"Maybe I didn’t hold you, quite as often as I should have … tell me …. oh, tell me that your sweet love hasn’t died …."  - Willie Nelson

Ok, now I planted my own song virus in my head for the day.  Couldn’t help it, because everytime I pick up this stamp set, I sing this Willie Nelson song.    I am crazy for the style of this Always  stamp set and the Bella Rose dsp.  I know we’ll see more of this to come.  This is my third catalog with Stampin’ Up!, and the company continues to make great strives forward in producing gorgeous double sides designer series papers as well as really hip and chic stamp sets.

I made this card with my Big Shot, using our largest scallop circle Bigz die as the card base, cut on Bella Rose dsp.  All you need to do is place your folded in half piece of Bella Rose 9.5 x 4.75" dsp,  placing the fold just a tiny bit lower than the top two scallops, which will produce two things.  First it produces a fold whereby the card can open/close keeping the other scallops in tact.  Second, it produces two small holes on each side of these top two scallops, whereby you can thread your Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla taffetta ribbon through and tie on the outside in a bow.  This ribbon is SOOOO gorgeous IRL, with a satin sort of sheen on both sides.

I stamped the small stems with dots in versamark, and covered with clear embossing powder.  You probably can’t see it in the picture which is head on, but it’s subtle and tactile.  It looks slightly gray in the picture above.  Anyway, I then stamped the bird in Pink Pirouette in color ink.  Using my stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, I stamped the bird AGAIN in Riding Hood Red, just slightly to the left of the first image in pink, thus creating a slight shadow effect.  Again, hard to see in picture.  Then I used our markers in real red, old olive, and pretty in pink to color the "A" in always. These are the closest to the in colors as I can get without using a blending pen.    

So, the small scallop was cut from our sizzlet die, Birds in Bloom, on the green paper, also from the Bella Rose dsp.  The middle of the "a" is the center circle of the small scalloped circle from the same paper, turned over.  I just happened to get really lucky when I flipped it over, that a rose bud and two leaves were perfectly centered so I punched the center out of it’s perforated smaller circle, and adhered it with glue dot.  The rest of the "a" is popped up with dimensionals on the green scallop, which is popped up with dimensionals next to the bird.

For the inside, because it was the dark red, I chose to use another Sizzix bigz die,Circles & Scallops #2, to cut the inner scallop on whisper white cardstock, and centered it on the inside of the card.

Again, using old olive and real red, i colored the sentiment stamp with my markers. 

I figured the vellum envelopes are two big for this almost 4.5 size card, and it really does fit in a standard A2 size envelope.  So to ensure ithat the scallops didn’t get crushed, I rescored the top fold of my envelope just slightly higher, raising it just a smidgen (technical scrapbooking term) over the top 2 scallops to close the envelope carefully.

I hope you enjoyed the card today!  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Technorati Tags: Always stamp set, Bella Rose dsp, Big Shot, bigz dies, Birds in Bloom Sizzlet die, Kiwi Kiss Very Vanilla Taffetta Ribbon, scalloped circles die cuts, Sizzix Bigz Dies

Some great demonstrator friends and I got together today to share some ideas and projects.   The first project, was my contribution which was a special delivery, loaded pizza pie!  The mini pizza box tutorial, by Jen Muro, can be found here on Scor-Pal’s website. 

This is my adaptation, using theVoila Stamp Set.  I stamped the main image in stazon ink, and highlighted with going gray ink and a blender pen, and real red marker for the scarf.  I created the box with Kraft cardstock, because it was the most like a pizza box.

I used our two original oval punches, but trimmed the larger one down to make the crust more anatomically correct.  lol.  I used a sponge dauber in creamy caramel on both edges of both ovals, which were punched in more mustard cs.  I used our 1/4" circle punch for the pepperonis and slivers of the GLORIOUS GREEN cardstock, from the Brights collection!  WOW! I can’t believe I used the Brights!  I used the same colors real red in 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" and green in 3.5 x 3.5 for mats.  Since these are the colors found in the Italian flag, I figured I would pay tribute.   I used 4" wide strips of both green and red, but used the scalloped edge punch on the red.  Ok, so here’s how the box looks from the side:

And the BEST part is what is inside the box:

It’s a 5-slice piece of fruit gummi pizza, and it got two thumbs up from my 11 year old son! 

Ok, so now the 2nd project, presented by my friend Susan, was this cute little box made with Stampin’ Up!’s exclusive die cut,  the scalloped edge envelope.   You cut four dies at a time in the new in-color, kiwi kiss, cardstock.  You use red sticky tape to tape all of the side flaps to the next envelope’s side flap, all the way around.  The bottom is already scored by the die, and folds in on all four envelopes, which you can adhere two opposite sides and then two more opposite or you can fold one on top of the next, until you tuck the last corner in (like all boxes with a temporary close).  Anyway, then you can decorate the side with a piece of red, pink and white Bella Rose designer series paper.  We stamped the larger image from the Dreams du Jour  stamp set in chocolate chip and used blender pens in kiwi kiss, riding hood red, and pink piroutte to color it in.  We popped up this image with stampin dimensionals onto a die cut flower cut from the brown pattern of Bella Rose,made from the Pennants exclusive die.

Ok, last but not least, we have the cutest little snowman card, made another friend and team member, Robin Satterwhite.  We used the Window Dressing, Level 3 FREE Hostess set with qualifying party.

We started with a piece of Baja Breeze for the card base.  We used Kiwi Kiss for the larger mat, Pacific Point for the 2nd mat, and then we stamped the snowman image and sentiment on Whisper White.  Before we stamped the image and sentiment, we actually sponged Pacific Point ink all over the mat, using a 2" circle punch as a mask.  Once the background was sponged, we removed the mask, and stamped the snowman and sentiment. As you can see from my example, this is a good set to use your Stamp-a-ma-jig tool.  I thought the circle was from "Seeing Spots" but it’s not, and I know I don’t have this set, so I would have substituted the circle with the one in Priceless.  We used the 1/4" circle punch at the edge (centered) of each left and right sides of the whisper white cardstock mat that we sponged, and  inserted a brad into the Pacific Point cardstock in that space.  We used the 1/16" punch for that. 

WHEW!  I haven’t posted for a week I think, because I’ve been working on creating classes for the next couple of months, as well as combining all my contacts’ lists into one major list with I-Contact which is Constant Contact’s competitor.  It’s a marketing/communication/newsletter tool, so you can be expecting better quality newsletters, and more customizable by me, so I can actually provide a lot more information and pictures that you’ll like to see of projects, classes, and things you can make, on a monthly or semi-monthly basis.  Stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hoped you liked the projects we made as much as we liked making them.

Technorati Tags: Bella Rose Designer Series Paper, Big Shot, Dreams du Jour stamp set, exclusive Stamin' Up! dies, mini pizza box, Pennants Exclusive die, Punches, scalloped edge punch, Scalloped Envelope Exclusive die, scor-pal, Voila stamp set, Window Dressing

Today’s card was made with one of the stamp sets from the "Never Before Seen" promotion, #11672, Pocket Silhouettes. seen on page 98 of the new catalog.  This six piece stamp set is priced at $16.11 which includes the 15% discount, until September 30th.  The small sentiment "for you" was stamped with All Holidays stamp set. 

I used Stampin’ Up!’s super cool new curly label punch to cut out the stamped image, and popped it up off the ribbon with dimensionals.  I used Regal Rose cardstock for the base, a 5.25 x 4" mat of whisper white cardstock which was embossed on the Big Shot with an embossing folder, and a 2" strip of designer series paper.  I adhered the 5/8" regal rose ribbon on top of the dsp and adhered behind the card.  I tied another small piece around the first piece of ribbon to make a faux bow.  I used a glue stick and dazzling diamonds on top of each flower, and stamped the same image onto the envelope’s lower left hand corner.

Enjoy the day, and live it with passion!

Technorati Tags: All Holidays, Big Shot, Curley Label Punch, embossing mat, Pocket Silhouettes, Punches

Ok, I’d admit I’m getting a little carried away.   I just couldn’t help myself when the oh so loved man in brown arrived with three boxes yesterday.  My huge box  of new in-color ribbons and Designer Series Paper along with some more Stampin’ Up! Sizzix Bigz XL diecuts arrived at the same time as another box of sizzix dies.  This fry box was one of the new sizzix dies and not to be outdone, but I also received the chinese take out box die.  Geez, talking about all this is making me hungry! 

Here’s what I made with my Fry Box die:

Isn’t it just adorable?  I think so.  Very little stamping here, but I used Perfect Plum textured cardstock for the die cut fry box.  I used So Saffron, Perfect Plum, and Whisper White cardstock for the tag, which required a 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 1/2" circle punch, and the scalloped circle punch.  The stamp in the center is the small flower from Think Happy Thoughts as well as the sentiment "friendship".  I used glitter for the center, and white taffeta ribbon to tie around the box.  The two circles punched are popped up on dimensionals as is the scalloped circle over the ribbon.

You gotta come play with all my new dies!  I’m in the process of creating a Sizzix Saturday Club.   We’ll get together and die cut shapes with the Big Shot machine, and we’ll make a couple of projects that I’ll design and provide the materials for you.

Make sure you check back to find it on the schedule, but for September, it will be the 3rd Saturday, Sept.  20 from 11am - 1pm. 

gotta fly….

Technorati Tags: Big Shot, bigz xl dies, fry box die cut, scalloped circle tag, sizzix, Think Happy Thoughts stamp set