Saturday, March 31, 2012

Ode to the Ornament Punch! Part I – Borders



The Ornament Punch was a Stampin' Up offering for about a year before I bought one for myself. “It's soooo cute” my friends said. “Makes great Christmas tags!” proclaimed Mom, “It even has a stamp set that goes with it!” Today the Ornament Punch has about 3 stamp sets that use it as a base design, but what I have come to love about it is all the things this beautiful yet basic shape can do all year long.

Today, I'm using it as a border punch.


Supplies:

Ornament Punch from Stampin' Up item #119847

1-1/2 x 12 inch strip of card stock or paper (or 1-1/2 x length of project). Shown here: Peach Parfait from the In Color 2010-2012 12 x 12 collection #124338 available through my Stampin' Up demonstrator website.

graphing ruler (this one's a “Tim Holtz”, but there are a variety available in the drafting department of office supply and craft stores. I confess that while I am a hard core Stampin' Up demonstrator, I do have a few dalliances with Tim Holtz' products....)




Directions:

Mark the center line (CL) of the back of your card stock strip. Draw parallel lines each 1-7/8 inches, perpendicular to the top edge. These are the center lines of the ornament. Position the card stock so that it rests against the backstop (hinge) of the punch, with the CL at the bottom point of the ornament. Punch at each CL.







Notice, I have marked my punch with a sharpie extra fine point, to help me keep my paper parallel.

Yes, I know that I am a nerd.






Turn your card stock around, and mark the center of each area between ornaments. Punch in the same fashion as the first side. Because there's not much card stock to brace against the hinge of the punch, marking the punch is very helpful to keep your design straight.







Optional: Nip a little quadrant of ornament off the square end, as I have done here to keep the flow of the pattern.



The “leftover” pieces can also be used to create a border design. 100% used – love it!



Items shown here:
#124301 Very Vanilla 12 x 12 Card Stock
#121078 Neutral 12 x 12 Textured Card Stock in Basic Gray color
#119847 Ornament Punch
#125598 Labels Framelets
#124338 In Color 2010-2012 12 x 12 Card Stock in Peach Parfait (available only until May 31, 2012)
You can get all these products online through my Stampin' Up independent demonstrator website www.creativeflare.stampinup.net by clicking on the "Shop Now" link and entering these item numbers.

also shown: Going Gray card stock (discontinued)



Monday, March 12, 2012

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here's a little something I'm sure you've all seen before: the “Three-Heart Shamrock” It's a classic, and certainly has been done before... maybe over done. My twist on the “Three-Heart Shamrock” uses the same basic elements, but with a little added dimension.




Supply list:

Happiest Birthday Wishes Stamp Set
Wild Wasabi Textured Card Stock
Confetti White Card Stock
Whisper White Card Stock
Perfect Plum Card Stock
Bashful Blue Designer Series Paper
Wild Wasabi Classic Ink Pad
Perfect Plum Classic Ink Pad
Sponge Dauber
Mini Glue Dots
Stampin' Dimensionals
Sizzix Big Shot
Sizzix Framelets Hearts Nesting Die Set (available through Stampin' Up)
Sizzix Adorning Accents Embossing Folders (Stampin' Up exclusive)



The short and sweet version is that I used the Framelets Hearts Set (Sizzix) and cut 3 small hearts out of my Wild Wasabi textured card stock... and threw them into the scrap bin. Then, the next larger size was set over the heart-shaped hole in the card stock, off-center, so that the bottom points of the hearts were about 1/8” apart.


Crank, crank, crank, the Big Shot and voila! A hollow heart. :( Sponge the inner edge of the heart with Wild Wasabi Ink and a sponge dauber....


Snip through the point and criss-crossed the “legs” of the heart and use a glue dot to secure them about 1/2” up from each point.



Lastly I attached a Stampin' Dimensional to a 1/2” punched circle and stuck all 3 heart points to the dimensional, nice an snug, and sandwiched another Stampin' Dimensional on top to secure them together. The backing circle only needs to be as large as the dimensional, 1/2" circle will do. Trim off the excess.


Then I added a little white heart-shape from the same nesting set on top to bring it all together. Ta-da! A refurbished classic. To finish it off, I adhered it to a base of Bashful Blue Designer Series Paper, then a card stock base of Perfect Plum embossed with little hearts. All of that was put on a 5x7 card base in Confetti White and ... a happy birthday banner? Yes, St. Patrick's Day is my mom's birthday, so she always gets green/shamrock theme cards. More motivation for me to be thinking of a new St. Patrick's Day theme each year. :)


All the best,

Kristine


Monday, March 5, 2012

PS - more coffee filter flowers



After seeing how pretty the grid paper looked after sponging all those flowers, I decided to try it as a masking technique and do the exact same sponging on coffee filter flowers, this time on a piece of Whisper White card stock cut to 5-1/4 x 4 inches, and adhered it to a Lucky Limeaid A2 size card base. I affixed the flowers to the front using Stampin' Dimensionals and voila! Ready for spring. I used Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie, and Real Red Classic ink pads, starting with the lightest color. Gives it an airbrushed feel. Lots of possibilites here! The Blossom Punch used to make the flowers has a great amount of detail for this technique. Love it!

Thursday, March 1, 2012


Here's the instructions for the coffee filter flowers from my Sale-a-Bration card #3. Cute, simple, and it will look like you raided the silk floral department.

Supplies: Bleached coffee filters
Background stamp (I used En Francais and Fifth Avenue Floral by Stampin' Up)
Dye ink (Early Espresso, Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, and Crumb Cake classic ink pads and Stampin' Write Markers for the background, plus bright colors for the flowers - shown are the Brights Collection from Stampin' Up)
Punch (here shown is "Blossom" by Stampin' Up, but I've also used the "Fancy Flower" punch with great results)

Sponge Daubers

Directions:
  1. Stamp a background image on your flattened out coffee filter. Here I used Stampin' Up's “En Francais” background stamp in Early Espresso classic ink, the “Fifth Avenue Floral” cabbage rose stamp in Chocolate Chip classic ink, and for my third filter I crumpled it and flattened it out and buffed it lightly with Crumb Cake classic ink to just tint the wrinkles.


  1. Fold the filters in half and half again so that they are 4 layers thick. Thicker layers punch better. Punch with your favorite flower punch.



  1. Sponge ink onto your flowers, working from the center outward to prevent tearing. I love the way that sponging on my grid paper turned out a beautiful masked design. Going to use that as a background on a card for sure!



  1. Using a marker, slowly edge the flowers allowing a little ink to seep in from the edge. I used markers that matched the background ink colors for the stamped filters, I went one shade darker with the rumple filter and used a Soft Suede Stampin' Write marker to add depth to the Crumb Cake wrinkles.



  1. Stack 2-3 flowers together, offsetting the petals. Pierce with a paper piercing tool in the center of each flower, and push a brad or paper fastener through to hold together. Give the top flower a little scrunch for depth and voila! You have a beautiful embellishment that is thin enough to fit in an envelope or scrap book.


    Enjoy!