How Many Days Until Christmas? - Fab Friday 93 - Stampin' Up! Oh, What Fun

I missed the last Fab Friday challenge so I am really happy to be back in the swing of things this time around!  We've got a fun sketch challenge for you.

  What's a Stampin' Up! demonstrator to do when she places her Holiday catalog preorder and then has to try to focus on creating a card for the Fab Friday challenge?  Naturally I headed right to my Christmas stamp sets because I had Christmas on the brain!  141 more days to get enough Christmas cards made for my very extensive list!  Generally I'm not a fan of holidays being thrust upon us months early (can we gag over back to school stuff on 4th of July or Halloween when we're sweating to death in August?) but Christmas does require some planning ahead so we can all make an exception here!

  I only had 2 Christmas sets carry over so my choices were limited but never fear as my preorder arrived last night so there will be lots new stamps to create with.  For this card I combined Oh, What Fun and Holly Jolly Greetings.

  I stamped the 2 little sprinkles stamps in Marina Mist and Pool Party and then embossed the snowflake in silver over the top.

  A scrap of the retired Adventure Bound DSP went on the left side along with a Cherry Cobbler baker's twine bow.

  The sentiment is stamped in Smoky Slate and a narrow flag in Cherry Cobbler backs the panel.  A small strip of Serene Scenery DSP is right underneath.

  To balance the snowflake I added a small grouping of bling; a large silver sequin topped with a Cherry Cobbler retired candy dot (I haven't gotten the enamel shapes in all the color collections yet), a small silver sequin topped with a rhinestone and then a silver enamel circle.  I stamped one of the  little hanging stars in Marina Mist and the other is embossed in silver.

  Check out the rest of the Fab Friday design team samples and then hop to making your own card!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Oh, What Fun, Holly Jolly Christmas

Ink: Pool Party, Marina Mist, Smoky Slate, Versamark

Paper: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Serene Scenery DSP, Adventure Bound DSP (retired)

Accessories: sequins, candy dots, rhinestones, silver embossing powder, Cherry Cobbler baker's twine, dimensionals

  

Squirrel or Cat Thank You - Stampin' Up! Foxy Friends

  This card falls into the "eye of the beholder" category.  As I was going over the steps to make this card in my class last week I said something along the lines of "and then adhere the heart so the squirrel is holding it in his hands."  "Squirrel??"  a few of my ladies asked.  Well yeah, that's what I thought it was when I designed the card.  But they totally thought it was a cat!  So we had a good laugh over that one and began to call it a squat (long a sound like cat lol!) or a catirrel.  We decided that the recipient of the card could make their own decisions on what kind of animal it was and we wouldn't project our own preconceived notions on the poor little creature.

 What say you?  Squirrel or cat?  I think it's a sweet little guy no matter what you decide to go with.

  We paired the Foxy Friends set with the A Little Foxy DSP stack.  I really like all the Smoky Slate patterns in this pack, having a neutral color with so many patterns really opens the door for all kinds of cards and color combinations.  The new In Color Sweet Sugarplum looks great with the Smoky Slate and Pool Party here.

  The squirrel/cat is stamped in Smoky Slate and the head is stamped again and punched with the Fox Builder punch and popped up.  The face, feet and sentiment are stamped in basic black. How cute are those little foot prints??  I lined up all 3 of the mushrooms on a clear block and stamped them along the bottom of the card front in Smoky Slate.

  The Thoughtful Banners set is becoming one of my go to sentiment sets.  The many different mix and match possibilities paired up with the coordinating punch makes this one perfect for my classes as everyone can choose a sentiment to fit what their needs are.

  The Sweet Sugarplum ruched ribbon and heart colored with clear Wink of Stella finish the details for this squirrel/cat card.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Foxy Friends, Thoughtful Banners

Ink: Smoky Slate, Sweet Sugar Plum, black

Paper: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Pool Party, Basic Black, A Little Foxy DSP

Accessories: Duet Banner punch, Fox Builder punch, Wink of Stella, ruched ribbon, Owl punch (small heart), dimensionals

Pokemon Crazy Punch Art Birthday

 So I know that this card will seem like it's a bandwagon type of thing and I'm just getting into the game with all the Pokemon Go craziness that out there now.  But I have to say I made this card before Pokemon Go was even a thing!  My youngest son has been into Pokemon for the last 6 months or so.  He's got books, the cards, drawings etc.  His birthday was on July 11 so I thought I would make a Pokemon themed birthday card for him to go along with several Pokemon gifts.

  Lo and behold on the morning of the 11th after I came back from my very early walk before Alex was even awake I heard all this talk on the radio about this new app called Pokemon Go and how it was gaining in popularity each day.  So of course I downloaded it and figured it would be something fun to do in addition to the other birthday celebrations we had planned.  And we've had fun playing it and seeing how our local park is swarmed with people every evening playing.  But this card was made BEFORE all the madness!  :)

  I used the new Layering Circles framelits and a small circle punch to create this pokeball.  It's popped up with dimensionals.  The sentiment is from Party with Cake which I was excited to see carried over from the Occasions catalog.

  Since this card was made BEFORE I knew many of the names of the pokemon I made the only one I knew then... Pikachu!

  The ears are made using the Festive Flower punch.  Head is an oval punch.  Eyes and cheek spots are from the Owl Builder punch.  And the nose if from the new Fox Builder punch.  I hand drew the mouth and that's why it's a little crooked!

  I used another sentiment from Party with Cake and colored in the letters with my Real Red and Crushed Curry markers.

  Not a very hard card to make but it got a big smile from the new 8 year old and even the compliment that Pikachu looked good!  High praise I tell ya!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Party with Cake

Ink: Basic Black  Markers: Real Red, Crushed Curry

Paper: Crushed Curry, Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White

Accessories: Layering Circles framelits, circle punch, Festive Flower punch, Owl builder punch, Fox builder punch

Floral Wedded Bliss - Stampin' Up!

  Well hello friends!  It's been quite some time since I've been in blog-land!  Summer days are just flying by and I haven't made much of a push to blog.  I think it's that there isn't much of routine around here this summer except for meals...a girls gotta eat and other people around here expect to get fed too!  I have been stamping just not getting around to photographing, editing and blogging.  But I had a stack of card building up since the beginning of July and I thought I better hop to it or it would be too late!

 

  This is one of the cards my stamping ladies made last week at class.  I'm really liking the Floral Boutique suite.  Pairing the stamp set with the fun thinlet dies makes for beautifully elegant cards.  

  Night of Navy, Calypso Coral and Whisper White is a nice crisp summer time color combination don't you think?  We stamped the large flower stamp on the card front and then layered the rest of the elements over the top.  The smaller of the Detail Floral thinlet dies was used to cut a piece of Whisper White.  Use the fine tip glue pen to adhere these die cuts.  

The Calypso Coral thick bakers twine is tied into a bow before adding the punched sentiment circle.  The long border stamp was stamped off twice and then the sentiment layered on top before punching. And don't forget those rounded corners; they echo the curves of the flowers for a nice cohesive look.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Floral Phrases

Ink: Night of Navy, Calypso Coral

Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White

Accessories: Detailed Floral Thinlets, circle punches, corner rounder, thick baker's twine, dimensionals

Chocolate for Friends - Stampin' Up! Jar of Love

The Jar of Love stamp set even makes great tags!  I made about 30 of these cute little treat bags for my New Catalog party in June.  There is chocolate behind that tag I promise!

And I've finally found a color that I like with Delightful Dijon...Dapper Denim!

  I used Crumb Cake and the scallop tag topper punch for the tag base.  I used Crumb Cake ink and stamped the thin leaf stamp all over.  Then I layered half a Delicate Doily and a strip of Serene Scenery DSP (I love this paper!).

  I stamped the sentiment in Dapper Denim onto Whisper White, cut out the circle and layered it onto a Dapper Denim circle.  The chalk marker makes some nice stitching detail around the edge. How cute is that little Delightful Dijon flower?  I added a small pearl to the center as well.

  I used the new Burlap Ribbon and Dapper Denim ruched ribbon to finish off this tag.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Jar of Love

Ink: Dapper Denim, Delightful Dijon, Crumb Cake

Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Dapper Denim, Serene Scenery DSP

Accessories: Delicate Doily, circle framelits, adhesive pearls, dimensionals, burlap ribbon, ruched ribbon

  

Sweet Critter Birthday - Stampin' Up! Foxy Friends - Fab Friday 91

There are just some things that can't be resisted and Stampin' Up!'s Foxy Friends stamp set with matching Fox Builder punch are 2 of them!

I used both for the first time to make this sweet critter birthday card for today's Fab Friday sketch challenge.  The sketch is very straightforward and versatile so I hope many of you will play along with us!

  As always the sketch is just a starting point for me.  This time around I flipped it to just because I could! 

  It was fun playing around with the different animals but I wanted to do a raccoon as I thought the neutral grays would look good against the other colors.

  Check out how cute these little hearts look with a little Wink of Stella on them?  I made these hearts using one of the dies in the Everyday Jars framelit set.  The owl punch would be a good alternate heart as well.

  I hope you find lots of inspiration with our Fab Friday challenge this time!  

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Foxy Friends, Sunshine Sayings

Ink: Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Pool Party, Wild Wasabi, Soft Suede, Sweet Sugarplum

Paper: Sweet Sugarplum, Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Whisper White

Accessories: doily, layering oval framelits, Fox builder punch, Woodland embossing folder, Everyday Jars framelits, Wink of Stella, dimensionals

No Jar Needed, Thank You - Stampin' Up! Jar of Love

  Just because a stamp set has a main image doesn't mean you always need to use that main image on your card!  I decided to leave out the jar from the Jar of Love set and focus on the flowers and leaves for this card.

  I combined 2 long closed challenges (the sketch) and colors (yellow, green, brown) from a few weeks back to design this card.  The Jar of Love set is great!  I love the jars and all their little accessories and fillers but the flowers and leaves are quite lovely in their own right, jar or no jar.

  It seems that I generally only use Garden Green at Christmas but it is a nice pairing with the Crushed Curry/Delighful Dijon flowers isn't it?  Using the small leaves and small flowers for the background stamping and the larger flowers popped up on top it makes for a nice cluster in the corner of this thank you card.

  The centers of the larger flowers are stamped with Soft Suede ink and then highlighted with the gold Wink of Stella pen.

  I used the thank you sentiment from Rose Wonder in Soft Suede and then pulled the visual triangle together with a linen thread bow.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Jar of Love, Rose Wonder

Ink: Crushed Curry, Delightful Dijon, Garden Green, Soft Suede

Paper: Whisper White, Soft Suede, Garden Green

Accessories: Everyday Jars framelits, linen thread, Gold Wink of Stella, dimensionals, corner rounder

 

Swirly Kite - Stampin' Up! Swirly Bird

  The Swirly Bird stamp set is really one of the most versatile sets that I've owned in quite a while.  Add in whatever sentiment you want and this set can cover just about any reason you have to send a card.  Add in the Swirly Scribbles thinlets and the sky's the limit!

  For my new catalog party a few weeks ago I wanted to use the Swirly Bird bundle but didn't want to use the obvious choice of the swirls as the focal point.  I had done a bunch of samples like that already and wanted my stampers to see what else they could do with these stamps.  I liked the kite and it worked well to pair up 2 of the new In Colors with one of last years colors.

  The kite is stamped with Emerald Envy and Mint Macaron.  The string is Early Espresso with Flirty Flamingo bows.  The kite is cut out and popped with a dimensional and one of the new metallic enamel dots in the center.

  Behind the kite panel is a Flirty Flamingo scribble that I cut in half to to fill the space better.  A bit of Emerald Envy ruched ribbon tied in a knot was added to the scribble.

  Finally we used the Sunshine Sayings stamp set for the sentiment.  Clearly I need to re-ink my Early Espresso pad!  This is a great set too as you can mix and match for lots of different sentiments as well as pair them up with the coordinating Sunshine Wishes thinlets.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Swirly Bird, Sunshine Sayings

Ink: Early Espresso, Emerald Envy, Mint Macaron, Flirty Flamingo

Paper: Mint Macaron, Flirty Flamingo, Whisper White

Accessories: Swirly Scribbles thinlets, ruched ribbon, Metallic enamel shapes, dimensionals