Blogger's Challenge #49 - Animals

This week's Blogger's Challenge theme is Animals. I knew immediately which animal image I would use. I actually only have this owl image by chance as I don't own the Just Celebrate set. I ordered a Chic Stand (paper piercer stand) from Angie at Chic n' Scratch and when my stand arrived, she had included a stamped owl image inside the package. If you haven't seen these Chic Stands yet, check them out here (be sure to watch the video clip because it shows you some great ways to use it). I am loving mine!

For the card, I had to decide on a layout. I ended up going to my trusty PageMaps site and fell in love with this card layout from the Dec 2007 CardMaps file:

The "ruffled" ribbon on my card is actually bunched up chocolate chip poly-twill ribbon. I laid down a long piece of sticky strip and bunched up the ribbon as I went. I really love how it turned out; though because of the thickness of the ribbon, I had to double stack my dimensionals under the owl image to place it on top.
Be sure to check out the other Blogger's Challenge creations by clicking on the logo on the left side of my blog.
Stamp sets: just celebrate, fun & fast notes
Inks: chocolate chip, really rust, close to cocoa
Cardstock: whisper white, really rust, chocolate chip, east coast prep designer series paper
Embellishments: chocolate chip poly-twill ribbon, more mustard brads
Tools: small corner rounder

G is for Gratitude

My little boy is growing up. Seth is moving to the 3's & 4's class at daycare next week, so I made these thank you cards for his teachers in appreciation for their taking such good care of him this past year. The card will accompany a pretty geranium, which they can plant at their homes. The best part about the cards are that they took less than 15 minutes to make. Plus, I got to use my much-loved, but under-used Define Your Life stamp set. I love the effect you get when you pair a large alphabet letter with one of these definitions.

Stamp sets: define your life, big deal alphabet, watercolor joy wheel

Inks: versamark, perfect plum, pale plum

Cardstock: perfect plum, pale plum, mellow moss, whisper white

Embellishments: mellow moss grosgrain ribbon, always artichoke brad

Tools: three for you punch

Monday Make-Over Challenge - May 27th

Andrea Walford has started a new feature on her blog called Make-Over Monday, where she will pick a project on which someone has used products from other companies and redo it using Stampin' Up! products. Other stampers can play too. Here's my make-over of Niki Estes' card that I found on SplitCoast today. Simply gorgeous!

I used our 2 large square punches for the outer layered images and just used my cutter for the middle layered images. The greeting is placed on layers made with our oval punches. The very vanilla ribbon passes for barely banana in a pinch.

Stamp sets: priceless, warm words
Inks: regal rose, barely banana, pretty in pink, basic black
Cardstock: regal rose, barely banana, pretty in pink, mellow moss, whisper white
Embellishments: very vanilla grosgrain ribbon, dazzling diamonds
Punches: 1-3/8" & 1-1/4" circles & small and large ovals

Spring into Stamping Make-and-Takes - Part 2

These were our final two make-and-takes from the Spring into Stamping demo event. These projects were also designed by Julie Davison & feature the Enjoy Every Moment stamp set and the Daisy Dash wheel. Since I am a scrapbooker, these are probably my favorite of the 4, though I love them all!

OnBoard Book Basics Chipboard Art
I will be adding a photo to the more mustard cardstock piece to turn this into a hanging scrapbook page.


12x12 Scrapbook Page

Spring into Stamping Make-and-Takes - Part 1

Now that I've finished sharing all of my ribbon weaving display samples from the ImPeckable Stampers' Spring into Stamping event from the Saturday before last, I can show you the awesome make-and-takes from the same event. Since I was demonstrating that day, mine were done for me, but I still wanted you to see these oh so cute projects designed by my talented 2nd upline, Julie Davison. Great job, Julie! All of the make-and-takes feature images from the Enjoy Every Moment stamp set and/or the coordinating Daisy Dash wheel. Check back in tomorrow and I'll post the remaining 2 projects.

Matchbook Card



Unique Fold Card - the front (more mustard) flap lifts up towards the right and then the red piece opens like a standard card.

Air Show Adventures 12x12 Page

I made this page last week after borrowing the retired By Air stamp set from one of my coworkers. I knew this stamp set would be perfect for use with my photos of Mia in the mini airplanes a couple of years ago at the local air show, Air Rendezvous. I cut out the windows of the air plane stamp image with punches and my exacto knife and then placed a layer of bashful blue cardstock underneath to make it seem the plane was actually in the sky. The little banner that the airplane is pulling says "Mia....June 2005". There is a silver brad in the center of the airplane propeller and another one at the intersection of the airplane and the banner. I made my title to resemble a larger banner and made stitch lines on it with my beloved white gel pen. Though it's hard to see, I made large, fluffy-looking clouds by stamping the cloud image from By Air several times close together, only reinking the stamp every 2nd or 3rd time. The title itself was made using our new, large Taffy alphabet (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this set) and our smaller, retired Typeset Lower alphabet.

Stamp sets: by air, taffy alphabet, typeset lower alphabet

Inks: whisper white, night of navy, orchid opulence

Cardstock: whisper white, night of navy, orchid opulence, bashful blue

Embellishments: silver brads, white gel pen

Ribbon Weaving Tutorial

At my upline's Spring into Stamping demonstrator event last Saturday, I demonstrated the ribbon weaving technique. During the demo, I showed everyone how to weave ribbon around a piece of cardstock, Kristina Werner style. Thought I'd share my tutorial here with you. The tutorial shows you how to make a 3-3/8" square woven ribbon piece. It will also show you how to make various size woven ribbon pieces without measuring!

1. Start with a piece of 3-3/8 inch square cardstock & 10 strips of 4-1/2 inch long wide grosgrain ribbon.

2. Run tape adhesive down 2 adjacent edges making an L-shape.

3. Adhere the edge of your ribbon strips next to each other down those 2 sides of cardstock so that the majority of the ribbon hangs off the cardstock. Your piece will look like this...

4. Flip your cardstock piece over so the secured ribbon edges are under the cardstock.

5. Take the first strip of ribbon and weave it under and over the ribbon pieces on the adjacent side. Pull the strip tight, apply adhesive to the end of the ribbon on the backside, and wrap the end around the back of the cardstock securing it there.

6. Take the next strip of ribbon and repeat, alternating the weave from the first strip. Your piece will look like this...

7. Finish weaving the remaining 3 strips of ribbon on that side. Only the ends of ribbon on the adjacent side will be loose.

8. Pull the remaining loose ends tight, add adhesive to the back, and secure on the backside of the cardstock. Your finished piece will look like this (I added brads at some of the ribbon intersections on my sample)...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for instructions on how to make any size woven ribbon piece without measuring!

A. Start with a piece of cardstock that's a little bigger than the size you want your finished piece. No need to measure here, just eyeball it.

B. Run adhesive down the edges of two adjacent sides, making an "L" shape.

C. Starting at the common corner, lay your ribbon pieces along the longest side until you reach the length you desire. (Be sure your ribbon pieces are long enough to wrap around the adjacent side). Now cut off the excess cardstock (dashed line indicates the cut line).

D. Now cut your strips of ribbon for the remaining side. To ensure they are long enough place them on your freshly cut cardstock piece and allow about 1/2 inch overlap on each end.

E. Lay these ribbon pieces along the adjcent side, starting at the common corner, until you reach the length you desire. Now cut off the excess cardstock (dashed line indicates the cut line).

F. Your piece will now look like this.

G. Follow steps 5-8 in the tutorial above to complete your woven ribbon piece. My finished sample looks like this...

**Try using different sizes and colors of ribbon for varying looks.

Stamper's Showcase #8903

I'm on Stamper's Showcase today for my Groovy Thinking of You card (posted on my blog in February)!! The neat thing is that my sweet blogger friend Lindsey Blackhurst is featured today too. How cool is that?!! Lindsey has actually been featured a couple of times the past several days for her awesome cards and scrapbook pages. Both of us had submitted these as our entries into Stampin' Up!'s Artisan Awards Contest. Though it looks like we weren't selected, I still think we're winners!

Blogger's Challenge #48 - Red, White, & Blue

This is my last display sample for the ribbon weaving technique (see previous posts). This is also my take on the Blogger's Challenge this week. We were tasked with creating something using the colors red, white, and blue. This was definitely the hardest sample I created as I had to make sure every ribbon end was secured.

Stamp set: wonderful words

Inks: whisper white

Cardstock: real red, night of navy

Embellishments: real red, whisper white, & night of navy grosgrain ribbon

Punch: photo corner

Ribbon Weaving Samples - Part 4

I'm nearing the end of my display samples for the ribbon weaving technique. I'll share one more with you tomorrow and then I'll post the promised tutorial. Thanks for hanging in there!


This 3x6 card was made using both regular and wide grosgrain ribbon. I also mixed it up a bit by using 2 colors of ribbon and making the piece long and skinny rather than square. Adding rub-ons to the top of the woven ribbon is so easy....see my strip of rub-ons on the right! Once again, you'll notice that I didn't do any stamping (I'll try not to make this a habit!)!

Inks: basic black
Cardstock: bravo burgandy, basic black, whisper white
Embellishments: bravo burgandy grosgrain ribbon, bravo burgandy wide grosgrain ribbon, basic black grosgrain ribbon, eastern elegance rub-ons (white)
Tools: designer label punch

This 12x12 page features a woven ribbon frame around my photo. I saw a similar frame in the gallery on SplitCoast and loved the look, so I had to do my own. Journaling reads "I enjoy every moment watching the two of you!" The whole page is simple, yet eye-catching!

Stamp sets: enjoy every moment, so swirly wheel

Inks: night of navy

Cardstock: tempting turquoise, night of navy, whisper white

Embellishments: tempting turquoise grosgrain ribbon

Ribbon Weaving Samples - Part 3

More ribbon weaving samples.....


This 6x6 page features one of my favorite pictures....it's a photo of Mia with my much loved mom! I punched a series of holes at equal intervals in the side of the cardstock using my double rectangle punch and wove my ribbon through it. There's actually no stamping on this page, which is rare for me. The images are rub-ons from our Eastern Elegance pack (both the white & black sheets). These two are so very, very cute.

Cardstock: pink passion
Embellishments: whisper white grosgrain ribbon, eastern elegance rub-ons
Tools: double rectangle punch

This 8-1/2 x 11 page features another favorite photo of mine.....Brian and Mia near the trout stream at Bennett Springs State Park in Missouri. It's actually the first 8-1/2 x 11 page I've ever made (and I just made it a couple of weeks ago). I must say that I enjoyed scrapping in this size. If you find yourself scrapbooking in the same 'ol size all the time, break out of your rut and try a new size! On this sample, I used the 3-circular window chipboard piece from our On Board Blossoms & Basics. I punched circles down the left side and weaved ribbon through it. If you didn't know, our Crop-a-Dile tool punches through chipboard like it's butter. I'm wild about these two!

Stamp set: wild about you, watercolor vine wheel, kraft, whisper white
Inks: old olive, not quite navy
Cardstock: old olive, not quite navy
Embellishments: on board blossoms & basics, old olive poly-twill ribbon, not quite navy brads
Tools: crop-a-dile

Ribbon Weaving Samples - Part 2

More of my display samples for the many versions of the ribbon weaving technique. The first is a 3x3 card and the 2nd is a piece made from our Carousel Notes die-cut scallop circles.

Stamp set: tagger's dozen
Inks: elegant eggplant
Cardstock: pale plum, elegant eggplant
Embellishments: green ice rhinestone circle brad; certainly celery, elegant eggplant, and always artichoke grosgrain ribbon
Punches: boho blossoms


Stamp set: stitched exotics
Inks: blue bayou, soft sky
Cardstock: blue bayou, soft sky, whisper white
Embellishments: blue bayou double stitched ribbon, silver brad
Other: carousel notes
Punches: scallop circle, 1-3/8" circle
Tool: crop-a-dile

Ribbon Weaving Samples - Part 1

At my upline's awesome Spring into Stamping demonstrator event this past Saturday, I demonstrated ribbon weaving, Kristina Werner style. Though my demo focused mainly on weaving ribbon around a piece of cardstock (top photo), I also brought along a display board showing other methods for using woven ribbon on your designs. Here are two of my samples.


{Check back over the next few days for more samples and my own ribbon weaving tutorial, including a quick & easy way to increase or decrease the size of your woven ribbon piece!}


Stamp sets: all through the year, family phrases
Inks: real red, garden green
Cardstock: whisper white, garden green
Embellishments: real red striped grosgrain ribbon, real red grosgrain ribbon
Tools: word window punch



Stamp set: short & sweet
Inks: groovy guava
Cardstock: whisper white
Embellishments: groovy guava & wild wasabi double-stitched ribbon

WT166 - Inchies & 1/4

I'm fresh back from my upline's Spring into Stamping event yesterday. Approximately 60 of my fellow demonstrators and I attended. We had an awesome time! There were great presentations, demonstrations, make-and-takes, and door prizes. I demonstrated a technique at the event and will be sharing some of my display samples here in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I thought I'd show you the swap card I made to take yesterday. Because I had sample displays to make and my club meetings, I only had time to make 20 swap cards. They were gone in mere minutes. And I failed to keep one for myself, so I had to take a photo of one that I had already swapped!

This week's SplitCoast Ways To Use It Challenge (WT166) was to use "inchies", or 1 inch square pieces of cardstock, to make a design. My card fits in this challenge, though I cheated a bit and used my 1-1/4" inch punch to make the background pattern because when put together, these size punched shapes fit near perfectly on a standard card base. This card was pretty time consuming to put together due to the number of punched shapes required and the care it took to space them evenly. Still, it was worth it.

Stamp sets: always, think happy thoughts
Inks: old olive, so saffron
Cardstock: old olive (regular & textured), so saffron (regular & textured), kraft, whisper white
Embellishments: whisper white grosgrain ribbon, white gel pen
Punches: scallop circle, 1-1/4" square, 1/2" circle

Blogger's Challenge #47 - Occasions Mini Pg 21 Layout

This week our Blogger's Challenge was to mimic the layout of the dog card on pg 21 of the current Stampin' Up! Occasions mini catalog (see the card on the right in the 1st picture). Wasn't sure if I was going to get to play this week, but I managed to get my card done just now. I decided to do a baby card and since I've been doing some darker-colored cards lately, I opted for some brighter colors. I scalloped the left edge of my cardstock for added interest and drew a dot in the center of each scallop with my summer sun marker so the white wasn't so stark. I replaced the hodgepodge hardware piece with staples in the upper left corner and placed my greeting at the bottom rather than above the focal image. I drew grass around the elephants' feet using my certainly celery marker, then added a flower from the trunk using brocade blue & certainly celery markers. I really love how this card turned out, though I wish the elephant showed up a little better in the photo. It doesn't help that she is stamped on vellum and I took this photo after dark.

Oh how I'm wanting a newer, better camera. We are comparing models now because I want to get one purchased before our family vacation to Maine this fall. If you have any recommendations, shoot me an email!

Be sure to check out all the other awesome creations by my fellow Blogger's Challenge ladies!

Stamp sets: phrases for a friend, wild about you
Inks: cameo coral, brocade blue, certainly celery
Cardstock: cameo coral, summer sun, whisper white, vellum cardstock
Embellishments: whisper white grosgrain ribbon, staples
Tools: small corner rounder

May Club Project #3

Our final stamp club project for May was this Father's Day card with surprise gift card holder inside. The colors and layout are nearly identical to a card I saw on SplitCoast (sorry, I didn't write down the name of the person who made it, but kudos to her!). I changed the stamp images and embellishments and also made mine a gift card holder. Though I generally like to come up with original designs, I was particularly swapped with other deadlines this week and had to rely on someone else's creativity. That's the great thing about SplitCoast....you can check out the posts there for inspiration when you need it.


To make the gift card holder, start with a piece of cardstock measuring 5-1/2 x 12 inches. Cut the 12 inch side in half to make 2 identical pieces. Score both at 2 inches along the longest (6 inch) side and fold. Now take the small folded piece and run sticky strip just above the fold (the 5-1/2 inch side) and on each end (the 2 inch sides). Glue the cardstock pieces together so that the small folded pieces align in the inside of the card. Now take your word window punch and create a slot in the small folded piece so it's easier to slide a gift card in and out.


Stamp sets: polka dot, think happy thoughts, all year cheer
Inks: bordering blue, night of navy, always artichoke
Cardstock: night of navy, always artichoke, bordering blue, mellow moss
Embellishments: vintage brads, white grosgrain ribbon

May Club Project #2 - Just Bee Yourself Spinner Card

Project #2 for our May stamp club meeting was this card designed by my friend and upline Ann Holtrop. I was going to modify it a bit to give it my own spin, but her card was perfect as is. I even used the photo of her card in this post because I haven't taken a picture of mine yet. Awesome card, Ann!

If you've never made a spinner card, you can find the tutorial on SplitCoastStampers here. To make the honeycomb, run your brayer over your versamark pad or so saffron ink pad and then run the brayer over the entire piece of bubble wrap. Place your card on top of the bubble wrap and press on all surfaces to transfer the bubble images. I tried this technique using more mustard ink and in my opinion, the bubbles were too dark. The track for the spinner was made with the word window punch. The bee was stamped with black ink on white cardstock and then the wings were colored with a so saffron marker. Place a little glue on the wings and add glitter. Voila!

Stamp sets: just b
Inks: versamark, so saffron, basic black
Cardstock: basic black, more mustard, whisper white
Embellishments: dazzling diamonds glitter
Punches: word window punch, 1-1/4 & 1-3/8" circle punches

May Club Project #1 - Scalloped Acorn

Project #1 for my stamp club this month was this cute 3x6 card modeled after a swap card I received from my fellow demonstrator and friend Mary McNeely. Mary's card used one of our Sell-a-Bration sets and was light pink and blue in color. Her card was just gorgeous and I knew I had to case the layout. Thanks for the inspiration, Mary!

For my card, I knew I wanted to use our Fall Flowers Designer Series Paper. The acorn from All Through the Year was an obvious choice for the focal image. I started with a 3x6 card base in Really Rust. I punched holes along the outside edge using my paper piercer, mat, and guide from my Tool Kit. I then took a piece of whisper white cardstock measuring 6 inches on one side and slightly smaller than 3 inches on the other. I created a 2" hole near the top of the cardstock using my Round Tab Punch. Insert your punch through the top end of the cardstock and punch. Rotate your cardstock 90 degrees and punch again, lining up your punch with the previous punched out piece to form a perfect circle. I added a piece of Fall Flowers designer paper to the bottom portion of the card and stamped the greeting from Short & Sweet in the bottom right corner in Always Artichoke ink. I then tied a piece of knotted Always Artichoke ribbon in the middle. For the acorn, I inked it with my Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, and Old Olive markers and stamped it on white cardstock. I punched out the image using our scallop circle punch. I then created an Old Olive scallop circle frame by punching a circle first using my 1-3/8" circle punch and then centering my scallop circle punch over the top of that and punching again. I adhered the scallop frame over the acorn piece to finish it off.

Stamp sets: all through the year, short & sweet
Inks: chocolate chip, old olive, really rust, always artichoke
Cardstock: whisper white, really rust, old olive, fall flowers designer series paper
Embellishments: always artichoke grosgrain ribbon
Punches: 1-3/8" circle punch, round tab punch, scallop circle punch

Carousel Envelope Card

I've been seeing alot of these envelope cards on blogs & in the gallery at SplitCoastuse and just had to make one for myself. In particular, I based mine off of some that I saw on Angie Kennedy Juda's Chic n' Scratch blog. For my card, I decided to use the chocolate chip envelopes that came with my Carousel Notes because I've already used some of the notes and won't be needing the envelopes to mail them.

I added a piece of so saffron designer series paper to the bottom of the envelope and stamped the greeting from Time Well Spent at the bottom in chocolate chip ink. I used a blender pen to color "Friends" in with groovy guava ink and then used my chocolate chip marker to color in the flowers on each side of the greeting. And finally, I added a piece of knotted groovy guava double stitched ribbon at the top of the saffron paper.

For the insert, I started with a piece of so saffron cardstock slightly smaller than my envelope and topped this with a slightly smaller piece of whisper white cardstock. I stamped the large flower from Time Well Spent in the upper left corner using chocolate chip ink and then colored in parts of the flower with a saffron marker and groovy guava ink/blender pen. To finish it off, I added a brad to the center of the flower.

Stamp set: time well spent

Inks: groovy guava, chocolate chip, so saffron

Cardstock: whisper white, so saffron, so saffron designer series paper

Embellishments: groovy guava double-stitched ribbon, brad

Other: carousel notes chocolate chip envelope

Blogger's Challenge #46 - Mother's Day

The theme for Blogger's Challenge #46 is Mother's Day. I made a card for my mom, but since she subscribes to my blog, I can't post it here yet. I made the following card for my stepmom. I loved it so much that I also made similar versions as a birthday card for my friend Kelly and as a thank you to Lindsay of StampwithLinz for letting me be her guest blogger a few months back. So, Kelly and Lindsay, if you haven't received your cards yet, stop reading so your surprise isn't ruined!

For this version, I started with an elegant eggplant card base, topped with a layer of orchid opulence. On top of this, I added a piece of whisper white stamped with the Pretty Petals background stamp. Rather than inking in a solid color, I used my markers to color the background in several colors. It was tedious, but well worth the time. This background stamp is so gorgeous, don't you think?!! I then stamped the large flower from Pretty Amazing twice, once in elegant eggplant ink and once in orchid opulence ink. I cut out the entire flower image in eggplant and the inner flower image in orchid and attached them together with a green galore brad. I placed a strip of eggplant grosgrain ribbon near the top of the card and attached my flower embellishment on it with dimensionals. For the greeting, I stamped the word "Amazing" from Pretty Amazing on orchid cardstock using eggplant ink and punched this out with the key tag punch. I used our round tab punch on eggplant cardstock and layered this piece underneath. I finished it off with dots drawn in using my white gel pen. I just love this card if I do say so myself. Thanks for looking!



Stamp sets: pretty petals, pretty amazing
Inks: certainly celery, elegant eggplant, orchid opulence
Cardstock: whisper white, elegant eggplant, orchid opulence
Embellishments: white gel pen, green galore brad, elegant eggplant grosgrain ribbon
Punches: round tab, key tag

Sketch Challenge #174

I've been busy working on putting together my swaps for my upline's stamping event, but had to take some time to stamp for me. It's been quite awhile since I last did a SplitCoastStampers' Card Sketch Challenge, so I was itching to do another one. This is based on challenge #174 and the card measures 4 x 9". This card seems so big to me, but then again it will be a great one to take to work as we are always needing bigger birthday cards so everyone has room to write a little greeting to the recipient. I stamped the scallop-shaped image from Wanted and then decided to read the directions for the challenge. Oops - ovals were a requirement. No problem, I used my coluzzle to cut out an oval to place underneath the scallop circle piece and added 2 brads on each end. I think it turned out nice and will even work as a guy card.

Stamp sets: wanted, it's your birthday

Inks: night of navy, really rust

Cardstock: night of navy, really rust, more mustard, whisper white

Embellishments: jumbo eyelet, more mustard brads, night of navy grosgrain ribbon

A Quick Post

Just a quick post before I head for bed. I made this 3x3 card to accompany the note-folio (a couple of posts back) that I'm giving to each of my kids' teachers tomorrow in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. These came together so fast. Note to self: Cute cards don't have to be complicated, supply-heavy, or time-consuming. Luckily Stampin' Up!'s coordinating products make stamping a cute, simple card easy as pie!

Stamp sets: short & sweet, priceless
Inks: purely pomegranate, rose red, bashful blue
Cardstock: purely pomegranate, bashful blue, cutie pie designer series paper
Tools: 1/4" circle punch, scallop circle punch

You've probably noticed that I have been slacking off on my posting lately. Just so you know, I have been stampin up a storm. Unfortunately I can't share my latest creations with you just yet. I have been busy stamping display samples for a technique that I will be demonstrating at my upline's Spring into Stamping group demonstrator event in May. I'll be able to share those cards and scrapbook pages with you after the event, which is on the 17th.

Blogger's Challenge #45 - Graduation

This week's Blogger's Challenge was to make something with a Graduation theme. I opted for a 5x5 card, but I don't have many graduation style stamps. I decided that stars were a good option as well as my Take a Number wheel, which looks somewhat academic in nature. And I pulled out a retired graduation greeting (though the font is not my favorite, it will work in a pinch). This card was fast and easy to put together.....gotta love that!

Be sure to check out all the other great graduation creations by my fellow Blogger's Challenge ladies...just click the logo on the left side of my blog.

Stamp sets: all year cheer III, take a number
Inks: basic black, whisper white
Cardstock: brushed silver, basic black, whisper white
Tools: star punch, large star punch

Note-folio Tutorial

For Teacher Appreciation Week next week, I am making the teachers these cute little Note-folios stuffed with six 3x3 monogram cards and six envelopes. These might actually have another name, but I don't know what it is so I made one up! I chose this project because I figure that teachers can always use little cards to send home notes to parents, etc.

I used the Defining alphabet to make the monograms (I cut apart my upper case and lower case letters and mounted them separately on the wood blocks). I had a sample of a larger note-folio that holds our notecards, but it was too big for the smaller 3x3 cards, so I modified the dimensions to better accomodate them. Keep reading for my tutorial for this small Note-folio (further down on this post). Some of the score lines were hard to make out on the cardstock, so I drew them in using PhotoShop Elements. Enjoy!

Front cover of Note-folio...



3x3 Monogram Cards (6 of these, plus envies will be stuffed inside)....


Stamp sets: think happy thoughts, defining alphabet, office accoutrements
Inks: purely pomegranate, bashful blue
Cardstock: whisper white, purely pomegranate, cutie pie designer series paper
Embellishments: bashful blue grosgrain ribbon
Tools: 1-3/4" circle punch, scallop circle punch, horizontal slot punch


Note-Folio Tutorial

1) Start with a 9 x 6 inch piece of cardstock.

2) Score the cardstock at 4-1/2 inches on the longest side.

3) Score the cardstock at 1-1/2 inches on the shortest side.

4) Mark 1/2 inch at the bottom of the cardstock on each side of the center score line and cut a wedge (see photo A)

5) Apply sticky strip or other strong adhesive in the far right and left bottom corners (see photo A - adhesive strips are represented by gray rectangles)

Photo A
6) Fold the bottom piece of cardstock up and secure the sticky strip. You should now have 2 "pockets" at the bottom of the note-folio (see Photo B).

Photo B
7) Fold the note-folio in half like a book, so that the pockets are on the inside (see Photo C).

Photo C

8) Now fold the note-folio so the pockets are on the outside. This will help you better see where to punch your ribbon guides.

9. Use your horizontal slit punch and punch through both layers, creating ribbon guides on both sides of the notefolio (see Photo D). The punch is aligned where the ribbon guide should be placed on the right side of the note-folio, an oval indicates the place on the left side of the note-folio where the other ribbon guide should be placed.

Photo D

10) Open up the note-folio and slide your ribbon through the guides (as shown in Photo E). Be sure to leave enough ribbon on each end to tie a bow.

Photo E
11) Decorate the front of the note-folio and fill the inside with 3x3 cards & envelopes.