Bright Congratulations - Stampin' Up! Birthday Cheer

 It's really cold here in central Virginia and the schools are on a 2 hour delay.  And before all of you in the north tell me how cold it is in your area I hear you!  But 13 degrees for this area is really cold.  I'm a hearty New Englander so I just think this is winter and throw on my long johns and get on with things.  But my kids are enjoying a relaxing start to their morning.

  Today's card is using the Birthday Cheer stamp set from the Occasions catalog that I like for birthdays but can also be used as a congratulations.  My husband actually used this card last week for someone on his team who was promoted.

  The sketch is roughly based on the current Fab Friday challenge which is closing tomorrow. I changed the banner part to a circle to accommodate the sentiment.

  I stamped the party hat across the center alternating between Blueberry Bushel and Lemon Lime Twist.  My Stampin' Write markers in the same colors filled in alternating stripes.  Since this is a photopolymer set it was really easy to line up the hats.

  The sentiment is stamped in Blueberry Bushel and cut out with a Stitched Shapes circle framelit.  I popped it with dimensionals and added a smattering of adhesive sequins and 1/8" grosgrain ribbon.

  Stay warm!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Birthday Cheer

Ink: Blueberry Bushel, Lemon Lime Twist

Paper: Blueberry Bushel, Lemon Lime Twist, Whisper White

Accessories: markers, Stitched Shapes framelits, adhesive sequins, 1/8" grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals

Best Catch Birthday - Stampin' Up! Best Catch

  All the fishermen in my family would call it a good birthday if they got to go fishing and catch a fish like this!  Actually they would all call it a good birthday if they just went fishing even without catching anything!

  I'm enjoying creating with the Best Catch stamp set and the big fish stamp is fun to color then cut out.  Hard to see in the photo but the die cuts out the fins so the fish ends up a bit 3d which is a fun detail.

  

The card base is Pool Party topped with a layer of my favorite DSP, Wood Textures.  

The sentiment from Itty Bitty Birthdays is stamped on Whisper White in Old Olive ink and then it was run through the Big Shot with the Subtle embossing folder.  Both of the sentiment layers are distressed along the edges.

Next, I embossed a vellum circle with the Seaside embossing folder.  The fish is stamped and then colored with ink pads and blender pen.  I used Old Olive, Pool Party and a tiny bit Petal Pink.  The fish is cut out and popped on the vellum circle.

 I added a bit of woven trim along the bottom of the sentiment for some added texture.

 Now to decide which lucky fisherman will get this card for their birthday....

Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Best Catch, Itty Bitty Birthdays

Ink: Old Olive, black, Pool Party, Petal Pink

Paper: Pool Party, Old Olive, Whisper White, Vellum, Wood Textures DSP

Accessories: Circle punch, Seaside embossing folder, Subtle embossing folder, Catch of the Day thinlets, woven trim

  

Spotlight on Blossoms - Stampin' Up! All That You Are

  You know how sometimes you want to make a card and do a certain technique but you don't have the time to really get into it?  Sometimes coloring can be like that for me.  I want to make some cards but I don't have time to sit and color a large image.  The spotlight technique is a quick way to get your coloring fix in without the huge time commitment.

  Spotlighting is great beause you can leave the majority of the image blank/black and white and just color small bits.  You get the bright pops of color you want and you get your coloring fix all in a fraction of the time it would take to color the whole image!

  After the coloring bits on this card everything else is fairly simple with the black card base, the Whisper White Stitched Rectangle main panel and a satin black bow.

  Can't you just picture all the different color combos you can do with the spotlighting technique?

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: All That You Are, Butterfly Gala 

Ink: black

Blends: Poppy Parade, Mango Melody, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive

Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White

Accessories: Stitched Rectangle framelits, circle punches, dimensionals, satin ribbon (retired)

Spectacular Celebration - Stampin' Up! Birthday Cheer

  Just a quick post today to share this bright, fun birthday card.  This one was made with some random card parts I had on my stamping desk.  I had originaly stamped and colored the gift box when I was playing around with color combos for this card and I couldn't let my time coloring go to waste!

  Some things that might not show through the photo:  The sentiment is embossed in white and the white parts of the gift box as well as the heart are colored over with clear Wink of Stella for a little bit of shimmer.

  And don't you just love that fun new embossing folder?  The Dot to Dot embossing folder can be found on page 25 of the Occasions catalog.  It definitely adds a some flair!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Birthday Cheer

Ink: Versamark, Flirty Flamingo

Blends: Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo, Calypso Coral

Paper: Flirty Flamingo, Pool Party, Grapefruit Grove, Whisper White

Accessories: Stitched Shapes framelits, dimensionals, narrow organza ribbon (retired)

Stinkin' Sweet Treats - Stampin' Up! Hey Love

 It's a late start at my house today with it being MLK day and the kids and husband are at home.  We had planned a weekend out of town but the weather forecast up north put a halt to all that.  We've found ourselves lazing around not getting all that much accomplished!  I figured I could at the very least share one of the projects we made at my Sale-a-Bration/Occasions open house.

  I don't usually make a whole lot of Valentine's cards especially not many frilly heart covered ones.  In a house full of boys there's not much call for over the top, fancy declarations of love.  But the Hey Love stamp set in the Occasions catalog has kind of become my go to for sweet but not sappy cards.  And my kids love puns so there's the added bonus of the sentiments.  And since the images don't scream Valentine's day this set will have a longer shelf life and be used for some thinking of you and even some kid birthday cards.

  I have a few more designs with the Hey love stamp set up my sleeve but for now I'm going to show the quick and easy treat we made at class.  Who doesn't love a bit of yummy chocolate wrapped up with an adorable skunk??

  Ghirardelli chocolates are the perfect size to put into these little treat holders made with the scalloped tag topper punch.   Grapefruit Grove and Lovely Lipstick are fun fresh colors to use for Valentine's day and the Sale-a-Bration reward of the foil paper in both colors is just the right amount of shimmer.

  The stinkin' sweet skunk is stamped and punched out and colored with a blender pen and colored pencils.  The hearts are filled in with Grapefruit Grove or Lovely Lipstick markers. We popped the circle with dimensionals over the foil banner.

  In class the tops were tied with polka dot ribbon and 1/8" grosgrain ribbon.  My samples here aren't using the polka dot ribbon as I had a bit of retired ribbon that I wanted to use up with my extra supplies so I could have a stash of treats to give out on Valentine's day.

  Dimensions for this project: 2" x 6" strip of cardstock scored at 2 7/8" and 3 1/8" then punched on each end with the scalloped tag topper.  Ribbon lengths are about 6" for each.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Hey Love

Ink: black

Paper: Grapefruit Grove, Lovely Lipstick, Whisper White, Foil Sheets

Accessories: scalloped tag topper punch, circle punch, dimensonals, colored pencils, markers, ribbon

Celebrate with Butterflies - Stampin' Up! Butterfly Gala - Fab Friday 155

  It is definitely time to celebrate something!  It's Friday and to make it even better its a Fab Friday challenge day!  We have a fun sketch this time around!

  I really enjoyed this sketch and have some plans to make a few more designs with this basic layout.  For my card today I've paired it up with Butterfly Gala and some Sale-a-Bration (SAB) Botanical Butterfly DSP.

  I pulled my colors from the current Paper Players challenge as I liked the kind of pastel, kind of bright color combo.  And when I added in the black accents I thought the sweet butterflies just popped!

  I used 3 different Butterfly Gala images and then punched them out with the Butterfly Duet punch and just mounted them on my strip of DSP.  The little butterflies on the inside of the card.

  The sentiment flag is Grapefruit Grove and is embossed in black with one of the Itty Bitty Birthdays sentiments.  I even had a bit of retired Pool Party bakers twine so I used it to make a little bow to accent the side of the flag.  I added a little black faceted dot to each butterfly body for a tiny bit of shine.

  Even though you have almost 2 weeks to do our Fab Friday challenge don't wait!  I want to see what you all come up with for this sketch!  I can never have enough ideas and inspiration!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Butterfly Gala, Itty Bitty Birthdays

Ink: black, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Grapefruit Grove, Versamark

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Basic Black, Botanical Butterfly DSP, Grapefruit Grove

Accessories: Stitched Rectangle framelits, black embossing powder, Pool Party bakers twine (retired), Butterfly Duet punch, dimensionals, faceted dots

Petal Pink Lily - Stampin' Up! Lasting Lily

 Today's card got rave reviews at my Occasions catalog/Sale-a-Bration kick off open house last week.  I had designed several fairly easy projects so that my stampers could get some hands on time with some of the new products and I think by far the Lasting Lily SAB reward was the clear favorite.

  You can't get more #simplestamping than this design!  The Floral Romance Specialty DSP in the Occasions catalog is just stunning.  With a mix of standard floral patterns and 2 printed vellum designs it's the perfect paper to create some beautiful flower themed cards.

  We used just a small bit of the Floral Romance DSP to anchor the side of this clean and simple design.  I pulled the Petal Pink for the lily right from the paper.  The Lasting Lily set is a Sale-a-Bration reward at the $100 level and it is worth it.  With the beautiful large blossom, smaller blossom and stems and leaf along with a great selection of sentiments in 2 lovely fonts you can really get a lot of use from this one!

  The lily is stamped in Petal Pink and using the Petal Pink marker we darkened the pistil for a little more definition.  The stem and leaf are stamped with Pear Pizzazz ink.  Stitched Shapes framelit oval is used to cut the flower out.

  Old Olive linen thread (Occasions catalog) tied in a bow at the stem is a great match and adds just enough embellishment for this simple card.  The image is popped up on dimensionals.

  The final bit is the Itty Bitty Birthdays sentiment stamped in the corner in Mossy Meadow ink.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Lasting Lily, Itty Bitty Birthdays

Ink: Petal Pink, Pear Pizzazz, Mossy Meadow

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Floral Romance Specialty DSP

Accessories: Stitched Shapes framelits, dimensionals, Old Olive linen thread

All the Thanks - Stampin' Up! All That You Are

  I pulled my inspiration for today's card from page 3 of the Occasions catalog.  I liked the Balmy Blue background and built my card around the banner and flowers.  Remember you don't need to start from scratch with your own design every time you stamp.  See what parts of a sample project jump out at you and start with that and build up the rest of your card from there.

   I stamped the large flower stamp all over the Balmy Blue card base in the same color ink.  Next I cut a Stitched Rectangle and then used the corner of another Stitched Rectangle to cut the flag/banner shape.  I inked up just the thank you with my Night of Navy marker and stamped it right onto the banner.

  The All That You Are stamp set is made for coloring!  Sure you can stamp on colored cardstock and cut out the blossoms but the lovely open blossoms that aren't too big or too small just scream for some custom coloring with Stampin' Blends!  I stamped a bunch of each size flower in Night of Navy and then colored them in using Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody and Balmy Blue.  Then I cut them out  with the Frosted Bouquet framelits and then clustered them on the banner with a few popped on dimensionals.

  A Night of Navy bakers twine bow at the top finishes off this thank you card.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: All That You Are

Ink: Balmy Blue, Night of Navy

Blends: Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody, Balmy Blue

Paper: Balmy Blue, Whisper White

Accessories: Stitched Rectangles framelits, Frosted Bouquet framelits, baker's twine, dimensionals

Best Catch Celebration - Stampin' Up! Best Catch

  The first thing I added to my preorder 'have to buy' list from the Occasions catalog was the Best Catch fishing themed stamp set.  My husband and dad and to a lesser extent my boys are into fishing so I was happy to have a new set to use for all those guy occasions!

  The set is a nice mix of images along with the Catch of the Day thinlets I know I can make a lot of different cards in the coming year.

 I went with a basic masculine color combo for this first try with the Best Catch set.

  The card base is Mossy Meadow, then a layer of Crumb Cake and then another layer of Mossy Meadow which was embossed with the Subtle embossing folder.

  I stamped the fly stamp on 2 pieces of Wood Textures DSP with Crumb Cake ink.  

  The rectangle is cut with the Stitched Rectangle framelits and stamped the sentiment in Mossy Meadow.

  The fisherman was stamped in Crumb Cake and then I colored him in with ink pads and blender pens and then cut him out and popped him up with dimensionals.

  I cut a plain fly out with the thinlet and then tried my hand at coloring on my own.  I think I should have pulled up some google images to use as inspiration!  I added a bit of linen thread as the fishing line.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Best Catch, Itty Bitty Birthdays

Ink: Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake (and various colors for coloring which I don't remember!)

Paper: Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Wood Textures DSP

Accessories: Catch of the Day thinlets, Stitched Rectangle framelits, linen thread, dimensionals

  

Little Box of Love - Stampin' Up! Birthday Cheer

  Last week did not go as planned as far as blogging goes!  I had a whole weeks worth of projects to share and then my laptop had a little accidental meeting with some water!  Yikes!  After letting the laptop dry for 3 days I finally turned it back on and crossed my fingers.  I'm so glad that it turned on and seems to work and I haven't noticed any problems.  But since all my photos were stored on the computer I couldn't share any projects during the drying time.  But I'm back now and ready to show some Occasions catalog goodness!

  I was drawn to the new Birthday Cheer stamp set because of the larger bold lined images.  I thought they would be fun to color with my Stampin' Blends and I wasn't wrong.  I didn't even get the coordinating dies though as cool as they are I liked the simplicity of just the stamps.  

  I was looking though my stamps to get a start on a few Valentine's day cards and I decided that the little gift with the heart tag would do nicely.  The card base is Grapefruit Grove with a piece of retired Festive Farmhouse DSP.  I liked the light neutral of the Gray Granite so I decided to stamp my image with that color and then colored in with Stampin' Blends.

  The box is Pool Party, the ribbon is Flirty Flamingo and the heart is Calypso Coral (which is a decent substitute to Grapefruit Grove).  The heart is also overcolored with clear Wink of Stella for a bit of shimmer.  After coloring I fussy cut the box and then popped it up on a Stitched Shapes oval.  

  The bit of confetti is stamped behind the oval and colored in with the various colors and then highlighted with clear Wink of Stella.

  The banners are just bits of ribbon in the colors and then Pool Party sentiment stamped with Itty Bitty Greeting.

  Here's to a week with no water near any electronics!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Birthday Cheer, Itty Bitty Greetings

Ink: Gray Granite

Blends: Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo, Calypso Coral

Paper: Grapefruit Grove, Whisper White, Pool Party, Festive Farmhouse DSP (retired)

Accessories: Wink of Stella, Stitched Shapes framelits, dimensionals, ribbons

All the Flowers Birthday - Stampin' Up! All That You Are - Fab Friday 154

I am still struggling with what day it is no less what year lol!  The only reason I know what's going on today is the fact that it's a Fab Friday challenge day.  Thank goodness for regularly scheduled commitments on my calendar!

I will admit I was slightly stumped when I first saw what the challenge colors were.  Can you say FOUR GREENS??!  Yup.  I pulled the colors and let them sit on my stamping desk overnight and when I went to get started on the card it actually came together pretty quickly.  I think I just needed to give my mind some time to wrap around the different shades.

  Since I'm focused on getting lots of samples made for my Occasions catalog and Sale-a-Bration kickoff next week I wanted to use a new stamp set so I thought the large flower/leaf stamp from All That You Are would be perfect.  Since it had a lot of stems and leaves I could easily work in the greens.

  Us Stampin' Up! demos get a lovely magazine every quarter with lots of samples, class ideas and techniques and I will say I got my inspiration for this card straight from the latest issue.  It's called Stained Glass and it is really easy.  The image is embossed in white onto vellum paper and then you simply color it in on the backside of the embossing.  I used regular markers in our challenge colors.

  I squeezed all 5 colors into the image even though you can't really see the Lemon Lime Twist but it's there in the little tiny flowers that are basically all embossing!

  The image is backed with a piece of the new Gingham Gala DSP in Highland Heather.  This paper will be seeing some heavy use in my stamp room with the look ahead to spring and Easter.  

  I added a bit of Tranquil Tide ribbon across the front and backed the sentiment circle with some Lemon Lime Twist and Mint Macaron greenery using the Frosted Bouquet framelits.

  Head over to check out what the Fab Friday Design Team has come up with for the first challenge of 2019!  

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: All That You Are (Occasions)

Ink: Highland Heather

Markers: Highland Heather, Lemon Lime Twist, Mint Macaron, Pear Pizzazz, Tranquil Tide

Paper: Whisper White thick, Gingham Gala DSP (Occasions), vellum, Tranquil Tide, Pear Pizzazz, Lemon Lime Twist

Accessories: white embossing powder, Frosted Bouquet framelits, Tranquil Tide ribbon, circle punches, dimensionals

Happy New Year with Butterflies - Stampin' Up! Butterfly Gala

  Happy New Year!!  It's so good to be back blogging and sharing some of my creations.  I hope you all had a fabulous time with family and friends and that 2019 is full of joy for you!

  I didn't get todays card shared before the Freshly Made Sketches challenge closed because I am having the hardest time remembering what day it is!  My kids and husband have been home for weeks and all the days have just started to blend together!  I think today is Thursday because the boys are back in school!

 Since this was the first card I made with my Occasions and Sale-a-Bration preorder so I thought that it was an appropriate one to have as my first post of 2019!

  The butterfly products in these catalogs are beautiful and you're going to want them all once you see all the fantastic creations people are making!  The Butterfly Gala stamp set paired with the matching Butterfly Duet punch are lovely for all kinds of cards.

  I used many new products on this card so I'll try to touch on each one so you can find it in the Occasions catalog or earn it for Sale-a-Bration (SAB).

  The card base is Whisper White thick and I topped it with a piece of Balmy Blue embossed with the new Dot to Dot embossing folder.

  The 2 patterned papers are from the FREE SAB reward Botanical Butterflies DSP pack.  I used a black gingham and a pretty tone on tone floral Highland Heather pattern.  I wrapped a bit of SAB Daffodil Delight organdy ribbon around the front panels.

  I stamped the butterflies then colored them in with my Highland Heather and Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends before punching out with the Butterfly Duet punch.  After they were punched I mounted them on the cardfront with dimensionals.

  The sentiment is also new! Itty Bitty Birthdays is in the Occasions catalog and has a variety of smaller sized birthday and celebration sentiments.

  I look forward to continuing to share my projects with you in 2019!

  Thanks for looking! Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Butterfly Gala (Occasions), Itty Bitty Birthdays (Occasions)

Ink: Memento Black

Blends: Highland Heather light & dark, Daffodil Delight light & dark

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Balmy Blue, Botanical Butterfly DSP (SAB)

Accessories: Dot to Dot e.f. (Occasions), Butterfly Duet punch (Occasions), Organdy Ribbon (SAB), Stitched Shapes framelits, dimensionals