Coloring with Blendabilities Alcohol Markers

I have been wanting to share a video for a while now on how I color with the new Blenabilities markers from Stampin' Up! A lot of people are freaked out by these markers, but I promise they're not scary at all!

What's so special about Blendabilites? They're alcohol-based markers that you can use to create an amazing and life-like blended look. Plus, you can use them on all sorts of surfaces - even non-porous ones like rhinestones, window sheets, buttons... They come in sets of three shades of one color - light, medium, and dark. You want to make sure you're using a water-based ink pad when you stamp an image that you want to color with Blendabilites. Memento Tuxedo Black ink works awesome, and it just happens to be my favorite black ink of all time!

I made this great little tag using one of my favorite new stamp sets from the Holiday Catalog. It's called Holiday Home and it's adorable! It also comes in a bundle with Framelits, at a 15% discount! And just because it's a "holiday" set, doesn't mean you can only use it for Christmas cards. It's got a lot of great fall and year-round images and sentiments.

Look at the great shading on this house! That's Blendabilities for ya! :) Now, there's no one right way to use these markers. My video just shows how I like to color with them, as well as some tips that I've found work for me. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. But the best advice I can give is just to get your hands on these markers and play with them! :) Enjoy!

Happy Stampin'! :)

CCC#031: May Challenge: Starlight, Star Bright

Welcome to the Catherine and Cathy Create monthly challenge for May 2014: Starlight, Star Bright. The challenge this month? Don't put a bird on it - Put a star on it! :)

I have a couple sets of cards that have been kicking around that I need to give to a few girls who missed a class that they had already paid for. So I decided to use this as a good reason to wrap them up all fancy-like. ;) Check it out...

I used my brayer to custom-color a piece of the rectangular Crêped Filter Paper with Strawberry Slush ink. Perfect coordination with my awesome emboss resist tag!

I used clear and white embossing powder over Coastal Cabana cardstock. The star stamp is from Perfect Pennants, by the way. Then I inked over the embossing with Night of Navy ink. Check out the video below for the how-to!  (You can also find the video on my YouTube channel, if you prefer.)

I'm trying to get out of my comfort zone a little and try out the layering trend that is all over the place lately! So I decided to busy things up a little with a splash of pink, a gold embossed monogram, and some little pieces of Sequin Trim and (retired) Coastal Cabana Ruffled Stretch Trim. (I just used a mini stapler to attach them to the tag.)

So, that's it from me! Go check out the other design team member's amazing projects on Catherine and Cathy Create! And don't forget - play along, link up your project, and you might win! :)

Oh yeah, and here's that video I promised you...

Happy Stampin'! :)

Quick Hostess Gift Enclosures

Hey there! Happy 10 Days Until Christmas! :) Are you ready? Well I've got a quick and simple last-minute card project idea for you today.

My social calendar has been busier than ever before in my life this month - I've never had so many Christmas parties and events! And with party season upon us, sometimes what you're looking for is a holiday themed card or tag that doesn't actually say Merry Christmas. So I decided to create a super simple 3x3 Christmasy thank you card.

These would be great to put with a hostess gift. Perfect if you're traveling and staying at someone's house and want to leave a little gift behind. Or to put with a teacher or neighbor gift.

I took my cues from the Season of Style DSP stack - $6.95 for 48 double-sided sheets! It's so perfect for projects like this. The color palette is a total no-brainer, and it's super cute… Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Baked Brown Sugar, Crumb Cake, and Whisper White.

I love the combo of Whisper White ink on Crumb Cake, and it goes so well with this color scheme. The snowflake stamp is from Festive Flurries, and the thank you sentiment is from Regarding Dahlias. It's stamped in Early Espresso.

So I hope this project gives you some ideas for your last-minute holiday crafting needs. Have a great week!

Happy Stampin'! :)



Snowflake Thank You 3x3 Supplies

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CCC#016: 'Tis the Season

CCC#016: December 2013 Challenge

'Tis the Season

For this month's challenge from Catherine and Cathy Create, anything goes - as long as it's Christmas! :) I wanted to share a super simple gift packaging option. I am obsessed with the Tag a Box bundle! I mean, how cute are these little kraft boxes?! They measure 6-7/8" x 2-1/8" x 2-1/2" and come with a plastic sleeve that slides over the box. Adorable and effortless - perfect for the holidays! You can get the boxes separately (8 of them for $6.95!), or you can get the bundle with the boxes and the Accessories Kit and save. The accessories kit includes a ton of tags that are perfect for layering, plus baker's twine, dimensionals, and adorable mini clothespins. I used the bundle on this project.

You could leave the box as-is and let your cute gift show through the clear sleeve - some homemade cookies maybe? :) Or you can create a little cardstock topper like I did here. I used Cherry Cobbler cardstock and stamped the snowflakes in Cherry Cobbler ink. The cardstock is cut to 6-7/8" x 4-3/8" and it's scored at 1" and 3-3/8" on the short side. Just place it over the box and slide the clear sleeve over the whole thing. SO easy!

I created a belly band with the Season of Style DPS stack, then used one of the tags from the accessories kit. I tied Cherry Cobbler baker's twine around the box, and clipped the tag on with one of the mini clothespins. Ca-ute! :)

Please visit Catherine and Cathy Create to see what the other design team members have made. You will love their Christmas inspiration! And if you play along with the challenge, and link up your project, you might win some Stampin' Up! goodies!

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Stampin'! :)



Joyful Tidings Box Supplies

InLinkz.com

one martini, two martini, three martini...

... Floor! Ha ha! ;)

Anyway... today is the birthday of one of my oldest and dearest friends. Well, actually, she's really one of my youngest friends - LOL!  She and I are the same age for 5 whole days every year. :) But again, I digress... (Geez. I'm in some kinda funny mood today, huh?) She's a fan of martinis and other cocktails - there's always a very impressive bar at her parties that I never know what do to with! For a while now I've been wanting to make cocktail onions, so my hubby and I finally got around to doing that, and I decided to put together a little martini-themed birthday present. Homemade cocktail onions, not homemade vermouth-soaked olives, and a gift card to a local liquor store. So obviously I had to make a matching tag, right? :)

You all know how I have come to feel about tags lately, especially where cute and coordinated, but quick gift wrapping is concerned! Tags are totally a crafty gal's best friend :)

I broke out the Happy Hour set for this one. Love this set! I decided to keep things simple and let the stamping really shine.

I used Basic Gray and Smoky Slate markers to stamp the martinis, and Crumb Cake, Old Olive, and Real Red markers on the olives. Then I stamped the two sentiments in Basic Gray, adding in a pop of yellow with the Daffodil Delight banner. I really like the mix of the primary colors here, especially with the royal blue bag.

This little touch I can't take credit for. I saw it somewhere recently - don't remmeber if it was from a fellow demonstrator or one of the Stampin' Up! concept artists. Either way, I think it's totally brilliant! This is the large ticket from the Ticket Duo Punch. Doesn't it just create the cutest little tag topper? Awesome. :)

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great Monday.

Happy Stampin'! :)

Start-to-Finish Sunday #35 - Envelope Punch Board and 3x3 Card

Happy Sunday evening my friend! Videos are back - Can't believe I've been absent from YouTube for SO long! Our schedules here are slowing way down, so I hope to get back into sharing videos regularly.

For today, I wanted to share a brand new product from Stampin' Up! This was something they introduced at Convention and it is so awesome!!! It's called the Envelope Punch Board, and you can use it to effortlessly make custom envelopes in no time flat. And you can make 66 different sizes of envelopes with this thing! WOW!

So I decided to start small - literally :) - and make a 3x3 card with a coordinating envelope. I obviously had to use the Magnificent Maple stamp and Sweater Weather DSP - seems I'm a little, um... well, obsessed with this combo!

Stay tuned in the next couple days for some more projects featuring this stamp/DSP combo. I need to force myself to use something else soon! ;)

You can watch the video below, or over on my YouTube channel. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. (Remember: you won't find the Envelope Punch Board in any current SU! catalogs. You can find it here: http://bit.ly/1bkHNWj) Oh, and ignore that it says STFS #34 in the video - I didn't catch the mistake until I'd already uploaded it.)

I've also got a great mini-series of Fall/Thanksgiving home decor projects coming up soon... I've got a lot in the works and plan to post one project at a time as I go. I don't want to toot my own horn, but these are some of my favorite projects I've made in a long time! :)

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a great week. Happy Stampin'! :)


Supplies used in today's project:

InLinkz.com