Brickyard Birthday

Time for a couple more Masculine Birthday Cards made from Adventure Bound Designer Series Paper Stack.

It was fun doing the white emboss on this one because I didn't have to worry about a stray splotch of emboss sticking to the card.  Normally I'd be using my Embossing Buddy to get a nice clean emboss, but this time since I used Gorgeous Grunge splatter, I had nothing to hide!  Yay!

There are two versions here.  One with a smaller white border and one with a larger white border.  I can't decide which one I like best.  Do you have a favorite?  Post a comment and let me know.

Inside both cards are the same:

Recipe:

Base - Cajun Craze - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4"

Whisper White 5 1/8" x 3 7/8" (narrow mat) and 5 1/4" x 4" (widder mat)

Adventure Bound DSP - 5" x 3 7/8" (both cards)

Whisper White 4 5/8" x 3 3/8" (narrow mat) and  4 3/4" x 3 1/2" (wide mat)

Adventure Bound DSP (bricks) 4 1/2" x 3 1/4"

Inside Whisper White - 5 1/4" x 4"

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge and Big Day (from this year's Sale-a-bration)

Thank you for looking in today.  Have a Blessed Sunday!

~ Donna


If you are reading this in an email be sure to click the link to my blog to see the items used for these cards.  Click on any item to be taking to my store.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Vellum Flowers

Yesterday I showed you how important the Embossing Buddy is to making beautiful embossing.  Today you'll see the cards I made from the flowers.

This is so easy to do and has a fabulous look to it.  Let them think you spent hours making this beautiful card! 

• Begin with our White Vellum Cardstock (101856) and using VersaMark (102283) and the Secret Garden Stamps (w-131940 / c-129144), stamp your image then emboss with white embossing powder (109132) and the Heat Tool.  The Vellum stays wet longer so you can actually do 3 or 4 flowers at a time and it will stay wet enough for you to put the powder on.  DON'T FORGET to use your EMBOSSING BUDDY (103083) FIRST!

• After your powder is set up and shiny, turn the Vellum over and using a sponge dauber (102892) color the back of the flower (the side without the embossing).  This too will take a while to dry so you can use your heat tool (129053) on that as well to get it dry faster.  Learn from my experience, be sure it's dry or you could end up with ink where you don't want it.  :)

• Once it's good and dry, take your flowers to the Big Shot (113439)and using the Secret Garden Framelits Dies (129372) cut your flowers out.  To help them stay in place how about checking out the new Magnetic Platform (130658 - available May 31st).  The strong magnets inside keep your Framelits and Edgelits right where you put them.  In the meantime, a nice post-it note holds them in place pretty well.

• Next, stamp your Whisper White (5 1/4" x 4") with your favorite sentiment and the leaves from the Secret Garden stamps.  Then run your paper through the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder (117335).

• You'll find that the adhesive doesn't want to work well with the ink on the back of the Vellum, so you'll want to use a brad in the center.  Then you can either poke the brad through the white base or you can put a dimensional onto the opened brad and adhere it to the card for layering.

• Adhere the Whisper White to your card base.  I used Strawberry Slush cut at 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4".

I hope you enjoyed this project.  Once you try it I think you'll enjoy trying other projects with it as well.  I love using the Vellum and how pretty it makes things look.

Happy Wednesday - Counting Down to Friday and the New Annual Catalog!

~ Donna

Embossing Buddy - The Best Buddy Ever!

Did you know that the Embossing Buddy is your very best buddy ever when it's time to heat emboss with embossing powder?  I was skeptical at first, but after making a couple of really awful attempts without it, I've decided to never use my embossing powders and heat gun without my Embossing Buddy!

Here's a sample of how different a project can be with and without using our EB.  The flowers on the left were stamped with VersaMark, powdered and heated after using the Embossing Buddy.  The flowers on the right were just stamped, powdered and heated without the Embossing Buddy.  You can clearly see the extra powder that didn't shake or tap off before heating and ended up being a permanent part of the flowers.  

Luckily, I'll be using the Framelits that go to this set and they will eliminate the "overspray" (for lack of a better term!) in my final product.

Come back tomorrow to see the pretty cards that were made with the flowers from Secret Garden (w-129141 / c-129144) below.

Today's Recipe:
Embossing Buddy (103083)
Vellum Card Stock (101856)
VersaMark Pad (102283)
White Embossing Powder (109132)
Heat Tool (129053)

Thank you for checking in today. Only two more days (May 31st) and we can all begin ordering from the new catalog!  I can hardly wait to start whittling down my list.  Yayyy!

Happy Tuesday!

~ Donna

Stampin' Emboss the Keurig Way

How do you store your Stampin' Emboss Powders and Glitter?  Well this is how I'm storing mine and I am thrilled with it!  We actually spotted this on Mary Fish' website when a friend suggested it to her.  The jars fit perfectly and it will hold up to 27 of them.  I even have room for my retired ones (notice the bright green sticker?) and there's room for more.

I don't know about the rest of you, but my eyes have a terrible time finding the name on each of those little lids without searching.  I can read them fine, but why search when you can use a label maker and make them bigger, right?  You can see I wrote it on with a black Sharpie, but it looked horrible, so I labeled instead, so much nicer.  

Now... for something really different!

Phoenix Arizona had SNOW - okay, some people are calling it Graupel also known as "soft hail" - but it looks enough like snow to us.  

This first picture is from 3rd Street and Osborn which is just down the road from us (I'm at 32nd Street). 

I'm not sure where this is in the Phoenix area, but isn't it beautiful?

This snowman is even closer to my house than the one on 3rd and Osborn.  It's at 44th and Thomas!  Hubby said we didn't have any, but I think he just didn't look outside when it was happening.  LOL 

This is Camelback Mountain.  If you could see the whole mountain, you'd see that it does look like a camel sitting low on the ground, but from this side you can see the Praying Monk, the bump on the far left as you look at the picture.  I can see this mountain from my house, so once again, snow near us, but no one at home saw it.  *sigh*.

Well, that's the excitement around here for Wednesday.  Beautiful pictures you can see on several websites, but you can see some great ones on ABC15 if you want to look at more.  I know the snowbirds looking in won't want to see them, but it is fun to see snow on a saguaro cactus!  

Happy Thursday!