Almost Masculine card...

In my house, I'm the official card maker for the family.  So when I showed this card to my husband and asked "Do you think this is a masculine card?"  I got a scrunched up nose with this reply:  "For a dude to send to a dude, or are you sending this to a dude?"  So my husband (who is not from California, despite the lingo) has stated, he wouldn't send it to another man, but if I were to send it to a man that would be artistically acceptable.  So, I'll call it an almost masculine card....

Supplies available from www.creativeflare.stampinup.net

Stamp sets:  Truly Grateful (w131730, c131733)

      Chalk Talk (w130631, c130634)

Card stock:  Baked Brown Sugar (131296), Midnight Muse (126843), Cherry Cobbler (119685)

Ink: Soft Suede (126978), Versamark (102283)

Tools:  Label Bracket Punch (132153), 1-3/8" Circle Punch (119860),  Itty Bitty Punch Pack(118309), Heat Tool (129053)

Accessories: Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powder (122949) Midnight Muse Satin Stitched Ribbon (126847)

Morning Coffee.... Perfect Blend with Gorgeous Grunge

"Given enough coffee, I could rule the world...temporarily."  Yeah, I feel like that most days.  This card is  done in what you can call "The Starbucks color scheme"  - Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso, Garden Green and Very Vanilla.  The coffee cup is stamped with Early Espresso on Whisper White and colored in with a Blender Pen loaded with Baked Brown Sugar ink.  The sentiment stamped in Garden Green ink, and the cup was cut out and attached to the Very Vanilla background with Stampin" Dimensionals.  The coffee splatters are Baked Brown Sugar - stamped off for the big splat, straight to paper for the darker spot, and Early Espresso for the spray.  The washi tape is the Witches' Brew from the Holiday Mini Catalog.  

Supplies - available from www.creativeflare.stampinup.net

Stamp Sets:  Perfect Blend (w 130745, c 131392), Gorgeous Grunge (w 130514, c 130517)

Card Stock:

Baked Brown Sugar (131296), Garden Green (102584), Very Vanilla (101650), Whisper White (100730)

Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar (131174), Garden Green (126973), Early Espresso (126974)

Tools:

Stampin' Dimensionals (104430), Blender Pens (102845), Witches' Brew Washi tape (132156)

Enjoy your coffee!

Convention 2013 Make & Takes - Tag a Bag Gift Box

Gift bags were last week, this week we're starting off with a fantastic yet simple gift box.  The box and food-safe acetate sleeve are part of the Tag a Bag gift boxes kit.  I love these fresh summer colors, but can you imagine it in Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, and Pool Party with Sweater Weather Designer Series Paper for a hostess gift at Thanksgiving?  Or Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, and Whisper White with Season of Style Designer Series Paper for Christmas time with ?  I can!  Yum!

To dress it up we made a lid by scoring a 4-3/8" x 6-7/8" piece of Bermuda Bay card stock 1" in from the edge on both long sides.  You can round the corners with the 3/16" corner rounder punch, or use paper snips to round and taper the edges for a professional finished look.  The lid was stamped with the Hello, Lovely and Gorgeous Grunge stamp sets in Bermuda Bay ink for a subtle  tone-on-tone look. Versamark ink would also work well, especially if you wanted to emboss with Iridescent Ice embossing powder for a little extra shine and sparkle.

The "feathers" were created using circle punches:  2-1/2" for the Calypso Coral and Crisp Cantaloupe DSP  feathers, and 1-3/4" for the Coastal Cabana feather.  

1) Punch your circle out of each color of card stock, 

2) Place the punched card stock circle back in the punch to chomp a football-shaped piece from one side.

3) Fold the resulting football shape in half  - long ways - and snip with scissors to create "feather-y" edge.  

Pierce the top of each feather, along with a little tag from the "You're the Best" stamp  - stamped in Crisp Cantaloupe ink - attach to the Summer Starfruit (2') ribbon using some linen thread and tie it all together with a bow...  With a box this cute it doesn't matter what the treats inside look like.  

Supplies - available from www.creativeflare.stampinup.net

Tag a Bag gift boxes: (item #130927 $6.95)  8 boxes with sleeves.  6-7/8" x 2-1/8" x 2-1/2".

Summer Starfruit 3/8" stitched satin ribbon (item # 126846 $8.95 for 10 yards)  24" length was perfect for this project.

Ink:  $5.95 each

Bermuda Bay (item# 131171)

Crisp Canteloupe (item #131176)

Card stock:

Bermuda Bay (item #133197 $6.95 for 24 sheets 80# weight)

Coastal Cabana (item #131024 $6.95)

Calypso Coral (item #122925 $6.95)

In Color Designer Series Paper  (item # 130136 $21.95 for 40 assorted sheets)

Scrap-Cookbook

Welcome back from Summer Vacation!  Part of my vacation was taking the kids to visit my parents, and whenever Mom and I get together there's got to be craft time.  She had quite the project set up this summer.  In addition to my showing her all the new stamping techniques I'd been teaching in my classes this year, Mom had a stack of fresh scrapbooks and card stock just waiting for us to play with.  The project was to create 4 copies of a Scrap-Cookbook, one for me, my brother and our cousins.

Mom has done Scrap-Cookbooks before, usually to commemorate a family cook that's passed on.  While none of us are world renowned chefs, each matriarch has a genre that she's remembered for.  My great-grandmother Nana West's scrapbook was about cookies and candy making; Grandma Moore's book was all New Orleans food - Etoufee, Gumbo, etc...  Gammy, my grandmother Wilson, is still alive and kicking, and will be the first to be the first living cook in our family to be "scrapped".  Having been raised in Southeast Texas, her forte is "Tex-Mex", so we went with a bit of southwestern flair for the page designs.  

We used 1 package each:
Very Vanilla
Crushed Curry
Calypso Coral
Pool Party
and So Saffron card stock with some to spare.
2 packages of Domestic Goddess Designer Series Paper.  "Domestic Goddess" has retired, but 2 packages of any DSP can be used.
Tools of note:
Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die
Perfect Pennants Bigz L die
Scallop Circle, Scallop Square, and Scallop Square Duo Bigz dies
Window Frame (new!) and Labels Framelets dies,
Little Labels punch pack
2-3/8", 1-3/4" and new1-1/4" Scallop Circle punches
Scallop Trim Border and Scallop Border punches... even the old Eyelet Border punch made it into the book...

This is the new Window Frames Framelets set from the Holiday Mini Catalog by Stampin' Up.

Not all of her recipes are "Texican" and we went with a 1950's theme using the Domestic Goddess suite from Stampin' Up.

The paper clip heart on this page is a Sizzix die.

The paper clip flower is also a Sizzix sizzlits die.

Mom already had some of the recipes prepared - she took photos of the recipes that Gammy had penned and fired into tiles hanging in her kitchen.  This particular recipe is for sourdough bread, a signature favorite.  Funny though, it requires a starter, and right now she's the only batch holder... I'm still trying to figure out how to get a starter going and keep it going... Any bakers out there? Advice is welcome.

It's great to have some recipes in her own hand writing.  The opposite pages will have photos of Gammy through the years, from childhood onward.  The little "Kiss the Cook" tag is about the only thing that didn't come from Stampin' Up, and while I'd like to give credit where due, they had been in Mom's stash so long who knows where they're from, but they sure are cute...

The color "Calypso Coral" balances nicely with "Pool Party" and "Very Vanilla" - pass the cream puffs please.  That cute little scallop circle is part of the Perfect Pennants Bigz L die from Stampin' Up.

Here are the title pages and back pages - both are photos of tiles she painted and has on her kitchen wall...

Here's the ensemble all together, the 8 x 8 scrapbook with the pages.  Together Mom and I made 4 copies of this in less than 3 days.  She's putting the photos and the type-written recipes in the books, and making a few surprise additions that I'm looking forward to seeing at Christmas.

Enjoy!