Monday, June 27, 2011

My Magnolia Stamp Index


This week is one where we find ourselves with no baseball games.  It's slightly weird not packing up the cooler, folding chair, and preparing to chant - 1-2-3 GO COUGARS! The boys played in the District Tournament this weekend and came so close to moving up in the bracket. Their last game against a very strong local team found our boys ahead 11-0 at the bottom of the 3rd inning. All they needed to do was hold the home team and the game would be over. Unfortunately, the boys lost a bit of the "eye of the tiger" and thought they had the game in the bag before it actually ended. The other team ended up winning 11-12.  Funny thing is - I think the parents are taking the loss a lot harder than the kids! Go figure!  We have no tournaments this weekend and Georgia State tournament next weekend. Regardless of how it turns out - this has been a summer of a lot of fun, making new friends - parents and kids alike!

Anyway, many of my "Maggie" friends on the Magnolia-lious Yahoo group have been hoping someone would take the time to create a database of all the Magnolia stamps available.  Someone (I am really sorry I don't know who it is) created an Excel spreadsheet that included the name of the stamp along with the corresponding collection. I decided to take this spreadsheet a little further.

I created the index in MS Word since it would allow the image to stay within the table. This index isn't completed yet but it does start with 2007 Summer Collection and continues through the latest 2011 Sweet Rainbow Collection.  The index includes the stamp name, collection, image, and a check box so you can check off the stamps you have already purchased. The file was so large I had to split it up. The first contains stamps from Summer 2007-2008. The second file are all the stamps from 2009-2011. I will warn everyone - the two files total 129 pages right now and roughly 23 mb so be prepared with lots of paper and ink if you plan on printing it out. You may want save the file and take it to Office Depot or Kinko's and have them print it for you. I'm not sure how much they'll charge but it may be cheaper than doing it yourself. You can always just keep it as a "soft" copy if you'd like.

I will update soon to include the older collections and any news that come in. I hope everyone finds this helpful.

Magnolia Stamp Index 2007-2008

Magnolia Stamp Index 2009-2011

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Birthday Cake Card Tutorial

I need to apologize to everyone who was hoping a tutorial for the birthday cake easel card would be posted shortly after I posted the card. We are "baseball central" at our house. Our 10 year old son is playing on a youth all-star baseball team this summer. For those of you who have no idea what this means let me put it this way - it's baseball, baseball, baseball - EVERYDAY! I'm not complaining but it doesn't leave any time for blogging. My son will practice two or three days per week and then play in tournaments four or five days per week. Oh yes - don't think you're given notice to plan because that doesn't happen. For instance, he has a game this friday at 5pm, and two games on Saturday - one at 2pm and another at 6pm. However, Sunday is "bracket" day which means we could play one game or three games and who knows what time. Absolutely crazy!! But we love it and our son is having an absolute ball - no pun intended.

Ok I digressed... I have been asked to create a tutorial for the birthday cake easel card I made back in April. I do not take credit for "inventing" this masterpiece. I wish I knew who did because they deserve a big applause. I saw this card on several blogs over the last few months and found one written in Swedish that I was able to follow. So, since this is the blog I used to create my card I will give credit to Elein Malein. I used her directions and added a bit of my own embellishments to create my card. If you are interested in step by step directions in English here's my tutorial - I do hope you make one and let me know the results!!










Supplies


Supplies Needed:

Card Base: (1) cardstock 12” x 5 ½”
Card Front: (1) designer paper 2 ¼” x 5 1/8”
             and (1) designer paper 2 ¾ x 5 1/8”
Card Inside: (1) designer paper 4 ¾” x 5 ¼”
Candle Box: (1) cardstock 3 ¼ " x 4 ¼"
Cake Top: (1) cardstock 2 ¾” circle
Cake Side: (1) cardstock at 1 ¼” x 9”
Extra designer paper for decorating - optional
Extra cardstock for matting - optional
6 birthday candles, ribbon, small piece of acetate,
embellishments for decorating,
paper cutter, scissors, glue, bone folder





Step 1: Card Base
Step 1

Card base: Cut cardstock at 12” x 5 ½”. Use your favorite scoring tool and score 3", 5 5/8" and 6 3/8".



Step 2: Card front

Step 2:

Card front 1: Cut designer paper at 2 ¾” x 5 1/8”
optional: adhere to cardstock mat cut at 2 ¾” x 5 ¼”.

Card front 2: Cut designer paper at 2 ¼” x 5 1/8”
optional: adhere to cardstock mat cut at 2 5/8” x 5 ¼”. Cut a piece of ribbon 11” long and adhere to card base front from edge toward 3” score line. Adhere “card front 1” to card base, centering it over ribbon.

Adhere “card front 2” to card base, centering it between 3” score line and 5 5/8” score line.


Step 3: Cake side
Step 3:

Cake side: Cut piece of cardstock 1 ¼” x 9” and score it at 1/4" and 1" on long sides.


Step 4: Cake Side

Step 4:

Cake side: Take cardstock and cut small triangle from edge to ¼” score line and repeat on opposite side. This will allow paper to wrap around the cake top without creasing.

 
Step 5: Cake Side
Step 5:

Cake side: Cut cardstock at 1 ¼” x 9” and use border punch to create decoration for cake side.




Step 6: Cake Top

Step 6:

Cake top: Using your favorite circle cutter (i.e. Nestabilities, Cricut, etc.) to cut a 2 ¾” circle from cardstock. Optional: cut slightly smaller circle from designer paper and adhere to cardstock circle.

Step 7: Cake Top

Step 7:

Cake top: Punch six holes around cake top same diameter as candles.

Step 8: Cake Top

Step 8:

Cake top: Decorate cake top as desired. Optional: Use snow maker marker to simulate frosting.



Step 9: Cake Assembly

Step 9:

Cake assembly: Bend all the small triangles away from center of cake side strip and apply glue to them. Wrap strip underneath cake top as seen in photo. Use small piece of tacky tape to inner end of strip to close it.



Step 10: Candle Box
 Step 10:

Candle box: Cut cardstock to measure 3 ¼ " x 4 ¼" - this will fit 6 candles. Using your favorite scoring tool, score the shorter side of paper at 1/2", 7/8", 2 3/8" and 2 3/4". Turn the cardstock 90° and score at 1/2", 7/8", 3 3/8" and 3 3/4".


Step 11: Candle Box

Step 11:

Candle box: Cut away the shaded areas in the photo to the red lines. Cut on score line indicated by green line in photo.


Step 12: Candle Box
 Step 12:

Candle box: Trim tabs and fold score lines as shown in photo.





Step 13: Candle Box
 Step 13:

Candle box: Cut small rectangle in center of candle box – be careful not to go past score lines.

Cut small scrap of designer paper to measure 2 ½” x 1 ½” and punch small decorative window in center and adhere to box top covering slightly large window. Adhere acetate to inside of box.

Step 14: Candle Box
Step 14:

Candle box: Use small scraps of designer paper to decorate sides of box if desired.

Fold at score lines to create box leaving one top end open to allow access for candles



Step 15: Card Inside

Step 15:

Card Inside: Cut designer paper to measure 4 ¾” x 5 ¼”. Dry fit candle box and cake to mat. Use pencil to lightly mark location of candle box. Do not adhere mat to card base yet.



Step 16: Card Inside

Step 16:

Card Inside: Using the pencil markings created in step 15 as a guide – cut small two small slices (indicated by red line) on mat to feed ribbon.


Step 17: Card Inside
 Step 17:

Card Inside: Cut matching mat for designer paper at 5” x 5 3/8”. Adhere designer mat to cardstock mat making sure ribbon has already been fed through slits. (Photo shows candle box and cake already adhered to mat but this is more easily done in step 18)


Step 18: Card Inside
 Step 18:

Card Inside: Cut ribbon at 11” and glue to inside of card base from the 6 3/8” score line to edge. Adhere card inside mat to card base and center over ribbon. Adhere candle box and cake to mat.



Step 19: Card Finish

Step 19:

Card Finish: Use ribbon to close card and have some fun decorating card front. For example, stamp a cute image and color, add a sentiment and flowers – be creative!