Saturday, May 30

Winged Thing


I made this card for another challenge called Winged Things in the Stamp Out Alzheimers challenge. This card features the gorgeous butterfly and greeting from the Great Friend set. The butterfly is stamped three times in Baha Breeze on Shimmery White cardstock. An additional one is stamped out and placed over the middle one. The leaves in the butterfly are colored in with Kiwi Kiss ink and a couple of half beads are added in the middle of the body.

The Shimmery White cardstock is layered on Baha Breeze and then Kiwi Kiss cardstock. The card is Baha Breeze carstock and then the bottom layer is my favorite piece from the Urban Oasis designer paper series. The greeting is stamped in Basic Gray.

A fairly simple, but very elegant (I think) card.

Set: Great Friend
Ink: Baha Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray
Carstock: Baha Breeze, Kiwi Kiss and Shimmery White
Accessories: Pretties Kit, Blender Pen

Friday, May 29

2 and 2

This is another project that I created for one of the Stamp Out Alheimers challenges. The challenge was to use two colors (specifically brown and pink) and 2 embellishments. So, I chose to use the Flight of the Butterfly-- a set I love but rarely use. Along with that set, for the colors I used Pink Pirouette and Chocolate chip and my favorite designer paper-- Sweet Always. For the two embellishments, I chose to use chocolate grosgrain ribbon and the Flower Fusion Too flowers. I can't get enough of that Color Spritzer Tool--- I can't believe I waited 12 years to buy it-- and used it to break up the white on the butterfly piece. More challenge ideas this weekend.

Set: Flight of the Butterfly
Ink: Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Textured Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Accessories: Color Spritzer Tool, Chocolate Chip Marker, Chocolate Grosgrain, Flower Fusion Too, Sweet Always

Thursday, May 28

Stamp Out Alheimers

I am taking part in this cool event called Stamp Out Alzheimers that Jen Tapler has organized. It's a great week long event that you pay a small fee to join and then there is a great Ning site with challenges and great prizes. There are also free downloads and great conversations. Very fun. Anyway, this is one of my challenge cards. The challenge was to create a card following a layout design.

This card is done in Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant. I don't use Eggplant often, but it is actually one of my favorite colors. It's very rich and "elegant" I think. This card uses the single stamp Flowers in Silhouette, from the last page of the catalog, and the greeting is from Thank You Kindly.

I inked up the flower with Eggplant and Olive markers and then spritzed gently and stamped on Whisper White cardstock. Then I spritzed the paper using the Color Spritzer tool and the Old Olive marker. Love this effect. This image is layers on Olive and Eggplant cardstock which is ripped at the bottom and added to the card with dimensionals.

The background is hard to see, but I ran the Eggplant cardstock through the BigShot using one of the texture plates and stamped "Thank You" in the bottom right hand corner. The designer paper is from the Walk In the Park series in the current mini. The gold brads and olive grosgrain ribbon were in the original design and add some texture.

Sets: Thank You Kindly, Flowers in Silhouettes
Ink: Basic Black
Cardstock: Whisper White, Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: Walk in the Park DSP, Paper Piercer, Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant markers, Color Spritzer Tool, Gold Brads, Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensionals, BigShot and Texture Plate set I

Tuesday, May 26

Happy Birthday to Susan and Susie

This is a card I made for a couple of friend's birthday's in the last couple weeks. I hope they liked them. I really like this Inspired by Nature set. I don't have any idea why I waited to long to get it. I guess because I have so many flowers and always say I'm not going to buy any more flowers... but I always do.

This card is done in Regal Rose, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip. I inked the stamp sing markers and then spritzed the stamp a few times to make it watercolor-like. The Happy Birthday is from the All Holidays set and is stamped in Chocolate Chip ink. I used the Color Spritzer Tool with the Chocolate Chip marker to add the soft faded splatter background.

The designer paper on the background layer is from the Walk In the Park collection and the green layer is punched with the Scallop Edge punch. Lastly I tied some narrow grosgrain Chocolate Chip ribbon around the bottom half and added a Chocolate Chip corduroy button with some linen thread tied on.

Sets: Inspired by Nature, All Holidays
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Shimmery White
Accessories: Walk in the Park DSP, Color Spritzer Tool, Regal Rose, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip markers, Scallop Edge punch, Narrow Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Linen Thread and Chocolate Corduroy Button

Friday, May 22

Flower Pot Card

I found this really cute idea on Stephanie Sluman's blog and came up with my own version to teach at Stamp Club Tuesday night. Everyone really enjoyed it... although it can be a bit tedious.

The pot is made with Chocolate Chip cardstock 4 inches by9 1/2 inches and scored long way at 1 1/2 and 5 1/2 inches. Fold the small flap over and punch with the Scallop Edge punch and pierce holes in each scallop. Then I tied the wide Olive grosgrain ribbon around the pot and added the tag made with the BigShot Lots of Tags die and stamped "For You" from the Great Friend set. The pot is only held together with the ribbon... there is no sticky strip or other adhesive along the sides.The card part that inserts into the pot is made with Ivory Naturals carstock, cut at 3 3/4 inches and then the sides are cut to fit the pot. The flowers come from the Die Cut Blooms set and the leaves are made with the Five Petal Punch. I just arranged the flowers until I was happy and then added some olive flower middles using the 1/2" and 3/4 " circle punches and added a few gold brads to bling it up a bit. I hope you like it.

Set: Great Friend
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Ivory Naturals
Accessories: Die Cut Blooms, Gold Brads, Scallop Edge, 1/2", 3/4", 5 Petal Flower, 1/8" punches, Paper Piercer and mat, Big Shot and Lots of Tags Die, Old Olive Wide Grosgrain ribbon

Thursday, May 21

Wallet for Dad

This is the final project we did at the Masculine Card Class. We did one other card, but posted it earlier here.

I found this project on one of my favorite blogs "Thinking Inking" by Debbie Olson. She does the most amazing work. Her blog has a link to PDF handouts that give you the complete instructions as well as a page of gift certificates to put in the wallet. I amended hers a bit to include Stampin' Up! products.










For my project I used Chocolate Chip and Creamy Caramel cardstock and used a sponge and the same color ink to distress the paper and make it look leathery. I used the paper piercer and piercing guide with a Chocolate Chip marker to create a stitched look on the outside. The entire wallet, including pockets is put together with sticky strip which I always use for 3-dimensional projects. The coupons are printed on Ivory Naturals cardstock, corner rounded and sponged around the edges. I added the Happy Father's Day image from All Holidays on the front in Real Red and attached it with some Red grosgrain ribbon.


If you have additional questions after reading Debbie's directions, please let me know.

Set: All Holidays
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Real Red
Carstock: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Carmel, Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, Real Red
Accessories: Corner Rounder, Stampin' Sponge, Sticky Strip, Paper Piercer and Piercing Guide, Chocolate Chip Marker


Wednesday, May 20

Sharing in Your Sorrow

Here is card number 4 from the Masculine Card Class. This card uses my absolute favorite set-- Thoughts and Prayers... another tree-- I like trees.

This card is made with Kiwi Kiss textured cardstock and also has Basic Black and Sahara Sand cardstock. It is a 3x6 card.

The tree is stamped in Basic Black and then I took a blender pen and added some Kiwi Kiss around each leaf. I corner rounded two of the corners and then mounted it on Kiwi and then Black. The top right edge of the Kiwi card is cut back about 3/4" and the greeting is stamped in Basic Black. The designer paper is from the Urban Oasis collection. The black ribbon is from the Valet Ribbon Originals set.

Tomorrow I'll show you the cute Father's Day project we made at the class.

Set: Thoughts and Prayers
Ink: Basic Black and Kiwi Kiss
Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black and Sahara San
Accessories: Corner Rounder, Urban Oasis DSP, Valet Ribbon

Tuesday, May 19

A Love of Trendy Trees

Masculine class card #3--

This card uses one of my favorite new sets-- Trendy Trees. I'm a big tree person. Love all of the new tree sets. The colors on this card come from the Manchester Designer Paper series and include Always Artichoke, Kraft and Baha Breeze as well as Very Vanilla and a little Chocolate Chip.

I stamped the tree in Always Artichoke and Chocolate Chip and the Greeting in Chocolate Chip. Both were layered on Chocolate Chip cardstock and the tree was mounted again on Always Artichoke and put on with Dimensionals. I used the Spiral Punch to do the left side of the card and then added a Kraft Corduroy button on the side. Nice, simple, clean. Just the way I like it.

Sets: Trendy Trees
Ink: Chocolate Chip and Always Artichoke
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Kraft, Baha Breeze, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla
Accessories: Spiral Punch, Corduroy Button

Monday, May 18

Happy Father's Day

This is the 2nd of five cards we did at the Masculine Card Class. Again a very simple design.

This card uses the Classic Sketches set and Chocolate Chip and Kraft cardstock. All I did was ink up the stamp ink Chocolate Chip and spritz it with a couple sprays of water and stamp on the Kraft cardstock three times. The greeting was printed out on the computer and layered. I added a little bit of paper piercing and some of the old Chocolate Twill Ribbon for added texture. Very easy but elegant card for the special dad in your life.

Set: Classic Sketches
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Kraft
Accessories: Paper Piercer and mat, Dimensionals, Chocolate Twill

Friday, May 15

Maculine Card Class

I held a card class last night where we made all masculine cards and a cute little father's day gift. I'll share these projects with you over the next week.

I tend to make pretty complicated cards... but it's hard to do that for men's cards. The more you add, the more fru-fru it gets and that's not manly. So these cards ended up quite simple. In fact we ended the class in record time.
This first card uses one of my favorite In-colors-- Pacific Point along with Kiwi Kiss and Basic Grey. The polka-dot velum comes from the Taste of Textiles set on page 156 of the catalog. It's totally hidden in there and one of the most gorgeous sets of paper. Anyway, the stamped image is from the Four Square set and is stamped in Pacific Point, mounted on a block of Kiwi Kiss and then Basic Grey punched with the Scallop Square punch. I did a little paper piercing along the bottom and added some Grey Taffeta ribbon to finish it off. Hope you like.

Set: Four Square
Ink: Pacific Point
Cardstock: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray, Whisper White
Accessories: Paper Piercer, Square Scallop punch, Grey Taffeta Ribbon

Thursday, May 14

Wonderful Watercolors

This is a card that I made for mom for Mother's Day last week. It uses the set Wonderful Watercolors. I never really noticed this set, but this is another set I got free and think it's gorgeous.

This card is Eggplant Envy and Always Artichoke. The main image is a two-step stamper. The bottom image is done in Almost Amethyst and Certainly Celery. The top layer is Elegant Eggplant and Always Artichoke. I added a little Bashful Blue brushstroke around the edge with the aqua painter. On the background I stamped the small flower image in Eggplant. I corner rounded the main image only on two sides.

For dimension and texture I added the Organdy White ribbon with one of the large white grommets from the Occasions Mini Catalog. To use the grommet, I punched out a 1/2 inch circle, popped the grommet in and then bent back the prongs on the inside. Then I threaded the white ribbon through. Inside is greeting Happy Mother's Day.

Tuesday, May 5

Classic Sketches

I've been wanting this set- Classic Sketches- since the catalog came out. I thought it would be good for masculine cards. So, I finally got it, free for my Sale-a-bration sales.
This is a very simple card that I created for an art show I did last weekend called MOMArt. Lots of amazing artists there and I thought they might enjoy some artsy cards with this set. This card uses Kraft carstock and one of my favorite underused colors Elegant Eggplant.

I basically just inked up the main image in Elegant Eggplant and then spritzed it with a water bottle and stamped it on Kraft cardstock. I felt like it needed a little more color so I colored the left side with the eggplant watercolor crayon and blended with the aquapainter. The greeting from the Trendy Trees set is stamped in Basic Black. For a little added texture, I added some Eggplant Grosgrain Ribbon.

Sets: Classic Sketches, Trendy Trees
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Basic Black
Cardstock: Kraft, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: Eggplant Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon, Watercolor Crayons, Aquapainter

Monday, May 4

May is National Scrapbooking Month

I've admitted before that I'm not the best scrapbooker. I love to do it, but I'm one of those OCD perfectionist type people who literally take 2 hours to do a page. Therefore, I don't get much done and get frustrated. I am working on a special scrapbook of my niece's wedding as a gift to my sister. Maybe I'll post a few pages when I get it done.

In honor of May being National Scrapbooking Month- Stampin' Up! has come up with some fabulous promotions.

1- order three packs of designer paper and get one FREE!
2- order the new preview alphabet-- Jumble-- at 20% off. This set will be in the new catalog in July.
3- join my team as a SU demonstrator for only $75 with the scrapbook starter kit.


If you are interested in any of these promotions, please contact me today.