Birthday Koala - Stampin' Up! Bonanza Buddies

  February is a busy birthday month in our extended families so I have to make sure I have a good stock of cards made once February 1st hits.  So having birthdays on my mind when designing projects for my last class I definitely wanted to use the Bonanza Buddies bundle.

  I pulled the colors straight from the Birthday Bonanza DSP and just had fun pulling together elements from different products in the suite. 

  In class we used the Stamp-a-ratus to stamped the koala in Smoky Slate and the face and sentiment in Memento black.  Using the stamp-a-ratus gave perfect placement and alignment for then using the tag die to cut the focal piece of the card.

  Little details to note are the banners cut and adhered across the top.  The black twine bow at the top of the tag.  The party hat is stamped in Mango Melody and popped with a dimensional and a pompom is added to the top.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Bonanza Buddies

Ink: Smoky Slate, Memento Black, Coastal Cabana, Mango Melody

Paper: Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Pineapple Punch, Terracotta Tile, Whisper White, Birthday Bonanza DSP

Accessories: Bonanza dies, pom poms, black bakers twine, dimensionals

Golden Bees - Stampin' Up! Honey Bee

The weather just hasn't been cooperating with me in my efforts to stamp and photograph my cards to be able to enter them in various challenges.  It's been kind of dark and dreary whenever I want to take pictures of some of my projects.  By the time it's sunny and I can get some good photos the challenge is long closed.  Oh well.  At least I'm getting the inspiration and stamping time in which is really the important thing.

  Today's card is a combo of a color and sketch challenge; both of which probably closed 2 weeks ago.

  For some reason this color combo just screams "Preppy" to me.  Embroidered whale pants, hot pink sweaters tied around shoulders, dock siders...All that good stuff!

  The card base is Night of Navy stamped with the fabulous Breathtaking Bouquet background stamp.  Next, I layered some Whisper White and Melon Mambo.  The Melon Mambo panel is cut with the Stitched Rectangle dies. 

  I embossed the Honey Bee stamp in gold onto Night of Navy, Melon Mambo, and Call Me Clover and then cut them out with the matching Detailed Bee dies.  Then they are popped on dimensionals onto Whisper White stitched circles.

  The sentiment from Itty Bitty Birthdays is stamped in Night of Navy ink onto Call Me Clover and the strip just has the ends cut on an angle and adhered to the side. 

  This is a great layout for smaller images that might get lost on a card front if they were used just on their own.  Repeating a small image and then building up several layers of interest behind is a nice way to showcase those adorable but small stamps!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Honey Bee, Itty Bitty Birthday, Breathtaking Bouquet

Ink: Night of Navy, Versamark

Paper: Night of Navy, Melon Mambo, Call Me Clover, Whisper White

Accessories: gold embossing powder, Stitched Rectangle dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Detailed Bee die, dimensionals

Valentine's Day Re-Do - Stampin' Up! Heartfelt

  When I'm designing projects for class sometimes certain techniques are just not feasible for a lot of people in a class setting.  So to still be able to show off some products I have to get creative and change it up so it's still a fun card to make but won't have my stampers sitting here for 4 hours trying to make it!

  I shared this Rainbow Hearts card last week and while it's a cool technique with the rainbow made from Stampin' Blends markers it was just not something that would work for 20+ people in a class.  It would have been a bit time consuming as well as I don't think my markers would have lasted for that many cards (and I didn't have time to order back up markers).  I decided to do something similar but with more Valentine's day colors and sponging instead which is much faster.

  My stampers used sponges to fill in a 5.5" x 4.25" piece of Whisper White thick using Poppy Parade, Rich Razzleberry and Highland Heather inks.  The colors were swiped on in a random pattern and then the Detailed Hearts die was use to cut it out. 

  I showed my stampers how to use Press & Seal wrap to save all the little heart cut outs to be used on the front and inside of the card.  And to save them to take home and use on more projects.

  The rest of the card is very easy with the sentiment from Heartfelt stamped in black onto Highland Heather cardstock and then punched with the Heart punch.  It's popped up with dimensionals and then finished off with a little heart from the die cutting and a crinkled seam binding ribbon bow.

 Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Heartfelt

Ink: Poppy Parade, Rich Razzleberry, Highland Heather

Paper: Whisper White thick, Highland Heather

Accessories: Heart punch, dimensionals, crinkled seam binding ribbon

Love for the Guys - Stampin' Up! Heartfelt

  In continuing with my spamming of Valentine's Day cards I've got a masculine one for today.  You can only do so many pink and red hearts for a house full of guys!  This was a color combo challenge that I thought would look cool.

  It's hard to see but I used the new Coastal Weave embossing folder on the top layer of Night of Navy.  It's a nice tight pattern that has slight variations on the texture for even more interest. 

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Heartfelt

Ink: Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Pretty Peacock

Paper: Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Pretty Peacock, Whisper White

Accessories: Heart punch pack, Coastal Weave embossing folder, In Color faceted gems, candy dots (retired), dimensionals

Aggie's Thank You - Stampin' Up! Thoughtful Blooms

 Our family was very behind in sending out our Christmas thank you cards.  For whatever reason we didn't get that item checked off the list until well into January.  Even the dog was behind in sending her thank yous.

  Aggie our 11 month old black lab received a fun toy from her dog cousin and of course she had to send a personalized thank you for it because #itsalwaysnicetosaythankyou

  It took me a while to sit down and get just the right card made for the occasion.  I think it came out cute.  It was fun combining an older set with some new products.

  There isn't anything super fancy on this card but the colors and sweet pup stamp make for a cute final results.  It was fun combining the Thoughtful Blooms set and small Bloom punch to create a little scene of embossed Aggie sitting amongst the flowers (in reality she would be chomping away at them!).  I fussy cut the Granny Apple Green leaves.  The label shape anchoring the whole scene is in the Painted Label dies that is paired with the Painted Poppies stamp set.

  Aggie's favorite thing to do is chew in sticks.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Thoughtful Blooms, Happy Tails

Ink: Versamark, Granny Apple Green, Flirty Flamingo, Coastal Cabana

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo, Basic Black

Accessories: Parisian Flourish embossing folder, Dog Builder punch, Painted Labels dies, Small Bloom punch, dimensionals, sequins, clear embossing powder, Calypso Coral baker's twine (retired)

Love Mail - Stampin' Up! Heartfelt

  You'll be seeing a lot of Valentine's day cards in the coming days. I want to make sure I get them all shared before it's too late!  Now to make sure I actually get them in the mail in time too!

Today's card was from a sketch challenge a week or 2 back.  I don't even know which one but the large partial circle was a fun element to do.  I ended up using a salad plate to trace as none of my dies were large enough!

  The card base is Whisper White thick, then a layer of the From My Heart DSP.  The foil polka dot pattern is really nice!  The partial circle is embossed with the Parisian Flourish embossing folder.

  I had some fun layering all these hearts.  The bottom on is Real Red then Flirty Flamingo; both punched with the Heart punch pack.  I stamped the little heart in Real Red onto Whisper White cardstock then fussy cut it.  It didn't take but a minute or 2 so don't be intimidated!

  The sentiment flag was stamped in Flirty Flamingo ink with the Itty Bitty Greetings stamp set.

  Before adhering the layered hearts to the card front I added a little Real Red Double-Stitched Satin ribbon.

  To finish this card off I added some From My Heart faceted gems on the partial circle.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Heartfelt, Itty Bitty Greetings

Ink: Real Red, Flirty Flamingo

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Real Red, Flirty Flamingo, From My Heart DSP

Accessories: Parisian Flourish DSP, Heart punch pack, From My Heart faceted gems, Double Stitched satin ribbon, dimensionals

Rainbow Hearts- Stampin' Up! Detailed Hearts Die

  I'm off to a slow start this morning.  Am I the only one who thinks the Super Bowl would be even better if it was on a Saturday afternoon?  Have a party, clean up and go to bed at a decent time??  Crazy talk huh?  We had no skin in the game but enjoyed hosting a party with friends but this morning the motivation to tackle my to do list is lacking a bit!

  I will get this card shared though because I'm on the clock with sharing Valentine's day cards as the days tick by.

  This was a fun card that I designed when I was playing around with ideas for projects for my last class.  I was inspired by one challenge or another that had a rainbow theme.  I liked the look of this but having 25 people use the same Blends was not really feasible.  I ended up with a variation of this card that I will share later this week.

  I just used my Blends and colored stripes across a piece of Whisper White thick.  I think the sturdier thick cardstock makes for a less stressful removal of the die cut from the die.  The Detailed Hearts die is just a cool die.  I like how the hearts that get cut out are all a decent size to be used in other projects or to add into the open spaces on the cut out. 

  I used some dimensionals behind the solid hearts to adhere it to the Whisper White thick card base. While my sentiment is from Itty Bitty Birthdays this one can easily just be changed out for any kind of card.  A crinkled seam binding bow is added to the punched heart for an easy detail.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Itty Bitty Birthdays

Ink: Memento Black

Blends: Poppy Parade, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Balmy Blue, Highland Heather

Paper: Whisper White thick, Poppy Parade

Accessories: Detailed Hearts die, Heart Punch pack, dimensionals, crinkled seam binding ribbon

Ray of Blooms - Stampin' Up! Thoughtful Blooms - Fab Friday 182

  We are back at Fab Friday Challenge with a color combo this time around. These are lovely colors together and might brighten up a dreary winter day.  I wanted to do something cheerful so I combined some Sale-a-Bration items with my favorite new embossing folder!

  At first I thought that Merry Merlot would be the odd man out in this color combination but I really love how the darker red works with the others from the Brights Collection.

  I used last weeks CAS(e) This Sketch layout for the design as it was so different from my usual squares/rectangles/circles that I wanted to give it a shot. 

  The card base is Coastal Cabana with another layer of Coastal Cabana embossed with the Subtle embossing folder. 

  I have to confess that the diagonal element had me scratching my head until I just decided to wing it and not try to make it perfectly even on each side.  Less thinking more stamping was my motto right then!  I embossed a 6x6ish square of Very Vanilla with my new favorite embossing folder Parisian Flourish.  I love the swirls and the little flowers.   I lined the embossed piece across my card and simply used my paper snips to cut off the overhang.

  The Thoughtful Blooms Sale-a-Bration stamp set and the matching Small Bloom punch are a sweet little pair of products.  If you're hesitant about smaller flower (or any smaller image) sets because there doesn't seem to be a focal image don't forget that clustering smaller images together gives them a greater impact.  And they also make great backgrounds to show off a more bold sentiment.

  I stamped my flowers in the challenge colors, punched them out and then clustered them in three's on the sides of the diagonal piece.  I alternated which color was on top of the cluster and popped that one with a dimensional. 

  I anchored the sentiment from Varied Vases with two more punched flowers. 

  I hope you'll be inspired to try out these colors on your own project!  For more inspiration check out the Fabulous Fab Friday design team samples!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Thoughtful Blooms, Varied Vases

Ink: Bermuda Bay, Merry Merlot, Melon Mambo

Paper: Coastal Cabana, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Subtle embossing folder, Parisian Flourish embossing folder, Small Bloom punch, dimensionals