You just can’t imagine how pleased I was when I opened my door the other afternoon and there on the doorsteps stood Jennifer Holland with a beautiful handmade paper wreath. Because she wanted me to be able to display the wreath during the holiday season, I got my present early. 

She proceeded to tell us how she made it and guess what – it is made of Stampin’ Up! Merry Moments Designer Series Paper!  I can see next year, we may have to make some of these for the site.  I know Lianne is already wanting one of her very own. 

Without further adieu, check out my beautiful handmade paper wreath.  You can click on the photo and see a larger picture of it.

Happy Stamping!

Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator
Tarboro, NC

Today we CASEd another card that I fell in love with a while back.  The original was made by Heather Nichols which you can see here.  I had to wait until I got to Brenda’s house because I didn’t have the “too cute” Patterned Pines stamp set which is a Hostess Level 1 set until the end of December.

Because our trees were not quite as tall, we opted to turn our card on its side and make it a horizontal card.  I think we still captured the overall country feel of Heather’s card.

Brenda and I both worked on one.  Our results were very similar on this card as opposed to yesterday.  We have decided that we are going to try to CASE a card each day while I’m here and post to the blog.  This is just to show you that you do NOT always have to come up with an original design.  Find one you like and run with it.

By the way – do you know what CASE stands for?  In all actuality, it means Copy And Share Everything.  We’ve used that term quite a few times on our blog so I wanted to make sure you knew what it meant. 

Keep in mind that just because we didn’t have the same stamp set that she has, we had a comparable one that we used in it’s place.  So while our card is different, you can definitely see the resemblance.  So, CASEing a card can be a direct copy or just drawing inspiration and making it your own.  The important thing is, when you CASE someone’s work, you should always give credit.  After all, you’d want credit if it was your original idea.

Here you can see the inside of our card.  We kept it simple and just added a single tree from the Patterned Pines stamp.  To do this, we used the Old Olive marker directly on the stamp.  To make the Happy Holidays show up a little better on the front of the card, we stamped it multiple times with Chocolate Chip ink.  It’s critical to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig for this to ensure proper alignment.of course, I rarely stamp without using the Stamp-a-ma-jig; it’s one of my favorite stamping tools.

Anyway.  I hope you enjoy our CASEd cards as we hope to bring you several more over the next week or so.

Happy Stamping!

Lianne Carper
CS partner and DTM for Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator

 Supplies:  (All Stampin’ Up!)

Stamps:  Patterned Pines (#116525 – shown right) and Four the Holidays (#116921)
Paper:  Kraft card stock, Merry Moments Designer Paper
Ink:  Old Olive and Chocolate Chip Classic Ink, Whisper White Craft Ink
Accessories:  Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon, Glue Stick, SNAIL Adhesive, Clear Rhinestone Brads

As I’d hoped for yesterday, I’m sharing the second card that we’ll be making at the Albemarle Nursing Home in Tarboro, NC on Nov. 30th.  I actually CASED this card from CherylQuilts although I didn’t use the same papers. Because this is another simple card, I’ll give you the details including the measurements today.

A quick note.  On Thanksgiving Day, my husband and I will be heading off to Brenda’s for our vacation.  We’ll be returning home on Dec. 6th – 10 whole days of playing with Brenda!  I’m sure we’ll be making lots of things while I’m there and I promise that we will take a break here and there to share some of our creations with you on the blog.

Here’s how I did it:

1. Stamp the cardinal image from the A Flower for All Seasons stamp set (#111592) using Black Stazon on a 1-3/4″ square piece of Very Vanilla card stock.  Color using the Stampin’ Write Markers.  I used Real Red, Old Olive, and Close to Cocoa.  Afterwards, I used the Blender Pen to “lift” some of the color from different areas for highlights.
2. Mount the stamped image to a 1-7/8″ square of Old Olive.
3. I used the Cricut to cut out a scalloped edge square from Real Red card stock, but you can use any die or cut a square and use the Scalloped Edge Punch on it if you’d like.
4. Attach a 3-7/8″ x 3-1/4″ piece of the striped Merry Moments designer series paper to the bottom of a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Old Olive card stock.  Cut a piece of the Chocolate Chip snowflake paper to 3-7/8″ x 1-7/8″ to the top as shown.
5. Attach a 4″ x 3/4″ strip of Real Red card stock across the seam of the two designer papers.
6. Tie a piece of Chocolate Chip 1/4″ Grosgrain Ribbon around the bottom of the striped designer paper with the knot closer to the right hand side.
7. With Real Red ink, stamp Merry Christmas from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set (#115370) onto a scrap of Very Vanilla card stock.  Using the Large Oval punch, punch out the sentiment.
8. Glue the punched sentiment to a scrap of Real Red card stock.  Use the Scallop Oval punch to punch it out.
9. Using Stampin’ Dimensionals, attach the sentiment over the ribbon on the left side.  Use a couple more Dimensionals to attach the flower image to over the Real Red card stock strip.
10. Attach the whole thing to a standard 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ card base.

I hope you enjoyed the little tutorial!  Happy Stamping!

Supplies (all Stampin’ Up! unless otherwise noted)

Stamps:  A Flower for All Seasons (shown right), Teeny Tiny Wishes 
Paper:  Real Red, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla card stock, Merry Moments designer series paper 
Ink:  Black Stazon, Real Red 
Other:  Blender Pens, Stampin’ Write Markers, Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Glue Stick, Punches, Cricut

I know you’ve all been wondering what I’ve been up to.  Well, it seems I needed to take a little break after cramming for the craft fair.  I’m not back in full swing just yet, but I have made a few cards that I wanted to show you.  We’ll see one today and then I’ll try to post again tomorrow with the other one.  These were designed for the free class that Brenda does at the Albemarle Nursing Home in Tarboro, NC for the residents.

This is a very simple card, but very cute.  Because it doesn’t have a lot of dimension, it can easily be sent through the mail.  And if you’re worried about the ribbon, it can be left off too if you’d like.  For the most part, the card is self-explanatory, but I will run through it so that anyone new to paper crafting can make one if they’d like.   To make it a little more interesting, I’m going to include the dimensions as well.

Although my card looks kinda square in the picture, it’s just the angle that it was taken.  It’s a standard 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ card base.

Here’s how I did it:

1. Stamp the snowman image from The More the Merrier stamp set (#115322) onto a 3″ x 2″ piece of Very Vanilla card stock.  Use the Real Red, Old Olive and Close to Cocoa Stampin’ Write Markers to color in the snowmen’s accessories.  Use a Blender Pen to pick up some Baja Breeze Ink (retired) and trace around the lines of the different snowmen.  This gives them a little more color and dimension.
2. Mount the stamped image onto a 3-1/4″ x 2-1/4″ piece of Real Red card stock and set aside for now.
3. Cut a 2″ x 4-3/4″ piece of the snowflake paper from the Merry Moments designer series paper pack.  From the Old Olive striped paper, cut a piece that is 1-3/8″ x 4-3/4″.  Glue these to a 3-3/4″ x 5″ piece of Real Red card stock leaving a 1/8″ border all the way around and in between as shown.
4. Glue this to a 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″ card base.
5. Using Stampin’ Dimensionals, attach the stamped image to the card base.
6. Tie a piece of Real Red Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon into a knot and cut the ends at an angle to keep them from fraying.  Attach it to the stamped image in the top left corner using Mini Glue Dots.  I used one for the center and one on each end just to help make sure it would stay in place.

I hope you enjoyed this simple card tutorial.  Hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow to show you the other card I made.

Happy Stamping!

Supplies:  (All Stampin’ Up!)

Stamps:  The More the Merrier (shown right)
Paper: Old Olive, Real Red and Very Vanilla CS, Merry Moments DSP
Ink: Black Stazon, Baja Breeze (retired)
Other:  Stampin’ Write Markers, Dimensionals, Glue Stick, Grosgrain Ribbon, Blender Pens