FAUX DRY EMBOSSING

"Baroque Motifs" is such an elegant stamp set to work with--and ever so easy! On River Rock card stock, I stamped the swirly image with Old Olive ink, cleaned the stamp, and then stamped again with Whisper White Craft ink. The trick to faux dry embossing is to very slightly move the stamp over a bit when you overstamp with the white ink. Other SU products used to create this card are Elegant Eggplant card stock and ink, Boho Blossoms punch, slit punch, "Warm Words" stamp set, Antique Brass HodgePodge Hardware, large and small Oval punches, and an Ice Square Rhinestone brad. The layout for this card was totally CASE'd from another demonstrator with a couple of minor changes from me.

AN ACCIDENTAL SIMILARITY

This dragonfly card is one I made to send to one of my Demonstrator friends whom I swap with each week. You'll notice there isn't a lot of stamping on this card; instead, it's pretty much made up of doodles, punches, and bling. Whenever I reach for a punch, my mind just seems to relax because the "work" is being done for me. Love that! The second card is one that I made to send to my grandmother. She hasn't been feeling well since the first of the year, so I try to send a card to her from time to time. You know what a nice feeling it is when you send someone a card and then when you visit, you find the card on display in their home? Well, that's what it's like when I go to mamaw's! She doesn't just have the most recent card out where she can see it, she has a lot of my cards sitting around. Sometimes cards can take a lot of time and product, and you really don't mind that "investment" when you know that your creation will be appreciated--and kept. For mamaw's card, I used a non-SU stamp and a design that was 99.9% CASE'd. I know . . . shame on me . . . but I made someone's day a little brighter, so that makes it okay. Isn't it odd that these two cards--made for two special people at two different times--both have the same shades of color? Purely accidental!

Z-FOLD HEART POCKET

I've been seeing heart pockets all over the place and decided to try one today. For this project, I chose the "Spring Silhouettes" designer paper, which is very pretty! SU products used to create this card include Soft Sky and Wild Wasabi card stock, Metallic eyelets, Ice Rhinestone brads, Crop-a-Dile, "Stem Sayings" and "One of a Kind" stamp sets, Photo Corners punch, and Stampin' Dimensionals. The scalloped ovals were cut with Spellbinder's Nestabilities dies and the Wizard.

GLITTER, GLITTER EVERYWHERE!

I've been playing with glitter and LOVE that stuff! I'm having to learn as I go, but I can tell you a few things:

1) It's best to NOT pour the glitter onto your project (unless it's a huge project) because when you go to pour the leftover glitter back into the container, you end up losing (wasting) some of it because of its static tendency. I like to use a Q-tip (for lack of a better solution, yet undiscovered) to just drop a small amount of glitter where I want it and then just "sweep" it around onto the adhesive. Always remember: a little bit of glitter goes a looooonnnnnggggg way!

2) Which adhesive to use? Well, I've used mini glue dots for small glittered circles, and you want to be sure you don't handle the dot too much or it will lose its tackiness. SU's new Tombow Multi Purpose Adhesive works wonderfully! You can also sprinkle glitter onto Crystal Effects (you might can even stir it into the CE and brush it wherever you want it), and 2-Way Glue is always good. Sticky Strip is yet another option. Speaking of Sticky Strip, I will show you two projects I did using SU's brand new "Sticky Cut Letters." If you can imagine two 12x12 sheets of Sticky Strip that have been die cut with letters, numbers, and a couple of shapes, then you can imagine what the Sticky Cut Letters product is all about. They're awesome because all you do is choose the one you want, apply it to your project, peel off the red liner, and glitter, glitter, glitter!

3) Glittered projects are HARD to photograph, but that sparkly stuff REALLY takes a project to a new, exciting level!

In the photo above, I used the "Nursery Necessities" stamp set, and glittered the edge of the moon with Light Blue glitter from the "Fine Cosmo" stack. The punched star was also glittered, but I used Dazzling Diamonds and 2-Way Glue for that. BTW, the moon was adhered to the project with Stampin' Dimensionals, and the sailboat was outlined with a Going Gray marker.

The heart on this card came from the "Sticky Cut Letters," and I decided to try something different by using two colors (Orchid and Celery) from the "Fine Cosmo Glitter" stack. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! The sentiment is from the level 1 hostess set, "For a Friend" and the heart in the center of the flower was glittered with Tombow Multi Purpose Adhesive. This card also features Rhinestone Brads (Ice, square) and "From the Garden" (level 1 hostess set). I used a brayer to ink that huge floral background image and then placed the portions of the card that I wanted stamped directly onto the stamp.

The "b" on this card is another one of the "Sticky Cut Letters" that I glittered. I used the Turquoise glitter from the "Fine Cosmo" stack, and it is a BEAUTIFUL blue!!!! I can't say that I love this card, but I do love the "b".

So . . . if you learned anything from this post, it's that you can add glitter to your stampin' supplies, and you have choices of how to use it! As I make other discoveries or hear of other uses, I will be sure to pass them along. BTW, the ribbons used on this card are Tempting Turquoise 1/4" grosgrain and Kraft Taffeta, but the Kraft color is an almost exact match to Sahara Sand.

SU RUB-ONS

This past week, I received two Spellbinders' dies that I had ordered, one of which was "Flower Creations." OMG!!! This is a wonderful die! Just look at the layered flowers I created! I have all kinds of paper and card stock in my stamp room, so I grabbed a pad of DCWV paper and used five coordinating colors/patterns to make the cuts. Choosing which ones to use for the layers wasn't easy! In the center of the three flowers, I used a pink SU rhinestone brad, which is a perfect embellishment for them! While very little of this card is made with SU products, a very important detail is SU . . . the white "you make me smile" sentiment. It's one of the images on the "Eastern Elegance" sheet of rub-ons, which is one of the new products in the Spring/Summer Collection catalog. It's been a while since I used rub-ons, but this was easy-peasy! I just cut (from the sheet) the image that I wanted to use, peeled off the backing, placed the image where I wanted it to appear on my card, and used the craft stick to rub the top of the image. Voila! Instant image transfer! Sooooooo easy and such a nice look! In case you're wondering, each pack of SU rub-ons contains two sheets that are FULL of designs (images, sentiments, words, etc.) . . . one sheet of black rub-ons, and one sheet of white rub-ons. When January rolls around, these little gems will certainly be on my first order of the year.

A BEAUTIFUL THING

The only name I know of for this card design is "Bib." The circular cut-out was created with the Coluzzle. If you're beginning to think that I like that tool, then you are correct. This is actually the first design I've made with the brand new "A Beautiful Thing" stamp set and Bali Breeze Designer Series Paper. Other SU products used include Scallop Circle Punch, Rhinestone Brad, Designer Label Punch, Taken with Teal, Basic Black, and Pumpkin Pie markers, Pop-Up Glue Dot, Slit Punch, Blue Bayou Double Stitched Ribbon, Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White, and Old Olive card stock, and the 1-3/8" Circle Punch.

SO VERY . . . SORRY

I've been busy with chores today, but I had to take a moment to make a sympathy card. It's hard to tell from the picture, but I used the "rock & roll" technique with Soft Sky and River Rock Classic inks on the main stamped image. Layered on top of that is a Soft Sky accent punched with the Snow Blossom punch and embellished with one of those gorgeous little rhinestone brads. Card stock colors are Soft Sky, River Rock, and Whisper White.

IT'S A POINSETTIA THIS TIME!

It's another tag punch creation, although this one didn't get to be a snowflake. When I started on this one, my plan was to make two of them, emboss them with Iridescent Ice, and use them as a snowflake just as I did on the previous card. All was going well until I started pouncing the VersaMark ink on the first one. I had dropped the ink pad, which landed upside down, so I just lifted the bottom and started pouncing it on the first flake. OMG!!!! It was a metallic gold ink pad!!!! Yikes! I tried to wipe the gold ink off the snowflake, but it was still somewhat discolored. I wasn't sure what to do with the other half of the snowflake until I remembered that one of the Wintergreen designer papers had a poinsettia design! And this half of my snowflake, all glittery and ready to go, was a perfect fit! Unfortunately, my picture neither portrays the sparkle on this card or the true colors of the paper. BTW, "Merry Christmas" is silver embossed. I was hesitant to use the silver embossing powder on that light green paper, but it actually turned out well. The rhinestone brads, in my opinion, turned out to be a perfect finishing touch on this card! I would like to have added some ribbon, but I couldn't decide where to put it.

THESE ADDRESS BOOKS ARE ADDICTIVE!

This is the second address book, and you can see the Bind-It-All in this photo. The BIA was used to secure the book with the wire binding. This particular book features Stampin' Up!'s Prints Designer Series Paper (Soft Sky), a scalloped layer of Fall Flowers Designer Series Paper that was scalloped with the Corner Rounder Punch. Punches used to create the floral accent are the new Scallop Circle, 5-Petal Flower, and Spring Flowers. A Rhinestone Brad was placed in the center of the layered flowers. I used the Round Tab Punch to create the alphabetical tabbed dividers on the inside of the book just as I did in the first address book.

Brocade Coaster Box w/Dividers

The new Brocade Backgrounds paper is GORGEOUS!! I have been trying to put together a set of desk accessories for an upcoming class, and this coaster box was one of my first projects with the new designer paper. Because of the time it takes to make one of these jewels, this box will not be one of my class projects.

It hasn't been too long since I made my first coaster box, and it was a nightmare . . . or so I thought. I carefully covered the coasters with designer paper and gave them time to dry. I meticulously laced the coasters together with ribbon, being careful to not leave any twists in the ribbon, and then tied the ribbon tails into neat little bows (this sometimes required tying again and again and again). When that part of the detail was complete, I straightened my back and stood up to admire how this project was coming along. I think I even remarked to myself something about how simple this was! And then came the time to place a bottom on this coaster box I'd worked so hard on. Everyone said that Crystal Effects would do the trick, so that's what I used. Oh dear! After nearly gluing my fingertips to the bottom of the box and pushing, squeezing, cussing, and pushing some more to get the bottom lined up so the four sides would make contact with the bottom, I was certain that I had failed the last step of this project. In my frustration, I tossed the box across the room but then retrieved it because I might later find a way to salvage the decorated coasters or find another use for the box that I was sure would have no bottom. I muttered a final word (just a little four-letter word) and walked away. Sometime later, I was cleaning up the room from ALL the supplies I'd left out and I picked up the coaster box to toss it in the trash and just as it left my hand, headed for the trash can, I realized that the bottom was intact!!!! Could it really be????? Oh yes!!!!! A little Crystal Effects really goes a long way! I was in disbelief, but so excited, and that first coaster box now holds a few bottles of Stickles and hemp twine. The moral of the story is . . . never give up! ;-)