Happy New Year’s Eve! Since it is Thursday, it’s time to play @ PPA! This week, the Pals Paper Arts Design Team is sponsoring an “Anything But a Card” challenge. Since this is the most difficult of the challenges for me, I browsed Splitcoast looking for ideas. In my searching, I discovered the “5-in-1 Template Box”. It is large enough to fill with candy and even cookies, making it a wonderful choice for Valentine’s Day! However, I did not have a “5-in-1 Template”. But where there’s a will, there’s a way! I present to you, the “5-in-1 Template Box made without the 5-in-1 Template!” I simply tweaked Beate’s tutorial Located Here. If I can do it, you can do it! And isn’t it fantastic with the Sending Love Designer Series Paper available in the new Occasions Mini? It’s so quick and easy to make, that I know I will be making several more throughout the year!

The Stampin’ Schach Tips:

• Making reference to Beate’s tutorial, I began with a 4″ x 4″ square. I then set a compass to 2″ and added half-circles on all four edges of my square. (I re-cycled a piece of cardboard from a package of designer series paper to create this template!) I traced the template onto a piece of Sending Love Designer Series Paper and snipped it out.
• Pink Pizzaz! The scalloped corners were made using the Big Shot and the Scallop Circle die. A little “Pretty in Pink” ink accents the scallops, which have been pierced with a Paper Piercer. The rest of the tutorial is just as Beate wrote it. How easy is that!
• Flower Power! Make flowers in minutes with the Big Shot and Bigz XL Flower Fold die. Alternating pink and red patterns from Sending Love DSP coordinate perfectly to form the petals of the over-sized blossom which adorns the top of the box. The Boho Blossoms and 1-1/4″ Circle Punches were used to create the center of the bloom.
• Glitz and Glam! A few snippets of 5/8″ Whisper White Satin Ribbon completes the package. Although it does not show up in the picture, many of the patterns in the Sending Love collection are pre-glittered, and so pretty! Extra glitz is not required!

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Recuperating from Christmas has made me a little slow in getting my Mojo going! However, I finally got the chance to use several of the new Occasions Mini and Sale-A-Bration products while creating a card using the sketch outlined in Mojo Monday. In total, I used eight new products in this design:

1. Sending Love Specialty Designer Paper
2. Scallop Trim Corner Punch
3. Scallop Trim Border Punch
4. Medium Jewelry Tag Punch
5. Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Folder
6. Vintage Vogue Stamp Set
7. Tiny Tags Stamp Set
8. Chocolate Chip 5/8″ Satin Ribbon

• Go for the Gold! To enhance the shabby elegance of this card, I stamped the “F” image from Vintage Vogue with VersaMark onto Brushed Gold card stock. It was then heat embossed with Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder. Gold Encore ink was used to distress the edges of the “Flowers” from Vintage Vogue. And for more gold action, I created my own gold Half-Pearl, using a pearl selected from the Pretties Kit, VersaMark Ink, and Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder. How cool is that?
• Did I mention dimension? “Pop” up certain elements of your card with Stampin’ Dimensionals! The circles and flower elements are sporting Stampin’ D’s on the their backsides!
• Practice makes perfect…especially when it comes to using the new punches. The Chocolate Chip panel measured 2-7/8″ wide before punching, which works well with the Scallop Trim Corner and Border punches. And don’t give up! The result is well-worth the effort!
• It’s all in the details! Distressing the edges with Soft Suede, using the Color Spritzer Tool, and adding texture with Perfect Polka Dots are quick and easy ways to add that “little something” extra! And what is more beautiful than the new Chocolate Chip 5/8″ Satin Ribbon. Yummy!

What a fun time I had designing this card! Minimal layers and three neutral inks make this card a snap to create! Just select the appropriate sentiment, and you will have a card for any occasion. And speaking of fun, are you ready for a little fun on this day after Christmas? Let’s test your knowledge of Stampin‘ Up! stamp sets? Name the five sets that were used to make this card. Come on…you can do it! The answers will be revealed during my tips!

The Stampin‘ Schach Tips:

• Get noticed with neutrals! Pull out the Basic Black, Basic Gray and Sahara Sand inks. Whisper White and Basic Black card stock form the over-sized (5″ wide x 7″ long) card base of this simple and classy card!
• Ink the Medallion stamp with Sahara Sand, and position the image in the lower right hand corner. Ink the center of the stamp again with Basic Black and stamp onto Whisper White. Punch out with the 1-3/4″ Circle Punch and pop it onto the original with a Stampin‘ Dimensional.
• Flourishes, flourishes, flourishes! Ink the “Floral Flourish” image from the Wedding Sweet set with Basic Gray and stamp into the upper left hand corner. Ink the “Brocade Flourish” from Friends 24 -7 with Basic Gray and stamp in the lower left hand corner and upper right side. Ink the “Flourish” from Wings of Friendship with Sahara Sand and randomly stamp. Make certain to stamp a few off the edges of the paper!
• Sneak a peek! The “Large Flower” from Vintage Vogue was inked and stamped onto Whisper White twice, once with Sahara Sand and a second time with Basic Black. They were then snipped out using Paper Snips and adhered onto the card base. For contrast, the Sahara Sand image was adhered first, and the Basic Black was popped up with a Stampin‘ Dimensional. Likewise, the sentiment is also from Vintage Vogue.

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Stamp Sets: Vintage Vogue (W 117690; C 118598—Occasions Mini), Wings of Friendship (114308—Hostess Level 2), Wedding Sweet (115466), Friends 24-7 (113218), Medallion (115223); Inks: Sahara Sand (105208), Basic Black (101179), Basic Gray (109120); Paper: Basic Black (102851), Whisper White (100730); Tools: Paper Snips (103579), 1-3/4″ Circle Punch (112004), Stampin‘ Dimensionals (104430)