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Falling leaves

Falling leaves published on 7 Comments on Falling leaves

When my mom and I were stamping earlier in the week, we created a couple of cards using my Day of Gratitude set.  I wanted to show mom that all cards didn’t have to take forever to make (or need tons of products).  I pulled Stacey’s Curtain Call: Act 54 challenge up and saw her beautiful fall colors.

The clean&simple Fall-to Layout 114 was another great help:

 Taking those two, we got to work.  I used the Rock and Roll with a Twist technique again.  I inked up the leaves in More Mustard and then applied Pumpkin Pie and Cajun Craze with a sponge dauber.  Just make sure you clean the stamp in between to keep the oranges off of your Mustard.  On went a sentiment in Cajun Craze.  It seemed a little plain so I added some piercing and a non-SU ribbon left over from a package.  So quick and so cute!

Not to be outdone, my mom changed up the layout a bit and did straight stamping in the challenge colors.  Here is her card:

Pretty awesome for a new stamper, don’t you think??!!  Well, I might be biased but I love her card! 

I’m off to work on some Christmas cards.  I really do need to get caught up on my own!!  Thanks for stopping in and I’ll see you again soon!

Stamp: Day of Gratitude; Paper:  Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze; Ink: More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze; Accessories:  Paper Piercing Tool, Mat Pack, Non-SU ribbon

All products are Stampin’ Up unless otherwise indicated.

OWH Birthday Bash Challenges

OWH Birthday Bash Challenges published on 8 Comments on OWH Birthday Bash Challenges

What a birthday celebration it has been for Operation Write Home!  The weekend held some serious challenges and there is still more to come.  Just check out this post for an idea of the fun.  Some stamping superstars have gotten in on the act too.  Karen over at The Sweetest Thing posted her Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge with the extra challenge to send the card to Operation Write Home.  Well mine will be included in this box:

It is almost ready.  My oldest son’s second grade teacher has agreed to have the class make some more Dear Hero letters so I’m making space for those priceless gems!  I must admit that I can’t wait to see them.

Karen’s sketch this week is great (make sure you make a card with it and send it on in):

My card today also uses Stacey’s Curtain Call: Act 47 colors.

 

Wonderful, masculine colors aren’t they?  Why yes they are and guess what?  Sharon at No Time to Stamp has a Let’s Hear It For The Guys challenge.  Her biggest stipulation is no bows.  If ribbon goes on, it goes on in a “manly” way.  Ok, well I think I did it within all the constraints.

If you click on the picture, you can see some more of the detail in the card.  One of my stampers this week is a wonderful “repurpose” fan and she brought over some tulle scraps she had and wanted to see what I would use them for.  I put it down and sponged over it to give some cool texture to a one-layer card (posted below).  I liked the effect enough to try it again here on the panels.  The way the texture mimics the Square Lattice Embossing Folder was something I wanted to see…and I think it works.  I stamped images from Le Jardin Botanique (retired) over the tulle as well.  I like how it took girly feel out of the florals.  The button was tied onto Early Espresso Satin Ribbon with the very manly Linen Thread.  With all those challenges in one card, this qualified for the Pile it On challenge site as well.  Wow, they put together some serious challenge combinations!

Here is the card where I first experimented with the tulle.  It may be my favorite one-layer card I have ever made.  Other sponging and stamping over the tulle, it is straight forward but that tulle adds so much.  Hope you like it too (it is already safely tucked into the OWH box).

Seems I have done quite a bit of typing yet again.  I guess the great cause over at Operation Write Home really has me inspired.  Food for thought:  As of September 13, 2010, Operation Write Home has sent 549,112 cards to our deployed heroes.  Think about making yours some of the next to be sent!

Card 1:  Stamp:  Le Jardin Botanique (ret); Paper:  Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Whisper White; Ink:  Early Espresso, Always Artichoke; Accessories:  Early Espresso Satin Ribbon, Neutrals buttons, Linen Thread, Tulle, Big Shot, Square Lattice Embossing Folder

Card 2:  Stamp:  Le Jardin Botanique; Paper:  Naturals Ivory; Ink:  Soft Suede, Night of Navy; Accessories:  Sponges, Tulle

All products (except tulle) are Stampin’ Up!

Fresh Cut Stencil

Fresh Cut Stencil published on No Comments on Fresh Cut Stencil

Stenciling is showing up everywhere and Stampin’ Up has started making some of the most beautiful products for this technique.  Sadly, my first order in the new catalog was all about new colors and new stamps (don’t worry, though, I’m certain this will be remedied in future orders!).  The challenge over at Stampin’ Royalty  (SR#28) takes advantage of this trend and asks for projects using stencils.  I sacrificed one of my Fresh Cut Notes (p. 171) so that  I could play along.  The best part is that I can continue to use this one note over and over for many projects so it was a worthy sacrifice!  I saw the CAS76 layout challenge over at Splitcoast and knew this was the way to go.  By definition, stenciling gives the feel of layers without actually having to have them and I wanted to keep the laying to a minimum.  Stacey’s Curtain Call Act 39 used the most lovely combination this week…take a look:

This card came together pretty quickly.  I sponged over the flower with Certainly Celery ink onto the Crumb Cake (Kraft) paper.  The center was a bit too bare so I popped on one of my new Basic Pearl Jewels.  You can expect to be seeing ALOT of these on my card, by the way!  I added the sentiment with Wild Wasabi ink and was left with the ribbon to do.  I saw this cool tutorial from Makeesha on how to scrunch the ribbon using Sticky Strip.  Well, it works great and adds so much texture!  Here is the final result:

I must say that I wasn’t totally thrilled with the final result at first (although I love each element), but it is growing on me.  Definitely more Clean and Simple than I have been doing lately.  Let me know what you think.  It is a bit out of my box but that is what challenges are so good at doing for us stampers!  Hope you have a great day…thanks for stopping in!

Stamp:  Apple Blossoms (Hostess Level 2); Paper:  Whisper White, Crumb Cake (Kraft); Ink:  Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi; Accessories:  Fresh Cut Notes, Basic Pearl Jewels (p. 188), Certainly Celery Satin Ribbon, Sticky Strip, sponges

All products are Stampin’ Up!

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