My First Easel Card

I made my first easel card this week. I don't know how many more I'll make of these, but it was fun to try (and succeed) and making one.

I was inspired to try this because of several easel/fancy folds challenges this week. I'm also entering this card into several other challenges, so I included a Magnolia stamp (my fave Standing Fall Tilda), a "Thinking of You" sentiment and an autumn-ish color scheme, as well as giving Tilda some auburn tresses.

Pile It On Challenge - #39 Fancy Folds
Bows and Berries - anything goes
Delightful Challenges - Fall
4 Crafty Chicks - Fall
One Stop Craft Challenge - easel card
Paper Pretties - Fall
Paper Shelter - anything goes
Scrapbook Sisters - Fall
Stamp With Fun - anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown – Thinking of You
Incy Wincy – Fancy Folds
Sweet Stampin' - Anything Goes
http://blog.icopic.com/ - red hair due on Sunday
http://magnoliadownunderchallenges.blogspot.com/ - fancy folds
http://justmagnolia.blogspot.com/ - Fall/back to school

Lisa

Birthday Jasper

Welcome to my weekly DigiStamp Boutique (DSB) post. It turned out to be good timing that I hadn't prepared my card in advance. Sally-Ann, owner of DSB, just released some new images, including this cutie, Birthday Jasper:

Supplies: Birthday Jasper (DSB), teal polka dot paper (Tim Holtz), Salsa 6X6 scrap pad (Junkitz), sentiment (computer generated using Segoe Script type), Copics, buttons (Paper Studio), Scrapper's Floss (TAC).

I'm putting this little guy to work and entering him in the following challenges:
Stampin' for the Weekend - Challenge #17 What a Cutie!
Crafty Sentiments Design - Happy Birthday!
Southern Girls Challenge - Anything Goes!
Delicious Doodles Challenges - Challenge #2 Cute as a Button

If you're interested in checking out the other new images in the shop, head on over to the new releases page. There's Jasper with flower and Sketchy snow person. All are equally equally adorable! :)

Lisa

Milk Carton Box Tutorial

As promised, today's Fab Friday post is a tutorial for a milk carton box. Let me give credit where credit is due. I totally stole , um I mean, was inspired by this milk carton on Kerry's blog. Kerry has a wonderful tutorial on her blog. But, unfortunately the measurements are all in centimeters. Not much for those of us on this side of the pond. ;-)

Supplies:
8.5 X 11" piece of cardstock
Scor-Pal
printed paper, stamped image, etc. for decorating
ink & sponge (optional)
small binder clip
adhesive

Directions:
Along short side of paper, score at 2.5", 5.5" and 7.5"
Turn paper and score along long side at 2.5", 5", 7.5" and 10". Cut out bottom right hand corner and notch bottom tabs as shown in photo below. Add 1" scores halfway between 2.5" & 5" scores and halfway between the 7.5" and 10" scores, as shown below

To find the half way point, align your scores along the 3" and 5.5" marks as shown below. Score at the 4.25" mark. repeat for other 1" score.

Using your bone folder, go over all of your score marks. This will make your box much easier to assemble!

If you're going to ink the edges of your box, the easiest time to do this is before assembling your box. Also, this is the easiest time to add any decorative paper and/or images. Cut your printed paper to 2.25" X 2.75".

Next, add adhesive as shown below. I recommend using a dry adhesive since it grabs right away and you don't have to hold or clamp the box together while a wet glue dries. The second section is the best one to place your image on. The first and third panels are notched to form the sides of the box. The panel all the way on the right is where the sides of the paper are joined to form the box. This is best hidden at the back of the box.

The fourth bottom section has adhesive on the other side. This is the bottom flap of your box.and will cover the other flaps.

How to assemble the box is a matter of personal choice. I find it easiest to adhere the 3 inner bottom flaps to each other as I fold my paper into a box shape, then adhere the side seam of the box, leaving the last bottom flap as a final step. Some people may prefer to adhere the long side first and then worry about the bottom. (Kerry does it this way.) Experiment with how the box folds together before trying to glue it.

Use a binder clip to hold your box closed. You can find decorative ones in the store. Or, use your paper scraps and some adhesive to cover your clip. (This is a great way to use up any super skinny strips of paper.) Add a bow, if desired.

Voila!

Image: Penny Black
Paper: River Rock (SU!), My Minds Eye dp, pink cs (Bazzill)

One last tip. If you are making a lot of these, I would suggest scoring all the pieces of paper in one direction (i.e., along the short side of the paper or along the long side of the paper) and then score all of them again in the other direction. Once you get into the groove of scoring at certain intervals (no pun intended) it's easiest to keep scoring all the papers that way and then score them all in the other pattern. (As opposed to score, turn, score for each piece of 8.5 X 11 cardstock.)

Give these a try! They are a lot of fun.

Lisa

Kraftin Kimmie Christmas

That Kraftin Kimmie is really making me work hard for those challenges! ;-) First, there was the Halloween-inspired "Make It SPOOKY" challenge. I didn't have any KK Halloween stamps so I came up with this card using the slightly creepy Charlotte.

Then came this week's challenge - Christmas in September. Guess what? No KK Christmas stamp. So I once again put on my thinking cap (after blowing off the dust, lol!) and came up with this card using Lavender the Quilter:

I thought the "Warmest Wishes" sentiment tied together the quilt theme along with the holiday theme. And I used some of my Basic Grey Jovial 6X6 pad along with a red and green color scheme to complete the holiday feeling.

Of course, I won't have to worry about not having the right stamp for the next Christmas challenge. I was one of the lucky winners of the most Holiday Krafty Hop! Lucky, lucky me! :)

See you tomorrow for the milk carton box tutorial!
Lisa

A Party and a Prize!

The Outlawz challenge group is celebrating having 1000 members with a party. And there's a great prize up for grabs - a $25 gift certificate to Paper Temptress and a large assortment. I *love* paper and can always use some new ribbon so this sounds like a great prize to me!

So, head on over to the Outlawz site and join if you're not already a member. Then, help spread the word and get your entries in for this great prize!
Lisa

Freakishly Fun!

Today's DSB card is actually a project. A milk box carton, to be exact. I was inspired to make one of these after seeing the adorable Halloween treat box that Kerry made.

Here's the side view so you can see all the cute papers that I used. :)

This little creature is from the September release, Cute Halloween Collection. The sentiment and bat are part of this month's freebie. I took advantage of the great "Buy 3, get 2 free" deal over at Crafty Chaos Designs to buy these fun "Eye of Newt" digital papers.

I am entering this project into two challenges: the monthly challenge over at Jillian Vance Designs' Freaky Fridays challenge and the "Happy Fall Y'All!" challenge over at Love to Crop! (I'm assuming fall colors includes Halloween colors.)

Kerry has a tutorial for the milk carton box on her blog. However, it is in centimeters and my Scor-Pal doesn't have metric measurements. So, come back on Friday for my Fab Friday post with inch measurements and a few tips I picked up while making today's project. (I loved making this so much that I plan on making a bunch more to sell at the upcoming Hatton craft show!)

Happy Stamping!
Lisa

The Big 13

Today's the big day in our house. My youngest daughter turns 13 on Sunday and she's having her birthday celebration with friends tonight (dinner out and a sleepover). While bloghopping the other day, I ran across this great inspiration her birthday card: Teenage Birthday. (Coincidentally, Terri was one of my team mates on the Sweet Sketch Wednesday design team.) My daughter is also into the Goth look. Must be the preteen/teen thing, probably thanks in part to the "Twilight" series.

I really liked the papers she used, so I checked out the Crafty Chaos Designs website. I fell in love with so many of the papers! I wound up buying "Halloween Bride" for Ali's card. I knew I wanted to use this cute Pinky image from Tiddly Winks and thought these papers were a good fit for the image - girly yet Goth. Here's the finished card:

Supplies: Halloween Bride digital paper (Crafty Chaos Designs), Pinky (Tiddly Inks), Labels 4 Nestabilities, Palette Noir ink, sponge, Copics, black and pink cardstock scraps, ribbon, black brads, Cricut with Winter Woodland cartridge.

Isn't she sweet? (In a Wednesday Addams kind of way! lol!)

Go check out Crafty Chaos Designs! I'm not sure how long the sale runs for, but right now if you buy 3 items, you get 2 items free! Just be sure to use the code "CCDbonus" during checkout. See site for details.
Lisa

DSB Sunday - New Images!

Sally-Ann has released a new set of images today, entitled Cute Nativity.

And now for today's card:

Supplies: Cute Nativity (DSB), kraft cardstock (TAC), twine, Copic markers, chalk (sky background), circle punches (CM), star punch, paper scraps, sentiment (computer generated).

Lisa

Fab Friday: World Cardmaking Day Contest

Wow, check out the prize package over at PaperCrafts World Card Making Day contest page!

They're looking for cards in five different categories:

a. Birthday

b. Christmas/Season's Greetings

c. Hello/Thinking of You

d. Love

e. Thank You

Cards must be postmarked by October 10th, so you've got plenty of time to enter! Get stamping! :)

Lisa

The Office

I hope you had a relaxing Labor Day! Ironically, one of the things I did on my day out of the office was to participate in the Kraftin' Kimmie "Let's Go to the Office!" challenge. :) We had to use a paper clip or other office supply in our project. (I used a spiral shaped paper clip.)

I love, love, love this KK Bird Fairy stamp! It doesn't show up in the picture, but I used glitter on her wings. She came out so nice and sparkly! Her little bird friend is just the cutest, isn't he?

See you tomorrow evening for a Fab Friday post!
Lisa

Sunday with Barney

Hi! Welcome to another DSB Sunday! Today's DigiStamp Boutique card features one of my favorite images, Barney with flower.

Supplies: Barney with flower (DSB), Copics, pink floral dp (Hobby Lobby), pink stripe dp (My Minds Eye), ivory and kraft cardstock (TAC), border punch (Martha Stewart), flowers (Prima), sentiment (TAC), brown cs, stick-on pearl, Palette Noir ink - used for sentiment (TAC).


Hope you have a relaxing Sunday!
Lisa

Fab Friday: Paper Bag Albums

It's back to school time for many of us. And don't brown paper bags remind you of school lunches? So, this week's Fab Friday is all about paper bag albums. Remember those? They were really popular a few years ago. They've had sort of a rebirth, apparently, and all I can say is - wow, paper bag albums have come a long way! It's hard to tell that some of them are actually made from paper bags.

This is one of the best tutorials I saw:



This is a different variation of the album. Supposedly this is easy enough for beginners - she certainly makes it look easy! I may have to try this one.



 Have a great weekend! Hope you find some time to do something creative. I'll see you on Sunday with another DigiStamp Boutique card.

Lisa

Krafty and Creepy!

OMG! I love, love, love the new Halloween release over at Kraftin' Kimmie stamps! It's my husband's favorite holiday and I love all the fun indoor and outdoor Halloween decorations. So, I just absolutely, positively, had to find time to participate in this week's Make it SPOOKY challenge on the KK blog.

I don't have any Halloween Kraftin Kimmie stamps, but I didn't let that stop me! I bought this Charlotte stamp because she's just a little off-kilter... She's cute but yet just a little creepy, and definitely a little "spooky"!

Supplies: Charlotte (Kraftin Kimmie), Simply Spooky dp (The Angel Company), Copic markers, Nestabilities Label 1, Noir Palette Ink, bat eyelets, purple fiber, black and orange cardstock.

I'm glad Charlotte finally got to see some ink and that I had the perfect project for this dp from The Angel Company. It was always one of my favorite TAC papers. Sadly, The Angel Company has closed its doors today. My thoughts go out to Mischelle Smith and all the Angel demonstrators.

Lisa

Pink Pops

Yay! There are new images over at the DigiStamp Boutique shop! Today's DSB Sunday card features one of the new images from the Lil Pops Collection.

 

Isn't she sweet? You could use this image on so many cards - birthday, get well, thinking of you, congratulations, and many more! You can see the rest of the collection by clicking on the thumbnail below:

Whew! Getting back to school and work has been so stressful! I haven't had any time or mojo to stamp. So, I was so happy to not only make a card today but I already have next week's DSB Sunday card done and photographed. Now that everyone's settled back into the school routine, I hope to be posting again soon.

Have a great week! (Does it really have to be Monday again already?!)
Lisa

Fab Friday Tutorial

Yikes, what a busy yet unproductive day! Took Ali to her clarinet lesson - with drive time, 1.5 hours. "Stopped' by work - left 1 hour later. Took Jess to her 1:30 doctor's appointment - he was running late, so we didn't get out until 4:00 PM. Went to work picnic - had a great time, but was gone 2 hours. I did walk the dog and color my hair. (Just would've been nice to remember before 10 PM that I planned to color it tonight!)

So, without further ado, here is my promised tutorial for making my mini-notepads. Excuse the photography - it was late so I had to use flash.

Supplies needed:
cardboard/chipboard
printed paper for covers
cardstock for matting image on front of notepad
paper for notepad pages (I buy copier/printer paper when Staples has it on sale really cheap)
adhesive (I prefer some kind of tape runner or other dry adhesive)
stamped image or other decoration
binding equipment (I use a Bind It All and o-rings)

1. First, cut your covers, printed paper and inner pages.

What sizes? Well, assuming your cardboard is an 8.5 X 11" sheet, cut that into quarters (4.25 X 5.5") for your covers. Your covers determine the size of everything else. General rule of thumb:
- inner pages should be .25" smaller on both sides (e.g., 4 X 5.25" for our 4.25 X 5.5" covers)
- the paper for covering your covers should be 1" bigger on both sides (e.g., 5.25 " X 6.5" for 4.25 X 5.5" covers)

2. Place adhesive on cover, then center on the back of the printed paper. Miter corners as shown below.

3. Use adhesive to glue down flaps. Then cover the back with a piece of paper (cardstock or printed paper, it doesn't matter) that is 1/8" smaller on both sides than the cover.

4. Punch both covers and all of your pages with your Bind It All or other binding system. I don't have a set amount of pages that I include. Your pad's thickness will be determined by what size o-ring (or other fastener) that you use. My pads are usually approximately 1/4" thick.

5. Assemble your cover and pages and bind them together. If you're using a Bind It All and have trouble remembering what order to put your covers in before you bind them, check out this great tutorial: Bind-It-All Basics Part 2. In short, put your pad in order of the finished order (front cover on top of pages on top of back cover), flip the back cover up on top of the top cover, then insert your o-rings.

If you're using a Bind It All, remember these 4 things:
- pull out the black "T" on the back of the BIA. It serves to stabilize it against your surface as you pull down on the lever
- make sure your using the right setting based on the size of your o-rings (that's what those white lines on the binding surface are for - they correspond to o-ring sizes)
- be sure to hold your o-rings flat against the surface of your BIA to help ensure that your rings close evenly/properly
- occasionally clean out your BIA (there's a little "hatch" on the side) because it doesn't punch well when it gets full

6. Next, add your desired image and any embellishments to the front of your notepad. Voila!

I used this cute little Olivia image from DigiStamp Boutique and colored her with Copics (of course). The dp is from the "Simply Delightful" stack by My Minds Eye. It's a great stack because it has so many different patterns and color schemes!

And don't forget that Sally-Ann is still running a 20% off sale at the DigiStamp Boutique site. The discount is good on all the images in the shop.

Lisa

DSB Sunday

For today's DigiStamp Boutique project, I actually have two samples. I've started working on some things to sell for an upcoming craft show (the Hatton Craft Show in October). One of my best sellers are these little handmade notepads. (Leftovers make great little gifts for teachers, etc., too.)

First up, this one features a fairly recent release, Barney with flower. Barney is just so sweet! You can see the rest of the Barney images here: Barney images.

Next up is a slightly older - but equally cute release -  Isabella. I just love that she is so dainty and cute! 

Both projects were made with papers from the "Simple Delightful" 12X12 stack from My Minds Eye. (I just love that paper stack! Tons of paper in a variety of prints and colors.) The images were colored with Copic markers and the pads were punched and bound with my trusty Bind It All.

If you like these little notepads and want to try making one, be sure to come back Friday afternoon for a Fab Friday tutorial where I'll share my tips for making these handy little notepads!

Lisa

Fab Friday Find

While checking out the stamping and scrapbooking section of my public library, I ran across this book: The Encyclopedia of Greeting Card Tools & Techniques by Susan Pickering Rothamel.

In addition to the great info, there are lots of inspiring samples. You can a lot by reading the book but you'll also be inspired just looking through the samples. There are also biographical entries for several stamping professionals (including Dee Gruening, whom I used to watch on the Carol Duvall show years ago) which also feature examples of their work. The book also includes tips on card composition and card submissions.

Check it out!
Lisa

DSB MIA?

Wow, how did it get to be August already? Back to school is just around the corner for us now. If you're looking for the new August images from DigiStamp Boutique, there aren't any at the moment. In the meantime, Sally-Ann,  illustrator and owner of DSB, is offering all the images on her website at 20% off.  Also, be sure to check out the Retiring products page, as there are several Christmas/winter images available. Perfect for getting an early start to your holiday cards!

Here's a card using an older DSB image, Ruby. (Ruby is retired, which just goes to show that you should always pick up your favorites while they're still available!)

Come back tomorrow for a Fab Friday post!

Lisa

Surf's Up!

I'm back from my whirlwind, two week vacation which included 3 days at the beach! We didn't do any surfing, but still, I couldn't resist using this cool new Tom image, part of the July Offer of the Month.

And now that I've jumped back into cardmaking, I wanted to participate in a few challenges. So, I'm entering these two card challenges:

• Pink Elephant - Fun in the Sun
• Craft Your Days Away - Summertime

And here are a few pictures from one of my days at the beach:

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!
Lisa

One for the Road

We leave in about an hour for our trip, but I wanted to leave you with one last card. I searched for Red, White and Blue challenge on the 4th of July and was halfway through making the card before I realized that the challenge was from May. Oops! lol! :)

Have a great weekend!
Lisa