Miss Ewe

Happy Friday Everyone!

I’ve been focused on creating birthday cards and Halloween and Christmas decor for at least a week now so I decided to give myself a break and just "play" with some of my stamps.

I am dedicating today’s first card to my friend Susan DeMuth of Shapes, ETC. Susan is the one who first got me started on this papercrafting addiction. Several years ago she brought some of her favorite papercrafting books and tools with her when we were attending an NSSEA conference. That’s when she showed me how to create the 3-dimensional flowers that I now always refer to as "Flowers a la Susan". That’s when she shared a couple of her favorite books called Punch Your Art Out. When I returned home from that trip I promptly purchased the books, some paper punches and a stylus.

I flipped through those books recently and decided to use some of my punches to create some vegetables. I ran a piece of green glitter tag through a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, sanded the dots and then used a foot punch to punch out some cucumbers. I used a small apple punch to create green peppers. The tomatoes were made with a half inch circle punch and a small star punch.

I stamped a basket from the Hero Arts Sunny Smiles cling stamp set, colored it with some of my Copics and fussy cut it. I tore some sand paper to create the garden soil. The layering paper is from SEI.  I used foam tape to adhere the basket of vegetables to the card.

Before I share another card I’d like to pass along some advice that Susan gave to me when I first became interested in paper crafting. She suggested that each time I added anything to my paper crafting stash that I made sure it had a home so that everything would be organized and easily found. Happily I listened to her advice and now even though I have a vast collection of paper punches, wooden and clear stamps, ink pads, buttons and ribbons,etc. everything I want to use is easily found and accessible. Thank you Susan for your inspiration, guidance, and friendship. If you are a classroom teacher be sure to visit and shop at Susan’s web site at www.shapesetc.com Susan is the artist and owner of that company.

One of my recent Lawn Fawn purchases was a set of clear stamps called Critters on the Farm. I love all of the critters in this set, but decided to play with the adorable lamb. I took some scraps of Bitty Dot Basics 2008 paper from PaperTrey Ink and cut them into hills. I used a Martha Stewart picket fence border punch and punched out a long fence strip. I cut between every three or so "pickets" so that I could curve the fence and glued it behind some of my hills.

I used some watercolor pencils to color the lamb before I fussy cut it. I used some of my Copic markers to color the barn before I fussy cut it. I am pleased to see a little shading action in both of those images.  I used a sun die cut to create the sun and was thrilled to find the "Miss Ewe" text in a clear stamp set from Sweet and Sassy stamps. I cut the stamp into 2 parts so that it would fit on the sun’s circle. It will be easy to piece it back together on a clear block if I want the words to be next to each other again.

And that’s it for today.
Have a great day!
Carol

PS...Susan created my logo.  I described what I wanted to her over the phone and she created exactly what I had in mind. 

Stitched Birthday Cards

Hi Everyone!

One of the classes I took while I was attending Boston State College was Arts and Crafts for Primary Grades. Professor Cody was the incredible teacher of this class. He made everyone feel good about their creative abililty and taught us a wide variety of techniques to use with young children. He gave us yarn needles, yarn, and pieces of burlap and taught us basic needlepoint stitches. We combined all of the stitches we were taught and stitched masterpieces on burlap.
When I became a first grade teacher in Lexington I taught those same stitches to my students and had them stitch on burlap as I had done in college. I brought my feather weight sewing machine to school and helped my students transform their burlap samplers into toss pillows for their mothers for Mother’s Day. The boys were as excited about their creations as the girls were and all of their mothers loved their gifts.

Years ago I stitched pictures for our home and for Robbie and Marie’s first Easter, Christmas, etc. but as time went on I didn’t give stitching much thought until I came across from stitching templates from Bazzill. The templates are made from plastic. You place a sheet of tag on a piercing mat and then place the template which has holes that outline a shape much like a dot to dot puzzle does on top of the tag. You poke a paper piercer (needle) through the hole in the template and through the piece of tag. Then you use embroidery floss to stitch through the holes you have created in your tag.

Last night I used some of my birthday templates to help me create some stitched birthday cards. This cupcake one is my favorite.

I ran some white tag through a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder before I pierced the tag. I used a backstitch to stitch all of my creations. I used a dark brown marker to highlight some of the embossed dots.

This party hat was easy to stitch because I only used 2 colors of floss. The hat is navy blue and the pompom on the hat is green.

There were only 2 balloons on the template I used for this card, but I added a third so that the card would be more colorful.

This time I ran the paper though the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder after I had stitched the card. The stitches flattened as I ran the paper though the Cuttlebug. You’ve probably seen cards I’ve created that have clouds that I have pierced, but not stitched. This time I stitched the clouds and really like that look.

I am thinking that if you took any clip art or paper piecing image and placed it on a sheet of tag you could use it as a template. 

Have a great day!
Carol

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