Just a Little Ink - Amy Taylor - justalittleink.com

I've been wanting to play with some of the On-Board Chipboard since chipboard is the special from Stampin' Up! this month. It's been laying around my craft room for quite awhile, and I finally got around to making something with it! I thought this piece with the circles would work great to make my dad a Father's Day card. The circles were perfect for putting photos behind. The small heart in the center is also from some chipboard, and done in the faux metal technique. Faux metal is easy to do, just cover the chipboard with VersaMark ink. Next cover it with embossing powder and heat. You repeat this at least 2 more times until the embossing powder seems to "dance" around on the surface. While it's still wet, you can choose to stamp onto it with a stamp that was first inked with VersaMark.

This is a project that we made this month at my stamp clubs. The image above is of the photo book from the front. It's made of 2 square chipboard coasters that are covered in designer paper (Spring Break DSP). The two coasters are hinged together using the Crop-a-Dile and double-stitched ribbon. The large star is from the On-Board Simon Upper chipboard and the "Dear Dad" stamp is from the Holiday Blitz stamp set. The square of Chocolate Chip card stock is put through the crimper to give a little texture. Really pretty simple. This image shows the inside of the photo book. The same designer series paper was used (opposite side) to cover the coasters. The small star punch and the photo corners punch were used as well. The "Happy Father's Day" stamp is from the All Holidays stamp set.

The following is a short tutorial on how I made the graduation cap on the card from my previous Post: Start out with a piece of Basic Black card stock (2-1/2" to 3" strip). Insert it into the top of the Designer Label punch and punch out just the curved portion. Next, punch this piece using the 3/4" square punch. This will give you the base for your graduation cap. Now, you can start working on the top of the hat. Use the Small Oval punch and Basic Black card stock, and punch out 1 oval. Using the Paper Snips, cut from the bottom center to the right center in a straight line. (Like the photo below.) You will repeat this 3 more times. When you are done, it should look the following picture. Adhere the lower portion to the top (match up the top 2 corners of the square to the top slants of the top of the hat). Using the paper piercing tool, pierce a hole in the center of the cap top. Into this hole, push through a black brad from the Vintage brads. Don't clo...

This card is a different take on a graduation card. Kind of whimsical, I think. We will be making this card at stamp club on Monday. It's a fairly simple layout that could be easily altered for other occasions. The graduation cap was made using punches. Look at the next post for a picture tutorial of how it was made. The instructions are not my own creation, I found the idea off of SCS, but in a written form. I think seeing it shows how very simple making these caps are. I hope you'll agree. This card (created by my downline, Jen) is another great example of how to use the graduation hat on a card. We made this at stamp club this past Tuesday. It uses the Outline Alphabet stamp set.

The last couple of days have been filled with the early preparations for the 2008 Stampin' Up! convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. Yesterday morning (very early morning) I was able to register for the convention itself with no problems whatsoever. Today when I went to register for a hotel room, it was a little different story. I didn't plan on missing out on the room blocks for the hotels nearby the convention center, but it happened! It began with no link on the SU! website for registering for the hotels, and then within 30 minutes of it being posted, all the blocked hotel rooms were gone. Thankfully, my dear hubby saved the day by finding a hotel with a room and booked it for me. So, now I just need to get the creative juices flowing and start to think of what I'm making for swaps. I won't start them until after the retiring stamp set list is posted July 1st, though. I'll post more tomorrow and make sure to include at least one project!

This is a twist container that we made this week at stamp club. It's super easy to make, and uses the VersaMark resist technique. Take a quarter-sheet (4-1/4"x5-1/2") of glossy card stock, stamp or wheel across the entire surface (I used the jumbo wheel Petals) using VersaMark ink. Next, ink up a brayer in classic ink (here Groovy Guava) and roll it across the card stock until it is completely covered. The VersaMark will resist the ink leaving those areas white. Quick and easy. To make the twist container, roll the 5-1/2" side along the edge of a table to get the card stock to begin to curl slightly. Place a strip of Sticky Strip along one 5-1/2" edge (right-side) and attach it to the opposite side. Pinch the lower edges together, place a small piece of Sticky Strip on the very bottom and then roll it three turns into (and immediately back out of) a crimper. On the top, pinch together in the opposite direction of the bottom and punch two holes using a ha...

It’s been quite a few days since my last post! Life’s been busy with an early camping trip and all that it takes to get ready for that. Here’s a card that I made for one of my stamp club meetings. I had challenged my club members to make a suspension card (like the one posted earlier using the birthday cake) but to use different stamps and colors. It’s hard to see from the picture, but there is actually some rose pink glitter from the Fine Cosmo glitter mixed in with the silver embossing powder. It really adds some pizzaz to the card!