Anniversary Gift for hubby

I made this matchbox/nugget box filled with candy as a little anniversary gift for my hubby...Our 5 year anniversary of our first date is tomorrow...it was one of the best days of my life and next to our wedding day, is still the most special to me...I used a background stamp from Innovative Stamp Creations to stamp the box sleeve with brown ink, then dusted on some teal blue...I love it...its very pretty in real life...not sure why its so weird looking in the photo...I stamped the sheriff star in brown and colored it with teal, cut it out and added gold glitter dots on the star points...

I used my smallest scalloped spellbinder die and a 1.25 punch to make the covers for the mints...Stamped words are from a set of images from Innovative Stamp Creations...Notice the little box is bulging with goodies...

Here are all the candies with there stamped covers...He loves Batman, and collects wolves...so i think I covered all my bases here...The candy bar on the bottom is a kit kat bar, the snack size, two of these will fit in the box, but I wanted more variety, so decided to add some of all the goodies...I am going to be teaching these next week at my Scrap n Stamp at The Studio day...Be sure and check out my studio blog at http://thestudioinpreston.blogspot.com for lots of die cuts and http://www.innovativestampcreations.com for some awesome images to use in your stamped art...

File Card Recipe Book Idea

These two pages are just the beginning of my book...I used 3 of the file card die cuts, covered them with coordinating pattern papers and computer generated the recipes onto white 24# laser text weight paper...I tore around each recipe, as I like this look, colored each with ink and then layered each onto coordinating colors of cardstock...I will go back and add some other foo foo to each page after I get it done...The book will use 3 file cards and 6 recipes and bind it all binding...I will show ya the book again after i get it finished...

Coaster Book Project

I needed a quick b'day giftie for a friend tomorrow...favorite color is yellow and loves daisy's...was I in luck...I had a few scraps of yellow papers , so I covered the coaster with the pattern papers, added the ribbon to the front cover...punched the bind it all holes...
I added the post it note pad and a calendar pad I just got from Sky Blue Pink...these little calendars are gonna be great for some of my other gifties I will be making...I added a couple of dimensional flower stickers from a K & Co sheet...

Gingerbread Afternoon...

Along with creating my new book project in the next posting...I was in a Gingerbread mood this afternoon...LOL...well...a gingerbread painting mood anyway...I found two of my wood cut out painted gingerbread men a few months ago...I keep finding all these little treasures from my past, as I continue to go thru boxes that have been packed up for years...I painted these wooden cut out gingerbread men for years and sold them at craft shows, took special orders for them...etc...I loved making them...well...I wanted to do something similar with my gingerbread men die cuts...so I cut them outta chipboard, painted them with acrylic paints and did a cheesey job, if I do say so...of painting one...I could not find the brushes I normally use...so was improvising with some cheapo paint brush...I will be finding my better brushes this week... This is before the sealer was applied...she got a little shiney on my after that coat of waterbased varnish was applied...LOL...
I am going to paint some more...but I have to find the brushes that I do my decorative painting with...
This is the pair I kept that I did in 1989...I used to have a set I did in 1985...but gave them to my sister in law...they are kinda scuffed up...but I am going to put them out this year at Christmas, since I am changing my usual blue and silver to red and gold this year...I just decided I needed a change...hubby likes his blue and silver...but I like to throw him a curve every now and then...LOL...if I get some more painted soon, I will share them...

Mini Envy Book Project-Original Design by Me...

These are the parts I started with...I used my mini 2.5 x 2.5 envy as my base measurement for the book...I cut the covers just a tad wider, and long enough to allow for the file tabs to be added to the page inserts...I punched all my Bind it All holes, before I begin coloring the pieces with ink...I wrote down the measurements and left them at the studio...dang it...I will get them tomorrow and fill in the blanks for ya...sorry...it was one of those afternoons...
I started out coloring the file tabs and the chipboard covers with archival ink...I just used a piece of sponge to do this...

I used a stipple brush to color the page inserts...I chose pink, because I will eventually put some photos of my new granddaughter in this little book...
I did the envelope pages in teal with the stipple brush...
The next few photos are the steps for gluing the envy...I glued the rounded top flap to the inside of the envelope...

I then fold one side in, apply some glue to the edge,

then fold the other side over...
apply a tad of glue to the bottom flap and press in place...be sure, you do not get any glue on the holes...you wont be a happy camper...
These are the 3 finished envy pages...You can make more pages...I only needed 3 for this mini book...
I scored the file tabs and then glued them in half...

Now, I worked on my center page insert first...attach the file tab in the center of the page back, then attach the page front...
Now, trim off the top and bottom edges of the other two file tabs, and attach to the other pages...
I forgot to photo the other one...this is the last page...see, how the cut off file tab is lined up with the bottom edge...just line up the other one at the top edge...
This is all three pages, lined up on top of each other...see how the file tabs look...
I put all the envy's together with the covers and used the Bind it All to bind them...

This is the book opened to the first page...
This is page 1 opened showing page 2...
I started adding the pattern paper layers, this is the cover so far...
This is the inside cover and the outside of the envy's...
I added the teal layer to the back side of each envy...this covers up the seams and gives me more photo or journaling space...I hope to add photos next week...and show ya those pics when I get it done...

Check out my studio blog for a pack of the mini envy's I used to make this book...along with lots of other die cut kits...if I can help you further holler at me debbiesdiecuts@yahoo.com

http://thestudioinpreston.blogspot.com

Mini Card Mania...Oh my gosh...Please, join me...

Ok...I had 3 hours to spend in my studio after my half day at work today and before the child had open house at school...I just dont get enough of those little cards and envy's...I wanted to do some as Christmas tags...and of course wanted to use ink, stamps, Cuttlebug folders...Well...the following is part of my obsession for this afternoon...The snowman and snowflake themed stamps are from The Stamping Studio...link is in my favorites label...Awesome stamps, check them out if you will...

Ok...I made this little cutie by embossing the front only of the mini round card with the Cuttlebug snowflake folder...I used my stipple brush and colored the card with light blue ink...I then rubbed the embossed area with a darker blue ink...
I stamped the little snowman on a small round punched shape, colored, sponged edges with ink and layered onto a slightly larger scalloped round punched shape...The little words were just stamped and trimmed out with scissors...
This is the inside of the card, no stamped verse in this one...
for the envy, I just rubbed the red ink pad across the envy die cut, then stamped the snowflake image with dark blue ink...

well...anyone that knows me...knows...I cannot stop and just one...and of course I could not leave the smaller square envy out...so...I used a punch and made a micro mini card...I stamped the snowman head onto a smaller punched shape, colored with marvy waterbased markers, spattered some ink on and sponged the edges...I colored the envy with ink, then stamped and spattered it too...
This is the inside of the card with stamped message...
wouldn't this little card be cute to include with a snow day treat...Oh...imagine the possibilities...

Alrighty then...after my snowman frenzy of mini round cards...I had to move on to fall...and what better way to make a Thank you card than this...I used the Sizzix pumpkin shape, added some punched leaves after coloring with ink...I used the grass punched shapes to create the pumpkin patch...
The envy was colored with inks, then stamped with images from The Stamping Studio...Oh my...I see this little baby as a gift tag with some homemade pumpkin bread in my future gift giving...
Well...again...I could not leave the mini envy out...and the Cuttlebug pumpkin folder was calling me...I mean really...it was on the other side of the room...and I could hear it whispering to me..."use me next"...its just weird the things they say to me...LOL...I know, some of you are believing this, aren't ya...ah...must mean you know me then...LOL...

Ya know...I sometimes forget about this little envy...its a small rectangle shape...but...perfect for a gift tag envy...I also use it for my love notes to hubby tho...Well, those Cuttlebug embossing folders are just not safe around me...
I used the dots and the with love border die together...that was pretty neat...I will take a pic of what I did to share later...I had to hurry and get these done...it was getting time to be back at the school for open house...I love the bird one...too adorable for words, at least to me...
I wanted to play with the Sizzix stocking...this is kinda cheesey...but you get the idea...and thats what I wanted...was to give you ideas...Now, go forth and make mini cards to share with family, friends, anyone you want to send a special message too...remember, You are only Limited by your Imagination...If you have any questions, email me at debbiesdiecuts@yahoo.com

Cuttlebug embossing parts of die cuts

I had quite a few emails telling me how cute the Sizzix die cut mittens were after I embossed only part of them...I was asked how some other die cuts would look only partially embossed...Well...here is another die cut I love working with, the little Sizzix die cut flower pots...I like to emboss either the rim area or the bottom of the pot...I used one of the newest border embossing folders on the rim of the larger die cut pot shape...I lined up the little flower shapes right where I wanted them to be and run thru the machine...
Thats just about perfect...I used to paint and sell terra cotto pots...so these little buggers are just fun for me to play with...
I love using the textile folder, lots of possibilities with the various patterns along the edges...I liked this little section for the smaller die cut pot...
I sponged each little die cut pot with ink, then using the same ink pad, rubbed it lightly over the raised embossed areas...Voila...adorable little additions to any paper project...I hope you enjoyed decorating some flower pots with me...and I hope to share some other things later this week...