.jpg)
Archive for the ‘Create with Connie and Mary’ Category:
The Start of a Busy Week!
Aloha, all!
Well, this is the week I've been working towards since before Christmas – the week when I have to have my first Create With Connie and Mary Occasions Edition projects done AND my sister-in-law and her husband are coming for a 10-day visit. Can you imagine all the different directions my mind will be traveling this week?!
For today, the direction is towards the Stampin' Up! Occasions Mini Catalog and all the scraps of paper that have been flying all over the place as I've been trying to finish projects and challenge cards! Among the flying papers are the insides of a bunch of windows I've been making with the Sizzix Hearts Framelits (in the Occasions Mini Catalog, of course). You'll see the fab card I made with those right here on Wednesday. But today I'm featuring the "leftovers."
This card has four of the hearts left over from making windows – all of them from the Twitterpated Designer Series Paper – which is my favorite paper set from the Occasions Mini. The sentiment is one of the 11 in the Occasions Mini Stamp Set, Loving Thoughts, and it's stamped on the banner from another Occasions Mini Stamp Set, Take it to Heart.
The final touch to go with all those hearts is one of the Trinket Hearts from the mini. I bought them to use with my Simply Adorned Jewelry, but decided this one would be perfect for this card. I hope you think so, too!
And speaking of the Create With Connie and Mary Occasions Edition, today is the start of Preview Week! There will be projects all week on the Create With Connie and Mary Blog and they're available to EVERYONE! The whole idea is to show you just how wonderful this Occasions Edition will be so that you'll sign up – with the Early Bird Discount! Besides that great offer, every day this week someone with the Create team will be offering Blog Candy – a free subscription to the Occasions Edition. So hop on over to the Create With Connie and Mary Blog to see who's offering the Blog Candy today and get in on the action!
Subscribe to the comments for this postA Sketch Saved the Day!
Aloha, all!
I'm hostessing my last Christmas Card making class today and last night realized that I definitely needed a card for a younger person. So I pulled out Forest Festivities, with the cute little animals, and was stopped dead in my tracks. It was late and I couldn't figure out what to do with it!
.jpg)
Create With Connie and Mary to the rescue!! I was going to go to my own Card Layout Sketchbook, but then I remembered that Create With Connie and Mary is giving away FREE Occasions Edition subscriptions to one person who enters their sketch challenge each week this month. Now, I don't count for this as I already have an "in" for the Occasions Edition. But YOU might want to try this sketch out!
And here's the card I made using the sketch. I managed to change the shapes around a bit, but it still accomplished what I wanted!
Besides the sketch, I didn't want to recreate the wheel on the coloring of the picture (who has time for that when you're getting ready for a class??!!). So I went to Split Coast Stampers and found this picture colored by Marilyn SanClemente. I tweaked it a bit, but this is what I wanted it to look like. The colors are Real Red, Wild Wasabi, So Saffron and Blush Blossom. Marilyn used watercolor pencils, but I used Blender Pens and Classic Ink Pads – except for the Blush Blossom, where I used the Stampin' Write Marker, the only way you can get that color these days. The greeting is from the same stamp set.
The Snowflake is from the Winter Wishes Stitched Felt set that's in the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog (as is the Forest Festivities Stamp Set). I decided to add a So Saffron Button from the Subtles Collection to pick up the color from the stamped image. I glued both the felt and the button on with Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue. It takes awhile for it to dry; but once it dries, it's on there!
Thanks to Create With Connie and Mary and Marilyn SanClemente for saving the day for me! And don't forget to go over to Create With Connie and Mary and enter your card in their challenge! You could win a subscription to their fabulous 6-week, project-every-day, Occasions Edition!
Another Fun Challenge for the Holidays!
Aloha, all!
Today is the last day I'll be posting a project from the Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition! But don't forget – you can still subscribe to this fabulous series of 6 WEEKS OF PROJECTS! I've been thinking that getting these projects all at once might be a lot of fun – and they're available to everyone who subscribes for ONE YEAR!
Today's project was a challenge just for the Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition Design Team. We were to make a bag or a box and a tag. That sounds like Christmas to me!! Well, it could be a birthday, or any other event that calls for a small gift. And such a unique way to present a special gift!
A couple of years ago I made a lot of these "box in a bag" (or is it "bag in a box"?) containers, and I forgot how much I loved to make them – and how EASY they are!! I looked around for a pattern and found quite a few. But I kind of felt like "Goldilocks" when she was dealing with the Three Bears: This one was too tall, this one was too wide, this one required retired products. I wanted one that was "just right." So I made my own pattern with my own measurements and found that "just right" size and set of products for this holiday season. The base for the "box" bottom is 2" x 4" and the whole bag is 4-1/2" tall. The closest existing pattern for the shape that I wanted is one posted by Andrea Walford back in 2008, and she in turn based her design on one by Diana Gibbs earlier the same year. In the 3 years since, lots of people have made variations on the same design. If you can't find a tutorial that you like for this project, just let me know in the comments on this blog post and I can point you to them.
The card stock for this whole project is Wild Wasabi,(with a touch of Real Red on the tag) and the designer series paper is from the Holiday Mini set, Holly Berry Bouquet. I just love the little Holly and Berry overall pattern on this paper – I could almost use a whole pack of it all by itself!
The stamp on the central motif on the front of the bag is from the Pines and Poinsettias stamp set (also in the Holiday Mini Catalog). I used my Wild Wasabi, Cherry Cobbler and Real Red Stampin' Write Markers to color the stamp before I applied it to the Very Vanilla Card Stock. The card stock is a 2-1/2" square and it's mounted on Wild Wasabi that I cut with the Sizzix Scallop Squares Duo Die. The gift tag is a 1-3/4" square (cut a piece of Very Vanilla Card Stock 3-1/2" x 1-3/4" and fold in half).
I hope you've enjoyed everything that I've been sharing with you as I've participated in the Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition! I've been kind of scarce here on my own blog because I've been busy with them. But from now until the end of the year, I'll be back here in full swing, ready to show you what I've been creating in my Craft Room!
I hope you're having a great weekend – and are having some time to get some of your holiday crafting done! Have fun whatever you do!
Fun With a Challenge Sketch!
Aloha, all!
It's Saturday and the Holiday Edition of Create With Connie and Mary is almost over. Can you believe that?! A six-week program seems to have gone by in less than a month! (Note that this doesn't mean you can't still subscribe and get ALL of the projects from this great program that focuses on everything in the 2011 Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog. You can!!!)
But I digress (as I often do). This week for the Holiday Edition, a week which focused on the Frostwood Lodge Product Suite, our challenge was a horizontal sketch. Now usually when someone presents a sketch challenge, one can take liberties with the sketch, including rotating a horizontal sketch to become a vertical sketch. But this one was quite specific. And once I started being "obedient" about the position of the card, I did so with the rest of the elements of the card. So my card is pretty true to the sketch. So here's the sketch…
…and here's my card!
One thing that's a lot different from the cards that I usually show you here is that this card is 7" wide x 5" high. Those trees from the Christmas Lodge Stamp Set just seem to overwhelm a standard 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" card. With this card their size seems more reasonable.
I'm not sure how many of you have ever been where there are a lot of Birch trees growing. But I've had the opportunity to be around Birch quite a bit up in the north woods of Minnesota. And this paper from the Frostwood Lodge Designer Series Paper set reminds me so much of Birch bark that's peeled off the trunk. We frequently find pieces of the bark and use them to write notes or signs to hang in various places up at the cabin. Lots of fun. To make this paper seems even more like the bark, I wrinkled it up and rolled the edges a bit.
The only product on this card that's not in the Holiday Mini Catalog is the "25" stamp, which is from the set Tags 'til Christmas Stamp Set in the 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog. But I stamped it on one of the papers from the Frostwood Lodge DSP set, so that brings it right back into the Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition realm.
If you have the Christmas Lodge stamp set you might notice that the trunk of both trees doesn't show up at all. For the tree on the right, it's obvious that I stamped the tree low on the card so the trunk was "stamped off." For the other tree though, before I stamped it, I placed a piece of plain paper across the area where the ribbon was going to be and then stamped the tree. I removed the piece of paper on which the trunk was stamped and I had that nice clean space to put my ribbon.
I hope you've enjoyed these Create With Connie and Mary challenge projects. These Saturday challenges are the only time we're permitted to show off something that we make for the subscription. Every other day of the week during the program, there's a great project complete with a downloadable tutorial from one of us designers. As I've said before, I'm having a blast with these and can hardly wait until I have some time to go make the projects that some of the other designers have posted on the blog. And I don't have to hurry up to do it because the subscription projects stay alive and well for ONE YEAR! I'm still referring to the Summer Edition projects and have a lot of time with them, too. So if you've not yet subscribed, do think about it – and enjoy all these projects especially for the next 2 and a half months that the Holiday Mini catalog is effective!
Lots of Glitter Without the Mess!
Aloha, all!
We're just finishing up the 4th week of the wonderful Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition! I have been designing and making projects that are very different from those that I usually feature here, even during blog hops. Connie and Mary encourage – actually require! – original designs and well-constructed projects and tutorials for everything that we do for them.
.jpg)
For the Saturday challenges, though, we are not held to the original design standard too closely, and I'm sure that you've seen lots of cards in different places that use three stockings made from Holiday Mini products. But for this one, I wanted lots of glitter to accent the color challenge for the week. The challenge was to use Real Red, Wild Wasabi and Cherry Cobbler, the colors featured in the Holly Berry Bouquet product suite in the Holiday Mini.
I have to confess that there's only the slightest bit of Cherry Cobbler in this card – in the holly berries on the Holly Berry Bouquet Specialty Designer Series Paper at the top of the card and in the card base itself. OK, I got that out of my system and headed for the "Real" Red as well as the Wild Wasabi green. (I have to tell you that I was really disappointed when Glorious Green was retired from the Stampin' Up! collection; but Wild Wasabi has grown on me – just wish it had a different name!) And, of course, I wanted all that red to be glittery! That was really easy because not only do we have the Real Red Glimmer Brads and Red Glimmer Paper, we also have the glitter designs on two sheets of the Designer Series Paper set. That's why the word, "Specialty," appears in the product name. The striped and polka dotted sheets are glittered!
So now that I had 3 different sheets with glitter, I just punched each of the sheets using the new Stocking Builder Punch and mixed and matched the results. One trick that I used was to cut up smaller pieces of the designer paper and arrange them in the punch so that the designs fit the shape I was punching, especially with the stripes. So it's no accident that the large stripe and the one polka dot fit perfectly in the heels of the stockings, or that the stocking and cuff are punched so that the stripes run parallel with the design. It just took a bit of care and I didn't waste much paper at all. Love the result, too!
For the basic design, I wanted this to look like stockings hung "by the chimney with care." But with no fireplace in my Stampin' Up! collection, I had to make do with a shelf and a plain wall, which is what I have in my house. So after I created the "shelf" with the Red Glimmer Paper, I embossed the Wild Wasabi "wall" using the Sizzix Stripes Textured Embossing Folder.
I wrapped the whole scene with a mat of Red Glimmer Paper, a teensy sliver of Whisper White, and mounted it all onto a Cherry Cobbler greeting card base.
And after I finished the whole project, there wasn't the slightest speck of glitter sticking to anything or anyone! Love that Stampin' Up!'s looking out for the welfare of my vacuum cleaner
I hope you'll check out the other designs for this week's color challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary. That site is always free, and we're all posting our challenge cards there as well as in the Holiday Edition subscription site. If you haven't subscribed to the Holiday Edition, you can do so any time and have access to everything in the entire program – for one year! But, of course, now's the time to subscribe because the 2011 Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog is still in effect for another 2 and a half months!
Hope to see you there! And I hope you'll have fun with whatever Holiday Mini products you've already got. Just 10 more weeks 'til Christmas!
A Special Christmas Card
Aloha, all!
This weekend's challenge at Create With Connie and Mary was a bit of a different kind of challenge. We were to make a "one of a kind" card for someone special. Hmmm. One of a kind? What in the world did that mean? No hints out of Connie and Mary, though. So I had to figure my own particular "one of a kind" out myself.
As I looked around at all the Christmas products I've purchased from Stampin' Up!'s Holiday mini, I started to think about using some of the embellishments of which I'd purchased limited supplies. Then I started to think about techniques that were very time consuming. And of course, I considered color combinations that were a little bit "different" from those which I was most comfortable using for Christmas crafts. Finally I had to decide who the special person was that would be the recipient of my card. It had to be someone who would appreciate all the thought and work that went into the card.
Once I had that all figured out, the card started slowly coming into focus.
All of these elements didn't pop into my mind in a neat sequence. That would have been too easy! But once I had them all out on my work table, they just all seemed to meld together perfectly into just what I wanted.
There are two somewhat time-consuming techniques in this card. Heat embossing required some planning – making sure that I close the window at my work table to make sure there is no embossing powder blowing all over the place (ask me how I know this happens!); having my Embossing Buddy and Powder Pals at the ready and making sure that the embossing gun is plugged in and ready to go. That worked out really well – the Dove stamp from Comfort and Joy is a joy to emboss! Then I wanted a sentiment with a bit of a fancier font than the "Peace on Earth" that came with Comfort and Joy, so I hunted down my Christmas Set, Four the Holidays (I knew it was around somewhere!).
Then on to the Mini Jingle Bells. I decided that the best way to attach them all around the central motif was to sew them to card stock. That meant that I had to have some evenly-spaced holes around the edge, so I had to make sure that the size of that card stock fit with what I could do with the Paper Piercing Template in the Mat Pack. I punched holes for my needle and thread around the perimeter of the Real Red card stock (layer 4 in the sketch below) and sewed a Jingle Bell on at every second space. I love how they came out – and how good they sound when there are so many of them on one card! But I used a good percentage of my supply of bells, so I won't be teaching this in a class any time soon!
The Silver Glimmer Paper was the perfect finishing touch for this card. It accents the silver embossing so very well. I almost wish I could have made a larger card to fit more of Stampin' Up!'s silver products in it. But I do like to keep my cards to sizes that fit into Stampin' Up! envelopes. This 5-1/4" card fits beautifully into the Stampin' Up! Medium Square Envelope. But I do have to tell you that, with all those bells, it weighs well over an ounce even without the envelope! I probably won't be putting this card in the mail, though; at least not in an envelope.
And who's going to get this special card? I'm not telling because I think that there's a good chance that person reads my blog! It's got to be a surprise!
Oh, and don't forget that you can still sign up for the Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition! There are tons of fabulous projects already published and more to come. This is just the end of week 3! And you'll have access to the full tutorials for every single project for a year after the subscription series is over! I loved the Summer Edition and still go back and check out some of those projects (though I've downloaded most of the tutorials already).
Here's the sketch for this card – would you believe SIX LAYERS besides the basic card! That's something I don't do often, either! No wonder this card weighs a ton! But it was a lot of fun making it – and I'm sure you'd have a lot of fun trying something with the sketch, too!
Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
Aloha, all!
My favorite niece's birthday is this week. Well, actually she is my ONLY niece. But she's still my favorite! As her mother is also one of my downline, I always try to make something extra special when I make a card for Margie. So when this year's birthday came around, I was ever so glad to have the luscious new paper from Stampin' Up! – Spice Cake.
I love it when Stampin' Up! provides both multicolored stripes and multicolored floral patterns in a set of Designer Series Paper! As I'm sure I've mentioned before, putting some of the stripes on the bottom of a card and flowers on the top reminds me so much of my grandparents' home decor with all the wonderful wall papers and chair moldings in between that everyone had back then. It's still popular in many parts of the United States, but it's been awhile since I've been in a home decorated like that.
The colors in the Spice Cake papers that I'm highlighting today are Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz and Soft Suede. Imagine that – they are the colors in this week's Color Challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary! And, yes, the Holiday Edition of their wonderful subscription program is still going on. And it's only in its second week! The projects have been fabulous and oh so different! There's something for everyone! It's not too late to subscribe. The entire 6-week program is included in every subscription – and available for A YEAR afterwards for all the subscribers to reference!
This is the first card I've made with one of the accordion fold medallions that Stampin' Up! has displayed not only in the Holiday Mini, but also in a few places in the Idea Book and Catalog. They're so easy to make with the new Stampin' Up! scoring tool, Simply Scored! I made mine with a 1-1/2" strip of a 12" length of the striped paper. Easy since Stampin' Up!'s paper comes in a 12" square size! There are lots of different ways to make this medallion, but I used the simple way shown by fellow demonstrator Gretchen Barron over at Inspiration in Action. She scored her paper every 1/4" and then sealed the edges together. To keep the medallion in place, punch a piece of card stock with the 1-1/4" Circle Punch and adhere one to each side of the medallion. Then decorate as you wish. I used the Fancy Flower and Five-Point Flower punches to cover the medallion and added some Pool Party and Pear Pizzazz card stock and a piece of Pool Party 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon to the card to complete the design.
Now to get the card in the mail! It will fit inside a Stampin' Up! Medium Square Envelope, though this one might get crushed in the mail. So it will go into a box with a little gift!
Birthdays come around all year – even during the holidays! I hope you have someone fun for whom to make a birthday card this holiday season! That paper is so easy to use!
Hybrid Trick or Treat?
Aloha, all!
Those of you who read my blog posts regularly know that most of what I share with you are greeting cards made exclusively with Stampin' Up! products – stamp sets, inks, papers, embellishments – everything in the current Stampin' Up! catalogs!
But today you might not recognize at least one of the items on the card as being in a catalog. But it is! Can you guess what I'm talking about?
Of course it's the skeleton! If you look at the Holiday Mini Catalog, you'll see that the skeleton on my card is a lot smaller than it appears in the Piece of Poison stamp set AND it's facing the other direction! No, I didn't shrink the stamp and work some fancy magic to get it this way. I used My Digital Studio and the Piece of Poison Digital Download found on page 8 of the mini catalog. That is one of the thousands of fantastic things that you can do with My Digital Studio. I made my card look exactly as I wanted without being tied down to the stamp in the catalog! So my card – with Stampin' Up! stamps, ink, papers and embellishments (love that ribbon and those brads!) is a hybrid – a mix of digital and 3-dimensional products!
It's a Create With Connie and Mary Challenge – with PRIZES!
I made this card for the Create With Connie and Mary Weekly Challenge this week. This week's challenge and those for the next 5 .jpg)
weeks are special because they're a part of the Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition subscription – BUT we get to share them with everyone, not just those who've purchased the subscription. Fun for me since a lot of projects on which I've been working this month are limited to subscribers. I know a lot of you have already subscribed (because you've told me!) and I hope some more of you will think about it, too! The projects this week have been so much fun (when I have time I'm making at least one of them from another designer for sure).
The Create with Connie and Mary challenge this week is a sketch challenge, and you are invited to submit your very own project, too, by commenting on the Create with Connie and Mary Blog. If you are a subscriber to Create With Connie and Mary – Holiday Edition, you'll also have a chance to win a prize! Here's the sketch. I would be SO happy to have one of you win that prize at the end of the Holiday Edition!
The “Other” Bow!
Aloha, all!
Those of you who downloaded my FREE TUTORIAL over at Create with Connie and Mary earlier this week saw that the bow that I used in the tutorial wasn't exactly the same bow that I used in my project. That's what comes of getting so involved with a project that I forget to take photos for the tutorials.
And that bow has been sitting around, being moved from place to place in the Craft Room, ever since I wrote the tutorial. Now, however, it's found a great place to be!
Today is the birthday of a good friend and I FORGOT IT! So I quickly made up a card for her, and the bow has a VERY prominent place! Happy Birthday, Karolyn!
And speaking of
Create With Connie and Mary
it's time for the
LAST PREVIEW PROJECT
for their Holiday Edition and it's Connie's very own project that's featured! So be sure to go to Create With Connie and Mary to learn more about it, download a FREE TUTORIAL FOR THE PROJECT, and comment on Connie's blog for a chance to win a subscription to their Holiday Edition!
Tomorrow is the last day of preview! So don't miss this!
Oh, and that wreath that I added to the bow: It's from the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog hostess set, Warmest of Wishes!
I hope you have as much fun crafting this weekend as I'm planning to have. And I hope you'll take advantage of the Create With Connie and Mary Early Bird Pricing – it ends September 17th!
Playing With Watercoloring!
Aloha, all!
Well, I didn't exactly use watercolor for this sunflower, but there is definitely water involved. This is a Stampin' Up! Sunflower Stamp and I made it look like I watercolored it!
.jpg)
All of the coloring is applied to the stamp, and not to the paper. I first inked the whole sunflower using a Daffodil Delight classic stamp pad. It's easiest to do this by laying the stamp rubber side up and tapping the stamp pad all over it. Then I took out my More Mustard Stampin' Write Marker and colored over the Daffodil on a few of the petals that are in the "back" of the flower; while I still had that marker out, I stroked it randomly over the rest of the petals. Finally (for the petals) I drew on some strokes with my Pumpkin Pie Marker. With my Chocolate Chip Marker I filled in the center of the flower, and pulled some of the Chocolate Chip color up into the petals.
The final step before applying the image to my Confetti Cream Card Stock was to spritz the stamp with water – just once and about 12" – 18" away from the stamp. I left the stamp lying down on my work table and placed the card stock on top of it and pressed down all over the stamp to make sure that I transferred the whole image to the paper. Using a brayer to do this is also a good way to ensure coverage. I used a piece of card stock that was 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" for this process because I wanted to the whole flower to be stamped (less messy). After I pulled the card stock off and let it dry (adding the water makes the stamped image stay wet for awhile), I trimmed the sheet to 4" x 5-1/4" to layer up with the Old Olive and More Mustard Card Stock.
The "Friends" stamp is from the Vintage Vogue Stamp Set. I punched it with the Decorative Label Punch and sponged around the edge with More Mustard ink. I punched a blank piece of card stock with the punch, sponged its edge with Chocolate Chip, and cut it apart to create a mat for this element of the card. The ribbon is Old Olive 5/8" Satin Ribbon
EEK! What's up at Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition today?!
Today's preview project with a FREE TUTORIAL! is up over at Create with Connie and Mary! What a darling project Debbie Henderson has made for you, and I'm looking forward to trying it out myself – AFTER I finish my own projects for the Holiday Edition. All of us designers are working hard to provide you with fun UNIQUE projects and the tutorials to go with them. The Early Bird Special subscription is still going on. AND you have a chance to win a FREE subscription by leaving a comment on Debbie's blog today!
.jpg)
Click for information about purchasing the CD by Paypal or ordering the Kindle eBook from Amazon.com.
