Happy New Year and welcome to my new followers!  I was so motivated by the weekend’s Stampin’ Addicts Occasions Mini Blog Hop and couldn’t wait to get stamping this week.  My first job this year to show you how to make the square frame from my hop cards.  While I would love to take credit for the idea, Sharon Field over at Created By You is the originator of the technique I used.  I had been playing around with ways to do this but she figured it out first!  I simply modified her instructions to make the square.  Since many people are visual learners, I have taken pictures of what I did.

Start with a 4 1/8″ x 4 1/8″ square and line it up so that you have equal spacing on three sides.  Roll it through the Big Shot and it will look like this:

Next, take the card stock and slide it down so that the bottom lines up with the bottom design of the folder.  You should be able to feel the design slide into the “grooves” and it will match up with the folder (except the unembossed bottom, of course).

It will look like this from the other side and you can check your placement.

As Sharon specifies, start to roll it through your Big Shot but only a little bit.  Estimate how much roll it takes to emboss only the bottom design (she says about 3/4 of a turn).  Then back the design out.  And here is the final square.  The pressure of the Big Shot flattens the previous design and forms the corners nicely!

My card from the Blog Hop was given away as a card set for Christmas so I “had” to create a new one, of course. 

I inked up part of the image from the Elements of Style stamp and then colored it in with Pink Pirouette, Rose Red and Basic Gray.  The sentiment is from the new set Say It Simply.  I brought in an Antique Brad because it went so well with the gray.  The ribbon, I must confess, is retired Basic Gray Taffeta.  Given that I have a ribbon “collecting” (okay, hoarding) problem, I am trying to use up some of my retired items.  To save you some time, the Basic Gray piece of the inner square is 3″ x 3″. 

This is also for the Creative Crew Catalog Focus Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers.  It is a challenge to use new items from the Mini.  Check out the link to see more fabulous projects from the Creative Crew.

Thanks for stopping in today.  I wish you a safe and happy new year filled with loads of creativity!

Stamps:  Say It Simply, Elements of Style; Paper:  Basic Gray, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White; Ink:  Basic Black, Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Basic Gray; Accessories:  Big Shot, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, Antique Brads, Basic Gray Taffeta (retired), Blender Pen, Dimensionals

All products are Stampin’ Up!