Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Frosting Recipe

I forgot to include this in my cupcake post and was reminded when Lynn at SCS left a very nice comment. I don't have a lot of time for cooking so I am a big fan of semi-homemade stuff ala sandra lee. I saw a show where she added a teaspoon of vanilla to a can of store bought frosting and tried it out. It was a bit better but I came up with my own recipe.

1 can of (your choice of flavor, I like the cream cheese) frosting. I like the Duncan Hines brand myself.
3 ounces marshmallow cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Mix well. It is a bit more runny (and sweeter) than normal frosting but it tastes a little more homemade than directly from the can. Happy Baking!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Shrinky Cupcake Decorations



First, I just want to say THANK YOU to my wonderful husband for putting up the shelves in my craft room!


I promised one more idea (for now)for shrinkies and here it is. I pretty much followed the same procedure from the Shrinking Ian tutorial with a couple major exceptions for safety reasons.
1. I replaced the stazon ink with Stampin up's water based ink.
2. I didn't put the varnish coat on top.
3. I used bakers edible glitter on the fairy.
The shrink plastic says it is non-toxic so I am taking them at their word on this. Though, I probably wouldn't allow the kiddies to chew on these. I figure they can't be any worse than the ones made in china that are found on your local bakery cupcakes. I did lick them to check it out and I'm still alive:). Also, I learned a lesson about shrink plastic quality. I ran out of my Darcie's shrink and used another brand. I was not able to get the nice shading with the blending pencil that I did with Darcie's so I definitely recommend ordering some if you want high quality work.

For the images that were too intricate to cut the shape I just made a shape around them and decorated the edges ( I can't ever leave naked edges) and added a little stem at the bottom for inserting into the cupcake.



Here are a couple stamps I used along with the shrunken results.
























Stamps - SU - vertical greetings
The Greetin Farm -Fairy chloe
Stampingbella - Lulu ketto
Whipper snapper - floppy bunny

Saturday, March 28, 2009

In like a lion - Out like a lamb


This card was made for the
SCS Limited supply challenge. I had this idea in my head ever since I recieved the Wild Things stamps from The Greeting Farm. I envisioned pretty spring-like pastels and never ever would have thought about doing black and white until the whole lamb thing came up in the challenge. You see the limited supply was the color - only black and white were to be used. So black and white is was. I will definitely do this in spring colors also.

I put the lion and lamb (though I think it is supposed to be a bear) on opposite sides of a circle and used my brad/eyelet technique so that it would rotate. I Layered the odd shaped left-hand side piece on top with several layers of pop-up dots so that when rotated, the circle would go underneath.
















This is an overhead view of the card, looking down into it. Hopefully you can see the circle beneath the top layer. You can definitely see those pop up dots. Next to chocolate candy and the library, I think pop-up dots are some of humankind's greatest inventions. So there you have it. In like a lion and out like a lamb.

Card Ingredients:
Wild Things Stamps
Black Market Paper Society Ebony and Alabaster
Prisma pencils/gamsol
Sakura glitter pen

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Little Lulu

I just received my shipment of Kettos from Stamping bella. What a cute bunch of stamps. I seem to be stuck in cuteland these days. This card was done using Lulu ketto and Kenyas sparkle. The sparkles were stamped on the green paper with a Palette noir hybrid ink pad then embossed with a clear embossing powder. I colored the image with my first set of copics that I bought yesterday from Stampfanci, my local stamp store. The owner has a 25% off day on the 25th of the month and I went in to pick up "one" stamp and ended up with an entire set of 36 copics. I am not very good with them yet but it was so much fun trying them out with such a cool stamp. The dots on the black paper were made with a green glitter gel pen.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Bubble bunny basket

This basket was done for the SCS challenge
TLC213 Mini Easter Basket. It challenge was just too cute to pass up. The pattern can be found at SCS along with other really adorable examples. It was pretty simple to do but I thought you might like to see how I changed the bubbles into flower bubbles.

The bunny is from a set called Bunny Love from Close To My Heart. Very cute set for Easter cards. This picture was just used for the demo, not the one I used for the project (meaning I didn't stamp it very well) but I wanted to show the whole image of the bunny and bubbles which I cut off. The flower is also in the set. I colored the bunny with prisma pencils and gamsol. The flowers were done with Stampin Up markers and an aqua brush.

With the bunny on the wrong side, I taped some fishing line I managed to talk my husband into taking off his fishing rod (what a guy!).

I put a small piece of tape on the wrong side of one flower and placed the fishing wire on top.

Now place the other flower on top matching it up with the other so they overlap each other. I trimmed off any excess that showed on either side.

Finally, I put pop up dots (one of my most favorite cardmaking tools) on the back of the bunny. I layered three 1/8" dots on the bottom so the side of the basket wasn't squished down, and one at the head to secure it at the top of the basket.
Now hop on over to SCS and see all the other cute samples and make one of your own.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Can't...Stop.....Making......Shrinkies!!!

OK, I hope this isn't getting old but I have another Anya shrinky. First, let me explain why I like using Ian and Anya as subjects;
1. They shrink to the perfect size for a lot of projects.
2. The shapes are not very intricate so are easy to cut out.
3. They are just so darn cute!

So, as I was sitting at the hockey game watching the Pens "thrash" Atlanta (GO PENS!!!) I thought hmmm, I think cheer Anya would be perfect for...



I can't make a decent bow to save my life but I thought it was a fun idea. I don't do craft shows but I bet that if the colors were changed to match the local high school sports teams they might be a fun thing to offer. I got the korker ribbon on ebay for the first hairbow. They are very easy to make with pre-made korkers but you can also make them yourself. I found the website "The Ribbon Retreat" to be very helpful. The second bow was made with wire-rimmed organza ribbon. See the shrinking Ian tutorial for how to shrink and color the Anyas. I glued Anya on the front with my trusty E-6000 craft glue and put a ponytail holder on the back. Since my daughter is a bit old for the bows I think I will give them to my little neice. My sister and her family are huge Steeler fans and she would look so sweet in it.

While I was at it I made a card (with an un-shrunk Anya) to go with the theme. It is a combo of the SCS card sketch and inspiration challenges this week.
I had a heck of a time coloring the black so it wouldn't look flat and the pom poms looked pathetic so I made ribbon pom poms. Her pom poms are a bit big but some girls are just lucky that way!

I have one more cool use for shrinks up my sleeve that I will post next week and that should get them out of my system. At least for a while, well maybe, I did just receive a couple new stamps from The Greeting Farm that I can't wait to use. Have a super de duper weekend!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Rolling/Slider/Spinning Card Tutorial


Happy Saturday everyone! I am so lucky to be able to get up every morning and go to a job I love but boy do I love the weekends too. Lots of time to stamp and hang with the kids. I promised the tutorial and now I finally have it done! I started last night but was too tired to finish so here it is.

This is the same technique I used on skater Ian but I am using an Anya I had left over as a demo. For some reason I don't enjoy making the same card more than once, not sure why.

Here is what you need to get started.

Ruler
Exacto Knife
Brads
Eyelets
Pop up dots
A card that has several layers including a couple with good quality, heavy cardstock
You will want to have the design and pieces figured out before you began so you have a plan.


I made a 5X5 card base of cardstock and set it aside. I made a second, slightly smaller layer made with a single layer of heavy cardstock and a single layer of designer paper. That is the blue layer you see here. I used my top and final layer as a guide and I drew a light pencil line following the path I wanted my sliding image to follow. I then made another line an eighth of an inch up from that. You don't want to go all the way to the end just to about a quarter of an inch away from the sides of the card.




Using a ruler and an exacto knife, carefully follow your pencil lines to cut out the slim window.


Flip it over and put pop up dots on the back. The thickness will depend on the size of your eyelet/brad combo and on whether or not you want your image to spin or just slide. A thinner pop up will let the image slide and a thicker one will give enough space to let your image spin as it rolls down.

Grab and eyelet...

and a brad and insert the brad into the wider part of the eyelet.

Insert the eyelet/brad through the back of the card so that the prongs of the brad are sticking out on the right side of the card. You can see that the eyelet gives a nice column for the image to clear the window and allow the image to move.

Bend the prongs of the brad so that they are parallel to the card. Mine are a little bent (I did that on purpose to show you what not to do... not!). Anyway, make sure yours are as even as possible.

Add a little glue to the bent prongs. I like the E6000 because I am attaching a shrinky and I want a strong bond additionally, it sets up pretty quickly. Don't add too much, you don't want it to get on your card. I used the wooden end of a Qtip but a toothpick would work as well.

This is the only tricky part. Lay the image on top of the gluey brad prongs as gently as possible and press slightly. Try not to squish any glue onto the sides. I let it set up a a minute or so and then turned the card over to let it dry.

I added my top and final layer and voila! A slider card.


This same technique done in a slightly different way, can be used to put a spinning feature on your cards and scrapbook pages. I have assembled the parts of the card that I want to spin and used a punch to make 1/8 in holes in the center of each piece.

Starting with the eyelet only,no brad yet, assemble your pieces layering them on the column of the eyelet.


Place the brad on the front side and through the column of the eyelet.

Flip it over and flatten the brad.

Add the piece to your card and twirl away!

This same technique would be great to make spinning wheels on a number of different stamps such as this firetruck. I hope this tutorial has been helpful. Let me know if you have made anything using this idea, I would love to see your projects!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Shaker-shrinky-Anya

I just posted this at The Greeting Farm gallery. It was done for the sketch #2 challenge at Club Anya. It is a really great sketch , one I am sure I will use again. I colored and shrunk Anya the same way I did skater Ian, and then placed her in her own clam shell with some pink shaker beads and a little conch shell. Thanks for visiting and have a great week!






Sketch #2

Friday, March 6, 2009

ATC challenge


Just a quickie to post an ATC from the SCS ways to use it challenge. This was made from scraps and leftovers from the skater Ian card. It looks HUGE in the picture but it is only 2.5 X 3.5. That is a really small area to work with but it was way fun!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Shrinking Ian tutorial



I love the Ian and Anya stamps from The Greeting Farm. They are just too cute and it doesn't hurt that my son's name is Ian. When I saw skater Ian I immediately thought of the sweeping platforms used in competitions. I wanted to make a card based on this theme but Ian was so big I would have had to make a 3 foot card. So I shrunk him! This is my very first tutorial on my very new blog. Please let me know if this was helpful. Thanks for visiting!


Supplies



Shrink plastic


Prismacolor pencils (not watercolor)


Permanent Ink (I like Stazon)


Stamps of your choice but big enough so that they don't disappear once shrunk


Eraser



I got my shrink plastic from Darcie's Country Folk. It is made for inkjet printers but works fine. It is ready to use - no sanding necessary. If you have some that is shiny you will have to sand it with a fine grit sandpaper in order for the coloring to really cling to the image. I like using the pencils to color my images especially because you can erase mistakes (not that I make them LOL) but permanent markers also work fine.

Stamp your image carefully on the shrink plastic. Try for a steady hand since the plastic is a little slick.




I use the prismas with their blending pencil. I usually use oderless mineral spirits when using these pencils to color stamps on paper but you don't want to catch your house on fire. I have found that the blending pencil works really well on the shrink plastic.



Working in circular motions I colored the outer portion of the hat. I also added some shading on top of that with a darker color at the very edges. When using the blender pencil, I found that this method works better than doing the layers separately.
Again, working in a circular motion, I pulled the color into the center of the hat rim. The nice thing about shrinking your image is that you don't have to be too careful in your coloring technique. When the image shrinks it hides alot of flaws. Also the color deepens quite a bit so take that into consideration when making color choices.




As I mentioned, it is very easy to erase. When coloring, I went over the lines of the hat, so I simply erased what I didn't want.



Time to cut that cutie pie out!




Into the toaster oven he goes. Follow the manufacturers instructions for shrinking your image. I like using a toaster oven (designated for crafts only - no food allowed) but you can use a heat gun or regular oven.



And there you have mini-me Ian. Could he be any more cute?


I finished him off with a coat of glossy varnish and he is ready to roll!





I made this into a roller card so that Ian could skate his little heart out.


Ian was so tiny I couldn't use the penny method for making the roller card so I devised a different method. I'll show you how I did it next time.