Tutorial for Making Your Own Patterned Paper

From Adriel:

Today I wanted to share a quick and easy tutorial with you on how to make your own patterned paper using rubber stamps, ink, sponging and color spritzing! Next time your needing some background paper or printed paper of some sort, use the supplies you have and put them to good use!

You will need the following supplies to make the paper I will be showing you today, but you can use different stamps and ink to achieve different results:

Whisper White CS
Razzle Dazzle set
More Mustard ink pad and marker
Summer Sun ink pad
Color Spritzer Tool
Sponge

1. Stamp the large floral image in a pattern on the Whisper White CS using Summer Sun ink.

2. Use the color spritzer tool with the More Mustard marker on the stamped surface. Add as much speckling as desired.
3. Sponge More Mustard ink on stamped surface all over. Apply lightly and go back over areas to darken if desired.
4. Ta-da!! Your patterned paper is now ready for you to create with!

5. I took it a step further and crumpled up the paper and used it on this card.
Isn't that fun?! Okay, now you try it out and show us what you create using this technique!

BTW, I will be putting the card I made up for sale in our Etsy shop within the next day or so!

Cottage Wall 3x3 Cards

From Adriel:

I was inspired by the cute little 3x3 card in the new Stampin' Up! catalog on page 18 (sorry, don't have a link to the picture). We recently ordered and received the Cottage Wall DS paper from Stampin' Up! and it worked beautifully on this card design. I love this assortment of DS paper... it's very pretty and sweet. =)

I did two designs, both nearly identical to one another. I used the largest image from the Fifth Avenue Floral set in VersaMark in the lower corner of the DS paper and embossed the image with white embossing powder. I used the lovely "for you" stamp from the Fresh Cuts set in VersaMark, followed by white embossing powder and punched out with the large oval punch. I then layered this on top of coordinating cardstock punched with the scallop oval and the wide oval punches.

Simple Recipe:

Whisper White CS

Certainly Celery CS

Old Olive CS

Pale Plum CS

Rich Razzleberry CS

Cottage Wall DS Paper (love it!)

Fresh Cuts stamp set

Fifth Avenue stamp set

VersaMark ink pad

White embossing powder

Little pearl stickers from Michaels... brand unknown

Boho Blossoms punch

Cottage Wall DS Paper from Stampin' Up! #115671

You can order supplies from Stampin' Up! by clicking HERE! =)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Orange Razzle Card

From Heidi...I'm not normally and "orange" fan, but I love this little orange and yellow floral print from DS Razzleberry Lemonade paper. This was also my first time using the "Wedding Sweet" stamp set, which we got to make wedding and save the date cards, but it works well for other occasions, as well.
You can use your Stampin' Write marker to color in a portion of the stamp to create a single stem and then add a flower, brad, or crocheted flower to the top of it. As you can see by this picture it would make a nice silhouette flower. I can see lots of uses for this stamp set besides weddings...the stems will make a nice background for fun floral embellishments. I'm looking forward to playing around with it.

Have a great day!

Circle Happy

From Heidi...My son-in-law's BD is this week and I needed a card. I thought I'd use one that was already made, but when I went to Target to pick up a bag for his gift I felt compelled to make him a bright circle card. Adriel's response to ALL the circles was...Wow?! That's how I feel about it, as well. But when you see the card with the bag, you'll understand ALL the circles. If nothing else, it's bright, cheery and if you like circles there's plenty of them to look at :-) Thanks for visiting us. Have a great weekend!

If it looks like I had some fun...

You are right!!

We're doing a Celebrate Summer project class in August and I had way too much fun making this card for our sample!! I'm looking forward to teaching our ladies how to make this, because I know they're going to love it and have a lot of fun, too! =D

I did bubblegum, vanilla and mint chip for my ice cream scoops. I sent my "cone" through my Big Shot using the argyle texturz plate. We have a bunch of DS paper from Sale-a-Bration so I used that for the background paper.

Thanks for taking time out of your day to stop by our blog! Hope your day is going well and that you're staying creatively inspired. =)

Natural Beauty

We recently went on a camping trip with our families. We slept outdoors (in tents, of course!), ate outdoors, visited outdoors, amused ourselves outdoors... did I forget anything? =)

Thought I would share a couple of photos of the outdoors that we enjoyed!

BEAUTIFUL!!!

It doesn't matter how lovely man can create something... nothing compares with the beauty that God creates. =)

New Deal of the Week!

Stampin' Up's New Weekly Summer Deal is...

Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware (112454)

Special price $18.99 (reg. 29.95) now through July 26

Debossed Big Shot Daisy

From Heidi...

I thought I'd share this card I made ...I actually started part of it several days ago, but just finished it. Sometimes I just need to think about a card for awhile before it comes together and this was one of those times.

I used the new Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions, but impressed the CS with embossing on the inside instead of outside. I then brayered the debossed side with So Saffron, leaving the white debossed images showing, sponged Apricot Appeal to the upper right section of the CS. The rest is is pretty self-explanatory: BS Scallop Circle - Night of Navy; BS Daisies - Lg. daisy, So Saffron; Med. Daisy, So Saffron, Almost Amethyst; Sm. Daisy, Almost Amethyst. I crimped Certainly Celery leaves and stem, to which Certainly Celery is sponged on the high spots of the crimped CS, Paper-pierced outline of large flower, stem and leaves. Thanks for visiting us!

Where was my brain?!

From Adriel:

We recently sold our Bargain Birthday Bundle of cards out of our Etsy shop. This has been in our shop for a month or two... at the price, I was actually surprised it took so long to sell. That is until I read back over the listing and realized my HUGE error in the description. Before I let you read it, I'll let you know that we sold this bundle of 8 birthday cards for $12, just to give you an accurate view of the price. Okay, here's the picture of the cards:

And here's the part of the description that made me wonder "Where was my brain?!" (I didn't actually think that, but it was something like "Ohhhhhh!"):

<<"Get a bundle and save a bunch! You pay $12.00 for each HANDMADE card! Unless it's pretty mediocre, you can't get a mass-produced card for that much. Buy handmade and give something special!">>

Did you catch my mistake? I made it big and bolded it so you would find it. ;-)

Oh boy, it's special alright! $12 for each card... wow, what a bargain! LOL! =P I'm sure glad I included so many pictures so the buyer understood that the listing was for 8 cards and the price for all of them was $12. I wonder how many people have clicked on that listing and read that and gotten out of there as fast as they could! Yikes!

Ha Ha!! I thought my blunder was funny and wanted to share (at my expense)! Want to share one of yours? Leave us a comment! We would love to laugh WITH you! =D

If you're looking for something to do...

... head over to Costance Collins' blog Constantly Stamping! She has a great tutorial on making a water lily with the Sizzix Daisy die. Did I mention it a video tutorial?!

You can check it out HERE!

Here's a picture of what she made... BEAUTIFUL! =D

More Christmas in July

From Heidi...

Here's another Christmas card we came up with for our Christmas in July class which will be held Tuesday, July 28, at the Tumbleweed Recreation Center, 9:30-Noon. Registration is still open for this class. If you'd like to attend, go to and follow the instructions for registering online: www.chandleraz.gov/recreation

This is a "carpet tape" card. The carpet tape cards I saw used the Word Window punch to make their strips. I actually used the papercutter, cutting each strip 13/32" wide, so that I could use my Scallop Edge punch to round the ends of each strip all at once, quickly and easily. Since we're doing 5 cards in a 2-1/2 hour timeframe, each card needs to go together quickly. I love the Christmas Punch stamp set...it's a nice variety of stamps that coordinate nicely with their punches.

Christmas and Lemonade

From Heidi...I know these don't seem to go together, but their commonality is that they're both card themes for a couple of our themed upcoming classes - Christmas in July (at Tumbleweed Rec. Ctr.) and Celebrate Summer (our August project class). While for most of you, summer is a time for gardening and being outdoors, summer for us in AZ is a time to escape the heat. We do a lot of indoor activities for a few months in the summer, unless we're swimming. This time of year is great for creativity, because the heat is not very luring...while the rest of year the outdoors cries for you to come out and play! With that said, here are a couple of cards that we'll be making in our upcoming classes. I wish I could take credit for their originality, but I was inspired by several other inspiring paper crafters. I've seen several of the lemonade cards posted on different blogs, so this is my take on both of the cards.
The Christmas in July Class will be held at the Tumbleweed Recreation Center, Tuesday, July 28, 9:30- Noon. You can find all the details and registration information at: www.chandleraz.gov/recreation
Have a great Tuesday!

July Stamp-A-Stack and Project Class

Here's a picture of our Stamp-A-Stack cards, 5 cards for $10, July 21, 1-3 PM and 7-9 PM:

Here's the picture of our One Sheet Wonder Project Class, July 23, 7-9 PM, $12:

Join us if you can, we'd love to have you!

What We've Been Working On...

From Adriel:

My mom and I have been busy working on samples and projects for upcoming classes we will be teaching. We have a Christmas in July class coming up at the end of this month through our city's Park & Recreation program... we just need a couple more people to sign up and then I think the city will run the class. Otherwise, it will be cancelled. For this class we are doing 10 cards, 5 different designs. We only have 2-1/2 hours for the class, so my mom and I really had to keep the cards basic and simple, but still looking good and interesting! =) Here's one of the cards we will be making at this class, inspired by THIS CARD on Splitcoast:




We have a fun summer-themed project class planned for August. My mom tried out a super cute lemonade card that looks like it was a lot of fun to make. I think our attendees will LOVE it!! In keeping with the summer theme, I thought this popsicle card would be a fun addition to the class. So cute!! =)



We got a box of new goodies from Stampin' Up! a few days ago... we've hardly had very much time to do much with it. I did use a few things out of the new stash, among them the Razzle Dazzle stamp set. I made some really nice background paper with that set and I'm thinking I will do a tutorial on that. =) Don't have a picture of it yet, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it came out looking pretty nice! =D

What have you been up to? Share your recent or current projects that you're working on! =)

Something from the Scrap Pile

From Adriel:

The other day I found a piece of Old Olive CS in our scrap bin that was already folded as a standard A2 size card and the front of it was stamped with some images from Fifth Avenue Floral. I must have been feeling adventurous because I decided to make the poor card into something...

Um... I'm not sure if I like it. The card may have been better off left uncompleted in the scrap pile. I don't know... when I picked it out of the scraps, it seemed to be screaming for someone to finish it. I just think I wasn't the right person to finish it. =D


Anyway, it was fun to play around with. I used my mom's sewing machine again and tried out
(by memory) a ribbon pleating tutorial I ran across awhile back. It also has a nice paper pleating tutorial along with it and you can find those HERE on Studio Calico's blog. I don't know if I followed their directions exactly, but I ended up with pleated ribbon and that was the point, so I was at least successful in that regard. =P

At least I tried something new and had some fun. And I enjoyed myself!

Creative Inspiration

From Adriel:

I was reading some other blogs today and found some beautiful creations that I wanted to share with all of you today. =)

I love what Katarina from Watermelon Sugar did with the ribbon on her card! View her card HERE.

I love the layout Cindy used for her card from Stamps, Paper and Ink! You can view her card HERE.

And this card by Makiko Jones from Makink Studio is just beautiful! View her card HERE.

Anyway, just some wonderful ideas and beautiful cards! Have a nice day! =)

Photo - Memory Card

From Heidi...

We've been having a lot of fun creating over here. I have too many ideas in my mind to get to...but that's a good problem. Much better than being creatively blank...that's frustrating! I visited Hero Art last night and was inspired by this cute photo book/card. Book cards must be my weakness...like the tea book cards :-) Anyway, I made this little card last night and had so much fun with it. I can't wait to make another one! I also was able to use one of our new crocheted flowers on the front from Flowery Bliss.

Instructions:

1. I clear embossed the corners with the flourish from Priceless and then sponged Dusty Durango to the corners and edges of the card.
2. I went back and sponged So Saffron in the center, sponging into the Dusty Durango. I snailed the Soft Suede square to the center of the card, snailed the ribbon horizontally to the center of the Soft Suede square.
3. I stamped the inside and outside of my Whisper White accordion and snailed it to the center of the Soft Suede square, leaving the ribbon ends extending out.
4. I tied the accordion to closed with the ribbon and glue dotted the crocheted flower embellishment to the center of the ribbon (not the CS) and glue dotted the bottom in lower right corner of the card.

5. Now it's ready for photos or anything else that I'd like to add to the 2"-square accordion panels.

Paper:

Whisper White CS (4-1/4x8-1/2, fold in half)

Whisper White CS (2x8, scored every 2" and folded in accordion style

Soft Suede CS (2-1/4x2-1/4, for base of photo accordion)

Ink:

Dusty Durango

So Saffron

Rich Razzleberry

Soft Suede

Stamp Set:

Priceless

Fundamental Phrases

One of a Kind

Accessories:

14" Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon

2 brown buttons

Clear EB powder

Crocheted flower (flowerybliss)

Glue dots

Sponge

Stitched Bella Bleu

From Adriel:

I was inspired by THIS CARD a few days ago and made a card based on it with the Bella Bleu DS paper from Stampin' Up!.

I used my mom's sewing machine on the zig zag setting and sewed away! It was fun. I need to incorporate sewing into my cards more often... it adds a special something! =)

Anyway, I thought it turned out pretty and would be perfect as a wedding card. It has that look. =)

Here's what I used for this card! Hope you've been inspired today to make something lovely!

Stamp Set: Oval All (113790)

Paper: Very Vanilla CS (101650), Not Quite Navy CS (101722), Close to Cocoa CS (101341), Whisper White CS (100730), Bella Bleu Designer Series Paper (113974)

Ink: Close to Cocoa marker (100072), Not Quite Navy marker (100059)

Tools: Tag Corner Punch (107215), Scallop Oval Punch (114889), Large Oval Punch (107305), 1-3/8" Circle Punch (104401), Sewing Machine

Accessories: Stampin Dimensionals (104430), SNAIL adhesive (104332), Cream Satin Ribbon

You can order any of these products from Stampin' Up! by clicking HERE!

Bella Bleu Designer Series Paper

Apple Tea Book

From Heidi...Since Adriel shared that "wonderful" photo of me putting the finishing touches on the apple tea book I was making, I thought I'd share with you how it came out (minus me in the pictures :-) I don't know what it is about these little book/cards, but I love making them. I think I love combining the DS papers, colors and embellishments together. Plus I love the size of these cards...their small, but they're full of little surprises inside and out. They're just really cute! We sell these in our Etsy store for $5.50 plus S/H. Here's the Etsy link for this tea book. Enjoy!

Another Razzleberry Card

From Adriel:

Happy Fourth of July!! Boy it came fast this year... time is just flying by.

In THIS POST I mentioned the new in-colors from Stampin' Up! and that my favorite out of them is Rich Razzleberry. So far, that's true. I haven't used any of the other colors yet!

This is another card that didn't come out as I had pictured in my mind. It's fun and different... just not what I had in mind when I sat down to make it. Weird how that happens.

I did stick to one main stamp set (okay, almost.. with the exception of the stamp I used on the Kraft CS). I tried to use the Priceless set as much as possible on this card. I used the fun circle to make the background. I stamped the flowers in Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive and punched them out with the 1-1/4" circle punch. The Rich Razzleberry marker came in handy for this card, as I used the ink-to-rubber technique and created a multi-colored image for the sentiment. (Did you know that Stampin' Up! is now offering the new in-colors in the markers? Yes!!) The scallop edge punch added a nice touch to the side of the card along with faux stitching. =)

The other set I used was the Park Avenue Patterns in Sahara Sand ink on the Kraft CS. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to get the stamp exactly where I wanted it. I had to do this a few times to cover the entire surface of the CS. I could have used the VersaMark pad to do this, but I ended up using Old Olive Craft ink to stamp the small flower from the Priceless set over the patterned CS and embossed it with clear embossing powder. If you are a stamper, you probably know that VersaMark doesn't lose its "sticky-ness" even after a day! The embossing powder would have gotten on my patterned background as well and I didn't want that. So I just used the classic ink that dries quickly and then used the craft ink in Old Olive. (That was a little long-winded... Sorry!!)

My ingredients for this card with a mind of its own:

Stamp Sets: Priceless (115052), Park Avenue Patterns (114445)
Paper: Rich Razzleberry CS (115316), Kraft CS (102125), Basic Black CS (102851), Whisper White CS (100730)

Ink: Rich Razzleberry (115658), Old Olive (102272), Sahara Sand (105208), Old Olive Craft Stampin' Pad (103063), VersaMark pad (102283), Rich Razzleberry marker (comes in a set of 6 with the other in-colors) (116329), Old Olive marker (100079), Basic Black marker (100082)

Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig (101049), Scallop Edge Punch (112091), 1-1/4" Circle Punch (104403), 1-3/8" Circle Punch (104401), Heat Tool (100005)

Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder (109130), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

As you can see, this set comes with a bunch of stamps that you can do a lot with. It's been awhile since I've played with this one, but since it's still current, I need to play with it more! =)

To order any of these products from Stampin' Up!, CLICK HERE!

Well, thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed today's post. Have a great weekend!

Happy Stampers!

From Adriel:

I took a few pictures Thursday afternoon of my mom (Heidi) and my daughter (Kayla) crafting. My mom was putting the finishing touches on her latest tea bag books (so cute!) and Kayla was just making a card for fun.

My mom loves to make these tea bag books! She looks like she's enjoying herself. =) BTW, I think her hand-cut apple is very well done!

Happy Stampers don't always smile when they're working...

...but they almost always smile when they're finished! =D

Kayla's finished card! She did a great job! She stamped the little border free-hand with a small stamp that didn't cover very much... I'm surprised at how even she got it! Wow! I did have to help her with her bow, but she will eventually learn how to do that herself. =)

Kayla wants to sell her cards like Mom and Grandma do. Maybe one day she will! =)

Special Delivery for Us!

From Adriel:

While I was on vacation, my mom put in an order through Flowery Bliss. You may remember my post about this cute Etsy shop awhile back... Well, our order got delivered a couple of days ago and just look at how cute these flower embellishments are!!

Can't wait to create something special to adorn with these cuties! =D The earthier tones will be pretty for some fall and autumn cards. =)

Anyway, just had to share!! =D