Squirrel Pop 'N Cut Card

Do you hear that? It's the sound of a dream shattering.

The dream of an organized studio where I have a few well organized embellishments, and when they run out I purchase a few more. That was the dream, that was the goal. To USE UP my huge embellishment hoard.

Sigh.

I found these adorable felt stickers ON CLEARANCE at Michaels after our Thanksgiving in October. I just could not walk away. Not only that, I couldn't walk away with only one or two packages - no siree. I put them ALL in my cart.  And did a little happy dance. Who needs a small stash of embellishments that are well organized? These things are SO flippin' cute!

I used one of the felt squirrels on this Thanksgiving card for a new friend ...

I added a tiny black brad for the nose, and he was ready to be attached to the card.  I am loving this Label Window insert for my Pop 'n Cut base ... and I have made several birthday cards with it to donate to Seniors Secret Service. (I'll share those another day).

I used the banner die from Karen Burniston's Border and Banners set and cut three banners. One from green, one from burgundy and one from Glimmer Paper.  (LOVE that stuff.) Each banner was cut in half, then I arranged three of the pieces on the front of the card. This is when I wish I had my Tiny Attacher with me - it would have been perfect. Glue dots had to work though ... it's all I have right now.

The remaining three banner pieces were trimmed and arranged inside the card.

I decided not to try to stamp and write directly on the printed paper, so trimmed a rectangle from a lightly patterned paper in the same stack and stamped on that. I die cut that little acorn out of a Glimmer Paper scrap, stamped the words and  the card was ready to pop in the mail. 

(Remember you can always see my Sizzix Flip-it, Pop N Cut and Accordion Flip cards by looking on the right side of my blog under LABELS then scrolling down to the 'S' section.)

Supplies used:

A2 Pop 'n Cut base with Label Window insert - Karen Burniston (Sizzix)

Butterflies and Label die (for label layers) - Karen Burniston (Sizzix)

Banner - Banner and Borders, Karen Burniston (Sizzix)

Felt squirrel - Michaels

Acorn die - Papertrey Ink

Words - Verve

Patterned paper - The Paper Studio

Black brad - from my stash

Glimmer Paper - Stampin' Up

Thanks for stopping by today.

Leafy Thanksgiving Card

I needed a quick Thanksgiving card so I pulled out my Pop 'n Cut dies.  Just one of the many reason's I love my Pop 'n Cuts ... you can put together a card that impresses in just a few minutes!

I used some fall themed paper and added a strip of Stampin' Up's Glimmer Paper. I know I've talked about this before - but I LOOOOOVE this stuff. It is such good quality - the glitter doesn't flake off and the shine is incredible.  Adding just that little strip (and believe me, I save all but the tiniest scraps of this Glimmer Paper) made such a difference in how the card turned out.

Since the goal was a QUICK card, I decided to leave the front as it was, and not add words or anything else. I always think that brings more attention to the Pop Up portion anyhow.

I used my new favourite insert - Karen Burniston's 'Sassy Label' ... and also her coordinating 'Sassy Label and Stitched Frames' Framelits. The words were stamped on the smallest Framelit in the set - I love that one. 

To give the inside a little 'shimmer & shine', I attached a scrap strip of the Glimmer Paper, and traced over the stitch lines and above/below the white strip with a Sakura Gel Pen. It catches the light when the card is turned, but doesn't show up well in photos.

Finally, I added some hand cut leaves from a gold foil embossed scrap and my card was done.

Done and in the mail ... I know the friend who receives this will be happily surprised.

(Remember you can always see my Sizzix Flip-it, Pop N Cut and Accordion Flip cards by looking on the right side of my blog under LABELS then scrolling down to the 'S' section.)

Supplies used: 
A2 Pop 'n Cut Base with the Sassy Label Insert - Karen Burniston (Sizzix)
Patterned Paper - The Paper Studio
Glimmer Paper - Stampin' Up
Sassy Labels and Stitched Frames - Karen Burniston (Sizzix)
Happy Thanksgiving - Verve

Thanks for stopping by today!

Thanksgiving Treat Bags

Good morning friends!

This year I made little treat bags to put at everyone's place for our Thanksgiving dinner. I had purchased the Tim Holtz "In the Bag" die many months ago and I haven't used it nearly as much as I thought I would.  These bags were all cut from Kraft card stock ...

I kept them fairly simple since really, my family just wants the treats inside. These were more because I wanted to do them as part of my table decorations, than they would mean 'so much' to the family. The one exception would be my Mom - I know SHE loved them, and took both hers and Dad's home with them after dinner. :-)  (Our Canadian Thanksgiving was last month.)

Just for fun, I did try an extra one with an embossing folder and that was really cute. But I didn't have the time to run each of the THIRTEEN bags through twice with an embossing folder. I just tucked the idea away for another time, because these little bags make great Gift Card Holders!

I decorated the fronts with die cut leaves, a label to pen their name, a glittery sticker and a Bakers Twine Bow.  Inside were little cello bags filled with Candy Corn, which was also tied off with Bakers Twine.

I wish I'd had the camera out and focused on Olivia when she saw she was getting a whole BAG of treats.  This Gramma has a sensible side too though, and Olivia and Ethan's cello bags were quite a bit smaller than the adult ones.  :-)


Supplies used:
Bag die - Tim Holtz "In The Bag", Sizzix
Kraft card stock - Michaels
Leaves die - "Autumn Accent's, Stampin' Up
Patterned paper - Basic Grey 
Label punch - Stampin' Up
Leaf Stickers - Jolee's Boutique

Thanks for stopping by today!

Acorn Thanksgiving Pop-Up Card

Good morning friends!

Pop-up cards are not new to me. In fact, I used to go into our kids schools at least once a year and teach the kids how to make a basic pop-up card. I'd haul all my stamps, ink pads, sponges etc and the kids would have fun learning stamping techniques and pop-ups. Oh, and Explosion Cards - they loved those too. Good times.

That being said, I haven't made a pop-up card in many years - for no other reason than I never thought to do it.  Enter Karen Burniston's Pop 'n Cut dies which I bought when we were visiting Arizona in the Spring.  Now unless I'm making my bulk cards for Seniors Secret Service -- I'm having trouble making a card that ISN'T a pop-up!

Today's share is the Thanksgiving card I sent to my friend Sue.  I have had this package of K&Co cut-away cards for quite awhile but haven't used too many of them. Now that pop-ups are on my brain, I attached two together and made a basic pop-up card...

The labels were stamped and cut and inked, and I attached the little die-cut acorn, stamped words and a scalloped die cut border.

The metal 3-d sticker on the front was in a package I found at Michaels - it worked perfectly for the front of the card.

I was pretty happy with how the card turned out, and now I'm looking at the whole package of those patterned cards with new eyes.


Supplies used:
Patterned Card - K&Co
3-d sticker - Recollections
Label dies - My Favorite Things
Happy Thanksgiving stamp - unknown
Grateful stamp - Stampin' Up
Acorn die - Memory Box
Scalloped border die - My Favorite Things

Thanks for stopping by today!

Chipmunk Flip-It Card

Good morning friends!

It's 'Flip-It Friday' and I used a new stamp set on my Flip-It card today ...

Awwww - isn't that little critter ADORABLE? The set is from Lawn Fawn's 'Into The Woods' and I am really looking forward to playing more with the stamps.  I imagined this one as chipmunk, but I have also seen him coloured as a skunk and he's equally cute.

I cut two circle Flip-It card bases - one from patterned paper and one from white card stock. I simply trimmed a little off each side of the patterned one, slid it over the white base and attached it into place. I like the white border this gave me on the card.

The squirrel was coloured with pencils and fussy cut, adding him to the little stamped & sponged scene with foam tape.

The flip side has a circle cut from patterned paper. I stamped the words from the set on a scrap of white card stock, and cut them out with the smallest label from the Sassy Label & Stitched Framelit set (Karen Burniston).  Love that little die.  :-)

 

I like to add a little label inside my Flip-It cards for an area to add a few words and a signature, so I lightly stamped the happy acorn on a punched label. While the word label was attached with foam tape, the acorn one was attached directly to the card.

Not sure who I'm sending this one to yet, I still have it out on my kitchen counter. Every time I walk by, it makes me smile.

(Remember you that you can always see my Sizzix Flip-it, Pop N Cut and Accordion Flip cards by looking on the right side of my blog under LABELS then scrolling down to the 'S' section.)

Supplies used:
Circle Flip-It Die - Stephanie Barnard (Sizzix)
Stamps - Into The Woods (Lawn Fawn)
Prismacolor Pencil Crayons
White Card Stock - Office Depot
Kraft Card Stock - Michaels
Circle Dies - Spellbinders
Sassy Labels & Stitched Frames - Karen Burniston (Sizzix)
Patterned Paper (dots) - The Paper Studio
Patterned Paper (leaves) Doodlebug Designs
Label Punch - Stampin' Up

Thanks for stopping by today!

Thanksgiving Leaves

Good morning friends!

I usually work on my cards for a particular holiday early. Really early.  Like the year before.  I had to do this as a Realtor friend would often order 20 or 30 cards for a holiday with about 2 days notice and I was tired of scrambling. With the drop in the market and my cost increases, she doesn't buy handmade cards anymore so I won't have to make quite so many holiday cards in advance.

Last years came in handy this year though, when my Mom asked for an additional couple of Thanksgiving cards.  The pretty leaf panels were already done and in my Fall Card Box, so I was able to make up two of these cards very quickly.  I simply die cut the leaf from fall coloured patterned paper, inked the edges and popped it up on the panel.

I attached the panel to the front of an A2 card and stamped the greeting & leaf inside.  Done!

I stamped the leaf on the envelope too.

Supplies used:
Patterned Paper - from my stash (leaves) and Basic Grey
Ribbon - from my stash
White card stock - Office Depot
Leaf Die - Stampin' Up
Leaf stamp - Stampin' Up
Word stamp - Inkadinkadoo

Thanks for stopping by today!

Thanksgiving 'Owl-Turned-Turkey'

Since it's now  October, I thought I'd share the 2nd Thanksgiving card I made for my parents to give the Great Grandkids.  I don't own any cute Thankgiving images, so have had to make do with what I have. For this last one, I turned the Stamps of Life Owl (owls2love) into a turkey ...

OK, you have to kind of squint to make it look like a turkey, but Ethan is only one year old  so I think we can get away with it this year.  Wink.

I think it turned out kind of cute. The tail feathers are actually the center umbrella section from the 'umbrella4you' set.

See the cloud background? I seem to be cloud obsessed these days ... cloud patterned paper, cloud dies and when I saw this cloud embossing folder, it HAD to come live at my house.  I embossed the clouds on a white panel then rubbed blue ink onto the panel with a sponge.

The ground was hand cut from a scrap of green card stock, and the fence is an old Sizzix die. I cut it from woodgrain paper, and the little pumpkins were cut from Stamps of Life dies.

Thanks for stopping by today, and ... Happy October!

Thanksgiving Snail

I had to come up with two Thanksgiving cards for my parents to give their Great Grandkids, but I don't own a single cute Thanksgiving image.  I decided to use the cute snail from 'The Stamps Of Life' and the card turned out pretty cute!

The 'ground' was hand cut from a scrap of card stock and embossed with a leafy embossing folder for texture. I punched a bunch of leaves from scrap patterned papers and sprinkled them around the fussy cut, paper pieced snail (snails2mail).  I used the clouds2cut set for the clouds ... I'm cloud obsessed these days.

The words inside are by Verve, and I added another punched leaf.  Only one more cute Thanksgiving card to come up with this year ...

Thanks for stopping by today.

Thanksgiving Flip-It Card

The other day I was messing around with some pretty fall patterned paper, my Sizzix Flip-It die and a bird stamp I haven't used in a while --  thinking I might come up with a Masculine card for Masculine Card Monday.

While it is masculine, I ended up turning it into a Thanksgiving Card! The punched label is where we can add a signature.

The words could easily be swapped out to make this a Masculine birthday card as well.  If you want details on any of the supplies used, feel free to ask in the comments.


(Remembe that you can always see my Sizzix Flip-it and Pop N Cut cards by looking on the right side of my blog under LABELS then scrolling down to the 'S' section.)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Scarecrow Cards

Well Thanksgiving is rolling around again and I find myself in the same situation as last year. Four Thanksgiving cards to make for the Grandkids and not a single cute Thanksgiving image in my possession.

Enter Pinterest.  I had pinned an adorable scarecrow card made by Rae Harper-Burnet    (http://wildwestpaperarts.com) and decided it would be perfect!  I made one for Olivia and one for Ethan  - each one with a different coloured hat.

The face and hat are creatively cut using the Stampin' Up 'Top Note' die - thanks so much for sharing this idea, Rae!

Olivia's scarecrow has a little glitter added.  :-)  I used Spellbinders dies to cut the ovals for the eyes, and the nose is a Sizzix banner die just trimmed down a little. After drawing on the mouth and attaching the nose, I ran the face through the Big Shot with a Stampin' Up embossing folder. I love that it looks like burlap!

The back side was also cut with the Top Note die, and I added an oval to stamp and write our greeting on.

I used a crimper on a scrap of kraft card stock then trimmed that down into narrow strips  & crumpled them with my hand to make the 'straw hair'. While I could have added twine etc, Olivia is only two and Ethan is one year old. Any further details would be lost on the little ones.

So these are the two cards that we will give the Grandkids. My parents will need a card for each of them as well, so I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on to come up with another two.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Dynamic Duo's Challenge #21 Cards

It's time for another colour challenge at the Dynamic Duo Blog! I think the monochromatic challenges are my favourite - although I did branch out with this one by incorporating several neutrals. Here is the challenge:

Because we can also use neutrals, I wanted to use this fabulous wreath die from Memory Box cut from brown card stock. I ran the Tim Holtz fall cluster die through my Big Shot three times. Once with Always Artichoke, once with Pear Pizzaz (because I don't have Certainly Celery) and once with kraft.  Then I added some of each colour to the bottom of the wreath.

I liked the look so much, I made three almost identical cards!

These cards started out as 5 x 6.5" cards and I was going to stamp a large word image below the wreath panel. But I decided I wanted them as square cards so cut them down to 5" square. I have all the Thanksgiving cards I will need for this year, so these will be going into my box for Thanksgiving 2013.  Haha - hope I find them, since I still have not located my Halloween stickers in my studio. They must be in a safe place too.

I used an embossing folder called "Give A Hoot" for the texture, the silk ribbon is from PTI and the ribbon is from Stampin' Up. The first card has lots of pale green bling on it while the card below has none.

The final card has just a sprinkling of bling around the leaves.

I have used my  few Thanksgiving verse stamps so many times over the years that I think it's time for a new one. I will have to keep my eyes open, as verse stamps are hard to come by.

Be sure to check out the wonderful submissions from the Dynamic Duo Design Team, as well as the other two Guest Designers for September!

The Dynamic Duos Challenge Blog

Allisa Chilton

Allyson Andersen (GD)

Anne Marie Hile

Anika Lerche

Karen Aicken (GD)   That's me!!

Kim Singdahlsen

Lesley Croghan

Lisa Elton

Michelle Bala (GD)

Melissa Chipperfield

Paige Grabau
Sue Joyce