Stampin' with Elizabeth

Spring Art

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Mon, 02 May 2011 12:34:00 +0000

This project was inspired by another blog post on how to make a hair bow. I read the tutorial and thought, "Hey, that would be so cute using scrapbook paper!" I made one flower using the directions for the hair bow, but that didn't work out well, so I changed the method just a bit to get the perfect flower.

To make the flower you will need:
8 strips of paper 4" x 1/2"
8 strips of paper 3" x 1/2"

Card stock circle ( I used a piece punched with a 1 3/8 circle punch)

Button

Glue the cut ends of the paper together. Loop them over but don't crease. I used Tombow Multi Purpose Adhesive and used clothes pins to keep the ends together until they dried. Glue the longer pieces around the outside edge of the card stock circle.

Glue the smaller pieces on top in between the other loops. Use a glue dot to secure a button on top.

Sewing Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:26:00 +0000

I got several sewing projects done recently. One for me and two for my daughter.

This is the Little Ruffle Skirt from Carolina Fair Designs. I found the fabric in the remenat bin at the fabric store and I just happened to have a green t-shirt in the scrap bin that matched perfectly for the ruffle. Yeah repurposing!

I also repurposed a pair of my daugher's jeans with a big hole in the knee. I wanted to make a pair of jean shorts, but didn't want the ragged edge, so I trimed the legs with strips of fabric. The strips are wrapped to the inside with the edges turned under and top stitched.

Finally, I made a draw string skirt for myself. I followed the basic instructions found here.

I am sharing this at:

Today's Creative Blog

Somewhat Simple

Big Bold Cupcake

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:45:00 +0000

It's been a while since I used my Big Bold Cupcake die, so I thought I'd pull it out for a fun birthday card. The patterned paper on the card is from the Sweet Life Photo Mat Pad by Ki Memories. It was one of those things I just had to have when I first saw it, but have used only a few sheets. The colors are so bright and fun, I really should use it more often!

I didn't have anyone specific in mind when I made this card, but I think I will give this to our neighbor for her 3rd birthday which is coming up soon.

Sewing Project

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 11:01:00 +0000

I've been into making some clothes lately and thought I would share one of my recent projects with you. I have been making some really simple skirts for me and my daughter. This is the first one I made for my daughter. I loved the fabric so much that I went back and bought more to make a skirt for me. I ended up making two skirts for her and two wrap skirts for me in one weekend. I just recently bought some more fabric to make a few more skirts. I'll share those projects when I get them finished.

I used this tutorial from To Sew With Love to make the skirt. She calls it a 15 minute skirt, but it took me a bit longer than that. That may be because I had an "assistant" while making mine!

So many cupcakes, so little time

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:29:00 +0000

Mom let me borrow the new cupcake punch from Stampin' Up! and I had a great time creating a couple of cards with it.

My first card was, of course, on the girly side so I made myself create another using colors that I could use to send to a guy. I changed it up a bit by using a different greeting and changing the rhinestones to buttons. For some reason, rhinestones just don't say "guy" to me, ya know?

By the way, most of the cards I've shown lately have been inspired by my Color Coach. I find a color combo I like and then pick the stamp set and design the layout.

Happy Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:21:00 +0000

We recently went to a friend's son's birthday party. We don't do birthday gifts for kids. Instead we make a donation to a charity in the child's name, but I did make him a card. This one is pretty basic, but I love the way it turned out. I used several sizes of circle punches, my mat pack, brads and a rub-on from Stampin' Up!'s Bday Party Rub-ons.

Baby Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:12:00 +0000

Several people I know are having babies this summer, so I decided I'd get ahead of the game and make some baby cards. These both ended up a bit on the girly side. Which means I still need to make a few more because at least one family isn't going to find out the sex and one hasn't decided if they want to find out, so I've still got to make some neutral/boy cards.

Goin' round again

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:08:00 +0000

Here are two more cards I made when I made this card.

Thank you card

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:29:00 +0000

This is the first card I made when I decided to make thank you cards for Teacher Appreciation. It didn't really come out the way I wanted. It was another attempt at a shabby chic look, but though I love the look, I have a really hard time creating shabby chic cards. What do you think of the card?

Teacher Appreciation Week

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 11:16:00 +0000

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at my daughter's preschool. We give the teacher a gift from the whole class, but I thought I would make each of her teachers a thank you card.

Parents also volunteer to bring in breakfast items or snacks the teachers can take home. I volunteered to bring in brownies. I'm making the Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies. And they are outrageously good, of course the recipe starts with melting a pound of butter and a pound of chocolate, so how can it not be fabulous! I like to make these brownies when I need to have lots of brownies (like a church function or a pot luck) because this recipe makes a full sheet pan.

While I was working on cards, I was looking at the Eat Chocolate set and decided to make tags to go on the brownies. I needed to wrap each one individually, so I figured I might as well make them pretty!

A tale of three cards

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:07:00 +0000

My mom brought me some of her new stamps to play with this weekend. Yeah!

See, lots of new stamps!

I needed to make a birthday card for my cousin's son whose birthday is Friday. I always have a hard time making cards for the guys, so I was excited to come up with a great card using the Bring on the Cake set that is in the Stampin' Up! Mini Catalog.

I really liked this first version that I made, so I decided to make a few more. But when I started working on the next card, I decided to change a few things and came up with this card:

Ditto for the third one I made. I decided to move the stamped image to the top and put some buttons on the bottom.

So there you have it. My tale of three cards!

Round and Round

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 11:52:00 +0000

This card is inspired by a sketch in Paper Crafts Go To Sketches. I was also trying to use up scraps of paper. The patterned paper is retired Bella Rose paper from Stampin' Up! I made several versions of this card with various retired patterned paper.

I had originally intended for this card to go the other way, but once I stamped the greeting, I realized it needed to go this way.

Materials for this card:
Stamps: Heard from the Heart
Paper: Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss Card Stock and Bella Rose DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Ribbon: 1/8 inch Taffeta Ribbon
Other: Circle Punch

My Attempt at Shabby Chic

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:27:00 +0000

I have always loved the shabby chic look, but I really have a hard time actually creating projects that are shabby chic. So this is my attempt at a shabby chic card. I also was trying to use supplies that I just had to have and yet, since I bought them, they have sat in the cabinet unused. I just had to have the Jenni Bowlin Memo Note Pad and the Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type letter stickers and have never used them.

What do you think of the card?

I'm sharing this project at:
Today's Creative Blog
Creation Corner

MDS Page

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:46:00 +0000

Last week I got a nasty cold that pretty much knocked me on my butt. I did not do much other than lie on the couch. I did manage to create one scrapbook page, though!

I want to do more scrapbooking about me, so I created a page with a list of books I read last year. I discovered the website Goodreads two years ago and it has helped me keep track of what I've read. I read so much and after reading a few books where the whole time I was reading I thought I had read the book before, but just couldn't remember, I decided I had to find a system to keep track of books! Love using Goodreads for that!

So anyway, here is the page I created. I used the sketch for the Sketchy Thursday Guest Design Team contest.

Calendar Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:24:00 +0000

Here is the final installment in my 2011 calendar. I hope you enjoyed them!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I'm sharing this at:

Craft Space Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:19:00 +0000

This has been my craft space for almost four years, but until last year, it was also our only guest room. It had a full size bed and it seemed to be the place where everything that didn't have a home ended up. Now it's pretty much full time craft space although there is a Futon in there for when we have multiple guests. I have been doing some hard core cleaning and organizing of the space. I've thrown a lot away and I've put aside things for a yard sale this spring and a friend just had a craft swap at her house and I got rid of tons of stuff and made some money, too!

I finally feel like everything pretty much has a place. I do have a few areas that need some more work, but they will be small jobs and for the most part they are behind closed doors. So here is my craft space:

My main work area. I like to have everything within reach while I am stilling at my desk. Mostly that consists of papercrafting supplies since that is what I use the most. I will talk more about these areas in the detailed pictures.

The other side of my craft room. This is the opposite corner of the room from the desk. This holds miscellanious craft supplies, finished product for my Etsy Shop. Fabric is stored in the red box and the clear box under it. All of my sewing notions are in a drawer of the grey filing cabinet on the left.

This cabinet sits to the left of my desk. All my patterned paper and punches are in drawers on top and inside the cabinet are my Big Shot and dies, 12 x 12 cardstock, chip board, and some scrapbook projects that are in progress.

Next to that cabinet is a tall media storage cabinet from Ikea (at least that is what it's supposed to be used for!). I store [some] embellishments, ink cartridges for wheels, Stampin' Spots, and extra glue dots in the top section. In the bottom I keep my colored cardstock paper scraps. Each color is in a seperate cello bag. Since this cabinet is metal, I have some magnetic containers on the outside with my scissors and my color coach in them.

I didn't get a good picture of my peg board, but you can sort of see it in the picture above. This is one of the best things I have in my craft room in terms of organization. Almost anything I could figure out how to hang is on there. I've got rulers, small punches, wheels, heat gun, stamp-a-ma-jig, etc up there.

Here is a close up of my work space. Starting from the left, I have some mini drawers that contain glue dots, my Mat Pack, dimensionals, post it notes and punched pieces I have not used. One drawer is actually empty! The drawers were a recent purchase to help keep things a little neater on my desk. Then I have my stamp pads in the Stampin' Up! Caddy. I have a magazine holder with catalogs, magazines and sketches I have printed out. I have a page from the new Stampin' Up! catalog that has the new color families cliped to the front. I had to have something out for reference because I could never find anything! Next, I have a little bucket with pens, scissors, bone folder, hobby knife and styluses (is that the plural of stylus?). I have another magazine holder with neutral scraps. I have to say this used to be in a basket and it was starting to take over my desk, so I put the majority of it in the recycle bin while I was cleaning.

Next to the scraps is a ribbon keeper and then a container with various adhesives in it. The black line between the adhesive and the wooden drawers is my stampin scrub. The wooden drawers were a gift from my aunts a few years ago. They hold celo bags, envelopes, [more] embelishments, more adhesive and magnet sheets. The bottom drawer used to stay pretty inaccesable because of all the stuff I kept piled on my desk, so it pretty much contains junk. (Remeber I mentioned some areas that still need work?) On top of that is a little set of drawers that conatin replacement blades for my paper cutters, paper clips, and other various office supplies. There is a lazy susan on top of that with cans of sharpies, other pens, and more scissors. I also keep my Stampin' Mist and tape dispenser on there.

The shelves over my desk are where I keep all of my stamps, embossing powders and my Stampin' Up! markers, plus various other stuff. My stamps are vaguely grouped in catagories. Under my desk (well, technically they are holding up the desk) are two filing cabinets. One holds current 8 1/2 x 11 card stock and the other holds retired Stampin' Up! cardstock.

So that's my space. I hope you enjoyed the tour! I am really going to try to keep it this clean since it does make it easier to work.

Hip to be Square

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:38:00 +0000

Two more cards from my birthday card marathon. I had not been crafting in a while because of all the Christmas busy-ness, so it felt sooooo good to sit down and make a bunch of cards!

These cards are also based on a card made by Kristina Werner. The designer paper is punched using the 1 5/8 square punch and then popped up on the card. The top card uses Cosmo Cricket's Girl Friday paper and the bottom card is Stampin' Up!'s Play Date paper. The strip of card stock was inspired by a scrap on my desk I happened to notice while making the cards.

Calendar, part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:51:00 +0000

More of my 2011 calendar!

Calendar, Part 1

Calendar, Part 2

Game On: It's Your Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 11:38:00 +0000

Here is another guy card I made this month. My husband's cousin played baseball in high school and college, so I thought I would make him a baseball/sports theme card. Stamps are all retired stamps from Stampin' Up! and the names escape me at the moment.

Calendar part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:31:00 +0000

Here are more pictures from my 2011 calendar. Enjoy!

Calendar, Part 1

You're two!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:15:00 +0000

A cousin's daughter turns two this month so this is the card I made for her. The card came about because of a scrap I had on my desk. I had the piece of Rose Red card stock and I just added it to the Basic Grey card base. Stamps are Seeing Spots (retired) and Birthday Bakery (hostess) from Stampin' Up!

By the way I realized yesterday that I have not shared with you the two newest members of our family.

They are Beemer and Foster (named for football coaches at Virginia Tech). We adopted them from the Humane Society just before Thanksgiving.

2011 Calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:07:00 +0000

I thought I would give you a break from the birthday cards and share some of the pages from the calendars I made. Last Christmas I started making calendars as gifts for all the grandparents and I decided that it's a gift that I'll give them each year.

My dad told me a funny story about his calendar. He keeps his at work and he never has to remember to turn it over to the new month because the ladies who work for him are so excited to see the next month that they always have it turned on the first day of the month. I got such a kick out of that!

I swear to you that this picture is not staged, I walked into the living room one day and my daughter was sitting on the couch pretending to read my book. You can tell what my other hobby is besides crafting!

All of these pages were created with My Digital Studio. I hope you enjoy them! I'll share the rest with you soon!

Valentine's Art

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:02:00 +0000

I've been checking out a lot of crafty blogs lately and I really want to start making more holiday decorations. I found a bunch of cute Halloween crafts, but I ran out of time before Halloween, so on to other holidays! I got the chance to spend a few hours crafting this weekend which I really needed since we had snow this week and my daughter only went to school one day last week!

I have had this idea in my head for a while. It came to me one night when I couldn't get to sleep. I had thought about making it with felt originally, but then I decided to try paper because I didn't really like the selection of felt at the craft store and I already had all the supplies I ended up using (other than the frames).

And can I say there was not much of a selection of white frames. I thought that was a little crazy. I love the larger frame, but I didn't have much of a choice for a 5 x 7 frame. I may have to keep my eye out for a new 5 x 7 frame.

My original thought was to put "Love" at the bottom of the larger piece, but once I had positioned all of the hearts, I realized I didn't have any room for the letters. I liked the way all the hearts looked and didn't want to reposition to make room for the letters, so I decided to make a second piece.

Now I want to create pieces for all the holidays and change them out!

Materials for these projects are:
Various scrapbook papers from Stampin' Up! (almost all are retired); Big Shot; Hearts and Brackets die; Go Go Boots Sizzlet Alpha; Loops and Rick-Rack sizzlet; Heart punch from Stampin' Up!; Basic Grey card stock. Frames are from the craft store.

Sketchy Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 20:54:00 +0000

Here is another page based on a Sketchy Thursdays sketch. I created this one night while watching TV. That's why I love digital scrapbooking!

This is one of my favorite photos from last year. We were playing in our neighbor's yard and I snapped this pictures! They look posed, but they're not. (And our neighbor's gorgeous yard made for a great backdrop!)

The papers and elements are a combination of Stampin' Up! and the most recent release from the Daily Digi. I don't think I've ever mentioned the Daily Digi before, but it's a great place to get digital elements!

Guy Card

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:49:00 +0000

I had to make some male birthday cards this month and that is something I have to force myself to do. Most of my cards turn out pretty girly. This is one of my guy cards this month. Ironically, it uses more of Cosmo Cricket's Girl Friday paper.

The "Message for You" piece is from the elements sheet from the Girl Friday line. I stamped "Happy" and "Birthday" from the Happy Everything set from Stampin' Up! The buttons are from a huge set of buttons I got at one of the big craft stores a loooong time ago. They have been sitting in my craft room for years and I have finally started using them as I have been trying to challenge myself to use what I have instead of buying new. I have been trying to use what I have for a few months, but now I am really motivated now because I am trying to save my money for a Nook! I decided I wanted a Nook more than I wanted new craft supplies.