PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Sunburst Cards

I've been seeing a lot of sunburst cards on Pinterest and on several blogs I follow:

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

I tried to make a sunburst card just by looking at pictures on Pinterest...but soon, I became so frustrated! Luckily, YouTube has tons of wonderful sunburst tutorials and they were definitely worth the time to stop and watch! Turns out it's quite easy once you learn the basic technique with four strips cut on a diagonal! Here's one of my favorite videos below (or click HERE):

Here's one last sunburst card to try:

Original Pin HERE

...and here's my version for fall cards:

I found a stack of papers to use on this card at JoAnn's. They have a section called "SPECIAL BUY: $6" in the paper crafting section and OH! what a deal to get a huge heavy card stack --- including papers with textures and gloss that are all color-coordinated! Shopping doesn't get much better than that!

The measurements and basic directions for this card are as follows:

For the sunburst, cut four different pieces of patterned card stock that measure 1 1/2" x 4" then cut each strip on the diagonal. Cut a 5" x 2 3/4" piece of card stock, mark the center at the top and bottom, use a glue stick to cover the entire piece of paper, glue on the first piece at the center then all remaining 7 pieces. Trim this sunburst piece after gluing on papers (as shown in the video) and attach this sunburst to a 5" x 3 3/4" piece of white card stock. Then add a 3/4" x 5 1/2" black band of card stock, trim on each side, adhere ribbon across the black band using snail adhesive, trim ribbon with very sharp scissors, stamp the saying then adhere this final piece to a standard A2 card base.

QUICK AND YUMMY DESSERT

Thank you, LA, for this terrific dessert idea as well as your photos! Can't wait to try these! We sometimes don't eat enough bananas before they get too ripe and this is a GREAT way to store them away for a later indulgence!

To make, Leslie Ann says: Cut bananas in half, add a popsicle stick and freeze on parchment paper overnight.

Melt milk chocolate chips with peanut butter light in a microwave in 30 second intervals, then work fast to coat each banana and add sprinkles right away before going on to the next banana. YUM! YUM! 

She had a few remaining after serving them for dessert and invited the neighbor kids over to try them out. Apparently, they too were wowed! Love those quick and easy desserts that have that effect on kids AND us big kids as well!

BTW: I now buy only organic bananas after reading this article HERE.

UPDATE 7/21/2014: Last night, I made bite-sized versions of this AMAZIN' treat and it was so easy to dip in the chocolate at this size! I made my chocolate coating with  1/3 C. mini chocolate chips, 1 T. butter and 1 T. almond milk with two 30 second intervals in the microwave. Everyone in my family LOVED them! Next time I might add almond slivers to the bottom 1/3 after dipping in chocolate =)

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Get Well from Surgery Cards

My dear friend and talented card maker, Alice, had knee surgery this week...so I wanted to make her a card to send out some get well wishes. I saw this card on Pinterest and I wanted to try and recreate it:

Here are my male and female versions:

 MALE CARD

ALICE'S CARD

INSIDE VIEW

Punch Sizes:

Big toe = 1 1/4"

Next toe = 1"

Middle toe = 1"

Next toe = 3/4"

Last toe = 1/2"

Each toe was trimmed on the right and left side. The foot and all of the toes were also sponged with ink. I liked SU's Creamy Caramel ink best. It was used for Alice's card and Daffodil Delight was used for the male card. I simply made a template for the foot and traced it onto card stock for the top of the card and traced another one for the bottom/inside layer. (I cut the bottom layer slightly smaller then attached them together at the top with red sticky tape....or you could trace your template with the fold at the top of your card base.

I also jumped for joy when I found this mason jar stamp at Paper Source in Santana Row awhile back and made this get well card with it. (To see the Paper Source jar stamp, click HERE.) I stamped the jar on the printed background paper and stamped it as well on blue vellum and another time on white card stock. I then cut out the blue vellum stamp right along the border of the jar stamp and cut it across near the top to make it look like a jar filled with water. A glue stick let me put adhesive right along the edges of the vellum so it would stick without showing through the vellum when dry. For the jar that was stamped on white card stock, I cut out just the jar lid and glued it over the pinwheel sticks so it looks like the pinwheels are sticking up through holes in the lid. If I made this card again, I'd probably angle the sticks down in the water part a little bit! (The squares used to make the pinwheels out of blue glitter paper were 1 1/2" square.)

These beautiful cards caught my eye on Pinterest using the SU Fresh Vintage stamp set. oval punch and the SU circle embossing folder:

...and these are my versions:

Thanks to a Pinterest pin long ago, I learned how to use the rubber mat with small embossing folders when using them in a Cuttlebug to avoid the folders leaving lines on the card around the embossing folder! Just follow this formula:

I experimented with the number of layers of cardstock needed to get just the right amount of pressure. I use the advertisement postcards that come by the stacks as junk mail! I used a stack of about 8 cards. I store this stack with a rubber band around it to save for the next time I use a small embossing folder in my Cuttlebug.

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS:I Love Purses!

Oh! My goodness! These little purses from TWO PAPER DIVAS are so darn cute and caught my eye on Pinterest last week:

...and wait...there's even more happiness...the original site has included a set of instructions in a pdf HERE! Many thanks, Gayla O'Dell and Melissa Rodgers, for my happy dance that followed your Nugget purse pin!...and here's another mini purse idea from my friend and talented SU demonstrator, Brenda Keenan, on her blog --- I love how she used the slot punch and then added an adhesive accent on the flap!

Original Pinterest Pin HERE

Wouldn't this clever idea below make the perfect get well gift for a friend that can be modified from any purse pattern/template?

See Original Pin HERE

Try using a real bandaid if you don't have a stamp of one (just like I did on a card I'll post next Friday!) To make a get well purse based on a purse like the one pictured below, I found a pdf pattern HERE.

See Original Pin HERE

...and while surfing the net for purse patterns, I hit the MOTHER LODE for all sorts of purses, boxes, cards, baskets, etc.! Check out all of the incredible templates that can be found in the most amazing template library for paper crafters HERE!...and now for a few more purse-related pins I found last week on Pinterest:

Soooo darn cute! The perfect thing to hold a gift card!
Click HERE for the original pin.

Click HERE for the original pin.


Click HERE for the original pin.

Hope this purse post makes you do a happy dance, too!

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS:Mickey and Minnie

We have a friend who loves Disney and I made a card to thank her for some gifts she brought back for us from her latest trip to Europe:

Here is the original card I cased from Pinterest this week:

Original Pin Click HERE

I found a few more Disney cards on Pinterest, and here are a few of my favs:

Click HERE for Original Pin

Click HERE for Original Pin

Click HERE for Original Pin

Click HERE for the Original Pin

Click HERE for the Original Pin

This card would make a wonderful 4th of July card appealing to the kid in all of us!!!!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

My pen pal is celebrating Canada Day with a party today and she just let me know that she got the card I sent her:

Canada Day Graphics from

MS Word Clip Art

It was a great way to get out my SU thinlets and put them to use along with the border stamp in the Fresh Vintage SU set that I had never used before! I used it above and below the "celebrate"...and LA recently sent me this cute card using some intricate die cuts with some of her clever creativity added!

Wouldn't this make the perfect masculine card, too?! Having a pen pal sure does add a lot of smiles and happy dances to your life! Thanks, LA!

Happy Canada Day from LA's Fashionistas!