Still Stamping

Shape Up with Movers & Shapers from Sizzix and Stampin' Up!

This year's Punch/Stamp Set bundle from Stampin' Up! has been so popular.  It's the Curly Label Punch and the coordinating stamp set, Cute & Curly.  It's so current, and so versatile, too.

So it's no wonder that Stampin' Up! has just come out with a new Sizzix die that works perfectly with the punch and stamps.

It's the Sizzix XL Bigz "Movers & Shapers Curly Label" die, and it's a Stampin' Up! exclusive!

The "window" can be cut anywhere on the front of the card, through multiple layers.  The die also cuts and scores the card for you at the same time!  And, as if that's not fabulous enough for you, the stamped images can be punched out with the punch and layer perfectly into the little window cut by the die.  What more could a paper crafter want?

This sample uses two more punches: the Eyelet Border punch and the Boho Blossoms punch.

And I'm sure that by now you recognize the paper and colors I chose.  It's the SAB Delicate Dots DSP, along with So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Whisper White and Bashful Blue.  A little 1/4" grosgrain ribbon and a gold brad add some textural interest.

   

The photo on the left shows the card open, and the one on the right is a close-up of the window and the insert.

I hope you enjoyed your visit and will be back soon.

Until then,

Happy Stamping!

Carol

Top Note Box - the Pattern!

I'm so glad you enjoyed the Quilted Top Note Box that I shared with you.  I've had some requests to share the specifics on how to make the box itself.  I learned it from some else's blog, but I can't post her template here.  That challenged me to make my own.  Available now is the printable template with directions for the box.  Download Box for Top Note Die

Not only was this an opportunity for me to learn how to make a better template using my Microsoft Word drawing tools, but it is the first time I've loaded such a template onto my blog.

I can't photograph any tutorials right now, but as soon as I am able to do that again, I will do one for the box and for the two quilting patterns as well.

Until next time,

Happy Stamping!

Carol

A Paper-Quilted Box

Strip Quilting (also known as string quilting) is the perfect way to use up narrow strips of fabric.  I have lots of strips of card stock and designer paper beside my paper trimmer after I've cut all of the layers for cards and scrapbook pages, so I decided to do a different pattern of "quilt".  The strips are layed in a random pattern in parallel and perpendicular lines onto the adhesive-covered base, then cut out with the Big Shot and the Top Note Die.

  Added into the mix is a layer of lightweight chipboard.  The Big Shot cuts through mulitiple layers with ease.  This is a sweet little box, which turned out to be very sturdy as well as pretty.

 

The flap shown here slides inside the box, allowing it to open and close many times and keeps the box closed securely.

It'll be fun to give a little gift in a box that will be kept and used as much as the gift inside.

Paper Quilting - Use Up Those Scraps

 

Don't you hate to throw away scraps of beautiful paper?  Well, instead of tossing them, turn them into a paper quilt.  It took just twelve 1-3/8" squares to cover a piece of card stock 4-1/8" x 5-1/2", which then was cut using the Big Shot and the Top Note Die.  The focal image was stamped with the Sale-a-Bration set Botanical Blooms and is "framed" with two of the three ovals from the Big Shot Sizzix die, Ovals.  And finally, the greeting was stamped using Cute & Curly and punched out with the Curly Label Punch (the punch and stamp set are sold together as a bundle).

The beautiful Bella Rosa paper set the color scheme: Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss and Whisper White.

Try your hand at paper quilting.  Even if you've never quilted or hate to sew, THIS kind of quilting is very easy and requires no electricity!

Lovely as a Tree Sympathy Card

As a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and card-making enthusiast, I have quite an enormous stockpile of greeting cards made and stored away.  I do try to send cards to friends and family often, but instead of getting one from my "stash", I tend to create something new each time.  Thus the stockpile grows and grows....

But one kind of card I rarely keep on hand, for some reason, is the Sympathy card.  I guess I'd rather make happy cards, like birthdays and friendship cards.  When the need arises, I find myself having to sit down and try to make a nice, meaningful, sincere sympathy card.

The card above makes use of two of my old favorites, Lovely as a Tree and Close as a Memory.

I found a small stack of stamped images on my desk yesterday while I was sorting, cleaning, filing, purging the clutter that accumulates on the workspace of any creative person, it seems.  I'd made a lot of backgrounds and stored them for future use, then at a later time I stamped the row of trees from Lovely as a Tree.   I guess I'd planned to make dozens of them, because I sure did stamp a lot of trees!

The technique used on the background is Smackin' Acetate. I didn't make a note of the exact colors I chose for the reinkers, but they reminded me of grass and sky, so therefore the trees were a good choice of stamp to use.  Two of the trees hadn't stamped very well on this particular piece, but the sky was my favorite of all of the pieces.  So I artfully disguised the not-so-great trees by punching out two others and popping them up on top of the main piece with foam dimensionals.

The colors used on this 5" x 7" card are Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Bordering Blue.

I hope this gives you some inspiration. 

Until next time,  Happy Stamping!

Carol