Beverly's Stamping Beehive

This is a quick card I made featuring the following budget-friendly  supplies: - Forever in Time ready-made Black Chalkboard Cards (sold with white envelopes); - Jillibean Soup Ornament Shaker Clear Stamp Set - very   budget-friendly and 9 pcs!; - Avery Elle   Happy Howl-idays Clear Stamp Set  ; - Avery Elle Happy Howl-days Die; - DoCraft    Mistletoe Die. The ornament stamp is part of Jillibean Soup's Shape Shaker Program - a series of stamps, dies and inserts to create shaker cards naturally!  But I simply wanted a 'window-style' card to show off my dog stamp. I decided to try out the new chalkboard folded cards I had bought on a whim and my mind was set on trying to create a modern style card that a young professional would like. My daughter could then use it to give to anyone of her co-workers!  I think I did well :) I am not that great at colouring with alcohol markers like the copic markers yet ,  but I'll get the...

Happy Holidays !!!   How are you doing in your holiday count-down?  Good I hope :) My style of creating cards evolves over a period of weeks as I prioritize according to: distance to mail and who'll we will be seeing first; along with how labour-intensive the cards are. Meanwhile there are the local community good-will cards - these are simple designs so I can crank them out as I move along and give them out leisurely.    Each year I lovingly lay out my crafting space...new supplies all lay waiting to make my annual DIY holiday cards - something I like to do first thing in the morning with my first coffee - before the dog wakes up, lol.  Generally I plot out a plan for designs beginning early - think August! And it never goes to plan. This time, while digging around in my supply closet I discovered a box of left-over bits from years ago , and I thought " Holy Hannah! I've GOT to use these supplies up! "   So today's topic is ' Using Yo...

While shopping on our annual Christmas Church Fair Day - our beloved tradition of visiting local church's holiday craft fairs to find great handmade gifts during November, we found this great DOG BISCUIT WREATH and fell in love with it! So we bought it for a neighbour's pooch Lucy, a friend to our beloved dog Maggie! It was wrapped wonderfully, but no tag.  So when I found Impression Obsessions Challenge Quick Holiday Gifts  I decided to add a tag to the wreath and enter the challenge as well.  [click on link to take you to Impression Obsessions blog] It took minutes to make a quick tag using the Large Snowflake Die and a simple scalloped circle and a wee bit of twine. I left the snowflake diecut mainly intact for a bold look. The small snowflake I did remove (from the center), I used on the back of the tag. Easy peasy :) I added tiny red gems to the interior of the snowflake as the wreath's wrapping has a pretty elaborate ribbon but I adjust...

Whew what a long title! Sometimes its hard to put an aptly named title together for a project or my talent at this is minimal, but what IS important is that we share right? Right! And today I'd like to share this idea for a card with you because I think its a terrifically fun design that you could use again and again and get a "wow" reaction every time! And believe it or not, it folds into a 5 x 7 in. envelope {hurray!}...which is good for postal rates :) INSTRUCTIONS I followed the following instructions for cutting and folding.... Create the card body : CUT         6 x 11- 3/4 in     cardstock {minimum 80lb cardstock to support weight} SCORE   3- 1/4 ; 5 ; 6- 3/4 ; and 8- 1/2 inch marks FOLD     valley; mountain; mountain; valley  respectively  [creates a central panel which sticks out] Decorate each of the two flanking back panels with co-ordinating patterened paper and the central panel. [ I used ...

See this?   Stampendous's JUMBO POINSETTIA  Now see this......! Here is another card made from Stampendous's Jumbo Poinsettia Stamp [shown above].  Their "over-sized" stamps are the best for embossing purposes as well as for colouring! So, my daughter combined the two methods and created with this lovely card for her grandma!   I especially love the soft palette.  {ignore my name on photo - i label them this way for my blog purposes}  The stamp was embossed in Martha Stewart's SILVER Embossing Powder, and the image coloured with Copic BG72 ice Ocean and G21 Lime Green; and Stampin' Up's Tempting Turquoise Marker. A Colourless Blender was used to make some texturing effects - looks a bit like raindrops.   Using Stampin' Up's Label Framelits was also a stroke of genius on her part - they provided a background setting, a mini-label greeting - AND - a stencil for sponging inky accent colour. A Spellbind...

You know that point where its time to crunch down and finish card-making for the holidays?  Yep, that is about now....maybe a few last-minute cards to go, or one big fabulous one for your significant other or child, but its ' Do or Die ' now for me! So, I have been making multiples of some designs to make cards for the people in the neighbourhood who serve my coffee, or bag my items at the counter...all those indispensable people in my life! In fact, my cards are my little peace offerings in a way, because I can be a bore at times - well, probably a lot of times, lol! Yes, those wonderful people are too terrific at times - always anticipating my needs, so I hope they like the fact that my time and effort into handmade cards are my way of saying thanks for putting up with me during the year, ha ha! If you saw my Hot Drink Card post - that's for the staff at my corner coffee place.  But somehow I have made a lot of bird cards for everyone else - go figure! Here are so...

Holiday Greetings! Today I am sharing how I make templates for my card projects. HERE IS THE PROJECT I MADE WITH MY "HOT DRINK" TEMPLATE.... Hot Drink Christmas Card with Tree Motif Sleeve.  Red, White, Kraft and Patterned Cardstock, Hot Drink DIY Template, Tree and Snowflake Punches. Glitter and Gems, Pop Dots. ************* DIY TEMPLATES Depending what "idea" pops into my head for a project, there will always be a gap between what I own or what I do not own to help me create my masterpiece!  I might not own a popular die or perhaps one does not exist to make what I have in mind. Right now, I do not possess one of the many hot drink dies currently available and until I do, my remedy is to make a template. Now templates are a well-known resource - there are tons of free ones online. But I have this habit of wanting to create my own templates out of cereal boxes, lol.  Much like an old school tailor and his plethora of custom suit templates han...

Hey - back with my crazy project I mentioned!  Its a small canvas that I recycled {former life: an Easter bunny painting}into a colourful holiday decoration which now hangs in our bathroom!  We have a really bright bathroom in a turquoise and white colour scheme, so I thought an upbeat decoration could go in there to perk us up first thing in the morning, right? I slapped a very bright pink patterned paper over the canvas, and then had a ton of fun trying to stick a plastic mesh over top of that - I liked the mesh because it would add texture, and it is a bright sparkly white which is pretty. But it was dreadful trying to get it to stick down,...I managed with jots of sticky tape and a final brad to make double sure it stays in place. Where ever the sticky tape showed through the wide weave of the mesh, I sprinkled glitter, so it looks just fine. Next, I used my Big Shot and dies to assembled one of my Tim Holtz "ASSEMBLED SNOWMAN" and cut a sparkly turquoise Fleur-de-lis...

Good Morning Crafters! Another snow-less December day in our parts - which is good for me as I've been hanging the outdoor lights on our front entrance and today I need to put up a swag as well - lots of fun! Meanwhile I am keeping my thoughts to cards that need to be mailed away!  No sense making great hand-made cards trouble and then missing the important Due Dates - so sorry I am not posting as much because I am simply busy-busy! But this card is for a good guy!    'Andy'  kindly went through some trouble while I stayed at his home visiting his mom, and making him a card was fairly easy when you think of 'natural' materials {nice flecked & off-white cardstock for starters}...and I think its fair to say that wildlife is a popular choice!!! I love this deer - plus its one of my first sets of stamps, long ago from FLOURISHES  c 2007!  Goodness even the name of the set is FLOURISHED CHRISTMAS ,  and at the time, the scroll/flourished an...

CHRISTMAS  BOTTLE  TAGS TUTORIAL Here is one of the items which sold out fast at the craft fair I participated in Nov 10 [see earlier post]. I was told by my friend Maria, a fab crafter in her own right, t o do these but I didn't really think I needed to make that many - boy was I wrong! The nice thing is you can put th ese on WINE or WATER BOTTLES, and I think on any present which they could slip on to....maybe bubble bath bottle. right?  They are super easy to make - I used the following: Stampin' Up! Punches  2.5 inch Circle Punch 1. 3/4 inch Circle Punch Holiday Stocking Punch  Scallop Border Punch Corner Punch or Small Circle Punch Small Oval Punch {optional} Cardstock in minimum of 2 colours for tag Cardstock scraps for stockings   Glitter Cardstock for a ccents   {optional} To: and From: rubberstamps {optional} Instructions  [using cardstock of choice]  TOP OF TAG  1)...

Now that we snipped and glued our way through Christmas - its time to think about scrapbooking some of those pictures!  DO IT NOW - at least 2 pages!!!!   If we put them in a box - ya' know what happens, they will sit there ad infinitum! But - if you are like me, you purchased papers and accumulated a ton of scraps. I throw the scraps into a bin on the floor to save time. and so looking at it the other day and finding some old 'purchased' (gasp!) cards, I put two + two together and decided to do this...... and close up..... And...I like it!  Its bright and cheery - just what I wanted.  I have to make some choices as to how I will use it, but that will come a little later. The feeling of satisfaction I achieved was that I recycled, and I managed to use up more of the pricier papers....and if you have read my earlier posts, you know its important to me to use up what I have because, after all, we pay for it with our hard-earned money!   Now, I had one lady...

Happy Holidays! We're still in a festive mood around here...but a more "relaxed" affair, thank goodness!  I hope that for those of you who celebrate the Christmas Day on the 25th, that you have had an excellent one - and for those who have Christmas still to come - I also wish great tidings for you! However, today I was looking through my collection of  recent photos and thought to share this card I made for a lucky couple who travel a great deal, Eileen and Peter!  Thinking about the sunny surroundings one must enjoy if you were to celebrate Christmas far away from our frigid weather[emm-hmm!], I thought these two happy penguins reflected that!  Aren't they fun or what! So if you have friends or family who will enjoy a family holiday this year or one year in the future - maybe make them a vacationers Christmas card!  As far as that goes, take any stamp and put a Christmas theme to it by merely adding those symbols of the holidays - a Santa hat, a Christma...

Time to trim the tree! Do you like decorations - of course you do! Care to make some......sure, the easy way! Well one of the more 'fun' things to do in rubberstamping is when you work with a stamp set that allows you to a) stamp 2 parts to make a 'whole'  and  b) to interchange the design! TREE TRIMMINGS is one of those stamp sets !  You'll see it on page 44 of our main Canadian catalogue, IDEA BOOK & CATALOGUE in the ' H oli d ay s ' s ec t ion. I like stamping the ribbon stamp and then stamp any of the 3 decorations I choose to use beneath it - it's fun!! We made these cards at one of our demonstrator get-togethers and used the colours which match the holiday paper " A Cute Christmas " featured in our Holiday Mini Catalogue - see that striped cardstock - it goes with soooooo much!!!   Pretty in Pink was always one of my fav combos with Real Red !  Adding Baja Breeze (a muted blue) is then triple-delish! Besides against Whispe...

Hellooooo.....back to my blogging at last!  I've been hectic-smectic -  as I am sure "we all are" but tonight I am cleaning, watching Turner Classic and catching up on small projects, just need some chocolate an' I'm all snuggly-wuggly, lol! Here is another card I created not long ago.....its one of those with extra-love, so it would go to someone close and personal, like a family member or best friend. What I did which I liked especially here is I made my snowman a hat!  Just scrap felt and some crochet thread, and a little glitter glue!  I also used the scrap of the hat even - to add as snow in one corner.  May as well use up everything! I used our Stampin' Up!'s AQUA PAINT BRUSH to watercolour him using our STAMPIN' CHALKS....they work just fine as if they were watercolour paints. Of course, the paint brush with the water in its handle and the slick nylon brush make it easy.  A wee "squeeze" of the handle brings a drop(s) of water...

I created a Holiday 'WOW' Card Swap on Love is in the Details forum, and so here is what I considered to be my 'WOW' style!  I love birds and the bird cage is the icing on the cake! I also just purchased a new wheel stamp which creates Music Notes - and I have been just dyin' to get something like that, so I used it to create the crimped paper along the bottom. Here they are all together!  I have to make another for myself -  I always keep a sample one so I can include it with the cards I will receive from the others in the swap.  Don't they look pretty together? Here is the crimped paper 'ribbon' I created using our new Music Notes wheel - I squished the ends up into a partial 'fan' at one end and embellished with a snowflake, and the other end was cropped with our Scallop Border Trim punch.    I will come back [dead tired today from yesterday's craft fair!]...and provide more details on making this card ! :)   Now I am off soon to t...

Hi everybody! I am still working on my craft fair makes today - but I have time to share a quick post! Some of us need teacher's or student cards - and I have here one I made the other day which is suitable for the elementary level of school ...... I found this Santa Head die at a sale - it used to belong to Jenni from Scrapbooking by Design - whose store has sadly shut down (but not their online store!)...and it was very well used, but that says a lot for Sizzix dies, because its perfectly functional!  I don't know if many of you out there have the original Sizzix's, but this one is red. I only normally know the ones I sell from Stampin' Up! which come in grey.  Anyways, my point is that I ran Santa through my BIG SHOT and then I was sort of under-whelmed!  Yeah, I was....mmmm, not so much!  But then - I went to work on it!  I did the following.... SANTA His HAT... - coloured with chalk in REAL RED and glittered his hat with red glitter.  ...

Hi everyone, I thought I might show off some of my 'reindeer' cards!  I have a few stamps involving reindeer as a new one comes along every year for my collection...and the one constant that I like, is their antlers!  Reindeers also are a wonderful way to introduce the colour brown into the mix! So here are a few of my examples: This card (above) is one where I made - yes, MADE my own stamp - the birch bark trees!  I merely drew two styles of tree trunks on a double thickness of foam [like the kind in kids crafts], CUT them out...applied some repositionable glue to one side of each, and then stamped with them like I would with any other stamp! Foam actually works pretty good - it has a nice smooth yet absorbant surface for the ink and transfers the ink to your paper or fabric, etc. very well too!   Reason I made one is that I did not have a tree trunk like I envisioned for this card. After stamping the trees in WHITE CRAFT INK, I stamped my 2 different stam...