MDS Monday - St Patrick's Day - Utah Diva's MDS Challenge/My Challenge #14

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Hey y'all. Happy Monday! I hope you all had a Fabulous weekend! I got to spend the weekend with my Amazing BF so my weekend was beyond compare! Hope yours was half as good!

I did manage to squeeze in just a little time (ok a couple of hours if I'm being totally honest) for the Utah Divas MDS Monday Challenge for something "St. Patrick's Day" or "Going Green". I went with St. Patrick's Day. Now, normally I wouldn't count this as my challenge for the week since I do a MDS Monday every week anyway, but this card was pretty involved with the punch work, so I'm going to count it as this weeks challenge card. I may still do another one, in fact there's one I'm looking at doing, but for now this one is "the one". I hope you like it. :)

Here's today's card-

AUGH! I just noticed as I posted this that somehow during all my manipulating I had dropped my white layer down and it's not even! DOUBLE AUGH! OK, so you guys are my friends and will just pretend like you don't really notice that right, and I'll go home tonight and adjust it. So Sorry. SMH!

Anyways, other than that do you love it? I love how it turned out! My daughter was looking at it while I was making it and I had all the oval punches out on the white background (for the stems) and she said I don't see any shamrocks! LOL

I thought it would be nice to have a bunch of regular shamrocks and one 4-leaf clover thrown in there just for luck.

Just in case you're wondering how I made the stems, here's what you need to do-
1- Make 2 oval punches. Take the first one down to the size you would like the length of your stem to be.
2- Fill it in with color you would like your "stem" to be. I used Garden Green.
3- Take your next punch and fill it in with the color of the layer your "stem" is on. Here I used Whisper White.
4 - Take that oval down in size so that it's close to the same size as your "stem" oval. Use the "Bring Forward" function so that you will be able to place it on front of the "stem" piece. Move it into place and rotate it until you have just the portion showing that you want. Voila! Instant stem! :)
Hope this helps.

I then punched out 19 small hearts 3 each for the regular shamrocks and one for the 4 leaf-clover, re-sized them so each clover's hearts were at least similar in size to the ones next to it and then filled it in with Garden Green color.

Here's the inside of the card-

I always loved this saying, but never knew it was attributed to St. Patrick until last night. I just knew it had to go on my card.

You know I like a little pretty on the inside of my card but I have to say I was so tired of adding punches and re-sizing and re-positioning that I actually considered (for a Hot-Minute!) not making another one for the inside, but then I thought, "How could I not make one for the inside to go with that beautiful saying?". So, back to the punch, re-size, re-position, fill. Then I lightened the opacity to 60% and my card was done.

So, you see, that's why, with all the planning and everything I'm calling this my challenge card of the week. :)

Well, that's all I have for today. I hope I've inspired you to try something new today. If you'd like to play with MDS and create something fun too, remember we're offering a FREE 30day trial of our Fabulous MDS at No-Risk to you. You can check it out at my ONLINE STORE where you can shop 24/7.

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

Till next time-

Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

End of the Week Technique #5 A G3 (Ghostly Trio) Halloween Purse

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Hey y'all! Hope everyone is warm and dry and working their way towards the weekend. Here in the DMV we are warm but wait... you guessed it def. not dry and if the good old weatherman is to be believed, that Big Bad Four letter word is on it's way! No, I don't mean more Rain, and yes I know it's a four letter word too, (I'm from the south we're used to rain, but it's warm rain and the sun shines there before, and after and sometimes even during the rain!) I'm talking , cue the doomy music (dum - dum - dadum.... SNOW!!!!! But, until then, maybe today's project will warm your heart and make you smile. It makes me smile every time I look at it!

First though, did you see yesterday's post and my cute little fellas? If not, I hope you'll take a moment and give it a quick look. It was the first time I had entered a challenge and it was for Carrie Gaskin's Ka-Pow Creative Challenge and I was so scared because her stuff is sooo Amazing! Let me just tell you, Carrie Gaskin liked my card and my little guys! I couldn't believe it! She left me a comment and everything. How excited was I? It was like my birthday and Christmas had come early. Seriously! Sooo Cool! Hopefully you like them too because they are appearing today on the project that actually came first and inspired yesterday's challenge card.

So, the End of the Week Techniques aren't always going to be a stamping technique. They might be a new or differentt way to fold a card or a craft technique that is either new to me or one that I'm either not really proficient at, haven't used in a while or want to highlight for someone that might be a beginning stamper, like the use of blender pens with Pastels.

Today's technique is making a cute little purse out of a 6 x 6 piece of DSP. Once again I CASEd France Martin . She really does have the cutest stuff! One thing I love about being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is everyone wants you to succeed, and they don't mind sharing ideas with each other. How cool is that?!? I just say "Thank goodness I don't have to come up with all these ideas on my own!". She has a video showing how to make these. You can see it HERE. I suggest watching the video as you make your purse.
On Full Screen.
A couple of times.
Just a thought.
Ask me Why I think that. (tee-hee-hee)

Ready to see my little purse? Drum Roll Puh-lease.......

How Stinking Cute is this? Ooooooh! I just wish I had a Big Girl One to carry around! If you saw yesterday's post, you know Tink got ahold of my 3 little fellas and the medallion their sitting on, and I really think I'm going to have to let her have free rein to blast these 3 as well. But even without Tink's help how precious!

I made a few changes to my purse from the video. My straps are just a tad bit wider, find what works for you. I didn't have a large oval punch for the flap so I cut a rectangle with my paper cutter. I don't have the measurements with me, but I think it was about 2 1/2- 3" long x 1" wide. Here again, make it your own. I also didn't have a scalloped oval so I went with my trusty ol' scallop circle and punched out a piece of Basic Black cardstock. See the grey on the edge? It's not grey at all. It's Whisper White Craft ink. You know what? I've had that thing since I stamped the first time over 4 years ago and it's like brand new. Our products ROCK! I drug the edge of my punched circle across the edge of my pad and it gave that effect. It also makes it look like I have a grey scallop circle with a black circle layer, bonus!

Now for my 3G's- No I'm not talking ATT or Verizon, lol, I'm talking my seriously cute Ghostly Trio, that I came up with. They are so easy. I used my small oval punch and Whisper White cardstock and punched 3 ovals and using the small scallop circle punch, snipped the bottom of the ovals and there you go, instant Ghost Shapes just like the ones on the DSP. I then lightly sponged my little dudes with some Basic Grey for dimension and used my Real Red Stampin' Writer to make their eyes. I used Tombow adhesive to secure them. (Couldn't have them floating away) Seriously, I would say they couldn't get any cuter except I know what's gonna happen once Tink gets ahold of them tonight!

Now you might ask, "Shan, how in the world did you get that little-itty-bitty oval into the scallop punch in just the right spot to punch it?" Well I'm glad you asked! How often do you have strips of paper left over, maybe a couple of inches long, a couple of inches wide, and you think to yourself - "This is not big enough to use on a card or for a punch, I'll just toss it."?
NOOOOOOOOOO! Don't Toss It!!!!!!!
Take that strip and use it as an extender strip. Just take a little tiny dab of SNAIL and put it on the end of one of those strips and then stick the top edge of your oval to this and just slide it right down into your punch, position it where you want and punch away. Doesn't get any easier than this.

Tip- This works especially well for our builder punches like the Cupcake Punch, Stocking Punch etc. I love those punches but I always hated the waste of trying to punch one thing, especially at the bottom, and having to punch everything else out. This way you just cut your cardstock to the size you need, or if it's already stamped your stamped image, stick it to your extender strip, slide it into position, punch and all you've punched is your intended piece and the strip you would have thrown away to start with. Fabulous! Try it next time you use one of these punches. You'll thank me, I just know it.

Here's the inside-

As you can see, plenty big to hold some chocolatey, peanut buttery loving or other forms of goodness.

Tip #2 When you do this project with pattern paper like my 3G's before you score, gently roll the edges up to see how your pattern will end up. Ask me how I know!
The DSP's used in the video didn't have a right or wrong pattern to them so I didn't think about this and the first purse I made was cute but my little dudes were flying across the bag instead of sitting up looking at me. So the second time around, I had to stop and think as I re-watched the video to see which way I needed to have my DSP placed on the Simply Scored so my little guys would be sitting instead of flying. Like I said, still cute, and most of the time this will not be an issue for you, but just something to be aware, just in case.

Well, that's it for this edition of End of the Week Technique. Did you learn something new? I hope so! I know I did. I also know this is going to be something that I use throughout the year for cute little go to gifts. Seriously, I took a 6 x 6 piece of DSP and some scraps and I ended up with this piece of cuteness. You betcha I'm gonna be doing this again. As always, if you try this, send me a pic or a link, I'd love to see it!

If you need supplies to make this project or projects like this one, come shop with me. You can do it 24/7. It's easy, you don't have to get dressed up, no make-up is required, heck you don't even have to get out of your PJ's and best of all....you don't have to pay those outrageous prices at the pump. Just click HERE.

Also don't forget, only 4 days left to get your FREE Big Shot or $100 dollars in FREE merchandise. It's easy to do and Absolutely NO STRINGS Attached. Join my Stampin Up team and enjoy all the benefits of team membership plus your FREE Big Shot or FREE $100 Dollars in Merchandise but only through the end of this month.

Till next time,
Be Safe,
Shan

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A Ghostly Challenge ( KKC004)

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Hey y'all! It's Hump Day Woo-Hoo! Hope everyone is having a great week!

I was going through my read feeds yesterday and Carrie Gaskins' site, Artistic Avenger.com, popped up. If you haven't checked her site out, I highly recommend it. Most of her stuff is like Way over the top, stuff I could never hope to come up with on a daily basis, but really Amazing! Anyways, she has a new challenge that she recently started called the Ka-Pow Creative Challenge. Here's this week's challenge sketch-

Now, I have wanted to try challenges before but have you seen the name of my blog? I'm a Scaredy Cat! What if it's not good enough? What if no-one likes it? What if they hate it? What if it sucks? What if it looks like a kindergartners craft project next to a Monet? What if no-one can tell it looks like the sketch? Augh! I'm stressing out just thinking about it!

Well, I did say, I was going to try and step out of my comfort zone and since I had just made a project (you'll see it tomorrow) that had a scalloped circle, and was pretty cute, if I do say so myself (and hopefully I'm not the only one who will say so) I thought this might be the perfect challenge to try. That being said, I was extremely, intimidated to be entering Carrie Gaskins' challenge! Did you read what I said about her stuff? Did you pause and go to her site earlier? (No? Well, make sure you do, just make sure to finish this too!) Have you seen my very basic blog and cards/projects? But, in the spirit of Halloween (the season of Scaredy Cats), I am not just stepping out of my comfort zone I am jumping of the ledge!

Here's my card-

I used a base of Basic Black cardstock 4 1/4 x 8 1/2  scored at 4 1/4 to make a square card. I then layered a 4 x 4 piece of Frightful Sight DSP which I used as my inspiration. I used Basic Grey cardstock cut at 3 1/2 x 1 inch and cut it out with my Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch and adhered it with SNAIL. I used my 1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punch to punch a piece of Basic Black cardstock. I didn't make two layers like the  sketch, it's actually black cardstock that I stroked the edges over the edge of a Whisper White Craft Ink Pad instead of sponging it on. I was actually just trying for a different effect and it ended up looking like I have two layers. (kinda cool, huh?) My 3 little ghosts were my own idea! How excited was I?!? I used the small oval and then punched the bottom with the 1 3/4" Scallop Punch. I sponged them with a little Basic Grey for dimension and then used my Real Red Stampin' Write Marker to draw in their eyes. Makes them look just like the little guys on the paper huh? I adhered them to the scalloped circle using Tombow so they would really stay put, didn't want them floating away. Before I could adhere this to the card can you see what happened? That's right! Tink's back! She got the border of my scalloped circle and then she got my cute little guys and dang it if she didn't make them even cuter!
Who would have imagined that was even possible?!?
Well, I just stuck those cute little guys to the front of my card with 3 dimensionals and the front was done.

The inside is really simple. Every year I look at all the cute Halloween stamps and somehow I end up not getting any so, believe it or not I didn't have a greeting to go with my cute little card. *tear* So I improvised-

I used a 4 x 4 piece of Whisper White cardstock for the inside and took my Stampin Write Journaler pen and wrote Boo! as Neatly and Cutely as Possible. (Let's face it, I do have Nurse writing and it's a good thing I get to blog in type, 'cuz if it was penned no-one would be able to read it) :-) I then punched it out with my Word Window Punch (Luv It!) and ran a strip of SNAIL across it. You know what came next. Yep, I beat Tink to this one! The Dazzling Diamonds came out and a plain inside of a card, simply sparkles.

I hope you like today's card, but most of all I hope it inspires you to create and step out of your box whatever it might be. If you liked it, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :) 

If you haven't tried any challenges, try one. There are all sorts out there. Sketch challenges like this one or color challenges, Mash-up challenges. This one is actually a fairly straight forward and uncomplicated one to get your feet wet with. As always, if today's card inspired you to create, send me a link or a pic, I'd love to see it!

You can shop 24/7 for supplies to this card or others at my online store, HERE.

Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow, I've got a really cute Halloween Project featuring my cute little trio.

Till then ...

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It