Punch Art for My Granddaughters

 Both of my granddaughters have birthdays coming up within the next two months and I wanted to do some punch art for their cards. I decided to do the same card for both, because they are both enamored with Frozen 2. We got the older one, Cedar, Anna's dress from Frozen 2 for her birthday and Pippa just loves both Anna and Elsa in any shape or form.

And here's a closer look at how it turned out:

• In Punch Art, the shape of the face and the eyes are really important, as is the hair and I have go-to punches for those. I keep them, even when they retire, just for Punch Art purposes, until I can find something that will take their place just as effectively.
• For the head, the retired Lemon Builder Punch is a great size and shape and just needed the chin trimmed to make it a little narrower. Her neck is the narrow vase on the Vases Builder Punch. I always sponge the edges of the skin and sometimes other parts as well for depth.
• The eyes are usually the Owl Builder Punch, but I wanted something a bit smaller and more almond shaped and so I used the smallest leaf on the Leaf Punch, which is newly discontinued and all sold out now. I punched out both a white and black shape and trimmed the white shape down so that the black shape gave an outline and formed lashes.
• The irises were formed with a hand held hole punch and the pupils were actually the larger of the two hole punches on the Crop-a-dile tool, another long-ago retired Stampin' Up! tool.
• For the hair, I usually use the tail on the Fox Builder Punch, but recently discovered that the leaf on the Tulip Builder Punch works just as well!
• The nose and ears are what's punched out from the hole-punch side of the Detailed Trio Punch. I used the same punch to create the gold detail for the front of her dress, which happens to be the owl body from the Owl Builder Punch. The under dress in Crushed Curry is made from a trimmed Raccoon mask from the Fox Builder Punch.
• Her bangs and eyebrows and lips are just small circle punches, punching out arcs from cardstock, by punching out a portion of a circle then going into the same section and punching out a narrow sliver of the same cardstock. The cloak folds are created with the retired Word Window Punch.

So you can see why I don't get rid of many punches. They help me with many punch art projects for my grandkids. 

If you live in Canada, and don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the right side bar at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in Canada by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the top menu or clicking on any of products below from my Online Store.

Product List

Itty Bitty Birthdays Cling Stamp Set [148618] $31.00	*Mosaic Mood Specialty Designer Series Paper [149478] $20.00	*Gold Glimmer Paper [146958] $6.75	Blackberry Bliss 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [133675] $12.00	Rich Razzleberry 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [115316] $12.00
Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [121045] $12.00	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [100730] $13.25	Pacific Point 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [111350] $12.00	Crushed Curry 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [131199] $12.00	Petal Pink 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146985] $12.00
Flirty Flamingo 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [141416] $12.00	Cajun Craze 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [119684] $12.00	Terracotta Tile 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [150884] $12.00	Rich Razzleberry Classic Stampin' Pad [147091] $10.25	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $8.25
Petal Pink Classic Stampin' Pad [147108] $10.25	Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad [147100] $10.25	Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker [100082] $4.00	**Lemon Builder Punch [143712] $24.00	*Vases Builder Punch [147040] $24.00
**Fox Builder Punch [141470] $24.00	**Builder Owl Punch [118074] $23.50	**Window Word Punch [119857] $20.00	1/2" (1.3 Cm) Circle Punch [119869] $8.25	**3/4" (1.9 Cm) Circle Punch [119873] $18.00
*Leaf Punch [144667] $22.00	Detailed Trio Punch [146320] $27.00	**Little Numbers Thinlits Dies [138278] $25.00

*Retiring Products from the 2019-2020 Annual Catalogue

**Already Retired Products and not available for Sale

Birthday Cards for Grandsons and New Video Releases from Stampin' Up!

January is one of those minor birthday months in our family. Next week it's my own birthday and on either side of my birthday falls two of my grandsons' birthdays. I also have two nieces with birthdays this month! So yay, January! But, I like to think my grandkids look forward to Grandma's birthday cards almost as much as they look forward to their birthday presents....Well maybe half as much?....a quarter? Well they don't throw them out anyway! They often tell me what they want on their cards and, if it's not too complicated, I try to comply.

My eight year old grandson wanted a fox on his card, and since we have Nature's Beauty stamp set carrying over, that's the stamp set I used to make his with:

• Nature's Beauty stamp set, Woven Threads Designer Series Paper, and Cajun Craze Stampin' Blends Combo pack were the main elements of this card with some Memento Black ink for the stamping and a little light Pool Party Stampin' Blends to highlight the snow. It came together really quickly.
• The sentiments were from Itty Bitty Birthday and Family Party.

My 5 year old grandson loves Super Mario and owls, but I didn't have any good owl stamps so I decided on a punch art version of Super Mario:

• I'm not going into all the punches I used for this card, but they were mostly circle punches and some retired oval punches, and I had to throw a couple of the Layering Circles Dies to get the larger sizes and the scallops I needed for the mustache and the sideburns and hair. The ovals were the ears and tongue. The flesh coloured (Petal Pink) pieces were sponged all the way around for depth and some Dimensionals used for the same reason. I had to do the M on the hat by hand.

With the new Jan/Jun Mini Catalogue out now, there are many new product videos put out by Stampin' Up! So I'd like to share a few with you today.

The first one I want to share with you gives you the TOTAL lowdown on the Peaceful Poppies' Suite, and there is a LOT to talk about! Take it away, Holly:

      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

In this next video, just in time to start crafting Valentine cards, Erica introduces the From My Heart Suite:

                     

And finally, Tanner introduces us to the Tropical Oasis Bundle:

               


That's all folks!                                                                                                          

Old and New: Dragonfly Dreams with Daisy Lane

It's that time of year again when grandkids' birthdays come at quite a pace over the next two months and the first one is for my granddaughter, Cedar! So I wanted to come up with a happy card for her celebration. Since she likes to help my daughter, Kristen, with her bee hives, (and even has her own little beekeeping suit) I wanted to incorporate bees on her card somewhere. The best bees we have are the ones in the **Dragonfly Dreams, a retiring stamp set that will not be available after June 3.

And since Cedar has always loved flowers of all kinds, but especially dandelions, I used the brand new *Daisy Lane stamp set to create some sunny yellow flowers for her and for the bees!

*These products will be available in the 2019 - 2020 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue, starting June 4, 2019.
**These products will be retiring and no longer available in the 2019 - 2020 Annual Catalogue starting June 4, 2019.

At this time of year, when there is so much happening, between retiring products and a whole new Annual Catalogue to preview, I like to feature both a retiring product and a new product together to make the most of my blog posts!

Take a good look at those daisies:

• The bees and the stems are stamped right on the Whisper White front panel. The bees from **Dragonfly Dreams are stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured in with the Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Combo. The stems are from the *Daisy Lane stamp set and are stamped in Granny Apple Green.
• I stamped the flower heads on a separate piece of Whisper White in Daffodil Delight ink, then fussy cut them as there is not a coordinating punch or die for them. There are two daisy heads in the stamp set that do have coordinating punches however, but they were too big for this arrangement.
• The sentiments are from the Itty Bitty Birthdays stamp set which is carried over into the new Annual Catalogue from the 2019 Occasions Catalogue. It has great sentiments for birthdays. I 'adjusted' one of them to say BEE instead of BE, just for the pun! It was a bit of a squeeze to do so.
• The card base is Granny Apple Green while the paper panel next is from the new *Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper. Matting the front panel in Basic Black made a huge difference to the definition of the front panel.

*These products will be available in the 2019 - 2020 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue, starting June 4, 2019.

**These products will be retiring and no longer available in the 2019 - 2020 Annual Catalogue starting June 4, 2019.

Don't forget that you can now purchase this gorgeous medley of products for only $109. They will be available while supplies last or until May 31, whichever comes first! Contact me or order them yourself through my Online Store.

Friday is the last day to subscribe or to reactivate your subscription in order to receive this special Paper Pumpkin kit! Anything Shelli Gardner touches is gold! I wouldn't miss this one! Subscribe HERE!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

**Dragonfly Dreams Photopolymer Stamp Set [142924] $27.00	Itty Bitty Birthdays Cling Stamp Set [148618] $31.00	*Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper [149592] $15.75	Granny Apple Green 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146990] $11.50	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045] $11.50
Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $13.25	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $8.25	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad [147094] $10.25	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad [147095] $10.25	Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144603] $12.00
Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker [100082] $4.75	Paper Snips Scissors [103579] $13.50	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.50	Glue Dots [103683] $7.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50

*Daisy Lane Cling Stamp Set

*These products will be available in the 2019 - 2020 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue, starting June 4, 2019.

**These products will be retiring and no longer available in the 2019 - 2020 Annual Catalogue starting June 4, 2019.