Stamped Paper Piecing

I often use my electronic cutters to make paper piecings, but they lack the details that you can get with stamps.  Yes, I can just color my stamps, but by stamping and turning it into a paper piecing, you have a little more dimension, and it simply has a different look.  It's a nice variation once in awhile.  To start, I use slightly darker colors of inkpads than my colors of cardstock.

Then I cut out the parts of each color that I want to use, the green leaves, the pink flowers, etc., and glued them to the base.  The stamped black image is the guide.  If I were to do this with this same stamp again, I would probably stamp my base in the brown and omit stamping the kraft cardstock. The twigs were a little thin for hand cutting.  You may have noticed that the stamped images were not perfect, but that doesn't show once the pieces are cut out and glued to the base.

Anyway, here is my finished paper piecing.  You can click on the picture for a closer up view.

Texas Barbecue Layout

Last week I went to the LSS with pictures in hand, looking for barbecue related papers.  I used two from the Barbecue line by Best Creation Inc.  The wood paper is by KaiserCraft.  I used the Rock Art font for my title, which I cut with my Silhouette Cameo.  The spatula was from a Silhouette store barbecue cutting file set (multiple designs for 99 cents), and the knife and tongs were my own cutting file designs.  I actually used a silver metallic cardstock for all three utensils, but they just look black like their handles.  Shiny does not scan well.

I love, love, love my Cameo cutter!

2014 Valentine for my husband.

The Willow Tree statue (called "Together") was my husband's gift to me for Valentine's Day this year.  My gift to him was a crystal frame with coppery gold vinyl lettering that says,"You put the happily in my ever after."  (The shadow makes them hard to read in the photo, but not in real life.)  The phrase was a Silhouette cutting file which I adapted to fit the frame, and I cut the vinyl with my Silhouette Cameo.  Originally I was going to use glass etching cream to put the words on the frame, but unfortunately, etching cream doesn't work on crystal.  The photo was one from our wedding reception.  It was many years ago, but my wonderful husband is still my sweetheart!  I am so grateful for him!

Hot Cocoa Projects

It's winter, and it's cold, so hot cocoa seemed an appropriate kind of project, especially when I was going through some old stamps and found a fun one that I had forgotten about.  I think it was a Darcie stamp.  It had a partial cocoa recipe in the center of the mug, but it was useless as it was, since I didn't have the rest of the recipe, and so I cut that part out and stamped other things inside instead.

I made 3 little cocoa bags (my own cutting file design, simple as it may be) with 2 packets of cocoa inside, and the box that is the cocoa packet dispenser was made from a cutting file that I bought from the Silhouette store.

I also made this card to send to my son in Alaska. The snowflake card was from the Silhouette store.  I added a penguin because he loves penguins. The phrase was adapted from another file I got at the Silhouette store.  I have a subscription, so each design is only about 11 cents.  My time is worth more than that, and it often speeds things up for me when I want to make something.

Baby Onesie Cards

I recently signed up for Scrapbook Expo emails, and to my amazement, I was actually pleased with what they sent me.  What caught my eye in the first email was this adorable baby announcement:

http://weeklyscrapper.com/baby-announcements/

I had been invited to a baby shower for the daughter of my husband's cousin, so I wanted to make the card special.  I fell in love with the idea shown in the link, but I didn't have time to sew on the papers like she did, and I just did the best I could with papers and what I had on hand.  Also, it was an opportunity to put my Cameo to work.  Well, I have actually used it a lot recently, just haven't posted my projects, but this was still another chance to play with my Cameo.

Since the link showed the clip art image that inspired the cards, I just used the same images to create a cutting file.  Instead of doing a trace of the image, I used the Cameo tools to trace each piece by hand so that I could layer the pieces.  Then I played around with a few different papers and came up with three baby girl cards.  I let my husband choose which one to give to his cousin's daughter.  Here is the one he chose:

What looks like metal brads on the heart and on the overall straps are actually craft pearls.  The scan just makes them look like metal.

Here are the other two onesie cards, which I now have ready for future baby girl showers:

I actually did use metal brads on the top card.  The centers of the hearts were pink candy dots.  Scans just really can't show some things accurately.

Then today I did a boy card using camping papers that I found at Tuesday Morning.  The other side of the papers looks more like camping paper.  The sides I used worked perfectly for my baby card since they were a bit more generic, and the colors lent themselves well to a boy card:

The dog peek and the phrase were files from the Silhouette store.  The brads I used were kind of a deep copper.  I made two cards like this.  I hope to do a different boy card at some point, but at least I am set for now with cards for any upcoming showers.

They needed a 6x6 inch envelope, which I made with my envelope punch board.  Love that thing!

3D Sleigh die cut comparisons

3D Sleigh comparisons

About a week and a half ago at the LSS, I received a free kit for a 3D sleigh.  It came complete with side panels.  It was cut with a Sizzix die designed by Brenda Walton as part of a Christmas collection.  I promptly ordered the die, even though I recently bought a Silhouette electronic cutter on Black Friday. I had also downloaded the 3D sleigh shown on the right from the Silhouette store.  The Sizzix sleigh is on the left.

The Sizzix sleigh includes panels for both inside and outside, which dresses it up a little.  The Silhouette sleigh doesn't have panels, although I am sure I could easily create panels for it.  The Silhouette sleigh was cut in the size that the file opened in the software.  It is a size that could hold cookies, but even cut from cardstock, those sleigh runners could not hold the weight of cookies without being reinforced.  Obviously I will need to either reinforce it or make it smaller.  And it definitely needs dressing up a bit.

The Sizzix sleigh was an easy assemble.  The Silhouette sleigh was a bit of a pain.  I think I will need to pick up some Zip Dry glue if I plan to make any more of these.  The Zig glue pen worked, but was not ideal.  The way that it went together, though, Scor-Tape did not seem a good choice.  I used Scor-Tape to put together the Sizzix sleigh.  They are both nice, but I have to admit, I like the Sizzix version better.

There are two other 3D sleigh cutting files in the Silhouette store.  I didn't think they were as cute.

As much as I love my new Silhouette, there will still be times I reach for a good old steel rule die.

A fall card and a Halloween treat topper...

I made this fall card last night with papers from Tuesday Morning (meaning they're older) and scraps from other projects.  The pinwheel die that I used was an exclusive, but only temporarily available Sizzlits die from Stampin' Up.  The pinwheels are a little hard to put together because they are very small, but I love pinwheels!

Below is a Halloween treat bag that I made.  I bought the stamp sets awhile back but am not sure who makes them.  Possibly Reflections (Michaels brand) -- they were from last year or two years ago.  Another possibility is Hampton Arts.  If anyone really is dying to know, let me know and I will go look it up.

No, I don't make these for all the kids who come to the door.  It was just a visiting teaching goodie bag for one of the gals that I visit.