Tea Gift Set

This is just a quick post because I want to enter this photo in a challenge. Splitcoast gallery stopped uploading for me so here goes.

This is a double pocket bag; instructions from Splitcoast Stampers. The bookmark is created from a piece of cardstock longer than you can see, it is folded over in back and there are magnets between the folded section and the front.  This helps the bookmark stay inside the book.

RECIPE:
Paper: white confetti cardstock and scrapbook paper
Ink: not sure but probably either chocolate chip or stazon brown and close to cocoa
Stamps: Stampington except tiny coffee cup-unknown
Accessories: Basic Grey Magnets, brown grosgrain and satin ribbons, pink watercolour crayon, Prima flowers, rhinestones-unknown. All Products SU! unless otherwise noted.

Everyday Remembrance Card

This card is a real departure from my usual cards but that is why I like doing Splitcoast challenges. Makes me move beyond my pink and brown or celery with plums comfort zone.

  This card fulfills Colour Challenge 195 and Cat's Creations sketch challenge for blog candy. The card base is standard 4.25 x 5.5" black cardstock. From now on I am just going to call this a standard card base. The next layer is Sahara sand stamped with a background stamp in the same colour ink. TIP: For the best results using a background stamp, swipe the ink pad across it, then tap it as usual. Be careful to fully coat the stamp in ink. Leave the stamp upside down on your table; place your cardstock face down on the stamp. Use your brayer to push the cardstock against the stamp. If any of the background is not covered by the cardstock and the reverse will show, cover with scratch paper before brayering. If ink gets on your brayer, clean as you would a stamp wheel.

I distressed it with a Heidi Swapp distressing tool, the one that looks like a pink Pac-Man, and scissors. During that process the cardstock got wrinkled so I took advantage and crumpled it a bit more and inked the whole sheet. The folds get more ink than the valleys giving a nice texture. Can you tell I have been to Tim Holtz' site lately? I really loosely followed the sketch; the sentiment was supposed to go at the bottom, oh well. I placed two ribbons, the ivory and the gingham, across the whole card, to me this represented the line on the sketch that was supposed to be the seam between two papers. I wish the ribbon showed more but at least it gave me a place to tie in the other three ribbons. I cut the oval cardstock layers with Nestabilities, love those! and adhered them to the card with black foam tape.

The flowers are punched with the six petal SU! punch but I prefer odd numbers of petals so I clipped one out, hole punched the center with the 3/16" Crop-a-dile and smushed the flower until the petals came together. The Scrapper's Floss used to be medium brown but I didn't like that it was the only thing on the card that wasn't one of the featured colours; that might be OK if it was red or something, sort of an accent colour, but since it wasn't, it just looked strange. So I coloured it with a Copic marker. Ditto the gingham ribbon, used to be black and white, I coloured it ivory with a Copic. After I got all of that done, it still looked a bit empty at the bottom, so I added the chipboard swirl covered in the same vintage book page as the flower. I used CTMH files to make the paper fit in the small areas of the swirl; they are quite sharp, worked very well and were quite cheap. The edges of the swirl were distressed with a black Copic. I added two brads to the end of the swirl; I really like how that looks.

RECIPE:

Paper: vintage book page-unknown, Sahara sand, black and vanilla cardstock
Stamps: It's about time, Ephemera bkgd
Ink: Stazon, Sahara sand
Accessories: ivory ribbon-Masterstroke, scrapper's floss- Karen Foster, chipboard swirl- deluxe designs, E00 and black Copic markers, black gingham ribbon, black sheer ribbon, oval Nestabilities-Spellbinders, flower punch, black brads, black button, brayer     All of the above by SU! unless otherwise noted.

Grateful Card

This is one of my favourite cards of all time! I think it is elegant and well, really pretty. I hope you like it too. The colours of the card are more vibrant in real life. Sorry!

The base is close to cocoa 4.25" x 5.5", top fold. The next layer is Designer Series Paper (DSP) patterns in pink pirouette. Then comes a layer of chocolate dots from Bella Rosa DSP. The velvet ribbon I chose used to look pinker but the brown shows through and mutes the colour a bit, darn. I was going to use a soft, easy to tie ribbon and make a nice loopy bow or a soft tie but the ribbon I had was really wrinkled and I was too lazy to iron it. I was considering buying a ribbon iron when I remembered I have a mini iron I used for sewing so now I have to get that out. The wrinkling motivated me to start wrapping my loose ribbon on clothespins. I couldn't find the old-fashioned ones so I used the regular ones. The pearls are from the Pretties kit adhered with Crystal Effects. I couldn't decide if I should use two or three but I like it the way it is.

The final layers are cut with... drumroll please... my new Nestabilities! Woo hoo! I just love them. If you don't have them do anything, sell your... no, I was not going to say firstborn ;) stuff you aren't using on Ebay or Etsy.com to get these. The largest layer is chocolate chip followed by pink pirouette and white. Grateful is stamped in close to cocoa. The flower is coloured with Copics, I started with yellow on the flower petal tips and pink in the centers.

I was happy with it until I worked on choosing papers for the rest of the card. I had the mix I wanted all picked out, however, when I put the flower on top I didn't like it. The yellow was to bright even though I only used pale colours. So I used the colourless blender to push the colour out to the edges of the petals to soften it then added two more layers of pink. Now, I am happy with it. Thanks to Marianne of I Like Markers for the fabulous tips!

Thanks for visiting!

RECIPE               Stamps: Natural Beauty, Small Script     Ink: close to cocoa, Adirondack pitch black     Paper: pink pirouette cardstock and DSP, white, chocolate and cocoa CS, Bella Rosa DSP     Accessories: label one Nestabilities, ribbon unknown, Copic markers, pearls

NOTE: For future reference, I have a lot of Stampin' Up! supplies so everything is usually SU! unless I note otherwise, especially if the tag at the bottom reads Stampin Up products. I can't promise to be perfect, but my goal is to try and put the brand (or unknown) next to all other products!

For my real favourites, I will link the products to the manufacturer's website or an online store that carries the it. Hope the helps!

Thank You Card Box

This box features the stretchy ribbon belly band from the last post. I think I slid the belly band up a bit after taking this photo. I really enjoy making boxes, this one is really easy; it fits a set of 10 4.25"x5.5" cards and envies. I will post a how-to later. I cut the box lid according to my custom measurements then stamped the box lid with pretty in pink ink on pink pirouette CS with the word stamp from Natural Beauty. This has to be one of my favourite stamps of all time. Starting in the top left corner, I stamped it first horizontally, then vertically and repeated the pattern all over the box. This makes a great background, I have used it before on cards too. Then I assembled the box with red line tape. The box bottom is plain chocolate chip CS, you really do not see any of it anyway so I didn't stamp it. The tag is made from my NEW NESTABILITIES! Yeah! The lower layer is chocolate chip CS, the upper is whisper white. The stamp is one of the first I ever bought, from Hero Arts I think. I inked it in pretty in pink then traced over the center thank you in rose red. The ribbon is retired SU!, the pearl is from the Pretties Kit.

RECIPE                Stamps: Natural Beauty, thank you - Hero Arts    Paper: pink pirouette, chocolate chip and whisper white CS    Ink: pretty in pink, red rose marker    Accessories: silver cord (back of belly band, see previous post), Nestabilities Label One dies and Cuttlebug, Pearl from Pretties Kit, foam tape and red line tape both from Jody Morrow

Hope you enjoyed it!

Stretchy Ribbon Belly Band Tutorial

This is a great idea I thought of if I do say so myself. I love tying ribbon around boxes of cards I give as gifts but what to do if you want to replace the ribbon after opening the box? The ribbon is untied and what are the chances of tying it in exactly the same place so the wrinkles don't show? And while you and I might be able to tie the perfect bow, since you are giving a gift, will they be able to retie it? And who wants to tie and retie a bow every time you open a box anyway? So I came up with the idea of attaching cord to the ribbon at the back of the box so it can easily slide on and off, the bow staying tied! (Post for the box pictured to follow)

Step 1: Tie the perfect bow on your item. Trim the tails, do anything else you want like add other embellishments to the bow etc.

Step 2: Cut the ribbon at the back, yep, cut it right in half. Being exact isn't important. If your ribbon is polyester or nylon (most is unless it is real silk or cotton like twill tape) you might want to heat set it with your heat gun so it can't ravel. Normally ribbon like this doesn't ravel too badly because it is usually cut at an angle but this time it is cut straight across.

Step 3: Apply a thin bead of glue to the edge of the ribbon. Fold the ribbon over. VERY IMPORTANT do not allow the glue to fill the space, you need a loop for the cord to go through. see photo. Use small binder clips to keep the ribbon edges together while the glue dries. (sorry, I had a photo of this but it was blurry, new camera and all, still figuring it out!)

Step 4: Place the bow on your box. Thread stretchy cord through the loops and tie. If your box is cardstock, be careful not to pull the elastic cord too tightly. You can see mine is a wee bit to tight in the last photo.