TBT Punches and Stamps

I have always been a Taz fan and it just so happens that my niece celebrated her fourth birthday in Taz style.  I was fun to use my Taz punch and my Taz stamps.

Created in 1999

I used the colors from the invitation and thank you notes and included them in the layout.  The Taz stamps were colored with colored pencils and blended with a Dove Blender pen.  This is a fun memory and a cute layout of my niece who is now 20!

This is one layout that shows how much styles have changed over the years!

Eureka a CuTe Valentine

I had more fun creating another card from the “Perfect Chemistry” set from Your Next Stamp.   It is also designed to go along with YNS current color theme, using Garnet, Java and white.  Love the ideas the YNS Design Team has, and the design of the stamp lends to very similar designs for their sets! 

The mad scientist (looks a bit like Albert Einstein!) is stamped in Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black and is colored with Chameleon pens in CG8 Cool Gray, NU1 Bisque, and RD4 Red.  These pens are SO EASY to use with these smaller images.  The “Eureka” sentiment is stamped in Tsukineko  Versa Magic Cloud White, heat embossed with white embossing powder, and die cut with Impression Obsession Tiny Tags.  The Chalkboard card stock by Die Cuts With a View is die cut with Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create 2B.  The “CuTe” sentiment is stamped with Tsukineko StazOn Opaque Cotton White.  It really looks like a very neat chalkboard drawing!  Most Chemistry professors do not write this neatly on the board!  The die cut images are adhered with dimensional foam adhesive.  The background red card stock is trimmed 4 ¼” x 5 ½” and is pressure embossed with Sizzix Heart and Dots embossing folder and the corners are rounded.  Tsukineko  Versa Magic Cloud White is swiped over the embossed areas to help them pop a bit.   The card base is white card stock trimmed to  6” x 9” and folded in half before rounding the corners and adhering the layers. 

This card is entered into the following challenges:

Your Next Stamp Color Challenge #6

Brown Sugar #130 Valentines

Time Out Challenges #23 Valentine’s with hearts

Eureka Stamps #125 Hearts

That Craft Place Valentine

Cheerful Stamp Pad

Retro Rubber Blog Challenge #06, Birthday Wishes

We are in the second week of our sketch challenge at Retro Rubber Challenge Blog, and this

is my interpretation of the sketch.

I decided to work with just one set of stamps (Inkadinkado Birthday Wish), inks, and embossing powder to create this Birthday card.  This set has been in my stash for a few years, and has seen limited use, but got a little love this go around!

 I started with white card stock trimmed to 7” x 8” and folded it in half.  The stars border image was stamped in Tsukineko Memento Luxe Teal Zeal and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.   (Note that all of the images are heat embossed with clear embossing powder, it made the colors more vivid!)  A strip of white card stock trimmed to 1” x 7” is stamped with the party image in Tsukineko Memento Luxe Love.  Only parts of the letters show when the card is assembled.   

The edges are inked one at a time and also heat embossed.  The next layer is 3 ¼” x 6 ½”The sentiment layer is stamped in Tsukineko Memento Luxe Pear Tart, Love Letter, Teal Zeal, and Dandelion.  The candles are carefully inked in sections.  The sentiment has the “birthday” inked hand drawn in with pen to help it stand out more.   The edges are also inked on this layer.  The present was stamped in both Love Letter and Teal Zeal, and the party hat was stamped in Pear Tart.  Both images were fussy cut.  The card is assembled with the sentiment layer and the embellishment adhered with dimensional foam adhesive. 

 

This card was sent off to my nephew for his January birthday coming up next week.  Happy birthday Chace!   

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Red Rubber Inspirationals #206 Focused on Stamping

A Gem of a Challenge #136-Birthday Card for a Boy
Scrapbook Stamp Society-Happy Birthday

Loving You is so Easy Valentine

Time to play with the Valentine’s Day stamps!  I went back to my stamping roots to create this card with minimal supplies.  The sketch is from the current Unity Stamps Sketch challenge, rotated to fit the stamp set.

All of the stamps are from the Unity Love Is set.  The heart background stamp was stamped three times across the card face in Tsukineko Versa Mark ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  BazzInk Maraschino is swiped over the surface of the card, and a baby wipe is used to remove the ink from the surface of the embossed background.  This technique also gave the card a watercolor feel!  The word heart image is stamped in Tsukineko StazOn Jet Black over the top of the heart embossed background.  I was pleasantly surprised at how nicely the image stamped.  Another scrap of card stock is inked with Maraschino, and stamped with Tsukineko Memento Luxe Tuxedo Black and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  The sentiment was die cut with Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create 2B to create a neat rounded square.  Two edges are inked and embossed at a time to finish the sentiment.  Searching the stash I found a bit of vinyl “ribbon” with a black pattern to complete the card.  The sentiment is adhered with dimensional foam adhesive.   

This card is entered into the following challenges:

Unity Stamps Sketch Challenge #26

Brown Sugar #130 Valentines

Red Rubber Inspirationals Inspiration Focus on Stamping #204

Wags 'n Whiskars #146 Hearts

Time Out Challenges #23 Valentine's Day with Hearts

You've Got Chemistry

Valentine’s Day is now less than three weeks away . . . so time to make a few cards and get them in the mail!

 

I recently found a new stamp company, Your Next Stamp that has cute stamps that I actually like!  You may have noticed I don’t really do cute, but the big draw on this set was the fact that I am a Chemistry teacher!  This set is called “Perfect Chemistry”.

This card was inspired by the sketch at Sketch Saturday, along with the color choices at Color Throw Down of bright pink, light pink, blue, and green.

The bright pink card stock is by Core’dinations, the other colors are all from my stash and the manufacturer is unknown.  The bright pink and green card stock was pressure embossed with Sizzix Hearts and Dots.  The bright pink was sanded lightly and the green was inked with Tsukineko Versa Magic Cloud White.  Spellbinders Standard Circle Large and Nested Pennants die cut the light pink card stock.  All of the images were stamped in Tsukinkeo Memento Tuxedo Black.  The test tube was colored with Chameleon Pens Grass Green and the Erlenmeyer flask was colored with Royal Blue.  The heart die is from the Project Life die set.  Another item from my stash is the mesh ribbon.   The card is assembled and the top layers are adhered with dimensional adhesive foam dots.   

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday Week 345 

Color Throw Down #326
Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps #146 Hearts
Cut It Up  #63 Embossing
 

Cousins & the Red Hat Society

Still on a roll with the scrapping!  This layout started with the Tic Tac Toe challenge over at Scrappy Friends Challenges.  

Shopping my stash was blast for this layout.  The embossed lavender card stock was spritzed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Purple.  The red card stock was cut into a scalloped circle shape with the Creative Memories cutting system.  The dark purple card stock (Color Mates) was punched with a Martha Stewart boarder punch.  A strip of white handmade paper from Costco was torn with a plaid deckle ruler to back the hand gathered ribbon.  Two strips of Zips adhesive lines secured the ribbon and the Recollections Red sequins ribbon.  The photos were backed with the purple card stock and the title was die cut with Quickutz Blossom font.  The journaling was written on the computer and printed on Glama Natural Velum, die cut with Heartfelt Creations Cut Mat Create 1B die, and inked with BazzInks in Pansy.  The final touches are a few vellum stamps found in my stash and Martha Stewart Hydrangea stickers.

I completed the following Tic Tac Toe rows:  vertical row of sequins, ink, and border punch; and horizontal row of sequins, 2+ photos, and die cuts.  

I am pleased to say that this layout is the January Challenge Tic Tac Toe winner at Scrappy Friends Challenge!  Thank you!  

Fashion Statement, or Yes, I had to Scrap This!

Yes, I had to scrap this! My husband thinks these photos are absolutely hilarious, and loves that I have created this page for all three of our kids, yes I completed this layout in triplicate.  Our boys had been home just six weeks or so when their big sister decided to help them dress up!

I’ve been the card making mode for awhile be decided to switch gears and get back to scrapping some pages for the kid’s albums.  Since I have a huge stash and no LSS I really need to start using some stuff up.  I headed over to Scrap Our Stash and used the January challenge as a jump start to start a plan.

I ended up with the following options for the TWINE challenge:

T for textile and texture

W for washi tape

I for ink

N for Netting

E for eyelets, and embossing both pressure and heat versions

I started with Technique Tuesday’s Scalloped Textile circle and dyed them with Adirondack Brights Alcohol Ink in Sunshine Yellow and Sunset Orange.  The circle centers are Spellbinders Standard Circles Small with one Classic Scalloped Circles Large.  The sentiments and flourishes are stamped in Tsukineko Memento Luxe Tuxedo Black and clear embossing powder.  (Technique Tuesday-Whirly Gigs, Scrapbook It; Autumn Leaves-Golden Moments by Maryanne Wise, Funky Flowers; Fiskars-Layer Away Dots)

The base of the layout is Wausau Textures card stock in black, followed by lavender card stock (unknown), Core’dinations pink card stock pressure embossed with Darice Large Petal Background, Karen Foster Doodle Flowers printed paper, and unknown netting in purple. 

The washi tape is by Recollections.  Unfortunately most of my eyelets are not labeled so I have no clue to manufacturer any of the fun flower eyelets on this really fun layout.  It is not often I will put flowers on a layout for my boys.

Guest Designer at Crafting By Designs--Masculine Get Well Card

I am honored to be a guest designer over at Crafting By Designs.  It is fun to share my love of paper crafting with their wonderful team and blog readers.   The theme for the challenge this week is “Under the Weather” or “Get Well”.

My uncle recently had open-heart surgery and is still recovering in the hospital.  It seemed appropriate to make a masculine get-well-card that references his gears not working as well as they should.  I had a little fun with all of the gear related stamps and dies in my stash and played with a faux rust technique for the die cut gears.

 I started with light grey card stock trimmed to 6” x 8” for a card base which was folded in half and rounded at the corners.  I used dies from the Heartfelt Creations’ Cut Mat Create collection to create layers in the card.  Selected dies from HCD 1A and 2B were die cut from dark grey card stock and the two largest were stacked and the window was die cut through both layers at the same time.  The edges of the layers are inked in Tsukineko StazOn Saddle Brown. 

The sentiment is Sassafras Mini Robotics alpha along with a Scrappy Cat question mark and is stamped in Colorbox Deep Green.  The gear stamps are by:  Sassafras--I Hear Robots, Technique Tuesday--Borderline Industry, and Fiskars--Teresa Collins All Boy.  The card base layer is stamped in Tsukineko Encore Ultimate Metallic Champagne.  The dark grey layers are stamped in Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black.

The die cut gears are Spellbinders Sprightly Sprockets, Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Gadget Gears and Mini Gears.  I die cut lightweight chipboard and inked each with Tsukineko Encore Ultimate Metallic Champagne.  I used Suze Weinberg’s Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) in Gold and Bronze.  It is best if you sprinkle one color of UTEE on and tap off the excess, then add the second color of UTEE.  (I didn’t want to make a large amount of party mix.)  I purposely heated the UTEE just until is melted and did not try to get a smooth look on the gears.  To distress them a bit more I inked the edges with Tsukineko StazOn Saddle Brown.

The card was assembled with dimensional foam dots and glue dots to hold the gears in place between the various layers.

Retro Rubber Challenge Blog, Sketch Challenge

We have a fun new sketch to work with for the next two weeks at Retro Rubber Challenge Blog.   

The rules are simple:

• Use older stamps. We suggest stamps older than 1 year. 
• Follow the challenge given for the time period.
• Post your creation to your blog or online gallery.  If you use an online gallery, please use the Keyword  RRBC06
• Link back to the blog post using the InLinkz by the January 30th. 
• Enter as many times as you like.

Our Top Five Favorites - The Fab Five, will be posted on Sunday, February 1st. Our Winner will have the option to play along with a future challenge!

Your First Snowman in the US

My boys have been home for a while from Russia, and I continue to scrap some of our early experiences as a family.   These photos were taken just five weeks after joining our family.

I created a layout for each of the boys’ scrapbooks, and they are exact duplicates.   I started with a dark blue card stock base and used a Martha Stewart edge punch to make a snowflake border, which is layered on white card stock.  I added a paper ribbon from Little Black Dress Designs between the blue card stock and the snowflake paper.  The snowflake paper is from my stash. 

The Snowman is a Sizzix die, Snowman Two and is die cut in a variety of papers.  I used black brads for the buttons.  The snowflakes are a mix of McGill punches and Spellbinders Create a Flake Three.  They are die cut from white and blue vellum, and are pressure embossed.   The title is a  Quickutz font, Ginger die cut from white card stock.

This was a special day for the boys, and deserved a special layout to celebrate the joy of the day.

This layout is entered into the following challenges:

Scrap It Girl Snowflakes

Crafting By Designs Snowman

Great Impressions Snow Friends

Rose and Olive Sympathy Card

A long time member of our church passed away last week, his home going was quick but not totally unexpected.  This card is for his lovely wife.

I started with two challenges, Pals Paper Arts! Sketch PPA #236 and Designs Rubber Stamps Color Challenge using Lovely Rose as a color palette.

The sentiment by Unity stamps is stamped in Colorbox Deep Green on a light rose colored card stock.  The sentiment is die cut and pressure embossed with Spellbinders Labels Twenty-five. 

A light olive card stock is stamped in Colorbox Deep Green with a flourish from the Fancy Pants Pollen Dust collection.  This acrylic stamp has been in my collection for many years and has finally seen some ink!  It is what is called Never Before Used Schtuff or NBUS.  Glad I found this challenge, because I will now make it a mission!  

Maybe one of the reasons I have never used it is because the image is larger than my largest acrylic block.   So I used a thin acrylic sheet I had handy and it seemed to work just fine.  A deeper olive card stock is layered over the pink petal marbled card base.

There are a number of flowers languishing in my stash so I pulled a few out to make accents of layered flowers with crystal centers.  The curved edge of the Labels Twenty-five reminded me of the Basic Grey Notch and Die Cutting tool, which I used to cut a curved slot to thread the ribbon through the sentiment label.  I used ribbon from my ribbon stash (probably Ofray) in two colors to finish the card. 

This card is entered into the following challenges:

Pals Paper Arts! #236

Designs Rubber Stamps Lovely Rose Colors Challenge

Sister Act Anything Goes

4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #229 Flowers

And the fun new challenge I found

Djkarddreations: NBUS Challenge #3

TBT Crossroads Layout

One project every scrapbooker should consider creating for herself (himself too) is an “All About Me” album.  We so often scrap our loved ones, and often do not even end up in the photos.  I hope you make a concentrated effort to be in the photos of an event, I hand the camera to one of the kids so quality sometimes isn’t great!

This layout is done for a 11” x 8 ½” landscape style Pioneer album.  It was a prize at a crop and has a purple cover, which just happens to be my favorite color.  When I started on my All About Me album I tried to locate additional page protectors, but was not able to purchase any more.  So this will be a small album, I have a few more layouts to complete the album.

Crossroads 4/2009

Created in spring of 2009 for a challenge on a private forum, the theme of the layout is Crossroads.  It details the crossroad of being a long-time single woman to marrying my husband at 45.  This was a major, but much welcomed change in my life.  Just 6 months after I completed the layout, our family changed dramatically with the adoption of our two boys.   Our blog, Journey of Joy, chronicles the process and the first months the boys were home. 

The card stock is My Mind’s Eye 29^th Street collection.  I layered pre-made flowers and added jeweled centers and leaves.  Along the bottom edge I punched paper with Fiskars edger punch and added a bit of sheer ribbon.  The titles are die cut with Quickutz Ginger font.  Our wedding photo was printed at specialty photo printer that allowed you to add digital frames.  This was before I learned how to do it on my own with PhotoShop Elements.  

Enjoy, and go create something that is ALL ABOUT YOU!

Retro Rubber Challenge Blog, Use your Crimper!

There is still time to participate in the  newest challenge over at Retro Rubber Challenge Blog:

The rules are simple:

• Use older stamps. We suggest stamps older than 1 year. 
• Follow the challenge given for the time period.
• Post your creation to your blog or online gallery.  If you use an online gallery, please use the Keyword  RRBC05
• Link back to the blog post using the InLinkz by the January 16th. 
• Enter as many times as you like.

Our Top Five Favorites - The Fab Five, will be posted on Sunday, January 18th. Our Winner will have the option to play along with a future challenge!

My DT contribution, a fun layout can be found here in this post, Oshkosh Favorites.

New Beginnings at Anything But a Card Challenge

For Anything But a Card New Beginnings challenge I decided to re-purpose a mailing box and several cardboard tubes to hold my crafting mats.  Several years ago I made a re-purposed a 3” x 5” file box to hold my sketches that would look pretty while sitting on my craft table. This is the Sketch File Box that I completed in 2009.  

 Meanwhile my collection of craft mats were rolled and stored in cardboard tubes . . . nothing pretty about that!  So with a little bit of ingenuity I came up with this finished product.  

I started with a small priority mail box, but any box will do.  It just needs to be wide enough to accommodate the cardboard tubes.  The tubes are re-purposed from wrapping paper or from paper towel rolls and trimmed to fit the interior of the box.  I still had some of the Basic Grey Lucky left in my stash, so it was very easy to match the new craft mat holder to the existing sketch file box. 

 I started by determining the size of holes to cut in one end and used my old school Coluzzle template and swivel craft knife to cut through the cardboard.  Each of the edges of the box were inked with Colorbox Berrylicious. The paper is cut to the exact dimensions and adhered to the exterior of the box with Plaid Mod Podge.  The box was still flat at this point. 

Circles were cut in the flap where the holes were, but are smaller to allow a bit of paper to be tucked down into the tubes.  The paper is clipped, similar to the sewing technique, to allow for the curve.  Tacky tape was carefully placed on the inside of the tube and the tube was attached.  This wasn’t quite finished enough for me, so I also put a strip of paper around the top of the tube (not shown). 

My box was about the same width as the tubes, so I adhered the tubes to both sides of the box as I assembled the box into a closed position.  I used a bit of gesso to fill in the gaps and had to wait FOREVER for it to dry!  The gesso and edges were inked again.  A few more layers of Plaid Mod Podge, and the Craft Mat Storage was ready for my desk. 

 

Here it is on my messy desk next to the Sketch File Box.  Now I notice that the edges of the Sketch File Box have faded to white instead of the pretty purple they once were. 

 

Thank you for stopping by and please come on over and join the fun at Anything But a Card.  The theme is "New Beginnings" and can be re-purposed, or some other art form that references a new beginning!   

A Thank You with Hearts

Today was a busy day, but I decided it was time to have a little crafting fun and play along with a few challenges.  Although I did spend most of the day watching wrestling, this card was quick and easy to put together.  The Color Throwdown ctd 324 and Techno Stamper TSSC 348 provided the inspiration to get started.

The deep red color reminded me of the Hygloss Velour Paper that has been in my stash for at least 18 years.  Perfect for pressure embossing with Cuttlebug’s Bit of Paisley accent strip.  High gloss black card stock was a nice contrast and was trimmed to 4 7/8” x 6 3/8”.  The sentiment is from the Fancy Pants set Pollen Dust and is stamped in Tsukineko Memento Luxe Tuxedo Black on white card stock and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder.  The embossing powder gave a nice gloss finish to match the high gloss black card stock.   The sentiment has a heart in the center, so I decided to use a mini heart brad over the image and as the accents in the sketch.  The sentiment is die cut with Spellbinders Fancy Tags and is adhered with dimensional foam adhesive.  The card is assembled on a Halcraft 6-Bar white card. 

 It is difficult to see how pretty the embossed velour paper looks without a close-up!

This card was inspired by and entered in the following challenges:

Techno Stamper TSSC 348

Color Throwdown ctd 324

Hiding In My Craftroom #182 Just Use Scraps (all but the 6-Bar card)

Crafting By Designs Anything Goes January Monthly Challenge

This card was selected as a winner at:
Techno Stamper TSSC 348
Thank you!

Throw Back Thursday Magnetic Memo Boards

Wow, it is Thursday and not a holiday!  Time for a new Throw Back Thursday post, to review past projects made before I started blogging.  In 2010 I created a few personalized magnetic memo boards for my nieces and sis-in-law.  I made a total of five, but did not photograph the first two before I sent them off.  (Oops!)

For each I started with a 12” x 12” galvanized metal sheet that I rounded the corners and drilled holes in for a more finished look.  Plaid Mod Podge in matte finish layered the decorative papers in place.  A combination of patterned papers, stamping, stencils, decorative scissors, and punches were used to decorate the layers.  

I painted chipboard letters with Making Memories Scrapbook Colors paint.  I still have a large collection of paint colors and it is perfect for painting on paper or chipboard.  Pam and Larissa’s letters were finished with stamped images in StazOn Cotton White.  Rachael’s letters covered in the same paper as the Tim Holtz music staff stencil at the bottom of her board . . . it was the first try with the stencil repurposed to decorate the letters.  Each letter has small ceramic magnets so the name letters can also be used to hold things to the board.  A jewelry grade adhesive, E6000 glue held the magnets in place.  

The flower magnets were assembled and adhered to ceramic magnets.   The glass baubles have decorative paper adhered with Mod Podge to the back-side, then they are attached to ceramic magnets.  Each board is finished with a coordinating ribbon. 

I used this same idea here for Keys to a Good Life MemoBoard.   Thanks for stopping by!  

Retro Rubber Challenge Blog 05, Use Your Crimper!

Our rules are very simple!  Use your Retro Rubber first of all and incorporate your Crimper in this project.  We suggest stamps that have been in your stash at least a year.  The blog will fill you in on the particulars HERE.

 

Now that we are past the holiday season, and I don’t have many birthdays to plan for it is time to get back to scrapping a few layouts.  My son picked these photos out to share with his class last year and they have gone begging, so this was a perfect opportunity to scrap a layout and use my Fiskars crimper! 

Back in the day before pressure embossing folders we had brass stencils and light boxes to add design and texture or the crimper.  The crimper adds a corrugated cardboard look to a simple piece of card stock.

After a little experimenting, and looking at a strip of paper on my crafting table I decided on the design you see here.  

Close up detail

 

How to:

1.     Trim strips of card stock 1 ¼” x 4 ¼”.  I started with five of each color, but ended up cutting one more of each to complete the design.

2.     Crimper the card stock at a 45-degree angle.

3.     Cut four strips of double-sided adhesive tape that has a protective paper on one side to 12 ½”; I used Pioneer Photo Memory Mounting Tape.  Place at ¼”, 1 ¾”, 2 ¼’, and 3 ¾” (or in the positions shown below) and use magnets to hold in place on a magnetic mat.  

4.     Alternate card stock colors, butting up edges as shown.  Because the crimper shapes the paper, it will no longer be square.  Take care to line the corners to allow a straight edge when trimmed.

5.     Trim the excess adhesive tape with scissors.  Using a very sharp Xacto blade and a metal ruler, trim the edges to a straight line.  Trim into two strips that are 12” long each.

6.      If you are CASing this design I would suggest 14 ½” adhesive strips.

7.     Stamp sentiments (Scrappy Cat Inspirations) in Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black and trim to size, and ink edges. 

8.     Journal as desired, I choose to print the journaling on my computer, trim and ink egdes.

9.     Place elements on the layout and determine placement of title.  Stamping directly on the layout can be challenging, but remember there is always the other side of the card stock if you do not like the first result!  The font is Recollections Distressed Double Alphabet.  I stamped the “Favorites” first then centered the “Oshkosh” above it using a centering ruler.

10. Adhere layout elements, and sign the back!  I started doing this when I first started scrapping for my boys after they came home from Russia just over 5 years ago.  

Please do come and join us at Retro Rubber Challenge Blog and play along with your unloved stamps and crimper tool!