An UNFROGETABLE spinner card tutorial!

Okay, I'm feeling like I'm back in action. Just in case you've never made a spinner card before, I thought I'd share a step by step tutorial on making one. And trust me, it's going to be UNFROGETABLE (somebody please stop me!). I'm VERY sad that SU! is retiring Unfrogetable. It's one of my favorites. And the funny thing is, it's not my typical type of stamping. I usually am not drawn to the cartoony type of stamps but I have used this one a lot. I think it might be because I have 2 boys and the frogs were easy to work with. Anyway, this card's origin starts with my great upline Kristin, quite a while ago. But it's an oldie but a goodie. I started with a piece of paper that had been cut down to 5 1/4" x 4" to accommodate being back layered later on. Start by taking your window punch and pushing it all the way in and leaving about 3/4" on the edge. Punch once. Now you will move the window punch over and overlapping your previous punch. Punch again. Now you will move it over one more time, leaving approximately 3/4" on the other edge of the card. There is no exact measurement that looks right, whatever you think is fine. Here is what your completed gutter should look like. Now I stamped over the gutter with the flowers from this set. Then I added the dragonfly and the "Hoppy Birthday". Now I lightly sponged with Bashful Blue around those images to make it look like a nice blue sky. This is what it looks like completed and colored. Now I took a piece of Certainly Celery and got out my new Scallop Edge Punch (coming in the new catalog-RUN to your demo and get one!)and punch a scalloped edge along one side. (Sorry the photo isn't totally crisp) Next I used a sponge with Certainly Celery to add texture to that piece, make it look a little more grass like. Next is coloring and cutting out two of the jumping frogs. Turn your frogs over and adhere a stamping dimensional to the center of their body. (Again, sorry for the photo, it looked good on my little screen but then on the computer I can see the quality isn't so great, but you get the idea) Now you place a penny over that dimensional and place another dimensional on top of the penny. Now you sneak that penny right into the gutter-it fits just perfectly. Now add another penny over the top of that dimensional to look like this. Last step is to add your other frog over the top. Here is your completed card. I added a 5 1/2"x 4 1/4" piece of Bashful Blue as a back layer. Now tip your card side to side and your little froggy should spin.

Spooky Sweets Candy Cup Tutorial

Finally, a new tutorial!!!!! So this is another inspiration that I took out of convention this year. These little candy cups are so cute and fairly simple to make. The first one takes the longest just to establish the the template, after that it's quick easy production. (Let me just say before you start looking, I realized that I have a couple of fussy pictures and I TOTALLY apologize. They looked okay on my little screen, but then when I edited-not so great. You'll get the idea, as they are kind of non-essential ones, but just wanted to apologize.)Alright, start with your Dixie cup. I think mine are 5 oz ones, the medium sized bathroom ones. Mine were the kind of waxy ones, I would maybe recommend getting the more papery ones.
Roll the curled edge of the cup up to make it easier for the next step.
Cut that top edge off following the line of the picture. Pull the cup apart at the seam and remove the bottom.
Your cup should be looking like this.
Use that to make a template out of a scrap that you can retain and use again and again.
Trace onto your designer paper. I was able to trace 4 of them onto a piece of 12x12.
Now cut out one of them, it should look like this.
Now you will wrap your cup. I used adhesive and sticky strip on the two connecting edges to make sure it would stay on.
Now before you see it finished, I wanted you to see my ribbon. I took orange ribbon from the Halloween pack I bought at Micheals, the Martha stuff. Then I stamped "Treats" from Spooky Sweets from Paper Trey. Viola, I have my own designer ribbon-fun huh?
Last I stamped the Spooky Sweets, punched it out with an oval punch (wish I had the scalloped one for that size, but alas I can't own everything.), direct to paper added the orange ink. Now pay attention this is the fun part: Punch a hole with your 1/8 hole punch and make a little snip up to the hole. This will allow your tag to sit right on your cup.
Here we are-ALL DONE!!! See how that little tag sits on there? FUN FUN FUN! Filled with Hershey nuggets that have been altered using Paper Trey's Spooky Sweets set.

ENJOY ALL!!!!

How to use a marker to emboss

Hi ladies. I wanted to share with you one of the "duh!!!" moments for me from convention. I love that as demo's we can continue learn from the company and in turn share with others. We got to go to this little break out session thing about 20 things to do with a marker, and I couldn't believe how many of the things were new to me. This was my favorite.Start by stamping your stamp in Versamark ink. The images that you will want for this technique are anything you would normally use a marker for direct to rubber. Flowers are perfect for this.
Your stamp should look like this, all shiny with versamark.
Now you will color over that with your marker like you normally would. I did find that your stamp should not be too slimy with versamark or it won't pick up the color too well.
Now you will turn and stamp. Then cover with clear embossing powder and heat set.
Here it is finished. Of course, it is more impressive IRL but if you've embossed before you'll get the idea! The tulip is from the Garden Whimsy set, papers are Old Olive, Real Red and Summer sun. (You'll notice in the picture above I was using an Orchid Opulence marker, but it look really yucky stamped so I switched to red, but didn't take a new picture.)
Thanks for stopping!!!

It's a GIGA FLOWER!!!!

All right, I'm BACK!!!!!!! Here's my lastest tutorial, you could look at it 2 ways-I'm either late with last weeks tutorial, or early for tomorrow!!! It's all a matter of perspective!!!! Well I decided that the Giga Circle punch just begs to be turned into a giant flower! If you don't have any of the scalloped punches, Stampin' Up is came out with a small circle scallop punch, and Paper Trey has 20 different scallop punches for sale including the elusive GIGA punches!!!!

So the obvious is that you need to punch out the circle GIGA punch.Now, I think you need to find the center of the flower so that you can make accurate cuts.
I even drew lines from the center line to the outer edge punch. You wouldn't have to do this if you believe that you can make accurate cuts, but it's easy to get off as you start to turn it around.
Next, make all your cuts to make your petals. My picture is shows the side that does not have the pencil marks on it.
Next I took my now "flower" and scrapped it along my ink pad to texturize it. You obviously don't have to this, but the cut edges will pick up the ink to give it some depth. I found this worked better than using a sponge to do it.
Here is your flower when it is done.
Here is my finished card. This is the Stampin' Up version of it. It is a 5x5 square card. I used some of the new colors: Purely Pomegranate, River Rock, and Soft Sky. The brown is Chocolate Chip. And of course, the fun new Rhinestone Brads from Stampin' Up. The set is Baroque Motifs. You cannot go wrong with this set in my opinion.
This is my Paper Trey version on it. This the Text Boxed set from them. The colored where inspired by my new purse that I bought the go to convention. (My demo friends Kristin and Brenda are going too, and we went shopping for pajama's for the first night at convention where we are supposed to wear pajamas...anyway, we ended up with matching pajama's, purses, and shoes, and socks-we are such dorks! But FUN MATCHING dorks!!!) The point is the colors are Certainly Celery, Ruby Red, Groovy Guava and So Saffron. Same size card, 5x5. Everything used is from the Text Boxed set. Enjoy!!! Send me a link to your card if you make a GIGA flower too!!!!!

I just thought of THUMPIN'

Today is How to Tuesday again. Today is a technique called thumping. It's a really simple put highly effective coloring tool. As a demonstrator we were able to purchase some of the new level 2 and level 3 hostess sets. The stamp I'm using is from a new set called Garden Silhouettes.You start by stamping up the entire stamp. I used Almost Amethyst. You need to use a light color as you will be adding darker colors to it.
I started off by going back over the stem pieces with a Chocolate Chip Marker. Now is the THUMPING. You simple take the Eggplant marker and thump it done in a random pattern across the flowers. Don't over do it. Less is more with this technique!
Huff on your stamp and stamp it. It will look like this when done.
Here is the finished project. The background in the linen stamp in River Rock-I'm diggin' the new neutral!!!!
Enjoy!!!!

How to make a Embossed Watercolor Picture

Well I succuessfully found time to post today. I can see with the children home for the summer it is going to be a challenge to find time to stamp and post. So here is today's HOW TO TUESDAY edition. I'm going to show you how to use your water color crayons to make a soft embossed image.You will need regular Whisper White paper, a Versamark pad, a Versamarker, watercolor crayons, clear and black embossing powder.
Step one is to stamp your image in versamark on the paper, then cover with black embossing powder.
You will then heat set it and it should look like this.
Next you take your watercolor crayons and make some color lines on your image. You are not trying to color it in, you just want the color on the page. I used Ruby Red and Summer Sun. Two colors work the best to get the nice blended effect at the end.
Now take your Versamark and blend the colors together. I went around and blended all the red first, then returned and did the yellow and blended them. Your Versamarker will work like a blender pen and it will not get ruined by the color, you just simple wipe it back and forth on scratch paper to get the color off the tip.
When you have finished blending this is what it should look like. I also used the old olive crayon for the green and went over the top with the Versamarker. Now you will cover this image with clear embossing powder and heat set it.
This is the image after heat setting.
I hope this translates well on the computer and you can see the nice raised embossed image it creates, but yet has the softness of the watercolors.
Here is the finished product. I used my scalloped scissors for the border, and the Palette o Prints Paper. I love this Natural Beauty set, it's one I'm bummed about seeing go. Good luck, post a comment with a link to a picture if you make one.