Wanted

Rewind to last Saturday..... my good friend DG had arranged and booked a Stampin' Up! workshop and a few of his close and wonderful friends were coming, which was exciting and fantastic....

So how do you balance a workshop for one dude, a few lovely ladies, all mixed interests and levels...and none I've previously met. Would feminine projects offend? Should we scrapbook? Make cards? BigShot? Small things, big things? Oh dear...

Stop thinking and start doing...just do what Stampin' Up! says to do...share what we love!

WELLLLLL, I loved the faux wood technique that I featured in a previous post...and what stamp set and colours would go with that 'look'? The stamp set...WANTED....check it out...

This starts off with an 8.5x11" piece of Kraft cardstock for the base scrapbook page. The supplies used are Kraft cardstock stamped with elements from Wanted in Ruby Red, Bordering Blue and Night of Navy. Then....sponged with Close to Cocoa, and Whisper White to give it 'grit' baby...I'm feelin' OLD WEST!

Here I've added a Very Vanilla strip along the bottom, and layered it on to a 12x12" piece of textured Chocolate Chip cardstock. A very special thanks goes out to my husband for playing a 'villainous' model so that I could have pictures for my western themed scrap page!

This would be an idea of what everything would look like with extra 'outtakes' and pictures or journalling and memorabilia added to the page. The embellished vanilla block at the top can be used for another photo or a nice journalling block!

I hope you enjoyed this other take on 'faux wood' technique and to see how easy it is to progress from small scrap page to large!

Here's the Wanted stamp set which you can order online (and all other inks and accessories as well*), even in your jammies right now, my store is always open (Canadian orders) here!





*husband not for sale, I'm keeping him as he is very WANTED

Cards for Dudes

I (heart) this card so much. It was fast, it was easy and it was WAY FUNKY! Punchy cards are all the rage. I am constantly amazed by what my sistahs who stamp keep making with simple punched shapes!

Check out this card that we made in the Manly Men Class (I'm saving it for my hunny). He always fixes things around the house, big or small and it never ceases to amaze me how talented he is. I (heart) him too :)




All Supplies are Stampin Up! (of course)

Stamp set: retired <---- sniff...this is WHY it's important to get your wish list items before they retire! See the scoop on the current retiring lists by going to my AB FAB website HERE

Cardstock: brushed silver, Real Red, Kraft

Accessories: Large Grommet, silver brads

Inks: versamark, black Staz-On, circle punches, paper snips

Stamping Technique Faux Wood

Awhile back I did a fun and funky Manly Men card class. All projects had a masculine touch and were geared towards the men and boys in our lives. It can be difficult to create these types of cards (or find projects to CASE). CASE= copy and share everything. Yep...we stampers and scrappers have a secret language...

The first card I want to share is the faux wood technique. We used this technique and paired it with the Stampin' Up! retired Stamp set Ahoy Matey! , which is in my stash of adorable things that I am hoarding. My customers are lucky I'm such a hoarder...they can still play with old sets from time to time. NOW, I also envision using this technique with my 'western' sets....Wanted with the cowboy would look REALLY good.

Have a look at the photos and then tell me what set you think would go well with this technique!

Here's a close-up of the wood....it looks strikingly similar to my piano wood! Isn't it brilliant? I also particularly enjoy my distressed and inked edges and that itty bitty library clip by the parrot.



Here is the card straight on. I CASED the project from Dawn Griffith, stamping guru. Her website is here Dawn's Stamping Thoughts.

In a nutshell, you start out with a piece of Stampin' Up!s More Mustard Cardstock. Swipe a More Mustard Classic inkpad in continuous, long, straight lines across the cardstock. Repeat with Close to Cocoa Classic ink. Repeat again with Chocolate Chip Classic ink (swipe swipe swipe). THEN....swipe with Whisper White CRAFT ink. NOT too heavy now....just enough to add some highlight/contrast to the magical wood colours you've just created. Then I drew in the planks with a ruler and black Stampin' Write Journaller. Do dots of ink for the nails and nail holes, I happened to have an old silver ink pen so i used those to make my nails. Pretty neato huh?




If you do try something with this technique I'd love for you to link back to me or send me a message so I can come and see yours!

So, for those who know me personally and KNOW that I'm a girly girl and a ribbon-a-holic. NONE of my manly projects had ribbon. Now, let me point out that yes..this one has cotton twill tape, but it's TAPE my friends, Stampin' UP! says so!!! Besides it lends to the 'nautical' theme of the card.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! I hope you like the technique!

Toodle-oo
Dreena

Where I've been Lately

Sorry I've been away. I had a special request for this thing I used to do...

I used to make baby keepsake baskets. You know all of those itty bitty little baby hospital bracelets, keepsakes, footprints, first haircut snippets etc...well this is a 'home' for all of those little things (while you catch up on working to scrapbook them...or if you aren't a scrapbooker then this is a permanent and perfectly sweet little place for these special memories to stay).

It all starts where you take one plain Jane ordinary wicker basket.

Then with a few yards of cloth and flannel....(couldn't you just eat these adorable little critters up?) The covers, hinges, and ruffles are all hand made and hand sewn (by moi!)



Get some trimmin's and fixin's to match....(the other side has a Winnie the Pooh soft rattle, and we further decorated it by attaching baby washcloths and booties tied to the handles)



Add some baby lovin' mojo and ooey gooey goodness and you come up with this......(no pattern except in my head for now!) Of course I had to get some Stampin' Up! ribbons in there, my Sale-a-bration ribbons matched the fabric PERFECTLY!



NOTE: Currently there are discounts on some ribbons and accessories in my Stampin' Up! online store, and many more stamps and accessories retiring....go have a peek at the Last Chance Lists and Products. Go to my website here and click on the shopping button to view the products in the shop.

WANNA SEE WHAT'S INSIDE? YOU KNOW YOU DO! Here's the view from one side, chock full of baby goodness. What momma wouldn't LOVE to receive one of these keepsake baskets ready to go with items to USE? I hope she loved it...



Toodles! I'll have more yummy things for show soon now that baby's gift is done, I hope you enjoyed this.