February 2014 - My Paper Pumpkin

Today is gray and rainy here.  Everyone in my McFamily is trying to find a way to stay busy -  making breakfast and watching golf, watching movies, making bead necklaces, putting together baby equipment or reading.  Myself, I've been trying to scrapbook for about 4 hours and I've done one 8 x 8 Simple Stories page in Michael's 12 month book. 

Because my time is so not my own between Callie and Michael, I used the February My Paper Pumpkin kit to help me with the scrapbooking I can get done.  The kit came with 5 high quality kraft bags, ribbons and clothespins, baker's twine, letters & scallop die cuts, Pistachio Pudding Stampin' Spot, and 2 circular photopolymer stamps. 

I used one of the bags and hooked on the letters for "photo".  The bags assembled quickly and would be ideal for giving sets of cards to friends and families.  Personally, I'm using the bag I made for when I print out my photos for 2014 so I can write on them and then store them until I have another window to scrapbook.

Stampin' Up! is also allowing for current subscribers to purchase refills for past kits that they have received.  These bags are such great quality that I'm thinking of buying more to help with my holiday gifts!  Check out this link to see kits that are available for purchase!

Don't forget that you have two more days to enjoy Sale-A-Bration!

Have a craftastic day,
Stacy

Kid Friendly Crafting - Egg Carton Flowers

As I search for today's kid friendly craft to take to our play date, I thought I would post the craft Callie and I completed last week.  The project was inspired by this post found on Pinterest.

Step 1: Cut out all the cups from the paper egg carton.  Cut the sides into fours or eights depending on the size of the carton.  Bend down the edges carefully so they don't tear off.

Step 2: Put cling wrap around the other half of the egg carton and add your paint to it.  I recommend the Crayola Washable paints just for clean up purposes but I'm OCD that way!  :)  The plastic wrap keeps the paint from being sucked into the other half of the egg carton.


Step 3: Give your child the paint brush and the paint and let them go to town.  We used this craft to show how colors mix together to create other colors.

 

Step 4: Create a circle ring using cardboard.  Mine is about 12" in diameter but you can use any size you'd like.  A 12" ring will require about 15 cups. Paint and set aside. 

 

Step 5: Once painted, let everything dry.  Punch two holes to the top of the ring and thread a ribbon through it for hanging.  Use a hot glue gun to attach the individual flowers to the ring.

Step 6: Put Elmer's glue into the individual cups and pour in glitter, beads, buttons, or anything else shiny that the child enjoys! 

Callie is 3 1/2 years old and we came back to this project several times during the day.  She didn't have the attention span to do it all in one sitting.  But she has shown it off to everyone that has come to visit so she's very proud of it no matter how long it took!

Have a craftastic day,
Stacy

March 2014 My Paper Pumpkin Samples

A month ago, I brought a beautiful little boy into the world.  Between him and my very active pre-schooler that isn't in pre-school, my crafting times have been few and far between.  During this month, I have truly been able to embrace the My Paper Pumpkin product line that Stampin' Up! sells.  It has allowed me to get creative juices flowing while only having to break out a box and my scissors and adhesive.  It doesn't get easier than that.  If I want to follow instructions, I can.  If I want to get daring and do something different, I can do that too.  But all of that crafting energy is funneled into 30 minutes and leaves me with something to show for it and give away to someone else that might be having a hard time or a birthday or have something great happening in their lives too!

Whew, that was a long sentence!

I have two nieces getting ready to graduate from college and high school.  I cannot believe that as I look into the eyes of my own child born 1 month ago yesterday.  I am old.  But that isn't the point of the post - the point is that I will need to have some Congrats cards ready to put with their gifts since these are a few of life's milestones that cannot be ignored!

Thanks to My Paper Pumpkin, I have both of these events covered.  I also have several thank you cards ready for those that are helping with the baby or bringing out items to help my family.

This month's kit had supplies for EIGHT cards, two photopolymer stamps, two Stampin' Spots in Island Indigo and Calypso Coral, 8 gold inserts and envelopes, and embellishments.  That's quite the load!

The first cards I made were just like the samples in the instructions but I flipped the ink colors from what is on the instructions.

On this card I attempted to stamp the word cut element but I was crooked.  Yes, even with completely clear photopolymer stamps, I can be off-center.  Anyhow, I then dragged the word through the ink and attached it to the card.  The words are mounted on a piece of the gold insert that was cut down to 3 x 4.  I also stamped on the back of the insert and cut out an Indigo arrow to put on the bottom of the card.

The final card I finished was done with the Calypso Coral ink but is like the sample above, using the insert scraps and inking the wood element.

I hope you enjoyed these samples.  If you haven't yet joined My Paper Pumpkin, you can do so by March 31st and get a free set of 2012-2014 In Color markers with your Starter kit.  Check out https://mypaperpumpkin.com/en/?demoid=80380 for more information on this awesome promotion and product line.

Have a craftastic day,
Stacy

Valentine's Day Card - Adult Version

Yesterday I posted a kid friendly craft and today I am posting my "adult" version.  Before your mind goes someplace it shouldn't, the adult version is simply made using cardstock and supplies too hard for tiny little hands!

The base of the card was made using My Digital Studio and printed out on Whisper White cardstock.  I then used my Trimmer to cut it out so I could layer it on the full card.  I love using our Printing Services but when doing quick cards, it's sure nice that I can get so close on the color with my HP printer.

 

The heart is done using the Heart punch and filled with Blushing Bride ink.  Then I layered about 50 little hearts of Cherry Cobbler on it.  You have to use glue dots on the top layer to get them to stick!  I punched one Whisper White heart from the inside of the card too so that it could layer on the front for a little contrast.

The inside was also done in MDS so I could keep the inks consistent!  The message is "So it's a good thing I have two hearts in me right now!" since we have two more weeks (hopefully) until Michael joins our little family in person!

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
• Accesssories: Small Heart Punch, Glue Dots, Bone Folder, Adhesive
• MDS: _Designer Kits\Love More\Love More - my heart skips a beat, Color = CHERRY COBBLER 165,30,44  Punches     Hearts\Full Heart Punch, Fill Color = BLUSHING BRIDE 243,182,177  Page 4 Supply List Embellishments 

I hope you have a good Valentine's Day with your loved ones.  Tomorrow I'll be posting Callie's Valentine butterflies. 

Have a craftastic day,
Stacy

Kid Friendly Valentine's Day Cards

KID-FRIENDLY HOLIDAY CRAFT

Hello everyone!  It's play date Wednesday and today I had my stuff together enough to finally complete our Valentine's Day cards!

First, you have to make the card base.  I chose to use My Digital Studio because I wanted to have a heart to start with that really looked like a heart! Plus it let me choose my font. 

To create the card base, I created a custom project that was 8 1/2 x 11.  I added a heart punch and matted it with black.  Remember to change the color of the punch to Whisper White or it will print a gray color and that doesn't look so good with the hearts!  Add a text box to the bottom with your favorite font and then print to your printer on printer paper!  I've found that the glue sticks work best on printer paper for the kids versus using cardstock but if making a more "refined" project you could use our cardstock instead of construction paper and printer paper.

To make the hearts, I pulled out several heart punches from Stampin' Up! and a few sheets of red and pink construction paper.  Since the kidlets are both 3, it's easier for them to punch out of thinner paper than with our cardstock.  I will post mine tomorrow which is done using SU! products only!  The kids use colored glue sticks to put the glue all over the heart - this lets them see where the glue is so they can place their hearts on it. 

Callie ended up making one for me and her daddy, her Nana, and her Papa.

Henry liked this project more than he'd admit.  :)  I love this photo.  I took 7 and got 7 different expressions.

I also was messing around with the scraps and took some photos of the kids through the heart punch out on the contruction paper.  I think there is a fun technique in there that I just need to refine!

Here are some additional specials since I forgot to post them yesterday!

NEW WEEKLY DEALS

Click the image for more information.

NEW DIGITAL DOWNLOADS

Click the image for more information.

Have a craftastic day,
Stacy

New Weekly Deals and Products - 2/4/2014

Just a few updates to get in front of you.  Four weeks left to go before Michael gets here so I've been frantically trying to get through scrapbooking as many photos as I can!

WEEKLY DEALS

 

Click the image to see more details.

 

NEW DIGITAL DOWNLOADS

 

Click the image to see more details.

 

NEW PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SETS

 

Eye-Catching Ikat Photopolymer Stamp Set - Click the image to see more details. 

Greetings From Photopolymer Stamp Set - Click the image to see more details.

Check back tomorrow for more new photopolymer images!

Have a craftastic day,
Stacy

Sale-a-Brate with Mini Envelope Books

The final project from my envelope punch board class is this cute hanging envelope holder.  I have been obsessed with making a version of this with the punch board since I bought it.  I created one last year with the Sent with Love Simply Sent Kit but liked the idea of using various Sale-a-Bration products in a single fun sample. 

The envelopes are 3 x 4 and you can get 4 out of a 12 x 12 sheet since you start with a 6 x 6 square of DSP.  In this case, it's a piece of Sweet Sorbet DSP.  Follow the grids on the Envelope Punch Board to make the envelopes and layer them over each other.  The inserts are 3 3/4 x 2 3/4 so you can get 4 of them out of a 1/2 sheet of cardstock.

First thing I taught was how to make these fun fringe flowers.  In this case, I put a magnet on the back, adhered with Crystal Effects, to hold the album on the wall.  To make the flower, take a piece of designer paper, any size really, and put a strip of adhesive on the bottom. Fold over but do not score or you will have a very sharp petal on your flower instead of a loop.  Once adhered, use the fringe scissors and cut to about 1/2 inch.  Then put adhesive on the unfringe portion and roll.  This flower was a 10 x 2 piece.

I wanted to show the My Digital Studio (MDS) product as well as the stamp sets and accessories from the brochure.  In this first envelope, I used the Decorative Dots stamp from the MDS download and colored it Pistachio Pudding.  Then I printed it on Whisper White cardstock and punched it out with my Banner Punch.  It's stapled on a piece of Crisp Cantaloupe.  I also did one in Crisp Cantaloupe and punched those out with the Banner Punch.  Since I didn't get the You're Lovely stamp set, I used the MDS version to cut out and layer on another piece of DSP from the Sweet Sorbet DSP and put the banners behind it.

The second envelope has a tab directly from the Banner Blast stamp set in Crisp Cantaloupe and is punched out with the Banner punch.  The little banner on the bottom is done with the MDS Decorative Dot image and it's scored twice to create an elevated banner.  The flower on it is from the Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack.  I colored the cork with the fat tip of the Crisp Cantaloupe marker to pull it into the color combo.  Please note: If you use this cork, it's beyond sticky so where it rests is where it will stay..... :) You have been warned!

The third envelope leverages the Summer Starfruit Twine from the Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack.  The rest of the Pistachio Pudding Decorative Dots was punched out with the Decorative Label framelit and then I did the See Ya Later in Basic Black in MDS and punched that out again with a framelit.  The banner is another piece of Sweet Sorbet DSP hooked to the top of the Crisp Cantaloupe insert.

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Crisp Cantaloupe, Whisper White, Sweet Sorbet DSP
• Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe
• Stamp Set: Banner Blast
• Accessories: My Digital Studio, One Big Sale-a-Bration 2014 Download, Big Shot & Cutting Mats, Magnetic Platform, Decorative Labels, Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack, Banner Punch, Dimensionals, Adhesive, Scissors, Crisp Cantaloupe Marker, Envelope Punch Board, Fringe Scissors, Magnet, Crystal Effects

Have a craftastic day,
Stacy