4th of July Flag

This was the 3rd project my stamp club did last night. This card came about because 1) I wanted to demo Just Beachy one more time as the Occasions Mini is ending on June 30th 2) I've had Classic Stripes since December and hadn't really used it yet and it is retiring 3) I've been seeing these cute scallop border punch medallions and wanted to show that to my club 4) 4th of July is coming up and I have no patriotic stamps. That's a lot to ask of one project but I persevered and this is what I came up with....a loosely translated American Flag. I did change the club project to use a Whisper White base with Riding Hood Red stripes instead of this photo which has white craft ink and a Riding Hood Red cardstock base. The one my club did looked better- more vibrant- but I didn't take a photo of that variation. You'll just have to trust me!

I did use the stamp-a-ma-jig to get my little fish lined up just so. I'm getting to really like this handy tool after being slightly intimidated by it for a while. The scallop edge punch medallion is super easy. You can find a tutorial for the medallion here on Splitcoaststampers. And of course the medallion is finished off with a few grosgrain ribbon knots.

Stamps: Just Beachy, Classic Stripes

Ink: white craft, Riding Hood Red

Paper: Riding Hood Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White

Accessories: Scallop Border punch, stamp-a-ma-jig, grosgrain ribbon,

Wild About Scraps

This is the second project for my stamp club last night. I was featuring retiring sets and I just absolutely LOVE Wild About You. I have used it for countless baby cards, kid birthdays, guy cards (the alligator is kind of manly!) and all around Thinking of You cards. I am sorry to see this set retire as it was one of my go-to sets the last several years.

I got the inspiration for the frame around the giraffe from the June issue of Stampin' Success, the magazines that demonstrators receive. Patricia Giesbrecht was one of the demonstrators showcased in this issue and she had made a card with a similar frame using thin strips of paper around the focal point image. I had an ah-ha moment when I saw it. I don't tend to throw a lot away including cardstock scraps....you know those thin little strips that you get when you cut away a 1/4 inch piece??....you have a nice thin piece but what to do with it??? This is a great way to use up some of those seldom used and always accumulating pieces. I just layered the Rose Red strips down first then took some narrower strips of Chocolate Chip and layered those on top. I finished off the corner with 2 flowers from Flower Fusion and a jeweled brad because I have a hard time saying no to embellishments.

Hopefully this will inspire you to use up some of those scraps you've been saving!

Stamps: Wild About You

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Rose Red, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Ticker Corner punch, Flower Fusion, jeweled brad

Bye Bye Birdie

Last night I had my stamp club meeting and I wanted to demonstrate the retiring set A Little Birdie Told Me as well as my Circle Scissors Plus. Having some retiring Baja Breeze cardstock and retiring Manchester DSP left I went ahead and designed this card to use them up. I paper pieced the bird and then just made random sized circles to adhere to the background. The bird panel is popped on dimensionals as well. It was fun making the circles using the Circle Scissor Plus and the circle punches for the smallest layered circle. I thought the sentiment was cute stamped on the inside of a cut out circle.

Stamps: A Little Birdie Told Me

Ink: Always Artichoke

Paper: Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze and Manchester Designer Series paper
Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, dotto, 1 1/4 circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, dimensionals

Putt Putt 3x3 Notes

My husband has to travel for work occasionally and I always like to make a few little cards to tuck inside of his suitcase for him to find while he's away. I don't usually do a very good job of it as he seems to find them all on the first day....I tuck them into shoes, socks, shirt pockets, the book he's reading etc. I always make them 3x3 so they fit into those cute little square envelopes and are fast to make. I decided to use the often overlooked set Putt Putt. I don't know why there aren't more examples of this set on Splitcoaststampers but it's super cute and the sentiments are just right. I chose to do 3 of the 4 larger images (the 4th being an airplane) from this set and keep the color theme consistent between them.

Stamps: Putt Putt

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Bashful Blue

Paper: white, Tangerine Tango, Bashful Blue

Accessories: markers, blender pen, Going Gray watercolor crayon, aquapainter, scallop circle punch, circle punch, oval punch, corner rounder

Father's Day - Part 5

I can finally post this card which I completed a few weeks ago since my husband has opened the envelope and won't stumble across it posted on my blog. I'm lucky to have a husband who is super-handy and up to trying to fix most anything. So of course I had to use the Totally Tool set for his Father's Day card. I saw a bunch of neat cards that use the idea of a peg board to "hang" the tools from. I had this strip of really thin wood saved from a bottle of bourbon my husband had finished a while ago. Of course when I saw it I knew I could put it on a card and do something with it. So I thought this card was perfect....tools, guy colors, Father's Day, real wood (from bourbon my DH's favorite!)...Perfect! The tools are embossed in silver and cut out and hung on the wood strip with brads.

Stamps: Totally Tool

Ink: Versamark, Always Artichoke

Paper: Always Artichoke, Manchester DSP, Baja Breeze, kraft, Very Vanilla

Accessories: brads, silver embossing powder, wood strip

Father's Day - Part 4

Here is a gift set I made for my husband's step-father. We affectionately call him a tree hugger as he is a landscape architect as well as the president of their local land trust organization. I'd been wanting Lovely As A Tree for several years now since I knew these images would be perfect for him for birthdays and whatnot. I finally got the LAAT set for Christmas (Thanks Santa!) this past year and it has seen some ink but not nearly enough! The gift set includes an A2 card box that I made from a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers though I left off the scalloped edges as they just aren't very guy like! I made a coordinating tag for the cardbox, filled the box with notecards (row of trees stamp) and then a small gift card using the spotlight technique. All in all a super easy gift which I know he'll use and is his style- sometimes a hard thing to get right for a guy!

Stamps: Lovely As A Tree

Ink: Black Stazon

Paper: Kraft, Very Vanilla, Black

Accessories: ticket corner punch, circle punches, copper eyelet, hemp twine, twill tape, distressing tool

Father's Day - Part 3

This is the card I made for my father-in-law. I love the Totally Tool and Define Your Life sets. And again I was trying to use up some of the Manchester DSP since I won't be able to demonstrate with it anymore.

I love using the 2 Tag Punches to make longer tags. All you do is just use a narrower strip of paper than the punch and just thread it through the back up to the point of where you want your corners. Then do the same with the larger punch for layering. I underlined the parts of the "quality" stamp with an Always Artichoke Stampin' Write marker. I don't have the Baja Breeze stamp pad so I used Sage Shadow which I think looks OK in this case. I used my paper piercing template and marker to make the line of dots along the bottom of the tag. The hemp twine on the tag is from a rug we had bought a few months ago. The rug came all rolled up and tied with this twine....Of course I made my husband save all of it so I could use it on a card someday!

Stamps: Totally Tool, Define Your Life, Sanded background

Ink: Creamy Caramel, Always Artichoke, Sage Shadow

Paper: Manchester DSP, Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke, Kraft, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Stampin' Write marker, Tag Punches, brads, hemp twine, circle punch, paper piercing template

Father's Day - Part 2

As I have 2 Father-in-laws, my own dad, my grandfather and my husband, Father's Day can be pretty hectic to get cards & gifts put together for all of them. I decided to start earlier this year so I was able to wrap them all up last week. I'll be posting some of my cards here to get more practice with this blogging thing before I start adding current projects.

This card was made for my grandfather. I did a fish themed card for him last year so I wanted a different kind of guy card. I needed to practice some more with my Stamp-a-ma-jig and I also wanted to use up some of the retiring In Colors. I also think this would be a great non-traditional Valentine's Day card.

Stamps: Classic Stripe background, Defining Alphabet

Paper: Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss

Accessories: brads, small circle punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig

First Ever Blog Post- Father's Day Card

I made this card last week for my dad for Father's Day. He's a fisherman and I thought these cute guys from Just Beachy (in the Occasions Mini catalog- only available until June 30th) and the Manchester Designer Series paper would be perfect. On the inside I wrote something to the effect of "out of all the fish in the sea, we're glad to be in your school".

I used Sahara Sand ink on Very Vanilla cardstock for the background fish and Always Artichoke ink for the highlighted fish. He is colored in with Sage Shadow Stampin' Write marker and then covered with a healthy layer of Crystal Effects. And since not all of my stamping comes out even I ended up with a little bit of extra cardstock at the bottom of the fish panel. Easy enough to fix....add a few Antique Brass brads!