Heart Warming Winter Cards

It's January and a dear friend is having a birthday. Or a neighbor brought you over some homemade cookies and you want to give them a thank you card. Do you reach for your flower or summery stamps? No way! Use a winter theme for your cards since it's winter! Or fall themes if the occasion is in the fall...you get the idea. Not all birthday cards have to have balloons! Ha! Ha! I love to make "seasonal" cards for your every day thank yous, get wells, and birthdays. That's why I reached for my "winter" stamps and the beautiful Wonderland paper to create these special cards. Check out how the pin clips are used to create "steam" rising from the hot chocolate mug. So fun! So use the seasons the next time you are creating and break away from the standard "balloons are for birthdays" mold!

Happy creating!

Love Your Layout!

Dreaming of snow? We have some friends whose children are seeing snow for the first time this year. It's so exciting! And it reminded me of the beautiful Wonderland papers. Check out this Love Your Layout video that shows you how to create a darling snow themed layout...along with a great tip on how to create borders with stickease! You'll love it!

All Stitched Up!

I LOVE stitching on layouts, cards and other craft projects. I just think it is so cute and adds a great touch! I have always been a little sad that I couldn't stitch on my Studio J layouts...until now!! They have added some fabulous stitching options to your embellishing options in Studio J. I'm in heaven!

Check out the cute stitched ribbon in the layout above. I created that stitched looking ribbon simply by dragging the running stitch pattern on top of the ribbon and then choosing a color. That's it! So easy!

There are tons of stitching options in Studio J...a variety of stitches, cross-stitches, stitched shapes like circles, hearts and flowers, and there are even stitched pennants and banners. All you do is click and drag them on...fast and easy just like all of our other embellishments. So swing on over to studioj.com and play....you'll love it!

A Perfect 10!

January is free layout month for Studio J^® members! For every 9 custom-printed Studio J layouts you buy, you’ll receive the 10th layout free. To receive the discount, just add 10 or more layouts to your cart. You’ll see a discount reflected in your order total. And you can totally take advantage of this promotion by ordering in multiples of 10. Buy 9, get 1 free. Buy 18, get 2 free. Buy 27, get 3 free. And so on! If you’re not a member yet, now’s a great time to join!

Dates: Offer valid January 1, 2012–January 31, 2012.

Holiday Gift Tags? Check!

Holiday gift tags? Check! I love making holiday gift tags to dress up my presents and packages. And they are so easy to do. Watch this little video and you'll see just how easy they are!

Cut Your Stamps? Are you Crazy?

One question I get from my customers is, “I’ve heard you can cut acrylic stamps. Is it really okay to cut my stamps?”  The answer is YES!! I know it’s scary to do but it opens up a world of possibilities with your stamps!

First of all, why would you want to cut your stamps? Well perhaps you have a saying that is long and narrow but you want the words to be stacked on top of each other to fit a square space. Or perhaps you only want to use part of a stamp.

 

When I created this card the other day, I had a vine stamp and I wanted to stamp this cute flower onto the vine without the stem and leaves. Yet, the way the stamp was designed it was difficult to ink up just part of the stamp. The answer? Cut the bloom!

I just took the stamp off the carrier sheet and decided where to cut. When cutting a stamp, I like to make sure that there is enough blank space around the image to make it easy to cut the image without cutting any other parts of the design. As you get more confidence in cutting stamps you can get more daring. J When you have planned your cut, simply use your microtip scissors and cut your stamp.

Now you have your stamp in two pieces. It’s easy to put both pieces together on a block to stamp the whole thing as one image in the future. So you don’t have to worry about not being able to use the whole stamp together as one piece another time. You have the best of both worlds!

Now just stamp your image.

And voila! Your final card! See the cute blue blooms on the vine. I couldn’t have done it easily without cutting that stamp. 

See! It’s super easy to cut your stamps and have flexibility with your images. Enjoy!

Supplies:

·      Dreamin’ paper packet

·      D1482 Love Life stamp set

·      D1436 The Present stamp set

·      Art Philosophy Seasons stamp set

·      Chocolate, Goldrush and Pacifica ink pads

·      Bronze Glitz Gel

·      Basic button collection

Studio J....Not Just for Scrapbooking!

Do you think that Studio J is only for scrapbooking?  Think again!  Here is an example of a recipe book that was made using Studio J.  You can take your JPG’s and have them printed any size that you want.  In this example, they were printed in 6” X 6” size so that they would fit into a My Creations Display Album.  You could make a book with a collection of favorite Christmas recipes, family favorites, soups, etc.  Make each recipe and take a photo of the finished product and include it with the recipe for a gift that is sure to be cherished.