Archive for Baby
Rock-a-Bye Big Shot Card (Reverse Die Cut Technique) & your chance to be featured on my blog!
Posted: Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 | Comments
As I was playing around with my Big Shot yesterday making my faux die-cut/laser cut paper, I stumbled across another way to use my Swirly Big Shot Decorative Strip die – I used the reverse cut (i.e. what’s left-over after you die cut the swirls) to create the look of waves in my baby card. Now I do have to say that this was an “Aha” moment for me and that I personally have not seen this die used in this way before, so I decided to take the liberty of naming this the “Reverse Die Cut Technique.”
That’s not to say someone else hasn’t already come up with this idea – you know the saying “there’s nothing truly original.” If you are reading this, and you have already used the die in this way, then please do leave me a comment and in the comment make sure you include a link to your card because I’d love to see it. If you’re like me, and using the reverse cut of this die is an “aha” moment for you too, I’d love to challenge you to make a card using this technique and leave me a comment with a direct link to your card or project in the comments section of this post. It’ doesn’t have to be with this die in particular, it can be with any die. Of those that participate in the challenge, I will randomly draw 5 names, and “feature you” on my blog. If you are one of the ones featured I will post your card (or other project), a small picture of you (if you want), a brief bio (whatever you want to tell others about you) and a link back to your blog. I will let random.org choose my winners on Friday, and then the winners will have one week to email me their info and I’ll feature the winners next Friday.
I’ve put together a couple of pictures to show you the first few steps of creating this card, as it’s kind of hard to explain using only words. The first thing I did was take a 2 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ strip of Pacific Point CS and lay it across the center of my Swirly Sizzlets Decorative Strip Die. I then die cut it using my Big Shot. The picture below shows you what you have when you separate the “swirls” from the reverse cuts:
To create my first card (I have another one to show you at the bottom of this post), I used the piece that’s shown on the bottom of the above picture. I took that piece and laid it across my 4″ x 5 1/4″ Bashful Blue CS piece (see picture below).
As you can see from the picture above, the blue reverse cut is bigger than the Bashful Blue CS piece. I deliberately made my strip bigger than necessary because I wanted to be able to play with the best placement of the reverse cut on my card. Once you have it positioned, stick it down, and then trim off the excess with your personal paper trimmer. To create the rest of my card I did the following:
- I positioned the rock-a-bye baby greeting just above the CS “waves” so that the curve of the greeting followed the curve of the “waves”, and stamped it in Pacific Point Classic ink.
- I took the boat image from Nursery Necessities, inked it up in Pacific Point ink and stamped it onto a piece of Pacific Point DP. I did this because I wanted a bit of the DP’s pattern to show through the ink and give the boat bottom some texture. I then trimmed out the boat with my paper snips, and stuck it onto the crest of the wave, just to the left of the greeting.
- I cleaned the boat image, inked it up in Versamark and stamped it onto a scrap of So Saffron DP. While the VersaMark was still wet, I used the shine of the ink to help guide me in cutting out the sail. I did the same thing for the smaller sail on a second pattern of DP. The large sail was mounted with a Stampin’ Dimensional and the small sail was stuck on using 2-way glue. To create the small Pumpkin Pie piece of sail, I stamped the boat stamp in VersaMark ink onto a piece of Pumpkin Pie CS, cut it out and stuck it on using 2-way glue.
- Once my image was complete, I matted the Bashful Blue CS onto a 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″ piece of Pumpkin Pie CS. I punched two holes in the top right corner using my 1/16″ handheld circle punch, and inserted two small Pumpkin Pie corduroy brads.
- I matted the Pumpkin Pie CS onto my 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ So Saffron card front (created by folding a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ piece of CS in half).
- Finally, I drew a thin line of Crystal Effects glue along the top edge of the waves, and added on some white Chunky Glitter from the Chunky Essentials Glitter Collection. That’s it.
The other way of creating a similar card is by using the actual swirls to create the look and feel of waves. As you can see from the picture below, I took the swirls and lay them across a piece of Bashful Blue CS, stuck it down with 2-way glue and trimmed it.
I followed pretty much the same steps for the rest of the card and created the card you see below. Now I do have to say, of the two of them, my personal favourite is the first card.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Once again, here’s the details of my Challenge to you for your chance to be featured on my blog: Create a card or other project using the Reverse Die Cut Technique, and leave me a comment with a direct link to your card or project in the comments section of this post. It’ doesn’t have to be with this die in particular, it can be with any die. Of those that participate in the challenge, I will randomly draw 5 names, and “feature” you on my blog. If you are one of the ones featured I will post a picture of your project, a small picture of you (if you want), a brief bio (whatever you want to tell others about you) and a link back to your blog. I will let random.org choose my winners on Friday, and then the winners will have one week to email me their info and I’ll feature the winners next Friday. This is a great way to get your blog “out there” even more. Whenever I’ve featured other stampers on my blog, I’ve had them tell me that they got an increase of up to several thousand “hits” (i.e. new visitors) to their blogs. I hope you participate!
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Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Ink: Pacific Point Classic ink, VersaMark ink
Paper: Pacific Point DP, So Saffron DP, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Pacific Point CS
Accessories: Big Shot, Swirly Sizzlits Decorative Strips Die, Crystal Effects, white Chunky Glitter from Chunky Essentials Glitter collection, 1/16″ handheld circle punch, Pumpkin Pie Corduroy Buttons
Wagon Full of Fun Baby Card & Day 4 of the “Comment a Day” Contest
Posted: Thursday, March 26th, 2009 | Comments
Today I thought I’d share with you a card I made for my sister Soph to congratulate her on the birth of her brand new baby boy. I’ve barely spoken to her since my nephew was born as she’s right in the midst of the newborn craziness – if you’re a mom I’m sure you remember – endless feedings, sleepless nights – but of course, still loving every minute of it! Since she’s so busy I figure it’s probably safe to share the card with you since it’s highly unlikely she’s going to be doing much blog surfing. But, if she does see it, at least she’ll have something to look forward to *lol*! Here’s how I made this card:
- Cut a 4 1/4″ x 11″ piece of Bashful Blue CS, score it at 5 1/2″ and fold in half using your bone folder.
- You are now going to need a 3″ x 5 ” piece of Bashful Blue DP (the striped pattern) . Take a 5″ piece of ribbon, position it so that it is about 1″ up from the bottom of the DP, and stick the end of the ribbon at the back of the DP using Snail adhesive. Now stick you Bashful Blue DP to your card front being sure to leave about 1/4″ between the DP and the top, right and bottom edgesof the card front.
- Take a 1 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ piece of So Saffron CS and scallop the edge using the Scallop Edge punch. Stick it to a 2″ x 5 1/2″ piece of So Saffron DP, so that the scalloped border is about 1/4″ wide. Draw a small white dot in the center of each scallop using a Signo White Gel pen. Take another 5″ piece of Whisper White Organza Ribbon, and stick the end on the underside of the So Saffron DP, again about 1″ up from the bottom edge.
- Pierce two holes in the top left of the So Saffron DP and insert two of the large square light blue rhinestone brads. Stick the So Saffron DP to the card front. Tie the Whisper White Organza ribbon ends in a bow and trim the ends.
- Take the scalloped frame from the On Board Essentials chipboard collection and cover it in Bashful Blue Craft ink. While the ink is still wet, sprinkle on Heat and Stick powder. Heat it with your heat tool until it melts and then sprinkle on light blue Fine Cosmo glitter. Heat set the glitter.
- Take a 2 1/4″ x 2 1/4″ square of So Saffron DP (the pattern I used is actually some left over I had from the Sunshine Garden Simply Scrappin’ Kit, but you could use any So Saffron DP pattern). Stamp “it’s a boy” from the Nursery Necessities stamp set in Basic Black ink onto the DP. Attach the DP to the chipboard frame using mini glue dots. Mount the chipboard frame to your card front using mini glue dots.
- Stamp the duck from the Wagon Full of Fun stamp set in Basic Black ink onto a scrap of Whisper White CS. Color it in using a blender pen and So Saffron, Bashful Blue and Tangerine Tango Classic ink. Cut it out using your paper snips.
- Mount the duck to the card front using Stampin’ Dimensionals. You’re done!
We’re now just over the halfway mark of the Comment a Day contest. Thanks so much to all for participating. I hope this encourages you guys to come back often and have your say even when the contest is over as I always love to read your comments. If this is your first day joining us, welcome – it’s not too late to enter the contest. Here’s how it works…for the remainder of the month, I’ve decided to run a “Comment a Day” Contest. I’m going to post a project every weekday (not Saturday or Sunday) from now until the end of March. What I would love for you to do, is to stop by and leave me a comment each of the days I post. Some days it will be a comment about anything at all, other days, I’ll ask a specific question.
On Wednesday, April 1st – I will draw the name of one person that left me a comment from each day (so one person from today, one from tomorrow…and so on, until March 31st), and those 7 lucky winners will win all THREE planners from April: the workshop planner (due to be released April 1st), the scrapbook planner (due to be released April 7th) or the class planner (due to be released April 15th).
Ready? Set? Go…….To enter Day 4 of the “Comment a Day” Contest leave me a comment in the comments section of this post about anything at all.
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Click Here to Order your Stampin’ Up! Products Online 24/7! (Canada Only)
Stamps: Nursery Necessities, Wagon Full of Fun
Ink: Basic Black, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Tangerine Tango Classic inks
Paper: Bashful Blue, So Saffron DP; Scrap of DP from the Sunshine Garden SS Kit; Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Whisper White CS
Accessories: mini glue dots, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Snail adhesive, Whisper White Organza Ribbon, Ice Square Rhinestone Brads, paper piercer, foam mat, light blue Fine Cosmo glitter, Heat and Stick powder, heat tool, white signo gel pen, Scallop Edge punch
Sweet Baby Scrapbook Page
Posted: Thursday, March 5th, 2009 | Comments
Since it’s been quite awhile since I shared a scrapbook page with you, I thought today I’d share a recent page that I created for my 7 month old Sammy. Unfortunately, like most families with multiple children, poor Sammy suffers from the “photographically forgotten child syndrome”. When I look at my oldest – who is 10 years old – and I look at the photo albums from the first 6 months of his life, I must have over 1000 pictures! I have an entire scrapbook album that covers his first 6 months. My second and third have about 1/2 an album covering the same time period, and my fourth and now fifth only have a few pages from 0 – 6 months. I feel so bad about it, but as life got increasingly busy – especially these last 8 – 10 months – I had less and less time to scrapbook.
As things are slowly starting to calm down however, I’ve once again started to “pick up” the pace of my scrapbooking, so you’re probably going to see me share more scrapbook pages with you (hopefully once a week or once every other week). The other thing I’m doing is re-starting my monthly scrapbooking classes – this will be a once a month 2 hour class where class participants will make a 2-page 12″ x 12″ layout. Doesn’t that sound like fun? If you’re scrapbooking-challenged, or time-challenged (i.e. you never find the time to scrapbook at home), then these classes will be perfect for you! Now you may be wondering “what if I live long-distance to you and can’t attend your classes?” Not a problem! Starting this weekend and most every month I’ll be offering scrapbook kits by mail. You’ll receive everything you need to create the 12″ x 12″ page layouts thay my class participants will get to make. *If you’re a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator and you want to be able to offer the same thing to YOUR customers, then read the note at the bottom of this post*
The full supply list for this page can be found at the bottom of this post, however I thought I’d share a few details with you on how I created some of the various elements.
The page accents. One of the wonderful things about incorporating rubber stamping into your scrapbooking is that you can say goodbye to spending hours trying to find stickers and other page accents that coordinate with your pictures and designer papers. I used my Nursery Necessities to create three of my page accents – the star, the elephant and the boat. In deciding what color to create them, I pulled out the colors from my designer paper: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Basic Gray and Certainly Celery. I stamped the images using those colors in the Classic ink and cut them out.
The titles. Stampin’ Up! offer so many wonderful possibilities for creating titles for your layouts. To create the main title “Sweet” I used Stampin’ Up!’s On Board Lots of Letters Chipboard. I covered them with So Saffron Craft ink and used my heat tool to speed up their drying time. The word “baby” I cut out using my Big Shot and the Naturally Serif Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die.
Journalling. My journalling is tucked into the little scalloped envelope that I created using the Big Shot and Stampin’ Up!’s exclusive Scallop Envelope die. To hold the envelope shut while still allowing it to open and close, I used a mini glue dot. I applied it to the inside of the envelope flap and then used my fingers to press on it repeatedly. The “oils” from your fingers take away some of the stickiness of the glue dot so that the seal is no longer permanent.
One of the things that I love so much about scrapbooking with my Stampin’ Up! stuff is that Stampin’ Up! makes it SO EASY. Absolutely everything coordinates – the cardstock, the designer papers, the inks, the ribbon, the accessories. I can’t tell you how much time I now save in my scrapbooking since I don’t have to spend hours combing the multitude of shelves at my local scrapbook store trying to find things that coordinate – I spend a few minutes flipping through my catalogue and I’m ready to start.
*Note to Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators: If you’re not currently offering scrapbooking classes to your customers, then you are missing out on a fantastic market with your existing customers, and completely bypassing a whole other target group. Scrapbooking is hot, HOT, HOT – and it keeps getting hotter! Yes there are card-makers who will scrapbook, but there are a lot more scrapbookers who are not currently into cardmaking (who think they are really not interested in card making – i.e. “I’m not a card-maker, I’m a scrapbooker” – I met lots of them at the recent trade show I did) and are likely not giving you or your business a second glance, because they think you don’t have anything to offer them. Offering scrapbooking classes will allow you to tap into this whole new market and may even lead to cross-over as scrapbookers discover the fun and benefit in making cards, gift packaging, gift items, home decor, etc. Okay, so you may be sold on the idea of offering scrapbook classes, but may be wondering exactly how to do it. That’s where we (my sister Sophia and I) come in. We’ve been asked over and over again WHEN we are going to start offering scrapbook planners. Well we have good news for you – this weekend we will be releasing our FIRST scrapbook planner. And NO, the pages will be nothing like the one above which uses way too much product to make it a profitable or viable class. We’ll also be giving away 5 free scrapbook planners -so make sure you come back on Saturday to enter. Also, if you’re not already subscribed to my e-newsletter for Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators, then you’re going to want to hop on over to www.demotodemo.com and subscribe, because starting this weekend, we’ll be releasing Part 1 of a new series of free articles on growing your customer base.
Click Here to Order your Stampin’ Up! Products Online 24/7! (Canada Only)
Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Ink: So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Basic Gray Classic ink, So Saffron Craft ink
Paper: Sahara Sand Textured 12″ x 12″ CS, Basic Gray Textured 12″ x 12″ CS, Bashful Blue 12″ x 12″ CS, Delicate Dots DP (Sale-a-Bration paper), Whisper White 8 1/2″ x 11″ CS, scraps of So Saffron CS
Accessories: 1/16″ circle punch, paper snips, Stampin’ Up! Scallop Envelope die, Naturally Serif Sizzlets Decorative Strip Border, Big Shot with appropriate cutting pads, Scallop Circle Punch, Basic Gray Taffeta ribbon, Square Rhinestone Brads, Latte buttons, Linen Thread, Mini Glue Dots.
Getting ready to Sale-a-Brate!
Posted: Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 | Comments
My favourite Stampin’ Up! promotion of the year is almost here…..Sale-a-bration! I always look forward to Sale-a-Bration because for a limited time only (February and March) EVERYONE has the opportunity to receive exclusive Stampin’ Up! products for free… ….and there are so many ways to do it! You can choose from one of six exclusive Sale-a-Bration products for every order of $60 or more you place (before shipping and taxes), or for hosting a workshop that generates at least $350 in sales. When you sign up to become a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator during Sale-a-Bration, you can choose any stamp set (value up to $56.95) from the Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book and Catalogue for free! I absolutely LOVE the product choices they’re offering this year. You can choose from 4 stamp sets, a ribbon bundles or a package of Designer Paper.
For today’s project, I (Andrea) incorporated three of the Sale-a-Bration (SAB) products into my card. As a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, I’m allowed to pre-order one of each of the Sale-a-Bration products. Of course I have the opportunity to earn them during SAB as well, but I can never wait for that *LOL*. Plus I strongly believe in having the products so that I can demonstrate with them in my classes and workshops. I used two of the new stamp sets and the Designer Paper (I would have used the ribbon too, but I’m still waiting for it to arrive).
Supplies:
Stamps: Congrats, Polka Dot Punches
Ink: Basic Black Craft, Basic Black Classic
Paperelicate Dots DP, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, BAsic Black, Whisper White CS
Accessories: 1/4″ Black Grosgrain Ribbon, clear embossing powder, heat tool, paper snips, square ice rhinestone brads, 1/16″ handheld circle punch
The card itself is pretty straightforward to make. To create the hearts, I stamped the heart from the Polka Dot Punches stamp set in black craft ink onto scraps of Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, So Saffron CS. I then sprinkled on clear EP and heated it with heat tool until the EP melted. I then cut the hearts out with scissors (there is actually a coordinating heart punch in the Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalogue – but mine hasn’t arrived yet). You pretty much assemble the rest of the card as seen in the picture.
Stay tuned for more details about Sale-a-Bration, as the date draws closer.
Andrea Walford 
