Today is the last day of our Anniversary Celebration Sale! So remember to shop today, using our promo code 3anniv when you place your order, for a 15% discount on everything you order.
What a week! If you saw our warehouse right now you would probably LOL! We are very well organized - we have to be. When you need to accomplish a lot in a small space... it's a must to be organized. Well organization and well planned space sorta went a slidin' down a slippery slope this week.
I had been hoping that the new Martha Stewart punches would arrive LAST week, but no such luck. They arrived in the midst of our busy week. Oh vey! I worked like a busy bee on Wednesday late into the evening unpacking, photographing, editing photos and then finally getting everything uploaded to the store. Needless to say the punches are not yet organized - so please do us a big favor and just buy them all so that we don't need to find shelf space - LOL!
Word on the street is that the new Martha Scoring Board has taken on a life of it's own - if you find one and are considering it... don't wait too long. We only have a few and once those are gone we won't be getting more until some time in the new year :(. If you are in the market for a scoring board and looking for an inexpensive alternative to the Scor-It board then this tool is something you might want to try. It is not the true scoring device that the Scor-It board is, but I was shocked (in a good way) when I tried it for the first time. Our sales representative brought it by and I tested it out. I will most definitely give it a thumbs up and hope to do a review for you shortly, so that I can share the Pros and Cons I have discovered. There are a few Cons, but I think that the price point is such that the Pros outweight them.
Then there are the punches - WOW is all I could say. Once again there are some break-out designs that are must-haves. As typical some are already out of stock - arggh - but because there are so many fabulous designs I'm hoping that we have enough to go around.
So on to a little "punchy" inspiration! As I look at the completed card below I can't help but think of Whoville. Don't you think this little card would fit perfectly in to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas?"
Beate did a fabulous video tutorial this past week that grabbed my attention -it is a technique called "Magic Snowflake." Immediately I thought of the gorgeous "tree" images we have in our store. Jolly by Golly has been sitting on my desktop beaconing me for weeks now and so I decided to use a contemporary image and try this technique.
I began by stamping the image using Versamark ink on to white glossy cardstock and embossing with fine, clear embossing powder. Next I followed Beate's directions and soaked my cotton ball with blending solution - I didn't have any rubbing alcohol at work. I had two cotton balls and so the pressure was on to do it perfect the first time round - LOL!
As you can see by the cotton ball above I started with three drops of Juniper dye reinker and then realized that it was not even close to the color I wanted and so I quickly grabbed my Aqua reinker and generously added more drops of Aqua to the same cotton ball. Good news is that it worked out perfectly :)
After applying the color to the entire surface I used my Heat It tool as shown in Beate's video. I was a little surprised to see these little "puddles" of color pop up. It really is a cool effect but I knew that I wanted to use this image together with the smooth look of the Jolly by Golly papers and so I used a soft paper towel to remove the excess ink.
As you can see it smoothed out the project significantly. I did repeat the ink and heat step a couple of times to intensify the color.
Next I punched out a cranberry colored, brand new, garden trellis edge on two sides of my cranberry cardstock. One side I obscured with the cute yellow bells and the other I left more exposed.
I love the look of pleats in ribbon, it is so trendy. In trying to figure out the best way to do this I realized that I really had no clue how to accomplish this task. So I thought I would share with you what it is that I did in hopes of helping anyone else trying to achieve the pleated look.
First I used my Glue Glider to lay a strip of adhesive down. I was afraid that this alone might not hold it and so I used ribbon glue down each side as well.
I then placed my ribbon in to position and popped up a pleat. Next I applied glue down on top of the ribbon and bent the pleat over the glued area as shown above.
To hold it all in place until the glue was dry I just laid my bone folder over the top. Voila, perfect hold!
The look was completed with the adorable "Joy" and a few Dew Drops. A little white snowflake was diecut out of white felt and covered with Icicle Stickles and we have a wonderfully themed, happy, Whoville card! Thank you Beate for inspiring me this week!
stamps: Memory Box Twisty Pine, Lockhart Joy
ink: VersaMark Ink, Memento Tuxedo Black, Adirondack Aqua and Juniper Dye Reinkers
paper: Glossy White Cardstock, Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly, Memory Box Robin's Egg and Cranberry
accessories: Martha Stewart Garden Trellis Punch and Scalloped Tag Punch, Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly ribbon, Dew Drops - Primary and Cowboy, Martha Stewart Baker's Twine, Nestability Labels Eight, Icicle Stickles
