Spring is Finally Here!!

 

This is my favorite sign of spring.  My Eastern Redbud in full bloom.  I just wish it stayed in bloom a little longer.

 

I even ventured into the woods to get this picture of wild violets.  I know where there's some white ones but the mosquitos didn't want me there so I left.

 

Do you see a purple theme here?  My Mom's favorite color is purple and a little of it must have rubbed off on me.

 

This is one of the cards that we'll be doing at card class next week.  The color doesn't show up very well but this is the new Cool Cabana and it's much prettier in real life.

 

Since I don't use the chalks often I decided that we needed a card with chalk on it.  So I cut out the lattice die and laid it down on the Whisper White and just randomly chalked onto the white.  I really like the effect.

 

The piece of paper that I cut the lattice die out of is Old Olive and when I was done I thought that there must be something that I could do with the lattice piece.  So I used dimensionals and put it onto an Old Olive card base.  It sat there for a couple of days starting at me but I finally decided to put flowers and butterflys on it.  I used the Secret Garden stamp set and cut the flowers out with the framelits.  I stamped the images onto white and chalked them.  The butterflys were punched out.  I'm really disappointed in the color here because it looks like Sahara Sand but it's really Old Olive and it's much prettier in real life.  But it is a good example of using up everything. 

Since Stampin' Up! has new stamp cases for the wood mounted stamp sets they are selling all of the old style boxes.  And they are on sale.  I'm thinking that I'm going to order a bunch of these to use for storage.  Here's the sizes and the prices.  Let me know if you want any.

Item	Description	Price
134676	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 3-3/8" x 2"	$2.95
134677	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 4-1/4" x 3"	$3.95
134678	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 5-1/4 x 4-1/4"	$4.95
134679	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 6-1/4" x 4-1/2"	$6.95
134680	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 8" x 5-1/4"	$7.95
134681	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 8" x 5-1/4" with tray	$7.95
134682	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 10-1/4" x 5"	$8.95

Last Friday I posted pictures of the cards that we did at card class using a method called "flash cards"  I found this method online and it's by Connie Stewart.  You should check her out on You Tube.  I decided to show my customers another way to use the flash card method making it just a little faster.  So we started out with an 8 X 10 sheet of paper.  (I've got these instructions all here, just maybe not in the best order so bear with me)  Instead of cutting this sheet into the size that we use first we stamped it all over with our design.  You could use anything that will look good stamped randomly on the paper.  This one is with flowers but we had a choice of flowers, butterflies, dinosaurs, feathers, leaves, baby booties and snowflakes.  So decide what colors you want to use on the card and start stamping.

 

 

Here's the pieces that I cut off to make my paper 8 X 10.  I used these to stamp my greetings. 

 

Here are the dimensions to cut the two layers that I used on the card.

 

Basically start with an 8 X 10 piece and cut it in half length ways and then each piece in half and then these four pieces I cut in half again.    Remember that I stamped it first.

 

Now for the sheet that I used for the backing layer it's the same method.  81/2 X 11 and cut it in half length ways and then each piece in half and then in half again. 

 

Here is my stamped sheet cut up.

 

Now here's an exciting part.  I cut the greeting out using the word window punch and then I cut the back out of the bottom layer using the Modern Label punch.  No one's going to see what you did because it's all covered up.  With me so far?

 

Here's the only scraps that you'll have left over.  So now just assemble the cards.  I used dimensionals to pop up the greetings.  And you can put the greetings on any way you want.

 

So here's my finished cards.  After you've done this a couple of times it gets really easy and you could probably make 8 cards in about 20 minutes.  I didn't time myself.  But I ended up with 8 cards using only 6 sheets of card stock and almost no waste.  We had so much fun doing these but I really wondered if it would go okay because I had a dream that the people all showed up for class and I couldn't find any paper.  For all of you who've been in my craft room you know how unlikely that would be.  There's tons of paper there and Laurel and Deb both have all of their paper there too.  Not finding any paper was a nightmare. 

 

It was a year ago that we went to Chicago to see Triston and the Village Green Singers at the Field Museum.  There's no way that we would travel so far for just one day so we went for a few days and had time to do some shopping.  When we went to the Navy Pier there was a Build A Bear store.   A couple of years ago Stampin' Up! had bears that we could buy at convention.  Well, my little bear only had one outfit that I had made her so when I found the store I had to buy her some new clothes.  Well she's been wearing this outfit for a year now so maybe it's time to shop for some new clothes.  But I'm not planning on going to Chicago anytime soon so I guess I'll have to find another store closer to home.  It's a good excuse to travel.

Here's the last card from Thurs card class.  This one doesn't use the Flash Card method.  I decided that we needed to make a Mother's Day card, since that holiday is coming way to fast.  So this card is pretty simple but very pretty.  That's one of the new doilies.  I think they're so nice on a card.  And the embossing folder here is one that's retiring.  I don't have a catalog handy but this is by far my favorite folder and now it's going.  I sure hope there's a new one that I'll like as well. 

 

 

And here's the 3-D project that we made.  It's a card box big enough for 5 or 6 cards plus envelopes. Since we make cards we should be using them as gifts and this is a handy way to give them to people.  The only problem is that I put a Velcro closure on mine and I was going to get some more when I went to town but I didn't write it down so I never remembered.  It's hard getting old.  But then again, I'm not really aging because I read a cute email the other day that said that we don't get smarter as we get older.  We just run out of stupid things to do.  Well, so far I haven't run out of stupid things to do so that must mean that I'm not getting older.  I hope.

Here are six of the cards that we did yesterday at card class.  These were all made following the method called "flash cards" by the very talented Connie Stewart.  You can find video's by her on You Tube and on her web page.  The secret to these cards is how you cut the layers.  There's almost no scraps left over when you get done.  And these were so much fun and so easy that I'm going to offer another class next week with a challenge.  See if you can make 8 cards in 20 minutes.  And what's great about this class is that I have absolutely no prep time because you're going to do it all when you come to class.  Just a note, the cards that you make at this class will all be alike except for the greeting.  Let me know if you're interested.  I'll post the last card and the 3-D project from yesterdays class tomorrow.