simple dreams

Modern Influence

In my previous post I talked about how the black and white with the pop of an accent color was inspired by the Spring magazine from our local mall. Well the cover of this same magazine also grabbed my attention in a big way and so I decided to replicate it in a card as well. When I saw this very modern, artsy cover my mind immediately went to the butterflies. I chose the Checkered Butterfly because I was drawn to the two circles in the lower portion of the wings. The boldness of this image is so different from the typical "Ellen" look - I just had to share this side of my personality with you Ü

Being a multi-tasker and all I decided to nail down a number of the CHF challenges in just one post - LOL! Time is of the essence these days Ü

The first challenge I missed was partial backgrounder stamping - fading or stamping part of a layer. The texture in the dress and artwork in the magazine photo were wonderful to emulate for this particular challenge. I used the Rice Paper backgrounder to create the striations in the Raspberry cardstock and the Scratched Grid backgrounder to create the uneven appearance on the Lagoon cardstock. To create this uneven texture I place my backgrounder face up on my worksurface. I do not ink it evenly to begin with and then when I place my cardstock on the surface I let my fingers do the walking, so to speak. Rather then pressing evenly over the entire surface I only lightly press in an uneven manner on the areas I want to catch the detail. To really make the white pop off the raspberry cardstock I did use white embossing powder and was careful to only leave a small amount on the surface, brushing away any excess from many spots.

The next challenge was to stamp on anything but paper. I have been dying to show you why I purchased and added clear buttons to my store. VERSATILITY - gotta love it. I began by creating a little tab pull for my button as shown below. I love using blue painters tape for this type of use being it always comes off easily.

As you can see I placed my Scratched Grid backgrounder face up and then inked it with Palette ink. Using the tab on the button I was then able to set it straight down on to my backgrounder, ink it up and then pull straight up. I then allowed this to sit and dry. Now how long it needs to dry I am not certain being I never get to complete a project once I start it - LOL! So mine sat for maybe an hour before I got back to airbrush it. I doubt it takes anywhere near this time to dry, but... I'm just not certain. To add color to the buttons I then airbrushed them with my Copic Markers. Gotta LOVE versatility! Being the buttons are clear I used embroidery thread to attach them - neatly stitching them into place.

Last but not least I just needed to add some additional texture to the base white. Piercing is always one of my favorite fallbacks for adding texture in an inconspicuous manner. I love the fact that the Nestability dies are open in the center. I used a larger size Nestability circle as my outline to aid in keeping my piercing "round". I could never eyeball round - LOL!

Hopefully this post will once again leave you with a "cool idea feeling!" Gotta love a few good challenges for bringing out the creativity within each of us and the CHF challenges have been so much fun! So I challenge you to try something from this post - use the sketch, use the partial stamping, use the button idea, use the piercing or use the magazine ad with the mod colors. Just sit back create and enjoy!

New Nestability Packaging

It is important to me that I try and keep you as informed as possible regarding the products you purchase from us and therefore the reason I am sharing this little "news update" regarding the packaging of the Complete Nestability sets. In an effort to minimize human error (hmm - yes even we make mistakes - LOL!) The Complete Nestability sets are now packaged in one single large clamshell.

As you can see this package currently lies flat and is quite large, thus requiring a much larger shipping box if kept flat like this. These clamshells have been designed with plenty of room between each individual pocket to allow us to bend the packaging to put it in a smaller box for shipping. We will do our very best to provide you with the most economical method of shipping, as well as maintain the integrity of the dies.

Our store is currently filled with complete die sets and we finally have our Gotta Have It All's back in stock as well. We will make every effort to get your orders out to you quickly - thank you!

Dress It Up Valentine

Bells and whistles went off in my head when I saw Sharon Harnist's gorgeous "beribboned" (is that even a word?) creation on her blog the other day. It reminded me so much of the Southern Living "Dress It Up" collection that I believe is now retired and how I need to remember to look to home accents for inspiration - there is so much out there just begging to be translated in to card format. I knew I just had to make a card using the new Hearts and Scalloped Hearts with this design - I just loved it too much. So here is my version of a "Dress It Up" Nestie Heart.

Valentine's are mostly pink, but the soft yellow just seemed like the right touch with the new Basic Grey Two Scoops paper.

I have heard that some of you are having trouble with your dies slipping and so I thought I would share once again how it is that I use the dies and magnetic plate in hopes of helping you. I guess I really need to learn how to make those videos - but I just haven't had the time to learn, so hopefully these photos will do the trick.

To begin with I have cut my magnetic placement mat to be the same size as the white spacer plate. This seems to help me keep things perfectly aligned. I then lay the master plate on the table, followed by the white spacer plate and then the magnetic placement mat. I place my dies in to location precisely as I would like them cut - they "snap" to the magnetic placement mat and have held firmly in place. I do not lift the magnetic placement mat without having a solid surface such as the white spacer plate beneath it. If you do lift it alone it will bend and move your dies.

Next make certain that the edges of the magnetic mat are aligned with the edges of the white spacer plate.

Then place your paper atop this stack pattern side, or right side, facing down. Top this sandwich with your second master plate and send it through the Wizard.

One tip that might be helpful is to note the position of your die on the master plate before sending it through. I typically have the thickest portion of the sandwich towards the back and start my sandwich with the end that does not have as many ingredients. Note how most of my ingredients are towards the bottom of the plate. This allows for the machine to get a good grasp on your plates without shifting the product that is within. I believe that some of the shifting that may be occuring is due to the force that is placed on your sandwich. If the thick part of the sandwich is right at the start the machine may be shifting your layers within. I wish I could observe others working first hand so that I might be able to better figure this out and give better tips.

After passing through the machine I can then lift my plate and the dies are lightly embedded in to the master plate or still attached to the magnetic plate. If embedded in the master plate I use my fingernail to lift the die out, and then flip it back over on to the magnetic placement mat as shown below.

Once again note how the thicker part of the sandwich is located towards the bottom end of my master plate - the end that enters the die cut machine first has minimal product located there.

The detail of your heart should be crisp and clean.

To complete I flipped the heart over and made light pencil marks to locate where I would punch my holes and then using my crop-a-dile punched those holes, threaded a beautiful silk ribbon through them, backed it with yet another patterned paper from the Two Scoops collection, added my sentiment, dew drops and piercing.

I hope these pictures might help some of you with your shifting problem. I would love to see how you "Dress Up" your nestie creations Ü Link me up in the comment section below :D

3 - Baby Love

Mark your calendars for this Friday, November 30 starting at 12:01 a.m. - you can visit our home page for more details about our upcoming Anniversary Sale.

We will once again keep the action flowing here on our blog and hope to announce some fun new ideas and special "gifts" to you over the next few days. Don't forget to leave a message on yesterday's post! The Nestabilitiy Scalloped Hearts are way cool and I want each and every one of you to have an opportunity to win them Ü There is more to come though :D

Before I begin I want to answer the question many of you have asked - why are there duplicate standard circles in the Complete Classic Circle and Complete Petite Circle sets? Well the answer to that is - the standard circle works with both sets. Some people prefer the Classic Scallop for the larger scallop - there are 22 bumps around the circumference. Others prefer the Petite Scallop which has 37 bumps and therefore a more delicate look. Being it is a better price to purchase all four dies that coordinate together we did not want to have either selection feel short changed if only purchasing one set. Now if you decide that you need both the Classic Scallops AND the Petite Scallops then please do not duplicate ordering Complete sets for both. Only order one complete set and then the Large and Small Scallops from the other set separately. You will note that in the Gotta Have It All it includes only one of the Standard Circle Large and Small dies. We tried to think of the best way to package these and this is what we were able to come up with. Hopefully this makes sense - again we did this in hopes of making certain that we gave you the best value available when purchasing either set.

Sometimes I amaze myself. As I was thinking about what I would do with the new Baby Bib that Karen designed it dawned on me that a petal card would be really sweet, and then, hey, why not use the Nestability Petite Scalloped Circle to make it?!? Woohoo - I can't believe how a brain works - I don't know where it came from, but I'm thrilled it came.

View - Front side closed. I thought about hanging a tag from the center, but... What do you think?

View - Back side closed. Do you like that twisty feel with the Dew Drop in the center?

View - Inside of announcement.

The wonderful thing about Memory Box cardstock is that it is double-sided. One side is white and the other has the most rich, beautiful color - therefore it was easy to make this candy-cane twisty color scheme (for this card I used Sugar Plum and Cotton Candy).

The first step is to cut and emboss four scalloped circles. In this case I used the largest petite scalloped circle die. In order for the candy-cane swirl to occur I embossed two with the color face down and two with the color face up. You will see why in just a moment.

Next you need to score your circles as shown below.

I used my new desktop size Mini Scor-It for this project. I must say that it is coming in handy to have this little scoring board right on my table - I don't even have to stand-up anymore - LOL! It is more transportable than the large one and still makes the same wonderful score line. The price point is also much easier for crafters to budget for (OK, budget - I guess that's a joke :D). If you already have a large Scor-It board there really is no need for a small one, unless you go out and about a lot or want it right on your work surface as you are making your card projects. I will still use my large board for many purposes, but this one has it's advantages at times.

Using the Magnetic Precision Mat made it so easy to center the scallops and align the circles.

Attach a glue dot to the lower right hand corner and then lay down your next circle.

Note how the circles are aligning, forming a square on the score lines. Add another glue dot as shown. These glue dots keep your work from shifting on you, yet they still allow for some movement to square up your project.

I turned my circles as I was working because I am SO right-handed. This picture shows how I am alternating colors. The embossing is face down - it really adds a funky twist to the completed project.

This next step can be a little tricky. Note the corner with the glue dot - you now need to tuck that corner in UNDER the white circle to complete your pin wheel look. Square everything up and then press down on the glue dots to hold your circles in place.

To complete the project I cut a square nestability out of the Cotton Candy stamping the latest Lockhart Baby Bib image (these will be available come Friday - be certain to stop by our store for our Anniversary Sale!). Adhere this piece firmly in place - this will keep those circles from slipping. The announcement is printed on Vellum Cardstock using  2 Peas Heart's Delight font. My favorite way to adhere vellum to a project is by running it through the Xyron. NO adhesive shows through whatsoever! I love how the bib peaks through from behind the vellum. Again I thought about adding a little color to the bib, but went with simplicity instead.

Last but not least was the addition of the little "flower brads". I made these by using a couple of tiny Making Memories button brads, glue dots, Prima flowers, more glue dots and then Dew Drops. The pink Dew Drops are in the Island Blossom collection. It is so fun to see these catching on and to see what you are all doing with them. Post a comment in the area below and link back to your creations if you have the time. It would be fun to share what you have done with these little finds!

Finally a simple white shimmery cord was then wrapped circle eight style around the brads to close this little announcement. This same technique would also make awesome wedding announcements. I hope that you enjoy this little spontaneous creation and the use of the scallops to create a petal card :D See you tomorrow!