Sorry I have been MIA!

Good morning!  Sorry I have been MIA, I am so terribly sick with a summer flu!   Today's project is just a show and tell, as I'm still down with a fever.  Being sick with a fever in the middle of a heat wave sucks, I must say.

On another note, it gave me time to revisit an old friend: an unfinished novel I put away years ago to write the first novel I had published!  Its always exciting to get your first book published, but I have to say it's very exciting to pick up an old script and discover it's quite wonderful and just in need of some clean up before submitting to publishers :)  So glad for the few mindless days off in a way. Must find that silver lining, right?

On to the project!

I found some old photos of my daughter's tea party from when she was little (she's 16 now).  I have been thinking about them a lot lately, so its curious they turned up.  Anyway, I put them into this lovely tine project.  To make this, I used Vanilla and pink pirouette card stock, Timeless Elegance DSP and some vintage buttons and subtles candy dots, as well as sahara lace trim and blushing bride sequin trim.  Enjoy, and feel free to post any questions about details, I will answer.  I just don't have the energy today to get into it all.  Apologies for that, and thanks for dropping by!

Project: Summer Break!

Happy Saturday!

I'm down with the flu today, with a fever in the middle of a heat wave.  I guess that's life, at least my boys haven't caught it.  Oh, and my best friend became a grandma last night!  I'm so excited for her, and it turns out staying up all night making the shower favors was a good idea the other day.  My fabulous daughter Emma helped me :)  No pics, or I would have shared the project, there was just no time!

Playing at my desk today I came up with a fun summer project for kids.  I often make projects that include crayons, markers, reusable wipe-off window sheets and the like.  I love making cards with mazes and puzzles for kid's get well cards.  Today's project is simple, as I am not feeling quite up to snuff, but it's a great beginner project.  

You need 12 x 12 card stock for this.  Cit it at 4 1/4" wide, and keep the 12" length.  Score at 5.5 and 11", as well as 11 3/8" as shown above.

Fold on all score lines.  It should look like this.

Cut your image to color with the die cut machine, and another layer in the same size (because the next size up doesn't fit on the card).

To layer it with the coloring image, I cut it right in half and trim the points off as above.

If you've trimmed it right, it will look like this when layered.  Just a cute extra hint of color around the edges.

Inside, I place my 5 markers to color with and hold them in place from side to side with dimensionals.  I then place 2 more layers of dimensionals on top of these so there are 3 on each side--a perfect fit to glue the flap down.

I add a layer of card stock with a stamped message, then tie a ribbon around.

On the front I layer a piece of DSP that is 3 3/4" x 5".  The top flap goes under the ribbon layer, and top open either slide the ribbon right off or just pull the flap out.  This set is retired Spring Gifts,  I love the cute little bunnies, and have used this set so many times.

Retired Little Trucks stamp set.  My darling son claimed this for himself :)

Boy version 2, using retired Cowboy Kid.

Girl version 2 using retired Pretty Princess.

All four of them together, all using retired stamps I love!  Just a side note, they all require an envelope one size bigger then typical, because of the depth from the markers.

Thanks for reading, and please share your thoughts.  I'd love to hear them!

~Weezie

Wednesday Basic Box Class Tutorial

Hello fellow artisans!

Wednesday nights are my weekly stamp class where all my ladies come to learn something new, or just have fun.  It's pretty easy for me to keep teaching them, as I have only met 2 people in town who are into papercrafting, so no one knows how to do anything I haven't taught them yet :)

This week we made basic square boxes, and I am pretty happy with how they turned out.  These little 2.25 x 2.25 x 2.25" boxes hold 10 After Eight chocolates perfectly (and hence the size!) so we stuffed ours full of chocolate.

Here's my basic box.  I made it in a hurry before class and did not stamp it, but it gives the general idea.

Let's go over the steps:

Cut the card stock at 6 3/4" square.  Score all around at 2 1/4" and 4 1/2".

Cut the lid at 4 5/16" and score at 1" all around.

Now cut 2 sides on each sheet of card stock as shown above.

Put sticky strip or tear and tape on 2 outside flaps.

This is the order I layer mine, because then you only have one seam and it's facing the back and looks smooth from the front.

Smooth on the front with no seams!

But now the inside flaps are loose, so stick a couple of glue dots in there to hold them down :)

Tape your lid up like this.  Mine isn't perfect, I should have taken the time to trim it up, but I had no time.  I love the score board, but the scores are wide and it can lead to unevenness in your project if you don't trim carefully!

The finished box.  Let's decorate it now!  

Using gift wrap tissue paper folded into 6 or 8 layers, punch out your flower.  Any flower will do really, so use whatever punch you have.

Crinkle your bottom layer with your fingers.

For the next fe w layers, pinch and crinkle the tissue as shown in the picture above and below.

Place a glue dot where my fingers are, essentially and glue down to the base layers.

In the middle on my last layer, I add 2 of these 'petals'.  Then I scrunch the whole thing up for more shape.

And this is my finished flower:

Stuff your box with your After Eights.  It holds 10 or 12 beautifully!

Wrap the ribbon around the box snugly, and place one glue dot to join them.  The ribbon can now slide off and on.  Adhere your flower to the top of the seam to hide it.

Voila, your finished treat box!  Keep going to see the ones we made in class :)

I had 2 brand new stampers Wednesday and one who hadn't done it in a few years.  I think they did a great job!  And of course, I made one for the Hubby whom we shall just call Handsome, my nick nae for him :)  He's an outdoorsy guy, so I chose leaves and wood theme.

I hope you learned something today!  Now go try it, gifting becomes addictive! It's really fun to see what one can come up with.  On my agenda, a treasure chest box to design, for the Pirate treasure hunt I'm having for my youngest son in august.  I'm so excited, my older kids outgrew hunts (one is 18 now, and unless it's a chest of REAL gold and a KEG of rum, he is NOT interested...) but now I have a fresh kindergarten grad to design hunts for until at last high school.  Yay!  I will post details on the hunt in august as I am planning it, in case you'd like to plan hunts for your child :)

Have a fantastic day everyone!

I saved the cutest June 2015 Paper Pumpkin Alternative Project for last!

Hello bloggers!  I hope you have enjoyed my week of June Paper Pumpkin 2015 Alternative projects!

This is my absolute favorite of all the things I made, so I saved it for last.  I think it's and adorable cute little gift bag!

I started with one of the prescored cards.  I did not trim it at all but used it as it was.  I scored it at 1", 3 3/4", 4 1/4", and 4 3/4" and then again at 7 1/2".  I also scored it at 1" along the bottom. 

It's been a while since I engaged in bag and box making (I haven't done it in years) and I goofed a little.  I forgot one side needed a 1" side too!  So I had already trimmed it, and it now has 1 extra cut it did NOT NEED: the one in dead center.  Fold your score lines as shown, and while you can't see it (refer to side photo next one down) I also angled the bottom to create a sort of gusset so you can clip it closed if desired.  I then used sticky strip on one edge along the entire side to adhere the bag (after I stamped the entire paper).

Here you can see the diagonal freehand scores I did at the bottom, along with the hole I made with my small punch to allow the handle.

Here it is again, adorable and complete.

And again, this was the kit:

and all it's contents...that made an incredible amount of projects.  I must confess I'm pretty impressed with the kit.  So if you're a new subscriber and stamper, I hope this helped.  If you want to start stamping, I strongly recommend you subscribe to this monthly project to your door.  And if you're an avid stamper just looking for ideas, I would be honored if you CASE'd my projects and hope you enjoyed them :)

Below is my entire ensemble for the June 2015 Paper Pumpkin kit.

Thanks so much for dropping by!

A fun wedding ensemble featuring Stampin Up! Treat Bag!

Good morning bloggers!

So a fun little tutorial on using the treat bag framelit from Stampin' Up!

First off, I am mixing my own custom spritz.  I love the SU spritzers, they add nice detail to a project.  To do this, I have mixed 10 drops of bermuda bay ink with rubbing alcohol and lumiere.  You can skip the lumiere if you don't have it, and if you are using any of SU's masks except the stripes, I actually suggest you do as it will dry almost instantly and not bleed under the mask.  If you do use lumiere, it gives a lovely metallic sheen but be aware to WASH YOU R MASK IMMEDIATELY after, as I discovered--Lumiere is a PAINT and will dry and STICK on your mask.  SU spritzers are around $5 for a 2 pack, so they are very affordable (and the masks are $4). An inexpensive way to add polish!  

Lay the mask over your paper.  In this case, its my card.  Spritz as much or little as you want.  For my stripes, I wanted them bold so I went crazy.

Voila, the white card stock is now striped!

Next, my treat bag holder for fancy presentation.  I ran the die cut through the big shot to cut the pieces (using Bermuda Bay card stock).  I then embossed just the front with a folder:

Here are the pieces now, ready to decorate.

For the folder, I used sticky strip since it's thick card stock.  Not much else will hold it together!  As you can see, I'm playing with my layers.  I've got seam binding in a coule of colors (white and soft sky or baja, its old and I cant recall which it is) and the sequin trim in gold and bermuda.  I am using one button, which I threaded more seam binding thru by cutting the ribbon super pointy on the end and getting my 6 year old to grab it with his sweet little fingers.  If he hadn't been around, I would have used tweezers.

I tied it in a bow and flipped it over to glue down, so you still see the shimmery button.

Here are all the layers put together.  I stuck a greeting on the front bottom right, but I just didn't like it so I took it back off. 

For the card, I used the labels framelits and cut one in white and one in bermuda bay.  The bermuda one I cut in half and layered on the back.  The image is from Big news and is super cute.  I added the extra sequins that fell off as I was working with it.  I put it diagonal because it was just a HINT too wide, but I really like it.  It works well with the stripes.

And here is the finished ensemble:

I hope you enjoyed today's bonus mini tutorial, I must confess my ADD afflicted mind was getting BORED of all the Paper Pumpkin, as fun as it is.  I just have a short attention span and flit around much like a butterfly from project to project!  One day they really will tell me I'm ADD! 

 Back to Paper Pumpkin tomorrow.  Please share your comments, and thanks for reading.  I must confess I'm so excited to see all my page views, which wouldn't happen without you all checking in so thanks so much!  And if you need any product, please call or email me or just click my chop button and we'll get you hooked up with great stuff--Also, it's not too late for the June promo!  If you want over $100 of stuff, sign up as a demo instead (no obligation to do anything, as most are just hobbiests).  For $125 you get to pick all your stuff in your kit as well as 2 free stamp sets of any value (this is the special, and you can choose even the $50 and $60 sets!).  Something to think about.

Have a great day!