Crafty Secrets at CHA!

Sandy and Lisa were so busy in the Crafty Secrets booth at CHA that I couldn't even snap a photo of Lisa's face! Yikes, was it busy and oh so beautiful. As part of the design team for Crafty Secrets, I was so in awe when I saw all of our beautiful creations displayed in the booth at once. This booth was just jam packed full of fun samples and the girls worked hard doing demos and helping customers. I


I was so inspired to stamp and create projects when I arrived home from CHA. Here are a few bird and Kewpie cards that I created this week using Crafty Secrets stamps. All card bases are Soft Sky card stock from Stampin' Up! and all patterned paper is from the 6 x 12 Classic Heartwarming Vintage Collection pads. This first card uses Kewpie and bird images from the Kewpie's Clear Art Stamps set. The flourishes are from the Cherubs Clear Art Stamps set. Notice the scalloped triangular detail at the top of the main image. This was created using a corner of a scallop square Spellbinder's Die Template. Decorative Pearls from Ellen's store were added for extra bling. SU! Soft Sky ribbon was tied onto the left side of the main image. Images were colored with Copic markers and Kewpie was shaded with a soft grey Copic marker.



This card using this chubby little bird and crown from the Bird Notes Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps set was created in the same fashion as the first card. I colored the images using Copic markers and shaded around the images with a light grey Copic marker. Coloring around the images with a light color just makes them pop off the page. Flourish is from the Cherubs CS set. Again, I used a corner from a scallop cut square Spellbinder's Die Template to add some detail. I also added a button to the *photo corner* detail. I love this sentiment paired with this bird image and crown....it's from the Card Sentiments Crafty Secrets set.



My last card uses the lovely little row of birds sitting on a branch. Card was created same as above two cards basically with the addition of some Martha Stewart twill (to hide a mistake!). Sentiment is from the CS Rosy Wishes set and Decorative Pearls are from Ellen's online store (can you tell I love those little gems?) Image was colored with Copic markers. To darken up the blue, I simple went over the areas I wanted darker with the same color marker. They blend beautifully and you can get many shades from using one color of marker. I love that tip!!



Tip of the day: See these two flowers below. The one on the right shows the original color of Prima flower. (Joy and Daisy gifted me with a huge box of Primas, thanks girls!! Go check out their store, Eclectic Paperie to see their huge collection!) The one on the left is what I used on my cards. I simply altered the color of the original flower by coloring over the flower with a Copic marker. I went back over the center of the flower petals with a Clear Copic Blender marker to remove some of the color. This added depth to the flowers. Cool huh?

And another tip: My friend Piney loves to sew on buttons. Me? Ug, it takes so long but I really love finished button centers. So here's what I did: Run about a 1.5" piece of silver thin wire through a bead. Then fold the two wire ends together and feed through the button holes. Twist together with wire pliers and cut off the excess with wire cutters. Attach to flower centers with sticky craft glue or a hot glue gun. I love that look!

Halloween Samples...

Here's another photo of some of my favorite friends I got to meet in person at CHA. From left to right is Trudee Sauer, Karen Lockhart, Ellen Hutson, Kathy (Colorin Kate), Debbie Olson and me. I am such a lucky girl to work with these girls!!



While at CHA, a big focus was on holiday items including Christmas and Halloween. I am a huge fan of Halloween so I snapped a few photos of some cute gift items. But first check out this adorable treat pocket I made. The idea came from the SU! Holiday Mini Catalog. I used a half sheet of stamped card stock folded in half. For the border on the top opening, I cut and embossed a strip of purple card stock using the largest Spellbinder's Die Template. I adhered it to the inside of the pocket then stitched around three sides of the pocket.

For the main image I used Karen Lockhart's new Witch's Leg, isn't it funky and cute!!? I love it! Image was colored with Copic markers(wait til you see my new tips soon on coloring with Copic, you will be sold on them!). White card stock square was cut and embossed using a square Spellbinder's Die Template, layered on a green square then layered again on a scallop cut and embossed SB Die Template. I just love the textured layering effects you get using the SP dies.

To finish the treat pocket, I cut and embossed a small SB oval then stamped the fun Lockhart sentiment. This was tied to the perfect Halloween May Arts ribbon with SU! gold cord (discontinued). The horizontal strip of patterned paper in the background is My Mind's Eye Tres Jolie collection in orange.

Inside you can put scrunchy paper and all kinds of treats or candy bars. I can't wait to mass produce some of these for special Halloween gifts!!



The following three photos below are some other fun Halloween treats I snapped photos of while at CHA. Aren't they fun!! I believe they were from the Bazzill booth.





Tip of the day: To speed up the process when you get ready to mass produce items like my treat pockets.......color the images at a different time. I take a lot of stamped images with me when I sub and have a break, or when I take my girls swimming, etc. This way, your images are colored and ready to go. Great time saver.

Supplies from Ellen Hutson's online store: Lockhart Witch's Leg and Witchie, Witchie sentiment, Copic markers (O, YR24, Y17, 100, V09, V17, YG95, YR09), Memory Box card stock in Concord Grage and JackoLantern, Spellbinders Die Templates

Other supplies: SU! gold cord,Old Olive card stock and Dimensionals, Papertrey Stamper's Select white card stock, May Arts Halloween ribbon, MME Tres Jolie patterned paper from Eclectic Paperie, machine stitching with white thread, SU! Really Rust eyelet, scrunchy filler paper, candy

Papertrey meets Spellbinders!

I FINALLY got to meet Nichole Heady at CHA! Oh, what a fun moment that was!! We squealed and hugged and chatted like we were old friends. She is just the nicest, down to earth and sassiest little thing there is! I love her!!



Before I left for CHA, my new Papertrey stamps came. I ordered the Border and Corners Squares and Circles. The first thing I wanted to do was match up some of my Spellbinder's Die Templates with Nichole's images to see how they would work. Oh what a fun combination these are going to be! This is my finished card using a scallop square Spellbinder's Die Template and a square from the Borders and Corners Square set from Papertrey. I love how all the stamps and dies coordinate and look so good together. I also used some of the little corner accents from the same PT set in the corners and added AMuse Creative Candy clear twinkle stickers. The flower images and sentiments are Papertrey's Green Thumb set. Ink is from SU! in Groovy Guava, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, and Gable Green. Cardstock is SU! Groovy Guava and Papertrey's Stamper's Select in White. Patterned paper is My Mind's Eye Tres Jolie Birthday Girl Polka Dot. Ribbon is May Arts and was gifted to me by Karen Lockhart, thanks Karen!



To find out what border images work with what Spellbinder's dies, here's what you can do. Lay your stamp down and find a die that fits around the stamp, leaving some white space. Then set in the smaller images (flowers for this card). You instantly get a visual as to whether the stamps and dies that you want to use fit together. Once you get it figured out, your next step is to cut and emboss the white square using the Spellbinder's Die Template.



To stamp the images inside the square border, I used Eclipse Masking Tape from Ellen's online store. That stuff is awesome, so thin and slightly sticky. I then stamped the flowers and the stems to make a little mini framed image. Then I just finished my card by assembling the papers and attaching the main image with SU! dimensionals. The tag with sentiment has a gold SU! eyelet and was attached to the main image with SU! gold cord (discontinued). I simply love how detailed the card looks but that all those little elements are on the one white layer. Enjoy!

CHA photos!

Oh wow! CHA is such an awesome experience. I learned so much, saw so many innovative products and got to meet soooo many wonderfully, talented and nice people! I have lots of photos that I will share this week. Here are a few of my faves from the booths.

Mini albums were everywhere! 7 Gypies had one of the best displays and so many cool, altered projects.



Ribbon and more ribbon! This is a display of actual antique ribbons. New ribbons were being replicated from these beauties!



Patterned paper....soooo many new designs. My favorite of the show was Cosmo Cricket. Think Dutch Girl in new patterns. And the owners are so down to earth and genuine! I just loved them. This is an alterned drawer unit using one of my faves, Dutch Girl.



Home decor altered items! This little unit with adorable decorated jars is by Melissa Frances. Another one of my favorite booths. I could have stayed all day!



Simply Swank! Oh my gosh, this is so awesome. If you've ever thought about doing soldered pieces, this was the place to visit! The owners are just as cute as could be and were very helpful. They sell a kit to get you started and their samples were to die for!



I'll post more photos this week of all of the friends I met. I must take the girls grocery shopping.....they say they are nearly starved! And I'm having withdrawals from not having my weekly dose of Sonic Diet Cherry Limeades!

whoops!

Ladies, my blog postings got mixed up......see the second blog posting for today's new post! Gotta run, see ya when I get back!

Place Setting Thank You

I need a special thank you card for a friend I'll be seeing at CHA. She's hosting a dinner at her house for about 20 of us online friends. I'll be seeing gals I've met before and there will be a lot of first time hugs too! I'm SO very excited about our dinner! So I created this card using some of my favorite stamps from Crafty Secrets. These utensils are from the Kitchen Classics Clear Art Stamps Collection. They remind me of my grandma's big, heavy silverware.



For this card, I stamped the images with Black Noir Palette ink, available from Ellen's online store. Then I colored the utensils with Copic markers. Let me just state now that Copics are my new favorite way of coloring so be prepared to see a lot of Copic projects!! I used two colors(B000, G40) and blended them together with my Copic Colorless Blender (0). I simply layed down the two blue/green colors side by side then seamed the edges together by coloring my blender where the two colors joined. These colors were so close in tone that it didn't take much to blend them. To add shadow, I used a Warm Grey(W0)Copic to outline the utensils. Subtle but a very important detail. I finished off the silverware with a gold glitter pen....stay tuned for more details on this after CHA.

Now.....tell me how cute is that little napkin with the napkin ring????? I KNOW!! Here's how I did it. I used tissue paper and a large Scallop Spellbinder's Die Template to cut out a big scallop square. My idea was coming together nicely! See the photo below? This is how the dies work. You run your tissue/paper through the Wizard(or your die cutting machine) once to get the cut. You will discard the outside edges (think leftover cookie dough when you cut out sugar cookies). Then you run the image through again using the tan mat and it embosses the tissue. YES, it embossed even tissue paper!! So then I folded up the tissue paper to resemble a cloth napkin and made a napkin ring by stamping the little lace border image from Crafty Secrets onto it. I adhered this to my card with double sided sticky tape. I finished off the card with a tiny embossed scallop using my Spellbinder's dies again. Look how tiny and detailed it is!



Supplies: Patterned paper from Wild Asparagus, Crafty Secrets Kitchen Classics stamps all available at Joy's Eclectic Paperie. Sentiment from Papertrey, Ink. River Rock and Soft Sky card stock from Stampin' Up! Spellbinder's Die Templates and Copic markers available from Ellen's online store.

Tip of the day: Think outside the box when using your die cutting machines. You can cut through all sorts of materials like: card stock, tissue paper, wrapping paper, paper sacks, thin chipboard, cereal boxes, material, felt, glitter paper......I can't wait to explore the possibilities and share them with you all!

I'm off to CHA!!

Today's the big day girls! I head off to Chicago for CHA (Craft and Hobby Association)to meet up with SOOO many friends and business associates. I'm so excited!! I've got my suitcases packed and am loading up my carry on bag. This fun bag is from K & Company. Joy carries them in her Eclectic Paperie store. It's big and roomy, can hold a 12 x 12 album and has pockets inside. It's super soft and very cozy on the shoulder. I added a name tag and made this fun matching journal below.



K & Company has this wonderful line of paper and accessories from a well known fabric designer, Amy Butler. I have a lot of her fabric too and it's splendid! So I thought it would be fun to have a notebook that matched my tote bag. I picked out all of my supplies (see photo below) and went to work! Once again, I chose Karen Lockhart's awesome pencil jar stamp for my focal image. I colored it with Copic markers and added some blue sky background. Image was cut and embossed with a rectangle Spellbinder's Die Template, then mounted on a pick piece of card stock that was cut and embossed with a slightly larger Spellbinder's scallop die template. I finished off the notebook (from Target) with some May Arts polka dot ribbon and it was ready to go!



Here's my finished notebook. I have plenty of business meetings and lots of fun, new products to check out so I'm sure this notebook will get plenty of use. I'll be back Sunday evening from CHA.....I'll probably be back to the blogging on Monday! Have a great week everyone and stay tuned..I'll be posting some of my favorite finds and I'm sure I'll have some fun photos also.



Supplies: Spellbinder's Die Templates,Lockhart pencil jar stamp and Copic markers from Ellen Hutson's online store. K & Company tote and patterned paper from Eclectic Paperie. Ribbon from May Arts. Journal from Target. The word *create* is from Karen Foster's tiny casual alphabet.

Proud Mom Moment!

Here are my two girls, Josey and Jordan(no, they are not twins). Around their necks are their GOLD medals for winning the 2007 Biscuit Softball Tournament!!! This is their second year to be champs. My husband and I have coached the team for those two years and our combined record is 22-2!!!



Last year I made these cards for the girls after they won the gold. Totally forgot about the cards until months later. Well, isn't it nice that I can use them this year!?? I leave for Chicago for CHA on Thursday and I always leave little gifts and cards for my girls while I'm away. Card supplies are SU! stamps and card stock.



I made this fun pocket design so that the card stock wrapped to the inside. I'm heading to Target tomorrow and will pick up some gift cards or IPod gift cards to tuck in there....maybe a Sonic card or some cash, I dunno yet. But something fun to open from Mom while she's gone. They always look forward to that.



And to make the card seem more like a gift, I tied tags onto the cards to make them seem more like little gifts. Very simple to do....cut and emboss an oval Spellbinder's Die Template then adhere to the next size larger die cut navy oval. Insert burgundy brads and tie to the navy ribbon with silver SU! cord. I'll tuck these away out of sight and have my husband give these to the girls one night this week. Of course I'll have a nice note in there too, telling the girls how proud I am that they KICKED BUTT this year in softball!!



Tip of the day: Never underestimate the power of gift cards!! And with all the supplies and tools we have, there's tons of ways to make even a card seem special.

Pumpkins for Sale

Have you seen Karen Lockhart's new rubber stamp images? Go to Ellen's online store and you can view them all. This is one of my favorites...the pumpkin cart and matching sentiment. I colored the image while watching my girls swim at Grandma's pool one evening. It was SO relaxing to just sit there with my basket of Copic markers, some scratch paper and some fun, stamped images. When time allows, I will demonstrate some step by step coloring tutorials for you. How do you think I did? I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my Copic markers. Now check out the photo below for the photo corners.



To create the photo corners, I cut and embossed a scallop square using about a 2" Spellbinder's Scallop Die Template. Then I took my scissors and cut the square in half, then cut one half in half again. I used a large corner and a small corner on my card. Both pieces have the embossing still visible and I added some piercing to the smaller corner. Just the right touch. The main image on white was also cut and embossed with a rectangle Spellbinder's Rectangle Die Template. You can easily see that in the above photo.



Back to the coloring....when I start a project that I want to color, I grab all of the Copic colors that I think might match my chosen color scheme. I lay them all out and do a test line on a scrap piece of card stock that I will be using on my card. I pick the best colors and set the other markers aside. Always keep a scratch piece of card stock handy so you can test colors.



Now check this out below. I dug and dug through my ribbon collection (which is a LOT) and just couldn't find the right ribbon(imagine that, I MUST need more ribbon!). So I got out my May Arts white twill (this is NICE) and colored my own ribbon with Copic markers. Simply lay out the twill nice and flat. Start with your center stripe using the broad nib tip of the marker. Try to make your strip using ONE swipe. Lifting and repositioning your marker will leave some crooked lines. Don't the colors match perfectly? I love that! Marker colors for the twill are YR24, YG95, BOO.



You may have noticed my new ribbon tying method. I place the ribbon around the front and back of the top flap of the card. Bring it all the left side and tie it up with copper SU! cord (discontinued). Now I know you're asking this question: How do you mail it without smashing up the ribbon? I simply use a larger envelope and just make sure that my ribbon is cut short enough. You can see the card on top of the envelope in the photo below.



So there you have it! All of my tips and tricks for this card all spelled out for you, enjoy! Supplies: Stamps, Spellbinder's Die Templates and Copic markers available at Ellen Hutson's online store (link at right). Paper is My Mind's Eye Tres Jolie (Oui, Oui pattern), available at Joy's Eclectic Paperie store. Copper cord and Copper brads from SU!. Card stock is Blue Bayou(mat) and River Rock (card base) and Jack O Lantern for photo corners is Memory Box from Ellen's store.

Chipboard Ornament Hangings

Happy Friday the 13th! Now usually, we are always wondering what bad things will happen on this day, right? Not today! GOOD, GOOD things are happening at Ellen's online store. Check it out RIGHT HERE. Today is Ellen's 13% off sale...EVERYTHING is on sale! And today she has the Spellbinder's dies, Copic Markers and new Lockhart images uploaded and ready to go! So have fun shopping and let me know what ya get! I can't wait to share your excitement. And be rest assured that I'll be posting more samples using all of these wonderful new items!

Today's samples are more Christmas samples that will be in the Spellbinder's booth at CHA. These are a trio of chipboard coaster ornaments using Karen Lockhart's darling stocking stamps. I used the scallop square Spellbinder's dies to create the mats and the little felt squares. Images were colored with Copic markers and SU! watercolor crayons and aquapainter.

Christmas in July!

Are you ready for some more fun samples? Okay then, let's get BIZZEEEE! These are actual samples that are heading to CHA as we speak (or type!). I can't wait to see the Spellbinder's booth as I think it will be beautiful!! These are some card Christmas card samples using Lockhart images. This first card uses my very favorite stamp from Karen's collection. It's the Bouquet stamp and I think I've used it for almost every season now. It's SO versatile. Karen, if you're reading this post.....we need an entire collection of bouquets!!! Image is finished off with some pierced swirls from Ellen's Ornare templates. I'm hooked on those little things!! Image is cut out with a scallop Spellbinder's die and then embossed by using the same die but ran through the Wizard with the rubber mat. Then that image is adhered to the green mat with dimensionals. The green mat uses a straight rectangle die that was also embossed. Then for the tag with the sentiment, I cut a smaller oval and embossed it. Isn't it gorgeous? The embossing just adds such elegance. Your cards will take on a professional stationery feel, I tell ya. Background paper is from the holiday Crate Paper collection. A little Decorative Pearl finishes off the bouquet bow.



This card below was created using one of Karen's beautiful Angel stamps. I've used my Sakura glitter pen all over the image and in real life, she just sparkles. Main image was created the exact same way as the first card, only I used scallop shaped dies. Again, a totally elegant look for this card without a lot of other embellishments. Three little mocha Decorative Pearls finish off the image.



My third card was made into a scallop square shape by folding a piece of card stock into a square. Then I cut both layers with a square scallop die and embossed it too. All you have to do to make shaped cards is to leave the folded edge of one side of the card off of the die. This leaves the fold in tact. The main image of this little thank you card is Karen Lockhart's Packages stamp. It's the Stamp of the Month at Ellen's online store, and you can also buy a kit using this image and prepackaged goodies that Ellen will send out. I added another little Ornare swirl to the package and finished it off with three mocha Decorative Pearls. The main image was cut and embossed with a square die. The Many Thanks sentiment was cut with a small oval die then embossed.

Did you notice that my cards have a lot of layers but still look clean and crisp. That's because the dies leave a nice embossed layer without being too bold. It's that tone on tone raised edge that is beautiful but not overbearing. I simply love them!!



Stay tuned all ths week for more samples, including more Crafty Secrets goodies! And be sure to check out Ellen's blog all this week for new posts and information about her Friday the 13th sale....13 hours and 13% off everything!! Be sure to check out her card challenge using Lockhart images and enter her drawing. I know the prizes...YOU WILL WANT THE PRIZES so get over there girls!! But be sure to leave me a comment about what you think about the new Copics, Spellbinder's dies and Karen's images. And I'm not sure when the images will be available for preview but hold onto hats when you see the new Crafty Secrets images coming out at CHA. Pure bliss and vintage stamp-o-rama!!!!!

Tip of the day: See the velvet ribbon on my first two cards? I love to use a strip of ribbon to seam two edges of paper together. For my cards, I placed the velvet ribbon over the top edge of the patterned paper. This seams together the solid paper and the patterned paper and finishes off a card beautifully.

First Spellbinder Samples....

Buckle up girls and get ready for a fun, fun ride! Ellen has debuted the totally new and innovative Spellbinders dies on her blog...which means Trudee, Debbie and I have been given the go ahead to show you lots of samples! So be sure to visit Debbie and Trudee's blogs too. Here's what's going on: Ellen is having a countdown to her Friday the 13th sale with very cool card samples and lots and lots of good information about the new Spellbinders products. And today she just announced that on Friday for 13 hours, you will get 13% off everything in her store. You won't want to miss it!! On Friday you will also see Karen Lockhart's new stamp images which are totally over the top, and you'll be able to pre-order the Copic markers. I think I'll just faint right now!!

Now on to my first cards using the Spellbinders dies and Lockhart images. Aren't these cute?? I've been so inspired by all these products I've been working with and now I can begin to show you all three products on one card....Lockhart stamp images, Copic Markers and the Spellbinders dies! For this card, I used the pencil jar image to make a fun artsy card. I also used some SU! letters and the *original* stamp under the cut out circle. I also stamped *create* using Karen Foster tiny Casual Alphabet letters around the pencil jar. Notice how I made a squiggle pencil line to the word *be* to make it look like the pencil drew the letter. How's that for being original?? For the colored pencils in the jar, I used Copic markers. The finish the markers leaves is fabulous, reminds me of chalk ink. I added a shadow down the side of each pencil with a grey marker to add dimension. I finished off the stamped image with three little Decorative Pearls in Mocha color.

For the mats? This is the new Spellbinders goodies!! I cut a rectangle with a rectangle die (see sneak peeks of these on the second card, you can see what the dies actually look like under the card). Then I ran the cut out rectangle through my Wizard again using the simple tan embossing pad and voila...instant embossing just inside the rectangle!! Isn't that awesome???????? Zoom in and you can see the dimension it adds to the card. I can't believe how much detail this adds!!!!! I mounted the focal piece on yet another die cut scallop rectangle. Don't they layer nicely? Ellen and Stacey and Jeff at Spellbinders put a lot of effort into making sure the dies layer nicely together. I finished off the card with some Memory Box Sugar paper which comes in 6 x 6 pads. Then how bout the fun ribbon tying?I extended it over the edge of the card and tied it off with some SU! retired silver cord. To mail this type of card, simple slip it into a bigger envelope so the ribbon doesn't get smooshed.



My next card using the exact same layout as the first so I won't go into the details again on assembling the card. But isn't it a fun layout? I will mention that the top stamped layer has SU! dimensionals on the back and is mounted on the scalloped piece. Then the scallop piece is adhered to the card base with even more dimensionals. So these are triple decker cards! The images on this card are the Lockhart Packages, happy birthday sentiment and the Itty Bitty cupcake. They are also colored with Copic markers and outlined with a light grey marker to add dimension. Tiny white Decorative Pearls finish off the sentiment. Papers are again from the Memory Box Sugar 6 x 6 paper pad.



Okay, look up above and you can see the actual dies. Up there, see them? Aren't they different from anything you've seen? We will be educating you and giving you lots more tips and tutorials on the Wizard and the dies, so don't worry. If you're scratching your head, it's okay...it's something brand new on the market like NO OTHER die cuts out there. We'll help you out! I'm sure you're asking how the dies cut and then emboss? Well, the middle line of the die cuts your cardstock like a cookie cutter when it goes through the Wizard (or any other die cut machine). Then you switch mats and run the cut image through again and the very inside edge of the die creats the embossed effect. The cut out space of the die allows the paper to be forced into the blank space, thus created the embossed effect. Cool huh? Wicked cool!!!!!

Now look down here. This is a close up of the embossing and scallops. Very clean cuts, very crisp embossing. I'm in heaven! Zoom in for an even closer look. Stay tuned to Ellen, Trudee, Debbie and my blogs. We're going to show lots of samples and tips!



Now for the tip of the day: Remember when I talked about my sketch book with card ideas? Here's a photo of my finished card with my original sketch. I sketched this out while watching tv and had my Lockhart images right there with me for inspiration. Remember to sketch out ideas from time to time and keep them in your little notebook. When in a pinch for ideas, you'll have some inspiration to fall back on. I think it's fun to see if a card actually turns out like you had planned. This card worked out exactly like I had planned, with the addition of the fun ribbon tying idea. Happy Stampin' today girls! Come back tomorrow for more!



Supplies: Copics and Spellbinder products coming soon to Ellen's store. Memory Box paper and Decorative Pearls and Memory Box cards available now at Ellen's store. Silver Cord from SU! (discontinued), brown ribbon from Michael's, pink ribbon from May Arts. Stamps are Lockhart images available at Ellen's store. All links to blogs and Ellen's store are at the right!

Attention Stampers......Product Lists

Do you blog? Submit to publications? Hold stamp camps? Order new product from time to time? (Okay, I know that last one included you! LOL!) Well, if you do then I have a fun little project for you. I made these fun Product Lists to keep track of stamping related lists. I am looking at my list right now so that I'll know what products to list in my supply list for you at the end of this post. I've also used it to list products for pub calls that I've made so I can have the information handy when I type up a submission. I also keep an ongoing page for supply *refills* that I need to purchase. It's just the right size too. If you look at the last photo, you'll see the inside of the notebook. I took junior size notepads to a printing shop and asked them to chop them in half. They charge by the cut, so ask them to stack up as many as they can. Sometimes the cuts aren't perfectly straight but it doesn't bother me.



To decorate the front of the notebook, I used Karen Lockhart's pencil jar stamp(a must have to send cards to all my creative friends). I colored in the image with my new favorite Copic markers. Zoom in on the detail girls, it's outstanding. They color in wonderfully and dry with no lines and the finish almost looks chalk like. Ellen will be carrying these soon so be sure to check her website listed at the right. (Go to her blog too for more exciting announcements to come, you are gonna freak!) To finish up the front, I used a retired SU! alphabet and some new SU! Classic inks(Blue Bayou, River Rock, and Soft Sky)to spell out *Product Lists*. The *certified* circle is from SU!'s Stamp of Authenticity set. I also added some My Mind's Eye fun paper for the background (available at Eclectic Paperie). A solid piece of card stock forms the notebook cover (like a book that wraps around 3 sides)



Here's the inside photo of the half notepad, of which I finished off the top with a scrap of MME patterned paper. The back has a SU! *stamped by* image so that I can sign my name when I give away some of these. I hope you try these...even if you don't get the 1/2 size books, you can always do a full size. I just love that it's skinny and doesn't take up much space.



Supply List: Lockhart stamp and Copic Markers (coming soon) from Ellen's store. My Mind's Paper from Eclectic Paperie. Stampin' Up! for word stamps and alphabet. Ribbon from Martha Stewart available at Michael's. Loopy brad from my stash. Bazzill textured card stock for the 3 sided notebook binding.

Airbrushed Bouquet

Hi everyone! Did you all get a good night's rest from the July 4th celebrations. Our party went well on the 3rd and yesterday we just cleaned up and lounged. I was so tired but got a good night's rest last night. Back to the grind now!

I have a special card to show you today, I think it's beautiful! I tried out the airbrushing system from Copic and created a soft background for my card. The look I was going for was a blue/purple sunset with a field of flowers in the background....and a fresh picked bouquet of wildflowers in the foreground.


This is the Copic air brushing system. Looks a little scary doesn't it? Well, as with all tools that require assembly, I was a bit intimated myself. But the directions were good and I got it all assembled. This system requires no electricity, it operates on pressurized bottles that help create the bursts of air. Once it's all assembled, you just insert your Copic marker and go to work. I need some practice and am hoping to find out more information at CHA from the Copic reps...so stay tuned for more airbrushing in the future!

I used back and forth swishes to create three tones with a purple and blue background on one big sheet of white cardstock.

I also used the wonderful Ornare templates to create some swirl designs around the bouquet. I am hooked on these fun little tools. You get a metal template like this red one and you simply place it where you want your design and pierce the holes, while placing the piercing mat under your projects. For this design, I only used a few of the swirls. What's fun is that you can pick out little design elements without using the entire design.

To finish up my card, I colored the Lockhart Bouquet image with the same color Copic markers that I used for my airbrushing. If you use colors that are very similar in tone, you can simply apply the colors side by side and then blend the two colors together by going over the darker color once more with the lighter color.

I used a clear glaze pen over my image...well when it dried it turned opaque so that wasn't the effect that I was looking for. It blurred some of the detail on the flowers...I'll know better next time. I also used a glitter gel pen in the white space around the flowers and I DO like that effect. Very pretty in real life. A little pearl finishes off the focal image.

For the airbrushed background, I ran my piece through the Cuttlebug using a flower embossing folder and the results were perfect!! Just the subtle background I was looking for. And to finish off the card, I used this ribbon that matches perfect, can you believe it!!

Tip of the day: Wanna know where I got that ribbon? I made it myself!! Yeppers, I couldn't find a ribbon that matched so I grabbed some white SU! grosgrain ribbon and my trusty Copic markers...simply drew a line of purple down the center and filled in the sides with blue. Isn't that the coolest!!??

Supplies: Lockhart Bouquet stamp, Ornare template and accessories, Decorative Pearls and card stock all available from Ellen Hutson's online store. Copic markers and accessories are coming soon to Ellen's store too...be sure to check out her blog HERE to keep up to date on her Friday the 13th sale!!