I have a confession.

I have owned a wall decor item for-ever and ever.  I believe I was somewhere between 16 and 20 when I received this as a gift, a...oh, what do you call gifts from travels?   Its on the tip of my tongue - memento, no...a gift that we give when we go away and we bring everyone close to us a small gift from our vacation - we all have had that happen.

Well, my confession is that I didn't really like it so much. NOT the idea - no, I treasured the thoughtfulness that my Aunt included me in her offering; but I really didn't like the 'design' of the gift so much.  I am not sure why not - its a pretty design, but I think its the frame.   Here it is.
CLICK ON PHOTOS TO SEE LARGER VIEW.

Labels: Home + Family

Lasso up a card for this coming FATHER'S DAY!

Hey guys and gals who need to conjure up the perfect card for that special 'DUDE' - rootin' tootin' fan of the old westerns - fan of John Wayne?  Or the new cowboys of the rodeo today?

Well - if you just want to let DAD know he's #1 - this card ought to do that!

I was thinking of how to represent the ol west when I didn't have any cowboy stamps per se, nothing western at all - zip, nada!  Then I thought that the Sheriff's Badge would be easy enough to make if you broke it down to basic parts - basically, its a circle with pointy triangles, nes pa?

So that is what I did!

1) first I cut me a circle with our 1-3/4 inch CIRCLE PUNCH.

2) make them thar pointy parts!

         To Make Triangles for the Sheriff's Star Badge
3) Map out where the points go on your star - around the circumference of the circle - I practiced, and then glued each triangle to the back of the circle.

4) Optional - but interesting to add # 1 to the newly-formed Sheriff's Badge!   I cut mine from some scrap of foil lining from a chocolate box - shiny is good!

5) Mount your star on a background of cardstock - but let's make it interestin' Dudes and Dudettes!  Choose our Vintage Embossing Folder to give it that stylized Western scroll look - they used to have these fancy-smancy designs on their rifles/guns/badges - buckles!  Even leather was embossed in them thar days!  LAYER this all on to the CARD FRONT.

6) Embellish friends!
 Add a Lasso - and you can even lasso up a touch of 'love' while yer at it!
    To Make a Lasso out of Twine
        Ok I'm a cheatin' - my lasso is in a heart shape and I threw in the word "LOVE" at the
        tail end!  On FATHER'S DAY - he deserves a 'love you' eh?  Of course!
        Gather up some twine - any twine will do, we even have some fancy-smancy type in our
        SUMMER MINI CATALOQUE with the colours of brown, or red or plain white. But 
        aw gee shucks - I didn' have any!  So basic twine it is!    
        Make a practice lasso and word, but don't cut the twine just yet - save that for last! 
        When you kinda know how it will look - grab some liquid glue like our TOMBOW GLUE
         and wind your twine into a circle at one end, and use a scrap twine to wrap around the 
         neck of the circle or " lasso" .  After, you can - optional of course - turn that lasso into 
         a bit of a heart by pushing inward at the top - just enough to form a "HEART SHAPE" - 
         dab some glue on the twine, and press it down into place on the card front.
         After that its just a matter of pressing some more glue and twine onto the card front in 
         the shape you wish - forming the letters is pretty easy I found - so go for it!  Cut end at
          where-ever your twine leaves the card. 
             

Labels: Card - Holidays, CARDS - Love, CARDS - Male, EVENTS-Holiday

I feel sort of bad :(

Because now Stampin' Up! decision makers have put some  of the BIGZ XL DIES for The BIG SHOT on  chopping block !  I can only surmise its due to their lower sales value and to follow that line of logic then, we 'demos' didn't do enough to show the   ' p o t e n t i a l '  of these dies, so we share some of the blame.

So - here I am last minute trying to make up for some of that with this project!  

In my last post, I pointed out the fab talent of the designer behind the pop-up dies manufactured by Sizzix, and so I pulled out the POP-UP BIGZ XL DIE - O CHRISTMAS TREE!  and co-ordinating SIZZLIT DIE ' MERRY DETAILS ' which has several tiny decorations for the tree including a bird!

And I also pulled out the BIGZ XL ' PERFECT SETTING ' - which includes the CUPCAKE HOLDER/WRAPPER!

As for cardstock - I've chosen the retiring HOSTESS LEVEL - PATTERNS PAPER STACK which showcases the new IN COLORS of the retiring 2010-2011 IBC.

OK - I'm all set!!!!

I wanted to specifically show how the CHRISTMAS TREE does not have to be limited to the holiday season of December - tho fabulous as that time is!  NAY - this baby can be used in a V-E-R-Y  whimsical way - so YAY !!

1. Chose the Tree's Cardstock - be daring!
To start I decided to have my cardstock in a  fun FOLKSY fashion by combining:
        a) different patterns from the same colour family,
  and b) by combination of a variety of prints according to their size!  

In our Pattern Packs, we have this all ready for us!  Its just a matter of choosing your colour!  The result will sort of look like a quilt project!

2. Decorate the Tree
For the smaller decorations for the tree I'm using the Sizzlit die for the bird, but I also chose to use another retired SU! punch for a small flower.
I put some willingness to throw caution to the wind and choose cardstock that by mere repetition would work on the tree - BUT - you help matters when you are a bit choosy about placement - try to strike a balance because if you rotate the tree you can see all the different angles involved.  I think I did a zig-zag placement of the first couple of flower colours - then I used the " Hearts " to ' FILL IN THE GAPS ' and help the balance overall.   It sounds more complicated than it is - besides I suspect that you can't do much to go wrong, it sort of has a way of working out its own problems if you know what I mean!   HAPPY comes in many forms - and by decorating the tree with whimsical flowers, a pair of love birds - why all that is missing is a rainbow - and I am working on that!!!

3.  Stand your Tree
This is a pop-up die, right?  RIght!  But I decided to let it sit on its own stand made of the CUPCAKE HOLDER!   Its so easy too - just cut and paste the cupcake wrapper/holder so that it can be large enough for the tree's base to plop inside the BOTTOM of the cupcake holder - yep, turn it upside down - and its a base - flower pot or circus stand, you decide~  you can decorate the cardstock before gluing, and you can use all sorts of 3D embellishments when its done - such as brads, butterflies!  What-ever tickles you!

Labels: DIE-CUTTING BIG SHOT, Stampin Up - RETIRED, SU News

I hope you have seen or heard of Stampin' Up!'s Pop-Up Dies which make wonderful projects - from cute and adorable - to just plain awesome!

And the reason they are - is really due to some awesome-ness from KAREN BURNISTON - the designer behind the POP-UP DIES from Sizzix!

Karen has a wicked mind in my humble opinion - and she has developed project after project that just makes you speechless - can you tell I'm a FAN!!!   Honestly, I am not the only one who thinks so - she has lots of fans!


So here is a link to some of the projects she has designed for the POP-UP CHRISTMAS TREE and CAKE!  Click on her thumbnail pictures to see the project close-up.




Now - a word to the wise - SU! is discontinuing these 2 particular dies - don't know why, but they are ON SALE - really great price too, I believe as I write this - its 40 percent off!  


I would be happy to help you order one or both!  Please email me - bstampingbeehive@gmail.com

Labels: DIE-CUTTING BIG SHOT, Stampin Up - RETIRED

Sigh.
Sadly, we are saying good-bye to some very familiar and well-liked products from our current IDEA BOOK and CATALOGUE 2010-2011...and I encourage you to check out the PDF files to see what is retiring.

One never knows till one is confronted with the possibility that you may not have the ability to purchase something - a little something that was always in the back of your mind, on the back burner, on the long list - however you want to put it...till its time has come, and you panic!   Whaa--!  Time is up, that is going?

So, get on in there and see what is going - knowledge is bliss they say!

Meanwhile....here is a picture I scooped up a long time ago, and it involves punch art using one of the punches that Stampin' Up! is retiring.  So I thought it appropriate to show you - lest it prompts you to want to have it before you have to start scanning ebay in hopes of finding it one day!

SPIRAL BORDER PUNCH is going, and here is the pic showing what a little creativity can be done with this punch.

Labels: DIE-CUTTING Punch Art, Stampin Up - RETIRED

Hello girls'n'guys!

Well I went and did it - I put my first order in using my Demo-ship to fast track some of the new pre-releases to my door !!!!!   Yippeee - this IS ALWAYS an exciting time for us!   And as per usual, I have to figure out which of the selected pre-release products I should grab - ALWAYS tough choice!

But, I narrowed it down today to a few things and although I do not have these here - yet - I found another Demo in Texas who has the items I want to share with you!    DONNA ROSS has been playing with.......our new, super-duper...


Therefore I will be awaitin' for my own delivery soon and MY COPY OF THE NEW 2011-2012 IDEA CATALOGUE - Whoooohoooooo - just dyin' I tell ya, just dyin'!

Labels: DIE-CUTTING BIG SHOT, SNEAK PEEK, SU-In Colors-2011-2012