Awesome News!!!

They say good things come in threes, right?  I swear this is my last post today, lol. This past week I received two pieces of good news and I'm so excited I had to share!  :)

Firstly I found out that this card won a prize at Party Time Tuesdays!

As this card was one of my most favourite that I've made recently I was really excited!  I will be receiving a prize from Crafty Sentiments Designs which makes this even more fun!

While that was a fun bit of news, the second bit was the best news.  I was chosen to be a member of the design team at Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges!!

I am soooo excited! I love the premise of the challenges.  Every week the challenge consists of a topic or question. There will be a different challenge every week of the year.  You can participate during the month to receive a prize, but if you would like to catch up the challenges are left open until the end of the year.  Some of the design team members are making a book of their projects so that they can document their crafty journey throughout the year.  Great idea, eh?!  My first post will be on July 6 but don't wait until then to visit, they have a great challenge going on right now asking you to use the first three things you grab in your craft room, or three things the same.  Since I'm not officially a member of the team yet I couldn't help but join in!  :)

Woven Ribbon Cardfront - I love ribbon!

As you may have gathered from the name of this blog, I really love ribbon.  If you read my last post (or click here) you know I was lucky enough to be asked to write a tutorial based on this original card.  Of course, to do a tutorial I had to make a new card and this is what I came up with:

I started with the stamp set  "Relax a Bit" from Marks Finest Papers that I won from a Speedy Fox challenge a few weeks back.  I love this stamp set!  I collect teapots so it was the perfect addition to my stamp collection.  I thought that the Authentique 6x6 Gathering collection would go well with this set.  Once I decided on patterns I chose ribbons and card stock to coordinate. 

I cut, scored, and die cut all of the basic pieces, then heat embossed the images I wanted to use on the patterned paper in black.  This is the first time I paper pieced with embossing and I found it really easy to cut everything out as I could almost let the raised image guide my scissors. It also helped me stay in the lines when colouring.  I used my craft knife to cut out the handle of the teapot and the inside of the teabag string.

Once I had all of my elements ready I completed the woven ribbon panel.  I adhered the panel to the card front with Scotch ATG adhesive and glue dots.  Because the ribbon panel is quite heavy it is important to use a strong adhesive.  The die cut piece was foam taped over the top.

I added some faux stitching, adhered the teapot, added some twine, and Prima flowers.  I glued the teabag to the Prima flowers, and foam taped the sentiment at the bottom.  This card took some time to make, but I think it was worth it!

 Since the front had so much going on I kept the inside simple with just a stamped verse.  I love this quote!  This would be a great card for a pick-me-up.

Again, I made this card because Debbie from Friends of Speedy TV asked me to write this tutorial for them.  If  you haven't already, take some time to visit Friends of Speedy TV.  They have a great tutorial section among other fun things.  You won't regret you did!  :)

I used the following  supplies:

Cardstock:  Gina K Pure Luxury 120# Pure Ivory, Stampin' Up!  Very Vanilla.

Stamps:  Mark's Finest Papers Relax a Bit.

Ink:  Versamark Watermark Ink, Stampin' Up! Black Embossing Powder, Memento Tuxedo Black.

Markers:  Bic Mark Its Sunset Orange, Hot Aqua.  Black felt tip marker.

Ribbon:  American Crafts Premium Satin Ribbon.

Embellishments:  Prima Flowers Mellise Nature Garden,  Stampin' Up!  Basic Jewels Rhinestones.

Adhesive:  Scotch ATG, Stampin' Up|!  Sticky Strip, Zots, Quickie Glue Pen, foam squares.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, bone folder, scissors, Cuttlebug, Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Small, heat tool, Fiskars craft knife.


I am entering this card into the following challenges:

1. Pause Dream Enjoy - #22 Use your favourite quote or verse.
2. Papertake Weekly - Bingo! (Ribbon/ Free (Gems)/ Blooms)
3. Allsorts - Any die will do
4. Pile it On - Make your own embellishments
5. Friends of Speedy TV Tutorial Time - Heat Embossing

Woven Ribbon - My first tutorial!

Remember this card I did a while back?  Well Debbie from Designing with Debbie, Mark's Finest Papers, and Friends of Speedy TV liked it so much she asked me to do a tutorial on how I created the background for the tutorial section of Friends of Speedy TV.  How exciting is that?!

I asked Debbie if it was ok if I posted my tutorial here, and since she was ok with that here it is!  I was thinking of starting a tutorial section on my blog anyway, so this will be post #1.  Thanks Debbie!  :)

Supplies needed:

Ribbon – Various shades of 3/8” width ribbon.  10 lengths cut to 5 ½” and 13 lengths cut to 4 ¼”.

Cardstock – Card base cut to standard A2 size – 5 ½” by 4 ¼”. Piece for card front cut to 5 ¼” by 4”, die cut with a circle or oval die.  Piece for woven panel cut to 4 7/8” by 3 5/8”

Adhesive – Sticky double sided adhesive.  I used Sticky Strip from Stampin’ Up!, but there are other brands that work just as well.  It is also a good idea to have some glue dots on hand when finishing.

Step 1:  Apply the sticky adhesive to all four sides of the smallest piece of cardstock.

Step 2:  Remove the adhesive liner from one short end of the panel.  Start adhering the longer pieces of ribbon making sure they are as close together as possible without overlapping.

Step 3:  Remove the adhesive liner from one long side of the panel and start adhering the shorter pieces of ribbon in the same manner as the previous step.  Make sure the first piece is up against the edge of the panel.  It may be necessary to overlap one of the pieces from the first side.

This is how your project should look so far:

Step 3:  Flip the panel over.  At the top of the panel weave the first short piece with the longer pieces of ribbon.  Stick the end to the adhesive on the backside of the card.  The easiest way to do this is to remove the liner as you go so that the panel doesn’t get stuck to anything you don’t want it to.

Step 4:  Continue with the remaining pieces of ribbon, alternating how each row is woven.

This how the back of the piece should look so far:

Step 5:  When you get to the bottom pull the ends of the long ribbons to help flatten the fabric you’ve created.  The ribbons may pucker a bit but this will add interest.

Step 6:  Flip over your piece and adhere the remaining ends.  If there are any pieces lifting from the adhesive that won’t stay stuck, you may wish to glue these down with glue dots.

This is how the back should look:

This is how the front should look:

Step 7:  Assemble your card.  Since the piece will be heavier than usual make sure you use a strong adhesive to adhere the panel to the card front.  Adhere the die-cut piece to the ribbon panel  with foam tape.

Step 8:  Decorate according to your preference.  Here is a close up of the finished panel assembled:

You can find my finished card here!!

By the way, if you haven't seen Friends of Speedy TV tutorial section, it is a great resource with tons of great techniques.  The site is free to join, and you may learn something you didn't already know!   I already linked to the site above but if you don't want to scroll back up you can find it here.  :)

Sparkly Butterflies - Craft Your Passion Challenge #116

So here it is, my fourth and final week as guest designer at Craft Your Passion Challenges.  I've really enjoyed this opportunity, and I'm so thankful to Craft Your Passion for having me!

This week the challenge is Things with Wings, and is being sponsored by Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps.  I got to chose a digital image to work with, and I love this Floppy Latte Design called Butterflies in the Grass.

Once my image was chosen I had the idea to use three colours of washi tape.  I decided on which colours I wanted to use, I thought three bright colours would be pretty and summery.  I printed the image on cream cardstock, heat set the image, and coloured it to match the shades of tape. I corner rounded the image and inked the edges with green.

I chose a cream cardstock base, and kraft to layer  After corner rounding the bottom of both pieces, I added green ink to both the card base and the layering piece.  At this point I adhered strips of tape, using two strips of each colour, layering them slightly when pressing them down. I made sure that when tearing the ends they were jagged for a bit of interest.

Matching shades of satin ribbon was layered over the washi tape and knotted.  This was a cheater knot, as I cut the longer piece just long enough to zot each end to the back, then tied a separate smaller piece to make the knot.  I like doing it this way because you save ribbon, and it is much easier to get the knot to lie the way you want it to.  I secured the knot in place with a Zot.

Once the ribbon was adhered I foam taped the image in place.  I added Sakura glitter pen to the lighter areas of the butterflies, and also outlined each butterfly.  I decided that this wasn't enough though, and finished the image off with some rhinestones.

I decided to make this a thank you card so inside I added some strips of tape, and a small corner rounded piece of kraft with the sentiment stamped on it in black.  I added a few more rhinestones to finish it off.

I used the following products:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake.  Gina K Designs Pure Luxury 120# Pure Ivory.

Stamps:  Stitchy Bear Butterflies In the Grass.  Stampin' Up! Kindness Matters.

Markers:  Stampin' Up!  Stampin' Write Markers Certainly Celery, Orchid Opulence, Bashful Bue, not Quite Navy, Rose Red, Summer Sun, Regal Rose.  Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Stardust.

Ink:  Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Olive Pastel.  Memories Black.

Embellishments:  My Minds Eye Indie Chic Paper Tape, American Crafts Statin Ribbon, Stampin' Up! Basic Jewels Rhinestones.

Adhesives:  Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive Runner, Zots, foam squares.

Other Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, bone folder,  We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, artist sponge.


I'm entering into the following challenges:

1. Deep Ocean - Welcome Summer
2. Creative Card Crew - Easy as 1, 2, 3 - 1 image, 2 butterflies, 3 ribbons and washi tapes 
3. Ladybug Crafts Ink - Double Trouble 
4. Charisma Cardz - Summer

Mustaches for Father's Day

Hi All!  Tonight I thought I'd share the card I made for our Dads for father's day. I'm late because I didn't want to post this before I mailed them and me being me I mailed them at the very last second.   I was originally going to make a card specific to each, but since they are all current or former 'mustache men', and I loved this card so much, they each got one.

I started with the stamps.  I was looking at stamps online when I was getting ready to make this card and I was thinking that I wished I had a mustache stamp or some patterned paper.  Then I thought, why don't I carve my own stamps?  Problem solved!

The stamps didn't turn out perfectly, but I think that's part of the charm.  Once I had the stamps, I started by choosing the card stock, some coordinating ink, and some Bazzill Basics newsprint paper that I must admit I've been 'saving' for a special occasion, lol.

On a piece of cream card stock I stamped a series of mustaches with the orange and beige inks, using the smaller stamps.  I cut all of the papers down to the size I wanted and inked the edges of everything with either shade of ink.

I stamped the larger mustache in black and cut it out.  I assembled the background panel, including the newsprint, added twine, and adhered it to the card front.  I assembled the smaller panel, added the handwritten tag and some mini brads, and adhered it to the card front with foam squares.  The big mustache was adhered with more foam squares.

For the center I just added an inked piece of cream matted with orange, and one of the smaller mustaches stamped in black in the corner.  Simple and lots of room for hand written sentiments. :)


I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Recollections Kraft, Stampin' Up! Dusty Durango, Very Vanilla, Basic Black.  Bazzill Basics Antique Newsprint.

Stamps:  Hand carved mustaches.

Ink:  Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink  Creamy Brown, Tangerine.

Adhesive:  Scotch ATG, foam squares.

Embellishments:  Recollections mini brads, hemp twine from stash.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, bone folder, scissors, sponge, Stampin' Up! Large Tag Punch.


I would like to enter the following challenges:

1. Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges - Use 3 of something.  (3 mustache stamps, 3 ink colours, and I wrapped the twine 3 times around the card front).
2. Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenges - Boy Attitude
3. Simon Says Stamp and Show - A bit of brown