Sunflower Stamping!

SU! Boho Backgrounds Version 2 (as promised!)

Remember that I promised another Boho Backgrounds card in my Monday post? I just wasn't completely happy with my Basic Grey Boho card, and thought it needed a shot in the arm. Not that I'm completely  happy with any of my cards - I can always find something I'd like to change even after they're supposedly complete!

Well, I took another stab at my original card, and even though I'm calling it "done", I can still see a few things I'd change! That's either the mark of an artist or the mark of an obnoxious perfectionist.

So here's version 2. This one is similar, but I think I like it better. I used more white embossed cardstock and less grey Boho Background; added some red matte to the grey Boho part; added some black brads - which I think makes it look a lot better by introducing another color to the mix -  then stamped the 'kind thoughts'  on a white background with punched corners. Other than that, it's pretty much the same card - hahahaha!

So here's the side-by-side comparison:

What do you think?  I'd love to hear your opinions! Which one do YOU like better?

Hope to hear from you!

Here's the recipe -

Stamp Sets: Boho Backgrounds - pg 109 item #111072 $15.95; Kind Thoughts - pg 119 item #111095 $25.95

Cardstock: Basic Grey (card base), Whisper White, Real Red

Inks: Basic Grey, Real Red

Accessories: Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder (Cheater! Cheater! I'm tellin'!) Scallop punch, Ticket Corner Punch, 1/8" handheld punch, 1" circle punch, Vintage Brads, Red striped grosgrain ribbon, Dimensionals

 

Sparkly Pink Pirouette Pop-up Card Wannabe!

A Tri-fold Almost, Kinda, Sorta, Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda Pop-up Card

Today I promised a pop-up card that I worked on this weekend out of one of the new In-Colors, Pink Pirouette. As I started to explain yesterday, I would have had it done and posted for today's card, but every time I added something to the card, I would change my mind about how I wanted it to look in the end. I kept starting over with changes, and so it didn't get done until this morning. So...

...as it turns out, it's not a pop-up card after all! It's a tri-fold Bloomin' Beautiful Card, and here it is! (About a hundred pictures of it... prepare yourself.)

...and the inside: 

The tri-fold opens to the watering can sprinkling the flowers with glittery water... In case you couldn't see this very well, I took a lot of pictures at different angles. I wanted to make sure the glitter stood out because I think it looks so cool!

This was the part that was supposed to be the pop-up part, but I liked it better with the watering can just popped up with Dimensionals.

(Notice the backs of the brads are showing. I'm notorious for forgetting to add the brads before I adhere the layers!)

For the water, I used the dashed stamp from the Stamped Exotics stamp set, stamping it with Versamark, then using Heat & Stick powder and Dazzling Diamonds Glitter. I also added more with the 2-way glue pen. And of course it looks much better in person! :-)

 I painted the flowers on the front and inside on watercolor paper. First I stamped them with Black Stazon ink, then painted them with Aqua Painters and ink pads. Everything else on this card is pretty self-explanatory, I think, and the colors & "recipe" is listed just in case.

Recipe -

Stamp Sets: Bloomin' Beautiful, Stamped Exotics

Cardstocks: *NEW* Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, watercolor paper, Basic Grey (watering can), Sahara Sand (words matte)

Inks: Black Stazon, Versamark, Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Apricot Appeal, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Bordering Blue

Accessories: SU! Paper Snips, Corner Punch, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, 2-Way Glue Pen, Heat & Stick Powder, Vintage Brads, 1/16" handheld punch, Dimensionals

Hope you enjoy my work of art!

Keep stamping!

No Pop-up Card Today, Instead Some Boho Backgrounds!

Hope your weekend was a good one! I worked on a pop-up card off and on all weekend, but didn't get it finished in time to post it tonight. Well, I suppose I could have, but everytime I did something to my card, I got a better idea, and kept starting over! It is going to be pretty, though, because the card base is Pirouette Pink, which is such a pretty, light shade of pink. It almost makes Pretty in Pink look like Bubble Gum Pink! I'd show you a sneak peek of it, but it's late and there's not enough light to get a good shot of it. Come back tomorrow!!

So anyway, for now I'll show you another card I made this weekend that I wasn't going to post until I made a second version of it. For some reason, I feel like it needs a shot in the arm to spice it up just a bit. I love the colors: Basic Grey, Real Red, and Whisper White. It's a great combination; very clean and dramatic.

I included a closeup so you get a better view of the embossing. I used both the Punches Plus and the Dots Classy Brass Templates to give the white cardstock at the bottom a sort of "sewn" look, or the look of lace. You can't tell from either picture, but I cut the Basic Grey card front about a quarter of an inch shorter than the back of the card, so that you can see through the holes in the "lace". The background stamp is the main stamp in Boho Backgrounds, and the medallion was stamped once in Real Red and once in Basic Grey, then punched out and put together with Dimensionals. I also punched the whole thing with the scallop punch, then punched another scallop from Real Red cardstock. I layered the medallion on the Real Red scallop, then staggered the scallops so the red would show through. A final touch of Real Red striped grosgrain ribbon - which I LOVE - and voila! It's a card!

Keep checking in this week; I want to take another stab at this card, and you can decide if I really did a better job on the second one or not! Until then, keep stamping!

Another Card that Uses the New Stamp Set 'Happiness Always'

Quick & Simple Today!

I wanted to make a card with cutouts on it using the new 'Happiness Always' set. I just wanted to see how the leaf might look as a cut out item. Although this isn't exactly how I envisioned it initially, I like the way this card turned out. I like the soft colors with the embossed background. Simple 'n cute!

 

 

 

I wanted to show you another closeup of the way this set looks when stamped. The typewritten part looks pretty cool. You can even see it on the butterfly and flower where I only used one color for 2-step stamping. See how the leaf looks textured? Pretty neat looking.

I probably shouldn't show you a closeup on this card... my cutting skills leave a bit to be desired! (That shouldn't surprise me: when I was in Kindergarten, my teacher held up the pink Easter Bunny I'd cut out, and, to the whole class said, "I want you all to do a better job cutting out your Easter Bunnies than this person did." OMG... such horrors to a 6 yr- old! I couldn't help it; I'd gotten a crappy pair of kid-scissors from the scissors caddy! They wouldn't cut, so I had to tear out my bunny! As you can see, my cutting skills never improved.)

 

 

Here's the recipe -

Stamp Sets: *NEW* Happiness Always set, Blooming With Love set

Cardstock: Always Artichoke (card base), Very Vanilla, Mellow Moss (tag back)

Inks: Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Cameo Coral, So Saffron

Accessories: Cuttlebug Script embossing folder (Cheater! Cheater! I'm tellin' !!); lrg & small tag punches; Hodgepodge Hardware (*Get yours while you can!! Pewter is already SOLD OUT!!); Mellow Moss 3/8" grosgrain ribbon; Groovy Guava double-stitched ribbon; Stampin' Up! paper snips*

*THESE SNIPS ARE THE BEST!!! I'd NEVER found a pair of paper snips that cut perfectly in tight areas or to the VERY TIPS, and Stampin' Up!'s DO!! LOVE THEM!

Hope you enjoy & have a great weekend! Stamp something this weekend!

My First Attempt at Using the New Stamp Set 'Happiness Always'

I've been waiting to see some cards made with the new Level III hostess set, 'Happiness Always', so that I could get some good ideas. I finally had to just take a stab at it myself, as I couldn't find any cards out there using this set yet. I did one upbeat, bright, cheery one, and one darker, more "natural"-looking one. Both use the new In Color, Kiwi Kiss, which has become my second favorite of the new colors, right after Baja Breeze!

I like this one the best. It's just cheery and I got to use that beautiful Regal Rose 5/8" grosgrain ribbon - I just love it! I hope you can tell in the photo that the Happiness Always set is a two-step stampin' set, where you get two versions of the same stamp in order to stamp each piece in two colors to get dimension and interest. The unique thing about this set is that one of the two halves of each stamp is a bunch of tiny little letters as if stamped on an old typewriter. At least that's what they look like to me!

 

It's really neat looking. I stamped the two layers of the flowers in Regal Rose and Rose Red, and the stems in the new Kiwi Kiss and Old Olive. I had originally intended to use the cute word stamp that comes with the set, but ran out of room, so instead I used the script 'bloom' stamp from Bloomin' Beautiful. Pretty cute for a quick first attempt!

I got to use the 'happiness always' phrase from the set on this card, which I love... I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of it! I paired Kiwi Kiss with Chocolate Chip to get a more natural, earthy kinda look with this card. I couldn't find a background stamp that I thought would give me the look I was going for, so I used the larger square stamp from the new 'Fresh Cuts' set. I sponged some Kiwi Kiss on it and stamped it a few times at an angle to cover the page. Then I stamped the leaf 3 times in an effort to make it look like a leaf was floating to the ground... not sure if I actually achieved that or not! I decided not to stamp the top layer of the leaf so that it looked more natural. You don't exactly find typewritten leaves in nature. At least I don't.

After distressing the edges of the cardstock and sponging them with Kiwi, I wiped the sponge on the top of the images. I also used the Chocolate Chip marker to sprinkle the top. Oh - and I stamped the "typed" butterfly so that it wouldn't be too dark on the page (although not very natural looking, I know!) Last but not least, I added a few jumbo eyelets and tied Chocolate Chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon between them.

Hope you like! I'd love to see what others are doing with their Happiness Always set! If you're a Demo and you've made something, please leave a comment with a link to your creation!

Happy stamping!

Sneak Peek at Another New Stampin' Up! Stamp Set & In-Color: Baja Breeze!

Today I'm gettin' me some Baja Breeze love. I really do like this new 2008 Fall In Color the best.

As with my Pink Pirouette card a few days ago, I cheated and used my new Cuttlebug to dry emboss the background. Both stamps are from the new set 'Dreams du Jour', which I also LOVE.  Not much to tell about how to make this card - it's fairly self-explanatory. I did dry emboss the upper white layer under the 'Love you' stamp with my 'Punches Plus' Classy Brass template, which you probably can't tell in this picture. I just embossed a raised square around the stamp, which gives a nice effect in person.

I think I've shown you all the new In Color - colors now, but I'll continue to use them until the new catalog comes out. I've been trying to combine some to show how they look together, but I seem to end up using them separately most often. Not sure I like many of the combos... I will LOVE Riding Hood Red with Pink Pirouette at Valentine's Day! And I will have to get creative to use Tangerine Tango, because orange is by far my least favorite color!

Keep stamping!

Sneak Peek at Another New Stampin' Up! Stamp Set & In-Color: Pink Pirouette!

Thought I'd share more new stuff with you today! I made a card using a really cute new set called 'Dreams du Jour' with another of the new In-Colors, called "Pink Pirouette".

One thing I can tell you about Pink Pirouette is that it has forced me to learn how to spell "pirouette". Is it just me, or have you noticed how Stampin' Up! always chooses at least ONE hard-to-spell name for the In-Colors? The time before last it took me weeks to learn that "Caribbean" only had one "r" but two "b"'s. This time, I swear it took me until just last week to learn the proper spelling of "Pomegranate". So THIS TIME, I'm already set to type "Pink Pirouette" all year without needing to look it up! High five.

So, getting down to business, here's my card for the day:

It's a cute little pink n' white "thang", isn't it?! Now, normally I am a Stampin' Up! ONLY stamper, but I must admit to a bit of cheating on this card. You see, I just got a Cuttlebug at Michael's yesterday, and I just HAD to try out an embossing plate. So the white embossed background is not anything new coming from Stampin' Up!... sorry if anyone got their hopes up!

I did use 2 of the new stamp sets: Dreams du Jour, and Happiness Always. The cute round 'Dreams' piece in the center and the butterfly are the Dreams set, and the phrase is from the Happiness always.

The paler shade of pink is the new In-Color that's coming out soon in the new catalog. The darker pink is Regal Rose.

I'll try to remember to add another shot of this card from an angle so that you can see how all the pieces of the circle are raised with Dimensionals. It really makes it look neat.

I'll use more of the new colors tomorrow. See you then!

Stampin' Up! Fall Catalog Sneak Peek - New Colors & New Sets!

I GOT TO PLAY WITH MY NEW STASH OF STAMPIN' UP! GOODIES TODAY!! I'm so excited about the new colors and all my new sets, and I thought I'd give you a preview of what's to come in the new catalog. Here are 2 similar cards made with some of the new products.

Check out the new In-Color called Kiwi Kiss! The darker shade is Old Olive, so you can see that they are both compatible shades of green. (Well, maybe not in this picture; the colors are not true.) 

I watercolored the leaves stamp from this year's retiring hostess set "A Little Bit of Happiness'. I used Kiwi Kiss first, then added some Old Olive to give it some shading. The words are embossed in clear embossing powder. The words are from a new set soon to be released in the new catalog called 'Heard from the Heart'. I LOVE the fonts and the phrases in this set! There are 4 stamps in the set, and each has a word in the script font with more words in print. Cute, cute, cute. I need to lighten this photo a bit so you can see the colors better. The Kiwi Kiss is really much prettier than it looks here. And of course, the embossed wording looks better in person as well.

This next card is another simple one I put together quickly so I could get it out on my site for everyone to see more of the new stuff. This one uses another new color, Baja Breeze. It's really pretty, (again, much prettier in person!) and may turn out to be my favorite of the new colors! The stamp set is the same retiring hostess set that I used above, and the words are from a set that retired last year, called 'Super Squirrel'. Ahhhh, I love Super Squirrel. I'm still sorry he retired!

Anyway, the Baja Breeze button is new as well. How cute is that?! It's got a raised flower in the center of it, and in this case, I punched a circle out of Baja Breeze cardstock, and adhered it to the center of the button. It's just a small, simple card, but because it's got stuff that's new to me, I just love it!

Stay tuned: I've got 4 more colors to show you, and more new sets to play with!

Keep stamping!

How About an Even CUTER Card Set Today?!

If you read my post from yesterday, you know that I made a boxed set of cards for my friend Ann, who's coming to visit. Well, they were cute, but today's are SPECTACULAR! So, I've changed my mind, and I'm going to give her THIS set instead! This set was designed by Andrea Walford, and I plan to make this project in a future class, so stay tuned!

Take a look at this gorgeous stationery portfolio in its case!!

There are 4 different cards inside, this one being my fav:

I've made a few changes from Andrea's original project, including changing the color of one of the Groovy Guava cards to Chocolate Chip. I thought it would be nicer to have one card in each color instead of duplicating the Groovy Guava.

Here are my four cards:

I just love the Designer Series Paper used on this project! (Afternoon Tea) You can never go wrong when you're using Soft Sky and Chocolate Chip, can you?! The 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon adds a real rich touch to the cards and the portfolio. I didn't have the same word set as in Andrea's photo above, so I used different sayings on mine.

Here's a pic of my card portfolio on the inside, with the holder the portfolio fits into in the background. After that is a pic of it halfway closed. The white empty space on the right is for penning a short note to the recipient of the gift - what a great idea Andrea thought of!

If you look at the very first photo that Andrea took of her card set, you will notice that hers does not have a knot in the ribbon on the outside. I chose to make mine this way because it wouldn't close properly with the knots on the inside of the closed portfolio. I prefer it with the knots on the inside, but mine's still cute with the ribbon tied this way! I'm now making a gift bag and tag to give my gift in, which I'll post tomorrow for you to see!

Last but not least, here's my cute little 'Handstamped  stamp that I cut out for the back of the card case! You can order your own from the Stampin' Up! catalog - just contact me!

All in all, it was a lot of coloring and cutting, but definitely worth it - it was a lot of fun to make! I hope Ann likes her gift!

Would you like to make your own card portfolio or give one as a gift? email me to let me know your interest. I'll be doing a Cards & Gifts Class with this project, but likely with a different set of Designer Series Paper, although this depends: if this paper is still in the new SU! catalog that debuts in August, I will plan to use this paper.

Have a good one!

Cute Boxed Card Gift Set

Hope you had a great weekend! I spent Saturday making a set of cards and a gift box!

A friend from TX is coming to GA to visit her in-laws, and I'm hoping we can get together while she's here, as I have this gift for her! She always likes my cards, and even better, always says she does even if they aren't the greatest! I'm hoping she'll likes these!

They are a total CASE from the Simply Sent Card Kit called 'Simple Delights'. The kit actually comes with Soft Sky and River Rock, but I decided to try out some new colors since I use Soft Sky and River Rock entirely too much! (You can see the kit in my earlier post here.) These are Brocade Blue, Sahara Sand, and Chocolate Chip. I just recreated the cards in the kit with a different color combo: 3 Brcoade Blue cards and 3 Sahara Sand cards.  

I also made a nice gift box to hold them, using the same colors and cardstock, some 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, a few punches, brads, and lots of sticky strip. The box is hinged at the back to open without the top coming off completely. I got the idea for it from the very talented Andrea Walford, who's work I admire very much! Notice the notch at the top of the lid? It's made with the slit punch, and makes it easier to open. (Next time I make this, I'll be more careful to hide the ends of the ribbon on the inside of the top!)

I stamped three Very Vanilla envelopes with the fleur-de-lis stamp to go with the 3 Sahara Sand cards, and stamped the other 3 envelopes with the circle stamp to go with the 3 Brocade Blue cards.

Looking at this picture, though, I can see that something's missing... I think I'l stamp some tissue paper and wrap it around the cards & envies like they do fine stationery, then make a gift tag to hang on the outside!

For measurements and/or directions on making the cards or the gift box, just email me! Hope you enjoy!

*This Simply Sent Card Kit is still available through August 10th, so call me if you'd like to order one! 'Simple Delights' Item #109228 $42.95. To view kit contents, click here.

July Cards & Gifts Class!

Northeast Georgia Rubber Stamping Cards & Gifts Class - if you're in the Athens, Statham, Bogart, Winder, or Watkinsville, Georgia area, come stamp with beautiful Stampin' Up! products!

Join me Sunday, July 20th at 2:00 pm to make this cute card holder and matching cards! Class fee is $25.00. Please RSVP by Friday, July 18th so that I can have your supplies ready. We'll learn how to watercolor in a couple of different ways on watercolor paper. It's the last time these colors will be available, as they are retiring next month!

This class is for beginning stampers and experienced stampers alike!

 

 

 

 

Call me at the number above or email me to reserve your spot in class! Cash, credit cards, or Paypal through my monthly eNewsletter are all payment options!

Can't wait to see you!

It's a Ballet Blue Day...

I wanted to use my favorite color - next to Soft Sky, that is, of course! Ballet Blue couldn't be a prettier, more cheerful color if it tried. I'm serious. I thought it would make a good bluebird, so I used my soon-to-retire hostess set, Spring Solitude.

So cute! I used Regal Rose, Certaily Celery, and Chocolate Chip along with my beloved Ballet Blue. They make a great color combo, don't they? I took my markers and colored the stamps before breathing on them to remoisten the ink, then stamped onto Whisper White cardstock. I should have shown you the stages this card went through so you could appreciate the changes. I started out with just the stamped white cardstock with the bird on it, on the Regal Rose, on the Certainly Celery strip of cardstock, all on the Ballet Blue card. I was trying to decide how to add the Thank You, when I decided it would look best in Ballet Blue on white again. I used my Punches Plus brass template to dry emboss a raised oval in which to stamp the words. Of course, that gave me the idea to punch out the oval with the large oval punch, which I then attached to the card with Dimensionals.

It was a pretty dull card, so I thought I'd use my Crop-A-Dile to emboss - not punch all the way through - the bottome of the card - you can see it better in this photo. It was still "lost", hence the scallop added just above the raised dots. I made the scallops with the corner rounder punch. Again, more was missing. I decided it was bottom heavy, so I stamped the swirls in White Stazon ink with Stitched Exotics. Almost there. Aha! The 'thank you' needed some twine to anchor it to the card. There! Now it suited me just fine!

My other blue card has a red bird on it.

The cards are very similar, but this one's from a piece of cardstock cut in half lengthwise and folded at the top. This time, I punched holes in the scallops with the 1/16" punch. (I marked each spot with a pencil before punching so they'd be uniformly spaced.) Chocolate chip cardstock and 5/8" grosgrain ribbon set off the stamped picture and sentiment. I used lots of Dimensionals to add height to the focal point of the card: they're used to attach the Ballet Blue layer to the white bottom layer; again to place the upper white layer to the Rose Red layer; then again to raise the oval punches and sentiment.

*This hostess set retires in less than a month, so if you want one, schedule your workshop - virtual, if you'd like! - before August 5th. There's still time to get yours!

Hope you enjoy!

What? No Retiring ANYTHING Today?!

That's right: today's card features NO retiring stamp sets OR colors! What am I thinking??! There aren't many days left to enjoy those great colors and sets that are leaving us forever after August 10th, and I should be focusing on them until they're gone!

Oh well. This card is a simple yet cute - but not too cute! - card that uses the Live Your dream set from the Occasions mini catalog. Let's keep our fingers and paws crossed that it comes out in the new catalog for those of you who missed it the first time around. It's a really great set - both for scrapbooking and cardmaking. I used a couple of simple techniques that blend well together without overpowering each other or the card itself.

First, I used my markers to color directly on the stamp so that I could get 3 different colors out of the flowers. I also used my Punches Plus brass template to dry emboss circles around each of the little rose flowers down the side of the card. (You can't really see that in the photo.) Finally, I used the same brass template to paper pierce the "dots" around each of the embossed circles. A few brads here, a few more there, a Word Window punch, some layers of colored cardstock, and voila! A cute and simple (and quick!) card on anything-but-plain Whisper White cardstock!

Enjoy!

Stamp set: Live Your Dream

Cardstock: Whisper White, Always Artichoke, Regal Rose

Inks: Always Artichoke, Regal Rose, So Saffron Markers

Accessories: So Saffron brads, Vintage Brads - silver, Word Window punch, Punches Plus Classy Brass Template, needle from Crafter's Tool Kit

Bloomin' Beautiful Returns...

I'm just lovin' my Bloomin' Beautiful set, so I thought I'd post my latest 2 cards. This time, instead of using the hydrangeas stamp, I've used to flower with the long stem. I was looking around and found not only the prettiest card, but also the coolest color combination on Cambria Turnbow's website. I knew I just HAD to CASE it!

Isn't it striking? Her post was about "cheating" when you watercolor by using markers on watercolor paper to shade the darker areas, then pulling the color into the rest of the item with a Blender Pen or Aqua Painters. Well, this technique sure does work well on the watercolor paper, because you don't have to worry about tearing up the paper from too much brushing or water. And it does turn out nice looking, doesn't it?

I love her colors. I never would have chosen black - but then, I never remember I have black cardstock! It sure looks great; especially with the black brads. And the photo corner punch just makes the card by giving it that final touch. I almost didn't stamp the word definition in black, but am glad I did afterall. The only thing I changed is the background stamp I used. I'm a fan of 'Tres Chic', and decided it would be less distracting to the eye if I stamped it tone-on-tone (Rose Red) instead of using black ink against the red. I love it!

I decided to try my hand at a different color combination. Of course I had to go with the retiring colors! Here's my version. Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Blue Bayou, and Soft Sky. Oh! I also used a retiring background stamp, Print Pattern. I cannot believe they're retiring it!!! I mean, OK, so what I haven't used it in a long time and likely forgot all about it?? Now wthat I know it's retiring, I want to use it on every card!! Look how nice it looks on Blue Bayou cardstock! I intended to stamp the word 'Bloom' in Blue Bayou so that it stood out more, but it looks like I goofed and used Soft Sky by accident. Still looks good, so that's alright.

A few retiring double-stitched ribbons, some blue brads in the corners, and it's a masterpiece! Hope you enjoy!

Keep stamping!