Winter Cabin Paper Lantern

Hello Everyone!

Gee it has been awhile! As I mention in my video, I’m really not sure what I’ve been keeping busy with, but I’ve been keeping busy with everything EXCEPT stamping! I spent some time traveling to Northern Colorado to visit my daughter and grand-daughter in May. I also spent a few weeks in May having my kitchen cabinets re-painted.  What a mess that was, since I had to totally empty them and I had stuff EVERYWHERE!!  Then in June we traveled to my hometown, Struthers, Ohio, to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday with close family. Since we’ve been back I’ve been busy, but if I had to tell you EXACTLY what I’ve been busy with, I would not be able to say.

I have managed to get into my craft room to complete a few crafts, mostly other than stamping. THIS one is my most recent stamp project which doesn’t really involve stamping at all. I really like these Cabin Dies and the Peaceful Cabin stamp set.

I’ve always had a fascination with paper lanterns especially after seeing some of the really cool ones when I browse Pintrist.   I made my grand-daughter a paper lantern hot air balloon basket for Easter…that was in April.  It turned out really cute.  You can find those on Pintrist as well.  I purchased that paper lantern at a local craft store…it was round.  But as I was browsing Pintrist,  I quickly realized that I need one of those fancy paper crafting machines where you buy programs to print out the patterns for all of  the lanterns similar to this one.  So….I decided to create my own pattern that can be printed out on a regular computer printer, hand traced onto a piece of card stock and then cut out.

This is the pattern I developed.  I have a link to a printable pdf that I am willing to share, but please keep in mind, I am only able to do this after you place an order in my Stampin’ Up! online store.  The video I share is very long to watch (about 38 minutes) as this is NOT a quick project.   I did manage to cut the video down from 60 minutes.  🙂

 

 

DISCLAIMER:  THIS LANTERN IS MADE TOTALLY OUT OF PAPER and ONLY AN ELECTRIC CANDLE (battery run) SHOULD BE USED.

(Unfortunately, I felt the disclaimer was necessary!)

Here is a list of measurements for the card stock.  You will need…

  1.  Night of Navy card stock—4 pieces that measure 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2 “, 4 pieces that measure 3-3/4″ x 4-3/4″, 1 piece that measures 1″ x 6″, 1 piece that measures 4″ x 4″ with score marks at the 1″ mark on all 4 sides to make the electric candle stand, and 1 piece that measure 8′ x 2”.  The 8″ x 2″ piece should be scored with the long edge at the top of your score tool at 1-7/8″, 3-3/4″, 5-5/8″, and 7-1/2″  You also need a piece of scrap Night of Navy

      2.  Vellum card stock—4 pieces that measure 1-7/8″ x 1-7/8″ and 4 pieces that measure 4-3/4″ x 4-3/4″

Other items you will need in assembling this lantern are  a ruler and pencil.  You will also need an electronic candle.

Now…get yourself your favorite drink and sit back and enjoy the video.  As I mention in the video, I had a few stops and starts during the entire process.  You would think at this point I would have learned to make sure the camera battery is charged and I have a big enough memory chip inserted into the camera.  What can I say?!

 

 

 

Until next time!  Happy Stamping!

 

 

 

 
 

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Summer Beach Coasters

Hello Everyone!

I’m back with a video tutorial this month after taking last month off.  This video is very short and sweet, but I think you are going to like what you see.  This month we are using the Sailing Home stamp set and we are making coasters for you to use while you are sitting out on your patio or deck, whatever you may call it, or as you lounge along side your backyard pool. Back yard pools are not a thing here in Colorado.  We are more of a hot tub state, so in my case I would sit under the awning on my patio, next to the hot tub having a cool drink while I look up at the stars on a warm summer night and dream about being near the beach.

Being near the beach again is not going to be in the near future since my daughter moved back to Colorado at the end of February.  I do have a trip planned for a visit back to Virginia Beach for the beginning of August, but I don’t think we are going to make it this year.  I believe the resorts in Virginia are still closed and even if they weren’t I’m not sure I want to take that risk with the virus still around. But I have a pretty good imagination and with a glass of wine after dinner, I’ll sit by my hot tub this summer and dream about the beach as I use my summer beach coasters.

Some of the things you will need are sandstone coasters with cork backing, painter’s tape and permanent waterproof ink.  The remainder of the items are listed at the bottom of this post.  I hope you enjoy the video.

Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

 

 

 

 

 

My Version; Gather Together

I know… I know! …it has been far too long since my last blog entry or since making a video or stamping!    I don’t know what I’ve been doing since May, the date of my last REAL post.  I do know that during the months of September and October we did a great deal of traveling.  My husband and I spent the month of September in Florence, Italy.  We talked about going to Italy for an extended stay for quite few years and finally decided to make this year be the year we did it.  My 88-year-old mother made the trip with us during the first week of September.  She was born in Italy in Villa S’ Angelo, L’Aquila well…88 years ago. (DUH! 🙂 She immigrated to the United States when she was 15.

There is a story there.  She was 15 when she first met her father face to face.  My grandfather came to the United States years before the rest of his family, around 1916 at the age of 16 to work.  On one trip back to Italy, he married my grandmother, turned right around, and came back to the U. S. to continue working.  He sent money back to my grandmother and on occasion went back to Italy for a visit.  Nine months after returning to the states from a visit, another one of his children was born! My mom is the youngest of three.  During World War II, my mother, grandmother, and uncles were stuck in Italy. Many Italian Americans were treated as poorly as Japanese-Americans were during the war.  Some were even sent to camps here in the states; even some who were naturalized citizens.  Italians, even though they served in our military and fought in World War II for the United States were viewed as a threat to national security during the war; especially if they spoke Italian.   I’ve heard many stories from my mother about how poor they were while in Italy during the war; how they went without food because the Nazi’s took everything everyone had, and how often the money my grandfather sent back to them never made it through.  After the war, my grandfather was finally able to send for his family and they immigrated to the United States.  Therefore, at the age of 15, she finally met her father face-to-face for the first time on U. S. soil.

However, I digress!  We took my mother back to Italy with us in September.  She had been back several times before and on many of those occasions, I was fortunate enough to be able to go with her.   Her first time back was in 1976 thirty-five years after arriving here.  However, this last time we went she says will be her last time since she is 88.  I told her to never say never, because we do not know what the future holds.

My mother, husband, and I spent our first week in Rome with a friend.  The friend is from the same village as my mother, but she is only a few years older than I am.  Her parents purchased the home that belonged to my grandparents after everyone had finally made it to the states.  She and her late parents and her brother and sisters have always treated us as if we are members of their family.  After the first week, my husband and I traveled by high-speed train to Florence and left my mother with her friends in hometown.

We rented an apartment on the website vrbo.com in the center of the city.  There was a farmer’s market just around the corner from where it was situated.   We visited it on almost a daily basis as we usually had breakfast and dinner in our apartment.  We saw and did pretty much everything you can see and do in Florence. And there is a lot to see and do! We also took a one-day tour by bus to Pisa, Sienna, and San Gimingnano.  Another day we took a bus tour of Cinque Terre.  During our second week in Florence, we took another high-speed train to Milan so we could tour Lake Como.  We spent two nights there after which we returned to Florence.  During our last week, we did a wine tasting tour in Tuscany and we took a cooking class and learned how to make homemade pasta.  I grew up watching my grandmother and mother make pasta, but I never learned how to do it.  It was truly the trip of a lifetime!  At the end of our fourth week in Florence (our fifth week in Italy) we took another high-speed train back to Rome and the next day flew back to the United States.  We dropped my mother off in Ohio and spent two more days there, finally getting back to our home here in Colorado exactly six weeks after leaving it.  It was good to be home!

So today I am sharing my version of the framed “Gather Together” piece that you will find on page 46 of the current holiday catalog.  I used most everything in the Come To Gather Suite.  The one item I did not use are the Tags & Feathers Elements because I usually buy those kinds of things and never end up using the.  What I did do instead is stamp a few leaves in Crushed Curry using the retired Vintage Leaves stamp set and I cut them out using the Leaflets Framelits.

 

The frame I used measures 5-1/4″ x 9-1/2″.   It is about 1/2″ wide.  It isn’t a shadow box frame.  It was originally intended to frame three 2.5″ x 3.5″ photos.  I removed the mat that came with the frame and threw it away.  I’ll probably regret that one day, but I just can’t hold on to everything.  Something I realized once the project was finished is that a smaller frame, perhaps a 4″ x 6″, might be better because there would be less blank space on the background.  Or I could possibly stamp a few pumpkins in the background .

 

All of the colors I used are the recommended colors that coordinate with the Come To Gather Designer Series Paper except for the Crushed Curry.  It is not a recommended coordinating color but it does fall into the same color palate.

Hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing some of what I’ve been up to lately.  I don’t know where the summer went, but it sure did go by quickly and here I am getting ready to get my house ready for Christmas!

If you have any questions about this project, feel free to message me!  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mason Jar Paper Flower Terrarium

Monday, June 4, 2018

Yes!  I’ve been absent for quite a while and I am so glad that I’ve had the chance to stamp this past weekend and create something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

My husband and I went home to Ohio and Pennsylvania to visit our families for the last week of April and the first week of May, and I’ve been going non stop ever since we got back into town on May 8th.  I’ve been babysitting my grand-daughter at least once each week since we got back; sometimes twice.  Each session includes a trip to Denver  to pick her up on Sunday afternoon, an overnight as my daughter works nights, (she’s an RN and her boyfriend moved to Virginia Beach to start his new job at the end of April). Sometimes it also includes a trip back up to Denver to return her to her mother on Monday.  The last few weeks, my daughter has been coming down to get her and then staying for a few days.  Getting in some of that last-minute mother/daughter/granddaughter time before they move at the end of June!   We forget quickly what it is like to get up at night with a baby and how much work it really is.  That is why we have our children while we are young!  I finally got her to sleep for the night and thought I’d spend some time on this blog post.  I probably won’t get it finished until tomorrow as I still need to photograph the project I created.  For the lack of a better name for this, I’m calling it my Mason Jar Paper Flower Terrarium.  I’m providing a brief written tutorial at the end of the post.

I wish I could claim this idea as my own, but I can’t .  I received one of these as a gift a few years ago from a friend and fellow demonstrator; Amanda Waugh.  I thought it was one of the neatest things I’d ever seen, so I decided to try my hand at making one of my own.  The one that Amanda gave me is the purple.   I love it and I love the colors.  Unfortunately all of the colors she used and the dies she used to cut out the flowers have retired, so when I started working on mine,  I had to improvise a little.  I think my terrarium turned out pretty well.  I have to admit, there were times during the process when I wasn’t sure what I would end up with, but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Okay, so my daughter and grand-daughter have just left for home and I miss them already.  I probably won’t see them for two weeks because they are headed out on vacation on Monday.  Once they get back from vacation they will be packing up their home and will be  on their way to Virginia by the end of the month.  What am I going to do without my grand-daughter near by?  Or my daughter, for that matter.  🙁

I’ve finally photographed my project!

Isn’t it cute?!

Here are photos of the one my friend Amanda made.  She used a pint-sized wide mouth Mason jar instead of the quart-sized like mine.  I love the colors she chose for hers!  Purple is one of my favorite colors and I think I’m going to have to make a purple one next with some of the new purple shades Stampin’ Up! has.

 

I don’t believe Amanda used a styrofoam cone to build her flowers up.  It looks like she managed to crumple up paper and attach it to the jar lid.  I didn’t want to pull it apart to find out.  I love the one she made as much as mine…I think more.

I’m also including a photo of the sticky moss that I used to cover the styrofoam cone just so you know what it looks like.  In the list of supplies I specifically included a pair of “old” scissors which you will use to cut the sticky moss.  The scissors will get glue on them, that’s why I suggested “old” ones.

Here is the moss!  🙂

Well I hope you enjoyed your visit  today.  Hopefully it won’t be so long between this post and my next one.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

 

 

 

SUPPLIES:

  • Wide mouth Mason Jar with lid and ring
  • 6” Styrofoam cone
  • Mossy Mat Peen ‘n Stick Moss
  • Marker
  • Old pair of scissors (They will get gooey when you cut the Mossy Mat.)
  • Multipurpose liquid glue
  • Glitter Enamel Dots
  • Falling Flowers Stamp Set
  • Card Stock
    • Cajon Craze
    • Crushed Curry
    • Old Olive
  • Ink
    • Cajon Craze
    • Crushed Curry
  • 5/8” burlap ribbon
  • Tear & Tape
  • Glue Dots
  • Dimensionals
  • Stamping Sponges
  • Bouquet Bunch Framelits
  • May Flowers Framelits
  • Big Shot

ASSEMBLY:

  1. Cut off approximately 1” from the wide end of the Styrofoam cone. I used a cutting board and serrated kitchen knife.
  2. Cover the cone with a piece of the Peel ‘n Stick Mossy Mat.
  3. Trace a circle the size of the jar lid on a small piece of the Peel ‘n Stick Mossy Mat and cut it out. Attach it to the inside of the jar lid.
  4. Glue the base of the moss-covered cone to the moss-covered side of the jar lid and set it into the ring using the Multi-Purpose Liquid Glue
  5. Stamp flowers with the Falling Flowers Stamp Set and cut them out with the May Flowers Framelits. I cut eight each large and small flowers out of Crushed Curry and seven each of the large and small flowers out of Cajon Craze.  I also cut several flower bunches out of each color using the dies from the Bouquet Bunch Framelits.  Sponge around the edges in their coordinating color ink.
  6. Layer flowers, one small over one large, using a dimensional.
  7. Attach to moss-covered cone with Multipurpose Glue in random order.
  8. Add a Glitter enamel Dot to the center of each flower.
  9. Fill in spaces between the large flowers with the smaller ones.
  10. Cut five leaf branches using the smaller die from Bouquet Bunch Framelits out of Old Olive card stock and place randomly into the flowers.
  11. Carefully insert decorated cone into jar and screw lid tight. Since you glued a piece of moss to the lid, it will not tighten down completely
  12. Cut a piece of burlap ribbon to fit around the jar ring. Attach it with a piece of Tear & Tape.
  13. Tie a bow with a piece of ribbon and attach it with glue dots.

 

 

Price: $110.00

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