Wedding Announcements Round II

After a couple of color changes and design changes, here is my 2nd design. The card is a center-fold card measuring 5 1/2" x 5 1/2". The color of cardstock I used is Almost Amethyst and the ribbon is Iris from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. I embossed the two sides of the front using my Cuttlebug Textiles folder. I embossed the leaf (Art of Life by Stampin' Up!) using gold embossing powder, but both the bride and I think silver is a better choice. I also personally think that a wider ribbon of the same color would suit the scale of the card better.

Let me know what you think Scot and Destiny!

I have had so many requests for photos of "The Hedgehog Den". This is my name for the warehouse that I store all of my goodies in for my website. I have turned my entire garage into a warehouse and packing center. I'm including a couple of photos below, but no matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to do it justice through photos. You just have to see it in person. I'm happy to have anyone who lives locally stop by for a visit, or if you happen to be in town. Just drop me an e-mail and I'll be happy to have you over for "show and tell"!!

My friend Diana came over for the first time and caught her first glimpse of the grosgrain ribbon tails hanging over the edges of the bins and said, "Be still my heart!" That about sums it up, it's a fabulous sight to see all of these friendly ribbons winking and smiling from their bins. Can you tell I love ribbons?


This is the grosgrain aisle. I have one color family per shelf. I got these shelves from Ikea, and I really love them. They are highly adjustable, all of the shelves can be adjusted up or down in 1 inch increments. The coolest part is that you purchase the ends separately from the shelves and you only buy what you need. One of my pet peeves is shelving when you can never get enough shelves to hold shorter items and you waste potential storage space. Traditional bookcases always drive me nuts!


These bins hold my brads, waiting to be counted. The counted sets are on the bottom shelf at the far wall. I also have my button stash here as well. Watch in the next couple of weeks for lots of new items including 21 different button color collections. These shelves are about 7 feet tall and just packed with bin after bin of goodies ready to send out.

2-4-6-8 Box Tutorial

Finally, as promised, here is the first in a series of tutorials on using some of the products on our website. This project uses a 6x8 clear bag, click here to see our full line of economically prices clear bags. The products and stamps used are: Stampin' Up! So Saffron & Purely Pomegranate cardstock and Ginger Blossom designer paper. I also used Groovy Guava and Purely Pomegranate ink and the Embrace Life stamp set. The ribbon used is Pink Hedgehog Paper Craft's Raspberry 7/8" organdy ribbon. Click here to see our organdy ribbon.

Step 1: Cut a piece of cardstock 8.5" x 8.5". I stamped randomly all over the cardstock using Purely Pomegranate ink.

I used my Scor Pal to score at 2", 4", 6", and 8". This leaves a 1/2" strip along one side.

Turn the cardstock 1/4 turn and score at 1.5".

Cut along the score lines just up to the 1.5" score line, making a series of tabs along the bottom of the cardstock piece.

Cut a piece of cardstock 4.5" x 2". Score at 2" and 2.5".

Use an oval cutter to cut a window in the lower center of one panel. For best results, leave the cuts towards you and cut the oval in the 2nd full 2" section. This will leave your seam on the back of the box. I used Creative Memories Cutting System to make my hole.

Cut a piece of designer paper 2" x 2". Here you can see both sides of the Ginger Blossom paper by Stampin' Up!.

Adhere paper to the small cardstock piece. It should fit perfectly onto one end of the piece. You only need one piece but I showed two here using both sides of the designer paper.

Fold on all score lines. place adhesive on the 1/2" strip along the edge of the cardstock, including down onto the cut portion. I used my ATG gun. The adhesive is plenty strong to hold the box together.

Fold the box and adhere with the 1/2" strip on the inside of the box.

Fold the ends of the box, folding the sides in, then the back, then the front.

Place a line of adhesive on the outer edge of the front flap and seal the box shut.

Adhere the smaller piece of cardstock to the back of the inside of the box, leaving the designer paper side free to fold over the top and in front of the box. Press in the top sides of the box similar to a milk carton and fold the designer paper flap over the top and to the front of the box. Use 1/2 of a velcro dot to secure the flap.

To finish the box, I filled a 4"x 6" clear bag with caramels and placed it inside the box. I tied a bow around the 1/2" fold on top of the box using 7/8" Raspberry organdy from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. I cut two ovals using my Nestabilities. The larger one is cut from Purely Pomegranate cardstock and the smaller from So Saffron. I stamped using the same flower stamp and Groovy Guava ink, the sentiment is stamped using Purely Pomegranate ink. Adhere the sentiment oval to the front of the flap.

Weddings R Us!!

I've been absent from my blog for quite a while. This is for several reasons:

• Our business has really taken off and kept us hopping!
• We have lots and lots of new products coming up on our website click here to visit our store.
• The flu bug.....grrrr!
• My sister is getting married in May and I just finished tying the last ribbon onto 400 announcements!!! See the announcement below.
• My brother-in-law is getting married in August, so I am now making more announcements for him.

Watch this week and into the coming weeks for a series of tutorials on using some of the new products in our store. Tomorrow I plan to post a unique twist on a 2-4-6-8 box. At least I think it's unique and the design is from my own head.




This is my sister Mary's card. Their wedding colors are Moss and Eggplant. The card size is 4.75" x 6.75". To make the window, I used Creative Memories square punches. I punched a 1-inch square in Elegant Eggplant cardstock. I then put the cardstock back into a 1.5-inch punch, holding the punch upside down, in order to see where I was punching. That created a little eggplant frame. I punched a hole in the card front using the 1.25-inch punch. Using my Sakura Quickie Glue Pen, I traced around the inside of the hold in the card itself and adhered the frame. The frame is glued on the inside of the card.

The stamp sets used are all by Stampin' Up! They are Terrific Tulips, Watercolor Garden (butterfly), Little Shapes (square stamped in Mellow Moss inside the card, seen through the window), and Friend to Friend (Poem). I took the cardstock to a copy center before cutting and had them print the inside text. The tulips are actually a 3-step stamp. First I stamped the large part of the stem with Always Artichoke, then overstamped the leaf with Mellow Moss, then stamped the bloom with Elegant Eggplant.

The ribbon I used is 5/8" ivory organdy from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts.


Here's my first prototype for Scot and Destiny. I embossed the center panel of Very Vanilla cardstock with the Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder. I also embossed three lines on the edge of the card using my Scor Pal. The rose is from the Stampin' Up! stamp set To Have and To Hold. I stamped using copper ink and embossed using copper embossing powder. I cut out and embossed the ovals with my Nestabilities Ovals. The ribbon is 3/8" Rust organdy from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. This card also measures 4.75" x 6.75".

Storage jars now available online!!

Click here to go to Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. Our storage jars are now available for purchase on our site.

We also just added 1/4" and 1/8" solid organdy. The wider widths of grosgrain are also available in many of our colors. Watch in the coming weeks for the remainder of the colors as well.

Brad and Eyelet Storage Presale!!

We have just purchased a number of sets of brad and eyelet storage containers. We're holding a presale on these great little jars. For a limited time only, you can purchase a set of 75 of these jars for only $20 plus shipping. We have about 20 sets on hand, but we will order more if there is a bigger demand during the presale. Sets of 25 jars are being presold for $8 each, plus shipping.

We're offering sets of 75 because we carry 59 colors, plus we're ordering 12 more colors and you'll have extra to store your existing stash. Everyone is asking how I'm storing these little guys. I have found the perfect storage solution. These jars fit really well into this mini drawer unit: Rubbermaid Drawer.

The jars are perfectly sized to hold a 1/2" punch on top, held on with a glue dot. I plan to punch out paper in the matching colors and put them on the tops of all of my jars for quick identification.

The regular price is $25. These adorable jars measure just over 1.5" high with the caps on, and about 3/4" in diameter. The cap is a snap-on, pliable plastic. The caps are very secure, but easy to get on and off. The photo shows 100 brads of each color in the jars, and 200 black. They would be perfect to store 50 brads and 50 eyelets of the same color.

To pre-order a set of these jars, send me an e-mail to pinkhedgehogpapercrafts@gmail.com. The first 20 sets will ship right away and the others will take about a week to arrive and will be shipped out at that point.

This is a photo of my light box I use for my website photography. It's an ugly affair, but it gets the job done. It's about 18 inches on every side. We built it from PVC pipe and then stretched white nylon tent material over the outside. We can aim lights at the sides, or swivel these clip on lights around to the front to shine directly on the subject being photographed. If you are photographing something shiny or that will glare, you'll need to shine the lights at the outside of the tent instead.

I have found that I still need to use a flash to get the best color and detail. With my Nikon D40X, I can adjust the Flash Compensation, which basically lowers the output of the flash so that the subject doesn't get washed out and lose its vibrant color.

First, here is a photo taken with just the floodlights, no flash. This is 150 watts total, two 75 watt daylight bulbs.



I first tried -3 on the Flash Compensation and this is what I got:


As you can see, the photo is dark and very yellow. I had both of the floodlights on the front of the box aimed directly at the card and still the light quality is very poor.

Next, I took this photo at -2 on the flash compensation. The color is better, but not great, and the photo is still too dark and the colors are not well represented. For those familiar with Stampin' Up! colors, the card is Apricot Appeal, Sage Shadow, and Rose Red.


Here's the final photo. The only editing I have done is cropping out some of the background and adding the watermark. The color is much better, but not washed out. Rose Red is a difficult color to photograph in it's true form anyway.


Thus we reach the end of my photo tutorial 101. Now that I have things figured out, you can expect to see the contest submissions posted on my website any day. I'm also starting a gallery of my work as well.

Watch next month for two new contests coming to Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts. Here are a couple of hints: Polka Dots.....Christmas/Holidays.....now what's that about? Watch in early February for the announcement!