Vibrant Gathered Leaves - Stampin' Up! Gather Together

  Our local vibrant leaves might not be sticking around very long with the wet icky weather we're having today so we'll have to stick with paper leaves on cards!

  This is a card that my stampers made at my last class.  I wanted to show off the Heirloom frames dies and embossing folders that I hadn't used in a class yet as well as make one last fall card.  The texture on the die cuts and the gold sponging are the stars of this card.

  After watching some videos and tutorials on using the Heirloom frames/dies the easiest way is to cut the frame first and then emboss it.  I found Patty Bennett's video helpful and followed her tips and passed them along to my stampers. We cut ours out of Crumb Cake and my stampers had the choice between the rectangle and oval frames.  Once it was cut we sponged a bit of gold ink onto it to highlight the pattern.

  The large leaf is stamped in Soft Suede onto Very Vanilla and colored with a lot Stampin' Blends (listed below).  It's always fun to see how everyone colors when given the Blends and let loose on an image.

  A few more leaves were cut out in Mango Melody, Blackberry Bliss and Cajun Craze and are attached to the frame opposite the colored one after sponging on a bit more gold ink.

  The sentiment is stamped on a smaller rectangle of Very Vanilla and adhered to the back side of the frame.  I found this way was easier to line up the sentiment to be centered and straight in the frame.  If it was stamped directly onto the card front 1) if it was a little crooked you couldn't fix it and 2) sometimes darker colors show through just a little on a Whisper White or Very Vanilla card base and I like to avoid that for a more finished look.

  After the frame was put together it's popped on the card front with dimensionals and a Very Vanilla baker's twine bow is added to the larger leaf.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Gather Together

Ink: Gold, Soft Suede

Blends: So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Blackberry Bliss

Paper: Very Vanilla thick, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Mango Melody, Blackberry Bliss, Cajun Craze

Accessories: Heirloom frames dies/folders, Gathered Leaves dies, dimensionals, Very Vanilla baker's twine

 

Comfort & Joy CASE - Stampin' Up! Cup of Christmas

  A few weeks back I was on a roll stamping and had completed a few cards for some challenges and didn't have any left to start a card with so I turned to the Annual Catalog for some inspiration for a Christmas card.

  I landed on page 95 and kind of liked the looks of the the colors and layout of the Country Home sample so I ran with it using the Cup of Christmas stamp set.  I like how it turned out; not traditional Christmas colors but Christmas-y nonetheless!

  The card base is Soft Suede then a layer of vellum and over the op of that is a piece of Whisper White embossed with the Tin Tile embossing folder.

  I pulled some gold onto the card to make it a bit more festive for the season.  I die cut some little sprigs in gold foil and Soft Sea Foam using the Cup of Cheer dies.  I layered these behind the Terracotta Tile Stitched Label.  4 retired gold brads decorate the edges of the label.

  I stamped the cup onto Soft Sea Foam cardstock and embossed the sentiment in gold and cut it out with the matching die.  It's popped up on the label with dimensionals.  I lightly colored in the holly sprigs as well with the Soft Sea Foam and Terracotta Tile marker. 

  So the moral of this card is that you can find a card you like and make it your own for whatever season you want.  CASE stands for Copy And Selectively Edit.  And it's always good stamping etiquette to give credit if you are CASEing another stamper and include a link when sharing online.  So thanks to the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalog for this inspiration!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Cup of Christmas

Ink: Versamark, Soft Sea Foam

Paper: Soft Suede, vellum, Whisper White, Soft Sea Foam, Gold Foil, Terracotta Tile

Accessories: Cup of Cheer dies, Stitched Label dies, Tin Tile embossing folder, gold embossing powder, dimensionals, gold brads (retired)

Plaid Tree Trio - Stampin' Up! Perfectly Plaid - Fab Friday 176

We've made it through another week stampers!  Time to reward yourself for all your hard work through the week with some stamping!  Fab Friday Challenge has a beautiful color combo to get you started!

  When I first saw the graphic for this challenge I immediately thought about a fall card and was a bit "eh" over the prospect.  I've got all my Thanksgiving/fall cards finished (believe it or not!!) and I was ready for a full on push into Christmas and winter.  After a few minutes I decided to challenge myself for real and do a Christmas card with these colors.  If I failed miserably I could always go with fall to be safe.

  I think the Christmas card came out pretty well if I do say so myself.  And even though there isn't much Crushed Curry on my card it's there so challenge complete! Remember you don't have to use challenge colors in equal measure. 

  Even though I love the traditional reds, greens and blues of Christmas it's really nice to mix it up sometimes and pull together something a bit different.

  I used the Perfectly Plaid stamp set along with the Pine Tree punch for my trees.  The smallest star from the Stitched Stars dies made my Crushed Curry tree toppers which I also covered with a layer of Wink of Stella for some shine.  The Pretty Peacock tree is popped up with dimensionals.

  The punched trees are layered over a snowy hill made by cutting a stitched circle and adding a generous amount of glue and Ice Stampin' Glitter.  I adhered that partial circle over another stitched circle in Crumb Cake and popped that up with dimensionals also.

  The background layers start with a strip of Woven Threads DSP with a bit of scalloped linen ribbon in Terracotta Tile along one edge.  The next layer is a piece of Whisper White embossed with the Tin Tile embossing folder and backed with a slightly larger layer of Crumb Cake.  All of that is adhered to a Whisper White thick card base.

  The sentiment banner is stamped in Pretty Peacock with one of the many awesome sentiments in the Itty Bitty Christmas set.  I added a few retired candy dots in Blushing Bride on the edges because I really need to use stuff up or someone will start to call me a hoarder.

  I hope you'll check out what the rest of the Fab Friday Design team has done with these colors and then play along!  Remember you have almost 2 weeks to share your project to the gallery!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Perfectly Plaid, Itty Bitty Christmas

Ink: Pretty Peacock, Terracotta Tile, Blushing Bride,

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Crushed Curry, Woven Threads DSP

Accessories: Tin Tile embossing folder, Stitched Shapes dies, Pine Tree Punch, Ice Stampin' Glitter, Scalloped Linen ribbon, Stitched Stars dies, dimensionals, Wink of Stella, candy dots (retired)

Snowy Day - Stampin' Up! Snowman Season

  While it's nowhere near snowman season for us here in Central Virginia I do know some places that had snow last week so it's definitely time to get prepared by making more snowmen cards for Christmas.  It's like stocking the pantry in case of power outages; it's stocking the Christmas card box for December!

 

  I made this one some time back for a color challenge I think?  Of course it didn't get photographed and edited in time to enter it but I really like this combo and it makes me think of a cold snowy day for sure.

  The card base is Whisper White thick,  then I layered Blueberry Bushel behind a stitched rectangle of Seaside Spray.

  On the Seaside Spray panel I embossed some snowflakes with the Shimmer White embossing powder.

  The sentiment is stamped in black.  The snowman is stamped in Smoky Slate and punched out along with his accessories in black.  The little snowflake on the hat is just stamped and embossed on Blueberry Bushel and punched out with a little circle punch. 

  The scarf is a piece of 1/8" Blueberry Bushel grosgrain ribbon.  The snowman is popped on dimensionals.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Snowman Season

Ink: Versamark, Smoky Slate, Memento Black

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Blueberry Bushel, Seaside Spray, Basic Black

Accessories: Stitched Rectangles dies, Snowman Builder punch, Shimmer White embossing powder, circle punch, dimensionals, 1/8" grosgrain ribbon

All Plaid Christmas - Stampin' Up! Wrapped in Plaid

For my card today I've used what feels like almost every Christmas product I purchased from the Holiday catalog!  And I've used an abundance of plaid as well.  And gold.  Really we have all the goodness of Christmas on this card!

  My card starts with a Very Vanilla base and then we dive right into the Wrapped in Plaid DSP for the background.  I pulled all the colors straight from this pack of paper. Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy, Shaded Spruce and gold.

  For the top square I cut a star in Night of Navy and then a layer in gold foil with the Stitched Stars dies. The star is adhered to the square with dimensionals.

  The middle square is a lovely poinsettia from the Cup of Christmas set embossed in gold.  the center is colored with the Shaded Spruce marker.  It is also popped on dimensionals.

  Finally at the bottom on the third square I simply punched out a tree from a nice green pattern of the Wrapped in Plaid DSP using the Pine Tree punch.  I topped that with a sentiment banner of Night of Navy embossed with gold.  The sentiment is from Itty Bitty Christmas.

  It goes without saying that I've been loving this plaid paper and all the gold! 

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Itty Bitty Christmas, Cup of Christmas

Ink: Versamark

Paper: Very Vanilla thick, Very Vanilla, Night of Navy, Gold foil, Cherry Cobbler, Wrapped in Plaid DSP

Accessories: Stitched Stars dies, Cup of Cheer dies, Pine Tree punch, Stitched Shapes dies, gold embossing powder, dimensionals

Inspired Beautiful Frame - Stampin' Up! Beautiful Bouquet

  I recently received a thank you note that inspired today's card.  I loved the colors and the cute flowers on it so I wanted to see if I could translate it into a hand stamped card using Stampin' Up! products.

  Here is the original:

  And here is my stamped version:

  This was fun to put together and nice to use an older set that hasn't seen ink in a while.  I also got to play with the Heirloom Frames dies and embossing folders.

  The 'thanks' inside the frame is 3 layers of Very Vanilla cut with the Well Written die set and glued together for a sturdier element.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Beautiful Bouquet

Ink: Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay, Rococo Rose

Paper: Pretty Peacock, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Bouquet Bunch dies, Heirloom Frames dies & embossing folders, Well Written dies, dimensionals, Very Vanilla lace trim

Little Christmas Tree - Stampin' Up! Perfectly Plaid - Fab Friday 175

  Wow!  Fab Friday has reached challenge number 175!  I'm a bit proud to say that I've been on the design team since challenge number 1.  I hope we are continuing to inspire you with your stamping projects and stretching those creative muscles every other week.  I know that I am still having fun and can't wait to see what the next milestone will be!

  This time we have a sketch to try.  I had fun with this one!  It's a nice layout for putting together some smaller elements to create a focal point on a card.

 

  I had a lot of products I wanted to try to incorporate onto this card and I think I was pretty successful.  We just won't talk about all the card parts that are laying unused on my stamp desk!

 

  I started with a Coastal Cabana card base and then a layer of Whisper White embossed with the Winter Knit embossing folder.  Next is a subtle pattern in Coastal Cabana from the Let it Snow DSP.

  The tree is from the Perfectly Plaid stamp set and is embossed with white onto Pear Pizzazz cardstock.  It's punched out with the Pine Tree punch and then adhered to a Mercury Glass acetate circle.  It looks a bit like a snow globe doesn't it?  The Mercury Glass acetate is really cool and gives a great vintage vibe to a card.  Use it little bit as an accent or use a large piece to add that WOW factor.

  The sentiment from the same set is stamped in Pear Pizzazz and punched with the Tailored Tag punch.

  And for the final touch; some rhinestones colored with Stampin' Blends to decorate the sentiment and the tree top.  There isn't a Coastal Cabana Stampin' Blends so I used Bermuda Bay which is great match. 

  I hope you'll find some stamping inspiration in this challenge as well as in the other samples from the Fab Friday Design Team.  Please play along!  We'd love to see your card in the gallery.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Perfectly Plaid

Ink: Versamark, Pear Pizzazz

Blends: Bermuda Bay dark

Paper: Coastal Cabana, Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White, Mercury Glass acetate, Let it Snow DSP

Accessories: Winter Knit embossing folder, white embossing powder, Layering Circles dies, rhinestones, dimensionals

Purple Christmas - Stampin' Up! So Many Stars

  I've put together a few of my favorite things for today's card.  Stars and purple.  I've long had thing for stars and purple is a favorite color.  I even have a whole Christmas tree decorated in only star ornaments.  Stars and Christmas are always a safe bet in my book.  Add in purple and it's a home run!

    I loosely used the current sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch challenge and probably have more stars than absolutely necessary but I had fun with it!  And I had to set the sentiment over to the side so as not to cover up most of the largest star (and my coloring!).

  The card base is Smoky Slate with a line of stars stamp diagonally in Smoky Slate ink.  I used Purple Posy and Highland Heather as my purples and cut a few stars in those colors, did a bit of silver embossing as well as cut a few stars with the new Mercury Glass Designer Acetate.

  The large center star is colored with Purple Posy Stampin' Blends and I added a small rhinestone to the center before popping it up with dimensionals.

  The sentiment is stamped in black with a light layer of Highland Heather stamped off mini stars in the background and cut out with the Stitched Shapes dies.

  I found some little star sequins left from a long retired kit and added a few to the card as well.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: So Many Stars

Ink: Smoky Slate, Highland Heather, black

Blends: Purple Posy light and dark

Paper: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Highland Heather, Purple Posy, Mercury Glass Acetate

Accessories: Stitched Stars dies, silver embossing powder, Stitched Shapes dies, dimensionals, star sequins (retired)