Sootywing Studios: January 2017

Monday, January 30, 2017

Bug Books!

Happy Monday!! Don't let the title scare you away today. I promise this will be a cute post. I have LOTS of pictures to share for today's project. I had started this months ago and finally got around to finishing it up this weekend. It didn't take me months to finish. I just got lazy and never got around to putting it all together, haha! And of course it only took me like 10 minutes to finish up so I should have done it a long time ago. Oh well, it's done now.

It all started with inspiration from this shirt of my daughters.

As soon as I saw the Beetles and Bugs set in the catalog, I thought of this shirt and how I was going to do something with these colors. I also wanted to do something that would be fun for the kids, so I came up with these Bug Books! The inside is filled with lots of bugs for them to color.

I gave these to the kids over the weekend and they had fun coloring in some of the pages. My daughter is really into coloring so I knew she would enjoy it.

Back to the details of the book. I used some thick copy paper that I had at home to use for the inside of the book. Since it was just for the kids, I didn't want to use our nice white cardstock.

I lined up all of the bugs on my large clear block, inked up the bugs and then stamped them onto the paper. All of the bugs didn't fill up the page so I stamped it twice.

I also made sure to stamp the cover page as well. I did use Stampin' Up white cardstock for that. Then I had the fun of using the rest of the stamps to make colorful bugs! I personalized each book for the kids using the Labeler Alphabet stamp set. Then I added an enamel shape on each one and some ribbon for Jillian's book.

The front and back cover is the cardboard piece from the Stampin' Up grid paper so it makes the book a little sturdier for the kids. I had just used up the last of my grid paper at the end of the year and I didn't want to throw away that cardboard piece on the bottom because I knew I could use it for something. The book size is 5 x 7. I was originally going to have the card stock folded in the middle but as I was putting it together I thought it would be better to cut the card stock in half and put the book together with the jump rings. I think this works out better because it lays flatter for the kids when coloring and if I ever want to add more pages, I can easily do that.

Here are pictures of the kids with their books. (This is the best I could get of Jillian, haha!)

So this shows you how this stamp set can be made to look cute and not creepy, haha! At least I think so! I hope you enjoyed today's project!!

Have a great day!

Product List

Beetles & Bugs Photopolymer Stamp Set

[142980]

Labeler Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set

[141936]

Pumpkin Pie 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[105117]

Sweet Sugarplum 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[141418]

Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad

[126945]

Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Pad

[141395]

Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad

[126982]

Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad

[141397]

Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad

[141394]

Peekaboo Peach Classic Stampin' Pad

[141398]

Cucumber Crush Classic Stampin' Pad

[138324]

Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad

[126944]

Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad

[140931]

2016-2018 In Color Enamel Shapes

[141410]

Sweet Sugarplum 3/8" (1 Cm) Ruched Ribbon

[141428]

Friday, January 27, 2017

December Swap - Cherry on Top

Happy Friday!! Did everyone enjoy the Artisan blog hop last week?? The team had such great projects. Be sure to come back every other Thursday to follow along with the team. It's been a little quiet on the blog this week as my family has been battling the lovely stomach bug. It hit my daughter over the weekend, then me and then my son. Unfortunately the kids got it worse than me but everyone seems to be on the mend now. We did have a fun weekend last weekend as I took my son to his first basketball game. He's been to into sports that it was really fun to bring him to a game. We went to see Seton Hall (my alma mater) vs. St. Johns. And we were lucky enough to witness a win.

Here is a picture of my son having a great time!

Ok moving on to the crafty stuff you are here for. Today's card is the swap I did for our monthly swaps. Our theme for December was Fancy Fold cards. I don't usually do these that often so it was fun to try something new. I decided to do a twist fold gate card. Never did one before? There is a great tutorial on it on Splitcoast HERE. I decided to use the Pop of Pink DSP along with the Frozen Treats stamp set. This is a good set for using those ombre ink pads. I used the Rich Razzleberry and Bermuda Bay one for this card. The ombre pad also works well on the sentiment too. For the ice cream cone on the front, I stamped the solid image in Soft Sky and then used the ombre pad for the swirls. Surprisingly this card has NO embellishments or ribbon!! I think because it has a fancy fold you don't need to add anything else. One thing to note is that since my tag with the sentiment is a little long it doesn't fit into a regular size envelope. So this is one of those hand delivered cards.

I hope you liked today's card and will give a fancy fold card a try!

Have a great weekend!

Product List

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Valentine's Treat Box and Cards: Stampin' Up! Artisan Blog Hop

Hello! Welcome to the first official Stampin' Up! Artisan Blog Hop of 2017! I am so excited to be a part of this wonderful group of talented stampers.

Just a quick little background on me. I've been with Stampin' Up! for 10 years as of this April (wow, it's been that long)! I have a full time job, I'm married and I have 2 little kids at home. And I LOVE to craft in my spare time. Which can be hard with 2 little ones around but sometimes they like to join me so that's fun. I applied for the Artisan Design Team back in June 2016 and I was so shocked when I got the call that I was chosen. I got the call from Becky Cowley while I was at work and I had to make her repeat what she said because I was sure I couldn't have heard her right, haha!! It was so hard to keep it a secret but now the time has come and I can finally share my first project!

This month's focus is on the Sending Love stamp set. I also used the cute Sending Love DSP on the projects as well. I decided to make 2 cards and a fun little 3D project. I hope these projects get you into the Valentine's spirit!

The first card I made with the intention of it being more for a guy but I'm sure any girl would love it too! I tried not to make it too frilly by adding any bows. (But there are pearls so that may add a little frilliness to it, hehe!) I did use baker's twine but I just wrapped it around the cardstock to keep it simple. A few things to note on this card is the copper thread looped behind the circle panel, the copper embossing on the sentiment and the embossing on the Sending Love embellishments. I smooched the embellishments into white craft ink, then I added white embossing powder to them and heated them with the heat gun. (You will need to use tweezers or something to keep them in place while heating). Then I used my Pool Party marker to color on them after they dried. So it gives the hearts a hint of color.

My next card is girly. I did more embossing with the sentiment, then I die cut a bunch of the elements from the Love Notes Framelits and stacked them on the card until I liked how they were placed. I cut out a copper heart, 2 hearts with the Sending Love glassine sheets and a little envelope. A tip to gluing these is to strategically place glue dots on the spots where they will be covered up with other elements. It's ok if not every part of it is completely glued down. I finished off the card with some white sequins.

My final project is this adorable lollipop holder. I haven't put this out in my home yet because I know the kids will eat those lollipops right up!! Anyway, I used the new Window Box thinlit for the holder. I cut off the top piece so the box was more open. All of the lollipops are stuck into half of a styrofoam ball, which was covered with cardstock that was cut with the fringe scissors. I tried to make the lollipops look like flowers by using the smaller envelope die from the framelits. Each lollipop uses 3 pieces of DSP. I was able to cut the 3 pieces at one time with the die. I punch a hole in the middle and put the stick of the lollipop through it and fiddled with the edges of the DSP until it looked something like a flower. (I used glue dots to adhere it all together). Then I just added some ribbon and a little tag.

Here is the close up of the lollipop.

Well I hope you enjoyed my first project as an Artisan. I had so much fun making these projects and I look forward to having you all stop by during the year to check out all of the fabulous projects from the team!

Jessica Winter is up next. Click HERE to see her wonderful projects and to see what the rest of the team has designed!