321 Stamp: Launching Creativity

Build-a-Bear Gift Bags

The Build-a-Bear partnership that Stampin' Up announced in August includes a basic Build-a-Bear die -- and then some adorable holiday attire that can make your bear perfect for celebrating Halloween and Christmas. Check out these adorable gift bags!

Here's a great tip -- when you cut your basic bear, the die will automatically make holes where the bear's eyes, nose and mouth are. This is so you can cut contrasting eyes, nose and mouth as an accent -- and right on the die is an extra muzzle and heart so you can cut those in contrasting colors. But who wants to be dealing with those tiny eyes and such? Just turn the bear over and punch out a small circle -- in this case a 1 inch circle of chocolate chip. I glued that in place with two-way glue pen and voila! Very easy. Thanks SU, for sharing this great idea at convention.

Flower Folds Die meets the Bitty Box Die

I've always loved miniatures in papercrafting -- so I feel in love right away with the new Stampin' Up Bitty Box BIGZ die (item # 115967). It makes the cutest tiny box and a little envelope that will hold a 2 inch square gift card. Here I've made it from Dusty Durango card stock and the Falling Leaves stamp set and added a Crushed Curry "belly band." In addition to little cards, it can hold all sorts of goodies (such as two Ghiradelli chocolate squares -- yum!) It will also hold a nice surprise inside -- the much larger Flower Folds die!

I have a chocolate square under this pop up flower made by cutting all four sizes on the Flower Folds die and then layering them together. The Thanksgiving greeting is from the same stamp set. And here's how it looks folded up before I close the box for gift giving.

These would be great next to each person's place setting at your Thanksgiving table. Or how about a wedding favor with a small picture of the bride and groom as the surprise center and their name and wedding date on the outside belly band thanks to one of Stampin' Up's custom stamps?? The ideas for this box are endless! Enjoy,

Flower Folds Candle Holder

Did you know you can cut cans with the Big Shot die cutting machine? These adorable candle holders were made by cutting the top and bottom from a soda or beer can and then slitting down the side until you have a flat sheet of very thin aluminum -- just  be careful not to cut yourself. Any of the dies with "BIGZ" in their name -- and also the Originals dies -- will cut through the aluminum. (The trick is the die has to be a steel rule die -- so the thicker dies.) Once you cut the metal -- in this case with the Flower Folds die that I've been showcasing lately -- then the edges are sort of rounded and not dangerous.

I got his great idea from Melissa and Gayla's fun blog post that you can see here. Very clever girls! These would be great to make a ton and decorate a patio.

Flower Folds Cupcake Holder

In my last post I mentioned that the Stampin' Up Big Shot Die Cutting die called Flower Folds is very versatile. I love this cupcake accent -- very cute sitting on a white or orange paper plate to dress up the cupcake. It's the largest of the four flowers cut by the die. (the Halloween paper is retired from last year's catalog but there is great paper for Halloween this year.) The decorative pick was made using the Batty For You stamp set and then just punching and layering it onto a bamboo skewer with glue dots. You could even glue to petals to each other to make a cup shape so the cupcake could sit inside. I liked using it here almost like a doily.

Flower Folds Fabric Pins Photo Tutorial

At our convention this summer, Stampin' Up co-founder Shelli Gardner showed lots of handmade gift ideas that she had worked on with her daughters and mom. One of the crowd favorites were fabric brooches made using the SU Flower Fold die for the Big Shot die cutting system. This first one in this post is one Shelli made -- love the shabby Chic look, frayed edges and all. She based the idea on a very expensive pin she'd seen in a fancy boutique.

These are so fun to make -- and easy once you make one. I showed this idea at my recent Big Shot Die Cutting class and wanted to share it here. The trick is to use the Flower Folds die -- SU item #115970. The die cuts four flowers that you layer if you want -- and there's even a score line made at the base of each petal to make them easy to give dimension. Here's how they look made from card stock (which I also embossed with a dotted texturz plate after I cut them.)

For the pins I only use the smaller three flowers -- although I did make one gigantic pin with all four sizes layered. How about showing your team colors with a game day brooch??! Go Gator Nation. I can't resist doing a photo tutorial using University of Florida fabrics. I like to have four different coordinating fabrics. Cut flowers from each of the four fabrics in each of the three sizes -- so you have 12 flowers.

Fold each flower in half so they all look like this.

Now you are going to work with each size of flower by itself -- layering the four folded prints so they overlap like this.

First two, then three....

Then the fourth one is where you do just a tiny bit of weaving -- laying it on top of the white one in this case and tucking the other end under the bright orange one with the football helmet on it:

Do all three sizes the same way until each size looks like this:

Then you're going to stack up your three layers and shift them as you like to get a pretty pin:

A few tacks with a needle and thread around the center through all the layers and it's held together. You cover your thread with a pretty button or other embellishment for the center. I'll be putting football buttons in the center of these. I sew a pin finding from the craft store on the back and it's ready to wear. Here's a look at that big one I mentioned that I made with fall theme fabrics -- I think this would be a pretty embellishment on a Kraft gift bag for a Thanksgiving dinner hostess gift -- or to wear on a winter coat:

Here's Shelli's daughter Sara modeling a Halloween one she made -- gorgeous!

And a close up -- notice the netting and feathers tucked in:

Stampin' Up demonstrators have gotten so creative with these. Check out Christie's blog for some of my favorite that I've seen while browsing in cyberspace. And she even has a video of the steps I showed you in my photos. The die will cut through thick fabrics such as upholstery fabrics.

Have fun making these flowers that never need watering and never wilt. I'll share some more ideas of things to make with this very fun Flower Folds die so check back this week for that.

Guest Stamper - Asian Artistry

I can't believe it's been a week since I found time to write up a new post. I had some fun Big Shot idea classes this week and was so busy. Once I get those things photographed, I will share what we made. For now here is a card from guest stamper Grace Benjamin who's part of our 3-2-1 Stamp team. Grace sent me this card recently and I just loved how beautiful it is. She told me she CASEd it -- that stands for "Copy And Share Everything" in the world of Stampin' Up demonstrators because we love to share ideas with each other.

It's made with the Level 2 Hostess Set called Asian Artistry -- you can earn this set free with a $300 workshop or customer order. I love the detail of the vase. It was made by punching out a 1 3/4" circle from Rich Razzleberry card stock, trimming a little from the top and bottom and then adding a gold embossed leaf accent. The tone-on-tone sponging along the edges of the circle also add depth and make it really look like a rounded vase. Such pretty watercoloring on the main image!

Also wanted to welcome 3-2-1 Stamp team member Mickey Roberts to the blogging world! You can check out Mickey's blog here -- her work is beautiful and she's very excited to be sharing online.

Thanks Grace and thanks to you for stopping by my blog today!

More Collage Scrapbooking

 
In my last post I showed a collage style scrapbook page and card and wanted to show another one from last month's club that uses that technique in a slightly different way. The background is 6 inch square Dusty Durango card stock. The clock and gear images from from the beautiful Stampin' Up stamp set called Sense of Time. The filler images are from Extreme Elements -- the set that I used on the card in the last post (love this set!) All those are stamped in either Soft Suede or Dusty Durango.

The journaling block is from a wonderful new office supply-look set called Favorite Things. It really has a border in a label shape but I tore it out to make it a little smaller. The stamped image has a little arrow in the corner and the punched out small arrow from the My Way punch is a perfect match to pop up with a Dimensional right over that -- how cool! Again, Extreme Elements provide the details to dress up that journaling block. The saying used as a page title is from the same Favorite Things set -- stamped on Crushed Curry and punched with the Modern Label -- and a Mini Library Clip shows that it really is all in the details! Can't wait to add a photo to this page -- which will actually serve as the final page of the 20-page album we're making in club. I always like to make sure there's a place to write some final thoughts at the end of an album.

Collage Style Cards and Scrapbooking

 I've always loved the collage style of stamping. It's a technique that ebbs and flows in popularity but is always a go-to style when I want to play around in a more artistic way. And a great idea shared at SU convention got me thinking about all the fun you can have using some of Stampin' Up's great background stamps as part of your collage -- especially the ones that are essentially a collage of words.

The projects shared in this post were among the things we made at my August stamp and scrapbooking clubs. The card uses the Gratuitous Graffitti background stamp and I used a sponge dauber and Soft Suede ink to ink up just the word "Gratitude" -- fading the ink out on the images that surround that word on the large stamp. The multi-color images around the greeting are all from the new Extreme Elements set -- a must-have set for me. Those images were all "second generation" -- meaning I inked them up then stamped ink off on scrap paper first before adding them around Gratitude. The panel has been spritzed with a Soft Suede marker using the Color Spritzer tool (item #107066 -- love this for speckles!). The card itself is Dusty Durango with a Soft Suede accent strip -- and this card was essentially a copy of the one showed off at convention.

Here's a close up so you can see one more little touch that really makes the card a beauty -- the G is stamped a second time, cut out and then popped up right over the one on the card.

On this 6" square scrapbook page, I took that collage idea and used the Tres Chic background stamp and the Medallion stamp. First, I stamped the Medallion in white craft ink on Bordering Blue card stock. I heat set that with a heat tool. Then I used a Bordering Blue Craft ink spot (pigment ink) to add color to just a section of the Tres Chic stamp. BEFORE stamping it, I used a sponge dauber and Night of Navy craft ink to highlight a few words so they would stand out as my subtle page title. TIP: On the large background stamps I use the inked stamp with the wood side lying on the table, rubber side up and just place the paper face down over the ink -- much easier than trying to stamp with that large stamp the traditional way. The page is accented with a white Jumbo Grommet and white photo mat with an Eyelet punched edge, dressed up with Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon.

Check out this version! Same stamp -- same process -- but this time I inked up a different section that would make a perfect header for a page about my creative pursuits (important to scrapbook about yourself and what's important to you!) That Navy flourish is an image from Extreme Elements again -- such a perfect set for all different styles of stamping. There are images that can look like everything from extreme sports dirt splatters -- to elegant accents. It's all in the context.

Happy stamping!

Build a Bear and the New Holiday Mini Catalog

One of my favorite things about the new Stampin' Up Holiday Mini Catalog that starts today is the new partnership with Build-a-Bear Workshop. My kids have loved making one of the Build-a-Bear stuffed animal friends at these fun stores -- and now we have stamps and Sizzix die cuts that feature these adorable bears. I copied this card design from one shown at convention because I just loved the simplicity of the bear and how great it is for kid's birthday cards. And they are so much fun (and easy) to watercolor.

The boy and girl bears -- plus the separate balloon stamp -- are part of a new 6 piece stamp set called Beary Best Friends (item #118052 $18.95) and the sayings Happy Bearthday and Beary Best Wishes (love that play on words) are from the set Beary Nice Wishes (item #118050 $16.95).

The card base is Kraft card stock and I stamped my bears with the Basic Brown waterproof ink on our watercolor paper (item # 105019 $6.95) TIP: Using watercolor paper will make anyone a watercolor artist -- it  makes that much of a difference because it's design to let the color spread and handle the water as you paint. I then used an Aqua Brush and ink right from the Pumpkin Pie, Close to Cocoa and Ballet Blue ink pads. TIP: Did you know that if you press on the bottom on the SU ink pads before you open them, ink will transfer into the plastic lid and then you can use that as your paint palette? Very fast and easy to do. The accent paper is from the new Pawsitively Prints Designer Paper (item #118060 $9.95) and all the prints in this pack are designed to resemble fabric so you can use it to cut clothes for your die cut bears! The ribbon is the Pumpkin Pie 1/2" Striped Grosgrain (item #110715 $7.95).

You can see the entire Holiday Mini catalog online at the Catalog link in the right column of my blog and if you're on my customer mailing list then one should be arriving in your mail box any day now! Have a beary nice day.