Dzines by MEG

One more Halloween Project post

Before Halloween is too far behind us, I have a simple card and some matchbox treat containers to share. I used the Holiday Blitz stamp set from Stampin' Up and patterned paper from Basic Grey's Indian Summer line. The matchboxes were made with a Bigz XL Die exclusive to Stampin' Up that you can find here. They were really pretty easy to make. I made 11 of the boxes decorated in just about 2 hours. I was able to fit 4 pieces of candy in various sizes (including the mini Snickers, mini Hershey's bars and even a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup mini)! I took them to work, and gave them to some of my co-workers for Halloween. It was fun just to do a little something extra for the people I see everyday. So, I hope you enjoy these simple projects, and find your own ways to brighten the days of the people around you with a small hand-made gift or card!

Happy Halloween

Stamps: SU Holiday Blitz, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: SU Classic Rich Razzleberry, Dusty Durango, Chocolate Chip

Paper: SU Dusty Durango, Rich Razzleberry, Basic Grey Indian Summer, SU Whisper White, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: White Gel Pen, SU Chocolate Chip wide grosgrain, staple, square punches

Treats

 

Stamps: SU Holiday Blitz, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: SU Classic Rich Razzleberry, Dusty Durango, Chocolate Chip

Paper: SU Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry, Basic Grey Indian Summer, SU Whisper White

Accessories: SU Matchbox Bigz Xl Die, SU circle punches, tag punch (trimmed down), Copic brown marker

 

Close Encounters of the Skunk Kind & Welcome Baby Card

So last Friday on October 30th, Monty and I had one of our Close Encounters of the Skunk kind! Almost ran into a skunk in the morning at 6:50 am. Even though it was that late in the morning, it was dark and cloudy. I wisely didn't go to the patch of grass near the Ace hardware store because I didn't want to run into any "critters". Also, I had my flashlight with me, and scanned the row of bushes for critters. The leaves are mostly gone now, so it's easy to spot anything living there. So, we stayed in the grass near the mailboxes. He did his business, and then something caught his attention behind the row of bushes. He was watching, and his tale was upright and he was swinging it alertly back and forth. I strained my eyes, and finally saw a dark body low to the ground waddling back and forth. Then I noticed that the dark body had two white stripes! Crap…time to move on. Thankfully he hadn't figured out what it was nor barked, so we left in a hurry across the front of the townhouse building, through the street and directly into my house. That was close enough for that day! I'll tell you about our other encounter tomorrow.  Sorry, no pictures of the skunk or Monty during that time. ;-)

So, my friends in MN just had their baby. She is so cute! I bought a bunch of cute pink items at the local Target to send to them. It's hard to leave that pink isle at the store! I also made them a card, and I really like how the layout came out if I do say so myself.

 

Stamps: Mixed Messages, Vintage Picnic Sentiments

Ink: SU Classic Riding Hood Red, Vintage tea Dye pads

Paper: Kraft, Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses line, PTI Aqua Mist Bitty Box paper, SU Pink Pirouette

Accessories: SU Scallop border punch, SU corner rounder punch, QK hanger and onsesie die, MM colored safety pin, SU Riding Hood Red striped ribbon,

Red and Cream It Is Then

Several of the blogs that I follow have been featuring red and cream projects including Dawn McVey in this post, Mich Wooderson in this post and Betsy Veldman in this post. Mich also showed some pages from her inspiration notebook, which also encouraged me to start my own!  I have been collecting things that inspire me for a while including pictures of cards and scrapbook pages from magazines, anything with color and design from magazines or the web, and I have even take some pictures of miscellaneous items that I liked. I have been trying to decide how to organize them. I read Ali Edwards book Life Artist, which I really loved. She had some good advice about setting up and inspiration resource which was not to complicate it too much. I can tend to spend all of my time organizing and not enough time creating! So, instead of making a pages for card layouts, color combos, titles, etc. I decided just to randomly add the items I like to Kraft cardstock, place them in an 8 1/2 x 11 album in page protectors and write what my ideas were based on the piece including a square border. So, one of the first pieces I put in was an ad from CTMH. I really liked the card templates, so I based this set on those cards using different stamps.  I'll highlight the inspiration page tomorrow.

Stamps: Damask Designs, Stocking Prints

Ink: SU Classic Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip

Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, PTI Bitty Dots Basics

Accessories: SU Chocolate Wide Grosgrain ribbon, SU glitter, SU Finial Press Textured Impressions Die

Stamps: Damask Designs, Vintage Ornaments, Signature Christmas

Ink: SU Classic Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip,

Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Neenah Cream

Accessories: SU Chocolate Wide Grosgrain ribbon, SU glitter, Hero Arts pearls, SU Eyelets, SU Finial Press Textured Impressions Die

 

Stamps: Damask Designs, Signature Chriatmas

Ink: SU Classic Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip

Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla,

Accessories: SU Chocolate Wide Grosgrain ribbon, SU glitter, SU Finial Press Textured Impressions Die, Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Three Dies

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #18

It's time for another Color Challenge from Dawn McVey! Even though these aren't traditional Christmas colors, it did give me some ideas for a holiday themed card. I think It's been so cold and dark out that it really seems like we are closer to Christmas than we are, and I have been in the mood to make Christmas projects. Dawn's challenge calls for Raspberry, Green, Chocolate, Kraft and Cream. I played around with using several different patterns and colors. It's a little busy, but I like it. I especially liked the Raspberry gems on the tree. I've been adding gems and pearls to a lot of my cards lately. So, I hope you enjoy this!

Stamps: Tree Trimming Trio, Polka Dot Basics

Ink: PTI Raspberry Fizz, Vintage Cream, SU Classic Wild Wasabi, Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip

Paper: SU Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, PTI Rasperry Fizz, Cream

Accessories: MM Page Pebbles, Raspberry Gems, PTI New Leaf Saddle Stitch ribbon

On Dasher!

Still in a Christmas mood! Love this little Dasher stamp from Stampin' Up. I have the Decor Elements in Red to match, and have plans for it before Christmas gets here. I'll have to post it after the creation is complete! I actually have some other Decor Elements projects that I can share now...but I digress. I saw this post and this post from Beate John's blog using Dasher. I still need to play with the shimmer paints and Dasher, but I was inspired to do an emboss resist technique with heat embossing using white detail embossing powder. I sponged two colors over Dasher, and then stamped snowflakes with metallic ink over the top. They are hard to see, but add some extra shimmer. And, I had a good excuse to use some of the felt snowflakes from SU from last year's Holiday Mini Catalog. Actually, you can still get some and they are in the new Clearance Rack at the SU site. So, hope you enjoy the project. Do you have a favorite reindeer stamp?

 

Stamps: SU Dasher, Branch Out, PTI Signature Christmas

Ink: Versamark, SU Sage Shadow, PTI Aqua Mist, Tsukineko Brilliance - Moonlight White, PTI Chamomile Tea Dye Ink

Paper: PTI Aqua Mist, SU Whisper White, Basic Grey Mistletoe and Pear

Accessories: PTI Swiss Dot Satin ribbon, SU Clips Assortment, Spellbinders Labels Trio die, SU Little Felt Flurries, MM silver flower brad

Patterned Pines #1

So another new set from Stampin' Up to share today. With my last Stampin' Up order I chose this Hostess set from the Holiday Mini called Patterned Pines. I started with another sketch from the CardMaker's Sketch Book. I just love starting with a good sketch, don't you? Either that or a color combo or some other inspiration. Anyway, I took the color combo from the plaid patterned paper from Basic Grey's Mistletoe and Pear collection. I've been trying to add a few more details to my cards, just to give them a little more depth. Hope you enjoy it!

Stamps: SU Patterned Pines, PTI Everyday Classics

Ink: SU Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa, Riding Hood Red, Crushed Curry

Paper: SU Crushed Curry, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Basic Grey Mistletoe and Pear

Accessories: PTI New Leaf Saddle Stitch ribbon, Spellbinders Label Trio die, pinking scissors, white gel pen, clear glitter pen

Delightful Decorations #2

So, some more projects tonight using the Stampin' Up Delightful Decorations stamp set. This was based on a card sketch from CardMaker's Sketch Book. It fits in an A10 envelope. I love making cards that are different from the standard 4 1/4"x5 1/2" from time to time. Variety is good! I decided to have the ornament hang from the ribbon, added some bling and tada! Used some more Basic Grey patterned papers.  I think I like all of their papers, as evidenced by the large collection in my craft room! Anyway, hope you enjoy these projects. 

Stamps: SU Delightful Decorations, PTI Fancy Flourishes

Ink: SU Soft Suede, Certainly Celery

Paper: SU Soft Suede, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Basic Grey Mistletoe and Pear

Accessories: SU Celery Taffeta ribbon, SU Ornament punch, SU Ornament Movers and Shapers die, corkscrew scissors, Hero Arts gems

Stamps: SU Delightful Decorations

Ink: SU Sahara Sand, Blue Bayou

Paper: SU Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Basic Grey Mistletoe and Pear

Accessories: aqua ribbon, SU Ornament punch, SU Ornament Movers and Shapers die, scallop scissors, Hero Arts gems

Delightful Decorations #1

My crafting buddies came over to my house over the weekend, and we worked on cards for upcoming holidays (mostly Halloween and Christmas). I finally had a chance to use my Delightful Decorations set from Stampin' Up! I love that it has a matching punch, stamp set, rub-ons and I even purchased the Movers and Shapers Sizzix dies with the matching Ornament piece. For these projects I used the stamp set, the punch and die. I also used Soft Suede cardstock. I think that might be my new favorite neutral color. Tiffany recommended it saying it makes the other colors pop, and she was right! The second card is 3x3, and started out with the patterned paper ornament that was left from the first card. Love that I found a use for the "scrap" right away instead of adding it to a pile. I have to remember to make those mini cards more often with my scraps. They get less use when they make their way into a pile, KWIM? Anyway, details to follow.

 

Stamps: SU Delightful Decorations, PTI Background Basics Text Style, Polka Dot Basics

Ink: SU Soft Suede, Riding Hood Red, Wild Wasabi, PTI Soft Snow, Chamomile Tea Dye Ink

Paper: Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Basic Grey Mistletoe and Pear

Accessories: SU Ornament Punch, Ornament Movers and Shapers, Pinking scissors, 3/4" circle punch, Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon, Button Bouquet, white thread

 

Stamps: SU Delightful Decorations

Ink: SU Riding Hood Red

Paper: SU Wild Wasabi textured, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Basic Grey Mistletoe and Pear

Accessories: PTI Pure Poppy button, white thread, Spellbinders Large Scalloped Square die, SU Ornament punch, SU 3/4" Circle punch

World Card Making Day #4

1. So, I know it's not really WCMD anymore, but I have a couple more cards for the World Card Making Day challenges over at Nichole Head1y's blog. The last country for inspiration was Australia, and the challenge specifically was to use borders of dots or masking. I decided to make a card for each of the suggested techniques. Here are the results! I decided to make a cascade of the stars, and add more dots as borders.

 

Stamps: Star Prints, Fancy Flourishes

Ink: Stampin' Up Classic Soft Suede, Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry, Barely Banana

Paper: SU Kraft, Barely Banana

Accessories: Sakura white gel pen, K & Co yellow gemstones

I decided to make a mask with a couple of brances from the Quickutz Branches die. It was a good setting for the crow from the Birds of a Feather set. Just in time for Halloween, right?  I gave the birdie a little pearl eye, and added some glitter to the moon. I hope you enjoyed these last two creations!

Stamps: Birds of a Feather

Ink: Stampin' Up Classic Going Gray, Basic Grey, Basic Black

Paper: Stampin' Up Tangerine Tango, Going Gray, Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow, Whisper White

Accessories: Autumn Leaves buttons, SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Basic Grey Opaline gems

World Card Making Day Post #3

My next card was for the 3rd part of Nichole Heady's challenges for World Card Making Day. This one took a while to complete, so I don't have a second card for this category. I think this was the hardest challenge. I did decide fairly quickly on the stamps, but it took a long time to glitter everything, add the sequins, gems, etc. It's hard to see all of the sparkle that the card has in real life.  Let me know what you think of the result. This was a difficult challenge! This style is not my forte, but it was good to push myself creatively.

Stamps: SU Stitched Background, Stitched Exotics, Teeny Tine Wishes

Ink: SU Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo

Paper: SU Brushed Gold, Neenah Cream, SU Rich Razzleberry

Accessories: SU Fine Cosmo and Super Nova glitter sets, K & Co gemstones, Doodlebug sequins, Making Memories ribbon, QK scalloped flower die, Sakura clear glitter gel pen