I'm going "HIGH TECH"!!!

In an effort to promote my Stampin' Up business, as well as my hand made products, I have created a Facebook page. It was named by my daughter (I wanted something cute but catchy). If you have a moment come and check it out, and if you like what you see, please become a fan!!

Bright and Happy Thoughts - Card Front

I am still playing with taking pictures in my light box. I did get a bigger box, but I need a brighter light I think. Or maybe less tissue paper? I have the poster board in there now at least.
Anyway I made these card fronts for my Card Front swap on my Fav MB. The theme was shapes. You had to incorporate some sort of Geometric shape in the background of your cards. I have a stack of paper that has a bunch of this square papers in that I never know what to do with, so it worked out perfect for this! The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's now retired set "Think Happy Thoughts". I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the flower in the center of the sentiment. The flower is embossed with white embossing powder. The speckles are done in VersaMark's Dazzle ink.
As usual lately, I couldn't decide where to put the sentiment, so I didn't attach it. I originally used this sketch for the card, but I'm not sure I like the sentiment where they have it, I like it more on the bottom, off to the side.

This is from PageMaps by BeckyFleck, and can be found in the March Card Maps 2008 Archives.

Show me the Love - ACM swap

One of my goals this year is to take better pictures of my cards. So I made a light box out of one of the empty Girl Scout cookie boxes we have laying around. I have a little more work to do on it. I didn't have any poster board, so I used what I had, kids drawing paper which comes on a roll. It is sort of on the off-white side, but I just wanted to get a feel for the box, so I used it. I also have different kinds of light bulbs. I do have an Ott-lite, but it's on a short bar, so it's on the side. I think it would work better if it was the one that on the top, but like I said I am still playing with it. These are the first pictures that I took.
Anyway, the theme for January's ACM is "Show me the Love". I totally CASED this idea from the WONDERFUL Ilina Crouse. Ilina is a fellow Philly Inker, and her creations are amazing!! I changed up the colors from her card. I used everything I had on hand for these. I have this tablet of 4 x 4 patterned paper that I never know what to do with, and so I used some papers from that. One pattern had stripes (first picture), and one had a damask pattern (second picture). The ribbon is also some that I had on hand. I used the Full Heart punch and the Heart to Heart punches. The large (Full heart) heart I first layered it on white cardstock to give it some thickness. Then I ran it through the BigShot with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, and then then used dimensionals to give it dimension. Then to finish it all off, I used a glitter pen to make "stitch" marks around the hearts.

Winter Card

How many of us have a ton of fibers and ribbons that you just HAD TO HAVE and when you got them homw wondered "Now what am I going to do with that?" LOL me too! I bought a bunch of Fun Fur yarn, at least I think that's what it was called, because they had it on clearance at a local craft store for dirt cheap! I think it was like $1.00 a skein. Normally it is quite a bit more! So I of course had to have every color! That was at least 2 years ago!
So when I needed to make a winter card for a recent card front swap, I dug out this one. It kind of looks like cold wintery colors don't you think? The blue is Stampin' Up's retired Ballet Blue. The white piece is embossed with a snow flake embossing folder. The snowflake stamp is from Stampin' Up's "Serene Snowflakes" and the sentiments are from "Sincere Salutations". Lately I haven't been able to decide on a sentiment, so I stamped two different ones and included them both along with a scallop oval so that whomever recieves it can decide which occassion they would like to use it for.

A new thing to try - Diamond Folds

One of my "resolutions" is to try new things this year when crafting. This time I choose Diamond folds. I went into Google.com, and typed in Diamond fold and found a tutorial. There's plenty to choose from. I have very little 12 x 12 cardstock, so I just went with the colors I had on hand. I did use my SU classic ink in Tempting Turquoise on the flower, taken from SU's "Because I Care", and then used my Garden Green stampin' write marker on the stem and leaves. Then I just used a sponge to create the look of patterned paper on the white pieces on the side. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's "Teeny Tiny Wishes".

I spotted a post by a friend Crystal on Facebook that she'd create something handmade for the first 5 people to respond to her, as long as they agreed to pay it forward and create something for 5 other people. I loved the idea so I re-posted. Sadly I only got 3 takers. :( But I did send the three of them one of these.

Have a happy New Year! And Happy Creating!!!

Repost - Metal look on cards

I am reposting this from my other blog, as I love the look of this and thought you may find this technique comes in handy too.
I needed to create a Masculine card for one of the swaps I host on my Favorite MB. And my first thought was the great Motorcycle Stampin Up had available last year. Now I will say that I did see this card someplace else, and I can't remember the name of the gal that made it. I did however make some changes. Stampin' Up used to have great metallic papers, but sadly they aren't available. So I made my own! Here's how I did it.

First I took a piece of plain white cardstock and ran it through my adhesive machine. Then I laid that on top of some plain old tinfoil that I had in my kitchen and smoothed it out.

Once that was done, I trimmed it down to the size piece that I needed.

Then I ran it through my BigShot using the Square Lattice embossing folder by Stampin' Up.

Next I used my Mat Pack and pen to make marks where I wanted my large eyelets to go. (This thing is a lifesaver!!)

Then I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch the holes, and set the eyelets.

I wanted my image to sort of look like you were looking at the cycle on an angle so I stamped it kind of crooked.

Next I colored the cycle, and then used a Silver Pen to go along the edge so it had the appearance of a silver mat.

Then I matted a red (also made some Ballet Blue, which is now retired) piece of cardstock on top of some Basic Black, and did the same with the white piece which I had the cycle images on.

And Voila! The finished cards!

Just goes to show that there are things all over your house which you could use to make your cards with!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Cat toys made by my Daughter

I wanted to share these with you. My daughter came home from school one day all excited because they were doing a charity for our local SPCA. We are both lovers of all animals (okay except rats or mice). So we thought about it and she wanted to make some of these toys. We had made these a few years ago for our cats, and they LOVE them! And they are simple and inexpensive to make.
First we cut strips of a large sheet of fun foam. She picked yellow and black for Bees, and red and black for Lady bugs.

Next we bound them together using zip ties (found in the hardware section of the local big box store), along with some of the curly ribbons they use on helium balloons, to give them some "crinkle". Some had bells, but we didn't have enough bells for all of them.

Then she wanted to make up little "Made by" tags, so here she is adding her name to ones we made on the computer.

And here is the finished products. She made 13 in all, 12 for the shelter, and one for her two cats.

I love that she is following in my "creative" footsteps. For Christmas I got her a rolling tote to keep all of her loose craft odds and ends in. I got tired of them all spread throughout the house. :D

WOW! It's been a while!

I've just been lounging around!!! LOL Just kidding! This is a picture of my daughter, she was about 9 months old. No hair and look at those chubs!!!

I have been really concentrating on my Stampin' Up blog and trying to keep that one updated, but don't give up on me! I do have some pictures to update here! But if you miss me and want to see what I have been up to, check out my other blog here:

SU Blog: http://ginathorntonstamping.blogspot.com/