Dapper Dad Collage - Fab Friday 110 - Stampin' Up! Swirly Bird

  I'm a few hours late getting my Fab Friday Design Team card shared but better late than never right?  I had originally let Mindy know that I wouldn't be able to have a card ready for this week's challenge because we were heading out of town for spring break.  I didn't even see the new set of color combos and sketches we would be working with for the next few months until the day before we were leaving.  It turned out we didn't leave as early as I thought we would but we were all packed so I had a few minutes to quickly put a card together with our challenge colors.  Woo-Hoo!  How proud I was to actually not have to be a flake this time around.  I packed the card up and planned to photograph it, edit it and do the blog post while on vacation.  Best laid plans right?  Well, we got up to the house we were renting in the mountains of Virginia and realized there was no internet.  So I had a card but no way to send it to Mindy for the challenge blog or to write my own blog post for it.

  It was a fabulous vacation with lots of outdoor time and quiet relaxing at the charming mountain farmhouse.  There was even a horse, donkey and sweet barn cat...just no internet!!  So that's why I'm several hours late sharing today.  But I'm home with internet service and a few minutes before dinner.

  I looked at the Fab Friday Challenge and had to laugh about the goof up with the colors...I was thinking it would have been easier if I had seen the grouping with the Calypso Coral instead of the Perfect Plum....The Perfect Plum stumped me!  So I guess use whatever set of colors speaks to you!

  And now for my card....when in doubt with a color challenge go with a lot of white space and the collage look!

  

  As you can see I used very little of the Perfect Plum....It just wasn't working for me so I just used it on the dapper Dad's bowtie and one of the hearts.  And speaking of those hearts and the "you're wonderful"...those a stamps from an upcoming Annual Catalog set that I received at the Stampin' Up! On Stage event last weekend.  It's called Tabs for Everything.  I think it will be a great go to set for fun sentiments!  I'll be all set with my Father's Day cards before too long with the way I've been stamping lately!

  The other images are from Swirly Bird.  I put everything together on Whisper White stitched shapes squares, added some DSP and embellishments and popped it all with dimensionals on a thick Whisper White base.

  I hope you'll join in on our Fab Friday color challenge this time...pick one palette or do a card for each!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Swirly Bird, Tabs for Everything (coming in the 2017/18 Annual Catalog)

Ink: Night of Navy, Pool Party, Old Olive, Peekaboo Peach, Perfect Plum, Crumb Cake

Paper: Whisper White, Whisper White thick, Floral Boutique DSP, Serene Scenery DSP stack

Accessories: Stitched Shapes framelits, corner rounder punch, Night of Navy baker's twine, linen thread, star shapes from Christmas Tag kit (retired), owl punch 9to punch out hearts), dimensionals

Fishy Father's Day - Stampin' Up! Seaside Shore

  Sometimes I sit down to stamp and the card just comes together right away and other times I have to really work on it to get the parts to look right or play around with just the right color combination.  And other days it just takes that "A-Ha!" moment and the right inspiration for it all to come together.

  For today's card I had a picture from a catalog of a shower curtain with different fish in shades of blue as my starting point.  The fish were a bit more whimsical than the fish in Seaside Shore but I figured that I could get something to work.  I started with a Whisper White panel and began sponging with my lightest color; Pool Party, then went onto Pacific Point and finally the darkest blue; Dapper Denim.

  Next, I moved on to stamping my fish.  I did one in each of the background colors and then fussy cut them out.  We get spoiled by so many sets having coordinating framelits but don't let the lack of a framelit set or punch keep you from getting a set that you like.  Fussy cutting isn't hard it just takes a bit of patience and the more you do it the better you become at it.

  Then I sat and I sat and I sat with these pieces, moving them around, trying to imagine what some seaweed at the bottom would look like....maybe some bubbles going to the surface.  Several different colors of ribbon were pulled out...  But nothing was looking right to me.  So I left all the pieces on my desk and moved on to something else.  Then along came the Freshly Made Sketches challenge (see below for the sketch) and the lightbulb went off and the card came together quickly after adding in the squares!  It just takes that one little bit of inspiration some times!

  I cut out 3 small squares with the Stitched Shapes framelits and adhered my fish to them with dimensionals and the arranged them like the sketch.  The sentiment is embossed in white using the Thoughtful Banners stamp set.  And I added a little Pool Party baker's twine bow as the final touch. 

   So I guess the moral of the blog post is to not give up on a card even if at first it doesn't seem to be coming together.  Save the pieces and take a break and I bet after some time you'll find the right inspiration to finish it off!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Seaside Shore, Thoughtful Banners

Ink: Pool Party, Pacific Point, Dapper Denim, Versamark

Paper: Dapper Denim, Whisper White

Accessories: Stitched Shapes framelits, dimensionals, white embossing powder, Pool Party Baker's twine (retired)

Happy Birthday Sunshine - Stampin' Up! Swirly Bird

  I don't usually blog on the weekends but with our spring break this week I know I'll be too busy to sit down and be at the computer and I don't want to get more behind than I already am!  It won't be very quiet either with the boys off of school!  Who can concentrate on drinking coffee and blogging about a card with the chaos that an 8 and 10 year old bring to the house?  Not me!  So I better get a few things posted now while they are quietly doing other things!

  My downline Julie and I had a blast yesterday at the Stampin' Up! On Stage event here in Richmond.  I wish all 4 of my downline could have attended but maybe we had enough fun for everyone.  Demos gathered around the country (and the world) for some good times with Stampin' Up!  We had fun with ladies from New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania at our table and then I met up with another group for dinner after the event.  Lots of laughs and even some business sharing at dinner.  Stampin' Up! certainly brings great people together!

  And the best thing of the day is that we got to see new products that are coming out in the annual catalog and bring home our very own catalog!!  It's so fun to begin making my wish list and planning projects and classes with all the new products that will be available soon.  But for now all I can tell you is that you will love it!  If you are really curious to know all these exciting demo-only details ahead of time you'll have join Stampin' Up!

  Now on to the card for today:

  I used 2 challenges to get the ball rolling for this card; The Color Throwdown Challenge and the CAS(e) This Sketch challenge.

  It was kind of fun to come up with a design using these bright challenge colors but still keep to the clean and simple sketch.

  The colors are Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Soft Sky, Garden Green and I threw in some black to make it all pop.

  The flowers and leaves are stamped with the Swirly Bird set, cut out and are popped up under the sentiment. The sentiment is stamped in black with the Sunshine Sayings set and paired with the coordinating Sunshine Wishes thinlets.  I cut the "sunshine" out twice.  Once in Soft Sky and then again in black and just layered the black one behind the Soft Sky one slightly off set to help make it stand out better against the white background.

  The Whisper White background is stamped with the Writing Notes background in Soft Sky.  I adhered it to the Daffodil Delight panel and the black cardfront before punching out the little circles that I was intending to punch.  Oh well!  The last detail is the little Daffodil Delight candy dot above the "i".

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Swirly Bird, Sunshine Sayings, Writing Notes

Ink: Soft Sky, Garden Green, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, black

Paper: Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Soft Sky, Whisper White

Accessories: Sunshine Wishes thinlets, dimensionals, candy dot (retired)

 

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

  I'm super excited that it's Friday and not just for the regular reasons of the weekend starting but because tomorrow, hundreds of Stampin' Up! demonstrators will be here in Richmond to participate in Stampin' Up!'s On Stage demo event!  It's an exclusive demo-only event where we get to visit, stamp, see new products and get fired up for the upcoming new annual catalog.  Oh, and we get to take home some fun new products!  It's always a great time to be around others who are as excited about stamping as me!  If you're interested in learning more about becoming a demonstrator please reach out to me!

  I've gotten in a lot of stamping time during the past week and the challenges out there are really inspiring.  The current challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments was a really easy one to get started on.  They have the colors Pool Party, Calypso Coral and Smoky Slate this time which just happen to be the colors in the A Little Foxy DSP stack.

  I pulled the paper out and paired it up with Jar of Love.  That sweet little jar is too cute and adding some flowers sets it up as a great birthday card!

  The card base is Calypso Coral and then a layer of A Little Foxy DSP with the corners rounded.  I embossed a strip of Smoky Slate with the Large Polka Dot embossing folder.  I feel like I've neglected my embossing folders lately so it's felt nice to give this one a little love!

 Notice the little bit of Pool Party scallop edging?  I made that with the largest scalloped Layering Square framelit.  I cut the edge twice and then layered the strips under the Smoky Slate layer making sure to have the seam fall under where I was going to place the jar.  It's a fun little detail and easy to do with narrow pieces of scrap cardstock.

  The jar is stamped in Smoky Slate and cut out. The flowers are stamped off once in Calypso Coral and the centers stamped again in full strength.  A few are stamped right inside the jar and the rest are stamped and cut out along with 2 little leaf branches.  Some of the flowers are popped up with dimensionals.  I put a little Pool Party bakers twine bow in the flower cluster.

  I had a hard time finding a small happy birthday sentiment that would fit in the space where I wanted to put it.  I was hoping for one that was a bit more swirly but I settled on the one from Barnyard Babies because it fit the best.

  Get some stamping time in this weekend so you have those birthday cards ready to mail out on Monday!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Jar of Love, Barnyard Babies

Ink: Smoky Slate, Calypso Coral, Pool Party

Paper: Smoky Slate, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Whisper White, A Little Foxy DSP

Accessories: Large Polka Dot embossing folder, Everyday Jars framelits, Layering Squares framelits, Pool Party baker's twine (retired), dimensionals

Peachy Birthday - Stampin' Up! Swirly Bird

I'm joining in over at the Global Design Project today.  They have a fun color challenge using Whisper White, Night of Navy and one other color.  

  I am always in need of birthday cards so I decided to make this card for a birthday.  I used Peekaboo Peach as my choice of the additional color.  I thought some big flowers clustered beside a sentiment would make for a fun look.

  

  I used Swirly Bird for the flowers and varied the shade of the Peekaboo Peach by stamping off.  I hand cut the flowers and then layered them over the top of the stamped sentiment from Rose Wonder. The smallest flower is popped on dimensionals and has little pearls clustered in the center.

  The DSP is from the Floral Boutique pack and is the perfect choice for this Night of Navy challenge.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Swirly Bird, Rose Wonder

Ink: Night of Navy, Peekaboo Peach

Paper: Whisper White, Floral Boutique DSP

Accessories: corner rounder, pearls, dimensionals

Sweet Little Bunny - Stampin' Up! Punches

   I've been able to join in a few challenges lately and it's been fun to stretch my supplies and imagination.  The Mojo Monday challenge is the layout and the theme for the Paper Players is "Easter Bunny".  Super fun to put these 2 challenges together and see what I could come up with.

  I don't have any bunny stamps so the bunny challenge was a real challenge for sure.  Punch art to the rescue. I searched Pinterest to get a feel for any punch art designs with rabbits and then I got to work!

  I used 3 different punches to create my bunny; Festive Flower, Fox Builder, and Tree Builder.  It was fun to pull different shapes in to make this little sweetie.

  Festive Flower- inner and outer ears, carrot tops and bottoms

  Fox Builder- head, body

  Tree Builder- tail, neck fluff

  The bunny is punched in Crumb Cake and Whisper White.  I used the Melon Mambo watercolor pencil and a blender pen to make the bit of pink in the ear.  I stamped the bunny face with the Foxy Friends stamp set in black.  After I had everything adhered I realized I should have sponged the edges of the bunny...live and learn.  The teeth are just hand cut out of a scrap of Whisper White.

  The carrots are Peekaboo Peach with a little sponging and the Peekaboo Peach marker was used to make little detail lines.  The carrot tops are punched out in Emerald Envy cardstock.

  The punch art is mounted onto a stitched shape circle and is layered over the top of a piece of Flirty Flamingo embossed with the Elegant Dots embossing folder.

  The DSP is a piece of the retired It's My Party DSP.  I added a strip of burlap ribbon to put the sentiment on.  The sentiment is from the retired And Many More set and is punched out with the also retired Word Window punch.  Some retired items I just can't give up!

  The final detail is the sprinkling of Frosted Sequins (also retired).  Even though some of the items I used on this card are retired, all the punches used to make the bunny are current so you can easily recreate this punch art bunny!

  The Easter Bunny has come early to our house!  We've named this little guy Peter and he happily hops around our yard and even has a little hidey hole among some of our plants.  Isn't he cute?

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Foxy Friends, And Many More (retired)

Ink: Basic Black, Peekaboo Peach

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Flirty Flamingo, Peekaboo Peach, Emerald Envy, It's My Party DSP (retired)

Accessories: Festive Flower punch, Fox Builder punch, Tree Builder punch, Stitched Shapes framelits, dimensionals, watercolor pencils, Elegant Dots embossing folder, burlap ribbon, Word Window punch (retired), Frosted Sequins (retired), dimensionals

   

Special Hello - Stampin' Up! Special Reason

 Here in central Virginia we've reached that special season of the year that is part of spring and hopefully won't last long...Pine Pollen season.  It rained last night so all the pollen is caked up on the edge of the road, once it dries it will be blowing around leaving the yellow mess everywhere.  My house smells like bacon from our BLT dinner last night but I don't dare open the windows or I'll have my work cut out for me and the feather duster.  If you're coming to Richmond this weekend for the Stampin' Up! On Stage and you're susceptible to spring allergies you might want to bring your allergy medicine!  

  On to a flower card with no pollen!

 

  This is another one we made at my February class.  I'm still loving the Special Reason stamp set and coordinating framelits set.  For this card we stamped the 2 flowers with Pink Pirouette with the edges sponged a bit with Flirty Flamingo.  We cut out the die cut flower in Flirty Flamingo cardstock.

  The Stitched Shapes framelits make a nice base for the large flower and the sentiment.

  The 2 leaves were mounted on one clear block and then stamped in Sahara Sand on Sahara Sand cardstock.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Special Reason

Ink: Flirty Flamingo, Pink Pirouette, Sahara Sand, Night of Navy

Paper: Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Flirty Flamingo

Accessories: Stitched Shapes framelits, Stylish Stems framelits, dimensionals, Night of Navy bakers twine

Butterfly Friend - Stampin' Up! Watercolor Wings

 It seems that I am forever behind in sharing cards.  I just wrapped up my March stamp club last Tuesday but I haven't even shared the projects from February!  I clearly need to get more organized.

  Today's card is a fun spring card and with just a change of sentiment can be used for a lot of different occasions..spring birthday, sympathy, hello, thinking of you, get well....

   The card base is Whisper White thick, then a smaller layer of Whisper White with the butterfly stamped on it.  The butterfly is a 3 step layered image from Watercolor Wings stamp set.  We started with the So Saffron, then the lighter layer of Peekaboo Peach stamped off once, then the outer edge with Peekaboo Peach in full strength.  The body and antennae are embossed with copper embossing powder.

  To do the sentiment layer we used a long strip of vellum and embossed the sentiment from Suite Sentiments.  Make sure to use the embossing buddy for all your embossing...the specks of copper really show up on the vellum and Whisper White cardstock.  Since you can see adhesive through vellum we wrapped the ends of the vellum strip behind the Whisper White panel and adhered in the back so we didn't need any adhesive on the front.

  There isn't any other embellishment on this card but I think the simple look works really well with the vibrant butterfly and little pop of shine with the embossing.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Watercolor Wings, Suite Sentiments

Ink: So Saffron, Peekaboo Peach, versamark

Paper: Whisper White, Whisper White thick, vellum

Accessories: corner rounder, copper embossing powder