Hello stamping friends!

Here I am with a special friend who I've helped by gift wrapping his Mother's Day gift, and now he has  a one-of-a-kind present for sure!
This is exactly the reason I feel we stampers do this hobby/small business for - to provide happiness!  For sure!


Details
Step 1 - Hand-made 3D Flowers
I have used the Big Shot and our Island Floral Bigz Die to die-cut 9 flower shapes, the 5-petal version. Then during a coffee session, I manipulated and glued into them into three 3-D flowers. What a fun way to spend some down-time!
I will link a tutorial for making the flowers shortly.

Step 2 - Create Floral Gift Topper
Then I added another Sizzix Bigz Die for the  Vine and Leaves which were cut from our pretty PEAR PIZZAZ Cardstock - one of our IN COLORS for this year!  I added dimension to them by sponging some Old Olive Ink.  Attach flowers to vine, embellish with gems and bits of easter floss and tulle. Build everything on to a Scallop Circle {another Bigz Die!}  


But there's more!  The Flower Gift Topper can also be a wall/tabletop decoration!  Yeah!!! By  building onto the Whisper White Scallop Circle - AND -  adding a tab to the back to hang the whole piece - its now a keepsake!   






 I hope his Mom feels special - I know HIS GIFT is really nice, he is a real sweetie!  I was only too happy to help!  




STAMPIN' UP! SUPPLIES

Labels: 3D, ACCENT-Flower, EVENTS-Holiday, GIFTS - Family Friends

Yes helloooo to all out in craft-cyber world!

I feel really accomplished this week!  I have finished a set of gift bags for a baby shower AND a nice card in
SQUASH BOOK style - both are ready to fly out the door!!!

In order to decorate the squash booklet, I created my very own "Sakura Flower" using our Stampin' Up!'s FLORAL ISLAND BIGZ DIE.  Its one of a few select flower dies that I own, and its the same for my punches - so to create a flower, I had to borrow inspiration from my friend Maria Vanderform.  Maria specializes in many flower punch art creations, and seems to start by thinking of what she wants to create - then matching idea to tool!

So....I thought the same thing!  I looked up some flowers and chose the SAKURA Flower which is adored on a national level in Japan!  It can also be referred to as the Cherry Blossom Flower. The trees are stunning when in full bloom - and its hard for the eye to take in all the beauty of a grouping of trees, its awesome!

However, my flower is only a stylized ideal of the actual flower - meaning I took some liberties!  So here it is!

Labels: 3D, ACCENT-Flower, ACCENTS - Ribbon, CARDS - Folded, CARDS - Spring, DIE-CUTTING BIG SHOT, Stampin Up MAKES

If you have a friend who is also crafty - wouldn't it be nice to make a little something for her - or him?

To prepare for my upcoming OPEN HOUSE, I turned and  took my cue from our latest STAMPIN' UP! IDEA BOOK and CATALOGUE - and transferred one of the catty's idea into a project perfect "for a friend".

So, I can't reveal the whole thing right now - hopefully you will drop by and see for yourself.  But I will show it here after my OPEN HOUSE is finished by AUG 4th  - so here's a peek!

Labels: 3D, ACCENT-Flower, ACCENTS-Buttons, GIFTS - Friends, MOTIF - Friendship

Having a fantastic afternoon - listening to music and making ribbon and flowers come together!

Needed a 'special' birthday card....

And so I wanted to make one flower/ribbon combo, but I really got into it - must of been the music, and so I made more......I can always do more to these cards, but we're just focusing on the flowers, right?


YOU WILL NEED:  fabric flower + ribbon + needle/thread + pattern cardstock + (1 " Circle Punch, optional) + adhesive {strong}

Labels: ACCENT-Flower, ribbon, TROPICAL, Tutorial

Good afternoon!  It's Friday - and I bet the end of school for a whole lotta students who are thrilled to be free!!! So enjoy your summer with your children, grandchildren - every day is precious!

I am back today with a project I worked on for almost 2 days - but that's because I was designing it as I went along - so you could do it in about an hour if you had instructions, etc.  I will be offering instructions for this once I make a PDF file - so look for it!

OK. I love this!




I started by making a folding card - well, more importantly, I started because I wanted to use some of the fantastic new things that have been accumulating around the studio! I have also been wanting to do some of the 'vintage' style that is exploding all around the world!

So - a folding card which ended up looking pretty much how you see the middle section and the two wings.

And while I was staring at it, the wings wide open - it struck me that I should turn it into a TRAY!

Then, a tray that could be useful around our cluttered home - I always can use catch-alls to threw my rings onto, spare change or to keep some perfumes - anything really!

I created a template for a tray - which basically is following the shape of the center & sides, deciding how far the front of the tray should extend, and creating "FLAPS" to secure the tray to the vertical sides. The front of the tray has a lip - a flap that folds up and over itself.  And that was it.

Then I had another inspiration - I wanted a smaller container to catch little things - pennies, rings, who knows! So I grabbed some velvet ribbon and made a flower and a leaf and attached them to a golden coloured votive candle holder. Some gems and a pearl - its so cute, I think I'll make more of them!


OK - here the pictures!

Labels: 3D, ACCENT-Flower, Miscellaneous Projects, Punches

Good Morning!

I am back playing with Punch Flowers!  I was at a craft auction on Saturday - I had $113 dollars to bid with - which sounds like a lot until you discover the woman next to you has $800, lol, but it was "free money" I earned and so I wasn't spending real money and it was just for fun. But - I bid on some stuff and won a few nifty things, so I was a happy camper. I picked up this paper - and at first it was because I liked the kraft paper part - and the flowers were nice too.
It wasn't until I got home and googled the paper that I saw women had done amazing things with this paper!  So I perked up!

After musing for awhile, I knew I'd need some "depth" to this paper as a SCRAPBOOK PAGE PROJECT. So I turned my thoughts to PUNCH FLOWERS.


MY FLOWER......USING STAMPIN' UP!
Looking at the detail of the print flower on the paper, I think the designer had the ruffled scallop circle flower in mind - certainly seems that way once you punch out a scallop circle, cut it and make a few creases!


1)  I grabbed my a scrap of left-over (but returning) RED RIDING HOOD CARDSTOCK and punched out some SCALLOP CIRCLES.  I cut the scallop circles with scissors and using my bone folder, made folds and creased each one for every section. I didn't even care if the fold was centered or not - this is very casual!  I used some co-ordinating ink to darken the edges - distress them if you wish.

Labels: 3D, ACCENT-Flower, BLOG CANDY, DIE-CUTTING BIG SHOT, DIE-CUTTING Punch Art, MOTIF - Scalloped, SCRAPBOOK-Pages