Upcoming Classes!

     I teach almost every month out of my home, mostly to a group of varying friends and family. Since I started doing it 2 years ago, I have goten more and more enjoyment out of it. So in the fall, I looked into teaching some stamping classes for a few adult education programs at different local school districts. Two of those classes are coming up in March, so check out the information, register, and join me! (if you are in the area of course).
     The first one coming up is March 6th in the Upper Dublin PA district.....here is the brochure write up, followed by the link for the actual brochure and registration

!

PAPER CRAFTING: Gift Presentation

UDHS A66

1 WED. 03/06 $20/10 6:30

-

9:00PM

Learn the basics of paper crafting and stamping. You will watch demonstra-

tions of different techniques and tools, and get the chance to try them out

yourself by making a gift bag, a set of gift card holders, and a gift purse that

you can take home with you!

Please bring material fee of $15 to first class

payable to the instructor

.

http://www.udsd.org/page.cfm?p=38 



The second one is March 21st in the New Hope Soleburry District....here is the brochure write up, followed by the link for the actual brochure and registration

Stamping Introduction- Create Your Own Cards and Gifts
Learn rubber stamping techniques that can be used for making cards, scrapbook pages and gifts. Demonstration of the latest tools and techniques with hands-on designing of cards, decorative boxes or bags, and other specialties. Leave with your own creations.
Fee: $25 (Plus $15 materials fee to instructor for materials)
Course: RFNRT 3308 Sec. C80
Thurs, Mar. 21, 6:30-9 pm
Location: NH-S High School, Room 301
Instructor: Melinda Bream

 http://www.csnhs.org/

Check them out!

Week 8 (February 18th) - Embellished Elephant

     This was a very special card for a very special little girl! My best friends daughter just turned two. She is the closest thing I have to a niece for the time being, so I love to make special things for her. SO, I decided to use her card for this week because it is a shaped card, and I would love to get into making more shape cards. They pretty much always look adorable!
      I actually used a template (sort of) for this card. I have a free digital copy of Paper Crafts Magazine presents Birthdays. This cute little elephant was right on the first page, and as soon as I saw it, I knew this would be the special card I was looking for. There is an actual template that you can use, but since it would have been a pain to get on and print it out, I just winged it. Its a pretty easy shape to draw, so I didn't have any issues with it. So here is my version of the elephant card!

From Stampin' Up

Card stock: Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Brushed Silver

Pool Party Bakers Twine

Snail Adhesive

From Michael's

Patter paper from Best of K and Company

Orange and black rhinestones

Spool O Ribbon

Glue Dots medium

-Cut a 6" x 8" piece of Silver card stock. Score and fold in the middle to make a 4" x 6" card. 

-Sketch the elephant shape on a piece of scrap paper and cut out. Trace the shape on the front of your card, and cut out. Make sure the card is folded...you do want both the front and back shaped!

-Cut a rectangle of patterned paper and then a larger piece of Melon Mambo to fit behind the patterned piece (I am not giving particular sizes, since it depends on the proportions of the elephant you drew).  Attach the two pieces together using Snail tape. 

-Using a standard hole punch, punch three holes at the bottom of your rectangle. 

-Cut three pieces of ribbon and attach them to the holes using your preferred tying method.  

-Attach your rectangle to the elephant using Snail tape. 

-Cut a triangle of Melon Mambo to cover your elephants head and attach with Snail tape. Cut a piece of patterned paper to attach to the hat as trim at the bottom. 

-Attach a glue dot to the top point of the hat on the backside. Cut various small lengths of ribbon to attach to the glue dot. Once you have the desired "tassle" look on the top of the hat, add an orange rhinestone to the top point. 

-Cut a ballon shape from So Saffron card stock. Add extra punched hole pieces to the front for extra decoration. 

-Position the balloon so part of it is covering your elephant...this is where you will apply your Snail tape on the back side. Before adhering the balloon, cut a piece of Pool Party twine and put the end between the balloon and the elephant. This will hold your twine in place. Then position the rest of the loose twine so it comes out the bottom of the balloon. Let some extra twine hang down, before wrapping the extra around the elephants tail. 

*TIP: You can add a tiny bit of Snail to the front of the tail to help hold the twine in place. Add the black rhinestone for his eye. 

     I apologize if some of the technical parts of this card are a little vague....they were hard to describe! When making this card, I just kind of kept testing different ideas until something worked, especially with the balloon and the twine. Feel free to figure out what works best for you and enjoy it! It is TOO cute when it's all done :)

Sale-A-Bration

     I have mentioned Sale-A-Bration time at Stampin' Up in my last few posts. I thought I would shed a little more light on it, since it is my favorite time of year! During this time, you can get lots of free goodies. For every $50 you spend (not including shipping and tax), you get to choose something from the Sale-A-Bration brochure. Every year, the brochure is filled with new and usually exclusive products. This means you will only see them during the sale. There are usually some regular catalog choices as well, but I would rather go for the new stuff! I have earned a great deal of product so far, due to the face that I have many projects going on the first few months of this year. I LOVE every single one of them, especially the designer paper. Every year I have been with them, I have made it a priority to earn these products, and every year I am never disappointed!
     If you want to check out the free things you can earn, check out this link!
 http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx
It will take you to my personal site and just click on the See What You Can Get button right in the middle, and the brochure will pop up! Feel free to contact me on the blog or email me...mhdesigns2@gmail.com
     Thanks and enjoy!

Week 7 (February 11th) - Sweet Sale Set

     I am proud to say, this is my very first set of cards I have made! I have had many ideas over the years for making sets, some with the same sentiment but different designs, or all different sentiments with the same color scheme. This set is the latter of the two.
     I received this stamp set when I became a Stampin' Up demonstrator. It's easy to see why...it has cute, simple designs, appropriate for a number of occasions. I used this set once or twice for demonstrations, because of this versatility, but I admit that I never got to use it for any big projects. So it has sat upon my stamp shelf for two years, and whenever I come across it I think, that would make a PERFECT set! And so it has!
     I wanted to keep them simple and modern, and make them square. Something about little square cards appeals to me. Probably because they are a little bit outside of the norm, just like me. I decided to pair the stamp designs with the current Sale-A-Bration designer series paper. I got this paper as a free goody, as part of the sale period. And I loved it so much, I made sure I earned a second pack! (Sale-A-Bration runs this year until March 22nd, so contact me if you want some info! There is still plenty of time to earn your free stuff!!) I was worried at first that the patterns might be too distracting with the stamp designs, but after sorting through and certain patterns with certain stamps, I think I came up with some pretty good combinations.And FYI....the adorable little buttons I used were also free during Sale-A-Bration.
     Hopefully, this will be the first of many sets, and I hope even more, that next time I will have just a BIT more time to make a matching box!

All from Stampin' Up
Sycamore Street designer series paper (2013 S-A-B promo)
Buttons from Sycamore Street ribbon and button pack (2013 S-A-B promo)
Card Stock: Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo,
Pool Party, Summer Starfruit, Whisper White
Stampin' Write markers: Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry,
Island Indigo, Pool Party, Summer Starfruit
 Classic Ink Pad-Basic Black
Snail Adhesive
Fun and Fast Notes wood stamp set (retired)

Cut 5 pieces of cardstock, 4" x 8", out of each of the 5 colors. Score in the middle and fold. 

Cut 3.5" x 3.5" pieces of coordinating pieces of Designer Series paper, ad attach to the front of the cards with Snail tape. 

Stamp each image (without inking the sentiment) on white card stock using black ink, and trim to a 2" x 2" piece. Color each image with assorted Stampin' Write markers. 

Using Snail tape, attach the stamped image piece to a coordinating piece of colored card stock (you can follow the color scheme in my picture, or make your own!) I trimmed the colored paper so that only 1/8" was framing the white paper. 

Stamp each sentiment in a coordinating color. Stamp each sentiment in a different color, and then trim into a strip. Cut the ends of each strip to make an arrow....a point on one end, and an indentation on the other, like in the picture. 

Back each sentiment strip in the same color you used to frame your white. I cut mine with scissors, just eye-balling the width of the colored piece that would show. Trimming less than an 1/8" with a paper cutter is very tricky!

Put Snail tape on the back of each image piece and each sentiment piece, then attach to the front if the card, using whatever spacing you prefer.

 Put a glue dot on the back of each button, and attach to the pointy end of the sentiment strip. 

Now you have 5 awesome cards!

Don't forget, you can order Stampin' Up products from me any time by going to my personal stamping site
www.mbreamstamping.stampinup.net

Week 6 (February 4th) - Christmas Cheer

     This is not my first Christmas card post AFTER Christmas, nor will it be my last! Christmas cards are probably my most favorite, and there is never enough time around Christmas to make as many as I want. So I will be throwing one in occasionally here and there.
     This is technically my second Christmas Cheer card that I have made in my card making career. Back when I first started making cards, I would buy things that were cute with the intention of doing something with them eventually...which I still have a habit of doing now! I bought this cute 99 cent ribbon that had bright little martinis on it, but instead of olives, they had candy canes in them. The thought of "Christmas Cheer" came to mind and thus my first card was born. Many people loved it, some thought drinks and Christmas were a bizarre mix. Either way, I new someday I would find a way to make more (my supply was limited based on the fact that cheap ribbon usually only means a yard or two).
     Enter in the new 2012-2013 Stampin' Up catalog! There in it's glossy pages was a WHOLE stamp set devoted to drinks, with sayings about Happy Hour and Cheers and fun things like that. I loved it instantly. I also could not justify buying it right away. I always try to buy stamps that are very versatile, and this had slightly limited uses. However, I loved the cute little geometric patterned beverages so much, that it was put on my "Fun List" to buy in the future. I wound up asking Santa for it for Christmas, and there it was under my tree!

     I knew that the very first card I would make would be for Christmas, even though it's a bit late. And this is that card! Before getting into the technicalities of it, I want to mention that this card taught me an important lesson that every good crafter should learn. Always stick with your first instincts and ideas! I knew this card should be a skinny vertical layout, but once I started stamping, I realized the images would be too big for what I was intending. SO I made it horizontal and fiddled with it until I was kind of happy with it. For me, just kind of happy isn't enough. I stared at it until I thought, hmm....maybe I should turn it vertical and try again. As soon as I turned it, it got 85% better in my head. Then I made one little trim to it, making it more narrow, and that added the other 15% of perfection that I needed to be completely happy with it!
     Below is a picture of the progression it took...I felt like I needed to document it since they were such tiny changes that made such a huge difference to me. And of course the usual supply list and instructions...soon :)

Idea progression

(Supply list and instructions coming soon!)

Week 5 (January 27th) - Catch Up!

     This week has a few projects in one, and they are a bit different than my previous weeks. Every week, I strive to come up with an original idea, and try to incorporate something new....a new technique, a new tool, a new layout, etc. I had one of these ideas, and I decided to push it back until the following week. What I did instead, I feel still fits into the definition of my card challenge.
     I had 2 cards that I made as samples for an Intro to Rubber Stamping class that I was supposed to teach. Unfortunately, the class did not happen due to low enrollment. I vowed to make more of these cards to add to my stock. I often make a card that I am happy with and think it would be nice to have more of them, but I never find the time to do it. THIS is how it fit into my challenge! I was able to make myself do something that I don't usually get around to doing!
     One is a Happy Birthday card, and the other was designed as a Valentines card in time with the class. But it can certainly be used for someone special any time of the year. The other cards you will see here were samples I recently made for a Stampin' Up party that I helped host for a friend of mine. At every party, I demonstrate a card and then the guests make the same or a similar card. I made these cards using the new Sale-A-Bration products for 2013. The inspiration for them came from a similar design my friend liked in the Spring Catalog. It was not my usual style, but I wanted to make something that would be appropriate for her and her friends. I wound up loving them, and I decided to complete the extras that I made.
      Again, I did use my challenge week to complete a project I normally might not have. So even though I pushed back my other idea to complete these projects that were in limbo, I don't think I cheated! Besides, it's my personal project, so I guess I can make my own rules!!

All from Stampin' Up

Real Red card stock

Island Indigo card stock

Whisper White card stock

Scallop Trim border punch

Textured Impressions Stripes embossing folder

Big Shot

Snail Adhesive

Stampin’ Write Markers:

Basic Grey, Island Indigo

Brights Collection-Real Red, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie

Clear Block E

Patterned Party clear stamp set

Jewel Basic Rhinestones

Party Hearty wood stamp set (retired)

Use border punch on the long side of the blue paper.

Using the stripe embossing folder, run the blue paper through the Big Shot (the lines should be horizontal, leaving the punched border OUT of the folder).

Attach the white paper to the red card front, off-center to the left, using a piece of snail tape in each corner.

Attach the embossed blue paper to the card front, off-center toward the right, using a piece of snail tape in each corner.

Color the balloon stamp, using grey for the strings, and assorted colors for the balloons. Stamp the word Celebrate along the left most balloon string.

Attach self sticking gemstone to one of the balloon.

All from Stampin' Up

Pool Party

Primrose Petals

Whisper White

Pink Pirouette

1 3/8” circle punch

Sponge Daubers

Basic Black Classic Ink Pad

Stampin’ Write Markers:

Basic Black, Pool Party, Raspberry Ripple

Big Shot

Snail Adhesive

Clear Block C and Clear Block E

Hearts a Flutter clear stamp set (Spring 2013 Spring Catalog)

Hearts a Flutter coordinating die set (Spring 2013 Spring Catalog)

Small Heart punch

Pool Party Bakers Twine

Dazzling Details glitter glue

Stampin’ Mat and Piercing Tool

Stampin’ Dimensionals

Punch the corners from the pink paper, using the 1 3/8” circle punch. ( I measured 5/8” in from the sides and top or bottom to guide where I placed the circle punch)

Dauber the edges of the pink paper using black ink.

Stamp assorted banner and heart pieces and cut out with  the Big Shot machine, using their coordinating dies.

Poke a hole using the paper piercing tool, at the two top corners of the three banner shaped pieces. (don’t do anything with the large heart yet).

Thread your string through the holes in the pieces, creating a clothesline effect.

Tuck the piece of thread on the left side under the top left curved corner of the pink paper and hold down with Snail tape on the back.

Tuck the piece of string on the right side under the right straight edge of the paper and hold down with snail tape on the back.

Apply more snail tape to the back of the pink paper and attach to the card front.

Add a dimensional (cut in half) to the top portions of the large heart and attach that to the middle and right side banner.

Use a dimensional to attach the small stamped heart to the large stamped heart.

Punch a heart using the small heart punch from the aqua paper and attach it to the right side banner using snail tape.

Add glitter glue where desired and LET DRY!

 

(instructions coming soon!)

All from Stampin' Up

Rich Razzleberry card stock

Pool Party card stock

Whisper White card stock

Sycamore Street designer series paper (2013 S-A-B promo)

Pretty Petites clear stamp set (2013 S-A-B promo)

Petite Curly Label punch (2013 S-A-B promo)

Madison Avenue stamp set (2013 S-A-B promo)

Linen Thread

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

Chevron Embossing Folder

Stampin' Write Markers:

Tangerine Tango, Pool Party,

 Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo

Snail Adhesive

What's with the supply list?

     I thought I would take a quick moment to clarify why I have my supply list for each card. You would probably think, obviously so readers know what supplies to get to make the card! And this is very true.
A large majority of my supplies come from Stampin' Up, since it is my job to promote them, but also because I really do love their products!! I wouldn't support them if I didn't believe in their quality. And having a link on my page to order, makes it really easy for someone interested to get these supplies.
      However, if you notice in some of the lists, I have clearance items that you need to check availability on, and some items from past catalogs and some items that were a promotion at the time. It would be easier to use all current supplies, but I know that isn't how life works. If you are a craft hoarder like me, you don't buy something and then stop using it once it's outdated right? (In my case, I don't use many things until they ARE outdated!) So I listed those items there anyway so you can see what we have sold in the past, and that there are really cool things on the clearance page. Or maybe you use Stampin' Up already, and have those products. Then you can say "Hey, look what I can do with those!"
     And really, the most important thing for me, whether you ever purchase from me or not, is that I am proud of what I make and that I love to be able to share those images and ideas! So as always, enjoy and pass it on!