hours and creatively do some cleaning!
 
Have a good day!
Carol

Papercrafting a Cookbook

Hi Everyone!

It's been a few days since you have heard from me. I actually took some time off from papercrafting to visit with friends, bake zucchini bread and zucchini chocolate cake, and fill 2 large Dutch ovens with soup. While I was making the soup I had an idea. I decided to create some cookbooks with recipes for 6 of my family's favorite soups in it and give them to some of my family and friends for holiday gifts.


I recently ordered sheets of 8.5" x 11" chipboard from http://www.ckresale.com/ to use to create mini albums, but decided to also use some of it for my cookbooks. The company shipped quickly and the heavy package was packed very well. My only "complaint" is that many of the sheets of chipboard measured 8.25" x 11" instead of the 8.5" x 11" that I ordered.

I used my paper cutter to cut the chipboard so that it measured 8.5" x 5.5" which means I got 2 pages from one sheet of chipboard. My paper trimmer struggled when I attempted to use it to cut the chipboard, but the paper cutter cut it easily.

I cut 4 (8.5" x 11") pieces of chipboard so that I would have 8 (8.5" x 5.5") pages for my cookbook. I rubbed a dye ink pad along the side edges of the chipboard to give them some color. I also brushed that same dye ink pad along the front and back edges. I used Scor-tape to affix 8.5" x 5.5" sheets of paper from dcwv's Nana's Kitchen 12" x 12" paper stack to both sides of the 8 pages. Then I used a 2-hole paper punch to punch holes at the top of each page.


I typed, printed, and trimmed the recipes I wanted to use and glued them to just one side of 6 of the pages I had covered with paper. I didn't glue a recipe to the page that I am using as a back cover. I decorated one page to use as the cover of my book.

I wanted to use cooking tools, aprons, chef hats, and vegetables to embellish the cover and the pages in my book. Die cuts, rubber stamps, chipboard pieces, and stickers are just some of the products I could use to create those embellishments.

I have a Sizzix apron and oven mitt die. Jolee, Recollections, Mrs. Grossman, SandyLion, and Maya Road are among the companies that have the products that I had in mind. I decided that some of the layered embellishments that I love to use on my cards didn't work for me in my cookbook so I peeled the ones I had down to one layer. I wanted the look of dimension without actually having dimension so I coated most of my embellishments with Glossy Accents. I was thrilled with the results. By adding a coating of Glossy Accents to ordinary stickers I transformed them into epoxy stickers.  If you study this picture you will see the difference between a spoon that has been coated with Glossy Accents and one that hasn't. 

I used plastic chicken rings from Creative Teaching Press to bind my book together. Metal book rings would of course also work, but I have lots of chicken rings so I decided to use them. The letters I used on this first book are Maya Road chipboard letters. I sprayed them with Maya Road's red metallic mist and let them dry before I adhered them to the book cover.

I designed the cookbook with the rings at the top so that the pages could be flipped over until you reach the recipe that you want to use.  The cookbook will stand up on its own. 

It took some time to figure out how I wanted to create my cookbooks. Now that I have done that I have decided to make one for our favorite Christmas cookies.  While I was shopping for embellishments for my soup cookbook, I picked up others for the cookie cookbook.  Once it is created I will share photographs of it with you. 
 
When Robbie and Marie were young children most of my family lived in the area and often joined us for Thanksgiving dinner.  In addition to the turkey and stuffing our meal included a multitude of vegetables and a vast selection of pies and breads.  Marie insists that we include all of those foods year after year even when it's just the 3 of us having dinner.  I am planning to create a cookbook called "A Hartery Thanksgiving" especially for Robbie and Marie so that they each have a collection of the recipes for our traditional meal. 
 

My life is especially busy these days as I plan the trainings and classes I will be teaching this fall so I may not be posting quite as often as I have over the past 5 months, but please stop by to check for a new post and please leave a comment so I know you've been reading the posts.  Talk to you soon! 

PS....I am adding this message 2 days after I created the cookbook.  Today was the day that I made the date book which is in the post that follows this one.  The pages in the date book are made from heavy scrapbooking paper that was folded in half which is the equivalent of 2 sheets of paper backed together.  I have decided that when I make future cookbooks including the cookie one I have been working on tonight, the front and back covers will be made with chipboard that is covered with scrapbook paper.  The pages will be made with 2 sheets of heavy scrapbook paper that are glued back to back.  The pages will still be able to flip over the top of the book and the book will still be able to stand because the covers will support the weight of the pages.  If you decided to make cookbooks you may want to try them that way.  Talk to you again soon.

Carol

Songbirds

Hi Everyone!

Today I used paper from the dcwv Songbird 12" x 12" block to create some all occasion cards. There are 2 pages each of 18 designs in the block. One set of pages is filled with birdhouses that are different colors, sizes, and shapes. Some of them are glittered. I used some of those birdhouses on today’s cards and have lots of them left to use on another day. I think they’d look wonderful with a little holly on them for Christmas cards. I will try that one of these days. Oh, and a little snow on them would be great too! Maybe snow created with a white Puffy Velvet Fabric Marker.

The Songbird block is only available in Michaels. I saw some ideas for it on the dcwv blog.

I used a Hero Arts wooden stamp called "Sweet Bird" on this card. "Hello" was created with an A Muse Artstamp.

The other birds on these cards were created with stamps from the Hero Arts "Decorative Birds" set. There are 4 different birds in the set. Some have long legs and others have short ones. The legs can be masked and then some of the birds will appear to be flying.

The tiny bird on this card was created with the "Tiny Bird" stamp from A Muse Artstamps. "Happy Bird Day to You" is a stamp from Stampabilities.

Have a great night!
Carol

Gift Card Holders

Hi Everyone!

Talk about going out of your mind! We didn’t have cable TV or Internet service for more than 24 hours so I couldn’t read or write e-mails, couldn’t post my blog, and couldn’t read the blogs that I follow. I contacted our provider and was told that more than 4000 people didn’t have service. Happily everything is working again.

Sometimes, when you want to give someone a gift, it’s hard to know what they may want or need so you might decide to give them a gift card to a store or to their favorite restaurant. To personalize that gift card it’s nice to create a special holder for it. Today I thought I’d share some gift card holders that I recently created.

I found the template for this holiday stocking gift card holder on the Splitcoast Stampers web site. It was created by waltzingmouse. I adapted the template just a little to transform the stocking into a sock. I trimmed the sides of the stocking’s cuff to make it look more like the cuff on a sock. I crimped some scrapbook tag and glued it onto the cuff and also used it for the sock’s heel and toe. I used paper from the dcwv "Guy Paper Stack" for this sock. If you study the template you will see where the gift card is placed. When you lift up the sock’s cuff you will see the gift card. A greeting can be stamped on the inside of the cuff. This card will fit in a 4.75" x 6.5’’ standard envelope.

When I read the Hero Arts blog on Monday, I realized that it’s been a while (last one I made was on May 7 for a friend’s birthday) since I created a gift card holder with a pocket. To make this card I cut a sheet of 8.5" x 11" white tag so that it measured 4.25’" x 11". I used my Scor-Pal and scored a line at 1.75" and at 6.25". I folded the paper at the 1.75" line and put some Scor-Pal tape on the edges to create a pocket. I folded the paper along the 6.25" line to create the card. I used one of my Martha Stewart edger punches to create a decorative edge. I stamped the heart bouquet image from a Heartfelt Creations stamp onto some dcwv sky paper. I used my Marvy Twinklette markers to color the balloons. Then I filled in the balloons with Glossy Accents to give them dimension. The "Thanks a Bunch" stamp is from Stamp of Excellence. The gift card is placed in the pocket. It can be seen when you lift up the front of the card. This card will fit in an A2 envelope.


It’s not too early to be thinking about the holidays so why not give these ideas a try and turn them into gift card holders for the holidays. Talk to you soon!
Carol

Quick and Easy Birthday Cards

Hi Everyone!

There’s one window fan in the window directly in front of me and a second one to my right. I have a 3rd fan plugged in behind me. The window fans show what the temperature is outside. Today I learned that once the temperature goes above 99, the screen shows the word, "Hi" as in "high" in place of showing a numerical temperature. Usually the fans keep this room very comfortable, but there’s no comfort today! Happily over the weekend I created some birthday cards that I will share with you today.


Like many of my cardmaking friends, I find it easier to create cards for women and children than I do for men. Happily a few months ago I purchased a 12" x 12" block of paper called "The Guy Pad" that is manufactured by dcwv and sold in local craft stores. Originally I used that paper to create Father’s Day cards, but this weekend I used it to create birthday cards. As you can see the cards were easy and inexpensive to create. All of the cards are A2 cards measuring 5.5" x 4.25" or 4.25" x 5.5" depending upon which way the card is held.

The large background squares on these two cards are 2.5" and the rectangles are 1.25" x 2.5". The largest square that is turned as a diamond is 2.5" and the one placed on it is 2.25". By using a variety of patterned papers you can easily create some cards to add to your collection.

Stop by again tomorrow so that you can see some other cards I created this weekend.

Stay cool!
Carol