Another Magazine CASE!

Aloha, all!

     It's Friday already and I'm not nearly ready for December – and December is tomorrow!  So I'm having to get some more cards made pronto.  Pronto means "fast," and one of the best ways to do things fast is to CASE (Copy and Share Everything) magazine projects!

     Today's project involves a suggestion in the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator's Magazine, Stampin' Success, for some projects to demonstrate at workshops.  Believe me, when you're demonstrating at a workshop, you want something that's super easy to do and shows off lots of Stampin' Up! products.  This project meets those requirements wonderfully well!

     To begin, I made a 4-1/4" square card (starting with an 8-1/2" x 4-1/4" piece of Crumb Cake Card Stock).  That makes a nice-sized card that will fit into a standard greeting card envelope.  Then I made my central layer just 1" smaller so that there's a 1/2" border all around. 

     My next step was to use the "Celebrate" stamp from the Priority Mail Stamp Set to stamp the 3-1/4" layer at the left, about half way down from the top.  I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to place this stamp correctly.  I needed the Stamp-a-ma-jig again to stamp the image a second time so that it would cover over to the area of the postage stamp image.

     Then I snipped a notch into the end of a 5/8" x 3" piece of printed paper (I used a piece from Stampin' Up!'s Cherry Cobbler Patterns Paper) and then adhered that to the front of the 3-1/4" layer.

     This is what I found to be a fun step – because I'd never done it before.  I love it when I have an "aha" moment and discover something new to me.  I punched the square using the 1-3/8" Square Punch, adhered the 3-1/4" square to the front of the card, and then placed the punched square back into its square hole and adhered it flat to the card base so that it's indented from the top layer.  With that piece of Cherry Cobbler paper on the square, it looks as if the paper continues across the top layer, with just a bit of a detour under the Postage Stamp motif.

     Stamping and punching the postage stamp (using the Postage Stamp Punch, of course) is pretty obvious.  To get the Cherry Cobbler-colored hat in the image, I stamped the stamp image again on a scrap of Cherry Cobbler paper and then just cut out the hat.  I glued it to the image with a little bit of Tombow Multipurpose Glue.

     The last step was tying some Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine onto a round Bitty Button and then adhering it to the card with a couple of Mini Glue Dots.

     Done, right?  Nope – not this time!  I posted this on my online group, SUDSOL, because that's where the CASE Challenge had originated.  I mentioned that I thought maybe this card needed some texture.  Fellow demonstrator, Beth Grace, instead suggested that I try something with the new Illuminate Glimmer Watermark Pad that's featured in the Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalog. 

     And so I did!  I picked my very favorite Snowflake Stamp – from the Jolly Bingo Bits Stamp Set – and stamped all over both layers using the Illuminate Glimmer Pad!   Love it!!!

     The message here is that, if you ever look at a project and think, "This needs something else," ask someone else who will have a fresh look at the project.  You'll both have fun figuring out what you might do – just like I did!