Chickies aren't just for girls

I definitely love my DeNami Design chickies. I've taught many classes utilizing them over the years. Once again I wanted to use them for my class in May but wanted to do something different. I wanted to create some cards that will work to give to the men in our lives. I think stampers and crafters think these chickies are girlie and they cannot use them to make a card for a man. I picked a few chickies and created three cards that can be used for a multitude of occasions.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.

If you live nearby why not join me for my class at KEPT Creations on Sunday, May 5th from 1-3pm. You can pay online or call the store (781-447-4010) to sign up for the class.

Cardapolooza

I notice that many students that take crafting classes have a tendency to save the cards and projects they make in the class. I know people like to use them for inspiration or to refer to when making other cards, but I also think these cards should be used for those occasions that they were intended for. 

I've seen classes where you can make different versions of the same card. I liked this idea and thought that not only can you keep one for yourself but you can also use the extras. I decided to teach a class like this and put a different spin on it. These classes usually use several different stamp sets but I wanted to show people that you could do this same thing but use only one set of stamps. I picked the stamp set 'Flap Happy' from Paper Smooches and used some of the dies that go with this set.

What I like about this stamp set is that it has several different sentiments that could work different occasions. Plus, they could be used to create not only elegant cards but also cute and whimsical cards.

I went to my LSS Kept Creations and looked for papers that would work together as a sets. I knew I could create at least four different cards from the stamp set of I decided to make 3 cards for each style. I picked three papers for each set that would coordinate well together.

Here are the four sets of cards I taught in my class.

 For the first set I used the Secret Garden collection from Graphic 45

 I combined two different paper lines for the second set Canvas Corp and Pebbles

 For this set I used three different paper lines BoBunny, Jillibean Soup and Lawn Fawn

Last but not least I used Graphic 45, Bella Blvd and Echo Park

Hope this approach to cardmaking shows that you can make many cards from just one set of stamps. You can also use just the stamps, just the dies or both and by just changing the papers a little you have the same look but a slightly different card. 

Whoopie Pie Inchie

I just had to share my latest 'inchie' creation. Our inchie swap meets once a month at KEPT Creations and our challenge for April was 'Dessert.' I knew I wanted to make a 'whoppie pie' inchie for the swap. I applied brown Liquid Applique to the the top of two chipboard 'rinchies,' heated them to get puffiness and since the color wasn't exactly what I wanted I used my Copics to get the right shade of brown. Then I used white Liquid Applique on the other side of one rinchie and heated it. I put them together to form the whoopie pie.

Since I wanted to attach my info for the participants in swap, I added a small piece of paper under the white Liquid Applique and then adhered the other end to the other rinchie to create a hinge. 

The added bonus is I wanted to make inchie-sized whoopie pies. It took a little trial and error but I made them. 

It was so worth it. Each person received 6 inchie whoopie pies. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did creating them.

DeNami Design Halloween Blog Hop

  

It's finally here, the DeNami Design Halloween Blog Hop. I'm so excited to participate in this blog hop. I've loved these stamps for so long and now I get a chance to show everyone how much I adore them.

The blog hop starts today October 14th at 6 AM, PST. However, you have until October 15, 2012, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize). Make sure you comment as you go along the blog hop because DeNami Design is giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to their website! They'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random participant (DT members not eligible) and then they'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

If you are following along the blog hop you just came from Barbara Murphy's blog. There are loads of beautiful cards and whimsical cards in this blog hop. If you get lost along the way just go back to DeNami Design's blog to find the list of participants.

Here's the first card I created for Halloween. It's pretty simple and it utilizes the 'inchies' I so love.

DeNami Design keeps coming out with these cute chickie stamps and I just have to have them all! I stamped the new Franken-Chickie and Kitty-Chickie on the 'inchie' and colored them in with my copics and then ran a marker along the edges to give each one of them a border. Stamped the sentiment and colored it in with my copics too. I backed them with scalloped squares, mounted them on this diamond patterned paper and put it on a 3x6 inch card. Lastly, I added a small strip of black velvet ribbon.


This next card was something I wanted to do and this blog hop gave me the opportunity to try it out.

I had stamped all the chickie stamps on cardstock whenever I did a little make & take for my local stamp store. I picked the chickies that I thought would work well as costumes for Halloween. I stamped the three houses onto cardstock and colored it and the chickies with copics. I stamped the fence directly onto the card several times. I mounted the houses onto the card with foam tape. Then, I cut a few small pieces of gray cardstock and scored them to look like a sidewalk and adhered them along the bottom and also leading to the house. Next, if just randomly put the chickies along the sidewalk, some are popped up to give a little dimension. I punched out three circles from metallic cardstock, stamped the smallest with the 'Trick or tweet' stamp and popped each layer with foam tape.

My next project came as a brainstorm just before leaving for vacation last week. I bought a small 1x1 bag die by Memory Box a while ago thinking I would use it sometime in the future. I was trying to think of another idea for this blog hop that wasn't a card. As I was looking at the halloween petit four set and the friendly bat stamp, I thought it would be cute to create little 'trick or tweet' bags.

I cut out the bags from several different patterned paper and kraft cardstock. I stamped them in Brillance graphite black and sprinkled some clear embossing powder and heat set it to give the images a little pop.

I cut some leftover coils for binding in half, colored them with a black sharpie and bent them a little to create handles for some of the bags.

I also, stamped the spider and bat on cardstock and used atyouspica's to color them in and added 3mm googly eyes for a little character.

It was a little hard to find candy to fit in these little bags but the end result was cute and a great way to decorate a Halloween tree I picked up at Michaels.

I hope you enjoyed the cards and little bags. The next blog on you will hop to is Kristy Smith's. I know you'll enjoy all the creations along this blog hop.

BOO!!!!

Yes, it's that time of year again. Soon the kids will be on a sugar high and we adults will be desperately trying not to eat those bags of candy before the first trick or treater rings the doorbell.

As I have said before, I have an obsession with calendars of all kinds. Advent, countdown, monthly, yearly etc...

So for my first class at KEPT Creations I made a Halloween countdown calendar using the beautiful Graphic 45 Happy Haunting line.

Well, I always gripe that making my monthly calendars (6x6 or inchie) take everything out of me. I have to think up 12 different layouts/designs each time I do them. This time the store owner, Kim, said since I love calendars why not do a Halloween countdown. I figured why not, I already had the paper and embellishments. I mean how hard could it be.

Let me tell you this, 12 layouts is nothing compared to 31 pages and the cover, let's not forget about trying to come up with a cheap way to display it as so to keep the cost of the class down. After much sweat, tears and the OMG how the heck am I going to come up with the last 5 layouts! It was done.

I'll be teaching this class on Sunday, September 16th from noon-3pm at KEPT Creations in Whitman, MA. There are only three seats left as of today so if you still want to sign up call the store or click on this link and pay via paypal.

YUMMI DENAMI!

Yes, I know two posts in less than 24 hours, it's unheard of from me. But I just couldn't contain myself when I opened my door to see this....

Then I opened it and saw this...

Just a little of what was in the box; you'll see these featured in classes to come this fall...

Thank you DeNami Design for creating new chickies and plenty of more fantastic stamps for me to play with in my studio. Also, the turn around on my order was phenomenal. Ordered on Monday received today, Friday, don't forget there was a holiday in the middle of the week. Plus, there was a little sample of their twine! This company is great and cannot wait to create more classes using their stamps. In the future, look for classes featuring these stamps at KEPT Creations in Whitman, MA, which will be opening on September 1st, 2012.