Quick Razzle Dazzle

First of all, sorry for the poor photo! My computer is dead and awaiting the arrival of a new motherboard. Until then, I'm using a laptop with no photo editing software, and I can't download any. (Edited to add: My computer is back up and running minus all photos, documents, favorites, etc. But at least I could upload and fix the photo so it looks much better!)
On to the card! I just got some Razzleberry Lemonade DSP, and I love it! I didn't think I would, but it's so pretty in person. I can't wait to make some more cards with it. Today's card is a simple one. The base is Melon Mambo textured cardstock 4 1/4 X 11, scored at 5 1/2. The DSP is a 3 3/4 square cut diagonally from all corners to form 4 triangles. I flipped 2 of them over so you can see both sides of the DSP. The triangles are adhered to a 4" Chocolate Chip textured square. In the center I added 2 flowers from the Pretties kit and used a Chocolate Chip corduroy button/brad for the center. A sentiment from Heard from the Heart in Whisper White completes the card.
Happy stamping!

Diamond Fold Card

This week, the SCS demo workshop wow challenge is to make a diamond fold card. I saw it a while back on SCS, watched a video and made notes for myself. Believe it or not, I was able to make the card from my notes! Here is the original card I saw, and here is the link to the video. I did a photo tutorial for those who aren't able to watch video online. What I liked about this card is that there is very little measuring to do all of the folds.

Here is what the card looks like when it's closed. I tied it closed with a ribbon that can just slide off.

Start with a 4" X 12" piece of cardstock. On the back, mark it at 6" on each long side. As you can see from the photo, I just used my paper trimmer and a pencil.

Fold one side to that center line, and fold the other side to meet it. (Like making a paper airplane) Open it back up.

Tip: I used a bone folder on all of my folds to make sure they were crisp.

Turn the paper 180 degrees and fold in the same way. Open it back up again.

Your cardstock should now look like this. Fold each short end in to meet the corner of the center diamond. It will look like the photo below.

With the ends still folded in, turn the cardstock over, and fold the edges in to the center. The edges will line up with the top and bottom points of the diamond. Your card will now look like the photo below.

Open the card up. There are 4 triangles surrounding the center diamond. Push the triangles in so the card looks like the photo below.

For my card I decided to decorate the center diamond, the 2 end panels and the 2 triangles in between. My center diamond was just under 3" on each side, and the 2 triangles were slightly smaller than that. So I cut the chocolate chip squares at 2 3/4" and the glossy white squares at 2 1/2".

I got the color combo from the January Stampin' Success magazine. It's from the new Retro Style Watch collection in the upcoming catalog: Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point and Chocolate Chip. I inked my brayer with Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss and Pacific Point and then brayered over the glossy cardstock until it was well inked. I get the best look using the brayer by rolling in one direction instead of back and forth. Then I stamped the grass image from Inspired by Nature in Chocolate Chip.

For the 2 side triangles, I cut both the mat and the glossy piece in half using my paper trimmer. This photo shows how I lined up the corners in the guide.

Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Heard from the Heart; Paper: glossy white, Kiwi Kiss textured, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip; Ink: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Summer Sun, Pacific Point; Accessories: bone folder, brayer, Pacific Point striped grosgrain ribbon
Happy stamping!

They can't all be fabulous

I thought about not posting this card, but I need to post something and this is what I've got. I guess you can tell by the title and my opening sentence that I'm not in love with this card. I made this for this week's workshop wow. The theme was using ribbon in an unusual way, so I thought we should make ribbon roses. Easy peasy, just do a running stitch along the bottom of the ribbon and gather it up to make a flower. First I tried it with the So Saffron polytwill, and it just didn't work. I think the ribbon is too supple, so it wouldn't hold a good shape. Fortunately, I already had this Regal Rose flower made.
Then I wanted to try color blocking, which is one of the WICKED demo challenges this month. (If you're a demo, get over to SCS and check out Vera's challenges and samples; they are jaw-droppingly awesome!) I used my coluzzle to cut a circle out of the center of the Parisian Summer DSP then I cut the DSP into 4 equal pieces and attached them to Basic Black. It came out okay, I guess, but I think I can do better. I'll have to try it again.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Heard from the Heart, Sanded, Tres Chic; Paper: Pink Pirouette, Basic Black, Parisian Summer DSP; Ink: Basic Black, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette; Accessories: Coluzzle, Regal Rose grosgrain ribbon, So Saffron brad, crafters tool kit, linen thread

Rhonda's November workshop project # 2

Rhonda's other projects both use Scandinavian Season, one of my favorite sets. I love how the mittens are hanging from the metallic cord!
Happy stamping!

Happy birthday, Mama!

Saturday is my mom's birthday. I made her this card, but I forgot to bring it with me to Florida to mail it. (Duh!) So I got a card for her at my cousin's shop, and guess what? I forgot to mail that one too! So I sent her an e-card, and I will mail both of the other cards to her.
I didn't clean up the photo before I left home, so it's a little dark. Sorry about that! The medallion starts off with 2 round tab punches adhered together to form a circle. The next 2 layers are felt flowers. Everything is held together with a rhinestone brad put through a Riding Hood Red button. Hope you like the card Mama!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Heard from the Heart; Paper: Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Muirfield DSP; Ink: Chocolate Chip; Accessories: Button Bouquet, Flower Fusion Too, round tab punch, Pretties kit, So Saffron poly twill ribbon, scallop edge punch, linen thread
Happy stamping!

Another swap card

Here is my second swap card for Crystal's new catalog swaps. This may look a little familiar since I made a pinwheel card a long time ago. It's fun to try different things with your punches! What have you done with your punches lately?
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Heard from the Heart, Sanded; Paper: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Junior Varsity DSP; Ink: Rose Red, Old Olive; Accessories: ticket corner punch, small tag punch, Rich Regals brads, Flower Fusion
Happy stamping!

Daniel is 19!

Here is my one and only on Saturday, which was his 19th birthday. (Don't even ask about the hair and the beard! He's 19. What am I supposed to do??)
For Daniel's birthday I made him a spring card using the Sock Monkey. No, it's not a card for the springtime; it's a card with springs inside! This technique was demonstrated at Convention, and it has been all over SCS ever since. The awesome Jenn Diercks, our September WICKED stamper, chose the spring card for the WICKED technique. She posted a terrific video here. If your internet doesn't handle video well, I've got a few photos below.
Here is the inside of the finished card. I've used stamped images from the Sock Monkey set, but you can use flowers, butterflies, punched circles, you name it. The springs each start life as a 1 3/8" circle. Then you just cut it into a spiral.
Adhere one end to the inside back of the card. (I used Mono Multi--just a drop!) Put a little adhesive on the other end of the spiral, hold the spirals down so they look like a circle again, and close the card. This adheres the other end to the inside front of the card. I put a little weight on top of the card and then let it sit for a few minutes so the adhesive could set. Then open the card and use a little drop of adhesive to adhere the embellishments to your springs.
You can also use embellishments to cover up your ends. On the top of the card, I used the ribbon to hide them.
The reason I used Sock Monkey, besides the fact that he is fabulous, is because Daniel won a sock monkey for me at the fair a couple of years ago.
TIP OF THE DAY: The scallop border punch cuts 5/16" off of your cardstock, so I added 3/8" to my normal mat dimensions to get the right amount of mat showing.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Sock Monkey, Heard from the Heart; Paper: Whisper White, Kraft, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise; Ink: Black StazOn, Close to Cocoa; Accessories: watercolor wonder crayons, paper snips, aquapainter, 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop border punch, Real Red striped grosgrain ribbon
Happy stamping!

Faux tearing

This week's workshop wow challenge is faux tearing. I've never tried this before, but it was a lot of fun! I'm not sure if this card is a wow, but the technique certainly is!
I started by sticking 2 long post-it notes together so they would be longer than my cardstock. Then I tore along the sticky edge, making sure the whole edge was still sticky. I used 2 more post-it notes to mask off the rest of the card. I stamped the Floral background with Old Olive ink onto my Certainly Celery base. For the next step, you are supposed to move the post-it note a little and then sponge to simulate the torn edge. Luckily for me, there was a blank area along the torn edge that did not get stamped, so all I had to do was sponge without even moving the post-it note!
Here's what it looks like after I removed all of the post-it notes. Pretty cool, huh? I wanted the rest of the card to be pretty simple, so I stamped the sentiment onto Very Vanilla cardstock with Old Olive ink and sponged it with Certainly Celery after I punched the corners. I adhered that to a layer of Pumpkin Pie and added 3 layers of Flower Fusion held in place with a brad from the Hodgepodge Hardware kit.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Floral, Heard from the Heart; Paper: Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery; Ink: Certainly Celery, Old Olive; Accessories: ticket corner punch, Flower Fusion, Styled Silver HPH
Happy stamping!

More vellum flowers plus directions!

Here is the card I made for this week's Workshop Wow demo challenge on SCS. We are doing summer re-runs for the next few weeks, and the challenge this week was to use vellum. I first saw this technique on a display board at the Milwaukee Regional, so I have no idea who created that beautiful card.
This works best with line image stamps. I stamped the images onto vellum cardstock with VersaMark ink and embossed with white EP. Then I flipped the vellum over and colored on the back to soften the colors. For this card, I used ink and a blender pen since I don't have In Color markers. The top flower is colored with Pink Pirouette with Riding Hood Red around the edges. The bottom flower is just Riding Hood Red. (I used markers on Wednesday's card.) Then I cut out the flowers. For both cards, I used a rhinestone brad to hold them together and then stuck a Stampin' Dimensional to the back of the brad. That way you don't see the Dimensional. You could also use a button for the center or something else that would cover the adhesive behind it. You might also be able to use a glue dot since the vellum has color on it, but I haven't tried that so I can't guarantee it!
For the rest of the card, I stamped both the flower stem and the sentiment in VersaMark and embossed with white EP. I did the sentiment after I'd adhered the flower so I could get it in the right place. I used the new scallop border punch on the right edge of the Kiwi Kiss cardstock and then added a white scalloped border. For that, I just used a strip of white cardstock longer than the Kiwi Kiss layer, lined up the scallops, adhered it and trimmed off the edges of the white.
I debated about adding some ribbon, but I couldn't figure out where it would go.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Doodle This, Heard from the Heart; Paper: vellum cardstock, whisper white, kiwi kiss, pink pirouette; Ink: VersaMark, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red; Accessories: white EP, Pretties kit, scallop border punch, blender pen

This is the back side of the vellum after I colored it.
This is the front. The white embossing really makes the colors pop! Notice that it doesn't matter if you color outside the lines because you are going to cut the flowers out. The only areas where it mattered was when I was using a different color on just certain parts like the centers of the flowers on the left.

Happy stamping!