I had a little time today to play some challenges that I love. What a bonus! Stampin’ Celebration is one of my favorite inspiration sites and they have a really pretty piece this week. At least on my computer, I saw River Rock, Early Espresso and Very Vanilla as the way to go. I also found a great sketch over at the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge so off to stamping I went.
The colors really made me want to play with my Every Moment stamp set. This was one of the first sets in this year’s catalog that I completely fell in love with!! I have also seen the friends of this little chickadee on my bird feeder lately. Hopefully I captured his colors closely. I used some of the First Edition DSP in the background for some visual texture and sponged it with Soft Suede and Early Espresso on the edges. The image was watercolored using River Rock, Soft Suede and Early Espresso. I really LOVE those colors together! For the last detail, some Espresso Satin Ribbon was cinched in a bow using an Antique Brad.
I had some trouble capturing this card. It just seems prettier in person but you get the idea, at least. So happy to have you drop in today. I’ll be back tomorrow with another ColorLab Challenge. Until then, have a great day!
Stamp: Every Moment; Paper: First Edition DSP (Occasions Mini), Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Watercolor, Naturals Ivory; Ink: River Rock, Soft Suede, Early Espresso; Accessories: Early Espresso Satin Ribbon, Antique Brads, Blender Pen
This week over at SUO Challenges we have a fun and useful challenge…make any birthday card! Well, I ALWAYS need to have birthday cards around so I was particularly happy for this one. I thought I would shake it up a bit and try a new-to-me fancy fold. I have made varients but have never done a criss-cross card. Oh, I know…hard to believe, especially when they are so fun to put together.
The key to success with this fold is designer paper so that is where I started. I pulled out my much loved remnants of Play Date DSP and based my colors on it. As soon as I looked at the paper, I knew I would use the numbers as the belly band. Then I went to my Brights Designer Paper Stack and pulled a Real Red design and a Tempting Turquoise design…I knew I had a winner! After seeing this tutorial, I decided to make my card 4 1/4″ square so I cut two pieces of Early Espresso card stock to 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″. Score them both at 4 1/4″ and cut the upper triangle off one half of each using your paper cutter (just like the tutorial except you will have a square instead of a rectangle). I used my trusty Sticky Strip to attach the two pieces together. For the designer papers, I started with a 4 1/8″ square of both the Real Red stripe and the Tempting Turquoise dots papers and cut them on the diagonal. A piece of the Play Date DSP So Saffron dots paper was also cut to 4 1/8″ square for the back square panel. I attached the designer papers and then secured the triangle panels using Sticky Strip (again, as shown in the tutorial). I cut off a row of numbers from the Play Date DSP and attached it to another Early Espresso piece of card stock. Because I didn’t want the belly band to be removable, I attached the band to the card and secured the two ends in the back with more Sticky Strip. Using my 1 3/8″ and 1 1/4″ Circle Punches, I punched out Early Espresso and a leftover piece of So Saffron DSP. The cupcake from Party Hearty was stamped on Whisper White and cut out. I popped the top of the cupcake up on a Dimensional and added a Turquoise button from the Brights Designer Buttons.
The inside came together quickly. A Whisper White piece cut to 4″ square where I stamped on the party hats from Party Hearty and added the sentiment where you could see it peeking out. It was layered on an Early Espresso piece cut to 4 1/8″ square, with a loop of Real Red 5/8″ Grosgrain tucked in as a tab. Something was still missing so I added another Tempting Turquoise button to finish the look.
Hint 1: Since you are using different DSP’s for this, you are perfectly set up to make two cards. I love to design once and stamp twice. Much more time efficient and you have another card for when you need one in a hurry!
Hint 2: Your Stamp-a-ma-jig is your best friend when trying to get the sentiment placed properly. This is one time where you really need those words centered!
Hint 3: Because the wide grosgrain is so nice and substantial, only put the front part of the loop between the Whisper White and Early Espresso. Attach the back part of the loop to the back of the pull-out layer using Sticky Strip.
Shelli Gardner, CEO of Stampin’ Up, is “Crazy for Cupcakes” in this month’s So Shelli Challenge and so am I!! I have been a fan of the cupcake in Party Hearty for quite a while so I am thrilled to submit this to her challenge! Creative Sketches is doing a fancy folds challenge this week so I will post it there as well.
Thanks so much for dropping by today! I hope you have fun playing with your Stampin’ Up birthday sets this week. I look forward to seeing your submissions at SUO Challenges!
Stamp: Party Hearty; Paper: Play Date DSP, Brights Designer Paper Stack, Early Espresso, Whisper White; Ink: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Early Espresso; Accessories: Sticky Strip, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Paper Cutter, 1 3/8″ Circle Punch, 1 1/4″ Circle Punch, Brights Designer Buttons, Dimensionals, White Thread
My thanks to the Friday Mashup team for choosing this as one of their Mashup Maven choices!
I have said before how much I love that the Sale-a-bration offerings coordinate with catalog/mini products. The match-up between Sweet Summer and Elegant Soiree is one of my favorites! Time is running out to get Sweet Summer and the other SAB offerings so make sure you get this one before it is gone. You can click on the SAB icon on my sidebar for more details! This week’s Friday Mashup #35 is a sketch challenge. At first it looked to be a bit of a hard one, but the basics came to me pretty quickly. This was also supposed to be a card for Creative Sketches CS23C, a beautiful color combination. As I sat looking at my finished card I realized I forgot to add Bashful Blue. Ack! I was stamping on Sunday with my sweet boys running around so that probably explains the omission.
I started by stamping the branch on Very Vanilla card stock in Basic Gray. I colored directly pen to paper with Old Olive on the leaves then punched it out with my 1 3/4″ Circle Punch. Basic Pearls were added onto the stamped image and then onto the Basic Gray buttons from the Neutrals Designer Buttons. Next, I chose a piece of the Elegant Soiree DSP that had a little of the leaf image in the corner and that dictated mirroring the sketch to make it work. I punched a little piece of Very Vanilla paper with my Scallop Trip Border Punch and added some of the tiniest pearls to it. The bow is made with retired Basic Gray Tafetta. Finally the stamped image was popped up on Dimensionals.
It was nice to get some bonus stamping time this weekend and I look forward to a little more this week. Thanks for stopping in today and I look forward to having more to share soon! Have a great week!
Stamps: Sweet Summer (SAB); Paper: Elegant Soiree DSP, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla; Ink: Basic Gray, Old Olive; Accessories: Neutrals Designer Buttons, Basic Pearls, Basic Gray Tafetta (retired), 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Dimensionals
Maybe because Lent has started officially, but they remind me of Easter egg colors. Sadly, I don’t have any Easter egg sets so I had to get a bit more creative. This also looks like a palette for a spring garden bed so I went off in search of the right flowers. I found them in my trusty Fifth Avenue Floral set!! I just love watercoloring these beautiful images!
Using my blender pen and Watercolor Paper, I swirled on some Blushing Bride and then touched on some Rich Razzleberry at the tips of the petals. A little So Saffron direct to paper for the centers and the flowers were done. I cut one out to pop up on a Dimensional for texture. The sentiment is from the Occasions Mini set called Say It Simply…still love it because it is perfect for so many cards. I embossed the Very Vanilla card stock with my Big Shot and the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder using the square technique shown here and added a bow with Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon.
I hope you have fun with these colors this week. As always, I can’t wait to see all the creative things you do with them! This card also qualifies for the Stampin’ Sisters in Christ challenge 79, stamping with flowers. Thanks for dropping by. Have a great rest of your week!!
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Say It Simply; Paper: Watercolor, Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla; Ink: Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron; Accessories: Big Shot, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals, Blender Pen
Thank you to the team at Creative Sketches for choosing this as their winner for the week! Make sure you go see their latest challenge and design team call!
Over at SU Only Challenges, we are asking you to show us your favorite retired Stampin’ Up set. You KNOW you have one…it’s the one you turn to when you are out of ideas, need something fast or just want it to be right. For me, I have a couple but one of my very favorites is Wonderful You. Those leaves have made a lot of cards for me and I’m always happy when I’m done. It is especially useful when I need the ever-challenging masculine card.
I started with a great layout from a new-to-me challenge, Creative Sketches (CS22). Since this is a retired stamps challenge, I also pulled out the recently retired Deck the Halls DSP…another favorite. Paper this pretty shouldn’t be hoarded and demands to be used! The colors in the DSP are Crumb Cake, Early Espresso and Always Artichoke so my palette was chosen for me. If you click to expand the picture, you can see that the base layer DSP looks like Always Artichoke was sponged on it. I matched that by inking the solid leaf in Crumb Cake and sponging on a little Artichoke with a sponge dauber. The line image leaf was stamped over it in Early Espresso and I added the sentiment from the set. An Antique Brad seemed like the perfect final touch so I secured it around some Early Espresso Satin Ribbon to finish the card. This phrase is a favorite too because I can use this as a birthday card, an anniversary card or even a Father’s Day card.
So run right over to those craft rooms and get to stamping! I can’t wait to see which retired sets you love most. I’ll be back on Thursday for another ColorLab Challenge. Until then, I hope you have a great week.
Stamp: Wonderful You (retired); Paper: Deck the Halls DSP (retired), Early Espresso (119686), Whisper White (100730); Ink: Crumb Cake (121030), Always Artichoke (105219), Early Espresso (119670); Accessories: Antique Brads (117273), Espresso Satin Ribbon (119753), Sponge Daubers (102892), Stamp-a-ma-jig (101049), Dimensionals (104430)
I hope you enjoyed the Stampin’ Addicts Birthday Blog Hop over the weekend! As promised, I am back with some more details on using your clear blocks as a brayer. You may remember that I made my “First Edition Valentine” a couple of weeks ago and told you that I had not used my brayer for the edges. Instead I used my clear block there, too. I used this technique with my Hostess Club members and they loved it as much as I do! They, too, appreciate that you don’t have to have another tool and can use something you already have in your stamping repetoire. It is amazing how much this distressing adds to an embossed area for almost no additonal work! And, contrary to what you may see in this post, I promise it works on paper other than Cherry Cobbler. *smile*
Since this is so easy, I didn’t really take a lot of pictures. Here is my embossed panel during the process of working on it. Simple take one of your smaller clear blocks (smaller is easier to control) and ink up one side with your Whisper White Craft Ink. Rub the inked side on your embossing. If the middle of your panel needs to be “clean” of ink, just use a scrap piece of paper to mask it while you work. I did that on my butterfly card but not on my First Edition Valentine since the middle was covered up. Just keep inking and applying until you have the desired effect. It is really that easy!!
I actually used this techniqe way back in the Stampin’ Addicts Holiday Mini Blog Hop on this card. After embossing, I inked up my clear block with Basic Black Classic Ink and added the touched of color on the background layer. So to answer questions before they are asked, both kinds of ink work. There is definitely a randomness to this kind of application because the ink will not be even. I actually got this idea when I was watching a video produced by Stampin’ Up on the Distressing Essentials Kit. They used a flat stamp in the same way.
I hope you have fun using this! Please let me know what projects you make because I can’t wait to see them! Because the butterfly card uses that amazing SAB set Bliss (Joie – French), it qualifies for the So Shelli challenge this month. I continue to be thrilled with the coordination between the SAB sets and the mini/catalog sets!! Thanks for dropping back in today. I’ll see you again soon!
Butterfly card
Stamps: Clearly For You, Bliss/Joie (SAB), All Holidays; Paper: Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White; Ink: Whisper White Craft Ink, Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler; Accessories: White Organza Ribbon, Basic Pearls, Clear Blocks, Heat Tool
As promised in yesterday’s post, I am here with some more specifics on the Sweet Summer Photo Book.
I started this with the tutorial posted by the talented Sarah Wills for her Scallop Square Die Mini Scrapbook. I used the same method as for her smaller version but changed measurements a bit. My goal was to be able to make this using 8.5″ x 11″ paper. I am going to give some of the basic measurements here and, using Sarah’s fantastic instructions, you will probably be able to figure this out. However, I am also creating a Word Document tutorial and will be happy to e-mail it to you. Simply leave a comment requesting it and I’ll get it out to you as soon as possible (I don’t know how to link it here…sorry). Yes, you club members don’t need to let me know…yours will be out the minute it is finished.
I started with On Board Chipboard Sheets cut 4″ square. The Tabletop Paper Cutter is really great for this! Cut 4 pieces of Baja Breeze Card Stock 4″ square. These will cover the chipboard. As noted on Sarah’s tutorial, make sure you leave one side of one piece of chipboard uncovered for ribbon attachment. I cut 3 pieces of Soft Suede Card Stock to 3 5/8″ square. Two of these are the “attachment points” for the center sheet and one is to decorate the front. Cut one piece of Crumb Cake Card Stock to 3 1/2″ x 10 1/2″. Score this Crumb Cake piece at 3 1/2″ and 7″. The rest of the decoration is really up to you.
Since I designed this for my club members, I wanted to leave them maximum flexibility. I made the pages so that you can add only one picture on the front side and one on the back or add two pictures to both sides or any variation. What I found works best is to size your picture first (you don’t want to cut off any of those precious details). Measure your picture and add 1/8″ all around for your frame.
I used Sticky Strip on all the connection points that are likely to get stressed. Let’s face it, once Grandma has this, it is going places with her! The first version I made with Funky Four already has the Grandmom (my mom) seal of approval!
Once the photo section is attached and the front decorated, attach your ribbon to the back of the chipboard (this will still be undecorated!!). You can align the ribbon with the front of your card if it matter for your design. Once the ribbon is in place, glue on the final piece of Baja Breeze. I used the Anywhere Glue Stick to attach the card stock to the chipboard. I like that it allows you a little time to position the paper and then sticks perfectly.
I personally think that the success of this project comes in using Stampin’ Up’s beautiful designer papers. In this I have used Elegant Soiree and the coordinating pieces work wonderfully together. I also love that the style of the Sale-a-bration set Sweet Summer matches this paper. Another well thought out combination!
Thanks for coming back by for the details today. I’ll see you tomorrow with a new ColorLab Challenge. Also, this weekend I will be participating in a birthday celebration for one of my favorite sites, Stampin’ Addicts. We are doing a Techniques Blog Hop starting on Friday! It is a birthday bash extraordinaire! Until then…have a great week!
Stamps: Sweet Summer (SAB), All Holidays; Paper: Elegant Soiree DSP, Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla; Ink: Early Espresso, Baja Breeze; Accessories: On Board Sheets, Sticky Strip, Anywhere Glue Stick, Crumb Cake Seam Binding (inside decoration), Very Vanilla Taffeta, Stamp-a-ma-jig
Over at SU Only Challenges we are celebrating our favorite time of the Stampin’ Up year!! Sale-a-bration!!! Truly, the only thing better than new stamps is getting new stamps FREE. I actually had a hard time choosing which of my SAB sets to use for this challenge but decided I wanted to show you something you might have missed. If you look at the bottom of each SAB set with words, you get a choice of language.
So as you look at this card and think, that looks like Bliss…it is…except in French! I felt like “Joie” was a phrase I could find lots of uses for and this set has a French feel to me. One of the best things I am finding with this set (especially in combination with the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder) is that a simple layout is best. I stamped the flourish in Early Espresso and then put Joie in a place that felt like a continuation of the flourish. Even with using a clear mount stamp, my Stamp-a-ma-jig was pulled out to make sure it was just right! I inked up the butterfly in Baja Breeze and added some Early Espresso to the edges of the stamp with a sponge dauber. After stamping, I cut it out and sponged a little more Espresso on the cut edges. Additional sponging in Early Espresso was done on the image panel and on the embossed layer. I used the thread pulling technique on the Baja Breeze Seam Binding.
Hint: I find this works best if you simply leave the ribbon on the roll and pull the thread until you have enough scrunched ribbon.
The balance was a little off so I started looking at buttons and brads. You know what I found??!! This particular Antique Brad has a flower on it that is almost identical to the flower in Bliss/Joie. And this, my friends is why Stampin’ Up products make me so happy!! The type A personality in me knows that these items simply work….beautifully!! This free set has just as much thought put into its design as any catalog set. The attention to detail speaks for itself!
I wrapped the brad around the ribbon and attached it to the card with Mini Glue Dots. Finally, I realized that Basic Pearls were “required” to complete the card. The different sizes on the sheet really do make them a joy to use! I attached one wing of the butterfly with Mini Glue Dots and let the other stay loose. Finally, I popped the image panel up on Dimensionals.
This is the very first card I have made with this set but I think this will be a go-to set for a while! Shelli Gardner, Stampin’ Up’s CEO, has a challenge on her blog this month for Sale-a-bration projects. This card definitely qualifies so I am putting my name in the hat with it.
Because I couldn’t quite make up my mind which project to feature today, I want to share this mini photo album with you too. I had so much fun making the project for the Stampin’ Addicts SAB Blog Hop, I made another version using the SAB set, Sweet Summer. I’ll post more details tomorrow since I changed the measurements on this one.
Thanks for stopping in today. I can’t wait to see your Stampin’ Up Only projects using the SAB offerings. Make sure you post them over at the SUO Challenge site! Don’t forget to go see the fabulous things made by the rest of the SUO Challenge design team. I hope you have a really great week!
Razzleberry…hmmmm….what to do with Razzleberry?? This week’s ColorLab Challenge colors were interesting to me. What do you think?
Now I must say that I love the idea of combining Old Olive and Pear Pizzazz since they are such sister greens so the Razzleberry became a little less intimidating. When I am a little stumped with one element of a card, I usually go find a good layout. For me, it helps me see what to do next. Sure enough, there is a great basic layout over at Stampin’ 411 – SSC190. Once I saw that I knew I wanted to use the Pear DSP from Greenhouse Gala for the bottom panel. Putting Old Olive behind it looked great so then I layered everything with Rich Razzleberry.
My image panel was completed last and I’ll admit this wasn’t the first panel created. I was making it way too hard!! I pulled out this wonderful flower from Friends Never Fade and inked it up with my Stampin’ Write Markers in the three challenge colors. I knew I was on to something! I added the phrase from Say It Simply (Occasions Mini) and was left needing one more element. Given that I rarely use Rich Razzleberry, I don’t have any Taffeta Ribbon in that color. But I can make any color I want!! I dampened a piece of White Taffeta Ribbon and inked up the ribbon using my marker. I then rubbed the color around a little to even it out.
Hint: Unless you want Razzleberry fingers all day, you may want to use a paper towel or protective gloves when handling the damp ribbon (ask me how I know!). For really saturated color, you may need to apply your ink twice.
Recently, I won some blog candy from Stampin’ Celebration and the little Olive clip was in my box of treasures. I am so happy that I could use it for this! I popped the image panel up on Dimensionals and I am happy with the result. This is why you should try color challenges especially when one of the colors is “out of your box”. You end up making a card you might never have considered. Since I used my markers on both the flower image and the ribbon, this qualifies for Stampin’ Royalty’s Mark It Up Challenge this week.
Glad to see you today. Make sure to check out the other fantastic work over at ColorLab. I hope to have something else ready to post this weekend but I’ll definitely be back next Tuesday with the next SU Only Challenge. See you soon!
Stamps: Friends Never Fade, Say It Simply; Paper: Greenhouse Gala DSP, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White; Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive; Accessories: White Taffeta Ribbon (dyed), Old Olive Library Clip (retired), Dimensionals
It was a busy weekend around my house. In typical style, I was working last minute on Valentine’s Day treats for my boys’ classes and their teachers. Not sure why but this always seems to be something I put off. I started out with the treats for the kids by pulling out an old set called Mini Messages. This is one that I bought early in my stamping life and never knew quite what to do with it. Inspiration hit and off I went!
I stamped the “my friend” script in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla and punched it out with a Large Tag punch. I then stamped the heart in Cherry Cobbler and cut it out. Yes, it would have been loads easier if I had used any of our large variety of heart punches but sadly, none live at my house (this WILL be fixed!!). The Extra-Large Tag Punch was used on Cherry Cobbler paper and I just had to assemble. I put some chocolate into Medium Cellophane Bags, punched a hole in the tags with a 1/16″ Circle Punch and tied them closed with Vanilla 1/8″ Taffeta Ribbon. Easy and done!
Being a demonstrator has so many cool advantages and one was that we received a sample of the Love Impressions Rub-Ons as a free gift from Stampin’ Up! Before I went to work on cards for the teachers, I wanted to make two Valentine’s for my sweet sons. The front card is one of those. It uses the FTL127 layout which seemed perfect for this. There is absolutely no stamping on either of these cards. It is all rub-ons (even on the inside of the card)! I put the heart balloons on Whisper White card stock and cut them out so that I could pop them up on Dimensionals. The heart paper is from the Play Date DSP set. When I saw Stampin’ Celebration’s inspiration piece this week, I knew I’d use the XOXO balloon for it! Don’t forget to take a look at all the cool Valentine’s Day goodies they created!
Both of the cards here were used for my sons’ teachers (of course some treats were included for them too). All of these cards qualify for one of my favorite challenges, Stampin’ Royalty. Their SR#58 is Hearts, Hearts and More Hearts and that sums up my crafting this weekend!
Thanks for stopping by to see my crazy Valentine-a-pa-looza weekend results. I hope your day is a happy one!
Cards:
Stamps: None; Paper: Whisper White, Basic Gray, Real Red, Play Date DSP; Ink: None; Accessories: Love Impressions Rub-ons (Occasions Mini), Dimensionals, Brights Buttons, Thread (non-SU)
All products are Stampin’ Up unless otherwise indicated!
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The colors really made me want to play with my Every Moment stamp set. This was one of the first sets in this year’s catalog that I completely fell in love with!! I have also seen the friends of this little chickadee on my bird feeder lately. Hopefully I captured his colors closely. I used some of the First Edition DSP in the background for some visual texture and sponged it with Soft Suede and Early Espresso on the edges. The image was watercolored using River Rock, Soft Suede and Early Espresso. I really LOVE those colors together! For the last detail, some Espresso Satin Ribbon was cinched in a bow using an Antique Brad.
