Stamps, Paper, and Ink

Simply Sweet

Hi all!

First I have to thank those of you who have e-mailed or commented on my post yesterday. I am really a 'people' person who has been misplaced behind a computer, and I thrive on your comments and answers to my questions! I've read every one and will respond soon, in the meantime if you're just visiting, feel free to jump in the conversation with your 2cents.

I just wanted to give you a quick head's up on what I'm busy with today - and it's exciting! Tonight is new catty Kick-Off Celebration and we'll be making two projects. Keeping them simple because of some other things that will be going at the party - don't want to give it all away! It's not too late if you live near Fayetteville NC to give me a call and come on by!

Both projects are CASES of cute and inspiring work I find online - yes, I do blog surf too! My guests will make a version of THIS adorable card card by Mindy highlighting the new set Pennant Parade and the new Petite Pennants Builder Punch.

I wanted each guest to go home with a sample of the In Colors, so THIS fabulous card by Margaret Moody caught my eye. I made a couple changes and here's my card.

  I'm off to finish preparations, but I'll edit this tomorrow to add the supply lists. Have a pleasant day!

  All supplies by Stampin' Up!

Happiness Shared

The Happiness Shared stamp set is new to me. I've admired it for so long and finally decided to order it. The sentiments are perfect for wedding or anniversary cards. Of course, I love to watercolor so the flower image contains potential for a variety of creations.

I love to choose my colors based on the colors favored by the bride and groom, so I began with Island Indigo and Lucky Limeade. I added lots of texture embossing with the Vintage Wallpaper and Square Lattice folders.

The sketch is lovely and classic! I'm playing along with this week's Sweetest Sunday Sketch Challenge.

I am keeping my posts a bit shorter lately, figuring that it's better to get something up. Writing a little less about it takes me less time and it's the card you want to see, right? You may have noticed that it's either feast or famine with my posting and stamping lately. This seems to happen every year about this time!

I would like to pose a question to you blog hoppers out there. Do you prefer frequent posts, or is it worth it to have a couple REALLY good projects posted weekly? (I know there are people out there who can make something new every day and everything they make is beautiful! Unfortunately I don't think I'm one of them....)  What do you appreciate most about a good blog? Do you miss the supply list if I leave it off?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these questions, if you'd take a minute or two to share them it would be great! Of course, if you'd like to comment on the card, that is always most welcome.

 

  All supplies by Stampin' Up!

In the bag!

Do you ever want to make something just for the fun of it? I saw this card on Vicki's blog, and just had to make my own. It was so much fun pulling out my owl punch and a retiring hostess set and using it for a card that anyone would love.

Have a peek!

 

Does this want to make you smile, or what!?

The Birthday Bakery set has adorable cake images which I have used often (you can see one here) but I had never used this bag image until today. My local stampers are always looking for ways to use the punches they have, so I'll be sharing this idea with them for sure.

Here's how I decorated the inside:

 
The DSP is Just Add Cake from the new catalog. Are you counting the days until July 1 when we can begin to order? I sure am! You need to have this DP on your list, it's so cute and the colors are perfect for guy or girl projects. One of the patterns has letters which I punched out to spell "happy."

Hope a great day's in the bag for you!

  All supplies by Stampin' Up!

Thanks a Million!

It's time for a great sketch at the Paper Players! This is my last week as Guest Designer, and my card has just the message I'd like to share with Lesley Croghan and the rest of the wonderful Design Team: Thanks a Million! I've so enjoyed every moment of my month of challenges with you lovely and amazingly talented ladies.

For my card, I loved the funky look of these bright flowers from the Flower Fest set paired with the Cheerful Treat DSP. I absolutely love the work of Mary Engelbreit, don't these colors and the bold flowers remind you a bit of her fun stlye?

Hope you can play along with us! I know you'll be inspired by the amazing samples this week. Here's the sketch:

 
 
I'm wishing you a wonderful day. Thanks a million for keeping up with my blog and me.

  All supplies by Stampin' Up!

Stamps: Flower Fest, Word Play

Paper:  Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Cheerful Treat DSP

Ink:  Versamark, Pear Pizzazz, Concord Crush

Accessories:  White embossing powder, Tasteful Trim die

 

Shimmer and Pearls

I had some stamping fun today and came up with a card that I just love! I wish you could see the sparkle and pearls IRL....

  

It all began with the challenge at CASE study, and the amazing work of Jill Foster, the muse for June.

She made this gorgeous card, isn't it stunning?

I was so inspired by this card! I made some observations and then translated them into my card and my own style. How fun is that?

First, I noticed the impact of her background made with the variations of color and distressing. I LOVED the fresh color pallete of rich jewel tones, her detailed watercolored images and her layout with the sentiment at the bottom.

   For my color combo, I chose colors that remind me of the tropics - Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, and Very Vanilla. I made the background panel using the new Letterpress Fan inked with white craft ink. I added a layer of Moonlight Smooch Spritz for sparkle and then used my Color Spritzer Tool to add dimension.

I LOVE to watercolor, for my images I used watercolor paper, inks and my blender pens, accenting with a marker in the flower centers. The stamp set is On the Grow from the Summer Mini.

Did you notice my crinkled seam binding?  I've found it works to wet it and scrunch it up, then let it dry~but today I didn't want to bother with a trip to get water, so I spritzed it with a bit of Stampin' Mist! I rolled it up tight into a ball squished in my fist and after a minute I let it loose and tied the bow. I wet the streamer on the left a second time and let it dry wrapped around a pencil. The ends are anchored with glue dots.

I'm off to do a gazillion things (how does summer seem so busy???) so I won't list supplies today. If you have any questions, won't you shoot me an e-mail? Or leave a comment, you will make my day! Thanks so much for stopping by.

 

 

Cherish Friendship for the Paper Players!

 Welcome to this week's sample for the challenge at the Paper Players. Here's the sketch that we are playing with this week. Won't you join us?

 

I wanted to truly keep my card clean and simple, so I didn't add extra layers and I knew I needed lots of detail in the focal panel. I chose a whisper white die cut (now retired) with a tiny scalloped border, and had fun embellishing it. Here's my card.

 The bowl of cherries is my fav image from the Cherished Friendship set, which will be for sale beginning July 1. I stamped in black and used my aqua painter and inks to color. The idea of chocloate covered cherries suggested my color combo with rich Chocolate Chip, Melon Mambo and Rose Red for the cherries, Pool Party and Lucky Limeade for the accents. The floral image at the bottom (does it look a bit like a tablecloth?) is from the Vintage Vogue set.

After stamping and embossing the "Friends" sentiment in white, I added a row of pearls for emphasis. To add balance and texture, I scored the two vertical lines on the left side of the card. If you want to see them better, click to enlarge the picture.

 

  All supplies by Stampin' Up!

Stamps:  Cerish Friendship, Vintage Vogue

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Ink:  Jetblack StazOn, Chocolate Chip, Melon Mambo, Rose Red, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, White Crat

Accessories:  Designer Button Originals, White taffeta ribbon, Basic Pearls, White Embossing Powder

 

Way to go! for Friday Flashback

 Welcome to Friday Flashback! where I share a stamp set or accessory that deserves to be in the spotlight even though it often gets overlooked or has retired. I began this feature to encourage myself and all of us to dust off those horded supplies and give them a new look! I'm featuring the  retired set, Great Grads today.

I love it when what I want coincides with what I need as it did for today's card when I wanted to use my new penant punch, and I needed a card for a graduate. Once I got the idea, I was off and running!

Actually, those words pretty much describe how I need to be today and for the weekend coming up- so I'll keep this short and sweet.

    


The grad's party invitation I received had bold lettering and striped bands at the bottom, so I took inspiration from it and the color combo from a first-time challenge for me, at the Color Throwdown.

The penants add a fun look but are still in keeping with a classic style. I think MDS is the PERFECT way to go with lettering for the penants, and I learned a great tip for printing on card stock. Here's the TIP: print the text you want to use on copy paper first, then lightly tape the piece of card stock over the word on the copy paper and print again. It worked great for this card.

For the inside, I actually cut out the school seal, repeated the stripes, and added a flag. I hope my nephew will like this unique card. Hope you do too!

Have a great weekend!

All supplies by Stampin' Up!

Stamps:  Great Grads (retired)

Paper: Lucky Limeade, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Basic Black

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Basic Black

Accessories:  Penant Punch, My Digital Studio, 1'8" white ribbon, button

 

Flirtatious Birthday Wishes

I've been MIA for a few days and didn't really mean to be, but you see it was my birthday yesterday. I've had some wonderful times sharing with my husband, family, and a special friends for the last week or two. It was a refreshing break and so good to remind myself that crafting has to flow from joy inside me and not just the same rote compulsion I apply to my daily to-do list!

With all that said, my card for today didn't turn out exactly as I'd hoped and then I had a hard time with the photo. I was playing with the Flirtatious Specialty Paper (coming soon!) and the MOJO 195 sketch.

 

  I LOVED the sketch and the Flirtatious paper, which has pretty patterns that I used here, plus 2 sheets of doilies in white, Melon Mambo and I used the Pumpkin Pie one here. A strip from the Tasteful Trim die adds the border of scallops. The decision to use a Pumpkin Pie doily and ribbon came after trying white and pink and deciding they were just way too predictable. I mean the pumpkin is featured in the DSP, so it should work, right? Well, now I'm not so sure, what do you think?

That's the fun of playing with Stamps, Paper, and Ink - I can do a redo or just plain start over and get a completely different result 'cuz it's just paper! Plus a few embellishments I'll list for you in the supplies.

As always, I love hearing from you. Thanks for keeping up with my crafty endeavors and for your thoughtful comments. You have no idea how much they mean to me. Have a great day!

 

 

  All supplies by Stampin' Up!

Stamps:  Occasional Quotes

Paper: Flirtatious Specialty Paper, Whisper White

Ink:  Basic Gray

Accessories:  Basic Pearls, Circle Rhinestone Brads, Paper Daisies, Little Leaves Sizzlet, Tasteful Trim Die

 

Everybody needs a Snowbuddy!

 It's time for a new challenge at The Paper Players!

I just love these fabulous fresh sunny colors, a combo perfect for springtime, flowers or ....

a snowman!

 

 Snowbuddies, to be exact! This is a preview of the Snow Much Fun set coming in the new catalog. Aren't these the cutest pair?

I do really enjoy using warm colors for snowmen, it adds a bit of surprise and fun! I used blender pens and ink to color and shade the images on white card stock. Because it's not as thick as water color paper, you have to be careful to use light pressure and not too much moisture, but I love being able to keep my white for brightness and a squeaky clean look.

I added glitter for snow, first with a two-way glue pen. Next, I added liitle mounds of Tombo Mono Multi Liquid glue and sprinkled glitter atop and left it to dry (for a LONG time!). Love the dimension this gives. As a matter of fact, there's glitter across the length of my ribbon too!  A rhinestone jewel on the heart adds the final touch of bling.

As I'm writing this post, it is also rather amusing   ironic that our temps are in the high 90's and I'm sweating buckets since our air conditioner quit working yesterday. Hope you are staying cool!

Make sure to check out the beautiful entries at The Paper Players, won't you play along?  

   All supplies by Stampin' Up!

Stamps:  Snow Much Fun, Hello Again

Paper:  Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, DSP - Too Much Cake, Cheerful Treat

Ink: Black StazOn, Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight

Accessories:  Top Note Die, 1/8" Daffodil ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, Blender Pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter

 

Farewell: A few more favorites

Today I'm posting just a few more of my favorite cards made with retiring stamp sets. Under each card is a link in case you want to read the post from the past with the details. For me it's been a bit interesting to see how my styles of designing cards and posting have changed. I've been at this ol' blog for 4 years now, so growth is good!  Thanks so much for growing with me.

I'm working hard in my craft room, the re-design is coming along quite nicely although I have to tell you the truth - I have way too much designer paper! I'm not worried about stamps, you know you can never have enough of those! I'll be back to showing new sets on Sunday, so check back!

 

A Cardinal Christmas

Blessings of the Season

 

Vintage Dreams

Priceless

Friends 24-7

I LOVE hearing from you, your comments made my day yesterday! Today I'd love to hear your comment about the set you're sorriest to see retire, or your pick of your fave from today's cards. Blessings and hugs to you, Friends.

  All supplies by Stampin' Up!