Finally Friday and Time to Tie One On!!!

Hello all!!! Did I grab your attention with that title??? This week our creation comes from Adriana Benitez and has she been creative!!!

Here's what she has to say about her card:

I was playing around with ribbon the weekend and was trying to come up with a "different" way to use it. I thought I'd use the wider ribbon and see if I could get it to look like a man's tie. It worked!

I think you could use this for a Father's Day card, Congrats (promotion at work?), Graduation card, etc. But here I wanted to use this Cottage Wall paper so I made a Newlywed card instead. (I was hoping the two rhinestone brads on the top right would resemble earrings....)

Oh - and my hubby deserves some kudos - he held the paper and ribbon in front of him to show me how he ties a tie since I had no clue :)

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Paper: Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry,
Orchid Opulence
Other/Tools: Clear Circle Rhinestone Brads, Ice Circle Rhinestone
Brads, Large Oval punch, Movers & Shapers Die, Old Olive 5/8" Satin
Ribbon, Big Shot

What an awesome idea Adriana!!! Need to try this out, but I have no man to help me tie it!! I'll figure it out!!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~

Finally Friday - Decorated Candles!

Hello all!!! How's this post for some last minute gift giving inspiration?? I love to make candles and it always impresses people when you tell them it was stamped!!
This week Adriana has a little tutorial for us on how to create these amazing gifts, in no time at all!!!

Step 1. Stamp onto tissue paper.

Step 2. Put a sheet of printer paper under the tissue paper and punch out your image. A 1 3/8" circle fits the tealight candles exactly, but a 1 1/4" punch works well, too.

Step 3. Punch a 1/8" circle in the center.

Step 4. Discard the printer paper circle and place the stamped tissue paper circle over the candle. The wick should come up through the center 1/8" hole created in step 3.

Step 5. Heat the surface of the candle with a heat tool. You will see the wax begin to melt and the tissue paper begin to turn nearly clear as it absorbs the wax. Continue only until the paper is clear. (It's very fast - it will only take a few seconds!) And you are done! This is a quick project that makes for great last-minute gifts!

Thank you Adriana for this quick, and easy, project for all of those last minute gifts! I haven't yet tried stamping on tealights.

Happy Stamping!!!!

~~~Ann~~~

Finally Friday - A Cardinal Hello!

Hello all!!!  Here we are at another Finally Friday and I have a beautiful card to show you from Adriana this week.  She used the fantastic Christmas Cardinal set, but as you can see she made it a generic card - perfect for any ocassion.  Here's what she has to say about this guy!

A note about the cardinal on the card:

I used Watercolor Wonder Crayons (the Earth Elements family) to color in the entire image. I wanted the bird itself it be a little more vibrant, so even though I had already colored him with Ruby Red, I added another layer of Real Red over his head, face and back. For this, I just pulled ink from the lid of my ink pad using my aqua painter and painted directly over the RR color. I used the cross-hatch marks of the stamped image as a guide of where I could add additional color.


Supplies:

Stamps: A Cardinal Christmas (111760)
Ink: StazOn Black, Real Red Classic Ink (103133), Old Olive (102277)
Paper: Ruby Red (102030), Old Olive (100702), Chocolate Chip (102128), Merry Moments Designer Series Paper (116572), Watercolor Paper
Tools: Earth Elements Watercolor Wonder Crayons (106696), Aqua Painter (103954), Big Shot (113439), Impressions Pad (114614), Silicone Rubber(114615)
Embellishments: Earth Elements brads (106966), Stampin' Dimensionals(104430)

Thanks for sharing with us Adriana!  I love your tip on using the classic ink over the watercolor crayons to intensify the colors!  Must give that a try!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~

Finally Friday - Beachy Style!!

Hello all!!! This week our finally Friday project comes to us from Adrianna Benitez.

Here is what she has to say:

One of my favorite sets from our Occasions Mini Catalog is the set, Just Beachy. Summer time is fun-time around my house and, with only 5 weeks of school, it's coming up quick! I'm looking forward to using this set for beach scrapbook pages, but for today I have a card to share with you. I was thinking of the phrase "so many fish in the sea" and thought about how lucky I am to have my hubby. Think I'll surprise him with this card and see if I can coax a smile out of him after a stressful day at work.

The card base is made with Whisper White card stock, layered with Taken with Teal and Brocade Blue. I used those same colors in our Classic Ink to stamp several of the fish images from this set. To isolate the one fish (visually, at least!) I punched out a window with our 1" circle punch. I stamped the fish onto a scrap of whisper white card stock, used a blender pen to pick up ink from the lids of the pads mentioned above and then colored him in. I then mounted this piece behind the window and framed it with a piece our Silver Hodgepodge Hardware. ( I also added some Crystal Effects to the fish - he was looking a little dull!)

To finish the card, I used this sentiment from our Smarty Pants stamp set and stamped it with Night of Navy Classic Ink onto our card stock weight vellum. I ripped the edges before adhering it to the card just 'cause it looked better to me that way!

And that's it - my one good fish in the sea of many. Hope you enjoy the card!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~

Wonderful Wednesday!

Hello everyone! I hope your week has been spectacular so far! Today's blog project comes from Adriana Benitez, a fellow Florida Diva. It is just gorgeous! Adriana, I'm sure your mom will LOVE it!!

Without further ado...

I'm trying to be ahead (for once) and work on cards before I need them. Amazing how I can make cards nearly every day, but never have the birthday and special occasion cards I need for what's on my calender! So today, I decided to work on a card for my Mom. Her birthday is coming up next month, and I wanted to make a card for her that truly reflects her style. She loves our flowers and swirly-type images and anything classic looking. With that in mind, I put on some soft music and got to work! The card base is made from our Sahara Sand cardstock. Using Versamark ink, I rolled images from our Watercolor Vine jumbo wheel across the front of the card. Stampin' Pastels applied with sponge daubers allowed me to swirl a few different colors of chalk in different areas but still keep it soft. I also stamped a portion of our En Francais background stamp onto the bottom right corner of the card. Next, I rolled the wheel across vellum (again with the Versamark), and then heat embossed the images with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. Then I inked up the same roller with Perfect Plum Classic Ink and rolled it just once over the vellum. I attached this vellum piece to the top of the card with a glue dot in each corner. The top two dots are covered by the half-back pearls (part of our Pretties Kit); the lower edge is covered by the addition of ribbon and two additional dots. The main image from our Bloomin' Beautiful was stamped with StazOn onto watercolor paper. I used my Aqua Painter and ink from the lids of Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Mellow Moss Classic Ink pads. I trimmed the flower down using our very sharp Paper Snips then mounted the flower onto a scrap of watercolor paper using Stampin' Dimensionals. Voila! A card for my Mom :) I can't wait to give it to her and see what she thinks. I hope you like it, and thanks for stopping by!

Adriana B.

Until next week...

Happy Stampin'!

Elizabeth

An Inspired Tag

Happy Wednesday! Only 2 more days to go until the weekend! WooHoo! I have special plans for this weekend, too. :) I am driving to Tallahassee for my foster-grandmother's 90th birthday party! AND...I get to have breakfast with a fellow SU! demo and UDI sister, Jill, on Sunday before we head home! Yippee! Thanks to Stampin' Up! and UDI for introducing us!


Today's project comes to us from Adriana, a fellow Floridian. I have had the pleasure of spending time with her twice...once at Convention and again at Orlando Regionals. Thanks again to SU! and UDI! :)

Here's what Adriana said about her project:

This piece could be used as an oversized tag or as decoration. I will be hanging mine on the door to my office. The base of the project is an oversized laminate chip. I used StazOn black to stamp the silhouette flower image from "Inspired by Nature" onto the chip and the sentiment onto very vanilla cardstock. I roughed up the edges of the sentiment then toned the brightness of the paper down with stampin' pastels (applied with sponge daubers). Linen thread holds it in place and also ties together the olive and black grosgrain loops on the top of the tag. I added the rhinestones just for a little extra shine and shimmer.

What a fabulous idea, Adriana! I need to find some of those chips! Thanks so much for sharing with us!

See you all next week!

Happy Stampin'!

Elizabeth

Finally Friday x 2!!!

Hello all!! I hope this finds everyone enjoying a happy Friday and you find time to stamp and create!!! And yes, I know I missed last week, but I am planning early for this week and have this post set to go today!!!

For today, I have two special Diva's to highlight: Adriana Benitez and Stephanie Gittins. First off we have Adriana and her awesome creation!!!

Here's what she has to say:

Hello again! It's a rainy day here in Florida so I've been hiding out in my craft room :) I wanted to share another project with the group - I hope you like it. I like reading quotes and tend to save my favorite ones on sticky notes. I have this one note that I leave up all the time and it has started to lose it's "sticky"; so I figured it would be a good time to put it on something a
little more permanent. Here's my solution:

After coloring in the branch and tree images from Thoughts & Prayers with markers, I stamped them onto Very Vanilla cardstock. The quote itself was cut out of Basic Gray cardstock using the Big Shot and the Billboard alphabet die.

When you are cutting out the letters, keep in mind that some letters can be turned around to make others you need. For example, the p can be flipped to make a q , b or d. This is helpful when you need multiples of certain letters and don't want to spend all day cutting! Take the time to lay them all out on your project and see how they fit.

I used a small Xyron to apply adhesive to the letters. Note: When you run them through the

machine, you'll want to put them face up - the way you would read them - otherwise it will apply adhesive to the wrong side. Trust me on this.... lay them in the machine, then carefully let them slide down; a couple of mine kept wanting to turn over!

Once you have placed them on your project, use a rubber adhesive eraser to remove any extra adhesive from around the letters.

After laying out the words, I decided to only add photo corners (using our punch, of course!) and left off any additional ribbon, brads etc. so that it would fit nicely within the glass panes of the frame. Eventually, I may use ribbon to hang it from the wall but for now it will be resting on my bookshelf so no additional embellishment is necessary. I hope you enjoy the project and are inspired to make one of your own!

And here is what Stephanie has to show us:

Ribbon Flower Card

This is an adorable technique that we learned at the Stampin' Up! Convention last year. I am always looking for new ways to use ribbon.

This particular technique works best with wide ribbon- I love it the most with the 1 1/4" Pink Pirouette Grosgrain Ribbon, but this So Saffron ribbon is pretty cute too!

To make the flower, you just do a simple stitch along the edge of the ribbon. This is very easy sewing- just up and down, and you don't even have to be perfectly even. Then pull the thread until the ribbon gathers, and tie the thread in a knot. I finished it off with a Build-a-Brad, and
attached the whole thing with a Pop-Up Glue Dot.

You may have also noticed the two-color butterfly; this was done using the Rock & Roll Technique.

Paper: Sage Shadow, Cameo Coral & Whisper White cardstock
Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly
Inks: Cameo Coral, Sage Shadow, and So Saffron Classic Pads
Accessories: 7/8" So Saffron Poly-Twill Ribbon, Scallop Edge Punch, Ticket
Corner Punch, Pewter Build-a-Brad, Mini Glue Dots, Pop-Up Glue Dots, 1/2"
Circle Punch, Needle & Thread

Wonderful creations ladies and thanks so much for sharing them with us!!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann F. ~~~

Finally Friday Double Time!!

Hello Divas, Dude and all our stampin' visitors!! Sorry for the slacker I was last Friday and completely forgot to post!! And, I almost forgot today! Time sure flies when your having fun!! LOL!! This week we are showcasing 2 wonderful Divas, Adrianna Benitez and Stephanie Gittins! You are just going to love what they have for us!!

First up is Adriana and and is what she has to say:

Here's a card to bring some of the warm Florida weather to those who might be dealing with freezing weather today. Hope you enjoy it!

recipe:
stamps: Take Three (Retiring!), Flight of the Butterfly
ink: Tangerine Tango, Riding Hood Red, Apricot Appeal
paper: Tangerine Tango, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Summer Picnic DSP
punches: horizontal slot, corner rounder
other: paper piercer & mat pack, stampin' sponge, build a brad (I used the clear bubbles from this kit), white organdy ribbon (retired)

Thanks Adriana for bringing a little bit of sunshine to those of us in the cold north!

Next up is Stephanie with an awesome collection of designs for us to drool over!! Here is what she has to say:

This bag is simply a smaller version of the "Perfect Bag" Linda taught us to make at Convention! Instead of starting with a 12x12 piece of paper, I started with 6x6 pieces. This is a great way to use those cute 6x6 paper pads you can earn as a hostess! I scored 1 1/2" around three sides, so the finished bag is 3 x 4 1/2, and 1 1/2" deep. It's the perfect size for small but special gifts!

Recipe:

Mini Gift Bag

Paper: Riding Hood Red Prints Designer Series Paper.

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pirouette Pink, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Stamps: None!

Ink: Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker

Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, 1/8" Handheld Punch, Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Crafter's Tool Kit (paper piercing), Gold Brad, Sizzix Big Shot, Birds & Blooms Sizzlits

Enjoy and Happy Stamping everyone!!!

Ann

It's the 1st Wednesday of 2009!

Happy 2009 from Florida!

I am so excited! Stampin' Up!'s Leadership Conference starts today in Orlando! I hope my UDI sisters who are attending have a ball! I know they will enjoy the weather. Aside from some rain today, it's supposed to be sunny and in the 70s every day! I will be joining them on Saturday for Regionals! Yay! (I hope one of them will let me drool over the new catalog! LOL)

Today's projects are from another UDI sister in Florida, Adriana Benitez.

Take it away, Adriana!




















The layout is from splitcoast's weekly layout challenge (SC206). The first card is very basic making it a good choice for a stamp-a-stack or beginner stamper. The second one is good for a SAS also, but has a couple more steps with the additional use of the ticket corner punch and some grosgrain ribbon.

For both cards, the card base is creamy caramel cs. I've rubbed barely banana ink (direct to paper) on the edges - it doesn't really show in the photo but adds some interest to the card IRL. Other paper used is our Autumn Vine DSP (gonna miss this paper!), Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Baja Breeze, and Naturals White. Creamy Caramel ink was used for mr. monkey and the heart, chocolate chip for the main images and sentiment. I love the coffee cups on the 2nd card (this is one hostess set I will not be giving up!) so I'll be making up a bunch of these cards for my private use. I always look forward to a good cup of coffee with a friend so this card is very "me". lol.

Hope you enjoy these cards :)

Thanks for sharing with us, Adriana!

Until next week,
Happy Stampin'!
Elizabeth