The Pink Elephant Challenge #52

All About Pink - In Honor of Ella

Our Fabulous Sponsor this week is:

The design team got to work with some of the digital stamps the were created by our very own
Robin Willis for Squigglefly.
A randomly drawn winner from one of this week's participants will win 2 free digis of their choice from Robin's collection.

The Pink Elephant Design Team:

Frances Byrne

Robin Willis

Ann Cutts

Sheri Gilson

Tina Quinata

Jenn Koss

Trudi Wilbur

Vicki Garrett

Hannah Boyd

 

 

Lori Boyd

Betty Roberts

Challenges will begin on Mondays and Close Sundays at 12 midnight EST !!

If you upload your card to SCS, PCP or any other gallery please use keyword TPE, but also add a link to it in Mr. Linky so we are sure to see it.

______________________________________________

Robin Willis at Squigglefly

Good Morning and Happy November 1st to everyone!!!
We have more big news to share with our Pink Elephant family...

Robin's 1st Digi Release with Squigglefly is TODAY!!

Robin's October Digi's were such a success and she is so happy and thankful that everyone loved them!! Well, they just happened to get the attention of an adorable digi company called Squifflefly. The good news - The owner and her mom, contacted Robin and asked her to design for them. The even better news - Robin said YES!!

So hop over to Squigglefly even the Squigglefly blog and let's show our love and support for Robin!!!

CONGRATULATIONS ROBIN!!!

We love ya Girlfriend!!!

Wax Paper Resist with a Twist!

Hi Everyone!

It's Thursday and you know what that means!! Tu-Tu Tutorial Time!!

This week, I have the honor of bringing you something to hopefully inspire you. I thought I would share a fun technique with all of you. Actually, a twist on an oldie, but goodie!

Wax Paper Resist with a Twist!
Designer: Robin Willis, TPE dt

Materials:

White glossy cardstock

Wax paper
Craft Iron

Cuttlebug & Embossing Folders

Brayer
Ranger Ink Applicator or Cosmetic Sponges

Dye Inks

Many of you have probably heard of the wax paper resist technique. It is done by simply by crumpling up wax paper, ironing it over glossy cardstock and then brayering ink over that. What you get is a colorful piece of cardstock with a wrinkled pattern on it.

Here is an example of the traditional wax paper resist:

Okay, here's where the twist comes in...

I am not going to say that I invented this idea because the minute I say that, a dozen people will point me to places where others have done it. So, I will just say that I personally haven't ever seen this done by anyone else, but it may have been. I just thought it might be a fun twist to the classic technique, so I gave it a try and it worked!

What I did was use my Cuttlebug and embossing folders to add the designs to my wax paper. I found that it worked best when I cut a piece of wax paper twice the size of the folder and folded it in half. It seemed to have a more crisp embossing pattern that way. The single layer seemed to distort a bit more.

Here is the first background I did:

I used the Floral Fantasy folder and brayered rainbow ink across it diagonally. Fun!

One thing that is important to know is that if you are a person who wants a perfect image and fine details, this technique may not be for you. When you do this, you get the image, but it isn't crisp and perfect. Sometimes the areas around the embossing also transfer and you just get an outline of the embossing that doesn't. I personally think that looks cool, but some may not. It is just a fun way to add visible interest to your background. It is okay to have some imperfections. It is what makes it handmade!

Here are some finished cards I made:

This one used the D'Vine Swirls folder. I rubbed Distress Ink over it to bring out the design. I wanted to keep this simple to let the background be prominent. I just used a Just Rite Stamper for the sentiment (love how it has swirls that match the background!) and some Nestabilities to create a fun card.

Here is a quick ATC I made. I used the Birds and Swirls folder and just cut it down to slightly smaller than an ATC. Cut a piece of black card 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" and layered them together. Stamped the sentiment, added some Dew Drops and it was done. Very simple, but interesting. I love how this one had alot of the background also transfer and resist. So, you just get outlines around the birds and branches.

Finally, I got a little crazy. The card below looks out of focus, but in real life it is very cool looking! I first embossed the Perfectly Paisley on wax paper and ironed it onto glossy card. Then, I rubbed Stream ink on the entire piece and let it dry. I placed the cardstock into the embossing folder and carefully lined up the embossing and embossed it. It looked okay....but then I rubbed purple ink lightly over the raised areas and it looked amazing!! I wish I could get it to photograph so you can see how it neat it really is. But, because the embossing and the resist are slightly off from each other, it makes it appear distorted in the picture. In real life, it really is clear and very pretty.

Here is a picture taken from the side to maybe make it easier to see the embossing.

I really hope that you like this quick and easy technique. I had alot of fun playing around with it. Thanks for stopping by The Pink Elephant!

-Robin Willis

Sweet Bunny Candy Dish

Hi Everyone!!

Welcome to the first of The Pink Elephant’s Easter Blog Hop tutorials. The design team members have been working very hard to come up with some super fun tutorials to share with all of you. We hope that after the next two days, you will be in the mood to create some Easter and Spring pretties of your own! So, without further adieu...here is our first tutorial of the weekend!

My name is Robin Willis, I am co-owner /design team member of The Pink Elephant. I decided to make a cute little candy dish to display at Easter time. I hope you enjoy my tutorial today! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Sweet Bunny Candy Dish
Designer: Robin Willis, TPE design team

Supplies:
Cascata cardstock – pink, yellow, blue (WorldWin Papers)
Treasures cardstock – Pure White (WorldWin Papers)
Colormates cardstock – Medium Lovey Lilac, Dark Grassy Green, Dark Orange Dream, Heritage Black
Easter Bunny die set (Quickutz: available exclusively at Scrapyland.com)
Cuttlebug & D’Vine Swirls embossing folder (ProvoCraft)
Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter & Grass, Easter Egg files (Quickutz)
Teen Font
Butterfly Punch (Martha Stewart)
Stickles – Cotton Candy, Yellow, Lavender, Star Dust (Ranger)
Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink – Charcoal, Warm Green, Pink, Orange (Clearsnap)
Decorator Chalk (CrafT Products)
Top Score Board (Crafter’s Companion) or other scoring tool
Ribbon
Two tiny plastic cubes (or something to elevate bunny)
Adhesives-thick tacky glue, tape runner, glue pen, pop dots
Scissors, paper trimmer, ruler, pencil
Easter grass
Candy to fill your dish

Whew! That is a long list. I swear this isn’t that labor intensive; I just used a lot of stuff!! Now, let’s get started! I just know you want to make one of these for your table!

• Using the bunny die and the Cuttlebug, cut out the bunny in white, and cut the insides of ears and nose in pink. Ink edges of bunny (gray around white areas and pink on the pink cardstock). Use a Q-tip to add chalk to bunny's cheeks. Cut out carrot and ink edges with orange and leaves with green. Assemble bunny. Glue feet to the two cubes to make him taller. Set aside to dry.


• Cut out Easter Egg on Silhouette: main egg in blue and overlay in yellow. Glue two pieces together and go around edges of yellow cardstock with Stickles. Set aside to dry.


• Take 12x12 sheet of Lilac cardstock and draw a pattern like this:

• Cut out pattern and score all lines for easier folding.


• To emboss the box, I had to be a bit tricky. I embossed one side at a time. I folded in the side panels so it would fit through the machine. Then, placed the folder on one end, lining up the edge of the embossing to the score line where the bottom and side meets. I am terrible at explaining things. But, I did make a diagram that I hope helps explain this a bit better:

And here is a photo that I hope might be a bit helpful:

• Fold up the box according to these instructions:

Working on shorter sides (the ones without tabs), fold up and pull tab over and adhere to side on the lower one inch segment. Take the top one inch segment and adhere it down over the tabs to make a clean side. Repeat with opposite side of box.

Bring down one longer side. Pinch the two one inch segments together and press the 2 inch part into the bottom of the box.

Repeat with opposite side and you have a finished box. If you aren't covering this with Easter grass, I would suggest cutting a panel slightly smaller than 4"x4" and covering the bottom to make it look neat and tidy.Excuse the pencil and pen lines. I just made this one for photo purposes. You wouldn't be so careless when making one to use for this project. I am also not a step by step kind of girl, so while this one is green, my finished one is obviously lilac.

• Glue egg to the back inside of box. Glue bunny about an inch in from the edge at an angle. Cut 2 strips of grass on Silhouette and ink edges. Glue them (in two separate directions) across the front of box. This is what it will look like at this point: Don't worry about the seam in the middle or the ugly blue plastic cubes under the bunny. That will be covered up with Easter grass later on. Also, this only has one strip of grass, I added a second one with the blades going the opposite way for more depth and interest.

• Glue checked pink ribbon around the box bottom.


• Cut out “Happy Easter” and shadow on Silhouette. Glue together and add to front of box with pop dots. Color letters with Stickles.


• Punch out a pink and a lilac butterfly. Cover with Stickles. When dry, fold up wings and attach to Easter egg by the body only.


• Tie bow with lavender organza ribbon and add to bunny.


• Add Easter grass and yummy candies!!I really hope you like this tutorial and will maybe want to try to make one of your own. Variations of this could include using a premade box rather than make your own or use different embellishments for other holidays and seasons.

Don't forget to check back at noon EST to see another fabulous tutorial. Also, remember we have the mini challenge, a game (with another coming later tonight) and the blog hop to the designers' blogs going on too. There is lots of fun things going on and we don't want you to miss a single one!

Happy Hoppin!

-Robin Willis

Don't forget to scroll down for the mini challenge, blog candy hop and Find Ella game!

Tu-Tu Tutorial: Make your own stamps

Hi Everyone!

We are excited to announce that starting today, we will be bringing you a new tutorial every single Thursday. We hope to share a wide variety of things to interest everyone.

I have been racking my brain for awhile now trying to come up with something fun to share with all of you for a tutorial. Then, a couple weeks ago, I was cleaning and came across a large pile of fun foam that I have had for years and never used. This fun foam gave me the idea for this week's tutorial....

Make your own stamps!

The fun thing about making your own stamps is you can customize them to your project for pennies. So, let's get started!

For this project, you will need:

Fun Foam (Mine is pretty thin and comes in 11x17 sheets)

Die Cutting Machine (I used my Cuttlebug)

Dies (I used Cuttlebug, Quickutz and Spellbinders)

Embossing folders

Acrylic Blocks

Inkpads

Cardstock

Doublestick Tape

If you use the thinner fun foam, you don't even need to change your sandwich recipes for the various dies and folders. I used the same recipes that I would if I were cutting and embossing cardstock. Basically, run your fun foam through your machine with various dies and folders to create fun textures and stamps. To stamp them, simply put a piece of doublestick tape on your acrylic block and attach foam stamp.

My first project using homemade stamps is an ATC or Artist Trading Card. I used embossing and cutting to create my various stamps. Embossing on fun foam is easy. It takes no special tricks. But, I have found that the embossing fades on fun foam over time, so if you want to use this stamp again, you would just need to re-emboss.

Materials For ATC
PAPER: Colormates-Pretty Pink, Ruche-brown (WorldWin Papers), Fun Foam INK: Palette Hybrid Ink-Belle Rose (Stewart Superior), Versafine-Vintage Sepia (Tsukineko) DIES/FOLDERS: Cuttlebug, D'Vine Swirls embossing folder, Flower die (ProvoCraft), Nestabilities-Labels One (Spellbinders), 4x8 alpha die-Chocolate (Quickutz) OTHER: Pink Pearl (Kaisercraft), Velvet Ribbon (Melissa Frances)

1. Cut piece of fun foam 2.5" x 3.5" and emboss in Cuttlebug with D'Vine Swirls folder.
2. Stamp background with homemade stamp. *Tip: I found that if you rub the inkpad across the stamp rather than tap it, you get ink mainly on the raised embossing and the details show better*
3. Stamp scrap piece of same cardstock again. Die cut a flower out of it. Die cut the same flower in fun foam. Set aside for later.
4. Cut an H and an I in fun foam. Affix to your block.
5. Cut and emboss the label and stamp "HI" in center. Cut the next size of label in fun foam. Layer together.
6. Layer background onto an ATC sized piece of brown cardstock.
7. Add a strip of brown cardstock across the bottom and add velvet ribbon over it.
8. Attach labels to ATC with pop dots.
9. Layer two flowers together with brown foam one on top. Pull the pink petals up between the brown to add interest. Add a pink pearl to the center and attach to ATC.

That was a very quick and easy project! My next one is just as simple....maybe even simpler. It does use some purchased stamps, but I wanted to show you that with a few simple shapes you can easily make a very fun homemade patterned paper.

Materials for Card
PAPER: Colormates-Luscious Lime, Brown, Heritage White (WorldWin Papers), Fun Foam INK: Colorbox Fluid Chalk-Lime Pastel, Turqoise (Clearsnap), Versamark (Tsukineko) STAMPS: Sentiment (Stampa Rosa), Giraffe (Clear Dollar Stamps) DIES: Nestabilities-Circle, Scalloped Circles (Spellbinders), Various circle punches OTHER: Twinkling H2Os (Luminarte, Inc), Perfect Pearls-Iridescent Green (Ranger), Sheer Ribbon

1. Cut out a scalloped circle. Stamp it randomly on lime cardstock with lime chalk ink. Stamp again in open spaces with Versamark ink and dust with Perfect Pearls. Stamp a third time randomly with turqoise ink.
2. Die cut and punch some smaller circles. Lay them in a pleasing pattern on your acrylic block. Stamp randomly with brown and turqoise ink. Stamp sentiment in top corner.
3. Ink edges of panel with brown ink.
4. Tie a polka dotted ribbon across panel and layer onto a brown card.
5. Stamp giraffe stamp on white cardstock and color with Twinkling H2Os.
6. Cut out with Nestabilities circle. Cut a scalloped circle in brown. Layer together.
7. Attach to front of card with pop dots.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and will maybe try making your own stamps. It really is fun to do and so easy! I want to add that all of these things that I have cut out are going into baggies to use later. These are stamps that I will use again and again. I am going to finish cutting the remainder of the alphabet set and keep them together. You can't get a cheaper alphabet set than this one!

Be sure to come back next week for another Tu-Tu Tutorial Thursday!

Robin Willis, TPE design team