MFP Blog - What a Fox

Hello! Welcome to Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Company's November Blog Hop!

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Peaceful Nuthatch
A Trip to Lancaster
What a Fox

What I liked about this scene is the "airy" look of the bare trees and the reflection in the water. It did not require much coloring -- just the sky and the fox. I did add some brown to the trees, but I'm not sure that was really necessary. The Polar White Flower Soft brought some texture into it -- giving a little more sense of winter.



I fell in love with the sentiment I used on the treat box for this set! The large single fox is sitting there just checking you out! The trees in the background are from another MFP set -- A Walk in the Woods.



Here is the inside of the box. See -- he did bring you chocolate!



Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day! We will announce all three winners on Thanksgiving Day. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. The winners will be chosen at 11PM EST on Wednesday November 23, 2011.

Lois (that's me)
Vicky
Anne
Connie
Linda
Karen H.
Patty P.
Geri
Dawn M.
Marilynn
Chrissy
Karen K.
Pam
Debbie
Brenda T
Bonnie
Harriet
Mark's Finest Papers

MFP Blog Hop - A Trip to Lancaster

Hello! Welcome to Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Company's November Blog Hop!

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Peaceful Nuthatch
A Trip to Lancaster
What a Fox

Today's set is A Trip to Lancaster. I am originally from Pennsylvania, and one of my close friends when I was young was Mennonite, a Protestant sect similar but not the same as Amish. While sharing basic beliefs, Mennonites are not as outwardly different from other Christian groups as the Amish. (so much for the religious history lesson!) In doing my research for today's card, I came across many sites which listed "Amish Barn Stars." Apparently many Amish barns have stars on them, similar to the "hex signs" or "distelfinks" you find on Amish barns. So I used an embossing folder with stars as the background for my card.

My "cheese container treat box" today does NOT contain candy. While Amish children don't eat candy, the Amish do bake cookies. So my treat box contains cookies. I painted the box black and used MFP Hurricane Gray as the scallop layer. The buggy is popped up on pop dots. Note the "slow moving vehicle" sign on the back of the buggy. These are required to be attached to the buggies to alert other drivers on the road. Some of the stricter orders of Amish refuse to attach these signs because they oppose the use of bright colors.



And here is the box open.

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day! We will announce all three winners on Thanksgiving Day. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. The winners will be chosen at 11PM EST on Wednesday November 23, 2011.

Lois (that's me)
Vicky
Anne
Connie
Linda
Karen H.
Patty P.
Geri
Dawn M.
Marilynn
Chrissy
Karen K.
Pam
Debbie
Brenda T
Bonnie
Harriet
Mark's Finest Papers

MFP Blog Hop - Peaceful Nuthatch

Hello! Welcome to Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Company's November Blog Hop!

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Peaceful Nuthatch
A Trip to Lancaster
What a Fox

My first card for this month's hop is made with the sweet little nuthatch sitting on a fence. For my background, I took a sheet of designer paper from DCWV's Photo Stack 2 and reduced it to 50% and then matted it on MFP Dark Night Navy. I added a strip of diecut icicles cut from a Marianne Design die I found at StampFest last year. I thought the icicles would complement the icicles on the fence. The image was stamped on a piece of MFP Snow Storm Smooth and cut out with a rectangle nestie, matted in another piece of Dark Night Navy and angled on the card. The image is colored with Copic markers, the sky with Pebbles Pearlescent chalks.



Last month one of the former MFP design team members, Carol Hurlock, posted a video tutorial on how to make a cute little candy box using an empty Laughing Cow cheese box. I loved it! So I decided to make several myself. Here is my first try -- using the single nuthatch from this month's set. Because it's going to be used as a little Christmas favor, I used some glitter designer paper from a DCWV matstack. To provide some depth, I stamped the nuthatch three times, cutting the bird and the pinecones out and layering them -- popping up the layers on pop dots. Coloring was done with Copic markers.

Here's the box with the lid open. As you can see, I put some Christmas wrapped candy kisses inside. BTW, there is another red scalloped piece of glitter paper on the back.

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day! We will announce all three winners on Thanksgiving Day. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. The winners will be chosen at 11PM EST on Wednesday November 23, 2011.

Lois (that's me)
Vicky
Anne
Connie
Linda
Karen H.
Patty P.
Geri
Dawn M.
Marilynn
Chrissy
Karen K.
Pam
Debbie
Brenda T
Bonnie
Harriet
Mark's Finest Papers

Playing Catch-up -- Again

I admit it -- I have been very remiss in posting to this blog. Sometimes life in general gets in the way of publishing for fun. I won't say that I will be better in the future -- but I'll certainly try.

I did participate in this weekend's Virtual Stamp Night mini challenge on Friday night. I wasn't able to make all my cards as the challenges were posted, but I did follow the 45-minute rule. My first card also qualifies for this week's Friends of Speedy the Cat challenge on the Mark's Finest Papers Blog -- to use your favorite technique. I love to mask. You can obtain lots of depth on a flat surface this way. The VSN challenge was "A Marshmallow World," and we were to put clouds (marshmallows?) on our cards. Using several of the trees from A Walk in the Woods, I created a little bit of the forest, stamping and masking as I went along. The clouds were created by sponging against a scallop circle.



This VSN Challenge was "Let It Snow." We were to use a product like flower soft or flocking to create faux snow on our card. I used an old set from Lizzie Anne Designs called Christmas in the Country. I love that snowman and the little Charlie Brown Christmas tree! I added my Polar White Flower Soft on each of the panels.



One other VSN challenge was to make a card depicting your favorite Christmas song. I won't say this is my FAVORITE Christmas song, but it is the one that brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it -- Mary, Did You Know? Here is the last verse:

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy is lord of all creation?
Did you know
That your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know
That your baby boy is heaven’s perfect lamb?
This sleeping child you’re holding
Is the great I AM.

I used a Stampin' Up set called Holy Triptych along with some MFP Dark Night Navy and Sparkling Silver cardstock to create my card.



Finally, today's Featured Stamper is Itsapassion (a/k/a Anne). I didn't have to go very far in Anne's gallery to find something to CASE. I had placed her Butterfly Postcard in my Favorites earlier in the week. I changed her butterflies to cardinals and moved the postcard embossing folder a little forward. I had purchased that folder a while ago and had never used it. I sponged the postcard folder and the tulip folder with Tim Holtz Distressed Antique Linen.



Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I hope to be able to be a bit more consistent in posting in the future.

MFP Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 8

Here we are, starting the second week of our Mark's Finest Papers' 12 Days of Christmas blog hop. I have seen so many wonderful, creative projects so far -- and today is no exception.

Candles and Christmas go together like bread and butter or salt and pepper. The first time I ever did stamping on candles I was amazed at how easy it was. With the help of my sister I followed the tutorial on Splitcoaststampers and was so pleased with the results. The images on my candles are from Cardinals in Winter and Greetings of the Season. Because the tissue paper on which you actually do the stamping is so thin, you can reverse the images before you melt them into the candle wax. I found the trick to making the images lie flat is to hold the waxed paper really tight against the candle and not to hold the heat on any longer than is necessary. Once the wax has melted enough to show an even shine on the waxed paper -- stop!



I thought it would be nice to show you how the arrangement looks when the candles are lit.



Be sure you check out all four projects for today:

Pam

Debbie M

Lois (that's me)

Linda

This is the end of my participation in the 12 Days of Christmas blog hop. Thanks for stopping by and looking at my projects. I hope you enjoy the rest of the hop. And hopefully you have gotten some great ideas for your Christmas projects.

Matting a Spellbinders Labels Die

I’ve been asked on several occasions how I make a narrow mat behind a Spellbinders die when the difference in sizes in the set are really much too wide for attractiveness. Some of the Spellbinders Labels sets do have “small” versions, Labels One and Labels Four, for example. But most of the Labels dies do not. So I have written this tutorial hopefully to make it easier for you do accomplish the look you want.



First of all, stamp your image, color it as usual and cut it out with your die. For my sample, I am using Labels Twenty-One – which has five dies. I am using the two largest dies in the set. I like the look of the white “border” around the edge of the diecut, so I sponged in the sky before removing the die.







I have found that the easiest way to make that narrow mat is to use the same die that I used to cut the focal image or background. Turn it over (blade side UP) and, using a pencil, draw around the outside of the die.





You can see the pencil line pretty well – even on dark cardstock. The cardstock I used for this card is Mark’s Finest Papers’ Dark Night Navy. But, as you can see, the pencil lines are still quite visible.



Then cut it out with your scissors. I usually turn the mat over so that there is no chance of seeing any of the pencil lines.



My card will have two different-sized layers, so I cut out a piece of designer paper with the largest die in the set – and then repeated the process of drawing around the die and cutting it out with scissors.





Here again is my finished card. You can see the difference in sizes of the two die cuts, but the narrow mat sets them both off nicely. I hope my tutorial was helpful.



Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers - Country Christmas
Paper: MFP Dark Night Navy, Snow Storm Smooth; DP from a stack of holiday paper I bought several years ago
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Tim Holtz Distressed Tumbled Glass, Chipped Sapphire
Accessories: Spellbinders Labels Twenty-One, Eclipse Masking Tape, Sponge Applicator

MFP Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 5

I hope you've been getting a lot of inspiration from all the the wonderful projects our design team members have presented so far. Speedy the Cat has been hanging out at the MFP Blog, where the action starts each day. Today's projects are acetate boxes.

I used the tutorial in the Resources section of Splitcoaststampers for my first box. The cute little snowman is from MFP Snowman Country.



My second box is somewhat larger than the first, and I confess I don't remember where I saw the directions for this one. I was making it from memory. The top and bottom pieces are empty ribbon spools, covered in designer paper. The wreath is from a new MFP set called Holly Greetings.



Be sure to check out all four blogs in today's hop.

Day 5 Acetate Box Oct 21
Lois (that's me)
Joanne
Patty
MariLynn