Something Different

The whole point of my blog was to inspire me to create something every day. While I typically end up creating some kind of handcrafted item, I do also like to draw and so I decided to post a sketch I drew today. I sketched this out in pencil, then added color with Prismacolor pencils. I'm not crazy about the coloring of the dress so I will probably go back tomorrow after I've been away from it a bit and try to build up and burnish the color a little bit more. I also want to bring a bit more color into the sky even though I want it to be primarily gray. In general though, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out.

Time to Bloom

I am definitely ready for spring. Ready for fresh green leaves, grass, and fresh air. So tonight's card is a reflection of that.

Ideally, I think I'd prefer this with the stamped images punched into squares instead of circles, but my only square punch is 7/8" and it's just not big enough.

I debated using some pink ribbon to throw a splash of color in there, but I decided I liked the green on green instead.

Supply List

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Wild Wasabi

Ink: Wild Wasabi

Accessories: 1-1/4" circle punch, Certainly Celery 5/8" ribbon (part of a retired ribbon bundle)

Daytona Monday

I'm a NASCAR fan, so I'm enjoying a rare weeknight race. I couldn't go too far from my living room couch because Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is still in the race, so I decided to do a little MDS on my laptop. And I decided to take my color cues from Dale Jr.'s National Guard car, even though he's running Mountain Dew tonight.

This whole card is done in just Night of Navy and Whisper White. I started by adding the distressed DSP as a page layer and dragging the lower right corner up to cover my card front. Then I added the Medallion stamp in Night of Navy and sized it to fit. I added a drop shadow in Night of Navy and set the opacity and blur to full. I coped the Medallion and layered it over top of the first one and shifted it up and over just a bit. I changed the drop shadow to Whsiper White and the opacity to around 60. Basically, I just fiddled around until I liked the way it looked. Finally, I added the "inspire others" sentiment from the Typeface set. I stamped it in Whisper White and adjusted the opacity so it wasn't so bright and in-your-face. Then I added a Night of Navy drop shadow and again played around with the opacity and blur until I liked the look.

Another bookmark

I promise, this will be the last of my woven ribbon projects for awhile. Funnily enough, this one was actually the most difficult and time consuming, because this thin, sheer ribbon is pretty slippery. I had to work a little more slowly to get each loop inside of the next one. Once I had the chain at a length I liked, I tied off the ends in a bow. Then I added a jump ring and attached it to a metal bookmark. I added this pretty charm made up of a dried, pressed flower and a piece of seashell. I may have to work on a necklace soon using some more of these charms.

Supply List

Calypso Coral ribbon (from SAB bundle), metal bookmark, seashell charm, silver jump rings

10 Months til Christmas!

So I am a day late on this one, but as promised yesterday, here's another Christmas card idea to tuck away! This is made using the same woven ribbon technique that I used on Thursday and Friday and is in fact what inspired me to learn how to do it. I saw someone else make a wreath card this way and I just had to do it myself! It's a simple and fast card but oh so impressive when it's finished.

Supply List

Cardstock: Real Red, Whisper White

Accessories: Old Olive 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Real Red 5/8" grosgrain ribbon

Well, it was good while it lasted

I always knew my plan of creating something EVERY day was a bit of a stretch, and I had a good run to start, but time's up. I spent all day photographing my school participating in our regional Odyssey of the Mind tournament and by the time I got home, ate, and spent some time with my family, I just ran out of time to craft. And it's the 25th which means it's Christmas craft day. Drat.

I'm not going to let this completely derail me though. I plan on posting two projects tomorrow - a Christmas craft and something else, so please check back then!

Step Two..

Still battling this stomach bug that Mother Nature sent me so I'm afraid I wasn't very productive today, but I did promise a project with yesterday's woven ribbon. I turned it into a bookmark, using the Circle Circus stamp set and various circle punches. There are two sides to the top piece and the ribbon is layered in between them using Sticky Strip.

I do want to try making a headband using this woven ribbon technique, so stay tuned for that!

Supply List

Stamps: Circle Circus

Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Marina Mist, Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories: Scallop Circle punch, 1-1/4" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch, Marina Mist 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Sticky Strip

Step One...

Is admitting you have a problem, right? Well my problem is mother nature is kicking my tail right now. So I'm off to bed early this evening, but I did spend a little time weaving this piece of ribbon. It will become a bigger project tomorrow night, so stay tuned.

If you're interested in learning how to weave ribbon like this, just hit up youtube and search for ribbon weaving. The first two videos that pop up will show you exactly what I've done above.

Supply List

Marina Mist 1/4" grosgrain ribbon

MDS Thank You

So I cheated a little bit on tonight's MDS card. But it does show how easy MDS is to use. This card is actually a pre-designed template included in the MDS software. I did move a few elements around and added the photo box, but most of it is exactly what you get in MDS.

This would be a great design to case though, whether in MDS or 3d format. Simple, basic elements, but a great final look.

This card is to be used as a thank you from some students in my school, which is why I added the photo box. It will be easy to take my child out and add them in!

Punched Popcorn

This has got to be one of my most favorite cards I've done lately! For the last few days at school, we've rewarded each grade for their good behavior the first semester with an end-of-day party. One of my coworkers has been in charge of making popcorn for the kids, so that's several hours she's spent in front of a hot popper, dealing with impatient students and teachers! (Seriously, you want to see teachers line up fast? Offer us free food!) I'm a popcorn fanatic, so I've been one of her best customers! I wanted to make her a card thanking her for satisfying my inner popcorn beast.

I started off with a 3" x 3-1/2" piece of Whisper White and I covered it with 1/2" x 3-1/2" strips of Real Red. I then cut the edges at a slight angle, going from the top corner to the middle of the red strip on each side. Then I stamped the sentiment and punched it with the modern label punch and layered it over a scallop oval punch with some Real Red brads.

To make the popcorn, I took a large scrap of Very Vanilla and crumpled it up several times. Then I punched out three different small flowers with various small punches. I sponged over all of them with a light layer of Daffodil Delight to make the popcorn buttered! Then I just layered them on randomly! So cute and so fun!

Supply List

Stamps: Trendy Trees

Cardstock: Whisper White, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Very Vanilla

Ink: Real Red, Daffodil Delight

Accessories: Sponges, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Modern Label punch, Scallop Oval punch, Brights brads, Corner rounder punch (to create top of popcorn box)

Elegant Pool Party!

A while back, I embossed a bunch of pieces of Whisper White using the Always Elegant embossing folder for a project I never finished. I came across those pieces today so I decided to play around with one and here are the results!

I started off punching several mini five petal flowers. My original intent was to crumple them and layer three together for each flower, but I didn't really like them layered. So I just spaced three out on the embossed design and added a basic pearl to the centers. Then I stamped the Thanks sentiment and border from Perfect Punches in Pool Party and punched it out using the scallop oval punch. I used my 1/16" hole punch to punch a hole in each end and attached it with some of the Pool Party Baker's Twine. Finally, I attached the white piece to the Pool Party card. As I was putting SNAIL on the back of the white, the upper right corner ripped off. Just a small section of it, but I decided to rip some more and give it a bit of a distressed look. I'm really pleased with the results on this one.

Supply List

Stamps: Perfect Punches (page 140 of IBC)

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pool Party

Ink: Pool Party

Accessories: Scallop Oval punch, small five petal flower punch (not SU! but still EK Success brand), Always Elegant Textured Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Basic Jewels - Pearls, Pool Party Baker's Twine

First Winner

Last week, I posted a contest where I'd draw a winner for every 100 hits I get. I passed 500 this weekend, so it was time to draw the first name and the winner was Cindi! She'll be getting the watercolor wash card I made a few weeks ago. I'll draw again when I get to 600 hits so if you want to get in on the fun, reply to the post http://www.jencrafts365.blogspot.com/2012/02/and-nowprizes.html with your name, email (if I don't already know it) and an item I've created that you'd like to have!

The Weather Outside is...

Heading towards frightful! Here we are, heading towards March and finally expecting our first snowfall of the season. So to help Mother Nature make her arrival, here's a snow card I cooked up in MDS. This would be a great card to use for an assemblage of traditional and digital card making. If I print this card out through MDS print services, when it arrives, I'd probably punch out a snowflake with my snowflake punch, and attach it over top of the digital one using dimensionals and a coordinating brad. That would help enhance it and make it more 3D.

Initial Keychain

This keychain is pretty similar to yesterday's, instead I used a chipboard letter instead of a shape. Everything else is pretty much the same, although I really like these figure 8 shaped keyrings I found in a mixed bag of them at Walmart. A different look that's a little more formal than a traditional keychain.

Supply List

Chipboard shapes, DSP in your choice, Crystal Effects, jump rings, chain, beads of your choice

Keychain Queen

I love keychains. At times in my life, I've had more keychains than actual keys but I've gotten good about whittling down. I do love making these chipboard keychains though. They're very easy and you can make a personalized one and always find what you're looking for. To make this, I started with a piece of chipboard and cut DSP to fit both sides. I glued it on with a 2 Way glue pen, then sanded the edges. On one side, I glued on the word "Mom" with letters I cut on my Big Shot. Then I coated the whole thing with a layer of Crystal Effects. After it dried, I flipped it over and did the same on the back. Once both sides were dry, I added a jump ring, some chain, and some beads to dress it up. This is a good way to use up scrap paper. I actually made this using an old demo book of DSP that had nothing but 3" square scraps.

Supply List

Chipboard shapes, DSP in your choice, Big Shot and alphabet die, cardstock scraps, Crystal Effects, jump rings, chain, beads of your choice

It's Bliss

I'm a sucker for blue and orange together. I just love how the colors complement each other. I decided to put two of our In Colors together tonight - Island Indigo and Calypso Coral. Island Indigo is quickly becoming one of my favorite colors. In fact, my beloved Pacific Point is in danger of being overthrown. I try not to get too attached to In Colors since they're only around temporarily, but I think there will be a lot of Island Indigo projects in the coming months!

Supply List

Stamps: Bliss (retired SAB 2011 set)

Cardstock: Whisper White, Island Indigo

Ink: Island Indigo

Accessories: Calypso Coral ribbon (part of the SAB 2012 brad & ribbon pack)

Shamrock Punch

Just because Valentine's Day is over doesn't mean it's time to set the heart punch aside. Even if you don't have any kind of Saint Patrick's Day stamps, you can still make a fast and easy shamrock card using your heart punch. I actually did this one in MDS so I could have a good range of greens to work with. The background and shamrock are made with Old Olive, with the square layer made out of Pear Pizazz. I used three heart punches to make the shamrock and a small circle to cover the center where they three hearts meet. To make the stem, I made a large circle in Old Olive and one in Pear Pizazz and overlapped the Pear on top of the Olive. I layered them both behind all of the shamrock petals. A fun, fast, and easy St. Patty's card!

Fun with Scraps

This is sort of a reverse of yesterday's card. The fancy curved piece of Wisteria Wonder is what was left over after I cut the front of yesterdays card with the edgelit. So I decided to use it as a border accent on today's card. I kept the rest of the card very simple, just stamping a large flower from a retired hostess set in the center. I wanted to watercolor this, but my black StazOn pad is just about dried up and I need to order a re-inker. Watercoloring over regular ink doesn't work very well since the ink is water based. I may have to re-visit this in the future once I've got some more StazOn on hand.

Supply List

Stamps: For You (retired)

Cardstock: Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder

Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Wild Wasabi

Accessories: Big Shot, Adorning Accents framelits

Wisteria Birthday

The man in the big brown truck left me some goodies today so of course I had to try them out! I finally got some new goods for my Big Shot - the new Adorning Accents edgelits and textured embossing folders, as well as the Designer Frames embossing folders. So of course, I had to try them all!

I began by taking my piece of Wisteria Wonder and running it through with the edgelit first to create the curved edge. Then I embossed along the edge with the coordinating embossing folder. Finally, I ran it through a third time with the frames folder to create the embossed oval.

I cut a strip of Whisper White 1.5" wide and stamped it with various circles from Circle Circus in Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry, and Island Indigo and adhered that to the inside of the card. Then I stamped the birthday greeting, punched it out with the extra large oval punch and adhered it inside the frame. The Big Shot did all the work on this one! Please ignore my pen in the photo - I had trouble getting the card to lay flat to be photographed.

Supply List

Stamps: Circle Circus (page 142 of IBC), Perfect Punches (page 140 of IBC)

Cardstock: Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White

Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories: Big Shot, Adorning Accents edgelits, Adorning Accents textured embossing folders, Designer Frames embossing folders, extra large oval punch

Crimper & Flowers

Sometimes quick cards can be quite elegant. For this card, I took a piece of Soft Suede cardstock, folded it, and put one end about an inch into my crimper. I squeezed and crimped for five turns of the wheel, giving me the five crimped bands across the lower part of the card. I then added some crocheted flower elements that I got a couple years ago, and dressed them up with some of the basic pearls. I love the elegance the pearls can add to a card. Finally, I stamped the Always sentiment from the Always Elegant stamp set in Whisper White craft ink. Easy peasy but oh so elegant.

Supply List

Stamps: Always Elegant

Cardstock: Soft Suede

Ink: Whisper White (craft)

Accessories: Fleurs accents & elements (retired), Basic Jewels - Pearls, crimper

Date Night Bracelet

JeThe hubby and I are going out tonight to celebrate an early Valentine's Day, so I decided to make some new bling to wear.

This bracelet is made up of silver wire, white and gray pearls, silver beads, and this beautiful flower toggle that I got from Oriental Trading of all places! I love how this toggle clasp dresses up the look of a plain bracelet. I'm bummed that this is actually my last clasp like this and that they don't sell them anymore. Guess I should have stocked up!

Woven Valentine

I saw someone else do this with ribbon in the center. I don't have a lot of skinny ribbon, so I decided to use some of the SAB paper cut into thin strips instead. I think it looks like a nice soft old quilt.

I think this would look even better with a bigger heart and the new heart framelits have lots of different sized hearts. Those are on my wish list...hopefully I'll be able to get them soon!

Supply List

Stamps: Always Elegant

Cardstock: Whisper White, Calypso Coral

Paper: Everyday Enchantment DSP (SAB item)

Ink: Calypso Coral

Accessories: Heart punch

And now...PRIZES!!!

So check out that groovy counter over there on the left. Go ahead, I'll wait. As I wrote this post, that counter was on 400. 400 hits on my blog in a month and 9 days makes me pretty giddy. But I'm a greedy girl and I want more, more, more!

I also have a bit of a problem...with so much crafting going on, I'm starting to amass a bit of a pile of stuff. Even my card basket is starting to overflow. So I'm going to kill two birds with one stone...get some stuff out of my way and get more hits on my blog. Best of all, you get the chance to win something!

Here's how it works: For every 100 hits I get between now and 1,000, I'll give away something I've made. Want to enter? Simply comment on this post (make sure you leave your email so I can get in touch with you) and tell me what YOU want the most out of all the stuff I've made*. When I hit 500, I'll draw a name and that person will get a craftin' Jen original! When I hit 600, another name and so on until we're at 1,000. You may change your entry if I post something in the future that you like more than what you originally picked. Share my blog with your friends so I can give this stuff away faster!

*You can't ask for the melted crayon canvas because that will be getting a place of glory in my classroom. You also can't ask for the Snoopy pillowcase - do you really want to make a three-year-old boy cry? Everything else is up for grabs! The Angry Birds punch art is hanging in my son's room, but if you choose that, I will custom make you a brand new one!*

Love Lollipop

They don't get much easier than this! You could do store bought Valentine's for your kids, but if you're a papercrafter like me, you've probably got enough stuff to make them for less!

This is pretty much straight up scraps. I took a scrap of Rose Red, folded it in half, and punched it with my heart punch, leaving just a little bit of the fold inside of the heart before I punched so I'd get a folded heart instead of two separate hearts. On the inside heart, I punched two holes about half an inch apart to thread the lollipop stick through. To decorate the front, I stamped the "love" heart in Rose Red on Whisper White then cut it out by hand and adhered it. The giant blue glitter U came in a pack of stuff I got in a Grab Bag from SU!'s online clearance rack. It's a chipboard letter and it was already covered with glue and had adhesive on the back so I just stuck it on and we're good to go!

Total time? About 5 minutes and that includes dealing with a 3-year-old who didn't want to stay in bed! :-)

Supply List

Stamps: Cute by the Inch (retired hostess set)

Cardstock: Rose Red, Whisper White

Ink: Rose Red

Accessories: Heart punch, chipboard letter

K.I.S.S.

Sometimes, you just gotta Keep It Simple, Stupid. :-)

I had something totally different planned for today, involving using my oval punches to create an umbrella. My first one was a total bust, so that idea is shelved until the weekend, when I can have more time to spend on it. For the record, most weeknights, I don't even sit down to make something until around 8:30. So my more elaborate ideas don't always work out in the hour or so time frame before I start getting ready for bed. Good thing I've got the weekends!

I decided after the umbrella thing didn't work out to just go with a white card with some stamping on it. It's always good for me to have some of these planned, just in case I wind up holding a workshop for first time stampers. I want them to be able to see you don't need a ton of supplies to make a pretty card.

For this one, I stamped the vine from Vintage Vogue in Pool Party down the side, then stamped the larger flowers over it in Island Indigo. These two colors were totally made to go together. I stamped the smaller flowers on another sheet of white in Pool Party and cut them out. I stamped the large Friends stamp using the rock and roll technique - I inked it in Pool Party, then rolled just the ends of it on my Island Indigo ink pad. I stamped it on another scrap of white and cut it out, separating the "riends" from the rest of the image. The "riends" and the small flower under the F are attached with SNAIL, the other two small flowers and the F are popped up on dimensionals.

I have some of the Pool Party and Island Indigo baker's twine from the new Occasions mini catalog coming later this week, I may wrap a little of one or both around the bottom of the card, but that may be overkill...decisions, decisions.

Supply List

Stamps: Vintage Vogue

Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Pool Party, Island Indigo

Accessories: Dimensionals

A Rainbow of Chaos

So I'm not the first and I'm far from the last person to make one of these melted crayon canvases that are all over Pinterest, but it's so fun, I just couldn't help myself!

If you've not seen one of these before, they're super easy to make. Take a blank canvas, any size you'd like, and hot glue crayons across the top. I knew I wanted to add this quote from Paul Cezanne, which is why I stuck with the crayons in rainbow order, but you could put your crayons in any order you'd like. Now that I've made one, I can think of so many other fun combinations to put the crayons in!

Once you've got your crayons glued down, add some heat! I used my embossing gun but a lot of the ones I've seen online were done with just a hairdryer. One person posted that it took them almost an hour with a hairdryer. With my embossing gun, I was done in about 10 minutes and that includes re-heating some splatters on my kitchen floor so I could wipe them up! (I did cover a big area with newspaper, but melted crayon wax has a bigger range of flight than I expected.) Obviously gravity plays a big role in this project and that's another reason I want to make more - no two will be alike!

After the wax had cooled and hardened (less than five minutes), I used a Sharpie to add the quote. I wanted it in black, but between me and the husband, finding a black Sharpie in my house that isn't half dried out is a miracle. I stumbled across a brand new violet one though, so that's I used.

I'm so happy with this. I plan on hanging it in my classroom, because let's face it, it totally belongs in an art room! I think I may have my students make some using all the broken crayons in my room too!

Book Jewelry

This is just too pretty to simply be called a 'bookmark!'

I love to make these. They don't take me a lot of time (total spent on this one was about 15 minutes) but they're just so much prettier than a scrap of paper, a rough looking paper bookmark, or, worst of all, a dog-eared page! For this one, I used some silver faceted beads, some silver antiqued beads, and some blue-green swirled glass beads. I really like the way this one came out and it's perfect for tonight's craft because I'm in the middle of this book and can't stop, so as soon as I hit post, I'll be getting back to reading! Haha...from beading to reading!

Valentine's Rose

As I was clipping coupons this morning, I came across several ads for Valentine's roses. For laughs, I logged onto one of the national flower websites and discovered a dozen roses will set you back at least $100 or more. Even just three roses cost around $40. Why spend so much money on something that will die in 7 to 14 days? I decided to just make my own eternal paper rose card instead!

The entire flower is made with the Blossoms builder punch, except for the stem, which I cut by hand. I'm not sure how well it shows up in the picture, but all of the flower petals, stem, and leaves are sponged around the edges for some extra dimension. To create the rose, I cut three of the biggest petals, spiraled one to be the center, and glued the other three around it. Then I gently curled down the front two petals using my fingers to "open" the rose. I used the smaller two petals to create the green leaves around the bud. I used two of the larger small petals to wrap around the base of the rose, then bent the tips down, and used the skinnier petal to cover the seam in front. The leaves were actually scraps that the blossom punch cut out as I was cutting the other pieces. Neither is a whole piece, but they fit just right under the bends of the stem!

Everything in this card is scraps, even the card base, which was leftover when I made another card earlier this week. All these pieces were laying on my desk, and I just mixed them up to make the finished card. Lesson? Don't toss your scraps! :-)

Supply List

Stamps: Pennant Parade (Love sentiment)

Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Garden Green

Ink: Rose Red, Garden Green

Accessories: Blossoms builder punch, Modern Label punch, Square punch (use the corners to cut the triangle pieces out of the banner), Sticky Strip (SNAIL won't be strong enough to hold the rose together), sponges

For the Love of Harry

This card has literally been dancing in my head all week. Sometime around Monday or Tuesday, I decided I wanted to make a Harry Potter card. I knew I was going to use my circle punches to make his glasses, but I didn't get much further than that. Last night, I did some browsing on Stampin' Connection, the Stampin' Up! demonstrator's version of Facebook, and found some Harry Potter cards another demonstrator (the extremely talented Aubri St. Clair!) designed in MDS. Hers are a bit different, but very similar in style and is where I got the idea for the Gryffindor scarf!

Several punches involved here - I used circle punches in various sizes (see below) for the glasses and eyes. The nose piece, ear pieces, and the scar were cut by hand. The center of the eyes and the nostrils came from the owl punch. For his hair, I used the blossoms builder punch and the scarf is a 1-1/2" wide strip of Bravo Burgundy with 1/2" strips of Daffodil Delight layered on top.

One thing I definitely need to invest in is the adhesive eraser thing that's in the IBC, because some of the 2-way glue pen I used to attach the glasses smeared a bit under his eyes. For now, we're just going to say that Harry's a bit weary, which is understandable considering all he's seen in his young life!

Supply List

Cardstock: Basic Black (card base, hair, glasses, pupils, nostrils), Blushing Bride (face), Whisper White (eyes), Garden Green (remember, he had his mother Lily's green eyes!), Bravo Burgundy (scarf), Daffodil Delight (scarf), Pretty in Pink (scar)

Accessories: 1-3/8" circle punch & 1-1/4" circle punch (eyeglasses), 3/4" circle punch (whites of eyes), 1/2" circle punch (irises), Owl builder punch (pupils & nostrils), Blossoms builder punch (hair)

Pocket Silhouettes

Well, it's been a long day and a long week, and this is definitely not my best work. I struggled for a long time with this and after some things this week, I'm questioning my own creativity a bit. Still, this card ended up nothing like I originally pictured, and I'm honestly glad about that.

The background is an idea I saw a long time ago and kept meaning to try but never got around to it. The squares of color are made with my Stampin' Spots, which are miniature ink pads, about an inch in size. Spots are a great way to get a color family all at once and see which colors you use the most. I obviously still have some spots in my collection to fill in holes in my color families where I don't have full size ink pads. I just stamped each spot in a row across the paper. I like that it looks like an old wall and if I do this again, I'll probably mix up the colors instead of using one for each row, to make it look more like mixed stone or brick.

Supply List

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes (will add page number later when I find my catalog.)

Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum, Rich Razzleberry

MDS...for FREE!

Have you been wanting to try My Digital Studio? Well guess what? For this month only, Stampin' Up! is offering a free, 30 day download of their My Digital Studio Express software! You can get it by visiting the link in the supply list at the end of this post. MDS Express doesn't offer all the images contained in the full version of MDS, but it's a great way to try out the program to see if digital papercrafting is a good fit for you.

Obviously, as seen in previous posts, I do own the full version of MDS, but I went ahead and downloaded the trial, just to see what I could make. This card was completely made in Express, using the images it contains. I used the same brayered background I've used in the past, so most (if not all) of those tips and tricks over at www.mydigitalstudio.net will work in Express.

Isn't this flower gorgeous? I stamped it in black, then made a white circle using the punch. I brought the transparency of the white circle down to around 60% or 70%, stretched it to fit the center of the flower, then layered it behind the flower. I stamped two more flowers, made them Island Indigo to fit in with my background, layered them behind my main flower, and turned them 5 degrees in each direction to build up the image a little more.

Supply List

My Digital Studio Express available here: http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=129600

Colors used: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Basic Black, Whisper White

In Stitches

This is a variation of the ribbon stitched hearts I did a couple of days ago. For this one, I used a 1/16" hand held punch to punch out the holes along the heart design. Instead of ribbon, I used the Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine to give a stitched look. It can be a bit time consuming, but once you get used to the stitching technique it goes pretty fast. The one on the left still needs a sentiment attached but I didn't get time to do that at my stamp club tonight.

Supply List

Stamps: Pennant Parade (page 69 of IBC)

Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, Real Red

Ink: Melon Mambo

Accessories: Heart punch, 1/16" hole punch, Bakers Twine, Bitty Buttons