Thursday, February 28, 2019

CCEE1909 Tooth Fairy Day

Maryann ends her month as hostess for the CCEE Stampers by telling us that today is Tooth Fairy Day and asks us to include a fairy on our cards.  It just so happens that Kindred Stamps has a stamp-of-the-month club for Wacky Holidays, and this month's stamp is also celebrating Tooth Fairy Day.  How fortuitous!!!  I pulled out my Karen Burniston Frame Pull Pop-Up die and made this card, which I have sent to my dentist.  I hope he likes it!



Be sure to check out the CCEE Stampers blog for some more fairy cards.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

CCEE1908 - Lever Card

Maryann continues as hostess for the CCEE Stampers, and this week she asked us to make an interactive card -- specifically a LEVER CARD.  I had never made one of these before, so I looked at the Splitcoaststampers tutorial she referenced.

I used a fun Kindred Stamps set called Science Geeks and some "geeky" patterned paper for my card.



Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see some more lever cards; and, if you've never made one, I invite you to give it a try!

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

A Bit Spotted -- Kindred Stamps New Release

I have another brand-new stamp set from Kindred Stamps to show you today -- A Bit Spotted.  It's a small set (4" x 4") but has quite a few images in it.  There is also a stencil which coordinates very nicely with the set.  I used it on two of my cards.

I have a soft spot in my heart for this set because, as a kid, I had a Dalmatian named Patches.  As you probably know, Dalmatians are sometimes called Firehouse dogs.  This was during the time when many people still smoked cigarettes.   I don't know if this trait was inbred or what; but, if someone threw a cigarette onto the ground, Patches would pounce on it, as if to put out the lit portion of the cigarette.  My father's friends would throw down cigarettes on purpose, just to see Patches do his little trick!

Anyway, I have three cards to show you today -- one is simple and the other two are more interactive.  This set lends itself very nicely to a Red/White/Black color combination, and all three cards use that color combination.  The first one is a tag book card made with the Karen Burniston Circle Tag Book Pop Up die.


I used the smaller set of coordinating stickers on the inside of this card -- and the stencil on both the inside and the outside.


My second card is the clean and simple one, although I did dress it up just a little.   I masked the center of the card front, sponged the "frame" around the outside using the stencil, and then embossed with a rectangular die.  After stamping and coloring the two dogs, I matted that piece and adhered it to the center.


My final card is a waterfall card, which I made using the Karen Burniston Frame Pull Pop-Up die.  


Notice on the inside panels, I pulled out some random words from the three sentiment stamps in this set and stamped them on the left-hand panels.




There is space on the back of the card to sign your name.


I hope you like what I did with this set.  It was lots of fun and brought back some memories from my childhood!

The entire Kindred Stamps February release will be available Friday, February 22nd at 8am PST/11am EST.  Be sure to check out the Kindred Stamps blog on Friday for the full product release as well as the complete line up of all the Kindred Stamps Design Team projects from release week!  If you visit and comment on all of the designers' blogs this week, you could win $15 in Kindred Stamps shop credit!  So join the Fan Club and release event, show the design team some love, and get ready to empty those wallets this Friday!

Friday, February 15, 2019

A Spot of Tea?

You don't usually build your card around a sentiment, but that's exactly what I did for my card today.  As I was looking at Kindred Stamps' The Next Space Explorers, the Earl Grey sentiment struck me.  As a tea-drinker, it was the perfect place to start.



I went on-line and found a tea cup template and printed it out.   After folding a piece of light blue cardstock, I laid the template along the fold and cut out my cup.  I had found some narrow sparkly washi tape in Hobby Lobby last week, and it looked like the perfect trim for my tea cup.  I then glued down my fussy-cut captain onto the cup and popped on some sequins.

Thursday, February 14, 2019

CCEE1907 Love One's Birthday

Maryann continues as the CCEE Stampers hostess for this Valentine's Day.  She told us that it is also her birthday and asked us to make a birthday card for someone we love.  I'm not sure who will ultimately get this birthday card, but I have to tell you that I loved making it!  I used the new Karen Burniston Woven Basket.





As you can see, it folds flat for mailing.


I invite you to hop over to the CCEE Stampers blog to see some more loving birthday cards.

Happy Valentine's Day

The Karen Burniston Woven Basket Pop-Up lends itself to so many different occasions.  As you can see, today it's looking like Valentine's Day!


The large heart in the background was created by a punch (as were the two small, layered ones on the front), but the smaller ones within the bouquet are from the Karen Burniston Heart Pivot Panels die.  They worked so well on this Valentine.  The two different sizes make layering very easy.


I have already given this card to my Stampin' Up demonstrator -- the sentiment on the large heart is an old Stampin' Up sentiment stamp.  She loved it!

Friday, February 8, 2019

Boldy Celebrate Your Birthday

It's always fun to be able to share a Kindred Stamps card with you.  I'm such a geek, and their stamps are right up my alley.  Today is no exception.  Today I have an easel card made with The Next Space Explorers set.  Easel card are so easy to make and yet make a great impression.


I had found a great pad of patterned paper called Stargazer in Hobby Lobby several months ago -- with lots of designs that lend themselves to several of the "outer space" sets that Kindred Stamps has released.   After creating the easel, I stamped, colored and cut out the character for the front and popped him up on foam dots.  The "Happy Birthday" sentiment die is from Karen Burniston.  I cut it out five times (four from gray cardstock and one from silver paper) and layered them together so that the sentiment would stand out from the background.  Then added a few sequins for good measure.

I used one of the coordinating stickers for the "bumper" on the inside to make the easel stand up.


Actually, what I did was put the sticker onto a scrap of heavyweight white cardstock and cut it out so that the bumper would be very sturdy.  There's a large foam adhesive pop-dot on the underside of the sticker.  As you can see, the easel stands up very nicely.

HINT:  To conserve on the more expensive silver paper, I cut the sentiment from one of the matting panels.  It was going to be covered up anyway!

Thursday, February 7, 2019

CCEE1906 Amethyst for February

Maryann is the CCEE Stampers hostess for the month of February.  She reminded us that the birthstone for February is the amethyst and asked us to make a card using a shade of purple and include gem stones or charms.   Purple is one of my favorite colors (along with orange), so this challenge was a delight!  I pulled out a new Karen Burniston die -- the Circle Tag Book Pop-Up -- and made an Easter card.




I added some gem stones to the front, and on the inside I used some of the new Karen Burniston Easter charms -- the chocolate bunny and the Easter eggs.


Be sure to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see some more purple creations.

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Karen Burniston DT Challenge -- Love, Sweet Love!

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and the Karen Burniston Design Team Challenge this month is all about love -- Love, Sweet Love.  Of course, there's a bit of a twist involved.  We had to include some chocolate on our cards.  Who doesn't love chocolate?

I must admit that I have a favorite die from January's release -- the Woven Basket Pop-Up.  I used it, as well as some of the dies from the new Ice Cream Sundae dies for my card.


Ice cream is one of my downfalls, which is why I don't buy it for my freezer very often.  But this ice cream has no calories whatsoever!  I used a couple of sweet sentiments from My Favorite Things to convey my message of Love, Sweet Love.  And there's lots of chocolate on this card as well -- mainly the fudge sauce, but there's also a scoop of chocolate ice cream back there in the sundae.


The "love you" on the front is from Word Set 9 - Love, and the heart at the back is a punch.  I used some small hearts from the Karen Burniston Heart Pivot Panel die and the balloon strings from the Explosion Pop-Up.


One thing I love about this Woven Basket is that it folds flat for mailing.


I hope you like this calorie-free ice cream delight!

Friday, February 1, 2019

A Good Day to Celebrate

Masculine cards are not always the easiest ones to create; but, if the man or boy has a particular interest, it's much easier to create something personal.  The card I have today is one that I'm sure would appeal to a sci-fi lover!  I used the Kindred Stamps set called The Next Space Explorers as well as one of their stencils.



As you can see the background was made by sponging several different distress inks onto light blue cardstock -- using the Swirl stencil.  After sponging on all the colors, I cut the panel down to 4" x 5 1/4" -- to layer onto an A2 card base.


I stamped the Next Space Explorers captain onto a piece of white cardstock and colored him with Copic markers.   The image itself did not have an emblem, so I improvised and drew a small emblem with a white gel pen.


After fussy-cutting out the captain, I adhered him to the center of the swirly background, stamped the sentiment, and added a die-cut "Happy Birthday" greeting at the top -- then glued the panel to the navy blue card base.  I think any space nerd would enjoy getting this card.


Scor-Pal February Challenge -- Anything Goes

The Scor-Pal Challenge team is back to work again after our little holiday in January.  The challenge for February is "Anything Goes."  I took the opportunity to use a brand-new stamp set from Kindred Stamps that I just love -- Size Doesn't Matter.  If you are familiar with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, you will recognize my small characters.


I made a fun card using my Scor-Pal -- a Z Box Fold card.  If you've never made one, it's pretty easy.  Here is a link to a tutorial for you to reference if you give it a try.  The person who wrote the tutorial used a different type scoring tool, but I used my 12" x 12" Scor-Pal for the scoring.


The breakfast items for both first and second breakfast were made with several dies from CottageCutz.

Pop on over to the Scor-Pal blog and check out what the rest of the team made for this challenge.  And, by the way, the Scor-Pal team is having a Design Team Call.  If you think you'd like to be part of our team, make a card and post it on the blog.