The Decor Elements line is SOOO cool!  I have a bunch of things to show you, but I gotta tell ya, they are way more in real life than I can produce in a flat, reduced for the web photo. My usual sassy self would say, "Well, you could have seen it in person if you had come to my open house!"  But, I’m not bitter mind you. 

You know when the holidays come, and you have that awkward conversation with your spouse about whose family you and your family are going to spend time with on Thanksgiving, and then you repeat the same process at Christmas?  You know, you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your relatives!  Well, they whoever coined that phrase must have known my family well.  Anyway, one good thing about having a dysfunctional family makes it a no brainer to determine the answer to that question.  Even if the nearest one is 8 hours away!   Ooops, getting off topic. 

So, I made this as a gift to my brother and sister in law that always have us for Thanksgiving and they make a superb feast every year, although we can’t make the trek to Atlanta every year.  Now I love to cook, and I consider myself a foodie, so for me to think it and say this, is a huge compliment to my husband’s brother Paul who cooks most of the meal with his wife, Patty.  Actually the two brothers from GA are both descent cooks, and why that didn’t rub off onto my husband, I can’t understand.  GO figure.  Ooops off topic again.

Well, I bought this amazing shadow box frame at Ikea, which comes in black or white.  I like the black because it’s a little more sophisticated.  This frame is a lot bigger than you probably can determine from the picture - it’s 20×20, so it’s a descent size piece of wall art!  See that cut out in the center of the mat?  That’s a full sheet (only a 1/4" margin adhered to the mat with sticky tape) of our 12×12 designer series paper from the Autumn Vine collection found in the Winter mini-catty.  The decor element I used is called Season of Thanks, in chocolate brown, size small.  BTW- They are so much bigger than you’d expect, and  you need to use the measurements in the catalog in front of you on a yardstick and really try to envision them at the size you’re thinking, and then order the next size down.  lol

I filled this shadow box frame with "naturals", which is a collection of real dried  leaves and some other silk stems and fall elements, which  I picked up at Michael’s with my 20%purchase coupon.

I know that they’re going to love it and I can’t wait to give it to them.  I can’t wait for Thanksgiving!  The boys can’t wait until Halloween.  Enough of that family mushy cherish stuff that you girls like (my youngest actually said that today).  lol   Actually, he made me smile super big when I made this gift; he told me that this was the nicest scrapbooking thing I’ve ever made!  Awwwhhhh.  That deserved a big hug and kiss.

Well, stay tuned, got lots more decor elements to show you when I get all the pics downloaded, cropped, resized and watermarked. 

Hugs!

Technorati Tags: Autumn Vine designer series paper, Decor Elements, Seasons of Thanks, Thanksgiving

It’s not my original design, but it’s definitely the most beautiful card I think I’ve ever made!  It appears on the cover of our catalog, and I LOVE this card and had everything I needed to make it, accept I don’t own the All Scallops stamp set.  Well, I thought of a way to case the card and reproduce the scalloped edge with a chocolate chip marker and a hole punch. 

I have really found my preference for watercoloring.  I have used crayons, pencils with waterbrush, markers, and misting my stamped image with water, but I really like painting with our water brush and using my ink pads.  The brush pack comes in two sizes also, for smaller and larger line artwork.  I just find this technique quick, easy and no mess!  I also advise you to use our watercolor paper, which I used here and for the snowman in the last post.  However, you can also use our confetti white/cream papers too, because you need a thicker, fibrous and pourous paper that can accept the water without pilling  up.  Stamp your image in black or brown stazon, or craft ink and let it dry before you watercolor.  You can even  emboss the image with clear powder after you’ve stamped the image with colored craft ink and then watercolor it.

The base of the card is kraft card stock.  The two flower images and the birds come from a gorgeous stamp set, Eastern Influences, part of our style watch, stamped on watercolor paper.  The sentiment is from One of a Kind which is framed by Frames with a Flourish, stamped on confetti white card stock.  I REALLY love that stamp set, and its size of frames accommodate almost all sizes of sentiments.  It also has neat flourishes that you can use on top or bottom or both of any photo, frame, picture mat, or sentiment.  You’ll see an example of the flourish in my next post.

The color inks are the base colors of the Bella Rose Designer Series papers, which I used a small strip of the red damask under the kiwi kiss striped ribbon and a small square of the CC polka dot under the framed sentiment.  The inks are chocolate chip, riding hood red, and kiwi kiss.  I used a little bit of sahara sand and going gray on the birds.  I used our new scalloped edge punch for the bottom border of the card, and then used the chocolate chip marker to "dot" the scalloped edges; the large end for the large dots and small end for the smaller dots.  I punched 1/16" holes in the center of each larger brown dot at the "top" of each scallop.

All stamped images were cut out (tediously) and raised with dimensionals.  The end result is definitely worth the time! Even if you don’t find cutting stamped images out as relaxing as I do, you could stamp all of these images on a piece of watercolor paper, masking the largest flower before you stamp the frame, so it appears under the rose.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Bella Rose Designer Series Paper, Eastern Influences stamp set, Frames with a Flourish stamp set, One of a Kind stamp set, Punches, scalloped edge punch, waterbrush, watercoloring

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

This is framed artwork that I made today with one of the many new stamp sets that I received last week at the Stampin’ Up! Convention in Utah.  July began our new year for SU, and therefore, as with the regular New Year, I created a list of goals for my business.  One of the goals on my list was to create every sample that was displayed in our new catalog.  I mentioned this goal to some friends and fellow team members of the Julie Bean Stampers, and we now have about 14 of us taking the challenge.  I totally expected to see this frame already by my very motivated and inspiring friend Janet!

So here is my first addition; one of many to come your way!  It was made with the Inspired by Nature stamp set.  I decided to use this first, because of the sentiment:  LIVE WITH PASSION!  I started by stamping the En Francais large background stamp onto Baja Breeze cardstock with Baja Breeze Class ink (one of the six new in-colors you’ll be seeing tomorrow).  I then stamped the flowers from the Inspired by Nature set onto a pad of papertowels wet with bleach.  I then stamped the wet stamp on top of the background that I had previously stamped. After rinsing the stamp well, I then stamped the same image onto Whisper White cardstock with another new in-color, Kiwi Kiss. I used sponge daubers to dab the tops of the flowers with So Saffron prior to stamping them.  I cut out these flower images, and popped them up with dimensionals slighly off-side of the bleached images.  I stamped the sentiment in Baja Breeze and Kiwi Kiss, and matted it with Baja Breeze cardstock.  I cut out a 2nd image of the largest flower, and layed it flat on the frame’s mat. 

You can find this on page 100 of the new Idea Book and Catalog!  Just wait until you see the artwork and displays in this beautiful book!  I am really delighted that I’ve come into the company at a time when they are growing leaps and bounds and at rapid pace, especially with technology!  You can receive your own copy of this gorgeous book, by hosting a party with me, or by placing an order of $25 or more.  As you can see from my  frame above,  it’s loaded with ideas and examples of how to use your stamp sets. So get inspired, get crafting, and of course, live with passion!

Technorati Tags: Baja Breeze, Bleach technique, frame, Home Decor, Inspired By Nature, Kiwi Kiss