Quick Card Project

Looking for a quick card using supplies you may already have on hand? This little chickee is made using just a couple of punches and is both quick and fun!

Here's our step by step instructions:

1. Cut and score card background from blue cardstock.

2. Attach Fancy Pants Designs patterned paper to front. We stitched the sides, but it would be just as cute to leave unfinished or use a stitch pattern stamp to duplicate the effect.

3. To make chickee: Punch large circle from yellow cardstock. Punch four heart shapes from dark orange cardstock. Place three hearts behind the top of the circle with the tops peeking out. Cut the last heart in half, with the bottom being a triangle for the beak and the top becoming wings. Add two thin strips of green cardstock for legs and a button for the eye.

4. Stamp sentiment with blue ink on white cardstock strip. Tie ribbon in knot and glue to card.

If you have ideas for quick card ideas using punches, we'd love to share them here on our blog. Just email a photo to us here.

Update

We have more information to share with you regarding Sharon Laakkonen's upcoming classes on Saturday, March 28. In the morning she will show us how to create a beautiful acrylic album using journaling notes, some of the lovely Prima felt and gems. In the afternoon we'll get to try one of Prima's coolest new products, stitched mulberry paper. If you've not seen it, just imagine high quality mulberry paper screen-printed with a beautiful design, then machine stitched to accent. The texture is just amazing! We'll create a page with one, then you'll receive another sheet to take home. Prima has just released 12 different designs of this paper. To give you an idea of what the paper is like, here's a sample (these may not be the exact ones Sharon brings for us, but regardless, all 12 designs are simply gorgeous!)

We also want to share a couple more sneak peeks of the Basic Grey album class this Saturday, February 21. The book features "chocolate" colored chipboard pages in different shapes and has chipboard charms attached to one of the binding rings. Fun!

Save the date

Don't forget to mark your calendar for Saturday, March 28. Starting at 10:00 a.m., we are so fortunate to have the amazing Sharon Laakkonen joining us to teach two projects. One is a mini book, the other is a two-page layout. Both projects will use all Prima products. Sharon is currently the design team coordinator for Prima, the company that brings us those wonderful flowers we love so much! Be sure to check out the Prima blog to see many of Sharon's beautiful projects. Sharon is regularly published in scrapbook magazines including Creating Keepsakes, Memory Makers and Scrapbooks, Etc. Check out this article from Memory Makers Magazine featuring scrapbook layouts by Sharon and each of her lovely daughters. (Creativity definitely runs in the family and daughter Brittany is a Creating Keepsakes Hall of Famer!)You may recall Sharon very recently shared her talents with us when she donated this gorgeous mini book for the Crop for the Cure Silent Auction.
Space is limited, so please contact us soon to assure your spot!

Weekend Inspiration

Here's a layout we created using our newest papers from Fancy Pants Designs. Don't you just love the bright colors in these papers? Notice the journaling is done on the outer edges of the layout using the cute doodled frame as our journaling line. Try journaling this way... it's fun and doesn't leave you trying to figure out where your journaling block needs to be.

Here's a closeup of the title area:

Have you tried the papers from Heidi Swapp that have the "bonus" die cuts attached? Here we used the papers and die cuts along with one of the Heidi Swapp transparencies. We also used sheer ribbon along the bottom of the die cuts and photo.
Just a look at some of the detail...notice we used KaiserCraft pearls on the crown of the transparency and along the side of the photo:We'd love to see what you create with these papers!

When the weather outside is frightful...

...it's a great time to stay inside and scrapbook! Hope you all weathered the recent snow and ice storms; wasn't it the perfect opportunity to scrap the day away?!

Here's a little project we wanted to share with you. Heidi Swapp always provides lots of unique products and her new mirror album and embellishments are no exception. The album is a mirrored front with a hard chipboard back. The inside contents are up to you! For our cover, we used glittered chipboard letters, a mirrored butterfly, and crystals from Prima.

Here's a look at one of the inside pages:

To create the weathered look of the "My Girl" title, we used a Ranger ink blending tool. If you love the look of inking with the infamous "cat's eye" shaped ink pads, you'll be in love with this tool. The foam applicator attaches to the bottom with velcro. The foam is specially formulated to resist ink so it is applied to your project rather than absorbed into the foam. It is great for creating muted ink tones on your papers as well as for inking the edge. Another plus for this little tool is it allows you to utilize all your larger ink pads for ink distressing... perfect for when you have a large ink pad in the "perfect color" for your project. (The applicator can also be used with felt strips rather than foam. The felt is used for applying adirondack inks... this allows you to add color to metal embellishments. Very cool technique!) The title letters are from a stamp set, also by Heidi Swapp.

We also want to share some sneak peeks of a couple of upcoming classes. Join us on February 5 to create Valentine cards for those special ones in your life. We'll be making eight cards using the new line of Basic Grey papers.
Also be sure to join us on February 21st to create this chocolate chipboard minibook. The book features pages of many different shapes and sizes; we'll be using Bella Boulevard papers and embellishments.