Beginning of Wedding Week.....

Alrighty peeps! Now that the Bridal Fail is over, I can post my creations for you to see!!! In other words, I spent all of last week creating, and very little time on the techie stuff - blogging, (did you notice?), my Etsy shop, etc, etc!!! So, I hope you don't get tired of seeing wedding stuff this week!

First up is a square ensemble that I CASED from the Stampin' Success magazine that all Stampin' Up! Demonstrators receive. I didn't have any dimensions, so just kinda "wung" it!!! The save the date card and invitation both will fit inside a Medium Square Envie that Stampin' Up! sells....
Going a little backwards here - this is the wedding program I came up with. I used the same image that is on the save the date and invite, except, I put it on vellum, and heat embossed it using clear EP. The strip of vellum is also a continuous theme throughout the ensemble. I would also continue with the vellum on any favors, thank you notes, etc.

The program opens with the ceremony info on the front, and the wedding party on the second page. A third page could easily be added if it was needed.

Here is the outside of the save the date card. The vellum strip slides off and the card can be opened.

And here is the outside of the invitation. I've repeated the square image that was on the save the date, along with the vellum. Here I added Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon.

This is the opened invite. The left side has a pocket for your reception card, directions, response card, or what ever extra you need to include. On the right is the invitation wording.

All of the stamped images are from the Wedding Sweet stamp set. Most are stamped and heat embosssed using clear embossing powder. All of the wording was printed using My Digital Studio. I love that option because it coordinates perfectly with Stampin' Up's cardstock. I don't have to try and guess what color is going to match.

One thing to remember when creating your own invitations and such, use GOOD QUALITY cardstock. This is really important even when printing the wording from your own printer - the better the cardstock, the more professional your invite will look. My printer is an average printer, and yet when I print on Stampin' Up's Whisper White or Very Vanilla, it looks like I sent them off to a professional printer. I did have to let the ink dry good before handling them; even so, the look wonderful in real life!!

So, what are your favorite wedding colors? I'd love to hear....leave me a comment!!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll have more for you tomorrow!

Jen

Wedding Ensemble for you to see....

I know you are all wanting something new to see - so super quickly, here is a sneak peak of one of the wedding ensembles I created for the Denison Bridal Fair which is this Sunday, Jan. 31st - 1pm - 5 pm. Stop and see me PLEASE!!!
This invite is CASED from the Stampin' Up! catalog, I just varied it with new, springy colors (Almost Amethyst and Perfect Plum), then created some additional pieces to match.

I really like the way this one turned out - it almost makes me want to get married again - to the same man of course. Well, that could depend on the day, but today is good...so he's safe!

There is a close up of the inside of the invite. FYI - all of the print is created in My Digital Studio, which is really nice because the font colors nicely coordinate with all of Stampin' Up!'s paper, and you can "stamp" right on what you are printing out if you want to. I didn't do this option on everything, because some things I wanted to heat emboss, and for some reason I wanted to really stamp!!!

There is the invite closed. The image is stamped in Perfect Plum, then I used a two way glue pen to add Dazzling Diamonds so it would have some great sparkle. I used the same technique on the favor box.

Here is the Thank You note that I did. It's a pocket card, and the front pocket is textured using the Big Shot. The pocket on the invite also uses this technique. It keeps everything in tune with each other....

So what do you think???? Super cute? Elegant? Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Thanks -

Jen

Too too kind....

I know, I know, I've been MIA again....life just simply gets busy, and still icy....not only have we suffered an ice storm since my last post, but we've also had a blizzard (yesterday). I tell you what - weather in Iowa is always interesting!!! It does get my blood flowing when the weather gets exciting, and I do like a good storm (you have to when you live here!) During the ice storm, we were fortunate and didn't lose power for more than 3 hours at a time, but it was surging a lot over 3 days that I just shut the computer off for the most part. There were so many that lost power for DAYS - including my dear husband's hog barn - he finally got power back there yesterday after 5 days. And after yesterday's blizzard, we've got some awesome drifts again in the yard. They still amaze me, the way they can change thru the day.....
Alrighty....enough of that right???? You didn't come here to listen to me blab about the weather, and our lovely state.....
So, dearies - here is your eye candy for the day:

I used the Sale-A-Bration set, Whimsical Words. Yes, it IS a shiny little sentiment isn't it! Here's what I did - I die cut the Whisper White portion with a Nestibilities Die using my Big Shot, and while the paper was still in the die, I sponged it with Regal Rose ink. Then I inked up my stamp - clear mount to boot! - with Versamark, then before I stamped it, I inked it with Rose Red. Then, used clear embossing powder, and heated 'er up! A nifty look wouldn't you say? I did layer it on the next size Nestie Die. Then I took a button, threaded it with some Rose Red Grosgrain ribbon, and attached it with a glue dot. It needed it.

Here is the card in it's entirety:

Yes - that is paper from the Sale-A-Bration catty - Welcome Neighbor DSP. It is great - it comes in a 6x6 pad of 72 (that's right- 72!) sheets of paper!!! And the patterns are so adorable. Nice, bright, and SPRINGY!!! Oh, and another Sale-A-Bration item - that border punch....ah, I'm in love! It's a great punch, and oh so trendy right now. Plus, it comes in that great new punch style that's great on storage space.
So, really all of the items on this clean and simple card are from Sale-A-Bration. You too can earn these things FREE! A $50 purchase earns one free item out of the Sale-A-Bration catty. Contact me to find out more!

FYI - I've also been working like mad on Wedding Ensembles for the Bridal Fair and the Boulder's Conference Center this Sunday (the 31st; 1 - 5 pm) in Denison, IA. Stop by to see all of the great things I'm coming up with. Almost makes me want to get married again. Of course to the same great guy! I'll try and post a few of my creations here over the next few days!

That's all folks!
Thanks for stopping by -

Jen

ICE, ice, baby....

If you want exciting weather - just move to Iowa!!! I tell you what, this winter has been something else. It seems like every other week we've had something brewing up. Today - ICE - and a lot of it! I'm just thankful we only lost power for a few hours (knocking on wood!). One of the towns near us reported an inch of ice, and I really wouldn't doubt it. It's really something when you step outside and can hear tree limbs falling all around you. And yes, I did venture outside briefly today. Couldn't do much as I couldn't get traction to get far, and I didn't want Andy to have to come and lift the budda belly up off the ground! That was his warning as I walked out - DO NOT FALL! But, you guys are learning, I'm a nature lover, and after watching Mama Cardinal try and get to this:

....I knew I needed to come to the rescue. They couldn't get to the feeder at all. I witnessed a Blue Jay trying to peck thru the ice to get to the suet, and he wasn't strong enough either. So, I went out and broke the ice off for them to gain access. Unfortunately, as I type this, the feeder looks much the same. And, I watched Mama Cardinal again try and feed, but she couldn't get her feet on the perch because it was too icy. Poor things. While I was out there, I took a few pics of my yard. Well, I think I have a yard - I know the trees aren't having a fun day:

We've got a lot of clean up work ahead of us. And be aware - I took these photos this morning - it's now 5:30pm, things are much worse!!! The pics just don't do justice.

Okay - so, while Andy and Will headed out to check on the cows this afternoon, and Alex was napping, I did have a chance to stamp! Here's my card following the CPS Sketch 150:

I added a teeny, tiny bit of glitter to shine things up a little:

I KNOW - not a full force sparkling card from me - huh???? The ice has gotten to me! This card uses the new Sale-A-Bration set Happy Moments, and the super fun and funky designs from the Sweet Pea Paper Pack (my favorite bargain of the year!!!) I think this card would really brighten someone's birthday! If you want to earn the Happy Moments set, you just need to place a $50 order thru me or my website, and it's yours!!!

That's all for today peeps....

Turning stamps into clear mount....

Alrighty folks - I'm so excited about this clear mount option that Stampin' Up! is now offering, and even more excited that I learned how to turn my unmounted stamps into a clear mount stamp....and here's how you do it.... Start with your unmounted stamps...

I took a photo copy of the sticker sheet before I do anything. This will serve as my "cover" on my stamp case - like the clear mount sets have now.

I start with my stamps, peel off the paper backing to expose the foam. Then I lay the sticker that would have normally gone onto the wood block onto the foam, being careful to line it up really good.

More than likely the sticker will be too big. I just go around it with my Craft and Rubber Scissors from SU! - you know, those ones that we USED to use ALL THE TIME to trim down our stamps before SU! went die cut!!!!. You might notice that you clip a little of the foam here and there, and that won't hurt anything as long as you don't take a huge chunk out of the foam!

Now for the magic ingredient! Believe it or not.....TOMBOW!!! You don't need very much at all, just a little dot on small stamps, a couple of dots on larger stamps.

See that little dot of Tombow on the back of the stamp?

Brush it all over the sticker with a foam brush. It will dry clear, don't get too worried about seeing streaks in the glue - it will be fine! (sorry about the blurry pic!)

Use your judgement on how much to use on a large stamp - this stamp is about the size of my hand - and really, I still didn't use that much glue!

Once you have the glue spread around with your foam brush - you need to let it dry for several hours or even overnight. This is what turns the Tombow into repositionable glue.

This stamp I "treated" yesterday, it's now ready to go. One thing you will notice is that they have a LOT of "tack" to them. You will want to remove some of this tack by pressing the stamp onto your hand or jeans - anything that will get rid of some of that stickiness.

And, voila - you now have a clear mount stamp!!!

There you have it!!! You can also un-mount your already mounted stamp sets. Carefully peel the sticker off of the wood block. To remove your stamp from the wood, put it in the microwave for about 5 seconds, then the foam and rubber should peel right off the wood block. Now, you can put the sticker on the foam - you may need to use a bit of SNAIL on the foam to get the sticker to stick again. Then go ahead with the same process you did with the Tombow! EASY PEASY!!!

And, if you don't already have Tombow among your supplies, give me a shout - I can hook you up! AND, SU! is offering empty stamp cases - 4 cases for $4.95. The amount of space you save is amazing, and I LOVE the fact that I can see where I'm stamping!!!

If you have any questions - please leave me a comment!

You too can go clear mount...

Alrighty peeps - I know I haven't been here for a few days - I've been busy!!! I had an order for 42 Valentine's tags....so, I've been hard at it. Got them done - then my sweet hubby and I rearranged and "upgraded" my stamp room. I love it now! I got a new work table, and added another table to my space, so I have a much larger workspace now. I'm afraid that might mean more space to spread out my clutter - but I'm gonna try and stay organized.

I wanted to pop on here and let you know that while I don't have a card or a project to show you, I will be back tomorrow with a cool tutorial. I am going to show you how to transform your unmounted wood block stamp sets into clear mount sets - using what you more than likely have on hand!!!! I've tried it - and it works.

Now, this won't be up right away in the morning - I'll probably photograph this tomorrow afternoon during nap time - as long as all goes well....

In the meantime....go stamp something would you?

:) Jen

My Love Sparkles for you!

This card just screams love! This is was a pretty simple card, and I {heart} how it turned out. I am learning tho, you must put a solid image behind the Pinking Hearts border, or it just doesn't show up. I don't know how many times I've tried to put it on top of DSP, it just won't look right!

The hardest part about this was the glittering of the letters and then popping the letters off the card. Had I been thinking, I would have die cut the letters out of sticky cuts paper....but I wasn't thinking (my husband would agree most days). Instead I die cut the letters from Very Vanilla and then used 2 way glue to adhere the glitter.....this did work. I also used the 2 way glue on a bit of the main heart. Easy Peasy - and just stinkin' cute too!!!!

Okay peeps - I need my coffee to kick in...and since I'm only doing half caff these days, it takes a little longer than normal. Must go wake up now!!!

I should have napped....

Do you ever feel like you should have just sucked it up an taken a nap? I love a good nap in the afternoon when the boys take their naps, and today, I should have listened to my body and laid down. You see, I got some much awaited new stamps today. I was stalking the door waiting for the UPS man to show up. And he came thru, and, well I was SO excited to get to play with them. One that I was waiting for is the new dot, dot, dot stamp. This is a single stamp, and is quite a bit bigger than what it shows in the Occasions Mini. I knew it wasnt' going to go all the way across a card without using the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. I broke that out (another reason I like those clear mount stamps!!!), and then I struggled. I typically like to use vellum cardstock instead of the imaging sheet b/c I can then keep that vellum with the stamp, and not have to re-do the imaging sheet. So, I stamped it onto vellum, and that was all fine and dandy. But once I went to line up my images side by side on the card front, I just COULD NOT get it to line up! That just means I needed to figure it out, and decided to document my progress, so you can be in the know... first, I marked the corner of the vellum that was going into the corner of the SAMJ.

Then I marked my wood block also. This tells me which corner of the block goes into the corner of my SAMJ.

Then, because of the row placement of the polka dots, I had to turn my vellum image to fit on the card the best. The way the polka dots line up if you don't turn the stamp just right, well, it won't line up...period. You'll end up with 2 rows of dots that are exactly the same instead of off center....hope you can see what I mean....and trust me....I know from experience!~!!

So, where the arrows on your vellum imaging sheet are, is where the arrows need to go on your block.

Then, once your ink is good and dry ( I used Close to Cocoa Craft Ink here, so heat set it), then place your imaging sheet over the already stamped image and line up (see yellow arrow below):

Make sure you note where your direction arrows are on the vellum, and keep your stamp going the same way. You'll end up with a perfectly aligned polka dot border:

And while these directions are a bit lengthy, it's not that bad once you get it going. My hard part was I moved my vellum after I stamped it and before I put direction arrows on it. Trying to figure out which way was up was a bit of a challenge for me.....

Well, all of this does lead up to a super cute card!

The base is Melon Mambo, with that Close to Cocoa polka dot border (which really adds to this card I must say!) I stamped the cute little fox (from Fox & Friends) in Choc. Chip, then cut him (or her) out and popped up off the card. The hearts are all punched with the Heart to Heart punch and patterned paper from the Welcome Neighbor Sale-A-Bration paper pack. The sentiment is from the new hostess set in the mini - Picture This - I just left of the "friend" portion. The ribbon is Choc. Chip satin, and yes, you do see that adorable Pinking Hearts border punch!!!! Cute - eh?

So, tell me what you think - does the little tutorial help? What do you think of my card? Inquiring minds want to know!

Factory in the making!!!

Wow! I have been a busy gal this weekend!! I was so excited by the instant success of my Etsy shop (link is on the right side) that I couldn't sleep, I just dreamed about stamping, laid awake thinking about what to create.....and so, like a little Valentine elf, I got to work! Hi ho, hi ho, hi ho!!!

My mother in-law had given me these great antique muffin tins, and finally! I put them to good use. I sorted my punched and cut items in them, my buttons, and formed an assembly line.

I had been brainstorming about offering a Valentine's kit to all of you, and I do have something different in the idea box for you - OR - feel free to purchase one of these great kits oer on my Etsy shop.

This bundle includes 6 tags (the hearts are from the Love You Much set, border is punched with that oh-so-sweet Pinking Hearts Border Punch, and a little smidgen of the shiny Sending Love DSP), 6 cellophane bags (4x6 size), and 6 - 8 inch satin ribbons to tie the treat bag shut.

Here's a closer pic of the tag:

There's that super sweet Pinking Hearts border!! And look at that DSP shine - it is so nice to work with something glittery, and not have glitter all over! I {heart} this paper!

I also did the the same set, but changed up the tags. This stamp set is now retired, but it is my go to set for making Valentines for the boys. Last year when they were still going to the sitter, I used it, and I will use it again for Will's preschool Valentines. It's a nice look for kids and isn't over the top mushy! Plus, I like the doodled Friends stamp!

Kit details are the same as above: 6 tags, 6 cellophane bags, and 6 - 8 inch ribbons.

The friends image was stamped using Stazon ink and then colored with my SU! markers. Again, I used the Pinking Hearts border punch - it's just too cha-cha for words! It's a capped off with a bit of DSP (retired) and offset with a little red button.

Lastly, I did a set using the same set as above - it's called Love Matters btw - but remember, it's no longer available - SORRY!

I stamped the flower image 3 times across the bottom with Stazon, then colored with markers. Then I distressed the edges (Bonnie style!) with Close to Cocoa and a sponge dauber. I punched a heart with the Full Heart Punch, and roughed up those edges, the added a scrunchy little flower to the heart that is accented with a red button tied up with some jute twine. The top of the tag is a 1/2 inch circle punch, folded in half, then a hole punched with a 1/16 inch punch.

Aren't these flowers just too cute?

Okay folks! Tell me what you think - would you like something like these as a kit? I'm wondering if you'd like them stamped, punched, etc; then you could just color and assemble. I'd really like to hear some opinions - so PLEASE leave me a comment....I do value what you've got to say!!!

Thanks! Hope you enjoyed!