Category Archives: digital images

2023 Stamp & Swap projects

Last month we had our 8th annual NEPA (Northeast PA) Stamp & Swap and today I’m finally sharing the projects that I made for it. Be sure to read all the way to the end for a really cool project we did!

The first one I made was for our 6×6 Recipe Swap. I used Angie Blom’s Coolest Chicks Ever digital images, which are also available as physical stamps through Unity Stamp Co.

For the ATC swap, I wanted to create a shaped ATC. This retired MFT Milk Carton Die was the perfect size. I also used Lawn Fawn’s Cerealsly Awesome set & Dies, which was a cerealsly awesome gift from a friend! 🙂 How cute! I couldn’t decide what color to make the bowl, so I did several and let the participants choose.

Several weeks prior, I found the event theme in a sentiment set of scrabble tile letters at Hobby Lobby. They already had an adhesive backing, so I just formed them in the shape of a tree and added brads for the trunk & star. I embossed the background and added a frame and ribbon.

The Mini Slimline Swap was one of the most popular. I made mine a gatefold card using my favorite Christmas plaid paper from Hobby Lobby and SU! Snow Wonder Bundle. My base is 3 x 12, scored @ 3 and 9.

For my shoebox card, I used the retired Spellbinders Sharyn Sowell Winter Friends die set, Simon Says Stamp Pine Landscape embossing folder and die set, and SnSS Christmas Sentiments. The large bunny and sentiment circle are popped up with foam tape.

A new swap that I came up with for this year’s event was a Sketch & Card Front Swap. I used the SU! Penguin Place Bundle and coordinating papers on the card here. Below is my sketch that I started with. Participants swapped both of these together…the card front & it’s coordinating sketch.

The last project that I’m sharing is the favor that we made for everyone who attended the swap. We decided this year to make the tools to use on the MISTI or other stamping platforms, but to also PERSONALIZE them. Someone from our committee (I can’t remember who) named them our NEPA tool. 🙂

We purchased mini candles from the Dollar Tree and used the glass tops, making sure to pick out the ones with a large clear space in the center of the lid. My friend, Lou Ann, and I had several hours LOL trying to get our swap words in a circle with each name inside but when we were finished, it was so worth the effort (Don’t ask me how we did it lol)! They were then printed onto colored copy papers and punched out with a circle punch. Lou Ann’s husband cut wood circles for us to place on the bottom of the glass for stability, and then we covered the base with felt. So, there’s the glass candle lid (with a plastic covering on the bottom of it), then a wood circle which we painted white, and two layers of felt circles. Each attendee was asked their favorite colors without knowing what we were making.

We used several glues and adhesives with trial & error until we figured out the right combination! Lou Ann used her Xyron sticker maker with the punched circles, so they had adhesive on top. Then I carefully adhered them in place inside the lid using tweezers to get them inside. Our committee got together and working quickly, Mod Podge was applied inside the entire lid and chunky glitter was dumped inside. Next, a fine glitter was added to fill in the empty spaces. It’s hard to capture the glitter in the photos below! When dry, E6000 glue was used to adhere the wood circle to the candle lid. Again, they were left to sit as the glue dries. Aleene’s Felt and Foam Tacky Glue worked great to adhere two felt die cut circles to the base. We finished them off by adding some ribbons with Scor-Tape. Whew! It was a lot of work but so fun!

Thanks for reading all the way through! LOL. Have a great day!

great friends pop-up flip card

Hello! I have a fun, interactive card to share today using the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps True Friends DIGITAL Paper Stack: Grungy and Great Friends Digital Stamp Set. I also used the SNSS Circles Dies.

My card was inspired by Julie Davison’s Pop-Up Flip Card. I love creating fun folds and interactive cards. They are fun to create and receive! For this card, I used a Digital paper and image/sentiment, but you can also use your regular stamps and patterned papers.

The image circle can be cut from the card front and then glued back into place on the pop-up mechanism but here I used a colored card base, so I cut a separate, same sized circle for my image.

This card is actually very easy to make and fun to open. I hope you give it a try!

Have a great day!

baby banners

Hello! I have some baby name banners to share today that I recently made. Click on each image to see a larger photo.

The first is for a baby boy, Carsten, and the shower/nursery theme is classic storybooks. I used some Momenta banner dies, the WeR Memory Keepers Alphabet Punch Board, and various character images that I printed off the internet. The backgrounds on each banner flag are old book pages from a Caps for Sale book that a friend was going to toss. The flags were strung onto twine and wooden beads were placed between each one.

The second banner is for a baby girl, Elora. I started with a flower and ribbon banner from Hobby Lobby and added the flags cut with the same set of dies (these were smaller). The pink layers were embossed with a Park Lane- Bloom embossing folder from JoAnn’s. Then I added some die-cut papers left over from a previous project and some punched flowers. I added some Stickles to the letters made with Altenew Bold Alphabet dies to make them sparkle and stand out.

Banners are fun to make and personalize for each recipient…try one!

lots of thanks

Today I am sharing a bunch of thank you cards that I made for the companies who donated to our all-day stamping event, the 7th annual NEPA Stamp & Swap. These companies were all SO very generous and helped to make our event a fun, successful one! Since we had quite a few donations this past year, I kept the cards pretty simple. I’ve added the cards in ABC order…lol, I can’t choose a favorite!

The first card was for Art Impressions, using one of their sweet freebie stamps. Bonnie designs the cutest images for those! I placed him on a gate-fold card with some MFT paper.

My second card is using the Altenew Extra Special Stamp & Die Bundle. Altenew has the BEST florals!

Next, I used the Avery Elle Cherry on Top stamp set. (I also purchased the dies to match!) Instead of coloring the cherries, I paper pieced them! The background embossing folder is by SU!

This sweet, little mouse is from Colorado Craft Company. I placed her onto a gate-fold card and made a few duplicates which were sent to Scor-Pal and Marci Snee (Stamp Junkies).

Here I used a Clearly Besotted set with Christmas crackers. I also paper pieced the candy on this card and covered it with Stickles.

Next is a flamingo stencil by Erin Lee Creative. I need to check out her store some more, this is a fairly new to me company. Looks like some fun things over there!

I purposely offset the stamping on these silhouettes in Gina K Designs Friendly Silhouettes. Such beautiful stamps…I am anxious to use them again!

A small window was cut from the front of this card so that the little sloth from Lawn Fawn Slow Down and Enjoy. could peek through. His backside is on the inside of the card…so cute! (I forgot to take an inside pic).

Nic from Magnuson Custom Stamps is completely awesome to work with! He helped design a set just for our event to coordinate with the theme. Go check out his site and let him help you create the stamp of your choice! Tell him I sent you. 🙂 This sweet embossing folder (Park Lane- Bloom) used on the background is one that I picked up from JoAnn’s some time ago.

MFT Stamps Backyard BBQ and the picnic table dies from their Picnic in the Park Die-namics were used on my next card. The sentiments in this set match perfectly! The grass is retired MFT dies.

Here I used Pink and Main Glossy Dots and a free Pink and Main flower image from this Digi Stamp Bundle. The window was cut with MFT Square Peek-a-Boo Window Die-namics.

Last one! I colored the sweet Chillin’ image by Unity Stamp Company to resemble a cranberry drink with orange slices. It will make an awesome glass of lemonade, too!

Stay warm and happy crafting!

Stamp & Swap 2022

Today I am sharing the projects that I made for our annual Stamp & Swap, an all-day stamping event. Our theme this year was Gnome for the Holidays.

I had a bunch of Christmas Gnomes patterned paper from Hobby Lobby to use on some of my projects. The first one is a 6×6 recipe card. The gnome with mixer is a digital image by Last Minute Manda that I colored to coordinate with the background paper. The faint snowflakes were stamped with Sweet ‘n Sassy’s Cheerful Snowmen set.

We try to keep our shoebox cards simple so everyone can either complete them or make a kit to complete at home. The left side of my shoebox card with the plaid paper is glued shut and only the right portion with the gnomes opens. The sentiment is from Sweet ‘n Sassy’s Christmas Gnomes.

I made a simple interactive card for my ATC trade using a Unity itty bitty stamp set called Change is a Good Thing. This mini card has a top portion that is glued shut and the bottom opens up. 🙂

Next, I made a mini slim card with a tent topper using Stampin’ Up Hand-Penned Petals, Pierced Blooms Dies, and Friendly Hello. The paper is Colorbok- Beach House.

My last project was for a gift swap. I found a Pioneer Woman Christmas frame (first photo) on clearance last year at Walmart. The second photo shows how I decorated it with ribbons, gnomes, felt snowflakes, and Aleene’s True Snow. The gnomes are from Simon Says Stamp dies- Gnome, Pocket Gnome, and Li’l Gnome. As you can see in the last photo… it lights up!

Have a great week!

can’t wait

Good morning! My cards today pretty much sum up how we all feel… anxious to get together again with friends and family! Here I used the SNSS In This Together digital printable. You can also easily use the In This Together stamp set. Either one works for a quick and easy set of cards to let someone know how much you miss them.

To use the digital images, I first sized and placed them how I wanted them in a Word document. Then I cut pieces of patterned paper to fit my card front. I used a temporary double-sided tape to attach the patterned paper panels to a sheet of copy paper and ran them through my printer. Then I ran another piece through to print several sentiments and layered them on with a ribbon.

I hope these cards inspire you to try out some digital images or use your stamps to make some CAS cards. Have a nice Sunday!

stamps- Sweet ‘n Sassy In This Together digital printable or In This Together stamp set; paper- black, textured ivory, unknown dsp; accessories- ribbon, foam dots, pearls.

6×6 German Apple Puff Pancakes

Back in the beginning of October I filled in to teach a class on making a 6×6 recipe card. Over the summer we stayed at a B&B in Amish country and were treated to some delicious breakfasts. One was some peach puff pancakes. The B&Bs in the area put out a few cookbooks and I purchased the current one. It didn’t have the peach version but this delicious apple one with craisins and pecans. We love it!

6x6 german apple puff pancakes diane zechman

I decided to use the cute apple paper but didn’t want to cover it all up so I made a triangular pocket with it to tuck the recipe inside. I stamped the Concord & 9th plaid background with black ink onto red cardstock and die cut the letters with Altenew’s Bold Alphabet. I also used a tiny apple die from my stash to cut from the plaid. To finish it off, I added the cute SNSS An Apple For Cocoa digital image and a few black enamel dots.

Have a great day!

a cheerful giver

Hello!  Today I am sharing a card on the Sweet ‘n Sassy blog using one of my newly released Digi images.  I have to say that this is one of my favorite snowmen…mostly because he is in the company of a sweet bunny who decided to share his carrot!  A snowman must have a carrot nose, right?

snowy hello digi diane zechman

One great thing about digi images is that you can make them any size you want.  I wanted to make this image big and keep it simple, with the focus staying on the gift.  As I printed it out, this verse came to mind…

2 Corinthians 9:6-7     6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

This was intended as a thank you card but I think it also conveys what we feel in our heart as we share God’s love.

If you are a fan of Digital images, go check them out in the SNSS store.  And if you’d rather work with stamps & ink… this is also available in the Snowy Hello stamp set!

Thanks for popping in…happy stamping!

love you more than chocolate

Hey all!  Today Sweet ‘n Sassy is releasing a bunch of new digital images in the store…including a few of my own!  If you like to work with digis, you need to check them out.

I used some sweet little digi candies and a digi sentiment by Korin on my card today.

candy digi 1 diane zechman

I don’t normally use digital images but I have to say this was quick & easy!  It was super simple to get all the candies lined up and spaced perfectly by adding them to a Word doc and then printing it out.  🙂

I traced over the sentiment with Copic markers to highlight it and add color.

Have a great day!

 

paper piecing digital images

I was recently asked how to paper piece digital images with your computer’s printer.  So I thought I’d take a few photos to help explain how it’s done.

For this card I used the July free digital images at Paper Smooches.  (There’s Crystal Effects on the cherries so they’re nice and shiny IRL). 

The cupcake is actually a single image but I deleted the white background and placed 3 cupcakes together using Photoshop Elements.  The middle cupcake was flipped horizontally.  I am not real experienced with PE so I had to play around a bit until I got what I wanted and honestly, I forget exactly how I did it.  LOL.  I’ll have to play some more and write it down next time!  You don’t have to do multiples, though…it would be best to start with a single image.  Keep it simple!

After I had my image the way I liked, I printed my “base” copy onto white cardstock (top of photo).  Then I printed it a second time onto plain white printer paper.  Using double sided temporary tape, I cut some scraps of designer paper and attached them over selected areas of the image on the printer paper.  This was run through the printer a second time to get the parts of the image that I wanted onto the designer paper (bottom of photo).

I repeated this several times until I had all the pieces of designer paper printed with the areas I had selected (photo below).  I chose to paper piece the entire thing but you could paper piece some and color the rest.

Next just cut your pieces out and glue to the “base” image.  It’s really quite easy…I hope you try it!

The layout for this card came from the Designer Drafts #4 (the middle one on the right).  And it was made for the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge.

digital images- Paper Smooches Cupcake and Thoughtful; paper- white, brown, kraft, dp- Wasabi, Real Red, Kraft, Pretty in Pink; ink- computer printer; accessories- Crystal Effects, Copics for the words, cherry stems, and shadows.