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Fancy Friday – Back to the 80s!

Fancy Friday – Back to the 80s! published on 7 Comments on Fancy Friday – Back to the 80s!

FF Jun - Lucky StarWelcome to this month’s Fancy Friday Blog Hop!  Our team is a group of demonstrators who love to make beautiful things.  Sometimes they are clean, sometimes they are layered but the one thing I can say for sure is that our projects will be fancy!  If you hopped over from my amazing friend Connie, welcome to the next stop.  For May, our theme is Back to the 80s!  Yep, you read that right!  Bright colors, big hair, bigger shoulder pads and, my inspiration for today, Madonna!

14af8df5e7b18380857faee7396d2291Just take a look at this picture of her!  By the time you are done with my post, you too will be singing Lucky Star in your head.  You can thank me any time!! I started off pondering the thought of acid washed jeans.  And I really pondered why we all thought it was a good idea.  But we did.  So why not play around with the new In Color Dapper Denim to see how denim-like it really is.  Well if you add a little bleach in splatters, apparently it is really like denim.  AWESOME!  Then I got a little crazier and actually stamped using bleach too.  The new Flourishing Phrases had a perfect little sentiment to try.  Now this is a red rubber stamp and I’m pretty sure the bleach is tough enough on that.  I strongly discourage you from trying it with a photopolymer stamp.  Pretty sure you would not be happy with the result!  Even still, right after stamping I cleaned it first with water and then with Stampin’ Mist and then again with water.  I kept up the Madonna theme by pulling out lace things from my stash because it was all about lace and pearls and layered accessories if you were going to do the Madonna fashion trend!  These are all retired SU things that I have hoarded kept safe for just the right project and this just had to be it!  The Tea Lace Doily just retired and there is a new even fancier version.  The lace is from a kit (Artisan, I think) and the gold star clip was perfect to complete my Madonna theme.  I added a star punched from Gold Foil to add a little more focus there.  So….how did I do??  Are you singing Lucky Star yet??? Please tell me you know the song so I don’t feel too old!!

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I hope you have a great time on our ‘flashback’ hop today.  Now you get to head over to the super talented Marisa for our next stop.

And you can click our logo above to get to the Fancy Friday Pinterest page!

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Click HERE to purchase these wonderful Stampin’ Up products!

Stamp:  Flourishing Phrases; Paper:  Dapper Denim, Gold Foil; Accessories:  Tea Lace Doily (ret), Artisan Kit Lace (ret), Star Clip (ret), Glue Dots, Bleach

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Freshly Made Sketches #239

Freshly Made Sketches #239 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #239

Jen Timko - FMS239 - One of a kind butterflyFreshly Made Sketches has a great sketch for you today!  Just look at what the lovely Cindy Hall dreamed up for us this week!  I know, right?  I love off centered sketches and this one is going to be fun for you all to use!

I kept it pretty simple for today.  I had only a little stamping time yesterday and really wanted to do this sketch justice.  After some playing around with shapes and stamp sets, I settled on this butterfly die.  I think a layer under him might have been nice but he was was already glued down before I considered it, lol.  In any case, I took some Tim Holtz Distress Inks and blended them onto watercolor paper, then cut the butterfly out.  I wanted the panel to have some detail but not distract from the butterfly.  I inked up Dots for Days (retired) with the same ink colors, stamped off and then stamped onto Thick Whisper White.  I cut the panel out with a Stitched Rectangles Die.  The sentiment is from a sweet little set by Altenew called One of a Kind.  A few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh matched perfectly so I just had to add them on!

So I have been in the midst of a flying blitz (lots of 4 day trips) and then had a soccer-palooza weekend.  Tournament play for both of my soccer boys!  To top it off, my oldest turned 13 on Sunday too.  How can that possibly be?! We had a pretty chilled out family day on Monday topped off with his dinner request:  Breakfast for dinner with lots of bacon.  Yep, he is 13!!!  Oh, and of course cake.  Strawberry Applesauce Cake.  YUM!  So blessed to have been home over this long weekend for all of that so it is worth the rest of the flying schedule that was needed to make that happen!  Out again today but a bit of a respite next week where I hope to fit in more stamping!

FMS Final 239-001Just a quick reminder…the new Stampin’ Up Catalog goes live today!  Wow it is fun!  If you want to see it online, just click here:  2016-17  Catalog.  I hope you love the rest of the DTs inspiration as much as I do…fabulous as always!  I’ll be back on Friday with some details about an amazing hop I’ll be participating in on June 5th…but you will want the details early!  Please stop back in to see what it is all about!  Until then, have a great week!

Supplies (affiliate links included):

Stamps:  One of a Kind (Altenew), Dots for Days (SU Ret); Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Squeezed Lemonade, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade) ; Paper: Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper, Thick Whisper White; Accessories:  Big Shot, Bold Butterflies Thinlits, Stitched Rectangles Dies (SSS), Summer Mix Sequins (PPP)

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May Fancy Friday – Thanks!

May Fancy Friday – Thanks! published on 2 Comments on May Fancy Friday – Thanks!

Jen Timko - FF May - ThanksWelcome to this month’s Fancy Friday Blog Hop!  Our team is a group of demonstrators who love to make beautiful things.  Sometimes they are clean, sometimes they are layered but the one thing I can say for sure is that our projects will be fancy!  If you hopped over from the super talented Marisa, welcome to the next stop.  For May, our theme is Never Enough Thanks!  You may have heard of the hashtag fun going around for birthdays (#imbringingbirthdaysback), well we are bringing thanks yous back!  Yep, #imbringingthankyousback !

I think that thank you cards are actually what I make the most but I love them!  Faced with the prospect of the theme, somehow I froze.  What to make?  Who should it be for?  Retiring items or new products?  Oh the pressure!  *smile*  Ok, not really but I did kind of go blank.  So I decided to go a little artsy.  I took some watercolor paper and got it wet where I wanted color and then added some Melon Mambo ink.  At first, I was thinking to make it all one color and use a new suite from the catalog but then I thought that it needed something more.  So I added Daffodil Delight too.  When I say added, I just added a little more water and then smooshed my Aquapainter into the ink and dropped it onto the water.  And it spread around and became totally cool.  I took the same brush (without more ink) and placed it around the pink to add variety.  And then the hardest part, just sit it aside to dry.  I worked on another card…..one of yesterday’s to be exact.  Once it was dry, I sent it through the Big Shot and cut out the sentiment with Greetings Thinlits.  The thick paper had a few of those dots that sometimes happen (from the holes to help free your paper) so I ran it back through the Big Shot between just the two plates to flatten it.  Then I cut out some Thick Whisper White that had foam tape attached to the back with the same thinlet.  Because I wanted the whole panel to pop up onto my card base, I added a white panel behind the sentiment negative to allow a place to attach the positive.  I added a little more detail with a Wonky Stitched Die and then I just stacked the cutouts where the original sentiment had been cut out.  A Melon Mambo base to make it even brighter and some sequins leftover from Paper Pumpkin for more fun!  Just a quick reminder….this die set is retiring.  So make sure you have it before it is gone!!

So, I have a confession to make.  I haven’t mailed this yet.  They may kick me out for not following the rules!  But I can tell you that this is going to an awesome mom who has been the team manager for my younger son’s soccer team this year and, truthfully, it will be hand delivered.  So I only kind of sort of fail in the month’s instructions — we were to make a card and actually send it!  My friend is bright and happy and always keeps the rest of us parents on track.  This card makes me think of her!

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I hope you will be inspired to make some thank you cards this month and you too can join us with our hashtag!  We’ll be watching for it!  Now you get to go over to my dear friend Jeanna who I just KNOW will make you smile!

And you can click our logo above to get to the Fancy Friday Pinterest page!

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Click HERE to purchase these wonderful Stampin’ Up products!

Paper:  Melon Mambo, Thick Whisper White, Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor;  Ink:  Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight; Accessories:  Big Shot, Greetings Thinlits, Wonky Stitched Dies (My Favorite Things), Aquapainter, Foam Tape (3M), Sequins, Dimensionals

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The Card Concept #56

The Card Concept #56 published on 9 Comments on The Card Concept #56

CC56 - Be-you-tifulToday’s challenges over at The Card Concept is going to make you jump for joy!  The inspiration image is so pretty!!  It won’t take long for you to see how I got to this card, for sure!

So first, I knew that I had to use a peony.  This pretty one from You’ve Got This is perfect for the job!  I simply stamped in Versamark and then embossed using Gold embossing powder to mimic the gold in the image.  The flower was colored using Zig Markers.  Next I decided to use my Clarity Stencil Brushes to apply some Soft Sky ink to a Thick Whisper White panel.  The brushes make the ink go on so beautifully!!  I cut that colored panel plus a sentiment panel using Stitched Rectangle Dies and then added a gold embossed sentiment from the Flower Patch set.  Some sequins from an old Paper Pumpkin went so perfectly with this that I had to use them!

56Ok, this is my Clean and Graphic take on the inspiration piece this week!  If you missed it, I also have a Freshly Made Sketches card up today in the post below.  (A reminder that every other Wednesday I will have two posts)  The team over at The Card Concept has a widely varied and gorgeous set of cards to get you on your way!  I hope you will join us!

Back on Friday with this month’s Fancy Friday!  Until then, thanks for stopping in!

Supplies:

Stamps:  You’ve Got This, Flower Patch; Ink: Versamark, Soft Sky ; Paper: Thick Whisper White (SU), Tim Holtz Watercolor; Accessories:  Clarity Stamps Stencil Brushes, Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder, Zig Clean Color Markers, Sequins, Heat Tool, Stitched Rectangles Dies (SSS)

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Freshly Made Sketches #238

Freshly Made Sketches #238 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #238

FMS238 - BotanicalsI have to admit that this weeks sketch at Freshly Made Sketches made me think.  Kim Singdahlsen always has the coolest cards and her groupings are one of the reasons.  And this week she gave us a challenge that allows us to try the same idea.  Once I narrowed down that I wanted to used a stamp set (and which one) things got a bit easier for me.

I stamped these pretty images from Altenew’s Botanical Garden set onto watercolor paper and then colored them with my Zig Markers.  These markers allow for such pretty shading super fast!  Then I cut them by hand and started playing around with the arrangement.  I realized that a doily (these are retiring so stock up) was perfect for the sketch and to help ground the flowers a bit.  I used the sentiment from another Altenew set because it seems perfect for many occasions.  I played a little more with the placement and finally got things how I wanted them.  The butterfly is popped up on a Dimensional to add even more emphasis on him.  Finally I added some Basic Pearls.  These seem to be the right touch for the elegant images.

FMS Final 238-001As a reminder, every other week I will have two posts on Wednesday.  This is one of those.  In just a little bit, I’ll be back with my card for The Card Concept this week.  See you in a bit!

Supplies (affiliate links included):

Stamps:  Botanical Garden (Altenew), Beautiful Day (Altenew); Ink: Versafine Onyx Black (sentiment), WPlus9 Black Dye Ink, Zig Clean Color Markers ; Paper: Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper, Crumb Cake; Accessories:  Zig BrusH2O Detailer, Tea Lace Doily, Basic Pearls (SU)

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The Card Concept #55

The Card Concept #55 published on 14 Comments on The Card Concept #55

CC55- Hello SunshineSo guess what?!!  I have a fun announcement to make!  Yes, I have been holding out on you but I can finally share.  I am one of two new additions to the design team at The Card Concept!  Now try to contain your shock but I’m one of the clean designers…..  Clean and Graphic to be exact.  The definition:  Clean lines, simple treatment of text, no frills, bare boned, message communicated quickly.  Yep….I think Lesley (the challenge creator) knows me pretty well!

Our inspiration for this challenge spoke to me right away.  I knew right away that I was going to pull out this sentiment from Paper Pumpkin.  This one makes me smile every single time!!  I’ll share why a little further on.  For the background, I pulled out the Dots & Stripes stencil (to mimic the graphic) and my new Clarity Stencil Brushes.  Yes, they really are ALL that.  You can blend and no lines or unevenness shows.  I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks and they blended so well!  To keep it clean, I simply added the sentiment to an offset panel and a few sequins.

So now the sentiment.  When I first graduated from Air Force Pilot Training, I became an instructor in the T-38, the secondary training jet at the time (and a beautiful, fast, pointy nosed jet it is!!).  My students were more advanced so we could give them a little more latitude as they learned.  Instead of direct intervention, we could give verbal hints and suggestions.  Well, apparently over time I started calling my students “sunshine”.  As in “What is the plan, Sunshine” or “Where are you going, Sunshine”.  They learned that when I called them Sunshine that they might need to reconsider what they were doing, lol.  Fast forward almost 20 years….  My husband finds that another instructor that I flew with is in his Guard unit.  I had totally forgotten about the Sunshine thing until he was telling my husband about it.   Needless to say, the reminder brought back some good laughs and stories!!  And yes, the military is remarkably small sometimes.  My friend who works with my husband is also a pilot at United with me.  So there it is….Hello Sunshine!  And really, no corrections needed.  Hmmm….I think I might need to send this one in to my friend, don’t you think?

So if you stuck with me, thanks for humoring me.  Sometimes cards just have a bigger story!  So now you need to jump over and see the rest of the inspiration from the design team.  Make sure you add in a welcome to the lovely Ilina Crouse too.  How amazing to be a part of this fabulous group!  Thanks for stopping in.  See you soon!  (and a reminder that my Freshly Made Sketches post is down one…went up a little earlier today)

Supplies (affiliate links included):

Stamps:  Paper Pumpkin (SU); Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink ; Paper: Thick Whisper White (SU), Basic Black; Accessories:  Clarity Stamps Stencil Brushes, Dots & Stripes Stencil (SU), Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh and SU)

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Freshly Made Sketches #235

Freshly Made Sketches #235 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #235

FMS235 - ThanksAnother fun week in store over at Freshly Made Sketches!  Our sketch hostess this week is the fabulous Jen Mitchell and, no surprise, she has a clean and modern sketch for us this week.  Love it!

I thought it would be fun to color an image on the big panel of the sketch and then add a die as the sentiment.  I went with this pretty flower from Mama Elephant out of the Butterfly Kisses set.  I wanted to work on my coloring for white flowers.  I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink to color.  I think the effect is pretty and I look forward to playing some more with this concept.  The sentiment comes from the retiring Greetings Thinlits from SU and was cut from the same watercolor paper as the image.

FMS Final 235-001Short post today.  Working this week!  I hope you have fun with the sketch.  Make sure you go tell Jen and the team how much you love their inspiration!  See you soon.

Supplies (affiliate links included):

Stamps:  Butterfly Kisses (Mama Elephant); Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink ; Paper: Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper, Smoky Slate; Accessories:  Big Shot, Greetings Thinlits, Zig BrusH2O Detailer, Stitched Rectangles Dies (SSS)

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SRC – Blended Bloom

SRC – Blended Bloom published on 12 Comments on SRC – Blended Bloom

Blended Bloom bannerI am so excited to be a part of this amazing group of Stampin’ Up demonstrators!  If you haven’t heard of “The Crew” yet, you are going to be so thrilled with this.  We are here to show you the versatility of one stamp set every time we hop (the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month).  We have a whole team of people and different stampers participate each time.  Like you, we look to find ways to maximize our investments and the single focus on one set allows you to see all the possibilities!  This week, our featured stamp is Blended Bloom.  I have loved this flower from the moment I first saw it…such fun to color!  And it is retiring so make sure you get it before it is gone.

If you just came over from Bruno Bertucci, I’m so glad you are here!  If you want to see everyone who is hopping or if you get lost along the way, just click over to The Stamp Review Crew blog.

SRC - Blended BloomDid I mention that I love coloring this flower!  Love it!  *smile* Today I pulled out Chameleon Pens to see how they would be on this image and they did not disappoint!  Only two pens for all the coloring!  Love that.  The colors were inspired by The Card Concept 54.   I did stamp another flower on the side of this one to practice on first.  Once I decided how I wanted to do the shading, the rest was just a little bit of patience, coloring each petal separately.  I find that coloring makes me really happy so I was thrilled to just take a bit of time on the flower.  Once I was done, I cut it out.  I colored this yellow ink onto watercolor paper in order to follow the sketch from Fusion Card Challenge.   I added a sentiment from Watercolor Wishes and some sequins to complete the sketch.      54

04.28.16Well, I know this hop is full flowery goodness so I hope you will enjoy it.  Up next, the lovely and talented Martha Inchley!  Thanks for hopping through….see you soon!!

Supplies (Click HERE to purchase Stampin’ Up products)

Stamp:  Blended Bloom, Watercolor Wishes; Paper:  Thick Whisper White, Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Paper; Ink:  WPlus9 Black Dye Ink, Momento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Squeezed Lemonade), Chameleon Pens ( Purple Grape PR4, Warm Sunset YO3); Accessories:  Sequins (Paper Pumpkin and Pretty Pink Posh)

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April Fancy Friday – Anything but a card!

April Fancy Friday – Anything but a card! published on 2 Comments on April Fancy Friday – Anything but a card!

Jen Timko - FF Apr - Party Fry BoxWelcome to this month’s Fancy Friday Blog Hop!  Our team is a group of demonstrators who love to make beautiful things.  Sometimes they are clean, sometimes they are layered but the one thing I can say for sure is that our projects will be fancy!  If you hopped over from the super talented Kaitlyn, welcome to the next stop.  For April, we are creating anything but a card!

Before I sat down to create, I had to take care of the yearly task of assessing the Retirement List from Stampin’ Up.  I went through and started pulling some of the items and it is always a bit bittersweet.  This year, the accessory list is pretty long (as you can see from the link) and there are some “must haves” on it for sure.  Some of them are simply workhorse items that need to be in your stamp room.  Since we are making 3-d items this month, I knew I needed to show you the Fry Box Bigz Die again.  Something about this die is just so adorable!  It is so perfect for creating treat boxes FAST!  All the DSP that you have lying around (yes, you….and me, haha!), the Fry Box is a great way to use it and create party favors or dress up a little gift.  The die does all the work!  I use Fast Fuse Adhesive to secure the sides….easy and, well, fast!  For the inside, I used a 4×6″ Cellophane Bag (also on the list…..just stock up…you need to have these on hand!) and filled it with buttons and twine.  All of the color family buttons are retiring this year and if you love having buttons to match your inks I strongly recommend you stock up!!  The 1/4″ White Cotton Ribbon that I used to tie up the bag?  Yep, also retiring!  Another staple for sure.  The little clip is an already retired item and I added a banner using a Paper Pumpkin sentiment.  I use these Paper Pumpkin stamps all the time.  I hope to show you my storage tips for them soon…..helps me find exactly what I am looking for with those fun sets.  One more retired item that is shown but yet not shown is the Banner Punch….GASP!!!!  Ok, breathe!  That little banner punch that is so perfect for cutting perfect little ends.  It is still in stock but I’m guessing not for long.  Stampin’ Up is keeping the list current but really, just go order it if you love it.  TH_social_retired2016_demo_Apr1816_NA_2Whew…that is a lot of retiring stuff in one project.  Funny enough, I didn’t really sit down with a plan to do that but it just shows how versatile many of these items are.  Many of you know that I’m not much of a 3-d stamper.  Oh, I love the idea of them but my practical side takes over and I often ask “But what will I do with that?”.  This is the kind of project I can see plenty of uses for…maybe not totally “fancy” but definitely fun!

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So we have some great news for you in this month’s hop.  We have added a new Fancy stamper to our group!!  The oh-so-fabulous Joyce Fowler is joining us.  Yep….she is totally fancy!

We hope you love our “not cards” this month!  Tons of inspiration for sure.  I get the honor of linking to our new team member so off you go to see what Joyce has created!

And you can click our logo above to get to the Fancy Friday Pinterest page!

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Click HERE to purchase these wonderful Stampin’ Up products!

Stamp:  Paper Pumpkin; Paper:  It’s My Party DSP, Thick Whisper White;  Ink:  Tempting Turquoise; Accessories:  Big Shot, Fry Box Bigz Die, Fast Fuse Adhesive, Banner Punch, Brights Buttons, 4×6″ Cellophane Bag, 1/4″ White Cotton Ribbon, Star clip (ret),

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Rain or Shine

Rain or Shine published on No Comments on Rain or Shine

Rain or ShineI made this card a week or so ago but thought I should hold on to it for posting during this big time away for work.  Seems like today is a good day to share!  I got this fun Shine On DSP from the Occasions Catalog and this is the first thing that came to my mind when I was looking through the designs.  All the work is really done by the DSP!

I think those little raindrops are so sweet and the clouds from another pattern were just meant to go with them!  I cut them out by hand and started playing with the design.  I didn’t have a sentiment that worked for me but no worries….I just pulled out my Alphabet Rotary Stamp and created what I wanted.  Having that choice is SOOOO awesome!!  I stamped my sentiment in Versamark and then heat embossed with Silver Stampin’ Emboss Powder. I thought it needed a little something extra so I put some Silver Metallic Thread behind the word panel.  A strip of Silver Foil along the side and done.

Love this fun card for a friend, don’t you?!  I will tell you that the silver on this card is way prettier in person.  I find that if I show the shine well, you kind of miss the rest of the details.

Hope you have had a great week.  I hope to be back sometime next week but there is a chance I’ll be off for a few days.  I am finishing up a 4 day trip today and have another starting on Monday.  With all the soccer and family stuff over the weekend, stamping will be lower on the list.  Still, I might be able to sneak away for a few minutes…..  *smile*  Thanks so much for stopping in today.  Hope to see you soon!

Stamp:  Alphabet Rotary Stamp; Paper: Shine On DSP, Kraft, Silver Foil; Ink:  Versamark; Accessories:  Silver Metallic Thread, Dimensionals

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