Swirly Christmas Ornament - Stampin' Up! Swirly Bird - Fab Friday 99

  How lucky are we that it's another Fab Friday challenge week?  Such a versatile sketch this week.  I can't wait to see what every one decides to use for the star element.  I decided to go with another shape but I will probably end up making several more cards with this sketch and will have to try a star!

 And my interpretation of the sketch.....which isn't really interpreted at all since its exactly like the sketch!

 And if you thought that you've done all you could do with the Swirly Bird set and Swirly Scribbles thinlets well they work for Christmas too!  How fun is that ornament!?

  I had a hard time photographing this card to get the colors true to life as well as show off the gold accents.  The card base is Dapper Denim but comes across as more like Night of Navy.  The lighter blue is Soft Sky for the ornament but I goofed and didn't realize it until everything was adhered and finished....I used Pool Party cardstock for the layer under the Cable Knit embossed panel.  I'll just claim it as a "design decision"!

  I hope you'll be able to join us this go around!  We'd love to see your creation using our sketch.  Check out the rest of the Design Team projects at the Fab Friday blog.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Swirly Bird, Star of Light (sentiment)

Ink: Soft Sky, Versamark

Paper: Dapper Denim, Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Gold Glimmer paper

Accessories: Cable Knit embossing folder, gold embossing powder, Swirly Scribbles thinlets, gold baker's twine (trio pack), dimensionals

Christmas Greenery - Stampin' Up! Christmas Pines

 I'm continuing on my quest to make more Christmas cards so that I won't be in panic mode the day after Thanksgiving.  I started this card with a different idea in mind and while it veered away for the original idea I do like how this one turned out.

  I combined new products with some carry over ones from last year.  Stamps and tools generally don't have a shelf life in stamping but for demonstrators there is always a new catalog with new products on the horizon so a lot of the time we only get use products for a brief time.  I get excited when I see a product in the new annual catalog that was in the Holiday or Occasions catalog because that means I get more time to play with it and also see how it mixes and matches with new products.

  The Christmas Pines and Pretty Pine bundle are the new and the Holly Jolly Greetings stamp set and coordinating Christmas Greeting thinlets are the old on this card.

 The card base is Garden Green but all the fun happens on a piece of Whisper White.  I first stamped the pine branches using Garden Green ink and stamping off to get more depth.

  Next I die cut pine branches out of Garden Green cardstock and layered them over the stamped pine branches.  I did the pine cones next with Early Espresso for the top layer and Crumb Cake for the bottom layer.  I nestled them among the branches and finished it off with a die cut Cherry Cobbler bow.  The Pretty Pines thinlets set really has a lot of different shapes for so many choices when you're creating.

  For the sentiment I used the 'merry' from the Christmas Greeting thinlets and cut it out going across the corner of the Whisper White panel.  I cut out a second 'merry' in Cherry Cobbler and placed it back into the cut out for a nice inlaid look.  The fine tip glue pen is really handy for glueing thin pieces like this.  You can see the Garden Green card base peeking through the e and y.  Finally I stamped 'Christmas' in Garden Green to finish the sentiment.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Christmas Pines, Holly Jolly Greetings

Ink: Garden Green

Paper: Garden Green, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Pretty Pines thinlets, Christmas Greeting thinlets

Soft Snow Flakes - Stampin' Up! Tin of Tags

  In a few weeks I'm doing a Tin of Tags kit class to start getting ready for Christmas.  When I got my kit and the coordinating stamp set to play around with it I realized the I had kind of overlooked the non-sentiment stamps that are in the set.  There is a string of stars, a single star, a Christmas light and a good sized snowflake.  I don't have a current snowflake set so I was pleased to have the Tin of Tags snowflake to use for Christmas and winter cards.

  The challenge is closed now but I used the color challenge that Global Design Project had last week.
Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaron.

  I mixed and matched the snowflake with a few stamps from Christmas Pines stamp set for this soft snowflake card.

  The base is Mint Macaron and I stamped the little sprinkling of snow (from Christmas Pines) in Mint Macaron across the center where I knew I was going to put the sentiment.  I did the sentiment (from Christmas Pines) in white embossing powder.

  The top panel is Whisper White that I stamped the 3 snowflakes and then cut the bottom strip and adhered it to the card base with dimensionals.

  I had some iridescent sequins left over from my Tin of Tags kit so I adhered one to each snowflake center.  For even more shimmer and sparkle I added a few of the smallest rhinestones as well as clear Wink of Stella to highlight parts of the snowflakes.  You can't see the WoS in the photo but it adds a nice subtle touch.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Tin of Tags, Christmas Pines

Ink: Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron, Rich Razzleberry, Versamark

Paper: Mint Macaron, Whisper White

Accessories: rhinestones, sequins, white embossing powder, dimensionals

Sweet Skunk Hello - Stampin' Up! Foxy Friends - Fab Friday 98

Good morning!  TGIF right?  And it's a Fab Friday challenge day so that makes it double TGIF!

We have a fun color challenge for you this time around!  Do you see Halloween colors or not?  I saw the Halloween in this group of colors but since I don't really send Halloween cards I opted to try for a non-Halloween card.

  My card came about as my pile of card parts got shifted on my stamping desk and this sweet skunk peeked his head out and whispered, "use me...please...I'm one of your challenge colors already!".  And how was I to ignore that plea?  Anyway this skunk got his wish and I built the rest of the card around him.  It seems cute little animals made with the Fox Builder punch keep making their way onto my Fab Friday cards!  See my Koala Bear from last challenge HERE.

 

  The little swirl flowers and leaves from Swirly Bird were just the right size to to stamp in the other challenge colors and layer around the skunk.  Some of the flowers are popped on dimensionals.

  The Whisper White panel is embossed with the Woodgrain embossing folder for more texture and interest.  I added a scalloped circle in Whisper White and then a regular Old Olive circle behind to be the base for the skunk and flowers.

  The circle is popped up with dimensionals, the sentiment from Thoughtful Banners is stamped in black and a black baker's twine bow finishes up the details.

  Check out the awesomeness that the rest of the Fab Friday Design Team is sharing and then create your own project to share in our gallery! 

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Swirly Bird, Thoughtful Banners, Foxy Friends (face)

Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Perfect Plum, black

Paper: Perfect Plum, Whisper White, Old Olive, Basic Black

Accessories: Fox Builder punch, Swirly Scribbles thinelets, Layering Circles framelits, Woodgrain e.f., dimensionals, black baker's twine

Totally Trees Treat - Stampin' Up! Totally Trees

  No time to chit chat this morning...lots of things to check off the to do list today and not a moment to lose!

  I'm taking a break from Christmas cards today to show a quick and easy treat project.  Wrapped Kitkat bars.  Yummy!  I may or may not have had to taste test some to make sure they were ok to put put in my stampers order bags last week!

 These were super easy to make and have a nice combo of fall colors I think!  The Floral Boutique DSP is cut and wrapped around the kitkat.  I used tear tape to adhere the DSP.

  Using the Totally Trees stamp set I stamped the tree trunk with Soft Suede.  The leaves are stamped once in Crushed Curry and then again in Cajun Craze with the stamp moved slightly to one side so both colors show.

  Hello from Thoughtful Banners is stamped in Night of Navy.  The tree circle and Crushed Curry scalloped circle are cut with the Layering Circles framelits.

  I punched a small hole and tied the tree tag to the candy bar with linen thread.

  A fun quick fall treat!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Totally Trees, Thoughtful Banners

Ink: Soft Suede, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Night of Navy

Paper: Floral Boutique DSP, Crushed Curry, Whisper White

Accessories: Layering Circles framelits, hole punch, linen thread

 

Mistletoe Kisses - Stampin' Up! Foxy Friends

 There were mixed reviews of my non-traditional colored Christmas card from yesterday so I thought I would share a classic red and green card today.

  This card is a mishmash of several stamp sets and punches and die cuts.  It's fun to mix and match to  come up with new looks.

  The card base is Garden Green.  Next is a layer of Whisper White which has just the very bottom embossed with the Softly Falling embossing folder to be snow.  I stamped the little woodland creature in Crumb Cake.  The more I look at it I can't decide what it's supposed to be....a fox?  What do you think?  I think he's cute regardless!  His legs and face are stamped in Early Espresso.  The head is punched out with the Fox builder punch.

  I stamped the hat in red, and the pompom and trim in Early Espresso using the Jolly Friends stamp set and punched them out with the coordinating hat builder punch (told you there were a lot of supplies used on this card!).  The head and hat are popped on dimensionals.

  I wrapped a double length of red Candy Cane Lane baker's twine around the Whisper White panel and added some mistletoe branches cut with the Pretty Pines thinlets and tied the bunch with some more baker's twine.  I used some adhesive pearls to make the mistletoe berries.  The sentiment from the Tin of Tags stamp set is stamped in Early Espresso.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Foxy Friends, Jolly Friends, Tin of Tags

Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Real Red

Paper: Garden Green, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi

Accessories: Softly Falling e.f., Fox builder punch, Hat builder punch, Candy Cane Lane Baker's twine, dimensionals, Pretty Pines thinlets, adhesive pearls

Elegant Peace Star - Stampin' Up! Star of Light

 I got some stamping in over the weekend.  Especially on Saturday as it rained and rained and then rained some more here in Richmond.  I think we ended up with over 3 inches of rain.  I know not anywhere near what areas south of us received from hurricane Matthew and I'm thankful that's all the weather we ended up getting.  My thoughts and prayers to all those affected by Matthew.

 I'm trying my best to work on a lot of Christmas cards early on so I won't have that mad rush the first week of December.  I will try to have other themes in the coming weeks but I'm warning you now that it will be heavy on Christmas for a while around here!  I used the current CAS(e) this Sketch challenge for the layout.

  The Star of Light was the very first item on my "must have" list when I saw the Holiday catalog for the first time.  I love all the sentiments, the different sizes of stars and the coordinating Starlight thinlets.  I saw a brown and gold layout in a home decorating catalog and thought that it might make a nice Christmas card.  I'm not sure if I pulled it off since I keep thinking that brown isn't really a Christmas color but I went with it.

  I stamped various stars in Soft Suede ink onto Soft Suede cardstock.  Then over the top I added some other stars in gold ink.

  I used a scrap of Very Vanilla and wrapped a length of gold Natural Trim around it.  On top of that is my layered star.  The bottom layer is Soft Suede and I sponged some gold ink along the edges.  Then a detailed layer in Very Vanilla and finally a small star in Gold Glimmer popped up in the center.  

  Behind the large star I have some loops of gold thread before popping it all up on dimensionals.  I used Gold Glimmer paper and the Christmas Greetings thinlets to cut out my peace sentiment.

  Definitely start thinking about your Christmas cards now so you won't be caught rushing!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Star of Light

Ink: Soft Suede, Gold

Paper: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Gold Glimmer paper

Accessories: Starlight thinlets, Christmas Greetings thinlets, Natural trim-gold, gold thread, dimensionals, corner rounder

Welcome Jar of Flowers - Stampin' Up! Jar of Love

  I thought I would try to get this card posted before the challenge ends over at Freshly Made Sketches this afternoon.  I used their layout for this Welcome card I made for the newest member of my Stampin' Up! team.  It took me a week to get this card made but I got it finished and in the mail to Becky to welcome her to the Stampin' Up! demonstrator family.

 

  While the Jar of Love set has a lot of different sentiments included none of them were quite was I needed so I used the Barnyard Babies set and used my Basic Black marker just to ink up the "welcome" part of the "welcome, little lamb" stamp.  I didn't quite follow the sketch in regard to the sentiment placement but that's artistic license and all!  :)

  The Serene Scenery DSP stack has so many great patterns and this barn wood print seems like the perfect backdrop to my jar of flowers.

  The flowers are stamped off once in Delightful Dijon and then the centers are also stamped with full strength Delightful Dijon.  The leaf stems are Old Olive; some stamped off once, others full strength. Once I had everything cut out I layered the stems in the jar and then added the flowers adhered with dimensionals.

  To pull in some more of Crumb Cake color I stamped the "burlap" wrap and then hand cut it.  I added a Crushed Curry bakers twine bow...it's a really close match to the Delightful Dijon when it's stamped off.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Jar of Love, Barnyard Babies

Ink: Delightful Dijon, Old Olive, Smoky Slate, Pool Party, Crumb Cake  Marker: Basic Black

Paper: Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Serene Scenery DSP

Accessories: Everyday Jars framelits, dimensionals, baker's twine

  

Jolly Santa Tag - Stampin' Up! Jolly Friends

  I started to write this blog post on Wednesday morning and then when I went to add the photo I didn't actually have one for this project.  Duh!  And then yesterday I just didn't have time to blog in the morning before heading out of the house.  So finally here on Friday I've got the photo and the time to share this card!  My stampers made this card at my last class.  We did 2 fall inspired cards and one Christmas card just to whet the appetite but not make people panic!  I saw a graphic on Facebook that said something like only 11 more Mondays until Christmas.  I can't bring myself to count them up to see if its true or not but when it's put like that I feel like I better get my butt in gear and start tackling Christmas projects in earnest!

  Check out this cute and easy card!

  Fun right?  The Jolly Friends stamp set and coordinating Jolly Hat Builder punch are so cute!  Pair them up with the awesome Merry Medley Background stamp and we've got some Christmas cheer for sure!

  The card base is heavy Whisper White.  A layer of Basic Black stamped with Merry Medley in white craft ink gives us that chalkboard art trend thats really hot right now.  It's a nice dark background for showing off the fun Santa tag.

  The tag is punched with the scalloped tag topper punch.  Santa is stamped in black and then his face is lightly colored with Blushing Bride ink and a blender pen.  We added a little bit more ink on his cheeks for a nice rosy look.

  The hat is punched with the Jolly Hat builder out of Real Red Glimmer paper and Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper.  The little pompom on the end of the hat is popped with a tiny piece of dimensional.

  The "ho ho ho" sentiment is from the carryover set Oh, What Fun set and was fitting to use on this card.  It's stamped in black ink on a narrow strip of Real Red cardstock with the ends flagged. Long skinny sentiments are the perfect stamps to use on those 1/4" and 1/2" scraps of cardstock you've been holding onto!

  A little bow out of the red metallic Candy Cane Lane baker's twine adds the last bit of detail.  The whole tag is popped on the card front with dimensionals.

  I made sure to cut some extra card packets when I was prepping for class so I would be able to make a few cards to put in my slowly growing Christmas card stash.  I might make this same design with the other characters in the Jolly Friends stamp set and just change up the colors.  So easy to use one set to change up the look!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Jolly Friends, Merry Medley, Oh, What Fun

Ink: Black, Whisper White craft, Blushing Bride

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Real Red Glimmer, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer, Real Red

Accessories: scalloped tag topper punch,  Jolly Hat builder, Candy Cane Lane baker's twine, dimensionals

Fall Watercolor Wash - Stampin' Up! Totally Trees

  When I woke up this morning it was below 60 degrees!  What?  Fall might actually be arriving here in central Virginia.  We drove up through the Shenandoah valley over the weekend and we didn't see any fall color yet but it should be coming soon!

  When designing cards for my stamp club last week I wanted to do another fall inspired card and use the new Totally Trees stamp set from the Holiday Catalog.  Yesterday's card was pumpkins so I wanted something else besides an "orange" card.  I looked through my saved pins and inspiration websites and saw a technique that I had never tried before so I gave that a whirl as a possible class project.  Nope!  It was cute but too many steps and up and down from the table to be practical in a large group setting. But the card did end up giving me the colors I used for the class project. Not traditional fall colors but they make me think of fall anyway for some reason.

  We used Shimmery White cardstock to make a watercolor wash background.  I found that giving the Shimmery White cardstock a quick brush with plain water from the Aquapainter helped the colors blend better.  Since I had a big group doing the watercoloring I squeezed drops of re-inker into empty embellishment containers and added some water.  That was easier than having 3 ink pads open and watercoloring from the lids which is what I do when it's just me or even one color at a class.  I started with Delightful Dijon, then Bermuda Bay and finally Rich Razzleberry.  The colors blended nicely for a kind of jewel toned rainbow background.

  We dried the paper with the heat tool to move things along but you can leave it to air dry for a few hours or overnight.  Once it's dry the trees and falling leaves are stamped with Tip Top Taupe ink.  We layered a stamped tree that was die cut and layered with the Layering Ovals framelits.  We used shimmery white for this as well.

  The tree is popped up over a length of 5/8" Burlap ribbon and a punched banner with the Thoughtful banners set and coordinating punch finish this card off.  

  The shimmer is a nice and subtle in real life and and is a nice compliment to the rich color palette.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Totally Trees, Thoughtful Banners

Ink: Tip Top Taupe, Delightful Dijon, Bermuda Bay, Rich Razzleberry

Paper: Shimmery White, Tip Top Taupe, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories: Layering Ovals framelits, Banner punch, dimensionals, 5/8" burlap ribbon, aqua painter

Swirly Pumpkins - Stampin' Up! Swirly Bird

  With all the fun new products in the Holiday Catalog sometimes stamp sets from the Annual Catalog can get overlooked for seasonal cards.  While the Halloween themed sets in the Holiday catalog are super cute I just don't make very many Halloween cards so I try to use other sets in ways that fit the season.

  I thought that the Swirly Bird stamp set and the coordinating Swirly Scribbles thinlets would be a great fit for making pumpkins for a fall card.  You could even add a jack-o-lantern face to make it Halloween.  I think all of my stampers at stamp club last week could tell they were pumpkins which I was happy about since when I asked the boys what they looked like Alex replied, "Peaches!" *sigh*.  Hopefully you see pumpkins too!

  Do you recognize the stem stamps?  The smaller one is the little flag intended for the top of the sail boat, and the larger stem is the boat hull turned sideways.  Pretty neat huh?  Make your stamps work for you!

  The smaller pumpkin is stamped in Pumpkin Pie and then the swirl is added in Tangerine Tango ink.  The stem and leaf are stamped in Old Olive.

  The larger pumpkin swirl is die cut out of Pumpkin Pie Glimmer paper.  I glued that down to a piece of Pumpkin Pie cardstock and then cut around the shape to get the layered circle.  I die cut 2 leaves out of Old Olive cardstock.  The larger leaf is popped with a dimensional.

  The sentiment is from One Big Meaning and is stamped in Early Espresso ink.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Swirly Bird, One Big Meaning

Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, Early Espresso

Paper: Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Pie Glimmer paper

Accessories: Swirly Scribbles thinlets, corner rounder, dimensionals