Butterfly Customer Appreciation - Stampin' Up! Watercolor Wings

  I needed to make a few thank you cards so I combined 2 challenges that I came across.  A color one from Paper Players using Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay and Old Olive and the sketch is from Mojo Monday.  

  I love these colors together!  The Bermuda Bay and Old Olive just seem like summer colors to me so I went with Watercolor Wings to make a butterfly card.

  The lightest layer is Bermuda Bay stamped off once, then in full strength with the more detailed stamp and then the edges are stamped in Old Olive stamped off once.  I used the coordinating framelits, Bold Butterfly to cut it out and then added the Old Olive body also stamped off.  Don't forget that this stamp set and framelit set are bundled together to save 15%!  Great deal!

  The card base is Crumb Cake and then I made a flag with the new Corrugated Paper which I hadn't cut into yet but is nice weight and texture for accent pieces.  I stamped the little dotted border stamp in white craft ink across the card.  The sentiment from One Big Meaning is stamped underneath in Crumb Cake ink.

  Using my circles framelits I created a thin circle and accented it with pearls and a few strands pulled from a piece of thick baker's twine.  I popped the butterfly up on dimensionals.

  We have a fun day at the pool planned so I better go get all my chores taken care of so I can relax and enjoy the day!

 Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Watercolor Wings, One Big Meaning

Ink: Old Olive, Bermuda Bay, white craft, Crumb Cake

Paper: Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Whisper White, Corrugated paper

Accessories: Bold Butterfly framelits, Circles framelits, pearls, thick baker's twine, dimensionals

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Sweet Friend Popsicles

 Today's card is the third project we made at my stamp club at the end of July.  I wanted to make a nice summery card and tried a lot of different ideas but finally ended up with these sweet punch art popsicles.

  It's always good to have a variety of punches on hand; you never know when you need to make a paper popsicle!

  The card base is Crumb Cake and then a layer of Whisper White which is stamped with the great new Writing Notes background stamped.  We used Marina Mist ink.  The sentiment is from Six Sided Sampler.

  Now for the punches.  Rectangles in So Saffron and Calypso Coral have their corners rounded with the Corner Rounder punch.  Then using the Word Window punch with the same colors of cardstock punch 2 for each popsicle and then one in Crumb Cake for the stick.  All of the parts of the popsicles have the edges sponged for extra depth and detail.  Using the smaller scallop circle punch just nip off the corner of one popsicle for a little bite mark.

  A baker's twine bow decorates one popsicle and the other one is popped up on dimensionals.

  If you would like to buy any of the supplies used to make this card you can scroll through the list and click on the item you would like and it will take you directly to my online store.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Writing Notes, Six Sided Sampler

Ink: Marina Mist, So Saffron, Calypso Coral

Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, So Saffron, Calypso Coral

Accessories: Corner Rounder punch, Word Window punch, Small Scallop Circle punch, Baker's Twine

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Blue Baby Lamb - Stampin' Up! Barnyard Babies

  Happy Monday stampers!  I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!  We were busy in short spurts as we had 2 unplanned out of town visitors pop in and hang out for a while.  It's always nice to see old friends and favorite family members even if it's just for a few hours.  The boys enjoyed some kayaking and rock hopping on the Mighty James River on Saturday while I went thrifting/junking/antiquing.  I didn't find the main thing that I was searching for but came across a few nice finds so it was a very pleasant afternoon.

  I even stamped as I had to make a card for Sunday morning.  One of our pastors and his wife welcomed a baby boy this week and I wanted to make sure to bring a little gift and card on Sunday morning to leave for them at the church office.  If I didn't do it this weekend it was probably going to be forgotten about so I jumped right too it.

  I used the Freshly Made Sketches challenge for my layout this time.

  Not a whole lot of stamping on this one but a whole lot of cute if I do say so myself!

  The background DSP is from the recently retired Adventure Bounds DSP stack.  That weathered barn wood is such a neat look on paper.  Next I added a strip of Pool Party and anchored it with 2 Vintage Trinket brads---again another retired item but I can't be the only one that has some of these left? I thought the button brads were perfect for a baby card.

  Next up is a layer of Schoolhouse DSP.  Does this large polka dot pattern look familiar?  Well it was still on my desk from my Lucky Stars card from last week and I thought it was a nice contrast to the weathered wood paper.

  I punched the tag with the retired (boo hoo) angled tag topper punch.  You can still make this look with your paper snips and a small circle/hole punch if you missed out on this punch before it retired.  I tried the scalloped tag topper punch at first and it was just a little to frilly for the look I was going for this time but I do love that one too!  I added some Pool Party thick baker's twine, a linen thread bow and a Vintage Trinket safety pin.  A Pool Party candy dot finishes off the lower corner to help balance the layers.

  The adorable little lamb is stamped with Memento ink onto Whisper White cardstock and colored in with gray shades of alcohol markers.  I fussy cut the lamb and then popped him up on dimensionals on the tag.  The sentiment was also stamped in Memento ink.

  This was a fun card to put together and for such a joyful occasion!  I hope you had some equally fun reasons to be stamping over the weekend!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Barnyard Babies

Ink: Memento Black, alcohol markers (grays)

Paper: Whisper White (thick), Adventure Bound DSP (retired), Pool Party, Schoolhouse DSP, Whisper White (regular)

Accessories: Linen thread, candy dots, dimensionals, Pool Party thick baker's twine (Sale-a-bration reward), Vintage trinkets (retired), angled tag topper punch (retired)

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Lucky Stars - Stampin' Up! Schoolhouse DSP

  It's Fab Friday time again! It's a nice sketch right?  I think it is too but it was giving me fits.  Everything that I tried looked OK until I put that middle ribbon/strip on my card.  It just chopped it up too much.

  

  This card took a long time and many, many ideas to get to this point!  I used stamping with balloons, flowers, splotches, different colors, different techniques and none of those things was getting me a card that I liked for this round of Fab Friday!  Yikes!  What's a stamper to do?  I cleaned up my whole stamping desk and put everything away and started fresh (it was piled about a foot high!).  I pulled different colors and put aside the stamps all together!

Look Ma!  No stamping!

 I narrowed my focus to the theme I wanted to make, Good Luck.  I needed a card to go with a gift to our neighbor/petsitter/babysitter who is leaving for her freshman year of college soon.  I didn't have an appropriate sentiment so I used the Little Letters thinlets and Pacific Point cardstock and built my card up from there.

  The DSP is the new Schoolhouse DSP and it was the first time I cut into any of it!  I liked the blues with the silver.  The university colors are blue and silver so I thought if worked.

  I punched some stars from the retired style of Silver Glimmer paper as well as a larger framelit star in Pacific point.  I added a bit of ribbon to jazz up the center.

  I'm still not completely sold on this card but my deadline was fast approaching so I needed to get it done.  As soon as I see the rest of the Design Team samples I'm sure I'll come up with 18 different ways to do this sketch!  

  I hope you have better luck with this one than me!  Head over to Fab Friday to see more ideas and play along!

Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: None

Ink: None

Paper: Whisper White (thick), Pacific Point, Schoolhouse DSP, Silver glimmer (retired style)

Accessories: corner rounder, star punch (retired), Stars framelits, silver ribbon, Crushed Curry ribbon (2015 Sale-a-bration), dimensionals

Tie Dyed Turtles - Stampin' Up! From Land to Sea

  With what our weather looks like for this afternoon a water themed card seems appropriate for today's share!  We made this card last week at my stamp club.  It's always fun to do a new technique.  At least it was new to me!  I like techniques that you don't need a lot of extra supplies that you might not have on hand.  This is ink and water!  So easy!

  We used watercolor paper since it takes water so much better than regular cardstock.  You can use any colors you'd like but since it was a water scene I went with blues and greens

Step 1: sponge Soft Sky over the whole piece.  Don't worry about it being completely even, splotchy is a good thing in this case!

Step 2: Using a sponge dauber swirl Pool Party ink onto the cardstock making several circles.  I would say probably the size of a half dollar.  If you are using a larger piece of cardstock then make them larger.

Step 3: Using another sponge dauber make a smaller circle inside the Pool Party circle using Mint Macaron

Step 4: Using an Aquapainter squeeze out some water to the brush tip and then "draw" a circle around the outside of the Pool Party circle, the outside of the Mint Macaron circle and a dab in the center of the Mint Macaron.  Then blot up the water with a paper towel.  Repeat on each circle.  You can go over the circles more with the water for a more pronounced look.  As the paper dries the ink will lighten up.

  There you go!  Tie Dye!

  Next, we used Tip Top Taupe ink and sponged it across the bottom of our panel for some sand.  Then using just the tentacles of the jellyfish in Mint Macaron ink we stamped "seaweed" on the bottom.  The jellyfish seems like a strange stamp as I don't know many jellyfish fans...usually everyone want to avoid them so I'm not sure how often I'll use that stamp other than for seaweed!  Then the turtles were stamped with Tip Top Taupe right over the the Tie Dye circles.

 White Perfect Accents are used to make bubbles and the new Very Vanilla thick baker's twine is tied around the panel.  A narrow strip of Mint Macaron cardstock is torn for some extra texture.  All of this is popped up on dimensionals on a Tip Top Taupe card base.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: From Land to Sea

Ink: Soft Sky, Pool Party, Mint Macaron, Tip Top Taupe

Paper: Tip Top Taupe, watercolor paper, Mint Macaron

Accessories: Aquapainter, thick baker's twine, dimensionals

Butterfly Gatefold - Stampin' Up! Watercolor Wings

 Whew!  I've finally had a few moments to catch my breath after taking the boys to Pennsylvania to visit my in laws for a few days.  We stopped at Hershey on the way home to take in some of the chocolate fun too.  We had 4 FULL days of activities between the 2 stops and then the day after we arrived back home my cousin and her family stopped to visit overnight on their way down to Myrtle Beach.  It's been non-stop at the Mertz house for sure.

While we didn't buy these giant chocolate bars the boys did get their fill of chocolate at Hershey!  They were quiet the whole car ride home eating through their souvenirs!

  To add to it all,  the night before we left for Pennsylvania I had my monthly stamp club.  It was fun getting together with my stampers to use some more new products from the Stampin' Up! 2015-2016 Annual catalog but it made for a busy week!

  We made this card using the new Watercolor Wings stamp set and coordinating Bold Butterfly framelits.

 

  I sometimes don't take the time to design fun fold cards but the gatefold style is so easy I really should use it more often!  All you need to do is score your card base at 2 1/8" and 6 3/8" and there you have a gatefold!

  I stamped the butterfly using Watermelon Wonder and Lost Lagoon.  The first layer of Watermelon Wonder is stamped off once for a lighter look, then the next more detailed layer is full strength Watermelon Wonder.  The final detail is stamped using Lost Lagoon.

  The thing that I discovered when using the stamp set and framelits together is to stamp the wing layers first, then cut it out with the framelit and then add the stamped butterfly body.  My first few attempts to cut it out with the body already stamped I kept cutting off either the top or bottom.  No one needs to see a mangled insect body!  It's much easier to stamp the body once you have the butterfly outline to guide you.

  The two folds have strips of Whisper White cardstock embossed with the new Fluttering embossing folder.

  The final details for the card are the silver accents.  Using the Tombow Multi glue I glued some silver sequins to each flap.  If that small tip still isn't fine enough for you'll have to check out the extra fine tip glue that is coming out in the Holiday catalog soon...it should be perfect for these sequins an other intricate pieces!  Also, using a few dimensionals I looped a bit of new silver Metallic Thread behind where the butterfly goes across the card front.  It's hard to see in the photo but it adds a nice subtle detail.  I used the same dimensionals to adhere the butterfly.  Remember, to be able to have the flaps open you only need to attach the butterfly to one side!

  It's a lazy day here at home today checking things off the to do lists!  I hope to get some stamping and photographing in later as well so at least I'll have stuff ready to share if I get a few moments to blog!  

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

 Stamps: Watercolor Wings

Ink: Watermelon Wonder, Lost Lagoon

Paper: Lost Lagoon, Whisper White

Accessories: Fluttering e.f., Bold Butterfly framelits, silver sequins, silver Metallic thread, dimensionals

  

Yoda Star Wars Birthday

  Because you can't make one kid an R2D2 birthday card and not do a Star Wars birthday card for the other kid 4 days later so now we have Yoda for Ryan's birthday.

  After scouring Pinterest and Google for ideas I got to work and came up with this Yoda.

  The head is sponged and the top half embossed with the Decorative Dots embossing folder. The eyes are made from the Owl Punch and the ears are from the Bird punch.

  Yoda's body is an oval cut from Soft Suede and then topped with a Naturals Ivory robe made from an Apothecary Accent framelit shape.  I cut and layered the framelit over the oval.

  His hands and feet are from the Bitty Butterfly punch that are trimmed down.  The cane is hand cut from Early Espresso cardstock.

  The light saber was fun to make.  I used the Word Window punch for the blade and hilt.  The blade is Wild Wasabi and then I covered it with Crystal Effects and sprinkles Dazzling Diamonds over the Crystal Effects for a nice shimmery effect.  I added a Very Vanilla candy dot to the hilt for a finishing touch.

  Yoda is adhered onto a Soft Suede card base that was stamped with Gorgeous Grunge.

  On the inside I printed on the printer a Yoda quote about being 900 years old.  I thought it was fitting to go with the birthday theme.

 I got some props from Ryan on this card though he did have some suggestions to make Yoda's robe better...9 year old know it all!  LOL!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Gorgeous Grunge

Ink: Old Olive, Soft Suede

Paper: Soft Suede, Old Olive, Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi, Naturals Ivory (retired), Early Espresso, Whisper White

Accessories: circle punch, owl punch, bird punch, Apothecary Accents framelits (retired), Oval framelits, Bitty butterfly punch,  Word Window punch

Star Wars R2D2 Birthday

    My boys birthdays are both in July...4 days apart.  So we have a week of busy birthday activities every year.  They love Star Wars and Legos and Minecraft and reading and football so it's not hard finding something to make for a birthday card.  This year I went with the Star Wars theme.  Who doesn't love R2D2?  He's a sweet little droid isn't he? Alex got a kick out of it so it was a success in the world of 7 year olds!

  I decided to do some punch art for this one though it ended up more hand cutting pieces than using punches.  The head is a circle punch as well as the 2 circles on the body and the legs are the word window punch, other than that I cut most of the pieces with my paper snips.

  It was a fun project to work on.  I checked Pinterest for some inspiration and used some pictures of R2 from Google images to get the details as close as I could.

  The card base is Night of Navy then a layer of Silver cardstock embossed with the Lucky Stars embossing folder.

  I used a Night of Navy oval behind R2.  I used my Smoky Slate marker to add just a bit of color to the edges of all the white pieces as it helped to give some definition to the panels on the body.

  The eyes/camera/sensors (I have no idea of the correct Star Wars terminology for those!) are made with Itty Bitty Accents Epoxy Stickers, a small rhinestone colored with a red alcohol marker and a Smoky Slate candy dot.

  The sentiment is made using the Alphabet Rotary stamp and Real Red ink.  In case you're wondering "Beep Bloop Beep" is droid for Happy Birthday.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Alphabet Rotary stamp

Ink: Real Red, Smoky Slate, Night of Navy

Paper: Night of Navy, Silver, Whisper White

Accessories: Circle punches, word window punch, Oval framelits, Lucky Stars e.f., epoxy stickers, rhinestone, candy dot, dimensionals