End of the Week Technique #18 - Paper Piercing

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Hey y'all. Happy Friday! I hope you're having a good day and getting ready for a great SuperBowl Weekend.

I can't believe I'm on my 18th EWT already. WOW! How exciting? I hope you are enjoying them as much as I am enjoying doing them. Today's EWT is one I have done at Stampcamps in the past but I don't think I have ever done on my own at home in the studio, and have never done on any cards here.

Paper Piercing can be as simple as adding pinholes to the centers of the scallops of punched out scalloped circle punch, or a few holes in the corner of a card to make a decorative angle, or around a card and connected with either marker for a faux stitched look or thread for the real deal. Or you can do what I've done on today's card and use it to outline a design element to leave an image of that element on your card.

I CASE'd my card from our Stampin Connect magazine, the monthly magazine Stampin' Up demonstrators get. It's full of ideas for us to use and I did. I changed it up a little and made it my own, but if you get the magazine you may recognize it.

Here's today's card-

Isn't is cute? My stampcamp girls loved it last week. The original card was a longer rectangle card. I chose to stick with a standard card size. I started with a base of Calypso Coral. I used the a-la-carte stamp Candy Conversations from our Occasions Mini. I just love this stamp. It takes me right back to my childhood (which since I'm only 29 isn't that far, hahahahahaha) when we used to all love to get those little boxes of candy hearts and read each one. You know, they don't even taste that good but for some reason I still find myself buying at least one box a year. How about you?

I used my Stampin Write Markers to color in the stamp. I used Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Pool Party and Pretty in Pink. I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to get my alignment just right, but let me tell you my girls were fearless! They just stamped away. The original card had 2 rows of hearts, but as I knew I was going to have new stampers I chose to go a little easier route. We stamped onto Whisper White c/s and I have to tell you that even though the coverage is not perfect, I'm happy. Normally, this would have me running for my blender pens to fill in and correct the color, but those little candies are never consistent in color and often have little chunks missing where the white shows through, so to my own surprise and the surprise of many of you I'm sure, the imperfections were allowed to stay. (Hooray! Take that OCD!)

I triple wrapped our fabulous Calypso Coral Bakers Twine around the edge of the c/s and tied a cute little  bow. This whole piece then got popped up with dimensionals and the front was almost done. I actually saved the piercing for last.

On to the inside-

Very simple here. I used a sentiment stamp from P.S. I Love You and stamped it in Calypso Coral. I colored one of the hearts from the Candy Conversations stamp in Wisteria Wonder, stamped it on Whisper White c/s and let Tink have her way with it and then punched it out using my Small Heart Punch. I then Tombowed it to the inside corner of my card. The effect is a little sugared candy heart. How Yummy is that? Don't you just want to pick it up and eat it?

Now onto today's EWT. The original card had two pierced hearts, I chose to do three. I made a "template heart" using my Small Heart Punch. I used Red Glimmer Paper because it's so sturdy and I felt it would hold up longer. I opened up my card and laid the front of my card on my Mat Pack and laid my heart where I wanted my first heart to be. Then using my Paper Piercer I began to outline the heart. Of course, being me, I did it in a methodical way instead of just punching my way around the heart. You can do it however you choose, but here's how I did mine. I pierced at the "v" of the heart and the point of the heart first, then the center of both top rounded portions, the middle of both side rounded portions and in between the last spot and the point at the bottom. I then filled in in-between these spacing evenly. It only took a few extra punches.

*TIP* - Be sure to take your time and be aware of how much pressure and how deeply you are pressing on your piercer. You will get different size holes depending on how hard you press, because this will affect how deeply you go into your mat.

*TIP* - For finer piercing you can use a sewing needle. This looks especially nice in the Small Scalloped Circle Punch.

After you have your first heart punched move your template and place it where you would like your next heart to be and simply start the process again. Just make sure to only outline the portion of the heart outside the original heart.

Here's a closer picture of the front-

What do you think? I think it's something I need to remember to try more often. It definitely adds something to the card.

I hope you liked today's card and today's EWT. I hope it inspires you to try this technique. If you do, as always, I would love to see your efforts. If not this technique, I hope it inspires you to try something you haven't tried yet or something you haven't tried in a while. You know the motto of this blog- Just Try.

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. :)

Today's Card Recipe-
Cardstock- Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Red Glimmer Paper
Ink- Classic Ink Pad- Calypso Coral, Stampin Write Markers- Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Pool Party and Pretty in Pink
Punch- Small Heart Punch
Bakers Twine- Calypso Coral
Accesories- Mat Pack, Paper Piercer, Two-Way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds, Tombow, Dimensionals, Stamp-A-Ma-Jig

If you need supplies to recreate this card or to create your own cards you can shop in my ONLINE STORE 24/7. Now's a great time to shop with Sale-A-Bration going on. $50.00 in purchases will get you FREE merchandise. How AMAZING is that?!?

Also, have you thought about buying our My Digital Studio, but been uncertain about spending the money for the purchase? What if I told you, you could get a FREE 1 month trial of our Fabulous digital content to try, NO Strings Attached? Interested? I would be happy to tell you more.


If you liked today's card I hope you'll leave me a comment. That's how I grow as a designer. Also feel free to hit the Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest buttons. Friends and Followers are always welcome too.

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you have an Amazing weekend full of family and friends and of course time for stamping and designing. Hopefully I'm going to stop wheezing and coughing long enough to be able to design some cards for you for next week. Hope to see you back here then.

Till next time-

Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to Dance in the Rain

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

Gently Falling for Fall....Ha! Not Bloody Likely, but it sure does make for a Beautiful Birthday Card! :-)

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Hey y'all! How're you doing today? It's a beautiful day here in the DMV! Am I the only one who heard Mister Rodgers just then singing "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, would you be my, could you be my, won't you be my neighbor?" No? Me neither then!

Did you get the title of today's blog? For those of you that know me, you know if it's below 72 it's too cold, so I'm not likely to be "Falling for Fall", be it "Gently" or any other way! LOL!

I had the morning off, got to sleep in an extra hour, had an interview for a part-time position at a Med-Spa (Botox has made me happy Very Happy, so why shouldn't I want to share some of that happiness with others? Do you know they are doing clinical trials for depression with Botox? I kid you not! Anyways, then I got to go have lunch with one of my Besties with DEA who I get to see way tooo little of, (Shout out here to Jessica if she's checking in on my little blog here), and got to spend a little time with some of my All-Time Favorite Heroes, some Very Special Agents with the U.S.'s Finest Law Enforcement Division, the D.E.A., Drug Enforcement Administration (not Agency we're very particular about that distinction, it's a sticking point actually). These men and women put their lives on the line everyday and this special group I met with today holds a very special place in my heart, and Jessica, well she's like the mother hen that keeps them all in line, God Bless her! After seeing some of my favorite guys, Jess and I got to have lunch together (score!) So....the morning was amazing and now here I am with time to blog and then do a little schoolwork before chillaxing and finishing up preparations for this weekends "Just Christmas Cards StampCamp", try saying that 3 times real fast. WOW! I really hope your day is going half as good!

Today's card is one that we did at last weekend's StampCamp. It was a Fall themed camp so I wanted to use my new Gently Falling set. I loved all the cards I've been seeing with it. Well, I finally had to break down and get it. One thing I like about it is, it's a Two-Step Stamp set but I've seen and done projects now with  each of the stamps sets individually and together so I feel like I have 3 sets for the price of 1. Hard to beat that! One of the girls that was coming to my camp said she had a friend with a birthday coming up, so I told her we could make a card for that, and here's what I came up with. I got the idea for this from France Martin. I just changed a few things to make it mine.

I have to say, I wasn't sure about the Spice Cake DSP when I first saw it, it just didn't scream "Fall" to me, but I am really loving it now. I used a base of Pool Party (who would have thought of this as a Fall color , but it makes such a pretty combination), and randomly stamped ( yeah, yeah, random) just the outline portion of the leave in Soft Suede. I then made a banner by using my Scalloped Border Punch on the edge of a strip of More Mustard and then layered another strip of Spice Cake DSP on top of that. I Tombowed them together. (You could SNAIL it if you wanted to) I cut the "V" in the bottom of the banner freehand although if you're good with using the edge of your square punch, you could use that too. I just knew that I, personally, could get a truer point freehanded. I then used some Soft Suede and lightly sponged the edges to give some depth. I Tombowed this to my cardfront just a little off-center.

I used the Petite Pairs Sentiments and chose the Happy Birthday one for this card. I like Love that set! So many options. Someone could make a Birthday card, a Thank-You card, even a Sympathy card or more from this one card and that sentiment set. So versatile, So fabulous, So easy on my pocket! (YEA!!!!!!) So I stamped the sentiment in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla cardstock and used my Designer Label Punch to Punch it out. A little sponging around the edges, a few dimensionals to pop it up off the banner and we're almost done.

Next I stamped the same leaf image from the card base on Very Vanilla Cardstock and then using my Aqua-Painters and my Pool Party Classic Ink Pad water colored in the leaves. Quick and Easy but So Striking! I then stamped the little acorn and colored it in with Soft Suede. I know it looks like I used two different colors on it, but it's just a matter of how concentrated the ink was when I picked it up from the tray and laid it down on the paper. I tell you what, my first-time stampers this weekend did this technique and did a Fabulous job!

Tip- #1-When watercoloring on regular cardstock it's best to use Staz-on ink whenever possible, because it won't bleed and the color won't muddy.
#2 - When using regular cardstock use as little water as possible, to preserve the integrity of your paper and your image.

The cutting out of the leaves and the acorn was the hardest part of this whole card. (Well you know, me & bow-tying are not the best of friends but this was still, if not the hardest at least the most time consuming.) We adhered the leaves with dimensionals and used the little side pieces around the edge of the pack, to pop up the little acorn. It's hard to see, but there's a little bow made from linen thread adhered at the top of the acorn. I stuck it on with a little Mini Glue Dot.

Tip- When you're using Mini-Glue Dots for something really tiny like this little bow, take it off the paper and roll it into a little ball and then stick your item onto it and then adhere it to your project. If you just stick your little tiny bow to the dot, there's still going to be glue dot showing on both sides that can then stick to other things, like your envelope or other cards..... Ask me how I know.

For the inside of this card, I kept it pretty simple. I just stamped the second half of my birthday sentiment and another leaf from the set and I was done.

Did you notice anything missing today? That's right! Tink did not make an appearance for this card. Not even a stray glimmer, or shimmer. And, you know what? For this card, I'm ok with that. I'm so happy with how it turned out and my girls were too. I really hope this set ends up in the full catalog next year, it's just so beautiful.

Well, that's it for now...gotta go study and then stamping time :-) I hope you enjoyed today's card and I hope you are enjoying your day. 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. :)

If you need supplies to make this card or other like it, you can shop in my online store 24/7, HERE.

Don't forget, Stampin' Up has extended their FREE Big Shot giveaway until Nov 11. You can get a FREE Big Shot or $100.00 in Free merchandise just for signing up. No strings attached. Contact me for more information.

Also don't forget this weekends Just Christmas Cards StampCamp. Saturday 10-2. Make 5 cards for $15.00. Choose one of those or one from last week's class to be your Christmas card for this year and place your order from me and I will cut all your cardstock for you. All you will have to do is assemble them. We can even get together and have an assembly party one evening. It doesn't get any easier than this.

If you get a chance and you see a Law enforcement officer, Fire Fighter, EMT, or Military Member, think about taking just a moment to tell them "Thanks". They are truly Every Day Heroes and they rarely get the thanks they deserve.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you'll come back later this week for the End of the Week Technique. I've got something cute that's quick and easy, from last weekend's camp to show you.
Till then....

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

StampCamp Success

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Hey y'all! I hope you had as good of a weekend as I did! There's too much too tell in one post, so I'm going to do an extra post tomorrow or Wednesday with a card from this weekends camp.

Did you have a good weekend? I hope so! 
Mine was AMAZING!!!!!

Well, first off, Friday night started off questionable, but then quickly turned around. I left the office late but ended up not having to go to my second job (Score!), so I had the evening off and was able to do some "spring cleaning" and had my house looking all spiffy for  my Saturday StampCamp.

Saturday's StampCamp arrived and though it didn't have the turnout I had expected (I had a pregnant lady no show, (legitimate no show), and another no-show that had surgery, (I'll give her that one too), and the last no show totally flaked on the timing,( ehhh ok). But my girls that came, had a great time! More to follow on that.

Sunday came and we went to the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show. We walked around and sampled all sorts of good tatsting food and sauces. I dogsit for my good friend Sharon sometimes and you know what she did for me? She bought my ticket for me to the event. Yep! How sweet was that? She got a special deal on Groupon. Have you used that yet? I haven't, but it's pretty cool. Oh, I forgot to mention the BEST part of the ticket.....It was for Paula Deen's Cooking Show Y'ALL! OMG!!!!!! She's My Favorite! So Cool! I got her New Cookbook and it's signed and everything. I can't wait to try out some new recipes. Now, because it was sunday you know we have to have a quick recap so here it is....
If you follow football, and let's face it, y'all are all Fabulous, so I know most of you do, if for no other reason than to see the amazing men and to know what's going on with your men (but I digress), The Skins lost Again!, The Cowboys won Again, The Pats lost sadly (actually it's "Sadly the Pats lost" but since it made me so sad I think I'll leave it that way), but in a early holiday Miracle the Dolphins had a Resounding Victory, so all in all a good Football day.
So, was your weekend as good as mine? I sure hope so, because mine was AMAZING!!!!

This weekend's StampCamp was a success! We did a Thanksgiving card, 2 Fall-Themed all purpose cards, a Christmas card and a Pumpkin Project. I think I challenged them a little for first time stampers but they rose to the challenge and created amazing cards and projects. They learned to watercolor, to color on stamps, and to use the Simply Score Tool. They used wood mount and clear mount stamps, they stamped directly on to card stock and they cut out and mounted images. Looking back, it may have been more than a beginners class, good thing they didn't know that!

Here's Miss Marie using the Simply Scored Tool. I may have to get a second one of these. I told them how much I love to use it for folding my cards and let me tell you they folded everyone of theirs that way too. It makes such clean fold lines that way.

Here's Miss Sharon getting ready to put some Dazzling Diamonds on one of her cards. Tink was not needed in the Studio Saturday. Let me tell you, these girls Love themselves some shine! Ooooh! I knew I picked the right group for my first StampCamp!

Look at the smiles on their faces and the beautiful cards and pumpkins they made! Too bad you can't see the smile on my face too! They should be smiling, don't you think? They made some Beautiful cards, and the pumpkins are sooo cute, I'll be showing those on this Thursday's EWT.

The good news is they had a great time, and they will be coming back for more StampCamps. How about you? I have A Just Christmas Cards Camp this weekend. Since Friday is a holiday I have opened up a class from 10-2 and I have another one Saturday from 11-3. If you order the supplies to make your Christmas cards from me I will cut all of your stock so all you have to do is assemble it. You can even come over to the studio and we can have a assembly party. Contact me HERE for more details.

Well that's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow with a beautiful card from this weekend to show you. I hope you have a great day. Stay warm.

As always, if you need to get supplies for cards or projects, you can shop 24/7 in my online store HERE.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It