Inspire Me

Spellbinders Pendant Dies SALE

Have you seen the new Spellbinder dies that are coming out? They are awesome! I will be posting those new dies in a few more days but in order to make room for those dies I'm going to mark down the pendant and border dies that are in-stock. So tell all your friends cause this is an amazing sale!

 

All in-stock pendant and border dies are $20/each.

As of this posting I have:

In Spades pendant - 2 & Border - 1

Renaissance Hearts pendant - 2 & border - 2

Eyelets Pendant - 3 & border - 2

Lattice Pendant - 2 & border - 2

Kaleidescope Pendant - 2 & border - 3

Tulips Pendant - 2 & Border - 2

Contemporary hearts Border (only) - 3

Fleur De Leis border (only) - 3

Also on sale:

Cupcake die - 1

Poinsettia Framabilities - 3

Just drop me an e-mail and we will make arrangements. I accept MC/Visa, Discover, AMEX & Pay-pal.

Check back soon for pictures of all the newest dies coming out!

Borderabilities & Pendant Dies

Hi, wanted to let everyone know what has just arrived in the store:

Tulips

Contemporary hearts

Fleur De Lis

  

Eyelets

Renaissance Hearts

Kaleidoscope

In Spades

Lattice

 

 

 

And all my Pendant Dies are only $20 - That's 20% off their original pricing!

 

 

 

If you're interested in these just drop me an e-mail and I will hold them or mail them to you.

Merry Christmas Piercing

I have always loved the look of pierced paper. But I truly don't have the patience to do Peragamo. Although I certainly do respect the individuals that do that beautiful work.

I love piercing since it makes beautiful Scrapbook pages along with easy cards. For today's sample I finished a card, but in the next few days I hope to show you how well this will work on a page also. Ornare, the company that makes the piercing templates and other items also makes these incredible kits. So I thought I would try one. It came with four card fronts, cardstock & envelopes.

Here are the four designs:

Click on the picture to see a close up. Each piece has a beautiful photo and on the reverse side is the template for piercing. They look like this:

The darker frame line is there so that if you would like to follow the outline of the pierced template you can just trim it with scissor. This is what one of the card fronts looks like. Once your card is finished you never see the black template only the awesome pattern you pierced on the front.

Here is the card I finished:

Of course I couldn't just follow the directions I had to change it up a bit. So using my Oval nestabilities I die cut out the center picture. Then created an Scalloped oval mat for it. Once I cut out my photo that obviously leaves a hole but the larger scalloped mat covers the hole right back up.

IRL there is a lot of shimmer on this card. Using my Marvy Twinklettes, I highlighted the veins of the Holly and parts of the pine cones. I also added extra dimension to the lantern in the same way, by following the lines with glitter markers. I added a touch of yellow stickles to the flame and Opal liquid Pearls to the white berries in the bows.

It has been matted on Stardream Metallic Anthracite from Cut Cardstock and a simple sheer knot of red added to the side.

I stamped Merry Christmas (My Sentiments Exactly - P715) and embossed it in China Red EP from PK Glitz.

It's actually quite elegant and the piercing went along very quickly. I was actually able to take it outside to sit under the canopy and watch the boys play.

What I really like about this kit is that it retails for only $5 and no special tools are necessary. Yes you can buy the piercing tool and mat but if you're not sure how much you'll like this I also suggest a long needle with the top wrapped in a rubber band to help with a grip and the backside of a soft mouse-pad.

This is also a great way to recycle old Christmas Cards. By simply buying a piercing template you can create great frames, then cut out the focal picture from an old card, bling it up a bit and then put it all together. How's that for reducing, reusing and recycling? And still wowing the receiver?

I'll be back with more samples. Oh, and of course wouldn't this look incredible with a touch of Flower Soft???

Cocktails Anyone?

Whew, it's a hot one! This will be a quick post tonight since it's a very sticky & humid 85 degrees in my office. So I thought this card was appropriate, since I think I'll be making a little cocktail and heading for the air conditioned room.

I was going to apologize for the quality of the photo and hoped you would understand that my fingers were sticking to the camera, but when I looked at it, it's the best example of how awesome the paper from CutCardstock is. See how it just shimmers and shines? Yuuuummmmmm! Plus notice where I took the photo? Yup, in my glass cabinet next to some of my favorite Margarita glasses.

You might not typically use purple & orange together but my brain does. And since our little cockettes are purple & orange I thought it tied it all together.

• Cocktails Anyone stamps = Studio G
• Stickles = Ranger
• Fence Stamp = Anita's
• Stamper's Select white paper = Papertrey
• Copic markers
• Square Nestabilities
• Misc ribbon
• Stardream Metallic Fuse paper in Flame & Punch = Cut Cardstock
• Finished card size 5 x 5

So that's it for tonight, going to cool off now. Take care, have a great day!

Edited to add:

Well it's morning and it's cooled off considerably, so I thought I might try one more go at a better photo. Had to do it early since they say it's gonna be another hot one!

There I think that's better, enjoy the day!

Nestabilities Love Bird

What can you do with a circle, an oval, a square and 2 paisley's? A crazy bird! Actually I'm calling her my Love Bird. A little bit sweet, flowing and very colorful.

First of all let me apologize for the quality of the picture. My camera decided to die right after this shot, so it was the only one I had to work with.

I got the nestabilities paisley dies a while back, mostly cause i had this idea rolling around. I thought that they would make a great bird.

So today when I saw the color challenge at SCS for Wild Wasabi, So Saffron & Almost amethyst I thought I would give it a try along with my rolling around idea. Here's the recipe:

• Wings = cut 2 paisley shapes. You'll have to turn one over to get them going in opposite directions. I also chose to run them through my Cuttlebug Embossing Folder. I added two brads just for decoration.
• Tail = Cut a square and turn it like a diamond to form the tail. Using my Inque Boutique French Quarter set I stamped a little decoration on the tip of the tail.
• Body = Cut an oval and attach the diamond to the bottom of the oval
• Head = Cut one circle and adhere it over the top of the oval. I added two brads for eyes and cut a small triangle for the beak. Plus the head is raised slightly on a pop dot so that it gave it a little dimension and wasn't against the card which happens to be the same color.

For the card I used Wild Wasabi and with my versamark I stamped a swirly design from Rubber Stamp Tapestry all over in a random pattern. By using only versamark and heat setting it I basically created a watermark, or stamped an image that turns 2 shades darker than the original cardstock. That's about it. The things you can do with basic shapes.

So I have to tell you this though, I showed my DH & my DD and neither one of them liked it. Said it didn't make sense, that the patterns clashed and well they just didn't like it.

So I ask you, "what do you think" And be honest. I welcome constructive Criticism.

I do think it's a little bland so I may play some more with adding some stickles or something, we'll see.

So until the next rolling around in my head idea comes to life.................Have a great day!

That's my story and I'm stickin to it!

 

Altered Frame

Sorry about the so serious post yesterday. But today we are on to more fun things - Weddings!

I hope everyone had a great day! We went to the beach and I got to just sit in the sun and watch as my Daughter starting teaching one of my sons how to swim and my DH was playing in the sand with my other son. There couldn't be a more perfect day.

So onto the project. I have a wedding shower coming up and wanted to make something special for this young couple. They have very contemporary taste. Here's what I came up with:

As many of you do, I have a few other hobbies I like to do. Playing with metal is one of them. This frame was inspired by a favorite book of mine, Home & Garden Metal Crafts.

I started with a 81/2" square of periwinkle metal 40G. One side is periwinkle and the other silver. Then I did the following steps:

1. To start I crushed/crumpled the metal into a big ball. (you may want to wear gloves to protect your hands) Then I pulled it open and laid it on my work surface.
2. With an altered rubber mallet. (I alter one side of the mallet by placing drops of hot glue and then letting them cool, I now have a textured mallet). Using my altered mallet I bang the whole sheet of metal. The point here is to give the metal lots and lots of texture. (NOTE: if you don't happen to have a rubber mallet, then place some small pebbles in a baggie and pound the metal with that)
3. Using a brayer I roll it flat. (Don't have a brayer" A rolling pin works fine)
4. With periwinkle side up I rub antique gold rub 'n buff all over. I also use my black Staz-on pad to add more color. (NOTE: if you don't have rub 'n buff any of your Staz-on colors of ink will work just fine)
5. Turning the sheet over so that the silver side is up I determine the center of the piece and trace the opening with a sharpie marker. In this case my opening size is 4x6. I also draw lines corner to corner. Basically you should now have an X in the center of a square.
6. Using Terrifically tacky tape (the stuff that's red and comes on a roll) place a piece of this tape along each edge of the metal. Be sure to not tape all of the top, leaving a space to slide your picture into.
7. With an exacto knife cut the diagonal lines in the center of the opening that you traced.
8. Place your frame (mine is a 5x7) in the center of the metal. Against the silver side.
9. Uncover your sticky tape and pull each edge over the frame. To make easier corners trim each corner at an angle before folding the edge over. Now your metal is stuck to your frame.
10. Turn the frame over. With a small cylinder roll up each piece of the opening. I happen to have a small test tube that I used as a cylinder. Now the 4x6 opening shows and also you have the curled edges showing the silver side of the metal also.
11. You now can slide your photo into the frame and you are done!

In this case instead of a photo I used my Firecracker Designs Ray of hope stamp set and  a single letter from an alphabet set that I have. (I know the H is slightly cricked.)

Supplies:

• 40 gauge metal (any color)
• Rub 'n Buff or any staz-on ink colors
• A frame - your choice of size
• Rectangle & scallop nestabilities
• SU black cardstock
• Stardream Metallic Vista cardstock
• Ranger fine detail gold EP

I'll let you know how the new couple likes it. Have a great day!

 

Monogram Grunge

Do you remember my first Monogram post? Monograms my Way? There was a secret message in there for my friend Kellie. Kellie now works for Just Rite Stampers. Going to her house to and having to see all the Just Rite product is sheer torture. So I teased in her that post that since I didn't have any "other" monogram stamps I used what I had. Well the tease worked and she sent over the DIY Monogram Stamper Kit with 3 damask borders and a font. Here's my creation:

I call it Monogram Grunge. I knew I wanted to give this monogram a differnt look, maybe something that hadn't been done as of yet. So I stamped my image and foiled it. But when the foil didn't stick everywhere that I had intended it to, I switched gears. I left the uncovered areas and took a copic marker and colored in those blank spaces. I then used my sanding block and sanded off a few more spots of foil off. Then what better paper to add grunge than Basic Grey's Aged & Confused Vagabond series.

Using my oval scalloped Nestabilities I cut an oval and embossed it from the same paper. I placed it right back over the same exact spot on the card, as if it had just been cut right from that spot. I popped it a little, added ribbon and those lovely Kaiser Pearls. A simple Happy Birthday on the bottom and it's off to my Brother-in-law. So I believe I have created what might be called Elegant Grunge for a man. How's that for a designer term? I may have to send that in to HGTV's Next Design Star show - HA ha!

I plan on sharing more with you about this great foiling technique in another blog - so hang tight.

A few more credits:

• Happy Birthday by Papertrey Ink, Year-round puns #2051
• Aqua Foil, Craftware
• Black dye based ink, Rubber Stampede
• Azure Staz-on
• Versamark
• Seafoam white embossing powder

Well I'm off and running for the day - hope you all have a great one!

 

Nestabilities Storage

As many of you know I am a freak for great storage! However, my Nestabilities collection and Wizard pieces have been causing me some angst. For a while I had all the mats and dies in a large tin lunch pail. That was okay but it was hard to get the mats out , and they had to be turned sideways to get in and out of the lunch pail. Then I had my dies on individual sheets of magnet but when everything was in the pail I couldn't see what I wanted so I would inevitably end up dumping the whole thing. Needless to say I got very frustrated!

I know that some people are storing their Nestabilities in individual CD cases with sheets of magnet on the inside. That's good but I still wanted to be able to see everything all at once. Then I found this:

A magnetic 8 x 10 folder with a closing fold over flap.

Currently this is all I own of Nestabilities, but as I add to my sets I envision a few more of these nifty little folders. One folder might hold a full set of circles and squares. Another might hold Paisley & Hearts on one side then rectangles on another. Oh, let me add this, even if you drop this folder the dies will not budge, they are held on tightly with the magnet in this folder!

I also own other Spellbinders dies so this will work for them also. When this is closed up it is not even 1/4" thick. Just enough room on the binding to place a label (gotta love the label maker!). So eventually when I have more than one folder they will each have a label. Then I can pull it from the shelf and open it up and all my choices will be at my fingertips. Now how's that for convenience?

Here it is closed up: Not overly exciting - when it's closed. Just that it's compact and low profile.

Then how did I handle my next issue of not having all the pieces together when I needed them? I went to my local Office Supply store (another of my favorite places to shop) and found this wonderful folder. When closed up it measures 12.75 x 12.25 and is 1" thick. So it's more than enough room hold the magnetic folder holding my nestabilities, my Wizard Cutting & embossing mats, my Cuttlebug embossing folders and a few other dies. Once again, everything is in one place.

Here is how it looks all opened up: See it holds everything. Then I just close it back up, wrap the cord around it and slide it back on the shelf. My Wizard sits next to it.  

Here is another look at how the magnetic binder would hold dies other than Nestabilities or a combination of Nestabilities and other dies. In any case it's a definite winner here!

Okay I know you're all wondering where to get this great folder. Well for those of you that live in my area I have some on hand.

For those of you in other locations this is a Quickutz Magnetic Folder. Can you believe that? Quickutz had the perfect solution to my Spellbinders issue.

Now the ideal solution would be a larger folder that continues to fold out that would hold an entire collection of all the Nestabilities (cause I know lots of you have the whole shebang already) Then it would just collapse back into one folder. Maybe even a place that would hold the mats. Hint, Hint.

I know I'm asking a lot. But until that has been created, this storage solution is working GREAT for me. I hope it might help some of you also!

Nestabilities

Just a quickie post and I'll be back later today. I just got the word that Spellbinders has made step-by-step videos for everything you might have ever wanted to know about how to use your nestabilities and other Spellbinders dies.

Since Spellbinders dies are universal, which means that you can use them in almost any leading die cut machine you may already own these videos even cover CuttleBug and other manufacturers machine's.

Just click on any of these links and you'll be taken over to You-Tube to watch them.

Using Spellbinders Dies in your Cuttlebug Also included in this video are how to use SpellBinders with your Quickutz Revolution, Sizzix, Big Kick and Ellison Big Shot

Using Spellbinders dies in other manufacturers machines Also shows you how to use your Wizard with Edgeabilities Dies and the Nestabilities Dies

Using other manufacturer's dies in your Spellbinders Wizard Die Cutting and Embossing machine Covers Sizzix, Sizzlets, Cuttlebug dies and Embossing Folders along with Quickutz dies.

Thank you Stacey Caron (co-owner of Spellbinders)  for doing these! I think you'll find them very helpful!

 

See you all later today!

Monograms My Way

Here we go, 2nd time with this post. I had the first one almost done and my computer crashed! What was that all about??? Well lesson learned always save, save, save your work as you're doing it, don't wait until the end.

Tonight I want to show you an awesome set of stamps from Firecracker Designs by Pamela. Like I said I don't have any of the newest monogram stampers so I started to search through my stamps and came across this set. It was perfect, actually I like it better than anything I've seen so far. The set is called Ray of Hope, it contains two circles and four sayings - Nice, huh?!

Pamela designed this set to fit the Mega and Giga punches from Marvy. Of course if you don't own those punches Pamela has them or you could use your Nestabilities, CM Circle Cutter or Coluzzle. For this card I used my nestabilities, it was a perfect fit. Here is the first card I did:

You know the lady on "So you think you can Dance?" That screams alot? That's what this card makes me want to do! For those of you that don't know it's a very excited loud scream - very unique :) So first the circle is stamped and embossed with my new favorite embossing powders from PK Glitz in Fall harvest. It has a touch of glitter in it for that touch of bling. It really shimmers: Just look at that!

I colored around and inside the circle with my E33 copic marker in Sand and inside each small circle is a dab of Black Diamonds Stickles. Oh the Bling!! My Sending a smile is also embossed in Fall harvest.

My card is a cream colored cardstock with rust accents. Now I know that everyone always does circles with circles but I just love being a rebel! So I decided to use a nestabilities scalloped square. This is a perfect example of a circle fitting inside of a square! As you can see in the close up I also embossed the square.

Now my luscious border. Done with those amazing Tonic Punches again. First I used the corner rounder 2 in 1 punch to create a scalloped border on the bottom edge of the card. Then using my rust colored cardstock I used the smile 2 in 1 punch and created a 2nd border. I placed that strip over the scalloped border and they lined up perfectly! The flowered strip is a stamp from the D1092 Flower Girls collection by CTMH., stamped in Raisin ink. I added another 2" strip of rust on the bottom of the card and that's all there was to it! A beautiful monogram type card!

Now this set is so much fun, of course I had to make a second card:

Another Scream!! Wowsa! This ring is stamped on white and colored with Y02, Canary Yellow, V06 - Lavender and G99, Olive.  Then using 2 of my circle nestabilities I cut the outside and the inside of the image leaving my with a ring. (I wasn't such a rebel this time and used circles on circles)

I then matted my ring on So Saffron and added the H monogram with a rub-on by Delish. My mat is Purely pomegranate by Stampin Up and has been embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

To tie the greens together I added a piece of Olive Green rick rack.

So I ask you again, isn't this a beautiful and very versatile set for doing exactly what all those other sets do? I guess that's what is so much fun about stamping, there are so many version of a product or tool and you just have to find the one that best suits your personality or style.

This set definitely works for me. I hope you enjoyed and be sure to check out Pamela's other sets - I guarantee you'll love them!