Sarah Goke ~ Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator

Welcome to a nice, quiet place to stamp & relax

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Spice Cake anyone?

Pin It Now! This time tomorrow (Friday) I will be in Albuquerque with several other fellow demo's for the Stampin' Up! Regional Convention that is taking place on Saturday. I have been looking forward this for over a month & am super excited! :) My wonderful husband has taken the day off to be chauffeur for out 3 boys; before he left for work this morning he asked me if I was planning on writing down specific times they each have to be dropped off & picked up! I just about fell over from shock! I admitted that I had considered doing exactly that but didn't know if that would be a bit too OCD ;) Anyway, his time table is written out along with a list of everything that has to get done around the house before Sunday; my October Stamp Camp is at 2 pm :) I will be home late Saturday night & didn't want to have all that to do when I walk in the door. I only have 3 expectations for this weekend:

1) All the kids get to where they're suppose to on time & no one gets forgotten
2) I don't come home to a huge mess to clean up before the Stamp Camp
2) HAVE A FUN & FANTASTIC TIME WITH THE GIRLS! :)

Fairly reasonable, don't you agree? ;)

Enough rambling; let me show you the project for today:
This is the adorable project we did at fellow demo, Alecia Connelly's, house for her monthly club. I had never attempted the fan-fold before; looked too intimidating to me. Needless to day it was FUN & so much easier than I thought it'd be. We used 2 strips of each: 2" x 12"; 1" x 12"; 1/2" x 12" & then we scored them at every 1/2". Take one of the 2" strips & fold it; whichever way you folded that one fold the matching strip the OPPOSITE. Put sticky strip on each end of one of the fold strips & the matching strip will line up perfectly. If you fold them the same way you'll end up having to cut some off of one end so it fits snug. The tricky part is gathering the folds & turning it inside out so you can glue on a punched out circle to hold it all together. (Hot glue guns are a must; well, they sure do make it easier :)) Do the same thing to the other strips. Once that's done you can decorate their centers how ever you'd like. We put some hot glue between a fold in the back & attached the dowels that were cut at different heights before tying some Spice Cake designer fabric around them. They're each then inserted into a piece of green foam that's been stuck inside a 4" pot. A piece of fabric dresses up the pot for a cute look. The "grass" is just some card stock that was run through the Paper Crimper then put through a shredder. We stamped a sentiment from the set "Hand Penned Holidays" onto vanilla card stock. This isn't attached to anything so it can be removed & you can enjoy the center piece all year long. We used a bit of Spice Cake everything: designer series paper, fabric, even buttons,along with coordinating card stock for the centers. The only stamping involved is the sentiment & you don't even have to do that if you prefer :).

I hope you enjoyed the project today. I'm off to get some more things done before it's time to start dinner :)  I will have lots to share after my weekend! :) Stay tuned! :)
 

Monday, October 17, 2011

New Week - A New Challenge

Pin It Now! Since I've been busy since sometime in September I'm finding it a little more difficult to sit & create new projects. To help me sit & focus I have fallen in love with doing challenges; I've even gone back several weeks/months & have found a lot that have gotten me through several projects :)

Today I'm sharing with you my creation for the Freshely Made Sketches #6.


And here is my finished card:


I started by inking the image from the set "Just Believe" using Wild Wasabi &  stamping it onto a piece of 4" x 2 7/8 " vanilla card stock. I stamped it once & then moved the stamp over & stamped again; re-inked it, stamped in on a scratch paper & stamped it the 3rd time. I used sticky strip to mount this onto a 3 1/8" x 4 1/3" piece of Pumpkin Pie card stock. Using more sticky strip I adhered the panel onto a vanilla piece of card stock measuring 4" x 5 1/4". Next I used the Eyelet Border punch on a strip of Soft Suede & used sticky strip to adhere it to the entire panel. I cut a piece of Soft Suede designer paper (from the Neutrals Designer Series pack) & layered in over the scallop border using dimensionals. I then wrapped a piece of Marina Mist taffeta around that. I used the Beautiful Wings embosslits die & the Big Shot to cut out some Marina Mist & Pumpkin Pie butterflies that I glued onto the front. This whole layer was mounted to the Wild Wasabi card front using sticky strip. I stamped another image from the same stamp set onto some vanilla card stock using Pumpkin Pie ink & then punched it out using the  1 1/4" circle punch. It was glued onto a Soft Suede circle that I punched out with the 1 3/8" circle punch & popped up on a dimensional. "Happy Birthday" (from "Teeny Tiny Wishes") was inked up with Marina Mist ink & stamped onto vanilla card stock then punched out using the Word Window punch. I sponged the edges with Soft Suede ink & glued to the circle.

I know I've said this before but typing out the directions is taking longer than actually making it :) I wasn't too sure about this at first but I'm liking it more & more. The color combo wasn't one I've used before, not that I remember anyway, but I kind of  like it :)  After I took this picture I noticed I forgot to add rhinestones to the center of the butterflies like I had "planned". However, I'm kind of glad I didn't; I rather like it just as it is :)

I hope you enjoy today's project. It's the start of a brand new week & I'm hoping to get a few things done in the next couple of days. I am going to the Stampin' Up! Regional Convention later this week so I have a "to do" list to complete :) My wonderful husband even took a day off work so I can go up a day early with some fellow demos from here. It will be the first time he's in charge of things on a school day; I'm sure he'll appreciate going back to work ;)

Have a wonderful week & check back for more projects this week! :)