Friday, August 27, 2010

Friday Card Share - Wanted Birthday Card

Hi Everyone,
TGIF! It has been a long week for our family this week with this being the first full week of school. Plus there were a lot of changes for my son in his kindergarten class and to top it off it was HOT! I know that when the weather gets cold in a couple of months I am going to be wishing for some hot weather, but for right now, I am wishing it was more like Fall weather.
Today I wanted to share with you a birthday card that I created for my Dad. Now anyone that knows my Dad knows how much he loves his horses. So I knew instantly what stamp set I wanted to use. I love the Stampin' Up stamp set Wanted, but unfortunately it retired at the end of the last catalog as well as the small star punch, boo hoo!
I love the way you can use the horse stamp to create the feeling of motion and the repeat stamping without reinking the stamp gives that variation in color of the 3 horses that I just love.
The background was a piece of patterned paper that I had from when I first started paper crafting and it fit perfectly for this card. The Birthday Wishes stamp is from Stampin' Up's Level 3 Hostess Set, Occasional Quotes, and I just love this stamp set. It has such a wonderful variety of sentiments and quotes that I find myself reaching for it over and over again.
I hope you have enjoyed today's card share and hope it inspires you to get out your stamps and create something today.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Until Next Time.
Happy Stampin',
Tricia Butts

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Fun with Black & White Tags

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I have been absent for so long. My kids are all back in school and we are slowly getting into a regular routine. With my husband away on business, I have been taking care of everything which has meant very little time for stamping and creating.
So today I thought I would share with you some tags that I created for a swap that I participated in recently. I belong to a wonderful group called Art of the Creative Mind, where we explore creating art using mixed media. It is a lot of fun and really has given me the opportunity to think outside the box.
Anyway, this particular swap was to create two Black & White Tags. Now, I have never really played with this combination before as I tend to gravitate towards color, so this was a fun challenge for me.
I decided to have one tag be black and the other white to explore the different contrasts. I also decided to use two different embossing techniques - heat embossing and dry embossing using my Sizzix Big Shot.
For the Black Tag I used the Stampin' Up Background stamp, En Francais, and stamped it with Whisper White Craft ink. Using white embossing powder and my heat gun, I heat embossed the tag and loved the texture and look of the bold white script on the black cardstock.
To embellish this tag, I used my Scallop Circle punch to punch out my flower shape and then cut between every second scallop towards the center to create the petals. I stamped the pattern using a stamp from the Elements of Style stamp set from Stampin' Up, using Basic Black Classic ink. The small black center flower was punched from black cardstock using the Boho Blossoms punch and I used a clear rhinestone jewel to accent the center of the flower.
The small white tag was dry embossed using my Big Shot and the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing folder that is exclusive to Stampin' Up. Then I created my sentiment using the For You stamp, also from the Elements of Style stamp set with Basic Black Craft ink and heat embossed it using black embossing powder to add some dimension. I matted it onto a slightly larger circle of black cardstock. The ribbons were some scraps I had left over from another project and just seemed to finish it off.
For the white tag, I decided to again use my Big Shot and the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing folder to emboss the background to add texture. I created the border across the top using the new Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch from Stampin' Up.  The flowers were punched from white and black cardstock using the Boho Blossoms punch and I accented the centers of each of the flowers with Dazzling Diamonds for a little sparkle.
The letter F and friends were stamped in Basic Black Craft ink and heat embossed using black embossing powder. The stamped images were created with the Vintage Vogue stamp set from Stampin' Up. I carefully cut out the letter F to help it stand out against the white embossed cardstock. I again used a scrap of black ribbon to create the tie for the tag.
These tags can be used for many different projects. You can use them as gift tags, bookmarks, or as an element for your card or scrapbook page. I had so much fun creating these tags and they really are a wonderful way to explore new techniques and color combinations.
I hope you have enjoyed today's creative stamping project and I hope that it will inspire you to try experimenting with tags. Have a wonderful day.
Until Next Time.
Stampin' Hugs,
Tricia Butts





Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Need Your Help - Please Support Adams 12 School District

Hi Everyone,
It has been a very busy couple of weeks with my children getting ready to go back to school. Living in Northglenn, Colorado, we are fortunate to have the beautiful Rocky Mountains close by.
My eldest daughter, Kaitlyn, is preparing to start Middle School and with the current budget cuts that our school district had to make, it has meant that the Outdoor Education Program has been cut due to lack of funding for all the 6th grade students in the Adams 12 school district.
This program offers new 6th graders a wonderful experience where they have the opportunity to learn new skills and develop friendships and self confidence, as they make the transition from Elementary School to Middle School. It also benefits a number of High School students from Adams 12 school district who volunteer and provide guidance and assistance to the 6th graders during this program, teaching them leadership and responsibility.
In an effort to save this program, the organizers of the Outdoor Education Program as well as many staff from Adams 12 School district have put together a proposal for the Pepsi Challenge and the voting is currently underway for us to have an opportunity to win a grant to keep the program alive.
Please take a moment to visit this link or click on the icon on my sidebar of my blog and learn more about what we are trying to achieve and if possible, vote for our proposal. This means so much to the kids and the teachers, staff and parents are all working hard to help find ways to save the Outdoor Education Program for Adams 12 school district. Voting is open until August 31st, so please vote every day if you can and help us to have a chance of winning a grant through the Pepsi Challenge to help our children.
Thank you for your help.
Until Next Time.
Tricia Butts
http://www.triciabutts.stampinup.net/