Holiday Card and Gift Blitz

At The Rubber Café today . . .

As I was sitting down to plan my Christmas cards this year, I really wanted to do something “Outside the Box” so I challenged myself to make this year's holiday cards without any of the traditional materials . . or at last as few of them as possible.

 

By using items that I wouldn't normally use for Christmas, it allowed me to be more creative. I love using products in totally different ways than what is expected.

I used the fun Stamping with Glue technique using the Pattern Royale Background Stamp from The Rubber Café along with You’re So Fine Glitter in Diamond Cool Clear Highlight, to create this artsy background. I also used some white paint splatters for my “snow” to give it some interest.

I hope I’ve inspired you to “think” outside the box when making this year’s holiday cards. Would love to see what you come up with.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Enjoy.  

Supplies Used:

Stamps: The Rubber Cafe  Pattern Royale Background Stamp
Paper: Watercolor Paper
Inks: Pugnacious Signature, Cream
Adhesives: Scrap Happy Sheer Girl Big Girl Bottle, 4 oz, One and Only Tape  
Embellishments: You’re So Fine Glitter in Bronze Medal, Silver Medal,  Diamond Cool Clear Highlight, Jellie Dots in Holly Berry Red
Tools: Sewing Machine, yellow thread

TRC/Faber-Castell Blog Hop!

Welcome to The Rubber Cafe/Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft blog hop!

If you've just joined us today and would like to start the blog hop from the beginning, simply click on The Rubber Cafe blog to begin. If you've come here from Mou Saha 's blog, then you’re in the right place!


For this blog hop, we will be showcasing project ideas, inspiration, and tutorials featuring fabulous products you won't want to miss!  Hop along with us as we work with products from these great companies:

The Rubber Cafe
The Rubber Cafe is a stamp manufacturer of high quality, deeply etched stamps and other fine paper crafting tools and accessories. All of our beautiful stamps are made right here in the USA in sunny San Diego, California!

Visit http://www.therubbercafe.com today to view their complete product line!


Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft was founded more than 240 years ago in Germany as a pencil manufacturer. Today Faber-Castell is world renowned for its high quality, professional art supplies in the Art & Graphic line, as well as its fine writing instruments and accessories.

Too see their complete product line, visit http://www.fabercastell.com.

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For my project, I created this cute little banner for a friend of mine to decorate her scrap area.



When I first received the wonderful products from Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft, I was determined to make something shabby with it! Even though the colors are so vibrant and beautiful I just knew they would be equally as beautiful in a muted tone.

So I got to work!





To create the pennants I used watercolor paper and four Gelatos (Pistachio, Metallic Blueberry, Metallic Melon, and Lemon) along with the baby wipe technique I learned from Moe Saha when we worked together at the Orlando Scrapbook Expo. (She showed me so many wonderful things! Thanks Moe!)

That’s right this technique uses a baby wipe! You simply apply your colors next to each other and go over each color with a baby wipe to blend. You just want to make sure you use a clean area of the wipe for each color. Then come back and blend any sections necessary into one another. That’s it! 

It’s very quick and easy and blends so nicely. It leaves just the right amount of gelatos to achieve a more muted color that fits so well with my shabby chic heart!

I also started to make the adorable awning with the BRAND NEW On the Fence Bundle stamp and custom die set from The Rubber Café!



I love how the background stamp and clear embossing really gives that awning a shabby texture. Isn’t it great?  

Then I got to work on my flower embellishment for the center pennant.


Here are the supplies: 



This time working with the Faber-Castell Aquarelles in these beautiful colors. Since Aquarelles are watercolor pencils I was able to blend beautifully the exact colors I needed to highlight the large flower in the the Asian Floral stamp set.


After sewing around the edges of the pennant and adhering all of my sayings and embellishments, I had a really nice banner that will hopefully brighten my friend’s day.

Here are additional pictures of each panel:









I hope you’ve enjoyed my project today and I encourage you to try something new today.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Asian Floral The Rubber Café, Friends The Rubber Café
Paper: Watercolor paper, Pugnacious Signature Paper Crème
Ink/Pencils: Aquarelles Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft, Gelatos Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft, Memento Rich Cocoa 
Dies: Spellbinders Grand Calibur,  S5-029 Nested Lacey Pennants;  DT-1 TRC Fence Custom Die Template by Spellbinders, S5-086 Bitty Blossoms
Accessories: Chipboard Letter, Water Brush, Faber-Castell Deluxe Water Brush, Jellie Dots Pearl,  Seam Binding Really Reasonable Ribbon, Versamark Watermark Pad, Embossing Powder Clear, Scrap Happy Sheer Glue, Glue Gun 

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For your next stop on the hop, you'll be visiting Tesa Broman.


Don't forget to leave a comment on each manufacturer and designer's blog for a chance to win great prizes such as:


Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft will be giving away a $50 Gift Certificate!
The Rubber Cafe will be giving away TWO $25 Gift Certificates!


The blog hop contest will be open until midnight June 10th and the winners will be announced on June 12th on the company's blogs.


Here is a complete list of the designers participating in our blog hop:


START AT:  Rubber Café  http://blog.therubbercafe.com/
Cherry Nelson  http://cherrysjubileehome.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Matott  http://arttalk-sigmagirl.blogspot.com/
Melissa  Forsyth http://stamping-queen.blogspot.com
Irit Shalom  http://iritshalom.blogspot.com/
Mou Saha  http://collagecollagecollage.blogspot.com/
Michele Ciola  http://creative-mayhem.blogspot.com/  <<< You are Here!
Tesa Broman  http://tesasscrap.blogspot.com/
Rita Barakat http://letsembellish.blogspot.com/
Michelle Pearson http://inspirationblooms.blogspot.com/
Tiffany Johnson:  http://iheartartblog.com/
Kristine Reynolds  http://stampingandscrapingincalifornia.blogspot.com/
Karen Thede  http://imbydesign.blogspot.com/
Heidi Blankenship  http://embellished-dreams.blogspot.com/
END AT: Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft  http://designmemorycraft.typepad.com

Thanks for stopping by!

Michele

I Love You Card

 

It’s that time of year again when we break out the hearts, love and all things pink! This year is no exception. My favorite color is pink so I’m really happy to be using it more and more these next few weeks.

I made this card for the challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers using the Belleek Pottery tutorial. This was so much fun! 

I used Tim Holtz ink Spun Sugar and a Cuttlebug embossing folder to achieve this look. I also used Spellbinders dies S5-030 Fancy Tags  Two #2 and S4-314 Lacey Ovals #2 and #4 with my Spellbinder Grand Calibur.

I then stamped the I Love You from the K-1160 Just My Type set in the same color for the center. Finally I finished it off with some white pearl Jellie Dots. and some ribbon from my stash.

Thanks for looking! I love all these new techniques. You should give it a try if you haven’t already.

Happy crafting!

Michele

Vintage Dressform Blank Card

With the new year, I’ve made it my goal to create a stash of cards before I need them so I’m prepared when the time comes. I was thinking it would be great to have a set of all purpose cards that I could make for different occasions. Well here is what I came up with:



I used some Kaiser Kraft paper over kraft cardstock to form my base for the card. Then I used the J-1074 Frame Heart Stamp in Tim Holtz Distress Inks – Festive Berries over the patterned paper.



Doesn’t that look pretty over that paper?




I then covered this beautiful dress form in TRC-0010 Scrap Happy Glue and a mixture of G-120 You’re So Fine Glitter, Diva Pink and  G-101 You’re So Fine Glitter, Silver Medal. I then set the dress off even more with a few small rhinestones and a tiny piece of lace trim.




For the smaller vintage embellishments I used a technique I saw on Pinterest of painting on your shrinky dinks with acrylic paint and then over-stamping them before shrinking.




The acrylic gets a crackled look to it and with some sealer they would be fantastic for your next project! On the sheet above, I used the S-114 Vintage Treasures stamps set and the S-113 Steampunk Charity Wings set.




I hope you’ve been inspired today to get some of those extra cards made for your stash. You never know when you might need a card in a pinch. Better to have some on hand and prepared.

Framed Heart	Steampunk Charity Wings	Vintage Treasures
INk	Scrap Happy Glue	You are So Fine Glitter - Princess Pink
Jellie Dots Cotton Candy	Stick em Up	Lil inkerz

InLinkz.com

Happy crafting!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Well the chill is in the air, the tree is up, the outside lights hanging, and I’m listening to Christmas music! What better way to cap off a week of decorating by making a cute little stocking ornament for your tree?

The design team has been hard at work making stockings all this week to help get you in the spirit. I hope you’ve had some time to get in your craft room and play along with us as well.

I wanted this stocking to have a vintage shabby chic feel and I challenged myself to use Melissa’s AMAZING background stamps! These are definitely my go-to stamps to give life to all kinds of projects.

For my project, I used the H978 Background Basics 2 Polka Dot stamp and the EP200 Stampendous Adhesive Powder to adhere the gorgeous G108 Your So Fine Diamond Clear Cool Highlight glitter.

I heart this glitter. It is so baby powdering fine and it sticks so well to the adhesive powder. I was even able to outline the edges of the patterned paper.

Just in case that isn’t enough sparkle for you, I also used the 121007 Crystal Clear Jellie Dots along the edge of the dainty little pom-pom ribbon I had in my stash. Isn’t that just beautiful! It looks so sparkly on my tree.

So there’s my little stocking sitting perfectly in the tree. You could also make these to use in a garland as decoration too. The possibilities are endless.

I hope I’ve inspired you to use your products in new and different ways or to simply try a new technique using the fabulous products in The Rubber Café store.

Supplies Used:

Background Basics 2	Stamp n Bond	Your So Fine Glitter Diamond
Jellie Dots - Crystal	Stick em Up	Scrap Happy Glue
Lil inkerz

InLinkz.com

Stamps: Background Basics 2 Polka Dot stamp
Paper: Pink Paisley Butterfly Garden, Bazzill Cardstock
Ink: Ranger Old Paper Distress Ink
Bling: 121007 Crystal Clear Jellie Dots 
Accessories: Scrap Happy Glue, EP200 Stampendous Adhesive Powder, G108 Your So Fine Diamond Clear Cool Highlight glitter
Misc: Stick pin, glass beads, floral ribbon, mini pom pom ribbon

Happy Crafting!

Gift Idea: Card Set to Go!

I really love this week’s challenge to make a card set for gift-giving. There are so many possibilities with this one that it was hard to narrow down what I wanted to do. Then I saw this Card Pouch tutorial over at Splitcoast Stampers and I completely had to stop what I was working on and do it instead!

Do you ever do that? Stop in the middle of a project and change course? Well I’m sure glad I did. 
 

This little pouch is super easy to make and it came together quickly. I’m going to be making more of these to keep on hand for emergency gifts and also I think my daughter’s teacher will really enjoy something like this too.





For the little cards I used the sentiments from the J-1095 Fabulous Phrases set. They fit perfectly in one of my hole punches I had in my stash.


Here’s a look at the inside of the card pouch. The card fits nicely inside.



One other thing I got to play with was the T000-0001 Goosebumps texture spray. This product is so much fun! Just spray it on and let it dry. Easy peasy!

I wanted the outside of my pouch and the cards to look like they were covered in melting snow. This technique is great to do if you don’t want to have the look of embossing but want something fun for a texture.



It does look like melting snow doesn’t it??



You can really see the texture and the lovely sentiments in these photos. The ‘Get Well’ card is using less spray and the ‘Thanks’ card behind it is using an all over application of the spray.



Well I hope you’ve enjoyed my project this week and are inspired to create your own. There’s just a little over a month left before Christmas and it will be here before you know it!

Supplies Used:

InLinkz.com

Stamps: J-1095 Fabulous Phrases
Paper: Cosmo Cricket More Holly, Bazzill Cardstock
Ink: Ranger Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Eco Green Paris Trunk 
Dies: Spellbinders™ Grand Calibur, S5-031 Fancy Tags Three #3
Accessories: Scrap Happy Glue, Dimensional Squares, Want2Scrap mini rhinestones

Happy crafting!