Winkie Con Rosettes...Mission Accomplished!

The Wizard of Oz-themed rosettes are complete and just about ready for shipping, yay! I thought I was going to have to recruit some help, but I managed to get them done (about 170 of them) all by my lonesome.

Each one is in its own resealable cellophane bag just waiting for the little cards I'm going to include with them. This is where I cried uncle and asked Dawn to design something for me I can print on the laser printer and then cut to size. The card stock will identify the source and also provide some stability when they're put into the tote bags.

Popping up the center image was a great idea, it gives them depth. The magnets look tiny, but they're extra powerful. So powerful, in fact, I have to pair them up back-to-back or they jump around on their own! I didn't want them to be wimpy, useless magnets, I wanted them to be able to actually hold things in place, not slide down the surface of wherever they're going to be placed.

The set consists of "The Magic of Oz," Dorothy, The Great and Powerful Oz, Galinda the Good Witch, The Wicked Witch of The West, The Scarecrow, The Lion, and The Tin Man. Here's a couple of close-ups (click on images for even better view).

I'm very pleased with how they turned out and hope they make everyone who gets them happy.

Julie Nutting Doll Stamps by Prima

I've had my eye on these stamps for a long while, it seemed everywhere we (Dawn and I) looked they were out. So you can imagine how excited I was when Dawn said she found a site to pre-order them. They arrived yesterday and I've been playing with them almost non-stop, they're so awesomely fabulous!

I stamped a batch of them up for Dawn then went crazy from there. I stamped and embossed mine on sand-colored card stock and then again on printed card stock so I could dress them up. It's been like playing with paper dolls again, I'm so loving it!

I added tiny little bows of ribbon and twine, gems and Swarovsky crystals as well as a touch of Stickles here and there. All of their shoes and headbands have a coating of Glossy Accents.

The little girl in green below: I embossed her outfit with black embossing powder, twice, then ran one of them through my die cutter inside a dotted-swiss embossing folder. I used just the sleeves and lower portion of the dress because I didn't like what the dots did to the neckline. I'm going to have to remember to use my embossing folders more often, I really like the results.

Each stamp is about 8-inches in length, which makes it challenging to use on cards, but I love a good challenge.

If you own these stamps I hope you'll leave a comment with a link to what you've done with them. I can't wait to make more!

I've been busy making cards the last week or so, go me! This one is for one of my daughter's co-workers. She loves bunnies, so it gave me an excuse to break out this little darling again. Sparkly paper was used for the background with an overlay of subtle flowers. I used a few strips of Washi tape underneath her name, which helped me with the placement. I'll have to use this trick again. BTW, I'm really loving this Washi tape I bought at Costco a while back!

I cut the sentiment from a birthday die to add even more sparkle, because, c'mon, there can never be too much of the shiny. It actually looks more readable in real life.

The next one is a baby card for the birth of my grand-niece. The only thing I didn't use from this gathering were the bows, I just couldn't work them in. I made it in soft green colors to match the baby-themed Smash Book we're sending to her parents.

This is a card for yet another of my daughter's co-workers, belated as well. I cut the shape from one of my dies, kept it in place then inked the edges (just as I did for the Saint Patrick's Day birthday card last month); it frames it so nicely. I stamped the image of the vase, embossed it in silver and colored it in with pink and blue colored pencils. I glued it to a piece of cardstock to give it more stability so I could pop it up with pop-dots.

I just picked up the little wooden butterfly at the bottom of the card (it was in a pack with assorted wooden insects), and thought it would be pretty if I took some pink and blue ink to it. When it was dry I put two layers of brown pop-dots underneath 3 of the wings so it would look like it was hovering a bit over the corner of the centerpiece.

I kept the inside simple by stamping a sentiment and using a strip of printed paper that matches the front.

Between the cards and the rosettes I've had a very productive couple of weeks!

A Gazillion Rosettes

The last of the Winkie con rosettes have been assembled and inked! They look like something from the sea, don't they?! I love all the subtle colors of grey, green and vintage-y brown.

The next step will be to attach the centers. I'm thinking of popping them up with pop dots to give them some dimension. The final steps will be to attach the magnets, which should arrive in about 3 weeks, bag them individually, then send them to the Land of Oz (well, sort of). This has been such a fun project!

Rosette Art by Cathe Holden

Look what Dawn surprised me with, woot! It's Cathe Holden's new book "Rosette Art," of Just Something I Made fame. It's filled with pre-scored craft paper and an instruction booklet on how to make various rosettes. Being in the middle of making tons of rosettes for an Oz festival, this couldn't have come at a more convenient time. Thank you, Dawn!

A Card and A Tug-O-War

I made a birthday card for my daughter's co-worker. Since I don't know her I didn't have anything to go on as to what she likes, but I think this will do. I ran the butterfly piece through my die cutter with an embossing folder to get this background. There are a myriad of colors my camera doesn't pick up. I sprayed it with various shades of Color Shine spritz and rubbed on a couple of different colors of iridescent inks.The rainbow ribbon is perfect, it has a little bit of all of the colors. The little banner was hand-cut and I added a "happy day" sentiment sticker to it.

The inside has another hand-made banner with a strip of floral Washi tape I thought was pretty. The "happy birthday to you" sentiment is a sticker. Although it looks shiny here, it actually blends very well with the card stock.

Here's Winnie and Dixie having a Win-Dixie tug-o-war! As cute as this is, Winnie was an unwilling participant, she was just trying to hang on to her toy elephant. But Dixie didn't know that and had lots of fun anyway.

Rosettes For Winkies

I’m donating over 150 rosettes (magnets) to a Wizard of Oz convention (held each year at Asilomar on the Monterey Peninsula, California), which will be included in the tote bags they give to the registrants. This gathering is more for L. Frank Baum book-lovers than the MGM movie version, so the vintage artwork reflects this.

I inked up the edges of each stamp to give them a more vintage feel and will put them at the center of each rosette. I cut over 160 strips of Oz card stock to run through my die cutter (2 pieces at a time) using my rosette dies, which will cut a scalloped edge and make the fold lines for the rosettes.

The strips have been cut from my rosette die, more than the 150 I need in case I mess up. I bundled them up in groups of 20 so I can keep track as I go. I made 40 of the rosettes as of this posting, only 110 to go!

I’m glad the convention isn’t until June.