baby booties

one of the guys I work with just found out that they are expecting a boy, and he is thrilled!  I wanted to make a card for them and found a great card by lynn starzl that I cased, changing the colors and just a little bit more.  I used certainly celery and pool party (my favorite new color), and added some mini pom poms to the bakers twine just for fun!  I cut one of the lacy pieces from the flirtatious dsp and flipped it to the white side as a background.

glimmer paper WOW

ok, I think it's a wow, I hope you do too.  I used permanent markers to color some glimmer paper and it turned out alright, but I wanted to make it work using only SU! products, so I tried something new (to me at least) and I think it's gorgeous!
first I cut glimmer paper and sprayed alcohol on it, then used reinker in drops randomly around the paper in different colors (you can use all one color too).

I started turning the paper and adding more alcohol to make it run more.

if I had too much of one color in an area, or if it was too dark or I didn't like that color, I just blotted it with paper towel, and added another drop of another color if I needed more in that area, adding alcohol as needed to keep it moving.

once I liked my paper, I dried it with the heat tool, but as it dries, the silver glimmer comes out more and the colors fade to the back, and the color still seemed to come off on my fingers.  so instead of drying it, I added a layer of clear embossing powder while it was still wet, then dried it with the heat tool, and the color popped right out.
I re-sprayed it with alcohol and added another layer of embossing powder and then heated it to melt the embossing powder (paper on left is dried with heat tool only, paper on right shown with embossing powder).

I found 3 layers made the whole surface smoother, spraying alcohol before adding the next layer of embossing powder, since it didn't stay warm long enough to do the normal reapplying and heating of embossing powder.
the added benefit is that you can spray the backing of the glimmer paper and peel it right off so you can use your new colored glimmer paper with punches, or leave it and use our dies.  on my card, I used both the intricate snowflake and the border punch (with the backing peeled off), and they cut very easily.

medallion wreath

 here's my take on the medallion wreaths that are popular now, and shown in the SU! holiday mini catalog.  I was inspired by cindee wilkinson's gorgeous wreath (www.justspongeit.blogspot.com), and she encouraged me to make a holiday one.   I used the holly berry bouquet dsp in the holiday mini and some first edition dsp, since they'd used that in the christmas box kit SU! gave to us if we had a recruit in july.  I have a few things that I need to share from that give away, but those will be in future posts.  all my medallions are scored in 1/2" increments, and I used the small cropadile hole punch and tied them off based on heather summers' brilliant video (www.stampwithheather.typepad.com) on how to keep them together with out having them "pop".   my strips were all various widths, 1/2", 1", 1 1/2" and 2".  most were snailed together to end up with a 24" long strip, but there are a few that I did as 12" strips.  those medallions end up more open, and you can see the paper more easily.

 I stacked the medallions and staggered them to cover the base more evenly, adding northern frost and snowflake #2 die cuts randomly, since that's what snowflakes do :)

for the base, I used the carboard that was in the flirtatious dsp pack.  it's thicker than the white cardboard, and was still easy to cut, but is definitely strong enough.  I added a piece of dsp to the cardboard with our anywhere glue stick to blend in with the rest of the wreath (in case there were "bald spots"), then cut it down to 10" x 12".  I made the frame 2 1/2" wide all around and cut the center out.  pretty easy!  the medallions take a little time, but the whole thing came together very quickly once that was done.

holiday mini swap

for the life of me I could NOT get a good photo of this card, but it's pretty darn cute in person if I do say so myself!  I used real red on the base and always artichoke for the next layer embossed with the new snow burst embossing folder available in the mini catalog.  I also embossed a separate red oval with polka dots for the center of the frame made with the GORGEOUS silver glimmer paper.  I stamped stitched stockings in always artichoke ink ON always artichoke cardstock, and then punched it out with the new stinkin' cute stocking builder punch, then re-punched holly berry bouquet dsp for the toe, heel and cuff.  I added bakers twine at the top and to give it a little EXTRA charm, jingle bells on the ends.  they are so cute!  I ripped a line of mini glue dots, about 10 at a time to be manageable, then put the bells on each glue dot individually.  when you pick up the strip to use them, they really jingle pretty well.  I had to smile while I made this card!!!  hope you enjoy it too!  now I have to figure out what to do with the silver glimmer paper left over ovals!  can't be a bad thing...

control freak pre-order swap

this was a swap I did awhile ago when we were allowed to pre-order certain items from the new IB&C. I used ALL new in colors (love them!) lucky limeade, pool party (I think my favorite, I missed cool caribbean a lot), and island indigo.  I stamped delicate doilies in white craft ink and scattered them around, and used the BACK side of the flirtatious dsp doilies, cutting each one individually.  being a control freak swap I also used an embossing  folder, pearls, punches and ribbon.  the quality that those ladies put out is amazing.  I got a lot of beautiful swaps in return!

matchbook style album

 I made this darling matchbook album in about 10 minutes (maybe even less).

 the tutorial is available on the sudsol site and there are great step by step instructions and photos.  the project was made by jen clendineng (thanks for sharing, jen).

 I made it super simple by using beyond the garden dsp instead of stamping anything.

I used crumb cake cardstock on the inside, but I think in the future I'd use white, I think it would coordinate better.  I chose not to stamp anything on the inside, figuring when you fill the album, you could do it then, and in the meantime, if you did it in a class, it would be a fast, easy project.  it's not going to hold much, but a fun day out with friends could easily be documented and then given to show how special the day was.  fun, quick project!!!

aloha

tonight I was playing with the small oval punch (I think it's the one that retired) and the owl punch, and I came up with this hawaiian inspired card.  I stacked the small oval halves in early espresso and chocolate chip to make the trunk of the tree, and cut snippets out of the always artichoke ovals for fronds.  I punched a 1 3/4" circle in so saffron and sponged it with pumpkin pie for the setting sun.  the card is daffodil, pool party and sahara sand.  I used beyond the garden dsp for the bra (cut from the largest circle in the owl punch) and I used the flower trio punch (also retired, but you could use the itty bitty flower shape) for the lei.  I randomly snipped fringe for the skirt.  instead of trying to glue those tiny pieces for the pupils of the eyes, I used a permanent black marker on some pearls and added those.  hope you like it.  I miss hawaii, so whenever I can take myself back there, it's always a good memory!