Hello Mate! - Fab Friday 97 - Stampin' Up! Foxy Friends

  I've made it through this week...not with flying colors mind you, more like spluttering, wheezing and dragging myself to the finish line!  The weather has been horribly glum and rainy and I've had an on and off again sick kiddo so it's been kind an out-of-the-ordinary week where I feel like I haven't gotten very much accomplished.

  But.....it's Friday now and a Fab Friday Challenge week to boot!  Things are looking up...maybe the sun will even show up today for some much needed vitamin D!  We are doing a sketch challenge this time around.  Check it out:

  Just think of the possibilities with those big panels!  DSP, embossing, stamping.... so many ways you can go!

  I decided that my Fox Builder punch and Foxy Friends stamp set needed a bit of love.  I have seen several examples of this cute koala bear while browsing Pinterest so I thought he would be a cute focal point for this card layout.

  All the parts of this sweet little guy are made with the Fox Builder punch except for the nose which I hand cut and the circle part of the ears which were made with the Owl Builder punch (another small circle punch would work great as well).

  The eyes and paws are stamped in black as is the Hello greeting.  The nose is covered in Crystal Effects.  Even though it's retired I still reach for it.  It gives a nice glossy look and a fun detail to this card.

  Behind the koala I stamped and cut out various leaves with the Botanical Blooms stamp set and coordinating Botanical Builder framelits.  Mint Macaron and Emerald Envy are a nice fresh pairing of green don't you think?

  Everything is adhered to a Whisper White circle backed by an Emerald Envy scalloped circle.  Both were cut with the Layering Circles framelits.  The circle is popped on dimensionals.

  The little bit of DSP that you see peeking out in the back is from the retired It's My Party DSP stack.

  I hope this little koala bear made you smile and made you want to join in the fun at the Fab Friday Challenge!  The Design Team always has loads of fun samples to get the creative juices going!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Foxy Friends, Botanical Blooms, Sunshine Sayings

Ink: Black, Emerald Envy, Mint Macaron

Paper: Whisper White, Emerald Envy, Mint Macaron, Smoky Slate, Basic Black, It's My Party DSP (retired)

Accessories: Fox Builder punch, Owl Builder punch, Layering Circles framelits, Botanical Builder framelits, Crystal Effects (retired), dimensionals

Star of Wonder - Stampin' Up! Star of Light

 It's never too early to make Christmas cards but it's definitely too early to decorate for Christmas or buy any decorations.  I've seen decorations in the stores already along with peppermint flavored stuff....meanwhile in Central Virginia the temps have still been in the 80s!

 Anyway, I have another Christmas card to share today.  Next week I'll have a few more fall themed cards but I want my stampers to get the first peek at them next week at class so all my online stamping friends will just have to wait a bit longer!

  I love love love stars especially at Christmas.  I think I've mentioned that I put up a separate Christmas tree in my front entry way that just has star ornaments on it.  It's a much smaller tree than the one that goes up in the living room but still....all stars.  Needless to say when I saw the new Star of Light bundle in the Holiday catalog it was the first item on my wish list!  I'm going to have design an ornament with this bundle for sure!

  I think this color combination was from a challenge a week or 2 back but I can't remember which one.  I really should save the challenge graphic as soon as I make the card but that would mean I would have to be more organized!  I really like this color combo.  Gold and Night of Navy is a classic combo for star cards but add in the Watermelon Wonder and it gives a nice little spin.

  The base is Night of Navy with the swirls stamped in gold ink.  The sentiment is embossed in gold onto a narrow strip of Night of Navy.  The stars were cut out using the Starlight Thinlets.  Get the stamp set and thinlets together in a bundle and save 10%!  The background star is Watermelon Wonder, then I used Gold Glimmer paper, then a smaller Night of Navy Star and finally a small Gold Glimmer paper star on top popped with a dimensional.

  The delicate designs really shine with the Gold Glimmer paper and are fun to layer with the different patterns.

  I hope you get some stamping time in over the weekend!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Star of Light

Ink: Gold, Versamark

Paper: Night of Navy, Gold Glimmer paper, Watermelon Wonder

Accessories: Starlight thinlets, dimensionals, gold embossing powder

  

  

Comfort & Joy Christmas - Stampin' Up! Christmas Pines

  It's been a few days of cloudy and rainy weather here in Central VA.  And because of that I have had a heck of a time trying to photograph some of my recent projects.  I finally resorted to the light box today so I could get something posted before the morning was over.  The boys also have a half day so will be home in about an hour so that doesn't leave me much time!

  I used the current Global Design Project challenge to get me started for this card.  I ended up adding several extra elements but the sketch was definitely where I started so thanks to that group for giving such great inspiration each week!

  I chose a pretty traditional color scheme with Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake and Garden Green.  I added accents of gold, Mint Macaron and Early Espresso for interest.

  The new embossing folder in the Holiday catalog Cable Knit (page 13) is really cool because it gives a higher and lower embossed pattern at the same time.  The woven part is embossed higher than the little stitches in between the woven lines so there is really a lot of dimension and texture to this design.  

  I began layering over the top of the embossing with some This Christmas Specialty DSP for the flag, some 1/4" gold natural trim, gold die cut pine overlaid with an Early Espresso cut out pine cone (the coordinating Pretty Pines thinlets gives so many great shapes to go with the stamp set!), pine branches and the dual colored sentiment.  I used my markers to color the sentiment and then cut it out with the Tags & Labels framelits.

  I really like how so many fun products from the Holiday catalog and Annual catalog combine for a beautifully traditional Christmas card.  And it is a great example of building a card around a sentiment and not an image stamp.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Christmas Pines

Ink: Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler (markers)

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Mint Macaron, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Gold Shimmer, This Christmas DSP

Accessories: Cable Knit e.f., Tags & Labels framelits, Pretty Pines thinlets, dimensionals, gold natural trim

Beware of the Creeper - Minecraft Birthday Card

  If you've got kids you're probably familiar with Minecraft and some of the characters in the popular video game.  My kids get a kick out of building all sorts of crazy things in Minecraft so it was a no brainer to create a birthday card for my oldest this past summer to celebrate his 10th birthday.  When they show me what they've been making I have to confess I get a little bit of motion sickness with all the spinning and and movement and I get kind of lost as to what I'm looking at!  I guess my mind just doesn't compute in "blocks" as well as the kids!

  This is by far the easiest card to make....it's all right angles; squares and rectangles!  So easy!

  I started with a Garden Green card base and I made it square of course!  Then a layer of Basic Black.  I took a slightly small square in Garden Green and used my Simply Scored and scored half inch line across and up and down to make this fun grid.

  Next I adhered my squares and rectangles making the Creeper Face that the kids are so familiar with.

  See, I told you it was super easy and this is a great card for using up some of those smaller scraps and strips you've been holding onto!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: none

Ink: none 

Paper: Garden Green, Basic Black

Accessories: Simply Scored

Birthday Palm - Stampin' Up! Totally Trees

   It's another Fab Friday challenge!  Woo Hoo!  We have a fun color challenge for you this time.  And it might be quite a challenge for some...it was for me!  Sometimes I just have a hard time with certain colors but then have two of those colors on the same palette....oh boy!  I persevered and came up with this clean and simple design.  Sometimes I find if some colors are hard to use to use a lot of open space because sometimes less is more!

  Check it out: Delightful Dijon, Emerald Envy, and Very Vanilla.

  And I reached for Totally Trees again because for some reason I got palm trees stuck in my head!  I think I might try this combo for a Christmas card too....Star of Light anyone??  Anyway here's my sample!

  Pretty simple but in the end I like it!  I added in some Soft Suede as a neutral to balance out the colors.  The tree top is stamped twice and cut out and popped up for dimension.

  And how cute are those stars?  I have a thing for stars and the two star stamps are adorable.  Use them together or separate.

  I hope you'll head over to the Fab Friday challenge and get more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.  They always blow me away with their creativity!  Then I want to see your card in the gallery!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Totally Trees, Endless Birthday Wishes

Ink: Delightful Dijon, Emerald Envy, Soft Suede

Paper: Very Vanilla, Emerald Envy

Accessories: corner rounder

Totally Cute Christmas Tree - Stampin' Up! Totally Trees

  I have another Christmas card to share with you today.  Once I got the new Totally Trees inky it was fun trying out different themes for them.  This is a great design for making multiples for Christmas.  Nothing too crazy but still super cute!

  The base is Cherry Cobbler and then a layer of This Christmas Specialty DSP.  I stamped the little dots in Garden Green onto Garden Green cardstock.  Around this layer I tied a Gold baker's twine bow.  You can find this twine in the Trio Pack on page 16 of the Holiday catalog.

  For the top layer I stamped off the "leaves" or are they "needles" on a Christmas tree?  Anyway the top is stamped off once using Garden Green then the branch/trunk is stamped full strength.  A gold star is added to the top.

  Finally the greeting "Merry Christmas" from Star of Light is the perfect size and is stamped in Cherry Cobbler.

  So even if you think it's too early to start Christmas cards it's not too early to gather ideas for when you start your Christmas stamping!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Totally Trees, Star of Light

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, gold

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Whisper White, This Christmas DSP

Accessories: gold twine (Baker's Twine Trio)

Floral Birthday - Stampin' Up! Detail Floral Thinlets

Please tell me that I'm not the only stamper that has die cuts, colored images and embossed cardstock that just didn't make the cut on a project and now sits in a sad pile on your stamping desk?  You know those items you tried out but just didn't work with that current project but were really too good to recycle?  Well that pile on my desk has been growing so I decided that it was high time to use at least one of those items on a card.

I grabbed the die cut base for this card from 'the pile' and using the now closed ColourQ challenge colors got to work.  Cool Caribbean and Poppy Parade are retired so I substituted Pool Party and Real Red.  How pretty is that die cut detail?  I love the Detailed Floral Thinlets and am so glad I saved this card base to use at a later date!

  I used the Botanical Builder framelits to build this bold red flower.  I stamped the greeting using the Sunshine Sayings stamp set.  I used Night of Night ink on So Saffron cardstock.  I layered the the flag under the flower and did a second slightly larger flag behind it so the adhesive from the first on would seep through the floral die cut flap and end up sticking to the inside of the card.  You've got to be able to open a card up right?

 I stamped the itty bitty small flower cluster stamp from Botanical Blooms in Night of Navy on the insert and then added a Pool Party cotton ribbon bow.

So moral of the card share today is to dig into that pile card parts and use some of them to make a card!

Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Sunshine Sayings, Botanical Blooms

Ink: Night of Navy

Paper: Night of Navy, Real Red, Pool Party, So Saffron, Whisper White

Accessories: Details Floral thinlets, Botanical Builder framelits, cotton ribbon, candy dots, dimensionals

Fall Birthday Foliage - Stampin' Up! Totally Trees

Over our busy weekend we drove up through the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley on our way to the JMU football game and I commented that the drive up for games in October will be spectacular.  Once the leaves begin to change the mountains take on a whole different look.  Right now they are still green but soon (if the weather ever cools down) we will see the beautiful fall colors on our drive over the mountains.

I've gotten a head start on those colors and used the totally cute new stamp set Totally Trees to make a fall card.

This set is very fun with different tree trunks, tree tops and little accent shapes to make all kind of tree scenes.  I like that it's a bit whimsical and a smaller scale than some of our other tree sets.

My card is very basic and I probably use this layout a little too often but it's fun to have the trees lined up in a row.

The card base is Early Espresso and I stamped the tree trunks in Early Espresso onto Very Vanilla cardstock.  The tree tops are stamped in Delightful Dijon, Pumpkin Pie, and Cajun Craze.  I added a strip of the fun, very fall like Copper Foil sheets and embossed the greeting in copper as well.  Since there isn't anything frilly I think this would be a great masculine birthday card for the fall.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Totally Trees, Sunshine Greetings

Ink: Early Espresso, Delightful Dijon, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Versamark

Paper: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Copper Foil sheet

Accessories: Copper embossing powder

Christmas Pine Wreath - Stampin' Up! Christmas Pines

I had a bit of stamping time on Friday and got a few new cards made to show this week.  I used some challenges I follow to get me going.  It's a good thing I had Friday to stamp because our weekend was jam packed with activities.  We had soccer games, football game and church activities so not much time to get inky over the weekend.

  For this card I used the CAS(e) This Sketch challenge as my starting point and I immediately decided to do a wreath.  That large circle just was calling out to be made into a wreath.

  This is the first time I've used the Christmas Pines stamp set and Pretty Pines Thinlets (these are bundled to save 10%!!).  I also got the new Merry Medley background stamped inked for the first time.  So many fun new products for Christmas!

  The card base is Crumb Cake stamped with Crumb Cake ink with the large Merry Medley background.

  I cut a Crumb Cake circle with the layering circles framelits to create a base on which to build my wreath.  Then I cut out multiple pine branches with the 3 sizes of dies using Mint Macaron and Emerald Envy.  Once I had a decent stack of branches I cut some of the bigger ones smaller and layered them onto the form gluing them down with Tombow Mono Multi glue.

  After I had all the branches down I added some enamel dots in Real Red for some fun berries.

  Then sentiment is stamped on a strip of vellum and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  I attached it to the wreath using glue dots behind the letters.  Finally I did a double layer bow with the retired gold cording.  The whole wreath is popped up on dimensionals.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Merry Medley, Christmas Pines

Ink: Crumb Cake, Versamark

Paper: Crumb Cake, Mint Macaron, Emerald Envy, Vellum

Accessories: Pretty Pines thinlets, Layering Circles framelits, gold embossing powder, enamel dots, dimensionals, gold cord (retired)

Fish in a Jar- Stampin' Up! Jar of Love

  If you think about it, giving someone a fish in a jar to say hello is kind of strange and might not be  well received.  But when you give them a hand stamped card with a fish in a jar to say hello is completely cute and thoughtful right?

  We made this fun (and not creepy!) shaker card at my last class.

  The new Foam Adhesive strips make creating shaker cards a snap.  They are really just long and narrow dimensionals and are so easy to cut to the size you need!

  All the images and die cuts are part of the Jar of Love stamp set and Everyday Jars framelits.  You can get both products as a bundle and save 10% so that makes it even better!

  We used the line of hearts die to make the confetti for inside the shaker along with some retired silver sequins.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Jar of Love

Ink: Night of Navy, Blushing Bride, Sweet Sugarplum

Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Floral Boutique DSP, Blushing Bride, Sweet Sugarplum

Accessories: window sheets/transparency sheet, silver sequins (retired), Everyday Jars framelits, foam adhesive strips 

Cuteness Overload Baby Bears - Stampin' Up! Fox Builder punch

Oh my goodness I don't think I've designed a card this cute in a long while!  About a month ago another Stampin' Up! demonstrator shared online a card she made using the Fox Builder punch to make an adorable baby bear.  It was the first time I had seen this adorable design.  If you haven't checked out all the sweet animals you can make with the Fox Builder punch then you are missing out!  Search Pinterest and you will see all the possibilities.  The baby bear that was shared was just too cute not to CASE (Copy And Share Everything) for one of my class projects in August.

My ladies were able to choose to make a boy baby bear or a girl baby bear.  While there are some small pieces to put together  it is not a hard card to make.

 The head, body and nose are punched with the Fox Builder punch in Chocolate Chip cardstock.  The mouth and feet are punched in Crumb Cake with the Owl Builder punch (the circle are just the right size but other circle punches or dies would work too).

  Stamp the bear face and round the ears with scissors and then feet with black ink before punch (it's just easier to line it up that way).  Pop up the mouth and feet with tiny pieces of dimensionals.  The bow is a stamp from the Celebrate Today set and is cut out with the coordinating Balloon Framelits die.

  We added a bit of sparkle to the bear with a small rhinestone and then carried the sparkle to the sentiment.  My stampers had a choice of which one to use from the Sunshine Sayings stamp set and Sunshine Wishes thinlets.  Once they cut out their large word we used the clear Wink of Stella to paint on some more shimmer.

  The tree from Foxy Friends is stamped in Pear Pizzazz on Whisper White to make a nice little back ground for our sweet bears.

  Now if you don't say awwww when seeing these little cuties there is no hope for you my friend.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Foxy Friends, Sunshine Sayings, Celebrate Today

Ink: black, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo

Accessories: Fox Builder punch, Owl Builder punch, Balloon Framelits, Sunshine Sayings thinlets, rhinestones, dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Sending Love - Stampin' Up! Jar of Love

  Whew!  Our family made it through the first day of school yesterday and it seems that it was a success!  The boys got home and were happy and shared a few details of their day.  They didn't balk at getting up this morning and getting going for day 2 so I call it a win!  And as Alex told me yesterday, "I didn't even get in trouble today".  Yes he's that kid! Good thing is teacher is a seasoned veteran.

  I have another card to share today that I made over the summer.  I have been really digging Mint Macaron and Night of Navy color combo lately so I used them here along with Flirty Flamingo to make a sweet thinking of you card.

 The sentiment is the Sunshine Sayings stamp set and Sunshine Wishes thinlets.  There are so many possibilities for different sayings using this great bundle.  I gave the "sending" a bit more weight by stamping it onto a small tag that was cut with the Tags & Labels framelits and jazzed up with some gold thread.

  The flowers are all first stamped off once in Flirty Flamingo ink and then the added detail is full strength of the same color. Stems are stamped in Mint Macaron and the jar in Basic Gray.  Everything is adhered in front of a Night of Navy circle.  Some of the flowers are popped on dimensionals.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Jar of Love, Sunshine Sayings

Ink: Basic Gray, Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, Flirty Flamingo

Paper: Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, Whisper White

Accessories: Everyday Jars framelits, Tags & Labels framelits, Sunshine Wishes thinlets,  Layering Circles framelits, gold thread, dimensionals

Balloon Trio - Stampin' Up! Balloon Celebration

 It is a happy first day of school here for us in the Richmond area!  I now have a 5th grader and a 3rd grader.  I don't think I'm old enough for all of that nonsense but it appears to be true!  The boys seemed excited to start their day and we actually made it out of the house on time (small miracles right?).  Now for me it's time to get down to business and get organized after a very unstructured summer and that includes getting back to regularly blogging!

I think I made this card back in July for a challenge that has been long forgotten but you can never go wrong with balloons or paper piecing so it's all good!

I used DSP from 2 retired packs because they were the only patterns that I had in fun, bright celebration colors.  All of my current paper is a bit muted for this style so I used the Cherry on Top DSP and the It's My Party DSP.  All fun patterns that work for a smaller image like these balloons.

After stamping the balloon outlines and strings in black I stamped the balloons again on the DSP and cut them out and then layered them inside the outlines on the card front.  I added a tiny little black baker's twine bow and the sentiment.

I've added this card to my #imbringingbirthdaysback card stash as September is a very busy month on my birthday calendar!  I better get some more made quickly!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Balloon Celebration

Ink: Basic Black

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, It's My Party DSP (retired), Cherry on Top DSP (retired)

Accessories: black bakers twine

Maple Leaf in Copper - Fab Friday 95

  Happy Fab Friday Challenge Day!  I've got my days all mixed up since coming back from vacation on Sunday so I'm glad to start the weekend off with a fun sketch challenge to get me back on track.  And then school starts on Tuesday and we're off running!  

  Check out this fun layout!  I can't wait to use it for more cards...that heart can be anything!

  I went with a kind of clean and modern looking fall card so I can begin to look forward to cooler fall weather.  It was slightly cooler and less humid today so that's something!  

 How awesome does that copper embossing powder look on the maple leaf from Vintage Leaves?  I used Mint Macaron as the base.  My shiny leaf is adhered over a fun textured piece of DSP from the Serene Scenery paper stack.  Linen thread makes for a nice delicate bow and the Dapper Denim ruched ribbon goes wonderfully with the copper.

  I added a sentiment in Dapper Denim using the Thoughtful Banners stamp set.

  Check out the rest of the projects that the Fab Friday Design Team came up with and then play along with us!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Vintage Leaves, Thoughtful Banners

Ink: Versamark, Dapper Denim

Paper: Crumb Cake, Mint Macaron, Serene Scenery DSP

Accessories: Copper embossing powder, Leaflet Framelits, linen thread, ruched ribbon, dimensionals