Twist and Pop and 3-D Pop Up Cards

Happy Sunday!

MAN las week flew by!!  Having Monday off for "Family Day" here in Canada threw me RIGHT off!  That and taking a few evenings "off" working.  I am working REALLY hard at getting a better work/life balance this year.  It's NOT easy for me!  I think anyone who runs their own business will agree that the mind is ALWAYS working on things you "could" or "should" be doing.  I'm trying, though .. and I am getting better at it.  Wednesday night was dinner and a pedicure with my BFF and Thursday night was just chilling in front of the TV with Craig.  It's not often we are in the same room together at the same time, let alone BOTH sitting and watching TV!  I spent all day Friday prepping for my team "Stampin' Social " that was Saturday morning.  I LOVE having a house full of friends, food, laughing and stamping!  Thirteen of us crammed into my basement to make some, what I call, "over the top" cards.  The first one was a "Twist and Pop" card.  Yes, there are a LOT of layers and it took forEVER to cut them all ... but it was a labour of love and well worth the effort!  Check this out ...

SO fun to make and SUCH a "WOW!" for the recipient!   It really isn't THAT hard, once you "get it".  I have made about 8 of them now and it DOES get faster and easier mentally (although I must admit I did it wrong in my demonstration to my team yesterday!  I blame the back pills and not enough coffee *lol*).  This card really does need to be SEEN being made .. and then you need to try it.  Don't be scared - give it a go!

Here is my video.  Pop over to YouTube and subscribe to my channel so you can see past and future videos.  My channel is "Tamara's Paper Trail".

Let's check out the OTHER "over the top" project we made Saturday ...

This is a 3-D Pop Up card/box that my friend Diane Hutchinson over at "Crafts by the Bow" taught me how to make.  It's not hard by any means ... just lots of pieces and steps.  Here is the video I made on this one, again, find it over on my YouTube channel ...

That's it for today.  I need to go walk my little Doodle Bug and stretch my back!

I hope you found some inspiration today.  Have a stampy Sunday!


Tam

Stamp-a-Stack Awesomeness!

Happy Sunday!

I can't "chat" long, as my Birthday Stamp-a-Stack starts in less than an hour and, of course, I still have a few things to do.  ONE is to FIND THE SAMPLE CARD for my "fish card"!  Ya ... I had it yesterday but do you think I can find it??!!  I have spend about 2 hours looking for it - it's nowhere to be found!  THese are the things that drive me crazy and get me *stuck* and unable to move on with my day!  Argh! ... but move on I must!  Eight stampers are descending and I have coffee to make! lol

So ... I'm sharing the cards we're making this morning.  I was SO proud of myself for nailing the first three in no time flat ... and they are SIMPLE!  No Big Shot work or punches or anything typically "Tamara" ... which means stupid fiddly and a pain in the tookas!  Check these out!

Dandelion Wishes and Life is Grand make the first one.  Granny Apple Green and Night of Navy.  Add some rhinestones and done!

LOVE the Hello Cupcake card.  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Melon Mambo.  Now .. you can't see it very well but the frosting is glittered with Dazzling Diamond glitter.  How did I do that?  No, you can't just use glue ... the ink would bleed.  You need to cut out the frosting piece from some Multipurpose Adhesive sheets! Now this process will be a LOT faster starting March 1 when we can buy FRAMELITS that COORDINATE with this set!!!  Yes, it's true!  Alas ... I don't HAVE it yet so I need to hire my mini me to stamp the frosting on the sheets (using Staz-on ink) and cut them out by hand!  Barbaric, I know.  Yes, I paid her well!

This pretty purple card was SO quick and easy to make!  I sued the Beauty Abound set.  The large dots are in Gorgeous Grape and the smaller ones are in Highland Heather, The butterflies are Memento Black ink.  The sentiment is from the Humming Along set.  Add some rhinestones and DONE!

Ugh.  Now, whilst I LOVE this cupcake card let me tell you this for free ... DON'T do it for a SAS!  I used the Tufted Embossing folder, the cupcake framelits that go with the Birthday Cheer bundle and the Celebrate from LAST Year's SAB framelits.  Yes, I have already done all the Big Shot work for my gals ... it was a LOT!  I used the multipurpose adhesive sheets on the back of the cupcakes so they are now just peel and stick stickers.  That is a MUST! The "celebrate" will be attached with fine tip glue.

Now ... my favorite ... and missing ... card is "the fish card".  Again, Mini Me cut out the NINETY cat tail pieces (that cost me a lot of allowance! lol).  The fish is stamped on the Grapefruit Grove foil paper that WAS free from SAB ... alas, it is now sold out in North America :(.  I stamped it with Staz-on Ink and then cut it out with the coordinating framelits from the Best Catch bundle.  I LOVE how the fin is also cut and can be popped out a bit, making it 3-D.  A super masculine card .. which, again, I love but would NOT recommend for a SAS!  *lol*

So that's it for today.  I have 25 minutes to finish getting set up so off I go!  Thanks for popping in.  Whatever you get up to today, I hope you have a stampy day!


Tam

Quick & Easy Cards for the win!

Happy Sunday!

How can it be that it's 8:15 on a Sunday morning and I'm already behind??  I've been up for almost two hours and nowhere near getting done what I got up to do!

Oh well ... it's Sunday ... a day of rest, right?  *lol*.  Ya ... tell that to ANY mom with a home based business and you'll likely get a 3 minute laughing fit out of her! 

Today WILL be a day of rest ... once I get this post done.  Luckily the family sleeps in so, while they sleep, I do a *little* work and then, when they are up it's family time ... so I best crack on, eh?

I thought I'd post a few projects I came up with in the last week or so.  Quick and easy is the name of the game for these ones!  We ALL need a few of these types of cards on our Pinterest boards for those times we need a card in a hurry!

This one was made for my Coffee & Cards class at Second Cup last week.  Our notecards and envelopes are my absolute MUST for quick and easy.  I try not to let me stash drop below two full packs of both the standard ones and the narrow ones!

I used the Piece of Cake stamp set and coordinating punch (page 18 of the Occasions Catalogue) for a super quick card.  I stamped the sentiment first.  After punching out the cake pieces (stamped in Memento ink) I popped them up on mini dimensionals and colored them using my markers.  Some white bakers twine and a rhinestone finish it off.

The next one is quick in theory ... probably took me close to 2 hours to come UP with it but will only take a few minutes to MAKE it *lol.

I used the fanTASTIC "Let it Ride" stamp set.  I stamped the horse in Soft Suede ink coloured it with my Soft Suede and Mossy Meadow Blends.  I ran a 1 1/2" Merry Merlot piece through the Woodgrain embossing folder.  I cut out the horse and the Mossy Meadow mats with the Stitched Rectangle framelits (* a MUST have item in EVERY craft room!!).  I stamped the sentiment in Merry Merlot and punched it out with my Stitched Shapes oval die and popped it up on dimensionals and added a pearl to finish it off.  Quick and easy!

The last one I CASEd from Jackie Bulhuis over at klompenstamper.com .  I used the Flowering Desert set ...

I don't know why I had to have this set but I did!  I fought it for two months.  "How many cactus cards would you ever make or send?" I asked myself.  Guess I'll find out!  *lol*.  There is just something about that cactus that makes me happy ... and that's good enough for me!

So there you have it.  Three quick and easy cards for you on a bitterly cold Sunday morning.  I plan to stay in my "comfort wear" all day, do a bit of crafting, a bit of cooking, a little napping and some family gaming.  Not a TOTAL day of rest but for sure a day of relaxation.  Whatever YOU get up to today, I hope you are cosy, surrounded by loved ones and that you have a stampy day!

xo


Tam

Sweetest Things Projects

Happy Sunday!

I am have a LOVELY weekend so far ... and I still have a day to go!  It is colder than cold up here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada this weekend and I LOVE it!  (only because I have no particular place to go! lol).  Those who know me KNOW I love rainy Sundays and cold, snowy weekends.  The perfect excuse to stay in side and do whatever you love ... cooking, baking, cleaning, puzzles, family games and/or STAMPING!  I can't believe this is even true but I decided to TAKE THE WEEKEND OFF!!  Crazy, right?  Oh sure, I have done a LITTLE "business" (ie paperwork and mails) but ones I WANTED to send, not ones I felt I HAD to send, if that makes sense.  Yesterday was a GREAT day of lounging in my pjs, doing some meal prep, napping, playing with the family and generally doing nothing!  Today I'm doing it again and loving it :)

Friday night was my private Ladies Night event.  It was so much fun!  A group of us get together for stamping, eating, drinking and games.  In the past we have played Bingo, Pictionary, Minute to Win it games, Murder Mystery Night and, this time, an Escape Room (in my house).  As always there were lots of laughs.  SUCH a great night .  Here are some pics ...

 The blue one was CASEd from my friend Stefanie over at www.thecraftymedic.com Check her out!

We use the awesome Gingham Gala DSP and the Butterfly Gala bundle to create our cards.  Attendees got those items to in their swag bags to take home!

We stamped ...

 ... then we played ...

I had picked up an "Escape Room" game at Costco over the holidays.  I didn't know what to expect but it was actually pretty cool!  You had to solve 7 puzzles in a certain amount of time before the "bomb" goes off and you all die.  Koda didn't appreciate having it put around his neck so we had to take it off (my thinking was people would try harder if they knew Koda was in danger *lol*).  Only one team solved all the puzzles in time , but we all had fun trying!

 Moving on to some projects I made LAST month for class using products from page 15 of the 2019 Occasions Catalogue, from the Sweetest Things Bundle of products ...

Aren't they fun??  I have to admit, ALL of these products were on my "maybe ... don't flow my hair back" list.  I had a LOT of items I was going to buy before I MAYBE bought these ones.  Then I gave my head a shake and ordered the lot of them.  My thinking ... if *I* wasn't convinced I would use these products then my customers likely weren't either!  .... so I challenged myself to buy them, use them and show them off so others could see their potential.  Mission accomplished!  I DO love them and WILL use them for my upcoming Birthday Stamp-a-Stack event (Sunday, Feb 17th if you're in the Edmonton area and want to attend!).  Now because the paper is busier than I tend to like I needed some inspiration on HOW to use these products.  Catalogue to the rescue!  I actually just copied the projects I saw on page 14 of the catalogue!  No need to reinvent the wheel!  Start off copying something you see and tweak as needed!  I did alter my projects slightly from the catalogue projects and love how they turned out!

Today I'm going to attempt to clean up the mess from Friday night (ya, totally avoided that yesterday) and I'm going to make a new soup - Butternut Squash/Potato.  Let it snow!  (... as long as it is all melted off the roads for tomorrow at 6:50 am when I have to drive to the other end of the city for Alicia's ortho appointment! lol.  Ya, I'm fickle like that! lol)

Whatever YOU get up to this weekend, stay warm and I hope you have a SUPER stampy day! (oh!  It's Superbowl Sunday ... how appropriate!  hee hee - have a great one!)


Tam