Triangle Birthday Banner - Stampin' Up! The Right Triangle

   I needed a masculine birthday card for a family member and as I browsed through my card stash I realized that I had no birthday cards for guys!  Yikes!  It's terrible when you "have to" sit down and stamp a card right? LOL!  

  I used the current CAS(e) This Sketch challenge as my starting point. I liked the simplicity of the banner and sentiment across the card front.

 I pulled out some masculine colors and DSP and got to work.  The card base is Smoky Slate then a layer of Whisper White cut with the Stitched Rectangle dies.  I topped that with a piece of In Good Taste DSP.  There's a hint of blue in this design and according to the list of colors it's Night of Navy but that seemed to dark for my design so I used the lighter In Color Misty Moonlight instead.

 I stamped the stripes in The Right Triangle onto a few small scraps of Misty Moonlight with the same color ink and then die cut with the Stitched Triangle dies.  I popped the banners up on dimensionals and then used some retired candy dots in between.  I'm never going to be finished with these dots!

  For the sentiment I cut 3 'happy's' in Smoky Slate using the Well Written dies and adhered them together with the fine tip glue pen. I used the Misty Moonlight marker to color in just the 'birthday' from one of of the Itty Bitty Birthday stamps and stamped that on a piece of Whisper White and then flagged the end.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: The Right Triangle, Itty Bitty Birthdays

Ink: Misty Moonlight

Paper: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Misty Moonlight, In Good Taste DSP

Accessories: Stitched Triangle dies, Well Written dies, Stitched Rectangle dies, dimensionals, candy dots (retired)

Glimmer Wreath - Stampin' Up! Wreath Builder dies

  Yup, I'm back on my Christmas card making nonsense again.  I wanted to try to use up some retired paper that I have hoarded but I also wanted to use a newer die set; Wreath Builder.

  This one is pretty self explanatory as it's just a wreath with some berries cut from glimmer paper.  

  I did use one of the Tasteful Labels dies a little differently for the sentiment tab.  I just used the very top edge of the die so that's a great way to get some different looks for some of the label shape dies and you can size them for smaller images or sentiments.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Itty Bitty Christmas

Ink: Shaded Spruce

Paper: Whisper White thick, Shaded Spruce, Joyous Noel DSP (retired), Joyous Noel Glimmer paper (retired)

Accessories: Wreath Builder dies, Tasteful Labels dies, dimensionals

Best Bass- Stampin' Up! Best Catch

  Today's share is one that I made a while back before the Best Catch stamp set retired.  It was a great set and I got a lot of cards out of it for male family members birthdays and as well as father's day.  

 At the time of the cards making I used a mix of retired items, just about to retire items and brand new demonstrator preorder items.

  The card base is Crumb Cake topped with a piece of the retired Wood Textures DSP.  Next, I added a piece of Pool Party embossed with the new Old World Paper embossing folder.  I lightly sponged some Pool Party ink on the ridges for a bit of definition.

  The burlap ribbon is adhered with tear tape and I added the rest of my elements to it; Catch of the Day dies cut out the cattails and I added darker Early Espresso tops with a marker.  The bass or whatever kind of fish it is is stamped in Early Espresso on Very Vanilla cardstock.  I colored it in with Stampin' Blends and cut it out. I stamped a lure in Crumb Cake ink onto Crumb Cake paper and then topped it with the Well Said sentiment in Early Espresso. It's punched with the Tailored Tag punch. And look, there are those retired candy dots again.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Best Catch (retired), Well Said

Ink: Pool Party, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake

Blends: Petal Pink, Old Olive, Pool Party

Paper: Crumb Cake, Wood Textures DSP (retired), Pool Party, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Old World Paper embossing folder, Tailored Tag punch, dimensionals, Catch of the Day dies (retired), burlap ribbon (retired), candy dots (retired)

Fall in Hexagons - Stampin' Up! Banner Year

    I love a good multi-season set that has a mix of cute images and fun sentiments.  The Banner Year stamp set in the Aug.-Dec. mini catalog fits the bill!  

  I got some of my fall feels on when I was making this card.  I didn't make it in time to play in the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge before it closed but I used their layout and the hexagons were a cool element to anchor my little images.  

  I learned from Kelly Kent that you can use the Tailored Tag punch to make a hexagon.  How cool is that?  Stampin' Up! showed it here in this video.  I love learning new tips and tricks from other stampers! I think next time I should use a narrower piece of cardstock but the elongated versions here suited my images.

  I started with a Very Vanilla thick card base then topped it with a piece of the Gilded Autumn Specialty paper.  This pattern doesn't have any of the metallic accents but has some nice stripes in fall colors which I used for the rest of my card.

 I trimmed a piece of Mint Macaron down and stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso. Next it's embossed with the Tasteful Textiles embossing folder.  Before popping it up on the cardfront with dimensionals I wrapped a length of retired Crumb Cake twine around the bottom.  

  The hexagons are Very Vanilla and I stamped my images onto them in Early Espresso (how cute is that squirrel?  Doesn't it look like he's got a googly eye?), Crumb Cake and Cajun Craze.  I popped them up with dimensionals to follow the layout.

 Continuing my effort to use up the hundreds of retired candy dots that I still have I added some in Early Espresso to each corner for a finishing touch.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Banner Year

Ink: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze

Paper: Very Vanilla thick, Very vanilla, Mint Macaron, Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP

Accessories: Tasteful Textiles embossing folder, Tailored Tag punch, dimensionals, Crumb Cake twine (retired),  candy dots (retired)

Summery Tiles - Stampin' Up! Today's Tiles

   I've always tried to make my stamps as easy to use and as versatile as they can possibly be.  After using the Today's Tiles stamp set a few times I found that having all of the tiles and their matching accent stamp all attached really kind of limited how I could use them.  I like to stamp on the inside of my cards as well as on the envelopes and having the large panels that couldn't be inked individually kept me from easily doing that.  Also, I didn't always want a full panel of the tiles; I maybe just wanted to a few but to mix and match colors I had to stamp the whole panel (and clean the whole panel).  

  So I splurged and bought a second Today's Tiles set to cut apart so I can have each tile on it's own to use!  I know I will reach for this set even more now that I've made it more versatile.  

  I'm playing along with the Just Add Ink challenge which is to "Just Add T" so my tiles are my letter t item.  My colors were inspired by the closed Global Design Project challenge colors.  Aren't they a nice summery combo?

 

 

 The card base is Granny Apple Green with a layer of Whisper White embossed with the Tasteful Textiles embossing folder.  I wrapped a length of Bumblebee Twill ribbon around this panel.

  One of the best things about cutting the tile stamps apart is that now I can use up a lot of my more narrow scraps.  I stamped 3 different tiles and their coordinating accents in each of the colors on Whisper White and then trimmed them down with my paper snips.  I attached them to a Whisper White square just so if I unevenly trimmed any they wouldn't stand out so much.  Then I backed that with a Granny Apple square and popped it up with dimensionals on the card front.

  The sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings is stamped in black and cut out with smallest Stitched So Sweetly die which reminded me a bit of the tile pattern shapes.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Today's Tiles, Itty Bitty Greetings\

Ink: Granny Apple Green, Bumblebee, Calypso Coral

Paper: Granny Apple Green, Whisper White

Accessories: Tasteful Textiles embossing folder, Stitched So Sweetly dies, twill ribbon, dimensionals

Snowflakes in Pastels - Stampin' Up! Snowflake Wishes

   While the weather doesn't suit me for Christmas cards right now I always start making them once the Holiday mini catalog is released so I can be sure to have enough made by the time early December rolls around.  And with all the extra time on my hands this summer and fall I hope to maybe have a surplus of cards!

  My card today was inspired by the Color Throwdown challenge which is to use aqua, peach and kraft which translated into Stampin' Up! colors is Pool Party, Petal Pink and Crumb Cake.

 

 

  I started with a Crumb Cake card base, then a smaller layer of Crumb Cake with the corners rounded.  I stamped snowflakes in white craft ink as well as sponged the edges.

  The sentiment is also stamped and sponged in white craft ink.

  The largest snowflake is 3 layers starting in the back with Pool Party cardstock and the snowflake embossed in shimmer white embossing powder, then a Petal Pink die cut snowflake, and finally the smallest one cut from Shimmery White cardstock.

 Add 2 more smaller snowflakes one each in Pool Party and Petal Pink.  I kept the embellishments to a minimum with just some sequins from my stash and a colored rhinestone for the center of each one.  I colored the rhinestone with my dark Pool Party Stampin' Blends marker for a matching look.

   Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Snowflake Wishes

Ink: white craft ink, Versamark

Paper: Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Petal Pink, Shimmery White

Accessories: So Many Snowflakes dies, shimmer white embossing powder (retired), dimensionals, sequins, rhinestones

Gilded Autumn Thank You - Stampin' Up! Beautiful Autumn

  I liked yesterdays Freshly Made Sketches layout so much that I made another card with it.  This one came out more on the elegant side.  It's also very much an autumnal card with the colors and images.

 And what a layout to show off the gorgeous Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP!  This is the first time I've used any of the patterns in this pack and it was hard to choose!  I went with this Mint Macaron/copper pattern and it did not disappoint.

  I started with a Whisper White thick card base.  The DSP is cut in a 4 x 4 square and then I angled it in my paper trimmer to make the 2 pieces.  Once you line them up on the card front there is a nice open space through the center.  Before adhering the DSP with dimensionals I stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso.

  The Beautiful Autumn bundle comes with 3 punches that match the oak leaf, acorn and maple leaf images in the stamp set.  I stamped the 3 images in Versamark onto Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Cajun Craze and then embossed them with copper embossing powder.  Unfortunately, Stampin' Up! doesn't have Copper embossing powder anymore but fortunately I'm a bit of a hoarder with embossing powder so it works out!

  After punching the images out I popped them up with mini dimensionals and arranged them on the side of the sentiment.

  I'm looking forward to using this set and DSP a lot this coming fall.  The metallics and punches will be fun to create with.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Beautiful Autumn

Ink: Early Espresso, Versamark

Paper: Whisper White thick, Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze

Accessories: Autumn punch pack, copper embossing powder (retired), dimensionals

 

Playful Summer Fun - Stampin' Up! Playful Alphabet Dies

   We are deep in the hot, humid summer and even the afternoon thunderstorms aren't giving any relief.  If anything the storms are making it worse; it looks like it should be cooler because it's overcast but then when you go outside you are slammed in the face with a wall of humidity.  Good old central Virginia!  So all the more reason to stay inside and stamp right?

  I used the fun, bright colors and summer theme from The Card Concept challenge  for a Clean and Simple style and the layout from Freshly Made Sketches for today's card which I flipped to landscape orientation.  

  The card starts with a Whisper White thick base then a layer of Poppy Parade.  Topping that layer is a piece of Whisper White embossed with the Tasteful Textile embossing folder. 

  I thought that Poppy Parade, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight were good matching colors to the inspiration photo.  I cut little triangles using the Stitched Triangle dies in all four of my colors.  I used a strip of Whisper White about 1/2" wide to attached the triangles to for ease of placement. Once I had them all placed I adhered the strip to the card front and trimmed the overhang.

  To make the 'stay cool' letters I used the Playful Alphabet dies and cut one set in retired black Glimmer paper and the other with the new Foam Adhesive Sheets.  I attached the glimmer paper letters to the foam letters and then arranged them on either side of my triangle strip.

  After I had the letters finished I thought the card still needed something so I looked through my stamp sets to try to find a "summer" image.  I didn't have much that would be right except for this little sun from an older Sale-a-Bration set called Hello.  I stamped it in Daffodil Delight and then fussy cut it and adhered it with a mini dimensional right on the edge of the 'y'.

  Stay cool and stay inside and stamp!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Hello (retired SAB)

Ink: Daffodil Delight

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Poppy Parade, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, black Glimmer paper (retired)

Accessories: Stitched Triangles dies, Playful Alphabet dies, Tasteful Textiles embossing folder, foam adhesive sheets, dimensionals