Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Way to go

Believe it or not, I just bought my first pack of Good Morning Sunshine designer series paper! I know, I know, what the heck is wrong with me?! I finally saw way too many fabulous projects with this quirky and colorful DSP and had to take the plunge. But surprisingly, for my first card with this paper, I chose one of the more subtle patterns as my background. My goal was a clean and simple design and think I succeeded! Hope you like it too!


Stamps: Starring You
Cardstock: Summer Sun, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: Summer Sun, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Good Morning Sunshine DSP, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, flower brads, 1-1/4" circle punch, 1-3/8" circle punch, scallop circle punch, stampin' dimensionals

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Dryer sheet, part II

I demonstrated the dryer sheet technique at my upline's group meeting tonight and used this card from my stamp club as the sample. But I also wanted to show an alternate way to use the technique. Instead of stamping and then covering the image with the dryer sheet, I used a plain piece of Pacific Point cardstock and used the turquoise Fine Cosmo glitter and came up with this:

I wish you could see just how sparkly this card is in real life! I love the background it creates for the butterfly image. Enjoy!

Stamps: Dreams du Jour, Trendy Trees
Cardstock: Pacific Point, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Fine Cosmo glitter, 1-1/4" square punch, scallop square punch, aquapainter, stampin' dimensionals, brayer, dryer sheet, Xyron machine

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Swap card

After a week-long hiatus, I'm back! I'm coordinating a Mother's Day/Father's Day swap for a local group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators and kept flip-flopping on which holiday to do. But once the Beautiful Butterfly die for my Big Shot machine arrived, I knew that I just HAD to do Mother's Day! :-)

Once again looking to the beautiful Bella Rose designer series paper for inspiration, I ended up with this Cameo Coral/Kiwi Kiss color combination. My first few attempts to free-hand the placement of the sentiment didn't turn out too well so I pulled out my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig.

Hope you like it!

Stamps: Wonderful Favorites
Cardstock: Cameo Coral, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Ink: Cameo Coral, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Bella Rose DSP, Big Shot, Beautiful Butterfly die, silver brad, stamp-a-ma-jig, stampin' dimensionals

Thursday, April 23, 2009

No time to stamp

Sorry for my lack of posting this week. My husband has been home all week with a viral infection so I've been handling all of my son's evening activities (scouts, piano lessons, school skating party) and had stamp club last night. So I haven't had an opportunity to do any stamping for fun. I don't have any projects to share with you at the moment, but hopefully this weekend I'll be back with some new ones!

In the meantime, enjoy this, one of my favorite "Far Side" comics:

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Window Sheets

I was so excited to pre-order the new window sheets (p. 10 in the Occasions Mini Catalog) last month, and yet the package still sat on my craft table unopened. Until today! Using white Stazon ink, I stamped the floral image from "Upsy Daisy" so that I could layer it over some cardstock.

I think the trickiest part of using these window sheets is finding inconspicuous ways to adhere them! I placed a glue dot on the back of one of the flowers and one behind the ribbon to hold the window sheet to the cardstock beneath.

And if you're wondering, yes, that is a reflection of my camera to the right of the flowers! ;-)

Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa
Ink: Stazon White
Accessories: window sheets, kraft taffeta ribbon, glue dots, stampin' dimensionals

Friday, April 17, 2009

Sunflower

My son and I got back last night from a trip down to Cape Coral, Florida to visit my dad over Spring Break. The weather here in Ohio is quite beautiful today, but I sure do miss the palm trees, the pools and beaches, and the key lime pies that my dad makes. I was feeling a bit of withdrawal while I was gone - no stamping for 5 days!! So I spent this morning cutting all the materials for my stamp club project based on this prototype and then started playing for fun. I love the Daisies #2 die for the Big Shot machine so I made this cute sunflower:

The Whisper White layer was embossed with the texturz plates that I love so much, although it's a little hard to tell from the photo. It was made to mimic the flower center that was made from the polka dot side of Bella Rose DSP.

Have a fabulous weekend!! :-)


Stamps: Garden Greetings
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Bella Rose designer series paper, Big Shot machine, Daisies #2 die, large dots texturz plate, 1" circle punch, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, word window punch, stampin' dimensionals

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Clean and simple

This is a card I made a few months ago, but never posted. I was trying for a clean, basic layout and think this card's simplicity worked perfectly. I used the template from the tool kit to line up the brads. I just LOVE the Thoughts & Prayers stamp set - it's so versatile and elegant.


Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers, Pocket Silhouettes
Cardstock: Garden Green, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Garden Green
Accessories: silver brads, tool kit, stampin' dimensionals

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Take the cake

I'm not sure where the inspiration for this card came from, but once I started playing with the image, it took on a life of its own! I stamped the image on Kiwi Kiss, Barely Banana and Tangerine Tango. Then I cut out the cake from Barely Banana and Tangerine Tango and pieced them onto the Kiwi Kiss image. I colored in the cake plate and candle flame with a Versamarker. Using the middle daisy from the Daisies #2 die, I created a burst behind the image and mounted with stampin' dimensionals. I added just a bit of ribbon and two green rhinestone brads to the top corners to finish it off. I hope you enjoy it!!


Stamps: Eight Great Greetings
Cardstock: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Barely Banana
Ink: Stazon Black, Versamarker
Accessories: Tangerine Tango striped grosgrain, Big Shot machine, Daisies #2 die, 1-3/4" circle punch, Ice rhinestone brads, stampin dimensionals

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Card purse revisited

Remember the fabulous card purse project I CASEd from Julie Buhler? Well, I'm doing an alternate version for my stamp club this month. Instead of holding full cards, I wanted to convert it to a smaller size to hold 3x3 cards and envelopes. So before I tapped into the Parisian Breeze designer series paper I'm using for the club project, I gave it a whirl with Urban Oasis so I could work out the kinks. I also changed it up so it only had one pocket inside. Hope you like my prototype!!



Stamps: Fresh Cuts
Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Kraft, Whisper White
Ink: Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Urban Oasis designer series paper, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, word window punch, silver brads, sticky strip, stampin' dimensionals

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Mojo Monday challenge 81

I have seen so many terrific cards based on this week's Mojo Monday sketch floating around in cyberspace. I guess the peer pressure got to me, and I decided to give it a try as well. Here's the sketch:

And here's my interpretation:


Sorry for the blurry picture, but I was trying to capture the polka dot texture on the Riding Hood Red panel. This sketch was a little hard for me because of all the elements, but I think it turned out pretty cute!


Stamps: Garden Greetings, Darling Dots
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Bella Rose designer series paper, Big Shot machine, texturz plates, white taffeta ribbon, silver brads, 1" circle punch, 1-1/4" circle punch, corner rounder, stampin' dimensionals

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Decor Elements

One of my stamp club members ordered the beautiful "Tree, Thoughts & Prayers" decor element for her daughter's nursery and asked me to help her install it. So a friend of hers came to assist and boy, am I glad she did! The tree was the large one (measures 52-1/8" x 36-1/8") and comes in 6 sections. We did a dry run by adhering it to the wall with painter's tape to make sure the placement was where she wanted it. Then we went to work assembling the tree, and it was great to have an extra set of hands! The tree grew right before our eyes and it turned out beautiful.

She has it in a corner of the room next to the crib, and it will be such a wonderful place for making special memories with her new little one when she arrives!

Thanks Jill for letting me take a picture and share your lovely nursery!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Punch challenge

Time for another challenge! This time, I participated in a past "Clean and Simple" challenge on Splitcoaststampers. The challenge was to create a card using punches and not much else. So I started by using the negative space created by using the trio flower punch.

Ok, so I might not have followed the challenge exactly (I ended up adding brads and ribbon), but I just couldn't help myself!

I made this card last night and couldn't get a good picture of it even using my light box. So I waited until today so I could use some natural light instead. But no matter what I did, the cardbase still doesn't look as purple as it should using Almost Amethyst. So use your imagination and you'll see the very Easter-y color combo I intended!! ;-)


Stamps: Heard from the Heart
Cardstock: Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana
Ink: Almost Amethyst
Accessories: trio flower punch, white satin ribbon, silver brads, stampin' dimensionals

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Flower gift box

I'm continually amazed at the fabulous creativity I find while blog-surfing. Today was certainly no exception. Kerin Sylvester's blog had this adorable gift project, perfect for Mother's Day. With her video tutorial, it was so easy to pull this together.


Now just to find some goodies to fill it with and it's ready to give! Thanks for the inspiration Kerin!!

Stamps: Holidays & Wishes
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Apricot Appeal, Pale Plum, Whisper White
Ink: Pale Plum
Accessories: Bella Rose designer series paper, white organza ribbon, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, Big Shot machine, Daisies #2 die, scallop circle die, stampin' dimensionals

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Stamp-a-stack close-ups

On Monday, I showed you a sneak peek of my thank you stamp-a-stack cards from last weekend, but here are some close-ups with details. Two of the cards were already featured on my blog, so I'm not going to repeat them.

This first one was CASEd from a fellow demonstrator Gretchen (hey girl!!). She created a beautiful card for a group swap, and I only made some minor changes.



The second one was CASEd from a Stampin' Up! demonstrator magazine (Stampin' Success). The magazine gives us lots of great business tips and some awesome project ideas.

And this one was a last-minute creation (just a few hours before class time!!). It featured a cute little bird that is part of the Birds & Blooms sizzlit 4-pack. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the bird's wing is popped up with a dimensional.


{{Blue/Brown}}
Stamps: Thoughts & Prayers, Fresh Cuts
Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Baja Breeze
Accessories: eyelet border punch, Parisian Breeze designer series paper, stampin' dimensionals

{{Green/Brown/Pink}}
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Enjoy Every Moment
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Whisper White
Ink: White craft ink, Regal Rose
Accessories: wide oval punch, Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, stampin' dimensionals

{{Pink/Blue/Black}}
Stamps: Short & Sweet, Forever Flowers wheel
Cardstock: Cameo Coral, Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Very Vanilla
Ink: Basic Black, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Big Shot Machine, Birds & Blooms sizzlit, 1-3/4" circle punch, stampin' dimensionals

Class reject

While designing cards for my next class, this card didn't make the final cut. Still, I thought it was cute enough to share on my blog. It's another bright color combo, which is typically out of my comfort zone. We're expecting another cold blast next week, so I thought it was a perfect way to keep me thinking of warmer weather.


I used my tool kit to pierce above the Old Olive strip and then used a Summer Sun marker to connect the dots, resulting in a subtle faux stitching.
Enjoy!

Stamps: Say it With Scallops, Starring You
Cardstock: Summer Sun, Old Olive, Pink Passion, Whisper White
Ink
: Summer Sun, Old Olive, Pink Passion
Accessories
: square scallop punch, tool kit, corner rounder, stampin' dimensionals

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