This newsletter issue’s card is this fun, bright card featuring the Sweet and Sour Specialty DP. The layout comes from the front cover of the Paper Crafter’s Card Creations Vol. 8 special issue. When I saw the layout and that yummy flower, I immediately knew I just HAD to make one too!

 Here’s how I made the card:

1.  Sponge a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Crumb Cake CS with a stamping sponge and the tea stain distress ink.
2. Die cut a Top Note die out of Sweet and Sour DP, cut it in half and then stick it along the top half of the Crumb Cake CS piece with SNAIL adhesive.
3. Lay a 6″ piece of Whisper White grosgrain ribbon across the Crumb Cake CS so that it covers the cut edge of the Top Note. Bring the ends of the ribbon around to the back of the CS and stick them down.
4. Center and stamp the “hi” greeting below the ribbon,  and stamp the “friend” greeting towards the bottom right of the Crumb Cake CS.  Use Early Espresso Classic ink and a Stamp-a-ma-jig if necessary.
5. Create the ribbon flower with the ribbon leaf as directed in the free video tutorial (see intro paragraph) and stick it to the left side of the ribbon with a liquid glue (I used Fabritac).
6. Ink the chipboard letters with Pumpkin Pie Craft ink, sprinkle on Heat and Stick powder and heat with a heat tool. Sprinkle on orange glitter and then heat once again to set. Stick the letters directly over the ribbon, to the right of the “hi” greeting, with mini glue dots.
7. Add some orange peel-and stick rhinestone brads to either side of the “friend” greeting. You’re done!

I hope you enjoyed today’s card

Mini Backpack Scrapbook Album Tutorial
Learn how to make this one-of-a-kind  mini backpack-shaped scrapbook album. This 6″ x 8″ album was designed with a unique binder ring system to emulate the look of a binder.  With both a boy and girl version, the 18 page layouts and custom-designed, coordinating page elements allow you to capture a snap shot of a child’s life. To purchase the tutorial click HERE.

Calendar & Note Pad Tin – Kit, Tutorial or Calendar & Note Pad refills
Do you ever find yourself scrambling to find something to write on and write with?  I sure do…whether I’m home on the phone trying to take a message, or out and about trying to make a note to myself or wanting to check my calendar. If you’re like me then you’ll love my new Calendar & Note Pad tin…it’s portable, durable, small and of course pretty.  This project is available in several formats: as a digital tutorial, a class kit by mail, or if you are a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and want to offer it as a class, you can purchase just the custom-designed calendars and note pads.  For more info click here.

Do you ever find yourself scrambling to find something to write on and write with?  I sure do…whether I’m home on the phone trying to take a message, or out and about trying to make a note to myself or wanting to check my calendar.  Inevitably when that happens I never seem to be able to have my calendar handy or find something to write on!

Last fall I came up with a solution to that problem – my custom-designed Calendar & Note Pad Tin.  I wanted something portable, durable, small and of course pretty.  I couldn’t find anything like that…so I made it!   I started with a 5 1/4″ x 5 1/4″ hinged CD tin and integrated some customized elements to make it a one-of-a-kind gift. Because I didn’t have a “Just a Note” stamp, I designed the ”Just a Note” greeting that you see on the front of the tin on my computer.  I then printed it out using a high quality printer onto Whisper White CS.

I had the calendar that you see on the inside front cover of the tin custom-made so that it perfectly fit the inside of the tin. The font used for the months and the date match the font used for the “just a note” on the front of the tin.

As you can see from the picture below and on the left I also had some note-pads custom designed to fit inside the tin. There’s 50 sheets on the notepad and the lines are black so they match with any color scheme.

I am offering this Calendar and Note Pad tin in several options: a digital tutorial (no supplies included) available for immediate download, a Class Kit by Mail (pre-order) and a pre-order on the refills.  The pre-orders will begin shipping the week of Sept. 20th

So for those of you that have been asking, the 2011 calendars are now here, and the note pads are back in stock, and are once again available in bundles of 5. 

For Stampin’ Up! demonstrators wanting to offer this as a class to your customers, when you purchase any four bundles of calendars &/OR note pads you will receive the digital tutorial for FREE.  For additional details and to pre-order yours, please click HERE.

I’m also giving away two free digital tutorials for this product, so please leave me a comment to enter the draw. Winners will be announced on Monday.  Be sure to check out my other give-away at the bottom of this post.

Source for silver tins: I purchased the silver tins from Pritchard Packaging.  They are a Canadian based store but they do ship to the US as well.  Their link is: http://www.pritchard.com/Retail___Gift_Supplies/silver_tins.html.  Last year I purchased my tins from Dunwoody Booth but it doesn’t seem as though they carry them anymore.

Source for pencils:  Because of the depth of the tins, you cannot use a pen or pencil that has greater than a 1/4″ diameter.  I found most of my pencils at the dollar store, but you can also buy them from online school supply companies such as Raymond Geddes (http://www.raymondgeddes.com/67332-lil-mp-7mm-mechanical-pencil.html). 

These unfortunately will not fit the silver skinny tins SU offers.  At the time that these calendars were designed SU was not selling the skinny tins in bulk. I couldn’t find any other place to source those particular sized tins from, whereas the 5 1/4″ x 5 1/4″ tins were readily available.

Other Give-Aways:

If you haven’t already entered my give away for the mini backpack scrapbook album then you can do so by clicking HERE.  The draw for the mini backpack album tutorials will take place on Friday, Sept wrd.

I am so excited to be able to finally introduce to you my newest Memories Your Way product: my Mini Backpack Scrapbook Album!   This album has been in the works since last May – but with each “version” of the album, I just wasn’t happy.  That meant going back to the drawing board…….and while it did take a long time, I am absolutely THRILLED with the final product.

The picture to the left gives you a bit of snap shot of what the album looks like from the inside.  To get a full view, be sure to check out the video I have below.  

 While the idea of a backpack shaped album was inspired by the backpack boxes you see all over the web (such as this one on splitcoaststampers), the design and construction is totally my own.  This album is 6″ x 8″, has open sides and a flat front pocket and contains 18 different page layouts. The pages are held in by a binding system that was created to emulate the look of the inside of a binder.  You do not need any special machine or binding system to create the ring closure.  It’s totally hand done – although it would be helpful to have a Crop-a-Dile.  If you don’t, you could in a pinch use a regular hand held hole punch.

If you take a close look at the picture, you’ll notice some funky elements.  You may remember all my other Memories Your Way albums which were designed based on Simply Scrappin’ Kits –  I couldn’t do that this time around because there are no current school or kid-themed kits.  This is what made it challenging when I was designing the layouts.  The cardstock, the designer paper, even the brads and punched shapes, just weren’t enough.  It was missing something.

That’s when I decided to design some page elements, which you can see below. The page elements feature bright bold colors and whimsical hand-drawn images. 

You print them out onto three sheets of Whisper White CS.  The colors totally coordinate with Stampin’ Up! colors. I designed them in a boy version and a girl version.  The boy version coordinates with the Play Date DP (uses the colors Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Real Red and Early Espresso). The girl version coordinates with the Lap of Luxury DP (Pretty in Pink, Concord Crush and Basic Gray).

I’ve decided to try something new with the way I’m offering this kit.  First off, this will only be released as a DIGITAL tutorial – so no supplies included.  When you purchase the digital kit for $24.95 CAN (international orders accepted) you will receive:

• a pdf tutorial with a full supply list, cutting guide and step-by-step photo tutorial for making the album and the pages for both the boy version AND the girl version.
• pdf version of both the boy and the girl page elements which you can then either print out with a color printer, or bring to your local copy or print shop to be printed out.  Please note these come in the form of a printable pdf file.  These are not in a format that can be used for digital scrapbooking or with MDS.
• A link to a private web page with a video on how the album was constructed and a video on how the pages themselves were made and the embellishments prepped.

ETA: The instructions in the tutorial provided are very clear and concise making this an easy album for even a beginning scrapbooker to create.

Different with this kit – if you are a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator you CAN offer this both as a class AND as a Class Kit by Mail.  Once you have purchased this kit you can email me at andrea@sunnystampin.com and I will email you a free demonstrator guide which will give you all the info you need to offer this as a class or as a kit.

So check out my video below, and then hop on over to the Sunny Stampin’ Store to purchase your Mini Backpack Scrapbook Album tutorial.  I’m giving away 2 free tutorials so please leave me a comment in the comments section of this post to enter.  I will announce the winners next Friday.

I can’t believe that Summer is already coming to a close.  So much has been going on, and so much still to go!  I have not gotten to use (or buy) even a quarter of the stuff that I would like to own from the new catalogue, but I did get one of my favorite punches from all the ones that they have put out.  This one is the owl punch, and it is so darn cute!!  I just love how it includes all the necessary pieces for the owl (minus the beak which is easy to add on).  I wanted t create a fun and easy project using this punch.

 Directions:

• Card: Create a standard card (4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″) from Baja Breez CS.  Cut a Espresso mat ( 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″) and stick down on card front.  Next cut a whisper White mat (4″ x 5 1/4″) and sponge on a cloud background using a cloud template and some Tempting Turquoise ( or Cool Carribean if you have it).  A cloud template is simply a drawn image of clouds which you cut out from CS or acetate to use as a sponging mask for your BG.  My sponge cloud template is offered as a part of the Artistic Etching Workshop Planner along with a video on how to use.  Refer to THIS tutorial on how to do the sponging: http://andreawalford.com/introducing-a-new-regular-contributor-to-my-blog-a-sponging-tutorial  (sorry, my link button is missing).
• Tree Branch:  Free hand cut the tree branch from Creamy Caramel CS (retired).  You could probably get away with using River Rock CS.  Sponge it with some Chocolate Chip, Early Espresso, and Basic Black, and then stamp the Woodgrain stamp set over the branch.  Stick down with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
• Leaves & Flowers: You have several options for the leaves.  You can freehand cut them, you can use the large bird punch which includes a branch with leaves, or you can use the SU Little Leaves sizzlet die (I used an old retired Quickutz die).  Either way, you will cut your leaves from Kiwi Kiss (retired) or substitute with Certainly Celery of Old Olive CS.  Sponge with the corrisponding ink and then with some darker Garden Green ink.  Spritz with some Vanilla Smooch Spritz, and then stick down with Tombow multi-purpose adhesive, and Stampin’ Dimensionals. You will be alternating between these two achieve more depth.  Add some drawn center lines with your Garden Green marker, then draw down the line with your Crystal effects and sprinkle with Dazzling Diamonds.
• Owls: Punch the Owls from various colours ( I used Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Only Orange, Bashful Blue and Poppy Parade, Very Vanilla, Basic Black).  Sponge each individual piece with (Early Espresso, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Creamy Caramel).  The Vanilla pieces were sponged with the Creamy Caramel).  To make the beaks, glue down the Vanilla bellies on to a scrap of Only Orange and then cut out the bellie, including a triangle for the beak. Add some white highlights with your White gel pen, then add crystal Effects to the eyes to make them glazed.  Stick them on to the branch with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
• Sentiment:  The sentiment was hand written with brown ink in a Fine Tip Fountain Pen.

 Well I hope you enjoyed this weeks project from me, and I look forward to seeing you again next week.

Stampin’ Hugs,