Cup of Get Well - Stampin' Up! Cup of Christmas

Don't be fooled by some stamp sets that appear to be just for one season or holiday.  Stretch your creative wings and try to use them in a different way.  Changing up a color combination or pairing it with another stamp set could really expand the use of some stamp sets.

As it still feels like full on summer here I wasn't quite ready to use the Cup of Christmas as a Christmas set last week at my September class so I switched it up to an autumn card.

  I find that it's a good idea to have a few get well soon or feel better cards already made so when I know of someone who is sick I can get the card in the mail right away.  I used some fall colors and the Come to Gather DSP to turn this Christmas set into a fall get well card.

  The base is Very Vanilla thick, then a layer of Crumb Cake embossed with the Subtle embossing folder.

  The sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings is stamped in Early Espresso and then punched with the short side of the Everyday label punch.  The mug is also stamped in Early Espresso and the Merry Merlot and Cajun Craze markers are used to color in the leaf design.

  A few die cut sprigs in Merry Merlot and Cajun Craze are tucked behind the mug.  A bit of lace trim and an adhesive pearl finish off the details of this card.

 But wait there's more!  On the inside we have a simple little surprise to go with the get well and mug theme!

 
  Just a strip of matching DSP from the card front creates a little band to tuck a teabag into.  So easy to add a little something thoughtful to your already thoughtful get well card!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Cup of Christmas, Itty Bitty Greetings

Ink: Early Espresso

Markers: Merry Merlot, Cajun Craze

Paper: Very Vanilla thick, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Merry Merlot, Cajun Craze, Come to Gather DSP

Accessories: Cup of Cheer dies, Subtle embossing folder, Everyday Label punch, lace trim, adhesive pearl, dimensionals

Gather the Pumpkins - Stampin' Up! Gather Together

  It's hard to get in the mood for fall and winter cards when the weather is clearly stuck on summer mode.  We had a hot and humid weekend and now school sports games are being rescheduled for later in the month due to the heat.  The weather apps are showing the little cactus icon for the next few days so you don't miss the fact that everything is melting outside.  Welcome to 'fall' in Central Virginia :)  Happy October!

  I have a few fall card designs up my sleeve that I created for my last class so even if the weather isn't cooperating with the season the stamping ideas are!

  Pumpkin picking places are in full swing even if you'll end up with baked pumpkin mush on your front porch in this heat!  I learned soon after moving here that you can't carve your pumpkins much before Halloween or they rot in the heat.  Good times.  For now I'm sticking with paper versions.  One of my stampers pointed out to me all the different colors decorating pumpkins are now coming in so I thought we would go non-traditional colors for this class card.

  The base is Sahara Sand stamped with the large leaf from Gather Together in the same color in.  Next is a flag made with the beautiful Come to Gather DSP.  The Pretty Peacock is such a lovely color.

  The cluster of pumpkins are stamped in Pretty Peacock and colored with Mint Macaron and Pretty Peacock Blends.  Another leaf is tucked behind them with the sentiment stamped in Pretty Peacock and they are all mounted on a punched and sponged circle.

  The Braided Linen Trim is a nice accent on the stem of the largest pumpkin.

  Stay cool and get some stamping done!  I need to restock the freezer with ice pops!

Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Gather Together

Ink: Sahara Sand, Pretty Peacock, Mint Macaron

Blends: Mint Macaron light & dark, Pretty Peacock light

Paper: Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Come to Gather DSP

Accessories: Gathered Leaves dies, circle punch/die, dimensionals, Braided Linen trim

Football for the Win - Stampin' Up! For the Win

  Happy Friday stampers!  I hope you've had a good week!  I've been MIA this week due to lots of commitments as well as my monthly stamp club.  But I couldn't miss out on a Fab Friday challenge post!  We have a great new sketch to work with this week.

  I took some liberties with the sketch for my Design Team card but I think you'll be able to see that I was definitely inspired by the sketch.  I went with a seasonal card.  By season I mean football season!  My son had his first middle school football game this week so I wanted to mark the occasion with a little card for him.  This is an easy one to alter for specific teams; just change out the banner colors to your team colors and voila-- a personalized card!

  So can you see the sketch?  If not you'll just have to trust me that I was definitely working with the sketch when I sat down to stamp. 

  And try as I might I just cannot get my greens to photograph true to life so you'll have to trust me that the green really is Call Me Clover!  I thought it looked like a nice green football field before the season starts.  It even has a bit of texture thanks to the Subtle embossing folder.

  This was a fun to card to make with creating a football with the Hammered Metal embossing folder and some Whisper White scraps.  I hand cut the shape and sponged the edges with Soft Suede ink for extra detail.  Then I used a few dimensionals to pop the ball up.

  The banners are simply embossed with white embossing powder on Night of Navy cardstock.  Go Team is popped with a dimensional and the game day on is just tucked under the edge of the ball.

  Finally, the stars are stamped with the Stamparatus for perfect alignment.

  Head over to Fab Friday to see the rest of the Design Team and their fabulous projects.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: For the Win

Ink: Versamark, Call Me Clover, Soft Suede

Paper: Call Me Clover, Whisper White, Night of Navy, Soft Suede

Accessories: Subtle embossing folder, Hammered Metal embossing folder, white embossing powder, dimensionals

Layered Christmas Stars - Stampin' Up! Stitched Stars Dies

My card today has very little stamping because I was just so into creating with the Stitched Stars dies that there really wasn't any space for stamping once I was finished!

 
My inspiration for this card came from the challenge over at The Card Concept.  They have a really neat inspiration photo so I took my colors and the layout from that to do this Clean and Layered card. See the end of this post for the photo.

The card base is Early Espresso with a layer of Whisper White stamped with the Birch background stamp.  I was going for a non-traditional Christmas color look but I guess with a change of sentiment on the inside it could be for just about any occasion.  You could easily mix traditional Christmas colors for a great look in this same style.

  I used the Stitched Stars dies to cut a lot of different stars and then spent some time mixing and matching to get the right balance of colors.  Each one is popped on a dimensional and then has either a sequin or an adhesive rhinestone in the center.

  This isn't a hard card to make just a bit fussy to get the balance just right.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Birch

Ink: Early Espresso

Paper: Early Espresso, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Coastal Cabana, Rococo Rose, Petal Pink

Accessories: Stitched Stars dies, dimensionals, sequins, rhinestones

Silver Stars - Stampin' Up! So Many Stars

Have you figure out what my favorite Holiday catalog stamp set is yet?  I hope you aren't sick of seeing the So Many Stars set because I know I'll be using it a lot more in the coming months!

For my card today I used the Paper Players current challenge for my inspiration.  The challenge is to use metallics.  Easy enough with stars right?

I started with a Seaside Spray card base and then embossed silver stars down the front.  The star is made with 3 different layers using the Stitched Stars dies.  The bottom layer is the cool new Mercury Glass Acetate which is really fun for these seasonal cards.  The next star is Seaside Spray and the top is a detailed star cut out of Galvanized Metallic paper.

  The layered star is adhered to a Stitched Nested label die and the sentiment is stamped in Seaside Spray ink.  The whole label is popped up with dimensionals.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: So Many Stars

Ink: Versamark, Seaside Spray

Paper: Seaside Spray, Whisper White, Mercury Glass Acetate, Galvanized Metal paper (retired)

Accessories: silver embossing powder, Stitched Stars dies, Stitched Nested label dies, dimensionals

Cheers to the New Year - Stampin' Up! Sip Sip Hooray

I know that New Years is quite a ways off but it was so fun making this card with new products!  The Sip Sip Hooray stamp set is cute and festive for all kinds of celebrations...adult celebrations that is.  I doubt any 8 year old would appreciate a birthday card made with it!

  I used one of the samples in the Holiday catalog as inspiration for the background but I added some of the fun new Ice Stampin' Glitter to the glasses for some sparkle.  The pink martini glass also has some Ice Stampin' Glitter as well.

  I may have to make a few more of these Happy New Years cards in case I don't have enough Christmas cards.  And a change of the sentiment this could easily be a birthday card.

  My colors are inspired by the Just Add Ink challenge. 

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Sip Sip Hooray, Itty Bitty Christmas

Ink: Gray Granite, Rococo Rose, Mossy Meadow

Paper: Rococo Rose, Very Vanilla, Blackberry Bliss

Accessories: Ice Stampin' Glitter, Stitched Shapes dies, Sip and Celebrate dies, Mossy Meadow twine (retired), dimensionals

Christmas Love - Stampin' Up! So Many Stars

 When stamp sets have a limited seasonal use it's fun to try to get as much mileage out of them as you can.  Christmas products are great to mix and match to get even more designs out of them in a short amount of time.  I paired the Pine Tree punch with 2 other stamp sets for this sweet card.

I used the sketch at CAS(e) this Sketch to start my creating.   I flipped it because in the end the long sentiment banner fit better.

 I could not get the Shaded Spruce and Night of Navy to look true to life in my photos.  It's a much more crisp looking card in real life!

  The Night of Navy card base is stamped with the little star background in Night of Navy ink.  I punched the pine tree shape into a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock embossed with the Pinewood Planks (see the theme??) embossing folder.  I tossed the actual punch out away and used the negative panel.  It's popped up on dimensionals over a piece of Perfectly Plaid DSP.

  I added a few Gold Glimmer paper stars cut with the Stitched Stars dies.

  The sentiment is stamped with gold ink onto Night of Navy cardstock and then hand cut into the banner shape.  If you like to have a lot of options for Christmas sentiments then Itty Bitty Christmas might be for you.  While they are on the smaller size there are a lot of font styles and sayings to fit just about any card you're making.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: So Many Stars, Itty Bitty Christmas

Ink: Night of Navy, gold

Paper: Night of Navy, Perfectly Plaid DSP, Very Vanilla, Gold Shimmer

Accessories: Stitched Stars dies, Pine Tree punch, Pinewood Planks embossing folder, dimensionals

Classic Christmas Stars - Stampin' Up! So Many Stars

  I had a lot of time in the stamp room last week to really dive into my Holiday catalog products and I am loving everything so far!  With so many new products sometimes it can be overwhelming to figure out what to start with and what to make!  I was able to use some of the wonderful stamping challenges for inspiration and some focus for my designs.

  I always love the Freshly Made Sketches challenge but rarely get a card made, photographed and blogged in time to participate so I am excited to join in with this sketch that ends today.  Just in the nick of time!  The circles in the sketch seemed perfect to use with the So Many Stars bundle.

  I changed out the circles in the sketch and made them stars.  It was fun to mix and match stamps and DSP to make this Christmas card.

  The card front is a cool woodgrain pattern from the Come to Gather DSP.  I layered a strip of Soft Sea Foam across the front and added a sentiment in Cherry Cobbler from the Itty Bitty Christmas set.

  I used a variety of star die cuts in different papers and cardstock and added in some gold embossing to create these 3 lovely layered beauties.

  The largest star has a bit of the new Real Red curly ribbon accenting the one side.  This trim is not really ribbon but more of a soft yarn.  It's very nice but the name doesn't really fit!

  Even though the weather is still hot here in my neck of the woods be prepared to see a lot more Christmas designs this week!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: So Many Stars, Itty Bitty Christmas

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Versamark

Paper: Come to Gather DSP, Wrapped in Plaid DSP, Soft Sea Foam, Shaded Spruce, Gold Foil

Accessories: gold embossing powder, Stitched Stars dies, Real Red Curly ribbon, dimensionals