Nature Spots - Stampin' Up!® Nature's Symphony

   I had fun with the colors from the Color Dare Challenge for today's card.  I paired them with the Nature's Symphony bundle for this thank you card.  

  I played around with texture a bit on this card starting with the piece of retired Wildly Flowering DSP in this neutral linen print for the background.  Next I cut circles in the challenge colors using the Stylish Shapes dies and then used the crosshatch die in the Nature's Symphony die set to add the pattern to each circle.  Finally for the last bit of texture I cut a piece of Crumb Cake with the wood die and added a bit of ink to the edges for definition.

  To bring in the fourth color of the challenge I stamped the leafy branch image in Mossy Meadow and then die cut it and popped it on dimensionals.

  The card is finished with a sentiment from Banner Sayings stamped in Night of Navy and adhered over a strip of Cloud Cover Faux Linen ribbon. And finally 2 Faux Bronze Pentagons for a touch of metallic.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current supplies used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Nature's Symphony, Banner Sayings (Online Exclusives)

Ink: Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake

Paper: Night of Navy, Calypso Coral, Cloud Cover, Crumb Cake, Basic White, Wildly Flowering DSP (retired)

Accessories: Stylish Shapes dies, Nature's Symphony dies, dimensionals, Cloud Cover Faux Linen ribbon, Faux Bronze Pentagons

Love You - Stampin' Up!® Hope Love & Joy

   Like a lot of challenges the past few week, The Paper Players challenge theme is 'love' this week which is nice and timely as the days are running out to get enough Valentine's Day cards made to send out to family and friends.  I decided to use up some leftover DSP from a completed Scrapbooking Workshop Kit to make my card to play along.  The Hope Love & Joy bundle was an easy choice with the large 'love' stamp.

  I finished up the Turtle-y Sweet Scrapbooking Workshop Kit a few weeks ago and had a decent amount of DSP leftover.  I pulled it out and tried to decide between the blue/green paper or the red/yellow/blue/pink paper.  The one that had red and pink may have seemed like a more obvious choice but as I like to have some more masculine Valentine designs for my boys I decided to go with the blue/green striped paper.

  I used a Granny Apple Green base, then added the DSP. My Pool Party scrap bag is near to overflowing so I decided to try to use an already cut piece as is.  I roughed up the edges of the piece with my paper snips and gave it a few little distressed tears for some texture.

  Next I used another scrap of Basic White and stamped the "l_ve" in Pretty Peacock and then used a marker to just add ink to the 'you' from the 'wishing you' stamp.

  The heart is stamped in Pretty Peacock and colored in with Pool Party Stampin' Blends.  After it's cut out I popped it on dimensionals in place of the 'o'.

  The Hope Love Joy die set has a few dies that don't correspond to a stamp which is a nice bonus with this set so I added a few smaller hearts in Pretty Peacock on the corner of the DSP.

  I like how this one turned out and think it's a good guy card; no fuss, no muss but not boring!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the supplies used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Hope Love & Joy

Ink: Pretty Peacock

Blends: Pool Party light & dark

Paper: Granny Apple Green, Basic White, Pool Party, Turtle-y Cute DSP, Pretty Peacock

Accessories: Hope Love & Joy dies, dimensionals

Bunny Love - Stampin' Up!® Easter Basket

 One of my favorite things about card making is being able to mix and match stamp sets for different holidays or occasions to come up with unique combinations.  I always try to get the most out of my stamp sets especially those that might only be current for a few months.  My card to day is just one such design; I used products from 3 different suites from the Stampin' Up!® January-April mini catalog.  Can you spot them??

  I used the fun Valentine's Day choice board over at Festive Friday for my different elements.  You can find Pink, Lilac, Gray, Die Cuts, Love Sentiment, Hearts and Arrows on my card today!  I almost got the whole list!

  I started with a piece of DSP from the Lovely & Beautiful pack in a pretty Fresh Freesia floral pattern.  Next I added an angled piece of Basic White embossed with the Hearts of Love embossing folder.

  Some Smoky Slate arrows from the Endless Love dies are adhered over the seam.  Next comes a large die cut heart in Pretty in Pink (also from the Endless Love dies).

 An adorable bunny from the Easter Basket stamp set is stamped and colored with Blends.  It's die cut and popped on dimensionals.  I added a tiny die cut heart in a a retired Fine Glimmer Paper in the bunny's arms.

  Tucked under the edge of the bunny is a "love" sentiment from Endless Love stamped in Fresh Freesia. 

  Finally, I added a few retired Iridescent Faceted Gems as they reflected the the pink and purple so nicely. 

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current products used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE. 

Stamps: Easter Basket, Endless Love

Ink: Basic Gray, Fresh Freesia

Blends: Smoky Slate light, Pretty in Pink light

Paper: Basic White, Pretty in Pink, Smoky Slate, Lovely & Beautiful DSP, Fresh Freesia Fine Shimmer paper (retired)

Accessories: Hearts of Love embossing folder, Endless Love dies, Easter Basket dies, Stylish Shapes dies, dimensionals, Iridescent Faceted Gems (retired)

Daffodil Thanks - Stampin' Up!® Easter Basket Dies

 The Design Team at CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge is back today with a color combo challenge and I'm the host for this one!  It's my first time hosting here at CC& S as I joined the team at the end of the year when the challenges were already all sorted.  It was so fun looking through some saved color combos to find one that I hadn't used yet to make it a true challenge for myself!  I hope you play along with us and remember keep it clean and simple; lots of open space and keep layers and embellishments to a minimum.  Check out the colors:

And here is my card:

  I think CAs cards are a great time to highlight smaller images or die cuts so I decided to use the daffodil die from the Easter Basket die set and use the challenge colors for a "not to be found in nature" row of daffodils!

  You can't see in the photo but the Pretty Peacock part of the flowers are covered in clear Wink of Stella for a but of shine.

  The simple sentiment is from the Banner Sayings stamp set and is stamped in Pretty Peacock on a narrow strip of Soft Sea Foam.

  I can't wait to see all the fun uses of these colors!  Have fun getting creative with them.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current supplies used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Banner Sayings (Online Exclusive)

Ink: Pretty Peacock

Paper: Pretty Peacock, Soft Sea Foam, Pool Party, Basic White

Accessories: Easter Basket dies, dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Hugs and Kisses Burst - Stampin' Up!® Endless Love

  Since we were planning on being snowed in this past weekend on top of still being iced in from last weekend I had zero plans and plenty of time to play in the stamp room so I made another Valentine!  This one is quite bold and not the typical colors but I think it's fun design.  The colors come from the Just Us Girls challenge to CASE a Design Team Member.  So fun!!  I chose to use the colors that Elizabeth used on her card.  See her card at the end of my post.

  At a craft day a few weeks ago my stamping friend Jill made a sunburst card and that inspired me to try my hand at it as it had been years since I've done this technique and it's so easy I don't know why I don't do it more often!  Because I had so many colors I wanted to include I made my strips pretty thin so there would be a good number of each color.  

  After the sunburst was finished I stamped a piece of Berry Burst cardstock with the heart stamp from the Endless Love stamp set in Versamark and then embossed it in white. After it was die cut I added the "XO" and the arrow and popped it on dimensionals.

  I felt that I needed a bit of sparkle to round out the design so I looked through my glimmer papers and found a piece of the retired Rainbow Glimmer paper and the gradient colors matched the card colors pretty closely so I cut a handful of hearts in the various shades and added them around the larger heart popping a few up for dimension.  You can get a similar effect by coloring cardstock hearts with Wink of Stella 

  A few retired white Neutral Matte Dots are added to finish the details.

  I love how cheerful this card turned out and now my only problem is deciding who is going to get it!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current supplies used to make this card can purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Endless Love

Ink: Versamark

Paper: Berry Burst, Melon Mambo, Timid Tiger, Crushed Curry, Basic White, Basic White thick, Rainbow Glimmer paper (retired)

Accessories: Endless Love dies, dimensionals, white embossing powder, Neutral Matte Dots (retired)

Birthday Celebrations - Stampin' Up!® Reason to Celebrate

   I always like a good all purpose sentiment set and I love the Reason to Celebrate stamp set in the Stampin' Up!®  January - April mini catalog. It has a great font and fun mix and match possibilities.  You can pair it up with images or use it on it's own.  I did a little of both on this masculine birthday card inspired by the Just Add Ink challenge colors.

  I pulled out strips of the challenge colors and stamped the "birthday" stamp across them in the same color ink.  For the Cloud Cover I used Versamark.  I cut them in random sizes and adhered them to a Crumb Cake base.

  The larger sentiment is from Simply Said and is stamped in Lost Lagoon onto a Stylish Shapes die cut circle.  It is popped on dimensionals and then I added some cute little candles from the Choose Happy stamp set.

  Since I'm intending this one to be for a guy I only added a linen thread bow as the only embellishment.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the supplies used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Reasons to Celebrate, Simply Said, Choose Happy

Ink: Versamark, Cajun Craze, Lost Lagoon, Crushed Curry, Memento Black

Paper: Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Lost Lagoon, Crushed Curry, Cloud Cover, Basic White

Accessories: Stylish Shapes dies, dimensionals, linen thread

Bear Kisses - Stampin' Up!® Valentine Kisses

   The colors at Sunday Stamps challenge are perfect for tackling another Valentine's Day card.  This time I thought the browns in the color palette would work nicely for the bear in the Valentine Kisses stamp set though he didn't turn out as chocolate-y as I hope!

  I was even able to use up a few pieces that had already been cut and were just waiting for the perfect project.  The DSP and the embossed panel fit in perfectly for the theme!

  I started with a Basic White card base, then a layer of Pretty in Pink.  Next is the Made With Love DSP that includes the challenge colors.  Next I backed the Hearts of Love embossed panel with a piece of strawberry Slush  That white space gave me a nice spot to add the adorable angel bear and die cut hearts (more of the challenge colors).  The angel wings are covered with clear Wink of Stella for a pretty shimmer.

  Next is the little wooden sign added to the center heart and added a rhinestone as a holder.  The sentiment is stamped on a narrow strip of Basic White in Strawberry Slush ink.

  How could you not love this bear??

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current supplies used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Valentine Kisses (Online Exclusive(

Ink: Memento Black, Strawberry Slush, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso

Paper: Basic White thick, Basic White, Pretty in Pink, Strawberry Slush, Flirty Flamingo, Crumb Cake, Made With Love DSP

Accessories: Valentine Kisses dies (Online Exclusive), Hearts of Love embossing folder, dimensionals, Wink of Stella, rhinestone

Fresh Hugs & Kisses - Stampin' Up!® Endless Love

   I'm really trying to build up my Valentine's Day cards so I've got another one to share today.  The layout is from Freshly Made Sketches and I really like how these non-traditional Valentine's colors turned out.

  I already had the Endless Love bundle out on my stamping desk so it was a no brainer to use the big heart for the circle element of the layout.

  The base is Secret Sea, then the vertical band is Darling Ducking stamped and embossed with the little hearts for a random pattern. Next is the big heart in Petunia Pop, then a smaller heart cut from Petunia Pop Glimmer paper.

  The "sending you" is stamped in Secret Sea and the ends trimmed to flags.  The "XO" is stamped twice in Darling Duckling and then the "Hugs & Kisses" is stamped right over the top in Secret Sea.  I fussy cut around the image and then popped all the sentiments up with dimensionals on the edge of the heart.

  I added a few Secret Sea flat pearls for a tiny bit of shine for the last detail.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current supplies used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Endless Love

Ink: Secret Sea, Darling Duckling

Paper: Secret Sea, Darling Duckling, Petunia Pop, Basic White, Petunia Pop Glimmer Paper (retired)

Accessories: Endless Love dies, white embossing powder, dimensionals, Secret Sea Flat Pearls