Kick Up Your Heels

We are definitely in the hot, muggy days of summer where just a little bit of rain makes the air so heavy.  But this is what we were wishing for back in January and February.

I have been plugging away at making swap cards for convention.  I'll be sharing those later.  But I took a break and created this fun card.  I had been neglecting this Bootiful Occasions set so I dusted it off and inked it up.

 

I used some retired paper with the Woodgrain embossing folder and the new stars frameless.  My favorite is the "rope" I made with the Baked Brown Sugar thick Bakers Twine.

Bootiful Thanks

Punxsutawney's famous groundhog predicts spring will come early this year.  Yay!!  With thousands watching on Gobbler's Knob in west-central Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his lair Saturday but didn't see his shadow.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/groundhog-day-punxsutawney-phil-predicts-early-spring-article-1.1253756#ixzz2JmPSXeNy

I've been working on my thank you cards and have even gotten them mailed!  Yay for me.  This one uses the Bootiful Occasions and some retired DSP.  The DSP is Well Worn and is on the Clearance rack so if you want it, scurry over there and put it in your cart.  The "thank you" is stamped with the Itty Bitty Banners set which is available FREE for Sale-a-bration.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!  Who do you predict will win the Super Bowl tomorrow?  From everything I am hearing, it is a hard one to predict.  I will be pulling for the Ravens for a couple of reasons.  This is the final game for Ray Lewis, a veteran player for Baltimore, and I would like to see a win for him.  Also, if San Francisco wins, they would have the same number of Super Bowl rings as the Steelers and I don't want that to happen!!  Whatever happens, I hope it is a good close game.

September Stamp Cub

This was Stamp Club week and my gals were dropping like flies!  I usually have 7-8 gals on Tuesday and on Thursday.  But Tuesday, I ended up with 6 after Marianne had to stay at work for a meeting and Thursday I ended up with 3!!  I had a couple of gals out sick, one out of town and one of my Thursday gals came on Tuesday instead and my Tuesday gal came on Thursday!  But the three that were here on Thursday really liked the intimate setting.  They said they didn't feel as rushed and were able to chat and visit while creating.  So, it all worked out.  We made some great cards I want to share with you.

 This is our Halloween card.  I used the Howlstooth ... DSP from the holiday mini.  I gave the gals the option of embossing the Apothecary Arts die with the Spider Web folder or stamping directly on the die piece without embossing.  I think everyone chose to emboss and thus had to stamp the boot (from Bootiful Occasions) out separately.  When they complained about cutting, I reminded them they had a choice!

 This was a fun card to make and is inspired by a card I saw on Pininterest.  It is a good way to use up those scraps of ribbon you have stuck in a jar somewhere.  We stamped the sentiment onto Certainly Celery first to make sure we had room for everything else.  It's hard to see from the picture, but we embossed all around the edges of the white piece with the Scorer.  The Little Leaves die is cut from the middle of the card.  I used some retired felt flowers with a pearl on top of the Baja Breeze ribbon.  The ribbon butterflies are gathered in the center with rhinestone brads (that I didn't realize had retired until today!!). 

 I think this card is my favorite.   I used the new Core'dinations cardstock from the Holiday Mini and sanded it so the white core would show.

Directions:

• ·       Round bottom corners of Cajun Craze card and Naturals Ivory cardstock
• ·        Sponge Espresso lightly around the edges of the Naturals Ivory and adhere it to card.
• ·        Stamp sentiment on bottom right of the Naturals Ivory.
• ·        Run the strip of Espresso Core’dinations (found in Holiday mini) through the Woodgrain embossing folder.
• ·        Use Sanding Block and lightly sand the Espresso strip.  Use the Tacky Cloth to wipe away dust particles.  Adhere to card.
• ·        Using Leaves #2 Sizzix Die  cut out 3 leaves.  Stamp leaves with text stamp from French Foliage set using Espresso ink.  Sponge edges; spritz with water and crumble up. Use glue to adhere to card.
• ·        Adhere choice of button to card.
• ·        If you decide to use a clear button (retired) like I did, punch a circle with the 1” Circle Punch and adhere with glue dot or a dot of glue to button.

This is a gift card holder that has an envelope inside for pockets.

Directions:

• ·      White cardstock – cut @ 8 ½” x 5 ½ ” / Score @ 2 ½” and 5 ¾”
• ·      Fold on score marks; the smaller flap will go on the inside.
• ·      Use a border punch and punch a border from Real Red cardstock; adhere to top flap
• ·      For the envelope insert, lick an envelope shut and fold it in half (side to side)
• ·      Cut about 1/3 of the envelope off (top of env. – not folded edge).  You want the envelope to fit inside the flap (where the reindeer is) and not stick up so cut the excess off.
• ·      Tape the envelope to itself so that you have 2 pockets.
• ·      Tape the envelope to the inside of the card so that it is secured to the bottom flap and the middle section   
•      Decorate
•         Crumb Cake Inserts – cut 4” x 2 ½”
•         White cardstock – cut 3 ¾” x 2 ¼” - layer on crumb cake insert
•         Punch a tab (Tab Punch) and adhere to top of each insert.
•      Make a belly band - cut cardstock about 7 1/2" x 1 1/2" and wrap around.

Bootiful Occasions

Another hot one today!  We tied the record I believe at 101 degrees and it's still 88 degrees at 9:30 pm.  We took our boat out this morning and went to breakfast.  Then we found a quiet cove to throw the anchor and swim.  We both had books to read on the boat but I could only read about a chapter before I had to jump in the water and cool off again.  I could only stand it for a couple of hours before I told Sonny we or go home or I was going to melt.  So, we went home and I got creative with one of my new stamp sets.

The Bootiful Occasions stamp set (found on page 50 of the new Stampin' Up catalog) was one of my "must have" sets when I first looked through the book.  It has four boot images and a “happy Boot-Day” sentiment.  I think it will be great for a masculine card as well as the Halloween image and the Christmas image.  Today I made three cards with it using all but the Christmas boot.  (I'll do it later in the week and share.)



Take #1 of the Halloween Boot

After taking the picture of the witches boot, I decided it needed a little something else.  So, I added a little bow.  What do you think? 

Take #2

close up of the bow

For the Witches Boot, I stamped the boot and the sentiment in Elegant Eggplant.  I cut this stamp apart so the image and the sentiment are separate.  Then I colored in the dots using a Copic marker.  Then I embossed the white card stock using the Spiderweb embossing folder.  The bottom Elegant Eggplant card stock is embossed with the Stripes embossing folder and then the edge was punched with the Scallop Edge Punch.  A strip of black cardstock was layered between the white and Eggplant.  I was able to tie that itty bitty bow using my Bow Maker.  Sonny is still making them if you are interested in purchasing one.

Next is the Cowboy Boot.  I can see all kinds of uses for this stamp!  I have lots of Texas friends that this stamp is perfect for.  I have gotten rid of all my cowboy boots (had black, navy, and red boots at one time).  This is another one I thought needed a little something else after I took the picture.



Take #1 Cowboy Boot

 

Take #2

I colored in the bottom part of the boot with the Midnight Muse marker.  Here are the deets:  Stamp the boot 3 times - once in Midnight Muse on the Crumb Cake cardstock; once in Midnight Muse onto white scrap and lastly the stars in Versamark on scrap white.  Use Cherry Cobbler embossing powder on the stars and adhere them to the boot with glue.  I used dimensionals to attach the white boot to the one stamped on the Crumb Cake. 

Ingredients for Cowboy Boot :

Paper:  Midnight Muse, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Newsprint DSP

Ink:  Midnight Muse, Versamark

Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler emb. powder, Heat Gun, Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine, dimensionals

Next is the Rain Boot card.  Do you know all the names for this shoe?  How about  rubber-boots, wellies, wellingtons, topboots, billy-boots, gumboots, gumbies, gummies, barnboots, wellieboots, muckboots, sheepboots, poopkickers, or rainboots!!  My friend Margaret calls them "wellies".  I like poopkickers!!  I wore these "wellies" a lot when I was gardening when we lived in Washington state but I haven't worn them much since we left.  They are great for mucking around in the mud!

I only did one take on this card - didn't see a need for any changes.  I used the Two Tags Die and my Big Shot to cut out the tag and stamped the boot in Black.  I used the Cherry Cobbler marker to color in the boot.  I used the Adorning Accents embossing folder (hearts) on the white card.  The Cherry Cobbler strip is die cut with the Adorning Accents Edgelit and then embossed with the Adorning Accents embossing folder (scallops).  The DSP is Twitterpated.  I drew the stems and leaves in with a marker for the flowers.  The flowers are punched out with the Itty Bitty Punch Pack.  I used a tiny pearl for the middle of each flower and a brad and a piece of red twine at the top of the tag.