{Technique Video: Masked Inking}

Here's another video for your viewing pleasure! I hope you find it useful!

Stampin' Up! Supplies:

Stamps: With All My Heart

Papers: Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip and So Saffron card stocks

Inks: Chocolate Chip Classic

Accessories: Large Oval, Scalloped Oval and Scallop Edge punches, Rose Red Double-Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Paper Snips

Thanks for your visit!

{Challenge! "Taggies"}: A Little Birdie Told Me...

Hello and welcome to the Studio! Before I go any farther, I would like to wish my dear mom "Happy Birthday!". I love you, Mom, and I hope your day is great!

Today's card is one I submitted for a challenge last week at 365 Cards. The challenge was inspired by those baby toys that have the ribbon tags along the edge.

I have been really enjoying using my Extra Large Two-Step Bird Punch. I am *LOVING* the new punch design! I can't get over how easy they are to store...

Anyhoo, I simply punched my bird's wing on the flipside of the floral of the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper so that I'd get the houndstooth design. The houndstooth design is opposite the floral, but one has to punch the bird's wing on the side you want, or else the wing points up when it's flipped over to show the other pattern.

Next, I punched the branch using the Old Olive piece (it's the flipside of the striped piece I used in last week's Technique Video). Then I punched it again in the Sahara Sand part of that same piece to get the leaves. I used a little Two Way Glue and the tweezers from my Crafters Tool Kit to put it all together (it did feel like a little neurosurgery, I gotta say, but it's worth it).

The ribbons are (in order of appearance) Rose Red 1" Double-Stitched Grosgrain, Bashful Blue 1/4-inch Grosgrain, Chocolate Chip 5/8-inch Grosgrain and Whisper White 1/4-inch Grosgrain.

I also used my Scallop Edge Punch to make the little borders at the bottom.

This was a very easy card to make, aside from the gluing and will be a versatile design I'll replicate for lots of purposes. We've only got a couple of weeks left for the Occasions Mini Catalog, which brought us a lot of these materials. I'm lovin' the Sweet Pea Paper and since it contains Taken with Teal (one of the Retiring Colors), I'm not expecting it to appear in the new 2010-11 Idea Book and Catalog in July. I'll be purchasing more before the Occasions Mini ordering deadline, which is April 30. Refer to my earlier post about the Color Renovation for more info on the exciting new changes with the colors...

Stampin' Up! Supplies:

Stamps: None this time!

Papers: Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper (Occasions Mini Catalog, available until April 30), and So Saffron and Chocolate Chip Card Stocks

Inks: None this time!

Accessories: Extra Large Two-Step Bird Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, Rose Red 1-inch Double-Stitched, 5/8-inch Chocolate Chip and 1/4-inch Whisper White and Bashful Blue Grosgrain Ribbons, Paper Snips, Two-Way Glue

{Tuesday: Technique Video (Punch Flowers)}

Hello and welcome to the Studio! I'm sorry this is a day late. Stampin' Up! came out with an enormous announcement about its color offerings in the next catalog and I was completely distracted by this big news. I'll be publishing another post today about all of that excitement...

For the {Tuesday: Technique Video}, I enjoyed putting together the card above. I'd used that basic layout for a challenge a couple of weeks ago and then I used it in another challenge last week, but changed the colors and the textures a bit. I'm thrilled with this easy, effective layout that has eaten up so many of my scraps for me!

Here's the video:

Stampin' Up! Supplies:

Stamps: NONE this time!

Papers: Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper, Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, and Whisper White card stocks

Inks: NONE this time!

Accessories: Large Oval Punch, 1-inch Circle Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals, 1/16-inch Handheld Punch, brad, Whisper White Satin Ribbon

Thanks so much for your visit! Join me later today as I explain Stampin' Up!'s big news…

A New look for April!

I hope you all had a lovely Easter! We certainly did. Mr. Cottontail came to our place and our children discovered nests throughout the house with fun treats (candy and otherwise). We also enjoyed an early morning egg hunt outside. The kids are getting good (and quick) at finding them! We hope we got them all; Joe normally runs over at least one with the next mowing.

I've been busy in the Studio, but I needed to update the banner and buttons first. Since we're in the final month of the Occasions Mini Catalog, I thought I'd use elements, stamps and Designer Series Paper from the My Sweet Pea kit for My Digital Studio.

The background color in the banner is So Saffron, which is one of the colors in the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper (which, in hard copy, is available until April 30 in the Occasions Mini Catalog). The stitched felt pieces are also available for a few more weeks and they're called Sweet Pea Stitched Felt.

I'll be posting a new video soon as well as a Mise en Place posting. Thanks for your visit!

{Tuesday: Technique Video (New Camera!)}

Hey, there! I've shot a new video (a tutorial on ribbon-tying), but the camera is giving me fits when it comes to uploading my video. As I type this, I'm downloading software updates and new drivers, so hopefully (today?!), I'll have something to show you!

In the meantime, I'll show you the card I'll be discussing:

Stampin' Up! Supplies:

Stamps: Short and Sweet

Papers: Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper, Taken with Teal, Chocolate Chip

Inks: Chocolate Chip and Rose Red Classics

Accessories: Chocolate Chip Wide Grosgrain Ribbon, Sweet Pea Stitched Felt, Word Slot and Modern Label Punches, Stampin' Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots