Challenges (Variable)

Stocking Easel Card

November 3, 2011 Jentimko 8 Comments

I’m here today to share one of my projects from the Creative Crew at Splitcoaststampers. For those not familiar with the Creative Crew, it is a group of designers that are chosen to provide inspiration with Stampin’ Up products. Each month we have four challenges to complete and then you have all month to join in the fun. This month the overall focus is fancy folds and each of our projects incorporate something a bit unique in the design. You saw my tall/long card on Tuesday and today I am going to give you a bit more information about the Easel Card I made.

The basic tutorial for the easel card is here. Now mine is modified a bit and made lots simpler because I have the new Stampin’ Up Simply Scored Scoring Tool. My card front is 5 1/4″ x 5 1/4″. This made my base 5 1/4″ x 10 1/2″ with score lines at 5 1/4″ and 7 7/8″ (really quick with the 1/8″ spacing on the tool). I chose the Old Olive pattern from the Brights Designer Paper Pack since we were also asked to use colors from the Letters to Santa DSP. I cut a stocking out with the new Holiday Stocking die and ran it through the Big Shot again with the Snow Burst Embossing Folder. The toe, heel and cuff are cut from Early Espresso card stock. I ran a really thin line of Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombo) along the dotted perforations and attached the Early Espresso Baker’s Twine to it. Next came some snowflakes from my brand new (to me) Northern Frost Die. Oh, how I love these snowflakes!! In the center of each I attached some Mini Jingle Bells using Crystal Effects as the glue. I created the sentiment using a small part of the collage stamp from Season of Joy. This is my first easel card and I have to say there will be more!

You know, I was a slow adapter to the whole Big Shot trend but wow, I’m not sure what I would do without it now! If you have considered becoming a demonstrator, Stampin’ Up has extended the Big Shot offer until November 11th. When you sign up, you will get your Big Shot free!

I will be back next Monday with another project from the Creative Crew. Until then, have a great rest of your week and weekend! Thanks for stopping in today!

Stamp: Season of Joy; Paper: Brights Designer Paper Pack, Early Espresso, Riding Hood Red, Old Olive, Whisper White; Ink: Old Olive, Early Espresso; Accessories: Big Shot, Snow Burst EF, Holiday Stocking Die, Northern Frost Die, Simply Scored, Mini Jingle Bells, Early Espresso Baker’s Twine, Crystal Effects, Mini Glue Dots, Tombo Multi

All products are Stampin’ Up!

SUOC31 + Creative Crew Challenges

November 1, 2011 Jentimko 8 Comments

Happy November!! I hope you have recovered from the sugar overdose of October!! Today we have another SU Only Challenge that I know you will love – Thinking of You. I love cards made with this sentiment because they can be used in a variety of ways. When I don’t have anything specific in mind for a card, this is a lovely way to go!

When I need a pretty card, one of the first sets I turn to is Day of Gratitude (especially in the fall). The images in the set are so wonderful! As I was playing around with some paper to put in the background, I noticed how similar the design in the Spice Cake DSP is to this flower. Well, that was all I needed to get going!! I stayed with Spice Cake colors when I chose the Stampin’ Write Markers for the image. I love them together! All that was needed was a Scallop Edge strip and a button. The thread in the button is also colored with the Espresso marker.

My second card today is for the Creative Crew Challenges (CCREW1111CF, CreativeCrew) over at Splitcoaststampers. One of the challenges is to create a tall/long card (about 6 1/2″ x 3 1/4″). We were given inspiration pages from the catalog and I chose pg. 167 (the Cheers card). You can see that both of my cards today use the same layout but really feel like totally different cards (and are both different than the catalog sample). This is a bit what I was talking about last Friday in my Christmas 101 post. I am completely in love with the Holiday Mini set Always Thankful. I chose the pear basket because it hadn’t seen ink yet (horrors!!). I inked the image with Versamark Ink and then with my Early Espresso Classic Pad and stamped onto Watercolor Paper. It was then embossed with Clear Embossing Powder and colored with my Blender Pens. I finished it with the Color Spritzer Tool to give it a little more detail. The beautiful paper from Well Worn DSP provided the perfect background!

I hope you have liked both of these. I look forward to seeing you join both challenges! You have about 10 days for the SUO Challenge and a whole month for the Creative Crew Challenge. There are 3 more projects in my gallery for the Creative Crew and I will be giving more details on those as the month goes on. Come back tomorrow for a new Freshly Made Sketches challenge! You are going to like it!

Card 1: Stamp: Day of Gratitude, Silhouette Sentiments (hostess, retired); Paper: Spice Cake DSP, Early Espresso, Pool Party, Very Vanilla; Ink: Pool Party, More Mustard, Early Espresso; Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Regals Buttons, Dimensionals

Card 2: Stamp: Always Thankful; Paper: Well Worn DSP, River Rock, Early Espresso, Watercolor; Ink: Versamark, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Old Olive; Accessories: Blender Pen, Color Spritzer Tool, Scallop Edge Punch, Regals Buttons, Linen Thread

All products are Stampin’ Up!

Decorate your door with bling!

October 27, 2011 Jentimko 10 Comments

As we approach the end of October, I wanted to show you one more card for the Creative Crew at Splitcoaststampers. This one is for the All Things That Glitter challenge, CCREW1011. I have been making this all week with my Christmas 101 Class and they have LOVED it! The point of Christmas 101 is cards that can be easily duplicated in bulk. For me, they need to have something special that LOOKS hard but really isn’t.

The door idea is nothing new but when I saw this door from LeAnne Pugliese I knew I needed to make my own version! I kept the white on white because I thought it was so striking. But I decided to add a wreath made out of the amazing Silver Glimmer Paper. The picture doesn’t even come close to capturing the real sparkle! I started with a 1″ Circle Punch and then punched the 1 3/4″ Scallop Circle around it. It really is much easier this way (thanks, LeAnne)! The little Cherry Cobbler bow uses the fork bow method just like I showed you in this tutorial. The only difference is that I left the tails on. A Silver Brad is the door knob and I added a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes to complete the visual triangle. The large rectangle is attached directly to the base and the door panels are popped up on Dimensionals. The wreath, too, is up on Dimensionals (cut in half or use the little side pieces) and the bow is attached with Mini Glue Dots.

The hardest part about the card was figuring out the dimensions of the door panels so I will share those with you:

The base rectangle is 3 5/8″ x 4 7/8″.
The door panels start with a rectangle that is 3 1/8″ x 4 3/8″. Cut the rectangle in half long ways at 1 9/16″. Then cut each of those rectangles at 2 1/2″. You will be left with two panels that are 1 9/16″ x 2 1/2″ and two that are 1 9/16″ x 1 7/8″.

Yes, yes, I know they are a little odd. I tried to make them a bit easier (for class purposes) but they were either too big visually or too small for the sentiment. When I did them in bulk, it went really fast.

I hope you have fun with this one! Don’t forget to come take a look at my gallery at Splitcoaststampers on Tuesday for the big reveal of the new Creative Crew Challenges for November. You’ll have a whole month to join in!

I’ll be back tomorrow with another card from my Christmas 101 Class. Until then, have a great day!

Stamp: Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper: Whisper White, Silver Glimmer Paper; Ink: Cherry Cobbler; Accessories: Silver Brads, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots

All products are Stampin’ Up!

Treats (and no tricks!)

October 18, 2011 Jentimko 7 Comments

This week at SUO Challenges – SUOC30 we want to see how you create your treats! Show us the packaging, the cards with surprises or anything else that includes a treat! We can’t wait to see all the creative things you make!

One of the things that first drew me to Stampin’ Up was the ease with which you could make cute things. Everything matches, products are meant to go together and it simply works! That is how I feel about the new 1″x8″ Cellophane Bags from the Holiday Mini. They are meant to make your life easier…and they succeed! They are the perfect size for pencils, small candies and Pixy Stix! I chose the Pixy Stix option since these can be so messy when given out individually. Using the pumpkin from Button Buddies (another item meant to make cute, fast projects) I stamped two different versions. I used a Basic Black base for the boys and a Rich Razzleberry base for the girls. The nice Pixy Stix people are kind enough to make candy in Pumpkin Pie and Rich Razzleberry to coordinate!!!

I am one of the room moms for my youngest son’s class and these will be for their class party. I know that many of you, like me, have a hard time spending hours on things that will be destroyed in a matter of seconds by little ones. Well, these were done in a flash and are still cute enough to feel like a special treat! Once I sealed the Pixy Stix in the bags with the self-sealing strip, I attached the bag to the back of the Scallop Circle with a little bit of Sticky Strip. Cross one project off of the to-do list!!

I was a little late on one of my Creative Crew projects so this is my fourth for the month of October – Holiday Focus (create a holiday decoration or gift).

I hope that you have fun with this challenge. Make sure you go check out the fabulous ideas from the rest of the design team! There are lots of time-saving (and spectacular) projects! See you again tomorrow with the next card for Freshly Made Sketches!

Stamp: Button Buddies; Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry; Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive; Accessories: 1″x8″ Cellophane Bags, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 1/4″ and 1 3/8″ Circle Punches, Sticky Strip

All products are Stampin’ Up!

SUOC29 – Leaves everywhere

October 4, 2011 Jentimko 7 Comments

Over at SUO Challenges, we are challenging you to show us your leaves! So many of Stampin’ Up’s stamps have beautiful leaves in them and we are making them the focus. The hardest part for me was choosing WHICH of my sets to use! I have so many that are some of my all time favorites! In fact if you look at my cards for the last two SUO Challenges, they contained leaves.

For today I chose the hostess set Faith in Nature. This set was was so high on my wish list when the catalog came out that it inspired me to become my own hostess! *smile* I used this really cool pattern from Well Worn DSP as the background and I thought the Square Lattice embossed Cajun Craze panel was a great match-up. For the image, I inked the leaf in Versamark then inked with my Early Espresso Ink Pad. After stamping, I embossed it with Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder. This allows for easy watercoloring and provides a beautiful texture to the image. Sadly, the photograph just doesn’t translate the subtle shine. I added a little Victoria Crochet Trim and cinched a bow using an Antique Brad (it has leaves on it too!).

I can’t wait to see all the Stampin’ Up leaves falling on your cards! You have about 10 days so there is plenty of time to join us! Don’t forget to go see the beautiful cards the rest of the design team created…amazing work! I’ll be back tomorrow with my first project for a new adventure! Can’t wait to share!

Stamp: Faith in Nature (Hostess); Paper: Well Worn DSP, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla; Ink: Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Versamark; Accessories: Big Shot, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Victoria Crochet Trim, Antique Brad, Blender Pen

All products are Stampin’ Up!

Spice Cake for Thanksgiving

October 2, 2011 Jentimko 10 Comments

Did you enjoy the Operation Write Home Blog Hop yesterday??!! Amazing cards!! If you missed it, just go back to yesterday’s post and the link is there!

Yesterday was also the launch day for the Creative Crew’s October Challenges at Splitcoaststampers. My card today is for the DSP/Color Focus Challenge of the month – use any holiday themed designer series paper. I combined it with the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches #4.

This is another great one and it was perfect for the challenge!

I chose to make the tag an oval and I love how the big panel let the DSP do the work. In this case, I used Spice Cake DSP and I am still in love with it! I thought it would be perfect with the leaves from Day of Gratitude! I created the tag by threading a small piece of More Mustard card stock through the button. Then I created nesting loops of the thin slices of card stock, securing them together with Mini Glue Dots. I got the idea to do this from my clever stamping friend Cindy at Heart’s Delight Cards and incorporated it here. I treated the other button the same way and attached it to a piece of Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon for symmetry.

The cool weather in VA this weekend has it feeling like Thanksgiving so this seems perfect! I hope your weekend has been good. As promised, I’ll be back tomorrow with more details about my OWH Christmas card. Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon!

Stamps: Day of Gratitude, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper: Spice Cake DSP, More Mustard, Pool Party, Early Espresso; Ink: More Mustard, Early Espresso; Accessories: Neutrals Buttons, Big Shot, Ovals Die, Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots

All products are Stampin’ Up!

OWH Sneak Peek

September 30, 2011 Jentimko No Comments

Tomorrow is World Card Making Day and Opereration Write Home is celebrating with a big blog hop showing holiday cards. There are over 100 blogs participating and I am extremely proud to be one of them!!

Here is a little sneak peek of my card. Make sure you come back tomorrow to see the reveal and to link into the whole hop. I’m sure it will be amazing!

Tomorrow is also the launch of the October Creative Crew Challenge. I won’t be able to post the projects here because of the hop but they will all be posted at Splitcoaststampers tomorrow afternoon. More on each of those during the week.

I hope you have a wonderful Friday and I look forward to having you drop by again tomorrow!

Christmas Tree – Two ways

September 26, 2011 Jentimko 10 Comments

Have you ever made a card that you like so much that you see other potential in it?? That is how I felt about a card I made for the Stampin’ Addicts Holiday Mini Blog Hop. I have never given that card a full explanation and I thought you’d like to see its sister card too.

This was the very first card I made with Bright Hopes and it still may be my favorite so far. I have always loved Always Artichoke and it seems so beautiful when put with Very Vanilla. I stamped the Christmas tree in Versamark and then embossed with Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder. I inked up my Brayer and rolled it across then finished the edges with a little extra sponging. The bow uses the “potato masher” technique that I showed you in a previous tutorial. The Always Artichoke layer was attached to the Very Vanilla base and then run through my Big Shot with the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder. I added some pearls for some extra elegance and popped the stamped layer up on Dimensionals.

You can see that the second card is really exactly the same in most ways. I did not emboss the tree (although that would be a beautiful addition) but instead added shimmer to the stamped panel. I created my own Shimmer Paint spray by adding Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint to regular rubbing alcohol (about 12-15 drops per 1 ounce) and sprayed it on the Naturals Ivory paper. I created a different style double bow and frayed the ends a bit to match the earthier tones. I do find that it is particularly hard to photograph any projects made with the Shimmer Paint spray.

This close-up picture gives you a better idea but this is one of those cards that is just prettier in person. The wonderful thing about the Shimmer Paint spray is that you can add sparkle without it coming off. Really perfect for the mass production of your Christmas cards!!

I look forward to hearing which of these cards you like better and why. The second card was for a Stampin’ Addicts swap and you should see the amazing cards I got in return. What an amazing group!

Thanks for stopping in today! I hope these inspire you to start thinking about your holiday cards. Start now and you’ll have them done well before the holiday season!! Have a great week!

Card 1: Stamp: Bright Hopes; Paper: Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla; Ink: Versamark; Accessories: Brayer, Embossing Tool, Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder, Basic Pearls, Always Artichoke Seam Binding, Big Shot, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, Dimensionals

Card 2: Stamp: Bright Hopes; Paper: Naturals Ivory, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso; Ink: Early Espresso; Accessories: Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, Big Shot, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, Basic Pearls, Crumb Cake Seam Binding, Dimensionals

All products are Stampin’ Up!

Bright Christmas

September 24, 2011 Jentimko 13 Comments

Happy Saturday everyone! I’m back today with a card made with my new favorite Christmas set, Bright Hopes. I just love this set!! I’m was also excited to play with the new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, FMS3.

I flipped the sketch to accomodate the tree, as you can see. This set is perfect for the challenge because it is best kept “clean”. The intricate details on the stamps do all the work! I interpreted the scallops on the sketch in a slightly different way and used the border stamp to created a scallop look. Trust me, your Stamp-a-ma-jig is your best friend here. I did find that the card was a bit “bottom heavy” (and no one wants to be bottom heavy!!) so I added matching scallops to the top of the card. Problem solved! I tied the beautiful Early Espresso Quilted Ribbon into a double bow and finally added a sentiment on the banner. As usual, it is hard to photograph the dimension on the card and the banner is raised in the midde with Dimensionals with the ends flared up a bit. The final addition was the Basic Pearls, another perfect little detail.

I hope you like this Christmas card as much as I do. I am fully in Christmas card planning mode so you can expect to start seeing lots more. In fact I will be back on Monday with two more cards (two cards, one layout) with Bright Hopes. Thanks for stopping in today!! Have a wonderful weekend!

Stamps: Bright Hopes, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler; Ink: Early Espresso; Accessories: Early Espresso Quilted Satin Ribbon, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals, Stamp-a-ma-jig

SUOC28 – Fall Birthday

September 20, 2011 Jentimko 7 Comments

It’s time for the next SU Only Challenge and this is one for everyone! We are falling for Fall Colors! Browns, oranges, yellows and greens…or whatever combination speaks fall to you! We can’t wait to see what you create!

For me, fall is when my Cajun Craze, Soft Suede and River Rock make an appearance. This card started in a whole different direction but finally settled here. Day of Gratitude is a set perfectly designed for fall and I love it. I got it when I went to a Stampin’ Up Regional last year so it holds special memories, too. I embossed the back panel with my new-again Square Lattice Embossing Folder. My folder had gone missing (the horror!!) and I finally broke down and replaced it. When I find the old one, should be any day now, I’ll have another to share! The medallion is Early Espresso ink on Early Espresso paper and the leaves are inked in Early Espresso and Cajun Craze. A little hint after you fussy cut the leaves: Take your Stampin’ Write marker and color the edges of the leaves by coming from behind the paper. This gets rid of the Very Vanilla edge and make the leaves pop a little more. The sentiment from Inviting was the final touch for this masculine birthday card.

I can’t wait for you to see what the rest of the team has created so drop on over to SUO Challenges to see. You have about 10 days for this challenge and I look forward to seeing your work. Thanks for stopping in today!

Stamps: Day of Gratitude, Inviting; Paper: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla; Ink: Early Espresso, Cajun Craze; Accessories: Big Shot, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Neutrals Buttons, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots

Primary Sidebar