Last of the Ministerial Notepads

I needed to finish the last of the notebooks for Ministerial, and I ran across the coolest idea while I was browsing the gallery at Splitcoaststampers the other day. It was perfect for my purposes, so here it is ...

I'm sure you remember the other mini legal pad holders, right? These are mini legal pads cut in half (down the long way). Well, Nichole Heady figured out a way to add a pencil/pen holder! Check it out here.



The only problem is that I don't own a 1/2" circle punch, and I'm not going to go out and buy one special for one project. If I've lived all these years without one, it's unlikely I really NEED it anyway. So I got a little creative. If you look at the peach one above, you'll see that I tried to handcut my own 1/2" square with my x-acto knife. I didn't like how that turned out.

Then I got to thinking - Do I really need the top part of the holder? (See the post I referenced above if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) So I cut it off and tried it - a pen/pencil fits snugly inside the open-topped rectangle. Not only did that save me having to buy a circle punch, it also saved me quite a bit of paper.

Doing it Nichole's way, you can get three holders to a sheet of 8.5x11" paper (if you creatively bump them up right next to each other). Using just the bottom part of the design, you can get six holders to a sheet of 8.5x11" paper. Not only that, it's a lot easier since I didn't have to trace the template anymore. I just stuck it on my scoring board and ran with it. :)



So how do you modify it the way I did? Easy. Cut your paper to 2-3/4" x 4-1/2". (As I said, you can get six of these to a sheet of 8-1/2" x 11" paper.) Then score the 2-3/4" side at 3/4", 1", 1-3/4", and 2". Turn the paper and score the 4-1/2" side at 3" and 3-1/4". Now simply cut away the two sides at the top (including side seams). You'll have a long, skinny part sticking up in the middle. Then just fold it up to make a box and glue it to your project with the hole at the top.



And here's what it looks like inside.

I used decorative paper that looks good all by itself since I was running out of time and needed to finish 25 of these in a hurry. I think they still look nice, and I'm sure the ladies are going to love them!

Oh, and please don't ask me why I didn't put pencils or pens into the slots for the pictures ... I don't know what I was (or wasn't) thinking! :)

More Calendar Cards: Time

I have another set of recycled calendar cards to share today. These all came from one calendar image (cut in 4 x 5.25" pieces), and they are from the same calendar called "Collections". What I really like about these is their masculine potential! Guys are so hard to make cards for ...

General supplies for each card: cheap graduation card base; stamp (Cloud 9 Design); paper (Paper Reflections); brads.













I couldn't let the inside go bare, so I added this where the frame portion is:



Supplies for the inside: clock stamp (Kelly Pannacci); Versamark ink; clear embossing powder; Krylon gold leafing pen

These were easy to make, but they look quite nice for the effort. I'm happy!

Last-Minute Valentine Centerpiece

On the outside chance that anyone is needing a last-minute valentine centerpiece idea, I thought I'd share what I whipped up today. You see, I need to take a homemade centerpiece to our conference Ministerial. Several of our ladies do ladies' meetings and marriage retreats, so I thought I'd showcase something that would work for those type of events. This would work equally well for a romantic dinner for two.



To give you an idea how big it is, it is cut from an 8x12" piece of paper. Each panel is 3x4". I made mine rather elaborate-looking because I was having fun, but it doesn't have to be elaborate to be stunning. When you turn the lights out and light the battery-operated tealight inside, this is what you see:



You don't see a lot of the frillies. But I really like the overall effect, with lights and without. One thing you don't see in the picture is the heart I Versamarked onto the middle of the vellum panels. You can see it faintly in real life. It was just the effect I was going for. :)

This idea is certainly not original with me. You can find the tutorial I followed here. I just changed mine to make four panels instead of two, since I wanted my centerpiece to be pretty from both sides of the table.

And in case you're wondering about supplies, here's my supply list:

Paper (Fiskars); stamp (PSX); long fancy Cuttlebug die (don't remember the name); fleur de lis border punch (EK Success); pink pearl dimensional paint; Versamark, black and clear embossing powders.

If you make one, I'd love to see yours. There are some lovely ones at Splitcoaststampers, too!

A little valentine

I made this little valentine yesterday and just had to share it with you.

The image is from Pollycraft Designs. They have some of the cutest digital images! The sentiment is from Studio G. (By the way, this is the perfect-sized card to use those small Studio G sets on!)

The card is 3-1/2" x 5-1/2", perfect for kids' valentines.

More Framed "Art"

I'm loving these 8x18" frames I found at Dollar Tree!

My sister-in-law recently moved, and her girls wanted some new decorations for their bedroom. They liked this wall sticker (from Dollar Tree), and I was planning to mount it directly onto their wall. But we forgot while we were there, so it didn't get done on that trip.

I found these frames after that, and one day I got this sudden idea. I could make it into something a lot more decorative!

So I used cardstock in the three colors from their bedroom decor and mounted the wall sticker right on top of all the paper layers. I really like how it turned out, and they did, too!



Final Cost: $2

Calendar Cards: Antique

Last year, Becca from AmazingPaperGrace posted about using old calendars to make beautiful cards. Well, I saw that Michaels had their cheap calendars on clearance for $0.30 each last week, so I grabbed a bunch to try my hand at it. (I bought about 10, so I'll be posting more of these as I finish them!)

These are a different type of image, so they don't look a lot like Becca's. Hers are a lot prettier, but I still like mine quite a bit.

I got four large cards out of one calendar page. This calendar was called "Collections".



I used my cheap graduation cards as the base for these, and kept the design simple. I used a Creative Memories Precious Elements silver pen at the top and bottom of the calendar cutout and then stamped my Stampin Up sentiment in Versamark and embossed with silver embossing powder. I wanted an antique feel, and I got it!

If you remember, the inside of these cards has a frame for a picture. I didn't want or need the frame, so I covered it with a sentiment from Elegant Word Art by Bethany:



I printed these onto the insert sheets that came with the cards. They originally had an invitation printed on the one side, but this side was blank. So I trimmed them down, punched the corners with my Martha Stewart PATP corner punch and printed the sentiment from my computer.

I really like how these turned out, and I may just bundled them up for my grandmother since she's stuck inside all winter and can't get out to buy cards.

I Challenge You Wednesday: Birds

If you remember from last week, my friend and I are getting together each Wednesday on our blogs to share our creations on a particular theme. My friend chose the theme this week, and it was "birds". Boy, I didn't realize how many bird stamps I have! And most of them hadn't been inked up yet. I get so many great deals that sometimes it takes me awhile to get to working with them all ...

Anyway, I set out all my bird stamps on my desk and looked at them for a day or so. Then I got inspired and created all of these in one day (my personal "day off").

So here are my cards for the week ...



Supplies: stamp (Inkadinkado pelican); paper (Paper Reflections, ATD Serendipity); Cuttlebug vintage corner die; dew drops.

I don't think I've ever done an inked sunset card before, but I finally got a brayer for Christmas, so I decided to try it. I hadn't done masking before, either, but it wasn't as hard as I always thought it was. I simply masked the pelican and card background to make the setting sun, then masked the setting sun to make the sunset background. If I had it to do over, I would have added some red ink to the mix. All in all, though, I'm happy with it.



Supplies: stamp (Inkadinkado pelican); Nestabilities Labels 1; paper (Paper Reflections, ATD Serendipity); corner rounder; double-sided black satin ribbon.

I used the same technique on this card, but I cropped the image this time. I like this one, too!



Supplies: stamp (Martha Stewart birds); paper (Paper Reflections, Making Memories); Nestabilities Labels 1; EK Success fleur de lis border punch; colored pencils blended with baby oil.

Now we move on to the Martha Stewart birds that I got dirt cheap at Tuesday Morning and Big Lots last year. I'll just warn you upfront that I like to look at birds, but I have no idea how to color them. I've probably colored birds that don't even exist, at least not the way I colored them. If you know the type of bird each of these is, I'd really appreciate if you'd tell me in the comments so I can look them up online to see how they're supposed to be colored! :)

With that little disclaimer out of the way, I was pretty happy with how these cards turned out.



Supplies: stamp (Martha Stewart birds); Nestabilities Labels 1; paper (Paper Reflections, Making Memories); EK Success fleur de lis border punch; colored pencils blended with baby oil.

I like the colors on this one, probably because I do know what a robin is supposed to look like! :) Now if that's really a robin, I'll be shocked ...



Supplies: stamp (Martha Stewart birds); Nestabilities Labels 8; Cuttlebug vintage corner die; paper (ATD Serendipity, Paper Reflections); colored pencils blended with baby oil.

This is a cute little bird. I only wish I knew what colors he's supposed to be!



Supplies: stamp (Martha Stewart birds); Nestabilities Labels 8; paper (unknown, Making Memories); colored pencils blended with baby oil.

I love how the paper matched so well on this card. I think it's my favorite of the Martha Stewart bird cards, even if it is the simplest in design.


Supplies: stamp (Anna Griffin stork, Autumn Leaves Flourishes); Nestabilities Large Scallop Circle; Martha Stewart heart lace border punch; paper (Paper Reflections); Versamark and clear embossing powder.

I've had this stamp for a long time and didn't know how to use it. It's more of an "antiquey" image, so I didn't know how to color it. Then I saw that a lot of people stamp those kinds of images in light brown, and I liked the effect.

Since I used my flourish stamps on the dollar store frame the other day, I haven't been so afraid of them. So this time I decided to make my own patterned paper since I didn't have any in my stash that were "just right" for these cards. I like how they turned out!

So here it is, in a girl and boy version. My niece just had a baby, and when I made this I didn't know if it was a boy or girl, so I made one of each. (It's a boy.)



Supplies: stamps (Tim Holtz Flight of Fancy, Flourishes v2 by Autumn Leaves); paper (ATD Serendipity, Paper Reflections); Nestabilities Labels 8 and Large Scallop Circles; Martha Stewart eyelet PATP border punch; liquid pearls; Versamark ink and clear embossing powder.

Lastly, I used a Tim Holtz set called Flights of Fancy. I've used this one before, but it never hurts to try something new with a stamp! I really like those pink pearls around the scallop edging, but I'm too cheap to buy the stick-on flatback pearls and then use them so quickly. That's why I love the liquid pearl paint - it's easy to apply and it's very inexpensive. I can get hundreds of pearls out of one bottle!

That's all I have for this week. Now you'll want to check out my friend's blog to see what she came up with. As always, feel free to participate and leave a link in the comments. You're just as welcome to simply browse, though! :)