Stampin' Up recently announced their exciting new product called DECORATIVE ELEMENTS. They are producing vinyl stamp-inspired shapes for decorating the walls of your homes. I immediately ordered two sets, the first is the dictionary term for 'CREATE' and the second is the circle from the stamp set 'Together Forever' and my family name initial 'F'. Don't they look great on the walls? I love them and wanted to share them immediately! I'll be back later with my challenge card.
Here's the pinny in the most gorgeous green and white polka dots. Notice the ivory band on the pocket? It's got tiny red, pink and blue flowers on it which are just so pretty. Here's the card I made ... The base is Ivory (newly released at PTI) with a layer of SU Green Galore. The green was stamped with PTI's Polka Dots in SU Craft White. The band was made with the same ivory card and stamped with various small flowers from PTI's Honey Bee set. The flowers were stamped in Bashful Blue, Real Red, Regal Rose and certainly celery. I added a piece of ribbon for interest and a scallop medallion with my mum's initial in it. I know you'll read this before the airmail reaches you mumsie ... this is your thank you card for finding something so 'me'.
Happy Monday everyone. What a wonderful way to start the week. The challenge on Splitcoast today is to make a card using a technique called 'Re-inkers Watercolouring'. Stampin' Up sell tiny bottles of reinker for your ink pads. The technique is to take a few drops of reinker and use a watercolouring brush and water to shade your image. I decided to use an old favourite of mine called Toile Blossoms. Here's the recipe:
Phew, it's Friday, we've made it to the end of another week! I visited a friend yesterday whose boyfriend just moved in with her. She's very happy and smiley so I thought I'd send them a 'welcome' card as he's from out of state. It just so happens that the challenge over on SCS today is to make an unusual shaped card. I used my new 'boards and beams' set from Nichole Heady at Papertrey and stamped it right up to the fold on the left, leaving plenty of space to cut around the house. I'ts quite small but quite effective! I coloured with Copics and added a small sign above the door. 
I wanted to do something pretty and summery today! I've noticed hlr976 (Heather on SCS) has been making cards using this retired SU set called Flowers and Friends. I haven't used this set for AGES so took inspiration from her and made this summery card.
This morning was thrilling for me and my daughter Sarah ... my parents hooked up their computer with a web-cam so for the first time in ages I SAW THEM! Honestly, we giggled like little children! It's so silly that such an innocuous device can bring such a thrill! We got our web-cam on Sunday and dad's arrived today so we enjoyed our first hook-up. Fantastic! Dad thinks that mum and I are going to sit in front of the computer all day drinking tea, gossiping and chatting with each other ~ now all we need is my big sister to join in and it'll be a gabfest! 
Cut a piece of cardstock 4 1/4" by 8 1/2". Score along the long edge at 3" and 6". Here I used Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White cardstock.
The bottom portion of your purse card (3") needs to be folded up towards the middle. Once you've done this, you need to measure in 1/4" from the outside edge along the centre of the card (where the bottom edge touches the fold for the flap) and make a light pencil mark. Do this for both outside edges.
I turned the whole card upside down to make the cut so the card in the photograph above appears upsidedown (ie. with the fold at the top). I cut from the folded edge down along the entire edge of the card with a craft knife and quilting ruler, slicing through the 1/4" marker. You could just make a pencil line and cut freehand with your scissors though. Repeat for the opposite side, making sure the 1/4" mark is along the centre fold.
I decided to cut my purse flap by using my Nestabilities plain circle die. This made a thick sandwich which was quite hard to manipulate through the Wizard. However, in order to just cut the portion of the c/stock we need, I placed a tan embossing mat under the card to remain uncut. You cut see from the photo how I layered it all up. If you don't want to make it too complicated, you can just trace around a small plate and use scissors!
Once I'd run it through the Wizard, I had a nicely shaped purse flap. Your purse-card is now beginning to take shape and should look like this.
Once you've cut the curve on the flap of your purse-card, you can decorate the outside. I chose to use So Saffron decorative paper, but you could use a background stamp, whatever you feel like doing! Once again, I measured 1/4" in from the top edge on both sides and made a slightly angled cut to trim the DP to the right shape.
To make the layer on the flap, I used a slightly smaller Nestabilities plain circle and just trimmed it parallel to the top of the fold.
I cut another scalloped circle with my Nestabilities to make a decorative edge. The So Saffron semi-circle was taped to the back of the flap. For the purse handle, I used a piece of wire with beads threaded onto it. It's very easy to attach. As you can see, I made 2 tiny punched holes along the fold, about 1/4" in from each edge, then I just threaded the wire through and taped the ends to the inside of the fold. If you can't find beaded wire, then ribbon or a very narrow strip of c/stock will do just as well.
The Monday challenge today over on Splitcoast Stampers is to make a set of 3 3x3 notecards and a little box to hold them. I've been demonstrating a 'Tart & Tangy' origami pouch at a stamping fair in Southfield all weekend and wasn't quite ready to put the set away! Can't believe I wasn't sick of the sight of it!!! I made the box from Old Olive c/stock and added a belly-band to keep it shut.
Cardstock: For the Box, Old Olive with a belly-band made from Summer Picnic DP. The belly-band is 1" wide. The cards use a combination of Summer Picnic DP along with Old Olive, Real Red, Bashful Blue and Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Instead of using ink for the images, I used my SU markers, this is an easy way to get more than 1 colour onto an image. I also used various ribbons from SU along with the scallop punch and the 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" punches.
