Carte Post-It!

I was sooooooooooooooooo happy to learn that Carte Postale made it into the new (Fall/Winter 2007) Stampin' Up! catalog!!! It is one of my very favorite sets from last year's mini-catties! So, I hastened to put together this FUN project! It just took me a while to get it posted! LOL!

I realize the Enchante' papers are retired, BUT the same design is available in NEW COLORS in the new catty!!! How fun!

This is a Post-It note holder, made with the heavy-weight coasters, Bind-It-All, and binding wires I got at eclectic Paperie (eP). Daisy and Joy are AWESOME to work with!!! So is the Bind-It-All! It can punch thru this heavy coaster with no trouble whatsoever!!! I did discover, however, that a heavy-weight coaster + designer paper (on both sides of the coaster) + card stock + twill tape makes it all a little too thick to place into the punching slot... So I don't think I'll put twill tape there next time! LOL!!! I ended up using my 1/4" circle hand punch to make the holes where the twill tape was.

This is the inside of the post-it holder. I used the other side of the paper that I had adhered to the outsides of the covers. Crystal Effects makes a GREAT glue for this. After adhering the papers, I sanded the coaster edges, punched the spine, and started embellishing with ribbon (twill tape & Ribbon Originals - Prep School - celery) and card stock. Tab was created with SU!'s tab punch. Layered medallion was stamped in Perfect Plum and colored with Watercolor Crayons and markers.

Once the ribbons were on, I bound the coasters together with the binding wires.


Then came the MOST FUN part! I LOVE making little 3-D embellishments! The larger flower was created by cutting a flower out of one of the Enchante' papers, adding the central flower and a black Vintage mini-brad, and shaping the petals. The smaller flowers were made by cutting out the flower from the medallion stamp in Carte Postale, after stamping it on different Enchante' papers and shaping the petals. The two flowers on the right also have the smaller, central flower, cut from paper in another shade or tint of the plum. Add a black Vintage mini-brad to the centers and you are done!

The leaves are simply the central flower stamped on celery DP and cut in half. I made the little bud with 1/2 of a plum flower and 1/3 of a celery flower. Roll the three plum petals into a cone shape and adhere the overlapping sides. Roll the two celery petals into a cone and adhere to the outside of the plum bud. Adhere to cover as desired. That's it!

Candy Sushi!

*GIGGLE!!!* So, aren't you tickled when you get an idea and it turns out EXACTLY like you were hoping?!? Well, I have to say, I just had one of those awesome experiences!!! I found this candy nigirizushi recipe (with the Swedish Fish) on AllRecipes.com, and once that turned out (SOOOOOO CUTE!!!), I had to move on with a lightbulb idea I had when making the nigiri... the makizushi (rolled sushi)!!! Check it out! I'm absolutely beside myself with glee!!! Hee, hee!!!

The base of both is just the Rice Krispie treat recipe. The nigiri base is hand-formed and set aside to cool. Then, the Swedish Fish are placed on top and Fruit by the Foot is wrapped around the entire piece, in the middle. Voila! Nigiri!!! (Aren't they adorable?!? Hee, hee!!!)

Here's a close-up of the nigiri...

The embellishments -- er, I mean, *garnishes* (I think I've got stamping on the brain! LOL!) are as follows:

"Grass": Glorious Green CS, cut just right

"Gari" (ginger): Sliced Laffy Taffy

"Wasabi": Molded Laffy Taffy

Hee, hee!!! I tickle myself!!!



And, here is a closeup of the maki:

The "innards" are made of Laffy Taffy, Chocolate Twizzlers, and Twizzler Pull-Aparts (hard to see... It's the little red dot).

Lay out 2 Laffy Taffy colors (green and yellow or orange) and stick them together. Add the thin red string on one side of seam and the chocolate on the other.

NOTE: Prepare all your candy strips first, or your Krispies will harden too much to mold (don't ask me how I know this! LOL!).

To assemble: Lay out a piece of waxed paper on the counter. Scoop some Krispies from the pan and form a small rectangle with it -- long enough to go the length of the candy and 3x as wide. Lay set of candies in middle of rice and wrap rice around candy, forming it into a log. Try to ensure the candy is in the center of the log, for the best results. Mold fairly tightly, to ensure it all stays together. Set log aside and finish others. Allow logs to cool COMPLETELY. Wrap each log with Fruit by the Foot (FBTF -- spiral wrap is good, overlapping edges just a tad). Press ends of FBTF to seal. Slice logs with VERY sharp, buttered knife, cleaning it as necessary. Enjoy!!!

Grad Season!

'Tis the season to honor graduates, so I made several graduation cards, all in their school colors! All the high school graduates in our youth group were girls, so I got to make a more girly card, instead of a more generic one. I've been wanting to use this Stampendous! Agapanthus Cluster stamp, so the grads gave me the opportunity to use it a bunch!

Aside from the Agapanthus stamp and the Cuttlebug embossing folder, all supplies are from Stampin' Up!

For the background pattern, I "Cuttlebugged" some brushed silver and gold CS, punched the panels with the ticket corner punch, and adhered the panel to the colored CS base (in this case, Brilliant Blue and Bravo Burgundy). Stamped the agapanthus and "rivet" in the card base color, distressed the flower panel with my distressing tool, then DTP'd the edges of the images with the appropriate Encore! metallic color (silver or gold). I then backed the images with CS and mounted the flower panel on the card. I made a slit in the card's fold for the grosgrain ribbon, then wrapped teh ribon around the card front and tied it in a square knot. Attached the rivet over the ribbon's knot with Dimensionals, allowing the ribbon ends to hang out of the center hole and then trimmed them to length.

Here is a closer view of one of the cards:

The following photo is the inside of the card... Guess I got carried away with the innards! LOL! Actually, I needed to add more sentiments and a short note to each of the grads, so this layout enabled me to do just that. Again, I used the ticket corner punch and DTP to add depth and personality.

So, that is my foray into the world of graduation cards this year! Fun stuff!!!

Enchanting Fresh Bloom!

This Fresh Bloom stamp by Stampendous has me enthralled! Its simple beauty just screams, "Stamp with me! I'm FUN!!!" And, indeed, it is! Thanks, Daisy, for enabling my habit with your wonderful products!!! (This stamp is carried by Daisy & Joy in their online store, eP -- see previous post for link.)

So, I made some very-belated birthday cards with it (inspired by Julie HRR many weeks ago!) that should have been sent LOOOOOOONG ago! Didn't take too long, either, amazingly enough!!! (LOL!!! Did you know I get "paralyzed by perfection" all the time?!?) But, when I determine that SIMPLE is the key word, I don't get sidetracked by labor-intensive techniques that add a bunch of time to the project! LOL!


At any rate, here is the finished product -- two 4"x4" cards, using the Enchante' papers and coordinating card stock from Stampin' Up! Here are the deets...

For this card, I made a 3.75"x 3.75" card from one of the Enchante' papers, then backed it with a black 4"x4" square. I stamped the bloom off-center, then added the sentiment from the It's Your Birthday set (SU!). Feeling a need for embellishment, I added the Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the bloom center and stamens. Topped it off with a black organdy ribbon and, viola'! The card was complete! This card was created using the reverse side of the designer paper (DP) used above -- don't you think this fresh and youthful side is more appropriate for a 12-year-old girl?!? So fun! The bloom was stamped onto a piece of 3.75"x4.75" acetate with Staz-On ink. Once the ink was dry, Dazzling Diamonds glitter was adhered to the back side of the bloom with my 2-way glue (every girl likes glitter, right?!? LOL!). The extra inch of acetate was folded over (after scoring) so it could be attached to the back of the DP. The sentiment was stamped onto the reverse side of a scrap of the same DP, then trimmed to fit and attached to the DP card. The flourishes (from SU!'s Carte Postale set) were stamped onto the DP, eye-balling placement around the bloom. I should have used my Stamp-a-Ma-Jig for better placement, but I was in a hurry! LOL! The finishing touch was to attach the bottom of the acetate to the DP card with SU!'s Vintage brads in silver. A sweet card, don't you think? I hope she likes it!

Dutch Girl Birthday

My friend Corina is THE ORIGINAL Dutch Girl!!! LOL!!! seriously, she immigrated to the states from Holland when she was about 7 years old... So she even speaks the language! (Lucky lady!!!) And, she just celebrated her birthday this week!

Anyway, I thought that the Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl papers would be PERFECT to use for her birthday card! ( know -- sometimes I'm in definite "cheesy" mode!!! LOL!) So, using the Dutch Girl crafting kit, I swiped the die-cut "C" from the letter pages and backed it with Stampin' Up's Ruby Red card stock, for a border. Ruby Red matches the red in the papers perfectly!

The card base is Ruby Red, with one of the patterned papers for a contsrasting panel. Another pattern was used for the red strip and edged with one of the "Paper Frills" by Doodlebug Design. SU!'s Vintage brads finish off the strip. The "Joy" sentiment is from SU! as well and was stamped in black on Whisper White CS, then punched out with the smaller of SU!'s two oval punches. The larger oval pounch was used on the red patterned paper from the Dutch Girl collection, to finish it all and tell Corina how much joy she has brought into my life by her friendship!

BTW, if you are looking for a great source for the non-SU! items used on this card, check out Eclectic Paperie -- http://www.eclecticpaperie.com/index.html -- that is where I got the paper frills and the Dutch Girl papers! My friends Daisy and Joy will treat you right and they have so many awesome things at eP!!!

I have to apologize for the poor coloring on this photo -- I am still learning how to "stage" these projects and get good images of them! Please bear with me as I work through this!

Happy Birthday, Corina!!! Hope this year brings all good things to you! Love ya!