Four Ways Friday #75 - Petite Pennants Builder Punch (& Video!!!!)

Welcome to Four Ways Friday (and happy Friday the 13th)!  Today I'd like to share four ways to use your Petite Pennants Builder Punch!

Let's start simple!  The plain triangle makes a perfect flag/banner!  Here I punched a piece of Real Red card stock for the flag.  I stamped a "1" using Calendar Alphabet & Numbers and punched it out and popped it up on the flag.  I adhered a piece of Garden Green card stock to the Whisper White card base and then added a small punched oval of Crumb Cake card stock with glue.  The greeting from On Your Birthday was stamped with the stamp-a-ma-jig and Jet Black Staz-On.  I then cut a thin strip of Early Espresso card stock and adhered it to the card with glue.  The flag was then adhered to the end of the strip with glue.  Finally, I punched a small circle from Whisper White card stock and used my embossing tool to press into the circle so that it would become "raised."  I then used a very small piece of a dimensional to adhere it to the card.  So simple!

Why stop at one triangle when you can use many?! :)  Here I punched a bunch of plain triangles from Cajun Craze card stock.  I then glued them down, one by one, onto a Crumb Cake card base.  I trimmed the excess from the ends once the glue had dried.  Next I took the (SNEAK PEEK) Sale-a-bration Everyday Enchantment Lucky Limeade organdy ribbon and wrapped it twice around the card and knotted it.  I then cut out one of the doilies from the Flirtatious specialty designer series paper and adhered it to the card with glue.  I then stamped the tag from Tagtastic using Chocolate Chip ink onto Very Vanilla card stock.  I punched out the tag using the decorative label punch, sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip ink and then spritzed the card and the tag with the spritzer tool and a Chocolate Chip marker.  I added a (SNEAK PEEK) Sale-a-bration Everyday Enchantment brad using my piercing tool and then adhered the tag to the card with dimensionals.

Stegosaurus!!!!!!!  I'm laughing even as I am typing this!  How did I come up with this one?  Well, I had punched a bunch of the triangles out and had started playing with curling them and gluing them together and somehow those glued pieces looked like the scales/spines on a stegosaurus!  (are they even called scales/spines?)  I cut one of the scalloped triangles in half and glued the halves together for the head.  I added a googley eye (you can use punched circles just as easily).  The card body was made with the Clear Circle die.  I cut a piece of Basic Grey card stock and folded it in half and the made sure to line up the card stock just inside the outline of the circle die so that the top of the card would remain intact.  I then cut off the bottom of the circle.  Next I used the oval punch to cut the legs.  I then ran the card and the legs through the Big Shot with the Distressed texturz plate (it is a bit hard to see the texture in the photo).  I then punched out eight of the plain triangles.  I cut three of them in half to make the straight spines and I curled and glued five of them to make the curled spines.  I found that the curled spines stayed together much better when I glued them with Crystal Effects!  I then sponged all of the pieces with Basic Black ink and adhered them to the card with Crystal Effects.  Finally, the greeting from Just Believe was stamped and torn out of Whisper White card stock and adhered to the card with dimensionals.  I hope this one makes you smile :)  And, if it didn't, maybe this last one will!!!!! :)

Making creative punch art from punches is always a ton of fun!  I played with the scalloped triangle shapes and came up with this poodle!  Here is a video to show you how you can make one!

I hope you've enjoyed this week's Four Ways Friday!  I hope these projects inspire you to look at your Petite Pennants Builder punch in a new way!!!!!  Wishing you a wonderfully peaceful and creative weekend!!!!!

Here's Looking At You Kid! Owl Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Help Spark Someone's Creativity!!!!!

One of my friends was sharing with me that she was out of touch with her creative side.  She and her husband are struggling a bit financially right now and she has also been dealing with some chronic pain in her hips and back.  It seemed to me like the perfect time to try to help spark her creativity since I know, first-hand, how therapeutic creativity can be!  So I decided to put together a basket of creativity for her!  I kept walking around my craft room pulling things off shelves and out of drawers and placing things into small plastic bags or directly into this recycled basket!  It was fun putting the mix of card stock, canvas, fibers, bottle caps, lace, fabric, ribbon, punched shapes, beads, rhinestones, etc together!!!!  It even inspired my own creativity in the process!!!!!  Here's the basket:

 Michael delivered the basket for me and I immediately received a text from my friend saying, "WOW!  You are a beautiful gift to me.  Thank you ever so for this thoughtful and lovely surprise.  I'm gonna have so much fun!  Xoxo...love and kisses."  Sounds to me like she has been sparked!!!!! :)  How can you help spark someone's creativity????  And don't forget...that someone could be you :)
Today's card was inspired by Humphrey Bogart's character Rick in the movie Casablanca :)  I'm not sure why this quote popped into my head, but it did, and it needed a card :)  I stamped the quote onto a small 3x3 card using the Calendar Alphabet & Numbers stamp set.  I paper pieced the exclamation point.  I punched the owl using the 2-step owl punch from Chocolate Chip card stock and the decided he needed some wings.  I punched a small oval and then cut the edges to use as the wings.  The body was adhered to the card with dimensionals and the wings were then adhered beneath it with glue.  The nose was cut from a scrap of Pumpkin Pie card stock.  Finally, I punched the heart from a scrap of designer series paper and then adhered it to the owl and covered it with Crystal Effects.  What quote can inspire you to make a card????  I would love to hear your quotes :)

Out On A Whim Wednesday: Painted Ceramic Tiles

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Challenge Yourself To Figure Out How To Make It With The Supplies That You Have!

If you have been following/reading my blog, you know that I recently have been playing around with both porcelain and glass paint!  I've been having a ton of fun searching for different surfaces to paint - things that can then be placed in the oven here at home and heated so that the items are both dishwasher and microwave safe.  Well, it didn't take me long to move from the idea of painting food service items to the idea of painting tiles that can be used in so many different ways around the house and on home decor items!!!!!  So I pulled out some 2"x 2" white and black tiles that I happened to have in the house and I began to paint and experiment.  As you can see, I became obsessed with creating these grid patterns!  I used a gold outliner to create the lines and then just filled in the little boxes with paint - it is so therapeutic!!!!  It looks like faux cloisonne to me - very enamel-like.  You are probably now seeing how I became inspired to make the tile magnets I shared with you yesterday :)  After painting quite a few of these tiles I began to wonder how I might be able to make something similar (although not dishwasher/microwave safe) using my Stampin' Up! materials.  The heat embossed tile magnets using gold embossing powder and Crystal Effects was the result of that thinking!  How can you challenge yourself to figure out how to make something you really like using the supplies that you already have on hand?????  You might amaze yourself by what you come up with!!!!

Heat Embossed Tile Magnets & Video!!!!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  There Is So Much Going On On The Inside That You Can't See From The Outside!

As I look out my office window I can see the bare branches of the lilac bush that lives just on the other side of the window.  I see mostly brown branches...but if I look very closely I see something else as well...tiny little buds at the ends of the branches!  Here we are in the midst of winter and this bush is reminding me that there is so much more going on on the inside of it!  From far away it may look like it is resting - taking a long winter's nap.  But really it has so much going on on the inside and the buds are one small sign of that!  It excites me to know that I can watch this plant and wonder about the potential it has stored inside.  I can't wait for it to show me what it can do in the Spring!!!!  The same is true for each of us - there is so much going on on the inside that others may not be able to see from the outside - so much potential we have stored inside that is waiting for the chance to burst through!!!!
I know I have shared one magnet video with you already - now let's build on that idea!!!  I have to admit that this is actually the first magnet I made.  It was inspired by some tile painting that I did and that I will share with you tomorrow.  I wondered how I could recreate the painted tile look with my Stampin' Up! supplies and this is what resulted from that thinking!  The beaded tile I shared with you last week was the second tile design.  And yes, there will likely be a third, fourth, fifth.... :)
Here is the first heat embossed tile magnet I made along with the second one that I added additional beads to:

Here is a video to show you how I made the tiles using embossing powder and Crystal Effects!  I hope it inspires you to make some of your own!!!

Love & Tulle Mini Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Oh How I Love Windows!

Michael decided he needed to make some changes in his office to better accommodate his working style.  What this usually means is that I too begin to examine how I have my home office set up and I get the itch to move things around too!  I have to admit that I have avoided my home office a lot.  It just felt cramped and cluttered (not to mention a bit of a mess).  But the motivation I needed to make a change came in the form of Michael deciding to mix things up in his space.  As a result, I took out 2 pieces of furniture in my office, moved things around, and brought in another desk surface that Michael was moving out of his office.  Now I find myself in a space that I love and it's not even cleaned up yet!!!!!  The biggest difference is that instead of working on my computer on a desk with a big hutch, I have moved my computer down to the desktop that is now in front of my corner windows.  Ahhhhhhhh - what a difference a change makes!!!!!!  I love the light that comes in the windows and I love being able to look out the windows as I gather my thoughts.  I just took this photo of my desk space as I am writing this post...sorry about the lighting - the sun has already gone down here so the colors are a bit "off"...but hopefully you'll see what I'm loving about my new space!

Today's card is simple 3x3 card - perfect for a Valentine's Day gift :)  I cut a small strip of tulle and wrapped it and knotted it on the front of the card.  I cut the ends so that it looks like a bow.  Next I stamped the tag from Tiny Tags and punched it out using the jewelry tag punch.  I then pierced a small hole in the tag and attached it to the tulle knot using crochet thread.  I added a small piece of a dimensional to the back of the tag so that I could keep the tag in place.  Finally I punched a small hear using the Heart to Heart punch.  I hope you like it!