davebrethauer

Elegant Reindeer

2009-11-13T05:00:00-08:00

Happy Friday the 13th friends-

This week I decided to use one of my favorite stamps from last year the Elegant Reindeer. I paired it with a sheet of paper from the Spiceberry collection and a 14 Karat Gold Soiree notecard. The card came together pretty quickly thanks to my trusty and favorite corner punch. I finally used my Christmas gift from last year...YES Nestabilities!! Next I attached gold metallic thread, added ribbon, and berry pearls. There you have it...a pretty elegant but easy holiday card. I hope your week has been a good one and very productive. I sure had a busy week taking care of business, planning my annual holiday trip, and preparing for a couple upcoming holiday classes. As always thanks for stopping by and have a super weekend. We are suppose to get snow early next week. I guess I'm ready!! Why not?? I'll let you know how things go in the "white stuff" department next Friday. Peace Tami

Supply List:

Spiceberry Paper

Notecard-Soiree 24 Karat

Elegant Reindeer (C1107), Snowy Eve Clear Set (CL142)

Inks-Brilliance Galaxy Gold and Pearlescent Poppy, Color Box Chalk Olive Pastel, Versafine Vintage Sepia...(I should have used Memento Brown with Copics)

Karl Southwest Corner Punch

Metallic Thread-Antique Gold 6"

May Arts Ribbon-(JB16) 15-17"

Other Paper-Neenah Classic Crest Natural White 80# Cover

Nestabilities Labels Two

Copic-0 Colorless Blender, E31, E33, R20

Spica Glitter Pen-Buttermilk

Memory Box Pearls-Berry

Card Directions:

Cut Spiceberry paper to 4 x 5 1/4" and save scrap for inside measuring 3/4 x 4". Punch corners with Southwest punch and wrap gold thread in each corner as shown. Secure thread ends to back of paper with Scotch tape. Stamp Elegant Reindeer on a piece of Natural White paper a little larger than the die cut. Cut out image using the Nestabilities die mentioned above. Edge frame with gold ink and color reindeer with Copics. Add glitter highlights (Buttermilk pen) on the reindeer and punch an 1/8" hole on each side of the reindeer for the ribbon. Feed ribbon through the two holes and wrap around the entire card. I used dimensionals under the reindeer to pop up the image. Tie a double knot and trim ribbon ends. Adhere eight Berry Pearls to reindeer as shown.

Inside of Card:

Card Liner:

Cut Natural White paper to 4 x 5 1/4" (same paper as reindeer image) and adhere to notecard. Attach Spiceberry paper on left side as shown. All three stamps on the inside of the card are from the Snowy Eve Clear Set. Stamp Christmas in poppy red, stamp three gold snowflakes (its hard to see them in picture), and the flourish below Christmas is stamped in olive pastel ink. Please let me know if you have any questions.

20 Miles to Find a Starbucks

2009-11-12T09:16:53-08:00

Driving 20 miles to find a Starbucks is just about unheard of here in the Seattle area - in fact downtown has several shops within just a few blocks of each other. But that's how far Anne Thompson of Your Maine Stamper had to drive to get some Starbucks paper coffee cups to make this supercool book for me.

Anne came to my class at Ink About It in October (that's Anne on the right) and gave me this book that was created by the staff at Your Maine Stamper (so thoughtful, thank you so much Anne and everyone at the shop! It was very intricate - and I have never seen a book made out paper cups!)

This is the cover of the book (yes, the coffee ring is a stamped image!). The shape of the flattened cup was incorporated into the design of the book, so that each page was curved at top and bottom.

Here's one of the decorated inside pages - stickers, stamped images, shape punches and papers from my Spiceberry 6x6 collection showed up throughout the book.
Anne was chosen to be won of our new Design Team instructors for 2010, so you'll be seeing more of her work soon!

Fall Squirrel

2009-11-10T08:06:21-08:00

Hello & Tuesday greetings! I hope everyone is enjoying their month so far. We have been busy raking leaves & doing fall pruning/clean-up around here. This gave me some inspiration for my card this week. I thought the Nutty Squirrel combined with the Twilight papers would make a fun combination for a fall themed card. I used the “leaves” stamp on the Build a Tree stamp to add a leafy ground-cover for the squirrel. I will be dropping this in the mail to a friend I am very THANKFUL for. J

Below is a photo of the paper supplies with measurements that I used for this card. You can click on the photo to enlarge it to see the measurements better.

To make this card, adhere all of your paper pieces to the Dill base (remember to add your ribbon if you wish) except for the Eggshell & Jack O Lantern pieces. Stamp the Nutty squirrel onto a scrap piece of Eggshell card stock (I used a dark brown ink, but black would work too), then color & cut out. I used colored pencils, but you could color with whatever you wish. Next you will want to stamp the “leafy” ground-cover on the pre-cut Eggshell piece. I used a pale orange ink, some yellow & a bit of green. Stamp the Nutty Squirrel again onto this piece so the squirrel is standing on the leaves. Adhere the colored squirrel over this. Stamp the squirrel onto a scrap of Twilight paper (this is for the apron piece) & cut out the apron & adhere to the image. I sponged the edges with some brown chalk ink. Adhere the Eggshell piece to the Jack O Lantern piece & adhere to the base. I finished the card off by adding some Halloween Jewel Stickers to the tree for some sparkle as seen below.

I also wanted to add a correction that I made on my post from last week. I stated that the Apron Lace punch used was by EK (Success). It is actually made by Fiskars. I just wanted to clarify that in case there was any confusion.

Thanks for dropping by!

Let it snow

2009-11-06T06:52:06-08:00

Happy Friday Memory Box friends-

Today I decided to make a pretty easy Christmas card as I have a few holiday classes coming up this month and I need to *try* and keep things simple. Soon it will be Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Wow its time to get busy making our holiday cards and not wait until mid December. Every year I say I am going to get my cards made early so I don't feel so much stress before the holidays. How about you? Are you an early bird or last minute cardmaker??

OK back to the card!! I really love the Dewfrost paper collection as I'm fond of blue and chocolate!! LOL. The paper works really well with the Snowy Eve clear stamp set. I hope your week has been productive and you have something fun planned for the weekend. Our weather forecast here in Minnesota is for unusually warm temperatures 58-62 degrees starting today. Woo hoo. I'll take it because soon it will be snow and bitter cold weather!! I hope to get outside a bit and clean up my deck and garage before winter. Thanks for stopping by and the card looks a lot better than the picture shows. It has a vintage feel to it and I hope you enjoy it. I loved making it!! Tami :D'

Card Supplies:

Notecard-Mocha

Paper-Dewfrost cut to 3 7/8" x 4 1/8"

Pearl Stickers-Frost Blue

Jewel Stickers-Sparkling Snowflakes

Inks-Creamy Brown Chalk, Versafine Vintage Sepia

Stamps-Snowy Eve (CL142), Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

(B1166)

May Arts Ribbons-Brown, White Metallic Thread (SM01)

Sakura White Souffle Pen

Spica Clear Glitter Pen

1/16" round paper punch or paper piercer to punch small hole

White paper cut to 4 x 5 1/4"

Dimensionals, Double-Stick Tape, Mini Glue Dots

Card Directions:

Adhere white paper to Mocha notecard. Stamp five snowflakes from Snowy Eve clear set (CL142) using Sepia ink. I used a white Souffle pen on the background paper. If you look closely there are little white specks on the paper so I wanted to emphasis them and make them look like snow. This was accomplished using the white Souffle pen. Edge sides of Dewfrost paper with Chestnut Roan chalk ink. Stamp Sentiment (B1166) on a scrap of Dewfrost paper in Vintage Sepia ink and edge sides with Chestnut Roan ink. Layer sentiment to a scrap of Mocha paper and add glitter accents to edges of blue paper. Attach designer paper to white paper and adhere brown ribbon on paper using mini glue dots. Punch a small hole in the sentiment and tie tag onto ribbon and make a bow. I placed a couple dimensional dots behind tag and double knottted the white thread ends to prevent fraying. Add a Frost Blue pearl to the middle of each brown stamped snowflake and one Sparkling Snowflake to the middle of a large snowflake printed on the paper as shown. Ta da another card!!

Advent Calendar Envelope Book

2009-11-04T07:54:00-08:00

Looking for a "different" kind of Advent calendar project? Try this one!

We used 25 A6 size envelopes - in Mars, Jupiter, Antique Gold, Chocolate and 24 Karat Gold colors. These shimmery envelopes from our Soiree invitation papers are beautiful assembled together! We used a Bind It All to make these into a book - just place 5 of each of these colors in a stack and bind it - make sure that you are binding your book along the bottom edge of the "book" so that the envelopes can open up.

We used the CL143 Advent Calendar Clear Stamp set to stamp out the tags for each page. The stamps position nicely on the tag, so that you can center them or make them partly off of the tag.

Notice that the "25" stamp isn't there - use the two bracket images included to enclose a star or charm or whatever to mark the 25th day as something special.

Stamp the tags with Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate ink and sponge the edges with Versamagic Gingerbread ink for a vintage look. A little bit of ribbon tied onto the tag adds some fun.

Decorate each page with paper and ribbon. We used the Spiceberry 6x6 pack, completing an entire book with only one pack of paper - and each envelope page is completely unique.

We stamped the Snowpuff Branch (D1279) and added some glitter glue to the puffs on the branches. The punched out tags are from a Martha Stewart Tag Punch, the manila tags that we stamped on are just a standard tag.

We decorated this shimmery Chocolate envelope with white ricrac ribbon in addition to the pattern paper. I like how the number 7 goes off the edge of the tag.

I stamped the Monterey Flourish (C990) in Pearlescent Poppy in the corner - this is a great standard image for flourishes and collage! This is a pattern paper from our Poppystamps 6x6 Cedar + Snow Collection.

Don't worry if your stamped image - like the December image in the background - doesn't come out perfect! It just adds to the collage feel of the book!

Here's a better view of the binding - notice that the coils leave just enough room before hitting the envelope flap.

Have fun with this project - we're having lots of fun with this Advent Calendar set, and want to use it for lots of countdown events!

Here's what it looks like from above, fanned open - wouldn't this look great on a table?

Warm Wishes

2009-11-03T10:00:00-08:00

Welcome & Happy November! I can’t believe how quickly this year is passing by. The holidays will be here before we know it. I am so happy to be making a dent in my holiday card creations. So what about you……..have you found a little time to get a start on those holiday cards yet? I usually mass produce one design, but last year I had multiple designs & this year is looking to be the same.

On a recent cover of a linens catalog, it had some cozy holiday flannel sheets pictured. It inspired me to “do up” the Build a Tree image in the same fashion. In addition to the Build a Tree stamp, I used Dewfrost paper, a Soiree White Scalloped card, a couple of images from the clear set Snowman Friends, & the Warmest Wishes sentiment. I didn’t know if it was “legal” to post an actual photo of the cover of the catalog, so here is a link if a different picture, although it doesn’t show a close up of the tree that was on the cover.

Here is a close up.

To make this card, start with a scalloped Soiree card. Add some Dewfrost paper trimmed slightly smaller & round the corners with a corner rounder. I sponged some Color Box Creamy Brown Chalk ink around the edges. Adhere this piece to the scalloped base card. Stamp the Build a Tree image in brown ink (I used Memento Rich Cocoa) to Robins Egg card stock cut to a 2” circle. Decorate tree with white pearl stickers, white gel pen & snowflake jewelstickers. Add glitter to the snow on the tree if desired. Add bird stamp around the base of tree, perched on snow. Adhere to a scalloped circle of Dewfrost paper. Add a decorative border of Sapphire card stock using border punches ( I used EK Apron Lace Punch) and add some ribbon around this piece. Adhere to your base & add your circle using dimensional foam adhesive. Stamp the Warmest Wishes sentiment onto scraps of Dewfrost paper in brown ink & adhere to card. Add bow to corner.

As always, thanks for stopping by & I hope you enjoy a beautiful Fall day today!!

Project of the Month Calendar

2009-11-02T10:05:00-08:00

I recently had the opportunity to work with a Karen Foster Countdown Calendar kit - and really enjoyed a project that went outside the realm of cardmaking, but still incorporated papercrafting. The calendar itself was designed well and was pretty versatile. The box of drawers comes with a list of countdown dates - so that you could begin counting down to Mother's Day, Father's Day, Easter or whatever holiday you choose.

I stamped the Advent Calendar Clear Set onto 25 little metal rimmed tags (Making Memories 32440 Mini Circle Tags Findings) with Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate ink - wipe off any excess ink that gets onto the metal rim, and allow to dry.

I cut out squares to fit on the front of the boxes, then used a 3/4 inch circle punch to create a half circle in the top of each square. The kit comes with a template that you can trace onto paper, for cutting the square and circle out perfectly to size. I did notice that a couple of the holes on the drawers were die cut off center, so, double check before you do all your cutting, to make sure things line up.

After gluing the paper to the front of the white drawer, I sponged the edges with Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate and sealed the drawer with some spray fixative (another option would be some acrylic paint - or just leave the shelf white).

I used papers from the 6x6 Spiceberry pack to decorate the fronts of the drawers. I tried to mix things up a bit, using 1 pattern per row of the calendar, so that it would be colorful but still look a little bit organized. I tied some various bits of ribbon and twine into the holes on the tag - (I left these out in the photos) - which made things a little more playful.

The dotted paper looked especially good with the small round tags! I tried to stamp the numbers a little off center on the tag to add to the collage look. Using the clear stamps it's pretty easy to position these where you want.

Bonus - the drawers are reversible, so you can decorate the other side of the drawers in a different theme (birthday countdown? Halloween?) and then switch them out as needed!

You are so wise!!

2009-10-30T07:36:48-07:00

Hello friends!!

I hope this post finds you well. Its Halloween weekend and I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with my best friend and maybe do a little stamping too. I did catch "Mr. Mousey" on Thursday in the wee hours and may he R.I.P. He's in my trash can right now and will soon be hauled away. Bye bye little one. I hope none of your relatives pay me a visit!! I know gross hah but at least he is no longer lounging around in my living room.

I wish you a safe and spooktacular weekend friends. Today's card was designed for my middle sister's Dec. birthday. I am very fond of the Dewfrost paper collection and I love the stamps. They were all new until today!! Be good now and thanks so much for stopping by. I'd love to hear what you have planned for the weekend. I'm finally going to get some new glasses so I can see better while stamping!! Dang they will cut into my stamping budget but its due time as I constantly struggle to see and its SO important to take care of your eyes. See you next month. Tami :D'

Card Supplies:

Paper-Dewfrost

Notecard-Vanilla Bean

Stamps-Owl Branch (F1287), CL141 Night Before (Calendar), You Are So Wise (B944), Happy Birthday Script (B828), Make A Wish (B831)

Pearls-Frost Blue

Inks-Colorbox Chalks Creamy Brown, Dark Brown; Versafine Vintage Sepia; Memento Brown (Copics)

American Crafts-Rick Rack

Copics-BG10, E00, E33, E35, E41, E50, E51, Y06, Y13, Y38

Spica Glitter Pen-Buttermilk

Saukura Glaze Pen-Clear

Quickie Glue Pen

Dimensional Dots, Double Stick Tape, 3M Tacky Adhesive Glue

Other Paper-Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80# Cover

Card Directions:

Cut Dewfrost paper to 4 x 5.25" and edge with creamy brown ink. Stamp owls on light blue Dewfrost paper, again on another paper scrap from collection (for paper piecing scarves), and third time on a white scrap (Memento brown ink for Copic coloring). Edge the first light blue paper with creamy brown and adhere to a larger brown polka dot layer (Dewfrost). Cut out owls (cut off left side of scarves) and color with Copic markers. Paper piece scarf. I colored in each scraf with blue Copic BG10. Glue pieces to main owl image as shown. Stamp calendar twice on blue Dewfrost scraps in Versafine brown ink. Cut out calendar and cut out number 2 from second image (my sister's birthday is Dec. 2). Edge calendar with creamy brown and layer calendar to a vanilla bean paper scrap. Glue down blue rick rack to background paper. Attach dimensional dots to back of calendar. Adhere all card pieces to Dewfrost paper as shown and attach to a vanilla bean notecard. On the inside I stamped both birthday sentiments and stamped you are so wise on a blue Dewfrost scrap and layered the sentiment to a brown scrap (vanilla bean). Use clear glaze pen on eyes, nose, and pinecones. Add buttermilk glitter accents. Adhere frost blue pearls to three corners on main image and one on each side of December.

Another picture showing sentiment:

My sister is very smart and again she's a December child. We are very close and I'm the oldest daughter in our family of three sisters. Sami and I are also know as "Pitter and Patter" respectively so I love the owl stamp for several reasons. It is very symbolic to me. I hope I have not bored you. Thanks again if you have read this all the way.

Paper Garden

2009-10-29T17:12:00-07:00

Warm weather, a store stuffed full of paper crafting supplies and a visit with the lovable and talented Stephanie Nishikawa - all these elements came together for a wonderful visit to The Paper Garden in Sacramento, California.

Located in a beautiful boutique shopping center, The Paper Garden is spilling over with stamps, papers, accessories and gifts perched on custom shelving, paper racks and shabby chic cupboards in pastel shades. Stephanie stocks tons of rubber stamps on clever shelves that display a sample card near the stamp used on each project. The idea cards are lined up 3 or 4 deep near each stamp - which could give hours of inspiration for devoted paper crafters. There are literally hundreds of card ideas posted in each section.

Oh, and do you need some paper? Well, Stephanie has racks of specialty cardstock, notecards and envelopes for all occasions - she offers a full service or do-it-yourself wedding invitation service at the store. You can have her design an invitation and print/cut everything yourself - or she will design, print cut and customize an invitation for you, so that all you have to do is add an address and send it! Sending 20? No problem! Sending 1000? No problem!!

Stephanie stocks cool gifts and fun things too - she has a keen sense for buying terrific stuff and it's just great eye-candy to walk through this store. One of the customers who took my class regularly drives over from the Bay area because "there's no store like Stephanie's store!".

Of course, Stephanie's son Miles was on hand to "be my helper" (in between naps). I haven't seen him in a year - and he has really grown. Miles and I bonded and I wanted to bring him back with me! I'll just have to visit more often so that I can make sure he doesn't forget me!

Be sure and load up on the Japanese specialty papers while you're there - and check out the pre-made card and envelope packs (for beautiful stationery gifts!).

Spiceberry Cheer

2009-10-27T12:00:00-07:00

Welcome!! I hope your week is off to a good start. It’s been a little soggy around here the last couple of days. I was lucky to be able to get a photograph of my card outside this week in between rain showers & without the wind blowing it away. I’m hoping to take advantage of the gloomy weather & get some of my holiday gift crafting started this week & maybe do some baking.

I have not shared a card in a while using the Spiceberry papers, so I’m sharing a little Spiceberry cheer with you this week. J

To make this card, you will need a Dill note card, Cranberry card stock & Spiceberry paper. I used Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate & Moonlight White ink. I used stamps from the clear sets Twelve Days & Snowy Eve. The next couple of photos show you measurements of paper pieces & supplies used.

Start with Dill note card. Adhere larger piece of Spiceberry paper to left hand side leaving a thin border. Stamp the reindeer image on smaller piece of Spiceberry paper in Pearlescent Chocolate ink & edge with green ink. Adhere this to the right side of your Cranberry piece leaving a thin border on right side. Stamp three snowflakes in the empty space on the left side of your Cranberry piece & adhere Christmas jewels to the center of your snowflakes. Wrap ribbon (I used a thin red grosgrain) around the right hand side of your dill note card. To finish the card, adhere snowflake/reindeer piece to the card.

Thank you for visiting my post today……you always make my day!!