Friday, April 23, 2021

Stampin Friends 2021 April Blog Hop--All About the Flowers


Welcome! 

Once a month my Stampin Friends and I create cards and 3-D projects following a theme and share them in a Blog Hop. I am so glad you are here! If you are following the blog list, you may have come from Maureen's blog.  Click on Stephanie's name below to continue "hopping."

     This month's theme focuses on a passion of mine:  All About the Flowers!  I thought this would be easy.  Not so!!!  I have many flower stamps (iris, sunflowers, roses, daisies, Queen Anne's lace, etc.).  Because I love them all, choosing one was a dilemma until I saw the Pansy Patch Bundle in the new Stampin' Up! 2021-2022 Annual Catalog. (As a demonstrator, I am able to preorder and create projects before the actual date the catalog goes into effect.) Products in the new catalog will be available for sale May 4, 2021.  The stamps and dies can be used in many different ways to create pansies.  I have shown three ways to make them in my projects.  

     Pansies have always been a favorite flower. When I was five, I saw some pretty flowers (pansies) in my mom's garden.  I picked all of them and took the bouquet to her.  She was a little surprised to see her pansies in my hand. She was more than a little surprised to see how few were left in the pansy patch!  Luckily, they quickly flowered again.  
     Pansy pots are always the first burst of spring color on my deck.  Here in Montana we never know when spring is really here.  Two days ago we woke to two inches of snow on the ground.  Even in cold conditions, pansies are tough--they can freeze solid overnight and be as perky as ever by noon! Here's a pot I planted a couple of days ago:


I can't wait until they fill the pot!

I have a customer whose mother loves to send out cards to family and friends.  Because the mother is home bound, she can't shop for cards.  For her mother's birthday, my friend wants to give her mother a gift box containing cards, envelopes, and stamps. She asked for my help.

With some inspiration from fellow demonstrator Connie Stewart, here's what I came up with: 
a greeting card "book box" filled with ready-to-send cards. The box opens like a book and has two pockets inside for stamps, cards, and envelopes.  

Front of greeting card box.  
These pansies were made using only the die cuts that came in the Pansy Bundle.

Two inside pockets 
Theses pansies were were double stamped with images from the stamp set.  The greetings are from the Hello Dear Friend Card Kit.

I enclosed four pansy cards and decorated envelopes.  Here are closeups of the four cards:



These pansies and leaves were die cut  from images found on the Designer Series Paper that coordinates with the Pansy Bundle.

Greeting Card Box 
Measurements:
Cover:  6" x 10-5/8" Score 4-3/4" from each end.
1. Trim the cardstock to the size indicated.  
2. Score.  
3. Set aside.

Inside Pockets:  6-1/2" x 11"  
With the 11" side at the top, score  at 1/2", 5", 6", 10-1/2"
With the 6-1/2" side at the top, score at 3" and 3-1/2"
Cut in half at 5-1/2" to make two pockets that are 
5-1/2" x 6-1/2"

1. Cut and score according to the directions.
2. Miter the middle tabs (red in the template).
3. Adhere double sided adhesive to flaps (blue in the template). 
4.  To put the box together, make sure the little mitered tabs are sandwiched between the sides of the pocket.  (Hint:  Slide an ink pad into the pocket to make the pocket more secure during the construction.
5.  Leave the ink pad in the pocket, add adhesive to the back of the pocket, and place it in the cover so that box is flush with the score line and the bottom.  DO NOT GLUE THE SIDE OF THE POCKET TO THE SPINE OF THE "BOOK" COVER, ONLY THE BACK OF THE POCKET. 

In addition to the four cards in the box, I also made this card:
I made these pansies by cutting out white card stock petals with the die cuts and then sponging them.  The color combinations and techniques for creating pretty pansies are endless! In your comments below tell me which pansies you like best. 

These are the names and links for my talented Stampin' Friends.  Click on their links to see their wonderful flower projects.  Please feel free to comment at the bottom of each blog.  We love to see what people think of our creations!

Friday, March 26, 2021

Stampin Friends 2021 Blog Hop--Monochromatic March

 



Happy Spring to all!  Once a month some of my stamping friends and I share some special projects:  a card and a 3-D item following a theme.  This month was all about choosing a favorite color and creating projects with just that color.  I can't wait to see what my friends have made!  If you are following the list of bloggers, you may have seen  Teri's wonderful creations.  I hope you will click on Maureen's name in the list of bloggers at the end of my post.  Comments at the end of the blogs are always appreciated!

 *****

I chose shades of blue (Night of Navy, Misty Moonlight, and Seaside Spray) for my card and treat box.  



I created the ombre background with a stencil and a blender brush.

A stamped greeting, a spray of blue flowers, and some pearls completed the card. The small strawberry flowers are found in  the Sweet Strawberry stamp set and punched with the Strawberry Maker Punch.

The larger flowers are found in the Free as a Bird stamp set.  I "fussy cut" them.

The leaves are part of the            Forever Flourishing die set.










In the course of organizing my craft room, I came across some old stencils!!  I had forgotten how fun it was to create backgrounds with stencils.  I used temporary tape to hold the cardstock in place, placed the stencil over it, and adhered the stencil with washi tape.  Then I applied the three blue colors with a blender brush.  Love, love, love the blender brushes for this technique!








I put more flowers on the inside.






****

Here's the matching treat box made with the Love You Always Treat Boxes.  There are ten ready-to-make boxes in the package.  4-1/16" x 2-11/16" x 1-1/2" (10.3 x 6.8 x 3.8 cm)








There are two pieces for each box.  The square piece opens to make a belly band to slide over the box after it's filled.
The photo on the right shows the assembled box and its belly band before decorating.
Before I assembled the box,  I stamped some small flowers from the Sweet Strawberry stamp set on the top, bottom, and sides in the three colors.  



I made another belly band to wrap around the belly band with night of navy cardstock for a mat and a strip of stenciled basic white cardstock. It's fun to add a little message in the bottom of the box to be found by the recipient when the box is empty of treats.  
 

There are so  many possibilities to fill these boxes and share a treat with someone special!

Here's a close up view of the top of the treat box. I used the same blue and white flower spray that I made for the card.




Thanks for stopping by.  To see more amazing projects, click on the names below to see what my crafty friends have created this month.






Here are some of the products I used.  To purchase an item from my online "store", click on the name of the product.














Friday, February 26, 2021

Stampin Friends February Blog Hop--Brighten Your Day!

 


Welcome!  The theme for our blog hop this month is 
Brighten Your Day.  
My Stampin Friends and I  are a group of worldwide paper crafters who share their creations every fourth Friday of the month.  There's so much amazing and inspiring creativity in this group!  I am always excited when our blog hop rolls around, and I get to see what everyone has made. If you are following along the hop, you have arrived from Katja's blog.  If you get lost along the way, you can find a list of Blog Hoppers at the end of each blog.  We love it when you leave  comments for us.

Nothing brightens my day more that seeing or talking to my two teenage grandsons!  Sadly, we don't see them as often as we'd like since they live in another state.  I have been making special cards for them since they were born.  This stamp set has just the right type of sentiments for my grandsons' cards.  

I made this card to brighten the day of my 13 year old grandson when he "graduates" 8th grade at the end of the school year.  He's a boy who loves a lot of bling, so I went with silver stars and silver heat embossing to brighten the card.

I had a lot of fun with the inside of the card: more silver embossing, pop up stars, and glimmer stars.


To make the stars pop up, I cut little strips of card stock and then folded them to look like a Z.  One end of the Z was adhered to the star and the other to the card.
 I love those stitched stars!

"No amount of money could EVER
show HOW MUCH I love you...
But here's some ANYWAY" 
was the perfect sentiment from the stamp set for this month's 3-D project. 
Teenagers are hard to buy for, but nothing brightens their day more than cash.  We have had a running joke since one of them sniffed my envelope and said with a grin, "Hmmm....is that the smell of money?" I always try to find different ways to package their cash.  His cash gift is hidden inside a decorated mini paper pumpkin box.  Here's the box:



Hidden under a pile of "fake" money is a wallet which has the "real" money in it.  


Here's the wallet:



How to make the wallet:
Card stock cut at 3-1/4" x 9"
Score at 3-1/8, 3-5/8, 6-3/4, 7-1/4
To create the wallet point,  cut from 3/4" on each side slanting towards the middle
I used a small Velcro circle to close the wallet.







To make the wallet inserts you will need four pieces of 6 x 6 designer series paper. For each one:
1.  Score each 6" x 6" piece of designer series paper at 3"
2.  Rotate the paper 90 degrees and score at 1-3/4" from each side.
3.  Burnish all the score lines for a crisp fold.


                                                                               
4.  Turn the paper over and fold in one of the 1-3/4" flaps.
5.  Apply adhesive along the edge of the folded flap. Then fold the other flap in on top of the adhesive. 


6.  Fold along the 3" score line bringing the top and bottom together like so:


7.  Open it back up and apply adhesive along the middle of the top half then  bring the bottom half back up and secure the them.
Here's how it looks now:

8.  When all four of these are done, you need to adhere them to each other by applying adhesive down the middle of one side, keeping the bottoms even,  secure another pouch piece to the first:

9.  Keep going until all four pouch pieces are attached.  You will have 8 little pouches to fill with cash--real or fake! 
10.  Adhere the pouches to the wallet on the section closest to the point.
 
Thanks for stopping by.  Don't forget to leave me a comment and continue on to Steph's blog. 

These are the Stampin' Up! products I used:  Clicking on the product name will take  you to my online store.  Thanks for shopping with me!