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!

Faux Clouds Stamping Technique

What am I working on today?

Well you might say I have my head in the clouds!
FAUX CLOUDS, that is!

I'm prepping swaps for our annual local group's stamping convention. I can't show you the whole project yet as it is being prepped in stages (it's so cute!) What I CAN show you are my Faux Clouds (gosh I love all of the FAUX techniques out there!)

You can see my faux wood projects if you go HERE and HERE).

Aren't they pretty? Here's a close-up....


Can't you see this technique used for a summer time scrapbook page border with title, or even a complete background paper?

Supplies Needed:

• a scallop circle punch (item #109043 $22.95)
• a sponge, come in packs of 3 and I cut them up (item #101610 $4.95)
• Tempting Turquoise classic ink (item #100814 $7.95)
• whisper white card stock (item #106529 $9.95)

You can get all of the supplies listed by clicking here.

Hot Tip: The sponges come as a package of 3 large ROUNDS, see how I've cut mine into a wedge? They last FOREVER! Very good deal, and I really like how they apply and DON'T absorb the ink.

Technique: You might be able to see from the picture, that I lay down the scallop punched shape and drag/pounce ink over the template, onto the whisper white cardstock. Then move the punched scalloped circle template around, sponge/ink, move, sponge/ink, move...until the whole piece is covered. Leave some white space and then you can always go back and apply more ink.

Stay tuned, I'll show you the finished deal just as soon as I'm done!

No peeking Lori-Anne!

For the Love of BLUE

Monday was a special day for a special lady. Lydia's great day started off with a big birthday bang! We secretly planned and schemed behind her back...she taught us all the previous week how to do a 'blog hop' and we used her own super powers against her. BWAHAHAHAHA. (evil laughter).

You all may know Lydia from http://www.understandblue.blogspot.com/ and I have had the good fortune to meet with her on Twitter as a person with an amazing sense of humour, a big, kind and generous heart, a lover and guardian angel of furry pets and animals, a fellow stamper....and well darn it, she's just AS SWEET AS PIE. (and she loves bacon)

So if you don't know her, you will soon because even though I'm late and I couldn't participate in the blog hop formal, I'm going to link you up with the first stop on the Understand BLUE Birthday Blog Hop, right after this tribute to Lydia.

So, last week I made playdough with my small girl. From scratch. Am I a good mommy or what?

It was a cinch, and I become Mommy/Hero to a four year old. Good times.

She of course wanted BLUE (who wouldn't, we understand blue, blue is good, Lydia has shown us the way!)

So we made a variety of things....oh wait what's THIS:

A BLUE ACORN....ODD, how did that get here? We shouldn't just have these things hanging around, because if you have acorns you'll attract...

Squirrels....whoa....see how fast that happened? Well hello little blue guy.

I see you like this little blue acorn. Would you like to have it ? (what am I going to do with this squirrel? I've got to play playdough with my small girl and then get a birthday wish out to Lydia???)

No. NO....c'mere little dude, come here...no no...don't go there, that's not for YOU.

OH NO. He's spied the Chocolate Espresso Bacon Cupcakes from the First Annual Twitter Bacon Blog Hop with Lydia and friends. Back away little Buddy! THAT CUPCAKE IS LYDIA'S! IT'S NOT EVEN FROSTED YET.

Oh dear, he's got a crazed bacon look in his eyes. His tail is twitching. What will he choose? BLUE ACORN or Bacon? (i know I KNOW...it's a hard choice!)

There he goes.....

Well there you have it. You can't resist anything with Bacon. Not even if you're a BLUE SQUIRREL!

Sorry Lydia, looks like this little guy had your cake and ate it too! But I hope your birthday was fan-freakin-tastic!

Now as promised, here is the first stop to Lydia's SURPRISE Understand Blue Birthday Blog Hop.