Easel Cards

Easel cards are so easy and fun to put together. They really add a different flair to cards and are a great way to really grab your recipient's attention! A great tutorial can be found at Splitcoaststampers under the Resources section - check it out! The one above uses the "Great Friend" stamp set and white embossed vellum butterflies. I love watching embossing powder melt, so this one was extra fun to assemble!



Here's another one made before Easter using the Vintage Vogue stamp set..... love this stamp set to pieces! Oh, don't forget that today, April 30th, is the last day that you can order from the Occasions Mini Catalog - some things have sold out already (ie the On-Board Heart book, Sweet Pea Designer paper stack, Sweet Pea Stitched felt). You can order any other items online at www.june.stampinup.net and be sure to check out the clearance rack section too! Lots of great bargains to be had there.

Have a great Friday! Till next time...

Goodbye SAB.... Hello Occasions Mini!!!

Well, I had to make a couple tribute cards with items from the Sale-A-Bration promotion as one last Hurrah! I hope that you love your free SAB items as much as I do. The Delicate Dots DSP will be sorely missed, and I'll be using it up over Spring because of it's perfect blend of colors for this time of year. My first card with hearts came from Polka Dot Punches, and is lightly sponged all around. The second card below was made for my niece who just had a baby boy on Saturday. Many congratulations, Tabatha! The whale stamp came from Pun Fun (not retired - it's available in the main catalog on page 48, item #115054). He is watercolored with markers and an aquapainter. I used the eyelet edge punch on the Apricot Appeal block to bring out more dots! tee hee... Well, *sigh*, it WAS another great year for SAB...

Although it's a bit sad knowing that some things are no longer available, it does mean that NEW items are NOW available! Stampin' Up!'s Occasion Mini catalog starts today!! Products from this mini catalog will be available until June 30th. There are ALOT of cool things in this mini, and I'll be posting many projects utilizing the new items to help inspire you to be creative!

With Easter around the corner, I had to make an Easter basket made from the Big Shot/Scallop Envelope Die. I cut 4 of the envelopes out of Gable Green cardstock and assembled it by arranging & gluing the flaps together inside of the box, and the scalloped topper folded to be on the outside. I also had a (1 x 8.5 inch) strip of Bashful Blue cardstock that I punched along with the Scallop edge punch on both sides to create my decorative trim on the handle. The trim was glued to a (1/2 x 8.5 inch) strip of Gable Green to create my Easter basket handle, and is attached with brads. The green striped patterned paper comes from the Rainbow Sherbet DSP paper pack. Finally, the marker-colored Easter eggs are stamped from a new stamp selection called Wagon Full of Fun, and it adds the perfect touch for this very fun and easy project.

(angled view)

(front view)

Have a great Wednesday, everyone! See you soon!!!

Spring Time Paper Containers

Hello again! I felt inspired this morning by our warm *spring* weather here in Phoenix to create some colorful projects today. Well, it turned out to be 90 degrees... yep, in March!!! I resisted turning on the air conditioner because it was breezy, and needless to say, all the windows and doors were open to take advantage of it. Tomorrow will be slightly warmer, but next week should be back in the upper 70's - low 80's (whew! and just where I like it!).

Well, I'm rambling, so let's get on to the projects. As you can see, I made an assortment of paper containers today. Two are from templates, and one from the Sizzix Bigz XL Scallop Box die. I took individual pictures of each container below to show you alittle more details. Wouldn't these be cute with candy, or little gifts, for the kids on Easter morning?

Carrot Box

This was made using one of SCS's carrot box templates. The stamped images come from the new Spring-Summer Occasions Mini set called Forest Friends and will be available for purchase after April 1st. The sentiment comes from Wagon Full of Fun. My customers should be receiving their complimentary Mini catalog this week, so if you don't have it by Friday, please let me know! I see lots of possibilities with this uber-cute stamp set. I chose to use the sweet bunny to decorate the front of the carrot box. The Tangerine Tango box itself was randomly stamped with the small swirl stamp in Tangerine Tango ink from the Priceless stamp set. The carrot top was die-cut using Kiwi Kiss cardstock, the Big Shot and Daisies # 2 die. I cut 3 of the large daisies, and glued the centers down to a 3/4 inch circle punchout. Then I layered and glued 1 medium daisy and 1 small daisy on top of that. The top picture below shows you what that looked like. The bottom picture (a bit blurry, sorry) shows you what it looked like after I bent all the petals upward and punched a small hole in the center for my gemstone brad.

The pic below shows a side angle view of the carrot top - I think it turned out pretty cute, even though it doesn't resemble real carrot greens (at least the carrot greens from the ones I grow in my garden during the Phoenix "winter" season).... but good enough for me! You can see the gemstone brad peeking out.

Scallop Box

This pic shows a close-up of the Sizzix Bigz XL Scallop Box cut using the Big Shot. I cut the box in Gable Green, and stamped the leaves from another new set called Great Friend in Versamark along the edges of all pieces. I created my window by using the new Scalloped Oval punch that's new in this Mini catalog. The punched out scalloped oval was used above on the flap of the box. I punched 1 scallop circle and large oval in Pixie Pink (after stamping the sentiment) and glued these down on the flap as seen below. I cut a small rectangle from one of the cellophane bags and glued that down inside around the window before final assembly. The box flaps were glued down, then I added dots with a black marker and a ribbon bow to the top. The butterfly from Great Friend was stamped in Pixie Pink ink and quickly heat-embossed in clear embossing powder. It was trimmed out and glued onto the box. Finally, and most importantly :) , yummy jellybeans were added last. A perfect Easter treat!


Chinese Take Out Box

Finally, this little box was created from another template (here's one for ya). I used DSP from the Delicate Dots selection (a Sale-A-Bration goodie!) and cut the template with it. I glued the flaps down and tied an Old Olive ribbon around it. The duck comes from Wagon Full of Fun, another new set from the Mini, and is colored in with markers on watercolor paper. I used my aquapainter to "swipe away" areas of the colored marker to highlight the duck and ribbon to give it a bit of depth. (This is a cool technique and you should try it out!) The duck was cut out and glued to the side of the box. The label was attached last and is lightly sponged and matted on Bashful Blue cardstock.

Well, there you have it! Three different paper containers to help inspire you to create something special for your special someone! I would love to hear what you think... let me know your favorite one! I used alot of new product today that will soon be available for purchase. If you're thinking about any of these new stamps sets or tools from the Mini Catalog and would like to host a workshop in the Phoenix area, please let me know! You can contact me by visiting http://www.mycreativecorner.com/ and filling out the contact page. I would love to show you more ways to maximize the use of any of these products shown today.

Thanks for visiting with me... I am going to do a Friday Flashback for you tomorrow and show you my very *1st ever* scrapbook page, and a couple more that started me on my scrapbook journey 13 years ago... see you then!

Easter Mosaic

This was made for Splitcoast's Ways to Use It challenge, and today's item was to use alcohol is some way on your card. My card title is Easter Mosaic, but I didn't do a mosaic on the two large eggs, just the chick's egg with the leftover "pattern" paper that I made with alcohol and reinkers. Basically, I just used a Q-tip and soaked each cottony end in alcohol, then added 1 drop of Riding Hood Red reinker on one side, and 1 drop of Kiwi Kiss reinker on the other. I lightly spritzed a quarter sheet of white cardstock with alcohol and just rolled my Q-tip back and forth, all around to make a marbling of color. (I guess this is a variation of the Polished Stone technique.... hey, I know... let's call it the Rolling Stones. tee hee hee! OK, I'm just kidding!)

Anyhow, after letting the paper dry, I stamped the egg on top and cut around the outline. I added a ribbon bow on each egg and set it aside. The chick/egg was stamped and colored in with colored pencil above (chick) and watercoloring below (egg). I cut up leftover pieces of my "pattern" paper and glued them down on the egg to create my mosaic. The sentiment was stamped and brads were added. This was matted and adhered to my cardbase. The large eggs were glued down last. It was fun to do something alittle different today. I encourage you to challenge yourself and do something outside your comfort zone. I appreciate you visiting with me and checking out my Easter card... have a great day!!

Stamps: A Good Egg
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, YoYo Yellow, Riding Hood Red, white
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Black
Accessories: colored pencils, brads, ribbon, Q-tip, alcohol, spritzer bottle, aquapainter
Techniques: polished stone

I Love It - FINALLY!

Hello everyone... I know I've been quiet lately, but there's a reason why... I've been really focused on my website the last couple of weeks, and all the attention has finally paid off - for me, anyhow :). I'm really, really pleased with my website! Thank you so much, Jim, for providing me with alot of patience and training in the world of website creation. You are truly awesome! (For you who don't know, Jim is my dear husband and best friend.) If you'd like to see it, click here!

I haven't been playing with my goodies because of the website priorities, so it felt really good to sit down and make something again. This is a card that I created yesterday for a couple of tutorials. I know some of my friends are relatively new to the popular techniques out there, and I wanted to share these with whomever is curious how I do a certain technique. I hope they are well-received. I will note the originator of any technique if I can find who created it - these two are so popular that I wasn't able to locate a specific person. Anyhow, back to the card - I colored my Easter chick using Gamsol Magic, and the background was achieved with bleaching. I love doing my coloring this way because it can be as soft or intense as you'd like it. If you haven't done these before, I encourage you to try it out! I doodled grass blades for the ground and used the bleaching technique for the rose red background panel. I used the ticket corner punch for the rose red panel that is just below the image. I punched two small holes in the upper left corner of the white cardstock for threading my ribbon through to make my ribbon knot. I hope you like it!

Stamps - Sprinkles, A Good Egg

Cardstock - Rose Red, Apricot Appeal, Positively Pink, White

Inks - Stazon black, black pen for doodling grass

Accessories - Mona Lisa odorless mineral spirits, Prismacolor Colored Pencils, bleach pen, ribbon, ticket corner punch, 1/8in hole punch, blending stumps, art eraser