Ronald McDonald House Raffle

Hello again! I promise I will get some card ideas on here tomorrow or maybe even later this afternoon! Meanwhile... here is some "eye" candy! You should be able to click on the photo to view the items a bit closer. On March 6 at the Big Stampin' Event we held a raffle to benefit the Ronald McDonald House here in Spokane. These are all the goodies we collected for the basket... some hand made, like a 12 month calendar, notebook and pen, the rest either stamp sets or ribbon. The basket of course included the "Very Thankful" stamp set that is on the back page of the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog (IDBC). Every year, Stampin' Up! dedicates $2 of the proceeds of a chosen stamp set to donate to Ronald McDonald house nationally. This year, that stamp set was "Very Thankful." It is $14.95 in the big catalog through June 30.

We were excited to raise $238 through ticket sales for this raffle basket! In all our excitement and craziness of the event we completely forgot to get a photo of the winner. One of Sharon's gals was the lucky winner! We did have a lot of door prizes and an early bird prize so I'm glad to say that I know some of my gals won a few of those fun things!

Hope you're off to a great day!

Kim

BSE Lattice card

Been a crazy busy week so I haven't made anything new... I've decided to post another card from the Big Stampin' Event because I am determined to post regularly. I know those that came to the event have made this so bear with me. I'll be making some new cards today! We get to attend a double Eagle Court of Honor (brothers) this afternoon so I'll be making those two cards and hopefully a few extra!

I really love this lattice card, it definitely has some steps to it but once you get it down I feel the end result is beautiful! This is really an easel card turned sideways. I know this isn't a great photo so I hope you can picture that. I took this photo when I was filming our "tips and tricks" videos so I didn't get a great view of it and it may be hard to understand if you haven't seen one of these cards before. Basically, the left side you see, folds right over the right and there is a hole under "with all my heart" so that it also fits over the "thank you" when it's folded up.

That probably didn't make any sense at all! I'll have this and the other cards at our upcoming stamping event for you to see - which I'm planning for the first week of April.

Anyway, we used the Lattice die in a unique way-love this technique! I will have to come up with another card to have at a stamping event so you can see just how we did this. Basically, you cut the paper to be die cut at 3 1/4 x 5 (I'll have to double check that measurement). You score it on the 5" side at 3 1/4 and fold it. Lay it over the die cut so that the scored piece is just inside of the end of the die so that it doesn't get cut all the way (make sense)? Then, after you roll it through the Big Shot, you'll be able to unfold it and then clip off the excess - now you have a larger piece than the die cut was intended for. I will take some better photos today and post a step by step views plus a better angle of the card folding a little later.

The texture for the ruby red cs was done with the Finial Press embossing folder. You'll notice the scallops are a little larger than the punch... These are from the long Pennant die. You get scallops in addition to the two pennants. Other punches used here were the 1 3/4 in. circle punch, Modern Label, Word Window, small Heart punch from the Occasions mini, Trio Flower punch for the small flowers and a 1/4 in. punch for the middles.

Enjoy your Saturday!

More coaster calendars!

I just love these calendars for small gifts! Who doesn't need a mini desk calendar with post it notes on the back? Okay, my friend Lisa doesn't but there are so many others who do! Anyway, I made two more to go with my auction donations for the Spokane Valley Fire Fighter's Cask & Keg Auction that will benefit SVFF Benevolence Association. The Cask & Keg is Friday, March 26.

The papers I used for both calendars were from the Sweet Pea DSP pack in the Occasions Mini. There are so many awesome papers in that paper pad! The coordinating papers were Rose Red, Old Olive for the left one and Old Olive and Pretty in Pink for the right one. Ribbons were 5/8 grosgrain... Chocolate Chip and Old Olive. I used the Large pewter eyelets from the SU! catalog and attached them to the coasters with the Crop-a-dile. Have a great day!

Big Stampin' Event: Two more projects

Hello again! Here is the jar everyone received and the card purse we made to hold the cards and envelopes from the Big Stampin' Event...

Card purse first.... The "lid" is one of the pieces out of the Write Stuff Specialty Pack of DSP. I love the colors featured in this pack of papers: Ruby Red, Kraft, Soft Suede, Old Olive and Crushed Curry. It includes those colors as DSP and 3 sheets of thicker cs that have pieces you can punch out and use like the one for the purse.

On this project, the tags on the front are layers of one of the tags you get on the matchbox die for the Big Shot. We ran both sides of the "purse" through the Big Shot using the Perfect Polka Dots texture plate as well. The flower was made by punching six flowers out of the DSP in the package with the new XL Flower punch available in the Occasions mini. You crumple up each flower and then unfold it and alternate color sides. Then, you can put a brad or what we used here, a Build-a-Brad using a 1/2" circle of coordinating paper on it to make the middle. A fun flower to make and pretty easy!

We also made one using the scallop circle punch for the jar you see on the top of the post.

Have a great day! Kim

Very Thankful Peacock

Hello! Here's a quick, simple card using the Ronald McDonald house Very Thankful set. I saw a similar idea somewhere and tweaked it. It was so long ago I can't remember where I saw it to give credit! I used Tempting Turquoise and some matching DSP from the Pink Flamingo DSP again. The white piece is embossed using the Perfect Polka Dot embossing folder through the Big Shot. I stamped the peacock in Rich Razzleberry, punched it out with the 1 3/4 and then popped it up on dimensionals. The ribbon is the organza out of the big catalog. Oh yes, I also used the corner rounder punch on the corners. Easy Peasy!

Off to a busy day! I hope you enjoy yours! Also, Happy Birthday to Ryan and Heidi!

Bookmark Card

Hello! I totally forgot about posting some of the projects from the Big Stampin' Event! One of our projects was this bookmark card using the slit punch and the petal card die. Since we actually filmed a short "tips and tricks" video on this card that we played at the event I will attempt to add it to explain some of the techniques. Don't you love the slit punch technique to add the large two color scallop edge? The paper colors used on this card were Kraft, Ruby Red and Whisper White along with a small punch out from the Write Stuff Specialty Paper pack in the SU! IB & C. We used about a 1/3 of each kit for each participant and the 7 other projects.

The flowers on the bookmark are just stamped in Ruby craft and embossed with Iridescent Ice and cut out and attached with Stampin' Dimensionals. We added the "Friend" on to the actual project (omitted the "my") by inking up the just what we wanted on the image from this stamp set, With All My Heart, using the Chocolate Chip. Let's see if the video works here... by the way, I recorded and fellow demo Stephanie is the voice!

Okay, I had to step away because it was taking too long to load and now it looks as if it did not work! I'll have to attempt to save it in a smaller version. I'll work on that later today or this weekend - meanwhile, just the card!

"Manly" Thank You!

Ahhh... us cardmakers always struggle with coming up with a card with little bling and no flowers for the men in life! I never add ribbon to a "manly" card which is difficult to do! What do you think of this one? This was for the pastor of the church (and his secretary) where we held the Big Stampin' Event! They were all so helpful to us :)

I used Whisper White, Chocolate Chip and Pumpkin Pie cs. The DSP is from the Sweet Pea DSP paper pack out of the Occasions Mini - lots of great papers in there! There are the same sheet, just opposite sides that match! The set I used was "For All You Do," out of the Idea Book & Catalog... I just inked up only the words I wanted to use with my Chocolate Chip stampin' write marker and punched it out with the 1 3/4 in. circle punch. The "thank you" is from the same set and I punched it out with the "modern label" punch and added two brads from the Vintage Brads collection. The arrow came from the "My Way" punch - it also have two little arrows that punch out with it.

Oh yes, you'll notice some stamping on the very bottom of the chocolate chip piece. The "For All You Do" set also comes with the polka dot stamp set I used. I just repeated it along the bottom. Easy! Love that stamp set :)

I like it anyway! Would make a fun birthday card just changing around sentiments too!

Have a good day and weekend!

Simple but beautiful!

Don't you love the colors on this card? First of all, anything with Chocolate Chip in it has to be a winner! Do I make cards without that color? They are few and far between!

This time, I paired it with Crushed Curry as the base and a big piece of DSP out of the Pink Flamingo pack of DSP from the SU! Idea Book & Catalog. I love the striking colors in that pack of paper. How easy is that? I got the scalloped top that looks like a valance by cutting the chocolate chip cs longer than normal, scoring it where I normally would have cut it and then folded it over and added the scallop edge with the Scallop Edge punch. In this case, my CC piece was 4 1/8 x 6 1/2 before I scalloped it. Then, I just tied a piece of the Chocolate Chip satin into a knot around it. All of the Satin ribbons are available in the Occasions mini.

The sentiment was easy to do. I used Vintage Labels which is one of the free sets available during Sale-A-Bration in Chocolate Chip and Real Red. (This set also has a "best wishes" and a "thank you" that each fit inside all of the different "framed" stamps. It is available in both wood mount or clear mount.) I punched out the frame using the Large Oval punch and then the layers underneath are two chocolate chip pieces were punched out of chocolate chip using the Scallop Oval punch. I used Real Red brads on the ends and then popped the whole piece up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Another beautiful day in Spokane! Amazing how our winter is so opposite from just last year. Record snowfall last year, record no-snow fall this year. I guess it all stayed East this year!

Have a great day!

Make your own DSP!

What I like about this technique is that it brings back a little stampin' to your projects. Have you noticed that there are so many cute DSPs and textures out there that sometime our cards have hardly been stamped at all? Now don't get me wrong - I absolutely LOVE using DSPs who can resist with all the matching colors and designs you get in each pack? In fact, tomorrow's post used a huge piece of DSP from "Pink Flamingo"-it's yummy! I'm just saying every now and then it's fun to return to actually stamping! If you came to the Big Stampin' Event then this will look famililar but with different colors.

I used the "With All My Heart" stamp set and inked up the various images with Bashful Blue, Real Red and Certainly Celery. Then, I sponged in the white areas with Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue. Lastly, I spritzed it with Champagne Mist shimmer paint in a mini spray bottle.

By the way, the shimmer paints from the Holiday mini are still available! I might sneak in a post about how I've been using that.

Anyway, then I stamped a red flower from the set on a separate piece of paper and then punched it out using the trio flower punch (it fits perfect) and attached it to the card using a stampin' dimensional. The rest if pretty self explanatory... I used the Scallop Trim punch on the Certainly Celery cs for one of the layers. This is the punch you can get free as a Sale-A-Bration item when you purchase $50 in Stampin' Up! before March 31. You can also purchase the matching corner punch in the Occasions mini that ends on March 31 as well. Together they are oh so sweet! Last but not least, the sentiment is from the All Holidays stamp set in the Stampin Up! Idea Book & Catalog. I use this set and sentiment a lot! Don't forget to thank God for your "dear kind and wonderful friends!"

Have a great day! Kim

Two Reasons to "Go Green!"

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I knew I had to get this stamp when I saw it :) Couldn't resist getting the helmet of my favorite team in the photo! Anyway, this year I made just a couple of cards plus made some treat bags up for the ladies that placed an order this last week for fun! I hope you enjoy the surprise in your bag!

This was very simple to make. First, I randomly stamped images from the Circle Circus stamp set in various greens (Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Green Galore) on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of Whisper White cs. Cut the paper to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 so I got 4 out of one sheet. Used the good old Stampin' Up! Top Note die with the Big Shot. Scored it down the middle and then adhered the Go Green image with Stampin' Dimensionals atop a 1 3/4 circle of Apricot Appeal which I thought went well with gold. If you can tell, I also versa marked the Go Green image, sprinkled Heat and Stick, warmed it up and then finished it off with a sprinkling of Iridiscent Ice and heat set that. Then, I added an Old Olive grosgrain knot with a glue dot.

I wrapped each Hershey nugget with 1 x 3 inches of Garden Green DSP. Punched out flowers using the Trio Flower punch and added 1 /4 in. centers out of Garden Green. Mini glue dots made this pretty simple to do!

I'd say the card is pretty self explanatory but if you have any questions please let me know!

Enjoy... and oh yeah, Erin Go Braugh! and God Bless America!

Hello Friends...

Hope you all have been outside enjoying the gorgeous weather in Spokane!

The dust has settled here a bit after the Big Stampin' Event and I have some cards to post - finally...

Anyway, I love the technique for the flower on this card using the eyelet border punch, the crimper and a corduroy button! To make the flower you cut a 11 x 1 piece of cardstock. Punch it with the eyelet border punch and the run it though the crimper. Then, using a 1 3/8 circle cut out of the Sticky Sheets available in the SU! Idea Book & catalog, you basically start on the outside and stick it to the sticky circle maneuvering it around until it looks like this a flower. Then you can add a middle to cover up where you ended up. I used the Chocolate Chip corduroy button but I'm sure you could use your imagination! I will do a variation of this at an upcoming Stamp Camp or stamp a stack so stay tuned!

DSP used on this card is the Sending Love Specialty available in the Occasions mini that runs through March 31 and the With All My Heart" stamp set also available in the same mini.

The Occasions mini and Sale-A-Bration specials end soon so start thinking about any of those items you wanted out of that mini or the Sale-A-Bration sets you can pick free with a $50 purchase.