CCEE2227 - National Tape Measure Day

Here's a holiday I never heard of before -- National Tape Measure Day.  My challenge to the CCEE Stampers this week was to make a card incorporating a tape measure or something else used in sewing our their cards -- either some kind of a sewing-related image or perhaps stitching. 

Did you ever buy a pack of patterned paper for ONE particular design?  This happened to me about six or seven years ago when I saw a card made with tape measures on it.  I had just a few strips left, so I used them on this card.  The "Hi" was made with Karen Burniston's new Mini Alphabet & Letters die set.

On the inside I used the new Karen Burniston Mini Ball Pop-Up, decorated with some cute sewing-related buttons I found at Hobby Lobby.  The other pair of scissors are from KB Office Charms.  I'm hoping sewing charms are on her "wish list."  The stamps are from a very old MFP Stamp Shop set.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog for some more sewing inspiration.

CCEE2206 - National Embroidery Month

Liz informed the CCEE Stampers that February is National Embroidery Month.  Her appropriate challenge was to make use of stitching, faux stitching, cross-stitching, or any other embroidery stitching you might want to feature on your card.   For many years, my hobby-of-choice was doing counted cross-stitch.  I haven't done it in a while, but I still have lots of embroidery thread in a container in my closet.  And I'm sure I've got some unfinished projects in there as well.   

Cottage Cutz has a set of cross-stitch bordered dies, so I pulled out the oval ones to use on my card today.  After cutting out the oval, I used a blue pen to emphasize the stitching around the edge.  I didn't have a stamp specific to embroidery, but at least she's sewing!  And I've even included an example of one of my counted cross-stitch pieces in the photo.  I think I did that one about 25 years ago.

The inside of my card adds a bit of a surprise -- a pop-up element using the Karen Burniston Oval Frames Pop-up, decorated with some appropriate "sewing" images.  The scissors are one of the dies from Karen Burniston's Office Charms, and the other three items are stamped images from a stamp set from my old days on the MFP Stamp Shop design team.

Be sure to visit the CCEE Stampers blog for some more examples of embroidery-related cards.

STAMPtember -- Simon Says Stamp meets Riley & Company

STAMPtember is a fun month of collaborations between Simon Says Stamp and various other stamp companies.  Today that company is Riley & Company, and they produced a cute stamp set called True Friends.

The Karen Burniston (KB Riley, LLC) Design Team got to play with this cute set to show it off.  As I have become addicted to slimline cards, that is what I made -- using the Karen Burniston Katherine Label Pop-Up die and a few dies from a couple other sets.    I created a background with one of my favorite techniques -- Bokeh Background -- using several Ranger Distress inks and some sponge daubers.  I "attached" the little sign with a push pin from the Karen Burniston Office Charms.  Be aware that there is a coordinating die set to go along with the stamp set, but I fussy cut Riley and his friends before popping them up on foam pop dots.

I carried the Bokeh Background to the inside along with the Happy Birthday phrase die and the Katherine Label, one of my go-to Karen Burniston dies.  I added three copper sequins to coordinate with the copper-colored trim cardstock.

That stamp set was such fun I decided to make a second card, this time using the Karen Burniston Frame Pull Pop-Up die set.

When you pull that little arrow/tab, up pops the frame.  Those scissors are from Karen Burniston's Office Charms set.

I want to thank Simon Says Stamp for giving me the opportunity to play with the cute new set.

Karen Burniston Sneak Peek #2 -- Office Charms

I've got another sneak peek at a new Karen Burniston die set today, this time one of her cute charms sets -- OFFICE CHARMS.  Karen has so many clever charms dies and this one is no exception.  It has all those essentials you need in an office.

I combined several of them on this Circle Charm Pop-up card, which could be a gratulations card for a new job or a job well-done.  Several of the charms in this set are larger versions of dies already in the Karen Burniston arsenal  (the binder clip and the push pin) along with several new ones (the scissors, the pencil, and the paper clip, as well as a heart).

I've been having lots of fun using the new dies Karen Burniston has for us this release.  They are all very generic, so you can use them all year 'round.