Not Your Typical Halloween Card

One of my younger sisters was born, three weeks early, on Halloween.  After more than one Jack-O-Lantern birthday cake, I feel for her.  I wanted to make a birthday card that was in traditional colors without looking like a Halloween card.  

It is the perfect way to introduce my product for the month, embossing folders.  I began collection embossing folders long before I found Stampin' Up! and this is still one of my favorites.

I started with a base of Calypso Coral and added a piece of  I Am Me DSP that is very fitting for my sis. She's becoming quite the photographer.  I cut a piece of Smokey Slate down to 2 1/2 x 3 inches and embossed it with the Happy Birthday embossing folder from Provo Craft. To really make the embossing stand out, I sponged it with Smokey Slate ink, then I added a piece of So Saffron along the side punches with the retired Notebook punch.  To make sure it was a true birthday card, I got out the Cupcake Builder punch and went to town.  Pool Party DSP, Calypso Coral for the frosting and So Saffron for the sentiment from the coordinating stamp set. 

The inside was finished with a strip of washi tape and some candles from the Cupcake Builder stamp set, as well as the inside greeting   I added some yellow stickles to the candles inside and on the front.

Thanks for looking!

Kissing, the Stamping Kind

There are so many techniques around that it's sometimes hard to choose what to do next.  I looked at you tube, blogs, Pinterest, you know all the usual inspiration places.  What I decided to do was something I haven't tired my self, but seen done a bunch of times: kissing, the stamping kind of course.

The idea is to ink up a large stamp, like a background stamp, and then press an un-inked bold image stamp onto the inked stamp and stamp the newly inked, bold image stamp.  That made sense right :)  I wasn't exactly sure where I was going with this card, I just played around and this was born.

Ok, so I used the Bella Toile background stamp and some butterflies from the Precious butterfly stamp set.  I chose Wisteria Wonder for the card base because I hadn't used it it a while.  I wanted the butterflies to stand out, so I went a shade darker and used Perfect Plumb for the ink.  I inked up the Bella Toile stamp and pressed the Butterflies onto the stamp, then stamped them onto the card base.  I stamped off the remaining ink before touching the butterfly to the Bella Toile stamp again.  And, as it turns out, I created my own patterned paper, technique #2. 

To finish off the card, I added some butterflies punched with beautiful butterfly punch, small butterfly punch and the beautiful wings embosslit. The washi tape was just for fun. the sentiment is from Express Yourself, stamped in my favorite retired Lucky Limeade.

The inside looks like this:

Same butterfly stamps, inked in Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, and Pool Party.
Thanks for looking!

Note Card Set with Happy You

One of the first hostess sets I bought from Stampin' Up! was one called Happy You. 


Then I realized I don't love coloring, especially little images that don't take up the whole card front! lol

But as I was getting ready for this post, I stumbled upon the Festive Friday card challenge. The challenge was to include a wreath.  That's all, include a wreath.  I thought of this stamp set, and decided that instead of trying to make the little image be a whole card, I'd make a set of note cards and CAS a card I saw on Pinterest.

I used the Whisper White Stampin' Up! note cards and stamped the wreath in the bottom right corner with black Stays on ink.  Then I colored it with my Many Marvelous Markers set.  This image has Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler and the Silver pen from last years holiday catalog.  I used a pencil and t-ruler to make a fine line around the edge, and used my black journaling pen to trace over it.  I wanted the line to be obviously hand drawn, but I have a hard time drawing straight, as is witnessed by the first set now taking up space in my scrap bin.

Here is the rest of the card set.

I should have paid attention to what colors I used, but I  just grabbed and colored.  It just goes to show, sometimes when you try something out side your normal, you get something cool. 

Thanks for looking!

Holiday Cards Have Begun

In the past I have mass produced one card to send out each holiday season.  This year, I'm going to try something different and produce on a smaller scale a few different cards.  The first one of the season, is the focus of my product Friday post on DSP (designer series paper).  Next Friday is a new month and I will move onto a different product that Stampin'  Up! sells.
The idea of the card is to let the DSP do the talking.  

I started with a card base in Cherry Cobbler that is 4 1/4 x 11 inches, folded in half at 5 1/2 inches.  The DSP, from the holiday stack in the holiday catalog from last year, is cut 1/4 inch smaller.  The Very Vanilla layer is 3 3/4 x 5 inches.  I think it should be even smaller for the DSP to have a greater effect.  First I punched the shape with the retired Christmas Ornament punch, then I embossed it with the Snow Flake embossing folder.  The sentiment come from More Merry Messages, which I love because it has outside and inside stamps. It's stamped in Soft Suede on Crumb Cake.   I wrapped the card with Cherry Cobbler bakers twine so the ornament wasn't just hanging there.  I sponged the card pieces with Crumb Cake for a more vintage look.  
Here's the inside:

The ornament looked like it needed a little something so on one card I added some basic Pearls. Sorry the photo is blurry.  My good camera is still on the fritz.

On another one I used Dazzling Details.

Not sure which one I like better.

Thanks for looking!

Ocean Theme Wedding

We have a friend who got married recently and chose a wedding theme.  She is originally from California and where we are in Virginia, isn't really close to a beach.  But it was beautifully done.  Just beachy enough for the idea, but still more of a semi formal event the way she wanted.  I wanted to create a card with the same ocean feel.  I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to card inspirations and found the perfect color combo there.

I started with Crumb Cake card base that is 11 x 4 1/4 inches, scored at 5 1/2 inches, and background stamped in Crumb Cake with the Bella Toile stamp set, stamped off first for a more subtle look.   Then I dug through my scrap bin and found a piece of Whisper white that was 5 1/4 x 3 1/2 inches and created the background.  I've done the same technique with water color paper and an aqua brush, but I wanted to try with the Stampin' Up! markers.  I used Basic Grey, Midnight Muse, Island Indigo, Coastal Cabana and Pool Party.  I just colored across the paper with the wide end of the marker, slightly blending the colors together.  I stamped the sentiment from the Mr and Mrs stamp set with Versa Mark ink and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder, and cut it with the Apothecary Accents Framelit.  I added the butterflies cut and embossed with the Beautiful wings Embosslit for a bit of fun.

Thanks for looking!

You Can Do It- Sketch Frenzy Friday

My challenge this week comes from the Sketch Frenzy Friday blog.  It'a a sketch challenge that actually inspired me right away.  


I recently broke down and purchased the butterfly punches from Stampin' Up!  They were on my want list, so I finally got them, and they spoke to me the minute I saw this sketch.  I've added a couple extra photos, but I notices that my camera is being a bit weird, so they are shiny. lol

I started with a Sahara Sand card base.  That was actually the last color choice I made, but it is the color that spoke to me after I had chosen all the other colors.  It is a standard  A2 card base, 5 1/2 inches x 4 1/4 inches.  I put a piece of the Calypso Coral washi tape from the This and That collection on first.  I laid it all out, and it needed a little something to add dimension, so I stamped a flourish from the Flowering Flourishes stamp set in Sahara Sand ink.  I also used the same stamp and ink to stamp on top of the butterflies before I adhered them down. 

The butterflies are punches with the Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly punches and the smallest is from the Beautiful Wings Embosslit. They are in Island Indigo, Pool Party and Daffodil Delight.  The sentiment is from the hostess set Express Yourself, a great sentiment set to have. It covers everything!

The inside is simply decorated with another strip of washi tape and another butterfly in Island Indigo.  And no sentiment inside yet means I can save it for whoever needs a boost.

Thanks for looking!

Thank You Kind Doer of Good Deeds

Here we are again on a product Friday with another DSP project.  The cool thing about Stampin' Up! DSP is that both sides are pretty.  That also poses a problem occasionally.  I've told you all before how addicted to pretty paper I am.  I think I might be boarding on hoarder status ;)

My card this week is a CAS card technique.  The sunburst is making it's way around and I thought I'd try my hand it as well.  And when better than when I'm showing off my paper stash.

When I make a card I start from the top down, but when I blog I start from the bottom up.  It's kind of weird to be so opposite.The card base is Calypso Coral, 4 1/4 x 11 inches, folded in half at 5 1/2 inches.  The Pool Party mat is 5 x 3 3/4 inches.  There is a scrap paper mat under the DSP that is 5 x 2 3/4 inches that I covered in adhesive.  The DSP is Everyday Enchantment. Their are 4 pieces that are cut 1 1/2 x 4 inches, cut along the diagonal.  I folded the scrap paper in half a bit to find the middle and started putting the triangle pieces down right next to each other.  When I had all 8 triangles down, covering the scrap paper, I trimmed the excess off and mounted it to the Pool Party mat.  The ribbon is Lucky Limeade organza  The sentiment is from the new Lost of Thanks stamp set, stamped in Soft Suede on Lucky Limeade.

For the inside, I added some This&That washi tape and some butterflies punched with the small butterfly punch in the same DSP. There is no inside sentiment, because I don't have a specific person in mind for this card, yet.  

Thanks for looking!

Masking and Embossing

I've seen a lot of cards lately with sponging in shapes.  Every once in a while I have an idea that turns out just how I imagined it.  I need to start  getting some card sets together for holiday gifts, so  I used the Stampin' Up! note cards in Whisper White and Crumb Cake for this project. 

I started on the Whisper White, and masked off the note card front with a piece of paper that has a 2 1/2 inch circle cut out.  I used Basic Grey ink and a stampin' sponge around the edge and filled in the center with Island Indigo.  I like the look of shadow on night colors so I used Basic Black ink and stamped the flourish from the Fabulous Flourishes stamp set. And it looked cool.

Then I moved onto the crumb Cake cards.  I used the same mask and colors, but when I stamped the shadow image, I didn't like the dark as well, so I thought, embossing..... and the rest is history.  I used Versa mark ink and white embossing powder. And it looked so much cooler (is that a word).  So then I thought.... black embossing powder...I pulled out my stamp a ma jig, stamped the flourish on the imaging sheet, lined it up with the image on my cards and stamped it again in Versa mark ink. Then heat set the black embossing powder. Even better!

Thanks for looking!

Hello There

My Monday post is a bit late.  It seems like weekends are crazy around here lately.  I chose the dynamic duo challenge this week.  I like the idea of playing with colors I wouldn't have put together myself. 



This is my card for the challenge:

I wanted to try water coloring the background.  I'm kind of liking the idea of water coloring everything lately, I think. It's easy and adds  a WOW to the card.  The colors are obviously So Saffron and Calypso Coral.  The card base is 11 x 4 1/4 inches scored at 5 1/2 inches.  The DSP is from Everyday Enchantment, cut to 4 x 5 1/4 inches.  The water color paper is 3 x 4 inches.  I wrapped the water color panel with some old organza ribbon in Calypso Coral. It needed something.  The image is from Fabulous Flourishes and the Sentiment is from the retired Hello You stamp set. Both were stamped in Basic Grey. I didn't do anything to the inside because I don't have a immediate use for them, it was just a fun challenge.
Thanks for looking.

Paper Candles

Another great thing about DSP, is how quickly you can put together a card.  Most of the time, when I'm ready to make a card, I choose a stamp set, some colors and then get to play.  For this card, I kind of knew what I wanted the end to be.  The card was for a friends son who is a teenager. The two hardest groups of people to make card for :)

The card base is Soft Suede cut to 4 1/4 x 11 inches, scored and folded to 5 1/2 inches.  I used the Stripes Embossing Folder for some texture in the background.  The candles are made from Sycamore Street DSP.  They were cut about 1/2 an inch wide, I didn't really measure, just cut the width that looked good.  

 For the flame, I used the Ornament punch from the Merry Mini's Punch Pack from the 2012 holiday cataloge. I punched it in Summer Starfruit, turned it upside down and added some gold stickles from my stash.  The banner sentiment is from Happiest Birthday Wishes, stamped in Island Indigo ink.

Thanks for looking!

Stamping In Motion

One of the cool things about really juicy stamp pads is the ability to use generation stamping to stamp motion.  That sounds kind of weird I know, you cannot actually stamp something in motion. But you can achieve the look!

When I make a card, I usually make two at a time.  One to give to the person I designe it for and one for my card drawer for future use or sale. I made this card for one of my nephews. The first time I made it, I stamped the frog jumping out of the basket, but I wanted to see what it would look like the other way around.
So I began with a card base in Gumball Green 5 1/2 x 11 inches, scored and folded at 4 1/4 inches.  The layer is from the Comfort Cafe DSP and cut 5 1/4 x 4 inches.  I think I cut and recut this layer three times because it looked crooked as I was adding the image layer. I've decided it was an optical illusion and just kept going.
The Whisper White layer is cut 4 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches.  I used the Many Marvelous Markers in Real Red, Midnight Muse, and Basic Black to color the stamp, and then re moistened the stamp with my hot air :) and stamped.  I used the Stamp a ma jig to line up the frog and them stamped him 4 times without re-inking in gumball ink.  Oh, the images and sentiment are from the Moving Forward stamp set, except the clouds. They are from Send Me Soaring, stamped in Soft Sky ink. The flag was a last minute thought. The card needed balance and more color.  I just grabbed something from my scrap bin.

I finished the card by adding more frogs to the inside.
Thanks for looking!

Fusion Card Challenge #19

In my blog hopping this past couple weeks, I stumbled upon The Fusion Card blog.  I liked the idea of two sides of the challenge, the sketch and the photo. 

 

I started with the sketch only, but decided to take the whole challenge and make a birthday card for my niece and go pink.

I started by turning the sketch sideways, for a little kick.  The card base is Smoky Slate cut to 4 1/4 x 11 inches, scored at 5 1/2 inches.  The pink paper is Melon Mambo cut 2 x 5 1/2 inches.  I decided to use some Designer Series Paper (DSP) for added texture and pinkness.  The Blushing Bride DSP is from the retired Beau Chateau pack.  I stamped the sentiment from Moving Forward onto Whisper White in Smoky Slate ink.  I needed to find a way to add some pink to the center square. I looked through my drawer and found my washi tapes. This washi tape is from the Gingham Garden collection.  The butterfly is from the Papillion Potpourri stamp set, stamped in Melon Mambo ink on some Blushing Bride DSP and punched with the coordinating butterfly punch.  The flags are Melon Mambo DSP and Blushing Bride card stock. The bling is Dazzling Details all over the butterfly.  

The cool thing that doesn't show up in the winds curled up and looked like they were fliting away.  The final touch was adding some butterflies and washi tape inside.

Thanks for looking!

PS

Just a quick PS, Saturday is World Card Making day. So get out there and make a card or two or three!

Twins!

Our favorite nurse at my children's doctor's office found out that not only is she expecting, but that she is having twins! Holy Cow that's exciting. So for today's card, I made one for her that was kind of inspired by the card I posted Wednesday   I liked the double baby tags and thought that would be good for a twins card. 

And as promised this is a product day.  The product I will be using this month is DSP, or Designer Series Paper.  I may have mentioned that I am addicted to pretty paper, and Stampin' Up! has some pretty papers!  My paper of choice today is a retired pack called Birda of a Feather.  



The cool thing about DSP is that it can be your color inspiration, which is what I did today.

Because we don't know boys or girls, or both, yet, I took my inspiration form the DSP and began with a Summer Starfruit card base, 4 1/4 x 11 inches, scored at 5 1/2.  The DSP is 1/4 of an inch smaller at 4 x 5 1/4 inches.  I added a mat to the stamped image of Crumb Cake cut at 2 7/8 x 3 1/8 inches and the Whisper White Panel for the image is 2 3/4 x 3 inches.  I picked the widest bird cage, stamped in soft suede,  from the Aviary stamp set so that I could get two birds inside, stamped in Island Indigo ink.  The banner and sentiment are from the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set, paired with the Bitty Banners Framelits. It needed a punch of something so I punched a bit of Island Indigo DSP with the Scallop punch and added it to the Crumb Cake mat. To finish off the image, I added two tags from the Tiny Tags stamp set, punched with the Jewelry punch, added a bow tied with Early Espresso bakers twine and topped with a Crumb Cake candy dot.

To pretty up the inside, I stamped a row of birds in Primrose Petals and Island Indigo and added another sentiment in Soft Suede.

Thanks for looking!

Fabulous Fold #1

Interesting folds are a quick way to spice up a card.  I went for the Z fold card today. It probably has more than one name, but that is how I know it.  I found a diagram on Pinterest to show how to cut and score the card stock.



I decided to make a baby card for a shower that I am attending later this month.

I started with a piece of Pink Pirouette card stock cut and scored like the diagram above.  I added some Beau Chateau DSP cut to 5 1/4 x 1 1/2.  The sentiment is from the Swirls and Curls Verses stamp set, stamped in Soft Suede ink with a Pink Pirouette banner along for the ride. I added some tags punched with the Jewelry Tag punch in both Whisper White and Pink Pirouette, tied together with Pool Party Bakers Twine. The edges are sponged for a little more shabby look.

Now for the bang!

The inside is layers with the same DSP and a Whisper White panel for a message and a cute little peek a baby image from the Happy You stamp set colored with the Many Marvelous Markers.

I thought it was kind of cute how the peek a baby was peeking out from inside the card. 

Thanks for looking!