Butterfly Thinlits Sneak Peek and a Video - Using Dryer Sheets to Remove Confetti Bits From Diecuts,

Hello Friends - I am SO EXCITED to show you this video!!

Easily Diecut and clean up Intricate designs, like this Butterfly

Karen Burniston came up with an absolutely brilliant way to use dryer sheets to quickly and easily remove all those annoying leftover confetti bits from a framelit or thinlit after you have cut your cardstock - and I tried it using our new Butterfly Thinlits (which you can order beginning January 6, 2015 when the Occasions Catalogue goes live)

And it works!!

It is so easy and so fast - I just KNEW I had to let you all know about this fantastic technique.  Watch the video and see just how easy it is.

I hope you enjoy how fast and easy it is to clean-up even intricate diecut images.  No more poking all the bits of confetti out.  Hurray!!

And I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and is still relaxing before the New Year arrives.   
God Bless,    ~Cynthia   <><  

Founders Swap - Shimmery Pines, the Video!

Hello Friends

Shimmery Pines (Founders Circle Swap)

Its is easy to create lots and lots of these gorgeous, Shimmery cards

I have been tickled pink  and on cloud nine for the last few weeks.  Ever since I returned from Founders Circle in Utah in September I have been getting tons of e-mails from all over Canada and the US with people asking me how I made my Founders Swap card - the super shimmery Ornamental Pine card.

The short answer is - it is super easy.  Just Versamark and Iridescent Ice embossing Powder.  But if you really want the whole scoop, take a few minutes and watch the video I put together for you.

To be honest, I wanted to make a video of this card anyhow, but the huge interest in it meant that I needed to make it sooner, rather than later.

So here it is folks.  Enjoy!
And have a wonderful weekend.  God Bless,    ~Cynthia   <><

Card-In-A-Box - the Video

Hello Ladies

It has taken me a while to finally get this Card-in-a-box tutorial finished, but I finally got it done!  There have been some wonderful tutorials available by great demonstrators, but several of them have been for box cards that do not quite fit into our Stampin' Up! envelopes.  And believe me, when I have gone to all the effort of creating the perfect card, I want to deliver it in the best possible and highest quality envelope - and that is definitely our SU! envelopes.

Don't get me wrong, you can also use the Envelope Punch Board to create a custom-sized envelope - but I prefer to use the high quality, readily available ones that SU! provides.  So here is how I constructed this Card-in-a-box.  you can watch the video, or look over the written/illustrated steps below.  Or better yet....do both!

1. Score along the 9" edge of your paper, at 2 1/8, 4 1/4, 6 3/8 and 8 1/2 inches

2. Turn the paper and score again at 2 3/4"

3. Now cut the paper so it is 5 1/2 inches wide - save the piece you cut off

4. Cut one small tab from the side and add sticky strip to the remaining tab.  Cut 3 other score lines just to the midway point and fold as shown

5. The assembled bare box

6. Add designer paper panels

Panels to decorate the sides of the box are 1 7/8 x 2 5/8" each.  These can be designer paper or paper that you have stamped on.  Or you can stamp directly on the box and forgo any panels.

The panel for the back of the box (to write your greeting on) is 1 7/8 x 5 3/8"

7. This is the strip that was leftover from cutting the box at 5 1/2" earlier

8. Cut this at 3 1/8" with the small "tab" on one end

 

9.  End up with 3 1/8" piece

10.  Cut this piece in half.  Fold ends in "Z" pattern

11. Add Sticky Strip.  Make sure both Z's are facing same direction (see arrows)

12. Insert Z's into box to form Bridge (Make sure tabs are facing in same direction, see arrows)

13.  To Assemble Balloons:  Sandwich foot from the Owl Punch (#118074) and a 1/4" strip of Window Sheet (#114323) between either 2 ovals or 2 circles.  Window Sheets will bear the weight of the balloons so keep them suspended, and they will not crimp or bend like cardstock!

14.  Pop-up elements (Balloons or candles or butterflies or Flowers, etc) can be adhered to inside front or back of box, and to either front or back of each bridge piece.

Hope all of this makes sense to you?!  Feel free to contact me to ask for clarifications or leave a comment here.  Enjoy making your own box cards.  

Note added March 5, 2014:   I was asked what I used to make the Birthday Box-Card.  am sure you could use a variety of stamp sets to make a great Birthday card, but for the one I show here, I used: 

See Ya Later Stamp set (Sale-A-Bration) on the front banner (Banner Framelit to cut it out)
Label Love stamp set (and Artisan Punch)
Another Great Year (1 3/8" Circle Punch to cut it out)
Bird Builder Punch (wing = flame for candle)
Balloons = 1" circle or 3/4 x 15/16 oval punch + foot from Owl Punch
Cupcake Builder Punch for cupcakes
Watercolor Wonder designer paper (Balloon-ish paper to cover outside of box-card and also stripey paper for inside card)

Have a super week and 
God Bless,    ~Cynthia    <><

Making Paper Roses - the Video

Hello Friends

If you saw yesterday's post, you know how gorgeous the flowers are that you can make using the Spiral Flower Die from Stampin' Up!.  Well today I am here to show you how quick and easy they are to make too!  All you need is the Spiral Flower Die, some cardstock, something to wind around (I like a bamboo skewer), and an adhesive (I prefer a hot glue gun but you can use Tombow Multipurpose liquid glue).  Watch the video to see how to make paper roses that you can use for all kinds of gorgeous projects!

A Rose tree

Hope you found this helpful.  Contact me today to order your Spiral Flower Die and start creating a garden of gorgeousness.

Roses on Pillar candles

Roses on a Picture Frame

Close-up of Paper Roses on candles

Hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful weekend!    
God Bless,    ~Cynthia   <><

A Helpful Tip For You - Video

Hello Friends

I learned of a very helpful little trick a while ago and I wanted to share it with all of you.

 Ever use Snail (2-sided tape) and been annoyed at the way your work surface becomes very tacky with glue residue?  Or...ever have trouble getting Snail onto a very small or narrow element without also getting adhesive onto everything else?

Watch this little helpful-advice video to show you a great way to prevent a sticky mess.

Hope it helps you as much as it has helped me!!  God Bless,    ~Cynthia   <><

Fixing "Broken" Ink Pads

Hello There

I have received several phone calls over the last year from friends whose Stampin' Up! ink pads have accidentally come apart.  You know - when the lid and the base are no longer attached.  This doesn't happen often, but when it does, I have heard some pretty colourful language being spoken.  Colourful enough to be worthy of Stampin' Up! ink - that's for sure!

At any rate, I have been promising for quite some time to make a video to show how to reassemble the SU! ink pads when they come apart, and at long last, here it is.

Hope everyone enjoys a terrific end to their week!
God Bless,        ~Cynthia      <><

Thinlit Circle Die Video - Delightful Dahlia Flip Card

Hello Friends

It took me a while but I managed to figure out the "video thing" without the help of my teenagers.  I am certain I will get better at it as time goes by.  But for now, here is the video How-To for this morning's Thinlit Circle Die card.

The Circle Thinlit Die (cat # 133480) and all the wonderful accompanying framelits can be seen here.

And the Label Framelit Die (cat #133479) and all the cool things that come with it can be seen here.

Enjoy the rest of your day and God Bless,    ~Cynthia    <><

Designer Paper Flowers and a Video

Hello Friends

I was honoured and blessed to be a part of a Crop to raise money for the Neeje Association For Women and Families yesterday. 

What a thoroughly wonderful day.  This is the third year the crop has run and it gets better every year!

If you saw my post yesterday, I promised that today I would post a video showing you how we made the gorgeous corsages that we gave to each of the participants.  I probably should have waited to film it until today (I did the filming last night after the crop and I was pretty tired.....but I think you'll forgive my few little stutters.  Please?!?)

Let me know what you think.  And let me know if you'd like to see more videos.  I figure I can only get better at them...right?

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and is looking forward to more of the same this week.
God Bless,   ~Cynthia   <><

Multi-Coloured Chalkboard Technique and a Video!!

Well friends, this is it.

If all goes well, when I hit "Publish" there will actually be a video linked to this post.  I hope it works.  And if it does work, you can all watch and see how easy it is to do mutli-coloured embossing as a Chalkboard technique.

This is my first attempt at a video.  I hope it was successful.  Let me know what you think!  I'll be very interested in your comments.

In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend (a long weekend for the US and for many of us in Canada).  God Bless,       ~Cynthia   <><