Floral Wreath

I have had this wreath in parts made for the last few months.  I finally had a chance to finish the flowers.  Because of my procrastination (or overbooking myself), I had to change the large flower out for a different one.  I used some product from sale-a-bration and since these products were no longer available, I had the opportunity to make a peony!  I really love peonies!!  I love the color and the smell! I just don't like the ants, but I understand the whole circle of life aspect of why ants are important to them so I tolerate them and shake the flowers really really hard when I want to enjoy them indoors ;0).

I love making paper flowers.  Stampin' Up! has so many great products for making flowers.  The new flower die in the 2014 Occasions catalog is great for making roses and other flowers as well.

I also like the creped filter paper for making flowers with a more delicate look.  I used creped filter paper for the peony.  I cut different floral shapes using the Floral Frames Framelits Die.  Then I sprayed the filter paper flowers with a mix of ink (blushing bride and raspberry ripple and crushed curry for the inside of the flower).  I really like how the mix of ink and alcohol dries so quickly. Allows you to continue a project the same day!!

And then there are the punches!  I used the pansy punch and the petite petals punches for the crushed curry flowers.

I hung this wreath in my foyer so people can see it when they walk into the house. I love the way it turned out and the colors make me happy whenever I see it!

Bullseye!

When I saw the May sketch challenge from Stampin' Celebration (SC77S), one of the ideas that came to mind was a bullseye!  It was one of those "trying to go to sleep Ah Ha moments!".  I even had to physically get out of bed because I knew I would not be able to go to sleep without making the bullseye.  Luckily that did the trick, along with a small dose of melatonin.

What better way to make a bullseye than to use the circle framelits.  I decided to use the colors from my company (red and gray) and make a card for a colleague who was promoted.

With the bullseye as the focal point, I knew I needed an arrow (no brainer).  I stamped the arrow from Peachy Keen onto Smoky Slate cardstock and fussy cut the arrow.  Then I stamped the greeting (Express Yourself Hostess Stamp Set) on the opposite side of the stamped image.  The stamping really only gave me the right size image to fussy cut.  I used the arrow from the On Film Framelits Die (2014 Occasions Catalog) set and cut the arrow mat out from Basic Gray cardstock.  I added a few rhinestones to the bulls eye to add some bling.

For the banner, I embossed Whisper White with the arrow textured embossing folder (2014 Occasions catalog) and then ran real red, basic gray, basic black and smoky slate through the same embossing folder and added some color to the banner by cutting out the images and gluing them into the whisper white banner.  

I decided the background needed a little grunge so I used Off the Grid Stamp Set on the background.

I think my colleague will get a kick out of this card!  I think I am the only one who really cares about the company colors.  But colors mean a lot to me!

Hope you got some inspiration from the card!  The bullseye idea can be used for any congratulation-type occasion!

Stamp Sets: Off the Grid, Express Yourself, Peachy Keen

Colors: Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black

Big Shot: Arrow Textured Embossing Folder, Circle Framelits, On Film Framelits

Accessories: Basic Rhinestones

Freshly Made Thanks

It's been a busy month already!  I can't believe it's April 11th.  We took our first Spring Break this year!  Usually our vacation is int he summer time but we booked a trip to Jamaica in November, before we knew the winter we would have!  I have to say, I am so glad we did!!  It was great to be in warm weather for a while!  Then, when we returned I had to go to San Francisco for a few days for work. I haven't been away from home this much in a while.  It's kind of nice, but then again, I like to be home!!

The good thing is that I read 5 books in the past 2 weeks, unprecedented!!  The bad news was that I didn't have much time to stamp :0(.  Today was the first time in a while I could stamp.  I decided to make it easy and play along with Freshly Made Sketches #131.

For this card I used the Six Sided Sampler stamp set and Etcetera Designer Series Paper.  The card went together pretty quickly once I chose the color scheme.  I still had a few ribbon scraps leftover from my nieces birthday tags so I used a color combination that would allow me to use up some of these scraps!

Hoping to get to some scrapbooking this weekend.  I did not complete my challenge (finish up 2013 by end of March) and now I have a whole vacation to document!!  The good news is, I am getting my own laptop soon, so I won't have to negotiate with my daughters for a computer.  Let's see if that excuse pans out ;0).

Have a good one!  Should be springtime weather this weekend in Chicagoland!!

Stamp Sets: Six Sided Sampler

Colors: Pear Pizzazz, Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Crushed Curry 3/4" Chevron Ribbon, Pear Pizzazz 3/4" Chevron Ribbon, Etcetera Designer Series Paper

Stampin Celebration Inspiration Challenge #77

I am so excited to be a guest member of the Stampin' Celebration Design Team.  I love the challenges posted by this team and the wonderful projects they create.  The talent out there is so amazing so I was humbled by this invitation from the team!

For this months Inspiration Sketch #77, the neutral colors really struck me and I have wanted to make hydrangeas for a long time now so it was the perfect challenge to get me going on the hydrangeas.

Here is card I designed.  As you can see, I stuck with the neutrals with a splash of green.

The main card is Crumb Cake with a Very Vanilla base.  I sporadically inked up parts of the Dictionary stamp with Crumb Cake ink and stamped the Very Vanilla base.  Then I used a sponge and colored in parts of the base  and the edges of the base with Crumb Cake ink to give it a washed look.

For the flowers, I cut them out of creped filter paper using the Floral Fusion thinlits die (the medium and small flowers).  Then I sprayed the medium sized flowers with a combination of crumb cake reinker and alcohol using a stampin spritzer and for the smaller flowers I used early espresso reinker and alcohol.  The flowers dried in just a few minutes so I was able to put the card together in one day!

While the flowers were drying I stamped the leaves image from the Simply Sketched Hostess Stamp Set using versamark and heat embossed them with Wild Wasabi embossing powder.  I stamped 2 leaves on the bottom-left corner and one on the top-right. 

Once the flowers were dry I adhered them to each other using glue dots and then I put a glue dot onthe card and added the flowers.  This way I could scrunch the flowers a little as I added them to the card to give them a more natural look.

Once the flowers were on the card I added the pearls to the center.

The butterfly is also created using creped fiilter paper.  I sponged some filter paper with So Saffron ink and then stamped the butterfly from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set and punched out 4 butterflys using the bitty butterfly punch.

The greeting is also from the Simply Sketched stamp set.  I stamped this in Early Espresso onto Very Vanilla cardstock and made a flag.  I mounted the Very Vanilla flag onto Crumb Cake for added contrast.

I am happy with my hydrangea look!  The creped filter paper is fun to play with.  I can't believe I haven't used it until now.  I made three different projects with them lately!  I guess I have to purchase more!  

Have a wonderful day!

Stamp Sets: Dictionary background stamp, Simply Sketched (hostess set), Papillon Potpourri 

Big Shot: Floral Fusion thinlit die

Colors: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Wild Wasabi

Accessories: Creped Filter Paper, sponge, Basic Pearls, Wild Wasabi embossing powder and VersaMark, Bitty Butterfly Punch

Happy 18th BIrthday tags and card

My oldest niece turned 18 on March 18th.  Yep, another golden birthday!  After seeing how I made her sister's gifts (see post here), she hinted she would enjoy something similar.  So for her birthday I went about with designing something similar and yet unique for her.  

I was going to try to buy items that were in 18-packs.  But I couldn't find 18 items and many were expensive and not quite useful so I decided on making 18 gift tags and wrapping her favorite candy/gum in the Tag a Bag gift bags with a $5 bill.

When I started designing her ensemble I decided to use the Hexagon Hive Thinlits Die.  I thought it would allow me the flexibility to create different designs, while similar, on each tag.  And of course, I had to use the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch. I am so thrilled to have this punch!!  It really made this project go so much faster!

To make the tags I cut cardstock into pieces that were 2" by 4" and then ran them through the big shot using the hexagon hive thinlit.  I saved the inside hexagons and used them to fill in the tags to add a little color.  I used 2-way glue to glue the hexagon hive to whisper white cardstock and then punched the tag with the scalloped tag punch.

For the numbers I used the Morning Post Numbers Stamp Set and punched them using the hexagon punch. 

I used 5 different colors, matching them to the 3/4" chevron ribbon I had on hand.  Pretty simple in that respect! 

 For the card, I followed the same theme.  I raised the hexagon hive image using dimensionals and tucked the contrast hexagons behind the raised image to add color.  I used scraps of ribbon (have a ton of that now) to embellish the card.  

I am not sure it was as much fun to open her gifts since the gifts were all pretty much the same (although getting 18 $5 bills was kind of fun).  I figured it would embarrass her if I bought her underwear like I bought her sister!

Colors: Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Smoky Slate, Marina Mist, Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride

Stamp Sets: Morning Post Numbers, Petite Pairs

Big Shot: Hexagon Hive Thinlit

Accessories: Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Hexagon Punch, 3/4" chevron ribbon in Crushed Curry, Smoky Slate, Marina Mist, Pear Pizzazz, and Blushing Bride

Forty Cheers

My Brother-in-Law turned forty this year so I made him a card to celebrate his special day.  He likes beer so I decided to make a beer card.

I used My Digital Studio to make the beer foam (New Heights-cloud 2 Stamp Brush) and the cheers greeting (Happy Hour Stamp Brush) with my e-cutter.  I made each item a little bigger to fit the card.

The beer mug is made with vellum cardstock, embossed with the stripe embossing folder.  In order to avoid perforating the vellum I embossed the vellum with no tabs on the Big Shot platform (instead of tab 1).  You can still see the lines but they vellum is not coming apart.

The "beer" in the mug is just summer starfruit cardstock.  I used the arrows embossing folder on the background.

The "forty" greeting was made using the Designer Type Photopolymer Stamp set which is no longer available.  Apologies for that, I forgot I wanted to post this one to my blog.

He enjoyed the card so I was happy!  With the e-cutter, it is so much better to have the versatility of sizing your e-stamps to fit your needs!

Colors: Pool Party, Midnight Muse, Summer Startfruit, Whisper White 

Stamp Sets:  Designer Type Photopolymer Stamp set (no longer available)

My Digital Studio: New Heights-cloud 2 Stamp Brush, Happy Hour Stamp Brush

Big Shot: Arrow Embossing Folder, Stripe Embossing Folder

Accessories: Vellum Cardstock, sponge

Good Ol' USA

My department hosted a colleague from Japan for the last 3 months.  He is returning to Japan on Saturday so I designed a card for to say best wishes and thanks for joining our department.  

I decided to use the Map It Out photopolymer set, specifically the map of the USA. A nice way to remember his stay in the US.

I wasn't sure what type of greeting to use so I went with "Best Wishes" from Petite Pairs.  I thought this greeting was appropriate as a "farewell" greeting.

The background is a mix of stamps, both Off the Grid and Gorgeous Grunge.  For the colors I decided to use Summer Starfruit, Island Indigo and Early Espresso.

The card is pretty easy to make.  I only had about 30 minutes to design and make it so I made it fairly simple.