Chickadee Card Candy

I was trying to get a chickadee for a Christmas card, and if you follow this blog, you know how I like to make things look real. Here's the chickadee I made with two oval punches, small star punch, 1" circle punch, 1/8" circle punch, and scissors. I tried taking pictures while I was working on the bird, so some of the pieces were modified a bit, and after I took the one of all the pieces, I decided I needed another piece, so that's why there's a couple of extra pictures in the file for pieces.
Let me know if you have any problems with the directions and how you like it!! TFL

The inks are More Mustard and White Craft and the directions can be found in the PDF file that is here.

Tea Bag Holder Gift Card

This is NOT my idea, but when I saw these I thought they were so cool and very easy to make! If you can, check out Sassiangel's gallery on SCS. She's made a lot of these, and has some great ideas for gifts for the Christmas season!! Anyway, I thought these were so cute that I've made some and I also cased her Lovely as a Tree design and stamped that on mine. Here's the picture:
On the left is the mini composition book and on the right is the tea bag holder. The tree has white liquid applique on it to make the snow. I used the Ski Slope DS paper and to give it a little glitz, which you can't see in the picture, I stamped the tree on Shimmery White cardstock. All stamps and supplies are from Stampin' Up!

I have added a PDF file for you to download and print out on cardstock if you wish for the tea bag holder. The page will print on printers which allow 1/4" margins, and there are 2 on a page! Enjoy! And, thanks, Sassiangel!!

Scrap Storage

If you're like me, you have TONS of itty-bitty pieces of expensive cardstock that you just don't want to throw away because you might need it. I always check my scraps when I'm making a card and want a certain color because often I find just what I need there. After several attempts at storing them I've finally found the solution. This is a picture of the Clipitup! by Simply Renee and it works great. This is the base unit, and it stands about 18" high and turns. I have all my cardstock sorted by color into 8 1/2" x 11" page protectors (kind you get at the office supply store) and now I can find it!
You can get an extention for the top to put another tier on, too.

Paper trimmer problems??

Well, here I am again, shopping for a new paper trimmer and thought I'd see what all the experts on SCS said about trimmers. I read everyone's report on all the different trimmers and since I wasn't ready to remortgage the house to buy another one, I decided to fix my Fiskars trimmer.
What's wrong with it? Maybe you have this problem, too... the markings all wear off and I can't tell where I'm cutting! (Yes, the blades get dull quick too, but I don't have a fix for that other than buying new blades!)
Here's my solution to the problem of markings wearing off:

Use permanent markers and redraw all the lines. (This isn't so bad because you can color "special" lines like the 4.25" one in another color!)

Now, this works for awhile, but these lines also wear off, so purchase a roll of Grip-tak clear vinyl self-adhesive. This is truely CLEAR. Contact paper is not clear, it is a little frosty, so it won't work.

Remove the arm carefully so you don't break it and press the Grip-tak down on the metal and smooth out, removing all wrinkles.

Finally, use your craft knife to cut around the edges of the metal plate and remove the excess! Voila! Almost good as new!!

Lace Medallion Card

This card was done for a challenge on SCS, and several people wrote me and asked for directions for the outside lace, made with the punch so I decided to post the information here. Because the medallion is so large (4.5" in diameter) the card measures 5.5" x 5.5". You can use any corner punch to do this, and the tutorial for making the inside medallion is great and can be found here.

For my medallion, I did not have the specific die set that was used on that tutorial, and after some fooling around ( like making a scalloped circle, which doesn't work well, and several different

size circles) I decided on the 3 3/8" diameter circle. This size used with this punch allows the center to pop right out easily. If you use a larger circle, you'll need to cut a bit with a craft knife to get it to pop out. On the card I used all vanilla cardstock, but in these directions I am only showing how to make the lace on the outside of the circle, so I'm showing it made with colored cardstock.







So, to make the pieces for the outside (you'll need 16 for this size circle) you need the punch without the corner adapter and you only need scraps of the paper you want to use, as the pieces are small.

Position the punch along the edge of the paper as shown and punch.


I've drawn black lines on the punched piece so that you can see where I snipped it with scissors.


After you snip it, you have one of the 16 pieces you need and you glue them with a spot of glue under the outside edge of the medallion.
(To take these pictures I am showing a solid circle here, but you would have already punched out the center!)
The colors I used in the card are Old Olive, Ruby Red, and Pretty in Pink and the stamp set for the inside of the medallion is Snow Swirled.

Cracked Glass Cardinal

This technique works great for the antique look but can work well with most any image. This is the Cardinal Christmas set from Stampin' Up!





Materials needed:

• Cardinal Christmas stamp set
• Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy, Brushed Gold, Vanilla cardstock
• Basic Black, Mellow Moss and Sahara Sand classic ink pads
• Chocolate Chip reinker
• StayzOn Black ink pad
• Versamark resist ink pad
• Glassy Glaze embossing powder
  
• watercolor crayons

Directions:

1. Stamp the mistletoe branch repeatedly around the vanilla cardstock with Mellow Moss ink.
2. Stamp the verse over and over around the mistletoe branches in Sahara Sand ink.
3. Stamp the cardinal in the center with StayzOn and color in with watercolor crayons.
4. After the image is dry, press the Versamark pad over the entire front of the image and sprinkle with embossing powder. Repeat this 2-3 times until the image is completely coated evenly (no paper shows through and no bumps). Set aside to COOL completely.
   
5. Fold the Always Artichoke cardstock in half to form the card, attach the brushed gold piece vertically on the front as shown. Stamp the "Merry Christmas" in the bottom-right corner of the card in Basic Black ink.
6. Bend the cardinal embossed piece to form cracks in the surface of the embossing. Repeat for the effect and number of cracks you want. Place one drop of Chocolate Chip ink on the front and rub around with a cotton ball, letting it seep into the cracks. (Sometimes it's easier to get in the cracks if you bend the cracks open a bit while sliding the cotton ball across them.)
7. Wipe off the excess ink from the cardinal piece with a clean paper towel and mount on Bravo Burgundy. (I find that heavy embossing like this needs a strong glue to hold it, as the cardstock has been warped and does not like to lay flat; So, I use the Tombow Multi Liquid Glue, especially in the corners, and hold it together with clothespins on the corners until dry.
8. Affix this to the front of the card as shown.
   

Harvest Pumpkins

I know it's been awhile since I put anything new here, but I've been busy with my new stamp room. I've been looking for just the right desk for my stamping room because I was running out of space. (Doesn't that happen to everyone??!) Anyway, everything else slid along the way while I was moving the computer, pulling cables and all trying to get this office situated just the way I wanted it. Here's a picture of my stamping station. I'm so happy with this and I thank everyone online that I wrote to and asked questions about how they liked this and that. The corner desk is from French Envy, yet I had them NOT put the knobs on that they were going to and ordered instead the drawer pulls online from an Antique Hardware site. I still have 5 empty drawers, too!!

Anyway, I know this post is called "Harvest Pumpkins" and I was going to put directions here for making the pumpkins and stems and leaves as someone asked about the card.
Here's the finished pumpkin:

To make this pumpkin you need the large oval punch and you punch 5 ovals from Pumpkin Pie cardstock.
Sponge each piece with Chocolate Chip ink around the edges. (I took a Pumpkin Pie marker and drew in the seams for shadowing after the pumpkin was together, but they look good without doing this!)

Glue the pieces together to make the pumpkin shape.





The stem is made from another scrap of Old Olive cardstock that already had some holes punched in it.
Here's a diagram to show you how you can cut these from the scraps; The oval has been punched out and the black lines denote where to cut with scissors:

Glue this piece that you cut out behind the top of the pumpkin and you're all set!

Now, leaves can be made with a circle punch, as well as a flower punch. Here's how to make the shape for leaves:

Punch a circle from cardstock and slide the circle back into the punch and punch the circle along the black line. If you have trouble getting the circle back into the side of the punch, put a sticky note on the circle to extend it into the punch!




Lots of things use this shape, ears on animals, for example.