A quick Easter post!

Good Morning Everyone! and a VERY Happy Easter to each of you! :)  Just a quick Easter post before this busy day gets underway....

At my last Stampers' Hostess club, I wanted to show a treat holder that was NOT made using a die and the Big Shot, so I showed them how to make this easy 2-4-6-8 box.  You simply take an 8 1/2 x 6" piece of card stock -- score it at 2, 4, 6, and 8" on the 8 1/2" side.  Then rotate the card stock 90 degrees, and score it at 2" on the long side.  Cut up to that 2" score line -- those will be the flaps you will fold up to make the base of your box.  The little 1/2" flap on the circumference of the box, will be adhered to the inside of the opposite edge of the box.  That's pretty much it!  Fold in the top of your box like a milk carton, punch holes for ribbon, and tie your box together -- AFTER filling it with yummy treats, of course!  For this one, I punched an oval in the front panel first, so the treats could show through, and put a window sheet inside to keep the treats from falling out.

That lovely rosette is made using the spiral flower die from the Occasions mini catalog.  I cut it from Very Vanilla card stock and sponged the edges with Primrose Petals ink, then rolled up the rosette and used hot glue to adhere it together and to the box.  The easiest, most beautiful rosette to make! I have a non-SU (gasp!) rosette die, and have found that this SU one works much better because only the top edge of the die cut is scalloped and the bottom edge (that will become the base of your flower) is flat -- whereas the bottom edge of the non-SU die cut is also scalloped, making it hard to get a flat-based flower that sits straight.  Of course, I can't resist the urge to add sparkle, so I used my two way glue pen and outlined the edges of the petals with glue, then dumped dazzling diamonds glitter over it and dumped off the excess.

To make your rose more vintage and shabby chick, spritz your die cut rosette with rubbing alcohol.  Then wad up the whole thing in your hand to make it all wrinkled up.  Next smooth it out and roll it up into your rose.  The rubbing alcohol works better than water because it dries quickly.  Your rose will look more weathered and vintage rather than crisp like this one.  You can also vary the size of your rose, by using two die cut rosettes layered together.  You get a larger rose this way.

Stay tuned for BIG SU NEWS tomorrow!!!!  FREE SHIPPING April 21st through the 25th!  ALSO, the retiring list will post, so you can see what stamp sets and accessories will be going away.  An important change this year -- retiring stamp sets (as well as accessories as in years past) will only be available while supplies last.  In other words, SU will not be making more of the retiring stamp sets once their current supply has run out, so if there is a retiring stamp set you want, DON'T WAIT! to order it as you may miss out.  If any of you ordered the 2012-2014 In Colors, make sure to order whatever card stock or reinkers you may need.  The Raspberry Ripple reinker is already sold out, so don't delay if there are others that you want.

Have a happy and blessed Easter!

Signs of Spring!

So happy to see sunshine today, even if it was mixed with a little rain and a lot of wind!!!

My scrap booking club meets this coming Friday, and "Easter" or "spring" is the theme.  I had these completely adorable Easter pics of Bryn when he was about 4 1/2 -- Yep! I'm THAT far behind on my scrap booking.  Sigh!  Oh well, one page at a time!

I wanted to use my new Hexagon Thinlets die that I'm totally excited about, as well as show casing the new Watercolor Wonder DSP from the new Occasions catalog.  I also saw this super cool technique in a video online, where they put an open embossing folder under the Coordinations card stock, and sanded over it to reveal the embossing folder pattern in the paper.  Brilliant!!!!!  Just couldn't wait to try it and it so happened to go with my hexagon theme that I was already embarked upon. :)

 That watercolored looking paper behind the Hexagon thinlet (beehive looking thing), is actually DSP.  It really does look like water colored paper!  Love how it looks showing through that die.  I had read that it can be tricky to get the paper out of the hexagon thinlet, so I tried adding waxed paper between the die and the card stock and it worked perfectly.  I then tried it without the waxed paper, and it really wasn't as fiddly as I thought it would be.

Those cute Easter letters are some fun "watercolor splotches" DSP from that same pack.  I adhered the designer paper to chipboard, using Multipurpose adhesive sheets, and then die cut them with my Bigz alphabet dies and Big Shot.  They have a fun 3-D effect in real life. :)

Of course, I also used the hexagon stamp set -- Six Sided sampler, along with the matching hexagon punch.  Those cute little flowers are from a new, very popular, flower and punch set -- Petite petals, that's in the Occasions mini catalog.  It is such a dainty little flower that is perfect when you just want a small accent -- and also layers really nicely on top of some of our larger flowers.  Of course, that hexagon pattern you see in the corners of the Gumball Green Coordinations card stock, is where I put the inside flap of my hexagon embossing folder under the card stock and gave it a little sanding. :)

I hope this inspires you to pull out an embossing folder and some of that huge stock pile of Cherry Cobbler, Gumball Green, Primrose Petals, and Early Esspresso Coordinations card stock (that many of you stocked up on when it was in the Clearance rack for a fabulous price a while back:) and give this fun technique a try!  Perfect for a background on a card, too.  I did find that the embossing folders with a more distinct, bold pattern worked the best for this technique.

Until I stamp again!..... :)