You're Invited

Will you be sending hand made Christmas cards this year? Would you like a little help in that endeavor?

I think a major part of the fun of this card-making hobby is the social aspect. It is fun to get together with friends and stamp!

Please join me and 20 of my best stamping friends in a day of card making. We meet at the Arlington Hts Historical museum, we make holiday cards, we have lunch, every one gets a nice Stampin' Up! product as a door prize and you will leave with 20 unique holiday cards.

It isn't strictly Christmas, but it is strictly unique! Each person brings their own design (or one they have cheerfully CASEd) to share and all the supplies to copy it. We each get to make our own version of the card and make it our "own."

The fee is only $30, to cover the room and lunch. RSVP is required and the sooner the better!

Hope you can make it! Saturday, November 9, 2013.

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Texture, texture, everywhere

Texture, anyone? I know every card needs a little something that appeals to the sense of touch, but I went a little crazy here!

The burlap ribbon in the Holiday catalog from Stampin' Up! is just fabulous. You only need a little bit on a card, and it adds so much--definitely has an autumn feel to it. Then I added a bit of stitched grosgrain capped with a dark brown sparkly brad.

Then I embossed a panel of natural white card stock. And the maple leaf stamp! I have used this beauty SO MUCH! It is a "single stamp" in the holiday catalog, so the price is perfect!

Stick around for just one more card from the stamp-a-stack class.

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Fast and Cheerful

 Does it feel like we have shared 10 Stamp-a-Stack cards yet? There is still one more, so pay attention!

The Thinlet Card Dies make a quick card super easy! We used the Circle Thinlet Card Die and textured card stock. Then the Hexagon Punch and Gingham Garden DSP made quick work of adding color and interest.

Because the card stock is textured, it may be a little difficult to write a sentiment neatly, so we added a large circle of Whisper White card stock to the back of the flip-flop part of the card, which is just enough space to say a little something and sign the card.

I think anyone would enjoy receiving this beauty! And it is a great card to keep in your stash for when you want to send out a little something but you don't have time to create a masterpiece.

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Halloween Owl Collage

I can't believe this wasn't posted here. I put it on Instagram and neglected to share here. The Owl punch from Stampin' Up! is one of those "sleeper" items. Who needs an owl punch? Seriously.

But look how cute this dang thing is! This owl is perfect for dressing up in all kinds of Halloween costumes! Wait a bit and you can dress him up as Santa or an elf or a reindeer. He is cute, he is angry, he is romantic! I have to say, he has starred on wedding cards that I have given!

The class to create this collage is currently on my schedule but over-filled. If you would like a kit or would like to host a class to make this collage, please leave me a comment or send me an email. I have the process all figured out and am glad to get some owls into your hands and into your house!

I wish I could give credit to the original creator of this concept, but the photo I saved to my disc does not have a water mark or any identifying information. If you can tell me the originator, I will cheerfully give full credit.

Happy Punching!
Dee Tollaksen

Finally

Have you taken a look at the hysterical sentiments in the stamp set Really Good Greetings from Stampin' Up!? If you have a bit of an irreverent streak, like me, than these are perfect!

Finally, a day that really is all about you! my favorite!!

This card is one of the many we cranked out during the stamp-a-stack. So let's take it apart. . . one stamped sentiment, one panel of DSP (designer series paper) and one strip of silver glimmer paper. Voila!

Just because it is easy doesn't mean it isn't beautiful, right?

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Super easy Vintage style card

Stamp-a-Stack classes are fun for so many reasons: affordability, variety, reproducible, sociable, and I'm sure so many more!

This card starts off with a fancy image from Layered Labels stamp set. Then we created a flag with a sentiment and image from Happy Day. We ruffled a bit of antique lace ribbon behind the flag, added a clear button with a bit of bakers twine, then used dimensionals to adhere the flag to the card. Quick, easy and beautiful!

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

Best Friends

Girls all know, diamonds are a girls best friend. . . but shoes are definitely running a close second! This darling detailed shoe makes a fun coloring project. And it makes a great card to keep in your stash. The sentiment is perfect for a card that can be used as a thank you, thinking of you, birthday, any occasion!

While this card was part of our stamp-a-stack of 10 cards, it would be great to step up--add a card stock layer under the white panel, glitter the shoe, tie a ribbon around the fold. Lots of opportunities!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Fast and Easy

Even though we were making 10 different cards in one session, the cards still needed to be beautiful. This Dahlia stamp is just lovely, so using one color and stamping nearly the entire image, then another partial flower, the flower can stand on it's own.

This monochrome card could be in nearly any color and be just as pretty! We used an embossing folder to give it a little texture. I can picture it with a generous helping of Dazzling Details glitter on all the dark petals and a strip of ribbon or DSP between the white and  Strawberry card stock, but for a fast card, it is pretty!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Stash it

When you need a get well card, you need it right away. This is a great one to make ahead and keep in your stash, ready to use.

This is a nice flat, mailable card that we created as part of a 10 card stamp-a-stack class. The image is from the stamp set Tag It and the die is in the Chalk Talk bundle framelits.

Making 10 cards at one sitting is quite an accomplishment. This is one of the easiest cards we made that night. I'll be sharing a few more with you this week. After a session like this, they all start to look the same and after about the 9th card, you start to wonder why you thought this class was a good idea!

But then when you finish, you have 10 cards in your stash, you're ready for any occasion and you just spent 2 hours laughing with friends, so it is definitely worth it!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Remembering 9/11

 It has been 12 years since terrorists hit the twin towers, the Pentagon and crashed a passenger plane in Pennsylvania. My son is an active duty US Marine and has been deployed 3 times.

In his honor and to remember why our young men and women are deployed all over the world to protect our freedom, I support a small effort called "From Our Hearts."

This group creates and collects hand made cards to send to the troops for their use. They are beautiful and they are made easily accessible to the military to send home. We all know that a hand written note of love is so much more wonderful than a tweet or email, so this service provides the cards. The US government provides free postage, so this is totally free to the troops.

On the base where my son was deployed, and in most cases, the cards go to the Chaplain. They are freely available, but if the Chaplain happens to be there, a nice conversation might ensue. . . and a nice prayer might be involved, certainly a blessing would be shared.

Yesterday I invited my stamper friends to join me and we created/collected, paired with an envelope and packaged into cellophane 144 cards. We filled a nice big box with cards for all occasions. I will be sending them to http://www.fromourhearts.info/ today, along with a nice cash donation that will help with the cost of shipping the cards to Afghanistan, Iraq and other outposts where our young defenders are deployed.

Your contributions are always welcome. I encourage you to visit the website and see who else is stamping and contributing!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Halloween, the other sparkly holiday

You remember those pork commercials, "the other white meat," right? Well, Halloween has somehow become "the other major holiday."  I'm not sure how it grew to such gigantic proportions, but I'm happy to go along with all the fun!

I have taken a simple Basic Black card base and featured that crazy Summer Starfruit card stock, everything else is black or white. There is a bit of printed acetate, some silver glimmer paper, Halloween washi tape and some scraps of DSP.

The sentiment is positioned over a circle of black card stock. What you can't see in the photo is that there is black glitter on the black circle and on the spider bodies.

The card base looked a little plain, so I added some dry embossed lines using my Simply Scored tool, they are hard to see in the picture, but it looks pretty cool IRL (in real life).

We made this in a Stamp-a-Stack class recently, it would be a fairly easy card to duplicate as an invitation or if you have a lot of trick-or-treaters you want to make a card to send.

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Gorgeous + Grunge = fab

Gorgeous Grunge? OK, Stampin' Up!, you got me with this stamp set. I don't think many of us would choose this to be in our top 10, unless we were shown just how fun it is.

It has water spills, splatter, scrapes, faux washi tape (?), and more. It is great for background, color on color stamping, especially for masculine cards. For a pretty card we automatically go to a large flower or swirl, but for guys, we need something less pretty. This set is super versatile and perfect for this style.

I have added a scrap of printed acetate from the Quatrefancy DSP, an arrow clip and a banner flag from a hostess stamp set, everything in the new Slate shade in the neutrals family. Gorgeous, right?

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Tricky Witches outfit

Still in the mood for a Halloween card? You ought to have the Dress Up framelits from Stampin' Up! by now, they are awesome and so versatile. Here I have cut the dress in basic black cardstock, and the dress frame in eggplant and old olive.

I have used Summer Starfruit for the card base, this is my least favorite color of card stock, but it is perfect for Halloween. I framed a couple squares of Witches Brew DSP with black as the bottom layer, really makes the colors pop off the Summer Starfruit.

Then the fun begins. . . Use an oval punch and banner triangle punch to make the witches hat, add a hat band of fabulous orange glitter, then create a bodice for the dress all from black glitter. I think the dress needs a necklace so I added some rhinestones. They are so pretty and shiny, so I tricked them out with black marker to help them match the rest of the design. Cute, if I don't say so myself!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Stand back, too many trends!!

Chevrons! Polaroid!  Washi Tape!

I had to stop at three. Seriously, too many trendy techniques and you might not have noticed.

I recently started seeing chevron backgrounds on cards posted on-line. I thought it was a DSP that I missed or something from a craft company other than Stampin' Up! but then I looked closer and realized we offer a fantastic background stamp that covers your entire card with chevrons!

I have stamped in Versa Mark ink, covered it with heat-n-stick powder, then heated with my heat tool and coated with Dazzling Diamonds glitter, then heat tool again. OMG. Stop the train, we need to do this to every single card it is so fantastic!

But that's not enough, right? I made a pretty picture with the bird bath from For The Birds stamp set and mounted it on a larger panel of card stock. I'm told that the polaroid style mounting is trendy, and I'm all about being trendy! LOL

I used a length of washi tape to add my sentiment. I stuck the tape to my work table to stamp it, then it was easy to peel it and place it on the card.

I always love making cards, but sometimes a glittery, chevrony, birdy card just makes my whole day.

Happy stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Sproing!!

Clean and Simple? There is nothing difficult on this Halloween card, and it does look Clean and Simple. . . but there is a lot going on here!

We created this at Stamp Club this week, and whoo boy, the stampers loved it!  We heat embossed the sentiment and it is worth mentioning that you really need to use the Embossing Buddy on black card stock before stamping. This is a pretty small image and if there is any scatter of embossing powder, it is not attractive and it is difficult to fix.  Luckily, you could cover your first attempt with some of the Washi tape!

There are two strips of Stampin' Up! washi tape. This is fast and easy and affordable! You will get loads of cards and projects from these rolls of tape!

 The actual card is made from half a sheet of black card stock, cut the long way so you have a piece that measures 4-1/4" by 11" and scored so the card folds over itself.

Grab all your punches to copy this, we used the largest circle punch to make a fold-over opening for our owl/ghost. The owl is punched from the circle scrap created by that first punch. Then we have a scallop circle in Summer Starfruit with the same color repeated on the ghost in zig zag. A circle of Pumpkin Pie  falls between the scallop circle and the owl. We used the extra large oval to create the ghost costume.
You can create the eyes by either punching holes in the ghost oval or gluing small black eyes onto the costume, either way is fine.

We snuck spring device in between the layers to give the owl/ghost some action. These action springs are not from Stampin' Up!, but they sure are cute!

So, we enjoyed making this beauty, and there is nothing too difficult, just a whole bunch of steps!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Telly Time

 Telly time, telescoping card time, that is.

Telescoping cards have been around for ages, but since Stampin' Up! has introduced the Framelit dies for the Big Shot, they have become very simple to create.

I have used the Window Frame Thinlits to die cut Island Indigo, Whisper White and Witner Frost DSP have been layered to create a pretty looking card.

Then I used brads to connect the DSP layer to a die cut snowflake and to the Island Indigo/Whisper White layer.

When you pull on the loop of ribbon, the card telescopes open. So impressive!

The card easily fits into a standard envelope, but you can use the new Stampin' Up! Envelope Maker to create your own custom envelope to fit!

Comment or email me to schedule a class on this great card in your home or mine!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen