A New Season, A New Skill Blog Hop

Hi There! Welcome to the A New Season, A New Skill Blog Hop.Welcome to our blog hop!

If you have come from Melissa's Blog then you are in the right place.  If you have just arrived here from somewhere else, please head over to Crafting Misfit's site and start at the beginning.  There's a giveaway happening there so you will want to check that out for sure! You can also link up your own project there.

For this hop challenge we were asked to do something we had not done before.  Either a new project, a new technique, or a new material/supply.Today, I have two projects for you. I planned one project and then got a shipment of goodies so I had everything I needed to do a second project for you! Thank you in advance for all of your comments!

Here is my newest project- I used Stampin' Up Ink and a brayer to coat the inside of an embossing folder and then embossed a piece of white card stock. I chose to use 2 colors, rolling 1/2 the brayer in the light green ink, and then rolled the other 1/2 in a purple ink. I wiggled the brayer back and forth a little on the folder so I wouldn't have a line down the middle. If you were to roll the ink on the other side of the folder you would have the opposite effect- the Fleur de lis would be inked, and the rest of the paper would be white still. Pretty Cool!

Lessons Learned:  Use more ink for a more solid look! I used Stampin' Up Ink, and it came right off the embossing folder when placed under running water- I can not say the same for any other ink since I did not try it with any other brand- ink at your own risk :)

This next image is the first project I did for this blog hop.  The silver in the stars is actually pieces of embossed soda cans! My friend Meg's mom Jo Ann first showed us this idea a few months back when we were all scrapping together. I think she had seen it a magazine, and came prepared with cut open soda cans for us to try. So I finally tried it. The can is soft so it feeds through the Sizzix Texture Boutique very easily.

Lessons Learned:  When using the embossed soda can, you need to have a wider border around the edges to hide the sharp edges. The edges of the stars need to be a little bit bigger to hide the edges of the sods can safely. And I personally dont like how the inked edge came out on this textured card base. But thats how we learn right? Trial and Error...Just goes to show that many of us never make the perfect product on the first try!

Here's the line up- enjoy everyone's projects~

Crafting Mistfit

http://teachdanz.blogspot.com/

Melissa at http://craftygator.blogspot.com/

Sue-Ann at http://sueannscrafts.blogspot.com/ ( You Are Here)

Lolis http://lolis-mycorner.blogspot.com/ (Your Next Stop)

Tammy http://cuttinandstampin.blogspot.com/

Meaghan http://craftingwithmeg.blogspot.com/ 

Amanda http://www.whiteruffles.blogspot.com/

Dont forget to head back to the start to link up your project at Crafting Misfit

Hope you guys all enjoy the Blog Hop! Thanks for stopping to look at my projects!

Sue-Ann

Stars and Buttons

Guess who is gonna get this card??

Off it goes to my favorite USAF JAG Officer!

The blue stars and the ribbon came from the Stand and Salute Cartridge, I got this huge bag of multi-size clear buttons for next to nothing and used some white scrappers floss for the bows. Now the buttons will make this card "un-machineable" for sure. So its either got to go in a care package or I'll have to pay a special visit to the post master for correct postage......but knowing me, it will probably go into a care package....got to go back to my roots as a Army Wife and spoil my servicemen who are deployed or stationed away from family!

A Flower Soft Thank You!

Have you used Flower Soft? If not, I suggest you try it!  I love it!

Flower Soft is shaved foam that comes in solid colors or color mixes. You can also buy it in ultra fine or regular. This is the lavender mix and it is the regular type, not ultra fine. Meg and I picked this up when we were at Life Memories & More, a small scrapbook store in Palmer, MA. It was like $5.99 for a little pot of it and let me tell you....it was JAMMED in the pot. I could take the lid off and turn the pot upside down and it didn't budge!

You have to fluff the Flower Soft before using it- just take a little bit out of the pot and rub it between your fingers a few times to separate the pieces. Use a glue that has a low water content- like tacky glue, Sprinkle on the Flower Soft, lightly tap it and shake the excessive. I repeated it a few times and before the glue dried I took a fine glitter and sprinkeled it on top. The fine glitter sneaks in between the pieces of flower soft and give a nice sparkle to the project. Of course, I coudnt catch that on film though!



I snagged these metal "thank you" on clearance at the craft store for next to nothing! And since I dont have cropic markers and wanted something just a little softer, I used some artist grade colored pencils.

Hope you like the Flower Soft!

A Thank You Card...

This was a card I made a few days ago. When I started out I didn't know what I was going to make. I had taken out the Cricut "Tie the Knot" cartridge to do a My Pink Stamper Challenge about Birds, and then didn't do it...LOL.  So I thought I should use the cartridge since I'd taken it out days earlier after digging through everything looking for the perfect birds. Since the bird idea had "flown out the window", I saw this cute flower and thought "I need those" ( I say this about many things!!!).

I used all 4 layer options, black on the shadow blackout, white for the shadow, pink for the flower and green for the leaves. I put all the layers together using Beacon's 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue which I have to say I LOVED. I was taken back at first by the strong scent of the glue- but quickly saw how great it works!

This is again a Standard A2 card from a chain craft store, the pink paper is cut at a 1/4 inch smaller than the card base and was embossed with the Sizzix Texture Boutique and a Sizzix folder from the Damask set I think---the folders themselves really should be labeled with their correct names! It would make it so much easier- guess I'll have to lable mine from now on.  :-)

The White middle section is 2 inches wide and 3 3/4 inches long. Both the white piece and the pink backround have the edges chalked with black chalk ink from Creative Memories. I just wanted to give it a little more demension.

To add another touch of demension, I added a strip of black velet ribbon across the card.

The Stamp is actually from a Fiskars set I scored at Joann's for a crazy cheap price!  It was in their clearance section for....wait for it.....$1.97!!!!!!  Original price.....$15!!!  That night I also got 2 sets of Inkadinkado stamps for 97 Cents Each! Those should have been $10 each! So a whopping $4 for what should have been $35 dollars in stamps.  I think thats my best haul yet!

Hope you like it!  Im really happy with it, especially since I didnt know what I was going to make when I started out.

I love reading everyone's comments...so if you were here, drop a line and say Hi!

Tomorrow is Wednesday- 1/2 way through the work week for most of us. Hope your week is going well!

PS- I actually made 5 of these cards, but only stamped one. Since its a card I can use for many different things, I can stamp them as I need one, that way the sentiment will be just right for the situation!

Friends

Last weekend I got to spend the day with some of the best ladies in the world! We spent the day crafting and chatting away. We don't get to do this nearly as often as we would like to, but its always a good time when we do!

Say HELLO ladies!

Thats Meg from Crafting with Meg all the way over to the left, Leslie, Anne, Deb is hiding in the back, and Mary Ann is right up front!

Even with all the chatter...I managed to make a cute card that really summed up the day!

This isn't the best photo, the colors are a little off, but you can get the idea!

Wishing you all a great weekend with family and friends!

All the best, Sue-Ann

Another My Pink Stamper Challenge!

What a neat Blog Hop last night! It was so fun to see everyone's projects! Here is my project from the challenge....to see what the challenge was go check out My Pink Stamper.

I am proud to say this was my first Gypsy project.  Not because I own one, but because I stole Megs and took it for a test run!

Hope you like it!  Will post more details later for those that are interested.  I always love to see comments and hear your thoughts! Let me know you were here!

Have a great night!

My Pink Stamper Challenge!

Tonight, Robyn, My Pink Stamper, posted a challenge to make something about Spring, or something that makes you happy.  Here is my project- a Dragonfly card.

Dragonflies remind me of spring, and summer too (we often see many of them up at the lake house we rent). The colors in this card, shades of pink and green, also remind many people of Spring.
Here's how I did it:

• This is a 5x5 inch white card base that I rounded the corners on.
• 3 1/2 inch Dragonfly base and layers from the Circut CM exclusive Cheerful Seasons Cartridge. I used 3 shades of purple. Darkest for the base, next lightest for the overlay, and lightest purple for the top wing layer. I chose not to use the layer on the bottom wings. I used a light grey/light purple paper for the body of the dragonfly.
• After I layered it all up, I used my I-Rock to set 6 crystals in the wings and then applied a million (ok 8) pop-dots to the back (they were smaller ones!)
• I then layered a 5x5 piece of light pink paper with rounded corners, and a 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 piece of patterned green paper, also corner rounded, together and wrapped the double layer of ribbon around it, securing it to the back, and then to the card base.
• After putting on the dragonfly I left like it needed just a little something more so I took out 2 white paper flowers, chalked them in shades of purple, and applied them to the card, with an I-Rock stone in the middle.

This project took me about an hour, as I had to re-adjust my Cricut settings and replace some paper parts! Otherwise, it wouldn’t have taken very long at all!

I love when people leave comments, so let me know you were here!!!

Thank You BEARY much!

So it is pretty snowy here in New England- and there is more to come this week! We are running out of places to put all of it- you can only move it so far with a shovel or "regular" snow blower. The piles were so large at the end of our driveway that we couldn't see when pulling on to the street. Stan, my husband, works for a local dealership that sells landscaping equipment- sooo........he borrowed a tractor/snow plow/industrial snow blower!!  We had a little roadside neighborhood party when Stan pulled up with the tractor- got everyone to move their cars and Stan was also able to widen our VERY snow-narrowed street.

Thankfully, Stan works right down the road from our house, so when he was done....he drove it right back to the shop (with me following in the car so he didn't have to walk home!)

So how do we say THANKS for letting us borrow this nifty little machine?  I made a card for the shop owner!

Here is what I used:

• Cricut "Joys of the Season" Cartridge - Polar Bear Cut- All of these cuts were made with the "flip" feature on- the bear was originally looking to the right- I made him so he would look to the left.
• 2 inch bear shadow cut in light blue
• 2 inch regular bear cut in white
• 2 inch layer cut in bright blue
• DCWV "Winter Collection" Card - Size A2- in Blue
• K & Company layered snowflake accent (Meg snagged both the cards and the layered snowflakes on clearance at JoAnn Fabrics for almost nothing!)
• One border strip, 1/2 inch x 5 inch with one side cut with a wavy pattern
• Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter
• Zip Glue Pens
• Adhesive Tape Runner
• Black fine point pen
• Assorted Cricut tools

Layer up the polar bear, use the black pen to accent the eye and nose on the bear and place it on the card.  I did not use any dimensional dots on the bear since the snowflake is a double layer accent. I chose to write the saying on the "snow" but you could place it anywhere really.

Just to add a little extra something- I put some fine crystal glitter on the bears feet. Just to make them a little different from the "snow"!