IHP Design Team Challenge – and a SALE!

This month, the i {heart} papers Design Team was challenged to create something based on “Sensational Summer.” Being that summer actually begins today, I think it’s quite appropriate!

Using some bright, summer-y papers (Echo Park’s Summer Days) and one of my favorite Chicken Girl Design stamp sets (Hugs from a Bug), this is what I came up with:

I paper-pieced the smiling sun in the corner using an old OCL set (Sunshine Cheer) and highlighted it with some yellow Stickles. The grass that the cute ant is walking on is covered with Flower Soft. The layout was based on this week’s Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge (which kinda gives away the fact that I waited until the last minute to do  this!).   

Before I send you over to see what the rest of the design team came up with to celebrate summer, let me tell you about the spectacular Pre-CHA Clearance Sale that Kate is having starting TODAY!

Even though new items are still arriving in the store (new Unity, OCL and Echo Park, to name a few), CHA is only a few weeks away! Starting today, IHP is having a HUGE Pre-CHA Clearance sale to help make room for new things that will be purchased at the show. Some highlights of the big sale:

• All Unity $12 or less, including store kits and co-brands
• Unity Itty Bittys $3.25
• OCL (except the latest releases) are all $11 or less
• All open stock 12x12 only 25¢ per sheet
• Flower Soft only $4.50!
• Stampavie only $6!

But there is much, much more, so be sure to check out the sale page for all the details! And, as always, free US shipping with your $50 order!

Now go check out what these very talented ladies came up with for this challenge:

• Deb
• Gretchen
• Kendra
• Loretta
• Lori
• Lynn
• Megan
• Tracy
• Kate

And then GO SHOPPING!!!! Happy Summer, everybody!

It’s been too long

I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. No good excuses – just caught up in baking stuff and family stuff, so my downtime was really crash time. But I’m jumping back in with this little number. I think it says it all…

I used this week’s sketch challenge from The Sweet Stop (SSS111). When my mojo is stalled, sketch challenges usually get me started again. The typewriter stamp is from Just my Type from Lawn Fawn, but the message stamped on the paper is from the Talking in Circles set from Technique Tuesday. I love being able to mix and match my stamp sets! The patterned papers, the border and letter stickers are from the fabulous For the Record 12x12 Collection Kit. Of course all of these, as well as the Copic markers I used to color the typewriter and Nestabilities I used to cut it out, are available from i {heart} papers.

I have more to catch you all up on (those of you who are still following me after my abysmal posting track record), but that will have to wait a bit. For now, I’ll just say that I’m glad to be (hopefully) back in the swing of things, and I truly appreciate (more than I can say) those of you who are actually reading this.

Later,

IHP DT Challenge – Color Blocking

This month our fearless i {heart} papers design team challenge coordinator, Deb, challenged us to use the Color Blocking technique for our card or project. I know there are many variations of this, and some are more clean and simple than what I ended up doing. Anyway…

I’ve been wanting to make a Gratitude Journal for a long time. I bought the blank lined book ages ago, and decided that this challenge was the perfect opportunity to actually do it. So I grabbed a piece of graph paper and started sketching out block designs until I came up with one I was happy with.

Then I broke out my Echo Park “For The Record” 12x12 Collection Kit and started cutting. The rose, letters and words I added are all from the kit as well. The stamped words on the yellow block at the lower right are from the OCL set Big Thanks – I just selectively inked and stamped (with my favorite Palette Noir ink) the words I wanted, omitting the ones I didn’t. It’s a great way to get added value from the stamps you have.

The blocks were first arranged and glued down to a black cardstock piece cut to the size I needed to cover the ugly print that was already stuck on the front of the book. After it was all decorated to my liking, I used my i {stick} papers redline tape to adhere it to the book.

All in all, I’m pleased with how it came out. Thanks, Deb, for forcing my hand on this. Oooh – that can be my first entry for my gratitude journal! And of course, I’m grateful for all of you who are actually taking the time to look at this :-)

Now go check out what the rest of the IHP design team did with this challenge:

Kate
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Loretta
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Tracy

And if you’d like to play along and show us your Color Blocking designs, just load them into the SCS or PCP gallery with the keyword ihp0511 so we can find it.

Special Announcement from i {heart} papers

I just wanted you to know that there were some yummy new additions to the store this week, so be sure to check the new section in the store. And, LUCKY YOU…tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day so IHP has a 10% off coupon for you when you spend $40 or more, valid starting today through Sunday. Use code NSD2011DT. Plus, all single digistamps are only $1. And all orders of $100 or more will get a free extra gift from Kate as a thank you. It might be a paper sampler or a stamp or something else! It’ll be a surprise!

So what are you waiting for? Go shopping!

I {heart} baking

This is what I’ve been up to for the last couple of days. My grandpuppy, Sugar, turned 1 year old (in people years) yesterday, and my daughter invited some of Sugar’s doggie friends over today to celebrate. Of course, I had to bake some treats for the doggies, so I whipped up a batch of these yummies. All kinds of good stuff in there – banana, apple sauce, carrots, whole wheat flour, spelt flour and oats. Honestly, there’s nothing in there that I wouldn’t eat. But I didn’t try them. The dogs loved them, though.I packaged them up like this:
 

And we must have some goodies for the people, right? What could be better than some pupcakes? Got the idea from the Martha Stewart website. Very time consuming, but sooo cute! And very yummy. The ears and eyes are made of chocolate, and the noses are Raisinettes.

And because this past Monday was my son-in-law’s birthday, I baked a little something just for him – a Beer Batter Bread with Gruyere and Rosemary. It smelled divine when I baked it this morning, and I’m sure it will taste just as good. I got the recipe from the Bake at 350 blog, here. Super simple. Here it is in all its glory:

I just love the way my house smells when I bake. I do NOT like the way my kitchen looks afterward. I need somebody to stand next to me and clean up as I go. Any volunteers?

Papertrey April Blog Hop Challenge

This month, the PTI Blog Hop Challenge is to make a masculine card. It just so happens that today is my son-in-law’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Roy!), and the card I made for him uses PTI’s Enjoy the Ride stamp set and die. Unfortunately I did not get it into the mail, so I’ll have to hand-deliver it to my daughter later today.

You may recognize the car from the nifty tutorial I did HERE about how to accurately die-cut images with solid dies (like PTI’s) – after they are stamped. If you have the same trouble I do with lining up the stamp with the die cut, this tutorial is for you!

I used BG Max & Whiskers paper for this card, since I was going for a dog theme here, and the colors were nice and masculine. The doggy in the car is my grandpuppy, Sugar, wishing her daddy a happy birthday. That stamp is from a little BG clear stamp set. I stamped her first on the white circle, then adhered the car (with the window trimmed out with a craft knife) on top of her. The sky and road are masked and airbrushed with Copic markers.

Enjoy the hop!

Tutorial: Die-cutting stamped images

Anyone who has used Nestabilities or other open-format dies to cut their stamped images knows that it’s pretty easy to align the die around the image. But what about the solid dies that are available now? I don’t know about you, but even with clear stamps, I have a hard time stamping the image correctly on the die-cut shape – it’s always just a little wonky, even if I’m standing right above it to line it up.

So I came up with an easy way to stamp first, then cut perfectly – every time. Now, I don’t know if anyone else has come up with this idea already, but it’s new to me, so I wanted to share it with you. Here we go…

First, take a piece of cardstock and die-cut the shape. You are creating a mask. I’ve used PTI’s Enjoy the Ride die (and stamp) for this.

Now stamp your image.

Start creating your die-cutting “sandwich”. I’m using my Big Shot. Lay the stamped image (face up) on your cutting mat and align the mask over the image exactly the way you want it. You can use a little tape to hold it down if you want. (I could have aligned this a little better…) 

Now take your die (cutting side down) and place it into the mask – you’ll feel when it’s sitting properly in there. Take a little tape and hold it down to make sure it doesn’t shift.

Cover it with your top plate and run it through your die-cutting machine. That’s it -- a perfectly aligned image!

And you can keep your mask to use over and over again. I like to cut one in a light color and one in a dark color, depending on what I’m stamping on. And I store them right behind the dies in my binder so they’re always there when I need them. I store my dies – all of them – in a photo album binder loaded with different size pocket pages. Each pocket has either a square of black cardstock with some magnetic strips attached, or a square of of magnetic sheeting (I think they sell them as vent covers). In the back of the album, I have a couple of sheets of 8x11 magnetic sheeting, hole punched for the binder, for my border dies. Here’s a pic of one page:
 

Hope this has been useful and takes some stress out of your crafting time!

IHP April DT Challenge: Exclusively Yours

This month the i {heart} papers design team is spotlighting some of the stamp sets that are available exclusively through i {heart} papers. I decided to use one of my favorite Chicken Girl Design sets, Birthday Wishes.

Now as we all know, nothing says “party” quite like a pink elephant. So I paired the image with some pretty pink papers from the Little Girl Collection Kit by Echo Park. The balloon is paper-pieced and popped up on a foam dimensional. I used this week’s inspiring Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #113 for my layout.

Supplies from i {heart} papers:
Stamps: Birthday Wishes (Chicken Girl Design)
Ink: Memento black, Copic markers R81, R83, YG02, C2
Paper: Little Girl Collection Kit (Echo Park), Copic Blending Cardstock
Other: Adhesive Dimensional Dots (Zva), Nestabilities – small circles

Do you have any of the exclusive IHP sets from Mint Motif, The Petal Press, or Chicken Girl Design? Would you like to share your work with us? Post it to the gallery at PaperCraft Planet or Splitcoast Stampers and use the tag ihp0411 so we can find it.

Now go check out what the rest of the IHP Design Team has this month:

Kate
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Loretta
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Tracy

Happy stamping!

A complete departure

from my usual style. I was inspired by Julie Lacey’s take on this week’s Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge. I needed to make a birthday card for my awesome boss (OK, I had plenty on hand to choose from – I just wanted an excuse to play), and I wanted to use more of the yummy papers from the Echo Park Be Mine Collection, because she is totally into the whole black/white/grey thing.

A little bit of Raspberry Fizz (Papertrey) made the card pop. You will notice that I actually used my sewing machine. Yup, I sewed on paper! Of course it helped that the machine was already loaded with black thread (I hate changing thread). Peeking out from under the ribbon is some of the BG adhesive paper lace, and the swirls are pieces cut from some Zva Jet Crystal Flourishes.

The center piece is cut with Labels 13 Nestabilities, and stamped with PTI’s Damask Designs.

So even though this is the complete opposite of my usual clean & simple style, I rather like the way it came out. Don’t get too used to all this fussiness from me, though!

Yummy

Just a quick share. I spent the afternoon making these for my boss’s birthday tomorrow. She’s a terrific boss, and a really awesome woman. And she LOVES m&m’s.

These are triple chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting. They were fun to decorate, and yes, I did sit and sort the whole bag of m&m’s out by color.

And yes, I did lick the bowl(s).

IHP March DT Challenge: What’s New?

This month the i {heart} papers Design Team was given a bit of free reign – we could make whatever we wanted, but it had to use some of the NEW stuff that Kate ordered from CHA.

Since Easter is right around the corner, I decided to use some of the spring-like and delicious paper from the Stella and Rose Hazel pad by My Mind’s Eye to make an Easter basket and some eggs. I just LOVE these colors and prints! (Yes, I know there are a few of you out there asking what a nice Jewish girl is doing making an Easter basket ☺)

I found some styrofoam eggs when I was cleaning up my craft closet (you wouldn’t believe some of the stuff I had hiding in there!), so I took a few and covered them with punched out flowers, using some glass head pins that I picked up in the sewing notions section at Wal-mart a long time ago.

The basket is made with an 8x8 square of kraft cardstock, scored 2-5/8” inches from each side. This post on Splitcoast Stampers has a link to the directions. The strip left from trimming an 8-1/2x11 sheet was enough to make the handle. I applied squares of various papers from the Hazel pad before I assembled the basket. Here’s a closer look at just the eggs:
How have you been using the new goodies introduced at CHA? Would you like to join our challenge? Just post your project to the SCS or PCP gallery and use the keyword ihp0311 so we can find it.

Now go take a look at what Kate and the other very talented ladies who comprise the IHP Design Team made with their new stuff:

Kate
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Loretta
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Tracy

And be sure to stop by i {heart} papers to see the new and wonderful goodies that are coming in almost every day! Kate’s legendary outstanding customer service, and free shipping on orders of $50 US and up, just can’t be beat!

IHP & OCL Partner Challenge Day

Today I’m happy to join my fellow i {heart} papers design team members in partnering with the Our Craft Lounge Challenge #55. The challenge is to pick a card made with an OCL set (there are soooo many awesome ones to choose from!) and do our own version using a different OCL set. 

Above is my card, and if you click here you’ll see the card that the very talented Denise Marzec made, and which I used as my inspiration. While Denise used Pat the Good Dog for her card, I used Tweet Trees for mine. She had some adorable die-cut clouds floating over her image panel, and I decided to pop up the body of the bird over my image. The oval image panel and scalloped mat are cut with Large Oval Nestabilities, and the scalloped border is cut with the Jumbo Scalloped Petite Borderabilities. My patterned paper is from the October Afternoon Seaside collection. And these are the Copic markers that I used to color the image:

We’d love to see your take on this challenge too! Here are the details:
Play along and you might even win one of OCL’s monthly prizes! Details are on their blog. 

Go take a look at the cards that the rest of the IHP Design Team came up with for this challenge:
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Lori
Lynn
Tracy
Kate

Happy stamping!

A couple of sweet cards

I got to spend some time at my new craftin’ desk this weekend (more on that soon) and whipped up a couple of sweet and simple cards using the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 105.

Amazingly, I didn’t use any stamps on these – just the Echo Park Little Girl Collection Kit that I recently got from Kate at i {heart} papers, some ribbon, and some cardstock. I love collection kits – lots of papers that coordinate, and all kinds of stickers and stuff to go with them. Gotta love these cupcakes, too – totally guilt-free and calorie-free!

I have a couple of other things I worked on this weekend – some I can’t share for a little bit yet. I’ll be back in a couple of days to show you more.

IHP DT Challenge: Inspired by a Story

This month Deb, our design team challenge coordinator, assigned us the task of making a card or project that was inspired by a story. My card is inspired by the Jules Verne story “Around the World in 80 Days,” which was first published in 1873. It was made into an Academy Award winning movie with David Niven in 1956, and again in 2004 with Jackie Chan. As far as I’m concerned, the second one didn’t count. It was also adapted many times and many ways for stage, screen and TV. But anyway…The story is about an English man, Phileas Fogg, and his French valet, who set out to circumvent the globe in 80 days on a bet, using whatever means of transportation is available. In the original book there was no hot air balloon involved, but the 1956 movie added that element and all adaptations after that kept it in.

I used the Unity stamp set Itty Bitty Adventurous for this, along with paper from Kaiser Craft’s Up, Up and Away pad. Both are currently available at i {heart} papers (of course), although in very limited quantity. It was stamped with Palette Cocoa ink and colored with Copic markers (BG11, YR20, YR24) to coordinate with the background paper. The aqua dewdrops are from my stash.

Now go take a look at what the rest of the design team came up with:

Cathleen
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Loretta
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Tracy
Kate

We’d love to see what YOU can make that’s inspired by a story. If you make something, please post it in the PCP or SCS gallery with the keyword “ihp0211” so we can find it.

Wishing you your own great adventure,

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Just a quick post with a couple of cards that went out in the mail. Hopefully I timed it right and they get where they’re going on time. With all the mess of reorganizing my craft space the last couple of weeks, I didn’t get as many cards made as I would have liked.

This card was inspired by one in a PaperCrafts magazine a while back. Can’t put my hands on it right now to give proper credit. The brown layer is run through the Big Shot with an embossing folder and then lightly and carefully stamped with PTI Background Basics:Text Styles. A white eraser took care of the boo-boos that inevitably occurred.

This one was inspired by what must have been a recent sketch challenge. Again, I wish I could put my finger on which one, but I can’t at the moment. It’s hard to see, but the pink strips were first stamped with an old SU heart vine background stamp, then run through the Big Shot with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I stamped a piece of darker pink CS with the reverse dots stamp from the Mint Motif set Very Square using Palette Claret ink before I punched it out with a large heart punch. I find that Claret is actually a better match for the PTI Raspberry Fizz CS than their own ink. The words along the bottom, stamped in Palette Charcoal, are from the PTI set Sweet Love.

Hope your day is filled with love.