Fabulous Finds Friday: Chevron Punch

Chevrons are still oh-so-trendy, so imagine my delight with this new *chevron punch from Stampin’ Up!

Check out this quick card that highlights the punch design:

(The sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!‘s Wonderful Words set and the darling bird is part of Besty’s Blossoms. The bird was embossed using American Crafts’ Zing lavender. The pretty branch is a die from Penny Black, and it was the perfect fit here.)

There’s an added bonus with this punch — the punched out pieces create another chevron!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend.

*See disclaimer.

Living on the Edge

In my last Fabulous Finds Friday post I worked with Spellbinders’ 3D M-Bossibilities dies. Today, I played with edge-cutting dies — such fun!

Check it out:

How fun is that?

Here is a finished card:

(Cardstock from Stampin’ Up; Hero Arts pinwheels stamped and embossed on scrap paper, finished with rhinestones; sentiment from Hero Arts, edged with Stampin’ Up True Thyme ink and attached with a Ranger Tiny Attacher.)

For the pink card, I tried a different border. At first, I was going to just leave the border as it was, an open-cut. But when the card was closed, it was hard to see the pretty cut-out. (Also, some of the edges were fragile!)

So I added a strip of off-white card stock underneath:

(The hearts are Hero Arts images left over from my wild Valentine’s Day stamping and embossing spree!)

Thanks for coming back!

More Fashionista

In my last post, I played with the Fashionista set from Close to My Heart.

In this trio, I went for simplicity. I stamped one of the models on white cardstock using VersaFine black ink, layered her and added her to a premade card (from a pack I found on clearance!). But I wanted a pop of color — red. Check her out:

To create the red dress and bag I stamped her again, this time using VersaMark clear ink and red embossing powder from Judikins (it was the purest red I had and it was just perfect!). I then cut out the red embossed dress and bag and ran them through my “Baby X,” my small Xyron sticker maker:

So easy! I just peeled and stuck the dress and bag in place. I made two more cards using this technique, each time adding another element … a piece of red ribbon here:

… and a Spellbinder’s border here:

Fashionista was a fun set to use and I can’t wait for these gals to hit my card runway again!

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Fabulous Finds Friday — Casting a Spell

More Fabulous Finds from CHA! (Oh, there is so much more to come!)

Spellbinders has done it again with dies from the adorable to the amazing. There are new borders, new nesties, and my current fave, a die that you cut, then fold and tuck in the edges to form a dimensional dynamo.  And don’t even get me started on the new embossing folders — they are double sided, so you get double the possibilities (even more when you consider the de-bossed side, too.)

Check ’em out:

A little layering…..

A little border cutting and embossing….

Embossing on thin metal:

And the new cut, fold and tuck dies….

(not the best quality photos)

I’ll have a few more photos to share over the next few weeks … but I’ll talk about more cool finds and hot trends in my super-sized Top 10 list from CHA that will appear in a few weeks on the Crafts ‘n things website. Hope you’ll check that out.

Those of you who were at CHA … what were YOUR favorite finds?

Thanks for coming by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Inks!

There’s been so much buzz about Tim Holtz’ new Seasonal Distress Inks … and I was lucky enough to get my hands on some. The colors are so luscious that even though it was 100 degrees when I got them in Southern California, they made me feel all cozy and yearning for fall sweaters.

Being incredibly impatient, I had to pop them open, even though I didn’t have much time to create. But I had to look at the colors. So I pulled out a Hero Arts stamp and just randomly tap-tap-tapped on a plain white card:

‘dontcha just want to put on a scarf and run through a pile of autumn leaves? Haven’t decided yet how to finish the card — maybe some rhinestones or pearls and a simple “happy Thanksgiving” sentiment? The colors are Seedless Preserves, Ripe Persimmon and Gathered Twigs.

But there was one more thing I had to try… I had about 10 minutes left before I had to leave, so I quickly dabbed the inks directly on my craft sheet:

I spritzed with my water mister and swirled around a scrap piece of semi-glossy cardstock, reapplied the inks and then dabbed a piece of watercolor paper:

On the left is the semi-glossy card stock, which did not impress me at all. (Not the inks, just what I did with them! The inks are gettin’ the love.)

On the right is the watercolor paper, which I misted first, then dragged through the ink. I supplemented the dragged ink with some ink that I picked up with my waterbrush.

I almost threw away the first one, the semi-glossy scrap that looks lame in this photo. Luckily, I didn’t. When I came home from work and had a snack (eating always revives me!) I decided to play with that piece and make a Halloween card (which I showcased earlier this week):

…and ‘lo and behold, it’s not too bad! The diamond pattern was stamped using the Gathered Twigs; the rest were all black embossed. The white spider web that you can barely see in the background was stamped using white pigment ink.  (Stamps by Close To My Heart; edge by Spellbinders)

Thanks for hangin’ in there with me!

Living on the Edge — of a die cut!

On Friday, I teased you with a blurb about new dies from Spellbinders.

The company introduced 57 new dies at CHA in July. Here’s just a smattering:

Among my favorites are the Edgeabilities — these 3-die sets create wonderful edges and come with coordinating decorative inserts that let you mix and match a whole batch of designs! (scroll down to the previous post to see two samples.)

Here are a few cards I made using the postage stamp set:

I used two of the three dies that come in the set. (Stamps from Stampin’ Up.)

The main problem I have with the Edgeabilities is that they are long — 8 inches —  and designed to work best with Spellbinders’ large Grand Calibur. Since I don’t have the Grand Calibur,  I had to fudge the card a little to get the edge cut the way I wanted. I cut the front of the card (the gray area)  to a smaller size and ran it through my Big Kick. Then I cut the bottom half (the yellow), leaving a little tab on the yellow piece so I could attach the gray front.

Of course, when you punch (or edge) one piece, you often have the negative space left. I couldn’t just toss it, could I? So I made a little gift tag using that leftover  (not a great card, but I wanted to show you how to use the leftovers!):

And one more using just one of the inserts:

(You can’t tell in the photo, but the silver strip with the cut out hearts actually has a little embossed texture, too.)

(Flower by Hero Arts; sentiment by Technique Tuesday.)

Here are a few more quick picks of what’s new from Spellbinders:

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll have more to add later this week.

Fabulous Finds Friday — New Treats, No Tricks

Lots of fun new goodies were released at the Craft & Hobby show (CHA) in July. Here’s a quick look:

Trick or treat? Well, it’s mostly treats with the new collections from the EK Success family.

First, there’s some scarily cute paper, embellies and kits from K&Company, including this adorable pumpkin treat box and the EK Success spider punch:

 

Then there are these spooktacular stickers from Jolee’s Boutique (I ADORE those birdcages!):

And speaking of spells (have I taken the Halloween thing too far?) … Spellbinders continues to delight with new dies. There are new boxes, borders, embellishments and so much more.

Here’s a sneak peak — I’ll have more Spellbinders news in my next post:

Thanks for coming by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Punch It Out

I love border punches! They offer so much crafty-goodness because they can be so versatile.

Border punches are becoming bigger and better, so today my Fabulous Find are two new border punches from EK Success:

These two are Floral Chain and Lattice. Look at all the ways you can change them! (We’ll come to that in a bit.)

I already used the lattice punch in this card from last week, but here are some more selections:

So fresh in yellow! (Image and black rhinestomes by Hero Arts.) The other fun thing about the floral border is that you get a bonus — the center punches out a perfect daisy! How cool is that?

The punches can be a bit tricky to use — I had a few problems with them getting stuck, especially if my paper is either too flimsy or too heavy. I get the best results using a sturdy  paper or lightweight cardstock. I also stand when I punch so I press down fully (using my considerable body weight as leverage!) You may need to play with them a bit to discover what works best for you. I also punched through a piece of waxed paper to give a little glide — I don’t know if that really works or if it is just an old wife’s tale (but then again, I AM an old wife!)  But it can’t hurt.

The designs are pretty easy to line up when you punch a long border, but every so often I slip and this is what happens:

See the little bobble where it doesn’t quite meet? Not really a problem, though — I just covered it with an embellishment:

(stamped frame by Hero Arts; sentiments by Inkadinkado)

I have one other trick up my sleeve: I found that by cutting the punched strips, you can get different designs.  For example, here I cut the flower border down the center to create scallops:

It’s hard to see, but I added rhinestones to the center of the “scallops” and Stickles Ice to the centers of the flowers. (Flowers and sentiment by Technique Tuesday; stripes by Hero Arts.)

And here I cut the edges off the lattice:

(flowers by Technique Tuesday; sentiment by Inkadinkado)

Thanks for stopping by! I’ve been having so much fun, I may post some more cards during the week.)

Fabulous Finds Friday — Bazzill App Giveaway!

How exciting! My first blog candy to give out! And it’s pretty cool…..

If you have an iPhone and you love Bazzill Basics paper, this is a deal made for you. This cool new app helps you mix and match Bazzill papers anywhere.

Even if you don’t have Bazzill paper to match, you can get excellent color guidance … like a digital color wheel on your phone!

And… drumroll…. I have an app for some lucky blog reader! Just leave a comment by Tuesday and my random selector will pull a name, to be announced Wednesday. 

Here is a card made using Bazzill Basics paper: (Don’t you just love the embossed yellow paper?)

(stamps: Old Dutch text used in flower is Stampers Anonymous; the others are all Hero Arts. The white daisy ribbon is from Making Memories.)

Here is another:

(butterfly, celebrate from Inkadinkado; the cardstock and trim are Bazzill borders. The gold branch is cut using a Sizzix die and the pearls are Hero Arts)

Thanks for stopping by — and don’t forget to comment to win the app!

More info: www.bazzillbasics.com

Fabulous Finds Friday — Daisy Punch

It took me a while to fall  in love with punches, but now that I have, I am always watching for new designs. I reported in a previous post about the new border punches from EK Success — now I need to show off one of them in these very fast, simple cards!

Once I started punching out rows of daisies, I couldn’t stop! So here we go:

Aren’t these butterfly stamps gorgeous? Another new find from CHA. These are from Layers of Color. Check them out at www.layersofcolor.com. I love their images.

Another butterfly from the same Layers of Color set. The saying is from Hero Arts.

(Enjoy is from Hero Arts)

The flower is Stampendous!, the saying is Hero Arts.

Thaknks for coming by today!

(Disclaimer — this punch was given to me at CHA)