Quickie Mini Monday -- Thank you Minis

Quickie Mini Mondays feature a 10 minute-or-less project -- something fast, fun and easy to reproduce and mass produce.

Hi everyone,

Today, I want to give you a few tips to speed up the process when you're in a crunch for time. I'll be showing you how I made 4 cards in 10 minutes... 4 mini cards that is -- 3" X 3"! Because it doesn't always have to be regular size and because they're great to attach to gifts.

Tip #1: Since you're making mini cards, you can mass produce. Repeating the same steps 4 times doesn't take all that much longer. The secret is to keep it simple.

Tip #2: Use punches as much as you can since they speed up the process by avoiding unecessary measuring and cutting. Here I've used Stampin' Up!'s 1 1/4" Square Punch to cut out the stamped image and the 1 3/8" Square Punch for the Melon Mambo mat.

Tip #3: Allow yourself to color "outside the lines", to be messy. Here, I've chosen a Watercolor Paper because it allows me the freedom to be imperfect, read quicker. I've used 3 Stampin' Write markers (Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive) and an Aqua Painter and literally ran through the process. Just remember to use StazOn ink for to stamp the image ( from the SAB set Happy Moments).

Again... keep it simple. Since the format is small, you can get away with just a colored image, mat, and DSP (from Welcome Neighbor DSP -- SAB Promo) for texture. And who says the sentiment has to be on the outside. I've put mine inside. It allows you more room to maneuver and easier to eye-ball. Oh, the best part? Stampin' Up! has envelopes to fit that size (#107309).

Have a nice mini-stampin' day! CeeCee

Weekend Special -- Coffee Cup Cozy Tutorial

Happy weekend everyone!

Once in a while, we'll be posting on the weekend when we have something special to share with you. Today, I'd like to show you how we came up with the Coffee Cup Cozies from this post using the Big Shot die-cutting machine.

Step 1 --

With the Baskets & Blooms Bigz XL Die (#113484), you will cut 3 pieces of felt. For that, you'll need to run your die twice since you get 2 basket pieces in one pass. You can double up your felt to get 4 pieces if you're making more than 1 cozy. Tip: Keep the extra pieces you get from the cut (like the flower and the circles from the handles) to make flower embellishments!

Step 2 --

Pin together your pieces as show above making sure that the top and bottom of each piece align properly.

Step 3 --

Cut excess fabric as show, just below the handle. At this point, you can trace with a chalk pencil if you don't have a steady hand.

Step 4 --

Using a contrasting thread, sew your pieces together using a jeans seam.

You can also run a straight stitch or a decorative stitch along the top and bottom of your felt for an added touch.

Step 5 --

Using a hot glue gun, decorate with your favorite embellishment. You can use the felt from Stampin' Up!'s Flower Fusion kit (#110720), Sweet Pea Stitched Felt kit (#117266) or your own handmade felt flowers.

We hope this inspires you to create your own cozy.

In case you're feeling lazy or simply don't have the proper equipment to make them, head on over to our Etsy shop where you'll be able to buy our cozies! They've already started selling and we only have 25 left so grab them while they're hot! They're cute and fit into your handbag or a coat pocket. Offer them as gifts to your dowline and your family!

Happy Sunday! CeeCee

Sparkly Fun Friday -- Transparency Style!

Sparkly Fun Fridays features a sparkly or glittery project using shimmer paints, embossing powders, glitters, rhinestones... anything shiny to welcome the weekend in a fun way!!!

Hi everyone,

Today is all about daring. Daring to be bold. Daring to be messy (no small feat for me!). Daring to try new things. I had a vision at the beginning of the week and it involved George Clooney and a nice villa in Italy.... oops, wrong vision!

My real vision was about a clear card with a glitter flower using Big Shot dies and Sticky Pages. But the Sticky Cuts Letters (#111109) presented me this beautiful flower, already die-cut and... well sticky... with a removable center. How perfect!

(supplies list at the end of this post)

And it wasn't that messy. A little tip here: I use Swiffer Sweeper's Dry Sweeping Refills cloths to pick up stray glitter from my desk after I'm done putting away the excess in my little jar. I also swiped my transparency sheet card with it at the beginning to remove some of the static and I think it helped to some degree.

The major question was how to add a sentiment on cardstock and a place to sign the card without anything showing thru. So I hid the sentiment behind the flower, punching it out in a circle shape smaller than the flower in the front.

On the inside right panel; of the card is another cardstock circle that allows for some writing or a signature and which I adhered in a way that mirrors the circle on the left-hand side panel. Here's how I did this: I put Dotto Repositionalble Adhesive right over the sentiment and stuck the blank Whisper White circle over it. Then I put SNAIL Adhesive right over that and closed the card. When I reopened the card, the blank circle was stuck to the right panel and I just scrubbed away the removable adhesive with my fingers. Worked like a charm!

To hide the adhesive on the back of the blank circle, I added a slightly larger Pumpkin Pie circle that acts as a mat and a place to add our personalized stamp.

Be daring today and have a nice glitterin' day! CeeCee

Supplies (all by Stampin' Up!)

Cardbase: Window Sheets Medium (#114323)

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie

Ribbon: 5/8" Old Olive Satin (#117292)

Punches: 1 3/4" Circle (#112004) and Circle Scissor Plus (#112530)

Accessories: Sticky Cuts Letters (#111109), Fine Supernova Stampin' Glitter (#114287) in Olive and Aqua, Planter Box Rub-Ons (#113886), Mini Glue Dots (#103683), Dotto Repotisionable Adhesive (#103305) and SNAIL Adhesive (#104332)

Sweet treat Thursday -- Cookie Monster

Sweet Treat Thursdays are all about food -- our other favorite topic -- and features ways to embellish/wrap/present something edible. CAUTION: May be hazardous to your waistline!
Hi everyone,

Today 's card was designed for my nephew who turned 6 last week. His birthday party theme was Sesame Street so here's Cookie Monster.
Really simple punch design but I incorporated a Sweet treat cup to hold a real cookie in his mouth.
In order to eat the cookie without destroying the card, here's my "door"
In fact I would use a small enveloppe, but since my card is round, I needed really small measurements so I custommade it myself with coordinating pattern paper
If you wonder which cookie is small enough the fit in the sweet treat cup, the're Mr. Christie's Mini Chips Ahoy!, packaged in snack paks.
After leaving my photo box The cookie monster left a trace !!
hummmmmm, I wonder where all thoses cookies went ???
Have a nice stampin' day
Gen

Whatever Challenge Wednesday -- Buttons !!

Whatever Challenge Wednesdays features a challenge from the blogosphere, chosen randomly.

Here's our pick for this week:

Hi everyone,

Today it's all about buttons, I saw this kind of flower with buttons somewhere and I had to do one... Actually when I saw this week Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, I knew I had to do 3 of them, so cooooool... I was still surfin' and I stumbled upon Curtain Call Color Challenge, this week's colors : Rich Razzleberry, Pink Pirouette, Bashful Blue and Very Vanilla... The perfect combination for the soft look I wanted for my card so there it is:


In order to emphasize, and give my flower all the attention they deserved (did I told you how much I love them??) I did evrery thing else in very vanilla. I thought it was a strange idea at first but I really love how it looks, so peacefull and yet yummy!!
ohhh they look so good I could eat them !!!

Have a nice Stampin' day
Gen

Two 4 Tuesday : Mojo Monday & Stamp Something

Two for Tuesday features 2 projects that are similar in either color, theme, layout or embellishment but... with a different twist!

Hi everyone,

For starters, I'd like to apologize for the poor color quality of the photos. By the time I realized what was wrong, my post was completed and it was too late to redo everything.

For today's Two 4 Tuesday, I decided to play with the same sketch but a different color scheme. I've also decided to participate to the Stamp Something Challenge and Mojo Monday 128. The Stamp Something Challenge was to incorporate designer paper, ribbon and buttons. And here's the Mojo Monday sketch:

And here are my 2 cards:

The first one is all about Dusty Durango (the DSP, ink, cardstock, ribbon) with a little Chocolate Chip button.

The second one is all about Soft Suede (the DSP, ink, cardstock, ribbon) with a little Pumpkin Pie corduroy button.

All sentiments were stamped from the Vintage Labels stamp set and punched out with the Modern Label punch. So, there you have it -- pretty simple! I hope you like it.

Have nice stampin' day! CeeCee

Quickie Mini Monday -- Simple thanks

Quickie Mini Mondays feature a 10 minute-or-less project -- something fast, fun and easy to reproduce and mass produce.

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Hi everyone,

Today is really a 5 minutes monday...
I heat embossed the bird cage from SAB set Happy moments with silver EP. Stamped once again the image in Perfect Plum on a scrap of whisper white and cutted out the bird, added the sentiment in Perfect Plum with my beloved Stamp-a-ma-jig. A couple of dots to "hang" the cage and that's it.
Have a nice stampin' day
Gen