BEES ABUZZ

I learned something new -- again! -- this week. It's another way of creating a quilted-look medallion.

When I saw a sample of this technique in an old papercrafting magazine, little Paper Seedlings were planted in my brain: I immediately thought of using a Designer Series Paper that had a central motif that could be repeated eight times.

Looking through my stash of DSP, I came upon this one, a piece I had left over from a paper share I'd done with my customers a couple years ago. I was always saving this for something special. Until I come upon the perfect project such as this medallion, I am never sure what the "something special" will be. I'm sure you know how that is.

To create this medallion, you punch eight squares with the 1 1/4" Square Punch. In this case, I placed the bee exactly in the center of each and every square. As a result, the bees became the obvious focal point of the card, and appeared to be flying in a nearly perfect circle.

The  spokes of the medallion are formed by folding each square in half diagonally, unfolding it, then folding each of the sides to the center crease you just made.

To add something obvious into the mix -- I mean, after all, we ARE dealing with BEES! -- I mounted my medallion onto a beautifully textured honeycomb background in beelike Crushed Curry. To carry the Basic Gray throughout the card, I not only mounted the medallion onto it and added a bit of it in the satin ribbon, but I also sponged all the edges of the card pieces, except the medallion itself, in Basic Gray. This added delightfully to the grunge-y appearance of the whole card.

And the center embellishment: DON'T YOU JUST LOVE IT! It is so perfect. With each of its eight "petals" landing smack dab in the middle of each of my folded spokes, it looks like an extension of my medallion design. 

Since the bees in the paper I used were so adorable, I wanted to echo them elsewhere on the card. So, I dug out the stamp set, Nature Walk, that complements this DSP. I stamped the exact same bee in Basic Gray onto Whisper White and cut him out.

For the sentiment on the tag, I used another retired set, Short and Sweet. If you're like me, you don't let those "word" sets out of your possession. You never know when one will be absolutely PERFECT on a project. 

Once I added a little Crushed Curry to the body of my cut-out bee, I adhered him to my label so it looked like the words were swirling out of his behind. 

Well, on that note, I hope you have a bee-utiful day!

Buzzing

Smiles.

GENTLE QUILT

I'm not sure if I've ever seen a more gentle-looking way to tell someone you are thinking of her (him) than this faux quilted card.

Using two of the soft and gentle prints from the Epic Day This and That Designer Series Paper evokes a soft and gentle caring for that special someone. Squares punched from the DSP with the 1 1/4" Square Punch make up the quilt design.

Punching out little hearts on either side of the sentiment, then adhering Calypso Coral dots to their centers adds a bit more of the soft and gentle.

I'd love to walk you through creating one of these cards. Here's how:

SUPPLIES

Sweet Essentials stamp set

Epic Day This & That Designer Series Paper

Calypso Coral cardstock

Pool Party cardstock

Very Vanilla cardstock

Calypso Coral ink

1 1/4" Square Punch

Small Heart Punch

Crochet Cotton (or bakers twine)

Buttons (from last year's Sale-A-Bration)

Big Shot

Fancy Fan Embossing Folder

Paper Punch

INSTRUCTIONS

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Calypso Coral cardstock in half, creasing well with a bone folder.

Run a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Very Vanilla cardstock through the Big Shot inside the Fancy Fans Embossing Folder. Adhere this to the card front.

Crisscross two 2 5/8" squares of Pool Party cardstock so you have equal-sized triangles at each point, gluing in place. This is the base for your paper quilt.

Cut four squares from each of the two DSP designs with the 1 1/4" Square Punch. 

For this next part, it is good if you use the green glue and work as quickly and neatly as you can in case you need to shift a square or two along the way. 

Starting at one point of the base, add glue to the center corner of your first square only, and set it in place, leaving a nice border on the base. Continue, alternating paper designs for each of the points in consecutive order, only putting glue on the one corner that is in the center. When you get to the last square, glue it in place, but gently and carefully tuck it under the first square you glued in place.Once you have all your squares nicely placed, add tiny dots of glue to the edges that are loose and glue them in place.

Tie a piece of ecru crochet cotton through the holes of the center button, and attach the button to the center of the quilt with a Mini Glue Dot. Adhere the quilt to the card front with green glue.

On a 3/4" x 3 3/4" piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, stamp "Thinking of You" in Calypso Coral. Use the Small Heart Punch to punch hearts out at each end. Glue this piece to a 1" x 4" strip of Pool Party cardstock. Use the paper punch to create two dots from Calpyso Coral paper and adhere to the centers of each punched-out heart. Adhere the finished strip to the bottom of the card front.

There! Soft and cozy, eh?

Caring

Smiles.

DUTCH WEAVING

Every once in awhile -- when I need a creative boost -- I give myself a challenge. I randomly choose a project or technique I had singled out and saved sometime during the past several years. Yes, I am definitely a pack rat. Especially when it comes to things I may use in a future project.

Anyway, I have a papercrafting book that had some intriguing borders included. One, a variation on Dutch Weaving, especially caught my eye. I decided I would give it a try.

I cut a piece of retired Barely Banana -- such a nice soft unintimidating yellow -- to 1 5/8" x 5 1/2" to serve as my base. After carefully measuring, I cut 1 1/4" slits alternating between 1/2" and 1/4" and repeating, all the way down the yellow strip.

Using one piece of Marina Mist trimmed to 1/2" x 5 1/2", and two of Night of Navy at 1/4" x 5 1/2", I then set to weaving these pieces through the slits. I started with the larger center piece, and finished with the two side pieces. I must admit I had some rough going. Those strips just did not want to cooperate.

I finally got them all into place. The woven piece was cool, and I wanted to use it in something. So I set to building a card around it.

Since the woven strip itself was so interesting, I wanted the focal point of the card to be somewhat understated. The bird from the Hostess set, Simply Sketched, seemed perfect for the role. 

So, the additional color I brought into place was Very Vanilla, upon which I stamped my bird in Night of Navy. The other starring role Very Vanilla played in this card was as the woodgrain embossed background. 

A few additional touches, such as bringing the Barely Banana and the Night of Navy back into the picture in a few spots, finished off a card that is quite pleasing.

And, NOW, I have Dutch Weaving out of my system. Whew!

Woven

Smiles.

I SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM

My oldest daughter, Emily, had a big birthday this past weekend. I find Emily, a tremendously gifted illustrator/graphic designer, difficult to please with my cards. Although I'm sure she would beg to differ. 

So, I set out to really WOW her for a change. Just how to do that? A challenge I felt I was up to. 

Emily likes ice cream, so . . . 

I started with MDS and the stamp brush set, Sweet Scoops. First step was to resize the cute cone to a large, workable size. I then piled on three scoops of the ice cream, topped by a shiny cherry. 

The cherry didn't have any highlights and since I was going for realism (yeah, right!), I decided it needed highlights. There is probably an easier way to do this, but here is how I figured out to put two little highlights on the side of the cherry:

I added two of the circle punches, which, of course, were enormous, much too large for my little cherry. So I sized and resized, scrunched and moved, until I was happy with the look. I then filled in the little lopsided circle punches with Whisper White cardstock. This is so simple to do in MDS!

After printing out the ice cream cone on white cardstock four times, I proceeded to cut out all the separate pieces. I then lifted the various layers with Stampin' Dimensionals. 

Well, my ice cream cone was complete, but now what do I do with it? I thought that, for the biggest impact, it should be placed against a white background. But, how boring that was.

So I got out four of my Stampin' Up! Embossing Folders, and embossed four pieces of Whisper White cardstock, rounded the corners, and added them to the plain white background.

I neglected to mention that the size of this card is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2". Yes, a single sheet of cardstock folded in half. Exactly twice the size of the cards I usually make. So each of the embossed sections was 2" x 5 1/4". 

After I was finished attaching the cone to the embossed background, I stamped "enjoy" from an old Stampin' Up! set, adding a 1/2" yellow circle and a blue circle made from a regular paper punch to the center of the "o" to bring the ice cream colors into play once again.

I am delighted to report that Emily really liked the card! I feel so fulfilled.

Please take a little time to check out Emily's website, www.bluestarink.com. I guarantee you will be positively enchanted!

Ice Cream.

Smiles.

PAPER PUMPKIN LOVE TOO

Do you remember from my last post what the projects from the January Paper Pumpkin kit were supposed to look like? Here's a reminder:

In that post, I showed you my take on the Coastal Cabana cards. Now, I will move on to the Calypso Coral projects.

Included in the kit supplies were four of the paper doilies Stampin' Up! carries. Never having worked with these cute little doilies before, I decided that I would give them a try in these two cards.

Once again, I turned my card base "inside out" so the stripes rather than the Crumb Cake side were the card front. Neither of these cards show the Crumb Cake at all. That color is just on the inside of the card. (Oops. My mistake. When the second card is completely closed, the Crumb Cake shows through the punched-out arrows.)

But back to the first card. Besides the Calypso Coral, I added just a few touches of Coastal Cabana for a  nice contrast. I crinkled the top of the two doilies I used to make it appear more lifelike and to give it added dimension. The bottom doily is adhered flat to the card.

I thought the cut-out arrows on the bottom seemed a little lonely, so I added a few of the kit's stickers -- the xoxo and the three arrows -- to give the punches some company.

In the center of the doily is the "heart" of the card. Smile. I used the Hearts A Flutter stamp set as well as their coordinating Framelits atop two circles created with the Circles Collection Framelits. The smallest heart is one of the stickers that came with the Paper Pumpkin kit. I finished off that heart with a Basic Pearl.

And . . . finally, for the last card, I just changed up the sample a bit to make it my own.

As you can see, I made only a few changes, three to be exact. Of course, I had the color rather than the Crumb Cake facing out. I also made it a horizontal card. And I added a strip of the arrow sticker to the bottom. That's it! Otherwise, it is the same card as in the sample.

I hope you enjoyed my little foray into the joys of Paper Pumpkin land! 

I absolutely love receiving these surprise kits in the mail each month! It is fun to make up the kits exactly as Stampin' Up! planned. Or, like me -- and I've always been a little disobedient when following directions -- you can switch it up as much as you want to make it uniquely your own.

Either way, the presentation of the kit, the supplies included (everything except the adhesive. And, often, there are even Glue Dots or Stampin' Dimensionals included), the monthly surprise and the chance to just get away from it all for a time, are some of the delights of these kits. 

A N D . . . you ALWAYS have supplies left over for future projects! A stamp set and an Ink Spot come with each and every kit. Often, you will have some of the other supplies left over as well. So, each of these monthly kits has supplies for many, many more creations than the one in the bright red box.

Until March 31, any new subscribers to Paper Pumpkin will also receive a pack of the In Color Stampin' Write Markers ($14.95 value!) along with your welcome kit. 

To sign up for this monthly delight, go to www.mypaperpumpkin.com. And don't forget to name me, Linda Kilsdonk, as your demonstrator!

Paper

Pumpkin

Smiles.

PAPER PUMPKIN LOVE

I'm sorry to admit that I wasn't totally crazy about the January Paper Pumpkin kit samples. I did, however, LOVE all the supplies that came with the kit.

Here is what the four cards were meant to look like after following the instructions in the kit:

First of all, I must tell you that the insides of these card bases are adorable: one half of the inside is solid Calypso Coral and the facing side is Calypso Coral/white stripes. The other card is solid Coastal Cabana and striped Coastal Cabana/white. My first thought was, "What a waste of adorableness!" If the card bases had been solid Crumb Cake, fine and good, there wouldn't be a question of hidden cuteness. But they weren't!

I planned to use the supplies to create four different cards. I grabbed one of the Coastal Cabana pieces, and went to work, coming up with this for my first card:

I completely wiped out any sign of the Crumb Cake color in three of my four resulting cards. For the above card, I adhered a piece of white behind the triangles so the entire card was Coastal Cabana, Basic Gray and white. 

See the darling Coastal Cabana-colored embellishment in the upper right corner?? Adorable, eh? Stampin' Up! sent along with this kit a WHOLE CONTAINER of these In Color Boutique Details (page 141 of the big catalog), an $8.95 value. Isn't that just the coolest?

Anyway, while I liked the look of my first card, I am especially happy with the second Coastal Cabana one that I created:

As you, my readers, already know about me, I love to use pages of actual music in my creations. This card turned out to be a good showcase for my musical love.

Using the awesome new Spiral Flower Originals Die (page 32 of the Celebrate the Everyday catalog) and two sheets of music together makes a beautiful rose. I mounted it to a black doily made with the Delicate Doilies Sizzlits. I loved the way it looked, but I did not like the stripes showing through the holes of the doily. To fix that problem, I cut a circle of the music and adhered that to the back of the doily so MUSIC is what showed through the holes.

For the sentiment, I stamped Happy Birthday in the blank space provided in the label stamp from the hostess set, Morning Meadow. Did you notice that I stamped this on some of the music also? Doesn't it look cool? This label is cut out perfectly with the Apothecary Accents Framelits (page 187 of the big catalog). I cut another of the labels from Coastal Cabana, snipped it in half horizontally, and added it to my music piece.

Finally, I eliminated the Crumb Cake showing through the triangles by adhering a piece of the music behind them. 

I am very happy with this super-dimensional card. What do you think? 

Next time I will share with you my final two cards using the Calypso Coral card bases. A little teaser about them: I mostly fashioned one of the cards after the sample. But made it my own.

Musical 

Smiles.

SMILING GOLDFISH

Remember a few weeks ago when I published this post? I asked you to join in a little contest of trying the guess the materials and techniques I had used to create the backgrounds in that post.

And then, a week later, in this post I announced the winner. Debbie, with the winning guess, chose this background for me to make her prize:

Well, I made her card, and here it is:

I have to admit that when I saw that particular background was her choice, my original intent was to make something fairly elegant. The design seemed to call for that. 

However, before I started the card, I was browsing through my big Stampin' Up! catalog, and came across my cute little stamp, Fishin' Around, on page 58. I wondered, if you use your imagination, could the turquoise designs look sort of like algae or some other sea plants? Hmmm. 

T H E N . . .  leafing through the newish Celebrate the Everyday catalog, page 31 jumped out at me! Aha! The FRINGE SCISSORS! Sea weeds! On top of sea WAVES! (Tasteful Trim on page 192 of the big catalog.) 

And my card idea was hatched!

For the fishbowl, I stamped the image four times: once on Whisper White, once on a Pumpkin Pie DSP, once on the tan, and once on the turquoise. I then cut out the water, the fish, and the treasure and sand and adhered them all onto the Whisper White.

Since there were pearls strewn about from the spilled treasure chest, I added a few "real" ones on the waves.

Debbie, I hope you like your card (and the rest of your prize!). It will go in the mail within a few days.

Fishy

Smiles.