CCEE2127 -- Dotsy's Birthday

Today is my sister's birthday.  So in her honor, I asked the CCEE Stampers to use something that begins with each letter of her name on their cards.  Her name is DOTSY.

This is my card in Dotsy's honor.  (BTW, Dotsy is also a stamper.)

D - Diamond-shaped die-cuts / Daisies

O - Orange (one of my very favorite colors)

T - Thinking about you sentiment

S - Slimline card

Y - Yellow

I carried the yellow daisies onto the inside of the card.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see how the rest of the team handled my sister's name.

Slimline Waterfall Card

 Karen Burniston made a neat card a couple of weeks ago, and I was inspired to try to make a similar one -- a slimline waterfall card, using the Karen Burniston Frame Pull Pop-Up.

Because the waterfall is attached with several staples (which obviously have to be covered) and not wanting to give the card more bulk than necessary, this is a postcard rather than one that opens.  After attaching the waterfall, the card base is glued shut -- thus creating the postcard.

I used several images from the Heartfelt Creations Festive Holly Collection paper pad, framed with the new Slim Frames.

I added some pieces cut from the new Pattern Plate - Holly throughout the waterfall.

Here's a little video showing how the waterfall works.

The back of the card has a strip of patterned paper and a Christmas message.

Karen has such great ideas for card-making using her marvelous pop-up dies.  I so enjoy using them.

C4C543 - Colors of the Beach

Today's Crazy4Challenges theme is "colors of the beach."  Hostess Rebecca said that, when she thinks of summer, these colors come to mind:  turquoise, peach, pink and sand/gold; and she asked the team to make a card using these colors.

I've got another slimline card today using those colors.  I just love these Heartfelt Creations images.

Stop over at the Crazy4Challenges blog to see more beach colors.

Scor-Pal "More Than One Score" - Florals

April's theme for the Scor-Pal "More Than One Score" challenge is Florals.  I'm the first one to admit that I do not have a green thumb.  I do, however, have one flowering bush in my back yard -- a hibiscus, which I planted almost 20 years ago.  With not much help from me, this bush continues to bloom every year.  I wanted to show some gratitude for its resilience by using it as the starting point for this month's challenge project.

My card for this month was inspired by a card by Laura Williams, which I saw on Facebook.  It initially looks like an envelope; but, when you open it up, it IS actually a card!

When you remove the belly band, you can see how it looks very much like an envelope.

But when you open it up, VOILA!  It's a card.

Check out the Scor-Pal blog to see some more floral creations from our design team.  If you'd like to play along with us, be sure to post your project at the end of the post; and you might win a $25 gift certificate!

Karen Burniston Designer Challenge -- Enjoy the Ride!

This month the Karen Burniston Designer Challenge goes mobile -- "Enjoy the Ride!"  My late husband was a model railroad enthusiast, so naturally I chose the Train Pivot Panels die for my card.  And, as I like to get a head start on my Christmas cards, I chose a Christmas theme.

The background paper on both the front and inside of my card is from Heartfelt Creations, who make the most beautiful patterned papers.

I cut out two engines and six of the train cars, dressing them up a little bit with some sponging and a white gel pen before constructing my card. While I was out craft shopping one day, I found some tiny 3-D Christmas stickers at Hobby Lobby.  Santa fit perfectly in the window of the locomotive.  Isn't he cute?  The "smoke rings" on both the inside and the outside of the card were made with the wheel die.

The inside of the card is the whole train, chugging along.

Oh, look!  Someone left some packages up there by the railroad crossing sign.  Perhaps they thought Santa needed a little help!  Those are more of the 3-D Christmas stickers.

As you can see, I added a couple of red gemstones to the railroad crossing sign.  I thought they gave it a little more dimension.

I hope you like my card.  I'm really in love with this Train Pivot Panel die.  It was the first one I used when I got this latest release of dies.  And I've had a lot of fun using it.

CCEE1848 Circles and Squares

Anne winds up her month as hostess for the CCEE Stampers with a relatively simple challenge -- make a card using at least one circle and one square.  As Christmas is right around the corner, I made a Christmas card using some Heartfelt Creations patterned paper.

Stop over at the CCEE Stampers blog for some more cards with circles and squares.

CCEE1835 Flowers

Frances ended her month as hostess for the CCEE Stampers today.  She told us the in her part of the world (Australia), Saturday (Sept. 1) is the first day of spring.  Flowers are beautiful any time of the year, so she asked us to show some flowers on our cards this week.  I love making shaped flowers with the many Heartfelt Creations flower stamps/dies.  That's what I used on my card, on which I placed no sentiment.  I may add one when I use this card.

Be sure to check out some more floral beauties on the CCEE Stampers blog.

Some Fun Cards

I recently attended the Stamp and Scrapbook Expo in Orlando.  It is so fun to see all the new products that vendors have to show us.  Of course, I made many purchases, and I've been playing with lots of my new toys.  Here are a few cards I've made with some of them.

I always love to visit the Heartfelt Creations booth.  Their new Butterfly Dreams collection is so pretty.  I fell in love with the border stamp and die from that collection.

I purchased quite a bit from the It's Cheaper Than Therapy booth.  I used two of my purchases on this card -- the Sleigh Pop-Up die set and Winter Animals die set from Karen Burniston.

I also visited the Rubbernecker booth, where my friend Kittie was demonstrating her talents.  I purchased a couple of cute fish-related stamp sets, which I combined with a set from Gerda Steiner, which I already had.  I made a pop-up box card with a little twist . . .

. . . the front panel is cut out and acetate added so you can see the inside.

I hope to have some more fun real soon with the rest of my purchases.

CCEE1818 May Flowers

Anne is the hostess of the CCEE Stampers blog for May.  I had some May flowers on my blog earlier in the week, and some more today as part of Anne's first CCEE challenge of the month.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog for some more May flowers.

Dogwood Tag Book Card

I'm a big fan of Karen Burniston's pop-up dies.  I saw a very pretty and very clever card on her blog the other day, and I knew I was going to have to try it.  It featured her Tag Book Pop-Up die.  I've made a few cards using this die before, but this one used acetate for the inside pieces.  It gave the illusion of the cherry blossoms she used as floating.  I didn't have the cherry blossoms, but I did have an Impression Obsession branch and Heartfelt Creations dogwoods -- so that's what I used on my card.  The front was pretty easy . . .

. . . the inside took a bit of concentration.

As you can see, I glued the die-cut pieces directly onto the acetate "frame" and they appear to be floating.  Here's a photo which shows the "floating" elements a little better.

This was a very fun card to make.

SCS Sketch Challenge - Flowering Dogwoods

I recently rejoined the Splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenge team for the next six months.  Today's  sketch was designed by Diane Carpenter.

I substituted some pretty dogwoods from Heartfelt Creations for the stars in the sketch for my card.

I used seed beads in the centers of the dogwoods. I'll share a little secret with you for adding the seed beads.  I put the flowers in a coffee filter, added the glue, and then poured the seed beads all over the flowers. When the glue dries, I just shake off the excess beads, which all stay in the coffee filter -- instead of flying all over the place.

Scor-Pal "More Than One Score" Challenge

The theme of this month's Scor-Pal "More Than One Score" challenge is "all things bright and beautiful."  When I saw that, the first thing I thought of was bright, cheery flowers.  My card is a Z-fold with lots of pretty yellow and pink hibiscus flowers.

The dimensional flowers were made with stamps and dies from Tropical Hibiscus by Heartfelt Creations.  The layered ones on the inside are Hero Arts Layering Hibiscus stamps.

Be sure to check out the Scor-Pal blog for some more inspiration.  If you'd like to play along with us, you might be the winner of a $20 gift certificate from Scor-Pal.

CCEE1747 - "Pinspired" Cascading Card

Joanne Grzelak continues as hostess for the CCEE Stampers this week and asked us to make a Christmas or New Year's card for our stash.  I decided to combine this challenge with this month's Scor-Pal "Pinspired" card.

You can get so much inspiration perusing the photos on Pinterest.  The Scor-Pal design team has an on-going project, in which we find a card on Pinterest and use it as inspiration for a new card.  That's what I have done today.  I chose this Cascading Card by Chris Peterson as my inspiration.  It originally appeared on her blog, the Calla Lily Studio Blog.   As Christmas is right around the corner, I changed Chris's very feminine card into a Christmas Card.

To make this card, you start with a piece of cardstock 8" x 12".  On the 8" side, mark 5 1/2" on one end and 2 1/2" on the other; then cut the paper on the diagonal.   Unless your cutter is big enough, it is easier to cut it with an Exacto knife and a metal ruler, which is what I did.  I found that anchoring the cardstock with a couple pieces of washi tape kept it from sliding during the cutting process.

Score each piece at 4" and 8".

Measure up 2 3/4" from the bottom of the taller end and make a mark.  Measure up 1 1/4" from the bottom of the shorter end and make a mark.  Draw a line between the two marks.

On one piece of cardstock, cut DOWN to the pencil line at 2" and 10" -- and cut UP to the pencil line at 6".  On the other piece of cardstock, cut UP to the pencil line at 2" and 10" -- and cut DOWN to the pencil line at 6".

Erase the pencil lines.   Stack the two pieces together and slot them together by sliding the cut lines over one another.  I found it easier if you slotted the two center cut lines first and then maneuvered the cardstock and slotted the end cut lines.  Fold OUT at the score lines to form the cascade.  Using a bone folder, give the edges a sharp score.

You can then decorate the card as you wish.  I cut pieces of patterned paper to cover the side sections, as follows:

Front panel - 2 3/4" x 3 3/4" - fold in half and cut the top diagonally from the center to 2 1/4" on each side.

Six panels 1 3/4" wide, cut as follows:

2 panels 3 1/8" high

2 panels 4 1/4" high

2 panels 5 3/8" high

Each panel is then trimmed diagonally by 1/4" from the outside to the inside, as shown in the photo.

I then made two inserts, using die cuts and patterned paper.  They are 3 7/8" wide and can be as short or tall as you prefer.  These will slip inside the two open sections of the card.

Here is a photo of the card and the inserts.

I hope you give this fun technique a try.  And be sure to check out our Scor-Pal Scoring Projects and Ideas on Pinterest.

If you'd like to see some more holiday cards, check out the CCEE Stampers blog.

CCEE 1730 Walk on Stilts Day

Maryann ends her month as hostess for the CCEE Stampers by asking us to make a tall thin card -- in honor of Walk on Stilts day.   I used some Heartfelt Creations images to create my tall undersea card.  The seahorse and small fish were stamped on shrinkable plastic and shrunk down with my heat tool.  This card will fit into a #10 legal-sized envelope.

Stop over at the CCEE Stampers blog to see some more tall, thin cards.

CCEE1723 - World Oceans Day

Frances continues this month as hostess for the CCEE Stampers.  She tells us that today, June 8th, is World Oceans Day.  I promised my fellow teammates that I would cease and desist challenging them to make fun fold cards, but that doesn't keep me from making them!  Here's my card for Frances' challenge -- a variation on a Z-fold card.

Check out the CCEE Stampers blog to "sea" an ocean of fun!  (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

CCEE1722 - Doughnut Day

Who doesn't love a good donut?  Frances starts off the month of June telling the CCEE Stampers that June 2nd is Doughnut Day and asked the team to create something that had some type of "hole" in it.  It could be a doughnut, cheese, fancy fold card with a hole -- anything.  I just made a big hole in the front of my card and let the sentiment from inside show through.

I used some pretty stamps, dies, and pattern paper from Heartfelt creations on my "holey" card!  Love those dogwoods.  They remind me of trees in the yard of my childhood home.

Stop over at the CCEE Stampers blog to see how the rest of the team handled this challenge.

Double Zig-Zag Card

If you have visited my blog before, you are probably aware that I love making fun-fold cards.  The Scor-Pal team has a project in which we use a project pinned to the Scor-Pal Scoring Projects and Ideas board and be inspired to make a similar project.  I chose this double zig-zag card which originally was posted to mariannespapir.blogspot.com.  Here is my card.

Cut two pieces of green cardstock 6" x 10".  Score the panels at 4", 6", and 8".

To make the decorative borders on the front of the card, I used border dies from Heartfelt Creations and laid them on the scored panels (starting at the top of the 4" scoreline) and taped them down with removable tape.  The two 4" panels will be layered over each other, so be sure to place the dies correctly, as shown on the photo.

After running the panels through your die-cutting machine, fold them as shown in the photo.

On the right-side panel, cut a flap approximately 3/4" on each side from the bottom upward approximately 5".  This could actually be any size flap, based on the sentiment you will stamp under the flap.  Score between the two slits.

Cut two pieces of patterned paper 3 3/4" x 5 3/4".  Glue one piece to the 4" section of the left-side panel, leaving no border at the bottom.  Cut additional pieces of patterned paper to fit the 2" wide panels.  The tops of the patterned paper panels should be sloped to correspond with the card base.  The piece of patterned paper adhered to the right-side 4" panel should be slit and scored similarly as the card base.   Adhere the 4" x 6" panels together, with the right-side panel on top, as shown, making sure the flap is not adhered. 

Decorate the flap as desired.  I stamped and cut a dove from the Heartfelt Creations Flowering Dogwoods & Dove set.

At this point, decide how you are going to decorate the front of your card. I stamped and shaped some dogwoods and leaves from the Heartfelt Creations Flowering Dogwoods set.  Cut a piece of white cardstock 2" x 4 1/4" and adhere under the flap.  Stamp the sentiment.  My sentiment is from Stampendous Birthday Wish stamp set.

For the belly band, cut a piece of cardstock 1 1/2" x 10".  While holding the belly band at the front of the card, fold at the edges and glue at the back.  Decorate as desired.

I hope you will give this type of card a try.