Celebrate You Card

I really should wait a few weeks before sharing this with you, but I couldn't resist.



This will be just part of my July Studio 5 segment. Consider it an really early 'sneak-peek'! I will say NO MORE!

I've said this before and I'll say it over and over again until I'm really good at it, "USE your supplies!". I'm notorious (and you might find yourself in similar shoes) at going ga-ga over product in the stores, buying it, storing it and NEVER using it!

So, I was so happy to pull out this flower paper by My Mind's Eye last week and actually make something with it.

I thought It might be fun and interesting to take you through my design thought process and maybe you can answer the questions with your own stash.

1. Pull out product and ask "what do I love about it?"
Answer: the color, linear lines and cute flowers.

2. What do I want to emphasize?
Answer: Color and shape of flower.
Thought: Initially I fussy-cut out the flowers on the paper and even applied Ice Stickles to the center dots, but in the end decided this was FAR TOO fussy for the time-frame I had. The flowers were pretty small, so I decided to look for a larger similar flower in my die-cut stash. Found just what I was looking for with the new Cricut Home Decor Cartridge.



3. What complimentary colors do I want to use?
Answer: I love this part, getting to go through MORE stash. I decided on Orange for the flower and blues for the background.

4. Where do I put a sentiment?
Answer: This was easy, the big circle in the middle of the flower was a perfect way to use some of my circle stamps. This one is by Stampin Up.
Tip: Litte tags are great ways to add a sentiment without making it the star of the card, then again, sometimes you have a great sentiment that ends up being the focal point. Occasionally, I leave the sentiment for the inside. You can also hide the sentiment in a pocket or pull-out.

5. Just one more thing?
Answer: I love to add a little texture to a card. In this case, a little flower & brad in the center of the stamped sentiment.
Tip: Sometimes that little brad, button, flower, glitter etc...can add that extra detail that finishes the card. Always ask yourself, "does it need something else" and then have a trinket and treasure stash to go to.

Finito! I whipped up a BUNCH of these and used ALL that paper. I even had a bit extra to make a gift bag.

Hope you find some time this week to USE your stash!

Father's Day Blog & Give-away

Please visit the PaperCrafts Blog to see my latest post: MAD DAD SKILLS!

I have a little dedication to the Father of my children, some free downloads, a CRICUT cartridge give-away and a couple of fun cards just waiting to inspire you!




I also thought you might want to see some Father's Day cards I've made over the years for PaperCrafts...

Jamaican Papaya Salad

So, last night, after having extra ingredients from Studio 5 (watch video), I knew just what to make for dinner. For a little added protein and because I was too lazy to make anything else, I quickly butter-poached some garlic shrimp and added it to the top of the salad. yum.

So light, tasty and tangy. Hope you get a chance to try this. If you like a sweeter dressing, just add more honey or more of the papaya pulp.

Jamaican Papaya Salad
1 heard romaine lettuce, bite-sized pieces
1 lg. papaya, or two small, cut into thin wedges
1 english cucumber, cut into 2" long thin strips
1 avocado, cut into thin strips
1 large tomato (or more) vine-ripe tomatoes
1 cup sugar snap peas (or snow peas), you can blanch them of eat them raw

Dressing:
1/4" white wine vinegar
3 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 Tbsp. piece of red onion or shallot
1 large clove garlic, smashed
2/3 C. salad or olive oil
2 Tbsp. Papaya Flesh
2 Tbsp. Papaya seeds or to taste. These have a slightly peppery taste.

Blend all ingredients until smooth and papaya seeds looks like cracked pepper.

Thanks to my friend, Marlene Holden, who made this salad for me probably 20 years ago. Still wonderful after all these years.

Trend Alert: Fruit Basket

It's not surprising to see fruit all over our paper crafting products. Great silhouettes, colors and sweet associations. What's not to love? Well, actually, apricots...but that's another story.

Watch my segment below to see 3 fruit products and 3 fruit projects, from little girlie fun to sophisticated home decor. And when it's time to make dinner, check out my Jamaican Papaya Salad with it's cool dressing twist. It's at the Studio 5 website, but with the wrong picture. Hopefully that will be corrected soon, but either way, I'll be posting the recipe here a little later.

My first pick for product is from Doodlebug. Simply adorable patterns with strawberries and cherries. Their boutique brads are almost good enough to eat!

I created this little girlie trinket tote. I used Provo Crafts Chipboard purse, Maya Roads chipboard tags and rub-ons from American Crafts. What a fun summer-time project to make with your little girl (or maybe even your big one?).

I simply painted the chipboard, traced each side on the paper, trimmed, adhered and sanded off the edges. The rest is just embellishing with ribbon, tags and those yummy brads.

I discovered this cute little stamp company when I was researching fruit stamps. Check out Lizzie Anne's designs. I loved the mix of traditional fruit shapes with more contemporary patterns. Had so much fun creating this super simple gift bag.

I used my cat's eye ink pads to ink the rubber (blending slightly) and stamped randomly all over the bag and then added some of her sayings with black ink.

Sometimes I just love to simply stamp without nary an embellishment. Unless you count the tissue paper?

Lastly, I wanted to share a little technique called negative silhouette that works so perfectly with the shapes of fruits. Simply cut your shape but use the negative shape instead of the positive. Layer this over your choice of patterned paper (you could also stamp it) for a dramatic look.

I used an inexpensive shadowbox type frame or a floating frame. If your frame doesn't give you enough depth between layers you can add some with foam squares.

With Home decor you'll want to keep it simple, more graphic and with less embellishments. Here I've added a simple rhinestone and bead to highlight the leaves.

Note: Our Studio 5 sneak-peek winner is Sadie!

sadie said...

I am going to guess
1. preparing something with mango's
2. making a very cute hat box/or makeup box.
3. a pear from cricut shadow box.
4. a delicious salad
thanks sadie

June 14, 2009 6:49 PM

Sadie came the closest to guessing just what I was doing today. In fact, she was RIGHT on the pear silhouette. And the salad is definitely delicious. Since no one got it exactly, I think that means I made my pictures a bit too hard this time.

Sadie has won a collection of the adorable Doodlebug collection and a Provo Craft chipboard piece. Congratulations!

Studio 5 Sneak-Peek Contest

I'm all ready for Studio 5 this coming Monday (June 15th, 11am, channel 5) and as always like to tease you a little bit with these mini photos. If you can guess what I'll be doing (both papercrafting and cooking) you'll win a prize! Only one winner and since I probably made this TOO easy again, I'm looking for as exact a guess as possible.

Good luck and hope to see you (yes, I have xray tv vision and CAN see you watching me!) on Monday! Sue

The Color of Bliss

bliss: /’blis/
Noun
A state of
extreme
happiness.

Two of the happiest moments in my life have been the day I married my husband and each time I had a new baby in my arms. It truly was bliss.

This class it all about those moments and also a color. This beautiful, feminine, dreamy, aqua color is just blissful to me.



We'll be creating 5 projects, 1 adorable baby bunny buggy baggie (I just LOVE alliteration!), a wedding gift/check/cash card with pocket (which also can be made into a regular card by removing the 'both' tag, a glittery 'wedding bliss' card and two thank you cards using the cool combo dies by Cuttlebug.

My class schedule is as follows:

Wed. July 8th 10-noon South Jordan
Thurs. July 9th 6-8pm American Fork
Tues. July 14th 10-noon Sandy
Tues. July 14th 6-8pm Provo
Wed. July 15th 6-8pm West Jordan
Thurs. July 16th 6-8pm Orem
Fri. July 17th 2-4pm Centerville
Fri. July 17th 6-8pm Clinton

Please bring the following to class

Trimmer and scissors (fine tipped & Long)
Adhesive (Variety: Roller tape, pop-up foam squares, Dotto tape and Glue dots)
Bone Folder and 1/8" hole punch
2" circle punch and corner rounder
Exacto Knife & Self-healing mat
Cuttlebug Combo die (#37-1719 Heart Frame) and Cuttlebug if you have one.
Black ink pad (Versafine Black Onyx recommended)
Aqua Ink pad (Versamagic Aquatic Splash or Colorbox Glacier Ice recommended)
Ice Stickles (Crystal) by Ranger
Stamp set, Hero Arts Frames & Sentiments. See your studio coordinator to purchase this if you can't find it in the store.

As always, if you have any questions, please email. Hope to see you in July!

Mono Magic Class winners

Here are is my randomly generated BIG winner for May's class...Leela Smith in Jordan Landing! You'll be receiving a gift bag filled with papercrafting treasures, enjoy!

Our secondary winners (card samples from May's Mono Magic class) are

Janis Bischoff South Jordan
Judy Lund South Jordan
Pamela Hurst Centerville
Deaun Dye Clinton
Donna Hurst Clinton
Nicola O'Farrel Orem
Lureeta McMurdie Sandy

Congratulations! I'll be bringing prizes to class and if you're not there, will leave with the customer service desk to pick up at your convenience.

4 down. 1 to go.

My 4th child/1st daughter graduated from high school last week. I was doing just fine until I saw her after the ceremony was over. It was truly a watershed moment in more than one way.

After pulling myself together, I got into photography mode. Not the easiest thing to do when you have thousands of people milling about. I can't tell you how wonderful it was for me to see how happy my Emma was that day. Here's a little collage...



Always one to multi-task if possible, I did a graduation themed segment for Studio 5 a few weeks ago and have gotten a few requests to post the invitation and album I made for Emma on my blog.



I started with the graduation pictures we took last summer. I always purchase the CD and the rights to use these pics, because I always do! I also dug out a few photos of her school journey and created a little filmstrip in black and white. This quote by e.e.cummings fit the theme perfectly. It really was a simple card to make. This paper is by American Crafts. I used black photo corners, die-cut "AF" and printed the other sentiments from my computer. The card measures 5" x 5".

I had a 6" x 8" storybook album by Fancy Pants on hand and decided to transpose the basic elements from the card to the cover. I added that amazing "open" die-cut (from the Cricut Graphically speaking cartridge), cut a slit in the paper and threaded my filmstrip through it, so it could be pulled out.

I printed out some simple sheets for guests to write down some of their thoughts on (and they were GOOD!) and made sure to take pictures of Emma with all her guests to print out later and put together. There should be enough room to add pictures from her graduation ceremony as well.

I'm always a better 'before-hand' scrapbooker than after the fact! If you need more details on how to re-create these projects, please let me know.