While we are on the 60s...

I'm in the midst of teaching this hippie and yesterday's character for an on-line class for VC Rocks.  If you beg and plead, I'll give you directions soon.

If you beg and plead and leave an impressive number of comments, I'll even show you the hippie chick that goes with him. (grin)

1966 Mash Up

On my VC Rocks yahoo group that I love so much, this weeks challenge was to make a card with a decade theme so I chose the 1960s. 

This character is what you get if you combined That Girl (Marlo Thomas) with Nancy Sinatra (these boots are made for walkin')  Think 1966...my brother referred to me as the "nine year old teenager"  - I was definitely watching these two entertainers. 

I'm pretty sure this is the tiniest full body character I've tried - it was fun!  I struggled longer on what else to put on the card than I did making the girl.  We all have our strengths and "finishing touches" is not one of mine.

Panda Hello

There have been punched pandas before, but not from me. 

My inspiration for this was from an "electronic cutter" panda I saw.  I haven't ever conquered those "fancy new fangled" machines.  Either my paper is too stuck or my paper won't stick or my tension is not correct. 

Hey, maybe that is it - setting tension reminds me of my sewing machine and I don't touch that awful old thing anymore except mending. Mending by machine only happens when they have no other clothes to wear. (Read that as NEVER)

I like to just pick up my little punches and a tiny scrap of paper and DO IT.  I do not enjoy struggling with technology (which is why I have yet to conquer videos on this blog)

So here is the "low-tech" way to make a panda:

Head - Wide Oval

Belly - Small Oval

Feet - wide Heart to Heart - repunched with 1/2 inch Circle (see New Year Baby)

Arms - Wide Oval next to Wide Oval hole to get a curved band - then I rounded the "paws" - you can do this with scissors or by inserting into a center of a circle punch and just catching the tip to punch OFF. (similar to the feet)

Ears - 1/2 inch Circle

Eyes - 3/4 inch Circle - reinserted part way and repunched  (see tip at end of post)

Eye center - Standard hole punch cut in half

Nose - tip of smallest Heart to Heart

Mouth - small Heart to Heart punch next to small Heart to Heart hole

Pieces on top of hat - Word Window bits - or just tiny strips of paper - (Don't you have a bunch of those on your desk?  If you don't, you must be neglecting your punches - shame on you!)

Hat - triangle scrap- run through wood grain texture plate - cut a slit with exacto knife for head to slip into

Some of you will want dimensions on the hat -
No clue what size the angles are - the one at the top is MORE than 90 degree (It is an OBTUSE angle - Look at that 5th grade math spring back to mind!) 
Base of the Triangle measures 4 inches
Two sides measure approx 2.5 inches
Height is 1 3/8 inch  (straight line from the base to the point)

Colors on the card are Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Riding Hood Red, Basic Black and Whisper White.

TIP:  To "repunch" a small object, you can:
1) slip it in, twist your punch around, shake, wiggle and maybe get lucky
or use my recommended method...
2) attach your small piece to a scrap of copy paper with temporary adhesive and then slide that into your punch (punch is upside down so you can see what you are getting) When you get it to the "right" position - Squeeze.

SU sells Dotto adhesive that works perfectly for this - there are other temporary adhesives available out there in craft land.  Comes in handy - you really should invest a few dollars in some.

Hey Cowboy - you need to see this one

While I hope to be "forever and always" your favorite punch artist, I realize that I am not the one and only. 

Anita, mother of Lucia Dawe, was once upon a time a "caser" of my punch art. But she has long since gone on to creating her own fabulous characters and animals.  Lucia graciously shares these on her blog sometimes and she has a fab one there again this week.

So rustle over and check this out --- Anita's Cowboy and Horse.  She has some great detail going on.  If you need that western look you are going to love it!

If you are still on the VC Rocks blog hop - just look down to the next post.

Not Rabbit Stew...

I am lucky #27  (Twenty seven is your lucky number, isn't it?) on the VC Rocks blog hop this weekend.  Which is almost the tail end.  We have 29 ladies on this 2nd ever VC Rocks Blog Hop.

You may have come here from Brandy's blog or you may be a regular reader.  Either way, if you want to start at the beginning of the hop or if you get lost along the way - you can find all the links HERE.

One day this week, kid who lives at home (boy, does she need a better name) and her best buddies were BORED so I suggested they grab a cookbook, pick a new recipe, do some grocery shopping and cook my dinner.  (My $ for the shopping, of course)

It was a great idea. They learned something new and I didn't have to cook. They made me a very nice dinner.  But that got me thinking about recipes and then recipe cards and well, of course, a punch project.

He isn't hard - here is the "how to"
Head - modern label

Hat - scallop circle trimmed -look at the photo,count the bumps at the top - that is how much you leave when you cut.

Nose - wing from two step bird

Moustache - curly label next to curly label hole - (if you have your punch upside down you can see what you are doing)

Arms - pieces of oval ring (large oval punched around a small oval hole)

Hands - circle from itty bitty shapes pack at the tips of the modern label

Body - 1.75 circle snipped at neckline with circle punch (size not that important -1 inch or 3/4 inch - it won't matter)

Soup pot - approx 2 inch by 1.75 inch rectangle - stuck bottom corners as far as possible into 1.75 circle to round them - Let me clarify - I have the biggest SU circle punch upside down and I put the rectangle into the circle's opening so that only a corner is "in the punch" - push in as far as you can and PUNCH.  Repeat for the other bottom corner.

I really was just going to have the chef adding carrots to the pot...

But being near the "tail end of the HOP" - I couldn't resist making a rabbit tail end.

Rabbit rear - 3/4 inch circle in soft suede
Rabbit tail - puffy from itty bitty shapes pack in very vanilla
Carrots - narrow Heart to Heart cut in 1/2 in tangerine tango
Carrot tops - leaves from Two Step Bird in always artichoke

Base of recipe card is Riding Hood Red and Cherry Cobbler (both available July 1) - Don't all these food names make you hungry when you craft?  yum, cobbler sounds really good right now.

When I do get around to adding a recipe to this card, I can just rename the recipe I choose  "Not Rabbit Stew".  Oh don't groan at me - it will bring out a chuckle every time I look at it.  And lord knows, I need a chuckle if I am having to cook something.

Now keep on hopping to see what Kelly Mayou, the Weekend Stamper, has created for you!  It is the weekend - she is bound to have stamped something (unless her blog name is an evil lie and she punched something instead).  You won't know unless you go check it out right HERE.

Looks like we have a missing link - so after you check out Kelly - click HERE to see the final blog on the hop - Loni Holt.  She has blog candy so you don't want to miss it.

Enjoy the HOP!

Punch Doctor

I was teaching an online punch class yesterday and showing how you could combine punch parts and move them around to get different characters.  The last face I did was this one and someone mentioned it looked like Mr. Spacely from the Jetsons.  Hmmmmmm.....

But first he wound up as Doctor Spacely... 


Nothing new here - just the usual bits and pieces I always use - but with my color choice you get the "scrubs" look so all I had to do was add a stethoscope.  Punch art is just that easy - take a character and make a few changes to create another one. 

The stethoscope is a small oval cut in half.  Then I punch a little hole in the center to get my scissor in and trimmed out the middle.  Used part of an oval ring (large oval around small oval hole) and added a standard hole punch for the part that is cold on your chest (not its technical name)

Put a scalpel in his hand and he is Surgeon Spacely.

You could put him in a suit and tie - a space suit - swim suit - clown clothes - make a few changes and get many different men.  Use your imagination!

Wino Kitty How To

You all had several clever ideas for the wino cat card that made me chuckle so I made another cat and snapped a photo for the how to.

Left columns shows punches and right column shows what  each one looks like after you follow my directions below.

Head - large oval - using temporary adhesive (dotto) stick on a scrap and reinsert into large oval punch moving so that you are snipping just a little off horizontally (see photo)

Body - word window - with scissors snip diagonally on both sides (see photo)

Ears - small  Heart to Heart (2)

Hind legs - narrow Heart to Heart - trimmed with scissors (see photo)

Arms - wide Heart to Heart - punched next to hole and then again to get the narrow arms

Feet aren't shown in photo - small Heart to Heart cut in 1/2

Collar - Chain link - which is the word window punched around the slot punch hole - then repunched with the word window. - but since I stuck in up so close under the head - you could just use a strip of paper.

Cat was punched from whisper white and sponged with soft suede
Face and claws drawn on with thin marker

Wine glass from Cheers to You.

And here is a Super Bowl Trophy - which is what the cat looks like when all you have done is stick the head on the body.

Need a Sentiment...and a laugh

I try to entertain you with my punch creations and "oh so witty" blather.

Please entertain me with a caption or sentiment for this card.

If someone can make me laugh, I'll tell you how to make the kitty.

A Chicken in Every Pot?

I realize this might not have widespread application but it is the first thing that came to me after my little break from punching - and ya gotta start somewhere...

Perfect for a recipe card if you have a Chicken Pot Pie recipe.

Which I don't.

Because I eat the frozen kind - the ones loaded with sodium and convenience.

That is just the way I roll.


Details:
Couple of new colors on her for those of you interested.  The crown is the new cherry cobbler  - it is absolutely yummy and I can't wait to get my hands on some pattern paper with this color in it!  The beak is a new "in-color" called peach parfait.

Neck feathers - itty bitty shapes punch pack (too much - gonna be "itty bitty"  from now on around here)
Crown - itty bitty
Eyes - small heart (the stand alone heart - not Heart to Heart)
Wings - small oval repunched with scallop oval
Body - scallop oval repunched with wide oval to get smooth side
Pan - large oval
Beak - 5 petal punch right at the corner of paper so you get a point on both ends of the beak (the corner of the paper goes into the punch so you are just snipping one petal)
Neck - my way arrow - strip of paper will work fine
Feet - narrow heart to heart cut in 1/2 lengthwise to get 2 feet - trimmed with scissors to separate toes
Legs - narrow strip of paper


Do a little sponging, outline in black and add a few pen markings and you are ready to bake.

Matchy Matchy

Things are calming down around here.  Out of town family has returned to their own abode.  Hubby is getting ready to leave on another business trip and "kid that lives at home" has no scheduled activities this week that require my presence or my car.  Woo hoo - Paper Time!!!

But since I haven't had that time to work YET - I have no cute little punchie to share.

What I do have is a link to a blog by a couple of Canadian demonstrators who have the codes for ink to match all the new Stampin' Up! Colors that take effect in July.  This means you can print your sentiments or journaling on your computer and have your ink match your Stampin' Up! Paper.

Now some of you are jumping up and down because you have used these codes before and you are color match freaks (like me).

Some of you are scratching your head and going "huh?"

And some of you have already moved onto the next blog.

For you "huh?" ladies....Let me give you an example of how I used these codes.

Let's say I want to print some journaling in Early Espresso (Which I think is going to usurp Chocolate Chip's place in my heart).  The RGB code is R-88, G-72, B-57,

If I am in WORD (which is what I use for typing my journaling), on the home page there is a tool bar with an "A" on it and a thick line of color underneath it.  When I click it I see a choice of colors.  Click on "more colors".  Then I see 2 tabs - one says standard and one says custom.  Click on "custom".  You will see three boxes where you can type the appropriate number for red green and blue - in this case 88,72,57.

I haven't tried ALL the codes these ladies provide, but do take a minute to check it out if COLOR MATCHING is your thing.

I have been trying to leave a thank you comment on their blog for providing the codes but can't get it to work.  So ladies, Tanya and Renee, if you should ever stumble upon this post please know that I am very grateful for the information!  You ROCK!

Out of Pocket

I'm going to be out of pocket for the next several days.

Memorial Service.
Family in Town.
Things to do. 
No time to punch.

Thanks for all the sweet comments and words of sympathy and comfort. You are a lovely group of readers and friends.

Behave yourselves and don't forget to come see me next week.

Guest Puncher Alene Humphrey - Red Hat Lady

Didn't have a thing punched for the blog today - I've been working on some swaps instead of catering to your every need. (gasp!)  Don't worry, a dear reader came through for us. 

Alene Humphrey combined two of my past projects into a fabulous new one. 

I LOVE it when that happens! 

Isn't this great?  Thanks Alene for sharing your project with me! 

Did you recognize the inspiration? 

Chic Chick and the Little Miss Backsides Bride! 

Don't you love the face and hair and GLAM of this lady?  I happen to know a red hat lady queen that looks just like this....but I think I just missed her birthday.  Better late than never.

Back to the Islands

Little Miss Backsides - Aloha version.

From Flowers to Frogs

A few years ago Cambria Turnbow made a cute little card with the stamp that went with the flower trio punch - she turned it into three little frogs peeking over the edge of the paper. For some reason, that idea popped into my head as I was looking at the Fancy Flower Extra Large punch. This Get Well card is the result...

The colors look a little off in this photo - the frogs are wild wasabi (welcome back!) and the background is certainly celery.

Retired Product - go look

I just have to send you to Jackie Topa's blog for her hilarious interpretation of an SU demonstrator as product retires this month.  Look HERE.   Good old ornament punch - I need to get mine out and play with her again.

Casing a Serious Punch Flower

Y'all know I like to give you original stuff here. I try not to case too often. But sometimes something appeals to me SO MUCH I have to drop what I'm doing, make one and share it. Patti Lee's stuff does that to me. But today, I'm casing Heidi's Hydrangea.

I changed the colors to pink pirouette sponged with perfect plum and I used the ornament punch as my leaf but the idea is all Heidi's and I'm so glad I spotted it.

This won't be an easy card to mail due to the dimensional aspect but I love hydrangeas so I had to try this "serious" punch art.  Thanks Heidi for the tutorial - y'all check it out and leave her some comments!

In Memory

Sorry I went missing for a couple of days. 

My mother-in-law passed away after a very long illness and my hubby was in Peru on business, so I had to go boss my father-in law and brother-in-law around because... well, because it was my duty and privilege.

Today's project is in memory of my dear mother-in-law.

Her kitchen was always yellow and her radio was always on. 

Her wine was always poured and her cigarette was always lit. 

Her heart was always open and her husband always adored her. 

She lived her life exactly the way she wanted for as long as she could.

She loved to go dancing.

She loved the Dallas Cowboys.

She loved her pets.

She loved her family.

She will be missed.

back - butterfly trimmed - but just used 1/2 this time (see "little miss backside")
sleeves - word window
skirt - large oval
legs - modern label cut to separate legs
arms - wide heart to heart next to wide heart to heart hole
hand - modern label ends trimmed with small circle in itty bitty shapes punch pack
shoes - small circle in itty bitty punch pack, trimmed - throw away from spiral punch for heel
hair - 1 3/8 circle and 1/2 butterfly

Occasionally I stamp...

It is true!  Occasionally I stamp.  Images even.  Cards - with no punch characters.  Really.  Here is proof...

This one caused my sideline, Eileen (the glitter guru) to quip that the sentiment should read

"Wish you were.... on the other side of the world"

Bad day Eileen?

She is a hoot!

All these cards were made at my upline's house Wednesday night during our meeting. We drew sketches out of a hat and had to make cards with the stamp sets and paper we brought - I only brought vanilla and black stuff. Wasn't expecting to make more than one card but had plenty of time.

This was the first one I did - a warm up card - not crazy about it but it is fine and I'll use it... someday.

Silly upline had two of this set - guess who got the second one?  SCORE!

New Hostess set available in July - isn't it great?

Do  you like that element to the right of the sentiment?

I stamped the main image again - punched it with the 1.75 circle -

put that on the sentiment block and then trimmed it down to fit

It filled the empty space and matched the rest of the card.

I thought it was clever and was quite proud of myself.

Some days are like that.

Back to Dancing

I have been thinking that this character needed a name and someone on Splitcoast provided it in a comment - "Little Miss Backside" - I think that is perfect!

Little Miss Backside tucked her curls up into a black wig to go Flamenco Dancing.  I'm guessing this dress is what she was shopping for yesterday....

What you can learn from this is that

WE WILL SURVIVE WITHOUT BLUSH BLOSSOM!

I used the new in-color, Blushing Bride, for her skin and I bet you didn't even notice the difference.  Oh sure, you can tell in person but this is do-able girls, it really is!

Her dress is Poppy Parade and the top layer is Peach Parfait.  The top layer also shows a new embossing folder, Vintage Wallpaper.

Can you tell I got my sneak peak merchandise?

Back to the Mall

I promise, I will not keep up with this same girl FOREVER - but she is so easy to make, I keep coming up with more poses.  You can place this pre or post wedding in the babe's life - but based on that waist line - I'd say before kids...

Wouldn't this be great on a gift card holder?

Made pretty much the same as the bride - just fewer layers to her skirt.
Legs are small MY WAY arrows - which is RETIRING at the end of June
Shoes are throw away part of the Spiral Punch
Visa card is Medium Jewelry Punch with the knob part snipped off

Yes, the legs and feet are a little small for that big old head of hair - deal with it - I lived in Texas during the 80s - I can do "big hair" if I want (grin)

Back in the Garden

That Inspiration Fairy! – I just never know where we are going when I pull out the punches….


An anonymous commenter asked what was happening next in this characters life – ya know, after the bachelorette party and the wedding…

Well since this is a PG blog, and I’m NOT doing honeymoon scenes, I thought we’d skip on to her new house and planting flowers.

That is a lie. The Inspiration Fairy is the one that came up with this gardening scenario – I was going for sitting on the bleachers at the kid’s game with a little “go team” pennant but the Fairy said NO. I’d like to give you a clue what was happening next in the babe's life (if anything) but I just don’t know.

I-fairy says this pose could also be petting the back of a dog.

Punches are the same as before, except her upturned arm is the narrow heart to heart punched next to narrow heart to heart hole. Her toes peeking out from her jeans are also the narrow heart to heart pieces.

Belt is from ¾ inch circle next to the same punch hole – belt loops are just tiny scraps

Trowel is a petal from the 5 petal flower punch - handle is one of the my way arrows (retiring at the end of the month)

What you can learn from this is faux denim if you don’t remember it from Workshop Santa. Just rub your night of navy ink pad back and forth, up and down on your bashful blue cardstock. EASY – and you can get whatever “wash” you like by the amount of ink you apply.

Stamped Image is from Simply Said - an oldie that you can still purchase - been at least a year since I've used it and I'm wondering why - it is a GREAT stamp set.

And I left plenty of room above the flowers for a sentiment - I'll add that when I need the card for something specific.

Family Health still an issue so I don't know when I'll have time to play and create something really NEW - hang in there with me please.

Back of the Bride

I'm sure I'll have other "back of" characters now that we've started this - but my brain isn't firing on cylinders today so I did the easiest one first.

"Back to the bar" must have been at her bachelorette party, maybe?

Just like the bar chick - but instead of the bar stool, I added layers of 1/2 butterfly punches for the wedding dress.  Emboss the cardstock first, then punch. 

I went a little nuts with the embossing folders but needed the texture to show the white dress and hat on the white card.

Flowers are the retiring flower trio punch - I just had to give it a little attention before the move to the retired punch drawer.

Guest Puncher - Jessica Bowhall - Punch Art in MDS

Family health issues popped up again so my punching and posting will be sporadic for a bit.  But I went to check my saved emails to see if someone had sent me a punch project I could share with you today and found this AWESOME idea.

Jessica Bowhall sent this to me a couple months back.  Why didn't I post it immediately?  She had the fabulous idea to try punch art in MDS - My Design Studio, which is Stampin' Up! answer for digital scrapping and calendar making and digital cards and all kinds of cool projects on your computer.

Jessica made a Lowe's man inspired by my UPS man. Isn't this fabulous?

While you can't "re-punch"  or punch around a hole, you  can layer your punches and you can ADJUST THE SIZE of the punch shape!  How handy would that be when I'm trying to find just the right size eyes? 

Thanks Jessica for sharing you awesome project.  And what a great tip for those of you who don't YET have all the Stampin' Up! punches - you can still make "punch art" if you have My Design Studio!  

I'm sorry I didn't share this with you sooner - because you have missed out on all the fun of punching in MDS.  Bad blogger.  If you can find me, you can beat me with some retiring ribbon.

Retiring Punch News

The retiring lists are out at Stampin' Up! today and you can bet that I skipped over the stamps and went right to the accessories list to see what the powers that rule were doing to my punch collection.  You'd think they'd leave me alone since they are taking away all my skin tone paper.

First glance was a wave of relief - nothing TOO major will be retired.  They are "reconfiguring" lots of punches - which I think means they will be repackaged somehow - or maybe switched to that new flat style of punch.  ???

The My Way Arrows will be leaving us - and while I have found this punch handy handy handy I will survive its retirement.  The flower trio is leaving too - I'm OK with that - there are plenty of things that can be substituted. But we have BAD BAD NEWS.....

Sad........

Depressing.......

AWEFUL news......

No more slot punch!      

Woe is me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Use these for:
Eyebrows (lots of eyebrows),
dog collars (including Snoopy's),
sword hilts,
links of chain,
fingers (biker, Linus),
dog tails,
earrings,
bowling shoes,
buckles on coats and shoes.

And all that is just what i can remember off the top of my head!

Punch art will go on with out the slot punch but it is tiny and it doesn't cost much and if you don't have one you should ORDER IT SOON because it is a handy one to have.  I promise it won't leave its prominent place in the best punch drawer.  It won't be moving into the retired drawer.  Nope - I'm keeping it front and center.

Now to go see what they are doing to my stamp collection...

Big Rig - Guest Puncher - Sue Bishop

Sue Bishop sent me this punch art and this message
"I want to share with you a card that I made for my husband - who is a truck driver/heavy equipment operator. We have been together 6 years now, and it has been the best years of my life. I wanted to give him something special for our anniversary, so I tried my hand at punching out a big rig! I think it turned out really well - and I was so glad to have the trio of small punches - the small circle was just the right size for the lights on the roof. I did make it with magnets on the back of it, so it can go on our fridge - but he wants the whole card displayed! I was lucky enough that he has mega pictures of trucks he has driven, and the red Kenworth was his favourite so that is what this is supposed to be."

Well Sue, I think it turned out really well too!  And thanks for letting me share - in case there are some other punchers who love "truck drivin' men"

Sue also sent this information to help you if you need to make this project:
Everything on it is Stampin' Up!, except for the words - they are computer generated. The tires are the round tab punch, but the edges have been left off - I punched a piece of paper that was fitting just inside the two notches that show you where to fold the tab. The silver pieces are the Brushed Silver card stock, and the big red pieces were cut, and then corners rounded. The windows used the small tag punch.