A Little Blue Breezy Birdie

This is one of the cards I demo'd at my mom's workhsop on Sunday. It's fairly simple but the colors are quite peaceful.
Stamp Set: A Little Birdie told me (very versatile set)
CS: Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, whisper white, Baja Breeze prints DSP
ink: Baja Breeze, Basic Gray
scallop edge punch, basic gray taffetta ribbon, blender pen, sponge dauber.
The image was colored with ink from the stamp pad and a blender pen. I punched a post it note with the small oval punch and used that to make the 'stencil' for the shadow under the bird.
The bird image is popped up with dimensionals.

I'll post more Little Birdie samples in the next few days.

Triangle Boxes

Now that I've demo'd these at my March workshops I will post them here. (Didn't want to ruin the surprise). I love these boxes because they are SO simple.

Directions: Cut your cardstock or DSP (Designer Series Paper) to 4 1/4" x 8 1/2".

Score along the center line at 4 1/4".

Make a small mark on the short ends at 2 1/8"

Score from that mark to the center fold line (as shown).

Fold box into finished shape - open up one side at a time and punch a 1/8" hole through both layers (to thread ribbon through).

Add ribbon and accent to front - no glue needed! How fabulous is that!

Look at the little medallions I used on the saffron and Bashful blue boxes. Don't you love them? I'm sort of addicted to making them and have been using them on everything lately. It's so much fun combining punches in different variations and figuring new ways to use them. And the Polka Dot punches Sell-A-Bration set has 4 images that are all perfectly sized to use with the SU punches. Gotta love that.

Wouldn't these boxes be perfect filled with jellybeans? or hershey kisses? or Cadbury chocolate eggs? mmmm.

Sell-A-Bration

Now that Spring Break is here, I've had some time to get some stamping done. It feels good to be creative. I hope to share some Sell-A-Bration samples with you. As you probably already know, in February and March, for each $50 you spend on Stampin' Up! merchandise, you get to select a free item from a special mini-catalog. This year the SAB items included some really cute sets and some great paper and even ribbon!

And as you also know. I LOVE my Big Shot die cutting machine.

Here's a pillow box made with the SAB designer series paper selection and my new favorite set.

Like many of the cards I stamp these days, this one was copied from a source on the internet (sadly I have forgotten where) and modified a bit.

You can't see it very well in my horrible photo, but the saffron piece is dry embossed with small dots using our new Texturz plates. I LOVE them.

Isn't this paper fabulous? So soft and springy. I am having such a great time punching out and layering all the shapes in this set.

More samples to come soon.

S'more Samples

Here's a little sample I made up to show off one of my favorite catalog sets: Under the Stars. Also known as "the camping set" :).



As most of you know, I am an active Girl Scout Volunteer - on the troop, service unit, and council level and S'mores and Girl Scouting go hand-in-hand.

How cute is this little treat wrapper? Hungry for S'mores?

It uses the small size cello bags.
I didn't really use a pattern. I took a scrap of Close to Cocoa cardstock and folded it into thirds. Then cut down a small way and angled it. Criss crossed it over the cello bag and glued it down.


I've been requested to also show a valentine one and hopefully I'll whip something together soon.

Who doesn't love chocolate?

Hello friends - I've been out of the blogging groove. I got busy and it was one of the things that had to go for a little while, but I'm back.

At a workshop last night (thanks Nancy!) I demonstrated how to make these adorable little boxes that hold squares of Ghirardelli chocolate. They are easy to make once you know the measurements. I lifted the idea off of a talented stamper on splitcoaststampers. I'm not sure who had the idea originally, but it's a great one. I modified it somewhat so that both sides of the box were even.

The picture shows one that hasn't been assembled yet. The red stuff is sticky strip - it's a double sided tape like adhesive. It's my favorite adhesive to use when you need a STRONG hold for boxes or ribbons and such.

After you cut and score the cardstock, you trim away the outside corner pieces to form the box shape (with a flap). I used a circle punch crescent on the inside portion - so you can see the chocolate and have an easier time grabbing it to get it out.

The flap on the front doesn't want to lie down flat so I used a belly band to keep it closed. It's a good way to add a decorative accent to the box. The recipient just slides it down and off to be able to open the flap.

The images in the above photo come from the set Say it with Scallops. This set is special because it's the annual Ronald McDonald House set. $2 from the purchase of each set goes to support the RMD house charity. There are 4 images in the set that all coordinate with our scallop square punch - too cute.

Here are more little chocolate boxes:

And here's one that I modified to hold 3 pieces of chocolate. I thought these would make a fun treat for Emma's teachers, and they deserve more than one piece of chocolate for sure!

Directions:

1 PIECE BOX -- cut cardstock 4 1/4" x 7 1/2"

score the short side at 3/8" and 3/4" from both edges

score the long side at 2 1/4" and 2 5/8" from both edges

See the square in the center - mark a dot at each one of it's 4 corners.

Now cut away the 4 corner sections up to the dot - you should be left with a + shape.

The two sides fold in and attach to the front of the box.

If you want to punch a crescent shape - do it before assembling the box.

3 PIECE BOX - cut cardstock 5 1/2" x 9 1/2"

score the short side at 3/8" and 3/4" from both edges --- UPDATE:

CORRECTION SCORE SHORT SIDE AT 3/8" AND 1 3/8" (not 3/4")

score the long side at 2 1/2" and 3 1/2" from both edges.

Assemble as described above.

Scallop envelope box #1

As I'm sure I've already mentioned, I LOVE my Big Shot Die Cut machine!

Using this clever tutorial I found on THIS blog, I used the scalloped envelope die to make the sides of this box lid.

Her tutorial tells you to use four pieces that were a bit smaller: 2.5" x 3.5" and it was stil enough to cover the scallopy flap portion. I didn't want to waste one tiny bit of that yummy Baja breeze cardstock.

I even used my new circle brads. I LOVE them and I'm really really fighting the urge to just hoard them and gaze lovingly at them.

I also used that lovely new Riding Hood Red tafetta ribbon. I am hooked on that too!

Another box coming tomorrow.

Big Shot Basket

I think I'm probably the very last blogger around to finally post one of these baskets on her blog. But I just got my latest order with the basket die in it. I LOVE it.

When you assemble the basket as most folks are doing (with the little tabs facing UP and the bottom flush with the bottom of the basket on the inside), your basket tends to be a little flat instead of round. But I have used those 2 little curved strip accents along the top of the basket, and they really help to round it out. The trick is to place them so that the ends start at the center of the handle hole and around to the other handle hole. You have to do it AFTER the basket is assembled.

Also, I have used 2 of the tag shapes on my basket. One was on the original piece of Ski Slope DSP and another from a scrap piece of Baja Breeze cardstock.

I like the look of a decorated tag, but also want to be able to write the to & from info on the tag. The solution is a double tag (it's kind of hard to see in the picture). It also adds an extra little hint of color peeking out.

This baskets & blooms die is awesome. It has the 2 basket pieces, a tag, the basket bottom (which doubles as a really cool square edge scallop motif), 3 flowers, and the curved strips.

I am loving the new SkiSlope DSP from the next Holiday mini (begins Oct 1st). I'm kind of stuck on those colors (Riding Hood Red & Baja Breeze) right now so you'll see more of them in the next few projects that I post. Perhaps it is because these are the colors in the new felt flurries snowflake shapes too - teaser......