Blogger's Challenge #86 - Valentine's Day Project #1

Ok, forget the fact that today is Friday the 13th! yukk! Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! AACK! I have NOT finished my cards and gifts for my family - I know - a little behind the 8 ball wouldn't you say?! But, I HAD to post today for the Blogger's Challenge or our challenge mom, Lisa would beat me up. Well, maybe not, but she does make it hard to resist! XO, Lisa! :)

I actually made two projects for the challenge - ambitious, eh? They are in two separate posts because I'm having trouble with Google Blogger and my photos! Hummph!

This first one was one of the projects we did at my FREE class for my stampers who purchased the Valentine's Bundle Special last month! Hi guys! I used my sample as a gift for a friend the other day - that's a great benefit to being a stamper - we either have something on hand to give away or can whip it up real quickly! AND it's better than storebought cuz it comes from the HEART!

This little vellum cardstock box is a 2, 4, 6, 8 Box. I stamped it in Riding Hood Red with the multi-hearts from the Love You Much stamp set. The tag used multiple Stampin' Up! punches and the same stamp set and is attached to the box with a piece of that luscious Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon! Yumm! Oh, and of course, there is chocolate inside!

Read on to the next post to see the other fun project I came up with!

Blogger's Challenge #86 - Valentine's Day Project #2

Have I ever told you what a great Mother-in-Law I have? Well, my Mom is great too, but my MIL Betty works for a company that takes catalog orders for several different companies like American Eagle and Restoration Hardware. At Christmas this year, American Eagle (AE) used these cool red gift boxes for their orders of gift cards that were mailed out. They had tons of them left over and my MIL thought I could make something out of them so she snagged me a couple dozen! Thanks Mom!

The first photo shows the unaltered box. It's so cool because it already had grommets in the side for the ribbon ties, all I had to do was replace their ribbon with Stampin' Up!'s gorgeous Pink Pirouette Striped Grosgrain ribbon!

To create the lid, I trimmed a piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock to fit the top, covering the silver printing. Then I ran it thru my Big Shot Die Cut machine with the NEW, WAAAY Cool Texturz Plates! These are incredible - I Love the dimension they provide. For this box, I used the small polka dot because it matched the Candy Lane Designer Series Paper that is on the inside of the box. Once it was texturized, I sponged the bumps with Pretty in Pink ink then covered the whole thing with Versamark and Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder to give it the fun, sparkly finish! It was attached to the lid with Sticky Strip.

The little tag was created with my Pun Fun stamp set. I stamped in Basic Brown ink on Whisper White cardstock because I was watercoloring with my Aqua Painters. (Basic Brown is waterproof and won't run into your color) I painted in the cup with Chocolate Chip and Riding Hood Red ink and added Crystal Effects to the coffee and the hearts for some fun dimension. This piece was then layered onto Riding Hood Red and Pink Pirouette with the Pink being sponged with Riding Hood Red. A Silver Eyelet set thru the top with my Crop-A-Dile allowed me to easily thread some Pretty in Pink Taffeta ribbon thru the tag to tie it to the top of the box.

The inside of the box was so easy to make. I used their gift card insert as a pattern and cut my own using a piece of cardboard from some Designer Series Paper. After scoring it in the right places, I used some Tombow Adhesive to glue down a piece of Candy Lane Designer Series Paper. This glue works so, so well. There is a bit of a learning curve on using just the right amount, but once you have used it, you'll LOVE it!

The dsp was stamped in Riding Hood Red with the Valentine sentiment from the Holidays and Wishes stamp set and this was overstamped with one of the hearts from the Love You Much stamp set. I didn't cut any slots for the gift card becasuse a couple of Mini-Glue Dots willwork great to hold it in place!

All in all, this was a pretty easy project to create - I hope you like it! If you are really, really nice to me, maybe I'll adapt it for a Birthday Class that I'm planning for this spring. Would you like that? Ok, send me chocolate if you want to do that! NO, just kidding! Leave me a comment instead! That is less fattening and makes me smile just as much!

While you are at it, be sure to check out all the other great Valentines ideas from my Blogger's Challenge friends! Click on the link in my sidebar to find them!

I'll be posting again tomorrow and Sunday, we are travelling for a skating competition, but I've got some posts planned ahead!

Happy Valentine's Day my friends!

XOXO ~~Robin

Butterflies are in the Air!

Ta Daa! Yep, I finished the swap cards AND managed to get them all in the mail before the post office closed yesterday! WooHoo! Now I can just sit back and check my mailbox for all the great return swaps that are coming my way - I love to swap!

This card really came together fast, I'm not always that lucky, but I knew I wanted to use the new Texturz plates for my Big Shot and the butterfly image from the Simple Friendship stamp set is one of my favorite new images this season. It just has endless possibilities.

I created the textured background by cutting my Whisper White cardstock and placing it on the Texturz plate, spritzing it with a little alcohol - yes, rubbing alcohol - you guys know I don't drink! LOL! The moisture allows the paper to emboss quite deeply and gives the texture a great feel. Using alcohol instead of water is great because it evaporates so quickly. Anyway, once it was embossed then I used my Creamy Caramel ink and Stampin' Sponge to rub the color all over the cardstock. Not evenly, but light in some places, dark in others. I really wanted it to look weathered. Once I finished sponging, I layered it on a piece of Cameo Coral cardstock and tied a piece of Chocolate Chip Wide Grosgrain ribbon in a knot around it. This was then layered on my Chocolate Chip card base which was cut at 3" x 12"and folded in half vertically. There is a 1/8" variance in each layer from the base for this card.

On to my sparkly butterfly! These turned out so much better than I'd planned - I just wish the photo really gave it justice! I used the Rock and Roll technique for this one, stamping first in Cameo Coral ink, then rolling it in Rose Red, then finally just tipping it in Close to Cocoa. Each butterfly was cut out with Paper Snips then I covered the whole piece with Versamark ink. A little sprinkle of Iridescent Ice EP and heating with my Heat Tool - Voila! Sparkly Butterfly!

To create the curved wings, I simply used the edge of my Bone Folder and curled the wings just like you would curl ribbon between your thumb and a scissors. But gently though - one of my butterflies lost a wing tip! Oops! A little Crystal Effects glued it back though - yes, you can fix most anything!

The final touch was just using Mini Glue Dots on the butterfly body and attaching it to the large silk flower from the Pretties Kit. I left it au natural so it would stand out from the background a bit. The flower was then attached to the card front with more glue dots.

It's a pretty simple card, really, but I don't want to cut out 16 butterflies again for a while! LOL! Let me know what you think - I love to hear from you! Your comments make me smile!

Happy Wednesday!

~~Robin

Sparkly Butterflies!

This picture is the reason I'm not making a lengthy post today - just look at all the pieces for these cards! This swap is supposed to go in the mail today along with another card using a Sale-A-Bration stamp set. That card is done, but this one..........well, I'm getting there! I'll show you the finished one tomorrow, promise! :)

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

~~Robin

A Candy Garden

Oh, if only chocolate candy grew on trees! Yes, I know that chocolate comes from beans, but wouldn't it be lovely if there was a tree we could plant in the backyard next to the money tree that grew Godiva and Hershey? Maybe next to my mansion in Heaven.......... a girl can dream, right? LOL

Well, since that candy tree is never going to happen, I made this cute little flower garden and filled the glass pots with Valentine's Tootsie Rolls. Both of my party hostesses this weekend recieved one of these and I'm making them for Emma's teachers for Valentine's Day too.

The flower is a re-do of my original post here. I just took some of that yummy new Raspberry Tart paper and chose my color scheme from there, adding Kiwi Kiss for a contrast. The cardstock for the flower is Cameo Coral, sponged in Rose Red; Rose Red sponged in Whisper White Craft and the Kiwi Kiss is the flower "center" on top of a piece of Raspberry Tart. The pearl center from the Pretties Kit is on top of a piece of Rose Red punched with the 1/2" Circle Punch. I attached a bamboo skewer with Sticky Strip between the Cameo Coral layer and the Rose Red layer. The "leaves" are done with pieces of Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon.

The basket that is holding the little glass candy pot was created with the Baskets and Blooms Die and my Big Shot Die Cutter. I laid a 1/2 sheet of Whisper White cardstock on the die and rolled it through, cutting both pieces of the basket at once! So easy! The flowers are stamped with the Garden Greetings stamp set (our FREE stamp set from Manager's Reception at Leadership - I LOVE Stampin' Up!). I used Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss and Cameo Coral to match the cardstock and paper in the flowers. The two pieces were adhered with Sticky Strip and I attached the bottom of the flower skewer to the inside. The little glass pot slipped down inside and a few Tootsie Rolls later the candy garden was blooming!

My hostesses loved their flowers and candy - I hope you do too!

Don't forget, you can order all the supplies I used to make this project from my website www.robinstamps4u.stampinup.net Just click the "Shop Now" button on the upper right corner. Place an order from my website and you will get a FREE Idea Book/Catalog as well as a FREE Sale-A-Bration reward when you spend $50. If the Big Shot is on your list - now is a great time to get it because of all the "extras" you receive during Sale-A-Bration!

Happy Monday, everyone! Go plant your garden!

~~Robin

Blogger's Challenge #85 - Sketch Challenge

Hey everybody! I hope you all have had a good week - mine has been very busy, but I managed to make time to do this fun sketch challenge!

Our Blogger's Challenge mom, Lisa Somerville, gave us all this sketch to work from. We could create any card with it and I even went a step further and turned the sketch on it's side for my card.

I started with a Scallop Circle cut with my Big Shot Scallop Circles #2 die in Whisper White. I sponged the edges with Riding Hood Red and stamped the multi-heart image from the Love You Much stamp set in Basic Brown all over it. I colored in the large hearts with the Blender Pen and Riding Hood Red ink then stamped the images again in Riding Hood Red on Pink Pirouette. I used the Heart to Heart punch to punch them out and layered the medium and small ones over the brown stamped images on the card. Then I added a bit of 2-way Glue and sprinkled on some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter for some bling.

The card base is a 6 x 6 square of Close to Cocoa cardstock folded to make a 3" x 6" card. This size fits great in the Small Open End Envelopes. I then used my Jumbo Whimsy Wheel across the bottom of the card front in Chocolate Chip ink to create the fun background.

To add the ribbon accent, I used my Horizontal Slot punch and punched a small slit in the top fold of the card, allowing the ribbon to slide through and adhere underneath the birds in the frame. I used the Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain for that.

My little birds are also from the Love You Much stamp set and are stamped in Basic Brown then watercolored in with Blender Pens and Pink Pirouettte and Riding Hood Red inks. I attached the image to the back of a piece of Silver Hodgepodge Hardware with Mini Glue Dots. This was then adhered to a piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock punched out with the Curly Label punch. This whole embellishment covers the seam in the ribbon so the ribbon looks finished on the inside of the card.

I hope you enjoy looking at my creation as much as I enjoyed making it! I think it's very fun - I can't wait to give it away for Valentine's Day! Be sure to check out all the other Blogger's Challenge players by clicking on the link in my sidebar. You are sure to be inspired!

Don't forget, you can purchase all the products I used to create this card by shopping on my website 24/7 at www.robinstamps4u.stampinup.net Just click the Shop Now button at the top right corner! Now, while supplies last, Stampin' Up! is giving a FREE Idea Book for all online orders placed through my website. AND Sale-A-Bration is here! With every $50 order, you receive a FREE stamp set, designer series paper or Ribbon Bundle from the LIMITED EDITION Sale-A-Bration brochure! Don't miss these great specials!

Happy Friday!

~~Robin

Sweet Valentine Box

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I'm back from Emma's competition in NJ and getting back to work finally. Today's post is a fun project we did for my Love is in the Air Valentine's class. It's super cute and very fun to make.

The box is two Scalloped Envelopes cut with the Big Shot in Close to Cocoa cardstock. They are attached with Sticky Strip with a long piece of matching cardstock that wraps around the sides and bottom. It's just the perfect size for holding four little Love Note cards and envelopes!

We decorated the box with a strip of Designer Series Paper from the Riding Hood Red patterns. The front box flap is folded down and fastened with Sticky Strip. We then embellished it with a circle punched with the 1 3/4" Circle Punch in Pink Pirouette, a Close to Cocoa tag layered with the valentine greeting on Whisper White. It's stamped with Riding Hood Red and colored in with the Blender Pens and Pink Pirouette ink. This cute tag stamp is from Happy Heart Day stamp set and both tag layers were punched with the two Tag Punches. The Riding Hood Red heart comes from the Best Wishes and More stamp set and was stamped on Whisper White cardstock then trimmed out with the Paper Snips. It's mounted on Stampin' Dimensionals and adhered on top.

The cute little love note cards are 3 x 3 and are done with Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette and Whisper White. The lovebirds, from the Love You Much stamp set, are stamped in Basic Brown then colored in with the Blender Pen and Pink Pirouette ink. The heart part of the stamp is covered with a Riding Hood Red heart punched with the new Heart to Heart punch. The greeting from Best Wishes and More, is stamped along the bottom in Riding Hood Red.
For a final touch, the envelopes are stamped with the birds in the lower left corner in Basic Brown ink.

This is a great project - very easy to do and would make a great gift for any loved one for Valentine's Day!
All the supplies to make this project and much more can be found on my website at www.robinstamps4u.stampinup.net. You can go there to shop anytime, 24/7. Just click on the "Shop Now" button at the top right of the home page.

Sale-A-Bration is now in full swing and that means with every $50 you spend in merchandise purchases, you get FREE Stamps, Designer Series Paper or Ribbon! If you are ordering online, be sure to look for the special button before you submit your order. Or just contact me and I can place the order for you, no problem!

Happy stamping!
~~Robin