Wednesday, February 26, 2014

SSI: Emboss it

Today's post on Stylin' Stampin' Inkspiration is all about embossing - heat embossing, dry embossing, all kinds of embossing.  Everyone had such different ideas.  I went the dry embossing route.  I love playing with embossing folders.  You can get so many different looks from it.

For my card, I used the Decorative Dots folder (Item #133520) from the Stampin' Up Sale-A-Bration catalog.  This card was for my son's basketball coaches.  I thought the Decorative Dots folder gave the paper a basketball look.  I also used the Starburst Sayings Bundle (Item #134818) and Neutrals Candy Dots (Item #130934) to finish off the card.


Have a great rest of the week!
Cheers!
Kristy

Thursday, February 20, 2014

SSI: Folded Banner Cards

Hi! I'm up today at Stylin' Stampin' Inkspiration.

Is everyone enjoying Stampin' Up's Sale-a-Bration?  Have you picked out your favorite freebie?  If you aren't familiar with Sale-a-Bration...this is the time of year where you can earn free products for every $50 you spend.  I have to say, one of my favorite "freebie" from this year's Sale-a-Bration is the Banner Punch (Item #133519).  Today, I wanted to show you how you can use this punch to make some cute little folded over banners.  You can use them to make flags or hang them on twine to make a banner. Here is an example of a card I made using my folded banners as flags.


Here is how I did it:

I started with scrap of paper from the Sweet Sorbet DSP (Item #133521), folded in half.  When you put the paper into the bunch, be careful to leave a small gap between the very edge of the punch and the folded edge of the paper.  This will leave the folded in tact and create your folded banner.  From there, I snipped the top off a toothpick and placed it in the fold of the banner to create a flag.

I used the holes in the doiley to hold the flags.  Everything, except the flags, are from the Everyday Occasions Cardmaking Kit (Item #134797). To give a little extra depth to the flags, I added a Stampin' Dimensional behind the front flag.


Another way to use these cute little folded over flags is to create a banner.  I started our February card sketch.  I used scraps from the Fresh Prints Designer Paper Stack (Item #132996) to create the banner.  The other elements were also from the Everyday Occasions Cardmaking Kit.  
  

If you haven't ordered this punch yet, think about it adding it to your next order.  I hope I've INKspired you to try it in a new way.  And don't forget, you can use this same technique with many of Stampin' Up's punches!

PS -

Do you like the little feather on this card?  I couldn't just leave it flat, so to give it a little depth, I used my Simply Scored Stylus (Item #125624) to add little creases to help bring the feather "to life".

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Stylin' Stampin' January Blog Hop



Thank you so much for joining us for our February Stylin' Stampin' Squad Blog Hop! Sale-a-Bration is in full swing and it's one of the BEST specials that Stampin' Up! provides every year! Each of the stops along our hop will give you a bundle of items that you can purchase that will total around $50 and give you a FREE Sale-a-Bration item!! 

You won't want to miss these exclusive Sale-a-Bration items: 




As you hop along, please be sure to comment and show some love on every blog! We are always excited to hear from our followers! You should have just left stop number 10 on the Stylin’ Stampin’ Squad blog hop – Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya. If so, you are in the right spot. If a link doesn’t work or you get off track, you will find the full blog hop lineup below.

Blog Hop Participants:
  1. Diana E. of Stampin' Fun with Diana
  2. Cynthia R. of Ink-a-Doodle Creations
  3. Jennifer C. of Happy 2 Scrap 4 Life
  4. Kathy P. of Katrina P's Creative Corner
  5. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
  6. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
  7. Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
  8. Erica B. of Stamping Starlette
  9. Donna S. of Organized Chaos
  10. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
  11. Kristina M. Mama's Sanity
  12. Bree R. of Craft-Somnia
  13. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
  14. Anastasia R. of Stampin' Blondie
  15. Darla R. & Nancy K. of Stampin with Darla and Sisters
  16. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun
  17. Heidi B. of Stuck on Stampin'
My bundle includes items from the Retro Fresh collection in the 2014 Occasions Catalog: Peach Keen Stamp Set (#133113), Retro Fresh This and That Designer Washi Tape (#133001), Retro Fresh Designer Journaling Tags (#133526), and On Film Framelits Dies (#132969).


Using these items, I created 3 fun (and quick) cards for you:

This card was created with one of the Retro Fresh Designer Journaling Cards.  I'm not sure why the term "Huzzah!" hits home with me (maybe it is because I still remember it as one of my spelling words as a kid), but I just love it!  I wanted you to see that the journaling cards don't have to just be for scrapbook pages or pocket style scrapping.

 For this card, I used two of the stamps from the Peachy Keen set.  The "frame" is from the On Film Framelits Dies.  If you look carefully, you can see the texture the die left on the frame.  Just one more little element of texture.  :-D

My last card features the washi...all of them in the Retro Fresh This and That Designer Washi collection.  I also used the dies from On Film in this card (including popping one of the set of arrows up a little).  

I hope you have enjoyed a few different ways to use some of the Retro Fresh collection.  Don't forget that with every $50 spent - the approximate price of my bundle - you can choose 1 free Sale-A-Bration item.  Can you tell what is my favorite item?  The Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack.  It even made an appearance on a couple of my cards here!  

Now it is time to hop on to Bree's blog and see her wonderful creations!  Thank you for visiting!!!



Friday, February 7, 2014

Kiwi Lane February Blog Hop



Welcome to the Kiwi Lane Designs February Blog Hop!  I hope you have enjoyed hopping through all the wonderful blogs.  You should have come from Lissa Mitchell's blog.  If you are just starting here, you will find the complete list of participants at the bottom of this post.  Make sure you hop through an comment on everyone's posts for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Kiwi Lane store.  All comments made before Sunday, February 9th at 11:59 pm MST will be in the running!  Winner to be announced on the Kiwi Lane blog on Thursday, February 13th.  (If you are coming from Practical Scrappers to see the card posted there, more details are in this post...and go ahead an leave a comment and hop along.  Prizes are always good.  ;-) )  

If you have been a follower of this blog for awhile, you may remember that I was a part of Kiwi Lane's design team last year.  I love the Kiwi Lane girls and was happy to be asked to be a part of this month's hop.  It was fun to play with my templates again...and remember how fast it is to scrap with them.

Here is the how I laid out my templates to create my page:


And after pulling a lot of fun papers from my Lily Bee warehouse box from Christmas time, I set about to put together this "Love"ly layout (can you tell I had love and hearts on my mind when I made this page?!?).  I used quite a few templates in this page: Sweethearts 2 and 2T, Rings 4, Abbie Road 1A, 1B, 2A.  The transparent qualities of the templates are great if you want to highlight specific words on a paper...as I did here on the We R Family paper.


I couldn't stop with just a layout.  I want to make a quick card as well.  Here I used Sweetheart 2T with some My Mind's Eye's Cupid's Arrow paper and tag to make a fast card for Valentine's Day (and seen on Practical Scrappers too).


Now, it is time to hop over to Gail Owens' blog.  Remember - comment on everyone's posts for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Kiwi Lane store.  All comments made before Sunday, February 9th at 11:59 pm MST will be in the running!  Winner to be announced on the Kiwi Lane blog on Thursday, February 13th.  
  1. Kiwi Lane http://kiwilane.com/here/blog/
  2. Charissa Miller http://www.akihasmommascraps.com
  3. Claire Spielman http://scrapmyway.blogspot.com
  4. Lissa Mitchell http://mightycrafty.blogspot.com <-- Did you come from here?
  5. Kristy MacKeen http://mamasanity.blogspot.com <-- You are here
  6. Gail Owens http://glowormdesigns.blogspot.com <-- Hop here next!
  7. Arin Flynn http://apieceoflifespie.com/
  8. Holly Gagnon http://ribbonsandglue.com
  9. Jennifer Blomquist ttp://www.nwstamper.com/
  10. Christine Meyer http://scrappingwithchristine.blogspot.com
Cheers!
Kristy

PS - If you aren't a follower, I would love it if you would follow along.  You never know when I'll send some blog candy out!  ;-)