Enjoy the journey -- Pull Tab Card Tutorial

Today is a very special day -- Greg and I are celebrating our 15th anniversary!  Can it really be that many years!?!!  I'm very thankful for him, our children, and our journey together! 

So, as promised, I'm back with my Pull Tab Card Tutorial for this card:

To create your own Pull Tab Card, you will need a card base (I used a standard 4.25" by 5.5" card) and a top layer for the card (I made mine approximately 3.75" x 5").  Then, you can add as many other layers as you would like in between (I happened to have two other layers, one 4" x 5.25" and one approximately 3-7/8" x 5-1/8").

With the top layer of your card, cut two slits in your card stock to create a track for the image you want to pull across your card.  I did this using my handy-dandy Fiskars Paper Trimmer. I made my cuts so that they started and ended 1" from the edge of the card stock and were about 5/8" apart.   (Wish now that I had taken a photo of this step!  Live and learn!)   Also, this would be a good time to stamp any images you want on this layer for your card!

For the next step, you need to create the pieces to move across the track.  Mine consisted of two Whisper White paper strips.  The first was about 1/2" x 2", and I folded that in half, ending up with a 1/2" x 1" piece afterwards.   The second strip was an odd shaped strip -- about 1/2" in width and about 4.25" long but with a tab sticking up on one end.   Here's where a little visual aid becomes very useful--and I actually do have a photo for this part!  This photo shows what my odd shaped strip looks like:

 

To get to the stage in the photo, I wrapped the first piece (the folded 1/2" x 2" piece), around the track, and glued just the ends of it closed.  Next, I attached the odd-shaped piece, gluing the tab part to the first piece. 

Here's a photo of that:

As you can see in the photos, I attached Stampin' Dimensionals in the corners and also above the sliding mechanism, being careful to position them so they would prevent the white slider mechanism from coming too far out of place, but not anywhere that would prevent it from being able to slide across.  In other words, you do not want the dimensional in the middle of the card to catch on the part of the slider that sticks up.

I then attached this layer to the card base.  Sorry about the fuzzy photo -- but wanted you to be able to get an idea what this stage looks like!  

Finally, created the stamped piece to attach to the front.  I used two stacked Stampin' Dimensionals to attach the stamped piece to the slider mechanism.

Actually pretty simple and fun to create -- hope you will try it and let me know how it turns out for you!

- Michelle

Enjoy the Journey -- pull tab card

Hello!  Hope you had a wonderful weekend!  We had a fun one here -- spent a lot of time outdoors, even though our Northern California weather is seriously cooler than usual!  We're even getting rain again today! 

Anyway, Marlene and I recently swapped again, and one of the challenges in that swap was to create a card that moved.   One of the sets I had to have from the Summer Mini is the Pedaling Past set -- love the different bicycle images!  And, I thought it would be really fun to create a card where you could pull a bicycle across the card front.  Here's my final card with the bicycle built for two in starting position:

And, here's how it looks after it has been pulled across the card:

For the card, I used a Bashful Blue card base, and then layered on Whisper White, Pacific Point, and another layer of Bashful Blue.  The bicycle image was stamped with Basic Black on Whisper White and punched out with the Large Oval punch.  I liked that the new Bitty Buttons fit on the wheels!  Thought that was a fun way to add some more dimension to the card.  I also used Vanilla Smooch Spritz to add some sparkle! 

I think this would be a fun card for a wedding!  Or, if you substitute the tricycle image, you could make a fun baby card . . . or even a birthday card  . . . lots of possibilities!!!

I'll be back soon with a tutorial for how to make this kind of pull tab card.

Thanks for stopping by,

Michelle

Midsummer Night's Dream Card

Stampin' Up!'s Summer Mini has some amazing new paper called Presto Patterns.  This designer paper has white images on white paper, and when you add color to the paper, the white images resist the color and pop of the page like magic!  One of the designs features words from a Midsummer Night's Dream, which is my absolute favorite of Shakespeare's comedies (and I've read a lot of them -- I was an English major!!)  So, when I saw that, I couldn't resist creating a card!

Here's what I made:

I brayered several shades of pink classic ink to color the paper.  I started with Pink Pirouette (a former In Color that will become one of Stampin' Up!'s new core colors as of July 1st!), then Regal Rose, and finally Melon Mambo.  I spritzed the paper with Golden Glow Smooch Spritz.  After I'd achieved the look I wanted, I layered that onto a piece of Melon Mambo card stock and then onto a So Saffron card base.

To dress up the card, I used some Certainly Celery Satin Ribbon, as well as some felt flowers that I created using the new Stampin' Up! Island Floral Bigz Die.  I love how the Bigz Dies cut through fabric -- so easy!  The flowers were cut from white felt, which I then stamped on and finally used some Golden Glow Smooch Spritz, before adding the Pumpkin Pie flower and pink Fire Circle Rhinestone Brad.  The leaves were cut from Old Olive card stock, using the Extra Large Two-Step Bird Punch.  Here's a close up of the flowers:

To highlight the word "loving" on the Presto designer paper, I used a piece of Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware.  I also stamped the heart from the Itty Bitty Bits stamp set. 

Inside the card, I stamped images from the A Beautiful Thing stamp set, and spritzed with Golden Glow Smooch Spritz.   Here's how a peek at how that turned out:

The shimmer Smooch Spritz adds is so much fun!

I thought this could be a fun card for a wedding or anniversary or even a birthday! 

- Michelle

Back to Blogging!

Whew!  It has been an incredibly busy past couple weeks -- between the boys' schools and their activities, baseball and scouts, and well, stamping, of course!!!   I enjoyed some great stamping time with friends this weekend, and am excited to show you some projects from that, but I've gotten so behind in posting projects that I thought I would start back into the blogging world by showing you the project we made at my April Hostess Club. 

My friend Jana was the hostess for April, and she requested a project with watercoloring using the stamp set A Flower for All Seasons on watercolor paper with markers, inspired by this card by Ilina Crouse.

I decided to tweak things a bit and add some layers of Green Galore, plus a layer embossed with the Stampin' Up! Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Folder (still available as a carryover item from the Occasions Mini!!!)   Here's my sample card:

Jana has actually posted the card she created at our gathering, and you can see that on her blog here.   For her card, she used my new favorite embossing folder -- the Stampin' Up! Square Lattice folder, which is in the Summer Mini Catalog.  I'll have more projects to show you with that soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Tropical Dream Mojo Card

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Mother's Day!  We're having a nice day here, and I even had a few minutes to finish up a card for the Mojo Monday 137 Contest.  I love this week's layout -- those four different colored squares are so much fun!  For my card, I decided to use the new Tropical Party stamps and Island Oasis paper from the new Stampin' Up! Summer Mini.  It's been a bit colder and more rainy than usual around here lately, so it felt good to work with some warm, bright, and summery paper and colors! 

Here's what I came up with:

I layered the Island Oasis paper on a Tempting Turquoise card base, then used a Pumpkin Pie square, layered on a Rose Red square frame for the middle piece of the layout.  I stamped a couple flower images from the Tropical Party set on the Pumpkin Pie piece, as well as the "dream" image from the Dream a Little stamp set. 

For the four squares, I used squares of the Island Oasis paper (so many fun designs to choose from and so fun to be able to show them off this way!) 

Then, I decided to add some more flower images.  I stamped them on Whisper White using Pumpkin Pie and Melon Mambo Classic Inks (several of them were done with the Rock and Roll technique).  I cut those images out, and added some brads in the centers before attaching to the card.  I also decided it would be fun to add a bit more "bling" -- and had some of the soda can pieces I had die cut a while back on my desk, so added them to the card!  For the butterflies' bodies, I adhered a brad tail!  Here's a closer shot of the embellishments:

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Of the Earth Cards

I haven't had a chance to blog this week until now -- I had some special projects to finish up for Mother's Day, and then two wonderful events to attend at Timothy's preschool during times when I usually do my stamping "work"  (seems funny to call it work, since I enjoy it so much it seems more like play!)  Anyway, I have a bunch of things I'd like to share . . . to start off, I wanted to share two cards I made for last week's inspiration challenge (Challenge #68) on Late Night Stampers (this is a wonderful group open to Stampin' Up! demonstrators and customers alike . . . lots of beautiful artwork and ideas being shared there!) 

Here's the first card:

The base for this square card is Chocolate Chip card stock.  To create the background image, I repeatedly stamped the flower image from the Of the Earth stamp set (a Hostess Level 1 set from the 2008-2009 Idea Book & Catalog) using Chocolate Chip Classic Ink, rocked into Soft Suede, onto Mellow Moss card stock.  I sponged Soft Suede around the edges of the Mellow Moss piece, then layered that first onto Whisper White and then onto Close to Cocoa cardstock.   I added some Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon.  I stamped the greeting in Chocolate Chip Classic Ink on Whisper White cardstock and punched it out with the Modern Label Punch.  The shadow effect under that was created by layering the white piece on top of a piece of Chocolate Chip card stock that had also been punched out with the Modern Label Punch.

For the second card, I had created a similar background.  I had tried sponging around the flower images and at first had not liked how it looked, so I crumpled it up and set it aside.  I looked at again later, and decided to uncrumple it and try spritzing it with some Vanilla Smooch Spritz.  I also had stamped the bird image from the set in Pumpkin Pie Classic Ink onto Crushed Curry card stock, then spritzed with Gold Glow Smooch Spritz.  I decided to try putting those pieces together.  Here's how the final card came out:

And a close up of the stamped, Smooched bird image (you can see a little bit more of the texture from the crumpling of the background paper on this shot, too):

If it weren't for the challenge, I'm not sure I would have put these colors together, but I like how it turned out.  Would love to hear what you think about these cards, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Today is National Scrapbooking Day, so I wanted to share a special scrapbook page with you!  Here it is:

This is an 8.5 x 11" page on Bashful Blue cardstock, with a Real Red strip along the left side and Whisper White frame on the focal photo and for the trim along the Real Red strip (I used the Pinking Hearts Border Punch to create that.)

The clouds were printed out from the Sunny Days Digital Download, which comes with the basic My Digital Studio software.  So, I guess you could say this is a hybrid page, since it does combine some traditional and digital elements!

I "enhanced" the photos using Two Way Glue and Dazzling Diamonds glitter . . . to give the rainy areas a bit more sparkle.  Here are some close ups of that:

And, I had fun creating the two little quail brothers at the bottom.  I stamped the images from Happy Together in Basic Gray ink on Whisper White and Real Red, then cut them out and paper pieced.  I colored the beaks using my Only Orange Marker, the leaves with Glorious Green, and added a bit of Dazzling Diamonds to the flower center.  Here's a close up of that:

Hope you are able to find some time to do some scrapbooking today -- or, if your day is as full as mine (my 7 year old played a baseball game this morning, we're going with him for a Cub Scout tour at the Intel Museum this afternoon, and attending a minor league baseball game this evening!) at least be sure to take some photos to scrapbook sometime this month! 

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle