Punchy Party Planning

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful summer weekend with the kids fresh out of school! Let the fun begin...

For us, we celebrated Canada Day (July 1st) with outdoor festivities, fireworks and of course outdoor food.  

I love outdoor parties and I enjoyed the last watermelon craft (treat holder) in the previous post soooo much....that I had to make more.  Lots more...

Card number one, in Melon Mambo and Garden Green.... 

The seeds are made from a scallop square punch, each scallop I cut at an angle like a teardrop and removed from the square.  You can also use a scallop circle (or any scalloped shape) to make tear drop shapes for seeds, eyes etc.

Next...CHOMP...nom nom....a watermelon card (or invitation) with a wee bite taken out (thanks to my circle punches)

A closer look at this one and you can see it is done with Riding Hood Red (a more masculine watermelon?)  and the seeds are arranged in a row across the melon. 

The seeds are highlighted with white gel pen.

The watermelon rinds are sponged with green ink to give it a more true to life effect.

Decorate your drinks!  Punch a little watermelon with your circle punches and sassy up those straws!  Bendy straws would have been better...but I have none...so we improvise.

Punch up those paper plates with some watermelon funfetti!  Okay so they are really only half circles of watermelon coloured circle punches...but they work very well! Cute!

Make a napkin ring/name card with your small circle punches and a ring of matching cardstock.  Leave out the seeds and you have room to write a name!

I hope you've enjoyed our little watermelon punch party!

xo.
D.

PS.  How did I get those round bottom cards to stand straight?  On the back of the card, the bottom edge is trimmed flat so that it doesn't tip and roll.  Have fun!

Inspiration is Everywhere! The tale of a funky fresh card...

First let me start this post by apologising for the photos.

They didn't mean to be blah...it's just that they couldn't get ready for you because their photo editing software was inaccessible.

They really wanted to spruce up, polish up and make themselves amazing for you...but we decided that rather than make you wait indefinitely for their appearance (which I had already been teasing you with on Facebook) we'd better just make do and get 'er done!

So...inspiration is everywhere, it really is!

My youngest is getting ready to attend school and as many parents know...you go to ALOT of open houses and schools with hopes of finding 'just the right one'. We were recipients of many information packages, hand outs, brochures, business cards etc. Most of them very blah, boring, get the job done kind of things....and then this one....

.....It whispered sweet things into my ears, pitched woo like (all I can think of is... like my coffee to my lips in the morning...lame!).....

I almost squealed and didn't want anyone to touch it. It was perfect! The colours, the arrangement, the funky styling, the little sassy bird!! (I'm still a bit giddy, forgive me).

I knew immediately that I could translate it into Stampin' Up! colours, shapes and materials. I had so much fun.

On the top right we have the portfolio folder from a very lovely school, and the bottom left...a picture of the folder with his new little Stampin' Up! friend....

SQUEE! Aren't they a perfect pair?

Can you see how I used the same basic layout from the portfolio? I'm tellin' ya people, if a graphic artist has gone through all the work making something look this pretty...you need to follow their lead!!!

I'm going to make more of these. What do you think?

This is just a subtle hint...but you have another challenge coming at you shortly...

Dreena

I WANT CANDY - Enjoy the Little Things Colour Challenge

It's time for another crafty colour challenge!

Sorry it's taken so long to post an inspiration picture....I kept waffling back and forth and I was quite indecisive about what the next colour challenge should be.

I wanted something different from the last batches of colour and I wanted to stay away from MY personal 'go to colours'...which always seem to be chocolate and "insert colour here".

I said out loud to myself (and I'm so pathetically food centric) "what do I like other than chocolate..?" and then my inner-self replied "candy". I know, right? <--pathetic!!

So I give you the "I WANT CANDY" or "ENJOY THE LITTLE THINGS" colour challenge. OH and since candy is little, that's why you should have several. I'm just sayin....


So you have two weeks to submit your crafty goodness using the following colours:

• pretty in pink
• almost amethyst
• apricot appeal
• barely banana
• sage shadow
• whisper white (not listed but always accepted)

You do not have to use ALL of the colours listed, but be assured that if you DO...I will totally be WOW-ed. You will have wow-ed me.

OH, and see that little crown on the bubble gum wrapper...if you manage to work in a crown into your project(s)...I will be SUPER WOW-ed.

So who remembers the song "I Want Candy"? Who's got that going through their head now? What is your favourite candy? I'm curious...talk to me, leave me comments!

For those of you playing in the challenge, the deadline will be March 28, 2010 ( I'm feeling generous with time!!). Go crazy! Go create!

Please remember to submit a DIRECT link to your project (not just your blog address, but the link to the atual post that you want us all to admire!). If you don't blog, no worries...you can use a photo site such as Flickr or if you've posted to a gallery like Splitcoast Stampers...just hook us up through there!

Happy Creating! Please use the submission tool here:

Babyface! You've Got the Cutest Little Baby Face

So this is what's been keeping me busy for the last couple of weeks. Babies....

Babies, we knew they were hard work, but I'm here to tell you 75 babies keep you very, very busy indeed. Aren't they just the most adorable bundles of joy? I love them. I've been making these babies for a 25 member punched art swap meet at our team convention on Saturday. I hope the ladies love them as much as I do.

Each baby is constructed from a variety of shapes of punched card stock, in this case a wide oval punch, circle and flower are used. See end of post for a more detailed list.

If you haven't tried punched art or you haven't been bold enough to do it alone, please come to class or email me! My contact is on my website here. The possibilities are endless with punched art.





Last week I used the scallop circle punch pictured here to make the background sky for the baby bundle cards. If you follow my blog you'll remember this...

The sky backgrounds, got trimmed and mounted onto a layer of Bermuda Bay cardstock, and stamped in Basic Black Classic Ink with the "Rock-a-Bye-Baby" sentiment from the stamp set Nursery Necessities. Nursery Necessities is a gem of a baby set for cards as well as scrapbooking. Details on the stamp set are at the end of the blog post.

Baby Faces up close! I have a few tips to share with you. When doing punched art there are a few things you can do to make your creating go smoother, faster and easy to store...

Can you see the little 'dotted' bits behind the faces, on the paper? That's a temporary adhesive that Stampin' Up! sells called Dotto.

Dotto is a sanity saver.

Really it is. Read on...

Let me tell you more about Dotto. Dotto is helpful when you are creating detailed work, or when you are fiddling with a scrap page layout.

Here I've run strips of Dotto across a piece of printer paper, and stuck down ROWS of baby faces... They are all ready for me to sponge and ink and add detail.

NOT ONLY THAT, but when it was time for supper, I just picked up the page and put it in a protective craft keeper envelope. It stays stuck and waiting for me to pull it out next time! MY FRIENDS...how easy is that?

Think of all the times you've been interrupted by say the phone, come back and the kiddies have picked up your scrapbook page and your layout went everywhere?! No more! Dotto! See the end of the post for product info.

See, here I'm putting down some Dotto and adhering my baby bundles and shapes so that I can do my inking and shading with my sponge daubers. Handy!

Here's a shot of the assembled baby bundles. These were so simple to make.

Close up time! Little rosy cheeks, and white gel pen dimples, awww. Note: the faces are popped up on a foam dimensional before they are stuck down to the bundles.

The sentiment from Nursery Necessities, gel pen highlights, pretty punched border (say ooh...say ahh). LOL!

Again, the finished baby bundles! Thanks to Sophia Landry for her inspiration on baby bundle punchies. I really enjoyed making these little guys.

All supplies used are Stampin' Up! and can be purchased from my store.

**The Almighty DOTTO temporary adhesive** (insert sound of trumpets and fanfare)

Dotto: 103305 $17.95 (Dotto is refillable, don't throw away your cartridge!)

Punches:

• Wide Oval Punch 112082 $22.95
• 3/4" circle punch 107217 $15.95
• 5-Petal Flower 109041 $22.95

Border Punch: Eyelet Border 113692 $22.95

Cardstock:

• whisper white (40 sheets) 100730 $9.95
• Bermuda Bay (24 sheets) 115317 $7.25
• Kraft (40 sheets) 102125 $9.95
• Soft Subtles Assorted Pkg (pink/yellow/apricot/green) 36 sheets (3ea. of 12 colours) 105568 $10.50 *each colour is also available in single packs of 24 sheets for $7.25

Accessories:

• Black Journaler 105394 $4.50
• White Gel Pen 105021 $5.50
• Sponge Daubers (12) 102892 $15.95
• Stampin' Dimensionals 104430 $5.50
• Hemp twine 12yds 100982 $3.95
  

Stamp Set:

• Nursery Necessities 113506 (set of 12) $42.95

I Heart Paper Punch Art

I'm still working away on my swaps for our team convention in a couple of weeks. The swap is all about punched art and there are 25 punch lovers participating. I can't wait to see all of the designs!

Here's a gem that I did for a punched art class as well as for my downline. A punchy peacock! Isn't he adorable? Truly a labour of love. (sorry for the thumb print on my camera lens!)



Punches used are :

• scallop oval - body and wings #114889
  
• boho blossoms - feet and 'crown' #110711
  
• small star - beak #109045
  
• word window - feathers, neck, head #105090
  

Additional:

• mini glue dots #103683
  
• tombow mono multi liquid glue (ESSENTIAL FOR PUNCH ART!) #110755
  
• Fine Cosmo #108796

Sentiment on the inside: You did such a great job and I'm 'Proud as a Peacock'!

Of course, all supplies are available in my online store, HERE.

Stay tuned in October when My Digital Studio digi-scrapping becomes available!