Yikes!!

It's kind of ironic that after my last post, I get the chance to post again about how much snow we've been getting. This is a photo of our Dodge stratus in the foreground. You can see our Suburban behind it also buried in snow. Note the amount of snow piled up against the side of the car and on top. The kid in red is our 15-year-old son Stephen.

We got a nice surprise this morning when a tree limb came crashing down off of one of our fir trees, hit another branch, taking it off as well, then skewered our car.


This is the back window of the Stratus. After we got the snow and glass cleaned off and photos taken for insurance, we tried to remove the limb, but couldn't lift it. See the next photo to discover why.

The limb skewered the window and then continued into the trunk, taking out the speaker along the way. I wonder how long the line is at the insurance agency? LOL

Winter Wonderland?

We have had a long string of winter storms hit us over the past 8 days. We are centered near Portland, OR. We are in the country about 20 miles west of Portland, about 40 minutes from the beaches. And, we just don't get snow!! The kids here are lucky if they get one snow a year, just enough to build a snowman. We were joking the other day that all Oregon snowmen are more mud and grass than snow, and they always have leaves stuck in them!!

Well, that's not the case this week. Our "Arctic Blast" as the news stations are calling it, began last Sunday, December 14th. It started snowing in the morning and by that evening we had about 6 inches. That's a pretty amazing snow for this area, but that was just the beginning!

The snow continued off and on all that day, and they canceled school on Monday, the 15th. Day by day the cold and snow continued and day by day they closed the schools, and our kids ended up with a whole extra week of Christmas vacation. Since the 14th, we've had snow, severe winds (with sideways snow, as my son called it), and freezing rain. On Saturday night, the 20th, we had about 1/2 inch of freezing rain that coated the snow, the trees, the roads, the cars, and everything else. Some of the photos I'll post below will show the layer of ice. Since Saturday night, we have an an additonal 12+ inches of snow for a total of probably 20 inches in all. This is just unheard of in our area.

They have closed all highways to the coast and the main highway heading east out of Portland, I-84. That highway has been closed going on 3 days now, which does not bode well for my brother-in-law and his wife who are trying to drive in from that direction for Christmas. There are severe winds in the area, causing near 0 visibility and gigantic snow drifts.

These conditions are causing us considerable shipping delays. We had only 3 days of mail service last week and no UPS or Fed Ex. We have had a stack of packages sitting since Friday waiting to go out. We are unable to get out of our driveway, with at least 20 inches on the driveway. The UPS and Fed-Ex guys will not even come on our country road. Our mail man slid into a ditch twice this past week and hasn't even attempted to come out for 2 days. It's a real mess and has pretty much shut down all of Portland and the surrounding areas.

Now for the photos (remember we've had a foot of snow since these were taken):



These are rounds cut from a tree we had to take down about 18 months ago. The one on the right is hardly covered, but the rest behind it are nearly buried in snow drifts. They measure at least 2' in diameter.



This photo shows my two youngest sons in the snow. The one in the black coat is Brandon. He is 8 years old and holding a slab of ice from the sheet of ice covering the snow.

This is a view of the hill below our house, at the top of the photo you can see our house between the trees. Isn't this a great sledding hill? The boys have all had a ton of fun sledding each day. There has been enough snow to sled for over a week and they are taking advantage of it!


My hubby took these photos. This one shows his feet breaking through the layer of ice over the snowpack. The ice is about 1/2" thick. Now we have had another foot of snow over the ice.


This is our drive way leading away from our house. As you can see, it's a steep hill going down the driveway and then a steeper and longer one going up to the road. No wonder the UPS drivers won't even try it. The road leading to our driveway is also hilly and twisty, so it's just no fun. We are content to stay here, light a fire, and sip our hot cocoa. Sadly, though, our orders can't get out!

We hope you all have a great Christmas!

Heidi~~

(And the Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts team)

My Ribbon Storage Solutions

I have had ribbon storage nightmares for years!! I end up with messy drawers, tangles of ribbon, loose pieces with no home, and endless frustration. I thought carefully about my ribbon dilemma for a long time before deciding what to do about it. If you have any wall space at all, even the back of a door, this is a great storage solution! I have had a number of requests for the details of my ribbon storage, so I am finally getting smart and posting it here.


This is a view of my ribbon storage system. This is the system I use for ribbon on spools. These are made of rain gutters that I purchased at Lowe's and had them cut for me. I had them cut in 2 1/2' lengths. They gave me grief about it, but I stood my ground and made them cut it. They thought I was nuts when I told them it was for ribbon storage. The gutters are hung on pegboards. They are actually white on the back, but my hubby cut a chunk out to accommodate the kitchen cabinet on the wall (just barely visible at the top right corner of the photo). He accidentally cut out the wrong corner, so rather than get my panties in a bunch, I just said "Thanks hon!" and left it at that. I can always paint them white later. Let me back up a bit to say that my stamping space is located in a 2nd kitchen that we have in the daylight basement of our house. I'm lucky enough to have built-in cabinets, counter tops, a sink, and even an oven for those Shrinky-dink projects!


This is a closeup of my gutters. After much debating, I finally settled on this system of organization. I started by organizing according to pattern, but quickly realized it was a pain and that I'd rather organize by color. This makes it so easy to bring my project over to the gutter and choose a ribbon that fits. I don't have even a fraction of the ribbons I carry in my store down here in my storage. I add ribbons to my personal collection on an "as needed" basis. So far I have not had any problems with storing ribbons like this and love the color sorting.

I thought about installing curtain rods instead of rain gutters but there are a few problems with those. First, if you are pulling on one spool of ribbon, the ones next to it end up spinning as well and you have to end up respooling them. Second, if you want to remove a spool or you run out, you have to take all of the spools off to get to that one. For these reasons, I decided I was a rain gutter gal.

When purchasing your rain gutters, make sure to buy the ones that are shaped like a 1/2 octagon. You don't want any lips curling in on the top edges. Also, you don't have to purchase end caps (they cost more than the gutter by the time you purchase 8 of them), but I prefer the nice looking ends, and you'll need to do something to keep your spools from falling out.

The cost was about $10 for 10 feet of gutter, which I cut into 4 pieces. The end caps were somewhere in the range of $1.35 each, if I remember correctly.

I apologize for the small photo, but if you click on it, it will get bigger. I can't find my original, so I copied from my gallery at SCS. This photo shows a closeup of the hooks my hubby used to hang my gutters. (Notice the white pegboard, this was taken before our move and the ill-fated cutting error.) The hook on top is what the hooks look like when purchase from Home Depot or Lowes. The one going through the gutter is what it looks like after my hubby bent it to provide more support for the gutter. If you leave it straight like the one on top, your gutter will flop forward. Also, note the spot my hubby drilled for the hook to go through the gutter. He experimented and found the optimal place for the hole to get the gutters to stay upright and not dump the ribbon out. It's hard to see in the photo, but the hole is actually angled, not drilled straight through. It is angled in the direction that the hook is going through the gutter. Aim your drill bit the same direction as you see the hook going through in this photo, and drill from the outside in.


OK, so the gutters are all fine and great for ribbon on spools, but what about loose yardage, or sets purchased from my store? The perfect solution, in my opinion, after trying many other options are the Ribbon Rings. Here is a photo from Michelle's Blog showing her fabulous setup of Ribbon Rings.

The best things about Ribbon Rings is that they are inexpensive. They are also easily portable and sortable. I have all of my different kinds of ribbon stored by color. Michelle prefers to separate hers by ribbon type. they are easy to switch around, easy to see what you want and get just the ribbon you're looking for. They can also hold an incredible amount of ribbon in a small space. Melissa, the Ribbon Ring inventor suggests cutting 1-1 1/2 yards of each ribbon you need to store and putting it on the ring. Then you take an inventory dot and mark if you have more of that particular ribbon and store the remainder in a drawer or bin, out of the way. These are amazing, and a starter set sells for only $10!!

Feel free to send me a message if you have questions about my storage solutions.

Happy Stamping~~

Everyone at SCS was making cute little spiders out of this Stampin' Up! scalloped punch. These guys are pretty self-explanatory, but here's the details anyway. The feathers are actually petals from the Cuttlebug Cut & Emboss Combo "Build a Flower". The feathers are all embossed. The waddle is the candy from the 3x3 "Halloween" die, and the arms are from the Cut & Emboss Combo "Snow Fun". I used a 1/2" circle punch for the whites of the eyes, a 1/4" punch for the pupils and a white gel pen for the highlights. The beak is hand-cut.

Materials Used:

• SU Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Riding Hood Red, Pumpkin Pie, Marigold Morning, Wild Wasabi, Blue Bayou, Perfect Plum, Whisper White, and Basic Black
• Cuttlebug and accessories listed above
• 1/2" circle punch, 1/4" circle punch
• Mint Patties
• SU Scalloped Circle Punch
• White Gel Pen
• ATG Adhesive and Quickie Glue Pen
  

Michelle (sf9erfan) and I tackled the sketch on Taylored Expressions Blog today while she was at my house. It's too late to get it in the weekly look-see, but I loved this card and wanted to post it anyway.

The reindeer are from a retired Stampin' Up! set called Holiday Sampler. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Take a Bough, and the little bow making my reindeer girls are from Verve Visual's Black Tie Birdie. I realized after I made this card that I'm not sure if female reindeer have antlers or not. No matter, these ones do!

To make the ties, I stuck a small piece of 3/8" chocolate satin ribbon to the back of each of the paper strips, then positioned each strip on the card front and wrapped the ribbon to the back of the chocolate chip paper and taped it down. I then tied tiny bows around each piece using gold cord. I added gold brads to the right side of each strip.

Supplies:

• Paper~~SU Ski Slope DP, Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, Old Olive
• Ink~~Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa (Reindeer), Adirondack Espresso (Bows & Sentiment), Riding Hood Red, Old Olive (Watercoloring)
• Accessories~~Embellishments from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts

Happy Stamping!

What Can you Put in a Tin Part 1--Teacher's Emergency Sewing Kit

We started carrying these square tins in our store a while back. We all know you can use them as party favors with candy inside. Add a bow or embellishments for a quick and easy favor. But, beyond holding candies, what else are these good for? I've been thinking about this for a while and I have a few ideas, which I will post here in a series of tutorials.


I gathered together a bunch of things a teacher might need for him or herself. I made this more on the simple side since my son's 3rd grade teacher is a man. I didn't think he would be as excited about scallops as I am!! All images are from Gina K's Whimsical Autumn. I used 5/8" red and 1/4" Christmas green grosgrain around the center of the tin. The sentiment is computer generated. At the end of my tutorial series, I will post a document with all of the templates. I cut the ovals with my Nestabilities and embossed the top layer. The tiny apples are cut out with SU!'s 1/2" punch and the larger circles are a 3/4" punch.

I used black, white, blue, and pink thread. I thought these would be the most commonly used in a school. I didn't have time to get to a store or I would have looked for a small pair of folding scissors to put in the tin. The buttons are from our button collections and are threaded on a piece of our 1/8" organdy.


Here is a closeup of two of the components of the sewing kit. Both cards are 1 1/2" x 2 1/2". To make the thread card, I marked along the edges starting 3/8" from the bottom and then every 3/8" along the side, making 4 marks in all. I marked both the right and left hand sides of the card. Using my 1/4" square punch I nipped just a bit of cardstock out at each marking. This is not a full 1/2 square. To make the needle holder, I used my paper piercing template and paper piercer to poke several holes along the card in 3 columns to accommodate different needle lengths. To make the card toppers I stamped the basket of apples from Gina K's set and colored using Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I used Creative Memories 1" punch to punch out just a portion of the basket and a 1 1/4" punch to punch out the green and red circles.

This tin was made using the 8 oz. (large) tin.

Happy stamping!

My friend Diana and I needed a really quick, yet elegant favor for a church dinner we are in charge of. I came up with this simple design. This is a tri-fold project, and very easy to make.

Start with a 12" x 12" sheet of cardstock and cut it into 1/2. I used an old piece of Egglant Envy from Stampin' Up! that I had laying around. Score across the piece at 2 1/2", 7 1/2", and 8". Fold on all of the folds and glue the short flap just along the outside edges to make a pocket to hold a hot chocolate packet and a mini candy cane.

I made the top edge with an extra 1/2" width, front to back, to accommodate a baggie of marshmallows. I adhered the baggie on the inside of the top flap. I tied the packet shut with 5/8" ivory polka dot ribbon from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts.

I cut a piece of Mellow Moss cardstock 3 1/4" by 5 1/2". All images are from Papertrey Ink's Snowflake Serenade. I stamped the words in Handsome Hunter and the snowflakes in Mellow Moss. We need to make 60 of these, so we needed a super quick and inexpensive design. I think this fits the bill!

Time for Another Wedding

Well, another wedding in our family this year!! This time I did not get asked to make the invitations, so all I had to make was one measly wedding card. I was going for something elegant but not too formal, and I think I hit it just right!

Supplies used:

• PTI White CS
• SU Copper, Basic Black, and Glossy White Paper
• SU More Mustard, Really Rust & Copper ink refills
• Staz-On Black Ink
• 7/8" Black Double Face Satin Ribbon
• Anniversary Birds and Black Tie Birds from Verve Visual

Directions:

• I put a few (probably about 12) drops of copper ink refill on a 1/2 sheet of glossy white paper. I soaked a cotton ball in alcohol, then added 2 drops of More Mustard & 2 drops of Really Rust ink. I dabbed the cotton ball all over the paper, making sure to get all of the drops of copper ink moved around the paper. For anyone unfamiliar with this technique is called polished stone.
  
• While letting that dry, I decided on the dimensions for my main panel, which ended up being 3" x 4 1/4". I cut the piece to mat it with 3 1/4" by 4 1/2".
• After the polished stone piece was dry, I sprayed it with hairspray. Funny that more hairspray ends up on my cards than on my hair!
• I stamped the birds and sentiment in Staz-On. I then assembled the card and it's as simple as that. The finished size is 5 1/2" by 5 1/2".
  

Paper Piecing Goes Retro!

I started this card in my head after attending the OR/WA SCS gathering on Saturday. One of the shoebox swap projects on my table involved paper piecing. This is such a simple technique and yet I rarely do it. I love this flower from a CTMH set called For You. I love this paper pack from Basic Grey called Stella Ruby. I just love the earthy colors and the stripes on this paper remind me of my Grandma's sofa when I was a kid. Good memories! The finished size on this card is 5" x 5".

To make this card, I cut a piece of So Saffron 4 7/8" x 4 7/8". I stamped the top and bottom in So Saffron using SU's Twill background stamp and sponged the edges in Close to Cocoa. I stuck just the center of the DP down to hold it still and headed over to my sewing machine. I stitched down the edges of the DP, then I also stitched up the middle of a piece of 3/8" Artichoke Grosgrain from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. I adhered the ribbon to the paper using my ATG. I also cut leaves out of 5/8" Moss Grosgrain ribbon. The flower is stamped in Adirondack Espresso on a piece of the Basic Grey DP and cut out. The center is re-stamped, also in Espresso on So Saffron and also cut out, then covered with Glassy Glaze. I used Hunter Burlap String in the center of the buttons from the Sylish Shoes Collection. The So Saffron piece is mounted on another piece of the Stella Ruby paper.

The sentiment is from the Out on a Limb Sayings (revised larger set) from Papertrey Ink. I stamped Laughter in Ruby Red and the rest of the sentiment in Chocolate Chip.

Ways to Use it Challenge

Oooh, was this card fun to make today. I actually made 3 cards for today's challenge. You can see the other two in my gallery at SCS.

The challenge was to make a card using quotes in a creative way. I love the Smarty Pants set from Stampin' Up!, and decided to use it today since it has such fun sayings. I also love Stampin' Up!'s Booglie Eyes set, which is now retired. I was wondering what kind of "friends" Frankenstein would have, and these two are just the type I would imagine he has hanging out at his house. This finished card measures about 6" x 4.5".

The Designer Paper I used is brand-new from Stampin' Up! and called Ghostly Greetings. The other papers I used in the card are Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black, and the inks are Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, and Adirondack Pitch Black. I stamped the friends in Pitch Black and let it dry before coloring in with my Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol.

The buttons are from the Gentle Times Collection at Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. I threaded the buttons with our 1/8" organdy in black. I love the look I got with this!! I punched out a 3/4" circle in Pumpkin Pie and glued it to the end of my white sentiment strip, then trimmed with scissors around the circle to make the end rounded. After sticking the white strip down to the black strip, I hand cut the black to fram the orange circles. The 3/8" polka dot grosgrain and 5/8" orange grosgrain are also from our store. If I'm being honest, the jaunty angle of the sentiment strip is because I accidentally stamped the sentiment a bit crooked and I was too lazy to remake the strip. I love the look, though and some of the best things come out of accidents! LOL

Happy stamping!!

I made this great set for my sister-in-law, Lisa for her birthday. I used Stampin' Up!'s retired Bali Breeze paper for the whole set. The main cardstock colors I used are Regal Rose, Old Olive, Purely Pomegranate, Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Tea, and Tempting Turquoise. This was a really fun set to design, and she had fun getting it. She was so surprised!!

Here's the deets:

• The handcovered jounal used Bali Breeze DP, plus Tempting Turquoise and Pumpkin Pie cardstock. I stamped the backround on the turquoise panel using a background stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. The letters were cut out using the Sizzlets Slim Jim alphabet. I used 3/8" Orange grosgrain ribbon from our store for the attached bookmark.
• The all-purpose card set is housed in our clear boxes. I used solid cardstock with strips of DP on the left side and then tied our 7/8" organdy around the card before mounting it to a card base.
• The monogram card set is also in one of our clear boxes. I used two retired SU sets, Headline Alphabet and Label Classics to create the monogram.
• The 3" x 5" memo pad is stamped using SU's One of a Kind stamp set. After stamping, I pressed the entire white stamped panel into my Versamark ink pad and embossed the whole thing using Iridescent Ice embossing powder. This technique is called "Dazzling Diamond Dust". It's a really fun way to add some sparkle to a project without making a mess and leaving glitter all over the gift recipient.
• The little Post-It holder is also made using the One of a Kind stamp set. I just cut out the larger flower, the punched out the smaller one and used a brad to hold them together.
  
• To make the pens, I used a 3.25" x 1" piece of DP and rolled it up and inserted it into the barrel of the pen. I find the easiest way to do this is to remove the bottom cap from the pen, then use the ink tube to roll the paper around. The non-roller ball end of the ink tube serves as a good tool to push the paper down inside the barrel.
  

Two Christmas Cards

It's been a busy couple of weeks with the new satin ribbons coming into our store. I've hardly had time to stamp but finally made time yesterday and today!


Michelle (sf9erfan) on SCS came over this morning with her boys. The boys played outside, eating blackberries and grapes, swinging on the tire swing, and then ended up blowing the fir needles off of my driveway on their hands and knees!!! LOL

Meanwhile, Michelle and I were inside, up to our elbows in the retired SU paper pack Wintergreen. We've done this in the past, usually with amazing results. We get together and do the SCS sketch challenge using the same paper and stamps. Today she brought over this great set from Inkadinkado. I'm loving this set! We both stamped in Versamark and embossed using dark brown embossing powder. From there, her card took a different look from mine. I used differen sides of the DP than she used. The only thing we have in common on our cards is the 3/8" chocolate satin ribbon from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts , the stamped image, and the white DP I used on the background. To take a peek at her card, click here: Michelle's Card



I designed this card for a couple of reasons. First, there is an Oregon/Washington gathering for SCS this Saturday, andI designed this card for the shoebox swap. Second, I'm loving chocolate in my Christmas cards for some reason, and I need to make about 2o more to be done for the year, so I made 10 of these for my own stash.

To make this card and get the triangles perfect, this is what I did: I cut my card base 5.5" x 11" and scored, then folded it in 1/2. The largest chocolate layer is cut 5 3/8" square. I cut two pieces of DP (Almost Amethyst and Old Olive) 5.25" square. After cutting the squares of DP, using my Fiskars paper cutter, I put the square into the paper cutter on the diagonal, so the two opposite corners were right on the cutting line. This way, when I cut, I get two even triangles. Then, I take each of the triangles and put them in the paper cutter with the longest flat side towards me and the point facing up. Then, when I cut again, I end up with 4 equal triangles that I can then use for the card. When I do it with two different papers, I can alternate them as shown in the photo. I did the same thing with solid papers for the layer directly under the snowflake.

The snowflake is embossed using dark brown embossing powder. The Polka Dot ribbon is May Arts, currently available in our ebay store and coming soon to our website. The brads are from our custom colored brad collection. These brads match Old Olive and Almost Amethyst. The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip and is from Papertrey, in their Out on a Limb set.

Tag Box Tutorial

Here is a tutorial I worked up today because of a request from a customer. She wanted me to do a tutorial on a box that could hold a few gift tags. I made this box very simple to replicate for anyone wanting to do them in bulk. The first step is to start with a piece of cardstock measuring 6" x 10". Lay the cardstock sideways as shown on your Scor-Pal or other scoring device. Score at 2.5", 3", 7", and 7.5".


Turn cardstock the other direction as shown. I find it difficult to score right next to the left edge of the Scor-Pal, so I scored 1/2" and 1" in from the right edge.


Next, turn your cardstock around so the unscored side is to the right and score again 1/2" and 1" from the right edge. Your project should have scoring marks just like the photo shows.

Now, cut on the scoring lines, leaving just the small square remaining. Note where I have left the square attached, on just one side, making a little tab. I have lifted up the tab so you can see better.


Cut all 4 of the corners of the project as shown, leaving tabs on all 4 corners.


Now, stamp the cardstock as desired. Since my customer is planning to make Christmas tags, I went with a Christmas look. It will not matter that the stamp doesn't stamp on the scoring lines since the project will be folded there anyway. If it bothers you, just stamp before scoring.

I wanted to make a see-through window on the backside of the box (or frontside, depending how you look at it). To accomplish this, I chose a scalloped circle from my Nestabilities set. The size doesn't matter that much, but you want to leave plenty of room around the edges of the cutout to adhere layers, acetate, etc. to the inside of the box. Cut the scalloped circle out, centering it in the 4"x 4" side of your project. If you do not have Nestabilities, you can use any circle cutter you have. Even squares would work, ovals, hearts, paisley, depending on your project theme. I had to fold one of the flaps over (on the right) in order to get the box through my Cuttlebug.

Next, I chose a solid circle that was smaller than the scalloped circle I cut. To decide which you want to use, pretend that you are going to put the smaller white circle above on top of the scalloped circle you just cut out. Then, choose another solid circle a few sizes bigger than the small circle. Place both circles on top of a piece of white cardstock and run them through the cuttlebug together.

You will end up with a circle as shown in the photo. Now, adhere the circle to the inside of your project. I used Mono Multi for this portion of the project. Make sure you turn the project over and look at it from the front to ensure proper placement of your white circle. Do this before the glue dries.


Cut a piece of acetate 3.75" x 3.75". I used my ATG to stick this down. When putting adhesive down on the project, make sure you get it far enough from the fold so that no extra adhesive will overlap the edge of the acetate. If you look closely at the photo, you can see my line of adhesive around the edge of the acetate.

Your project should look like this from the front.

Now, fold on all scoring lines, with all folds going in the direction shown in the photo. They will essentially fold in on themselves.

Put a line of sticky strip or other strong adhesive on the two edges of one of your flaps. I used Scor Tape, from Scor-Pal, coming soon to Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts.

Fold the flap up and adhere as shown. I am using a Velcro closure to keep my box shut and to allow for repeated opening and closing. To avoid damage to the box, I used only 1/4 of a velcro dot. I have found that even 1/2 dots are too strongly "hooked" on smaller boxes. To get an awesome price on hook and loop dots, click here to go to our Packaging section on our website. The Velcro clones will be loaded there soon. They sell for $1.50 for 15 full circle dots.

I stamped one of the snowflakes on white cardstock and cut it out with my Nesties, I did a scalloped circle in turquoise and another in white. After layering them I applied adhesive on only 1/2 of the medallion. Next, I added a 5mm Crystal Rhinestone to the center of the snowflake. My crystal rhinestones come on a sheet for only $1.75!! This view shows the "back" of the box. It's still a great presentation, so you can either display your wares with this side showing or the window side showing...both equally attractive.


This is the windowed size of the finished project. The finished box measures 4" x 4" x 3/4". It is large enough to hold quite a few gift tags, some small cards, candies, or even a cookie! Mmmm!! After I took the photo of the back of the box, I realized that it needed a little touch, so I opened the box and tied some Polka Dot Organdy around the top flap and closed the box again. Our Polka Dot Organdy is a great value, comes in 17 colors and what's not to love about polka dots??

Hope you enjoy the tutorial. Watch in the next day or so for a tutorial on turning our Oregon Raindrops into stunning embellishments!

Today's Limited Supply Challenge

I made this card today for the Limited Supply challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. The challenge was to make a card using some kind of technique that used only paper, stamps, and ink. Yikes!! What, no embossing powder or specialty supplies?

So, I started thinking back to cards I have done using various techniques. I was reminded of some Christmas cards I did using the Versamark Resist technique. In a nutshell, you stamp your desired images on glossy cardstock, then sponge or brayer ink over the top of the stamped images. The Versamark will resist the ink, leaving you with a series of negative images. You can use this as a background or even as a main focal image.

I started with Papertrey's Guidelines set. I stamped the lines in Mellow Moss on the glossy paper. I overstamped the lines with the decorative tiles in Versamark. I sponged over the top with Mellow Moss, So Saffron, and Always Artichoke inks. I love the way it turned, out, although next time, I would leave out the Always Artichoke, because it's a lot stronger than the other two shades.

I stamped the girl from My Favorite Things "Can Ya Dig It?" set. I stamped her in Palette Noir ink on Very Vanilla Cardstock. I used my ink pads to watercolor the image and background. The colors I used are: Bashful Blue, Creamy Caramel, So Saffron, Regal Rose, Mellow Moss, and Sahara Sand. I cut around her front hand with my hobby knife and also cut out the watering can so it would look like she is holding the can. I slid the can handle between her hands and stuck it down. The tip of the can is popped up on a tiny foam dot. I also popped up the main image and the sentiment.

The burlap string and brads are from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. The designer paper is from Basic Grey's Sugared pack.

My hubby came home from a business trip tonight and told me that one of his coworkers just had twin baby boys. Actually, the wife had the babies, but you get the drift. He was...*gasp* going to go out and BUY a card...*gasp*. I think I would die if I had to walk into a Hallmark and purchase a greeting card. I might have a seizure or something.

Anyway, I assured him that I could work up a quick card tonight, and this is the result. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with a sentiment for the inside that fit the occasion. In Stampin' Up!'s Bundled in Love, there is a saying that begins, "A new little someone sent from above." I used a marker on the stamp and omitted the "A" at the beginning, to make it say "new little someone, then I added an "s" by hand, so it now says "new little someones sent from above." I almost broke my arm patting myself on the back. LOL

Here's the details:

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Bundled in Love, Bundle of Joy, and Fancy Flexible Phrases, Papertrey Corners & Borders Circles
  
• Ink: Palette Noir, Stampin' Up! Ballet Blue
• Paper: Stampin' Up! Ballet Blue, Whisper White, and Bashful Blue
  
• Accessories: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, Nestabilities, Paper Piercer, Ribbons from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts
• I used my Ballet Blue ink pad and watercolor brush to watercolor the giraffes. The ribbons are 3/8" polka dot grosgrain and 3/16" gingham, both in light blue.
  

Moo-ry Christmas!

I have had this Penny Black stamp for a number of years and just touched it to ink this past weekend. I joined the Christmas Card Challenge at SCS a few years ago and it has been a great help to get me to finish my Christmas cards each year, usually with plenty of time to spare.

For those of you unfamiliar with this challenge, I'll 'splain: The idea is to determine how many Christmas cards you will need and commit to stamp about a 10th of them every month, starting in January, so you will finish them in October and have less hustle and bustle and hassle during the holidays. I usually need to stamp about 150 cards, so it's a huge undertaking. I used to stamp 100+ of the same card design until a couple of years ago when I grew bored with it and decided to make a minimum of 10 designs. Often, I will also stamp a Christmas card as one of the weekly color combo or sketch challenges and add it to my stash. To visit the Christmas Card Challenge forum at SCS, click here. You can join at any time, even though it's 1/2 way through the year.

I had fallen a bit behind in my challenge cards, so this past weekend, I sat down and completed about 50 cards and I have now finished 90 cards of the 150 I need for this year.



To make this cute card: Cut a 5.5" x 12" piece of red cardstock from a 12"x 12" sheet. Score across the strip at 2.5" from one end and 4" from the other. The larger fold will be at the top of the card and contains the cow image.

Next, I stamped a white panel with the Cow background from Cornish Heritage Farms using Black Palette Ink. My friend Chris Franco, a TAC demo got me hooked on this ink. It's my first time using it and I do like it, though I may have gotten a darker image using SU craft ink. This panel is cut 1/4" smaller than the lower flap of the card, so 5.25" x 2.25". The upper panel has Glorious Green as the first layer, measuring 3 7/8" x 5 3/8". The black layer is 1/8" smaller in each direction, and the white panel is 1/8" smaller than the black panel. I stamped the cow on the right side of the white panel also using Palette Ink.

After that, I pierced the corners for a touch of interest. The 5/8" polka dot organdy ribbon, red and black gingham, and gold cord are all from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. I tried and tried to find a stamp that says "Moo-ry Christmas", but after an unsuccessful search, I resorted to my computer and printer. I used a Wild West type of font and printed out enough copies for the cards I was making. I used my Nestabilities to cut out the 3 ovals. I centered the smallest oval over the sentiment and then cut it out and ran it back through to emboss it around the edges.

I adhered the cow image panel to the green panel, then wrapped the polka dot ribbon around the side and taped it on the back, then adhered both panels to the top of the card, and the cow print to the bottom. I adhered the 3 layers of the tag together and punched a 1/8" hole off center and tied the red & black gingham and gold cord to the tag. The tag is popped up on foam tape. Finally, I fastened the card shut with 1/2 of a velcro dot.

To see my other 3 card designs from this weekend, visit my gallery at Splitcoast Stampers by clicking here.

Tutorial For a Woven Ribbon Card

I have had many, many requests for directons for the woven card in our gallery for our polka dot ribbon contest. The fabulous card in question won the contest for best card and was made by Ann Lind. You can click here to go to the gallery which includes her card. Ann sent me detailed directions and I have followed them here with a few changes.

First, I decided to make a square card. My finished card is 5.5" x 5.5". First I cut a piece of white cardstock 4.5" x 4.5". You can see in the photo that I put a line of adhesive around the outer edges. I used my ATG, but mono or snail would work fine also.


Next, I started cutting strips of ribbon to start the weaving process. I chose Daffodil, Turquoise, and Azalea from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. Clicking here will take you to our organdy page. I chose these colors because they are close to Primary colors and will make green, purple, and orange where they cross. Ann suggested using white ribbon (or solid colors) as a base if you are going to be weaving with polka dot organdy ribbons. Begin sticking on the strips of ribbon, starting at the center.



Continue sticking on strips of ribbon until the majority of the card is covered. It doesn't show too well in the photo, but I found it worked best to leave a tiny bit of open space between the strips to allow the weave to lie nice and flat. At this point, Ann stitched down the ribbons to keep them in place.



Once you have placed all of the strips in one direction, begin weaving strips in the other direction in an over-under pattern. I found it easiest to pull up the end of each crossing strip as I wove the ribbons under them. I simply restuck the ribbons to the adhesive as I worked.


Continue weaving until the card is covered. After finishing to this point Ann stitched once again to hold down the second layer.


Cut strips of white cardstock 1/4" wide and 4.5" long. I used this step instead of the stitching steps Ann used. Cover the back of the strips with ATG or other adhesive. Stick them over the top of the ribbons to secure your weaving. This finished piece is 4.5" x 4.5".


Next, trim the excess ribbons from the edge of your piece using nice, sharp scissors.


Cut a piece of turquoise cardstock 5"x5" and center a Nestibility circle over the cardstock. Run the piece through your Cuttlebug or similar device. You could also cut a circle using the CM cutting system or any similar tools.


Cut a piece of cardstock 11" x 5.5". Score and fold in half, this will be your card base.


Adhere the woven piece to the card base, in the center.


Adhere the turquoise piece over the woven piece.


Cut a piece of Pixie Pink cardstock 4.75" x 4.75". I randomly stamped mine with the flowers from One of a Kind by Stampin' Up!. After stamping, cut a scalloped circle in the center using Nestabilities. I made the scalloped circle slightly larger than the circle cut out of the turquoise piece.


Adhere the pink piece over the remainder of the card.


To finish the card, I cut a scalloped oval out of white and a regular oval out of Pixie Pink. The sentiment is also from One of a Kind and stamped in Tempting Turquoise. I added three jaunty ribbon tails to the back of the tag and adhered to the card.

Thanks to Ann for sending in this great card and sharing the instructions. Enjoy making your own versions. Please feel free to submit your artwork to us at pinkhedgehgopapercrafts@gmail.com. We will make a special Woven Ribbon gallery to hold your creations.

Happy Stamping~~Heidi