Silhouette Cameo Excitement and Promotion

As a new owner of a Silhouette Cameo, I am interested in all things Cameo at the moment.  So, when I ran across this amazing offer, I had to go for it immediately.  What am I talking about you ask?  It’s a fantastic offer where you can get Silhouette products, including mats, blades, vinyl and the Designer Edition Software for 40% off .

Yes, you can get $50.00 worth of Silhouette merchandise  from Silhouette America for only $30.00 (this offer excludes the Cameo machine, download cards & shipping/handling).  There’s more good news, if you use this link, you will get an additional $5.00 discount, called Plum Dollars.  And if that isn’t great enough, if you also use the promo code   FABULOUS  you will get an additional discount.  After all of the discounts, you get $50.00 worth of products from Silhouette for $22.00 or 56%% off the regular price.  Now how is that for a fantastic deal?

I used my discount to purchase the Silhouette Designer Edition Software.

Sign up for the Plum District free account.  No strings attached nor cost to sign up, just use the link to sign up and receive a $5.00 discount called “Plum Dollars”.

PLUS, add the word    FABULOUS   to the promo code section when making a purchase and receive a 10% discount in addition to the $5.00 Plum Dollar Discount. (I don’t know when the “Fabulous” coupon code expires)

***The Silhouette offer is only good until 1/25/12.
***I don’t know when the promo code “fabulous” expires, but it was valid today, 1/24/12.

That’s it for sharing today.

Have a Blessed Day!!!

All Star & Sweet Lollipop Birthday Cards

It’s been hard to find the time needed to make 2 very important birthday cards due to schedules and the holidays.  I was finally able to sit down and take the time these 2 cards deserved.

The first card is for our Grandson’s 6th birthday and is called “All Star Birthday”.  I wanted the theme to be celebratory, festive and sparkly and I think this card accomplished just that.  I used my fabulous Silhouette Cameo to cut all of the elements for the card with the exception of the card base itself and the red rectangle shapes added on the steps.  This style of this card base is called the Side Step card.  You can find the specific dimensions for cutting and scoring the “Side Step Card” over at Splitcoast Stampers.  Just follow this link to the Side Step card tutorial.

This card was inspired by another similar card I found over at SCS by “Lizzieboone13″; her card can be seen here.  The All Star Birthday Card has all of the sparkle that I enjoy adding to my card creations.  I used sprinkles of red Stickles to highlight the red stars and yellow Stickles for the flames on the candles.  The Silhouette elements were all resized to fit perfectly.  It took a bit of time to get the sizes of each element correct, but I like the dimension the elements give to this.  The Star Border is designed by Samantha Walker  for Silhouette and the individual stars are from the Silhouette designers.  (all purchased at the Silhouette Online Store)

Second I’d like to share a card I made for our Granddaughter’s 11th birthday.  Even though her favorite color is blue, I couldn’t help but envision this card with lots of pink and sparkles with a lollipop theme.  My first step was to set out to find the perfect lollipop shape in the Silhouette online store.  I chose this particular shape which is from a set of 3 lollipops designed by Sarah Bailey for Silhouette.  Sarah’s blog can be found at Studio B Creations.  Other designs on the card are also from the Silhouette Store, the scalloped oval by Lori Whitlock and the Cute Hearts & Stars Labels by Loni Stevens.  Originally I tried the heart-shaped lollipop with pink stickles and highlighting the hearts, but that didn’t work at all.  So, I decided to choose the whimsical lollipop shape and add Diamond Dust to mimic the look of sugar to highlight the lollipop.  Success, it was perfect.  I’ve had the “Sweet” Matstack by DCWV for sometime now and that was the first choice that came to mind when I was thinking about this card.  I wanted to use this particular Matstack because of all the sparkly papers in the packet.  As is the case sometimes, I knew the paper I wanted to use and the fact that I wanted a lollipop shape on the card, but I just couldn’t come up with the right design.   SCS to the rescue.  I searched for lollipop cards and finally came across something that I wanted to use for inspiration.  Ironically, my inspiration card also used the same paper pack, but what drew me to Amy’s card was the lollipop.  Even though I used Amy’s card for inspiration, I changed it up to make it my own.  So without further ado, here is the Lollipop Birthday Card.

Supplies – All Star Birthday Card

White card stock – Papertrey Ink
Red, Blue, Yellow & Green card stock – SU
Red Classic Ink – SU
Red & Yellow Stickles – Ranger
Martha Stewart Scoring Board
Stars & Candle Shapes from Silhouette Online Store
Glue Dots
Scor Tape
Glossy Accents – Ranger
3M Tape for ATG Gun

Sweet Lollipop Birthday Card

Sweet Matstack - DCWV
White card stock – Papertrey Ink
Pink card stock – SU
Diamond Dust – purchased at Michael’s
Pink Classic Ink – SU
Happy Birthday Sentiment Stamp by EK Success (This is a really old stamp so I’m not sure if it can still be purchased)
Shapes from Silhouette Online Store
Glue Dots
Scor Tape
Glossy Accents – Ranger
3M Tape for ATG Gun

Welcome Baby Kennedy

The daughter of dear friends of ours and her hubby welcomed their firstborn, a daughter named Kennedy, into their family on 11/1/11.  I have been anxious to make a card and quilt, but with all of the craziness of the past few months, I wasn’t able to give it the time I felt it deserved.  I was finally able to sit down today and make a card to welcome this sweet bundle of joy.  Making the quilt is next on my agenda and once it’s completed I’ll share it with you.

I spent the entire day working on the design, coloring and cutting and re-sizing a variety of shapes with my new Silhouette Cameo.  It was such a pleasure to spend the day working on such a fun card.

Being a newbie to the Silhouette world, I started out by downloading a few designs to start the project.  The oval with the scalloped edge, the top border (without the cutout circles) and the tag were all downloads from the Silhouette Store.  You gotta love the ability to download an image anytime it’s needed without running out to buy a costly cartridge.

I wanted to use the large scalloped shape as a matte and have a white oval to stamp and color the design.  Since the scalloped oval didn’t have a topper I enjoyed playing around with the various tools to design one to fit.  I worked and re-worked the dimensions of the white smaller oval to fit just inside leaving a tiny border.  It took 4 tries, but in the end it was the perfect size and fit.  The top border was also a design that I downloaded from the Silhouette site.  However, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and opted to add a white glittered topper to the border.  Now that was a design feat in itself, at least for me.  Why you ask?  Because the original design didn’t have the cutout circles and it had to be resized to fit over the pink border.  That took a bit of time for me, but in the end it turned out just as it looked in my mind’s eye.  The sentiment was stamped on another image downloaded from the Silhouette Online Store.  Again, the white portion was resized to fit over the bottom layer leaving just a hint of pink showing.  By the time I got to the sentiment design it was much easier and faster to reformat the size.

Thanks are in order for those fantastic tutorials and members over at the Silhouette Plus Group.  I would have never known how to use the offset function or make duplicate images if it weren’t for those wonderful gals.  Thanks so much for sharing your time and talent to help all the newbies like myself.

Well that’s it for today.  Thank you for visiting and have a Blessed New Year!!!

Supplies used for this project:

Playtime Stamp from Stampavie/Rachelle Anne Miller
White card stock – Papertrey Ink
Pink card stock – SU
Patterned Paper – Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby
Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol & blending stump
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter – SU
Quickie Glue Pen
2 Way Glue – SU
Scor Tape
Silhouette Shapes from their Online Store
Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
Zyron
Dimensionals - Michaels

Gingerbread House Gift Boxes

This is a quick post, but I wanted to share these adorable gingerbread house gift boxes I made.  I purchased the image from the Silhouette Store and the designer is Lori Whitlock.  I love her designs and when I saw this project I knew I had to take time to make them for Christmas.  The assembly was quite easy with just a bit of gluing and running various color cardstock thru my Silhouette.   I added a bit of Stickles to the rooftop and Christmas wreath for a little sparkle, red and white ribbons and twine was added for a candy cane effect.

As a side note, Lori offers a nice tutorial on putting these boxes together.  I opted to add the door and embellishments prior to assembling the box and thought that was a bit easier for me, especially when trying to line things up straight.  Well, that’s it for today.  Thanks for visiting and Merry Christmas!!

Supplies

Close to Cocoa, Real Red & Green cardstock from SU
White card stock from Walmart (good weight for this type of project)
Red Stickles – Ranger
Green Glitter Glue – Studio G
Red/White twine – SU
Red & White satin ribbon from Hobby Lobby
Gingerbread House Silhouette File – Lori Whitlock
Zip Dry Paper Glue (Lori recommended this glue for the project and I totally agree with her, it works perfect to hold everything together)

Christmas Card 2011

After working diligently for the past several weeks on our Christmas cards, I can happily say that all are finally complete, addressed and in the mail.

I ran across a fabulous tutorial a few months ago about working with rubber stamps to make watercolor images and scenes.  I was so excited because I was looking for something new in the rubber stamp world besides coloring with my Prismacolor pencils or some other medium.  Now I’m not saying that coloring images with Prismacolor pencils, chalks, Copics or whatever medium is bad, I just wanted to  find something new to try.  When I ran across Bonnie’s tutorials on You Tube  I knew this was the new direction for me.  Bonnie is an amazing artist and has been designing rubber stamps for her own company for years, it’s just that I hadn’t run across her stamps until now.

This has been a fun adventure trying my hand at watercoloring.  Certainly more work is needed on my part to get better at watercolor, but for my first attempt I’m quite happy with the results.

For extra sparkle, I added glitter to the edges of the tree branches, although the sparkle doesn’t show up well on my picture.  The inside has 2 sentiments both stamped in Night of Navy classic ink.

Well that’s about it for today’s post.  I want to wish everyone a very Blessed Christmas and thank you for visiting me here.  A special thanks to Bonnie for sharing her artistic talents.

Supplies

Stamps from Art Impressions Stamps
White card stock – Papertrey Ink
Navy card stock – SU
Strathmore 140lb Watercolor paper from Hobby Lobby
Krylon 18kt gold leafing pen (I think I purchased this at a stamp convention)
Gold ribbon from SU
Layerz Mat Stack 3 die from Papertrey Ink
Night of Navy Classic Ink (inside sentiment)
Quickie Glue Pen by Sakura
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter from SU
Marvy LePlume II Markers from Art Impressions Stamps
Watercolor brushes & paint palette from Art Impressions Stamps
Masquepen fro Hobby Lobby

Birthday Ballet

Our little granddaughter turned 3 today, but we all gathered yesterday for the birthday celebration.  She loves to dance and especially enjoys ballet, so that is the theme I used for her birthday card.  As luck would have it I just received my new Silhouette Cameo on Thursday so I was able to download the ballet slippers and resize them perfectly as an addition to the card.  The leotard was made from a punch I have had for several years and the tutu was hand sewn from some sparkly tulle that I purchased just for this card.  There are 3 layers to the tutu, as my first attempt with just one layer looked sparse and unattractive.  The idea for the tutu and leotard is from a card I saw here on SCS.  I liked the way the punch was used for the leotard and that was my starting point.  Thanks to mrsbblackmoor for the inspiration.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be the proud owner of a Silhouette Cameo.  I have had a Silhouette on my wish list for years now and can’t believe I finally have one to enhance my card and papercraft projects.  I also plan on making appliques for my quilts using some of the fabulous designs or even by creating some of my own.  The best part is being able to download the design, resize, cut and glue it on the project without having to purchase expensive cartridges.  Most of the designs for the Silhouette are 99 cents which makes them quite affordable and there are so many choices for all occasions.  Thanks to my sweetie for getting this special machine for me.

Supplies

White Card stock from Papertrey Ink – (this is fabulous card stock)
Lavender, purple & Vellum card stock – SU
Tag punch from SU
Cuttlebug dot embossing folder
Glittery tulle from Hobby Lobby
Versamark Ink
Purple Embossing Powder from SU
Xyron used to adhere vellum to card
Dimensionals – SU
Scor Tape
Self adhesive pearls from A Touch of Grace - (I love these)
Ribbon from my stash
Ballet Slippers from Silhouette

Get Well Card

This card is for a friend who had an automobile accident over the weekend.  She is doing well and we are all thankful to God for that.

Cindy is an extremely talented seamstress so I thought making a card using a vintage sewing theme would be just the ticket to make her smile.

After playing around with the color scheme, I decided to use some pattern paper I had in my stash for the background.  Ironically it is by Moda which made it even more appropriate for this card.  (For those that aren’t familiar with Moda, they design fabulous fabric).  I added red card stock to tone down the busy design of the paper.  The lighter cocoa colored card stock looked best for matting the sentiment and dress form rather than a darker shade of brown.  I thought about using embroidery floss on the spool and button, but I so love this new Rustic Cream Button Twine from Papertrey Ink and that is what I decided to use.  The mattes were sponged with Close to Cocoa Classic Ink to add a vintage feel.  A row of buttons is stamped inside the card on the left margin to add just a bit of pizzaz , but since I already wrote the message I decided not to take a pic of that.  That’s about it, so without further ado, here’s the card I made along with the supply list.

Supplies

White card stock – Papertrey Ink (used for base of card)
Textured white & red card stock – Hobby Lobby
Close to Cocoa card stock – Stampin’ Up!
Paper – Moda for Daisy D’s
Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Close to Cocoa Classic Ink – Stampin’ Up!
Rustic Cream Button Twine – Papertrey Ink
Borderline Notions Stamp Set from Technique Tuesday – Inside card
Clear Art Stamps – Material Girl Stamp Set – Crafty Secrets
Sentiment Stamp from Stampin’ Up! (sorry I don’t know the name of the set it came from)
Button – From my button box
Scor Tape
Homemade Glue Dots
Dimensionals - Stampin’ Up!
Border punch from Martha Stewart

Something Old, Something New for Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving being just 2 short weeks away, making a few invitations for that special holiday was on my priority list of things to do.  My first thought was to pull out that wonderful scarecrow stamp I have had for years from Stampin’ Up!  That stamp is much beloved by me, so when Fall arrives I am always in the mood to stamp with it.  In addition, I recently purchased a gorgeous Mat Pad designed by the talented artist Tim Coffey.  This paper pad shouts Fall with the earth tone papers and autumn designs.  I paired the scarecrow stamp with the Tim Coffey paper and my newly purchased Mat Stack 3 die from Papertrey Ink to begin the card making process.  By adding an accent of Martha Stewart twill tape along with some PTI button twine, the card was ready to complete.  Some leaves were sitting on my desk that were left over from my last card project so I added just one for a little extra pizzaz.  The card was finished fairly fast once the watercoloring was completed on the scarecrow.  I am quite happy with the results and hope the recipient enjoys the card as well.

Now you may want to know why I titled this post, “something old, something new for Thanksgiving”.  The reason is simple, the scarecrow image is from a stamp set that I purchased many years ago but the die shapes, sentiment and button twine are brand spankin’ new.

Yesterday was the day I received my first order from Papertrey Ink and I was so excited to open the box and check out all of the wonderful products wrapped inside.  I may be slow to get on the bandwagon of the products offered at PTI, but procrastination was the only reason I waited until now and I’m certainly happy I finally jumped in with both feet.    I believe PTI is mostly known for their great polymer stamp designs, and those are certainly something to shout about, but I was really excited to try out their wafer thin dies.  That’s not to say I didn’t order a stamp set or two just to give them a whirl, but the dies were what my excitement was all about.  I’m also anxious to try stamping on their Stampers Select white card stock.  I have been searching for a good quality white card stock for quite sometime now and there have been numerous reviews raving about PTI’s card stock so I had to order a packet and check it out for myself.  I haven’t tried it out yet, but intend to do so in the very near future and will post about my thoughts on this product at that point in time.  I have used Stampin’ Up! card stock for years, but I just can’t justify paying the high shipping costs they now charge, so I’ve been on the hunt for a quality replacement.  With Papertrey Ink’s policy of offering free shipping on orders over $60.00, it was as they say, “money in my pocket” and an offer I couldn’t refuse.  Last, but not least, if you haven’t ordered from PTI in the past, you will be pleasantly surprised to see the extra care that is taken when packaging the order.  My dies & stamps were wrapped in tissue paper and the card stock had corrugated sleeves on each end to keep the edges from being bent.  If that wasn’t enough, there was a hand signed card thanking me for my order from the 3 owners, Nichole, Jane & Julie.  Now don’t you want to do business with a company that actually cares about their customers?  I certainly do and will be ordering again in the future from this fabuluous company.

So without further ado, I will say goodbye for today’s post and thank you all for visiting.   May you have a blessed day and I hope to share another project with you in a day or two.

As always, below is a list of the supplies I used to put this card project together.

Supplies

Scarecrow stamp retired from SU
Fillable Frames #10 (sentiment) – Papertrey Ink
Vesamark pad
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink
Various colors of LePlume markers from Marvy
Strathmore Watercolor paper
Dimensionals – SU
Copper embossing powder – SU
Twill tape from Martha Stewart
Button twine
Mat Stack 3 dies – regular and Mega
Tim Coffey Designer Mat Pad – K&Company
Chocolate Chip Card Stock – SU
Scor tape
Alcohol inks (for leaf)
Glossy card stock (for leaf)
Leaf punch from Tonic Studios

The colors of Fall

As hard as it is to believe Fall is upon us and in some parts of the country winter has actually arrived early.  I’m always  in awe of the amazing colors that fill our world during this time of the year.  The lush green leaves from summer are now turning into bold shades of red and orange leaving just a hint of green behind.  Before we know it, the leaves will be gone and along with it the brilliance of the Fall landscape.  In the spirit of the beautiful colors of the season along with an inspirational card contest from Art Impressions Stamps, I spent time yesterday making a card depicting the colors of red, orange and gold and adding just a sprinkle of green to say farewell to summer.

The pumpkins were stamped with Timber Brown Staz On and colored with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits.  The tendrils of the pumpkins were highlighted with the Glitter Gelly Roll pen by Sakura.  Vintage Photo Distress Ink  was used around the edges.  I’m always drawn to leaf shapes, so I decided to enhance the card with some hand painted leaves.  Since I’m not an artist the course of action I took was to pull out some white card stock and randomly paint a variety of Twinkling H20s on the sheet.  I set it aside to dry.  My leaf punch was used for the shapes.  They are so pretty in person, each leaf has a different color combination with a slight twinkle because of the paint that was used.  A small glue dot was adhered to the back of each leaf and the edges were fluffed to add a little dimension.

Recently I purchased a 100 yard spool of white Hug Snug and knew this was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at dying the rayon seam binding.  Several shades of green reinkers were tested, but Mellow Moss was the winner by a landslide.  I must admit the process was quite easy and the results were just beautiful.  What took me so long to try this???  If you’ve been hesitant to try your hand at this dying technique have no fear, it’s easy, cost-effective and the results are spectacular.  I would highly recommend it.

Participating in the Art Impressions card contest is something I wanted to try my hand at, so it was fun to begin with the color scheme and see where it would lead me.  I must admit I was skeptical at first to use gold on the card because I was unsure if it would make it too gaudy, but adding the 3 small brads on the band actually added to the overall design and I was happy with that addition.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my new obsession with Art Impressions stamps.  I was looking for something new in the stamp world and quite by accident ran into Bonnie’s tutorials and website.  Her company has been around for years, but her techniques and stamps were all new to me.  Even though Bonnie has a plethora of images, I was drawn to the Watercolor Series stamps.  I ordered the catalog so I could take my time and decide where I wanted to begin.  With the enormous selection of stamps offered I knew I had to use some self-discipline when placing my first order.  After careful consideration, I decided on the Watercolor 4 Series, some LePlume Markers along with a few extras to work with.  I can’t tell you how wonderful Bonnie is to work with and her artistic talent is amazing.  My package arrived quickly and a special surprise was enclosed, the 3 pumpkin stamp.  Needless to say this was my stamp of choice for the monthly Art Impressions Contest and my starting point.

Supplies

Pumpkin Stamp from Art Impressions Stamps
Hug Snug Seam Binding (purchased from the Zipperstop here)
Card stock and paper from SU
Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Reinker from SU
Prismacolor pencils
Odorless mineral spirits (aka Gamsol)
Timber Brown Staz On Ink
Cuttlebug Swiss Dot Embossing Folder
Leaf punch – Tonic Studios
Gold brads – Hobby Lobby I think
Twinkling H20s (love these)
Gelly Roll Glitter Pen by Sakura
Glue Dots
Scor Tape

Thanks for visiting and many blessings to you this Fall season.

Linda

Halloween Treat Bag Coverlets

The past week was filled with projects-a-plenty starting with 50 treat bags for 2 of our grandchildren to share with their classmates.  I couldn’t put together a quick and easy design but instead made 4 separate designs with each having its own detail.  It took the entire week to get these completed, but in the end I was happy with the results.

Each coverlet is the same size and each design shares an identical base and purple matte.  The base and purple matte was sprayed with my homemade purple sparkle mist.  The purple matte was embossed with a Tim Holtz Texture Fade, punched with the Drippy Goo punch from Martha Stewart and to add extra sparkle purple Stickles was added to the bottom of each “drip”.  All of the designs were embellished with Stickles, Distress Ink & Sakura Gelly Roll Glitter Pen.  The dots you see on the scalloped circles behind each focal image was drawn with the Gelly Roll Glitter Pen.  The sentiment on all designs was cut from a Stampin’ Up! oval punch and layered over the next larger size oval punch.  Each sentiment was inked with Dusty Concord Distress Ink along with a dab of purple Stickles to mimic a brad on each side of the sentiment.  You guessed it, my fingers were a mess by the end of all the distressing.

The haunted house was first stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and the windows colored with yellow Prisma Pencil and enhanced with yellow Stickles.  The fence was first cut using a Martha Stewart border punch and then re-punched with a circle punch to fit perfectly over the stamped image.  3M Quick Dry Adhesive was used to adhere many of the elements including the fence.

The witches feet design was stamped with the same Tuxedo Black Memento Ink.  The stockings were embellished with purple Stickles and the shoes with black Stickles.  The buckle on the shoes was colored with an orange Souffle’ pen by Sakura.  I made the skirt by using a Martha Stewart border punch for the hemline and then punching it out with a circle punch.  Next I cut each side on a slant to depict a skirt.  The edges were inked with Dusty Concord Distress Ink using the Distress Tool & foam pad from Tim Holtz.

The Witch was made is much the same way as the others, first stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink then colored with SU markers and embellished with Stickles for extra sparkle.

The Pumpkin was inked with Pumpkin Pie Classic Ink from SU and the face was stamped with Black Memento Ink.  The stem and swirly stem were stamped with Chocolate Chip & Always Artichoke respectively.  The Black Glaze pen from Sakura was used on the eyes to make them shine and black Stickles added on each point on the mouth for a sparkly effect.  You can’t tell on the pictures, but the swirly stem on top of the pumpkin was first stamped with the Artichoke and then enhanced with the Gelly Roll glitter pen to add more detail.

I’ve named these particular treat bags coverlets because they are just that, a small cover for a treat bag.  Each coverlet measures 4″ x 4 1/2″ finished, (cut card stock 5 1/2″ x 4″ and score at 1″).  There is a one inch topper that folds to the back to hold the treat bag securely.  I used my Crop a Dile to punch 2 holes through the topper edge and cello bag and then threaded a length of ribbon and tied a bow.  I also added a small splash of 2 way Glue Pen on each side of the topper and let it dry to make it tacky but not permanently adhered.  I thought this was a good way to keep the treats in tact until the time they were to be opened and enjoyed.

Supplies

Card stock from SU
Witches Feet and Witch were from Michael’s ($1.50/each)
Pumpkin from SU
Haunted House from Hobby Lobby – Stampabilities
Happy Halloween sentiment from SU (I don’t recall what set)
Dimensionals – SU and Recollections
Distress Inks – Tim Holtz
Sakura Gelly Roll Pens
Martha Stewart border punches – Drippy Goo and a lacy border
Homemade sparkle mist in purple
Marvy Uchida scallop & circle punch
Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
Stickles in Purple, Bronze & Black – Ranger
Texture Fades by Tim Holtz
Cello bags – 3 x 5 – SU
Crop a Dile
Black ribbon from JoAnns
Zig 2 Way Glue Pen
Scor Tape

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy these Halloween Coverlets.

Blessings,

Linda