Clean & Simple Cake

  I made this card last week for a challenge over at CAS(e) This Sketch but because of the gray weather and being short on time trying to get a decent photo was the real challenge.  I finally got around to the photography and then editing but it was too late too enter it in the challenge but certainly not too late to share with you!

  I've mentioned before that February is a busy month birthday wise for our family so I've been concentrating a lot on those cards so I have a nice variety to choose from.  This is a fun sparkly card to celebrate a special day!

  The cake is colored with the Pink Pirouette and Coastal Cabana Blendabilities, the cake stand with the Smoky Slate assortment and the "birthday" also the Coastal Cabana set.

  After coloring I filled in the cake with Crystal Effect and then sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds into the wet C.E.

  Check it out:

 

  The bit of sparkle on the cake pairs nicely with the sprinkling of silver sequins and the ribbons and baker's twine at the top.  The booked inspired DSP strip is from the Best Year Ever DSP pack which is a FREE reward with a $50 order during Sale-a-Bration.

  Actually the stamp set, Big Day, DSP and Coastal Cabana Blendability assortment are all Sale-a-Bration rewards!  So awesome!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

  Stamps: Big Day

  Ink: Memento Black  Blendabilities: Coastal Cabana, Pink Pirouette, Smoky Slate

  Paper: Whisper White, Best Year Ever DSP

  Accessories: Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds (retired), silver sequins (retired), Coastal Cabana & Crisp Cantaloupe baker's twine, silver ribbon

Adventure Bound Masculine Birthday

  Happy Valentine's Day!  I'm all tapped out on my Valentine's day cards so I've got a quick birthday card for you instead.  The new Adventure Bound DSP pack has great papers for guy cards.  There are a lot of nature themes as well as subtle texture images.  The really neat thing about this collection is that they are photographs so the detail is awesome.

  Check out these rocks!

  I played around for a while trying to use the cake stamp from the Big Day Sale-a-Bration (SAB) set but it just was jiving with the rest of the card so I just used the sentiment stamped in Basic Gray onto Sahara Sand yardstick.  I colored in the open letters using the chalk marker, added a silver threaded baker's twine knot and popped it up over the top panel.

  It's hard to see but I also added 3 mini silver brads to the lower left corner of the top rock panel.

  I used the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge for the layout.  

  Have a great weekend!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Big Day (SAB)

Ink: Basic Gray

Paper: Sahara Sand, Adventure Bound DSP

Accessories: chalk marker, dimensionals, mini silver brads, silver baker's twine

Balloon Shaker

I think my most used set lately is the Celebrate Today set from the Occasions catalog.  I've just found it a lot of fun to work with and use it for some fun techniques.  I hope you're not sick of seeing these projects! 

For today's card I used the fun shaker frames and my circle framelits together with the Celebrate Today set.  I can't remember when the last time was that I made a shaker card and I forgot how fun they are.

  This is a pretty basic shaker card.  I cut the balloon out with the Balloon framelit using Pistachio Pudding cardstock and then another one out of a window sheet.  To make the window I cut out a circle with my framelits.  You can also do this step with a punch but punch a circle out of the cardstock first then line up the balloon framelit around the circle and put through it the Big Shot.

  Next I stamped what I think of as the confetti stamp across the cardfront and then in the center of the Whisper White panel.  I placed one of the shaker frames around the image.  I punched out some silver glimmer paper and Strawberry Slush mini stars using the stars border punch and filled the center of the shaker frame.  To close up the frame I peeled the adhesive backing off the frame and placed the window sheet balloon over the top to seal in all the stars.  Then I adhered the cardstock balloon over the top. 

  One thing that I didn't think about was to turn all the glimmer paper stars over so they could be seen better.  Some of them are facedown so it's not as sparkly as I wanted. 

  Finally I stamped the greeting and then added the Strawberry Slush twine for the balloon string.

  I hope you'll give some shaker cards a try!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Celebrate Today

Ink: Pistachio Pudding, Smoky Slate

Paper: Pistachio Pudding, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, window sheets, Silver Slimmer paper, Strawberry Slush

Accessories: Balloon framelits, Strawberry Slush Twine, shaker frames, circle framelits, stars border punch

Bold Flower Thank You

  This card is for those stampers who don't mind a bit of fussy cutting for a Wow! card.  Nothing complicated at all in this card but a little patience goes a long way!

  Yellow, blue and a hint of black make for a classic card.  The base of the card is Whisper White and then a strip of Pool Party cardstock embossed with the Modern Mosaic embossing folder.  A narrow scrap strip of Basic Black lines the bottom of the Pool Party panel and then the awesome black & white baker's twine makes for a sweet bow.

  The flower is the star of the show though.  I stamped the largest flower from the Flower Patch stamp set 3 times with Crushed Curry ink.  I cut out 3 layers of flowers going smaller each time and then popped each layer on the others with dimensionals.  For those who want this look without the fussy cutting you'll want to use the coordinating Flower Fair framelit set to get the flower cut out in one layer.

  The final detail is the "thank you" stamped in black.  This sentiment can be found in the awesome Sale-a-Bration (SAB) set Lotus Blossom.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Flower Patch, Lotus Blossom (SAB)

Ink: Black, Crushed Curry

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Pool Party

Accessories: dimensionals, black & white baker's twine, Modern Mosaic embossing folder

All Occasion Balloon

   I'm still having fun with the Celebrate Today stamp set and matching Balloon framelits and was able to share them both with a group of ladies 2 weeks ago.  A long time customer wanted to host a stamping party for some work friends so I got busy creating some designs that would work for new stampers.

  Balloons work for so many occasions that I wanted to use Celebrate Today for a card that the ladies could plan to use for a birthday or leave the sentiment off of the inside and use for another celebration.

 

  My hostess wanted one of the cards to have a coordinating envelope using the envelope liner framelits so we used the Typeset Specialty DSP on the card and in the envelope to tie it all together.

  At first the ladies weren't too sure about using the Big Shot to cut out the cloud and balloon but once the first brave soul went all the others jumped right in and had their turn.  For the balloon I gave them the choice of this pattern or the more masculine one from the Best Year Ever DSP (Sale-A-Bration is still going strong if you love this paper too!).

  Once we had the balloon and cloud cut the string was stamped onto a strip of Coastal Cabana.  Since the string stamp is so narrow but long you need to use one of the bigger blocks and ink can easily get on the block and edges of the stamp.  To help prevent ink oops we just inked the stamp up with the Soft Suede marker.  And since it's a photopolymer stamp you can bend it to give it some nice curves.

  Dimensionals are used to pop the balloon up.  Little ribbon knots are added to the string with glue dots.

  So not a lot of stamping but a great way to show off some DSP!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Celebrate Today (Occasions)

Ink: Soft Suede

Paper: Sahara Sand, Typeset Specialty DSP, Coastal Cabana, Best Year Ever DSP (SAB), Whisper White

Accessories: Balloon framelits (Occasions), glue dots, dimensionals, Word Bubble framelits, Best Year Ever ribbon (SAB)

 

Northern Lights Tree

  I was poking around on Pinterest a few weeks ago and came across this lovely card by Heather Telford.  It looked like a fun technique and the new stamp set Sheltering Tree would be a perfect fit for the tree.  Thanks for the inspiration Heather!

  I played around a bit and designed a card that would work for my stamp club last week.  I like the clean look of this card and the sponged sky looks way harder than it is!

  To make the snow bank just tear a piece of copy paper and lay it across the bottom of your Whisper White cardstock.  I used a bit of re-positional adhesive to hold the copy paper mask in place.  Next just sponge on your ink using a wiping/swiping motion up the cardstock starting at the mask.  Add ink as needed to get a darker concentration at the bottom and lightening towards the top.  Make sure to overlap and blend the colors a bit so you don't have just stripes.  I used Marina Mist and Perfect Plum ink.

  After getting the sky to your satisfaction stamp the tree in black ink.  My tree panel is popped on dimensionals.  The sentiment is also stamped in black and embellished with a rhinestone.

  This is an easy card that doesn't take a lot of tools or accessories to make it a Wow! card!.

  The base of this card is Wisteria Wonder but in class we used Perfect Plum to coordinate with our ink.  I had both colors out on my stamping desk when I was designing and grabbed the wrong one for my sample.

  I've had a lot of fun with sponging techniques lately.  Check out my Bokeh inspired card from yesterday for another idea!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Sheltering Tree (Occasions)

Ink: Marina Mist, Perfect Plum, Black

Paper: Wisteria Wonder, Basic Black, Whisper White

Accessories: dimensionals, rhinestone, sponges

Bokeh Gem

  After seeing so many awesome cards using this trendy new stamping technique I felt I had to give it go.  I made several cards last week to choose from for the current Fab Friday challenge that posted on Friday and I had a hard time deciding which one to submit as my design team sample.  I went with this card since it showed all 3 colors more distinctly but I had today's card waiting in the wings to show this week to try to convince you all to come over to Fab Friday and play along with us.

  This card is even more appropriate in that I went to a demonstrator event on Saturday hosted by some demonstrators up in Northern Virginia and one of the stage presentations was on Bokeh and she showed us several ways to get this look.  I made my card slightly differently but the results are pretty similar.  Bokeh is everywhere lately!

 

  I used the challenge colors of Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral and Real Red and randomly sponged the ink on the Very Vanilla background panel.  The Real Red is faint but it's there I promise!

  Next, I made a template from a window sheet by cutting circles out of it using the Circles framelits in the 3 smallest sizes.  I placed the template over my sponged background and then sponged white craft ink onto the circle cut outs.  I moved my template so that some would overlap and did another layer.  I moved it again and sponged again this time going just a bit heavier with the craft ink.  My final layer was just with a sponge dauber and just pressed circles onto the cardstock with an even heavier saturation.  I hit with my heat gun just so that the craft ink dried a bit faster.

  For the gem I embossed it in silver onto vellum and cut it out and adhered it to a black scallop circle.  To do this without the adhesive showing through I carefully placed dots of Towbow Multi glue on the back of the vellum where the embossing was.

   I stamped the sentiment in black onto a scrap strip of Calypso Coral and used a layer of Basic Blakc behind it.  I wasn't sure about the sentiment but I think this would make for a cute Mother's Day card in addition to a thank you or you're appreciated card.

  The final touch was to bring in a little bit more sparkle to play off the silver embossing so I used the silver sequins from the Holiday Catalog and placed a few around the card front.

  I'm looking forward to trying this technique using some more color combinations.   The options are endless and each time you get a different look.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: One Tag Fits All

Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral, Real Red, Versamark, Black, white craft

Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral, vellum

Accessories: silver embossing powder, scallop circle punch, template made with circle framelits and window sheet, dimensionals, sequins

When in Doubt, Add Black! - Fab Friday 57

  The Design Team at Fab Friday is so excited to be back sharing with you!  We took a bit of a break over the holidays and start of the year but now we're back with some fun new challenges to get your creative mojo going!  We're also welcoming a new team member, Heather Heroldt!  Check out her blog here to see more of her creations!

  We have a color challenge to start off 2015.  And if you haven't quite gotten your Valentine's Day cards finished these colors might spark some ideas for you.

  Calypso Coral, Real Red and Crisp Cantaloupe are what we're working with this time!  I must admit that these colors stumped me a bit so I fell back on what I tend to do if a color combo is too bright for my usual tastes; I added a healthy dose of a neutral, in this case black!

 

The black and vanilla really make the colors pop.  I also kept the layout clean and simple as I knew I wouldn't be able to pull off lots of extras on this card.  And since it would most likely be going to one of my guys I couldn't make it too frou frou!

  The base is Very Vanilla and then a layer of Typeset DSP with the corners's rounded.  Next I tagged a strip of watercolor paper with the Angled Tag Topper punch and the ran it through the Big Shot with the Alphabet Press embossing folder (also rounded the corners here).  

  Since the colors said to me "Valentine" all the way I wanted a love sentiment and went for the one from Geometrical.  It's watercolor paper and the sentiment is done with black embossing powder.  

The hearts are from the Work of Art stamp set.  I almost forgot this set had a heart!  I stamped each of the challenge colors and then cut the hearts out.  

  The banner, hearts and tag itself are all popped up with dimensionals.  The final piece of this puzzle is the Crisp Cantaloupe thick baker's twine.

  I do hope you'll check out the rest of the Fab Friday Design Team samples.  They always rock it for sure!  And of course, we hope you play along with us and upload your card to the gallery!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Work of Art, Geometrical

Ink: Real Red, Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral, Versamark

Paper: Very Vanilla, Typeset DSP, watercolor paper

Accessories: Angled Tag Topper punch, baker's twine, Alphabet Press e.f., dimensionals