Saturday, February 28, 2009

February Giveaway (staying at the top)

End of the Month Dash!

I hate listing multiple projects in a single post, but I have to get these posted for this month! I am on project overload right now (too many projects, not enough time to post in this month! LOL)

Here are my last projects using the Stamp Set of the Month for February - Just Buzzin By. I just love this cute little set. I have other ideas on how to use this set, but I just ran out of time this month.
Shown above is a SU Pillowbox die cut. I love this cute little shape! It is pretty small and would be perfect for candy or little goodies. To decorate the pillow box, I used a cute bee from SU Just Buzzin By. The swirl is from the SU Doodle This stamp set. The scalloped heart is from a Nestibilities die. I don't own any of theses, but I used my friend Cindi's. I had always wondered how these worked, and now I am HOOKED! They are so neat!! March budget. . . meet Nestibilities!! LOL.


The above card features the flower from the Just Buzzin By stamp set. I sponged around the flower using a cotton ball. The pink cardstock was textured using a SU exclusive texture plate for the Big Shot. I am really loving the Texture Plates. They are so easy to use. The ribbon is SU Tafeta ribbon.


And above is my first St. Patrick's day card! LOL I know I am super early, but I just had to while I had the bees out! The bee and flower are both from the SU Just Buzzin By stamp set. You don't have to have holiday specific stamps in order to make a holiday themed card or project! The sentiment was printed from my computer. The ribbon is retired SU ribbon. The front panel was textured using the SU Medium Dots texture plate.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the cute little bees featured this month.





Introducing. . .

VINTAGE PLUM. .. seriously Google it! Or go to www.vintageplum.com. I will tell you more about this new kit club on Sunday.

I want to share with you my first LO using their February kit. The Feb kit is named Crush.

This is a LO I made of my baby nephew. Here he is licking the chocolate off the mixer! All the items used to make this LO are from the Crush kit from VP except the border punch, gel pen, and adhesive.
The tree is my favorite part :O) I used the Season of Friendship tree as a template and just hand cut around it. The felt hearts came with the kit. Just look at that awesome textured cardstock in the background. It looks even better in person!
I made this little flower using ribbon and patterned paper from the kit (I drew the button holes).
The journaling square was actually painted with brown paint included in the kit. I dabbed off the excess paint with a tissue to create the texture. The music note paper was washed with diluted paint. The border punch is a new punch from EK Success.




Friday, February 27, 2009

Punk Rocker LO

This is a LO of my fiance when we gave him a Mohawk! LOL I cut his hair with a trimmer and while cutting his hair the last time, I just left the Mohawk area long and so he styled it for the photo shoot. LOL

Notice the wheel stamp border of the skulls. That SU Wheel is called Scary Skulls. I loved the background paper so much I didn't do much to the LO. The paper is from the DCWV Rock Star stack (LOVE IT!! Perfect for guys but it has some awesome girl rock papers too) The big green skull epoxy was made using the Just Jawing stamp set and SU markers. Inside the little circle is a glitter skull. The title was made using various glitter Thickers. I used the SU Ticket corner on the edges of the photo mats.


Lesson 21: Use Glitter with SU Wheel Stamps.

In this lesson, learn how to use extrafine or chunky glitter and your Wheel Stamps! I really really enjoy adding glitter!

Supplies needed:
*Loose glitter
*VersaMark inked wheel cartridge (see Lesson 20 click here)
*Heat and Stick Powder
*Heating tool
*Powder tray

Steps:
1. Stamp your wheel border using a VersaMark ink cartridge.
2. Sprinkle Heat and Stick powder over the VersaMark.
3. Heat Set the powder until it looks glossy and quickly sprinkle with glitter. If making a border on a scrapbook page with your wheel stamp, sprinkle the heat and stick over the whole border in sections and tap off. Only heat about 4 inch section at a time and sprinkle with glitter. Then move on to the next 4 inch section, heat and sprinkle with glitter and continue until the whole border is covered.
4. Heat over the glitter lightly to make sure the glitter is set into the heat and stick powder.



No Buying Paper Challenge COMPLETE!!

FINALLY!!!!!!! I am through 200 projects! I am so thrilled to say I can buy paper again!!! LOL

I have only slipped up one time during the challenge which I started back in November. I bought the SAB Paper bundle during the preorder and that was the only paper I have purchased for myself.

I must confess that I did actually buy a lot of paper during the challenge, but it was for my ebay store paper kits and I did NOT use it! I did not use ANY of it! You have to know it took enormous self control not to use any of the paper!! This couldn't have been a more difficult scrappy challenge for a paper addict like me.

I am still a paper addict, & this weekend, I will be digging in and using some of that new paper I bought for the paper kits. I only bought papers I love so I know it will be used if it doesn't sell.

Let me share my paper progress with you. . . I went through every sheet of patterned paper I have and purged enough to make about a 5 inch high stack. I plan on making clearance paper kits in my ebay store using the paper I won't use. Whatever doesn't sell, I will RAK out so stick around :)

By Sunday, I hope to share my 2 new found loves with you (scrap related of course!)


Peeking Bee Card

I made this card for my hostess club online crop we held in Feb. It was a bunch of fun. I am having hostess club sign ups going on right now so email me at sstracha@utk.edu to reserve your spot!

The patterned paper is from the SU Tea Party paper pack. I tore the edges and then rolled them a little to wrinkle them. The cardstock is SU So Saffron and Pretty in Pink. The bee is from the SU Just Buzzin By stamp set and the flower in the center is from the SU Playful Petals stamp set. The flower and bee were colored in with SU Markers and Stickles.

IBCC #8

Happy Friday everyone!
For this week's Idea Book & Catalog Challenge, use the card above as your inspiration. Leave me a link in your comment by next Friday & I will showcase one person on my blog!

Here is my card for the challenge:
My card features the dancing bee from the Just Buzzin By stamp set. I colored him in with SU Markers. The chipboard flower is from the SU So Tweet chipboard set. I added the glitter using Heat & Stick powder and the glitter is from Martha Stewart. The green polka dots are from the SU Bella Rose paper pack. The green paper was punched with the SU Scallop Circle punch. The red pattern is from the SU Candy Lane paper pack. I punched it using the Martha Stewart Heart border punch. The sentiment is from the SU Best Yet stamp set (Retired Hostess Level 1 set).

I can't wait to see your creations!





Thursday, February 26, 2009

Lesson 20: Embossing with SU Wheel Stamps

In this guide learn how to emboss with SU Wheel Stamps!

Embossing is a great touch to any card, layout or project, but it simply cannot be done with Stampin' UP's standard style ink cartridges because those are made with Classic (dye) ink. To emboss you need pigment ink. What you need to do is make your own wheel cartridge as outlined in Lesson 19.

Supplies Needed:
*Uninked wheel cartridge of your desired size
*VersaMark reinker
*scrap paper
*gloves if desired
*SU Wheel Handle
*SU Wheel Guidge
*Embossing powder
*powder tray
*heating tool

Steps:
1. Ink the cartridge as outlined in Lesson 19 using the VersaMark reinker. This ink is thicker than dye ink so let the ink settle for a few minutes (I waited maybe 10 minutes and it worked just fine).
2. Load the ink cartridge and wheel into the wheel handle as outlined in Lesson 16.
3. Stamp as desired on your project. Use the wheel guide if needed . If you don't know how to use the wheel guide, view Lesson 17.
4. Quickly cover the VersaMark with embossing powder and heat set with your heating tool. If making a border on a scrapbook page, sprinking the embossing powder in approximately 4 inch section of the border and tap off and move on to the next 4 inch section until the full border is covered. For heat embossing instructions, view Lesson 7.

ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
Instead of using VersaMark reinker, make your cartridge with any Craft (pigment) ink reinker of your choice and heat emboss with clear embossing powder.




Love Cards Day 7

This is the final card for my week of love cards. The sentiment says Valentine's day but it could easily be changed to say something else. The sentiment is from the SU A Happy Heart stamp set. The hearts and tree branch are from the SU Owl Together Now stamp set. The bees are from the SU Just Buzzin By stamp set. They were colored in with SU Markers. The corners of the background panels were punched with the SU Ticket Corner Punch and then embossed with a SU texture plate.



Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Lesson 19: Make your own Colored Wheel Cartridges.

In this guide, learn how to make your own ink cartridges for your Stampin' UP Wheel stamps.

In the Stampin UP catalog, on the pages with the ink pad colors, the last two columns of the table contain pre-inked ink cartridges (one column is for the standard wheel size and one row is for the large wheel size). When looking at those pages, notice, there are only order numbers for a select few colors. If you want other colors, you have to make your own. Use this simple guide to give you an idea of how to make your own ink cartridges. You can make one of every SU Color you want or even make them with other brand reinkers!

On the page with the wheel accessories (Page 191 in the Spring 09 Idea Book & Catalog) you can purchase uninked wheel cartridges. The standard wheel uninked cartridge is order number 101529 and costs $5.25. The large wheel uninked cartridge is order number 103678 and costs $7.50.

Supplies needed:
*Inkinked Wheel Ink Cartridge of the desired size
*Reinker (use Classic or dye ink to make standard ink cartridges like the SU preinked ones\
*newspaper or scrappaper
*Gloves if desired

Steps:
1. Spread out your scrap paper on the surface you will be working so you don't get reinker on anything.
2. Open the ink cartridge (As shown in the photo above). Yours will be a sponge creamish color and dried.
3. Put on your gloves if you don't want to get ink on your finger (I just wash my hands afterwards and skip the gloves! LOL)
4. Apply your reinker to the cartridge, going across the surface of the sponge in rows (let the rows run across the flat part of the sponge or longways rather than across the rounded part). Be careful not to oversaturate the sponge.
5. When the surface of the sponge looks well coated with reinker, use your finger to gently turn the sponge until uninked sponge is exposed.
6. Reink as explained in step 4 and repeat turning the sponge until the whole wheel is well inked.
7. Finally, test it out!



New Paper Kits

I am in the process of loading these paper kits to my ebay store. All of them except the Manchester kit are made with DCWV paper from the new paper packs!! The Manchester kit was made with Stampin' UP papers. My ebay store address is: http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Scrapmasters-Paradise







Smile I Love You LO

This is a LO of me! LOL I took this photo of myself when I was in high school. My fiance and I were dating at the time and we often instant messaged late at night. I had a brilliant plan to take a photo of my secret message to him so here it was. It took me forever to take the photo correctly and then upload it and crop it AND send it to him and he was getting so angry that I was taking so long. Well him getting all mad about it made it take even longer because I was laughing so much I couldn't hold the camera still. We still laugh about it!

For this LO, I used K & Company patterned paper from the pack Alison bought for me. I SO LOVE this paper! She really knows me (Thank you girl!). I used the SU Perfectly Pretty Wheel to make the flourishy border at the bottom. I lined the stamped border with paper I punched with the Martha Stewart Doily Lace Border punch. The alphas are from Making Memories. The photo corner was made using the SU Doodle This stamp set. The flowers and buttons are Misc. Inside the large flower, I punched a circle and stamped the center with a flower from the SU Playful Petals stamp set.

Love Cards Day 6

This card is for day 6 of my week of love cards. The stamps are both from the SU A Happy Heart stamp set. They are both stamped in Pacific Point. The corners of the white cardstock and background panels were punched with the SU Ticket Corner Punch. The panels were embossed with the SU Texture Plate in a pattern called Flourish.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

What is this?!

My fiance finally helped me create my glorious project, shown here! I am unbelievably thrilled to have it all made and I am so excited to share it with you. . . but can anyone guess what it is actually for??? You can click on the photos to see a larger photo of each. . .

HA HA HA HA!! It is for storing Stickles!!!!!! I LOVE IT!! The white stripes are actually strips of Velcro and I attached a tiny piece of the fuzzy side of the Velcro to each Stickles bottle. That way they can easily be taken off and put back on. I have had the idea for a while, but had no idea how to actually get it made, well my lovely fiance is an engineer so I used his brilliant mind! The board creation is my own idea (although I am sure someone else has thought of it before me), but I got the idea for using velcro from a fellow scrapper who had her velcro attached to the wall above her scrap desk (too permanent for me).

My SAB Bundle Savings Offer

(I am just pulling this back to the top since I added some new bundles!)

Of course, Sale-a-bration is a great offer all on its own, but I am adding a special offer on top of the Sale-a-bration benefits. I have designed some bundles that add up to about $50 order so they qualify for a SAB item FREE!! If you order any of these bundles, I will take $3 off your purchase price ($3 PER bundle listed below)!! How sweet is that?! Buy from me and save!!

To order: send me an email at sstracha@utk.edu with your bundle choice and contact information & I will get back to you ASAP. If you would like to place a non-bundled order, you can order directly from my online store by clicking the button in my sidebar or email me.

I will be slowly adding more bundles to the list. The prices below are BEFORE the $3 is taken off the price.

NEW BUNDLES NOW ADDED!

Sweet Nothings Bundle $52.60
*Sweet Nothings Simply Scrappin Kit
*Riding Hood Red stampin pad
*Riding Hood Red reinker
*Kiwi Kiss stampin pad
*Kiwi Kiss Reinker
*Chocolate Chip stampin pad
*Pink Pirouette stampin pad
*Pink Pirouette Reinker

Specialty Designer Series Paper Bundle $53.75
*Baja Breeze stampin pad (or any classic pad you want)
*Rockabilly DSP
*Parisian Breeze DSP
*Sweet Slumber DSP
*To the Nines DSP

Game Night Bundle $50.85
*Jackpot DSP
*Game Night stamp set
*Card Games stamp set

In Color Ink Bundle $53.40
*Baja Breeze stampin pad
*Baja Breeze Reinker
* Riding Hood Red Stampin Pad
*Riding Hood Red Reinker
*Pink Pirouette Stampin Pad
*Pink Pirouette Reinker
*Tangerine Tango Stampin Pad
*Tangerine Tango Reinker
*Kiwi Kiss Stampin Pad
*Kiwi Kiss Reinker
*Pacific Point Stampin Pad
*Pacific Point Reinker

In Color Paper Bundle $53.90
*In Color Assorted 12X12 cardstock pack
*In Color Assorted 12X12 textured cardstock pack
*Riding Hood Red 8.5X11 cardstock pack
*Pacific Point 8.5X11 cardstock pack
*Pink Pirouette 8.5X11 cardstock pack
*Kiwi Kiss 8.5X11 cardstock pack
*Baja Breeze 8.5X11 cardstock pack
*Tangerine Tango 8.5X11 cardstock pack

In Color Ribbon Bundle $59.70
*Riding Hood Red 5/8inch Double Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
*Baja Breeze 5/8inch Double Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
*Pink Pirouette 5/8inch Double Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
*Tangerine Tango 5/8inch Double Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
*Pacific Point 5/8inch Double Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
*Kiwi Kiss 5/8inch Double Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

Circle Bundle $53.85
*Circle Scissor Plus
*Replacement Blades
*Glass Mat

Ribbon Storage Bundle $51.80
*Large Ribbon Keepers (pack of 2)
*Medium Ribbon Keepers (pack of 2)
*Small Ribbon Keepers (pack of 2)
*Tempting Turquoise 1/4inch Grosgrain ribbon (or your choice of colors)

Ultimate Storage Bundle $53.95
* 2 Forget-me-not keepers
*Color Index Labels (pack of 2)
*8.5X11 paper holder
*8.5X11 dividers
*12X12 paper holder
*12X12 dividers

Retro Bundle #1 $52.85
*Planter Box Rubons
*Cheep Talk set
*On Board So Tweet

On Board Bundle $51.80
*Essentials Chipboard
*Loads of Letters Chipboard
*Timeless Type Chipboard
*Lots of Letters Chipboard

Wheels Starter Bundle $54.10
*Wheel Guide
*Regular Wheel Handle
*Large Wheel Handle
*Always in Bloom Regular Wheel
*So Swirly Large Wheel
*Sweet Serenity Regular Wheel
*Chocolate Chip Regualar ink cartridge
*Night of Navy Large ink cartridge

Neutrals Bundle $51.20
*Sahara Sand classic ink pad
*Whisper White craft ink pad
*Basic Brown classic ink pad
*Basic Grey classic ink pad
*Basic Black classic ink pad
*12X12 neutrals textured cardstock pack
*8.5X11 neutrals cardstock pack

Watercolor Bundle $53.80
*Bold Brights watercolor crayons
*Watercolor paper pack
*Blender pens (3 pack)
*Aqua Painter (2 pack)

Applicator Bundle $51.30
*Color Spritzer
*Sponges
*Sponge Daubers
*Stipple Brushes
*Aqua Painters

Love Cards Day 5


**I  am on a ProvoCraft/Cricut Boycott! They won't get another dime from me!  Got a Cricut? Well use it! Don't have one yet? Consider a different  machine!! Click here for more details about my boycott and how I got here!! You can join the boycott too!**


I made this lovely card for my fiance and I am using it as Day 5 of my week of love cards. I laughed the whole time I was making this card because my fiance loved Oscar as a little boy. The little sign oscar is holding is cut out to say he loves trash so I had to alter it a bit, LOL. The background is stamped with the heart stamp from the SU Love You Much stamp set.

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