Serene Sympathy

  Sympathy cards are always so hard to make.  I never really know where to start so when I had to make a sympathy card over the weekend I let 2 challenges do the work for me.  I never want to do "over the top" cards but I also don't want to just slap something together.  Getting the right balance is the key.  I hope our friends can feel the love and prayers we sent to them.

  I used the current sketch at Fab Friday as well as this weeks challenge at CAS-ual Fridays which is to use Kraft or as we call it now at Stampin' Up!, Crumb Cake.

  I used the Festival of Print paper stack for my banner and wrapped a Very Vanilla seam binding bow around it.

  For the image panel I cut out a Windows Framelit and before popping it out of the die I sponged it with Crumb Cake ink which left a nice little border around the edge.  I also inked up Serene Silhouettes in Chocolate Chip ink and stamped it right over the sponging.  Then I popped the cardstock out of the die and wiped the excess ink off of it with a tissue.

  Next I added the sympathy sentiment from Petite Pairs and a few pearls to the flowers.

  Off to finish up preparing for having the neighbors come over for pizza before heading out to trick or treat!  Hope you have a fantastic Halloween!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Serene Silhouettes, Petite Pairs

Ink: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Festival of Prints DSP stack

Accessories: seam binding ribbon, pearls, Windows Framelits, corner rounder

Illuminate Snowflakes

  Another wet cold day here in Richmond and another day of schools being closed!  I hope all our friends and family to the north are safe and sound.  The photos of New York City and New Jersey are crazy.  I hope everyone got some place safe before all that water started pouring in!  I even heard that in Maryland they had some snow!  My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the storm.

 And now for something weather related that isn't dangerous!  A snowflake card!

 
  This is the last of the cards we made last week at my stamp-a-stack.  As I told my ladies, I just can't resist the blue and silver snowflake cards.  Every year I have to design at least one.  I think it's just a classic pretty combination.  This year we used the new Snowflake Soiree set along with lots of shimmer!

  The snowflakes on the Not Quite Navy layer are stamped with the new Illuminate ink pad.  They are just gorgeous!  The Glimmer paper snowflakes were cut out with the Snow Flurry Bigz die and layered with a glue dot.  We used a length of organdy ribbon across the top of the NQN panel.  The "Believe" is stamped in Not Quite Navy ink.

  And lastly we sprayed the whole card with shimmer mist.  This is a sparkly card for sure!

  I'm off to find some sort of entertainment for the crazy little boys!  Maybe I should check out all those ideas I've pinned on Pinterest but never actually do!  That would be a thought huh?  =)

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Snowflake Soiree

Ink: Illuminate, Not Quite Navy

Paper: Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Champagne & Silver Glimmer

Accessories: Shimmer mist, organdy ribbon, corner rounder, Snow Flurry Bigz die

Ornaments Framed

  So if you've got Did You Stamp Today? on a reader you're probably sick of me already this morning.  Stampin' Up! is keeping us demos on our toes today with all these great digital freebies and 15% off stamp sale today!  For more details see my previous posts from this morning.

  Not only do I have a lot going on stamping-wise but it's a busy, loud morning here at home.  We've had schools canceled due to Hurricane Sandy.  It's hardly windy at all here, just some gusts now and then and it hasn't rained much at all so the day off from school seems a bit silly.  I know that it will probably get worse later on and they are just being cautious but it's looking to be a long day inside for us!  We've already burned through paint pens and glitter glue, kids stamping, and Play Doh!  And it's not even 11am!  My poor abused kitchen table is begging for a break! 

  I have some cards to share that my stamping ladies made last week at my stamp-a-stack.  They made 2 of each design. 

  This design is really quick to put together.  We've used a Crumb Cake base with a layer of either Gumball Green or Cherry Cobbler Core'dinations cardstock.  The Core'dinations cardstock is embossed with the Holiday Frame folder and lightly sanded to bring out more of the details. 

  The ornaments were stamped in opposite colors from embossed panel and cut out with the matching framelits and popped up with a dimensional.  We stamped a Cherry Cobbler and Gumball Green ornament on the same piece of cardstock and ran both framelit shapes through the Big Shot at the same time; no need to do each one separately.  It really makes these cards quick!  We added a rhinestone to the center of the ornament and a Very Vanilla seam binding fork bow to the top.

  You can't get much easier than that!  And remember that the Ornament Keepsakes bundle with the added Candlelight Christmas Specialty DSP will get you the Festive Piercing pack for free ($7.95 value!).  You could make a ton of Christmas cards and projects with these supplies!  Don't wait though this deal is only good through the end October.

  Stay safe East Coasters!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes

Ink: Gumball Green, Cherry Cobbler

Paper: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler & Gumball Green Core'dinations, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Holiday Ornaments Framelits, dimensionals, Holiday Frame e.f., rhinestone, seam binding

FREE Digital Downloads!

 

Stampin' Up! has more fun for us this week!

What do you get when you combine Digital Scrapbooking Day and My Digital Studio? A week of A week of FREE downloads and 50 percent off ALL digital kits!

What: Three FREE downloads. 50% off ALL digital kits. Mega blogging on MyDigitalStudio.net all week!

When: October 29-November 5, 2012.

Why: To get the word out about My Digital Studio's awesome design program, content, and print products!

Get Your FREE Downloads:
   Go to my Online Store and click on the Free Download link

Get a BONUS FREE Download:If we get 18,000 downloads of FREE items we'll give you another FREE download!

 For more information about My Digital Studio and to see awesome samples head over to mydigitalstudio.net

Wow!! Big 15% Off Stamp Sale Today Only!

 

    Don't miss out on Stampin' Up's! HUGE 15% off stamp sale TODAY ONLY!  We've never had a sale like this before so check your wish list and head over to my online store and click on the Shop Now button. 

  I'll also be putting in a large group order for my local ladies later today so if you'd rather e-mail me with your order please send it to mandysurovy@yahoo.com and I'll get it placed for you.

Things to remember

• Background stamps
• Personalized name stamps
• Cookie press stamps
• Single-image stamps

This DOES NOT include

• Hostess sets
• Bundled stamp sets
• Digital stamp brush sets
  
  
   Please e-mail if you have any questions! 
  
  
   

Harvest Gratitude

  So is everyone running around getting ready for hurricane Sandy?  We filled up the car gas tanks, got an extra propane tank for the grill and put away all the stuff that was out in the yard.  We don't really expect much besides some wind and rain here in Glen Allen but we're prepared nonetheless!  I hope you all will stay safe!  I'll be spending some time in the stamp room I'm sure but for now I'll share one of the cards my ladies made this past week at my stamp-a-stack.

  The base is Naturals Ivory.  Then we used another piece of Naturals Ivory which we heat embossed the medallion from Day of Gratitude on.  The new Early Espresso embossing powder (in the Holiday catalog) is a wonderful color to use when black might just be, well, too black.

  3 squares from the Orchard Harvest DSP are layered towards the bottom of the embossed panel and then a length of ribbon is knotted around it.  In this photo I used 3/8" taffeta ribbon since I didn't have any of the Early Espresso stitched grosgrain when I made this sample.  My ladies used the stitched grosgrain which I think goes better with the feel of this card.

  The sentiment was stamped in Early Espresso and then punched out with the Decorative Label punch.  Another Decorative label was punched out of Island Indigo cardstock and then trimmed and layered behind.

  Finally the top panel was adhered to the base using dimensionals.

  Stay safe....Here comes Sandy!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Day of Gratitude

Ink: Versamark, Early Espresso

Paper: Naturals Vanilla, Island Indigo, Orchard Harvest DSP

Accessories: Early Espresso e.p., ribbon, dimensionals, Decorative Label punch

Snow, Snow, Snow!

  It's a good day for a number of reasons one of which is that it's a new challenge at Fab Friday!  Yay!  How are you guys liking these awesome challenges from Mindy?  I've been having a ton of fun and we'd love to see what you come up with for this challenge.  So head over to Fab Friday to see all the inspiration from the other team members and then get to stamping!

  This time around is a sketch challenge:

  This is such a fun and versatile sketch that I actually had a hard time narrowing down what I wanted to do!  That and the fact that my stamp room looked like a disaster area after having so many supplies pulled out to prepare for and host a stamp-a-stack for 18 people this week!  Yikes!  I had to really shovel off the desk before I got down to work.  Once I had my idea (and found all the supplies) it came together pretty quickly.  What do you think?

  I've hardly used any of the sheets from the Festival of Prints paper stack so I picked one and used it for my banner.  Most of the patterns can be used for more than just Christmas cards too which is nice for all those scraps I know I'll have left!

  The base is Baja Breeze with snowflakes from the Snowflake Soiree set stamped in Baja Breeze in 2 corners and then "Merry" stamped over the snowflakes in Early Espresso ink.  I rounded the 2 bottom corners with the corner rounder punch.

  The snowflakes were made with the Silver and Champagne glimmer paper and the Snow Flurry Bigz die.  I layered the 2 snowflakes and adhered them together with a glue dot.  To dress them up a bit I made a quick fork bow with 3/8" Whisper White taffeta ribbon and also adhered it with a glue dot.  The snowflakes are attached to the card with a dimensional (of course!).

  This would be a great card to reproduce using different colors and patterns from the Festival of Prints paper stack.  You could get so many different looks to the same design.

  Now that you've seen my card for the Fab Friday challenge it's your turn!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Snowflake Soiree

Ink: Baja Breeze, Early Espresso

Paper: Baja Breeze, Festival of Prints paper stack, Silver and Champagne Glimmer paper

Accessories: corner rounder, Snow Flurry die, taffeta ribbon

Birdbath Birthday

  Is everyone gearing up for the weekend?  We just need to make it through Friday and we're golden right?  I hope that you have some fun things planned.  We have several things on our agenda so I'm sure the weekend will go quickly. 

  My card today is one that I made several weeks ago for my mother-in-law when she asked if I could make her a stack of cards for some upcoming birthdays she needed to recognize.  I used this Mojo Monday sketch from September.  I didn't get it photographed in time to enter it but it was great to have a starting point.  My mother-in-law needed about 10 cards and I only had a few in my stash that would fit so I had to come up with some new designs....I didn't want them all to look alike!

 

  No crazy techniques or anything on this card.  Just some faux stitching around the edges.  The image panel and the one behind it are cut with the Windows Framelits and I just offset the panels for some added interest.  The scene was colored with inkpads and an Aquapainter.  I used the Owl punch for the 2 small hearts and added 2 Vintage Trinket brads to the banners. 

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: For the Birds

Ink: Stazon   For Watercoloring: Lucky Limeade, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Crumb Cake, Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango

Paper: Crumb Cake, First Ed, DSP, Island Indigo, watercolor paper, Rose Red, Regal Rose

Accessories: piercing template, Windows Framelits, Vintage Trinkets, circle punches, Owl Punch, corner rounder

Googly Coffin

  I decided I had better get this project posted before Halloween has come and gone!  I saw this adorable coffin (yes coffins can be adorable if they are made from paper!) on Splitcoaststampers so I followed the creators links and she has shared a quick tutorial on how to make these fun Halloween treats.  Check out Selene Kempton's blog Stamp 4 Fun to see the how to.  I shared this with my stamp club and they all thought it was adorable too.  Little KitKat or Hershey bars fit perfectly!

  After we put together the coffins using the Petal cone die we dragged the edges across the Illuminate ink pad.  Then we tied a bit of black 1/8" taffeta ribbon around it and knotted it on the side.  The large scalloped circle is punched from Howlstooth & Scarringbone DSP.  The Googly Ghouls were stamped in Stazon onto Very Vanilla and punched out with the wide oval punch.  For the witch and Frankenstein we used a blender pen and Certainly Celery ink pad to color in their faces.  And last are the googlie eyes which certainly add a lot of fun to these characters!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Googly Ghouls

Ink: Stazon, Certainly Celery, Illuminate

Paper: Basic Black, Howlstooth & Scarringbone DSP, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Petal Cone die, scallop circle punch, oval punch, blender pen, googlie eyes, taffeta ribbon

Ornament Trio - Fab Friday 04

  What a great way to start off a Friday!  A fun new challenge over at Fab Friday!  And it was certainly a challenge for me!  Mindy has a great set of colors for us this week and those of us on the design team even had a long lead time to work on upcoming challenges but for me this one was tough!  I like the colors together, I like the colors on their own, even the Summer Starfruit is starting to grow on me.  But every time I sat down to work on this challenge I just couldn't picture in my mind using any of my stamp sets with these colors....I know right....and I have A LOT of stamp sets to choose from!  I finally got it done and I think it came out OK for a non-traditional colored Christmas card!  Check out Midnight Muse, Island Indigo and Summer Starfruit!

    I kept this one pretty simple since the colors are so bold and the patterns on the ornaments are on the busy side.  The white space in the back helps balance it all out.

  I just stamped the ornaments, cut them out with the coordinating framelits, popped them up on various layers of dimensionals on top of the embossed Holiday Frame, added the ribbon knots and rhinestones.  The sentiments was stamped on Island Indigo with Midnight Muse ink and anchored to the largest ornament with a faceted button topped with a rhinestone.

  Here's a close up of the ornaments and how they are popped up.

  Just stack the dimensionals on top of each other to make each ornament higher than the last.  The Island Indigo ornament uses 1 layer, then the Midnight Muse one has 2 layers and finally 3 layers for the Summer Starfruit.

  I hope you pop over the Fab Friday challenge to see the other design team creations and then join in on the fun!  I can't wait to see what everyone creates with these colors!  It's always so hard to pick our favorites!

 
  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

  Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, More Merry Messages

  Ink: Midnight Muse, Island Indigo, Summer Starfruit

  Paper: Midnight Muse, Island Indigo, Whisper White

  Accessories: Holiday Ornament Framelits, Holiday Frame e.f., dimensionals, corner rounder punch, rhinestones, Whisper White taffeta ribbon, faceted button

Boo! to You!

  Here's a quick card that I made last week with a friend who wanted to learn more about Stampin' Up!  I was inspired by several different cards that I saw in the Splitcoaststampers gallery.

  Isn't this one fun?  We used a black card base with a layer of Howlstooth & Scarringbone DSP on top.  We cut a "B" with Typeset Alphabet dies.

  The images are stamped with Stazon onto Very Vanilla cardstock and then punched with the 1 1/4" circle punch.  We layered a 1 3/8" Basic Black punched circle behind the images to make our "O's".  Of course you can't leave off the googlie eyes!  They are so easy since they already have the adhesive on them you don't need to mess with glue or anything!

  We hand cut the exclamation point with paper snips and used a Glimmer Brad to bring in some sparkle.

  I guess since I've made a few Halloween projects we should nail down what the boys want to be for Halloween.  Alex keeps flip flopping between a few different ideas and Ryan wants to be a race car....not a race car driver but a race car....that sounds like a lot of work for mommy and daddy huh?  =)  I see another cardboard box costume in our future like the Train Costume made from Stampin' Up boxes several years ago.  Aren't they cute?

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Googly Ghouls

Ink: Stazon black

Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Howlstooth & Scarringbone DSP

Accessories: Typeset Alpha dies, circle punches, googlie eyes, Glimmer Brad

Welcome Baby Cameron!

  Fall certainly seems to be in the air this morning here in the Richmond area....actually it's almost leaning more towards winter!  Rainy and 47 degrees, yuck!  But that's all the more reason to stay inside and stamp right?  Since it's Columbus day and my husband and oldest son have the day off from work and school I was given the morning off from running around.  Matt decided that he would bring Alex to school and then he and Ryan would go do guy errands (Lowe's, the woodworking store etc.).  We'll all meet up later for lunch but for now the house is quiet so I thought I would share this card that made the other day.  Sometimes it's hard to concentrate on writing with the chaos swirling around me!

  Our friends and neighbors (she's also one of my stamping ladies!) had their second child not too long ago.  We were bringing them dinner the other night and of course I couldn't show up without a card!

   I had bought the Two By Two single stamp when the new catalog came out in June but hadn't used it yet.  I inked it up with Stazon and then stamped onto watercolor paper.  I cut it out with the Windows framlelit.  Then I got to work...I used my Aquapainter and squished some ink onto the inkpad lids to watercolor with.   None of these animals are terribly colorful in real life so I think I used all the browns and yellows!  I know after having 2 boys myself I got a little tired of all the pastel boy colors on clothes and gifts.  Some of my favorite outfits the boys received when they were born had colors like these along with greens and oranges.  It was such a nice change from baby blue!

  The base of the card is Soft Suede embossed with the woodgrain e.f.  I think I'm a little obsessed with this one!  But I figured the ark was built with wood so I should carry the theme through!  The banners are made from 2 different packs; The More Mustard pattern is from Howlstooth & Scarringbone and the Island Indigo and Cajun Craze is from the Orchard Harvest pack.

  I popped the image panel on dimensionals (I can't remember the last card I made that didn't use dimensionals...talk about obsessed!) and then added a retired Sale-a-bration Pacific Point button tied with linen thread.  The button matches pretty well even if it's not the same color blue.

  My layout is the current sketch from Fab Friday.  It's not too late to play along with this challenge.  It doesn't close until Thursday morning so there's plenty of time.  Head over to see the great cards the design team came up with as well as all the entries so far!  We'd love to have you join us!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Two By Two

Ink: Black Stazon  For watercoloring: More Mustard, Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand, Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Marina Mist

Paper: Soft Suede, Watercolor paper, Howlstooth & Scarringbone DSP, Orchard Harvest DSP

Accessories: Window Framelits, SAB Pacific Point button, linen thread, dimensionals, Woodgrain e.f.

Smackin' Acetate Silhouette

  Thanks to my customer Jill for asking about the Smackin' Acetate technique a few weeks ago.  I came up with this project for my stamping ladies to teach them this super easy and fun technique. 

  This is one of those fun techniques that give you a different look each time...there is no way to make each card look the same which I think is pretty cool....one of a kind for sure!  All you do is take a piece of acetate (or window sheet), color it with your markers (here we used More Mustard, Rich Razzleberry and Midnight Muse), spray with water (we used 2 squirts from the new Stampin' Up! misters) and then smack (hence the smackin' part of the name!) the acetate down on top of your cardstock and rub for a second.  You can see the ink and water soaking into the paper.

  While your smacked Whisper White panel is drying make the rest of the card.  Midnight Muse base with 2 corners rounded, Rich Razzleberry panel punched on one side with the scalloped edge punch, and a Midnight Muse stitched ribbon tied with a knot.

  Once your colored panel is dry ink up the Serene Silhouette stamp with Stazon and stamp right over the top of the colors.  Adhere it to the Rich Razzleberry panel, adhere the ends of the ribbon on the back and attach the whole thing to your card base. And finally a rhinestone in the the center of the tallest flower finishes this card.

  Get out your markers and a piece of acetate and see what one of a kind backgrounds you can come up with!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Serene Silhouettes

Ink: Black Stazon  Markers- More Mustard, Rich Razzleberry, Midnight Muse

Paper: Midnight Muse, Rich Razzleberry, More Mustard, Whisper White

Accessories: Stitched Satin ribbon, scallop edge punch, acetate, rhinestone

 

Woodgrain Leaves

 I've been hard at work (if you can call stamping work!) designing some cards for my upcoming stamp-a-stack.  I only need 3 designs and I have 3 made but I'm not sure if they are all keepers or not!  I guess I'll just have to keep slaving away in my stamp room....hard life huh?  But for now I'll share one of the cards my stamping ladies made last week at stamp club.

  We used a lot of new products on this card and I think they had fun with them.

 

 The base is Early Espresso with a layer of the new Early Espresso Core'dinations cardstock layered on top.  We used the new Woodgrain embossing folder on the Core'dinations cardstock.  Quick tip: if your embossing folder seem to be embossing too deep and your cardstock is tearing in places try using your multipurpose platform with no tabs.  Next the sanding block was used to bring out the cool look of the lighter core of the cardstock.  Doesn't it look like an old weathered board?

  A strip of the Orchard Harvest DSP was adhered across the card to bring in some fall color.  Next, using More Mustard and Cajun Craze cardstock the leaves were die cut using the new Autumn Accents Bigz die.  And the trick to stamping the matching Wonderfall stamp set images onto the leaves is 1) die cut first  2) ink up your stamp leaving it face up 3) lay the die cut on top of the inked stamp matching up the stems and leaf edges 4) cover with scrap paper and use a bone folder to burnish the scrap paper which transfers the ink to the cardstock die cut.  Done!  This method is MUCH easier than trying to stamp the die cut in the traditional manner.  The leaves were adhered with dimensionals.

  The final touches are the banner stamped from the Itty Bitty Banners set and hand cut (or you could use the matching framelits but I had to leave something in the catalog to buy later on and this still hasn't made it to the top of the list!).  And a small wooden button tied with baker's twine finishes this one off.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Wonderfall, Itty Bitty Banners

Ink: More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso

Paper: Early Espresso, Early Espresso Core'dinations, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Orchard Harvest DSP

Accessories: Woodgrain e.f., Autumn Accents die, baker's twine, wood button, dimensionals