Dominoes

This is the necklace that my hostess clubs made in June! Look closely....it is the smooth side of a domino! A fellow SU! demo sent her version to me and I cased it and changed it. If you would like to make your own, be sure to soak the dominoes in bleach for 2 to 3 hours first. This takes the shiny glaze off of the domino making it much easier to stamp on. I used black Staz-On. The words are from the French Foliage set and the flower is from the Punch Potpourri set that just ended as a Hostess set. We finished it off with a bead held on with Crystal Effects and a nice long piece of Basic Black taffeta ribbon. Some of the ladies made theirs into a pin which looked great too! Isn't it fascinating what you can do with a simple toy? What have you turned into something new? Share your ideas with us!

Flower Fest

This is a CASE from the Summer Mini page 20.  I made this card with my May hostess clubs and with my FREE birthday classes.  I used a good old standby technique!  Poppin' Pastels!  Each of the flowers were stamped with Versa Mark then pounced on with pastels.  It really does make the image pop don't you think?  What is your favorite stamping technique?  Leave a comment and share with everyone. 

I Really Wasn't Lost

Hi Friends!
I know, I know!!!  It has been 2 months today that I last posted!  Life has been unbelievably busy!  With the end of the school year for my kids and me (I am a proud 5th grade teacher too), school sports (for my just promoted to high school son), junior legion baseball (for that same son), little league baseball (for my 9 year old daughter), and travel soccer (for that same daughter) life has been chaotic to say the least!  Unfortunately, stamping and creating has pretty much taken a back seat.  Watch out this week though, I'm back!!  Look for some of the end of the year projects that we did for my daughter's teachers, little gifts that I gave to some of the staff that I work with, and some club projects!  Thanks for sticking around and still visiting My Stampin' Pad!
Kelli

BOO!

Another Halloween card! This is the first time that I have used the new Owl Punch!  I will be putting this punch on my favorites list!  Who knew that it was so versatile.....the ghosts are the owl upside down!  I cased this card from an SU! demo and adjusted some colors and the branch.  My 8 year old daughter LOVES the owl and has already asked if we can use it to make treats for her class for Halloween.  So watch for our project, it will be coming soon!

Eeek! A Spider!

I am not a big fan of spiders.  As a matter of fact, I don't know many people that are.....except when it comes to cute little Halloween spiders like this one!  I cased this card from a fellow SU! demo. The punches make a card like this a pretty easy one to complete.  If you look real close, you can see the embossed spiderweb on the striped paper.  I love that new embossing folder! Halloween is my least favorite holiday, but I must say that I enjoyed creating this card!  What do you think, isn't he cute?

Fall Fun with Cork

On Saturday, I attended my RemARKable Stampers team meeting!  What a fabulous group of women that I got to spend the day with!  Isn't this card so simple but cute?  This is one of the make and takes that we did at our meeting.  I just purchased theBig Shot die cut that includes this leaf and it is cut out in cork!  Love the texture and dimension that the cork gives to the card. And the Autumn Spice Designer Series Paper is great for Fall projects too!  Shhh.....I think we will be making a project next month at our Hostess Club using this die and the cork!  Enjoy it!

Fall Has Arrived!

Well, today in Pennsylvania it was 87 degrees!  Who would've thought that in the last week of September we would still be wearing shorts and tank tops and running the air conditioner!  Even though the temperature outside says Indian Summer, the weather inside says that fall has definitely arrived!  One of the women in my monthly hostess club asked if we could make this card at our September club night!  She got the idea from Cardmaker Magazine. We used Autumn Vine Designer Series Paper which retired last year from SU!.  Enjoy the beautiful sights that fall brings where you live! Happy Fall!

Now I Know What to Do with White Crayons!

Do you remember when you were a child and you would get a brand new box of Crayolas?  You opened them up right away and started on your next creation!  It seemed like they needed sharpening within hours!  Except for.....
the white crayon!  I never seemed to use the white crayon!  Ever!
Well, now there is a use for that lonely white crayon!  This technique is called White Crayon Resist ! 

I used glossy cardstock but you can use plain white.  You stamp your image in black, then color as you like.  Once it is colored, you go over any parts of the image that you would like highlighted or to have the color pop!  In my card, I colored over the entire flower image and traced over the stems as well.  Next, I chose a color for the background and sponged over the entire image and around the image.  You then "buff" the image with a paper towel!  Voila!  The wax in the crayon resists the ink that you spread over the image and you get bright colors in your flowers and a cool white highlight around the entire flower.  This is a 3 x 3 card that I thought would make a great gift tag!  Go dig out that unused, lonely white crayon and have some fun with it!

Happy Rudolph Day!

Can you believe that today is Christmas in July! Only six more months until Christmas in December! It's really hard to believe that today with the extreme hot weather that we've had this summer!  Before we know it, we'll all be complaining that it is too cold!!!  My friend Leann celebrates Rudolph Day on the 25th of each month so this project is for Leann!  This is a project that we did at my July hostess club for Christmas in July! 

The card base made with Cherry Cobbler cardstock might just be my new favorite Christmas red!  It is deeper than Real Red, but not as dark as Bravo Burgundy!  It is just right!  This is the first time that I used the wood sheets.....I like them!  They were easy to work with and I like the antique effect that the wood gives to the card!  This is one of the new holiday sets in the 2010 - 2011 Idea Book and Catalog.   It is called Welcome Christmas.  I think that the ladies enjoyed this one too!  What are you doing to celebrate Rudolph Day!?

Black and White Card

This is one of the cards that the ladies in my monthly hostess club made last night!  Artistic Etchings is the name of the stamp set that we used to create the background on the card base!  I love it!  The SU! clear stamps made this so easy to create! I mounted the circle and the longer stamp together on the clear blocks at the same time to make lining everything up  much easier!  After we stamped the background, we ran it through the Big Shot using the lattice embossing folder.  I like the effect that it gave the card, don't you? The half of the top note die was run through the  Big Shot too using the Finial Press embossing folder.  New 1/8" taffeta ribbon finishes off the die with the key attached!  Aren't the new adhesive pearls just great too!  I am really happy with how this project turned out!  The black and white design, the little bit of sparkle in the ribbon, and the pearls just make it classic looking!  Can't wait to try out some more customized background papers using this set!

Tye Dye Butterflies

 I was at my son's baseball game last week and a beautiful yellow swallowtail butterfly almost landed on me.  It was the first one that I seen in years.  I have lived in the same town my whole life.  When I was young, I collected moths and butterflies.  They were abundant!  When my husband and I purchased our home almost 13 years ago, I was thrilled when we found a purple butterfly bush right next to our patio!  I thought it would be great to sit and watch all of the different butterflies come and feed on the bush.  It would also be great to teach my young son ( and eventually his sister about all of the different species that came there).  Unfortunately, the bush attracted lots of stinging insects and we had to cut it down because of the kids.  We noticed over the years that there didn't seem too be many butterflies in our area anywhere.  Not at the pool we belong to ( the same one that I have belonged to my whole life and collected many butterflies there as a child), not at the parks, not in our yard, not in the school playground.  Not anywhere!  Thankfully, we have noticed more butterflies and moths this summer. And not just the common little white ones......swallowtails, monarchs and others.  It is so nice to see!  And the lightning bugs!  Wow!  They seem to be in the millions this summer! My kids have rediscovered the joy of seeing them at night and they loved helping their two year old cousins collect them on July 4th weekend! Here are two cards that have butterflies as the main attraction!

I CASED this card off of SCS, I don't remember from who though. Sorry.  This is the Sizzlits die that cuts and embosses the butterflies at the same time!  If you look closely, each butterfly has embossing on it!  I just really like how simple the card is too!

These are the Tye Dye Butterflies!  My daughter named them that because she said they looked like they were Tye Dyed!  So simple huh?   Baby wipes and reinkers!  Take one baby wipe, fold it in half and then fold in half again so that you end up with a square.  Then choose 3 reinkers that you like.  I chose Baja Breeze, Melon Mambo and Tangerine Tango!  Start with the darkest color (Baja Breeze for me) and spread out a few drops.  Fill in some of the white spots between those colors with the next darkest color (Melon Mambo for me).  Then, finish with the last color, using it to fill in any white spots left.  You only need to spread your inks out in a space a little larger than the size of your stamp.  The baby wipe just became your custom made tye dye ink pad!  The best part is that you can get pretty many images out of it before the color dulls.  And, if you move the stamp around within the ink, you'll get a color variation each time too.  We dressed our butterflies up with self adhesive rhinestones to finish it off!  I know that this is a pretty simple card, but I wanted the butterfly to be the star!  I think we accomplished that!  Enjoy the butterflies inside and outside this summer!

Last Hostess Club Card

This is the last card that we made at our Friday Night Hostess Club last week.  I followed the same techniques from the blue butterfly card with one additional step.  After sanding, I went back over the embossed image with Close to Cocoa ink to give it an antiqued look.  While the butterfly card was clean and fresh looking, this one is a little more rustic!  The paint for this card is also Apple Barrel Acrylic but in Light Leaf Green.  The ribbon is Soft Suede Polka Dot and the base is Night of Navy.  I know it looks black in the photo but it is blue.  I liked the green, blue and brown combo.  I am trying to stretch out of my comfort zone with colors. While these are favorite colors, I usually don't use them together!  Enjoy!

More Cards to Share

Well, the ladies had fun on Friday night at our hostess club!  I promised that I would share more of the cards that we were going to make.  Here is one of them.  I have fallen in love with the Big Shot machine!! I used the Top Note die and Whisper White cardstock to create the background. Then I ran the Top Note die through the Big Shot again with the Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder.  I took Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint in Cloudless and painted over the entire image.  I did two coats because I wanted a strong blue image.  Then, I lightly sanded the embossed image to reveal the flowers in white.  I tied a piece of Whisper White Taffeta ribbon around it and added one simple butterfly to top it off. I mounted this on a Basic Gray cardstock base. I did not put any sentiments on this card.  Lots of the ladies in club like to add their own or leave it blank so that they can use it for whatever occasion they need it for!  I hope that you like it!

Hostess Club Card Sneak Peek

This is the card that we will be making at our monthly hostess club tonight!  I CASED it from the SU! Summer Mini that starts May 1.  I think that the ladies are going to love it!  We get together once a month to stamp, share a meal and have a relaxing Friday night!  We do a lot of laughing and sharing our stories from the previous month.  I always look forward to spending the night with everyone! I will share the other cards tomorrow!  Hope that your Friday is a great one!

Buttons!!

This is the second card that we made at our March Hostess Club. It is a CASE from the March issue of Stampin' Success. The ladies loved making the "buttons". The "buttons" were created by using 6 3/4" circles for each one. We glued them together and then punched the holes using the Crop-A-Dile. A little linen thread finished them off! You could use Crystal Effects to put a shiny coating on top of the button if you'd like. No more seaching for the perfect color button, now you can make your own out of any color that you'd like! Give it a try.

Club Projects

Last Friday night was my Hostess Club! We have a great group of 10 ladies that come and stamp on the last Friday of each month. We have a wonderful time together!! This is one of the two cards that we made. The pop up card looks complicated but it wasn't too difficult putting it together. I am loving the Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive combination of colors right now. And the Vintage Vogue line in the Occasions Mini is beautiful too!