Exploring Brickworks

Yesterday I confessed my love for the Frankly CAS-ual Fridays Stamps set. Today, I'm going to make another confession, this time about Brickworks. Complete and total love affair (sorry, Frank).

It's got solid bricks, outline bricks, zig zag bricks, dad's sentiments and grad's sentiments. A total go-to set. Let's see some cards ...

When I thought about bricks, the first thing that came to mind is Pink Floyd's iconic cover for The Wall. A quick search on www.dafont.com comes up with a free Floydian font, which I use for this card ...

Stamping the outline bricks over the computer-generated sentiment is all it takes to finish this simple, but effective card. If I could, I'd send it to my good friend from Jr. High who introduced me to Pink Floyd (RIP Suzy!!)

Here's a card with a traditional, filled-brick stamping, although the brickwork is interrupted to make room for the gold sentiment. The school colors on this graduation card are repeated in the collegiate banners (tiny flowers from Bold Wishes).

Finally, here's another Graduation card. The watercolor splotches are less structured, in contrast to the tidy bricks. The sentiments on the banner and on the card are separated for more flexibility in your stamping. I threaded ribbon loosely through holes on the end of the banner. There are sequins here, but I resisted putting them directly on the card base. Instead, they are threaded on the end of the ribbon along with a crystal bead.

Really have just scratched the surface with this set. Stay tuned for two more posts before the final reveal at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps on Friday!

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Frankly

 YAY, it's release week for CAS-ual Fridays Stamps! And this month there are not three, not four, but FIVE fabulous new sets released! I am seriously in love with them. Here are some cards from Frankly.

This set has a great flourish stamp that can be used on its own, or stamped in a pattern. Here's what the stamp looks like on its own. The rest of the cards feature this flourish stamped in a pattern.

 Here's what the flourish looks like stamped overlapping and facing each other. Lined up across the card they have an Art Deco pattern feel, I think. The silver sentiment is one of the secondary sentiments. Looks great on its own (even without the main "Frankly My Dear.") 

Here's another version. This time the double-stamped flourish is also rotated to create a one-layer flower. Two colors are used on this one. You know I'm a sucker for details ... I love how the center of the flower is the perfect size to emphasize the word "thank" in the sentiment.

More angles. I'm loving angles.

One more card. I couldn't put this stamp down! This time I stamped a bunch of the flourishes facing each other in a row (which actually inspired the second card in pink), cut them out, and made them into a 3D flower. The gold sentiment is another secondary sentiment. There are just so many great sentiments in this set.

I'll be back Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with more sneaks. The final reveal on the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog will be on Friday!

Thanks so much for looking!

-Kelly

Fusion Challenge #6

(this is my second post of the day, for the Paper Crafts Blog Hop, click here or scroll down)

For the fourth Fusion Challenge in a row, we had a winner who was inspired by a fusion of the sketch and the photo. Not completely a surprise, since a very large majority of the gallery used both the sketch and photo as well. What will it be this week?!

My card, as always, is based on the sketch. A banner woven through something. What should the something be? I've got a piece of quatrefoil on my desk from the Paper Crafts Blog Hop. Let's use that!

 Weaving the banner behind the rounded quatrefoils highlight cloud shapes that I fill with silver foil. Going with the cloud theme, I dig out the Papertrey Hello Sunshine set to fill the banner. The sun peeks from behind the silver "clouds." Some sequined sun spots are added for good measure : ) 

Hope to see you in the gallery!

-Kelly

350 Cards & Gifts Blog Hop!

I am so excited to participate in the Paper Crafts Blog Hop celebrating the newest special issue, 350 Cards & Gifts! AND, I'm happy to offer a giveaway for this issue, compliments of Paper Crafts. Just leave a comment on this post by Tuesday the 14th for a chance to win (each stop in the hop will be giving away a copy, so be sure to visit them all)!

  This issue is jam-packed with ideas for gift-giving using the crafty supplies we already own. Today I'm featuring a gift that I've just finished giving ... upcycled Dollar Store vases! Perfect to accompany a birthday card/gift certificate combo when you want to do a little something special. And they all use the same die in different ways. If you're new to my blog, you can catch up on all my quatrefoil die projects with the gallery link on the side bar.

It started with this one, which uses 4 of the quatrefoil cover plate dies. I cut the long sides off, lined up the ends and carefully glued them together. You can see the seam in this shot ... look directly under the knot of the bow and you'll see the column of quatrefoils is elongated on the left side. Depending on the size of the vase you're using you may have to do some creative cutting to make it work. A vintage ribbon from the 1970s is woven through the quatrefoils.

Let's try some more! These are all skinny dollar store vases. They work well for single, long-stemed blooms. Bonus that they only require ONE cut of the quatrefoil die, so it's easy to make multiples. It's a little short when wrapped around though, so you need to address the seam. The vase on the left has silver foil paper with a strip of gray paper covering up the seam. Turn this into a feature by embossing a sentiment on that strip. 

The seam on the middle vase is treated like a corset ... lace seam binding tape through the holes on each end and finish with a bow. 

The vase on the right has strips of 1/2" paper woven through the quatrefoil holes and joined in the back. The ends of the strips are strategically hidden under the die. One strip extends out with the sentiment.

 

Here's a close-up of the middle vase with the seam binding laced through the quatrefoil ends to hold it together. The sentiment is on a tag. Sequins peek through the negative heart.

The vase on the left uses 2 dies folded in half to get a more intricate pattern. It stands out even more when backed with white paper. Enamel dots are in the pattern's center holes. 

The middle vase uses double-sided paper folded in half to get a two-toned effect. One of the solid edges is left on the bottom.

The left vase (an antique ink well) showcases a single row of quatrefoils with the centers put back in. An enamel dot in the center of each quatrefoil gives a nice dimension.

Now it's time to fill them! Love the selection and price of the flowers at Trader Joe's. Jackson helps me pick out two $6 arrangements. (My husband used to order $70 arrangements from Pro Flowers until I saw the credit card bill. Now he stops by Trader Joe's once a month, and I enjoy them all year-round!)

 The purple arrangements on the left cost me nothing since the vases came from my house (milk bottle, soda bottle, antique ink well) and the grape hyacinths from my garden. The tall, narrow vases in the middle cost $3 each (I split a bunch of flowers in three, plus $1 for each vase). And the vase on the right only cost $7 for the entire bunch of flowers plus the vase. Aside from birthdays, what an affordable way to give a flower arrangement to a teacher, Mom, a grad (think school colors), or your incredibly kind neighbors!

 Here's a close-up of one of the $3 vases I gave to my neighbor who always stops by with delicious food to share. I don't spend much time cooking to reciprocate, but I do spend time crafting!

 

 Thanks so much for stopping by! Please continue on the hop to see what these incredibly talented ladies have made for you. You are going to LOVE Nina Yang's 3D present-topper at the next stop. And don't forget to comment at each blog for a chance to win your own copy of 350 Cards & Gifts!

Chan Vuong

Heather Campbell

Kimberly Crawford

Amanda Coleman

Kelly Griglione <-- you are here

Nina Yang

Alice Wertz

Emily Branch

Jocelyn Olson

Kalyn Kepner

Lori Tecler

Meghan McMillan

Piali Biswas

Vanessa Menhorn

 Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

PS. I hope you can play along with the Moxie Fab 350 Cards & Gifts week challenges! I'm linking these vases to the gift challenge.

Fusion Challenge #5

(note: this is my second post of the day, click here or scroll down for my CAS-ual Fridays post.)

It's been 4 straight challenges with a Fusion winner, will it be a 5th this week?

As always, my focus is just on the sketch.

We're going simple this time! The stripes are masked and sponged with ink. Each word of the sentiment is stamped repeatedly in each stripe. Some spatters from a wet brush dipped in watercolors mix with enamel dots.

Hope to see you in the gallery this week!

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

PS. Since it's a short post, here's a quick story from today's online journal entry (oh life is the private journal I've been using for the last year and a half): 

The boys are hanging out in the waiting room while I'm at the dentist to get a filling replaced. As the dentist is moving towards my mouth with the drill ... boom ... the power goes out! Thankfully just before the drill and not just after it. So we leave and Jackson tells me in the car that he's really scared. "Why is that, Jackson?"

"Because they said the Transformers did it!"

What?

Oh .... hahaha!!! I explain that the transformer they are talking about has to do with an electrical box, and not a large, evil robot that is coming to get him! Poor little fella!

CFC #100 - Tic Tac Toe

It's a big celebration over at CAS-ual Fridays for the next 2 weeks ... it's the 100th challenge post and the two year anniversary! For this challenge, we get to play tic tac toe ... combine three elements in a row and use that for your inspiration.

 

To celebrate, there are prizes for ALL the featured cards!! Ellen Hutson and CAS-ual Fridays Stamps will have prizes for the winner, the VIPs and the Contenders! You really can't miss this one!!

My three picks are diagonal: birthday, bling and die cuts.

Here's a birdcage with the Papertrey Quatrefoil die. Two of the dies actually. They're connected on the short edge and joined at both ends to form a cylinder. Then folded to make a box that is 3 quatrefoils wide by 1 quatrefoil deep.

I made a little snip here and a little snip there to cut out a roof shape on the front and back. The strips on each short end are left. These will form the side of the roof.

They are bent and joined at the top.

To allow this to fold flat and be mailable, they cannot be permanently attached on top. So I bent the straight edge on the top of the long strip and punched a notch on each side. Repeated for the other strip. Those are then tucked into the top quatrefoil on the peaks of the roof. The notch is what holds them in place.

A strip of foil paper is the stand.

The Memory Box bird is glitter paper with a tuft of individual feather strands adhered on a wing I cut out. The sentiment doesn't specifically say "Happy Birthday" but that's what this card will be used for.

Like the other box cards, this one folds flat for mailing. This card also fits in the quatrefoil card series (see new gallery links on side bar).

Sure hope you get a chance to join the big celebration at CAS-ual Fridays. Remember, it's open for two weeks so you have plenty of time to try for all of those prizes!

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

How to Add a Pinterest Gallery to your Blog

Hi all! Last week I mentioned that I added some Pinterest galleries to my blog, and there were a lot of people interested in seeing a tutorial, so here it is. (My plans to write this earlier in the week were interrupted by a big, nasty virus that had me offline for several days. I'm good now, finally!) I found out about this functionality from a post on Revolutionaries.

A Pinterest gallery simply takes pins from your Pinterest board and formats them into a gallery view on your blog. People can then see a summary of your cards (up to 30 images) without leaving your blog! I'm so happy with having an easy way to display thumbnail views of specific cards. Clicking on the gallery will then take them to your Pinterest board.

It took me about an hour to set it up (I would think much less time now that I know what to do). Ongoing maintenance just requires that you pin your card after publishing it.

The following instructions are for adding Pinterest galleries to a blog hosted by Blogger. I'm hoping the concepts are similar for WordPress or whatever else you use.

Ready to get started?!

1. Decide what gallery(s) you want.

You may just want a general gallery of the most recent cards you made. Or you may want more specialized galleries with a theme, like:

• your absolute favorite cards,
• all cards that use Papertrey Ink products,
• all non-card paper crafts, 
• all age-specific birthday cards, 
• all shaped cards,
• all cards that use a special technique, like watercoloring, etc.

If you use labels in Blogger, reviewing these would be another way to decide what kind of gallery makes sense for your own blog. If you're not sure what specialized galleries you want, you may just want to add a general gallery of your last cards for now. You can always add more galleries as you think of them.

2. Create the board(s) on Pinterest.
In Pinterest, click on Create a Board, and name it according to what the contents will be. I currently have 3 galleries on my blog, which link to 3 boards on Pinterest.

3. Pin cards from your blog to the board(s)

Here's a tip: make sure you are pinning cards from each specific post. If you pin cards from your general blog address (like when I scroll through a blog by clicking on "older posts") then when people click on your card in Pinterest, it will go to your general blog address and people won't see the specific post where your pinned card is. You'll want to pin cards when you are in the specific URL for that post so people can be taken back to that post. 

4. Paste the board's URL in the Widget Builder

Click on your Pinterest board and copy the URL for that board. Go to the Button and Widget Builder on Pinterest. Either click here, or  you can find it from clicking on the box with the three lines in the top left corner of your main Pinterest page, under Businesses, Goodies, Buttons and Widgets.

Select the Board Widget, and paste your Pinterest board's URL in the open box. Click on "Advanced Options" and enter 230 for Image Width, and 2200 for Board Height. Leave the Board Width as-is. You may adjust these numbers in the next step.

5. Build the Widget

Click on the "Build it!" red button. You will then see a preview of what your gallery will look like (exciting!), a link to the gallery, and some JavaScript.

You can control how the gallery appears by playing around with the numbers you entered in the Advanced Options in the last step. An image width of 230 gave me about 3 cards per row. If you want 4 smaller cards to show in each row, chose a lower number. If you want 2 bigger cards, chose a higher number. Once you decide how big you want your images to be, then you can adjust the length of the gallery accordingly. Choosing 2200 was big enough to fit all cards in the window without having to scroll. But if you chose an image width that's not 230, you'll need to adjust this 2200 number too. Just click "Built it!" after each number change and check the preview until you're happy with it.

6. Add the Widget to your blog.

Go back to Blogger and add a new Page. Title your page how you want it to appear on your blog. Click over to your HTML tab (not the Compose tab). Paste the JavaScript from the last step. Then paste the link from the last step. Publish.

 
7. If you haven't used Pages before, Decide where you want Pages.
Under Pages, go to the "Show Pages As" drop down menu. You can show your pages as tabs along the top of your blog, as links in your sidebar, or not at all. You'd select "Not At All" if you just want to link to your galleries from specific posts. I selected to show them in my side bar since I wanted people to see them anytime they visit my blog. Plus, I already have other tabs on the top of my blog.

  
8. Go Check your Blog!
This is the exciting step! Your pages should appear on your blog now. Click on them to see your new gallery!
  

9. Pin after Publishing
To maintain your galleries, you will just need to pin each card to the appropriate Pinterest gallery after publishing your posts. They will automatically update on your blog.
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On a side note, there's an interesting link for Pinterest Analytics right above the Buttons & Widgets link. Looks like it gives you all sorts of stats on what people are pinning. I tried setting that up, but had difficulty "verifying my website." Has anyone done this? I'd be interested if it was worthwhile.

I hope you've found this helpful! If you have ANY questions, please ask and I'll do my best to help.

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly