Lovely As a Tree

Lovely as a tree is one of my favorite SU! sets.  It seems I use this tree stamp the most out of the whole set.  I stamped this with Memento Tuxedo black and colored with copic markers.  I then sponged color on with PTI Tye Die Duo - Chamomile and tore the edges.  The sentiment is from PTI.

In 2006 I posted two cards on Spitcoast HERE and HERE.

Supplies:

PTI Kraft

Copics

PTI Tye Die Duo - Chamomile

PTI sentiment

Thanks for looking!

Carol

A Ladies Diary Clothespins

I saw these beautiful clothespins on Splitcoaststampers HERE.  I just loved them and had recently seen this paper at the scrapbook store.  I knew I had to make some.  ESB only had the 8x8 paper pad and not the 12x12 sheet of these lovely ladies.  I knew I could make the smaller images work.

Because the ladies are much smaller than the length of a regular sized clothespin, I first mod podged a strip of decorative paper to the clothespin.  I then cut the ladies into strips and mod podged them over top.  Once the mod podge was dry, I brushed Tim Holtz Distressed Stickles Rock Candy over top. Added the pearls, flowers from Petaloo and some rhinestones and I was done.

Thanks CntrywmnStamper for the inspiration.

Supplies:

Graphic 45 Ladies Diary

Mod Podge

Tim Holtz Distressed Stickles Rock Candy

Petaloo Flowers

Strand of pearls

Rhinestones

Thanks for looking!

Carol



Lucille Ball

I made this card as a store sample for the Embellished Scrapbook Boutique.  The photo of Lucille Ball is actually a photostamp from The Stampsmith.  With these type of stamps, you need to stamp the image on glossy paper (not photo paper)  with archival ink for the best results.  I then colored the image with chalks.  For some reason, the peachy color on the flesh does not show up very well even in real life. 

I handmade the flowers using a small retro flower punch by Paper Shapers.  Just stack six flowers on top of each other with glue in the center.  Alternate the petals as you go.  On the top flower, crease each petal down the center, place glue on the petals and bend up so they meet in the middle.  You have to hold them for a bit while the glue dries.  On the remaining layers, lift each petal up to give the flower dimension. 

Supplies:

Stampsmith: Lucille Ball

Martha Stewart punches: Frond and border punch

Paper Shaper: small retro flower

Paper: Darcie

Thanks for looking!

Carol

Linked to:

Tatertots and Jello

Delightful Order

Marblehead Lighthouse

The Marblehead Lighthouse stamp from Stacy Stamps is one of my favorite stamps.  I have a few other lighthouse stamps, but this one seems to be my go-to stamp when making masculine cards.

The Marblehead Lighthouse is within 30 miles of my home.  I spent a lot of time in Marblehead as a kid, however, we did not ever visit the lighthouse because it was closed to the public.  It is now open to the public.  I have been there a few times, but never when the lighthouse was open for tours.  To see what the lighthouse looks like IRL click HERE.

These are just a few of the cards I have made with this stamp over the years.  I notice I tend to use a navy theme when making my cards.

The lighthouse was stamped on the white card base then matted with a red oval and a navyish colored mat.  The birds and the wood pillars are from the Sailing Set by Stacy Stamps and the the moon is the Moon/Sun stamp also by Stacy Stamps.  I have found that the white craft ink from SU! is the best for stamping on colored cardstock. 

To learn to tie this Carrick Bend knot, click HERE.  You only want to go through the first six steps.  I had a better website with animation, but the page is no longer available.

The navy background was also run through the Happy Birthday cuttlebug folder.  It was actually by accident as I was talking on the phone while making this card and wasn't paying attention.  After I ran the white though the folder, I realized that the navy and white lined up perfectly so I could still use the navy cardstock. 

Used a ticket punch on the corners and Tim Holtz Bricked embossing folder on this one and added some twine.

The corners were punched with a Southwest punch on this one.

I have tempted several times to color this stamp but have never been happy with the results.  This one turned out ok; I'm still not thrilled with it.

Supplies:

Stacy Stamps: Marblehead Lighthouse, Moon/Sun, Sailing Set

Embossing Folders: Happy Birthday, Bricked

Twine
Punches: Ticket, Southwest
Oval Nesties

Thanks for looking!

Carol

Accordion Card - How To

We have received many requests on how we did the card base for our 90 Candles Birthday cards.  We decided to do a little picture tutorial for you.  This tutorial is for a 6"x6" finished card, but you can adapt it to any size that you need. 

First start by cutting 12"x12" paper in half to get two 12"x6" sheets.  Score each sheet at the half at 6 inches.  If you are using textured paper, be sure to score and fold your sheets so that you have some that are folded with valley folds and some with mountain folds (see below).  If your paper doesn't have texture, you can just fold them in half.  For our candle cards, we needed nine 12"x6" sheets.

Once you have your sheets cut, you are now ready to start assembling the base.  You want your first sheet to be a valley fold card (sheet 1-2) so that when it is folded shut, the fold is on the left and the opening is on the right.  This way, when your card is all assembled, the first page opens like a regular card.  We wanted the textured side to be visible on the inside of the card so we put the textured side up.  Next you want to take a mountain fold card (sheet 3-4) with the textured side up and attach it to sheet 1-2.  You will adhere side 3 over top of side 2.  Make sure everything is lined up evenly and that each piece can fold properly.

Your next sheet will be a valley fold card (sheet 5-6).  We put the smooth side up on this one because you will not see this sheet when the card is open. (Be consistent: we made sure the textured side was face down on all the sheets that were covered so that when you flipped the card over, it was uniform in appearance.) Adhere side 5 behind side 4. 

Your next sheet will be a mountain fold card with textured side up and would be adhered on top of side 6.  Alternate between valley fold and mountain fold cards until you have the length of card you want.  Make sure you end with a valley fold card (textured side will be up on this one).

(illustration of card assembly)

  

The above picture shows the first few pages of the card we did for our uncle when it is assembled.  When it is open, you cannot see the front cover of the card.

 

This picture shows the last page of the other 90-candle card we did.

Some other information:  On our first candle card, we cut the brown pieces 3"x6" and adhered to each sheet.  This will leave the card base color showing at each of the folds.  When we did our second card, we cut the brown 3"x12".  This way, you only see the card base color on the mountain folds.  Either way you do it, make sure that your card is open so that you can line each piece up evenly with the next.

The candles were cut 3"x7/16".  We used a mix of patterned paper and solid card stock and assembled them in the same order on each of the pages.  The flame is the wing of the SU! Bird Punch.  On one card, we used a yellow patterned paper which gave it a bit of a flame look. On the second card, we used solid yellow cardstock and then sponged a darker yellow around the edges of the flame.

This card is too thick to put into a regular 6x6 envelope.  We used a clear plastic box that Papertrey Ink packs their stamps sets in.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Carol and Cheryl