StarLitStudio

baby Maeve

A new baby arrived with a unique name of Maeve; I felt this card required a unique color combo to match - very different from my normal pink and peach for girl cards.

I pulled the colors together for this baby card using Memory Box's new Provence 6x6 pack.  Ellen Hutson has their new 6x6 paper packs, and she lists Memory Box cardstock colors for you on her website - I keep a post-it note listing these colors with the 6x6 paper pack to take the guesswork and time out of finding cardstock colors that work.

Marvy punches (oval and scallop) were used, and Lockhart's Baby Bib image was stamped on a corner of the 6x6 paper and cut out.  'baby' on the bib is from Lockhart's 'baby cakes' stamp sentiment.

Itty bitty buttons (Michael's craft store) were threaded and knotted and adhered with a mini Glue Dot.  Congratulations sentiment running along the card base is from Papertrey Ink (card base is Memory Box Blueberry).

A Ranger white gel pen was used on the Lockhart bib lace edging and ties.

Hero Arts adorable 'aaaaw' and 'it's a girl' complete the interior of the card along with a snippet of the lovely Provence paper.

Thank you for stopping by and happy Monday!

sources:  Lockhart stamps - the entire line, Ellen Hutson, LLC; Hero Arts stamps:  Stampin' Treasures; Ranger white gel pen, ribbon - StarLitStudio

new inchies

It is Sunday night - nearly the end of a month and the beginning of a new week! 

I'm up late, preparing for the worst:  thunderstorms are moving in here and I will have two wee ones out of bed and in here when that first crack of thunder hits!  So I'm going to make this a speedy post.

My hope is today's post will brighten your day!

Inchies are addictive, and I created a few fun Inchie magnets today for my Inchie Magnetic Display Board and using new Lockhart IB (Itty Bitty) images!

All inchies were created on White Inchie Squares* from Inchie Arts (available at www.ellenhutson.com): 

1.  Lulu Lamb - markers fill out the cute lamb's face/ears and border.  White puff paint was heat set; Glossy Accents added to LuLu's bell.

2.  Lockhart's Bouquet in green ink is the background!  Overstamped IB Lady Bug with black ink and colored in.  For border:  Stamped IB Inchie Border (is this not the cutest stamp!!) onto light brown cardstock, then punched out center with a 3/4" square punch.  Adhered to stamped Inchie Square and trimmed.

3.  Stamped IB Lavender onto Inchie Square and shaded around stamped image with pale lavender marker.  Edged inchie with a Krylon silver leafing pen; yellow bow was emphasized using Glossy Accents.

all materials used for these inchies are available at Ellen Hutson, LLC.

*Inchie Squares are made of the highest grade Alphamat Artcare museum quality preservation matboard.  Solid white archival core; acid and lignin free, plus fade and bleed resistant!  Quality.  Designed with the stamper in mind!!

silver anniversary

A silver wedding anniversary celebrates 25 years.  A few of my neighbors have celebrated this milestone, and I created this one for a special couple.

Hero Arts makes a stamp set featuring four trees (LL230), and I took one and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder.  Using dimensional flowers (Sandylion - Michaels Craft Store) two were placed on the tree - symbolizing man and wife.

The larger dimensional flower in the upper left of the card symbolizes the beautiful life they have created...together.

Clear tags are from Stampin' Treasures.

Paper is Reminisce (Archivers); Happily Ever After sentiment is Hero Arts.

I highly recommend Stampin' Treasures store - I have shopped with them over the years, and they are are premier Hero Arts Retailer - they carry an incredible and vast selection.  

Also, I am on the east coast, and Stampin' Treasures is on the west coast...yet I get my packages in three days, sometimes TWO.  Incredibly reasonable shipping and the best customer service.  And I do not say that lightly.

Being a store owner makes me both critical to stores (both online and local brick-and-mortar) and complimentary when it comes to shipping and service.  When I witness something that works, I listen, watch and learn.

With Stampin' Treasures, I have indeed found a treasure of a store, and will continue to return again and again. 

Thank you for letting me share my experience and best wishes for a wonderful weekend!!

bling butterflies

Time?  Who needs more?  I would love 36 hours in the day with a nap after lunch!  Who's with me!

Today's post produces four cards lickey-split.  I love making a single, time-consuming, detailed card once in a while, but truth be told time is so valuable lately that I love sitting down and making three or four or more at a time that are identical but can be used for a variety of occasions, depending on the interior sentiment.

Michael's Craft Store carries pre-folded, patterned, textured quality cardstock card bases and envelopes - they come in a box in the stamping aisle (50 cards & 50 envelopes).  These are reasonably priced card bases and envelopes - good quality too - but super reasonable if you factor in one of their coupons!  Practically free! 

Copic Spica Glitter pens come in a variety of colors in a cute little zip-top case.  The case is quite nice and is now in my purse to hold/organize/hide from the kids/ my pens there:  one black Sharpie fine point, one black regular Sharpie, felt pen, two calligraphy markers and a gold gel pen. 

"You know...you can tell a lot about a woman by the contents of her purse...."  (Mr. Incredible - The Incredibles).

More importantly, you can tell a crafter by the selection of pens in her purse!   Please do tell if you keep crafty pens in your purse or satchel or am I alone with this trait!?

Lockhart butterfly - this one is called Checkered.  Using Mr. Checkered I stamped him four times on white cardstock with a black Archival (Ranger) pad, then punched out each butterfly with a Marvy oval punch (the pink one).  From Memory Box Key Lime cardstock four oval scallops were punched using a Marvy punch (the purple one).

The four butterfly images were colored identically, saving time from having to reconfigure each one, then eyelets were mounted.  Two more eyelets were mounted on a strip of Memory Box Begonia. 

To save time when mounting eyelets - to make the holes equidistant from the edge - loop the cardstock strip so the ends meet, then punch one hole through both cardstock layers.  Bam - equal distance from the edge.

Layer using foam dimensionals and you have four cards without a whole lot of work!

Envelopes:  stamped once on the envelope front, then at random on the flap - reminds me of the pricey cards/envelopes I see at upscale boutiques over in Peddler's Village.

Hope everyone has an awesome Friday!!

source:  Eyelets, card bases - Michael's Craft store

everything else:  Ellen Hutson, LLC - check out her selection of piercing templates - Oh My Word!!!

chicken soup

Happy Thursday everyone!  Today's post is good for the tummy...my husband recently had his second round of gum/mouth surgery, and all the poor man can eat is soups - so soup has been...and will be.. a staple around here for a while.

When I originally saw this Lockhart 'In Hot Water' stamp I was thinking of a thank you with their sentiment "I was in hot water and you were there"...but now I see it as a get well card just from our current situation in the house with soup!!

The tiny pewter spoon charms arrived for the store and that did me in - I had to play with this image...

Using Copic markers I had fun coloring all the veggies in the soup, and from what I can see there are potatoes (I made them baby Yukon Golds!), carrots, celery, onions (made 'em purple!) and... Mrs. Chicken! I used a BV31 Copic marker and my custom BV31c marker (a Copic blender pen with about a dozen drops of BV31 refill) to outline the pot and to make the chickie pop.

The Ranger white gel pen was used to highlight the pot - I accidentally colored this elongated stamped highlight in with a marker and the gel pen came to the rescue!

Nestabilities dies were used; Memory Box Licorice, Cranberry and Pea Pod folded card base (yellow is other side of the patterned paper).

The chicken patterned paper:  with this layout you really don't see the cute chickens, so I added a big strip to the card inside, along with a Lockhart get well sentiment.   

Hope you all are feeling good on this fine June day!!

sources:  Lockhart Stamp Company - the complete line, Copic markers in individual markers or designer sets, Nestabilities dies and Memory Box paper - both cardstocks, notecards/envelopes and patterned paper - Ellen Hutson, LLC

Ranger white gel pens, pewter spoons - StarLitStudio

brad, ribbon - Stampin' Up; rooster paper - Flashbacks (timefliesdesign.net - at Archivers).  This is a layout from an old SU catalog.  Thank you for stopping by!

Boomer sympathy

My friend Bevie Pearl lost her love, Boomer, and I created this sympathy card for her.  Boomer was 11, and a wonderful dog and to lose a pet is to lose a family member, and my heart breaks for her and her family.

The patterned paper is from Michaels Craft store, and the red bandana print reminded me of those scarves a dog owner would put around their dog's neck.

Here's a close up of the ribbon accent -

The card inside features Hero Arts stamps, as is the sentiment on the card front. 

I'll get to see Bevie Pearl in Chicago next month at CHA, but until then I am sending my heart in this card.

I'm off to scratch my cat Ryan's head and love him - sorry for the sad post - I've such as soft spot for animals -

sources:  All Hero Arts stamps:  Stampin' Treasures

Memory Box cardstock and Spellbinder's Nestabilities dies - Ellen Hutson, LLC

ribbon, brads, dog bone paperclips - StarLitStudio

calla lily sympathy

Calla lilies are such a pretty flower, and I found these resin blossoms at my local Michaels craft store in the bridal section.

The decorative paper is 7gypsies, Vanilla Bean and Daffodil Memory Box cardstocks are used.  White oval scallop (Nestabilities) was run through a Swiss Dot Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Flower stems were bound with thin wire then the wire concealed with 1/8" picot trimmed ribbon.  Unit adhered with mini glue dots - lots of 'em. 

Thank you for stopping by!!!  finished card size:  A2 (4-1/4" x 5-1/2")

sources:  Memory Box cardstocks and Nestabilities dies - www.ellenhutson.com

Cuttlebug and accessories! - www.eclecticpaperie.com

ribbon, 7gypsies papers - StarLitStudio

sentiment - versesrubberstamps.com

manly apron

Oh, manly cards - these are a challenge for me!

The brand new Lockhart Apron was stamped three times onto two sheets (one distress brown, one distressed ruby) from the Stella Ruby 6x6 paper pack and once onto a white cardstock oval (Nestabilities).   After seeing the Lockhart apron on this paper it shouted "MAN CARD!" to me...

I cut the towel out of the red paper, and the whole apron from the brown.  The towel was mounted onto the apron cut out using a foam dimensional.  Brown brads were added for accents, and to give the feeling of that 'manly hardware' look...lol.

Using a dark brown Copic marker I emphasized the apron trim and the pockets.   

I cut a slit in the apron pocket top through all layers, wide enough for a strip of paper.  I stamped 'Birthday Wishes' onto this strip.  This concept is from JulieHRR, as shown in this card from kellyslattery.  Julie sent a card to me with this technique years and years ago (and I still have it...thanks Julie! ).  I added a strip to the end of the sentiment to act as a 'stopper' when pulling the sentiment out.

The adorable birthday cake, embossed on the card front, sentiment on the cardstock strip and all the interior stamps are Hero Arts - Your Hero Arts Premier Store with rapid, incredibly reasonable shipping is Stampin' Treasures.

finished card size:  A2 (4-1/4" x 5-1/2").  The Parsley (Memory Box) cardstock was chopped off to show off the scalloped oval side.

This photo shows the back of the hidden sentiment strip - since the sentiment strip was quite long, it is hidden behind the brown vertical paper strip with the scalloped edges!  Love this hidden message idea Julie!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope Julie's hidden message idea inspires you too!!!

sources:  complete Lockhart Stamp Company line, Copic markers both individually and in wonderful designer sets, Basic Grey 6x6 paper packs, Nestabilities dies and Memory Box papers - Ellen Hutson, LLC.

ribbon, brads - StarLitStudio.

nest album

Hello fellow stampers!!  Today's post was inspired by Wendy Smedley's album on page 21 of the July/August 2008 issue of Simple Scrapbooks.

I'm going to use this album to paste 'before and after' photos of household projects done around here, cuz right now the photos are just sitting in a box and I'd like to use the box... :) 

This nest (my symbol for 'home') inchie is one of the newest releases from Lockhart!  Tiny and adorable.  I repeated the Cuttlebug embossing technique on patterned paper from the adirondack relaxation card post, and built up the layers of the album cover. 

The Cuttlebug embossed Catania paper was rubbed with a Distress pad in Weathered Wood.  I bought the Flower Cuttlebug embossing folder from Joy and Daisy at eclecticpaperie.com.

For the album cover, both heavyweight and lightweight 4" square coasters were used.  My Cuttlebug will only punch through the lightweight coasters (one at a time), not the medium or heavyweight ones. 

To get around this limitation, I punched a small Nestability scallop square through a lightweight coaster for the outside cover, and a larger Nestability scalloped square into a lightweight coaster for the next layer inside.  This is because the coasters are so thick one can not punch two coasters at the same time, and to prevent mis-alignment I felt it easier to just cut the bottom coaster larger.

Plus, doing this resulted in a nice but unexpected shadow effect!

When the two front punched covers are glued together - the back looks like this.--->

The Weathered Wood Distress pad was applied DTP (direct-to-paper) to the heavyweight coaster prior to covering with the punched layer.  This three-layered unit is my album cover.  A second heavyweight coaster completes the album back.

A Crop-A-Dile was used to punch the holes through the coasters - a few at a time - and 7gypsies large creme binding rings create the book's spine!

For the nest inchie, image was stamped with a Palette pad in Noir onto a white Inchie Square, then colored in with Copic markers.  The depth/thickness of the matboard Inchie Square really draws attention to the album's focal point.  The Inchie Square was neatly edged with the chisel tip of a silver Krylon pen.

For more info on inchies please visit Lisa Lee's wondeful site at www.inchiearts.com - Lisa's site is full of ideas for inchies!!!  Thanks for stopping by!!

sources: Lockhart Stamps, Copic markers and Nestabilities dies - Ellen Hutson, LLC

7g binding rings & paper, Krylon pens, coasters - StarLitStudio

seize the cupcake...and the remote!

Oh it's Friday!!  Yippiee!!!  The kids have been invited to a birthday party tonight at the local roller rink, and this card is for the birthday girl turning six.

The birthday girl's mom is what I call a 'super mom' - she works outside the home, works out every day and has an incredible figure, Cub Scout mom, Daisy/now Brownie troop mom, verbally articulate, organized, and is a good friend to others - she's beautiful - both outside, and inside too.

And, she periodically hosts THE most fun ladies' night at her home! 

One mom of a guest contacted everyone invited and took up a collection for the little birthday girl's gift.  I volunteered to make the group card - this one - and guess what - enough was collected to get this little birthday girl a Wii!!  OMGoodness!!

So I opted to use a Hero Arts 'seize the cupcake' stamp, and added in with marker '...and the remote!'  :-D

If you are drooling at this fabulous cupcake image - it is NEW - BRAND NEW from Lockhart's summer line, ...plus....(insert drumroll~!)  there is a sale for today only - Friday, June 13th, at Ellen's store!

(Ellen Hutson, LLC's sale details:  On Friday, June 13th any order that is placed in the 13 hours between 6:00am and 7:00pm Pacific Savings Time (that is the West Coast in the United States) will receive a 13% discount on the entire order. All you need to do is remember to enter the promotion code when you reach the checkout page!   Please note that upon completion of your order the promotion price will be listed on the individual product line and not at the end of the invoice. Enter the code exactly as it is shown below during that 13 hour window and the discount is yours on any and all products posted on our webstore that day!  Promotion Code: 131313V3)

Cupcake was stamped twice - rosette icing was colored with Copic markers, cut out, then mounted with foam dots.  Square scallop mat is a Nestabilities die.  Sentiment (Rosie's Roadshow) has a scalloped edge to mimic the scalloped square.

This is a Valerie Stangle layout! :-) 

The brush tip of a Copic Sketch marker can be used as a calligraphy marker!  I outlined Hailey's name with a yellow Copic Spica marker and added black hearts using the brush tip of a black marker.  Really liked how this special envelope turned out! 

Thank you for stopping by and best wishes for a wonderful weekend!

sources:  Lockhart Stamp Company - the complete line!, Copic Markers, Memory Box Taffy and Wisteria cardstock, Copic Spica glitter pens - Ellen Hutson, LLC.

Your premiere source for Hero Arts stamps:  Stampin' Treasures.

brads, ribbon & Stickles - StarLitStudio.

Patterned paper source - Archivers - unknown brand.