Birthday Romance

Happy New Year!  Hope everyone had a safe and happy celebration.  I am enjoying spending time with the family and hanging out.

I had a little time today so I decided to play along with a sketch challenge hosted by Global Design Project (#170).

I happened to play with the Wonderful Romance stamp set from the Stampin' Up! 2019 Occasions Catalog.  Loving the cling mount stamps and the Stampin' Blends.

Here is the card I created.  Color combination is Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Mossy Meadow, Soft Sea Foam and Balmy Blue.  I tried my hand at no-line coloring.  I used Sahara Sand to stamp the floral image and then colored in with Stampin' Blends.  I did not stamp-off the ink with the Sahara Sand so it's not so much a "no-line" image, although I love how it turned out.

Stamp sets used included Wonderful Romance, Itty Bitty Birthdays (also in the 2019 Occasions Calatog), and Gallery Grunge (2018-2019 Annual Catalog).  I also used Wonderful Floral Framelit Dies (2019 Occasions Catalog) and Stampin' Blends.  The Basic Adhesive-backed sequins added a nice bling factor and the colors matched perfectly!

Both my Grandmother and my husband's Grandmother have birthdays in January, a few days apart in fact!. Both are in their 90s and I will definitely be sending this card to one of them!!  Now to make a card for the other Grandmother.  More to come soon...

3-D gift tags

While perusing on Pinterest I saw 3-D gift tags (check my inspiration out here) and decided I wanted to create my own.  The Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies in the upcoming 2019 Occasions Catalog from Stampin' Up! were the perfect fit for my masterpiece!  Well, masterpieces.  Most of the framelits and stamp sets are from the Stampin' Up! 2018 Holiday catalog, unless otherwise noted.

Hope you enjoy the tags and get some inspiration of your own!

Waterfront stamp set (annual catalog), Detailed Deer framelits

Farmhouse Christmas stamp set

First Frost Stamp Set, Frosted Bouquet Framelits Dies, Christmas Pines stamp set (annual catalog)

Peaceful Noel Stamp Set

First Frost Stamp Set, Pretty Pines Thinlits Dies (annual catalog)

Holiday boxes and tags

I have another quick project to share.  My youngest is in high school so I decided to send her with gifts for the teachers.

The sprig punch from the Stampin' Up! 2018 Holiday Catalog is one of my favorite punches ever!  While I love the intricacies of the die cuts, the punch is still a quick and easy way to add an element of flare in seconds.  I used the sprig punch on almost everything I made this holiday season.  Such a fun embellishment.

I loved making these tags and they worked great with the silver mini gable boxes from Stampin' Up!

And, the gift box fit nicely with the challenge sponsored by Just Add Ink Challenge #439!

It's been so long since I played along with a challenge!  Glad to dust the blog off.  Might need to spruce it up a bit soon!

2018 Handmade Christmas Card

This year I decided I wanted to make our family Christmas card.  Between working full-time, traveling for work and going back to school, I haven't had much time to papercraft.  However, when I saw the Buffalo Check background stamp in the 2018 Holiday catalog from Stampin' Up!, I could not resist!

And, of course, my design ended up not being a simple one.  I went all out!  I used a lot of different tools, which helps me justify the purchases ;0).

This card was not for the faint-hearted.  It took my hours and hours of fussy cutting (the wood slices), die cutting (lots of Big Shot time while watching the Hallmark channel) and stamping (again, more Hallmark Channel and movies).  I made 120 cards.  I love how they turned out and have gotten a lot of compliments on the design!

Hope your holidays were enjoyable!

And more alpine tags

I wanted to share more gift tags using the alpine sports dies from the Stampin' Up! 2018 Holiday catalog.  I made 50 of these tags!

 I decided to make them more of a winter theme than Christmas.  

Another lovely tag using my favorite products from the Holiday catalog!  

First Frost Stamp Set and die; Alpine adventures stamp set and Alpine Sports dies; sprig punch; snowflake from November 2018 Snowflake special release die

Note: ornate tag topper punch is a retired item from Stampin' Up!

Alpine Tags

Every year I buy my nieces and nephews a small gift for Christmas.  I like to make personalized tags for them as well.  This year I used the Alpine Adventures Stamp Set from the Stampin' Up! 2018 Holiday catalog.  The snowshoes were easy enough for multiples and I hand-trimmed them instead of die-cutting.

Lastly, I personalized each one using the Make a Difference Stamp Set from the 

2018-2019 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalog.

I ended up mounting each tag onto heavier cardboard so they could save them and use them as a Christmas Ornament.

It was a great project and I had fun making them.

Gnome for the holidays

I love the scandanavian gnomes and have been stalking them on Pinterest for years.  I finally decided to make one of my own using my own medium, paper!

The first one I made was a self-closing gift baggie.  I love these gift baggies, so simple to make and they look great.  I found a tutorial for the boxes on YouTube from Pootles Papercraft.  She has some great tutorials!  The baggie can be found at: https://youtu.be/hlxKaoShTqg (Stampin' Up! Scallop Topped Self Closing Baggie).

I made the gift bag from a piece of crumb cake cardstock that was 5.5" tall.  Once the bag was glue together, I freehand cut the hat and made a hat from the Festive Farmhouse Designer Series Paper from the Stampin' Up! 2018 Holiday Catalog.  I made the beard from the braided linen trim, also in the Stampin' Up! 2018 Holiday catalog (and carrying over into the spring).  I hand-trimmed the nose starting with a 3/4" circle.

  

I had so much fun with the gift bag that I decided to make tags.  Below are some pictures of the tags I made.  I used 2" x 4" cardstock and hand-trimmed the hat.  

  

I love how the cable knit hats turned out!  I used the cable knit embossing folder (Stampin' Up! Annual 2018-2019 catalog).  For the trim I wet the embossed cardstock and bent the cardstock slightly to give it a little curve.

Hope you enjoyed the gnomes!!  I am very happy I finally made my own!

Happy Wednesday.

Showcasing Two Different Techniques

A quick post to share two very different cards with you today.

The first card uses a watercolor effect to create the background.  

To create the background used a watercolor technique I have grown to enjoy.  I dabbed ink from Island Indigo, Fresh Fig and Night of Navy ink pads onto a large plastic ziploc bag and spritzed it with water to let the colors blend and float.  Then I dabbed whisper white cardstock onto the wet ink to create the background effect.  I heated the cardstock after 1 application to dry the ink and water.  Then I added more ink to the cardstock in the same way to add more color and fill in the background until I was happy with the effect.  

Once the background dried I added some die-cut and punched circles and the greetings.  The greetings are Sale-a-bration items offered by Stampin' Up! from now until March 31st 2018.  I received these items free, the Amazing You clear-mount stamp set and the Celebrate You Thinlits dies, when I purchased $150 in Stampin' Up! product (total).  Such great fonts in these items.  I already created a few different items with the thinlit dies.

The second card is ALL die-cuts, no stamping at all!  

I used the Painted with Love Designer Series Paper (Stampin' Up! 2018 Occasions Catalog) and the Sweet and Sassy Framelit Dies (Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog) to create the hearts.  The greetings are from the Celebrate You Thinlit dies (2018 Sale-a-bration item) as well as the Lovely Words Thinlit Dies (Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog).  I added a little gold mini sequin-trim ribbon behind the smaller heart and that was it.  The mat is Powder Pink cardstock embossed with the Polka Dot Basics Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog).  Cardstock colors in this card are Powder Pink and Rich Razzleberry.

Thank you for visiting and hope you enjoy your day!

Petal Palette Cards

A quick post to show you some cards I made using the new Petal Pallette Clear Mount Bundle from the Stampin' Up! 2018 Occasions catalog.  

I really love this bundle, one of my favorites from Stampin' Up! this year.  I made two different cards, similar layout using different techniques.

For the first card I stamped the images using Memento and colored in the flowers and leaves using the Stampin' Up! Blendabilities.  I love the effect and that there are no lines when you color.  
I stamped the bird with Fresh Fig ink onto Sweet Sugarplum cardstock and then diecut it using the matching thinlits.  I added some Wink of Stella sparkle to the to give it a little flare.  

For the second card, I diecut the leave image into cardstock and used it as a template for adding the Shimmery White embossing paste to create a sparkly background.  Then I stamped the flowers and leaves and bird using Memento ink and colored the leaves and flowers with the Blendabilities.  I added the Wink of Stella to the bird and decided to keep it monochromatic to let the flowers stand out.  The greeting is my favorite part!  It comes from the Happiest of Days stamp set from the 2017-2018 Annual Catalog.  I love the mix of fonts in this greeting.  I added a little Silver Baker's Twine behind the flowers and adhered to the card base with dimensionals.

Hope you enjoyed the cards and got a little inspiration from them.  

All the best to you!

Unicorn Magic in a Shaker

My niece's birthday is in early February so I decided to make her a card using the Magical Day Clear-Mount Bundle from the Stampin' Up! 2018 Occasions Catalog.

I decided to make a shaker card using the Irridescent Sequins Assortment.  I love these colors and decided to use them in the card.  I stamped the unicorn onto whisper white cardstock and then colored in the mane and tail with Stampin' Write markers in Calypso Coral, Pool Party, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Powder Pink, and So Saffron.  Then I covered the mane and tail with Wink of Stella to give it a little sparkle.  I decided to fussy cut the unicorn since my color was a little messy (and I needed some scissor therapy).  Otherwise, I would have used the matching thinlit!

For the greeting I stamped part of the greeting onto the card base and then stamped the "MAGICAL" part onto Pool Party Cardstock using Versamark and heat embossed with silver embossing powder.  I added some mini sequin trim and some Powder Pink ribbon threads (pulled out of the Powder Pink 3/8" shimmer ribbon) beghind the greeting for some flare.

The oval was die-cut using the largest oval from the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies. 

 

 I had a bit of a hard time with assembling this card.  The first time I adhered the top of the card to the card base I ended up with a spare piece of cardstock in the window with the sequins.  I had to disassemble the card and re-add the foam adhesive strips around the oval.  The second time I adhered the top of the card to the base I complete forgot to add the sequins.  UGH!  So, had to disassemble the card yet again.  This time I remembered the sequins, without any stray garbage lying around.  Guess I need to clean my desk off!  Luckily I was able to keep the top part of the card and just replace the base each time.
Whew.  The card is in the mail and should arrive in plenty of time for her birthday!

Happy day and hope the card inspired you (and the experience I had did not scare you).  I love the shaker cards and they aren't too hard to make at all, as long as you pay attention.

Valentines Ensemble

A quick post to share something I was able to work on this weekend.  With school and work, I treasure the time I get to make cards.  I actually find I need to make cards in order to keep my sanity.  Of course, time is not that hard ti find as it seems as I do spend an AWFUL amount of time on Facebook  and Pinterest, mostly watching what other Stampin' Up! demonstrators are able to create with their talents.

Inspired by so many talented people out there, I decided to focus on some Valentine's for my sweetie.  We don't really celebrate Valentine's Day in a huge manner, although my husband usually makes an effort to get a card, flowers and a treat.  His efforts make me feel guilty since we always say "don't do anything", so I don't and he does.  This year I decided to up my game since I have been traveling so much and distracted with many things.

I purchased the Sure Do Love You Clear-Mount bundle as well as the Heart Happiness Photopolymer Stamp Set from the Stampin' Up! 2018 Occasions Catalog and wanted to make something with these sets.

 

I ended up with a cute treat box (which I will fill with his favorite, Reese's Peanut Butter cups) and a matching card.

I used a color combination of Powder Pink, Flirty Flamingo and Berry Burst.  I colored some Shimmery White Embossing Paste with ink from the Berry Burst and Powder Pink reinkers and used the small hearts from the Mini Treat Bags thinlits dies (Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog) as the template.  

The "Love You greeting is from the Bloomin' Love Photopolymer Stamp Set (Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog).  

Can't wait to surprise him with these items!

Happy days to you all!

Paper Craft Anniversary

I needed an anniversary card for my husband's parents so I used the Paper Craft Crew Challenge (PCC256) for this week for some inspiration.

I pretty much stayed close to the sketch, with a few substitutions.  All supplies I used came from the Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog.  

The color combination is Peakaboo Peach, Soft Sky, Gold and Whisper White.

Instead of the splatter I decided to try to use a watercolor technique to add the color to the card.  For this technique I pressed the Peakaboo Peach stamp pad onto ziploc bag, spritzed it with water and then dabbed the edge of a piece of whisper white cardstock into the ink.  I only made a small spot so that the ink didn't cover too much of the paper.  I love the various watercolor techniques out there so I continue to practice and try new ways to get the watercolor effect.

I used one of the Eastern Gold Vinyl Stickers for the background and Soft Sky 3/8" Classic Weave Ribbon which I folded to create a ruffled effect.

The greeting is from the Beautiful Bouqet photopolymer stamp set inked with Basic Black and stamped onto WHisper White cardstock.  I punched it with the 1-3/4" circle punch.  I punched another 1-3/4" circle from gold foil cardstock and glued it behind the greeting.

The heart was die cut from Wood Texture Designer Series Paper Stack using the heart from the Wood Crate framelit die.

And finally, I added a few Metallic Enamel Shapes gold dots.

The card came together pretty nicely and it is already in the mail (will be late since their anniversary is tomorrow).

Hope you enjoyed the card!

Tomorrow is a gift

A super quick post!  I made some goody bags for a colleague at work who retired.  He was a very sweet man and I hope he gets to enjoy his family (and super cute grandkids) as much as possible!

I used the Playful Backgrounds stamps to add some fun images a white paper bag (purchased on amazon).  The color combination is Tangerine Tango, Daper Denim, Tempting Turquoise and Lemon Lime Twist.

The chair and greeting is from the Colorful Seasons Photopolymer Bundle.

All products are from the Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog.

Enjoy your today and tomorrow!

Cotton Balls and Birthdays

Hey all, I am so excited to show you a card I created.  It was inspired by the newer farmhouse style decorations and various pics I saw during my quick stress relieving moments on Pinterest.  Here was one of the inspirations for my card.  I am loving the cottonball stems!!  

Since Stampin' Up! has the mason jar stamp set and dies I decided to build my card using the mason jar die and the new Beautiful Bouquet Photopolymer stamp set in the Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog.  Here's the card!

I just love how this turned out.  I was so giddy when things started falling together (after a sleepless night when my mind started whirring with ideas).

A few tips for how I made the card.

The cotton ball stems were made using the whisper white mini pom-pom trim (recently retired from Stampin' Up!) and the stems and the 5-petal flower bunch die from the Bouquet Bunch framelit dies.  I die cut both the stems and the flowers using Early Espresso cardstock.  I cut the flowers out individually and trimmed them a little so the petals were thinner.  I curled the petals using my fingers and so they cupped a pom-pom, then I glued the cupped flower to the white pom-pom using Tombow glue.   You can kind of tell in the pic below that I used various widths of the flower petals, I didn't need to cut them uniformly.

The leaves were also die cut from the same Bouquet Bunch framelit dies.  For the long leaves I die cut them using  Pear Pizzazz cardstock and then I sponged some Emerald Envy ink on all but the top part of the leaf to give it a dual color effect.  The other leaves were die cut using Wild Wasabi and Garden Green.  

The mason jar was die cut from vellum cardstock and I tinted it by sponging it with Soft Sky ink.

The background was made using the new Pinewood Planks Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  I used this folder to emboss a piece of Whisper White cardstock.  Then I used an aquapainter to add some Sahara Sand ink to the pine to give the wood the darker white-washed color.

The rooster is from the Wood Words clear-mount bundle (Stamp and coordinating die) and the sentiment is from Happy Birthday Gorgeous photopolymer stamp set.

Everything except the whisper white pom-pom trim is from the Stampin' Up! 2018-2018 Annual Catalog.  I am glad I was able to use so many different products to make this card.  It's nice when I can tell my husband that I am using the things I buy ;0).

Since the card met a few sketch challenges I added my card to the following challenges:

Paper Craft Crew Challenge PCC255

SU! Only Challenges SUO Challenge #180 - Happy Birthday

Hope you enjoy the card!

Freshly Made Birthday

A quick post today to showcase a card I made for Freshly Made Sketches #300.

  

I actually made a different card and decided to change it up so it fit the challenge better.  All supplies are from the Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog.  I started with a Crumb Cake card base and stamped the flowers from Touches of Texture stamp set.  I colored the flowers in with the white gel pen and the leaves with pear pizzazz stampin' marker.  Then I die cut the bird from the Birds & Blooms Thinlits Dies from Pool Party cardstock.  I used my aqua painted and Tranquil Tide ink pad to add some contrasting color to the bird.  

Then I stamped a greeting from the Best Birds Photopolymer Stamp Set using Early Espresso ink onto Whisper White cardstock.  I die cut the circle using Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies and then mounted it to a punched 2" circle from Tranquil Tide cardstock.  I cut the side off a length of Tranquil Tide 1/2" finely woven ribbon and pulled a few strands of the thread out and mounted it on the back of the circles using glue dots.  I added some mini silver sequin trim as well for a little bling.

Here is the original card I did as well.  The greeting came from the Ribbon of Courage stamp set and I used both Pear Pizzazz and Old Olive markers on the leaves for some contrast.  Otherwise, everything else is the same.

Enjoy!

A Fresh Birthday Card

I have been wanting to use the new embossing paste in the Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog. I love the 3-D effect the paste adds to the card.  For my first attempt I decided to go with the natural look, white.  I know you can use a reinker and color the paste.  I like the monochrome effect of the white on white though so I started with there.  

I die cut the rhombus shapes from the Eclectic Layers Thinlits and used that as a stencil.  Once the paste dried I cut out some flowers and leaves using the same Eclectic Layers thinlit set.  The flower uses Fresh Fig (one of the new 20017-2018 In Colors from Stampin Up!) and Perfect Plum.  

The greeting is from the Better Together wood mount stamp set.  I love this set as it gives a great variety of greetings to cover various occasions.  I used the Stitched Shapes Framelits die to cut the greeting out and added some mini silver sequin trim as well as some whisper white and fresh fig 1/8" sheer ribbon.

Hope you enjoyed the card!

Eclectic Inspiration

Today I wanted to showcase a card I made using inspiration from a blogger who talked about card layouts.  Unfortunately I can't find that tutorial now, but the card below was my take on the information.  She did not use Stampin' Up! materials for her card.  I decided to use the Oh So Eclectic bundle from the Stampin' Up! 2017-2018 Annual Catalog for my version.  I love the various stamps in this set and it worked well this this card.  The greeting is from the Ribbon of Courage clear mount stamp set, also in the 2017-2018 Annual Catalog. The colors also work well together, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo and Old Olive with Basic Black and Whisper White.

If I find the blog I will definitely post it as I want to give credit where credit is due.

Thanks for stopping by!