Hand-Penned Thank You - Stampin' Up! Hand-Penned Petals

   Do you need some quick but cute thank you cards and you need to do a bunch of them?  This is a great card design to make multiples of and to mix and match DSP strips.

  I made this video a while ago and kind of forgot about it so it references the Friendly Hello DSP from Sale-a-Bration which is no longer available but the it's the perfect design to just swap in whatever DSP you want to use.

  It's so easy it doesn't really need a video but it's a good visual for new stampers or for new demos looking for a great project to do in a class.  It took 5 minutes to put together and could have gone faster if I wasn't blathering or messing up my ribbon lol!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Hand-Penned Petals

Ink: Petal Pink, Memento black

Paper: Petal Pink, Basic White, Friendly Hello DSP (SAB retired)

Accessories: dimensionals, Brushed Brass Butterflies, 1/8" cotton ribbon combo pack

Tulip Fields Birthday - Stampin' Up! Tulip Fields

   The CAS Colours & Sketches team is back with a fun new challenge today!  I'm guest designing with them all month and this week the challenge is a great sketch!  A little bit of a split or wave element down the center and then a non-geometric shape towards the bottom.  

  This is definitely one of those challenges that I had a lot of ideas for but it took a while to get to one where I was happy with the finished product after a few trials.

  I took the split down the center of the sketch literally and used the Basic Borders cloud die to cut a piece of Basic White into two pieces.  I adhered a piece of colorful Flowering Fields DSP in the center of the card base and then popped the cloud panels up with dimensionals.

  For my non-geometric shape I thought the windmill would be perfect to go with the tulip DSP.  I stamped it in Soft Suede, highlighted a bit of it with a blender pen and Crumb Cake ink and then cut it out.  I popped it up on a small piece of retired shimmer ribbon in Pear Pizzazz.  It looked like it was just floating out in the clouds with out some sort of base!  

  I dug through my stamps to find a smaller birthday greeting to fit with the scale of the windmill and found it in Penguin Place.  I stamped it in Calypso Coral to the side of the windmill.

  And finally to balance the heavier elements at the bottom of the card I cut a few clouds and added them above the windmill.  I also colored them with a bit of clear Wink of Stella which doesn't show up in the photo.

  Head over to CAS Colours & Sketches and see the fabulous samples from the Design Team and then play along!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Tulip Fields, Penguin Place

Ink: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral

Paper: Basic White thick, Basic White, Flowering Fields DSP

Accessories: Basic Borders dies, Windmill Fields dies, dimensionals, Wink of Stella, Shimmer Ribbon (retired)

Spring Birds - Stampin' Up! Birds & Branches

   We have had a lot of bird activity in our yard the last few weeks.  It's so fun to see the birds pairing up and starting their nests.  We for sure have a bluebird nest and a house finch nest and there are a lot of comings and goings in all of our bushes and trees so I'm sure there are more.  Mr. & Mrs. House Finch decided that my front door wreath looked like a good home.  I usually take the wreath down before they get interested in it but I was too late this year.  I went to take it down and there was already a full blown nest all tucked up in the top edge.  So we just moved it down the porch off the front door so they wouldn't be constantly disturbed and now it's hanging on one of our shutters.  The birds didn't seem to mind at all and have gone about their business.  It will be fun to see them start their little family.  

  So with all that said the birds inspired me to make a bird card using the colors over at TGIF Challenges.  I was going to skip these colors as I just find Magenta Madness hard to use.  I'm not a big pink person generally but this shade just doesn't speak to me at all.  I ended up changing my mind because the whole point of a challenge is to stretch youself creatively.  I think I like the finished card as long as I don't linger too long over the Magenta Madness lol!

  What do you think?  I was going for a congrats on your engagement/wedding type of card. The inside greeting says 'yay for love!".

  I do love these chubby little birds though.  The 2 step stamps made it easy to get the Bumblebee and Soft Suede lined up.

  I popped 2 of the flowers up for some dimension and brought in a bit of texture with the piece of woodgrain DSP from the In Good Taste DSP.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Birds & Branches, Happy & Heartfelt

Ink: Soft Suede, Bumblebee, Magenta Madness

Paper: Basic White thick, Basic White, Magenta Madness, In Good Taste DSP

Accessories: Birds & More dies, 2022-2022 In Color enamel dots (retired)

 

Get Well Petals - Stampin' Up! Hand-Penned Petals

   I needed to send out a get well card to a special friend who had a bad fall recently.  She's going to be laid up for quite sometime so I wanted to make sure I used something with cheerful, bright colors to jazz up her hospital room.  The colors over at Just Add Ink were absolutely perfect for the kind of card I had in mind!

  I started with a Basic White thick base then added a strip of retired Birthday Bonanza DSP at the bottom.  Then I cut a layer of Basic White with the scalloped border die from the Penned Flowers dies.  

  I stamped the flower outline in Smoky Slate and then filled in the different parts with the challenge colors, stamping off once for a few to give a nice variation in tones.  Next the whole panel is embossed with the retired Subtle embossing folder.  I added the crinkled seam binding ribbon at the top before adhering it to my card base.

  The sentiment is stamped in Smoky Slate and cut out with the Tasteful Labels dies and popped up with a dimensional.   A fork bow finishes off the details.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Hand-Penned Petals

Ink: Smoky Slate, Coastal Cabana, Polished Pink, Daffodil Delight

Paper: Basic White thick, Basic White, Birthday Bonanza DSP (retired)

Accessories: Penned Flowers dies, Tasteful Labels dies, crinkled seam binding ribbon, dimensionals

Cheer Up Boots - Stampin' Up! Flowering Rain Boots

   I was able to create another card combining two great challenges!  I used the layout over at Freshly Made Sketches and the choice board from Festive Friday.  Festive Friday is celebrating World Planting Day so the choices are all sorts of outdoors-y planting things.  I chose to use flowers/plants, green, encouragement, Wellington boots and stencils.

  Hopefully this will be a card for someone who needs some cheering up.  I enjoyed using the bright colors and pulling in different elements from the choices.  The big open center panel on the sketch leaves a lot of room for all kinds of images.  The boots and tulips seem to fit the space just right.  I used one of the masks from Basic Patterns set and angled it and faded it out as the pattern went up just for a little bit different look.

  For all of the images I filled them in a bit using ink pads and a blender pen.  I still have some of the retired cardboard wrapped baker's twine in Calypso Coral so I added a bow on the side of the boot for just a little detail.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Flowering Rain Boots

Ink: Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Calypso Coral, Basic Gray

Paper: Flowering Fields DSP, Daffodil Delight, Basic White

Accessories: Rain Boots dies, dimensionals, Basic Patterns masks, Calypso Coral baker's twine (retired)

Birthday Fishes - Stampin' Up! Whale Done

   In my free time the last few days I've been busy doing stamping business-type stuff so the actual stamping has been minimal but I found some time yesterday to pull out some inks and paper.  Sometimes 2 challenges seem made to be used together and I thought that when I saw the Seize the Birthday challenge to do a birthday card with sea creatures and the Color Throwdown Challenge colors which are fun and bright.  The Whale Done stamp set was calling my name for this one!

  Since I had a lot of bright colors to use I kept the background very basic with a Basic White thick card base then I stamped all my elements onto a piece of Basic White.  I started with making my own stencil with a circle die and then blending some Coastal Cabana ink to create my little bit of ocean.  I then I stamped the sandy bottom in Crumb Cake using a mix of full strength ink and stamped off once ink.  I did the same with the Granny Apple Green seaweed.

  The fish are stamped in Pumpkin Pie and the whale and sentiment are stamped in Pacific Point.  The whale is punch out and popped on dimensionals.  

  To add some texture I put some of the clear Faux Sea Glass Shapes along the sandy bottom and then added some "air bubbles" above the whale with 2 clear Elegant Faceted Gems.

  This was such a fun one to put together using the 2 challenges and now after looking at my birthday calendar I probably should have made more than one!  Oh well I guess I'll just have to make more time to stamp!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Whale Done

Ink: Coastal Cabana, Pacific Point, Crumb Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Granny Apple Green

Paper: Basic White Thick, Basic White

Accessories: Faux Sea Glass Shapes, Elegant Faceted Gems, circle die (to make stencil) 

Blue Bird Here for You - Stampin' Up! Catch You Later

 Today's card is another blue bird card but definitely a more whimsical and cutesy pair of blue birds.  I love the images in the Catch You Later set because they are fun and cute and easy to color!  

 Once I decided on which blues to use to color my birds the rest of the card came together nicely.  I used a bit of the Heart & Home DSP for the background and stamped the birds in Soft Suede and colored them in with Blends (listed below).  I cut them out with a Stitched Rectangle die; added some Garden Green twine and some candy dots in opposite corners (still have so many to use!!).

 I stamped the sentiment in Misty Moonlight onto Balmy Blue cardstock then trimmed it to a flag and popped it on dimensionals.

  A quick layered card so some support to a loved one!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Catch You Later

Ink: Soft Suede, Misty Moonlight

Blends: Soft Suede light, Balmy Blue light & dark, Misty Moonlight light

Paper: Misty Moonlight, Garden Green, Basic White, Balmy Blue, Hearth & Home DSP

Accessories: Stitched Rectangles dies, dimensionals, candy dots (retired), Garden Green baker's twine retired

Bowl of Love - Stampin' Up! What's Cookin'

   I'm so pleased to be joining the fabulous stampers over at CAS Colours & Sketches challenge for the month of March as a guest designer.  It's so exciting to join in these clean and simple challenges to showcase this style of card making.  I wouldn't say I'm a CAS stamper generally so this will really make me focus on a well designed card while still keeping it CAS.  Thanks so much for inviting me to join you ladies!

  The first challenge for the month is a beautiful color combination: 

  How lovely are these colors?  So perfect as we begin to look ahead to spring!  At first I thought they would make for a lovely spring flower card but then I completely veered off into another direction!  Isn't that just the way things happen sometimes?

  My What's Cookin' set has been a bit neglected so I thought I would give it a go with the challenge colors!  I started with a Basic White base then stamped the sentiment and bowl in Gray Granite.  I hand trimmed the bowl and cut a slit in the top of the bowl and then filled it with a bunch of hearts cut in the challenge colors.  I used one of heart dies in the Sweet Hearts dies set.  They were the perfect size.

  I added a length of Fresh Freesia Open Weave ribbon at the top of the card to balance the elements at the bottom.

  This was such a fun challenge and I can't wait to see all the creative ways these colors will be used so be sure to link up in the CAS Colors & Sketches gallery!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: What's Cookin'

Ink: Gray Granite

Blends: Soft Sea Foam light

Paper: Basic White thick, Basic White, Flirty Flamingo, Soft Sea Foam, Fresh Freesia

Accessories: Sweet Hearts dies, Fresh Freesia Open Weave ribbon