87th Birthday Card For My Dad

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything on my Stampin' Up! blog. No I haven't signed up again as a Demonstrator, but I have finally had a chance to make something using my Stampin' Up! products. I have been keeping up with all that is new due to some good friends, but I had been busy teaching classes for Scrapbook Essentials BC for a while, and then I moved back to Alberta. Calgary to live with my daughter there for about 5 months, and then nearly a year ago we all moved to Lethbridge.

I am now making card kits for Scrapbook Parade in Victoria, and we mail things back and forth. If you wish to see what I design for the kits selling there, her is the link to my other blog, Aspiring to Creativity. If you go there, you can see the other two cards I made for my twin sisters. You see, my Dad and twin sisters all have their birthday on the same day! But since I used Stampin' Up! products for my Dad's card and not the others, I am only posting his on this blog.

I wanted to make an elegant masculine birthday card for my Dad, and I think I pulled it off.

You can see the layering in the above photo. If you remember me, I love layers!

I think this is one of my favourite tree stamps! And below's photo of the leaves...well I love them too. I only wish I had purchased the die set to go with the stamps. I never got around to it. So I had to cut them out with my fussy cutting scissors.

Well, that's it for this post. I hope that another two years doesn't pass before I post here again. I hope to use some Stampin' Up! products again. There are more family birthdays coming, so I hope I get the chance to use some of my favourites again.

Until then, Happy stamping and creating!

A Stampin' Up Play Date

Hello everyone!

It has been four months since I had to retire as a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, and I have missed the fun. I have been very busy teaching classes at Scrapbook Essentials BC along with my duties as a Spellbinders Educator. My fellow Stampin' Up Demonstrator group, the Seashore Stampers, contacted me about having a day to play with them, to have some fun and catch up on what is going on in our lives. A 'play date' as it was called by the group.

Unfortunately, by the time the date arrived, life has a way of changing plans, which was the case for three of the ladies of the group. So I did not get the chance to visit with them. Those of us that were able to make it had a blast! It was so fun to dig out some of the Stampin' Up supplies again and create, and everyone brought something for our pot luck luncheon, and the food was wonderful!

Here are some photos of the get together.

These are three of the wonderful ladies that could make it to the 'Play Date'. And below is a photo with me and two of them.

Next come the photos of the luncheon food. Unfortunately, I did not think to take the photos until after we each had our first serving.

I took photos of each individual item. First, it the Thai Spring rolls with peanut sauce, which are covered with damp paper towel to keep the rolls moist.

Then, someone had nearly the same idea that I did. Here is a bowl of watermelon with Feta cheese.

Next you see two bowls, and no, the one bowl is not filled with peperoni. It is gluten free beat crackers with seeds, which turned out to be popular with one person in particular. Glad that she liked them so much. I must admit that they are very good, or I would not have brought them.

And lastly, my salad. It is made with watermelon, blueberries, cucumber, Feta cheese, a tiny bit of mint, honey and poppy seed dressing.

OK, enough of that. I am thinking that you might want to see what I made that day. We were having so much fun visiting that I do not think we got much work done during those 5 1/2 hours, but I did get three cards made.

I have two grandchildren that have birthdays this month, so I decided that this was probably the only time I would have to get to making them. The first is for my grand-daughter that will be turning 10. I decided using the new Lemon Lime Twist and Berry Blast colours, would be a great colour combo for a girl that age.

Then for my grandson, who will be turning 12, I finally got to using some DSP that I was never able get around to using before, and is now discontinued.

Then, as always, I never have enough Thank You cards, so I had time to make a quick one using some of the gorgeous new Delight Daisy DSP.

So, there you have the three cards made at the Seashore Stampers Play Date. I would like to thank the Seashore Stampers for inviting me to play with them again and visit with them. We had so much fun that we set a tentative date for another 'Play Date' some time in October. Looking forward to it!

It was four months ago I surprised everyone with the news of retiring as a Stampin' Up Demonstrator to pursue the Spellbinders Educator position; well, there is another surprise that I will be posting soon. So watch for it sometime in the next month or so.

In the mean time, I will be busy teaching classes, amongst other things, and wish you all a great Summer and happy creating!

Birthday Wishes From Friends

Yesterday was my birthday, and I received some wonderful hand made Stampin' Up cards from friends that I would like to share with you.

These came together; a box of Hershey Nuggets created with the Balloon Pop-Up thinlits in the Occasions Catalogue, and the ever popular Hey Chick stamp set from Sale-A-Brations.

Here is just the card...

...and here is the box of chocolates (one is missing already, lol).

Next, is this pretty card. I always love the Petite Petals and punch on a card!

You'll have to forgive me as I do not recognize this embossing folder or stamp set, but I love this card. The photo does not do the card justice.

I thank everyone that send me little gifts and all the cards, it really made my day! And all the Facebook greetings were wonderful too.

Hope you are all having fun creating, too. Remember to check in on Saturday for the Seashore Stampers Blog Hop!


Hugs to everyone!

Erica's Birthday Gift - 'Beautiful You' & DIY Picture Frame

Squeezing this post in amongst the posting of projects for classes. As most of you know, I belong to a Stampin' Up group here in the area called 'Seashore Stampers'. We try to get together every month, and usually do. This year I am finding my schedule of Saturdays, to be filled more with other things, like classes,  and won't make as many of them as I'd like. Today's meeting I was originally unable to attend, however the class I had scheduled for today was cancelled a few days ago, and even though I had a cold, I was hoping to be well enough to go to the meeting. Yeah!!!!

Anyway, one of the things we are doing each month, is if anyone in our group has a birthday that month, we each make a papercrafting gift to the birthday girl or girls. For January, Erica has just recently celebrated her birthday, so this is the gift that I made for her.

I wanted to use Copper Foil for the project, but found that I was out! So in my search for a substitute, I found an unopened package of retired Champagne Glimmer Paper! I love that colour and was sad when it was discontinued. I know that Erica likes a bit of glitter, you just have to look at her phone cover to know that, (lol)

If you are wondering I how I used one stamp, with very closely spaced lettering, to get some words heat embossed and the rest stamped... well, I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig, and my Soft Suede Stampin' Write marker for the small text. Then I used the Stampin' Buddy over the area and used a VersaMarker Watermark pen (not Stampin' Up) to colour the two words I wanted to heat emboss (using the Stamp-a-ma-jig to line it up). Then you can go ahead and heat emboss!

Of course I used the new Stampin' Up Watercolour Pencils and Blender to colour in the woman.

I decided that I needed to make a stand for the frame so that it could be displayed where ever Erica wanted to place it. So I had to come up with a way to make that. (Details are further below)

So there you have the project. Since I have a cold, a video on how to make this is out of the question, so you will have to make due, again, with photos and written instructions.


When this frame is completed it measures 6 x 6 x 3/4 without the stand. With the stand it measures 6 x 6 x 3. The working space inside the frame is 4 1/2 x 4 1/2.

FRAME

To start you will need a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock for the frame.

1. On your score board you will score @ 3/4. 1 1/2, 2 1/4, 3, 9, 9 3/4, 10 1/2, & 11 1/4.
2. Turn you paper and score @ 3/4. 1 1/2, 2 1/4, 3, 9, 9 3/4, 10 1/2, & 11 1/4.
3. Now on two opposite sides you will score @ 3 3/4 & 8 1/4 JUST DOWN TO THE SECOND SCORE LINE

• Next you will cut all four corners as you see here. (I left one corner uncut so that you could see what it looks like. The remaining corner will be cut just like the one to the right.)

•  It will look like this when all cut.
• Add your adhesive tape (glue sometimes make the paper buckle too much) on the right side of your paper as indicated in the photo above.

•  On the wrong side there will be adhesive required in the four little triangles as shown in the photo above.
• You will also need to attach your background DSP BEFORE folding the frame. It will measure 5 7/8 x 5 7/8.
• Start with the two straight cut sides. You see one done above.

•  Do the same on the opposite side as seen above.

•  Now tuck the other end under as you did on the other two sides, but be sure to have the corners lined up before press the adhesive down in the corners.

 When done your frame should like this one.

FRAME STAND

•  You will begin with a coordinating piece of cardstock the same colour as your frame measuring 5 3/4 x 5 3/4
• Score @ 2 1/4 & 3 1/4. this gives you a 1" space to attach to the frame
• With a ruler, at the top, measure 3/8" on each side of the score line and make a mark
• At the bottom, measure 3/4" from the bottom two corners up
• For my spacer cut, I used the largest of the  'Lots of Labels' Framelits (138281) because the top curve is exactly 1" wide. Line it up on the edge of the platform so that it only die cut down the straight sides about 1 1/4".
• On your paper trimmer, or score board,score from the die cut edge to the scored line, on either side.

•  Now you will cut from mark to mark on your paper trimmer, and fold all your score lines
• Place your adhesive tape as indicated in the photo above. You see that adhesive is not placed on the center section of the spacer, just on the ends.

•  When assembled it should like the above photo (only neater as I just stuck the tiniest piece of adhesive on those two flaps)
• You will than attach this on the center back of your frame with the bottom of the stand lining up with the bottom of your frame, as seen below.

Now you are ready to create what you will on the front inside of your frame! Hope this all helps you create your own lovely frame projects. Just think...Mother's Day, Father's Day, Birthdays, Easter, Christmas, Congrats, Encouragement, etc! A lot can be done with these!

Adding these photos after giving the gift today. I had forgotten to take photos of the gift bag made by piecing scraps together and the coordinating Birthday card.

I had to ask Erica to take photos of her card and gift bag...

Hope you enjoyed this post, and happy creating!

Beautiful You Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Watercolor Pencils

Neutrals 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Cardstock

Soft Suede 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

Falling In Love Designer Series Paper

Copper Foil Sheets

Embossing Buddy

Heat Tool (Us And Canada)

Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.