Symphony jumbo wheel stamp cards, Thank You, Best Wishes

After some experimentation, these music theme cards came out very stylish without coloring the instruments.  I tried coloring them before, but they came out garish.  Cards are 5"x7" and use 1 1/2 letter-sized sheets.  It's good for using up card stock, of which I have about 2000+ sheets!

Thank You card

Supplies Thank You card:
SU jumbo wheel Symphony retired.
SU jumbo wheel Leaves and Swirls retired.
SU rose red ink pad, card stock, and ribbon.
SU pink pirouette and regal rose card stock for matting.  White card stock, generic.
SU cherry cobbler twine.
SU "Thank You" single stamp.
Versa Fine black ink pad

Inside of wedding card

SU 1 1/4" square scallop punch.

Best Wishes - wedding card

Supplies Best Wishes:
Word stamps, SU retired Elegant Greetings.
SU white organza ribbon.
Smooch pearlescent white on torn edge.
SU pink pirouette, rose red, and white card stock.
SU rose red and regal rose ink pad retired.
Versa Fine black ink pad.
Labels 16 Sizzix die for cutting word frame.
Big Kick machine.

SU = Stampin' Up!

Father's Day sailboat card remake.

This redesign uses a textured embossing folder and earthy side card "hinges".  I saw this design on www.splitcoaststampers.com and I cased it.

Supplies:
Inkadinkado sailboat stamp
Stampin' Up! word stamp, Uncharted Territory set.
Stampin' Up! Word Window punch
Stampin' Up! Key Tag punch retired
cardstock: Stampin' Up! tempting turquoise, white, wild wasabi, carribean retired, cocoa retired; DCWV olive-green.
Stampin' Up! Square Lattice embossing folder
2 small black brads
VersaFine black ink pad, white-out pen for wave foam
SU color markers in blues/greens.
Big-Kick die cutting machine.

Mother's Day card using Music Expressions Stampin' Up! set

Here are a few cards I made using retired Stampin' Up! stamp set Music Expressions. My friend Cami came over and we tried making different designs.  I finished several where I used watercolor brush to color in the violin and flowers.  I accented swirl iron works in green.  Bird has glitter applied.  Card is 5"x7".
(Add blue card image, colored in.)

Quick Valentine's Day Cards

After making some Owl Flip Cards, which took very long time, my friend Sharul wanted to make a few quick cards.  She made 6 gift-tag size cards to include with her treat bags, and I made 4 quick Fancy Heart valentine's cards.

These were super fast to make, about 10 minutes per card.  The tag is just embossed in red and tied with a ridinghood ribbon. Card base is 3.5"x2.75" in textured pink.
For the valentine's card, I measured the Fancy Heart stamp (All Night Media) and cut white card stock (2.25"x3") and rose red matting card stock (2.5"x3.25") to size.  The base is pink pirouette card stock, with a layer of Anna Griffin pink designer paper cut slightly smaller, and accented with ridinghood ribbon.  Sentiment uses Stampin' Up! P.S. I Love You stampset and Modern Label punch.  After everything is cut, the main image is just stamped using craft red ink (not embossed).  Then everything is assembled with double sided tape and some pop-up dots.

Christmas card designs for 2012

My friend Sharul came over and we made a few Christmas Card designs for this year.  She is going to give the ornament punch card to her in-laws.  I am thinking of making more of the stocking punch cards for this year's Christmas mailing list.

Update: several of my green inkpads dried out and will not give me solid impressions.  This is because my home is very dry during December.  Afterwards, I bought Ranger's ink refresher for $5 in a spray bottle.  This is a money saving tip for those times when the inkpad is just dry and does not need to be reinked.  It may also prolong inkpads for which you don't have a matching reinker.

Update - Sketch Challenge

Here are two new designs using marina mist and daffodil card stock.  The colors match a knitting needle case I am making for a friend.  Also, I wanted to try a different color scheme using a blue-yellow theme.  Additional cards designed by Stampin' Up! demonstrators in California. They meet with Annette Wen, my good friend, teacher, and demonstrator in Palo Alto, California.  Photos sent by Annette in Oct 2011.

Sketch Challenge

Card with string, vertical lamb.

This is my first sketch challenge.  Annette Wen, my good friend and demonstrator, posted this challenge in October 2011. http://www.stampinwithannette.blogspot.com/2011/10/demonstrator-stamp-n-chat-card.html  I am just now posting my card photos that I made last year.  I used the Hand Knit $15 stampset from Stampin' Up! which will still be available in the 2012-2013 catalog. I made 12 cards and recovered the cost of this stampset.

Sketch template

Card with ribbon, horizontal lamb.

Punches: Decorative Label $17, Modern Label $17, Scallop Trim Border $16, Boho Blossoms $17, and 1/16" circle punch $9 (or push pin).
Accents: silver glimmer cardstock, white 1/4" ribbon, white 5/8" organza ribbon, baker's twine cherry, and wasabi brads.
Cardstock: daffodile, wasabi, and white.

The flowers are silver glimmer cardstock punched using Boho Blossoms punch.  The wasabi "frame" for the lamb is created by punching out a 2nd piece from wasabi cardstock using Decorative Label punch. Then cut it into 4 pieces & stick it to the back of the 1st white Decorative Label piece.  I learned this trick from reading my friend Lynda Lee's blog!  She's an M.D. and loves to stamp.  http://stampingdoc.blogspot.com/

Halloween Pillow Box project

My friend Sharul came over and we made some fun Halloween pillow boxes using Stampin' Up! Pillow Box die $20. Batty For You stamp is a set of 8 circular stamps for $24. Bat punch is retired Stampin' Up! bought on sale for $10. Spooky skull is a rub-on, also retired and bought on sale for $5 for 2 full sheets, one white and one black. 

The silver bats are punched from the new glimmer paper ($2.50/sheet) from Stampin' Up!  They are a bit thinner than AC Cardstock glitter paper ($2/sheet) from A.C. Moore.  Stampin' Up! glimmer paper also works with my Northern Frost extended sizzlits die (snowflakes), which I am really excited about.  Paper side should face the die blades instead of the glitter side.  It takes a long time to individually apply glitter to snowflakes after they have been cut out.  I am going to remake my snowflake cards from last year using the silver glimmer paper.  The AC Cardstock glitter paper does not work with the thinner die, but large punches do cut the paper (but not small punches).  AC Cardstock glitter paper is available in more colors.  The white bat is punched from this paper.

Winter Birthday 2010

Fangs for the Memories, Birthday Card for my Dad

I sent this Halloween Birthday card to my Dad, whose birthday is on October 25th.  My parents moved to Korea on a whim and sold their house in Virginia. So far, they seem to love it there.  They get three Korean meals a day cooked for them by the condo association and they go on fun outings for seniors.  They live in a megaplex for retirees.

All supplies from Stampin' Up! except where noted:
New from winter catalog Halloween Hang Ups jumbo wheel $8.50, retired acorns wheel $2, Batty For You stamp set $24, 1-3/8" circle punch $16, 1" circle punch $11, 1-3/4" scallop circle punch $17, black 1/4" grosgrain ribbon $5, retired card stocks close to cocoa, crushed curry, and cameo coral, cherry cobbler ink pad $6, VersaFine black ink pad $9, VersaFine sepia ink pad $5, and Martha Stewart scallop wheel cutter $5.  Prices are approximate.  Many can be had on sale for lower prices or during January-March Stampin' Up! Salebrations with many freebies thrown in.  The "birthday wishes" stamp is a freebie from this year's Salebrations.  The Batty For You stamp set is really cute and has 8 circular stamps with sentiment encircling the image.  My Halloween Pillow Box project uses some of the other stamps from the set.

Embossing and Stenciling Supplies

Some of the video classes will cover the very popular heat embossing, and the infrequently used but beautiful dry embossing with metal stencils.

Additional heat embossing supplies:

• Heat embossing gun
• White embossing powder
• VersaMark clear or tinted embossing ink pad
• Scrap paper, printing/copying paper.
• Optional, other most used embossing powder: silver, red, black, clear, gold.

Additional dry embossing and stenciling supplies:

• Two Dreamweaver Stencils - Mushrooms and Koi are used, but you can pick others.
• Low-tack removeable tape, Scotch Magic removeable tape recommended for a clean removal. 
• Dry embossing tool, medium tip - shaped like a pencil with ball bearings at tips.
• Bees' Wax, or a small white candle - to rub on card stock before dry embossing.
• Glass table & small lamp that fits under the table. (You can buy a light box, but I rarely use mine.)
• Brilliance tri-color ink pad - Metallic, Peacock, and Aurora.
• Finger daubers 6-9, several Fantastiques, and 1 large dauber.

These Brilliance ink pads have a shimmery shine, and they go on dry when used with finger daubers.  For coloring over metal stencils, I find the Brilliance ink pads with daubers to be the best, fool-proof method.. Fantastiques (crayon shaped foam applicators) are useful to getting colors into small corners.  Daubers can be used to apply ink to a rubber stamp, and is especially helpful for the middle color in the ink pad.  Use the large dauber to quickly ink up a large stamp.  These three ink pads gives you 9 colors to use for stamping with rubber stamps or for coloring stenciled or stamped images.  They take up less space than carrying 9 full sized ink pads, and saves money too.

Returning to Blogspot.com for my Budget Crafter blog

Hello,

I have decided to return to using Blogspot.com for my crafting blog.  I had used VOX.com but they closed the business.  My crafting blog was temporarily located at typepad.com, but I did not see an easy way to list older blogs on the side column.  Since Google bought Blogspot, I am hoping there were some improvements in user interface.  Also, Annette Wen, my crafting teacher from California uses it!  I decided to formally change the blog's title to "Budget Crafter."  I am planning to post a series of 10 class videos for newbie card makers.  I will also sell kits for newbie card makers so they can start learning this incredibly empowering and creative hobby of handmade cards with as small a budget as possible.
Happy Crafting!   from Jennifer Yoon